I feel like one of the most powerful, uncommented-on forces in America now is the way people regard thinking of themselves as good people as an entitlement–I *deserve* to be a good person!–rather than something people have to work toward.
— James Poniewozik (@poniewozik) January 1, 2019
So Max Boot, who only recently became a Democrat, is getting yelled at for preferring Mike Bloomberg, who only recently became a Democrat, over Bernie Sanders, who only recently became a Democrat, to stop Donald Trump, who only recently became a Republican.
— Dan McLaughlin (@baseballcrank) February 12, 2020
As a former member of the Leopards Eating People's Faces party until it became extremist, I can tell you that the Let's Not Eat Anyone's Face party will get nowhere unless it elects a candidate who wants leopards to eat *some* people's faces.
— James Palmer (@BeijingPalmer) February 12, 2020
And of course, in government we must restore the leopards to their treasured place in our nation's capital. To hunt them would be as gross a crime as those who unleashed them into the nurseries.
— James Palmer (@BeijingPalmer) February 12, 2020
couldn't agree more, leopards eating people's faces should be included in the political process
— animaLOVErdlords (@animaloverlords) February 12, 2020
“Face Eating Wrong, Critics Allege”
— Brooke Binkowski (@brooklynmarie) February 13, 2020
Extremists!!
— CP (@quellesurprise8) February 13, 2020
Strong agree, honestly people need to take some personal responsibility for having their faces eaten by my leopards.
— MK (@haxromana) February 12, 2020
“It’s me, Max, the reasonable moderate” bothers people because his entire thing was being the Neocon’s Neocon, the guy so extreme Dick Cheney would tell him to tone it down, who was nevertheless taken seriously, until mid 2016 when wasn’t basically overnight
— Proud Bloomberg Disliker (@MenshevikM) February 12, 2020
Quinerly
I’m laughing my face off. Thanks for this post.
Gin & Tonic
I’d bet 999 people out of a thousand haven’t the vaguest idea who Max Boot is.
Jerzy Russian
I am not quite sure what this post is all about. By some strange coincidence, I am not sure what my comment is all about. Well, off to teach class!
BR
Some enterprising reporter needs to ask dear leader something like “why did you change the medications you’re taking?” or “are you going to ask your doctor to up your dosage so that you can do long rallies again like you used to last year?” He’s not quick enough on his feet to reject the premise of the question and will get flustered, and it will inject an important question into the mainstream discourse.
Requires some guts but some reporter has got to have some guts left, right?
Boris Rasputin (the evil twin)
@BR: You’re new here, yes?
Daoud bin Daoud
As a card-carrying member of the People’s Leopards Eating Other People’s Faces Party, I detest the Leopards Eating People’s Faces Party. SPLITTERS!!!
Gin & Tonic
@BR: No. SATSQ.
dww44
Thanks for this post. I actually came here to see if any of the BJ commentariat were readers at the Medium site, which I find increasingly problematical, nothwithstanding that they’ve put themselves behind a pay wall. I’ve decided they are a site for cranks and others of that ilk. Am I wrong? or am I close-minded?
From today’s email newsletter is this story titled
BR
@Boris Rasputin (the evil twin):
Sadly no…been here for almost 15 years. But I can wish, right?
MJS
To Max, Rick Wilson, and all the other Never Trumpers (but who used to be staunch GOP uber alles) – thank you for now seeing what every single Democrat saw from Day One – that Trump was an abomination who should never have access to power. Your utility to Democrats begins and ends with whatever variation of “I used to be a Republican, and Trump is a nightmare who should not be re-elected” you can come up with. What we aren’t seeking is, “Here is how you beat Trump” or “Democrats need to do X because, as a former Republican, I know what this country wants.” You don’t know. If you did, we wouldn’t be having this conversation, because he would have been defeated in the Republican primary in 2016. The people who delivered the House in 2018, and Virginia, Louisiana, and Kentucky in 2019 know what they’re doing. By all means, keep ripping into Trump. It does help. But you’ll excuse us if we ignore the people who set the stage for Trump when they tell us how to get rid of Trump.
MisterForkbeard
@dww44: Medium has basically ALWAYS been a site for cranks and/or livejournalling :)
It also gets used by some political campaigns to post their own op-eds. So it’s marginally useful.
ETA: And yes, the article you cited is pretty normal for what happens in a LOT of the Bernie Sanders wing of the party. It’s what makes me despair if he wins the nomination – his followers are super factionalized and have made Democrats into the enemy, rather than being just friendly rivals for the nomination. Getting unity out of these folks is going to be hard.
schrodingers_cat
@dww44: I am scared of both and want neither.
The Moar You Know
My poor wife recently had a student of hers, who when called out on her appalling behavior towards her fellow classmates, tell her and the entire class haughtily that she could do anything she wanted as she was a Christian and God had already forgiven her for everything.
She absolutely embodied this. She DESERVED to do anything she wanted and she DESERVED to be a good person.
People like this terrify me.
Also, this incident played a major part in why my wife no longer teaches high school. It was literally one of the very last straws for her.
zhena gogolia
Sorry, but Max isn’t wrong.
smintheus
@MJS: Just because they can offer really bad advice on foreign policy doesn’t mean their advice on electoral politics is really good. Strange that that would even need to be pointed out to them.
Also, this is an unconvincing argument even when coming from genuine Democrats: ‘The Party needs to choose a nominee who reflects my own personal preferences otherwise the election is lost.’
bjacques
@MJS:
“Your utility to Democrats begins and ends with some variation of ‘here are some recordings/ emails / documents and other oppo research on my former buddies’. To paraphrase Brad Pitt: you’re starting in debt. You owe us 100 GOP scalps (figuratively speaking). ”
If you want to cop a plea, you’d better have something the DA wants.
schrodingers_cat
@zhena gogolia: I have to agree with this. Never T Rs are making more sense than BS or die “progressives”
Boris Rasputin (the evil twin)
@BR: We’re in the same group, always chasing rainbows…
Kent
McLaughlin does have a point.
Bloomberg has been a Democrat for a LOT LOT longer than Bernie Sanders has been a Democrat.
BR
@bjacques:
That’s the best argument I’ve seen on how to handle the ex-GOPers to date.
Hildebrand
@dww44: The biggest flaw in their argument is that there won’t be a Sanders presidency. He will get waxed in the general.
I am not afraid of Bernie, I am afraid because of Bernie being anywhere within shouting distance of the nomination. A near-octogenarian with a very recent heart attack and a dodgy track record of governing with anything resembling success is not a great look as the head of the party (which he won’t bloody well join).
