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Written by Caitlin Johnstone; Originally appeared at her blog
On a CNN panel on Monday, host John King spoke with Politico reporter Alex Thompson about the possibility of Democratic presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard qualifying on Super Tuesday for the party’s primary debate in Phoenix later this month.
“I will note this, she’s from Hawaii,” King said of Gabbard. “She’s a congresswoman from Hawaii; American Samoa votes on Super Tuesday. The rules as they now stand, if you get a delegate, you’re back in the debates. As of now. Correct?”
“Yeah, they haven’t, I mean, that’s been the rule for every single debate,” Thompson replied. “And the DNC has not released their official guidance for the March 15 debate in Phoenix, but it would be very obvious that they are trying to cancel Tulsi, who they’re scared of a third party run, if they then change the rules to prevent her to rejoin the debate stage.”
And indeed, as the smoke clears from the Super Tuesday frenzy, this is precisely what appears to have transpired.
Watch it til the end.https://t.co/SMU5NhCDUo
— Caitlin Johnstone ⏳ (@caitoz) March 4, 2020
“The Gabbard campaign said it was informed that it would net two delegates from the caucuses in American Samoa, which will allocate a total of six pledged delegates,” The Hill reports today. “However, a report from CNN said that the candidate will receive only one delegate from the territory on Tuesday evening.”
“Tulsi Gabbard may have just qualified for the next Democratic debate thanks to American Samoa,” reads a fresh Business Insider headline. “Under the most recent rules, Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii may have qualified for the next televised debate by snagging a delegate in American Samoa’s primary.”
“If Tulsi Gabbard gets a delegate out of American Samoa, as it appears she has done, she will likely qualify for the next Democratic debate,” tweeted Washington Post’s Dave Weigel. “We don’t have new debate rules yet, but party has been inviting any candidate who gets a delegate.”
Rank-and-file supporters of the Hawaii congresswoman enjoyed a brief celebration on social media, before having their hopes dashed minutes later by an announcement from the DNC’s Communications Director Xochitl Hinojosa that “the threshold will go up”.
“We have two more debates — of course the threshold will go up,” tweeted Hinojosa literally minutes after Gabbard was awarded the delegate. “By the time we have the March debate, almost 2,000 delegates will be allocated. The threshold will reflect where we are in the race, as it always has.”
“DNC wastes no time in announcing they will rig the next debates to exclude Tulsi,” journalist Michael Tracey tweeted in response.
We have two more debates– of course the threshold will go up. By the time we have the March debate, almost 2,000 delegates will be allocated. The threshold will reflect where we are in the race, as it always has.
— Xochitl Hinojosa (@XochitlHinojosa) March 4, 2020
This outcome surprised nobody, least of all Gabbard supporters. The blackout on the Tulsi 2020 campaign has reached such extreme heights this year that you now routinely see pundits saying things like there are no more people of color in the race, or that Elizabeth Warren is the only woman remaining in the primary. They’re not just ignoring her, they’re actually erasing her. They’re weaving a whole alternative reality out of narrative in which she is literally, officially, no longer in the race.
After Gabbard announced her presidential candidacy in January of last year I wrote an article explaining that I was excited about her campaign because she would severely disrupt establishment narratives, and, for the remainder of 2019, that’s exactly what she did. She spoke unauthorized truths about Syria, Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia, she drew attention to the plight of Julian Assange and Edward Snowden and said she’d drop all charges against both men if elected, she destroyed the hawkish, jingoistic positions of fellow candidates on the debate stage and arguably single-handedly destroyed Kamala Harris’ run.
The narrative managers had their hands full with her. The Russia smears were relentless, the fact that she met with Syrian president Bashar al-Assad was brought up at every possible opportunity in every debate and interview, and she was scoffed at and derided at every turn.
Now, in 2020, none of that is happening. There’s a near-total media blackout on the Gabbard campaign, such that I now routinely encounter rank-and-file liberals on social media who tell me they honestly had no idea she’s still running. She’s been completely redacted out of the narrative matrix.
All candidates of color are out. An openly gay married candidate is out. 2 women left. The rest? 70+ old white men fighting for the future of America in 2020. Because of course.
— Wajahat Ali (@WajahatAli) March 1, 2020
So it’s unsurprising that the DNC felt comfortable striding forward and openly announcing a change in the debate threshold literally the very moment Gabbard crossed it. These people understand narrative control, and they know full well that they have secured enough of it on the Tulsi Problem that they’ll be able to brazenly rig her right off the stage without suffering any meaningful consequences.
