But Was He Ever Truly IN?
Bloomberg is out and he’s endorsed Joe Biden. Let the Bernie whining begin …3…2…1
I want to remind everyone that Bernie agreed to the rules this time prior to anything starting and that everyone has followed the rules.
Do you ever wonder why none of the other candidates endorsed Bernie?
And yes, I think Elizabeth Warren should stay in to provide a third voice. And yes, I am disappointed that it’s two old white men. But either of them is preferable to Trump.
Hundreds of polls closed in your state, in black and brown areas? Really? The corporate oligarchic establishment, rank with ambient and overt bigotry, is going to crow about that???
Wow. Just what DO you stand for?
1What Senator Warren isn’t saying… and on second thought I won’t say it either because I like both Bernie and Joe. But. And you know it’s killing me not to say it. Anyway there really is a good reason for Senator Warren to remain a candidate until convention time. Oh okay. I can say this: debate stage, a rose between two thorns.
Magic Mike, take a lesson from Tom Steyer. Last we heard he was in SC working to replace Leningrad Lindsey with Jaime Harrison. Kentucky sure is some beautiful horse country, Mike. You might think about doing what you can to help unseat the biggest horses’ asset Moscow Mitch. And, if you want you could take out a few ads about voting for democracy or the Russian form of government with IQ4.5* and Mitch.
2Paul ADK @1 – Texas has closed 750 polling places since 2012, the vast majority coming after the Supreme Court in 2013 ruled states like it — with a history of racial discrimination — no longer had to get pre-approval from the federal government to pass new voting laws or make changes to the election process, according to a new report by The Leadership Conference Education Fund released on Tuesday.
The report provides the most sweeping look yet at how states have jumped at their newfound freedom to make changes to the election process, and comes as Democrats in Congress push new legislation meant to bolster voting rights. Texas led the nation by far in what the report calls “systematic statewide efforts” to slash polling locations. The state closed more than twice as many polling places as Arizona, which landed second with 320 closures.
3joe won in texas… compromising joe, reaching across to his trump thugs to pass anything, how big a factor was the right wing crazies that voted for joe thinking it could end up a little win if the BIG win of a second 4 years of king trump doesn’t happen…..
4@ Frank – I would guess the number is about…ZERO. If there was any crossover vote (and I doubt there were many due to the long lines created by the Repubs) they would have been for Bernie since Trump REALLY wants to run against him and the Russians are backing Trump up in the effort.
5Now it’s obvious. Moneybags was in the race purely to get rid of Sanders and Warren, who threaten the ability for him to double his 65 billion. Now we know why he did not bother to prepare for his first “debate”, and has been so lackadaisical about campaigning.
He’ll keep his gold-plated pinky in the scrum, mainly to insure that there’s no resurgence of the folks that might tax his wealth. But it will be with the disdainful look Mr. Burns has when he has to deal with the grubby masses.
6Y’all know I’m not a big fan of Bernie. Truth be told, I am not a fan AT ALL. I started following him in the early days of social media, but by about 2012 I’d heard enough noise from him. I don’t take kindly to men who yell all the time but get nothing accomplished. And who want to run under the Democrat flag but tear down the Party at every turn. HRC made a selfless decision not to run again so as not to divide the Party. Bernie and his gigantic ego could not do the same. EW is another extremely qualified, intelligent, accomplished woman. She would have been in a much different situation now had BS not run. He has accomplished division again. We had 4 very accomplished qualified Democratic women (sans Tulsi) at the beginning of this, and each one leaving the campaign trail put another hole in my heart. I’m sure my daughter who has been out doorbelling for Warren in Baltimore is crushed this morning. Our sexist nation is just not ready. Again. In my lifetime, if I’m lucky. Harris was my first choice this go around. But I can easily vote for Joe, who is a decent human being, will really surround himself with THE BEST PEOPLE and hope against hope that he chooses a younger woman (preferably of color) to be his Vice President. We need teamwork to start fixing this mess, and I think he can deliver.
7fenway fran @7, what are your thoughts on a Biden/Harris ticket? If Donnie* gives Mikey Dense the heave ho in favor of Nikki Haley, Senator Harris would be ideal for caging the opportunist Haley in all debates. Unbelievable that Senator Warren is facing misogyny in ALL 50 states.
8Funny how one rule got changed just 24 hours after a $250k donation to the DNC materialized.