I want Trump and Trumpism defeated with great vigor – Bernie is not going to make that happen.
Barbara
Sometimes it seems like there is only one absolute requirement for being a Washington guru, whether part of a think tank, in government, or writing op-eds, and that is never actually having to examine your soul to understand how you could have been so disastrously wrong and why anyone in their right mind should ever listen to you again. I would point to a perfect example of this in Max Boot’s defense of Elliot Abrams in a hearing over whether he should be appointed as some kind of foreign policy guru for handling Venezuela.
Here is the link. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/02/14/why-ilhan-omars-botched-interrogation-elliott-abrams-got-just-about-everything-wrong/
You really should read the comments.
Jinchi
I think it’s funny that Max includes Bloomberg in the list of those “still standing” The guy hasn’t even gotten up yet.
Benw
Just vote for one of the leopards whose name starts with a B!
Biden, Bernie, Buttigieg, Beth, ‘Buchar, Bloomberg …
and Baud!
frosty
@MJS:
Yes, that’s it exactly!
MattF
It helps to have some practice in rebutting really nutso theories. I recall a lunchtime conversation with a guy who claimed that the Russians were about to launch a naval invasion of Afghanistan. Guy later disappeared after a sexual harassment complaint.
smintheus
@Kent: A couple years ago Bloomberg was spending millions to back the election of Republicans in the Senate. He helped to foist Toomey on us again.
MisterForkbeard
@zhena gogolia: I think I agree. There are more people voting for ‘moderates’ (and I hate calling them that, because they’re still very liberal compared to mainstream candidates 10 years ago) than for ‘progressive’ candidates.
If Buttigieg, Bloomberg, Biden, or Klobuchar united behind a single candidate then they’d win hands down. But there’s significant problems with all of them. If Biden was energetic or a good campaigner he’d be the natural choice, but he isn’t.
The moderate wing of the party unfortunately lost some of its better positioned candidates awhile ago (Inslee, Harris, etc.). Though if they couldn’t get attention then, no reason to think they’ll do it now.
Mandalay
@dww44:
I’ve found good stuff and bad stuff on medium, but that is probably based on how much I agree with the author rather than the quality of their writing. But their business model is doomed. Folks aren’t going to register and subscribe to read shit from cranks and anonymous amateurs (at least as long as sites like this are around).
But the author you cite has written other articles titled “Period Oral Sex Guide: Your Guide to an Amazing and (Relatively) Mess-Free Experience” and “Big Butt Problems: No, My Prodigious Rump Doesn’t Mean I’m Sexually Available“.
It’s probably worth the subscription just to read those pearls of wisdom.
rp
Stupid thread (and the baseball crank is a complete moron). Boot’s comment is hardly unreasonable, and we should welcome former republicans instead of treating them with disdain.
sdhays
@Jinchi: It’s less funny when we’ll find out how much he’s going to stand on Super Tuesday. I’m terrified of Bloomberg because he’s personally a bad person who is trying to avoid vetting and accountability by jumping in with his fortune at the very last minute and would be a crap candidate and President, and also that his entrance into the race further distracts and splinters the larger, more moderate/pragmatic voters in the party, making a Sanders nomination more likely.
I really, really hope he fizzles very early, and stays fizzled.
schrodingers_cat
OT Beautiful animated tribute to the women of Shaheen bagh in Delhi who have been protesting against the Hindu fundamentalist government since December 15th, an indefinite sit-in protest that has spawned many more across the nation. They have been ridiculed, and shot at. Delhi has seen record cold weather this winter
Hum Dekhenge : We shall See (By Faiz Ahmed Faiz)
Azaadi : Freedom
Kent
@The Moar You Know: Wow. I taught HS for a decade in the Baptist heartland of Waco TX and never encountered this sort of thing in a student before. Usually it is more subtle. Like all the members of a certain mega-church youth group wearing matching green t-shirts on a given day so show everyone in school who is part of the in-group and who is not.
Jinchi
@MisterForkbeard: I think Biden’s candidacy smothered most of the moderate candidates before they had a chance to establish themselves. He was branded as the inevitable nominee for so long that there was no oxygen for others to thrive.
Betty Cracker
I utterly despise the Baseball Head guy, but his both-sidesy tweet above may contain a kernel of truth that is contradictory in a hyper-polarized political world: politicians and voters seem less attached to either of our two parties as “brands” that mean certain things, e.g., civil rights and working people’s financial interests on the Dem side and social and fiscal conservatism on the Rep side.
Over the past few decades, starting with Reagan and the rise of white evangelicals as the primary force within that party, I’ve watched Republican politics become unmoored from original principles and evolve into an organization that is all about exercising raw power over its enemies.
If someone like Bloomberg captures the nomination, I’ll see it as a sign that Democrats are adopting that framing under the stress of the Trump area. We’ll be drawn into the Mothra vs. Godzilla dynamic, perhaps irretrievably.
Kent
@smintheus: I’m aware of all of this. Doesn’t negate the fact that he has been a Democrat longer than Sanders.
Barbara
@rp: It depends. If you follow the link I provided above to Boot’s defense of Abrams, you will see that he is still at heart a neocon who has never really reconsidered the disasters that were unleashed by him and other neocons. So yes, it’s good that he sees Trump as a disaster and a bridge too far, and to be fair, Rick Wilson and Boot never supported Trump, along with Rubin and Anna Navarro. However, he still has a history that is deeply inimical to what I consider to be Democratic values. It’s not clear to me that he won’t jump ship and swim right back after Trump leaves the scene. So maybe disdain isn’t the right reaction, but a certain amount of skepticism is clearly in order.
jeffreyw
@Gin & Tonic:
He’s the very best boot that German engineering produced during the late unpleasantness.
schrodingers_cat
@Barbara: He probably will. Jen Rubin’s conversion will likely stick but who knows, hum dekhenge.
rp
@Barbara: Of course…not saying he’s a good guy. But dumping on him now gains us nothing. This is like Sanders supporters attacking everyone who doesn’t agree with them 100%. It’s counterproductive.
Mandalay
@MisterForkbeard:
Isn’t that what is probably going to happen anyway? If Biden fades and folds (which is not certain but seems increasingly likely) then Buttigieg, Bloomberg and Klobuchar duke it out. Bloomberg has already committed to providing full support to whoever get the nomination.
Then it becomes a contest between the winning “moderate” and Sanders and/or Warren.
I’ve (literally) got my money on Bloomberg, but I can see any of Buttigieg, Bloomberg and Klobuchar getting the nomination. Biden not so much.
