Bernie is about to announce his 2020 campaign, two sources confirm to @hunterw https://t.co/GMdBnSqveH
— southpaw (@nycsouthpaw) January 26, 2019
.
Earned media was so easily available in 2016!
Bernie Sanders and Nancy Pelosi are the same age and have been in Congress the same length of time.
Pelosi fought the challenges of #sexism to become the first woman Speaker.
And Sanders?
4/— Victoria Brownworth (@VABVOX) January 26, 2019
POLL: Which Nationalist-Populist should primary Trump?
— Scott Lincicome (@scottlincicome) January 26, 2019
SenyorDave
I will vote for Bernie over Donald Trump or any other Republican, and if he gets into the race, Louis Farrakhan. Difficult to come up with anyone else.
germy
Interesting journalism about Bernie’s early political career up to present day:
http://www.shakesville.com/2015/07/looking-for-bernie-part-4-turning-right.html
debbie
I’ll tell you how worried Republicans are: I emailed Rob Portman Wednesday night to demand he end the shutdown. I heard back from him less than 24 hours later. Usually it’s 4 to 6 weeks later that I get some canned response. This response had more than its fair share of canned, but he featured the bill he’s introducing to end all shutdowns. I’ll never vote for the prick, but I see this as a good thing.
trollhattan
I feel no Wilmermentum. It ain’t 2016 and Wilmer ain’t the guy to knock Trump into the Potomac.
RobNYNY
I’m sure the Independent Party will be glad to nominate him. The Democratic Party can make up its own mind.
germy
germy
germy
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@debbie: Just out of curiosity though, what does one of those no-shutdown thingies look like? If it’s “automatic indefinite CR if we can’t pass a budget”, I’m virulently against it. If it’s “nobody in Congress gets paid or fed if there’s no budget”, I might be interested.
bemused
@debbie:
Good. I hope a lot of them are feeling snarling hounds breath on the back of their necks.
Mnemosyne
@germy:
I’m going to repeat myself: it would be awfully easy to launder illegal foreign campaign contributions in increments of $27 because they’re below the threshold where the donors have to be individually reported to the FEC.
JPL
@debbie: hmm One wonders what else the bill will say? Last time they said they were for it, they wanted deep cuts in spending. Nancy is going to introduce a bill also, and I assume Mitch won’t let it come to the floor for a vote.
debbie
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
Here’s that part of the email:
trollhattan
Also, too, also, too:
Tax returns, tax returns. Am I imagining the Dems put in rules requiring their candidates to release their tax returns? If I imagined it, can they adopt said rule?
germy
@Mnemosyne: Worth repeating.
Baud
No more superdelegates to stand in his way, I guess.
Frankensteinbeck
@germy:
That requires getting a base of support in the first place. I don’t think he’ll get far enough. Too many grudges, too many other options for old idealists, and the new crop think of him as that pro-gun asshole who pretend he was their leader.
cmorenc
As it becomes increasingly apparent during 2020 Democratic primaries that Bernie can’t overtake candidates ahead of him, will he choose to become a petulant saboteur of the more likely nominee(s), acidly accusing them of being sellouts not worthy of his backers’ votes? Of course, Russian / GOP colluding fuckery was primarily responsible for Clinton’s loss in 2016, but without Bernie harshly sabotaging Clinton from within to help alienate part of the potential democratic base from voting for her in the general election, especially in critical Midwestern states, the Russian / GOP effort would have likely fallen short of succeeding in engineering Trump’s narrow electoral college win.
debbie
@JPL:
I share your concern. I know there’s a poison pill in there somewhere.
rikyrah
Democrat Kamala Harris makes first SC stop since announcing 2020 presidential run
BY MAAYAN SCHECHTER
JANUARY 25, 2019 10:52 PM,
Jay Noble
If he doesn’t go down to the county registrar’s office and OFFICIALLY change his registration to “Democrat”, no caucases or primaries or money. And that means his little (I) chnages to (D) in the media and Senate.
jacy
Bernie Sanders is screechy. And he should smile more.
germy
http://www.shakesville.com/2015/07/looking-for-bernie-part-4-turning-right.html
FelonyGovt
It may be wishful thinking on my part, but I think Wilmer’s time has come and gone. Certainly the women I know who were supporting him last time have quietly backed away as his misogynism becomes more apparent.
