The chance that for literally the first time in my life there might be a president who actually shares my values is pretty amazing.

I guess discrediting journalists and hiding your tax return is okay when Bernie does it.

He is supposedly releasing 10 years of his tax return.. and I need the citation for discrediting journalist, A video maybe it would be better

When Bernie releases 10 years of tax returns, as other candidates have already done (and without any apparent difficulty or hum-hawing about it), I'll happily concede the point. But he didn't in 2015/2016, and he hasn't yet.

Here's the article from a disgruntled journalist about Bernie's relationship to the press: http://tinyurl.com/yxjscpxd

He apparently dismisses negative coverage as "political gossip," refuses to answer questions that stray from his talking points, walks out on interviews and then whines about a lack of coverage, and calls journalists who ask uncomfortable questions about his policies "gossip columnists." He also circumvents traditional media channels in favour of social media and his own hosted talk shows.

Make of all that what you will. Better yet, don't make anything of it until more has been written about the topic; just keep this one journalist's perspective as a data-point in the back of your mind.

I have nothing to say except Thank you. I'm reading that article soon as I'm done posting this comment

Didn't notice anything particularly egregious in that article.. the guy wants to stay on topic and is wary of shitty reporting.. He does seem a little bit dickish though so datapoint entered.

Yeah, Bernie has consistently shown contempt for the press for all the right reasons & at the right times. From what I've seen, he's always willing to discuss actual ideas & policies, but he has no interest in opining on, say, the character of a rival or whether or not he thinks they're "electable". (Unless such statements tie directly to a larger point he wants to make.)

That's all to the good.

Or pointing out specific laws supporting his central campaign issue when asked.

Wait, DOES he fly in a private jet?

What's up with that?

He’s more equal than you

First it was the GOP digging for Clinton conspiracies decades at a time. Have Bernouts taken up the mantle?

What I heard last week is that while he was campaigning for hillary, he used chartered flights to go from place to place. This info was leaked to the press by clinton staffers. Which is pretty fucked up. Bernie's people said that it wasn't feasible to get from point a to point b without chartering flights, so make of that what you will.

I guess by USA standards.

A lot of people are against Full Blown Socialism because they don't trust the government to do a good job. (When's the last time you interacted with a government-run body and came away thinking, 'That was great and efficient and fair'?) Or they doubt the validity, fairness, and long-term stability of government-controlled economics even WITH a competent government at the helm.

Or they don't trust Candidate A to be able to be able to accomplish radical changes without causing extensive civic damage; or they don't trust Candidate A to be able to accomplish radical changes at all; or they just don't trust Candidate A.

Because literally every government agency and program is identical to your local state DMV.

And obviously they’re funded on the same level as a price gouging hospital while all the employees are paid like they’re working for a gig app.

That's been the republican tactic for years- attack and defund social services, then point at their inefficiency as a reasoning against social services. A few years back I remember a weird ass bent they got on against the postal service.

Also everyone uses it as their go-to scapegoat for government run hell, but every time I go to the DMV I wonder what the big deal is. "That was great and efficient and fair". Great? Meh, it's an errand. Efficient? I didn't notice anything inefficient. Yeah, I had to fill out a form so they know whose name to put on the card. Fair? Nobody was cutting in line in front of me.

If going to a hospital and getting treatment was that easy, I wouldn't have any complaints. But noooooo, I have to deal with the nanny-corporation's actuaries deciding which doctor I get to go to.

Fair. In Canada we have publicly-funded hospitals and it's fucking great. I wouldn't wish privatized medicine on my worst enemy.

"When's the last time you interacted with a government-run body and came away thinking, 'That was great and efficient and fair'?"

Well, the Post Office offers really good service for an alarmingly low cost. Much better overall than their private competition for many items I need delivered.

Despite the large amount of snow and drifting we've had here, my roads are always plowed, salted, and sanded so I can get to work in the morning, and I can get home in the evening. In the summer, that same government agency keeps my roads maintained, the signs and paint in good order, and the right-of-way mowed.

If I need to know what ingredients are in the food I buy, or what the nutritional value is, it's right there on the label.

Although I don't use many prescription or OTC drugs, I feel reasonably certain that the ones I do use are safe, and that they contain what's represented.

Every day in a hundred ways I can't even recognize, there are government agencies and services that make my life better, healthier, safer, and more economical.

Overall, I'd say these things are great, efficient, and fair.

But yeah. The DMV . . . amirite? Yuk Yuk.

"Crab Mentality - 2019-02-27
Also everyone uses it as their go-to scapegoat for government run hell, but every time I go to the DMV I wonder what the big deal is. "That was great and efficient and fair". Great? Meh, it's an errand. Efficient? I didn't notice anything inefficient. Yeah, I had to fill out a form so they know whose name to put on the card. "

Last time I went to the (recently built, brand new) DMV it was great. They had a good cafeteria, everyone was cheerful, and it was so efficiently planned that they cleared a queue of about 125 people in 40 minutes. The old DMV I used to go to wasn't so hot.


The downside is now it takes me an hour each way to get to one now, because they closed down all of the DMVs within 25 miles or so of the city back in 2014, around the same time the state put its new voter ID law into effect. Which is 100% coincidence, I'm sure.

"Two Jar Slave - 2019-02-27
Fair. In Canada we have publicly-funded hospitals and it's fucking great. I wouldn't wish privatized medicine on my worst enemy."


Back in 2012 a friend of mine had a medical emergency and was hospitalized for a couple of weeks. The doctor who was in charge of him was a relatively young Canadian and at one point my friend asked him why he was working in the USA.

He said that when he was in med school in Canada he had always heard that the US healthcare system was a disaster and he felt like maybe he could do some good and get a new perspective on health care by coming down and seeing it firsthand. He'd been working in the USA for about 5 years at that point and he said he had no idea what he was getting into - our healthcare system turned out to be more broken than he could have possibly imagined without experiencing it firsthand.

When's the last time you had a fast, efficient, and fair experience at the return counter? BAN ALL COMMERCE!!!!

I would sit through a hundred Post Office lines before I would ever again bother with the utter nightmare that is dealing with UPS customer service.

It's OK. I bet half of them voted for Jill Stein.