Someone Has To Do It: US Elections 2020

[San Bernardhinault]

Elizabeth Warren really doesn't have much baggage that I know of, despite the freak out about the DNA results. Beto doesn't seem to have a lot of baggage, but then he doesn't have a whole lot of substance either.

[ursus arctos]

Wayne Messam may well be the answer, but no one has any real idea what he believes in.

When Harris was locking black folks up and throwing away the key and Booker was letting the Newark police run loose, Messam was playing wide receiver for Florida State

[ursus arctos]

I was wondering if I should mention that . . .

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

The thing about "All lives matter" is that it's firstly utterly trite bollocks,

I didn't mean the racist backlash to BLM, I meant that he believes that all people matter equally and that a civil rights violation against one is a crime against all. I just don't know if he has a particularly well thought out position on it though. It certainly didn't sound like he did. But at essence he is very different to Joe Biden, who has simply done too many things over too many years.

[anton pulisov]

Well, I think the anti-PC brigade sees no clear distinction there.

Well, what I was getting at is not the anti-PC brigade, but the PC-misuse brigade. The latter would be establishment people who, sixty years ago, would be telling us that civil rights are a good idea in principle but shouldn't be introduced too quickly. Or twenty years ago would be telling us that while they have gay friends, marriage is between a man and a woman. They go along with whatever they think will keep them in power. And now they see how they can abuse PC and promote faux identity politics to cement their position of power. Old white men are bad (especially ones who want to tax corporations) and young gay men are great (especially ones from the McKinsey institute). These people are not pro-PC but pro whatever they think will promote their agenda. When they misuse PC for their gain it cheapens PC and makes a mockery of the democratic process. Ultimately, that benefits Trump. Of course, they know that. The corporations and billionaires running the US media would be paying much more tax if Sanders had his way, vs how much they pay now under President Trump. They probably know that using faux identity politics to undermine leftist candidates risks poisoning the well and leading to four more years of Trump. But they've done a risk calculation on that and four more years of Trump isn't necessarily such a bad thing for them. So yeah, they will gleefully further a message that a man whose extended family was wiped out by Nazis doesn't understand the threat posed by white supremacist neo-Nazis in the USA. Bollocks to that.

Consider also how the prospect of Warren becoming the first ever female president is hardly ever talked about by the media. She doesn't exist. But first gay president Buttigieg, on the other hand, amazing. One of those two wants to tax the shit out of billionaires.

[ursus arctos]

[URL]https://twitter.com/rvawonk/status/1123025027169964032?s=21[/URL]

[anton pulisov]

Okay. I don't think the identity politics detractors of Sanders as an old white man are by any means limited to corporate pocket liners, but I get your point.

No, but the corporate media chooses who to give airtime to. They are suddenly interested in black issues and reparations groups when they think it can be used to bash the anti-corporate candidate. When Bernie is out of the race, these people will get no airtime and the mainstream media will go back to seeing reparations as a joke issue for fringe loonies.

As for Warren, I dunno. I suspect that she just doesn't appeal to a lot of people in the popularity stakes.

The media loved her until she went all out proposing policies that would tax corporations and billionaires. After that they went silent on her.

Interesting NYT article here about the Democratic donor class being pissed off at Sanders. These people still blaming Sanders for Clinton's loss against Trump. Article suggests that Buttigieg also attending the secret "what to do about Bernie" meetings.

[ursus arctos]

Like this one

https://twitter.com/gdebenedetti/status/1122848094809460736

Nearly everyone else in the field, the financiers felt, was being pulled leftward by Bernie Sanders (the preposterously well-funded contender they considered too crazy to even imagine in the White House) and Elizabeth Warren (less crazy, Democrats on Wall Street think, and way more competent). “She would torture them,” one banker told me. “Warren strikes fear in their hearts,” explained a New York executive close to banking leaders from both parties — so much fear that such investors often speak of the U.S. senator from Massachusetts, a former law professor and consumer advocate, as a co-front-runner with Sanders. “How do we come up with an alternative?” asked one person at the dinner.

or this one

https://twitter.com/NYMag/status/1123135197841698816

[Incandenza]

[URL]https://twitter.com/rvawonk/status/1123025027169964032?s=21[/URL]

Jacob will keep getting caught doing this, but he will keep coming up with more fake smear campaigns.