Ruckus
@Mnemosyne:
2 things.
First, that was probably the intent in the first place. And why $27? Why not $24 or $35 or $50?
Second there should be no reporting problem, donations are transactions anymore, and all of them have identification info, that concept can/should be used to keep track of who gave who what when politics is involved.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@debbie: Automatic CR. So that’s just incentive to not pass an actual budget. Those 1 percent reductions are meaningless in my opinion. You could kick the ball downstream for two years (8 quarters) and only get an 8% penalty.
No congressional wages, food, coffee or bathroom breaks without a budget.
Aleta
Howard Schultz, former Starbucks CEO and Democrat, hasn’t announced but says if he does run for president he’ll run as an independent. His wealth is estimated at 3.3 billion.
marklar
Well, since Bernie isn’t a Democrat, will he be running as a Socialist, or as the founder of the Look At MeToo party?
delk
Hillary treated him with kid gloves but you know she has more receipts than a big box store on Black Friday. Not very heartening news to guy that can only handle criticism with anger and huffily taking his ball home.
ThresherK
@germy: Someone (maybe you) linked to part 2 of this 4 part piece earlier today and I’ve been immersed in it since.
Ruckus
@jacy:
@FelonyGovt:
BS. His initials are his policy.
BS. His initials are his legacy.
BS. His initials are his future.
Old fart acts like old fart in public. News at ten.
White & Gold Purgatorian
@germy: I hear all the Russian trolls are trying to change the narrative. Judging Wilmer by the company he keeps.
rikyrah
Maddow Blog (@MaddowBlog) Tweeted:
The House Intelligence Committee can’t send testimony transcripts to Robert Mueller until they have a full set of members. So far, Republicans are not naming any members to the Intelligence Committee. They managed it for 23 other committees, but..
. https://t.co/hyQRN0LILh https://twitter.com/MaddowBlog/status/1088992076027572224?s=17
debbie
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
Also no bennies. Hit them where it hurts the most.
Sister Golden Bear
Fuckem.
Especially his “wimmin, POC and LGBT folks can wait their turn until after the Glorious Revolution” attitude.
Ain’t nobody got time for that.
And fuck Schultz too.
opiejeanne
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: And periodically haul them out and beat them before sending them back to work on the budget, like they used to do when choosing a Pope and the Cardinals weren’t quick enough.
germy
@Sister Golden Bear:
Schultz and Bloomberg. They should take their money and buy an island somewhere, not run for president.
germy
@ThresherK: It was me. Fascinating stuff. Especially the early career and his campaigns against various women candidates.
Frankensteinbeck
@germy:
And he didn’t vote for the AUMF… but he did vote for the “Hooray, Bush, good job!” resolution later.
Emerald
@delk: Just last week Hillary said out loud that he had not supported her in the way she supported Obama when she lost the primaries, and said that his minions have never stopped harassing her supporters.
Methinks the Lady has no more fucks to give where Wilmer is concerned. Hope she still has enough influence amongst the Dem leadership to at least force him to show his tax returns before he can run as a Dem.
Villago Delenda Est
Wilmer…and his cultist followers…needs to go the fuck away.
Baud
It was all but certain he was going to run when he started putting “Donald Trump is a racist” in his stump speech.
Contrast his stance shortly after the 2016 election.
Baud
@Emerald: Betty Cracker posted that video this morning, but someone said the video was from 2017.
Emerald
@rikyrah: Yeah. Seems likely that Mitch McConnell’s shut-it-all-down approach has migrated to the House Rs.
Wonder if Nancy SMASH can appoint the R members herself if the Rs refuse to do it. Has she got a rule lying around somewhere . . .
