Hahahahaha! That line! Omg! “Congress figure it out!” Josh Harley fleeing in terror from a crowd he riled up! Hahahahaha. That’s the caliber brains half the country sends to Congress, where they either try to turn themselves into aristocracy or they block every effort to improve and protect the US. Mark Twain was right. The only truly criminal class in America is Congress.
OMG, Greg! There are still places on the internet where you can find people that would react to what you write about Bernie as sacrilege! I am not one of them. Even against Donald Trump, Bernie probably would have lost the general election, mostly by people not voting top of the ticket. I probably would have been one of those people in any other year but 2020, but I still think he would have lost.
Bernie supporters and Trump supporters have a lot in common. One of the major things is that neither group seems to know 1) what's actually GOOD for them, and 2) that a primary is NOT a general election. Both groups support their candidates for the wrong reasons, one because he makes the libs cry, and the other because he SAYS a lot of stuff that will never come true. Oh, wait, they both do that. Both candidates are cranky old men with rabid followers. Both candidates are not real members of their respective parties, they just use them to get what they want and to form a sort of legitimacy they would never have as an Independent. Both candidates have bad hair.
It's not exactly the mysterious memes of Lincoln vs JFK, but it's telling, nonetheless. And that's what both Bernie and Trump should remain: parlor games that are never put into power. We've had quite enough destruction for this lifetime.
As I said in 15/16, subjecting myself to major attack every time I did: Bernie and Trump are both snake oil salesmen. We just happen to like Bernie's brand of snake oil.
“You’re quite sure Sanders would have defeated Trump.”
Hillary, Bernie, Joe Biden: all of them are just a means to an end. There is a subscriber on both Heather’s site and on Lucian Truscott’s site who has massive contempt for Berners, or whatever they’re called on FB or Tw. I wouldn’t know, I don’t play in those cauldrons. But somehow he seems to distinguish between them (Berners) and Bernie Sanders supporters.
I am a proud Bernie Sanders supporter. Everything that I’ve ever heard come out of that man’s mouth is a position I endorse. My wife, an ardent feminist and a sexism bloodhound who can detect any trace of misogyny no matter how faint or well hidden, also supports him. Now he may have kinky sexual misconduct in his past, tell me one sex-addicted celebrity white male who doesn’t. Certainly Hillary isn’t simon pure, that’s for sure. Go read up on her personal history if you think she’s an angel or a saint.
But none of us here should give a damn about any of that. No person in their right mind would sit out a presidential election, or in protest refuse to vote for Hillary in 2016 or Joe in 2020. Those two people are the ones I voted for, even though they weren’t my first choice in the primary. So what. Big deal. You gonna vote for Trump instead? Are you going to leave the top of the ticket blank? Only the woefully immature will resort to petulant, self-destructive behavior of that sort.
Republicans and the Russian oligarch mafia alike are racist. Also sexist and misogynist, also antisemitic, also genderist. They are relics of our clouded, medieval past, and they have so much in common that it’s no surprise that they work together.
We who are on the right side of history, which means equal rights for all humans, will support that cause even if one’s first preference doesn’t make it to the top of the ticket in the general election. I had serious doubts about Joe Biden, but the man has been sterling in so many ways. Don’t bother listing all the problems and faults and mistakes, we all know what they are: the bottom line is, would you rather have Trump? It’s the starkest choice possible, the choice between a Democratic president or a Republican president.
Right now, the anti-diversity, racist, sexist and genderist coalition is all grouped together in the Republican party, which is more fractured than it has ever been in our lifetime. There were no less than 7 or 8 different anti-Trump Republican influence groups in 2016, and if anything else, the divisions within the ranks of the medievals have worsened.
Criticizing candidates within the Democratic Party is a mistake. What we all share is the desire for an egalitarian society, where we all love each other as equals. Besides, anybody who uses their brain can see that every human is equal in principle to every other human. If you want everyone to be treated with respect, instead of having superiors and inferiors in society, there is no value and no benefit to criticizing or attacking the people who are actually your allies and friends.
Thank you for your post! I am a woman who supports Bernie as I, too, support his ideas. (Medicare for all!) In the final election I voted for Hillary, then Joe. I would cut off my right arm before I would vote for the likes of Trump (or DeSantis! A cross between Putin & Trump!), or would leave the Presidential choice blank. There is a meme out that I love. “A vote is not a Valentine. You are not professing your love for the candidate. It’s a chess move for the world you want to live in.”
Thanks! I wrote about Bernie in my comment to Roland, above.
