So, Pete and Klobuchar have dropped out and endorsed Biden. (I’m hearing unconfirmed rumors that Buttigieg had to have his arm twisted.) The lastest polls show Biden up slightly. Warren has stayed in, and yeah, it’s credible that the reason why is because more of her voters would go Bernie. Wonder if she was offered Biden’s VP slot?
Biden is very clearly senile. Sounds like he has dementia.
Use the comments to this thread to discuss, as this will be the story of the day.
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Z
When corrupt institutions fall they usually collapse under the weight of their own lies.
Hopefully, we’ll look back at today as the day the DNC and democratic party establishment crumbles.
Z
Hugh
Had to laugh Yamiche Alcindor on Morning Joe bemoaning the “conspiracy” theories among Sanders supporters that the Establishment media is out to get him and their growing “hostility” to these journalists who are, according to her, “just doing their job.” Of course, Alcindor’s spiel was a perfect example of an Establishment reporter sticking a shiv in Sanders and his campaign and then feigning surprise and hurt at any critical reaction to it.
For a supposedly inquisitive press, there has been a near total lack of curiosity in the behind the scenes actors and activities which led to the sudden ends of the Buttigieg and Klobuchar campaigns, and the belated anointing of Biden, a guy who is temperamentally and intellectually not up to running for or holding the Presidency, who would need a semi to carry all his political baggage, and who is poison to progressives and Millennials. It just underscores again that the Democratic leadership class and their leech-like consultants would rather lose with Biden than win with Sanders.
KT Chong
Amy Klobuchar also dropped out right after Pete Buttigieg, and she also endorsed Joe Biden.
Soon afterward, Beto O’Rourke followed and endorsed Joe Biden as well.
CBS News: Buttigieg, Klobuchar, O’Rourke endorse Biden ahead of Super Tuesday
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GqV2bqvlJo
The “centrist”/establishment/”moderate” Democrats are coalescing and consolidating behind Joe Biden. IMO this will definitely hurt Bernie Sanders.
Elizabeth Warren ain’t dropping out, even though she has not won any primary. Her best performance was coming in at third in Iowa, but she usually finished at the third and fourth place. She has absolutely no chance of winning the nomination, but the establishment wants her to stay in the race to leech progressive votes away from Bernie. Now it seems obvious that she has made a deal with the DNC establishment to stop Bernie.
The Hill’s Krystal Ball: Why won’t Warren drop out?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNg3Sg6Tpl4
Warren used to be a progressive leader in the Senate, yet in a few weeks she has completely destroyed her progressive cred. Someone please “primary” her in her upcoming Senate re-election bid.
I had hope that Andrew Yang would do the right thing and come out to endorse Bernie, but that was too much to hope for. Yang had said he was inspired by Bernie in 2016 to run for President. However, after he had dropped out of the race, he joined CNN and has been bashing Bernie. Yet another traitor to the progressive cause.
I am not sure why Tulsi Gabbard is still in the race, but she ain’t dropping out. She was a progressive hero in 2016 when she defied the DNC to endorse Bernie. However, she has alienated a large part of the progressive base due to her close tie to the Indian Prime Minister Modi and her continuous appearances on Fox News to needlessly attack her own party. She has become a pariah among both the centrist/establishment/moderate Democrats AND the progressives. I predict Tulsi will switch party and join the Republican Party after Trump’s re-election.
KT Chong
i.e., the progressive wing of the Democratic Party is unraveling. Too many rats and snakes.
Hugh
One other thing. Progressives and especially Millennials are the future of the country. So it is really something seeing people like Buttigieg, Klobuchar, O’Rourke, who have aspirations of running again, lining up behind Biden and burning their bridges with precisely the groups they would need to make any future run viable.
Z
KT,
Tulsi will 100% not become a republican after the election. She’s just keeping her campaign going in case something happens to Bernie in which case she’d be up and ready to carry the torch for the movement. I wouldn’t doubt that this is an agreement she made with Bernie.
She’s not taking many votes from Bernie. If she was, she’d probably suspend her campaign.
No, she’s not perfect, but she’s not a sellout either.
Z
anon
Bully Trump cannot wait to get into the debate ring and humiliate Biden who clearly shows early signs of dementia. Biden will need a strong VP candidate in order to win. He may have a shot if he’s made a deal with Warren to take the VP slot. She is the only establishment candidate in this election who can court women and a certain number of progressives, although I believe this will damage her standing long-term with most progressives and young voters. I am very disappointed in Warren for betraying the progressive movement in this way when she should be joining forces with Sanders and running as his VP.
If anyone hasn’t read Buttigieg’s high school essay on Sanders, you can find it here: https://www.jfklibrary.org/learn/education/profile-in-courage-essay-contest/past-winning-essays/2000-winning-essay-by-peter-buttigieg?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIvp2b3rP-5wIVUNbACh0SvgB5EAAYAiAAEgIVtPD_BwE
Buttigieg is a very ambitious and intelligent young man who sold his beliefs to join establishment Democrats. Buttigieg probably did need to have his arm twisted to drop out of the race. He does not seem like a quitter. He would not have won the nomination, and that may have ultimately swayed his decision to drop out rather than go against the DNC, but he was not doing that badly in the polls. He may have even been able to beat Biden in a few states. My guess is that Buttigieg would have wanted to stay in the race until after Super Tuesday. Imagine what sort of backroom deals, threats, and promises were made by the DNC to convince Buttigieg and Klobuchar to drop out right before Super Tuesday.
anon
Hugh: Klobuchar will never be president. I can see Buttigieg and O’Rourke running for president again. I can see Klobuchar, Buttigieg, O’Rourke, and Warren vying for Biden’s VP. Ian is correct that Biden is senile and is showing signs of dementia. The VP spot will matter more than usual for both Biden and, to a lesser extent, Sanders, because of their age and health concerns. The other candidates can see the writing on the wall and that they may have significantly more power to act on Biden’s behalf in the role of VP, or even become president, if Biden can no longer function in a few years.
Z
Beto’s biggest political asset is his first name, that’s how shallow his character is.
The Beto Burger – a toasty white bun with nothing inside of it.
He’s a pathetic political performance artist.
He’s about as doped up as Lyin’ Liz and The Donald.
Z
Z
The DNC Democratic Party establishment to voters: a man who is going senile and basically has all the policy positions and corruption of Hillary Clinton is our best candidate to beat Donald Trump in 2020.
Z
anon
Obama Nudged Buttigieg in Direction of Biden Endorsement: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KB3MaOxwj84&feature=emb_title
StewartM
(Hearing unconfirmed rumors that Buttigieg had to have his arm twisted.) </i?
Mayor Pete was running campaign ads in MY STATE as late as Sunday night!! This can't be something that was foreseen, a decision point forced by the SC results (he wasn't expected to do well there). There were Midwestern states that would come later where he might be expected to do well.
As for Beto, he's been out of the race for four full months now. If he truly thought Biden's the guy, he had plenty of time to endorse him months ago. Amy would have won Minnesota and had friendly Midwestern states too. Interestingly too, Warren stays in the race, even though her path to the nomination is no better than these (but she can help deny Bernie votes in MA and CA, which is why).
This has all the fingerprints of a DNC power play; right out in the open. They and the country will pay for this in November. Especially when Biden follows his natural inclinations and picks a (fellow) Republican as his running mate. One must remember in 2016 Trump got *fewer* votes than either McCain or hapless Romney, yet he won because Clinton depressed Democratic turnout by her campaign meme of "I'm the REAL Republican running!".
Z
How timely for the DNC-Clinton-Obama-Jewish Mafia-Democratic Party establishment to push for the party candidate who calls for the least change of any of them to the current healthcare system.
Obama’s leaving a fine legacy for his daughters to have to live under. His brand won’t be able to conceal the poison it sells forever. There are real-life consequences to what he has done and is continuing to do. He’ll get his reckoning one way or the other.
Z
StewartM
On Buttigieg, a story the day right after SC:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/mar/01/pete-buttigieg-quit-democratic-race-joe-biden-south-carolina
Pete Buttigieg will not drop out of the race to be the Democratic presidential nominee, despite finishing well behind Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders in the South Carolina primary on Saturday.
