*** Warning ***
Remember, at heart, I am not a people person, so I am not a protest person- no matter how just the protest might be, the idea of unscripted protests makes me want to run for Lily and my blanket. I don’t like large groups of people. I don’t like large groups of angry people, even when it is justified. So that is going to shade my opinion on everything. I also have an authoritarian streak that sometimes pops up. Keep that in mind when you read this.
*** End Warning ***
Yesterday at NN, O’Malley and Sanders respective speeches were shut down by protestors from Black Lives Matter, and the press is having a field day:
A town hall for liberal activists featuring two Democratic presidential candidates was interrupted by dozens of demonstrators on Saturday who shouted down the contenders and demanded they address criminal justice issues and police brutality.
Former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders planned to attend a public sit-down interview with journalist Jose Antonio Vargas in front of a left-leaning crowd here at the annual Netroots Nation conference, a gathering of progressives, when the tone of the program shifted just a few minutes into the event.
O’Malley was answering questions from Vargas on stage when dozens of boisterous conference attendees flooded through a side door and shouted down the White House contender.
BEING MOODY: Where Bernie Sanders is king
“What side are you on my people?” they sang in unison as they approached.
Tia Oso of the Black Alliance for Just Immigration, who represented the demonstrators, climbed onto the stage, secured a microphone, and delivered a speech while O’Malley looked on.
“We are going to hold this space. We are going to acknowledge the names of black women who have died in police custody. And Governor O’Malley, we do have questions for you … As the leader of this nation, will you advance a racial justice agenda that will dismantle — not reform, not make progress — but will begin to dismantle structural racism in the United States?”
“Yes,” O’Malley replied, but before he could say more, the demonstrators in front of the stage shouted over him by reciting names of black women who have died in police custody. While they shouted, O’Malley stood in silence. At one point he turned to Oso on stage: “My people came here as immigrants from Ireland.”
Sanders didn’t fair any better, and arguably did worse. The whole thing was just a shitshow, and I’m waiting for the 1968 comparisons to start, because the media and the Republicans know a good ratfuck when they see it.
I’m not going to bother going into what or how the two could have done better, but I will note that the candidate who did the best was the one who did not show- Hillary. She can now sit and throw bombshells and have the perfectly tailored response with the benefit of hindsight, and I am afraid that the lesson political operatives in the future will learn is “DON’T GO TO NETROOTS NATION BEFORE YOU HAVE THE NOMINATION SECURED.” There is no doubt that O’Malley and Sanders should be better prepared to answer the very questions posed yesterday by the protestors- although for some reason there appears to be more animus directed at Sanders than at O’Malley, which makes no sense to me at all. The Sanders record includes 50 years of civil rights activity, while the O’Malley record in Baltimore was horrible and recent. I chalk it up to the fact that the most rabid Sanders supporters on the internet are certifiable assholes and make me dislike the guy, and I am Bernie curious.
A lot of black people I like and follow really don’t like Sanders and think he has been avoiding speaking to their issues. I may not see it, and have had some conversations with people trying to figure it out, and think the best thing for me to do is to just sit and listen and shut up. I may be missing things that people of color are not, and I may just have a blind spot- I’m a cranky white guy. My experiences don’t mirror everyone’s. It’s also hard to discuss, because a lot of time when you ask people to explain why they feel a certain way, they feel like you are not asking them to explain, but trying to tell them why they are wrong (ie: “Why do you feel that way when it is clearly not the case.”). I wanna make it clear that I just don’t understand it and then shut my big fat yap so maybe I can learn something.
But back to what I was saying, while they should have been better prepared to answer these questions, there’s no telling what protest group might take over a laxly secured event like NN, so there will be a political hazard for any candidate. That’s in large part why Clinton events are so scripted and secure- so this doesn’t happen. Clinton also has, to her credit, hired a much more diverse team to lead her campaign, so an argument can and should be made that she would have been better prepared to handle the protest yesterday, particularly since she has actively addressed the issue recently. But she didn’t show, and that in and of itself seems to have paid off.
With a political class that is hell bent on taking the path of least resistance and avoiding risk at all cost, I would not be surprised if that were the last time anyone but fringe candidates attend Netroots Nation prior to securing the nomination. It just won’t be seen as worth the risk.
As a side note, I am really not prepared for all the intra-party ugliness over the next six months. I feel like I still haven’t recovered from the Obamabot/PUMA wars of 2007-08.
dmsilev
Probably a good idea to avoid DailyKos, or at least the diaries therein, for the next several months then.
wasabi gasp
Hillary wins the day by avoiding black people.
Linnaeus
Though I could be quite wrong on this, I’m not sure it will be quite as bad as in 2008 because I don’t see any real challengers to Clinton.
noabsolutes
Nail. Head. Same. Sanders is my fave and his positions are great. I’m not about to vote against him because he has supporters who throw MLK at disgruntled black people on the internet like a Pokemon, but I’m also thinking Clinton was right to concede this terrain to the candidates who can’t just steamroll their way through with name recognition and money. Everyone else will really have to work for it, including in ways that are occasionally very unpleasant.
Hunter Gathers
Saturday was a complete shitshow. Three people who are never going to be president making complete asses of themselves. It’s like Trump, Sanders and O’Malley are receiving psychic messages from Ron Fournier and Ruth Marcus to do dumb shit so they can proclaim ‘Both Sides Do It!’.
lol
O’Malley caught less flack because the first thing he did afterwards was go on This Week in Blackness and own up to his mistake while Sanders cancelled all his meetings with activists (including #BlackLivesMatters).
karen marie
All the main bombthrowers have succeeded in doing is make me believe they’re grifters with no real interest in social justice. Alienating anyone who is not them is not a recipe for success.
Jerzy Russian
It is raining again in San Diego. I blame Al Nino.
Belafon
I went to the Sanders rally in Dallas today with my oldest son (he wanted to go, and while I’m slightly more Clinton than anyone else, it was interesting going to my first rally). He mentioned Sandra Bland among others in a comment about how much further we have to go on ending racism.
Clinton has already had to deal with this type of interruption with a group protesting climate change. She did better, but she’s already been through this before, not only with her husband, but having run in 2008. Sanders, O’Malley, and whoever else runs will also have to learn to deal with it. They also need to learn to deal with unexpected events because that’s what they’ll get as president, the difference being that those will be much more costly.
MBunge
I’m going to go out on a limb and suggest that maybe, just maybe, those protestors weren’t all that interested in anything Sanders or O’Malley had to say.
Mike
Major Major Major Major
@dmsilev: Yep.
Eh, everybody I know is pretty copacetic except for three or four Bernie hard-liners on Facebook. But they’re also like pro-rent-control and anti-GMO, and there’s just no arguing with the innumerate.
OT: My family’s hometown’s local newspaper just published a picture from the archives of my grandpa dunking in 1949, with the caption “Somebody named Bill dunking years before Wilt the Stilt even hit the scene.” Pretty cool.
Belafon
@karen marie: I like this response to what you’re thinking: dailykos.com/story/2015/07/19/1403616/-Public-Apology-to-Black-Lives-Matter.
David Koch
A riveting eye-witness account on the event by the great Eclectablog
White progressives get a taste of anger & frustration as #BlackLivesMatter activists upstage Bernie Sanders
Major Major Major Major
Who had the bright idea to give you an M-16 and send you to Iraq?
MBunge
@lol: while Sanders cancelled all his meetings with activists
That’s pretty much the risk you take when your political strategy is to make an ass of yourself while expecting the other guy to be more mature.
You can get results but you can also turn 80% allies into people who just don’t give a rip.
Mike
aimai
I’m all for the protest and I think O’Malley and Sanders got what they deserved for being unprepared to shift on a dime and offer the protestors a space for talk. But I’m not sure that the Protestors were prepared with more than canned statements–were they? I hope that theprotestors have a plan B now that they’ve gone with plan A. Because something has to come after the attentat or after the brief taking over of the political space. I sincerely mean that I hope that-because what they are doing and talking about is vital to the future of the country and to real justice.
Ruviana
I suspect Bernie’s getting more flack and attention from the VSP because he’s been drawing very serious crowds in places like Iowa while O’Malley’s still trying to get some traction. Bernie will push Hillary left (perhaps it”s beginning to happen) which is good and in O’Malley still has some baggage now from when he was mayor of Baltimore. In general, while the MSM is talking about the netroots, they’re spending waaaaay more time defending the honor of President McCain from the ebil Trump and poring over the full depo of Bill Cosby.
Davis X. Machina
@wasabi gasp: Simply going to NN involves no small measure of avoiding black people. It doesn’t look like America, much. Maybe it’s better now.
Belafon
@MBunge: Or you can find out that the person you might want on your side just wants to be comfortable.
Just a question for you: When would their protest have been convenient? About the same time the ones in Baltimore would have been?
Baud
@MBunge:
Huh? Is that some sort of collective guilt thing?
David Marotta
@dmsilev: You mean The Daily Bernie?
Keith
Meanwhile booman tribune has a long comment thread to a top of page post “You tell Me” which asks you to view two contrasting analyses of the NN affair. The write up your assessment in the comment thread – after all opinions are written BooMan will write a response, in which he tells us all why we are all wrong.
It has more comments than any of the preceding 27 posts.
Clearly there is either an appetite for being told that what you think is wrong, or a strong desire to understand just what the hell happened.
One thing for sure – this BLM event disruption doesn’t seem likely to go away.
Can we hope BLM will extend the same disruptive protest to all the GOP events?
tom
To Bernie’s credit, he’s been very vocal to his supporters that negative campaigning, or even comparing him to Hillary are not how he wants his campaign to be run. Granted, most of his most vocal fans are too busy smack talking Hillary to have heard him, but he’s made the effort. I’m actually fine with the protest, O’Malley has a lot to answer for, Bernie not so much.
raven
@Major Major Major Major: Kuwait.
