Not helpful.
This was apparently a long event about social security and medicare. Sigh.
This post is in: #BLM #M4BL, Election 2016, Serenity Now!
Not helpful.
This was apparently a long event about social security and medicare. Sigh.
Comments are closed.
PJ
It used to be 15 minutes, but now people just get 2:50 minutes of fame.
Patricia Kayden
Those SPECIFIC BLM activists are beginning to get on my nerves. Why are they harassing Bernie Sanders? This is the second time they’ve shut him down. Why aren’t they stalking Republican politicians who are the ones opposed to their agenda?
Disrupting an ally is not a way to get your message across. Sigh.
trollhattan
@Patricia Kayden:
They’d never get in, for starters. Agree nevertheless, not helpful.
JPL
@Patricia Kayden: No shit!
raven
agents provocateurs
ArchTeryx
There are times such as this that I think they’re an organized Republican ratf*ck operation, sent out specifically to knock out Bernie Sanders – or, even if they aren’t, if there isn’t at least one agent provocateur rousing them to action.
As has been pointed out on GOS, Hillary has Secret Service protection. They wouldn’t have gotten within a hundred yards of the stage before they would have been forcibly ejected from the proceedings – at best. So they’re going after Sanders.
I just have no sympathy for them. This serves no purpose other then attempt to drive away your own choir, and if they’ve let themselves get co-opted by the enemy, then they’ve just turned themselves into Firebaggers.
Baud
@Patricia Kayden:
I’ve not a fan of these type of protests, but the first one was successful in getting people talking about the issue. Long term, however, there has to be something more.
Occupy Wall Street also had a moment, but they couldn’t move successfully to the next stage.
Baud
@ArchTeryx:
Wouldn’t make sense. The GOP wants Bernie to damage Hillary right now.
Sloegin
Seems these particular protesters were more interested in preventing Bernie from speaking than getting their message out. Which sucks, because BLM is an important message.
srv
@Patricia Kayden: They are harrassing Sanders as a plan to weaken his campaign and becrown Hillary.
Are you people really this naive?
ArchTeryx
@Baud: You wouldn’t think so. I’m not so far in the Bernie camp as to think it’s All About Him. And yet, this has ALL the hallmarks of a ratf&ck. Once, at a conference well known for disruptive protests, I could easily see. But twice? Having him shouted off the stage and then an adamant refusal to let him back on to continue? Getting away with stuff they NEVER could get away with vis-a-vis Hillary?
It may not even be about Bernie. They may just be attacking ANY prominent mention of economic populism.
Gimlet
Apparently the protesters feel the Obama administration is not doing enough about this issue.
AxelFoley
Bernie’s the one who said there is no more racism. He’s the one who keeps downplaying President Obama’s achievements. He’s the one who’s a one-trick pony (Economics!) His stans are some of the worst scumbags out there.
And it seems he can’t take the heat. How the hell is he gonna run a country if he can’t handle hecklers?
smintheus
Same old left-wing activist self-promoting purists whose purity is so pure that nobody can fully understand how purely pure their super fine purity can purify the impure world unless the impure are constantly exposed to their perfect purity. Every cause/rally/event/speech/discussion/gathering/memo is all about themselves, when you really think about it. And you really should think about it more.
Maybe the most outlandish thing about this episode was when they accused Sanders of being guilty of crimes, and asked him to step back up to the microphone they had pushed him away from so the audience could hold him accountable for said crimes. I don’t know why they didn’t just report him to the police, who must have been on hand.
dr. bloor
I especially liked the part where they asked the audience to “join us now in holding Bernie Sanders accountable for his actions.”
NobodySpecial
Whether you like it or not, you have to admit they are very good at getting their message out and forcing people on their side of the aisle to do some talking.
Gimlet
@ArchTeryx:
Could ask yourself, who has to gain with these protests other than the obvious BLM cause?
Baud
@ArchTeryx:
My guess is that the first protest was successful in getting some attention, so they thought a copy cat protest would have the same effect. It doesn’t work that way, however. Law of diminishing returns and all that.
smintheus
@AxelFoley:
Even the Romans couldn’t handle the People’s Front of Judea.
Baud
@Gimlet:
Conspiracy theorists?
Gimlet
@Baud:
Conspiracy theorists?
You forgot the smiley emoticon.
schrodinger's cat
Why are they stalking Bernie, what is their strategy? Is it coverage from the media?
Tissue Thin Pseudonym
@AxelFoley:
No, he didn’t. He said that he was proud that we had overcome racism to elect Barack Obama. That’s not the same thing as saying that racism is over. The people who keep insisting that that’s what he said are either willfully lying or they’re just repeating a charge that they haven’t researched.
Which are you?
Baud
@Gimlet:
?
RaflW
One of the realities of a multi-site non-hierarchical movement like BLM is that it is quite difficult to know how this action was created and who was on board for it.
It is also well to remember, as a couple BLM-Minneapolis Core Team folks said at a nice, sedate UU event the other evening here in River City: BLM is not much more than a year old, and really just got wide exposure one year ago this weekend.
To that I’ll add that we white liberals seem to want BLM to have the maturity, capacity and power of MLK and SCLC at the height of their power. That is a fundamentally unfair, white privilege saturated expectation.
Cacti
@Patricia Kayden:
Might have something to do with Bernie blowing off meeting with them after Netroots, but announcing a fall speech at Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University this past week.
