A Dem points out that Sanders is polling about as well in his field as Chris Christie, who’s being taken seriously.
— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) April 30, 2015
The man’s playing it really close to his vest — I haven’t even gotten one of his “Bernie Buzz” email newsletters yet. But just in time for International Workers’ Day, Senator Sanders (self-labeled Democratic Socialist, listed as Independent) is officially campaigning in the Democratic primary. From the Washington Post, industry paper for the town whose monopoly industry is national poltics:
… Sanders lifted off his long-shot bid with a news conference outside the U.S. Capitol on Thursday by declaring war on corporate America and billionaire campaign donors. He also landed subtle jabs at Clinton, whose political ties to Wall Street and hawkish worldview have left some liberals yearning for an alternative.
“The major issue is: How do we create an economy that works for all of our people, rather than a small number of billionaires?” Sanders said. Disavowing the Citizens United Supreme Court decision that disrupted the campaign finance system, he added: “We now have a political situation where billionaires are literally able to buy elections and candidates. Let’s not kid ourselves: That is the reality right now.”…
Clinton took to Twitter to write: “I agree with Bernie. Focus must be on helping America’s middle class. GOP would hold them back. I welcome him to the race.”
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), a Clinton supporter, told reporters that she is pleased Sanders is running because “it’s healthy for a party to have an exchange of ideas.” She said more candidates would “enliven the debate, and that will be wholesome.”…
The NYTimes has, among other stories, a list of Sanders’ stand on “the issues” and a forwarding-friendly short outline of “What Bernie Sanders Must Do to Win“. Sen. Sanders will not switch his official affiliation, which Bloomberg Politics reports is unlikely to be a problem in Iowa, but New Hampshire is being sniffy: “We have only two legal parties in New Hampshire,” CNN quoted [NH Secretary of State William] Gardner as saying. “The primary is reserved for those legal parties.” (Oh, and the nutballs enthusiasts behind Ready for Warren are not quite ready to give up on recruiting her just yet.)
Nate Cohn is wonkishly unenthusiastic, and Slate‘s John Dickerson is grumpy that Sanders is attacking the Republicans instead of Hillary Clinton. (“He does for Clinton what Howard Dean did for John Kerry in 2004.”) But Jim Newell, at Salon, is vehemently pro-Bernie:
… Bernie Sanders is an old leftist crank — we mean that in the best possible way — from Brooklyn. You can tell that he is from Brooklyn if you listen to any word that he says. We will be hearing a lot more about the MILLIONAYUHS AND BILLIONAYUHS over the next year or so, and we’ll be hearing it from someone who didn’t just arrive at his opinions yesterday after commissioning a few focus groups.
Among this field, the 73-year-old Vermont senator is the natural recipient for anti-Clinton votes. Yes, there will be a lot of theater criticism surrounding Sanders’ announcement: He’s too old, he’s too left, he’s too regional. He doesn’t properly comb his hair; he hunches over. But what if Democratic voters like him anyway because they agree with his policies — like single-payer healthcare, financial reform, massive infrastructure investments, and campaign finance reform? A revolutionary notion, sure…
… and the only person happier about Sanders’ candidacy than Christopher Pearson, founder of the Draft Bernie SuperPAC, may be Matt Taibbi:
… Sanders genuinely, sincerely, does not care about optics. He is the rarest of Washington animals, a completely honest person. If he’s motivated by anything other than a desire to use his influence to protect people who can’t protect themselves, I’ve never seen it. Bernie Sanders is the kind of person who goes to bed at night thinking about how to increase the heating-oil aid program for the poor.
This is why his entrance into the 2016 presidential race is a great thing and not a mere footnote to the inevitable coronation of Hillary Clinton as the Democratic nominee. If the press is smart enough to grasp it, his entrance into the race makes for a profound storyline that could force all of us to ask some very uncomfortable questions.
Here’s the thing: Sanders is a politician whose power base is derived almost entirely from the people of the state of Vermont, where he is personally known to a surprisingly enormous percentage of voters. His chief opponents in the race to the White House, meanwhile, derive their power primarily from corporate and financial interests. That doesn’t make them bad people or even bad candidates necessarily, but it’s a fact that the Beltway-media cognoscenti who decide these things make access to money the primary factor in determining whether or not a presidential aspirant is “viable” or “credible.”…
It’s a little-known fact, but we reporters could successfully sell Sanders or Elizabeth Warren or any other populist candidate as a serious contender for the White House if we wanted to. Hell, we told Americans it was okay to vote for George Bush, a man who moves his lips when he reads. But the lapdog mentality is deeply ingrained and most Beltway scribes prefer to wait for a signal from above before they agree to take anyone not sitting atop a mountain of cash seriously.