Joe Biden breathes new life into his campaign with landslide South Carolina win
Read more
“Every day we are in this campaign is a day that we have reached the conclusion that pushing forward is the best thing we can do for the country and for the party,” he insisted on NBC’s Meet the Press.
450.org
Wow, Obama’s even more of a CIA slimeball than I imagined he was. Considering Pete’s part of The Family, it didn’t take too much arm twisting by Obama to get Pete to do his dirty work, oh yeah.
It’s the craziest thing. The CIA wants Trump as POTUS. Why? That’s what I can’t figure out. Why does the CIA want Trump as POTUS all things considered? What does it have up its sleeve? Something big & awful must be afoot. Something many times worse than COVID-19.
I guess we’ll find out soon enough.
If it fails to prevent Bernie from winning the Dem nomination outright, it should be clear to everyone here that they will assassinate Bernie. They’re telegraphing that they will use any & all means to prevent him from ascending to the Oval Office. Remember Paul Wellstone. When all else fails and the target cannot be reasoned with and will not compromise, there’s the last resort.
Z
How do you get a party like the democratic party that absolutely despises its voters and their interests? When it’s controlled by a Jewish mafia that has a much greater loyalty to Israel than they do the U.S..
It’s not that simple, of course, but that’s the greatest truth about that party. The Jewish mafia gained a controlling interest in it during the Clinton years.
Z
Willy
Speculation is fine and all, but progs gotta have a strategy. You know damned well the establishment does. The inevitable growth of disaffected young workers may not be happening quickly enough. Sure the mass media is rotting and ‘netflix solutions’ are happening everywhere, but if Bernie doesn’t win strongly enough today and Biden eventually gets the nomination having progs bitching on the sidelines will only draw the tired old inevitable ‘They’re Not Clapping Loudly Enough!’ scapegoating from elites. Well, no, we’re not clapping, but booing, sighing and even laughing at how Trump is eating Biden alive. But the mass media won’t be reporting that, much.
We’ve gotta be able to think beyond any possibilities.
nihil obstet
The corraling of the younger politicians is a long-term triumph for the establishment, or so they see it. Our political system is geriatric because it hasn’t developed a next generation. The Republicans did it better, but the politicians they developed are all so loathsome that they could have saved their time. The Democratic Party establishment has ruthless squashed any left leaning younger candidates for thirty years. It recruits right wing candidates and promises party and financial support. If elected, they have to fund raise, using party resources that demand right wing action. Their districts don’t get pork.
Now, they are no doubt celebrating the round up of the next generation. I’m very slowly beginning to wonder if there will finally be a viable third party. We’d have the current Republican Party as the crazies and billionaires, the current Democratic Party as the professional/managerial class, and a new mass party. I’d still put the odds very much against, given the power of the duopoly.
Z
I’m looking forward to the day that Obama faces protests against him as he continues to try to cash in on his gig as the Head PR Man for the One Percent. They’re coming.
No rational individual can now claim that he’s hustling other political figures, behind the scenes the f*ing coward, to give a man slipping into senility their endorsements because it’s for the good of the country. No, it’s good for only one group: his class and himself. And that’s all he’s ever been good for.
Again, Obama not just a terrible president, but a horrible, horrible human being.
Z
highrpm
super tuesday: epic [market] Crash & Bern [wins.]
Benjamin
Today’s the day. Sanders has to do extremely well today, or he’s likely effectively lost the whole thing. He needs to get massive momentum from today.
With the establishment desperately putting all their eggs in one (rotten, decaying) basket in an attempt to stop Sanders, the battle lines are clearly drawn. If people vote for Biden, a man who in addition to being a neoliberal slime very obviously has a brain consisting mostly of Swiss cheese at this point (or if they vote for fucking Bloomberg), those people are morons, and deserve whatever suffering they have in store for themselves (though the rest of us don’t).
Z
I can hear it from my liberal ex-friends now: the republicans made Obama do it!
Z
John B.
For the life of me why do most of you think it is surprising that moderates like Pete, Amy and Beto end up endorsing mr moderate himself, Joe Biden? They were never going to endorse Bernie and once they figured out they weren’t going to win they end up endorsing the only candidate capable of beating Bernie. I am not saying he will, in fact, I think he won’t, but a lot depends on what happens today and tonight. It’s a two lane race; moderate and left of moderate. Biden has one lane, Bernie the other. As for Liz, she can’t and won’t drop out before super Tuesday; it doesn’t make sense for her to do so. She’s still at least theoretically in it and she has to respect the folks that have worked for her and will vote for her. If her path is definitively closed after tonight, as I expect it will be (see above: it’s a two lane race and somebody already occupies the lane she wants to be in), I fully expect her to unequivocally endorse Bernie.
different clue
@K T Chong,
I don’t watch Fox News ( or any other news). My TV set isn’t hooked up to anything. So I don’t get to see Gabbard on TV.
When you say she is attacking her “party” . . . I suspect what she is really attacking is the Wall Street Catfood Democrats and the Clintobamazoids who have conquered and currently occupy the Democratic Party. If the Catfood Clintobamazoids really ARE the Democratic Party, then the Democratic Party is a threat and a menace to our existence, and our mere survival requires exterminating the Catfood Clintobamazoid Party from existence and comprehensively wiping it off the face of the earth.
I expect Gabbard thinks the party can still be disinfected , declintaminated and disobamafied.
bruce wilder
why do most of you think it is surprising . . . moderates like Pete, Amy and Beto end up endorsing . . . Joe Biden?
One important reason it is “surprising” is because Joe Biden, quite apart from his supposed “moderation”, is so manifestly unsuited for the office of President of the United States as well as being very unlikely to win the general election, given his political record and stances.
Does it make sense to endorse someone who thinks today is “super thursday”? The man has dementia!
And, the political record of the former Senator from MBNA is repulsive, so repulsive he makes Trump look good. No politically aware person can believe Biden has a clear path to a general election victory.
So, yes, it is surprising that the “moderates” would all fold their tents in unison in favor of someone who is likely to lose the election, and who, if he won could not handle the Office.
And no one should expect Pocahontas to ever endorse the man she accused of being a sexist and a liar on national tv.
different clue
@Benjamin,
The “rest of us” are going to have to start thinking on two or three parallel tracks at the same time. One of the things we might think about is how we individually and collectively begin to air-gap ourselves and unplug ourselves from the “Biden community”. How can we begin to semi-immunize ourselves from the Brezhnevian stagnation they will work to bring to America if they get their Dead Vegetable Walking elected?
How do we prepare to survive the leaner tougher meaner Trump 2.0 which will succeed a President Biden?
That is one of several things we should begin thinking about and planning about and acting about starting now. And esPECially starting after Biden’s Super Tuesday victory . . . if that is what happens.
different clue
@Bruce Wilder,
The Catfood Democrat elites decided their Prime Directive was to stop Sanders. They decided that way back in 2016. That is why they rigged the primary season against Sanders and in favor of the most loathsome, noisome and disgusting puddle of sewage in American politics.
And they will do it again. They have already said they prefer President Trump over a President Sanders.
If they can insert their Dead Vegetable Walking into the Nominee slot, that means they have thereby kept Sanders out of it. And that is all that matters to the DLC Hamilton Project Third Way NeoLiberal Catfood Clintobamacrats. A Trump term two is just fine with them, thank you very much.
different clue
Oh, and . . . Warren will try selling her delegates to the highest bidder. But she will wait too late and she will find no bidders and no buyers at all. She will go on to be primaried for her next Senate election and we will see how that goes.
I like how Jimmy Dore responded to questions of whether Warren was truthful or not about claiming “Cherokee ancestry”. He said that if he were to doubt her story , that he would be accusing a Native American of lying and he “just wasn’t going to go there”.
different clue
@Z,
Obama’s one driving ambition is to become America’s first Billionaire ex-president. His daughters will be mega-millionaires. They will ascend on a rocket ship of money into the high levels of America’s moneyistocracy.
Why would Obama or his rich daughters consider that a bad legacy?
