Even Socialists Can Cry Russia Russia Russia

This has to be one of the most incredible stories from an election that despite being over a year gone just keeps getting more incredible. We now have Bernie Sanders the “SOCIALIST” candidate from Vermont complaining the Russians targeted his campaign, as opposed to Mueller saying they aided his campaign, and simultaneously complaining Hillary both was aware of the Russian attacks and didn’t do anything about them.

Bernie Sanders on Wednesday blamed Hillary Clinton for not doing more to stop the Russian attack on the last presidential election. Then his 2016 campaign manager, in an interview with POLITICO, said he’s seen no evidence to support special counsel Robert Mueller’s assertion in an indictment last week that the Russian operation had backed Sanders’ campaign.

“The real question to be asked is what was the Clinton campaign [doing about Russian interference]? They had more information about this than we did,” Sanders said in the interview with Vermont Public Radio.

Sanders went on to indicate that he was at least vaguely aware of the operation that Mueller detailed in his indictment of 13 Russian nationals last week: “What Mueller reported, he had more specificity than we’d seen before. Not exactly new.”

A former Clinton campaign staffer said it was nonsense that Sanders’ campaign had reached out to Clinton’s about potential Russian interference. “No one from the Sanders campaign ever contacted us about this” — not in September, and not in “April and May.” Sanders said in the radio interview that he noticed “lots of strange things” during those months in 2016.

“They were supporting my campaign? No. They were attacking Hillary Clinton’s campaign and using my supporters against Hillary Clinton,” Sanders said in the radio interview.

—Politico

Well seeing as Bernie’s campaign didn’t make it past the primaries, if the Russians were “Helping” him, he should see about getting a refund.

Exxon Hits Back At The Shake Down Crew.

Speaking of incredible it seems Exxon is leading the fight for free speech and punching back at government overreach. Yet that’s what’s happening. Exxon is now countersuing the communities that tried to shake it down for not towing the line hard enough on global warming.  These are the same communities that sell bonds without mentioning the threat of climate change, but want to sue Exxon for causing climate change.

 A ‘conspiracy’ was hatched in La Jolla, Calif., company says
Exxon says the suits are violating its free speech rights

As climate-change lawsuits against the oil industry mount, Exxon Mobil Corp. is taking a bare-knuckle approach rarely seen in legal disputes: It’s going after the lawyers who are suing it.

The company has targeted at least 30 people and organizations, including the attorneys general of New York and Massachusetts, hitting them with suits, threats of suits or demands for sworn depositions. The company claims the lawyers, public officials and environmental activists are “conspiring” against it in a coordinated legal and public relations campaign.

Exxon has even given that campaign a vaguely sinister-sounding name: “The La Jolla playbook.” According to the company, about two dozen people hatched a strategy against it at a meeting six years ago in an oceanfront cottage in La Jolla, Calif.

…

“The attorneys general have violated Exxon Mobil’s right to participate in the national conversation about how to address the risks presented by climate change,” said Dan Toal, a lawyer who represents Exxon. “That is the speech at issue here — not some straw man argument about whether climate change is real.”

— Bloomberg

I have to confess to being rather cheered that Exxon is able to target the instigators of its persecution. Not many entities have the resources to do so, especially since lawfare is so often launched from behind the shield of immunity public officials enjoy.

Drink up That’s it for the Watercooler today. As always it’s an open thread