Love me some Bernie. I wish the democratic party was actually on-board with his vision and platform, not just fundraiser farming. Booker and others just voted with the GOP against Bernie's call to stop selling weapons to Is rael.
"He's got it, and if he were running for a national office he'd have my vote" too bad the Dems shut him out in 2016.. I wanted to start a write in campaign I've always been a berner.. Zonner
OCLT, kleptocracy is another good word to use to describe what's going on; I was looking for a word that starts with P that had been used by a commentator. Kleptocracy, oligarchy, plutocracy all seem to fit depending on the angle you're looking at it from. They all apply. It's a fucking mess.
He didn't give it a name, but I like how Terence McKenna described our leadership about 25 years ago: "we are led by the least among us; the least intelligent, the least noble, the least visionary."
If there’s one thing the past week made painfully clear, it’s this, other countries still know how to govern. Our White House, on the other hand, is occupied by a kakistocracy, a government by the worst, least qualified, and most corrupt. A kind of reality show LARP where yelling “be cool” on Truth Social is treated as fiscal policy.
Here’s what may have actually happened: Trump thought he was going full “madman theory”, unleashing 145% tariffs on China, 25% on Canada, and sweeping “Liberation Day” tariffs on the rest of the world (except, naturally, Russia). The goal? To scare countries into submission. Instead, they blinked… slowly and raised an eyebrow. Then proceeded to box him in with quiet, competent precision.
Enter Mark Carney, Canada’s new Prime Minister and a former head of the Bank of England and Bank of Canada. In other words, a guy who actually understands leverage, not just the political kind, but the kind that moves global markets.
While Trump was yelling into the internet, Carney was gathering allies behind closed doors, Japan, the EU, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and making one simple pitch:
“If the U.S. keeps up the tariff chaos, we start slowly bleeding your bond market.”
And so they did. Not a fire sale. Not a bombastic news conference. Just a subtle slow bleed of U.S. Treasury bonds, signaling to investors across Asia and Europe: the dollar is no longer a sure thing. That, more than any chant at a rally, makes markets flinch. And it did.
The dollar slipped. Bond yields wobbled. Wall Street panicked. And then, like clockwork, Trump blinked.
He called it a “90-day pause” on tariffs. He claimed he just wanted people to “be cool.” But here’s what actually happened: he got reverse-UNO’d by people with actual credentials. People who don’t appear on Fox News. People who don’t post memes. People who, wait for it, read economic reports.
Even Trump’s own messaging gave away the panic. The usual chest-thumping gave way to baffling justifications, half-coherent rambling about people getting “yippy,” and absolutely zero concessions from anyone he tried to intimidate.
China didn’t cave. Canada didn’t cave. Nobody flinched. The only person who flinched was Trump.
And now, the tariffs are still partially in place, but the “Liberation Day” bonanza has been walked back. No victory. No strategic win. Just market confusion, diplomatic embarrassment, and once again, the realization that Trump isn’t playing 4D chess, he’s playing tic-tac-toe with people who wrote the rulebook for chess, built the board, and own the bank that financed the tournament.
And that, folks, is how you know we’re not the main character in the world story anymore. The grownups in other countries still run financial systems. Meanwhile, we have a man in the White House who thinks “getting yippy” is a valid macroeconomic analysis.
Let that sink in. Better yet, let it motivate you, because if other countries can organize to check Trump’s madness… so can we.
#TradeWar #tariffs #MarkCarney #canada
Bernie today in Salt Lake City. I think AOC's with him, not sure. U of U basketball arena - 15,000.
15,000 seat arena. I RSVP'd on the 5th but when we got there, the line snaked around the building and we got skunked, ending up in the overflow area. 4-5,000 people outside the full arena. Bernie and AOC came out to talk to the crowd before their speeches inside. Great day!
"Sanders estimated some 20,000 people were in attendance. Although he spoke in front of some 36,000 in Los Angeles a day earlier, the senator said the turnout in Utah is "in many ways ... more impressive."
