Cenk & Ana talk about Alison Hartson’s loss in Tuesday’s election, and more.
0 seconds of 22 minutes, 15 secondsVolume 90%
Press shift question mark to access a list of keyboard shortcuts
Keyboard Shortcuts
Shortcuts Open/Close/ or ?
Play/PauseSPACE
Increase Volume↑
Decrease Volume↓
Seek Forward→
Seek Backward←
Captions On/Offc
Fullscreen/Exit Fullscreenf
Mute/Unmutem
Decrease Caption Size-
Increase Caption Size+ or =
Seek %0-9
Comments
I knew Alison was going to lose as much as I wanted her to win. Why?
1. There was ZERO coverage of her by the mainstream media, I follow politics daily and l literally only heard of her because of TYT and probably saw one or two ads on youtube likely also because their algorithm knows I watch TYT. If it wasn’t for TYT and I was just your average voter in California, I would have never known Hartson existed.
2. That 32% undecided Cenk mentioned was a devastating tell tale sign. “undecided” especially when it comes to a midterm or primary is a code word for “I’m not paying attention and I’ll probably just end up voting for whomever’s name I recognize” Guess who that is? The same person who has been on the ballot for 1000 years: Feinstein.
You think the majority of the Democrats who voted for her in California even know her positions and voting history? Hell no. They aren’t paying attention to politics the way we are. They only know she has a “D” after her name and she’s been around forever.
Cenk was in a bubble on this one. It was obvious Hartson had NO chance given the ghosting she got by media NOT named TYT…
Cenk worked with MSM and has the inside baseball on how that works. It is not a dying industry it never will be.
We went from 50 separate TV outlets to them being absorbed into now six conglomerates.
Has he ever read the book Manufactured Consent by Noam Chomsky?
It explains exactly how this country is literally brainwashed by the media owners and their advertisers but more importantly who their overlords are!
It is all about the money Lebowski, but not in the way many people would realize and many would reject. Yet facts are what they are facts.
Chomsky is one of the greatest treasures America has ever had. Just Google his history,the life he has lived the struggles he faced bravely to ensure to pave the way for generations to fight against the book 1984 becoming our reality.
Just a piece of advice for anyone who still has primaries to come please investigate all of your federal judgeships.
Obama truly believed HRC was going to win and thus Obama left open a huge door for HRC to fill federal judge seats.
Now that Trump and his little elf Jeff Sessions are left to fill those seats with extreme right wingers.
In the land of the rule of law, this will be our Nations undoing if we do not pay strict attention to who’s asses are going to be sitting in those federal judge seats.
If you think losing Garland Supreme Court seat to Trump is bad wait until, nationwide we have right wing federal judges who are loyal to the messaging of this administration.
As I speak we have 20 Republican states in a class action lawsuit against the ACA and its constitutionality.
Also look up Corker/Kaine Bill on the war Powers act to be open ended and having no limitations.
Rand Paul chaired a sub committee and allowed Bernie Sanders to sit in as an observer and commentator as well as Senator Merkley from Oregon. The debate before The subcommittee was to whether or not the Corker/Kaine military reauthorization act was constitutional.
Two constitutionalist lawyers/ professors and a lawyer from the ACLU were on C-SPAN and was Facebook live streamed, I was horrified to see that, as this subcommittee debate was being held it was also simultaneously being held as the Corker/Kaine Bill was being debated in the house.
In the bill it states that it gives entire power of the war Powers act to the president to declare war on any country for any reason without challenge of the Congress or it’s approval also to declare war upon our own citizens, once they have been determined to be deemed terrorists.
Just like black lives matter, or any of us protesters who protest against banks oil corporations are being classified as economic terrorists or the poor folks who are being persecuted under the AG-Gag Laws!
This assault on our constitution is going under the radar because people are too interested in Trumps tweets and regurgitated stenographers posing as reporters, Stormy Daniels, Russia, Russia Russia!
Russia couldn’t do anymore damage to us that we’ve already have done to ourselves for over 40 years.
The DNC/DCCC Have been in our face cheating and we know it. Tom Perez comes out and sticks his whole body on the scale by endorsing Cuomo in New York.
We must pay attention I would suggest that maybe TYT Ask for volunteers that are members or like me that are older, retired with her full faculties, but also who has studied and lived history, are well educated on political matters, that are true left progressive activist since the 50s /60s/70s to present day who, do watch C-SPAN.
