Angry Berners have been rightly decrying the despicable manipulations of CNN, says Caitlin Johnstone.
By Caitlin Johnstone
CaitlinJohnstone.com
The hashtag #CNNIsTrash is the No. 1 trend on Twitter as of this writing due to the network’s appalling treatment of Senator Bernie Sanders in last night’s Democratic presidential debate in Iowa.
The joint smear job against Sanders had many arms, including wildly biased questions like Wolf Blitzer deliberately associating Bernie with “Iran’s Ayatollah Khamenei” by pointing out that they both want U.S. troops out of the Middle East and demanding to know how he was going to avoid “bankrupting the country” with a healthcare plan used in nations all over the world.
But by far the most glaringly egregious assault on the Vermont senator was when CNN moderator Abby Phillip took a completely evidence-free sexism smear which defies all logic and presented it to the debate audience as an established and undeniable fact. You can watch the exchange here:
Phillip brought up a transparently ridiculous claim that was “leaked” to the press and confirmed by Warren that in 2018 Sanders had told Warren he did not believe that a woman could win a presidential election. It’s a completely unproven allegation about an unwitnessed private conversation, yet Phillip did not ask Sanders if he had said such a thing, she asked him why he said it, presenting it as a given fact.
Sanders explicitly denied ever saying any such thing. He said there’s Youtube footage people can look up of him saying a woman could become president many decades ago, adding that he only ran for president in 2016 because Warren refused grassroots efforts to persuade her to run (efforts which he’d supported).
“So Senator Sanders, I do want to be clear here, you’re saying that you never told Senator Warren that a woman could not win the election?” asked Phillip.
“That is correct,” Sanders replied.
“Senator Warren,” Phillip then asked without missing a beat. “What did you think when Senator Sanders told you that a woman could not win the election?”
It was such a brazen manipulation that even CNN’s heavily pro-establishment crowd audibly reacted. Warren then cooperated with this manipulation by responding as though the allegation was a proven fact, without acknowledging Sanders’ denial or defending her claim.
In CNN’s post-debate analysis, pundits actively reinforced the completely fact-free narrative that this allegation was an established reality, with Van Jones referring to “a banana peel sitting out there for Bernie to slip on when it came to his comments about women,” an idea premised on the position that those comments are known to have actually happened.
CNN’s Jess McIntosh took it even further, overtly dismissing Sanders’ denial and saying, “I think what Bernie forgot was that this isn’t a he said/she said story. This is a reported out story that CNN was part of breaking, so to have him just flat out say no I think wasn’t nearly enough to address that for the women watching.”
“I think what Bernie forgot is that this *isn’t* a he said she said story, this is a reported out story that CNN was part of breaking…”
(WTF!?!) pic.twitter.com/e1DNhQXFMf
— wideofthepost (@wideofthepost) January 15, 2020
Of course, the allegation absolutely is a he said/she said story, per any possible definition: Warren says it happened, Sanders said it didn’t. The fact that CNN “reported out” on that he said/she said story doesn’t magically turn it into a fact, as should be obvious to any grown adult who isn’t suffering from a severe head wound.
More importantly, nobody actually believes that Bernie Sanders told Elizabeth Warren a woman cannot be president. Not Jess McIntosh, not Abby Phillip, not Van Jones, not Elizabeth Warren, not CNN, and not any of the establishment loyalists who are trumpeting this allegation as fact. Anyone who claims to believe that this interaction occurred is simply lying to advance a political agenda, and they know it.
The belief that a woman cannot be elected president in 2020 is not a thing. Nobody believes that, and anyone who pretends to believe that anyone believes that is simply telling you that they are an unprincipled liar who would rather take a nonsense stand on a nonsense issue than promote actual policies and changes. The heavy favorite to win the 2016 election was a woman, and were she not literally in the middle of an FBI investigation during that election she would have overcome the narrow margins she lost by.
