Bernie Sanders supporters: please reclaim your agency, and vigorously
Bill Martin
This is for my friends who supported Bernie Sanders. I suppose it is also directed toward all of my friends who believe that, despite everything, they should support the Democratic Party.
One very general thing I would like to say to this: Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, Rachel Maddow, Anderson Cooper, and the like will continue to go the way they are going. Everything in their lives, especially their professional lives as politicians and media figures, determines—almost to a metaphysical certainty—that they have to keep going the way they are going. You, my friends, don’t have to.
Bernie cannot (and will not) say this, but some Bernie supporters will say it: There is a lot more in common between Bernie, at his best, and Donald Trump, than there is between Bernie and the other establishment Democrats.
I realize that very few, if any, of you will support Trump. That’s hardly worth talking about. But will you support the party that said to you, if you are a Bernie Supporter, we don’t care about you, it is more important to us that we defeat Bernie than that we defeat Trump? If you do support this party, then you are supporting that conclusion, and not because this is the best way to defeat Trump. It’s not the best way, and it won’t work in any case.
And to others who were/are not Bernie supporters, will you accept this as how things should work? And will you accept the contempt that this party has for you, where it says, “hey, we know we’ve got you, you have to support whoever we put out there, so we’ll have as our front-runner and presumptive nominee …”?
Even apart from the language of “deplorables” and what you think about that (most of my friends disavow it, or say they do, while having supported the candidate who stuck by her language—but I also know plenty out there who are fine with this language), is it not clear that the Democratic Party has nothing but contempt for “ordinary people,” including those of you in some sort of liberal or left bubble who probably don’t consider yourselves to be “ordinary people”?
This nothing for ordinary people is also evidenced by the fact that the only response by Democratic Party and its “left” followers to the virus crisis is to spew vitriol at Trump and his supporters. Big help!
So why stay in this camp where the people who really control things do nothing but spit in your face, and where everyone is just encouraged to be a bunch of maniacal haters?
(By the way, when I said something about the latter point to a friend the other day, adding that it does not appear that, other than some—admittedly significant exceptions—ordinary people who support Trump are not even remotely haters on this level, my friend responded that he “didn’t know about that, what about calling people ‘snowflakes’?” This really sums it all up, right there.)
Really, though, I am writing this post to ask my Bernie-supporter friends: What’s next?
I’d like to know your thoughts—other than just to tell me that “Trump is so bad that …,” etc. Believe it or not, I have already heard this sort of thing a few times in the last few years. If you’re tempted to write something along these lines (or to think it, for that matter), perhaps consider that this rhetoric is simply the hot air that is the only thing that keeps the anti-Trump movement going. And, if you’re in the “Trump is Hitler” or “… worse than Hitler” camp, I frankly consider you to be mentally ill and an anti-Semite.
I am writing a series of articles on the Covid-19 situation, and various aspects of it, such as the popular discourses of “science” and “expertise.” Here is some material from the first of these articles that relates to the Bernie situation:
The evening before Bernie Sander’s suspension of his campaign, I wrote the following:
For sure, the Democrats are in quite a bit of a fix. The only one of their main figures who is saying anything worthwhile and concrete about the Covid-19 crisis and the attendant economic crisis is Bernie Sanders. (He says some crap, too, but leave that aside for the moment.)
The globalist mainstream of the DP, however, has made clear its everlasting disdain for Bernie, and will not support him no matter how sensible and relevant his ideas. Now they have a problem, though, because OP Dems (ordinary-people Democrats and others who want a Democrat to replace Trump) don’t always ask “How high?” when the DNC says “jump!”—and meanwhile, Joe Biden is giving his own bizarre press briefings from the basement of his house in Delaware.
Much of the time he is lucky if he can put one or two sentences together. Therefore, there’s new hope for the DNC, or what they think of as hope—it’s truly sick—in being able to just concentrate their efforts on spewing vitriolic bullshit about Trump.
Sanders has now provided the Democratic Party a way out of this fix. When I first heard the news, I was hoping that Bernie was doing this as a challenge to Biden—but no. His statement that he is suspending the campaign because he did not think it right to go on with a campaign he could not win will be read in two different ways.
Bernie very likely could have “won” if he had been willing to do what needed to be done, to really tear Biden down and to really rip into the power-structure of the Democratic Party and the social system of which it is apart.
Others will praise Bernie for what he is “doing for the country,” and I am not saying this is completely wrong in the context of the coronavirus, but obviously it is wrong in terms of Bernie’s stated aim of putting the defeat of Trump in the forefront, given that the mainstream of the Democratic Party put defeating Bernie ahead of defeating Trump—and now they have succeeded.
As for how Bernie and his supporters will shape the party platform or a legislative agenda, why would that get any further than the campaign did? Bernie will be told to back down, and for whatever set of complex and deeply messed-up “reasons,” he will do this again, just as he has now, just as he did in 2016. The real question for Bernie supporters is how much longer they want to kid themselves.
For my part, I am very sorry to see Sanders pull out, not mainly because I had great hope in what he could do, but because there could have been a different kind of discussion with him as the nominee, especially regarding the possibilities of populism. I was also hoping such a discussion would also push Trump toward being a better populist. But it is no surprise that the DNC and other power-players do not want such a discussion, and indeed greatly fear anything going in this direction.
Again, I will remind those who have supported Bernie, and even those who are desperately clinging to some justification for supporting the worst of two reactionary parties, the leading party of the neoliberal globalism which is the basis for evermore dangerous pandemics, the party that doesn’t care about ordinary working people and is indeed fine with having them die off, the party that holds you in contempt because it feels sure you are caught in the trap of having to support them…
No, you do not have to support this garbage!
Bill Martin is a philosopher and musician, retired from DePaul University. He is completing a book with the title, “The Trump Clarification: Disruption at the Edge of the System (toward a theory).” His most recent albums are “Raga Chaturanga” (Bill Martin + Zugzwang; Avant-Bass 3) and “Emptiness, Garden: String Quartets nos. 1 and 2 (Ryokucha Bass Guitar Quartet; Avant-Bass 4). He lives in Salina, Kansas, and plays bass guitar with The Radicles.
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I have an old toy drum everyone can bang. It has a nice wipe-clean shell, so I can draw logos and write names of candidates on it, then wipe them off when the next clones come marching in. As a Brit, it is kind of ugly witnessing American’s obsession with their politics. We have some die-hard Thatcherite-Tories (which we spell “c-u-n-t-s”) and Dark Satanic Mill Labourites (which we spell “c-o-m-m-i-e-s”) here, but most people think it is hateful, half-baked, empty rubbish. I think maybe all Americans dream “They Might One Day Be The One”, or be buddies with that person and get their parking tickets wiped off the police computers and get invites to bigwig social gatherings. I don’t know. I partly don’t know because when a group of “real” Americans start talking about “their” politics – in a public place I hasten to add – they often shun “foreigners”,… Read more »
Common Ground? Instead of ranting on Bernie or Trump, I am wondering if an exchange centered around identifying common ground between free-market conservatives (say me) and those who supported Bernie? I will be the first to posit a possibility: “Redistribution of Wealth” – I know this subject is a major taboo with the free-market capitalist but I would argue that it is bad for free-markets and capitalism for the concentration of wealth to be isolated with a very small percentage of the business sector or society as a whole. I would also argue that the most effective source in enabling this disaster is the Federal Government. As a small business owner, I am crushed with regulation and compliance requirements, but, the larger competitors have the resources to navigate the maze of compliance obligations and of course lobby for exceptions to their favor. The solutions are not more government but rather… Read more »
This is very encouraging. I hold a similar view. I would be very happy for a ‘socialist’ government to create millionaires provided those millionaires paid there taxes and provided something of value and did not exploit others.
