How much has changed in only one week!
A week ago, Biden was counted out and had almost run out of money.
Then came South Carolina, and African American voters picked Biden and turned him into a top contender. Endorsements by Klobuchar, Buttigieg, and Beto quickly buoyed Biden’s campaign.
Michael Bloomberg, the only open supporter of charter schools, was routed, despite spending more than all the other candidates put together. To everyone’s surprise, voters ignored Bloomberg’s effort to outspend everyone else, to open more offices and hire more staff. The nomination was not for sale. He did win America Samoa. But it’s only a matter of time—hours or days—until he drops out. He is no longer a factor. Now let’s see if he follows through with his pledge to support the Democratic nominee and to spend big money to match the Republican money juggernaut.
Trump doesn’t want to face Biden in November. He made that clear when he twisted the arm of the president of Ukraine to dig up dirt on Biden. He appealed publicly to China to find dirt on Biden.
I know that Sanders supports public schools. I hope that Biden doesn’t revive the Obama approach to education. Biden does support unions and recognizes that they built the middle class.
The election is not over. Warren remains but it’s hard to see how she survives after losing her home state. It’s come down to Sanders and Biden. I will gladly support either one.
Now we have to start looking at down ticket races because whoever is the nominee has to be a positive force for the democratic candidates. Not only will the candidate be campaigning for himself (sorry, Elizabeth) but for every other democrat. Obviously, our main focus will have to be on defeating Trump and all of his minions who are up for election.
Perfect summation. Love your blog so much!!!
Anyone realize that the only thing that can save the Republican Party from itself is a huge Democratic Party win? That means all the way down ballot.
Blue tsunami.
Yes. Given enough time, the Repugnican Party will die of self-inflicted wounds. Kind of like some percentage of the gun owners who vote for them.
“Then came South Carolina, and African American voters picked Biden and turned him into a top contender.”
And they picked him because of the endorsement of Biden by Jim Clyburn. I think endorsements should be forbidden. They encourage follower mentality instead of letting people make up their own minds. Third parties tell huge masses of people how to vote.
The main thing is to get rid of Trump. I prefer Bernie who has a definite path to make the middle class and the poor thrive. People are not being made aware of his policies OR they believe the propaganda network spouted by Fox, that, “We can’t afford Medicare for All.” That is nonsense but enough people believe whatever Faux says.
We’ve seen how moderates fair. Look at what Hillary achieved. Polls were screeching that she was the sure winner.
If the media would give Bernie as much free publicity as it gave Trump, Bernie would be the forerunner. Corporations do not want Bernie and there are all sorts of statements regarding how Bernie would never beat Trump. Repeat anything often enough and sure enough, it becomes a ‘fact’.
……………………………………….
Bernie or Biden?
By Robert Reich, Robert Reich’s Blog
03 March 20
As the Democratic Party’s “moderate” (or shall we say “establishment”) wing coalesces around Joe Biden to stop Bernie, the primary contest is starting to look a lot like 2016, when the same wing rallied around Hillary Clinton.
Today Amy Klobuchar quit the race to endorse Biden. Pete Buttigieg is endorsing Biden, too. As the New York Times’s David Leonhardt puts it in his column today, “if you’re a Democrat who doesn’t want Bernie Sanders to be the party’s nominee, your choice is now clear: you should vote for Joe Biden.”
But suppose you’re a Democrat who doesn’t want Donald Trump to have a second term? Suppose you’re a Democrat who suspects that Trump got elected in the first place because he exploited a deep sense of betrayal felt by tens of millions of Americans whose wages haven’t budged in 40 years and who know the system is rigged for the benefit of those at the top? Do you really vote for Joe Biden?
I don’t think so.
What do you think?
“the primary contest is starting to look a lot like 2016, when the same wing rallied around Hillary Clinton.”
Except, Biden’t brain way passed its prime, unlike Hillary’s.
Yep.
I totally agree. Biden is nowhere near as strong as Sanders on anti-corruption and destroying the power of money and all it’s backroom influence we suffer under. Putting the haters aside, the knowledge of the citizenry that the government works primarily for the rich and corporations is what drove many to Dumpsterfire whom voters wanted to go to D.C. and break things, as if that were an actual solution. Americans are done with not having a seat at the table and Dumpsterfire’s supporters wrongly think he has confronted that.
Trump broke lots of things. Environmental Protection, national parks, healthcare.
