America's Last Chance: The 2016 Presidential Campaign of Bernie Sanders
Electing Bernie Sanders is America's last chance to redeem herself, to confront the Oligarchy that President Carter and so many others have warned about, to shut down the crime syndicates of GoldmanSachs and CitiGroup, of Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America, to put an end to the greed and lawlessness of the corporate establishment, to break the entrenched power of the degenerate political establishment.
William Burroughs . . .
Millions of young people are fed up with shallow unworthy authority running on a platform of bullshit.
Bernie can win this, he can win this because Hillary is running on a platform of bullshit. He can win this because millions of Americans young and old are fed up with the posturing of shallow politicians like Hillary Rodham Clinton, they’re fed up with the conceit and corruption of unworthy leaders like Hillary Rodham Clinton, they’re fed up with the militarism of war machine hacks like Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Bernie is shattering the myth of upward mobility, the myth of "Democratic Party" support for working people, The Myth of American Exceptionalism . . .
Declarations of American exceptionalism rest on the belief that the United States is a uniquely virtuous nation, one that loves peace, nurtures liberty, respects human rights, and embraces the rule of law. Americans like to think their country behaves much better than other states do, and certainly better than other great powers.
If only it were true.
It never has been true, but over the last two centuries, prominent Americans have described the United States as an “empire of liberty,” a “shining city on a hill,” the “last best hope of Earth,” the “leader of the free world,” and the “indispensable nation.” These enduring tropes explain why all presidential candidates feel compelled to offer ritualistic paeans to America’s greatness.
But Bernie doesn't feel compelled to do that.
It's called integrity.
Bernie is offering the truth, he's the only presidential candidate with the moral courage to tell the American people the truth, he's telling it because it must be told, he's telling it in the final primary states, he's telling it across California, he's going to tell it at the convention and all the way to Election Day.
He knows American Exceptionalism is an illusion.
He knows too many people in this country who call themselves Christians don't even remotely resemble Christians.
America says she talks to angels, but the angels have turned away in disgust . . .
[video:https://youtu.be/M79d6WWEcNE width:500 height:333]
She keeps a lock of hair in her pocket,
She wears a cross around her neck.
Generations of enslaved Africans saw America parading around with that cross, Native American victims of genocide saw America marching across the Great Plains with that cross, the villagers of the conquered Philippines saw the same hypocrisy, the doomed men, women, and children of Hiroshima and Nagasaki saw the same hypocrisy, bombed and napalmed Vietnamese saw it, the tortured prisoners of Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo saw it, the human targets of the Predator drones and Reaper drones of this "Christian nation" are seeing it. Hillary waved it in the faces of Honduran immigrant children, then sent them back to be killed.
Let that be a lesson to them for hoping to breathe the sacred air of this uniquely virtuous nation.
She paints her eyes as black as night now, pulls those shades down tight.
Secrecy Is a Cancer On Our Democracy
We are increasingly becoming a society of secret laws, which corrupts not only the democratic legislative process but also the open judiciary that is so crucial in a democratic society. Examples include the secret FISA Court extending its reach into interpretive constitutional rulings, and the Justice Department refusing to reveal how it is interpreting and carrying out numerous laws, including those involving Patriot Act surveillance, the war powers used to order drone strikes against American citizens, and GPS and other location-tracking technology.
Hillary loves secrecy.
She loves secrecy like the Pentagon loves trillion dollar budgets.
They never mention the word addiction. . . .
The United States spends nearly as much on military hardware, fixture and training as all other countries combined. The U.S. is a warfare state. It’s addicted to militarism, its addicted to war spending and it’s addicted to war profits.
Yeah, she gives us a smile when the pain comes . . .
The pain gonna make everything alright.
Oh yeah there’s a smile when the pain comes,
Pain’s gonna make everything alright.
Pain. The rich keep inflicting it and the rest of us keep feeling it.
It's an awesome strategy for economic recovery.
Works every time.