A ‘socialist government’ creating millionaires? By definition Socialism destroys millionaires and wealth. The middle class is eliminated and replaced with the elite few at the top of the government hierarchy and everyone else is in poverty waiting for their allotment. Government, other than the top members, does not create wealth.
Have you been watching reality?
Those good old communist countries seem to be choc-a-bloc full of gazillionaires. Big Business can ONLY exist through the policies of a centralising and monopolising Big Government. These guys even openly say “Competition is evil”. This new billionaire gang was created through killing competition, not embracing it. If you don’t even get the basics, you should go get yourself some edjikayshun.
ur talking about one kind of socialism – centralized and (from your explanation, authoritarian) socialism. there are many kinds… are u talking about the USSR? I have a few friends from Russia (they left the USSR AFTER the wall fell) who laugh when we talk of the “poverty” and all the terrible things of the USSR. Of course, it wasnt some paradise, for sure, but from their experiences it was livable and people had what they needed and didnt go hungry (of course this is their experiences). That was until the breakup and the coming of “freedom” and capitalism. Then, they began to go hungry as the new oligarchs stole the wealth of the people for themselves and left the people destitute. We in the west often hear horror stories of leftist governments (or any government, left or right that doesnt follow our particular brand of liberal capitalist “democracy”) and… Read more »
Tax is theft. The State Must Die, to usher in the Age of the Sovereign Self! EVERY MAN A NATION! It will get a bit crowded at the UN, but I think we can cope if we allow Skype conferencing. I have already designed my own flag. It has squirrels on it.
How can one put this gently, but Bernie Sanders (Senator Alter Kocker) is kinda of a fraud, a hack. Even old curmudgeon, Murray Bookchin, who was wrong on quite a few things, was right on that. Why, several decades down the line, do more people not see that? Sad.
Any man who hands over his loyal support to Hillsdog and gracefully ducks out after being character-assassinated by his OWN Party is a walking turdfest in my books. The Yankee-Doodles do love their representatives utterly repugnant, don’t they? Now, if we can get Freddie Kruger out of retirement and running as an indepenedent, we just might have something…
“evermore dangerous pandemics”? If the global police State ‘needs’ more dangerous ‘pandemics’ after this hoax runs its course, I’d be surprised. Actually, I hope that ‘this course’ ends in the termination of this hellish system of things. Call me strange.
Hi how did you change your ‘logo’ to one of your own preference?
Honestly, I don’t remember. Sorry. I would say that if I can figure it out, you probably can. I’m not terribly tech savvy.
I am strange too. There is a collective insanity going on, like a shared evil people are bathing in and enjoying the stink, like when your dog rolls in fox shit then wags it tail at you, seeking approval!!!
I just told my parents that the WHO are misquoting their own figures, which is easily fact-checkable and they just told me I am hateful! They do not want to hear that the “Plucky Health Workers” are risking “life and limb” treating something less dangerous than seasonal flu. I’d put them in the Loony Bin but it seems that is called Planet Earth right now…
That’s awful. What the Corporatocracy/Police/War-making State is doing to us is unforgiveable. And since there is a God…
I am probably a case in point for this article. When Trump was elected, I got a “sharing my grief” letter from Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR). This was my response to his letter, posted November 18, 2016: Thank you, Sen. Merkley, for the reassurance and encouragement. Although I voted a straight Democratic ticket, I had no enthusiasm for Hillary Clinton. I was angry that the Democratic Party has allowed itself to fall into the neo-con, neo-liberal, globalist approach/understanding of our most important issues and gave up the nationalism and populism that was so important to the Progressive movement. This morphing of the Party is something I’ve watched with considerable dismay for many years. The powers and influences that have taken over the Party are bringing it to ruin, and are ultimately responsible for this mind-boggling defeat. We are all going to have to pay a lot more attention to politics… Read more »
Your mistake, John, I believe, is thinking that the ‘electoral process’ is anything but a dirty farce to hide the Rule of Money.
So what are you saying that we don’t already know? Seriously, this is an opinion piece with no direction.
With you all the way, Bridget: and the comments below? especially EricZzzz …
It’s like a post mortem of the scientifically obvious reality bites…
from Black Widows ! Still, think positively: Maxwell took time to comment seriously 😉 & very constructively: that saved time 🙂 for us both …
Let’s hope he hangs around. 😉
When rules fail within an economic system, it is time to change the rules… Direct democracy and civilian organizations wherein members are chosen by lot could provide solutions to our failed “representative” democracies. When “Super delegates” and “electoral” systems determine the final outcome of elections (as occurred in the 2000 presidential selection) something false and completely undemocratic is taking place. Excerpted from: Direct democracy – Wikipedia “The pure form of direct democracy exists only in the Swiss cantons of Appenzell Innerrhoden and Glarus.[15] The Swiss Confederation is a semi-direct democracy (representative democracy with strong instruments of direct democracy).[15] The nature of direct democracy in Switzerland is fundamentally complemented by its federal governmental structures (in German also called the Subsidiaritätsprinzip).[4][5][6][7] Most western countries have representative systems. [15] Switzerland is a rare example of a country with instruments of direct democracy (at the levels of the municipalities, cantons, and federal state). Citizens… Read more »
The rules have not failed in the current economic system. COVID aside, they are doing what they are designed to do.
Back in 2016 Noam Chomsky argued that people should vote for Hillary Clinton on basis of the lesser of two evils, which struck me as a lot like – to coin a phrase – manufacturing consent. The Democratic Party is the merely one side of a coin; the other side of that coin is the Republican Party. Neither party promotes the interests and concerns of the vast majority of the people. This is obvious to anyone who has been paying attention. Both parties represent the interests finance and corporate capitalists, and they will do this regardless of who is their nominee for the presidency. Voting for either party is voting for the maintenance of the existing structure of inequality. It is, as Chomsky unintentionally revealed, voting for evil.
Anyone who votes for either of them is just complicit in maintaining a system that is quite simply evil.
I notice that the comments have quickly diverted from the subject. What Bernie Sanders should do is stand as an Independent and chose a younger female candidate as his running mate promising to only run one term.
Would he win? probably not. But he might and in any case he would provide the USA with what it most needs, a viable third party.
This is what establisment Democrats most fear.
I live in the UK and we have our own problems with the Labour Party going the same way.
destroying the Democrat party is job 1. Tell the DEM voters – vote progress or go f off.
It’s really not about the candidates at all but the human capacity to cut off their noses to spite their faces. As a long dead Roman said ‘we see the better way but choose the worse’.
