Saturday, February 29, 2020

Reich: Establishment Dems v. Bernie

As usual he nails it. It's not left v. right but establishment v. anti-establishment. And we're seeing on just what side most of the Dem candidates fall. Reich sees both Bernie and Liz as progressive populists on the anti-side. It's clear that we need to defeat the establishment, not only Repugs but on the Dem side too, if we ever hope to have real representation for we the people.

Bloomberg is bribing the Dem Party

And preparing for his bribes to pay off in a brokered convention. And the Dem Party seems more than willing to accept his bribes and pay him back.

AOC on fake Christians

She said:

"I am tired of communities of faith being weaponized and being mischaracterized because the only time religious freedom is invoked is in the name of bigotry and discrimination. [...] It’s very difficult to sit here and listen to arguments in the long history in this country of using scripture and weaponizing and abusing scripture to justify bigotry. White supremacists have done it, those who justified slavery did it, those who fought against integration did it, and we’re seeing it today. [...] If Christ himself walked through these doors and said what he said thousands of years ago – that we should love our neighbor and our enemy, that we should welcome the stranger, fight for the least of us, that is is easier… for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to get into a kingdom of heaven – he would be maligned as a radical and rejected from these doors."
 

Candidates political compass

Yeah, Sander is "far left" only to a playing field that is far right. If we take the center of this diagram to be the real center (and I don't*), then it seems Bernie and Liz and the only real "centrists" in the Presidential run, meaning the only ones representing the majority of voters on the issues. Which repeated polls bear out, btw.

* As to what is really closer to the majority of voters on the issues I'd argue is much lower and left on the diagram. The problem with such diagrams and framing such as "left" and "right" is that it sets up a false balance in the middle, when in actuality that balance is lower left in a more libertarian socialism. I'd argue this is where the social democracies of the Scandinavian countries are headed and the book Nordic Ideology is pointing (green social liberalism 2.0).


Friday, February 28, 2020

The consequences of private health insurance

Now if we all had low-cost, actual heath care for all it would greatly reduce the spread of disease. Just remember that when you vote, because you're voting for your very life and the lives of your loved ones.


Give the DNC hell about superdelegates

If the Dem Party lets the superdelegates decide a nominee that doesn't have the most votes, and if we don't vote for their corruption, that it's entirely on the DNC for cheating, not we the people. Put the blame where it belongs. If enough of us contact the DNC and let them know we won't stand for their corruption perhaps they'll think twice about it.

My communication with the Party:

If there is a brokered convention and the superdelegates choose someone other than the candidate with the most primary votes then I will NOT vote for that superdelegate choice. Do that and many more will do the same and you will lose the general election. That is, if you really care about winning it.


https://democrats.org/contact-us/

Better than the Old New Deal


Coronavirus PSA from Pence

Courtesy of Colbert. It's funny, but seriously, this joker in charge of a pandemic?

Thursday, February 27, 2020

More from the NYT on a brokered convention

"Jay Jacobs, the New York State Democratic Party chairman and a superdelegate, echoing many others interviewed, said that superdelegates should choose a nominee they believed had the best chance of defeating Mr. Trump if no candidate wins a majority of delegates during the primaries."

"A vast majority of those superdelegates — whose ranks include federal elected officials, former presidents and vice presidents and D.N.C. members — predicted that no candidate would clinch the nomination during the primaries, and that there would be a brokered convention fight in July to choose a nominee."

"In a reflection of the establishment’s wariness about Mr. Sanders, only nine of the 93 superdelegates interviewed said that Mr. Sanders should become the nominee purely on the basis of arriving at the convention with a plurality, if he was short of a majority."

"In recent days, both Mr. Biden and Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts said that Mr. Sanders should not become the nominee if he arrived at the convention short of a delegate majority."

"Representative Veronica Escobar of Texas said that if Mr. Sanders arrived at the convention with 40 percent of the delegates, it wouldn’t be enough to convince her to vote for him on the second ballot."

"The campaigns are already strategizing about how they will handle a protracted convention battle. Superdelegates, too, are brushing up on the rules: Ms. Pelosi invited House Democrats to a meeting at D.N.C. headquarters on Thursday to review the details of the convention process."

Dump leading the way on corona virus

This one is LOL funny.