It’s been years since anyone has believed that a woman cannot win a US presidential election. If you claim that the one person in the world who does believe this is a senator who’s spent decades advocating for feminism and women in politics, you are a liar. It absolutely is that simple.
Top three US trends right now:
1. #CNNisTrash
2. #NeverWarren
3. #WarrenIsASnake pic.twitter.com/SsuRZbDQWB— Caitlin Johnstone ? (@caitoz) January 15, 2020
So angry Berners have been rightly decrying the despicable manipulations of CNN, which can only be a good thing. A massively influential news corporation owned by the largest telecommunications company on the planet should not be able to determine who voters select to the highest elected office in the most powerful country in the world.
This is oligarchic election interference, plain and simple. If the U.S. government is going to call a few thousand dollars in Russian facebook memes election meddling, then the billions which get poured into the billionaire media tilting the scale to advantage the billionaire class is far worse by orders of magnitude.
Last May I wrote an article titled “The Worst 2020 Election Interference Will Be Perfectly Legal” saying that the most egregious forms of election meddling we’ll see in this presidential race will not be perpetrated by the Russians, nor by the DNC, nor by sleazy gerrymandering or voter ID requirements, nor by hard vote tally manipulation, but the everyday, in-your-face manipulations of corporate media outlets like CNN. Unsurprisingly, this is already proving undeniably true.
What you just saw tonight IS rigging an election. But go on, CNN, Nancy Pelosi, and corporate dems, do keep telling us how Russia is the real boogie man trying to destroy our democracy. #CNNisTrash
— beth, purity test enthusiast (@bourgeoisalien) January 15, 2020
In fact the power of these vast news media corporations to manipulate the way the populace thinks and votes stretches far beyond the consequences of a mere presidential election. The ability to manufacture consent for the agendas of the plutocratic class which controls these corporations enables war, ecocide, militarism, soul-crushing oligarchic neoliberalism, increasingly Orwellian surveillance programs and an increasingly militarized police force to destroy lives and this very world without it ever occurring to a critical majority that it would be possible for us to use the power of our numbers to force real changes to our advantage.
It is good that people are loudly criticizing this dynamic. It’s important to keep drawing attention to the way we’re being manipulated out of having any control over not just what happens in our world, but over what we think about what happens in our world. Hopefully public trust in the mouthpieces of oligarchy can be weakened to such an extent that people stop buying into their deceptions.
Caitlin Johnstone is a rogue journalist, poet, and utopia prepper who publishes regularly at Medium. Follow her work on Facebook, Twitter, or her website. She has a podcast and is author of the book, “Woke: A Field Guide for Utopia Preppers.”
This article was re-published with permission.
The views expressed are solely those of the author and may or may not reflect those of Consortium News.
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Pardonb me, apparently I was wrong and my comments were NOT removed. My humble apologies to all, esp. Caitlin.
Well said
Frankly LMAO right now. Republicans/conservatives have been telling you the media is WAY biased for the last forty or more years. CNN is a pack of liars and has been for decades. It isn’t any worse now, most of y’all are just upset that NOW they’re going after people YOU like! Oh, NOW you’re pissed off, NOW you care about journalistic integrity? Where the hell have you been, hiding in a cave in Tora-Bora??? Lying that supports YOUR agenda is fine, it’s only when YOUR ox gets gored that you’re outraged!
You have a perfect right to rub it in. Enjoy your “I told you so’s” — you deserve them.
We liberals/progressives were so busy lecturing you about Fox that we failed to realize that the MSM was equally lousy.
I didn’t catch on until the 2016 election. I saw then — for the first time — things that forced me to open my eyes. The MSM coverage of the first Democratic presidential debate in October 2015 (not the debate itself, but the coverage afterward) was mind-boggling awful. And the coverage just got progressively worse. I’m not saying that’s when it started — but that’s the event that brought it home for me.
