Republican witchhunt targets Bernie Sanders
After 18 months or so of establishment Democrats slandering and undermining Sanders, the GOP political machine is now trying to knee-cap the most popular politician in America via his wife.
A federal investigation into a land deal led by Jane Sanders, the wife and political adviser of Sen. Bernie Sanders, has accelerated in recent months — with prosecutors hauling off more than a dozen boxes of records from the Vermont college she once ran and calling a state official to testify before a grand jury, according to interviews and documents.
A half-dozen people said in interviews in recent days that they had been contacted by the FBI or federal prosecutors, and former college trustees told The Washington Post that lawyers representing Jane Sanders had interviewed them to learn what potential witnesses might tell the government.
...A spokesman for the couple, Jeff Weaver, denied wrongdoing late last week. Weaver told The Post Jane Sanders hired a D.C. law firm this spring because she and her husband fear President Trump’s Justice Department could use the investigation as a way to derail a potential 2020 challenger.
Gee, why would they think that?
Paul J. Van de Graaf, chief of the criminal division in the U.S. attorney’s office in Vermont, cited an ongoing investigation in declining to comment on the case or on the claim that it is politically motivated. The Justice Department also declined to comment.
It's very appropriate that a Trump Justice Department and U.S. attorney's office wouldn't comment on the political motivation.
Let's look at the source of the allegations, which were NOT the bank in question.
The source was a Trump operative, Brady Toensing.
According to Turner, the allegations he related to Toensig were based on a conversation he had with three local bankers. But he described that conversation as “hearsay” and added, “There’s no way I’d file a complaint or anything like that.” He said that he could not identify the person who made the initial allegation about Sanders, and that he has not been contacted by investigators.
Toensig, who was also President Donald Trump’s campaign chairperson in Vermont, said in a statement that Turner approached him on 21 May 2016 saying that a former executive for People’s Bank had told him that Sanders’ office “had pressured the bank to make the loan and he felt it was improper.” Toensig also said:At one point, I asked Mr. Turner if he would reconsider giving me the banker’s name and he said he would get back to me. When he got back to me he said he had checked with the other two people at the lunch and said he did not feel comfortable sharing the executive’s name because he did not want to get him involved.
Turner, though, said that none of the bankers he spoke to had “firsthand knowledge” of the loan in question, or whether the Democratic presidential candidate contacted the bank:
Obvious heresay accusation based on other heresay from a Trump operative is enough to raise red flags, but it also turns out that this guy has done this before.
A Republican lawyer pushing the allegations that Sen. Bernie Sanders' wife committed bank fraud to win a loan while president of a now-defunct Vermont college has a long history of filing complaints against left-of-center politicians in the state.
...In an email to The Associated Press, Toensing, who did not point to any of his complaints leading to charges or discipline against his targets, said his efforts are designed "to shine a light on the conduct of public officials."
All of his efforts have been focused on Democrats or members of the state's Progressive Party.
No, no red flags here at all.
Comments
I wonder how many
establishment dems will have his back...
Haha, I remember the threats on DailyKos
how Debbie Wasserman-Schultz was going to find a "real" centrist Democrat to primary Sanders for daring to run against her good friend Hillary. David Brock tried to go after Jane, to no avail. Now the D'umpsters can take their turn. Whitewater without the water.
DWS, how far she has fallen
Dear Debbie survived a surprisingly close primary last year, she'll be facing the same challenger again.
It's almost as if people don't like her.
I hope that Snakes For Hair
is humiliated in the next challenge. She deserves no role in government.
"Obama promised transparency, but Assange is the one who brought it."
DWS "makes democrats want to vomit" bwahaha!
She makes us non-party folks want to hurl as well.
What I remember happening is that
the democrats made some kind of deal with Bernie which was that he would caucus with the democrats on most issues and they agreed that they wouldn't support anyone who ran against him.
I would think that if the democrats broke the deal, he might run as a third party.
There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?
