#stillsanders — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #stillsanders, aggregated by home.social.
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‘#Revolution With Joy’: #Bernie and #AOC Draw Massive Crowd in Los Angeles
Sanders appeared to draw his largest crowd ever as he warned supporters that “we are living today in an #oligarchic form of society”
by Naomi LaChance, April 12, 2025
"Sanders noted that Musk had posted a video to X on Friday showing that Sanders has been warning that America is becoming an oligarchy for decades. 'Well, Elon, you’re damn right, that’s what I’ve been talking about,' Sanders said.
" 'The difference is I’m no longer talking about how we’re moving to oligarchy. I’m talking about how we are living today in an oligarchic form of society. Three months ago, when Trump was inaugurated, standing right behind him during his inauguration, were the three wealthiest people in this country, Mr. #Musk, Mr. [Jeff] #Bezos and Mr. [Mark] #Zuckerberg. And right behind them, were 13 other #billionaires who Trump had nominated to head up major federal agencies. And that, brothers and sisters, is what #oligarchy is all about.' "
Archived version:
https://archive.ph/V0grp -
"Throw these bums out": #AOC and #BernieSanders take their campaign against "#oligarchy" out west
Ocasio-Cortez and Sanders addressed thousands at their "#FightingOligarchy" tour stops in #Nevada and #Arizona
Sanders: “We will not allow you to move this country to an oligarchy. We’re not going to allow you and your friend Mr. Musk and the other billionaires to wreak havoc on this country. We’re not a poor country. There is no excuse on God’s earth for people to have to choose between food and the medicine they need to stay alive.”
By Griffin Eckstein
Published March 21, 2025"Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Bernie Sanders hit the road this week to rally Democrats to fight back against President Donald #Trump and billionaire Elon #Musk’s 'move to an oligarchy.'
"The Vermonter and New Yorker each brought their #ProWorker stump speeches to the #southwestern purple states on Thursday, day one of a three-day tour.
"The pair's #LasVegas stop drew over a thousand people, per the Las Vegas Review-Journal, with supporters chanting 'primary Chuck' during AOC’s speech, referring to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. In #TempeArizona, the duo addressed a crowd of more than 15,000 between an arena and overflow attendees outside, the senator said on social media.
"Speaking in #Arizona, Sanders, whose 'Fighting Oligarchy Tour' has already touched down in #Wisconsin and #Michigan, homed in on the #billionaires he says are tightening their grip on the country."
https://www.salon.com/2025/03/21/throw-these-bums-out-aoc-and-bernie-sanders-take-their-campaign-against-oligarchy-out-west/
#ThrowTheseBumsOut #OligarchyTour #Resistance #ResistOligarchy #CorporateColonialism #USPol #CorporateFascism #StillSanders -
Thousands in #Midwestern #GOP Districts Attend #Sanders' First Stops on Tour to Fight #Oligarchy
"It's like there's only one person who is actually able to sidestep the demoralization and frustration," said one observer.
Julia Conley, Feb 22, 2025
"After addressing more than 3,400 #Nebraska residents in Omaha Friday evening, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders on Saturday made his second stop on his National Tour to Fight Oligarchy—telling Iowa City, #Iowa residents that '#Trumpism will not be defeated by politicians inside the #DCBeltway.'
"'For better or worse, that is not going to happen,' said the Vermont Independent senator, whose broadly popular policy proposals have long been dismissed by Democratic leaders as unrealistic and radical while President Donald Trump has increasingly captured the attention of the #WorkingClass Americans who would benefit most from Sanders' ideas.
"'It will only be defeated by millions of Americans in Iowa, in #Vermont, in Nebraska, in every state in this country, who come together in a strong #grassroots movement and say no to oligarchy, no to #authoritarianism, no to #kleptocracy, no to massive cuts to programs that #LowIncome and working Americans desperately need, no to huge #TaxBreaks for the #wealthiest people in this country,' said Sanders.