I’m not a big Biden fan- I’ve been a Democrat for decades so I’m familiar with his work in Congress and he has made some very bad decisions in terms of what he has supported as a senator. But I’ll vote for him if he wins the primary, and I think he will win.
I don’t think it matters too much what they say when they are running- what matters with a President is who they hire. I hope Biden hires someone who values public schools and public school students. That’s all I ask. I would like to have someone in the federal government who actually intends to work on behalf of the 90% of students who attend public schools instead of “reinventing” schools or “disrupting” schools or privatizing schools. I don’t think that’s an unreasonable request. It’s not flashy but it’s what we need. Public school students need an advocate instead of a critic.
“I hope Biden hires someone who values public schools and public school students.”
The likelihood of that is less than 20%. But at least he may listen to ACLU and stop federal support for charter schools. But it’s doubtful, he’d speak up against the school accountability madness. Testing kids to death would continue for another 4 years.
Máté Wierdl: I was just reading, and posting, comments on WaPo. One person was against Bernie because he was a commie.
Quote: “Bernie is a Communist through and through. Name one time he criticized any communist or collectivist economic system. ONE. There are none.”
This is why we have ignorants running this country.
Corporate media favored the neoliberal, Biden. As example, Joe is cheered on by the bi-partisan, “diverse”, yet -all wealthy, co-hosts of the View and by Chuck Todd.
The future is predictable- the 2024 presidential election will feature another Trump-like man who exploits the hatreds born out of income inequality.
If Biden manages to win the general, 2024’s Republican candidate is going to be even worse than Trump. I know most people on this board don’t think that’s possible, but it is.
Biden’s VP will win the 2024 election, Linda. 🙂
Biden is 77. There won’t be a second term. The choice of VP is crucial.
It is true, Dienne, that every day our government spends neglecting the needs of working people in favor of Wall Street investors and corporate executives brings us closer to having more xenophobic demagogues successfully run for public office. Absolutely true.
“The future is predictable- the 2024 presidential election will feature another Trump-like man who exploits the hatreds born out of income inequality.”
That’s not going to happen. 🙂
Three Americans have wealth equivalent to 150 million Americans. Median income is about $60,000. Healthcare for a family of 4 is about $28,000. The Fed. drastically lowered already low interest rates in anticipation of the financial crisis from the corona virus in order to prop up a fragile economy.
If Biden chooses a woman as V.P., do you think there are enough among the less than 60% of voters who aren’t in Trump’s camp who will vote for a woman in the next go round?
I just hope Biden doesn’t bring back the Obama education team.
I’m pleased that he wants to increase funding for low income public schools. All of the Democrats promised to increase funding for low income public schools, although it got no attention because the only thing that ever gets covered are charters and vouchers.
And of course a lot of charters ARE low income schools, so they’ll get an increase in funding too.
“Trump doesn’t want to face Biden in November.”
That’s crazy talk. Trump is going to have a field day with Biden. His history of racism (anti-busing, support for Clinton’s crime bill), his “Creepy Uncle Joe history, his corruption history (does anyone else remember the savings and loan scandal? and how much are you prepared to hear about Hunter Biden?), his support for Wall Street (credit card bill), and now his constant gaffes and misstatements.
And, no, it’s not going to matter that most of that also applies to Trump. Trump has a flair for calling out hypocrisy in his opponents, since he’s so blatantly disgusting himself. Trump will turn Biden into even more of a joke than he already is.
There’s not going to be enough of the independents, young people, minorities and other marginalized groups willing to turn out for Biden (who has promised that nothing will change). Even those who turn out won’t donate, volunteer or organize.
I fear Trump has just won his second term.
You may be right but, I think Biden will win in spite of himself and his record.
With men like Clyburn endorsing the same candidate that Never- Trump Republicans and the wealthy Bloomberg will likely back, the future of the country is ordained.
Biden mentioned support for public education yesterday. I hope he remembers what was said when the charter lobby comes knocking on his door.
Texas, Minnesota, and even Massachusetts, fair and square. Time to congratulate the 46th president, Joe Biden. Also time get word to him soon and warn him of what a DFER secretary of education would do to destroy our country and his legacy. I believe in Bernie’s revolution, and I know that it will continue to build, just not through the White House. Go Joe.
Most germaine comment of all.
BLOOMBERG IS OUT and is endorsing Biden.
I LOVE good news. All we needed is one more billionaire who can purchase democracy to go the way he wants.
……………………
Bloomberg drops out after terrible Super Tuesday
Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg dropped out of the 2020 race after a disappointing performance on Super Tuesday despite spending hundreds of millions of dollars in advertisements.
