Sanders plans to ‘assess’ presidential bid at home in Vermont after Tuesday contests https://t.co/KP9cSlyUPf
— Propane Jane (@docrocktex26) June 7, 2016
@BostonBoomer Also may want to assess the fact that @AlGiordano's coming for his seat.
— Propane Jane (@docrocktex26) June 7, 2016
I'll be on BBC World News radio at 10 p.m. ET. I was asked what Senator Sanders must do to keep me from running.https://t.co/7OclLtHOZ0
— Al Giordano (@AlGiordano) June 7, 2016
Joy-Ann Reid, at the Daily Beast — “Meet Al Giordano, the Man Who Wants to Take Bernie Down”:
If Al Giordano challenges Bernie Sanders for his U.S. Senate seat in 2018, he will tick nearly all of the boxes Sanders checked during his surprisingly robust presidential run…
So why would he do it? Because in Giordano’s view, and that of his social media supporters, Bernie is losing ugly and hurting Democrats’ chances of prevailing against Donald Trump in November.
“I mean, what haven’t they touched?” Giordano asks, peering at me via a 6-by-4 inch Skype window from his home in Mexico City. “What part of the Obama coalition have they not alienated? It’s like they want to erase the coalition.”
Giordano is referring not to Sanders himself, but to his most fervent online followers, who have blasted away at everyone from John Lewis to Delores Huerta to Elizabeth Warren, and most recently Barney Frank, for failing to support Bernie’s “political revolution,” or worse, for backing Hillary Clinton, who is loathed by a swath of the Sanders faithful. Giordano says he blames Sanders for the vituperative tendencies of his shock troops, and for failing to talk them down.
Giordano, a bearded, graying, former reporter with the Boston Phoenix alternative weekly, cut his teeth as an anti-nuclear protester in the early 1980s while living in Rowe, a small Massachusetts town bordering Vernon, Vermont. When he wasn’t filing for the Phoenix, he spent his time protesting the twin nuclear power plants on either side of the state border: Yankee Rowe and Vermont Yankee. And he became close friends with the late leftie activist and anarchist Abbie Hoffman. He has spent the last 19 years in Mexico, where he runs an online newsletter, Narco News, and a school that trains journalists to cover social movements. His claim to fame is winning a First Amendment case against the Banco Nacional de México, which sued him, a Mexican reporter and Narco News for libel over a series of stories claiming a bank official was in league with Central American drug cartels.
The 56-year-old Giordano presents as a combative Hillary Clinton supporter, but he didn’t vote absentee for her (or for anyone) in the April 19 primary in his home state of New York. He vocally backed and voted for Barack Obama in 2008, but has only voted for president one other time in 20 years: for Bill Clinton in 1996.
“For me this is not about Hillary Clinton, who has her strengths and she has her flaws,” he says. “This is about a coalition that has saved the United States and can keep saving it, and this is what needs to be protected. And so maybe it’s time for the Obama coalition to go to Vermont.”…
BBC interviewer: "But hasn't Sanders reinvigorated the left?"
Al: "If it's not multi-racial it's not the left."
— Al Giordano (@AlGiordano) June 7, 2016
There’s still time for Sen. Sanders to do the right thing, and go back to his ‘safe’ seat in Vermont! But remember, VT’s a poor state and one with a suprisingly small population — contesting a Senate seat there would be nowhere near as ‘impossible’ as trying for NY, or even MI or OH. And I can attest, from my experience as a Masshole, that even a popular Senator (hello, John Kerry) who runs for president and fails suddenly becomes a big fat LUZER among his low-info constituents.
Don’t remember which of you commentors turned me on to Al’s twitter feed, but I owe you a big thanks! Al’s Wikipedia page is back (after some aggrieved BernieBros managed to get it pulled for being ‘insufficiently significant’ yestheyarethatpetty), so you can follow the links there for further information.
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
Every time Nicole Wallace talks she only makes herself look idiotic.
David Flower
Al Giordano is one of the most sensible political/electoral thinkers alive.
schrodinger's cat
Charlie Pierce wants Bernster to continue fighting till the convention.
Brachiator
Got to my polling place late here in California and will be voting soon.
Go Bernie!
Go home and write a good concession speech.
