In a ‘Bizarre’ Biological Twist, a Mother Lion Adopted a Leopard Cub in India Smith
A woman almost got trampled when she tried to pet a moose in Colorado CNN
Facebook is shifting its Libra cryptocurrency plans after intense regulatory pressure The Verge
Central banks and fintech data issues (PDF) Bank of International Settlements. “Fintech creates important data gaps.”
Mastercard is pioneering new payment technology that identifies commuters by the way they walk MarketWatch. From February, still germane.
#COVID-19
U.S. Weighs Paying Hospitals for Treating Uninsured Coronavirus Patients WSJ. “The National Disaster Medical System,” as devised by Carlos Mucha and promoted at NC Monday [lambert preens]. If Trump really does want to own the libs, this would be a brilliant way to do it. From the WSJ:
“We encourage the department to look at using a national disaster program as an option because no one should think twice about seeking screening or treatment due to costs,” said Tom Nickels, executive vice president of the American Hospital Association. “We also urge them to cover both patients who have coronavirus and those who are under investigation for coronavirus.”
A 1918-like pandemic would cause U.S. hospitals to absorb a net loss of $3.9 billion, or an average $784,592 per hospital, according to a 2007 report in the Journal of Health Care Finance that called on policy makers to consider contingencies to ensure hospitals don’t become insolvent as a result of a severe pandemic.
The National Disaster Medical System is subject to available funds and reimburses doctors and health facilities that provide care to eligible natural-disaster patients under specific guidelines if care isn’t available in their local area. It has been used in the past for situations such as Hurricane Irma in 2017, when about 85 patients were covered under the program.
U.S. Hospitals Say They’re Ready for Coronavirus. Their Infection Control Violations Say Otherwise. ProPublica (Re Silc).
Priorities for the US Health Community Responding to COVID-19 JAMA. “One important goal of public health response efforts now should be diminishing the speed of spread and the peak of the epidemic curve. In seasonal influenza and pandemic influenza, cities have experienced peaks at different times in the epidemic. Working to slow the spread of disease in a city could help diminish the peak burden of disease. The most important public health interventions to slow the spread will be rapid diagnosis and isolation of cases.”
Why America is so vulnerable to coronavirus The Week. “U.S. health care is not only by far the worst system among rich countries, it is much worse than that of many middle-income or poorer countries when it comes to confronting a fast-moving epidemic. Distributing a vaccine is not that difficult of a task — World Health Organization workers managed it with smallpox even in desperately poor African countries in the 1970s. You just round up everyone, and give out the shot. But that will be a heavy lift indeed with a health care system geared above all to price-gouge sick people out of as much money as possible.”
* * * Hand‐Hygiene Mitigation Strategies Against Global Disease Spreading through the Air Transportation Network Risk Analysis. From 2019, still germane. “By increasing travelers engagement with hand hygiene at all airports, a potential pandemic can be inhibited by 24% to 69%. In addition, we identify 10 airports at the core of a cost‐optimal deployment of the hand‐washing mitigation strategy. Increasing hand‐washing rate at only those 10 influential locations, the risk of a pandemic could potentially drop by up to 37%.” Those “10 key airports of the global air‐transportation network” are AMS, CDG, DXB, FRA, HKG, JFK, LAX, LHR, PEK, and SFO (sorted alpha for your convenience. In rank order: LHR, LAX, JFK, CDG, DXB, FRA, HKG, PEK, SFO, and AMS).
Coronavirus pushes aviation sector into ‘crisis zone’ FT
Airlines Balk at U.S. Push for More Traveler Data in Virus Hunt Bloomberg. “About 26% of passengers don’t have a phone number in their travel record and 44% don’t have an email, according to Airlines for America, a lobbying group.”
More handwashing tips:
You're supposed to wash your hands for 20 sec, which is the time it takes to sing Happy Birthday twice. But I'm tired of singing Happy Birthday and you probably are too, so I've done the very important public service of compiling other songs with roughly 20 sec choruses to sing:
— Jen Monnier (@JenMonnier) March 2, 2020
* * * Amazon employee in Seattle tests positive for coronavirus GeekWire
‘Perfect Storm’: Washington virus deaths highlight risk at nursing homes Reuters
* * * Coronavirus and the Politics of Care Law and Political Economy
Four disastrous mistakes that leaders make during epidemics WaPo. “President Dwight D. Eisenhower facilitated a free vaccination program for children with the release of Jonas Salk’s polio vaccine.”
CDC blocked FDA official from premises Politico
The economic effects of a pandemic Mainly Macro
Japan
Abe to hasten legal preparations for declaring state of emergency over COVID-19 Japan Times
China
China suppressed Covid-19 with AI and big data Asia Times. And accepting a high death-rate in Wuhan.
China quietly keeps Wuhan tech projects running despite lockdown Nikkei Asian Review.
Syraqistan
Coronavirus: Iran holy-shrine-lickers face prison BBC
8% of Iran’s parliament has tested positive for coronavirus, official says CNN
Coronavirus: Iran temporarily frees 54,000 prisoners to combat spread BBC (KW).
PATRICK LAWRENCE: Moscow’s Difficult Decision on Idlib Consortium News
US tells 18 year-old Afghanistan War to get off couch, find a job Duffel Blog
Iran’s Latest Energy Project Should Worry The West OilPrice.com
New Cold War
US should revive Lend-Lease to contain Russia The Atlantic Council. Wonder how long this will take to show up in Biden’s platform.
Violence resurges in protest-racked Chile, nearly 300 arrested Reuters
2020
Democratic Contest Narrows Focus to Biden and Sanders NYT. Clarifying! (I used the front page headline, not the story headline.)
The Latest: Joe Biden wins Democratic primary in Texas AP
Biden Has Barely Visited Any of the States He’s Projected to Win CNN (DG). That’s the party that liberal Democrats built, and kudos to them.
Democrats Rallying Around Joe Biden Could Alienate Generations of the Party’s Youth Support Teen Vogue (NippersMom).
I just remembered Joe Biden is fine Alexandra Petri, WaPo
‘I’m Proud To Endorse Biden And So Are All Of You,’ Announces Pipe-Waving Amy Klobuchar The Onion
Bernie Sanders Is Still in a Remarkably Strong Position Eric Levitz, New York Magazine.
Sanders memo declares new phase in fight with Biden WaPo (original).
Why Elizabeth Warren is losing even if all your friends love her Matthew Yglesias, Vox
AP source: Bloomberg to reassess after disappointing results AP but “He Will Risk Making Ross Perot and Ralph Nader Look Good”: Bloomberg Resists Advisers’ Push to Exit the Race Vanity Fair
L.A. County voters encounter hours-long waits and glitches with brand-new system Los Angeles Times. Wait ’til everybody discovers that LA’s VSAP system of ballot marking devices is not auditable. Jennifer Cohn has been aggregating the debacle on this thread:
I’m losing track of the various posts about problems with Los Angeles county’s controversial new electronic voting system and thus am going to try to compile them in this thread. If u know of more, pls feel free to reply with them. Thanks #VSAP. 1/
— Jennifer Cohn ✍? (@jennycohn1) March 3, 2020
142 examples on her timeline…
10.33- Bloody Sunday (podcast) Mike Duncan, Revolutions. About the Russian revolution of 1905. This is the episode where “If only the Czar knew” doesn’t prove out. I highly recommend this podcast.
Guillotine Watch
‘Knowing the right people’: the embattled concierge with elite connections FT
Class Warfare
Offshore oil and gas accidents, deaths spike amid Trump administration’s regulatory rollbacks New Orleans Advocate
10 cities captured nearly 50% of the growth in new tech jobs Recode
Experimental evidence of massive-scale emotional contagion through social networks (PDF) PNAS. From 2013, still germane.
Antidote du Jour (via):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
370 comments
Comments are closed.
dear mr yglesias,
so how come she finished 3d in massachusetts?
What that snark?
Finishing 3rd in a primary election in one’s home state is a political disaster. She could brush off getting beat by Biden, perhaps. But not Sanders.
She’s going to be a sitting duck for a primary challenge now.
it’s a disaster, and it does not support yglesias’ argument about better educated voters breaking strongly for warren. i wasn’t being snarky, and i don’t think yglesias was either. she doesn’t even get support from the “right” people–his whole article was an extended riff on “if only the electorate were better informed, like me and my friends”.
oh, and it just underlines how ridiculous it is for her to continue in the race; after tuesday, the only reason to stay is to kneecap sanders.
He really highlights, by accident, the degree to which US higher education is really higher indoctrination.
The system obviously doesn’t work for most Americans, or there’d be no President Trump.
It is taking Yglesias type efforts to distract from the crumbling foundations of the doctrine for the rapidly shrinking minority of believers.
For those of us who were working class scholarship kids, it was an open and overt invitation to betray our people and communities for largesse and fame a la’ Yglesias et al.
Well, as the man said, Get thee behind me, Satan!
>for the rapidly shrinking minority of believers.
This is what’s most significant, I think, over the medium or longer term, and I am still unwilling to believe that yesterday’s
electoral™ swing to Biden was organic; no chance.
Agreed, I’m not feeling “party loyalty” can account for it, more like “fixed machine.”
Still, if you accept that, the result’s not bad.
Still standing, considerable clarification on interests and priorities, time to run and COVID-19 battering the hatches of the Medical Industrial Complex.
Should I interpret your opaque and eliptical language to mean that despite the best indoctrination the higher Ed system could achieve, that “most Americans” were too smart to fall for Clinton?
Surprised I haven’t seen this mentioned but I saw Chuck Todd (?) say on NBC in early Tuesday coverage of the primaries that it “seems” that Warren has been spending money and time where she can hurt Sanders, but nothing in locals where she could hurt Biden or Bloomberg. Nobody else saw that?
I’d trust a rattlesnake before I’d trust Elizabeth Warren. Yes, I suppose this is preaching to the choir here.
My question is: Why is she staying in the race? Or perhaps it should be phrased: What has she been offered to stay in the race?
As I said on the live-blog post, I think she is just putting off her final loss of relevance, which will be her endorsement of Joe Biden.
My thought too. Once she drops out no one will ever think about her again.
Yes, this. She is seared into my memory now, and not in a
good way. Thinking of you and your ilk, Ms. Warren..
Her mission is complete—she can drop out at any time. Her first priority was to split the progressive vote and weaken Sanders, and then once her purpose became transparent, she switched to indoctrinating her base to never, ever vote for Sanders. If she drops out today, rest assured her clan of voters will shift support to Biden and very few will vote for Sanders. That was the reason she kept bashing Sanders over the weekend.
The first priority for any sitting politician is to protect your seat. If her thinking is really as you describe, it’s further proof of Warren’s terrible political instincts.
She would be 74 years old by her re-election campaign. She won’t even run.
The candidates are not dropping out of the race. They are suspending their campaigns so they keep their delegates for the convention.
+ 1,000
Makes un-reality TeeVee Survivor(tm) look tame.
Well exactly. One assumes there is an inducement if only in the form of favors (and potentially an office in a future Biden admin). However there is a cost. One wonders whether she is aware of the cost?
I am sure she is. She is not a dull woman.
She may not be. But as a “player in the game”, she pretty well sucks. The potential cost is her Senate seat, which she has now jeopardized by losing a primary in her home state to two out-of-staters. If she were truly aware of that cost, she would have dropped out before the MA primary to save face and avert a potential primary challenge. At this point it’s almost certain she’ll face a primary opponent.
As for the potential gain: anyone who thinks the “dementia-addled warmonger” has even the remotest shot at the White House has no credibility as a prognosticator.
She already has all the legacy a relentless nihilist and Reagan Republican could want. Who needs a Senate seat?
Senators make awful retail, kissing babies, eating corn dogs politicans.
Kennedy and Obama (and sanders) are exceptions that prove the hypothesis (imo).
That the Dem. field is filled with senators speaks volumes about the technocratic/status quo tilt of the Dem. Party (imo)
Because they have nothing else. They lost so many governorships during the Obama period. Obama did nothing to help the party, except now when he intervenes behind the scenes to help the establishment and hurt Sanders.
Mr. Yglesias does not come close to explaining Warren’s failure. How about:
1. Being against Medicare for All after being for it.
2. Being against Super PACs and then being for them, and lying about it.
3. Would you ever go to a “private” dinner with her without recording it or having a witness on hand?
4. Etc.
>Super Tuesday Blues
Spoke with a friend who lives in VA that I haven’t spoken with in a while. When he told me he voted for Biden yesterday I was shocked. After I rattled off some stats on Biden he said he would make amends in the General if Bernie wins the nomination.
Friends who are only marginally politically engaged, and family members who have Pavlovian responses to “communism/socialism” have me in a frame of mind, state of resignation, that significant change will not take place.
I thin until the half the country who are getting starty to feel much more pain and wake up from the media/propaganda induced slumber they live in, the world and the U.S. will continues its current trajectory of self-immolation.
I’d point out a couple things.
1) bernie’s campaign took their eye off the ball. They thought biden was toast, the ‘electability’ argument was won, and all they had to do was pump turnout with big rallies. None of those things panned out.
2) exit polls showed very favorable views of ‘government run’ insurance and ‘socialism. It is very tragic to think that bernie is simultaneously winning the argument while losing the election.
On the positive side…the campaign is refocusing in the right direction
https://mobile.twitter.com/hollyotterbein/status/1235167967727546369
From here on out….every word should be about how biden sucks on trade, iraq, Social security.
Team Plutonomy in the Dem party just pulled out all the stops to save their trough and just broke even.
They can obstruct but they can’t land any punches and the larger context is “overly dynamic”.
Bernie needs to come out punching. Anything’s still possible.
This is the Bernie Sanders we need to see.
Who are you worried about?
Great clip, thanks.
that was great!
We hear that “No matter what, Bernie has changed the conversation” by elevating M4A, higher wages, and working class issues.
But the pessimist in me says “no he didn’t”. Not in any practical way that is.
No option except a Bernie miracle would now see any chance of M4A even being a subject of discussion, let alone a platform plank or long-term goal.