KT Chong
As I said and would like to repeat:
If Obama and Trump run against each other in an election, I will vote for Trump over Obama.
sbt
Though most of you will have considered this already, I suspect that the current crop of Biden-backers did so with the expectation that he would be elected, then would step down due to mental illness, and since they were the VP they’d have the seat.
Further, I also suspect the party handlers are “next-level’ing” this shit. They are looking beyond their token endorsements and are now deciding which of those recent Biden-backers will be easiest to mold and direct. The one they choose will be selected to be Biden’s VP.
All speculation on my part, and again I assume you all would have considered this already. I’m new at this.
450.org
Joe Biden is a moderate? Yeah, I don’t think so. He’s not even a Democrat except in name only. He’s a DINO. Always has been. Buttigieg is anything he feels or thinks he needs to be at the moment considering his actions now versus his glowing high school essay about Bernie and Klobuchar is a whore to her wealthy donors (Petters anyone?) and will do anything to keep them happy and pleased. Warren is a true moderate, at least compared to the preceding three I mentioned.
Of course, what is a Democrat these days? What is the Democratic party these days? Not what it once was any more than the Republican party is the party of Lincoln.
I’m done with the Dems’ disingenuous griping about Trump. It’s all for show. They love him when you get right down to it. Otherwise, why are they trying so hard to reelect him? He’s good for business, as they say. The perfect foil to keep their ruse going a little while longer before the hangman cometh.
someofparts
https://thehill.com/hilltv/rising
Hope that plays. Apologies if it doesn’t.
It may not be possible to hold a convention if nothing stops the coronavirus before November.
It’s going to be Trump again anyway if Obama foists Biden on us.
I do wonder how the mere ordinary processes of a political campaign will play out over the year ahead. With a pandemic already here and big shocks to the economy on the way, what will things even be like six months from now? Will people even care about this ruling class election kabuki if/when shortages of critical things kick in?
At least watching the Biden/Trump debates will be funny, if you enjoy gallows humor.
Z
Our best hope for the coronavirus: that it mutates into something much less harmful very quickly. That once it passes through a few people, it’s seriously weakened. It’s possible, if it originated in another animal and was passed to humans that there is something in the human DNA that absorbs it and weakens it before it passes it on. Maybe that’s why it didn’t originate in us.
Z
bruce wilder
Lambert Strether started a list of Biden endorsements:
Debbie Wasserman-Schultze
John O Brennan
Spotting more such “kiss of death” recommendations that the mainstream Media won’t arch an eyebrow at could be good sport.
Is Chris Matthews still retired? Not feeling anything running up his pantleg?
Z
Maybe the reason it was so bad in China was that the animal it originated from is local to there and it is passing the virus on to humans and other animals. Maybe it has gotten into their food chain.
Z
Jeff in Texas
I thought the Democrats pushing Hillary come hell or high water in 2016 because it was “her turn” was crazy, given that she was one of the two most hated presidential candidates in modern history (the other being Trump), but even so, I didn’t actually think she’d lose to a reality show moron like Trump, and she was perfectly capable of speaking in complete sentences and generally sounded like she knew what century she was in. But for them to go all in on Biden now is taking things to a whole other level. He has as much baggage and scandal as Hillary (Hunter on the take in Ukraine, his brother selling island property to a lobbyist at three times what he paid for it, etc), all the same terrible decisions on war, security state abuses, and cutting social security and medicare. And the Democrats made the highly dubious decision of making the entire focus of the impeachment of Trump the Biden/Ukraine scandal, providing a unique line of attack on Biden that no other Democratic candidate would be vulnerable to. All with the added bonus of being quite obviously cognitively compromised to the point that I would not allow him to supervise children or drive to the grocery store by himself, much less run the goddam executive branch. It’s like they believe literally anyone can beat Trump, and they intend to prove it by running the shittiest possible candidate they can.
Warren I can’t figure out completely. She knows she is pulling support from Sanders and making a brokered convention more likely, where I cannot imagine she thinks she would be the “unity” candidate that the DNC pulls out of its butt, given that she has been running 4th or worse in every race so far and the DNC clearly has put its money on Biden. She can’t win outright unless Bernie or Biden both die in the next few months. She might be angling to be VP (again with the hope that the older president she runs with dies and gives her the White House), but if she is wanting to be Biden’s veep, I’m not sure she would have made such pointed comments about the Democratic establishment after Biden’s Texas Moderate-palooza Festival last night. Maybe she is gunning for Bernie’s VP spot, and he won’t give it to her (because I think that would be a very weak choice for him– doesn’t help geographically or philosophically as far as I can tell)? Or maybe she is just a really, really clueless politician? Her decision to release the DNA results as if they were a win for her speaks to a deep misunderstanding of how this shit works– she claimed to be a minority for years, and her DNA showed she had a Native American ancestor 6 to 10 generations ago…which is less Indian blood than practically ANYONE who is from any part of America that once had a significant native population. I had a great grandmother who was supposedly half Cherokee– practically everyone I knew growing up had a similar ancestor. No one claimed to be Indian. The idea that those DNA results would vindicate her speaks to political incompetence on an epic level, so god only knows what she thinks she is doing right now.
Z
There could even be something in the Asian DNA that makes them more susceptible to it.
I don’t hear about it ravaging any African countries yet.
I know that it might not be being properly diagnosed in Africa, but they are a culture and a people that often live in tight quarters, share close meals with each other, and even share the same plate and eat with their fingers. You’d think that it would tear through their population pretty fiercely and that it’d be obvious that something was going on even without testing.
Z
Jesse Kilgore
hello super Tuesday cohorts — Is anyone else in the middle of this new extreme left and extreme right political paradigm hoping a third option arrives in the knick of time? Someone like Justin Amash running on the Libertarian Party ticket (LP is on all 50 states ballots now) …
I cannot vote for Trump – his mental illnesses have proven he is not suitable to hold office. He really is a sick, sick man. I feel terrible for him, his malignant narcissism absolutely prevents his seeking the help he needs, and politics aside, I find myself very sad for him. He is sick and doesn’t even know it.
Bernie IMO would lose out right facing trumps propaganda machine calling on cold war fears.
Biden is a non-starter, as he is half past senile and will get beat by even trump on the debate stage, and that’s not high praise of trump by any means.
Unless Biden takes on Warren as his VP, he really has a small chance when faced against trump and Haley ticket. Gotta get the female vote, as insulting as it is, to still think that a female would vote for a party simply because they have a female on the ticket. That’s how these super old dude still think for the most part.. Look at what happened to McCan with Palin.. everyone knew what the Repubs were doing by picker her, and they stayed home. Disgusting.
So, back to my question. Does anyone else hope a 3rd party candidate (Justin Amash) will roll in and spank them all? Motivating the silent majority and bringing some honest to goodness real correction to our bloated and confused government?
Z
Maybe the viral load has to be very heavy to break through your immune system, and that the viral load dilutes as it gets passed from person to person.
It may be something that you either have to ingest or be heavily exposed to in order to get infected.
Z
Z
The rate and ease of transmission may be widely overestimated because it was numerically based on the people in Huawei living in crowded conditions, possibly humid weather with heavy air, and whom were quarantined and thus eating the produce in the town to survive.
Especially if it got into their food supply somehow, it could lead to large over estimations on its ease of transmission.
Z
Benjamin
@different clue
Honestly I have little interaction with Liberals, online or off. So I wouldn’t really have to do much there.
However, if Biden were the nominee I would start collecting more camping/hiking gear, and begin stockpiling supplies.
I’m not being hyperbolic: one of the functions of neoliberalism is to manage the decline. Biden is clearly losing his mind almost in real-time. With him in charge we wouldn’t even have vaguely competent management (not that we have any now either, but a Biden win or a Trump reelection would likely be the tipping point. Revolution would be the next step).
Z
How did the Jewish mafia get a controlling interest in the democratic party during the Clinton years?
Rahm Emanuel set it up, he’s the one who set up the financial ties between the party and the Jewish mafia. Not only that, he basically brokered the backdoor bribe between Wall Street and democratic politicians’ and government officials where they knew if they played ball there would be a cush, lucrative opportunity waiting for them once they left the public sector.
