Bernie Sanders and the Rising of We the People

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Saturday January 30, 2016 · 1:58 PM PST

2016/01/30 · 13:58

I’ve seen 30 years of Democratic establishment contempt for progressives, I’ve seen their seven stages of reactionary attacks too many times, I’ve seen the condescension and the slander and the scorched earth, I’ve heard their lectures about loyalty, I’ve heard their demands for support while progressive values burn in the bonfires of the Beltway and the Four Horsemen of Triangulation saddle up for yet another nationwide ride.

I’ve seen all I need to see from them and heard all I need to hear.

Yes, louder clappers for Hillary the Inevitable, this is a BERNIE diary.

I’m posting this because he’s telling the truth about the crimes of Wall Street, because he's telling the truth about corporate capitalism, because he’s telling the truth about America's corrupt political and economic and banking and media systems. He's receiving record contributions from average Americans because they know this is no longer a democracy, because corporate politicians do not represent them, because corporate politicians spend more on prisons than they do on schools, because corruption is off the charts and Wall Street is overdosing on greed and the only answer they have for the complex problems of the world is more fear-mongering and more boots on the ground everywhere and more blood money for the Pentagon and more flag waving in the twilight’s last gleaming and more weaponry for their militarized police.

I’ve seen Hillary push the corporate agenda of the Establishment too many times, I’ve seen too many diarists here pretending it never happened, I've heard all the excuses made for her, I’ve heard all the convoluted explanations about it, I've seen all the Hillary diary smoke and all the Hillary diary mirrors and all the pious claims that she’s a credible progressive candidate.

Yes. Hillary’s a progressive. And Armando is a ballerina.

Spare me the epistles about Hillary’s “experience”, spare me the parables about her “electability”, spare me the platitudes about a woman in the White House, spare me the sermons about scary socialist socialism, spare me the huffing and puffing about Dkos traffic going down because of Bernie diary/comment “ugliness”.

If you want to see what ugliness is, take a look at Wall Street greed, take a look at that Trans-Pacific Partnership Hillary was so proud of for so long, take a look at the violence ripping the Middle East apart because Democrats like Hillary hopped aboard Bush’s Warmonger Train instead of speaking out at the protests, take a look at her surrogates trotting onto national television with Karl Rove’s playbook in their hands.

The fingers of those corporate politicians are always on the trigger, they fire their Wall Street lies and reload, fire and reload, fire and reload. If you're a progressive you're a target, if you speak truth to power you're a target, if you want a living wage you're a target, if you’re against “free trade” you're a target, if you try to organize a union you're a target, if you support single-payer you're a target.

These Americans are tired of being targets . . .

Enough.

Is.

Enough.

YouTube Video

This is the rising of We the People against corporate politicians who reward the powerful and punish the powerless, against bankers who regulate Congress instead of Congress regulating them, against police who kill whoever they damn well feel like killing and call it law enforcement, against corporate media hacks who recite plutocrat talking points and call it journalism, against corrupt judges who fill America's prisons with the poor and call it justice.

Stand with Bernie.

Redeem America.

Win this election with us . . .

YouTube Video

Political Revolution Nationwide: The Rise of Bernie Sanders

JusticeSeeker68

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Thursday September 10, 2015 · 7:03 PM PDT

2015/09/10 · 19:03

We don't see real hearings in Congress, we see ceremonies of manipulation. We don't see effective legislating, we see the rigid enactment of corporate agendas. We don't see real journalism, we see the propaganda of the billionaires and the bankers and the big businessmen. We don't hear logic or reason or common sense from establishment politicians, we hear nothing but DoubleSpeak.

This is democracy?

An entire nation has been degraded by a corrupt political system, an entire economy
has been savaged by corporate greed, entire generations have been betrayed by establishment politicians and establishment economists and establishment judges and establishment generals.

What are the high and the mighty finally seeing because of their conceit and their corruption and their cruelty and their crimes?

A political revolution.

Coast to coast.

That's what they're seeing.

Arit John . . .

Ever since the crowds started showing up, Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders has made a point of saying that the media has no idea why Americans want to join the political revolution.
How does that happen? How come you’re generating so much excitement and enthusiasm?” Sanders told his audience, imitating a befuddled political reporter. “And the answer to that is that the American people, in my view, are sick and tired of establishment politics, they are sick and tired of establishment economics, they are sick and tired of establishment media.”

