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Buying Elections: The Bloomberg Meme Campaign

Binoy Kampmark

(Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

Interfering, corrupting and altering the views of electors is apparently frowned upon. But it all depends on who that manipulating source is. The Russians might be condemned for being meddlers of minds in the US electorate, but an American billionaire who hires battalions of influencing agents to get his word across on social media platforms is not much better.

At least the Russian representatives were decent enough to light fires on both sides of the political divide, providing an odd equilibrium of chaos.

Bloomberg’s booklet of electoral wooing is merely a softened, couched version of what has come before. To win over the electorate, you need an army of hidden persuaders, the men and women who claim to know, telling the voter how to vote for a supposedly delightful candidate who is, truth be told, a sham.

This is ad-man territory and puts the former New York Mayor on terrain that abuts that of President Donald Trump.

The cash-for-allegiance system is being facilitated through the very social media organs so disliked by Democrats. They, after all, were excoriated for muddying Hillary Clinton’s image in 2016, doing that most terrible thing of disseminating leaked material, good and bad, about her.

Now, the Bloomberg campaign, keeping it digitally real, has linked arms with Meme 2020.

The mission is simple if implausible: vesting Bloomberg with various attributes he does not have. According to Sabrina Singh, spokesperson for Bloomberg, “While a meme strategy may be new to presidential politics, we’re betting it will be an effective component to reach people where they are and compete with President Trump’s powerful digital operation.”

This polish-the-turd effort has the stifling smell of acute desperation. Its armchair electioneering of the most profligate kind (a million dollars a day spent on Facebook ads alone), putting faith in online presences and seducers to do what candidates who fail turning up to primaries and caucuses supposedly cannot.

As it turns out, Bloomberg’s approach has furnished Senator Bernie Sanders and Pete Buttigieg with the gift of credibility.

They, at the very least, bothered. However ceremonially hollow such initial rounds are, placing the candidate before the halls, the tea rooms, the homes, counts as turning up. Bloomberg is already assuming that physical absenteeism can be overcome by digital loudness.

The lead strategist of the campaign group, Mick Purzycki, chief executive of Jerry Media, is tasked with the improbable. Given that Trump’s electability was deemed impossible, the issue is by no means an irreconcilable handicap, but the fence is still a high one.

The thing guaranteed in this fairly low brow affair is bad taste and profound disingenuousness.

The Instragram posts, for instance, promote Bloomberg as the awkward but “cool candidate”. He dresses accordingly, if unconvincingly. He is, as the @KateSalad meme account run by Samir Mezrahi spouts, “like kale salad: tough and tasteless but ultimately good for you.”

The marketers involved with posting memes for Bloomberg are thrilled with the exposure. In the broader world of advertising, all publicity is good. The same cannot be said for the political world. Shirin Ghaffary makes the point in Vox, questioning the effectiveness of the campaign.

The risk here for both Bloomberg and the influencers lies in:

promoting a candidate who’s viewed by many of their followers as an out-of-touch billionaire trying to buy his way into an election.”

Not all the cabal of influencers are singing from the same hymn book. They do the same dirty deeds, blot the same copybooks but even on that shallow terrain, Bloomberg will spark disagreement. Josh Ostrovsky, known in his line of work as The Fat Jew, is one.

“They asked me to do it, I said no,” he vented on Instagram. “I grew up in New York City so I can tell you firsthand, Bloomberg is a colossal shitbag.” It takes one to know one, and Ostrovsky, a serial joke thief, is a paragon of vice in the field.

Paid Instagram influencers such as Tank.Sinatra are also finding their posts choked with withering remarks about their unglamorous subject.

The campaign has raised a bigger question as to what role such “branded content” has. Instragram’s owner is Facebook, an organisation constantly accused of sporting accounts that might be used to disseminate unsavoury political content.

Facebook’s vice president of global affairs and communications Nick Clegg has not helped matters with his statements on the subject. “We do not submit speech by politicians to our independent fact-checkers, and we generally allow it on the platform even when it would otherwise breach our normal content rules.”

He suggests two exceptions: “where speech endangers people and where we take money, which is why we have more stringent rules on advertising than we do for ordinary speech and rhetoric.”

Bloomberg has, on this point, scored a victory of sorts.

As a Facebook representative explained to the New York Post, “We’re allowing US-based political candidates to work with creators to run this content, provided the political candidates are authorized and the creators disclose any paid partnerships through our branded content tools.”

This leads to a specious difference. “Branded content is different from advertising, but in either case we believe it’s important people know when they’re seeing paid content on our platforms.”

In all this, a solid argument might well be made that Bloomberg is demonstrating precisely why Trump, toxic leader of the realm, is entitled to remain in the White House. The US electors already have their cashed-up megalomaniacal fraud; why go for another?