I so had my heart with every last one of Bernie’s supporters. The trough of disillusionment just got dug deeper than ever though, the system closed ranks yet yet yet again for the 1% and against the 99%. Bricks through windows and riots will be the only thing that works, that is the message from the establishment to the people. Appealing to the better angels of people’s natures, grass roots contributions, working inside the system, mobilizing peaceful voters: Fail.
I’m an old codger so I do remember what it took to stop the war, throw a crook president out and completely change the society: blood. Sadly, canvassing door-to-door, Twitter, and $18 contributions does not work. A quick read of any history book might tell you that.
Jimmy Dore, The Rising, Cenk/TYT fade to irrelevance, the time for talk is over. Go pick up a copy of The Anarchist’s Cookbook, there are some very good recipes for improvised explosive devices therein.
The wealth of the world’s top 10 billionaires exceeds the combined GDP of many countries. How many countries? 85. So every farmer who plants a seed, every worker who builds a house, every miner who digs up ore, every teacher teaching in a school, every taxi driver and restaurant worker and company manager…every last bit of all of that economic activity…in 85 frigging countries combined…cannot touch our uber-lords who have sequestered all of the world’s money away from the people. The system is hideously, grotesquely, murderously unbalanced and there is only one thing to do about it.
That is a very bad suggestion, if you decide to try making explosives ( Why?) following the directions in the Anarchist’s cookbook you are likely to injure yourself, or others.
Not to mention that attmpts to change poitical systems through violence usually has a bad outcome, sometimes horrific outcomes.
Pick up “Rules for Radical” by Saul Alinsky, take a thorough look at how Solidarity succeeded.
You might also look into what happened to the “Occupy Movement” and the role of fusion centers.
The Panopticon has arrived.
TPTB would like nothing more than to see a disaster, it’s called Disaster Capitalism for a reason.
And a failed attempt to assassinate Trump, or a successful assassination of Sanders would do nicely.
Yes, there may come a time when violence is unavoidable and widespread throughout the USA.
It will be a horrorshow
The Mormons will do fine…
The rest not so much.
Thanks for talking me out of the tree. Solidarnosc however is a historical anomaly where a tipping point of societal/political corruption and a system that had absolutely stopped working for 95% of people was reached. We need a way to demand change before the entire system breaks down for all but 5% of us. Force is the only thing force understands, whether it’s Nixon on Vietnam or DeGaulle in 1968.
Thirded- Bernie Sanders is a Stud.
It’s too late but who am I to take away your dreams? Enjoy it as long as you can but the remaining primaries are going to look a lot like watching a baby seal get clubbed on Arctic ice.
Pretty, pretty much.
Well there is always the debates.
Were I to be on stage with Mr. Biden, I would simply say “Actually I have nothing to add. Would Joe like to talk some more?”
Lets see how the dog-faced pony soldiers feel about it after an hour of Joe offering telling them about the constitution.
Yes, ok. You can have your “I told you so” moment. But none of your predictions were a given before last night, regardless.
Stevie Wonder could have seen what was coming. It’s a shame Bernie’s people didn’t.
None of us were born yesterday. It’s not about Bernie the individual, it’s about changing direction from neoliberalism’s coddling The Market while austerity-scourging the average voter, to something more approaching the New Deal. It can take decades to fully make the change, if the progressive/populist movements of the 1890s-1930s are an indication. I’m not writing this to discourage readers, but to emphasis that change takes a long time. It’s not about a single individual. It’s not about Bernie. It’s about us, and how we make a system change in government. It’s not about a single data point.
See, for example, William Jennings Bryan.
Biden sucks on *everything*. He wants to drown people in debt, gouge them for prescription drugs, cut their Social Security and send their kids to jail. His record is absolutely indefensible, to the point where his campaign might want to start playing up the notion that he’s forgotten where he stands on the issues.
Yup, and that’s just the way we ‘Muricans like it! Besides, issues are just so 20th century.
I hope that works but doubt that it will. The key appears to be voters’ identification with the candidate, and for that Biden’s verbal struggles are ideal. Ordinary people would be tongue-tied, too, in front of large audiences and find this endearing — just as they identify with Trump’s extravagantly non-PC utterances. Biden also has had a great sob story of a life, which voters appear to love enough to simply overlook the many horrors and self-dealings over the course of his career in government.
Still, even with a long and thoroughly admirable public career, Sanders can’t match Biden with a tear-jerking life story. So the hard work of somehow highlighting the darkest depths of Biden’s abounding corruption may be Bernie’s only hope. And the only hope for the country, IMO. We’re pretty far gone at this stage.
Why retirement security,as in expansion of social security,medicare,medicaid is’nt one of the the top 3 issues of most democrat candidates is a mystery.if trump jumps on it before the dem nominee then that will be cruel justice for theclueless center/left
Honestly, even McConnell knows he has to have a Dem president for cover to cut SS, MC, Medicaid, and Veterans Benefits. The Dem estab has been signaling for 25 years it’s willing to cut those benefits. Only Monica Lewinsky and the Tea Party radicals saved those benefits from a ‘grand bargan’ cat food commission.
If Trump is president, a GOP president – so no bi-partisan camouflage, those benefits do not get cut. (Because the GOP *has* to give itself cover by blaming the Dems on the issue.) If Bernie is president, he won’t ever go along with cutting those benefits.
Which means, likely, that if Biden is president, given his history, those life-saving benefits get cut. The current neoliberal Dem estab is fine with that possible outcome. If they weren’t fine with that, they wouldn’t push Biden as the nominee.
yea #2 blah blah blah, what people tell pollsters. I mean I don’t necessarily think the problem there is Bernie the person at all (if it were AOC in 2020 would it be different really?). I think it’s that most Dem voters won’t actually vote for policy they claim to want due to not really caring enough to, due to peer pressure, due to fear, I don’t know why. So we’ll have these people wanting these policies for decades (as no doubt they may have already. Those who elected Obama probably many wanted single payer) and not voting for them. However the old will die out and maybe the young not be corrupted. Maybe.
I think the issue has to do with ranking and with voter distinctions.
First, while many people Dems medicare for all high, some surveys note that they rank beating Donald Trump higher and thus when given a selection Biden the Obama Surrogate holds sway. Additionally Biden is good at making the same ambiguous noises about not opposing Medicare for all that allow people to pretend he is supportive.
Second, this is a Primary, as such it is really revealing the distinction between what core Dem voters want and what America writ large wants. Sanders has always done better with America writ large than with traditional Dems. Biden the opposite.
I think the natural impetus is to vote for a “winner”. It you don’t, you’ve “wasted” your vote, something I’ve oft been criticized for by my acquaintances. Many, many bandwagon, I think.
Anecdote from LA: a friend was in line to vote and had a conversation with an older black lady who said she liked Bernie’s policies, but didn’t know how he was going to pay for them. And when my friend pointed out that the military has budgetary carte blanche, she said something to the effect of, “But the military’s important.” So she was voting for Biden. I think the “how are we going to pay for it?” argument still holds a lot of sway in voters’ amygdalas.
This is true of Warren dead-enders especially. They “want” Medicare for All because they want credit for wanting it. Everyone who needs it goes with Bernie.
Let’s have a real interview session: Biden vs Sanders
Would like to see them both in an interview session questioned about what they would do from hypothetical starting point ‘now’ regarding coronavirus in the US.
Sanders would have a chance to show how a single payer plan within a good public health system would work.
What would Biden say?
This is all a repeat of 2016. The electability argument was played by the establishment because it works. It doesn’t matter that it wasn’t true then — Sanders had a 10-11% lead over Clinton — or that it is closer to the truth now. People tend to believe what they hear over and over again; it’s a propaganda technique that works whether the media is united by state control or united corporate control. Trump is bad, only Biden can beat him. That’s what cost Bernie big wins. Note how the media kept on repeating this idea to subtlety imply that Bernie was not electable: “would you rather have a candidate whose views are like yours? or someone who can defeat Trump?”
I just saw Bernie on Maddog’s show and sadly he did not spell this out. BTW, this is why Klabby did so surprisingly well in NH. It was the message she replayed continuously right before the election there. She was able to use it effectively only one time. Will Biden’s be successful in the next weeks using the same ruse? He is certainly vulnerable but will Bernie wise up and counter this as he did not in 2016? We will see.
I think we should all bear in mind that Bernie retains +10 lead among independents. Independents are the “swing state” that won the last election for Trump. If Bernie can make it through Milwaukee, he can win in November. This is not the time to give up the fight!
That will be, if Sanders is allowed into the convention in Milwaukee.
The most die hard Democrat Party nomenklaturist knows that it ain’t over till it’s over.
Corruption never sleeps.
This is the key point that needs to be made over and over again. The fact that Bernie does well with independents and Biden pretty much tanked in CA should tell the establishment all they need to know about “electability”.
Yes, I agree that if he can get the nomination he can win the election. And I will not give up the fight, donated today. But very discouraged, but there IS a possible path and not giving up.
It looks like Americans really prefer barbarism to civilization. I am upset. I really thought Bernie would do it. The future is going to be horrible.
Democrat primary voters skew older, more prosperous, conservative in temperament. It’s unfortunate they are the gatekeepers for one of the only two people who get to compete for the presidency. The system and probably the presidency itself are no longer tenable.
Except I don’t think this is quite over yet.
It’s like Alex from “The Big Chill” has returned from the dead after 40 years and all the once YUPIE Boomers are trying to nail the casket back shut.
NeoLiberalism is crumbling and regardless of immediate outcomes, politics here have fundamentally changed.
COVID19 and supply chains and financial markets, Turkey, Russia, NATO and Iblid, Modi and pogroms in India, Netanyahu and Jordan and back to COVID and the US Medical Industrial Complex. Climate change. The larger world the primaries are embedded in is in more flux than anytime after WW2. Predictions now are a fools errand, but there’s equal scope for positive and negative, it’s just harder to believe in the positive.
Agree. Biden at 47% and Bernie 41% now with the remaining votes to be counted in CA, CO, UT so the gap will narrow. Despite the bs coordinated shenanigans.
We cannot be defeatist. Also, half of Biden’s states are red ones so will go to Trump.
Oh, ps: Fuck Elizabeth Warren.
Super Tuesday is a Plutonomy Dem tool to maintain their position as Republican enablers who claim to have a conscience.
With all the shenanagens, between apps and digital votes, I really don’t believe the votes anymore than the polls.
That yesterday went as well for the insurgents as it did with everything thrown at them surprised me.
TX-28: utterly corrupt, regressive Rep. Henry Cuellar in a safely blue district beats progressive Jessica Cisneros
by less than 4% after Pelosi swoops in at the last minute, siding with the Kochs in supporting Cuellar.
Good luck with the turnout in November, Nancy.
she has to side with the kochs to beat trump, obviously. and putin. carville promises dems will eventually deal with climate change, but cautions that now is not the time.
“You urgently need a life-saving treatment, but your Obamacare bronze plan with small network and huge deductible would leave you homeless and bankrupt? I feel your pain, but now is not the time for Medicare for all.”
With Obama making calls behind the scenes, I wonder what happened to the “fierce urgency of now.” The establishment needs to be thoroughly destroyed before we can move forward.
The “fierce urgency of now” was never, ever anything more than “the insatiable appetites of me and mine.”
Of course you are right. So let’s punch them with their own hypocrisy, and keep punching them until they go down. Metaphorically, of course. My father died because he had to choose between paying the mortgage and paying for medicine. My story is far from unique, too many others can share the same story. The fierce urgency of now that our loved ones experienced meant jack-all to the Democrat establishment that claimed to be fighting for them. We need to keep hammering home this point, relentlessly, and proclaim that this is not about empty labels such as ‘socialism,’ it’s not about one man, it’s about the greater good, and that’s why we will never give up.
I am so sorry, a senseless loss in the plutonomy we live in.
That’s right. It’s going to be a bad but interesting future because the people behind Sanders are a movement and don’t just go home when a loss occurs.
> the people behind Sanders are a movement and don’t just go home when a loss occurs.
+100. That is the key issue, central to both a successful Sanders presidency and what happens to the country if Sanders unsuccessful. The movement is, to me, far more important and interesting than than the Sanders candidacy itself. OR was a bad alpha version. Perhaps relational organizing will make the difference to a movement beta, or even a release :-)
You’re goddamn right.
Won’t apologize for what’s not mine to apologize for but know I won’t forgive those responsible.
sickening. On the good side, Shahid Buttar makes it to fight Pelosi in November, and he’s GOOD. I gave him some money today.
Right now, NOTHING matters more to Pelosi than retaining a party majority in the House. Even if reps like Cuellar happen to vote against the platform or issues of the Democratic electorate, the Speaker, and Committee Chairperson positions will stay firmly in place. This is not a fight for ideas. It is a fight for holding the gavels.
it’s a fight over who gets to sound the horn on the gravy train, while saying “choo choo”.
I get at least three screeching emails from “Nancy” every day, telling me I MUST send her $5 (TRIPLE MATCHED BY MAJOR DEMOCRATS! FOR THE NEXT 14 HOURS ONLY!) to PROTECT HER MAJORITY!
No sale here.
It would be very wrong to send her $0.01.
Yes. A penny in the prepaid envelope that the DNC has to pay for.
A penny and a brick.
With physical envelopes, I always enclose a specific article on specific things that Pelosi or Schumer screwed up on and say “hell no.” E.G. for Schumer https://buddshenkin.blogspot.com/2019/12/ambushed-by-schumer-surprise-medical.html or commondreams.org is usually a great source.
Donate to her challenger Shaid Buttar @ ShahidForChange.org. NANCY MUST GO.
Meanwhile, Nancy will be facing an opponent from the left in the general. Berniecrat Shahid Buttar came in 2nd in the open primary… 8 months is a long time in our Gramsci interregnum!
That is very good news. I need to send Shahid Buttar a few dollars.
Yeah, but Nancy got 72% of the vote to Buttar’s 12%.