Once he got into Congress he also set up the political funding systems within the party to keep it pro-business, pro-Wall Street and giving those entities the power to vet who gets to run. He prevented the party from becoming anti-war, which voters were agitating for, even during the Bush Administration and the Iraq War, boxing out anti-war candidates financially.
Then he became Obama’s Chief of Staff during the Great Wall Street bailout in charge of hiring!
Z
Z
For twenty years, excepting for a brief but lucrative stint on Wall Street, Rahm Emanuel was the Sonny Corleone of the democratic party, working on all angles through it: as Senior Advisor for Clinton in the executive branch, and then onto Congress, Chair of the House Democratic Caucus, Chair of the DCCC, and then he landed as Obama’s Chief of Staff.
He had plenty of time and opportunity to go to work.
Z
Z
Any state that Bloomberg gets 15% of is a win for him because you need 15% to gain delegates. He doesn’t care who he takes delegates from, as long as Bernie’s not getting them because it decreases the chances that Bernie will get the majority, and that’s all Mikey $B’s concerned about. He’s not worried about Sanders getting the plurality. He’s probably already got the super delegates bought off.
That’s his long game: get to 15% and soak up delegates.
Z
Geoffrey Dewan
However bad you think it is, it’s worse…
Z
Obama’s economic staff ended up stacked with apostles of Robert Rubin and they ended up being the folks advising Obama on how best to handle the 2008-2009 Wall Street crisis. We saw how that went.
Rahm was integral in all that.
Z
bobbyk
How long before AOC can run for President? I\’m 58 and will vote for her before any other democrat that would run against her.
Benjamin
Looking extremely not good so far for Sanders.
Mandos
OK, if things don’t turn around for Sanders, can we get at least a couple of weeks of chastened silence from the people who think that the thought-terminating cliché “Black Misleadership Class” is the height of wit and is in any way the result of a valuable form of analysis?
Mandos
Also may I recommend leaving off the Rogan Josh interviews?
Benjamin
@Mandos
No, you idiot. Because South Carolina proved unequivocally that the Black Misleadership Class concept is 100% accurate. Jim Clyburn was literally a sheepdog, and the sheep he herded are loathsome individuals.
Mandos
Yes keep calling minority voters sheep. Yupyup
Z
Bernie won Colorado. Looking good in TX.
The most disappointing thing to me is that the delegates are being split three ways in most of these states which is decreasing Bernie’s chances of getting the majority that he’ll need to win.
Z
Mandos
I mean would it kill anyone for a little introspection as to why black primary voters don’t trust Sanders-style left-wing populists? Something a little bit more objective than “sheepdog” and “loathsome” ?
Hugh
Democratic machinations did not start in the last few days. They have been a recurring theme.
1. The first thing the Establishment Democrats did was open up the field to a new generation of neoliberals, Kamala, Corey, Julian, Beto, Mayo, and Klobuchar, in the hopes that one of them would catch fire and make Sanders irrelevant, but they didn’t.
2. Enter Geriatric Joe. Great polls numbers, a holdover from the Obama era, but otherwise vacuous and that’s before we get to any mention of Ukraine. A challenge to Sanders he was not.
3. Clearly, the young route and the old route weren’t working against Sanders. The DNC needed a Plan B as in Bloomberg. If you can’t win an election, then maybe you should have someone handy who can just buy it for you.
4. But there was still Plan A. And it was named Mayo Pete and so on to Iowa and the Case of the Curious App. The result was a blackeye for Tom Perez, the DNC, the Iowa Democratic party and even Mayo Pete, pretty much everybody but Sanders.
5. Stronger measures were in order. Mayo Pete was nearing his sell-by date. It looked like Biden was decades past his. So Plan B: just buy the d&mn thing. Perez changed the rules so that Bloomberg, the man with endless resources, could waltz on to the debate stage that had been rigged to keep so many others off it. As the philosopher Mel Brooks observed, “It’s good to be king.” However, entitlement is a two-edged sword as Michael Bloomberg learned when he set himself up to get eviscerated by Elizabeth Warren. Apparently money can’t buy you everything.
6. After Nevada and New Hampshire, Sanders had not a but the straight path to the nomination. Higher hands, i.e. Obama got involved. The empty husk of Joe Biden was resuscitated one more time, the black misleadership class with the likes of Jim Clyburn was enlisted and South Carolina, a state the Democrats were never going to win in November but which even the half-conscious Biden was always going to win in the primary, was recast as a game changer. And to underline the point, contenders who took not even votes but attention from Biden were given a Corleone deal they could not refuse, and were immediately yanked from the field and not just that but had to endorse the embarrassing empty suit in question. Anything to defeat Sanders and deny him the nomination.
7. And that’s where we are. The Democratic party has maintained from the start that its one and sole mission is to defeat Donald Trump, but as the last couple of days have shown, that’s not true. Mission Number One is to defeat Bernie Sanders even at the cost of handing the election to Trump. Everytime Sanders advances and improves his position, the DNC and the string-pullers behind it, like Obama, the Clintons, and their cronies, do their best to undercut him and raise up a new, or in this case, a recycled challenger. If any of these challengers had gotten as far as Sanders has he/she would already have been anointed the nominee and the rest of the field more or less told to fall in behind him for the sake of unity and to strengthen the party. But because it is Sanders, they are doing the opposite. Much is being made tonight of Biden’s strength in the South but the only Southern state Hillary was able to win in 2016 was Virginia. But this seems to be the new Democratic party strategy: hope your invention of a candidate can stay ahead of reality. And Trump? Oh well, at least it won’t be President Sanders.
Willy
Because too many blacks are clueless about what MLK stood for.
Mandos
MLK is not Black Jesus. *facepalm*
Z
If Biden wins the nomination it’s on the strength of the uninformed voter. Anyone in the know knows by now that he is cognitively unfit to be president.
Z
Z
What a deceitful coward Obama is. Pushing behind the scenes to get people to endorse Biden, but not doing it himself so he can keep his fingerprints off the operation. He’s horrible. And then having them endorse a man who is cognitively unfit to be president.
Obama is loathsome.
Z
Mandos
Alternatively, people could be *perfectly aware* of his deficiencies and *still prefer him to Sanders*.
Mandos
They could even decide that Biden is an awful person who’d not make a good president after a November victory *and still prefer him to Sanders*. This is a thing that can really happen and probably does. A lot.
Willy
MLK is not Black Jesus. *facepalm*
“If America does not use her vast resources of wealth to end poverty and make it possible for all of God’s children to have the basic necessities of life, she too will go to hell.”
*Bitchslap!*
Mandos
It ain’t over but I started getting that “mene mene tekel upharsin” feeling ever since people earnestly told me that I needed to watch Roe Jogan interviews to judge him, lol. I still haven’t, it’s precisely what qualifies me to judge him.
Willy
“When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism and militarism are incapable of being conquered.”
Willy
“The problems of racial injustice and economic injustice cannot be solved without a radical redistribution of political and economic power.”
Mandos
Oh goody minority moral burden by inspirational MLK quote. Listen to yourselves, please, for all our sakes.
Willy
“I imagine you already know that I am much more socialistic in my economic theory than capitalistic… [Capitalism] started out with a noble and high motive… but like most human systems it fell victim to the very thing it was revolting against. So today capitalism has out-lived its usefulness.”
Z
Mandos,
You know the people that voted for Biden don’t realize his cognitive decline because if they did they’d realize he doesn’t have much chance to beat Trump.
Z
Hugh
Had a long comment that went into moderation.
Not sure why mandos thinks African-Americans are more immune to being misled than anyone else. If mandos had, I don’t know, actually read some of what MLK wrote he might realize that he spoke a lot about economic inequality. Who knows it might even sink in that what he was doing in Memphis when he got assassinated was trying to recast and broaden the movement into one about economic rights. And he would be pretty skeptical of a lot of African-American leaders who sold out for their comfortable tables in the Establishment. But wait, that wouldn’t fit mandos’ comic book take on American politics. So never mind.
Willy
So you are indeed, the village idiot. And an expert at self-deprecating bafflegab no less.
Dan
Alternatively, people could be *perfectly aware* of his deficiencies and *still prefer him to Sanders*.
