Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Accountability, motherfuckers.

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires

Just because you believe it, that doesn’t make it true.

Americans barely caring about Afghanistan is so last month.

Good lord, these people are nuts.

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

Today’s GOP: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

In my day, never was longer.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

Peak wingnut was a lie.

I did not have telepathic declassification on my 2022 bingo card.

Usually wrong but never in doubt

You are here: Home / Past Elections / 2020 Elections / Wednesday Morning Open Thread: If I Can’t Have My Dream Ticket…

Wednesday Morning Open Thread: If I Can’t Have My Dream Ticket…

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I didn’t want to promote this before hearing what the KHive (Harris fans) had to say, but there is no more ferocious #KamalaStan than Chris Evans:


Been saying for a while: If I have to ‘settle’ for Liz Warren remaining my senator, a Biden / Harris ticket would be my second choice right now. Each partner lends the other credibility with their respective voter bases, and it gives Harris a running start at the top of the ticket in 2024 / 2028.

But I’ll admit I’d be tickled by a Biden / Klobuchar ticket, too. And after last night, it’s being discussed again:

BIDEN / KLOBUCHAR 2020: DON’T MAKE HER COME DOWN THERE, REPUBS!

Reader Interactions

158Comments

  3. 3.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    I turned on Morning Blow to see the coverage of the Parnas/Rudy spying scandal, and Mika was yelling that Bernie would never say something negative about a woman. Click.

    Oh for fuck’s sake, they really are dimwits.

  5. 5.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    The Bros and the Russians are really working Twitter, right now.

    #CNNisTrash, #PrimaryWarren, and #NeverWarren are trending right now.

    They wouldn’t be doing that if he had a good night.

    There were people who said Warren could win over Bernie’s dead-enders because they were so close on policy and this proves the Bernie Rouge was never persuadable.

  7. 7.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Question, as one who never did anything more than dabble in college, what is a blue book? To this dumb ass carpenter it’s a “book” that gives the price ranges on used vehicles. Something tells me that isn’t real useful in higher education.

  8. 8.

    Kay

    Daniel W. Drezner
    @dandrezner
    Klobuchar does a good job of taking every foreign policy question and pointing out just how God-awful Trump has been at solving the problem.

    She is a great Trump opponent and has been at every single debate. I’m hoping we hear more from her in her senate role during the impeachment. Pelosi on the House side and Klobuchar on the Senate side would be great.

  11. 11.

    Kay

    @David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch:

    I agree with them on CNN. The moderators acted as Bernie Sander’s opponents. “How will he avoid bankrupting the country”?  Jesus Christ. That we only get this phony handwringing over the budget when we’re talking about healthcare and education and not about our obscene levels of “defense” spending is a real question.

  12. 12.

    Jim Parish

    @OzarkHillbilly:  It’s a small booklet with blank lined pages, for writing test answers in. They’re handed out at the beginning of a test and handed in at the end.

  13. 13.

    Ohio Mom

    OH @7: a Blue Book is what college students write their exam essay answers in.

    The joke is, they have a good number of pages. Most students run out of things to say before pages to write in.

  15. 15.

    Baud

    @Kay:

    They do that with every Dem candidate.  I was actually impressed that CNN didn’t treat Bernie with kid gloves.  Maybe the first time I’ve seen it.

  16. 16.

    Ohio Mom

    Kay @ 11: I’m not here as much, I’m having a busy season, so I missed the announcement about your grandchild’s arrival. Glad everyone is healthy and happy, congrats to you on this wonderful milestone!

  18. 18.

    Baud

    I think Biden called out the media last night on something.  He’s the only one who does that. Points for him.

  19. 19.

    Betty Cracker

    Wouldn’t it be hilarious if after all this sturm and drang, the story of 2020 is Biden sailing into the presidency.

    Yeah, total side-splitter. (Sorry. Not ready to settle yet.)

  22. 22.

    OzarkHillbilly

    I don’t speak emoji and need a translation: What is it with Wilmer’s wags and their apparent snake fetish?

  27. 27.

    The Pale Scot

    Mornin’ all,

    Mike the Mad Biologist linked to an interesting story,

     

    The productivity of bullshit jobs

    This is where human capital theory gets it wrong. It attaches income to the properties of individuals. In reality, income has mostly to do with your position in a social network.

