Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

You know it’s bad when the Project 2025 people have to create training videos on “How To Be Normal”.

Rupert, come get your orange boy, you petrified old dinosaur turd.

The Supreme Court cannot be allowed to become the ultimate, unaccountable arbiter of everything.

Tick tock motherfuckers!

Balloon Juice, where there is always someone who will say you’re doing it wrong.

At some point, the ability to learn is a factor of character, not IQ.

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

Anne Laurie is a fucking hero in so many ways. ~ Betty Cracker

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

The snowflake in chief appeared visibly frustrated when questioned by a reporter about egg prices.

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

It is not hopeless, and we are not helpless.

Not all heroes wear capes.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

Republicans want to make it harder to vote and easier for them to cheat.

We need to vote them all out and restore sane Democratic government.

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

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

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

GOP baffled that ‘we don’t care if you die’ is not a winning slogan.

Republicans choose power over democracy, every day.

“The defense has a certain level of trust in defendant that the government does not.”

You are here: Home / Politics / Throwback Tuesday: So You Said You Wanted to Talk Politics Like We Did in the Old Days?

Throwback Tuesday: So You Said You Wanted to Talk Politics Like We Did in the Old Days?

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This post is in: ,

A few someones were lamenting earlier that they miss talking about politics.  Well, here you go.  I’m not even gonna try to get you started, but I will put in a picture of my bluebells that miraculously survived the 22 degree freeze.

Throwback Tuesday: So You Said You Wanted to Talk Politics?

I dare you to go 10 comments without talking about COVID.  I might even double-dog dare you.

Just in case you thought you wanted to talk politics but you really didn’t, or the people who said that have all gone to bed already, you can consider this an open thread.

Reader Interactions

122Comments

  1. 1.

    satby

    At this point I hate politics, covid, and everything except watching happy animal rescue stories from the Dodo.

    And I need to get to sleep.

  3. 3.

    Another Scott

    Challenge Accepted!!

    So, someone downstairs (Baud?) said we should discuss Loomis’s latest at LGM:

    Honestly, it’s astounding that Sanders ran such a horrible campaign in 2020.

    Really??

    I don’t think so. Not astounding at all. Totally predictable. Easily.

    Over to you.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  5. 5.

    zhena gogolia

    Biden had a great ad that somebody posted on an earlier thread.
    I just tried to find it by googling and all I got was “Biden ad attacked for being racist, xenophobic!” That refers to the previous ad, about China, which was not at all racist or xenophobic. I see google is really trying to help out.

  8. 8.

    Achrachno

    Roy Zimmerman. “The Liar Tweets Tonight”

    Amusing and political.  And musical.  Is that what’s needed?

    New on YouTube and probably elsewhere.

  12. 12.

    zhena gogolia

    Okay, you’re right, here it is. I didn’t scroll down far enough.

    The office of the presidency comes with the ultimate responsibility for the biggest decisions in the world. Every great president throughout our history has met that duty with the leadership it demands. Donald Trump has not. pic.twitter.com/Dn9Gj50Dev— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) April 20, 2020

    Off to bed!

  14. 14.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Another Scott: McElwee had a really good point about the Democratic brand being strong and that it was a really bad idea to take shots at it.  But then, as we have been saying here since the SC primary, Biden is the only candidate who took the right lesson from the last few elections.

  15. 15.

    piratedan

    As we all hope that this too shall pass when it comes to the pandemic… I  think that we’re all simply exhausted and want to return to a time when politics were boring.

  18. 18.

    Ruckus

    @Another Scott:

    The only thing that should have been astounding about that campaign is that our political landscape is so fucked up that someone with over 2 decades in DC and an entire platform that’s pure BS could actually get passion and votes. Of course there have always been people whose political views could be summed up as BS so that’s really nothing new. And it is astounding that some of his supporters want to write him in, possibly as a replacement for Jesus, especially as he’s been handed his ass twice now, in 4 years.

  19. 19.

    WaterGirl

    @West of the Rockies: I couldn’t decide which I liked most.  The young boys doing the “huh” part, when the dumpster was dressed up like the Lion King, or the couple that had the one dance move they did all the way through.

    I always did love that song.