Jinchi
@sdhays: Agreed. Whoever is on top after Super Tuesday is the likely nominee. If Bloombergs bet pays off it will be too late to knock him off. He’ll have bought the nomination without ever needing to face an actual vetting.
I think his odds are about 1 in 50 but that’s not bad when the reward is becoming leader of the Western World.
Barbara
@Mandalay: Between those three, I am with Amy all the way.
germy
FelonyGovt
@dww44: I’m seeing a lot of this working from my few Bernie-crazy friends: “Why is the Democratic Party so scared of Bernie?” We’re not scared, we just don’t like him and don’t think he can win or govern.
germy
I’m just concerned about all the staff at facial reconstruction clinics who’ll lose their jobs if we abandon the Leopards.
hueyplong
Shorter “converted” GOPer:
OMG, Trump is a threat. Here is my list of demands….
Hoodie
@Jinchi: Yeah, but maybe they should have taken that into account and either found a way to raise mega money or at least not pissed away their limited resources before Biden started to slide and they could take advantage of it?
A lot of commentary I see is along the lines of “candidate X would have been so great, but no one paid attention to them.” A sizable part of this process is Darwinian selection. You run too slow, you get eaten. Republicans seem to understand this more instinctively than Democrats.
My problem with what Boot says is that he really doesn’t get the Democratic Party, probably because he’s never been a Democrat. Bloomberg, Buttagieg and Klobuchar are all candidates that would be acceptable to one degree or another to centrists types in either party, but they’re not the same breed of cat. Bloomberg is kind of a Democrat by convenience, and he does share some significant goals (gun regulation, climate change) with Democrats, and he’s not an incompetent nutjob like Trump. Buttagieg is largely an unknown, and doesn’t yet have a lot of party validators – yet. Klobuchar is a generally a solid down the line, traditional liberal Democrat with a track record of being so. Yes, you can complain about her individual stances on judges, her actions as Hennepin Co. attorney, etc., but I don’t think anyone would question whether she’s a Democrat. Would Harris or Booker been better? Maybe, but they sure sucked in campaigning.
patrick Il
@sdhays:
I think Bloomberg has the same fear as many have stated in comments here– that Bernie will win the nomination and lose the election. I will take Bloomberg’s Chances against Trump over Bernie’s. I am strongly for Warren, but beating Trump is first
Frankensteinbeck
@Mandalay:
Shifts in polling and the Iowa results have shown that Warren supporters are in the same group as the moderates, and do not go to Sanders when they leave her. Her policies may be more left than the others, but in purely political process terms she and Sanders are not on the same side.
Joey Maloney
@rp: I welcome his vote. His opinions are still worthy of disdain. At best.
artem1s
@MisterForkbeard:
Take it from someone who lives in Kucinish’s old district, getting unity out of these folks is going to be impossible. They are perpetual, malignant Eeyore’s. they live to spoil everyone’s party.
Kelly
Willie Nelson’s drummer and oldest friend Paul English passed away. He was the Paul in Me and Paul.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uSFw165Qk0
https://www.oxfordamerican.org/magazine/item/463-watching-willie-s-back
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
You guys are going to see very little of me for the foreseeable future. I have reverted to a good old-fashioned flip phone, and I will be avoiding social media, news obsessions, financial reporting, checking my bank balances, reviewing credit card activity, monitoring my emails, checking my card processors for payments and monitoring my credit score like the plague.
These things are a thousand points of anxiety in a day, and really detract from my enjoyment of my life and my important personal relationships.
I say all of this in the certain knowledge that one of the things driving me away from all of these points of anxiety is that Bernie Sanders will never be POTUS, and if nominated, he will be the George McGovern of a new era. I also say this knowing that this economy is an utter sham, teetering on a precipice. Why not follow it, then? Simple – I can’t do a single thing to prevent the calamities to come.
So I may drop in from time to time, but in the interim, I’m going to try to live my best life. It isn’t quite “So Long and Thanks for All the Fish” time, but its damned close to it.
Ohio Mom
My state goes after Super Tuesday. As things look now, I’ll be voting for whoever looks like they can beat Bernie, saying a little prayer of forgiveness to the god who represents Warren.
It would be a weird feeling voting for some of them. Bloomberg for example is not for example iny self-concept of me as a voter. I’ll probably be crying as I color that square in.
Kent
@artem1s: Yes, being back on the west coast after a decade in Texas has been an eye opener. Watching first hand the leftist fringe eat its own in Portland municipal politics and also up in Seattle has been an eye opener after Texas where being Democrat just meant you were basically a sane good government type and not a frothing Evangelical anti-choice racist.
I don’t remember it being quite so extreme back in the 90s. I know they aren’t necessary the same folks as the Bernie bots but there is a lot of crossover. For example, I can probably guess without looking that folks like Kshama Sawant up in Seattle are going to go all in for Bernie cause that’s who they are. People like her in a city like Seattle spend their entire political careers running against more normal Democrats because that is what the political spectrum is in a city like Seattle where there are basically no Republicans at the local level. But those politics don’t translate to national elections at all.
zhena gogolia
@schrodingers_cat:
Yes. What we’re on the edge of is not a progressive paradise. What we’re on the edge of is a dictatorship. We need to start acting that way. Sanders cannot beat Trump. The fact that Trump said complacently yesterday that it looks as if he’ll be his opponent should tell you something. The fact that the MSM is also pushing BS should tell you something.
Barbara
@rp: Here is what upsets me most about Rubin, Boot, William Kristol and the whole neocon crew. They absolutely saw Trump for what he is (at least partly, anyway), the appeal to authoritarianism, the disdain for the rule of law, the anti-immigrant and anti-semitic blaming and shaming. They know what that looks like because they spend a lot of time following foreign politics. They are horrified that what they see elsewhere might crawl onto our shores. Okay, so far so good. But JFC, what about the US foreign policy actions they advocated that undermined civic society in other nations and made their people subject to rulers even worse than Trump because they were willing to do our bidding? I get that foreign policy can’t always be based on the heart, but there seems to be complete refusal to acknowledge the consequences or even the trade offs of, let’s say, enabling Saudi Arabia.
Wapiti
@Hoodie: A sizable part of this process is Darwinian selection. You run too slow, you get eaten. Republicans seem to understand this more instinctively than Democrats.
Do they, really? 2016 showed us a wide field of Repubs staring at Trump as he savaged each in turn. They made pitiful mouth noises, but each hoped that someone else would deal with him.
Baud
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
Take care of yourself. Drop in on the respite threads.
mrmoshpotato
@MJS:
Thank you. Creators of the monster factory don’t get to tell us how to rid ourselves of the monster they created.
