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Guess what I did with the title of this post?

I primed you.

Whether you like the title of this post or not, whether you agree with it or not, consider yourself “primed” by a statement like that. One definition of media priming is as follows:

Political media priming is “the process in which the media attend to some issues and not others and thereby alter the standards by which people evaluate election candidates.”

I listen in amazement to the mainstream media (including NPR, by the way) and watch the big network’s evening news, and then watch countless other media outlets simply parrot back what we already know is a phony narrative in a rigged game to shut out Bernie Sanders.

Check out this unsubstantiated load of BS from The Hill:



Could that story be more inaccurate and more biased? Bernie isn’t even included in the “tags” at the bottom. Such bold statements by The Hill and those who are included in the article could maybe be made, at most, about Hillary’s dominance over Martin O’Malley’s presidential campaign, but think about it for a moment…would they be? I really don’t think they’d do it. This Hill piece, and a lot of other stuff on outlets like CNN are not unlike calling election results before the polls even close – and then, calling them wrong. So, how weird is all this?

Here is a gigantic load of drivel from the New York Times. I’ll give this guy credit: he’s sneaky and snarky about it. He’s better than the younger (less well-paid) journalists who clearly can’t even mess all that much with our minds. This guy, Healy is twisting and contorting his overall message, trying to make it hard to tell “whose side he’s on.” Except that it actually isn’t that hard. Child’s play, really.



Here’s a message to Bernie Sanders (if he ever reads this): please do NOT sit around chatting with me if I ever meet you. Do not “ask” for my vote, and do not kiss my ass. Why not? First of all, I’m a grown up and I can think for myself without being conned, and second, this country is in some pretty deep trouble and you, Bernie, do not have time for hand holding.

Here’s another slam from The Hill:



Bernie simply cannot get a break no matter what he does. And even when he does absolutely nothing different than he’s done for the past 30 years, they have to just make some kind of drama up. ALL he’s “doing” is staying on message. There’s no scandal, no maligning Clinton…it’s all in the way they frame the narrative, making the taste and feel of the entire article bizarrely unpleasant and negative.

The media is controlled and owned by corporate America (I don’t believe in conspiracy theories. I understand how our evolved brains try to make connections that just aren’t there, so I almost feel like a conspiracy theorist even TYPING this except that I’ve seen it with my own eyes) and they are not going to lose their well-funded puppet presidency in Hillary Clinton without a fight. Hell, just look at what CNN, and particularly CNN Politics, tweets about every day. They aren’t even pretending to be balanced in their reporting. CNN is owned by Time Warner, by the way, and Time Warner is one of Hillary Clinton’s biggest campaign supporters.

The fact is that (and I’m not priming you. it’s a fact) Bernie Sanders cannot be bought. Period. Full stop. He won’t take corporate money, he won’t water down or mess with his convictions or his message, like Clinton and literally every other candidate on both sides of the aisle. Bernie Sanders is like the legendary Honey Badger. He just don’t give a shit.

By most measurements, Hillary Clinton totally did not even come close to “winning” the Democratic debate, but you’d have to scrape off the ugly, crusty monied veneer to get to the bottom of that.

I, for one, am sick of it. I’m actually way past sick of it. I’m pissed off. And sick of it. Can you imagine how Bernie feels? How the hell does he even stay on message when he clearly can see what the media does to his candidacy? Lucky for him, and unlucky for her, Bernie’s supporters are driven by convictions and by a desire for a truly better America, one that we’d given up even hoping for, AND we will not be bought or fooled. The problem is that (and make no mistake about it: it’s a problem) many people who hear repeated statements like “Clinton, the presumptive nominee,” or that she’s (somehow) the “inevitable nominee,” are being insanely primed to believe that the whole thing is sewn up and decided already, which couldn’t be further from the truth. To that, I say, “no fucking way.” We did NOT come this far to allow people to be brainwashed and conned by those who (legitimately) fear the wrath of our fellow Americans.

When you hear, see, or experience such priming, I’m asking you, no, I’m begging you, to make your opposition to it loud and clear. Call it out for what it is: a chicken shit manipulation of reality, bought and paid for by corporate money.

Bernie is the truest, most genuine candidate we’ve had in years (and potentially for the near future). He is someone who actually stands for the very best of what it means to be American. I’m 51 years old and I’m not sure I’ve ever actually seen, in real time and in action, what it ever meant to be the fabled “greatest” nation on Earth. To be honest, I’m often ashamed of many things my country does, both here and abroad, as opposed to what we say we stand for (and I wanted to write, “beloved country,” but I just couldn’t put those two words together).

There is truly a political revolution underway here in the United States. None of us should be surprised that the powers that be, the ones who Bernie has called out for their hypocrisy and downright cruelty, will do maybe anything to squash it. We collectively stand at a fork in the road where real change is really possible. We also stand at the precipice of collapse on many levels – financially, socially, and environmentally. The only thing, no exaggeration, standing between further decay of whatever is left of the good parts of America, is this beloved candidate. And I have no problem using the “B” word here.