The hashtag #CNNIsTrash is the number one trend on Twitter as of this writing due to the network’s appalling treatment of 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 US 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’s image 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.”

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.

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 US 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.

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.

_______________________

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113 responses to “#CNNIsTrash Trends As Pushback Grows Against Oligarchic Election Meddling”

  1. Carolyn Zaremba Avatar
    Carolyn Zaremba

    Caitlin, this is a good article, but when you appear to support the likes of Hillary Clinton, well known to be a war criminal and tool of Wall Street and the security services, you lose me right there. She’s a criminal any way you look at it, if you really look at it. She and the Clinton Foundation are crooks. Hillary is a former Goldwater Girl, never forget it, because she never forgets it for an instant.

  2. Ms Johnstone this article is very informative.
    Secret Wars, Forgotten Betrayals, Global Tyranny. Who Is Really in Charge of the United States Military? by Cynthia Chung
    https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2020/01/19/secret-wars-forgotten-betrayals-global-tyranny-who-is-really-in-charge-of-the-u-s-military/

  3. One thing that amazes me about modern propaganda artists (and their editors) is that they don’t know how to write the English language. The following is in copy attributed to the Associated Press.
    “The sergeant then shot one of the suspects who refused to drop his gun twice, the police statement said.”
    ??
    ?
    So, the officer told the target that he/she had to drop their gun. Apparently the target did so. Then the officer told him/her to pick it up and drop the gun a second time. Somewhere in that process, the target refused and the officer shot him/her.
    https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/police-officer-involved-shooting-atlanta-mall-68380151
    These days, apparently skill in churning out the appropriate propaganda aimed at the appropriate hybrid-war victims is more important.

  4. Very rarely do I, as a U.S. citizen ever get to see or hear the ” other side of the story “. Ms Johnstone I hope that you and your readers find this article very interesting.
    -When Donald Trump assassinated Qasem Soleimani on January 3rd, it was Israel’s revenge.
    https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2020/01/18/soleimanis-only-public-interview/

  5. Michel Bélisle Avatar
    Michel Bélisle

    What I am telling people is stop encouraging the System of the elites by casting a vote.

    If there are not enough proofs so far that we are not living in a democratic society, I do not know when there will be enough. Just think about the treatment of Mr Assange in our “democracy”.

    It is democracy similar to the democracy they had in the days of Noah because we are in the return of those days just before the Second Coming of Jesus and I pray the Rosary to hasten His glorious return because I have seen enough bullshit.

    1. In other words, just let the Oligarchs win.
      .
      .
      Wow, first I was confused about what the heck the myth of Noah and the Great Flood had to do with the mythical second coming of Christ, then I discover that they had democracy back in those days.

      1. Michel Bélisle Avatar
        Michel Bélisle

        Because the oligarchs are not winning when you vote?

        The electoral process is their justification to rule.

        And for sure, it was the kind of democracy you had in the days of Noah because everything in those days was nothing but hypocrisy ( very similar to our days which are the return of the days of Noah).

        The good news is that the return of Jesus is very near. Let’s pray the Rosary to hasten His Glorious return.

    2. There is no such thing as a wasted vote as long as it gets counted. I have been voting since 1964 and have yet to vote for a Republican or Democrat for president. History tells us that third party candidates can have a lot of influence. The platform of The Socialist Party and Norman Thomas looked more like FDR’s New Deal than the Democratic platform of 1932. Ross Perot influenced both parties. George Wallace led to the Republican Southern Strategy. Ralph Nader and Jill Stein are the progenitors of The Green New Deal. Never give up the ship. If you do the 1% have won.

  6. I think any sane human being can agree that while war was never a good idea, war in the 21st century is an absolutely intolerable one. The problem we currently face is that many of the forces driving world events towards an all-out war of “Mutually Assured Annihilation” are anything but sane. Please peruse this excellent article here:
    https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2020/01/18/the-geopolitics-of-epistemological-warfare-from-babylon-to-neocon/

  7. If you think pesticides are behind the dangerous drop in bee and butterfly populations, then you are “a deranged conspiracy theorist”. So says Bayer-Monsanto, a major producer of pesticides.
    If you say or do anything that threatens corporate profits, then the first response is to call you a conspiracy theorist.
    https://theintercept.com/2020/01/18/bees-insecticides-pesticides-neonicotinoids-bayer-monsanto-syngenta/

  8. “Hopefully public trust in the mouthpieces of oligarchy can be weakened to such an extent that people stop buying into their deceptions.” Yes, Caitlin, that is our only hope. Why not form a national movement to boycott the MSM, to not only not pay attention to it and buy its deceptions, but also to not buy products or services advertised upon it? I can’t imagine a more effective way of weakening the mouthpiece of the warmongering plutocrats.

    1. There was once a movie called “V for Vendetta”. My favorite scene in that movie was when the Great Leader wanted to talk to his people just before Guy Fawkes night. But, all the chairs in front of the tellies were empty, and nobody was listening.
      That’s a worthy goal. That when they try to rig an election, or start a war, then nobody is even bothering to listen to them anymore.
      Turn Them Off!!!!!