    This is something that old GOPpers refuse to admit. I know guys that came back from WW2 or Korea that started their own businesses that were in the same field as their previous employer. The financialization of everything today has stomped that out. That’s why parents commit crimes to get their kid into a college, so as to access the social network. Hard Work is a component, but it’s all about who you’re working with/for

  31. 31.

    Anne Laurie

    @OzarkHillbilly: I don’t speak emoji and need a translation: What is it with Wilmer’s wags and their apparent snake fetish?

    If I understand it correctly, the Bernistas are using The Power of Emoji to inform Warren supporters that she is a snake, a vile cobra, who assaulted poor Bernie after he’d so generously taken her to his bosom.  (Shades of Trump’s favorite parable, of course.)

    How twitter-yelling at strangers while high-fiving each other is supposed to convince them — or anyone — to change their minds & support Sanders is… well, to be honest, I suspect they don’t really want new Sanders supporters.

    They’re like the music purists who insist an artist is only worth hearing before they get a record deal.  If Bernie were actually to win the nomination, he’d have to sell out, maaaan… start wheeling & dealing with the plebs… he probably wouldn’t have time for his real fans any more.  Sure, they want him to be ‘a success’, but not if they have to share!

  32. 32.

    Kay

    “The ACA is ten points more popular than Donald Trump” – Amy.

    She’s mean in a way that I really warm up to.

  33. 33.

    OzarkHillbilly

    The Department of Housing and Urban Development will allow Puerto Rico to access more than $8 billion in blocked disaster aid funding, ending a monthslong hold by the Trump administration, according to people familiar with the matter.

    Puerto Rico, which suffered devastating losses from Hurricanes Irma and Maria in 2017, has received just $1.5 billion of the roughly $20 billion in congressionally authorized disaster funds that HUD is supposed to administer. The delay in receiving the additional funds had incensed both U.S. lawmakers and commonwealth officials.

    The island will be able to access the latest tranche — $8.2 billion in disaster mitigation money — once a Federal Register notice is published outlining the grant agreement and how the money can be used. HUD blew past the legal deadline to publish the funding notice in September, saying it needed to ensure financial safeguards were put in place in light of recent political unrest on the island.

    “Now that a full financial monitoring team is assembled and active, we can move forward with confidence that these disaster recovery funds will reach those who need them the most,” a HUD official told POLITICO.

    Hmmmm…. Lots of political unrest here too. I guess all one can is, that’s mighty white of them.

  34. 34.

    debbie

    @Anne Laurie:

    the Bernistas are using The Power of Emoji to inform Warren supporters that she is a snake, a vile cobra, who assaulted poor Bernie after he’d so generously taken her to his bosom

    While lying with their scripts? Oy.

  37. 37.

    danielx

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    The debates are all running together in your head.

    He’s not alone in that. On the other hand, the antics of the orange crested shitbird are staring to run together in my head too – a continuous flow of nausea-inducing absurdity and malfeasance.

  39. 39.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Anne Laurie: Thanx Anne. And yeah, not about to compromise their “principles,” For them it’s all about proving they are better than everyone else.

  41. 41.

    Kay

    @The Pale Scot:

    The increasing inability to have a small business does worry me. I have a client who washes windows. He has a commercial power washer and two employees and they do windows at retail stores, mostly supermarkets. It’s really hard work and they drive a ton- they go all over NW Ohio and into MI. They’re getting squeezed by a national chain. It won’t be an option in 5 years and it’s a decent living. Swallowed up.

  44. 44.

    Kay

    @debbie:

    There’s something interesting about how women are more effective v Donald Trump than men are- generally. Schiff is an exception. She’s right too- the ACA being ten points more popular than Trump will bug the living shit out of Donald Trump.

  45. 45.

    danielx

    @Anne Laurie:

    One more reason Bernie’s supporters remind me of Naderites in 2000 – and I can’t come up with an obscene enough expression to describe my attitude toward those people, then and now.

  46. 46.

    daveNYC

    Been saying for a while: If I have to ‘settle’ for Liz Warren remaining my senator, a Biden / Harris ticket would be my second choice right now. Each partner lends the other credibility with their respective voter bases, and it gives Harris a running start at the top of the ticket in 2024 / 2028.

    What base does Harris have?  She was at all of 4% support when she dropped out of the race.

