Date: 2025-07-02 Page is: DBtxt003.php txt00028328 |
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US POLITICS
THE VERY LOYAL OPPOSITION
Bernie Sanders asks: 'Where Do We Go From Here?'
Original article:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70nHmlapu7w
Peter Burgess COMMENTARY
I often describe myself as an old person who is very conservative and somewhat to the LEFT of Bernie Sanders.
Most Americans have no idea what this means ... but to me it is very clear. A good life requires a solid foundation that is essentially conservative in nature and nothing to do with political conservatism. It is the 'right' and 'wrong' that my mother taught me when I was very young, not to mention all the other adults in the community.
Inequality is not bad 'per se' ... but inequality as it now manifests in the United States and many other parts of the world is 'bad'. I grew up with the idea that people who have the good fortune to be wealthy have responsibilities to society in general that goes well beyond 'accumulating more wealth for me!'
In the modern world, it seems that few people ... maybe nobody ... understands much about the nature of wealth. What is it? How is it created? How is it accumulated? How is it destroyed?
The idea that there is a direct correlation between amount of money and amount of happiness seems to me to be quite ridiculously wrong. Certainly, for people with very little money, an increase in money is good ... but at some point more money does not result in much increase in quality of life. It seems that this reality is not understood very well by a lot of analysts and people in power.
Better metrics for socio-economic performance has been of interest to me since I was a young college student more than 60 years ago. For some reason this particular metric has not been improved in terms of definition in all this time. People like Maynard Keynes and Joan Robinson had this on their agendas when I was a student, but essentially nothing of substance has been done to implement this long standing needed critical reform.
During the last few years, I have been adding the impact on nature and the environment to impact on society (people) and impact on the the economy and business. My thinking is that there is a need for an appropriate balance between 'socio' and 'enviro' and 'economic' impacts.
I was introduced to 'double entry accounting' early in my working life and embraced the idea that this framing of metrics in accounting was very similar to the framing of metrics in all sorts of engineering analysis. There is a certain rigor in engineering analysis as well as in accounting ... but not so much in economic analysis. This allows for economic analysis that is incomplete and incoherent.
The widely used GDP (Gross Domestic Product) metric annoys me intensely, in large part because it sends all the wrong messages about the state and performance of the economy ... of society ... and of the environment. Economic activity related to clean-up after a hurricane should not be treated in the same way as economic activity that is producing everyday essential goods like food and clothing. GDP is talked about all the time, but it really measures nothing in a consistent coherent way!
And pretty much the same argument applies to stock market valuations!
Better metrics are vital ... and this should be a core part of the next iteration of True Value Management Metrics.
Bernie Sanders is one of my favorite politicians ... together with AOC!
Peter Burgess
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Where Do We Go From Here?
Bernie Sanders
Apr 3, 2025
1M subscribers ... 2,463,951 views
Yes, the oligarchs are enormously powerful. They have endless amounts of money. They control our economy. They own much of the media.
But, from the bottom of my heart, I am convinced that if we are well-organized, they can be defeated.
My thoughts on the current moment: ... see transcript!
Transcript
Transcript
- 0:00
- thanks very much for joining me Uh
- tonight we're going to do a bad news
- good news routine So stay with me We
- start off with the bad news which is
- pretty bad but we are going to get to a
- happier ending Uh let me begin by just
- uh telling you what you already know and
- that is that under Donald Trump this
- country is h hurtling rapidly toward
- oligarchy toward
- authoritarianism toward
- kleptocracy and toward more and more
- income and wealth inequality That is
- what is happening Uh you'll all remember
- uh that Abraham Lincoln talked about a
- government of the people by the people
- and for the people I think it is very
- clear that today we have a government of
- the billionaire class by the billionaire
- class and for the billionaire class Elon
- Musk contributed
- $277 million to get Donald Trump elected
- 1:01
- president and he was
- rewarded with the most important
- position in government In other words he
- put out the money and he got what he
- paid for Trump also nominated 13 other
- billionaires to head various government
- agencies So almost all the guys who are
- running the government are billionaires
- For many years as I think you know I
- have been talking about how a country is
- moving toward an oligarchic form of
- society And I know that people had their
- doubts What is Bernie talking about well
- not anymore Uh people now see what's
- going on right in front of them No
- secrets about it They're seeing the
- billionaire class running our government
- right now But it's not just oligarchy
- and a government of the very rich that
- I'm concerned about It is a very rapid
- movement toward
- authoritarianism Virtually every day
- 2:02
- Trump is usurping the powers of Congress
- He is ending programs that Congress
- appropriated and he's getting rid of
- agencies that he has no power to get rid
- of Further he has sued major media
- outlets like ABC CBS Meta and the De Mo
- Register for stories and actions that he
- didn't like And now his FCC is
- investigating PBS and
- NPR and he's threatening to withhold
- federal funding for these vitally
- important media outlets This is clearly
- a massive attack on the First Amendment
- and freedom of expression He doesn't
- like what some media are saying and he
- is intimidating them The message is
- clear Hey I'm the boss Don't you dare
- 3:00
- criticize me But it's not just Congress
- and the media that he's going after He's
- also waging a massive attack against the
- judicial system
- Unbelievably he is actually trying to
- impeach judges who render decisions that
- he doesn't
- like Think about it Very few people who
- are watching this discussion tonight
- thought that the Supreme Court's
- decision on Citizens United or Roie Wade
- were good decisions In fact in my view
- they were disastrous decisions But we're
- kind of old-fashioned We believe in the
- rule of law That's what happened
- Presidents appointed those people to the
- Supreme Court We didn't go around saying
- 'Hey you got to impeach Chief Justice
- Roberts and the other members.' Terrible
- decision That's not the way the American
- Constitution works and that's what we