Which is why we need to make sure he has the funds to get his message out.
I’ve seen Shahid Buttar twice, at protests in SF and SJ. got his back too! i saw your name by the tteen vogue article and wanted to say ty for that. i’m a grandfather and saw the Teen Vogue folks on the Island in November and thought why were they there, found out Teen Vogue are hella woke!
Honestly, at this point I’d think she’d be just fine with a disaster for the Democrats in November. It doesn’t affect her personally at all.
I used to see some humor in the “two parties that agree on everything but abortion” joke/line, but as things have gone since 2016, it’s taken on a lot darker of a meaning for me. I know others have observed it for a long time, but it’s been finally driven home to me in a profound way that the ballot box is useless. No one in power is conceding that power in any way shape or form, regardless of the outcome.
We are back to the ‘sixties now.
1760″s before the fighting or 1860 and early ’61?
Ouch! Maybe the 1660’s, just as the Plague ramps up and then London burns.
Bwahaahahaha!
> 1860 and early ’61
1854, right before the collapse of the Whigs. #MedicareForAll is the Kansas-Nebraska Act…
I remember the ‘sixties man, pestering my mom to let me go to Woodstock, and having her say, “What am I crazy, you think i’m going to let a 7 year old go by himself!”
Cool Mom to take you to Woodstock!
Only in my dreams did we go, but in that special summer of ’69 she made sure we saw everything Manhattan had on offer, a 2 hour bike ride through Central Park being memorable, as i’d only shed my training wheels a year before.
It was funny, we lived on Long Island in a stately rental house in Port Washington, and the only place the local kids had been was Coney Island.
Yep. Two parties that exist to divide the working class against itself.
Warren really hurt, costing MN, MA, and possibly ME, but she can’t explain TX. Biden + Bloomberg is bigger than Bernie + Warren (not that the Bloomberg/Warren votes would’ve 100% aligned like that, but it’s a good proxy. I’d like to know if the areas with the crazy long lines voted for Bernie; I think they did. I’d like to know how many people ended up not voting b/c lines. In LA too.
I am grateful the D primary electorate understands Bloomberg’s not a D. I think Biden is a terrible candidate who will probably lose to Trump if he gets the nomination but nominating Bloomberg would break the party. I mean, there is no meaning to “selling out” if it’s not the Ds nominating Bloomberg.
To be clear, I’m Bernie all the way, put my Bernie 2020 sign in my yard this morning, 2 months to my primary (NY), 2 months is long enough for a yard sign.
It’ll be very interesting to see Bernie v. Biden in Michigan.
I think the collapse of Bloomberg is a very good thing. He would be worse than Trump and herald the end of Democracy.
No one can predict how the general will play out but Biden seems like another Hillary or John Kerry to me. On the other hand Bernie’s campaign has not panned out as expected and now I have serious doubts as to whether he could win the general either.
Biden however is an electoral dead-end for the Democrats even if he wins.
“herald the end of Democracy.”
How many time in the recent past has the person with the most votes lost the election? That horse is gone. We’re trying to put it back into the barn.
With all due respect, you really do not get it. Sanders is a lifelong socialist (admittedly the watered down democratic socialist version) who has been an independent and only caucused with the Dems. He is attempting a hostile takeover of the Democratic party. If you thought they weren’t going to pull out all their firepower against him, you were smoking something strong.
The Democrats ALSO, much more so than Republicans, cheat in the primaries (witness how voting stations were taken out in Texas to suppress votes from lower-income voters, the way 125,000 votes were disappeared in Brooklyn in 2016, the massive dirty tricks in California in 2016).
He’s run a totally unprecedented campaign, not taking any big donor money. The fact that he’s totally broken the mold, is still very much in the game (Vox has him at a higher delegate count than Biden, contra the MSM, which I can’t figure out, maybe all the CA delegates not allocated because not all votes counted?), beat Bloomberg despite his massive spend, beat Warren despite her being the safer progressive, as well as all the now ex candidates, is a simply remarkable accomplishment.
And on top of that, he has all the charm of a cranky Jewish uncle telling you to take your feet off the coffee table.
The only reason Biden turned around was not a function of him or his campaign. It was that he was the most insider-friendly semi-viable option (Bloomberg was running his own show, which in a different way threatened the Dem hacks’ rice bowls as much as Sanders does) and the party, not the Biden campaign, pulled out all the stops. The party decided pre-convention to signal as hard as they could that Biden was The One and a lot of voters who are orthodox types responded to that.
Sanders would very likely win the general versus Trump. He has a vastly easier time there than winning the nomination. He consistently polls better v. Trump than all the other Dems have and 47 times out of 50, has polled as beating Trump, usually by margins of 4% or more, as in not close. This is with him not the nominee. It would presumably widen if he were the Dem candidate.
Yes. The DP pulling out all the stops for Nursing Home Joe, coordinated skillfully and brutally effectively as it was, juxtaposed with what (I guess) you and I (and probably anyone paying attention) consider his obvious inferiority as a candidate vs. Trump, proves to me that winning in November is a secondary issue to the democrat establishment. Preventing Bernie’s takeover movement of the party which would endanger their power, that’s the main consideration. That Clyburn fellow in SC, he understands this perfectly.
Add: I have found the events of the past couple of weeks to be clarifying.
‘democrat establishment’, has power? Where? Doing what? I’ve read here @NC that Bernie will kill the dnc, and/or that Bloomberg will, so what? As far as solving problems in my community the Dems are useless. And always will be. trump was always = blow it all up, because no ones’ doing anything. So anything different is better. This time around, given reality & a re-elected trump or Biden everything gets way, way, worse. Trump’s evil, but a Biden doing nothing is better how? It isn’t in anyway.
At this point Trump’s blow it all up is massive deaths due to corona virus maybe because Trump can’t run a pandemic response. But blow it all and all that … see you in heaven.
Biden will be senile but his staff might be competent for minimal things like that. It’s not saying much, but it’s not nothing.
The Dems are useless for solving problems in my community too and that’s because whenever a truly decent candidate from the left runs and challenges from the left and is in it for the right reason, they lose. In bluest CA where Rs aren’t even a problem. People vote for bad Dems, never good ones. It’s the voters.
Biden will be senile. Biden’s staff will be staffed by the best corporatists that money can buy. His presidency will be a disaster for the common Usain. He will “get stuff done”, like tpp and “strengthening ACA”, and he will talk nice when we support al queda in syria and stand behind israel.
His presidency will be a complete disaster. I don’t expect a better response to making voting apps or to covid 19.
He will be a disaster. Exactly what the dem establishment wants, an empty suit that cant think so the insiders can do whatever they want. Honestly would be surprised if he could make it through an entire term. He seems out there.
>People vote for bad Dems, never good ones. It’s the voters.
That’s pure bunkum: it’s the narrative shapers in our
Corporatized Media, and the vote-riggers.
Do not blame the voters, thank you very much.
*****”‘democrat establishment’, has power? Where? Doing what?” ********
I would guess favor/largesse-distributing power, at all levels. Positions, campaign finance. If it’s all directed privately from on high, as many suspect, those are the ones calling the shots and coordinating political campaigns and the media, together.
The evident skillfulness with which the anti-Bernie storm has been organized on several fronts is what has me so much in conspiracy-theory mode.
Even with these being comparatively high turnout primaries, primaries have much lower turnout than general elections. My very seasoned political contacts say both parties have the ways and means to throw their weight around in primaries than the general.
One contact in particular said (based on who was endorsing at the state level) that both the Obama and Hillary factions pulled out the stops to back Biden over the past weekend.
Clyburn went right to it–saying vote for a lifelong Democrat not a Socialist.
Loyalty dog whistle to those who don’t remember Strom as a Democrat before changing allegiances to the Party of Lincoln.
I forget if Identity Woke happens before Politically Woke, or is it vice-a-versa? : [
I wish Rep Clyburn would ask himself why so many of his constituents don’t have as many teeth to display, when grinning big , as he has.
Excellent summary.
Regarding California, mail-in ballots postmarked up to and on voting day are allowed. It can take a long time to count California votes.
Proud to say that Bexar County (San Antonio) went to Sanders.
Anecdotally speaking, I have noticed my high school students talk about/support Sanders. Moreso than in 2016.
My co-workers, who are ostensibly educated adults, not so much.
IME the issue that seems to unite Bernie opposition is “we can’t afford it.”
There is great rhetorical/emotional appeal in appearing as the adult in the room who scolds profligate spending. I encounter people playing this card the most.
I think Bernie needs to publicly embrace MMT at some point.
Perhaps by evoking the legacy of FDR and WWII.
Perchance to dream.
As a former Bexar County/San Antonio resident, I was proud to see that county, plus Austin, maybe El Paso, and even Lubbock(!) going to Sanders. Screw Dallas and Houston! :)
I watched 10 minutes of cable TV last night, only to be highly annoyed by the “pundits'” Texas map manipulation and saying how many counties Biden “won” where there were literally about 20 Democrats voting in those Republican county strongholds. It was Dallas and Houston and the sum of the non-Latino rural areas that pushed it for Biden.
Oh, you’re here in SA too…. and here I thought I was the only one.
I think for some people who are doing just fine, thank you, saying that other people can’t have things (“pragmatism”) serves as a type of surrogate humility.
Yves Smith appreciate the analysis. ty
FWIW Re California Delegates:
We canvassers for Bernie, here in our small rural California town that Bernie put some money and organization into, were told that delegates were apportioned by congressional district, so it was very important to win as many congressional districts as possible.
The Supreme Court will likely hear oral arguments on invalidating the ACA before the election as well as having what is likely a pandemic circulating during the months before the election. https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2020/03/03/supreme_court_will_decide_the_fate_of_obama_health_care_law_142555.html
Both of these issues would be tailor-made for Bernie to be going toe to toe with Trump in the debates. Joe Biden will have to channel his inner-Bernie on these issues, because Trump will likely be vulnerable.
BTW – the Republicans don’t need to suppress votes during the primaries. They have already arranged for that by suppressing minority and poor votes, who aren’t voting in the Republican primaries anyway.
Yves, is there a way that either you or Lambert could consider doing a special post or Water Cooler today showing where Biden and Sanders are in terms of delegates and what the chances would be of a path forward for Sanders? I am not sure that there is still a chance that Sanders could get a majority of delegates at this point, so a contested convention might be the best we could get. I have not seen the math, lately.
Anyway, as far as the establishment is concerned, even in the odd chance that Biden somehow becomes president if he faces Trump, I think that his cabinet and staff members are going to have to act as handlers/nurses to mind him as he babbles incoherently. It would be like a Weekend at Bernie’s movie, with the titular character having full-blown dementia and being mentally absent as opposed to being physically dead.
I am not sure how it works in other countries, but I think that in some nations that Biden would be removed from the race for not being of sound mind.
current count can be found at the Guardian 566 Biden 501 Sanders–47% to 41%.
CA not all counted, hence not all attributed. Will take a while.
Vox puts Sanders ahead in delegates. The fact that every media outlet called CA for Sanders as soon as poll closed says he had comfortable lead, which will eventually be picked up fully in the delegate count.
Media of course messaging like crazy the less favorable “real time” count.
Reagan wasn’t “of sound mind,” either, at least the second time he ran. But then, Reagan wasn’t running the country, either. So who is Biden a cat’s-paw for? (collective shudder)
I find Bernie very charming, but I agree with the rest of this.
“Yeah, good. OK.”
I couldn’t agree with this more. That is the big picture. Bernie is an imposter to the Democratic party and even more offensive to them, so is his platform.
> The only reason Biden turned around was not a function of him or his campaign. It
Yes. Biden had very little agency in the endorsement kayfabe; whatever their reasons, the invisible primary rejected all the other finalists: Buttigieg (no black votes), Klobuchar (ditto?), Bloomberg (terrible candidate who would destroy their brand), and (naturally) Warren (not a reliable counter-party) and now they are stuck with Biden, who is weak.
So all the headlines that say “Biden stages comeback!” and such are 180° wrong.
I will grant that Biden has seemed a lot more coherent in the last few days than he seemed when he was wandering around Iowa. I’m not sure why that is, and I don’t like being puzzled by it, either.
Actual medical care.
Better living through chemistry, for those who can afford it.
Probably LSD ;)
Based on Bloomberg’s success in Super Tuesday, perhaps he could be made Governor for American Samoa instead of President.
I wonder if Mike would’ve had more fun driving across the country and throwing out a bundle of Benjamins every 5 minutes?
He would’ve certainly got a more positive reaction from followers…
he pretty much did that though, you just had to share his post on instagram.
If I had a Benjamin, for every “Mike!” mailer I’ve thrown in the trash …..
He’d try to ban spam and be dead in minutes.
Wondering if Michael Hudson could chime in on the need for a “rent holiday” or debt holiday (medical debt for sure) as the coming economic disruption will surely bankrupt or make-homeless many thousands of working poor and middle-class (even if they never get sick). It would be nice to see the banks take the hit for this, but more likely the money will be borrowed into existence and the middle class will pay for it with even more inflation.
Michael Hudson might also have some insights into China, their economy, and the social and economic impacts of the Corona Virus.
Obviously feeling grumpy today, but come on! The headline for the CNN moose story just makes me sad, sad, sad: “A woman almost got trampled when she tried to pet a moose in Colorado”
I watched the vid and that moose gave that woman a half-hearted warning wave of the front legs. If that’s what CNN thinks is almost getting trampled, they are even more idiotic than I thought. ;-)
no criminal intent, the moose is innocent.
Forget criminal intent, the moose didn’t even try to make contact. Reminds me of the “cute” videos I see online of children abusing dogs, and then the parents scream about vicious dogs when the dog gives the kid a warning nip.
Like I said, obviously grumpy. I keep thinking about what I’d like to say to Clyburn, etc, about how much the democrat powers obviously hate US citizens. The young men coming home with mangled bodies and twisted minds, the sister-in-law driven to bankruptcy when her husband got sick, the fear in the eyes of seniors I see when I visit with them. And those creeps just want to shovel money at arms merchants and banks.