A vote is you deciding whom to hire for a job. The media loves to make it about anything other than that. HRC was far and way the most qualified non incumbent to ever run for president. Nobody else comes close. And America was like, Nah, let's hire the "You're fired" guy. I'll never be able to fully understand it...
I was reading your response to Roland when your response to me popped up. I agree that HRC was the most qualified & she still has many rabid supporters who want her to run again. I just get tired of hearing it’s all Bernie’s fault & the fault of his supporters. I would agree that is part of the reason for her loss, but would like for her to accept responsibility for the loss, maybe she does & I just haven’t seen it. There was a sense of inevitability about her winning the Presidency, which I couldn’t quite see. Maybe it’s because I live in red Florida & saw Trump signs all over (& still do). In my opinion, one of the problems we have is a lack of good public education in the areas of (true) history (not the fictional version), logic, civics, & critical thinking, & also the measuring of success by how many dollars a person can make by any means, cheating, stealing, whatever. (Guess that’s really two areas…) Add a lack of compassion for our fellow humans. (Why can’t we have affordable healthcare for everyone? Why should a person die from diabetes because they can’t afford insulin?)
I have never watched so-called “reality TV” because I think it’s like wrestling, a performance, not real. I have no use for the former president & don’t understand how anyone could think he would make a good representative of our country. The best I can come up with is that it’s a cult. If
Jim-Jones-like he asked his followers to drink the Kool-Aide, I think they would do it.
So we will agree to disagree about Bernie. I see your point & sincerely wish she had been elected. How much better off we would all be! I would just like to see America be more progressive so we would live up to our ideals.
Thanks for this, Roland. I've written extensively about Sanders, and my contempt for him, and I don't want to rehash it too much. But it's like this:
I also like his positions on things. I like how he speaks; he's a VERY good public speaker. He comes across as very earnest etc.
But ultimately, he's all sizzle no steak. Back in 15 or early 16, he ran on BREAK UP THE BANKS. Finally, the Daily News asked, well, how would you do that? And he couldn't answer! Because he can't. He's the kid running for class president who promises a soda fountain in the cafeteria, and that the soda will be free to students because of a tax on carbonization.
He is a Big Picture guy, which is fine, but he has neither the ability nor the temperament to build consensus, work with others, and see things through to fruition. You say I shouldn't criticize candidates of the Dem Party, and I don't. HE WON'T EVEN JOIN THE PARTY. Because he's a stubborn, selfish egomaniac. The best candidate to ARTICULATE the progressive agenda? Bernie for sure. To actually IMPLEMENT it? HRC in 16, Harris/Biden now. Look at Bernie's record in Congress. He's done jack shit in decades -- unless you think naming post offices is an accomplishment.
His delay in bowing out in 16 and lukewarm endorsement of HRC -- especially after he was told RUSSIA WAS HELPING HIM -- absolutely helped Trump win. It wasn't the decisive factor, but every little thing that helped Trump contributed. To then run AGAIN in 2020, with his medical issues, knowing Russia would help him again? Pure ego. Many politicians are egomaniacs, of course, but in this case, Bernie needed to shut it down for the good of democracy. I was pleasantly surprised that he endorsed Biden more earnestly than his thinly veiled disgust for HRC. (Misogyny in action; I neither know nor care what he does behind closed doors.)
Most of all, I despise him because he exploits the well-meaning desires of good, earnest progressives. We can agree to disagree on this, I totally understand his appeal and used to like him a lot myself, but nothing will ever change my mind on him. The sooner we get a new leader on the left, the more likely we'll get the change he keeps talking about. And unless there IS a fascist overthrow and a Bernie takes over -- which we don't want -- the only way to get there is through patient, painstaking consensus building and incremental steps. That's generally how it works in the US, by design. Obamacare doesn't happen without Pelosi masterfully shepherding it through the House.
Jul 22, 2022·edited Jul 22, 2022Liked by Greg Olear
While I do have a FB account, it is not my favorite social media "go to." In fact, I don't have a favorite online anything, other than reading substack articles and the comments of other subscribers. On FB, I am rather circumspect, since the FB police are wont to throw one in FB prison for silly things. I do use it to share substack articles and other online news (WaPo for example). That said, I do not understand how the ad thing works on FB. Ads there are to me nothing but a nuisance and are easily ignored. Is there a demographic out there that is attracted to ads or is easily influenced by them? I simply don't get it. (And FWIW, ads on TV affect me the same way. Nuisances. All of them.)
