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You are here: Home / Economics / C.R.E.A.M. / Late Night ‘This Crap Again’ Open Thread: It’s A Boid… It’s A Plane… It’s BIZARRO TRUMP!

Late Night ‘This Crap Again’ Open Thread: It’s A Boid… It’s A Plane… It’s BIZARRO TRUMP!

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This was the role Donald Trump was supposed to assume in December 2016 — the grifter travelling first-class on ‘campaign donations’, riling up the rubes in his base to shiv Democrats and prop up Republicans. Sanders is no Trump, showman-wise, but then the Cosplay Socialists in his particular camp are even more pathetically eager to be pleased than the MAGAts.

And of course the NYTimes is there for him!

… Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont has not yet announced he is running. But for several blocks in this college town on Sunday afternoon, he was certainly marching.

From the front of a group of Iowa State College Democrats, Mr. Sanders, widely assumed to be preparing another presidential candidacy, inspired cheers and chants, his mere presence whipping up the kind of political excitement this early-voting state knows so well.

But if Democratic euphoria was the theme of the day, Mr. Sanders also sounded a cautionary note about the party’s prospects in the midterm elections on Nov. 6.

“I happen not to believe that there’s going to be this great blue wave,” he said earlier on Sunday at an event in Fort Dodge, in north central Iowa. “I happen to believe that on election night, which party controls the U.S. House will come down to a very few seats.”…

Somewhere Dean Baquet felt a thrill run up his leg, without quite knowing why.


BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Bernie Sanders can still draw a crowd.

Touching off a nine-state midterm election blitz here Friday, rally-goers clad in T-shirts from Sanders’ 2016 campaign cheered as the independent senator from Vermont reprised his progressive credentials on student debt, health care and the minimum wage. And they jeered along with Sanders as he mocked Trump — a prelude to a potential 2020 campaign.

No longer the curiosity that he was when he entered the 2016 presidential primary — with his then-meager fundraising base and Hillary Clinton’s near-inevitability staring him down — Sanders now wields one of the most coveted email lists of progressive voters and donors in the country. He owns a national profile that most of his potential rivals have yet to develop…

Sanders has demurred when asked about his 2020 plans, telling CNN recently that “we will see what happens.” But the effort to distinguish Sanders from the rest of the burgeoning Democratic field has been ongoing since the 2016 election, with Sanders’ supporters casting his economic populism as a 2020-ready alternative to Trump’s…


Like a Trump rally, only with fewer ballcaps and more designer goatees. But still very, very whi… I mean, economically anxious! Or should that be ‘economically woke‘?

Reader Interactions

62Comments

  2. 2.

    Mike in DC

    I favor a pre-emptive partial oppo dump taking place before he even declares; shortly after he declares; and again just before the first primary debate. Still don’t see a path forward for him, but letting him get on stage and trash Democrats for months without hard pushback is just unacceptable to me.

  3. 3.

    NotMax

    Honing irrelevance to a mirror-like finish.

    Any Sanders appearance needs to be prefaced with a Caution: Spoiler Warning, in flashing neon.

  4. 4.

    Ladyraxterinok

    I thought he was at Iowa State in Ames to support the democrat who is trying to beat Steve King!! Doesn’t sound like it!!

  6. 6.

    OzarkHillbilly

    New DEM rule: “No person shall be allowed to run as a Democrat without disclosing their last 5 years tax returns.” Oughta do the trick.

  7. 7.

    smike

    @Yutsano:
    He’s getting to “old man yells at clouds crowds” level. As a septuagenarian I have no problem saying this old fker is too fking old to be eating up all of this political real estate. Asshole won’t even join the party. Buh-bye now, dude.

  9. 9.

    NotMax

    @smike (whose comment disappeared before I could link to it)

    I understand he and Ralph Nader qualify for a group discount on belt onions.

    ;)

  12. 12.

    Amir Khalid

    Did the page format change yet again? And what happened to the option to embiggen the comment box?

  19. 19.

    joel hanes

    White-haired Skexi stalks the provinces, raising and desperately gulping the essence of young Podlings.
    Every year, it works less well, and he must increase the dose to get the same effect.