B/C the arms merchants and banks shovel a percentage of it back to them.
Those hominids are for certain NOT practicing ‘safe-distancing’.. I sure hope that moose took a cleansing bath to ward off contagion ..
the moose voted for Sanders and thus must be smeared. I heard he’s a sexist.
You leave moose alone. They are the size of a car with the attitude of a hippo (Africa’s #1 killer) and have bad eyesight to boot. A moose is the last thing you want to annoy or frighten.
Bernie finally taking the kid gloves off and going directly at Biden – more please!
https://www.yahoo.com/news/bernie-sanders-unloads-on-joe-biden-as-super-tuesday-makes-it-a-two-man-race-043802249.html
No mercy for this doddering fool.
Which one?
The one who owns the Dem Party or the one who, irrationally, thinks he is going to take it over?
So what, just give up and don’t even try while the whole world burns? Maybe you noticed the ‘not me, us’ aspect of his campaign. So what are you going to do to help?
Wait just a frackin minute !! I was under the assumption that they were friends.
Well, with friends like … shiv stickers.
Please explain what is irrational about it, in light of Trump taking the GOP.
Can you be insufferable next week? Today’s not the day.
Thanks.
What he needs to do is go after the DNC.
Levitz’s point about Bernie’s position in the race is the thing to remember. Yes, the Democratic Party, Obama included, is as corrupt and craven as we all thought. Yes, their media allies on cable are as insufferable and dishonest as ever. Yes, the task of achieving a hostile takeover of the Democratic Party is an uphill one.
But Bernie is in a hell of a lot better place than he was four years ago when the race became difficult mathematically after running the southern gauntlet of Super Tuesday. Bloomberg, always the bigger threat, is now the joke he deserves to be. Bernie’s success with the Hispanic vote must still terrify the firm of Obama, Clinton, Dewey, Cheatam and How. And his opponent is one of the weakest “frontrunners” ever seen. And the very real possibility that the Democratic Party is immolating its future for the sake of keeping the cash flowing to the consultant class and scam NGOs may give pause to a few of the less craven Dem pols and media hangers-on.
The Sanders campaign is as close as anyone has come to breaking the plutocratic stranglehold on politics. Donating and canvassing can get us closer.
Bernie’s movement is the last exit off the Highway to Hell. It’s the best shot we’ve had.
well stated.
Thanks, HMP. You’ve inspired me to kick a few more bucks over to Bernie.
Well said hmp
Last exit on the highway to hell, sums it up very succinctly, kudos sir.
“Obama, Clinton, Dewey, Cheatam and How.”
Well said.
Five of the Super Tuesday states have open primaries, Alabama, Minnesota, Texas, Vermont, and Virginia. Of these Sanders won only his home state Vermont. My Republican neighbors told me that they would vote for Biden because they believed that between Biden and Sanders, Biden was the weaker candidate.
John (my neighbor) loves to repeat Biden’s now famous response to a woman in a town hall meeting: “You’re a dog faced liar…”. John believers that Trump needs merely to make a video clip of Biden repeating this vulgar takedown to win the election.
Oh, I forgot to mention that I live in Alabama.
My wife, a native Arkansan unlike myself, told me last night that she thinks part of Biden’s success in Arkansas was due to cross-over Republican sabateurs (sp).
Considering Trump and Biden combined garnered over six times the number of votes for Sanders, anything is possible. Including and perhaps a lot of vote machine fuckery. The more complicated the voting system the less I trust it. I would wager a fair sum that my vote was tossed on grounds related to signature mismatch alone. I have no way to ask/verify. That sign in machine alone, the way one had to sign it, guaranteed anyone could be tossed on a whim. Not only have we never had democracy. The word isn’t in the constitution people! That’s no accident. We live in an anti-democracy.
https://www.foxnews.com/elections/2020/primary-results/state/arkansas
Utah had an open primary.
+1
Even better is the whole quote “You’re a dog-faced pony soldier”. Plus bragging about shaking down the Ukrainians, plus Hunter’s gig at MBNA credit card company, plus the bankruptcy bill of 2005, Anita Hill, plagarism in 1988, Iraq war, and on and on. I don’t care how many pundits say, “I like Joe Biden personally”, I find it hard to like somebody with that record and those core beliefs.
Don’t forget the handsy hair-sniffing.
Honestly, the Biden jokes write themselves.
I think R’s crossed over in Minnesota. Not only are you not registered by party in Minnesota, when you voted in the new primary (we were a caucus state up until this year) they put a cardboard viewer over the page you sign so you couldn’t see which party your neighbors voted in.
Then I fed my handmarked ballot into a counting machine which then decided how to count my vote.
Very little confidence that MN’s vote shows actually support for Biden.
Sanders would have won Minnesota had Klobuchar not dropped out. After Biden showed life and won SC, the DNC and the upper brass called in their chips, got Amy and Pete to drop out, kept Warren in, and royally [bleeped] Sanders in Minnesota, Texas, and Maine.
The DNC Democrats only show their inner-McConnell bloodthirsty nature when protecting their kingdom.
+1. Sanders won Minnesota in 2016. The Dem estab is really the GOP’s junior varsity team. imo.
>The Dem estab is really the GOP’s junior varsity team.
Well said
There’s a reason Dem estab demanded that so many of the states with caucuses ( that Sanders won, even with open voting or same day reg change in 2016) had to switch to primaries instead of caucuses this year, imo.
and, I probably shouldn’t, but I laugh a derisive laugh when I watch this. From last night on Fox. The question clearly hits a nerve.
https://twitter.com/SteveGuest/status/1234870407569776641
> My Republican neighbors told me that they would vote for Biden because they believed that between Biden and Sanders, Biden was the weaker candidate.
I’d like some numbers on this. In any case, the Democrat Establishment is gradually morphing into the Republican Party, at least in the burbs, and by design, so this is natural…
“‘Perfect Storm’: Washington virus deaths highlight risk at nursing homes”
There was just the death of a resident of a nursing home in Sydney today. If this infection occurs in a lot of them, there would be a lot more deaths to come as the residents are all elderly and have serious health issues. You wonder how many of them will be brought home by their families but a lot of them paid big money to go into a place like this and may not want to, or cannot, leave. If this gets serious enough, you may find that empty or near empty nursing homes may get converted into ready-made Coronavirus hospitals after being disinfected-
https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/health/health-problems/nursing-home-death-in-sydney-after-carer-infected-with-coronavirus/news-story/3f10f91237ef4df6777502a303a41d4a
The assisted living place where my mom lives is an outlier compared to most in SoCal, in that she’s on a month to month lease, rather than having 90 something year olds buy a $400k apartment, as is the typical way and a bit crazy, but thats how most assisted living venues do it. When they pass away, typically the heirs take a 10-15% hit selling it to the next aged owner.
If things got weird and started going viral as @ the place in Washington state, we’d consider having her live with us or my sister and could have her packed & gone in a weekend, but what about those oldsters locked in to their real estate deals, or those that don’t have the family option?
your money or your life.
If i’ve learned anything about the nonagenarian set in the 4 years she’s been a resident, is they have all pretty much come to terms with dying, being past due for a date with the reaper, so there’s that.
WW2 vets who might’ve been reticent to tell you what really went on-when they were 50, want to tell all when they’re 96, being one of the last links to living history.
> your money or your life.
The elite perspective:
OMG, I remember seeing that sketch and the look of him thinking it over was hilarious.
Telling that all the links at the top of the list are about the virus rather than the election. Perhaps an explanation for the sudden turnaround in favor of Biden would be that people are scared, and picking the establishment figure was a flight to safety. Biden’s revival in the polls seems to coincide with the explosion of virus news.
Of course that doesn’t make such a sentiment correct. But it could be that events are finally in the saddle of our messed up system which could also be bad news for the unpredictable Trump. If things get really grim then Trump will be out and almost any Democrat will be able to win–even the feeble Biden or Bernie as well if he could find his way to the nomination.
Yes. My thoughts exactly.
Yeah, it’s hilariously ironic that this coronavirus is highlighting the greedy dysfunctional US healthcare system, and the only candidate who has a real plan to change it is getting the short end of the stick, because people are scared of the virus.
On another note, my FB page is chock full of people downplaying the severity of the pandemic.
I guess you can’t fix stupid.
There’s also that research shat showed that disgusting imagery, or thoughts of contamination and hygiene tend to make people more conservative. That may countervail the threat of a pandemic as an argument for universal healthcare.
Well one can be for universal health care while accepting that such a goal is not going to happen soon enough to affect the pandemic–if that’s what it is. Trump is not only providing a lame response to the virus but also threatening to put us in still more danger by ginning up conflicts with Iran and North Korea. If political dominance is his goal he is conceding far too much to his right wing and people like Lindsey Graham But with Trump one never quite knows what his goal is. He may not know himself.
+1
At last, my home state of WA makes the news in a dramatic way. So proud…I no longer have to have an inferiority complex about its newsworthiness! :)
In other news, Costco’s are reportedly with really long lines & being stripped bare of certain products including canned goods, toilet paper, and of course sanitizer wet wipes thingies. I have already had a ton of stuff laid by due to my longtime earthquake preparedness so I haven’t felt the need to go all hoarder..just my usual day to day stuff…. The local grocery store a few blocks away is missing sanitizer products, but food seems to still be being restocked regularly and the peeps in front of and behind the counter seem mostly aware but stoic…a few clueless.
The boy just came to me a few minutes ago and reported that for the last day or two he has had a cough…which believe me I already noticed…and a sore throat. Facts were discussed, and the ‘adult does their best to reassure the young despite internal misgivings’ thing was done. A confident demeanor, and just the facts.
The boy’s older half-sister works in semi-mgmt at another grocery store and reports that at least her ‘supply lines’ are running smoothly with the only shortages being sanitizer-type products. They had a meeting yesterday to discuss the store plans and reactions to coronavirus – and also partially to celebrate several $1 million sales days recently. . At the end, she said, they had free food on offer – pizza in boxes, big bags of tortilla chips and tubs of salsa for all to paw through. Hmm…something seems ermmm…a bit wrong… about the method of presentation of that meal spread, I guess i should leave that as an exercise for the student.
Ahhhhh….to live in interesting times. :)
There is a lot of premature
ejaculationtriumphalism going on among the establishment, their propaganda outlets, and brain-dead supporters. They appear to be completely ignorant of what is driving this uprising, and of the infrastructure that has been built to take them on and to keep going after them. That will make the eventual triumph of right over might that much sweeter, whether it’s this year or next time.Bernie was the only trustworthy candidate with a track record of doing the right thing. If they can snuff him out this time, it’s going to be much too late by the time another figure appears.
You get the government you deserve, and what could be more American than Trump winning biggly (beating Reagan’s record), before further gutting social programs and hitting the accelerator on climate change? Dow Jones 150k as the waves roll in to reclaim mar a largo.
Monty, it’s not about one man, Sanders made sure of that by building a movement that’s providing training and experience for the new leaders. Like AOC and The Squad, and many more to come. It’s the reason why I trust him, that and his consistent message over the years. No one said it will be easy, but the groundwork has been laid and the process of change is irreversible.
He was the glue that made it credible. It’s clear that it’s going nowhere when the people we need to have his back, in order to deliver the goods, are more interested in stopping him, than electing him.
Hostile congress +hostile media+hostile financial system+etc = worse than nothing done.
Come on! Did you really think that the Establishment and it’s media were ever going to get behind him and the movement? It’s not about winning them over, it’s about taking them down and taking over.
“Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.” Frederick Douglass
When so many are still hypnotically enslaved to the idiots lantern, you need a few in the TV and print media onside. He doesn’t. We have had wall to wall anti Bernie voices and messages and that will continue till he is out of the equation. Even if he won, this congress is bought and paid for and wouldn’t enact his agenda… Not to mention the judges. Remember that Obama judge in Hawaii who kept striking down all of Trump’s executive orders… What do you think is going to happen to Bernie? And please don’t even get me started on what could happen if he won and then passed any grassy knolls.
Of course not and if we were them we might not either. The rap against Sanders has always been that he wants to take on the establishment while remaining part of it. That doesn’t make him a “sheepdog,” but it does mean that reform is not likely to happen via the “talking cure.” The elites have to feel their own precariousness, from events if not from the public.
Anything could still happen though. Biden is a shaky establishment standard bearer.
It has never been easy not in 1860, not in 1775, every generation in America had to decide if it wants to keep America going. If not, then it’s gone.
But it takes a generation to get gone. In Links today – 10:33 Bloody Sunday, about the unrest brewing in Russia from the mid 1890s to 1917… and the turning point from unrest to revolution was Sunday July 9, 1905 when Czar shot and killed peaceful protesters. It became the “death of the myth of the czar.” The good czar – the good king – all that 19th century propaganda folded like a lawn chair. I do believe we are close to the death of “America, land of opportunity with freedom and equality”. It’s definitely rattling away.
It took only eighteen months in France. I can’t believe I can’t pull the name, but the ordinary citizens of France were asked to send in (lordie my French is toast, cahiers of grievances, maybe de doléances? Basically petitions to the French government to help make it seem like the $ being sought that necessitated the calling of the Three Estates would go to things people wanted/needed).
Those petitions were all very polite, and assumed the Good King didn’t know what was happening, and could he please sort out XYZ?
The assumption of royal innocence evaporated when the king realized the tactical mistake he and his allies made with the Three Estates (allowing the number of representatives of the Third Estate to exceed that of the nobles and clergy, setting up the successful revolt over “Are we voting by estate or gross #s?”) that the king tried to oppose and lost. The rest followed awfully fast.
What made things take longer in Russia was the tremendous span of the country, which would also impede communication. When I was fortunate enough to visit St. Petersburg, I was stunned at the scale and lavishness of the palaces there, even before you get to Catherine the Great’s penchant for buying art in bulk. Any hungry peasant who saw that would want the czar’s head on a pike.
