2020 Democratic presidential primary

just jump straight to Add a Post my man

If Bloomberg was the nominee, I'd vote for him without hesitation. At least he has been vocal about the climate crisis, which dwarfs all other issues on the table in impacts. But I don't see him drawing any habitual non-voters to the polls, or quashing the third-party Left that cost the election in 2000 and 2016.

Sanpaku not letting us down with the truly bizarre takes

2/3 sentences are fine

Sanpaku's take actually makes a lot of sense! If the climate is your top issue, you could do worse than Bloomberg.

Bloomberg isn't the worst of the candidates on offer. I think Warren is the best candidate at present for the general, but would gladly vote for Sanders or Booker. And begrudgingly vote for Biden, Buttigieg, Harris, Klobuchar or Steyer. As far as I'm concerned, Bloomberg fits amongst this latter group. Hell, I'd vote for Bill Weld if that was the only only option to remove the cancer of Trump.

I for real want to relive the old, white stoop sitters very vocal every day meltdown about Bloomberg's soda tax. I walked my dog like 4 times a day during this era and It was willie wonka level pure imagination.

silby: I've been an Economist reader for two decades. I often don't agree with its editorial content. Bloomberg is pretty much an ideal candidate for the few hundred thousand readers that think rational actors with appropriate incentives can solve societal problems within a free-market framework, which is essentially that publication's editorial stance. In the UK, climate change isn't up for political debate, largely thanks to Thatcher.

That stance obviously has issues in an era of irrational actors and voters, who mostly are indifferent to future consequences.

Bloomberg seems an okay person, but one who is motivated to enter the race mostly because he opposes the wealth taxes of the Democratic frontrunners. I've read my Walter Scheidel and Peter Turchin, so understand that unless the US does something about its rising inequality, there will be violent revolution. It's not a time for the Bloombergs of the world.

Sanpaku I love that you’re a Booker fan, it is vmic

Was just reminded this morning that the Dean Scream happened in January '04 so I guess there's still time for a viable dem candidacy to be derailed for completely inconsequential reasons.

Dean Scream also happened on the night he came in a distant 3rd in Iowa after having polled in 1st there for most of a year, so the candidacy was already kind of derailing

In the UK, climate change isn't up for political debate, largely thanks to Thatcher.

i... what?

The Conservatives under Thatcher accepted that anthropogenic climate was a problem in the late 80s, and she was the most prominent national leader calling for an international climate treaty at the time. I haven't seen the broad science denial in British neoliberal publications that is so common in the US and Australia. I'm sure the Murdoch publications are just as bad, but don't look at them.

Any time you post about something I know a bit about I am reminded to treat everything else you say with ... caution.

It continues to amuse me that people attribute Dean's demise to the scream and not to the fact that extremely online support grossly inflated people's expectations of his performance.

(basically President Keyes OTM)

xp: Do you object to characterizing Thatcher as the most forward national leader on climate of the late 80s? Or that The Economist has been pushing a carbon tax since 1989?

Sanders wrote an op-ed for Jewish Currents on combating anti-Semitism:

I have a connection to Israel going back many years. In 1963, I lived on a kibbutz near Haifa. It was there that I saw and experienced for myself many of the progressive values upon which Israel was founded. I think it is very important for everyone, but particularly for progressives, to acknowledge the enormous achievement of establishing a democratic homeland for the Jewish people after centuries of displacement and persecution.

We must also be honest about this: The founding of Israel is understood by another people in the land of Palestine as the cause of their painful displacement. And just as Palestinians should recognize the just claims of Israeli Jews, supporters of Israel must understand why Palestinians view Israel’s creation as they do. Acknowledging these realities does not “delegitimize” Israel any more than acknowledging the sober facts of America’s own founding delegitimizes the United States. It is a necessary step of truth and reconciliation in order to address the inequalities that continue to exist in our respective societies.

https://jewishcurrents.org/how-to-fight-antisemitism/

link isn't working atm but that particular excerpt sounds exactly like a speech he gave to j-street in 2017

https://www.jta.org/2017/02/27/politics/bernie-sanders-at-j-street-one-can-be-pro-israel-and-rap-its-government

don't think it's possible to support both israel and rap actually

what about Matisyahu

what about him?

got curious about what he was up to these days:

#GenderReveal #NewVideo #MatisyahuLive pic.twitter.com/Rvbiz54hcR

— Matisyahu (@matisyahu) November 5, 2019

kinda feel like gender reveal parties are a top 1000 worst thing in the world

as is matisyahu

It continues to amuse me that people attribute Dean's demise to the scream and not to the fact that extremely online support grossly inflated people's expectations of his performance.