Thus this whole question of “seriousness” – which will dominate coverage of the Sanders campaign – should really be read as a profound indictment of our political system, which is now so openly an oligarchy that any politician who doesn’t have the blessing of the bosses is marginalized before he or she steps into the ring…
***********
Apart from politics, what’s on the agenda for the day? To celebrate the ancient holiday, I think I’ll take my little statue of Pan the Goat-God out to a place of honor in the garden…
Mustang Bobby
Welcome to the race, Bernie. Of course you don’t have the freakishly frightening rhetoric of the GOP klown kar.
Speaking of which, Jeb Bush is a big fan of Charles Murray’s books, including “The Bell Curve” that endorses the Klanish theories of black intelligence being naturally lesser than white folk.
Baud
Since it’s on topic, I’ll repeat what I said in yesterday’s open thread. Glad to see Bernie in the race. I was a little surprised to see the DNC already using Bernie’s mug (along with Hillary’s) in email fundraisers. And this
will probably be a problem under most state laws (I assume).
Baud
BTW, who still takes Christie seriously?
ETA:
Booman had a good rebuttal to Taibbi yesterday.
http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2015/4/30/82653/2113
Schlemazel
@Mustang Bobby:
I hope you were not surprised by JEB!’s comments!
Bernie is a bit too centrist for me but then I suspect that my wish to erect guillotines between the bear and bull statues (TWO BLADES, NO WAITING!) may be a bit too much for most Americans . . . at this moment
Amir Khalid
How big a deal is Bernie Sanders’ candidacy? Is his name known to people who aren’t political junkies? Can he seriously contend for the Democratic nomination when he himself is not a Democrat?
Baud
@Amir Khalid:
Except for Hillary, Biden, and Kerry, I’m not sure any Democrat can be said to be “known” to people who aren’t political junkies.
ETA: The same is true for Republicans we like to obsess about.
Mustang Bobby
@Schlemazel:
No, but I love how he’s still being called the “moderate” in the race.
Schlemazel
@Amir Khalid:
Because he labels himself a socialist he has zero chance sadly. Too many low info voters can’t be bothered to understand the word & it has become the go to slur now that “communism” is not a viable state anywhere.
.
I have no idea what he believes he can accomplish but I think he can help to explain a more liberal position on subjects to a wider range of voters and maybe plant seeds that will move the nation back toward sanity. Because he is a liberal he get no time on the Sunday chats or much mention on the news. My guess is he is not well known across the country.
Schlemazel
@Mustang Bobby:
OK, you scared me there for a second! I suppose he is a moderate in the GOP.
I read a diary of a slave owner a couple years ago (Mentioned the book at the time here on BJ – it was interesting but not great). One of the great debates at the time was should you whip your slaves or just paddle them. The moderate position was paddling, JEB! would have agreed I am sure.
Baud
OT: For the first time since the Nation’s founding, North Carolina may overtake South Carolina:
BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: Booman’s piece was a good read and on point.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud:
Even if the President is near or a DemocRat?
Baud
@BillinGlendaleCA: No.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: You forgot our head socialist.
BillinGlendaleCA
@OzarkHillbilly: The Kenyan’s a lame duck and hence irrelevant.
Punchy
It’s not a long-shot bid. It’s a no-shot bid. Zero percent chance he wins the nommy (unless HilClin up and buys the farm before Nov 2016).
OzarkHillbilly
@BillinGlendaleCA: I think more than a few Republicans would argue with you on that point. ;-)
JPL
@Mustang Bobby: Jeb is suppose to be the bright one. ugh
Tissue Thin Pseudonym
Still four days left to get your free story! Okay, it’s not really free; you do have to make a pledge. Still, it’s kind of freeish.