Baud
@schrodinger’s cat: Goddamn.
the Conster, la Citoyenne
@David Flower:
Agreed. He’s an organizer. I gave him some money because he’ll use it to do that, not preen and scold like Bernie fucking Sanders.
…and gender inclusive. The real revolution is under everyone’s nose but only white men refuse to see it – it’s called the Obama coalition.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
as the usual suspects arrive to complain that the meanie-meanie Clinton supporters are the reason they can’t vote for Clintonlike they were totes gonna before they saw this mean post
Remember, it’s up to Clinton to unify the party, the High Sparrow said so.
redshirt
Classic Balloon Juice.
the Conster, la Citoyenne
As much time as I spend on twitter, I missed the ((( ))) thing. What’s up with that?
Brachiator
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: High Sparrow asks, do you choose Bernie or violence?
Dopes.
Kathleen
@schrodinger’s cat: I cannot stand Charlie Pierce. Quit reading him a long time ago.
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I have always felt Sanders inherited the angry glibertarian-wingnuts from Ron Paul.
You think back to 2008 and how contentious it got for awhile, but none of the camps, angry as they got, ever sunk to the level of threatening to murder reporters.
So it’s not organic to the Democratic party or to liberals. It’s coming from the populist glibertarians who routinely engage in violent rhetoric, which they were weaned on by listening to Hate Radio.
the Conster, la Citoyenne
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Brogressives have been really something to behold. We can thank Bernie for stoking all of that white male victimhood of diminished privilege, which is why he’s been a net negative.
RobertDSC-iPhone 6
I want that shitbag Bernie canned for not releasing his fucking taxes.
Go Al go!
schrodinger's cat
@Kathleen: Apparently, BS has won on the issues though he lost the nomination, according CP.
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Why would they be angry with Amy Chozick who has been a major critic of Clinton.
The Thin Black Duke
@schrodinger’s cat: In the real world, politics ain’t horseshoes.
The Thin Black Duke
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch: Amy doesn’t have a penis.
cokane
i get that youre the biggest fanboy of Giordano, but that campaign is doomed
Anne Laurie
@schrodinger’s cat:
Mr. Pierce’s romantic-rebel-loving Irish heart is overbearing his good sense on that issue, alas.
I need to re-up my playlist of Jacobite ballads for the Sandernistas. The ‘bonny prince’ turned out to be a most unworthy vessel for the hopes & lives of his supporters, and the fact that (to quote Tom Lehrer) “they may have won all the battles, but we had all the good songs” is only a consolation in retrospect.
Howard Beale IV
NYTimes sez Sanders to layoff half his staff tomorrow.
It’s over, Bernie.
Kathleen
@the Conster, la Citoyenne: Thank you. I’m so sick of the “Sanders pushed Hillary and the Democrats to The Left” trope I could scream. The fact that the Obama and no Clinton coalition have forged a political powerhouse coalition of POC and women is not deemed “progressive” or “left” or “pure” or whatever, nor is it discussed or acknowledged in the mainslime media. But getting white people excited about a candidate is like finding the Holy Grail.
Kathleen
@schrodinger’s cat: Well, of course. Charlie’s been sooooo disappointed by Obama’s perfidy so I’m sure that adds to Sanders’ allure.
But I will support Al Giordano’s bid if he decides to run. I’ve been following that on Twitter.
MomSense
@the Conster, la Citoyenne:
I missed it too. Was hoping you would know.
Luthe
@the Conster, la Citoyenne: I think it’s a protest against Neo-Nazis. They’d started using the parentheses thing to identify targets for threats, so now people are co-opting it back.
Chyron HR
@cokane:
Apparently you’re only allowed to run a “doomed” campaign if your name is Bernie Sanders. Go figure.
Rand Careaga
@Kathleen:
Really? Your loss. You don’t have to agree with him on every point—I usually do, myself—but the sumbitch can write.
the Conster, la Citoyenne
Amir Khalid
The New York Times is reporting Bernie will lay off “at least half” his remaining campaign staff.
(NYT link, so please open it in a private window.)
redshirt
@Kathleen: I’m supporting Al’s candidacy.
