Who will the "very fine people" come for next?

I'm scared.

45's response to the incident reported in the article linked below was to tweet out, in all caps no less, his approval (I don't read his tweets but news reports say that he tweeted "I LOVE TEXAS!" in response).

45 is a schoolyard bully, and his supporters are the kids on the playground who cheer the bully on. I have always found this dynamic terrifying, and now it is writ large. Again: 45 is nothing more than a small, mean little bully, and his followers are those who feel powerful when engaging in a mob mentality. This has been what has fueled 45 from the beginning, when he promised to ban all Muslims from entering our country (which was an unconstitutional proposal, and the RNC could have prevented all of this by disqualifying 45 from their primary field in 2016, due to his promise to violate the constitution if elected, but they chose to look the other way, perhaps not taking his candidacy seriously... they should have taken it seriously, as now he is bringing down their party). 45 and his supporters are just like all bullies, small little people fueled by fear, who, again, feel empowered by a mob mentality. It's all about "us and them". They are xenophobic and want to ban everyone who isn't just like them, and build "big, beautiful walls" to keep them out, and take their babies and throw them into cages.

Who will be next? Who will the "very fine people" come for next?
You? Me?

If you haven't voted yet, vote.

Click here to read a HuffPost article from yesterday (10/31/2020), re: Trump Supporters Swarm Biden Campaign Bus on Texas Highway

Thank you, Bernie

Thank you, Bernie

Thank you for being the first political figure in my lifetime who truly represents me, everything I stand for, and everything I dream in my wildest dreams for my country and the world.

Thank you for changing the conversation in this country.

Thank you for giving eloquent, clear and inspiring voice to everything I’ve believed since I was 19 years old and had long since given up on a presidential candidate ever actually fighting for.

Thank you for the validation that came from learning, when I was 19 years old, that the new mayor of Burlington, Vermont was a democratic socialist, just like I had only months earlier realized I was, after discovering it on a college group study trip to Europe. You were the only person in America, let alone the only politician in America, who even knew what I was talking about, let alone shared that world view with me and identified as such.

Thank you for making “single payer healthcare” a kitchen table topic that doesn’t instantly get laughed out of the room.

Thank you for being a true social change activist, and a successful one, dedicating your entire life to effecting social change and trying to bring America to economic and ethical health.

Times may—hell, they do—seem very, very dark right now. It may seem like we will never get to the America you and I, and so many, many others (I know now that there are many of us, thanks to you and our movement), want and understand that we desperately need to get to for the aforementioned economic and ethical health of our country. But you know the old truism: it’s always darkest before the dawn.

Bernie, you have started something that no one can now stop. You have inspired people and gotten people to think, you’ve put ideas out there and sparked people’s imaginations. No one can undo that. And now we go on. Not me, us. From the deepest, most idealistic, imaginative and hopeful depths of my heart and soul, I thank you, Bernie.

"Not me, us!"

Hopeful thought for fellow Berners: no matter what happens in 2020, in 2024, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez will be old enough to be the first woman President. Let that sink in. Think about how much we (Bernie and all of us) have changed the dialog in our country. We have already done that, no one can undo it, and, no matter what, our movement will go forward. Hopefully, we win the nomination and the Presidency in 2020. America desperately needs that. But even if we don't: we have US. We have brilliant, passionate, eloquent young leaders like AOC. And, whether it happens in 2020 or later, one day, our platform will be America's reality.*

( * Unless it's too late by then and we lapse into total fascism and oligarchy, which we're pretty close to at this very moment, but this was supposed to be a hopeful thought/musing! I'm just saying: whether we win or not-so-much this year, in some ways, we truly have already won, because we've really started a movement and, no matter what, it, and we, will GO ON.)

Bernie Exists

I'm sitting here watching the pundits on "Inside Politics", live on CNN right now, attempt to make Bernie invisible. How? Well, they keep showing a poll that has Warren first, Bernie SECOND, and Buttigieg 3rd. Buttigieg is BEHIND Bernie by 1 percentage point. Okay, so bear that in mind when I say:

Jeff Zeleny just said "The primary is shaping up as a race between Warren and Buttigieg."

WHAT? Do you not see Bernie Sanders in that poll you just had up on the screen, in 2nd place? Buttigieg is in third place in that particular poll. So how do you conclude that the primary is now between Warren and Buttigieg?  Then the host echoed that, saying, yes, it really is. And on and on they went.

Do they really think that by not mentioning Bernie, he and WE, will just go away? They tried that strategy with the Fukushima nuclear meltdown and, guess what? It's still epic and it is still going on and it is still news and they still never mention it. Yet they can't make it go away.

I hate to compare Bernie and those of us who support him with a nuclear meltdown, but I'm just saying: not mentioning something or someone does not make that thing or person go away.

The mainstream news media is funded by corporate interests, so I guess they are trying the elementary school playground strategy of pretending they can't hear someone when it comes to Bernie, who is taking on all those monied interests of their sponsors. They see that Bernie is an inspiring, eloquent, authentic leader with a platform that would lead to real change that their corporate sponsors are afraid of, so their strategy in reporting on him as a candidate, and on the yuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuge, inspired, passionate, hopeful groundswell of support he has engendered and enjoyed since 2016 when he first ran, is NOT to. Not to report it. Pretend Bernie, Bernie's campaign, and Bernie's supporters do not exist. The corporate-sponsored, mainstream news media simply covers their ears and says "La la la la la la la, I CAN'T HEAR YOU!"