"We are here in so-called conservative Utah, and tomorrow we are going to be in Idaho because we believe that in every state of this country, people are prepared to stand up and fight back," he said."
Found this interesting in the comments section where MAGAt's are criticizing Bernie for being a millionaire criticizing billionaires.
"A million seconds is 11 days and 13 hours. A billion seconds is 31 years and 8 months. The difference between a millionaire and a billionaire is so vast, and the current administration has more billionaires than any other in the history of this country."
"Here's a thread of some stuff you'd didn't know about Bernie's Fight Oligarchy tour...but you should. 16 stops in, here's what I'll share:
66.8 percent of the signups we have received are NEW to the Bernie list.
32% of attendees are NOT registered Democrats and more than 7% of attendees ARE registered Republicans.
42% of attendees are not college graduates -- a group Democrats have been increasingly losing ground with.
We have given speaking slots to:
8 members of Congress
6 national Union presidents
15 local Union leaders
7 current candidates for office (and plenty more who are thinking about it).
13 of the 16 stops have been in Republican-held congressional districts.
254,931 people have come out across eleven states we have visited so far.
We followed up with the lists to ask they: 1) contact their rep and seek a townhall meeting, 2) ask their rep to say no to Medicaid cuts and tax cuts for the rich.
Also engaged on current state legislative fights around collective bargaining, repro rights and other issues.
We have hired a handful of local organizers on the ground in four states.
There's much more to come soon. We are only getting started with our organizing and candidate recruitment plans. Stay tuned."
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: Mice elf
Feel the Bern
Feel the Bern
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: Semolina Pilchard
Seems like a rare good reason
Seems like a rare good reason to visit downtown LA. Grand Park is fairly new, having been established in 2012.
https://grandparkla.org/
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: MarkD
Bring it to Norcal!
Bring it to Norcal!
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: The Sound of Steam and Caffeine
Come on down, Mark.
Come on down, Mark.
The desert party is that same night.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: Semolina Pilchard
Desert party? Coachella?
Desert party? Coachella?
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: Philzone Refugee
The Brahligarchy
The Brahligarchy
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: The Sound of Steam and Caffeine
Not-Coachella.
Not-Coachella.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: An organ grinder’s tune
look, its my president.
look, its my president.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: MarkD
Wish I could Zooey. but not
Wish I could Zooey. but not in the cards right now.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: The Sound of Steam and Caffeine
And now an Auburn event for
And now an Auburn event for Mark...
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: Andy
What, no Neil and Joan in
What, no Neil and Joan in Auburn??? S T U!!!
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: ParadiseWaits
Love me some Bernie. I wish
Love me some Bernie. I wish the democratic party was actually on-board with his vision and platform, not just fundraiser farming. Booker and others just voted with the GOP against Bernie's call to stop selling weapons to Is rael.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: Floating Flasher
It makes for good press
It makes for good press
You know until the gulags begin
And those guys are in it
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: Semolina Pilchard
Bump for mañana. Any other
Bump for mañana. Any other SoCal folks going to this? Zooey? Turtle?
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: treat island
I watched some of Anderson
I watched some of Anderson Cooper hosting Bernie on "Town Hall" on CNN a couple nights ago.
He's got it, and if he were running for a national office he'd have my vote.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: Philzone Refugee
Americans have a hard enough
Americans have a hard enough time fighting traffic. Good luck with oligarchy.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: The Sound of Steam and Caffeine
Streaming later today https:/
Streaming later today https://www.youtube.com/live/61aaIYMN1mA?si=y6RN5ySBA6a_iPYs
Stream starting 10:00 pacific, event 1:00
I will not be able to attend in person.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: Semolina Pilchard
I had a work opportunity come
I had a work opportunity come up, so it turns out I'm not going to make it too. Thanks for the link, Zooey.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: fishcane
Neil's on now, solo electric
Neil's on now, solo electric with old black
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: treat island
Nice to see Neil, Joan Baez,
Nice to see Neil, Joan Baez, Maggie Rogers, and now about to hear OAC
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: treat island
Bernie at the mic
Bernie at the mic
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: Mice elf
In Dodger blue!