  9. Thanks for an excellent analysis, Caitlin. For a clear explanation of Warren’s ideology w/regard to Bernie’s, check out this analysis, replete with helpful diagrams, by Nathan J. Robinson, an insightful young socialist. It clears out some of the misconceptions we’ve been under. https://www.currentaffairs.org/2020/01/thinking-about-the-democratic-primary/ For me, it clarified that Elizabeth Warren was never one of us (by “us” I do not mean “socialist,” I mean populist, 99%er, small “d” democrat). She is entitled to her political and economic views, but the cynical misrepresentation of her ideology and the string of misrepresentations about her personal history shows how unacceptable Warren should be to ethically-minded people.

    Secondly, we have Bill Clinton’s 1996 Telecom Act to thank for the tightly corporate controlled media monopoly that determines virtually everything we are allowed to see over mainstream channels. The MSM has been rewarding the Clintons ever since. We need to break up the monopoly. It is profoundly un-American and undemocratic.

    1. The process began with Reagan, continued with Clinton, and went further with Bush.
      —-
      Back when America had a Free Press, there were rules such as The Fairness Doctrine and The Equal Time Rule. If an outlet expressed an editorial opinion, they had to give equal time to other parties. And ownership was spread out among lots of local, independent businessmen. That all began to change under Reagan. Clinton continued as this was yet another place where Clinton was the same as Reagan before and Bush afterwards.

  10. Michel Bélisle Avatar
    Michel Bélisle

    And the “climate change” golden youth, where are they when it comes to Mr Assange?

    And now that volcanoes are erupting in many places, why don’t they protest as they did in September for the “planet”?

    No doubt, decadence is a clear sign of the return of the days of Noah which days we are in now.

    Let’s pray the Rosary to hasten the return of Jesus.

    1. now that volcanoes are “erupting in many places”. are there more eruptions than normal? source? and why would anybody protest against natural phenomena, as opposed to corporate destruction of the climate. i’m sure that many people who are worried about climate change support assange.
      the decadence emanates from the profiteers ruining the climate, and their shill apologists. if there were a jesus, and he were coming back, he would have to chase the moneychangers and the shills claiming to operate in his name from the temple again.
      what he would not do is hover protectively over giant corporations, and pretend they were somehow equivalent to victims like assange.

      1. Michel Bélisle Avatar
        Michel Bélisle

        “i’m sure that many people who are worried about climate change support assange.”

        Maybe, maybe, but it does not show.

        And I do not think Mr Assange is a huge topic among the golden youth. I am on the impression that the golden youth cares only for their image, climate change being a “virtue-signaling” cause for them.

        It is a shame that people tolerate this situation with Mr Assange. The decadence of the elites is reaching many people, especially the golden youth.

        It shows that we are truly in the return of the days of Noah and I pray the Rosary to hasten the return of Jesus because I do have seen enough.

        And yes, there are more volcanoes waking up:

        http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/7-major-earth-changes-that-are-happening-right-now-that-everyone-needs-to-know-about

        1. cite a scientific source, not an economist. there a a lot of youth, not just “golden youth”. and they are quite naturally concerned about their future. not everyone shares your belief in jesus, or his immanent return.

          1. From here in Quebec, most of the youth are “golden youth”. Maybe elsewhere it is different, but in Quebec for the last 30 years, it has been among the poorest segment of the population that you found the most case of loneliness and the less children.

            The “future” is not only about climate but also about a society where you have freedom of speech.

            The detention of Mr Assange does not look good for the future of free speech.

            I am ashame my country does not ask for the immediate release of this gentleman.

            And I am still praying devoutly the Rosary to hasten the return of Jesus because I do have seen enough.

        2. My belief is that there’s a lot of Christians who are going to be very surprised to meet a very pissed off God because they destroyed the world he created, and a pissed-off Jesus who’s mad because they took his message of peace and love and turned it into a Doomsday cult and destroyed the world.

    2. For the record, I’ve always thought that the Rapture would be a good thing, and if its for real I wish it would get here quick.
      I think that many, many Christians will be surprised by who rises to heaven. I think its likely to be those who practiced and believed in Peace and Love. In other words, what Jesus was trying teach. The old hippies rise to heaven as they followed Jesus’ message, while the churches full of used-car dealers who hate the poor and love war will be very confused at this.
      But, if I’m wrong, and its all these pro-war, hate-the-poor, 2nd coming type Christians who depart, well, then the world will be a far better place without them. They seem to be the source of most of the world’s problems.

    3. Carolyn Zaremba Avatar
      Carolyn Zaremba

      Please stop with your religious superstition. Religion is responsible for the erosion of brain cells as it is. Spreading it is criminal.

  11. Michel Bélisle Avatar
    Michel Bélisle

    “As in the days of Noah, they won’t see it coming.”

    https://www.stevequayle.com/index.php?s=33&d=2403

    Very interesting link. It is confirming that we are in the return of the days of Noah just before the return of Jesus.