FromTheBackOfTheRoom
The Obama fellating Cole staggers to the fainting couch. Activism is just so icky.
I do hope the Republicans can find a more palatable candidate and bring the Balloon Juice Posse of “sensible” authoritarian douchebags back to their true home.
Liberal With Attitude
This just gives me flashbacks to my days in Occupy.
What happened in my group then was the danger of the zeal of the newly converted- people who were politically apathetic and tuned out, who suddenly became enraged and engaged by the 2008 crash, suddenly went charging out into the streets looking for villains.
These people were perfect fodder for anyone who pointed them in a direction and said “Attack”; I caught one activist circulating leaflets warning people not to let unions “co-opt our message”- not realizing that the stage, the mics, the sound system and most of the grunt work of organization was helpfully provided by the Teamsters and other unions.
I don’t know much about the NN protestors, but they are either naïve of just plain fucking stupid to know how this directly helps elect reactionary people.
But it is part of a pattern I guess- the near enemy is always more hated than the far one. The sockulists hated FDR more than the 1% he battled with and the Birchers hate the Bushes more than anyone.
Jane2
I don’t know why any of them go to NN…there isn’t a candidate alive who is pure enough for that bunch.
Belafon
@tom: At the rally today, Sanders made a statement about who was causing the problems. Someone said “Hillary.” Sanders paused for a few seconds, and then went on about the Kochs and the Waltons.
Baud
Except Clinton want there, and she is the front runner they would like to take down.
David Koch
what is hilarious is the very same people who were angry that Obama had a heckler removed from a gay pride event are furious that anyone would heckle Sanders.
No self awareness. Just privilege.
Baud
So many Sister Souljahs, so little time.
Major Major Major Major
@raven: Ah, right. Mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.
But still.
CJ
@David Marotta:
How is it compared to Reddit’s love affair with him?
Davis X. Machina
@Jane2: It’s the best or only way to maintain meaningful contact with the party base. Don’t take my word for it — take President Dean’s….
Baud
@Belafon:
I think Sanders is better than a portion of his supporters, but I could say the same thing about Hillary and Jesus.
lol
@MBunge:
Yes, I agree: Sanders made an ass of himself.
It’s not a new problem. The Af-Am community have been complaining for months that his outreach sucks and that he’s tone-deaf on racial inequality.
Keep up with the denial but this is why Sanders doesn’t have a chance of winning the nomination. The Democratic party is made up of more than just white brogressives.
Omnes Omnibus
@Major Major Major Major:
Why?
Joel
With apologies to netroots nation:
Sayre’s law. QED.
Liberal With Attitude
@Keith:
I would love to think so, but the magic 8 Ball says “not likely”. They didn’t manage to make it to the Iowa caucuses, or CPAC, or even disrupt a taping of Meet The Republicans on Sunday.
raven
@Major Major Major Major: Oh no problem at all, I’m just sure ol JC wants to keep it real when it comes to the Doha Dash!
Baud
@CJ:
Reddit is for anyone who is anti-establishment. It’s why they can switch so easily between Rand Paul and Bernie.
David Koch
Major Major Major Major
@Omnes Omnibus: I mean if you replace “Iraq” with “Kuwait” it still works just fine as a joke. Not saying it’s a funny one, but the particular country is kind of irrelevant.
Explained joke, dissected frog, etc.
ruemara
Oh trust me, I am enjoying the “be silent and wait” comments. BLM doesn’t go to GOP events because full stop – we know who they are. This is the candidates on “our side” who have been tone deaf on black issues. Our vote is taken as a given by anyone on the D ticket. We start actually asking what are you going to offer us to fix this problem and we’re at fault? Yeah, miss me with that. Always notice one damned thing, the most consistent democratic voters are black and black women at that. We start thinking the democratic party is fucking user machine where we’re concerned and there goes the election.
Mike in NC
PUMAs vs Obots still feuding? We’re still fighting the Amercian Civil War 150 years after it supposedly ended. The Yugoslav Civil War was partly a continuation of the battle of Kosovo, which occurred in June 1389.
Baud
@ruemara:
Bernie is not a Democrat.
Major Major Major Major
@Baud: I’ll just spare everybody the trouble.
Point: Bernie is not a registered Democrat but he’s seeking the party’s nomination, and assuming he can use the party machinery! It’s (nasty adjective)!
Counterpoint: But look at his voting record! He’s loyal to the party.
Point: But he hasn’t paid his dues!
Counterpoint: Vermont doesn’t even have partisan registration!
Let me know what I missed.
Mike J
@Baud: Which is the reason I won’t vote for him.
Bernie’s a special snowflake and doesn’t have to listen to anybody about anything.
raven
@Major Major Major Major: There was little chance of actually firing an M16 in anger in Kuwait. Bit more in Iraq but not for long that time.
raven
@Major Major Major Major: You missed dinner. The fresh okra, corn and maters was good!
Baud
@Major Major Major Major:
We could have used you in the NSA/Snowden threads.
Gimlet
Lay this protest movement at Obama’s doorstep.
He’s been in office 8 years while police have been progressively militarized, these crimes have been going on and the JD have taken little or no action except to make excuses for their inactivity.
wasabi gasp
It’s like Bernie refuses to put a stop to racism.
Omnes Omnibus
So the BLM protestors were rude. Why is protest supposed be polite?
Belafon
@Liberal With Attitude:
The wouldn’t be allowed into those places, and it really wouldn’t do anything.
As someone said in another good Daily Kos library that I can’t find, sometimes you complain most to the people on your side because it’s your only chance to have it addressed.
As uncomfortable as I would have been at yesterday’s NN (I don’t like crowds either), I can understand their need to protest.
Tree With Water
Any candidate that can’t handle an appearance at a Netroots gathering probably shouldn’t be president. Sanders and O’Malley may have handled their responses more adroitly, but their presence there is what counts, and what people will remember. After all, Barack Obama has done more to address the racial divide than any president since LBJ, yet still, look at the bad shape this country is in on that score, in spite of all his wise insights.
Roger Moore
@Major Major Major Major:
They didn’t give him an M-16. They gave him an M1A1, which is a much more frightening tool of destruction.
MBunge
@Belafon: When would their protest have been convenient?
1. Why is there a need to protest Bernie Sanders in the first place?
2. How about showing up at a Sanders town hall and, you know, asking a question rather than shouting him down and trying to commandeer someone else’s organized event?
3. As I stated, you can get some results with this sort of thing. Are you seriously trying to argue there’s no downside to this tactic?
Mike
the Conster
@David Koch:
Things seen cannot be unseen. That’s an amazing account of how things get changed.
Keith G
@lol:
.
::Still laughing::
This is why?…?
I think that is in the middle of a long list.
Major Major Major Major
@Roger Moore: He’s said that the clips (magazines, I know, gun nuts, I just like saying ‘clip’ better) on the rifles had tape over the top so that even if they wanted to fire them they would first have to take the clip out, remove the tape, and put it back in.
That led me to believe he had a rifle :)
But yeah he had a tank too haha.
Baud
I hate the BLM acronym. I keep wondering why the Bureau of Land Management is protesting at Netroots Nation.
ruemara
@Baud: Is he running for the Dem nomination or no?
ruemara
@wasabi gasp: Did you know he marched with MLK and created affirmative action? This was one of the many Bernsplanations offered to me on why I should be silent about Bernie and just love him as he speaks to my issues by the direct path of indirection.
@Gimlet: Yes, this is all Obama’s fault.
Baud
@ruemara:
Yes. So? No one can stop him from doing that. If in fact Sanders doesn’t respect an important constituency in the party, than he has no chance at the nom.
Omnes Omnibus
This is rather funny.
Major Major Major Major
@Baud: Right??
When I was starting grad school, I kept reading ‘librarian’ as ‘libertarian’. Now I read ‘libertarian’ as ‘librarian’. I don’t know which is more confusing.
Had the same problem with the Human Rights Campaign, Hillary Rodham Clinton, and Health Care Reform.
(i know that last one is different but I still got it confused)
David Koch
@wasabi gasp: all they asked of the great leader was to discuss race. That’s all. Just talk about it. And he refused and repeatedly threaten to leave if they didn’t let him repeat his well worn spiel on economics.
if you’re going to ignore people and not ask them for their vote then don’t be surprised when you lose none homogenous states.
karen marie
@David Koch: While I hear what you say, the analogy doesn’t justify the behavior. If you treat your imperfect allies this way, you’re going to find yourself alone.
raven
@Major Major Major Major: Good way to gum up your weapon with tape residue.
Mnemosyne (tablet)
@MBunge:
It may be hidebound and old-fashioned of me but, yes, I do expect politicians to be more mature and level-headed than the general run of citizens. That should be why they were elected. Diva behavior and a refusal to talk to the “little people” they claim to want to represent is a big red flag to me. YMMV, of course.
Edited to correct autocorrect. Fucking autocorrect.
David Koch
@efgoldman: only 3 senators have ever gone straight to the WH. amazing stat. (Obama, JFK, Harding). I saw a historian interviewed on his book on presidential speeches and he said Harding was one the greatest orators, he said people don’t know it because it wasn’t recorded on tape.
ruemara
@Baud: Then don’t correct me about the use of the Democratic Party D. The party itself as well as liberals & progressives take the black vote for granted.
@karen marie: That’s too damned bad. All you have to do is listen. When Act-Up & Code Pink were heckling Obama, it was cool. When the Dreamers called him deporter in chief, it was ok. Constant calls for Obama to find his balls and use executive orders; I recall saying the rhetoric on my supposed side was becoming a little eye-opening and damaging to the coalition that gets Dems votes. But this will make your allies leave you alone? Ok.
Gimlet
@ruemara:
And your sarcasm implies it isn’t.
Bernie is running for President. Obama IS President. And he has 1-1/2 years remaining.