I agree with all of the worries about Biden’s age, etc., and I am extremely sympathetic about many of the points that Sanders makes (but NOT legalizing marijuana – too many stoned kids in school already; we don’t need more brain-numbing substances easily available regardless of arguments that it is “safer than alcohol” – marijuana now is far stronger than in the 60s and there are concerns about the effects of this).
The next administration has to make the tax code more progressive and tackle income inequality as a top priority in order to have the funds to tackle the numerous other social problems that we are all painfully aware of. Even many billionaires are aware of that!! Bernie, unfortunately, will generate opposition from moderate to conservative leaning people around the country. THE VOTE LAST NIGHT IS A BIG INDICATOR OF THAT – “THE FIX” is not “in;” this is the reality in this country. People across the country rallied to Biden as a reaction AGAINST Bernie. Despite all of the arguments about how Europe does all of these things better than us (a lot of which I agree with), this is not Europe!!! Over the years I have grown used to resigning myself to not being in the political majority in this country. But we have such an existential threat in Trump that we can not afford at this point to just grab all of our marbles and go home in protest that we “didn’t get our way.”
The 400 wealthy families who run the U.S. won’t allow Biden to address concentration of wealth.
Biden, like Obama, will give men like Bill Gates, Medals of Freedom.
It’s a long way until November and our country is in a volatile situation. I don’t think Biden is the certain candidate yet – seems to me some deus ex machina could still change what looks like a certain outcome this morning.
Both anti-Trump Republicans and establishment Dems support Biden, what could possibly go wrong for Americans who haven’t seen wage increases in decades, who are bankrupted by one medical emergency, who carry more personal debt than Russians, whose family medical expenses equal almost 50% of median income, who, on average have a paltry amount saved for retirement, who include a significant portion of people priced out of housing? Bi-partisanship…
But, at least we can hope that Biden won’t give further power to the theocracy, he won’t work for Putin and he won’t be anti-science.
Biden needs to be made to understand that Arne Duncan was the gateway drug that gave us Betsy DeVoid. He also MUST accept that Obama made a massive mistake in choosing Duncan over the most qualified person on his ed transition team, Linda Darling-Hammond, and that saying this will win over red state teachers who despise reform just as blue state teachers do. That’s a fine place to start rebuilding the national unity that Dumpsterfire has wrecked. If Biden foolishly defends Obama on this point then we will have 4 more years of the worst president in the history of America. Here’s the question for Biden: would he put the same clueless billionaire boys club in charge of the day to day combat operations of our military? If not, then why let them have any say in education policy, a thing they are equally anti-qualified for.
True.
Bloomberg just sent this out. [I DID NOT give him any support. I answered surveys from his team and always put that he’s make a below average candidate. ]
…………………………….
I couldn’t be more grateful for the support you’ve given our campaign — and I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart. In just a few months, we built an incredible team whose hard work lifted us into contention. Yesterday, we won nearly two million votes, thanks to your involvement and help. But we did not achieve all that we had hoped to.
Three months ago, I entered the race for President to defeat Donald Trump. Today, I am leaving the race for the same reason: to defeat Donald Trump — because it is clear to me that staying in would make achieving that goal more difficult.
I’m a believer in using data to inform decisions. After yesterday’s results, the delegate math has become virtually impossible — and a viable path to the nomination no longer exists. But I remain clear-eyed about my overriding objective: victory in November. Not for me, but for our country. And so while I will not be the nominee, I will not walk away from the most important political fight of my life.
I’ve always believed that defeating Donald Trump starts with uniting behind the candidate with the best shot to do it. After yesterday’s vote, it is clear that candidate is my friend and a great American, Joe Biden.
I’ve known Joe for a very long time. I know his decency, his honesty, and his commitment to the issues that are so important to our country — including gun safety, health care, climate change, and good jobs.
I’ve had the chance to work with Joe on those issues over the years, and Joe has fought for working people his whole life. Today I am glad to endorse him — and I will work to make him the next President of the United States.
I am immensely proud of the campaign we ran, the issues we raised, and the sweeping and achievable plans we proposed — including our Greenwood Initiative to right historic wrongs, fight racial inequality, and make the promise of equal opportunity real for the Black communities that have endured centuries of exploitation and discrimination. That work is fundamental to the future of our country — and to the more perfect union that each generation is called to build.
