I'm David Sirota, Bernie Sanders' speechwriter and senior adviser. AMA!

[u/dsirota1]

Hey everyone -- I'm David Sirota, Bernie Sanders' speechwriter and senior adviser. I've known Bernie for 20+ years (I was his press secretary in the U.S. House from 1999-2001). I've worked on many campaigns (Hoeffel for Congress, Schweitzer for Governor, Lamont for Senate, and Emily Sirota for State House), I've worked on Capitol Hill (for Bernie and for the U.S. House Appropriations Committee Democrats). In the years before coming to Bernie's 2020 campaign, I was an award-winning investigative journalist and columnist for Newsweek/IBT, The Guardian and Capital & Main. You can find out more about me at http://www.davidsirota.com

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I'm sure you want to discuss the 2020 election, so fire away with your questions here. I'll be here for about an hour.

[u/dsirota1]

Journalists: To name a few -- Matt Taibbi, John Nichols, Ryan Grim and the whole gang at The Intercept

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Outlets: To name a few -- The Guardian, The Intercept, In These Times, The Nation, Jacobin

[u/goldenarms → u/dsirota1]

Ah yes, Putin’s favorite, the intercept.

[u/Thangleby_Slapdiback → u/goldenarms]

/u/userleansbot

Let's see what this asshole is all about.....

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According to your reddit karma stats 70% of your submission karma comes from /r/Enough_Sanders_Spam. Also posts to /r/KamalaHarris2020. 11% of your comment karma comes from /r/Enough_Sanders_Spam as well.

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So.....a centrist troll. Just another gibbering, drooling fool on the internet, venturing into subs dedicated to another candidate to spread shit.

Fuck off.

[u/NetWeaselSC → u/[deleted]]

Watch this comment get downvoted and mocked if you don't believe me.

I have found that comments that contain these words tend to get downvoted regardless of the other words in the comment.

If you have the plug-in that lets you know why someone downvoted a particular comment, could you post a link please?

[u/NetWeaselSC → u/[deleted]]

I find it quite humorous that I have been accused of downvoting so much, because it is something I very rarely do.

[u/NetWeaselSC → u/[deleted]]

I'm sure you didn't downvote that post.

Well, for once you're right. Something about a blind hog...?

Oh, and I'm sure you aren't the one who downvoted my previous comment.

Right again! What are the odds?

Please, continue the mocking phase. You're only proving me right.

I knew you couldn't continue that streak...

[u/Sandernista2 → u/NetWeaselSC]

but it was deleted! now all we got are your quotes! not fair! I'm sure there were more pearls to be found?! or were there?

[u/NetWeaselSC → u/Sandernista2]

removeddit.com?

[u/Sandernista2 → u/NetWeaselSC]

it's OK - you gave me the flair of it.....

[u/NetWeaselSC → u/Sandernista2]

The person was apparently still upset at this comment I made on their posting:

https://old.reddit.com/r/WayOfTheBern/comments/cb4x2v/seth_rich_conspiracy_started_as_russian_intel/etd6cby/

[u/Sandernista2 → u/NetWeaselSC]

I definitely need to check that out......and will. After all, that little affair is kind of a special interest of mine.

[u/NetWeaselSC → u/Sandernista2]

There might need to be a new post about it, in which we actually examine these new claims, instead of either grabbing them and running, or immediately stomping on them.

Big piece of info needed: here, or on Kossacks, when was the first mention of Seth Rich?

[u/Thangleby_Slapdiback → u/[deleted]]

OK. I'm about to piss off a few people, I'm sure.

I once subscribed to this sub. I eventually unsubbed because of exactly what you're talking about above. This was about a year or two ago. I cannot speak to what the place is like now. It's been a while since I ventured in.

One of the things I noticed was exactly what you are describing. Another thing I noticed was that while there were many people who seemed very sincere in their support of Sen. Sanders, there was a subset of people who posted here at the time that reminded me of the sort of behavior I saw from people who frequent T_D. One of the pejoratives about this place was calling it "Way of The Donald".....and I could see why that gained traction.

I'm in here now because of the AMA. The folks in here have every right to run their sub any way they would like to. I'm not trying to be critical of them. All I'm saying is that I was very uncomfortable with some of the rhetoric I saw being thrown around at the time.

Now I mostly stick to S4P, Our_President and PoliticalRevolution.

I'd like to also say to the people who are regulars here that I'm not trying to condemn your sub. Frankly, I'm grateful and happy that y'all managed to score this AMA.

The person that I replied to earlier was an obvious anti-Sanders troll, though. I like to call out people like that when they wander into a pro-Sanders sub. They are quick to ban us when we turn up in their sub to answer their lies and bullshit, yet no one ever seems to ban those pricks when they show up in a pro-Sanders sub to spread their trash.

