Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

We’re watching the self-immolation of the leading world power on a level unprecedented in human history.

Mediocre white men think RFK Jr’s pathetic midlife crisis is inspirational. The bar is set so low for them, it’s subterranean.

The fundamental promise of conservatism all over the world is a return to an idealized past that never existed.

One of our two political parties is a cult whose leader admires Vladimir Putin.

Michigan is a great lesson for Dems everywhere: when you have power…use it!

Trump’s cabinet: like a magic 8 ball that only gives wrong answers.

We can’t confuse what’s necessary to win elections with the policies that we want to implement when we do.

No Kings: Americans standing in the way of bad history saying “Oh, Fuck No!”

Peak wingnut was a lie.

“They all knew.”

Hey Washington Post, “Democracy Dies in Darkness” was supposed to be a warning, not a mission statement.

Giving up is unforgivable.

There are a lot more evil idiots than evil geniuses.

Humiliatingly small and eclipsed by the derision of millions.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

Today in our ongoing national embarrassment…

Republicans don’t want a speaker to lead them; they want a hostage.

They don’t have outfits that big. nor codpieces that small.

You’re just a puppy masquerading as an old coot.

With all due respect and assumptions of good faith, please fuck off into the sun.

75% of people clapping liked the show!

Every reporter and pundit should have to declare if they ever vacationed with a billionaire.

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

Boeing: repeatedly making the case for high speed rail.

You are here: Home / Politics / Domestic Politics / Sanders assessing 2020 campaign

Sanders assessing 2020 campaign

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According to CNN, the Bernie Sanders campaign told supporters the senator is assessing his 2020 bid in light of last night’s results. Sounds like he’s gonna hang it up, then. It’s for the best. Open thread.

ETA: Here’s more complete info from The Post:

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) will spend the next few weeks talking to supporters to “assess his campaign,” his campaign manager said Wednesday following decisive victories Tuesday by former vice president Joe Biden in Florida, Illinois and Arizona that gave him firm control of the Democratic nominating contest.

“The next primary contest is at least three weeks away,” Faiz Shakir, Sanders’s manager said in a statement. “Sen. Sanders is going to be having conversations with supporters to assess his campaign. In the immediate term, however, he is focused on the government response to the coronavirus outbreak and ensuring that we take care of working people and the most vulnerable.”

So, probably not today or even this week, but in all likelihood before another primary. Again, that’s for the best given the insurmountable delegate lead and danger of asking people to cast ballots during a pandemic.

CNN on Biden’s speech last night:

Biden said he and Sanders “may disagree on tactics, but we share a common mission” on issues like health care, income inequality and climate change.

“Sen. Sanders and his supporters have brought a remarkable passion and tenacity to all of these issues, and together they have shifted the fundamental conversation in this country,” Biden said.

“So let me say especially to the young voters who have been inspired by Sen. Sanders: I hear you. I know what’s at stake. I know what we have to do. Our goal as a campaign and my goal as a candidate for president is to unify this party, and then to unify the nation.”

That’s a smart approach. Good for him.

Reader Interactions

238Comments

  3. 3.

    dmsilev

    Let’s hope. If nothing else, that would let the remaining states shift their primaries for all the downticket races to the late spring or early summer, giving time to ramp up a pervasive vote-by-mail system.

  4. 4.

    Lapassionara

    Cue the Twitter harpies.

    Good morning, everyone, since I must have missed the morning thread.

  8. 8.

    PST

    I sure hope he pulls out. My dog Bernie has been asking for a name change lately, but that would probably calm her down. She’s young and adaptable, but I’m too old to get used to calling her something different.

  9. 9.

    marklar

    “That Sanders guy sounds like a bootlicking capitalist shill rat snake. Bernie or Bust!!”, said the Bro.

  11. 11.

    dmsilev

    @Baud: (optimistically), it could be sooner. Notice what the spokesman said. “The next primaries are three weeks away. We are assessing the campaign”. Two separate sentences. It gives the impression that Sanders is going to take those three weeks to do the reassessment/post-mortem, but it doesn’t explicitly say “we’re fighting on to the next primary” like he did last week.

    I have to find hints of optimism wherever possible these days. Don’t ruin my fond dreams, please.

  12. 12.

    Don Beal

    Vote by mail works. We have a wonderful example right here in Oregon.

    Please raise your hands if you think the House under Pelosi will prevent the looting that the Republicans have planned under the banner of stimulus. She has all the cards but she and her corporate friendly peers (moderates) will bail out business after business and require nothing in return. See how quickly sick leave provisions got gutted. Dean Baker has more this morning.

  14. 14.

    Chyron HR

    Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) will spend the next few weeks talking to supporters to “assess his campaign,”

    Translation: He’s going to keep the grift going for three more weeks* during which we’re not allowed to call on him to drop out because he’s assessing his campaign, man.

    * After which he will refuse to drop out.

  15. 15.

    Immanentize

    Bernie wants to assess?  Here’s an assessment.  He lost. 

    Now get with the Democratic Party program and support Biden.  Or at least do what Warren is doing — don’t endorse, but work closely with Biden on issues of great importance to you. If that is healthcare, work with Joe now.

  18. 18.

    MattF

    ’I’ll think about it for a few weeks’ isn’t good enough. Sanders should stop taking contributions now and donate what he’s got to other causes.

  20. 20.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @dmsilev: “The next primaries are three weeks away. We are assessing the campaign”. Two separate sentences.

    I am choosing to interpret the wording as “I am taking 3 weeks to let my supporters down gently. I don’t want them walking the country off a cliff in a suicide pact.”

    I know, hope springs eternal.

  23. 23.

    Chyron HR

    @Don Beal:

    Have you considered the possibility that Bernie is lying to you, in order to gain money and political power for himself?  You know, like a politician does?

  24. 24.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @Baud: You never have all the cards when you actually care about people’s lives.

    Nor do you have all the cards when you’re one-half of one of three branches of government. But let’s blame the woman (not you, the other guy). Sheesh.

  28. 28.

    zzyzx

    This tweet came up in my feed in one of those “other people you know follow him” things. It’s a good sign that some are moving to bargaining.

    THREAD — HOW (NOT) TO TALK TO #BERNIE VOTERSYou want #NotMeUs to listen to you? Here's how:1. No consolation prizes (as in "aww thanks, you moved the conversation left.") The progressive movement wants to overhaul a corrupt system, not settle for cosmetic language changes.— Peter Daou (@peterdaou) March 18, 2020

  31. 31.

    Calouste

    A president who takes weeks to make a decision might not be what people are looking for in the current period of crisis.

  32. 32.

    NotMax

    “After exhaustive study, we’ve determined that the votes of 300% of the college students forced out of state before the primaries would have had us run the field, so it would be an insult to them to give up now.”