  20. 20.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Another Scott:

    Speaking of that thread what do you think of this argument re: M4A vs public option:

    One poll I saw in January 2019 (!), and I don’t claim to know what further polling has been done to gain insight on this phenomenon, if it is one. But:

    Most Democrats reported understanding “Medicare for All” as a government health insurance option.

    Most Republicans reported understanding “Medicare for All” as a universal government health insurance program that would nearly-eliminate private insurance.

    Maybe the decline in popularity over time has just been some Democrats realizing that Medicare for All != public option?

    Regardless, any decent public option, one that is actually worth (an individual) paying for as opposed to private alternatives, one that businesses can enroll their employees into or outright disposes of this group market… that public option would in the long run cost as much as Sanders’ M4A, and would be similarly devastating to the private health insurance industry.

    And of course the pillar lobbies of Pharma, Insurance, and Providers understand this and campaign against both equally.

    Which was in response to the top comment of that thread on LGM:

    The “Medicare for all” proposal in Wisconsin actually declined in popularity during the primary, with only 26% strongly favoring it and 40% strongly opposing it in a poll taken by the Marquette Law School a month ago.

    Meanwhile, the public option remained popular, with 63% in favor and 30% opposed.

    It’s like Nancy Pelosi might be keeping her ear to the ground or something.

  23. 23.

    dexwood

    @Yutsano: In his secret lab, workin’ on a cure. Can’t tell if your question is serious or snarky. Such are the times. Frankly, I think his staff is just trying to keep him uninfected, alive, and ready to roll. These days, however, communication being what it is, he should be out there hammering The Orange Plague from all directions. His campaign has done some good ads, but the country needs to see him every fucking day going after trump’s insanity.

    Good night, Balloon Juice.

  25. 25.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Ruckus:

     And it is astounding that some of his supporters want to write him in, possibly as a replacement for Jesus, especially as he’s been handed his ass twice now, in 4 years.

    In their minds, he was “robbed” by the evil establishment neolib DNC both times. BS of course

    They should ask themselves why he was never able to get AA support among the primary electorate both times. I’ve seen real pictures of young POC voters/supporters of his on the campaign’s subreddit. They do exist. Just not enough to make a difference

  27. 27.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @WaterGirl: Yep, I don’t really give a fuck about the details – that what Mayhew and that prig Anderson are for.  Get universal healthcare at a reasonable price and that’s all I care about.

  28. 28.

    Another Scott

    @Omnes Omnibus: Yeah, if one is running for the Democratic nomination, especially, it makes sense to not yell about how horrible the party is…

    I’m not really sure what the best lessons one should take from this set of candidates and their campaigns.  The winner was almost broke, and was almost written off early on, and performed poorly in early contests.  Others had their moments and either were written off by the political press or ran out of money or …  I guess the main lesson is:

    1. Don’t run out of money, unless everyone knows you from 8 years in national office.

    We had a lot of good candidates this time.  Some were probably too young and too inexperienced (Mayor Pete, HUD Sec. Castro); lots didn’t have national visibility; several had to continuously fight extraneous issues (family heritage stories; stabbing colleagues in the back; throwing staplers); and of course the billionaires had to show up to suck out of the attention out of the room with their gigantic egos…

    Things might have turned out very differently if there were only 4-5 candidates rather than ~ 20.  We’ll see what happens in 2028!!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  29. 29.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @WaterGirl:

    Pretty much the same. I just want something that is better than what we have, but we have to win first.

    I think a public option is a good first step in any case

  30. 30.

    West of the Rockies

    @WaterGirl:

    So let’s assume it comes to pass… Trump is voted out.  What do you jackyls suppose happens then?  Will he face:

    1. Criminal prosecution
    2. Public disgrace and the slow collapse of his businesses
    3. Diminishing appearances on Fox followed by quiet retirement and eventual physical and psychological decline
    4. Something else
  32. 32.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Oh yeah. Definitely. I always fucking hated the Sanders campaign’s “30% plurality path to victory” strategy. A good campaign should try to unite the party, not be all, “Fuck you, bend the knee”. It was divisive and we dodged a bullet by not nominating him.

    And honestly? It smacks of authoritarianism and is anti-democratic.

    I still can’t get over how they thought it was a good idea to piss all over the party they were trying to win the nomination of.

  33. 33.

    mrmoshpotato

    but I will put in a picture of my bluebells that miraculously survived the 22 degree freeze.