Anne Laurie
@the Conster, la Citoyenne:
It’s called the ‘echo’. Stormfronters & other Trump supporters were using a “clever” app inserting the triple-parens to mark Jews, suspected Jews & Jew-sympathizers on twitter. Not-insanely-racist people on Twitter started adopting the ‘stigma’, as a parallel to the Danish King under Nazi occupation wearing a yellow star.
I personally think it’s giving a handful of angry losers the attention they crave, but then, I’m not actually on Twitter. And, yeah, I’ve been saving links for a post, only there’s been so much *actual* news this past week!
eemom
The night they drove old Bernie down….
the Conster, la Citoyenne
@Anne Laurie:
I am Spartacus!
Matt McIrvin
What the heck? Someone who hardly ever votes–and specifically who didn’t vote in the 2000 or 2004 presidential elections–doesn’t seem to me like a sensible political thinker. Sure, he lives in a super-blue state, but you’d think he’d at least take an interest.
dogwood
@Anne Laurie:
Pierce can be fun to read, but he’s never had a lick of political sense, or much good judgement. His slavish love of John Edwards is proof of his weakness when it comes to picking candidates. Anyone who talks the angry leftist populist claptrap has his support. Doesn’t matter if they’re phonies or incompetents, he’ll always be on board.
CaseyL
@<a href="#co@MomSense: mment-5838902″>the Conster, la Citoyenne:
There’s a Neo-Nazi group that has been going through Twitter putting those parens around names they think are Jewish, then using an app to collect the names in order to threaten and harrass. A lot of people have responded by putting the parens around their own Twitter handles in an “I Am Spartacus” maneuver.
I think the app or widget or whatever that Google pulled down was the app the Nazis were using, so I don’t know if the “harvesting” is still going on.
ETA: And I see Annie Laurie beat me to it :)
Kathleen
@Rand Careaga: I agree that he can write, but I think there are others who are less known and whose analysis and writing are more nuanced and insightful, e.g., Driftglass, TBogg, Yastreblyansky, and I think many BJ front pagers are just as good. But I agree he can be entertaining.
Frankensteinbeck
…fuck. Sir, you deserve not congratulations on a clever quip, but a round of god damn applause. Yes. The Sanders ‘everything is economic’ crowd claim to be the ‘left’, but you know what? They are NOT more liberal, if they deemphasize civil rights.
gf120581
@dogwood: I appreciate Pierce best for his writing style. He is, after all, the one who dubbed Paul Ryan the “Zombie Eyed Granny Starver” and Scott Walker as the “Goggle-Eyed Homonculous.”
trollhattan
@CaseyL:
Just learned about this myself. More, too much more here.
redshirt
@the Conster, la Citoyenne: Have you watched the show Spartacus?
Anne Laurie
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch:
Because she reported numbers, that didn’t favor Bernie! Numbers are the enemy, and those who use them are traitors to Bernie-dom!
cokane
@Chyron HR: Sanders exceeded expectation and ended up w/ >40% of the vote. Giordano won’t come close to that.
dogwood
@gf120581:
Totally agree. He is a good stylist which is why I read him off and on. Just figured out early on he isn’t someone I’d trust.
Anne Laurie
@cokane:
In a sane world, it’s a campaign that won’t even happen!
Sanders encourages his supporters to vote for the Democrats, even if they can’t vote for him, and Giordano stays in Mexico doing his journalism / organizing. A consummation devoutly to be wished. Doesn’t hurt to have a stick in one hand when people like Rep. Pelosi and Sen. Reid are holding out the carrots…
the Conster, la Citoyenne
@redshirt:
No- what’s it about?
Ruckus
@Matt McIrvin:
I believe that Al lives in Mexico City. Which is not a city in the US.
From the posting:
Giordano asks, peering at me via a 6-by-4 inch Skype window from his home in Mexico City.
Anya
I wish Hillary’s speech was less about Trump and more insprational. I miss candidate Obama. It just dawned on me that we will only have President Obama for few more months. I will miss him something fierce.
Princess
@Matt McIrvin: Actually, he lives in Mexico.
Anya
Al Giordano annoys me. He consistently blocks people for disagreeing with him. I find that odd for a journalist and a liberal. Some Bernie supporters are super annoying but the ones he regularly blocks are only mildly disagreeing with him.
Anne Laurie
@dogwood:
Yes, but then I was an Edwards supporter my own self, so I can’t rag on Pierce for that.
