When I mentioned taking a day off to move house, my manager asked who I went with for my mortgage
When I told him I was renting he asked “why don’t you just borrow ten grand or so off your parents for a mortgage deposit?”
Sir, we lead very different lives
Have you considered being born into wealth? You should try it some time. It’s not hard. I was born into wealth all by myself!
I once visited a coworkers house and a cleaning service van pulled into her neighbors driveway. She said ‘They’re using THAT maid service now? How cliche! What service do you use?’ I felt like I’d somehow been transported to another dimension.
One time I was working at a thrift store as a cashier and talking with this dude about how expensive living and school were, and he looked at me and was like “Just go over to Europe, school is free there. Have your accountant write it off as a business expense so you won’t have to pay taxes on it” and I was just so fucking baffled I couldn’t speak
the skiing is by far the least batshit thing on this thread
Rich people are so wildly out of touch with how working class people live their lives.
I was discussing with a coworker what our plans were to move some money around to avoid the penalty for not having a minimum of $1,500 in our bank accounts. Our boss who was within earshot looked at us with disbelief and asked “You guys don’t have fifteen hundred in your account already?” like sir, you write our checks, you of all people should know we can’t live the worry-free life off $13 an hour.
Fox News hosted a town hall with Bernie Sanders on Monday, and I decided to watch it. Here are my impressions and takeaways:
Audience Reception on the Issues
The town hall took place in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, described by Fox News anchors Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum as an industrial town with a closed steel plant that voted for Obama and then voted for Trump. These are swing voters who Bernie Sanders should appeal to on issues like trade and workers’ rights. And, to be certain, when NAFTA, CAFTA, and TPP were brought up, the audience sided strongly with Sanders.
But on other issues, even though this town hall aired on Fox News, the audience was often very supportive. This might have best been illustrated by one of the most interesting moments of the town hall: Bret Baier asks the crowd how many of them have private work-provided health insurance, by a show of hands. Many hands raise. When asking the crowd whether they would want Medicare for All, more hands shoot up, some people stand, and some vocalize their support, as well. This is, I’m sure, not what Baier was expecting, because one of the arguments used against universal healthcare, often framed disingenuously, is that people want to keep their private insurance. The audience responded very positively to the idea of having stable, ongoing coverage.
Later, I was surprised by how loudly the crowd applauded the following comment:
“The American people, I think, are ready to deal with justice in America. That is what we’re fighting for. And that’s economic justice, social justice, environmental justice, racial justice.”
Even though this was a Fox News town hall with attendees who appeared to be mostly white, the audience got really excited and loud when Sanders brought up racial justice. From that point through the end of the town hall, it was fairly clear that the majority of those in attendance supported most if not all of what he had to say. Viewers could hear Bernie chants here and there, particularly in the second half of the telecast. Towards the end of the town hall, one of the hosts was booed for asking if Bernie supported prisoners having voting rights for his own political benefit. When he was given an opportunity to provide a closing remark, he and the audience engaged in some call and response, and he was sent off with repeated chants of Bernie.
The message
The case Bernie Sanders made was for a politics and a movement for the working class. He’s advocating for a positive agenda that benefits all workers. In many ways, he appealed to liberal Democrats: he proactively discussed climate change, he discussed suppressing black people’s voting rights, advocated for universal healthcare, challenged the demonization of immigrants, and he didn’t criticize other Democrats when given a chance while criticizing Fox News. But he also advocated for policies further to the left of Democratic Party dogma: he criticized the military industrial complex and the Pentagon for refusing to do an audit and for wasting incalculable amounts of money, he called on us to “rid the world of nuclear weapons,” he said it’s not anti-Semitic to criticize Israel, and he brought up poverty over a handful of times, even mentioning childhood poverty. And that’s where the strength of Bernie’s campaign lies: appealing to the shrinking middle class on standard Democratic issues while also appealing to the poor and working classes of all ethnicities, and he was particularly effective in advocating for inclusive class-based politics and policy, even on Fox News.
What the town hall achieved
First,he looks like the front-runner and a leader. He was criticized by the center and the Democratic Party for appearing on Fox News, and he was criticized by some of my compatriots on the left for platforming Fox News. I see the merit in the latter argument, but Fox News is mainstream and has been for a long time. I’d be concerned if he went on Tucker Carlson, but that’s not what this was. That said, being a leader means making choices you think will be beneficial even when the decision is unpopular. Effective leadership also means walking the walk: Bernie Sanders is about working class politics; refusing to go on Fox News does, to some extent, leave out a platform where some of the working class goes for news–even if the outlet itself is a horrible news source. Trump won the votes of some Americans who voted for Obama; failing to try to bring those voters back into the fold would be political malpractice.
