Bernie's In

Nothing but a name. Don't even think about what the man behind the name did. And this is just his wife. smh More than mildly frustrating.

https://youtu.be/WJaW32ZTyKE
Bernie calls out Greenspan. I love this footage.

I love this footage too. That's a helluva question.

I saved that one!

This interview with Noam Chomsky adds some perspective to Sanders' run, and the real amount of impact it can have.

http://www.salon.com/2015/09/25/noam_chomsky_bernie_sanders_cant_save_america_partner/

Let's imagine for example that Sanders won the 2016 Presidential Elections. What would happen? Could he bring radical change in the structures of power in the capitalist system?

Suppose that Sanders won, which is pretty unlikely in a system of bought elections. He would be alone: he doesn’t have congressional representatives, he doesn’t have governors, he doesn’t have support in the bureaucracy, he doesn’t have state legislators; and standing alone in this system, he couldn’t do very much. A real political alternative would be across the board, not just a figure in the White House.

It would have to be a broad political movement. In fact, the Sanders campaign I think is valuable — it’s opening up issues, it’s maybe pressing the mainstream Democrats a little bit in a progressive direction, and it is mobilizing a lot of popular forces, and the most positive outcome would be if they remain after the election.

It’s a serious mistake to just to be geared to the quadrennial electoral extravaganza and then go home. That’s not the way changes take place. The mobilization could lead to a continuing popular organization which could maybe have an effect in the long run.

Good stuff. Salon seems to have gotten even better in the last few months.

If the only thing Bernie Sanders brings to the mix is to bring some balance to the body politic by tilting it a little left and responding to the more than half of the nation that is not hard core fundamentalist conservative, it'll still be a very productive run - win the nomination or not.

The BEST Blue-Collar Rant Ever (pro-Bernie)

For a good twenty years, I’ve been breathing carcinogenic fumes through the cheapest respirator I could get, or working on rooftops, or working with dangerous power tools, or welding, or getting paint in my eyes, or underneath cars, or sweating outside in the sun, or demolishing old plaster walls, or getting covered in drywall dust, or risking my body in some other unsafe way, sometimes ten hours a day, making $100 a day on average, 5 days a week, if I’m lucky and busy. In an average month, that’s $2,000 a month. And it’s been below the average lately.

Rent is about half that per month in my part of the country for a decent house to raise my kid in. Gas, electric, water (+ $300), internet (no cable), truck payment, gas for a blue collar (big-truck-needing) gas-hog work truck +$350), Netflix (cheaper than cable, sue me), generic groceries, and twenty extra bucks to do something fun with my kid once a week (+300)…

That’s fifty bucks extra a month. Hope the truck doesn’t break down. Or I get injured. Or ******* ANYTHING AT ALL HAPPENS. Or, dear me, hope I don’t want to own a house.

☆☆

And there’s three things a conservative rich **** better not even DARE telling me about that list:
1.Read that first sentence again; don’t even THINK about saying I don’t work hard enough.
2.I don’t want to hear about getting an education; the degree I’m chasing is in physics. I’ll bet I’m smarter than almost every ******* one of those soft-skinned millionaires and billionaires, but had shittier luck. I’m human.
3.Don’t tell me to eat healthier. I buy what I can afford.

So when Republicans talk about Planned Parenthood and government shutdowns, I listen. We “lower class” citizens NEED to have Planned Parenthood; it’s not like they’re providing us universal health care without a fight.

When Republicans talk about the second amendment, I listen. Because there’s nothing about a redneck carrying an assault rifle into the grocery store that screams “well-regulated” to me. And it’s not like I could afford a gunshot wound. You know, needing health care while I’m recovering and unable to pay bills.

When Republicans talk about allowing vaccine “freedom”, I listen. I can’t afford to get the MOTHERFUCKING MEASLES THAT WERE ERADICATED IN THIS COUNTRY FIFTEEN MOTHERFUCKING YEARS AGO. Because again, no universal health care.

When Republicans talk about income equality… Oh. Never mind. They don’t. What’s that? “Why?”, you say? Well, because they have the money. Their tax system allows them to keep their money, while we have to give them some of OUR money. Neat system, huh? See, THAT way, they can keep getting MORE money. And keep keeping it, too. **** ain’t FREE, brother! Gotta keep paying for those trips to Belize, the escorts to keep them company, the chemical “entertainment”…

It isn’t just about “burger flippers” getting a reasonable wage, although that’s part. See, they work hard too. Plus the “upper class” still needs the **** we “lower class” citizens make. And I agree with the original poster; sometimes you’ve got kids. Sometimes you’ve got medical bills. Sometimes life gets in the goddamned way of your dreams, no matter how hard you work for them. Read my list again, and take note how low in priority FOOD is.

But it’s also about the economic elite getting to influence the legislation, in ways obviously favorable towards themselves. We pay twenty or more percent of our wages to fund the government’s day-to-day operations, and they get to store their money outside the country and evade paying, in many cases, ANY taxes.

The elected officials they court fly first class to Belize with the aforementioned hookers and blow to discuss “domestic policy” with their billionaire campaign contributors. And sometimes they’ll just flat out BUY an election, guaranteeing an elected government official will always vote in their favor. That’s why there’s guns everywhere. Unregulated guns. School shootings. Church massacres. That’s why we don’t have realistic alternative energy options. And ozone depletion. And global warming. That’s why we have a constant American presence in the Middle East. And dead soldiers. Fathers. Brothers. Mothers. Sisters. CHILDREN.

