MSM still Russia-trolling Bernie Sanders

Good news. Bernie is still getting under the skin of the establishment, so he must be doing something right.
How do I know this? Because of headlines like this:
How will Democrats cope if Putin starts playing dirty tricks for Bernie Sanders (again)?

When Russia interferes in the 2020 presidential election on behalf of Democratic nominee Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), how will liberals respond?
.. Some Russian-created social media accounts targeted LGBT activists and environmentalists; others successfully organized protests across the country on either side of the Black Lives/Blue Lives Matter divide.
Instigating turmoil within its adversaries has been a Russian ambition since well before the Bolshevik Revolution 100 years ago. Russian subversion of American democracy reached a peak during the Cold War, but it didn’t end with the collapse of Soviet communism.
...Had Sanders won last year’s Democratic primary and faced off against Jeb Bush, it’s probable the Russians would have (again) intervened on behalf of the man who honeymooned in the Soviet Union, advocates massive cuts in defense spending and, like Trump, calls the American system “rigged.”

There are so many BS McCarthyesque insinuations here that I don't know where to even start, except to say that this article isn't an exception.
For instance, a few days ago there was this article:
Bernie Sanders Is Not a Real Progressive

This was evident when Seth Meyers asked him recently if the indictments from special counsel Robert Mueller in connection with the Russia investigation could distract voters. From the Daily Beast:

“Yes. I mean, I think we’ve got to work in two ways,” Sanders answered. “Number one, we have got to take on Trump’s attacks against the environment, against women, against Latinos and blacks and people in the gay community, we’ve got to fight back every day on those issues. But equally important, or more important: We have got to focus on bread-and-butter issues that mean so much to ordinary Americans.”

Sanders said those “ordinary Americans” are “not staying up every day worrying about Russia’s interference in our election.” Instead, he said, “They’re wondering how they’re going to send their kids to college” or “how they’re going to be able to pay the rent” or “whether they can afford health care.”

The problem is that he said, “But equally important, or more important.”

So black and Latinx people aren’t concerned with bread-and-butter issues? We aren’t ordinary Americans? Why put such a break between race and economics? Sanders clearly means white Americans when he says “ordinary Americans.”

Can you say "putting words in his mouth"? How about "inventing a controversy"?
The only thing "clear" here is the troll.

Let's look at one more example:
Bernie Sanders Has Yet to Address the Way Misogyny and Russian Trolling Has Fueled His Movement

The Bernie Sanders movement aimed its anger so fiercely and unrelentingly at Hillary Clinton that Trump didn’t have to do much.
All he had to do was convince those who were THAT angry (mostly white males, but some females) to pay her back by voting for him. That’s how caught up in mass hysteria they were, how manipulated by Putin and Banon and Kushner they were. They voted against the environment, civil rights and civil liberties just to pay “that bitch” back. And they expect reasonable people to join their movement?
...The number of Russian trolls dispatched to infiltrate Facebook groups and Twitter. They are still online, still attacking Hillary supporters, still working hard to keep the party divided. The problem is that many of his actual supporters don’t seem to notice or care. They’re allowing this hatred to go on, and are in many cases fanning the flames because the bots and trolls know how to support and reinforce their belief system. Clinton supporters have been systematically alienated from many who see themselves as progressives. Which means the Alt-left can’t win even the most reliable and loyal base of the Democratic party. That is a strategic ploy by Vladimir Putin who has financed a virtual army of poor underlings to sit there and mess with the Democrats all day long. Bernie himself was one of Putin’s puppets only he never seemed to realize it and maybe still doesn’t. No one on their side has the courage to stand up to this because they probably are fine with abuse as long as it goes in one direction.

This person is so convinced of her personal victimhood, that the idea that she could be wrong about something probably would never even occur to her.
I chalk this up to "selective feminism" with a hint of Russia konspiracy.

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earthling1's picture

to tie Bernie to the Union of Soviet Socialist Republic, or commie.
They are definitely frightened of a 2020 candidacy. IMHO.

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Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.

@earthling1

working with Russia than bombing them, let the snowflakes wail. Twitter is unbearable. Neera Tanden is a total bitch.

