Clinton has decided to skip the last scheduled debate. We want Sanders to have an opponent…so let's invite Trump. #SandersTrumpDebate
— Brooks Travis (@brookstravis) May 20, 2016
This is actually a very good idea. For one thing, could demonstrate important differences btw left & right populism. https://t.co/MIlz9YBbFn
— Joel Bocko (@LostInTheMovies) May 21, 2016
Buried in that Fox poll: Sanders up just 4 points on Trump, down from up 13 points in April. It’s about GOP voters coming home.
— daveweigel (@daveweigel) May 19, 2016
Spoiler: That won’t happen, because I’m pretty sure Trump regards Sanders as a political asterisk whose only use is to leach a few deluded leftists’ votes away from Hillary.
Per The Hill, “Sanders accepted an invitation by Fox News earlier this week to take part in an upcoming debate ahead of the California primary”, because he’s about to run out of money in one of the most expensive media markets. Does anyone here feel we haven’t had enough debates already? Has either Sanders or Clinton changed any policy positions since their last debate in Michigan? Can anyone pretend Fox News has any goal beyond trying to ding up Clinton with the same discredited garbage they’ve been slinging 24/7?
And what would be Deadbeat Donald’s motivation for agreeing to debate St. Bernie? Is he gonna persuade any Bernistas that, hey, maybe the man they really want in the White House is a xenophobic plutocrat who hates women, minorities, poor people, and global harmony? Will his shouting-slogans-from-the-podium “debate” skillz shine against Sanders’ (not all that dissimilar) style, or will they both come off as a couple of alte kackers who need a snack and a nap?
Honestly, if this rises beyond the murk of twitter fantasists, it’ll mean that Fox News has a hole in its schedule and hopes for a good, noisy, Jerry-Springer-style chair-throwing melee among the audience. And I doubt the Secret Service will let them entertain that idea for long.
Yutsano
Amount of reason she has to debate him anymore: 0. This thing is over. She’s won. There is no reason to keep going acting like he has a chance.
NotMax
BJ exclusive!
Artist’s conception of the tower Trump plans as a replacement at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
The T House! Gonna be yooge!
:) :) :)
tastytone
I might actually tune in for a BS/DT debate. A hot mess guaranteed for all.
NotMax
Pix from DC met-up or it didn’t happen.
(The interweb is a harsh mistress.)
Alison Rose
I hope they do debate each other, and while they’re having their Put-Upon White Dudez Angerfest, we can back up a caravan of cement trucks and turn the building into a stone monument to male privilege.
BillinGlendaleCA
@NotMax: Exactly, DC and NYC meetups didn’t happen; no pix.
GregB
Is it true a Republican can register to to vote by showing an empty shell casing and answering a few questions comparing Hilary to Hitler.
WarMunchkin
Their national policy positions haven’t changed, but speaking from the pipe dream fantasy in my head of a bygone era where politics was done With Honor, if this were still a race, which it is not, I’d want to hear candidates be asked questions entirely comprised of local issues. I’d probably want to know how they’d help California allocate resources to transportation infrastructure, what the federal government would be willing to do absent changes in zoning law in the Bay Area, what the benefits and drawbacks are of expanded public transportation and what it should emphasize in its construction, how communities isolated or otherwise left behind by the new HSR project could be helped and revitalized, and federal government responses to ongoing drought conditions.
I told you, it was a fantasy.
dollared
AL’s nightly Bernie bashing. Too bad there is nothing else happening in the world.
GregB
By the way is James O’Keefe doing the MSM’s polling these days?
BillinGlendaleCA
@efgoldman: Pix or it didn’t happen, bud.
ETA: That is the way of Balloon Juice.
jsrtheta
@srv: Yeah, and Bernie has dropped 13 points in 30 days against Trump.
I guess that’s what “momentum” means. In reverse, anyway.
BillinGlendaleCA
@efgoldman: That’s what Bernie’s been saying about his campaign spending.
