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Balloon Juice

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

They don’t have outfits that big. nor codpieces that small.

In my day, never was longer.

Relentless negativity is not a sign that you are more realistic.

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

Hey Washington Post, “Democracy Dies in Darkness” was supposed to be a warning, not a mission statement.

The revolution will be supervised.

Do not shrug your shoulders and accept the normalization of untruths.

The low info voters probably won’t even notice or remember by their next lap around the goldfish bowl.

Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.

If you are still in the gop, you are either an extremist yourself, or in bed with those who are.

There are no moderate republicans – only extremists and cowards.

I would try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

The Giant Orange Man Baby is having a bad day.

“The defense has a certain level of trust in defendant that the government does not.”

Quote tweet friends, screenshot enemies.

The snowflake in chief appeared visibly frustrated when questioned by a reporter about egg prices.

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

She burned that motherfucker down, and I am so here for it. Thank you, Caroline Kennedy.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

With all due respect and assumptions of good faith, please fuck off into the sun.

Sometimes the world just tells you your cat is here.

Republicans do not pay their debts.

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

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You are here: Home / Economics / Grifters Gonna Grift / “Progressive Independent” Open Thread: Death Wish

“Progressive Independent” Open Thread: Death Wish

by Anne Laurie|  February 22, 201811:50 am| 124 Comments

This post is in: Grifters Gonna Grift, I Can No Longer Rationally Discuss The Sanders Campaign, Proud to Be A Democrat, Assholes, Ever Get The Feeling You've Been Cheated?

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Watch this space: @StMartinsPress announces @BernieSanders will be publishing a new book called "WHERE WE GO FROM HERE" exactly one week after the midterms…

— Gabriel Debenedetti (@gdebenedetti) February 21, 2018

… AWAY & SHUT UP, if I get my wish.

I'm not saying Bernie's running. I'm not! But…

• Meeting with his team to talk '20 > https://t.co/Xv1qeX4T1l
• Returning to Iowa repeatedly, plus a tour of Midwest swing states > https://t.co/5KPjkG2ME5
• Now a book as the '20 cycle begins

— Gabriel Debenedetti (@gdebenedetti) February 21, 2018

If we Democrats do as well as projected in 2018, St. Bernie will be scrabbling for figurehead position on the bandwagon. If we, Goddess forbid, don’t, he’s all set to work the “Buy my book, and make a token $27 contribution to my exploratory committee” circuit, right across the aisle from Newt Gingrich. Except, as ever, the man’s timing is impeccable…

Sanders' campaign manager Jeff Weaver also said despite what's in Mueller indictment about Russian support for Sanders, "The factual underpinning of that in the indictment is what? Zero. … I have not seen any evidence of support for Bernie Sanders.”https://t.co/ZqFDzBgWZb

— Edward-Isaac Dovere (@IsaacDovere) February 21, 2018

Bernie Sanders on Wednesday blamed Hillary Clinton for not doing more to stop the Russian attack on the last presidential election. Then his 2016 campaign manager, in an interview with POLITICO, said he’s seen no evidence to support special counsel Robert Mueller’s assertion in an indictment last week that the Russian operation had backed Sanders’ campaign.

The remarks showed Sanders, running for a third term and currently considered a front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020, deeply defensive in response to questions posed to him about what was laid out in the indictment. He attempted to thread a response that blasts Donald Trump for refusing to acknowledge that Russians helped his campaign — but then holds himself harmless for a nearly identical denial.

In doing so, Sanders and his former campaign manager, Jeff Weaver, presented a series of self-serving statements that were not accurate, and that track with efforts by Trump and his supporters to undermine the credibility of the Mueller probe.

“The real question to be asked is what was the Clinton campaign [doing about Russian interference]? They had more information about this than we did,” Sanders said in the interview with Vermont Public Radio.

After being contacted by POLITICO about the interview, Sanders issued a lengthy statement calling the Russian involvement a “direct assault on the free democratic systems that stand in contrast to the autocratic, nationalistic kleptocracy of Vladimir Putin and his backers in the Russian oligarchy” which “deserves unconditional condemnation.”…

A former Clinton campaign staffer said it was nonsense that Sanders’ campaign had reached out to Clinton’s about potential Russian interference. “No one from the Sanders campaign ever contacted us about this” — not in September, and not in “April and May.” Sanders said in the radio interview that he noticed “lots of strange things” during those months in 2016…

Asked why Sanders would blame Clinton for not intervening, Weaver said, “Uh, I don’t know. They [Clinton’s campaign] did have more information.”

As for Sanders’ claims of having gone to Clinton’s campaign about possible Russian meddling, Weaver said Sanders was “speaking broadly.”…

The Vermont senator was adamant that he did not benefit from Russian bots urging voters to support him. “I did not know that Russian bots were promoting my campaign. Russian bots were not promoting my campaign,” he said…

Sanders repeatedly refused to say why he didn’t call out Russian involvement during the campaign. Clinton’s campaign regularly raised suspicions of Kremlin-backed activity during the home stretch of the race…

Speaking of Mr. Mueller (may his shadow never grow less), notice that Jeff “Comic Book Guy” Weaver is still hanging out with St. Bernie, but for some reason his 2016 campaign twin, seasoned political professional Tad Devine, seems to have disappeared from the media agora?

Way back in 2017…

Ari: Did you know then that Russia was leaking emails to further divide the Dems?

Bernard: Of course we knew. pic.twitter.com/Nt6YU7xmVP

— Sarah Lerner (@SarahLerner) July 19, 2017

If Bernie runs in 2020 this will be a major issue-when did he know the Russians were interfering on his behalf and why did he say/do nothing? Along with his wife's FBI bank fraud investigation. And his pro gun votes. And his anti identity politics stances. https://t.co/0kHddO1rtH

— Marcus H. Johnson (@marcushjohnson) February 20, 2018

Never forget:

“..I understand that guns in [Vermont] are different than guns in Chicago or Los Angeles…” pic.twitter.com/ILolO8Slf7

— Pᴀᴛʀɪᴄᴋ Kᴀʀʟssᴏɴ ⛈ (@Patrickesque) February 21, 2018

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Reader Interactions

124Comments

  1. 1.

    opiejeanne

    February 22, 2018 at 11:55 am

    Christ, what an asshole.

