Yeah, ok. You keep believing that. Biden doesn't strike me as CEO material. Even Bernie is a millionaire now and he's railing against millionares. Even one term representatives get a nice pension that nobody in the less than 1 percenters will ever get.
If you don't think ex-politicians can't or don't get much better-paid positions on corporate boards and as lobbyists, I don't know what to tell you.
The fact he gets a cushier pension than you doesn't mean he wouldn't get paid a lot better if he hadn't spent decades in the Senate. Do you think Bloomberg is in politics for the money?
Fine, why would anyone vote for Biden? What is his policy on anything? He's worthless. I mean he's better than Trump but that bar is so low a child could step over it. He's stuck in the 1950s in his brain.
Got me why. There's no sane reason people the world over keep voting against their interests to make things worse.
I get that you don't know why.
What I don't get is why you don't seem to care about finding out, why you would seemingly just rather dismiss people (even people voting on "your side") as stupid or evil instead of trying to understand where they're coming from.
Especially since the guy you support rather publically didn't do that even when they didn't vote for him.
I'll tell you why. Because the fear-mongerers in the media are all too eager to tell people why they should vote against their best interests and most ordinary people believe them. Explain to me why that is, other than pandering to ignorance? Who's interest does that serve other than the people who are better off with the way things are???
Yeah, ok. You keep believing that. Biden doesn't strike me as CEO material. Even Bernie is a millionaire now and he's railing against millionares. Even one term representatives get a nice pension that nobody in the less than 1 percenters will ever get.
If you don't think ex-politicians can't or don't get much better-paid positions on corporate boards and as lobbyists, I don't know what to tell you.
The fact he gets a cushier pension than you doesn't mean he wouldn't get paid a lot better if he hadn't spent decades in the Senate. Do you think Bloomberg is in politics for the money?
Bloomberg is in the race to make sure that by hook or crook, his taxes don't go up. Being Mayor of one of the most important cities on Earth?? Mostly ego. Like I've said, no matter what my myriad of problems with Joe Biden are, I can still walk in and vote for him. Bloomberg is a straight-up oligarch, and I wouldn't have been able to do so, and, at the very least, we've been spared that particular nightmare. Now we just get to watch two addled septuagenarians who can barely form complete sentences challenge each other to push-up contests on national TV for the next 6 months. The main story of a Trump/Biden match-up should be that the mental acuity of both men is rapidly disintegrating before our eyes. At this point, families in the real-world start making plans for assisted living in the next 3-5 years. But we're going to have them go head to head for the most powerful position on Earth.
Yeah, ok. You keep believing that. Biden doesn't strike me as CEO material. Even Bernie is a millionaire now and he's railing against millionares. Even one term representatives get a nice pension that nobody in the less than 1 percenters will ever get.
If you don't think ex-politicians can't or don't get much better-paid positions on corporate boards and as lobbyists, I don't know what to tell you.
The fact he gets a cushier pension than you doesn't mean he wouldn't get paid a lot better if he hadn't spent decades in the Senate. Do you think Bloomberg is in politics for the money?
They get those positions after the fact anyway. Plus they get to keep their benefits and get paid to give lame speeches about how they're so great for 'the little guy'. Sorry, but I just don't think most of them give a flying fuck about me or anybody else as an individual. Never Will...
I'll tell you why. Because the fear-mongerers in the media are all too eager to tell people why they should vote against their best interests and most ordinary people believe them. Explain to me why that is, other than pandering to ignorance? Who's interest does that serve other than the people who are better off with the way things are???
You're not entirely wrong (although you're not entirely right either - public opinion differs sharply from that of media and political elites on several issues), but it still doesn't change how self-defeating the stance of assuming the entire rest of the body politic are mindless sheep voting against their own interests is.
People do things for reasons, and those reasons are never, ever "they're stupid and/or evil".
(Man, people, read up on the French Revolution sometime. Or catch a podcast about it. There are so many eerie parallels, it's almost like people everywhere are more alike than different!)
I'll tell you why. Because the fear-mongerers in the media are all too eager to tell people why they should vote against their best interests and most ordinary people believe them. Explain to me why that is, other than pandering to ignorance? Who's interest does that serve other than the people who are better off with the way things are???
You're not entirely wrong (although you're not entirely right either - public opinion differs sharply from that of media and political elites on several issues), but it still doesn't change how self-defeating the stance of assuming the entire rest of the body politic are mindless sheep voting against their own interests is.