    //

  36. 36.

    dnfree

    News reports and speculation about Bernie dropping out always seem to adds that if he dropped out, the rest of the primaries could be canceled. But in Illinois, at least, there are other national (senator Durbin), state, and local races on both the Democratic and Republican ballots, as well as nonpartisan local issues. Are there actually states where the sole purpose of the election is the presidential primary?

  37. 37.

    Another Scott

    As it stands, Biden has won every county in Florida, Alabama, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri and South Carolina.

    He has won nearly every county in Illinois, Arkansas, North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia.

    — Aaron Blake (@AaronBlake) March 18, 2020

    “So, you’re saying there’s a chance!!”

    He should withdraw within the week. In 3 weeks time the vast majority are going to be thinking, “OMG let me out of the house!! Bernie who? Is that the congresswoman from Hawaii who likes Assad?? Help me out here…!!”

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  38. 38.

    Don Beal

    If you really care about peoples lives you don’t hide behind Republican intransigence to plead your case. A little “Shock Doctrine” education right in front of us and you know how it will play out.

  39. 39.

    different-church-lady

    @zzyzx: I’m pretty sure bargaining is not one of the five stages for Bernie Bro grief. It’s more like anger, anger, anger, extorting, anger.

  43. 43.

    Immanentize

    @O. Felix Culpa: I think it is clear that “the other guy” only performs compassion as a way of firing up his anger.  It is really sorta sad.   And super annoying.

  48. 48.

    NotMax

    @Don Beal

    Yup, Pelosi is 100% responsible for Republican stupidity and cupidity. What a witch.

    “I’d like to buy a clue, Pat.”

  49. 49.

    Betty Cracker

    @dnfree: Yeah, in FL (or at least in my district and the districts of some friends I spoke to) yesterday’s vote was presidential primary only. They’re having primaries for other races in August. Because Florida I guess.

  50. 50.

    Another Scott

    @Don Beal: I do, quite frequently.  I’ll bet the Speaker’s staff does as well.

    I don’t support U.S. taxpayer money subsidizing corporations to provide benefits to workers that they should already be providing. House Democrats will continue to prioritize strong emergency leave policies as we fight to put #FamiliesFirst. t.co/GIoCJAKE1M— Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) March 15, 2020

    Nancy isn’t the enemy.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  52. 52.

    Gin & Tonic

    @dnfree: Yes. In RI the “Presidential preference primary” is in April, and the primaries for all other offices are in September.

  57. 57.

    dnfree

    Here’s my concern about widespread “unsupervised” voting such as by mail or online. People talk about in-person vote fraud, but what would prevent buying votes, watching to be sure the voter filled out the ballot correctly, collecting it, and mailing it in or clicking the “enter” button?

  58. 58.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @dnfree: We have multiple offices on the primary ballot in New Mexico, a number of which are contested. I think our Secretary of State is exploring ways to move to a statewide mail-in ballot (our primary is June 2nd). We already have no-excuse absentee balloting, so the biggest challenge would be logistics at this point.

  61. 61.

    Betty Cracker

    @zzyzx: Daou is a clown, IMO. He was an insufferable scold on Hillary Clinton’s behalf in the 2008 primary, an absurdly mawkish defender of Sarah Palin during the 2008 general election, a tiresome whiner during Obama’s tenure (not that he was always wrong, but he was always tiresome and always whiny). I laughed my ass off when I realized (also via other people’s Twitter) that he’d become a Sanders convert and was applying his extra-special brand of priggishness to that effort.

  62. 62.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Maybe we should just do away with this whole democracy thing. Then we could all argue about the important things in life like, “Cats or Dogs, which is better?”

  64. 64.

    satby

    @Don Beal: just because you don’t seem to be able to grasp the math of how legislation passes and becomes law, or of how voters determine elections, doesn’t mean the rest of us don’t understand it. And like sane people, we blame Republicans, not Pelosi and the Democratic Party.

  65. 65.

    NotMax

    @dnfree

    “Someone at the USPS tested positive, so in the interest of public safety we’re burning all the mail-in ballots. Bonfire to be telecast on pay-per-view.”

    //

  66. 66.

    Betty Cracker

    @Another Scott: Don’t know if you’re a Pod Save America listener, but Katie Porter (D-CA) was on a recent episode, and she had some interesting things to say about the House bill and the strategy going forward. Made me feel a little better about the whole thing.

  67. 67.

    PenAndKey

    @A Ghost to Most: One Is for earth, the other is for earth2

    So, does that also come with the bad early 90’s hair cuts and obligatory little kid like the sci-fi show of the same name?

  68. 68.

    Don Beal

    @Chyron HR: I listened to Bernie Sanders for years on the Thom Hartman show. He is genuine and his record is consistent. Your fits of pique because he dared run against Hillary are obvious to the rest of the progressive world.

  69. 69.

    Chyron HR

    @Don Beal:

    So… anything at all to say about The Chosen One’s failing campaign?  Doesn’t it bother you that everything you stand for has been crushed by Joe Biden, a man that Bernie claims is suffering from BRAIN DAMAGE?

  72. 72.

    Immanentize

    his record is consistent.

    An always consistent record in a time of change is the first ingredient of disaster. I never understood why this was a compliment instead of a put down.

    Thank God Sanders still wears an onion on his belt!

  73. 73.

    Don Beal

    @satby:  I know a phony plea of helplessness when I see it. When you go into negotiations with no demands of any significance you are signaling what you will accept. The weak tea of her solutions are clear to anybody who pays attention. Where is the demand for continued employment of laid off workers if the airlines get bailed out? Where is the demand for guaranteed jobs for willing workers? A limited payout of thousand dollar checks to qualified workers… please!

  75. 75.

    MomSense

    @Don Beal:

    We know he is genuine and consistent.  It’s the ineffectual, uncompromising, and frankly not well versed in the policy details we don’t like.

  77. 77.

    Another Scott

    @Don Beal:

    … his record is consistent.

    AlFranken.com:

    Secondly, when I arrived in July, 2009, as the 60th Democratic vote, the first Senator I spoke to on health care was Bernie Sanders. I told him I would support single payer. I also told him I thought we’d be at least 55 votes short, so we should probably have a fallback position.

    Bernie knew that as well as I did. Did he take his ball and go home? Of course not. He worked very hard to insert significant funding for community health centers. Bernie spoke last night about his work as chairman of the Senate Veterans Committee. He tried to get the largest, most comprehensive bill in the VA’s history, but was stymied by Republicans. But he moved on and, yes, compromised with Republicans to get a smaller, yet still very significant reform of the VA and a large increase in its funding.