  2. 2.

    cleek

    February 22, 2018 at 11:56 am

    fuck this guy

  3. 3.

    Gin & Tonic

    February 22, 2018 at 11:56 am

    currently considered a front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020

    By whom?

  4. 4.

    hedgehog the occasional commenter

    February 22, 2018 at 11:56 am

    All I want for my birthday is (1) Expletive Deleted to go away. (2) A Mueller indictment of Jared.
    (and a pony and a margarita. Or a pony drinking a margarita).

  5. 5.

    hedgehog the occasional commenter

    February 22, 2018 at 11:57 am

    Also too, exactly what the fuck was Hillary supposed to do?

  6. 6.

    Jerzy Russian

    February 22, 2018 at 11:58 am

    Christ, what an asshole!

  7. 7.

    NobodySpecial

    February 22, 2018 at 11:58 am

    Hope that Russian $27 dough train hires his wife a good lawyer.

  8. 8.

    ? ?? Goku (aka Baka Amerikahito) ? ?

    February 22, 2018 at 11:59 am

    “..I understand that guns in [Vermont] are different than guns in Chicago or Los Angeles…”

    Oh dear god, please croak already! Here’s hoping the gun control issue will damage him this time around.

  9. 9.

    Ryan

    February 22, 2018 at 12:00 pm

    Is Sanders aware that Clinton was out of the government for more than three years during the campaign? Or is that a minor detail and I am clearly a neoliberal shill?

  10. 10.

    condorcet runner-up

    February 22, 2018 at 12:00 pm

    currently considered a front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020

    Interesting proposition to just throw out there without any sources cited …

    ETA: I see Gin & Tonic beat me too it.

  11. 11.

    Sab

    February 22, 2018 at 12:02 pm

    @? ?? Goku (aka Baka Amerikahito) ? ?: Come sit by me.

  12. 12.

    Gin & Tonic

    February 22, 2018 at 12:05 pm

    @Sab: Frisk him before he sits down.

  13. 13.

    Aleta

    February 22, 2018 at 12:06 pm

    Bernie needs to use the note Ivanka wrote for Trump.

  14. 14.

    ? ?? Goku (aka Baka Amerikahito) ? ?

    February 22, 2018 at 12:08 pm

    @Gin & Tonic:
    Dude, I was only thinking about that revolver (for target shooting!).

  15. 15.

    Sab

    February 22, 2018 at 12:09 pm

    @Gin & Tonic:Lol. He is in favor of gun control.

  16. 16.

    glory b

    February 22, 2018 at 12:09 pm

    From Politico: “Two dudes sitting in a hole somewhere support Bernie Sanders — tell me what they did to support Bernie Sanders,” Weaver added later.

    Are they sitting next to Trump’s 400 lb guy in the bedroom?

  17. 17.

    The Moar You Know

    February 22, 2018 at 12:10 pm

    By whom?

    @Gin & Tonic: Last polls I saw showed him at 18%, right behind Biden. Of course, at this stage that is meaningless.

    But I’m concerned as all fuck this guy is going to do the same schtick as last time, including refusing to concede after the primaries, and give us four more years of the least-deserving and most incompetent president we’ve ever had. Hopefully the criminal old fucker will keel over and die before then.

  18. 18.

    No Drought No More

    February 22, 2018 at 12:10 pm

    I once again appeal to both Clinton and Sanders to hold a joint press conference to announce they will not seek the presidency in 2020 or ever fucking again. Or a martini press conference even, I don’t care. I just want to see it happen, because it would be good news for both party and country.

  19. 19.

    Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et Al.)

    February 22, 2018 at 12:12 pm

    What, for realz? Does he really think this shit is going to help him somehow? I can’t see how this is going to vault him to the top of the 2020 heap.

  20. 20.

    Brachiator

    February 22, 2018 at 12:14 pm

    Bernie blames Hillary for allowing Russian interference

    Wow. I dismissed Sanders early on as a potential presidential candidate. Now he is on my permanent shit list. This is Trumpian level stupidity in its inane, wrong-headed finger pointing.

    Does he honestly think he will get any traction from this?

    @No Drought No More:

    I once again appeal to both Clinton and Sanders to hold a joint press conference to announce they will not seek the presidency in 2020 or ever fucking again.

    This is as dumb ass as the Sanders statement. Something in the air?

  21. 21.

    Fair Economist

    February 22, 2018 at 12:14 pm

    @Gin & Tonic: Available polling shows Biden to be the frontrunner, with Bernie a very close second, so I think it’s legit to call Bernie “a” frontrunner. It’s mostly name recognition, to be fair, but there it is.

    (polling is buried under a button in the democratic nomination section).

  22. 22.

    Bobby Thomson

    February 22, 2018 at 12:15 pm

    Giving credibility to Trump arguments is key to the Sanders brand.

  23. 23.

    Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism

    February 22, 2018 at 12:16 pm

    @Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et Al.): Nah, he just has a book to flog.

  24. 24.

    Bobby Thomson

    February 22, 2018 at 12:17 pm

    @The Moar You Know: which criminal old fucker?

  25. 25.

    eclare

    February 22, 2018 at 12:18 pm

    @The Moar You Know: Seconded.

  26. 26.

    ? ?? Goku (aka Baka Amerikahito) ? ?

    February 22, 2018 at 12:19 pm

    @No Drought No More:
    There was nothing wrong with Clinton and she won’t be running again anyway.

