2020 Democratic presidential primary

disappointed that warren hasn't picked up steam yet

disappointed but not surprised

it's March 2018. At this point Sarah Palin was a spot on McCain's tumor.

er, 2019

lol don't scare me like that

whatever, it's 2009

It's 1963. It's 1964. It's 1957. It's 1962.

Butt it all behind you

it’s December 21 2012 and has been for the last 75 months

81 82 83 84

wait does al think elizabeth warren is as sharp as birds of passage or not?

vice versa, and more narco

This was an incredibly difficult thing to do, but something that felt necessary. It took awhile before I found the words and the support that made me feel like this was finally a story I could tell. https://t.co/Sr5Go3xuTe

— Lucy Flores (@LucyFlores) March 29, 2019

I feel like Biden needs to completely enter private life and become a furry.

"become"

just the start, I hope

I was lucky to serve at a time when Americans would honor service members no matter how they felt about US policy.

It wasn’t that way for the Vietnam generation. Better late than never, we owe each of them a heartfelt Thank You and Welcome Home. #VietnamWarVeteransDay

— Pete Buttigieg (@PeteButtigieg) March 29, 2019

I thought Mayor Pete was supposed to be well-read? Doesn't he know the spitting-on-returning-soldiers thing is a myth?

...I now see that many, many people have pointed this out.

milkshake butt

Seriously, fuck Joe Biden.

Yeah I linked that (slightly ambiguously, I now realize) earlier. I think we can reasonably expect more of those stories to come out.

No, you linked the Flores story a few posts above - this is a much longer, top-to-bottom teardown of the dude's entire career.

oh shit, my bad

but yeah his record is just remarkably awful

He was a good veep, because veeps have no power and do almost nothing.

Buttigieg claiming Viet Nam vets returned home to little appreciation is not A THING. It's run of the mill "I'm running for president" stuff. It's about as important as a flag pin.

run of the mill or not, it's ahistorical bullshit

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/13/opinion/myth-spitting-vietnam-protester.html

Please point out the part of his tweet where he mentioned spitting.

He said "It wasn’t that way for the Vietnam generation," which is largely true. By the time the war began winding down, there were no parades or professional sports salutes, etc etc. They came home quietly, without fanfare, to high unemployment and undiagnosed PTSD.

That's worse than how they come home now.

You've rubbed your own context all over it.

(xp)

...is it? Really? Current veterans are still pretty fucked! One could reasonably assume the popular narrative/lie is what he's referring to there. It could use some clarification, at least.

Anyway, Nathan Robinson at Current Affairs read his book and has, as usual, many thoughts.

Another thing to consider is that a sizeable portion of Viet Nam vets were drafted and never wanted to be there in the first place. The armed services are all volunteer in every conflict since, and yes, as many pitfalls as the VA has now, it was worse in the 1970s. Still, anyone serving today signed up for it.

But please, do continue to overreact to a post he made about one honorific day that most of us didn't even know existed until he tweeted about it.

Jeezus, Nathan Robinson just made me want to stab myself in the eye with a spork.

His statement in the tweet still strikes me as sketchy, regardless of the noble intent

When we elect a president who campaigns on an “oppose the troops” platform we’ll let you know

There are options between Buttigieg's statement and "fuck the troops." Shutting the fuck up, for instance. (I will take my own cue here and take the weekend off.)

jfc nathan robinson is an annoying windbag

if you're going to write an article that's basically just "this dude you like sucks" over and over, maybe make it less than 10 million words

good piece

it is overlong but solid

The problem with "this guy is flawed beyond consideration" pieces like this is that it ignores the core issue of whether or not he'd listen, acknowledge, and then act on issues brought to him directly by members of this or that community. I've seen no evidence that Buttigieg is the kind of politician who'd say something was impossible because of x, y, or z. Just because he hasn't yet tackled something doesn't mean he doesn't believe it's a problem worth addressing. Nathan Robinson's central conceit seems to be "this guy has not turned South Bend into an equitable nirvana, so he's a fucking loser."

not as sharp as Birds of Passage

like Warren, good but not flirting with greatness

If you want an actually cringey Mayor Pete take to discuss instead of the vets one above, he's here for you.

“Donald Trump got elected because, in his twisted way, he pointed out the huge troubles in our economy and our democracy,” Buttigieg says. “At least he didn’t go around saying that America was already great, like Hillary did.” -- @PeteButtigieg https://t.co/5alThtNbw9

— The Washington Post Magazine (@wpmagazine) January 27, 2019

Whats cringey about that quote?

yeah I think that's right

What's wrong is the part about why Trump was elected. He got elected because enough racists in three key states finally had a candidate who thought like they did.

Donald Trump didn't point any of those things out. We knew them already. All he did was drive wedges between subgroups of poor people, and affording him the standing of doing anything more than that is nagl.

make America great again was powerful because it at least acknowledged the general feeling that this country sucks

that's kind of the fascist playbook, the feeling is then wielded as a racist weapon but part of the appeal is the acknowledgement of the feeling

What's wrong is the part about why Trump was elected. He got elected because enough racists in three key states finally had a candidate who thought like they did.

― recriminations from the nitpicking woke (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, March 30, 2019 1:40 PM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i don't think this is incompatible w/ what buttigieg said, tbh.

During the now famous "Morning Joe" interview, Buttigieg said he wants to reach out to those voters, which may be platitudinous because he has to be.

Trump got elected in those states not just because of the racist voters, but also because the Obama voters stayed home.

Go county by county through the Rust Belt. It's always something like 08-D54, 12-D51, 16-D39. The R votes were always there. It's just last time, the D votes weren't.

(Hell, it's crazier when you see things like 88-D56 all over the place...)

I couldn't get through that Nathan J Sanders piece right after he goes off about people from Harvard when...Nathan J Sanders is currently at Harvard.

Or Nathan Robinson. I have no clue who Nathan J Sanders is.