I tuned in halfway. Looked like Bloomberg didn’t bomb this time, made good points on education, but seems to be taking credit for leading nyc through 911. Bernie got booed a few times. Audience clapped when Bernie went anti-Israel. Biden said 150 million Americans were killed by guns in the last few years, wutt?
They all blamed Trump for the Coronavirus. Warren has a plan, says withdraw all troops and quoted scripture. Steyer wants reparations for black people and the environment. Buttigieg had some witty ripostes. I guess Klobuchar said stuff, but all the candidates are blending together.
Biden will be soon telling us that there is a precedent for having Biden for President- Woodrow Wilson”s final years in office, when he was felled by a stroke.
It’s the democrat’s version of The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight.
Especially Biden, clearly the elevator no longer goes to the top floor.
I’ve also downgraded Buttigieg as a likely compromise candidate if its a brokered convention. I just learned that he’s been caught copying verbatim, speeches by Obama. Same exact words, same gestures, same rolled up sleeves… somebody put together a video of the two of them speaking, Buttigieg mimics Obama… verbal plagerism.
Like a moth to a candle flame, the U.S. media, liberal to the core, keeps thinking “one more debate will clarify the issues and focus the candidates.” But it just keeps getting worse. Bernie is descending into a caricature, Biden is drifting off into senility, Steyer realizes his bankroll can’t compete with Bloomberg’s, Warren keeps thinking she can convince us by waving her hands more, Buttigieg is seeking his Obama gravitas, and Bloomberg stands at the end of the line, lips pursed, shaking his head and thinking ‘I’ve been giving these bozos money for decades?'” Clown car is too generous a description. I’m trying to dredge up a memory of some of the scenes in “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” — I think that is the only description that works.
I can envisage a Trump ad that begins with a black screen saying “Warning: Each of these people wants to be your President” followed by 20 seconds of those Democrats shrieking at each other. Then maybe ending with a grinning Trump.
thebradfordfile™
@thebradfordfile
The fact that no media outlet right now is seriously discussing if Joe Biden has dementia shows you the state of our corrupt media, and the abysmal quality of the Democrats in the race.
It’s surreal to witness.
When these people have to wander out of their safe, soft bubble they’re going to come face to face with the Big Bad Trump and they’re going to be not quite ready…it will be Epic.
@ F – great summary. I think you want a scene from “Marat-Sade” instead of Cuckoo’s Nest, though. I think “Fifteen Glorious Years” from that show might apply, because it includes politics in its insanity.
“The fact that no media outlet right now is seriously discussing if Joe Biden has dementia shows you the state of our corrupt media”
It’s no different than 2016 when they ignored all questions about Hillary’s health.
This actually gets at one of the problems of both modern republican government, capitalism, and journalism. All rely on the principle that people acting in their own self-interest will work to restrain each other’s excesses. But whether it’s Congress giving away its power to the President, stockholders unable to control CEO pay, or groupthink in major media that prevents certain questions from being asked, the theory is foundering in the typhoon of reality.
Mike
Well, there’s the good news, the bad news, and the MAGA news.
On Monday, the Supreme Court announced it would take up a case involving a Roman Catholic adoption agency denied taxpayer funding and placement opportunities because of its religious beliefs on marriage and sexuality. In Philadelphia v. Fulton, the City of Philadelphia cut ties with the Catholic Social Services (CSS) foster care system over the organization’s refusal to place children in foster care with same-sex or unmarried couples. While the Third Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the city, the agency claims this violated its First Amendment rights to free exercise of religion and free speech.
LGBT activists and state and local governments have targeted religious foster care and adoption agencies, claiming that they discriminate against same-sex couples and should therefore be excluded from the adoption process or lose any taxpayer funding for their work. They would force these agencies out of the market, leaving fewer options for needy children.
…
In March 2018, the City of Philadelphia stopped allowing foster children to be placed with families who work with CSS, claiming that the Catholic agency either had to endorse and certify same-sex relationships or shut down. The city targeted the church regardless of the fact that not a single same-sex couple had sought foster care certification from CSS over its 100 years of service in the city. Same-sex couples easily go elsewhere. Indeed, no couple has ever been prevented from fostering or adopting a child in need because of CSS’s religious beliefs, according to Becket.