Patrick
@David Koch:
When Sanders was invited, was he asked by the organizers to talk about economics?
raven
agents provocateurs?
Baud
@ruemara:
If you want to make that argument, then use Webb. He’s far worse and at least he calls himself a D.
Keith G
@ruemara:
Go right ahead.
I am near enough near the end of time at this rodeo that the political party of the next president (and therefore the makeup of the Supreme Court, etc) will cause no drastic alterations to the trajectory of my life – or the lives of the children that I do not have.
I do think that there are tens of millions of young folks of all shapes and sizes, orientations and colors who do desperately need a Democratic president in office.
But yeah, sure. Leave the process. Hell vote for Jeb if you really want to punish those nasty Dems – and those tens of millions of kids.
Omnes Omnibus
@raven: But also a good way to keep a 20 y/o John Cole from accidentally discharging his weapon. Look at the damage 11ACR did to their own ammo supply.*
* I worked with 2ACR when I was in the army. My battalion was one of their direct support units.
Gimlet
@raven:
Thought about that too. Whose?
Major Major Major Major
@Baud: Ooh, I’ll add that one to the list next time :P
I’m just being playful, everybody. It’s a hot Sunday in San Francisco so there may have been substances consumed. Assume no ill will.
Mnemosyne (tablet)
@Gimlet:
Yes, militarization of police, police abuse of minority communities, and disparate treatment of African-Americans didn’t exist before Obama took office. Damn that Obama and his power to completely alter this country, which had nothing but a long history of racial harmony and equal treatment under the law before Obama came along!
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@efgoldman: I think it’s the downside of the blunt-speaking curmudgeon persona that I suspect is part of his appeal, and of representing a very small, very white state. Also, it seems to me that Sanders is more a hedgehog than a fox.
David Koch
@karen marie: No. You have to ask people for their vote. That’s Tip O’Neill’s axiom. You have make direct appeal. That is how JFK won over Protestants. That is how Obama won over whites. You can’t expect Latinos and Blacks who face deportation and murder by cop to flock to someone who ignores them just because he rants against citizens united.
Belafon
@MBunge:
Because they felt that what they are concerned about isn’t getting any coverage.
I’m working on finding one. Does anyone know his schedule?
I’m not arguing that they have no downside, especially when they make people uncomfortable that otherwise don’t want to address the issue being brought up. But, whose problem is that?
wasabi gasp
@ruemara: What would you like to hear from him? What would you like to have him do as president?
Belafon
@efgoldman:
Would those words ever have come out of their mouths?
Gimlet
@Mnemosyne (tablet):
And what did Obama do about these well-known abuses. He certainly has the power to do something.
And I did not say they started with Obama just that his JD was aware of them and has continually made up excuses for not doing anything about it.
raven
@Gimlet: Aha, that is the question. At the Republican Convention in Miami in 72 they had “The Negroes for Nixon”!
A guy
Black lives matter to all. All lives matter to all. And if blacks can’t accept that then their opinions don’t matter
srv
@Gimlet: Only a wrinkled white savior can save us now.
Major Major Major Major
@Gimlet: Nah, just tactically disadvantaged activists.
There’s not much good activist training for my generation, alas. I do security for disobedience actions sometimes, and if we didn’t drill it into their skulls, half the protesters would turn violent as soon as the cops showed up. Part of being loud is knowing when to shut up.
raven
@Omnes Omnibus: Fuck, I ets’d 6 weeks BEFORE I was 20!
David Koch
Whitest States Rankings:
# 1 Vermont: 96.6 %
# 2 Maine: 96.3 %
# 3 New Hampshire: 95.7 %
# 4 West Virginia: 95 %
# 5 South Dakota: 94 %
# 6 Iowa: 93.8 %
It will be his early strength, but also his ultimate undoing.
Major Major Major Major
@A guy: I also like pie! Thanks for sharing.
Gimlet
@raven:
I continually think of the parallel to the “Dean Scream” because as a self-described socialist he is a threat to the powers that be.
napoleon
Fuck those assholes that did that. Seriously, fuck them. What a bunch of gibberish spouting morons.
karen marie
@ruemara: Cool with who?
ksmiami
@ruemara: I actually think Hillary is the most likely to preserve and extend Obama’s legacy, so that’s where my money and vote will go (also see Supreme Court) but to be honest, Bernie Sander’s campaign is the worst in white liberal privilege because he is a throw away candidate like Nader – to clarify, the people who want the Bern are the people most likely to remain unaffected by his inevitable flame out – they’ll be ok, but many nameless people will be hurt. To me Bernie is unaffordable.
John Cole
@Major Major Major Major: The tape went over both m16 and .45 magazines.
Gimlet
@srv:
That’s just weird.
Major Major Major Major
@John Cole: Did you have a rifle? That’s the real burning question in this thread.
raven
@John Cole: Over the rounds? I saw plenty of magazines taped together for quick loading but they made you put tape over the rounds and then insert the magazine in the weapon? Woozer.
Mnemosyne (tablet)
@Gimlet:
You mean other than getting minimum sentencing laws changed, commuting the sentences of nonviolent drug offenders, and starting up DOJ investigations of abusive police departments?
Yes, Bush did so much better at healing our racial divide that Obama should be embarrassed by his paltry efforts. Remind me, what exactly did Bush do better on this topic than Obama has? I’m sure you have a list ready for us.
MBunge
@Belafon: But, whose problem is that?
It’s the protestors problem if they actually want their protest to accomplish anything.
Mike
Wallace Winfrey
I was extremely sympathetic to #BLM, but I’m pretty sure they just jumped the shark, Netroots Nation too. Sigh. Disruptive spectacle should have a specific point, specific goals. Seems like they were just there with their normal message, which I support, but the whole thing just seemed really ill-conceived.
Keith G
@Belafon:
He will be at Hofheinz Pavilion (basketball 9,000 seats) U of Houston at 7:00 – CDT – one hour from now.
Going?
You can park at my place and walk.
Edited
Gimlet
@Mnemosyne (tablet):
I can not make you see something you will not see.
raven
Here is a reference to tape over the rounds in a book about patrolling the DMZ in Korea in the 90s.
Nuckingfuts.
karen marie
@Wallace Winfrey: Well, as I was informed elsewhere, if people acting like five-year-olds alienates you, you’re no ally. You are not the boss of them.
MazeDancer
The Netroots protest was nothing compared to what has followed on Twitter. Black Twitter is a force now unleashed.
Rage – wild screaming rage. Which is easy to understand. Because people want to be able to live their lives and not fear being killed because of skin color. And the fact that they can’t in 2015 America is absurd, insane, and must stop.
But the rage is blow torching everything. People screaming why can’t I speak AAEV and still be tops in my profession. (Like people of all skin colors don’t have to compromise and fit in one has to make to get to the top in mainstream capitalism.)
Do I understand the rage? One thousand percent. There was no angrier feminist back in the day than me. Do I find it a little armchair warrior to flame tweet? Yes. But understand doing it. Indulge in it sometimes myself, but always look for solutions, too.
But do not understand why the attack starts and stays with Progressives. Who are now the uppity and privileged enemy. It feels a little like, well, Progressives won’t hurt you. OTOH, I can understand anger that supporters like Progressives haven’t made things change fast enough. But we Progressives have a lot of issues we can’t make change fast enough. Just ask the President how hard it is to make change.
So, I’m torn between yelling “Right on!” and not knowing what to do. Maybe that’s a productive place.
I have long wondered why there has been no revolution in the streets, maybe it’s time has come. If the American Dream is dead because there is soon either .001% vs everyone else working too damn hard, revolution may seem more attractive. Maybe it be peaceful. Like, say, an election.
Bernie is now tweeting Black Lives Matter things.
And, like Baud, I do not understand using the BLM acronym. And find it a little Eastern centric and tone deaf. Bureau of Land Management does not have a long term great track record for the Native population.
Mike J
@Major Major Major Major:
Somehow Leahay in the US Senate, Welch in the US House, and governor Shumlin all overcame this difficulty and managed to publicly utter the words, “I am a Democrat.” Even in the Vermont Senate, which has three members who aren’t Republicans or Democrats, every member claims to be a member of a party.
Mnemosyne (tablet)
@Gimlet:
I see reality. You see Magic Sparkle Pony Land and will always be angry that reality does not conform to your fantasy world where Obama is a Magic Negro who could totally fix 300+ years of racial inequality all by himself if he just wished and hoped and prayed hard enough.
Baud
@MazeDancer:
FWIW, I don’t think it was intentional. Black Lives Matter is just too long a name for the Twitter universe we live in.
MBunge
@Mnemosyne (tablet): I do expect politicians to be more mature and level-headed than the general run of citizens.
We’re not talking about general citizens. We’re talking about politically active people who are theoretically trying to achieve a change in the status quo. For those folks “Do as I say, not as I do” seems like a questionable approach.
Mike
Mary G
I think the Democratic party is often guilty of paying more lip attention to black issues than actually doing things about them. I would be fed up if I was black, too. Sometimes you have to yell to be heard.
In addition, a nationwide voter drive, with assistance in running over the obstacles the Republicans keep trying to put up in getting registered, etc., would be helpful. Politicians respond to votes.
Bernie could author a bill that people convicted of felonies must be allowed to vote in federal elections.
John, I know your personality makes you see these things amongst Democrats as circular firing squads, but I see them as more of a feature than a bug. Civility is overrated. MLK wouldn’t have gotten much done if he’d just written guest op eds in the NYT. He had to hit the streets and go to jail in Birmingham before he could write that amazing letter of his.
Omnes Omnibus
@MazeDancer:
If that is happening, then the protest was effective.
wasabi gasp
@Mnemosyne (tablet): That is Bernie’s job.