Dr. Binoy Kampmark was a Commonwealth Scholar at Selwyn College, Cambridge. He lectures at RMIT University, Melbourne. Email: [email protected]

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White Horse Mountain
White Horse Mountain
Feb 19, 2020 7:27 AM

https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.02.12.20022418v1

2019 nCoV leaves its victims infertile

Willem
Willem
Feb 19, 2020 12:46 PM

Bullshit

Richard Le Sarc
Richard Le Sarc
Feb 19, 2020 9:02 PM
Reply to  Willem

It might thus affect some victims.

Robbobbobin
Robbobbobin
Feb 19, 2020 10:26 PM
Reply to  Willem

Let’s hope the bull pulls through and services many more cows to come.

Richard Le Sarc
Richard Le Sarc
Feb 20, 2020 7:47 AM
Reply to  Robbobbobin

Trump is unwell?

Frank Speaker
Frank Speaker
Feb 19, 2020 9:21 PM

Sounds more and more like a bio weapon.

Robbobbobin
Robbobbobin
Feb 19, 2020 10:20 PM

“2019 nCoV leaves its victims infertile”

The paper in the accompanying link has not yet been peer reviewed (but then peer reviewing often fails the smell test, so…). I have begun to agree with ‘Frank Speaker’ that COVID19 (renamed to protect the Chinese heirarchy from the political consequences of running a shitshop for a food chain) “[s]ounds more and more like a bio weapon” (a comment which appears/appeared in “recent comments” at the foot of the front page but not at the end of the link to it (yet)). However, not one of American origin, as at least one BTLer has suggested, but one of Chinese origin (escaped?), nor one based on medical possibility, as suggested above, but on what seem like some anomalies in WHO statements and reported Chinese politicking that smell like cahoots. Did I mention ‘binary’? Still a bunch of occasional observations that in their unorganized form add up to nothing more than a hunch, but if there are any more such I might try organizing them and posting as a theory (coverup at base, conspiracy at apex).

Robbobbobin
Robbobbobin
Feb 19, 2020 10:23 PM
Reply to  Robbobbobin

UPDATE: Frank Speaker’s comment has now appeared where, as the admins often say, “where it should be”).

Charlotte Russe
Charlotte Russe
Feb 18, 2020 11:53 PM

Mini Mike must be out of his “meme” if he thinks money will buy working-class love. One of Mike’s memes asserts: “He’s like kale salad: tough and tasteless but ultimately good for you.” Well, the 750,000 blacks and Latinos thrown against the wall by NYC police, must think kale is not only tasteless, but poisonous. The innocent Muslims surveilled and entrapped while worshipping at mosques must vomit at the thought of consuming just a spoon of mini Mike’s kale. The elderly listening to Bloomberg cavalierly say Social Security and Medicare should be cut are gagging– making Mike’s tasteless salad concoction impossible to digest. The victimized workers earning minimum wage shudder at mini Mikes antagonism towards increasing their hourly pay which doesn’t even provide for a cabbage patch dwelling. These folks also find Mikes kale much too vile to consume.

Bloomberg who cares too much for money will soon find out that money can’t buy him love. It will buy him sycophancy from the usual obsequious bourgeois black sellout pastors and politicians who aren’t even wanted in their own communities. It will buy him votes from the upper-middle class who are doing just fine with Trump, but might be looking for a new billionaire to support.

The Bloomberg veneer is tissue paper thin and requires just the strength of a pinky to pull it back without breaking a well-manicured fingernail. Female staffers have been the target of mini Mikes verbal assaults for decades. Bloomberg described the computer system that built is $68 billion fortune “as do everything, including giving you a blowjob. I guess that puts a lot of you girls out of business.” Witty Bloomberg has a number of elegant dictums to inspire his sales staff. He compared “a good salesperson” to “the guy who goes into a bar, and walks up to every gorgeous girl there, and says, ‘Do you want to fuck?’ He gets turned down a lot – but he gets fucked a lot, too!”

Might mini Mike is going to learn that minorities, the marginalized, the working-poor, and women are sick and tired of being fucked by repulsive sociopathic billionaires.

Capricornia Man
Capricornia Man
Feb 19, 2020 8:57 AM

Just as an Australian billionaire spent around AUD 80 million on propaganda which helped the main conservative parties rather than his own splinter group to win the last election here, so the repulsive Bloomberg thinks he can buy his way into the Democratic nomination.

Suppose he does get the nomination. What has he to offer Trump’s working class voters that would cause them to switch to the Dems this time around? Zilch. Will the DNC understand this – or will they hand the election to Trump?

Charlotte Ruse
Charlotte Ruse
Feb 19, 2020 11:42 AM

The ruling class wins in both cases.
The affluent are doing quite well, but the fickle wealthy might decide to support the billionaire du jour..

