Neoprogressive "The Sane Progressive" Pumps The Seth Rich Conspiracy Theory

[TomCADem]

What is up with neoprogressives like Susan Sarandom cheering on the potential repeal of the ACA (because that opens the door for single payer) or Debby L., aka the Sane Progressive, spouting right wing talking points from the "left"? Like Susan Sarandon, here she is cheering Republican efforts to repeal the ACA.

Neoprogressives like Debby L. and Jill Stein have often acted as Russian apologists whether it is attacking the FBI investigation of the Trump administration as being a "deep state" witch hunt:

Or, defending Russia's actions in Syria:

http://prospect.org/article/strange-sympathy-far-left-putin

Still, Corbyn has his American counterparts—starting with Green Party candidate Jill Stein. Until a few days ago, Stein had a statement on her website saying that the United States should end any military role in Syria, impose an arms embargo, and work “with Syria, Russia, and Iran to restore all of Syria to control by the government.” The “anti-war” candidate's stance, in other words, was to let the war crimes continue until the Assad regime and its patrons massacre their way to victory.

As far as I know, it was journalist Patrick Strickland who first noticed and tweeted Stein's position. A brief social-media squall ensued. The statement vanished; a sentence appeared saying it hadn't reflected Stein's views; and a new, trimmed down one was posted, opposing “U.S. meddling in the Middle East.”

Stein, to her credit, seems to have realized that it didn't look good to talk about working with Putin and Syrian President Bashar Assad while non-stop, deliberate aerial targeting of civilians in the rebel-held sector of Aleppo grinds on. But color me extremely skeptical about the previous statement not expressing her views. For one thing, the new one still keeps its criticism focused only on America. For another, the first statement fits her website's report on what she said last December in Moscow, at a foreign policy forum convened by RT, the Russian government's television propaganda arm. There she called for “principled collaboration” with Russia in Syria. And she proudly quoted Putin as telling her and other foreign politicians at the conference that he agreed with them “on many issues.”

More recently, Debby L. has been repeating Sean Hannity's Seth Rich conspiracy theories:

The question is are Neoprogressives like Susan Sarandon, Debby L., Jill Stein, or Cornell West really members of the left given that they often seem to be on the same side as Trump and Republicans? Are Neoprogressives so left that they are right? Or, are they just sock puppets who have sold out and are really being paid to disrupt the left?

[mhw]

1. They're bullshit artists.

They intend to divide up the progressive wing the way they did the Democrats.

Splintering off the Partys into fractured groups at odds with each other while the RW remains bound in loyatly to the mission of one big damn Russiamerica.

They are doing the bidding of the RW.

[TomCADem]

7. All Neoprogressives? Even Susan Sarandon? Here She Explains Why Shes Hopeful About Trump

I agree that many neoprogressives, and possibly even the Sane Progressive, really are sock puppets for the RW who are just spreading RW propaganda. However, I think that there are some neoprogressives like Susan Sarandon who then believe and embrace this propaganda as legitimate progressive views. For example, here is Susan Sarandon being supportive of the repeal of the ACA on the ground that this would set the stage for single payer. Of course, Republicans would never support single payer, since the purpose of the repeal is to use the money to cut taxes for the rich.

http://dailycaller.com/2017/04/12/susan-sarandon-explains-why-shes-hopeful-about-trump-video/

On Wednesday’s episode of “The View,” former Bernie supporter Susan Sarandon asserted that Trump is doing a “terrible” job, but that she was feeling hopeful about the passage of single-payer healthcare, which she advocates, because of Trump’s promise of change.

“Now, we have a chance to get single-payer [health care] through. There is actually a bill being introduced by Bernie [Sanders]. There’s a lot of other Democrats and Republicans. There are people that are Republicans that voted, they wanted change, they didn’t want the status quo. [Trump] was the only guy that was talking about change.”

Sarandon disapproved of Hillary Clinton during the 2016 election and voted for Jill Stein.

[emulatorloo]

2. Bookmarking to read later. Rec n/t

[Foamfollower]

3. They are as purely evil as any purely evil person on the right.

[bettyellen]

4. Paid shills.

[TomCADem]

5. The Kremlin's Candidate - In the 2016 election, Putins propaganda network is picking sides.

I think that some, like Ed Schultz, really are paid shills who are pretending to be progressives and saying whatever they are being paid to say. However, I do think that some like Susan Sarandon are neoprogressives who really do believe that Trump's actions will make people miserable enough so that they demand a progressive utopia. What they miss is that Trump's actions serve to establish a new baseline for the status quo so that if we do get a Democratic President, we will be out of the Paris Treaty, we will have no ACA, an EPA that has been devestated, Medicaid and Medicare will be devestated and taxes will have been cut back so much, that we will be in a huge growing deficit.

http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/04/donald-trump-2016-russia-today-rt-kremlin-media-vladimir-putin-213833

Back when he hosted a prime-time talk show on MSNBC, Ed Schultz divided the world into heroes and villains. The heroes usually included Democrats like Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. The villains were most Republicans, and especially Donald J. Trump. When Trump obsessed over Obama’s birth certificate and academic credentials in 2011, Schultz branded him “a racist.” When Trump flirted with running for president the next year, Schultz ridiculed him. “Who has shown any interest in Donald Trump being the next president of the United States other than Donald Trump?” he fumed. “Mr. Trump, stop embarrassing yourself!”

Another bad guy was Russian President Vladimir Putin. Schultz delighted in ripping conservatives for what he called their “love affair” with the Russian leader and his ability to make Obama look weak on the world stage. “They hate Obama so much they will even embrace the head of the KGB ... ‘Putie’ is their new hero!” Schultz said in one 2013 segment. In another, he smugly reminded conservatives about Putin’s “nasty human rights record” and the way his “reckless behavior” was “crippling” Russia. More generally, Schultz often framed GOP opposition to Obama as “anti-American” or “unpatriotic.”

That was all before last July, when MSNBC abruptly canceled The Ed Show after a six-year run and dumped the 62-year-old prairie populist from the network. By the time Schultz resurfaced this January, he had been reincarnated in a very different journalistic form: as a prime-time host, reporter and political analyst for RT America, the U.S. branch of the global cable network formerly known as Russia Today, funded by the Russian government.

Gone is the praise for Obama and Clinton. Gone, too, are the mocking references to “Putie.” And gone are the judgments about others’ patriotism. Schultz’s 8 p.m. RT show, The News with Ed Schultz, now features Putin-friendly discussions about the failings of U.S. policy in the Middle East, America’s “bloated” defense budget and the futility of NATO strategy.

[bettyellen]

11. Interesting about Schultz. What I noticed on TYT is when you put them together they manage to

Crap on pretty much all Dems. At best they damn some with faint praise while watching their cohosts rip them to shreds. It reminds me of those fake boxing matches, because it feels very scripted in order to make it look like they're not all hateful to all Dems.

But they take loads of money from the GOP and play it off as an accident that 90% of their output is trashing them. I don't think a one of them is sincere, and I think that does happen to low budget bloggers, podcast era and YouTube content level folks like them. They get co opted.

[PotatoChip]

6. I wonder what Debbie's DU name was...

She used to post here.

[Demsrule86]

10. Good riddance.

[Wounded Bear]

8. In the feverish mind of a conservative...

a "sane progressive" has to be a conservative. It's the only point of view they can entertain.

[Demsrule86]

9. They are not members of the left and help Republicans so in actuality, they are members of

the right.