When did Sanders become Mayor of Chicago or a member of the Chicago City Council?

Bernie Sanders fairy-dust transforming things even when he loses a primary by almost 30%.

Just in from your reporter on the ground here in the Windy City.

Nothing has changed.

The majority of youthful voters he won was offset by their low turnout. He lost badly in Illinois, despite what is said in that article. He is not winning voters in this election, so he should withdraw and endorse Joe Biden, and he should do it immediately to help us defeat Donald Trump in November.

Bernie's done this year. Finished. Let him help the nominee who wins the nomination defeat Trump. Instead he, and some of his followers are still sowing discontent with Biden. That can't be helpful, I think.

Young people tend to be more radical because they have little to lose, and have little appreciation for long-term consequences, to themselves as well as others. My favorite line of the old Bo Diddley 'Hoo-Doo You Love' has long been 'I'm just twenty-two and I don't mind dyin'!' Personally, I got a lot of mileage out of having nothing to lose during my adventurous youth. Makes a man fearless, and that's frightening. Young ones who live on, however, do learn appreciation for hazards and consequences and how often things just don't turn out the way you thought they would, or to be quite so simple as you used to think.

Old radicals are a special breed, impervious to learning from experience, and in most instances proud of the flaw, though it's really a debilitating one. Personally, I would consider myself a failure as a human being if I could honestly say I thought just as I did when I was twenty or even thirty years of age. That could be true only if I had not grown appreciably over decades.

The secret of Sanders' success with 'the youth vote' is simple. Sanders has not grown, he still thinks and believes what a dorm-room bullshitter thinks and believes. By now, however, he can present the image of an elder's maturity. When a dorm-room bullshitter's views emerge from a lined face beneath grey hair, it lets the dorm-room bullshitter imagine what he thinks already is the distilled wisdom of age and experience.




"When things are not called by their right names, what is said cannot make sense. When what is said does not make sense, what is planned cannot succeed. When plans do not succeed, people become uneasy. When people are uneasy, punishments do not fit crimes. When punishments do not fit crimes, people cannot know where to put hand or foot."

One of the characters in that film was an old socialist. He was constantly writing down notes, but seemed to have little connection to the real world that surrounded him. Living in a college neighborhood, he was a relic from the past, as are many old socialists one encounters from time to time.

In another scene in the film, a group of young college-aged guys discussed the relative merits of "Scooby Doo" and "Smurfs" as representative of society. These youngsters will end up like that old socialist, perhaps, irrelevant and writing down their deepest thoughts in little notebooks. Here is the scene of their weighty social discussion:

That in fact is my point. A great many people my age thought about as Sanders did, and seems still to do, half a century ago. They haven't 'fallen away' or 'betrayed the cause' or even 'joined the Establishment'. They have gained a more mature understanding of life, and affairs. And will not vote for an old man they can see has done neither.

However, the aging Socialists who preserve the follies of their youthful years can find a rapt audience of new youngsters to harangue.

Among that new audience, I believe, will be some who carry on the tradition of growing old without growing wise.

But the proportion of those who do not will be no greater the proportion who have not. The 'old socialist' semi-vagabond you describe will be no more numerous among the current generation in its mature years than it is in mine.

Marx was a good diagnostician, but very poor at prognostication and prescription. Soviet totalitarianism, like its Chinese cousin, had very little to do with anything Marx thought should or would happen.

Marxist/Leninist theories gave way to the greed of would-be tyrants quite easily. Greed, Sir, is apparently superior to all theoretical constructs. So it seems to me, at least.

The rational 'homo economicus' is a fiction.

Marxist/Leninist is something of a misnomer, as Leninism has little to do with Marx. Lenin was one of the first to try and repair Marx, to redeem the idea of inevitable revolution. He decided it was profits from the colonies kept things afloat for the European industrial powers. He then had to try and explain how a peasant revolt in a place with only a scanty proletarian element could be the revolution Marx predicted would naturally occur when the proletariat in industrialized societies came into its full power of practical control over the engines of the economy, such as mining and railroads and steel and the like. The result is mere theology, like erecting the edifice of the Trinity atop a few simple biblical lines wrenched from context, and bears no more relation to Marx in fact than the pomp of the Roman Church does to the congregation of the first apostles.



"When things are not called by their right names, what is said cannot make sense. When what is said does not make sense, what is planned cannot succeed. When plans do not succeed, people become uneasy. When people are uneasy, punishments do not fit crimes. When punishments do not fit crimes, people cannot know where to put hand or foot."

for which I thank you.

