And finally:
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/19/u...esident-but-hes-already-facebook-royalty.html
By the way, I've always loved how NYTimes uses Mr. and Mrs. when using ones name. It's aesthetic choice that is awesome.
"WASHINGTON — The quotations he posts, rarely pithy, are often sayings he thinks up in the shower. The photographs he puts up sometimes show him frowning, while others show him gazing oddly into the horizon. And he does not seem to care about the importance of videos.
But somehow,
Bernie Sanders, the 73-year-old senator from Vermont, has emerged as a king of social media early in the 2016 presidential campaign, amid a field of tech-savvy contenders.
His Facebook posts attract tens of thousands of likes and shares, and threads about him often break through to the home page of Reddit, where the cluster of topics rarely focuses on presidential election politics.
“I’m a grumpy old guy,” Mr. Sanders joked when explaining his approach to posting online. “I know that people talk about their cats and ‘I’m walking to the grocery store and getting a can of chicken soup’ and ‘this is so exciting.’ By and large, we have not done that.”
Mr. Sanders’s prominence online is all the more improbable given that he does not do many things the way social media experts say they should be done.
He has not shied away from posts of 300 words or more, with a “continue reading here” link to his personal website.
Mr. Sanders, an independent who describes himself as a socialist, has stuck to an idiosyncratic method: posting images that share a quotation, which he has either written himself or dug up from a historical figure and then superimposed onto a photograph. (President Theodore Roosevelt and President Dwight D. Eisenhower are among those he has recently cited.)
Social networking sites like Facebook recommend that when users post text, they do so with searchable words that would be attractive to newsfeed algorithms and search engines.
But Mr. Sanders’s team rarely uses buzzy introductory text when sharing his posts, leaving the chances of their going viral to users who stumble upon them. Fortunately for Mr. Sanders, who is seeking the Democratic nomination, he has loyal followers who somehow always know how to find his latest musing.
Take, for example, a block quotation that advocates
making Election Day a national holiday. It is posted atop a stock photo of ballot boxes. And it contains no searchable text. Still, it received nearly 100,000 likes and 22,000 shares. By comparison,
Hillary Rodham Clinton’s
video announcing her presidential candidacy received over 79,000 likes and 41,000 shares.
“He can post a quote graphic or a long text-only Facebook status, and it doesn’t really matter what the algorithm favors,” said Laura Olin, who was in charge of the much-praised social media strategy for President Obama’s 2012 campaign.
“If it sounds like him,” she said, “his people will find it and spread it.”
And the reason
Bernie Sanders’s posts sounds like him is that, for the most part, they are from Bernie Sanders. He often comes to his Senate office with quotations at the ready.
“Usually, it’s in the shower where something pops into my head,” Mr. Sanders said, adding, “I play a very, very active role in writing, literally writing, what goes up there on Facebook.”
And unlike many candidates, he does not share warm details of his daily life. “People don’t need to know what I buy in the grocery store or what the name of my dog is — I don’t own a dog, by the way — but they do need to know why billionaires are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer.”
A former journalist who began sending newsletters to his constituents in the early 1990s, Mr. Sanders relishes writing. He carries yellow legal pads with him wherever he goes, “for a little jabbering,” and their contents are often turned verbatim into a posting.
A typical quotation from him on his Facebook page, which often deals with income inequality,
says, “We must rebuild American manufacturing and rewrite our trade agreements so that our largest export is not our jobs.”
“I think the people that have the most success on Facebook, they’re developing an authentic method and sticking to it,” said Anton Vuljaj, director of advertising at IMGE, a consulting firm. “He’s matching what he’s saying online to what he’s doing offline.”
While Mr. Sanders’s popularity cuts across social media platforms, it appears most pronounced on Facebook. He did not
start his campaign with a big announcement event, and he did not enjoy the explosion of interest that Senator
Ted Cruz of Texas and Senator
Rand Paul of Kentucky experienced when they declared that they were seeking the Republican nomination.
Mr. Sanders had 1.3 million Facebook interactions, compared with 5.6 million for Mr. Cruz and two million for Mr. Paul, according to data provided by Facebook.
But since their announcements, the popularity of Mr. Cruz and Mr. Paul on Facebook has tempered, while Mr. Sanders’s has risen. In a seven-day stretch leading up to May 3, Mr. Sanders had 5.3 million interactions, compared with 1.2 million for Mr. Paul and 1.7 million for Mr. Cruz.
