@Pluto's Republic , and the test to see where you fit. Hundred or so people finished the test, all ended up down where this version says "The Real Left". Clinton, Obama, et. al. up in the upper right, as here. When I took down all my essays, I left this one in place...as a reminder to the nincompoops.

Obviously, they didn't see it. Classic McCarthyism going on, now.

...from the beginning. They are us, essentially, with an unshakable loyalty toward Bernie Sanders.

Right away I spotted the key sentences that I think Thumb may be glossing over:

The Way of the Bern forum is still committed to Bernie Sanders, though it has added Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, who announced her presidential bid last month. The forum targets nearly every other potential Democratic candidate. They attack Elizabeth Warren and Kamala Harris but they don’t attack Bernie. Anti-Bernie traffic is almost non-existent, and usually this is part of a bigger conspiracy. We do believe many of them are coming from foreign entities, particularly Russia or the Middle East. This forum is designed to divide Democrats.

Then it ends with a threat

With such a large community associated with Mr. Sanders (which has such dubious provenance) engaged in "the identical sort of activity that he and other Democrats have so vigorously crusaded against," it seems odd that neither Mr. Sanders nor his staff have warned people about The Way of the Bern forum.

In other words, either denounce The Way of the Bern Reddit forum, or we will smear you with colluding with Russia.

This immediately tells me that this slander is a Democratic Party operation. Just a few facts:

1. Bernie Sanders is not a Democrat.
2. The Democratic Party refuses to list Tulsi Gabbard on their official candidate list.
3. The lack of anti-Bernie people (to the extent there is such a thing) does not denote a Moscow-based website.
4. Most of these people did not fall for the Russia Hoax, which was promoted by the Democratic Party. They are smarter that you are, so pay attention.
5. There are only two candidates on the Left that are running for President. This forum is for people who are members of the Real Left. That does not imply they are from Russia or the Middle East.
6. The Democrats are already very divided. If you want to win in 2020, move to the Left and support one of the Real Left candidates. Don't make the same mistake you made in 2016 or you will hand Donald Trump a second term. The Independents will abandon you.

The illustration, below, helps explain the Democrat's cluelessness about how they are perceived by the American people: The Democrats are bound at the hip to the Republican Party and both Parties serve their Big Donors — The Corporations and the One Percent. They do not treat the American people as their constituents and do not represent their desires. Both Parties are deeply unpopular and they poses a threat to the wellbeing of the American people. That's how they feel.

The Way of the Bern supports candidates from the Real Left, who sincerely represent the needs and dreams of the American people. They do not support the Democratic Party without a Real Left candidate.

@eyo

Engaged. I've been enjoying your comments. Onward.

Sorry, how's that IPO going again? proxy war jeopardy theme

motley fool:

Tencent will reportedly invest $150 million in Reddit, which would make it one of the social platform's top stakeholders. Publisher Condé Nast acquired a majority stake in 2006, and that stake now belongs to its parent company, Advance Publications. Reddit still operates independently from both companies.

Reddit has repeatedly struggled to moderate its freewheeling forums, which have often been breeding grounds for racist, misogynistic, and homophobic content. Both former CEO Ellen Pao and current CEO Steve Huffman have been criticized for their attempts to clean up the platform -- Pao tried to quarantine offensive Subreddits, while Huffman secretly edited user comments.

Despite those challenges,

Reddit has been mulling an IPO since late 2017.

Financial support from Tencent, which has backed a long list of IPOs in recent years, could help Reddit achieve that goal.

My first bold up there made me LOL, then I had to H4 the IPO part because transparency. Still independent yeah right. As the C-Suite edits their brain contents to match their policy propaganda, there's your capitalist free speech. Oh! I said the word policy, hope that Varney guy doesn't turn in to a pumpkin now. What a dumb ass bolshevik, failing his three letter agencies so hard. pwned once again

thanks snoopydawg
peace

Edit: who is tencent? PU if it stinks like a social credit score....
https://www.tencent.com/en-us/

Tencent is an internet-based technology and cultural enterprise headquartered in Shenzhen, China.
Founded in 1998, Tencent’s mission is to “improve the quality of life through Internet value-added services”. This will be done via the delivery of integrated internet solutions to billions of netizens through its “user oriented” business philosophy.

ka-ching! nothing political, just a big social hug from the dopamine business philosophers.

Edit: once more because I didn't really know, or maybe I forgot who about the Washington Times, Varney's employer.

In a speech on the twentieth anniversary of the founding of the Washington Times, Moon explained his motivation behind establishing the paper. "I founded The Washington Times as an expression of my love for America and to fulfill the Will of God, who seeks to establish America in His Providence," he said.

"In the context of God's Will, there needed to be a newspaper that had the philosophical and ideological foundation to encourage and enlighten the people and leaders of America," he explained.

In Moon's analysis, there was an important role for the paper in bolstering support for the continuance of the cold war against Russia. "The Washington Times' editorials and columns supported the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) at a time when many were trying to block this critical development," he said.

star wars! lol
and elliot fucking abrams is back now too
reagan retreads unite

@Centaurea . Lots of Criticism of the Rams, The Steelers, the Marlins, even the Oregon Ducks and the Phoenix Suns, but nothing negative is ever said on their website that is negative about the Partiots. Looks like Russian influence!

I found it almost incomprehensible. I kept scratching my head and thinking, "What's the writer's point?" It felt as though he was just taking dictation, writing down what his informants said without understanding any of it, or even thinking about it.

How else to explain a piece of writing that literally consists of things like this: "WayofTheBern criticizes Warren and Harris but not Bernie! That proves they're nefarious Russian agents!"

I lived in New Orleans when the writer, James Varney, was working as a conservative columnist for the Times-Picayune newspaper. He was part of the TP reporting team that won a Pulitzer for their coverage of Katrina. In 2015, he was one of numerous TP employees laid off in a corporate restructuring. Judging from this latest effort (lacking any semblance of journalism), he seems to be ending his career on a sad note.

With respect to the piece about WayofTheBern, the obvious question is: what was the purpose? It has the pawprints of the Dem establishment all over it, but Varney is conservative, the WaTimes is conservative, and the main "expert" informant is apparently conservative. (Of course, we pretty much have a uniparty at present, and they all work for the oligarchy.)

But why go after WoTB, specifically?

Cui bono - Who benefits?

The admin of WoTB, FThumb, says he had a 45-minute interview with Varney, in which Thumb detailed how WoTB came into existence: refugees from DKos moved to the Kossacks4Bernie subreddit, then from there, a group left and created WoTB.

Yet Varney ignored all of that, and instead stated in his article that WoTB was started by people from the sanders4president subreddit.

I found the mention of S4P quite interesting. As many people here know, S4P was originally a very active place where Bernie supporters could exchange information and strategize. Immediately prior to the national convention in Philly, the S4P reddit was shut down, suddenly and without warning. Although it later re-opened, it bears little resemblance to its former incarnation.

There are questions as to who's behind it now, and for what purpose. Although they get relatively light traffic, they seem to be trying to position themselves as the "main" Bernie reddit group, based on their original reputation. I've found their AMAs disappointing, especially for the more progressive candidates. From what I can see, they're very Democratic Party-oriented.