Hey, Ellen! I don't understand how any of this works, to be honest. My FB is set so that only my "friends" can see my posts; my "friends" are only people who I know personally. For both FB and Twitter, and TV for that matter, I hardly pay any attention to the ads. I think this comes from my days as a court stenographer where I had learned to tune out extraneous noise so I could capture only the main speaker's words.
That said, there are some commercials that I am very entertained by, especially the insurances ones...Flo and company for Progressive (love her!); Emu and the guy in the yellow shirt for Liberty; forget GEICO, that gecko irritates me for some reason. Then there's DYN O MITE Jimmie Walker. I love his "second" ad, where he says...."Hi, it's me again!" I don't even know what he's selling, just like to watch him make his pitch. There are many others, too. One time I was watching Iced T. I got so enthralled by his schtick, I almost picked up the phone to buy whatever it was he was pushing! I think that was the moment where I realized how, as you say, one can become easily influenced into doing something they wouldn't ordinarily do.
But for the most part, I don't hate ads because they give me time to go off and do the dishes or other things in between show times!
There was a moment in 2009 or so, when my book came out, when Facebook said, "We will not show pages you subscribe to in your feed unless that page pays us." I mean, I follow a page because I want to see the page, but FB decides to withhold it from me? It's just basically extortion. And I bowed out. Also, the fact that the FB "friends" are this universe of people we "know" makes it a million times more toxic than Twitter. The stuff the IRA was doing was making stuff appear in people's feeds....pages that promoted this stuff...not just the usual ads on the side. It was very nefarious and insidious and I hope Zuck and Sandberg wind up in prison for it. Better yet, fine the fuck out of them.
Your last sentence is very powerful.
"Digital voter suppression is still voter suppression."
Thanks. That was the last thing I wrote, a late addition.
Hahahahaha! That line! Omg! “Congress figure it out!” Josh Harley fleeing in terror from a crowd he riled up! Hahahahaha. That’s the caliber brains half the country sends to Congress, where they either try to turn themselves into aristocracy or they block every effort to improve and protect the US. Mark Twain was right. The only truly criminal class in America is Congress.
I know, I know, but still: they MUST figure it out.
Yeah, but right now about half of those bastards just want to destroy the nation.
Here’s a report in Axios I wish you’d look into. I have no idea why main stream media have ignored it. https://www.axios.com/2022/07/22/trump-2025-radical-plan-second-term
I almost spit my coffee when I read the Trilby line. 😂
I'm not mis-remembering, right? They were joined at the hip, those two.
OMG, Greg! There are still places on the internet where you can find people that would react to what you write about Bernie as sacrilege! I am not one of them. Even against Donald Trump, Bernie probably would have lost the general election, mostly by people not voting top of the ticket. I probably would have been one of those people in any other year but 2020, but I still think he would have lost.
Bernie supporters and Trump supporters have a lot in common. One of the major things is that neither group seems to know 1) what's actually GOOD for them, and 2) that a primary is NOT a general election. Both groups support their candidates for the wrong reasons, one because he makes the libs cry, and the other because he SAYS a lot of stuff that will never come true. Oh, wait, they both do that. Both candidates are cranky old men with rabid followers. Both candidates are not real members of their respective parties, they just use them to get what they want and to form a sort of legitimacy they would never have as an Independent. Both candidates have bad hair.
It's not exactly the mysterious memes of Lincoln vs JFK, but it's telling, nonetheless. And that's what both Bernie and Trump should remain: parlor games that are never put into power. We've had quite enough destruction for this lifetime.
Thanks.
As I said in 15/16, subjecting myself to major attack every time I did: Bernie and Trump are both snake oil salesmen. We just happen to like Bernie's brand of snake oil.
Yet another argument for avoiding the “hellscape” of Facebook, and why I don’t indulge in that tasteless odorless poison.
Must Read interview with Rick Wilson (it’s pretty short)
https://hac.bard.edu/amor-mundi/the-hellscape-that-is-facebook-2020-08-06
“You’re quite sure Sanders would have defeated Trump.”
Hillary, Bernie, Joe Biden: all of them are just a means to an end. There is a subscriber on both Heather’s site and on Lucian Truscott’s site who has massive contempt for Berners, or whatever they’re called on FB or Tw. I wouldn’t know, I don’t play in those cauldrons. But somehow he seems to distinguish between them (Berners) and Bernie Sanders supporters.