  27. 27.

    schrodingers_cat

    February 22, 2018 at 12:20 pm

    Just how much money is he getting from Putin? He never did produce his tax returns, did he?

  28. 28.

    Fair Economist

    February 22, 2018 at 12:20 pm

    @Brachiator:

    Bernie blames Hillary for allowing Russian interference

    Wow. I dismissed Sanders early on as a potential presidential candidate. Now he is on my permanent shit list. This is Trumpian level stupidity in its inane, wrong-headed finger pointing.

    Two years ago I mocked suggestions Sanders might be actively supporting the Russians. But he just keeps coming up with reasons to think he is:

    Voted against Russian sanctions, twice
    Had the Russians act to prop him up.
    Knew it was happening and said nothing.
    Now blames somebody who couldn’t have done anything about it.

    At some point you have to stop suspecting wrong-headedness and start suspecting malicious intent. It’s like with Glenn Greenwald, although admittedly not nearly so far.

  29. 29.

    Bobby Thomson

    February 22, 2018 at 12:21 pm

    @Ryan: he has no response to the Russian bot thing and it will be deadly to his online credibility. So in classic Trump fashion, he tries to blame someone else, only he doesn’t have the guts to blame Obama. It’s not like his bitter enders really care.

  30. 30.

    JDM

    February 22, 2018 at 12:21 pm

    Bernie, I want to like you. I really, really do. Please stop making it so difficult.

  31. 31.

    Aleta

    February 22, 2018 at 12:22 pm

    “Of course we wanted to cause divisiveness in the Democratic Party. That’s no great secret. The real question … is, why didn’t the Clinton campaign” step aside, because I would have won.

  32. 32.

    schrodingers_cat

    February 22, 2018 at 12:23 pm

    The leftist Messiah is pretty RW when it comes to guns and immigration.

  33. 33.

    Gin & Tonic

    February 22, 2018 at 12:25 pm

    @schrodingers_cat: No, he didn’t. But Tad Devine bought a house on Block Island.

  34. 34.

    patrick II

    February 22, 2018 at 12:25 pm

    Bernie is running. That has been clear since his acolytes began pushing states to have state open primaries and caucuses.

  35. 35.

    d58826

    February 22, 2018 at 12:25 pm

    Putin owns Bernie and Jill Stein just as much as he does Der Fuhrer.

    And speaking of disgusting human beings. Dana Lorach blistered the MSM for loving the rating hits that they get from, ‘white mothers crying for dead kids after a school shooting’ She then complained that she needed a security detail in order to protest her from the angry crowd after the Cnn townhall. School kids are not entitled to the same level of protection. She also ranted on the FBI for dropping the ball and not following up on the tip about the shooter. Now the the FBI should follow up on why the tip did not get from DC to Fla., but even if it had exactly what could the FBI do? Local officials were aware of this kid and his problems. Sure the FBI could have interviewed the kid but they have no legal authority to arrest him BEFORE he does something. Local authorities might have had more legal authority to detain/commit him under a danger to the community type mental health law.

    https://www.politico.com/story/2018/02/22/nra-spokeswoman-attacks-media-government-over-mass-shootings-criticism-421688

  36. 36.

    Gin & Tonic

    February 22, 2018 at 12:27 pm

    @schrodingers_cat: He’s beholden to the NRA. LaPierre endorsed him against an incumbent Republican when he ran for the House in 1990, starting his national career.

  37. 37.

    efgoldman

    February 22, 2018 at 12:27 pm

    FUCK WILMER WITH A RUSTY MAPLE SYRUP BUCKET
    FUCK WILMER WITH A RUSTY MAPLE SYRUP BUCKET
    FUCK WILMER WITH A RUSTY MAPLE SYRUP BUCKET
    FUCK WILMER WITH A RUSTY MAPLE SYRUP BUCKET
    FUCK WILMER WITH A RUSTY MAPLE SYRUP BUCKET
    FUCK WILMER WITH A RUSTY MAPLE SYRUP BUCKET
    FUCK WILMER WITH A RUSTY MAPLE SYRUP BUCKET
    FUCK WILMER WITH A RUSTY MAPLE SYRUP BUCKET
    FUCK WILMER WITH A RUSTY MAPLE SYRUP BUCKET
    FUCK WILMER WITH A RUSTY MAPLE SYRUP BUCKET

  38. 38.

    randy khan

    February 22, 2018 at 12:28 pm

    @No Drought No More:

    I once again appeal to both Clinton and Sanders to hold a joint press conference to announce they will not seek the presidency in 2020 or ever fucking again. Or a martini press conference even, I don’t care. I just want to see it happen, because it would be good news for both party and country.

    Clinton’s already said she’s not running for anything again. I don’t think I’d make her go on a stage with Sanders for the purpose of what essentially would be intentionally humiliating herself.

  39. 39.

    TaMara (HFG)

    February 22, 2018 at 12:28 pm

    Fuck him. And fuck the DNC if they allow him anywhere near the primaries. He’s not a fucking Democrat. Grifter, misogynist and fraud, but not a Dem.

  40. 40.

    Steeplejack

    February 22, 2018 at 12:29 pm

    @hedgehog the occasional commenter:

    Dunno why, but today is National Margarita Day. You could probably find a good deal somewhere.

    ETA: And me with tequila but no mix.

  41. 41.

    patrick II

    February 22, 2018 at 12:30 pm

    @d58826:
    Kevin Drum did the math (as usual) on FBI online tips the other day. They receive about 1300 a day with perhaps another one to two hundred tips via hotline or in person. Fully investigating 1500 tips a day would require a much bigger FBI than we have. Not to mention, as you say, what could they do to someone who has not yet committed a crime?

  42. 42.

    Adam L Silverman

    February 22, 2018 at 12:30 pm

    @hedgehog the occasional commenter: Challenge Vlad Valdimorovich to a duel till he left Bernie Sanders alone!