NYT interviews 93 superdelegates on the convention

And here's the conclusion:

"Dozens of interviews with Democratic establishment leaders this week show that they are not just worried about Mr. Sanders’s candidacy, but are also willing to risk intraparty damage to stop his nomination at the national convention in July if they get the chance. Since Mr. Sanders’s victory in Nevada’s caucuses on Saturday, The Times has interviewed 93 party officials — all of them superdelegates, who could have a say on the nominee at the convention — and found overwhelming opposition to handing the Vermont senator the nomination if he arrived with the most delegates but fell short of a majority."

Krystal and Saager discuss in the video below.

Colbert: Hometown hospitality with Elizabeth Warren

A funny clip. I like how Liz turns it around on Colbert at the end.

Wednesday, February 26, 2020

Hartmann: How to build a middle class

We've done it before and we can do it again. Thom's 3 requirements: Take down the monopolies and re-institute healthy competition; build worker power through unions; re-institute a progressive tax system with a high top rate and an additional wealth tax. Bernie and Liz are the only two that have this agenda. That's why they really need to team up in some capacity in this primary if we want to win, the sooner the better.

Dem Party rigged SC debate audience

This should come as no surprise if you watched the debate and heard the cheers for Gloomberg and the boos when Bernie or Liz went after him. Krystal reports:

The time is now

There are more of us. We are stronger. We will wait no longer.

How charter schools are cheating

If they're so superior then why do they have to take public money away from public schools? That is cheating by making it all the harder for pubic schools to perform and giving charter schools unfair advantage. If charter schools are really superior then let them compete on their own against public schools without this cheating. But that's the thing: Without that cheating they are actually far inferior to public schools and they know it. Hence they cannot compete without cheating. It's just one more way Repugnantans rig the system in their favor because otherwise they are big losers.




Bernie: We might want to listen to the people

CNN does a post-debate Bernie interview. They continue the corporate narrative that Bernie can't win and Bernie continues to tell them to look how we the people are voting instead of their tired narrative that is proving time and again to be wrong. But that's exactly their problem: They ignore we the people. Well we won't be ignored any longer and Bernie will be our servant in the White House.

Toneisha Harris on The Voice

I couldn't take any more of the shit flinging monkey squawk that was the Democratic debate so I switched to The Voice to relax and appreciate some art. I was richly rewarded by Toneisha's performance, a 4-chair turn. Enjoy.

Tuesday, February 25, 2020

Michael Brooks responds to the Bernie Cuba hysteria

Brooks and The Rising Team have a much more sensible approach to Bernie's remarks that show some subtlety and nuance, something apparently missing not only from Repugs but the hysterical establishment Dems. Saagar: "Why is complex thinking so difficult for people?" (7:08).

Scarborough compares Bernie to Mussolini now

After his long diatribe on Bernie's comments about literacy programs in Cuba and Bernie's supposed support for authoritarian regimes, Morning Joe makes the above comment. Mika comments that it's just like Dump. What kind of reasoning can claim that Bernie doesn't condemn the atrocities of Cuba just because he appreciates their literacy training, when if fact Bernie has repeatedly done so? Answer: It's not reasoning at all but blind ideology that has them foaming at the mouth like a rabid animal.

Lancet author: Bernie's plan fully finances MFA

According to the co-author of the Yale study published in Lancet.

"'The options laid out by Sen. Sanders last night will more than cover' the cost of Medicare for All, said Yale University’s Alison Galvani, one of the nation’s leading experts on health care financing, and the co-author of a comprehensive report published in The Lancet analyzing the prospect of single-payer health care in the United States. Galvani touted the details of Sanders’ financing plan released last night at a CNN town hall."

Hartmann on the DNC convention

It's a real possibility that Bernie won't have the necessary 1901 delegates to win on the first ballot to avoid a second ballot where the super delegates come in. So he'll need Warren's delegates to get there on the first ballot so they'll have to negotiate what Liz wants for that transfer. It's what happened with Obama and Hillary in '08. Given Liz's responses so far I wonder if she'll be willing to do that? I hope so but it's not a sure thing.

Hayes on the facts about Bernie

Contrary to the establishment Dem claim Bernie can't win, Hayes provides all the indicators that Bernie is the best positioned to beat Dump. Repeated polling shows Bernie has the best chance. Bernie has the highest favorable ratings among the candidates. Bernie has raised the most money, none of which is from Super PACs. So why are they impervious to the facts? They just can't get past their programmed corporate story which is going defunct.

Even Pox's Tucker Carlson gets it

Carlson had Krystal on again where he rightly understands the threat Bernie poses to Dump. All those who whine that Bernie can't beat Dump when repeated polls say Bernie does so handily, and when even Carlson understands why, I can only say get used to it because Bernie is going to win the nomination and the Presidency.