Ask these volunteers if they are willing to start watching C-SPAN and report on what’s happening to TYT so that you can report on very important issues that are never ever talked about in MSM and very little, if any at all on the Internet because they have been demonetized or hidden away.
I truly believe that now more than any time in our history we need to keep our eyes on the Senate and the Congress and all our representative on what their agendas are, what they are trying to pass while we are not looking.
To me it is too easy to just report on what everybody else has been reporting on BuzzFeed, CNN, Politico etc, regurgitating what they’re already writing about then analyzing it or breaking it down for those who are to busy working two and three jobs just to survive and no time to read it for themselves.
I realize I may come off as a very heavy-handed criticizing member, but truly my heart is in the right place, I see room for you all to seriously be able to stand in as a very strong left representation of the media that is now over taking the Internet the CNN’s the NBC’s the ABC’s etc. are now on the same platform as TYT.
You have a large audience of I’m sure extremely smart and very committed left progressives that would be more than happy I’m sure to volunteer to help you branch out by being your eyes and ears.
I would hope you would at least give your members a email Address to where they could send you voluntarily reports on what is happening on C-SPAN.
Some very significant massive laws that are trying to be passed while everyone else is being distracted by the shiny bobbles in the MSM.
We need to stop paying attention to Trump insignificant tweets less and start paying attention to what’s behind the curtain of this orange Wizard of Oz Buffoon he is the true destraction.
Thanks to anyone in TYT who might be reading this. You have my email address feel free to contact me and let me know that you at least read what I had to say.
Cenk, if you were an objective observer looking at the defensive performance of the Alison Hartson Campaign Advisor post-election-debacle, you would tear the dude a new asshole for being in such obvious denial.
Your “explanation” of Alison’s defeat is positively Trumpian. “No one knew California was so big!”
I thought you were on the right track when you said “It’s my fault.” But then you went on to give two reasons you were at fault — 1) did not realize California was so darn big, and 2) did not realize how much the corrupt media would influence things, blah blah blah…
In other words — you have learned nothing. You are not capable of admitting your own mistakes.
The Hartson Campaign consistently failed to do things it should have done (like register in time for the CA State Democratic Convention) or did not do necessary things in time, due to ignorance and/or incompetence.
The Hartson Campaign wasted time and resources doing things it should not have done, or should have done differently, due to ignorance and/or incompetence.
You have my contact information via the TYT membership info and if you reach out, I will be happy to share details such as dates, circumstances and names of Hartson campaign staff who I interacted with, and provide concrete examples of where things were done really, really badly. Missed opportunities. Unforced errors.
Given the level of hubris we have seen displayed here this week, I doubt you will contact me, but there is a simple way you can make things much better, if and when you campaign again — just hire people who know what they are doing.
Campaign management is a real job. It is not something backseat drivers are qualified to do, even after 20 years of criticizing other people’s driving.
Reality check.
I cringed and winced at Cenk’s “32 % undecided” excuse a day before the elections, hoping he wouldn’t repeat it again, but no. He doesn’t know what he’s talking, and sure as hell there’s no one around him to understand the mistake and point it out either.
Of the last 5 polls, 4 had Hartson at 1%, so Cenk ignores those, he picks the one Emerson College poll that shows KDL ~ 6 %, Harris ~ 6%, Hartson ~ 4%.
Ok fine, He quotes 32 % undecided from that poll.
https://www.emerson.edu/sites/default/files/Files/Academics/ecp-ca-5-24-pr.pdf
In that poll, there were only 9% overall decided Republican votes (Erin Cruz and Rocky de la Fluente, 5% and 4%). In the 2012 senate elections, Republicans had 41 % in the primary, 37 % in the general. So even optimistically, 37 -9 = 28 % of the quoted 32 % undecided were going to be Republican votes ****assuming Cenk’s only preferred poll to be correct****. There was only about 4% undecided that would realistically be Democratic votes. The last time Feinstein ran, her challenger got ~ 12 % in the primary. So with ALL the undecided votes in Hartson’s bag, she would have 4 + 4 = 8 % and then need another 4 -5 % to make it to the general. In other words, there was no way, EVEN by that Emerson college cherrrypicked poll that Hartson was making it to 2nd place without capturing almost ALL of KDL’s voteshare.