Link
Curious thing to see who Bernie makes time for.
Baud
@Cacti:
Agree somewhat with that. I was taken aback at that decision.
Gimlet
@Baud:
If I knew how I’d respond with a “thumbs up”.
Baud
@Gimlet:
???
eponymous coward
“There are times such as this that I think they’re an organized Republican ratf*ck operation, sent out specifically to knock out Bernie Sanders – or, even if they aren’t, if there isn’t at least one agent provocateur rousing them to action.”
Right, because black activists couldn’t possibly have their own motivations.
If you wanted to illustrate the attitude that enrages the black community about how the white progressive community has failed them, you could hardly do a better job. Nope, these people have no agency, someone set them up, etc.
There’s plenty of precedent for this in Seattle:
http://www.komonews.com/news/archive/4067121.html
Also, why would you think the Republicans would care that much about a white Socialist who’s running in second place in the Democratic party, 15 months from the election?
Cacti
@Baud:
I’m not opposed on principle to him speaking at Liberty, much the same as I didn’t stroke out when candidate Obama was a guest at Rick Warren’s forum.
But if he can make time to speak at a right wing bible college, he can make time to speak to BLM.
ArchTeryx
@Gimlet: Republicans. Any “Democrats in disarray” situation benefits them. However, it’s an awfully weak benefit right now, since their own glass house has a Honey Badger in it, machine-gunning stones in all directions, and the “big game” (Hillary) is pretty much immune to this particular tactic.
Gimlet
@Baud:
Show off.
serge
It was better with the sound off.
dr. bloor
@RaflW:
“Fair” or “unfair” is ultimately kind of irrelevant. Their actions will either further their cause, set them back, or have no impact. If furthering their cause is dependent upon large segments of their audience engaging in introspection and soul-searching, they’re toast.
burnspbesq
Forget it, Jake, it’s
ChinatownSeattle.Gimlet
@ArchTeryx:
Maybe Hillary
Maybe the 1% he’s basing his campaign upon. They are also on record as supporting Hillary.
Baud
@Cacti:
But many people did on the left. Double standard.
Also can’t imagine the outrage on the blogs if Hillary pursued the fundies like this.
smintheus
Seems that at least the person running a FB page for BLM Seattle is disavowing this stunt.
Baud
@burnspbesq:
True, it’s not as if there haven’t been counterproductive protests by white people in Seattle.
RaflW
@Patricia Kayden:
Here is my take on this, and it is just mine, but informed by my own struggle with white privilege.
BLM is going after folks like Sanders because:
1. the GOP is a complete, utter, disgraceful lost cause
2. at least with Republicans, black folk know where they stand – clear opposition. No need to push or probe to understand their stance. Dems can be platitudinous but unserious about black & p.o.c. equity
3. a lof of white liberals say the are in the struggle but tend to sell out. Hear me, please: I used to feel that way about Dems on gays, and I think for a good couple decades that was true. We had to push the Dem coalition hard to get where we have – and I am grateful for the wholesale change from my late 80s political awakening & analysis. I’m sure Dems would have preferred that we kept throwing condoms at Catholic bishops, but that was theater, the real first step was educating and shifting Dems, not Repubs.
4. if anyone is going to confront the GOP on their horribleness, it is up to us as fellow white people to do it. Black folk have their own liberation to secure, we can get off our asses and tell the GOP to f*k themselves for their racist shit.
Just a few thoughts from this 49 y.o gay while liberal.
Baud
@Gimlet:
My phone keyboard makes it easy. Couldn’t do it on my computer.
Cacti
I’ve little doubt that a substantial number of the Bernistas would have tut-tutted Rosa Parks for disrupting transit passengers who were just trying to get home from work.
RaflW
@srv: Again with the becrowning garbage (prev thread as well).
You like to stir the pot of course, but this is delusional. From what I know of BLM, they are not in any way in the tank for Clinton. You are just making this up to be your usual antagonistic self.
schrodinger's cat
@Baud: I am impressed! Not so impressed with the click baity and trollish op-eds NYT has been publishing off late.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@RaflW: s/he’s beclowing about the becrowning
Anne Laurie
Could be my east-coast privilege speaking, but isn’t there something of a history in Seattle of progressive/anarchist/anarcholibertarian/minarchist protesters attacking each other far more viciously than they manage to attack Tha Man?…
Davebo
It’s obvious why you don’t see this tactic at a rally for Ted Cruz, Jeb Bush or Rand Paul.
But why haven’t we seen it at a Hillary rally? Why the fixation on Bernie?
Most likely because her’s are better managed. Regardless, if they think this is helping the cause of BLM these people are delusional.
Almost no one will see this disruption. Of those who do, almost all will view it as childish and those who don’t didn’t need to be convinced in the first place.
Mandalay
Maybe I’m missing something, but my understanding is that BLM did not disrupt Bernie’s event. The disruption came from a couple of people who were not acting with the sanction of BLM Seattle, and Bernie Sanders has stated that.
Some poor soul from BLM Seattle apologized for what happrened on twitter.
They are understandably getting pounded right now, but are handling the hostile comments with class and grace.
burnspbesq
@RaflW:
Expecting adults to behave like adults is “fundamentally unfair” and “white privilege saturated?”
Cow manure.