Chronic Unemployment and Poverty . . .
Poverty continues to grip over 46 million Americans, large numbers of adults and out of school youth in the United States are chronically unemployed. Few of them are counted in formal unemployment statistics because they are no longer, or never were, sufficiently connected to the labor force to be counted in those statistics. The U.S. is being split into a collection of islands for the rich and a vast land mass for the poor.
Enough. Is. Enough.
Bernie is campaigning his heart out for us. He's 74-years-old, but he's traveled all across America, under her endless skyway, through her golden valleys, across her diamond deserts, through the wheat fields waving and the dust clouds rolling, on ribbons of highway into every state, speaking truth to power every mile of the way.
Why?
This is why . . .
[video:https://youtu.be/zRJbV_thi3k width:500 height:333]
Comments
It will break my heart...
if this country misses this opportunity to elect an honorable President.
mine too, beautifully written Rusty 1776 ...
we so much need a break from the last I don't know how many years, for me it were only 20 years plus. Before that I didn't understand anything. I am glad to watch what is said here and seeps out to the surface. It's fertile.
https://www.euronews.com/live
Mine as well.
It's been a long, dark night for so many of us, it's time to elect Bernie and leave the darkness behind us.
Thank you, mimi.
Reminds me of that Paul McCartney song “Hope of Deliverance”
We live in hope of deliverance
Hope of deliverance
Hope of deliverance
From the darkness that surrounds us
They're both great tunes.
I was able to see McCartney in concert last summer, I won't ever forget that experience.
Hope of deliverance
Was Humpty Dumpty pushed?
There it is!
Thank you, snoopydawg.
yes, beautifully.
And fertile.
the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.
I know the feeling, whyvee.
Bernie should run with Jill Stein for the Green Party if he doesn't get the Democratic nomination.
Absolutely! I only hope they are...
...already discussing this excellent possibility. It would be a quadruple winner: good for Bernie, good for Jill. good for the Greens, good for building the third party, and most of all-- good for us.
I think the odds are pretty good that it would happen
if Her Inevitableness gets anointed at the convention.
I hope so.
"I’m a human being, first and foremost, and as such I’m for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.” —Malcolm X
I would hope...
After all the fraud, bias, etc... And I believe 100% that if he chose to do so, he'd win!
I wouldn't frame it as a missed opportunity--
More like somebody stabbing you in the back and taking your wallet.
I can't know, of course, because the beauty of election fraud and voter purges is that you can never know what the real outcome would have been; but my instinct tells me that since March 15, Hillary has increasingly relied on voter purges and election fraud to produce the wins she's got, and decrease Bernie's leads even in states where he won, so his delegate yield would be less. There's evidence of that in AZ, NY that can't be denied. There's less conclusive evidence of it in places like PA, KY, OH, and MO.
And the exit polls, which have been extremely accurate for Republican races, have been astronomically out of line for the Democratic primary, for a while now--this man has a very good analysis: https://richardcharnin.wordpress.com/tag/mathematical-proof-of-election-...
So if Bernie doesn't manage to get the nomination, I'm not sure "missed opportunity" is the right frame. I'm pushing back on this one, because increasingly, in the Democratic party and on the left generally, the voters are blamed for horrible election results, based on the assumption that the results are an uncomplicated mirror of voter intentions and actions.
Just saying that assumption may not be sound.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
I wouldn't frame it as a missed opportunity--
You express my greatest fear -- the massive election fraud and voter suppression that has gone on throughout these primaries. And it's all been gotten away .... the Justice Dept. should have been all over this. HC said, "I will be the nominee ....... There's no way I won't be! She also switched gears from New Jersey to jump into California. Governor Brown announced his support of her. We can't be at all sure of what may or may not be done.