What followed was a bunch of buffoonery over the weekend on how “internal polls” showed Patrick Little closing in and other drama.
I DO NOT blame Cenk mostly for the loss. When Hartson spends $3.40 a vote to KDL’s $0.98, there’s got to be only one conclusion – there were likely mistakes at every step, and ultimately it is on the candidate.
But as someone who can help with media, who can help with analysis, a good step would be to interview KDL staffers and try to understand their groundgame. Don’t want to do that ? Great, call Sema Hernandez to a TYT panel and ask her to explain how she turned out 260K voters with a ~ $10k expenditure in big, deep red Texas against Beto O Rourke, popular enough to come within striking distance of Ted Cruz within weeks.
But doing any of this requires basic understanding, then acknowledgement of one’s own shortcomings. Will not come from someone who doesn’t even realize when he gets a simple poll so awfully wrong.
So much energy, but so wrong in the head. No learning, no growth. That is really sad.
I agree that the onus is on the candidate, whose first job is to hire the right staff, and whose ongoing job is to fire/hire as needed to make sure the staff are doing the job they need to do.
The most revealing information in this PG was that Alison was her own campaign manager. Big, big mistake. She’s been hanging around Cenk too long. Pure hubris, with a solid side of ignorance.
“The lawyer who represents himself has a fool for a client” — we can add to that, “candidates who manage their own campaigns…”
The one place I cut Alison slack and do blame Cenk is that under the unusual circumstances of how this particular race came together, she had no choice except to run with Cenk grafted to her campaign. It is not like firing him was ever an option. It’s not like ignoring him was ever an option. For better or worse, this was the Cenk Uyger/Alison Hartson campaign. Turns out… very much for the worse.
America is being overthrown we will be alined with the Dictators in a few days. This is not a TV show Fascism is a nasty life
There’s a lot of hate happening on this thread. Cenk and Ana work their tails of (as does the production team who puts these videos ). the whole crew was up and out late Tuesday night and had their hearts crushed. Don’t you think you can give them a few extra hours the next morning to get the videos out? This is not a major multi-billion dollar company that works their people to the bone to make deadlines They are humans with human feelings and limitations and we could all do a little better to remember that and not loose our minds when a video is a little late.
To the whole TYT crew, keep it up! You are a breath of fresh air amongst the swamp and more people should aspire to work as hard and honestly as you folks do!
Sorry but Cox has no chance of winning Ana, he is from Illinois and not even a California resident and has a track record of failure running for office. He is Trump endorsed that’s also a big problem for him since Trump approval is just 35% there.
76k voters is a horrendous showing for a state as populous as California and someone with the full backing of TYT resources. Cenk likes to talk about how no one is watching Television anymore and how the mainstream media is becoming irrelevant (hence his frequent talk of volunteers and social media campaigns), while at the same time blaming them for the loss.
Problem with Cenk is that he likes to frame everything in terms of a media conspiracy. If you do not have a well organized campaign, if you miss deadlines to participate in conventions, then you deserve to lose. Number of volunteers is irrelevant when you don’t have competent and professional campaign staff or a communications director that knows how to approach the media. The problem with TYT is that in many ways they think all election experts are corrupt consultants, and it becomes one area where they prefer ignorance (much like Trump supporters).
With regards to the media, they understand that money is essential to running a campaign. Volunteers and social media presence matters only once you have reached a certain threshold in money. We can keep quoting anecdotal evidence but in the vast majority of cases raising money is critical to an election.This is why the media thinks you do not have a chance, and will not provide the free coverage you are looking for. To them its a waste of time and resources to cover someone who will come in at 9th place.
I hope this also serves as a reality check for TYT staff as to their viewing demographics. When they were running a fundraiser drive to hire journalists they hit $2 million in record time thanks to foreign viewers. When Cenk kept calling for donations to Hartson’s campaign (something only domestic viewers can do) the money was barely trickling in.
Or the viewers just don’t live in California and were spending their money in their own state. We are not ty he Koch brothers. Our funds are limited.
Yes!
As I understood it any American can donate to any campaign anywhere – not just within their own state.
All good points. Of course the media is not going to cover all 32 candidates. It’s not even going to cover the top 5 candidates and Alison never broke into those ranks.
