A Corporate Convention: "Comcast Presents ... The Democratic Party. Welcome to Philadelphia."

The above is a real fake ad -- it's a fake Air France ad that really showed up in Parisian ad spaces during the recent climate conference. 'Care about climate change? Of course not. We're Air France. If we cared we'd stop flying planes. We're just sponsor
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It's looking more and more that the Crossroad in Philadelphia, the 2016 Democratic Convention, will be a crossroad indeed. Wasserman Schultz is reported to be openly stacking the convention committees with Clinton supporters, despite Sanders having won, so far at least, 45% of the delegates.

And Ed Rendell -- a "huge Hillary Clinton backer," a "vocal proponent of shale gas extraction" (fracking), former governor of Pennsylvania, former DNC chair and current "DNC Host Chair" (under Debbie Wasserman Schultz) -- is telling Sanders supporters, in effect, "You'll get to vote before you watch him lose, and then he'll make a nice goodbye speech, so don't make trouble afterward. Play nice and play along." (Note that Rendell has already called the rest of the race for Clinton. We'll see about that.)

And over the crowd at the Wells Fargo Convention Center will fly, at least virtually, all of the banners of every corporation that finances and maintains this Establishment -- including the ones that finance, almost certainly, its nominating convention.

A Corporate Convention

We won't know about corporate funding of the Democratic Party Convention until after it's held (clever of the law to allow that), but here's what happened in 2012 (my emphasis):

Corporate cash helps fuel Democratic convention despite pledges

New group accepts company money

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- While Democrats have touted their grassroots fundraising efforts for the 2012 Democratic National Convention, deep-pocketed corporate donors are helping underwrite the event.

Among the corporate sponsors at the Charlotte convention: AT&T Inc., Bank of America, Duke Energy, Time Warner Cable, Coca-Cola, Wells Fargo, UnitedHealth Group, Piedmont Natural Gas, US Airways and law and lobbying firm McGuireWoods.

The corporate sponsorship appears to fly in the face of the Democrats' pledge to host a "people's convention."

The party's 2012 "host committee" is not accepting contributions from corporations, lobbyists and political action committees. Democrats also capped how much money individuals can give at $100,000.

But the party is accepting in-kind donations from corporate firms. In addition, a second nonprofit, called "New American City" was established in May to "defray" administrative expenses and other costs. New American City does accept corporate money.

The exact levels of these companies' financial support won't be known until mid-October when filings will be submitted to the Federal Election Commission.

Banks, cable companies (like Comcast, which as you'll see has a special seat at this year's well-bought table), health insurance companies, fracking companies, airlines and lobbying firms -- all are in all likelihood all lined up to foot the bill for the Establishment-run Democratic Convention. The Party fà ªtes its patrons. The patrons smile down at the Party.

By the way, I'd be shocked if Big Pharma weren't a huge contributor funding this year's Democratic Convention. TPP is an Obama high-value special order; drug companies are among the biggest winners if it passes; and how better to say thank you to a friend than to help the friend of a friend when she needs the cash. We won't find out about Pharma sponsorship until after the nomination, of course, but watch for it.

Comcast's Special Seat at the Democratic Party Table

You remember Comcast, right? They own MSNBC, one of the many networks that helped Hillary Clinton immensely when her pre-won nomination was suddenly put in doubt by Bernie Sanders voters. It took a lot of shoulders to shove that wheel nearer the finish line, and MSNBC (Comcast, $74 billion annual revenue) had a lot of shoulders to push with, as did CNN (Time Warner, $28 billion annual revenue), the New York Times (the New York Times Company, $1.5 billion annual revenue) and anyone else with a lot of money to lose if an actual anti-corruption candidate dared to win. (Don't give up yet, billionaires. She could still lose. Keep fighting.)