“If you don’t want a gay marriage, don’t get one,” they all said.
Yeah, legalizing same-sex marriage was really truly not going to have any effect on the lives of anyone else, pinky swear.
Busted.
Pete Buttigieg decided it was a good idea to have a nine-year-old child join him on stage at a campaign event in Denver on Saturday to talk about his sexuality.
If you didn’t think the end was near, think again. Most of us are wishing for an asteroid extinction event at this point. The child sent a question to Buttigieg asking him to help him “be brave like you.” Cue endless virtue signaling from clapping weirdos who think it’s totally normal that a 9-year-old is thinking about gay sex.
…
Of all the political stunts involving children, this one is the most offensive I’ve ever seen. Let’s make childhood great again and stop assigning adult sexual obsessions to minors.
As The Wall Street Journal’s Kimberley Strassel noted, Bernie got “the real pass” on authoritarianism. “Authoritarianism is part and parcel of all true socialist movements. You can’t support socialism and oppose authoritarians. They are the same,” she explained.
…
Sanders may insist his would be a smiley-face brand of socialism, but when push comes to shove, how will he react? A Heritage Foundation study found that taxing the rich at 100 percent would still fall trillions short of Medicare for All and the Green New Deal. Sanders has criticized the idea of having 18-23 different deodorant options, but that is exactly the point: a free-market consumer culture allows for a wide range of choices that allow for competition and niche tastes. A one-size-fits-all mentality cuts against the prosperity Americans prize and socialist governments historically became authoritarian because not everyone went along.
Liberty and prosperity are not the norm in human history — poverty and tyranny are, and the bloody history of the 20th century shows that socialism is a recipe for returning to that norm.
…
While many think the clear contrast between Trump and Sanders would help the GOP, a socialist major-party nominee still represents a serious threat and a kind of belated victory for the Soviets in the Cold War.
Yet, as of now, conventional wisdom has it that Bernie would be the easiest candidate for Trump to beat.
Well, conventional wisdom hasn’t had a very good track record lately, but may it be so.
“Well, conventional wisdom hasn’t had a very good track record lately, but may it be so.”
Bernie is somewhat paradoxically both more likely to win and more likely to lose big than the other options. If Trump is unbeatable, if people decide they’re better off now than four years ago and are going to re-elect Trump basically no matter what, Bernie is the Democrat most likely to not only get crushed but drag a lot of down ticket candidates with him. But if voters are really willing to consider changing horses in midstream, Bernie is best positioned to take advantage of that because he has an actual message that goes beyond Orange Man Bad.
Mike
MBunge 1:02 an excellent point.
Scratching my head for a response… so far “a better system than the alternatives” is all I’ve come up with.
Also, living in an affluent society seems to cause decay of survival attitudes.
MBunge on February 26, 2020 at 1:02 pm said:
“The fact that no media outlet right now is seriously discussing if Joe Biden has dementia shows you the state of our corrupt media”
It’s no different than 2016 when they ignored all questions about Hillary’s health.
That she [Hillary] beat Sanders for the nomination four years ago, then lost to the extra-authentic Donald Trump, apparently taught Sanders’ followers that authenticity is everything.
That could explain why they are less concerned about the kooky things he believes than the fact that he truly believes them.
But think about a man who hasn’t changed his position on such fundamental things as socialism, communism and capitalism for 40 or 50 years. Authenticity isn’t the only or best way to describe such a man.
Arrested development is more accurate.
Here is some of the reason Sanders has such a large following.
We have gone past LIV (low information voters) to TIV (totally ignorant voters).
President Trump would KO Democrat front-runner Bernie Sanders if the 2020 presidential election were held today.
The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds Trump earning 50% support among Likely U.S. Voters to Sanders’ 43%. Seven percent (7%) are undecided. (To see survey question wording, click here.)
Fifty percent (50%) of voters who support Sanders view socialism favorably. Twenty-seven percent (27%) of these voters believe the individual has more power than the government under socialism, while another 22% are not sure.