Matthews apologizes to Bernie

It appears to be a genuine apology. But it doesn't get at the underlying reason why establishment Dems are going nuts over Bernie. And that underlying reason will keep expressing itself over and over on MSNBC. Bernie is well prepared for them though and his victories will keep piling up until he wins the nomination and the Presidency.

Bernie's Charleston town hall

He effectively answered loaded questions. He showed how all of this policies are supported by the majority of Americans. He provided a worksheet on how he will pay for all of those policies, using as one example a small transaction tax on Wall Street. He addressed how the vast savings of Medicare For All should be factored into its overall cost citing the recent Yale study. He reiterated that he has always been opposed to authoritarian government but that should not prevent us from appreciating when those governments get something right. Bernie is well prepared for all opposing arguments and his victories to date prove it.

Monday, February 24, 2020

Ball on MSNBC's stages of grief over Bernie

She breaks downs the various stages of their Nevada coverage, finally accepting the Bernie win with Giridharadas as a guest.

Giridharadas on corporate cognitive dissonance

He reiterates what I've been saying about being stuck in the old story which has cognitive dissonance with the new story:

"Many of this establishment are behaving in my view as they face the prospect of a Bernie Sanders nomination like out-of-touch aristocrats in a dying aristocracy. Just sort of, 'How do we stop this, how do we block this?'"

"Last night was a historic win that I think a lot of us are still struggling to understand. It's historic because we may be seeing that we are paddling through a bend of a river in history here. Something is happening in America right now that actually does not fit our mental models. It certainly doesn't fit the mental models of a lot of people on TV. It doesn't fit the mental models of a lot of people in the parties. It doesn't fit our cultural mental models."

Not sorry aristocrats. You can't stop this tidal way of a new story. We the people and democracy are on the march and there's no stopping us and our champion Bernie. Not me, us.

Krugman and Wolff debate about Sanders and socialism

Here's the blurb from Democracy Now:

"As Bernie Sanders’s runaway win in Nevada cements his position as the front-runner for the Democratic nomination, the Democratic Party establishment and much of the mainstream media are openly expressing concern about a self-described democratic socialist leading the presidential ticket. His opponents have also attacked his ambitious agenda. Last week during the primary debate in Las Vegas, Bernie Sanders addressed misconceptions about socialism. Invoking the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Sanders decried what he called 'socialism for the very rich, rugged individualism for the poor.'

"For more, we host a debate on Bernie Sanders and democratic socialism, featuring two well-known economists. Paul Krugman is a New York Times op-ed columnist and author of many books, including his latest, Arguing with Zombies: Economics, Politics, and the Fight for a Better Future. One of his recent columns is headlined 'Bernie Sanders Isn’t a Socialist.' Richard Wolff is professor emeritus of economics at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and visiting professor at The New School. He is the founder of Democracy at Work and hosts the weekly national television and radio program 'Economic Update.' He’s the author of several books, including Understanding Socialism.

Dispelling myths about Medicare For All

This is Judith Deutsch's presentation to the New Mexico Humanist Society last Saturday. It includes rebuttals to the myths as well as explains Jayapal's Medicare for All Act of 2019 (HR 1384). To see Bernie's Senate version visit here.

Cooper interviews Bernie

See Richard Romaine's insightful commentary on it here. This is the inherent bias of corporate media. It's doesn't have to be the extreme craziness of Matthews saying Bernie would kill him in Central Park, or Todd claiming it's like the Nazis. It all comes from the underlying corporate story that they all buy unconsciously and takes many forms, even the seemingly innocuous like this interview.

The good thing is that Bernie reframes it into a different story of people being empowered by government, and that government by the right people means they are servants of we the people. That is an entirely better story that corporate media just cannot accept, because in their minds the elite like themselves are to be followed with their story. Sorry, the people's revolution is changing the story, like it or not.

The Political Mind

Book by George Lakoff, free pdf here. An excerpt:

“One can see in scripts the link between frames and narratives. Narratives are frames that tell a story. They have semantic roles, properties of the role, relations among roles, and scenarios. What makes it a narrative-a story-and not just a mere frame? A narrative has a point to it, a moral. It is about how you should live your life-or how you shouldn’t. It has emotional content: events that make you sad or angry or in awe” (250).

Sunday, February 23, 2020

Even Todd is accepting reality today

Chuck reports on Sanders' crushing victory in NV with every category of voter demonstrating Bernie's broad base of support.