We are sick and tired of being abused and deceived and betrayed. We know we're sick and tired of it, Bernie knows we're sick and tired of it, and when the primaries begin the whole world is going to know we're sick and tired of it. Read More

The Fiery Authenticity of Bernie Sanders

JusticeSeeker68

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Monday August 17, 2015 · 5:37 PM PDT

2015/08/17 · 17:37

There are warning signs on the road ahead. Warning signs for Wall Street, warning signs for the warmongers and polluters and shock doctrine capitalists, warning signs for the billionaires and the bigots and the bankers, warning signs for the corrupt corporations and killer cops and clueless conservatives who call themselves Christians.

WARNING . . .

THE REVOLUTION STARTS NOW.

CNN . . .

The summer of Sanders is heating up. In just the past week, 28,000 people showed up to see Bernie Sanders in Portland, Oregon, including about 9,000 people who were content to watch the Vermont senator on giant screens in the overflow area. Another 28,000 people joined him in Los Angeles. All told, Sanders has brought his brand of populism to 100,000 people at rallies and other events since July.

The revolution starts now,
When you rise above your fear,
And tear the walls around you down,
The revolution starts here.

Because five lunatics on the Supreme Court is five too many, because we need a War on Wall Street not a War on Women, because police keep killing Blacks and keep high-fiving each other for it, because Chelsea Manning is in prison and Dick Cheney isn't, because our infrastructure is decaying and the middle class is disappearing and democracy is dying and the polar icecaps are melting.

Ben Wolfgang . . .

There are several reasons behind Mr. Sanders‘ exploding popularity. The main factor is that he’s spent his 25 years in Congress building a reputation as a fierce left-wing warrior and, at this point, has more credibility among liberals than any other candidate in the race. There’s a sense that his supporters have — here’s this guy, he’s very smart, he really can be quite eloquent when talking about these issues, and he’s been fighting these battles for a long time. People see it as a fiery authenticity.

Last night I had a dream,
That the world had turned around,
And all our hopes had come to be,
And the people gathered 'round . . .

We the People have news for GoldmanSachs, we have news for CitiGroup, we have news for Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America . . .

Occupy Wall Street was just a preview of coming attractions.

JusticeSeeker68

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Wednesday July 29, 2015 · 4:37 PM PDT

2015/07/29 · 16:37

Some people here are worried about zealotry? They aren't going to find much of it in Bernie diaries. The zealotry they need to worry about is the zealotry on Wall Street, that's what's getting out of hand. The zealotry of NSA spies is what's getting out of hand, the zealotry of racist police is what's getting out of hand, the zealotry of billionaires destroying what's left of our democracy is what's getting out of hand.

Bernie Sanders is running for president because corruption dictates who is heard and who isn't, who has influence and who doesn't, who has power and who has none. He's running for president because corporate politicians don't speak for us, they speak for those who exploit us, he's running for president because they don't work for us, they work for those who abuse us. He's running for president because corruption infests the corridors of power, it infests the broadcast studios of the corporate propaganda machine, it infests the boardrooms and corporate offices and stock exchanges of the damned.

The fingers of those zealots of corruption are always on the trigger, they fire their lies and reload, fire and reload, fire and reload. If you're a progressive you're a target, if you speak truth to power you're a target, if you want a living wage you're a target, if you try to register low income voters you're a target, if you try to organize a union you're a target, if you warn about climate change you're a target.

These people are tired of being targets . . .

The corporate politicians no longer see Americans like them, they no longer see Americans like you and me, they don't listen to us, they don't give a damn about us. They’re blind and corrupted, we’re just shadows to them with no faces or names, but the poor and the hungry, the abused and exploited, the writers of history know who we are. We are the People, we are the Future, we are Redemption, that is our name.

JusticeSeeker68

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Thursday July 16, 2015 · 7:05 PM PDT

2015/07/16 · 19:05

Why is Bernie Sanders drawing huge crowds all across America?

It's a sin that somehow,
Light is changing to shadow,
And casting a shroud,
Over all we have known.

That's why.

Frustration and anger about inequality . . .

Bernie Sanders: "The American people understand that it is grotesquely unfair – we are a society that prides itself on fairness, that prides itself on equal opportunity, and people are looking out and seeing, since the Great Recession of 2008, 99 percent of all new income going to the top 1 percent. It’s leading to a lot of frustration and anger, and people want some fundamental changes to the way we do economics and growth."

There was plenty of frustration and anger in 2008, Americans wanted fundamental change, so they elected Barack Obama and handed Democrats huge majorities in the House and Senate. We all know how that turned out.

A terrible mistake . . .