    Yeah, his record is consistent. Uh, huh. Only Bernie is pure enough to say that only Bernie’s M4A and Single Payer is good enough.

    Except when, away from the adoring crowds, it isn’t.

    You need to up your game quite a bit. So far, it’s not working. ;-)

    Don’t paint yourself into a corner. Politics is about finding ways to solve communal problems. It’s not about purity – it requires compromise.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  78. 78.

    Immanentize

    @Don Beal: Ah, you learned negotiation from Donald Trump?  Only positional dominance negotiation is successful? You really know nothing about alternative dispute resolution, do you?

    If Pelosi really was the tool of corporatists as you say, there would have been no bill out of the House until the Senate acted.

  79. 79.

    Yutsano

    @Don Beal: Do me a favour: explain his exact Congressional record. I’ll wait.

    EDIT: Another Scott just scored you a solid there. Might want to see if you can expand on that.

  80. 80.

    Don Beal

    @Chyron HR: The media, Micheal Bloomberg and the DNC has worked its magic. It has to get worse before enough people see the current path is unsustainable. When climate change drowns out Florida and one pandemic after another devastates the world due in part to global heating we will either wake up the the system is failing us or, more likely, hunker down in our little comfort zones until we all perish.

  82. 82.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Don Beal:  I have an idea for an experiment; we can use it to find out if you are right. Let’s elect Democrats to an overwhelming majority in the Senate, House, and state legislatures. Then let’s see what kind of legislation gets approved.

  85. 85.

    JPL

    @OzarkHillbilly: nope..   He’s on the phone with the Biden campaign making demands.    He wants to continue his grifting .    Biden should say you get nothing.

  86. 86.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @Don Beal:

    Where is the demand for continued employment of laid off workers if the airlines get bailed out? Where is the demand for guaranteed jobs for willing workers?

    I’m not sure if you’re aware, but there’s “this thing” going around, some kind of virus, we’re trying to encourage folk not to congregate together, you know like what they do when they go to work.

  87. 87.

    Mike S (Now with a Democratic Congressperson!)

    @Don Beal:  HA! I didn’t think you were a Ruskie troll, just a fool, but that last sentence… it’s a real tell.

  88. 88.

    Chyron HR

    @Don Beal:

    Oh, I’m sorry, you’re not mad that you lost to Biden, you’re mad that you lost to CLINTON.  My mistake.

    He is genuine and his record is consistent.

    A) Being consistently opposed to gun control for decades isn’t something for an alleged Democrat to brag about.

    B) He immediately flip-flopped on that “genuine consistent” position after Parkland, and then went back to being pro-school shotings once the political pressure died down.

  89. 89.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    OT, but I had the displeasure of listening to Rick Scott blather on the radio this morning on some RWNJ show.  I was stunned at how breathlessly stupid he sounds as he rapidly stammers out bullet points.

    I can’t believe that anybody actually voted for him due to vocal quality alone.

  91. 91.

    Yutsano

    @Don Beal: You…really don’t know how legislation works do you? Okay I’m done someone call the troll factory. We need a better playtoy.

  92. 92.

    Gravenstone

    @PST: 

    but you know how it is with a child. If you use the full name they think know they’re in trouble.

    C’mon, we’ve all been there as kids.

  93. 93.

    Immanentize

    @NotMax: really weird!  I first grew a goatee when I started law teaching and I looked like a teenager.  I wanted to look older.  I have had facial hair since then with some minor exceptions.  Now, after shaving, I look older than with my little beard. Aging, not for the timid.

    All that said, it really is a huge benefit to keeping me from touching my face. So older looking but safer.

  97. 97.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @Don Beal:

    Where is the demand for guaranteed jobs for willing workers?

    Guaranteed jobs doing what? Under what management scheme?

    All three of my adult children are unemployed as of this week; one lost her TA position as well as her side bartending gig, one lost hers as a server and another lost her distillery guide and retail position.  My wife, after a 30 some odd year career in travel and a solid book of luxury clients, just watched her annual commissions go from 150K per annum to zero (and every bit of labor she did from December on to go completely uncompensated, as she doesn’t get paid until departures).  Each of those positions relies entirely on discretionary income, which will be in short supply after whatever halfass “recovery” happens, and in my wife’s case, on the availability of rock-solid investment funds, whether retirement or otherwise.

    What are they all going to do – learn to code? Work at the census bureau? We’re taking it up the ass because the tests weren’t done and the carriers and vulnerable weren’t isolated.

  98. 98.

    Matt

    My view is Sanders should drop out, but to tell his voters to keep voting for him in the primary as a vote for his policies to show the Democratic party that they can’t ignore the popularity of his ideas if they win the White House.

    Biden has been a crappy candidate who has won because of what others have done, not really himself.  I hope he can win this thing, in these times we’re counting on him.

  99. 99.

    artem1s

    @MazeDancer:

    Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) will spend the next few weeks

    My thoughts exactly.  the next few weeks will be spent grifting and attacking Dems, both Biden and Warren to get donations.  He’s never going to stop. He’s addicted to the attention, the rallies, and the money.

  101. 101.

    Juice Box

    @Don Beal: I listened to Bernie Sanders for years on the Thom Hartmann show which coincided with my lunch break. At first I was intrigued, but after a while, I realized that he was really superficial, rigid, impractical. and repetitive. He seemed to have no idea how bills were passed. He also gave Hartmann a wink and a nod pass on the anti-vaccine stuff as well as having a bad pro-gun history.  I guess that makes me a neoliberal corporatist shill.

  105. 105.

    Marcopolo

    Haven’t read the thread yet (that’s next) and am sure someone has said this, but it doesn’t take a few weeks to assess where Sanders is right now. This is just a despicable move that will allow him to further grift his supporters for a couple weeks for millions of dollars.

    Asshole.

  106. 106.

    OzarkHillbilly

    I smoked a ham yesterday after having brined it using a new recipe for 2 weeks. Damn, I done good.

  107. 107.

    Chyron HR

    @Matt:

    My view is Sanders should drop out, but to tell his voters to keep voting for him in the primary as a vote for his policies to show the Democratic party that they can’t ignore the popularity of his ideas if they win the White House.

    The primary voters have been rejecting Bernie’s ideas for weeks.  How is him dropping out going to boost his turnout to the point that DA STABBISHMENT will no longer be able to ignore his voice?

  109. 109.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Via Liberal Capitalist says: in a thread over at OTB:

    Wednesday, March 18, 2020 at 09:49

    An opportunity to review:

    Jan 20: “I know more about viruses than anyone.”

    Jan 22: “We have it totally under control. It’s one person coming in from China. It’s going to be just fine.”

    Feb 2: “We pretty much shut it down coming in from China.”

    Feb 24: “The Coronavirus is very much under control in the USA… Stock Market starting to look very good to me!”

