Bernie Sanders is brilliant on inequality

I am not moving anything. I said nothing about old faces, nor was I referring to name recognition.

My assertions are based on observation of past elections, polls vs election results.

Time will tell, but I stand by everything I’ve said.

[quote=“howaboutthis, post:41, topic:59913”]
I said nothing about old faces
[/quote]Er, yes you did…

This is your own words and what I was responding to:

[quote=“howaboutthis, post:35, topic:59913”]
most of those will continue to vote for “their” people, the same old faces they have always voted for.[/quote]

So, anyway…

[quote=“howaboutthis, post:41, topic:59913”]
I am not moving anything.
[/quote]Oh, ok… I guess I just hallucinated you moved those goal posts. Or, perhaps we share two different realities.

We’ll just have to agree to disagree at this point.

I can’t vote for him and I’m late to the party but seriously! If you have even the most meagre morsel of hope left in you, how can you not vote for Bernie?

6 Likes

Bernie’s going to need a bigger boat.

Bernie had many thousands show up here in Denver tonight. This was despite the fact the local media barely covered his arrival. There was a crappy Denver Post piece that disparaged Sanders and very little else.

For example, local TV Channel 7 ABC News (contact), Channel 4 CBS news (contact) and Channel 31 FOX31(contact) completely ignored his upcoming arrival. NOTHING. And, local Denver TV Channel 9 NBC news (contact) disgracefully didn’t mention the event until literally only about 3 hours before the event started!

http://www.9news.com/story/news/politics/2015/06/20/presidential-hopeful-bernie-sanders-visits-denver/29045985/

Via link above from channel 9:

Channel 9: 3:54 p.m. MDT June 20, 2015 … Hundreds of people are expected to attend his town hall meeting …"

Um… yeah… try thousands, Channel 9.

The gym was packed to overcapacity to the brim. The door staff started to go into a panic and told people trying to get in they were worried the fire marshals were going to shut it down. It was chaotic at the doors, some people didn’t have stamps and couldn’t get back in and were separated from people they came with.

All this happened despite the fact we basically had a local TV news blackout of a top-tier presidential candidate coming to our state.

Here’s some pictures I took and screen grabs from video I shot:

This was just one side of the place. The middle, back and other side was packed like sardines just like this as well:

Left side video screen grab: (blurry because I had to climb up on a ledge to view over the people lined up along the top balcony)

Since far too many people showed up, they filled the halls outside the venue.

Despite the heat outside, many other supporters packed the overflow outdoor stadium just to watch Bernie live on the jumbotron TV across the field since they couldn’t fit into the venue.

I mean, look at this…

They were very loud and cheering (just as loud as everyone going wild inside the cramped venue):

There was also some people up on the grassy hill area I took that above picture from and even more milling around the walkways.

View of the mountains behind the jumbotron TV as the sun set on Crazy-Hair-McGee:

So many cars and people were walking towards the venue itself before 7:30 PM that I witnessed plenty of people turn away because they realized the venue was vastly overcapacity already with people spilling outside of the gym into the hallways.

Here’s some people that couldn’t get into the venue and were stuck outside in the various hallways:

Another area on the other side of the venue in the hallway:

People who couldn’t get in also crowded by windows just trying to get a glimpse of Bernie Sanders:

People who couldn’t fit into the venue in another area of the hallways crowded to watch Bernie live on the TV:

If you look towards the bottom you can see where people sat down in the hallway to watch Bernie on TV so others behind them could see. Why? Because polite Bernie Sanders supporters rock, that’s why:

Some balder people admired Bernie’s wild, white hair:

In case anyone doubts how packed it was, here’s the other side within the venue. We even had a fedora-wearing Redditor show up, apparently. People were literally packed against the walls (look around the right side of the photo):

Colorado loves Bernie!

Here’s Bernie after the speech. He strutted right outside from a side door like a rock star and greeted surprised supporters to loud cheers who were flowing out from the outdoor stadium. I think the woman in the hot shorts fainted – it was pandemonium. Sanders is the new Beatles. :wink: His security detail also fainted…


We should have used the Pepsi Center or something. I think if the venue had been a much larger capacity, more people would have shown up (and/or stayed instead of turning away) and we would have hit 8,000 to 10,000 people.

I talked with a cop down the street that was monitoring traffic (as well as people walking towards the event) and he estimated about 7,000 trying to get towards the area. I think many saw the snarled traffic and mass of people along the sidewalks, realized it was just too much for the venue and turned back.

There was the usual progressives there, but there was also some “converted” Republicans there who are ready to vote for Bernie. For example, after the speech, a guy who was a registered Republican and previously campaigned for Ron Paul denounced his past ideology, got up in front of some volunteers and begged everyone to caucus for Sanders and start actions in Colorado to support Bernie Sanders. I also met more than a few old-school Libertarians that are going to vote for Bernie as well.

Many had their story of how Sanders influenced them to change their voting preferences or even just start voting for the first time in their lives (or after a long hiatus). Many are now more motivated than ever to support this movement. Had some really neat experiences with the great people there.

I met a young couple that said they’d only expected about 50 people. They had showed up late and were shocked to find out they couldn’t get into the extremely packed venue. They hadn’t even really heard of Sanders before and just showed up out of curiosity. They listened to Sanders via the jumbotron TV outside. The experience rocked them. They were blown away by some of Sanders’ revolutionary ideas they hadn’t heard from a politician before. The young woman told me that she was now motivated to “knock on doors”.

All in all, it was way too small of a venue for such huge demand. By Denver standards, it was hot and muggy outside. I’m sure thousands chose to stay inside instead of sit outside and watch a jumbotron TV because the venue was too small. And, even if everyone tried to show up, there wasn’t much space left outside in that overflow stadium anyway.

