Comments by "wvu05" (@wvu05) on "Bernie Sanders" channel.

  1.  @raymonddeflaviis2306  Keep talking. You make your side look worse and worse with every post. Now, you are defending the Klan.
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  2.  @pattirockgarden4423  Bernie didn't have the votes. I did everything I could to try to help him win, but we don't want to sound like Trump dead enders.
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  3.  @veelynn1200  You mean the party that has has been heavily funded by Republicans since at least 2000 and have regularly worked with them to unite against Democrats and make it even easier for Republicans to continue their minority rule? https://www.peoplesworld.org/article/republican-election-sabotage-scheme-using-wisconsin-green-party-fails/
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  4. ​ @whiskeymonk4085  Taxes were a lot higher in the 1950s and people "gave money to one entity" back then, too. The problem is that the incentive for everyone except for renters and those trying to buy a house is to make housing as expensive as possible. If you are in a nice area to live in, it is very common to see For Sale signs replaced a couple months later with For Rent signs that jack up the rental market making it impossible for people to save up. And then if you do somehow manage to save up, some private equity fund will outbid you. In the words of the late, great Sinead O'Connor, fight the real enemy.
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  5.  @lawndeeds74  I apologize for the delay in my reply. Well, there are actual definitions of fascism, so let's look at the 14 criteria for finding a fascist as identified by Umberto Eco (and remember that this doesn't mean that a fascist will automatically be able to succeed in setting up a fascist regime) and see how many Trump fit compared to Bernie. https://kottke.org/16/11/the-14-feautres-of-eternal-fascism 1) The cult of tradition. Trump: Yes; Bernie: No 2) The rejection of modernism. Trump: Yes; Bernie: No 3) The cult of action for action's sake. Trump: Yes; Bernie: No 4) Disagreement is treason. Trump: Yes; Bernie: No 5) Fear of difference. Trump: Yes; Bernie: No 6) Appeal to social frustration. Trump: Yes; Bernie: Yes 7) The obsession with a plot. Trump: Yes; Bernie: No 8) Enemies that are too strong and too weak. Trump: Yes; Bernie: No 9) Pacifism is trafficking with the enemy. Trump: Yes; Bernie: No 10) Contempt for the weak. Trump: Yes; Bernie: No 11) Everybody is educated to become a hero. Trump: Yes; Bernie: No 12) Machismo and weaponry. Trump: Yes; Bernie: No 13) Selective populism. Trump: Yes; Bernie: No 14) Ur-Fascism speaks Newspeak. Trump: Yes; Bernie: No TOTAL: Trump: 14; Bernie: 1 We have a winner!
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  6.  @lawndeeds74  You weren't making a comparison? "If anything Sanders if [sic] more of a fascist." You Do you Trump trolls just not remember what you said, or are you just like Dear Leader and the truth is whatever suits you the most in any given time?
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  7.  @lawndeeds74  For starters, Make America Great Again is the literal manifestation of the first two points. If you don't know how many times that Trump has accused people of treason, you clearly haven't been paying attention. Either that, or you put it down the memory hole. If you want to tell me why I am mistaken, I'd be glad to hear it. Once you do that, then I'll go into the list in even greater detail.
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  8. "For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die." Edward M. Kennedy
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  9.  @vashtanerata1799  I don't understand when people say it, either. If his heart were truly in the right place, he wouldn't keep lying about what he wants to do.
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  10.  @davidleomorley889  He has some, but his signature idea takes Milton Friedman and Charles Murray and manages to make their plan worse by using a regressive tax to pay for it.
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  11.  @chazmcgooski83  The marginal rate matters a great deal. Supply side theory has long stated that the top marginal rates affect job growth and the economy. The marginal rate now is 37% (with the effective rate being 23%). I think once you add everything up, Bernie is proposing a top marginal rate of 64%, which is still lower than any time between 1936 and 1980. Yes, some people seem to confuse marginal and effective, but a top marginal tax rate of 64% would probably lead to an effective rate of about 40%. That is certainly better than what we see now, where the effective rate for the richest 400 families is lower than the bottom 50%.
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  12.  @brothersandsistersofvalhalla  Well, what have you accomplished, since you think that he's done so little?
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  13.  @prstudios3256  People also seem to forget that all but three states have sore loser laws, so he can't appear on the ballot under a different party label.
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  14.  @ChooseCompassion  Google sore loser laws. All but three states have them, so he can't run in any states that do.
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  15. The same thing as Bernie's campaign slogan: not me, us. Bernie will also get the gavel for the Budget Committee and the Subcommittee on Health. Just because we can't get everything doesn't mean we have to put ourselves in a position to get worse than nothing.
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  16.  @modemmark421  I really could have lived without that image in my head.
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  17. ​ @DaveB-w2i  No, a lot of it is about gaming the system. In 1980, there were 13 billionaires in the United States. Today, there are nearly 800. Did they suddenly start adding more wealth, or did they start changing the rules to concentrate wealth at the top. "There is a class war going on, and it's my class that's winning." Warren Buffett
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  18.  Peter Torbay  So much [citation needed], so little time.