Mnemosyne
@frosty:
I mean, I can see that they may have some utility in helping us figure out how to pitch a Democratic nominee to their fellow Never Trumpers and how to game the media to our benefit, but that’s about it, really. They don’t really understand what drives Democratic voters.
Wapiti
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: I hear you, and wish you success in this approach. (I’ve cut out other things but kept balloon juice)
Mnemosyne
And, yeah, if you had told me in 2005 that Max Boot of all people would be like, Holy shit, we need to get rid of this terrible Republican president! I would have told you to pull the other one.
Percysowner
So, after the last debate I was feeling more kindly toward Klobuchar, then she does this Amy Klobuchar feeds trolls with pro-life ‘big tent’ talk
Lady, I have a 2 year old granddaughter, I don’t need you throwing her rights away and giving the Right to Lifers more talking points, JEEZE. And BTW, no one has talked about throwing anti-choice Democrats out of the party, only that the party isn’t going to kowtow to their particular viewpoint.
Jeffro
@MJS: well-put – thank you!
copying and reposting this far and wide
dww44
@Jinchi: Steve at NMMNG blog had a post the other day that directly addressed whether we/Democrats would be in a better place now if Biden had not chosen to run. From the get-go my impression was that Biden wasn’t sure he actually wanted to run. I suspect he knew and knows that perhaps the opportunity had passed him by, but his ego and others telling him he had to enter to save us all from Trump won the day.
AliceBlue
@zhena gogolia: I lurk here 99% of the time, but I want to say that I’m absolutely on the same wavelength as you and schrodinger’s cat. Both of you state the same things I’m thinking, but in a much better way than me. Thanks to you both.
zhena gogolia
@AliceBlue:
Thank you!
Geminid
@Kent: I think the California system of “jungle primaries” ameliorates polarization in politics. In very red districts, the more moderate of two Republicans can win with Democratic support in the runoff. Vice versa in the very blue districts. Change may come slower through “purple” politics, but it lasts longer because there is consensus behind it.
Mrs. D. Ranged in AZ
@Hoodie: Except you’re ignoring the very obvious bias of the media. Some candidates simply aren’t getting equal coverage. Look at the way they treated the only two females left. They only included part of Klobuchar’s NH speech and cut to go live to hear Biden’s who’d decamped to SC before NH had even voted. AND they didn’t even cover Warren’s speech, IIRC, even though she received more votes than Biden in NH. So it’s not just a matter of who “sucks at campaigning”. There’s a built in bias that has a remarkable effect. And then there’s the money for advertising….so many factors that come into play.
laura
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: via con dios! Self care brother, self care. Will miss your comments and wish you well.
Mnemosyne
@Frankensteinbeck:
The really tricky part is that Sanders’ supporters don’t seem to see Warren as being on the same side, either, so they’re not going to turn out to vote for her if she gets the nomination over him. You know, what with her being a ? and all …
sdhays
@patrick Il: I think Bloomberg (and Biden, to be honest), have made Bernie more likely to be the nominee.
Zinsky
I think it is time to start making citizens arrests. If you see Bill Barr in public, tackle him and call 911. When the police arrive, tell them the Department of Justice is lawless and needs to be reined in by the people. They will probably take you to jail but it is worth it to make a point. I would gladly spend a night in jail to get Fatass Barr in a hammerlock! If enough people start getting physical with these assholes maybe they will get the message that the American people are not going to tolerate them any more. Every member of the Trump Administration and every Republican Senator needs to be body-slammed to the pavement and held until law enforcement arrives.
hitchhiker
I’m anxious about the aftermath if Bernie loses the nomination, because he doesn’t seem to know (or care?) that his behavior in that instance would become the single most important factor in the general election.
His cult will follow his lead. Dog forbid if he loses to Bloomberg … can you imagine? He’d be out there spitting fury at trump’s opponent, unable to stop himself. If it’s anybody else, he’ll do the same sort of grudging, “whatever” support he offered to Hillary. The self-righteousness of the man could actually push us all into trump’s 2nd term.
Equally, I’m anxious if he does win the nomination, because I don’t think his health will hold out. And what then? On the ballot will be trump, insane & malevolent, plus Bernie, aging & debilitated.
These are my middle of the night anxieties. Probably something completely different will happen, but whatever it will be feels completely out of control — scariest thing of all.
Mrs. D. Ranged in AZ
@Zinsky: You deserve the Pie Treatment methinks. Advocating for physical violence is absurd. It’s not like Trump is rounding us up and sending us to gulags fer crying out loud.
schrodingers_cat
@zhena gogolia: The debate over the minutiae of health care policy in every fucking Dem debate was unreal. Some D (say Kamala or Elizabeth W) should have shut it down saying that we have more important things to discuss we already discussed this in the last debate. So many of our good candidates rushing to hug the idiotic M4A purity test floated by BS was a mistake.
I would look at them and which world do these people live in. It must not be the world where the Orange King is flouting every democratic and institutional norm.
BTW did you see NP’s press conference, it was great. She called the Orange King, the aberration in the WH.
Emma from FL
@rp: If Sanders is the Democratic candidate I will vote for him, and thank God I vote by mail so I can quietly throw up later; nothing is more important than getting the maniac out. However, that does not extend to playing kissy-face with the Bernistas. They have already proven that their biggest goal is the destruction of the Democratic party. I don’t see why I should help them.
artem1s
I’ve been wondering if he’s mostly in it to help raise big money for the party to eventually spread down ticket. At the very least, I trust him to help other candidates and not gobble up the whole bankroll for himself. None of the other white guys seem inclined to think about the coattails factor and what their candidacy means to the Senate and House races.
satby
Fair Economist dropped a 1/2 truth in this morning’s thread that my answer to will be overlooked, so here it is. Context is key.
sdhays
Haha, yeah. You’ll just need to spend a night jail. //
zhena gogolia
@schrodingers_cat:
No, I didn’t see it. I have so much work to do! I’ll have to catch it later.
schrodingers_cat
@zhena gogolia: I so wish someone with her political skills and moral clarity and spine was running for president.
ETA: I follow NP on Twitter that’s where I saw it.
burnspbesq
@dww44:
The only thing worse than Medium is Jacobin.
Oh, and the Intercept. Can’t forget about that shitshow.
schrodingers_cat
@burnspbesq: Now BS supporters are tweeting guillotines, as if calling themselves Jacobins was not enough to give us a hint.