Plouffe: Dems should quit the contested convention narrative

In this piece Obama's former campaign manager admits that there is plenty of talk about it in the Party. And that they should cut it out and support Bernie, "the future of the Party." Plouffe "ridiculed all discussion among Democrats that party members or opponents of Sanders should push for a brokered Democratic National Convention in July." He also suggests that candidates who really have no chance should drop out and face reality.Will they?


Why the Dem Party hates Bernie

Yet the Dem Party projects all of their own hate onto Bernie and his supporters. And what is it they really hate? We the people and democracy.

"Bernie Sanders' surge over the last six weeks has driven the Democratic party and the corporate media to vomiting up unglued totally irrational gaslighting disinformation madness. In just the last few weeks national professional opinion shaping pundits have:

*Likened Sanders' supporters to nazi brown shirts
*Voiced angst that should Sanders' become President Bernie would have him shot in Central Park
*Characterized Sanders' black women supporters as 'Misfit Black Girls' (the pundit, Jason Johnson himself, is a black man)
*An MSNBC pundit let out an audible "he makes my skin crawl" during a show simply at the mention of Sanders' name.
*And corporate media has launched a disinformation campaign solely aimed at Sanders' supporters, calling them 'trolls', 'Russian assets' and the above mentioned 'nazi brownshirts'

The most troubling of all the anti-Bernie venom in corporate media is how they've lately aimed their contempt at Bernie Sanders' supporters. The very same people they'll demand to support whoever the Dem nominee is. How the Democratic establishment through it's corporate media can shit on millions of people, then demand those very same people vote for them in the general election, is insane, an insanity borne of willful ignorance. Corporate media pundits live in a comfortable privilege bubble. They literally can't understand how anyone can not be content with the corporate status quo, I mean, those pundits are doing great! Isn't everyone?"

Bernie's crushing NV caucus win

As of this morning, with 60% of precincts reporting, Bernie got 33.2% of the first vote, 39.3% of the final vote and has 46% of the county convention delegates. So much for all the negative corporate media spin on his electability etc.

Krugman dispels the socialist myth

So much for Dump and the Repug's favorite Bernie talking point. Not that Bernie needs it, having so far decimated that myth in every debate and interview when he's been accused of it. Bring it on Repugs; Bernie wins on that one.






Silver on contested convention

Nate Silver previously discussed this possibility here, noting that so many candidates in the race increases the possibility of no candidate getting enough delegates in the first vote. He also reiterated it last night after Bernie's huge NV victory on the possible motives of the other candidates staying in the race to the convention when he said:

"Sanders is by far the most likely Democrat to win the nomination with a majority of pledged delegates. Other candidates are mostly hoping for a messy outcome in which they win the nomination by plurality — potentially at a contested convention."

Saturday, February 22, 2020

NV Dem Party asks caucus workers to sign NDA

Meaning non-disclosure agreements to prevent them from talking to the press. I guess if NDAs are good for their favorite Gloomberg then NDAs are good enough for them to prevent the truth from coming out about what they are doing. How anyone can still have trust in the Dem Party is astonishing to me.

Biden's new Gloomberg ad

I bookmarked the start of the ad. I give Biden credit for this good one. If you don't like the commentator before and after the ad you can skip it.

Friday, February 21, 2020

Hartmann: Bernie's released medical information

This is for all those who falsely claim that Bernie is not being transparent about his heart situation. That claim is absolutely absurd and just more fodder for an anti-Bernie narrative. Listen to the facts and STFU.

Another corrupt DNC rule

I just discovered another insidious DNC convention rule: If a candidate doesn't get a majority of delegates in the first round, then formerly pledged delegates are freed to change their pledges in a 2nd round ignoring the popular vote altogether. How democratic! No wonder all the popular vote losers are so excited. These rules are brought to you by the Democratic Party, whose slogan is: We don't give a shit about your votes.

It seems it's up to we the people to put so much pressure on the DNC to abandon any hope of doing this. Contact your Senators, Representatives and your State Party with your concerns.

Bernie's campaign conduct instructions

Like this will affect those establishment Dems programmed by the fake Bernie Bro narrative.

We are the ones we've been waiting for

And our time is now. New song for we the people.

TYT on the contested convention

Ana nails it except when she said if Liz was leading Bernie would have also answered like the others. There is nothing in Bernie's long history to suggest that. That aside, TYT is right though about how anti-democratic that process is, how it's a direct assault on we the people. So why aren't supporters of those who would accept a contested convention screaming about abandoning the will of the people and a democratic process? Instead they are trying to justify it! They give Warren's later justification as an example (5:07). This really is the upside-down world of the book 1984 when even Democrats are doing it. And again why Bernie must be our nominee if we ever hope to return to some form of democracy.