Speaking of the DNC
this article talks about how the media isn't covering the biggest story in politics.
Duh! Of course they aren't covering it, the Russian propaganda is sucking up all the air.
DNC Fraud Lawsuit is the Biggest Story in Politics that No One is Talking About
The lawyers who brought the suit have been threatened and have asked the court for a protective order.
ETA: after further reading the article, it looks more like a hit piece on Bernie, his supporters and the two lawyers. This is my opinion of it.
There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?
Correct me if I am wrong,
but none of the MSM I'm familiar with has covered the biggest story of the
G20 meeting - that Trump was tweeting asking Podesta why he wouldn't turn DNC servers over to the FBI or CIA. Apparently, according to all the gossip on the web, that was all the biggies at G20 were talking about.
So today, I expected it to be a lead story on PBS, NBC, CBS. But I switched back and forth looking for the story but all I got was how Donald Trump JR. has been conspiring with Russians.
Was this tweet story covered at all in MSM? There are all of Podesta's lame responses on the web at major news outlets, but I haven't seen it on the teevee.
And the fact remains, Trump is right. Comey glossed over (something like "highly reputed" or something like that in his testimony) the fact that only DNC - employed Crowdstrike, has had access to the "proof" of Russian hacking.
Yep, they blew off what Trump said about how the DNC
. wouldn't allow the FBI to look at their servers. It's just like how they covered the wikileaks emails. They didn't talk about what the emails said, they just blamed it on Russia who they said was who hacked their servers.
Again I read articles with headlines stating that this SHOW PROOF THAT THE TRUMP TEAM COLLUDED WITH RUSSIA, and as usual, inside the articles there are more innuendos and nothing of substance.
This has been happening for over a year and if there was actually that much evidence that showed that Russia interfered with the election,, where is the damn proof?
On ToP this morning, one commenter said that the republicans swore fealty to Russia and therefore they are all traitors.
Seriously, this is what they think, but not one person mentioned that both parties have shown fealty to Israel for the last half century.
If anyone has meddled in our elections, it has been Israel.
There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?
fealty to Israel
And they don't need to hack computers to do it, either. American pols show this fealty publicly and deliberately. By choice.
Because they haven't a snowball's chance in Hell of getting elected unless they do.
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
@snoopydawg
Them and the NRA, among numerous other self-interests. It's OK for corporations to actually buy and take over government, as well as Israel - or rather certain evidently crazed and powerful (billionaire-backed) political factions within Israel's government. Just not 'Russia!!!'? How discriminatory!
Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.
A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.
But haven't you seen
the most recent Russian bombshell? Now they have e-mails and stuff, and words, and meetings. Before you know it, they might even uncover something illegal, maybe, or at least something unethical. Trump will be impeached any day now, just stay tuned to the MSM and their blogistani minions.
"Obama promised transparency, but Assange is the one who brought it."
And once he's Impeached, we can all
go back to happy land, worshipping our new Democratic "heroes" along the way! USA, USA, USA!!!!!
Only a fool lets someone else tell him who his enemy is. Assata Shakur
They aren't thinking this through
if Trump is impeached and removed from office, we will be stuck with Pence who is much more dangerous. Look at his history of when he was governor. He is a Christian fundamentalist or something.
Just a taste of what he stands for.
Who is Pence?
There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?
They might be OK with that
I think the Deep State may want to get rid of Trump at any cost.
We'll see.
"Obama promised transparency, but Assange is the one who brought it."
Good timing
joe posted a link to this article about the Deep State in tonight's EBs.
America’s Deep State Power Struggle Is At Its Most Interesting Point Yet
Caitlyn wrote about them after the ceasefire was announced. She said to look for their next move.
Either another false flag event or something concerning Trump and Russia.
Look at what happened and just on time.
There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?
There are a distressingly large number
of things that the Democrats are not thinking through.
native
You are right
I'm still on the fence about if TPTB installed Trump instead of Hillary because he is so inept and his demeanor is so off putting that people will focus on his stupid tweets while the republicans pass their hideously legislation.
