By Lambert Strether of Corrente.
The debate begins at 8 p.m. ET, one half hour from now, and it will run for about three hours. It’s being held at Loyola Marymount University, a private Jesuit and Marymount research university in Los Angeles, California, and one of the largest Roman Catholic universities on the U.S. West Coast with 8,000 students. Here’s a series of videos from the Loyola faculty on debate history and stagecraft.
The co-hosts are PBS NewsHour and Politico. Here is how to watch:
The debate will be televised on PBS and CNN, livestreamed online at PBS.org, PBS NewsHour, Politico.com, and CNN.com, and available on many of the news organizations’ social, mobile and live-TV streaming apps. You can also listen to the debate on SiriusXM channels 116, 454, and 795.
NPR.org will also be streaming special coverage of the debate, and the politics team will provide live fact-checking and analysis throughout the evening.
The moderators:
- Tim Alberta (Politico)
- Yamiche Alcindor* (PBS)
- Amna Nawaz (PBS)
- Judy Woodruff (PBS)
* Ugh.
The seven candidates, in alpha order:
- Joe Biden, former Vice President
- Pete Buttigieg, Mayor of South Bend, Ind.
- Amy Klobuchar, Senator from Minnesota
- Bernie Sanders, Senator from Vermont
- Tom Steyer, billionaire and activist
- Elizabeth Warren, Senator from Massachusetts
- Andrew Yang, entrepreneur and philanthropist
The candidates, in stage order:
And those who did not make it: Bennet, Bloomberg, Booker, Castro, Delaney, Gabbard, Patrick, and Williamson. (Seven is the smallest number of candidates yet, and there’s much gnashing of teeth about the lack of “diversity” on the stage, despite a Jewish representation of 14% (general population: 2.2%), and the presence of an American Indian.)
It occurred to me to take a quick look at how the seven were polling:
(This is a little different from Water Cooler’s poll, because it includes debates on the timeline and excludes Bloomberg.)
And since the debate is in California, here is the latest California poll:
Remarkably, Sanders is in the lead:
Politico characterizes this holiday season debate as awkward:
IT’S ALSO A BIT AWKWARD to be holding a debate a day after the House voted to impeach the president, a subject these candidates want to avoid like a drunken co-worker at the company holiday party; they’d rather outline their plans on health care, student debt and family leave. Still, polls show that’s exactly what Democratic voters want to hear about. Impeachment isn’t going to affect their lives one iota, as most realize by now that Donald Trump isn’t going anywhere.
Pelosi has made things even more awkward by delaying sending the articles of impeachment to the Senate (though I suppose that could be resolved before the debate, if Schumer and McConnell want to do that). Awkward for the candidates to be put in the position of justifying both Pelosi’s calendar-driven “hurry up,” and now her “wait,” especially when preventing history’s worst monster from committing more crimes is the ostensible goal. I suppose the campaign staffs will have worked something out. Where’s Malcolm Tucker when we need him? More:
THAT SAID, IMPEACHMENT IS ALSO AN OPPORTUNITY for one of the candidates to cast themselves as something very different from the sturm and drang of Washington. Could this be PETE BUTTIGIEG? The South Bend mayor has been testing an outsider message in a field dominated by D.C. insiders, but he’s been a bit sidetracked by his pillow fight with ELIZABETH WARREN and endless stories about his Harvard days, McKinsey clients and wine-cave fundraisers in Napa.
First time I’ve heard Sanders characterized as a “D.C. insider”!
A debate requires a drinking game — or perhaps a munchies game? I don’t know — so here is a thread of suggestions:
Any last suggestions for debate drinking game rules?
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 19, 2019
As before, this post does not update; readers may track the debate in real time in comments. Please keep your comments as informative and analytical as possible. There are no points at NC for context-free one-liners (“Boo ____!”) that only those who are also watching can make sense of; that’s for Facebook or Reddit. I think it adds more value if you take a moment, use your critical thinking skills, then comment, and readers can discuss what you say. This is what the NC commentariat is so very good at, after all. Last time, the times before that, and this time. Thank you!
NOTE I can’t find an image of the Loyola stage; perhaps that’s a good sign, and this will be a more serious effort than other debates.
190 comments
Comments are closed.
Regarding the moderators™: are vehement hand gestures a requirement, these days?
Also, who’s the spike-haired deGeneres clone?
