Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

You can’t love your country only when you win.

Come on, media. you have one job. start doing it.

These days, even the boring Republicans are nuts.

Never give a known liar the benefit of the doubt.

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

The gop is a fucking disgrace.

This country desperately needs a functioning Fourth Estate.

President Biden is doing good where he can, and getting it done.

Meanwhile over at truth Social, the former president is busy confessing to crimes.

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

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

I like you, you’re my kind of trouble.

Sadly, media malpractice has become standard practice.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

The real work of an opposition party is to oppose.

Alternative history is always a weak argument. Always.

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

DeSantis transforming Florida into 1930s Germany with gators and theme parks.

Optimism opens the door to great things.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

You are here: Home / Elections / Election 2020 / Respite Open Thread: Sound ON!

Respite Open Thread: Sound ON!

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There’s another debate tonight — the tenth, according to Wired:

… Tonight’s debate takes place in Charleston, South Carolina, a few days before the state’s primary on Saturday. It’s also the last time candidates take the debate stage before Super Tuesday on March 3, when voters in 14 states and one territory head to the polls. CBS News is co-hosting the event with the Congressional Black Caucus Institute, and the festivities are scheduled to kick off at 8 pm EST (5 pm PST)…

The moderators for the evening will be Norah O’Donnell and Gayle King, CBS News announced, with Margaret Brennan, Major Garrett, and Bill Whitaker also posing questions at different points in the evening. Viewers could also submit questions for tonight via Twitter using the hashtag #DemDebate. There will be no opening or closing statements from the candidates, just the usual question-and-answer format. The whole thing is expected to last two hours.

The debate kicks off at 8 pm EST (5 pm PST) on CBS stations; check your local listings. If you’ve cut the cord, don’t worry—there are still plenty of options to watch:

– You can watch a free livestream of the debate on the CBS News website, on mobile devices via the CBS News app (for iOS and Android), and on social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube.

– The debate will be available on CBSN, CBS News’ free streaming service, for smart TV devices like Roku(https://channelstore.roku.com/details/27536/cbs-news), Apple TV, and Amazon Fire TV. (CBS News lists all the available devices here.)

– You can also watch the debate on CBS All Access, the network’s subscription streaming service.

– CBS is also available with a paid subscription to streaming services like FuboTV, YouTube TV, and Hulu.

Once again, I don’t plan to watch… but I’ll presumably catch up via twitter & you guys later.

Reader Interactions

105Comments

  4. 4.

    Martin

    The debate should be fun. Either Bloomberg will figure out why the fuck he’s spending all of that money, or Warren will continue to dunk on everyone.

    Bloombergs momentum got crushed in the last debate. It’s do or die for him and Warren tonight, or else Bernie is going to walk away with Super Tuesday. Warren did tick up a bit, but everything else is going to Bernie right now at everyone but Warren’s expense. Biden is going in the wrong direction with seemingly no ability to turn it around, which IIRC is exactly how each of his previous attempts went.

  6. 6.

    TS (the original)

    The debate is the only time the media allows us to hear anything about the women on the stage.

    At the minute Bloomberg is front centre on the Washington Post. Sanders gets a couple of headlines, Biden & Buttigieg get one each.  That’s it.

  7. 7.

    different-church-lady

    HOLY GODDAMNED MOTHER OF FUCK ERIK LOOMIS IS AN IDIOT WE ARE SO FUCKED IF HE REPRESENTS TODAY’S DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY VOTER SHIT SHIT SHIT FUCK EVERY GODDAMNED THING!!!

  13. 13.

    zhena gogolia

    @Gravenstone:

    “Of course Bernie is absolutely right about Cuba”

    That’s as far as I’m going. I have to bow out because I can’t talk about Sanders at all. I am in panicked despair.

  16. 16.

    A Ghost To Most

    My fervent hope is that BS leaves the stage in need of an ass transplant, and the real Democrats are in need of toothpicks.

    P.s. the otter video is great.

  17. 17.

    different-church-lady

    @zhena gogolia: BERNIE: “You know, Castro wasn’t all that bad.”