At bottom, it is the view that what a society produces ought to belong to the society, and not to private parties who superintend facets of its production, and appropriate to themselves a disproportionate quantity of the society's produce. It does not, and never has, meant either autocratic state control or diveying up everything into equal shares. Capital, the surplus of what is produced over what its production costs, is the engine that drives new economic activity, and would do so whether it was administered by public or private means. Humans being involved, one can expect log-rolling and sharp practice in any case, but with public administration, however contrived within a democratic polity, it ought to be more difficult for a few individuals to extract value in greatly disproportionate share from society's capital.

"It is nonsense to suppose what benefits the greater portion of society would be injurious to its whole." (Adam Smith)

Realistically, however, I am a staunch pragmatist. Needs must, I believe.

when I was getting involved in the antiwar movement and had a brief flirtation with a campus Socialist Workers' Party group. I went to a few meetings and quickly discovered that the guys running the meetings weren't cutting-edge revolutionary thinkers, but just a bunch of Che Guevara cosplayers, entitled white boys going to college on Daddy's dime, throwing around rhetoric about "the Oligarchy" that was stale even then and trying to get laid by the girls who showed up (only to discover that their only purpose in The Revolution was to make coffee and run the mimeograph machine). Bernie's current fans think he's come up with something new. He hasn't.

Worth recalling that for these types, 'women's-lib' was anathema, a bourgeois deviation from the class struggle and revolution. Around that time someone asked a Student Non-Violent Co-Ordinating Committee chief what the position of women in the movement was, and received the answer 'Prone." Had the lad possessed a better vocabulary he might well have said 'supine', but the meaning was always clear.

The truth is that Senator Sander's "ideas" are as stale as two month old bread. Everything that he is claiming as new had long before him been trod by other politicians, every thing that he claims, a living wage, universal healthcare coverage, taxing the rich properly, that no rich beyond a certain level should exist, every single thing that he claims as his trademark is at least five decades old.

Governor JB Pritzger ran on that issue (among others), it was voted on by the State Legislature (first state to do so via legislative action, not referendum), and signed by Pritzger in June 2019. it included the expungement of thousands of prior arrests and requirements for minority-owned dispensary licenses to be granted (I think first state ever to add that).

Pritzger is no Berniecrat; he's a straight-up Democrat who also (can't believe we are still having to do this) ran on changing the state's constitution to provide for graduated income tax rather than the flat 4% we've had. Marijuana sales is partly a way to help the cash-strapped state raise revenues. The social justice aspects are the bill were wide and fairly unprecedented.

Illinois becomes the 11th state to legalize recreational cannabis. Pritzker noted that Illinois is the first state to fully legalize commercial sales through the legislature, rather than through referendum.
He emphasized that the law provides for automatic expungement of arrests for marijuana possession under 30 grams, and that he will pardon those with convictions for possession up to 30 grams.
Individuals and prosecutors may go to court to seek expungement of cases involving up to 500 grams.
“Today we are giving hundreds of thousands of people the chance at a better life,” Pritzker said.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/breaking/ct-governor-to-sign-recreational-marijuana-law-20190624-ee2bswlsq5eqvkcbuq6oz6id5i-story.html

We'd already have damn near a federal minimum wage of $15/hour if Hillary had won in 2016. Oh, and we wouldn't have a complete buffoon in office during a pandemic that is going to shut down our country for probably half a year (at least) and probably plunge us into another Great Depression due to their inept initial handling of it.

Thanks a lot, Sanders.

...that the minimum wage in Vermont is still under $11, we're told "oh he can't do anything about Vermont, he's a US Senator!"

Last edited Fri Mar 20, 2020, 11:53 PM - Edit history (1)

"A man hears only what he wants to hear and disregards the rest".

Some speak of the future
My love she speaks softly
She knows there’s no success like failure
And that failure’s no success at all

Minimum wage has been $15 in San Francisco and Seattle for a long time already and the trend was eventually going to come to other large cities anyway.

Marijuana legalization is also a nationwide trend and will spread without Bernie's help.

Taking credit for other people's work is the hallmark of the movement.

One cannot show a higher percentage support in a small subset and claim that as a victory of sorts.

If I ran for mayor of a city of 100 and got 5 out of 5 votes from left-handed people doesn't mean I have succeeded in changing the minds of left-handed people with a succes rate of 100% - I still would lose the election if 60% of right handed people voted against me.

It is a nice try -- good for consolation like "we have parting gifts for you backstage" but politically useless.

Bernie cannot claim credit for that shit ever.

one would think that the American Revolution was Bernie's idea, Jefferson and Madison asked Bernie to write the constitution, Bernie invented paper, ink, printing press, the airplane, light bulb, radio, telephone etc. etc.