The establishment narrative warfare against Gabbard’s campaign dwarfs anything we’ve seen against Sanders, and the loathing and dismissal they’ve been able to generate have severely hamstrung her run. It turns out that a presidential candidate can get away with talking about economic justice and plutocracy when it comes to domestic policy, and some light dissent on matters of foreign policy will be tolerated, but aggressively attacking the heart of the actual bipartisan foreign policy consensus will get you shut down, smeared and shunned like nothing else. This is partly because US presidents have a lot more authority over foreign affairs than domestic, and it’s also because endless war is the glue which holds the empire together.
And now they’re working to install a corrupt, right-wing warmongering dementia patient as the party’s nominee. And from the looks of the numbers I’ve seen from Super Tuesday so far, it looks entirely likely that those manipulations will prove successful.
All this means is that the machine is exposing its mechanics to the view of the mainstream public. Both the Gabbard campaign and the Sanders campaign have been useful primarily in this way; not because the establishment would ever let them actually become president, but because they force the unelected manipulators who really run things in the most powerful government on earth to show the public their box of dirty tricks.
She is probably the best candidate for president and would be the best thing to happen to america if she actually keeps all her promises, what the hell is wrong with the DNC? I swear, this two party system needs to die off and the sooner the better for all of us
Saddly, she is also CFR…
The two party system is controlled by Friends of Israel, AIPAC, ZOA, etc.
Bernie Sanders is pilloried not because he is a SOCIALIST, but because he wanted to RESOLVE the Israel-Palestinian conflict.
Jeremy Corbyn was destroyed in the UK by charging his with ANTISEMITISM
Donald Trump talked about bringing the troops home in 2015/2016 the entire establishment attacked him.
US Presence in the Middle East is for ISRAEL. Any reduction will not be tolerated.
THE DEEP STATE IS ISRAEL—-ISRAEL IS THE DEEP STATE
Well, I think the Deep State is the CIA, but they have interests in common w/Israel.
If we really had a Deep State, Trump would be Long gone.
That’s quite the demented mantra, Grasshopper.
Still did you see this one;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1wYuAUTs3w
Well I like her too – but there is that unknown thing, that one can’t look into other peoples head. So yes I hope she will get enough delegates, to take part in the debate, because that would unmask all the other rubbish…
That is the goal, unmasking ‘all the other rubbish’, or at least some of it. That’s why they don’t want her on stage, she’s articulate and able to think on her feet. If she did run and get elected, she’d be dead before she could be sworn in.
Lord have mercy. Surely that’s extreme?
If you missed it, she has already been in several debates and it got her near nowhere, especially with most all Dem voters. How she might do in the Republican Party or Russia is another question.
She ought to at least be allowed to debate. Of course, that might get her elected, which is what the DNC fears.
Didn’t do her any good in all the other debates she has been in. She has been rejected overwhelmingly by the voters. And that’s that.
Good one, Ronald. How does she stand on the 2nd Amendment?
Like all Americans she stands by the Constitution, but exactly which legal interpretation I don’t know. Bear in mind she spent 8 years in Iraq, guess she’s seen enough death and destruction for several lifetimes.
I’m sure she has. I found this video of her speaking about the 2nd A and it would depend on one’s own view to approve or disapprove of what she says on the matter:https://youtu.be/lcv4iN3H3_s?t=317
I like the 2nd Amendment. It tends to reduce the Trump vote by tens of thousands a year.
What is CFR?
Official definition: ‘The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), founded in 1921, is a United States nonprofit think tank specializing in U.S. foreign policy and international affairs. It is headquartered in New York City, with an additional office in Washington, D.C. Its membership, which numbers 4,900, has included senior politicians, more than a dozen secretaries of state, CIA directors, bankers, lawyers, professors and senior media figures. ‘
https://www.reddit.com/r/WayOfTheAloha/comments/cl1df9/tulsi_gabbard_answers_to_her_cfr_council_on/
For an excellent history of the CFR, British control via Canada.
https://www.fort-russ.com/2019/05/the-origins-of-the-deep-state-in-north-america-part-ii/
Thank you, Ronald.
Thank you, Albert.
I agree with your opening statement, even though she is not without faults. Bernie and Tulsi should run together as independents. The vote tampering would be visible from space.