I am deeply grateful to all the Americans who voted for me — and to our incredibly dedicated staff and volunteers all around the country, who knocked on more than two million doors and held 12 million voter conversations, in an incredibly short amount of time. No one outworked our team, and I couldn’t be prouder of everyone who was part of it. And I will be forever grateful to all the mayors, local and state legislators, Members of Congress and many others who believed in me, endorsed my candidacy, and worked hard to unite voters around our vision. Your support and trust sustained me, and I look forward to working with you in the months and years ahead.
We made our campaign slogan a clear, simple promise: Mike will get it done. And I intend to keep working on the “it.” I will continue to work for sensible, common sense policy solutions that can get done. That includes passing gun safety laws that save lives. Fighting climate change. Improving health care. Making college more accessible and affordable. Creating economic opportunity for all. And helping mayors and local leaders across the country who are doing so much important work on all of these issues.
The past few months have been some of the most inspiring of my life, and I want to thank the tens of thousands of Americans, from Maine to California, whom I was privileged to meet — and who every day, with their voices and their ideas, made this campaign such a powerful experience. And I am intent on making it a lasting experience: I want my supporters to stay engaged, stay active and stay committed to our issues. I will be right there with you. And together, we will get it done.
Mike
We can hope that Biden won’t be beholden to Bloomberg. Voter apathy and hostility toward Mike, means he didn’t deliver any chips for Biden at this point. Whether Bloomberg will give Biden money and steers his fellow Republicans’ votes Democratic, remains to be seen.
Biden owes Bloomberg nothing. Bloomberg entered the race on the assumption that Biden was not able to win. He was hoping to pick up Biden’s supporters.
It’s good news that voters were not influenced to a large degree by the hundreds of millions Bloomberg poured into his campaign.
“I hope that Biden doesn’t revive the Obama approach to education.”
Fool me once shame on me, fool me twice. . . . . .
And that is what a Biden presidency would be, just like the Obomber’s.
But he won’t even get there if nominated.
And if one listens to my political presidential predictions one is a fool. I never thought this country would elect Saint Unca Ronnie, Georgie the Least or the tRump.
Further Scenes from the Ship of State
MATE: There’s a hole in the hull, Cap’n Sir. Lots of water rushing in below decks. We need to try to repair the hull and ready the lifeboats!
CAPTAIN: I don’t think the crew is ready for that kind of radical solution. Why don’t we just calm down and polish the brightwork in the fo’c’s’le? That’s what we did when I was First Mate on The Illusion under Captain O’Toole.
The problem is that most voters did not interpret what Bernie was saying as “we need to try to repair the hull and ready the lifeboats”. They interpreted it as Bernie saying “we’re going to abandon this sinking ship right now and jump on the new one that I promise you is coming and will be much better even if I don’t know how to pay for it.” I would never characterize Bernie’s plans that way, but he did not do a great job of explaining it.
I think “Captain Warren” is probably perceived more as “We need to try to repair the hull and ready the lifeboats!”
And “Captain Biden and Buttigieg and Klobuchar” are “let’s keep bailing and bailing and buy more pumps and give towels and dry clothes to the people getting wet.”
“Captain Bloomberg” is “Why don’t we just calm down and polish the brightwork in the fo’c’s’le….”
Captain Trump and the Republicans would say: “Let’s make the hole even bigger because that helps our billionaire pals get even richer and we can stay in power by getting progressives to blame the DNC for why the hole is so big!”
A good friend who is also a very bright fellow recently wrote of FB that Trump wasn’t stupid but was just vile. Here, another in the thousands and thousands of pieces of evidence to the contrary:
TRUMP: Over the last long period of time, the flu, the common flu — you know this, right? From 27,000 to 70,000 people get infected and many people die. Think of it — 27,000. You lose 27,000 people to the common flu. It can be much more. One year was much higher than the 70,000 number. Those people die. So when you lose 27,000 people a year. Nobody knew that. I didn’t know that. Three, four weeks ago, I was sitting down, I said, ‘What do we lose with the regular flu?‘ They said about 27,000 minimum. Goes up to 70, sometimes even 80, one year it went up to 100,000 people. I said nobody told me that. Nobody knows that.
This guy is a moron.
So, how clueless do you have to be, how ignorant, how out of touch with what’s gone on the world over your entire lifetime not to know that millions get the flu each year and that tens of thousands die? Well, you have to be as uninformed and just plain dumb as Trump is.
Stats from the CDC: “[In the U.S.,] influenza has resulted in between 9 million – 45 million illnesses, between 140,000 – 810,000 hospitalizations and between 12,000 – 61,000 deaths annually since 2010.”