And Democrats are no better. Different causes, same results. Yes, Hillary, too.

All for money.

When Bernie Sanders talks about income equality, I listen. But that’s different. Bernie Sanders is different. He walks to work. He flies coach. His largest campaign contributors are labor unions (not banks and corporations). He doesn’t run negative campaigns. He agrees with scientific consensus; doctors, nurses, climatologists, and Neil deGrasse Tyson (♡. He doesn’t take corporate contributions.

That’s a big one. He’s funded by small donations from regular people like us, $2 or $3 at a time. We can’t afford more, and he knows it. And he wants to help.

Just read about him. Watch a speech from him. Like him on Facebook and scroll through his posts. I don’t have to convince you. He will.

He’s the one we’ve been waiting for.

Unless you’re happy with the daily struggle and pleased with the government’s way of doing business, JOIN THE REVOLUTION.

Vote for Bernie in the primary election! Let’s get him the Democratic nomination!

#FeelTheBern
#BernieSanders2016


http://girldujour.com/2015/09/18/middle-class-blue-collar-man-weighs-in-on-bernie-sanders/

Watch for some "Evolving" from Bernie on Guns...
The avowed socialist Sanders voted in 2005 to prohibit lawsuits against gun manufacturers when crimes are committed with their weapons.

In the wake of the 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut, he told a home-state media outlet that stronger gun control legislation wouldn't have prevented the shootings.

He has also voted to allow guns on Amtrak and against the Brady Bill. The NRA even helped Sanders win his first race for Congress.

http://www.npr.org/sections/itsallpolitics/2015/10/02/445312778/the-last-thing-bernie-sanders-needs-right-now-is-a-conversation-about-guns

"... it's the more liberal Sanders who could find himself having to uncomfortably explain his past positions on gun control. Even though the progressive socialist is to the left of Clinton and his other primary competitors on nearly every issue, he's walked a delicate line as a lawmaker from Vermont, where 2nd Amendment rights are popular."

Are you suggesting Bernie will abandon long held positions on gun law and the constitution in order to comform more to the current fashion in the theology og political correctitude? Too bad, I had hoped that twenty years as a stubborn socialist had given him some balls.

Our idiot president doesn't wait unti the facts are in or the bodies cooled off after the Oregon incident to hype his prejudgments. Too bad he doesn't react similarly to gang violence in his Chicago home town in the same way. Perhaps the problem is that they already have very restrictive gun laws there. Odd that they haven't made any difference.

It is also odd that the president who has made a policy of not enforcing laws is so eager to enact more of them to solve such problems.

Watch for bernie to be the same damn perfect bastard he's been his entire career. That's why he's kicking ass. It's your girl Hillary who changes with the wind.

Perfect. Right.
And she's not my damn "girl" anymore than Obama was "my boy".

Yeh. That disturbs me too. I don't get weapon coveting. Or maybe I do, and don't like it.

I figure I am the most anti weapon person on a2k. I understand all the arguments. but I hate all of it. As recited in early posts, my father was the colonel in charge re photo for the bikini bomb tests;
was in the plane that went over the center of Baker, which I guess I should say was a first,; I was five. I've no idea if that was little danger or much. I presume it took guts. Even what's her name agreed with me (joe nation remembers whom I'm talking about.) She and I were total opposites but she stood up for me many times, told me more.

Helen of Troy, that was her name back then.

I agree with you 100 percent. We need more Bernie Sanders and more Elizabeth Warrens. It's all about keeping the liberal discussions constant and persistent. In the short term the changes may be small. But, in the long term the party will change as well as the country. You have to start the movements now and to grow the movement over a period of years.

Actually I agree with Bernie Sanders on that one. It makes no more sense to prosecute car manufactures when someone uses a car to kill someone.

Yeah, he has to be careful because a lot of his Vermont constituents are more gun friendly. I don't fault him for this view about suing manufacturers - it makes sense. My entire point with predicting we'd hear stronger words on guns soon from Bernie is that Bernie is going to tweak his public message in answer to political pressure just like any other mortal. Some people talk about Bernie like he's some perfect angel with no self-serving motives at all. He's a good man. I'll vote for him if he wins the nomination. But he has strengths and weaknesses as a candidate - just like every other mortal who's ever run for anything.

He won't. He's had the same message for a long time. And if he gave a **** about pleasing others, he wouldn't have lived the last 40 years like John the Baptist, crying out in the wilderness.

He says what he believes to be true no matter how unpopular it is.

As evidenced by his life for 40 years.

I think it was Jesus who said,

"Blessed are the hopelessly naive...for they shall inherit the ability to make people laugh 'til their sides hurt!"

If it wasn't Jesus...it was somebody!

He may not substantially change his stances, but he's moved by popular opinion just like any other politician. Or didn't you notice how he stepped up his rhetoric about current black issues, added a high profile black woman to his inner circle and suddenly added a lot of his views on black issues to his website immediately following his run in with blm?
He's ******* human, Lash. Not a saint. Not John the Baptist.

Nonsense Snood!

Bernie Sanders was organizing civil rights marches as part of CORE and SNCC in the 1960's. This is hardly a new issue for him. Here he is organizing a sit in to protest segregated student housing in 1962.



You are attacking Bernie and spreading pro-Hillary propaganda in several threads. I have no problem with you expressing your opinion, but I wish you would stop pretending that you aren't fully on board with the Clinton candidacy.