Emerald
@Baud: Ah, could be true. If so, even better.
bk
He just needs to go away. I still at am a loss as to the origin of the “Wilmer” nickname, though.
dmsilev
@trollhattan: I seem to remember the same thing, but a quick search didn’t come up with anything (just a proposed California law which would require release of at least five years of returns to qualify for ballot access during the primary), so maybe it was wishful thinking.
Brachiator
@FelonyGovt:
Bernie is still the Once and Future Progressive Candidate of a number of progressive groups. But I think you are right that Sanders has lost a lot of his appeal among many mainstream folk.
Aleta
@rikyrah: Is there a time limit on their ability to name members? Or do Rs plan to ignore this duty just as they ignored a SC nomination and judgeships.
Frankensteinbeck
@bk:
For a long while, using the words ‘Bernie’ or ‘Sanders’ in a thread would draw in pro-Bernie trolls who would completely derail it. So people started calling him ‘Wilmer’ and never stopped, believing – apparently correctly – that the trolls were doing a word search for Sanders’ name. As far as I know, the name ‘Wilmer’ itself was chosen completely at random.
trollhattan
@dmsilev:
Well, there’s always, “Dear DNC:”
JPL
@Emerald: I doubt that she can influence the election because if she went on the Sunday news shows, they would ask about emails.
fuckem
Also, hurry back efg cause I’m running low on f.ks.
JMG
My guess is Bernie Sanders is a big fizzle in 2020. He has two big problems. It’s very hard to be the hot new item in your second race for the same office. And, more important, it’s not a two-person race. Democratic primary voters (not always the same thing as Democrats) who wanted an option to Hillary only had Sanders to vote for. There will be at least 10 options all the way past Super Tuesday. He will also face direct competition from Warren in New Hampshire, eliminating the favorite son effect he got there in 2016. I suppose he could win, but he feels awfully stale to me, and I do not have the same animus towards him some others here have. Just think his time has come and gone.
PS: As a native Delawarean, it pains me to say this, but this goes quintuple for Biden, a lovable soul whose time came and went around 1987.
germy
The name Wilmer is a German baby name. In German the meaning of the name Wilmer is: Resolute or famous.
(found this after googling “wilmer”)
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: That’s pretty much what we did here in CA, solved the problems passing budgets(also a veto proof Dem majority helped).
JPL
@bk: If you type his name, the trolls appear. So Wilmer is just a cover name so we can read and type in peace without his assholes interfering
or what frankensteinbeck said.
Ruckus
Just got an email under the banner – democrats.com, from BS.
I don’t think he will like my reply.
I didn’t want my message to be misunderstood so I kept it simple.
FUCK Bernie Sanders.
JPL
@germy: lol I didn’t know that. What you learn from fellow jackals and google is priceless.
thanks
Ruckus
@Aleta:
They can hold their breath and stomp their little feets as well as anyone.
p.a.
Be a shame if the transcripts just got leaked. I’m sure there are nat’l security implications possible, but sometimes things just ‘fall off the back of a truck…’
Mike in NC
We really do need legislation preventing these pointless government shakedown antics, otherwise Fat Bastard will shut stuff down every month on Putin’s command until he either gets kicked out or imprisoned.
Somebody counted >100 meetings between Trumpanzees and Russians. No doubt they were all about adopting poor orphans, right?
FelonyGovt
I have one thing to thank Bernie for. I first discovered Balloon Juice in early 2016 after reading and enjoying a wonderfully snarky piece John Cole wrote about him and his supporters.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Speaking of self-indulgent old men…
There’s talk of a Starbucks boycott if he goes through with it (Schutlz is no longer CEO but their stock makes up a considerable portion of his $3.3 BILLLION fortune, according to twitter dot com). I pretty much only get a starbucks cause they’re (edited god dammit) in all the grocery stores these days, but I’m ready to skip those.
Redshift
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
I am all in favor of automatic CRs; it’s a hell of a lot better than what we have now. Shutdowns have only ever been a tool for Republicans, because they’re the ones who don’t care about government actually functioning. It’s telling that the court ruling that triggered them was in the late 70s, and there were eight shutdowns during the Reagan Administration.