In Dodger blue!
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: Mice elf
And Pete Sears on the closing
And Pete Sears on the closing track-
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: MarkD
That a Starship tune?
That a Starship tune?
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: Mice elf
Yes synthesizer crap lol
Yes
synthesizer crap lol
he quit the band some time during/around that album's production
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: treat island
Someone somewhere (tv
Someone somewhere (tv commentator?) said it's not an oligarchy, it's a p___________. I can't remember what he said, not a patriarchy.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: MarkD
Piss into the wind?
Piss into the wind?
I think Plutocracy is the word you are looking for.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: treat island
I'll look it up. I thought it
I'll look it up. I thought it sounded more like patrimony But it doesn't seem like it is.
Thanks
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: treat island
I just looked up plutocracy
I just looked up plutocracy and I think you're right. Thanks again
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: TommyGutt
"He's got it, and if he were running for a national office he'd have my vote" too bad the Dems shut him out in 2016.. I wanted to start a write in campaign I've always been a berner.. Zonner
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: nebulous nelly
>just looked up plutocracy and I think you're right. <
I think Kleptocracy covers it.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: The Sound of Steam and Caffeine
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: Semolina Pilchard
Bernie showed up at Coachella
Bernie showed up at Coachella last night.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: treat island
OCLT, kleptocracy is another
OCLT, kleptocracy is another good word to use to describe what's going on; I was looking for a word that starts with P that had been used by a commentator. Kleptocracy, oligarchy, plutocracy all seem to fit depending on the angle you're looking at it from. They all apply. It's a fucking mess.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: Semolina Pilchard
He didn't give it a name, but
He didn't give it a name, but I like how Terence McKenna described our leadership about 25 years ago: "we are led by the least among us; the least intelligent, the least noble, the least visionary."
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: Strangha
Here's Paul Klugman's
Here's a piece about what Paul Klugman called a Kakistocracy. Wish I could credit but they just sent me text.
The Kakistocracy
But it has been the election of Donald Trump to the US presidency that has driven a wider revival of use of the word. On the eve of Trump’s inauguration, the economist Paul Krugman warned: “What we’re looking at, all too obviously, is an American kakistocracy.” Six months into the presidency, the political scientist Norm Ornstein documented how constant waves of scandals around the White House led him to conclude that “kakistocracy is back, and we are experiencing it firsthand in America”.
If there’s one thing the past week made painfully clear, it’s this, other countries still know how to govern. Our White House, on the other hand, is occupied by a kakistocracy, a government by the worst, least qualified, and most corrupt. A kind of reality show LARP where yelling “be cool” on Truth Social is treated as fiscal policy.
Here’s what may have actually happened: Trump thought he was going full “madman theory”, unleashing 145% tariffs on China, 25% on Canada, and sweeping “Liberation Day” tariffs on the rest of the world (except, naturally, Russia). The goal? To scare countries into submission. Instead, they blinked… slowly and raised an eyebrow. Then proceeded to box him in with quiet, competent precision.
Enter Mark Carney, Canada’s new Prime Minister and a former head of the Bank of England and Bank of Canada. In other words, a guy who actually understands leverage, not just the political kind, but the kind that moves global markets.
While Trump was yelling into the internet, Carney was gathering allies behind closed doors, Japan, the EU, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and making one simple pitch:
“If the U.S. keeps up the tariff chaos, we start slowly bleeding your bond market.”
And so they did. Not a fire sale. Not a bombastic news conference. Just a subtle slow bleed of U.S. Treasury bonds, signaling to investors across Asia and Europe: the dollar is no longer a sure thing. That, more than any chant at a rally, makes markets flinch. And it did.
The dollar slipped. Bond yields wobbled. Wall Street panicked. And then, like clockwork, Trump blinked.