Cacti
#WhiteFeelingsMatter
Gimlet
@RaflW:
Here is my take on this, and it is just mine, but informed by my own struggle with white privilege.
The election is over a year away. Any realistic changes that go with that will be even longer.
Killer cops are a crisis now. Pressure needs to put on the administration now for it to stop.
Accordingly, like imaginary “voter fraud” legislation, protests aimed at Sanders just don’t make sense.
gene108
@RaflW:
If you are going to be an organization with some ability to sustain itself, you do need to figure out some sort of structure.
I do not think anyone is expecting MLK / Civil Rights era levels of organization, but if someone from BLM can articulate why they are ruining an evening for hundreds of people, who took time out of their day, by hijacking a Bernie Sanders event.
O.K., BLM wants liberals to focus on police accountability for discriminatory policing against blacks. Since this is a state and local issue, other than media attention, what do they gain by attacking Sen, Sanders?
I am not exactly seeing a coherent strategy here, other than increasing media exposure, which they have done to some extent.
burnspbesq
@Mandalay:
WaPo describes the disruptors as “protesters from a Black Lives Matter chapter.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2015/08/08/bernie-sanders-leaves-seattle-stage-after-event-disrupted-by-black-lives-matter-protesters/
You’re slicing that awfully thin.
rikyrah
UH HUH
UH HUH
Forget Iran Bibi Just Wants to Humiliate Obama on His Own Turf
Since the world won’t be bound by what Congress decides on the Iran deal, someone in the PM’s cabinet should wake up and ask whether he isn’t dragging Israel into a dangerous place with his off-the-rails conduct.
Yossi Verter Aug 07, 2015 11:40 PM
The part of his speech this week at American University in which U.S. President Barack Obama mocked or imitated Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s intonation in demanding a “better deal” with Iran, will undoubtedly go viral, if it hasn’t already. It was not only humorous in a bitter way, but well timed and full of scorn for its subject.
………………………………..
In any event, the prolonged confrontation between Obama and Netanyahu over the Iran agreement took a quantum leap this week. Only God knows how Israel could possibly emerge well from this battle, regardless of whether the accord is approved by Congress. Netanyahu was asked about what comes next, after Congress either supports the deal, or votes against it with a majority large enough to supersede a presidential veto. The prime minister did not provide a satisfactory answer. The questioner came away with the impression that he is waging a battle for its own sake, for the satisfaction of humiliating the president. He longs to defeat Obama on the latter’s home turf.
read more: http://www.haaretz.com/beta/1.669946
NonyNony
@Anne Laurie:
I normally hate the “fixed that for you” construction, but if there was ever a sentence crying out to be fixed it was that one. (Leftist groups in this country have always preferred to fight with each other than with their common enemies.)
Baud
@burnspbesq:
I don’t know who is right, but I don’t much trust the media, and the protestors may be from the chapter without being sanctioned by chapter. Hopefully there will be some clarity soon on this.
Davebo
@Cacti:
Wow. Don’t forget to piss on the graves of Andrew Goodman and Michael Henry Schwerner while you’re at it.
mike in dc
#HeySeattleBLMWTF?
burnspbesq
@Cacti:
These data suggest rather strongly that white feelings do indeed matter.
https://www.census.gov/prod/2013pubs/p20-568.pdf
The most just cause imaginable isn’t going to get translated into policy if only 17 percent of the electorate is behind it.
Cacti
@Davebo:
Yep.
Because everybody at a Bernie speech is a modern Goodman or Schwerner.
300baud
It seems like a lot of commenters here think the right BLM strategy is for black people to pipe down and wait for white liberals to tell them when it’s time to finally do something. That black people couldn’t possibly have thought about the right strategy for the furtherance of their goals as much as white peanut-gallery commentators.
I get why people would say that; it’s an easy way to try to make the discomfort go away. But i am having a hard time thinking of historical examples where marginalized groups were magically given appropriate power and recognition by dominant groups. Plenty of promises that will happen, of course. So let me ask: for the people telling the BLM activists to wait, what are you personally prepared to do in exchange for that?
Cacti
@burnspbesq:
I’ve no doubt that your gated community sensibilities were deeply offended by the noisy negro women, tax lawyer.
RaflW
@burnspbesq: I am speaking to the pearl clutching and “oh, my, this will hurt the cause” stuff I’m seeing here, that presupposes that there is a mature BLM movement centrally coordinated and acting in the way that we white people expect all ‘good’ movements to behave.
Cacti
Bernie’s totally liberal fans on hand were heard shouting “Taze them!”
Classy.
sharl
@Mandalay: You shoulda linked to your comment #163 in the previous post.
I agree with you that it’s too early to know what to believe about what happened in Seattle at Sanders’ speech.
But I appreciate the research you did on the story, especially those two contrasting links you provided (“real” vs. “imposter” Black Lives Matter – Seattle). I’ve already passed those links on to a part of Twitter which is usually more careful than they have been this evening. (Maybe they’re just in weekend mode or something…whatev.)
Anyhow, thanks for doing that.
Mandalay
@burnspbesq:
I posted a link where Bernie Sanders states “Appearenlty the person at the helm of the protest wasn’t a member of #BlackLivesMatter”, yet you choose to believe a Washington Post reporter instead? Got it.
Davebo
@Cacti:
Of course not. Hell they’d all have been standing there, in Seattle, in their sheets if they’d gotten their laundry done.