Beautiful losers… us Celts wrote the book, the lyrics, the playbill annotations & the advertising copy.
Chyron HR
@cokane:
Does telling yourself that make you feel better about Bernie losing?
dogwood
@Ruckus:
Al G. can move to Vermont and establish residency long before the 2018 midterms. I doubt Al thinks he can beat Bernie, but I think he wouldn’t mind giving him some trouble. As a fellow leftist, it’s pretty obvious that Al has no respect for Bernie.
Anne Laurie
@Anya: It seems to have become something of a point of pride for BernieBros and MRAProgressives to get themselves blocked by Giordano. IMO, the ‘mildly annoying’ twit-tackers you sympathize with are trolls — when they decide to swarm a feed they drown out everybody else & drive reasonable commentors away.
Jim C.
As we watch the rest of the night’s results, I have an inside look at what’s going on at the Sanders headquarters that I secretly filmed on my smartphone. You’re welcome.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CevDWRn-3-s
dogwood
@Anya:
No private citizen is required to accommodate creeps on Twitter, Facebook or anywhere else.
Jeffro
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch:
It’d be funny if it weren’t so sad…sometimes she hits these breaking points, where you can tell she’s at her wits’ end with The Party Of Trump, and just wants to blurt out those three. little. words…but then her conditioning kicks in, and she points out some meaningless bit of fluff against Dems, against Hillary, etc.
Anne Laurie
@dogwood: Giordano’s said — after researching the issue — that the deadline for him to establish VT residency if he wants to run in 2018 is this November. How convenient is that? — almost like a bird alighting on one’s podium!
Omnes Omnibus
@Jim C.: I was expecting a Downfall parody.
divF
@Omnes Omnibus: Me too. We ought to be ashamed of ourselves.
Jim C.
I actually haven’t seen Downfall. But now I’m interested to look it up.
dogwood
Since this is an OT I’d like to remind the feuding folks here who the real enemy is. Last night President Obama spoke at Cassandra Butts’ funeral. They were friends from law school. She was also his nominee for an ambassadorship to the Bahamas. A nomination that has had a Tom Cotten hold for 800+ days. His rationale? She was a good friend of POTUS and he knew it would cause Obama personal pain. This is who they are.
Jim C.
@dogwood:
Saw that at Charles Pierce.
I don’t think there’s major disagreement on who the real enemy is. The GOP in its present incarnation is vile and their current standard bearer is the unfiltered and uncensored version of what they’ve been dogwhistling for years (decades?) now. But that doesn’t mean we can’t poke a little fun at the ridiculous anyway to keep ourselves amused. And the Bernie campaign rationale has been ridiculous for at least a month now.
Bobby Thomson
@Anne Laurie: Days ago, Chrome disabled the app that made that functional.
ecomcon
Al Giordano is a sanctimonious prick.
Bobby Thomson
@Matt McIrvin: actually, he lives in Mexico City. And he has a long organizing history.
Anya
@Anne Laurie: He blocks people for asking him questions. Some Bernie supporters are assholes and trolls but I know a lot of them who are reasonable. Why be an asshole to someone asking you a question? AG likes sycophants. Al was never like this in 08. I don’t know what happened to people this time around. I think the BJ community is the only consistant place.
@dogwood: if you are in a public place like Twitter then expect people to engage you. Also, they are not creeps. Some idealistic person asking you: “how do you reconcile your grassroot values with supporting someone who’s in bed with the military industrial complex,” doesn’t need mocking or blocking. Just give him a proper answer. If he keeps pestering you then ignore or block. I just think he grandstands a lot. Trust me, I detest Bernie bros. But Al lost me. I used to idolize him in 08. Now I can’t even stand him. He can learn from Propane Jane. She doesn’t brag about blocking people. She engages them. I am sure she receives far more abuse than Al.
dogwood
@ecomcon:
That’s why a contest between Al and Bernie would be a hoot. Two sanctimonious pricks going at each other.
the Conster, la Citoyenne
@ecomcon:
Just like Sanders. Except Al is actually interested in and knowledgeable about organizing, and understands demographics. At least he’s doing something instead of incessantly whining.