Sadly, this is a mirroring of the UK and Corbyn… It is the era of career politicians ding the corporations bidding… Trump is different… he is just serving himself! But, it’s all coming to an abrupt end when enough people wake up to the reality of this :: Our Economy Is Way More Sick Than Us!
I want to put a word in for Donald Trump! I am from the UK, but we are all at risk if a war were to start and get out of control. I noticed that in 2016 it was Hillary who explicitly stated her wish to revitalise the war in Syria (which was ignited by US meddling in the first place) and Donald Trump who wanted out. We toasted his victory with a bottle of wine on the Wednesday evening after the election was over. As President, Trump has avoided starting any wars, which is one hell of a lot better than Obama, who started the war against Gaddafi, and the war in Syria. Obama also authorised (I assume) the meddling which led to the ousting of a democratically elected president in Ukraine, and ignited the civil war there – a potentially very dangerous act. I followed the science of… Read more »
The entire game has changed. James Corbett’s grim wake-up call . . .
Trump isn’t a Republican – he was NOT a politician before his presidency! If anything Donald was a Democrat supporter – one of these liberal New York types – so happilly derided by rednecks acroos that demented continent. A big supporter of Hillary and golfing buddy of Bill. Trump’s job was to destroy the nominees of the Republican party and be installed as their candidate so that he would then easily lose against Hillary – by being obnoxious and populist and sexist! It was all part of her coronation – her right, she has been an operator all her life and her marriage was of a couple of psychopaths hot housed to attain the chief executive role for the Pathocracy – she started as a Republican. The whole pantomime was choreographed including the stalking on stage and the ‘lock her up’ shtick, probably by Bill with his mesmeric political sensibility;… Read more »
Fantastic. Couldn’t agree more..
New York Times
Did Bill (Clinton) tell you that you should run?” I asked.
“He didn’t say one way or the other,” Trump replied, over a plate of meatballs.
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/06/magazine/when-hillary-and-donald-were-friends.html
Donald Trump isn’t a politician. He has mostly been a Democrat during his lifetime and given more money to them.
“Until 2008, Trump Was a Big Democratic Donor
He donated more than $10,000 to Hillary Clinton between 2002 and 2007, and Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., is his top beneficiary, raking in $18,350 over the years”.
https://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/data-mine/articles/2016-01-14/donald-trump-donated-to-democrats-until-2008
How the Hillary Clinton campaign deliberately “elevated” Donald Trump with its “pied piper” strategy
An email released by WikiLeaks shows how the Democratic Party purposefully “elevated” Trump to “leader of the pack”
“We need to be elevating the Pied Piper candidates so that they are leaders of the pack and tell the press to them seriously,” the Clinton campaign concluded.
http://www.salon.com/2016/11/09/the-hillary-clinton-campaign-intentionally-created-donald-trump-with-its-pied-piper-strate
Trump is a fascist. Bernie recognizes that. The perceptive skills and agenda of the author, and hence this entire publication, is discounted, thereby.
Vic,
Trump is as much a fascist as Bernie is a Zionist.
Um. No.
Correct.
Glad you get it.
You know precisely what I meant. Namely, that your denial about WTF Donald Trump is and has wrought is just that — denial. The extent of mind-fuckery this nation has endured, supported by defunding of education (a decided asset for Republicans) has engendered a terrifying portion of the electorate that believes sociopaths. #Problem
Dr Shiva’s latest. On politics so sits well under this piece:
What Bernie did or didn’t do doesn’t matter one bit in this Bread and Circuses primary. After the sham of the “Impeachment” it became quite obvious that Dear Leader can do whatever he wishes and no one, DNC or RNC, is going to stop him or even try. We’re in the End Game of the plodding 30-plus year global fascist coup now. Rule of law in the US is gone; the “pandemic” is the final act and our rights and any semblance of our Republic and Constitution are crumbling before our eyes. The 2020 election was never going to mean anything (none of them do anyway–they are even less worried about hiding that fact than ever before..) The stage had been set and we’re all along for the ride our lives into the death throes of the Great and Powerful USA. It will be surprising to me if we even… Read more »
The American Constitution was suspended in 1871. Every fake “election” since 1871 has intrinsically included acts of sedition or treason by those who have “won” our vote.
There are numerous pages devoted to “The Organic Act” of 1871. Persons such as Bernie Sanders fail to bring this into focus when running for political office, as any informed candidate becomes a co-conspirator in the “representative” election sham.
William Foust presenting a very interesting set of concepts regarding Law versus “legal”.
The District of Columbia Act of 1871 – William Foust
Please reclaim your agency, and vigorously …transfer it? And while you are at it: don’t forget your subjectivity, your intentionality, the cause and effect determination with your external object, your personal autonomous will, and your faculty psychology (the array of homuncular attributes you have: ordered by the universal reason of the Cartesian will you realise in *concursus Dei*). And when you have found them – and they are probably in a pile of words next to your mind, your rationality, your individual autonomy, and your radical free will – we’ll have a perfectly functional classical liberal democracy. Won’t we? I’m actually finding this corona thing liberating. There is absolutely no reason to conform to the shitfuckerry of ridiculous beliefs we have ever again. The conceptual covidiocy that owes its allegiance only to the openly fascising and clearly metastasising stasis theory of a essentially eternal order of dumbfuckerry. No offence to… Read more »
Big B huh?
Yeah. That works for me.
You could try to use the language of the normally enlightened, educated common man.
Ephemeral phonophemes and blasphemous gramophones, along with their “ersatzes”, are never going to cut it with your fellow man, at least not as long as you consider only those who are emeritus professors of arcane linguistics to be your “fellow man”.
Mark Twain was a wise man, and if he could find a way to communicate in accessible English, then surely you can too. It is not necessary to demonstrate your comprehension of the entire Oxford Dictionary to make your point.
I don’t mean to be difficult or argumentative, but you make it hard for those of us who wish to follow your trains of thought.
Precisely, wardropper.
Or, to put it another way, let Orwell’s Six Rules of Good Writing be our guide.
Perhaps you miss the point: the clear, precise, and collectively meaningful use of language is the exact Cartesian *novum ordo seclorum* of constative control and world-order maintenance that we find ourselves subordinate to …precisely because we have to conform to the linguistic collectivity in order to mean. Well, it’s bollocks: words do not mean anything in the classical canonical intellectual tradition of metaphysical essentialism. Which has been heavily critiqued for the ethnocentric exceptionalist proto-fascism it is since de Saussure. Twain lived before the linguistic turn to social semiotics. He probably thought power was located in powerful individuals: and not spread diffusely through everyday social intercourse. You cannot see how descriptive power shapes social reality: but you can see the manifested result. That is the result of clear, precise, descriptive, and representative social linguistics …racially biased authoritarianism and the apotheosis of purist logical formalist greed …euphemistically character masked as objective reason… Read more »
Great response BigB, that deserves an example (of which we both have so many, ’tis hard to know where to start demonstrating)… so, let’s say in the interests of
“Our National Security”
Because we must surely understand that anti-fracking dumbfuckery is a danger to us all 😉 🙂 (I chose fracking for financial reasoning, especially right NOW 🙂 as recipient of briefs from ex-B.P. CEO, personally, not just about HAARP, logic dictated, many moons ago)
http://spinwatch.org/index.php/issues/climate/item/6006-why-are-counter-terrorism-police-still-spying-on-the-anti-fracking-movement
Hello BigB: Your use of language is exemplary, and is understandable by anyone who takes the time to grasp true language and definition versus popular slang and euphemism…
I once considered myself a poet. As time went on, I boiled concepts down to the bare bone…
“Man joined the eternal abyss
When food became a commodity”
– Paul Vonharnish –
January 2, 2020
Fine words, Paul: may I add,
“… & the weather became a force multiplier,
with derivative fund investment planning”
Hello Tim Jenkins and interested readers: As Tim alludes, Geoengineering (manipulation of weather) is indeed a force multiplier. Weather all over the planet is being utilized as a weapon against those who refuse to kowtow to “New World” banksters and puppet politicians.