    Feb 25: “CDC and my Administration are doing a GREAT job of handling Coronavirus.”

    Feb 25: “I think that’s a problem that’s going to go away… They have studied it. They know very much. In fact, we’re very close to a vaccine.”

    Feb 26: “The 15 (cases in the US) within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero.”

    Feb 26: “We’re going very substantially down, not up.”

    Feb 27: “One day it’s like a miracle, it will disappear.”

    Feb 28: “We’re ordering a lot of supplies. We’re ordering a lot of, uh, elements that frankly we wouldn’t be ordering unless it was something like this. But we’re ordering a lot of different elements of medical.”

    Mar 2: “You take a solid flu vaccine, you don’t think that could have an impact, or much of an impact, on corona?”

    Mar 2: “A lot of things are happening, a lot of very exciting things are happening and they’re happening very rapidly.”

    Mar 4: “If we have thousands or hundreds of thousands of people that get better just by, you know, sitting around and even going to work — some of them go to work, but they get better.”

    Mar 5: “I NEVER said people that are feeling sick should go to work.”

    Mar 5: “The United States… has, as of now, only 129 cases… and 11 deaths. We are working very hard to keep these numbers as low as possible!”

    Mar 6: “I think we’re doing a really good job in this country at keeping it down… a tremendous job at keeping it down.”

    Mar 6: “Anybody right now, and yesterday, anybody that needs a test gets a test. They’re there. And the tests are beautiful…. the tests are all perfect like the letter was perfect. The transcription was perfect. Right? This was not as perfect as that but pretty good.”

    Mar 6: “I like this stuff. I really get it. People are surprised that I understand it … Every one of these doctors said, ‘How do you know so much about this?’ Maybe I have a natural ability. Maybe I should have done that instead of running for president.”

    Mar 6: “I don’t need to have the numbers double because of one ship that wasn’t our fault.”

    Mar 8: “We have a perfectly coordinated and fine tuned plan at the White House for our attack on CoronaVirus.”

    Mar 9: “This blindsided the world.”

    Mar 13: “National emergency, two big words.”

    Mar 17: “This is a pandemic…I felt it was a pandemic long before it was called a pandemic.”

  111. 111.

    Cameron

    Sanders should drop out today.  At this point his campaign only serves as a distraction from the public health disaster we should be focusing on.

  114. 114.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    Another couple of points:

    1.  The craven fools who worry about “investors” on financial shows should be talking about the fact that these are the cornerstone of every public and private pension, as well as 401Ks, and that “investors” means the analysts and managers of those funds.  Instead, they keep speaking as if these are individuals who manipulate and steer the markets.  To get conservatives aboard, they need to understand that the market needs on this track with far more than hated “limousine liberals”.
    2.  The craven fools who talk about this being “just fine, with pent-up demand after” are whistling past the graveyard.  We’ll be looking at hammered investments and long periods of nonexistent or diminished pay.  There may be demand, but there won’t be the funds or the inclination to meet it, as a new normal sets in.
  116. 116.

    BretH

    @dnfree: Nothing, same as buying a walk-in vote. Except the threat of a felony if the scheme was caught because of how many people were bought and how they ALL have to stay quiet, and the difficulty of swaying an election if you don’t buy out a large number of people.

  120. 120.

    Betty Cracker

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: Scott really is the most godawful retail politician who ever lived. He has no social skills. Horrible public speaker. The first time I heard him at a debate, I wondered not only how his party managed to nominate him but how he rose high enough in a hospital corporation to steal millions of dollars and get away with it.

    He’s so terrible at debates that I am in an agony of embarrassment on his behalf — and I HATE the sumbitch! But he makes up for it by being extremely disciplined and canny in his outreach. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that the Florida Dem Party has been a goddamn basket case for decades…

  122. 122.

    Marcopolo

    @Don Beal: Okay.

    Now what positive action are you taking to try to keep this from happening?

    I call my D MoC every week.  My Senators are R’s so they don’t care.  Do you want us to reach out to Pelosi’s office?

    Bitching here & a few bucks will get you a cup of coffee.

  124. 124.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Immanentize: Oh hell no! Cats are far inferior. They never wag their tails in happiness. They never jump up on you when you first come home. The don’t howl with glee at your arrival. They don’t fetch anything. Home protection amounts to hiding under the bed. They pee on your used undies (hmmmm… I think my old dog did that a time or 2 too).

    The only thing my cat ever gave me was the middle toe of an upraised fore paw.

  126. 126.

    Johnny Gentle (famous crooner)

    @OzarkHillbilly: Well, thank goodness our government didn’t waste two months being in complete denial and outright lying. Just think about all the preparatory steps we wouldn’t have taken if that were the case!

    On the Bernie front, I read somewhere (Politico?) that staying in the race longer might actually hurt Bernie, because the more he gets drubbed in state after state, the more it reduces his leverage.

  128. 128.

    A Ghost to Most

    @OzarkHillbilly: I’ve never heard of a shit-eating cat. There’s currently a commercial for a shit-eating dog.

    Note to Tina Fey: A 70 lb St. Bernard with impulse issues will never be my problem.

  130. 130.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Immanentize: My mustache is not coming off, ever. It started when I was on some kind of aggressive blood thinners after surgery and was too doped up to even try to shave without the prospect of heavy blood loss, but then when things got normal my dear wife said the beard looked stupid (she was right, of course) but she liked the mustache. Decades later, I don’t know if anyone would recognize me if I shaved it off.

  131. 131.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @Betty Cracker:

    Hard to understand how he has any constituency at all; I imagine that even his household pets hate him.

    On an OT moment, anybody want to pick an over/under on when the first prominent RWNJ commentator or pol gains national recognition for whining about the recipients of any national economic relief efforts being losers who should just fail?

    I set it at 3 days.

  133. 133.

    Anonymous At Work

    I truly do hope he drops out and lets Biden run against Trump starting tomorrow.

    Reasons:

    1. Clear contrast possible.
    2. Develop platform now by working with former opponents behind the scenes (i.e. Warren on corruption, Warren on bankruptcy, Warren Warren Warren).
    3. Not feed Trump attack lines (like Sanders did against Hilary)
    4. Fundraising
    5. Focus on voter outreach, vote-by-mail and voter registration efforts, all of which have become more fraught and more difficult.
    6. Hopefully get Bernie to turn his attention, followers and energy to down-ballot races and primaries.  Lipinski was #1 but I question how much Sanders had a hand in that.

    Let’s add to the list.

  134. 134.

    Marcopolo

    Also on the topic of gritting: Tulsi Gabbard. She now needs to win 110% of the remaining delegates to win.

    Let’s see if she suspends her campaign.