He called it a “90-day pause” on tariffs. He claimed he just wanted people to “be cool.” But here’s what actually happened: he got reverse-UNO’d by people with actual credentials. People who don’t appear on Fox News. People who don’t post memes. People who, wait for it, read economic reports.
Even Trump’s own messaging gave away the panic. The usual chest-thumping gave way to baffling justifications, half-coherent rambling about people getting “yippy,” and absolutely zero concessions from anyone he tried to intimidate.
China didn’t cave. Canada didn’t cave. Nobody flinched. The only person who flinched was Trump.
And now, the tariffs are still partially in place, but the “Liberation Day” bonanza has been walked back. No victory. No strategic win. Just market confusion, diplomatic embarrassment, and once again, the realization that Trump isn’t playing 4D chess, he’s playing tic-tac-toe with people who wrote the rulebook for chess, built the board, and own the bank that financed the tournament.
And that, folks, is how you know we’re not the main character in the world story anymore. The grownups in other countries still run financial systems. Meanwhile, we have a man in the White House who thinks “getting yippy” is a valid macroeconomic analysis.
Let that sink in. Better yet, let it motivate you, because if other countries can organize to check Trump’s madness… so can we.
#TradeWar #tariffs #MarkCarney #canada
Bernie today in Salt Lake City. I think AOC's with him, not sure. U of U basketball arena - 15,000.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: Strangha
20,000 folks at the U of U
20,000 folks at the U of U Campus yesterday.
15,000 seat arena. I RSVP'd on the 5th but when we got there, the line snaked around the building and we got skunked, ending up in the overflow area. 4-5,000 people outside the full arena. Bernie and AOC came out to talk to the crowd before their speeches inside. Great day!
Church-owned media https://www.ksl.com/article/51294295/they-want-it-all-bernie-sanders-con...
"Sanders estimated some 20,000 people were in attendance. Although he spoke in front of some 36,000 in Los Angeles a day earlier, the senator said the turnout in Utah is "in many ways ... more impressive."
"We are here in so-called conservative Utah, and tomorrow we are going to be in Idaho because we believe that in every state of this country, people are prepared to stand up and fight back," he said."
Some good independent media:
https://utahnewsdispatch.com/2025/04/13/bernie-sanders-aoc-and-the-fight...
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: Strangha
Found this interesting in the
Found this interesting in the comments section where MAGAt's are criticizing Bernie for being a millionaire criticizing billionaires.
"A million seconds is 11 days and 13 hours. A billion seconds is 31 years and 8 months. The difference between a millionaire and a billionaire is so vast, and the current administration has more billionaires than any other in the history of this country."
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: El Nino
Couldn't make the Sacramento
Couldn't make the Sacramento one because of a scheduling conflict. At least 30,000 people did show up on Tuesday.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: ParadiseWaits
I don't know where Bernie
I don't know where Bernie finds the energy. Dude is dedicated for sure.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: treat island
Yes, Dise, he's amazing.
Yes, Dise, he's amazing.
Stay healthy, Bernie.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: MarkD
"Here's a thread of some
"Here's a thread of some stuff you'd didn't know about Bernie's Fight Oligarchy tour...but you should. 16 stops in, here's what I'll share:
66.8 percent of the signups we have received are NEW to the Bernie list.
32% of attendees are NOT registered Democrats and more than 7% of attendees ARE registered Republicans.
42% of attendees are not college graduates -- a group Democrats have been increasingly losing ground with.
We have given speaking slots to:
8 members of Congress
6 national Union presidents
15 local Union leaders
7 current candidates for office (and plenty more who are thinking about it).
13 of the 16 stops have been in Republican-held congressional districts.
254,931 people have come out across eleven states we have visited so far.
We followed up with the lists to ask they: 1) contact their rep and seek a townhall meeting, 2) ask their rep to say no to Medicaid cuts and tax cuts for the rich.
Also engaged on current state legislative fights around collective bargaining, repro rights and other issues.
We have hired a handful of local organizers on the ground in four states.
There's much more to come soon. We are only getting started with our organizing and candidate recruitment plans. Stay tuned."