Perhaps the hardest thing for a left-leaning guy to admit is *not* that Trump is right about some things. It’s that Sarah Palin was. She was right about some things we missed. To our shame, she was there before we were.
We made fun of her for calling it the “lamestream media.” She was right about that. (She was also right about “how’s that hopey-changey-thing workin’ out for ya.”)
Mea culpa.
Regarding CNN, “CNN Wire Services” specifically, used as cut-n-paste filler stories on the Mercury-News (formerly San Jose Mercury News). This is all clickbait.
Anecdotal; during breakfast, I mention to family members about the government sanctioning medications for curable diseases in Iran, and nationwide strikes in France entering their 7th week.
“Humph” is the response, “Where’d you hear that?”
“”Counterpunch” I reply,
“Never heard of it”
(Silence”
then, Another family member, reading The Mercury, shouts “Oh man listen to this, a woman in Texas had to pay $600 for a video of her 5yo daughter being bullied on a bus!”
Americans could begin to regain some political clout if they did this one simple thing-
DON’T VOTE FOR EITHER A REPUBLICAN OR DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATE- VOTE FOR ONE OF THE SMALLER PARTY’S CANDIDATES
What? you may ask!!! This is how I look at it. Other political parties in the USA besides the two major ones NEVER get to address the American public in these Duopoly Debates. They are not even included in these “debates” and that should not be the case in a supposed democracy. Everyone should be heard on the same broadcasted debate, PERIOD! The usual refrain for NOT voting for a “small party candidate” is that you will waste your vote on someone who certainly will not win. But are you really “winning” when the candidate you vote for just turns out to be another water boy(girl) for the Deep State? I don’t think so. And when millions of Americans start voting for candidates from the Green, Libertarian or whatnot parties, that is a REAL message to the powers-that-be, not just a rubber stamp by millions of sadly-informed Americans who more-than-likely haven’t done any extensive research, if any, other than the BS they get daily from the mainstream media.
If you vote within the duopoly of Democratic/Republican Parties, you are basically voting for ONE thing- the continuation of the Deep State’s undemocratic hold on the USA and its misinformed ignorant voters! Allowing ALL candidates to address Americans on the SAME STAGE, with the same amount of time to do it as the “media sweetheart”(Deep State) candidates seems only right and just to me, but obviously many of the “small party” candidates would smoke the two major party candidates with their views and stances on the USA’s needs. They would draw millions of voters and be a monkey wrench into the machinations of the two-party duopoly that dominates American politics. If the system is rigged so that a Democrat or republican will ALWAYS control the Oval Office, then the USA is NOT a democracy and “our” troops are sacrificing and dying for the thieves of REAL democracy.
Vote for a “small party’ candidate and take a chunk out of the block of deception that the Republican/Democrat duopoly puts on top of Americans every “election” cycle! The major two parties are actually one and the same thing when it comes to issues that threaten the rich and powerful- they are ALL on board for anything that rewards them at the expense of the American public!
At the same time as this farce was broadcast Tulsi Gabbard livestreamed a brilliant discussion featuring Stephen Kinzer regarding the current and historical situation in Iran/Iraq.
We shouldnt waste our time watching phony canned non debates involving the democratic candidates. I would urge Yang and Sanders to follow Tulsis lead and boycott all future debates. Then we the people should set up our own free and fair debates without corporate interference.
Hear, hear!
The biggest political disappointment and sense of betrayal I’ve ever felt was Obama. I left the Democratic party because of him.
I had friends who saw him for what he was ahead of time. But it took me until he selected his cabinet to realize I had been fooled. And then it was too late.
The lesson I took from that deeply damaging experience was that it is not enough to pay attention to a candidate’s words and promises. It’s not enough to know what others think and say about her or him.
You have to put away wishful thinking. You have to do your best to see who the candidate really is — who the person “underneath” is — and not just see what you want.
Warren has told us who she is. She had done so, quietly, previously. This time she did it very loudly.
