Wisconsin Gov Primary—Mandela Barnes Took $250,000-plus from Israel Lobby in 2022

Mandela Barnes accepted $251,415 from the Israel Lobby
as the 2022 Democratic Party nominee for U.S. Senate.
Barnes is a candidate for the 2026 Democratic Party
nomination for governor. Election Day is Aug 11.
Barnes' 2022 campaign gifts are tracked by Open Secrets.

Israel Lobby Gifted Barnes Campaign in 2022 Senate Run, Will Doom Electability as Pro-Genocide Blood Money Shows Character Problem

Commentary

Madison, Wisconsin—The campaign for the Democratic nominee for Wisconsin governor is off and running.

Mandela Barnes, whose supporters are dropping dishonest 'electabililty-concern' social media posts about Barnes' opponents, has taken to dead silence when asked about his accepting $251,415 from the Israel Lobby as 2022 Democratic Party nominee for U.S. Senate, (see Open Secrets).

During the 2022 U.S. Senate election in Wisconsin, Mandela Barnes was gifted substantial pro-Israel money from Zionist donors and conduits.

Barnes explicitly declared in 2022, "It's important that Israel remains a strong ally and a strong partner in the Middle East," in June 2022, just before absentee voting began, as reported in Jewish Insider as Barnes sought to highlight his pro-Zionist commitment.

Barnes told the Jewish Democratic Council of America forum in June 2022 that he opposes the global Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement (BDS) that seeks to highlight and stop Israeli human rights atrocities, (Washington Free Beacon).

The Mandela Barnes campaign is a top U.S. Senate candidate recipient of pro-Israel money during the 2022 federal elections.

Barnes has paid lip service to Wisconsin's peace movement, but has run from associations with anti-Genocide groups, (Washington Free Beacon).

But Israel-committed Genocide, Israel-sanctioned rape, torture and massacres of children play less well among the Democrat-voting electorate in 2026, and appears to be determinative in Michigan primaries to be held in early August, signaling a similar campaign dynamic in Wisconsin.

Top candidates for the 2026 Democratic Party nominee for Wisconsin governor include: Mandela Barnes, Francesca Hong, Sara Rodriguez, David Crowley, Kelda Roys and Missy Hughes. See analyses at Bill McCoshen in Dairyland Sentinel.

Barnes campaign was contacted by email asking: 

What is your comment on accepting $251,415 from the Israel Lobby as 2022 Democratic Party nominee for U.S. Senate?

Do you renounce this blood money?

As of Saturday, no comment from Barnes has been received.

Absentee voting for the Wisconsin Aug 11 elections begins June 26.

Democrats, Liberals Ridicule Waco Survivors, Dishonor the Fallen

Waco 1993. Democrats: Tough shit.
Illustration by David Palumbo

Gaslighting of history and Americans continues

Commentary

It's nearly the thirtieth anniversary of the 1993 Waco massacre, a perfect time to mock children killed, 82 people burned to death, and those who honor them.

It's a perfect time to mock, if you're a Democrat.

Donald Trump is speaking today at Waco. Trump, lunatic though he remains, has a keen eye cast on patronizing Democrat fare that veers into Democrat depravity, still unpopular with folks who think massacres are odious.

From Charles Homans in the New York Times this weekend:

The attention to Mr. Trump’s choice of locale [Waco] highlights the long political afterlife of the Waco standoff. A polarizing episode in its own time, the deadly raid was invoked in the 1990s by right-wing extremists including Timothy McVeigh, often to the dismay of the surviving Branch Davidians. It has remained a cause for contemporary far-right groups like the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys.

Alex Jones, the conspiracy-theorist broadcaster who helped draw crowds of Trump loyalists to Washington on Jan. 6, 2021, rose to prominence promoting wild claims about the Waco standoff. The longtime Trump associate and former campaign adviser Roger Stone dedicated his 2015 book, 'The Clintons’ War on Women," to the Branch Davidians who died at Mount Carmel.

