Saturday, July 11, 2015

Hack Blog Politico Goes After Bernie Sanders' Past

Lefties, meet your candidate: Why Bernie Sanders is the only authentic alternative to Hillary Clinton

"It is widely recognized that Politico is little more than a glorified gossip rag, the belly of the media beast, the embodiment of everything vapid, reckless, and petty that drives America’s media rot. Pointing out the latest examples is pointless and redundant."   - Glenn Greenwald, salon.com (see link at bottom of post)

Let's get it out of the way, in the interest of full disclosure and forthright honesty, I have absolutely zero use for the blog Politico. I regard it as a political cesspit composed of a bunch of retreads and former MSM hacks who've resurrected yellow journalism in the digital age to descend to the level of Neoliberal guttersnipes . They, along with the MSM, are one of the primary reasons that decent people never vie for elective office. Why should they if they can expect to have every nook and cranny of their past lives dug up which have NO relevance to the present?

Last year, in one of my recent lacerations of Politico and those who follow it (and believe they're clued in) I referenced a poll it carried out in which 64 percent believed "the country is totally out of control". 

As I observed in that post from October, last year:

"Do these numb nuts even know what "totally out of control" means? Iraq may be "totally out of control" with the ISIS vermin running amuck and pretty much doing what they want. The U.S. is not totally out of control, which shows to me the extent to which certain Americans' minds have been gutted by the Repuke PR machinery.

Even Joe Scarbrough blurted:

"Wait! America, you really believe the country is a runaway beer truck? "

Please don't generalize this to all Americans. It appears to be instead a deranged subset that follows the hack blog called 'Politico'.  And given just the response here one must question whether these people are even qualified to vote in any objective manner. It instead discloses they have lost touch with reality, and we shouldn't trust those apart from reality to cast a realistic vote."

Harsh words but I stand by them. And further, the news this a.m. that Politico dispatched a low grade hack, Michael Kruse, to nose around Vermont to dig up dirt (for a piece entitled 'Bernie Sanders Has A Secret'), reinforces my take. Kruse, talking to Steve Kornacki (who I regard as an "accessory after the fact" - which I will get to later) claims he "went up to Vermont just interested broadly in Bernie Sanders in the 1970s when he went from perennial third party loser to Mayor of Burlington, Vermont in 1981".

Kruse then claims his "reporting took me somewhere frankly  I didn't expect to go"  and mentions "making a public records request for the birthplace of his son"

WTF?! A records request for his son's birthplace? Are you serious? What the hell has that to do with Sanders' political career or current platform? The only reason to go there would be to dig up some kind of dirt!

This POS hack Kruse then said he learned:

"The mother of the son is not Bernie Sanders' ex -wife, which had never been reported in 44 years of his public political life"

Well, maybe because the people and media of Vermont (which  wifey and I have visited three times on different holidays, including: Burlington, Middlebury, Rochester and Bennington - even considering buying a home there)  have a greater respect for their politicians' private lives than a low grade slime ball from Politico. I.e. a yellow journalist who makes his  dime off sleaze and sensation to further keep Americans' minds in a regressive, knuckle dragger state.

The shameless little weasel then claimed that the context for his story was not about that fact per se, but rather how it managed to "not get reported".

Which brings us to Kornacki himself.

Kornacki, trying to be too clever by half, as he was 2 years ago discussing the JFK assassination, said at the outset of the segment:

"There's nothing wrong with having an illegitimate child outside of marriage. It is only notable in this context to point out that if Hillary Clinton were the parent of an illegitimate child - instead of Bernie Sanders- the nation would have not only heard about it long before now, it would have been dissected over and over and over....Bernie Sanders proves you can keep large segments of your life private if you are a Senator. But can the same be said if you decide to run for President?"

Which is exactly why Bernie kept his private life a secret, because it's no one's goddamned business but his. Also, one has to wonder if now Kornacki is also carrying water for Hillary. Because to compare scrutiny of her with Sanders is like comparing chalk and cheese. One (HRC) has hurled herself into the political limelight from the time she wed Bill Clinton, then - after his 1992 election - insinuated herself into the national fabric as one of the most activist First Ladies ever. (With her health care plan).

By contrast, Bernie's first instincts were never to go into the main stage limelight, including running for President! He only did so after much pushing from progressives - who demanded another contender as opposed to a Hillary coronation. And, btw, this was only after Elizabeth Warren made it clear she had no intention to run - probably expecting the same sort of media shit Sanders is getting now.

Let's wait to see what develops, and hope most Americans now backing Sanders are intelligent enough to ignore this latest Neoliberal ploy to undermine his campaign. In the meantime, one must ask about Kornacki also carrying water for a disgusting, reactionary, garbage -gossip rag like Politico. Has he tossed his show overboard for them in the case of the hit job on Sanders, or is he merely not intelligent enough to see through them? Perhaps, since he also sometimes writes for salon.com,  he needs to read the two links at the bottom.

We deserve better governance, and certainly an end to - or at least mitigation of - inequality. But we will never ever get there if we permit squalid,  irrelevant,  hack reporting to dominate in news cycles. With the only reason to slime and slander a candidate who suddenly poses a threat to the Neoliberal establishment and imperative.

Stay tuned!

See also:

http://www.salon.com/2013/10/29/the_politico_culture/

And:

http://www.salon.com/2012/07/30/new_low_for_politico/

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