9OT – 65,000 diehard fans in attendance today!
Everyone here would have arrived at this thought sooner or later. Life is going to change, bigly.
Edit: One Florida coronavirus case hits close to Pirates spring training home.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced on Sunday night that two people in his state have tested positive for the coronavirus, and one is from Manatee County, where the Pirates are currently holding spring training.
Bradenton, where both Pirate City and LECOM Park are located, is one of several cities in Manatee County, along with Anna Maria, Bradenton Beach, Holmes Beach and Palmetto.
In addition to announcing news conferences Monday in Tampa and Miami, DeSantis directed Surgeon General Scott Rivkees to declare a public health emergency.
The Pirates could not be reached for comment, although there’s no reason to believe they’re affected more than anybody else in Manatee County.
https://www.post-gazette.com/news/health/2020/03/01/coronavirus-Florida-cases-Pirates-spring-training-Manatee-County-Bradenton/stories/202003010232
10The Corporate Donor class has anointed Biden as the chosen one just as Hillary was last election. The machinations that took place prior to yesterday’s vote has DNC fingerprints all over it I know that is how politics is played, but I hope it turns out better than last time. However, I fear Trump and the noise machine will make mincemeat out of Biden’s obvious cognitive decline. As Charlie Pierce describes it, Joe’s speeches resemble an AM car radio set to scan. Progressives will need to suck it up once again, because there is no alternative. They could try to start a third party in the future, but there is no way either of the existing parties will allow that to succeed.
11My BIG concern is reading posts made on the absolutely correct FaceBook are hinting they are going to vote third party because they are angry with the democrats. Here is my conspiracy theory – Bernie may have been a Putin pawn in 2016 and now. His followers (I won’t go so far as accuse them of being a cult) will disrupt the election again by not voting trumputin out by either not voting or third party someone. I am really sickened today. While most Democrats would vote for a pile of mud over trumputin, these people are jumping off the ship. We are going down.
12I am beyond disappointed that the next POTUS is (almost certainly) going to be an old white man. I am irked, and someone (somewhere) wrote what I feel to be the best potential reason Sen. Warren isn’t better supported: She will NOT back down. She will NOT give up. And the forces that be might be able to hog tie Bernie with the Congress, but Warren will just drive everyone crazy till stuff gets done.
I am also irked because the country keeps trying to pilfer our Senators. But I want to give credit where it’s due: Sen. Warren has a plan, and it’s not one that will leave the status quo…
13Biden/Warren would be fine, especially if Biden croaks or crashes.
14A lot of people are arguing over count totals. Was looking for a delegate tracker. This is one you might want to see. Updates as the primary continues.
NPR and the Associated Press are keeping track of who has the most delegates throughout the primary season. At the Democratic National Convention in July, those delegates will choose a nominee for the party.
15https://www.npr.org/2020/02/10/799979293/how-many-delegates-do-the-2020-presidential-democratic-candidates-have
Old Fart @13, you’ve provided one of the more reasonable explanations as to why Senator Warren’s campaign didn’t generate more enthusiasm. But losing the primary vote in MA? Would say ageism, but both Bernie and Joe would negate that theory. Sexism or misogyny? Really. If ever there was a time to elect a woman she would be “the one” as in one of the best; evuh. Senators Harris was also a good candidate. One of the dumbest negative things we ever heard said about Senator Kamala Harris was that she was too young. loll yeah That was nearly 2 years ago when the lady was 53ish. Of all the possible cabinet names mentioned, Senator Harris would be our choice as AG to sink some serious teeth into Donnie*.
16@Jane & PKM, #16,
My personal point of view on MA, some of us voted our heart… for her. Others looked at the prospect of 4 more years of the ending of our nation, and did what they thought to be most pragmatic. And the Bernie supporters are truly tired of the way things are with guns, bankruptcies from medical care, corporations that get away with poisoning/addicting/robbing our citizens, and want change.
I shall support the Dem nominee with all I’ve got, whomever it is. I truly believe this is the result of Boomers not reigning in the excesses of those who exploit the Law by skirting the letter to enrich themselves. Greed was never good, but it is a great motivator to allow amoral behavior. And I can’t see much else was required to get us where we are today…
17I’d like to point out that while Bernie Gideon mayor by 12 votes, he did such a good job they elected him in a landslide in his second term!