The massive election fraud and voter suppression is a farce and a complete fraud on the American people, whose tax-paying dollars pay for these primaries. Worse, it has made a mockery of those souls who stood in long lines for hours on end to wind up being told they couldn't vote, others being told the machines were down, the machines flipping their votes from Bernie to Hillary, the purging of registered voters, voters having changed their registrations for Democrat in order to vote for Bernie, then told at the polls their registrations did not reflect that (they had reversed them) and reducing Bernie's votes by thousands and then tacking the reducing number onto HC's votes.... I could go on and on about the myriad of ways in which the American voters were had. Voting is the last tinge of anything that even resembles democracy and that has been and is being tampered with, interfered with and obstructed. There should be massive outrage! Had it not been for all this fraud, I really believe that Bernie would have been way ahead long before now!
Preach it Rusty.
Of the three, Bernie is truly the only adult in the room.
The current working assumption appears to be that our Shroedinger's Cat system is still alive. But what if we all suspect it's not, and the real problem is we just can't bring ourselves to open the box?
It's great to see veterans of Docudharma here.
We're all going to preach it, my friend.
Tahoebasha...
registered a couple of days ago as TahoeStill, when she pops in you'll know.
That's great news.
When Tahoe is on a website, she isn't shy about stating her point of view.
She's had to straighten me out more than once.
Thanks, JtC.
That's great news.
It's good that you understand that, Rusty1776. Hopefully, I'll be spared of the task of needing to straighten you out multiple times yet! Grrrr!
#I'mWithTahoe
That should save me.
#I'mWithTahoe
A guarantee NOT!
#I'mWithTahoe
You'll have to watch it, you know ... can you live up to that?
~~~~~~
Wonderful diary. I am so worried about the election fraud. Bernie is the most decent, hard-working, ..... I could go on and on .....! I think I'm having some sort of meltdown .. can't seem to watch him speak, or look at an ad without tears welling up ... here is this honest, decent man who has been treated like so much garbage and still he remains committed and STRONG. He is EVERYTHING we need.
Tahoebasha ... JtC
Who dat?
Tahoebasha?
just one of my favorite bloggers of all time, that's all. Glad you finally made it here, Tahoe!
Tahoebasha?
So very nice of you, JTC!
Are you breathing?
then you have a chance.
FDR 9-23-33, "If we cannot do this one way, we will do it another way. But do it we will.
I try to breathe as often as I can.
[video:https://youtu.be/dUXmyMayAgc width:500 height:333]
always knocked out by the beautiy and truth of some songs/ nt
https://www.euronews.com/live
That song has been one of my favorites for years.
If you haven't seen this yet, you need to see it . . .
[video:https://youtu.be/B72Iiu2bIyo width:500 height:333]
oh yes, he gets it - and millions of people who have been
denied an upbringing and education unburdened by poverty, violence and debt get it too.
I think it's a moral obligation to give Sanders a chance to win and try to change this country with our support.
https://www.euronews.com/live
Fantastic Ad!
N/T
It is.
A very powerful story.
yep, Bernie definitely does get it.
great ad. I like these ads that tell someone's story. The more we learn about each other, the more we realize we how much we have in common. Perhaps not a prison experience, but we've all been beat down to one extent or the other.
Never be deceived that the rich will allow you to vote away their wealth.-Lucy Parsons
Bernie should be winning this
And he would if the elections in this country were run fairly. I don't think it's a fair election when one candidate buys the support of 33 delegates a year before she declared running for president, even though we knew she was going to.
And there have been too many voting irregularities happening where the exit polling doesn't add up to the votes.
Not to mention Bill's shenanigans in Michigan where he went to 4 pro Bernie voting places. Or when the chairman of the Nevada caucuses changed the rules when people voted it down
And you're right that this is possibly the last chance this country has to turn around. And that's why they are cheating him out of a fair elections.
Sad that an outside group might have to monitor US elections.
Was Humpty Dumpty pushed?
I think he actually is. But there's been so much crap pulled
behind the scenes that Hillary "officially" has "more votes".
yep. n/t
the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.