"The senator announced his tour earlier this month as #ElonMusk, the head of the Trump-created Department of Government Efficiency ( #DOGE) who poured $277 million on the president's campaign, swept through numerous agencies, with DOGE staffers setting up illegal servers, seizing control of data, shutting federal employees out of offices, and working to shut down operations across the government.
"Since Trump took office for his second term just over a month ago, roughly 30,000 federal employees have been fired or laid off—part of Musk's push to cut $2 trillion in federal spending in order to fill the $4.6 trillion hole that Trump's extension of the 2017 tax cuts would blow in the deficit.
"#Republican lawmakers have also pushed to include cuts to #Medicaid, and Trump this week signaled he would back #Medicare cuts after repeatedly insisting he would not slash the popular healthcare program used by more than 65 million Americans, in order to save money while handing out tax cuts to the same #corporations and #ultrawealthy households that benefited from the 2017 tax law.
"'Today in America we are rapidly moving toward an #oligarchic form of society where a handful of #multibillionaires not only have extraordinary wealth, but unprecedented economic, media, and political power,' said Sanders in Iowa City, which like Omaha is represented by a Republican U.S. House member who narrowly won reelection last November and has faced pressure to reject the GOP budget plan. 'Brothers and sisters, that is not the democracy that men and women fought and died to defend.'"
Read more:
https://www.commondreams.org/news/bernie-sanders-donald-trump
#Oligarchy #OligarchyTour #StillSanders #BernieSanders #USPol #CorporateInterests #Corporatocracy #CorporateColonialism -
Raawwrrrr! #BernieSanders, 83, started the video by saying he's not typically "in the habit of thanking #ElonMusk."
"'But I must confess that he's done an exceptional job of demonstrating a point that a few of us have been making for years, and that is the reality that we live in an #oligarchic society in which #billionaires dominate not only our politics and the information we consume from media but our government and economic lives as well,' Sanders said."
https://www.newsweek.com/bernie-sanders-elon-musk-tour-oligarchy-2030615#slideshow/2587724
#Sanders2028 #SandersForSenate2030 #StillSanders #Oligarchy -
RAWWRRRR! GLOVES OFF: #BernieSanders drops BOMB on #ElonMusk
February 12, 2025
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Txe2Zu3QbNU
#StillSanders #DemocraticSocialist #FuckOligarchy -
This will only get worse with #Oligarchs running the clown show.
How #Billionaires Have Sidestepped a Tax Aimed at the #Rich
#WallStreetFinanciers were a clear target of the tax, but some, on questionable legal grounds, have claimed their outsized profits were exempt, sometimes avoiding hundreds of millions in taxes.
by Paul Kiel
Dec. 18, 2024"'It becomes a pretty glaring problem when you have #UltraRich individuals layering loopholes on top of loopholes to dodge both the #NIIT and #Medicare taxes,' said Sen. Ron Wyden, chair of the Senate Finance Committee, in a statement. 'To the nurse or the janitor whose taxes come straight out of their paychecks, it’s ridiculous to see these examples of fabulously wealthy individuals enjoying huge windfalls and continuing to avoid paying a fair share.'"
#EatTheRich #Oligarchy #USPol
#USPol #Corporatocracy
#CorporateFascism #StillSanders #EndCitizensUnited #WealthInequality -
#BernieSanders Says There Is No Choice: 'We Must Defeat the #Oligarchs'
The U.S. Senator from Vermont is asking big questions about how to achieve—even in the face of #Trump's return—an "economy and government that works for all, not just the few."
by Jon Queally, Nov 30, 2024"With the progressive movement in the United States still grappling with how best to respond to president-elect Donald Trump's victory earlier this month, Sen. Bernie Sanders issued a statement Saturday clarifying his belief that confronting the ruling oligarchy over the 'coming months and years' will be the key battle for anyone who wants to build an economy and political system that puts the interests of everyday #WorkingPeople ahead of those of #SuperWealthy elites.
"The Independent U.S. Senator from Vermont suggested Trump's victory was the direct result of a political economy largely controlled by the nation's richest individuals and powerful #corporations and a situation in which massive wealth inequality has also created an incredible power imbalance.
