Jill Stein joins Trump-Putin fascist convergence

Bill Weinberg

Well, isn't this cute. Talking Points Memo notes that when Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein supped with Putin at a Moscow confab sponsored by Kremlin state media mouthpiece RT in December, also on hand was Donald Trump's military advisor, retired General Mike Flynn. The same Mike Flynn who has called for the "destruction of Raqqa" to defeat ISIS, and boasts that he is "at war with Islam," The Intercept informs us. Yet Stein, in her viral YouTube statement from Red Square during the trip, filled with predictable "anti-war" rhetoric, had not a syllable of criticism either for Flynn or for her Kremlin hosts—who were then (as now) busy bombing the crap out of Syria.

So much for Stein's hypocritical "anti-war" position. And so much for deluded "leftists" who argue that Trump would be less dangerous on "isolationist" grounds.

Also take a look at what company these supposed "leftists" are in. We've already noted that Matthew Heimbach, the neo-Nazi leader behind June's hate rally in Sacramento, had previously attacked a Black Lives Matter protester at a Trump rally. Now blogger Louis Proyect notes that Heimbach has also organized rallies in support of Putin's client Syrian dictator Bashar Assad (whose regime, not coincidentally, has availed itself of actual Nazi expertise). Heimbach has also praised Putin for his sponsorship of neo-fascist and ultra-right groups across Europe.

The Forward notes that a charming neo-Nazi freelance propagandist by the name of Jayme Liardi has taken it upon himself to launch a "Trump Youth" initiative (very subtle, eh?). A sample of his rhetoric, perfectly designed to appeal to disaffected globophobes who might not even be sophisticated enough to recognize the whiff of Nazism here: "If you have no identity, one will be installed into you by the kosher forces of The State. Make no mistake, they may say that they are for 'multiculturalism' 'diversity' and 'equality' but their actions would say otherwise. This is the ideology that brought us colonialism, slavery and the chain stores of suburbia. This is our current world—the world of Globalism."

The Washington Post reports that when Vice President Joe Biden visited Serbia this week, he was met with protesters from the Serbian Radical Party of veteran warlord Vojislav Seselj, who wore matching Donald Trump T-shits and carried mass-produced placards reading "VOTE TRUMP." Seselj said: ""Trump is the alternative to globalization. He will destroy old centers of power in the United States and he is a supporter of Russia." (Seselj, by the way, has faced war crimes charges at The Hague over atrocities committed during the Bosnian war. We noted that Seslj predicted his imminent conviction back in March. Just days later, he was instead acquitted—shamefully. See NYT, April 1)

We've noted before the worldwide fascist convergence around the Trump-Putin axis. This is now revealed as a "Red-Brown" convergence that also includes sectors of the ostensible "left"—a politics redolent of the 1939 Hitler-Stalin Pact. With Stein's growing popularity, we fear these sectors are now becoming dominant on the "left."

And she's running against Trump, you say? Actually, the best she can aspire to do is split the anti-Trump vote and abet his victory. Certainly, she has far more ire for centrist Democrat Clinton than outright fascist Trump. As Politico notes, she says that while Trump just "says despicable things," Clinton has "terrifying track record"—a typically dishonest response that ignores the reality that Trump has never held political office. If he ever gets the reins of power (with Jill's connivance), "leftists" literally aren't going to know what hit them. Because they are apparently incapable of recognizing actual fascism. Or, worse, have made their peace with it in the name of a confused populism.

So, connect the dots… Jill Stein sups with Putin and Mike Flynn in Moscow…. Trump's campaign manager Paul Manafort previously worked for Ukrainian despot Viktor Yanukovich… Jill Stein disses the popular revolution that ousted Yanukovich as a "Nazi coup," as UA Wire notes (apparently oblivious to her own irony)… The Bernie Sanders bandwagon is cheering on Putin's spies for saving us from evil Hillary… Manafort has also worked in the past for CIA-backed killer Jonas Savimbi and US puppet dictator Ferdinand Marcos, as a Slate profile notes… While the Philippines' new death-squad-boss president Rodrigo Duterte now wants to have Marcos buried with honors as a fallen patriot… and is being cheered on by many Philippine "leftists" because he is a political "outsider"… It's over. Effectively, there is no more "left" left. It has been wholly appropriated by the fascist right.