    If you tell me I’m the only one who read that as “blueballs,” I will call you a liar. :)

  34. 34.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Well, what do I know, I was just the guy shouting that there were still four Democrats running when a plurality here was trying to decide whether Sanders and Bloomberg was the lesser of two evils.

  35. 35.

    Ohio Mom

    Loomis’s history pieces — the gravesite and labor history ones — are interesting, if often too long for me.

    Generally, there isn’t much at LGM that I haven’t heard about here first, and a lot of their commentators are kinda mean-spirited. I don’t go there  as much as I used to.

    On another note, while Biden was not my first, second, third, and after that I stopped counting choice, he has grown on me tremendously.

    Because it looks like I can trust him to run a strong campaign and win (my other choices obviously could not run strong campaigns). That’s my bottom line, getting Trump o-u-t. There really anything to add to that.

  36. 36.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    as one of those someones…. Covid and politics are not mutually exclusive. To wit, trump was bloviating today about how horrible it is that Harvard, with their $40B endowment were applying for relief money. Fredo was tweeting about it.
    The Beast claims to be worth $10B, and he’s bidding for TAX PAYER DOLLARS to keep his business afloat (NYT):

    Eric Trump, the president’s son, confirmed that the company had opened a conversation about possible changes to the terms of the lease, which could include adjustments to future monthly payments. The Trump Organization has said it is current on its rent.

    he leading with his chin, every Dem pol and surrogate ought to be taking the opportunity to hammer this every time they’re asked about the relief packages

  39. 39.

    Another Scott

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Bernie’s M4A never made any sense to me.  It wasn’t Medicare.  Medicare doesn’t pay for everything.  Medicare controls costs by not paying for a bunch of stuff, and is part of the reason why people need supplemental policies.

    A public option doesn’t have to be related to Medicare at all – it can simply be a baseline insurance policy that the government will pay for via premiums.  Or it could be a stepping stone to something truly universal that helps to control costs.  It depends on how it’s set up and so forth.

    Progress in government and politics is always incremental.  M4A was a pipedream, especially as Bernie demanded it.  (Warren showed a way to make it happen, but the politics to make it happen quickly like that just aren’t there – still – and won’t be there even after this depression.  It’s too big a leap to make all at once, especially when so much more needs to be done at the same time.)

    In my world-of-the-possible, come January 2021, a bill to quickly fix the major problems with affordability under Obamacare are addressed (more people qualifying for $0 policies that cover enough of real-people’s costs).  Then problems and long-standing issues with Medicaid and Medicare are address.  Then, finally, carefully constructed bills to allow people to buy-into Medicare (or Medicaid) at ever younger ages are proposed to let people discuss and argue over.  And well before November 2022 the good bills pass and take effect in a reasonable time frame.

    Stuff like that.

    And the voters are happy and Democrats win larger majorities and even more good stuff – finally – happens!!

    Forward!!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  42. 42.

    Brachiator

    Politics seems another universe away.

    I guess I should not be surprised that some of Sanders supporters just will not face reality. But I cannot indulge their foolishness.

    I would like to see states uniformly make this November election day. And maybe look into making vote by mail seamlessly easy.

  44. 44.

    hueyplong

    Ha ha, a nostalgic F Wilmer thread.

    Seems so long ago.

    Can’t wait until we also get to think that about another guy.

  45. 45.

    Jinchi

    while Biden was not my first, second, third, and after that I stopped counting choice, he has grown on me tremendously.

    Biden was my seventh choice, but I always thought we had about a dozen strong candidates.

  47. 47.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Right?

    Remember the arguments back in 2016 on here? I remember Berniebros trying to argue that nobody cares about Sanders not being an actual Democrat. That it was a nothingburger non-issue.

    Surprise, they were full of shit

  48. 48.

    Another Scott

    @WaterGirl: As I said downstairs, I’ve only read him and/or LGM about 3 times in the last 20 years.  So I’m not a good person to pick sides.  But I certainly wasn’t impressed with that sentence!!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  49. 49.

    Redshift

    In other politics news, apparently Trump has succeeded in choosing priorities in dealing with covid that over-65’s are against 6-1, and Biden currently leads Trump by nine points among seniors. He probably won’t win then by that much in November, but if the GOP thinks “the economy is more important than your life” is a winner, who am I to argue?