Listen to Warren. Then vote Bernie.
Could not agree more, mbob. I “lost my innocence” when Obama betrayed us with his smooth-tongued blabber. What a bullshitter that one was! But losing my trust, well, that’s just fine with me. I was a little late to the party, so to speak, but once I woke up to the scam that is U.S. electoral politics, there was no going back. So maybe I should thank Obama… but I’d really rather throw a foam brick at the TV whenever I see his duplicitous, smarmy face. Warren is a serpent and she has shown us her serpentine ways over and over again. As the saying goes, “when people show you who they are, believe them.”
mbob, that’s how I felt about G.W. Bush. High hopes dashed to hell. Respect. I wrote in Bernie last time, not because I agreed with him but because I couldn’t stand Hillary or Trump.
The biggest laugher are the liberals and progressives who play both-sides–ism and urge restraint and decorum without acknowledging that Warren launched one of the most underhanded and craven political attacks in memory.
Agreed. This was one of the most brazen smears I can remember, right up there with Willie Horton. Perhaps the sheer shamelessness of it was a wake-up call, like Dorothy pulling back the curtain. Now all can see that Warren is emphatically not a part of the progressive project.
I didn’t watch the show, but as far as any degree public outrage over a particularly blatant example of media manipulating public political opinion, no, this won’t change anything. Similar examples of media manipulation of political information/public opinion date way back, with some quite blatant examples in this era alone (since Reagan’s era of mass media “reforms”). Now and then, outrage is such that the public thinks things will change, and then they don’t.
Absolutely correct. It probably goes back in our context to at least 1800, when President John Adams (running for re-election) was infamously smeared by proponents of his “friend” Thomas Jefferson (Jefferson won). In my lifetime, an Arizona Senator named Barry Goldwater was on the receiving end of especially vicious smears by the Democrats pushing LBJ for election to the presidency (he, too, won). So not only is it pervasive, it is almost always succesful – although the internet may in this case avert that.
You’re right that this is a blatant example of bias.
But you may miss the breadth of what now exists resulting from all the newspapers following the lead of the agenda-journalism of the NYTimes and Wash Post plus the networks adding essential unanimity to the multiplicity of aghast declarations and well-orchestrated selection of detail. The consolidation of media ownership has worked well in changing this society from a democracy to a corporatocracy. And all this is to an unprecedented degree.
The mystery to me is why anyone ( much less a progressive) ever consider Warren as a worthwhile candidate. Hopefully this vignette will demonstrate what sort of person she, and her associates, are.
For years now, I have refused to watch CNN under any circumstances. For years now, I have also refused to click on any CNN links.
They simply are not journalists.
Not even close.
Period. End of story.
Read the prophetic book, Red Mafiya by Robert Friedman, and find out how much influence Russia has on the US. The book alleged that Russian mobster had infiltrated Russian government during and after the fall of the Soviet, colluded with Netanyahu, Ariel Sharon, and other party members of Likud and used Israeli passports for easier entry into the US. After the murder of the Israeli anticorruption police, Rabin, they pillared banks in every corner of Israel. These thugs swore loyalty to no states, they do not care if they are Russians, Israelis or Americans. The book was published 20 years ago, and guess whose name popped up… Donald Trump. It was released around the same time the DEA had leaked a report pointing to Israelis and Russians as the major distributors of drugs such as ecstacy in the US during late 1990s. So the possibility of election interference by Russians for the benefit of Israel is very real.
Disclaimer: I have voted two times for a woman POTUS: Cynthia McKinney and Jill Stein. So, be wary of criticizing my opinions.
