From where I sit and do most of my work, I can see the roof of the Albany Armory which is where the doors were opening at 11AM today for a Bernie rally to begin at 2PM.
So around 9:30 I was getting some work done and I started hearing loud crowd noises and realized I might want to get moving. I made my way to the Armory at 10AM and there were at least 2000 people there already. The venue can only hold around 4,000. After 2.5 hours standing in line in the cold, I made it in to the venue. From what we were told about 2,000 people who waited never got in.
There was a jam band playing to the house while we waited and they wrapped up their set with what was clearly a very recently rehearsed for the first time version of the Talking Heads “Burning Down the House.” Feeling the Byrne (David, that is.)
And then a young campaign organizer spoke. I thought he was pretty good talking to a packed house of 4,000. He explained his two main reasons for supporting Bernie. The first was the opposition to the Iraq war. The second was Bernie’s long time support of gay marriage. The organizer mentioned his older brother was gay.
Since this is New York and the Clinton influence is ridiculously strong here, it is hard to find many elected officials willing to publicly support Sanders. But there are some and a few of them spoke. [UPDATE: one of the politicians that spoke was State Senator Bill Perkins of Harlem]
And then some guy in a cowboy hat from Texas [UPDATE: Since identified as Jim Hightower] came out and talked for a bit. He never mentioned his name so I’m not sure who he was. But he was good and worked in a lot of interesting language like, “as confused as goats on astroturf.”
And then Bernie took the stage. He got quite the welcome. And then spoke for over an hour and from what I could tell he only used notes when he was referencing some info about methane emissions related to fracking (which didn’t get a huge response from the crowd but since it is something I cover, I enjoyed it.)
While I am very familiar with Bernie’s positions, I haven’t watched the debates or a stump speech so this was my first time seeing him in action beyond a sound bite. Here is what I recall.
Oligarchy and Inequality — Of course he mentioned this. Something I’ve focused on here and an issue I agree with the Senator on. The system is rigged. Fraud is rampant. And Sanders then highlighted the following.
During a rally in Albany, New York, the Democratic presidential candidate read part of an Associated Press story about the settlement resolving state and federal probes into the sale of shoddy mortgages in the lead up to the 2008 financial crisis.
Sanders said instead of the term "shoddy," he said, "the real word is illegal." He said "this is the system that we are living in and this is the system that we have to change."
The real word is illegal. He touched on income equality several other times when discussing other issues.
He spoke about equal pay for women. I believe the direct quote was “women deserve the whole damn dollar, not just part of it. “ Perhaps the loudest applause of the day.
He spoke about health care for everyone.
He discussed free public education and how it needs to change from K-12 to K-16. He said 50 years ago a high school education was enough to get a good job. Those days are over and thus free public college is required to give everyone a chance. He also mentioned plans for reduced interest rates for school loans. He said a Wall Street transaction tax would fund these plans.
He spoke about racism and militarization of our police and about the horrors we’ve seen of unarmed black men being killed. He also discussed the ridiculous incarceration situation in this country and how for profit prisons must be ended. He mentioned how black marijuana use is the same as white marijuana use but black people are 4 times as likely to be arrested for it. He distinctly said he wanted to end the War on Drugs and remove marijuana from being a schedule 1 drug. I don’t know of another presidential candidate saying this.
He talked about being in Flint, and Baltimore and Detroit. He said that in Baltimore the unemployment rate in the one neighborhood was 50% (during the Great Depression unemployment for white people never topped 25%). And that there weren’t that many adult males around because they were all in prison. He noted that people in Albany also told him of the high poverty and unemployment in the black population here (one of my biggest issues — 40% poverty among children in the city of Albany).
He talked about immigration and working for a path to citizenship for undocumented workers who he said are often exploited and live in fear.
He mentioned that no one talks about native Americans and the many challenges they face. He said he would change that.
And he mentioned his vote against the Iraq war. And he did mention his opponent voted for the war.
He also noted that Hillary won’t release the transcripts of her Wall Street speeches.
In addition to Wall Street he targeted the fossil fuel industry and Big Pharma. He noted that Big Pharma currently has 1300 lobbyists in DC and that Americans pay the highest prices for drugs.
He noted that Walmart workers are being subsidized by the rest of us because the Walton Family won’t pay the workers enough. He said we need to stop using welfare to support the richest family in the country and they need to start paying workers a living wage. $15 an hour was mentioned several times.
And he mentioned Republican family values saying that when Republicans talk about family values what they mean is that women shouldn’t control their own bodies and that gay marriage should be illegal.
And one point he made a couple of times was that the truths he was telling would not end up on your TV set. Despite the place being packed with media. He said the people need to be dictating what the issues are — not CNN or ABC.
Basically he laid out what any Democrat should agree with. However, for me my two biggest issues are 1) Our disastrous foreign policy of war and more war to fix the other wars that were colossal fuck ups and 2) The racist war on drugs that is all about profiteering off of destroying people’s lives. Two issues — both with a lot of evil wrapped up in them. And just as much money for the elites.
In the Democratic primary there is only one candidate I agree with on my most important issues. He did a fine job today.
UPDATE: I see Hillary Clinton has just said she will release her Wall Street speech transcripts when the other candidates do the same. Bernie offered today to release all of his. He also noted that his cell phone is always on and anytime Wall Street wants to give him a call he’d love to go talk to them. But not for money. But to tell them how their greed and fraud is destroying the lives of working people in this country.