Wallace Winfrey
@karen marie: Well, to respond to those who pointed it out elsewhere, if pointing out silly, ill-conceived tactics disqualifies me from being their ally, then I guess I’ll just have to cope. (edited to reflect deeper understanding of thing I was replying to).
Gimlet
@Mnemosyne (tablet):
You have an uncanny ability to get inside my head and then tell me all my unspoken thoughts.
hamletta
I thought Code Pink were a bunch of assholes who helped no one and nothing, and I feel the same about this shitshow.
I don’t even get why you’d bother with presidential candidates. The president has no say over police procedures and training; that’s a local issue. Then you need a decent Congress to address federal laws and sentencing guidelines.
Is BLM solely a protest movement, or are they doing stuff like voter registration and GOTV? Community organizing and education?
mtiffany
@Belafon:
Weren’t O’Malley and Sanders supposed to take questions at their NN appearances? I thought that was the whole point of Netroots?
EmanG
One thing the story about the Black Lives Matter incident tends to overlook is Bernie then went and gave a speech to over 12,000 people! Seriously. In Arizona. 12,000 people. My wife and several of my friends went and said it was an amazing event. Bernie is calling for revolution, and, as he’s the only one speaking truth to power, he’s got my ear for now.
Keith G
@Mnemosyne (tablet): To be fair, there have been writers (both of minority communities and not) who expressed opinions that this administration seemed to have done better at making the bank whole and better off than other, more needful, segments of our society. I have seen opinion writers from these communities wrestle with the conflict of not wanting to be a critical voice while at the same time wanting more done.
Of, course in the last nine months we have seen a more activist president.
A very good thing.
Wallace Winfrey
@hamletta: I don’t even get why you’d bother with presidential candidates. The president has no say over police procedures and training; that’s a local issue. Then you need a decent Congress to address federal laws and sentencing guidelines.
The response is probably bully pulpit and all that, because as we’ve seen with Obama’s response to the mass shootings and all the ensuing common-sense changes in gun laws that followed, that totally makes a difference.
Tree With Water
@Wallace Winfrey: I consider it more of a dust up. The chaos of ’68 democratic convention in Chicago informs me that assemblies of any partisan group can survive their own inevitable schisms, no matter how raukus. Put enough smart and politically engaged people together, and there will be fireworks. I wouldn’t have it any other way, as the political stakes for the entire planet are in play, and incalculable..
Keith G
@Gimlet:
That’s her special gift.
David Koch
@EmanG: Howard Dean had huge crowds in 2004.
karen marie
@Wallace Winfrey: Those are actual responses I got from several different people with whom I attempted to have a discussion regarding why I thought making Sanders out to be an unrepentant racist was not the best move. Apparently PoC don’t need the help of no honkies to achieve the change they (I thought it was “we” but I’ve been told I am incorrect) desire.
That being said, the ridiculous, ignorant assertions of a few doesn’t change the fact that institutional racism is a serious problem that needs to be fixed sooner than later.
Major Major Major Major
@EmanG: Hell, I’ve given a speech to 12,000 people and I wasn’t even running for president, just introducing somebody.
Davis X. Machina
@Gimlet: Bernie is absolutely no threat to the powers that be. Not unless there’s a dramatic shift in the composition of Congress, and another 2007/08 sized economic meltdown.
We had U3 over 25%, and U6 pushing 50%, in the early 1930’s, and we came out of the decade as capitalist as when we went in, except around the margins — palliative, ameliorative, incremental measures, in many cases less thoroughgoing than what we had done in wartime (nationalized railroads in WW) or what other industrialized countries had already done.
We were not even close to that level of immiseration six years ago, never mind today.
Bernie’s getting traction precisely because he’s not that dangerous.
hamletta
Actually, no. That’s left up to the states. If you want to change that, you have to lobby your state lege. Your state ACLU is most likely on it right now.
Paula
Progressives (online at least) seem like they are getting a taste of what they’ve been dishing out — and they’re calling on the same arguments that they’ve found so repugnant coming from so-called Obama bots. Pretty shocking, and yet not.
But seriously, if you want to be a serious presidential candidate you need to learn how to take hits. Bernie needs to learn how to take hits constructively, clearly.
But maybe the larger point is that no one freaking candidate is a magic pony. They all have blind spots, need to be pushed on some things, and are ultimately corralled by the political realities in which they operate, and that it’s up to groups of people to make policy changes rather than placing all hopes on the magic of electoral politics. I’d really love for that to be the lesson here.
dogwood
I think there is a real difference between a dedicated disciplined activist movement and a protest movement. BLM is in its early stages and we’ll see what direction it takes. Do they want to be Code Pink or do they want to participate in the process? Right now in Washington there are actual criminal justice reform activists who have been working for years to get some federal sentencing reform, and at last there might be a chance that the work will come to fruition. Last week I heard Boehner say that he intended to bring the SAFE ACT to the floor of the House. And if and when this happens, all the usual suspects will say what what took them so long and it isn’t enough. As if the bill was simply thrown together in the last few months. It’s not a coincidence that Obama commuted those sentences and went to the prison last week. And it’s absurd to think he just started caring about.
Davis X. Machina
@Wallace Winfrey: The Justice Dept. can do a lot, esp. the Civil Rights Division. Their record has generally been good — it would help if the Senate would actually confirm someone to run it in a timely way.
JPL
@raven: The average days that the Atlanta area has temps over 90, is 32. Are we there yet? A friend who moved here in the late nineteen eighties, asked if we had so many continuous days like this. I know it gets hot but this weather is making me grumpy.
Paula
Also, this episode shows why the socialist line of thinking and speaking is inadequate to addressing issues here in the U.S. People who talk the line of everything being only about class and economics really don’t understand intersectionality. I though Sanders would know better, but as of right now he clearly doesn’t.
ruemara
@Baud: He’s not even an entity and thanks for the derailment. Sanders is the progressive hero who thinks racism is over.
@Keith G: If you can’t even speak to us running for office, how are you making things better when you get into office. I’ve been hearing for years that the whole but what if a republican gets into office and destroys things argument is weak, ineffectual and a stalking horse. Hey, maybe the purer on the left are right. Guess it’s not ok when I throw that around just like my progressive betters. Too bad.
@MazeDancer: Yes, where he got names wrong and had to delete the #sayhername tweet. He might want to at least contract with a negro to progressive ambassador.
Linnaeus
@Davis X. Machina:
Good point. Any traction he does get won’t be enough.
jon
Clinton just has to sit back and do nothing offensive to win the nomination. The rest of them have to make noise and be among the people and get into situations where this kind of thing happens. This advantage would be completely unfair if it wasn’t also something she worked her ass off in past years to obtain.
Honus
@Major Major Major Major: M16? They gave him a fucking tank!
Tree With Water
@Paula: “But maybe the larger point is that no one freaking candidate is a magic pony”.
No maybe about it. I recall reading that Lincoln’s floor manger at the republican convention of 1860 counseled his partisans, “The less said about Lincoln’s religion, the better”.
divF
@John Cole: Back in the 80’s I used to go to the NASA research center at Moffett Field NAS. The Marine guards at the main gate were armed with pistols, but minus the magazines. The story was that someone had gotten a little too eager and discharged a firearm without adequate cause, leading to that state of affairs.
Mnemosyne (tablet)
@Keith G:
I suspect that Gimlet is a long-time troll who keeps coming back under new names to complain about how disappointing Obama is. Dare I guess that he’s a painter who owns two dogs?
MazeDancer
@Omnes Omnibus:
Absolutely, Bernie now speaking about Black Lives Matter, and the horror of what happened to Sandra Bland, is, indeed a good outcome of the protest. And people on Twitter are saying same.
(Though as ruemara noted, he could have done it better and with some advice.)
But all day, so many talented people on Twitter now just screaming their heads off. Hoping all this talent and rage can be turned to productivity and not just screw you, Democrats, don’t take our votes for granted.
No one’s vote should be taken for granted. And not saying don’t be angry. Maybe saying, of course, be angry. But not “only” angry. We have to work together somehow.
mtiffany
@karen marie:
Yeah, it was a fun day to be on Twitter.
Baud
@ruemara:
I didn’t derail a thing. I hold it against Bernie that he’s not a Democrat, so I don’t like my party being criticized for things he does. If he gets the nom, then maybe you have a point.
David Koch
@hamletta: maybe Sanders could apologize for voting for Bill Clinton’s infamous Mass Incarceration bill that created the prison industrial complex and pledge to to repeal it as president.
raven
@JPL: We were laughing about that last night when the weather was on and they were going on about how hot it’s been. Seems to us it’s always like this but they say no.
JPL
@Linnaeus: Is he really getting traction? I haven’t seen one poll showing that he is closing in.
I think the mistake that people make on black lives matter is that blacks are more likely to die young. Of course, all lives matter but the truth of the situation, is that blacks are more likely to be stopped and pulled out of their cars then whites.
Gimlet
@Davis X. Machina:
Bernie is absolutely no threat to the powers that be. Not unless there’s a dramatic shift in the composition of Congress, and another 2007/08 sized economic meltdown.
Bringing those ideas into the public domain and tieing them to social justice which everybody likes is scary to the powers that be.
Because even though Bernie may not bring them to pass, like gay marriage the ideas gain momentum by being out in public and going word-of-mouth through water cooler and family groups.
Sly
The reaction of Sanders supporters is all the evidence you need as to why the disruption was 100% necessary.
I like him quite a bit. But his most rabid acolytes are absolute dickholes who put the patronizing obnoxium of 2008 PUMAs to shame.
cokane
@Mary G: No, he can’t author such a bill, because voting laws are done on a state by state basis. States decide who is eligible to vote within certain parameters defined in the Constitution.
rikyrah
Black people are the base of the Democratic Party.
If you can’t answer questions that are of interest to us, you need to take your ass on home.
The Bernie-stans were in particular vicious on Twitter towards Elon James White (This Week in Blackness).