People do things for reasons, and those reasons are never, ever "they're stupid and/or evil".
(Man, people, read up on the French Revolution sometime. Or catch a podcast about it. There are so many eerie parallels, it's almost like people everywhere are more alike than different!)
I never once said anything about evil. Selfishness isn't necessarily evil. I just think most politicians are extremely extroverted, self-serving hypocrites. Tell me I'm wrong...
Bloomberg is in the race to make sure that by hook or crook, his taxes don't go up. Being Mayor of one of the most important cities on Earth?? Mostly ego.
Well, then either he is completely insane, or your reasoning is.
1) He spent far more on this race than he would ever have paid in taxes regardless of who became president.
2) There are far better sops to the egos of billionaires than being mayor of a city. Such as, for instance, being a billionaire.
Now we just get to watch two addled septuagenarians who can barely form complete sentences challenge each other to push-up contests on national TV for the next 6 months.
As opposed to noted spring chicken Bernie Sanders, who has never tripped over his words, I guess.
Bloomberg is in the race to make sure that by hook or crook, his taxes don't go up. Being Mayor of one of the most important cities on Earth?? Mostly ego.
Well, then either he is completely insane, or your reasoning is.
1) He spent far more on this race than he would ever have paid in taxes regardless of who became president.
2) There are far better sops to the egos of billionaires than being mayor of a city. Such as, for instance, being a billionaire.
Now we just get to watch two addled septuagenarians who can barely form complete sentences challenge each other to push-up contests on national TV for the next 6 months.
As opposed to noted spring chicken Bernie Sanders, who has never tripped over his words, I guess.
I really don't think it's even remotely fair to watch Trump or Biden talk for any length of time and say with a straight face that Sanders isn't infinitely more lucid and on point than both of them. Now, if you want to bring up his heart attack, that's fair game, but it seems crazy to me to think the Bernie isn't more in control of his mental faculties than Biden or Trump.
I never once said anything about evil. Selfishness isn't necessarily evil. I just think most politicians are extremely extroverted, self-serving hypocrites. Tell me I'm wrong...
You're wrong. Most public servants are in the game for idealistic reasons, because there are better opportunities elsewhere for those that aren't. Political careers can feed narcissism, to be sure, but few of them start that way. Most people get into politics because they want to make changes they believe in.
Widespread cynicism about politicians is both wrong and harmful to the political process, as it feeds distrust in the political process and discourages the best and brightest from entering politics.
Politicians are not, I will note, innately virtuous either. They're just people, by and large no better or worse than anyone else, trying to do a job.
Extroversion I'll agree with, because being extroverted does make it a lot easier to do the vast amount of personal contact necessary for success in politics. But, of course, as Bernie Sanders among others have proven, it is not necessary to be extroverted to be a successful politician.
I really don't think it's even remotely fair to watch Trump or Biden talk for any length of time and say with a straight face that Sanders isn't infinitely more lucid and on point than both of them. Now, if you want to bring up his heart attack, that's fair game, but it seems crazy to me to think the Bernie isn't more in control of his mental faculties than Biden or Trump.
I don't think it's remotely fair to read a piece of Senate legislation and not realise your characterisation of Biden as barely lucid is not fair. If he was as bad off as you say, he'd have not made it through the debates at all (and a series of middling performances isn't that bad, especially since his last one was generally considered good).
For that matter, Trump doesn't sound dramatically different to me than he did a decade ago (how intelligent and lucid that was is, of course, up for debate).
I do think Bernie is smarter/sharper than Biden or Trump, but I think Warren is smarter/sharper than Bernie, and that John Kerry and Al Gore were smarter/sharper than Bush. It isn't a quality that is a sure election-winner.
People do things for reasons, and those reasons are never, ever "they're stupid and/or evil".
(Man, people, read up on the French Revolution sometime. Or catch a podcast about it. There are so many eerie parallels, it's almost like people everywhere are more alike than different!)
Have you seen Trump's Twitter feed? Heard Trump Jr. speak? Stupid evil lives.
A lot of his policies, championed by the GoP because they're followers of his every whim, are designed to hurt his perceived enemies over imagined slights. Also the whole kids in cages thing is cruelty for the sake of it. And denying refugees for no reason is more of the same.
And denying refugees for no reason is more of the same.
We could always just fire tear gas at them like Greece does.