"'This is what Oligarchy looks like,' Sanders said. 'Today, while 60% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck, three multi-billionaires own more wealth than the bottom half of American society.'
"With a 'greater concentration of ownership than we have seen since the #GildedAge,' Sanders continued, from healthcare and financial services to the food, transportation, and housing sectors—'fewer and fewer giant corporations control what is produced and the prices we pay.'
"Sanders slammed a corporate media system in which corporate consolidation has led to an information and entertainment ecosystem in which an estimated '90% of U.S. media is controlled by just six huge global conglomerates,' and a political system 'increasingly controlled by the #BillionaireClass' that is allowed to inject nearly limitless amounts of money into elections, most of it secretly and without accountability.
"'In the recent elections,' Sanders bemoaned, 'just 150 billionaire families spent nearly $2 billion to get their candidates elected.' Such a reality, he said, must be challenged.
"'Our job in the coming months and years is clear. We must defeat the oligarchs and create an economy and government that works for all, not just the few.'
"How can such a defeat of these powerful forces be achieved? Sanders' latest statement did not reveal a prescription, but in a series of recent missives, social media posts, and interviews over the last week, the two-time presidential candidate has said that focusing on building working-class power is the key.
"In a letter to supporters last week, Sanders said the question of 'where do we go from here?' is a 'very serious' one that demands deep scrutiny in the coming weeks and months. And he asked a series of more specific questions that he said must be addressed, including:
• How do we expand our efforts to build a multi-racial, multi-generational working-class movement?
• How do we create a 50 state movement, not politics based on the electoral college and 'battleground' states?
• How do we deal with #CitizensUnited and the ability of billionaires to buy elections?
• How do we recruit more working-class candidates for office at all levels of government?
• Should we be supporting Independent candidates who are prepared to take on both parties?
• How do we better support union organizing?
• How do we put together listening sessions around the country that intentionally seek input from people who did not vote for Democrats in the last election?
• How do we best use social media to build our movement and combat the lies and disinformation coming from the billionaire class and right-wing media?"In a subsequent interview with The Nation, Sanders it is 'absolutely' necessary to find ways to challenge both the #DemocraticParty and the #RepublicanParty, both of which are dominated by #CorporateInterests and #WealthyDonors.
"'We just cannot sit back and accept candidates who are not prepared to stand up to #BigMoney interests and fight for the working class,' Sanders said. 'We cannot continue to do that. So, in one way or another, we have got to bring forth candidates who [will stand up to Big Money].'"
https://www.commondreams.org/news/bernie-sanders-oligarchy
#USPol #Oligarchy #Oligarchs #GlobalOligarchy #USPol #Corporatocracy #Oligarchs #CorporateFascism #HungerGames #StillSanders #Duopoly #EndCitizensUnited #WealthInequality
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#BernieSanders on the Worldwide #Oligarchy
'We are in a struggle between a progressive movement that mobilizes around a shared vision of prosperity, security and dignity for all people, against one that defends oligarchy and massive global income and wealth inequality'
March 23, 2022
"f you watch the corporate media, you'll often hear the word '#oligarch' preceded by the word '#Russian.' But oligarchs aren't uniquely a Russian phenomenon or a foreign concept. No. The United States has its own oligarchy.
"Today, in the United States, the two wealthiest people own more wealth than the bottom 42 percent of our population – more than 130 million Americans. And the top one percent now owns more wealth than the bottom 92 percent. During the last 50 years there has been a massive transfer of wealth in our country, but it’s going in the wrong direction. The middle class is shrinking while the people on top are doing better than ever.
"Further, in terms of the global economy, there is no question that we are seeing a huge and destructive increase in income and wealth inequality. While the very, very richest people become much wealthier, ordinary people struggle and the most desperate starve.
"While massive levels of inequality existed before the rise of COVID, that situation has become much worse over the past two years.