― brigadier pudding (DJP), Monday, November 11, 2019 10:23 AM bookmarkflaglink

The scream lost my support...for it was a 'false metal' scream

Maureen Dowd on Trump and Bloomberg made my eyes bleed and my brain shrivel.

gamechanger: Don Blankenship is running for president, via the Constitution Party

i t ' s h a p p e n i n g https://t.co/j4YoZ89YOG pic.twitter.com/62ZJdn8QHs

— Matt Pearce 🦅 (@mattdpearce) November 11, 2019

Sure that isn't Michael Showalter

The coldness toward Biden and Bloomberg here (which I share) is interesting. There must be a kind of Democrat who wants guys like this, but yet they do command some support.

It's like the old Pauline Kael thing: I don't know anyone who wants this sort of candidate, but they apparently exist. Because these candidates keep appearing.

Welcome to the bubble y'all

I know lots of mods who like this.

These people also have "Truth lies somewhere in the middle" and "If anything can go well, it will" bumper stickers

i will FP the shit out of any mod who likes this, i don't care what the consequences are

"If anything can go well, it will"

...in a cosmology with infinite dimensions, and we have an infinitesimally small chance of belonging to the dimension where it goes well

#bumperstickersthatwrapallthewayaroundtheelcamino

Lol at my unfortunate abbreviation.

There must be a kind of Democrat who wants guys like this

These are mostly apolitical sorts whose ideas are a vague - and often sentimental - mishmash informed by impressions gathered off of mass media and fading memories of a few formative personal experiences. They hang suspended between their desire for a better world and their innate fear of change.

they also love Forrest Gump

I don't think apolitical sorts really gaf? I think these are mostly affluent older people who are "professionals" and do follow politics and read articles in the Economist.

Actually I do know one older lady who is pretty progressive in general but is "Ridin' with Biden" because she has a visceral terror of a Trump reelection. And what she does with that terror is to shut down any consideration of a candidate who doesn't already have gobs of name recognition and national-level government experience. Also national polling shows Biden way ahead of Trump, and that looks like an argument in his favor.

I guess I sympathize with her - kinda - the sort of person who felt very badly burned by 2016 (as were we all) but who has a severely limited imagination about what to do to avoid the same disappointment again.

So not apolitical, just seeing things through a very limited PTSD lens.

Biden has in the neighborhood of 20% support. Buttigeig has something near 12%. I don't imagine there are nearly enough 'mostly affluent older people who are "professionals" and do follow politics and read articles in the Economist' to account for these numbers. Bloomberg, otoh, would appeal to some of those democrats, but he made his rep nationally by strong support for gun control and I think that is probably a significant factor in his early 4% number.

mayor pete is more in the neighborhood of 7-8%

bloomberg has been very good on climate change. he has stuck his neck out for it multiple times and put a lot of $ behind it as well. but sanders and warren are both very strong on climate as well.

The Gabbard campaign’s demand for an apology from Hillary Clinton includes the text they want her to deliver, including "I support and admire the work that Congresswoman Gabbard has done and will continue to do." pic.twitter.com/RldwBFp5cj

— Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) November 11, 2019

Being criticised by Clinton easily the best thing that happened to her candidacy (people really hate Hillary!!!) and she obviously knows it

Too bad she can't stop herself from tipping over into "I will shoot one hostage every hour until my demands are met" territory. Yep, she'd make an awesome president.

ok from a very deep catalogue of weird shit this person has said and sone, this demand is...right up there

I really want to make a "Tulsi Gabbneb" joke but it only scans metrically

i moved house this week and someone on my new block has tulsi yard signs (?!)

i notice there are only 8 stars in don blankenship's flag, is he trying to tell us something

he seems nice

There's more in that profile that's worth talking about, some of which has been reported elsewhere. I haven't been able to find it online, but if you have access to a newspaper database you might be able to track it down. The Daily Telegraph, June 2001 https://t.co/bBxFEAlgJH pic.twitter.com/RLmY7arZSc

— Osita Nwanevu (@OsitaNwanevu) November 11, 2019

after really far too much speculation

I am very concerned about what appears to be a coup in Bolivia, where the military, after weeks of political unrest, intervened to remove President Evo Morales. The U.S. must call for an end to violence and support Bolivia’s democratic institutions.

— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) November 11, 2019

it does look like there was a coup, it also looks like Morales tried to rig the election