TriassicSands
Bernie is an admitted “radical,” also known as a socialist, which in this country is akin to being an atheist and just a little bit better than being a pedophile. If the American people can get past the label and the distorted notion of what they think a socialist is, and listen to what Sanders says, they’ll discover that it is a lot more closely attuned to what they truly believe than the noxious blather that spews forth from the mouths of the supposedly less extreme Republicans. Unfortunately, most voters will never get past the label, and I fully expect the media to treat Sanders as though he is some kind freak, with endless attention paid to his socialist label and virtually no notice of how reasonable what he say is.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly:
I was mentioning people still eligible to run. I also left out Bill Clinton for that reason.
ThresherK
Hell, [the media] told Americans it was okay to vote for George Bush, a man who moves his lips when he reads.
Matt Taibbi is a prize.
He and Booman can have a real conversation about this and actually add to the general level of discourse, methinks.
brantl
@Schlemazel:
For practical politics, you have this exactly right. Bernie Sanders is this generations George McGovern; a great man with miniscule chances to win.
JPL
Finally, the NY Times has breaking news about David Wildstein.
article
Baud
@JPL:
That should be fun.
Iowa Old Lady
@JPL: Will the hearing be closed or open?
JPL
@Iowa Old Lady: The hearing itself will be closed.
Christie has tried to get in shape and hopefully, he doesn’t decide that it has all been for naught.
debbie
Long live cranks!
Germy Shoemangler
I predicted they (villagers) would ignore his policies and opinions and instead try to make him look like a silly old man.
So this morning at 7:00 I put on the Charlie Rose CBS show, and they begin with “your world in 60 seconds” with a quick montage of earthquakes, riots, funny teevee people and…. Bernie Sanders.
The reporter said “before Bernie got into politics, he had a long history as a folk performer [photo of Sanders in front of a microphone circa 1990]. Cut to Current-Day Bernie being asked to sing a song. “Wait a minute” he says. “It’ll take me a moment to get into the groove.” Then he starts moving his arms like a rapper.
They cut away to the next segment.
They turn him into a caricature. “Nothing to see here, just an eccentric old socialist fool who thinks he has a chance. An entertainer, really.”
_________________________
Calling him a socialist gives him no chance in hell. The right wing loves to remind the lo-info folks “Hitler’s party was the National Socialists.”
And if Hillary embraces his positions: “So Hillary, are you a SOCIALIST too?”
Matt McIrvin
@Amir Khalid: It’s a symbolic run. It might get some Northeastern lefties to vote in the primary election who might otherwise have stayed home, which is good for downticket races.
Matt McIrvin
…Up to this point, Hillary Clinton’s main apparent left competition has been Martin O’Malley, but the events in Baltimore would seem to blow a huge hole even in O’Malley’s viability as a symbolic candidate.
Cervantes
@brantl:
McGovern lagged in the polls, especially after the Eagleton thing, and he did eventually lose — but he did not start with a “miniscule” chance.
Matt McIrvin
McGovern actually got the Democratic nomination!
Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant)
Glad to see him in. Need someone to talk some common sense. Let ideas see the light of day. Can’t hurt.
Germy Shoemangler
@Cervantes:
And with all the repub dirty tricks… how could he win? I remember reading “Fear and Loathing On The Campaign Trail” and McGovern is quoted as saying “I don’t believe ANYONE could have beaten Nixon that year.”
Cervantes
@Amir Khalid:
How big a deal? Important if he can affect the conversation, but that’s a big if.
Is he known to normal people? Not much outside Vermont.
Does his party non-affiliation matter? Somewhat, but there are ways around it. The Democratic Party is not likely to fuss, but there are state laws to contend with.
WereBear
@Matt McIrvin: That’s my call, too.
And I love that Hillary is embracing him! She can “let” him nudge her leftward. The Republican Wall of Noise is designed to not let such ideas surface for an instant.
But what if they do?
Matt McIrvin
@Germy Shoemangler: The amazing thing to me about 1972 is that Nixon even bothered with dirty tricks. He certainly didn’t need them to win, and of course they eventually did in his presidency.
Sometimes it seems like the only reason evil doesn’t always prevail in this world is that it sows the seeds of its own destruction.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Mustang Bobby
to us,… Likely, just by being openly socialist he will troll the hell out of the Right Wing Rage machine.
Cervantes
@Matt McIrvin:
Not amazing. Dirty tricks were his stock-in-trade from 1946 through 1974. Doing without dirty tricks would have been (and was) unthinkable, like doing without oxygen.