Trojan horse, talks the talk, but, why is she loyal to the Pro-Israel US Lobby. I was surprised she was a signatory of England Royce HR1644bill, aimed at sanctioning Russia, China and North Korea.
I’m very surprised, thanks.
There was a wonderful article over on The Saker, a few years ago, with regards HR1644 and I was seriously surprised that she was one of the signatories of the bill. Owing to seriously liking the politician. Now I am very cynical regards her motives.
Here is the article:
The US Bill H.R. 1644 to kill Russian food export and Chinese trade… https://thesaker.is/the-us-bill-h-r-1644-to-kill-russian-food-export-and-chinese-trade/
Did HR 1644 pass?
I think they tweeked it and the next version passed.
Will go and find out. Engels and Royce came up with what came next.
Thank you very much!
Read twice, passed by the House and sent to Council of Foreign Relations. 2017-2018, if that is any help.
Oh, surely not. I mean, have any other candidates in the past said the same, then reneged? Oh, wait…never mind.
I especially liked the way she said that Assad was a dictator that gassed his own people after speaking to him…while saying we should get out. People should realize that she has said nothing honest…just mouthed the same thing the buffoon did during ’16 election. Americans bought his manure and now most ignore all his little indiscretions…which will be to the detriment of the rest of the world, not just the US.
BTW, did you see the article about Trump possibly being investigated in Scotland for money laundering (a mere $200M) in the purchase of golf courses? Then there is the same from a hotel being used to launder drug money in Panama. Then there is the case of….
Didn’t Obama also run on the peace ticket?
Cannot believe the immaturity and insanity coming out of Washington DC and have absolutely zero interest in any of them. Do like Rand Paul and his dad, but rest is like a Circus, with no acts, except the clowns.
Yeah, which I guess is where the rest got the idea of claiming to be. I like Ron Paul, he is real and doesn’t mince words, but Rand is nothing like him. He’s Tea Party flunky, meaning a repug in disguise. Ron is a libertarian and does not campaign for him.
You don’t need more clowns when you already have the Paul Team.
Because she need to stay in the race ! Honestly the problem is why is there those lobby in the first place ?
Completely for banning lobbyists and activists, sponsoring politicians.
Why do you imagine that the DNC is interested in what is best for the USA?
You mean it would be the best thing that could happen to mass murderer Assad and Putz Putin the Poisoner. Try to focus.
There’s something off with Tulsi being a CFR fellow and hopefully she doesn’t end up being Zioscum like Trump, Obama, Bush, Clinton and all that lot of filth from the Zioterrorist US corporation. But the fact that she traveled to Syria, met Assad, and learned that the “White Helmets” are nothing more than al-Qaeda/ISIS medics wearing white helmets and openly denounces it makes her by far the most adequate prospect, far superior than Zionist ex-IDF volunteer Berny Sanders.
Which is exactly why she’ll never be a canditate for neither of the 2 Dem and Rep wings of the US Zioparty.
Controlled media disinformation, so comes to mind. Owing, purely to her sponsors and CFR membership.
The US system is based purely on deception, “freedom and democracy” for the slave-owning class like George Washington and the “Founding Fathers”, so this level of misinformation is the least to be expected.
You’re engaging in “presentism” which is judging history by the moral standards of today. The entire world in George Washington’s time was engaged in the slave trade, in fact, it was Britain that imposed the slave trade on the colonies. The United States inherited the institution of slavery from Britain.It had already been established for over a hundred years in the colonies before the American Revolution. And slavery was an institution which was American, not only Southern. In fact, the abolition movement actually started in the South.
You also do not seem to realize that the United States was never intended to be a democracy. The founding fathers feared the mob, i.e. the rule of the majority over the minority. The United States was founded as a Republic. that is, equal States (nations) joined voluntarily together for their mutual benefit, with a very limited central (federal) gov’t.
Lincoln’s illegal invasion of the South to prevent their secession is what instituted the control by the expanded (under Lincoln) federal government over the States. Now the States are little more than provinces in a nation which was established by force of arms, or “at the point of the bayonet”, as Gen. Lee said.
Cogent poast, thx
YW.
Regardless of the “presentism”, the US system was always based in class deception, if there had been a black overlord class, they would’ve been part of the “founding fathers”. I’ve never seen merit in arguing over sophistry like the US being “democracy” or “republic” or whatever, it is what it is and has always been. Even Simon Bolivar, in 1815, said the US would enlave the Americas in the name of freedom.
