Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The math demands it!

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

Good luck with your asparagus.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

We still have time to mess this up!

Almost as fun as hiking the Appalachian Trail

Nevertheless, she persisted.

Where tasty lettuce and good mustard aren’t elitist.

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

I’d try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

Yes we did.

Shocking, but not surprising

The willow is too close to the house.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

I can’t take this shit today. I just can’t.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

Han shot first.

Naturally gregarious and alpha

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

… makes me wish i had hoarded more linguine

This is a big f—–g deal.

You are here: Home / Election 2020 / Election 2020 Open Thread: Reverend Barber’s PPC Moral Congress

Election 2020 Open Thread: Reverend Barber’s PPC Moral Congress

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Kara Vogt reports for Mother Jones; Chelsea Janes (and Dave Weigel) for the Washington Post:

… The Poor People’s Campaign is a clergy-led effort to revive the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s push to focus attention and resources on poverty. At the group’s forum in Washington, about 10 of the Democratic presidential candidates showed up to make their case on fighting poverty.

The Rev. William Barber II, a founder of the campaign, asked attendees not to cheer or hiss, but rather to greet all the candidates with polite applause. Even in this subdued setting, however, the response to Biden was noticeably muted, and he left the stage to applause that was less enthusiastic than that which greeted him…

Joy-Ann Reid, an MSNBC host who moderated the session, asked Biden how he would pass his plans through a stubborn Congress — in particular, how he would work with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who makes little secret of his satisfaction at blocking Democratic initiatives.

Biden bristled at the suggestion that his approach was misguided. As he wound through his response, Biden moved nearer to Reid, who was seated, and leaned over her.

“Joy-Ann, I know you’re one of the ones who thinks it’s naive to think we have to work together,” Biden said. “The fact of the matter is, if we can’t get a consensus, nothing happens except the abuse of power by the executive branch. Zero.” He added that “you can shame people into doing the right thing.”

Biden’s suggestion that he could persuade McConnell to cooperate prompted skepticism from those who have interacted with McConnell…


Reader Interactions

85Comments

  2. 2.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    The visual in that moment was striking in person. Not sure how it appeared on camera.

    Bad. Not good. Doubleplus ungood.

    Chelsea Janes @ chelsea_janes
    Bennet on getting his proposals through the legislature. Says they need to build a coalition. And: “I wouldn’t want any of us to be as malevolent as Mitch McConnell. But can we PLEASE be as strategic as Mitch McConnell?”

    Was he talking to his fellow boring white guy Coloradan who thinks he’s too smart for the Senate? To his fellow boring white guy from the greater mountain west who thinks he’s too smart for the Senate? Himself?

  3. 3.

    Anne Laurie

    @Chetan Murthy:

    REALLY, Joe? You haven’t FUCKING LEARNED to give women their space? To only approach when invited?

    Note that the tweet you quoted was from a Breitbart reporter, too. Uncle Joe’s giving our enemies entirely too much ammo!

  4. 4.

    Major Major Major Major

    Harris talks about her Rent Relief Act — renters paying more than 30 percent of income to rent get a tax credit.

    Oh good, landlord subsidies.

    I much prefer Warren’s plan, with reparations for redlined populations, and billions in carrots for localities to abandon single-family zoning, and lots of things that show she really understands where housing problems come from. https://www.citylab.com/equity/2019/01/elizabeth-warren-housing-plan-redlining-racial-justice-reparations/579268/

  6. 6.

    NotMax

    “The fact of the matter is, if we can’t get a consensus, nothing happens except the abuse of power by the executive branch. Zero.”

    Like that autocrat Obama? Sheesh on a shingle. Did Biden somnambulate through those eight years?

    Consensus demands all sides possess at a minimum a modicum of sense.

  7. 7.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Sanders brings every question back to “political revolution,” because “all the legislation in the world” isn’t enough w/o pressure.

    ah yes, “Look out the window, Mitch”. Remember how he kept Kavanagh off the Supreme Court?

    ETA:

    @NotMax: Sheesh on a shingle. Did Biden somnambulate through those eight years?

    He’s known [insert name of GOP Senator here] for thirty years. Went to his/her kid’s wedding/graduation party. Cried with him/her at funerals. McConnell will never know what hit him.