True.
Willy
“Call it democracy, or call it democratic socialism, but there must be a better distribution of wealth within this country for all God’s children.”
Willy
“The evils of capitalism are as real as the evils of militarism and evils of racism.”
Willy
“[W]e are saying that something is wrong … with capitalism…. There must be better distribution of wealth and maybe America must move toward a democratic socialism.”
Mandos
Let me put it this way. If your analysis includes the phrase “voters being misled”, yer doing it wrong. That isn’t to say that voters can’t be misled, in a very pedantically literal sense. But for electoral politics, it’s just not a useful level of analysis. Anyway, I go back to sleep in my European bed knowing that I have had this year a *pretty* good predictive track record, whether I *like* the predictions or not.
Benjamin
@Mandos
I’m done even attempting to be nice. They are fucking sheep. They behave like sheep, not thinking humans. They have zero agency of their own and just do what their ‘leaders’ tell them to do.
And I don’t give a rats ass at this point about context or trying to understand their reasoning. They have no reasoning. In South Carolina they voted for a man with a long record of disastrous policies that were bad for black Americans in particular, who was VP in the worst presidency for black people in the last fifty years, who will not stop lying about his non-existent civil rights record, when in fact he has an ugly history with southern racists. And on top of that the man is clearly losing his faculties. And they did it all because a Democratic house negro told them to. Literally sheep.
They will reap what they’ve fucking sown. Either Biden wins and shits all over them, or, more likely, Trump curb stomps the feeble moron and also shits all over them.
Mallam
They cannot listen to themselves because they don’t actually care about political power and would rather be useless losers throwing shit at the “establishment” because it feels good and there’s no risk when you have no power.
Perhaps Bernie should have leaned less into his “anti-establishment” shit and instead talked about Hillary Clinton, the best considerate ever, got fucked by the fact that she won the popular vote. And maybe Bernie could have said “I didn’t handle 2016 as well as I could have. Perhaps I could have tried campaigning harder. But I want your vote”. Btw, all that about Hillary is complete bullshit, but so what? Lots of people who vote in Democratic primaries think it’s the God’s honest truth, and they’d maybe consider voting for you if they heard it from your mouth.
But no, it’s better to try and demand The Establishment to “bend the knee”.
Z
Hugh,
Pretty accurate take of much of it, but you left out the critical role of Liz Warren. She aggressively went after Sanders to peel off as much of the women vote as she could, and kick up those Clinton made-up complaints all over again. She even tried to single-handedly sink his campaign with her insinuations of misogynism by pressuring a dude that just got over a heart attack a month or so before. She’s ruthless. Bernie Sanders is not a misogynist, he’s been one of the best pro-women voters in Congress, and there was no moral or logical justification for it.
She’s either made a deal with Biden to run as his VP and/or she’s dirty dancing with Mikey $B and he is willing to get roughed up by her to let her strengthen her hold on the women vote, keep it away from Bernie. Mikey $B is certainly not going to get it.
Whatever Warren is up to, she’s up to dirty something.
Z
Willy
MLK was as much a democratic socialist as is Bernie. There are dozens of quotes, which do not waver in context or dedication, from his mid 50’s speeches right up until the week of his assassination. Besides being a Christian minister, he was also considered a genius.
After decades of Oprah, Obama… and other corporate afro-american agitprop, I really don’t think your average black voter is fully aware of MLK as they once were.
Black voters, like many white voters, have been misled.
Plenue
@Mandos
In South Carolina nearly half the black voters exit polled said it was Clyburn\’s endorsement that swung their vote. Literally sheep, with him the border collie.
In tonight\’s exit polling half the people in the states Biden won are saying they consider healthcare a priority issue. A huge number of them then voted against the candidate with the best (actually, only real) healthcare plan. Literally stupid.
Z
I picture Mandos and Mallam as two guys who are far from brilliant but have a fair amount of capital, from inheritance possibly, and they were able to invest it into the stock market. And they made a bunch of money because the market has basically been on auto-ramp since 2009 and now they are proudly defending their delusions that they are smart and that they made wise investments and deserve their wealth.
You two are always so joyous with the status quo, proud to boast that you’ve got it all figured out and all, that you’re so savvy, when all that it is is that the game was rigged in your direction.
Z
Z
The U.S. has become an idiot asylum. It says something symbolically sick about a society that they vote so heavily for a man caught in the undertow of cognitive decline in the hopes that he can defeat a carnival barker in a battle for the most powerful position in the country.
Losing Minnesota and Massachusetts hurts.
I hope Mikey $B drops out. If he does no matter how far Bernie is behind there is always a chance that Biden could get into a fight or something with a voter and f* up the whole operation.
Z
Z
Lyin’ Liz is 3rd in her state with over half the vote in.
It isn’t that she didn’t drop out and endorse Bernie that bothers me about her, it’s the fact she has so aggressively attacked him when she has no opportunity to beat him and did it primarily just to damage his candidacy.
Z
Dan
It’s amazing. I’m watching the whole night and it looks like a landslide for Biden. Then they just announced that Bernie won California. The fact they’re calling it this early means it’s a landslide and it’s possible no other candidate is even viable.
Game. Still. On.
Z
If Bernie can keep things close, it can still be won. The longer that Bernie’s Army has to organize and the longer Biden is exposed, the better for Bernie.
Z
Z
If Bernie wins TX and only him and Biden are above 15% that would be a big win.
Z
Benjamin
Warren lost both her home states (where she was born and where she’s a Senator). Now she’s asking for more donations to stay in. What a fucking snake. She’s only there to undermine Sanders.
Dan
Looks like Biden and Bloomberg may be viable. Oh well. I can still dream.
Actually, this is just beginning. I can’t wait to see Biden exposed. He’s a walking time bomb at this point.
Z
For Lyin’ Liz, it’s all about those pinky promises she’s made to five year old girls. She can’t let them down.
Apparently these little girls follow politics and find it inspirational to watch their hero lose.
Z
highrpm
@z,
warren’s unwarranted lack of civility in personal attacks in the debates unmasks a real leadership flaw? unsettling. like trump’s monosyllabic quips and bullying. and, to a similar degree, biden’s continued pursuit in spite of his obvious-to-all senility gives his real self away. the country can well do without leaders with obvious sociopathic behaviors.
highrpm
”
I go back to sleep in my European bed knowing that I have had this year a *pretty* good predictive track record, whether I *like* the predictions or not.
”
too many I’s. are these subtle expressions of self-interest in your writing style what triggers my intuition, “off?”
Eric in Kansas
Okay, here’s a little speculative fiction.
The setup: US national politics is gang warfare. The Crips vs. the Bloods. Two criminal enterprises with roughly the same aims and tactics, fighting for turf. With minor differences of style. Trump upsets the leadership of the Bloods in 2016, but it turns out that, outrageous as he is, he is good for business, so all the Bloods but the wimps with a weak stomach fall in behind him.
The Crips are bloated and in decline. A bunch of naïve, starry eyed nobodies mount a campaign to take the Crips legit. The old Crips are irritated that they have to take time out from grifting so as to squash the upstart pests.
That is where I see us today. But let’s just suppose that the old Crips are not quite as pathetic as they look. Let’s imagine that they actually learned something in 2016. It was supposed to be easy for them in 2016, and they were surprised. So they have had four years to hone their election-stealing skills. And most of the traditional election stealing organizations in this country seem largely to hate Trump.
So let’s posit that the FBI & CIA, or whoever it is, manages to prop up Biden and succeed in stealing the election for him. Who would object to that?
Yes, exactly – all the Trump die-hards, and ‘tribal’ gang bangers would object. It could get really nasty.
And so far, I have not seen any evidence that any of the characters that would be willing to play such a gambit have any inclination to give a shit for the consequences for us little people.
Z
If Sanders gets 40% of the delegates tonight?
Disappointing: Yes
Fatal: No
Z
Mark Pontin
Re. African-American loyalty to the Democratic establishment: I’ve worked for decades as a musician in African-American churches, so maybe I can cast some light here. It’s pretty simple —
[1] Without exception, every black American I ever met has regarded the Republicans as the Evil White Man’s Party. It’d be hard to argue they’re necessarily wrong about that, wouldn’t it?