- believe We actually believe in the
- 4:00
- Constitution But it's not just Congress
- or the media or the judiciary that Trump
- is going after He's now waging a
- vitriolic attack against major
- universities that are teaching courses
- or allowing activities he doesn't like
- For years we have heard conservatives
- talk about decentralized government
- getting the government off the backs of
- the people We've heard about education
- being a local issue And now we have a
- president who is telling Harvard
- Colombia Princeton and others what they
- can or cannot do And in an absolutely
- unconstitutional and frightening way
- federal agents have grabbed foreign
- students thrown them into unmarked cars
- and taken them to detention
- facilities And what is their crime what
- have they done that deserves that kind
- of treatment well in at least one case
- uh a woman wrote uh a article critical
- 5:00
- of Israel In another case somebody
- attended a demonstration Do you really
- grab people off of the street throw them
- in unmarked cars take them to detention
- centers because they expressed a
- political point of view and unbelievably
- he is now going after law firms that
- oppose them Giant law firms Can you
- imagine a president threatening a law
- firm because they represented a client
- or did something that you don't like
- and Trump has also decided that he needs
- to lead the culture war in America He
- has made himself chairman of the board
- of the Kennedy
- Center So if you add all of these
- activities up and I'm just talking about
- a small part of what he has done it
- makes one thing very very clear Trump
- has very little respect for the
- Constitution of the United States and
- for the rule of law He wants more and
- more power for himself and his fellow
- 6:03
- billionaires He wants to lead an
- authoritarian
- nation And to make a bad situation even
- worse Trump and Musk are rapidly trying
- to dismember and destroy federal
- agencies that serve working families and
- the poor Musk has laid off thousands of
- workers at the Social Security
- Administration which will make it harder
- for the elderly and the disabled to get
- the benefits that they paid for It's a
- massive attack against Social Security
- Trump and Musk have also decided to lay
- off some
- 83,000 employees at the Veterans
- Administration which will mean that the
- men and women who put their lives on the
- line to defend our country our veterans
- will see a deterioration in the health
- care they receive at the VA and the
- timeliness of the benefits that they
- earned And then on top of all of that
- 7:03
- Trump and his Republican colleagues are
- now working on a huge reconciliation
- bill which will make massive cuts to
- Medicaid education nutrition etc to do
- what why are they making these cuts in
- order to give over a trillion dollars in
- tax breaks to the
- 1% So that's where we are That is the
- bad news and all in all it is a pretty
- dismal
- situation So now let me give you some
- good news some very good news and that
- is over the last month I and my house
- colleague uh Alexandria
- Kaziocortez have been traveling the
- country in what I've called a fighting
- oligarchy tour I've been to Nebraska
- Iowa Wisconsin Michigan Nevada Colorado
- 8:00
- and Arizona and the turnouts have been
- extraordinary Uh in Denver we had more
- than
- 34,000 people turn out the largest rally
- I have ever been a part of And what I
- have learned from all of these rallies
- and meeting thousands and thousands of
- people is that the people of our country
- are sick and tired of Trumpism They are
- tired of oligarchy They are tired of
- authoritarianism and they are prepared
- to fight back And I should tell you just
- just to mention I'm going to be in uh
- out west uh next week uh in a week and a
- half or so We're going to California and
- other western states and we are going to
- continue to rally the American people to
- stand up to Trumpism and his contempt
- for American democracy And let me give
- you another very good piece of good news
- 9:01
- and and that is on Tuesday night uh
- Susan Crawford uh took on Elon Musk and
- the $25 million that he spent to win a
- seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court And
- I want you all to remember that just
- five months ago uh Trump won a narrow
- victory in Wisconsin And just the other
- day Miss Crawford won a strong victory
- She won by 10 points Pretty good victory
- in a state that Trump had won just five
- months before Also on Tuesday night in
- two congressional districts in Florida
- where Trump had won by 30 points
- Democratic candidates while losing cut
- that margin in half Pretty good So where
- do we go from here
- uh I think the answer is quite obvious
- We have got to educate We've got to
- organize We've got to fight back
- 10:02
- effectively with discipline and
- intelligence And if we do that in my
- view we're going to win this thing And
- right now I should tell you we are not
- only doing rallies around the country We
- are also hiring organizers at the
- grassroots level to help us build the
- kind of grassroots infrastructure that
- we need if we're going to be successful
- And let me just mention to you uh that
- just a few hours ago uh I was on the
- phone with our friends in the first
- district of Iowa I had been to Iowa City
- uh last month and we got a whole lot of
- folks coming out Uh we got names we got
- emails we called them up and we had
- tonight just a few hours ago over 500
- people in the first district of Iowa on
- the telephone and almost all of them
- signed up to get to work to help us
- 11:00
- organize to knock on doors to hold
- meetings etc And we are going to have
- organizers all over this country
- especially in districts where Republican
- members of Congress won by slim
- majorities And we're going to make sure
- that all of the people in those
- districts that were won by Republicans
- with small margins they know loudly and
- clearly they're going to hear from their
- constituents that they must not vote to
- give huge tax breaks to billionaires by
- cutting Medicaid and other programs that
- working families desperately need So yes
- let me be very honest with you Uh the
- oligarchs are enormously powerful No ifs
- buts and may They have endless amounts
- of money They control our economy They
- own much of the media And they have
- enormous influence over our political
- system But from the bottom of my heart I
- 12:03
- am convinced that if we are smart and if
- we're well organized they can be
- defeated If we stand together and not
- let them divide us up by the color of
- our skin or where we were born or our
- religion or our sexual orientation If we
- bring our people together around an
- agenda that works for the many and not
- just the few there is nothing in the
- world that can stop us We can win We
- will win So let us go forward together
- Let's build that movement that we
- desperately need Let's defeat Trumpism
- Thank you all very much
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