Bernie Sanders: 'Are we back to the 'gilded age?'

[Playinghardball]

[NYC_SKP]

1. Hillary for non-president 2016!

She can go back to serving on the Walmart board of directors.

[Johonny]

2. Why does he even have to ask?

[Fred Sanders]

3. I have little problem with richer folks playing with antique cars..but fucking $12 million?

[jwirr]

15. I also do not have a lot of problems with the rich having more than the poor. What I am against is

the poor not having a descent wage or resources to have a roof over their head, food on their tables, money to heat their homes and clothing (especially winter). What he should be thinking about every time he drives that car is how much he could help this situation with two acts: 1. raise the minimum wage for all his own workers. 2. Pay higher taxes to support the safety net. After that he can even buy another car if he wants.

[TheNutcracker]

4. Bernie is the man. I wish you'd change your tag, Liz is not running.

[Playinghardball]

7. I'm still holding out hope....

[MoonchildCA]

14. That's a strange think to ask someone.

People have a right to root for whomever they choose. Whether she runs or not, many people are holding out hope.

It's just odd to request someone change their tag line. It's not like it's offensive or anything...

[Sanity Claws]

5. Name names and specify the deed

That's the way to shame these people, if they have any shame at all.

Good job, Bernie!

[hifiguy]

6. We have already been there for a while.

More to the point, why is Bernie the only one asking the important questions?

[Dustlawyer]

13. Because most everyone else is bought off!

We all need to try to recruit Elizabeth Warren to run with Bernie! Together they could use the Bully Pulpit to hammer these points home and call for Publicly Funded Elections! This is Bernie's #1 issue and the only way to attack the root problem of legalized bribery of our politicians which has destroyed Representative Democracy!

[jwirr]

17. Exactly. I don't even see many of our progressive congress people asking it. We fight a lot of

things as progressives but why isn't anyone worried about hunger. Instead food stamps have been cut.

[closeupready]

8. I once worked at a four star restaurant in Chicago.

As a youngster, you see, I'd gotten these bright ideas about disliking the grind of a 9-5 office job and wanting to "follow my passion" (kind of like the idealistic youngsters we see in many of these Hell's Kitchen/Food Truck restaurant/cooking shows). So I landed this fancy restaurant gig, and left my office job.

The hours were long, on my feet all day, my "weekend" was Sunday ... and then Tuesday - but I liked it, actually, no kidding - it was hard work, but satisfying in a creative way. The only problem was the pay - it was minimum wage. I asked my boss for a raise, explaining my predicament. He made inquiries ... unsuccessfully. There was no way I was going to be able to make it on that.

So I gave my two weeks notice - and went right back to that same old office job paying me much more per hour (4x, IIRC), and not coincidentally, they all loved having me (as did I - that was one of my favorite office jobs ever).

More to the point, Bernie's quote here brought to mind this: I was out one day walking about, and who drove by but that restaurant's owner in a nice Mercedes. LOL

[pampango]

9. I assume Bernie is posing a rhetorical question. It would be hard to argue that we are not

in another gilded age.

[MissDeeds]

10. K&R

Run, Bernie!

[Cleita]

11. Read Upton Sinclair's novel, "Oil" which was published in 1926

and covers the exploration of and development of the oil business in California at the turn of the last century. He shows how the oil barons got rich, how that affected other baronages like rail and banking and how we screwed with other countries over oil markets, especially when getting involved in WWI. Nothing has changed in a hundred years.

There's a chapter about what the college aged children of the rich did on their summer vacation, the yacht cruise up and down the coast of California, where they were wined and dined at the country clubs and polo clubs of the uber rich and all the servants who catered to their every whim. There's a sub plot where a guest dies under questionable circumstances and how teams of expensive lawyers and bribery of officials involved covered the whole mess up. The point was to point out that the rich didn't live under the same rules and laws as the rest of us.

Of course, it's fiction, but the places, events and characters are real that Sinclair has shuffled around a bit, giving the names and places different names but basically is a snapshot of that era and the people and events who shaped it.