By contrast, even in pre-revolutionary France, the country revolved around Paris. One way the king kept the nobles subservient was make Paris in general and the court in particular the perceived place to be, and calling in nobles for various positions (which were often pay to play) to advance their standing in the social pecking order. That led to much faster information propagation. Much more analogous to today and Russia.
What is different now is the scale and effectiveness of propaganda..
it’s certainly not over yet, and now bernie can focus on bidens crappy record. Yes the jiu jitsu pre super tues worked, but it worked best in states that will go for trump. Biden is still remarkably weak as “front runner”,. Either way, too early for despair, imo. They are who we thought they were…duplicitous, insincere, and a little too desperate.
+++++
Thanks, I continue to be determined, if not optimistic. VERY VERY well expressed.
> They are who we thought they were
For those who missed it, “they are who we thought they were” is one of my favorite video nuggets of wisdom. This NFL clip (sorry for cheesy music) gives the game context, which I did not know:
Important to remember that Green also said “And we let ’em off the hook.” Don’t do that!
“Why Elizabeth Warren is losing even if all your friends love her”
Elizabeth Warren is losing because she was forced to reveal who she really was and what she was all about over the past coupla months in her run for President. Not a lot of love for Warren over on Jimmy Dore’s channel as shown by the following videos put out by him-
https://www.youtube.com/user/TYTComedy/search?query=warren
And Warren has convinced her few supporters that they should never, ever vote for Bernie. That was why she was bashing him so hard over the past week. Now she can drop out having completed her job. She doesn’t need to split the progressive vote any more. Her voters aren’t progressive, and they will feel right at home with Biden.
She can do a further disservice to the “Progressive” movement by staying in the race and “educating” her cohort to believe that they are the “true” progressives and that the Sanders movement is populated by “deplorables” who deserve to be cowed into submission.
I’m beginning to see that Warren’s attacks are not aimed just at Sanders, but at the entire “progressive” movement.
Warren is an Elitist, and thus, philosophically antithetical to any form of Populism.
This, I’ve already seen Warren voters say oh they have to support Biden cuz we low-lifes behind Bernie are so deplorable.
> Now she can drop out having completed her job.
And no doubt in the most “relentless, ruthless” and “nihilistic” fashion as possible. Something like suspending her campaign, not endorsing anybody, and then turning into a “neutral” TV commentator for the next 241 days.
I bet that after the elections, that her academic career never suffers. There will always be a place found for the like of Warren in academia.
Following up on some posts I made yesterday about how Clyburn is the neoliberal MVP, and why.
Clyburn, in the 2018 election cycle, got 70% of his financing from PACs. He is heavily dependent on the dem establishment for financing, he can’t rely on his (heavily lower income) constituents:
https://www.opensecrets.org/members-of-congress/summary/james-clyburn?cid=N00002408&cycle=2018&type=I
Now contrast to someone like Nancy Pelosi, who represents a wealthier district. Her financing is 1/3 PAC, 1/3 donors >$200, 1/3 donors <$200. Much better balance, she can largely self-fund:
https://www.opensecrets.org/members-of-congress/summary/nancy-pelosi?cid=N00007360&cycle=2018&type=I
This is why the African American vote has been, and will continue to be, a firewall for the neoliberals. It’s not policy, it’s not likability. It’s the reality of campaign finance.
Our original sin of slavery continues to cast a very long shadow over our ability to have nice things.
Thanks, Deschain. This is a really astute and important comment, imho.
Yes. imo, Insightful addition that should considered for when looking at who is endorsing and why. Thanks
I found this bit of Irony looking around:
https://dailycaller.com/2014/05/08/clyburn-tim-scott-doesnt-vote-his-color
Republican Sen. Tim Scott doesn’t vote according to the color of his skin, Assistant Democratic Leader Rep. James Clyburn complained in a Thursday Washington Post article. “If you call progress electing a person with the pigmentation that he has, who votes against the interest and aspirations of 95 percent of the black people in South Carolina, then I guess that’s progress,” he told the Post.
Why is there this monolith that cares about clyburn’s preference? Does the PAC pay people to vote, or are you saying there is evidence they are mostly incurious, poorly informed and suggestible?
I’m saying if you are a black person in his district – particularly an older black person, who still remembers Jim Crow, and whose lived experience is that all white politicians are either useless, disappointing, or actively harmful – you’re going to trust Jim Clyburn when he says “HRC/Joe Biden is the least bad one”.
Based on exit polls, over half of SC voters ranked Clyburn’s endorsement as ‘important’, and a full quarter said it was the most important factor in their decision. That includes white voters too; 55% of SC voters were black, so I think it’s probably fair to say that Clyburn’s endorsement was overwhelmingly critical in determining who the black community voted for. Biden won 60% of the African American vote.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/live-blog/south-carolina-primary-live-updates-democrats-vote-2020-candidates-n1145296/ncrd1146141#liveBlogHeader
I’m not making any judgments here, just trying to lay out the facts on the ground. Progressives need to be honest with themselves about the institutional walls they have to climb if they want to win. Simply making ‘more and better outreach to the black community’ doesn’t solve this issue, IMO.
it may not be solvable without the passage of time, and the increasing incidence of various crises–the younger voters see the need for change, where older voters see risk.
“Simply making ‘more and better outreach to the black community’ doesn’t solve this issue, IMO.”
Agreed. Unfortunately, we can’t change history until we change history.
Thanks, Deschaines, that computes. To Monty, I think what you are looking at here is machine politics, shared experience, and personal loyalty. Loyalty is not, in itself, a bad trait.
See? Bloomberg didn’t buy everyone.
Some of them were bought a loooooong time ago.
Was it Robert Heinlein or someone before him who pointed out that an honest politician is one who stays bought?
OTOH, I would think there may be a few more categories of politicians who might be honest. For example:
* Those who haven’t been bought yet — not the right time, price, and/or customer — but are open about that.
* Those who are so obviously honest that nobody even tries to buy them . . . even after they’ve found ongoing shelf space in the marketplace of ideas.
* And those who aren’t even let into that marketplace, so they have nothing to lose by being honest.
If the dem party could ever be taken over, maybe possible to run early primaries in order of states that came in closest in the last election. This would much reduce the influence of states that will anyway vote rep in the general.
Not my idea, copied from another poster.
In a rough sense, at least, I think, that sector of the black vote tends to behave similarly to the old labor vote. It looks like it’s subject to the same corruption from the top. I don’t know if it can be approached creatively somehow for the sake of progressive politics, or not. But a Sanders-like insurgence certainly can’t afford to ignore a leader such as Clyburn, as we’ve seen.
> But a Sanders-like insurgence certainly can’t afford to ignore a leader such as Clyburn, as we’ve seen.
I don’t think the Sanders campaign could have successfully negotiated with Clyburn (or, more to the point, the donors who back him). Even assuming a pillar of the Democrat Establishment would negotiate in good faith with an insurgent (dubious), could Sanders pay Clyburn’s price? (“Tone down that #MedicareForAll stuff, Bernie. You know it’s scaring the donors”).
> Clyburn, in the 2018 election cycle, got 70% of his financing from PACs. He is heavily dependent on the dem establishment for financing, he can’t rely on his (heavily lower income) constituents
So Clyburn has to go to the Big House to beg for money (where Pelosi her own house). That must really frost him internally, if he has any sense of dignity.
Disappointing election results, though I suppose not shocking. The saddest surprise for me was that Warren voters got almost nothing, her mostly falling below 15%, and at first glance, even outperformed by Bloomberg. Dem party is in worse shape than I thought. Does not bode well for the future…
Considering the class that Warren represents, 15% sounds about right.
This “Super” Tuesday outcome reeks like a week-old fish head. AFAIK Biden barely visited those states, had little organization or on-the-ground effort and he nearly runs the table? Something tells me that this was a DNC orchestrated fraud. The drop outs and Biden endorsements of Mayo Pete and Klobocop seem a little too convenient, like they were planned and synchronized by the anti-Sanders establishment.
Its too early to give up on Bernie but he has to take the gloves off and go after Biden no matter how much it rankles the MSM and the Dem establishment. That memo is a good start but he needs to keep hammering the guy.
Yes, Bernie finally needs to fight in the middle of the ring, so to speak, against his main Democratic opponent. He needs to start applying good combinations, ruthlessly, something he hasn’t done in 2 “fights” now. Biden is extraordinarily weak. Don-don will KO him with no problem. Sanders does the Demo party as a working-person’s institution no favors by propping Biden up in a friendly clinch. He’ll only be helping the non-working-person’s Demo establishment retain power like the inadvertent (one presumes) sheep-dog role he played in ’16.
bernie is maybe too good for politics, or at least for elections like this. but as he keeps pointing out, not him–us. he never really even wanted to run in the first place (he tried to talk warren into it; i’m glad he failed), and he sometimes trusts the wrong people (maybe that explains buying into russiagate). but, he recognised we couldn’t go on, and he stepped up. i remember larry holmes on why he didn’t knock out randall cobb, something like “i just didn’t want to hit him anymore”. to give himself and us the best chance this time around, i would prefer more ruthlessness, but maybe he just doesn’t have that in him, and it would seem weird and artificial, and he wouldn’t be effective at it. warren could do it for him if she weren’t such a disgusting, backstabbing fraud, and hadn’t already gone all in on the dnc.
Bernie needs his surrogates to do the real dirty work here while he stays somewhat above the fray while acknowledging the stark differences between him and Uncle Joe. Warren isn’t going to do it for him and probably never was going to do it for him
exactly my sense of it too, roadrider –
Yes, I agree that false votes and falsified vote count probably gave Biden the win. It almost looks like the DNC manipulated the polling one day before Super Tuesday. I find it very difficult to believe that Jim Clybourn or the other two dropouts from the race made such a big difference in such a short time in so many states.
If Biden is nominated, Trump will rout Biden unless extraneous circumstances (corona virus pandemic, a huge drop in the stock market) prevail.
Slim checking in from Tucson.
Yesterday evening, I attended the Tucson for Bernie Super Tuesday party at Borderlands Brewing. The good news? The place was packed with a very diverse crowd. Very heavy on under-50 people, which bodes very well for the future of this country.
Candidates for various national, state, and local offices were out in force. I’m pleased to report that Congressman Tom O’Halleran (CD1) has a primary challenger. Her name is Eva Putzova. Pretty progressive platform, if I may say so myself.
And there were people representing Mark Kelly’s senatorial campaign. He is the husband of Gabrielle Giffords, and I refused to sign his petition. Why? Because I think we need to move beyond the Blue Dog Democrats, and Gabby was one of the biggest Blue Dogs in Congress.
The bad news? Well, here goes:
I think that people who are attracted to these events tend to be too nice for their own good. I mean, come on. This is war.
It’s why Elizabeth Warren (“Vote for ME! I’m a WOMAN!”) is still in the race, and why Biden (“He was Saint Obama’s Vice President!”) is being propped up by the establishment.
And Bernie keeps calling Joe his friend? Please. Bernie, he is NO friend of yours. Or ours.
I voiced some of my more colorful opinions (“DNC f#ckery is afoot!”) and a lady sitting across from me got up and moved to another part of the bar. She also didn’t appear to like my “I’m a WOMAN!” mockery.
Sorry, honey, but I’ve spent too much time on Naked Capitalism. Identity politics and virtue signaling rub me the wrong way.
The bad news? In addition to the disappointing Super Tuesday results, this was a loud crowd. I couldn’t hear the speakers, and it was difficult to have one-on-one conversations. So, I left early.
I’ve already early voted for Bernie. Had to register with the Democrat Party in order to do that.
In two weeks, I will change my registration back to Independent.
I wish our house rep from AZ 4 – Republican Paul Gosar – would get a qualified primary opponent and a qualified Democrat to run against him.
AZ has a separate “Presidential Preference Election” election March 17 for the Democrats (early voting on now) with Independents allowed to vote but there is no Republican Presidential Preference Election this year as Trump is the anointed one. The actual AZ primary for all other offices isn’t until Aug. 4.
Amen to all of that, Arizona Slim. I was at a Bernie watch party, and I may have offended some women when I asserted that the only way Warren’s supporters would vote for Bernie was if he grew a vagina. lol. This is war! I’m actually in a better mood today than I thought I’d be in, even though the results were actually a little worse than I expected. Now that the field has cleared, it will be easier for Bernie to take on Biden (and maybe Warren).
I would like to point out that Mark Kelly – our soon-to-be-Democratic senate candidate in AZ – voted in the Republican primaries up until 2016. Of course, the Democratic Party loves him.
It’s early, but the pre-market prices suggest the market was more scared of Sanders winning big than it was about Coronovirus.
Biden vs. Trump: The dream scenario for the 1%. Prediction: Trump crushes and wins both houses, everyone blames Bernie and his ‘toxic bros’ for not voting for Biden. Prepare for Geddes Axe II in 2021.
I learn something new here every day.
Geddes Axe
>Prediction: Trump crushes and wins both houses
Bangs head. Trump may win, but he will squeak by just like before. Where do you get your info I gotta wonder. What Biden proves is why this country is in terminal decline – our national arteries have hardened to the point where the Blue States and Red States just are what they are. The electoral vote outcome of 40+ states wouldn’t change if you ran Rush Limbaugh as the Dem nominee and Trevor Noah as the Republican.
Why in god’s name do some people on here regard Trump as some sort of political masterind? He has no idea what he’s doing. He didn’t in 2016, and has learned nothing. He is leaning on his base when he should be pivoting. He has been blessed by the opposition he’s been given, and even that is not guaranteed to pull him thru.
I’m just going from what I see around me every day. Many Americans i see love Trump, and although I am not a big fan of GOP policies, I believe Trump is very representative of American psyche. He taps into the shadow, that was always there, but now revels in the sun, much to the delight of the people who had to keep it on the down low in polite company until now. Americans like winners, Americans don’t want to compromise or share. Its just in the DNA from 100+ years of powerful brainwashing.
Establishment Dems are milquetoast Republicans with a side of idPol. Many probably end up thinking that they might as well vote for the real thing, because at least you’ll get a tax cut. If the Dems want to win, they need to give people a positive reason to show up, and they have got nothing.