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"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon

@earthling1 If Bernie does run again, I fully expect the deep state to reveal anon info to major outlets claiming Bernie was turned on his honeymoon in the Soviet Union, or any number of accusations but all tied back to Russia.

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@MrWebster It won't work. By then this smear tactic would have been so overused that such dirt would likely draw more voters to him in resistance to the tactic itself. Just as during the last election, it is quite possible that those 70,000 votes that allegedly determined the election could have been votes for trump in opposition to the full-court press of pro-clinton propaganda from the US major media. I know people who decided to vote for trump for this very reason- in PA.

Hell, the media drumbeat over the past year has turned my septuagenarian into a trump defender because of the pettiness of the constant carping on everything he says and does. The TV news media have lost another one. I'm sure it'll be blamed on Russia.

Look at how the Moore revelations are losing their efficacy already. It appears the plan is to keep leaking a new allegation a day to keep it in the forefront. But I don't think it will work. Moore, of course, is a reprehensible cretin, but that is beside the point.

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Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@earthling1 The USSR is GONE! Socialism has pretty much been defeated, and resides these days primarily in Cuba, Venezuela, and Bolivia! There's nothing there to be exercised about! What is this, some kind of fugue state?

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

WoodsDweller's picture

everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, is in Putin's pocket EXCEPT the woman whose foundation accepted 10s of millions of dollars from Russian interests while she had a part in approving a uranium deal that benefited them.

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"The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function." -- Albert Bartlett
"A species that is hurtling toward extinction has no business promoting slow incremental change." -- Caitlin Johnstone

Steven D's picture

They reek of desperation. They also reek of a plan to rig the primaries again so he cannot win.

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"You can't just leave those who created the problem in charge of the solution."---Tyree Scott

Anja Geitz's picture

@Steven D

They also reek of a plan to rig the primaries again so he cannot win.

Went all in for the Russia propaganda, betting that enough useful idiots zombie walk their way to another "election" while the rest of us are silenced by their increasing control over social media, the Establishment means to control the outcome regardless of the consequences.

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There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier

Steven D's picture

@Anja Geitz @Anja Geitz Last night on Sunday Night Football and a planned interview with Matt Lauer for Mondayy morning.

If I had to speculate, I'd bet Biden and Obama authorized Brazile to go after Clinton with leak about her control of DNC. Biden, the man who never met a financial institution or insurance company he wouldn't take money from.

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"You can't just leave those who created the problem in charge of the solution."---Tyree Scott

Anja Geitz's picture

@Steven D

To a modern day Game of Thrones with the elites all jockeying for power while Hillary plays the part of the dragon circling above looking for someone to incinerate.

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There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier

Hillbilly Dem's picture

@Steven D

Why did Mitch McConnell take to the airwaves and demand that Roy Moore drop out of his U.S. Senate race today? Because he was told to do it. Nobody, but nobody in either of the Dem or Rep party, at least at the national level, does anything that even resembles "freelancing" or thinking for themselves. It's all coordinated and done so at the very top.

The only difference between 1917 and 2017 is that the deals that used to be cut in smoke-filled rooms are now cut in a smoke free environment. Now that's what I call progress.

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"Just call me Hillbilly Dem(exit)."
-H/T to Wavey Davey

@Hillbilly Dem The smell of bullshit is as strong as ever!

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@Steven D That was the first story I saw when I opened my browser at work. It sure is starting to feel like he was told to stand down in 2016 so Her could have Her run and now it's his turn (gag!)

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Idolizing a politician is like believing the stripper really likes you.

Wink's picture

@Dr. John Carpenter
entered the race. Becuz no one else dared.

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the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.

Meteor Man's picture

@Steven D
From Naked Capitalism Water Cooler:

2020

“Biden 2020? It’s Not as Crazy as It Sounds” [Albert Hunt, Bloomberg]. “After three-and-a-half years of Trump, what will swing voters be looking for? A grown-up who is committed to getting things done by trying to bridge the bitter partisan divide. A person with experience in governing, savvy about the ways of Washington and wary of national-security booby traps. A reputation for incorruptibility to drain the ethical swamp of the Trump years.”