Not to mention there were white slaves as well. The concept Bolivar spoke about went global as the US became a worldwide Zioterrorist corporation.
Whites were never slaves in the US, North or South. The American nefarious institution of chattel slavery did not apply to Whites of any kind. They could be subject to indentured servitude but their children would not be born into slavery as with Blacks. US Slavery was race-based. Try to get the basics correct.
..and you Jews did well buying and selling those slaves. When the blacks from The Nation of Islam come looking for retribution don’t come crying to me old chum.
You mean some mostly Sephardic Jews several hundred years ago who were mostly in South America? So? Most all the US slave trade and ownership was by Lily White Christians. Guess they will have to go after mostly you and yours. Anyway, I’m Ashkenazi and absolutely none of my ancestors traded in or owned slaves. Heck, they were way too busy trying to stay alive under the Czar. Now if you are a Nativist American, chances are very high that you have ancestors who traded in or owned slaves. Guess they will have to go after you, not me, Adolf.
Good try old chum but Louis Farrakhan wrote a good book on slavery relying on Jewish sources, now if a black man is wise to who the problem is everyone will be soon enough.
Are you trying to divide Americans, Hasbara troll?
And what classless society do you live in, Junior?
Well, class, and possibly deception as well. Thomas Jefferson and his father both owned thousands of acres of illegally obtained Indian land and this illegal ownership had a part in initiating the American Revolution. Britain in 1763 passed the Proclamation Line which made encroachment onto Indian land by colonists illegal, putting in jeopardy the speculation in land which was one foundation of the wealth of the upper class in the colonies.
It had always been illegal under British law for colonists to “buy” or treat for, or to engage in trickery to obtain, Indian land. Only the crown could treat for land or buy it. But the Line of Proclamation made it illegal for colonists to travel on Indian land, which greatly curtailed the ability of colonists to engage in land speculation.Most of the founding fathers were land speculators. Indian land, of course.
And the first person to sue in court to make his black indentured servant a life-time slave was Anthony Johnson, a black tobacco farmer in Virginia, in 1621. (Wikipedia.) So being a member of the ruling class was based on property ownership.
Tocqueville argued that Americans were “too free” to participate in govenrment, at least from a French aristocratic POV I guess, and that turned them into frustrated social agents unable to deal with the social realities created by their own participation in so-called “democracy”. The US masses are enslaved by their own “choice” between the options they’re “free” to vote for, as happens in many other places, but with the significance of US foreign policy, that slavery the US has imposed on its citizens now manifests globally. It’s like a corporation’s owner ordering the current CEO’s board to organise a vote among the employees to select a new CEO, slavery in the name of freedom as it works for the US Zioterrorists.
Very interesting comment. We are as Americans deceived into thinking one choice of President or the other will actually matter. Of course it mainly doesn’t.
LOL…nahhhhhhhhh…the South will NOT Raise Again. You lost really big time and deserved it. Get used to it after over a 150 years.
Nobody mentioned “the South will ‘raise’ again”. Why would anybody care what you think about any topic, cheap Hasbra troll?
And what paradise on Earth are you from, junior?
She actually started banging on about the extensive pro-Israeli lobby at the beginning saying that it has too much power and worked only for the yids (not her word,mine) and Israel; she was strongly chastised and threatened and in the end, she bowed and apologise <- big mistake.
They usually change their tune after they get ‘the call’. This means there is plenty of dirt somewhere…or she’s just a walking, talking facade.
Or both. But mostly a facade for Putz Putin & Company.
Well, she didn’t want to be drummed out right at the get-go.
I’m glad of that. Anyway, it won’t be Bernie who actually is the most anti-Israel of all the other candidates. It sure looks like it will be comfy unky Joe who not only is a strong lifelong supporter of Israel but has advocated the creation of a Kurdish State starting with a hunk of Iraq. And more. He will likely as Prez help the Dens take vengeance on Putz Putin the Poisoner and his RF. It was a very good day yesterday.
DNC moving the goal line? Say it isn’t so.
Tulsi, join the Republicans already.
She’ll do that as soon as the Kremlin pays her to do that.
Why have her in the debate? Most everything she says can be read and heard first hand on Putz Putin’s RT and Sputnik. Well, she is prettier even with her shirt on and not riding a little pony.