The Politics Thread

[Khan]

Voters need to realize like yesterday that this is not some damn game show where the objective is to acquire fabulous (and free!) games and prizes.  This country was not built on the idea of people getting something (or everything) for nothing.

[Wendy]

As the Coronavirus tanks the Dow and world markets, how ironic would it be if Trump and the GOP's disdain of science did them in? (CDC is largely gutted already. Comforting, no?)

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/market-plunge-over-coronavirus-fears-underscores-political-risk-to-trump/2020/02/24/331aa162-572a-11ea-9000-f3cffee23036_story.html#comments-wrapper

[Juliajms]

Most of these ideas aren't really about getting anything for free. Hillary is the one who brought the idea of universal healthcare to the forefront 25 years (or so ago) and few people see her as a socialist.  I think her idea of lowering the age of medicare was better, btw. I also think fixing up Obama care is way more realistic.

 

In any case, healthcare wouldn't be free. The people who use it are taxed for it and that is largely the middle class. The exception might be the very poor. Still, let's not forget that taxpayers are already paying for these folks when they go to the emergency room. I know where of I speak, since I was one of them as a kid.  I ended up in the emergency room twice and spent a week in the hospital for something that could have been treat much sooner as an outpatient, if my mother could have afforded insurance or a doctor's appointment.

 

The same can be said for nearly any of these programs. "Free college" would not be free any more than public k-12 is free. Universal pre-K, which I think should be more of a priority than college would not be "free".

 

Anyway, Bernie is talking himself right into a world of trouble with this Cuba nonsense right before SC, so I'm not writing off Uncle Joe just yet. There is still hope.

[Juliajms]

And yes, just what the world needs further destabilization due to a pandemic. Leave to the genius in charge to have cut the CDC.

[Roman]

how many politicians running for office who did very well in the beginning months only to fall way short as time went on? we have a LONG time till the convention and election day.

 

[DRW50]

In more cultist news, a field director for Bernie had his private account exposed, where he tweeted at length about, among other things, how ugly Amy Klobuchar and Elizabeth Warren are, talking about how Hillary needs to be catapaulted, how Bernie supporters should phonebank for Bloomberg and put in false data to ruin his campaign, how Jonathan Van Ness is dying of AIDS, and how Pete Buttigieg had "botched" conversion therapy and his husband will become a meth dealer running around with twinks.

 

Bernie's campaign did what any campaign should do, and fired him.

 

https://www.thedailybeast.com/bernie-sanders-staffer-mocked-elizabeth-warrens-looks-pete-buttigiegs-sexuality-on-private-twitter-account

 

Some of the highest profile cultists, the general sleaze at Chapo and Secular Talk, instead of just saying his private comments shouldn't have been exposed, chose to fight for his job and get angry at the campaign for actually running like a campaign instead of the dirtbag bigotry that pays their bills and gets them out of bed in the morning.

 

Bernie supporters are the same people who love to lash out at any criticism of him by saying it's anti-Semetic and that you should never bring up his advanced age, frail health, his wife's money scandals, his general uselessness as an activist, his love of dictators, etc. Yet extensive vile comments from someone with a major role in Bernie's campaign are ardently defended and they are throwing money at this man instead of giving it to their dear leader. 

 

If anyone in Bernie's camp has any sense, they should be very nervous about these reactions, especially since the voter turnout in IA/NH/NV has shown few, if any new voters are coming to the polls for him. His bedrock of support is depraved and toxic and if they start to feel that he has "sold out" or become a "cop" or what have you, and that supporting him doesn't mean you get to [!@#$%^&*] all over everyone with zero consequence, they will turn against him and rally everyone else to do the same. 

[Khan]

 

Donald Trump and the rest of the GOP don't disdain science.  They just exploit many others' ignorance of it to make more money. 

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LOL!

 

But seriously.  I do believe Chasten and Pete Buttigieg's union will be done once Pete's silly campaign is finished.

 

Meanwhile, Michael Bloomberg's campaign basically implodes again:

 

https://www.yahoo.com/news/audio-bloomberg-slammed-warren-scary-023635538.html

 

 

Same.  You don't forget an endorsement of Fidel Castro's regime too quickly.