  8. 8.

    smike

    @Chetan Murthy:

    I cringe to think that I’ll have to vote for him for President.

    This. I saw a clip (probably on MSNBC), but wasn’t aware of what the story is (because, reasons) and immediately thought that him approaching anyone like that was an asshole thing to do. And he’s going to save us from Mitch?

    I’ll cringe along with you.

  10. 10.

    Major Major Major Major

  12. 12.

    John Revolta

    “The fact of the matter is, if we can’t get a consensus, nothing happens except the abuse of power by the executive branch. Zero.” He added that “you can shame people into doing the right thing.”

    Oh, brother. Joe gotta go.

  13. 13.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Jennifer Epstein @ jeneps
    Attendees at tonight’s Biden fundraiser in New York included former Senator Al D’Amato, a Republican; former Trump Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin, who was previously an Obama undersecretary; billionaire John Catsimatidis, who ran for 2013 mayoral nomination.

    Unbelievable….. Al D’Amato is still alive?

    For those under A Certain Age, Al D’Amato was one of the great Republican villains of the Clinton era.

  14. 14.

    Eric U.

    doesn’t Biden have advisers? He is running the exact embarrassing campaign I thought he would, except his positions are worse that I thought they would be

  17. 17.

    oatler.

    Joe Biden was a republican. Joe Biden IS a republican. I said that ten years ago on this site and I still get chomped to death for it.

  19. 19.

    Gretchen

    I’m glad to see others saw that clip the same way I did -intimidate the girl who dares to cross him. I was reminded of Trump looming behind Hillary at the debate. You know his advisers have warned him about this, and he’s all, I’ve been doing this for 40 years and it’s worked for me.

  20. 20.

    NotMax

    Way, way, way OT.

    Dragged out the Big Mixer to put together the batter for a chocolaty pudding cake today. Got the sour cream out of the fridge to discover it was unusable (don’t recall ever seeing stripes of red mold before). Already had mixed together other ingredients, so substituted with evaporated milk (~1½ to 1 ratio). After baking, looks like a cake, smells like a cake. Jury still out on the taste test.

  22. 22.

    Sab

    @Aleta:re Biden: YIKES!!

    I am an old sort of WASP woman married to an Irish American man and I know and accept that they are more touchy feely than I am comfortable, but that approach to Joy Reid, where he walked out of camera range to “approach” ( i.e. intimidate? threaten?) her really shocked me.

    I have had policy issues with him over the years, but that shocked me into him being out of consideration. I am so sick of big male bullies in my professional life. That reminded me of Trump with Hillary at their debates. How could he not think that that was completely offensive and unacceptable?

    Is he even playing with a full deck? WHAT was he THINKING? Puts the Anita Hill situation ( I watched it on TV back in the day) into a whole new light. Does he just disrespect Black women or is it all women? I am just stunned. He needs to bow out now while he has any reputation.

    Men have to wear seat belts and be strapped in to appear with women on TV? What was he thinking?

  23. 23.

    NotMax

    @Sab

    Not prone to making predictions, but he’ll drop out before New Hampshire. (Actually, at this point, fully expect him to drop out before we have a FY ’21 budget (or CR).)

  28. 28.

    Mnemosyne

    G first started talking about how great he thought Elizabeth Warren was when she was still a Harvard law professor and appeared in that documentary about debt and bankruptcy. She seemed to be genuinely enraged that betrayed parents were forced to pay back their dead daughter’s student loans because there was NO legal way to discharge them after Biden’s bankruptcy bill passed.

  29. 29.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Aleta: he doesn’t agree he should change, or he can’t change — nothing respectable.

    couldn’t agree more, I haven’t paid enough attention to him to know if it’s true, it probably isn’t, it seems like he doubles down on the behaviors he gets criticized for. Makes me wonder if we’re seeing a quality that made Obama (at best) ambivalent and why so few Obama alumni seem excited about him

    He doesn’t want to win

    don’t agree with that, between the death of his son, who was supposed to be the Triumph of Clan Biden, and listening to Ed Rendell-ish cronies who have been telling him he should be president for 30 years, and that he would have beaten trump, I fear he may have developed some notion of his own destiny, if not a messiah complex.

  30. 30.

    mrmoshpotato

    @NotMax:

    FY ’21

    FY ’20

    Slow down NotMax. Let’s at least get to Thanksgiving ’19 and ’20 before you say “Fuck You” to the coming year.