I have too many pages to list. Start here: Environmental Modification Techniques (ENMOD) and Climate Change
The manipulation of climate for military use
By Prof Michel Chossudovsky
Global Research, November 12, 2013
Originally published December 5, 2009
https://www.globalresearch.ca/environmental-modification-techniques-enmod-and-climate-change/16413
Also this: GeoengineeringWatch.org http://www.geoengineeringwatch.org/
🙂
Bernie, having a major platform, could have done good by speaking out against the ongoing Mass-Hysteria Pandemic. I am sure there are people in high positions who know how wrong this is, how crazy and irrational the Corona Panic is, the big mistake of mass shutdowns and empowering close-it-all-down wackos and extremist Doomers. But most lack the courage to speak out.
Bernie already knew he wasn’t going to win the nomination and he could’ve done a great service by speaking out against the shutdowns and calling for a swift re-opening. He didn’t. He failed.
I used to support Bernie Sanders but woke up and realize he was just a liar and a crook just like the rest of the Democratic Party. They truly are a branch of Organized Crime. So my position is to Vote for Donald Trump and all Republicans because I am sick of getting lied to and treated like dirt. I was a like long Democrat and am now 67 years old. I will never vote for another Democrat again. So don’t not vote. Vote for “The Donald” because each and every Democratic Politician is a Criminal. If you don’t agree, prove me wrong with facts not ephemeral BS.
Perhaps not so much a liar as a more shallow person than most of us thought. For some misguided people, the urge to be in the political limelight is remarkably strong, especially considering the wretched, superficial world you are condemned to live in if that urge brings you success. I have heard people say, “But somebody has to govern the nation,” as if letting just anybody do it was bound to be better than waiting for someone actually qualified to do so. But the current political environment in Washington could not possibly allow a decent human being to become President, because a decent human being would constantly, and intensely, irritate all the wealthy lobbyists whom he needs to support his campaign. It’s a vicious circle which could only be broken by putting a very large spanner in the works – a positively cosmic one.
Interesting times…
And that is the problem, “perhaps not so much a liar “. Trump ,the man who knows great words, the best words, should be called out for all his lies. He is not mistaken,or misinformed, or misquoted ,he just chooses to lie all the time.
And our stable, genius leader never lies ?
Same can be said of the RNC.
USA has only two major political parties, both are controlled by Corporate donors and ultra wealthy individual donors.
The two parties take turns at supplying the figurehead in the Oval Office.
If Donald Trump was an outsider, why was he not marginalized by the RNC, as was Dr. Ron Paul in 2012? Even the mainstream media (which appears to be mostly anti RNC) participated in that marginalization of Dr. Ron Paul.
Tulsi Gabbard received the same silent treatment in 2020.
But Trump did not in 2016.
Why is that?
Republicans never regard one of their own as “an outsider”. Ron Paul was an outsider because he considered himself to be an Independent, rather than a Republican, and was very outspoken in his opposition to endless, ruinously expensive wars. Republicans, like our Conservatives, have supported war for a long time now, because they seriously believe that only war can enhance a nation’s “greatness”…
The Democrats have now abandoned all pretence of being even slightly less keen on war than the Republicans, but they still live with the hilarious reputation of being “more left wing”, which, for far too many Americans, means practically the same thing as “communist” – that being the purely imagined horror of their worst nightmares.
There’s nothing like vaudeville.
Boynie was never more than controlled opposition.
Reported US CV cases now exceed half a million.
We can only hope that the Orange Baboon himself and all his Zionist goon handlers, Saban, Singer, Adelson and all the rest do us all a favour by getting a good dose and croaking.
Wouldn’t change the political circus in any way, just make the air smell a bit sweeter.
Fuck the Democrats. They are the new fascisits. My hard core Dem friends are far worse than Trump supporters in terms of agreeing to have their rights completely stripped away. It’s unbelievable that they would rather have a mandatory ID/vaccine, border checks, security checks, lockdowns, police state, yada-yada, just to see Trump removed. It may be a ruse, but Trump is doing far more to tear into WHO, Gates, and the fraud Fauci than anyone else on the big stage. I hesitate to say it; this whole pandemic farce has made me an NRA supporter overnight.
For the record I voted for Jill Stein last election, but I was a Bernie supporter.
Absolutely – but take it easy – your NRA support will avail you naught. The World Health Organization’s guns are overwhelmingly bigger…
On the other hand, I suppose we might take a few of them down with us…
Well, livingusb, this is about freedom v slavery. The choice is clear. I’m with the preppers and the “deplorables” heading for the hills. And I’m a dark-skinned South Asian guy, very liberal in my politics but light years from the rancid, identity-obsessed Warren-Clinton-Obama mafia.
In the novel “1984,” BETRAYAL is the fundamental theme explaining how authoritarian societies deploy perfidy to psychologically manipulate the fearful and ignorant. A repressive culture encourages everyone to betray each other. This destroys trust heightens alienation and fear. In such an environment an obedient population knows any act of betrayal will be fiercely punished. Against the backdrop of the novel “1984” and the theme of “betrayal” one can better understand the machinations of the corrupt Democratic Party. In fact, to really understand the American political system it’s imperative to be mindful that the corrupt political duopoly is really a corrupt political “monopoly” with slight variations. Both are right-wing neoliberal imperialist parties. Any working-class, working-poor, or debt ridden student believing that genuine change can occur hanging onto the coattails of fraudulent political politicians is like partaking in a whirling dervish dance spinning in circles but never going anywhere. History should tell… Read more »
POSTED AS A GENERIC REPLY TO VOTING SKEPTICS BELOW, AND ALL THOSE WHO TELLINGLY CALL SANDERS “COWARDLY LION” “SHEEP DOG” “PIED PIPER” AND OTHERS. I CALL HIM, HAVING FIRST RECEIVED FUNDING REQUESTS FROM HIM IN EARLY 1980s, ETC., A “STALKING HORSE” WITH SOME HISTORY OF MY OWN – MEMOS FROM NATIONAL AND INTENSE (NEAR DEATH) EXPERIENCES IN “VOTING REFORM” AND PUBLISHING, RADIO INTERVIEWS, ARMED COMBAT (THEIRS, WITH ME AS BULLSEYE) ET AL. AND INTER ALIA: SO right you are. Voting was rendered irrelevant completely by HAVA (“Help” America Vote Act) about 15 years ago. (The congressional head of that charade, Bob Ney, resigned during the Abramoff scandals, of which he was a sleazy part, and later asked forgiveness for his epic alcoholism.) Electronic voting ~almost 100% of what’s done now, tabulated all by private companies who refuse to allow public oversight on the deeply absurdist “Alice in Wonderland” grounds that… Read more »
This might have been one of the reasons Wellstone was knocked off by the Cheney ghoul crowd. Democrats held just a one seat edge over the Republicans in the Senate. Wellstone’s death opened the way for the most hideous reactionary legislation to be passed.