“He has no idea what he’s doing. He didn’t in 2016, and has learned nothing. He is leaning on his base when he should be pivoting. He has been blessed by the opposition he’s been given, and even that is not guaranteed to pull him thru.”
Please don’t sign on as a Sanders advisor.
I think we “Bernie Bros” need to start owning it instead of apologizing and defending. I’m starting to respond to these accusations about ’16 as “you’re damned right we are the reason Hillary lost, and if you don’t think we will do it again, well you can fool* around and find out.” (*family blog)
Yes! Absolutely this!
The left should be out saying that if you care about electability then nominate Sanders. Because if Biden is the nominee then we will make sure he loses.
They want to lose. It’s obvious. Trump is doing great (for their investments) and besides, it’s currenty the GOPs turn.
He was doing great for their investments until last week.
zoom out
I work in law; I’m support staff for a team of attorneys who are long used to be ‘the smartest people in the room.” They always open with, “Hey, I like Bernie, but…” and then before you know it you hear the dreaded buzzwords: pragmatic, incremental, moderate.
I have become the only progressive in the office willing to constantly question and discuss their points of view. I even got a couple of them to read “Listen, Liberal” by Thomas Frank and have one who seems interested in the writings of Michael Hudson. I have pointed out the generational divide with regards to Sanders support and stress that it isn’t their party anymore, but they are clinging to a political order that has lost legitimacy around the globe. They tell me Trump is an existential threat and Obama was a terrific president and that the Gen X’er’s and Millennials who are Bernie or Bust are brats out to destroy the party. They say Bernie can’t win without the support of the moderates, so we’d better prepare ourselves. At this point, I’ve taken to quoting the Frank Herbert quote which shows up from time to time on NC right in their smug faces; that no moderate is going to win without the support of the Left. But go ahead and find out…
“The people who can destroy a thing, they control it.” -Frank Herbert
It has worked out well for them, but they are in the minority. You can quote me on that. This country is not functioning at all for the lower classes, the youth, etc. The Right wingers (my social circle) tell me that it is supposed to be this way.
As idode_buddha said, they don’t have any idea how bad the lower 60% is suffering. They don’t rub elbows with the precariat. I run around in the same circles as you, FFS, and I see it, too. And you can’t force them to see it.
I notice that, according to Wikipedia, the axe fell mainly on defense spending. Never gonna happen.
Eyeglasses and Coronavirus transmission: I’ve not seen any mention of one potentially significant means of catching the virus — off your eyeglasses. These of course rest right next to you eyes, one portal of entry for this infection. People have trouble just not touching their faces, a known route of transmission. But they will don and doff glasses with equal insouciance, after touching surfaces that may put viruses on their fingers, Nurses who wear personal-protective eyewear are taught to only handle by the parts that attach to their head (the bows or elastics) and avoid contacting the front surfaces. Here’s a CDC chart on employment of personal protective equipment to reduce chances of transmission and acquiring the disease: https://www.cdc.gov/hai/pdfs/ppe/PPE-Sequence.pdf
The surfaces and crevices of eyeglasses can easily collect viruses from various sources, including droplets and aerosols (cough and sneeze) and the hands of the wearer from touching contaminated surfaces. Here’s what sounds like good advice on how to disinfect your eyeglasses, which needs to become a habit if it is to be effective: https://oureverydaylife.com/how-to-sterilize-eyeglasses-12533914.htmlThe headline says “sterilize” but this approach is more “disinfection as much as easily possible.” Every little bit has to help, based on what is being learned about this disease.
I’m a lifelong hard contact lens (gas permeable) wearer and to be honest have been pretty cavalier in insertion, extraction and cleanliness, compared to how I could’ve been as in not washing my hands as often as I could have. That would include perhaps a thousand and one nights in the backcountry.
I’m pretty much touching right around my pupil twice a day and squeezing on my temples ever so much taking them out.
‘Pluck .. and Cover’
but do a bleaching cleanse first … like with a wipe or something.
But do we see any of this on CNN? No, just useless commentary.
And are there any government-funded “commercials” to teach people about such contermeasures, or even how properly to wash their hands, or to cough into thier sleeves?
Of course not.
Thanks for this, JT.
thank you.
“Democrats Rallying Around Joe Biden Could Alienate Generations of the Party’s Youth Support”
‘Obama and Biden spoke to Buttigieg on Sunday night to make the case for what his endorsement would mean.’
Yeah, I bet they did. I am betting too that Obama is doing a lot of heavy lifting for the DNC behind the scenes. It’s what he does. I wonder what Mayor Pete was offered? Ka-ching! People like that are always taken care of by the establishment so long as they are needed. This won’t be the last that we hear of Mayor Pete.
As for turning a whole generation off from the Democratic Party, I would say that that is part of the plan. It is harder to corral younger people’s opinions. They want to be enthusiastic about stuff. They ask questions. And now they have that internet thingy so they can look up politician’s histories as well and what they did in the past. For the DNC it is a case of “Who needs them!” when we have our donor’s money.
It’s bizarre how little the Democratic establishment bothers to even go through the mitions of doing politics. Now that it’s down to two, it’s time to be extending the hand of friendship to the left (fingers crossed of course), but I’m not seeing the slightest inclination among Democrat loyalists to offer a morsel or two that might make the Biden medicine go down easier. I expect the youth outreach strategy to be the traditional “You’re a narcissistic purity pony complicit in returning Trump and putting kids in cages if you don’t vote Biden”.
What Bernie needs to learn from Biden
Sanders can’t lead the Democrats if his campaign treats them like the enemy
“It’s not that Sanders is running a weak campaign. But he is, in a way, running the wrong campaign. He’s the frontrunner for the Democratic nomination — at least he was until tonight — but he’s still running as an insurgent. The political revolution was supposed to close the gap between these realities: If Sanders could turn out enough new voters, he could sweep away the Democratic establishment and build his own party in its place. But going all the way back to Iowa, that strategy failed. Sanders won as a Democrat, not a revolutionary, and he needed to pivot to a strategy that would unite the existing Democratic Party around him.”
https://www.vox.com/2020/3/4/21164091/sanders-biden-super-tuesday-endorsements-primary-2020
Ezra Klein, trying to have his cake and eat it too. The Democrat establishment treats us as enemies, kicks us, insults us, rigs the game, then expects us to obediently go into the tent come November? No, thanks.
It’s a big tent, but it ain’t THAT big.
And I kiss no rings, neither.
US Politics: Capitulate or be ignored.
It’s beginning to look like the end of Reservoir Dogs.
The Dem nomenklatura want us to kiss something else of theirs.
their butt plugs ?
If this campaign has made one thing clear, it’s that the Democrats fight progressives harder than they will ever fight the GOP.
>The Democrat establishment treats us as enemies, kicks us, insults us, rigs the game, then expects us to obediently go into the tent come November? No, thanks.
Hear effing hear.
Compare the states biden won with this handy map
https://www.270towin.com/maps/2016-actual-electoral-map
biden loses the general.
i don’t think ezra klein appreciates that a hostile takeover takes time. iowa was a month ago, he can’t sweep the establishment away and build a new party without winning the election. that’s why they are fighting so hard to keep him from doing that, and that’s why uniting the dnc around him is not possible, even if it were desirable.
“If”, is an awfully big word here. Granted many of the primaries were open, so republicans could game the results, but the exit data I’ve looked at is very bad for Bernie concerning every class of voters. He’s not going to win on getting new voters into the system. Oddly, every ten years of age seems to flip between Biden and Sanders. There are no other consistencies which is in itself odd. The MSM is interpreting the results as not electability but out and out hatred of trump version3.0™. Sanders can’t give away free healthcare in a time of the plague? What is going on here, cause this doesn’t make any sense whatsoever? What is afoot?
vote rigging, voter suppression, a coordinated attack campaign with the media, bribery, intimidation–all the usual, but with an unusual fervor due to the stakes rising.
It’s getting to the point where progressives will have tried everything to move the needle. They can try talking about abstract stuff like climate change and the need to change our leaders and policy and truthfully the economic system because it really does follow. Too abstract, too big, people have more immediate problems. They can talk poverty but noone actually cares a rip about the poor, and never have, sucks to be them. Sanders runs on direct and achievable if we had te right government (of course we don’t) concrete material benefits that help most classes, like Medicare for All. Who knows if it gets enough takers. What is it going to take? Some sort of cult deprogramming program? Well a recession always works to move people left for like a year or two before they snap right back to: the system works if you work it!
May as well just start from the complete utopia one wants (mine includes worker control of the means of production), advocate it constantly, and work back from there.
I think it will take an existential crisis to move the needle. As much as FDR did, he only achieved that because of the crises of the time.
“US should revive Lend-Lease to contain Russia”
This article makes no sense. It say that the UK leased naval bases to the US in return for the loan of American battleships. Well no, they did so for 50 old WW1 destroyers. And many of the vessels required extensive overhaul because many were not preserved properly when stored all those years. The US Navy cannot afford to give ships away to the Ukraine as they are trying to build up their own numbers.
Even if the US scrounged up a few older destroyers they would need extensive overhauling and probably upgrading. They would have to be modified so that the Ukrainians could use them. But then the Ukraine would have to bear the cost of manning these ships, maintaining them, supplying them and all the other costs of having a warship and for what net benefit to them? Years ago the US tried to transfer ships from the US Coast Guard and that proved a fiasco in itself-
https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/ukrainealert/the-saga-of-american-island-class-boats-destined-for-ukraine/
But think of the many opportunities for graft and enrichment that a new Lend-Lease would provide!
And imagine the “surprise” attack on the Ukie fleet in Odessa harbour on some Sunday morning!
I wonder if the US neocons could engineer Erdogan’s Neo-Ottoman Sultanate into re-establishing a vilayet around the periphery of the Black Sea?
Over my dead body, literally, will that vilayet be established. Yesterday Bulgaria celebrated 142 years of freedom after 5 centuries of Ottoman oppression. Never again.
I’m sort of hoping that Damascus decides to reclaim Hatay Province from the Porte.
That would make NATO heads explode.
Good luck with your relocation to the homeland!
There is a recent video of sultan Ordo, claiming with (almost tears in his eyes) that Crimea is in “our hearts.” No doubt, he’d love to take it over and perhaps even resurrect the slave market in Feodosia.
Most blue-eyed and/or blond-haired turks descend from that market, and from the blood tax on the Balkans.
Yup, it is amazing to be in Istanbul, surrounded by tons of blue-eyed, blond folks. Quite an eye-opener.
The Vikings and other northern Europeans of the Varangian Guard surely left a trace in Old Constantinople! ;-)
Yes, that is probably the only way the daft proposal makes any sense. (Otherwise, a waste of three minutes reading it.)
It looks like quite a good idea to me, from the US military’s point of view. Send their out-of-date ships off to Ukraine or somewhere (cheaper than dumping them in Pakistan where children can separate the aluminium from the asbestos), and acquire a load of new US military bases in the process. It might stop Vlad the Bad and the equally evil Chagos Islanders from over-running and stealing Diego Garcia.
Do you know how many aircraft carriers the United States has? 11
Do you know how many of them are obsolete? 11
We keep fighting WW 2 over and over.
Why bother fixing them up? Tow them to Odessa, blow them up, blame Russia!
Hot damn! Russia does not need containing or anything else by the United States.
Crimea and now Idlib, err.. Latakia – or at least too close for comfort. Hey, as long as we are going for it, our NATO pal Erdogan might as well get in on some of the action which will be very lucrative as soon as we get the eastern med. oil-central established. Crimea was just a test case, right? How do we actually cut off Russia from all warm water ports? Well duh… we “go in” and take them. So if we continue in Idlib and succeed like a recurring case of coronavirus, we will be able to kick Russia out again. So then we’ll have driven a wedge between Russia and Turkey and we’ll be able to go back and take away Crimea. No sweat. Russia has been playing checkers.
Chinese researchers now believe there are two strains of coronovirus (sorry, the name is much catchier than Covid): https://asiatimes.com/2020/03/virus-has-mutated-into-two-strains/
I’m coming off a 16-hour day having worked as a poll worker at a mega precinct in Northern California. I haven’t seen much news aside from Biden triumphalism and Twitter is an absolute nightmare to behold right now (I have pledged myself to avoid it for several days until the dust settles).
Anyway, in my particular county, mail-in voting was heavy (well over 70% of roster), and no one who came to the polls had to wait more than a few minutes.
The biggest problem I found (and it wasn’t that big) were voters who had either lost or forgotten their mail-in ballots and had to vote a provisional ballot. Many, however, came with their No-Party-Preference mail-in ballots and were able to successfully vote the Dem ballot.
I also canvassed every weekend for the past several weeks, mostly in the poor and working class neighborhoods. The canvassing effort here was huge, with both Sanders volunteers and local DSA members canvassing all over the place.
I found strong support for Sanders, particularly in the latino neighborhoods.
I talked to exactly 1 Biden supporter in all my hundreds of homes visited. I encountered a few Warren voters in my own neighborhood, and one ex-Republican who was voting for Bloomberg. Admittedly, this is a heavily liberal/progressive area, but the support for Sanders everywhere I went was extraordinary. And our canvassing efforts had to have helped convert that support into strong turnout.
BREAKING: Michael Bloomberg just suspended his presidential campaign.
There are reports of Ben and Jerry being tarred,feathered and run out of town on a rail by End Dairy Now protesters. It was an udder route. Free samples, ha nothing is free losers. Just had to have laugh! no charge.
I haven’t heard any reports of violence from super tuesday, best possible outcome in that regard.
“PATRICK LAWRENCE: Moscow’s Difficult Decision on Idlib”
That article mentions a phone call between Putin and Erdogan. They way I heard it, it ended up in a shouting match where Erdogan demanded that the Russians get out of the way so that they could destroy the Syrian Army while Putin was not onboard with this idea. The next step would be of course for Turkey to annex chunks of Syria using the militants as political cover.