Richard Le Sarc
Richard Le Sarc
Feb 19, 2020 9:04 PM

Bloomberg sounds a lot like Epstein, Moonves, Weinstein and the other admirers of the ‘shiksas’.

jim
jim
Feb 18, 2020 9:31 PM

Big Mikey Bloomberg as Mary Poppins

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=He8AQj0WH14

“The world is a stage, and the play is badly cast.” – Oscar Wilde

RobG
RobG
Feb 18, 2020 9:22 PM

The last days of the American Empire are embarrassing, to say the least. All we can hope is that these psychopaths don’t take the planet down with them.

The following is quintessential English and is now years old, yet in many respects it sums it all up…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mzrnVbsaXk

When John Couper Clark made this recording in 1980 he was shacked-up with Nico in a squat in Brixton, south London, and both Clark and Nico were totally whacked-out on heroin. Nico didn’t survive, but amazingly John Couper Clark is still alive, and remains the stick insect he was all those decades ago.

The point is that back then we still had ‘politics’.

Now all we have is total nonsense.

Frank Speaker
Frank Speaker
Feb 19, 2020 10:29 AM
Reply to  RobG

Forgot about this one from my student days, thanks for the reminder, great stuff.
“Even the rats have rickets and spit through their broken teeth…” is poignant to say the least, that’s exactly were this country is heading again under the unelected President Cummings and his puppets.

paul_m
paul_m
Feb 18, 2020 6:27 PM

please forget nick clegg.
michael douglas said his father’s(kirk’s)last words were,i paraphrase,vote for michael bloomberg.this is serious stuff you septics please take note.

Steve Hayes
Steve Hayes
Feb 18, 2020 4:24 PM

Bloomberg used slave labour (US prisoners) to promote his campaign.

Dungroanin
Dungroanin
Feb 18, 2020 4:00 PM

An excellent summary and the latest on the Durham/Barr investigation and dropping of the charge against McCabe for lying to the FBI – the same fake charge against Flynn.

‘You are forgiven for failing to follow all the twists and turns in this latest installment of what might now be called CoupGate, a summation of the seditious campaign to overthrow the president, which already has gone through so many gates — SpyGate, RussiaGate, MuellerGate, UkraineGate, WhistleblowerGate..’

https://kunstler.com/clusterfuck-nation/at-stake/

Along with a list of the conspirators including our very own deepstaters.

The comments also reveal a set of photos with top bods including HRC & Pelosi with a chap who is supposedly not to be identified!
comment image
——-
Yup – the presidential campaign is awash with hundreds of billions $, aimed at getting the fixed results. Just as was perpetrated in the uk just 3 months ago – where a coup was conducted at one of the centres of Empire. The one in another centre hasn’t succeeded…yet.

The Pathocracy is not yet ready to give up and accept they are not as gods who own the little blue dot in a very empty dark space.

Igor
Igor
Feb 19, 2020 2:23 AM
Reply to  Dungroanin

“He’s Alexander Soros, the son of billionaire philanthropist George Soros”.

sharon marlowe
sharon marlowe
Feb 18, 2020 2:14 PM

This article is has two manipulative pieces of propaganda:

*”At least the Russian representatives were decent enough to light fires on both sides of the political divide, providing an odd equilibrium of chaos.”

This is propaganda about russian interference. It never happened. There has not been one voter in the U.S. who was shown to have voted based on the commercial-marketing company, Internet Research Agency. Where was the Russian-induced chaos? It never existed. RT of course was the target all along for claims of russian interference in the U.S. Margarita Simonyan’s news network did actual journalism in Ukraine and Syria, which the U.S. regime hated, since those two countries were targeted for coups.
There’s no point in repeating the U.S. regimes propaganda about Russia lighting “fires on both sides of the political divide”, because it never occurred.

*”As it turns out, Bloomberg’s approach has furnished Senator Bernie Sanders and Pete Buttigieg with the gift of credibility.”

Pete Buttigieg is just as Bloombergy as Bloomberg. Buttigieg is backed by dozens and dozens of billionaires. No “credibility” to speak of.

clickkid
clickkid
Feb 18, 2020 2:45 PM
Reply to  sharon marlowe

What did Sanders say about “Russian interference”?

sharon marlowe
sharon marlowe
Feb 18, 2020 2:54 PM
Reply to  clickkid

He’s a total russiagater.

Richard Le Sarc
Richard Le Sarc
Feb 18, 2020 7:58 PM
Reply to  sharon marlowe

He’s a total fraud-the geriatric Obama.

Richard Le Sarc
Richard Le Sarc
Feb 18, 2020 7:57 PM
Reply to  sharon marlowe

Buttigieg is the gay Obama.

jim
jim
Feb 19, 2020 3:20 AM

Obama is gay as well. Married to a man called Michael Robinson.