Germy Shoemangler
open thread:
There a ton of abandoned houses in Schenectady. They sit and rot. One of them burned to the ground, most likely arson. It’s been turned into a community garden by Judy Atchinson, a 73-year-old woman who runs an organization for poor kids she calls QUEST. She is my hero.
She has a blog and she writes about the neighborhood kids, her pets, and her life, and she’s made me cry on more than one occasion. Here’s her blog:
http://www.dailygazette.com/weblogs/atchinson/
She’s a musician, an artist, a kind soul who grew up in Schenectady. Her organization is usually ignored by the big churches and high-profile charities in her neighborhood, but she’s never discouraged. She’s critical of the local police, the local “rebuild schenectady but ignore the poor people” movement, the racist conservatives, the phony liberals.
I nominate her as Balloon-Juice hero of the day.
Iowa Old Lady
@Matt McIrvin: Yeah, it’s shocking that the Watergate burglaries were committed as part of Nixon’s campaign to defeat McGovern.
scav
Happy May Day, drag out the Labor and the Muguet! Vive les Socialistes! Also, the Globe’s version of Julius Ceasar is a good one, fun for political junkies. en avance!
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@TriassicSands
they will just rage at Sanders defensively, stroked on by the media until what is really going on slowly sinks into their head. Much like these anti-cop violence protests.
Tiny Tim
Sanders probably won’t win. Neither will most of the residents of the GOP clown car who get taken very seriously by our liberal media. That’s the point.
Paul in KY
@Schlemazel: Happy May Day, comrade!
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Germy Shoemangler:
As Jimmy Carter pointed out about GB Bush in 2004, just being a president in times of war gives the incumbent 15 points in the polls. Nixon when into that campaign with a huge advantage.
Paul in KY
@Iowa Old Lady: His plan was to crush McGovern. He knew that he would beat him almost assuredly, but that wasn’t good enough for Tricky Dicky.
lol
You’d think the Draft Warren folks would be rallying around Sanders since he’s in the same place on the relevant issues and is, you know, *actually running* for President.
Baud
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: LBJ takes issue with that statement.
(And in case Raven’s busy with other things, Fuck LBJ!)
WereBear
But that is why! Evil is non-generative.
It is parasitic, self-interested, heedless of consequences, and ego-ridden… like its followers. Faced with the certain destruction that will follow from continuing on its evil path, it will continue to go down the evil path.
Republicans, seeing their waning influence and complete bankruptcy of their ideas and tactics, simply gathered ALL the losers of advancing civilization together to form a New Hate Coalition. It is the nature of Hate Coalitions to be selfish and backstabby and intent on destroying parts of itself and diminishing the whole.
It just takes a long while for the innocents to be slaughtered before they turn on themselves.
But yes, thank goodness EVIL always has a big red SELF-DESTRUCT button in its middle that begs to be pressed. Because one of their own will always be jumping on it.
Kay
That was at the height of the “austerity craze” too. They were all out scolding us to tighten our belts.
raven
@Baud: thank you, thank you very much.
For those of you who need a quick history lesson
Dick Cavett’s Vietnam
raven
@Kay: I’m not sure we’ve seen “the heights”.
Kay
@Tiny Tim:
It’s actually horrible for Chris Christie, the comparison. He was promoted nationally by media for at least a year. What a spectacular flop of a PR campaign.
WereBear
@lol: The fact that they are not is, to me, a telling clue about how marketing works for politicians. They identify with Warren, and not with Bernie? Why not? He’s on the same economic page.
Because we don’t elect ideas, sadly. We elect people.
Germy Shoemangler
@raven: I was eating dinner with my 23-year-old son while the dick cavett documentary was playing. My son looked up and asked “Is that John Kerry???” I explained to him that Kerry tossed his medals to protest the war, and that he was a man who fought in vietnam and lost to W, who didn’t bother showing up for his deferment.
I told him about the swiftboat assholes and about Lt. Calley and it was all brand new to him. He wasn’t taught any of that stuff in high school or college.
Kay
@raven:
Right, really, it just moved to the state level.
Sanders will be great for the Social Security rebuttal, though. There’s some energy around that. We had a local person plan a rally around not cutting Social Security and it got front page local newspaper coverage. We have a LOT of people who are living on Social Security, and we have a lot of 50 year olds who will be living on Social Security. Not only do they not have assets, they will retire with debt. They just never made enough to put anything away.