"Today, around the world, the wealthiest 10 multi-billionaires now own more wealth than the bottom 3.1 billion – almost 40 percent of the world’s population. Unbelievably, the wealth of these ten multi-billionaires has doubled during the pandemic, while the income of 99 percent of the world’s population has declined. The oligarchs spend huge amounts of money buying fancy yachts, mansions and great paintings while 160 million people throughout the world have slipped into poverty. According to Oxfam, global income and wealth inequality has led to the deaths of more than 21,000 people each and every day throughout the world as a result of hunger and the lack of access to healthcare. Yet the world’s 2,755 billionaires saw their wealth go up by $5 trillion since March 2021 – increasing from $8.6 trillion to $13.8 trillion.
"But it’s not just the increased income and wealth gap between the very rich and everyone else. It’s a growing concentration of ownership and brute economic and political power. Something which is not talked about much, either in the media or political circles, is the reality that a handful of Wall Street firms, Black Rock, Vanguard and State Street, now control over $21 trillion in assets – roughly the GDP of the United States. This gives a tiny number of CEOs enormous power over hundreds of companies and the lives of millions of workers. The result: in recent years we have seen the ultra-wealthy significantly increase their influence over media, banking, health care, housing and many other parts of our economy. In fact, never before have so few owned and controlled so much.
"Add it all together and what you see is a nation and world trending very strongly toward oligarchy – where a small number of multi-billionaires exercise enormous economic and political power.
"So, in the midst of all of this, where do we go from here?
"Clearly, while we face oligarchy, COVID, attacks on democracy, climate change, the horrific war in Ukraine and other challenges it is easy to understand why many may fall into cynicism and hopelessness. This is a state of mind, however, that we must overcome – not only for ourselves, but for our kids and future generations. The stakes are just too high, and despair is not an option. We must come together and fight back.
"What history has always taught us is that real change never takes place from the top on down. It always occurs from the bottom on up. That is the history of the labor movement, the #CivilRights movement, the women’s movement, the #environmental movement and the #GayRights movement. That is the history of every effort that has brought about transformational change in our society.
"That is the struggle we must intensify today.
"We must bring people together around a progressive agenda. We must educate, organize and build an unstoppable grassroots movement that helps create the kind of nation and world we know we can become. One that is based on the principles of justice and compassion, not greed and oligarchy.
"We must never lose our sense of outrage when so few have so much and so many have so little.
"We must not allow ourselves to be divided up based on the color of our skin, where we were born, our religion or our sexual orientation.
"The greatest threat of the billionaire class is not simply their unlimited wealth and power. It is their ability to create a culture that makes us feel weak and hopeless and diminishes the strength of human solidarity.
"Yet, as a result of the horrific Russian invasion of Ukraine, and the extraordinary courage and solidarity of the Ukrainian people, countries throughout the world are waking up to the fact that there is a global struggle taking place between autocracy and democracy, between authoritarianism and the right of people to freely express their views.
"Now is the time to build a new progressive global order that recognizes every person on this planet shares a common humanity and that all of us – no matter where we live or the language we speak – want our children to grow up healthy, have a good education, breathe clean air and live in peace.
"What we are seeing now is not just the incredible bravery of the people in Ukraine, but thousands of Russians who have taken to the streets to demand an end to Putin’s war in Ukraine, knowing that it’s illegal to do so and that they will likely be arrested and punished.
"We have seen the courage of working people here in our country who are coming together to take on corporate greed and organize for better wages, benefits and working conditions.
"Sisters and brothers, right now we are in a struggle between a progressive movement that mobilizes around a shared vision of prosperity, security and dignity for all people, against one that defends oligarchy and massive global income and wealth inequality.
"It is a struggle we cannot lose. And it is one that we can overcome, as long as we stand together."
https://portside.org/2022-03-23/bernie-sanders-worldwide-oligarchy
#GlobalOligarchy #GlobalPol #USPol #StillSanders #Corporatocracy #CorporateColonialism #CorporateFascism #Autocracy #WealthInequality #Oligarchs
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From 2017: #BernieSanders: We must end #GlobalOligarchy
"Greed is their religion."
