Back In Black: #BernieInQueens Was Magnificent and Stirring. #BerniesBack Alright.

Submitted by Mark from Queens on Sat, 10/19/2019 - 8:07pm

Greeting folks. Haven't been around in a while. But I do peek in as much as possible. Similarly, I haven't been out among The People much at all. Two very small children not only wear you down but limit your interactions, especially at this demanding stage.

I must say right away: this quadrennial circus of presidential that takes up all the air on the room for two years straight now is nauseating on so many levels that I won't even bother to get into because it's so depressing. And like many here I've lost my faith in the corrupt electoral system. Bernie was outright and brazenly cheated by the DNC, who colluded with their minions in the media and party apparatchiks - and the media never touched it.

So I was a bit ambivalent about this rally, just a couple of miles down the road from me. But this piece by Nathan Robinson of Current Affairs, "Why Bernie Has To Win," sort of wrapped up how I was feeling in the moments after learning that he had a heart attack.

When someone has a brush with some serious medical problem, the idea of losing them inevitably flickers into your mind. And when that happens, you realize what they really mean to you, because you can see for a second what the world would look like without them. The sheer terror with which I contemplated a world without Bernie made me realize just how important he is right now.

I am already feeling strange saying this, because I am so grossed out by personality cults, and I hate the idea of lapsing into adulation of a politician, and I’ve always tried to maintain a critical stance on Bernie even if I clearly prefer him as the Democratic candidate. I do not love people I do not know, and I have never met Bernie, so I do not love Bernie.

But I also feel like this candidacy is a once-in-a-lifetime chance to do something incredible, and that if we don’t take it we’ll regret it, and that he knows that, and that he’s willing to destroy himself and shorten his life and give up whatever he might have wanted to do with his twilight years in order to accomplish the most serious political mission of any of our lifetimes. It has to be done, and he knows it. I don’t think he’s particularly glad that it’s fallen on him to do it, but it has. And so he will do it or he will die trying, and the rest of us need to do whatever we can to make sure he doesn’t have to die trying. If he’s willing to kill himself for this, if he’ll fight to the last breath, who are we to talk about the Questions and Doubts about Whether He Can Do It, instead of spending our time making sure that he does do it. Don’t be the person who spent their time watching Bernie and speculating about whether he would hold out.

What is happening right now is that an old man is carrying the most colossal imaginable weight on his shoulders. It is the weight of all of those people you see in that ad, people drowning beneath medical bills and student debt and terrified of climate change and taking care of dying relatives and juggling miserable jobs they work from can’t-see in the morning to can’t-see at night, the people who come up to him and beg him to please please just help them, make it okay, fix this. And you can watch him in that video promising them that he will do everything he can to fix it. And the news that he had a fucking heart attack means we’re learning just what he’ll do to carry out that promise, and when those people hug him and beg him, he knows that it doesn’t matter whether he’d rather be sitting by Lake Champlain with his grandkids instead of crisscrossing Iowa all winter listening to desperate strangers tell him about the worst things that have ever happened to them. He’s got to do it, because there is so much riding on it, and history has put him in a unique position, and if that happens to you then, sorry, you have to do what you’re put on earth to do, and if it kills you, tough luck.

I realize that nobody runs for president out of entirely selfless motives, and there is a phenomenal degree of self-aggrandizement inherent in the belief that one deserves the most powerful office on earth. But someone has to do it, and I think Bernie Sanders has looked at the facts and realized that nobody else can do what he can do.

Robinson opens his piece referring to this Bernie supporter-made video, in order to frame the very real context of media assault, deception and lies of which Bernie is up against:

The point is, and it's remained throughout for me in spite of all that I feel about the sham of politics/the Duopoly/Media Malfeasance, that the philosophies at the core of Bernie's message are almost identical to mine. If I want many of the things that I believe in to be heard then I need to support someone who has the platform to reach people. He's able to reach many, many more millions than we did holding signs, going on unsanctioned marches and challenging the authorities down at Occupy Wall St. As far as I see it he's picked up the torch that Occupy lit, Black Lives Matter carried, which also in many ways resulted in electing a whole bunch of brave, young women in Congress (and others all across the country to smaller local seats) who are cut from the same mold.