AesopFan: Following your lead…
Larry Grathwohl was a Vietnam vet from the 101st, who later became a top FBI informant spying on the Weather Underground in the 70s. I vividly recall reading his book, “Bringing Down America,” in the big San Francisco library downtown, and this passage in particular. Happily the internet allows me to revisit the passage as written. Reb Callahan was a midlevel Weatherman. I can find no trace of him now, but he was apparently hot stuff back in the day.
Rebel [Callahan] sauntered to the middle of the floor with both hands stuck in his back pockets. It was obvious that he had conducted many meetings before. He had a casual air about him that exuded confidence.
After looking over the audience for a moment, he began: “Okay, you want to know who we are. Who the Weathermen are. I’m here to tell you. We’re communists and we dig it.” He pronounced the word “communists” slowly and distinctly, pausing to let the meaning take effect. Then he began again:
“Communists with a small ‘c’. We’re not part of the old Communist Party of America. We take orders from nobody, but we support the Third-World people’s fight against U .S. imperialism. We support the people.” His voice rose on this last phrase, then tapered off again… “We are activists. Young activists. Young because it’s up to the youth of America to begin the revolution. We’re going to bring down this imperialistic country.”
–Larry Grathwohl, “Bringing Down America”
Larry Grathwohl died in 2017. RIP.
Another demographic heard from – and not in favor of Sanders.
Hardly a Democratic presidential debate has transpired without Sen. Bernie Sanders criticizing former Vice President Joe Biden for his vote authorizing the Iraq War. It’s a fair criticism, and one that Sanders, who opposed the war as a congressman, is well positioned to make. But as the Vermont socialist edges inexorably closer to clinching the party’s nomination, why hasn’t Biden—or any of the other candidates—confronted him with some version of the following?
“OK, Bernie, let’s grant that the Iraq War was a catastrophe, and that you were right in opposing it. But when it came to the most important foreign policy issue of the second half of the 20th century—the attempt to enslave humanity by totalitarian communist dictatorships—you were, at best, a passive observer, but more accurately a fellow traveler.”
…
Republicans are salivating at the prospect of facing Sanders in the general election and Democrats are rightly terrified of the potentially disastrous down-ballot effects his nomination could wreak. Democrats took back the House in 2018 by running moderates in swing districts; not a single candidate endorsed by the Sanders-aligned Justice Democrats won a seat held by an incumbent Republican. But to stop Sanders from hijacking their party as Trump did the GOP in 2016, mainstream Democrats will have to do more than challenge the septuagenarian socialist’s electability. They need to focus on the very real, substantive ideological differences, namely, his decadeslong record of sympathy and support for leftist autocrats, that put him far outside mainstream Democratic Party traditions—and which explain why America’s first serious Jewish presidential candidate garners only a tiny fraction of support from Jewish Democratic Party voters.*
Bernie didn’t just oppose America’s Cold War excesses. He was often on the other side.
…
Sanders is like the guy we all knew in college with the Che Guevara T-shirt. Except, at 78, he’s still that guy.
…
While ritual self-flagellation is always demanded of Joe Biden for his single vote authorizing the Iraq War, Sanders’ opponents are oddly reluctant to ask him about his decadeslong record of propagandizing on behalf of leftist tyrants and mass murderers. Nor can these political commitments be waived off as mere youthful indiscretions. Sanders instinctually sides with any foreign head of state or revolutionary leader deemed “progressive,” no matter how autocratic or ruthless.
*[NOTE – dissing AIPAC didn’t help him any with a lot of Jewish voters]
Scores of interviews with Sanders supporters over the past year underscore the fierce loyalty of his supporters. They feel the Vermont senator is channeling their frustration about the injustices foisted on the working class. They are bound to Sanders through a covenant of trust that he will be their unwavering, unchanging champion. In almost every interview with a Sanders voter, they eventually utter some variation of the phrases: “I trust him” or “I believe him.”
That bond with Sanders, rooted in the constancy of his ideas over many decades, is a striking contrast to the indecision and uncertainty one often hears from voters at the events of other 2020 candidates.
