Nothing from that Iraq exchange will hurt Joe Biden's standing as the frontrunner. At all.
He not only survived but smartly pivoted to the responsibilities Obama gave him as VP to manage troop drawdowns and emphasized his more dovish take as VP on Afghanistan.#DemDebate
— Ian Sams (@IanSams) January 15, 2020
Wouldn't it be hilarious if after all this sturm and drang, the story of 2020 is Biden sailing into the presidency.
— Malarksist Revolutionary (@agraybee) January 15, 2020
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:
.@JoeBiden: “I’d consider @KamalaHarris for anything she wants — including Vice President.” https://t.co/mqvcmAxWno
— chris evans (@notcapnamerica) January 14, 2020
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:
Klobuchar on impeachment: "this is a decency check on our government."#DemDebate
— Charlotte Alter (@CharlotteAlter) January 15, 2020
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.
— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) January 15, 2020
Great line from @amyklobuchar: “the ACA is 10 points more popular than the president of the United States.”
— Matt Bennett (@ThirdWayMattB) January 15, 2020
Amy Klobuchar is on CNN arguing that a woman can be president and I can’t wait for the day, whenever it comes, when people look back and talk about how crazy it is that this was ever a thing that had to be argued.
— Miriam Elder (@MiriamElder) January 15, 2020
Klobuchar definitely asked for extra blue books during her college midterms.
(that isn’t a bad thing. she’s substantive.) pic.twitter.com/LbGkNTc1WW
— The Hoarse Whisperer (@HoarseWisperer) January 15, 2020
BIDEN / KLOBUCHAR 2020: DON’T MAKE HER COME DOWN THERE, REPUBS!
On The Road – ?BillinGlendaleCA – Happy New Year from Southern California.
rikyrah
Good Morning , Everyone ???
Quinerly
@rikyrah: Good morning!
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.
Chyron HR
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch:
“I don’t believe [Clinton] is qualified to be president.” – Sen. Bernard Sanders, April 6, 2016
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.
satby
@rikyrah: Good morning ?
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.
Kay
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.
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
Baud
@Chyron HR:
Do you have a link?
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.
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.
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.
OzarkHillbilly
@Jim Parish: Thanx. Here I was thinking it was a study aide of some type.
eta @Ohio Mom thanx to you too.
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.
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!
OzarkHillbilly
@Kay: Not to mention the tax cuts.
Baud
I think Biden called out the media last night on something. He’s the only one who does that. Points for him.
Betty Cracker
Yeah, total side-splitter. (Sorry. Not ready to settle yet.)
debbie
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch:
He showed he could lie as effortlessly as Trump.
debbie
@OzarkHillbilly:
It was very easy to snag extra blue books to use for future tests, so it wasn’t as reliable a deterrence to cheating as was thought.
OzarkHillbilly
I don’t speak emoji and need a translation: What is it with Wilmer’s wags and their apparent snake fetish?
JPL
@Betty Cracker: If you have time, would you put up a post about possible assassinations and the stuff coming out about Ukraine. You have the talent to explain it.
Baud
@Baud:
Hmm. Can’t find it in the transcript.
Chyron HR
@Baud:
https://www.cnn.com/2016/04/06/politics/bernie-sanders-hillary-clinton-qualified/index.html
Baud
@Chyron HR:
Appreciate it.
The Pale Scot
Mornin’ all,
Mike the Mad Biologist linked to an interesting story,
The productivity of bullshit jobs
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
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: The debates are all running together in your head. Maybe you need a break from politics.
Kay
@Ohio Mom:
Thanks. She’s a doll. So far a “good baby” – not fussy- but I think it’s too early to tell.
Betty Cracker
@JPL: Still trying to wrap my head around it. What a bizarre situation!
Anne Laurie
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!
Kay
“The ACA is ten points more popular than Donald Trump” – Amy.
She’s mean in a way that I really warm up to.
OzarkHillbilly
Hmmmm…. Lots of political unrest here too. I guess all one can is, that’s mighty white of them.
debbie
@Anne Laurie:
While lying with their scripts? Oy.
Baud
@Anne Laurie:
Oh my. How Adam and Eve.
debbie
@Kay:
She’s mean and smart. A fine combination.
danielx
@OzarkHillbilly:
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.
rikyrah
???
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.
rikyrah
@JPL:
Very little surprises me with this crowd, and I can’t say that I was surprised…just disgusted
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.
rikyrah
@OzarkHillbilly:
They have been trying to kill these American Citizens ???
Baud
@Anne Laurie:
If he got the nomination, they would forgive any compromise. They are the Patriot Farmers of the left.
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.
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.
daveNYC
What base does Harris have? She was at all of 4% support when she dropped out of the race.
rikyrah
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.
Baud
@daveNYC:
I think the idea is to not have an all white ticket. No person of color has a broad national base.
Steeplejack (phone)
@rikyrah:
Good morning. ?
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.
debbie
@Kay:
Deep down, they scare him.
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!
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.
OzarkHillbilly
@rikyrah: I wouldn’t say “kill”, just let them die so God can sort them out.
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.
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.
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.
mrmoshpotato
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch:
You usually hate yourself in the morning like this? :)
Matt McIrvin
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch: They’re tweeting #WarrenIsASnake with strings on snake emojis on everything Warren says. Apparently a reference to the Taylor Swift/ Katy Perry feud, not that I knew before someone told me.
JPL
@Steeplejack (phone): CNN has been covering it. In fact they are saying Nancy was right to let more infor come out.