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  19.  Peter Torbay  English translation: I can't provide any evidence for the nonsense that I spout, so I will just spout more nonsense to distract from the original nonsense.
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  20.  Peter Torbay  If your "investigation" is the same level of being that person with all the theories that you get stuck sitting next to on the bus from time to time, I'll pass.
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  21.  @asiburger  If you look at the whole of Tulsi's record, the aberrant period was her Bernie support. Other than Bloomberg, no Democratic Presidential candidate was to her right. I prefer people who don't support torture, compare the Iran nuclear deal to Munich, pal around with fascists, spread lies about voter fraud to make it harder for the elderly and disabled to vote, and call Medicare for All un-American.
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  22.  @arcanondrum6543  She shared a Project Veritas video that said that Ilhan Omar paid someone $25,000 to drum up false votes in an effort to prevent what the anti-democracy people call "ballot harvesting," which is how the sick and elderly often cast their absentee ballots.
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  23. Bernie doesn't want to be Labor Secretary. Doesn't it seem odd to you that, right after making the rounds talking about his newfound power in key committees should Democrats retake the Senate, that a story comes out saying that he wants to leave the Senate?
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  24.  @TechnoEstate  People like you said the same thing in 2000 and 2016. How did that work out? The mere fact that the architects of each movement now deny it tells me all I need to know. What makes you think it would work out any differently this time?
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  25.  @TechnoEstate  In 2000, the Nader supporters insisted that swinging the election to Bush would lead to a lefty renaissance that the establishment couldn't ignore. We got Kerry. Ditto 2016, and we got Biden. Your mission objectively failed by any standard. If you throw things to Trump this time and we have an election in 2024, it will be another establishment candidate. You sound like these people who insist that just a little bit longer with sanctions and the Castro regime will crack. Not to mention the millions suffering now, hence multiple prominent Never Biden people admitting that their tantrum was an act of privilege.
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  26. 12:31 and this is why UBI is insufficient to address automation. It is best completed after we have the systemic changes such as making sure that workers benefit and providing a sufficient social safety net. Otherwise, we'll end up with a few trillionaires and everyone else scraping by on $1000/month that may or may not be indexed for inflation.
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  27.  @raymonddeflaviis2306  How do you define freedom? If you go back far enough, all property is stolen, so why is that the one thing that those with a libertarian streak seem to care about above all others?
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  28.  @raymonddeflaviis2306  I said "libertarian streak," which in this case is emphasizing property when talking about freedom without ever saying what it means to those saying it.
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  29. @Tommy Vaughn And Denmark defines itself as a social democracy. I personally don't care too much about the name, but I am just pointing out that some argue that there is a difference between the two.
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  30. @Tommy Vaughn Pakman himself has defended socialism against, among other things, the "socialism has never worked" argument. If socialism is defined by who controls the means of production, his argument is accurate. It seems like semantics to me, but it is accurate by that definition.
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  31.  @jessestreet2549  Bernie lost the nomination because he got fewer votes. The drop in performance between 2016 and 2020 shows two things: 1) a lot of 2016 votes were cast people opposing Hillary rather than supporting Bernie; 2) when there is a fascist in office, people are afraid to dream and just want the bad man to go away. No matter what the DNC thinks, the final decision rests with voters. If you keep sounding like another group of rear guard people who shall remain nameless and not actually learn how to improve, you'll never get better. Conspiracy theories are a security blanket.
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  32.  @jessestreet2549  "HRC won the popular election but lost the ec because of Repubs grabbing important state government seats" For someone who talks about "the civics lesson" at the end of this post, it's amazing how basic understanding of how things work eludes you. The Electoral College is decided in 48 states and DC by the result of the popular vote within the state, and in the other two states, the statewide winner gets two electoral votes and each Congressional district gets one vote. State lines are not gerrymandered. Hillary Clinton lost the deciding three states because she took them for granted and focused on running up the margin in places like Chicago and New Orleans instead of making more of an effort in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and State College in Pennsylvania; in Madison and Milwaukee in Wisconsin; and in Detroit, Lansing, and Ann Arbor in Michigan. If you have every state go statewide with their vote, it affects things by one electoral vote in 2016, and they cancel each other out in 2020. It is not gerrymandering, but the concentration of Democratic voters in urban areas, that makes it possible for Republicans to win the Electoral College despite even trying to win over a majority of voters.
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  33.  @jessestreet2549  Yes, conspiracies sometimes are true, but here's a good rule of thumb: if a conspiracy theory is a way to avoid doing better or feeling better about losing, it's probably not.
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  34. "We go to the moon in this decade and do these other things not because they are easy, but because they are hard." John F. Kennedy, 1962 "We shouldn't try because it is too hard." Joe Biden, 2020
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  35.  @ColinFox  These are people who are either trolls who are here to sew discord, lazy people who do nothing and expect everything to get better, or people who don't understand how anything works and just expect things to get better by magic. As much as they complain, Bernie got fewer votes. Would they approve Trump tactics for trying to hold onto power if Bernie tried it?