  43. 43.

    germy

    February 22, 2018 at 12:32 pm

    But the question which concerns me most of all regards the money that flowed into Sanders’ campaign. Despite the fact that only one super PAC endorsed him, RoseAnn DeMoro’s National Nurses United, and his constant boasting of his supporters’ average donation of $27.50, the Sanders campaign took in and spent far more money than it was comfortable admitting, much of it centered around a mysterious corporation, Old Towne Media, LLC.

    https://thedailybanter.com/2018/01/bernie-sanders-2020-hard-questions/

    shady as hell.

    This is not the first time Sanders has come under fire for shady money dealing. In 2006, his Republican Senate opponent, Richard Tarrant, accused Jane Sanders of profiting off of Sanders’ media buys during his last two congressional campaigns. While Jane’s name does not appear on the contracts in those campaigns, we do know that her daughter from a previous marriage, Carina Driscoll, received $65,000 for her work, and that Jane’s ad buying companies both used the address of their home in Vermont. None of this is technically illegal, but it does look shady, especially taken in light of Sanders’ future attacks on Hillary Clinton for her speeches on Wall Street.

  44. 44.

    gene108

    February 22, 2018 at 12:32 pm

    @Ryan:

    Is Sanders aware that Clinton was out of the government for more than three years during the campaign? Or is that a minor detail and I am clearly a neoliberal shill?

    Or that he was still in the government and a sitting Senator, still in the Senate, with lots of powers non-Senators do not have?

    *******************************************

    Wasn’t one of Sander’s higher ups a co-worker with Manafort in Ukraine?

  45. 45.

    Adam L Silverman

    February 22, 2018 at 12:33 pm

    Then Mayor of Burlington Sanders took an official trip to Russia shortly after his marriage to his second, and current, wife Jane. As an up and coming politician, there is no way, shape, and/or form that the KGB did not ensure that he was surveilled the entire time he was in the Soviet Union. Should Senator Sanders have been the nominee that material would have leaked. Should Senator Sanders become the nominee in 2020, that material will be leaked.

  46. 46.

    Jeffro

    February 22, 2018 at 12:33 pm

    So Bernie’s going to try and co-opt the success of November’s coming ‘blue wave’ – that it’s all about the things he stands for, that it happened because of him? Oh no no no, my Green Mountain friend, we are having none of that.

    The Russian connections alone will doom this clown but if all else fails, it’s important to remember – he already had his shot, and couldn’t win the nomination. He sure isn’t going to get it in 2020

  47. 47.

    The Moar You Know

    February 22, 2018 at 12:33 pm

    Fuck him. And fuck the DNC if they allow him anywhere near the primaries. He’s not a fucking Democrat.

    @TaMara (HFG): I’m aware that there’s not much that can be done to prevent him from registering or running as a Dem, but the DNC should be able to lock him out of the primaries and they damn sure can publicly disown him (like the GOP could have with Roy Moore but didn’t) and they damn well better not give him a dime. Let him get his money from the Russians, like last time.

  48. 48.

    Gin & Tonic

    February 22, 2018 at 12:34 pm

    @gene108: Tad Devine.

  49. 49.

    germy

    February 22, 2018 at 12:35 pm

    Jane Sanders, currently under investigation regarding the bankruptcy of Burlington College, has been reluctant to comment on Old Towne. When asked about it by reporters from VT Digger, a Vermont-based news site, she claimed she had no idea what they were talking about and hung up the phone. And it’s true that her name does not appear on the Old Towne contracts that Slate unearthed. But this statement from her husband in the Washington Post casts doubt on her claims:

    “We do not put any TV ads on without Jane seeing it… she looks at the ads. She’ll make her comments. She’ll talk to Tad [Devine]. Tad will change it, because Tad also appreciates her views…She has very good instincts about what makes sense and what does not make sense, and when I’m moving in the wrong direction, or when I’m moving in the right direction. So yeah, I trust her advice very much.”

    link

  50. 50.

    Jeffro

    February 22, 2018 at 12:35 pm

    @d58826: @patrick II: I can only imagine what it’s like for the FBI and domestic law enforcement to be taking all of these tips/calls/whatever on folks’ terrorist suspicions and now domestic shooter suspicions. Their phones must ring non-stop.

  51. 51.

    chris

    February 22, 2018 at 12:38 pm

    Repost from last dying thread.

    From 1968 another failed effort at gun control wins the very first Flying Fickle Finger of Fate.

    Yet some how it’s gotten worse in the 50 years since I saw this the first time. Half a fucking century!

  52. 52.

    msdc

    February 22, 2018 at 12:38 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: I don’t know, they’ve done a pretty good job holding onto the material on their current asset in the White House.

    A Sanders-Trump election would be a real “heads I win, tails you lose” scenario for Putin.

  53. 53.

    condorcet runner-up

    February 22, 2018 at 12:39 pm

    @The Moar You Know:

    But I’m concerned as all fuck this guy is going to do the same schtick as last time, including refusing to concede after the primaries, and give us four more years of the least-deserving and most incompetent president we’ve ever had.

    I recognize the value of having an issue spotter like old man Wilmer out there making sure certain issues are stated plainly and (rightly) made part of the party platform, despite his lack of realistic and frankly achievable policy solutions, but I also get the impression that his overall impact on the Democractic primary will be a lot lower this time around (despite the dwindling group of his hardcore supporters getting louder and louder as they fade into irrelevance). People heard what he had to say last time, which will blunt the “freshness” of his message somewhat, and now he has a bit more baggage as well. I am not worried at all about his “base,” which still remains — like Uncle Rico — relegated to shouting into the void about what could have been.

  54. 54.

    efgoldman

    February 22, 2018 at 12:40 pm

    @patrick II:

    That has been clear since his acolytes began pushing states to have state open primaries and caucuses.