[2] Less generally, the “nation within a nation” thing that W.E. Dubois spoke of almost a century ago still applies, especially for the older folks. Amidst an intensely racist white society they carved out a safe community space, mostly in the churches, and it’s very insular. This is less true than it used to be. But even today African-Americans may have middle-class jobs and be friendly enough with the white folks they know on the job, but when they leave work they don’t socialize with — or maybe even trust — them that much. In the 21st century, this may apply less to the the younger folks, in whom you also hear the distinctive African-American accent fading — as is the church culture — and being replaced by mainstream American. But it’s still very much present; I’ve heard black teenagers in the churches say to other teenagers, “You have white friends?” like it’s out of the ordinary. (Though sometimes the other teenager shrugs and says, “sure.”)
[3] Not only are black Americans often pretty insular but also, being human, they mostly think in binary terms. As much as they hate the Republicans, they’re tribal about the Democrats who’ve provided the only route to national or local prominence for black politicians. You’ve seen the media articles where you have claims reported like “The Democratic Party needs to understand that we black women are the party’s base,” right? They believe that. Along those lines, when Bernie Sanders first turned up on their radar in 2016 because of his running against Hillary, I had one woman ask me angrily “Who is this Bernie Sanders anyway?” Because to her Sanders was simply a trespasser on _their_ party.
[4] In the real world you and I know that not only have the Democrats NOT done anything good for the American people since Lyndon Johnson and the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (more than half a century ago), but also they’re arguably the Greater Evil at this point, given the Obama administration’s complicity in the world-historical level criminality of the GFC and the subsequent “foaming of the runway” for Wall Street, which was the greatest transfer of wealth in history. (And the level of criminality involved was much worse than you believe, even if you are Ian Welsh.)
From the African-American POV , on the other hand, nobody ever believed “I’d see a black American president in my lifetime,” and now they’ve had the Sainted Obama and Michelle in the White House. This was thanks to the Democrats.
[5] There are exceptions to all my generalizations. I’ve had conversations with black musician friends where someone said to me post-GFC regarding Obama, “Wall Street played the race card, huh?” Heck, I even know one black church musician who’s a Trump supporter. But mostly they think Obama was the Great and Good First Black President. And if I told them how Obama was just a front-man for one of the biggest criminal conspiracies in history, some of them might even accept the evidence — and the price paid in terms of the destruction of African-American wealth, as black Americans were hit particularly hard by the GFC — and then say, okay, but it was still worth it because we got a black president. It’s like that.
[6] Which brings me to my final point, which applies not just to black Americans but to white ones. And that is, not only are most people tribal and binary, but also they can’t live without hope.
And when you present people with the evidence for why the Democrats are at least as evil as the Republicans, many of them get angry and don’t want to hear it. Because they don’t want to believe that both parties — and America itself — are run by sociopaths and malign narcissists. That would be too hopeless for most Americans to bear, although based on the evidence ….
Z
Liz Warren: 4th place in most states, even behind the man she eviscerated in most of those states (Mr. Mikey $B), third in her own state, fourth in OK (where she was born), and fourth in TX (where she taught).
I’m convinced she has lost almost all of her young female following and is primarily pulling in the dissatisfied divorcee vote.
Z
different clue
We don’t know how black primary voters in most other states other than South Carolina will vote because they have either not yet voted or their votes ( Super Tuesday) have not yet been counted or the reasons studied or asked about.
The one high-black-voter state we know about at this time is South Carolina.
Let me go on record as saying that I personally Do Not Care why it is that so many black voters in the one particular state of South Carolina trust and prefer Senator Dead Vegetable Walking more than they trust or prefer a “left wing populist”.
They have bought the ticket. Now let them take the ride.
Z
Mark Pontin,
Good write-up.
They definitely refuse to take a good, hard look at Obama.
Z
Benjamin
@Mark Pontin
“and then say, okay, but it was still worth it because we got a black president. It’s like that.”
One thing that always kills me with Obama is that he is African-American in literal terms, but not in terms of what that phrase means colloquially 99% of the time.
He’s half Kenyan. Kenya is in East Africa. The vast majority of black Americans are the descendants of West African slaves. Obama has no more connection to them and their experiences and history than does a Japanese to the affairs of Kazahks.
Panafricanism is a dangerous and stupid idea, that exists entirely in the shadow of European colonialism lumping together everything south of the Sahara as ‘darkest Africa’.
different clue
For an interestingly different take on all this, guest-poster Robert Willman at Sic Semper Tyrannis offers a post called: In The Democratic Primary, The Smoke Filled Room Is Back.
Willman predicts that the DemParty Inner Boss leadership is doing the long-term engineering designed to make Bloomberg the Democratic Nominee. He explains how and why that is. He doesn’t think that the Dem Boss Oligarchs would ever trust the Presidency to a Dead Vegetable Walking. Therefor, the Dem Boss Oligarchs can only be clearing the way for Bloomberg. Here is the link.
https://turcopolier.typepad.com/sic_semper_tyrannis/2020/03/in-the-democratic-primary-the-smoke-filled-back-room-is-back.html
Mark Pontin
Z wrote: ‘It says something symbolically sick about a society that they vote so heavily for a man caught in the undertow of cognitive decline in the hopes that he can defeat a carnival barker in a battle for the most powerful position in the country.’
It makes the Breshnev-era Soviet gerontocracy look sprightly and effective by comparison, like I said.
Seen this Tucker Carlson piece? Carlson is very good at what he does and the text gives you some idea of that. But watch the whole video, complete with the string of clips of Biden’s gaffes and Carlson’s delivery. It’s hilarious, vicious, and absolutely accurate.
‘Sanders is a threat to the Democratic establishment’s power – that’s why it’s backing Biden’
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/tucker-carlson-sanders-threat-democratic-establishments-power-biden
‘There’s much relief in Washington right now. The Sanders threat is imminent and profound, and they’ve been sweating it. Imagine General “Chinese” Gordon surrounded by screaming Mahdis at the Siege of Khartoum and you will know how they feel – terrified.
‘It’s one thing if your country falls apart – if 10th graders can’t read and 9 year olds are taking puberty-blocking drugs and downtown LA looks like Calcutta and another 10,000 more Americans just died of fentanyl overdose. Whatever. Americans are dying – Democrats are fine with that. They can live with it. They do. They don’t say a word.
‘But if there’s a rogue candidate out there who might actually be serious about closing the carried interest loophole, and forcing private equity barons to pay the same effective tax rate you do, well, that cannot stand. It’s totally and completely unacceptable. In fact, it’s morally wrong. Alert the panel on “Morning Joe” – we are going to war.
‘And they have found their warhorse, a hero they imagined will carry them forth to victory against the wild-haired infidel from Vermont. It is this candidate whom you should know is literally now the youngest man in the Democratic race.
‘This is the man they believe has the competence, the intensity, the intellect to repel the seething horde of Sandersites. Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Joe Biden ….’
String of clips of obviously dementia-addled Biden follows.
And then Carlson really gets going. “Running Joe Biden for president is like making your dog wear a dress. It may make for an amusing Instagram post, but it’s wrong. You can see the confusion in the dog’s eyes. You can see the same thing in Joe Biden’s eyes if you look closely. “Why am I here? What are we talking about? Maybe if I make a lot of noise about pushups, no one will notice.”
‘So far the only thing we’ve learned from Biden’s candidacy is that there’s no one around him who cares enough to make him stop. Instead, there are only enablers …. Probably the only group sincerely cheering Biden are the credit card companies. For decades, Biden was their paid lackey in Washington. They bribed him with cash. They gave jobs to his son. In return, he carried their legislation through Congress dutifully for many, many years.
‘Meanwhile, untold Americans, “Average Joe’s” as Joe himself likes to say, were crushed by credit card debt. The average credit card interest rate in this country is 21 percent – 21 percent interest at a time when the Fed is giving banks billions of dollars nearly for free. That’s how low interest rates are for them. But you’re paying 21 percent.’