Fucking racist Seattle socialists!
God, Will Rogers was right.
300baud
@Gimlet:
Killer cops have been a problem for black people for all of the US’s history. It’s a “crisis” now only because white people have finally started to pay attention. Protests aimed at the US left make plenty of sense right now if the goal is to shift the Overton window for the next couple of presidencies.
Bobby B
Why would the BLM want to “reach out” to Sanders? Are they the PTA?
Look for a lot of Hippie Punching, because people just can’t help it.
Cacti
@Davebo:
Bernistas hollering “taze them” shows how much work BLM has to do among Democrats, much less Republicans.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@RaflW: Good points. Let me add my perception of a few more:
1. Black people are still being killed by the police for no sensible or justifiable reason. They rightly regard the situation as an intolerable emergency that needs to be addressed now. The national press isn’t covering the issue adequately, and the national politicians are home after spending weeks ignoring the issue (and showing no sign of taking it up when they return).
2. There would be no way for #BLM activists to get close enough to a GOP or Teabagger event to be able to make a statement.
3. As others have pointed out, Hillary and Obama have Secret Service protection. They wouldn’t be able to disrupt things to make their point as easy as they can with Sanders.
4. As was pointed out above, Sanders has been tone-deaf and almost defiant about addressing these activists and the issues they raise. That’s toxic in a Democratic political campaign when he needs as broad a base of support as possible (especially running against HRC). The optics are horrible coming just days after saying he was going to give a speech at Liberty U..
When Ted Cruz was confronted by Code Pink and Madea Benjamin at one of his events outside the White House recently, he called her up so they could debate for a few minutes. Whatever side one is on in that situation, and I think Cruz is a monster, it had to help him if only to lessen the chance that they would try to shout him down in the future. Sanders and the other candidates should take that lesson to heart.
My $0.02.
Cheers,
Scott.
(A white hetero 50-something.)
rikyrah
If Bernie can go to phucking Liberty University, then he get on a plane and make a speech at an HBCU about Black Lives Matter.
Gimlet
@300baud:
Protests aimed at the US left make plenty of sense right now if the goal is to shift the Overton window for the next couple of presidencies.
What is there about delaying action until the next couple of Presidencies that will help with something that is a life and death crisis today?
Jeffro
OT but every Trump/GOP-nom article I’ve looked at on the Post notes how Cruz will be glad to pick up Trump’s departing supporters. Very intriguing.
Groucho48
@Cacti:
Yeah. I wondered the same thing. He has a very good track record on civil rights and should be an attractive candidate for black voters. But, he seems to be ignoring them. He’s very active on Facebook, but very few, if any of his posts directly address black or other minority concerns.
He should really schedule an event or two focused on a black audience and their issues.
Doug R
Here’s what I found when looking for BLM Seattle: https://www.facebook.com/BLMSeattle/posts/716844418437393
“Black Lives Matter Seattle organizers and supporters take over Bernie Sanders’ rally at Westlake on Saturday, August 8, 2015.
Today BLM Seattle, with the support of other Black organizers and non-Black allies and accomplices, held Bernie Sanders publicly accountable for his lack of support for the Black Lives Matter movement and his blatantly silencing response to the #SayHerName #IfIDieInPoliceCustody action that took place at Netroots this year.”
It then goes into a list of local grievances, seems legit to me….
Gimlet
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet:
3. As others have pointed out, Hillary and Obama have Secret Service protection. They wouldn’t be able to disrupt things to make their point as easy as they can with Sanders.
Let’s look for what we lost a block ago under this lamp-post because there’s more light.
BobS
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet: The story about Ted Cruz and Code Pink seems to contradict your point # 2.
Davebo
@Cacti:
Yeah, I just saw on Twitter where they were gang raped after the rally by a group of men from Oregon after the rally.
Hell, if it’s on the internet it has to be true right?
Joel
This is the problem with open ended protest movements. Remember Occupy and John Lewis?
RaflW
@Gimlet:
Yeah. It may not make sense in the context of how you are able to order your political needs. I’ll admit my own ambivalence, I live in the Twin Cities and I don’t really understand the Mall of America action that happened last year.
But I decided to deal with my own ambivalence about it, to get curious about what my sense of the right way to do things says about my frame for the world and for how political movements function. And every analysis tool that I try to deploy on my own is going to return results predicated on my experience growing up and living in an an almost all white, rather privileged world.
The only way I can understand what BLM may be aiming at, what they are self-organizing to do is to ask them. To seek to be in relationship with them and (at least a little bit) walk with them. Even if by my yardstick I think what they are doing is sometimes wrong tactically, if I dismiss them without seeking to compassionately understand their struggle, then I am dismissing them out of my own entrenched, unexamined racism.
This is not an easy path. I am very thankful to be in a spiritual community that supports this white ally work, to be in a training cadre of 28 folks (12 white-identified and 16 p.o.c.-identified) that is on a 6 month grassroots popular self-education and movement fundraising journey.
I think I’m probably not doing a very good job of saying in this comment thread what I want to say. I feel ill equipped so far. In fact I need to step away and do other things with my evening but I hope this thread doesn’t go too deep into BLM-shaming for what happened today.
Be mindful that we do a disservice when we decide to hold too wide a movement accountable for this one action in Seattle.