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The big takeaway from Super Thursday--sorry, Biden, I meant Super Tuesday--is that not even Democrats want "Democratic Socialism", which is good thing for all of us. We now know that Biden will be the nominee because when the convention becomes brokered after the first ballot the superdelegates will choose him on the second ballot. This November's election is still Trump's to lose as opposed to Biden's to win. Biden just needs to make sure not to gaffe himself into a loss by doing something ridiculous like, oh, confusing his wife and his sister or forgetting what day of the week it is.
The big takeaway from Super Thursday--sorry, Biden, I meant Super Tuesday--is that not even Democrats want "Democratic Socialism", which is good thing for all of us. We now know that Biden will be the nominee because when the convention becomes brokered after the first ballot the superdelegates will choose him on the second ballot. This November's election is still Trump's to lose as opposed to Biden's to win. Biden just needs to make sure not to gaffe himself into a loss by doing something ridiculous like, oh, confusing his wife and his sister or forgetting what day of the week it is.
I think Sanders can still recover. His biggest obstacle is the “how much is this going to cost?” question.
That is what is making people afraid of his ideas and not wanting to embrace them and just stick with the status quo (either Trump, or before Trump). I already highlighted what he should do in this thread, it’s up to him and his team to show America that this is plausible.
The big takeaway from Super Thursday--sorry, Biden, I meant Super Tuesday--is that not even Democrats want "Democratic Socialism", which is good thing for all of us. We now know that Biden will be the nominee because when the convention becomes brokered after the first ballot the superdelegates will choose him on the second ballot. This November's election is still Trump's to lose as opposed to Biden's to win. Biden just needs to make sure not to gaffe himself into a loss by doing something ridiculous like, oh, confusing his wife and his sister or forgetting what day of the week it is.
I think Sanders can still recover. His biggest obstacle is the “how much is this going to cost?” question.
That is what is making people afraid of his ideas and not wanting to embrace them and just stick with the status quo (either Trump, or before Trump). I already highlighted what he should do in this thread, it’s up to him and his team to show America that this is plausible.
He has answers to that question but it gets asked anyway all the time. It will save money for one thing by cutting out price gouging middle men.
Bernie can make a better case for Medicare for All's affordability. I'm talking about the "How are we gonna pay for it" question and he doesn't even need to go into the stupid lane Warren took with her horrible tax proposal. Bernie can just point out how health insurance is paid now as if it were a tax:
"We paid this much from out own income, this much through your employer's payroll and this much from government subsidies. Medicare for All would save this much, so we can pay it through a progressive income tax, a wealth tax, the estate tax and a property tax on luxury homes, because the money's already there, and for almost all americans this would save them a lot of money. On top of thatc over everyone and let you go to any doctor and hospital without ever worrying about losing your coverage if you're out of a job, so we would be vastly expanding and improving coverage."
Why only stuff that helps people are we concerned about the cost so much.
How are the GOP tax cuts going to cost? How do we pay for it? We aren't and he's running up the debt.
How much do Trump's weekly golf vacations cost.
Then this administration turns around and fires and cuts science jobs and people are dying because of it.
Everything costs, but medical care actually helps us. We the people.
That reminds me a lot of the first election I participated in. It was Obama's second term up for grabs and some of the young conservatives (myself included a the time) refused to back the Republican party because we felt our choice of candidate was being disrespected by the party.
Obviously, feel free to disregard this question if you dont want to say, but I'm curious: Who was your candidate in 2012 that you felt was being disrespected?
There doesn't appear to be any evidence Warren dropping out would be a massive 80/20 shift in her supporters to Sanders. In all likelihood, just as many would go to Biden. So blaming her and calling her a "snake" isn't helping anything. I mean, it's everywhere today, and it has a WAY more negative connotation than it sounds. It's a label that was also given to Kevin Durant when he exercised his free agency to join the Golden State Warriors.
This constant refrain of everything being rigged and stolen is getting old. The fact is, that although young people are going overwhelmingly for Sanders, there is no evidence MORE of them are turning out, which is the entire rational of his campaign. Young people still aren't voting. And while the electorate itself in exit polls favors all of Bernie's positions on healthcare by WIDE margins, they voted for Biden regardless of him not holding those positions.
That said, Warren needs to get out of this race so we can have a contrast between the only two people who can win. I'd LIKE her to endorse Bernie to even things out but she probably won't. Bernie needs to hit Biden hard on policy, and can do so from any number of angles. Bernie absolutely HAS to win Michigan and Washington next week. Splitting them is not an option.