    If all of that happens, and I believe it will happen, It’s going to be embarrassing for the ruling elites to keep Mr Assange in jail, so I think he will be freed when those events will be happening and it will happen pretty soon. Already there is that huge volcano in the Philippines waking up and many other volcanoes around the world.

    And I pray the Rosary to hasten the return of Jesus because I do have seen enough of all the bullshit.

  12. According to Michael Snyder, there are important developments on earth which mainstream medias are not talking about:

    http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/7-major-earth-changes-that-are-happening-right-now-that-everyone-needs-to-know-about

    If a flood happened in the days of Noah, we can believe that in our days, which are the return of the days of Noah, some global natural disaster is on the way.

    I pray the Rosary to hasten the return of Jesus because I have really seen enough bs.

  13. I took the Staten Island ferry to Manhattan this morning. As I was solving the numbers puzzle in my newspaper I (and a lot of other people) were forced to listen to a very loud conversation about this CNN debate. Some Sanders supporters were livid that Ms Warren is doing a Hillary Clinton on Mr. Sanders. Some women in the group claimed that men were too dumb to run this country. The back and forth and the nastiness continued the entire trip. When I got to Chinatown I was still wondering if this country will still exist after the election in November. My ears are still burning!

    1. That is because you are in NY. Live away from these political epicenters and you will not even hear politics discussed.

  14. You gotta love Bloomberg as the 2020 candidate … I mean what says “Democrat” more than a multi-billionaire?

    1. Mike Bloomberg as president might put a face on the secretive “Deep State” which has controlled the American Empire for at least a half century. Bloomberg is a member of both the Council on Foreign Relations and the Trilateral Commission. Members of these organizations include those at the highest level in the military, the weapons industries, big banks, national security and all other fields which profit from war.
      Bloomberg, if elected, would be the first Jewish president of the U.S. Would he move the U.S. capitol to Tel Aviv?

    2. Just saw a news story that says Bloomberg gets a special free pass from having to declare his financial interests until after the bulk of Dem delegates have been chosen. Billionaires have their own rules. And that’s the problem.
      You’d think after Trump, a billionaire who hides his finances and his tax returns wouldn’t be popular with the Democrats. But the Democrats have this whole Double-Think thing down pat.

  15. Worth remembering that CNN elected Trump in 2016 with an estimated $2 billion in free publicity.. Other candidates had to buy ads, CNN broadcast whole Trump rallies as news. Then immediately started alleging Russian interference.

    1. The media focused on Trump because Clinton and the DNC told them to do so. She thought that he would be the easiest candidate to beat, so she told the media to “elevate” him so that he would win the Repbublican primary.

      https://www.salon.com/2016/11/09/the-hillary-clinton-campaign-intentionally-created-donald-trump-with-its-pied-piper-strategy/

      1. The idiot Dems made the same mistake with Reagan too.
        They never learn. And the party is so corrupt that fresh blood that can learn from mistakes is not allowed to rise in the party. That’s the price of cronyism and corruption.
        But, none of this is surprising from the ‘liberal’ who began in politics by working for Goldwater for President. Hillary always preferred the mushroom cloud over the little girl and her daisy in the famous political ad.

  16. Michel Bélisle Avatar
    Michel Bélisle

    Wsws is commenting that in the debate “There was no discussion of the fact that world politics has crossed an ominous line, entering new and uncharted territory, with the most powerful nation in the world killing a top military leader of a country with which it is not at war, and carrying out that action on the soil of a third country in gross violation of its national sovereignty.”

    https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/01/16/dems-j16.html

    And I guess there was no discussion about Mr Julian Assange.

    It seems that politic in the West is just for show. Nothing of substance and nothing important is discussed.

    For example, nobody ever talks about establishing a universal income that would permit people to live a decent life while a lot a people are currently, here in the prosperous West, having trouble to eat to their hunger.

    It is truly the return of the days of Noah just before the Second Coming of Jesus and I pray the Rosary to hasten His return because I do have seen enough of all the bullshit.

    In this context, where are the reasons to vote?

    1. I see cause for hope in the first word of this post. If America drops out of the empire business and becomes a socialist collective then the rest of the world will finally be able to do the same. Without the burden of a globe spanning military, we might even be able to do something for people affected by those rising sea levels.

  17. CNN appears to be sabotaging both Sanders and Warren’s campaigns. Israel surely wants Trump to continue his enormous gifts to Israel well into the 2020s. Remember how CBS president, Les Moonves, described the Trump campaign during in 2016: “It may not be good for America, but it’s damn good for CBS.” (and Israel) https://www.politico.com/blogs/on-media/2016/02/les-moonves-trump-cbs-220001

    1. CNN is clearly trying to sabotage Sanders here. Warren is not being actively smeared/attacked.
      Btw, Warren is no threat to Israel’s gravy train.
      Also, Les Moonves statements never mentioned Israel.