And so on. Between this kind of thing and Barr reopening investigations in Ukraine/Burisma/Hunter Biden, Trump and co. are going to have fun with the Democrats.
Couldn’t happen to nicer people.
Z
Mark Pontin,
Yeah, I watched it about five times today. Pretty cutting delivery by Carlson. He is calling it out for what it is. It doesn’t sound like anyone else on TV is doing it, they’re all make believing that Biden is fine.
They’re going to have to pivot at some point to ‘Joe is losing it’ because there is no way he’ll be able to stand up to the scrutiny of a presidential campaign. He’s losing it and losing it quickly. He’s getting that bewildered look in his eyes.
It will probably be Lyin’ Liz, that’s the only one who makes any sense. Mikey $B carries too much misogynist baggage, and he probably doesn’t want to run anyway, so they’ll toss it to Lyin’ Liz some way or the other.
She’s vetted now, she’s shown she’ll do damn near anything they want her to. Put her on Biden’s ticket and act like he is all right all the way through to the nomination and then early into the presidential campaign pull him and say he won’t be able to make it and bring forth Liz since she is his running mate. And a candidate who will probably get less than 10% of the delegates then becomes the nominee.
Z
Z
Mark Pontin
Z wrote: ‘Mikey $B carries too much misogynist baggage … so they’ll toss it to Lyin’ Liz some way or the other.’
I dunno. Bloomberg has the billions — heck, one billion dollars is almost a mere rounding error in terms of his overall wealth — and that’s what the party’s establishment desires even beyond being in power. They already rewrote their rules to get him in the game
We shall see.
Z
The candidate who Warren doesn’t go after is Biden even though he was practically the author of the bankruptcy bill that her criticism of was used to launch her political career.
She’d rather attack Bernie, readying to hurl misogynist accusations at him the moment he says anything back.
Z
Willy
If most American Christians can be ‘coaxed’ from a life of humble Christian spirituality into believing in the kind of antichristian political shit that would make Jesus want to kick out a stained glass window, then why the hell couldn’t most African Americans be ‘coaxed’ into believing political shit that would make MLK want to assassinate a billionaire?
Whether it be slavery, racism, or the humiliation of the poor, MLK saw economic sociopathy for what it was. At least that’s what all of his speeches imply. I think he’d shit his pants if he saw what some of today’s black leaders are preaching.
Alright. That’s all I have to say about that.
Benjamin
And Biden takes Texas, a state he put no effort or money into. It’s over. The whole fucking campaign is over. Sanders entire strategy just imploded.
He won California, but who fucking cares? He got crushed; he has zero momentum. After months of liberals concern trolling over Sanders health, voters turn around and vote for a guy who is clearly suffering from dementia.
The morons of this country deserve everything that’s coming to them.
Tom
Well the Seminar was…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uagDnjplkOE
If you haven’t stocked up yet. Get toilet paper. No seriously. It may very well be currency later. If you require medicines to live and can’t get three months supplies, make your peace with the world, and prepare to peace out in whatever manner you see fit.
CDC and WHO are useless, and I had to restrain my Medical Director from decking out a CDC Representative.
We are no longer in containment, tracing the strains from the Washington Cases show they were floating around at least six weeks prior. So back around January 19th, so five days after Thailand noticed a case…
Forget containment, we are in mitigation. Chances are everyone in Wuhan was infected with the virus shortly after January 1st. Deep research of China case files and genetic tracing of the virus, show initial traces of SARS-COV-II in September outside Wuhan. The first deaths occurred in November and this when community spread hit Wuhan which is a major manufacturing and transport hub of 11 million people. Once it hit the wet market it began mutating from all the genetic sources available and likely developed its airborne and waterborne variants here before spreading out into the world via the transport network.
You are either immune or not. You are either going to live or you’re going to die. There are many strains flying around making vaccine development a crapshoot at best and a cure basically a game of throw stuff at the wall and see what sticks.
Iran is very likely to suffer a catastrophic system collapse with 1 in 10 of its MPs infected and multiple senior and mid-grade officials either sick or already dead.
The US is in the same boat most likely, but till we can get the testing done, we can’t even formulate a plan on mitigation and place firewalls to avoid the Hospitals from getting swamped. Once they get swamped, and Healthcare Providers start dropping faster than they can be replaced, we have to abandon the Hospitals and the patients in them to protect the Healthcare workers. We then let the disease run its course and burn the Hospital as a health hazard. Absolute worst case scenario, Cities may even need to be sterilized with nuclear ordinance as it would be too dangerous to manually remove corpses and take too long to do it. But doing so would effectively end the US as a unified political entity.
So expect all the Presidential Candidates to get infected and likely die on campaign and the US to fracture if the entire succession system fails to replace the Government and maintain sufficient legitimacy that the populace rallies to it. Otherwise a catastrophic systemic collapse of America will occur.
China’s leadership might very well suffer a palace coup or fight an internal civil war as the Current Leadership clearly failed and can’t deliver the goods anymore. Where the go from here, depends on how big the true scale is in China.
EU dropped the ball and keeps dropping it and is more worried about PC Wokeness than implementing necessary steps. Canada is in the same boat. No hope, died of Wokeness.
Singapore is expertly balancing all three steps it needs to balance, but if Malaysia falls flat on its face, its toast. South Korea is landing on the problem like a ton of bricks, getting super aggressive and even declaring war on COIVD-19.
North Korea??? No one knows. Seriously. Satcon shows nothing. State TV is still running. But if there are cases, they are keeping a tight lid on it.
450.org
I agree with Benjamin. It’s game over. I registered to vote for nothing. I was fooled. I always said voting is a joke and I was right, it is. This is not a democracy or a democratic process. When you combine candidates who are 1/4 of a candidate with voters who are 1/4 of a voter, you get an idiocracy calling itself a democracy.
We now know this. Blacks will get what they deserve and I will not defend them. They have voted for this en masse and they will now have to lay in that bed. Their vote for Biden, their overwhelming vote for this braindead Republican in Democratic clothing, will enable full-throated fascism and blacks will be some of the first victims when that sh*t hits the fan. Idiots. This is Black Power. Pathetic. Tragic.
I will vote for Bernie in my state’s primary, but that’s it. I will not vote for any other down ballot candidates. I refuse to vote for Biden in the general and I’m in the process of convincing my wife and daughter and son to withhold their vote as well. No down ballot votes either.
Screw you Obamas and Clintons and Bidens. You are scumbags and imposters. You’re disgusting creeps and my hope is that every single one of you contract COVID-19 and die from it.
If there’s a revolution, youn know where it must begin. Virginia, where the political class lives. Virginia showed its true colors last night in their resounding vote for Biden. March on their suburban homes and burn it all to the ground. They are the enemy. They gave us Trump. 40 or more years of their feckless bullshit gave us this malaise. Damn them all to hell.
Joe & Mika are drooling right now they’re so ecstatic. Scumbags. Joe just said, “black voters wanting to believe again.” Unreal. But not surprising. The only thing that can change this equation and maybe not in the ways intended but it will change the equation, is a bloody revolution. This arrogant and ignorant recalcitrance is otherwise intractable.
450.org
Why? What is their reasoning? Do they have a rationale? I submit they don’t have a well-thought-out rationale, and instead are highly suggestible to pop culture influence and pop culture influence told them Sanders is a communist and Biden is the first black vice president. CNN & MSNBC were Biden’s advertising just as they were Trump’s advertising in 2016. For free. Biden didn’t have to invest any time or money because CNN & MSNBC subsidized him. Revoke their licenses and burn their studios to the ground. Joe & Mika need to be picking watermelons in the fields of the deep south.
450.org
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2020/03/03/elizabeth_warren_vows_not_to_quit_after_super_tuesday_i_am_in_this_fight.html
Biden won big in states he will not win in the general election with the exception of a few. The Democratic party in those states is token in order to throw otherwise disenfranchised blacks some political crumbs in the form of some house seats.
It’s clear the Democratic party has to go. It’s a firewall against true progress in America and therefore true progress in the world.
It’s probably too late any way and either way. Change should have come yesterday and it’s not here even today. It got ambushed along the way and this is all whistling past the graveyard.