I don't think that people are aware of how many of Obama's last minute legislation they are keeping from getting passed.
The bill that would allow internet providers sell people's browsing history is just one example of the legislation they overturned.
If Obama had actually wanted the legislation to pass, he wouldn't have waited until he was almost out the door. He would have passed it earlier so that the republicans or Trump couldn't touch it.
As I stated, this is just one example. The other thing that is happening while people are distracted by this Russian propaganda is that the banks are doing whatever the Hell they want because no one is paying attention to them.
This is why I think Trump was allowed to become president. If TPTB wanted Hillary instead, it would have been very easy for them to steal the election, just like they did twice for Bush.
There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?
Logically, you'd think so...
but pretty much everything he's done since the primaries doesn't give me any confidence.
Idolizing a politician is like believing the stripper really likes you.
Democrats cannot primary independents, but a Dem is
running against him, or so he says.
Bernie had a deal with the Dem Senate Caucus, though. In return for some cooperation from Bernie in voting on "administrative" matters, the Party will not run anyone against him. No Dem has run against him in a while and the Vermont Dem Party has made him its nominee more than once. At the same time, Dems endorse him, campaign for him (and vice versa), etc.
The terms of the deal is in his wiki, which I just don't feel like googling for right now. The rest is info I dug up during the primary, while Hillbots were squealing that he should not be allowed to run as a Dem (because of interference with the coronation).
That's easy! None of them.
But while they're wasting time eating our own, the Repugs will be eating our lunch, yet again. The Democrats have an amazing talent for suicide.
"Obama promised transparency, but Assange is the one who brought it."
Number of Dems having his back?
I can accurately predict how many establishment Democrats (which, face it, is nearly all of them) will "... have Bernie's back."
I count two. Maybe. And if those two are asked to step to the front of the line, there will be zero. They will back him the way "progressive" Liz Warren backed him during the past election.
What Bernie Sanders has to worry about in regard to his back is how many Democratic knives will be plunged into it.
Take it from a Sanders' campaign worker.
This nonsense went down during the campaign. It didn't grow legs then, and it sure won't grow them now. Rec'd!!
Inner and Outer Space: the Final Frontiers.
It's somewhat different now
First, it's Republicans, not Democrats this time.
Secondly, it's the full power of a Trump executive branch, so who knows how far they'll go. Will they invent crimes?
It'll be interesting to see just how silent the Dems will be about this.
All they'll do is make the Bernster more popular
than he already is. But, what are you going to do about them? They. Are. Teh. Stupid.
Inner and Outer Space: the Final Frontiers.
You may be right
Knowing Trump and his cronies, it's entirely possible that they will overplay their hand and make a martyr out of Bernie.
WaPo retracted this much of their story.
Notice there isn't any conversation about Bernie not being involved or Jane not financially profiting even a dime from this "fraudulent" loan application.
More bull shit trying to smear Bernie as corrupt to low information voters so they can take down his popularity ratings. Probably Trump and Hillary over a witches brew in a backroom somewhere.
"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon
Jeff Bezos is probably got a permanent
Stiffie since this shit hit the fan. Why would he print any mitigating information that might make it look like this isn't a major scandal?
I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks
Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa
@dkmich
'Spirit Cooking'?
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-11-05/spirit-cooking-wikileaks-publis...
Funny that the supporters of this one-trick ('RUSSIA!!!') pony corporate-political faction used talking points denigrating people who wanted democracy, a sustainable society and economy as 'wanting a unicorn'...
Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.
A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.
Remember how the MSM
over-played their hand against Trump, much of the smearing back-fired. The same may very well work for Bernie.
People can see through a hit-job.
"Obama promised transparency, but Assange is the one who brought it."
Agree.
I live in Burlington. For whatever reason, the local (and by "local," I mean "Vermont") press has been hell-bent on attacking Bernie since he officially announced last May. (Mostly because their collective noses are out of shape that he doesn't make himself available to them whenever they demand it). Each and every time, the public push-back has been empirically negative.