      1. Jack Lewis, Elizabeth Warren will not come out of this controversy unscathed. She falsely claimed Bernie had called her a liar as she refused his handshake. Anyone who has followed Bernie through the years knows he is not a liar and that he did not call her a liar and that he never said a woman could not be elected president.
        You are correct that Warren supports Israel’s apartheid behavior: https://theintercept.com/2014/08/28/elizabeth-warren-speaks-israelgaza-sounds-like-netanyahu/ As to Les Moonves’ relationship to Israel: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/race/cbs-chief-leslie-moonves-late-great-uncle-david-ben-gurion-honored-by-simon-wiesenthal-center-1096853

        1. cnn isn’t smearing warren. she shot herself in the foot, maybe taking one for the team to sabotage sanders–if so her payoff would be being biden’s or clinton’s vp if the anointed one comes back to “unify” the democratic party. she wants to make sure her supporters don’t go to bernie, so he doesn’t win on the first ballot, and the superdelegates come into play.

  18. Why is anybody surprised when scumbag media produce scum, with or without bags? All tv channels do it, along with the NYT, BBC, WaPo, Graun, etc. etc. bloody etc. Why not be more productive and read Caitlin Johnstone, Craig Murray, Ron Unz, the Gray Zone, or anybody with more brain cells than bile ducts?

    1. Yup, but don’t forget John Rappoport….and Paul Craig Roberts

  19. Whether or not Bernie told Warren a woman couldn’t win the presidency is really a non issue. If he indeed did so, so what? He would have merely been expressing an opinion based on his perception of the voting public, not whether a woman was or was not qualified to be president. As for all the hand wringing over whether or not there will be a “fair” election, of course there won’t. We only have one party to elect from, the US Sociopaths In Charge. Each and every candidate offered is selected by them. Each and every one of them is running on a platform totally and directly opposed to liberty of any sort. More government, more spending, more control, more armed robbery (taxes), more wealth redistribution (from your pocket to the US Sociopaths In Charge), etc. Gang rape is democracy in action. We can only hope they use some KY in the process.

  20. I guess something good has come out of the media takedown of Mr. Corbyn in the UK: it has served as a timely wake-up call for the US.

  21. Remember to identify the puppet-master and not to be distracted by the puppet.
    These days, CNN is AT&T. It used to be Time-Warner, or Time-Warner-AOL while AOL still sounded cool. But of late, CNN is now the sock-puppet for AT&T.
    Thus, the hashtag could read …. #ATTIsTrash and be perfectly accurate.
    The trend seems to be that each new owner makes it worst than before. Each new owner seems to view it as a tool to lie and manipulate in ways that hadn’t done before, so it gets worse and worse and worse.
    AT&T says their corporate profits will be higher with Biden and lower with Sanders, thus CNN works hard to sabotage Sanders. The fact that the corporations love Biden and fear Sanders tells you all you need to know about who is who in this election.
    Whatever has AT&T quaking in their corporate, $5000 leather shoes must be a good thing. Look at who CNN hates the most, and that’s not a bad place for a vote to go.

    1. AT&T = CNN, HBO (Bill Maher)
      Comcast = NBC, CNBC, MSNBC
      Murdoch tabloids = FOX, Wall St. Journal
      Viacom = CBS, Comedy Central,
      Mickey Mouse = ABC
      Various corporate partners = PBS, NPR
      … and most of the above own various “entertainment” options that produce loaded content that manipulates our brains. Isn’t it amazing how every bad guy is a Russian?
      https://www.webfx.com/blog/internet/the-6-companies-that-own-almost-all-media-infographic/

    2. More to the point here–nobody’s talking about Warren. She very clearly played along on this–likely it was planned in advance. Why? A lot of people had expected she and Sanders would wind up teaming up, as they have somewhat similar agendas and that way whichever was President would be protected from assassination by the other becoming President. She just torpedoed that–why? My guess is someone came to her and said, “We are not going to let Bernie win. We’re starting the smear campaign in earnest now, and we’ll include you if you don’t distance yourself right now. You saw how well it worked for us with Corbyn. Yes, we can easily knock Sanders out of the race with or without your help but if you help us we’ll let you try to win.” If you don’t you’re toast too, or shit on the bottom of our shoe.’

  22. Almost every day the proof unfolds that not watching the ” idiot box ” TV at all anymore is one of my life’s wisest decisions. My maternal grandfather was right when he claimed that ” the box ” would destroy this country.

    1. Step O'Rafferty Avatar
      Step O’Rafferty

      Just like sharp sticks thousands of years ago, the box had a lot of potential as a great tool to be used for the advancement of society. However both of these useful tools were weaponized and misused.

  23. there’s some kind of rule that you can’t be elected president if you aren’t in the upper portions of the 1%. seems to be the most enforced rule of all.

    1. The upper portions of the 1% don’t run for President.
      I think Trump is the first billionaire, and he only had a measly couple of billion before he began manipulating the stock market as President. That’s nowhere near the top of the 1%.
      People like Jamie Dimon own presidents. They don’t want to be president.