  50. 50.

    Mai naem mobile

    I hope there are some Senate and House Dem staff and members meeting and setting up some solid plans on what to do when Biden wins. I am not counting my eggs already being hatched but with the way the GOP and the whole rw machine works you have to hit the ground running and get whatever you want passed in the first 6 months and maybe some lower priority stuff the following 3 months. After that the Dems will no doubt be tea partied and accomplish nothing in 2022. And,jeezus christ enough on the M4All/Public Option/Single Payer. Get whatever the fuck you can pass and,please please, don’t let the GOP waste a year and half like they did on the ACA. Fuckers dragged out the ACA so that the Dems couldn’t move onto anything else. We have to learn from these mistakes.

  52. 52.

    MomSense

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    The situation we find ourselves in is that the details of the plans aren’t nearly as important as the people who would implement the policies. Medicare for all with aRepublican administration sounds like a horror show to me.  The ACA with Republicans was sabotaged and is still in jeopardy, but at least women could access contraception and abortion because the evil profit motivated corporations are in the mix.

    Who we elect matters more than the plans.

  54. 54.

    Starfish

    @Another Scott: I think it is important to be deeply disappointed in Sanders and the way he ran his campaign. If we are not, he will get to continue with the complete lack of accountability for anything that he maintained throughout the whole campaign.

  55. 55.

    Ohio Mom

    I’ve been on Medicare for almost two months now. It’s a mess of a kludge.

    One thing that is already obvious to me is that it is a mistake to have the drug plan separate (Yes, I know the history behind that).

    Your doctor could want one med for you, at a particular dose, but the drug plan has no financial interest in keeping you healthy. It’s not like they are going to be paying for the procedure that could have been avoided with a different medication or dose.

    It’s also nuts that midway through the year you could acquire a medical condition that needs a med that isn’t on your Drug Plan’s formulary.

    Anyway, Medicare for All might sound good but what I’d rather have is traditional Medicaid. But I’ll be happy with whatever improvement Democrats are able to eke out.

  61. 61.

    ziggy

    @West of the Rockies: Rapid physical and psychological decline. Like the day he went to the CDC and wet his pants, but worse. Actually I cannot wait for the day I NEVER have to think about him again.

  64. 64.

    Viva BrisVegas

    @West of the Rockies: So let’s assume it comes to pass… Trump is voted out. What do you jackyls suppose happens then?

    Trump goes back to Plan A, which was Trump TV.

    The Presidency was always Plan B.

    Trump TV will of course be (indirectly) underwritten by Putin.

    Trump uses the scam to pay lawyers to appeal every case to the highest court available without ever seeing the inside of a cell before he dies.

  65. 65.

    Mai naem mobile

    @West of the Rockies: prosecution and prison for him and at least his son in law. Possibly his daughter. I say prison because my guess is he’s going to be prosecuted in NY and the jury will not look kindly at him. Also if the GOP loses big in November they’re going to deny that he was even a Republican. He won’t go quietly. He’ll be whining like a whiny little bitch all the way. I can’t wait to see the perp watch. I don’t hate people easy but I hate this man and his odious family and enablers. Really all around  ugly ugly people.

  66. 66.

    Raoul

    McConnell is suddenly concerned about the deficit again. My, what a surprise.

    Also, I now suspect that his team was shopping this shit to reporters the past week, since both NYT and WaPo suddenly did deficit-scold articles in the past few days.

    I don’t know why Dems suck so bad at this, but it’s infuriating.

  67. 67.

    Eric U.

    I didn’t want Biden to run because I was convinced he would screw it up again.  But he ran a smart campaign in his own way.

  69. 69.

    BruceFromOhio

    I finally RTFM on the rototiller I borrowed from my brother-in-law, and tilled two nice 10×20 plots. Earlier than I planned, but it was a dry spell, and after the spring here in the Buckeye, that’s a thing. I let the infernal contraption do all the work while I tried not to trod the tilled soil too much, it was still really wet down under. Now the soil has sat all day with a cold, dry wind blowing, and the robins hunting for survivors. It looks awesome, I can’t wait to make it go. MrsFromOhio just keeps looking out the window, sighing and smiling. That alone is worth the sweat equity. And I didn’t fuck up my back this time, either. Double bonus.