With this latest story, even Seven Days calls BS.
There is truly nothing to see here, and among those who are already Woke, this will have little effect.
Somehow I doubt they ride to the rescue
although, he is only interested right now in beating back Trumpcare and not going all in for Medicare for All. Could this be leverage to keep the ACA intact? Seems like the Repigs are already admitting possible defeat with repeal as well as replace.
Only a fool lets someone else tell him who his enemy is. Assata Shakur
"nonsense"
There are real questions about how she represented donation pledges to the bank to obtain big loan for school land purchase.
have not seen how she would have profited personally, but that may not be necessary.
may also have been some dealing with a local "godfather", but that may be a different thing.
Let's see if Bernie can stop saying "Russia" long enough to remember MFA is a good idea.
Jane can take care of herself.
Neither Sanders made any "profit" off this so-called
deal--oh, the HORROR! Like I commented earlier, this went down during the primary campaign. The result? What legs it had, fell off real quick.
Inner and Outer Space: the Final Frontiers.
legs fell off real quick
Yes, the Obama administration did not pursue the case.
You think Bernie's "team play" during the last part of campaign might have been related.
btw . former Sanders volunteer here.
have very mixed feelings about sanders.
If she lied to banks to get a loan--and I don't know if she did-
whether she or Bernie pocketed 1 cent of the loan proceeds doesn't matter. It's a crime.
There is an argument that the college would not have survived without land. In any case, keeping your employer afloat while you hold a high paying, high prestige job is a personal benefit. And, if the plan had worked, Jane S would have been a hero in Vermont. So, it's not correct to say there was potential for personal benefit from the loan.
All that said, if the evidence had been clear, she would have been in jail by now, or at least on trial. Obama would not protect her and neither would Trump.That she has not been charged speaks volumes about the state of the evidence.
I posted an article downthread that discusses this.
The chief executive at the state board that authorized the tax-exempt bonds purchased by People's Bank to extend the loan says "he was confident the board made the right decision at the time."
I believe the only true question is whether Jane "misrepresented" the amount of pledged donations Burlington College had secured when she filed the loan application. I don't think that accusation will easily hold water, but IANAL. Pledges fall through all the time.
Total witch hunt.
Edited to include the link again.
"pledges fall through all the time."
without attempting to make the case, more than one donor said her representations to the bank were inaccurate.(IIRC)
we will see if it gets to court.
Yes. That is the topic the post to which you are
replying, whether she misrepresented to the bank. However, "only" one possible felony ain't nothing. However, if U.S. Senator Bernie indeed pressured the bank to make the loan, that would be an issue for me, too, whether or not it's a crime.
As I posted elsewhere on this thread, I researched this a lot during the primary. I don't believe it was a total witch hunt. A number of people who were listed as donors in information given the banks said their amount was inaccurate or that they had not pledged at all.
Maybe the evidence was not tight or maybe the bank decided to drop it because Bernie is the US Senator from the bank's home state of Vermont or whether some private deal was made, I have no idea. But, I think there was enough there to investigate, at least.
"Obama would not protect her"
unless that was part of a package which got "Bernie's heart right".
That the case was not pursued might be "protection" extended for good behavior.
All depends on the evidence. Would have been continued by President HRC.
Will not give credit to Obama for doing the right thing absent proof.
Bernie was running against Hillary and Bernie is a Democratic
Socialist who criticizes the Democratic Party, sometimes harshly, even though he campaigns for Democrats and speaks on their behalf. Obama would not have protected him.\
I am not familiar with the "got his heart right" reference in the context of Bernie and Obama, only Pence. Do you mean getting Bernie to drop out? if so, Obama is far too careful about his image to have risked any criminal deal. Or do you mean endorsing and campaigning for Hillary? If so, you should know that Bernie has done that for every Democratic Presidential nominee since Bill Clinton in 1992. https://caucus99percent.com/content/spoiler-candidates-and-protest-votes...