    I hope at least a couple of state parties deny him ballot access BECAUSE HE’S NOT A FUCKING DEMOCRAT

  55. 55.

    cgordon

    February 22, 2018 at 12:41 pm

    I listened to the Bernie Sanders interview where Sanders is supposed to have blamed Clinton for the Russian interference. He gave a clumsy answer to a stupid question. Sanders said that one of his staffers had contacted the Clinton campaign and told them he thought Russian agents were posting anti-Clinton material on Sanders’ FB page. The Clinton campaign says they were not contacted. Fine. The interviewer asked why he didn’t warn his supporters. (About what?) He said that at that point, the Clinton campaign was in a better position to warn people. Which they were, since they were getting intelligence briefings on Russians.

  56. 56.

    Brachiator

    February 22, 2018 at 12:41 pm

    @Steeplejack:

    Dunno why, but today is National Margarita Day.

    Today is George Washington’s official birthday. The Margarita was his favorite drink. Almost became the national drink, according to the diaries of the Constitutional Convention. Ben Franklin preferred Wild Turkey.

  57. 57.

    BC in Illinois

    February 22, 2018 at 12:42 pm

    Now the years are rolling by me – They are rockin’ evenly.
    I am older than I once was, And younger than I’ll be.
    That’s not unusual;

    No, it it’s not strange: After changes upon changes
    We are more or less the same; After changes we are more or less the same.

    Paul Simon “The Boxer” (as sung by S&G in Central Park)

    January 20, 2021, Inauguration Day

    B Sanders 79
    J Biden 78
    H Clinton 73
    E Warren 71

    Now, I would vote for at least three of these four, if they were nominated. Maybe enthusiastically. But I wouldn’t select any of them, given my druthers. We don’t need our next candidate to be a child of the FDR or Truman administration. Obama was born during the Kennedy administration. Let’s start there.

    BC in Illinois (child of the Truman administration)

  58. 58.

    Facebones

    February 22, 2018 at 12:44 pm

    Jeff Weaver is an embarrassment to comic book store workers everywhere.

  59. 59.

    efgoldman

    February 22, 2018 at 12:45 pm

    Hey mods!
    Apparently my heartfelt paean to Saint Wilmer disappeared without even being moderated
    Too may “fucks” I guess.
    Can find and retrieve, please?

  60. 60.

    germy

    February 22, 2018 at 12:45 pm

    @efgoldman: RIGGED!

  61. 61.

    catclub

    February 22, 2018 at 12:48 pm

    @The Moar You Know:

    Hopefully the criminal old fucker will keel over and die before then.

    which one?

  62. 62.

    cgordon

    February 22, 2018 at 12:48 pm

    @Brachiator: Listen to the actual interview before you jump to conclusions. See my response at 54. http://digital.vpr.net/post/sen-bernie-sanders-russia-we-knew-what-we-knew-when-we-knew-it#stream/0

  63. 63.

    Aleta

    February 22, 2018 at 12:50 pm

    My anti-Republican bias says that their policies will cause more deaths by gunshot. They’re literally OK with that. Because they assume most of those deaths won’t involve white wealthy stable “responsible gun owners” living with health care and aides in the gated parts of town.

    And it’s only the occasional person who’s killed on their own property by a hunter with a high powered rifle, right Bernie?

  64. 64.

    Brachiator

    February 22, 2018 at 12:51 pm

    @Fair Economist:

    Two years ago I mocked suggestions Sanders might be actively supporting the Russians. But he just keeps coming up with reasons to think he is

    I like this comment from an old story about Sanders voting against sanctions.

    If we could see his tax returns, we might have a clue.

  65. 65.

    Mnemosyne

    February 22, 2018 at 12:52 pm

    @cgordon:

    The interviewer asked why he didn’t warn his supporters. (About what?) He said that at that point, the Clinton campaign was in a better position to warn people.

    When you have one candidate saying that Russia is interfering, a second candidate denying it, and a third candidate who stays silent, people assume that the second candidate is telling the truth, particularly when both the second and third candidate have spent months accusing the first candidate of being a liar.

    Sanders’ silence was assent to Trump’s lies. He can’t weasel out of that now by claiming it wasn’t his responsibility to back Hillary up. He let his own hurt fee-fees take precedence over the good of our country.

  66. 66.

    Adam L Silverman

    February 22, 2018 at 12:53 pm

    @efgoldman: Let me look.

  67. 67.

    Major Major Major Major

    February 22, 2018 at 12:54 pm

    @cgordon: I get that it’s Politico’s job to keep replaying the 2016 primary for clicks, but Bernie didn’t help himself by not getting this even remotely right until a second post-interview prepared statement.

  68. 68.

    gene108

    February 22, 2018 at 12:55 pm

    @cgordon:

    He said that at that point, the Clinton campaign was in a better position to warn people. Which they were, since they were getting intelligence briefings on Russians.

    He could’ve given a filibuster worthy speech about Russian interference on the Senate floor or demanded sanctions on Russia or introduced resolution condemning Russia in the Senate for election interference.

    He’s a fucking U.S. Senator, who has been in Congress for over 25 years, and people want to treat him like he’s some kind of outsider, who is taking on the system and has no real power.

  69. 69.

    Adam L Silverman

    February 22, 2018 at 12:55 pm

    @efgoldman: For some strange reason it went right to spam. I’m releasing it now.

  70. 70.

    Miss Bianca

    February 22, 2018 at 12:57 pm

    The Vermont senator was adamant that he did not benefit from Russian bots urging voters to support him. “I did not know that Russian bots were promoting my campaign. Russian bots were not promoting my campaign,” he said…

    Which is it, Senator? “I didn’t know there were Russian bots” or “there were no Russian bots”? Pick one.

  71. 71.