  71. 71.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @WaterGirl:

    Is PPV even still a thing? I know it was big with boxing back in the day. On-Demand and later streaming replaced PPV

  73. 73.

    Raoul

    @Omnes Omnibus: Deficits, debt, and the messaging around them.

    They do not fucking matter, but too many DC Dems still act like they do. It’s why McConnell is deploying this now.

    Dems should laugh derisively and in unison. But at least a third of the Dems in Congress will wring their hands about long term challenges, tradeoffs, etc.

  75. 75.

    BruceFromOhio

    @Ohio Mom: Loomis is a treasure. Ignore the commentariat, pedants rule that roost. All the FP’ers there are great – Lemieux, Campos, Farley, Loomis – and are all pissed off like I am. I love that place.

    ETA: Not like I love this place. Only Vacuumslayer is posting recipes at LGM. BJ’ers have recipe dimensions. There is a distinction.

  76. 76.

    Ohio Mom

    Starfish: The labor history pieces are certainly something you won’t find anywhere else. And it’s good and important to be reminded that the history of unions is something of a long, drawn-out civil war, still in process today (though our side appears mightily defeated).

    I just wish Loomis had an editor to tighten up some of the longer digressions.

  77. 77.

    West of the Rockies

    @ziggy:

    I think he will decline fast.  He’s a blown-out fat ass who’s had a bad diet for decades.  I hope Watergirl is right about at least state prosecution (I think it was WG).  It will speed up the decline.  I’d like to see them all go out like the Nazis at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark.

  79. 79.

    Another Scott

    @WaterGirl: Whoops.  Reading my reply to you was quite ambiguous.  I’m happy you started this thread – sometimes (not often, but sometimes!) it’s hard to find a timely one to post political stuff in.

    I wasn’t impressed with the Loomis sentence I quoted.  ;-)

    Thanks for all you do for us here!!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  80. 80.

    MomSense

    I gave my son a haircut, only with clippers.  I was afraid to do it after seeing so many disasters, but his hair was getting really long and bothering him.  For context, his hair is a lot like Kit Harrington except he might even have more of it.

    It came out really well.  His friends even liked it. We are both relieved.

  81. 81.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Raoul:

    Dems should laugh derisively and in unison.

    how many R Senators would break with McConnell after they did that?

  83. 83.

    Raoul

    Interest rates are going to be fuck-all for years to come. And if they eventually aren’t, we can just inflate our way out of the problem. But the Dem leadership is old enough to still be scarred by Carter-era stagflation.
    To hell with all that when unemployment is skyrocketing and states are facing fiscal armageddon. This is McConnell’s real target: he doesn’t want to bail out blue states — nor red, one supposes — and his stand is mean to screw over the deficit-constrained states, gives him insane leverage. << That’s what I mean about Dems sucking at this.

    Also, a good nostalgic thread about politics around here has to have some ‘dems suck’ whining. Happy to provide. :0

  85. 85.

    Yutsano

    @dexwood: I guess my snark wasn’t clear. I was mocking one of our resident BernueBros whi thinks Biden has completely disappeared from the national discourse because President Toadface has been sucking up all the media oxygen. Biden has been out there, releasing ads and giving interviews and such. But it’s low lever right now because it has to be. Dolt45 is making mistakes right and left. We should keep letting him while saving as many lives as possible.

  86. 86.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Ohio Mom:

    I agree with you about the commenters being mean-spirited on LGM. Above all else, I get tired of the almost constant eeyorism that’s sometimes on display on LGM’s comments. It gets tiring.

    I see a lot of names on there that used to comment here

  91. 91.

    Ohio Mom

    BrucefromOhio: Pendants is a good way to describe them.

    And now it’s tome for my evening ablutions. Night all!

  94. 94.

    WaterGirl

    @Yutsano: You were doing the same thing I was with my “Dems in disarray!” and “can we fight about whether Loomis is worth reading or not?”

    Just conversation starters.  :-)

  98. 98.

    MomSense

    @WaterGirl:

    They are technically people clippers, but I got them to shave my Maine Coon cat years ago.  Kid was so desperate he didn’t care.

  99. 99.