  1. More peaceniks shill for war criminal Assad

    It appears that a delegation from the ironically named US Peace Council actually just sent a delegation to Damascus to meet with war criminal Assad. A statement gushes: "Proudest moment. Meeting President Bashar al Assad with the US Peace Council Delegation. — with Henry Lowendorf, Amany Ashour, Madelyn Hoffman, Judith Bello, Donna Nassor and Gerry Condon." You can also see their gushy interview with Syrian state TV on YouTube. And check out the Facebook photo of them posing while flashing peace signs under Assad's portrait! One wag on Facebook juxtaposed this with a photo of the pro-Hitler America First Committee marching in support of the Führer in 1939. (No coincidence that this is the very slogan that Trump is now reviving.)

    In the 1930s, the American could left could claim solidarity with those who stood up to the authors of the Guernica terror in Spain. Today it stands on the side of fascism and genocide in Syria.

  2. Fascist pseudo-anti-fascism strikes again

    Is the stupid fucking 'left' really so out of wack as to look at all this and see Hillary and Obama and Biden as the fascists and Assad and Seselj and Putin as anti-fascists? Are you fools really that far down the rabbit hole?

    Too many we talk to bandy about the apocryphal and misunderstood Mussolini quote "fascism is corporatism" to argue that centrist Democrats are the actual fascists. They are only displaying their ignorance of what Mussolini meant by "corporatism"—a system of state control of society that "incorporated" labor unions and other mass organizations into the party-bureaucratic apparatus, having nothing to do with corporations in the business sense. We have had to point out this error again and again and again.

    Worse, many go yet further and assume that the extremoid populists and nationalists are therefore anti-fascists. A phenomenon we call fascist pseudo-anti-fascism—and have similarly had to call out again and again and again.

    These chickens are indeed in danger of coming home to roost. A piece on Daily Beast warns: "Beware the Hillary Clinton-Loathing, Donald Trump-Loving Useful Idiots of the Left." It is somewhat problematic, failing to recognize how the centrist Democrats are indeed part of the problem, by pushing a neoliberal agenda that breeds a backlash to be exploited by ugly populists. But it provides a spot-on critique of pseudo-left Putinphilia, and how its morally corrupting effects may pave the way for fascism here in the US : "Some progressives, …captive to a crude and one-dimensional anti-Americanism, routinely talk themselves into defending the Russian gangster state. Having justified the appalling behavior of reactionaries abroad, it’s only natural they would validate one here at home."

    Exactly.

  3. Jill Stein doesn’t know how NATO works

    Jill Stein was, alarmingly, interviewed on the PBS NewsHour Aug. 23—where she betrayed that she has no idea how NATO works. And interviewer Judy Woodruff failed to call her out on it. From the transcript:

    JUDY WOODRUFF: So, very quickly, if Russia, say, went into Eastern Europe, would the U.S. respond, if you were president?

    JILL STEIN: You know, the laws of war right now say that we can respond when our country is threatened. That is what international law says.

    So, we would need to establish that there is actually imminent danger to the United States. I think…

    JUDY WOODRUFF: So, North Korea going into South Korea, the same thing. If that’s not imminent danger to the United States, then the U.S. wouldn’t necessarily…

    JILL STEIN: Well, what we would be doing is trying to preempt these conflicts before they occur through a vigorous policy of engagement….

    And then she goes into her stupid peacenik routine, about how she would end the Korean conflict through "negotiation." Good luck with that, Jill. And Judy didn't even call her out on her apparent ignorance of treaty obligations.

    At least Trump just says he would reneg on US NATO committments. Jill Stein seems not to know that they even exist. Scary that this pathetic clown is getting interviewed on PBS as if she were a serious candidate.

  4. Self-censoring Jill Stein cries ‘censorship’

    This is just too good. Jill Stein gripes on Twitter: "Did PBS censor this interview because I criticized Clinton, fracking & the TPP?" Oh, poor baby. She got a marshmallow-soft interview on a national news show, but they dared to edit it! Such oppression! But this is hilariously ironic given that Stein tried to censor herself—apparently scrubbing an interview in which she floated "false flag" theories about the Ghouta chemical attack in Syria. 

    Other people may be getting taken in by your malarky, Jill. But not us.

