"Irresponsible"

Bernie Sanders said Tuesday that it would be “irresponsible” for his loyalists not to support Joe Biden, warning that progressives who “sit on their hands” in the months ahead would simply enable President Donald Trump’s reelection.

https://apnews.com/a1bfb62e37fe34e09ff123a58a1329fa

Well then:

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so it really doesn't matter anymore what he says.

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45 users have voted.

@gjohnsit He popularized progressive policies which will be his legacy. Bernie in a sense has marginalized himself as of now. Unfortunately, rather than let him fade into a well earned senior statesman role, the mass media will continue to attack him for not beating his followers into line. Which unfortunately he seems to accept.

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38 users have voted.

@MrWebster

He popularized progressive policies which will be his legacy.

He should be going out strong, but he's not doing it.
Maybe he doesn't realize his star has burnt out.

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28 users have voted.
mimi's picture

@gjohnsit

Maybe he doesn't realize his star has burnt out.

Both believe in their own fairytales and live now with split personality disorders.

Dissociative identity disorder (DID), previously known as multiple personality disorder (MPD), is a mental disorder characterized by the maintenance of at least two distinct and relatively enduring personality states. This is accompanied by memory gaps beyond what would be explained by ordinary forgetfulness.

If it weren't so immensely disappointing, one could have some empathy with them, but it is really hard to do now. Like burnt out bright stars, they disappear in the darkness of nothingness.

Wow, what a terrible waste of emotions I poured into both men at some times in the past.

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32 users have voted.
JekyllnHyde's picture

@gjohnsit

*TAP = The American People.

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37 users have voted.

A riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma

@JekyllnHyde @JekyllnHyde A cartoon that supports all my goals. But it misses the one about having endless wars everywhere, which is something the American people desire more than city-saving itself.

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31 users have voted.

Orwell: Where's the omelette?

@MrWebster progressive politics.
A lot of good it does unless you get the White House.

In other news, the DNC popularized vote theft.

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27 users have voted.

@gjohnsit I agree.

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NYCVG

The implicit characterization of Sander supporters is that they are asshole fucktards who need to be put in line. This simply re-enforces the charge that he is sheep dogging progressives into the democratic party to support somebody who can be argued was fucking worse than Hillary. Given the turnout in 2016 was so pathetic, why not rant on black voters and union voters instead of Sander supporters for making sure Biden wins.

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37 users have voted.
Pluto's Republic's picture

@MrWebster

...for some time, now. They assign the blame and turn up the hate far in advance of their actual failure.

Given the turnout in 2016 was so pathetic, why not rant on black voters and union voters instead of Sander supporters for making sure Biden wins.

The same way they targeted Russia for blame very early in 2016. At the time, I believed that the experienced Democratic operatives were aware as early as March 2016 that Hillary was going to lose. Reading their purloined emails, later, lent credibility to that notion.

That says to me that Democratic operatives know that Biden is going to lose, in the same way Hillary lost in 2016. So they are setting up their fall guys, Sanders supporters, to heap the blame on. And that's when I realize that the Democratic Party is completely beholden to their Big Donors, who hand-picked candidate Biden as the nominee. Biden is a dream come true for them, in the same way Reagan was in the 1980s.

But the bitter truth is, the Big Donors regard the 2020 Presidential race as the perfect set up for them. Biden's mental deficit offers many opportunities to embed key people into the top roles in the Federal bureaucracy, and they can push aggressive military policies like Space Wars. (Lethal weapons in space is back again) That's all very nice, but it doesn't really matter if Biden loses. What matters is the war money. Half of Federal spending is pored into the Pentagon each year, and never again accounted for. War and Defense money has found its way into the pockets of the Super Rich since the 1920s. Trump will happily carry that ball to the goal for them, again and again, and cut their taxes, too. It's nice to have a sure thing.

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40 users have voted.
IMAGINE if you woke up the day after a US Presidential Election and headlines around the the world blared, "The Majority of Americans Refused to Vote in US Presidential Election! What Does this Mean?"
Shahryar's picture

@Pluto's Republic

It's so hopeless trying to discuss the points you make with people who have bought into Russia and/or Bernie Bros.

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20 users have voted.
Pluto's Republic's picture

@Shahryar

...behind the Russia Hoax, after all the facts are on the table, blows like a cold wind through my soul.

That's a forever thing. Wish I hadn't witnessed it.