Amy Walter, catapulting the “centrist” propaganda during the mcDebate:
https://www.commondreams.org/views/2019/12/21/pbs-decides-what-debate-watchers-need-more-talk-pundits
they don’t let up do they
Plan B: my copy of the Bukowski reader finally arrived this afternoon. Quick trip for some
Bushmill’s and I’m set. Watch a little, read a little, drink..
Remember, Hillary is the defeated old woman that he mounts in political hubris.
They are forcing everyone into a corner on impeachment and so far Bernie and Warren have fallen for it. I wish Bernie wouldn’t go along with this farce.
>and the presence of an American Indian
Ok who’s going to clean the milk and cookies off of my monitor?
Big mistake to make this debate about Donald J.
That’s de rigeur now for Our™Dems. Slipping into irrelevance, perhaps by design.
If its about Donald, then they do not address other substantive issues (M4A). Donald’s impeachment has all the signs of a distraction – a bright shiny object.
Looks like Buttigieg is going to pretend to be a populist tonight.
Lord.
He can make the glib comments, but how can anyone believe a word he says?
It boggles my mind too, but it seems like enough people always do…
First time I’ve heard Sanders characterized as a “D.C. insider”!
Or, er, a putative CIA operative, Buttegieg, cast as a D.C. outsider. heh.
Biden making no sense again. Impeachment Q: what a setup. Sanders as on-point as can
be, in response to the bad question.
Sanders completely avoided answering the impeachment question.
Warren thinks we are just now seeing the results of corruption and conveniently forgets the corrupt acts of the last several administrations– including Obama.
Klobuchar has selective memory about previous impeachment proceedings. Nixon and Clinton also fought having witnesses compelled to testify.
Buttigieg thinks negative tax rates arrived with Trump.
Yang is the only one so far who seems to have a clue why people aren’t enthusiastic about impeachment. Thank you, Yang.
Yang’s response on impeachment was amazing. It’s great to have someone up there with no chance of winning who is therefore free to speak truth.
He is refreshingly real despite his silly UBI. Did a great interview on Useful Idiots (Matt Taibbi-Katie Halper podcast)
Yang with the best response on impeachment so far by a country mile, which makes Bernie’s answer all the more disappointing.
Agreed. On the trade deal question Sanders coming across as sharp and sure footed.
Yes, the really important stuff that candidates should be judged on.
Klobuchar™ trying to be warm ‘n’ fuzzy. Can you say “insular”?
Judy parrots the same line we keep hearing from the talking heads:
“The economy is great, the economy is roaring.”
Does she even know anyone without a million dollar + 401k?
+1
She’s evoking some good answers, though.
At least thanks to PBS the set doesn’t look like a circus.
It looks like a bad eye test though.
Is this fuzzy? How about when it moves the other way?
That type moving in the background, OMG.
The shortening of attention spans is a feature, not a bug.
“we do it all for you, Our Little People.”
We’re not going to watch tonight’s debate so I’ll keep up by reading the comments here and on Twitter. Adam Schiff’s deranged closing statements yesterday were beyond the pale. Tulsi Gabbard is the only candidate who refused to wholeheartedly participate in this lunacy and she’s not participating.
Otherwise, today the House passed Trump’s revised NAFTA:
NYT: “Breaking News: The House passed a revision to President Trump’s North American trade pact in a bipartisan vote, giving him a victory hours after he was impeached.”
https://twitter.com/nytimes/status/1207773529892118528?s=20
In response to an earlier USMCA question, Sanders said he will vote no and Klobuchar strongly supports…yeah, more neoliberal trade policies!
I’ve been listening on the radio, but have probably had enough now. The crowd really sounds suspiciously embracing of Buttigieg and Warren. The DNC wouldn’t have their hand in crowd selection would they? Those two seemed to receive the loudest applause during the introductions while Sanders / Klobuchar received similar applause levels. Given the DNC’s history I’m thinking they limited Sanders supporters from the audience somehow. Maybe I’m wrong regarding the crowd, but it sounded that way to me.
“The DNC wouldn’t have their hand in crowd selection would they?”
Shirley, you just. No Democrat establishment critter can let a moment go by without showing their inferiors how they should feel about something. Therefore, even the crowd is rigged.