Peace & goodnight, y’all.
ruemara
Y’all. Lord.
gene108
@Cacti:
The NAACP and other Montgomery activits, who decided to use Rosa Parks as the figurehead to launch the bus boycott, put a lot of time and effort into finding a black person, who could be made into a sympathetic figure to appeal to whites to help promote change.
They rejected using the arrests of two teenage black girls (separate incidents), for refusing to give up their seat to white men, to launch the bus boycott. Both were active in the local NAACP chapter. One was too dark and poor to appeal to whites, while I believe the other got knocked up and therefore too slutty to be used.
If BLM can manage the level of forethought that went into the Montgomery Bus Boycott to make sure it had as much mass appeal as possible, it would be impressive.
They have done a good job in raising media attention.
I am not sure what their next step is.
At some point very soon disrupting Sen, Sanders events will prove a diminishing return in advancing their agenda.
RaflW
@300baud:
+1
Tissue Thin Pseudonym
@RaflW: My overall feelings on this are complicated, but just because you’ve decided to run a very decentralized, basically anarchist, organization doesn’t mean that you don’t own the behavior of those within your movement. It’s one of the reasons why I’m skeptical of BLM’s ability to accomplish much. The same thing happened to Occupy Wall Street. In the long run, you need a plan and an organization.
And the idea that the problem is that they just haven’t had enough time to become organized and experienced isn’t really sufficient. The 1950s-60s era civil rights movement became pretty organized pretty quickly. That doesn’t mean that there weren’t other folks out there, but it allowed for them to say definitely whether an activist was one of theirs or not. This is especially important if you choose a confrontational approach to pushing your cause, as BLM seems to have done. It’s too easy for people to step all over you and hijack your message if you don’t.
sharl
@sharl: The link to the “real” Black Lives Matter – Seattle Facebook post is no longer at that FB site (see Mandalay’s comment #163 in the previous post, which I linked to above). I can verify that it WAS there – I read it my own self. Hmm, what is authentic and what is not here? Or could it be both, or neither?
gene108
@Gimlet
The FBI is not killing people,in the streets.
This is a state and local issue. I do not know what the Administration can do to get local governments to hold their police departments accountable, in the long run.
The Administration has no direct control over these departments.
RaflW
@gene108: Yes, and that is why I said what I did upthread about us being mindful about BLM being a very new movement. The Montgomery bus boycott happened after years of organizing and relationship building. Some of it very very hard from what little I know of the history.
(Ok, I really gotta step away … but this thread is one that I am keenly interested in… damn life obligations…)
srv
@RaflW: We’ll add you to the Hillbot column.
smintheus
@Doug R: It looks like that FB account was created today.
Gimlet
@gene108:
This is a state and local issue. I do not know what the Administration can do to get local governments to hold their police departments accountable, in the long run.
Then what in the world could Bernie Sanders do about it?
Ben
@rikyrah:
Didn’t Rand Paul speak at Howard? If he can make time Bernie can make time.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym: You make some good points, but I have to take issue with this:
I don’t think it was “pretty quickly”.
Emmett Till was murdered in 1955. The Montgomery Bus Boycott was 1955-1956. The SCLC was founded in 1957. The Voting Rights Act wasn’t passed until 1965.
All through this time, there were other voices who advocated different approaches and tactics (Stokely Carmichael, Malcolm X, etc.).
Even when giants are involved, it takes time for a movement to evolve in ways that allow it to have a mostly coherent voice and to achieve lasting change.
My $0.02.
Cheers,
Scott.
BobS
@Ben: Did Bernie Sanders decline an invitation to speak at Howard University?
sharl
@sharl: OK, this kinda-sorta helps clear things up…I think. The following just went up on what I and Mandalay had been calling the “real” Black Lives Matter – Seattle Facebook site:
So I think that this is from what can be accurately called the “older” (though not official) BLM-Seattle FB page, whereas the one apparently just created within the last day or two – and (I think) not an “official” BLM-Seattle FB site either – is associated with the folks who disrupted the Sanders event today.
Gonna see what twitter says now…
hilts
@Cacti
I’ve little doubt that you’re completely full of shit.
Why don’t these protesters go after Trump, Bush, Rudio, Cruz and the other Republican candidates instead of Sanders?
Admiral_Komack
@Patricia Kayden:
But it was soooo cool when Code Pink heckled the President.
mike in dc
@gene108:
Yes and no. DOJ can initiate civil rights investigations of local police departments and negotiate consent decrees to compel them to change their procedures and practices. However, doing that on a national scale is likely impractical(imagine the manpower required to investigate the police departments in the 400 largest cities/metro areas in the country). Most of the changes will need to be enacted at the state and local levels. That said, you can get body cams funded at the national level, for example.
All that said, I’m failing to see the return on investment on calling a bunch of Sanders’ supporters white supremacists.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet: I didn’t say that the civil rights movement got its agenda passed pretty quickly; I said that it got itself organized pretty quickly. Look at your timeline and realize that they were already really, really organized by the time of the Montgomery bus boycott.
Edit: And I recognized that there were alternative voices within the black community pushing different tactics. What I also said is that it was easy to differentiate between them and the King led wing of the civil rights movement.
Earl
Well, has Bernie released a statement of support for the BLM movement? It might tamp down some of the anger people feel towards him. I googled a bit but the event in Seattle seems to overwhelm everything else in the search results.