  47. 47.

    rikyrah

    Who woulda thunk that a dude who asked Russia to hack Hillary’s emails & the 2016 election and has obstructed justice to evade indictment/impeachment would turn around and try the exact same shit over again with Biden bc it worked the 1st time and he’s still scott free? pic.twitter.com/An4rdSvlyG— Propane Jane™ (@docrocktex26) September 20, 2019

  48. 48.

    Princess

    @Anne Laurie: Because it is so progressive to compare a woman to a snake, like that has never been done before in the historyof Judeo-Christianity.

     

    One of my biggest fears of a Bernie presidency is that all his supporters will abandon and excoriate him the moment he makes the kind of compromise he will have to in order to get anything accomplished and it will be Obama ’12 again.

  51. 51.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @danielx: Yep, not surprising at all. I haven’t watched the debates at all. I have my favorite (not gonna mewntion any namews) and will hopefully be able to vote that way come primary day, but the truth is come the general election, whoever we nominate gets my vote.

    When it comes to trump, the only way I can keep my sanity is to avert my eyes/ears whenever his visage/voice defiles my screen. Bad enough reading about what he and his acolytes are doing.

  53. 53.

    Anne Laurie

    @rikyrah: Well, you know what the MAGats would say about that:  How can Puerto Ricans be American citizens? They’re not even white!

  54. 54.

    Kay

    I was sorry to see Biden’s hired Anita Dunn. I just don’t think she’s any good and yet she has been hired by Democrats over and over. She’s not a good salesperson. Stop hiring her.

  56. 56.

    Kay

    @debbie:

    I think it’s a real problem for Bernie. He’s just not very effective against Donald Trump. There’s something oddly deferential about his approach. Nothing he says lands. I think on some level some of the men admire Trump and are therefore intimidated by him. This mental illness doesn’t seem to infect women.

  57. 57.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    I’m going to rouse myself to look at Morning Joe at 8:00. They rerun the show opening from 6:00 for about half an hour, so I can see what their hot takes were after the Lev Parnas doc dump last night.

    Hmm, but maybe they’ll be all about the debate. Not so interested in their hot takes on that. ?

    @David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch:

    Oh, well.

  58. 58.

    Baud

    @Kay:

    I think Bernie’s canned speeches will fall flat against Trump’s….let’s say, improvisations. But maybe that’s because his speeches are old news to me.

    I don’t know if this will hurt him, but Bernie was asked about job losses under M4A, and I didn’t think he gave much in the way of a reassuring response.

  62. 62.

    Baud

    @Baud:

    PHILLIP: Sen. Sanders, coming to you now. CNN reached out to Iowa Democratic voters for their most pressing questions. Edward from here in Des Moines writes, “Des Moines is an insurance town. What happens to all the insurance industry — the health insurance industry here if there is Medicare for all? What happens to all the jobs and the livelihoods of the people that live in insurance towns like Des Moines?”

    SANDERS: We build in to our Medicare for all program a transition fund of many, many billions of dollars that will provide for up to five years income and health care and job training for those people.

    But here is the issue. Tom Steyer made the point a moment ago. We are now spending twice as much per person on health care as do the people of any other country. That is insane. In some cases, 10 times more for prescription drugs. Why is that? Why is that? And the answer is: the greed and corruption of the drug companies and the insurance companies.

    And if we want to do what every other major country on Earth does and guarantee people health care is a human right, not a privilege, you know what we have to do? We are finally going to have to stand up to the health care industry…

    STEYER: Can I respond to this?

    SANDERS: … and end hundreds of billions of dollars of waste and profiteering.

  64. 64.

    rikyrah

    Maybe I’m missing something obvious, but one fascinating question here is just what Parnas’s angle is exactly. Sure he’s trying to stay out of jail. That’s obvious. But how exactly? It’s not clear that giving all this stuff to Congress is going to get him a deal in NY.— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) January 15, 2020

  65. 65.

    rikyrah

    @rikyrah:

     

     

     

    2/ Quite the contrary actually. Congress can give immunity for certain testimony. But he hasn’t testified.but even if they were inclined to Congress can’t give general immmunity or what amounts to a congressional pardon. And in any case it’s not clear he made any deal at all.— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) January 15, 2020

  67. 67.

    rikyrah

    Uh huh ??

