• Menu
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Before Header

  • About Us
  • Lexicon
  • Contact Us
  • Our Store
  • ↑
  • ↓
  • ←
  • →

Balloon Juice

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

It’s all just conspiracy shit beamed down from the mothership.

It’s a doggy dog world.

Republican obstruction dressed up as bipartisanship. Again.

Jack Smith: “Why did you start campaigning in the middle of my investigation?!”

We are aware of all internet traditions.

Putin dreamed of ending NATO, and now it’s Finnish-ed.

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

They love authoritarianism, but only when they get to be the authoritarians.

Glad to see john eastman going through some things.

Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

We’ll be taking my thoughts and prayers to the ballot box.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?

He really is that stupid.

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

People are complicated. Love is not.

Republicans do not pay their debts.

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

Mobile Menu

  • Winnable VA House Races
  • Donate with Venmo, Zelle & PayPal
  • Site Feedback
  • War in Ukraine
  • Submit Photos to On the Road
  • Politics
  • On The Road
  • Open Threads
  • Topics
  • COVID-19 Coronavirus
  • Authors
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Lexicon
  • Our Store
  • Politics
  • Open Threads
  • War in Ukraine
  • Garden Chats
  • On The Road
  • 2021-22 Fundraising!
You are here: Home / Past Elections / 2020 Elections / Cold Grey Iowa Caucus Pre-Dawn Open Thread: Proof of Concept

Cold Grey Iowa Caucus Pre-Dawn Open Thread: Proof of Concept

by Anne Laurie|  February 5, 20204:18 am| 42 Comments

This post is in: 2020 Elections, Enhanced Protest Techniques, I Can No Longer Rationally Discuss The Sanders Campaign, Open Threads, All Too Normal, Assholes, Cosplay Socialists

FacebookTweetEmail

i for one love to pivot from calling the DNC an incompetent and fumbling org to accusing it of successfully orchestrating a national-scale conspiracy against the candidates that i like

— Jared Holt (@jaredlholt) February 4, 2020

How quickly Bend The Knee turned to petulant attempts at taking the party hostage.

— Iowasca Tripper (@agraybee) February 5, 2020


We are not a joke, people! (Well, not a *deliberate* joke… )

Oh shit, better not mess with these guys. https://t.co/YhchfAs9wK

— Iowasca Tripper (@agraybee) February 5, 2020

We devout Cynics were told not to badmouth the Bernistas’ proclivity to attack Democrats instead of the greater enemy, Trump. When the voting finally started, we were told, Senator Sanders and his closest aides would quickly pull his supporters into line, for the greater good. Because they were mature adults, not hobbyists nursing their adolescent fantasies of exclusion and revenge.

Yeah, well, Iowa — and the Iowa caucus structure the Sanders campaign fought so hard to preserve — certainly provided some valuable lessons, yes it did!

Shows the futility of the endeavor, lol. I'd like to think indulging self-grievance and conspiracy theories backfires because it's the ugliest side of his campaign and one that just has nothing to do with anyone's real life. https://t.co/hGPO4Sqm1m

— Gustave Le Fromage (@davidabenner) February 4, 2020

Bernie Twitter is full of nastiness and venom (and conspiracies and lies) about Pete Buttigieg.

Pete Twitter is full of joy and hope (and substance and belonging).

The day the sun comes up after Donald Trump, what kind of President do we want to pick up the pieces? https://t.co/VWIGI2SMPG

— Brian Goldsmith (@GoldsmithB) February 4, 2020

I will say this… Thank you Warren supporters for not going headlong into conspiracy theories from the Bernie camp.

— Caucus Error Reporter. (@CascadianSolo) February 4, 2020

Not trying to give any advice but like:

Sanders fans have one super good argument (he's leading /will probably win both versions of the popular vote!—that should matter!) and one pretty bad argument (how dare Iowa release partial results!) and they should focus on the good one.

— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) February 5, 2020


Also no, let me go out on a limb, the Iowa Democratic Party is not intentionally making themselves look incompetent on an international stage and risking the future of the Iowa caucuses, their greatest power asset. Have you ever like, worked in elections or politics or…any job?

— Xenocrypt (@xenocryptsite) February 4, 2020

Seems like all did not go as planned pic.twitter.com/cVY99rDsmH

— veto players stan account (@Convolutedname) February 4, 2020

Pete Buttigieg quaking in fear as Bernie supporters prepare a battalion of Simpson’s screen grabs, confused conspiracies linking him to Jeffrey Epstein and stuff that’s maybe homophobic but deliberately worded to be ambiguous

— Canadian Bread Price Fixing (@MenshevikM) February 4, 2020

People need to stop pretending the conspiracies are just being pushed by random accounts on twitter. It's his top surrogates & supporters like RoseAnn (who btw has been pushing insane conspiracies for years now). Stop giving him & his campaign an undeserved pass. https://t.co/qHIwCxPih5

— Centrism Fan Acct ?? (@Wilson__Valdez) February 4, 2020

so if I point out that kneejerk conspiracism is a warning sign that you can be manipulated by authoritarians and is extremely dangerous to the long-term health of leftist movements, will y'all take it seriously, or does that make me a shitlib?

— Pythagorean Danskin (@InnuendoStudios) February 4, 2020

Great job planting the seeds of anti Bernie material Rose twitter

— Canadian Bread Price Fixing (@MenshevikM) February 4, 2020

This is what the entirety of the Twitter Left has decided is the case. Really. https://t.co/kXlhgWoudi

— Centrism Fan Acct ?? (@Wilson__Valdez) February 4, 2020

Congrats, everyone. You again did so great, leading to this. https://t.co/P8yDERVkX8

— veto players stan account (@Convolutedname) February 4, 2020

FacebookTweetEmail
Previous Post: « Open Thread: The Democratic Response to the SotU
Next Post: Return of the Coronavirus Update – Tuesday/Wednesday »

Reader Interactions

42Comments

  1. 1.

    Mike in DC

    February 5, 2020 at 4:38 am

    They want to take over the Democratic party.  That’s normal for people aspiring to win the nomination.  But this is a hostile takeover, and those who aren’t on board will be purged from leadership.  Those who stray from the new orthodoxy will be primaried as an example to others.  If they win the nomination and lose the general badly, they will blame the establishment and centrist/moderate dems for undermining them.  It will never be their fault, nor will they have committed any tactical or strategic errors in their estimation.  So they will proceed to the next Bernie and the same inflexible approach until they “win”.  Even if Sanders wins the election, don’t expect this approach to broaden much.

  2. 2.

    NotMax

    February 5, 2020 at 4:42 am

    Sour grapes turned instantaneously into whine.

  3. 3.

    Nelle

    February 5, 2020 at 5:02 am

    As I mentioned before, at my precinct caucus, Bernie got about 25 on the first round. Needed 40 to be viable. Amy got 59, Pete got 57, Biden got 50 – those three were viable. Warren got 37. They held tight. Three who were for Booker and the only one for Boomberg (don’t ask. I didn’t get it either), and about 4 from Tom Steyer came to Warren and she became viable. No one was going to Bernie. They looked fairly upset. Ten or fifteen of them then left without making a second choice. The rest came over to Warren at the last minute. At first they seemed pretty upset, but they were greeted warmly and people started to connect with them. They seemed to relax a bit.

  4. 4.

    satby

    February 5, 2020 at 5:10 am

    Funny how authoritarians on the left are pretty interchangeable with authoritarians on the right isn’t it? Vermont Trump’s people are MAGAts without the red hats.

  5. 5.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    February 5, 2020 at 5:54 am

    I liked the reforms, but I also said it wouldn’t change 79 year old Bernie, who spent his 50 year career undermining Democrats and not Republicans.   There’s something really wrong with him.

  6. 6.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    February 5, 2020 at 5:59 am

    Fun fact:  71.44% of the raw vote has been counted and out of 125,038 votes only 14 were cast for…. wait for it… Tulsi Gabbard.

