Got a call from a friend last night during the debate, so I missed the last hour or so. Read a few of the hot takes and wasn’t surprised by anything until I saw, and then read, this Q&A:
Linsey Davis: Mr. Vice President, I want to talk to you about inequality in schools and race. In a conversation about how to deal with segregation in schools back in 1975, you told a reporter, “I don’t feel responsible for the sins of my father and grandfather. I feel responsible for what the situation is today, for the sins of my own generation, and I’ll be damned if I feel responsible to pay for what happened 300 years ago.” You said that some 40 years ago, but as you stand here tonight, what responsibility do you think that Americans need to take to repair the legacy of slavery in our country?
Joe Biden: Well, they have to deal with the … Look, there is institutional segregation in this country. And from the time I got involved, I started dealing with that. Redlining, banks, making sure that we are in a position where—
Look, we talk about education. I propose that what we take is those very poor schools, the Title 1 schools, triple the amount of money we spend from $15 to $45 billion a year. Give every single teacher a raise to the equal of … A raise of getting out of the $60,000 level.
No. 2, make sure that we bring in to the help with the stud—the teachers deal with the problems that come from home. The problems that come from home, we need… We have one school psychologist for every 1,500 kids in America today. It’s crazy. The teachers are required—I’m married to a teacher. My deceased wife is a teacher. They have every problem coming to them.
Make sure that every single child does, in fact, have three, four, and five-year-olds go to school. School! Not day care, school. We bring social workers into homes of parents to help them deal with how to raise their children. It’s not that they don’t want to help. They don’t know what— They don’t know what quite what to do. Play the radio. Make sure the television—excuse me, make sure you have the record player on at night. The phone—make sure the kids hear words. A kid coming from a very poor school—er, a very poor background will hear 4 million words fewer spoken by the time they get there.
Davis: Thank you, Mr. Vice President.
Biden: No, I’m going to go like the rest of them do, twice over, OK? Because here’s the deal. The deal is that we’ve got this a little backwards. And by the way, in Venezuela, we should be allowing people to come here from Venezuela. I know Maduro. I’ve confronted Maduro. No. 2, you talk about the need to do something in Latin America. I’m the guy that came up with $740 million to see to it those three countries, in fact, change their system so people don’t have to chance to leave. You’re all acting like we just discovered this yesterday! Thank you very much.
Okay, then.
The Beltway press is calling Castro a meanie because of his (apparently inaccurate) aggressive questioning of Biden’s memory earlier in the debate. I don’t know if that will hurt Castro’s candidacy or not, and I don’t know if Castro had a motive for going after Biden other than trying to make something happen because his (Castro’s) poll numbers are terrible. But whether he did it consciously or not, Castro jumped on a grenade for the party last night.
Ironically, it may have backfired because it looks like the pundits are focusing on Castro’s aggression and ignoring the alarming fact that the Democratic front-runner babbled incoherent nonsense for several minutes. I’m not sure what to make of that.
Anyhoo, open thread?
Baud
If you’re going to be as aggressive as Castro was against a front runner who is well liked on a personal level, you best make sure your attacks are accurate.
WereBear
We could turn Republican. They apparently run candidates with dementia all the time.
Baud
@WereBear:
Patriot Juicers!
rikyrah
this answer…
sigh…
sigh…
sigh…
FelonyGovt
Yes, I heard that and it sounded like as much of a non sequitur as it reads. I did think Castro was kind of snotty and it turned out he was wrong about the specific statement he cited.
But to see the news coverage today, Biden did fine and Castro was shockingly rude.
Yutsano
I missed the debate entirely because last night ended up being busy. But a (more conservative than me) friend watched it and all he said was the candidates pissed him off because they were trying to take away his freedoms. Since this was sent at like 11 at night I just ended up passing out. I still need to know exactly what he heard that set him off like that. I’ll catch up at some point. But I did see a lot on Twitter that Unca Joe was pretty much Unca Joe. He’s going to blow this at some point. It just hasn’t happened yet.
germy
A former resident of the community was poking around on google earth, and saw a submerged car in a pond. Turns out it contained the body of a guy who’d disappeared back in the late 1990s.
?BillinGlendaleCA
Just remember to turn on your
Victrolarecord player when you go to bed tonight.germy
@WereBear:
Even the young candidates have brain bubbles.
Avalune
Good – then maybe I’m not alone in thinking what the heck are they talking about…regarding all the articles talking about how Biden was the winner of the debate. If by winner they mean “said many words”, I guess so? He did do that…
Baud
@germy:
That’s from the vaping.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: I think they were accurate, Biden did talk about buying in.
Chris Johnson
It’s not as incoherent as you think, but it’s not good. There are a lot of ‘slips of the brain’ in there, like speaking of his deceased wife in the present tense, like having every single FAMILY with children ages 3, 4 and 5 send ’em to school, like having poor children hear spoken language when they’re little (off television, God help ’em). Probably not off a record player. Changing Venezuela so people don’t HAVE to leave (not ‘chance’ to leave).
It’s muddled and not good, but it’s not Trump-grade brainworms. (I don’t support him and want him to drop out, but this isn’t as bad as it sounds)
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: Mmmmm…vaping.
Avalune
@Yutsano: Probably the part where Beto said something along the lines of Hell Yeah I’ll come for the AR 15s and socialist healthcare? Just a random guess.
Zinsky
If the 2020 election turns out to be a word salad food fight between a geriatric, woman-groping imbecile on the right versus a geriatric, woman-groping imbecile on the left, I am moving to Bhutan.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Chris Johnson:
I thought he’d put a hit out on Dr. Biden.
Quaker in a Basement
Davis asked a terribly sloppy question. Without the speechifying in the middle, the question boils down to: “I want to talk to you about inequality in schools and race. [W]hat responsibility do you think that Americans need to take to repair the legacy of slavery in our country?”
Biden jumped immediately to proposing solutions–ones that he might have been rattling off the top of his head. In doing so, he blew right past the actual question: “What responsibility [should] Americans take to repair the legacy of slavery?”
The answer to that question doesn’t require wandering off into long-ago studies, or parenting technique, or who he knows in Venezuela (ffs). A good answer would have just a few parts: 1) The legacy of slavery is ongoing racism, racism is real and exists today; 2) Most of any progress this country has made has been achieved through the work and sacrifice of the targets and victims of racism, and 3) We won’t make real progress until white America understands and accepts 1 & 2.
But I doubt Biden was prepared to offer this answer.
TenguPhule
Now Putin is just rubbing salt in the wound.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Avalune: …and taxes, remember taxes are theft.
Ruckus
I’m going to go there-again.
There isn’t an upper age limit for president so we have to decide, is someone to old to responsibly be president. We are now in the midst of our second presidency with a person not mentally capable. It isn’t going well. At all. And it didn’t last time either.
I know first hand what the decline can feel like. It doesn’t hit everyone the same or at the same age, so setting an actual age limit is wrong. But deciding that at least the candidate is in complete control of themselves when they are running and that their age doesn’t indicate that future/further decline is likely, is our job, our duty to each other.
Ohio Mom
@Yutsano: I only watched snippets — guessing your friend is worried Beto will take away his assault rifles, and everyone else is coming for his private health insurance. Booker made it clear he’s okay with people eating meat but maybe your friend is concerned that’s an empty campaign promise and he’ll be forced to eat vegan.