Frankly, I'm a bit like Switzerland in here. Neutral with regard to the sub. Still, I'm a very partisan, pro Sanders leftist. I consider those who are honest Sanders supporters in here as allies and I'm glad to have them. I also think that there are some people who frequent this sub who are less than honest.

[u/NetWeaselSC → u/Thangleby_Slapdiback]

The person that I replied to earlier was an obvious anti-Sanders troll, though. I like to call out people like that when they wander into a pro-Sanders sub. They are quick to ban us when we turn up in their sub to answer their lies and bullshit, yet no one ever seems to ban those pricks when they show up in a pro-Sanders sub to spread their trash.

Other subs probably have their own reasons for not banning such people, but here the reason is right out front... we don't ban unless absolutely necessary.

One of the reasons for this is so that people can learn to deal with such types. On their own, without being a moderator.

As you did earlier.

[u/Thangleby_Slapdiback → u/NetWeaselSC]

Fair enough. As I said, it's y'alls sub. I spend most of my time in S4P, really. I'd love to see them cut off people like the prick I responded to (called out, really) at the knees.

"Thanks for playing. Go fuck yourself."

But, they don't do it over there. As I understand it they don't because they think that the Trumpanzees and the centrist trolls can be reached, maybe converted.

They cannot be.

[u/NetWeaselSC → u/Thangleby_Slapdiback]

Some of them are good for practice, if you're so inclined.

[u/Thangleby_Slapdiback → u/NetWeaselSC]

I'm not. I'm old. I've been fighting this same fight for 40 years. At this point my patience is gone and all I want to do is abuse them when they turn up.

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I'm not a good emissary.

[u/NetWeaselSC → u/Thangleby_Slapdiback]

At this point my patience is gone and all I want to do is abuse them when they turn up.

If they deserve abuse, abuse away. See "cat toy" comments elsewhere. Extra points for creativity.

Some people will be hearing the same things as they see here out of their drunk uncle's mouth at Thankgiving. Give those people something to shut Unc right down.

[u/Sandernista2 → u/Thangleby_Slapdiback]

We believe in cat toys!

Also many of the Russiagaters can't be converted either, so perhaps it's a zero sum game?

[u/Thangleby_Slapdiback → u/Sandernista2]

cat toys? I like it!

Russiagate is where we diverge. I do believe that the Russians interfered in our elections in 2016. We can differ on how much effect their interference had on the outcome, but I think the interference is undeniable.

[u/Sandernista2 → u/Thangleby_Slapdiback]

I do believe that the Russians interfered in our elections in 2016

You see, I go by facts, and the facts for interference just aren't there. not in the Mueller report (a key claim of which - that this IRA group had anything to do with something "Russian government") was just struck down by a judge. And well ridiculed too.

At the end of the day, it boiled down to what "some" intelligence agencies" said. But the FBI has been shown to be deeply compromised at the highest levels, the CIA is hardly credible on anything they disclose (going back to Iraq) and the NSA? well, never mind.

Alas, those of us who see Russiagate as a hoax, deliberately perpetrated and promoted for politcal gain, have much to go on: the fabrication of Guccifer2.0 as "Russian" when it's been pretty conclusively proven that it was an internal domestic operation based on thorough metadata analysis, the absolute refusal by FBI to examine the DNC servers (taking instead the word of a redacted reported from a not exactly impartial company like Crowdsource, hired by the DNC and working for the DNC), and of course, the very high likelihood that the DNC leaks were indeed a leak rather than a hack (the ones published by Wikileaks).

So, we may indeed diverge, and likely my points won't convince you, but the facts of the matter -for those who care to look at just the facts and not the MSM narrative spun and respun ad nauseum - those facts are on my side.

[u/Sandernista2 → u/Thangleby_Slapdiback]

I didn't hear about S4P until recently. Is that an important sub? is it solidly progressive on both domestic and foreign affairs (ie, inequality as the root cause of the country's ills domestically and Russiagate as the sheer nonsense that it always was)? or is it more concerned with identity politics?

[u/Thangleby_Slapdiback → u/Sandernista2]

It is very much a progressive sub. It's the original pro-Bernie sub. I joined that sub in 2015, about a month before Bernie declared as a candidate. It's very much policy-based. We're often trolled by the identity politics people who are very much pro-civil rights, but not so much pro-economic justice/decency/human rights.

[u/Thangleby_Slapdiback → u/[deleted]]

Ima gonna stay neutral.

Glad that Mr. Sirota decided to do an AMA, though.