Think about it. Women have come a long, long way politically in the past 150 years. How much more do you want? Everything? Then think about Maggie Thatcher’s role in neoconservatizing the UK; Eva Peron; Angela Merkel; the women who have had significant influence in current Brazilian and Bolivarian, and Puerto Rican politics; oh, yes! not to mention the fact that the disgusting Hillary Clinton won—admittedly in a so-called civilized nation—the 2016 USA presidential election by a whopping 2.9 million votes. These cited instances are only starters considering the many women who occupy significant judicial, administrative and political posts in state, federal, and local governments. So, ladies, stop griping and concentrate your efforts on defining and influencing genuine international, national and global issues, one issue at a time. One other point: The League of Women Voters should be re-installed as the moderators of any alleged presidential political “debate” and those debates should be broadcast on CSPAN, not on advertisement-riddled commercial TV. Ooops, there is the first brick thrown through my windows—-gotta go now.
Brilliant, I voted for Jill too.
I’ll buy you a new pane of glass!
?? Peace.
Law school enrollments are now 70% women.
I apologize for disseminating misinformation. My stat above is incorrect, I thought I had read somewhere that it was 70%. I think it’s that women are projected to make up close to 70% of law schl enrollments within a decade or something like that.
Good rundown of past elected female leaders. This whole thing is a divisionary distraction, pushed by ‘centrist’ (read: neo-con Dems) factions, because there’s SO much evidence that gender (and race) don’t make a good-goddamn worth of difference in terms of progressive policies, especially when the candidate is the standard-bearer of a neo-con political party. I ‘d rather have an ‘old, white, heterosexual male’ with a truly progressive past in terms of POLICIES, NOT just campaign verbiage, than a black female lesbian with a centrist history who makes vague allusions to progressive policies (that’s you Barack) and then ‘dives-right’ once she’s elected. Thatcher was a woman and her policies were abhorrent. There is an underlying sexism to this, ie; the belief that a female candidate (or black or LGBT) will somehow be more sympathetic, compassionate, understanding, empathetic than a white male candidate, but IF they’ve been ‘filtered-through’ the two-party selection process, that will virtually always select-OUT the progressives by the final round. So it won’t matter what their gender/race/sexual orientation/etc is, militarily and economically they will be neo-cons in those important policy areas.
Not watching CNN is a simple matter of self-respect. Of course some people have to watch it, for social science research into human pathology, and the like.
CNN’s trashing of Senator Bernie Sanders, followed by Senator Warren’s opportunistic, back-stabbing reply is symptomatic of the rot that is at the heart of the journalistic profession today. In fairness, the political establishment has always had the stench of back stabbing, cork-screwing and double-dealing. It goes back to the beginning of human history. But modern journalism was supposed be different. Fat chance of that happening. Abby Phillip’s and Wolf Blitzer’s performance snuffed-out whatever remained of CNN’s integrity. Napoleon was reported to have said that : “a journalist is a tutor of nations, a regent to kings. Six hostile newspapers are more to be feared than a thousand bayonets.” Seems to me what the bayonet couldn’t do, money, ratings and movie star fame have accomplished. Whatever happened to give light and the people will find their way.” Old Scripps-Howard motto on the masthead. Gone and forgotten.
You wrote:
“Abby Phillip’s and Wolf Blitzer’s performance snuffed-out whatever remained of CNN’s integrity.”
I was not aware that they had any integrity left to snuff out. :-)
Well said
Instead of “Read the transcript”, it should be “Read the TV screen”!
I could hardly believe my eyes — where were these corrupt talking heads? In the “CNN Spin Room”!!
Senator Warren is more than a lawyer; she’s a legal authority [by virtue of having taught at Harvard Law], right? So, let’s look at this rationally: What evidence has Senator Warren offered to show that Senator Sanders actually said what he is now being accused of saying?
In my opinion Warren is the neocon candidate, particularly as she practically never seems to say anything about foreign policy, and also — well, look whose supporting her.
We already knew she was not above manipulation and distortion of the truth to get what she wants. Her identity politics ploys stink especially because they seem frequently based on falsehood.