That DWS and her
powers that be would deny America this moment borders on criminal.
the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.
Yes it does.
In fact they've probably crossed the line into criminal actions.
There will be more chances!
This is a good one, though, so let's not waste it!
“When there's no fight over programme, the election becomes a casting exercise. Trump's win is the unstoppable consequence of this situation.” - Jean-Luc Melanchon
Maybe.
But we need to win this one. Some of us are getting a little older and won't be around for the next chance.
Never say never Rusty1776
There really is no last chance it's a process. May end up being a real nasty breakdown of the duopoly that has us in it's vice grip but the seeds are planted and seem to be sprouting in fertile soil. This blood sucking vampire squid will get pried off one way or another. This I know. these fuckers always go too far and humanity always ends up having to stop their madness. So take heart even if Bernie loses according to the rigged system we the people globally will win this thing. It's the beginning not the end. Us not me. Solidarity of the people globally is needed and people can and do take these fuckers down when it gets to this level of inhumanity and destructiveness to humans and the planet.
Heh.
I'll pass that along to Randy.
good idea, Roddy!
Randy needs to know about it!
But seriously....should Bernie not get the nomination, should either Hills or Trumpolini win the election...
We keep fighting
Randy and Roddy have good ideas all the time.
I hardly ever do, and if I have one I forget it right away.
Damn right we keep fighting.
Thank you for the chuckle and the video, Shahryar.
Hang in there, Rudy
"I’m a human being, first and foremost, and as such I’m for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.” —Malcolm X
ROFL
I'll be Ringo . . . or God only knows who else by the time this thread goes to the great caucus99 archives in the sky.
Fixed it Rusty
But you should pass it along to Randy too. Along with your rousing essay. Thanks.
Thank you, shaz.
We had a little fun with it.
So very well written.
The real SparkyGump has passed. It was an honor being your human.
Thank you, SparkyGump.
Hey, SparkyGump
It's great to see you here.
Who is that charming dawg in your picture?
Was Humpty Dumpty pushed?
About New Jersey
All the polls taken in NJ target Democratic likely voters. And yes, these polls look bad. But I just discovered that almost HALF of all registered voters in NJ are independents!
http://ivn.us/2015/01/19/8-states-party-registrations-lags-behind-indepe...
They would not have been included in the Polls.
I know that the NJ primary is supposed to be closed, admitting only Democrats. But independent voters can register as Democrats at the polling place at the time of voting. And the Bernie campaign has ferreted out those independents [it may be a public record, I don't know] and has been sending them periodic emails reminding them to vote and reminding them how to change their registration for the purpose of this primary.
That means that those polls don't mean chit!
[If Bernie were to win NJ, would MSNBC crown him the nominee?]
Life is strong. I'm weak, but Life is strong.
They'd be so shocked they'd go off the air for a day or two.
Maybe they'll do America and the world a favor and
stay off the air.
Even with polling just democrats, those polls
have been steadily narrowing. Didn't the Michigan polls have him down by 18 points days before the election? Last I looked NJ was 14.
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.--Aristotle
If there is no struggle there is no progress.--Frederick Douglass
I think they had Bernie down 22 points in Michigan.
Whatever it was, they were way off.
Well that's interesting.
I win for Bernie in NJ would be Apocalypse Now for Hillary. Combine it with a big win for Bernie in CA and she's toast.
MSNBC
Make Sure News Benefits Clinton? Surely you jest!
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
Bernie will be President for 8 years before MSNBC ever
crowns him the nominee.
The fuckers.
There is a reason why Bernie's supporters just don't get it..
Just don't get that it is time to hang it up, time to realize the math, time to come home to Hillary.
The reason is that we don't want to. Not because we're proud, or deluded, or infantile in our opposition to reality.
No the reason is that we see another reality that we desperately want and desperately need.
Supporters of Bernie are true patriots, because true patriots really love this country, really believe in the Declaration of Independence, really believe in the Bill of Rights, really believe in the sentiments of Lincoln's Gettysburg address.