The deep and wide lengths to which he's gone, for just one of many examples, to reclaim the idea of socialism, from a moldy propaganda pejorative to an invigorated emblem of pride coursing through the populace (especially the young), is no small or insignificant feat. The fraud of Wall St, our elections being auction houses to the highest bidder, healthcare as a human right not a privilege, abolishing college debt and installing free tuition, etc - that's ALL him. Bernie Sanders carried it all straight into the mainstream.

That's why today I rode my son on a bicycle with me to see this comrade.

And he hit the stage with AC/DC's "Back In Black":

Tags: 
Bernie's Back
Bernie In Queens
Share
up
0 users have voted.

Comments

Submitted by Mark from Queens on Sat, 10/19/2019 - 8:18pm
Mark from Queens's picture

check out the cool paraphernalia, talk freely with strangers who are comrades.

Here’s a pretty good rundown of the significance of today (hesitated at the sight of HuffPost, but the guy really got it).

up
0 users have voted.
—

"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

Submitted by janis b on Sat, 10/19/2019 - 10:10pm
janis b's picture

@Mark from Queens

I enjoyed reading this very much. Nothing like a Bernie rally to renew a sense of hope. Nothing like a sense of ones mortality to put things in perspective.

I say Bernie for Babies! I trust your two enjoyed the buzz as well. This is a great iconic NZ children’s toy …

up
0 users have voted.
Submitted by janis b on Sat, 10/19/2019 - 10:29pm
janis b's picture

@janis b

Didn't mean to 'upstage' with my comment, just hit the wrong place.

up
0 users have voted.
Submitted by Wally on Sat, 10/19/2019 - 8:19pm
Wally's picture

Thank you for putting it all together comrade!

Dare to struggle, dare to juggle!

[video:https://youtu.be/0HbS65oiN18]

up
0 users have voted.
Submitted by Mark from Queens on Sat, 10/19/2019 - 9:38pm
Mark from Queens's picture

@Wally
Got there in the middle of Michael Moore's speech. I'm sure it was probably good. But he confounds me. His heart's always in the right place, but he falls back into centrism too much.

Guess I'll have to watch the video. Which I kind of want to do anyway, given that we could hardly see at all.

up
0 users have voted.
—

"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

Submitted by Lookout on Sun, 10/20/2019 - 8:26am
Lookout's picture

@Mark from Queens

I watched it live and loved the whole thing. Moore's speech was good, but like you I think he runs to the middle too often.

Anyway thanks for your on site commentary and report. Glad to hear the youngster is doing well!

All the best.

up
0 users have voted.
—

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

Submitted by smiley7 on Sat, 10/19/2019 - 8:37pm
smiley7's picture

up
0 users have voted.
Submitted by randtntx on Sat, 10/19/2019 - 8:38pm

Mark from Queens, much appreciated.

up
0 users have voted.
Submitted by Le Frog on Sat, 10/19/2019 - 8:40pm

I loved her speech and I love seeing her on the campaign trail.

up
0 users have voted.
Submitted by Mark from Queens on Sat, 10/19/2019 - 9:47pm
Mark from Queens's picture

@Le Frog
She's fierce. Got in a good implied zinger about Warren sitting it out on the sidelines last time.

Must admit though, it was disappointing though not so surprising that there was so little of a turnout for a rally right at the foot of one of the biggest black housing projects in the country. But as a friend of mine, an activist who lives there and just decided to run for city council, reminds me, black folks are tired of the same old election time promises only to get nothing.

It's the same reason only 40% of the population show up to vote. But none feel more disenfranchised and skeptical than black people.

up
0 users have voted.
—

"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

Submitted by EyeRound on Sat, 10/19/2019 - 8:42pm
EyeRound's picture

What an unbelievably great day! Wonderful compilation from you here.

What did the little one think of the festivities?

up
0 users have voted.
Submitted by Mark from Queens on Sat, 10/19/2019 - 9:57pm
Mark from Queens's picture

@EyeRound
a tree, rolled up my hoodie for a pillow and let him nap. He missed all of Bernie (though he wouldn't have seen him anyway). He did get a glimpse of him afterward when we were leaving.

On the bike ride he would occasionally let out a little chant of "Bernie, Bernie" as we went by people who were also heading there. And of course he was singing one of his favorites, "Power To The People."

He enjoyed the whole experience, was pretty patient when I'd talk to people too.