Getting rid of them will push legislators to make deals, because most of them want to have accomplishments they can point to, not just let things coast. (The 1% thing is stupid; I’m betting Mark Warner’s version doesn’t have that.)
tobie
@Baud: Frankly Elizabeth Warren did not cover herself in glory in headlining the Our Revolution event with Wilmer in Boston just after the 2016 election. I put her ahead of Gabbard in my list but I dislike the pitchfork populism she’s been promoting. Why the exclusive focus on taxes on individuals instead of on corporations and specific activities, like rapid fire stock trades? Guess it’s easier to demonize a person than an entity or practice.
rikyrah
@cmorenc:
Which is why we need to lay waste to him without hesitation.
James E Powell
@trollhattan:
Almost nobody and certainly not Bernie himself will ever acknowledge that the promotion and fluffing he got in 2016 was entirely due to the fact that the press/media hate Hillary Clinton.
rikyrah
@Aleta:
I do not know…but, I think they should just send it on.
rikyrah
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I completely agree.
rikyrah
Uh huh
Uh huh
germy
@James E Powell:
And that the reason he was a sudden favorite on all the Sunday morning talk shows was his willingness to talk shit about the Democratic party.
The villagers ate that stuff up. They had no interest in his actual ideas beyond that.
Brachiator
@tobie:
This is just her initial salvo. And yeah, it’s easier to point out greedy individual bastards, like for instance, Trump and his cabinet of plutocrats.
So, I don’t have a problem with this approach, and I am on record as not agreeing with a lot of Warren’s plan.
If she attracts some of the attention from people who previously supported Sanders, more power to her. Extra points if she makes conservatives nervous.
zhena gogolia
@JPL:
It’s taken from The Maltese Falcon, but I can no longer remember why.
Gin & Tonic
@germy: Wilmer is also the name of the hired gun in The Maltese Falcon, played by Elishah (?) Cook, of whom the fat man says “I love you like a son, but if you lose a son you can get another.”
Can’t believe I’m using my sporadic moments of stable Internet to post this.
Ruckus
@germy:
What are his actual ideas, other than BS should be president?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
so much for all that talk of trump having no patience for drunks
japa21
I am tired of Sanders attempt at the nomination in 2016 being described as competitive. It really wasn’t and the only reason it wasn’t a complete rout is that HRC was nice.
And I still blame him as a major factor in her defeat.
WaterGirl
@rikyrah: I think I am going to spontaneously combust with rage after reading that.
Brachiator
@rikyrah:
I would call these people Deplorable, but that would almost be an insult to Deplorables.
I love how all these people who babble about meritocracies expect an old fashioned “spoils system” to operate for their benefit.
It’s ironic that these dopes don’t realize that Trump don’t care about them, and has already passed out goodies to his own cronies.
Baud
Wonkette
joel hanes
@Gin & Tonic:
the hired gun in The Maltese Falcon
The cheaper the gunsel, the gaudier the patter.
zhena gogolia
@Gin & Tonic:
Elisha Cook, Jr.
Brachiator
@Gin & Tonic:
I didn’t realize that the name Wilmer might have been inspired by The Maltese Falcon. Great quote. Here’s another:
Wilmer: Keep on riding me and they’re gonna be picking iron out of your liver.
Spade: [laughs] The cheaper the crook, the gaudier the patter.
Another Scott
@Ruckus: Yup.
The FEC web site has lots and lots of data on individual contributions to Wilmer – as little as $1 via ActBlue
I recall looking at it during the campaign and there were pages and pages of $27 donations that seems hinky (no names listed, IIRC). I had no confidence at all that his people were even trying to keep illegal foreign donations out. But who knows.
Cheers,
Scott.
Baud
Wilmer was random. Nothing to do with Maltese Falcon. Ask Jim, Foolish Literalist why he likes that name.
https://balloon-juice.com/2016/12/16/friday-evening-open-thread-virtual-waifu/#comment-6160426
sm*t cl*de
@Gin & Tonic:
‘Gunsel’ /= ‘hired gun’.