There doesn't appear to be any evidence Warren dropping out would be a massive 80/20 shift in her supporters to Sanders. In all likelihood, just as many would go to Biden. So blaming her and calling her a "snake" isn't helping anything. I mean, it's everywhere today, and it has a WAY more negative connotation than it sounds. It's a label that was also given to Kevin Durant when he exercised his free agency to join the Golden State Warriors.
This constant refrain of everything being rigged and stolen is getting old. The fact is, that although young people are going overwhelmingly for Sanders, there is no evidence MORE of them are turning out, which is the entire rational of his campaign. Young people still aren't voting. And while the electorate itself in exit polls favors all of Bernie's positions on healthcare by WIDE margins, they voted for Biden regardless of him not holding those positions.
That said, Warren needs to get out of this race so we can have a contrast between the only two people who can win. I'd LIKE her to endorse Bernie to even things out but she probably won't. Bernie needs to hit Biden hard on policy, and can do so from any number of angles. Bernie absolutely HAS to win Michigan and Washington next week. Splitting them is not an option.
But Warren is a snake. The right thing to do would be to drop out and endorse Bernie. She isn't doing that is she? She's going to support Biden. She already showed her cards.
People support Bernie's positions on healthcare by WIDE margins but voted for Biden regardless of him not holding those positions. These people are voting against their own interests out of fear.
(On a personal note I'm fully aware of the fact that we in the UK have recently elected a complete bellend as Prime Minister and are therefore in no position to criticize another country's electoral system)
At least we won't have to put up with having to click/skip all those ridiculous ads any more. It's his money--he may spend it as he sees fit.
After their spat several weeks ago, Warren will *never* give her support to Sanders.
People are not voting *against* their own interests. They are voting for what they want. The fact that they may want something with which any of us personally disagree...well, that's just the way the cookie crumbles.
Warren’s tax plans are more popular than MFA (which she supports, as well as Bernie).
I agree Warren probably didn’t cost Sanders too much - but might have cost him a little. I do believe that had she dropped out and endorsed him before the “snake thing” happened, *that* might have made a larger difference. Once that bridge went up in flames, we knew her chances to be president died. We didn’t know Bernie’s might have as well.
I think all of this has revealed to me that Bernie has incredible politics, but he is an awful politician. He was never able to seriously grow his base. Warren was burnt in effigy for trying to find common ground For progressives and moderates. It turns out - finding a way to unify the wings of the party was the only way that the progressive most part of the party could win this election.
Hopefully in the future we’ll focus less on ideological purity, especially since Warren is 95% as progressive as Sanders is, just less offensively (to moderates) draped in the rhetoric of revolution).
Here is my BEST case scenario of a Biden nomination. He commits to serving only one-term (unless we can honestly see an 82-year old Biden doing this again in 2024) to "right the ship" so to speak, he puts Stacey Abrams on the ticket and says, flat-out "this woman is the future of the party", and passes the baton. Now, granted, nothing like this has EVER happened before, so I'm not holding my breath.
I don't claim to speak for the aims of African-American voters in the south, but I listen to people who DO understand them, and it basically boils down to this: they don't believe moderate white voters will pull the lever for Sanders, and they believe they will pull the lever for Biden. Right, wrong, that's what's at play here, not policy. These folks have been making necessary compromises for small gains their entire lives. This is just another one. Sanders is doing fine among YOUNGER African-Americans. But the older ones, the ones who lived through the 50s and 60s in hostile territory, aren't buying what Sanders is selling.
Here is my BEST case scenario of a Biden nomination. He commits to serving only one-term (unless we can honestly see an 82-year old Biden doing this again in 2024) to "right the ship" so to speak, he puts Stacey Abrams on the ticket and says, flat-out "this woman is the future of the party", and passes the baton. Now, granted, nothing like this has EVER happened before, so I'm not holding my breath.
I don't claim to speak for the aims of African-American voters in the south, but I listen to people who DO understand them, and it basically boils down to this: they don't believe moderate white voters will pull the lever for Sanders, and they believe they will pull the lever for Biden. Right, wrong, that's what's at play here, not policy. These folks have been making necessary compromises for small gains their entire lives. This is just another one.
I agree. This feels like something Biden should have in his back pocket. If the race is looking too close in September or October, take the 1 term pledge and set up Democrats for success in the future.
If something like that approach could help down ballot (which I’m unsure of) - I might recommend it not matter what. If a 1 term pledge gets us 50-50 in the senate, it’d be 100% worth it.