[NC comment]
I’m totally certain that the Senator who condemned a generation of college students to debt slavery by making student loans non-dischargeable in bankruptcy can reinvent himself to appeal to millennials, even at the age of 74. In other words, Biden 2020 is exactly as crazy as it sounds.

“Yet Clinton is also looking forward, having started a new slush fund that could easily become a campaign super PAC. It’s called Onward Together, and she cited it in a volley of tweets where she claimed credit for the Democrats’ wins in the New Jersey and Virginia governor’s races” [New York Post]. Or, as the Twitter-banned Peter Douche rehashtagged it; #OwnedTogether. Here’s the Tweet:

Maybe Her and Joe flip a coin to see who gets the top spot on a Biden/Clinton run in 2020?

https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2017/11/200pm-water-cooler-11132017.html

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"They'll say we're disturbing the peace, but there is no peace. What really bothers them is that we are disturbing the war." Howard Zinn

Deja's picture

@Meteor Man

Or, as the Twitter-banned Peter Douche rehashtagged it; #OwnedTogether.

When? Wtf?

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Meteor Man's picture

@Deja
News to me. Here's the rest of that tidbit from the Water Cooler link:

Or, as the Twitter-banned Peter Douche rehashtagged it; #OwnedTogether. Here’s the Tweet:

[Tweet did not copy]

So, if you want to know who the Clintonite front groups are, they are: @RunforSomething, @EmergeAmerica, @IndivisibleTeam, @ColorofChange (Philly only), as well as @theDemocrats, @EMILYsList, and @TheDLCC. I wonder how many of these “progressive” groups support #MedicareForAll? @IndivisibleTeam most certainly does not.

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"They'll say we're disturbing the peace, but there is no peace. What really bothers them is that we are disturbing the war." Howard Zinn

Steven D's picture

@Deja was banned by Twitter last week supposedly for violating their rules. Rumor has it Peter Daou complained and demanded they shut the parody account down.

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"You can't just leave those who created the problem in charge of the solution."---Tyree Scott

Deja's picture

@Steven D
Can't allow the bullshit callers to actually call bullshit on the bullshitter shills.

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@Meteor Man

Went to the link, now I'm really depressed, even though I knew that scummy traitor, Injustice Trudon't, would get hired on by the Big Boys for administering off-shored corporate 'law' to the destruction of the people and country for the big bucks while we get the big, polluted fucks right up the rear until we hemorrhage:

Led by Japan, the TPP-11 trade ministers issued a joint statement on Saturday outlining their plan for bringing the deal into force under the new name of “Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership.” That includes a list of 20 provisions that would be “suspended” now that the United States is no longer part of the pact” [Politico]. “But the documents also referred to four more issues that must be resolved before countries are ready to sign the revised accord. Those include an issue on state-owned enterprises related to Malaysia; a commitment on coal affecting Brunei; a dispute settlement provision involving trade sanctions connected with Vietnam; and a cultural exception issue related to Canada.” CanLit rules, eh? ...

The link there to the 'list of 20 provisions' removed doesn't work and the other on the Politico article is restricted, but you can just bet the actual corporate coup part where their citizens-pay-maximized-self-anticipated-corporate-profits-until-bankrupt-for-protecting-themselves-against-thousands-of-ruthless-corporations law is still in there, among other things such as not allowing us to produce our own dairy products in 10 years. Not that any country subjected to this will be worth living in - or livable - in the near future.

As far as I'm concerned, he's resigned from his position as Prime Minister and can leave the freaking country he's betrayed to hostile outside forces and get a nice little office with the rest of the psychopaths and traitors involved. Why should we pay his salary besides all of those corporate interests he made a personal agreement with over our soon-to-be-dead bodies?

His father will soon be rolling in his grave in rhythm with the fracking earthquakes, if the spilt tarsands oil doesn't glue dem bones down. Like the social bone evidently tossed to the francophones...

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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.

@Steven D

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@Steven D Brazile has been opposed to the clinton control of the party since Obama came on the national scene. She spent 8 years crowing about a "new democratic coalition." It is only with her book that I recognized that the "old" coalition was the clinton one. She's been trying to depose the king and queen for a decade. Unfortunately, she is not motivated by altruistic reasons, but rather to be part of the new ruling order in the party.