Klobuchar is trying to trot out her “friend” Sherrod Brown to gain some cred with the progressive wing. She’s so out of touch she doesn’t realize the actual left does not consider Brown to be progressive.
lol. I really can’t stand her. Nothing about her is pleasant or pleasing to me.
Ok Pete, $15 an hour then? Say it.
Nope, he won’t.
Why didn’t Biden have to answer the trade deal question?
Why is the stage background itself *moving*?
All that is solid..
It is good that I refilled my blood pressure meds a few hours ago. Being that I don’t own a TV, I want to thank all the commenters in advance. I will continue reading, but probably won’t say much till tomorrow (unless something amazing happens)
Good call, IB. I turned it off.
Thank you. My reasoning was, “Why am I paying people to lie to me? All that will do is encourage them.” I completely got rid of the TV 5 years ago, don’t miss it.
I’m tuning in to comments from the hockey game. Saving billions and billions of brain cells.
check it out…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQoQaHCjG3g
Sanders doing really well so far. Looking good too (America!).
Crowd really seems to like Warren.
Her reference to “Mamas and Daddies” is a bit nauseating, imo.
I just don’t understand the reason why we should waste money as a society to pay for someone else, other than the parents, to babysit their toddler?
Or as Warren calls it, universal preschool childcare.
So the PMC can have more cheap, desperate labor to babysit their children, of course. Managers are the most important people in a society, say 9 out of 10 managers. (The tenth one is about to be RIFed.)
Yes, it’s a play to middle class professional women vote who want what they pay to their nannies paid for by taxpayers.
How does it make any sense to pay someone else to take care of all the kids in this society (when most working women are not getting paid much more than the low paid childcare workers who would do the job). Makes no sense at all.
Sorry this is so rough, typing and trying to listen.
Same argument could be made about k-12. The early years are critical to becoming a well rounded productive member of society
Washington dc does it and it seems to be popular and effective
They are talking about childcare for toddlers so the mother can go work in some sh$tty job. Jesus. How warped we have become.
Agreed. Family for children- “daycare” is enforced societal insanity.
Actually in the nordic countries most mothers work, and it works better than what we have. It takes a village and all that. Flexibility for part-time work may make sense.
Are you thinking that taking care of children and a household is not work? The people I know in Scandinavia raised their own children, and with
the relatively enlightened family-oriented policies there, didn’t take a huge financial hit in doing so.
You seem to forget that most of those lower income mothers NEED that job. The idea that this is an upper middle class entitlement is absurd. Those women hire their own nannies and wouldn’t entrust their kids to *gah* public care.
And have you managed to forget about single mothers? The majority of children born now are not to a married couple. The guy being involved is even more of an option than by historical norms.
Because we as a society need to show up for each other. Having children is a social good, so we need to show up for parents. I never married and never had children, but even I understand how I benefit from caring for other people’s children.
Why should be woman be the one to sacrifice her career? Why not have childcare. Not just daycare, but 24 hour childcare for parents who work from 12 AM to 6 AM. Why shouldn’t we organize our government around providing for basic needs of ALL OF US, not just the few.
Seriously? Apparently you have never met a single parent.
The “Middle Class” trope needs to stop. There is the elite, the professional class, and the financially insecure that lives paycheck to paycheck (almost everyone). It might be easier to fight the problem if they acknowledge it.
Buttigieg trotting out the middle of the road, means-tested platform again. The populist pose from Mr. McKinsey didn’t last long.
He got no applause for it, though.
Indeed, “How are we gonna pay for it?” didn’t take long to show up.
When Elizabeth talks about her wealth tax funding child care for every baby in the US, I think she loses a lot of voters. Not all parents want to put their babies in day care centers. I know that I did not. How about she comes up with an idea for higher tax rebates and/or deductions for families with children under age five. In the past there were plenty of studies showing that children develop better,emotionally and psychologically, under the care f their loving parents. I know, how old fashioned! And I am not even a conservative.
Not all women have that option. Women of color historically never did.
Poor women never did. And the problem now is women throw away their careers for it if they do that. Well the top 10% always find a way, and maybe minimum wage jobs don’t care – but lots in the middle will never get hired again for the field they trained for with that type of gap. That is to say they throw their ability to earn a living away AND in a country without social safety nets!!! They become entirely dependent on men to survive etc.. It’s not pretty. Work-life balance maybe, but dependency as a way forward, doubtful.
