US Politics February 2019: This is one of the great losers of all time.

all I want is someone who knows which way the wind is blowing. I feel like Bernie & Warren do have a lot of progressive cred but I'd be willing to get behind someone with a centrist past if they seemed willing to get on board with what left-wing voters want in 2020. That said I have my suspicions about Beto - he's got a lot of charm and he's very well spoken but I never really sensed the dude had, y'know, much of a plan

his plan was to coast on charisma and hope no-one looked to closely at this voting record iirc

I can relate (winks roguishly, shoots finger guns at you, desperately hopes he has distracted you from his essential vapidity).

Cory Booker always gets shit on as a centrist at best, but his voting record, afaict, turns out to be one of the most anti-Trump, more than Harris, and about on par with that of Gillibrand. So the anti-Beto shit ... it just seems like such bullshit as well, to indicate, what, he's a secret Republican? Nothing (again, as far as I saw) of his campaign for senate indicated some stealth right wing or even particularly moderate motive. I suppose if purity test Dems insist only on the candidate to the farthest left then everyone else is going to seem like a right-winger.

hang on though - if you're going to use Cory Booker's votes against conservative stuff as evidence in his favor, then shouldn't O'Rourke's votes in favor of conservative stuff count as evidence against him?

once again for those at the back:

During the previous administration, Barack Obama’s White House issued statements slamming two GOP bills backed by the 46-year-old Democratic legislator.

i don't think holding a candidate to account for their voting record is a stringent purity test tbh

doc c otm

xpost No, I just mean that I never really followed Booker, but I always got the feeling he was pretty moderate. Which maybe he is, but his voting record demonstrates otherwise (by today's standards). So Beto, there's his voting record, sure, but sort of the reverse is that everything he has demonstrated since then has seemed otherwise. I just mean voting record is less important than their positions and fights going forward, imo.

Gillibrand tacked left, too, iirc.

And Harris is doing it now, right?

Whenever someone posts about Beto on fb one of my friends always responds "Get a job" (about him). It's like the "good mournings" here. Her visceral disgust with him cracks me up.

Booker has two major problems, one is that he takes a TON of corporate cash, another is that his "Love everyone, especially your enemy!" attitude is almost certainly gonna be taken advantage of, at this point the Republicans are operating in such blatant bad faith that we need a candidate willing to treat them as a foe to be vanquished, not a party to be "worked with"....we all saw how well that worked for Obama

What amuses me about Booker's love-thy-enemies approach is that on the stump he's unctuous and creepy, oozing fraudlence. I'd keep small pets away from him.

yeah it's gross

but every party needs its Nixon

He didn’t seem creepy to me when I saw him on the stump supporting Menendez last fall. Maybe it was just the contrast. Next to Menendez most politicians would probably seem wholesome. He was a good speaker if perhaps a bit too polished.

I just mean voting record is less important than their positions and fights going forward, imo.

rip Lyndon Larouche

he left us when we needed him most

beto just left office last month - I feel like talking about what he's done "since then" on his voting record is at least little different than talking about idk what gillibrand did in the House ten years ago and how she's shifted "since then" - we have a little more reason there to buy the "progressive pressure moves this politician to adjust - that's useful" argument. the votes being discussed for beto are on trump/ryan bills from the last couple years, right?

He didn’t seem creepy to me when I saw him on the stump supporting Menendez last fall. Maybe it was just the contrast. Next to Menendez most politicians would probably seem wholesome. He was a good speaker if perhaps a bit too polished.

As a New Jersey native, I'll take Menendez's open venality (toward goals I support) over Booker's gooey bullshit any day. I feel like Menendez should have run for governor at some point - he could have been our own Huey Long.

When I was a child I used to enjoy throwing mud on other children's fancy Sunday church clothes. I loved the way it would stick; and I hoped it would stain.

The charge of anti-Semitism is the same thing. I throw it. It sticks. And if I'm lucky, it stains permanently.

— Elliott Abrams (@Elliott_Abrams) February 14, 2019

cool story

That can’t be real

that's a parody/protest account fwiw

Fake, Simon.

What amuses me about Booker's love-thy-enemies approach is that on the stump he's unctuous and creepy, oozing fraudlence. I'd keep small pets away from him.
― a Stalin Stale Ale for me, please (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, February 14, 2019 4:02 PM (twenty-seven minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yup. john edwards 2.0.

My bad, y'all

lol Abrams has too many Christian NRO buddies for him to insult

In non fake news, this seems bad

https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/13/business/delinquent-car-loans/index.html

yes, it is

I just mean voting record is less important than their positions and fights going forward, imo.

elliott abrams agrees

https://images.dailykos.com/images/4085/story_image/Abrams_dl.jpeg?1452593300

well hello...

Bellweather? It’s been longer than average since the last recession...

If we can look past his vote for the crime bill, appreciate his evolution on criminal justice reform and immigration we can do it for some “centrists”

“if only there was an american politician on the left whose positions had remained unchanged-but-correct for decades who could run for president
― a surprise challenge that ended with a gunging (bizarr

In non fake news, this seems bad

https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/13/business/delinquent-car-loans/index.html

― bhad bundy (Simon H.), Thursday, February 14, 2019 11:35 AM (seven minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yes, it is

― sleeve, Thursday, February 14, 2019 11:40 AM (three minutes ago)

as someone that seems to be barely hanging on in the "best economy to every economy, believe me" it's really unsettling to know that this shit is all fake and these chickens are coming home to roost and it's not going to be good at all .

Lenders are more frequently offering funds to people with low credit scores, contributing to the increase in the number of car loans. More than 20% of the car loan balances belong to those borrowers, who are far more likely to be delinquent on car loans.

Americans are also paying more for new car purchases.

The average price of a new car purchase last year was $36,440, according to data from Kelley Blue Book. That's up $7,400 from a decade ago. The pace of price increases has outpaced overall inflation over the last decade, too.

Car companies are selling more SUVs, which are more expensive than sedans. And new safety features, such as auto braking and warnings for traffic in adjacent lanes, have driven up the price.

$36,440! to me that's preposterous. sticking with the Civic and the CRV thanks.

I get more auto financing offers than all of my other categories of mail combined.

I do not own a car, so.

And barely drive.

Are car loans packaged and sold like mortgages?

(sold to other financial institutions I mean)

Pickup trucks are $50K! Fords! granted their extended cab and I assume decked out. I don't understand how "Average Americans" afford them.

they don't just raise the bar; they are the bar

brownie, that's a good question! None of mine ever have been (4 new auto purchases over 30 years), but that's just one data point.

cheap consumer credit is bad for America

always see uncle leo from seinfeld in abrams

Yes, auto loans get sold to other banks just like mortgages do.

thx

Newer generations of autos are probably more desirable than new cars were 15 years ago. And I think taste has shifted towards more people wanting SUVs which are probably the more expensive option.

i don't the auto loan market is not big enough to ~~cause~~ macro problems in the same way as the mortgage market (or even student loans at this point?), if that's what you're thinking. but it's not a good sign.