    No Drought No More

    February 22, 2018 at 12:57 pm

    If I was Trump’s attorney, I’d tell me to think of his public unmasking for treason (unto impeachment, imprisonment, and historical disgrace) as a reality T.V. show. I’d then ask him to ponder that every absolutely ear and eyeball throughout the entire world is paying acute attention as the show enters its final season, and there’s no finagling the ending- what will be, will be. Which is to say, there ain’t no Miss Universe judges gonna stop the freight train about to hit his treacherous ass.

  72. 72.

    Chyron HR

    February 22, 2018 at 12:58 pm

    @cgordon:

    So what exactly is Messiah’s game plan for 2020? Will he magically decide on January 1 that he’s not too good for the Democratic party (again), and then quit the party immediately after the convention (again) because he’s too good for us?

  73. 73.

    germy

    February 22, 2018 at 12:58 pm

    @Major Major Major Major:

    Bernie didn’t help himself by not getting this even remotely right until a second post-interview prepared statement

    “He’d make a fine president.”

  74. 74.

    Paul Gottlieb

    February 22, 2018 at 12:58 pm

    This is not a rhetorical question: Is anyone mounting a credible primary attack on Sanders, and can you tell me how I can contribute to that campaign? The thought of replacing that repulsive bag of narcissistic hot air with an actual Democrat who wants to make life better is so enticing!

  75. 75.

    patrick II

    February 22, 2018 at 12:59 pm

    @efgoldman:

    They won’t because they are too afraid of him running an independent candidacay during the general.

  76. 76.

    germy

    February 22, 2018 at 1:00 pm

    @Paul Gottlieb: One of his followers is actually primarying him, believe it or not.

  77. 77.

    Aleta

    February 22, 2018 at 1:02 pm

    @hedgehog the occasional commenter: Is your birthday today? If so, Happy Birthday! And many happy returns of the day, and a pony bringing you a margarita.

  78. 78.

    Adria McDowell

    February 22, 2018 at 1:03 pm

    @efgoldman: Okay, I legitimately laughed out loud.

  79. 79.

    Adria McDowell

    February 22, 2018 at 1:05 pm

    I am. So fucking. Tired of this dude.

    So.

    Fucking.

    Tired.

  80. 80.

    Amir Khalid

    February 22, 2018 at 1:05 pm

    @Fair Economist:
    No one can meaningfully be called a frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020, because no one — not even Wilmer — has formally declared their candidacy. There is polling that looks good for him, yes, but so far away from 2020 that is meaningless. Bernie was ill-prepared for the job in 2016, in so many ways. What we’ve learned about him since then doesn’t inspire confidence in the man or the candidate. He doesn’t escape the Russiagate taint except if Mueller’s team were wrong about what they’ve found so far — not likely, I think. Unless Wilmer fixes all that for 2020 (and the last item is out of his power to fix) he doesn’t merit consideration.

  81. 81.

    bobbo

    February 22, 2018 at 1:09 pm

    This means that the Berniebots will be lining up with the Glenn Greenwalds to explain to us that the “Russia thing” is just a smokescreen to protect the neoliberal Dems’ agenda. Unless they’re doing that already?

  82. 82.

    Aleta

    February 22, 2018 at 1:09 pm

    @hedgehog the occasional commenter: Also too, exactly what the fuck was Hillary supposed to do?

    Hillary was supposed to let him win. It’s her fault he lost, and her fault he has to run again.

    Bern Quixote.

  83. 83.

    schrodingers_cat

    February 22, 2018 at 1:10 pm

    @Paul Gottlieb: Agreed. Not only will I donate but I will also canvass for such a person. I live within driving distance to the great sage’s state.

  84. 84.

    J R in WV

    February 22, 2018 at 1:14 pm

    I don’t think we will have to worry too much about Sanders once the currently sitting Grand Jury finishes its examination of the bankruptcy of Burlington College under MS Sanders’ management. Her daughter made a lot of money off that management, which is a very clear case of conflict of interest and an example of the Sanders family profiting from the ruin of a well regarded institution, now destroyed. Job destroyers, anyone?

    Old Towne Media LLC appears to be another example of an obscured activity by Sanders and his campaign, a very traditional method for skimming personal cash from campaign contributions, which IIRC is stone illegal graft. This is piled right beside Sanders’ support from Putin’s intelligence services, stinking to high heaven. I bet Mueller knows more about Old Towne than Sanders will admit. If so, we don’t need to worry about Sanders’ influence in the 202 election campaign.

    So much conservative-appearing greed by all the Sanders family!!

  85. 85.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    February 22, 2018 at 1:15 pm

    The Clinton campaign says they were not contacted. Fine. The interviewer asked why he didn’t warn his supporters. (About what?) He said that at that point, the Clinton campaign was in a better position to warn people.

    Yeah, if there’s one thing we know about Wilmer, he hates media attention. And anyway the media never gives him any

    He said that at that point, the Clinton campaign was in a better position to warn people. Which they were

    Yes, because if there’s one thing we know about Wilmberbots, it’s that they react to thing Hillary Clinton says like thoughtful, self-aware people

    Clinton or Reines or Mook or somebody needs to dump that oppo file

  86. 86.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    February 22, 2018 at 1:16 pm

    kinda surprised we aren’t seeing more of the screaming meemies descend on this thread. Has the bat-signal been refitted to attacking teenaged activists?

  87. 87.

    Citizen_X

    February 22, 2018 at 1:17 pm

    “The real question to be asked is what was the Clinton campaign [doing about Russian interference]? They had more information about this than we did,” Sanders said

    “Plus, they have a global team of assassins doing her bidding, right?”

  88. 88.

    RemindsMeOfThatMovie

    February 22, 2018 at 1:22 pm

    This is why Sanders and Sandernistas are all toxic. He’s not a Democrat and stop trying to pretend he is! Go form your own party, call yourselves independents. I don’t care. You are not Democrats.

