The Purge of 2016

I dropped this comment in Lookout's Weekly Watch this morning:

Good morning LO...

with the revelations about so many liberal media sites receiving USAID monies, it dawned on me this morning that the forced exodus from DKos back in 2016 may have been nudged by USAID funding.

Lookout's reply:

I have not thought about that, but might be likely...

Why would Marcos ban Bernie support otherwise? I just took him as a CIA cut out, but as Dylan said money doesn't talk it swears...and evidently USAID was a funding source for CIA goals.

Interesting idea, thanks!

Edit to add: Perhaps the orange satan is a USAID site?

I wanted to repost my comment and reply as an essay for wider discussion.

What do you all think?

Disclaimer: I have no proof and this is all pure conjecture.

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usefewersyllables's picture

be at all surprised. Herself was up to the exoskeleton in the grift, and Markos was all about ingratiating himself to the power brokers…

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Twice bitten, permanently shy.

@usefewersyllables
the thousands of roses delivered to Nancy Pelosi.

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if many of the top liberal web sites were receiving USAID pay outs, doesn't it make sense that the largest liberal blog in the country would also receive funding?

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Dawn's Meta's picture

@JtC

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A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they know they shall never sit. Allegedly Greek, but more possibly fairly modern quote.

Consider helping by donating using the button in the upper left hand corner. Thank you.

@Dawn's Meta
when so many of us were asking why would Kos blow up his blog and push out so many members and so many of his top writers?

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Lookout's picture

@JtC

...that someone/agency was forcing the Bernie ban from above. I always assumed Markos was CIA, and still think so...but learning of all the USAID media links makes it a shoe in from my perspective.

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

@Lookout
about what appeared to be, at that time, coordinated censorship across the liberal sphere of influence.

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Kos backed Obama, hammered Hillary. And, all at once, Hillary was his gal.
Hmmm...All at once, like something had changed him suddenly.

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

@on the cusp
are falling into place.

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@on the cusp Not only Hillary, but changed to support gay marriage, became one of thee most anti-Russian militant war mongers, started personal attacks on known progressive voices. The website reflected those changes. During first two years of Ukr conflict, easily three anti-Russian diaries. And those posts could have been straight out of pre-world war II Germany. In his own postings he pimped himself what I call Field Marshall van Markos with his brilliant analysis of the war in Ukr. Along with his sudden admiration of Hillary, he and his crew actively removed and censored, and deleted accounts who thought otherwise. I noticed that anytime anybody praised Occupy Wall Street, some troll or bot would show up and attack it as not helping the democratic party.

I am sure that a good number of paid monitors were on the site to smash anything not praising the DNC.

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@MrWebster @MrWebster but cannot sign in. For years. Can't get a re-set on my pass word.
They don't seem to like me.
I haven't looked at the site in many years unless someone says I should go there to read a particularly crazy post.
I specifically recall that Kos said he was recruited by the CIA, but declined the offer. Then, he went on to say how much he liked the agency and thought their work was both great and necessary. That was a head scratcher.

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

snoopydawg's picture

@on the cusp

I took great satisfaction posting the article kos wrote about Hillary when he was saying that she is ‘our’ candidate. I don’t think he ever addressed my comments.

The article was titled: Hillary too much of a Clinton democrat.

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Scientists are concerned that conspiracy theories may die out if they keep coming true at the current alarming rate.

QMS's picture

.
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when the tide changed at DKOS. Was glad a lifeline was tossed
my way by that 'gal in Michigan' turning me on to this site. Same
kind of vibe, but more vibrant. Somehow we have avoided the dreaded
USA ID tentacles. Kudos to you, joe, el and others for keeping this afloat.
If some entity from the CIA offers you a bundle, I'll up my donations to
offset some of the difference.

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question everything

@QMS
were too small to matter or refused the funding there were other ways of reducing their impact. Google rankings are just one of those ways that readily come to mind.

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I clearly remember the 2016 primaries. Amy Goodman, and Brooks and Shields would go out of their way to NOT mention Bernie Sanders by name. When he was cleaning up in the mid-wes t and south-west, they would say Her lost the state, instead of saying Bernie won it. When the tide was obviously on Bernie's side, they started posting the weighted totals with the "superdelegates", even though they (as I understand it anyway) aren't pledged or supposed to be counted until the convention, to further dampen the groundswell.

And don't forget the absolute ratfucking that ghouls like Harry Reid did in Nevada, and their tricks to minimize access to voting booths in Latino majority areas i.e., Arizona.

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usefewersyllables's picture

@BORG_US_BORG

that the Colorado dem party did by suppressing the result of his clear 18-point Super Tuesday win here for six weeks (“still counting”, “too close to call”) until after he had dropped out. That finished me.

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Twice bitten, permanently shy.

@BORG_US_BORG
Bernie every which way but loose. Now he carries their water. Go figure. Occam's Razor would suggest he was in on it all.

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@BORG_US_BORG Two weeks before the Oregon primary in 2016, a local dem polling company came up with a poll that claimed Hillary was ahead of Bernie by double digits (mayb up to 15 points). Local legacy media really pushed the poll including public radio. At the time Bill was touring the state and could not manage a full coffee shop. Bernie won easily by double digits. Just shows you how much even in a supposedly progressive/liberal state, the state party officials like Wyden and local media are creatures of the DNC

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Pluto's Republic's picture

And collected a lot of data. There is no doubt in my mind, and the in minds of a number of investigative journalists , where the funding for DK and similar online holding pens for the Left came from.