Bernie Sanders: "In many respects, the president was not strong enough on many issues. For example, he’s wrong on the trade issue, dead wrong. Also, the president made a mistake, that after his brilliant campaign of 2008, he essentially said to his most motivated supporters, thanks very much for electing me, but I’ll go from here on my own. I’ll sit down and negotiate with Boehner and Mitch McConnell and I really don’t need you anymore. Terrible mistake. Because the only way forward, to bring forth a progressive agenda, is to have the American people mobilized."

No more turning away,
From the weak and the weary.

The Democratic party didn't rise to greatness by turning away from the weak and the weary, it rose to greatness by defending the weak and the weary, it rose to greatness by helping them up when they fell.

You know that.

I know that.

Bernie Sanders knows that.

But too many Democrats can't seem to remember that.

OR DON'T WANT TO.

And we've been rewarding them by reelecting them anyway.

But that's not the only mistake we've made.

How political revolutions begin . . .

One of the things progressives often get wrong has to do with how fundamental change comes about. The standard reasoning is that people are stirred when they hit the bottom of the bottom—a condition of diminished expectations.
But it is amid rising expectations, not falling, that people are most likely to exert themselves in pursuit of authentic change. The key to this truth lies in a people’s consciousness of themselves. It is when they get some worthy things done, and so realize the power they possess, that they use it to effect change with true dedication.

We've found the key.

It's in our hands.

And we're using it . .

Suddenly, the expectations of many millions are rising. The gay marriage and health care decisions, handed down by the worst, most corruptly biased Supreme Court to sit in my lifetime, suggest that those judges who are nothing more than creatures of conservative ideology and corporate interests recognized that they would risk a national revolt had they ruled the other way on these questions.

Who won those battles?

We the People.

That's who.

JusticeSeeker68

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Monday July 13, 2015 · 1:20 PM PDT

2015/07/13 · 13:20

The Sanders Campaign is defying the political establishment, confronting the corporations, demanding the break up of the big banks, it is shattering the credibility of the bought-and-paid-for-pundits, it is exposing the corporate media conspiracy of silence about income inequality, it is telling working Americans that the time to fight back has come, it is telling them there will be no more appeasement of Wall Street, no more tolerance of corporate corruption, no more triangulation, no more humiliation, no more retreat.

The days of retreat and humiliation are over.

In 1940, the leader of the only democracy left standing in Europe mobilized the English language and sent it into battle. In defense of our own democracy, in defense of our own people, we must send it into battle once again, to light the darkness with it, to tell the truth with it, to awaken a nation with it . . .

Upon this struggle depends the survival of American democracy. Upon it depends our nation's future, and the long continuity of our institutions and our Republic. The whole fury and might of the corporate enemy must very soon be turned upon us. If we can stand up to them, all of America may be freed and the life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands.

But if we fail, then the whole world, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new dark age made more sinister and more protracted by the corrupting greed of the masters of corporate power. Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves, that if American democracy lasts for a thousand years, men will still say, this was their finest hour.

JusticeSeeker68

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Wednesday July 08, 2015 · 3:46 PM PDT

2015/07/08 · 15:46

What kind of nation sends its sons and daughters off to die in an illegal war? What kind of nation torches six-trillion dollars to ashes as its heroic "liberation" of a distant land collapses into chaos and carnage, then balances its war machine budget on the backs of the elderly, the sick, the children and the poor?

What kind of nation calls itself Christian while it builds 800 military installations around the world, spends more on weaponry than the next 30 countries combined, stockpiles 300 million guns, and kills 30,000 men, women, and children a year with them?

What kind of nation has for-profit prisons, insider-trading politicians, riot police with chemical weapons, and a banking system controlled by psychopaths?

What kind of nation allows a major political party to engage in massive voter suppression? What kind of nation tortured prisoners for years then lectures other nations about human rights? What kind of nation does nothing will innocents are slaughtered in its schools and its churches? What kind of nation glorifies billionaires who’ve built their wealth on the shattered dreams of others?

What kind of nation are we?

A nation in desperate need of a political revolution.

That's what kind.

And now we'll be getting the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which is going to be almost as popular as the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere.

The hits just keep on coming.

And as they do, as the 2016 election approaches, what are you going to tell voters who still don’t understand that they’re nothing but targets on that Shock Doctrine battlefield our "leaders" call the economy? What are you going to tell them? If there’s still enough time, if it’s not too late, if you haven’t given up, if you can find the words, if you haven’t run out of words, if you haven’t been written off by everyone in town as one of those radical leftist secular humanists because so many Americans don’t want to hear the truth, don’t want to deal with it, can’t bear to look at it, won’t acknowledge it because illusions are their last refuge, their final sanctuary, the only shelter they can find as the storms of Reality rage all around them.