  135. 135.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Our funny little girl cat greets us when we come home, chats with us constantly, wants to be right next to us and plays fetch with hairbands, candy wrappers, used straws and stray bits of plastic.  She has the ability to wear us out at fetch before she’s worn out.

  136. 136.

    JMG

    If Sanders wanted to maximize his influence within the Democratic Party, he’d drop out today and go to the Senate to work for his issues there. He’d serve as the grand old man of the left. But Sanders doesn’t WANT to maximize his influence within the party because he’s not in it. It’s sad, or would be if it wasn’t so maddening.

  138. 138.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @A Ghost to Most: My sister’s German Shepard thought cat turds were the best part of cats. All Peggy would have to do when she came home is look at Emma and say, “Cat shit.” and Emma would immediately look guilty as hell slinking down to the floor with tail between her legs and refuse to look at my Sis.

    I have yet to have such a dog (knock on wood)

  140. 140.

    kindness

    Now if only Sanders would enforce telling his most fevered supporters to be nice to the rest of the Democratic unwashed masses.  Bernie won’t.  He’ll use this time to continue to collect money and turn a blind eye to his supporters that start trying to burn down the Democratic party.  Bernie doesn’t care.  He isn’t a Democrat.

  141. 141.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Gin & Tonic: I’ve had my beard since I spent a week in the hospital with a collapsed lung. I just decided it was a lot less trouble than shaving every day.

  142. 142.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    I had to move all the litter boxes to the basement because my Belgian Shepherd hates those stairs.  I’d gotten tired of feeling cat litter on his nose as he nuzzled me awake in the morning to go out and pee.

  147. 147.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Don Beal:

    She has all the cards but she and her corporate friendly peers (moderates)

    god, this fucking delusion that Nancy Pelosi can run the government without the White House or Senate. This is just one example of why I have trouble taking so many twitter-leftists seriously.

  148. 148.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @OzarkHillbilly: On this topic, I can’t go more than 3 days without shaving.  It doesn’t look good and I don’t feel clean.  I would be a terrible mountain man.

  149. 149.

    randy khan

    @dmsilev:

    If nothing else, that would let the remaining states shift their primaries for all the downticket races to the late spring or early summer, giving time to ramp up a pervasive vote-by-mail system.

    I am in favor of vote-by-mail, and think that the pandemic is a good impetus to making it happen, but this is not a remotely realistic possibility.  It takes more than a few months to set up a vote-by-mail system that will work properly.  It’s not just scaling up absentee ballots (although that, in itself, would be a significant undertaking).  You need a new voting infrastructure to make it happen.  As someone pointed out on LGM, in the states that have adopted vote-by-mail, the transition took years.

  150. 150.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    My Fiona? Annoying?  That cat adores me – she generally prefers to sleep with me, usually along one leg.  If we go to bed and she’s been napping elsewhere or is asleep when we go back, she starts yowling for us until we call out to her to come to bed, and she trots in and hops up.

  151. 151.

    Mandalay

    Completely O/T, but the Dow is down by almost a thousand this morning, and briefly dipped under 20,000.

    The DJIA has dropped by about a third in the past month, yet Trump’s polling numbers have barely shifted.

    I thought that a plummeting sock market would be guaranteed to crater his support, but it doesn’t seem to matter. WTF?

  152. 152.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    I declared “Take Your Dog to Work Day” today.  The office staff loves it, and the big furball lays down quietly, minding his own business.

  153. 153.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @different-church-lady:

    @Don Beal: Knock it off, Doug J.

    Yeah, I think you’re on to something, that line about Thom Hartmann was overplaying the bit. Not as much as citing Michael Moore or Sam Seder as an authority, but… a tell to those who ever listened to Hartmann

  154. 154.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @different-church-lady: DO THEY CLEAN THE LITTER BOX? EVER??? AND WHO HAS TO CLEAN IT UP WHEN THEY MISS THE BOX????

    Funny anecdote: My neighbors asked me to watch their 2 cats while they were at Sturgis one week. The first day or 2, all was well. Then the older one missed the box. The next day, she missed it again, only by more. (take note, these were very runny shits) The day after, even further. By the time they got home the cat was shitting up and down the hallway.

    “Send MY Mama away… I’ll show you!”

    I had to laugh even as I cleaned it up.

  155. 155.

    different-church-lady

    @kindness:

    Now if only Sanders would enforce telling his most fevered supporters to be nice to the rest of the Democratic unwashed masses.

    “Despite the best that has been done by everyone the primary situation has developed not necessarily to our advantage…”

  156. 156.

    WaterGirl

    In the wise words of the Thin Black Duke:

    Remember folks, you don’t have to go to every argument you’re invited to, especially when the other guy has already made up his mind.

    Oh, and please allow me to take this opportunity to introduce you all to PupCake!  I asked Avalune if she might be able to create a PupCake to go along with my beloved CatCake, and she amazed me with her results!

    The newest addition to the pie filter.  Now might be a good time to check him out!  Thank you, Avalune!

    edit: Oh my gosh, I wrote Thin White Duke, even though I know perfectly well that it is Black, not White. Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.

  157. 157.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @Mandalay:

    My operating theory is that it takes a fuckton of felt failure for older white voters (and those who think like them) to abandon a white paladin that they’ve placed the entirety of their trust in. They’ve not really felt it yet, and Fox News tells them that he’s doing a fantastic job.

  158. 158.

    Baud

    @Mandalay:

    1. Trump’s approval is based on racism and owning the libs.
    2. Lots of countries are having trouble dealing with the pandemic.  Trump has done an awful job, obviously, but there would an economic fallout even with the most competent manager as president.
  160. 160.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Omnes Omnibus: If it gets too long I have to trim it back (to a goatee) and when I can feel my mustache tickling my lower lip? It drives me nuts. I wish I could say I have a well groomed beard because of this but I don’t. I have unkempt, and “Oh my fucking Gawd, who glued a porcupine to your face?”

  161. 161.

    Dan B

    @dnfree: Washington State has had vote by mail for years.  Multiple studies have shown fewer issues than other systems.  There are many avenues for ballot stuffing and invalidating ballots (losing them).  Our Secretary of State is a Republican and we still don’t have issues.

  162. 162.

    Anonymous At Work

    @kindness: He won’t acknowledge that they are his followers, so he can disavow “any responsibility for any of this.”  He can reap the benefit of their fundraising but deny their nastiness to others by denying he has any control over them.

    And if he were to call them down, he’d have to address “Why now?” and/or the possibility that they’d ignore him.

  163. 163.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Fiona enthusiastically uses her box.  So much so, that she kicks the occasional item out.

    The other cat simply goes about his business quietly.

  167. 167.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Hard to say why a cat picks certain people.  Berlioz (the male) is all cat – super prickly, but is really attached to my wife.  I get the social animals, it seems.