I am a proud Bernie Sanders supporter. Everything that I’ve ever heard come out of that man’s mouth is a position I endorse. My wife, an ardent feminist and a sexism bloodhound who can detect any trace of misogyny no matter how faint or well hidden, also supports him. Now he may have kinky sexual misconduct in his past, tell me one sex-addicted celebrity white male who doesn’t. Certainly Hillary isn’t simon pure, that’s for sure. Go read up on her personal history if you think she’s an angel or a saint.
But none of us here should give a damn about any of that. No person in their right mind would sit out a presidential election, or in protest refuse to vote for Hillary in 2016 or Joe in 2020. Those two people are the ones I voted for, even though they weren’t my first choice in the primary. So what. Big deal. You gonna vote for Trump instead? Are you going to leave the top of the ticket blank? Only the woefully immature will resort to petulant, self-destructive behavior of that sort.
Republicans and the Russian oligarch mafia alike are racist. Also sexist and misogynist, also antisemitic, also genderist. They are relics of our clouded, medieval past, and they have so much in common that it’s no surprise that they work together.
We who are on the right side of history, which means equal rights for all humans, will support that cause even if one’s first preference doesn’t make it to the top of the ticket in the general election. I had serious doubts about Joe Biden, but the man has been sterling in so many ways. Don’t bother listing all the problems and faults and mistakes, we all know what they are: the bottom line is, would you rather have Trump? It’s the starkest choice possible, the choice between a Democratic president or a Republican president.
Right now, the anti-diversity, racist, sexist and genderist coalition is all grouped together in the Republican party, which is more fractured than it has ever been in our lifetime. There were no less than 7 or 8 different anti-Trump Republican influence groups in 2016, and if anything else, the divisions within the ranks of the medievals have worsened.
Criticizing candidates within the Democratic Party is a mistake. What we all share is the desire for an egalitarian society, where we all love each other as equals. Besides, anybody who uses their brain can see that every human is equal in principle to every other human. If you want everyone to be treated with respect, instead of having superiors and inferiors in society, there is no value and no benefit to criticizing or attacking the people who are actually your allies and friends.
Hey, Roland! Vote Blue in '22; and once more in '24!
Thank you for your post! I am a woman who supports Bernie as I, too, support his ideas. (Medicare for all!) In the final election I voted for Hillary, then Joe. I would cut off my right arm before I would vote for the likes of Trump (or DeSantis! A cross between Putin & Trump!), or would leave the Presidential choice blank. There is a meme out that I love. “A vote is not a Valentine. You are not professing your love for the candidate. It’s a chess move for the world you want to live in.”
That meme says it all, Jean. Thanks for sharing it.
Exactly
Thanks! I wrote about Bernie in my comment to Roland, above.
A vote is you deciding whom to hire for a job. The media loves to make it about anything other than that. HRC was far and way the most qualified non incumbent to ever run for president. Nobody else comes close. And America was like, Nah, let's hire the "You're fired" guy. I'll never be able to fully understand it...
I was reading your response to Roland when your response to me popped up. I agree that HRC was the most qualified & she still has many rabid supporters who want her to run again. I just get tired of hearing it’s all Bernie’s fault & the fault of his supporters. I would agree that is part of the reason for her loss, but would like for her to accept responsibility for the loss, maybe she does & I just haven’t seen it. There was a sense of inevitability about her winning the Presidency, which I couldn’t quite see. Maybe it’s because I live in red Florida & saw Trump signs all over (& still do). In my opinion, one of the problems we have is a lack of good public education in the areas of (true) history (not the fictional version), logic, civics, & critical thinking, & also the measuring of success by how many dollars a person can make by any means, cheating, stealing, whatever. (Guess that’s really two areas…) Add a lack of compassion for our fellow humans. (Why can’t we have affordable healthcare for everyone? Why should a person die from diabetes because they can’t afford insulin?)
I have never watched so-called “reality TV” because I think it’s like wrestling, a performance, not real. I have no use for the former president & don’t understand how anyone could think he would make a good representative of our country. The best I can come up with is that it’s a cult. If
Jim-Jones-like he asked his followers to drink the Kool-Aide, I think they would do it.
So we will agree to disagree about Bernie. I see your point & sincerely wish she had been elected. How much better off we would all be! I would just like to see America be more progressive so we would live up to our ideals.
Thanks for this, Roland. I've written extensively about Sanders, and my contempt for him, and I don't want to rehash it too much. But it's like this:
I also like his positions on things. I like how he speaks; he's a VERY good public speaker. He comes across as very earnest etc.
But ultimately, he's all sizzle no steak. Back in 15 or early 16, he ran on BREAK UP THE BANKS. Finally, the Daily News asked, well, how would you do that? And he couldn't answer! Because he can't. He's the kid running for class president who promises a soda fountain in the cafeteria, and that the soda will be free to students because of a tax on carbonization.