 So, you see, expressing sympathy for those killed, or outrage at the killers, and condemnation of Democrat political support of the killers means you're a fellow traveler of the far-right and Alex Jones.

It's the way it is now with the Democrat Party, the party of the police, prosecutors and intelligence community.

See Waco coverage in Counterpunch for a does of sanity.

 Continues Homans in the Times:

'Waco is a touchstone for the far right,' said Stuart Wright, a professor of sociology at Lamar University in Beaumont, Tex., and an authority on the standoff.

He said Mr. Trump’s decision to begin his campaign there, if intentional in its nod to the siege, would echo Ronald Reagan’s August 1980 speech affirming his support of  'states’ rights' at a county fair near Philadelphia, Miss., a town known for the murder of three civil rights activists 16 years earlier.

Thirty years after the Waco slaughter there is no reaching liberals through appeals to humanity and simple decency.

Perpetrators write the history, and it becomes difficult if not impossible to recount simple facts and objective truth.

Facts and truth, Democrats call this misinformation and narrative.

Democrats and their Party press swing their political cudgel branding anyone speaking up for liberties, such as freedom of expression, freedom of religion to the right to be left alone as far-right denizens drinking in phantasms of killer racists and cultists.

This weekend, give a thought to the people slaughtered at Waco.

By the way, Joe Biden spoke against the killed, and politically exonerated the killers. Surprise.

Said Sen. Joe Biden (D-Delaware), commenting on Waco, as shown in Waco: The Rules of Engagement:

    The record of Waco incident documents mistakes, but the record of Waco does not evidence however, is any improper motive or intent on the part of law enforcement.

    Davis Koresh and the Davidians set fire to themselves.

    They committed suicide.

    Government did not do that.

Bullshit.

Innocent people were slaughtered by people who find it easy to slaughter innocent people.

From Clinton, Reno and Waco: the Real Story:

In Dan Gifford’s film Waco: The Rules of Engagement, a powerful interview segment presents a sympathetic Sheriff Jack Harwell of McLennan County, Texas nearly in tears as he speaks of his experience with the Branch Davidians: 'They were all good people. They had different beliefs than others, different beliefs than I have, maybe different beliefs than you have in their way of life, especially in their religious beliefs. But basically they were good people. I was around them quite a lot. They were always nice, mannerly, they minded their own business. They were always clean, and courteous. I liked them.'

I liked them too.

We all should, by acknowledging their humanity and standing for their liberties.

National Democratic Party Looks to Sabotage Blue Wave — Targets Progressives, Sanders and New Voters

Democratic Party opposition to Bernie Sanders is
bizarre, and like Hillary Clinton is a disease from
which there is no cure.

Madison, Wisconsin — Lessons learned for the Democratic Party's 2016 elections for 2018 appear to include 'engineer Hillary Clinton clones, and attack Bernie Sanders and progressives.'

This is not a winning strategy.

In Texas, national Democrats are backing an anti-worker Republican, Joseph Kopser, against a popular ex-math teacher and grassroots activist, Mary Wilson, in the May 22 primary election, (Jilani, The Intercept).

If it seems crazy for national Democrats to be backing Republicans in a Democratic primaries, we should consider it's not much crazier than rigging the 2016 Democratic Primary for Hillary Clinton who promptly lost to the lunatic now in the White House.

Hillary Clinton trumpeted her amassed superdelegates in August 2015, telling Democratic Primary voters the race is over, (Halperin, Epstein, Aug. 28, 2015; (BloombergPolitics)), months before the Iowa Caucuses and 11 months before the July 2016 Democratic Party Presidential Convention.

In New York, Hillary Clinton this weekend has endorsed the odious Andrew Cuomo against Cynthia Nixon, endorsed by Our Revolution, in the Sept 13 primary election.

National Democrats are pushing a message progressives must be stopped at the party primary level.