  171. 171.

    Another Scott

    @kindness: St. Bernard was questioned about that during the last debate.  He said he would support the nominee and work to get him elected and defeat Donnie.

    But he conspicuously did not say anything about urging his supporters to do the same.  It gave me an unpleasant flashback to the summer of 2016…

    Grr…

    Uncle Joe, naturally, said everything you would expect and hope a Democrat would say about uniting the party, etc.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  173. 173.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @Gin & Tonic:

    You have given me a purpose and task for whenever an order comes down to shelter in place.

    Train Fiona to catch a Frisbee, which she’d be completely down for…..

  174. 174.

    MattF

    @Mandalay: Trump thought that rising 401(k)s would persuade people to support him. But now that the 401(k)s have become 201(k)s, it turns out that what his supporters wanted all along really was racism, lies, and assholery.

  177. 177.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @different-church-lady: It was fortunately normal for her. I forget  why but she just had runny shits. Her Mama was very apologetic when I told her, to the point of making me feel guilty for letting her know how much she was missed.

  178. 178.

    NotMax

    @Watergirl

    Perfectly nice and maybe it’s just me but looks more like a fox peeking over a daycare center’s picket fence.

    Have never seen the fabled catcake and likely never shall.

  181. 181.

    scav

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: It’s not just older white voters — look at the thread we’re in with stalwarts insisting theirs is the only true way (and where’s their necessary and universal acclaim and adoration!) as the boat lists and the water rises.

    Not all Magats wear red hats or root for the red team,  Well, ok, technically maybe it’s still a red team, but a different red.

  182. 182.

    Citizen Alan

    @Don Beal: I am So. Fucking. Tired. Of people who have less of an understanding of our system of government than I had at age 11 from watching School House Rock and who genuinely believe that every so-called failure to enact progressive legislation is solely do to the fact that the Democrats are weak and/or evil. Is there anyone in the Bernie camp who understands that it is impossible to pass any legislation with only the leftmost 15% (at most!) of Congress.

  186. 186.

    Citizen Alan

    @zzyzx: The Mississippi primary was for President and to pick the Senate nominee (though Espy was a foregone conclusion). In my district, the sacrificial lamb who’s going up against Trent Kelly was running unopposed.

    (She’s a real winner, btw. An ultraliberal law professor from Ole Miss who’s running as an avowed Democratic Socialist and who has inexplicably shaved one side of her head. I’m told she teaches Int’l Law classes while wearing a sundress and combat boots.)

  187. 187.

    Amir Khalid

    @ixnay:

    My Bianca, when she was a kitten, began a habit of standing on my chest every night at bedtime and licking my face. I accepted it as a show of affection, and still do now that she’s an older lady of 16.

  188. 188.

    Avalune

    @NotMax: lol fair critique. It’s a corgi for the record!

     

    Familiarity with catcake would explain the daycare fence – that and I’m not a professional ?

  190. 190.

    Aleta

    At the State Department

    “When the cases started to jump in the U.S., there was almost zero communication on whether we should continue on with our work like normal or whether we should curtail interactions with people from countries in Asia and Europe where the virus was already killing hundreds of people,” one official said. “We knew there were conversations ongoing in the secretary’s office, but there was no transparency about how they were handling all of it.”

    Two officials based overseas said they were not given a heads up about the (European travel restriction) plan to limit travel and spent the next day fielding calls from their international counterparts asking for clarification on the White House’s announcement. One official said they did not receive guidance on how to handle visa requests and other consular duties until the morning of March 13–almost two days after the president’s address.

    …

    Some overseas posts had already issued guidance internally within their offices about teleworking, but officials in Washington working out of the headquarters building were not told to go home. … (O)fficials said they had to learn from their colleagues about how each office was handling the situation.

    Over the last week, rumors swirled that there were a number of individuals in the building and overseas who had tested positive for the virus—but the secretary’s office had failed to communicate that data point, one official said.
    …
    Throughout the last two weeks, officials inside the department building in Washington have continued to hold meetings with foreign individuals, some from Asian and European countries, in rooms that do not allow for proper social distancing, one official told The Daily Beast.

    In a press conference Tuesday, Pompeo said that a “handful” of department employees had tested positive for coronavirus but did not specify how many or where they were located across the globe.

    Based on “five State Department officials, all of whom spoke to The Daily Beast over the last week on the condition of anonymity because they fear retribution.”

  193. 193.

    NotMax

    @Avalune

    Thanks for accepting it in the the lighthearted spirit in which it was offered.

    Corgis: For people who haven’t quite fully decided they want a dog.

    ;)

  194. 194.

    WaterGirl

    @Omnes Omnibus: I am alternating between embarrassed laughter and face palming.  Thank you!  I fixed the error, but added a PS confessing to my crime.

    edit:  I was so fixated on making sure I got the nym right – because for an incredibly long time, I head read that as the Thin Black Dude.  So I am super focused on getting “Duke” right.  I cannot believe i typed White.

  195. 195.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Citizen Alan: I don’t know who the hell Will Stancil is, but he’s gained a following over the past few months with righteous and harping Green Lanternism directed at Nancy Pelosi. He gets retweeted by people I like and who should know better, like Brian Beutler and Jamelle Bouie

  198. 198.

    Elizabelle

    @Avalune:   I thought it was a corgi!

    Do you ever check out the “Disapproving Corgis” group on Facebook?  I don’t even have a corgi, and I am looking at it all the time.  Some of the most expressive pups out there.  They are judging us.

  199. 199.

    negative 1

    @Another Scott: I know, and if he did that he would’ve been evil because he didn’t mention you by name when he did.  Christ, grow up.  Even Biden said we should be beyond this and that he’d work to include everyone in the party.  But he didn’t say his supporters would!

  200. 200.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @negative 1: at once so relentlessly obnoxious and such sniveling whiners

    it’s funny that they’re not more popular

    is that the same Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez who attributed Biden’s popularity with African-American voters to lobbyists’ influence? and recently went on FoxNews to say Biden was winning because of voter suppression?

  201. 201.

    Anya

    @zzyzx: I saw a tweet from Obama bro Jon Favreau louding Bernie and his revelution for Biden’s progressive campaign platform. Many of us objected to his discounting of women & women of color. But I guess the Bernie deadenders will not even appreciate this.

  203. 203.

    dnfree

    @BretH: the other possibility along the same lines (fraudulent voting) is one member of a family lining up others (spouse/children) to be sure they all vote the correct way. Or an adult casting the vote for their parent who is in a nursing home or care facility. I wonder if any of this has been studied in states where voting by mail or online is in use.

  204. 204.