Phylllis
@raven: I dvr’d that and watched it before coming to work this morning. If you swapped in the word Iraq for every time some warmonger said Vietnam, it could have been filmed in the past decade (well, except for the hair and clothes. Warren Beatty was rocking that shag haircut).
Kay
@lol:
The “Draft Warren letter I got was signed by one person I know- he was the Obama organizer for the region in 2012. He started local and they promoted him.
I spent some time with him and I have to say he was 100% earnest. He came to that job after trying to organize casino workers in Florida. He was working in the middle of nowhere and the casino managers would follow him back to his motel. It sounded absolutely horrible. He was a runner- I’d see him out running at 6 AM and I’d do my whole morning routine and leave the house an hour later I’d see him again, still running,miles from where I first saw him.
Baud
@WereBear:
It’s tribalism all the way down.
JPL
@Kay: Shortly after Fishman has his news conference, Christie will announce the case closed. He’ll thank the U.S. attorney for his investigation. It doesn’t matter what the facts are.
Germy Shoemangler
@JPL: I love all the Cristie apologists in the comments section of the Bergen Record. “I’ll be glad when this witch hunt is over!” “The world is coming apart and this news paper makes a lane closer on the GWB, consistently headline news. Sheesh.”
http://www.northjersey.com/news/gwb-scandal-former-christie-ally-david-wildstein-to-plead-guilty-today-in-federal-court-1.1323371
Matt McIrvin
@lol: In fact, I’ve seen some of my online friends who were most enthusiastic about the Draft Warren bandwagon switching to Sanders already.
Kay
@JPL:
I never thought he was a viable national candidate. I think there’s a bias towards stories where media are centered-physically located. They also love “red politician in blue state and blue politician in red state” because they mistake “bipartisan” for “good”.
“Bipartisan” doesn’t mean anything all by itself. Arguably the Iraq War and financial deregulation were “bipartisan” (although not strictly both sides do it!) as was NAFTA. Privatization of public schools is bipartisan and I think that will turn out to be an epic blunder that people will regret if it goes all the way. It’s lazy to give the stamp of approval to “bipartisan”.
Germy Shoemangler
@WereBear:
Open thread: Cat and parrot:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOpS4qGILyY
Patrick
@Germy Shoemangler:
Which, if anybody believed this, would show how ignorant that person is. Not everything Sanders supports is socialist. Keeping Gitmo open is not socialist, for example.
Kay
@Matt McIrvin:
I think they could believe that Warren is more likely to win, which is always considered a valid reason to back one over the other, so I don’t know why it wouldn’t be acceptable here.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: Years ago I read “Citizen Hughes” – a biography of HH that came out around the time of the fake autobiography. It talks about Nixon and that campaign some. The author argued that Nixon was paranoid about the Kennedys and their backers and were convinced that there was evidence that someone was giving million(s) to them under the table and that evidence was at the Watergate.
It was kinda conspiracy-minded, but Nixon was the paranoid type. It had a whiff of plausibility about it.
Nixon spent a huge amount on that campaign – my grandmother even had fake postage stamps with Dick and Pat on them…
Cheers,
Scott.
raven
@Phylllis: Kissinger and Haigh were great too!
Matt McIrvin
@Kay:
And it’s man-bites-dog. Something that seems unusual is news.
WereBear
Exactly. And even putting stuff away is of limited use when ONE large illness or accident would wipe a person out.
rikyrah
uh huh
uh huh
……………
Koch brothers make push to court Latinos, alarming many Democrats
So while the Republican candidates they support are bashing immigrants, the Koch brothers are telling Latinos that the GOP is the party for them. Interesting.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/conservatives-including-the-koch-brothers-go-after-the-latino-vote/2015/04/30/10732074-101e-4845-936b-77ccd3c45cd2_story.html
Kay
@WereBear:
I read this analysis that said that there was a “bump” in the working class- a large group who did okay but are now in their 60’s and once that bump moves thru the snake there will be a dramatic decline. I see that in the people I talk to in my practice. There’s this “secure” group that is aging-out and they’re being replaced by this less secure, younger, mid-fifties group. It’s really dramatic here, the divide.
rikyrah
it’s LIES!!
not extraordinary
JUST LIES!!!