Immanentize
@Baud:
What can we — individually or collectively — do to undermine his campaign? Seeing him out early would be pleasing.
I read that he will run as a Democrat as the Vermont Democratic party says he is a member? That alone will not satisfy the DNC rule as I read it?
Immanentize
Wilmer in 2018:
Mnemosyne
@sm*t cl*de:
It turns put that that was a little joke that John Huston slipped past the censors, because Dashiell Hammett’s book makes it clear that “gunsel” in the gangster slang of the time meant something more like “rentboy.”
But because the word started with “gun,” censors and audiences assumed it meant “hired gun” and Huston got away with it for DECADES. ?
Dorothy A. Winsor
I actually like my current publisher, but I’d also like to say that publishing is a hell hole. Someone said more or less, if you know someone who wants to be a writer, the second thing is to buy them a copy of Strunk and White. The first thing is to kill them now while they’re still happy. Whoever said that was right.
I’m going to pour myself a glass of wine, even if it is only 3:00.
WaterGirl
@Baud: How did you even find that? Tell us your secret, please.
Immanentize
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
I think that waiting until 3 shows amazing self control. A toast to you!
gene108
@trollhattan:
Hopefully some state Democratic Party puts tax returns as a prerequisite for getting on the Dem ballot.
I have heard it proposed, but I don’t know, if anyone had done it.
I think once the first state does it, others will follow, like legalizing weed
MomSense
@Sister Golden Bear:
We are going to drag that waggy finger motherficker this time. No more patience or playing nice.
We are all going to have to get out of our comfort zones and be willing to be vocal on social media.
Baud
@Immanentize: I don’t know. The only campaign I have experience undermining is my own.
Mostly, though, I think the best thing we can do is not let any bullshit stand unanswered.
ETA: Or what MomSense says. Seriously, listen to her. On all matters.
Immanentize
@WaterGirl:
Go down two comments and you will see Baud was in on the creation. Even tested it in practice.
JaySinWA
While stopping the payroll of congress while the government is shut down makes a good sound byte, but I doubt it has any real teeth. For some mysterious and apparently unknowable (to our press) reason, most Senators and Congress people either are or soon become independently wealthy.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Immanentize: Thank you. I lift my glass in a toast.
WaterGirl
@MomSense: Yes! And everything I said earlier about not criticizing the other candidates as you are trying to win the nomination?
That does NOT include Wilmer, and that awful other woman I never heard of (Tulsi?) or any fucking millionaire thinks this could be their moment for more power.
In the podcast I listened to last night about the organization called Protecting Democracy, they talked about needing to legislate a lot of the norms that we’ve blown through, and not just because of the damage that the dumpster currently residing in the white house has done / is doing. It’s because of someone just as authoritarian as Trump could be out there thinking he could be Trump 2.0 — just as awful but not incompetent. Very scary. That’s the first thing I thought of when I read about the big money guys who are throwing their collective hats in the ring.
2020 is our moment to save democracy in the US, and no, I don’t feel like that is being too dramatic.
Ladyraxterinok
@marklar: There’s this #BernieRussia–anyone know anything about this hashtag? Follow it?
WaterGirl
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Watch out, Imm is an enabler of all our best/worst habits. :-)
Frankensteinbeck
@Brachiator:
True that he doesn’t care about them personally, but A) he enjoys feeling like a king as people fight for positions serving him, and B) I bet he enjoys listening to them spew hate. One of the few things not directly about himself he can get into.
Mary G
I’d like to put a tax of like a tenth of a cent on the total amount of every stock or bond transaction. Little people won’t feel a thing, but corporations and Romney and hedge funders will pay a goodly amount.
Aimai
@tobie: fuck off.
thalarctosMaritimus
@opiejeanne: Ooooooh….
Ladyraxterinok
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: There are many very wealthy Congress people! Who do not need their congressional salaries.
But also some who do–likely the very ones representing the kinds of people most harmed by govt shutdowns.