  5. Russian enviros charge Jill Stein with betrayal

    The East West Blog notes an open letter issued by Evgenia Chirikova and comrades calling out Jill Stein on her meeting with Putin: "By silencing Putin's crimes, you are silencing our struggle. By shaking his hand and failing to criticize his regime, you are becoming his accomplice." Chirikova won a Goldman Environmental Prize for her campaign against highway that would bisect Moscow’s protected Khimki Forest. She has since had to flee Russia in the face of state harassment.

    Don't you think Chirikova and her comrades are the people we should be supporting in Russia—rather than their persecutor Putin?

  6. Jill Stein and Vladimir Zhirinovsky: match made in heaven

    Remember Vladimir Zhirinovsky? The leading Russo-fascist of '90s, when he sat in the Duma advocating a nuclear strike on Turkey? Well, he's just re-emerged to basically threaten Russian nuclear strikes on the US if we don't elect Trump: "Americans voting for a president on Nov. 8 must realize that they are voting for peace on Planet Earth if they vote for Trump. But if they vote for Hillary it's war. It will be a short movie. There will be Hiroshimas and Nagasakis everywhere." (World Post, Reuters)

    While here in the US, "peace" candidate Jill Stein is basically saying the same thing: "It is now Hillary Clinton that wants to start an air war with Russia over Syria by calling for a no fly zone. We have 2000 nuclear missiles on hairtrigger alert. They are saying we are closer to a nuclear war than we have ever been. Under Hillary Clinton, we could slide into nuclear war very quickly from her declared policy in Syria. I sure won't sleep well at night if Donald Trump is elected, but I sure won't sleep well at night if Hillary Clinton elected. We have another choice other than these two candidates who are both promoting lethal policies. On the issue of war and nuclear weapons, it is actually Hillary's policies which are much scarier than Donald Trump who does not want to go to war with Russia." (RealClearPolitics)

    So a little lip-service to a neither/nor position, but she's ultimately on the side of Trump. She is spelling it out for us. Pro-Putin, pro-Assad, pro-Trump. In a word, pro-fascist.

    1. Jill Stein spells out pro-Pendejo position

      She removed all ambiguity in her pro-Trump position, tweeting Oct. 14: "Hillary Clinton's foreign policy is much scarier than Donald Trump's, who does not want to go to war with Russia. #PeaceOffensive"

      #PeaceOffensive? More like #HippieFascism.

  7. Donald Trump echoes Jill Stein and Vladimir Zhirinovsky

    "Exclusive: Trump says Clinton policy on Syria would lead to World War Three." That's the Oct. 26 Reuters headline. Pendejo the peacenik is quited thusly: "What we should do is focus on ISIS. We should not be focusing on Syria. You’re going to end up in World War Three over Syria if we listen to Hillary Clinton. You’re not fighting Syria any more, you’re fighting Syria, Russia and Iran, all right? Russia is a nuclear country, but a country where the nukes work as opposed to other countries that talk."

    Parroting the position of the "anti-war" (sic) "left" (sic), he added: "Assad is secondary, to me, to ISIS."

  8. Jill Stein spells out pro-Pendejo position …repeatedly!

    Some gems from a DailyKos compliation of Pendejo puffery from the Green Party ticket…

    [Stein] retweeted an article by her running mate Ajamu Baraka on Oct 15 titled "Why Hillary Clinton Is More Dangerous Than Donald Trump," which states:

    The danger to the rest of us is not Trump, but Hillary Clinton.
     

    and on Oct. 16 retweeted Baraka’s tweet:

    Expecting people of color to fear Donald Trump after all we’ve been through the last 200 years, is absurd.
     

    On Oct. 21 she posted on Facebook an article titled:

    What's scarier than Donald Trump? Hillary Clinton’s plans to gut Social Security

    Greens have been spreading this message heavily on social media and in articles like this that state "Donald Trump as president will do 'less damage'."

    Any questions?

  9. Did Jill Stein throw election to Trump?

    of the Linux Beach blog thinks it is possible.

    Looking at the vote totals for certain key battleground states, we can see that in Michigan, Donald Trump beat Hillary Clinton by only 17,386 votes, whereas Jill Stein got 51,116, which is to say that if all those that voted for Jill Stein in Michigan had instead voted for Hillary Clinton, she would have won Michigan and its 16 electoral votes.