    All Sanders does is make Democrats jobs that much harder. This latest nonsense of trying to blame Hillary and therefore helping the Republicans re-enforce their nonsense is a perfect example.

  89. 89.

    Bobby Thomson

    February 22, 2018 at 1:23 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: they might be busy reestablishing bots on Twitter.

  90. 90.

    Ruckus

    February 22, 2018 at 1:23 pm

    @opiejeanne:
    You know that saying “Crist what an asshole” covers lot of republican ground, with the exception of the republicans that require the phrase “Crist, what a fucking asshole,” don’t you?

  91. 91.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    February 22, 2018 at 1:24 pm

    @Brachiator:

    Well played.

  92. 92.

    Mnemosyne

    February 22, 2018 at 1:28 pm

    @bobbo:

    Yes, they’re already in full denial about Russia.

  93. 93.

    Gravenstone

    February 22, 2018 at 1:31 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: Was it the shouty, all caps one? Maybe FYWP doesn’t like being hectored?

  94. 94.

    Adam L Silverman

    February 22, 2018 at 1:31 pm

    This seems an appropriate place to leave this:

    Russia's state TV about the U.S.:
    "Empires of that size never fall because of external influence. They always collapse because of internal divisions."
    That's why Russian info-ops simultaneously supported & attacked multiple candidates, playing up social unrest, division & strife. pic.twitter.com/33WmxTo42T

    — Julia Davis (@JuliaDavisNews) February 21, 2018

    Just to make sure no one gets confused: the part in quotation marks is a direct quote, the sentence that follows is my appraisal of why it's significant.

    — Julia Davis (@JuliaDavisNews) February 21, 2018

  95. 95.

    J R in WV

    February 22, 2018 at 1:34 pm

    @efgoldman:

    Hey mods!
    Apparently my heartfelt paean to Saint Wilmer disappeared without even being moderated
    Too may “fucks” I guess.
    Can find and retrieve, please?

    Not enough fucks to give? Just as likely, this is the ravening pack of Jackals, after all!!

  96. 96.

    J R in WV

    February 22, 2018 at 1:40 pm

    @efgoldman:

    OK, that now released comments does have enough “FUCK”s in it, official now!

  97. 97.

    Shalimar

    February 22, 2018 at 1:43 pm

    If Bernie actually contributes his money and time to help those running this year and earns a place heading the party, then good for him. I still won’t support him again, and have reached the point of actively loathing him, but still, good for him. At least he wll be helping Democrats.

    If he mostly sits on the sidelines with occasional visits to Iowa to start his own 2020 campaign, Bernie is going to find that no one buys his post-election book. He will recede into the past where he belongs.

  98. 98.

    different-church-lady

    February 22, 2018 at 1:51 pm

    …as the ’20 cycle begins

    Just kill me.

    Misread: thought it meant the 20 cycle began now.

  99. 99.

    different-church-lady

    February 22, 2018 at 1:54 pm

    In 2016 I had no qualms with Sanders’ running for the Dem nomination, even if his declaration of joining the party was one solely of convenience.

    But this motherfucker does not get to un-join the party, and then have the gall to run for the next nomination. You’re either in, or you’re out, asshole. And the party should not fall for it this time.

  100. 100.

    different-church-lady

    February 22, 2018 at 1:58 pm

    It’s either foolish or ballsy to publish a book just after the midterms — so much of what’s in it could look idiotic if the results overhaul the landscape.

  101. 101.

    rikyrah

    February 22, 2018 at 1:58 pm

    Watch this space: @StMartinsPress announces @BernieSanders will be publishing a new book called “WHERE WE GO FROM HERE” exactly one week after the midterms…

    — Gabriel Debenedetti (@gdebenedetti) February 21, 2018

    UH HUH
    UH HUH

  102. 102.

    Miss Bianca

    February 22, 2018 at 2:04 pm

    @rikyrah: “WHERE WE GO FROM HERE” – away from you, asshole!

    Not ready to forgive and forget. At this point, lefty purity ponies who want Socialism for White People and are prepared to overlook Saint Bernard’s manifold dogwhistles just because he says other stuff they like to hear, are pissing me off almost as much as MAGAts.

  103. 103.

    Captain C

    February 22, 2018 at 2:13 pm

    @The Moar You Know:

    including refusing to concede after the primaries

    I don’t think he’ll last that long. At least one rival candidate will attack him without kid gloves this time, and when you add in the Russia denialism (and possible other related problems, including scads of potentially laundered $27 donations) and NRA skeletons to his parade of “I don’t know how to accomplish my agenda” statements, his wife’s probable grifting, and a ton of other problems, I think he’ll have no support save his hardcore cultists by February of 2020.

    I mean seriously, us jackals here could probably come up with an ad campaign which would wreck him. I suspect the pros could do so even more.

  104. 104.

    Captain C

    February 22, 2018 at 2:14 pm

    Bernie blames Hillary for allowing Russian interference

    In more ways than one, this reminds me of Trump babbling “No puppet! No puppet! You’re the puppet!” in the debate.

  105. 105.

    different-church-lady

    February 22, 2018 at 2:16 pm

    @Captain C: It really is amazing how nobody bears any responsibility for the attacks against Hillary other than Hillary. Truly amazing, I tell you…

  106. 106.

    Captain C

    February 22, 2018 at 2:16 pm

    @schrodingers_cat: I can already see the 2020 ads: “Bernie Sanders claims to be Mr. Transparency, the only honest politician. But for years, he has refused to release his own tax returns. What is Bernie Sanders trying to hide? Call Bernie Sanders and demand that he release his tax returns; after all, what’s good for everyone else must surely be good for Bernie, too.”

  107. 107.

    WaterGirl

    February 22, 2018 at 2:20 pm

    @efgoldman: There can never be too many fucks. That’s my opinion.

  108. 108.