    ME: “WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCKING FUCK ARE YOU TRYING TO GIVE US ANOTHER FOUR YEARS OF TRUMP?!?”

    LOOMIS: “Bernie is making a perfectly cromulent observation, pip pip!”

  18. 18.

    germy

    Fun domestic otter fact – they need two different pools of water. One to swim in and one to shit in and they absolutely have to be separate.

    — Cooper Lund (@cooperlund) February 24, 2020

    they’re also bitey and hard to introduce outside people to, feeding them a proper diet means buying a lot of expensive and smelly raw meat and fish, and i would die to hold one

    — susan laundromat (@rachel_pick) February 24, 2020

  19. 19.

    different-church-lady

    @germy:

    eding them a proper diet means buying a lot of expensive and smelly raw meat and fish

    Like I wasn’t going to do that anyway.

  20. 20.

    Ohio Mom

    Different-church-lady@ 7: Erik Loomis lives in the Ivory Tower of academia. I don’t think there is anything typical about him, and I don’t think he is particularly influential. So rest easy.

    My favorite posts of his are when he lambasts everyone who has ever moved to a specific school district for their chuldren’s sake. Might as well blame me for making sure my kid is as healthy as he can be, that is also a privilege.

  23. 23.

    germy

    @Ohio Mom:  I read some of their posts and some of the reader comments, but my eyes glaze over after the 500th comment.  I barely make it through twenty comments before giving up.

  25. 25.

    guachi

    Re: Bernie’s 60 Minutes interview – It’s not the economics of communism he hates, it’s the authoritarianism. But Sanders does hate capitalism. He spent a few seconds condemning the authoritarian government of Cuba and then extolled their literacy indoctrination.

    Sanders has never spoken so positively about capitalism as he did about the Cuban and Chinese governments. If I were a candidate I’d take every question as an opportunity to pound Sanders until his face was redder than a communist flag.

  27. 27.

    germy

    @guachi:  I just wish his ego was a bit smaller.  Small enough that he hadn’t decided to run for president again, but instead endorsed Elizabeth Warren.

  28. 28.

    Jay

    @different-church-lady: in the transcript, released, If you arn’t an “Exceptionalist  Merkin”, Wilmer had perfectly good points.

    of course, like many things in America, there are many many subjects that can only be reasonably discussed amongst a small group of close, likeminded friends,  like back in the day in East Germany, and should never ever be commented on by a Politician not seeking a fringe endorsement.

  29. 29.

    different-church-lady

    @germy:

    I just wish his ego was a bit smaller.  Small enough that he hadn’t decided to run for president again, but instead endorsed Elizabeth Warren. WE COULD DROWN THE GODDAMNED THING IN A BATHTUB!!1!

    I’m going to get a time-out for this, aren’t I?

  30. 30.

    different-church-lady

    @Jay: “Perfectly good points” are going hand this thing over to Trump faster than Dukakis can pop out of a tank.

  34. 34.

    Jay

    @guachi:

    Wilmer has always been against capitalism,

    Warren thinks she can save Capitalism.

    The “youtes” who have grown up watching late stage Capitalism destroy the world, seem to think Wilmer has a point .

  36. 36.

    germy

    @Jay:  I remember seeing an interview with Bloomberg and he was saying how great the system is where we can buy all this great, high quality, inexpensive stuff from China.

    This morning I was in a rush dressing for work. I  put on a belt I bought a few months ago and the buckle snapped right off and fell on the floor. (Made In China)

    Meanwhile, I have some old belts that have lasted decades.  He lives in a different world, where this system works just fine.

  40. 40.

    Jay

    @germy:

    Yup. while Bloomburg Media  get’s the spotlight, it’s Bloomberg’s other arms, from his Terminals, to Software, to Investment arms that like a vampire squid, feed off every Wall Street , ( and other) trade that bring in the real money.

  47. 47.

    Brachiator

    Today is National Pancake Day. Some places may still be serving up freebies.

    Today is also Shrove Tuesday, the boring British equivalent of Mardi Gras. There is also, in some places in the UK, a pancake race on the day.