Also no credits towards social security for the years out of the workforce. Also true for those who do family eldercare who don’t want nursing homes for their loved ones.
Has Klobuchar been paying any attention at all to the current climate projections? She is utterly clueless.
I guess her constituents tell her it’s still damn cold in Minnesota.
She has a C+ from Greenpeace on climate plans. That’s all you need to know. She isn’t serious
What they should all say they would do on DAY 1
is to stop all the methane pouring out of the gas wells.
yep. they don’t even flare it off any more. just vent it.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Xqf3GPrEgtk&feature=youtu.be
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=h7RMzdTTcVk&feature=emb_title
Buttigieg trotting out the carbon tax scam now. You probably need to move out of that river side home before you enact your ineffectual policies.
Sanders schools the moderator. Ha! Crowd goes wild.
+100
The people know who to believe.
Bernie hits it on climate change.
Sanders is right on global warming coming at us like a freight train.
And gets the biggest applause of the night.
Bernie Sanders actually made an anti-war statement. This only candidate to do so.
Yang, like a broken record, back to his $1,000 per month universal income.
Yeah! We can live in poverty as he floods this country will millions of educated foreigners
(as he said he would do) to take the $10,000 (and up) per month jobs.
Pete Buttigieg sounds just like an asset to me.
LGBTQCIA? This is not meant as a slight to any of our LGBTQ friends.
LGBTQSPOOK
We don’t really know if it’s CIA or another SPOOK agency he works for.
They say there are 17 of them.
His HK answer strangely congruent with this article I linked earlier in the Cooler.
https://consortiumnews.com/2019/12/19/the-insider-national-security-mandarins-groomed-pete-buttigieg-managed-his-future/
Shorter him–let’s have a war with China (but only if necessary of course).
Blumenthahl suggests a big Buttigieg/regime change lobby connection
Me too…small town mayor and seemingly out of nowhere he’s a “top” tier candidate or at least polling that way in IA thanks to his big donors. His employment with McKinsey doesn’t mean he’s an intelligence asset, right? Even if I’m a little conspiratorial here, given his clients and work with McKinsey plus his policies, I’m sure he’ll fit in well with the alphabet agencies.
You misspelled ass
Bernie just shit down Pete’s throat. he’s gonna kill a dog after this for sure
https://twitter.com/ByYourLogic/status/1207850243632574464
Biden, Obama had majorities in both houses his first two years in office. You can’t blame Congress for not “letting” him close Guantanamo.
Anyway I don’t think it legally requires Congress or ever did
Though, it is good to see Biden put those congressional relationships to work. Obviously, Biden is pro-Gitmo or was thought of so little by the Obama Administration.
By focusing gratuitously on “treating our allies better than we treat dictators”, Warren is yet again signalling that she will continue with the hawkish, regime-change politics of the bipartisan neoconservative consensus.
+1
Come on, now, be kind. She’s just a player in the game.
So do our allies who are dictators get double benefits?
“So do our allies who are dictators get double benefits?” Hilarious.
Buttigieg, king of the world. Or so he thinks apparently.
Booty was what finally made me turn the effing thing *off*.
entitled
Biden is a nightmare when it comes to foreign policy. I nightmare.
Yes, a nightmare for the entire world.
They are trying to out do each other about the protests in Hong Kong and coming out hard on China, but no mention of the year long protests in France.
Corporate PBS too easy on and propping up Bootguy, what is Amy still doing there (she must have a lot of ex-boyfriends), and lastly someone ensured Joe got sleep and slipped him Adderall or Aricept.
and protest in Chili etc.
>someone ensured Joe got sleep and slipped him Adderall or Aricept.
I didn’t notice any cognitive improvement in D’oh. If anything he was worse this time.
Auntie IdPol crashes the party!
Tim Black on Amy Klobuchar:
“What did Amy do for blackfolks? That’s easy. Over prosecute & charge max sentences for petty crimes.
Ironically, people shitting on Kamala (rightly so) didn’t bother covering Amy’s sorry ass NOT EVEN ONCE. I produced lengthy exposes on Klobuchar and Harris.
Fake Progressives”
https://twitter.com/RealTimBlack/status/1207819479792701440?s=20
Amy K is giving Minnnesotans a BAD name.
Question about Obama’s statement about old white men:
What a horrible, unethical question for the moderators to ask. As if Obama doesn’t exert inordinate influence as it is. Appalling.
age discrimination
Can someone tell me what Klobuchar’s appeal is?