Since Biden has said he wants to choose a Republic running mate, I think Condoleezza Rice would be a good pick considering Biden voted for the Iraq invasion & occupation.
450.org
Mika is so moist with ecstasy this morning, she’s had to change her panties, during the commercial breaks of course, ten times already despite menopause.
450.org
Because history matters. Biden finished at the bottom of his class in law school and he plagiarized. He’s a cheat and he cheated in yesterday’s primaries. He used what is supposed to be a free and independent press to propagandize for him ahead of Super Tuesday. They didn’t even charge him for the service. It was free. It’s clearly cheating. It’s anti-democratic. It’s downright communist, in fact. The irony all things considered.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yj2ph2LM4N8
someofparts
Well, now we get to find out, drip by drip, what happened here. Then we plan the next steps and keep organizing. It is a long journey and there will be setbacks.
Fuck the legacy parties and media. Like the song says – when the sky falls down, we play on the ground.
krake
Willy,
The strategy is one which we mostly milquetoast, feeble, timid and above all obedient Americans will never embrace.
We have been culled and farmed for too many generations. We are domesticated.
If we were not, we would not be grousing to no effect, except maybe for a little self-soothing, pseudonymously in this off-tune tragic choir of political commentary.
The strategy is so simple and robust, we’ll never assume it has promise, or could work:
Kill the rich. Kill their managerial class. Kill their technocrats. Kill them all, until the enemy is dead. Requite their evil. Show them as little mercy as they have ever shown us.
(You know why Cuba stayed out of the US orbit for so long?
Because Che lined up the enemies and put them in their justly deserved graves immediately thereafter. The rest fled with their millions, to make Florida somehow even worse.)
Or, we can complain about Boomer voters and church-rotten Southern Democrats.
Ché Pasa
Results that defy expectations like this, but which are ever-so-pleasing to the ruling class will undoubtedly inspire waves of conspiracy mindedness, but where did the expectations come from? Need to explore that, too.
Bernie shows his weakness with voters all the time. I hate to say it, but it’s more a personality thing than a programatic thing. He’s not wrong in the abstract so much as he projects such an implacable fury at the overclass and the structure of their rule, it’s hard for many Democratic voters to believe that he could get anything done against implacable opposition if he were by some miracle elected to the White House.
We often compare his program to FDR’s New Deal, but compare their personalities, and you’ll begin to see some of why FDR succeeded while Bernie has struggled mightily. Of course FDR was an aristo, long experienced in the administrative as well as the executive ends of government, he knew where the bodies were buried in DC and New York, he knew how to twist arms, flatter and blackmail. He knew how to use power to get what he wanted. And he had a wicked sense of humor.
He ran for president in 1932 on a platform that was in some ways to the right of Herbert Hoover. He won in a landslide in part because Hoover’s efforts against the Depression had arguably made things worse not better for the masses while propping up the malefactors of great wealth that had brought on the catastrophe. It’s not true that Hoover did nothing for the suffering masses, but his focus was at the top of the economic pyramid because that’s where he honestly (and ideologically) believed he could do the most good for the most people.
No surprise, that was the theory and ideology Obama employed in addressing the Great Recession.
FDR saw how unstable the situation was and how a congressional majority made it possible to reverse the recovery emphasis from serving mostly the top to serving mostly the seething masses, and he not only kept the country together, he inspired such loyalty from both ends of the society that the nation could go to war against the fascist ascendancy and win decisively. Had Hooverism prevailed, that wouldn’t have been possible. In fact, it’s likely the US would have joined the fascist ascendancy instead.
Bernie doesn’t seem to understand that the situation now needs a different approach, and the Democrats won’t cotton to neoNewDealing it. Red-baiting is the easiest way to squash the always nascent Movement. It’s funny that Dem pooh-bahs use red-baiting tactics against both Trump and Bernie. Russia is still “Commonist” in their fantasy, and Russian commonism is the nefarious malignant force which must be opposed at all costs. Silly, yes, but it works for maintaining a narrative story of what must be fought against.
The emerging narrative is not so much about Old Joe as it is about replacing governmental chaos with competency, “normalcy,” maybe not so much a Restoration as a Re-imagining. I’m still convinced that Old Joe will not be the nominee but someone kind of like him will be. Friendly, jolly, down-to-earth. A man, definitely. And someone who can destroy Trump and Trumpism and drive the current Republican pseudo-party into the Outer Darkness for decades if not permanently.
Someone who can inspire cross tribal loyalty.
Old Joe has earned his retirement. And he needs to take it. Trump needs to be sedated in a padded room. His shameless sycophants need to be defenestrated one and all. A crisis is upon us, but it is not that of the ’30s and ‘4os, and we can’t respond the same way. We can’t go back, only forward, and the question is whether there is someone with the vision, presence of mind, and sense of public duty to take this opportunity.
We’ll see.
nihil obstet
@che pasa
The Dems don’t want
They had that chance in spades in 2008. Bush, with his Iraq invasion and the financial system collapse, had destroyed the Republican Party. Obama rushed to its rescue. He talked up how good and patriotic Republicans are, so we shouldn’t hold anything against them. With an overwhelming Democratic majority in Congress, he refused to do anything that wasn’t “bi-partisan”, so all Americans would like it. He ended Dean’s 50-state strategy that had won the overwhelming majority, and he disbanded the campaign organizations that wanted to go on with a movement. The Democrats could not have been happier when they lost the majority, so now they had the excuse of not being able to do anything for the people because of Republican obstruction, and they could campaign against the Republicans without giving any reason for people to vote for them.
The duopoly is very important for effective propaganda. The Democrats really want a strong Republican Party, equal to or slightly stronger than themselves.
Adams
How did the mainstream, coordinated support for Biden emerge at the perfect time? What were Mayo Pete and Amy offered? Beto? Who did the organizing and who pulled the strings? Who has that kind of reach and power in the Dem party? How did all the endorsements from people who don’t talk to each other happen. Had to be Barry.
Who is going to talk and who is going to do the digging and write the real story? How to rig the primary against Barry? Let me count the ways.
The left was prepared for a DNC effort to take the nomination away from Barry with super delegates. Demonstrations, boycotts, some even calling for violence. Chicago ’68 again? Couldn’t have that. They knew that super Tuesday was their last chance.
It’s not over.
Ché Pasa
“The Dems” as nihil obstet puts it… ¿ quienes son ‘los Dems’? . I’m not talking about the funders and Party hierarchy. I’m talking about the Democratic voters ‘sending a message.’ The voters are split between something vaguely ‘leftist’ (ie: FDRish) and a return to
‘normalcy’, decency, honor, yada yada. They’ll mostly go with Old Joe if they have to but that’s not their ideal. I don’t think the hierarchy is keen to hoist Old Joe into the White House, either.
Obama apparently fooled a lot of people, but I don’t know why unless they weren’t paying attention at all. He pretty clearly said how he would govern — and much of his program was to the right of Hillary’s, somewhat less cruel than McCain’s. Yeah, people projected a lot of other needs and desires onto him, but he pretty much stuck with the neo-liberal program he started with. Where he went against the status quo was in stomping on a lot of the neo-con warmongering. He didn’t stand up to them enough in the end though, so while he mitigated some of the bloodlust, he didn’t stop the madness, and it still hasn’t stopped.
Ultimately, Obama’s economic program was Hooverite, his foreign policy a mashup of BushII and Clinton. A continuation, in other words, not a break, but with some mitigation of the worst aspects of neolibcon governance.
This is, as I see it, a problem with putting a senator in the White House. The institutional paradigm rules. It would be a problem with Miss Elizabeth or Bernie, too.
The voters seem well aware of how crazy it all is, and enough of them are leery of Old Joe, though they might vote for him in the end. But I don’t think he’ll make it to the nomination.
Ivory Bill Woodpecker
RE: Krake’s last post.
“The first guy who suggests violence is always the undercover cop.” — bitterly learned wisdom of the Vietnam War-era dissidents
krake
Nah. Just not timid.
Ivory Bill Woodpecker
Q: What’s an 8-letter Spanish word for “stupidity”?
A: M-A-C-H-I-S-M-O. 😉
Nice try, Officer. Oink, oink!