Bernie Blackout Airs TONIGHT On Vice - The Revolution Will Not Be Televised

I love working on projects with Pat McGee Pictures, because I know it's going to be a job that I can feel proud of being a part of, and that it matters to the world at large - the very best kind of work to have. We've worked together on Dopesick Nation, a series for Viceland about the opioid epidemic. It was one of the darkest, hardest subjects I've ever delved into, but it was important to help the nation understand what a gigantic and sad epidemic opioids have become. Then we did The Deported, about the immigration crisis, where I had to convince ICE to let us go around with them on a ride-along - heavy, awful stuff ... but again very important to understanding that issue that affects everyone in this country. Our third project working together airs tonight on Vice (as part of their new Vice Versa series), and might be the most important one yet. Bernie Blackout will take you along on the 2020 Presidential campaign of Senator Bernie Sanders - and show you how complicit the Mainstream Media is in cheating this American treasure out of a nomination - AGAIN. This one is SUPER important to understanding just how corrupt and outrageous our elections really are ... with the hope that we can do something about it. Knowledge is power.

The call to work on this gig came at the beginning of March, just as the United States was beginning to shut down over the Covid-19 virus. We very quickly had to pivot from the plan to interview our subjects in person in New York, D.C., and California to the shift of doing all interviews via Zoom. That quickly had to pivot to Skype, as there were so many people and businesses using Zoom overnight, that our connections were garbage if the idea was to use the video interviews in a feature documentary for broadcast. There was a lot of frustration and late nights as producers met from all over the country on the phone and online to try to get this done by our deadline for the air date.

Emails flew all day and night every day, trying to land interviews with the independent journalists and leaders that were telling the REAL story about the Sanders campaign, and were as outraged as we were at the absolute 180 by the Mainstream Media that happened when they began to realize Sanders could run away with this whole thing - WOULD run away with the whole thing - and their corporate bosses just couldn't let that happen. News pieces began to treat the campaign as a joke, with obvious talking points shifting to that outlook overnight. I began to have a hard time booking people for interviews, like my old pal Boots Riley, (who Tweeted about this exact subject so much, and came out in support of Sanders, endorsing a Presidential candidate for the first time in his life!) and Dr. Cornel West, as they didn't want to have something they said be perceived in a way that could affect the outcome of the election ... everything was very walking on eggshells.

THEN Sanders suspended his campaign - in the middle of all of this! Unbelievable. The media had won, and had truly pressured out the best chance we've had at peace in this nation in a very long time. I'm still seething mad about it, as I've been a Sanders supporter forever, and very much believe in the veracity, inspiration, and possibilities that would benefit us all under a Sanders Presidency. But nope. The 1% wasn't having it. We started hearing more about general strikes brewing (Great! Do it!), and about a real case of sexual harassment brought against Joe Biden - the presumptive Democratic nominee only be default - certainly not by any kind of winning campaign strategies. Though Sanders had been cheated out of the nomination AGAIN by the DNC and the Mainstream Media (and must have felt so despondent and mistreated!), he continued to lead on the subject of healthcare (more vital than ever now!), and shifted his campaign donations to be used for Covid-19 relief. A real mensch.

Bernie Blackout was meant to air on April 23rd, the night before the New York primary. Sanders dropping out, and then the postponement of the New York primary to June 23rd pushed the air date to TONIGHT, May 13th, at 8:00 pm on Vice. This gave us a little more time to get the interviews we wanted, and the opportunity to address the suspension of the campaign in real time. America is supposed to be a Democracy, and this documentary will hopefully enrage you and inspire you enough to care about that basic tenet of our country being crushed - and to get up, stand up to do something about it. We cannot let the Mainstream Media dictate who our leaders are, who we should believe, what to do during a global pandemic, or anything really. They are there to bring us the unbiased news, end of story. Only it never is, and tonight we hope you will join us both in our collective outrage at the Media, and in our collective, heartfelt THANKS to Bernie Sanders for always being a man of We the People. Who HAVE THE POWER. Never forget that.