Many have speculated that Bernie
was threatened in some way. I don't know if that is true.
sure Obama would not leave himself open by threatening Bernie directly.
that's what junior guys do.
as to Bernie always campaigning for dems. yes,he will do that (apparently he would campaign for the devil as a democrat)
but the primary cheating was so rank there had to have been some pressure to jump ship.
Do I think Obama would lend his support to a reminder meeting for the "good of the Party"? yes, but no proof it of course.
tell you what . let's see all those back tax returns bernie promised to release. until he does that I believe he is hiding something and is subject to pressure.
Unless he provides, he is just another lying pol to me.
Will one of his many admirers "pop the question"?
Former sanders volunteer, donor,etc. is waiting for his hero to clear this up.
edit. You can believe that I will ask him if I get the opportunity.
How can we consider this guy one of us until he clears that lie he told us repeatedly during april,may,june?
Threatened to do what?
Endorse the Democratic nominee, as he has ever since he first got to the House? A threat would be a big risk for a politician or a Party, with not much return. I don't think he was ever really going to have a floor fight for the nom. I think he just wanted to have leverage over the platform. I wish I had not deleted his fundraising emails. His emails said "take it to the convention." People read into that whatever they wanted, but his emails never mentioned a floor fight to Hillary. IIRC, the closer the convention got, the more his emails spoke spoke of the platform. Never one mention of going for the nom at the convention.
I never said he was threatened.
It began with this comment by HW.
to which I said-
closest to answer your question-
I think Bernie was as surprised as anyone when he became a real threat to HRC .Did he have to be pressured to stay in line? I have no idea.
I do think that the open crookedness of the Dems gave Sanders every right to declare himself free of all earlier pledges of loyalty. In fact, imo, he was obliged to do that and failed us badly, pressure or no pressure.Jane or no Jane.
Where are those pesky tax returns?
irishking wants to know.
thx.
Local "godfather"
I believe you're referencing Tony Pomerleau, the state's biggest philanthropist, by a long shot. Almost 100 years old and a true "pulled himself up by the bootstraps" guy. Calling him a "godfather" is ludicrous. He does more for impoverished kids in Vermont than the state probably does.
He offered Burlington College a $500,000 loan. The guy didn't become a real estate mogul through his lack of intelligence. When the college began to default, he repeatedly pushed back their payment dates.
no offense meant to Mr. Pomerleau. my apologies.
seems a great guy. certainly doesn't need Bernie.
https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/local/vermont/2017/06/01/po...
real estate mogul- still would like to see Sanders back taxes. they seem to have been in the real estate game just a bit.
Brady Toensing and his mom, Victoria Toensing
Brady Toensing was not just Trump's Vermont campaign manager and vice-chairman of the Vermont Republican Party. He is a right-wing attack dog and provocateur. His job is to stir up trouble for those whom the Republicans view as the enemy, and it seems to run in the family.
Brady's mother is Victoria Toensing, a DC lawyer and right-wing political lobbyist. Since the 1990s, she and her husband, Joe diGenova ( a former US Attorney), have been well-known as Republican activists and operatives. They were integral players in the Repub shenanigans during Bill Clinton's administration and impeachment. I would assume that during his time working for Karl Rove, David Brock had occasion to work with Toensing and diGenova.
Edited to add: In fact, now that I think about it, I seem to recall Brock talking about Victoria Toensing in his book, "Blinded by the Right".
"Don't go back to sleep ... Don't go back to sleep ... Don't go back to sleep."
~Rumi
"If you want revolution, be it."
~Caitlin Johnstone
The whole fam damiy is bad news.
I remember Vicki Toestink. n/t
"Obama promised transparency, but Assange is the one who brought it."
so ... if she weighs the same as a duck ...
The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.