Elon is no Black Panther.
He’s not even a Black Panther-wannabe.
He is, however, out of PHUCKS-TO-GIVE.
If you can’t handle the logical questions of Elon James White…
you need to sit down and STFU.
And, the entire, ‘ folks just need jobs’ approach by Bernie is tireseome.
How would a job have helped Tamir Rice?
How would a job have helped Trayvon Martin?
Sandra Bland was in Texas because she had just landed her DREAM JOB.
The PROBLEM, is the attack on Black people by the POLICE.
And, it’s a valid problem.
I’ve said several times….
That Pookey and Ray-Ray don’t believe in law enforcement should not bother you.
That I, and countless other college and higher degreed Blacks believe in law enforcement on the same level as Pookey and Ray-Ray IS the problem.
If it’s all about ‘just having a job’,
then take a look at this video from Mr. Bougie himself, Lawrence Otis Graham, on the dresscode and other rules that he has imposed on his children.
Between him and his wife, they have FOUR Harvard Degrees.
He ends his video:
youtu.be/EfeS-GYnuj0
The first time I watched the video, I was rolling my eyes throughout the entire piece, until that last line…
and, then I realized that I was crying.
Show me where a WHITE couple with FOUR Harvard degrees, has EVER expressed anything like this.
I believed that Trayvon was an 8.5 quake on the San Andreas fault for Black parents….I stand by that.
Gimlet
@Mnemosyne (tablet):
Damn. I didn’t even know that about me.
David Koch
@MazeDancer: funny how white privileged bloggers who were so furious and outraged over telephone metadata now think blacks should chill out become productive.
raven
@divF: Minus magazine IN them or anywhere?
ruemara
@rikyrah: It’s like talking to rocks. Worried more about slandering the party or about if we think Bernie’s racist.
If I didn’t believe most people were good, I’d give up.
Linnaeus
@JPL:
Even if he does close, it’s not going to matter much. There’s too much ground to make up and if he were a serious contender, he’d face a lot more aggressive opposition. Clinton’s not saying much about him because she knows she doesn’t have to, even if he picks up a few points here and there.
JPL
@rikyrah: I don’t blame you. If only they had said all lives matter but reality tells us………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… and we need to change that.
raven
It don’t mean shit any fucking way. The old goat ain’t winning shit.
Baud
@raven:
Yep.
MomSense
Sanders also needs to do something like the equivalent of Camp Obama because some of his supporters are going out of their way to be horrible to BlackLivesMatter organizers and activists.
The Democratic Party is a coalition party. You cannot insult a core constituency and expect to win the nomination.
Linnaeus
@JPL:
I’d say don’t even do the “all lives matter, but…” It just comes across as insulting people’s intelligence.
JPL
@raven: See, I told you the hot weather makes some grumpy. Actually, I said me.. but Bqhatevwr
ruemara
Despite starting as a solid Sanders supporter, I’m now hoping Biden enters the game. I agree more with Sanders, but Biden doesn’t make me feel like a grubby peon daring to ask for a bit of his attention.
David Koch
@rikyrah: x1,000,000
MomSense
@David Koch:
I noticed that too.
Baud
@MomSense:
A portion of Sanders supporters are anti-establishment people who couldn’t care less about any liberal value or Democratic constituency.
Wallace Winfrey
@Davis X. Machina: Until the Justice Dept. has some sort of measurable influence on DAs and grand juries and state laws sanctioning (and in some cases, encouraging) consequence-free murder perpetrated by the police, then it’s my belief that all the USDOJ court-mandated oversight in the world is gonna wind up being pretty inconsequential.
If one had to guess at the most common outcome of police shooting unarmed citizens, black or not, from my vantage point it looks like that most common outcome is a 2-week vacation otherwise known as paid administrative leave.
ksmiami
@rikyrah: Heard, agreed, sad that African Americans have contributed so much to America and America has just done so many wrongs to Black people. From numbing racism, to endemic, systemic poverty and violence etc. That is why I believe that Clinton is the best option to carrying on Obama’s legacy and any hope for a change to our outrageous 2 tiered “justice” system. At this time, Sanders is an unaffordable fantasy candidate and not even a Democratic candidate
Mike J
@MazeDancer:
Really? I didn’t see anything remotely related.
Kathleen
Since when is NN a bastion of civility at all times? Didn’t past NN participants heckle Pelosi and a rep from Obama Administration?
ruemara
@Mike J: He (really, his staffer) deleted it. Could not get the names correct and was probably mocked.
@Kathleen: those were the correct type of protesters (not black)
David Koch
@raven: you don’t think someone who is 75 years old and looks like guy from Back to the Future can’t win a national election?
but, but… bully pulpit.
Keith G
@Mnemosyne (tablet): William Wegman?
Davis X. Machina
@Gimlet: Gay marriage cost which people who matter how much money again?
Omnes Omnibus
@David Koch: @MomSense: Hey, I was up in arms about metadata, but I have no problem with the BLM protests. Then again, generalizing is fun.
Davis X. Machina
@Wallace Winfrey: No other democracy — Germany sort of comes close — has as decentralized a police force, and criminal justice system, that we have.
The Home Secretary, or whatever they’re calling him these days, can make that kind of change. An AG can’t — and it’s baked in.
hamletta
@MomSense:
Oh, yeah. I watched the Twitters last night, and some of those people were horrible. But probably not much worse than Deaniacs and PUMAs.
Still tacky, tho.
raven
@JPL: I ain’t grumpy but I can tell time.
Davis X. Machina
@ruemara: MBNA. That’s all you have to say. Or at least in True Progressive circles.
dn
What @Jim, Foolish Literalist said. I’m a white person; I like Bernie, think he’s generally on the right side of things, and his curmudgeonly style has a lot of appeal to me personally. But his crowd is a very white crowd, and his framing of everything along classic white-populist lines (i.e. “little people vs. big corporations”) is a message that’s tailored to appeal to white people more than to POC. I saw him speak in Madison and while the big crowd was awesome, it was honestly quite disappointing to see so few POC among them. He did get big applause for his few lines about police reform and other such issues, but it was clearly not at the center of his agenda (though I did appreciate his mentioning of seldom-discussed issues such as youth unemployment and its disparate impact on POC).
In any case, this whole thing is looking pretty familiar to me. Earlier this year Madison had some serious angst over the local BLM organization carrying out some pretty disruptive protests along the same lines – during the mayoral election they used a similar tactic of interrupting debates, and our incumbent Mayor Paul Soglin, who’s a Sanders type, responded in pretty much the same way.
Wallace Winfrey
@MomSense: #BlackLivesMatter is now the official voice of a certain core constituency of the Democratic Party and having a message not explicitly tailored to their (valid) concerns is an insult?
Major Major Major Major
@Davis X. Machina: Gay people. Weddings are expensive! And neither of us even went full husbandzilla about it.
David Koch
@Kathleen: Hillary was booed in 2007. Bill Clinton was heckled in 2009. Pelosi was heckled in 2013. Barney Frank was heckled in 2014. Dan Pfeiffer (President’s Communications Director) was mercilessly attacked in 2011. Martin O’Malley was heckled yesterday.
And with that long tradition, they’re all of the sudden shocked, outraged, beside themselves and offended because it happened to their populist Messiah.
mtiffany
@rikyrah:
Glad you mentioned it, because Senator Sanders addressed the issue of police militarization and violence towards black people on the Ed Show in August of 2014
youtu.be/U51lixGY7Nw
Davis X. Machina
@Gimlet:
Jesse Jackson did that, twice, near thirty years ago.
Everyone who’s drawing parallels with Dean is focusing on geography, not politics.
The Sanders campaign is the Rainbow Coalition, in shades of white.
Gimlet
@Davis X. Machina:
No.
Polls indicate Gay marriage was unpopular x number of years ago but became popular with time and presumably being in the public eye.
Nothing to do with the powers that be, just an analogy.
Linnaeus
@dn:
Thing is, it wouldn’t take a whole lot to make that populist message appeal to people of color, which Sanders could then use as a springboard to talking about issues that aren’t primarily about economics. But Sanders seems to be acting like his message is self-evidently one for people of color too, and that’s really a mistake.
Patricia Kayden
Secretary Clinton was smart to skip Net Roots and I gather that politicians will be avoiding it like the plague in the future. Black Lives Matter is an important movement but you don’t get your point across by being rude and disruptive especially to people who are already on your side.
Now because of what happened yesterday, there is a twitter war between supporters of the disruptive crew and Bernie Sanders’ supporters.
Sigh.
Major Major Major Major
@efgoldman: Yes, they still use blue books, but you can get exceptions for various disabilities, learning or otherwise.
Well, ten years ago at least. Anybody younger around?
Mnemosyne (tablet)
@David Koch:
At this point, I’d say it’s traditional for politicians to be heckled at Netroots Nation.
Ruckus
@John Cole:
After one of my fellow sailors forgot to rack his .45 to clear the chamber upon accepting it from the previous watch and then fired the weapon, we were no longer allowed to carry it loaded with safety on. We still have had to cock it to fire but now we had to load and rack it as well. But then no one tried to board and storm the ship so the two .45s being carried on each watch never were needed. As I’ve said before not everyone is qualified to carry a weapon and we were “trained.”
I think this is why people misunderstand the military, they don’t know that the military understands that a bunch of people with guns and ammo, someone is going to get dead.
Baud
@Linnaeus:
He’s coming off as one-dimentional. He may be excellent in that dimension, but it’s not enough.
MomSense
@Omnes Omnibus:
Obviously not everyone, but you should see the situation on Twitter. Same with drones and closing Guantanamo.
divF
@raven: In them. I don’t know if they the magazine on them or elsewhere.