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  36.  @aylbdrmadison1051  Consumption taxes are literally the textbook example of a regressive tax. Unless it has changed since the last time I dealt with people pushing this one, it didn't even exempt food. By definition, the more you make, the lower percentage of income you spend. If consumption taxes are not regressive (you can only make them less regressive, never progressive), find me one specific example anywhere of the rich paying a higher percentage of income than the poor do in consumption taxes. Here's a hint: you can't do it.
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  37.  @LogoLamont  Child kidnapping, forced sterilization of women, undermining democracy, killing over 200,000 people due to incompetence. If that's winning, I'd hate to see losing.
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  38.  @JustMe-ec2ph  Things get done in this world by people who do things that aren't appreciated in their time. As Bernie himself said in his first speech after his heart attack, when we do things for others that they won't be able to see ourselves, that is when we will have the society we want. The anti-anti-Trump crowd are idiots, so why should he quit because they don't appreciate what he does? I'm 38 years his junior, and I wish I had half his energy. The ego part comes from saying that if people don't treat you the right way, you'll withhold your efforts. America isn't a social club where we can just work elsewhere.
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  39.  @JustMe-ec2ph  No, but the refusal to do any more to contribute when you still have the energy and the desire because you didn't get enough applause would be. I, for one, believe in not putting people out to pasture, especially once in a generation (if not once in a lifetime figures) who still have plenty of good that they want to do.
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  40.  @JustMe-ec2ph  If someone decides "I've done everything I can or want to do," more power to that person. If someone decides that he/she has the vigor and the desire to keep fighting, we should also respect that. Maybe because I've done internships in retirement communities and even there saw that there will people who still had something to give and wanted to give, I would never take that away from someone because of age, with the possible exception of Supreme Court Justices who need to think far more than the rest of us do about a successor, because timing it wrong can literally lead to a chain reaction lasting for over a century. For everyone else, I just think that we need to see who can still give at a high level. Quite frankly, Bernie strikes me as the kind who would get bored if he retired.
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  41. "The cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die." Edward Kennedy, 1980 We will keep fighting with you and to make sure that your legacy shall continue.
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  42. Some people would let their personal ambition say, "You don't want me as President, so I don't want you." Bernie says, "Where can I do the most good?" and he does it. Truly an inspiration!
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  43.  @internetexplorer8234  We have literally elected the two oldest Presidents ever in a row. Trump (70) beat Reagan (69). I just don't think Bernie wants to run at 83. If he runs again, I'm all in, but Bernie never truly wanted to be President. He wanted to build a movement. Some people are just destined to be a Moses where Joshua has to actually go in.
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  44.  @Terry-nr5qn  So, we need a libertarian who wants to get rid of the existing social safety net and give people checks that are "below the poverty level for one person, which will force people to work if they want any life of meaning" all while saying that there won't be any jobs? Someone who sees no problem with wealth inequality and concentration? Someone who said that Bernie inspired him in 2016, but he couldn't be bothered to vote that year? Someone who wants a regressive tax? Someone who is indifferent to labor? I don't think so. He proved that he was not the one when he got all of zero delegates and never cleared 5% in any state.
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  45. If you just get rid of the cap completely instead of doing a donut hole, you end up with enough to never have to worry about solvency again.
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  46.  @ReVeralife  But you're not. Any minute that you spend organizing a protest in hopes that this will lead to the establishment finally accepting Bernie is time not spent organizing to get him to 1990. If Bernie wins Iowa, he wins New Hampshire, and he probably wins Nevada, too. The campaign has the funding and the staff to be ready for a big Super Tuesday push (the other day, I was at a phone bank party making calls to Minnesota) to capitalize on this effort. There are 37 days between the last contest and the convention. It will probably be obvious long before then if the race is deadlocked. That is plenty of time.
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  47. This is what people mean when we say that there is a good identity politics and a bad one. It is a sad thing the way a term for inclusiveness has been used for people who want to try to divide people on narrow grounds.
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  48.  @tourniquet3306  You don't think that landlords pass it onto the tenants? As to the larger question, the point is that the super rich manipulate their income so that it is not taxable, and a wealth tax is designed to fight that manipulation.
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  49.  @tourniquet3306  By taking income as stock options rather than salary, even when it gets cashed in, it is at a lower rate. If they die, and they still have unrealized capital gains, the rate at which they die never gets taxed. (Example: If Jeff Bezos died today, his kids could cash out Amazon stock, and the capital gains basis is where they inherited it, so they would get a 12-figure net worth and never pay a penny in taxes.) And I don't know why you are using the first person, because the wealth tax doesn't kick in until someone has assets of at least $16MM.
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  50.  @tourniquet3306  So, his kids get to keep hundreds of billions of dollars tax free? Estate taxes don't tax the dead. They tax the heirs.
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