      1. the people you are talking about are way richer than the upper portions of the 1%. they’re like the .0001 of a percent. you can make it as a mere multimillionaire, then when you leave office you may get a couple of hundred million. obama’s net worth was reportedly barely over a million, reportedly–he was the poorest kid on the block, but i don’t know if that includes michelle’s money. bush jr was no doubt richer, he came from a wealthy family. mitt romney was genuinely rich. the top 1% wealth begins at about 9 million bucks according to my quick google. the problem is the terminology, the 1% is a convenient label, but it’s really higher than that for most politicians, much less the donors that buy them. i was guesstimating at the upper half of the top 1 percent. the superich like bezos are in another stratosphere.

        1. the point is that if you’re upper middle class and below, you have no shot at being president, which means that the vast majority of people in the u.s. aren’t really represented, and can’t be unless a unicorn like fdr or bernie sanders gets elected, and i don’t think a reincarnated fdr could be elected in today’s rigged system. meanwhile the elites play fake idpol games like warren/cnn’s latest.

  24. Ms. Johnstone, I thank you for relaying this to a non-cable-TV viewer, in fact, a non-viewer-ofTV. Err, Ms. Johnstone, on a scale of 0 to 1,000,000,000,000,000, what do you think the odds are of a fair presidential primary occurring in 2020? And how about a fair general election? It seems there are people out there who don’t realize it is zero, and I guess I am wondering if you are one of them…

    1. Last fair American election …… well, not in my lifetime which has earned a head of grey hairs.
      I came into this kabuki theater with the Nixon people complaining how the Daley machine in Chicago had stolen the election and put Kennedy into office. Since then, its only gone downhill from there.
      We’ve seen Nixon and Watergate.
      We’ve seen the CIA intervene to put in former CIA director Bush (along with Reagan) as the response to people electing Carter to try to get the CIA under control.
      We’ve seen Clinton and Dole team up to kill off the post-Watergate reforms.
      We’ve seen Florida 2000 and the hanging chad fiasco and the final result of 5-4.
      We’ve seen Bush get 125% of registered voters in some Ohio counties when only registered voters are legal to vote

      The big joke about Russiagate was always that the Americans never needed foreign interference to rig an election. Rigging elections is an American tradition back to Boss Tweed.

      1. ironically enough tammany hall lasted around a hundred years after boss tweed. eleanor roosevelt and others finally put an end to that political machine in the 1960’s. that noted “reformer” ed koch had a rival political machine that i guess finally extinguished its influence, but that is just trading one machine for another. i wonder if the cuomos had any ties to the earlier machine.

    2. What is your definition of a fair election. Republicans are famous for suppressing the vote by whatever means necessary. Democrats are more direct and just stuff the ballot box or make legitimate ballots disappear. Considering all elections around the world our elections are as good as any. Problem is no one any longer believe it and cry foul when they lose. Get over it. Suffer through the other guy as president and try to work with them. That is no longer an option so so Americas days of psuedo democracy are numbered

    3. So you’re not familiar with her work then?

  25. The purpose of this little dust-up appears to be to fan the flames of Sanders resentment among the Hillary Clinton faithful, who cannot get past the fact that she ran a perfectly awful campaign that ignored the realities of the Electoral College, and lost the election in 2016. The number of people who blame Mr. Sanders for the 2016 loss is barely believable, whereas the number of people who blame Mr. Trump’s loss in the popular vote on Gary Johnson, (who won more than 3 times the number of votes as Jill Stein-4,489,341 to 1,457,218, approximately the magnitude of the popular vote loss)* is staggering.

    *Conventional wisdom is that many Stein voters were disaffected Democrats. Johnson voters are conservative “libertarians” disaffected from the Republican party.

  26. AWhen you consider that Elizabeth Warren has been living on the Indian Reservation all her life, you have to cut her some slack if she can’t always remember the facts

  27. Excellent, absolutely agree. We’ve seen similar smearing and lies in Australia by the Murdoch gutter press during last year’s federal election.

  28. Barbara A Mullin Avatar
    Barbara A Mullin

    Hillary told us how she is “advising” the Democratic candidates. Elizabeth Warren’s claim about what Bernie said was probably her Hillary’s suggestion. One word against another to rile up all the DNC women. Not falling for that for one minute.

  29. If we don’t throw off the stranglehold of the 1%, the First Woman President will do for women what the First Black President did for Black people, which is to put a friendly face on the injustices of the 1% toward their special identity group.

    1. Precisely. Makes no difference if the system itself is rotten.

      1. Just think Margaret Thatcher.

    2. 100% right.

  30. Why would any sane person believe anything that the ROBOTIC people on CNN say? CNN is a biased bunch of people who support anything that Wolf Blitzer tells them. Jake Tapper is another leader of his ROBOTS as they all bend and join Tapper’s biased Bull spit!

    CNN should lose its license as a NEWS SHOW, and instead be given a license as a Carnival Act.

    1. AT&T is the boss. Wolf Blitzer just works there. In any corporation these days, you do it the boss’ way or hit the highway.
      But thanks, you just reminded me that its time I watched the old 70’s movie “Network” again, with its psychics and carnival acts on the nightly news. 🙂

  31. I always start with the “common sense” test. Why would Bernie tell Warren (to her face) that she can’t win an election because she is a woman?
    Why would Assad gas his own people when he would have to know that such an attack might be the only thing that could keep him from winning a civil war he’d basically already won?
    Why would Russia think it could “hack” a U.S. presidential election with a handful of Facebook posts that 99.99 percent of voters would never see?