And it wouldn’t surprise me if Trump is gay as well, that marriage with Melanija Knavs, is that for real? I’m not buying it.

pete
pete
Feb 18, 2020 9:22 PM
Reply to  sharon marlowe

Buttigieg is a spook:

Media darling Pete Buttigieg was in unit that worked with the CIA in Afghanistan
https://thegrayzone.com/2020/02/07/pete-buttigieg-cia-afghanistan/

The spooks’ choice: Coup plotters and CIA agents fill Pete Buttigieg’s list of national security endorsers
https://thegrayzone.com/2019/12/30/coup-plotters-cia-agents-mayor-pete-endorsers/

The insider: How national security mandarins groomed Pete Buttigieg and managed his future
https://thegrayzone.com/2019/12/17/national-security-mandarins-groomed-pete-buttigieg/

Gall
Gall
Feb 18, 2020 10:31 PM
Reply to  sharon marlowe

As if we needed the evil Rooskies to promote divisiveness in America.The fact is that nobody noticed those memes until it was pointed out by the Mule in his phony “investigation” of nonexistent “Russian” Interference. Of course the ones most guilty of interference i.e. Israel was totally ignored.

What other Foreign Agency can get away with calling itself a domestic “PAC”and bribe Politicians into supporting the Terrorist Genocidal Apartheid State?

Yet heres the real rub. Using tax payer dollars pilfered from the American public ostensibly for the “defense” to the tune of 11 Million dollars a day.

Dungroanin
Dungroanin
Feb 18, 2020 12:45 PM

Admin/ Mods

What’s up?

clickkid
clickkid
Feb 18, 2020 12:26 PM

Elections are where people discuss how to ‘rearrange the deckchairs’ within the current paradigm.

Discussion never changes people’s perspectives – only events do that.

Pressure builds up on tectonic plates for a long time, and then suddenly the plates move. It’s the same with societal change.

That pressure is now building up, to what will eventually be an unbearable level, within the financial system.

“For decades nothing happens, and then in weeks decades happen” – Lenin

Dungroanin
Dungroanin
Feb 18, 2020 12:22 PM

Hello what’s this ‘comment awaiting moderation’ in a reply to Seamus Padraig just below?

lundiel
lundiel
Feb 18, 2020 1:40 PM
Reply to  Dungroanin

You used the name that automatically flags up pre-moderation. I assume there is some legitimate concern we might slander the clegg.

clickkid
clickkid
Feb 18, 2020 2:38 PM
Reply to  lundiel

‘to clegg’ – ‘to automatically flag up pre-moderation’

A nice handy abbreviation as in:

‘”Oh no, my comment got clegged.”

Appropriate that he now works for Facebbok.

George Cornell
George Cornell
Feb 18, 2020 7:25 PM
Reply to  Dungroanin

I now get the same thing. It would be nice if Admin notified you this was to happen and point to the post that triggered it. There used to be policy of no censorship. Has this been changed?

Sophie - Admin1
Admin
Sophie - Admin1
Feb 19, 2020 1:40 AM
Reply to  George Cornell

@George Cornell: As per our published comment policy we occasionally put known trolls on pre-mod if they start being very disruptive. After you flagrantly lied repeatedly about data we took the trouble to provide you have been placed on pre-moderation.

Sophie - Admin1
Admin
Sophie - Admin1
Feb 19, 2020 1:48 AM
Reply to  Dungroanin

@Dungroanin – I have no idea why you received that message. We certainly do not have any auto-moderation attached to the name ‘Clegg’ or to any other name. I also can’t find your comment in the pending folder. So it’s baffling.

UPDATE: Your ‘missing’ comment is right there, where it should be.

Greg Bacon
Greg Bacon
Feb 18, 2020 11:36 AM

Mikey will have plenty of help from his American Jewish friends and other billionaires who will be more than happy to donate 30 million or so (apiece) to stop Bernie, as the alternative would be change in the lop-sided American tax structure, which has secretaries paying more of their income–percentage wise–than do their billionaire bosses.
Oh the horrors to think that an outfit like Amazon, which cleared 13 billion in 2018, but only paid 1.8% of that income in taxes, would wind up paying a fair share. The year before, Amazon not only paid nothing, they got nearly a 400 million dollar refund.

https://youtu.be/XytkI7afHcQ

Maxine
Maxine
Feb 18, 2020 11:14 PM
Reply to  Greg Bacon

“AMERICAN JEWISH FRIENDS”????….Why specify “JEWISH”?

Richard Le Sarc
Richard Le Sarc
Feb 19, 2020 3:20 AM
Reply to  Maxine

Nepotism.

Robbobbobin
Robbobbobin
Feb 19, 2020 4:53 AM
Reply to  Maxine

Hello Maxine. His name’s ‘B-c-n’. Are direct relpies to him kosher?

paul
paul
Feb 19, 2020 3:26 PM
Reply to  Maxine

Accuracy.
Pointing out the obvious.
Telling the truth.
A lot of people find these concepts very strange nowadays.