[ursus arctos]

The one thing that he seems capable of doing with some competence is staying just on the right side of crimes that would put him in jail, and the fact that he has a lot of money at his disposal (with easy access to more) will ensure that Inca's prediction will prove true.

[San Bernardhinault]

I'm still seeing a lot of stuff about Anita Hill and his apparent inability to even understand what he did wrong, let alone apologise properly for it. I suspect his polling is very soft. In contrast, I suspect Bernie's polling is rock solid, but not far from its natural ceiling.

I increasingly think Warren would be my preferred President of the current Democrats; I'm not yet convinced she'd be my preferred candidate.

[ursus arctos]

There is a narrative (no doubt being pushed by the Biden campaign) that his service "in Barrack's house" somehow cleansed him of all of his earlier misdeeds (some of which are now also being spun as "gaffes".

It seems rather bonkers to me, but the Times found a number of black people outside of Philly who were fully on board (and therefore made the front page).

The New York Magazine article on the donor class' profound fear of Warren and Bernie is instructive to anyone wondering where that narrative comes from.

[Incandenza]

Mayor Pete had to do some backpedaling after saying that personal and religious exemptions from vaccines were fine, except when they wouldn't be and it would be too late to prevent an outbreak:

“Pete does support some exceptions, except during a public health emergency to prevent an outbreak,” a spokesperson for the South Bend, Indiana, mayor said Tuesday in response to BuzzFeed News. “These exemptions include medical exemptions in all cases (as in cases where it is unsafe for the individual to get vaccinated), and personal/religious exemptions if states can maintain local herd immunity and there is no public health crisis.”

[Tactical Genius]

Wait till people start going over Bidens role in the desegregation of the Delaware schools in the 1970's and being the godfather of mass incarceration of the 1990's.
Didn't he has some choice words about Obama back in the day too.

[ursus arctos]

The first two have been mentioned pretty widely already, but everyone is being told that Barrack's magical powers have cleansed him of all sins. I can't believe that many people will fall for that, but I've been disappointed in that respect before.

[ursus arctos]

Biden has long been considered to be at best a mediocre fundraiser, having relied extremely heavily on support from Delaware corporate interests (particularly credit card companies). The fact that he broke all records on the day of his announcement is strong evidence that "establishment" figures are willing to pay a lot for a nominee other than Sanders or Warren.

[anton pulisov]

He was also livin' it up with a big fundraising dinner at the house of the CEO Comcast on the day he launched his campaign. Gotta get the manufacturers of consent on your side. It did seem to me that Warren gets hardly any coverage anymore, especially compared to that new darling of the centrists, Mayor Pete Veteran McKinsey. Who owns this New York Magazine that was pointing out that big money donors are afraid of her?

Some quality Joe Biden BS here:

I guess he's over forty now, huh.

[Incandenza]

[ursus arctos]

Who owns this New York Magazine that was pointing out that big money donors are afraid of her?

The heirs of Bruce Wasserstein, one of the "Masters of the Universe" investment bankers of the late 20th and early 21st century.

[anton pulisov]

"Democratic" party to blacklist any political consultants or firms who work for primary challengers.

[Satchmo Distel]

The New York Magazine article on the donor class' profound fear of Warren and Bernie is instructive to anyone wondering where that narrative comes from.

Warren and Bernie don't "need" the donor class for funding but I'd be worried that they could rig the process in some way - e.g. "Superdelegates"

I can guess why CNN are playing along with sabotaging Bernie but I'm unclear as to Maddow's motivation, or is she just incompetent despite her cleverness? Maddow definitely likes Warren as per numerous fawning interviews.

[E10 Rifle]

My brother in law, who is probably more leftwing than me, is backing Warren (albeit that he doesn't live in the States any more). Is there much of a split on the left between Warren and Saunders supporters, and on what issues/demographics do they divide?

[ad hoc]

One issue they divide on is Palestine, on which subject Warren is bloody awful. Mind you, while it might be my issue of choice, i can understand that Palestinian human rights might not be the top of the list of important topics for US voters

[anton pulisov]

I can guess why CNN are playing along with sabotaging Bernie but I'm unclear as to Maddow's motivation, or is she just incompetent despite her cleverness?

$7 million annual salary from Comcast can be very motivating.

[Satchmo Distel]

$7 million was in 2016; probably more now, although she has to rake it in before her shelf-life expires.