  32. And then there was the after shows commentary about how Sanders was not nice to Clinton. You know, the Clinton who did everything in her power to sideline his running. That one. And in my humble opinion, Warren does not have the integrity that Sanders does. She could have thrown her support to him and not Clinton in the last round making a big difference, but she didn’t. Yes, it would be nice to have a woman president, but so far not a fan of any of the choices. Tulsi thinks she can work with the Republicans which I think is delusional, and Klobuchar is good with fracking. Sanders it is.

  33. Correct me if I am wrong. Hillary Clinton is a woman and she won the popular vote by 3 million. In a democratic country she won. End of issue on gender alone.

    1. And that’s why we have an Electoral College as part of the Election process in our Republic; so that our President ISN’T elected by 5 cities in three States.
      Look at a COUNTY map of the 2016 election and tell us “Hillary” won.

      1. The electoral college a very democratic way to make sure those freedom-loving rednecks in a half a dozen states count as much as millions of people guilty of having to live in a city because they’ve lost their land to Big Agro.

        1. So you would have NY, NJ. and Calif. Along with a few other morally and fiscally bankrupt areas decide how we live. I think not. People are different across this country. Not weirdos in Calif, rednecks as you say in the South or cowboys and farmers elsewhere. Just different. The electoral college endured a cross section of people are represented by how we are governed. Just be cause you dont like the results is not cause to throw out the system.

  34. As one who has no dog in this fight I find it difficult to believe that people really think that expressing opinion (I find Bernie more credible by far than Pocahontas) that a woman couldn’t win is sexist. Analysis of the facts and the electorate could lead one to that view without a shred of bias.

    1. I think you mean without a shred of evidence.
      HRC won the popular vote FFS… I’m talking HRC the most despised politician in US history.
      So it’s pretty obvious that a half decent woman candidate could win easily. Would that be Warren? I doubt it.
      The same analysis of yours would probably have stated that a black man could have never won the presidency too.

      1. “Half decent Woman candidate……”? Any names come to mind? Or does she just need to be a “woman”? And your idea of decent is a male perspective?
        You do realize this debate stuff, the candidates and the coverage is all just for Entertainment, right? An Ex Mayor of some mid City? OG Biden?
        America is just embarrassing, so many have checked out in despair.

        Narratives? Concerned? Go watch Frontline’s Bitter Rivals, Iran and Saudi Arabia.
        iowa? Seriously.?Greg

        1. tulsi gabbard comes to mind.

  35. These attacks are to be expected. The security state does not want Sanders to be the nominee. Warren leaked her supposed Bernie/sexist conversation to CNN a day before the debates. CNN was in cahoots with Hillary in 2016. Remember, they gave Hillary the debate questions in advance. Wasn’t it interesting that warren had a contrived rehearsed comment ready for the cameras.

    Bernie’s campaign had time to come up with a dismissive humorous retort. It’s time to think about some effective oneliners. Bernie could have said: Elizabeth, I wasn’t in on your little “pow wow.” However, don’t you remember I wanted you to run for president in 2016……

    Anyway, the propaganda and dirty tricks will get much worse. Bernie needs to get tougher and sharper. In fact, when Biden mentioned all the horrible things Kim Jong-un said about him, Bernie should have seized the moment and said we need to talk to our enemies as well as our friends. When asked about Iran Bernie should have unabashedly said assasinating Suleimani was an act of war and a war crime.

    Anyway, the debate is over and Bernie missed several opportunities
    to descredit Biden and Warren. Now’s the time for Bernie to hone his
    skills the attacks are going to get a lot more intense.

  36. Talk about shit politics in efforts to demonize a presidential candidate .There should be a law against such shameful acts.

    1. Ah, but laws are only as good as whoever is enforcing them.

  37. Reptillary stole the 2016 donations and nomination from Bean Brain Bernie, using her gender privilege. Now Pow Wow Chow gal is using her vagina tomahawk for her fake minority and gender privilege. US elections are always the lesser of two evils, and always rigged by plutocrats.
    “Rice*A*Romney….that must have Zombie Treat” > FauxScienceSlayer(.)com
    (true history of a century of POTUS puppet shows)

    1. she stole it using her control of the political machine. i have no clue what “bean brain bernie” refers to, or fauxscienceslayer; you probably don’t either.

    2. “Reptillary” … love it. Beats my “Killary” …
      Yes it’s all a show for the plebs.
      Until the parasite is removed, it will be more of the same.
      America needs an enema.

      1. Step O'Rafferty Avatar
        Step O’Rafferty

        If you give America an enema it will flush Australia out.

  38. Don’t want to sound like a broken record here, but this is a perfect example of why everyone should boycott CNN (and the other cable news). I used to watch CNN all the time back in the 1990s, but they just kept getting worse and worse. I stopped watching completely sometime around 2009. Haven’t watched since. I don’t miss it at all, and neither will you! Watching drives their ad dollars and is what keeps them in business. Starve the beast – boycott!