    There is a tradition, supposedly going back to Henry VI (the king after the recent Netflix movie “The King”) of pancake racing. Around 1445, the Church decided that people had to give up meat and meat products for Lent, which follows after Shrove Tuesday. So, instead of letting eggs and milk go to waste, the ladies went to town making pancakes.

    One woman didn’t notice the church bell ringing the call to worship, and when she caught on, she ended up running to church still flipping those flapjacks in a skillet.

    This has been your Bernie free historical anecdote.

    Can I give up the debates for Lent, even if I am not religious?

  51. 51.

    Amir Khalid

    @germy:

    When the first Harry Potter movies came out, so I’ve read, lots of kids wanted a big white pet owl like Hedwig. These owls are predators and need a steady supply of dead mice and other small mammals, in addition to requiring lots of room because they’re, well,  big. Not a practical pet at all.

  53. 53.

    Chyron HR

    @Jay:

    So now that we know exactly which countries Bernie is modeling the revolution after, how many people do you think he’s going to kill in his Great Leap Forward?  10, 20 million tops?

  56. 56.

    Ohio Mom

    This whole “Castro taught everyone how to read” thing has long struck me as puffery.

    First, a good number of Cubans were already literate; they were the teachers. It’s not like the entire island was a backwater. They weren’t starting at zero readers.

    Second, as everyone here knows from their personal experience, it takes years and years to become truly literate and to be able to write — I don’t think Castro’s campaign lasted that long.

    Add to that, lots of people struggle with the written word even with instruction. So yes, the absolute number of basic readers increased but Castro’s effort couldn’t have been the magic wand some people make it out to be.

    Finally, while it’s good to have a literate population, it’s not like Cuba is the only place that teaches its citizenry. For instance, the US provides free public schooling to all its children.

  59. 59.

    pattonbt

    I just electronically returned my D presidential primary ballot in CO. I will give it to CO (don’t know about other states) for the simple system they have for overseas voters. It was a struggle to choose, but I am happy with my choice.

  63. 63.

    Chyron HR

    @Jay:

    Dude, it is fucking HILARIOUS that Bernie thought winning Nevada meant that he could immediately skip ahead to “Mao Zedong did nothing wrong” and all the actual members of the party he’s trying to take over would just have to go along with it because he’s the boss of us now.

  64. 64.

    Ohio Mom

    Germy @23: Same here. There’s a lot of inside baseball on LGM threads, and they can be meanly snarky. I don’t last long as a lurker.

    I have learned some things there, though, and I am often tickled by Loomis’ grave site series.

    Overall, doesn’t compare to this place.

  66. 66.

    chopper

    @Ohio Mom:

    My favorite posts of his are when he lambasts everyone who has ever moved to a specific school district for their chuldren’s sake.

    which explains why he’s pushing sanders so hard, cause bernie never did that.

    ‘course, that’s cause bernie was a deadbeat dad, but hey, still works.

  68. 68.

    Jay

    @Sab:

    there is “allowed to read”, and then there is can read. Totalitarian countries tend to have a lot of really good writing, easily available, that you arn’t supposed to read.

    Much of it written by those taught to read.

     

    In contrast, there are many, many subjects that Americans cannot discuss, outside of with close groups of like minded friends.

    A key focus of the Wobblies Organizing, was teaching adult North Americans, how to read, write, do basic math and understand rights and the law. A mere two generations ago and a “radical” agenda.

  71. 71.

    ThresherK

    @Amir Khalid: When RCA made some fetching TV ads with a Dalmatian pup and dog, peoples’ interest in adopting the white dogs with black spots increased.

    Turns out Dalmatians can be really cranky and particular, and a lot of the ad footage was stitched together in post-production, from footage of dogs who weren’t even in the same room.

    Hey, if you want two pets who can barely tolerate each other, get cats. (That was not our plan, but, alas, the result.)

  74. 74.

    geg6

    No debate for me.  But I want to drop a recommendation to anyone with HBO.  If you aren’t watching McMillions, you should. It’s a multi-part documentary about the McDonalds Monopoly game scam. Highly entertaining and just filled with characters—cops, perps and even some of the McDonalds people, especially the PR woman.  So much of it happened in Florida and even the cop is Florida Man.  You have the Mob and Mormons, too.  It’s a crazy scheme that went on for years and years.  I’m loving it! ?