On Reddit, he is similarly popular. The site’s home page, which is powered by the so-called upvotes of users on a topic thread, is often filled with viral news and esoteric, humorous discussions; politics is often found only on a subreddit. But Mr. Sanders is one elected official who has on occasion leapt over the barrier.
Among politicians, he is one of the most frequent posters to the site, and nearly a quarter of the top most-voted politics posts of all time
on Reddit are about or by Mr. Sanders.
But Mr. Sanders has not eclipsed everyone else in the 2016 field on the social media front. Mrs. Clinton’s videos are viewed by hundreds of thousands, Mr. Paul and Mr. Cruz have large and dedicated armies of supporters, and
Jeb Bush has built a following by making most of his major announcements online.
But for a candidate who performs poorly in the polls, Mr. Sanders appears to be everywhere. And like many of his positions over the years, his social media tactics are unlikely to change with the times.
“I’m not some kind of tech nerd, I really am not,” Mr. Sanders said. “But I have always believed in communication, and not just photo ops and stuff, but educating people, and communicating with people about the real work that we’re doing.”"
Addicting Info – Everything Bernie Sanders Predicted In 2010 Has Come True Or Will Come True
"
“The Republicans will tell you: Oh, we have a great plan to deal with it [deficit and debt].
We are giving tax breaks to millionaires. But now what we are going to have to do is start making deep cuts in Social Security, and that deficit reduction commission started paving the way for that, very substantial cuts in Social Security.” And what have we seen from Republicans in
2012,
2013,
2014 and
this year? Plans to cut Social Security. In 2010, Sanders called it: Republicans will justify paying for these tax cuts by cutting Social Security benefits.
Five years ago, Bernie Sanders delivered a historic filibuster on corporate greed. Today, almost everything he predicted came true, and other predictions are on the horizon. For instance, he said,
“I believe in the coming months you are going to see an intensification of efforts to expand unfettered free trade. I think that will be a continuation of a disastrous policy for American workers.” It took five years, but now it’s just a hair away from being a reality – the TPP.
My, how things really haven’t changed in the last 5 years. Everything Sanders stood for, affordable education, affordable healthcare, expanded infrastructure, etc. the Republicans have opposed and blocked. He said during his filibuster that the Republicans next move would be getting rid of the estate tax. Well, earlier this year, Republicans
voted to do just that.
Sanders said , “
I think if our goal is to create the millions and millions of jobs we need, and if our goal is to make our country stronger internationally in a very tough global economy, I would much prefer, and I think most economists would agree with me that a better way to do that, to create the millions of jobs we have to create, is to invest heavily in our infrastructure.”
What did the Republicans do? They filibustered
meaningful infrastructure legislation. Then they had the audacity to say the Keystone XL Pipeline was an infrastructure plan for America. No roads, nor bridges, nor dams or railways…a pipeline.
I tend to follow the idea perfectly summed up by Sanders:
“This is the United States of America. Maybe I am old-fashioned. I think we can do it too. I think we can rebuild our rail system, make our country more efficient and create jobs.”
Sanders said,
“Right now, it is extremely difficult for middle-class families to send their kids to college. Does anyone have any doubt whatsoever that our Republican friends are not going to come back here and say: Oh, we cannot afford to raise Pell Grants as we have in recent years. We cannot afford to support working families who have their kids in childcare. Cut. Cut.Cut.”
And what did Republicans do? Just 2 months after Sander’s speech, they
voted to cut from Pell Grants and
childcare the year after. But at least they got their tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires.
So let’s break this down.
Senator Sanders said the Republicans would pay for these tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires but cutting from Social Security. The voted to do just that. He said the Republicans would offset the cost by voting to cut Pell Grants and child care. They voted to do just that. He said they would hold infrastructure spending hostage. They did just that.
Long story short, Sanders has been 100% right in the last 5 years. Republicans got their tax breaks for their richest friends, and everyone else has been screwed over.
How Sanders Will Pay for Free College | PJ Tatler
Senator and Hillary Clinton presidential challenger Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) today introduced legislation to make four-year public universities totally free.
The 35-page
College for All Act would give states $47 billion each year in federal grants to operate. These schools currently rake in about $70 billion in tuition each year, so states would be left to pick up a third of the tab.
