March 5, 2020: Gathering Moss, The Snake Pit, Shame Fuels Rage

South Carolina should not be allowed to decide anything. It was here, one may recall, that 'Ol' Two Cows' ambushed John McCain back in the day spreading rumors that he had fathered an illegitimate bi-racial child. It was here that Hillary, despite pillaging Obama eight years later with rhetoric just this side of George Corley Wallace, salvaged her primary campaign against Bernie Sanders. And it is here that, despite his despicable handling of the Clarence Thomas/Anita Hill imbroglio, Joe Biden was somehow seen walking despite all reports that he has long since shed his mortal coil.

The Democratic Party, in full panic, has come to his rescue. Beginning with James Clyburn, the black congressman from South Carolina, and quickly joined by former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, the party mossbacks began gathering, much like flies gather around a steaming pile of dog shit, the walking cadaver that is Joe Biden.

After summarily dismissing the likes of Senator Kamala Harris, Governor Jay Inslee and over two dozen others, the party aparatchicks fell upon the good-ole-reliable corporate whore from Delaware. Of more than two dozen contestants, the party regulars have finally scraped the bottom of the barrel.

Such is the posture of the current Democratic Party that they would rather put up a cruel joke like Biden than embrace Bernie Sanders. You see, Bernie angers them. Bernie makes them uncomfortable. Bernie makes them ashamed.

For Bernie Sanders is more than a mere scold. He is more than a mere thorn in the side of the modern Democratic Party. Sanders is a measure of the distance between Democratic posturing and Democratic performance. Sanders is a walking, talking, animated reminder of what this party once was and is, therefore, a measure of how far the party has strayed. Sanders is to the Democratic Party what the garden of Eden is to Judaeo-christian theology, or a vacuum to physics: A standard that may perhaps not exist in pure form, but from which we measure all else—and in this case the measurement is our shortcomings. Sanders is, therefore, a standing reminder of Democratic failures, failures for which they should be rightly charged and for which they should be made, like Adam and Eve, to feel ashamed.

But shame fuels rage and the rage directed at Sanders is nothing but the rage of impotence on the part of a party that has neither the substance nor the courage to confront what we all know must be confronted.

As noted in these columns, the fossil fuel industry has mineral rights to five time the amount of carbon which, if burned, will destroy the ecosystem of this planet. I bring this up, when confronting friends and fellow Democrats on social media, and ask them “do you really think Joe Biden will stand up to the fossil fuel industry?” Does one really think that Biden, a corporate whore his entire life, will stand up to the oligarchy now in control of our national destiny? Of course not.

No matter, they rage on, claiming Bernie is unelectable, he being an avowed 'socialist'. They claim, given the results here in South Carolina, that Biden has greater broad based support and that Bernie does not. It is strange how perceptions twist in the wind.

A week ago, the argument went, Bernie was winning in all white states with all white, male votes. This despite the facts that Bernie's support is more female and that Latino voters were with him by large margins. Never mind, chanted the mossbacks, Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada don't represent the nation. Neither does South Carolina. It never did.

Biden won South Carolina where two thirds of those voting in the Democratic Primary were African Americans despite the fact that blacks comprise a mere 12 percent of the national population. No matter, none of this was pointed out in the celebration that erupted at party headquarters when the results streamed in. Nor was it observed that over half of those voting were over 50 years of age, hardly a mirror to the nation.

The primary in South Carolina, coming as it does on the heels of the contests in the North is meant to be a block on any progressive challenge to the corporate shop at Democratic Party Central. It has served its purpose. South Carolina is where the nation goes to die. Ask Abraham Lincoln.

The mossbacks now swarm about the steaming pile of dog shit if, for no other reason, than to further attract attention and perhaps make the corporate whore from Delaware more substantial and intimidating. They cannot, however, mask the smell.

“An Br'er Putin, he jus' laugh and laugh”

Impeach and Imprison.

March 4, 2020: End of Days, Obfuscate and Smear, Overboard.

“If the Democratic Party nominates Bernie Sanders, it will be the end of days”, cried James Carville, on MSNBC. Carville, the old reliable Clinton attack dog, had emerged from under their front porch in the wake of Sander's route of the Democratic field in Nevada to sound the alarm.

The panic became palpable when Hillary had voiced scorn for Sanders, telling her audience that “nobody likes Bernie”, and that “he's never accomplished anything”. Rich criticism from a Clinton who, however intelligent, always misses the irony.

But after successive victories in Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada, and with Sanders staring down the snake pit of the upcoming South Carolina primary, the mossbacks went into full panic mode.

Aided by the bullhorn of the corporate 'left', Chris Matthews of MSNBC's “Hardball” openly voiced concern by telling his audience that the Sander's route in Nevada reminded him of the collapse of the French Army in 1940, drawing parallels between the Sanders' campaign and the Nazi Blitzkrieg. This after expressing terror a few nights earlier that a Sanders victory would mean his being rounded up and shot in Central Park. These tart observations, being as they were on the heels of MSNBC's Chuck Todd equating the “Bernie Bros” on social media with the “brown shirts” revealed the level of panic as the media hosts reached deep into the muck in order to find something pungent enough to smear Sanders. Nothing, it appears, is beyond the pale. Not when corporate dominance is challenged.

Matthews knows better. He is a graduate of Holy Cross College, and has studied History at the University of North Carolina. When he is on his game has been a formidable interrogator, as witness back in 2008 when the McCain campaign put a hapless soul on his program spouting the nonsense about then-candidate Obama and appeasement. Matthews jumped on it quickly demonstrating that his guest had no idea what the term meant and that, in any case, Munich had not historical relevance pertaining to the question at hand. Exactly, no historical relevance. A dozen years later, Matthews has now become his hapless guest spouting false analogies that are only meant to obfuscate and smear.

It is bad enough that the morning programming on one of the few media outlets that even pretends to be socially conscious is continually about the business of “Bernie Bashing”. “Morning Joe”, hosted by former Republican congressman Joe Scarborough features a round table stacked with conservatives, all of whom regularly bash Bernie. Continually telling their audiences that Bernie cannot be elected and that his nomination would surely mean the return of tRUMP in the next election—despite polls continually demonstrating the opposite—their screed has become a full-throated howl as Bernie rose in the polls and threatened to take the nomination.

Matthews is, thankfully, now gone. Summarily dismissed this week from his twenty year long presence on MSNBC, the principle bullhorn of the mossbacks is now retired. The reasons presented were that he had made some untoward remarks to women “back in the day”, and must now walk the plank. The real reason, one suspects, is that Matthews—always a Republican-in-drag—had blown the network's cover; had been too transparent in his bias—a transparency that threatened to alienate the network's audience—an audience that has been led to believe that here the truth matters; that this NBC outlet was no mere corporate shill.

Matthews' sin is that he laid it out for all to see, and he has paid the price for his indiscretions. It won't make much difference, it will simply be less obvious. The network, as in 2016 when they were all-in for Hillary, is promoting the 'moderate'. Throughout the campaign MSNBC has been beating the drum for the 'moderate' Biden or, should he fall short, Bloomberg waiting in the wings in a thinly veiled effort to keep the corporate profits safe by sounding alarm bells over any candidate that would redistribute wealth in this country.

The truth is that MSNBC is not 'liberal' at all. The truth is that there is no 'liberal' media. All media is corporate owned and no media is going to promote any political figure out to challenge the dictatorship of capital.

Matthews has served his paymasters well over the years. He just went overboard.