     

     

    Trump has paid $40bn to Big Agra to hide his bad trade wars. Stolen $10bn from the Pentagon to build his stupid wall. Pushed our deficit to $23 trillion yet no Republican is ever asked about any of it. But get a Dem in front of a camera and folks suddenly are concerned about cost— Daryl Sturgis✊? (@darylsturgis) January 15, 2020

  70. 70.

    Chris Johnson

    @David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch: You’re seeing the Russian trolls. As far as winning over the actual Bernie primary voters, those who volunteered for the guy, etc: that’s me. I bailed on the guy. Warren is seeing the same very real problems but is practical and way more effective.

    What you see on Twitter is not voters. It’s propaganda, and a bit of a window into what Russia wants.

  71. 71.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    Okay, this is bullshit. Morning Joe started not only with the debate but with the Sanders-Warren “a woman can’t be elected president” thing.

    P.S. When Mika said Bernie didn’t say it, she was quoting Sanders and then asking why the moderator immediately after that asked Warren about his saying it, ignoring what Sanders just said.

  73. 73.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    I think Bernie’s canned speeches will fall flat against Trump’s….let’s say, improvisations

    I think so too and I think it’s ideological. Bernie fans all talk about his boldness but there’s one area where he’s very careful- he hews very carefully to Lefty social norms. Because they believe Trump isn’t the problem they’re barred from really going after him- the cool Lefty thing is to say “it’s structural and Trump is a symptom”. They make fun of Democrats for focusing on Trump- that’s not the sophisticated Left take, that’s the low brow “partisan” take. Bernie is VERY “correct” within that world. The hesitancy I hear is there and I recognize it- they have a kind of “code” they speak in, Lefties, and it’s as rigid as the code on the far Right.

  74. 74.

    JPL

    @rikyrah: What we know is trump has no problem dealing with the mob.  Rudy was heavily involved in the plan to get dirt on Biden.   The State Dept. called Yovanovitch  home because of security reasons.  Parnas seems to be providing us with more information because if he’s going down, so are others.

    I just can’t imagine what’s in the classified information the house sent over.

  77. 77.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    And the flip side of that is Pelosi and Amy K. THEY believe Trump is the problem- Pelosi is an institutionalist and Amy is a centrist, so they WOULD believe that. That’s why they’re effective against him. They’re fighting HIM, not “the man” more generally.

    The Bernie supporters here hardly ever talk about Trump, which is fine as far as being Lefties but won’t work so well if Bernie is the nominee and they pull every punch because “Trump’s not the problem, the system is”. That’s a fucking gift to Trump. Trump himself says it. He makes the same argument.

  78. 78.

    Chris Johnson

    @Steeplejack (phone): It’s harder to do the whole troll/sabotage thing when people aren’t faceplanting conveniently for you left and right.

    The ‘coverage’ is most enraging when they’re all clearly driven into ‘make shit up’ mode and spouting outright garbage. I think Clinton fans on this blog know ALL about how that feels, and don’t like it one bit. Welp, back into the ring with us all. Let’s win for a second time, with an even larger margin that can’t be cheated away.

  79. 79.

    The Dark Avenger

    The stapler-thrower doesn’t have a chance.  She’s a radical moderate, the worst kind of Democratic candidate.

  80. 80.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @rikyrah:
    Pretty simple from where I sit. He thinks trump is toast, and that what he has to add will seal the deal and get him a lesser sentence. He might be wrong but that’s his play.

  82. 82.

    germy

    Closing statements

    Amy Klobuchar: I've never lost. Don't fuck up my record.

    Tom Steyer: I'm 3 percent in the polls. You need $20?

    Pete Buttigieg: Break from the past. Join me. look at these old motherfuckers.

    — michaelharriot (@michaelharriot) January 15, 2020

  83. 83.

    Baud

    @Kay:

    I think the other issue is that the voters that Bernie covets most tend to have at least a sympathetic view of Trump.

  84. 84.

    germy

    Bernie: How did our country get here? How did this happen?
    I know this is my fourth decade as one of the most powerful men in the institution that literally makes the laws, but does anyone know how we got here?

    — michaelharriot (@michaelharriot) January 15, 2020

  85. 85.

    EmperorofIceCream

    @Kay: This is absolutely correct in my experience working in a lefty organization. The “right (ie left)” word is everything. More important than the actual substance in too many cases. I don’t trust ideologues – they are the flip side of religionists.