Jerzy Russian
I just got back from the Bernie rally in National City, California (a small suburb just south of San Diego). My 19 year old daughter wanted to go with her friend, so I took them (I marked my ballot for Hillary and mailed it yesterday). The venue was a park, and the “doors” opened 4 hours before Bernie spoke. I am sore from standing around for so long waiting. I was also a bit annoyed that there was very little cell phone bandwidth once things got going, so my MLB app did not work.
In any event, Bernie gave a decent speech. He did not call the Democratic Party corrupt, and he did not mentioned how things were “rigged” against him. He rather talked about how bad Citizens United is, and about how the economy is “rigged” against the 99%. He talked about Medicare (or was it Medicaid?) for all, about how we need to reinvest in the crumbling infrastructure, etc. He hit on things that pretty much all of us would agree with. He talked about racism as a separate issue, but then tied it to the lack of jobs.
There were not too many specifics of course. At one point, he said he would impose a carbon tax on energy companies to pay for things like free college, etc.
He mentioned Hillary twice: The first one was during a discussion about the minimum wage. Bernie wants $15 per hour, whereas Hillary only wants $12 per hour. The second time was when he called on Hillary to join him in calling for a carbon tax.
He seem to choose his closing words carefully. He still believes he can “win” California and the other states that have primaries on June 7. If by “winning” he means more than 50% of the vote then that is perhaps possible, although with a low probably. He did not directly say that we could win enough delegates for the nomination.
Although he did not trash the Democratic Party, one thing missing was mention of the House and Senate races. For example, he could have mentioned specific Democratic candidates for the House seats currently occupied by Republicans like Duncan Hunter (in East San Diego County).
He did spend a few minutes trashing Donald Trump. I saw a lot of neatly printed signs with “Fuck Trump” on them. Everyone in the crowd booed heartily whenever Bernie mentioned Trump’s name. I just hope they vote against Trump in the Fall by voting for Hillary.
Bernie could do a lot of good with that speech this fall if he explicitly told people to vote for the Democratic candidates for House, Senate, and the Presidency. After all, most of them want the same things he does in the end.
Miss Bianca
@Alison Rose: Ok, I laughed.
I made the mistake of going onto the Book of Faces earlier this evening, only to note that three friends of mine had all posted to the same link: something breathless to the effect that “guess what? Turns out there *were* no thrown chairs at the Nevada Democratic Convention! So *that* must mean the MSM media are all a bunch of lying liars!”
I almost posted a comment to ask whether the MSM was also lying about the the slurs and the doxxing, but I decided to quit before I began.
Major Major Major Major
I’m going back downstairs
@Miss Bianca: Somebody here(?) said that they had video of “a chair not being thrown”, that cracked me up.
seaboogie
@BillinGlendaleCA:
Something. strange. is. happening. here. Meetups happening. Left. right (naw, not really). and center (Hillbots)… No threads for comment except meetup threads. We. are. devolving. into. meatspace. Pixels. failing.
patroclus
I just watched the HBO film All the Way about LBJ and the 1964 Civil Rights Act. I have a few quibbles about some of the inaccuracies and emphasis, but overall, it was very well done. I had read Taylor Branch’s Pillar of Fire and a bunch of other books about the period, but seeing it brought to the screen was wonderful to behold. There were many climaxes but that Louisiana (N-word, N-word, N-word) speech, for me, was the highlight. The Senator in question was Joe Bailey, who had told that story to Sam Rayburn in 1922, during Rayburn’s closest primary ever against the local Klan leader. When the speech actually happened in 1964, the audience was at first stunned, but then erupted into 7 minutes of a standing ovation. To me, that was LBJ’s greatest moment ever.
Major Major Major Major
Oh god there’s a new bullshit hipster boba place down the street IS NOTHING SACRED
Martha from Augusta
@srv:
Obligatory XKCD: Link
Major Major Major Major
@Martha from Augusta: why did you have to wake up the word that trips moderation for some reason
Tissue Thin Pseudonym
@Miss Bianca: Here’s the possible opening of the new novel I mentioned a few nights ago. It’s the roughest of rough drafts, and it doesn’t really capture the nature of the relationship between Randolph and Walsh; in concept, they don’t really like each other, and it’s complicated by the fact that Walsh’s legal status is, at best, indentured servitude to the FBI. But it gets at some of the basics of what the story will be about.