Putin taught his dog some new tricks
After all, Pooty-Poot's opponents often have run-ins with the "law." Unless they accidentally step off a tall building. Of course, the Republicans and who knows who else did their thing with Eliot Spitzer when he got too close to the Big Banks . . .
There it is!
The russian tie.
Regardless of the path in life I chose, I realize it's always forward, never straight.
I researched this during the primary because of a Hillbot's
post. I don't remember the results of my research, but I do remember there's a lot of conflicting info out there. That the college no longer exists doesn't help in sorting it all out. Did Jane S have to leave over this, or was she asked to leave over this? Dunno. Did Bernie pressure a bank officer, or merely ask him to get the deal unmired or did Bernie contact the officer at all? Dunno. Did she overstate or make up pledges from donors? Dunno. Etc.
My overall impression is that there's something there, but I don't know how much. Whatever it was, it was Jane desperately trying to benefit the college. Whether she colored only within the lines in that effort, I don't know, but I doubt it. I especially don't know if Bernie was involved at all.
More good background
Here.
And the latest Seven Days article here.
Also, for anyone who hasn't yet seen it
Vermont GOP Official Disputes Claim that Sanders Pressured Bank.
This article has a good summary of the facts and situation
A Look At Jane Sanders' Role In The Closure Of Burlington College
This article was published on May 18, 2016, after the college announced it was closing.
Jane has her own story about differences with the Board of Trustees and why she left, that there was a change in leadership that didn't agree with her vision or plans, so they pushed her out, or she "decided to leave" because, as she put it, the Board runs the school.
The Board approved the loans and the land purchase and the expansion plans. The Board has a financial committee whose job is to look at the numbers and determine if plans will go forward. Jane was their employee. They are all being careful not to say "she" personally had anything to do with filling out loan applications or the number crunching. Which she probably didn't, would be my guess.
The guy launching these accusations is a known republican operative who has a history of making baseless legal accusations against political opponents. And he didn't care about this college land loan for years, until Bernie ran for president. Hum...
This is definitely a politically motivated personal attack on Bernie and Jane. It's sad to me that's it's working, even to the degree of "raising questions" and creating FUD about Bernie's political goals. And a really unfair dragging of Jane into the mud, collateral damage. I doubt it will go anywhere legally -- this guy's previous years-long persecution of his last target never did -- but that hardly matters since his goal was political damage. He's already got what he wanted. And the longer they drag out the investigation he demanded, without any resolution, the better. Ideally until at least the next presidential election.
That article is nowhere near dispositive of anything significant
It would take me longer than I can spend this morning to do a line by line of it. However, I have dealt with consultants and attended many board meetings. Consultants who will report back with exactly what the person or committee that hired them wants to hear are quite common. In fact, quite often their reports are pretty much a re-hash of what they were told during their initial interviews.
A firm I worked in once got rid of a married partner's mistress that way. She worked for the firm and no one had the wherewithal to tell him she had to go. So, in a huge firm, the -consultants decided that this low-level person was our major problem. He was too smart to be fooled--heck, no one was fooled--but he too smart to risk his own power in the firm. As the partner in charge of hiring and firing, he fired her, though I have no doubt he more than made it up to her afterward.)
Board meetings. Typically, the majority of the board does not show up at the company, except for board meetings. This is especially so of larger not for profits, who put busy, notable people on the board for prestige. The President, who is also usually one of the directors, makes a presentation to the board. See where I'm going?
And, what the "outside directors" care about most are (1) getting the meeting over with and (2)their respective own reputations and personal liability. A report from an outside consultant and the President covers their asses.
I'm not saying the above is what happened or even that anything is wrong with it. All I'm saying is that's how this stuff usually happens. And, IIRC, this article would have come out before donors denied making the pledge JS told the bank about, which is the important issue. And, I think the only ones who really know whether those donors lied kr JS lied or something in between, both, are JS and those donors.