  87. 87.

    Lapassionara

    @rikyrah: I have the same question. I wonder if he thinks he has some kind of “insurance” if all the information is made public.

  95. 95.

    OzarkHillbilly

    In 2017, Dow Chemical scored a long-sought-after victory: after a push from the US government, China approved the import of the company’s genetically modified herbicide-resistant corn seeds.

    A grateful Dow lobbyist emailed a senior agriculture department official whose support had been critical: “Thank you for your efforts in support of U.S. agriculture.”

    That official, Rebeckah Adcock, was no stranger to Dow. Before joining the Trump administration, Adcock was the chief lobbyist for the herbicide industry’s trade group, of which Dow was a prominent member.

    Adcock had helped her former industry colleagues in a variety of ways. At Dow’s request, for example, she had arranged a meeting between a top company official and the secretary of agriculture, Sonny Perdue, about the seed issue.

    Before the May 2017 meeting, a Dow lobbyist emailed Adcock: “Do you know who will staff the secretary?”

    Adcock wrote back playfully: “Yes and u do too.”

    “Roger”, the lobbyist, Hunt Shipman, replied. Then he joked about the potential conflict of a public servant helping former colleagues: “Maybe you can have a chair on both sides of the table… maybe you can staff them both? :).” It’s unclear if Adcock sat in on the meeting, but her government ethics agreement allowed her to communicate extensively and offer her assistance to the association’s members, including Dow.

    Adcock isn’t the only lobbyist who has made her way to the federal government. Roughly one of every 14 appointments in the Trump administration has been a lobbyist. But previously unreported emails show Adcock repeatedly trading notes with industry players to craft policy.

  96. 96.

    gene108

    @Baud:

    are now spending twice as much per person on health care as do the people of any other country. That is insane. In some cases, 10 times more for prescription drugs. Why is that? Why is that? And the answer is: the greed and corruption of the drug companies and the insurance companies.

    And you know what’ll happen to the auto industry, if government mandates we spend 50% less? The entertainment industry? The restaurant industry? And so on…

    Lots of people in those industries will lose their jobs.

    We need a soft landing, with regards to controlling healthcare costs, which probably starts with limiting annual increases, and working from there.

    Also, his answer is just like what I see from his supporters. People who lose jobs in the insurance industry will magically land on their feet….somehow….

  97. 97.

    JPL

    This is true

    One thing I would enjoy about a Biden presidency is that no one but no one thinks he’s the messiah. He would just… be president. There are no Biden cultists. There are hardly even any Biden “stans.” That would be healthy.

    https://twitter.com/jtlevy

  98. 98.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @satby:

    As examples, he often refers to Communism, Fascism, National Socialism, Christianity, Protestantism, and Islam.

    But not Catholicism? What’s he got against the Church?

  99. 99.

    satby

    @Baud: whoa, you never read that? Used to be required reading when I went to school at the time dinosaurs roamed the earth.

    Hoffer was a grumpy old conservative and the book is pretty dated, but he was trying to explain to a world still recovering from WWII how entire countries could go so insane. It’s one of the books that formed my worldview. The other had orcs.

  105. 105.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @satby: He gave a special shout out to Protestants. I feel slighted, insulted even. I’m sure Archbishop Raymond Burke won’t be pleased.

  114. 114.

    satby

    @Baud: those jobs are held by manly (white) men doing manly work. Insurance jobs are held by women and sissified guys who disdain getting their hands dirty.

  115. 115.

    OzarkHillbilly

    If a demanding job on a tiny island with no electricity, wifi or hot showers but lots of wind sounds tempting, join the queue.

    An advert for two caretakers to manage accommodation and a cafe on Great Blasket island, off Ireland’s Atlantic coast, has drawn queries from Alaska to South Africa.

    The posts, which run from 1 April to 1 October this year, include free accommodation and food and spectacular views off Ireland’s most westerly point.

    “It’s intense and tough but it’s a very unique position,” Alice Hayes, who placed the advert, told RTE on Tuesday. “It’s back to basics – fires, candles, stoves, wildlife and nature.” The ideal candidates had to get on well so the job would suit two friends or a couple, and they had to be fit, personable and chatty, she said. “No day is ever the same.”