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@Steven D Brazile has been opposed to the clinton control of the party since Obama came on the national scene. She spent 8 years crowing about a "new democratic coalition." It is only with her book that I recognized that the "old" coalition was the clinton one. She's been trying to depose the king and queen for a decade. Unfortunately, she is not motivated by altruistic reasons, but rather to be part of the new ruling order in the party.

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@Steven D link

Waving a piece of paper covered with mean words in Trump’s face won’t make him retreat to his tower in New York. To make him do that you must understand where he comes from, how he operates, why his supporters like him, and how we might coax a few of them away.

The parade of the aghast will have none of that. Strategy is not the goal; a horror-high is. And so its practitioners routinely rail against Trump’s supporters along with Trump himself, imagining themselves beleaguered by a country they no longer understand nor particularly like.

They denounce people who tell the truth about how the Democratic party operates on the grounds that such knowledge is an “obstacle” to anti-Trump efforts.

A year of this stuff, and never has mainstream opinion journalism seemed so inconsequential, so powerless to envision anything useful about our national predicament.

Look at the grand sweep of history: this is an angry, populist age, and with every year – with every little tightening of the inequality index – it grows angrier and more populist still. To the satisfied and comfortable American pundit class, these are alien and deplorable sentiments, and so they fall back on high-decibel moral aghastitude. They scold and they scold and they scold. But if they really want to send Trump and the Republicans packing, they will make an effort to understand.

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@gjohnsit There are two things I give Donald Trump. One- he is correct that Meryl Streep is an over-rated actress. In fact, she is an horrible actress- incredibly mannered and shallow. You are always keenly aware that you are watching Meryl Streep, not the character, and you are even more aware that you are watching her Act!

The second, and I am grateful for this one, donald trump will go down swinging. He will take as many people down as he can if they go after him. I wouldn't be surprised if this is why he is still standing. They can't shame him into fleeing. He won't accede to smears or a trumped [sic] up conspiracy. This has kept the establishment off-kilter.

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@orestes

Meryl Streep is an over-rated actress.

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edg's picture

Either deliberately or through ignorance, the author of the article about Bernie not being a real progressive conflated two issues in order to bash Bernie. No, dumbass, Bernie didn't say "ordinary people" were more important than black people. He first addressed Trump's attacks on black people and then as a separate topic, he addressed economic issues faced by ordinary people, which includes black people. Duh.

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Steven D's picture

@edg I have no doubt about it.

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"You can't just leave those who created the problem in charge of the solution."---Tyree Scott

@edg

Lol, and the guy picked out Blacks and Latino's only, leaving out the women and gay community who were included in a statement essentially saying that playing defense for attacks on these for these wasn't enough when 60% of Americans are economically struggling to various degrees right down to immediate and absolute desperation and homelessness, on an apparent claim that they somehow wouldn't be included in 'people'.

Presumably saying that he doesn't think of Blacks and Latinos as people himself and doesn't think of women and the gay community as anything at all. I suppose that propagandists can't afford to think about what they write or perhaps copy out from a talking-point list because it's all BS anyway, so who cares?

Attack the strengths of your opponent, attack the other guy for what you do yourself. Will this still work, what with too many people knowing Bernie's life-long record and all of the over-use of these slimeball, crazy-train tactics since the first McCarthyist outbreak?

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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.

EdMass's picture

Bernie!

Sanders said those “ordinary Americans” are “not staying up every day worrying about Russia’s interference in our election.” Instead, he said, “They’re wondering how they’re going to send their kids to college” or “how they’re going to be able to pay the rent” or “whether they can afford health care.”

We're back!

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Prof: Nancy! I’m going to Greece!
Nancy: And swim the English Channel?
Prof: No. No. To ancient Greece where burning Sapho stood beside the wine dark sea. Wa de do da! Nancy, I’ve invented a time machine!

Firesign Theater

Stop the War!

@EdMass

Rinse, repeat. No one bought their bull shit in 2016. 2020 will see Trump in a second term.

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"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon

@dkmich Biden is DOA. The important lesson from the Harris episode is that pols are no longer being given passes on their problematic records. Certainly, hillary didn't get one. Booker's presidential aspirations quickly went up in flames. And Harris's corrupt record in CA caught up with her (although they will revive her and try the- that issue was already addressed- shtick, as if there is a use-by date after which it becomes off limits).