By Bernie Sanders, November 13, 2017
"One of the major, untold stories of our time is the rapid movement toward global #oligarchy, in which just a handful of# billionaires now own and control a significant part of the world economy [and the US government in January 2025].
"Here in the United States, the top one-tenth of 1% owns almost as much wealth as the bottom 90%. Incredibly, according to a recent report from the Institute for Policy Studies, three of the richest people in America – #BillGates, #JeffBezos and #WarrenBuffett – now own more wealth than bottom 160 million people in our country.
"But this is clearly not just an American issue. It is a global issue. While millions of people throughout the world live in dire poverty, without clean drinking water, adequate health care, decent housing, or education for their kids, the six wealthiest people in the world as ranked by Forbes Magazine own more wealth, according to Oxfam, than the bottom half of the world’s population, 3.6 billion people.
"This massive level of wealth and income inequality, and the political power associated with that wealth, is an issue that cannot continue be ignored. We must fight back.
"Thanks to the so-called #ParadisePapers, a trove of millions of documents analyzed by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (#ICIJ) and its collaborating news outlets, we now have a better understanding of how the largest corporations and wealthiest people in the world avoid paying their taxes and hide ownership of assets. Needless to say, these billionaires are all strong supporters of our military, our veterans, our infrastructure, our schools and other government services. They would just prefer that you pay for those activities, not them.
"According to the ICIJ’s investigative reporting, the Americans listed as having offshore accounts in the Paradise Papers, (which have not been independently reviewed by CNN), are a who’s who of billionaires, some of whom are the very same officials who have led the effort to promote the Republican tax plan, which would provide even more tax-avoiding opportunities to the very rich.
"Even before these revelations, we knew that #TaxDodging by the #wealthy and large #corporations, not just in the US but globally, was taking place on a massive scale. In 2012, the Tax Justice Network, a British advocacy group, estimated that at least $21 trillion was stashed in offshore tax havens around the world. In other words, while governments enact austerity budgets, which lower the standard of living of working people, the super-rich avoid their taxes.
"According to Berkeley economist Gabriel Zucman, individuals in the US are avoiding $36 billion through offshore tax schemes and US corporations are avoiding more than $130 billion through these schemes. The situation has become so absurd that one five-story office building in the #Caymans is now the 'home' of nearly 20,000 corporations – and that is just one of many tax havens operating across the globe.
"The essence of oligarchy is that the #BillionaireClass is never satisfied with what they have. They want more, more and more – no matter what impact their efforts have on working people, the elderly, children, the sick and the poor. Greed is their religion. While the oligarchs are avoiding their taxes, Trump and his Republican colleagues, ostensibly in order to save federal dollars, have been trying to throw tens of millions of Americans off of their health insurance, and make massive cuts in education, nutrition assistance and affordable housing.
"As a candidate for president, Trump promised that he would stand up for the working class of this country. Needless to say, that was a lie. Almost half of the benefits in the Trump/Republican tax plan would go to the top 1%, according to the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities. Additionally, they want to lower the corporate tax rate from 35% to 20%, even though in 2012 one out of every five large, profitable corporations in the US paid no federal income taxes at all and between 2008 and 2015, 18 corporations had a tax rate lower than 0%.
"Republicans also want to make it easier for companies to shelter their profits overseas and pay zero taxes. The 'territorial tax system' they are proposing, which means companies would be taxed only on income earned within our country’s borders, would exempt the offshore profits of American corporations from US taxes and allow for a one-time 12% tax on their offshore cash profits when brought back into the United States.
Get our free weekly newsletter"Meanwhile, while the wealthy and large corporations are receiving huge tax breaks, nearly half of middle-class families would actually see their taxes go up by the end of the decade by eliminating deductions for medical expenses, student loan interest rates, state and local income and sales taxes, and the cost of health insurance for the self-employed.
"The Paradise Papers make it clearer than ever that we need, in the United States and throughout the world, a tax system which is fair, progressive and transparent.