TenguPhule
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
To be fair, since our taxes now go straight into Republican pockets, this is actually true.
Yarrow
Castro made the mistake of suggesting via his question that Joe had memory issues. That’s just not a smart thing to do. Joe may be our nominee and that kind of thing is not going to help. He may have memory issues, I don’t know, but to hint at it in a debate format and then end up being wrong just makes Castro look like a dick. Not impressed with that tactic.
TenguPhule
What the What?!
rikyrah
@Yutsano:
Beto definitely wants his guns…
as for the rest of them..I’m wondering what freedoms…..
hmmmmmm
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Ruckus:
In your’s and my lifetime, Wilson wasn’t doing too well the last year and a half of his Presidency.
germy
@?BillinGlendaleCA: I agree. I think it was Jon Karl who started the “but Castro was not accurate” thing, and then it got repeated throughout the echo chamber.
TenguPhule
All safety regulations are written in blood.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@TenguPhule: Putin’s gunning for the Nobel.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@germy: As I pointed out last night, Jon Karl is a Republican. He will stir up shit for Dems.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@TenguPhule: The attorney for the boat company said that, “hey one of the crew was awake a half hour before hand”; I don’t think he’s the best attorney(probably a Trump U grad).
Ruckus
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Nice catch but yes, in the time of the currently living.
germy
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Oh definitely. On some nights Karl’s subtle. On other nights, not so much.
Which is why I found it hilarious a few months ago when trump insulted him to his face during a press conference.
Yarrow
This is interesting.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Ruckus: Actually I’ve learned that President Wilson was in LA the day my dad and aunt were born(though they were born in Missery).
Yarrow
This is excellent news and also hilarious.
Cacti
Castro lit his own dick on fire while the country watched.
TenguPhule
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Be Bestest.
rikyrah
‘I was screaming’: Tennis star Coco Gauff, 15, recalls her excitement at meeting Michelle Obama, admitting she always tries to ‘play it cool’ with celebrities but is ‘really fangirling so hard’ inside
The teenage tennis star talked about the ‘best summer [she’s] ever had’ on the Today show this morning
Admitted that she’s freaked out over attention from famous people like the former first lady and Jaden Smith
She and Mrs. Obama met and traded autographs on August 1, and Obama shared a photo and kind message on social media
Coco also reflected on the emotional moment Naomi Osaka, 21, pulled her into post-match interview after US Open loss
By CARLY STERN FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 10:53 EDT, 13 September 2019 | UPDATED: 11:11 EDT, 13 September 2019
Baud
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
He had a stroke, right? Not a slow decline?
(He was a god awful racist scum, but that’s a different matter).
rb
@Chris Johnson:
Eh, I have to disagree. The very idea that having social workers insure that children “hear words” off the TV or the ‘record player’ or the phone somehow amounts to ‘addressing the legacy of slavery’ is hopelessly, inescapably incoherent. It’s also just straight-up racist in its assumption that the reason people of color are disproportionately disadvantaged is that they don’t know how to manage bedtime or have their kids ‘hear words.’ I mean, Christ.
Perhaps when spoken aloud these sentences don’t sound as doddering and aimless as they read on the page. But if anything the underlying thought process is *more* disorganized than we would like to acknowledge.
rikyrah
@Yarrow:
Not The Onion?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I sincerely worry about Biden’s faculties, at the very least his “agility”, to use a word that was being used about him a few weeks ago. And I keep thinking back to the plagiarism thing of ’88 (or was it ’92? last week a hundred years ago?). Biden probably heard or read it, thought it might be a good model to hit his own blue collar/workin’ class background, made some notes and… got confused. Maybe it’s not age, just a scattered, shallow, disordered mind.
That said:
Castro just looked like a nasty asshole. He and his brother have been the great future of the TX Dem Party for how many cycles now? He never had the guts to get in the ring with Cruz, Cornyn or Abbott, but he’s taking big swings at Biden? He had no chances to kill, but he can get on that bus out of the primary with Klobuchar, Bennet, de Blasio and fifteen or sixteen others.
Gravenstone
@Ohio Mom: Vegans are likely somewhat chewy and stringy.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: Yeah, he had a stroke.
TenguPhule
@rikyrah:
Sadly yes.
The Onion has given up because reality has overtaken satire.
mrmoshpotato
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Bill, have you ever tried going to sleep blasting Metallica’s Master of Puppets on vinyl?
I mean, great album and all, but definitely not nodding off music.
And don’t get me started on trying to go to sleep to SLAYER.
MattF
OT. Ivanka Trump sez she gets her moral compass from her dad.
TenguPhule
@Gravenstone:
You can’t develop flavorful fat on a kale diet.
FlipYrWhig
@Quaker in a Basement: the Venezuela part was his saved-up response to an earlier question about Latin American policy he didn’t get a chance to answer. That’s why he was saying before launching into it that he was going to go over his time like he thought the others were doing. So it’s not really a non sequitur as much as a callback.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@mrmoshpotato: You might want to try The Beatles ‘Goodnight’ off the ‘White Album’.
TenguPhule
@MattF:
And her idea of success from her mother.
So I assume she plans to sell herself off to the highest bidder as tribute to both of them.
mrmoshpotato
@Yarrow: By ‘reduce the debt’, do they mean ‘give more tax breaks to the rich’?
MJS
I am of the belief that Trump will refuse to debate the Democratic nominee, unless the nominee is Biden. I think the team around Trump knows he’s not up to debating Warren or Harris, and probably not Sanders, but believe that Joe will look old and muddled, even compared with Trump. That answer is reminiscent of SNL’s take on James Stockdale’s debate performance.
Cacti
@MattF:
Might be the only truthful statement she’s ever made.
Baud
@Yarrow:
I prefer the original Groundhog Day..
germy
@Yarrow:
They’ll gut “entitlements” (goodbye social security and medicare)
?BillinGlendaleCA
@mrmoshpotato: Yes.
Uncle Cosmo
Open thread, so – I have a situation I want to run by you jackals:
Some years ago, a long-term acquaintance’s long-term cat was diagnosed with cancer that affected both eyes. They elected to have the cancerous tissue (including both eyes) surgically removed. The blind cat lived a few years more.
When I asked him why they hadn’t had the animal euthanized, he said, “Because we love her so much.”
I have never had a pet, so maybe I don’t understand, but this didn’t sound like “love” to me – it struck me as selfish & utterly inconsiderate of the poor cat. I still feel that way. Am I wrong? I’d really like to hear what yinz with pets think.
Yarrow
@rikyrah: Apparently not!
StringOnAStick
@Yarrow: Wait, I know how they will reduce the debt! I wonder how much the doctors, pharma, and providers groups are going to like not being able to bill Medicare anymore once the R’s make it disappear? Eliminating Social Security too will help solve the issue, and without inconveniencing our financial betters. Oh, excuse me, reform Medicare and Social Security.
mrmoshpotato
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Oh sure, and have my dreams haunted by its cover’s ghostly whiteness.
Off topic, what’s up with this ghost -> ?
The Moar You Know
Like I said in the last thread, if I wanted an abusive asshole for president I’d simply vote for Trump because he is far better at it than Castro ever could be.
Castro needs to fold up his table and go home. Maybe go get some pointers on how not to be a raging dick to people.
Yarrow
@mrmoshpotato: They mean starve the poor and take money from old people and military, both active and vets.