    Damn, that leaves me out. “Fuck you.” is me being both personable and chatty.

  116. 116.

    RAM

    I really, REALLY want to see Harris as U.S. Attorney General. We need a true legal shark in that position to bring the hammer down on all the corruption that’s gone on over the past several years. Also, a Joe and Amy ticket would be entirely acceptable. But for now, I’m still supporting Liz for Prez.

  120. 120.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @satby:

    those jobs are held by manly (white) men doing manly work

    So that’s why they get dumped on the ash heap of history while everybody frets about homeless sissies polluting our street corners with their hands out?

  122. 122.

    Butter Emails

    @gene108:

    Is there another nation out there where everyone gets safer, more reliable, more fuel efficient vehicles for half the price? Because that’s what you’re arguing against. You’re basically saying we can’t have that because the people who do the financing paperwork for the vehicles will be out of jobs.

    I don’t like Bernie, but he indicated that he planned on a transition period with money for job training and presumably as a socialist he’s going to provide social support payments as well.

  124. 124.

    satby

    @OzarkHillbilly: if you’ve never read it, you might enjoy it. He was an atheist.

    this quote is from The Ordeal of Change ” the resentment of the weak does not spring from any injustice done them but from the sense of their inadequacy and impotence.” In short, the weak “hate not wickedness” but themselves for being weak.

    which pretty much describes any hardcore Trumpist I’ve ever seen.

  126. 126.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: Seems like sound advice.

    Crisis Reminder:Never believe initial reports.Wait for confirmation.Especially, do not trust attention-seeking social media dipshits, trolls and related disinformateurs, plus authoritarian regimes (allow for overlap).— John Schindler (@20committee) January 8, 2020

  127. 127.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @satby: It’s now on my “to read” list. This:

    In short, the weak “hate not wickedness” but themselves for being weak.

    Perfectly describes the avg cult45 member.

  128. 128.

    PsiFighter37

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: Harris should take the AG job if Biden (or someone else) offers it and then run for CA governor once Newsom is termed out. I don’t see her as being president for a while, if ever. I also don’t think Biden picks her for VP. YMMV, but her organization was a dumpster fire, and she showed pretty bad political instincts to boot.

  130. 130.

    PsiFighter37

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: It would make sense if this was when Holder stepped down – it would have been a short-term gig (I think Lynch was AG for 1.5 years or so). I highly doubt she got a first look at the job – Holder had a fairly senior position with Obama’s 2008 campaign, and I thought he was always lined up for AG from the get-go.

  132. 132.

    satby

    @OzarkHillbilly: if provoked, I say it to their faces. Particularly after an anti Catholic slur presents (i.e. the “Roman” church for “Catholic” church. Even though I haven’t been a Catholic in 50 years. Fuck bigots).

  134. 134.

    Raven Onthill

    I think any ticket headed by Biden will give it away to the big banks. Since much profit comes from the fossil fuel industry, it would probably also fail to affect CO₂ emissions in time for the best result.

    Also, this from Josh Marshall: “Not sure we want to talk about ‘reigniting’ the relationship with Japan and South Korea.” – https://twitter.com/joshtpm/status/1217272709173989376?s=20

    Biden’s foreign policy expertise reveals how awful US foreign policy has been for decades.

    Better than Trump, but, gods.

    BTW, am pretty sure that Sanders said one thing and Warren heard another, not that this will help with the Berniestans, who are more than ever convinced that Warren is eeeevil. Women are held to a far higher standard than men. Sexism rules.

    Right at the moment, my hopes are dim.

    Well, hey, god made the world for corvids, right? Always plenty of food.

  135. 135.

    Spanky

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: My guess is that Putin sees which way the tide will turn and is setting things up so he can go back to being a simple, obscenely wealthy Russian gangster/oligarch. ‘Cuz I’m pretty sure that’s where the power will lie in post-Putin Russia

  137. 137.

    satby

    Ok, last plug for True Believer, which can be a tough slog through some dated terminology but worth it (from my previous link):

    Hillary Clinton, in her 2017 book What Happened, about her loss to Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential race, cited The True Believer as a book she recommended to her staff during the campaign

  138. 138.

    sherparick

    @Kay: This is a very astute point.  The twitter left has always enjoyed Trump’s rhetoric and his hostility toward FBI, NSA, & CIA as institutions since they believe the institutions are inherently evil (as opposed to Trump who would like to see them more evil and is only mad because they are loyal to the “Constitution and United States” and not personally to him.)  Also, these people are completely indifferent to actually winning as opposed to showing their “virtue” because viciously trashing the leading woman candidate will mean that her voters will vote for ABB if Warren leaves the race.