We refuse to accept the thin gruel of Realpolitik our masters keep serving us.
This is why the revolution will continue. We will vote with our votes, we will vote with our pocketbooks, we will vote with our time and energies. We will not give up our collective vision of a country that has finally overcome racism, finally decided that all people count, finally learned that that no one should die for lack of health care. We reject the worldview of the rich and pampered, the worldview of those who can afford the lawyers needed to interpret the corrupted tapestry of our legal and economic systems.
In other words, we reject Hillary and her friends.
Bernie had vision when he protested with African Americans in the early 60s, when Hillary was a Goldwater girl. He has lived his vision consistently his entire life. He is authentic, not a phony that turns on a dime for an extra buck.
Let's put together a new party, one based on Bernie's principles, our principles, and make his vision our country's reality. If it takes decades, then it will take decades. We will not be ignored, we will not be silenced, we will not eat our thin gruel and ask for more.
"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye." de Saint-Exupery
Very well said, bebimbob.
Thank you for reading my essay and commenting.
asdf
[Video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxAKFlpdcfc]
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
asdf
[Video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxAKFlpdcfc]
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Bernie needs California to boost him over the top
Come on Californians, get yourself and any other Bernie supporters to the polls. We can make the difference, we can give Bernie an edge going into the Convention.
Be a Friend of the Earth, cherish it and protect it.
GO California!
Get it done for Bernie.
America and the world will owe you big time.
Nice essay Rusty. I hate the term American Exceptionalism.
It was coined by Stalin. Interesting how so many, especially on the right, take great pride in 'we're number one' bullshit and a term coined by a butcher. Perhaps Stalin was being sarcastic. We're dead last with the EXCEPTION of being number one in child poverty, infant mortality, early death, inequality, healthcare costs, military spending, and so on. Either Hillary or the Donald will be EXCEPTIONALLY bad presidents, unless Bernie can pull this out. Only in America will be found the most EXCEPTIONALLY bad presidential nominees ever. It's an unprecedented situation and anything can happen.
"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." - JFK | "The more I see of the moneyed peoples, the more I understand the guillotine." - G. B. Shaw Bernie/Tulsi 2020
Yeah, America is exceptional at all the wrong things.
I think we're very close to the point where the shit is going to hit the fan and the political/economic establishment is going to be rocked to its foundations. A solid majority of Americans do not want Trump or Hillary. I don't think they're going to tolerate having a bullshit choice like that shoved down their throats by the PTB.
Thank you, ZimInSeattle. I love that city.
Hear, hear!!
On both counts. Great essay, Rusty 1776!
I absolutely hate the term American Exceptionalism too. It makes it seem as though we think we are the lords and masters of all humanity which is damn arrogant in and of itself. What's worse is that we are trying to live down to that concept by killing people all over the world. Not in my name.
I want a better way and there is only one candidate who is actually articulating a vision towards that end. Bernie! If he is not elected, I do see this as a lost opportunity for humanity.
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
It's off-the-charts conceit.
Bernie is the better way, it's either political revolution or the other kind, and that kind involves huge risks, there's no way to know the ultimate outcome.
Thank you, gulfgal98.
All respect Rusty.
I'm of a different persuasion nowadays but there does seem to be a possibility for some kind of awakening. Following what's happening worldwide with the rightward shift happening in many governments the contrast from Bernie is significant. But I'd hate to see this as a last chance. I've got kids and grandkids, I'll going down fighting for them. I can't accept that a U.S. politician operating in this rigged and corrupt oligarchy is our last chance, I just won't. At best he might be a spur to something bigger, at worst just another failed attempt to crack the system. But it's always going to be up to the people to take charge of their own lives if they want freedom and liberty. And personally, I and many others are not going to follow his lead, we'll follow our own lead. HIs lead is not going nearly far enough.
may be each lead starts with a humble beginning
and can grow to something that goes far enough. You never know, may be ...
https://www.euronews.com/live
I agree, mimi.