I really don’t get it.
ditto. maybe people like staplers to the face.
Well-heeled donors.
Warren’s selfie game is STRONG. Perhaps I should reconsider her.
$5,000 for a picture?
Try $500,000.
One of the bigger applause lines came when Warren made a joke about being the youngest woman President.
Humor me more, please.
Buttegieg is so slimy. No wonder McKinsey hired him. What an awful candidate.
Boom. Warren slams CIA Pete and his drinks with wine cave billionaires.
loved it.
Buttigieg proving he is the true heir to the third way mantle. “One hand tied behind our back” was their excuse for selling out to corporate interests in the first place.
Buttigieg, some of us recognize that Pelosi and Obama are fully owned corporate hacks.
And Bernie drops the the hammer on Biden and Butigieg by numbering their billionaire donors. A Mjölnir grade hammer.
Bernie slams Biden and Buttigieg for all the billionaires that have donated to them.
Warms my heart to hear this in a debate.
Now, Corporate Wh$re Biden defends himself with lies.
Buttigieg boasts about his ability to stand up to donors.
I seem to remember that Buttigieg’s biggest donor for his mayoral campaign was good friends with the racist white policeman who wanted the popular black police chief of South Bend fired. Buttigieg summarily fired/demoted this popular black police chief without consulting with the town council or the black community, infuriating both. That sounds like a very bad start when it comes to standing up to big donors.
Sanders use of Billionaire donations to kneecap both Buttogig and Biden was masterful.
Warren has 20 billionaire donors.
Would somebody that frequents wine caves be called a ‘spillunker’?
Try doing that while being weighed down by your billions.
lol
Yes, they’re all sons and daughters of immigrants up there.
Everyone wins when Klobuchar and Guttigieg go at each other!
Sorry. Buttigieg.
Oh god, Sanders on the childcare thing too.
Why can’t they just say, pay people enough so one parent can stay home and take care of the kids?
Too retro?
It works if there is a job guarantee when one partner goes back in the workforce someday maybe, now not so much, it’s a poverty sentence.
It doesn’t help the kids to be raised by a low wage childcare worker rather than the parent.
Or to be put in a collective day care when they are one or two.
It’s a pretty childish fantasy to expect that sort of thing to materialize instantly, without any intermediate steps. The kids dislocated by “oh well, can’t afford you” would be worse off. Wouldn’t it be better to not create a cohort of children who are extremely damaged by extreme poverty?
Not to mention single parents.
That doesn’t work for single parents, unless you have some sort of government stipend for them instead. Which I am all for.
I think universal childcare is a good thing, but only in conjunction with other things – decent wages, stipend/social programs for single parents, etc. It would allow single parents (mostly women) to not be dependent on a wage earning partner.
See my comment above. Majority of children born now are out of wedlock, as they used to say.
Yes, you are retro. No reason to think the man will do squat save pay child support and in many cases only if the mothers is organized enough to get the courts to go after him. It’s 100% his option to help.
Not in Pennsylvania. Courts here are rough on the men with regards to divorce. I browse online dating (36, never married and no kids) and you guys are totally right about the large swath of single mothers. Part of me wonders if people can’t control their lust enough and a lot of one night flings turn into kids. Its sad, I loved having both parents involved in my life growing up. Family is becoming an endangered species.
Don’t feel too bad. 53, never married, no kids. Fact is that no, people cannot in fact control themselves. I grew up in a traditional nuclear family with a single wager earner — my Dad. Mom was able to go back to work in a career she loved as we got older. I always wanted to offer this kind of life to someone, but sadly it is not to be unless I win the Lotto. Besides, I am largely ignored by the opposite sex.
And then you find out many women who are single parents were actually married but find they needed to end it. I think people often don’t know what they are getting into with marriage.
Anyone hear Klobuchar complain “Dammit, C’mon!”, when the moderators didn’t call on her for the fiftieth time.
Sanders is right. The key to winning the election lies more in getting the base to turn out than winning over conservative Trump voters. Bernie’s huge support is exactly among the low-turnout groups that are likely to stay home if they’re not enthused: young voters and Hispanic voters.