What are you going to tell them?

Tell them about Bernie Sanders. Because there are times when a tipping point is reached, there are times when people finally admit that the old ways are not working, there are times when fighting back is the only possible response, the only possible answer, because fighting back has become a moral imperative, an absolute necessity.

Fight back.

Here and now.

This day, this hour.

Because enough is enough.

Because we are better than this.

JusticeSeeker68

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Wednesday July 01, 2015 · 3:57 PM PDT

2015/07/01 · 15:57

A political revolution is coming.

It won't need a map, it’s been here before, it’s been everywhere before, it knows what the banksters have done, it knows what the politicians have done, it knows what the CEO's have done, it knows who the war profiteers are, who the hedge fund managers are, who the vulture capitalists are, it knows where those predators live, it knows where they all live, and it’s coming.

It's coming because ignorance is not strength, because corporations are not people, because money is not speech, it's coming because the propaganda of the corporate state never ceases, because the treachery of the bankers never ends, because the greed of the corporations is never sated, because corruption just keeps spreading like a virus through the bloodstream of corporate capitalism.

Bernie Sanders . . .

There is something profoundly wrong when we have seen a proliferation of millionaires and billionaires at the same time as millions of Americans work longer hours for lower wages and we have the highest rate of childhood poverty of any major country on earth. There is something profoundly wrong when one family owns more wealth than the bottom 130 million Americans. This grotesque level of inequality is immoral. It is bad economics. It is unsustainable. This type of rigged economy is not what America is supposed to be about. This has got to change and, as your president, together we will change it.

We gave signing petitions a try, we gave calling our congressmen and senators a try, we gave more and better Democrats a try, we gave waiting for Hillary a try, we gave every one of those dead end roads a try. We've been there, we've done that, we've heard all the excuses, we've heard all the explanations, we've seen all the smoke and we've seen all the mirrors and we've seen how far down the rabbit hole goes.

We the abused, we the exploited, we the betrayed citizens of this ravaged republic will be that political revolution, we will be that storm of economic justice.

The corporate politicians are sailing right into it, but they don’t even see it. The RNC doesn't see it, the DNC doesn't see it, Chuck Schumer doesn't see it, Debbie Wasserman Schultz doesn't see it, Hillary the Inevitable doesn't see it, none of her "opponents" in the "other party" see it, that kind of blindness tends to be a chronic malady when seeing only what you want to see is embraced as a career-enhancing strategy by savvy centrists on their way to the top.

I don’t know when that populist storm is going to hit the Capital, I don‘t know which craven congressmen are going to grab their life-jackets first, I don’t know how high the We the People waves are going to get, but I know one thing, when that storm hits full force, it’s going to be much too big for those centrist sailors and their little boat.

JusticeSeeker68

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Tuesday June 09, 2015 · 2:19 PM PDT

2015/06/09 · 14:19

Wall Street bankers are losing patience with that wild-eyed demagogue Bernie Sanders, and who can blame them? Except for the Panic of 1819, and the Panic of 1837, and the Panic of 1857, and the Long Depression of 1873-1879, and the Panic of 1893, and the Panic of 1907, and the Great Depression of 1929-1939, and Black Monday 1987, and the Great Implosion of 2008, Wall Street has never torched the entire economy to soot and ashes.

Which part of Wall Street's fine record of providing America with stable economic stability does Bernie Sanders have a problem with?

ALL OF IT.

Throughout American history, men and women of moral courage have spoken out against exploitation and injustice, but these have been small cries against a very large darkness. They tried. They did that much at least. Every one of them deserves our gratitude, every one of them is worthy of remembrance.

In 2011 the protesters of Occupy Wall Street took a stand against the Corporate Machine, but they were targeted by Homeland Security and infiltrated, they were surrounded by riot police, and as sonic weapons hammered the sky apart with inhuman noise, they were arrested and silenced, and America's future shriveled up like a burning page.

And as everything just keeps getting worse, as more political corruption and more police violence and more rightwing insanity keep lying in wait for us on the other side of the every tick of the clock, the world beyond our shores is careening into chaos and conflict and carnage. Trapped in this vicious globalized cycle of abuse, the poor and the powerless are whispering a final request as the walls of degradation close in all around them . . .

God in Heaven, help me keep my humanity.

It's the only way out of this.

Bobby Kennedy . . .

Too often we honor swagger and bluster and the wielders of force; too often we excuse those who are willing to build their own lives on the shattered dreams of others.