The problem is that Erdogan has alienated damn near everybody – the Russians, the US, the EU, Israeli, the Kurds, etc. and now it is payback time. Erdogan knows that the Russians could cause a lot of damage to those Turkish divisions in Idlib but will try to bluff Putin. Those Turkish Observation Posts have now become militant bases and the Turks not only give artillery and vehicles to the militants but also their uniforms to muddy the situation.
And Turkish soldiers have been getting killed actually taking part in battles against the Syrian Army but Putin cannot afford to let Erdogan have his way or the past five years of efforts and sacrifice by the Russians would all go for nothing. It is still a dicey situation in Idlib.
A face-to-face is planned for tomorrow in Moscow. No way Russians would let the last five years go up in smoke just to please the delusional sultan. Let’s hope Ordo is not a c-virus carrier.
1. Turkey is not bluffing. That is quite clear now, seeing that Turkish forces are, as I write, in pitched battle against Syrian forces.
2. It does not matter whether NATO wants to back up Turkey. Why? Simple: only way RF can defeat Turks in Syria is to attack many targets in Turkey proper. NATO allies will not remain neutral in that case.
3. Russia has inserted a “tripwire force” at Saraqeb. Remember that Turks had inserted “tripwire” troops elsewhere in Idlib, but the Syrians persevered in their offensive anyway. So I won’t be surprised if the Russians soon take ground force casualties.
4. Intemperate rhetoric about “Sultan Erdo,” or “Butcher Assad,” or rewarmed grudges from generations past, or stereotypes about how Turks or Arabs or Russians speak or behave, are all quite unhelpful in a real crisis.
5. It is not true that RF efforts would have been in vain if Syria backs down over Idlib. Turkey can defeat Syrian forces in the field, but Turkey cannot occupy large parts of Syria. RF goal of protecting ally is still achieved notwithstanding further delay of final Syrian government victory in the civil war.
6. Again, the main world interest at this time must be to prevent further escalation.
7. There is room for diplomacy here, e.g. Syria accepts rebel enclave in exchange for lifting of Western sanctions. Patience! Imagination! Goodwill!
“Intemperate rhetoric about “Sultan Erdo” – sorry, but this misses the very real rhetoric from Turkey, since at least 2002. (I read the debates in the local papers back then.)
You may want to see this:
“The Republic of Turkey is a continuation of the Ottoman Empire, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Feb. 10.”
https://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/turkish-republic-is-continuation-of-ottomans-president-erdogan-127106
Includes video
It is naive to underestimate the sultan (or, at least his folly).
Here is a video – I saw it embedded in an article and with sub-titles. This one does not have them, but a commenter translated (this one is from 2016, in fact):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xG1LuQT6agE
“He said : …..Today, those who question Turkey’s policy in Syria and in Iraq against the EU and the West are those who have not understood the centuries-old struggle of our nationality. Turkey does not have eyes on anyone’s soil, first of all you can not find colonialism in our history. Everyone in our civilization we live in the same homeland is our brother. A nation that established all states with this understanding cannot be a subject of usurping the rights of others. We have a state tradition that has established an environment of confidence and peace in a vast geography extending from Central Europe to Africa. The work of those who are trying to make a western-style occupation policy is in vain.Today, visit anywhere in Syria, Iraq, North Africa, the Middle East, or the Balkans, and ask the people there their opinions of Turkey, and you will see no one mentions colony, invasion, oppression, or massacres alongside Turkey. Yesterday we were there as a state, today we are there with our aid, education and health institutions. As I said, world is bigger than five, Turkey is bigger than Turkey. Our heart borders are different from physical borders. We cannot be prisoners in 780 sq km. Our brothers in Crimea, in the Caucasus, in Aleppo and in Mosul may be beyond our physical borders, but they are within the frontiers of our hearts and in the very middle of our hearts…”
I have news for the sultan: in Vienna and the rest of Central E, they still remember the Turkish siege and occupation (1529, and 1683), and no, they would rather do without a new one. Delusional is a very apt description for the sultan wanna-be…
And the comment on Syria accepting an enclave of jihadists on its territory is not even worth a response.
Wow, Erdogan is beyond delusional. No invasions, oppression, or massacres?! Here is a sample of the reporting on the Batak Massacre from Januarius McGahan, an American journalist and a revered figure in my native Bulgaria, of the Turkish massacres of the civilian population of Bulgaria following the April uprising of 1876. The massacres were so horrifyingly cruel that even Great Britain was shamed into standing aside (thank you, Gladstone) as Russia decided to take matters into its own hands and free Bulgaria from 500 years of such peaceful coexistence with our dear Turkish guests.
Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against Turks as a people, they are warm and welcoming people. But I do not trust the Turkish state under Erdogan, not when school books “accidentally” include maps with territories belonging to Turkey’s neighbors shown to be in fact Turkish territories.
Yesterday we celebrated 142 years since Russia freed us from the Ottomans. Thank you Russia, we Bulgarians are eternally grateful. Our elites may have taken 30 pieces of silver and sided with the US elites, but the Bulgarian people know better and their memory is neither for sale nor subject to brainwashing. As Tzar Boris III (a Saxe-Coburg German) explained to Hitler when he refused to even declare war on the Soviet Union in WW2, “If I do, the entire Army will march over to the Russians, with the Army band leading the way.”
@OIFVet. Found your story interesting and decided to follow up the story of Tzar Boris IIIa bit more. Bulgarian politics must be interesting too when you read that his son Simeon, the last Tzar for Bulgaria, ended up serving as its Prime Minister from 2001 to 2005. Bet that a lot of people did not see that coming.
All Simeon Saxe-Coburg Gotha was interested in doing was to sue the country over real estate. By law, the palaces and residences of the tzars were property of the state, not property of the royal family. He managed to wrest away some of the properties anyway. Had to pay his gambling debts somehow. His father may have been almost alright (if one is willing to overlook his implicit sanctioning of the brutal executions by fascist death squads of 10’s of thousands of communists, socialists, and agrarians in the 1920’s without any due process, and the particularly brutal murder of the agrarian prime minister Alexander Stambolyiski by right wing thugs), but at least he managed to save our Jews and to avoid the complete destruction of the country during WW2. But if you ask Bulgarians about his son, the most common response will be an eye roll, followed by “The gambler from Madrid? Eh, he came back to get into real estate.” If you catch them on a bad day, you might hear many different insults hurled against Simeon’s mother, Bulgarian has countless ways to invoke the mothers of those we dislike.
One time I was working at a Swiss ski lodge back in the 80s and someone pulled me aside and said that that guy over there was the king of Bulgaria. I am pretty sure that he said Bulgaria but all I saw was some grey-haired dude. How sad to be a king without a country.
Have you ever confused your wife with your sister? Biden has and he did it at last night’s victory speech.
Something tells me he’s going to implode again. And it’s not going to be pretty. Unless he campaigns via proxies. The more he speaks, the more confused he looks.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHPowjg3SEg
biden should drop out now, for his own good as well as the good of the country. increasing stress is likely to hasten the progress of his dementia, if i understand correctly.
both my grandmother and my mother, who suffered from dementia, confused me at times with long lost relatives.
Sundowning? Well, his handlers can book him for well-lit morning rallies, I guess.
Please. No. Just. No. Not another “Morning In America” campaign.
“Morning In America”: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morning_in_America
I’ve called my wife by my ex-wife’s name. That always goes over well.
In his final years, my father did that very thing. And it drove my mother NUTS!
And, guess what: Dad had Alzheimers.
My granny went senile and was convinced grandpa was getting it on with every woman from Okotoks to both Ontarios. ha!
My daughter in Rochester MN reported that her polling place was like a “ghost town.” I haven’t seen stats. Was turnout in MN light?
I submit that Biden will not make it to November, nominee or not. His incoherence is quite remarkable. There is a faint memory of Reagan in 1984, but RR had been a professional actor and, even with his increasing dementia, he could hit his mark and deliver well-crafted (Noonan, etc.) lines with aplomb. Biden has none of Reagan’s skills or attributes, save for a winning smile. His go-to response when challenged is loud assertion that often comes across as unexpected anger. The March debate will be interesting, for both Sander’s style of attack and Biden’s replies. The “moderators” will be sure to be even-handed. s/
So, the hope of the DNC party grandees must be that Biden can be propped up until nominated. Then, with a vice president securely in place–Michelle, if she’s willing to accept the aggravation of the job–that person can move up to the top spot. Hilary will have an absolute conniption, but who cares, she doesn’t count for anything these days. If Biden doesn’t make it to Milwaukee, well, Chicago ’68 is still in this boomer’s memory.
Just in the past week, with coronavirus gaining attention in the U.S., we’ve seen how utterly unpredictable this year will be. Final question: will an election be held in November? I wouldn’t bet the ranch on it.
Consider (a) Warren dropping out/suspending this afternoon or tomorrow AND (b) DNC cancelling the remaing debates followed by (c) Bloomberg’s media team and his money teem start flooding the media (air, print, Facebook, reddit, etc) with ads of Biden-hugging-Obama ads. Gak.
You may be right about Michelle.
Having a brain-dead president might well be their ultimate goal. Every federal department will be doing whatever the hell they please. Can you image the grifting opportunities that a Cabinet secretary would have with no one watching? This is going to be like the Oklahoma land rush. Pick a department and strip it clean.
No need for anyone to watch. The deep state will take care of everything even more than usual.
“will an election be held in November?”
There’s a lot to be said for mail-in ballots. (If the post office isn’t operating, we have drop baxes in numerous locations.)
Antidote question. Does anybody think the moose was photoshopped? If not, are those people with cameras crazy?
I dunno…
Damned thing I ever saw was on Hwy 101 which runs right through Redwood NP, and it’s 2 lanes each way, and we came around a sweeping turn, and there a car was parked in the slow lane, with the driver approaching a very imposing looking Roosevelt Elk just off on the apron, camera at the ready, oblivious to risk.
About 1970, at Patrick’s Point State Park which is either in Del Norte or Humboldt County, can’t recall, we were driving in through the meadows in my brother’s VW Beetle when suddenly we were surrounded on all sides by a herd of Roosevelt Elk which happened to be moving cross-wise to our path at the same moment. In that little tiny car it was kind of spooky. None of us had the urge to get out and try to pet or photo them up close.
I know not moose-only squirrel, and i’d have to say a Roosevelt Elk was about the largest thing on 4 legs i’ve seen.
No way would I be getting near that big boy in the photo. Not only does he weigh half a ton, but he’s got powerful legs and a healthy rack of antlers. Park signs warn look but don’t touch, I salute and say, “yes sir!”
>i’d have to say a Roosevelt Elk was about the largest thing on 4 legs i’ve seen.
+1
nope. probably. there was a recent video of a guy locking himself inside his storage shed when he noticed a moose walking toward him. i think that was a reasonable reaction.
The person who took the moose photo was further away, and it creates the impression that the people are closer than they are. The thing is, Mooses are unpredictable, and when one starts to approach, you don’t want to turn and run or else it will charge you. Just slowly back away or get behind something and it probably won’t bother you.
Wild animals should be left alone…I was hiking near my birthplace on the plateaus of the Chic-Choc mountains (Gaspe peninsula) where a small herd of caribous remain. A bunch of idiots were trying to approach them on open ground and chasing them away. God forgive me, I did wish them some slight harm…
oh, speaking of 1968 (possibly already linked to by our indefatigable hosts, but there’s been such a flood of information the last couple of days).
https://theintercept.com/2020/03/02/democrats-craving-a-brokered-convention-including-elizabeth-warren-should-learn-the-lessons-of-1968/
ouch.
That Sanders will arrive in Milwaukee with the most delegates and votes is, needless to say, far from guaranteed. The Democratic establishment is rapidly snapping into line behind Biden like the sheep that they are, falling all over themselves to endorse him now that he won his first state in 30 years of running for president. The establishment corporatist money that typically fuels the Democratic frontrunner — that had recently abandoned Biden as his campaigned looked to be in as much of acute collapse as his cognitive capacity — has very quickly reappeared now that he appears to be Sanders’s only credible rival.
greenwald
Thank you. Excellent post.
It is amazing how blue the country was in 1964. And then red in 1968. A Biden nomination in 2020 would turn me red. I am so at a loss to understand how anybody could vote for Biden. OMG.
One can only hope that the other change agent, the CV, will help clarify future options.
I’m hoping it would turn you green, instead. Not that it matters a whole lot, in Oregon.
(One of these days, that particular copout is going to fail us.)
Bloomberg is out;
https://gothamist.com/news/mike-bloomberg-drops-out-presidential-race-endorses-joe-biden
so what did the dnc bribe him with. i notice warren hasn’t dropped out yet.
It’s the other way around. Bloomberg owns the DNC, pretty much lock, stock, and barrel. He came forward partly because of the sheer arrogance of being a billionaire, but also because he saw Biden fading. Now, at least, he doesn’t have to suffer the indignity of answering to lesser beings in debates.
Plan Demic doesn’t own Mike, although comeuppance see him sometime.
“Bloomberg is out.”
Mission accomplished, enough Bernie voters led astray to put Biden in the lead to preserve the Plutonomy.
Since the Democrats are so damn corrupt, maybe
the Republican Party is the vehicle to take back the country with a Bernie style revolution?
It was the DimRat plan to put in their “moderate” dims to dilute the Bernie vote. When the time was right they all pulled out and threw their support for Uncle “my sister or my wife” Biden. Bloombito was the mr. money bags in the operation.
EW is still smoking some strong stuff and has not come down from her high.
biden will self destruct soon
Thank you. That is a very good link.
farmboy
March 4, 2020 at 10:48 am
Well… somehow, after three-plus years of fretting and obsessing over Donald Trump, the Democratic Party has decided to change absolutely nothing in their approach to presidential elections.
===================================
Well, it is a man this time…SO FAR.
Do I REALLY believe that after Biden gets the nomination, that the democratic establishment will be: SHOCKED, SHOCKED to discover that Biden is too confused and bumbling to campaign, and therefore only Clinton, TAN, RESTED, and READY is the best democratic standard bearer????
maybe…
She has been in the limelight a lot lately.