The Moar You Know
@Geminid: Reality intrudes: this has never happened in CA. Not once. The more-insane frothing winger wins those districts every time
Why? Oh so simple. Dems don’t vote for Republicans, moderate or not. Nor should they. I won’t, and I have faced that decision a lot here in San Diego (we’re quite purple).
Kent
What you get in places like Portland and Seattle is a left wing that runs against a centrist business-friendly mainstream Democratic wing. There is no GOP at the local level. In Seattle, Councilwoman Kshama Sawant would be an example of the former and Mayor Jenny Durkin (a former US Attorney) is an example of the latter. I think a large number of Bernie’s most loyal and extreme followers come out of this sort of environment where Republicans are completely irrelevant and the political enemy in every election are the centrist business-friendly Democrats.
When these folks jump from local politics to national politics they carry these same biases and political philosophy with them. Bernie is the true believer and all the others, including Elizabeth Warren are the centrist sell-outs that they have been battling their entire political lives. Unfortunately this political framing doesn’t really scale up beyond the blue cores of a couple of dozen major cities and college towns. Beyond those borders, Klobuchar, Harris, Biden, etc. are not centrist sellouts but actually solidly on the left size of the American political spectrum. And it isn’t going to win in WI, MI, and PA.
glory b
@smintheus: While I don’t doubt Bloomberg’s assist to Toomey, I still say there was something fishy about the 2016 elections in PA.
The Moar You Know
@Zinsky: And then you can enjoy a lifetime of having to check the box on the job application that says “I’m a convicted felon” and being deposed for the civil lawsuit that the guy who you slammed to the pavement WILL win.
You’re a fucking moron. You sound exactly like the concealed carry guys I know who just think about shooting a bad guy, and forget that there are serious criminal and civil consequences for doing so, even if it’s 100% justified.
burnspbesq
@Kent:
Your post-Waco PTSD is apparent, and apparently incurable. It’s typical of ex-Wacoites of all shapes and sizes, and particularly bad in Baylor students and alumni.
Mnemosyne
@schrodingers_cat:
Yep — that was a huge mistake by both Harris and Warren. All it did was enrage the Berniebros for being copycats and give the MSM an opportunity to pounce and demand actual numbers.
M4A is a trap, not a policy
schrodingers_cat
@Kent: Is this the same Kshama Sawant who passed a resolution against NRC-CAA in the Seattle Council?
kindness
I read the WaPo so I do read Max Boot & Jennifer Rubin. As far as I’m concerned they are still Republicans, they just don’t want to support fascists. So I complain that all they write about is Democratic policies/people/candidates.
If they really wanted to provide a service they would write about Republicans and allow a moderate or (God forbid!) a Democrat to write about Democrats.
gene108
@MisterForkbeard:
They also do not believe a lot of rank and file Democrats actually hold a grudge against Bernie, from 2016, for refusing to drop out after Super Tuesday, and then going negative on Sec. Clinton.
They seem to think all the bridge building has to come from Democrats to appease Bernie, and not the other way around.
I don’t think they will every understand this, and it will be to their determent in the general, because the folks they need to canvas, phone bank, etc., aren’t going to do it for Bernie.
glory b
@Betty Cracker: I was reading Rachel Bitecofer’s twitter remarks. She said we should understand the parties as the Crips and the Bloods, no crossover, all in for one or the other.
danielx
@Hildebrand:
This.
If by some twist of fate Bernie ends up the Dem nominee I will vote for him, stomach in knots the whole time.
However, a lot of people won’t. Bernie will get his ass handed to him in 49 out of 50 states.
bemused
@The Moar You Know:
The kid will get a job in Republican hellish world, no problem.
Mohagan
@Frankensteinbeck: My husband and I are big SPW supporters, but while he was for BS last time, I dislike Bernie for a number of reasons (shouty old white man who has never been legislatively effective etc.) and if Elizabeth dropped out, would migrate naturally to Amy, although her midwest schtick is annoying to this N Californian. But Elizabeth is a fighter and not folding any time soon I think.
FelonyGovt
@gene108: Exactly. If Bernie is the nominee I will grudgingly vote for him, but will concentrate my volunteer efforts on other important races (like the Senate in Arizona).
Cacti
They’ve also been spewing their venom at the Nevada culinary workers union for daring to voice criticism of the chosen one’s M4A plan. To the extent that the union issued an official “take a seat and STFU” response, and even Wilmer himself had to make a public statement trying to mend fences.
These people are so going to McGovern the election if they get their way.
Ruckus
@rp:
He’s not looking for a welcome, he’s looking for a seat at the big boy table, and all the voice and power he can get, all the while plotting how to get back to the level he once had. A welcome is OK, a high level voice in the party that not long ago he was tryin to destroy is not.
Geoboy
@Mrs. D. Ranged in AZ: Regarding your comment ” It’s not like Trump is rounding us up and sending us to gulags fer crying out loud.”, there are some toddlers in cages in El Paso drinking out of toilets who would like to have a word with you.
Cacti
@FelonyGovt: If Wilmer is the nominee, McSally will hold that Senate seat, as Mark Kelly will have to spend the race running away from the Dem nominee.
schrodingers_cat
@Cacti: And all this before they have any actual power. Can you imagine if they do manage to win what a BS administration will be like. How many purges and reigns of terror will they unleash?
burnspbesq
@Mrs. D. Ranged in AZ:
If he ever gets the chance, he most assuredly will.
Zinsky
Trump and the far right will have no problem taking down democracy and installing a fascist plutocracy. Gutless liberals won’t do a damn thing to resist other than type a few bitingly sarcastic posts on blogs like this one. People should have been in the streets by the millions after the eunuchs in the Senate voted to acquit the Mango Mussolini. I was out there and a few thousand other patriots. It’s Game Over, folks. Liberals are too chickenshit to fight back.
PJ
@Kelly: If I were a smoker, I’d light a fat one for Paul. But I’m not, so I’ll raise a whiskey tonight instead.
MomSense
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
Good for you. Take care of yourself and say hello from time to time.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I don’t read Max Boot regularly, but among all the never-trumpers he’s the only one I’ve heard who is willing to acknowledge the role race played in pre-trump Republican rhetoric.
He did a podcast with Ana Marie Cox a year or so ago, and she kept berating him for his support of the Iraq War, no matter how many times he admitted he was wrong. Cox still defends her vote for Ralph Nader in 2000.
PJ
@dww44: If Biden had not run, for all of last year Trump would have had Giuliani manufacturing dirt on whomever the front runner was. Query whether it was better for Biden to act as the lightning rod rather than someone else.
burnspbesq
@Emma from FL:
Yup. I will vote absentee before leaving on my house-hunting trip to Dublin.