Ruckus
@MattF:
So now we know who took his. I wonder how much effort she went through to locate it or did she just grab the first thing she saw. I think #2 is the most likely.
rb
@MJS:
This is sadly accurate.
Baud
@Uncle Cosmo:
Was the cat happy? Blindness isn’t like pain. A cared for cat can live with that.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@mrmoshpotato: gut the New Deal
almost nobody talks about how promising to preserve the Big Three worked for trump, because the media gate-keepers (and this is one case where I believe in that) all agree with Graham and Ersnt. It’s the top of the list for getting your ticket punched as a VSP. I hope and pray Dems are already making ads on this. “They want to pay for their tax cuts with YOUR SOCIAL SECURITY!”
?BillinGlendaleCA
@mrmoshpotato:
That was a Lennon/Ono idea. The original was all white with ‘The Beatles'(the album’s actually name) embossed on the cover. Each copy had a unique number punched into it.
TenguPhule
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Any political consultant who doesn’t do this should be sued for malpractice.
FlipYrWhig
@Yarrow: They think both are welfare for black and brown people. Hurting them is the primary thing Republicans stand for and believe in.
namekarB
What I heard Biden answer was that poor (blacks) don’t know how to raise children
Really Joe? Your solution is to wag your finger at poor folks for all the problems in education? I sure hope that is not what he intended to say
TenguPhule
I for one can’t wait for these endless primaries to be over. Let’s just pick one and spend the rest of the time bashing Trump and the GOP.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I’m so old that I remember when the Greenspan Commission permanently fixed Social Security back in the mid 80’s.
Quaker in a Basement
@Uncle Cosmo: My wife has had many pets over her lifetime. We have just a couple of guidelines we apply in such situations. First, the animal should never have to endure long periods of time away from home. I can’t even guess how a cat or dog perceives time, but I’ll guess that either would prefer one good day in the company of its people than any time in the care of others. Second, the animal depends on us to alleviate suffering. When the animal lives in pain with no prospect for recovery, it is our duty to end that suffering.
Beyond that, we have had pets that lived for months or even years with cancer, paralysis, blindness, diabetes, and (ugh!) incontinence because these issues did not cross items 1 or 2, above.
Betty Cracker
@Uncle Cosmo: I’ve been thinking about pet mortality a lot lately because my sweet old Daisy is old and showing it more these days. It’s a tough call that I hope we won’t have to make for years to come, but we’ve been through this before, and we always try to focus on the quality of life of the pet as our guiding principle. So, if your friend’s cat could still enjoy a good quality of life while blind, I don’t think it was selfish of the owners.
ETA: What Baud said at #68.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I’m probably going to get skewered for this, but isn’t the national debt going to be a problem eventually? All the deficit is, is just how much we’re spending vs what we’re bringing in. I don’t trust the Republicans on this and I don’t think gutting social programs is the right answer
The Moar You Know
@Uncle Cosmo: Really depends on the animal’s personality. My last cat? Probably would have done it. Very adaptable. Our last dog handled going deaf with no issues at all. Most dogs live through their noses anyway.
In general – and the exception is coming – if they’re enthused about their food and coping with their disability is not too hard on YOU, I’m willing to keep ’em going.
Now for the exception: my current dog. No way in hell. He is OCD and can barely sleep in for 15 minutes on weekends before his anxiety kicks in and he’s out of bed (not a rescue, by the way, he was born like this). I strongly suspect he would not take well to being blind, or impaired in any way at all. I love him more than any other creature I’ve ever encountered, and I love him enough to do right by him when the time comes. He has my heart and one day he will break it utterly. But thankfully, today is not that day.
Yarrow
Can’t say I feel bad for her about this. Seems far too little.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Yarrow:
Well, I guess at least some of the R retirements from the House saw the writing on the wall and were the last semi-smart ones to get out now
Baud
Some good news.
Yarrow
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: Raise taxes on the ultra rich. That’ll help.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: You may not believe this, but not all that long ago we actually ran budget surpluses and some were worried that we’d pay of the debt and what to do then.
mrmoshpotato
@Yarrow: @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Oh you guys. You act like this fuckery can’t possibly include another tax cut for rich assholes. That’s adorable. :)
Another Scott
Biden was a disaster last night, even though his suit was perfect.
He had to look down at notes for his one minute opening statement.
He called Warren “Senator Warner” at one point.
He turned a question about Afghanistan into a discussion about The Surge (I think he was talking about St. McCain’s Surge, other say he could have been talking about the smaller Afghanistan Surge) and Iraq.
He was over-coached – “Be aggressive! Show them you’ve still got fire in the belly!!” – “Tell everyone how much you loved Obama!!” – etc. IMO, his brain wasn’t able to smoothly put out all the stuff he’d crammed into it.
He looked helpless when he was being shouted down, also too, IMHO.
I agree that Castro is being beaten up for his going after Uncle Joe, but I also think that the elephant in the room of Joe’s age needs to be recognized. We know that every second of his comments is being dissected for gotcha ads for next summer and fall if he lasts that long.
My $0.02.
Cheers,
Scott.
WereBear
@Uncle Cosmo: Cats can get along without sight. I’m sure they made accommodations for her and she was as happy as before.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Yarrow: The Government was asking for 30 days, her counsel wanted a year probation. Looks like the judge went right down the middle.
mrmoshpotato
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Oh the Clinton budget surplus… What ever happened to that? /s
tam1MI
@Yarrow: And Castro’s botched assault may serve to now inoculate Biden on the “age/mental acuity” issue, since now he’s attached it to what is widely perceived to be an illegitimate attack.
mrmoshpotato
@Another Scott: Biden’s Suit 2020! No? Yeah, I don’t think so either.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@mrmoshpotato: Junior blew it on hookers and blow.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@tam1MI: As I noted above, I remember Biden talking about buying into medicare.
mrmoshpotato
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:
It’s not an answer. It’s for sport!
TenguPhule
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
And set the rest on fire.
Avalune
Sort of related: am I the only one that can’t hear the name Briscoe (as in Briscoe Cain) without thinking about Rosco P Coltrane? And him sitting in an old car with his AR 15 talking insane shit to his bored dog?
TenguPhule
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:
Obviously there are no well paying book deals or interviews in your future. //
mrmoshpotato
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Note: Bill’s talking about W, not Donnie Dumbfuck Jr.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Avalune: I was thinking of Lenny Briscoe from LAO.
Cacti
@Another Scott:
Anyone trying to peel away Biden’s core supporters needs to convince that group they’re the best candidate to win the general election.
They’re traumatized from 2016, and terrified that the candidates promising to recreate the country are going to Dukakis this election. Pointing out that Biden is old hasn’t moved the needle an inch.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@mrmoshpotato: Absolutely.
TenguPhule
Now we know the next subject Trump and company intend to fuck with.
/Ponders how they can make the homeless in California worse in the middle of a Typhus outbreak
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@mrmoshpotato: If it were Donnie Jr (Fredo) we’d have to add, “and the hookers stole the blow and left with his buddies while he pissed the couch he had passed out on”
TenguPhule
@mrmoshpotato:
The dumb one as opposed to the ugly one.
rikyrah
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
The Democrats need to be putting out ads NOW…
November 2018 saved the American Social Safety Net…because, if we hadn’t of won, they would have used the deficit THAT THEIR TAX CUTS CAUSED….
