RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2020/02/bernie_sanders_wins_the_nevada_caucuses_democrats_hardest_hit.html

That Bernie Sanders has won the Nevada caucuses is a one-line story: Bernie won in Nevada.

The real story is the absolute horror that establishment Democrats are experiencing as they realize that Bernie momentum leaves them with only two choices at the Democrat party convention in July: Yield to the passionate base and anoint Bernie as their candidate, despite the probability (although, sadly, not the certainty) that he will lose spectacularly; or they can override the passionate base and, in a backroom deal, give the nomination to someone else, yielding to an equally spectacular schism in the party as the Bernie Bros get angry.

Here’s the straight news portion of this post: As of this writing, Bernie Sanders is the undisputed winner of the Nevada caucuses. Although counting is going slowly, his lead in the districts counted is so complete that Bernie is already declaring victory, as are most in the media:

It’s unlikely that this will change when all of the precincts have reported. Not all is rosy, though, because Bernie’s win was apparently unaided by the minority voters who are essential to a Democrat victory in November:

Now to the fun part of this post, which is seeing establishment Democrats (all leftists but none as left as Bernie) terrified that they’re watching their party implode. And no, this is not a re-hash of Republican concerns in 2016. Back then, while the establishment disliked Trump’s style, his message was mainstream and consistent with American values through the end of the 20th century. Bernie, on the other hand, is charting an entirely new direction for America.

Zac Petkanas worked for Hillary Clinton’s campaign and worked for Harry Reid. In a tweet he later deleted, he stated “We are watching Trump win re-election in real time. Just a disaster.” He deleted that tweet after pushback, but continued to worry.

https://amgreatness.com/2020/02/22/mike-bloomberg-american-julianus/

The billionaire former New York City mayor is throwing a lot of money around and renouncing plenty of sensible positions to win the Democratic Party’s presidential nod. His effort to buy the presidency will fail.

I see that Mike Bloomberg is angling to become the Didius Julianus of our day. Historians refer to 193 A.D. as the “Year of the Five Emperors.” Julianus became the second contestant in that sweepstakes after the Praetorian Guard murdered the emperor Pertinax, who had been stingy about distributing the pelf they had come to expect. By this time, the Praetorian Guard was a law unto itself, much as the administrative state is today.

Pertinax only survived for about three months as emperor. Cutting to the mercenary chase, the Guard then announced they were auctioning off the office of emperor to the highest bidder. The main contenders were Claudius Sulpicianus, prefect of Rome, and Julianus, a rich politician and former consul under Commodus. Each made multiple offers until Sulpicianus reached the astounding sum of 20,000 sesterces per soldier in the Guard, several times their annual salary. Julianus saw and raised that bid, offering 25,000 sesterces per head.

Thus did he become emperor, earning a place in the history books.

It did not end happily, though. Neither the legions nor the Senate was happy about the office of emperor being bought outright and Julianus was abandoned by his supporters as Septimius Severus, the ultimate successor as emperor, bore down upon Rome. Julianus, having reigned a mere 66 days, was killed by a soldier in the palace on June 1. His last words are said to have been, “What evil have I done? Whom have I killed?”

The bidding for the Democratic nomination is not quite as brazen as was the contest between Sulpicianus and Julianus. Bloomberg is not barking offers over office partitions at the DNC as Julianus did outside the Praetorian camp. But, still, Bloomberg is pretty brazen.

https://www.city-journal.org/pennsylvania-democratic-divide

For generations, Pennsylvania’s blue-collar voters found political refuge in the Democratic Party. Even when the national party moved leftward on social issues, this voting bloc—largely Catholic, with multigenerational roots in coal and steel towns—elected Democrats to defend their economic interests. But the party’s environmental activists are jeopardizing this allegiance. A clash is taking place between progressives, who want a carbon-free future, and organized labor, which sees fossil-fuel industries and the jobs they create as essential for many communities. This opposition, reflective of a national trend, could fracture the party statewide and help ensure another victory for Donald Trump.

From Pennsylvania’s big-city wards to its rural townships, union members feel disenfranchised within a party that once championed their interests. In South Philadelphia, for example, the closure of Philadelphia Energy Solutions, the East Coast’s largest and oldest oil refinery, has exposed divisions between the city’s powerful building-trades unions and a newer liberal constituency. Located in the 26th ward—one of only three wards citywide that supported Trump in 2016—the refinery symbolizes the cultural tensions of a changing neighborhood. Near the city’s sports stadiums, older Italian residents, who revere the late mayor Frank Rizzo, live side-by-side with young, secular, and progressive professionals on blocks lined with row homes.

The refinery, shuttered after a massive fire last year that resulted in bankruptcy, prompted discussions about how to redevelop a parcel of land larger than the Center City district. Labor leaders, with support from the Trump administration, called for restoring a facility that supplied 335,000 barrels per day—principally to New York’s market. In January, the Philadelphia Building and Construction Trades Council rallied at City Hall, where the organization’s leaders ripped “elitists” and “rich kids” for prioritizing environmental concerns over saving jobs. It would take years, after all, to clean up a complex in operation since 1870, not long after the first oil well was drilled in northwestern Pennsylvania. Legal restrictions inhibit the contaminated property’s reuse, the leaders pointed out, whereas reopening the site would restore more than 1,000 jobs—many unionized, well-paying, and highly skilled—lost after the fire.