Even here, no mention of Tulsi. Money talks–no, it swats and struts, and fictionalizes–oh, the lies! If the Sanders team would put Tulsi at the top, that would shut them up, upon winning, leave Tulsi to sort out the MIC, one-on-one, and Bernie to kick-butt in the Senate. If Bernie were to bring Tulsi in, as a Bernie team member, to these marionette shows, the spinners would have to cool it with this calumny.
My dream team, in an earlier race ,would have been Cynthia McKinney and Jesse Ventura, which would have been an entertaining romp. I expect these two are too jaded to participate in this mess now it has sunk into the muck as much as it has.
A depressing show of fawning to ‘garchs.
Is it bad enough that U.S. people will wake up to discover the death rates of infants, elders, and even middle-aged from the most broken illness-promotion system on the planet? Does anybody care about the trend-lines for U.S. health indicators?
Then, there is the forced cheapening of U.S. information platforms other than the horrid corporate TV stations, the subject of another report here today on consortium new-rather-than-irrelevant things. Sigh.
Actually, liberals proved resistant to “getting” the problem. Most votes come down to economic issues and policies, not race/age/gender. Democrats split apart their own voting base in the ’90s, middle class vs. poor, and the Obama years confirmed that this split is permanent. That split only grew wider and deeper through the years, and trying to explain the consequences proved futile. The meme of the season is a call for universal health care coverage (or at least, lower-cost coverage for the currently employed) in a country that denies basic food and shelter to those left jobless. Democrats/party loyalists will never admit how successfully they destroyed the party. Until November, media will focus on setting the stage to “prove” that “Russia stole the election!”
Well, here’s mention of Tulsi, for what it is worth.
To my knowledge, Tulsi Gabbard’s only direct connection with this story is that she has commented that Bernie Sanders was friendly and encouraging to her when she announced her candidacy.
Tulsi recently brought together Stephen Kinzer and Dennis Kucinich for a discussion (mainly about Iran) before an audience in New Hampshire. Kim Iversen has posted this in its entirety on her YouTube channel—and there is a “highlights” video (17 minutes) available on Tulsi Gabbard YouTube channel.
CNN appears to be competing with FOX for fake news of the year award.
As several have mentioned this is a good as it gets in the Bullshit empire. Expect more and settle for less, this now the American way.
A woman cannot win an election. Really! Well there was Mrs Thatcher, and before her Benazir Bhutto, Indira Gandhi, Golda Meir, Dilma Roussef, and currently Angela Merkel. Moreover, a majority of the ministers in the Swedish government are women. So women do get elected to senior positions in government including the offices of President and Prime Ministers.
But the media, particularly CNN, don’t bother themselves with irrelevancies like factual detail. They just make up stories. This is what journalism has come to – organized and relentless mendacity.
It seems to me Senator Warren is making this issue a self-fulling prophesy. As the woman who was holding her own amongst the boys in the field, playing the victim isn’t going to win her any votes. It won’t be just Bernie supporters that find this whole affair a negative reflection on her character. I’ll grant that many voters don’t seem to make character an issue. After all we did have Hillary and Donald as the two leads in our last fiasco-election.
What if the whole system, of voting, of the political system, of the legal system, of the economic system, of the educational system, of the “information system, of the whole “constitutional republic”, of virtually (and literally) everything is simply oligarchic meddling?
What if voting, in fact if not fiction, is a rite – an empty ritual designed to manipulate those privileged to “vote” into believing that their input matters, that their “vote” shapes policy and actually makes a difference?
What if political parties are nothing but private clubs that can do as they wish, can lie, can deceive, can manipulate “their” voters into selecting “leaders” whose purpose, beyond enriching and empowering themselves, is simply to obediently perform as trained lapdogs whatever tricks the oligarchic masters may desire?
What if, from the very beginning the “franchise” was restricted to those of certain privilege, or wealth, or property ownership, to those who embraced the imperial mindset of dominance, control, and rapacious greed?