  139. 139.

    Spanky

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    Russian President Vladimir Putin thanked members of the government for their work but added that “not everything worked out.” Putin added that in the near future he will meet with each member of the cabinet.

    … Making abupt dismissal of your entire government sound like the epilogue to a Dating Game episode.

  140. 140.

    EmbraceYourInnerCrone

    @germy: My fear is Bernie would accomplish exactly nothing as President.   How much actual legislation has he gotten passed in 25+ years in the Senate?  Any question he is asked he pivots to his canned “Income inequality” speech.   Why does anyone think that would change once he was elected President?  We are going to have to fight on multiple fronts and the next President is going to have to be able to work with a lot of disparate people and do some horse trading to get things accomplished.   We need to keep the House and flip the Senate, and we need to clean house in all the major departments of government, we have also lost a good deal of institutional knowledge as department “lifers” decide they just can not work for Trump (or are pushed out for not towing the party line).   Too much of the  judiciary (not just SCOTUS) is now Trump sycophants and they may be sitting on the bench for decades.

     

    Amoungst  other things where I diverge from many Dems, I would  prefer seeing the ACA expanded and improved over throwing everything out and starting over.  Although as badly as Trump and his cronies have managed to damage it I’m not sure that’s possible anymore.

  141. 141.

    sherparick

    @Raven Onthill: I expect Bernie said it would be “hard,” “difficult,” or
    “unlikely” for woman to beat Trump in Pennsylvania and upper Midwest swing states and Warren heard (because such statements certainly imply) “a woman can’t beat Trump.”  Also, Bernie is phrasing it as him being accused of saying “a woman can’t be elected President,” which is a very different, more abstract statement then one about the dynamics of the 2020 election against a White Identity Populist Misogynist who is definitely going to attract the Woman hating vote.

  143. 143.

    sherparick

    @satby: I agree its a great book.  I never found it a tough “slog” as it is small and Hoffer’s writing is pretty crisp.  Hoffer’s “argument” is not based on cited research, but as he states from the outset, didactic, teaching from his wide reading and personal observations and the exploration of his own interior mind.

  144. 144.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @satby:

    Particularly after an anti Catholic slur presents (i.e. the “Roman” church for “Catholic” church.

    I have a hard time with this one. I tend to agree with most anti Catholic Church slurs.

  145. 145.

    sherparick

    @EmbraceYourInnerCrone: Again, even if Mitch McConnell is still ruling the Senate, the fact that Bernie can’t get anything done will be blamed on the rest of the Democratic Party.  It is what these people are.

  146. 146.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Raven Onthill:

    BTW, am pretty sure that Sanders said one thing and Warren heard another,

    If you are talking about the 30 years/in 30 years, she did not mishear him, and she is correct.

    I can say “I last smoked a cigarette 10 yrs ago,” or “I haven’t smoked a cigarette in 10 years.” and both are accurate. Wilmer was trying to draw a distinction that wasn’t there.

  149. 149.

    rikyrah

    @Kay:

     

    I think it’s a real problem for Bernie. He’s just not very effective against Donald Trump.

     

    He doesn’t want to be because he wants to appeal to Dolt45’s voters.

  150. 150.

    Immanentize

    @sherparick: Your version of the private conversation doesn’t ring true.  Bernie does not use weaselly helping words.
    I’m Bold! (Not sometimes I’m bold)
    I’m Blunt (not on occasion, when necessary, I’m Blunt)
    I’m beautiful (Ok, not that)

    You are suggesting shadings that Sen. Sanders does not do. Like I said yesterday, so what if he said, in a private meeting, “This time around, a woman just can’t win this thing.”. That sounds like him. And it has some reason behind it.

    I blame him for denying it unequivocally. I trust Warren more than him on what happened. She reported it immediately after, so it made an impression on her, alright. Listen to people when they say they have been hit with aggressions.

  152. 152.

