Thread by @docrussjackson

Bernie Sanders vs Elon Musk.

#THREAD

Bernie is one of the most popular politicians & activists in America, serving as the junior senator from Vermont since 2007 & as US Representative from 91-07. He's a democratic socialist & the longest-serving independent in US history.

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1459891238384115722

An advocate of progressive policies, he is known for his opposition to economic inequality. He became interested in politics at an early age. In the 1940s, many of his relatives were murdered in the Holocaust. For his family, purchases "like curtains or a rug," were unaffordable.

In high school he became active in fundraising activities for Korean orphans. Not long after high school graduation, his mother died at the age of 46. His father died at the age of 57.

He graduated from the University of Chicago with a BA in political science in 1964.

He was active in the civil rights movement. In 1962, he went to a rally to protest Chicago university's segregated campus housing policy: "We feel it is an intolerable situation when Negro & white students of the university cannot live together in university-owned apartments".

He & 32 other students then entered the building and camped outside the president's office. After weeks of sit-ins, the university formed a commission to investigate discrimination, & after further protests, ended racial segregation in private university housing in 1963.

He attended the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs & Freedom, where Martin Luther King Jr. gave the "I Have a Dream" speech.

That summer, Sanders was fined $25 for resisting arrest during a demonstration in Englewood against segregation in Chicago's public schools.

In addition to his civil rights activism during the 1960s & 1970s, Sanders was active in several peace & antiwar movements while attending the University of Chicago, becoming a member of the Student Peace Union.

He applied for conscientious objector status during the Vietnam War. which was turned down, by which point he was too old to be drafted.

Although he opposed the war, Bernie never criticized those who fought in it, & he has long been a strong supporter of veterans' benefits.

In 1988, Sanders was the first independent elected to the U.S. House of Representatives since Frazier Reams of Ohio won his second term in 1952. Sanders served as a representative from 1991 until he became a senator in 2007.

During his first year in the House, Bernie often alienated allies & colleagues with his criticism of both political parties as working primarily on behalf of the wealthy.

As a senator, has sponsored over 500 amendments to bills, many of which became law.

Amendments included a ban on goods made by child labor; $100 million in funding for community health centers; $10 million for an outreach program for servicemembers suffering health problems; & a public database of Dept of Defense officials working with defense contractors.

In 2009, Sanders added a provision to the Affordable Care Act to fund $11 billion to community health centers, especially in rural areas. The provision brought together Democrats on the left with Democrats from conservative, rural areas.

On May 4, 2017, in response to the House vote to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, he predicted correctly that "thousands of Americans would die" from no longer having access to health care.

In September 2017, along 15 others he submitted the Medicare for All bill.

Republicans called the bill "Berniecare" & "the latest Democratic push for socialized medicine & higher taxes." He said the Republicans had no credibility on the issue of health care after voting for legislation that would take health insurance away from 32 million Americans.

As chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Primary Health & Aging, Sanders has introduced legislation to reauthorize & strengthen the Older Americans Act, which supports Meals on Wheels & other programs for seniors.

He opposed the Trump administration's 2018 US federal budget.

He called Trump's budget plan "a budget for the billionaire class, for Wall Street, for corporate CEOs, & for the wealthiest people in this country… nothing less than a massive transfer of wealth from working families, the elderly, children, the sick & the poor to the top 1%."

After the November 2017 revelations from the Paradise Papers and a report from the Institute for Policy Studies which said just three people own more wealth than the bottom half of the US population, Sanders stated that "we must end global oligarchy".

2011 polling found Bernie's approval rating was 67% & his disapproval 28%, making him the third-most popular senator.

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People & the National Hispanic Leadership Agenda have given him 100% voting scores during his tenure.

In a 2015 poll, he reached an 83% approval rating among constituents, making him the most popular US senator.

Fox News confirmed he had the highest net favorability at +28 points of any prominent politician included in its March 2017 poll. He ranked 3rd in 2014 & 1st in 2015&16.

In April 2017, a nationwide Poll found Bernie had THE highest favorability rating among all political figures in the poll.

In the 2016 Presidential election, Sanders won 23 primaries & caucuses & around 46% of pledged delegates to Hillary Clinton's 54%.

His campaign was noted for its supporters' enthusiasm, & for rejecting large donations from corporations & the financial industry. A 2015 report found the three major networks (CBS/NBC/ABC) had spent 234 minutes reporting on Trump & 10 minutes on Bernie, despite similar polling.

The report noted that ABC World News Tonight spent 81 minutes on Trump & less than one minute on Bernie during 2015,

A poll conducted in May 2016 found Clinton & Trump in a "dead heat," but found that if Sanders were the nominee, 53% of voters would support him to 39% for Trump.