He is a Big Picture guy, which is fine, but he has neither the ability nor the temperament to build consensus, work with others, and see things through to fruition. You say I shouldn't criticize candidates of the Dem Party, and I don't. HE WON'T EVEN JOIN THE PARTY. Because he's a stubborn, selfish egomaniac. The best candidate to ARTICULATE the progressive agenda? Bernie for sure. To actually IMPLEMENT it? HRC in 16, Harris/Biden now. Look at Bernie's record in Congress. He's done jack shit in decades -- unless you think naming post offices is an accomplishment.
His delay in bowing out in 16 and lukewarm endorsement of HRC -- especially after he was told RUSSIA WAS HELPING HIM -- absolutely helped Trump win. It wasn't the decisive factor, but every little thing that helped Trump contributed. To then run AGAIN in 2020, with his medical issues, knowing Russia would help him again? Pure ego. Many politicians are egomaniacs, of course, but in this case, Bernie needed to shut it down for the good of democracy. I was pleasantly surprised that he endorsed Biden more earnestly than his thinly veiled disgust for HRC. (Misogyny in action; I neither know nor care what he does behind closed doors.)
Most of all, I despise him because he exploits the well-meaning desires of good, earnest progressives. We can agree to disagree on this, I totally understand his appeal and used to like him a lot myself, but nothing will ever change my mind on him. The sooner we get a new leader on the left, the more likely we'll get the change he keeps talking about. And unless there IS a fascist overthrow and a Bernie takes over -- which we don't want -- the only way to get there is through patient, painstaking consensus building and incremental steps. That's generally how it works in the US, by design. Obamacare doesn't happen without Pelosi masterfully shepherding it through the House.
Vote blue!
Wow, Greg, thank you. My intuition is vigorously nodding along.
While I do have a FB account, it is not my favorite social media "go to." In fact, I don't have a favorite online anything, other than reading substack articles and the comments of other subscribers. On FB, I am rather circumspect, since the FB police are wont to throw one in FB prison for silly things. I do use it to share substack articles and other online news (WaPo for example). That said, I do not understand how the ad thing works on FB. Ads there are to me nothing but a nuisance and are easily ignored. Is there a demographic out there that is attracted to ads or is easily influenced by them? I simply don't get it. (And FWIW, ads on TV affect me the same way. Nuisances. All of them.)
Hey, Ellen! I don't understand how any of this works, to be honest. My FB is set so that only my "friends" can see my posts; my "friends" are only people who I know personally. For both FB and Twitter, and TV for that matter, I hardly pay any attention to the ads. I think this comes from my days as a court stenographer where I had learned to tune out extraneous noise so I could capture only the main speaker's words.
That said, there are some commercials that I am very entertained by, especially the insurances ones...Flo and company for Progressive (love her!); Emu and the guy in the yellow shirt for Liberty; forget GEICO, that gecko irritates me for some reason. Then there's DYN O MITE Jimmie Walker. I love his "second" ad, where he says...."Hi, it's me again!" I don't even know what he's selling, just like to watch him make his pitch. There are many others, too. One time I was watching Iced T. I got so enthralled by his schtick, I almost picked up the phone to buy whatever it was he was pushing! I think that was the moment where I realized how, as you say, one can become easily influenced into doing something they wouldn't ordinarily do.
But for the most part, I don't hate ads because they give me time to go off and do the dishes or other things in between show times!
I really like the Baker Mayfield Progressive ads. And the ones where they're like "Don't become your parents" are legit funny.
We never got those down here in VA. Our loss, I guess.
There was a moment in 2009 or so, when my book came out, when Facebook said, "We will not show pages you subscribe to in your feed unless that page pays us." I mean, I follow a page because I want to see the page, but FB decides to withhold it from me? It's just basically extortion. And I bowed out. Also, the fact that the FB "friends" are this universe of people we "know" makes it a million times more toxic than Twitter. The stuff the IRA was doing was making stuff appear in people's feeds....pages that promoted this stuff...not just the usual ads on the side. It was very nefarious and insidious and I hope Zuck and Sandberg wind up in prison for it. Better yet, fine the fuck out of them.
Oh, boy. Not fun when you see it in print. Now I'll go see what my ears have to say about it as I listen to Prevail. Thank you, Greg!
We must be related. We laugh at the same goofy ones!
My pleasure.
Shireen Mitchell is spectacular.