The Team Obama people astroturfing pro-TPP talking points:

[brentspeak]

Last year, this group of Team Obama alumni, 270 Strategies -- attempted (but failed) to replace Democrat Mike Honda with a Wall Street Democrat, Ro Khanna, running ads which actually criticized Honda as an "old school liberal" who was the "#1 ranked 'Most Liberal'" member of Congress. Honda, the ad claimed, was synonymous with "Big taxes" and "Big spending":



Yes, these are Obama people employing classic right-wing red-meat slang to remove an actual progressive Democrat from Congress.

But they are back, pimping the TPP. Here's more information about 270 Strategies' new Orwellian-inspired "Progressive Coalition for American Jobs" pro-TPP astroturf movement.

[SamKnause]

1. Thank you for posting.

[LondonReign2]

2. Kick

[Cleita]

3. "old school liberal"?

I'm an old school liberal who was alive during the Presidencies of Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson, old school liberals who would have spit on every one of these trade agreements as harmful to the manufacturing economy of this country not to mention the import/export balance of our international trade. Even Republican, Dwight Eisenhower wouldn't have gone down this road.

[djean111]

4. Noticed that. Doesn't work. We have that internet Googly thingy now. Heh.

[grasswire]

5. this is just sickening

So-called Democrats are working against the middle class and the poor.

This is the final nail.

Is there ANY doubt now what's going on?????

[hifiguy]

10. None whatsoever.

Bernie Sanders is our last hope.

[Art_from_Ark]

12. We're peering into the farmhouse

and the two-legs look just like the four-legs.

[grasswire]

14. sad,but apt nt

[DeSwiss]

19. “Four legs good, two legs bad.” ~George Orwell, Animal Farm n/t

[WillyT]

6. K & R !!!

[Doctor_J]

7. I wonder if any of the BOG will wake up any time soon

This OP surprises me not at all. They campaigned for Blanche Lincoln (anti-healthcare "Dem&quot instead of Bill Halter in the 2010 primary. Any starry-eyed hypnotic states should have broken right then.

[Art_from_Ark]

17. Yup

Their campaiging against Bill Halter left a bitter taste in my mouth, that's for sure.

Just what the hell did they hope to accomplish by having Obama campaign for one Democrat over another Democrat in the primary, in a state where his approval rating was less than 40%???

[nashville_brook]

8. k and r

[hifiguy]

9. Shit, you see it right here on DU.

It stands to reason that anything the tenth-percenters and Repigs want as much as they want TPP should be avoided as if it were a ship full of plague rats.

[grasswire]

11. kick

amazing how so many DU-ers can ignore warnings here on DU.

[Fumesucker]

13. Mike Honda is "Far Left"

[dreamnightwind]

15. Excellent OP, every Democrat needs to read this

There were so many things in this article it was hard to know which to quote. I settled on this, but please everyone read the rest of it, and follow the supporting links too if you have time.

Imagine how easy, for groups like 270 Strategies, seed money is to come by if you’re (a) Obama-connected and (b) exist to do stuff like take down Mike Honda, a real progressive, and to prop up people like Cory (“Don’t Be Mean to Bain“) Booker and longtime Clinton insider Terry McAuliffe (see their our-clients page for more). Work like that pays good money going forward as well, since attacks on progressive office-holders and defense of neoliberal (DLC and New Dem) types is very well financed by those whom I called above — and I still think, accurately — the “paymasters” of the entire insider protection and expansion racket that runs the country. Why won’t Eric Holder jail a banker? If he does, where’s his next job going to come from? Insiders protecting insiders, so the money keeps flowing … to them.

As I said once in conversation with David Dayen on a Virtually Speaking broadcast, the only real story in the country is the “flow of funds” story — the flow of all available money upward, from the pockets of the many to the pockets of the few. Every problem we have stems from that.

Here you see perfectly how that flow is greased at the rubber-meets-road level — insider PR shops (270 Strategies) doing insider (corporate, pro-TPP) bidding by feeding insider-created framing (“Progressive Coalition for American Jobs”) to well-financed insider media like Politico.

This is why we can't support these kind of "Democrats" any more, and why settling for identity politics and social issues is not enough.

When corporations have our side passing harmful (to the vast majority of citizens) legislation and treaties, there is less push-back from the left, many people reflexively want to support their Democratic representative/Senator/POTUS/whatever (they're better than the Republican) and will defend the indefensible. The corporations are well aware of this, and put a lot of money, stealth "progressive" groups, P.R., and bribery in play to get their way. It works. We don't.

[Major Hogwash]

16. What does "astroturfing" mean?

What's the genesis of that term?

[onethatcares]

20. it denotes a false grassroots base

i.e.; If it's said loud enough and long enough even if a lie has no basis it will become the truth.

[JHB]

23. Astroturf (noun) = fake grass...

...such as in sports venues (the name comes from the fake turf of the Astrodome).

Astroturf(ing) (verb) means the creation and funding of front organizations in order to create the appearance of grass-roots support for a particular agenda.

[DeSwiss]

18. Obama, Inc. was always nothing more than a financial enterprise.

- That's what it was created for. To secure and maintain the cash flowing in the ''right'' directions. And they know how to maximize on political branding enough to turn a quick buck too: Obama Campaign Vets: Pay Us $5,000 To Learn — And Work On A Campaign

This is what the Democratic Party has come to: ''A whore selling his/her wares for a fast buck......''

K&R

[center]
War is Peace
Freedom is Slavery
Ignorance is Strength
Due Process is Kill-List Memo
Censorship is Transparency
Mandatory Voting is Freedom of Choice
Nobel Peace is Endless War
Politics is Ca$h[/center]

[Scuba]

21. SNAFU

[polichick]

22. k&r

[Octafish]

24. KRB

Thank you, brentspeak. As a longtime Democrat, I've noticed those candidates who are well-funded seem to get ahead. For some reason, once in office they tend to represent the interests of the monied sections of society over those of the People, coincidentally.