Clinton & Trump were the least popular likely candidates ever polled, while Sanders received a 43% positive, 36% negative rating,

What a different & infinitely fairer, greener & less polarised world we could & should now be living in had Jeremy Corbyn & Bernie Sanders won.

In February 2019, Bernie announced he'd seek the Democratic Party's 2020 nomination for president. From mid-February 2020 to March, Sanders polled in first place in the Democratic primary ahead of Joe Biden & was described by the press as the party's presidential front-runner.

On August 6, Sanders appeared on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast. Some praised Rogan for "hosting a pragmatic discussion" while others "seemed rather stunned by Bernie's decision to appear on the show at all."

After the podcast, Rogan became a top-trending Twitter topic.

After interviewing him, Rogan said, "I am not right-wing… I've interviewed right-wing people. I am 100% left-wing… Bernie Sanders made a ton of sense to me and I would 100% vote for him."

As of October 2019, the podcast had received more than ten million views on YouTube.

Bernie is a progressive who admires the Nordic model of social democracy & is a proponent of workplace democracy.

He advocates for universal & single-payer healthcare, paid parental leave, as well as tuition-free tertiary education.

Bernie supports lowering the cost of drugs by reforming patent laws to allow cheaper generic versions. He supported the Affordable Care Act, though said it did not go far enough

He views global warming as a serious problem, & advocates bold action to reverse its effects.

Bernie focuses on economic issues such as income & wealth inequality, poverty, raising the minimum wage, universal healthcare, cancelling all student debt, making public colleges & universities tuition-free by taxing financial transactions, & expanding Social Security benefits.

He wants to eliminate the cap on the payroll tax on all incomes above $250,000.

He's a prominent supporter of laws requiring companies to give their workers parental leave, sick leave, & vacation time, noting such laws have been adopted by nearly all other developed countries.

He supports legislation that would make it easier for workers to join or form a trade union & has called for comprehensive financial reforms, such as breaking up "too big to fail" financial institutions, restoring Glass–Steagall legislation, & reforming the Federal Reserve Bank.

Bernie criticized President Trump for appointing multiple billionaires to his cabinet, his rolling back President Obama's Clean Power Plan, noting the scientifically reported effect on climate change of human activity & citing Trump's calling those reports a hoax.

Bernie gave an online reply to Trump's January 2018 State of the Union address in which he called Trump "compulsively dishonest" & criticized him for initiating "a looming immigration crisis" by ending the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.

On January 6, 2021, Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol. Bernie said: "[Trump] has made it clear that he will do anything to remain in power – including insurrection & inciting violence [and he] will go down in history as the worst & most dangerous president in history."

Elon Musk is now the richest person in the world.

In 2018, he was sued by the US Securities & Exchange Commission for falsely tweeting that he had secured funding for a private takeover of Tesla. He settled with the SEC, temporarily stepping down from his chairmanship.

Elon Musk has spread misinformation about the #COVID19 pandemic & has received criticism from experts for his other often bizarre views on such matters as artificial intelligence, cryptocurrency, & public transport.

In March 2020, commenting on a report that China had reported no new COVID cases, Musk predicted there would be "probably close to zero new cases in US too by end of April" - labeled as one of "the most audacious, confident & spectacularly incorrect prognostications [of 2020]".

Despite being the richest person on earth, in 2020, Forbes gave Musk a philanthropy score of 1, because he had given away less than 1% of his net worth.

At the start of 2020, Musk had a net worth of $27 billion.

By November 2021, Musk had a net worth over $300 billion.

Musk has stated that he does not believe the US government should provide subsidies to companies,
despite having received billions of dollars in subsidies, but instead they should use a carbon tax to discourage poor behavior & leave it to the "free-market".

In 2008, Musk began dating Talulah Riley, & in 2010, the couple married.

In 2012, Musk announced a divorce from Riley.

In 2013, they remarried.

In 2014, Musk filed for a second divorce from Riley, then the action was withdrawn.

A second divorce was finalized in 2016.

In May 2018, Musk & musician Grimes revealed that they were dating. Grimes gave birth to their son in May 2020.

The child was eventually named "X AE A-XII" Musk, first name "X", & "AE A-XII" as a middle name.

Musk confirmed the couple are "semi-separated" in September 2021.

I genuinely feel very sorry for anyone who has so much wealth that they will struggle to have normal experiences, & will spend their life never knowing with any confidence to what extent their wealth determines how much they are liked.

I wouldn't wish this on my worst enemy.