So the 1st group would just not care and wouldn’t be negatively affected by salary cutoff!
marklar
@Ladyraxterinok:
Haven’t seen it, butI think he’s more of a useful idiot than an active asset.
Bernie reminds me of the grandfather who tells his grandkids that he’s taking them to Disneyland, even though he is broke. When Gramps is called on it, rather than acknowledging he’s dishonest, his response is “well, they’ll never get to Disney if they don’t dream about it, and I’m helping them with the dream.”
chris
@Mnemosyne: Balloon Juice– come for the snark, stay for the erudition. I did not know that and The Maltese Falcon is in my winter reading stack. I found it in a used book pile and wondered how it holds up over the 50 years since I last read it. Merriam Webster:
JPL
@Baud: This is why we hate when you go on vacations or disappear for a few days.
Baud
NYT (int’l desk, so ok)
Seems unenforceable, but I don’t care.
Mary G
JPL
@WaterGirl: Toasting is not necessarily a bad habit, and I’ll toast to that also.
WaterGirl
I just read an excerpt of an article about Stacey Abrams in Essence. I like her very much.
Ohio Mom
@Baud: I’ve been to Comet Ping Pong — When Ohio Family went to DC for wedding in June 2017, I insisted we have a meal there.
It is a dive of a neighborhood pizza place. Tacked onto the walls were letters local school children had written in support after the first go-round of unwarranted attention, decorated of course with crayon drawings.
I’m sorry to hear they are still being harassed.
@Aleta: I think we should all call Starbuck’s and Bloomberg’s 800 numbers and tell them No on their presidential ambitions. Sure, the operators won’t know what to do about the first few calls. They won’t have a script for an approved response.
After enough calls though , the message will get past the operators and into the executive suites.
Somebody with a twitter account who knows how to use twitter to spread ideas should take this cause up.
James E Powell
@JMG:
Tommy CarcettiMartin O’Malley is still trying to figure out why no one noticed he was there.WaterGirl
@JPL: That’s why I said best/worst. I was mostly being silly, and I did not at all mean it as criticism.
FlipYrWhig
I am thoroughly sick of Bernie Sanders, so I don’t particularly care about his future or reputation, but this is incredibly stupid for both. Wouldn’t it make far more sense for him to position himself as the kingmaker whose blessing the others pursue? There’s no way he can do as well as he did last time. And especially given everyone else in the field, he’s just going to expose himself as a mansplainy has-been. I can only think that he’s thinking “there needs to be a top-level man who appeals to working-class men, like I do,” which was dramatically oversold in 2016 and doesn’t seem to have much to do with the political tenor of 2019-20 or in any way related to what’s been successful lately in the places where Democrats are succeeding.
different-church-lady
@Brachiator: He’s always going to have his acolytes, but I believe Bernie-Curious is extinct as a category.
Mary G
WaPo has the millionth story about Twitler the asshole:
and
Eric Trump emailed a bullshit response. Turns none of Trump’s businesses use the e-Verify system to ensure employees are documented properly. What a evil family they are.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@James E Powell: At my precinct’s Iowa caucus, voters split almost evenly between Clinton and Sanders. I think O’Malley had maybe 4 supporters, so he was declared non-viable. IMHO, Sanders won’t get nearly that much support this time. It will be more like 2008, when there were about a dozen candidates, most of whom slipped into oblivion a few days later, leaving only Obama, Clinton, and Edwards.
JPL
@WaterGirl: lol Neither did I.
FlipYrWhig
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Sanders running in 2020 seems a bit like if Dean had run in 2008. There are other exciting choices this time, buddy. Find something else to do.
JPL
@Mary G: trump understands technology more than anyone else so why wouldn’t he use it.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@FlipYrWhig: That’s a good comparison.
Steve in the ATL
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
No judgment!
Ooh—it’s 4:59 here. I think I’ll join you!
Major Major Major Major
On the train bringing Samwise home to NYC! Just hit Harlem-125th St. station actually. Grand central here we come!
tobie
@Aimai: In gymnastics terms, I’d rate that a 10–so eloquent, so profound, so convincing. In pitch it’s the perfect pitchfork response. Congrats.