FYI. A former neighbor who is a lawyer once got deep in financial trouble and was scrambling to save her condo. She asked a friend to write her a note, so my neighbor's total picture would look good to the bank when she applied for either a line of credit or a refinance--I-ve forgotten which. She got it. When she defaulted, the bank tried to collect on the note and my neighbor's friend came clean. I don't know how my neighbor avoided jail. I suspect it was by handing the condo over to the bank without forcing a foreclosure.
I'm not saying something like that was involved in Burlington, but it could have been.
Timing accidental, but fortuitous for Hillary and Obama.
Looks like Hillary and Obama are beginning their efforts to become the face of the democratic party. This witch hunt could have the effect of putting Bernie back into a media black hole while all the media attention (and donor monies) go to Hillary and Obama.
In terms of media. The billionaires who want to stop the leftward drift of the democratic party (ha.) got a shitload of major media press, while the Justice Democrats get zilch, nada, even though in terms of money, they ain't doing bad.
If Hillary and Obama become the face of the party in 2018, say farewell to the party.
Obama, yes
For all the talk about the Clintons, who was it that (practically overnight) got Perez installed as Democratic Party chair? Not the Clintons. Obama makes a couple of phone calls and the deed is done.
It's my opinion that Obama is still running the show. After all, it's not like he's run out of deposit slips...
True it was Obama that installed Perez
From what I read, the Obama team used major league threats against anybody who did not vote for Perez.
In addition to Obama wrangling votes for Perez
Haim Saben who is the DNC's biggest donor, threatened to withhold funds if Ellison was installed as head of the DNC.
This is one of the reasons why Obama is staying in DC. He wants to make sure that the DP doesn't move too far to the left.
He's not done doing damage to the DP. I would think that losing 1,000 seats in congress would have been enough damage, but nope.
There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?
That's the elephant in the room, Snoop
How can one guy have that much influence? And why? Hillary had him on speed-dial, and consulted him on all sorts of things.
A real progressive party would have no place for such string-pullers.
"Obama promised transparency, but Assange is the one who brought it."
@dervish
I suspect that once you're a valued high-level shared-billionaire/corporate employee who has been, or is expected to be, selected for the Presidency, you carry a lot of borrowed power from your billionaire backers, Israel, the MIC, and/or other major corporate interests.
With a group of these guys all intent on helping their 'fixer' make whatever arrangements they collectively want, people like Obama and the Clintons can easily 'get things done' on their behalf, just as with any such Mafia-style set-up.
A theory that seems to fit all-too-well, to me, at least.
However, whoever happens to be holding public office has no right to abuse the powers of The People delegated to that office to be used for the public good, in using them against the public interest for destructive hostile self-interests having no business in public policy.
The only legitimate US government is one of, by and for the people and upholding and enforcing the Bill Of Rights within the Constitution they must swear this upon in order to qualify for office. This is why the more forward-looking of the progressive Founders fought so hard to have the Bill Of Rights included in that Constitution over the objections of the more self-interested/backward Founders.
And it's long past time that these Constitutional guarantees started being consistently fulfilled, with equal rights, treatment and opportunity for all, which includes nobody being 'above the law' with a tyrant's license to freely engage in criminal activities with impunity.
Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.
A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.
Psychopathy is not a political position. (++)
really fits the day.
lol/col
@MrWebster
I must say that I have serious doubts about the timing being accidental; both wings of the Two-Faced US Corporate Party work for those in the pool of powerful self interests who seemingly cannot bear that the rest of the world can still have either any money/property or any rights, even though they themselves have already stolen the great bulk of both...
Edited to remove an extra letter.
Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.
A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.
Thanks for the essay and
Thanks for the essay and video!
I would like to add a point which I didn't hear made on the latter, regarding Jane's estimate of anticipated donations on the loan application. She totted up what had been promised in donations and some donors failed to come through, which was why the amount collected was less; the amount of stretch required to try to make this a criminal act on Jane's part must have torn some politically-based ligaments.
Edited rather belatedly to remove an extra letter.
Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.
A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.
One can hope.
One can hope.