I hear what you're saying, Big Al.
I'm all in for Bernie at this point, but I've been saying for ten years that we need to get in the streets and stay in the streets until the corrupt system comes crashing down.
Al, what do you suggest we do to take down
Our corrupt government? I do agree with you that we the people have to be the ones to do, but with this country so divided, I don't see it happening.
Too many people on the right don't think that there's a problem with the military aggressions or what is happening in this country.
There is also too many brain dead people who call themselves the left who are okay with what both Obama and Hillary are doing.
And any organized resistance is going to be met with overwhelming response. That is why they have militarized the police so that there isn't any difference between them and the military. Also remember that Bush authorized one group of the military to be able to fight inside this country, which goes against the Posse Comatitus act.
And Obama has in a recent NDAA that gives the military the power to arrest and lock people up indefinitely without any charges being brought against them. Habeous Corpus was also dismantled and then there's the Patriot Act.
They have long been planning for any uprising of the people in this country where we have decided to take it back.
Was Humpty Dumpty pushed?
Hi snoopy. Well, I think too many people on the left also
have no problem with the military aggressions as evidenced by the lack of people protesting it, or even talking about it. I believe we need to break up the ruling class institutions such as the Federal Reserve (especially the Federal Reserve), the Supreme Court, abolish rule by the rich, establish a new political system, take down the MIC, among other things. Nothing Bernie says comes even close to that and only the very radical left is proposing these things.
As I said in my last essay, all these People's Summit's and People's Revolution and so on, not a word about taking down the power and their institutions that control us. They're all just the same old thing trying to work within the Democratic party to make incremental changes via a completely corrupted and worthless Congress.
To me that's called spinning in place, asking for porridge instead of freedom.
What do I propose? I propose those on the left who are portraying themselves as "revolutionaries" get some guts and go for a real revolution, not this manby pamby Bernie revolution seeking to gain a few more concessions from the ruling class.
I agree with most of this, Big Al.
I think Bernie does too, but he can't say it on the campaign trail. If he gets elected, I think he'd push for more radical change than he's proposed so far, and push hard for it.
A spur to something bigger
I have no doubt of that.
"I’m a human being, first and foremost, and as such I’m for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.” —Malcolm X
... and here I thought it was
$hillary Rob'em Clinton -- guess I must have misread the transcription ...
When Cicero had finished speaking, the people said “How well he spoke”.
When Demosthenes had finished speaking, the people said “Let us march”.
LOL
That's how it will be spelled by future historians when they write about the last days of the Oligarchy in America.
Epic Bernie Sanders San Francisco Rally Could Draw Over 100,000
Supporters before California Vote.
http://www.wallstreetshill.com/epic-bernie-sanders-san-francisco-rally-c...
Fishbone is in the house for it. 100k in GG Park, SF! #Bernie
Dave Matthews too, which is great because he used to play stadiums (though I'm not a fan, but am a great one of his politics).
But Fishbone is absolutely perfect, much more excited about them being there. Wish I could be there for this. That's gonna be a party. Sheer reckless abandon joy combined with stealth musicianship. By far one of the top best live bands I've ever seen in my life.
Great essay Rusty. You speak for me too man!
"If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:
THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED
FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
WAS MUSIC"
- Kurt Vonnegut
I wish I could be there too.
I'll have to keep an eye out for the livestream of it.
Excellent video!
Thank you, MarkfromQueens.
Thank you for this glorious essay. so. evocative
Don't believe everything you think.
Thank you, hester.
I never heard Bernie Sanders denigrate America like you do.
Why don't you go live in the Workers Paradise and genuflect to Putin as so many "Progressives" do?
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
Did you post this in the wrong forum?
Because it seems a wee bit out of place....
Heh
I saw it luna...
violated our DBAA rule and the quoted so called "Progressives" was a giveaway. Action taken.
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