    Ruckus

    @The Pale Scot:

    That’s because being a small business has changed substantially over the last 50 yrs. If you are in manufacturing the cost of admission has gone up dramatically. It’s not that the machines are dramatically more expensive, it’s that rent is, electricity is, payroll is, the shear number of expensive machines required is, the cost of getting new customers is different and more difficult because the number of small customers is far fewer. And as well the availability of qualified employees hasn’t kept up. That’s just one industry segment. Try retail, try competing against places selling the same product as you like Walmart, where prices are considered lower, even if they are really selling crap and should be lower.

    As a former small business owner, twice, over decades, I’ve seen the changes up close and personal. I’ve watched Walmart come into a smallish town and one by one all the small businesses close down, and then prices slide right back up to what they were in the area prior, but the number of jobs is down, the number of good choices is down, the number of poor is up and the quality of product is shit.

    That’s the big business way, crush everything in it’s path.

  153. 153.

    artem1s

    I love the idea of Harris being in anyone’s administration. I love the idea of Senate minority or majority leader even better. I think the last few years have shown us what power that position can have even if the opposition is in the WH. I can’t think of anyone in the Senate better prepared and qualified to pair up with Nancy Smash or whoever she picks as her successor. The Dems historical power has traditionally been seated in the legislative branch. Time to take that back.

  154. 154.

    Another Scott

    Bloomberg claims to have a plan to cut carbon pollution 50% by 2030.  Er, that’s 9 years away.  Seems, er, ambitious.

    As part of it, he released a fact sheet for clean buildings (7 page .pdf). Sounds great in some ways, but the timeline is way, way too short (0-carbon new buildings by 2025). And really understates the cost and difficulty in doing what he wants. He seems to think that he can just say it and make it so, or something.

    E.g. Our home was built in 1963. It has newish double-pane windows, a high efficiency gas furnace (that could be converted to a heat pump), a gas water heater (that could be converted to electric). But the house would need wiring upgrades in addition to replacing the appliances. And it will never be as well insulated and tight as a new building. The subdivision is full of hundreds of similar houses. Who knows if the electrical lines, transformers, substations, etc., would need to be upgraded if everyone quickly changed to all electric. What’s the mechanism to pay for all this? What’s to keep a mad rush to electrify all these old houses, power lines, substations, etc., from turning into massive inflation for such things? Where are the technicians going to come from (utilities typically have to borrow people from neighboring areas for repairs after storms)? Etc.

    It’s a big, big project. And this is just a small part of what needs to be done to significantly reduce our carbon emissions. Saying, “I launched a system for $134M in clean energy projects in NYC” is not evidence that you have what it takes to create a massive, nationwide, crash program for the USA on such a short timeline.

    Still, it’s good to have it out there as something to talk about. And it is important that we start feeling much more urgency about the problem, but he (and others) need to flesh this out much more.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  155. 155.

    J R in WV

     

    @satby:

    @OzarkHillbilly: Evangelicals aren’t Christian, if that term is defined as a “follower of Christ’s teachings”.

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    I agree, but don’t say that in an evangelical church, they will burn you at the stake for blasphemy.

    Thereby proving that they are not followers of Christ, who, so far as I can tell, never advocated burning anyone at the stake.

  156. 156.

    opiejeanne

    @geg6: They weren’t handed out at my Cal State University; we had to buy them at the student store. They were only 15 cents so most of us bought a few at a time, and someone in the class would lend/sell you one if you forgot to bring one.

  157. 157.

    Raven Onthill

    @Another Scott: Very late reply on this:

    Laying out the problem with natural gas in the USA – only one fuel in only one country – brought home the scale of the problem. Hundreds of millions affected. 30 trillion cubic feet of natural gas consumed in 2018. (Or, if you like, 850 billion cubic meters.) 7.5 billion barrels of petroleum. And we are to make a significant dent in this in just ten years? Just dropping fossil fuel subsidies and eliminating hydraulic fracturing (fracking) within the USA would raise the price of natural gas significantly. Before fracking became a routine practice, natural gas cost roughly 2.75 times its current price. Abandoning fracking and subsidies would perhaps raise the price to 5 times its current level. – https://adviceunasked.blogspot.com/2020/01/the-socialist-green-future.html.

    I end up arguing for a wartime economy, and I don’t like it at all. It’s “Blood, sweat, and tears” time for action on the environment, especially climate change.

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