…
“I feel like he’s the only one who is actually speaking to us,” said Guzman, a 23-year-old Latino who has struggled with rising college tuition and housing costs. “He understands our issues. He is speaking to our community — I mean he’s here in Santa Ana. That never happens. We’re always overlooked.”
Sanders understands, Guzman said, that if someone like him got really sick, his family wouldn’t be able to help him: “We wouldn’t have the money to really survive,” he said in an interview with CNN in Santa Ana.
It’s a point that was echoed by Garcia, of Anaheim, who said he trusts Sanders to push through Medicare for All without compromise.
“Every other country that’s first world provides health care to its citizens* and I think it’s barbaric that the United States does not give health care to its people,” Garcia said.
…
Other supporters note that many of Sanders’ ideas — once viewed as the product of the progressive fringe — are now essentially part of the Democratic platform in 2020. They point out that his policy positions have often been the same since the 1970s.
“He’s been doing and saying the same thing (since) when it wasn’t popular and he had to come up against a lot of friction,” said Karon Finn, 77 of Grimes, Iowa.
“He’s got such a long record of being very steadfast (about) the things I care most about, which are education, health care and the middle and lower class in this country,” …
Allison Schwiegeraht, a 21-year-old student from UNC Greensboro who is studying environmental and sustainability studies, attributed Sanders’ appeal to his passion on the climate crisis and environmental issues.
“He always really knows the right thing to say,” Schwiegeraht said. “He’s dedicated his whole life to this. Since he was also in his teenage (years) and in his early twenties, he just has a real passion for this — and it’s really hard to find that in a candidate, or really in any public figure.”
…
The effort to build a stronger connection with voters than he did in 2016 came from Sanders himself and his wife Jane. It was a recognition from the candidate that in 2016, he often talked at voters rather than listening to them in speeches that could span as long as an hour and 45 minutes. Sanders wanted to foster a sense of community, the foundation of a campaign slogan that became, “Not me. Us.”
“They knew 2016 had been more academic, not as personal,” Sanders senior campaign adviser Jeff Weaver said of the campaign shift. “They wanted to make what he was talking about connect — to make it relevant to real people’s lives.”
Sanders became a better candidate, his advisers say, through those smaller, more intimate events — where he asked voters for their stories about their economic troubles in the Trump economy.
…
“He understands what we go through and he doesn’t fake it,” said Destinee Campbell, a 19-year-old sophomore studying social work at Bennett College, a historically black college in North Carolina. She said she was confident Sanders would dedicate his presidency to improving the lives of minorities and women, even though that has been far afield from his own life experience.
“He actually seems like, if he hasn’t been through it, he knows people who’ve been through it and understands what we need,” said Campbell in an interview with CNN during Sanders’ visit to the college last September. “He understands middle-class, real life situations. He understands us.”
He certainly understands what to say to gain and keep his supporters.
But they clearly have no understanding of what he would do to deliver all those things they say they need, how few of them they will actually end up with, and the freedoms they will have to give away to get even those few.
*Case in point: some other countries provide health care to everyone, but Bernie’s champions clearly have no clue about the quality (often very low) and cost (high when you count in the tax burden) of that care. The US has its own share of low quality and high cost providers, but the government isn’t FORCING you to patronize them.
I suspect none of them have relatives who got caught in any of the VA’s quagmires.
“We are in a scenario in this country where you can choose to be a member of the party led by Donald J. Trump or you can choose to be a member of the socialist Democratic party led by Bernie Sanders,” noted Governor Tate Reeves.
Millsaps Department of Government and Politics chair Dr. Nathan Shrader says given the GOP sweep in statewide offices last year and the approval rating for Donald Trump, it opens the door to this.
“They have a plausible argument to make with these elected officials that your constituent are already aligning with us, the voting patterns in your district are moving in our direction, you should join the team too,” said Dr. Shrader.
One of the party switchers echoed that thought.
“There are conservatives Democrats all across the state of Mississippi and there was once upon a time when the conservative Democrats controlled this state,” explained 13th Circuit Court District Attorney Matt Sullivan. “It’s a new day in Mississippi and I believe the Republican party is growing and there’s a place in the Republican party for people like me.”