Lapassionara
@Quinerly: Are you still traveling?
Emma from FL
@burnspbesq: Merida for me. Got relatives there to help ease the transition.
Kent
@schrodingers_cat:@Kent: Is this the same Kshama Sawant who passed a resolution against NRC-CAA in the Seattle Council?
She is a famous socialist on the Seattle city council. Bernie-like in that she gets along with no one and no one gets along with her:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kshama_Sawant
I don’t know the answer to your specific question thought but it wouldn’t surprise me. She is of Indian heritage, from Mumbai and immigrated to the US as a software engineer and academic before recently gaining US citizenship.
Barbara
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: I am not quite there but there are days and weekends when I definitely feel that way. God grant me the serenity, etc.
Mnemosyne
@glory b:
I agree with you, FWIW.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Cacti: I could write the commercials for Collins, Ernst and Tillis myself. We all could.
Chris Hayes has been annoying the hell out of me over the last few days with his “do all voters think they’re political scientists now?” schtick about people talking about the effect of the nominee on down-ticket races. You don’t have to be fucking de Tocqueville to predict that Bernie Sanders isn’t gonna play well in Arizona. And it isn’t just randos on the internet worried about it, it’s the people who actually live, and got elected, in the states and CDs we’re talking about. Maybe, just maybe, Lauren Underwood and Connor Lamb have a better sense of their voters than the Eternal Grad Student of Park Slope.
Mr. Mack
@The Moar You Know: Not sure how to do this…but I see you are in the San Diego area…visiting in June and was hoping to find a local for some tips. How can we interact so as not to hijack a thread?
chopper
@Zinsky:
“probably”?
“a night”?
schrodingers_cat
@Kent: I think its the same woman. Thanks.
burnspbesq
@Cacti:
Cool. Let the Wilmerites alienate the biggest player in Nevada Democratic politics even further. Those folks fought for decades to get their super-duper health benefits. Why should they give them up in favor of Charlie Foxtrot?
Chyron HR
@chopper:
Yeah man, that’s what the man does in all the Cheech & Chong documentaries, man.
The Moar You Know
@Mr. Mack: Hijack the thread, this one’s getting pretty long anyhow. No other way to get hold of me but through here and that’s how I’m keeping it. What do you need tips on (other that June can vary between overcast and blasting hot so bring all kinds of clothes)?
tobie
In an ideal world, I’d be casting a vote for Adam Schiff. He has everything I want in a President: brilliance, ethics and a deep knowledge of govt, law, history and policy, and he is one of the two most gifted orators I’ve heard in my lifetime. The other is Obama. But we don’t live in an ideal world and we don’t have a candidate running with unusual rhetorical talent, so I’m basing my voting decision on who I think has the intelligence and tenacity to clean up Trump’s mess, put democracy on a solid footing, and realize certain policy objectives. That’s Klobuchar and Warren. I understand the Times split endorsement between ideologically different candidates. I’ve landed there.
Barbara
@glory b: Only if you consider misogyny to be fishy. There were five statewide offices. Five Male Republican candidates, Three male Democratic candidates and two female Democratic candidates. The three male Democrats won and the two female Democrats lost. Those were McGinty and Clinton. I have a hard time seeing it any other way.
Mr. Mack
@The Moar You Know: Ok, well, the plan is for us to stay at the Sycuan casino in El Cajon and go into the city for activities. (Room rates were ridiculous in town). So I’m wondering about that drive in from there, and we are looking for a place to maybe rent bikes or walk along a boardwalk. Balboa, possibly? We all feel that the zoo is a no-brainer, I was there 55 years ago as a kid, and have always wanted to go back. My kids are 24 and 22, if that helps.
Hoodie
@Mrs. D. Ranged in AZ: That’s part of the game. They’re like hyenas on the savannah, they’ll always be there to whine and howl and try to eat your young when you’re not looking. You have to figure a way to get them to eat someone else’s young. Obama somehow found a way to win even with all the media bullshit about Jeremiah Wright, Bill Ayers, his “aloofness”, etc. Just because someone wins doesn’t mean they don’t get shit from the media. Yeah, it’s often not fair, but you have to deal.
Barbara
@burnspbesq: The problem the M4A acolytes keep missing is that they see M4A from the perspective of people who have no insurance or serious impediments to using insurance, like high deductibles for people with chronic conditions, without considering that there are whole segments of the population where insurance is either not deemed to be per se the most important good (healthy people) or where people have really good insurance and would see M4A as a real loss — like the Culinary Union. And they don’t really understand what’s achievable as a compromise so that they can actually work with those people to come to a reasonably good solution. Even now, for instance, employers offer wraparound coverage to Medicare benefits for retirees. It’s a declining market to some extent, but it’s out there. There are a gazillion ways this could work without unduly antagonizing unions. (IMO, we have too many resources in health care spending, but that’s a different discussion.)
debbie
Was it Stuart Smiley (Al Franken) who said, “Because, gosh darn it, I am good enough!”?
Mnemosyne
@Zinsky:
Dude. Time to step away from the keyboard. Take a walk, hug your loved ones. There will be many more battles before November.
Redshift
@dww44: Yeah, I got on Medium to read technical stuff for work (which it’s okay for) and Phil Plait’s “Starts with a Bang” astronomy blog. My daily list that their algorithm picks for me is filled with crackpot science writing, so I’m never going to pay for it.
Soprano2
I listened to the Pod Save guys this morning, and I’m trying not to be in full-on panic mode. They seem to believe if Bernie gets a significant number of delegates in the next two states, it will be almost impossible for anyone else to catch up to or pass him since the delegates are awarded proportionally in every state. I feel like a Bernie nomination would mean a 40-state Electoral College loss for Democrats, because the word “socialist” is poison to so many people who don’t care if the word “Democratic” is in front of it or not. What happens after Trump’s people run all their ads about what a socialist president would do to America? I saw a tweet here yesterday saying that 53% of voters say they won’t vote for someone who is a socialist, and I can’t help but think that percentage is probably higher in the more conservative swing states we have to win to get Trump out of the WH. Damn all these people and their fucking big egos – all the centrists need to coalesce around a candidate right now, and the rest need to drop out, dammit, or we’re going to have the same problem the Republicans did in 2016!
Elizabelle
@Soprano2: Don’t listen to them. Maybe they’re right, maybe they’re not. What can YOU do from your living room?
Support the candidate of your choice, make phone calls and knock doors, and let the chips fall where they may.