“To qualify for federal funding, states must meet a number of requirements designed to protect students, ensure quality, and reduce ballooning costs. States will need to maintain spending on their higher education systems, on academic instruction, and on need-based financial aid. In addition, colleges and universities must reduce their reliance on low-paid adjunct faculty,” Sanders’ office said in a description of the bill. “States would be able to use funding to increase academic opportunities for students, hire new faculty, and provide professional development opportunities for professors. No funding under this program may be used to fund administrator salaries, merit-based financial aid, or the construction of non-academic buildings like stadiums and student centers.”
What’s the pay-for? A “Robin Hood tax” on Wall Street.
“This legislation is offset by imposing a Wall Street speculation fee on investment houses, hedge funds, and other speculators of 0.5% on stock trades (50 cents for every $100 worth of stock), a 0.1% fee on bonds, and a 0.005% fee on derivatives. It has been estimated that this provision could raise hundreds of billions a year which could be used not only to make tuition free at public colleges and universities in this country, it could also be used to create millions of jobs and rebuild the middle class of this country.”
Bernie Sanders Exposes 18 CEOs who took Trillions in Bailouts, Evaded Taxes and Outsourced Jobs
Here are the 18 CEO’s Sanders labeled job destroyers in his report. (All data from
Top Corporate Dodgers report.)
1). 1. Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan
Amount of federal income taxes paid in 2010? Zero. $1.9 billion tax refund.
Taxpayer Bailout from the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department? Over $1.3 trillion.
Amount of federal income taxes Bank of America would have owed if offshore tax havens were eliminated? $2.6 billion.
2). Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein
Amount of federal income taxes paid in 2008? Zero. $278 million tax refund.
Taxpayer Bailout from the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department? $824 billion.
Amount of federal income taxes Goldman Sachs would have owed if offshore tax havens were eliminated? $2.7 billion
3). JP Morgan Chase CEO James Dimon
Taxpayer Bailout from the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department? $416 billion.
Amount of federal income taxes JP Morgan Chase would have owed if offshore tax havens were eliminated? $4.9 billion.
4). General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt
Amount of federal income taxes paid in 2010? Zero. $3.3 billion tax refund.
Taxpayer Bailout from the Federal Reserve? $16 billion.
Jobs Shipped Overseas? At least 25,000 since 2001.
5). Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam
Amount of federal income taxes paid in 2010? Zero. $705 million tax refund.
American Jobs Cut in 2010? In 2010, Verizon announced 13,000 job cuts, the third highest corporate layoff total that year.
6). Boeing CEO James McNerney, Jr.
Amount of federal income taxes paid in 2010? None. $124 million tax refund.
American Jobs Shipped overseas? Over 57,000.
Amount of Corporate Welfare? At least $58 billion.
7). Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer
Amount of federal income taxes Microsoft would have owed if offshore tax havens were eliminated? $19.4 billion.
8). Honeywell International CEO David Cote
Amount of federal income taxes paid from 2008-2010? Zero. $34 million tax refund.
9). Corning CEO Wendell WeeksAmount of federal income taxes paid from 2008-2010? Zero. $4 million tax refund.
10). Time Warner CEO Glenn Britt
Amount of federal income taxes paid in 2008? Zero. $74 million tax refund.
11). Merck CEO Kenneth Frazier
Amount of federal income taxes paid in 2009? Zero. $55 million tax refund.
12). Deere & Company CEO Samuel Allen
Amount of federal income taxes paid in 2009? Zero. $1 million tax refund.
13). Marsh & McLennan Companies CEO Brian Duperreault
Amount of federal income taxes paid in 2010? Zero. $90 million refund.
14). Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs
Amount of federal income taxes Qualcomm would have owed if offshore tax havens were eliminated? $4.7 billion.
15). Tenneco CEO Gregg Sherill
Amount of federal income taxes Tenneco would have owed if offshore tax havens were eliminated? $269 million.
16). Express Scripts CEO George Paz
Amount of federal income taxes Express Scripts would have owed if offshore tax havens were eliminated? $20 million.
17). Caesars Entertainment CEO Gary Loveman
Amount of federal income taxes Caesars Entertainment would have owed if offshore tax havens were eliminated? $9 million.
18). R.R. Donnelly & Sons CEO Thomas Quinlan IIIAmount of federal income taxes paid in 2008? Zero. $49 million tax refund.