I know, defenders are once again going to cry "See, those mean Bernie Bros" when it's just astute political analysis exposing their own contempt for we the people.

Only Bernie chose democracy

Excellent article in Jacobin on the underlying premise of a contested convention: It is authoritarian and anti-democratic. And only Bernie stood up for democracy, a frightening occurrence in a Democratic Party debate. This is exactly why Bernie must be our nominee and not any of the others.

"With a billionaire onstage and every candidate but Bernie Sanders open to unelected and unaccountable superdelegates choosing the nominee, last night’s debate showcased clearly the choice facing Democrats: rule by the majority or rule by plutocratic elites. [...] Democracy is a broad and widely contested principle. But a group of unelected party apparatchiks handing victory to a candidate with fewer votes would represent an indisputable violation of it — particularly as a means of overruling a dynamic popular movement powered primarily by working-class activists and small donations. In an environment where millions rightly feel their country is ruled by the wealth and power of a handful of political and economic elites, it would be nothing short of a suicidal act for the Democratic Party. And yet it was a potential course of action left open by every politician on the stage save one."

Thursday, February 20, 2020

Who are the superdelegates?

See this wiki on the 775 superdelegates. Care to guess which way they'll influence a 2nd convention vote? Also remember the Constitutional one person one vote rule? These people get to vote twice.

Saagar on Dem answers to contested convention

He has it right. Their responses make clear their intention to stay in all the way to force a contested convention. And the Party has rules for that which favor a candidate other than Bernie. How convenient that they kept these rules for just such a situation.

Krystal v. Green on contested election

Adam Green is a Warren surrogate. So Saager brings up Warren's response to the contested convention question last night. Green previews the spin on this: That it would be "ranked choice" voting to override the candidate with the most votes if they don't get a majority. But ranked choice works with everyone who voted for the candidates to get their 2nd choice. The convention systems is to give superdelegates the extra votes for their 2nd choice; it's not we the people getting that opportunity. And we know the majority of the superdelegates are biased for a more establishment candidate.

Krystal makes the additional point that the Dem establishment keeps harping on how Hillary won the popular vote and should have been elected, that the Electoral College is unfairly biased. And yet when it comes to Bernie they want the same sort of biased process to override the popular vote. The ranked choice framing sounds good on the surface but as noted above it too is a corruption of that very process where Party insiders get a 2nd choice, not we the people.

Wednesday, February 19, 2020

Dem candidates on a contested convention

This is a scary premonition. The moderator asked if there is a contested election would the candidates agree that the person with the most votes wins it? Bernie of course said yes, but all the other candidates said a version of "let the system play out," meaning let the Dem rules decide who to choose. Does anyone else find that acceptable?

"Bernie Sanders is the only Democratic candidate on the debate stage who thinks the candidate with the most delegates should win the party’s presidential nomination even if he or she doesn't have a majority.

"His rivals on Wednesday night in Las Vegas say the party should let the convention play out according to rules set by the party, which allow for multiple rounds of voting if a candidate is unable to get a majority of the delegates on the first round."

Abrams' PAC takes $5 million from Doomberg

Following up on the last post, Abrams' PAC Fair Fight is specifically to ensure fair elections.  So Stacey is asked about Doomberg's $5 million contribution to the PAC, and if his spending $millions on his campaign is consistent with the PAC's goals? She hedges her answer and it's disappointing. If she now accepts Doomberg's VP offer something is drastically wrong.

Will Abrams be Doomberg's VP pick?

Don't do it Stacey. He's a racist and against pretty much everything you believe in. TYT lays it out.

Bernie v. Doomberg on social security

Medicare and Medicaid. Bernie's latest ad in prep for tonight's debate.

Edwards and position 0

From Metatheory for the Twenty First Century (Routledge 2015):

"In addition to the five positions Roy outlined in the Preface, we have included an additional position inspired by Mark Edwards' comments. In his exchange with Roy Mark makes the point that there is also a position that is focused on the context or 'clearing' of the integrative theory engagement, as opposed to the content or metatheories being engaged. Since this position signifies the conditions or context for any encounter between integrative metatheories to occur we have placed it prior to the other five positions and used a '0' to designate it" (24).

Bernie Bro parody

So mean! Yet so true.