Comments, either here or looking me up on Facebook, are much appreciated. As soon as I figure out what the person responsible for leaving the body on the floor is up to, this project can really get rolling.
seaboogie
@Jerzy Russian: Until Bernie talks down ticket, he ain’t in it. Revolution is a grind, and he needs to communicate that. Trumpsters are emerging on the far end of a long grind by the Oligarchy. I think Bernie understands oligarchy.
divF
@Major Major Major Major:
No – welcome to the urban environment as theme park.
Major Major Major Major
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym: That’s a standalone, right? (As in, I don’t need to remember the context you were mentioning the other day or to have seen any companion pieces.)
Tissue Thin Pseudonym
@Major Major Major Major: No. I’m hoping to make some of the context clear in that piece, and there isn’t anything else connected to this idea that I’ve written yet.
Damien
Anne, must we do all this bullshit again? At this point, I have to say that talking about Bernie is little more than a distraction. Despite what several airy trolls have declared, Hillary is as much the nominee as Donald Trump is; there is no mathematical way for Bernie to win, so I think we need to start treating him to the same level of attention that Ted Cruz is getting.
All that we’re going to get is more ahistorical jabbering from JHB, delusional conspiracy theories from BiP, and a fresh helping of Morrissey’s favorite political theorist NR. Hillary is it, so let’s get set to ratfuck the other side for the next 6 months.
amk
@Damien: +1
Major Major Major Major
I put a box inside of a box and I’m watching my cat play with it. The big box was used to ship a 20-pound bag of cat food so I guess it smells like cat food. He loves it.
tastytone
@Damien:
A true LOL. Frankly, Mr. Shankley…
Martha from Augusta
@Major Major Major Major: I don’t comment here much, but the s-word triggers moderation? Any idea why?
Major Major Major Major
@Martha from Augusta: Yeah. No clue. I found that out like a month ago.
Major Major Major Major
@tastytone: I didn’t know you wrote such bloody awful poetry
dollared
@Martha from Augusta: Socia%%m has Cial*s in it. Seriously.
dollared
@seaboogie: He is thinking downticket. He just endorsed DWS’s primary opponent.
Major Major Major Major
@dollared: it’s ‘sheeple’ we’re talking about.
Damien
@dollared: That is excellent to hear, because we really need a better DNC chair. Let’s start building a power base from the ground up.
magurakurin
@dollared: I want him to endorse Maggie Hasson in New Hampshire. But maybe that is too much to ask?
magurakurin
@Damien: DWS has already said she isn’t going to continue as DNC chair after the election. And she has called for the party to end the caucus system. But since the caucus is the only reason we are even talking about Bernie Sanders at all…one more reason to hate on her. Personally, I agree with David Atkins over at the Washington Monthly: Sanders should be calling her out for the pay day loan bill…but he’s going with “I was robbed” instead.
tastytone
@magurakurin:
MN voted to dump their caucuses. As my Dad used to say, seems they were pretty snappy about it.
Major Major Major Major
@magurakurin: Yeah, primarying DWS without bringing up any actual, you know, legislative policies is kind of obviously petulant. Not to mention, you don’t need to hold office to be chair (and probably shouldn’t, but that’s a different issue).
Damien
@magurakurin: And here I was thinking that Bernie finally actually took a meaningful stand. I was willing to give leeway on that, since pretty much everyone I knew agreed DWS was a real shitshow.
Oy vey, I stand corrected.
dollared
@Major Major Major Major: ya got me on that one. Is that the libertarian filter?
TriassicSands
If Bernie taunted Trump, called him a wuss or coward, or better a combed-over loser, Donald might take the bait.
Fair Economist
I think the only thing we want in the presidential nomination system are closed primaries. Caucuses are heavy-duty voter suppression and open primaries get rodent copulation. In both 2008 and 2016 Republicans tried to screw up our nomination and got some results both times. Fool me once, fool me twice, etc. – we’re not going to go for fool me three times, are we?