TO gut Social Security and Medicare.
They need to run that ad over and over.
Mike E
@Uncle Cosmo: I met a dog that had a painful condition alleviated by that same procedure and lived a full, happy life…even got featured in Dog Fancy! Dunno how a sightless cat would cope, but keeping furniture static and predictable seems to be the answer…
mrmoshpotato
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: LMAO
Baud
AOC endorsed Markey but has said she’s not ready to endorse anyone for president.
Interesting.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Yarrow:
That’s what I was thinking. Warren’s argument that people care more about costs then taxes is pretty good and I can’t believe I never thought of it before myself. I wonder if a Dem had tried that in the 90s (or god forbid against Ronaldus Magnus himself) it would have been a winning play
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Cacti:
What about his past presidential campaigns where he’s always flaked out?
Ohio Mom
@Uncle Cosmo: I don’t know much about cats (allergic) but after reading everyone who answered you, including cat expert WereBear, I’m suspecting what bothered you about your friends’ comment was that it was all about them, and not at all about the cat.
If they had said something like, “We had a long discussion with our trusted vet and she/he assured us Fluffy would adjust to being blind and still enjoy good years with us. Time has proven the vet right. This makes us so happy because we love our Fluffy so much!”, I think you would have not given this a second thought.
And who knows, perhaps they did have a discussion like that with their vet, and their shorthand for the whole thing is “We love, love, love our Fluffy!” Or not…
rikyrah
@Avalune:
my favorite Briscoe is LENNY BRISCOE…RIP,Jerry Orbach
zhena gogolia
OT, we just had a picture-perfect chipmunk eating an acorn sitting right next to us on the deck. It was like one of those Jacquie Lawson e-cards.
Avalune
Speaking of Kitties (I know I’m all over the place) the Chicago Animal Care and Control posted about a couple kitties who’s owner committed suicide and the kitties are distraught and need a place to go.
I’d think a cat could still have a very good life blind…as someone else pointed out, it isn’t a painful condition and I think the cat would adapt a bit. Give it a chance and if it really can’t cope maybe then consider an alternative.
gvg
@Uncle Cosmo: Cats or dogs going blind isn’t all that rare, nor a huge problem. Especially if it was an indoor cat. I fear blindness alot because I read and use my eyes for almost everything but eye problems run in the family. My cat doesn’t read nor do art projects nor have a job using a computer. She’d probably be fine, though maybe I shouldn’t move the furniture as much…How do you picture blindness? You may be reacting to your own feelings or experiences.
zhena gogolia
@Ohio Mom:
That’s my take as well.
All these decisions are difficult and are different for each pet and each human companion.
Another Scott
@?BillinGlendaleCA: I didn’t see any problem with Castro’s comments either.
WaPo transcript:
Castro took what Biden said about a life event having to happen before you could get in his M4A. Castro’s plan is different – you’re covered unless you sign up for something else. Biden’s trying to have it both ways (my plan is responsible, but my plan covers everyone just like everyone else does) and it’s fair game to call him out on it.
At least if I’m understanding Biden’s explanation – he was kinda all over the place here as well. (Do you have to get cancer to be enrolled? Or are you signed up automatically when you’re on Medicare? Or is it only for poor people on Medicare??)
My $0.02.
Cheers,
Scott.
Cacti
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:
Still doesn’t address the root problem. Concern that his competitors can’t win the general.
If anything, I’d say Warren’s slipperiness on how M4A would be paid for affirmed skepticism about her.
Avalune
I didn’t watch LAO…like at all. So I have no opinion on Lenny. I haven’t seen Duke’s of Hazzard for ages either but for some reason ole Rosco keeps coming up for me.
Omnes Omnibus
@?BillinGlendaleCA: As I remember it, he talked about people with insurance being able to buy in if they chose but also that the unemployed and such would be covered without a buy in. The answer that caused Castro to pounce was about the latter group.
CaseyL
@Avalune: “The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr.,” a wonderful satirical Western with Bruce Campbell that aired for, alas, only one season back in the 90s. Had some vry cool scifi-element episodes, an amazing cast, and I guess was too hard to categorize to attract a big enough audience.
Chris Johnson
@Cacti:
Yes, Cacti, but that’s because you’re an obvious troll. Why wouldn’t you say that?
As for ‘concerns’, I figure the MSM wants Biden to be the nominee, and this only makes them want him more.
Why?
He’d run a risk of losing, and they’re working for Russia so they’re clearing a path for the guy like they once did for Sanders. Bernie is no longer the Putin-approved option. Now what Russia wants is to prolong the decline and put the kibosh on any recovery this country might dare to attempt. All the better if it’s a guy who sincerely wants to believe the best of his Republican colleagues. Just as with Bernie, they don’t have to have the guy’s knowing collaboration to run him as a stalking horse.
If Tad Devine goes to work for Biden, that’ll be a dead giveaway. (god, I hope I’m joking…)
Another Scott
@rikyrah: I automatically think of The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. – a fun TV show that didn’t last long enough.
Cheers,
Scott.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Omnes Omnibus: The transcript that Another Scott put up supports my recollection, Biden was all over the place, but wasn’t explicit about opt out vs. buy in. His answer seemed to indicate buy in.
Betty Cracker
Earlier this week, Biden’s campaign people were whining about how unfair it is that snotty millennial reporters are clubbing Biden like a baby seal. The muted response to the above answer makes me think if anything, they’re going easy on him.
WereBear
@Ohio Mom: I agree. If that was all one knew about the situation…
Citizen Alan
@CaseyL:
Fox put it on Friday night in the time slot they used for all the cool shows that they inexplicably wanted to bury.
Baud
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Biden was all over the place, but Castro overreacted.
raven
Since pets came up I wanted to say that my wife and her doggie parade co-conspirators have adopted the Balloon Juice Pet Calendar idea as a fundraiser for the Boo-le-Bark on the Boulevard Parade.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: My point was that Castro wasn’t really wrong on the facts.
Baud
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
That’s good to know, but he’s apparently lost the perception battle in the media on that.
Elie
For what my two cents are worth, I am pretty sure Biden will NOT be our nominee. I am disappointed to say that I don’t think Kamala Harris will either. She got lost on her way to the store.
I wish I could be enthusiastic about Warren but she seems a somewhat brittle technocrat. I would like to see more from her gut. It doesn’t matter. Whoever the Democrats nominate I will vote for.
Another Scott
@Baud: I think Castro was right to be upset because, as indicated in the transcript, Biden had pulled the same thing at the previous debate weeks earlier.
Did Castro go overboard? Maybe. But Joe needed to be called out on it more forcefully because he didn’t get the point last time.
If (roughly) the first thing he’s going to do is come out and say that Wilmer and Warren are irresponsible because their M4A plans cost too much, then he can’t simultaneously claim that his plan has all the same benefits as theirs but costs tens of trillions less.
I think Castro’s getting a bum rap on this, but given the way the audience reacted at the time, it’s understandable that the press would run with it.
Cheers,
Scott.
Capri
Agreed that Joe looked baffled a good deal of the time. Having said that I am already sick of folks dredging up stupid stuff he said in the ’70’s through the ’90’s and asking if he still stands by it. It was a different time with a different ethos and nobody has ever thought that he was so woke during his earlier years in congress that what he said then would 100% hold up today.
Martin
Biden missed his ‘Please proceed, congressman’ opportunity with Castro there.