     

    Frankly, 14 seems is high.  I had no idea there were so many Russian living in Iowa.

  7. 7.

    Gvg

    February 5, 2020 at 6:06 am

    Bernie is not a good strategist. That is a drawback in a Presidential candidate. I am not myself but I can at least see the need.

  8. 8.

    Baud

    February 5, 2020 at 6:15 am

    This is why I don’t get too mad when people speculate bad things about Bernie.

  9. 9.

    Amir Khalid

    February 5, 2020 at 6:28 am

    @Gvg:

    Bernie is not a good strategist. That is a drawback in a Presidential candidate.

    Even more so in a President. And if his followers want to own a party, why don’t they just start their own Wilmerista party?

  10. 10.

    WaterGirl

    February 5, 2020 at 6:35 am

    Dear Elizabeth Warren,

    If you have been holding back on drawing the contrast between yourself and Bernie, hoping to get his supporters if he doesn’t get the nomination, I regret to inform you – that ship has already sailed.

    The ones who are gettable will not mind the distinction; the rest will be burning the house down.

    Regrettably, WG

  11. 11.

    WaterGirl

    February 5, 2020 at 6:37 am

    @Baud: I am speculating some very negative things about Bernie at the moment.  Happy to know that I am pre-forgiven.

  12. 12.

    debbie

    February 5, 2020 at 6:59 am

    @Gvg:

    He’s believed he can always yell his way into getting what he wants.

  13. 13.

    Shalimar

    February 5, 2020 at 7:01 am

    I’m kind  of happy with the Bernie people showing how horrible they are.  When they have asked me why I don’t want to ever have to support him despite agreeing with him on 95% of issues,  i have had to point back to his reprehensible behavior in the weeks before the convention in 2016.  He supported Hillary against Trump, you have to let that  go and focus on Trump, they say before down-voting my comments on Disqus.

    Now we have fresh horribleness to point to.  They’re cultists just as much as the MAGA fans, with the same eagerness to act as Brownshirts.

  14. 14.

    satby

    February 5, 2020 at 7:01 am

    @Amir Khalid: and ironically, that guy “without any experience” other than running a small city put together the organization and ground game that enabled him to win out over all those more experienced candidates. With a message of inclusion and hope for the future. Reminds me of someone…. give me a minute, I’ll think of who.

  15. 15.

    satby

    February 5, 2020 at 7:03 am

    @Shalimar: exactly what I think and said too.

  16. 16.

    debbie

    February 5, 2020 at 7:07 am

    @Amir Khalid:

    It may not be intentional, but he’s picked up Trump’s strategy of repeating a lie many times to turn it into a “fact.”

  17. 17.

    Baud

    February 5, 2020 at 7:11 am

    @satby:

    I liked Harris and I like Warren, but Pete was smart to exit Bernie’s orbit early on, especially on health care. Now Harris is out and Warren is having to make up ground.

    Chalk one up for McKinsey strategizing. ?

  18. 18.

    satby

    February 5, 2020 at 7:17 am

    @Baud: well, I’ll be voting for Warren myself, but I’m not going to be unhappy at all that a smart, progressive young Democrat does well and upsets Vermont Trump’s applecart. Pete has been consciously modelling his campaign on Obama’s, and that fits his personality and his belief system. We could do much much worse than Pete.

  19. 19.

    JAFD

    February 5, 2020 at 7:18 am

    Good morning, jackals !
    Am an old man with fond memories of going house to house for Eugene McCarthy waybackwhen, even shook hands with him a couple of times…
    Every few decades you need a candidate to lead a ‘forlorn hope’ of ‘we few, we happy few’, and Send A Message to the Establishment, or whomever. Takes a person with rare combination of vision, charisma, and the guts to ignore ‘conventional wisdom’.
    But when that message is heard and you need a candidate who can put together a majority coalition and organize a winning campaign – a combination of qualities, with those listed previous, not often found together.
    And these days we have foreign agents, false flags, and freelance ratfugers with immense megaphones spreading Fear Confusion Cynicism & Doubt…
    It’s February in New Jersey, the high temp yesterday was 60F – ‘unseasonably warm’ be gross understatement. Can we make ourselves a happy ending, or will the tides rise up to wash us away ?