Dog Dawg Damn
@Fair Economist: “you can’t, can’t, you can’t get fooled again.”
magurakurin
@tastytone: I heard that. That is good news.
different-church-lady
@tastytone:
TRUMP: “Hillary Clinton is an incompetent, corrupt bitch!”
SANDERS: “Well, I agree, but for completely different reasons than you, Donald…”
Betty Cracker
@Damien:
LMAO!
different-church-lady
@Martha from Augusta: My hobby: predicting which XKCD cartoon it is before clicking the link.
Got it right again.
different-church-lady
@Damien:
I don’t think my sense of humor is going to go down that well at RedState
different-church-lady
@Major Major Major Major: Cats have their priorities straight.
Damien
@different-church-lady: I dunno, they seem to like jokes, after all they were founded by a clown, right?
I feel like we just need to go over there and talk up Johnson/Weld as much as possible. Like “guys, we just need to get the Libertarians to 15% and they’ll get to be on stage at the debates. Then once everyone hears them talk about how once we switch back to the gold standard we won’t need minimum wage anymore, they’ll finally understand that we need a Real Conservative in the White House and we can stop Donald Trump.”
Except, ya know, less coherent and a lot more random capitalization. Seems like a job for JHB, no?
tarragon
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym:
I finally got a chance to read this and that would be intriguing enough to keep me going.
But what I really had to come back to comment on is a typo in the first sentence that is so incredible that I want a story based on it specifically. “As the car came to a stop at the top of the semi-circular drive, Walsh grabbed her bag and started to exist.”
Uncle Cosmo
@efgoldman:
Far as the rest of these yobs are concerned, I guess. Along with the check I paid for two beers & an appetizer (at downtown DC prices), plus the r/t train fare from Charm City–roughly what a veal supper with appetizer & wine in one of the best restaurants in Baltimore’s Little Italy cost me two nights later. Sheesh.
(BTW, nice meeting you & the ms, ef. Shame we didn’t have longer or quieter to converse.)
Uncle Cosmo
@srv: Could you, Boob in Putinland & that Hollandaise-Bechamel weak sauce stand a little closer together, so one speeding out-of-control semi can get you all at once?
ETA: Add dullarddead to the group photo, since it’s back.
(This post has been brought to you by the letters F, O, A, & D.
Miss Bianca
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym: I like it! I’ve read it before my first cup of coffee and I’m still groggy, so I don’t have anything critical to say. I think it’s a great set-up. And yeah – you definitely have to figure out who left the body on the floor, but that might take the whole novel!
Miss Bianca
@Fair Economist: There’s a bill before the state congress here in CO to replace caucuses with primaries for both D and R parties. Yay! But they’re open primaries, which I have decided I despise. I’m actually with DWS on this one (Oh no, I guess that makes me a lamestream corporate establishment DNC-er! Ay-ee!)
Miss Bianca
@Damien: May I just say, I like how you think. A (virtual) glass of wine with you, sir!
DCF
Rather Than Campaign As Liberal Alternative To Trump, Clinton To Run As Smarter Republican
https://shadowproof.com/2016/05/06/rather-campaign-liberal-alternative-trump-clinton-run-smarter-republican/
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Shock value, and that is what Trump is – the political equivalent of a Shock Jock.
Captain C
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: Given how much time he’s spent on Howard Stern, this is a spot-on description.
Cleos
@GregB:
True!
And an Independent can vote just by thinking about it. Too bad the elections are rigged.
Cleos
@Major Major Major Major: Pikers.
I have a video of an atomic bomb not exploding directly above the roof of our house.
DCF
Proof The Two-Party System Is COLLAPSING!
Redacted Tonight
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_ny3WwNBpc
daves09
@DCF: You seem disturbed. Perhaps a little lie down in a quiet place?
imonlylurking
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym: Good so far.
jl
Trump has already chickened out of a debate with Sanders after Fox News tried to set one up earlier in the primary. So, nothing is going to happen.
HRC is a better debater than Sanders in some ways, and I don’t think much worse in any way. So we can see how honest Trump is when he claims he can beat the Democratic candidate ‘very easily’.