It is exceedingly unlikely that Biden chooses Ms. Abrams as his VP--she was too much of a whiner after her loss. I suspect he will go with either Robert Francis or Buttigieg, who reminds him of Beau.
It is exceedingly unlikely that Biden chooses Ms. Abrams as his VP--she was too much of a whiner after her loss. I suspect he will go with either Robert Francis or Buttigieg, who reminds him of Beau.
If by whining you mean the sitting Secretary of State running against her used the official apparatus of the state's own official website to accuse her campaign of vote hacking 3 days before ballots were cast, then not only produced no evidence, but it was revealed in short order to have been total bullshit made up out of whole cloth, then yeah, I guess she was a "sore loser", but I think we've already established from recent positions that you don't think people in power should have much of any constraint whatsoever on what they are allowed to do once they are there, because might makes right.
Somebody here talking about Robert Francis? Who's that lol.
You must call the elected Texas Senator Raphael Cruz too then right.
It bothers me sometimes too when people go by other names, like some go by their middle name, but I get over the spectacle of it very quickly because I'm resilient.
Ms. Abrams did not have any *proof* that the campaign was skewed *against* her, either. She was just upset that she lost. Anyway, she has insufficient name recognition outside her home State so she would make a poor choice for running mate. Robert Francis or Pete--they have the name recognition necessary but it isn't like Biden has to make that choice right away.
We can take Sanders' name off that CNN Electoral College map, put Biden's name in place, then move Florida back into the "toss-up" column and that should just about make Biden and Trump tied, except for the toss-up States.
Might does not make right. The *courts* decided that Congress can't just arbitrarily subpoena Executive Branch officials and I am not in charge of the courts. Of course, that means a future Republican House cannot simply at-will-subpoena Democrats in the Executive Branch, either, and I don't see a problem with that just like I didn't see a problem with Biden, should be be elected, issuing pardons to Hillary or Hunter if they need them.
And denying refugees for no reason is more of the same.
We could always just fire tear gas at them like Greece does.
What's happening in Greece at the moment is indeed shocking. The refugee situation has been relatively calm for a while as a result of the deal the EU did with Turkey for them to retain refugees - but that's in the process of breaking down as Turkey claims its not had the level of resources promised. To put pressure on the EU Erdogan started to funnel refugees (mainly from Syria) into Greece and the Greeks responded by closing the border - and are now using extreme methods to keep it closed. There's several bits of video doing the rounds demonstrating that - one of those is included in the attached story.
This race is not "over" by any stretch of the imagination. Once all the votes get counted in California, Bernie will likely come out to near a tie in delegates yesterday, and basically a tie over all. It's knotted-up at half-time. We've seen how media coverage can shape this race. Bernie winning Michigan and Washington next week would completely flip that switch again. We saw it in 2016, where Hillary's email redux came AFTER the Access Hollywood tape, and thus had more impact on the race because it took place closer to election day. Joe Biden could say something monumentally stupid on the campaign trail or in a debate. Any number of things could take place. That said, winning big next week is NOT a luxury for Bernie, it's a must-have. He should be blanketing Michigan with ads about Biden wanting to compromise with Republicans on Social Security and his trade policies. Because you know who is gonna do it in the general?? Donald Trump. Trump will absolutely hit Biden from the left on at least 3 or 4 issues, and no one seems to be anticipating this.
There doesn't appear to be any evidence Warren dropping out would be a massive 80/20 shift in her supporters to Sanders. In all likelihood, just as many would go to Biden. So blaming her and calling her a "snake" isn't helping anything. I mean, it's everywhere today, and it has a WAY more negative connotation than it sounds. It's a label that was also given to Kevin Durant when he exercised his free agency to join the Golden State Warriors.
This constant refrain of everything being rigged and stolen is getting old. The fact is, that although young people are going overwhelmingly for Sanders, there is no evidence MORE of them are turning out, which is the entire rational of his campaign. Young people still aren't voting. And while the electorate itself in exit polls favors all of Bernie's positions on healthcare by WIDE margins, they voted for Biden regardless of him not holding those positions.
That said, Warren needs to get out of this race so we can have a contrast between the only two people who can win. I'd LIKE her to endorse Bernie to even things out but she probably won't. Bernie needs to hit Biden hard on policy, and can do so from any number of angles. Bernie absolutely HAS to win Michigan and Washington next week. Splitting them is not an option.