As you watch the film below, by the esteemed Ben Norton, things that you experienced in the past at DK are going to flash in your mind. Odd behaviors that you noticed there, will suddenly make sense. We just didn't know then what we were looking at.

Brace yourself.

The entire time I was at DK, I removed all of my Diaries after I posted them. By examining years of comments in these archives, I was able to see very clearly who played a part in the deflection and suppression of Leftist ideas, and how it was done. There was serious gaslighting taking place there, but no one spoke of it. Participants were conditioned to know what not to say — downvoting — crude but effective for all lab animals. I'm certain you would recognize it immediately, if you saw it. We are much more savvy 10 years later.

For me, there were surprises. Some folks that I never suspected turned out to e intelligence assets. Scripted maneuvers — back and forth — to cause misunderstanding and confusion are so obvious now. One Diary I analyzed comes to mind:

I wrote a breaking news Diary about the overthrow of Ukraine government in 2014. At that time, I happened to be immersed in Ukraine, researching a different story related to Russia. So, when overthrow erupted, I started recording the early news and commentary as ut was was happening — and published the story in a DK Diary. In out, I named names, like Vicky Neuland, who was not so well known back then. I laid out sensitive eye-witness details, like the neoNazi snipers from Poland.

Imagine my surprise when the CIA assets that gather at DK all poured in the comments section, denying that Vicky Neuland had anything to do with it. They worked , and methodically to debunk certain details in the story. I wish I could display it for you now. You would be shocked. Actually, some of you were there. In fact, Mimi popped in toward the end to sort things out.

.

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Carry a flame and share the light.

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snoopydawg's picture

@Pluto's Republic

Appearing today on DK

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They are excited about Ukraine finally getting 18 year olds to fight Russia. Why?

IMG_1288.jpeg

Pretty sure that the NYT has sent the N Koreans home and they were only to be said fighting in Kursk not in Ukraine.

The diarist linked to an article about this, but left out that Ukraine is doing this because of the high death toll and desertion rate. Pick just the points that make your point and not the truth.

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Scientists are concerned that conspiracy theories may die out if they keep coming true at the current alarming rate.

Pluto's Republic's picture

@snoopydawg

...that a bunch of Ukrainian HillBillies were going to take down the Russian Army?

I am serious when I say that the mental capacity of the US population is so severely deficient that this nation cannot comeback. Nor can it recover. It cannot develop. It is in the process of degrading.

There are two trending views on what to expect next in the US.

VIEW ONE:
We are at the economic brink. If the US prints money to pay the trillion dollar interest payment on the Debt coming due, the Treasury market will crater. (There is a non-US gold-backed substitute already in place.) Watch the stock market go up and up and up. You know why? Because US dollars will lose most of their value. It will take a lot of dollars to buy a single pack of gum. Things will never be as cheap as they are right this minute. Stock up now.

VIEW TWO:
The Dollar will be the reserve trading currency of the world for a long time to come. It doesn't matter what the Federal Reserve does. The world needs the Dollar in order to trade, and the world has solid confidence in the Dollar. So the Dollar is not going anywhere. It's backed by the military might of the United States. The US government is going to cut one-third of its spending. Life is going to cost you one-third more that it currently does. It's time to tighten your belt.

(There is also complete denial as a third choice.. This has worked well in the past.)

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Carry a flame and share the light.

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snoopydawg's picture

@Pluto's Republic

that a bunch of Ukrainian HillBillies were going to take down the Russian Army?

They think that a bunch of Ukrainian hillbillies ARE taking down the Russian army. I’m dead serious too. They get the news from Ukraine Pravda which is CIA blowing smoke and they believe it. They think it’s Russians who are dying in the meat grinders and they have inferior equipment compared to NATO.
I think their support for Ukraine came from Russia Gate.

Like I said they pick and choose what news to post. The linked article said something much different from what the person posted. I’m one of those people who follows links. I bet none of them did.

Maybe I buried the lead?

IMG_1290.jpeg

Seems rather cheerful don’t you think?
Yay!!! We’re sending 18 year olds to their deaths. Yippee.

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Scientists are concerned that conspiracy theories may die out if they keep coming true at the current alarming rate.

Cassiodorus's picture

was that Kos's rule was cleverly designed to exclude anyone campaigning for Sanders on the site without mentioning Sanders by name. After a certain point in 2016, it was decreed, only "constructive criticism" of Hillary Clinton was permitted on his site. Since HRC was your basic gangster who dictates and will not listen to anyone outside of the inner circle, such a rule had the effect of destroying the site. The diaries I wrote there are all now to be found on a Wordpress site.

I would not be surprised if USAID was responsible for getting Kos to create this rule.

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"A reminder: the US has the #1 most expensive healthcare system in the world, yet we rank roughly #42 in life expectancy." -- Luigi Mangione

janis b's picture

Wherever the nudge came from it was certainly effective in culling any voices that questioned Hillary, or looked beyond the superficial. I guess Kos decided that it was worth more politically and financially than the worth of so many significant voices. It reaffirms the significance of what you especially, and others have created here.

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