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6 users have voted.
IMAGINE if you woke up the day after a US Presidential Election and headlines around the the world blared, "The Majority of Americans Refused to Vote in US Presidential Election! What Does this Mean?"
Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@MrWebster

that if he tells us who to vote for, we shouldn't listen to him.

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15 users have voted.

"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

will vote for whoever the hell I choose, and it won't be any DNC shill such as Biden or anyone else who has clown-car stink on them. In my list of priorities, rewarding the DNC and Democrat establishment for cheating, lying, and stealing my vote falls right below eating broken glass and washing it down with a glass of bleach. I don't want Trump to win, but I do want Biden to lose. And I will do what I need to. So the cheating bastards have made their own bed.

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50 users have voted.

The set of ideas held by Sanders backers has almost no intersection with Biden's set which sadly has a significant intersection with tRump's. There's a smidgen of a chance that Biden administation might be drug a ways to the left by progressive action post election and none that a 2nd tRump administration will become less evil. Who knows, maybe some crypto progressive had penetrated Clueless Joe's inner circle and will use the vacuum for good, much like the way Miller, et al., have been able to accomplish their evil aims —unlikely since the Obanality of evil is likely to have Clueless Joe's ear.

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24 users have voted.
Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@MinuteMan

he can't remember them anymore.

So no, it's not "irresponsible" to refuse to vote for him. It's as close to a responsible gesture as the current electoral system will allow.

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18 users have voted.

"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

Cassiodorus's picture

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal

Listen. You don't have to vote for Joe Biden. No matter how intensely you're cajoled, nagged, and coerced, you have no obligation to confer power to a man you dislike or to humor a system anathema to your personal or political values (which should be one and the same, but anyway)--a system, remember, that managed to whittle contenders for its presidency, from a population of many millions, to an incoherent sexual predator and his foil. If for whatever reason you want to vote for Biden, fine. You can do that, too. Just quit trying to convince us that a passive, top-down spectacle predicated on guilt and discipline is exceptionally democratic.
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11 users have voted.

“When there's no fight over programme, the election becomes a casting exercise. Trump's win is the unstoppable consequence of this situation.” - Jean-Luc Melanchon

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@Cassiodorus

Gotta laugh, so I don't cry.

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1 user has voted.

"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

or would be politician that his legacy policies will not win you an election.
Bernie wrote the handbook on "How to Get Locked Into Public Stocks (and Learn to Love the Taste of Rotten Tomatoes)".

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19 users have voted.

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

Bollox Ref's picture

@on the cusp

Still has its medieval stocks.

Possible future use perhaps (although the wood is not in a good state).

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14 users have voted.

Gëzuar!!
from a reasonably stable genius.

@Bollox Ref Looked damned uncomfortable.

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1 user has voted.

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@on the cusp

They know who calls the shots in their town.

If there's a bad result to this statement of Bernie's it's that the *people* might continue to believe that DLC/DNC talking point.

Things are bad enough that I think most of the people won't give a shit; still, he's managed to lend them as much credibility as is possible under the conditions.

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7 users have voted.

"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

I listened to you on the radio on Thom Hartman's show for years. I was excited when you announced your first run. I donated, put the sticker on my car's bumper and talked you up to the guys at work. When you were cheated in Nevada and the young voters were cheated in California, I thought that I would have fought harder but maybe you didn't have hard evidence.

I was disgusted when you campaigned with Hillary. I knew you had promised to support the nominee, but I figured that lip service was sufficient. I was glad the students laughed when you spouted Clinton nonsense to them, Served you right for thinking they were morons.
Still, I defended you from sheepdog charges, thinking you had some deeper insider plan.
So when you ran again, I donated again. I didn't think you were tough enough in the debates, but it's a close call. It's also bad to look too hard, especially to women. it's a hard line to walk, between seeming a wimp and looking like you are being mean to a woman.
Alarm bells when you didn't speak out at the obvious cheating in the primaries.
But when you layed down and kissed the feet of the Senator from Citibank, after vowing to go all the way to the convention, I felt like puking. No, not a sheepdog, but as someone posted here, a Judas goat.

Now you want me to follow my sworn enemy, the enemy of all my people, like some damn lemming. I have only one more thing to say:

Bernie, can you see my middle finger!

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44 users have voted.