    Chyron HR

    @negative 1:

    “How dare you suggest a connection between the actions of Bernie Sanders’ 2016 presidential campaign and the actions of Bernie Sanders’ 2020 presidential campaign!”

  205. 205.

    James E Powell

    @negative 1:

    I know, I know — it’s different because Bernie Bros are mean on twitter!

    No, it’s different than the other candidates because of 2016. Sanders and his supporters helped put Trump in the White House and we are rightly concerned that they will do it again.

  208. 208.

    VeniceRiley

    @Another Scott: Bernie saying he would support the nominee is code for his staying in through the convention.  because that is technically when the nominee is chosen.

  209. 209.

    Anya

    @Betty Cracker: I blocked Daou when he was an insufferable Hillary supporter. Although, I was a full-on Hillary stan and overly sensitive because of all the misogyny she faced, I wasn’t able to take his tweets. So, at the risk of taking it out on Hillary, I blocked him. To my utter shock, I found out he transferred all that energy into Bernie stanning. I just can’t imagine how anyone can tolerate him now that he’s been injected with the Bernie virus coupled with his own preexisting condition.

  210. 210.

    Damien

    @negative 1: Come back around and sell your bullshit when a bunch of Biden’s prominent surrogates claim they’d rather burn it all down than support the eventual Democratic nominee if it isn’t him.

    Bernie’s done, it’s time for his supporters to come to the same place that Harris, Booker, Warren, and every other candidate’s supporters have had to: Trump and the Republicans are more dangerous than hurt feelings, so we band together and fight them. Then we can fight through our differences once American democracy is back on track.

  211. 211.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Gin & Tonic: Funny story: From the moment I knew him, Dad always had a mustache (originally grown as a diesel mechanic in the Pacific). I grew a more luxuriant variant when in college, which disgusted him to the point where one day in protest he shaved his off. None of us noticed, so he grew it back.

    A few years later I had a full if scraggly beard, which one day I shaved completely off before going political campaigning. I stopped by my folks’ on the way, & when I walked through the door from the basement my mother looked at me. Mom, I said, & she replied, Oh, it’s you. Then when I showed up at campaign central a couple of friends there said, There’s something different about you – did you get a haircut?

    Some people recognize others from the nose down, others from the nose up. (And some people – like Mom [RIP] – who nose? ;^D)

  212. 212.

    negative 1

    @Damien: OK.  But my point is that all that I seem to be reading is that all of his supporters are sexist bros and assholes.  I’m looking up and down this thread and see nothing but that.  If we’re all supposed to be lining up — wouldn’t a better use of this be “hey, this is good we can all get together?”

    After all, I’m missing where everyone specifically lined up on character attacks for any of the Harris, Booker, et al. or their supporters.  Here the best anyone can say is ‘maybe some of them are too stupid to understand what they want’

  213. 213.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Hey, remember all the Booker Bros who encouraged Cory to run as a third party spoiler to re-elect trump and teach Dems a lesson if they wouldn’t bend the knee toward Newark?

  215. 215.

    James E Powell

    @negative 1:

    Check out @kartigl’s tweet “I hate neoliberals more than I hate Republicans” and the thread emanating from it.

    I’d call that typical, common. I’ve seen nothing remotely like that from other candidates’ supporters.

  216. 216.

    Chyron HR

    @negative 1:

    You forgot that old chestnut, “In 2016 only 10% of Bernie’s supporters voted for the deranged nazi who probably raped his own daughter!”

  220. 220.

    negative 1

    @James E Powell: Link didn’t come through, but I’ll see if I can respond.

    I’m not trying to say who is better or who’s not.  It’s pointless.  I’m trying to address the idea that Sanders said something akin to ‘vote Stein’.  Calling Sanders’ supporters dead-enders who will vote ‘Bernie or bust’ is ironic given that he could walk down every street in America wearing nothing but a signboard saying ‘I apologize for existing’ and it seems the general idea in some corners would be ‘yeah, but it didn’t feel sincere’.

    Incidentally just saying it’s because they’re all sexist bros is probably not going to fly, considering Biden’s support among young Hispanics is pretty close to Sanders’ among African Americans.

  221. 221.

    Chyron HR

    Please note that it never occurs to Bernie’s supporters that they could make us eat our words by NOT throwing a temper tantrum after Bernie loses this time.  They just yell at us for predicting that’s what they’re going to do.

  222. 222.

    Dan B

    @dnfree: The same intimidation happens in all forms of voting.  Apparently it’s a small cohort.  It’s easy enough for the “controlled / abused” spouse to fill out the ballot on their own since they arrive weeks before the election.  The controlling spouse uses psychological techniques no matter the methid of voting.  This was endlessly debated for the first years of vote by mail.  It’s not an issue.

    The issues you have expressed concern about are broader societal concerns.  They are marginally relevant to voting.

  223. 223.

    negative 1

    @Chyron HR:  I didn’t, but I didn’t feel like googling ‘PUMA’ stuff from 2008 to say that this goes on every election cycle that has a primary before it (which is to say every election cycle).  There are a fair number of people who take stuff like this — I’ll say ‘too seriously’ — absolutely personally and will never vote outside of their primary choice.  I’m not one of them.  But, I would argue that the people everyone says are ‘Bernie or bust’ are fairly low-info voters.  So maybe the message should be a lot closer to Biden’s ‘we understand your priorities and we have them addressed’ than what I read on every blog’s comment section of ‘Sanders is an asshole and anyone who votes for him is an asshole except the ones who are too stupid to understand what they want’.

  224. 224.

    Betty Cracker

    @negative 1: For what it’s worth, it irritates me when people conflate all Sanders supporters with the most obnoxious contingent, and I express that annoyance here from time to time. I’m confident Sanders will drop out soon and endorse Biden and that most of the folks who voted for Sanders in the primary will vote for Biden in the general, if only to get rid of Trump.

  225. 225.

    different-church-lady

    @Betty Cracker: On the other hand, Bernie has has over four years to get his most obnoxious contingent under control, and there appears to be no real progress on that front.

    A cynical person might think it was due to disinterest at best.

  228. 228.

    James E Powell

    @Betty Cracker:

    I’m confident Sanders will drop out soon and endorse Biden and that most of the folks who voted for Sanders in the primary will vote for Biden in the general, if only to get rid of Trump.

    Endorse might not be enough; it wasn’t in 2016. We need enthusiastic, passionate, unwavering, vocal & unqualified support.

    Most might not be enough; it wasn’t in 2016. We need all or nearly all.

  229. 229.

    Geminid

    I think most Sanders supporters are good people. They think differently than me, but I have no problem with that. However, (and I’m not saying this about the Sanders fans commenting on this thread), some of his hard core supporters are mouthy and obnoxious and have not helped but hindered his “movement.” Ironically, some of the most vocifrous advocates probably would not vote for Sanders if was nominated. They are anarchists and nihilists who simply hate the Democratic Party.