    Gary Johnson got more votes than Jill Stein in Michigan and the other states we will discuss, but polling suggests Johnson votes came equally from Clinton and Trump, if not more from Trump, so his supporters probably didn't hurt Clinton…

    The same analysis shows us that if most of the 30,980 Jill Stein voters in Wisconsin had instead voted for Clinton, it would have been more than enough to overcome Trump's 27,257 lead and, in that case, Wisconsin's 10 electoral votes would have gone to Clinton. But even with Michigan's 16 and Wisconsin's 10 added to the 228 she had won in other states, she only comes up to 254, and still 16 electoral votes short of beating Trump.

    That would seems to settle things because the next close state was Pennsylvania with 20 electoral votes. Donald Trump beat Hillary Clinton by 68,012 or almost 19,000 more than the 48,998 citizens that voted for Stein in Pennsylvania… so you can hardly lay the blame at Jill Stein's doorstep.

    Or can you? Remember, I have shown elsewhere, as others have, that less than half of the citizens who claim to be Jill Stein supporters in polls end up actually voting for her. What do the others do?

    …Consider that the Jill Stein campaign was focused on targeting Clinton far more than it targeted Trump. It gave citizens many very good reasons for not voting for Clinton. It was not so effective in giving them good reasons to vote for the Greens. So its entirely possible that she convinced many more…not to vote for the lesser of two evils, than…to vote for her… If she convinced just twenty thousand more Pennsylvanians to refuse to vote for the lesser of two evils than actually voted for Jill Stein, or less than one stay-at-home for every two that cast ballots for her…then its safe to say she threw the election to Donald Trump. And Florida? We don't even have to go there.

    Happy now? Back in September, Claiborne predicted: "Donald Trump can only win if Jill Stein stays in."  That may have been overstated, but his summation of the motives of Stein in this reckless gamble is all too plausible:

    Green Party people like Jill Stein and Susan Sarandon probably think they can handle anything a Trump administration throws at them, and for them, they might be right. Trump's national 'stop and frisk' won't be aimed at them, but it may provoke rebellions they can watch on TV and root for the underdogs and hope that somehow a revolution they can lead will develop out of the chaos. So at last we arrive at the truth. The real reason they warn against voting for the lesser evil is that they want the greater evil to win.

    So, once again, Stein voters—happy now?

    1. Russians launched pro-Jill Stein social media blitz

      From NBC News:

      Two days before the 2016 presidential election, an Instagram account called @woke_blacks posted a message in support of long-shot Green Party candidate Jill Stein.

      "The excuse that a lost Black vote for Hillary is a Trump win is bs," it read. "It could be late, but y’all might want to support Jill Stein instead."

      According to a report commissioned by the Senate, the account was a fake, part of the Russian campaign to sway the 2016 presidential election in favor of Donald Trump.

      The report was one of two that leaked this week saying the Russian effort to disrupt the election specifically targeted black voters and harnessed America’s top social media platforms. But the reports contained another finding that was largely overlooked—the Russians also focused on boosting Stein's candidacy through social media posts like the one from @woke_blacks.

      An NBC News analysis found that Russians working under the direction of the Internet Research Agency, the St. Petersburg-based firm run by a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, tweeted the phrase "Jill Stein" over 1,000 times around the time of the election.

      The posts were often accompanied by variations of the same hashtag, "Grow a spine and vote Jill Stein."

  10. Jill Stein tries to weasel out of Moscow affair

    Now that media voices are starting to note that Jill Stein shared a dinner table with Putin and Mike Flynn in Moscow in 2015, she has published a statement on Facebook, admitting she sat at the table with the sinister duo but saying she "didn't actually talk to either of them," and portraying her mission as a "peace offensive," to "call out the US and Russia on their militarism," and dissuade Putin from "following the US into catastrophic war in the Middle East." (A little too late for that in any case.)

    What an utterly disingenuous weasel she is. Sat at the same small table as Putin and Flynn but didn't talk to them? Wow, that was pretty impolite. Also contradicted by her own statements in which she says she did talk with Putin, and said the Russian strongman "agree[d]" with her "on many issues." And when has she ever "called out" Russia on its Syria intervention or anything else? Certainly not in her Red Square video, which was utterly uncritical of her hosts. Jill Stein is a #HippieFascist fraud.