  20. 20.

    satby

    February 5, 2020 at 7:19 am

    @debbie: oh, it’s totally intentional. It’s Bernie’s entire career.

  21. 21.

    satby

    February 5, 2020 at 7:21 am

    @JAFD: I’m not religious, but definitely praying for a happy ending new beginning for this country.

  22. 22.

    Baud

    February 5, 2020 at 7:21 am

    @satby:

    I haven’t been a Pete person, but I’ve never been on the anrt-Pete bandwagon by any means.  There’s some valid criticisms but a lot of the attacks on him have been Wilmeresque.

  23. 23.

    SFAW

    February 5, 2020 at 7:29 am

    @Amir Khalid: 
    And if his followers want to own a party, why don’t they just start their own Wilmerista party?
    I think that’s the DNC’s big fear — a Bernie third-party run, which they’re concerned would give the Traitor-in-Chief a 400 EV win. A 3rd party candidate is the main reason the racist, fascist, all-around-dickhead Paul LePage was elected Maine’s governor, twice .
    [Yeah. you probably knew this already.]

  24. 24.

    SFAW

    February 5, 2020 at 7:32 am

    If I hadn’t seen Menaker’s name in various places before now, I’d think he was a St Petersburg cutout. As Shakespeare said: Christ, what an asshole.

  25. 25.

    SFAW

    February 5, 2020 at 7:39 am

    OT, but whatever: for the second time in less than 10 years, Fred Wilpon has screwed with the agreement/contract to sell the Mets, and so the buyer (actual billionaire Steve Cohen, in this case) has walked. Mets fans everywhere are likely thinking evil thoughts — even more than usual — about the Wilpons.

    I know there are terrible sports team owners everywhere — Snyder, for example — but NY seems to draw them like flies. The Wilpons, Dolan, Robert Wood Johnson — all belong in the Hall of Infamy.

     

    We now return you to your regularly-scheduled political discussion.

  26. 26.

    low-tech cyclist

    February 5, 2020 at 7:49 am

    @satby:Pete has been consciously modelling his campaign on Obama’s, and that fits his personality and his belief system.

    What’s his belief system?

    I’m OK with his changing his mind on M4A. Sometimes that happens. But turning around and attacking other candidates for holding the position he only just abandoned – besides the loathsomeness of that behavior, what other major issues will he do a total 180° on?

    He’s a phony. When he could get away with it, he ran on his experience with billion-dollar deals at McKinsey, and when he couldn’t, all he did there was spreadsheets and PowerPoints.  He formed a PAC, allegedly to raise money for Dem candidates, but the main beneficiaries were consultants and the people who run his campaign now; hardly anything went to actual candidates. He talks a good game on race, but his actual record stinks. He talks about being from the heartland, but as his run for DNC chair demonstrated (not to mention his current campaign), he’s damned eager to get out of the heartland and into the corridors of power. And he does love those big wine-cave donors.

    We’ve already got a con man as President. We don’t need another.

  27. 27.

    WaterGirl

    February 5, 2020 at 8:39 am

    @low-tech cyclist:

    I’m OK with his changing his mind on M4A.

    I started listening to Buttigieg early on, and as far as I know, he has supported “Medicare for all who want it”, from the very beginning.  Has he changed his position on that?

  28. 28.

    The Pale Scot

    February 5, 2020 at 8:39 am

    @SFAW: Woody wasn’t horrible, he was just inept/unlucky. There really aren’t more than a few GMs in the league that I would say you can count on to consistently draft well. That is dependent on the quality of the scouts and coaching staff. Other than Pittsburgh and the Patriots, everyone else is sporadic.

  29. 29.

    The Pale Scot

    February 5, 2020 at 8:40 am

    And the Wilmeristas, Jesus wept..