Finally,Sanders effectively demonstrated that he can take on Trump. At multiple times during the broadcast, he spoke directly to Trump: when he brought up his support for staying out of Syria and Yemen and ending endless warfare, he called on Trump to sign the measure he introduced to end America’s support for Yemen. He also went after Trump’s hypocrisy of refusing to cut Medicare on the campaign trail but then proposing budgets that support Medicare and other social insurance programs. At multiple times during the town hall, he positively contrasted himself with Trump. Democrats and many independents–and some Republicans–want to envision a candidate who can emerge victorious against Trump. Bernie’s performance could help some of those voters envision that.
Was his appearance effective?
Press coverage suggests it was. Here’s a sampling of headlines:
“Bernie Sanders may have just set the model for 2020 Democrats with his Fox News town hall” -The News-Times
“Sanders takes on Fox” - and emerges triumphant -Politico
“Bernie Sanders Beat Fox News on Its Own Turf” -Spin
“How wide is Bernie Sanders appeal? This cheering Fox News audience is a clue” -The Guardian
“Bernie Sanders Shines on Fox News” -The National Review
“Bernie’s victorious Fox News town hall” -Vice
“Bernie Sanders on Fox News is Most-Watched Town Hall of 2019″ -The Wrap
What could he have done better?
The first ten minutes of this town hall were particularly combative, and I think that largely stems from the initial focus on Bernie’s tax returns, which revealed him to be a millionaire, and possibly his desire to ensure that he articulated clearly that he is not on board with Fox News as a media organization. While the line of questioning about why Sanders wouldn’t just send his tax cut from Trump back–even though he voted against the bill–is completely asinine, I would like to see him come up with a better answer to what he’s doing with his newfound wealth. Ultimately, though, I think this is a debate of minimal consequence. You can certainly support policies that benefit the 99% without actually being in the 99%. Sanders, as he pointed out, also supports taxing himself at a higher level. And I think most people can draw a distinction between the Clintons, Donald Trump, Jeff Bezos, and others and how they generated their wealth versus how Bernie made his. And, not to forget, the very real degree of separation in their wealth.
And while I think that Bernie has improved on his messaging around foreign policy and developed a better vision of what that would look like, he didn’t proactively bring up foreign policy in the first half of the event. Mostly, I’d like to see him connect what’s happening at the border with our foreign policy. He said that people are desperate and “fleeing violence and misery in Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala.” This is true. He said we need more immigration judges. That’s also true. But he needs to then say that we need to stop intervening in the affairs of these countries and using diplomacy to support stability and economic growth throughout the Americas by supporting workers’ movements at home and abroad.
Final Thoughts
If you know me or were aware of my blog during the 2016 election, you know that I was a strong Sanders supporter and that I volunteered for his campaign. Over the past few years, my political views have shifted more to the left, and I’ve developed more criticisms of Sanders. In spite of that, I did come away from this town hall reminded of the appeal of the Sanders campaign: one that could represent a shift towards an inclusive working class policy focus and movement building, and away from a divisive Red State/Blue State paradigm.
I haven’t made any kind of endorsements for 2020 because, again, it’s too early, and there are many candidates running who will be out of the race a year from now. However, it was difficult not to come away from viewing the town hall with some combination of familiarity and inspiration. One could say I was feeling the Bern…
We would like to thank you all for supporting our fight for fair wages. Tomorrow is the Iowa Caucus, and other primaries are soon afterwards. We would like to endorse Bernie Sanders for president, as we believe that his policies are the best for the working people of America. Although he is losing the race for the Democratic nomination, Bernie consistently is improving his base of support, and is only 3% behind in Iowa. If all of us go to the polls and vote for Bernie, our strength in numbers (over 1000) can get him closer to being the next president of the United States.
The state is, fundamentally, an organisation of force.
It exists because there are unequal social classes. It is used by the capitalist class to suppress workers, through protecting the means of production as the private property of capitalists.
The means of production are factories, plants, facilities, machines, and so on.
The state is used by working people to take ownership of the economy, so that the economy belongs to the people who operate it.
It does not mean persecuting workers who are self-employed.
Social ownership of production means that everyone in society has equal relations to property. This eliminates economic inequality and abolishes social class.
Without social class, there is no group to oppress, and so the state, without a function, does not function at all. The conditions that gave birth to the state would have been ended.
A stateless and classless society is referred to as ‘socialism’ or ‘communism’.
The working class, or proletariat, are waged employees. They rely on this wage to survive.