“U.S. Sen. Paul Wellstone, DFL-Minn., spoke out on the floor of the U.S. Senate Thursday against unilateral U.S. action against Iraq. Wellstone says he will vote “no” on the use-of-force resolution the White House is requesting. Republican leaders say it’s a dangerous vote for Wellstone, who’s in a tough re-election race with Republican Norm Coleman. Coleman supports the White House.
Wellstone has been saying for weeks the U.S. should not take action against Iraq alone. In deciding to vote against the resolution, Wellstone places himself, once again, in the minority in Congress.”
Absolument sans doute, Charlotte, notre dame des ruses.
Brilliant post, Charlotte. I only wish it could be read by some on the Australian soft ‘left’ who insist that Biden is on the ‘progressive’ side of politics.
Sadly, there are echoes of Corbyn in Sanders’ failure to stand up to his traducers and call out their villainies.
Sanders has ALWAYS been “controlled opposition”. How meaningful is “well-meaning” when a whole political lifetime? He simply takes scraps from the table of the hideous powers that be, who have been entrenched here without much more rights than usurpers’ rights. Which is not very much rights, or right, just aleays here on the farther and farther right.
Self-endowed right is almost all self-righteousness, and Reinhold Niebuhr, a huger influence on MLK, practically, than Gandhi (according to MLK) said that self-righteousness is always the fruit of shallow moral judgements.
Hello Charlotte Russe: Right on! Most civilians know their political systems are rotten, yet few bother to rise to the occasion. They’re not hungry and homeless… yet…
22 Signs That Voter Fraud Is Wildly Out Of Control And The Election Was A Sham
November 13, 2012 by Michael Snyder
http://endoftheamericandream.com/archives/22-signs-that-voter-fraud-is-wildly-out-of-control-and-the-election-was-a-sham
Here’s a video you might find informative:
But that’s not what sheepdogs do, and Bernie is just a sheepdog. Good riddance! (Hard to believe I was once interested in Bernie … four long years ago.)
That is the point. Bernie was never trying to win.
The very last vestige of “American democracy” died on November 22, 1963. Sure, the interred corpse twitched a bit a few years later when in 1968 Bobby ran and was poised to become the Democratic Party nominee. Just in the nick of time Bobby was assassinated by an apparently semi-comatose Sirhan Sirhan. Did I mention – just in the nick of time – talk about a “lucky coincidence” smiling on the MIC yet again. Twice in the span of five years no less. Well, ok, four times if you count Malcolm and Martin. All “assassinated” within five years of each other. “Only in America” – as we like to say. Though never closer than 4 feet away and in front of Bobby, Sirhan supposedly managed to fire the fatal shot at point blank range from only 1.5 inches away (complete with powder burns) – but somehow into the “back” of… Read more »
Trump’s similarity to Bernie was the anti-war stuff he was saying, which compared favorably to Hillary Clinton’s stupid and dangerous vows to invade Syria and Russia. However, Trump hasn’t withdrawn from anywhere, and his assassination of General Soleimani was beyond the pale, showing him not just to be a warmonger, but a common criminal. So I’ll be checking out the third party candidates this time around.
How many thousands of Iranians, Venezuelans and Syrians have died as a direct result of US economic terrorism on his watch?
With the mass graves now being dug in New York, Americans are at long last getting a richly deserved and long overdue small taste of the misery they have inflicted on so many for so long.
What goes around, comes around.
New York is the dark heart of the Evil Empire.
Couldn’t happen to nicer people.
Voting in the United States isn’t about “democracy”—it’s about perpetuating the illusion of democracy. The voting ritual serves to disguise the symptoms. The patient is gasping for air. A face lift won’t help. In today’s US, especially at the national level, elections are worse than worthless — they simply perpetuate illusions and siphon precious valuable political energy into this destructive system. They are degrading and repulsive exercises in Madison Avenue PR techniques, where “the truth” is off limits from the get-go. Effort should be directed not at participating in this system, but at bringing it down, exposing its corrupt essence and building genuinely constructive alternatives. You can’t effect change through the highly controlled and managed bourgeois electoral system. The capitalist class, thru both mainstream parties and the media, ensure that no significant changes to the system will ever occur through this mechanism- it’s designed for the exact opposite. The collapsing… Read more »
Precisely, Maxwell. One sees the same caricature of democracy in almost all the capitalist countries with two-party political systems.
What, I wonder, can one say about the role of democracy in the UK that has, let’s say, a 3-party system, although the exact composition has varied, if we just consider the late 20th century and 21st century. If we just consider for a moment the 2nd half of the 20th century, the once powerful Liberal Party acted as a kind of safety valve for Tory voters wanting to express a protest, but who could not bring themselves to vote Labour. Early 20th century Liberal politicians had been quite radical (albeit coming largely from the upper classes), and the most radical went over to Labour, leaving the Liberal Party somewhat high and dry, and seeking a role, which it never quite found, except as a party of protest. When right-wing/centrist Labour MPs split to form the SDP in 1981, we became briefly a 4 party system. The SDP hoped to… Read more »
What do you mean?
You can have a dogshit sandwich or a catshit sandwich, and both of them kosher.
What more do you want?
Some people are never satisfied.
How the blazes did the universal epithet ‘antisemite’ appear in this, otherwise cogent, diatribe? The first thing for the Bernouts to realise is that ‘Boynie’ is a fraud, as you would expect. His one job in the political pantomime was to lead the Leftist and young and working-class suckers into the desert, pretending to be Moses, then leave them there to die. He put up even less of a fight this time, as the nomination was stolen, than he did in 2016, when it was stolen then. ‘Fool me once.. ‘.
Isn’t the question as to who is going to be put forward as Bidens’ potential VP? It’s glaringly obvious to the vast majority of people that Biden has memory problems – not related to boasting in the past I mean real problems with brain functions. Reagan could bluff his way through it due to being an actor but he was nowhere near Bidens’ level. Now if Biden was an animal this would be judged as cruelty ( basically using a baffled old mans’ lack of cognisance to benefit AN Other ) yet in the weird and wonderful world of politics it’s OK. If there is one thing – ” Joe is a good friend of mine ” – Bernie should say ( because he is a ” good friend “) is that Biden should not be manipulated by a cynical group of DNC exploiters for any purpose – never mind… Read more »
It will be Kamala Harris, Steve Mnuchin’s protector, and the harasser of the underclass.