She COULD have, with a better campaign staff and better managed campaign. But she lacked experienced campaign operatives who knew what do to and when to do it.
In his hubris, Cenk thought 2000 Wolf Packy-style volunteers could take the place of experience and knowledge. Or he thought he had the experience and knowledge himself, despite having NEVER done the job. He thought 20 years of backseat driving and criticizing other people’s driving made him an expert.
News flash — no experienced campaign operative would have failed to fill out an application in time to make Alison a presence at the CA State Democratic Convention in February. Ooops.
I am very disappointed by Cenk’s inability to admit his own mistakes AND his lying about KDL’s campaign. Very tacky and low to insult a candidate who ran 1000x better campaign than Cenk ran. Petty.
In fact… downright Trumpian.
“No one knew California was so big! No one knew the media was this corrupt! It’s not my fault! No one could have done better!”
Alison’s campaign just highlights the unintentional (or possibly the corrupted malicious intentional) devastation to our democracy that Bill Clinton set in motion by signing the communications bill that allowed the consolidation of media companies, down to the 6 or so major corporations that currently control who gets air time (and more importantly who does not). The main stream media has virtually no incentive in allowing progressives to gain a foot hold in a government that represents the people. They simply just don’t spend enough advertising (bribes) to make it profitable. This is a direct result of obscene campaign finance deregulation. The mere number of mentions of a candidate gets goes a long way to build a narrative and manufacture consent.
Kasparov is an Azeri-born Jewish-Armenian (Garik Weinstein was his birth name). His mother’s surname is Gasparian and he took it and Russified to Kasparov it after his father died when he was a child.
Nice of them to finally post this post-game for the members, it sure took them long enough! I’d just like to say that it’s nice to Cenk knocked down a peg for once; his ego is way too big and he isn’t as smart as he thinks he is. Hartson had all the advantages going in: an energized base (supposedly), lots of volunteers, tons of support from TYT, and lots of money (for a non-PAC candidate anyway), and the whole “TYT Army” behind her. I’m from Texas, so to me 9th place is the 8th LOSER! After all the work and resources that people wasted on this outsider she get’s just 76,000 votes! California is a state of almost 40 MILLION people, and 76,000 votes is only 0.0019% of the state’s population… how can that be seen as anything other than PATHETIC. You radical leftists need to bow your loser heads and know your role! The Democratic Party is a CENTRIST party, and I’m proud to be a CENTRIST. 50% of the people in this country voted for Trump, sadly (I voted for Hillary)… but we have to find some way to work with them, re-educate them if possible, and bring them back into the fold of this country – we can’t just ignore half the people of this nation or just complain and try and out-scream them in stupid ANTIFA protests! A leftist zealot as POTUS is no better than a radical right-wing zealot like Trump. A President has to govern ALL of this country, even the “fly-over states”, and they have to govern this country AS IT IS, not as you would have it be. Change that lasts takes time, because it’s often hard and even scary for a lot of people. I’m sorry you guys aren’t getting the revolution you wanted, but if you can’t make it work in f’ing California then that should teach you a lesson. LEARN from your mistakes and come back to the center and to reality.
50% of people in this country definitely did not vote for Trump. That is wrong.
Please get the math right. Not .0019%. It’s 0.19%. And only a very small fraction of CA population voted. She did get a few percent of voters. 76000 isn’t so bad for a first run candidate with only $400K. I think we can learn how to do better with practice.
She spent way too much for each vote she got. Other Justice Democrat candidates (like Rick Trevino) got much more bang for their buck.
But then, they have better campaign staff.
Alison had Cenk — whose Trumpian ego made him believe he could outsmart everyone, even with no experience or actual knowledge of what the job entails.
ANA I congratulate you- You were SO ready–sooo eager to say it:
“FIRST OF ALL, NEWSOM SUCKS!!!!! ” I DIDN’T EVER THINK I’d hear that said on TYT but HOLY SHIT that threw me WAY off guard because I SO MUCH AGREED with you! But why??
He’s so “PROGREsSIVE”. Isn’t he? ?? Isn’t he?? Well, think LGBT, right? Cenk got that one.
The word that comes to my mind is “oily.” Not sure where or exactly why or how–but seems to describe a reaction that I seemed to have whenever he opened his mouth.