And to top it off when we came across the table of my friends in Socialist Alternative he chose a button for his jacket that had a picture of the Republican elephant facing the Democratic donkey with the words, "Do not feed the animals."

up
0 users have voted.
—

"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

Submitted by mimi on Sun, 10/20/2019 - 1:37am
mimi's picture

@Mark from Queens @Mark from Queens
and push the right buttons. Thank you for your report, I listened to the whole ralley and eveything I could catch. Your little guy is our hope and future.

Wishing you and your family all the best.

up
0 users have voted.
—

https://www.euronews.com/live

Submitted by snoopydawg on Sat, 10/19/2019 - 8:50pm
snoopydawg's picture

It's in the tweet with the senior citizen calling in. People in the background all look like they've been sunburnt. They did that after his heart attack too. Very bad form C-SPAM you buttheads!

There is no way the DNC should be able to rig it this time. People are watching for it and there will be hell to pay if they do it this time.

The centrist inmates are going to have to put their votes where their mouths are. If you want Trump out of office then get behind Bernie. Quit saying that he hasn't explained how he's going to pay for his plans because he has detailed exactly how he would do that. It's Warbama that can't give a straight answer on how she will pay for her half baked plans that she stool from Bernie.

IMG_3694_1.JPG
up
0 users have voted.
Submitted by UntimelyRippd on Sat, 10/19/2019 - 9:00pm

Sanders weren't a 2016 has-been, past his sell-by date, whose campaign is spiraling into irrelevance!

up
0 users have voted.
—

The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.

Submitted by on the cusp on Sat, 10/19/2019 - 9:47pm

If he gets the nomination, if he beats Trump, you can look back on this day, tell your kids, and they can pass along the family lore to their kids, that you actually participated in history.

up
0 users have voted.
—

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

Submitted by p cook on Sat, 10/19/2019 - 10:00pm

You rock!

I'm on roll here. I have been timed out at the gos.

I have been ignored here on another diary. But I know you are cool so here goes...

This is Know-Nothing website...

I am challenging you-all. We are not cancer victims. Cancer grows in a suitable environment. This has been established by many (Marc Sircus establishes this many times over, for one...). Do your homework people; I don't want to talk to morons dependent on the nonsensical medical system we have here in this country. I will say it again, "Do your f'n homework regarding your health". Otherwise shut up about healthcare. If you are going to talk about cancer research, pink ribbons, mammagrams; then f you. Unbelievable. Think people. If you are still against my message at this point; just go away; you are not a free-thinker.

Take control of your lives! You don't need universal health-care! It would be nice and I am all for it. But f'n a, do you homework. I start my day reading Joseph Mercola and his daily words of wisdom! F'n A!

up
0 users have voted.
Submitted by p cook on Sat, 10/19/2019 - 10:05pm

@p cook But what is more important than your health? In Edg diary I go into source material. Please utilize it. Human health is fascinating. We need to integrate it (a daily read with backup) into our lives. Am I crazy? I know I'm not.think of your children. My nephews love me because of this...

up
0 users have voted.
Submitted by p cook on Sat, 10/19/2019 - 10:10pm

@p cook Promise!

up
0 users have voted.
Submitted by p cook on Sat, 10/19/2019 - 10:14pm

@p cook LOL!!

or for that matter

ADA approved!! LOL!!

those bastards...

up
0 users have voted.
Submitted by JtC on Sat, 10/19/2019 - 10:20pm

@p cook
I suggest you refrain from the "moron" and "know-nothing" aspersions. Myself and others are showing measured restraint, please reciprocate.

up
0 users have voted.
Submitted by snoopydawg on Sat, 10/19/2019 - 10:47pm
snoopydawg's picture

@p cook

. Then you know how uncool it is to spam an essay with something off topic. If you did this over there you'd be timed out. I don't appreciate the insults.

up
0 users have voted.
Submitted by earthling1 on Sat, 10/19/2019 - 10:42pm
earthling1's picture

Been watching for your view from your backyard.
Great job.
And thanks for sharing it here.

up
0 users have voted.
—

Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.

Submitted by snoopydawg on Sat, 10/19/2019 - 11:24pm
snoopydawg's picture

200,000 people were kicked off the voting rolls

This is a great article that talks about how it's possible that Hillary did not win the NYC primary. And it goes into detail on how the exit polls did not match up with the vote tallies. And how when Bernie attracted 25,000 plus people to his rallies, Hillary only got 1,300. This is supposed to have been fixed, but... does anyone trust the DNC not to do it again? Or in other states?