"Now is the time, in the United States and internationally, for people to come together to take on the greed of the oligarchs. We can and must create a global economy that works for all, not just a handful of billionaires."
https://www.cnn.com/2017/11/13/opinions/oligarchy-paradise-papers-bernie-sanders-opinion/index.html
#USPol #GlobalPol #Corporatocracy #Oligarchy #Oligarchs #Trump #CorporateFascism #HungerGames #StillSanders
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Americans Didn’t Vote for What Donald Trump Is About to Give Them
For 40 years, Republicans have mixed populist rhetoric with #plutocratic policies. Maybe this time, Americans will finally get wise to the #con
by Jay Michaelson, November 11, 2024
"I don’t think any Democrat could’ve won this election. Maybe, if there were a #BernieSanders-like outsider figure, different enough from Joe Biden and Harris to not seem like a continuation of them, and possessed of Trump-like abilities to tune into the grievances and alienation of working-class people, that person could have won. (Biden himself, before his cognitive decline, had those qualities; he was known as Scranton Joe, after all.) But even then, that candidate would have to buck a global trend. I doubt anyone could do that."
Archived version:
https://archive.ph/jlT43 -
I agree. If we're going to have "old white men" running the country, it should have been #Bernie!
Bernie Would Have Won. Seriously.
Trump keeps winning because the Democratic party refuses to be the party of the working class.
by Natalie Shure
November 12 2024"Every Democratic loss now triggers a new round of debate over one of the most well-worn questions of contemporary electoral politics: Would Bernie have won? The original debate, of course, was literal: Immediately following Hillary Clinton’s shocking loss in 2016 to Donald Trump, the insurgent left insisted that their favored Democratic primary candidate would have clinched a general election victory where the nominee herself could not.
"The argument went something like this: Trump’s anti-establishment, anti-neoliberalism, and anti-status quo orientation easily catapulted him to the top of the Republican Party and popular appeal in the swing states that determine the American presidency. However dubious his credibility as a working-class hero (and you may recall he’s a billionaire real-estate titan whose penthouse has a golden elevator), Clinton was a walking avatar for the exact elite political class that Trump so effectively demonized.
"#Berni Sanders, on the other hand, had spent his entire career making arguments against the ruling class that precisely mirrored Trump’s: Where Donald blamed immigrants and demanded mass deportation for American woes, Sanders rightfully lambasted the rich and powerful for causing working-class discontent and demanded social welfare as a response.
"Sanders’s narrative — 'yes, the system IS fucked, you ARE getting screwed, now let’s take on the fat cats who are doing it and get everyone what they deserve' — offers an answer, and a positive alternative, to Trump’s pitch. Clinton’s narrative was something closer to, 'no, the system IS NOT fucked, you AREN’T getting screwed, now please vote for the fat cats’ favorite politician.'
"There’s no way to beat #Trumpism without class struggle and a promise of change for working people.
"Eight years later, Kamala Harris’s loss to Trump has resurrected another back and forth between camps pinning Democratic Party decline on class issues versus cultural ones: Did racism and bigotry deliver a crushing Trump victory, or did 'economic anxiety'? Setting aside the obvious problems with presuming only one can be at play or that they’re wholly distinct, these discussions miss all that 'Bernie would’ve won' really means: There’s no way to beat Trumpism without class struggle and a promise of change for working people, and waging it requires multiracial working-class solidarity and a party that represents that coalition’s interests. Until those things happen, both within and outside of electoral politics, get ready for Trump after Trump after Trump."
Read more:
https://theintercept.com/2024/11/12/trump-harris-democrats-working-class-voters/ -
#BernieSanders Slams '#BigMoney Interests' and Consultants That Control Democratic Party After Loss to Trump
"It should come as no great surprise that a Democratic Party which has abandoned working-class people would find that the working class has abandoned them. First, it was the white working class, and now it is Latino and Black workers as well."
https://www.commondreams.org/news/bernie-sanders-2024
#Oligarchy #Corporatism #CorporateDemocrats #BigMoney #StillSanders #Socialism #Oiligarchy #CapitalismIsDestroyingThePlanet