What if the legal system, beyond the odious behavior of the enforcers on the street, the prison wardens, and corrupted judges, was based not on actual justice but upon money; that competent legal counsel depended not upon the justice of ones situation but upon how much money one has? What if the courts had the power to simply dismiss ideas and serious questions of moral and legal moment by simply saying that the person(s) bringing the question before the court had no “standing”, no fundamental “right” to burden the court with such questions?
What is money is regarded as “speech”?
Or corporations as “people”?
What if it is declared that the government may, “legally”, propagandize the public, may lie with impunity, may use fear to start wars or undermine the necessities of the many by siding with the few, the wealthy, the munitions manufacturers, the financial institutions against the needs and well-being of the many?
What if the whole and entire purpose of permitting the many to stage meaningless elections, when overarching policies of perpetual war making, including economic warfare, of systemic predation at home and abroad, remain the same regardless of how the many “choose” among the candidates already vetted as compliant, complacent, and willing to be complicit, is simply to create a facade, a pretense of “democracy”?
Some might regard that as clever.
Yet, if as is widely believed, and amply demonstrated, “All politicians lie,” then what may inevitably be expected but calamity, catastrophe, and collapse?
Especially if we are merely a military empire masquerading as a republic?
At some point, the masks, the mendacious mechanisms must fail, in spectacular and stunning fashion.
As well, such a system cannot, willnot ever, be willing to confront existential threats beyond its own “indispensable” existence.
Neither environmental collapse nor nuclear Armageddon can be acknowledged nor dealt with … because both result from the system itself, must arise from such a system, for Full Spectrum Dominance demands total destruction as the ultimate weapon and Final Solution.
It’s a well orchestrated plan. Just before the impeachment hearings are to break you use Elizard to Kamikaze Bernie. Both Elizard and Bernie get tied up in the hearings, leaving the neo-libs to work over the public. Biden and Buttigeig, with a helping of Styer and Bloomberg, run free with the “how can we afford social programs for all?” attacks.
Warren is backroom dealing. Aspiring to rise, like HRC did, no matter who had to be roadkilled. Sorry, but although she’s better than HRC I will NOT vote any ticket that would have her on it (as I’m sure she won’t be the head of the ticket- count her out as VP to Bernie [Tulsi has been my choice from the start; she’s the ONLY one that it truly loyal and could be counted on to watch Bernie’s back]).
Bernie supporters ought to also support Tulsi. Tulsi is an insurance policy for Bernie, for Our Revolution and against the status-quo neo-libs and neo-cons.
Does anyone have ANY idea WHY Klobuchar is even in this race, STILL in this race?
The field is flooded to ensure that no one will get a majority on the first ballot. It is a ploy by the DNC to bring in the superdelegates on the second ballot to endorse corporate sponsored warmonger from column B.
Abby Phipps has been riding on HRC’s coattails for years. Her husband Marcus Richardson, according to this article (See:hollywoodmask.com/celebs/abby-phillip-cnn-wiki-age.html) is a managing consultant for nVisium (See:nvisium.com/about.html), which is an “application security company.”
Trump was right when he called CNN fake news.
CNN – CIA News Network
CNN is a perfect example of an imploding mockingbird operation….. and they don’t even have a clue.
This whole affair is rather disturbing; Warren had done some good work and she is incredibly smart and should be familiar with Bernie’s historic advocacy for getting women into office. She should have remembered when Bernie tried to get her to run for POTUS.
I am surprised she would try to pull such a flagrantly fake move such as this. She does have a long history of being lose with the truth, though not as consistently as many politicians.
By not admitting she could have misinterpreted his comments about Trump “weaponizing” sexism, she has diminished herself,not him, in the eyes of anyone knowledgeable.
I have been also shocked to find out she supports sanctions on Venezuela and tacitly supports the Bolivian coup by calling for elections. Since Morales didn’t finish his term elections are inappropriate-restoration is. This is full neo-con.
All in all she seems to be channeling her inner conservatism from her Republican days; which is too bad as it is waste of her talent and stature.