Patricia Kayden
@raven: True. I have nothing against Sanders but never thought he’d win the Primaries anyways although he appears to have moved Secretary Clinton to the left.
raven
@JPL: This is, however, one of my favorite shirts. They are out of business now but back in the day I got some great parts from them.
Major Major Major Major
@Ruckus:
No, that’s why a lot of people misunderstand guns. They assume the military is fully-loaded all the time and if they can do it, well why can’t the rest of us?
raven
@divF: They proly had some ammo some where near by.
Linnaeus
@Baud:
I agree. I think the dimension that he emphasizes is very important and should continue to be, but it isn’t enough by any means.
David Koch
@mtiffany: then he should have had no problem saying that yesterday and engaging the protestors, instead of ignoring them and leaving.
raven
@Major Major Major Major: I always love the big NO GUNS sign when I go to the VA!
Omnes Omnibus
@Ruckus: I know I had soldiers who would have managed to shoot themselves in the ass and kill a couple of buddies if live ammo was available outside a shooting range.
J R in WV
@Major Major Major Major:
That’s pretty cool. My Grand-Dad only had one leg, and so his coolness was in other arenas. He walked to work on his crutches, so I walked to school seeing his footprint and parentheses, from the crutches, in the snow.
He was an organic gardener back in the 50s, but couldn’t maneuver a wheelbarrow, so I emptied his compost pile onto the garden. Then he turned the whole garden over with a spade, hopping on and off the spade once for each square foot of the garden. He was very cool!
But having pictures of your granddad working above the hoop a long time ago, that’s really cool !!
The photo is amazing! Everyone should see it!
srv
Burn him:
ruemara
@Linnaeus: It’s not just that he thinks his message fits the issues of people of color; there’s a level of exasperated condescension about it too. The air is thick with “you’re just so stupid and ignorant, which is why you don’t get why this will be dealt with as a general problem”. His supporters are effectively terrible at helping you support Sanders.
raven
@Omnes Omnibus: I had some officers that needed to be. . . uh, never mind.
Omnes Omnibus
@MomSense: I see what happening on twitter.
MazeDancer
@Mike J:
Bernie’s Campaign time line – not Senate one – has his tweets.
Not linking because, while I may have plenty of Socialist leanings, I don’t want to be mistaken as a supporter of his candidacy or a defender of his poor handling of the protest.
@ruemara: Share your wishing the Veep was in the race.
I think of Mr. Biden as a Dem Safety Net. If the press manages to fulfill their desire to sabotage Hillary – or the Big Dawg does something to help that – we got no fallbacks in Martin and Bernie. So it will be Biden to the rescue. He can even come in at the last minute if necessary.
Joel
@Paula: reminds me of this scene from a hilariously bad movie…
m.youtube.com/watch?v=0vtuPVrI2Bo
Napoleon
@Wallace Winfrey:
I couldn’t have said it better. There is nothing BLM will say from this point forward I will even listen to.
And yes, all lives matter.
lol
@srv:
I can’t imagine why a community grappling with gun violence would have issues with a Senator opposed to gun control.
Tree With Water
@rikyrah:
“..How would a job have helped Tamir Rice?
How would a job have helped Trayvon Martin?
Sandra Bland was in Texas because she had just landed her DREAM JOB.
The PROBLEM, is the attack on Black people by the POLICE..”.
And black America can indeed fairly be called the democratic base. The party should acknowledge that a state of war exists between the two groups, and offer up some solutions. I would favor a mandatory review by the U.S. Justice Department of all police shootings, or at the very least, those shootings that result in a citizen’s death. It would be a start, anyway.
ruemara
@Napoleon: Then you don’t get why Black Lives Matter was ever created. Hint: it’s not because they don’t think all lives matter.
Mike J
@MazeDancer: Thanks for the pointer.
lol
@Napoleon:
BLM: “My mom died.”
Sanders: “Lots of moms died today.”
Thanks for the Bernsplaination.
GHayduke (formerly lojasmo)
These are clearly not “good working class white people”
/HRC
mtiffany
@David Koch:
And here’s where the two sides have our fundamental disagreement: the protesters’ side believes that Sanders and O’Malley should have addressed the issue but somehow knew to an absolute certainty they were never going to, and people like me believe that we don’t know if they would have addressed the issue because they weren’t given the chance because they kept getting interrupted.
gwangung
@Wallace Winfrey: What are the people of “Black Lives Matter” concerned about? Is it a theoretical, abstract argument? Or a day to day, concrete one? And do you think it encompasses a great deal of the the black community?
Think about that for a second
David Koch
“I was all for civil rights until they decided to tie up traffic on the Edmund Pettus bridge, now the hell with them” ~ Bernie Sanders supporters.
Omnes Omnibus
@ruemara: I always assumed that the word “too” was to be added mentally.
Joel
@ruemara: I’m ambivalent about Sanders. A national politician needs charisma and he lacks it. I understand that challenging times have people reaching, but we’ve been through this rodeo before. At the end of the day, Kerry was and is a much better democrat, liberal, progressive, whatever, than Dean.
gwangung
@mtiffany: Um, sorry, but bullshit.
Baud
@Omnes Omnibus:
Yeah, it’s pretty obvious. “All lives matter” is a dumb retort.
Major Major Major Major
@J R in WV: Thanks :)
mtiffany
@gwangung: How is it — to use your word — bullshit? Explain to me how I’m wrong.
John Cole
@Major Major Major Major: My personal weapon was an M1911 .45.
John Cole
@raven: Yes. So you had to remove the magazine, remove the tape, reinsert the magazine, work the action, and then you could fire. Did not want accidental discharges. It was nuts.
I will also note that I carried a fucking protective mask every where I went all over Europe on my LBE, but when we get to fucking Kuwait it is required equipment. I shit you not.
Suzanne
I did not go to Netroots Nation, but I did go to the Sanders rally in Phoenix that was just a few hours later.
Sanders’ speech was very much a litany of problems and calls to action, and he specifically discussed racism in policing and punishing officers who commit crimes. That came at the end of the speech, when everyone was really pumped up, and from where I stood, those lines got the most applause of the night. And the crowd was pretty damn white.
I don’t know if it’s new for him to discuss race issues on the stump at all, but perhaps this incident is going to lead him to do so.
ruemara
@Omnes Omnibus: Protecting the feelings of a certain majority is of the gravest importance. Not the actual issue, just the feelings of the majority who might feel hurt that they explicitly aren’t being given a membership pass to a shitty club to be in.
I’m hoping to find that these allies with tender hearts are just pulling a major prank. I would have worked for “hard working people, white people” Hillary in the general if she was the nom. Just as many other people worked for and voted for white candidates who didn’t really give a damn about black people except as voters.
David Koch
#WhitePrivlegedLivesMatter
kc
@Omnes Omnibus:
LOL, sweet Jesus.
Linnaeus
@ruemara:
Yep – while I like his cantankerousness in certain contexts, it doesn’t work here and shows that he has problems recalibrating his message for the people he’s talking to.
David Dayen has a good take on the protest in the New Republic.
Major Major Major Major
@John Cole: Those are nice. You were an officer then? Lieutenant if I recall, but I could be wrong.
Omnes Omnibus
@kc: How am I wrong?
Gimlet
@David Koch:
#WhitePrivlegedLivesMatter
We already knew you felt that way Mr. Koch.
John Cole
@rikyrah: Did you write that here first or at Booman’s. :P
gwangung
@mtiffany: Because it’s bullshit. They had nothing to respond to the protestors because they STILL don’t have anything to say, even the next day. And you certainly don’t cancel smaller meetings where you could have presented what you had to say.
O’Malley and Sanders clearly were unprepared for what they faced, and frankly, it was on a matter that anyone with a political IQ over room temperature could have foreseen.
Tree With Water
@Joel: Could be. But Dean wasn’t stampeded by Bush-Cheney, and possessed the good sense to oppose the War in Iraq. The good sense which Kerry lacked, doubtless to his undying regret.
Omnes Omnibus
@Major Major Major Major: Tankers generally carry pistols. And many officers carry rifles.
Linnaeus
@Suzanne:
If Sanders is serious about correcting his missteps, then he needs to take that message to audiences that aren’t as self-selected.
ruemara
Give O’Malley credit. He said some dumb things including white lives matter – no wait, that was Sanders at another venue – all lives matter, but then he stuck around and faced some criticism with Elon James White and This Week in Blackness. And I’m sure he learned something he hadn’t known before at the end. I think that shows a willingness to engage and I like it.
Howard Beale IV
@Keith:
The GOP security apparatus will not allow a single BLM person within 500 ft of any venue.
rikyrah
@John Cole:
Actually, I wrote it as a post at the blog where I front page.
I spread the word. My thoughts haven’t changed on it.
Gimlet
@Linnaeus:
From a CNN transcript from Netroots yesterday. Sanders seems to respond but the protesters didn’t appear to want to hear a response.
After talking over one another, Sanders eventually ditched pre-planned remarks and tried to address questions from demonstrators.
“Black people are dying in this country because we have a criminal justice system which is out of control, a system in which over 50% of young African-American kids are unemployed,” Sanders said. “It is estimated that a black baby born today has a one in four chance of ending up in the criminal justice system.”
When Sanders cited the Affordable Care Act as a law he supported that helped people of color by making health insurance more accessible, one man shouted, “we can’t afford that!”
Before Sanders finished speaking, many of the protesters walked out on him toward exit doors in the back.
raven
@John Cole: Yea, the google hit a review of a book about the Korean DMZ in the 90’s and, apparently, some higher up thought that was a good idea. I guess it’s not that much different from grunts having to have a direct order to load their weapon in the bush but, damn, it’s some dumb shit.
Jordan Rules
A page from “Soul Survivors: An African American Spirituality” which excerpts from Ralph Wiley’s “Why Black People Tend to Shout…”
books.google.com/books?id=pdBTixQOtJAC&pg=PA119&lpg=PA119&dq=soul+survivor+wiley+shou…
Sorry for the ugly link. I wish more folks would respond to David Koch’s post at comment 13 from Eclectablog. Did that give anyone pause at all?