  30. 30.

    WaterGirl

    February 5, 2020 at 8:41 am

    @low-tech cyclist:

    He formed a PAC, allegedly to raise money for Dem candidates, but the main beneficiaries were consultants and the people who run his campaign now; hardly anything went to actual candidates.

    That is news to me.  Do you have a link for that?  I will gratefully look at any link that isn’t just speculation.  thanks.

  31. 31.

    chopper

    February 5, 2020 at 8:44 am

    @Mike in DC:

    But this is a hostile takeover, and those who aren’t on board will be purged from leadership.

    worked for trump and the GOP, dinnit. god, the rest of this year is going to be straight-up shit.

  32. 32.

    Chris Johnson

    February 5, 2020 at 8:52 am

    For what it’s worth, I WAS in Will Menaker’s audience, as a Chapo listener. They’re a comedy troupe. They were funny for a while.

    I stopped when I got sick of them, and I stopped when they started to double down and get REALLY stealth alt-right. I’m like, when did r/chapotraphouse become /pol/? What did it for me was seeing them push a ‘Russiagate’ narrative as hard as they could, completely denying that whole reality… and then seeing their subreddit be intensely stage-managed so that nothing contradicting that narrative would ever be seen.

    Happened to me, repeatedly. Anything suggesting the Russian social-media activity even existed, much less was as huge as it is, got insta-buried by that very Russian social-media activity. All you have to do is watch the ‘new’ tab and be quick and you can see which things get crushed below visibility with downvotes.

    It would be happening here if Balloon Juice used downvotes.

    Also, you can’t make much estimation of ‘audience’ on things like Patreon, when Russian oligarchs exist. Making Chapo dominate the Patreon system is extremely cheap in oligarch terms.

  33. 33.

    tam1MI

    February 5, 2020 at 9:10 am

    The big plus for Pete Buttigieg is that he’s not Bernie Sanders.

  34. 34.

    Chris Johnson

    February 5, 2020 at 9:18 am

    Hahahaha!

    Are you sure you want to view this community?

    This community is quarantined.

    It is restricted due to significant issues with reporting and addressing violations of the Reddit Content Policy.

    As a visitor or member, you can help moderators maintain the community by reporting and downvoting rule-breaking content.

    Are you certain you want to continue?

    r/chapotraphouse has been behaving too badly FOR REDDIT. Wow. :D

    Soooo, that happened. I can’t say as I’m surprised. Even Reddit has standards? That just brightened my day. Turns out even a crappy site like Reddit has its own purposes and agendas outside of being a conduit for Russian trolling, and it’s NOT just me able to spot it.

    Well deserved.

  35. 35.

    Dupe1970

    February 5, 2020 at 9:19 am

    @Nelle: The fact that all of Bernie did not join Warren always makes me think this is not about policy and universal healthcare.

  36. 36.

    Dupe1970

    February 5, 2020 at 9:22 am

    @satby: I still don’t trust any McKinsey consultants. I don’t think he is evil but I always roll my eyes at most consultants. Perhaps Pete is one of the good ones.

  37. 37.

    Chris Johnson

    February 5, 2020 at 9:57 am

    @Dupe1970: Thing is, you guys don’t go into the cesspools that are the dirtbag left. I started out a Bernie stan in all sincerity, and gradually caught on what was happening. So I know ’em when I see ’em and I know the /pol/ like places to see ’em talking amongst themselves (like /pol/, thinking they’re behind closed doors).

    They’re trying to ruin Warren every way they can, have focussed on Iowa, and are splitting the Left with her, and THIS is the best they can do with it. Knowing what I know, I’m amazed Warren did as well as she did (but pleased). They’re trying to hang ‘Hillary 2.0’ on her, and they’re completely failing to do that because she is simply not that. She stays Warren and the attacks aren’t properly sticking.

    A lot of the Bernie online contingent really have turned into /pol/. It’s actually a bit shocking. I thought they would be hiding their ‘power level’ more, but maybe they just can’t control themselves. They’re obviously /pol/. The calls to boycott the Dems blah blah, will be coming from obvious alt-right fascists. I think this weakens their effectiveness as adversaries.

