Monday, February 19, 2018

Bernie and Russia

A tweet from FBI counterintelligence expert Asha Rangappa, replying to Bernie Sanders:
The indictment makes clear that they were pushing you, too, @SenSanders. And it's interesting that you also were very quick to claim that our processes were "rigged" as long as you were losing. Coincidence?
Just so!

A BernieBro came to Sanders' defense:
You act as if Bernie was working WITH the Russians. He was not. He is against all that they stand for. Being a pawn in their game doesn't reflect badly on him. He has acknowledged and denounced Russian interference in our election. We're still waiting on POTUS to do the same.
Ah, those fucking Bros. They do it every time.

Who gives a damn about what Bernie SAYS? Yeah, sure: When the occasion demands, he'll say the right words. But so what? What he says is not nearly as important as what he does -- not to mention what the bad guys have done on his behalf.

The fact is that Tad Devine, Bernie's chosen campaign manager, is basically interchangeable with Paul Manafort. No actual progressive would stay within twenty feet of Devine.

The fact is that Manafort's partner, Roger Stone, specializes in propping up "spoiler" Dems like Bernie.

The fact is that Bernie's campaign was a cesspool of misogyny. And I'm talking about real woman-hate, truly vicious stuff. I'm not talking about the iffy claims made by those hyper-sensitive Me-Tooers who accused Al Franken of committing rape because he put his hand on a woman's waist as a photo was snapped. (Isn't it strange how "Me Too" standards differ when we start talking about Moscow-approved politicians?)

Bernie said absolutely nothing about the misogyny pervading his campaign until forced to do so. And even when he finally, belatedly, offered a pro-forma denunciation, nothing in his campaign changed. To the end, his campaign was marked by rage, lies, smears, paranoia, fanaticism, cultishness, Messiah-worship, threats, hyper-emotionalism and hatred of all things female. Compared to the BernieBros, the Bolsheviks were the apostles of sweetness and reason.

Bernie Sanders never denounced the filthy games played by his leading acolytes, such as Cassandra Fairbanks (pal to Roger Stone) and H.A. Goodman, a faux "progressive" now exposed as a fanatical MAGA-boy. Heretofore, I've referred to the latter as Lord H.A. H.A. -- but after the Mueller indictment, I think his new name shall be H.A. Horoshoman. Or maybe (with a nod to Anthony Burgess) H.A. Horrorshowman.

Yeah, I know that Bernie offered lukewarm support to Hillary in the general. He had to do so in order to be in a position to help Trump in the next election. Bernie's masters want him to say whatever he needs to say in order to secure the Democratic nomination in 2020.

You can depend on the BernieBros to weaken anyone who would be a better candidate in 2020. The scurrilous attacks on Kamala Harris were very telling, and bore the signature of the Internet Research Agency.

The important thing to understand is this: Bernie Sanders cannot win in the general. Kurt Eichenwald has proved that point beyond rational debate.
I have seen the opposition book assembled by Republicans for Sanders, and it was brutal. The Republicans would have torn him apart. And while Sanders supporters might delude themselves into believing that they could have defended him against all of this, there is a name for politicians who play defense all the time: losers.
Worst of all, the Republicans also had video of Sanders at a 1985 rally thrown by the leftist Sandinista government in Nicaragua where half a million people chanted, “Here, there, everywhere/the Yankee will die,’’ while President Daniel Ortega condemned “state terrorism” by America. Sanders said, on camera, supporting the Sandinistas was “patriotic.”

The Republicans had at least four other damning Sanders videos (I don’t know what they showed), and the opposition research folder was almost 2-feet thick. (The section calling him a communist with connections to Castro alone would have cost him Florida.)
Eichenwald found much more. Also see my own post explaining why Sanders would lose all 50 states, including Vermont.

Think about it. If Sanders were on the level, if he were not a witting agent of the Trump forces, then he would talk about that Sandinista video right now. He knows what's in that oppo file; it's no secret. When you have a skeleton of that sort in your closet, your only hope is to break the news yourself, offering your own spin and mea culpas. The time to do so would be NOW, not in the middle of a campaign.

Has Sanders done that? No. Will he do that? Of course not.

He knows that he is not meant to be the first octogenarian to win the presidency. He knows that his job is to insure a Trump win. As I've argued in several previous posts, we have good reason to believe that there is kompromat on Bernie Sanders, or at least on Jane.

Sanders cannot win. Anyone who argues that Sanders can win in 2020 is a witting or unwitting agent of the Russians and/or the Alt Right.

That's why the Russians are pushing Sanders. From the indictment:
43.By 2016, Defendants and their co-conspirators used their fictitious online personas to interfere with the 2016 U.S. presidential election. They engaged in operations primarily intended to communicate derogatory information about Hillary Clinton, to denigrate other candidates such as Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, and to support Bernie Sanders and then-candidate Donald Trump.
On or about February 10, 2016, Defendants and their co-conspirators internally circulated an outline of themes for future content to be posted to ORGANIZATION-controlled social media accounts. Specialists were instructed to post content that focused on “politics in the USA” and to “use any opportunity to criticize Hillary and the rest (except Sanders and Trump—we support them).”
That's the fact, Jack.

"But...but...Bernie says things that I like to hear!"

Fuck you. It's just words. Words don't count as much as actions. The only thing Bernie Sanders has done in his life is help elect Donald Trump.

"But...but...Hillary's emails!"

DOUBLE-fuck you.

12 comments:

nemdam said...

It's worse than this.