Baud
@Baud:
mrmoshpotato
@Kay: Always money in the banana shack to go bomb brown people.
rikyrah
rikyrah
@rikyrah:
Baud
@rikyrah:
Maybe he’s afraid of getting whacked and feels like his more protected now that he’s more well known to the public.
rikyrah
Uh huh ??
satby
@Baud: or Putin is finally sick of Trump and figured a country thrown into the chaos of an attempted removal of him is the next logical step.
mrmoshpotato
@Princess: But Bernie will never compromise because he’s so pure! (Sorry, I dripped sarcasm everywhere! I’ll get a mop.)
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.
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.
rikyrah
Kay
@Baud:
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.
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.
Steeplejack (phone)
Scarborough said all the candidates came off badly last night. What a maroon.
mrmoshpotato
@Steeplejack (phone): You hate yourself in the morning too, Steep? :)
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.
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.
The Dark Avenger
The stapler-thrower doesn’t have a chance. She’s a radical moderate, the worst kind of Democratic candidate.
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.
rikyrah
germy
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.
germy
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.
OzarkHillbilly
@EmperorofIceCream: Yeats said it long ago, “The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity.”
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.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly:
What about people like me who lack both conviction and passionate intensity?
Steeplejack (phone)
@mrmoshpotato:
Small doses. And I built up some level of immunity years ago as a newspaper reporter. Probably could use a booster shot.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: They become hillbillies.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly: Well at least I have that to look forward to.
satby
@EmperorofIceCream: Eric Hoffer on line 1 for you.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@OzarkHillbilly:
You just articulated my current position re D candidates and monster on the other side.
Baud
@satby: Fascinating.
OzarkHillbilly
gene108
@Baud:
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….
JPL
This is true
https://twitter.com/jtlevy
OzarkHillbilly
@satby:
But not Catholicism? What’s he got against the Church?
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.
Baud
@gene108:
The difference in treatment from how coal miner jobs are treated is palpable.
Baud
@satby:
You’d be surprised at how uneducated I am.
satby
@OzarkHillbilly: lumped into Christianity
Steeplejack
@Baud:
That’s what a House seat is for.
Baud
@Steeplejack:
To be fair, Republican House members have plenty of convictions.
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.
satby
@Baud: Hoffer’s life story is pretty interesting. He was an autodidact.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: Ex republican house members anyway.
Immanentize
@Baud: lucky you! You will not be affected by the spinning gyres.
Steeplejack
@Baud:
Zing!
– Steep in the DMV
Baud
@satby:
I’ve added it to my reading list.
satby
@OzarkHillbilly: in context, it’s fairly obvious he considered the Latin and Eastern rite churches “Christianity”.
Steeplejack
@Immanentize:
Please adjust your gyre. It should only be widening.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Baud:
I see what you did there.
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.
OzarkHillbilly
Damn, that leaves me out. “Fuck you.” is me being both personable and chatty.
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.
OzarkHillbilly
@satby: So he didn’t think Protestants were Christians? Wait until the Evangelicals find out.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@RAM:
I believe Obama offered her the AG slot and she turned him down. She may have changed her mind by now I suppose.
Immanentize
@Steeplejack: I’ll tell you what, I barely got any sleep last night because of vast images out of Spiritus Mundi.
OzarkHillbilly
@satby:
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?
Dorothy A. Winsor
Honest to god, I no longer have any sense of what can possibly be true.
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.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Senator Harris want’s a political future, AG is a dead end job politically. There are many other Democratic prosecutors(say former USA’s) that would to a fine job at AG.
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.
satby
@OzarkHillbilly: Evangelicals aren’t Christian, if that term is defined as a “follower of Christ’s teachings”.
mrmoshpotato
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Seems like sound advice.
OzarkHillbilly
@satby: It’s now on my “to read” list. This:
Perfectly describes the avg cult45 member.
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.
OzarkHillbilly
@satby: I agree, but don’t say that in an evangelical church, they will burn you at the stake for blasphemy.
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.
Spanky
@mrmoshpotato: Yeah, except it’s spashed across CNN.com.
And maybe the other choice presented to the Russian govt involved bathtubs or upper-story windows.
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).
geg6
@OzarkHillbilly:
What you were given to write your test answers in, usually for essay tests. I loved me a blue book class.
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.
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
?BillinGlendaleCA
@PsiFighter37: If she wants to eventually run for CA Governor, the Senate is a much better platform, see Wilson, Pete.
satby
Ok, last plug for True Believer, which can be a tough slog through some dated terminology but worth it (from my previous link):
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.
Spanky
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
… Making abupt dismissal of your entire government sound like the epilogue to a Dating Game episode.
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.
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.
Betty Cracker
@Kay: Hadn’t considered that angle, but it’s a great point.
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.
OzarkHillbilly
@satby:
I have a hard time with this one. I tend to agree with most anti Catholic Church slurs.
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.
OzarkHillbilly
@Raven Onthill:
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.
NotMax
@sherparick
will be entirely consistent with his terms in Congress.
sherparick
@Kay: Or as it was put in the Life of Brian: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WboggjN_G-4
rikyrah
@Kay:
He doesn’t want to be because he wants to appeal to Dolt45’s voters.
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.
Immanentize
@sherparick: Man, that is sooooo true.
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.
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.
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.
J R in WV
@satby:
@OzarkHillbilly:
Thereby proving that they are not followers of Christ, who, so far as I can tell, never advocated burning anyone at the stake.
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.
Raven Onthill
@Another Scott: Very late reply on this:
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.
Debbie(Aussie)
@The Pale Scot:
It’s who you know, not what you know! Is this a saying in US? Covers this situation perfectly,I think.