Remember: the vast number of Americans have not voted yet. Just Iowa (ho ho ho) and New Hampshire, two very unrepresentative states.
the Conster
How’s this for reasonable discourse? I’m never voting for Bernie Sanders, ever. I’m not being taken hostage and rewarding his behavior and that of his cult of dipshits and angry dudebro incels. He’s not asking for my vote, doesn’t want it, doesn’t think he needs it so he’s on his own. When he loses 48 states, the House is lost and white *resisters* start disappearing, including probably myself as an Enemy of the State, as they take me away I will at least be able to shout I NEVER VOTED FOR ANY OF THIS.
Fuck that mediocre old fraud and his endless bullshit. And honestly, Jennifer Rubin is the only pundit that puts his feet to the fire. Everyone else is useless.
Mnemosyne
@Soprano2:
FWIW, the Pod Save guys haven’t been right about anything in this primary yet, so why would they start now?
I know that the Berniebros are trying to rush an “inevitable!” narrative, but I don’t think the voters are going to cooperate. They keep claiming that no one has won both Iowa and New Hampshire and then lost the primary but (A) I think only, like, one candidate has won both and (B) Sanders didn’t win Iowa, Buttigieg did.
It’s a long road to June. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
Elizabelle
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: Yea for you. That sounds sensible.
I did my first snorkeling ever on a recent vacation. Loved it.
Scuba is next.
Redshift
@rp:
Welcoming them is fine, it’s their endless opining that we should nominate someone who pleases them instead of who pleases Democrats that is deserving of disdain and mockery.
zhena gogolia
@kindness:
Rubin (and Boot as well, although I don’t read him as much) writes a LOT about Trump and his evils.
zhena gogolia
@chopper:
lol
zhena gogolia
@tobie:
The moment Schiff declared his candidacy people would be finding all kinds of things wrong with him.
On another topic, I feel very differently about Warren than Sanders. I also worry that she can’t beat Trump, but if she got the nomination I would have no qualms about going all out to support her.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Soprano2: @Mnemosyne:
I’m a fan, but, yeah. The O’Bros are all at least Bernie-curious, like Chris Hayes and an unfortunate number of Democrats this cycle, they’re having trouble distinguishing between the electorate we have and the one we wish we had. I hope everybody snaps out of it soon.
zhena gogolia
@Redshift:
I’ve been a Democrat all my life. Who pleases me is who can beat Trump. That category does not include Sanders.
catclub
This. I also realized that Sanders is least likely to name someone like Klobuchar, Harris, or Warren as VP nom.
And his VP choice might be MUCH more consequential than average.
While Tulsi is more likely from him.
mali muso
@Soprano2: You might check out Al Giordano’s take for another perspective. Here’s a snippet:
The Moar You Know
@Mr. Mack: That drive in and back is lengthy (35 miles each way) and some of the road is narrow. Definitely do the zoo. Balboa Park as well. All the museums are worthwhile. A personal favorite of mine there is the Reuben Fleet Space theater. Go down to Mission Bay, there are a slew of bike rental places, mostly near Belmont Park (which has a boardwalk as well, I think). Biking around Mission Bay is awesome, there’s miles of flat, concrete bike path (share nicely!) but check weather as oftentimes, the coast will be overcast and chilly while out east at Sycuan it will be hot, cloudless and sunny. Don’t cross the border. I used to recommend that, Mexico was awesome back in the day, but TJ hasn’t been safe for Americans, or anyone else, for over a decade now. The locals usually know how to get along there, but you’re not one.
Have fun!
ETA: you have a car. Call up a kayak rental place in La Jolla and go kayaking. The water is ice-cold here but kayaking is awesome.
Kay
@Barbara:
Too, the leadership of a union are not the rank and file. Some of the rank and file have already said they disagree with the union on this- they’re gathering signatures. If the leadership were the rank and file we could count on every union member in a D endorsing union to vote for the endorsed D, but that has never been true. My middle son’s IBEW local endorsed Biden and he never intended to vote for Biden, and won’t, in the primary although he would in the general. He simply thinks they’re wrong and should have waited.
Rob
Thank, Anne Laurie, for making me laugh on such a gloomy (cloudy & drizzly) day!
Gravenstone
@Soprano2: A reminder that Bernie doesn’t even have the delegate lead after the first two contests. I highly doubt he’s going to manage some uncontested burst of delegates in the next few contests to afford himself some manner of buffer. But if he does somehow manage it, you can put money on him and his surrogates bellowing about “inevitability” – which would be bitterly farcical in light of his bitter clinging on in 2016.
Shalimar
@Mr. Mack: The San Diego Zoo is terrific. When I lived there 20 years ago, I thought the Safari Park northeast of the city was even better.
Chyron HR
@Kay:
Ah, yes, of course, once Bernie has the neoliberal pigs running the union (and their neoliberal lackeys) beheaded, the real workers will be able to cast off the shackles of their false health insurance and embrace Medicare For All Except The People We’re Going To Behead Obviously.
Kay
Perhaps the part-timers, who have a less reliable health insurance plan.
Ksmiami
@The Moar You Know: it’s like I want the evangelicals to be raptured or go to heaven or whatever so they will leave the rest of us the fuck alone.
the Conster
@Kay:
Zaid Jilani is a huge Berniebro.
debbie
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
Do visit. A happy and serene Le Comte would be a vision indeed!
Ksmiami
@zhena gogolia: and I’m not worried about pissing of his bro supporters because they aren’t reliable voters anyway. he’s a fraud.
Shalimar
@Ksmiami: Half of them would refuse to go, just so they could stick around and tell the rest of us they were right.
debbie
@the Conster:
I feel the same, but I don’t know what to do if he is nominated.
Kay
@the Conster:
Right. Got it. That obviously completely negates the Google doc petition some members are circulating, the fact that that person tweeted it. What I said was the rank and file are not the leadership. That’s true.
Ksmiami
@the Conster: Come sit by me. I cannot vote Bernie ever
Tom Q
@Hoodie: “Would Harris or Booker been better? Maybe, but they sure sucked in campaigning.”
What they sucked at doing was getting black voters to leave Biden, without which their candidacies didn’t have a chance.
This is why it so galls me that Biden held off his electoral meltdown till after they were gone. Either of them would be the “acceptable to the mainstream of the party/young and vibrant/experienced” combo that no remaining candidate is. Instead, we’ve got a bunch of “this is why X/Y/Z can’t attract African-America votes” folks, who won’t be a natural fit for those voters if Biden fully collapses.
