Real headline should be "Shahid Buttar outed as another progressive grifter by former campaign manager"
"Looking back, I now see some of Shahid’s most destructive behavior as the moments when he was most transparent. He reacted with glee to the news that Bernie had suspended his campaign because of the fundraising boost it would give the campaign when his team reacted with devastation. He would hopefully speculate with donors that Nancy Pelosi would get COVID-19 and die because he thought that it would give him an easy win when COVID-19 cases were rising dramatically in the city. I lost all respect for the candidate that I’d worked so hard to get through the primary only to see him use his platform to enrich himself just as he called out Pelosi for doing the same."
Her account of his reactions and conduct in campaigning against Pelosi clearly reveals that he's just another grifter enriching himself on small dollar donations. It again shows how hollow and futile this attempt to reform the democratic party is. US politics only attracts the worst people.
He would hopefully speculate with donors that Nancy Pelosi would get COVID-19 and die because he thought that it would give him an easy win when COVID-19 cases were rising dramatically in the city.
Listen, I think we've all hoped at some point that COVID would at least take one of the 90 year old monsters ruling over us. We deserve a silver lining. Instead, as always, it's just poor people that die. Those ghouls are all immune.
The Bernie reaction is bad, though.
Yeah that would've been better. I'm new to this posting thing
It happens, I gave a dollar to Gravel and some money to joshua congress too. learn from your mistakes I guess
I gave money to Gravel, but it was because I thought the Pentagon rolling Papers were funny, and I wanted that send Kissinger to the Hague pin. They never sent me my damn pin, though.
I had to run into the teens in person, but I also eventually got them in mail. Ended up with two sets actually.
Dude said he was running as a dem until a day before filing, deleted twitter for a day, and then said he's running 3rd party with 300K in donations made under the pretenses of being a dem.
Bernie ended up endorsing someone else in the same race.
I guess the mismanagement is bad, but like, you were going to get grifted even if he had stuck with the Democratic Party.
indeed and i fear i will never learn because im a sucker for storytelling
your gut is important, if someone looks like they're trying way too hard to be cool and begging for money then take them with a grain of salt. any serious candidate needs to be focused on the issues of their district first, anyone who treats a congressional office like they're running for president is a huge HUGE red flag. remember we knew nothing about AOC before she won because she focused all her attention on her district. Joshua literally did the exact opposite and then ate shit on dumbass Destiny's interview stream. he was never serious
Writer Yasha Levine wrote an article a month ago about Shahid is a shady Silicon Valley grifter and rose emoji twitter circled the bandwagons.
https://yasha.substack.com/p/shahid-buttar-the-cheesy-silicon
At least they're willing to cross the group think of the soft Bernie left
Regardless of these accusations coming out, Yashas article and criticisms are still pretty trash. The Baffler piece they wrote and refer to defends SOPA/PIPA with "but something must be done!" and doesn't address any detail or specific criticisms whatsoever, misrepresents certain positions the EFF took and for some reason implies writing a tracking cookie blocker for chrome is somehow evidence of being pro-google (the plugin also exists for Firefox).
At that point you no longer run candidates, but you run empty suits that are bound to the party platform (and ideally can say words good). Obviously the party platform would be decided democratically by a dues paying membership ( not a cent of corporate donations of course)
Kinda like a business franchise, the big decisions are made for you, and the marketing (and much of the campaigning) is already done. Your only job as a candidate is to keep your head above water and abide by the platform.
That's basically what a normal political party is. The US is weird though
Yea. Normal political parties require political participation for their members, the bare minimum of which is paying dues. In the US, you just check a box when you register to vote and you're a member.
True but I want to leave the breakdown out there so that our American comrades can see what success looks like. I hadn't really thought about some of the fundamentals till it was broken down for me.
Right, participation in liberal electoralism is like the 3rd or 4th priority
Part of me wants to hope this is an op because I fucking hate Pelosi, but even if he isn't guilty, ignoring accusers and abuses means other scum will treat their staff like shit and get away with it
To clarify, this doesn't seem like a Russell Brand-style sexism hit, where he was just called a sexist for making some comments about parenting, after he became a prominently leftist comedian. This seems like pretty hardcore, targeted abuse.
Also he was making $100,000/year from his campaign, yet his staff wasn't unionized and relied on a lot of unpaid volunteers.
I gave $5 to this grifter, can I go full Karen and ask for money back or is that just presidential races?
this is like battered housewife syndrome at this point "hey electoralism didn't work the 500th time around because of how broken the U.S. political system is, let's not change any of the system and let's try again next time, it'll work on the 501th"
GOD FUCKING DAMMIT WHY CANT THE WORLD LET ME HAVE NICE THINGS
Pelosi got elected because of her anti-war stance. The democratic party is designed to corrupt everyone as quickly and efficiently as possible. He would have just ended up being Pelosi 2.0.
Pelosi's going to retire when she wants to. Anyone who thought this guy had any chance is delusional.
He already responded to the sexual assault allegations, no need to relitigate them here imo.
"Shahid’s moods fell into a predictive pattern.
The Build Up where I had to manage his food, sleep and sex life. The Blow Up where Shahid would yell and threaten me. And The “Apology” where Shahid would need me to absolve him of his guilt while not admitting that he did wrong."
"Shahid has denied that he sexually harassed @ecroydon’s for years and has organized several people to discredit her by calling her a liar, a “troubled individual” and a harasser herself.
This is a classic tactic in the abuser playbook to try to make a survivor go away."
This is his campaign manager coming out and confirming the harassment allegations, this is a big deal.
When a person reveals themselves to you so fully, pay attention it will help you avoid hardship in the future. I understand the want or even the need felt to have someone oppose Pelosi, but these are not the actions of the "progressive challenger", they are the actions of a grifter and psychopath. Remember politics attracts the worst people, they love using the good intentions of others to enrich themselves and abuse the trust place in them by the hopefull.