What didn’t help was his recent campaign literature that obviously tried to PROMOTE whom he thought would be a weak Republican candidate instead of another better, more attractive Democrat that he might have had more trouble defeating.
Politicians are so often assigned a definite point on a simplistic one dimensional scale from “ultra conservative to very liberal/radical/progressive. That never helps me much, except that I usually lean towards “liberal”– but I avoid the extremes of that one in any case.
There needs to be another political scale that goes from “oily” to “authentic” On the oily side: Trump, Hilary, Tricky Dicky, to a less extent Bill C. On the other end of the scale are fewer– Bernie , Warren, McCain, maybe Schwarzenegger or even GWB. That’s probably what got Dubya elected. Obviously I don’t agree in every case with those on authentic end–but I will never be attracted to the oily side. For example another scale could be : “stupid” vs “smart” with an obvious spot for GWB and Trump.
I don’t know anything about Cox who Newsom will be running against but in CA I very much doubt that any Democrat will lose against a Republican. But Ana I take your parallel to the Clinton/Trump story seriously.
Gavin Newsom was mayor of San Francisco when my mother lived there (she sadly passed away 6 years ago), and she had ended up out of communication with me and homeless up there for a long time, and had a great deal of trouble getting her SSD/Disability approved, until Gavin Newsom personally met with her and got that application reviewed and approved FAST. He got my mother off the street and get the medical care she needed, was kind and compassionate to her, and (important for me as I’m transgender) has always looked out for the LGBTQ+ crowd as well. Is he a politician? Yes. Takes the donor money? Sure thing. But he’ll be a better governor than Arnold was and WAY better than the a-hole we’re stuck with in Texas, so calm down already Ana, sheesh. Or you can write in your vote for Jill Stein (Russian plant!) if you want to do something stupid again like Jimmy Dore. You guys have it great and constantly say that LA is great and CA is great so stop whining and be grateful for what you have rather than always greedily wanting more instant gratification. Governments come and go, and this too shall pass.
Got to admit that my judgement about Newsom is not based on anything really tangible. More of a strong impression from the past. And occasionally people can change at least somewhat. Hope you are right. I didn’t think Arnold was so bad, though–for a Republican. We survived. Believe me, I’m not looking for extremes on the left–or right..
But big money funding of our gov’t elections is a big problem–I don’t think that should even a liberal vs conservative issue.
Ralph, your reaction to Newsom was the same as mine. So the guy helped one old lady off the streets, the churches in San Francisco are full of the homeless at night…Newsom come off like a blow-dried “face man”….Someones earlier comment(regarding clinton and the communications bill),…If that is not a neon sign to take the money out of politics…we are doomed!
Hello friends
I too was sad that Alison did not win, and I am not even from California, and I don’t live there. I started following Alison because of TYT. I agree with Cenk, and I hope Alison, and other progressives, continue the fight in politics. The results of the election were disappointing, but we should not despair. On that note, I watched two great speeches recently on C-span (I hope TYT does not mind my repeated referencing of C-span). The first speech was by Elizabeth Warren for the Coalition for Sensible Safeguards. She was talking about the Trump Administration and Federal Deregulation. If you do a search on C-span’s website for Elizabeth Warren you can find the speech easily. In her speech she gave examples of how important regulations are for public safety, and she gave examples of how dangerous Trump’s form of deregulation is. Some of the examples Elizabeth Warren gave were quite terrifying. She of course continually stated that corruption and greed were at the heart of Trump’s efforts toward deregulation. Hearing a politician speak the truth was music to my ears. Another great speech I listened to recently was by Bernie Sanders. He spoke on C-span’s book TV. He talked about his upcoming book, Where We Go From Here. In classic Bernie style he talked about how great young people are, and how great it was for him to meet many good people as he campaigned across the US. He also talked about how the Democratic Party failed poor and working class people who voted for Trump, and he urged people to not regard them as deplorable, but to understand that we need to reach out to them.
I was a fan of Elizabeth Warren before she ran for office. I became a fan of hers when she first called out Wall Street and the big banks. As for Bernie, he cheers me up every time I hear him speak. As far as not allowing losses to dishearten us too much, I think when we consider how two honest decent people like Bernie and Elizabeth have succeeded politically despite the rigged, corrupt cesspool that is our current political system, we can take courage. Who knows, perhaps Alison will one day be a Bernie Sanders or an Elizabeth Warren.