Captain C
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch: To be fair, what she’s trying to defend has left indefensible in the rear view mirror and is running on afterburners.
the Conster, la Citoyenne
@dogwood:
LOL. I owe you a Coke.
cokane
@Chyron HR: not quite what screaming at fellow libs does for you, apparently
cokane
@Anne Laurie: that’s my point tho Anne, i know you might mistake it, but Al’s got a little stick :p
dogwood
@Anya:
“How can you reconcile . . . in bed with the military industrial complex?”
Doesn’t sound like engagement from an idealist to me. It’s cut and paste begging the question. I’m not a particular fan of Giordanno, but even on a public forum he can block anyone he damn well pleases.
ecomcon
@the Conster, la Citoyenne:
I look forward to seeing Sanders wipe the floor with Al douchebag Giordano.
scott (the other one)
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch: Sadly, I think she also makes MSNBC look idiotic for employing her. (And I shudder to think how much she must get paid–by both MSNBC and the RNC.)
Lev
Yeah, definitely a good use of peoples’ time to try to primary Bernie Sanders, in a state where he’s practically political royalty. It’ll make Mickey Kaus’s Senate run look like a success story by comparison.
Beyond self parody.
Anya
@dogwood: he can but why brag about it to your twitter followers and then rt people making fun of that person. It’s silly and attention seeking. Also, you should be able to respectfully argue with anyone. Your answer might educate someone else. How is he an organizer?
Temporarily Max McGee (Soon Enough to Be Andy K Again)
@ecomcon:
Jesus, Glenn, are you still upset that Giordano wouldn’t teach you how to do real journalism?
smintheus
So in other words Anne, you understand virtually nothing about Vermont politics? What happened the last time a carpetbagger moved to VT to run for the Senate?
Berto
@the Conster, la Citoyenne: ,
Supporters of TPP?
No thanks.
Jonathan Holland Becnel
HAH!
So lemme get this straight, Anne. You think some random person who has been living in Mexico for the last couple decades will run against Bernie in Vermont. Sanders coalition is multiracial. Sanders pulls in the youth no matter their race.
I’d be more worried about Canova upsetting DWS in Florida.
How does it make you feel that Sanders is killing it with the youth? Sanders is beating Obamas numbers in 08. The future of the Democratic Party lies with Sanders.
Emerald
@Anya: Al started organizing as a child, literally. He was close to Abby Hoffman and has been arrested with Howard Zinn. As a teenager he protested nukes in Vermont and has had actual successes at that kind of thing. He was the political reporter for the Boston Phoenix for a number of years. Also has worked at a high level on numerous campaigns, including Ted Kennedy’s Senate when he best Romney and, funnily enough, Bernie’s successful first mayoral campaign and first congressional campaign.
Al knows how to win campaigns. He’ll start with an organizing school in Burlington and a listening tour.
Can he take down the mighty Bernie? It’s not unusual for popular politicians to lose their popularity after losing a national election. See: Dukasis, Michael and Nixon, Richard.
Al just might gat some high-level support. It’s gonna be fun to watch.
Emerald
@Emerald: Typing on mobile. Sorry about the typos.
Vlad
Well, that’s disappointing news about Giordano. If he were going to go to the trouble of running an actual Senate campaign, it would make a lot more sense to do it against a Republican and try to pick off a red seat in what looks like a wave election, rather than attempting to depose a member of the Democratic caucus (and in so doing perpetuate the circular firing squad he claims to deplore).
A lot can change in a few months, but Sanders has something like an 80% approval rating in Vermont, and has had one in that range for quite a while now. That’s a pretty hard target, particularly for a guy with no high-level political experience.
Donut
@Matt McIrvin:
Hmmm. You might want to catch up a little on Giordano before saying he lacks interest in politics. Long-time organizer and campaign hand, knows the landscape in the Northeast as well as anyone despite living abroad for many years.
Rex Everything
@Anya: He recently tweeted that Sanders is “an economic determinist” who believes “life is all about money.” I replied that his charge sounded familiar: Barry Goldwater made it against socialists in his 1960 book. One tweet; only interaction I ever had with him. He blocked me.
PJ
@Matt McIrvin: According to this post, he lives in Mexico City, which is not, perhaps, the best place from which to start a Vermont senatorial campaign. But then, as someone who has had never run for electoral office, and is apparently mostly known for his twitter feed, he may find other aspects of the real world a little challenging.