  77. 77.

    Ohio Mom

    Jay @72 and Sab @61: Yes, I am not sure if becoming acquainted with the Cuban equivalent of The Little Red Book counts as true literacy.

    I wouldn’t be surprised if some people learned it by rote, similar to the way preschoolers memorize their favorite picture books and then protest if you misread a line (as one does after re-reading the same book dozens and dozens of times).

  79. 79.

    Jay

    @Chyron HR:

    Naw, Wilmer thought that he could actually engage in an intelligent discussion on a US MSM program and forgets that not everybody lives with history.

    He forgot that there are many, many subjects that an American Politician can only respond to with “no comment”.

  80. 80.

    Baud

    @Jay:

    there are many, many subjects that Americans cannot discuss, outside of with close groups of like minded friends

    Like venereal disease.

  82. 82.

    Kattails

    @guachi: Haven’t even read the rest of the comments and must say that I’ve been praying for this all week, that the others just pound him to pesto on this. Drive him into the ground like a circus tent stake. It’s not just that Russia likes him, it’s that he’s proposing (or his campaign is floating) banning Ukraine and Georgia from NATO and allowing Russia in, if I’m reading my online sources correctly, *and that they are accurate. That he voted against, or abstained from voting, sanctions on Russia four times. There are a couple of threads vetting Bernie hard; one, @trinitymustache, was linked through Jim Wright at Stonekettle & he’s pretty careful. I feel like a large black sharpie & one of those big pads on the easel could be employed quite effectively against Mr. Sanders right now.

    *sigh* You know, I’m old enough to remember when I did not need to fact check every scrap of data that came my way.

  85. 85.

    WaterGirl

    @Baud:

    I saw this in John’s twitter feed, and posted this in the next thread.

    Oh my god, John, did you actually do this?

    Apparently growling “See anything you like” at the well meaning stranger in the grocery store who informed you your zipper was down is not appropriate.

    I don’t know why, but I can’t stop laughing.

  86. 86.

    Jay

    @Ohio Mom:

    Cuban literacy programs taught/teach math, science, reading, writing, and one elective foreign language.

    there was no Public Education under previous Regimes.

    A UNESCO study in 1998, showed that Cuba consistently outperforms all other Latin American countries in education levels, and quite a few “Western Ones”, despite their economic poverty.

  87. 87.

    Kattails

    @Jay: I personally have absolutely zero interest in living in Russia, China, Cuba, etc. Seriously? Like Socialism is immune from the corruption that Warren is talking about? A friend commented to me that Europe is largely socialist, so I looked it up. What I got was, no, their income derives from capitalism, but they accept far more robust social safety networks and far more stringent checks on their capitalism.

    No human system is ever going to be perfect.

  88. 88.

    different-church-lady

    DOES ANYONE IN THIS HERE BLOG UNDERSTAND THAT THE VOTERS BERNIE NEEDS TO PEEL AWAY FROM TRUMP DO NOT GIVE A RAT’S ASS WHETHER OR NOT CUBAN CHILDREN CAN READ?

  89. 89.

    Ohio Mom

    The last thing I want to say about Bernie and his admiration for Cuba is that it’s so quaint.

    Lefties organizing trips to help harvest the sugar cane crop is an artifact from the late 1960s. He’s showing his age. The world has moved on.

  90. 90.

    Jay

    @Kattails:

    the Atlantic Charter and the NATO Charter both bar full membership to all Nations that have unresolved territorial land claims with neighbor states.

    Ukraine and Georgia, thus, can never be full member states in NATO until South Ossetia and Crimea are peacefully resolved.

    No big surprise that ignorance of some pretty basic rules are used to attack Wilmer.

  92. 92.

    Brachiator

    @Jay:

    A UNESCO study in 1998, showed that Cuba consistently outperforms all other Latin American countries in education levels, and quite a few “Western Ones”, despite their economic poverty.