Oh, sure. Bernie has been suggesting this totally crazy, untried, wild-eyed, alternative proposal of universal national heatlhcare, you know, like the systems of those totally crazy people in Australia, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, the Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom, not to mention Australia, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, the Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom, not to mention Austria, Belgium, Japan, and Spain, which have almost universal coverage, with only 2 percent or so of the population not covered by the national plan. And “even if you don’;t know how to pay for it”? Really? Our system costs TWICE PER CAPITA what the average is in the OECD.
What we need is a spreadsheet of the cost of every program Bernie is proposing and where the money to pay for it is coming from. It is really hard to sort through all of his proposals that seem to be mostly paid for by taxing the corresponding industries and wealthy Americans. I fall in neither category although if my husband and I ever get to retire, it will depend on money we have squirreled away in the evil stock market. I did notice that maybe Bernie would eliminate the windfall provision in Social Security that cuts my benefits by 2/3 because I get a small pension as a former (late career) public school teacher. I would love to have a single payer medical system; I am scared to death of one of us having a catastrophic illness that would leave one or both of us with few resources. I am all for reinstating the Glass Steagall Act. I would like my community bank back that wouldn’t be trying to suck every last dime out of me for the “services” they provide. I would love to have the student loan debt we still carry after helping four kids through college forgiven. As you can see, I can work down the list of Bernie’s proposals and support each one in theory, but I want to know how he plans to achieve all of this, especially if he does not have the congressional support to back him. Realistically, he will have four years; he’s too old for more than one term, and he will not go into office with the support he needs in Congress.
Here’s a rough spreadsheet, Speduktr:
US per capita healthcare spending, 2016: $10,348, total of $3.3 trillion
OECD per capita healthcare spending, 2018 (36 countries): $4,069
U.S. cost if it spent what is spent what the OECD countries spend: 1.287 trillion
Savings if U.S. had a national program like those in the OECD: 2.013 trillion annually
Healthcare is doable, but Bernie’s plans go far beyond healthcare. In the four years he will/would have, he may be able to significantly move the bar, but he does not have a magic wand that will allow him to take down the insurance industry and revamp the pharmaceutical industry and all the affiliated businesses that service the healthcare industry. Even so, he could accomplish quite a bit
I cut myself off somehow. (Don’t push TAB by accident.) My point is that his plans go far beyond a total revamp of the way healthcare is delivered (or not too often). He has extensive plans for a revamp of the financial industry, taxes, defense, climate change,… Are his plans dependent on the economy continuing to generate the same amount of wealth? Does he think it will just get redistributed? I don’t know the answer to these questions or even have a good guess. I read an opinion piece this morning in the Chicago Tribune by an older black woman. She praised Bernie’s vision but questioned the execution. She essentially said that older Americans know what hard work it takes to achieve significant change. It can be done just not in four years. Bernie doesn’t have the time to slog and he doesn’t seem to allow for incremental systemic change over time.
So, we could save more than half the current cost of our healthcare by switching to a national system like those in the OECD.
In other words, we are ALREADY PAYING FOR IT TWICE!!!!!!
I agree with you about Medicare for All – but I wish Bernie (and Warren) had done a better job of explaining it. Without properly explaining it, why not support a candidate who runs on “Medicare for All who want it”? The problem is that neither Bernie nor Warren turned to the people criticizing Medicare for All to challenge them on questions they would have had a hard time answering (especially if Bernie and Warren had done what they did to Bloomberg and kept pointing out that his answers were non-responsive). They stuck to their talking points but those weren’t challenging the very nature of the
questions they were being asked.
You think “Medicare for All who want it” is a good idea, so explain how it works? Healthy people who can purchase inexpensive insurance on the private market should continue to do so, and as soon as they get sick and learn their private health insurance is dumping them, they automatically get free Medicare that will cover everything and taxpayers pick up the entire cost of their health insurance? How does that save taxpayers money if taxpayers “only” have to pay for free health insurance for the sickest Americans through higher taxes and those Americans will also pay additional premiums to private health insurance companies who will insure them until they get too sick, at which point they can be dumped into Medicare for All? Amy Klobuchar, how is your “Medicare for All who Want it” going to be paid when it simply incentivizes private health insurance companies to dump the sickest patients as soon as they need expensive healthcare? Shouldn’t the profit from insuring the healthiest Americans be spent on the healthcare needed by Americans when they get sick instead of making private health care executives multi millionaires?