But Warren is a snake. The right thing to do would be to drop out and endorse Bernie. She isn't doing that is she? She's going to support Biden. She already showed her cards.
People support Bernie's positions on healthcare by WIDE margins but voted for Biden regardless of him not holding those positions. These people are voting against their own interests out of fear.
Sanders isn’t running for health minister. People don’t just judge a candidate on one issue.
Here is my BEST case scenario of a Biden nomination. He commits to serving only one-term (unless we can honestly see an 82-year old Biden doing this again in 2024) to "right the ship" so to speak, he puts Stacey Abrams on the ticket and says, flat-out "this woman is the future of the party", and passes the baton. Now, granted, nothing like this has EVER happened before, so I'm not holding my breath.
I don't claim to speak for the aims of African-American voters in the south, but I listen to people who DO understand them, and it basically boils down to this: they don't believe moderate white voters will pull the lever for Sanders, and they believe they will pull the lever for Biden. Right, wrong, that's what's at play here, not policy. These folks have been making necessary compromises for small gains their entire lives. This is just another one. Sanders is doing fine among YOUNGER African-Americans. But the older ones, the ones who lived through the 50s and 60s in hostile territory, aren't buying what Sanders is selling.
Democrats hopefully learnt their lesson and will not do this.
Everyone and their monkey knew that Hillary would be the next Democratic candidate after Obama so for the 8 years Obama was president, she was vilified and made to be hated by the American populace.
The exact same thing would happen to anyone who is anointed heir before any democratic process is put forward.
Comments
If you don't think ex-politicians can't or don't get much better-paid positions on corporate boards and as lobbyists, I don't know what to tell you.
The fact he gets a cushier pension than you doesn't mean he wouldn't get paid a lot better if he hadn't spent decades in the Senate. Do you think Bloomberg is in politics for the money?
I'll tell you why. Because the fear-mongerers in the media are all too eager to tell people why they should vote against their best interests and most ordinary people believe them. Explain to me why that is, other than pandering to ignorance? Who's interest does that serve other than the people who are better off with the way things are???
Bloomberg is in the race to make sure that by hook or crook, his taxes don't go up. Being Mayor of one of the most important cities on Earth?? Mostly ego. Like I've said, no matter what my myriad of problems with Joe Biden are, I can still walk in and vote for him. Bloomberg is a straight-up oligarch, and I wouldn't have been able to do so, and, at the very least, we've been spared that particular nightmare. Now we just get to watch two addled septuagenarians who can barely form complete sentences challenge each other to push-up contests on national TV for the next 6 months. The main story of a Trump/Biden match-up should be that the mental acuity of both men is rapidly disintegrating before our eyes. At this point, families in the real-world start making plans for assisted living in the next 3-5 years. But we're going to have them go head to head for the most powerful position on Earth.
They get those positions after the fact anyway. Plus they get to keep their benefits and get paid to give lame speeches about how they're so great for 'the little guy'. Sorry, but I just don't think most of them give a flying fuck about me or anybody else as an individual. Never Will...
You're not entirely wrong (although you're not entirely right either - public opinion differs sharply from that of media and political elites on several issues), but it still doesn't change how self-defeating the stance of assuming the entire rest of the body politic are mindless sheep voting against their own interests is.
People do things for reasons, and those reasons are never, ever "they're stupid and/or evil".
(Man, people, read up on the French Revolution sometime. Or catch a podcast about it. There are so many eerie parallels, it's almost like people everywhere are more alike than different!)
I never once said anything about evil. Selfishness isn't necessarily evil. I just think most politicians are extremely extroverted, self-serving hypocrites. Tell me I'm wrong...
Well, then either he is completely insane, or your reasoning is.
1) He spent far more on this race than he would ever have paid in taxes regardless of who became president.
2) There are far better sops to the egos of billionaires than being mayor of a city. Such as, for instance, being a billionaire.
As opposed to noted spring chicken Bernie Sanders, who has never tripped over his words, I guess.
Voting scared IS voting stupid. (My opinion but based on the nature of fear.)
I really don't think it's even remotely fair to watch Trump or Biden talk for any length of time and say with a straight face that Sanders isn't infinitely more lucid and on point than both of them. Now, if you want to bring up his heart attack, that's fair game, but it seems crazy to me to think the Bernie isn't more in control of his mental faculties than Biden or Trump.
You're wrong. Most public servants are in the game for idealistic reasons, because there are better opportunities elsewhere for those that aren't. Political careers can feed narcissism, to be sure, but few of them start that way. Most people get into politics because they want to make changes they believe in.
