FEEL THE BERN, Please

The U.S., Media, and Democracy
{Saturday, February 13th, 2016}

       This is Bernie Sanders. He was born with reddish hair 74 years ago in Brooklyn, New York. He is a Jew. He is also a socialist. And he hates America's money-crazed, bought-and-paid-for political system. He is also, as money-crazed Hillary Clinton now admits, a serious Presidential candidate. I mention him in these terms for this reason: Fox News, the right-wing propaganda machine that is working hard to elect Republican Marco Rubio, is apparently not familiar with Bernie, who this week won a smashing victory in New Hampshire's first presidential primary of 2016. Jimmy Fallon is the satirist and host of The Tonight Show on NBC-TV. Wednesday night this week Fallon showed videos of two high-profile Fox anchors who apparently are not familiar with Bernie. Megyn Kelly called him "Bernie Sandals." Bret Baier called him "Bernie Sandwiches." I kid you not! I assume Megyn Kelly, right after her huge new book deal, had just bought some expensive new footwear and Bret Baier probably was just hungry. Anyway, As Jimmy Fallon expected when he showed those videos, I and millions of others literally laughed out loud. But we sincerely hope Fox News will learn his last name by the time President Bernie Sanders takes over the White House. Propaganda machines or not, the precipitous descent of the U. S. media is no laughing matter, as this very endless presidential campaign so vividly reveals.

      Today -- Friday, February 12th -- this political cartoon is flashing around the U. S. in USA Today and hundreds of other newspapers. It originated in the Los Angeles Times via the Pulitzer Prize-winning pen of David Horsey. It points out that even young women, who would love to finally see a female American President, prefer the elderly male Bernie Sanders because...they believe he is not bought-and-paid-for.

       In the American political arena -- where billionaires, pundits, and propagandists rule -- there is no way that Bernie Sanders could possibly be a serious threat to become President of the United States, is there? Well, yes, there is. Two generations of Americans since the end of World War II in 1945 have allowed their democracy to become a bought-and-paid-for platform for corporate and individual billionaires. It appeared that a Supreme Court ruling in 2010, which permits unlimited political donations from shady billionaires, had put the final nail in democracy's coffin in the United States. But, lo 'n behold, along comes a young generation of Americans, both male and female, who apparently want to save America's democracy, which would entail reclaiming it from the clutches of the billionaire Hedge Fund and Wall Street usurpers who have purchased it. America's fed-up young-adult generation wants democracy back. And that's why Bernie Sanders, and Donald Trump for that matter, have defied every prediction made by the pundits.

Bernie, nearing 75, is too old to be President of the United States.

Bernie is a Socialist, which disqualifies him from being a U. S. President.

Bernie...OMG!!...wants a "Political Revolution."

       Bernie believes that the nation that is #1 in billionaires should not also be #1 in childhood poverty and also should not be #1 in income and wealth inequality. The greedy billionaires who oppose Bernie and aim to keep the status quo, which also means expanding and exacerbating their extreme greed, supposedly had purchased the entire two-party political system in the United States after first easily purchasing the U. S. Congress. But Bernie, and the crude non-politician Trump, apparently don't know what "supposedly" means. Therefore, there appear to be enough democracy-lovers in the United States, especially Bernie's prime constituency of young-adults, who want to reclaim their democracy from cruel billionaires.

    Bernie's acceptance speech in New Hampshire Tuesday night.

          In New Hampshire Tuesday Bernie Sanders overwhelmed the presumed Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton 60% to 38%. The voters clearly favored anti-billionaire Bernie over Clinton's rich connections.