Edited February 25, 2020 by Khan

[AllMyDaysatGH]

 

I was reading all over Twitter last night Bernie's supporter's defending Ben Mora (the field director), even calling him a "hero," etc...they were like worshipping him. It reminded me of Trump fans defending everything he does and says honestly

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So disturbing

[Fevuh]

Friends in my chat group said - you're Gay and so you should be as far Left as you can get...and we're disappointed in you.  I said I don't think my gayness should make me as far Left as I can get.  I just don't.  I'm not Republican and have voted it - Republican - locally once in my life.  I do listen to people.  If I say something like I don't agree with Bernie or most of his policies - he's making promises he can't deliver - I'll still vote for him because of the SCOTUS...that makes me a bad Democrat?  I feel like we are imploding and it's stupid.  

Oh Gosh - 20 years ago I met a group of people who I became friends with and it turned out they were Log Cabin Republicans.  I stopped talking to Republicans then (I think).  They're Gay Republicans.  It's awful.  They don't want you, they don't like you and at the time, they won't even accept your money because it's not as good as the straight Republicans.  Then they would officially endorse the Republican candidate.  To me, there's so much wrong with that.  You hate yourself so much that you want to be accepted by someone you know has acknowledged they hate you?  I don't know how to explain it but that's how I felt when I would interact with them.  So I stopped.  LOL.  My best friend and roommate said - you can't reason with them, don't even try.  We need to break off with them - they lived a different life and came from money and we didn't.  They'll sell their souls for money and will never be authentic.  

[DRW50]

 

It's because he hates the right people. Some were insisting he's a great guy, but then I saw this, so no, he's just like all the other 'bros':

 

 

He also fits into the easy, fun categories of gay men that many on the left need as the ideal - a cute, sassy twink who hates women and hates other gay men. I actually saw someone talking about how people need to see Boys in the Band in order to understand what gay men are like - and they meant this in a positive way. Boys in the Band is about how being excessively bitchy is a cover to hide self-loathing and an awareness that you will never truly live life. The same people who claim Buttigieg is self-loathing and a liar are more than happy to celebrate the self-loathing that Mora vomited all over Twitter, because he's the "right" kind of gay. 

 

This is what happens when rich, out of touch white leftists who openly and happily talk about how much they hate everything and everyone (other than dictators and getting money from podcast groupies) and how "liberals" are the biggest danger in the world have so much power in a campaign. And most of America, the America that they say they hate yet decided to jump into the politics of all while doing nothing but helping their dear leader lose. At least genuine anarchists like John Reed and Emma Goldman tried to go see what they were preaching and supporting. Chapo types, or Red Scare types, are just posers and con artists, like Bernie is. They are all play-acting, and they don't care if we all die. And somehow, the party is so weak and decrepit that this amdram shambles is going to just keep barreling toward the nomination and toward a heavy loss in November. 

 

But at least we have debate #485734 tonight so everyone can be reminded of how godawful these candidates are and why they shouldn't even bother voting, so...yippee!

[marceline]

#NaturalCauses2020 is looking better and better.

 

Also...

 

[marceline]

 

Here's my question: what kind of judges do you think Bernie would name? Let's say we lose RBG and Clarence Thomas. (Thomas is up there in age so the next president might name his replacement.) Is there any reason to believe that Bernie would name good judges? He never talks about the judiciary so I doubt he has a list of potential SCOTUS nominees. (I suspect that only Biden and Warren have given it any serious thought.) 

 

Bernie would do the same thing Trump did: he would outsource the picking of judges - SCOTUS and otherwise - to whatever idiot sycophant wanted the job. 

[Gray Bunny]

Yasss! Okay God, you’re setting this up nicely but I‘ma need you to kick it into high gear now. Meanwhile, I could totally see a stroke or another heart attack for Bernie and an aneurism for Biden. Before you know it, it’ll be the Openly Gay vs the Closeted Gay going to head to head. 
 

I’m kidding. I’d rather it be Elizabeth against Closet Case. 

[Vee]

Warren is kicking ass tonight. Even Joe is occasionally getting off a good one. Sadly I don't feel it'll change trajectory.

 

Bernie got hit on his gun control record and pivoted to Biden and Wall Street, and was shocked to be booed.

[Soapsuds]

@Gray Bunny who is the closeted gay?