There was so much wasted time spent on healthcare in the debates without touching on the most important issues! The Supreme Court is about to hear a case regarding the individual mandate. Those mandates were designed for exactly the reason that “Medicare for All who want it” is so problematic. A system that is only for the sickest Americans that private insurance companies don’t want to insure allows private insurance companies to profit and costs an enormous amount of money.
Medicare worked because every working American paid a tax from when they started working. It would never work if “only the people who wanted to opt in to Medicare paid that tax”. When Medicare started, Americans understood that — presumably because its supporters were able to explain why a “forced tax” for Medicare that was paid by 18 year old minimum wage workers who would see no benefits for almost 50 years actually became totally popular!!! So popular that even Trump voters say “keep your government hands off my Medicare”!
But we need an “explainer in chief” like Bill Clinton, who was actually often superb at making those connections that for some reason today’s progressives cannot seem to make.
In my opinion, the best “explainer in chief” of progressive policies that I have seen since Bill Clinton is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. I don’t know that she has done that for Bernie’s Medicare-for-All plan, but I think if she spent some time considering what it is that voters are worried about and how the question of “what will it cost” is very misleading, she could do so.
Working Americans pay a Medicare tax for nearly 50 years until they actually benefit from it. But Americans SEE the benefits of that. Someone needs to better explain to them how Medicare for All would really work.
I think you are right, nycpsp. AOC is a very good explainer. Bernie definitely needs more good explainers.
I agree with you, NYC Parent, that Bernie has not done a good job of explaining the economics of this. He has not explained, for example, what I explain above. Politicians are afraid to give people even a little (very little) math.
And, ofc, NYC Parent, you are absolutely right about this problem with “Medicare for All Who Want It.” There are other problems as well. Maintaining private insurance, with various entities negotiating prices with providers, also drives up healthcare costs.
Yet another reason against early voting. Information out that people who had voted for Buttigieg & Klobuchar went back to their polling places yesterday, & wanted to change their vote. No can do. I feel badly for them, especially as it may have affected many first-time voters.
So–a tip for the rest of the states preparing for their primaries:
VOTE ON ELECTION DAY!!!
(Besides–paper is safer &, then, w/Covid-19, it’s best not to touch the touchscreens.)
retiredbutmissthekids: “Besides–paper is safer &, then, w/Covid-19, it’s best not to touch the touchscreens.”
Indiana always uses Apple iPads, both for early voting and on election day. Voter ID is required. Most people show drivers licenses. We all know that there are many illegal fraudulent voters in Indiana. [They must all, in the past, have voted for Republicans. Gerrymandering keeps Democrats from gaining power.] I remember one voter having a voter ID card that is provided by the DMV. This is a way to keep people from voting…both the poor, the ill and college kids.
I agree! People should vote on election day when they have as much information as they can get.
And don’t get me started on the touch screen technology! All that technology is vulnerable to hacking.
Dilbert on voting machines.
https://dilbert.com/strip/2016-05-01
That was my reaction, too, rbmtk. So much changed so fast that a lot of early voters saw their votes become irrelevant. Sometimes I am actually glad that I am a procrastinator.
Imagine how it feels to be in NY and sit there powerless while other states basically decide who is the nominee.
Sometimes I wonder if it wouldn’t be better to just have a national primary day, even though I understand how that could also create chaos. Maybe a national primary day, top 3 vote getters in a runoff.
NYC public school parent: Indiana doesn’t have its primary voting until May 5. I feel that Indiana’s voting doesn’t matter. I’m sure this red state will once again believe in the ‘magical wonder of Trump, the magnificent’.
Humans are a weird species. Each year, we spend almost two trillion dollars, worldwide, on military systems designed to kill one another intentionally. At the same time, we spend almost nothing on pandemic preparedness and response. For example, the Trump maladministration dismantled the pandemic response team in the now Whiter House and each year has proposed budgets significantly cutting funding to the CDC. At the same time, it has vastly increased military spending.
Such a reaction has been typical even though, FOR DECADES NOW, SCIENTISTS AND SOME PUNDITS, SUCH AS NICK BOSTROM AND BILL GATES, HAVE BEEN WARNING THAT A PANDEMIC IS LIKELY.