18Folks, don’t believe all the crap you see, especially on Facebook, about “Bernie Bros”. Russia is heavily pushing any “news” that will disrupt and divide the US, and the Republican Party is pumping money into fake accounts on Twitter, Imgur, and Facebook. I know a lot of the Bernie supporters around here, and all of them are puzzled by this sudden emergence of stories about radical “Bernie or nobody” people.
There may be one or two such critters, but my money is on most of the noise being churned out from Moscow and whatever rathole the Republicans inhabit.
For what it’s worth, for weeks the local Bernie group has had arguments about who to support if Sanders is sunk. And about 2/3 say Warren, with most of the remaining ones for Yang and Harris (before they pulled the plug). Not a one of them is talking third party votes.
BTW, here is a list of 796 allegedly-local news sources on the Web that are actually sock puppets:
https://github.com/MassMove/AttackVectors/blob/master/LocalJournals/sites.csv
If you want to actually download the listings as CSV files, go to https://github.com/MassMove/AttackVectors and select “clone or download” and then “download zip”. The list has been created in a couple of hackathons, and the creators have been careful to not sweep up any valid news sources.
The largest (but not the only) source of funding for is Parscale: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/03/the-2020-disinformation-war/605530/
19Agree with every word (and the punctuation). And the comments prove you right-er.
20There is one person mainly responsible for Biden’s sudden turn-
21around: Democratic South Carolina Rep. Jim Clyburn. His amazing speech the night before the South Carolina primary, cemented the African Americans to vote solidly and give Biden
an impressive win. That win spread through 10 states with the
Black and Minority vote carrying him through.
The DNC had no part in Biden’s victory, the voters did.
Sanders has never had the rapport with the black community that Biden has and hat made the big difference. If the voters choose Biden, Bernie’s supporters owe it to our country to vote for him. Holding out again this time, with no chance to beat Trump, can only hurt our democracy.
Maryelle – I’d amend your last sentence to “can only kill our democracy.”
22Amen!
23Maryelle,
24Agreed that Clyburn’s endorsement changed everything. Biden was on the ropes and he came to his friend’s rescue. Everyone loves a winner as is evident by the huge number of people who made up their minds in the past couple of days before Super Tuesday. However, I still think the directive went out from the Clinton/Obama wing of the party that it was time for Buttigieg, Klobuchar, and Steyer to stand down and to endorse Biden before Super Tuesday. Note the rash of endorsements Biden received after winning South Carolina. I believe the DNC is very much behind what happened between South Carolina and Super Tuesday. It was also the DNC which allowed Bloomberg to buy his way into a debate because he was a possible stopgap in case Biden imploded.
Bernie still has a chance, but the deck is stacked against him. And even though I am a Bernie supporter, I will vote for Biden if it comes to that just as I voted for Hillary in 2016. If Bernie does get the nomination, I doubt he would receive the support of the Democratic Party leadership. They would rather have 4 more years of Trump than relinquish any amount of control of the party and that access to the same corporate cash the Republicans are chasing.
@Mark 24
25“I still think” – got any evidence for that?
I still think that people – even D moderates – can make up their own minds. Maybe Amy, Pete, etc. remembered how none of the Republican clown car would drop out in 2015-16, enabling trump’s hostile takeover.
@maryelle #21 & @Mark #24,
The way I heard it, it was Emily Clyburn who got the turn around for Biden…
26Msb,
No evidence – maybe just idle speculation. Yes, people can make up their own minds and they should vote for whomever they think can win. However, Klobuchar and Mayor Pete were the Sanders attack dogs in the last debate, and helped to change many minds with their quick exits and endorsements. The timing seems a little fishy, but again no direct evidence. Of course, I think Sanders shot himself in the foot with his defense of Fidel Castro and that is a road too far for a lot of people.
27In case anybody forgets, Tulsi Gabbord is still in this race and she has been disappeared by the party and the media. Under previous DNC rules, she should be allowed to participate in the next debate given that she won a delegate in American Somoa. Guess what?- The DNC has declared that they are changing the parameters to exclude her. Why are they so afraid of her? Why won’t they let alternative voices in the Big Tent party? She is certainly not my choice, but someone who speaks with an antiwar message is not welcome at the table that is owned by the donors to the party.
I am on board with any alternative to Trump. I just hope the party has chosen wisely and can get out the vote. The future of this country hinges upon that happening.
Old Fart, I stand corrected. The tears that came to his eyes and voice when he invoked her name touched us all.
28