Joe Biden has a horrendous record. And when you factor in his horrible record regarding women, he doesn't stand a chance in the current climate. And well he shouldn't.

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The first time I saw an article in a major outlet accusing Sander supporters as falling for Russki propaganda was late April of this year from the huffpost. Until then, at least from my limited scanning of news sites, there was nothing trying to tie Russiagate to Bernie or his supporters. But essentially before that, Bernie and supporters were not accused of being dupes of the Russians.

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/bernie-sanders-fake-news-russia_us_...

Being of a conspiratorial mind at times, these attacks on Bernie warmed up Hillary's audiences when she started her book tour with a big theme being that Sanders was a major factor in her defeat. IN fact, I think Clinton said that basically Bernie's critiques were used by the Russians (apparently Hillary was not allowed to be criticized for her policies.)

One pundit said that blaming the Russians has become "T.H.E": The Theory of Everything.

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snoopydawg's picture

@MrWebster

during their debates. Someone posted a video of her saying that. This Russian propaganda had been in the works for half of the general election.

Obama wanted McConnell to make a joint public statement about Russian interference, but McConnell wouldn't do it and Obama decided not to because it would have made Her look weak(er).

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

They're saying that real Non-Billionaire Americans just love being abused and murdered by police and would never mind being spied upon, stripped of rights, starved and poisoned by corporate/military self-interests in order to drain their wealth and power off to those who have already most - typically stolen from these apparently all masochistic Americans. It's only those damn Russians giving Non-Billionaire-Americans ideas above their station in life, as the rightful prey of ruthless, powerful psychopaths.

(Re-edit to add a major point that I thought was in here already, that they evidently believe that non-White Americans aren't 'people', as shown in the assumption made that a reference to 'people' must mean 'White' only. Time and again, this comes out in the propaganda, including that promoted by people who aren't, or who claim to not be - White. Of course, to the Psychopaths and Parasites That Be, Non-Billionaire Americans aren't 'real people' either, just prey to drain.)

And claiming that if Bernie wins, it's because of Russian interference.

Bernie can't much speak out this far away from an election, as the corporate media will immediately silence and demonize him, leaving no-one able and willing to get out the basic notion of government working for the public good being entirely possible to those of the public restricted to the corporate media propaganda stations.

I'm not sure why a number of very intelligent and informed people for whom I have much respect don't seem to understand that... but of course it's going to be harder to see the trees when you're sitting in a deep, dark forest with dead-wood dropping dangerously near your head at any given moment.

And of course there's been anti-Bernie propaganda coming in from all sides, all along, designed to kill hope and energy in the progressives.

Edit: and please, I beg you, don't use the term 'feminism' in the same breath as Hillary - Her's done insane levels of damage to the notion of gender equality with Her 'can't call Me out on my lies - call Me perfect because I'm female!!! (and therefore too feeble to take criticism or responsibility)'.

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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.

@Ellen North It just shows that any smear against Sanders will do...I think that democratic party establishment fears that African American voters will go en masse for Bernie in 2020 primaries. I fully expect for some members of the Congressional Black Caucus to start attacking Sanders much as Lewis did.

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Deja's picture

@Ellen North
Here's the title and subtitle on the linked article. It's actually quite good, at least in my middle-aged, female, BernieBro opinion.

Selective Feminism and the Myth of the Bernie Bro: The Backlash to Sanders and the Women's Convention

The latest example of the double standard applied to abuse and harassment on the left

By Katie Halper | October 19, 2017 | 1:05pm

https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2017/10/selective-feminism-and-th...

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earthling1's picture

@Deja .
the "special place in hell for those women who don't vote for Her".
'cuse me while I puke.

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Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.

Deja's picture

@earthling1
By Steinem (spell check turned off). Bernie Bro caused us females to say, not so fast. So she puked all over us by implying we were Bernie supporters because of boys. Adding insult to injury, implying we can't think for ourselves. Special place in hell, indeed, but for the likes of Killery, Gloria, and Madeline.

