Just what is Tulsi Gabbard up to? (Part 2, lots of sarcasm)
(I think people have trouble identifying sarcasm and parody these days in the accuse before reading or thinking era of Twitter. For the record – this is parody and sarcasm related to the Great Red Scare.)
I read today that Tulsi Gabbard has stopped her campaign and has endorsed Biden. Given that she’s a Russian asset, what sort of trickery and next level chess is this?
What is Putin’s angle here? I’m going to have to revisit Clinton’s spy hunter comments and the in depth analysis by the New York Times.
I found Clinton’s October 2019 comments in a January 2020 National Review article.
“I’m not making any predictions, but I think they’ve got their eye on somebody who’s currently in the Democratic primary and they’re grooming her to be the third-party candidate,” Clinton said in an interview for Plouffe’s Campaign HQ podcast. “She’s the favorite of the Russians. They have a bunch of sites and bots and other ways of supporting her so far and that’s assuming Jill Stein will give it up because she’s also a Russian asset.”
Clinton spokesman Nick Merrill confirmed that the former secretary of state was referring to Gabbard when she was describing a Democratic candidate preferred by Russia.
Former Secretary of State and every top secret clearance you can think of – Clinton can spot those Russian assets. It’s probably only a matter of time before Clinton catches Gabbard in the act of a dead drop on a deserted Waikiki Beach.
So we know from Clinton that Gabbard is the favorite of the Russians. The only thing I can think of is that Putin decided he needed to take some of the heat off Gabbard. Zig when people are looking for a zag. When Clinton exposed the third party candidate clandestine op, the Russians needed to come up with something else. I think I know what it is.
In her endorsement, Gabbard said a nice thing about Biden’s son. Biden loves that kind of stuff. Maybe Gabbard sees a chance of getting on Biden’s ticket. He’s promised to select a woman as VP. That’d be a huge win win for Vlad. A young Russian asset in the #2 slot under a president in his late 70s? And if they lose to Trump? Either way, Putin has his asset in the White House.
That’s all a gamble, though. Time to bring in The New York Times piece.
Lisa Lerer provides some amazing journalism and analysis in that piece. Instead of looking at Gabbard’s comments, actions, and proposed policies, Lerer goes for that tried and true method of looking at what people are saying about Gabbard.
Stephen K. Bannon, President Trump’s former chief strategist, is impressed with her political talent.
Richard B. Spencer, the white nationalist leader, says he could vote for her.
She is now injecting a bit of chaos into her own party’s primary race, threatening to boycott that debate to protest what she sees as a “rigging” of the 2020 election.
That’s left some Democrats wondering what, exactly, she is up to in the race, while others worry about supportive signs from online bot activity and the Russian news media.
On podcasts and online videos, in interviews and Twitter feeds, alt-right internet stars, white nationalists, libertarian activists and some of the biggest boosters of Mr. Trump heap praise on Ms. Gabbard. They like the Hawaiian congresswoman’s isolationist foreign policy views. They like her support for drug decriminalization. They like what she sees as censorship by big technology platforms.
Lerer moves in for the kill in that last portion. There is something very fishy about an Iraq War veteran who thinks our almost 20 years in two wars in the Middle East is bad policy. It’s pretty clear what’s going on here. If we get out of Iraq and Afghanistan, who benefits? We all know who. Putin. Putin and Russia could be bogged down in Iraq and Afghanistan if we were to leave. There goes all our influence in the world. In one fell swoop, the world’s strongest, most dynamic economy would no longer be on the forefront of wielding influence in Baghdad or Kabul.
The drug decriminalization and anti-censorship stances are also clearly linked to Putin. Putin is a master of sowing divisions in American society. If it weren’t for Putin and his troll farms, Americans would be blissfully unconcerned about the quick turn of events in the weed industry. Take former Speaker of the House John Boehner for example. According to NPR, “he’s emerged as one of the most vocal advocates in the GOP for marijuana legalization.” That’s a quite a change. NPR adds the following:
His embrace of marijuana legalization marks a sharp reversal for Boehner since his time in Congress. In 1999, in his one and only vote on the issue, he voted to prohibit medicinal marijuana in Washington, D.C. In 2011, he wrote a constituent to say he was “unalterably opposed to the legalization of marijuana.”
Despite his about-face, Boehner said he had no regrets about his past position on the issue — in particular, what it meant for the criminal justice system. As Quartz reportedlast year, more than 400,000 people were arrested for marijuana sales or trafficking during his time as time as speaker from 2011 to 2015.
These troublesome social justice warriors are out there now claiming that those past laws fell heavily on poor people and people of color. But lo and behold, as soon as white people started seeing the economic potential, suddenly weed is no longer a gateway drug to society’s ruin. If only those social justice warriors could free themselves of Russia’s puppet strings and stop drudging up issues from the ancient past.
The anti-censorship position is obviously a Russian initiative, too. People who are anti-censorship hide behind quaint notions of freedom of speech and freedom of the press and hyped up fears of secretive government entities or billionaire tech CEOs having the power to determine what is good speech and bad speech. Don’t fall for it. Their only goal is to make sure that Putin can run the troll farms that are controlling America’s voters.
(I think people have trouble identifying sarcasm and parody these days in the accuse before reading or thinking era of Twitter. For the record – this is parody and sarcasm related to the Great Red Scare.)