Too often, Hillary Clinton has honored swagger and bluster and the wielders of force, too often, she has excused those who are willing to build their own lives on the shattered dreams of others. She has been guilty of that as a Senator, she has been guilty of that as Secretary of State, she is still guilty of it, her refusal to oppose the TPP is the latest damning proof of it. She doesn't deserve the support of progressives, she is a corporate Democrat and always will be.

Her nomination is not inevitable.

She is learning that the hard way.

Again.

JusticeSeeker68

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Friday May 08, 2015 · 2:26 PM PDT

2015/05/08 · 14:26

There’s a sign on the wall. There’s always a wall. There’s always a sign on it. The walls are owned by the wealthy and the politicians take turns posting the signs. Those signs tell us who's a "serious" candidate and who isn't, who should be heard and who should be ignored, who matters and who doesn't. As this rigged game goes on and on, as another "election" approaches, we're all expected to be grateful for the opportunity to vote for another Bush, for another Clinton, for more of the same wrapped up in a shiny new package.

Bernie Sanders understands that the signs we need to see are not on those walls. They’re in the secret pages of the TPP, in the catastrophic consequences of Citizens United, in the ruin of the dying economies all around us, in the empty eyes of the riot police who surround anyone who dares to tell the truth. Those signs are everywhere, posted by Reality and written in pain. The earth itself is warning us, of fracking and fossil fuel addiction, of poisoned rivers and carbon emissions, of species extinction and polar cap melting, of plutocrat pipelines and the death of the oceans.

There's a feeling I get
When I look to the west,
And my spirit is crying for leaving.

Because profit is all that matters in this "Christian" nation, because there's always another war on the way, because the truth has been sentenced to life in prison without parole. No meaningful action has been taken against catastrophic climate change or massive inequality because the people who control the "government" and corporate media machine of this pig circus of corruption that used to be America decide what gets attention and what doesn't, decide what is reported and what isn't, decide who is heard and who isn't.

JusticeSeeker68

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Wednesday March 05, 2014 · 8:43 AM PST

2014/03/05 · 08:43

Peggy Noonan . . .

The constant mischief of the progressive left is hurting the nation's morale. There are few areas of national life left in which they are not busy, and few in which they're not making it worse. There are always more regulations, fees and fiats, always more cultural pressure and insistence.

It's true.

Especially the sinister part about our fiats.

As the Merriam-Webster Dictionary explains, a fiat is a command or act of will that creates something without further effort.

It's like when we created racial equality by fiat. I forget who gave the command, but that's all it took. Because no further effort was required, we were able to move right along and end the Vietnam War by fiat. One progressive act of will on some campus somewhere and the carnage in Vietnam was over, which demoralized Americans everywhere, particularly the drafted ones.

When we haven't been busy fiating everything in sight, we've been busy undermining public faith and trust in conservatives, which of course demoralizes God and all the angels because they're conservatives too, and when God and all the angels are demoralized, it emboldens labor union thugs and Rachel Maddow and Islamists and Putin, and every time that happens it drags the whole world two and sometimes even three Friedman Units closer to the coming of the AntiChrist.

Peggy is justifiably upset.

JusticeSeeker68

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Thursday February 27, 2014 · 10:08 AM PST

2014/02/27 · 10:08

Harvey Wasserman, Common Dreams . . .

A stunning new report indicates the U.S. Navy knew that sailors from the nuclear-powered USS Ronald Reagan took major radiation hits from the Fukushima atomic power plant after its meltdowns and explosions nearly three years ago. Many of the sailors are already suffering devastating health impacts, but are being stonewalled by Tepco and the Navy.
The $4.3 billion carrier is now docked in San Diego. Critics question whether it belongs there at all. Attempts to decontaminate U.S. ships irradiated during the Pacific nuclear bombs tests from 1946-1963 proved fruitless.

Still radioactive?

(stock photo)

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Bernie Sanders and the Rising of We the People

Political Revolution Nationwide: The Rise of Bernie Sanders

The Fiery Authenticity of Bernie Sanders

I'll Tell You What's Getting Out of Hand

Why Is Bernie Sanders Drawing Huge Crowds All Across America?

The Sanders Campaign and Democracy's Finest Hour

Bernie Sanders: What Kind of Nation Are We?

Bernie Sanders Is Crashing the Gates

It'll Soon Shake Your Windows and Rattle Your Walls

I'll Tell You What's Inevitable

Peggy Noonan: The Progressive Left Keeps Demoralizing Everybody!

Stunning New Report on USS Reagan Radiation