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@Deja

Thanks, it is a good article! But since I think of feminism as an equal rights/non-discrimination thing, I find it hard to see any feminism, selective or otherwise, in the lying, cheating propaganda claims and calumny of the Clinton campaign. To me, it's more like just another example of the the neo-liberal Orwellian abuse and misappropriation of language so typical of that lot in confusing issues and misrepresenting themselves as 'liberals' or 'progressives' and others in whatever manner they believe will reputationally or otherwise destroy them.

The Mad Bomber must be kept out of public office - she's utterly Caligula! Even while out of office...

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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.

k9disc's picture

I mean, who else could be responsible for the poor electoral showing since 2008?

@Ellen North

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“Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” ~ Sun Tzu

@Ellen North

If you don't believe in God & endless war, you're not a "REAL" American.

/s

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Amanda Matthews's picture

Award goes to...

James Kirchick

These guys see their power slipping away and they’re in an absolute panic.

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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

mimi's picture

@Amanda Matthews
I clicked on one of the links given in the article by James Kirchick. Meanwhile I realize James Kirchick writes for the conservative German newspaper "Die Frankfurter Allgemeine" though he is "an American journalist and member of the "Foreign Policy Initiative in Washington". Wikipedia labelled this initiative's organization Neo-Conservative Think Tank.

His favorite theme seems to be German - Russian - US Relations.

Aus Freund mach Feind

This one is the icing on the cake:
Vladimir Putin’s battle of Berlin - No country in Western Europe is more vulnerable to Russian propaganda than Germany. - By JAMES KIRCHICK

Utilizing methods both overt (dissemination of “fake news” through propaganda instruments like RT and Sputnik) and covert (hacks and leaks), Russia is aiming to influence national elections across the Continent. Nowhere is this campaign more consequential than in Germany, Europe’s largest and richest power.

The pool of public opinion that might be nudged in a pro-Russian direction is much wider and deeper in Germany than anywhere else in Western Europe. Germans’ attitudes toward their eastern neighbor are complex — owing, among other factors, to geopolitical proximity, extensive business relationships, a fraught wartime history and a pacifist ideology that interprets criticism of Moscow as bellicosity.

oh my ...

Russia keenly exploits the fear permeating German society — through appeals to the country’s historic war guilt, its innate pacifism and its growing distrust of the U.S. Whenever it can, the Kremlin portrays Putin as peacemaker and Russia as the stabilizing force in a world made volatile by a reckless and “uncouth” America.

Donald Trump’s ascension to the presidency is a boon to the Kremlin and its German sympathizers. Since the end of World War II, when Chancellor Konrad Adenauer endeavored to bind the postwar Federal Republic to the West, the transatlantic alliance has been the foundation of German foreign policy. But while anti-Americanism has always been potent in Germany, it was concentrated on the communist and fascist fringes.

Yeah, right, Mr. Kirchick, too bad that Germans are not as panicky crazy dipshits than you are and your need to pull a "Putin" via "Politico EU" to promote your brainy propaganda in Germany. In my best German anti-American role-play I would say: "Nice try, kiddo, but I think Germans could live without you as a guest writer in a German conservative newspaper".

I can attest that for the average German guy and gal, Putin is not even on their conscious radar, less a threat. May be your propaganda though may be the reason for some of the perceived anti-Americanism in Germany.

Now I am going to read Kirchick's book: ‘The End of Europe: Dictators, Demagogues and the Coming Dark Age.” The guy got on my nerves.

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NonnyO's picture

Seriously?!?!? That's manufacturing consent, conditioning people in advance to stay home from voting in 2020 to allow the DNC to steal the 2020 primary and election from Bernie since Bernie already said if he does run he will run under the Dem ticket again.

It allows states with e-voting machines to ignore calls to go to paper ballots and allows them to participate in rigging elections. It allows states with cockamamie voter registration laws to keep the ones that allow for voter disenfranchisement without changing the laws to make voting easier for everyone.

Worse, since Bernie seems to have bought into the "Russia rigged our elections!" narrative, he would let that go as an excuse to lose the election and pull a Gore or a Kerry and not fight back.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrggggggggghhhhh...!!!

Above X-posted from KforS: https://www.reddit.com/r/Kossacks_for_Sanders/comments/7covkz/msm_still_...