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Tom Elliot, twitter, debate clip: “Biden claims firearms have killed more than half of the U.S. population since 2007”
https://mobile.twitter.com/tomselliott/status/1232482323557306368
Does anyone present challenge this nonsense? Anyone. Candidate, media, anyone?
I would challenge, sd, if I wasn’t already…
…after another once more Democrat debate.
She Said, She Said
Meh!
I tuned in halfway. Looked like Bloomberg didn’t bomb this time, made good points on education, but seems to be taking credit for leading nyc through 911. Bernie got booed a few times. Audience clapped when Bernie went anti-Israel. Biden said 150 million Americans were killed by guns in the last few years, wutt?
They all blamed Trump for the Coronavirus. Warren has a plan, says withdraw all troops and quoted scripture. Steyer wants reparations for black people and the environment. Buttigieg had some witty ripostes. I guess Klobuchar said stuff, but all the candidates are blending together.
Biden will be soon telling us that there is a precedent for having Biden for President- Woodrow Wilson”s final years in office, when he was felled by a stroke.
It’s the democrat’s version of The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight.
Especially Biden, clearly the elevator no longer goes to the top floor.
I’ve also downgraded Buttigieg as a likely compromise candidate if its a brokered convention. I just learned that he’s been caught copying verbatim, speeches by Obama. Same exact words, same gestures, same rolled up sleeves… somebody put together a video of the two of them speaking, Buttigieg mimics Obama… verbal plagerism.
And Trump just tweeted about it. LOL
https://pjmedia.com/trending/stunner-watch-side-by-side-video-of-re-pete-buttigieg-and-obama-giving-the-same-speech/
Some wag suggested renaming him “re-pete” 😉
Biden is making senility great again.
Like a moth to a candle flame, the U.S. media, liberal to the core, keeps thinking “one more debate will clarify the issues and focus the candidates.” But it just keeps getting worse. Bernie is descending into a caricature, Biden is drifting off into senility, Steyer realizes his bankroll can’t compete with Bloomberg’s, Warren keeps thinking she can convince us by waving her hands more, Buttigieg is seeking his Obama gravitas, and Bloomberg stands at the end of the line, lips pursed, shaking his head and thinking ‘I’ve been giving these bozos money for decades?'” Clown car is too generous a description. I’m trying to dredge up a memory of some of the scenes in “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” — I think that is the only description that works.
I can envisage a Trump ad that begins with a black screen saying “Warning: Each of these people wants to be your President” followed by 20 seconds of those Democrats shrieking at each other. Then maybe ending with a grinning Trump.
thebradfordfile™
@thebradfordfile
The fact that no media outlet right now is seriously discussing if Joe Biden has dementia shows you the state of our corrupt media, and the abysmal quality of the Democrats in the race.
It’s surreal to witness.
When these people have to wander out of their safe, soft bubble they’re going to come face to face with the Big Bad Trump and they’re going to be not quite ready…it will be Epic.
@ F – great summary. I think you want a scene from “Marat-Sade” instead of Cuckoo’s Nest, though. I think “Fifteen Glorious Years” from that show might apply, because it includes politics in its insanity.
“The fact that no media outlet right now is seriously discussing if Joe Biden has dementia shows you the state of our corrupt media”
It’s no different than 2016 when they ignored all questions about Hillary’s health.
This actually gets at one of the problems of both modern republican government, capitalism, and journalism. All rely on the principle that people acting in their own self-interest will work to restrain each other’s excesses. But whether it’s Congress giving away its power to the President, stockholders unable to control CEO pay, or groupthink in major media that prevents certain questions from being asked, the theory is foundering in the typhoon of reality.
Mike
Well, there’s the good news, the bad news, and the MAGA news.
https://pjmedia.com/trending/supreme-court-gives-hope-to-adoption-agency-targeted-for-its-religious-beliefs/
“If you don’t want a gay marriage, don’t get one,” they all said.
Yeah, legalizing same-sex marriage was really truly not going to have any effect on the lives of anyone else, pinky swear.