Isn’t that Kabbala Haaretz?
In a mess like today’s Washington, it really doesn’t matter a damn who becomes V.P.
When the world is finally screwed into a cosmic grave, nobody is going to be wondering what the V.P.’s part in it was.
I’ll vote Green again. I would like to see the Greens get 3 or 4% in national elections.
Vote green – well ok….but why, you can just – be green, like you can just be kind to people, not greedy or hateful, no interest in making war, not controlled by a machine or feel duped by a sham, be a person, not a number or a slave to debt – eat food that hasn’t had it’s DNA fooled with etc etc….and foremost – whoever is keeping the books, lives exactly by those same simple rules as we do – But to fight for them, divide ourselves for them – Vote for them even – Ha…. no thankyou, life isn’t that complicated – time we remembered it, and reminded “them” of it.
I’m the anti-war left. I wasn’t a fan of bernie I thought I would give a shoot. I use to grow all my on veggies but do health issues wasn’t able the last few years but will start again this spring.I don’t own a home but have rent the same home on a farm in Calif. for over 40yrs. I have the greatest landlords ever. I live on small pension and max SS. I drive a small Ford Ranger about once week to town 10 miles away. I don’t have cable or anything like that. My life is very simple and I like it that way. Cheers
jo6
sounds good….seems you kept it simple – supporting the system to a mimimum, but (imo) the strongest support they can get, is by the Vote….it matters not who for, They Win – because the Vote mandates the System, just as long as the people sanction it.
Be well.
Frankly, I think that even if nobody voted at all, the media would still be quite happy to tell us by how many millions their favoured candidate won.
Voting machines, or no voting machines, the quip attributed to Napoleon, Stalin and others applies perfectly: “It’s not the votes that count; it’s who counts the votes”.
Very true
Grow up. Don’t vote for anybody.
Root-toodleoo-dootle-oodle-oodle
Until Americans acknowledge that much of U.S. politics is constructed as a clown show, there can be no freedom. The political system laughs in your face. The balloons and the bunting and the bawdy British songs represented as American heritage is the proof. The Star Spangled Banner is a pub brawl. It’s a drinking society song. Even if it was not British it would be the equivalent of raising the Skull and Bones ass wipe as the national flag. How do you live with this?
How do you live with this?
Exactly the same as Brits live with Thatcher, Blair, May and Boris – all figureheads on a hole-ridden ship sinking into the same reeking ocean of corporate filth as the USA.
If Bernie now asks his supporters to vote Biden, the answer will mostly be NO and a Trump victory is guaranteed. But we assume the Democratic party are unhappy with Trump when for the most part they are not, they are passing all his bills without objection, including a massive 6 trillion bailout for large corporations and infinite QE for the banks, what is there not to like for the Democratic elite? Their only problem is they can’t really run Biden because he is quickly becoming obviously senile, they will need another candidate for the race, anyone but Bernie will do.
As the late great George Carlin said, “there’s one giant party and you ain’t invited.”
Bernie has already virtually done that (endorsed Biden). I hereby urge the Green Party to nominate Sanders without his approval. He’s the only prominent person whom they might nominate who might actually win the Presidency. He doesn’t need the DNC. But he can’t afford to alienate the millions of Democratic voters who are suckers of the DNC (i.e., of the billionaires who keep it going). He doesn’t need those billionaires, but he can’t afford to alienate the voters whose minds they control. He needs his name to be on the ballot in all or almost all of the 50 states. That’s all. It’s up to the Green Party to do this. Let Bernie frail against them for it. The more he does that, the more votes he will get — as the Green Party’s nominee. He won’t be any Ralph Nader, who was never elected to any political office and… Read more »
Let me give you a friendly tip: your “analysis” is almost comically wrong, from top to bottom. Sanders is a hood ornament whose candidacy serves to distract the shallow political consumer from the fact that it is the engine that makes the car run. That engine is the economic foundation upon which the superstructure of the government rests. That bad smell you get from this engine is called capitalism as it burns up everything in sight. Bernie, who is a Democrat in all meaningful ways, this latest ‘hope for change”, is in agreement with this rotten system only wishing to ameliorate it’s worst transgressions which is not possible under the current system. That horse left the barn many years ago. If Sanders were an Independent or a Socialist he would run as one and he would vote as one. He does neither. This is all very easy to understand. He… Read more »
As a Brit with an interest thanks for a most enlightening post Maxwell.
Upvoted with pleasure, Maxwell. Yes, this whole shitshow is smoke and mirrors. The only thing that makes the world run is money. Now it’s gone. A coup d’etat happened a long time ago. Once again I will point everyone in the direction of John Titus’s videos on YouTube. Essential viewing.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLvRDyn_rVvZ7RRwdcEiJGw/videos
I’m going to take look at that. What I can say is that here in the US folks have little idea what just hit them- and I’m not talking about the COVID frenzy. It took the barracudas on Wall St. about one day- if that- to start slopping up the debt (that they created BTW) and we are already seeing massive purchases by Wall St. of bad debt- which with the new COVID stimulus package has the guarantee of another bailout baked into it- further looting the US taxpayer. Pennies on the dollar purchases and guaranteed return- all of it sanctioned by all politicians. Going back a few decades now when the anti-globalization was in full swing a friend asked once, “What do they want?” and I replied, “Everything.” Now I have to say I’ve been at this awhile but these latest moves are brazen even by the standards of… Read more »
Sanders is intelligent enough to know that if he were simply to say everything that he thinks would be good policy — such as drastically cutting the ‘defense’ (aggression) budget, he’s have no possibility of becoming President. Among the many “Institutions” that Gallup polls Americans on each year regarding their trust in each “Institution” is “The Military, and each year “The Military” gets the most trust, of any “Institution” as you can see for yourself at
https://news.gallup.com/poll/1597/confidence-institutions.aspx
so ANY candidate for the Presidency must express considerable support for “The Military.”
Voters who interpret a candidate’s assertions in the way you do — devoid of political strategy and oblivious to the will of the electorate — are among the main reasons America is ruled by fascists.
No Eric- fools like yourself are the precise reason why actual leftist movements don’t gain traction. You are the classic left gatekeeper- just another milquetoast liberal who keeps pimping the same tired lies year in year out. If you were honest you would notice I decidedly DID NOT nor do I ever simply interpret someone’s assertions- is that how you do it- read tea leaves? To do such is the worst form of liberal idealism which is one of your hallmarks. Sorry Eric, but I focus solely on someone’s record- shall I post an extensive example of Sander’s atrocious record. He’s a pro-war, hawkish imperialist and has been his entire career. You avoid these things religiously to maintain your fairy tale version of the the political world. What you have posted here is just another warmed over version of “11 dimensional chess”- it’s all bullshyte comrade. But go ahead and… Read more »
An ugly litany of Bernie’s sycophantic ways there Maxwell.
More like a psychopaths shopping list.