There are online versions that are free. I can't put up a link because they aren't to be copied, but google will get you there.

[Locrian]

16. great novel

Also "the Jungle"

[Cleita]

18. I just discovered Sinclair, so "The Jungle" is on my reading list.

[Locrian]

19. I liked OIL better.

Oil was a good read - the Jungle is too, but more depressing from the characters standpoint.

[Cleita]

20. Since Oil was about the Doheny family, it was especially interesting to me.

Much of the story takes place up where I live now in Central Coastal California and we still are fighting the oil companies who are trying to frack here. Of course, Hearst Castle, which is up the road from here is also written about but he calls it The Monastery in the book. I almost got a job with the Doheny family years ago. They have so much money, that they have a whole building in Beverly Hills of accountants and lawyers keeping track of it.

Like I said nothing has changed in 100 years. Of course much of it was a fictionalized version of the Teapot Dome scandal.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teapot_Dome_scandal

But it seems the bribery and buying of politicians is still alive and well.

[Locrian]

23. California

The picture he painted of the old California was strikingly beautiful.

My dad was there back in 40-50's and even then he always talked about how beautiful it was. I can't imagine the level of industrial pollution and havoc that they continue to wreck on the land.

Amazing how much we have given up in such a short time. And that the majority of that wealth has been basically given to the crooks and liars that exploited it.

Like you said - nothing changes. They just keep upping the ante on what level of damage they do. They didn't care a damn about the water, air, land etc back then and they don't care now.

[BeanMusical]

21. Thanks.

Sounds like something I would love to read.

[woo me with science]

12. Thank you, Bernie,

for your constant focus on what is really important.

The siphoning of wealth upward is the AGENDA of corporate politicians.

If it weren't, we would see some urgency from them about addressing these problems, instead of relentless, dishonest PR campaigns to pretend we've had a recovery.

But there's no urgency whatsoever. Zero, zip, zilch. In fact, what's on the horizon, instead? MORE corporatization. MORE looting. MORE war. MORE surveillance. MORE police state.

And Hillary and Obama's TPP and TISA, which will slash jobs and wages and strip away even more of our ability to defend ourselves from predatory banks and corporations.


We are a corrupt oligarchy now, not a gridlocked democracy. Time to reject the corporate partisan con game and rally instead around the POLICIES we need, and the very few politicians, like Bernie Sanders, who are honest about what corporate money and corruption have done to our democracy.

[dotymed]

22. Since the

"GREAT DEPRESSION" (we have been in it again for a dozen years) at least we had F.D.R. He "saved capitalism" by
making the Robber Barons and their descendants STOP screwing average Americans and also a very progressive tax rate.
IDK if saving capitalism was worth it. The wealthy immediately started chipping away at his accomplishments until Reagan (in his dementia even) convinced people that money (like piss) would trickle down if only it were once again allowed to accumulate at the top.
Then came the corporate Dems., Clinton signed Bush I's NAFTA into law and oversaw the destruction of Glass-Steagal...the flood gates were open again. They have been opening further ever since (Dodd-Franks?..lol) through Democratic and Republican Presidents. "Money trumps peace" (and survival) and average Americans have been complacent. Voter disenfranchisement,Citizens United and all of the other Orwellian named "laws" have been implemented to prevent us from allowing another FDR to remove our yoke.
If we cannot elect Bernie Sanders as POTUS (screw all excuses, if you have to vote your interests..do it!) then our country will end slowly, miserably on the futures of our children and theirs. It won't be pretty. The Jungle by Sinclair will be a fairy-tail.
IF our votes do count, urge everyone you know to elect Sanders. There is no substitute for his experience and consistent "for the little guy" votes, comments and all of the B.S. he has had to take to even get his message out. I can't do it alone. IF voting does count,
lets prove it and elect the only person who will fight for the "less fortunate" and throw his hat into the arena for President.
I honestly do not think that he particularly wants the job, he is more interested in saving America. Yes he will probably save capitalism because America is afraid of any other "ism" although I embrace the idea.