Cops repeatedly called on Bernie backers

[brooklynite]

Politico

The night before the Nevada caucuses, the chairman of the state’s Democratic Party called police after several supporters of Bernie Sanders gathered outside his home at 11 p.m. with a bullhorn to issue a warning about the next day’s election.

At least three other times in recent days, Estrada led a group of Sanders supporters who gathered late at night outside the homes of Democratic Party officials and California lawmakers, including those of Secretary of State Alex Padilla and state Democratic Party Chairman Rusty Hicks. Police were called at least twice.

The incident and three others in recent days come at a time when some Democrats and rival campaigns say Sanders’ supporters are engaged in harassment and bullying, both online and in person. His opponents have increasingly highlighted examples and argued that Sanders has allowed a toxic culture to fester among his fans. The conduct could complicate Sanders' efforts to unite the party as he’s established himself as the frontrunner for the nomination.

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/02/26/cops-called-bernie-backers-protest-117782

[murielm99]

1. I consider myself a supporter

of Mayor Pete. That may change. The primary in my state is March 17. A few weeks is a long time in politics.

I said "supporter." IMO, Bernie does not have supporters. He has fans and followers. There is a difference. No one should be a blind follower of a politician. History shows us why.

Thanks for posting.

[GemDigger]

3. Well said. nt

[NurseJackie]

6. You make a very important distinction there. Thank you.

Bernie does not have supporters. He has fans and followers. There is a difference. No one should be a blind follower of a politician. History shows us why.

You make a very important distinction there. Thank you. (Although, the words you chose were much more polite and kind than the ones I would have used... that I won't share here for obvious reasons... but that's okay... I think we're on the same page and same wavelength anyway.)

Send me PM if you want my unvarnished opinion.

[The Mouth]

8. "fan" is just short for "Fanatic"

[NurseJackie]

10. Indeed. This is interesting to read...

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fanatic

[The Mouth]

18. Never underestimate the danger of fans

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nika_riots

And people think soccer hooligans or rioting basketball fans are bad!

"The only thing new is the history you don't already know" Harry S. Truman

[HarlanPepper]

20. If only there was a word for a large association of fanatics.

[marble falls]

42. More importantly, Sanders isn't the second choice of many of the other candidates' supporters ...

I think a brokered convention is unavoidable.

[blue-wave]

15. +1000

This!!: "No one should be a blind follower of a politician. History shows us why."

Spot on Muriel!!

[Historic NY]

28. +1

[Sloumeau]

2. They don't sound like Russians or bots to me. :)

[PatSeg]

4. That's really disturbing

Can't blame that on Russian trolls and bots.

[mr_lebowski]

26. Could blame it on infiltrators though ...

Just sayin'

[Historic NY]

29. Like Stein............

[zackymilly]

32. Ha! n/t

[PatSeg]

31. That's true

Who do you think would be doing it? Republicans?

[mr_lebowski]

34. I can think of a few candidates ... but not to say I think any are the LIKELY explanation ;) nt

[Marcuse]

41. Mueller: Americans were targeted to attend events organized from St Petersburg (Not FLA).

[Dem2]

5. Number of people shocked at seeing such a headline:

Zero.

[NurseJackie]

7. ...

[redqueen]

9. She's a lunatic.

Link to tweet

[awesomerwb1]

11. You'll find a lot of "lunatics"

for Bernie on twitter if you open your eyes. These are not isolated incidents. I've been harassed and threatened on Twitter by them and I'm pretty mild there.

[redqueen]

13. Twitter, you say?

Link to tweet

[awesomerwb1]

14. But of course they would blame others

Seriously??

But of course they would blame others. It's the russians!!! The "establishment!! Because Bernie "fans" don't even booo others.

Please stop bro/sis.

[redqueen]

16. Every single person participating is helping Russia.

Russia Doesn't Want Bernie Sanders. It Wants Chaos
The point of Kremlin interference has always been to find democracy’s loose seams, and pull.

https://www.wired.com/story/bernie-sanders-russia-chaos-2020-election/

[TwilightZone]

19. Those aren't mutually exclusive. Trump is chaos personified.

If they push Bernie, they create chaos in the Democratic primary, especially from gullible people who see every minor item in a campaign as a world-changing event, plus they get who they believe -- right or wrong -- would be the easiest to defeat in November, maintaining the current chaotic-idiot-in-chief.

Ignoring the latter for the former is just disingenuous. It's not one or the other. From their perspective, it's both.

[redqueen]

23. Just saying that smearing a candidate or all of his supporters

based on the actions of a few - many of whom may not even be supporters - is helping spread the chaos

[McKim]

35. Sensationalist Activities are Not Helping

Sensationalist activities by whoever is doing this is not helpful. We need to stop fighting among ourselves and come together with a progressive presidential candidate and a moderate and boom! Whatever happens the DNC needs to take some pages out of Sanders and Warren's platforms and go with it. This crap does not desrve our attention. Just stop it!

[redqueen]

37. Definitely agree. No one should excuse it or ignore it, if it's done by identifiable people.

That said, referring to DSA members doing awful things in support of some other candidate who isn't Bernie as "Bernie Bros"? We should all be smart enough not to spread that bullshit.

And online commenters? We need to relearn how to ignore trolls, not share stories of their noise as somehow meaningful here.

[awesomerwb1]

21. That's where you're missing the gigantic point

Which is amazing to me.