    WaterGirl

    @mrmoshpotato: I may have to try to get that one started.  I’ll look around the yard and see if I can find a good candidate. Common names for flowers have to start somewhere, am I right?

    Okay, now it’s really bedtime.

  100. 100.

    Delk

    I bought some plaid face masks today. The colors are based on Kate Bush’s The Kick Inside album cover.

  101. 101.

    Jay

    Showing lack of Revolutionary fervor, so-called “Democratic Socialists” of US cynically endorse Noted Idiot Donald Trump for President, sources say.— DPRK News Service (@DPRK_News) April 13, 2020

  103. 103.

    Another Scott

    Reuters:

    […]

    To reduce the risk of large companies getting the bulk of the loans, Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said, $125 billion of small business funds in the latest package would go to “mom and pop” and minority-owned stores.

    The deal includes $321 billion for a small business lending program, $60 billion for a separate emergency disaster loan program – also for small businesses – as well as $75 billion for hospitals and $25 billion for national coronavirus testing.

    [image]

    Schumer, during a short debate, highlighted the funds for fighting the coronavirus, in addition to the aid for small businesses.

    “We can give loans to small businesses, but if there’s no customers walking the streets to go into their stores, what good is that?” Schumer said.

    Congress already is working on a fifth coronavirus-response bill. Schumer said it could be similar in size to the $2.3 trillion economic stimulus enacted on March 27.

    […]

    (Emphasis added.)

    The House will pass this $484B bill on Thursday.

    Moscow Mitch whining about Teh Deficit is just a way for him to try to stall the 5th bill.

    Earlier today I posted a pointer to an AEI white paper that estimated that COVxx-19 will put a $9T hole in the economy (based on various assumptions that have poor estimates at present – it could be much worse). The US Government is going to have to spend a mountain of money, and Moscow Mitch isn’t going to stop it. Spending it sooner will help much more than spending it later…

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  104. 104.

    joel hanes

    Back in the golden age of blogging, when Cole was still a Republican war-blogger, the internet was graced by a blog written by Echidne Of The Snakes, a minor Greek goddess.

    She’s still blogging.

    She’s still good.

    Here she explains the method behind Trump’s “I’m halting all immigration” madness:

    http://echidneofthesnakes.blogspot.com/

  105. 105.

    randy khan

    @Another Scott:

    A lot of politicians have one trick – for instance, in Mitch McConnell’s case, it’s saying no – and they aren’t great at adapting when it’s not enough.  Sanders, it turns out, is one of those politicians.  He wasn’t capable of turning his advantage after two caucuses and a primary into a majority because he really wasn’t capable of adapting to, let alone planning for, the requirements of being the frontrunner.  I think a lot of people who follow politics and are smart about how getting elected works in a broad-based party find that surprising because they can see what’s necessary and they don’t understand why the politicians don’t.

    In some ways, the worst thing that could have happened to Sanders is what happened in 2016.  He ran much closer to Clinton than anyone expected (although still not that close), and he may have read that as meaning the party was shifting his way (possibly along with drinking some of his own Kool-Aid about the primaries being rigged).  So he may not have thought he needed to adapt, and that he’d get the brass ring by doing what he did.  Or maybe – and this is what I think – he never was capable of what needed to be done.

  107. 107.

    randy khan

    @WaterGirl:

    I like LGM, including Loomis (and its commentariat).  It’s definitely a different flavor than here, but I can get my pet blogging and home renovation needs met here and find other satisfactions there.

  108. 108.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Another Scott:

    Earlier today I posted a pointer to an AEI white paper that estimated that COVxx-19 will put a $9T hole in the economy (based on various assumptions that have poor estimates at present – it could be much worse). The US Government is going to have to spend a mountain of money, and Moscow Mitch isn’t going to stop it.

    He will stop it the moment a Democrat becomes President. It’s the ransom-note argument for voting Republican: if a Republican isn’t President, the Republicans in Congress will intentionally throttle any economic recovery.

  109. 109.

    Citizen Alan

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    I still can’t get over how they thought it was a good idea to piss all over the party they were trying to win the nomination of.

    Why? It’s what Trump did and it fucking worked! Every mistake the Berniacs made that we are rightly mocking them for was something that Trump did on his road to winning the nomination, and it always worked! The mistake the Bros made was in believing their own dogma about how there was no real difference between Democrats and Republicans and thus assuming that Bernie’s Democratic opponents would be as craven as Shitgibbon’s GOP opponent and would stay in the race to the bitter end so that no anti-Bernie would coalesce.

