was there some shady force aiding sanders in the primaries?

yeah, i think there was. at least at first.

and, was sanders aware of it?

to some extent, but perhaps not clearly.

i don't know what happened, in the end. maybe bernie tricked me along with everybody else - although i'm hard to trick. trump didn't trick me. obama didn't trick me. trudeau didn't trick me, either. maybe sanders got me when the rest couldn't....

maybe, they decided that supporting him was a bad idea, after all - because he seemed as willing to play them as they were to play him. maybe he seemed to understand the game, and it freaked them out. i'm leaning there.

but, it never crossed my mind that this shady force was russian, nor do i think that it was, looking back. and, i'm keyed into russian media and russian narratives. i'd see it if it was there.

the deep state hates hillary clinton. i can only say that so many times....but nobody wants to see the obvious.