I get where Castro was coming from, but ‘proportional response’ is a very presidential trait, and Castro blew that.
MJS
@Betty Cracker: Yep, they are going easy on him, because it’s too soon to let him have it with both barrels. That will come after he has the nomination sewn up, then they’ll let loose. The VSP will begin to question his stamina, mental acuity, and veracity. They’ll eat it up when Trump goads him into one gaffe after another. It is the match-up they’re hoping for, because then they won’t have to comment on the blatantly racist and misogynistic campaign Trump would run against Harris or Warren. They can’t wait for it to be Biden vs. Trump.
Cacti
@Chris Johnson:
New guy, you can shoot the messenger all you want, but facts is facts.
Martin
@Capri: Every one of those is an opportunity for Joe to talk about where he is today and where policy still is on that spectrum. He’s really struggling with something that should be super easy for him.
Omnes Omnibus
@Baud: That is my take. If he couldn’t be sure of what Biden said (and based on the transcript, who could?), going after Biden so hard was a mistake.
JMG
Biden’s unspoken campaign promise, “I won’t do much of anything” is why he is beloved by elite political media, ESPECIALLY TV news types because it confirms their own belief that the American system must be perfect, because look where they are in it. If Sanders or Ordinarily the Republican gets to run on this platform, but Trump has made that impossible. If the Democratic nominee is anyone but Biden, coverage will be 100 percent hostile if it’s Warren or Sanders and 100 percent condescending snark if it’s one of the others. I’ll support any candidate who starts pointing out on the air how much people like Todd, Matthews and Stephanopoulos make in annual salary. It’d be awesome.
Raven
So everyone else thinks saying we’re going to take their guns away is a good idea?
Baud
@Another Scott:
Even if Castro was right on the merits (I trust Bill here), Castro’s attitude in dealing with it put him in a bad light. I won’t really care about it after today, but he doesn’t have that much support to fall back on.
waratah
@Another Scott: I thought it was the way he did it and spoke, he could have made the same point a different way. He was given accolades when he and Booker joined together and shouted out Beto. He probably thought it would happen this time.
Baud
@MJS:
You realize that’s true for all the candidates, right?
Baud
@Raven:
Fuckiifino.
Omnes Omnibus
@Raven: If it is Beto’s position, then saying it is a good idea.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: Castro was toast going into the debate and toast coming out.
@Raven: AR-15’s and AK’s, you betya.
Jeffro
@germy: There’s been a spate of weird submerged-car-finally-found stories lately. This is the third one I’ve seen in the past two weeks(!)
MJS
@Raven: I think it’s a good idea for someone who isn’t going to be the nominee to say it. Overton Window and all. But I didn’t watch the debate, so I don’t know if anybody other than Beto said it. I think the policy that will work best politically is a ban going forward, plus a voluntary buy-back, plus if you keep your AR-15, you keep it for “home protection”, meaning it never leaves your house. Also gun insurance and something to address other guns (maybe more buybacks).
Muzza
I wonder if Biden supporters have considered what he’ll be like, if elected, in 2024. If any candidate has an expiration date stamped on him, it’s Joe. (As a viable candidate I mean; not whether he’ll still be coming down for breakfast or not.)
Betty Cracker
@Raven: “Take their guns away” is Republican framing, but what O’Rourke proposed is a ban on assault rifles like AR-15s, a proposal slightly more than half of Americans support. I do think that’s a good idea and something worth fighting for.
Bill Arnold
@mrmoshpotato:
That Bloomberg article[0] is snarky. But mainly McCarthy is talking about reducing debt by repealing Obamacare (bold mine):
[0] House GOP to Run in 2020 on Reducing the Debt They Helped Grow (Erik Wasson, 2019/09/13)
Mandalay
@Capri:
I’m not. And that goes for all politicians, not just Biden.
It’s actually a golden opportunity for politicians to say: “No, I no longer believe that. Our society’s values have changed since then, and so have I. What I now believe is…..”.
The red flag on a gotcha! is not what the politician believed way back then, or even if they have changed position. It’s whether they are able to use the question to their advantage. Politicians should be expecting questions like that, and be able to knock them out of the park. And if they can’t, shame on them.
Baud
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
I liked his performance in the first two debates, but people who answer polls did not. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Raven
@MJS: good luck
RAVEN
@Betty Cracker: I’m very good at english
“”Hell, yes, we’re going to take your AR-15, your AK-47,” O’Rourke said to raucous applause from the crowd in Houston, Texas. “We’re not going to allow it to be used against our fellow Americans anymore.””
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
He also supports mandatory buy backs.
johnnybuck
I’m not a Biden fan, but by the looks of wired-in Democrats, he’s clearly a doddering old fool. But out in the non wired in universe, Ol’ Joe is genuinely liked. I suspect his steady lead in the polls is a reflection of his calming, steady influence. People already feel like they know what they’re getting, they’re not concerned about gaffes and malapropisms, because they already know who this guy is. All they see is a bunch of candidates trying to make a name for themselves by tearing Joe down. It is not a good look. It was a disaster for Harris (who I like very much) who, unlike Castro has a real chance of being the nominee. You may not like that, and that’s okay, but if you want him to go away, it might be better to promote yourself as the better alternative, rather than attack his record, or his age.
MJS
@Baud: Yes, but neither Harris or Warren will give the media the ammunition Joe will. They won’t create a gaffe a day/every other day. They won’t sound muddled. Their proposals will be picked apart, but so will Biden’s.
Quaker in a Basement
@FlipYrWhig: Thanks.
Elizabelle
@Raven: I do think taking assault weapons away is a good idea. Law abiding citizens have proven they can’t be trusted with them, since a mass murder is all that stands between being a “law abiding citizen” and a shooter.
No reason for them to have them. Ban them and buy them back.
We have already seen Steven Paddock assemble an arsenal of assault weapons and ammo; he came to no one’s attention in that regard before he murdered dozens upon dozens of concert-goers in Las Vegas. That loon (under psychiatric care) who shot up the Aurora theatre had enormous supplies of ammo being delivered to his apartment.
Enough. Move that Overton Window.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Nope
Gin & Tonic
@Mandalay:
Exactly. I think a lot of people just want a clear answer – like the fat man said, “here’s to plain speaking and clear understanding.”
J R in WV
@MJS:
All I remember about Admiral Stockdale is “Who am I? Why am I here?” Not such a good start…
Raven
@Elizabelle: Take them away how?
Gin & Tonic
@Raven: Remember when banning smoking in bars was crazy talk?
RAVEN
@Gin & Tonic: OK, I’m just stupid.
Dan B
@TenguPhule: My partner loves The Fabulous Gemstones (don’t quote me on the title) on HBO. It’s a dramedy series about a scamming right wing mega church family. There are lots of great over the top performances and it feels like each firestorm is going to blow it all up.
The anti-hero virus seems to infect evrn the ones who recognize the hypocrisy and get, mostly, out.
It seems too close to reality to me, just a touch more dramatic. Don Jr. would be a good guest appearance.
Capri
@Mandalay: Agreed, I’m surprised he doesn’t have a canned answer teed up. His people certainly know they will be coming as long as he’s in the race.
J R in WV
@Uncle Cosmo:
Many blind pets live relatively happy lives, indoors, with the family, and sometimes another pet who helps them find their way around. We had a cat with only one eye, seemed perfectly happy. What if he had lost that eye?