In the wake of election fraud allegations in more than a dozen presidential primary races that cycle, some Democrats were on high alert. Sanders supporters in particular used Twitter, Instagram and Facebook to update and advise voters ahead of each state primary. Triggering their alarm were bizarre inconsistencies in a string of primary results. At least 12 exit polls conducted in March and early April by Edison Research had projected Sanders’ votes significantly higher than his final counts – beyond the margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points that is typical of Edison’s state exit polls. The greatest discrepancies stacked in Clinton’s favor occurred in Massachusetts (which was 8 percentage points higher for Clinton in the final result than the exit polls showed), Tennessee (+8.3 percent), Texas (+9.3 percent), Mississippi (+9.9 percent), Ohio (+10 percent), South Carolina (+10.3 percent), Georgia (+12.2 percent) and Alabama (+14 percent).

In stark contrast, exit polls in every GOP race but two were spot on – even though Edison had deployed the same interviewers, the same methodologies, on the same days, at the same locations, for Democratic contests in all but three states (that held primaries on separate days). Illustrative of disparities, the exit polls in Massachusetts that hit the bull’s eye with all six GOP candidates’ tallies, meanwhile predicted a Sanders win by 6.6 percentage points that went instead to Clinton by 1.4 points, an 8-point discrepancy.

Lots more details in the article.

up
0 users have voted.
Submitted by on the cusp on Sat, 10/19/2019 - 11:39pm

will put her on the ballot.

up
0 users have voted.
—

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

Submitted by snoopydawg on Sun, 10/20/2019 - 12:34am
snoopydawg's picture

Bernie's rally was discussed on ToP and after saying that his crowd size was bigger than Warbama's or Kambama's it went downhill from there.

However, the campaign is going to face some significant hurdles in the future. One challenge is how to reverse Bernie’s stagnant numbers in the polls specifically in key states like Iowa. The campaign is well funded, but money will only go so far if your appeal is not resonating with those voters.

Remember that polls aren't that important this far out from the first primary. Except now they are cuz of reasons.

First comment was about how exciting and lots of other kudos. Oh who am I kidding? It was "how did it compare to a Trump rally?"

Next lots of concern trolling for Bernie's health and in case no one knew he had a heart attack recently. Then some comments on how people in NYC are mad at AOC for killing the Amazon deal...Same person.

But this takes ToP prize:

Once again, crowd is 99% white, even in Queens, the most diverse borough in NYC! So, no, you’re not gonna win.

up
0 users have voted.
Submitted by jbob on Sun, 10/20/2019 - 4:08am

@snoopydawg Free your mind and stop clicking on that site.

up
0 users have voted.
Submitted by Creosote. on Sun, 10/20/2019 - 10:58pm
Creosote.'s picture

@jbob
SN's writing is among the strongest and most articulate here. A person like that visits ToP to take its temperature because it represents a large gathering of the perversely hypnotized.

up
0 users have voted.
Submitted by jbob on Tue, 10/22/2019 - 4:05am

@Creosote. They are now a very small subset of the voting population. Trapped in the echo chamber of TOP they hate on any who disagree with the group. The old days of that site having a large impact are now in the past.

up
0 users have voted.
Submitted by Creosote. on Tue, 10/22/2019 - 4:59am
Creosote.'s picture

@jbob
Now they just send me junk mail and requests for money.

up
0 users have voted.
Submitted by Wally on Sun, 10/20/2019 - 7:45am
Wally's picture

@snoopydawg

If not, they're slipping.

up
0 users have voted.
Submitted by Lily O Lady on Sun, 10/20/2019 - 8:20am
Lily O Lady's picture

@Wally

up
0 users have voted.
—

"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"

Submitted by Dr. John Carpenter on Sun, 10/20/2019 - 8:58am

@snoopydawg But a serious question, what’s TOP’s demographics?

up
0 users have voted.
—

Idolizing a politician is like believing the stripper really likes you.

Submitted by wendy davis on Sun, 10/20/2019 - 7:07am
wendy davis's picture

25,000+ people? formidable!

nice to see you, mark; best to you and your family.

up
0 users have voted.