Yesterday, NBC's Meet the Press featured a long interview with Bernie Sanders, reported on by Cameron Cawthorne in the Washington Free Beacon.

Sanders was interviewed by Chuck Dodd who ask about the progressive-Democratic Party divide:

'What do you say to national Democrats who say be careful of this nominating folks who are too progressive.'

'I think that they are wrong, and I think they are misreading where the American people are at,' Sanders said. 'You know, Chuck, many of the issues that I campaigned on two years ago—issues like Medicare for All, raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour, taking on the pharmaceutical industry, making public colleges and universities tuition free, legalizing marijuana—a few years ago those were seen as radical, fringy ideas.'

Sanders, who caucuses with the Democrats in the Senate, claimed that a majority of the American people now support those ideas, including an 'overwhelming percentage of Democrats.'

'I think what candidates all over the country are now beginning to understand is that it is more important to reach out to the people in your community, working people, the middle class, lower-income people, rather than just worry about what wealthy campaign contributors want you to say,' Sanders said.

'I think that's not only good public policy; I think that's good politics, and I think many of those candidates will win, because you are going to see voter turnout go up and a level of excitement that conservative Democrats don't raise,' Sanders added.

The DCCC has come under scrutiny from progressives and even more centrist Democrats during the 2018 election cycle for meddling in Democratic primaries across the country and choosing establishment Democrats for their 'Red to Blue' program. The organization has also come under fire for pressuring progressive candidates to drop out of highly contested races.

In particular, the DCCC targeted Texas Democratic congressional candidate Laura Moser by publishing opposition research against her on its website. While the DCCC received backlash from members of the media and Democratic activists, including former Obama administration staffers, the group stood by its strategy. That strategy backfired in March when Moser qualified for a May 22 primary runoff.

No messages from national Democrats saying, 'you know what? Bernie Sanders is right and we should listen.'

From Meet the Press:

ICYMI: @SenSanders joins #MTP to discuss "electability" for progressive candidates in 2018 and why he thinks they encourage voter turnout. https://t.co/GNj8blk9Bg

— Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) May 21, 2018

See the video of Bernie Sanders at Meet the Press here.

Transcript of Bernie Sanders May 20, 208 appearance on Meet the Press here.

Robert Reich: Stand Against Tea Party and Collaborators

The most succient case against the radical right:

Dem Strategist Hits Electoral Wave Hype

- Must reading for those afraid the electorate has lost its collective mind -

By Andrew Levison at the Democratic Strategist

... The horse race model is based on the image of two candidates in competition for office and assumes that most voters are continually listening to and evaluating information about the candidates and are therefore very strongly influenced by campaign events like party conventions and televised debates as well as by the daily news headlines. In one formal model in political psychology -- called the 'online processing' model -- voters are visualized as keeping a constantly updated running tally of their impressions of both candidates. ...

David Corn: Progressives' Waning Support Will Cost Obama, Dems

David Corn in Politics Daily:

Yet Obama and his aides should not ignore the spreading anxiety among his liberal fans. The folks who I've talked with -- in conversations that often feel like counseling sessions -- have said they are unlikely to hit the pavement for Obama and the D's in 2010. They felt empowered by Obama's campaign in 2008; they feel alienated from politics today. Disenchantment is not what you want in your base when you're heading toward a tough mid-term election.

Parry: Stop Democrats' Battered-wife syndrome

The politics of service and unity do not have to be the politics of battered-wife syndrome, like the posture and behavior of the Democrats Party today.

That's the thrust of a piece by Robert Parry in Consortium News.

Right-on, Parry.

The Race to Date

via The Washington Note.

- 2025 delegates needed to nominate

- Super delegates who have not endorsed: 305

Obama Campaign E-mail on The Facts

... Last night, Senator Clinton used up her last, best chance to cut appreciably into Barack Obama's elected delegate lead.

She came up short.

