2020 Democratic presidential primary

america's sweetheart nathan j robinson offers a comprehensive look at warren's (largely v good!) policy proposals here

Elizabeth Warren’s presidential campaign is not picking up much momentum, but she is consistently producing the most worthwhile and interesting policy proposals of any candidate. Seemingly every week, Warren comes out with a new Big Idea, and they’re all provocative and worth debating. In a country that had intelligent and substantive political media, Warren would be leading the conversation. Sadly, we live in the United States, so our media are discussing Pete Buttigieg’s socks.

Here’s the New Yorker on a Warren speech:

“Let’s start with our values here. And that is: in the richest country in the history of the world, people should not be sleeping on the streets because they don’t have money.” Warren paused for applause before adding, “And I’ve got a plan.”

It’s that last bit that sets her apart. Warren has plans! The list of Excellent Ideas coming out of the Warren camp just grows and grow—on April 11 she released her corporate profits tax plan and on April 15 she released her Public Lands plan

Petri had a pretty otm satire piece about everyone loving and wanting policy and substance but oh no, not Elizabeth Warren's policies. Not those.

this piece on andrew yang from the verge is why tech reporters should be banned from talking about politics

Yang has been campaigning for the Democratic presidential nomination all year, but audiences like this have only started to show up in the past couple weeks. The tipping point was an appearance on Joe Rogan’s podcast in February. It was a deep, analytic, two-hour interview, which is catnip for Rogan’s Reddit-centric audience. Yang’s pitch was simple: automation is destroying American jobs, and we need a president with some kind of answer. If you believe that, the robot-obsessed startup guy could be your only option.

Yang’s answer looks a lot like socialism, although he doesn’t use the word himself. The centerpiece of Yang’s campaign is a $1,000 monthly check to every person in America, paid for with a Nordic-style Value Added Tax. That’s normally called a basic income, although the Yang campaign calls it a “freedom dividend,” since focus group testing found the idea was more popular in the language of corporate ownership. Left-wing think tanks like the Roosevelt Institute and Data for Progress have been pushing a basic income for years as an alternative to the current labyrinth of federal aid programs, but Yang is the first presidential candidate to build a campaign around it.

Yang predicts an epidemic of depreciating human capital hitting profession after profession until society disintegrates, overwhelmed by the sheer volume of human despair.
"“The end state looks unthinkably terrible.”"

It’s grim, with obvious echoes of Marx (who was writing about automation too). But where Marx saw a struggle between discrete classes, Yang sees a tidal wave hitting group after group in sequence. In his reading, no one is safe and we’re all in it together. “Relying on the market is going to get more and more destructive as it zeroes out more and more people,” he says, “unless we come together and build a different kind of economy as fast as possible. And the first concrete step in that direction is to give everyone $1,000 a month in cash.”

fuckin owning the means of production, how does it work

The thing that makes me most happy about the forthcoming Sanders presidency is that there should be a big chance of Warren getting a cabinet position and kicking ass at that. And then a man can get the credit for her work. Sigh.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D4by7CNW0AAz3a8.jpg:large

*unzips*

The Nathan J Robinson piece was fine until the end when he abruptly decides to point out that even though Warren easily has the best and most thought-out plans of anyone in the race, she has no chance of beating our boy Bernie and thank fuck for that!

NJR gives his game away right here:

I’m not much of a policy nerd myself

It's fine if that's true, but he almost seems proud of it.

The thing that makes me most happy about the forthcoming Sanders presidency is that there should be a big chance of Warren getting a cabinet position and kicking ass at that.

Fred... OTM

although obv not counting any chhickens before etc

I think it's beyond foolish at this point to express confidence about who the nominee is going to be in 2020, let alone the President. Maybe there are only 5 or 6 legit contenders but feeling like any of them are a safe bet seems premature.

https://www.politico.com/story/2019/04/17/kamala-harris-leads-campaign-money-race-1280546

donor class might be coalescing around Harris after all

not surprising. christ, we really are going to re-live 2016 aren't we? except this time the "Bernie vs. Woman Whose Progressivism is Suspect" will have the added kick of involving a woman of color. can't wait!

replace "suspect" with "non-existent beyond recent public statements made while campaigning for a position of incredible power" and I agree but that's a bit unwieldy

The thing that makes me most happy about the forthcoming Sanders presidency

https://i.imgur.com/1ZfRvu6.jpg

Mayor Pete's design elements/merch were mentioned earlier so here's a neat thread that drills into the finer points of that stuff

A few things about @PeteButtigieg's branding, because (ahem https://t.co/7KKj9qjzoO) indeed, I still have thoughts about political branding!https://t.co/0rlCS6azYp

— Lindsay Ballant (@lindsayballant) April 16, 2019

can i 3-d print a dream of a better tomorrow

now convinced that buttigieg would get destroyed in a general election https://daringfireball.net/linked/2019/04/17/pete-for-america-design-toolkit

im most surprised that the mayor of south bend would choose a color-scheme so similar to the university of michigan's

ur familiar with Notre Dame colors y/n?