Don't forget that Bernie was slow to denounce Russia. He only did it long after it was proven beyond a non-Trump doubt that they were interfering. His initial response was the Kremlin-like "It's a distraction from the real issues!" talking point. His most vocal supporters are also the loudest to denounce the Russian investigation (Greenwald). His primary campaign got more divisive, more closely echoed Russian talking points, and got more Russian support the longer and more hopeless the campaign went on.

He never released his taxes. His campaign finances were sketchy. He made no effort to reign in his worst supporters at the DNC after the hacked emails were released. He went on Ari Melber's show and said "And of course we knew that they [Russia] were trying to cause divisiveness within the Democratic Party. That's no great secret." in response to what he knew about the DNC hacks at the time. He went on Chuck Todd's show on Sunday and did some Whataboutism when asked about Russia's support. (He seriously compared it to Russia's BLM support.) He was one of 5 members of Congress to vote against Russian sanctions and gave a complete horseshit excuse that they would somehow jeopardize the Iran deal. He voted against the Magnitsky Act.

And between the constant lies and smears he effortlessly uses in his campaigns and the fact he and his wife are under FBI investigation, he certainly has the character to do what we are questioning him of doing.

I was always very skeptical that Bernie knew he was getting Russian assistance during his campaign. But the way he is dodging responsibility and accountability for the very real questions people have about his connections is giving me the same vibe Trump gave very early in the Russian scandal. I mean this in that he is doing nothing to dissuade those who think this is a problem from believing it and only inflaming the questions by being so defensive whenever asked about them. I'm calling it now. There's something sketchy between Bernie and Russia we don't yet know. I don't know the nature of it, but there's something there. He is not acting like a completely innocent man. I hope we someday find the truth.

Oh well. At least it will soon by Jill Stein's time in the barrel. That I am confident of.

Mr Mike said...

How far back does Russian interference go. 2016 posts on Facebook and Twitter eerily echo the O-bots flooding DailyKos about Hillary 2008. Did the Russians miscalculate the support a Black candidate would get from voters?
Then there's the Birther attacks, more Russian rat tucking by Trump?
Were the republican party attempts to make Obama a one term president home grown racism or Russian orchestrated?
Quite the rabbit hole.

Mr Mike said...

From the files cot Democrats Get Played (Again):
https://www.rawstory.com/2018/02/white-nationalists-twitter-bots-fueled-war-al-franken-democrats-fell/
Gillibrand, willing dupe or active participation?

Anonymous said...

The United States is now the target of an ongoing very widespread and complex international intelligence operation.

"White nationalist provocateurs, a pair of fake news sites, an army of Twitter bots and other cyber tricks helped derail Democratic Senator Al Franken last year, new research shows."

http://www.newsweek.com/alt-right-trump-franken-mueller-twitter-810355

Michael said...

Your hatred of Bernie is palpable...

and tiresome.

fred said...

Hey Michael, we copped the Bernie phenomenon even here in Australia. All of the certain "facts" about Hillary, the primary process, the desire for Americans everywhere to jump on a Liberal bandwagon and head for Woodstock, and Bernie's political moral purity (ie crap and conspiracy propaganda) were all in evidence in our local blogs and media outlets. I will never forget the hostility and BS arguments I received when I tried to politely debate with some of them on-line. Never again. Moderators were missing in action and it was an exercise in vicious personal put downs and BS only found with religious cult nut jobs. The Bernie phenomenon was a perfect union of ignorance and conceit looking for some heads to kick. Scumbags the lot of them.

Bob Harrison said...

I join the Burn Bernie chorus, though I am singing from the choir.

Gus said...

Michael:

"Your hatred of Bernie is palpable..."

and with very good reason. Fixed it for you. Perhaps you need to dig a little deeper into your hero and his past, particularly his behavior in the last election.

nemdam said...

Just want to say your new banner is AWESOME!

Anonymous said...

Oooooo. That banner is going to provoke the Bernie Bros, Joe :0). Maybe some more Bots, as well. Btw, if you had Russian trolls on your tail, you should take a bow. Means you're doing something right.

As for Saint Bernard, there are many loose ends--the whole Tad Devine connection, the unexplained campaign money dumps (yeah, I know all $27 donations. Hah!), the data breach into Clinton's HQ, the refusal to release tax forms, etc. Will we get the answers? I don't know. What I do know is that Bernie would be killed in 2020 because Hillary's campaign did not release the ugly side of their opposition research on Sanders, something the GOP Trumpsters would have no trouble broadcasting. Bernie's past is not exactly spotless and Eichenwald laid it out very nicely--the anti-American skeletons in the closet.

Saint Bernard would be sliced and diced, death by a thousand cuts.

That should be the end of the story. But, of course, it isn't because this afternoon I picked up the recent Our Revolution endorsement of Dennis Kucinich for Governor of Ohio. Kucinich has always been far left, considered a progressive firebrand. But he's also a Trumpster apologist, appearing on Fox News, sounding suspiciously like an Alt-right defender, claiming the Trump Administration is being attacked by the Deep State.

Yes, the Trumpster, the innocent lamb stalked by the Big Bad Wolf.

Sorry, for me that taints any progressive cred a candidate might have. No Trumpeter-Hugging allowed!

Not sure why Nina Turner and her group felt their endorsement was a good idea, beyond hating on Richard Cordray as an establishment candidate and/or wanting to split the Democratic vote. Again.

With friends like this, who needs enemies???

Peggysue

Tom said...

So many dupes so little time.

Saw on Ari Melber a brief mention of "Woke Blacks" being a group formed by Russian social engineers.

Melber on Tuesday 20- Feb had a segment on a Russian led return to Jim Crow by suppressing black voters.

Anonymous said...

The hatred of Bernie on this site is palpable... Tiresome.. And divisive.