Frank Speaker
Frank Speaker
Feb 18, 2020 11:23 AM

I reckon this is all just a clever distraction, deliberately causing consternation amongst the unDem members, and all for the purpose of laying the ground for Mrs Obama to walz in as their and the nation’s next saviour. I can even imagine them already preparing the Nobel War Peace prize for her.

Seamus Padraig
Seamus Padraig
Feb 18, 2020 11:12 AM

Facebook’s vice president of global affairs and communications Nick Clegg …

That Nick Clegg? Formerly of the Libdems? He now works for Facebook? Really? I had no idea.

Dungroanin
Dungroanin
Feb 18, 2020 12:19 PM
Reply to  Seamus Padraig

That was his reward from the plutocrats and warmongers – the further ability to rig elections everywhere and a billionaire lifestyle while making millions. He privatised the Electoral Commission along with Royal Mail Etc, while allowing Murdoch to get away with his monopolies and criminality and allowing the strangling of the Leveson Inquiry and its report in 2012 while working with the Murdoch henchmen and woman directly from No 10.

He also instituted the Austerity that led directly to the call for brexit and enabled the fixed referendum that followed.

They get rewarded with ‘seats at the table’ like Blair and Cameron, book deals for millions as advances, academic tenure at private universities or cushy jobs Just like David Millibland at International Rescue and Osborne at Blackrock and Standard newspaper – where they don’t have to do anything.

The deep state troughers get their rewards for delivering the bankers goals – they are psychopaths chosen for their amorality and lack of empathy from an early age and than hot housed and fast tracked to their positions in the Pathocracy.

Theresa May failed to deliver the Hard Brexit on time – so she didn’t get her full reward, unlike Cameron and Osborne, all the recently ‘fired’ ministers are heading of to collect their rewards as per their career paths having done their bit for now.

Gezzah Potts
Gezzah Potts
Feb 18, 2020 9:52 PM
Reply to  Dungroanin

Bingo D. Spot on.

Dungroanin
Dungroanin
Feb 18, 2020 12:46 PM
Reply to  Seamus Padraig

Hello?

Gezzah Potts
Gezzah Potts
Feb 18, 2020 9:37 PM
Reply to  Seamus Padraig

Seamus, mate, the whole thing is one putrefyed, corrupt, I’ll scratch your back, you scratch mine, doff your cap, nod and a wink, etc etc.
I just noticed Dungroanin’s reply to you.
He absolutely bangs the nail on the head.
Quite a few examples of this in Australia as well, especially amongst some well known ‘working class defenders’ (ie trade union high ups) who now work in very well remunerated corporate jobs. $$$$.
Usually via a stint in Parliament.
Lowest of the low.

bob
bob
Feb 18, 2020 9:38 AM

Okay, somebody has to say it – does OffG not deal with any pertinent issues that affect ordinary people in the UK anymore? Is the fact that we are not governed by consent not mean anything? Is the flooding and crisis for citizens as a consequence of little impact? Just what is going on here as we have yet another americana story????

Fair dinkum
Fair dinkum
Feb 18, 2020 11:13 AM
Reply to  bob

Careful bob.
You’re sounding like one of those flag waving Yankees.

Frank Speaker
Frank Speaker
Feb 18, 2020 11:13 AM
Reply to  bob

Indeed Bob, it’s outlook is increasingly US, perhaps that’s where their revenue growth lays.
It’s not just OffG though, the G has done the same, re-inforcing the echo chamber of the Empire. I hope OffG re-aligns a bit.

Sophie - Admin1
Admin
Sophie - Admin1
Feb 19, 2020 2:00 AM
Reply to  Frank Speaker

‘Revenue growth’? We have around 70 Patrons and a few more supporters on PayPal. That is the sum total of our ‘revenue’. Barely enough to cover half our costs. We don’t accept advertising and we refuse all offers of paid content. Because we don’t do this for ‘revenue’. We do it because we care.

Our output is dictated purely by what we consider relevant or interesting.

Robbobbobin
Robbobbobin
Feb 19, 2020 5:32 AM

We have around 70 Patrons and a few more supporters on PayPal. That is the sum total of our ‘revenue’. Barely enough to cover half our costs.

If that recovers only half your costs, that’s not nearly good enough. Would a minor addition and change to your standard article footer compromise your independence?

  • Addition, a single-line tally: “Costs this month: £x — Support so far this month: £y”

    Give readers some idea of how much difference what they could afford would make.

  • Change: Add “or Plastic” or “or VISA etc” under the PayPal logo.