Widespread cynicism about politicians is both wrong and harmful to the political process, as it feeds distrust in the political process and discourages the best and brightest from entering politics.
Politicians are not, I will note, innately virtuous either. They're just people, by and large no better or worse than anyone else, trying to do a job.
Extroversion I'll agree with, because being extroverted does make it a lot easier to do the vast amount of personal contact necessary for success in politics. But, of course, as Bernie Sanders among others have proven, it is not necessary to be extroverted to be a successful politician.
I don't think it's remotely fair to read a piece of Senate legislation and not realise your characterisation of Biden as barely lucid is not fair. If he was as bad off as you say, he'd have not made it through the debates at all (and a series of middling performances isn't that bad, especially since his last one was generally considered good).
For that matter, Trump doesn't sound dramatically different to me than he did a decade ago (how intelligent and lucid that was is, of course, up for debate).
I do think Bernie is smarter/sharper than Biden or Trump, but I think Warren is smarter/sharper than Bernie, and that John Kerry and Al Gore were smarter/sharper than Bush. It isn't a quality that is a sure election-winner.
Have you seen Trump's Twitter feed? Heard Trump Jr. speak? Stupid evil lives.
A lot of his policies, championed by the GoP because they're followers of his every whim, are designed to hurt his perceived enemies over imagined slights. Also the whole kids in cages thing is cruelty for the sake of it. And denying refugees for no reason is more of the same.
We could always just fire tear gas at them like Greece does.
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The big takeaway from Super Thursday--sorry, Biden, I meant Super Tuesday--is that not even Democrats want "Democratic Socialism", which is good thing for all of us. We now know that Biden will be the nominee because when the convention becomes brokered after the first ballot the superdelegates will choose him on the second ballot. This November's election is still Trump's to lose as opposed to Biden's to win. Biden just needs to make sure not to gaffe himself into a loss by doing something ridiculous like, oh, confusing his wife and his sister or forgetting what day of the week it is.
America does do this:
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/trump-administration-official-defends-use-tear-gas-mexico-border-n946741
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I think Sanders can still recover. His biggest obstacle is the “how much is this going to cost?” question.
That is what is making people afraid of his ideas and not wanting to embrace them and just stick with the status quo (either Trump, or before Trump). I already highlighted what he should do in this thread, it’s up to him and his team to show America that this is plausible.
He has answers to that question but it gets asked anyway all the time. It will save money for one thing by cutting out price gouging middle men.
Bernie can make a better case for Medicare for All's affordability. I'm talking about the "How are we gonna pay for it" question and he doesn't even need to go into the stupid lane Warren took with her horrible tax proposal. Bernie can just point out how health insurance is paid now as if it were a tax:
"We paid this much from out own income, this much through your employer's payroll and this much from government subsidies. Medicare for All would save this much, so we can pay it through a progressive income tax, a wealth tax, the estate tax and a property tax on luxury homes, because the money's already there, and for almost all americans this would save them a lot of money. On top of thatc over everyone and let you go to any doctor and hospital without ever worrying about losing your coverage if you're out of a job, so we would be vastly expanding and improving coverage."
Why only stuff that helps people are we concerned about the cost so much.
How are the GOP tax cuts going to cost? How do we pay for it? We aren't and he's running up the debt.
How much do Trump's weekly golf vacations cost.
Then this administration turns around and fires and cuts science jobs and people are dying because of it.
Everything costs, but medical care actually helps us. We the people.
The cost of doing the same thing is too great.
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Bloomberg's done and quit and good riddance.
Sure, Ron Paul. I was a Libertarian at the time.
This constant refrain of everything being rigged and stolen is getting old. The fact is, that although young people are going overwhelmingly for Sanders, there is no evidence MORE of them are turning out, which is the entire rational of his campaign. Young people still aren't voting. And while the electorate itself in exit polls favors all of Bernie's positions on healthcare by WIDE margins, they voted for Biden regardless of him not holding those positions.
That said, Warren needs to get out of this race so we can have a contrast between the only two people who can win. I'd LIKE her to endorse Bernie to even things out but she probably won't. Bernie needs to hit Biden hard on policy, and can do so from any number of angles. Bernie absolutely HAS to win Michigan and Washington next week. Splitting them is not an option.
But Warren is a snake. The right thing to do would be to drop out and endorse Bernie. She isn't doing that is she? She's going to support Biden. She already showed her cards.