Provider_UNE_AndPlayersToBeHatedLater™
I simply love the smell of white people telling black folk not to be rude in the morning.
White people telling black folk how to behave…Priceless.
One might consider the fact that African Americans happen to have a special familiarity with subjects like income inequality and almost everything that falls under the social and economic equality tent. What some might say are right in Bernie’s wheelhouse.
Possibly the reason he was the chosen target.
I would be surprised if any of the white people telling black people how to act on this thread, have not, at some point, raised their own voices in anger when they felt they weren’t being heard.
Anyway, interesting thread. Do carry on.
…
gwangung
@Linnaeus:
Moreover, POC do face problems that don’t yield quickly to the populist messages he’s preaching; their problems are more immediate and more existential, and deflecting those concerns to economics is also a mistake.
Suzanne
@Linnaeus: True dat.
Anne Laurie
@Wallace Winfrey:
Not if part of the protest’s goal was to identify “spokespeople” to the MSM. Now the paid professionals have Oso’s, People’s, and Culler’s names on their digital-rolodex lists whenever a quote or an interview for any “Black Lives Matter” incident arises.
It may have been hard cheese on Jose Antonio Vargas/Martin O’Malley/NN, but it seems to have worked very well at achieving a larger microphone for the protest organizers.
Mike J
@Omnes Omnibus: My dad carried a pistol when he got stuck doing SP in New Orleans. Other than firing a .45 over the fantail, it was the only time he ever touched a weapon.
Major Major Major Major
@Omnes Omnibus: Fine, all I know about is the Air Force, shmeesh. (Haven’t served but family has, also an uncle who “worked for the state department” yet managed to mysteriously fall out of an airplane over Israel and lose his legs)
Kropadope
@David Koch: While Bernie has work to do with black voters, what the protesters did here was rude, both to the audience and to the candidates. People spent time organizing that event and did whatever they needed to do to have their questions asked of the candidates. Then from what John describes, the protesters barge in and make it all about them.
#BlackLivesMatter is working on a very important group of issues, but it’s sad to see them working in such a counter-productive fashion. Disrupting people who aren’t doing anything to harm you, who actually want to help you, is not the way to win friends and influence people.
mtiffany
@gwangung:
I didn’t know they both cancelled smaller meetings. Thank you for telling me. You’re right, that is a missed opportunity to get valuable feedback and to learn more abut what’s really important to the people that showed up. But I’m still not convinced that the protesters gave O’Malley and Sanders a fair hearing — they both got interrupted, so we don’t know what parts of their speeches they didn’t get to give.
raven
@Mike J: He most likely fired a weapon in basic.
Omnes Omnibus
@Major Major Major Major: Anecdata: During my four years as an artillery officer, my issued weapon was an M-16 for three years and a .45 for one.
Linnaeus
@gwangung:
Right – I’m just offering a possible path for him to get there, for what it’s worth.
Ruckus
@rikyrah:
This.
I like Bernie. He hits a lot of the right high notes. But let’s get real, he’s 73, he’s from a small state with one of the highest percentage of whites in the country. He’s never had to be elected by such a diverse group of voters as the national dem party. He may even understand the very long overdue needs of blacks. He has a long history of at least making the attempt and being in the right places. But that isn’t enough anymore. And never was in the first place. I’d bet that if the issues he speaks on are the ones that affect the listener the most, he will be heard and appreciated. But he is running to be there for everyone and the issues he seems to be willing to discuss are not the foremost issues to everyone that might vote for him. As you well know it does you no good to have a job if you get killed getting gas coming home from it by the police. It wouldn’t be any better if that job payed mid 6 figures and allowed you to own a nicer car, if you get harassed and killed for driving it. Or if you can’t sit on your front porch without the police attacking you and ransacking your house, just for being black. Or….. There are so many examples that it would take a book the size of War and Peace to come close to covering them all.
My bottom line is, if Bernie is running for president in this day and age, he should be prepared and willing to at least talk about the issues that are important to the voters he is addressing. He failed at that at NN. Maybe he can atone for that, not up to me to make that call. But it makes me believe that he isn’t up the the task.
raven
@Mike J: Navy Bootcamp
WEEK 4: LIVE FIRE
If you’ve never fired a weapon before, you’ll get your chance in week four. You will have the opportunity to train with the M-16 and a 12-gauge shotgun. When you’ve proven you know how to properly use both, you’ll move to the live-fire range. Graduation pictures are this week as well.
Now he was probably in a long time ago but the squids all had to have weapons training.
dogwood
@Baud:
“He’s coming off as one dimensional.”
He really is pretty one dimensional and not very self aware. I remember Senator Obama being asked about running for president and he was very clear that the question he needed to ask himself was whether he should BE president. I like Bernie just fine, but as I said yesterday, I would never vote for him because he isn’t suited for the job. Can any of his supporters really see him speaking ar Emanuel AME, or Tuscon, or Sandy Hook? Can anyone imagine him as head of a party he doesn’t belong to? I can’t even imagine him having the patience to do all that ceremonial stuff. Being a one trick pony is fine for a congressman or senator; it’s absolutely unacceptable for a president.
Provider_UNE_AndPlayersToBeHatedLater™
@Jordan Rules:
Re your reference to the link at dk’s13.
Good read, that dude gets it. Ill check yours later, when not on the phone.
…
Wally Ballou
@David Koch:
I go to civil rights rallies
And I put down the old DAR
I love Harry and Sidney and Sammy
I hope every colored boy becomes a star
But don’t talk about revolution
That’s going a little bit too far
So love me, love me,
Love me, I’m a liberal
David Koch
#BlackLivesMatter are the real racists
/Bernie-stans
Ruckus
@Major Major Major Major:
We really are saying the same thing. The military doesn’t allow people to carry loaded guns in situations that don’t require them to be fired. Or even unloaded guns in situations that do not require them. They do this because they know that if everyone has guns, people will get dead. The know that the only safe gun is one that not only won’t be fired but can’t be.
Omnes Omnibus
@Ruckus: The only truly safe gun is locked in the armory.
Ruckus
@raven:
It actually says no weapons of any kind. And I like it as well. Some vets are none too stable. Just like the general population.
Mike J
@raven: No doubt he did have some training in bootcamp. Once he joined the fleet, his primary connection to weapons was giving radar vectors to F4s and A7s. If we had ever attacked Italy, he would have been in the thick of it.
David Koch
No Justice, No Peace
(unless Sanders is talking then everyone has to bow on bended knee while the Messiah ignores them)
Ruckus
@raven:
No one E-6 and above ever walked on deck alone outside at night underway. Too risky.
pluege
John Cole, if you want to know what it’s all about, read Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Actually the protesters need to read it as well – even Adichie concedes a need for “Special White Friends”. Very good book – a good read and deep.
Ruckus
@Omnes Omnibus:
You stole my line, and after I didn’t use it!
Omnes Omnibus
@Ruckus: I can also do a good weekend safety briefing: Don’t drink and drive. And, remember, no glove, no love.
Anne Laurie
@Gimlet:
Permitting gay marriage cost the Koch brothers/Bank of America / Walmart nothing. Denying it was starting to get expensive, due to boycotts/bad publicity.
We’re nowhere near that tipping point on drawing attention to the disparate effects of militarizing the police on “minority” communities & individuals. In fact, it’s quite probable that reducing the ability of local “security forces” to treat “those people” as an inherently criminal class good only for fodder in the criminal (in)justice system would cost Our Ruling Classes money. While there’s so much money to be made locking up disproportionately poor people of color, the Invisible Hand’s impetus runs in the wrong direction for justice.
Ruckus
@raven:
In boot camp we fired a 22 at targets. I got expert. I never saw an M16 while I was in. I think I said this before here but we did fire off the flat end of the ship(for those pedantics among us that’s the fantail) under way about 12 miles out. You fired the weapon that you were assigned to carry. Me, a 45, 2 clips, rapid fire both then asked by the gunners mate if I was from NY. We also had Thompson 45 machine guns, like Al Capone, BAR, like Sgt Rock and some big things that rotated attached to the deck.
Anne Laurie
@Patricia Kayden:
I’m just very, very grateful the Secret Service wasn’t in the auditorium yesterday.
Which is what I said even before the conference, when people got all “How dare HRClinton not be there to let us speak truth to power directly?”
Anne Laurie
@Ruckus
“But if more people were trained to use chainsaws as a requirement for citizenship, there would be far fewer chainsaw accidents!” (/NRA)
And imagine how much tidier the general landscape would be, too!
micah616
Trayvon Martin, Freddie Grey, Sandra Bland, Michael Brown, and Eric Garner are all dead. Dylann Roof walked into a church and killed 9 people, yet he is very much alive and untouched.
For some of you, this is all politics and political theater. For many of us, especially us black folks, it’s about survival.
Matt McIrvin
@Ruviana: Exactly. O’Malley didn’t get as much grief because nobody gives a damn about O’Malley anyway.
Ruckus
@Anne Laurie:
I don’t know, trees with blood all over them is not a pretty picture.
I used to like guns. I used to own them, fire them, hunt with them. But this is a different time, there are more of us than there used to be, we live closer together, and we really don’t need them, at the very least carrying them around in any manner. We do that someone is going to end up dead. That’s not a very hard concept to understand, more guns = more dead. And no I don’t get points for pointing out the obvious. I would however get many bonus points for figuring out how to convince anyone who doesn’t already agree with me. For example I’ve also never convinced one person that they don’t need a full size jacked up, huge tired 4×4 to drive around town at 10 mpg. Or less.
GHayduke (formerly lojasmo)
@Gimlet:
He stopped the selling of surplus military weapons to police forces.