PS: Or, as Ellen North said above: And claiming that if Bernie wins, it's because of Russian interference.

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I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute ..., where no church or church school is granted any public funds or political preference. — President John F. Kennedy, Houston, TX, 12 September 1960

@NonnyO I don't think he's bought into Teh Rushans shtick. I think he has not opposed it because it would be used against him to undermine his credibility and therefore his agenda. I am sure I have not caught all of his statements (because I avoid the russsian nonsense like the plague), but what I have seen were very broad and general claims, the types that could be true without going all in on the great russian conspiracy of 2016. I think he's playing the establishment like a fiddle.

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SparkyGump's picture

but I'll bet he'd find more and better ways to work with them.

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The real SparkyGump has passed. It was an honor being your human.

Meteor Man's picture

Here come "the adults in the room":

For Rothenburg, the Clinton wing members are the “pragmatists,” the realistic adults who want “get things done” (one of the great neoliberal president Obama’s favorite phrases and claims). The Sanders folks are “ideologues,” a pejorative term meaning people who are mainly about ideology and who are carried away by their own flighty and doctrinal world view.

This is a good article with some Neoliberal history:

Progressive neoliberalism developed in the United States over the last three decades and was ratified with Bill Clinton’s election in 1992. Clinton was the principal engineer and standard-bearer of the ‘New Democrats,’ the U.S. equivalent of Tony Blair’s ‘New Labor.’ In place of the New Deal coalition of unionized manufacturing workers, African Americans, and the urban middle classes, he forged a new alliance of entrepreneurs, suburbanites, new social movements, and youth, all proclaiming their modern, progressive bona fides by embracing diversity, multiculturalism, and women’s rights. Even as it endorsed such progressive notions, the Clinton administration courted Wall Street. Turning the economy over to Goldman Sachs, it deregulated the banking system and negotiated the free-trade agreements that accelerated deindustrialization. What fell by the wayside was the Rust Belt—once the stronghold of New Deal social democracy, . . .

And Neoliberal credit to JFK:

Political calculation “led Kennedy to appease the corporate giants and their allies in government.” Economic doctrine “told [JFK] that the key to the expansion and health of the economy was the health and expansion of those same corporate center, JFK’s declared sympathies for the poor and working class took a back seat in his White House to “the real determinants of policy: political calculation and economic doctrine.”

Political calculation “led Kennedy to appease the corporate giants and their allies in government.” Economic doctrine “told [JFK] that the key to the expansion and health of the economy was the health and expansion of those same corporate giants.” It happened under the cloak of non-ideological “pragmatism.” “The architects of Kennedy’s ‘New Economics,’” Mirroff wrote, “liked to portray it as the technically
sophisticated and politically neutral management of a modern industrial economy. It is more accurately portrayed as a pragmatic liberalism in the service of corporate capitalism” (emphasis added).

The smear explained:
.

As the World Socialist Webs Site explained:

In the face of these indications of a general shift to the left in popular sentiment, the predominant response within the Democratic Party establishment is to call for the party to move even further to the right.

https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/11/10/giving-the-game-away/

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"They'll say we're disturbing the peace, but there is no peace. What really bothers them is that we are disturbing the war." Howard Zinn

It would make a pretzel blush. Putin intervene in favor of Bernie Sanders? Like how Assange held onto the DNC emails until after the primary? Putin is a mob boss with a rab
id orange weasel in his debt. He would no more want a Bernie presidency than, Peter Daou, or Armando. Which jackoff wrote that article anyway? Don't they know that red bating is so ... 1970s?

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@SancheLlewellyn

Damn, and I thought Red-baiting was so 1950-ish! It's so black and white, not even colourful TV scare-propaganda... something which takes a mind-set from Dirty-30's fight-assistance-for-Dust-Bowl-victims... like those who somehow seem to have filled Washington and State legislatures.

Where do the Kochs and their ilk find these guys anyway? Does Monsanto design and grow them or something?

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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.

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

classics.

prop.jpg

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

Why put such a break between race and economics?

The last time Sanders made a connection between race and economics people said he was racist because he was stereotyping Black people as poor.

Increasingly, it's clear that there is no correct way to talk, and no correct thing to say, if you're not on the right team.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver