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Unknown A
Senator Bernie Sanders appeared on CNN yesterday, and it was stunning the amount of both moral clarity and accuracy that he was able to present with regard to the rising power of oligarchy in this country, the degree to which it appears as though Elon Musk is really in charge and controlling everything that is happening right now in Washington, D.C. bernie's really.
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Unknown B
Good at this stuff.
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Unknown A
And I say this not only because what he says mirrors many of my editorial commentaries recently about authoritarianism, oligarchy, kleptocracy, etcetera, but because he's just absolutely precise in describing how and the degree to which it's going on. So let's check out this first clip where he draws a distinction and he says, listen, politicians have lied. Rich people have had access to power. But there's something different this time into this.
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Unknown C
And what we do know is that there's a lot of people that still remain in the database. But as far as people who are actually getting payments, it was 44,000 who got payments, according to an audit that was done in 2023.
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Unknown D
Out of how many millions?
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Unknown C
There's tens of millions. So when they say tens of millions.
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Unknown D
This is what we are dealing with. We're not only dealing with oligarchy, the incredible power of the very, very rich. We're not only dealing with a move toward authoritarianism. We're dealing with what is new to America. You know, politicians have always lied. Nothing new about that. But the level that we're seeing right now, the big lie, over and over again, and it goes out, there's a big lie, and then it goes out on Musk's Twitter to what? Several hundred million people repeat it over and over again. Now, the word is out there. Oh, people on Social Security, 150 years of age. Can you believe it? The whole thing is corrupt. It's broken. Well, where does that lead you, Caitlin? What's the next step if government can't do anything, if Social Security doesn't work, if Medicare doesn't work, if Medicaid doesn't work, we're going to get rid of all those programs.
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Unknown A
I am not thrilled to see Bernie saying this stuff, because it's exactly what I've been saying, right? I mean, the whole Social Security, old people getting check stuff is a pretext to say we got to revamp the system. The level of authoritarianism, the level of oligarchy, this. This is verbatim stuff that I've been saying the last two months. I don't claim Bernie got it from me, okay? He has seen the facts on the ground and come to the same conclusions. And the fact that people in very different places, Right. Bernie as a sitting senator in D.C. me as a guy who just observes and gives my thoughts, sitting in a room with a microphone and sound panels. Right. The fact that we are seeing exactly what's happening and diagnosing it the same way when often there would be differences in terms of how it's diagnosed, is such a sign that this is the way it's going down.
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Unknown A
Now, Bernie went further into the topic of oligarchy and he said the way to fight this is not necessarily so.
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Unknown D
At the end of the day, the struggle against Trump, the struggle against oligarchy, which is led by Elon Musk, the struggle against authoritarianism, the fight to make sure that the working class of this country gets a fair shake, that is not going to be won here in Capitol Hill. It's going to be won by millions of people all over this country standing up and saying, you know what? We fought and died for democracy. We're not going to move toward authoritarianism. We fought to create a country that works for all, not just the billionaire class. That's the struggle. And I'm going to be active in trying to rally the American people to do just that.
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Unknown A
Once again, as I pointed out on Monday, the mass rallies as a tool of nonviolent protest, which I write about in my book and which Bernie is talking about, just spot on, both in terms of substance and tone. And then finally, finally, Bernie Sanders saying, does Trump understand how checks and balances are supposed to work?
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Unknown D
Elon Musk is clearly running the show. The wealthiest person in the world who has enormous conflicts of interests, who is helping to fund right wing extremist organizations all over the world, who is looking forward to get massive tax breaks from Congress, he's running the show.
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Unknown C
So if he's technically, if he's running the show, but not on paper, as they essentially argue, but you say in practice, he basically is your co. Equal branch of government as a senator on.
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Unknown D
I kind of thought so, but I think you have to explain that to the president.
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Unknown C
Do you feel that you have oversight when it comes to what Elon Musk is doing?
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Unknown D
Look, what we're seeing right now, Caitlin, is it's very dangerous moment. I'm laughing here, but it is, it is not funny. This country is moving very rapidly under Trump into an authoritarian form of society. You know, Elon Musk is.
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Unknown A
I would, as you know, go even further and to say we are moving towards an authoritarian kleptocratic cachistocratic Oligarchy. Oligarchy, oligarchy. And it's happening very quickly. You know, Trump always loves to say, and it'll happen very quickly. It's happening very quickly. But not the stuff that he promised. And that is terrifying. So, Bernie, with the right tone, spot on when it comes to substance. Identifying the problem. Step one in solving a problem is identifying it correctly. Number two, recognizing that the solutions are likely to come from, from the bottom up at the local level. And what I think will be interesting. We're going to have a few senators on the show soon. I want to talk to them about, you know, Hakeem Jeffries in the House of Representatives has recently been sort of saying, we don't control anything. What do you really want us to do?
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Unknown A
And there are those who have been upset with Hakeem Jeffries by saying he seems to kind of be giving up. You know, you're the minority leader of the Democrats in the House of Representatives.
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Unknown B
You have.
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Unknown A
If you have no power, then who does? On the other hand, if it's a rallying cry for the average person to get involved in a real, tangible and tractable way, then I think we do have something to talk about. So I'm going to be talking to Democratic senators soon, and I will ask them, what, what power do elected Democrats have right now? Well, I wrote a book.
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Unknown B
After a long journey and a ton of work, I am really thrilled with how it turned out, and I hope you'll read it. The book is called the Echo Machine, and in a nutshell, it looks at how American politics got so broken, who has already figured out solutions, and how we can try to fix it and stop the terror of Trump for the next four years. With Trump winning this election, the Echo Machine couldn't be more relevant. Not only a warning about how we got here, but also about what might be coming and how to prevent the worst outcomes. We've got to stay engaged. We need a plan, and that's what the book is about. There is a belief out there that unless you have corporate media behind you, you can't have a successful political book launch, that it's not possible. I think we can prove that wrong.
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Unknown B
Order the Echo Machine today at David pakman.com/echo on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Audible, Kindle, anywhere that books, e books and audio books are sold. You can also call any local bookstore and say, please order me the Echo Machine by David Pakman.
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Unknown A
Wherever you get the book, you'll get.
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Unknown B
The free preorder perks, including the signed book plate head to David pakman.com/free book stuff after ordering.