The Alt-Left Alliance

The IC report is out--and it's conclusive: Russia did it. Russia (in the process of doing it) decided they liked Trump. Russia was behind Wikileaks. Russia's RT propaganda outlet had substantial penetration on social media (especially YouTube). Russia had gathered data on Republican targets--but did not disclose.

What Did Trump Say?

Before the briefing, he said it was a witch hunt. After the briefing he said that the report concluded that the hacking had no impact on the election--which the report, in fact, did not state. The report said the impact wasn't studied by the IC. 

Trump, notably, did not issue a statement saying he supported the findings and believed them (he noted that all kinds of people are trying to hack us--which is true--but at this point confirmation is, well, confirmed).

What Did Anyone Else Say?

Pelosi called for a bi-partisan response against Russia.

There must be consequences for Putin’s attack on our elections — and the first step is allowing for a full, independent investigation. pic.twitter.com/nhvmiKWL19

— Nancy Pelosi (@NancyPelosi) January 6, 2017

The usual suspects (the alt-left) didn't like the report:

DNI report comes across like a project assigned at the beginning of the semester that they didn't start till the night before it was due.

— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) January 7, 2017

Or focused on the DNC's reluctance to let the FBI examine their servers. But overall, unless you believe that everyone--every last person in the IC (including the FBI) is lying--or that there is some magical force at work that makes them sure about what happened--when there's "no evidence"--you have to conclude that what the US Government said all along was, in fact, the case.

So What Now?

The Omnivore doesn't know how to handle geo-political back-lash. In theory Trump would be the kind of bull-in-a-China-shop type of president who would scare foreign powers from messing with us--but if he's in a bro-mance with Putin? Can we count on that? Time will tell--but The Omnivore is not currently encouraged.

No--what The Omnivore wants to look at is the far left. Something should be done about the far left.

Jacobin Magazine, usually a hive of super-left nonsense, has a fucking startling article where the author in a very, very lucid manner compares the far-left to the far right in ways more material than just symbolism or fervor. What he points out is that the alt-right (Nazis) sees the Sanders-Left as actual allies.

It should go without saying that left-liberal identity politics and alt-right white nationalism are not comparable. The problem is that they are compatible.

For example, they're white. They hate The Power. They oppose minority politics (the Sanders-Left was none-too-happy with Black Lives Matter), and so on. He makes the case that they are terrifyingly compatible.

Now, he does make the lucid point that the left really wants a class-less society and one that is non-racial so they oppose minority power-blocs on the basis of the stratification--and that if they got their act together they would be inhospitable to the alt-right.

But that isn't what happened.

This graphic is from the IC Report and it shows the dominance of RT (Russia Today, a propaganda outlet) on YouTube. RT did far less well on Facebook or Twitter--which are both big (although other Fake News initiatives dominated FB)--but The Omnivore did, in fact, watch with concern as "leftists" like Glenn Greenwald or Michael Tracey (the guy above) fell in behind RT.

Did they not know it was a propaganda outlet? Or just not care? Once the fantasy that Bernie was sabotaged beyond all hope set in (for which there is zero actual proof--it's clear that the DNC didn't especially like him--but there is zero evidence they sabotaged him--and The Omnivore has seen all of it)--they turned away from the "Mainstream Media" and instead went for sources like Wikileaks, RT, and The Intercept (to be fair, Greenwald runs The Intercept--but still).

These people must have--or should have--known they were ingesting heavy doses of Russian propaganda and they just didn't care. Why?

Well, it's hard to know for sure--probably anger. The same anger that propelled Trump--but with a leftist spin--they wanted change and when their guy didn't win the primary they fell to conspiracy-theory fury.

These people are the equivalent of the Freedom Caucus voters who believe that Sharia Law rules in Michigan and ISIS is crossing the Mexico-Texas border (or that Jade Spear was a set up for martial law). The symmetry isn't just, again, in fervor or symbolism--it's in the literal alliance space. The difference is that the alt-left doesn't have the gerrymandering power the right does--so they can't easily elect congressmen.

In an ideal world, following failure by Trump to take action against Russia, what we would see is a new two-party system emerge: the alts as one bloc. The middle as another. This would be a win-win (well, a win-lose for the alts)--but The Omnivore has no hope that anyone will do something like that because nobody in power has a spine.

So we're left waiting . . . and watching.