But you’re a fucking troll, so you don’t care about facts.
J R in WV
@Ruckus:
I had been standing duty for many months, when one night, some general orders somewhere had changed. When I showed up, the guy I was relieving handed me a loaded .45. Now I did stand watch at the main gangway, with the Officer of the Day, who was a NCO of some kind.
I was trained and knew how to use the gun. Hell, my Grandma taught me about guns, including her 1903 automatic .32 Colt (designed by Browning, very much the 45s) when I was a little kid.
But my primary responsibility, other than keeping the Cuban Army off the ship via the gangway, was to wake up the next watch standers in time for them to relieve the current duty shift. I couldn’t see the benefit in carrying a loaded .45 around in dark birthing compartments, at all.
I talked the OD into keeping the gun at the gangway, while I wandered around the (large) ship waking people up at 2 am. The next day I ahd the duty, the issue pistols were all gone. Hurray!
We were in Key West, and the Cubans were officially a dread enemy, so there was a little crazy sense to it. There were rocket launchers hidden all around Key West at the time, armed with tactical nukes, to stop the anticipated Cuban invasion!
1970-72, then we were to the yards for overhaul in Pascagoula, MS, which was worse. Then I got out, in ’73. Glad for the hard work, which put me in good physical shape, which has lasted me my whole life ever since. The Alabama crackers i worked for, though, OMG – what a cluster those guys were.
Anne Laurie
@Ruckus:
Well, that’s why I like the analogy. Nobody wants to pay for chainsaw training in their local schools, since chainsaws are spendy & dangerous & not one student in ten will ever need to so much as rent one. And enough people are acquainted with chainsaw accidents — at least by report — to shudder at the thought of volunteer tree-trimmers & bush-clippers bringing down prized specimens, sometimes on top of bystanders, roofs, passing cars, or power lines — not to mention the neighborhood arguments that would ensue about both beauty & utility. But chainsaws aren’t covered by the Second Amendment, so while they’re prized penis-enhancers they don’t have iconic status.
slag
@Gimlet:
This is the very definition of irony.: google.com/search?q=obama+justice+department+police+investigations&oq=obama+justice+department+…..69i57.10687j0j7&sourceid=chrome&es_sm=91&ie=UTF-8
different-church-lady
@Mary G:
The way he hit the streets and went to jail was the very model of civility.
Ruckus
@J R in WV:
Joined late 69. Charleston 71 and 72 on DDG. Then Long Beach NS, last 2 months on an LPH, they sprang me. Spent a few nights in Gitmo myself, summer of 71 we did 6 weeks war games, no water to shower or wash clothes. My in port watch on the DDG was sounding and security. Once in Copenhagen we had to keep the 45 under our jacket when we went on deck, so as not to annoy the citizens that we were armed. The logic of that on a warship bristling with large guns, missiles, and such escaped me.
different-church-lady
@mtiffany: I occurs to me that the blind spot in Sander’s statement is completely leaving out the systemic racism of the Ferguson PD, and other LEOs. Fixing economic inequality may help break down some of socio-economic disadvantage that is used against blacks, but it does nothing to solve the problem of blacks being targeted for abuse by the police. That is entirely a cultural issue, not an economic issue.
different-church-lady
@Napoleon:
Yes, all lives matter. But not all lives get treated like they don’t matter on a regular, deadly basis.
different-church-lady
@lol:
The disconnect is rather stunning, isn’t it?
different-church-lady
@Anne Laurie:
And what could possibly be the downside of that?
rikyrah
@micah616:
tell it
Cacti
Bernie Sanders participated in the March on Washington.
So did Charlton Heston.
It’s getting a little tiresome hearing the Bernistas pull that out as some sort of trump card for him giving short shrift to social justice issues in his present day campaign.
Omnes Omnibus
@Cacti: He appears to be tone deaf. I wouldn’t take that as license to call hm racist.
Nathanael
Bernie is undeniable awesomeness, and you’ll note he became the first candidate to talk about Black Lives Matter just now. He specifically called for the killer cops to be arrested and charged…
Try to get any other candidate to do that. :-P They should all be doing that, but they aren’t.
Myiq2xu
Oh, you poor thing.
Applejinx
Bernie talks about local organizing and getting involved in politics to stop the class warfare. I’m gonna white-say a thing right here and right now for anyone black who’s reading.
Give me more black candidates. I will vote for all of ’em in preference to whites. I might need to ask ‘are you Herman Cain’ because sadly it seems still possible for rich black men to be conservative nutjobs, and that’s not okay with me. I will vote for any black lefty or centrist no questions asked. I voted and WORKED for Obama, twice, and was proud to do it. I will go out and sweep the floors of your campaign offices and sort and staple papers for you for hours.
You’re not offering another black man (or woman) to run for President, so I still want Sanders, I think his economic focus IS at the root of so much in American society and it’s an absolute crisis and part of what underlies your plight. I’m pretty sure any sane black person, whether they primarily focus on economics or not, will not fall victim to the horrible economic mistakes being made around the world (by rich white people).
I don’t think Hillary Clinton will in ANY way be better for your cause than Bernie would be. If Bernie gets his way, he might buy you some time and I’m already listening, and in ‘disruptive’ events I see people dying who have no other priority and I can’t fault that. I just feel that literally any other candidate, including Hillary or God forbid some Republican or even Trump, will make things far worse. Hillary will lose you time and may not help as much as you think and somebody like Trump will make things much worse.
Give me black people to vote for and go out and make me aware of them and I’ll bend heaven and earth to elect them. I realize it’s dangerous even to go out canvassing with a black face and that’s exactly the point and it doesn’t change the fact that I CAN’T HELP YOU BY ELECTING A WHITE PERSON or trying to get empty concessions out of white people when the whole system is completely toxic and corrupt. When I go pro-bernie I am categorically anti-system in every way and the disruptiveness of that also opens doors for equally vital things, dare I say more vital things. Vital means life, and #blacklivesmatter exists in the world where black people do not even GET life necessarily,
If you can’t give me black people to again vote for (and Obama’s blackness was part of why I worked for him: he’s good, but centrist and doesn’t really represent what I think important, look at the TPP business) then can you make a calculated decision to seek disruption of the system that’s causing all this? I am not being offered a #blacklivesmatter candidate. I just have a few leftwing(ish) candidates, and the one I like is fixated on economcs as the root of all evils (which I agree with) and when shit went down, apparently he canceled everything, took some time to think things over, and is beginning to represent that #blacklivesmatter better than he did.
If he is totally convinced that economics are at the bottom of all that, does he have to lie about it to please you, does he have to adopt those goals BUT not have any specific plan to remedy the situation? The guy thinks he knows what will help, and you know part of what makes him Bernie is he will not lie to you or appease you. If he is backing you it’s not conditional on who’s listening. He does NOT triangulate to appease different audiences. You’ve seen that. If he’s been influenced it means he will begin taking #blacklivesmatter to ALL his audiences, not just black ones. That seems good rather than bad.
Thoughtful Today
Bernie’s been supporting Black Lives for 50 years in ways few others have. His bio is on his front page, please consider reading it:
https://BernieSanders.com
Bernie fought against segregation as an officer of the Congress of Racial Equality in 1962.
Bernie was an early supporter of MLK, impassioned to travel to D.C. to listen to Dr. King’s 1963 “I have a Dream” speech firsthand.
Bernie supported Jesse Jackson’s Presidential bid.
Bernie’s economic focus on jobs particularly helps the 51% of unemployed African American youth in our country.
Bernie’s policies would particularly help African Americans that want to go to college but find it unaffordable (Bernie is working on making State Universities free).
Bernie’s policies pushing for sick time off, paid vacations, family leave after a baby is born, a 15$ minimum wage, a trillion dollar infrastructure upgrade, would all help a vast number of Americans, including African Americans:
berniesanders.com/issues
MDC
@ruemara:
Sanders’ tweets about BLM have not been deleted… at least not these:
twitter.com/BernieSanders/status/622854234573160449
twitter.com/BernieSanders/status/622858056582438912
LAC
@rikyrah: girl, you and ruemara- word! Preach! Thank god you two are still here.
Robert L Bell
@Linnaeus:
That’s what makes the Daily Kos such a great place to avoid. The Sanderistas are like wasps in Denmark: OK during the summer, but when the fruit dries they get mean.
Thoughtful Today
berniesanders.com/sandra-bland-arrest-painful-dreadful/?source=twitter
Sandra Bland Arrest was ‘Painful and Dreadful,’ Sanders Says
July 22, 2015
A police dashboard-camera video of the Texas traffic-stop arrest of Sandra Bland was “painful and dreadful,” Sen. Bernie Sanders said on Wednesday. Then it got worse. Days after the July 10 arrest, the 28-year-old suburban Chicago woman was found dead in a Waller County jail cell.
“What you saw is an aggressive, overactive police officer who dragged this woman out of her car, assaulted her, sent her to jail for what crime? A minor traffic violation,” Sanders told Ed Schultz on MSNBC. “That happens all over this country, and it especially happens to people of color. Lives are being destroyed, right and left,” he said to Schultz. “And we’ve got to change that.”
“Our criminal justice system is out of control,” Sanders added. “The number of African-Americans and Hispanics who are in jails is disproportionately high.”
Schultz asked Sanders for specific proposals.
“We have more people in jail than any other country on earth. Millions of lives have been destroyed because people are in jail for non-violent crimes, so we have to take a look at mandatory minimums and the drug policy and the militarization of police forces all over the country. We have to take a look at use-of-force policy. That is what you saw in that dreadful and painful video of Sandra Bland.
“We need a real hard look at the way police departments function in America,” Sanders added. He said that means an honest examination of how police treat African-Americans. It means enacting reforms “so that young people can walk down the street without having to worry about whether they are going to be harassed or shot in the back.
“We’ve got a lot of work in front of us,” Sanders said.