    1. Almost all TV Systems have Parental Controls that can be used to block obscenity from the home. My personal obscenity filters were a list of all of the 24/7 News channels available in Amerika. Life is better that way, and you’ll actually be better informed. 🙂

  39. Michel Bélisle Avatar
    Michel Bélisle

    The way Julian Assange is treated and the fact that nobody among the politicians and the mainstream medias is defending him should be enough to never participate again in the election process by casting your vote.

    These are truly the days of Noah just before the Second Coming of Jesus and I pray the Rosary devoutly to hasten His return because I have really seen enough bullshit.

    1. Yes, the answer is to cede all power to the Oligarchs and let the Oligarchs decide who wins.
      That is the effect of Not-Voting.
      $$$
      The People don’t have much power. The People will probably have to take to the streets at some point because of that. But that does not mean that the People should just give away the little bit of power that they have.
      $$$
      Even in the restricted Soviet system, it was still people voting in one-party elections that caused it to fall. They were demanding change. They couldn’t vote for real change, but they could vote for slogans of a New Future or some such thing. A new Hairstyle for Change and Hope! So, the system put Gorbachov in power hoping that glasnost and perestroika might save the system. Instead, it accelerated its fall as the whole thing got way, way, way out of control of the soviet establishment. But, at its root, it was that pressure for change in one-party elections that brought it down. If people stay home and say “ah, its useless”, that does not occur.
      The one way to be certain of losing is to decide not to compete. 🙂

      1. Michel Bélisle Avatar
        Michel Bélisle

        I do not see it that way.

        It the percentage of those who vote in very low, what legitimacy do the government have?

        Do you think that, for example, your vote will set Mr Assange free?

        Jesus is on His way, so voting is not so important, and I pray the Rosary to hasten His return because I am fed up.

      2. the game is too rigged to compete. i want to see a general strike, to start off with.

      3. Yes, BUT…… voting will make zero difference as long as people continue choosing the lesser of two evils. One must exercise the option to write in the name of the person you genuinely want to win whichever political office. In fact, I wrote in Jill Stein in 2016.

        People may object that a vote for a write-in candidate will not count, and why waste your vote that way. Well…. if you’re unhappy with the 2 (or more) candidates the system has approved for voters to choose from, but you vote for one of them anyway….. how is that not a wasted vote? The vote you cast for a write-in candidate may not count but at least you’re sending the rigged system a clear message you reject the candidates presented before you.

    2. I tuned out these debates long ago. Maybe someone can help me out. In any of these debates, have any of the candidates been asked what they think of the treatment of Assange?

      1. You don’t even have to watch the debates to know the answer to that question, do you?

    3. Step O'Rafferty Avatar
      Step O’Rafferty

      I don’t think the oligarchs would be ashamed to take power even if only 1% of people bothered to vote. If voting in elections is the method used to create a true representative government then people should only vote for independent candidates. Definitely don’t vote Democrat or Republican.

  40. Hey, Bern’s lucky Liz didn’t pick up a stapler and throw it at him … oh wait … I had her confused with the other female candidate on stage.
    Why do folks waste any time on CNN, debate or other airwave clutter.
    While the debate was taking place I watched something much more informative out of New Hampshire, “Tulsi talks Iran” – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-W9b-_K_Xo
    Enjoy!

  41. The zio-fascists own both the demorats and the repugs, Wolf Blitzer being one of their chosen cheer leaders!

  42. Humanity has only one word to learn: No.
    What we believe about ourselves ends up in the bricks of our prisons. Humanity is in the situation we are in because we believe lies about ourselves. Instead of being responsible for the truth, and TO the truth, we let others do our thinking for us. Unfortunately, those people have an agenda. The world is a perfect reflection of every person’s default on themselves, personally. We transfer ownership of ourselves to “God” and “Government” and countless other idols of belief and presumption, and suffer the dreadful consequences of lovelessness.By letting others own us, we empower psychopaths. This is obvious and has been pointed out by many others. Therefore, own yourself and devote yourself to everyone’s right to Life. The first 2 Amendments are the important: right to life, right to defend it. That’s why the Kuntrollerz and their minions
    are destroying both.
    I read everything you write, you rock. Please see http://www.whatonearthishappening.com