The neoconservatism in the U.S. Congress is close to 100% in both Parties and in both houses. If you are alleging that a U.S. Presidential candidate should be someone like Ralph Nader who never occupied elective office and has no actual voting record by which that persom can be compared with other elective office-holders on the important actual issues (in any other way than mere frhetorical mouthings), I disagree. However, if you acknowledge that amongst the office-holders should be chosen the person who has the best voting-record on the most important issues, then we might be able to agree on something. However, I would never, as you do, list numerous bills and say, without providing documentation (links) explaining an office-holder’s votes on those bills, whether those votes, understood in their full political and policy contexts, were good or bad by comparison to the vast majority of other federal office-holders’ votes… Read more »
Eric I’m quite familiar with your “work” and how consistently you have been wrong on most everything for years. You still reside in some delusional state that operates on about a high school civics level. Probably not possible but truly don’t take that personally- its just that you are out of touch with what’s happening right in front of your eyes. Your lib/prog “analysis” has no basis in material reality. Anyone who is still pimping “lesser-evilism” is no longer a useful benchmark for what is happening in the world- and likely never was. As for Sanders record you should have known all that chapter and verse but you didn’t- so how astute are you again? And really all you need to know was Sanders support of war crimes in Kosovo and his support of the murder of over 500,000 children in Iraq. Yet you still supported someone of this caliber.… Read more »
Can you rise above insulting, to asserting whom you support in American politics?
The context for Sanders’s votes regarding Kosovo, and regarding Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait (an invasion by him which I have no formulated opinion about, because I don’t express an opinion about something that I have not sufficiently investigated), were not mentioned by you, nor did you mention the congresspeople who voted against those U.S. actions. You have pontificated without providing any of the context, and even without providing links to your sources. And you have not stated what and whom you stand for. I know nothing about you except that you hide, pontificate, and insult. (Unfortunately, the links that I had embedded in my comment did not show here, but at least I tried. Anyway, I printed out the links regarding Tulsi Gabbard’s votes.)
Maxwell, I have now had an opportunity to spot-check some of the items on your list, and found your criticism correct on each. However, on each, I also found things such as “passed with unanimous consent,” which indicate that the entire U.S. Senate are guilty (often with no exceptions whatsoever). How do you propose that a voter vote in such a country? Would you consider the following to be the optimum solution to such a problem?:
https://theduran.com/a-proposed-amendment-to-the-u-s-constitution/
Why vote for ANY of them?
Every man and woman jack of them are LESS THAN FILTH.
Why pretend otherwise?
Your response shows that you failed even to look at what I linked to. Please look at it, and THEN respond.
I did read your article, Eric, thus I quote “… both of them naturally being publicly well-known. ” How do you propose that occurs ? The Key Question ! Our media thus far has corrupted minds way beyond any natural humanity, going way back ! See the problems Hollywood has created, with the BBC ? We are none of us neutral, not even the ‘sainted Swiss’, I know well their banking & lifestyle BS & B.I.S. of today, all with Diplomatic Immunity, just like Vatican Bankers, & all of them are NEVER AUDITED and never have been ! Do you comprehend CIA Drug Payments ? Via Catholic Bankers, like George Pell ? You did notice his recent release, I’m sure … Eric, please listen to Maxwell and stop thinking so introspectively and only for the USA: the country with NO name, Officially, just a bunch of united states that wish… Read more »
I thought that under the stated conditions (that both of those individuals’ names had been freely volunteered by a larger number of Americans to become the next U.S. President, each of the two having been volunteered as the best choice by more than any of the other millions of Americans have been so chosen), anyone but an idiot would immediately recognize that no one who is one of the two most-frequently mentioned persons who have been chosen to be the next U.S. President could even POSSIBLY be NOT famous. I had thought that any reader with an IQ of more than, say, 5, would recognize this fact automatically.
Julian Assange is publicly well known and unlike Bernie Sanders or you, Eric, Assange has a 100% accuracy rating >>> so, don’t dodge the question, the key question !
I’m suggesting that your thought processes are fundamentally flawed & constrained by a bunch of united states, that include the UK & France, whence the expression FUKUS, see ? Historically speaking, from the Gulf of Tonkin & USS Liberty onwards, you had to be aware of the devils within … and media’s monopoly on who is well known & for what reason, see?
Have you ever heard of Leveson ?
Then Assange would have a real chance of winning, if he were a U.S. citizen — which he’s not.
Eric: That’s already 2 key questions you’ve dodged ! Likely wilfully …
1) How do you propose that occurs ?
2) Have you ever heard of Leveson ?
Eric, maybe my last comment has slipped your mind, even wilfully !? I have not been insulting towards you (YET), despite the fact that I have an extremely high IQ, , (which was why I was Headhunted by an external company, to work DIRECTLY & EXCLUSIVELY for the CEO of BP, overnight, preparing his breakfast briefing after studying ALL English speaking newspapers, journals & print media, worldwide, hot off the press, delivered by couriers! Including speed reading every edition of the Times, New York Times, WSJ, IHT &&& from The Sun to the South China Morning Post & Cape Times, daily, back in the 80’s, before they purchased HAARP & ARCO Oil & Gas in its’ entirety, with US D.o.D approval, on one very specific contractual condition …) It might interest you also, that I have direct personal experience of working for the White House Communications Centre, during the 90’s,… Read more »
Tim, regarding your new #1, the phrase “The Key Question” was introduced in this string by you, not by me, and you didn’t define it in any way other than introducing it by”… both of them naturally being well-known.” I responded to that by saying that the two most-frequently mentioned persons by voters would necessarily be “famous” because otherwise their names wouldn’t even be known to (and thus available to) voters to vote for. So, I already answered that question, unless you meant a different meaning for it than the one you stated. Regarding your new #2 “Define ‘Parallel Platforms’ (Check Bill Binney)” that too is opaque to me, and I don’t know how a knowledge of its meaning would be necessary in order to evaluate https://theduran.com/a-proposed-amendment-to-the-u-s-constitution/ — which doesn’t even employ that phrase “Parallel Platforms.” You ask me to define a term which is from a technically specialized field… Read more »
OK, Eric, no apology i see: let that be … this is going to be tedious for me, explaining things that are truly elementary to me, in my eyes and in my face, for well over 40 years, regarding the media & regulation of same ! I can see now, that I’m going to have to inform you, progressively, FAR more than i’d ever expected, as to why your thinking is fundamentally flawed, both legally & intellectually. So, first before I get to the points you’ve raised, first the intangible ! Money has its’ limitations.Norwegian poet Arne Garborg said that with money “You can buy food, but not appetite; medicine, but not health; soft beds, but not sleep; knowledge, but not wisdom; glitter, but not beauty; splendour, but not warmth; fun, but not joy; acquaintances, but not friends; servants, but not faithfulness.” >>> It’s Good Friday today, in the Orthodox… Read more »
Look at Mr. Hypocrite here. Just a few comments ago he spoke to someone insulting him- and now here is Mr. Hypocrite doing exactly what he says others should not do.
Poor Eric- unable to wake up as he’s always pretending to be asleep.
in short, Eric: who the fuck is Bernie? See ?
Absofirkin’lutely honestly speaking,
an unimportant “Also-Ran” & total distraction,
from corrupted governments, our military intelligence
& Crime Syndicates !
Sounds like a pretty bloodthirsty war criminal POS to me.