Throwing this out there. Could it be that because Cali is such a huge democratic state, that the DNC and company have such a large stake in keeping corporates in charge, that they threw everything they had into the fight against progressives? In other words, the Democratic Establishment Machine was just too big (money) to take on successfully? As a followup..how strong is the progressive movement inside the Cali Democratic Party apparatus? Are they making any headway at all? And what is with this jungle primary anyway? Anyone from Cali please feel free to respond. Thanks.
Cenk,
Thank you talking about Alison’s race and being able to reflect on your mistakes. I think it was naive of us to assume that it would be a race only between the democrats candidates, I was not expecting that many republicans to end up ahead of her. It was an honor working on Alison’s campaign and be a part of Justice Democrats Orange County chapter! And like you often say ” We are coming for them”
Oh Ana! The music is Johann Strauss, Blue Danube. Not Armenian– Austrian!
I think it’s so unfortunate that more younger people aren’t familiar with the incredible tradition of Western Classical music– it does take more listening to “get” it than popular music. But IMO so worth the effort.
Strauss is an easier one to get into that got me started when I was ten. That was a lot of years ago. There’s a farther and deeper to go after that.
I want to just say I loved Alison Hartson as a candidate and I gave her $100 or so in her bid. Honestly though, I never actually thought she would win. I figured at best it was a 5% chance. Money still rules electoral politics. Bernie was an exception because of the free media and extra attention he got at a national level of running for president. Some progressives in house races or senate races in very small population states have a chance of breaking through though it’s exceptionally rare as well. The average US Congressional district is ‘serving’ a population of around 700k people. When you are in a state the size of California trying to reach tens of millions of people you need to vote without having millions of dollars to wash ads through the airwaves is nearly an exercise in futility.
The only positive I will say is it made Feinstein at least tepidly support more progressive ideas. She of course will never fight for those, but at least it’s on the record. That’s a very small thing and probably not enough for all the sacrifices Alison and her volunteers went through, but that’s just my perspective.
Cenk, it’s simple: Yes, you were wrong. But what we WANT to have happen can strongly influence what we think WILL happen though you also cited a counter example with your prediction abut Trump, That’s why religions are so crazy too.
Like americanio, I also gave her money. Also I never expected she would win. I thought you were crazy to think she could–when she had almost no name recognition– with an insane 32 (was it?) people on the ballot.
But please, a little patience! She’s just starting. And TYT is (at only 15 years) just starting but getting much bigger than 10 years ago. As I recall Bernie’s first time he only got 2% of the vote in Vermont. And as you probably know Vermont is a lot smaller state. People who win must have strong name recognition–which she did not have. But at least 32,000 know her now. Feinstein started out as mayor in San Francisco. Bernie was mayor in Burlington. 2% is ok for a first time. You and she learned a lot more by this effort–I hope not be be discouraged too easily. I hope she keeps on going–working with others that have similar views–to encourage each other. But she will need monetary support from others along the way. Gotta think about how to do that. The corruption has been going on for a while now– we can’t stop working against the semi oligarchy we now have–and it won’t happen overnight.
Another tremendous handicap were so many others also on the ballot. (so called) Progressives were dividing the vote. I’m sure the press had no idea who to concentrate on either. Something to learn there about how to resolve that. I’m not surprised that it didn’t go really well–but I’m so glad it didn’t go as badly is I thought it might.
One other thing: we’ve got to deal with the money issue. I don’t think it will require as much money as the Democratic party thinks if the candidate appeal is good, and important issues are being put forward. And did she have only $400K? I think she did quite well for that. Eventually I think more money can from just small donors. Bernie showed that possibility. It will require a buildup so that people will really think it’s possible–and then I think money could follow. It will have to be more than $400K. Some government matching of small campaign donations needs to be worked on too–maybe up to $200 per donor or so.
A good start.
The Blue Danube was composed by Johann Strauss, who was from Austria and I think was part German/Austrian, part Hungarian (maybe Jewish).
The Download Video Link, actually links to audio, not video
If you “rename” the filetype from .m4a to .mp4 you should be able to play it in any video player.. or open it with a player that detects encoding types (MPC or VLC)..