I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

@The Voice In the Wilderness @The Voice In the Wilderness

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Shahryar's picture

@The Voice In the Wilderness

Another sell out

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22 users have voted.

@Shahryar
Used to listen religiously on my way to work. Now I see he is just another hustler.

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9 users have voted.

I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@The Voice In the Wilderness

I don't know how this machine works...

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1 user has voted.

"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

Hawkfish's picture

Here is a comment I made in a Guardian op-Ed the other day:

I live in a Democratically controlled state that went for Clinton by 16 points, so I could vote for a space alien and it wouldn’t matter. Biden is backed by wealthy individuals and industries, so he doesn’t need my money, and with major media outlets and pundits backing him, he doesn’t need my advocacy. In fact, he doesn’t need me at all, and the feeling is mutual.

For most Americans, the primary IS the presidential election, and mine was over a month ago. So I’m going to devote any left over political energy I have to down ballot candidates who - unlike Biden - share my values.

I got a really patronising response by some vote shamer who seemed to think I was 23 (not 57) and next time I will add that I’ve sent the money I had set aside for the general to the DSA. Hopefully that will cause them to soil their linen...

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46 users have voted.

We can’t save the world by playing by the rules, because the rules have to be changed.
- Greta Thunberg

polkageist's picture

@Hawkfish

"I live in a Democratically controlled state that went for Clinton by 16 points, so I could vote for a space alien and it wouldn’t matter. Biden is backed by wealthy individuals and industries, so he doesn’t need my money, and with major media outlets and pundits backing him, he doesn’t need my advocacy. In fact, he doesn’t need me at all, and the feeling is mutual."

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35 users have voted.

-Greed is not a virtue.
-Socialism: the radical idea of sharing.
-Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.
John F. Kennedy, In a speech at the White House, 1962

Cassiodorus's picture

As I pointed out, the MOST IMPORTANT THING for all these people is that the "Left," meaning anyone who wants anything for their tax dollars besides a bunch of wars and some corporate slush funds, must endorse Biden. An actual strategy for Biden to win? Whatev.

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17 users have voted.

“When there's no fight over programme, the election becomes a casting exercise. Trump's win is the unstoppable consequence of this situation.” - Jean-Luc Melanchon

@Cassiodorus and at the same time, the lefts goals and platform must be rejected as being too extreme. After the convention it'll be a mad dash for the center..work a cross the aisle, bipartisanship, compromise, appeal to the moderate republicans.

Sounds like a fair deal for us Bernie Bros, the 30% that supported Sanders

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Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@Snode

perpetrators "the center."

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15 users have voted.

"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

TheOtherMaven's picture

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal

Their "center" has been triangulating to the right, and is now farther right than Reagan Republicans.

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4 users have voted.

There is no justice. There can be no peace.

WoodsDweller's picture

...we're not trying to beat Trump. We're trying to beat the Democratic establishment. We can't do that by voting for the Democratic establishment. Apparently we can't do it by voting for you, either.

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47 users have voted.

"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

@WoodsDweller Sadly, very true.

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19 users have voted.
Bollox Ref's picture

is the waste-of-space known as the Democratic Party utilizing Biden as their nominee.

Sexual Predator v. Sexual Predator.

The whole 'election process' is an exasperating waste of time.

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31 users have voted.

Gëzuar!!
from a reasonably stable genius.

Creosote.'s picture

@Bollox Ref
except where ethically conducted at a local level, is nothing more than a fraud -- a profit-generating football/basketball season. With the Department of Homeland Security holding authority on every aspect of the process. --
It's an outdeted Indianapolis 500 when what you need is a home, your health, a future, and grocery money.

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15 users have voted.
Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@Bollox Ref

with cognitive disability. In a nice beurre blanc.

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9 users have voted.

"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

Raggedy Ann's picture

Pleasantry

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8 users have voted.

"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11

@Raggedy Ann
It's a jackass kicking a dead lion.
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/first-appearance-of-the-demo...
In modern times the jackass is kicking the corpse of Franklin Roosevelt and embracing the policies of Thomas Dewey.

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12 users have voted.

I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

Is anyone decent running? I'd hate to be stuck with Dem By Default.

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6 users have voted.

They say that there's a broken light for every heart on Broadway
They say that life's a game and then they take the board away
They give you masks and costumes and an outline of the story
And leave you all to improvise their vicious cabaret-- A. Moore

@Johnny Q
Could we get a movement going to write in "None of the above"?
Or gather signatures for Alfred E. Neuman?