This article seems to have Bernie obliquely addressing it
wa post on seattle event
but he still doesn’t seem to have made a concrete statement on the specific hostility police have towards black people.
jon
If Bernie Sanders wants to live through this election, he really needs better security. Pardon me for seeing this from another perspective, but when my Congresswoman got shot in the face by a lunatic, I wish she had better security.
Even Morrissey sometimes says enough is enough to people rushing onto the stage.
Betty Cracker
@Earl: He has repeatedly — before and after the Netroots dustup. It doesn’t seem to matter, though. People have got it in their heads that Sanders is the enemy, and that’s that.
Joel
@dr. bloor: “No effect” is the odds on favorite here. A protest movement needs to be cohesive, and they need to attack vulnerable targets. Overwhelming protests against an unpublicized but malicious smaller police force would be a start.
sharl
@sharl: Well, that brief – and of necessity, quite incomplete and non-comprehensive – tour through twitter was interesting. I’d never thought about it before, but I don’t think there is an official Black Lives Matter leadership as such. Which would kind of make sense, I guess – given the youthful composition of its prominent voices, and the ubiquitous and octupus-like nature of the beast they are fighting, a delocalized coalition with a social media-facilitated quick response mechanism might work best for fighting something that won’t be fixed overnight. It’s like Occupy Wall Street and it’s siblings in that manner.
There is nothing on Seattle at the Black Lives Matter website, including its blog and Tumblr accounts. [And by the way, I’m no expert, but they could use someone with good web designer abilities to speed up how that sucker loads, though obviously they have more important things to do for the foreseeable future.]
The co-founders of Black Lives Matter – according to the Wikipedia page for BLM – are Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi. I found Twitter accounts for all three of them, and they don’t mention Seattle at all. Again, not a big surprise, since it’s a movement rather than an organization. In fact, the “About Us” page at the BLM Website (linked above) doesn’t offer up any names of staff, directors, etc. at all.
{continued below}
skjellyfetti
Meanwhile, over at /r/BlackLivesMatter on Reddit…
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym: BLM is all of a year or two old. The Montgomery Bus Boycott had the benefit of being organized by the local chapter of the NAACP and other experienced organizations. Even then, the leadership groups morphed over time – CORE, SCLC, SNCC, etc. The movement didn’t spontaneously shape itself under unified leadership.
Figuring out the leadership and effective messaging and tactics in a social movement takes time, even with giants present. Getting meaningful results takes even longer.
Cheers,
Scott.
sharl
Also, several of my usual “go to” twitter accounts for issues and news related to Black Lives Matter – Deray, Nettaaaaaaaa, and Shaun King – have no mention at all of Sanders’ Seattle speech. They are keeping their eyes hard on the prize, so to speak: police killings of Black folk.
One name I DID recognize from past reading of BLM activists of Twitter, who did claim that the protest was an “officially” sanctioned Black Lives Matter action, is Brown Blaze – the relevant tweet is here. As I noted in my previous comment, I think that – at least up to this point – what has constituted an “official” Black Lives Matter action tends to be something that is arrived at by (near) consensus. Questionable police shootings are no-brainers in that regard. This protest – disrupting a speech on Social Security and Medicare – well, I just can’t see how it will help the cause, at least directly. One tweeter responding to Goldie Taylor said this:
What may become a bigger headache for Sanders is how some of his supporters at the Seattle event are responding to the disruption – they are upset (understandably), but some are lashing out verbally in a rather ugly manner that won’t help Bernie any.
Very complicated. I’m wondering if there are some interesting and perhaps heated conversations going on behind the scenes among leading BLM activists this evening.
sharl
A couple more things just discovered on twitter…
For what it’s worth, Brown Blaze tweeted that the Seattle action did have approval from one of the co-founders of Black Lives Matter.
A tweet linked to this GOS post tried to aggregate some of the reporting on this. Something that will be sure to even further rile up already pissed Bernie supporters is the report that one of the protestors brought up Martin O’Malley’s name favorably in comparison to Sanders, to wit:
I report, you decide…
different-church-lady
I, for one, am greatly relieved to find out that preventing this one old white guy from speaking to large groups of people will stop hair-trigger racist cops from gunning down innocent blacks on our streets.
Nathan Tyree
I am always amazed by the way we liberals attack liberals. Sometimes it’s almost funny. Free thought blogs just melted down in a circular firing squad of sorts. Seriously, progressives need to work the hell together. We have real enemies. Our enemies are bad.
Nathan Tyree
@Betty Cracker:
He’s been on record on the issue for a long time. Hell, he was arrested during civil right s protests in the 60s. He’s released written statements in support of BLM and given speeches on the issue. It doesn’t matter. Both times he’s been “heckled” the protesters have refused to let him speak. They have not come to create a dialogue, or take him to task, or persuade. They have just shut down his events. I don’t get that. If they would ask him a question, I bet he would answer.
sharl
I’m gonna wrap with a couple links to Sanders/Seattle twitter streams:
The Sanders twitter stream is still going fairly strong, even at this late hour.
The BLM Seattle twitter stream – as in, tweets containing both ‘BLM’ and ‘Seattle’ – isn’t quite as vigorous, but still has life.
RaflW
@srv: Knock yourself out making your little listie, meaningless drivelmaker.