As far as CNN is concerned, this is nothing new; their “debates” have consistently used questions which limit the narrative to centrist talking points. Anyone disagreeing is made out to be an outlier. There have always been individuals who they try to make out as unacceptable.
Someone suggested bringing back League of Women Voter’s debates, but that would keep CNN’s millionaire pundits from earning their fortunes obfuscating the public. Money talks-no it swears.
John, you make excellent points. Very on-point it seems to me when you note, “By not admitting she could have misinterpreted his comments about Trump “weaponizing” sexism, she has diminished herself, not him, in the eyes of anyone knowledgeable.”
I too am concerned with her and other candidates that seem to be lock-step in the regime change sanction wars. Disgusting! Finally, it would be a step in the right direction as far as political debates are concerned to have the League of Women Voter’s or some other non-profit, non-partisan organization manage the debates.
Warren is a political opportunist. The Native American lie, party switching, etc., notice how she has backed off of Medicare fir All.
She is the white female oBOMBa – a politically correct wrapper on the same old establishment garbage.
I have not watched any of the debates. Why would anyone but a commercial entity detached from the human condition.
But I have watched that video of Oliver’s. Three times, couldn’t believe what I was seeing and hearing. Wonderful stuff. The energy one gains from the truth laid bare are enormous.
Rave ON CN
That anyone in today’s wired world would bother watching any cable ‘news’ channel is beyond me. The very dog and pony show of these debates on said controlled channels simply plays into the hands of the oligarchy. Of course they’re going to manipulate and influence and corrupt, every chance they get and/or create.
I haven’t bothered with any network or cable ‘news’ for decades now, and I feel competently informed about issues transpiring in our world. I have sites such as CN to thank for that.
That should be the take away for everyone who saw this spectacle. People need to shut off their TVs in droves. Tweeting about it does next to nothing; refusing to allow your eyeballs to absorb CNN’s BS is what destroys their power.
The only reliable news today is found at sites like this one. I urge everyone to forward the articles found here to as many people as possible. A good dose of truth is the only thing that will awaken the public from their mass hypnosis.
Fakeahontas Liz has been caught in multiple lies whereas Bernie never has.
She’s wretched but, um, sure he has. Never heard him speak about foreign policy?
Excellent commentary on these events! My only offering is to say that the whole “Bernie doesn’t believe in the power of women” meme stinks highly of a Clinton or DNC move (is there a difference?). I think this idea was offered up to Warren and she took the bait. However, the only reason such an idea would be proffered to Warren is that it works to divide the only two candidates on the stage arguing for a more progressive agenda, and actually seeks to defeat both Sanders and Warren together, opening the way to the centrist, any centrist, the sleeping populace will accept. It’s the perfect political hit job, because the one doing the damage is the one they want to get rid of. And remember, Bernie makes their collective skin crawl.
Interesting, I think you could be right about the source. Of course, even if she was just taking the bait, that doesn’t let Warren off the hook (so to speak) for her role in this.
And I agree that this could haunt and hurt both Warren and Sanders. Which one of them to believe will be a new dividing line, which shows early signs of becoming quite bitter. For some (myself included), the episode reinforces a perception of Warren as false and manipulative, while it will confirm some feminists and Hillary fans in their suspicion of some kind of misogyny on Sanders’ part.
CNN = Clinton News Network
Completely agree.
This spat is going to turn some Liz voters into #NeverBernie voters, and some Bernie voters into #NeverLiz voters. In the event one of those two wins the nomination, those voters will either stay home, vote third party or hold their noses and vote for Trump. Regardless of which option they choose, the net effect is to reduce the number of populist leftist voters, which is EXACTLY what neoliberals want to see happen. They’d rather have a second term of Trump than a leftist from their own party in the Oval Office. It’s #BidenOrBust for them, and they’re all too happy to see Liz and Bernie voters at each other’s throats.