The most idiotic story of the week: first, Bernie Sanders is told by U.S. intelligence that Russia is planning to aid him in the upcoming election; next, the story leaks to the Washington Post, which runs with it; and finally, Bernie confirms the “disclosure” and bothers to repudiate the alleged support.

“Unlike Donald Trump, I do not consider Vladimir Putin a good friend,” the statement [from candidate Bernie Sanders] said. “He is an autocratic thug who is attempting to destroy democracy and crush dissent in Russia. Let’s be clear, the Russians want to undermine American democracy by dividing us up and, unlike the current president, I stand firmly against their efforts, and any other foreign power that wants to interfere in our election.”
Sanders on Friday called the interference an “ugly thing” that is attempting to “divide us up.”
“That’s what they did in 2016. That is the ugliest thing they’re doing, is they are trying to cause chaos, trying to cause hatred in America,” Sanders told reporters. “It is an ugly business, and all of us have got to say, ‘Sorry, you are not going to do this in this election.’”

Myah Ward, “Sanders condemns Russian interference in 2020 elections,” Politico, February 21, 2020.

As if advocating for socialism wouldn’t be divisive in America!

Also, the disclosure seems more like a psy-op than anything else. What is the evidence that Russians were trying to tilt the scales to Bernie? The agents who told Bernie this — couldn’t they be playing him? Isn’t this likely? Leaking the story to the American public a week later strikes me as a way to throw a monkey wrench into Bernie’s campaign — we’ve been so programmed to freak out about Russian election interference that this whole scenario looks like campaign dirty tricks from a Deep State cabal.

The real electoral threat lies in the easily compromised electronic/digital voting systems, systems designed and implemented by Deep State contractors. The fact that almost no one mentions these in-jeopardy systems strikes me as a tell — that people do not care for the integrity of their electoral systems, and merely aim to use the issue as a partisan bludgeon.

That Bernie reacted as he did could be a sign that he is either not very bright or not very serious, or perhaps is, as evidenced so often, a coward in the face of power.

His response should have been eyerolls, and to call attention to multiple levels of psy-ops. That he chose merely to flail at Trump in a pathetic fashion shows just how little imagination and perspective he has. Maybe he cannot conceive of how deep the fakes run.

He is a naïf — like most socialists are. No surprise, there. After all, if adopting socialism, you must be either naive or evil.

Or both.

twv