by William Skink

The sun broke through the clouds as I neared downtown. Throngs of people swarmed the sidewalks, joining the line that snaked from Caras Park all the way to the Orange Street bridge.

I wasn’t on foot, and I wasn’t planning on joining the line. I got my fill of “watching history” in 2008, when I allowed myself to puff on that sweet, sweet hopium Obama was peddling. So instead of attending the Bernie rally, I drove home to do a few practical things, like give my dog a bath

In a few weeks we’ll find out if the cynics were right. Was feeling the Bern nothing more than a clever sheepdog strategy to corral progressives into eventually supporting the Neocon Hillary Clinton?

A few days ago Bernie sparked speculation that he was preparing his followers for The Big Sellout when he responded to Wolf Blitzer on CNN with this:

“Right now, we are focused on the next five weeks of winning the Democratic nomination. If that does not happen, we are going to fight as hard as we can on the floor of the Democratic convention to make sure that we have a progressive platform that the American people will support,” Sanders said during an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer broadcast on “The Situation Room.”

“Then, after that, certainly Secretary Clinton and I can sit down and talk and see where we go from there.”

A progressive platform at the convention? What a joke. The platform means nothing. I think it’s fair to translate “making sure we have a progressive platform” to “making sure I don’t lose my senatorial perks and/or ability to breathe air as a living human not crushed by the likes of the Clinton machine”.

I’m still going to vote for Bernie in the Montana primary next month, but mostly as a fuck you to the establishment Democrats and various sycophants who expect thinking people to support a party that wants to destroy what meager safeguards have been put in place to protect us from the financial rapists on Wall Street. I’m talking specifically about DNC Debbie trying to gut the Consumer Protection Agency:

Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the chair of the Democratic National Committee, has joined the Republican assault on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren helped create the bureau in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis in order to protect Americans from the malicious practices of the financial industry — particularly banks, toxic mortgage lenders, debt collectors and payday loan companies.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has created pending new regulations in order to protect Americans from payday loan sharks, companies that make enormous profits off of predatory lending, exploiting the poor and uneducated by advertising quick and convenient loans while downplaying the concomitant skyrocketing interest. The bureau hopes to rein in the industry.

Not if the DNC can stop it, however. For Wasserman Schultz has thrown her weight behind the Republican effort to sabotage the bureau’s proposed regulations of the out-of-control predatory lending.

The DNC executive is co-sponsoring a new bill that would effectively “gut the CFPB’s forthcoming payday loan regulations,” the Huffington Post reports.

Wasserman Schultz — a close ally of presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, who co-chaired her 2008 presidential campaign — is also trying to get fellow Democrats to support the anti-regulation legislation, a memo obtained by the Huffington Post shows.

I wonder what Jenny Eck thinks of DNC Debbie’s maneuvering and collusion with the evil Republicans who are allegedly more evil than corporate/banking shills like Debbie and Hillary? These people are trying to fuck us over again, Jenny, and you are helping them. Shame on you.

If Bernie sells out his supporters like it appears he’s about to do, it will be interesting to see where his momentum goes, if anywhere. If it bleeds into the streets, remember how the Federal government under Obama coordinated the crackdown of the Occupy movement and prepare accordingly.