...and I want to say in the following you are quite wrong, Peter.   

"Given the pro-authoritarian times that we live in, perhaps Bernie's fawning praise for Castro and Ortega during the 80's won't matter. And his honeymoon in the Soviet Union will simply illustrate that he didn't need air bnb to locate a swinging dacha for the ruble-pinching tourist. As to the 1972 "rape fantasy" that he wrote for a Vermont alternative paper, it could be viewed that he was just trying to get in touch with his largely hidden alpha-male side. And I guess the trillions that he's looking to spend won't raise anyone's hackles because debt just doesn't matter. 

Trump salivates over facing Sanders in the general election. "

 I would encourage you to look a bit deeper at these claims against Sanders (some of which I am aware were dug up and spread specifically by the Clinton machine) because they are basically ludicrous. They are the same old "Let's take a bunch of stuff this person said out of context and smear them with it!" nonsense we get all the time now. It is meant to discourage people from running for public office, it is meant to make people feel everything they have ever said or done will be held against them, even if you said the opposite they can turn it on you. 

Sanders did not write a "rape fantasy" he wrote a satire on gender stereotypes. As a guy that I know was a fan of National Lampoon in the 1970s I know you would understand his little article if you read it. He is not indulging in any sort of "fantasy" and references exactly the sort of magazines where this stuff comes from. With 20/20 hindsight is it an article he would have wrote had he known he would be running for president someday in times when we have a 24/7/365 media barrage and the internet to assist with getting out ignorant propaganda...no, likely not. 

Do I think the "grab them by the pussy" voters will give a flying shit about it, no, I do not. Do I think president "While my wife is home with a newborn I'll go out and fuck porn stars and nude models!" would use that to slam Sanders? No, I don't nor do I think his team would find it a wise move to wade into those waters because Trump really has been accused of rape and abusing women...Sanders never has.

A reprint of the full article is on Snopes if you would like to have a look at it. 

On the other accusations of Sanders "fawning" over Castro and Ortega...utter nonsense. Watch Sanders discuss it in this video...

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/meganapper/sanders-in-1985-sandinista-leader-impressive-castro-totally#.sqM0xBl4A

Then tell me about the "fawning" or tell me he wanted to go look at things in person to get real first hand information on what was happening and had an issue with how the Reagan administration and our government for years had operated in these regions.

Traveling to Russia? Come on, man. Traveling and going to see the world makes Sanders a better more educated, more intelligent person.  And the clowns at Trump rallies were buying t-shirts that said "Russians are better than Democrats!" and other fucking nonsense.

The propaganda against Sanders is shameful...but I understand it. You know what will be used against Sanders if he ends up the candidate...all the stupid shit Hillary has said, that nobody likes him, that he never did anything...all that bullshit will be top of the page in 12 inch print. That's what they will try to sink him with...not what is in your paragraph. Hillary used all that stuff in your paragraph and it did nothing. That was not why Hillary managed to beat Bernie in the primary.

The one thing Trump did when he won was blew the "baggage will sink you" bullshit out of the water. Trump was considered the candidate with more baggage than anybody that had ever run. From accusations of abuse and rape, to fucking anything with a pulse, to racism, spewing all sorts of lies about all sorts of things, to giving glowing interviews to the media about "Donald Trump" while pretending he was somebody other than Donald Trump. The whole world knew he was full of shit and even he did not believe he could win.

And he is president of the United States. 

Trump has real baggage. More than anybody I have ever seen I think. That supposed baggage in your paragraph about Bernie  is spun...not real.

The thing guys like you and me ask ourselves all the time is how do Trump supporters believe the utter bullshit coming out of his mouth and all the clowns on TV that support him...well, I ask the same question when I read a paragraph like the one you wrote above. I think, "Gee, he does not really believe any of that does he?"