    WaterGirl

    February 22, 2018 at 2:23 pm

    @efgoldman: It’s always the ALL CAPS that get you.

  109. 109.

    Captain C

    February 22, 2018 at 2:27 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: But what material would there be? Embarrassing videos of Jane beseeching Bernie to stop talking shit lecturing about politics and please come to bed to consummate their marriage?

    Unless, of course, he actually agreed to work for them then.

  110. 110.

    different-church-lady

    February 22, 2018 at 2:32 pm

    @Captain C: Why are you doing this to us?

  111. 111.

    Captain C

    February 22, 2018 at 2:39 pm

    @Mnemosyne:

    He can’t weasel out of that now by claiming it wasn’t his responsibility to back Hillary up.

    Somehow, it’s never Wilmer’s responsibility. This is a great quality to have in a would-be leader.

    ETA:

    He let his own hurt fee-fees take precedence over the good of our country.

    Sounds like textbook narcissism. He only ever looks happy when getting applause or praise.

  112. 112.

    rikyrah

    February 22, 2018 at 2:39 pm

    @efgoldman:

    Tell me how you really feel

  113. 113.

    Captain C

    February 22, 2018 at 2:39 pm

    @different-church-lady: Certain politicians bring out the worst in me. I’ll have that brain bleach sent to you via express mail.

  114. 114.

    Captain C

    February 22, 2018 at 2:41 pm

    @different-church-lady: It’s almost like there’s some different quality about her that requires her rivals to set different standards for her.

  115. 115.

    Aimai

    February 22, 2018 at 3:17 pm

    @No Drought No More: fuck you! Why should HRC pledge anything?

  116. 116.

    the Conster, la Citoyenne

    February 22, 2018 at 3:43 pm

    @J R in WV:

    So much conservative-appearing greed by all the Sanders family!!

    They’re hillbilly Trumps.

  117. 117.

    J R in WV

    February 22, 2018 at 3:46 pm

    @Captain C:

    I think it is pretty obvious that Sanders has been in the pocket of Russians ever since he visited them on his honeymoon. All of his public life points that way. He would have to prove that he isn’t before I would allow him to talk to Democratic voters as a candidate. Yes, I know that you cannot prove a negative, that’s my point.

    Sanders and his wife and daughter are all grifters as bad as Wayne the Peter and the rest of the NRA. In fact he grifts FROM the NRA, quietly. He fights gun control, and most of his political agenda is parallel with the RWNJ agenda with a couple of exceptions, which are the economic Marxist agenda items he has confessed that he has no idea how to achieve.

    He isn’t very bright, either.

  118. 118.

    the Conster, la Citoyenne

    February 22, 2018 at 3:47 pm

    @Captain C:

    The first candidate that goes after him with both barrels and makes him answer tough questions gets my vote. He thinks he can run away from questions, and his cult thinks he’s going to be coddled. They’re wrong. The local reporters aren’t in his cult.

  119. 119.

    StringOnAStick

    February 22, 2018 at 3:51 pm

    @different-church-lady: I read Al Franken’s last book at about 3 weeks after he resigned (that’s when it arrived from the library). There was a part of me that really felt bad for him as he was being sincere about being a good senator and getting things done for people in MN, like getting a eye doctor into a reservation area because the Native Americans had zero access to that kind of care. I also came to the conclusion that the mainstream-always-wanted-to-be-a-politician types in DC never accepted him or took him seriously, and they certainly didn’t feel like he belonged in the their “club”. Maybe that had something to do with the rush to get him out of office.

    St. Bernard of the top 25 NRA contribution recipients club may find that his book will come back to bite him in the ass, especially as the Mueller investigation grinds along. I would be pleased by that, but judging from the idiot Bernie bot in my office (soon to be moving to India to “immerse mah self in the deep spirituality of all these impoverished people”) there is nothing they could ever pin on him that they would”t explain away. Deep state, neolibs, whatever excuse is handy. I swear my coworker has some romantic notion that Russia is a socialist paradise and Vlad just wants to help us get there by helping Bernie. It is fucking maddening. For 40 years old she is dumb as a fucking post. At least she’ll be in India and not voting in 2018.

  120. 120.

    Ruckus

    February 22, 2018 at 3:59 pm

    @WaterGirl:
    Not enough fucks is when you’ve already given them. I don’t have any left for BS, I’ve already given way too many.

  121. 121.

    WaterGirl

    February 22, 2018 at 6:56 pm

    @Ruckus: Humor fail.

  122. 122.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    February 22, 2018 at 10:26 pm

    535 members in Congress.

    Why is Wilmer the only ONE to vote against BOTH the Magnitsky Act and the recent sanctions on Russia’s election interference?

    Russian lawyer Magnitsky ‘tortured, beaten to death’ – report

    The law at first blocked 18 Russian government officials and businessmen from entering the United States, froze any assets held by U.S. banks and banned their future use of U.S. banking systems.

    The Magnitsky Act, rather, is about money. It freezes certain Russian officials’ access to the stashes they were keeping in Western banks and real estate and bans their entry to the United States.

    Why would he vote against a law the punishes torturers, murderers, oligarchs, and their bankers?

  123. 123.

    Marcia

    February 22, 2018 at 11:28 pm

    Bernie Sanders on Wednesday blamed Hillary Clinton for not doing more to stop the Russian attack on the last presidential election. Then his 2016 campaign manager, in an interview with POLITICO, said he’s seen no evidence to support special counsel Robert Mueller’s assertion in an indictment last week that the Russian operation had backed Sanders’ campaign.

    And here I’d thought I loathed that self-serving dick cheese in 2016. What’d I know?

  124. 124.

    Marcia

    February 23, 2018 at 12:01 am

    @Paul Gottlieb:

    The thought of replacing that repulsive bag of narcissistic hot air with an actual Democrat who wants to make life better is so enticing!

    Well, keep looking. Saint Bernard ain’t it.

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