*shrug* Okay then. Don't report on us. Don't report on Bernie. Put a poll up on the screen and then act like you don't even see who is in second place in said poll that you are supposedly reporting on. We'll still be here when you stop pretending. Just like 45's actions will still be impeachable when Fox News stops pretending. Facts matter.

If you put a poll up on the screen as a topic of discussion, don't leave out the person in second place, and state that the race is now between the person in first place and the person in third place. Surely those of us who are ardent Bernie supporters cannot be your only viewers who are noticing that inaccurate and downright daft reporting. Get it together, CNN. And don't even get me started on how MSNBC covers--and doesn't cover--Bernie. Come on, guys.

Stop saying that Bernie "yells", or I'm going to yell.

I feel so bad for Bernie, having a sore throat last night going into what was arguably the most important Democratic 2020 presidential candidates debate so far, as it was the first debate with all the major candidates on one stage, and also it was on regular, broadcast television. I know most of us have cable in 2019, but believe it or not, some people do not. This was the first televised debate of the 2020 Presidential campaign for all those people—their first chance to see the candidates and hear them argue for their platforms and vision for America. What a night for Bernie, the candidate with THE platform and vision for America, to lose his voice! But, bless him, bless him, bless him, he soldiered through it admirably.

Still, from the git-go, when I heard his voice, I thought, and worried, and still worry: uh oh, NO, not tonight! What is wrong with his voice? And will people understand that isn’t his regular voice? He literally wasn’t in full voice last night—yet he still, to use a baseball pitching term, had his “good stuff” in terms of his arguments, his substance. He has it all over the other candidates on that and always has. He set the table for the Democratic candidates’ platforms in 2020 and they just all walked to the table and sat down, eating from the idea and vision food he laid out for them.

Yet his voice was hoarse and somehow the camera angle and lighting also made his eyes seem a tad darty and wild, so all in all, I worry that the American people, who, honestly, are kind of a superficial lot in terms of what they go for in a Presidential candidate (and I say “they”, as I myself, though also an American, am the opposite: I read the small print on the ingredients label, and ignore the shiny packaging and branding on front), may have judged him harshly somehow based on his voice last night.

That said, though I’m at work and busy and thus haven’t had time to read much post-debate news, opinion, spin and chatter this morning, it seems that Bernie’s sore/hoarse throat is a topic and is, correctly, being characterized as such: a sore or hoarse throat. So, thank goodness, people get it. They understand it was a sore throat and not his regular voice!

That’s the good news, but the bad is, in the little bit I’ve had time to read thus far, people are joking, yet not joking, that it is because of all the “yelling” he does. I swear, if I have to hear one more person say that Bernie “yells”, I’m going to lose my rhymes-with-pit. He actually does NOT often even raise his voice. Biden, for example, has a much more wound-up debate style, and Warren—fuggedaboutit, she is amped up and wired for sound, baby. And what about Castro last night, he practically had to be restrained. Yet people constantly misinterpret Bernie as, quote, “yelling”.

I think people think anyone with a thick New York accent is “yelling”. I think people think anyone Jewish is “yelling”. It’s like, people who only eat Wonderbread, if they taste rye, they probably think it is a very strong bread. If they only eat vanilla ice cream, and they get a taste of mint chip or coffee, they think, wuuuu, that’s some strong stuff!

Interestingly, sociologically, politically and psychologically, I don’t think it is that Bernie yells a lot (because he does not). I think it is that he is talking about real change, and that scares people. That jars people. So they translate that in their brains to “he’s yelling—why is he yelling?”

Bernie doesn’t yell. Not very often anyway. I submit to you that he doesn’t “yell” as often as many of the other candidates up on that podium last night tend to. He normally speaks clearly, thoughtfully, never condescendingly, always like that favorite teacher who assumes you are intelligent enough to hear the whole, complex, nuanced, substantive, detailed truth and keep up. Yes, he’s passionate. Passion isn’t the same as “yelling”. Even that time, in the prior debate, when another candidate was saying something about how he couldn’t guarantee such-and-such would happen or wouldn’t happen under his particular (single payer, woot!) “Medicare for All” plan, and Bernie said, yes I can, “I wrote the damn bill!”, he didn’t yell. He said that very passionately but he wasn’t yelling.

I feel like this “Bernie yells” false narrative is strikingly similar to when Howard Dean was taken down for literally NOTHING when he emitted a slight little exuberant “Yeah!” at a high point of campaigning. That ended his run, basically. It was nothing, and certainly nothing bad. It is amazing how something that is literally nothing can take a candidate down, so I’m here to nip this “Bernie yells” nonsense in the bud. Just stop it. Or I’m going to yell at you. I’d be scared of THAT if I were you. Because I can unleash some fire and fury when I want to, kids. So lay off all the false narratives about Bernie and stick to substance. Which, by the way, he will wipe the floor with anyone who tries to mischaracterize him on. And they know it. So they are going with the “yelling”. That’s all they have. And it’s not even real.

Network News Media Not Talking about Bernie

I notice consistently that the news networks don't talk about Bernie or his policies when they discuss the 2020 election. I'm hearing a lot about some of the other candidates and which ones appeal to voters, etc., but evidently they think that by never mentioning Bernie, they will be able to marginalize his candidacy. Think again.

Right now, on CNN State of the Union, they're talking about Biden, Buttegieg, Harris, ...not hearing mention of Bernie.

It's by design. And again, it is not going to work. You can't make something go away by not mentioning its name (trust me, I am trying that by never saying the name of our current POTUS, yet he's still there). Bernie and his policies are a movement, not one person. You may be able to ignore him and not give him any mention or air time, but you can't ignore all of US.