2020 Democratic presidential primary

here's something on reparations paid by france to french jews deported to death camps (and sometimes their spouses or heirs):

https://www.npr.org/2019/02/07/692376994/holocaust-survivors-and-victims-families-receive-millions-in-reparations-from-fr

i mean, it's hard to argue with this -- each victim is getting the equiv. of $400,000. i can see someone viewing this sort of thing as necessary but not sufficient in terms of how to deal with the legacy of something so horrific.

but it also seems so arbitrary. why these particular victims and their families? what about the many millions of others? what about those that have left no legacy, because their entire families were wiped out? what can be done about the cultures and societies destroyed?

Ta-Nehisi Coates on the case for reparations:

http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/03/ta-nehisi-coates-race-politics-2020-elections.html

I am enough behind reparations, cash and real estate equivalents for individuals, communities and specific organizations, that the single answer is to say "yes, I am for reparations." I don't need the operating procedure manual right now.

xpost

thanks for the coates interview!

there are some weird legalistics w/ the french reparations to. they are basically out of court settlements in which the victims and their descendants give up the right to sue. which is something i always find very weird even in much more mundance circumstances, but in this moral context seems extremely dubious.

*too

There is a non-trivial difference between "I broadly agree with this principle but I haven't seen a reasonable implementation proposal; this issue should be studied so one can be generated" and "despite everything we know about the history of our country and how previous iterations of these programs have excluded black people, if we implement mine we will definitely help black people this time who btw are all poor"

not on the topic of reparations at large, i thought warren's proposal for aid to low-income non-homeowners living in formerly red-lined districts was *interesting* if by no means a comprehensive form of redress. curious what that looks like to people who've studied possible solutions more than i have. but kind of amazing that a major national political figure who is white is talking about the need to do something about the wealth gap created by a specific not-that-long-ago policy. hard to imagine without the work of coates and others to really hammer this home in recent years.

not to say this has all sunk in with everybody it should. i saw a talk last night by a well-intentioned liberal urban planning professor from harvard, who described boston as a "thriving city, but with pockets of deep poverty" in front of a slide full of statistics that, on their face, seemed to suggest an apartheid city, but with pockets of deep wealth. i should have taken a picture.

i see that in Nashville as well. and basically everywhere?

wait forks do u live in Nashville?

yeah, totally ubiquitous in US cities, i think really i was just struck by how, idk, that language and lens on the statistics she had (which were abt wealth broken down by race) might have glided past me, a dopey white liberal, in my younger years. the conversation is changing.

yeah I deeply believe that you can't tackle the poverty trap problem without properly addressing the housing problem in cities, not just in the US but all of the western world.

+ universal health coverage in the us.

There’s a kid in a Jeeves and Wooster story who spends every day trying to do good deeds and he reminds me of that

Almost every person I know in South Bend, Indiana is sharing stories like this about Mayor @PeteButtigieg & I’m not cynical enough not to be moved. pic.twitter.com/ZHEh9bJv71

— Ashley C. Ford (@iSmashFizzle) March 23, 2019

it's hard not to like this dude

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D2UD88mX4AAesId.jpg

ah, fuck

Wait- this is incredible 🙌🤣 pic.twitter.com/j4yWWDKdmQ

— Peri (@newyorkperi) March 23, 2019

wow

BigButtEnergy

he has enough donations and the poll numbers to make the first debate. let's hope he gets asked about hot dogs

The Hot Dog Question will be Beto's downfall, as he doesn't get to eat.

So uh what are Buttigieg's actual politics like relative to other candidates

A gay man is not being nominated in 2020.

A shame that black man in 2008 never stood a chance!

Buttigieg won't be the nominee for reasons that have nought to do with whom he tops or bottoms.

if those didn't exist, he would not be nominated.

He answered the hot dog question like the questions they give during McKinsey interviews.

The Associated Press reports:

Representatives for Joe Biden and Stacey Abrams say that rumors the former vice president planned to choose the onetime Georgia gubernatorial candidate as his 2020 running mate are “false” and that there was “no grand plan hatched.”

Biden spokesman Bill Russo tweeted Friday that the ex-vice president “has an enormous amount of respect for” Abrams, noting Biden endorsed her in the gubernatorial race. “But,” Russo tweeted, “these rumors about discussions on a pre-cooked ticket are false, plain and simple.”

Regardless of whether Biden was really giving it serious thought, or is it was just his advisors giving it serious thought, he has surrounded himself with a terrible thought team that also leaked their terrible serious thoughts to the press. Not a good sign for his campaign (which is a good thing for everyone else)

That post brought to you by the number 2

potential biden candidacy a huge hilarious joke until further notice

― jolene club remix (BradNelson), Tuesday, February 26, 2019 12:14 PM (three weeks ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

He answered the hot dog question like the questions they give during McKinsey interviews.

Buttigieg is canvassing w Tina Belge, a young state senate candidate here. A group of girls just walked by and asked why cameras were following: “Oh, we thought it was a prom-posal video.” pic.twitter.com/Z9mEIC0WPi

— Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) March 23, 2019

what is a prom-posal video? do i want to know?

also, sorry to sound like a fanboy, but i think buttegieg threads this needle very well here:

Interesting @PeteButtigieg answer on whether Mueller findings could end the Trump presidency. Short answer: Not really! pic.twitter.com/bWehHeq1GS

— Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) March 23, 2019

this is basically what some of my friends have been saying, but less diplomatically

he's maybe being too diplomatic (i'm not convinced that most of those who pulled the level for trump had "economic anxiety" or whatever; there were 100,000s of well-off professionals who decided to vote for a racist scumbag because hating black people and latinos feels good, man) but he's a politician

most = many

xxxps to crut: no, but i was born and lived in the vicinity for my first 25 years and visit often

Buttigieg/Belge in 2020.

we're a year out but at least this is not a national primary poll.

1. buttmentum. 2. klobuchar needs to do well in IA more than most. wouldn't want to be on her team right now (or ever).

Now this'll get people talking...new Emerson poll of Iowa:

• Biden - 25%
• Sanders - 24%
• Buttigieg - 11%
• Harris - 10%
• Warren - 9%
...https://t.co/o4WHsyetvl

— Gabriel Debenedetti (@gdebenedetti) March 24, 2019

lmfao

almost too dank for human viewing pic.twitter.com/nGt3G65VlW

— Mike Gravel (@MikeGravel) March 24, 2019

lollllllllll top 3 dem candidates are white men

Iowa's a pretty white state.

lollllllllll top 3 dem candidates are white men

almost too dank for human viewing pic.twitter.com/nGt3G65VlW
— Mike Gravel (@MikeGravel) March 24, 2019

the shtick was mildly funny when you could sustain (barely) the idea that a 90something former senator was relentlessly shitposting on twitter, but they went too far and gave the same away. now it's just another set of chapo-watching smart alecs who happen to be mike gravel's grand newphews or whatever.

*game

"I also think our party should be focussing on the issues that made his presidency possible in the first place" = good to hear buttigieg is a socialist

i just listened to 2 minutes straight of julian castro talking about the implications of the mueller stuff today, and i can 100% scientifically guarantee that he will not win

i don't even disagree with what he's saying, he's just too boring

I forgot about Julian Castro. Is he still running?

Apparently Buttigieg hasn’t actually declared his candidacy so who knows who’s running