And Amy Klobuchar is right — South Bend Indiana is not the standard conservative mid-Western town that Buttigieg is pretending it is. It’s an elite university town that has voted for only Democratic mayors for decades. When Buttigieg tried to run for an Indiana statewide office, he lost miserably.
Joe now claims the ‘stanbox was a mistake, so why was he quiet as a church mouse for 8 years?
Others convinced Obama; a shame he didn’t heed his VP on that one. It wasn’t a secret at the time that Biden argued against it. Who was that general who had an affair with his biographer? Oh, and Holbrooke.
Joe the Corporate Wh$re Bidon starts screaming the Republican line:
It will cost 32 TRILLION for M4All!
God he’s disgusting.
Here comes Klobuchar to defend who she works for: the for profit heath insurance extortion rackets.
Bernie misses the opportunity to say it will cost more for the status quo
Yes. I hope he brings that up in future situations. We are spending now and will be spending even more than the figures mentioned if things don’t change drastically.
…and misses that opportunity over and over and over. Odd.
never interrupt your opponent when they are saying/doing stupid things…
Having been in the same room with the guy(he brushed by me at one point), it was like being locked in a room with the greasiest used car salesman you could find. Such a shyster, and it never turned off. I couldn’t wait for it to be over.
Sanders KILLING it on healthcare, as he should. Warren, and everyone else falling short of a real solution.
If I were Bernie, I would throw the question back at them and ask how they plan to get a public option through congress when we don’t have everyone paying in. The money will only be there if everyone pays in, instead having the affluent pay the insurance companies instead.
WTF kind of question is this last question? Is this satire? Am I higher than I thought? Okay, Warren is crying now and talking about selfies again. I must be higher than I thought.
why isn’t yangs gift 1k? come on dude ..
Biden’s answer… oof.
I literally look at Klobuchar as a killer for being bought by the bloodsucking health insurance rackets to keep their profits going at the expense of the American people’s health and lives.
Between Warren and the selfies and Biden and the cancer stories, I’m glad this is nearly over.
Amen.
Are they gonna do a pledge drive now?
Maybe that was the reason for the gift question.
Personally I stopped watching PBS when they turned into a rather right wing station.
In other words, years now.
Oh and that this debate is with Politico (Right Wing) tells you what you need to know about where they are at.
Neoliberal Public Radio.
I gave up on them about the time of the beginning of the ‘planet money’ series of ‘casts. I was in to MMT by then and could see through the propaganda.
Thanks to all for enduring this and commenting. I can’t bear to watch debates
My expansion of the acronym was National Propaganda Radio, after hearing too many stories implicitly promoting austerity.
Neoliberal Propaganda Radio
LOL to Pledge Drive.
I love that Kobluchar followed Bernie with her misrepresentation of him and the other candidates, as not focusing on exactly what he focused on (what would you give or ask forgiveness for). Not thinking on her feet, just trying to make herself look good.
Bernie said she took his name in vain heheh.
In all seriousness, why does Joe Biden think he can win?
Yeah Sanders is the only one who can meet Trump on the level of populism and “crazy” and actually debate the guy. Trump will have Biden stuttering and waffling.
Joe either can’t do basic arithmetic or doesn’t know when Christmas is.
Probably both.
Christmas is in New Hampshire …. or Vermont, or Iowa.
Did Warren just pause and say, “Did someone just call my name?” I hope that I somehow missed a joke she was trying to make … The strongest messages were from Yang (when he was given a chance to speak) and Sanders. As expected, so much about “process.” Most of them predictably misdirected simple questions into narratives that did not answer the question presented … even coming from this “friendly” panel.
No, she did not know that it was her turn.
But I’ll bet that gets a lot of negative spin tonight and tomorrow in the debate “analysis.”
Yea that’s all it is is spin though.
I mean there were times that Bernie missed a beat too, so they could all be spun as not so young anymore, except those who are younger, but who really wants them? And that’s what that was: missing a beat. It happens, when overall Sanders was extremely strong and Warren strong. Biden regularly misses a bunch of beats, but not his worst performance.
Laugh out loud debate commentary at Nate’s Liver
https://twitter.com/SilERabbit
Yes, warming my heart with holiday snark!
+100
Nate’s Liver – Commentary @SilERabbit
WARREN: So look, this is about costs, so here’s how I approach this. Day one, I say I’m gonna do stuff. Day two, I say it’s hard. Day three, I ask Republicans for a plan. Day four, I compromise and we all get coupons for $5 off nationwide.