In fact, she barely made a dent. At most, she picked up a net gain of 12 delegates -- less than our gain, for example, in Colorado (where we gained 17) or Kansas (where we gained 14). Her gain in Pennsylvania was less than half of our gain in Virginia, where we added to our lead by 25 delegates.

But there is one measure by which her campaign's gains are real. ...

Here's how it breaks out:

After Pennsylvania, we have a lead of at least 159 elected delegates earned through all of the primaries and caucuses so far. We have a total of at least 1493 pledged delegates.

Meanwhile, we've been rapidly gaining ground among the so-called superdelegates (elected leaders and party officials who get a vote to choose our nominee), cutting Senator Clinton's lead from more than 100 early this year to less than 25.

We have a total of 238 publicly committed superdelegates.

The total number of delegates needed to secure the nomination is 2,024. That means we are only 293 delegates away from securing the nomination.

In less than two weeks, we'll square off in the key battleground states of North Carolina and Indiana, when there will be as many delegates at stake as there were last night in Pennsylvania.

To grow our significant lead and close out this race, we must remain competitive in these contests and the 7 others that will follow. ...

Pennsylvania was considered a state tailor-made for Senator Clinton -- she was always expected to win, and we trailed by as much as 25 points in the weeks leading up to the election.

But thanks to people like you, Barack gained support among key voters in the face of long odds and unrelenting negativity from Senator Clinton, and kept the margin close enough that her delegate gain was insignificant.

Indeed, the only surprising result from Pennsylvania is how much Barack was able to improve his standing among key voter groups since the Ohio primary.
Among white voters, Obama narrowed the gap by 6 points. Among voters over 60, he nearly cut the gap in half, from 41 points to 24 points. Meanwhile, we continued to run strong where we have all along -- for example, winning voters ages 18-24 with over 65% of the vote.

Barack campaigned hard in Pennsylvania. He talked about his plans to stand up to the special interests and bring people together so that we can change Washington to turn our economy around, make sure that every American has quality health care, and bring this misguided war to an end. ...

Clinton's Unchallenged Spin

Update: See Getting Real and Assessing Strength in Swing States (NYT, April 24, 2008).

This morning, Hillary Clinton and her surrogates keep on with the desperate and ludicrous spin that winning big states in the Democratic primary points to winning these states in the general election, hence Hillary is the stronger candidate.

Losing in national popular vote total, number of states won, number of pledged delegates won, and high negative voter impressions, the Clinton campaign's contention is posited to the likes of Wolf Blitzer and network know-nothings who let Clinton's ridiculous proposition go on in silence, without laughing it off the air.

To impart any substance into Clinton's assertion, one has to believe that Clinton's winning California and New York in the primary means that Obama as nominee would not win these states in a general election. Ridiculous.

And as Hillary likes to appeal to history, one must believe that Bill Clinton's losing most of New England in the 1992 primary would suggest that Bill would perform there badly in the general election. [It didn't happen.]

And to take Hillary's thesis and apply it to the swing states like Missouri, Iowa and Wisconsin (where Obama won in this primary), one must, by Clinton's logic, argue that Obama and not Clinton would win these vital states in the general election.

In fact, one can apply this logic of the 30-plus states won by Obama (at this primary's end) and conclude that Obama, and only Obama, would win these states in the general election.

Preposterous, yet the network airheads let this crap go on unchallenged.

Obama Hits Back

If they don't get it here, they gonna it out there with the Republicans.

Such is the occasional justification offered for Hillary's tactics when her campaign veers into lies and sleaze against Obama that go against conceptions of fair play and justice.

But the 'gonna get it out there' sounds a lot like the muttered idiocies of an abuser.

Barack Obama neither fights, flees nor freezes in the face of the assault of arguably the most inane presidential campaign debate of modern politics, as Charles Gibson and George Stephanopoulos delivered a pathetic performance, with a civil but typical Hillary on display.