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11 users have voted.

I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

Biden -- he's been irresponsible for so long and so frequent that the full list for him would be very long. So, just a few highlights:
Holding confirmation hearings for a unqualified SC nominee. (Followed up by dismissing Anita Hill's allegations.)
Iraq War cheerleader and yay vote.
2005 Bankruptcy bill. (Whoopee student loans can't be charged off in bankruptcy.)
Demanding the firing of Ukraine's Prosecutor General.

Obama -- another long list, but to stay on topic, choosing Biden for his VP, the main reason being that he was old and wouldn't factor into a 2016 presidential primary. Then choosing Perez for DNC Chair to prop up the disaster of a Democratic Party that Obama left behind.

HRC and big media co-horts for facilitating the GOP nomination of Trump for the simple reason that they couldn't fathom that she would lose to such a nincompoop.

HRC, DNC, and almost all Congressional Democrats for foisting the fictitious Russia/Putin 2016 US election interference on this county. That irresponsibility includes Bernie.

It's irresponsible for any candidate for any political office not to use all legitimate means to win. That includes hammering an opponent's political record. It was irresponsible for Sanders and Warren to soft-peddle Biden's bankruptcy bill record. Irresponsible for Bernie not to hammer Biden wrt to the Iraq War and not highlight Biden's opposition to M4A early and often and not let voters believe that Biden supports M4A.

It's not irresponsible to decline to vote for anyone that helped bring bad things to fruition. Rewarding irresponsibility is irresponsible. I vowed back in 2003 never to vote for any candidate that voted for the Iraq War and that includes Biden. The Russiagate hoax made it much too difficult for me support Sanders early in the 2020 election cycle, but would reluctantly vote for him against any neoliberalcon Democrat.

The irresponsible Biden and Trump voters can duke it out for the spoils they expect to get.

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30 users have voted.

@Marie for me to take politicians' endorsements too seriously one way or the other, and also irresponsible to lock myself deep in concrete on a voting position too far ahead of the game.

I'm a little more with Sirota and M Tracey on the Biden thing-- not an immediate No. Let's see what the situation looks like in the fall as voting time gets closer. Much as I despise much of Biden's past record, I can't definitively say, as many here are, that I will be a non-voter for him come Nov. First I want to see his VP pick. Doubt if he will go full Tim Kaine. Possible though he could pick someone who could be sold as progressive enough. On that issue, it could be that "it's all in the mix", as Tommy James used to say.

We may well be in full, official Depression by then, and who knows if a premature re-opening of the economy led by Trump leads to a re-emergence of the virus, only a worse mutated one, in the weeks leading up to Nov. If that's the case, all that will be on Trump, and then Biden will need only show up with a pulse on video remote from his campaign headquarters and the victory will be his, regardless of what some dissatisfied on the left do.

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0 users have voted.
TheOtherMaven's picture

@wokkamile

This is unlikely to change, because the Dem Establishment is unlikely to change.

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6 users have voted.

There is no justice. There can be no peace.

CB's picture

has now turned into a master baiter.

Frankly, I'm tired of being screwed by the DNC. There's no way I'm going to bend over for them come November. They need to be taught a lesson.

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23 users have voted.

about this election is going to be Trump bitch slapping Biden daily.
Bernie can kiss my ass.
Oh, wait! He busy kissing Biden's!

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16 users have voted.

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

@on the cusp bitch slapped by the Plague and the Depression.

Under those grim circumstances projected for the fall, few will give a flip about Joe's past record on a variety of issues and few will care that TPTB in the media and the DP arranged for yet another centrist at the expense of the progressive forces.

Me, I'm going to decide only when I have to decide, which is my general policy on these political questions. That gives me nearly 7 months to think it over.

Much will turn on Joe's VP pick, which likely won't be the safe, stupid, anti-progressive pick that HRC made. Kamala, Klobbachair, and Stacy Abrams seem to be under consideration. The MI governor also might be in that mix, depending how she continues to handle the virus lockdown.

I"ll also watch to see if Joe can manage to give progressives more than just a few crumbs, as with his Medicare at 60 tepid proposal, embarrassing for its timidity given the dire current circumstances. It doesn't bother me much that Bernie is urging his backers to back Joe. What is far more important is him working Biden to bring him farther along in policy on the key issues. Even Macron the other day seemed to hint that the old political ways of neoliberalism are now over. Biden and his caretakers need to see that speech.