Bernie really should head Dept of Labor.

https://www.politico.com/story/2019/04/17/kamala-harris-leads-campaign-money-race-1280546

donor class might be coalescing around Harris after all

― Simon H., Thursday, 18 April 2019

She makes most sense, especially given its likely to come down to head to head vs Bernie. If it ends up being vs Warren then Beto might me a more suitable choice, but that looks unlikely, and it doesn't really look like Beto is going to get any momentum, whereas Kamala's potential looks a lot more solid.

since day 1 I always thought she made the most sense as the establishment pick. only timidity could make one prefer Beto or Biden.

unique way to spell "sexism" but survey says it's a go

ur familiar with Notre Dame colors y/n?

― Larry Elleison (rogermexico.), Thursday, April 18, 2019 10:50 AM (two hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

hey man, blue and metallic gold is TOTALLY different from maize and blue

pic.twitter.com/GapSOgoNTW

— Bacon Grease (@T_Joad1) April 18, 2019

extremely cursed image

powerful people in cars getting coffee, starring nathan fielder

don’t follow the money

One way to think about the 2020 primary is to ask yourself: Who would the plutocrats least want? https://t.co/ltKPxGXlA8

— Anand Giridharadas (@AnandWrites) April 18, 2019

that pete number

No redactions here! NEW NATIONAL POLL:

2020 Democratic Primary (incl. Biden/Abrams):

Biden: 21%
Sanders: 20%
Buttigieg: 17%
O’Rourke: 9%
Warren: 8%
Harris: 7%
Abrams: 4%
Booker: 4%
Klobuchar: 2%
Yang: 2%
Gabbard: 2%

(n=2518, national likely 2020 Dem. primary voters, Apr 12-15)

— Change Research (@ChangePolls) April 18, 2019

Wait, Mayor Pete is a Phish fan?! Ugh.

haha country is burning and the media gonna ignore Warren to debate which bands these dudes liked in college

ts: phish vs. everlast

He said he'd invite Phish to play his inauguration!!! Laugh him off at your own risk.

I saw Phish once, pretty good for a band that has no good songs if that makes sense

Ha, I heard a local pizza place described today as "pretty great bad pizza."

What kind of statistical reputation/record does Change Research have?

I'm wondering why these polls seem to invariably include candidates who haven't formally announced yet (Biden, Abrams)

You spelled Beyoncé wrong https://t.co/IdCusEfANc

— Chasten Buttigieg (@Chas10Buttigieg) April 18, 2019

DUET

I'm wondering why these polls seem to invariably include candidates who haven't formally announced yet (Biden, Abrams)

― Simon H., Thursday, April 18, 2019 6:58 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Biden makes sense because all signs point to a run. He's got an organization scrambling around in the early states. Abrams doesn't because she has none of that going on. Not that she couldn't whip one up quickly, but the fact she hasn't leads me to believe she's doesn't want to try it this time.

National primary polls are meaningless. Most of the respondents won’t have a chance to vote for most of the candidates.

Biden's in, and it sounds like it's gonna be a shitshow from Day One.

The primary, Biden believes, will be easier than some might think: He sees a clear path down the middle of the party, especially with Bernie Sanders occupying a solid 20 percent of the progressive base, and most of the other candidates fighting for the rest. And the announcement comes at a moment when many in the party have become anxious about Sanders’s strength, with some beginning to wonder whether Biden might be the only sure counterweight to stop him from getting the nomination. A Biden spokesperson declined to comment.

Biden’s announcement video will draw, in part, on footage shot two weeks ago outside his old family home in Scranton, Pennsylvania, where he likes to bring people and tell stories about how his grandfather would sit at the kitchen table, talking about making ends meet. But the campaign is still making key decisions on what will happen next, including whether to go cute for a launch event by doing it on the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, famous for the training montage from Rocky, or go for a powerful challenge directed right at Trump by heading to Charlottesville, Virginia, where the president infamously blamed “both sides” of a neo-Nazi march in August 2017.

I really hope he's not stupid enough to go to Charlottesville.

oh lord

On Thursday afternoon, Biden was in Boston, where he joined the picketing of the Stop & Shop supermarket chain by the United Food and Commercial Workers, in his third appearance with a union crowd in the past six weeks. Workers there, as when he addressed the International Association of Fire Fighters in March, held up run joe run! signs. “Bankers, Wall Street, and CEOs didn’t build this country,” he told them as he spoke about the dignity of workers, health care, and good wages. “You did!”

Biden trying this rhetoric on makes me want to puke

"joe biden! because he was in vicinity of another guy that you liked!"©

fuuuuuuuuck

I prefer the slogan suggested a few weeks ago by some ilxor: Vote for Biden, America's Emotional Support Animal!

Vote For That One Guy From That Meme, You Like Memes

Remember Those Pics of Obama and Joe Biden and Biden Wants To Do Something Crazy but Obama is Like "Joe..." but Biden is Going to do it Anyway but then Obama says "Joe, no..." or Whatever? God Just Imagine How Many More There Could Be, And©

Really looking forward to a year and a half of Biden saying "when you get knocked down, get back up again" seven times a day.