  110. 110.

    danielx

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Get universal healthcare at a reasonable price and that’s all I care about.

    Hear, hear – good basic benefits with various options, or something. AND some sort of dental coverage, which many people lack.

    Apropos of nothing whatever, and apologies if someone has mentioned this already – but has anyone noticed that this country, which “can’t afford to provide universal health care”, has just gone into trillions of debt without blinking an eye? A lot of which, depend on it, will vanish into the pockets of various scoundrels one way or another. How much would universal health care cost, again? Starting to look like a bargain at any price, to me anyway.

    This may well be the last Republican bust-out opportunity, and best believe they will, and are, looting like there’s not going to be a tomorrow. Which for them, politically, might well be the case. The whole situation is tailor-made for massive corruption, so why not get what they can, while they can?

  112. 112.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Citizen Alan: Why?

    Because outside of the rarefied confines of left leaning blogs, most Democrats actually like and are loyal to the Democratic Party.

  113. 113.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    now here’s a campaign I can believe in

    Christopher J. Hale @chrisjollyhale 11
    Rep. DesJarlais pulled a gun on his first wife and shot it, forced her and mistresses into three abortions, and illegally prescribed painkillers for a patient he was sleeping with while married. Me? Not so much.
    I will vote to give you health care though.

  114. 114.

    Brachiator

    @Another Scott:

    Earlier today I posted a pointer to an AEI white paper that estimated that COVxx-19 will put a $9T hole in the economy (based on various assumptions that have poor estimates at present – it could be much worse). The US Government is going to have to spend a mountain of money, and Moscow Mitch isn’t going to stop it.

    Things will get very interesting for 2021 and beyond.

    The last big tax bill created deficits for years to come. The $2 trillion emergency bill also included additional massive corporate tax cuts. But the GOP is already teeing up their bullshit about how we just must cut entitlement spending.

  116. 116.

    Jinchi

    @Raoul: But at least a third of the Dems in Congress will wring their hands about long term challenges, tradeoffs, etc.

    I’ll be right with you if the Democrats actually fall for it, but I’m going to wait for them to screw up before attacking them for doing it. It seems to me that in the last few years, after the $1 trillion, billionaire tax cut and the rapidly increasing budget deficits under Trump-McConnell, Democrats finally caught on to the scam.

  117. 117.

    Calouste

    @Another Scott: It can be astounding that Sanders didn’t learn any lessons from 2016, but it was also completely predictable. One thing it certainly wasn’t was surprising.

  118. 118.

    cckids

    @Yutsano: WHERE IS BIDEN???

    If you’re seriously looking, he does a ?bi-weekly or weekly podcast, called “Here’s the Deal”. There are 5 or 6 episodes so far; guests are people like Amy Klobuchar, Rev. Dr. William Barber, Jon Meacham or Gretchen Whitmer. The first one is  a little rough, but Biden has improved rapidly, and they are all interesting. His basic decency really comes through, and he relishes getting solid hits in on Trump.

    I wish it was getting more play, his communications team needs to get in gear.

  119. 119.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @mrmoshpotato: To the tune of Tom Lehrer’s “New Math”:

    Doc said, “It’s blueballs, blu-hu-hu-balls,

    “And your health plan won’t pay for getting some new balls.”

    It’s painful, so very painful,

    That only bed rest can cure it….

    :^p

  122. 122.

    J R in WV

    @West of the Rockies:

    Why not all four? Seriously, in trouble with the law, how can he not be? He breaks the law like most people breathe.

    Fox won’t invite him back once he loses the White House AND the Senate AND the House. They aren’t interested in losers, and that’s what he will be late next November.

    I would think he will hesitate to do anything really dramatic once he’s lost the election. Losing will be really hard on him, but I don’t think we’ll get that lucky. But he should be aware that he is no longer invulnerable to investigation, indictment, criminal court, etc.

    He could be impeached again, say in November as soon as a new set of legislators take their places — I would have to look up the dates, but I would think even Republican Senators would have to consider what to do about an impeached loser… he could lose his pension, even! So sad for baby Trump!

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