How does he differ from McCain or Clinton?
Eric, the US has been ruled by fascists for ever. Kennedy – not a saint from the starting block though – saw the light and was duly snuffed out.
You make a valid point,but I’m not at all sure there is much truth to it.Sanders reminds me of the Labour for the Empire people like Ernest Bevin etc in the post war British Labour party.
There’s more chance of a leopard changing its spots than psychopaths/sociopaths behaving sanely.
BTW. Are you the erudite Maxwell from the defunct Truthdig?
If so, welcome back Max.
Yes.
Maxwell, thanks for that simple clarification (and well deserved comments to Eric) 🙂 I reckon you’ll be a real asset to these columns of comments, for a wide variety of reasoning, going forward >>> I was getting a bit bored, due to the levels of trolling and especially controlled opposition, being so ‘Fleißig’, in recent times: but I’m now rather looking forward to hearing more from you and speed reading over the simply childish framed ‘likes’ of others. Matters are rapidly becoming deadly serious. Ask Julian Assange …
There are solutions.
Clearly, not within the framework of Eric’s thought processing.
Boynie’s a good Zionist, that’s all.
How did that ole’ song go ?
Like a puppet on a string …
of Media Ownership. 😉
Politics is a non issue. We should all get out of any left/right ideology mindset and discuss the real issues crucial to our immediate survival. These are:
1 – what is currently going on in terms of covid19
2 – Syria, Iran and geopolitical battles which are likely to resume shortly. And result in WWW3.
Once these have been resolved we can go back to Bernie, Boris and the celebrities etc.
Let’s just add a third item from Chomsky:
3 – Climate change/global warming, or just good ol’-fashioned pollution.
Crucial enough, I’d say.
VENEZUELA
The choice is clear: there is no choice.
Well, that at least will save us the US election bonanza (aka the greatest show on earth), and all the energy that goes into discussing that.
As always, there never was a choice, and it is good to know that Sanders confirms to his supporters, as it will (hopefully finally) dawn on people who think that voting matters: that voting doesn’t matter, and that if you want to change society for the better, you should think of other ways.
There is no choice. Tulsie Gabbard the only candidate before she sold her soul. In the UK there is no one in politics. The sooner people start focusing on non ideology we can save our world from WW3 which is probably imminent.
Once we get past that we can talk politics and talk up the Corbyns, Bernies and Gabbards only to be disappointed…. yet again.
Shouldn’t have been a surprise. Bernie did exactly the same thing in 2016. Led a group of hopeful dissidents off the cliff. Like Trump, his job is Pied Piper.
This will get more complicated soon, because the democrats realize they face a revolt from Bernie supporters who will never vote for Biden. Many of them now I suspect wouldn’t even vote for Bernie, given his complete surrender to the democratic establishment. I have no doubt they have already found their candidate, they just need to work out how to put him in place. Bernie has just made it easier by surrendering to an incoherent rambler who is unable to complete a sentence let alone lead the country. What is embarrassing is how obvious it is that bernie clearly never intended to win, last time around it wasn’t so clear, it looked like he was cheated out of the nomination. But this time it is clear he caved, under almost no pressure at all and refused to put up a fight against the worst presidential candidate in living memory. Like… Read more »
He looks like he was blackmailed. The DNC had leverage over him.
‘Sanders leverage (Wikileaks Podesta email).
This isn’t in keeping w the agreement. Since we clearly have some leverage, would be good to flag this for him.
https://wikileaks.org/podesta-emails/emailid/47397
What Bernie was advocating wasn’t revolutionary, its what I grew up with in post-war Britain. My parents told me that it wasn’t a gift, it was something that was fought for and earned by generations of working people and was likely to be clawed back if people were not careful to defend it. Well, they took if for granted and sure enough its been taken from them, leaving only vestiges of the cradle to grave security that was once taken for granted. Its back to the Good Old Days (only this time in color) with a large segment of the population living hand to mouth existence and an increasing part of the once prosperous middle classes gradually moving towards the abyss. The US — where I’ve been living for some time — has a somewhat different experience because of a lack of the ‘post war consensus’ but the same basic… Read more »
I have no idea your point or what you said. You want Bernie supporters to vote for Biden? Hasn’t this already been done before?
I’ve been voting for 40 years, and none of them were my president. Voting every 4 years for a president of the U.S. is not democracy, and will not get us what we need. Listen to George Carlin. Although dead, he’s the most reasonable voice. His commentary on germs is immediately relevant. And of course his commentary on government, actually all of his commentaries are relevant. Especially right now.
No that is not at all what he was saying.
Never quite understood why politics has to be only two parties, but if you say there are only two sexes nowadays you are pretty much run out of town by every LGBTQI…. in town.
I say: the more sexual choices available, the more political party choices should be available.
If you want a new beginning in America, you need to begin with a new vehicle to acquire power.
You will not get there using either the Democrats or Republicans, because both organisations are controlled lock, stock and barrel by big money.
Sexual orientation is not the same as gender. Lesbians, Gays, bisexuals and transexuals don’t have another gender. They are either men or women.
Glad we got that straightened out.
There are two sides in the world today. There’s the neoliberal globalist establishment and there’s the opposition to it. Ludicrous as he may be, Trump is the only credible opposition. He’s not a politician, he fell out of the sky but he’s all we’ve got.
Bernie was owned by the DNC from the minute he ran for president at the age of 75, a registered independent. A sheepdog for progressives to be handed over to Hillary and Joe. Nothing more.
Trump is not in opposition to the neoliberal, neocon project he is at the heart of it. He gives a good show because he’s a showman, not because he believes in anything. He is the good cop to win the hearts of voters as the rest of the washington elite and the deep state empty their pockets.
Trump has expressed his clear opposition to the Neocon war machine (including war with Russia) and the neoliberal new world order (NAFTA). He has tried to repatriate jobs rather than support the bankster like the Bushes, Clintons and Obamas. He’s the only president since Bush senior with no CIA career in his history.
You quote Trump because in the past when a political said something he believed it, or at least he would be held to it, but those times are gone, meaning it is irrelevant to quote what trump says, he expression his opposition to war as he increased the US military budget to the highest level ever seen in history, giving them more than they asked for.
The military machine is independent of the president. He either feeds it or it bites him.
I think Martin is right on target, right now as a small business person in the small hotel and restaurant business, two months ago named a national historic landmark, we are threatened with potential bankruptcy. But we are not going to let that happen. Yes the system is corrupt, but Nancy Pelosi was able to give 350million to the Kennedy Center which layed off its staff, and I’ve been told the National Endowment for the Arts, both organizations which I love and heartily support, but now she is holding up the Paycheck Protection Program which is geared to companies under 500 employees, because she says that there is not enough data to support that small business is in that much trouble. Mindblowing. And there is talk that she will not bring back Congress until May, so that aid for small businesses under 500 cannot be discussed because she refuses to… Read more »
And he supported nearly all the wars
Two sides?
Yeah.
The exploiters and the exploited.
As long as humans continue to exploit animals for food and materials, we have no hope for social justice on a large scale.
Cross species cannibalism was/is the beginning of humanity’s decline.