It is idol worshiping on the part of those reporters who are effusively oozing praise in every sentence.

From Nov. 2015 - Nascent Cult of Personality fluffing.

The Case for Bernie Sanders

"Sanders is a clear outlier in a generation that has forgotten what it means to be a public servant. The Times remarks upon his “grumpy demeanor.” But Bernie is grumpy because he’s thinking about vets who need surgeries, guest workers who’ve had their wages ripped off, kids without access to dentists or some other godforsaken problem that most of us normal people can care about for maybe a few minutes on a good day, but Bernie worries about more or less all the time.

I first met Bernie Sanders ten years ago, and I don’t believe there’s anything else he really thinks about.(Except for those two times he thought of post office names.) There’s no other endgame for him. He’s not looking for a book deal or a membership in a Martha’s Vineyard golf club or a cameo in a Guy Ritchie movie. This election isn’t a game to him; it’s not the awesomely repulsive dark joke it is to me and many others. (LOL Bernie signed a book deal w/ 800K advance eight months later)

And the only reason this attention-averse, sometimes socially uncomfortable person is subjecting himself to this asinine process is because he genuinely believes the system is not beyond repair. (I thought it was to quadruple his income.)

Not all of us can say that. But that doesn’t make us right, and him “unrealistic.” More than any other politician in recent memory, Bernie Sanders is focused on reality. It’s the rest of us who are lost." (Just lost me.)

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/the-case-for-bernie-sanders-32470/#ixzz3qdOWRN6z

But has that worm turned...on Bernie?

Matt Taibbi Is Going Full Bernie Bro...On Bernie Sanders?

'Bernie Sanders’ movement has spawned a militant form of leftist “true believers” who are so dedicated to the ideals laid out by Sanders that they will now apparently turn on Sanders himself if he shows any ideological flexibility. As I argued in my column last week, these true believers have derailed Sanders’ campaign and made their leader unelectable — a spectacular own goal that they are unfortunately incapable of recognizing.

The latest true believer to turn on the leader himself is none other than Rolling Stone’s Matt Taibbi. Taibbi has spent the past three years destroying his journalistic credibility by denying Russiagate and opposing Trump’s impeachment despite mountains of publicly availably, highly incriminating evidence. He has waged an unrelenting war on centrist Democrats alongside leftist ideologies like Glenn Greenwald and Michael Tracey, and covered the Democratic primary as if it were a giant conspiracy created to rob Bernie Sanders of the nomination.

After it became clear Sanders could not win the primary, Taibbi is in full meltdown mode over the implosion of the campaign, and has now turned on Sanders himself for not being sufficiently militant."

https://thebanter.substack.com/p/matt-taibbi-is-going-full-bernie

It was clear years ago the man was calling up something he could not put down....



"When things are not called by their right names, what is said cannot make sense. When what is said does not make sense, what is planned cannot succeed. When plans do not succeed, people become uneasy. When people are uneasy, punishments do not fit crimes. When punishments do not fit crimes, people cannot know where to put hand or foot."

I mean, that’s not any LESS truthful than the original headline, right?

the obstacles before them. The issues could not be more stark with the challenges from a pandemic.

Thank you for posting.

Of course you do.

The comparisons are really starting to add up aren't they?

already implemented in a number of states. I know this because I live in one. Sanders needs to quit taking credit for other peoples work, efforts and accomplishments. It is unbecoming and irritating.

The only Illinois County Bernie won was Champaign County, and by a mere 2.9 percent.

Last edited Fri Mar 20, 2020, 07:53 PM - Edit history (1)

The two issues were local issues. Sanders lost Illinois by around 28%, with most of Biden's victory margin coming from Chocago.

Senator Bernie Sanders is not the force that you make him out to be, the issues that he promotes were promoted by people long before he took them up, hell, Harry Truman made an effort to get Universal Health Care Coverage and was said to have considered his not being able to as one of his most significant failings.

It baffles me why people think that a person who has spent 30+ years in Washington and got almost nothing done will magically transform society to some progressive bastion, hell, LBJ was an infinitely more effective member of Congress before assuming the Presidency and even LBJ left a lot of progressive legistlation that he didn't have support for on the table.

People can smoke pot. So the Independent Senator from Vermont is the one I need to blame for having to walk through clouds of Crunk and have it waft throughout the building I live in? I hold my thanks.

In the real world, sanders did not win any major argument https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/bernie-sanders-didnt-win-any-larger-argument/2020/03/19/39b9a402-69f2-11ea-9923-57073adce27c_story.html