  43. The night before the 2016 Democratic primary in California the AP announced that the primary had already been won by Hillary Clinton. It hadn’t. The AP announced, and the rest of the msm repeated the story in a loud chorus, that they, the AP, had contacted anonymous superdelegates and asked them who they were going to support, Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders. No verification or certification process, no controls, an unspecified procedure to contact the superdelegates and the superdelegates were anonymous. The primary was decided, the MSM declared, Hillary Clinton was the winner. That night and the next morning the airwaves and news print were unanimous from the MSM don’t bother to vote, Hillary had
    already won. This was the night before the 2016 Democratic primary in California.
    .
    The news media volunteered to withhold announcing the winner of a Presidential election until after the polls are closed. Projecting winners of an election before the polls are closed “undermines the integrity and meaning of the right to vote”.
    .
    That is why the news media projected the winner of the Democratic primary in California the evening
    before the primary. To “undermine the integrity and meaning of the right to vote”.
    .
    That is what true interference in an election looks like, not the smoke screen distraction of (snicker) “Russian interference”. Smoke screen.
    .
    The news media projected the winner of the 2016 Democratic primary in California the evening
    before the primary and…AND…they used superdelegates to do it. Anonymous superdelegates.
    .
    The use of superdelegates is inherently corrupt. Superdelegates are establishment insiders and big money donors and are “used to prevent actual voters from making choices the party establisment dislikes”.
    .
    Someone **really** interferred in the 2016 US election and it wasn’t the Russians.
    .
    The night before the 2016 Democratic primary in California the AP announced that the primary had already been won by Hillary Clinton. It hadn’t. The AP announced, and the rest of the msm repeated the story in a loud chorus, that they, the AP, had contacted anonymous superdelegates and asked them who they were going to support, Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders. No verification or certification process, no controls, an unspecified procedure to contact the superdelegates and the superdelegates were anonymous. The primary was decided the MSM declared, Hillary Clinton was the winner. That night and the next morning the airwaves and news print were unanimous from the MSM don’t bother to vote, Hillary had
    already won.
    .
    That is what true interference in an election looks like, not the pathetic smoke screen distraction of (snicker) “Russian interference”.
    .
    [Hope the following is prophetic:
    https://imgur.com/LnUChXD ]

    1. Yes, I believe you are right, and I hope everyone reads what you wrote here.

      1. Thanks Minecritter,

        I just reread my post and I see an ambiguity. There is the whole shebang, the Democratic *National* Primary Race for President, and then there are primaries run in individual states. The AP announced the winner of the Democratic *National* Primary Race for President, the whole shebang, the night before the primary to be run in the individual state of California.

        The whole race was already decided, the AP claimed (and the rest of the MSM echoed the AP) no reason to go out and vote for Bernie in the California primary.

        THAT is what influencing an election looks like. But the MSM never talks about it, there is no room on their front page with their constant nonsense about Russians taking to Facebook and Twitter.

    2. You are 100% correct about the media announcing HRC’s “win” before California even had a chance to vote at the polls.

      Not only that, but the Secretary of State in CA was fundraising and campaigning for Hillary. And there were lots of election issues with people being told to use the wrong ballots if they were NPP and wanted to vote for Bernie; and VBM ballots that were never received, forcing people to use provisional ballots. There were ballots that were discarded for a variety of reasons, and the voters were never told about it. There were ballots with Bernie’s name whited out, too. California’s elections are probably some of the most corrupt elections in the U.S.

      If this were happening in any other country, their election would have been voided. I was actively campaigning for Bernie in 2016 in very blue parts of the state, and I can say for a fact that Hillary had very little support. Everyone loved Bernie. What was also very obvious was that if Bernie didn’t win the primary, Trump would win the general. Both of them had tons of support in very blue California. Hillary? Not so much.

  44. “Be careful what you wish for, because you may get it.” Freedom of Speech How’s that working out?

    1. We are losing it. It’s a huge problem.

    2. CNN certainly hasn’t lost Freedom of Speech. Of course Freedom of Speech includes the Freedom to Lie. How’s Freedom to Lie working out for you? If you’re in the Elite, Freedom to Lie is working out just grrrrrrrreat!!

  45. Caitlin, how dare you slander the Communist News Network, I mean the Corrupt News Network, or is it the Conniving News Network. Anyway you know who I mean, CNN. The most trusted name for Fake News.

  46. Yes. Sanders/Gabbard. The only slight hope we have left.

    Actually I would rather it be Gabbard/Sanders, but I know that pigs can’t fly (yet).

  47. Liz is a liar. Period.

    Sanders/Gabbard 2020

    1. Sanders/Gabbard 2020 ticket would mean the Democratic establishment had already died and gone somewhere, wouldn’t it?
      I fear their plan may be to have a Sanders/LBJ ticket, if you know what I mean, since Sanders is so mortal.
      That is likely the reason that Truman was foist upon FDR as a running mate. FDR never trusted Harry-the-puppet, who gave us the Korean War.
      I would support Sanders/Gabbard, of course. I send most donations to Tulsi, but sent them to Bernie in 2016, and I sent him one this time, too.
      http://www.johndayblog.com

  48. Thank you for this wonderful article.

  49. And Warren calls Bernie her friend. With friends like that, who needs enemies? Hasn’t Liz been caught in lies before? I think I’ll trust the candidate who has been in the right side of history for decades.

    1. Warren stabbed Sanders in the back in 2016. A Warren endorsement of Sanders would have helped a campaign that still came very, very close to upsetting the Dem elite, but she withheld it. Later Warren came out as a strong Hillary supporter. If Hillary had won, there was probably a cabinet deal in it for Warren.
      I don’t trust her. Not a bit.
      In this age of lying politicians, a candidate that has, as you put it, “been on the right side of history for decades” has value. I tend to like the people fighting next to me at the barricades.

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