  38. 38.

    SFAW

    February 5, 2020 at 9:58 am

    @The Pale Scot:

    Woody wasn’t horrible, he was just inept/unlucky.

    I agree that he’s not as bad as Dolan or the Wilpons, but “inept/unlucky” might be a little too kind. He’s hired a string of lousy GMs, who have hired a string of poor-to-fair coaches (with maybe a few exceptions) over the last 20 years. But I’m sure Douglas and Gase will turn things around — Suzy Collins said they “learned their lesson.”

  39. 39.

    Kathleen

    February 5, 2020 at 10:56 am

    @debbie: He picked that up in 2015.

  40. 40.

    celticdragonchick

    February 5, 2020 at 12:35 pm

    Swear to God I’m blocking Berners today on twitter faster than I’m blocking Trumpers.

  41. 41.

    Freemark

    February 5, 2020 at 1:13 pm

    I always wonder how many real Bernie Bros there actually are and how many are plants to make the left side look bad. I know some are real and loud, but I stay in contact with a large number of Bernie supporters I met at college and on science internships (about 40 overall) and not one is Bernie or bust. I prefer Warren but not one has stated or even indicated they won’t vote for her in the general, Just the opposite. Bernie Bros seem like a Twitter phenomenon to me.

  42. 42.

    debbie

    February 5, 2020 at 6:06 pm

    @Kathleen:

    Actually, he was doing that long before 2015. He bragged about this strategy in his stupid book which was published in 1987.

Comments are closed.

Primary Sidebar

VA Purple House Delegates

Donate

Political Action

Postcard Writing Information

Recent Comments

  • Tony Jay on Cold Grey Dawn Open Thread: SBF Goes On Trial — Officially (Oct 3, 2023 @ 7:11am)
  • eclare on On The Road – BigJimSlade – German and Austrian Alps, Summer 2023, part 3, Eibsee (Oct 3, 2023 @ 7:11am)
  • Marmot on Cold Grey Dawn Open Thread: SBF Goes On Trial — Officially (Oct 3, 2023 @ 7:10am)
  • Rusty on Cold Grey Dawn Open Thread: SBF Goes On Trial — Officially (Oct 3, 2023 @ 7:10am)
  • Baud on Cold Grey Dawn Open Thread: SBF Goes On Trial — Officially (Oct 3, 2023 @ 7:06am)

🎈Keep Balloon Juice Ad Free

Become a Balloon Juice Patreon
Donate with Venmo, Zelle or PayPal

Balloon Juice Posts

View by Topic
View by Author
View by Month & Year
View by Past Author

Featuring

Medium Cool
Artists in Our Midst
Authors in Our Midst
We All Need A Little Kindness
What Has Biden Done for You Lately?

Balloon Juice Meetups!

All Meetups
Talk of Meetups – Meetup Planning

Fundraising 2023-24

Wis*Dems Supreme Court + SD-8

Calling All Jackals

Site Feedback
Nominate a Rotating Tag
Submit Photos to On the Road
Balloon Juice Mailing List Signup
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Links)
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Posts)

Twitter / Spoutible

Balloon Juice (Spoutible)
WaterGirl (Spoutible)
TaMara (Spoutible)
John Cole
DougJ (aka NYT Pitchbot)
Betty Cracker
Tom Levenson
TaMara
David Anderson
Major Major Major Major
ActualCitizensUnited

Join the Fight!

Join the Fight Signup Form
All Join the Fight Posts

Balloon Juice for Ukraine

Donate

Cole & Friends Learn Español

Introductory Post
Cole & Friends Learn Español

Site Footer

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

  • Facebook
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Comment Policy
  • Our Authors
  • Blogroll
  • Our Artists
  • Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2023 Dev Balloon Juice · All Rights Reserved · Powered by BizBudding Inc

Share this ArticleLike this article? Email it to a friend!

Email sent!