  22. 22.

    Peej01

    So when do the pundits berate him for diverting attention from the 2018 election like they did to Elizabeth Warren?

  24. 24.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Peej01:

    So when do the pundits berate him for diverting attention from the 2018 election like they did to Elizabeth Warren?

    Or Hillary, for that matter. I’ve seen at least three columns in the past month (since the p/b of her book with the new epilogue came out) telling her to shut up and go away. Infuriating on so many levels.

  25. 25.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Meet Katie Hill, ‘America’s most millennial candidate’

    The polls suggest a nailbiter race – an LA Times poll this month put Hill four points ahead, but a more recent New York Times survey had her trailing Knight by two – and the result is likely to turn on which side is more adept at turning out the base.

    Hill acknowledges that allowing herself and her staff to be seen so unvarnished is unorthodox. But it worked in the primary and she feels it might still work – even if more cautious voices might tell her that the millennial slacker image is unlikely to make much impression on independent or Republican voters.

    “I decided early on that if I’m going to run, I’m running as me,” she said. “It’s a risk, but it’s a risk I believe will pay off.”

  26. 26.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    I was dreading this.

    Gawd, I hope another candidate exposes his pro-tariff anti-trade horseshit in farm states.

    They can’t let him have another free pass.

  27. 27.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Sanders on Monday also appeared to reference a statistic provided to CNN’s Jake Tapper earlier in the day by an unnamed Homeland Security official who was responding to Tapper’s questions about Trump’s conspiratorial claims.

    The official told Tapper that “CBP [Customs and Border Protection] prevented 10 known or suspected terrorists from traveling to or entering the United States every day in fiscal year 2017.”

    BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHA….. When she leaves the trump admin she could have quite career in stand-up.

  28. 28.

    satby

    Wilmer is the John McCain of the left, getting way more press attention and Sunday blab-fest slots just for his maverick shtick than he deserves given his results. He’s not actually a threat to the established order of things, that’s why he gets fawning coverage and Hillary didn’t. She would have been effective even in spite of an oppositional Congress.
    And I assume some of the Hillary negativity comes from guilt at the role media played in sabotaging her. Ask any divorce lawyer, guilt makes people do horrible things to the party they wronged.

  29. 29.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    Who said, “aren’t most drug dealers black”

    Drumpf or Sanders?

    Who said, southern primaries with majority black voters “distort reality'”

    Drumpf or Sanders?

  30. 30.

    satby

    WTF are we all doing up so early??*
    Existential dread?
    * Eastern + CDT zone people… Sell check fail because I don’t use it ?

  32. 32.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @satby:

    Ask any divorce lawyer, guilt makes people do horrible things to the party they wronged.

    There is absolutely zero evidence that my ex has ever felt guilty about anything she ever did.

    WTF are we all doing up so early??

    Insomnia. Been awake since 11:15.

  34. 34.

    Tony Jay

    FFS, this again?

    Have a message that will win a majority in the Democratic Primaries, or fuck off.
    Build a political movement that welcomes ALL parts of the Democratic coalition, or fuck off.
    Stop repeating and validating the smears of the faux-populist Right, or fuck off.
    Find, nurture and support candidates instead of just latching onto them, or fuck off.
    Release your taxes and explain your property portfolio, or fuck off.

    Or just fuck off. Go back to Vermont and count your roubles.

  35. 35.

    NotMax

    @OzarkHillbilly

    Insomnia.

    I’ve come to refer to it as Eldertime.

    :)

    Just finished up the dinner dishes. Thawed a 5 lb. package of pork rib tips and whipped up a batch of shortcut, stripped down to basics recipe bbq ribs in the Instant Pot, which will easily last for the rest of the week for din.-din.

  36. 36.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @satby:

    WTF are we all doing up so early??

    Insistent early-morning bladder. I might try to go back to sleep for another couple of hours. Or maybe not. For some reason, it feels like a massively important decision.