Busted.
https://pjmedia.com/election/what-was-buttigieg-thinking-encouraging-a-young-boy-to-come-out-as-gay-at-his-campaign-even/
https://pjmedia.com/election/recap-donald-trump-won-the-south-carolina-democratic-debate/
Well, conventional wisdom hasn’t had a very good track record lately, but may it be so.
“Well, conventional wisdom hasn’t had a very good track record lately, but may it be so.”
Bernie is somewhat paradoxically both more likely to win and more likely to lose big than the other options. If Trump is unbeatable, if people decide they’re better off now than four years ago and are going to re-elect Trump basically no matter what, Bernie is the Democrat most likely to not only get crushed but drag a lot of down ticket candidates with him. But if voters are really willing to consider changing horses in midstream, Bernie is best positioned to take advantage of that because he has an actual message that goes beyond Orange Man Bad.
Mike
MBunge 1:02 an excellent point.
Scratching my head for a response… so far “a better system than the alternatives” is all I’ve come up with.
Also, living in an affluent society seems to cause decay of survival attitudes.
MBunge on February 26, 2020 at 1:02 pm said:
“The fact that no media outlet right now is seriously discussing if Joe Biden has dementia shows you the state of our corrupt media”
It’s no different than 2016 when they ignored all questions about Hillary’s health.
* * *
Speaking of things not being discussed by the media….
https://nypost.com/2020/02/26/by-going-soft-on-sanders-democrats-are-paving-the-way-for-his-nomination-goodwin/
Here is some of the reason Sanders has such a large following.
We have gone past LIV (low information voters) to TIV (totally ignorant voters).
https://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/elections/election_2020/trump_thumps_sanders_in_head_to_head_matchup
AesopFan: Following your lead…
Larry Grathwohl was a Vietnam vet from the 101st, who later became a top FBI informant spying on the Weather Underground in the 70s. I vividly recall reading his book, “Bringing Down America,” in the big San Francisco library downtown, and this passage in particular. Happily the internet allows me to revisit the passage as written. Reb Callahan was a midlevel Weatherman. I can find no trace of him now, but he was apparently hot stuff back in the day.
Rebel [Callahan] sauntered to the middle of the floor with both hands stuck in his back pockets. It was obvious that he had conducted many meetings before. He had a casual air about him that exuded confidence.
After looking over the audience for a moment, he began: “Okay, you want to know who we are. Who the Weathermen are. I’m here to tell you. We’re communists and we dig it.” He pronounced the word “communists” slowly and distinctly, pausing to let the meaning take effect. Then he began again:
“Communists with a small ‘c’. We’re not part of the old Communist Party of America. We take orders from nobody, but we support the Third-World people’s fight against U .S. imperialism. We support the people.” His voice rose on this last phrase, then tapered off again… “We are activists. Young activists. Young because it’s up to the youth of America to begin the revolution. We’re going to bring down this imperialistic country.”
–Larry Grathwohl, “Bringing Down America”
Larry Grathwohl died in 2017. RIP.
Another demographic heard from – and not in favor of Sanders.
https://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/299813/jewish-democrats-bernie-sanders
*[NOTE – dissing AIPAC didn’t help him any with a lot of Jewish voters]
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/truly-shameful-pro-israel-aipac-slams-sanders-after-he-says-conference-is-platform-for-bigotry/ar-BB10khDE?li=BBnb7Kz
Be afraid.
Be very afraid.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/02/25/politics/bernie-sanders-supporters/index.html
He certainly understands what to say to gain and keep his supporters.
But they clearly have no understanding of what he would do to deliver all those things they say they need, how few of them they will actually end up with, and the freedoms they will have to give away to get even those few.
*Case in point: some other countries provide health care to everyone, but Bernie’s champions clearly have no clue about the quality (often very low) and cost (high when you count in the tax burden) of that care. The US has its own share of low quality and high cost providers, but the government isn’t FORCING you to patronize them.
I suspect none of them have relatives who got caught in any of the VA’s quagmires.
Or you can be optimistic.
(I’m going with both.)
https://www.wlox.com/2020/02/25/eight-elected-officials-announce-party-switch-join-mississippi-republican-party/