They are hired to make money (surpluses) for their employers. In order to keep a job, workers must create more wealth than they receive in wages.
Employers collect these surpluses. Everything left after wages are paid is profit. Employers therefore receive more wealth than they create.
How profit is created and distributed (simplified).
Under capitalism, the wealth dynamic resembles that of older economic systems - lord and serf, or master and slave.
In each instance, those who work create surpluses, and in turn may receive enough to survive, but not enough to escape reliance on the exploiter.
The use of ‘exploiter’ is not moralistic. Under capitalism, individuals must be one or the other - employer or employee, exploiter or exploited. The relationship is systemic.
Wage competition between workers forces wages down.
When workers cannot live on the wage, the capitalist state subsidises the employer through welfare schemes.
If workers could not live, the market would collapse.
So I will be selling my Miranda and Jaelin novels and prints of my Hidden Figures piece at this event!
This is my 4th time participating. I’m going to be tabling with some awesome and talented artists and zine creators in a space created to provide a voice for poor and working class women, women of color and LGBTQ+ artists, performers and writers like myself. There will also be performances such as dancing, poetry, musical performances and more! Please show your support! Share this around if you know anyone who would be interested and if you live in the NYC area, please attend if you can. We’re going to be at the Knockdown Center in Queens from July 7-9, opening at 7pm on Friday and ending at 10pm on Sunday. Thanks! :)
We are taking donations in order to make this event possible. Please, if you can donate, feel free to check out this link please share with anyone who may be interested. Thanks!
Release of urgency, campaign “Verdad y Castigo por Juan Pablo Jiménez” (“We demand truth and justice for Juan Pablo Jiménez”):
Attorney and PDI’s (Chilean Policy of Investigation) version is imposed in court, Juan Pablo Jiménez is killed for the second time.
Thursday January 15, 2015, it has been imposed in the courts the thesis of the “stray bullet”, built by the PDI, the Prosecutor and the Ministry of Interior of Chile. In a simplified trial, and before a clear agreement between the prosecutor and defense counsel of the accused for the crime, the accused admitted to being the shooter that ended the life of Juan Pablo Jiménez, young Chilean sindycalist, despite pleading guilty systematically over the last two years. The minor was sentenced as author of unlawful killing, with no single test that can determine that the alleged bullet he fired into the air actually impacted Juan Pablo. That is something that neither the accused himself neither the judge nor the prosecutor can claim.
We note that because there was an agreement between the prosecutor and defendant, not an oral trial, not a single instance to perform tests was developed. In the case of Juan Pablo, it has not been rendered before the Court any evidence; defense, family and colleagues had no opportunity even to present the results of the analyzes before the judge, in which comprised new background and a complaint anonymous marking the full name of the author that may have shooted of Juan Pablo from within Azeta (the electricity outsourcing company he worked for).
As “Campaña Verdad y Castigo por Juan Pablo Jiménez”, we denounce this orchestrated trial by the Chilean State, whereby the assembly of Attorney, which alleges that a child of a poor population was guilty of killing Juan Pablo. We make a call to continue mobilizations to report that today justice has assassinated our colleague Juan Pablo Jiménez once again.
For purposes of mobilization call on an URGENT MEETING TO ALL COMRADES wishing to show solidarity.
Place: CEPCH (Valentín Letelier # 18, Metro Moneda, Santiago, Chile)
When: FRIDAY, JANUARY 16, 2015, 19:00 HOURS.
Juan Pablo Jiménez was a Chilean syndicalist killed on February 21st, 2012, within the company he was working. He fought during ten years against outsourcing and other ways of laboral abuse. This happened last wednesday in Santiago’s downtown, in the capital of the country.
“But like… that’s like so much more money than I make. Stop complaining.”
No.
I won’t stop complaining.
Just because your poverty wages are worse than my poverty wages doesn’t mean that I don’t have the right to be mad about my poverty wages. In many parts of the country you can’t even afford an apartment at $20/hr. Including where I live.
Not to mention the cost of medication for my disabled ass. Every wage looks a hell of a lot different if you have to spend hundreds to thousands a month on your life saving medication.
Minimum wage should be $30/hr. Period.
-fae
Minimum wage should scale with the cost of living for an area actually. In places where the cost of living is astronomical, even $30 an hour wouldn’t cut it. In San Francisco, a true living wage would be closer to $70 an hour. It would be a major incentive to regulate prices on damn near everything, but housing especially, because companies definitely don’t want to shell out that much in wages.
[ID: a tweet from @1anjohn that says: $15 an hour is poverty and I think we need to say that loudly because right now companies use it as a badge of honor]