…………………………
The Baltimore Police Department’s Extraordinary Explanation for Why Freddie Gray Is Dead
By Paul Waldman | Posted April 30, 2015
I can only imagine the kind of siege mentality that prevails within the Baltimore Police Department right now. Not only are the city’s residents protesting daily (and on one night those protests turned violent), but reporters from around the country are now examining the force’s less-than-stellar record when it comes to cases of abuse and brutality, and who knows what they’ll find. There’s little doubt that some time soon the city’s leadership will demand investigations, commissions, or some kind of effort that could lead to serious reform of the department. At a time like this, it may be understandable if the police brass isn’t quite thinking straight. Which would be one explanation for the story that they presented to The Washington Post:
A prisoner sharing a police transport van with Freddie Gray told investigators that he could hear Gray “banging against the walls” of the vehicle and believed that he “was intentionally trying to injure himself,” according to a police document obtained by The Washington Post.
The prisoner, who is currently in jail, was separated from Gray by a metal partition and could not see him. His statement is contained in an application for a search warrant, which is sealed by the court. The Post was given the document under the condition that the prisoner not be named because the person who provided it feared for the inmate’s safety.
The document, written by a Baltimore police investigator, offers the first glimpse of what might have happened inside the van. It is not clear whether any additional evidence backs up the prisoner’s version, which is just one piece of a much larger probe.
I’m going to choose my words carefully here, because I have no direct evidence in this case to contradict this story. But … do the Baltimore police actually expect anyone to believe this?
https://prospect.org/waldman/baltimore-police-departments-extraordinary-explanation-why-freddie-gray-dead
rikyrah
shades of what happened with Eric Garner’s videographer
………………………………….
Man who recorded Freddie Gray’s arrest taken into custody after complaining of police harassment
01 MAY 2015 AT 09:09 ET
The man who recorded video of Freddie Gray’s arrest was arrested at gunpointalong with two activists, days after complaining of police “harassment and intimidation.”
Kevin Moore and two members of CopWatch, an activist group that records police actions, were taken into custody Thursday night, reported PINAC News.
Moore filmed one of two videos showing police drag Gray screaming into a police van, where the 25-year-old suffered a fatal spine injury.
A woman who also filmed video of the fatal arrest has been reluctant to speak publicly, but Moore has talked with reporters about what he had seen.
He said Tuesday in a Facebook post that police had circulated his photo and announced that he was “wanted for questioning” – which Moore believes was an attempt to intimidate him into silence.
“OK y’all everyone by now know that I spoke up for Freddie and recorded all I could,” Moore posted on social media. “But I would greatly appreciate if y’all could stop posting pics of me plz it’s very uncomfortable knowing that the law is looking for me!! Thank y’all.”
He was riding in a car late Thursday that was stopped for an illegal turn, and Moore said two police helicopters and an armored car were involved in the traffic stop.
He said a police SUV began following their vehicle after he made eye contact with an officer while still wearing a Guy Fawkes mask he had worn at a demonstration.
Moore said he did not have identification, but he said police recognized his name, and he and the two out-of-state activists were placed in handcuffs and taken to jail.
He was released without explanation about two hours later, but the two CopWatch activists – Chad Jackson and Tony White – remain jailed on unspecified charges.
http://www.rawstory.com/2015/05/man-who-recorded-freddie-grays-arrest-taken-into-custody-after-complaining-of-police-harassment/
Yatsuno
RIP soul man.
Kay
@WereBear:
And then there’s the ripple effect. One of the things that being “middle class” does is it creates a middle class (secure) home where children grow up and then are the next round of middle class. That benefit pays off. It’s passed on. So if I were in charge I;d really put some effort into stopping the slide because the problem is only going to get bigger.
Patrick
@rikyrah:
Really? I’d be really interested what a less expensive plan might be for someone with a pre-existing condition. That was the whole point behind the ACA, that everybody should be able to get it.
The Thin Black Duke
@Patrick: Keep dumping money down that rabbit hole, Mr. Koch. White bigots are the only group in this country dumb enough to vote for people who despise them.
Germy Shoemangler
Open Thread:
rikyrah
oh no.
RIP, Mr. King
………………………….
Ben E King: R&B legend dies at 76
1 May 2015
R&B and soul singer Ben E King, best known for the classic song Stand By Me, has died at the age of 76.