    PayPal requires a PayPal account to process payments through it own system, but also acts as a normal payment processor for those (wised up) who eschew PayPal accounts. However, PayPal in its “normal payment processor” mode will accept only credit cards for recurring payments or subscriptions, not debit or prepaid/gift cards, so donations via PayPal in its “normal payment processor” mode will need to be designated by the donator as one-offs.

Greg Bacon
Greg Bacon
Feb 18, 2020 11:38 AM
Reply to  bob

I understand your concern, but when a psychotic bully is threatening our kids on the playground, you need to deal with that maniac first or there will be nothing left to save.

Some joker made the comment once that since what the USA does affects the entire world, maybe everyone should get to vote.

Igor
Igor
Feb 19, 2020 2:14 AM
Reply to  Greg Bacon

“maybe everyone [in the world] should get to vote.”
Might as well, voting in the USA changes nothing substantial.
Only the faces of the puppets change.

lundiel
lundiel
Feb 18, 2020 4:03 PM
Reply to  bob

Given we are a state that is in total military, intelligence, economic lockstep with the ambitions of the American deep state, have virtually no influence over our own elections or political parties and follow American geopolitical strategy to the letter. I think it is important for us to understand and discuss what our foreign masters have in store for us.

bob
bob
Feb 18, 2020 6:00 PM
Reply to  lundiel

I do understand what you are saying, however, don’t we all here know this already? – meanwhile back in Blighty there are serious issues which need addressing – Assange’s treatment/ OnLine Harms white paper/ OfCom touted as controller of the internet/ the floods and government non-response/ the dead labour party and no opposition to the dictatorship/ loss of free speech/ the americanisation of the planet/ continual ignoring of international law/ the findings of the Kuala Lumpa investigation on Israel – https://www.globalresearch.ca/israel-charged-with-war-crimes-and-genocide-complete-judgment-of-kl-tribunal/5359433 – etc etc

Richard Le Sarc
Richard Le Sarc
Feb 18, 2020 8:10 PM
Reply to  bob

The Truth has been declared to be ‘antisemitic’.

Thom
Thom
Feb 18, 2020 10:15 PM
Reply to  bob

I agree with you. Interestingly Craig Murray seems to be going down this path too. Are we being conditioned not to care about our own politics?

George Mc
George Mc
Feb 18, 2020 9:26 AM

More on OUR bought election and the continuing irrelevance of “Labour”:

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/02/18/labo-f18.html

Capricornia Man
Capricornia Man
Feb 18, 2020 9:52 AM
Reply to  George Mc

A pathetic and cowardly surrender by Labour ‘leadership’ contenders to the Bliarite/Zionist witch hunt. Further evidence of the critical and possibly irreparable damage which the ever-meddling viper has done to the party.

George Mc
George Mc
Feb 18, 2020 2:41 PM

Corbyn was a little blip on the neoliberal canvas. They quickly erased him and restored New Labour – or New New Labour – to its previous condition of being a parliamentary pantomime for the 1% OF the 1%. Expect any number of ensuing show trials wherein the stray lambs will get down and plead for absolution.

Other than that: nothing to see here folks, move along now.

Richard Le Sarc
Richard Le Sarc
Feb 18, 2020 8:23 PM
Reply to  George Mc

The WSWS story nicely illustrates the fulminating HATRED that drives the Zionists. The fact that Zionism is for the Jews as Nazism was for the Germans is unanswerable. Israeli Arabs suffer from at least SIXTY discriminatory laws and regulations, and we are ORDERED not to say that is racism. Israel was founded in terror, murder, rape and massacre and the forced ethnic cleansing of the inhabitants, and we are ORDERED to not see that, and the unending brutality inflicted on the Palestinians ever since, as the race hatred that it surely is. The mad dog Bibi has introduced legislation that EXPLICITLY declares Israel to be a State of the Jews, a plainly racist move that reduces the 20% of non-Jewish Israelis to apartheid second class status, and, moreover, the Talmudist religious authorities in Israel do not even recognise the full status of non-Orthodox and ultra-Orthodox marriages, conversions etc. That these ‘Labour’ swine grovel and whimper at the feet of creatures, only a segment of Jewish opinion in the UK, and a minuscule portion of the UK populace, is not just disgusting, craven and loathsome, but it surely will create REAL hatred of the Jewish elites and their arrogance and raw hatred of any who dare oppose them in any way. But that is PRECISELY what they want. They exist by, through and for hatred, their existential fuel.

Willem
Willem
Feb 18, 2020 7:14 AM

The last time the democrats sold a president as a brand, was with brand Obama. He was as brown as coca-cola (coca cola is it) and the bubbles were ‘hope’ and ‘change’. They tried a similar trick with HRC in 2016 who was as entitled to deserve the presidency as L’Oréal (because she was worth it). However, they forgot that even a product like L’Oréal needs to have some content in order to sell. Being friends with Justin Timberlake and being guest on Saturday night shows was not enough, since it was clear that HRC is a tried and true opportunistic politician who only feels ‘empathy’ for the deplorables (her own words), i.e., doesn’t want to help the deplorables that are ‘littered’ around the USA.