Thank you to Pat McGee Picture for another eye-opening, soul moving work experience, and to all the real journalists I got to meet out there doing the right thing, and fighting the power every day. We need you now more than ever. And THANK YOU BERNIE! You deserve so much more than this country has given back to you, and I humbly offer you my sincere gratitude that there are still people like you, fighting for us.

Bernie Blackout airs tonight at 8:00 pm on Vice. Please tune in, and let us know what you think!

*All photos by Gregory Taylor

Fahrenheit 11/9 - A Must See For ALL Americans

Holy smokes. I just saw Fahrenheit 11/9 last night, and I can't get it out of my head. And neither will you. Because you simply MUST see it. There's so much in it that hasn't been in the news, that you don't know about ... I honestly am still having a hard time shutting my jaw.

You might have a bias against Michael Moore, because you think he's slanted or bombastic or whatever, and he certainly can be (like when Trump's voice comes out of Hitler's mouth- but the point is made). But this one is equally critical about both sides of our government - and it SHOULD be. One talking head makes the point that we're still TRYING to be a Democracy, as how can you say we've been a Democracy when not everyone has even had the right to vote for very long. We're still working TOWARD a Democracy. And Democrats are just as bad as the Republicans sometimes.

I left this film with a whole different feeling toward Obama too. Did you know that he went to Flint, Michigan (Moore's hometown - it's personal), and they all thought he was coming to save the day and call their poisoned water a national disaster (with the funding that goes along with that), and he came to town and asked for a glass of water to drink to show that it was o.k (when it is literally killing people and making their babies' hair fall out from lead poisoning!)?! While sitting next to the absolute EVIL villain Michigan Governor Snyder?! Did you further know that after all they've suffered through, Flint citizens awoke one night to being BOMBED by our own U.S. Army - using their abandoned buildings as target practice - without telling anyone it was going to happen?!?! It looked like an Iraq style bombing. OUTRGEOUS. And the people of Flint are imprisoned there, because who's going to buy their homes so they can move? No one. It's enough to make you defect. But to WHERE? The whole world feels corrupt.

There are images and statements from the current Despot/President that make your skin actually crawl, and look for barf bags. Then, just as you're fully nauseous from that pig's face, you have to admit that it was the Democrats that put him in the White House. Some of us already knew that, because we tried with all we had to elect Bernie Sanders - who a thousand percent would have won. To watch the delegates (while people who previously thought their votes counted watched and sobbed) LIE and give Hillary Clinton the nomination from states that Sanders 100% won, was to watch corruption at the highest level - and the death of Democracy (that we barely even had yet). No wonder so many people didn't bother to vote - they were made to feel like their votes didn't matter anyway. I personally lost good friends over being for Sanders over Hillary (absurd), but now I feel like maybe I should have been the one to dump them over it. The Democrats blatantly CHEATED - and now we're all paying for it. On that note - we simply MUST abolish the Electoral College. It's outdated, and was created for slave states. The popular vote being allowed its victory would never have placed us in this situation ... going back at least to Gore.

People (including myself) were yelling at the screen. Laughing out loud. Crying out loud. Hissing. Booing. Clapping. Mortified. Inspired. Inspired because the PEOPLE really DO have the power, as demonstrated by the West Virginia Teachers' strike earlier this year, that had tears running down my face at how dedicated and in solidarity they all were. THAT is what it takes. And the marches. And the activists. And the young people getting involved. And the individuals that take a stand against all of this ... what a wonderful montage that one is. I wish Moore would have ended on that (it ends on a sad, but powerful note), so that we could keep the momentum of the PEOPLE in our hearts as we left the theater ... but you still can. I can't beg you hard enough to PLEASE SEE THIS MOVIE. And then PLEASE take whatever action you can personally, because that is what it is going to take. VOTE - that's the very least you can do. DEMAND the end to the Electoral College. SUPPORT new candidates that REALLY want to improve this country - and it's obvious who they are. Only then will we be able to rightfully claim that this big experimental country really IS a Democracy. Because it sure ain't right now. It's in our hands, and history will not be a kind judge if everyone just keeps looking at their phones and thinking they can't make a difference anyway. YOU. CAN.

PLEASE go see this outrageous (in the truest sense) film as soon as you can. Even if just so I can talk to you about it.

Fahrenheit 11/9 opens everywhere tomorrow.