King started his career in the late 1950s with The Drifters, singing on hits including There Goes My Baby and Save The Last Dance For Me.
After going solo, he hit the US top five with Stand By Me in 1961.
It returned to the charts in the 1980s, including a three-week spell at number one in the UK, following its use in the film of the same name and a TV advert.
The song has charted nine times on the US Billboard 100 over the years – King’s version twice and seven times with covers by artists like John Lennon and Spyder Turner.
http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-32547474
lol
@Kay:
By virtue of the fact that he’s actually running for President, Sanders has an infinitely better chance than Warren. I don’t know how people get around that. Warren wouldn’t run even if Clinton weren’t in the race.
@Matt McIrvin:
The people running the Draft Warren orgs legitimately don’t have a realistic endgame. The whole thing is a sort of farcial campaign version of our strategy in Iraq. We’ve already got the The Suuuuuuurge (Annoy the shit out of Warren MOAR) and Cut & Run (support Sanders or, worse, Clinton). When Clinton is being sworn in as President, we’ll still have people claiming that Warren would’ve run and won everything if True Progressives had tried just a little bit harder.
Bobby Thomson
@Matt McIrvin: except that O’Malley isn’t to her left.
boatboy_srq
Since this is “open thread”…
This is priceless. Money quote:
Chickens. Home. Roost. The answer could very well be BOTH, Mr. Smith – and you helped [s]elect him.
Among the comments, this stood out:
Fred
Yesterday Thom Hartmann pointed out that at about this point in 2007 Obama had just about the same poll numbers as Sanders does today.
I think he’s a long shot but election day is a loooong way off. The man is smart, personable, knows how to explain his ideas in simple broad strokes and the best part is that his ideas poll really well. If he gets his foot in the door he might just clinch the sale before anybody can stop him. In short, a long shot.
glocksman
@Germy Shoemangler:
Shit, even this old southern Indiana Democrat would vote for Bernie at this stage.
C.V. Danes
Well, it would seem that by welcoming Sanders to the race, Clinton is already distinguishing herself from a certain governor of NY who couldn’t even address his competition by name.
FlipYrWhig
@lol: The Draft Warren folks just want suckers’ email addresses and $$.
WereBear
As a member of that Life-started-sucking-when-I-got-to-it cohort, I can testify. I left college for the working world in 1980, when Reaganism is in the ascendancy. It has been a soul-crushing erosion of all that had gone before.
Germy Shoemangler
@WereBear:
My story exactly. I graduated high school in 1976. Worked full time after that while taking college courses. I noticed an extreme decline in the quality of working life after st. ronnie took control. “work one hundred and ten percent!” my bosses told me. For a fraction of the pay.
Matt McIrvin
@Fred: That’s not true; you can look it up.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nationwide_opinion_polling_for_the_Democratic_Party_2008_presidential_candidates
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nationwide_opinion_polling_for_the_Democratic_Party_2016_presidential_primaries
Sanders is polling in the single digits right now in Democratic primary polls, about 4-8% (one Quinnipiac poll had him at 11%). Clinton is at 60%. In early May 2007, Obama was consistently getting around 20-30%, and Hillary Clinton was in the 30-40% range.
Obama emerged as a viable candidate in the 2008 cycle way earlier than people remember. The Presidential buzz about him began in a big way in 2004, though at first people were talking about him as a VP possibility in preparation for a Presidential run in 2012 or 2016.
Cacti
Bernie’s a good guy and competent legislator…
Who I believe has no serious chance at winning the Dem nomination or the Presidency.
I think he’ll do well among the people who like to comment on political blogs. ;-)
dww44
@Germy Shoemangler: I’ve a decade and a half over you and @WereBear, I was already in the workplace by 1970 and I was working at a financial services firm shortly thereafter. I witnessed what both of you experienced and it’s all sadly true.
I saw up close and personal the move away from Defined Benefit plans to Defined contribution plans, like self funded IRA’s, 401 K’s and company employee stock ownership plans. All of them were subject to the whims and whiplashes of the stock market. As one in a position to know, virtually all those accounts where I worked NEVER made enough money for anyone to retire on. The SEP plans for company owners were the only exception, but they started from a better financial base than did those of their employees.