  40. 40.

    satby

    @SiubhanDuinne: I would go back to sleep if I could, but it’s cold out and it wakes me up when we take our am bathroom break.

    And I would drop off just as soon as I have to get up anyway so FIDO as raven would say.

  46. 46.

    Tony Jay

    @satby:

    I actually spellchecked that and it’s telling me both are right, but only one came up red-underlined.

    I blame Obama.

  47. 47.

    Chris Johnson

    This is some bullshit. The left has moved beyond this guy and NOW the primary use for him is for RUSSIANS to feed people with hysteria about how he’s one of them serving their interests, and that is also some bullshit. I am even seeing the mocking of economic problems in this thread and I thought that had died off: the mocking and shaming of people who’ve seen economic damage is Russian-grade trolling and supremely damaging, which is why Putin’s people are feeding you with it.

    They want to make you look like shit-libs to young people so they (the young people) will write you off as assholes and give up.

    Stop this nonsense. You’re being played. Bernie’s not the vanguard of the Left anymore, and every righteous rage you get up to in the cause of cursing his name is driving an unnecessary wedge and often herding you in the direction of talking complete nonsense that makes you yourselves look like shit-lib asshole clueless morons barely better than Trumpkins.

    STOP it. Shut up. Go register somebody to vote without yelling at them about the evils of the left.

  48. 48.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    @Mikeindublin:

    In all fairness the link Bernie had wasn’t for his own fundraising.

    The link goes to a page that invites you to split a donation 50/​50 between Bernie and the candidate for governor. That’s not solely for Bernie, but it definitely is “for his own fundraising.”

  49. 49.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    @Chris Johnson:

    I am even seeing the mocking of economic problems in this thread [. . .].

    Bullshit. Please point to one comment that is doing this.

  50. 50.

    Citizen_X

    @Chris Johnson: You’re absolutely right. I’m sorry that I made Bernie hold a fucking rally in South Carolina that was all about himself, two weeks before the midterms.

  51. 51.

    Gbbalto

    @Chris Johnson: Your contempt for us all is noted. We are so sorry that we are making young people give up. Shit-lib yourself. Is that some special purity pony slang?

  52. 52.

    kindness

    Maybe Sanders did take Russian money? He sure is acting like it. How is what he is doing any different than what Trump did? It isn’t. Bernie just wants to stir the pot thinking he might get lucky. Didn’t work out so well for Democrats in 2016. Won’t in 2020 either. Follow the $$$$.

  54. 54.

    Matt

    You are unhinged… yeesh ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Please someone keep her away from Bernie Sanders posts….

  56. 56.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Mike in DC: It’s pretty clear Sanders is running for President, not running to be President like the Republicans do, It’s about the donor money.

  58. 58.

    wmd

    Bloomington rally ended with a march to early voting site. Several hundred ballots cast for Liz Watson, a democratic candidate for IN-9.

    So there’s some incidental help for changing the house.

  60. 60.

    Raven Onthill

    Could we please save the fighting among ourselves until after the election? Please? If we win they’ll be plenty of time to do it and if we lose it just won’t matter.

  61. 61.

    boatboy_srq

    @Mike in DC: If Sanders doesn’t like Democrats, then he has choices. 1) He can grow the Socialist party, and make “soshulist” something other than a moranic insult. 2) He could JOIN the Democratic Party and make change from the inside. He doesn’t seem particularly interested in either appreach. Until he does, he’s just another distraction.

  62. 62.

    Barb 2

    I HATE Sanders. The fool isn’t even a democrat. Plus he has links to the Kremlin through his campaign manager.

    His ego is as big as Trumps. Then there are the cult like followers. They are creepy. The dumb ass Sanders delegates acted like the class bullies and jerks at the Democratic Convention. Sanders may not be crooked – but his wife sure seems to be. She managed to kill a college – now how many people can get away with that sort of has behavior?

    Another stupid white male who doesn’t have a clue – for example his “out reach” to minorities during the Democratic primary season in ’16.

    What has he really accomplished as Senator? There are Democratic freshmen senators who have accomplished far more then the wind bag Sanders

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