Now, the leaders of the Trumpster fire that is our government have been downplaying the extend of the COVID-19 problem even as scientists worldwide have been reporting that its becoming, quite rapidly, a pandemic is highly likely. A WHO official just said that it’s likely that 60 percent of the world population will contract the disease. So far, it looks as though about 2 percent of those who contract it die. That’s 93.6 million people. in the U.S., under that scenario, there would be about 4 million deaths (3.972 million).
One of the biggest threats from COVID-19 in the U.S. is the lack of universal, federally mandated, paid sick leave. This will ensure rapid, widespread transmission, as will our reluctance to mandate calling off conferences and sports events and closing schools.
When the President and Congress require paid sick leave and set aside funds to reimburse small businesses for such sick leave, then I will believe that they are serious about combating this. Otherwise, their response is a joke.
And where do these diseases originate? Typically, they cross over from animals. About 50 years ago, people started widely using factory farming (confined animal feeding operations, or CAFOs); 80 percent of antibiotics created by humans are given to animals in such operations. As a result of this widespread use, bacterial diseases have been mutating so that they can survive the antibiotics, leading to antibiotic resistance in humans. Every CAFO is a petri dish for breeding and rapidly transmitting the next pandemic disease pathogen.
Bob Shepherd: I’m not sure whether or not this law passed in Indiana. [I think it did.] Business profits mean more than animals or people. I very rarely eat meat since most cows are fed antibiotics to keep them from getting sick. Many cows, raised in total filth, receive frequent antibiotics not only to prevent infections but to enable faster growth with less food.
The World Health Organization (WHO) calls antibiotic resistance one of the biggest threats to global health, food security and development today. The WHO also points out that serious infections like pneumonia, tuberculosis and salmonella are now becoming challenging to treat.
………………………………
Indiana wants to make exposing animal abuse illegal
Apr 26, 2013
The state of Indiana is fighting to make it a crime to secretly record the practices of businesses and share the footage with the intent to put the company in a bad light. Despite the numerous cases of video showcasing animal mistreatment on farms being leaked to the media, state lawmakers are putting a controversial “ag-gag” bill back on the table to protect these establishments . RT’s Margaret Howell explains the proposed legislation.
Green is the new red. Many states have passed such laws in response to animal advocates going undercover in the animal torture operations that people call farms and filming there.
Bob Shepherd: Don’t Republicans/Trump also need to breath clean air and drink clean water? This was just posted as ‘news’ from the WH:
“Cutting red tape is tough. President Trump deserves praise for his latest effort, which should end the choke hold that the environmental movement has placed on economic growth and jobs. Ironically, the reforms proposed by Trump must now clear a unique hurdle: the additional red tape which surrounds every effort to change existing regulations,” Ernest Istook writes in the Washington Examiner.
Trump is a stupid and ignorant tool. The people around him are vandals.
And now, live from the common room of Sunnyvale Retirement Home, where we’re “cheery as a cherry,” the 2020 Presidential Debates between Donald “J. for Jabba” the Trump and Status Quo Joe Biden, “The Banker’s Friend.” During the debate, the candidates will be restricted to one scoop of green Jello apiece.
I’m 65 years old. And even at the beginning of this stage of my life (I hope it’s just the beginning!), I’ve noticed that I am slipping. I know more about the rules of English grammar, usage, and mechanics than I ever did. I’m practically a walking encyclopedia, there. But I’m MUCH more likely, now, to have typos in my writing, so I have to proofread more closely. I was always somewhat absent minded, but this tendency has increased. I’ve taken to setting a timer every time I put something on the stove because I have a pronounced tendency, now, to forget about this entirely. Which is the poem by Yeats that references “Dark Joan,” the fairy who often takes the form of a flock of chickens? In the past, that title would be readily available to me. Now, increasingly, I have to look this kind of thing up. If I turn to math or logic problems of the kind that I used to breeze through, I find that I am much, much slower.
Our elderly are an enormous asset because of their accumulated expertise and, in some cases, wisdom, but there are some jobs, like the Presidency, that aren’t a good fit for them. Our current part-time, cognitively challenged President is an instructive example. He never was the brightest bulb, but look at him now. Oh. My. Lord. Ronald Reagan was senile during his second term. When Howard Baker took over as Chief of Staff at the beginning of Reagan’s second term, one of Reagan’s other advisors (I forget which one) took Baker aside before the first Cabinet meeting and said to him, “Don’t be surprised if the old man isn’t all there.”
The Presidency is an extraordinarily demanding job. A President should be young and resilient enough to handle the pressures of the position, AND he or she should be surrounded by older, highly experienced advisors. I am a Bernie supporter, but his age bothers me. Trump. Biden. Same concern.