       But the image of CNN pundits like Amanda Carpenter also reveals why so many American democracy-lovers are totally fed-up with a bought-and-paid-for political system. The biggest applause Bernie Sanders got in his acceptance speech Tuesday night was when he said that the results in New Hampshire "should send a message to the corporate media." Amanda Carpenter is typical of what the media -- television and print -- has evolved into, which is a vast propaganda machine funded by the corporate billionaires who own all the broadcast networks. CNN is a middle-of-the-road outfit, neither right-wing like Fox nor left-wing like MSNBC. But like the rest of the U. S. media, CNN is shaped by billionaire corporate owners who prefer, when it comes to news, propaganda machines. That's why CNN stresses biased pundits like...Amanda Carpenter. She began her punditry career with the right-wing Washington Times and then wrote an obligatory and self-proclaimed "Right-Wing Conspiracy..." book. She then became the Communicators Director for right-wing extremist Ted Cruz. So, as an insult to Americans and to democracy, CNN presents Amanda Carpenter and many like her as their "Political Analysts" that Americans are not supposed to believe are totally and self-servingly biased, in her case for Ted Cruz. That makes even middle-of -the-road CNN nothing more and nothing less than a propaganda machine. AND THAT'S WHY, IN HIS ACCEPTANCE SPEECH, BERNIE GOT THE LOUDEST APPLAUSE TUESDAY NIGHT WHEN HE ASSAILED "THE MEDIA." 

       While Amanda Carpenter is CNN's propagandist for Ted Cruz, Ana Navarro, also disguised as a political analyst, is CNN's propagandist for first Jeb Bush and secondly Marco Rubio, both of whom she has worked for from her base in Miami. Exposing the U. S. media as a propaganda machine is, perhaps, one of the greatest achievements of Bernie Sanders, probably ranking right below his exposure of billionaires as the biggest threat to the American democracy that he and his young-adult constituency are trying to reclaim.

       Bernie is still a long-shot in his bid to become the next U. S. President. But his eloquent wisdom and decency has revealed his abiding love for democracy and his visceral dislike for the self-serving billionaires who have purchased it and, with their unlimited Super Pacs, intend to maintain ownership of the precious gift that Americans were bequeathed by the Founding Fathers. Bernie Sanders, with the like-minded and brilliant democracy-lover Elizabeth Warren as his Vice President, could possibly become President even at his age and with a vast army of billionaires as his enemy. In his New Hampshire acceptance speech Bernie said, "We must save this nation and this democracy from right-wing Republicans." If he, followed by Elizabeth Warren, can do that, he will have made his mark on history...and in a good way.

In other words:

       If Bernie can keep Ted Cruz or Marco Rubio or Jeb Bush out of the White House in 2017, the right-wingers and their vast armies of billionaire donors will have felt the bern in defense of America's precious democracy, one that a handful of vile billionaires should be allowed to vote in but not purchase like its a prized mansion. The February 9th edition of USA Today featured a full-page "analysis" of the top 21 billionaires intent on putting the likes of a Cruz or a Rubio or a Bush in the White House in 2017, because it is well known that those three -- unlike Bernie Sanders and even the crude non-politician Trump -- are bought-and-paid-for. That huge USA Today article is entitled "Meet The Super Rich Driving Election," in case you want to see the 21 billionaires intent on purchasing the presidency instead of just being voters.

      Cuba is merely an island but right-wingers controlling America's Cuban policy since the 1950s have used Cuba to harm the worldwide image of the United States more than with any other single topic. A Bush or a Cruz or a Rubio in the White House in 2017 would not only continue that image but expand it, unmindful of anything except the handful of billionaires that bought-and-paid for them. These unseemly billionaires -- such as the 21 listed in Tuesday's USA Today -- unwittingly spawned the alternative candidacies of Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump. However, even after the messages sent this week by the voters in New Hampshire, don't underestimate the power or the determination of the right-wing billionaires who believe the U. S. should be an oligarchy owned by them, not a democracy that serves its decent people.

      While Cuba, indeed, is only an embargoed island -- and a very poor one -- it also has a vastly over-sized status on the world stage. That is because Cuba says more about the United States than it says about Cuba. And what it says is...the right-wingers who control America's Cuban policy don't give a damn what the rest of the world says about it. But they care a whole lot about the billionaires who bought-and-paid for them.

 ****************************************