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3 users have voted.
CB's picture

As #COVID19 pandemic hardly hits US, the New York Times has accused the Russian president of aiming the 'propaganda machine' to discredit the American healthcare system.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQIXRUAVemE]

Even Obomba has jumped on the bandwagon.

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25 users have voted.
CB's picture

@CB
First Putin destroyed America's health care over the last 2 decades then Xi took advantage and infected the country with the coronavirus.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0hmoTKcNpM]

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Shahryar's picture

@CB

If the U.S. could attack Iraq because Saudis and Egyptians flew planes into buildings, why not blame Russia for whatever?

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14 users have voted.
CB's picture

@Shahryar
and go for a twofer? We certainly don't need truth to stand in the way, do we?

It was obvious over the preceding decade that Russia was not a significant threat to America to arouse the proles to take up arms. China needs to be brought into play.

The Indispensable Nation will then have TWO major existential enemies to be afraid of. The media hyped battle lines can been drawn up on two fronts - the Dims on the Western Front against the conniving, duplicitous Russians and the Cons on the Eastern Front against the inscrutable, infectious Chinese hoard.

This would be a set of enemies worthy of Fortress America that we can all stand behind. USA! USA! USA!

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9 users have voted.

@CB a domestic political perspective, some of the charges are probably true, that the virus originated in China, and probably at one of their bio labs. My speculation -- not much more than that at this point -- is it was accidentally released (bc what would be the advantage to China to have 1.3b of its people sick/at risk of infection) and also that the Chinese gov't, out of reflex, immediately went into CYA mode in Dec/early Jan rather than take the difficult steps to acknowledge the problem and stop the spread in its initial stages. It also wouldn't surprise that their official stats on the infected/dead are grossly understated, as is the case in just about every other country, certainly the US.

It slightly advantages Trump, in his blame-shifting game, to point the finger at China, or have his surrogates do it, but any advantage will only have temporary effect, like a Chinese dinner.

It also disadvantages him to go too long and strong with the anti-China propaganda, as he knows he will need China as a non-hostile to bail us out of our economic predicament. I think he's setting up to make this more about the WHO and, later, if after lockdown relaxation things go south again, as they likely will, will arrange to blame various major Dem governors for their decisions, as illogical as that will be.

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3 users have voted.
CB's picture

@wokkamile
COVID 19 originated from the now defunct U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick and was introduced during the Military Games in Wuhan.

https://www.veteranstoday.com/2020/04/12/china-us-brought-covid19-to-chi...

Chinese gov't, out of reflex, immediately went into CYA mode

Can you explain what this Chinese "reflex" is? I've seen more transparency from the Chinese government and one hell of a lot more CYA from the Trump administration. But then, I have been following the outbreak in China from mid-January on a daily basis. US media has been atrocious in their reporting about China - they tended to put a negative spin on everything.

It also wouldn't surprise that their official stats on the infected/dead are grossly understated, as is the case in just about every other country, certainly the US.

You do know China has lifted the lock-downs in Wuhan and Hubei province and are now back to work? In the first quarter China saw negatives for Jan/Feb and a one to two percent increase in productivity in March.

They have a colored coded cell phone system to differentiate health status (something few Americans would tolerate).

China is fighting the coronavirus with a digital QR code. Here's how it works

It also disadvantages him to go too long and strong with the anti-China propaganda, as he knows he will need China as a non-hostile to bail us out of our economic predicament.

Neither China nor Russia will give a knee-jerk response to any US hostility. They will tolerate such abuse for years to minimize any damage. Both countries have superbly tolerant and patient leaders who have invariably come out on top in the end.

China's trade with Asean countries has superseded America's and trade with the BRI countries has increased in the first quarter. China has been helping dozens of countries all around the world with thousands of tons of medical goods as well as medical staff - something the US has completely failed to do (other than Israel). This will be invaluable PR in the years following the pandemic.

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4 users have voted.

@CB to the Vets piece, which is intriguing and does highlight some unusual circumstantial evidence, particularly in the timeline. But I don't find it persuasive, and logically it doesn't make sense for the US to commit such a gross act of war against such a major power. But evidence such as some of those military team members coming down with the virus or dying, disproportionate from the population at large, would be interesting. Right now, it just seems far-fetched. And sometimes coincidences and major screw ups happen, alongside the planned atrocities.