Mary G
@JPL: More from the article:
Mary G
@Major Major Major Major: Hurray! Pictures, please!
ETA: After he is done punishing you.
WaterGirl
@Major Major Major Major: Congratulations to both of you! Is he mad at you?
edit: Mary G, i see that we had the same thought.
Major Major Major Major
@Mary G: @WaterGirl: he was pretty darn happy to see me when I went to pick him up and he’s being a very good boy in his carrier on the train. Now let’s see how he likes the mean streets of Manhattan…
WaterGirl
@Mary G: You just know that Trump is so fucking stupid and clueless that he actually needed someone to tell him “you know, maybe it’s not a good idea for you to have all these undocumented people working for you while you are demonizing immigrants”.
It just makes me want to smack him upside the head, and I am not a violent person. So when I momentarily paused and thought “smack him upside the head or push him over a cliff?” that doesn’t mean I would actually do it.
WaterGirl
@Major Major Major Major: I’m going with “nope, that’s a bridge too far”. My guys don’t even like a ride in the car.
I predict that once he figures out he is “home” in the new place, he might be pretty mad at you for being away for so long and messing everything up. But all with be forgiven and you guys will all be happy again shortly.
mad citizen
Our 6 year old black cat Sammy Davis Jr. sends his best wishes to Samwise this afternoon.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Major Major Major Major: How did Samwise react?
ETA: I see you already said. Good. Be happy together!
TS (the original)
@FlipYrWhig: Like trump, he got used to the life style – rallies of adoring fans – headlines everywhere – media following you around – and campaign money to be spent as you please – private planes top notch hotels – adoring staff. Nothing to do with policy, people or anyone – self gratification.
Look at those who lost a major campaign and got on with their lives. The most obvious two are Al Gore and John Kerry. Sarah Palin is the most obvious who couldn’t let go, Wilmer is not far behind.
JR
@Frankensteinbeck: probably after his somewhat famous supporter, formerly of that 70s show
Eljai
@Steve in the ATL: It’s only a little after 2 on the west coast, but I spent the morning at a meeting to elect Democratic delegates for my district and I feel I have earned it.
Uncle Cosmo
@James E Powell: You are cordially invited to FOADIAF. Matin O’Malley accomplished more for his MD constituents than an asswipe like you could manage in a million lifetimes. And you can fuck right off with the Tommy Carcetti character assassination too.
Gex
@Mnemosyne: I don’t see it mentioned nearly enough, but he kept putting off answering the FEC’s questions about funding concerns. Ultimately he never answered them.
And wasn’t the story on the tax returns that Jane couldn’t find them? They’ve had a couple years to find those now, they better be able to provide them.
SiubhanDuinne
@Major Major Major Major:
Where is your new apartment? I don’t mean the address, of course, but the general neighbourhood/borough.
Happy new home, M^4, and welcome back, Samwise!
Uncle Cosmo
@Uncle Cosmo: FTR Fahrfawks locked up on me when I attempted to correct the typo in the spelling of former MD Governor Martin O’Malley’s name. The rest of the post stands as typed.
eemom
Moreover — as I have wearily pointed out for more than two years to otherwise sentient people who insist that Bernie could have beaten trump — he has not a closet but a warehouse full of skeletons, none of which came out in 2016 because (1) HRC, unlike him, wasn’t a back stabbing asshole, and (2) the republicans were fucking PRAYING he’d be the candidate, at which time they would have released the avalanche and crushed him.
Omnes Omnibus
@Uncle Cosmo:
Remind me again, how did he do in the Democratic Primaries?
WaterGirl
@eemom: I say, let the Wilmer stories fly! I’m talking to you, democrats!
FlipYrWhig
@eemom: True re: scandals and past.
Also, I know I’ve said this before but I expect that what would have happened is that Trump would have pounded the hell out of Sanders on defense/terrorism/crime/”keeping America safe” — as Bush the First did to Dukakis. People confident that Bernie woulda won tend to forget that it would have been a totally different election foregrounding totally different issues.