Bernie ad running in Florida:
https://twitter.com/ShaneGoldmacher/status/1235202301658386433
Spoiler: Obama sings Bernie’s praises. Pretty funny.
I hope that at least part of the thinking behind this ad is to troll Barry
About “10.33- Bloody Sunday (podcast) Mike Duncan, Revolutions”
There is an illusion common in human history called “good king, bad advisers”. Perhaps it arises from the Middle Ages when people’s most immediate, visible enemy was the local baron and the barons and the king were often in conflict. This well-done podcast is about one of the most dramatic examples of people being woken up from this illusion.
In the USA nowadays, this illusion takes the form of “if only the evil Republicans/libtards weren’t in the way, Obama/Trump would fix everything”. I hope we don’t have to go through our own Bloody Sunday to wake up.
BTW, the Revolutions podcast is excellent. I found the podcasts about the Haitian Revolution contained the most information that was new to me.
A good day to remind everyone (especially myself) that propaganda can mislead us about what everyone else is thinking much more than it can change our own minds.
Also, when the California delegates are all allocated, Bernie should have a narrow lead but with the most conservative states already having voted.
Jessica:
Good point.
The southern Biden firewall states that will go to Trump anyway are done, leaving (vote rigging aside) a fair fight going forward.
This thing is not over, hell Bernie is probably leads the delegate count with California results in quarantine.
No time for despair now.
Thanks,
Young people are not turning out to vote. The old ones are. Hence Biden rose from the dead.
https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a31223605/super-tuesday-bernie-sanders-youth-vote-revolution/
There is only one way to defeat neoliberalism:with solidarity and fellowship driven by commonsense and empathy(tempered by commonsense).Neoliberalism has taught us to compete instead of cooperate and it has created a nation full of suckers and sociopaths(sometimes a combination of both).
David B Harrison:
+100
I am struggling to educate people chronically stressed and fearful from a lifetime of defending against neoliberal assaults which basically is everyone. They have been trained to think all “success” (privileges) is individual and deserved and likewise “failure” (read poverty and oppression).
Solidarity is a lost word and buried concept from the 20th century, so I use it freely with people whose lives are plagued by precarity, fear of medical bills, layoff, homelessness, robocalls, collections and dispossession.
It’s a start.
It’s going to take an infrastructure of change to win.We need one organization dedicated to solidarity instead of thousands of individuals and organizations without a coherent strategy.These organizations need to coalesce into a single entity(just like the establishment does).Every population center large and small should have a permanent location for community outreach and education.P.S..Always remember to pay attention to evil; it has its’ act together.
>There is only one way to defeat neoliberalism:with solidarity and fellowship driven by commonsense and empathy(tempered by commonsense).
Hear, hear!
Facebook is shifting its Libra cryptocurrency plans after intense regulatory pressure The Verge
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Daily Horrorscope:
Attempts to master a new computer program or other form of high-tech equipment could seem to be going nowhere, Libra. You might tend to doubt your ability and thus feel very frustrated. However, keep at it. You aren’t beyond all help! Nothing more than a little focus, concentration, and dogged persistence is required. It might also pay to ask someone’s help who knows more about it.
The DJIA swings resemble a high speed wobble on a Vincent Black Shadow, is there anything to be concerned about?
Considering that a Vincent goes very fast, any wobble is cause for concern, if not downright alarm. There’s a reason motorcycle road racers dress up like medieval knights.
I have experienced that curious feeling of “loss of control” while speeding along on my long departed “crotch rocket.” When you eventually go down, and you will, the sudden “return to normalcy” can be brutal.
The bond markets are “curious” now too.
The Baltic Dry is down around 500. Shipping is taking it on the chin.
This market looks to be the fraught financiangler of a Bank of Black Swans.
Being Mike’s fat Samoan win attorney, I wouldn’t advise an ether binge there-done that.
Coronavirus pushes aviation sector into ‘crisis zone’ FT
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The reason to bail out the airlines after 9/11 was the economy, stupid.
There’s no reason to perpetuate plane travel as things stand now, and judging from the public’s recent reluctance to be nearly 8 miles high, it isn’t as if the audience is there, and we’re early in the pandemic.
Eight Miles High by The Byrds
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J74ttSR8lEg
The DNC has delivered their coup de gras and Bernie looks to meet or exceed the delegate count when California’s count is ever done.
As in prior states, the headlines go to the the doddering neolib standard bearer, directing an attention deficit disordered electorate towards the magicians hat (cue head swivel).
The donations and door knocking and rallies must continue.
Biden is a ripe target. Play his senate floor speech bragging how many times he tried to cut medicare and SS over and over, his plagiarism, his warmongering, his racism.
Now is the time.
Every day in every way I hate Elizabeth Warren more than before.
The DNC has delivered their “stroke of fat”? Hmm … sounds like someone may be having Mardi gras on the brain. :)
money manager ray dalio on 4 ingredients for containing any virus:
Containing the virus (i.e., minimizing its spreading) will occur best where there are:
1) capable leaders who are able to make executive decisions well and quickly,
2) a population that follows orders,
3) a capable bureaucracy to enforce and administer the plans, and
4) a capable health system to identify and treat the virus well and quickly.
South Korea, Singapore = yes. USA? prefer not to comment (in my opinion—regardless of whether a Dem. or Rep. is in the White House). But I imagine our Canadian neighbours will be ok.
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/my-thoughts-coronavirus-ray-dalio/?articleId=6640623255357005825
I do think Americans follow orders well, there never were better Germans. So 1 out of 4?
Just a comment…
If I were a Buttigieg or Klobuchar supporter, I’d be really ticked, especially if I had donated and/or volunteered for either of them.
I would not have had the opportunity to vote for them while they were still in the running.
Does anyone ever remember a candidate dropping out right before Super Tuesday?
This is rational if for whatever reason one really wanted Buttigieg or Klobi and no doubt some did. They got the finger big time. They lay down with dogs and got fleas (not that it’s always easy to tell who the dogs are, case in point Warren, I suppose she didn’t let her followers down, but progressives oh boy).
But there seem to be some Pete people absolutely ecstatic now about Biden. So for some it REALLY IS all about hating Sanders. But it’s pretty obvious to see why Buttigieg might have seemed a superior candidate for that, he is young, decent looking, at least smart sounding, and not least can string a sentence together etc.. Not hard to see why one might *imagine* that a better sell for right wing centrism than the doddering old Biden. Of course in reality this whole campaign season seems to have been a waste of time for everyone, people voted name recognition period.
Lizzy Warren took a whack
And turned out to be a party hack
When we saw how she had done
It was time to end her run
Sanders gets the nomination and we have a change versus status quo election. Biden get the nomination and we have a status versus status quo election.
The message has not gotten through or is not believed. Unless there is fundamental change in the way of the world, the cumulative effects of too many humans, unregulated unmitigated industrialization, and climate change, to name but a few, are, willy-nilly, going to impose drastic changes on our children and grandchildren. If you want a harder meaner life for your descendants, continue as you are. If not, you must embrace change. … and it would be good to begin now.
The sparse crowd at my MA polling place yesterday was strictly 60+ (other than me in my t-shirt with a picture of Bernie being arrested), but it could have been because we were voting during prime “retired old fart” hours around 10am. Most of the people I know were ignoring my dire warnings and intended to vote for Warren – either they didn’t show up or those were her only voters.
Lambert,
here is another Corona info link with many useful observations and references, from Scott Alexander at SlateStarCodex.
Thanks for the link. Have you seen Daniel Dumbrill on Youtube? He is an American who has made his home in China. He has been making videos during the lock down and sounds like an intelligent fellow.
He explains that they have an app everyone uses. It tracks everyone and lets you know if you were ever near someone who subsequently was diagnosed. Then i guess “they” swoop in and test you. Heinous, but it worked.
Worth watching for a very interesting alternative perspective and look at what life is like there now: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VChPZTs-wZg
“In a ‘Bizarre’ Biological Twist, a Mother Lion Adopted a Leopard Cub in India | Smithsonian” — I had trouble viewing the images in NewMoon on my older Mac. That oten happens these days with mobile-oriented articles, but in this case I found the issue was an embedded https url – If you find the 2nd https in each of the image URLs and rightward-copy only the stuff starting with that, the resulting image loads fine. Here the 2 thus-hacked image links for anyone who might be having the same can’t-view-image problem with the page:
https://public-media.si-cdn.com/filer/7d/ad/7dada605-94bd-43fb-aed6-d2cc17750d7b/dscn0612.jpg
https://public-media.si-cdn.com/filer/8d/7e/8d7ed605-18dc-45cb-82c2-025cdca8cdb1/dscn1114.jpg
What a cutie, very sad to read that it did not survive to adulthood.
Sure is a cutie! Wow!
Last night was disappointing to say the least, the good news is that it’s now a two person race and Biden is a gaff machine with a less than stellar policy record. However, I don’t think Biden is a dead man walking if he gets the nom, the Dems got out 60 million+ people to essentially give Trump the finger in the mid-terms, it’s not crazy to think they could get 70 million to toss him out of office and I have a hard time seeing Trump getting more than 65 million on his best day, he’s done nothing to grow his base. The Trump game is going to be about depressing the vote by going relentlessly negative and Biden provides a much easier target on that front than Bernie. A Biden presidency would also be an absolute disaster for the Dems in the 2022 midterms and an impeachment of Biden will be quick to follow. I can see us entering a period of one term presidents as occurred between Jackson and Lincoln.
If the Democrat party manages to r@tfvk Bernie out of the nomination, Trump will have increased his base by at least one. Me.
and still Trump would’ve done nothing to grow his base, the Dem party would have.
Sorry, plenty of Bernie voters will:
1. Stay home
2. Not fill out the top of the ticket, the ultimate FU
3. Vote for Trump. Something like 20% of Bernie voters in 2016 voted for Trump. Admittedly, on the one hand, we now know what Trump is, which argues for voting against him, but on the other, the Dems’ ratfuckery is much more obvious than in 2016.
10% (according to the expert in the body; the writer says 12% in the lead. No time to work out the discrepancy). 15% of Clinton voters in 2008 voted for McCain.
Back to NPR:
Of course, to a party loyalist, none of this will appear ordinary, any more than (say) Benedict Arnold or Judas were ordinary. Hence the frothing and stamping:
Which you could look at several ways, but I would look at it as a bad case of authoritarian followership well advanced — led, interestingly, by a PMC base, and in that base, by a faction of bourgeois white feminists (Jill Biden body slamming a dairy protester really speaks to them).
I think the wild card is the corona virus. If it turns out to be Katrina, it happened on Trump’s watch, regardless of detail. That’s gonna be a big problem, especially if there’s a megachurch cluster here as in Korea (though who knows, maybe religion will allow them to rationalize it away).
Frankly, I think the virus is an enormous opportunity for Trump to “show leadership” as only Trump can show it, but for some reason he thinks he’s got to act Presidential and set up an effing committee. (Trump’s pattern, as in both his 2016 campaign and the various Russia Russia Russia stuff, is enormous chaos “in the ring,” as it were, and a bunch of colorless highly competent operatives working away in the back office. But that doesn’t seem to be happening here.)
Isn’t it odd that Trump hasn’t called up the CDC director and reamed them out? He’s an effing germaphobe, so surely psychologically disposed to see the virus as serious. Why is there no video of him washing his hands? He can’t maintain a posture of “not spooking the markets” for (checks Water Cooler) 242 days. Is he paralyzed with indecision? WTF?
” That’s the party that liberal Democrats built, and kudos to them.”
Sigh. I know I shouldn’t say this, but I did tell you so. The party has been shrinking for over a decade, so what’s left are the members who are comfortable with its right-wing policies. Yes, there is a scrim of genuine progressives, the eternal optimists, but it’s looking like they aren’t enough. Maybe most of them are posting here. And young people aren’t turning out nearly enough, possibly because they can read the signs.
Granted, it’s still close and the remaining primaries could prove me wrong; but so far, it’s looking shockingly like 2016, right down to the likely outcome.
But how do we know the voters are even party members, in some states it’s pretty easy to switch parties for an election and possible (some places easy) to vote open primary. I’m not saying they are Republicans, although they very well could be, but independents who took steps.
From the scale of the swing, they’re party members.
In 2016, Sanders was assaulted by ClintonWorld. They made the running. In 2020, the entire Democrat Establishment is assaulting him. (Circling the wagons as they did around Biden, all over a weekend, was really extraordinary; never seen anything like it.) They think the threat to them is of a different order; I think we should agree with them.
Wren-Lewis’ post about his pandemic research was interesting. However, he seemed to soft-pedal the fact that he cherry-picked macro economic scenarios. Even when he got to the end, and added the OBTW, we did not consider banks not offering bridge loans to high-debt customers going under, he refrained from pointing out that all the bad fallout mentioned earlier was likely additive. Thus, the vacillating panic sell-off in the Market since Feb 1 might well be justified.
Ironic aside. Anticipating Trump’s incompetence and the pending domino effect of China, Jan 30th, I moved 75% of my IRA to Treasury bonds noting I could afford to sit out 2020. Reading Nakedcapitalism pays off!
In a ‘Bizarre’ Biological Twist, a Mother Lion Adopted a Leopard Cub in India
This mother lion wasn’t naive as the article suggests. She had previously lost two cubs, her first. She sensed the young leopard’s frailty, probably abandoned by its own mother, the female leopard mentioned, and shared her love with it until it expired. That is nature. You all are so lost.
So the report of Bernie thanking Obama for staying neutral, is that just him doing what he has to to “stay alive”? Dear God!
I have a reservations about Bernie being so polite, too.
Or maybe he’s just signaling to voters that Obama didn’t endorse any one. Which he didn’t.
Bernie Sanders is a Wily old politicians who has come a long way further than anyone else in his shoes.
I wouldn’t put it past him.
I do hope he brings out the big guns now, I think it’s do-or-die time.