"U.S. oligarchs have begun to panic at the prospect that they will lose control of the other half of the American electoral duopoly. With the GOP in Donald Trump’s unreliable hands, the Democrats four years ago became the de facto ruling class party, and thus the favored brand of the national security state and most of the corporate media. Although there is not even one genuine anti-imperialist among congressional Democrats – certainly not Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren -- the party’s popular base is in revolt against a 40-year domestic austerity regime that offers nothing but ever-declining real wages, non-existent job security and a visibly decaying nation-scape. It has finally dawned on most Americans that they have been conscripted into a Global Race to the Bottom, and they want out of the downward spiral.
Sanders and Warren are running for president on austerity-busting issues supported by super-majorities of Democrats (and up to half of Republicans). In previous eras, the corporate rulers would embrace milder versions of reform in health care, wages, job security, educational costs, and environmental protection, in order to blunt demands for more transformative measures. But those days are over. The Lords of Capital are committed to the Race to the Bottom – locked in by the nature of capitalism-in-decline.
“It has finally dawned on most Americans that they have been conscripted into a Global Race to the Bottom.”
Despite their vice-grip on media and corporate donor control of the Democratic Party machinery, all the oligarchs’ eggs are in Joe Biden’s basket this election year. The numbers show that, were it not for all-consuming fears of Trump among older Black voters, who cling to the notion of Biden’s “electability,” Sanders and Warren would collectively sweep the primaries. The corporate consensus on austerity – and, therefore, the shape of capitalism, at home and globally -- is in dire peril. That’s why Michael Bloomberg has thrown his $55 billion hat into the ring – not because he has any prospect of winning the nomination (his presence in fact helps the anti-austerity candidates), but as the first stage in what Bloomberg is determined will be an epic battle to preserve the austerity regime and its hold on the Democratic Party machinery – the favored party of the ruling class as long as Trump runs the GOP.
Bloomberg is signaling to his fellow oligarchs, through his blaring commitment of up to a billion dollars, that they must become deadly serious about containing the economic populist wave among the Democrats, or face collapse of the austerity regime. The fate and fortunes of the oligarchy cannot be allowed to depend on Old Shaky Joe. Bloomberg has put himself and his fortune into the contest to rally his (ruling) classmates to the task of shoring up corporate control of the Party if Sanders, or some Sanders-Warren combination, seizes the top spots on the ticket."
Shaky Joe Biden, Billionaire Bloomberg, and the Global Race to the Bottom | Black Agenda Report
| | Shaky Joe Biden, Billionaire Bloomberg, and the Global Race to the Botto...Bloomberg has put himself and his fortune into the contest to rally his (ruling) classmates to the task of shori... |
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Bernie’s millennial supporters are prepared for war
"As Joe Biden pokes people in the chest in lackluster rooms full of gray heads and empty chairs, Sanders has tapped millennial energy in almost Trumpian events across Iowa where the crowd chants “Bernie” and swoons when he calls his wife of 32 years “the love of my life.”
“Hashtag, goals,” gooed Talia Wlcek, 21, at the Cedar Rapids stadium Saturday night, after the reference to Jane Sanders. “That’s so sweet.”
On the eve of Monday’s caucuses, as Sanders rides high in the polls, the Democratic establishment “fears the Bern” more than ever.
They’ve just changed the rules to allow billionaire Michael Bloomberg “to buy his way onto the stage” as Sanders’ warm-up man, filmmaker Michael Moore, puts it.
Hillary Clinton has spent the last week saying “nobody likes” Sanders and effectively blaming his supporters’ for her 2016 election loss.
| | Hillary Clinton rips Bernie Sanders: ‘Nobody likes him’“I'm not going to go there yet,” Clinton said of endorsing Sanders if he was the Democrats' nominee in the gener... |
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There is even a conspiracy theory that House Democrats timed the Senate impeachment trial deliberately to keep Sanders in Washington to dent his momentum in Iowa.
But, with charismatic proxies such as his socialist ally, Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, pulling big crowds on his behalf, Sanders never faltered."
| | Bernie’s millennial supporters are prepared for war in Iowa caucus: DevineHell hath no fury like Bernie’s millennials if they are thwarted. Bernie Sanders has the youngest, biggest and m... |
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Sanders, Warren are hot discussion topics as global elites gather in Davos
"DAVOS, Switzerland — Democratic presidential candidates Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren are not attending the annual gathering of billionaires and global elites in this Swiss ski town, but many here are alarmed by their campaigns to “tax the rich,” break up big companies and enact a Green New Deal.  | Analysis | A Guide to Democrats’ Plans to Tax the Rich MoreWith U.S. Democrats jockeying to see who will challenge President Donald Trump in 2020, raising taxes on the ric... |
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| | Where 2020 Democrats stand on climate changeThe candidates mostly agree on recomitting to the Paris climate agreement, but not all support the Green New Deal. |
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| | Analysis | Warren’s 2020 agenda: Break up monopolies, give workers contr...A policy digest for one the first major candidates in the 2020 Democratic presidential primaries. |
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There’s a desire for change among global elites — but not nearly as far as Sens. Sanders (I-Vt.) and Warren (D-Mass.) want to go.
The agenda at this year’s World Economic Forum is dominated by discussions of how to address climate change and inequality. Leaders of large corporations are eager to show they are doing something about the world’s biggest problems and do not need the sweeping policy changes that Sanders and Warren are proposing.
“Businesses are really concerned about the possibility of a far-left administration coming to power that would impose very different ways of operating,” said Colin Mayer, a professor of management studies at the University of Oxford and a forum attendee.
Few business leaders here want to openly declare which candidate they support in the 2020 U.S. presidential election, but there is a widespread belief that populism and climate activism aren’t going away, regardless of who wins the presidency.