  230. 230.

    Betty Cracker

    @Geminid: There’s definitely that element, and Sanders — very much NOT to his credit — hired some of the worst people for his 2020 campaign. That said, I think Sanders genuinely likes Biden, whereas he had contempt for Clinton, and I think now that Trump is a disastrous reality rather than unlikely abstract threat, all but the very worst Bernie fanatics will show up and vote for Biden.

  231. 231.

    Yutsano

    @Betty Cracker: I actually followed the Daou thread when I wasn’t at work. I kept looking at all the roses saying they wouldn’t vote for anyone but Wilmer, and I had to wonder how many of them were actually registered. If Bernie had actually done some investment in his supporters like outreach about the voting process and getting his followers to the polls maybe things would have turned out different. But he just didn’t do that. And that really is the reason why the revolution lost: lack of actual leadership.

  232. 232.

    cckids

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: My son, in Reno, got laid off via text last night. His employer (very small company) says they probably will not re-open; they can’t afford to.  So there goes his health insurance, just as he got them to pay for a therapist and meds for depression. I’m frankly terrified for him.

    NV’s governor shut down the state last night, only essential businesses will be open.  For a month. That state is in for a world of hurt. None of the casino employees can work from home.

  233. 233.

    mrmoshpotato

    @MazeDancer:

    Three weeks of assessing means 3 weeks of grifting. 

    Hit that nail on the head!

    Weeks of consideration?  Really?  Fuck off to the forest in May – of 2016.

  234. 234.

    negative 1

    @James E Powell: Study after study has shown that primary voters don’t vote for the ‘affiliated’ general election candidate about 10% of the time.  sites.duke.edu/hillygus/files/2014/06/hendersonhillygustompsonPOQ.pdf

    It’s not unique to Sanders.  It was true of Clinton’s voters vs. Obama in 2008 during the PUMA stuff also.  It also holds true on the other side of the aisle.

    Maybe one way to, I don’t know, lessen that impact is by saying we’re not at war with you because you didn’t vote for the same primary candidate.  Or calling them names.  Or, anything, I guess, other than blaming them for anything you don’t like.

  235. 235.

    BroD

    I’m sorry but “Sanders assessing 2020 campaign” should not be a headline but the last line in an article reporting on yesterday’s primary results.

  236. 236.

    ballerat

    @Mandalay: They believe Trump is the savior of their white privilege, and that’s the only thing that matters.

    Trump’s support with his base will only nosedive if he does something like Johnson did with the signing of the Civil Rights Act. Which he won’t ever do. The MAGAs will support and praise him until the day he dies, or they die.

    Like their racist antecedents, the Confederates, the MAGAs are willing to harm the nation, destroy it if necessary, and to kill and to die to keep their white privilege intact.

    Their willingness to accept or ignore the consequences of his leadership with this pandemic makes that clear.

  237. 237.

    Another Scott

    @negative 1:

    Transcript:

    […]

    Jake Tapper: (55:35)
    Let’s talk about the future, Vice President Biden. If you become the Democratic Presidential nominee, how will you appeal to supporters of Senator Sanders when you do disagree on so many issues?

    Joe Biden: (55:45)
    He’s making it hard for me right now. I was trying to give him credit for some things. He won’t even take the credit for things he wants to do. Look, I think that I want to make it clear that Bernie as a nominee, I will not only support him, I will campaign for him. I believe the people who support me will do the same thing. Because the existential threat to the United States of America is Donald Trump. It’s critical. I would hope that Bernie would do the same thing if I am the nominee, and encourage all of his followers to in fact, support me as well. Because it’s much bigger than either of us. Character of the nation is on the ballot. It goes well beyond whether or not Senator Sanders and I both agree, we need medic… healthcare should be a right, not a privilege. We both agree we have to deal with student debt. We both agree we have to deal with education and access to education. We both agree that we have a new Green Deal to deal with the existential threat that faces humanity. We disagree on the detail of how we do it, but we don’t disagree on the principle. We fundamentally disagree with this president on everything. This is a man who wants to cut Social Security, cut Medicare. Not Bernie, the President of the United States. So this is much bigger than whether or not I’m the nominee or Bernie’s the nominee. We must defeat Donald Trump. He is the… Four more years of Donald Trump will fundamentally change the nature of who we are as a nation. We’ve got to restore this country’s soul, that’s essential. As long as this president is there, we’re not going to be able to that.

    Jake Tapper: (57:18)
    Senator Sanders, if-

    Bernie Sanders: (57:20)
    Can I just say a word, then I’ll respond to you?

    Jake Tapper: (57:22)
    Well, it’s just a quick question.

    Bernie Sanders: (57:22)
    Yeah.

    Jake Tapper: (57:22)
    Which is, if he is the nominee, Vice-President Biden… You’ve already said you would support him.

    Bernie Sanders: (57:27)
    Of course.

    Jake Tapper: (57:27)
    But will you campaign for him? Will you urge your supporters to-

    Bernie Sanders: (57:30)
    On day one, when I announced my candidacy, what I said is… This country cannot deal with a president who is a pathological liar, was running a corrupt administration or obviously doesn’t know the Constitution of the United States, who believes he’s above law, was a racist and a sexist and a homophobe. He is the most dangerous president in the modern history of this country.

    Bernie Sanders: (57:55)
    What I said on day one, Joe, day one, that obviously I hope to win the nomination. But if I don’t win the nomination, I and I think every other Democratic candidate, is prepared to come together to do everything humanly possible to defeat Donald Trump.

    Bernie Sanders: (58:10)
    But let me respond to something that Joe said. We talk about the Green New Deal and all of these things in general terms, but details make a difference. What I have said throughout this campaign, and I don’t think I’ve heard you say this yet, Joe… is that if we’re going to save this planet for our kids and future generations, we need to have the courage to take on the greed of the fossil fuel industry and make it clear to them that their short-term profits are not more important than the future of this planet. We have a very detailed planet, a detailed proposal. Happy to get the endorsement of the Sunrise Movement.

    […]

    (Emphasis added.)

    One of these things is not like the other…

    HTH.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  238. 238.

    J R in WV

    @Don Beal:

    Hi Don,

    WELCOME TO THE PIE SAFE SUCKAH!!!!

    BuhBye baby!

    Sanders is a Russian tool, and a stone fool! Just like Don, Don Trump! DON BEAL, TOO !!!

    And Don, dont bother to reply to me, I won’t be seeing any more of your posts. Maybe a few toggled replys to you, but your posts? Nope.

    Hope this was polite enough for you… nope, actually I don’t care about that either.

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