7:17 PM – 19 Dec 2019
awesome
And this one, on D’oh:
Nate’s Liver – Commentary @SilERabbit 2h2 hours ago
More
BIDEN: My plan is to build on not covering people. We can cover less, I’ll make it work, promise. Bernie put your hand down, I’m dizzy. If you want to die, my plan is for you.
h/t stormcrow..
I think this is applicable to this post as well the recent election in the U.K. –
Corruption
New academic report finds press attacks on Labour were double that of the 2017 General Election. And that positive press reporting of the Tories doubled in the last week of the campaign.
https://www.lboro.ac.uk/news-events/general-election/report-5/
https://twitter.com/ToryFibs/status/1207817614384418818
These debates are :
A.) Enlightening ..
B.) Satire ..
C.) Hallucinogenic ..
D.) Brimming with SQUIRRELS ! ..
E.) An ‘expanded extra feature’ from the film “Idiocracy”
F.) Cancer inducing
g.) All of the above
” Look behind the curtain”. The billionaires support Buttigeig because they are confident that he can’t defeat Trump. They would much rather have four more years of Trump and the continuation of his billionaire friendly tax and economic policies than deal with a bunch of “socialists” who want to confiscate a chunk of their wealth. If it’s wealth confiscation under Sanders or Warren, they will take Trump without having to think twice. I don’t believe I’m being cynical or jaded. I think it’s just human nature at work. I would imagine the liberal democrats are well aware of what’s taking place and will do what they can to counter it. I HOPE!
Warren has billionaire donors.
My copy of In Defense of Julian Assange just arrived. Sadly and predictably this was not a topic of debate discussion. Still, I think Bernie is the best hope.
Not even when people like Klobi went all blah blah blah protecting journalists. Um hello, he’s being left to die with a willful negligence. Forgotten.
what if they had a camp fire singalong and noBODY cared?
There was a “deb bate” ???
Thanks to all. I did not watch. But this morning after reading here, I did search on the debate, and all the headlines , all the headlines I could find had only Warren and Pete. no mention of biden or sanders. This shit is rigged as much as possible…
Amen. No cable, this is the first I have seen , on Network broadcast TV. The narrative spin doctor takeaways this morning were from an event I did not watch.
No comments in here about Steyr? Moonshot national emergency on climate change on day one, resolution being an opportunity for millions of jobs, and having to cooperate with China to get there?
I felt heartened— if anyone was watching, a lot of good talking points were raised by all, in stark opposition to the Trump admin approach to the world.
Bernie and Klobuchar both made the point- we gotta get out the vote, and change the complexion of both congress and the Executive.
Its not Rocket Surgery— can we all- and they all- working together, make it happen?
My bets on Sanders as THE climate candidate in the race now, in it to win it. But I like Steyer, he prioritized climate on talking with China, good priorities. He’s making good points (well completely silly on term limits but oh well).
Another strong performance from Sanders whatever the media says.
I cannot find a video clip or news report, but Warren was great in a post-debate interview on CNN. She said something to the effect that our government is not dysfunctional, that special interests make tweaks in legislation to their benefit, and that inaction, that our government’s not doing something, is also to their benefit. As we say around here, going according to plan. I wish I could find a clip to share. Maybe one of the progressive news sites will post it today. Bernie is my pick, but Warren often does an excellent job explaining problems. During a previous debate, I thought she did an excellent job explaining the need for M4A (before she backtracked!).
Yes, Warren is a good explainer. So was Bubba in ’92: “I feel your pain!”, et c.
I have zero confidence in Warren’s proposed solutions. Zero.
I agree with you. I wish Bernie would change his wording a bit, so that people wouldn’t tune out (you know, the billionaire class, etc., etc.) When Warren explains the same problems, I think people listen because the wording is different, if not the content. I’m not referring to her proposed solutions or the likelihood of her following through.
Yes, Sanders does have a tendency to harangue, granted. Doubt he’ll change much, though I thought he was a little toned-down (positively) at this event™.
An honest answer to what if R’s still control the Senate is: then most legislation doesn’t pass (but some executive orders maybe). That’s honesty.
But neither does a public option, expanding the ACA etc. pass, anymore than M4A does. And R Senate sucks is just the reality.
“Does Senator Sanders owe voters a price-tag on #MedicareForAll?”