Citizen Alan
@James E Powell:
If Martin O’Malley had been smart, he’d have spent every second he was on stage bad-mouthing Wilmer and using all that oppo research that existed that Hillary was too classy to use. If he’d taken Wilmer out, HE could have been the anti-Hillary.
WaterGirl
@Citizen Alan: If only he picked up the crystal ball at that flea market that spring.
CaseyL
I’m really sick of vanity candidates. Wilmer, Schultz, Bloomberg…even Uncle Joe, as much as I like him otherwise. They’re only running for the $$ (Wilmer) and/or the attention.
If they had major issues they cared passionately about that weren’t being addressed by anyone else, that would be one thing. But that’s not the case here; they’re just after some validation/ego boo and it makes me want to slap them silly.
eemom
@CaseyL:
I really don’t think that’s true of Uncle Joe. I don’t think he should run, but I do believe he means well.
As for the others, absofuckinlutely. They can all go fuck themselves.
James E Powell
@Uncle Cosmo:
Really? You not only want to re-litigate 2016 but you want to argue for Martin O’Malley? I guess I missed his million lifetimes worth of accomplishments, but I don’t feel too bad. So did nearly everyone in Iowa.
WaterGirl
@CaseyL: @eemom: I nearly wrote exactly what eemom wrote, but I got distracted trying to find the seattle meet up info that someone was looking for on the other thread.
Mary G
@Major Major Major Major: Is his carrier seethrough? Forty years ago when I was young and poor I took an LA bus with my cat that my ex had confiscated from her abuser to a free spay/neuter clinic. Coming back an elementary school had let out and the bus was filled with kids who were looking at the gato and she preened and posed. Then when we got home, she came out, fell over, turned her head away from me for like three days, then she relented.
CaseyL
@WaterGirl: We decided to have the meetup tonight and tomorrow to maximize people :)
I’m not sure we ever settled on a venue for tonight, but we will be meeting on Sunday at 6:30 at the Indo Cafe.
Hope that helps!
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
He’s such a dimwit. He leaks this when the news cycle is overwhelmed by Drumpf’s cave and the Stone arrest.
Fair Economist
@tobie: Warren also wants to rewrite incorporation laws to put tight reins on corporations so, yes, she is proposing lots more than superwealthy taxes.
tobie
@Fair Economist: I’m aware of her corporate responsibility act and I think that is a good step. I like that her thinking on healthcare has evolved so that she now sees a single-payer system as the end goal but recognizes that the transition to it will take time. I agree that we need to rethink our entire tax system from bottom up. It’s unfair that we have a flat, payroll tax but no tax on carried interest. Our corporate tax system has more holes than swiss cheese and that’s made it easy for large businesses to pass profits to shareholders rather than to invest in their workers (e.g., better wages, health and retirement benefits, etc.). That said, I think she’s been dishonest on trade, has avoided the issue of what jobs will look like in the future, and tends in her spoken remarks to pitch (greedy) fat cats against (virtuous) regular folk. Some find that appealing given the extraordinary income disparities in the US. I don’t. I was actually thinking of throwing a few bucks her way when she announced she was forming an exploratory committee as an acknowledgement of the value of her corporate responsibility bill. Then I heard her on TV repeating again and again that the system’s rigged against the little guy and, as a little guy (or, rather, gal) I was completely turned off.
Feckless
Was Bernie in a leadership position when Democrats lost thousands of seats nationally? Will crying sexism change one ounce of the damage done during the last 30 years of political malpractice by corporate dems?
I’m glad that Pelosi has found a spine, I hope it lasts.
But don’t forget how we got here and who was in charge of the party when the trumpskys stole every branch of government state and federal.
The energy mis-spent attacking Bernie with ad hominems is better left to the fundamentalists on the right. Bernie probably agrees with you 95% but you would divide the party out of pique when we most need unity. Let’s find commonality not sophomoric criticism.
That said, Schumer sucks.