As I said, Bernie’s going to need a bigger boat for future events. And, when he comes back to Colorado, get a HUGE boat next time.

My favorite part of his speech was probably where he mentioned how much Republican politicians hate his ass. He then said he must be doing something right if they hate him. The crowd went wild.

Feel The Bern

P.S. I forgot to mention that afterwards the campaign volunteers got together to celebrate. When someone got up and mentioned Hillary Clinton in passing – there was a little, tiny, good-natured “boo” from one person and everyone laughed. Bernie Sanders doesn’t want a dirty campaign and neither do his supporters. We want to talk about the issues. So much great, positive energy. The volunteers should be really, really proud of themselves. I’m just so proud of them and everyone else who showed up I can’t stop grinning.

Photo license: Anyone can use any of these photos for any reason and don’t need to give me credit.

I have pictures of Bernie during the speech from inside, but I’m sure plenty of people will post theirs. I wanted to show the grassroots supporters that are coming out for Sanders. I know Bernie would agree that the supporters are the vital element in this new kind of American election and movement that’s growing from the bottom-up instead of typical, top-down politics. Despite the corporate media, word-of-mouth prevailed and word got out that a new kind of American patriot was coming to town.

Thank you for coming to Colorado, Bernie Sanders.

13 Likes

4 Likes

4 Likes

The President has one superpower that a regular Congressperson doesn’t have: the President can get airtime whenever he/she wants.

It is a superpower that our sitting President doesn’t effectively use, but it can have an immense effect. The President can effectively control the conversation, counter every statement made by opponents and mobilize his/her supporters in a way that no one else can.

Eventually a sitting President will realize this and stop doing those dumb scripted speeches people tune out and instead do regular interviews, panels and debates where he/she can have far more impact.

4 Likes

Nice documentation!

The crowd in MN a few weeks ago was similar, if a smidge smaller (estimates ranged from 3,000 to 5K). I feel fairly confident that it was in the neighborhood of 4,000 people, just from scanning the crowd: A regulation gymnasium filled standing-room-only, a roughly-equivalent outdoor amphitheater area packed tight as well, and then who-knows how many people in the surrounding lawn.

That was with little more than a campaign website calendar listing, and – as you describe for CO – virtually no advance press coverage.

Incredibly exciting.

2 Likes

That’s an excellent point. And, even if the corporate media chooses the unprecedented path of attempting to ignore Sanders as president, there’d be a huge online backlash and offline protests out in front of their media headquarters. The scandal itself would expose them for what they are to the American public and that has a lot of value in itself. The corporate media would be exposed as anti-democratic and basically “unAmerican”. Either way, we win.

1 Like

I’m promoting that the campaign starts to activate people to plaster flyers all over town in critical, high-traffic areas before he shows up to venues. Guerrilla marketing and the like. Obviously, the media isn’t going to do its job as a supposed fourth branch and it’s too expensive to acquire commercial TV space, etc.

We need to start getting crowds in the tens of thousands. More name recognition via guerrilla marketing campaigns will also be an added bonus.

I fucking hope so. It’s time.

1 Like

And then Jeremy Corbyn will sweep to power in 2020.

1 Like

Bring back Battling Bessie Braddock, sez I.

I did get a response back from one of the local TV news stations I contacted about their lack of coverage I mentioned here. Here’s the exchange in its entirety so far:


RE: I mentioned your organization about your performance

To: Christy Moreno (Channel 9 News Director)

Thank you very much for responding,

The issue is that your organization didn’t cover his arrival until about 3.5 hours before he was to arrive.

The links you provided also reflect this reality:

• Your first link went to press after his arrival.

• Your second link went to press a mere 3.5 hours before his arrival where your organization predicted “hundreds” would arrive. We had thousands arrive via word-of-mouth no thanks to the media.

• Your third link went to press after his arrival.

• Your fourth link had no mention of his arrival.

If I ran my business like this, I’d be put out of business. However, fortunately for your media business, the bar is set very low as no other local TV channels covered his arrival at all until after he left.

I will at least thank you for covering his arrival on the same day about 3 hours before he was to arrive. That was better than nothing, I suppose. I also thank you for responding to my email so quickly as the other TV stations haven’t replied at all yet (but isn’t surprising).

Respectfully,

Cow

P.S. This isn’t how a democracy is supposed to work within our struggling republic. The media is supposed to act as a fourth estate. I’m just incredibly disappointed. It will be very interesting to compare your coverage of the arrival of Hillary Clinton, etc.

I guess Bernie Sanders is right that money talks when it comes to getting proper news media attention. You may think I’m crazy for expecting better, but I do and I really wish you did too.

On 2015-06-22 18:39, Moreno, Christy wrote:

Thanks for writing.

We previewed the event multiple times and covered it day of.
We also invited Senator Sanders to be a guest on Balance of Power but
never heard back from his campaign.

http://www.9news.com/.../sanders-delivers.../29072633/
http://www.9news.com/.../defying-conventions.../29046137/
http://www.9news.com/.../presidential-hopeful.../29045985/
http://www.9news.com/.../vermonts-sanders-kicks.../27988383/

Christy Moreno
News Director

-----Original Message-----
From: cowicide
Sent: Monday, June 22, 2015 6:26 PM
To: NewsTipsInBox
Cc: KUSA, Viewer Concern
Subject: I mentioned your organization about your performance

I mentioned your organization here at this link:

here

I’d love for you to explain why you didn’t properly inform your
viewership that a presidential candidate was coming to town. About
3.5 hours advance notice is ridiculous.

It will be interesting to see how the other candidates will be treated.
You should be ashamed of yourselves.

Try to at least act like a real news organization that serves the public.


1 Like

This topic was automatically closed after 5 days. New replies are no longer allowed.