I would have a hard time with that choice…
germy
@Raven: How did they do it in New Zealand?
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/aug/12/new-zealand-gun-buyback-10000-firearms-returned-after-christchurch-attack
Elizabelle
Satirist Andy Borowitz, in the New Yorker
Ohio Mom
Once upon a time, we did have a national ban on assault rifles and the world kept on turning. And other countries have had buy backs. There are precedents.
But in today’s environment, Beto’s idea does seem pie-in-the-sky. Still, that is the way these things go, “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you…”
MJS
@Raven: A number of the things I mentioned poll very well. What do you propose be the position of the nominee?
Baud
@Raven:
I don’t know what Beto has in mind, but if you’re asking an implementation question, I’d imagine there would be a mandatory buy back period after which ownership of assault weapons would be criminally actionable. I don’t think anyone on our side is envisioning going door to door.
Betty Cracker
@RAVEN: I’m okay at it myself, which is why I recognized that stripping away the category of gun the proposed ban affects is a fundamental distortion of O’Rourke’s argument. Unsurprisingly, Republicans have been running with that all day. It would definitely be safer to wait until 90% of Americans support an assault weapons ban to say those words out loud, but sometimes leadership is about getting out in front of the general consensus.
Gin & Tonic
@RAVEN: You know I never said that, of course. But things are impossible or inconceivable until they aren’t. Somehow Australia and New Zealand managed to do buy-backs of some sort, and the world didn’t end. More and more guns are being owned by fewer and fewer people. They’re noisy, but what happens when they’re only, say, 20% of the population?
Baud
Buy backs is probably less risky than Medicare for All because the die hard gun people already vote against us.
Just One More Canuck
@Uncle Cosmo: our cat (Elsa the wonder nut – 50 pounds of goof and charm in a 10 pound cat), though not blind, has really poor eyesight (always has – she’s 5 now), but is a pretty successful hunter of various bugs and snakes and treats. She’s established various routes through the house, and we do our best to keep things out of the way so that she doesn’t smack into them. I don’t think her quality of life is an issue, and ours is improved immeasurably by her presence
Another Scott
@MJS: Booker and Warren made the point that mass shootings are a problem, but they’re not the bulk of the problem. Warren talked about suicide. Booker talked about daily shootings in cities. I think they’re all agreed that reinstating the assault weapons ban is a good idea, as is universal checks, and all the rest. It’s good that some of them are also talking about the problem of gun violence in general.
We won’t get anything done about the problem until we start talking about it.
Cheers,
Scott.
Sure Lurkalot
I’ve watched most of all the debates so far. I thought Biden had a few better moments this go around but both my spouse and I displayed our WTF faces many times trying to make sense of what he was saying.
Then again, we were both incredulous when Obama picked him as his running mate.
I’ve expressed this the few times I’ve commented here…to me, Biden comes across arrogant and condescending.
If elected, I think he’d sweep all the evil under the rug as a way to “heal” the nation. We’ve done that again and again and they just get more evil.
Tenar Arha
@Betty Cracker: If you’re curious, the crowd-sourced answer to “WTH was Biden talking about record players?” was an old, limited sample size, often misunderstood study, on language acquisition in babies & toddlers from the early 90’s that measured the # of words used around them, which also suffered from observer effects bc the researchers were counting words in the study families’ homes. And as the embedded NPR article notes, it has been used for a while to set some really color-blind & culture-blind national policies, when more expansive & later studies couldn’t replicate the original results, & in fact showed there wasn’t that huge a difference.
germy
@Another Scott: We’ve got to stop worrying about pissing off RWNJs, because even if we sit quietly and do nothing, they’ll still make up shit about us.
EMAILZ! was just a warmup for them.
Dan B
@TenguPhule: Looks like we can pick out the progression: First they came for the muslim immigrants, then the brown immigrants, then for the asylum seekers, then the homeless on skid row, then the trans…. Who’s next, the derp state liberals – the fake news reporters – the IC leakers – the Medicare moochers/leeches?
Elizabelle
@Dan B:
I’ll see your RW grifters, and raise you a Catholic bishop, from real life. From West Virginia, by gawd, yet.
Thanks for the lead in; have wanted to share this item from the WaPost. Worth a click to see everything this knight of the church believed himself entitled to — lovely photo of the Mediterranean view from a luxury hotel in Positano, Italy. He stayed in the Presidential Suite in Palm Beach too, because, of course he did. Take it away, WaPost.
The Washington Post: A penthouse, limousines and private jets: Inside the globe-trotting life of Bishop Michael Bransfield
The Post has loads of alarming detail — they particularly examined his 2017/18 expenses. He is also in trouble for serially slapping some younger priests’ behinds.
When his excessive spending came to light and he was called to a meeting, he was on his usual long vacation at the Jersey shore with family and friends, paid for by his diocese. He arrived, and flew back, on private jet, for what would have been a 4-hour drive.
J R in WV
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:
Actually we owe the national debt to ourselves for the most part. So only if the Republicans get to define all the issues. They really do want to pay for tax cuts by “reforming” Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, taking from those programs to make up for the tax cuts for the wealthy, which is not the same as being fiscally responsible.
Further more, the Republicans have spent the last 50 years telling people they can’t trust the government, when the truth is WE ARE THE GOVERNMENT! That’s what a Democracy is, government by the people.
If we can’t trust ourselves, who can we trust? The Republicans? Right!
Social Security is an insurance program administered by the government. Minor adjustments like removing the cap on payments into the system, would fix Social security for the foreseeable future. Of course that would only affect really highly paid individuals, oops, can’t do that. Even if they are the most able to afford a tiny increase in their payroll deduction.
Medicare and Medicaid are more complex, but for starters they should be allowed to negotiate on drug prices… which they can’t do now, by law. Crazy,, huh? The 20% skim to profits by insurance companies, which used to be unlimited until Obamacare was passed, is another place to look for the ability to “fix” medical costs. That’s the “hookers and blow” funding for Insurance CEOs.
You do know how to tell Republicans are lying about money… it’s when their lips are moving!!!
Chief Oshkosh
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Actually,..
1. Nixon was unstable at the end; totally bananas over some 24-hr periods.
2. Reagan’s brain never reset to normal after Hinckley shot him, though the decline may have happened anyway.
3. Shrub was mentally negligible from a very young age; the drugs and booze left him pretty much with a quarter of the mental capacity a normal job would require, much less POTUS.
4. And then we have Trump…
Republican presidents are idiots, sociopaths, neurotics, and paranoids. Cruel, mean SOBs who seek the job solely to have power over others and to enrich themselves.
Tenar Arha
@Betty Cracker: 2nd attempt, I think I typoed my email address…
The word gap study that Biden was probably ?♀️ inarticulately referencing was a really small sample (& flawed by the observer effect of having researchers present there in the homes) https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2018/06/01/615188051/lets-stop-talking-about-the-30-million-word-gap
(It’s also been used to denigrate black people’s parenting, as almost everything in our society eventually gets used h/t @AbbyDPhillip
Dan B
@Another Scott: Thanks for the transcript of the Biden / Castro exchange. It went by so fast that I missed the gaffe. Castro could have said that it’s vitally important to have people covered before an emergency and your plan doesn’t operate that way, right? It would stoll put Biden on his back foot but given him the opening to explain. Biden would have looked addled and Castro would have bern seen as seeking clarity.