    Yeah. That’s the sticking point. Scandinavian countries, and others, do well and have progressive systems, without that economic poverty.

     

    ETA; And I note that Cuba’s condition is significantly worsened by sanctions and stupid US policies.

  93. 93.

    Jay

    @Kattails:

    most ‘Merkin’s don’t know the difference between socialism, capitalism, communism, kaikestocracy, kleptocracy and feudalism.

    None of the countries you mentioned have “socialism” aside from the odd program. The countries you listed are Communist, Communist and a Kleptocracy.

  94. 94.

    kindness

    Cute video.  That is an otter though.  I know people keep ferrets as critters but I never heard of someone keeping an otter.  They are sweet to watch.

  95. 95.

    Ohio Mom

    Jay, we are talking about different things. I am referring to Castro’s early effort to send city folk to rural areas to teach reading and writing, and to be re-educated themselves about rural poverty.

    Of course Cuba has evolved since then, but in my experience, people who breathlessly praise Castro for bringing literacy to the people are referring to those early days. They like the idea of society being quickly re-organized at one man’s biding.

  96. 96.

    Jay

    @Brachiator:

    It’s also worsened by stupid Cuban policies.

    of all the stupid things to beat Wilmer up for, it’s funny how everybody is going all Red Scare. One would think that Red Dawn plays on an infinate loop.

  98. 98.

    zhena gogolia

    I will say that I was virtually kept alive through a cold Moscow winter by delicious Cuban grapefruit juice. But I’m not running for president.

  100. 100.

    Kattails

    @Jay: I personally have absolutely zero interest in living in Russia, China, Cuba, etc. Seriously? Like Socialism is immune from the corruption that Warren is talking about? A friend commented to me that Europe is largely socialist, so I looked it up. What I got was, no, their income derives from capitalism, but they accept far more robust social safety networks and far more stringent checks on their capitalism.

    No human system is ever going to be perfect.

    @different-church-lady: Or like she said.

  101. 101.

    Jay

    @Ohio Mom: the early “literacy” program in Cuba, under Castro, started after his first attempt at Revolution.

    By sending Revolutionary Urban Educated to uneducated Rural areas, to teach, and not just Revolution,  was very effective at gaining support and allies his first Revolution did not have, and at the same time, changing the Revolution to be more inclusive.

     

    Rural Cuba at the time was little more than a post Slavery Feudal urban Cuba    was a Plutocracy/Kleptocracy.

    Once the Revolution was won, and a Government properly established, a proper education system was created, but in the bridge years, a Revolutionary Exchange, was the best they had under the conditions.

    My Grandfather learned to read, write, do math and understand some science, not because of a public education, he didn’t have that. Wobblies taught him, a 13 year old kid working in the bowels of a Canadian Coal Mine.

  103. 103.

    Kattails

    so if Cuba and China are otherwise loathsome shitholes that no one in their right mind would move to from any marginally decent capitalist economic system, and Russia may have  been founded on socialist ideals but managed to not live up to them in any manner sufficient to keep the USSR intact, and is now fallen into a kleptocracy, kindly explain to me where I should be looking for this socialist ideal expounded by BS in actual, functioning, living, breathing action. We can also point to his flirtation with actual communism and his praise of China for its wonderful literacy… but this isn’t really the point that you started agitating about, is it?

    This is not ‘red scare’, thanks. My point is that any system created by humans is open to corruption, often spectacularly so. Bernie appears to praise socialism as a system as somehow pure and immune to the problems that can arise in a capitalist economy. I don’t buy it. That is one reason among many that I prefer Elizabeth Warren’s ideas. But please feel free to vote for Bernie…oh, wait.

  105. 105.

    Jay

    @Kattails: Wilmers pulling what, 25% to 35% of delegates?

    Democratic Party Members should really pile onto the knee jerk Red Scare Rethug attacks,

    that way, when Wilmer doesn’t get the nom at a Brokered Convention,

    you will have completely alienated 10 to15% from ever voting Team Broken Glass.

    It’s a really  “winning” strategemy when Team   Dump and the Turd Reich is going after Bloomberg for being  a socialist  Billionaire.

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