He offers an agrument in rebuttal ande speaks to people as though they were adult voters.

In North Carolina yesterday, Obama delivers so reasonably and effectively that Obama's over-the-top critics have made mockeries of themselves, and implanted a meme in the political consciousness of what are the ridiculous charges next that they are going to try to sell.

“That was the roll-out of the Republican campaign against me in November. That is what they will do,” Mr. Obama said. “They will try to focus on all these issues that don’t have anything to do with how you pay your bills at the end of the month.” (NYT. Jeff Zeleny)

Obama brings it all back home to substance with a cool that is a pleasure to watch viz a vis Gibson, Stephanopoulos, and Hillary.

NYT Video of Obama at a town meeting today in North Carolina:

Clinton Pretends There Was a Debate Last Night

via MAL Contends

The campaign reactions tell the story.

You can see the difference in the integrity of the two campaigns by their reactions to this inane, imbecilic forum last night by two manifestly unqualified debate moderators.

There was serious a debate last night and Hillary won - says Hillary's campaign.

Obama’s site offered Americans the opportunity to comment on this travesty, "Post Debate: Any thoughts? If you're tired of a slash and burn politics that trades distraction for real debate, you don't have to sit idly and watch anymore."

Clinton’s site pretended that this was a real, substantive debate, "Hillary's Reviews Are In: 'The Winner,' 'Strong Presence,' 'In Her Element'" [Just like Hillary is pretending there was a primary in Michigan and Fla.]

Hillary is still the same, old, lying politician to which more and more Americans are taking a dislike.

No need to cite from last night; it's a waste of time that only Hillary could dignify.

Obama Pulling Away in NH

Another poll shows Obama pulling away in New Hampshire among likely Democratic voters.

The problem for Hillary is that too many Democrats and independents see her as insincere and calculating, not exactly traits distinguishing Hillary from her would-be predecessor.

Hillary needs to offer a repudiation of Bush/Cheney while simultaneously reaching out to independents, no small feat.

I think it’s a combination of conscious disinclination on Hillary’s part, and sexism among the electorate that render this political appeal vanishingly unlikely.

Madison, Wisconsin offers a sound sample of progressive Democrats’ thinking, and many criticisms of her mirror that of right-wingers: They do no personally like or trust Hillary.

Hillary needs to start thinking about tomorrow, as the junior Senator from New York and not as President Clinton.

###

Stunned by Lack of Outrage, Not Outrageous Acts

Beth Quinn: Stunned by lack of outrage, not outrageous acts

I continue to be stunned.

Not by Bush any longer. There was a time when I was stunned by nearly everything he did. Or said. Who wouldn't be stunned by a president who could say, "They misunderestimated me," and sincerely believe he's on top of things?

Nor by Cheney. His pure evil no longer surprises me, although there was a time when he routinely stunned me. Torture? Torture??

Not by Congress, either. There was a time when I was stunned by that crowd's sheeplike mentality. I'd hear them decry the war, decry torture, decry Bush's growing deficit, then I'd drop my jaw as they voted time and again to give the president carte blanche.

No longer. I fully expect Congress to disappoint, to fail to do its job in balancing the White House power grab.

I'm no longer stunned by the politicized courts nor by the media, which is unwilling to offend and uses vague, watered-down language instead of strong condemnations of this, the worst presidency in history.

So who continues to stun me?

I will tell you. I am stunned by all that is left of America: Americans.
###

Democrats.com: No War, No Wiretaps, No Torture

Who are these guys? Against war, against illegal wiretapping, and against torture.

Via Democrats.com

27 Anti-War Protests - Let's Hit the Streets
Submitted by Bob Fertik

This Saturday, October 27, people from all walks of life will gather in 11 cities around the country in a national expression of the breadth and depth of antiwar sentiment in this nation. For any people, it will be their first step in transforming their antiwar feelings into antiwar action. Regional actions will enable much larger numbers of people to participate.

###