Re the Chinese gov't CYA: the bigger the negligence (even if not by a gov't scientist) + the more authoritarian the gov't = the greater the CYA. But this is not unique to the Chinese gov't -- the US does it of course all the time. And indeed, except for the Dec-early Jan period of Chinese cover up (imo), the US gov't under Trump has since surpassed them in deception and mendacity. However, if I'm right in my speculation, the early days/weeks in China were crucial to stop the spread, and so much blame should be assigned to their gov't.

Similarly, the undercounting by the Chinese would mostly reference the early weeks, where I suspect the virus numbers were much greater. Other gov'ts, again esp the US, have likely been working to find ways to undercount. It is in their political interest to do so when they can get away with it, which is most of the time, as they would rightly see a very high count as reflecting poorly on their governance.

My pure guess is the actual C19 numbers worldwide are at least 2x greater than are being reported, and maybe as much as 10x.

As for the leadership of Xi and Putin, I think the latter is far more of the world statesman, the best there is in the past 30 yrs, since Gorbachev roughly. Xi might get more respect from me if he were to open up the political speech market in his country. Putin's Russia is far ahead in this category.

Finally, on Trump: none of my comments in this or the previous post should be read as any kind of apology for his appalling, criminally negligent leadership in this crisis. I assign him tremendous blame for his dilatory response here, and to Xi for the early major slow response there. And at least Xi soon stepped up and dealt with the problem. Donald never wanted to fully acknowledge or address it.

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2 users have voted.
CB's picture

@wokkamile
as fast as could be expected. Putting a province with 60 million people and a city of 11 million people is not a decision to be taken lightly. Don't forget that this was peak flu season and it wasn't until January 12 that they could sequence the virus to understand what they were actually dealing with. Only a country with a strong central government could have reacted as quickly.

AP report on China’s ‘delayed’ epidemic response conveniently passes blame
By Chen Qingqing Source:Global Times Published: 2020/4/16

Understanding the novel coronavirus is not an easy process, which needs comprehensive in-field investigation and data collection to make a judgment that is always "easy to say but hard to do," the chief epidemiologist of the China Center for Disease Control Center (CDC), said in response to the latest reporting by the Associated Press (AP) claiming Chinese officials didn't warn the public of a looming outbreak for the six key days in January which would have largely reduced the infection numbers.
...
After China submitted to the World Health Organization (WHO) the genome sequence of COVID-19 on January 12, the National Health Commission (NHC) unveiled the first version of guidelines on the diagnosis and treatment for COVID-19 on January 15, along with prevention and control measures, according to the document released by the Chinese government on April 6 on the timeline of China releasing information on COVID-19 and international cooperation on epidemic response.

Since January 16, Wuhan, Central China's Hubei Province, took proactive measures to screen all patients treated for fever clinics and the commission sent seven inspection teams to different provincial-level regions to instruct local epidemic prevention and control work.
...
On January 19, the NHC started to distribute nucleic acid testing re-agents to health departments across the country, and top medical ex-pert Zhong Nanshan confirmed human-to-human transmission the next day.

"We have had considered various factors including it was the Spring Festival travel peak season at that time, but we took decisive action no matter what," Zeng said, noting that the US, however, took much longer time to implement containment measures.

Some netizens on Twitter also claimed that instead of blaming China for losing six days to control the situation, the US should be criticized for taking over a month to react. "6 days… faster than Trump warned us…" Alexander Morehouse, a netizen from Florida said in a post.

China is going to come out of this much stronger than ever.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gffx3TzobDM]

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2 users have voted.
snoopydawg's picture

.

Bruce Dixon nailed Bernie 5 years ago

Very hard working one though. I posted an article on what happens when Bernie concedes to Biden and he did even worse than it predicted. We keep hearing how Hillary ran on the most progressive platform evah, but did she really? Nope. Why

No concessions on:
Moving us towards single payer.
On ending the forever wars.
On helping people with their student loans.
.
.
.
.
Tim Effing Kaine!
But now Obama is saying that Biden has the most progressive platform evah even though we have no idea what he's running on. Well except for he isn't Trump, but then that was what Hillary did and we know how well that worked out for her. But wait there's more...guess what's coming around for round two?

They are already lining up their excuse for why Biden lost to Trump. I asked just what is Russia doing right now to throw the election to Trump? When will we see the evidence of what they're doing? But here's a surprise. People are buying it. Again.

