Bernie, 1992: "In case ya don't know, and you haven't seen the latest polls, the American people hold the president of the United States in contempt, they hold this institution in contempt, they hold the Republican Party in contempt, they hold the Democratic Party in contempt."
Bernie: "We are spending $270 billion a year on the military, but we don't have a major enemy. I know it hurts your feelings. I know you're upset about it. I know you're hoping and praying that maybe we'll have another war. Maybe somebody will rise up. But it ain't happening."
"The Soviet Union doesn't exist! The Warsaw Pact is through! Who you worried about? Iraq? Panama? Who you worried about?"
"I'll tell ya who I'm worried about. I'm worried about the fact that our workers are seeing a decline in their standard of living. They want to see our industry be rebuilt. ... No more B2 bombers, no more Star Wars."
"Let's make the quality products we need, let's invest in American industry." [attempted interruption from the floor] "No, I won't yield."
"The American people want to see our kids educated. They want a Head Start program. They want their kids to be able to go to college. They want to wipe out the fact that 5 million children in this country go to bed hungry. They want childcare... They want decent education."
"Let's have the guts to give some leadership to this country. The Cold War's over. Let's reinvest in America. Let's support this amendment."
• • •
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The bird feeder I recently bought has unexpectedly brought me an incredible amount of joy. Birds are good
Yesterday, for the first time in my life, I saw a mama bird execute a classic "babybirding," repeatedly grabbing food with her beak and dropping it directly into her baby's open beak. Simultaneously gross and heartwarming, mostly the latter
the feeder is on the dining room window ledge near where I work everyday, by an outlet. two times now, to unplug my laptop charger, I have successfully executed a commando crawl from across the room to unplug the charger, evade detection by the birds & avoid scaring them off 🪖🐦
Truly devastating news that's left me paralyzed all day. Michael wasn't just an excellent left radio host — he was a beautiful, warm, loving human being. There are few like him in left media. To say that he'll be missed doesn't begin to speak to how crushing of a loss this is.
Michael was so dedicated to using his platform to build a strong left, both here & abroad. His dedication to internationalism was obvious to anyone who heard him talk about Brazil & Lula, or watched his documentary on Michael Manley & Jamaica. And he was just a great fucking guy.
Part of what I've found so hard to process about this news is that I had long imagined him as a pillar in left media for years and decades to come, someone I'd be collaborating for a very long time. I can't really wrap my brain around the fact that that won't happen now.
Went for a walk in my neighborhood earlier. Saw @chicagosmayor Lori Lightfoot eating outside at a restaurant. So I walked by her table and said politely, "Mayor Lightfoot, we need you to defund the police." She instantly stiffened and responded tersely, "That's not gonna happen."
I tried to respond by arguing that Mayor Lightfoot's recent rejections of basically every demand put forward since the George Floyd protests began — defunding the cops, taking police out of Chicago Public Schools, etc. — were wrong, but I got intercepted by her bodyguard :(
I thought it was important to mention the demand to defund the cops to @chicagosmayor because she recently told Politico that “'not a single person' Lightfoot has spoken to from Chicago’s neighborhoods has said they want fewer police officers." If that was true, it's not anymore.
Wow, the LAPD hired a guy named James Jarrett to infiltrate and disrupt a Black Panthers support group in 1970. He was a “veteran of the CIA’s Phoenix Program in Vietnam that had carried out the systematic murder of thousands...suspected of being Viet Congress sympathizers.”
After a member was attacked (likely by a
right-winger), Jarrett urged Panther supporters to carry Mace. When actress Shirley Sutherland wrote him a check to deliver Mace to her friend’s house, he instead delivered a box of grenades. Which then was pretext for an LAPD raid. Insane
From Set the Night on Fire: LA in the Sixties by Mike Davis and @JonWiener1
The last few days, I’ve endlessly scrolled Twitter at this time of night, observing innumerable instances of shocking police brutality, from old-fashioned beatings to military weaponry used on crowds. It’s been depressing. But I realized something today that made me feel better.
US police are loaded for bear, w/ the most brutal & advanced weaponry money can buy. They get an enormous chunk of local budgets, often the majority, to beat down/lock up as many of us as they can. And yet that hasn’t been enough to force people out of the streets.
Police are arresting thousands, tear gassing huge crowds, pepper spraying kids, beating pregnant women, shooting journalists w/ rubber bullets. The streets, esp at night, aren’t pleasant, because everyone knows cops will do all they can to brutalize people. Yet people keep coming
although “feeling like shit” should not be confused with the section I just read on the millions (billions?) around the world “living in shit,” as in living in literal human excrement
the blurb at the cover’s bottom is right about this book “hit[ting] like anvil blows.” your brain is laid out on the anvil & mercilessly pulverized for 200 pages. and in case you thought he was going to ease you out of the book, he saves child labor & organ harvesting for the end