Now we have Bloomberg, who is as exquisite as champagne. But the champagne ain’t cool (although they try to make Bloomberg cool) and the champagne has no bubbles (Bloomberg has no content that speaks to society). But I am sure that the spindoctors know a way out of this. Just as they did with Hillary. If Trump enters the Whitehouse for another 4 years, that is just as good for the Democrats as when Bloomberg enters it.

Or it’s even better for democrats if Trump wins. Because we can all blame Trump for his bad decisions. But these decisions would not have been different if a democrat would enter the whitehouse.

What America needs is Medicare for all, and universal basic income that will allow Americans to buy back all the stuff that American companies outsourced for production to countries like China and Mexico. They also need a new feeling that will give the idea that the USA ‘is’ the exceptional country. They can do this by demanding the MIC to no longer produce weapons but aim for the green stuff (windmills, solar power, isolation of houses, green cars, green planes, etc). That is more or less Bernie Sanders’s programme, and if he can convince the oligarchs that this is the way to go, the USA will go that way.

Because let’s be clear about this: America is not a country where democracy rules, but the oligarchy. Which is true for all Westernized countries.

Richard Le Sarc
Richard Le Sarc
Feb 18, 2020 7:07 AM

The ‘Russian interference’ tripe was a Big Lie from beginning to end-but no end is in sight, or ever will be. No ‘hacking’ of the corrupt DNC operation, just a leak, almost certainly by the then murdered Seth Rich. A minuscule number of Internet posts by a click-bait farm, half after the election, most puppy pictures. A US judge has found that the IRA operation has NO links to the Russian Government. Just, as ever, with the MSM presstitute vermin, lie piled on lie piled on hypocrisy, and the required 100% Groupthink.

Martin Usher
Martin Usher
Feb 18, 2020 6:12 AM

The irony in all this is that any service purchased on the Internet is essentially trans-national. There are ‘guns for hire’ all over the place, they’re anywhere that skilled people are to be hired and until this whole Russian meddling thing was brought up nobody gave it a second thought. Once politicians jumped on the meddling bandwaggon things got a bit confused because the reality of the world as it is became warped to their vision of the world as they saw it. I, for one, never saw anything particularly unusual in an “Internet Research Institute” running ads on social media, what was really important was who was running the ads and what they were trying to achieve by them. (Once again, the politicians and pundits were unable to break out of the straitjacket of Cold War thinking — their explanation for everything was just another James Bond storyline where the all seeing and all knowing puppetmasters in the Kremlin hatched nefarious schemes to undermine ‘democracy’.)

It will be interesting to see how Bloomberg’s campaign pans out. I personally have tuned out all political advertising, push polls and ignore all phone calls. We’ve passed the point where money should make a difference — advertisements just annoy.

(BTW — “Facebook’s vice president of global affairs and communications Nick Clegg…”. Mr. Clegg is/was a prominent UK politician. So much for ‘foreign meddling’!)

Gall
Gall
Feb 18, 2020 6:46 AM
Reply to  Martin Usher

I laughed my ass off when the Russia Hoaxers claimed that less than 100 thousand bucks worth of memes from St. Petersburg derailed poor train wreck Hillary’s 1.5 billion campaign.

Gee it couldn’t have anything to do with her never bothering to campaign in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Ohio because Ada told her not to bother because the “Blue Wall” was secure?

Nah!

Anyway Bloomberg figures he can buy the election because the Supreme Morons have decreed that bribery is free speech. Too bad they haven’t decided about actual speech especially if it is any critical in any way of the country they’ve pledged allegiance to i.e. Israel.

Richard Le Sarc
Richard Le Sarc
Feb 18, 2020 7:10 AM
Reply to  Gall

Even better was the utterly ludicrous assertion that a tiny fraction of those click-bait episodes caused social disharmony between the races in the USA, who had lived in perfect harmony and amity before the dastardly Putin set them at each other’s throats.

Gall
Gall
Feb 18, 2020 10:40 PM

Exactly. As if we needed the insidious influence of Boris and Natasha to promote dissension and discord in the Land of the Free fire zone. Either they are deluding into believing that America is just one big melting pot where “United We Stand” or they are playing to their brain dead followers who believe that crap.

This country has been at war with itself since its inception. The only opportunity the British gave them was respite from fighting among themselves.

lundiel
lundiel
Feb 18, 2020 8:16 AM
Reply to  Martin Usher

“Mr. Clegg is/was a prominent UK politician.So much for ‘foreign meddling’! ”

Nah. It’s no different to an American global corporate employing some disgraced former politician from Peurto Rico for instance. We (UK) are totally in lockstep with you. Did you know there are hundreds of American academic staff at Oxford university? The department of politics and international relations for instance, is a nursery for western intervention, state-building, conflict. Take a look at this bunch and weep.