My 3 cents.
prostratedragon
Then there’s Briscoe Darling from 6 episodes of The Andy Griffith Show, played by Denver Pyle.
JPL
@?BillinGlendaleCA: I’d run an ad simply showing how many children died used that gun to mow down children. At the end ask if they’re okay with that?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@prostratedragon: The Darling Clan!
?BillinGlendaleCA
@JPL: I think Sandy Hook showed us the answer. They’re OK with that.
J R in WV
@Cacti:
Yeah, and you’re still a troll, always was, always will be.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
IIRC, Jon Cryer (Duckie from Pretty in Pink, for my cohort) used to be a leading Hollywood Republican, maybe the biggest on before Kelsey Grammar got a new accountant and a dump truck full of cash.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@J R in WV: c’mon, Cacti’s been around for years before s/he started taking this primary personally
zhena gogolia
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Oh, they were great!
Betty Cracker
@Baud: Good point.
zhena gogolia
MoreJon Zal Retweeted Jon Zal
Literally no one else said this. Not even Tulsi Gabbard.
JPL
@?BillinGlendaleCA: They might mention that before Bush lifted the ban, Lanza’s mom couldn’t buy the weapons he used. That’s what a ban looks like.
CarolPW
@Tenar Arha: Exactly. I was glad to see the transcript, because I had a hard time believing what I thought I heard. It is fucking racist, and Biden needs to retire.
zhena gogolia
Kyle Griffin
Verified account
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Okay, I will admit, I completely forgot about this guy
and I am kinda stunned
Dan B
@Elizabelle: Sounds like one plot line in an episode of The Gemstones. As I said it seems to close to reality for my taste. The psychodrama is disturbing even though the situations it produces are funny or dramatic. I imagine similar scenarios play out in the Trumps’ sphere.
Or Jerry Falwell Jr……
Jay
Ryan
“Ironically, it may have backfired because it looks like the pundits are focusing on Castro’s aggression and ignoring the alarming fact that the Democratic front-runner babbled incoherent nonsense for several minutes.”
You can have word salad and aggression in one package if you stick with Trump.
Shalimar
@?BillinGlendaleCA: My brother, in a drug-addled moment, let out that he thinks the employees of his company are stealing his money. By doing all the actual work and getting paid for it while he drives around lunching with people and negotiating contracts. So yes, people with that mindset are insane. Everything is really theirs and fuck everyone else.
J R in WV
@Jay:
AOC has more courage than all of Trump and his family put together and then squared.
Jay
@zhena gogolia:
Dan B
@Elizabelle: Have to admit this story seems to have almost everything. Nothing exceeds like excess!
Omnes Omnibus
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Cacti’s previous thing was bagging on all Winter Olympic sports and about half of those from the Summer games as rich/white people’s sports.
Martin
Literally nobody is suprised.
jk
The heat that Julian Castro has taken from the villager asswipes is bullshit. Castro has nothing to apologize for and the beltway douchbags trying to ram Biden down our throats can go fuck themselves. I thought Biden was a dimwitted windbag 30 years ago, now he’s an old dimwitted windbag. It’s beyond moronic to elect any person over 75 years old to serve as President given the stresse and challenges of this job. Biden’s propensity for sticking his foot in his mouth doesn’t help matters and it takes the heat off of the Trumpenstein monster. People from Biden’s inner circle and Sanders’ inner circle need to perform an intervention with both of these guys and get them to pull out of this race.
hilts
@MattF:
Ivanka Trump is as a big of a bullshit artist as her dad. They both deserve to rot in federal prison.
BR
@Elie:
There are two videos of Warren that are worth watching, and I’m curious what you think. I was on the fence about her until I saw these two — one in West Virginia and one at a Rainbow PUSH event:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jEnCcwSevo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAcylX7-Eqc
She got the closest to Obama of anyone I’ve seen in a while in truly connecting with totally different audiences (don’t get me wrong, she didn’t get that close to Obama level, but even halfway there is better than almost anyone else).
Jay
Jeffro
@Jay: @J R in WV:
– GOP Rep body slams reporter, wins presidential praise
– GOP president* encourages crowds to ‘rough up’ protestors, have them ‘taken out on a stretcher’
– pipe bomb guy
– mass shooter after mass shooter
– gun raffles as fundraisers
– GOP presidential* candidate musing aloud about “2nd Amendment people” doing something to save him from defeat
but ANTIFA is a violent threat to the country. Sure thing, GOP!
Ohio Mom
@Martin: Somewhere in North Korea, Kim Jong Un is muttering, I thought I was his favorite dictator.”
coloradoblue
Democrats, protecting, ignoring and minimizing a deeply flawed candidate. Say it ain’t so!
Hi Hillary!
Baud
@Jay:
(1) Biden’s support along blacks is high.
(2) people don’t have to choose between those two things.
debbie
Good grief on that excerpt up top. So the likely choice next fall is clear: Bumbling Sociopath or Bumbling Shambler. God help us.
Ohio Mom
@Jay: This formula —all Black people are poor and all poor people are Black — isn’t new for Biden, sadly.
Jay
opiejeanne
@Mike E: my great grandma had a cat who went blind. It still caught mice and got around very well.
TenguPhule
@Martin:
Trump forgot you’re supposed to divorce first, then confess to Putin.
TenguPhule
@coloradoblue:
Bag. Salted Dicks. Eat em.
debbie
@Jay:
The vast majority of part-timers get zero insurance.
debbie
@debbie:
Couldn’t access the link in the tweet, but found a similar article at Bloomberg:
That tweet is a bit distorted.
WaterGirl
I had to turn off the debate after awhile last night because it was hurting my head, literally and figuratively.
I turned it back on later – Tivo! – and fell asleep watching it. So tonight I started again and decided to go through and watch just Beto and Buttigieg first because they were the ones I felt were strongest last night. I was impressed with both of them pretty much through the whole thing. Thoughtful, heartfelt, passionate, well spoken.
What really struck me, though, were the impressions the other candidates left me with as I fast forwarded.
Holy shit, when you watch it that way, Bernie really does look beyond angry, but crazed and pretty much off the deep end. Joe’s suit was impeccable but his face left the impression of him being very old, you know how some old people sometimes seem to have their skin right over their bones?
The demeanor of Castro and Wang and Klobuchar shouted “I’m in over my head here and I am faking it until I make it”, like I did the first day I had to teach a college level class at the University. I decided I would just pretend to the be teacher.
Fast forwarding through, if I had been watching a movie, I would have pegged Kamala as the slick politician. Booker has really animated facial expressions so he came off looking kind of goofy and not serious. Warren looked like the professor giving a lecture.
I’m going to play it through just watching/listening to Booker next, because I haven’t really given him serious consideration. Watching just one person at a time really helps weed out the distraction of the back-and-forth bullshit and leaves me with a much clearer idea of what they each bring to the table.
I wish someone would make separate video compilations of every single thing each of the 10 candidates said at the debate. Does someone already do this and I just don’t know it?
TenguPhule
What are the odds both PACs coordinate with Trump’s campaign?
J R in WV
@Elizabelle:
I have heard about this scandal here locally… you would think it would be a bigger hoorah here, but is was “his money” to spend as he sees fit, right? Nope!
