 So, I haven't had the opportunity to check out Bernie Sanders' new book, but an excerpt that somebody posted online makes me want to read it, although reluctantly so. It's more for science reasons, if you will, because it kind of is reopening old wounds, and it's making me remember why I was so frustrated with one so-called progressive politician in particular. So in this particular portion of the book, Bernie Sanders is going to recall the events of Bloody Tuesday. Now, if you don't remember what Bloody Tuesday was, that was the day when the moderates in the Democratic Party's 2020 primary dropped out and they coalesced around Biden, while Elizabeth Warren refused to drop out and endorse Bernie Sanders. She ended up coming in third in her own home state, and if she dropped out, things could be very different, although I won't pin blame entirely on her. I think there are other issues at play, and also it's the fall of Bernie Sanders, too, for losing, but this is what he said about this. He's not necessarily speaking about his feelings. He's just kind of running back in a very matter-of-fact way what happened. He writes, two of the leading moderate Democrats in the race, Pete Buttigieg and Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar, abruptly canceled their candidacies and endorsed Biden. Both flew to Texas, the most hotly contested of the primary states, to appear with the former vice president. They were joined by another former candidate, Texan Beto O'Rourke, in a highly choreographed show of support. The establishment had succeeded in uniting, in support of Biden, the candidates who had been dividing up the moderate vote. Meanwhile, the liberal and progressive vote continued to be divided between Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren and myself. Despite poor showings in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, and South Carolina, Warren chose to stay in the race. I was closer to her on the issues than any other candidate, but at a point where her endorsement could have been significant in a number of Super Tuesday states, she chose not to give it. Now, he goes on to talk about how, well, despite that, we still won California, and that's really all he says about the matter. But the subtext is, Elizabeth Warren didn't just fuck me over. She fucked over the entire progressive movement for selfish reasons. And that, my friends, is one of the main reasons why I will never trust Elizabeth Warren again. I'm not going to be a hack. I will give her credit words, Stu, if she supports legislation that I like or she grills a CEO. I'll give her the thumbs up. But in terms of supporting her in a presidential primary, I can't do that. Because the problem is she demonstrated to all of us that she's an opportunist, and she will put bitterness above policy and the lives of normal Americans. And that's something that you just, you can't move past. Now, the reason why I say she was bitter is because up to that point where Bernie needed her endorsement, well, she randomly dropped this news that Bernie Sanders was a sexist apparently because he told her that a woman could never win the presidency or something of that nature. And then there was that very staged hot mic moment where she confronted him while the cameras were still on after the debate was over. And she did all of this on purpose. Now I don't believe what Elizabeth Warren said about Bernie Sanders. Perhaps he brought up that it was more difficult due to sexism and patriarchy for a woman to win the presidency. But I don't think that he said, oh, a woman could never win. And the reason why it's doubtful that he would say this is because he tried to get Elizabeth Warren to run for president before he chose to run back in 2014, 2015. He wanted her to challenge Hillary Clinton. And since she would not, he stepped up to the plate. So why would he say something like that to Elizabeth Warren? It doesn't make sense. So I don't believe her. I think that probably he said something, but she's embellishing his words in order to portray him as some sort of a sexist monster, which I just, I don't find that reasonable. I think that she's embellishing here if not outright lying. And on top of that, she also played into this sexist Bernie Brown narrative, right? She made it seem as if Bernie Sanders supporters are uniquely aggressive when other supporters were also very aggressive. It's a presidential primary. Feelings are going to be really high. So Elizabeth Warren, as far as I'm concerned, is a traitor to the progressive movement. And she showed that when push comes to shove, she will cower in fear to the establishment and stab the best chance that we got in the back of getting progressive policies. Now, one thing that Bernie Sanders did not mention here is the hand that Obama played here, because yes, it is the case that Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar, they're adults. They can make their own decisions. But there were reports that they received phone calls from Barack Obama. Obama, he covertly weighed into this race reportedly to influence them to drop out and back Biden to consolidate the moderate votes. And they listened. So I think that it's acceptable for Bernie Sanders to recall the role that Elizabeth Warren played in killing the progressive movement. But you've also got to point to Obama as well. He's also culpable here. Had he not intervened, perhaps Amy Klobuchar and Pete Buttigieg would not have dropped out. So you know, reading this excerpt, even though it's just a single paragraph, it really did reopen old wounds because it reminds you that the Democratic Party establishment will go above and beyond to crush the progressive movement. And even before this, when Bernie Sanders won Nevada, that's when the establishment, including the media, was screeching the loudest. And there was actually talks about using superdelegates to steal the nomination away from Bernie Sanders. It's just despicable. And now, even though it's difficult to successfully challenge a sitting president, all of these polls that we're seeing for 2024 don't even include Mary Ann Williamson, and she's already announced that she's primarying him. So, you know, the establishment is very biased against progressive candidates. And that is absolutely unacceptable. The problem is that they know that regardless of how shitty they treat us, they're our only option because we live in a two-party system and it's them or fascism. It's them or a genocide against trans people. It's them or more tax cuts for the rich. It's just so frustrating. And I think that Bernie Sanders, if he were to be elected, I don't think that any one politician is a panacea, right? No one politician can save us. But would he have put us on a different trajectory? Yes, I do believe that. I do believe that he could have at least changed the United States in the sense that he shifts the Overton window to the left. We saw how he did that by just running for president. So as president, he would have more power. The problem is that Bernie Sanders, he wasn't willing to do what he needed to do. And that also includes challenging Joe Biden. So, yes, we can place the blame on Obama and Elizabeth Warren, but it was also Bernie Sanders who kept talking about his good friend Joe Biden during the primaries, refusing to call him out for his corruption. And whenever he did, it was rare. But, you know, it's just tragic because things could have been different. The country could have been on an entirely different path now. And because Bernie Sanders lost, well, it feels kind of hopeless, right? Joe Biden is a terrible president. He's not what we needed. He's better than Trump, of course, but that's a very low bar. We need somebody who's going to fundamentally change the institutions of the United States. We needed a political revolution and we didn't get that. And the time has come and gone. So now what? It's something that I think about all the time. Where are we headed? And it feels like not in a very good place, not just politically in the United States, but globally with anthropogenic climate change. We have a president who's not taking it seriously. Biden just agreed to do drilling in the Arctic after saying he wouldn't do that. So it kind of feels like Bernie was that last chance that we had. And it's gone. So this excerpt from that book really reopened that wound and got me into a little bit of a doomer headspace, if I'm being perfectly honest. So I hope that that effect doesn't happen with you. I just think it's a little bit cathartic to see that Bernie Sanders saw what we all saw. But he just kept his mouth shut. And now years later, he's he's talking about it. I was, you know, he was a little bit more open about that. But either way, seeing him at least acknowledge that Elizabeth one fucked all of us over, there is some value to that.