So, this move by the GOP to raise retirement age for Social Security, arguing that the Trust fund is going broke if we don’t, is a direct slap at the middle and working classes. I’ve a GOP brother in another state who’s just shared with me a hit piece on SS Administration being late once again on releasing its annual fiscal report. To him and the piece’s author that’s a sure sign that it is going bust sooner rather than later. Like me, he gets a SS check every month.
Germy Shoemangler
@dww44: thank you for your comment. The things I saw in the workplace from 1977 to 1985 were profound.
Germy Shoemangler
@dww44: I’m old enough to remember when you could get an entry level “file clerk/clerk typist” job in a major corporation. “No experience necessary/training provided”
And they’d pay for your college tuition.
Plenty of guys in their sixties now working for big companies, big salaries. If you ask them “how did you get your start?” they’ll tell you “back in 1977 I answered an ad for a file clerk. I worked my way up.”
Try that now, younger generation.
dww44
@Germy Shoemangler: Yes, we hired clerk/typists, i.e. back office girls, straight out of high school with no additional training whatsoever. The ability to work oneself up from there did happen, but rarely. Cause all the money in that brokerage firm was on the sales side. And there really was a very obvious clearly defined wall between the two sides.
However, when I was hired company provided health insurance was totally free to employees across the board and was for many years. Premium sharing didn’t happen until the mid 80’s, and then it was quite reasonable.
lol
@Matt McIrvin:
More importantly, when Obama got into the race in January 2007, Clinton was already behind in Iowa.
The “Obama came out of nowhere” narrative on the left annoys me because it ignores/undervalues the work his campaign did to get him over the top. To listen to the Netroots, all Obama did was pick his nose for 10 months until activating his Magical Negro superpowers to cruise to victory. In reality, Obama and his staff from day 1 dumped an incredible amount of resources into the early states to build a full head of steam into the primaries. He didn’t come out of nowhere – he had to fight for every supporter because Clinton was putting in the same level of effort. It was a hard fought victory.
Tellingly, only Clinton is putting the same level of effort into the nomination process this time around.
Kay
@WereBear:
I think that’s why I’m so convinced that economic security would be such a powerful message for a political candidate. “Disruption” is, pardon me for saying so, elitist. The idea that everyone is very excited about the ever-changing 21st century economy presupposes that people feel they will WIN at this gamble. They don’t think they will.
Two kinds of people embrace risk- those who can afford to lose and those who have nothing to lose. The people politicians are trying to reach- The Middle Class, are not in either of those groups. “Opportunity” does not reach them because they are further back than that- they are hunkered down over “security”. Where Mitt Romney sees possible upside they see possible loss. I don’t know why they don’t “get it”. For MOST people the ability to take a risk comes from security. One is the precurser to the other.
Kay
@WereBear:
I actually think Clinton as a candidate is ideal for that message- economic security. It’s not exciting and media will hate it, but I think it would very quietly resonate and a LOT of people would find it really appealing. It won’t be loud because it’s not Bold and Brash, but her “practical ,reliable” bent is just perfect for it.
Stay the fucking course, already :) No “disruptive innovation”. Tell them Social Security and Medicare and public instituions will be there for them.
Bobby Thomson
@lol: this.
WereBear
@Kay: I SO AGREE.
It’s why I have a little flame flickering in the embers of my heart — with President Obama setting such a high standard of “getting it” I do think such points mean Clinton does too.
Cervantes
@Germy Shoemangler:
What was it about the documentary that made it possible for you to teach your son these things when you hadn’t before?
JustRuss
I think they grasp it, and aren’t the least bit interested in asking uncomfortable questions.
dww44
@Kay: Now that’s a message that political consultants and advisors really ought to heed and translate into rememberable sound bites, but bites which have a great deal of substance underneath. I know I’m saving what you wrote here. Absolutely spot on about who are really the risk takers and when they fail it’s usually the folks at the bottom who suffer the most.
Social Security is an institution in the best sense of the work and should not be privatized or invested in the stock market. It is truly the safety net for us all and our Congress ought to do everything to insure that it remains so.
Groucho48
@Kay:
That’s definitely true here in Buffalo. Especially for black families. From the late 40’s to early 60’s there were plenty of good paying manufacturing jobs here with good retirement benefits. Those jobs are gone and the folks who worked them still help support their kids, grand-kids and great-grand-kids. They also anchor neighborhoods as they own and take pride in their houses. When they are gone, the whole city is going to feel the pain.