Fishfry
I never comment on BJ, but I feel this is the time. It is apparent to me that a lot of the commenters do not fully understand what drives the BLM protesters. Try walking in their shoes for just a moment, growing up feeling as if you are less of a person because of the color of your skin. I think some of you will never know how that feels, growing up listening to kids taunt you with racial slurs, salespeople checking you out like you’re in the store to steal, people eyeing you suspiciously for no reason. Even now, they may lose their lives in a freakin traffic stop. I think if Bernie Sanders is truly the best candidate for president that a lot of you support, then he should find the time to talk to them, understand their grievances and let them know that they do matter.
Plantsmantx
@eponymous coward: You hit all those nails on their heads.
Cacti
@Davebo:
When in doubt, assume the negroes are lying.
I’ve always found that to be the most progressive position.
300baud
@Gimlet:
You’re missing the point. It has been a life and death issue for centuries. There are enough people concerned about the problem to both do something with immediate, local effect (like they were doing in Ferguson tonight) and to do things that they hope will provide for longer-term change.
You may not like their approach. But you’re wrong to say it doesn’t make sense.
sharl
Reposted from comments (#106) in the next post…
This should help Sanders, and it provides the Black Lives Matter activists with a trusted ally within the Sanders campaign:
Here is Symone Sanders’ twitter account, for anyone interested.
Thoughtful Today
Symone Sanders introducing Bernie Sanders before 12,000 in Seattle, Washington:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXbmwqCMRAY
There were another 3,000 outside the packed venue.
Pádraig
@Cacti: seriously? You see no difference between how people respond to protest directed against an unjust law, and protest directed at a politician who has done nothing to deserve it. He didn’t say racism is over. He has talked about BLM on the hustings. He has talked about the need to reign in cops because they are killing black people. And as a supporter of both Bernie and BLM, I’m now a fucking racist in your eyes.
I don’t hold with conspiracies, but if I had to choose one, I wouldn’t think these protests are directed by republicans or Hillary – neither have much to gain. But I could see Goldman Sachs eating this up with a spoon.
AxelFoley
@sharl: Man, fuck this chick. She worked for Nader.
J R in WV
@gene108:
The administration could take a clear example of a police department conspiring to cover up an officer shooting and arrest everyone that participated in supporting the cover up for conspiracy, and if the department had any prior unarmed black people wind up dead, they could RICO the department as a corrupt conspiracy.
If 3 or 4 police chiefs were in federal prison waiting for trial, along with the whole chain of command between the chief and the shooter, maybe some police departments would figure out a way to keep their officers from shooting unarmed black people, or black people holding toys at the toy store.
Because we see cover ups suddenly disintegrate when a civilian video shows up proving that what all those police men are saying was a fucking lie. And in those cases, every person who touched the lie should spend a couple of years with a bail of NO Amount of money waiting for trial. All of them that contributed to building the pattern of lies that were intended to be part of the cover up.
That’s what the administration could do. Maybe that would be easier for Hillary to do, as a white president? Maybe she and Obama should talk about it…
Keith G
I think focusing just on (or so much on) Sanders is likely a tactical mistake. God knows it’s easy pickings (maybe why it’s happening), but it does seem to indicate a type of lack of ambition.
Are they exchanging short term awareness, for a more robust following and influence later on?
AnonPhenom
@Earl:
Because being a socialist isn’t a heavy enough lift, lets add ‘anarchist’ to the list. That’ll improve his odds.
Damn but you’re funny!
I think.
Howard Beale IV
@RaflW: From what I can see as an white outsider (but also as a 1st generation Euro-American) BLM chieftans are going to have to do a much better job in (1) going dark on their communications within the organizations senior hierarchy (i.e.: make your enemies fear you and when they trip up, publicly expose them quickly and thoroughly) and (2) come up with and publish something that resembles a coherent strategy that everyone can get behind and make sure it is widely sent across all channels.
And maybe read Sun Tzu’s “The Art of War”, for fuck’s sake-because that is exactly what we are all in-especially with that clown short bus called the GOP.
jon
@J R in WV: So you think the solution to police cover ups is to revoke the Constitutional right to bail? That might work against the police to a decent degree, but I have a mildly itchy inkling that such a move just might affect some other groups of people who get targeted for prosecution at a somewhat-possibly-maybe-a-wee-bit-disproportional amount of the time. Can you guess who I might be talking about? If you can, I would love it if you would think things through a bit more thoroughly.
Here’s another proposal to deal with official corruption: make the penalty for perjury equal to the penalty for whatever crime is being tried at a particular trial. Lying about a murder trial? Life, possibly. Lying about homicide? 15 or more. Lying about a misdemeanor amount of drugs? Up to a year in jail. Perjury is, at its core, about letting someone go unpunished for a crime they didn’t commit, allowing the actual perpetrator to go free. It’s like a conspiracy, not an administrative error. That’s my suggestion. I think my idea is better than something that would very likely be largely used against certain classes.
Thoughtful Today
Useful background history on Bernie:
http://www.salon.com/2015/07/22/20_examples_of_bernie_sanders_powerful_record_on_civil_and_human_rights_partner/
RaflW
@Howard Beale IV: I am only loosely connected to BLM, really I’m just in relationship with one Minneapolis core team person, but she has expressly quoted Frederick Douglass in a recent talk, saying “Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.”