Shorter: Biden, on Barack-name association, hoarded the black vote in a year’s worth of polling, and boxed out better candidates who desperately needed it.
tobie
@zhena gogolia: I have no doubt that the GOP will smear any Democratic candidate. That’s what they do. They never give their base a reason to vote for them. They convince them to vote against someone else. I still wish we had a candidate who could deliver not just a rousing but a genuinely moving speech. I don’t see that.
Cacti
@Kay: Zaid Jilani works for The Intercept.
the Conster
@Ksmiami:
I will never understand anyone giving that misogynistic POS the time of day. He’s a FRAUD with a criminal wife who’s good at spending other people’s money, who does all the grifting behind his finger wagging purity low key racist shtick. That WHOLE FAMILY is TRASH.
Taobhan
It’s pretty irritating when the jabbering class, after electoral contests in two states (Iowa and New Hampshire) not very representative of the Democratic party’s base, declare: 1) the race over, 2) the top two candidates in those two contests are anointed to battle it out the rest of the way and 3) the rest of the field should just drop out and go home. It’s what disgusts me about the coverage of presidential campaigns and makes me turn off the TV, stop reading my newspaper, avoid campaign coverage on my computer and spend more quality time with my cats.
Denali
@Le Conte,
We always enjoy your contributions, but I totally understand your decision. I too am contemplating withdrawal from political social media, mainly because Trump and his supporters, media included, are so upsetting to me. As Kay so noted, this person has succeeded in taking down our most valued institutions as well as the rule of law. It is profoundly depressing.
Mr. Mack
I grew up in the San Gabriel Valley, I’m Hispanic and can speak passable Spanish. I actually got arrested in Tijuana last time I was there, so I now stay away. I hear ya though, it’s generally unsafe for non locals.
@Shalimar Thanks I’ll look it up!
Soprano2
Thanks to everyone who responded, it helps some. I know those guys have been a little “Bernie-curious”, and aren’t right about many things, but I don’t get the feeling that they’re big supporters of his, and they have a lot more experience with a campaign than I do. It seems that the problem would be that Bernie would have a plurality of the delegates, but not enough to actually win, and the other candidates would have many fewer than he did because they’re splitting the more-moderate voters while he’s getting all of the hard-left progressive votes. I think the worst outcome would be the contested or brokered convention, because you know that if Bernie didn’t win that, all of his supporters would throw a big shit fit and not vote for the Democrat – Bernie might even try a third-party write-in candidacy, and while there’s no way he could win that he could definitely fuck up the ballot in the swing states enough for Trump to win. I wish he would have graciously stayed out of it and given his blessing to a successor.
PJ
@Kay: That link goes to an article by Matt Bruenig, who is a complete Bernie Bro and online troll. I would be highly skeptical of anything he writes.
gwangung
Well, not if you’re white….
catclub
Huh? Would he be better or worse than Trump?
If better, vote for him. Now you know what to do.
Ksmiami
@the Conster: Perez should never have allowed him to run in our primary and I refuse to vote for him ever. He has not accomplished anything meaningful in his entire career
cckids
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
They’re way more ok with Bernie than I ever expected; they keep talking about what a nice guy he is (?) But they also, repeatedly, ask why none of the other candidates is really going after him.
They never, that I’ve heard, talk about the way Bernie’s people just viciously attack anyone who even disagrees with him, which leads to the Twit-obsessed media covering that to the exclusion of anything else.
It’s happened to Warren and to Biden. The rose Twitter people are a force for division and frankly, evil. I have no idea how to get past them.
catclub
schrodingers_cat
tam1MI
My sentiments exactly.
Geminid
@The Moar You Know: probably a dead thread now, but didn’t Feinstein win her last election against a “progressive” democrat, with Republican support?
PJ
@catclub: Buttigieg is the front-runner by the only crucial measure, delegates, but he’s mostly ignored by the media. I’m not sure why this is, but one thing I’ve noticed is that most journalists seem to be heavily invested in Twitter, which is swarmed by Bernie supporters, and which features very few Buttigieg supporters (i.e., people who have other things to do with their time than spend it on Twitter.) Being terminally online, as most journalists are, seems to heavily skew their impression of what is going on in the world and what is important to people in general.
Chyron HR
@Kay:
I guess they’re going to feel like silly billies when they find out that the revolution’s official response to the union’s concerns was “Bernie’s not going to fulfill his campaign promises, those are just lies he tells to get elected.”
the Conster
@Chyron HR:
One of the Berniejournobros already gave the whole game away earlier today by telling the culinary union not to worry about their healthcare going away, Sanders wouldn’t get it done anyway. With Sanders, there is never any there, there. Why does anyone want smoke blown up their ass?
Ruckus
@Hoodie:
Harris and Booker as well didn’t suck at campaigning as much as suck at getting media attention and at starting actual campaigning far earlier than normal. That first part seems to be based upon the color of their skin. Warren is getting the same treatment because she is a real contender. And a woman.
Even on BJ people are, after two “contests,” completely discounting her. It’s BULLSHIT. The relative size and makeup of those states, that one had a rather crappy caucus, should never be taken as a 100% indication of the rest of the country.
Mrs. D. Ranged in AZ
@Geoboy: I KNEW someone would come back with the “kids in cages” comment. I said “us”, meaning most of the white, middle class commenters on this site, to whom I belong. Even so I would not encourage the Hispanic families to engage in violence at the border because it would ruin any and all chances to obtain asylum. We still have a legal system, albeit unfair and tilted in the Orange An*ses behalf. My point is that we aren’t at the “it’s time to rise up in armed resurrection stage” YET.
@burnspbesq: I completely agree. He would round us up like cattle for the slaughter if he thought he could get away with it.
@Hoodie: Except it’s not a game. It’s deadly serious. And telling women they just need to figure out a way to win without addressing the structural bias that exists in our culture and systems is like telling African Americans they just need a find a way to get around racism without addressing that stuff. I’m heartily sick of white men telling me that I need to be 1) patient (and therefore quiet) while I wait for structural change or 2) expect women to be exceptional in order to overcome the bias.
Omnes Omnibus
@Zinsky: Go blow a goat.*
* Assuming a dipshit like you can find a consenting goat. Otherwise, go fuck yourself.
Kay
@Cacti:
It’s a Google doc of members. Are you saying he forged it?
The members don’t have to follow the leadership, nor do they always follow the leadership. These members are not following the leadership. Conflating “the leadership” with the views of all 60,000 members is incorrect. It’s wrong.
Daoud bin Daoud
@dww44: Yeah, I’ve been getting a Bernie Bro leftier-than-thou vibe from Medium for some time now.