But here we are.
The last company I worked for (a billion-dollar-a-year operation) had a passage in its by-laws that required the CEO to step down at 65. I don’t support such provisions for the same reason (among others) that I don’t support third-grade retention–people are on different developmental schedules. Some are in serious decline at 65; some are quite sharp into advanced age. I always marvel at the owner of this blog, who manages to write so well, argue so persuasively, think so clearly, marshal such facts, and keep such a demanding schedule at her age. Hers is the photo I would put on the motivational poster entitled “Listen to your wiser elders.”
But the Presidency? “That is no country for old men,” to quote Yeats in–what was the name of that poem again?–ah, yes, “Sailing to Byzantium.”
But Bob, Trump is a superhuman. He may even be immortal.
Given the massive amounts of Adderall he snorts, he certainly has had a healthy constitution. It’s a wonder he is still slithering about.
Trump is the ‘chosen one’ whom we all can look up to for comfort. God has chosen him to be our leader. He alone can fix anything. He knows more than the World Health Organization about coronavirus. He knows more about EVERYTHING. How blessed we are.
He does have problems expressing himself and he chases women but that can happen to anyone. He loves to golf but my father also wanted to be able to golf. He eats McDonalds but that is the average American food. He lies all the time but who hasn’t lied? He looks horrible in shorts, but who doesn’t after a certain age? He doesn’t read, but who has time to read? He truly cares about ALL Americans. He is doing so much for America. He is great for America.
[I also read comments on other sites.This is a small taste of what they say.]
Rest easily. This creep may get re-elected.
This could get really good!!
Judge demands unredacted Mueller report, questioning Barr’s ‘credibility’
A federal judge on Thursday ordered the Department of Justice to hand over to him a copy of the unredacted Mueller report and accused Attorney General William Barr of misrepresenting its findings in the days before it was submitted to Congress last year.
Judge Reggie B. Walton, a federal district court judge in Washington, said that he could not reconcile Barr’s public comments in April 2019 about the report with the actual findings that Special Counsel Robert Mueller outlined.
This is off topic, but one that is important. Finally the International Criminal Court is investigating US troops for war crimes. The US hides its crimes against humanity. Why else work to demean the International Criminal Court?
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The International Criminal Court ruled that its chief prosecutor can open a wide-ranging investigation of possible war crimes in Afghanistan by the Taliban, Afghan government forces and U.S. troops. The ruling comes despite strong opposition from the United States, which does not recognize the court’s jurisdiction. Afghanistan has also opposed the investigation but is an ICC member state. This will be the first investigation opened by the court involving U.S. troops.
Pompeo says US will take ‘all necessary measures’ to bar war crimes probe of military
Deirdre Shesgreen
USA TODAY
March 5, 2020
WASHINGTON – Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Thursday the Trump administration would take “all necessary measures” to shield U.S. military and other personnel from a war crimes investigation by the International Criminal Court.
The international court, based in the Hague, Netherlands, ruled Thursday that its prosecutors could move forward with an investigation into possible war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by the Taliban, Afghan forces and American military and CIA personnel.
“This is a truly breathtaking action by an unaccountable political institution masquerading as a legal body,” Pompeo said at the State Department.
“It is all the more reckless for this ruling to come just days after the United States signed a historic peace deal on Afghanistan, which is the best chance for peace in a generation,” he said.
U.S. and Taliban negotiators signed an agreement Saturday that could end America’s longest war, although renewed violence in Afghanistan threatens to undermine it…
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2020/03/05/pompeo-says-us-shield-troops-international-war-crimes-probe/4897766002/
US workers must have unions if they are to ever get paid a decent salary. Unfortunately, UAW officials abused that position. This is a disgusting abuse of power.
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Former Union Boss Indicted
Federal officials indicted Gary Jones, the former head of the United Auto Workers, yesterday over allegations he embezzled union funds to support an extravagant personal lifestyle. Jones becomes the highest-ranking union official to face charges as a result of the five-year probe, in which several union officers and executives from Fiat Chrysler have already pleaded guilty. Prosecutors say Jones and other UAW executives set up accounts related to legitimate conferences, from which they then funneled money away for golf outings, luxury items, and other personal expenses. The allegations stretch back to 2010, before Jones’ election as president in 2016, and come in parallel to separate allegations that UAW officials had set up a kickback scheme with companies that supplied materials for union events.
Prosecutors hinted at the possibility of the federal government taking control of the UAW once the cases end.