But let's remember that Bernie was totally okay with pushing Russia Gate on us even though he was accused of being Putin's puppet. I got called out for ragging on Bernie for doing that. I got lots of "he doesn't really believe it, but he has to swallow some of the party's line to stay in their good graces. Bullshit. Bernie knows damn well why they are pushing that crap.

At least I'm not enabling Trump's agendas nor did I vote for the most massive transfer of wealth in history. Bernie did though as did every democrat in the senate. But please proceed...

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IMO

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20 users have voted.

There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?

Harris is unburdened of speaking going forward.

@snoopydawg from Dixon showed up as forbidden.
?

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3 users have voted.

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

travelerxxx's picture

@on the cusp

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4 users have voted.
snoopydawg's picture

@on the cusp

I'm seeing it.

But speaking of sheepdawging. David Corn was the journalist who leaked the Steele dossier that we are now being told was full of Russian disinformation. Huh? The disinformation came from Sydney Bluementhal who kept phoning Steele on what to put in it.

BTW judicial watch is still going after Hillary's emails. The judge just ordered Google to hand them over.

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17 users have voted.

There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?

Harris is unburdened of speaking going forward.

snoopydawg's picture

@on the cusp

Sanders: Progressives who 'sit on their hands' and don't support Biden would enable Trump reelection

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said it would be "irresponsible" for his supporters to not back Joe Biden's presidential campaign, warning that refusing to get behind the former vice president could get President Trump reelected.

"Do we be as active as we can in electing Joe Biden and doing everything we can to move Joe and his campaign in a more progressive direction? Or do we choose to sit it out and allow the most dangerous president in modern American history to get reelected?" Sanders asked in an interview with The Associated Press.

"I believe that it's irresponsible for anybody to say, 'Well, I disagree with Joe Biden -- I disagree with Joe Biden! -- and therefore I'm not going to be involved.'"

Once upon a time Bernie vehemently disagreed with Joe Biden's history of passing heinous legislation that only helped the upper class while destroying the working class. I still do and that is why I and many people will not vote for him. To do so says that I'm okay with what he has done. I'm not.

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This is just a game for congress to play at the expense of our lives. Why would anyone vote and give consent for them to keep doing it?

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21 users have voted.

There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?

Harris is unburdened of speaking going forward.

snoopydawg's picture

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4 users have voted.

There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?

Harris is unburdened of speaking going forward.

jwa13's picture

"... that a Biden administration might be drug a ways to the left ..."

Considering that a Biden administration -- should such an unlikely event somehow come to pass -- will be a wholly-owned subsidiary of the DNC, my advice:

Don't hold your breath.

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22 users have voted.

When Cicero had finished speaking, the people said “How well he spoke”.
When Demosthenes had finished speaking, the people said “Let us march”.

The Liberal Moonbat's picture

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3 users have voted.

In the Land of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man is declared mentally ill for describing colors.

Yes Virginia, there is a Global Banking Conspiracy!

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

And if so, why?

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5 users have voted.

"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

Vote Green. No half-witty ditty, just a bald statement. Until RCV with no party primaries, that's my compromise.

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6 users have voted.

from David Sirota, who has known Bernie for 21 years.

https://sirota.substack.com/p/the-tyranny-of-decorum

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8 users have voted.

"Without the right to offend, freedom of speech does not exist." Taslima Nasrin

@Fishtroller 02 is a worthwhile read, coming from inside the Bernie tent.

Especially noteworthy to me was his point #3, decrying the fainting spells over the Bernie campaign occasionally drawing attention to Joe's record. It was the MSM leading the way to bash the "Bernie Bros" over much of this, which in previous campaigns would have gone unremarked as the usual tough primary skirmish activity. This media pushback may have helped confirm Bernie in his conviction not to get too aggressive with Biden.

Unfortunately, as I noticed recently, the left also has an element of Miss Manners proponents, highly sensitive types who apparently didn't get the memo about the loser Dukakis campaign.

Sometimes I think the left would rather stay marginalized and virtuous rather than do the things necessary, but not unethical, to win.

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5 users have voted.
lotlizard's picture

and his eyes filled with tears.

He took another slug of Victory Gin. Of course Obama and the DNC were right. They had always been right. Why hadn’t he been able to see it before?

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7 users have voted.