I trust her that they get this, but I also know that she said they just got back from what was really the first national convening of BLM activist groups just a couple weeks ago.
When I was saying last night that the movement is young, this is what I mean.
Thoughtful Today
Bernie’s been responding to questioners, some extremely antagonistic, for decades. There are some old CSPAN interviews where he sits quietly listening to callers attack him that are almost surreal.
… and when Bernie’s given a chance to respond he’s done so with astonishingly consistent eloquence and thoughtfulness.
A strong sample of Bernie responding to random caller’s questions this last year on Thom Hartmann’s radio program is here:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLURDA6V2nJziXyqDl_wHzP6C3SfZySgRA
Thoughtful Today
cmorenc
@Patricia Kayden:
+1
cmorenc
@jon:
This can be a very double-edged sword that may not work out on balance the way you hope it will. Aggressive prosecutors have long used the threat of perjury indictments to attempt to intimidate potential witnesses for defendants in criminal trials, and many judges in some jurisdictions allow them to get away with it. This was a favorite tactic of a long-time D.A. in Robeson County, NC (Joe Freeman Britt) who was infamous for successfully pursuing death sentences against more criminal defendants at the time than any other prosecutor in the country, though he doubtless has been overtaken in that regard lately by other prosecutors in other jurisdictions. Aggressive prosecutors are in a far better tactical position to take advantage of such a tool than is the defense bar, for structural reasons (because defense attorneys and civilians cannot generally initiate cases before grand juries, whereas prosecutors can).
Howard Beale IV
@RaflW: BLM needs to be more finely selective and be very careful on how they present themselves. There is a statement that, while considered something of a platitude, is incredibly important and needs to be taken to hears by BLM:
Right now, BLM’s image is failing very badly, especially when they’re attacking Sanders.
There is also a very dangerous corollary:
Image kills.
This goes back to the debate between Semmelweis and Pasteur. Study their inter-twinded history.
Jackie
i am a white female. I was stopped twice for speeding this year. Both times I was able to drive away without a ticket. I’m 58. It wasn’t my cuteness that got me that luxury. It was my white skin.
I have two sons. If I had to wake up every day worrying that they might speed, that they might wear their black skins too brightly, I would have been up on that stage. And, if BLM shows up in my area and they allow me to be part of it, I will stand in a stage with them even if it is my chosen candidate. Until black families go to sleep every night with the knowledge that their kids are as safe as mine.
Until that time, or until I can fully understand the fear and the rage that comes from the ways that white people have treated black people I will mind my tongue about “tactics”. I will not condescend about “immature movements”. I will not suggest that there is a better way.
Also, I look at Bernie Sanders and I see a man whose national staff has no women, no people of color. I see a old white man who thinks he has something to say when he represents a state that is 98% white. He should stand and listen. He should stay. He should hear the pain and acknowledge that he knows nothing.
Thoughtful Today
Erm…
Bernie was introduced by Symone, a black woman & Black Lives activist, in Seattle in front of 12,000 (and 3,000 more outside listening via speaker)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXbmwqCMRAY
Symone’s twitter account:
https://twitter.com/SymoneDSanders
Jimgod
@Thoughtful Today: Don’t bother. She’s clearly a troll who didn’t bother to read the thread before posting her anti-Sanders crap.
Sherparick
@AxelFoley: Exactly when did Senator Sanders ever say that? I admit that like a lot of folks trained in the mental habits of doctrinaire Marxism (see for example Cornel West), he thinks racism is a kind of false consciousness created by the Capitalistic system. And this gets him in trouble with those who understand that the warp and woof of racism springs from the deepest parts of the human Id and ranges and stretches to every part of the culture. Racism, and the popularistic tribalism from which it springs, would exist, and historically has existed, in Socialists, Communists, Capitalistic, Feudal regimes of various kinds these last 100 years. Senator Sanders can’t just focus on “economic issues,” but also justice issues such as ending the War on Drugs and DOJ oversight over militarized police department.
However, when something like what happens in Seattle occurs, I have to wonder what exactly is the point of holding Senator Sanders “accountable” when he is not the Senator from Missouri, or New York, or Florida. Nor was he a Governor of one of those states (JEB! passed the “Stand Your Ground” after all in Florida) and why only Democrats are getting this treatment since it is the Republican Party that holds majorities in the Senate and House and control over 30 state houses in the country? The lack of attention to the White People’s Party by these representatives of BLM makes me begin to suspect a Republican ratf’**k operation..
Avery Greynold
Why can’t we hold these two thoughts simultaneously?:
F the police departments until they stop targeting minorities.
F the BLM organizations until they stop targeting allies.
Provider_UNE_AndPlayersToBeHatedLater™
@Avery Greynold:
Yes, because these two things are identical.
Also, F the police really hasn’t seemed to be very effective, but i guess if enough white folk get on board, you might be on to something.
…
Thoughtful Today
!
Bernie Sanders is working with his team to directly address the Black Lives Matter issues and is looking at policies that both recognize the issues’ complexity and try to fix injustices in appropriate ways:
[Below is from the preface of Bernies website’s issues’ section on Racial Justice, with more detail here: https://berniesanders.com/issues/racial-justice ]
Racial Justice
We must pursue policies that transform this country into a nation that affirms the value of its people of color. That starts with addressing the four central types of violence waged against black and brown Americans: physical, political, legal and economic.