People support Bernie's positions on healthcare by WIDE margins but voted for Biden regardless of him not holding those positions. These people are voting against their own interests out of fear.
https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/super-tuesday-2020-results-democracy-white-house-biden-sanders-a9374471.html
"After its latest festival of democracy, America has decided who should be in the White House – an old, white man"
(On a personal note I'm fully aware of the fact that we in the UK have recently elected a complete bellend as Prime Minister and are therefore in no position to criticize another country's electoral system)
Apparently that is what more people want, though--"Status Quo" Biden.
At least we won't have to put up with having to click/skip all those ridiculous ads any more. It's his money--he may spend it as he sees fit.
After their spat several weeks ago, Warren will *never* give her support to Sanders.
People are not voting *against* their own interests. They are voting for what they want. The fact that they may want something with which any of us personally disagree...well, that's just the way the cookie crumbles.
I agree Warren probably didn’t cost Sanders too much - but might have cost him a little. I do believe that had she dropped out and endorsed him before the “snake thing” happened, *that* might have made a larger difference. Once that bridge went up in flames, we knew her chances to be president died. We didn’t know Bernie’s might have as well.
I think all of this has revealed to me that Bernie has incredible politics, but he is an awful politician. He was never able to seriously grow his base. Warren was burnt in effigy for trying to find common ground For progressives and moderates. It turns out - finding a way to unify the wings of the party was the only way that the progressive most part of the party could win this election.
Hopefully in the future we’ll focus less on ideological purity, especially since Warren is 95% as progressive as Sanders is, just less offensively (to moderates) draped in the rhetoric of revolution).
I don't claim to speak for the aims of African-American voters in the south, but I listen to people who DO understand them, and it basically boils down to this: they don't believe moderate white voters will pull the lever for Sanders, and they believe they will pull the lever for Biden. Right, wrong, that's what's at play here, not policy. These folks have been making necessary compromises for small gains their entire lives. This is just another one. Sanders is doing fine among YOUNGER African-Americans. But the older ones, the ones who lived through the 50s and 60s in hostile territory, aren't buying what Sanders is selling.
I agree. This feels like something Biden should have in his back pocket. If the race is looking too close in September or October, take the 1 term pledge and set up Democrats for success in the future.
If something like that approach could help down ballot (which I’m unsure of) - I might recommend it not matter what. If a 1 term pledge gets us 50-50 in the senate, it’d be 100% worth it.
If by whining you mean the sitting Secretary of State running against her used the official apparatus of the state's own official website to accuse her campaign of vote hacking 3 days before ballots were cast, then not only produced no evidence, but it was revealed in short order to have been total bullshit made up out of whole cloth, then yeah, I guess she was a "sore loser", but I think we've already established from recent positions that you don't think people in power should have much of any constraint whatsoever on what they are allowed to do once they are there, because might makes right.
You must call the elected Texas Senator Raphael Cruz too then right.
It bothers me sometimes too when people go by other names, like some go by their middle name, but I get over the spectacle of it very quickly because I'm resilient.
We can take Sanders' name off that CNN Electoral College map, put Biden's name in place, then move Florida back into the "toss-up" column and that should just about make Biden and Trump tied, except for the toss-up States.
Might does not make right. The *courts* decided that Congress can't just arbitrarily subpoena Executive Branch officials and I am not in charge of the courts. Of course, that means a future Republican House cannot simply at-will-subpoena Democrats in the Executive Branch, either, and I don't see a problem with that just like I didn't see a problem with Biden, should be be elected, issuing pardons to Hillary or Hunter if they need them.
What's happening in Greece at the moment is indeed shocking. The refugee situation has been relatively calm for a while as a result of the deal the EU did with Turkey for them to retain refugees - but that's in the process of breaking down as Turkey claims its not had the level of resources promised. To put pressure on the EU Erdogan started to funnel refugees (mainly from Syria) into Greece and the Greeks responded by closing the border - and are now using extreme methods to keep it closed. There's several bits of video doing the rounds demonstrating that - one of those is included in the attached story.
Sanders isn’t running for health minister. People don’t just judge a candidate on one issue.
Democrats hopefully learnt their lesson and will not do this.
Everyone and their monkey knew that Hillary would be the next Democratic candidate after Obama so for the 8 years Obama was president, she was vilified and made to be hated by the American populace.
The exact same thing would happen to anyone who is anointed heir before any democratic process is put forward.