They WANT Bernie because Bernie IS chaos. He blames the establishment, the DNC (yet he loves to run as a Dem with the DNC's help). Listen to his surrogates' speeches. From Nina Turner to Kshama Sawant(did you miss her lovely uniting recent speech?), they are not uniting.

The russians want the chaos because it helps their guy trump. If Bernie had a chance to beat trump, do you think they'd be giving him a boost?

My advice is it's not good to glorify a candidate. I'm glad I will never be anywhere near that.

[wnylib]

47. Russia wants to keep Trump in office.

So, yes, they could be behind this in order to create a political ad if Sanders becomes the nominee. It is easy to create effective scare ads against a socialist. That's why both Trump and Russia want him to run against Sanders in the general.

[octoberlib]

17. I've been harassed as well.

I commented on a reporter’s tweet about Sanders wanting to primary Obama. The first Sanders supporter to comment tagged Sirota and within a few seconds I was swarmed with replies. About 30 of them. None of them threatened me but they called me hypocrite and liar because I’d said there was video of Sanders saying this. Even after I posted the video it continued so I just blocked all of them because I was afraid I’d get doxxed. It was something else.

[awesomerwb1]

22. Yep

Almost the exact same thing has happened to me. It's gotten a little more serious with me - hope it doesn't happen to you.

[spicysista]

12. Wow, the comments on the article....

The comments under the article are pretty brutal. There is definitely a growing consensus about some of the senator's most staunch supporters. It's not a good look.

[DENVERPOPS]

27. No kidding Spicy

And Trump, Republican Party, and most of all PUTIN are loving every minute of it.!!!!!!!!!!!!

[comradebillyboy]

24. Sanders is not capable of uniting the party. He has never ever been a uniter

in his long political career.

[Blue_Tires]

25. .....

[Gothmog]

33. Again, I saw similar conduct at the National Convention by sanders vetted delegates

Normally going to a national convention is a once in a life time experience. I have worked really hard inside the party on campaigns and voter protection issues for a very long time to earn this trip. Too bad that sanders and his vetted delegates ruined that experience and did their best to help trump. A candidate has absolute approval rights over their pledged delegates because these delegates can change their votes and these delegates represent the candidate and campaign. I helped vet Clinton delegates and I know that I was vetted. The Clinton campaign told us that we represent her and that our actions would reflect on her and her campaign.

In contrast, sanders sent one very weak text the Sunday night before the convention and then did little or nothing to control his delegates. It was nasty I was there when the sanders delegates booed Congressman John Lewis. I was warned about this stunt 30 minutes before it happened by the Clinton campaign whip. According to my whip, sanders was asked to stop this event and declined. That incident will be used against sanders by Russia to suppress the African American vote just as was done in 2016

Link to tweet

Russia will just run material showing sanders delegates booing John Lewis, Elijah Cummings and others to suppress the vote of African American voters and I feel that this tactic would be very effective

I was at the Texas delegation breakfast when a group of sanders delegates marched in and demanded that we condemn Clinton and change our votes to sanders.

sanders spoke to the Texas delegation the next morning and his speech was again solely about himself. There was a mini-riot due to his delegates the prior morning and the only thing that sanders talked about was himself. sanders did nothing to deal with the fact that his delegates were out of control and did nothing to try to help Hillary Clinton win the general election.

Finally a group of sanders delegates yelled at my daughter and called her the c-Word because she would not try to get me to change my vote. Again sanders was asked to tell his delegates to behave during the convention and sanders refused

[Peacetrain]

36. I have told this story before but it happened to me in the 2016 caucus..

I was supposed to give a 5 minute speech for O'Malley.. (all of the precinct captains were giving small speeches for their candidate ..presenting their proposals...) and the Bernie contingency booed my down after 1 minute. Never in my life have I ever experienced anything like that at a caucus


And this year, they just all walked out in mass (I think the captains just told them to leave) which is fine..but the captains did not come in to talk to any of the other candidates supporters... that is why he lost Iowa...

My entire family went with Elizabeth (even though we are philosophically apart, we felt she would be a wonderful person to support and lead our Iowa caucus) and Pete got the delegates.

They are their own worst enemies.. my way or the highway.. the same group that was always holding Obamas feet to the fire..

And Bernie cannot seem to lead this rowdy group.. He never says anything or worst yet does a version of they all good people.. both sides do it (they don't) And he hires back the same people who could not even bother to vote Democratic.

[Gothmog]

39. I am sorry that this happen to you but your expericence is consistent with my experience

[Peacetrain]

40. Yep.. it is not a comforting sight . and once you go through something like that with a group

of the supporters.. its a tough thing..

[Gothmog]

44. Yelling at a lawyer is a waste of time

I did not mind being told that I was a bad Jew or being cursed at. These efforts had zero chance of persuading me to change my vote. I do mind the attacks on my daughter.

[Peacetrain]

45. I mean to use that kind of language.. no place for it and is so demeaning to women

I am so sorry she had to experience that.. thats just not right.. and at a Democratic convention.. so sorry

[LisaM]

38. It gets worse, believe it or not.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/bernie-sanders-staffer-mocked-elizabeth-warrens-looks-pete-buttigiegs-sexuality-on-private-twitter-account

And then the author of the above gets doxed (which, let me say, I do not support under any circumstances, unless possibly, possibly, life-threatening ones).


https://www.businessinsider.com/journalist-doxxed-after-reporting-about-sanders-staffers-tweets-2020-2

[berksdem]

43. Shocking....

Actually, having seen the Bros in person I can believe it.

[yaesu]

46. Must be a slow news day. nt