Flying around on chartered jets, or jets borrowed from members of his cult, slapping young priests on the butt, sounds like a dream come true for a certain flavor of perv. Patriarchal control gone wild! Who coulda guessed total control could lead to THIS!
debbie
@TenguPhule:
Knowing Bolton’s vindictiveness? Probably pretty slim. I bet he’ll stick to Congressional and maybe state races.
Brachiator
I posted this on the YouTube Young Turks site, and repeat it here:
I need to repeat with emphasis. I don’t care what Biden said 40 years ago. Trump is harming refugees from the Bahamas today. Trump is killing immigrant children today. Trump is giving aid and comfort to white supremacists today. And Trump has never apologized, and will never apologize for anything he has done. Biden said something stupid 40 years ago. Trump and his father were hurting black and brown people 40 years ago. Your enemy is Trump’s actions and policies today. Why is this so hard to remember?
JPL
@debbie: It might be that he knows his money is going to dry up if he criticizes trump, and that will be more important. He’s following Kelly’s and Mattis’s lead. Me first and f.k the country.
Brachiator
@Ohio Mom:
A lot of people, including a lot of white liberals, fall into this as well. White people are working class, middle class, Heartland, union members. Black people are an undifferentiated mass. And currently there are black women Democrats, but God only knows who they are or how they live.
Jay
@debbie
Racing to the bottom, as fast, as fast as you can.
mrmoshpotato
@Elizabelle: How that story doesn’t include tons of prostitutes is beyond me.
Chyron HR
@coloradoblue:
Let me guess, you’re one of the 1 in 8 Sanders worshipers who voted for Trump?
Jay
@debbie:
Asking politicians “if you can keep your health insurer”, is weak sauce when for many Americans, what little they get is often a Corporate whim.
mrmoshpotato
@hilts: Federal prison while the gallows are constructed.
Matt McIrvin
@Yutsano: They want to take away his freedoms of guns, not paying taxes, coal-rolling and the N word.
Omnes Omnibus
@debbie: Jesus fucking Christ, Biden is the frontrunner five months out from the first primaries. Don’t fucking panic.
debbie
@Omnes Omnibus:
No panic here, but it is dispiriting watching Biden.
Jay
Hillary Hate is the grift that keeps on grifting,….
Cacti
@J R in WV:
Grampa, a while back you told me you’d never speak to me again. Why you gotta be lying?
Jay
@Brachiator:
And Biden said something stupid last night, that clearly illustrates that his views on race and racism has not evolved one whit in 40 years.
Adam’s post on “The Only Way Out is Through” still resonates.
Nostalgia isn’t going to fix the mess.
mrmoshpotato
@Jay:
Assholes will be talking shit and grifting during her funeral.
Cacti
@Omnes Omnibus:
Counselor, do you need a mental health break? It sounds like I’m taking up a lot of free real estate inside your head.
misterpuff
@WereBear: My Alzheimer candidate can beat your Alzheimer candidate.
So we are not electing a person, we are electing a support team …… which is better? I’d have to go with Biden’s team over Drumpfs,
Omnes Omnibus
@Cacti: Just pointing out that you were simply a harmless kook.
Cacti
@Omnes Omnibus:
You’re still butt hurt at something I said in 2016, but I’m the kook.
Okay then. ;-)
RAVEN
@Gin & Tonic: That response was meant for the group, not you.
debbie
@RAVEN:
How’s retirement so far?
jk
Best reaction to Biden’s clueless word salad from Jamil Smith:
h/t https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/political-commentary/drop-out-joe-biden-democratic-primary-884047
Matt McIrvin
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: If the debt gets too big in comparison to GDP, the government won’t be able to make the interest payments on it without a lot of the usual means of increasing revenue vs. expenditures (spending cuts, higher taxes or potentially inflationary money creation). Of course, these are also the options for getting the national debt down. It’s probably better to do them on your own terms before you’re forced to, though.
Of course, the Republicans are always completely dishonest about this, pushing more and more tax cuts and bigger military spending and then insisting on cutting social spending because “we’re broke”. All this while pushing bogus “solutions” like a balanced-budget amendment when they’ll never do what’s needed to have a balanced budget; it’s always somebody else’s problem.
Betty
@jk: Happy to find someone who agrees with me that Joe’s performance as a Senator was less than impressive. Obama made him a bit of a celebrity. He has not improved with age.
Elizabelle
@mrmoshpotato: There is talk of restitution; no talk of prostitution. So far.
Brachiator
@Jay:
That is one interpretation; but not the only conclusion that could be drawn from this.
Of course, this also means that we must do a 40 year retrospective of every candidates view on race.
Dan B
@jk: Great analysis of the “white solutions to black failings” approach. I’ve worked with social justice groups and surprise, I had some of the same attitudes. It’s the system that keeps us in the dark about people who aren’t in our bubble, or that we are in a bubble. As a politician who wants to lead the country it’s hard to see how he would lead people in a direction that addresses our problems and empowers those with limited power.
sigyn
@Avalune: Well…you’re not alone ~now~.
artem1s
I’m 100% sure now that Biden is only the front runner because the white rich idiots in the MSM are still looking for that elusive candidate that will be attractive to the WWC male Trump voter. This is why I want nothing to do with team broken glass. I’m a member of the Democratic Party because I expect more than that out of them. If he is doing this to raising big money then throw his support behind another candidate, great. Otherwise someone in the leadership needs to sit down with him and show him a side by side of his performances 12 years ago compared to now. I don’t think he’s so far gone that he can’t recognize his own declining abilities.
Uncle Cosmo
Dead thread, I know, but thanks to all of you who responded.
FTR, the few times I saw the cat post-operation, she did not seem to be in any obvious distress. She’d been an in&out cat but they were careful to keep her inside. She moved slowly – not sure how much from age & how much the caution of the blind; this & her whiskers kept her from butting up against the furniture.
@Ohio Mom: “I’m suspecting what bothered you about your friends’ comment was that it was all about them, and not at all about the cat.” Very perceptive, & roughly half right.
The family in question at the time was divorced father, grown daughter & son.
I never questioned the kids’ motives – it was their beloved childhood pet – but Dad checks off most all the boxes for toxic NPD & seems (with the possible exception of his children) unable to relate to anyone/anything he can’t dominate, browbeat or use as a verbal punching bag to take out his rage at a world that perversely refuses to acknowledge his moral & intellectual “superiority” & hand him everything he thinks he’s “entitled to.” (His wife walking out on him only magnified that.)
After enduring his “friendship” (cue Inigo Montoya here) for decades, I ceased all communication with him a couple of years ago. He has intermittently tried to contact me – unable to take the lack of response as a hint – & since his last attempt a few days ago has been on my mind to a certain degree.
One of the things I have tentatively held against him is the treatment of the cat, which struck me as cruel & self-serving. But having no experience with pets. It occurred to me that the Jackaltariat was an appropriate assembly to query.
So now, suitably informed, I shall remove that from the list of grievances against him (not that I needed it to justify my actions, or inaction). And I learned something. Thanks again to all who contributed.
tam1MI
@Brachiator: Buttez Gaffes!
I see the far left has found their excuse to throw the election to Donald Trump.
Again.
Matt Smith
@Baud: Translation: “You come at the king, you best not miss”
@Mandalay: “And if they can’t, shame on them” – Hear, hear!
Biden’s answer on slavery was 100% defensive White guy who doesn’t get racism. This is not the moment for a defensive White guy who doesn’t get racism.