Richard Le Sarc
Richard Le Sarc
Feb 20, 2020 7:59 AM
Reply to  lundiel

It’s the same in Austfailia. Whenever the ABC asks an academic to comment on a subject, at least half the time that person appears complete with an intact Yankee drawl. Either they have taken over academe, or the ABC has been ordered to seek out Our Great and Powerful Friends, only.

Wilmers31
Wilmers31
Feb 18, 2020 3:53 AM

There is no hope for justice any more. Shooting a messenger like Assange for exposing the truth? Our Australian politicians are not ashamed to be in that alliance of hypocrisy (Huawei/Crypto AG) . There is a ‘secret prisoner in Canberra’, witness K is prevented to attend the international court, the book “Sydney Inc” was outlawed via super-injunction.

Does anybody believe Bloomberg would change anything? Only when we shake off the domineering by the US can we be truly free and maybe hope for a little justice.

Martin Usher
Martin Usher
Feb 18, 2020 6:15 AM
Reply to  Wilmers31

Think of the US as just a suitable host for a parasite, the sort of parasite that 100 years or so ago was attached to the British Empire. Money has always been trans-national.

Richard Le Sarc
Richard Le Sarc
Feb 18, 2020 7:14 AM
Reply to  Martin Usher

Austfailia is a parasite with a death-wish. Barely weeks after the worst bushfires in our history, with cities choking on smoke for weeks, followed by record hailstorms and floods, the ruling hard Right psychopaths are INCREASING their drive to mine every gram of coal in the country, and are refusing to countenance any meaningful reduction in emissions, even out to 2050!!!!!!!!And they are definitely winning, as the ALP (Another Liberal Party) ‘opposition’ rats join in the celebration of coal.

Capricornia Man
Capricornia Man
Feb 18, 2020 2:21 PM

You couldn’t say the ALP ‘leadership’ lacks the courage of its convictions. It has no convictions. Jellyfish, one and all.

Seamus Padraig
Seamus Padraig
Feb 18, 2020 11:16 AM
Reply to  Martin Usher

Bingo!

Antonym
Antonym
Feb 18, 2020 3:03 AM

Bloomberg main interest is to protect his China investments, which Trump might disrupt. Therefore Russia and Iran have stay the axis-of-pretend-evil, not China & co.

George Cornell
George Cornell
Feb 18, 2020 2:57 AM

https://www.insider.com/michael-bloombergs-employees-created-a-book-purportedly-offensive-quotes

Not everyone will find these quotes funny. Seems like they are great , but for the timing, the content and the messages. His campaign says they were just a joke. Hmmm.

His quotes about black crime seem fatal and have been audiotaped.

Tedwils
Tedwils
Feb 18, 2020 2:23 AM

Let’s see, an extreme Talmudist supremacist, the murderer of Occupy, the architect of open air prison policing. Whats not to like?

Richard Le Sarc
Richard Le Sarc
Feb 18, 2020 7:16 AM
Reply to  Tedwils

Bloomberg has a ton of bad behaviour in his past, but any mention of any of it, is, of course, ‘antisemitic’.

Richard Le Sarc
Richard Le Sarc
Feb 20, 2020 10:14 PM

The ‘antisemitism’ industry run by the likes of the LOATHSOME Deborah Lipstadt, simply asserts that ANY criticism of ANY bad behaviour by ANY Jew, is driven. not by opposition to that behaviour, but by virulent hatred of ALL Jews everywhere. Even if that behaviour, if committed by a goy, would be roundly and widely condemned. It’s a really vile concoction, best peddled with stupendous arrogance, no opposition, and TOTAL MSM compliance. This opposition to Soros is not because he is a predatory capitalist parasite interfering around the world in the affairs of others, but solely because he is a Jew.

Deen
Deen
Feb 19, 2020 8:49 AM
Reply to  Tedwils

Plus, used cops on horseback to illegally/unconstitutionally smash legal demonstrations against the brewing iraq war, in 2003. Doesnt this also make him something like a tertiary war criminal?

Richard Le Sarc
Richard Le Sarc
Feb 20, 2020 8:13 AM
Reply to  Deen

It makes him a good Zionist, therefore untouchable.

Fair dinkum
Fair dinkum
Feb 18, 2020 2:21 AM

Buying and selling is THE major religion of the US.
All those other minor sects are just social gatherings to facilitate breeding with other believers.

Richard Le Sarc
Richard Le Sarc
Feb 20, 2020 8:15 AM
Reply to  Fair dinkum

Ripping other people off is the real religion. Just think of the names-‘suckers’, ‘rubes’, ‘marks’, ‘patsies’ etc, that they have for their fellows.