  31. 31.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    Sanders brings every question back to “political revolution,” because “all the legislation in the world” isn’t enough w/o pressure.

    Wilmer’s small and weak brain can compete with Warren’s towering intellect so he has to attack the propriety of thoughtful, well laid out plans.

  32. 32.

    Turgidson

    @NotMax:

    Perhaps even more importantly, both/all sides need to be willing to work in good faith.

    I don’t think McConnell even uses the shitter in good faith.

  33. 33.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Turgidson: they are all Mitch McConnell

    @ mkraju
    Murkowski contends Mark Warner effort to require campaigns to disclose foreign assistance as a bill designed to stir up “political fodder.” Asked if McConnell should put election security bill on floor, she said: “I’m not sure why we need to have one.”

  34. 34.

    Sab

    @Omnes Omnibus: As far as I can tell his base is older Black women who love Obama. (Who are also the completely dependable base of the Democratic Party that can be counted on to come out for every election.) I’m curious about how they wil respond to that tape. That was extremely disrespectful to Joy Reid. She’s no shrinking violet, but she shouldn’t have to put up with that stalking. Next time make sure his mike has a chord. Or leave him room to shoot his own feet off.

  35. 35.

    mrmoshpotato

    Retweeted by LGF’s Charles Johnson:

    Bette Midler
    @BetteMidler
    Everyone loathes Donald Trump,
    Including the Ladies he Humps.
    I predict you will see,
    He’ll begin World War III,
    By Tweeting while taking a Dump June 15, 2019

  37. 37.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    Asked if McConnell should put election security bill on floor, she said: “I’m not sure why we need to have one.”

    Sounds like Senator Murkowski needs to read Report del Mueller.

  38. 38.

    matt

    Joe likes to yell at real Democrats. I guess he’s too important for their shit. He should retire and go crochet some sweaters.

  39. 39.

    Anne Laurie

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    Al D’Amato is still alive?

    As my Irish granny would say, Hell doesn’t want him and Heaven won’t have him.

    Speaking of the Great Clenis Hunt, I believe it was Barney Frank who said “Being called dishonest by Al D’Amato is like being called ugly by a frog.”

  42. 42.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Sab: I understand why a lot of people are at best ambivalent about him. He is nowhere near the top of my list, but he is polling well. I do not see why any candidate who is polling well would walk away. It seems to me that most of the commenters on this thread are sure he is going to nosedive at some point. What if he doesn’t? If he holds on to his current base of AA women, beating him would not be easy. .

  43. 43.

    Gretchen

    @Sab: Joy was on Rachel Maddow afterward and they were both sort of cringey about it. I think what we saw is what Joy felt.

  44. 44.

    Ruckus

    @Eric U.:
    Biden doesn’t need advisors, he’s an elder statesman all by hisself.

    I’ll say it again. Right now the polls are giving him the edge because of the Obama connection. Once people see and hear him his numbers will fall like they are under twice gravity. He just has never had “it.” That’s why he failed twice before to even make a dent, it’s why he will again. His record isn’t good. His style is bad. His smile is not even working any more. His own words and style will defeat him. That’s why republicans want him to run and want him to win the primary, if he’s the nominee he might lose and badly, if he’s the nominee and wins, he’ll work with republicans like he’s always done and like he talks about now. He may have learned absolutely nothing from President Obama.

  48. 48.

    mrmoshpotato

    @matt:

    Joe likes to yell at real Democrats. I guess he’s too important for their shit. He should retire and go crochet some sweaters.

    I see you prefer crocheting as the retirement activity for elder statesmen. I respect that.

    I’m partial to them taking up knitting.

  49. 49.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Gretchen: @Major Major Major Major: For the most part, I don’t think people are following the Dem Primary machinations that closely yet. We’ll see what happens, but I am not sure that he is someone people can write off cavalierly as a doomed candidate.

  50. 50.

    Ruckus

    @Omnes Omnibus:
    He’s polling OK well over a year out. With several debates and discussion groups like the we are talking about here, he’s going to show his true colors. Just like he has every other time. Right now he’s got the Obama glow. He can’t help himself from putting that out, it’s his nature and he’s too old and set to change that. And it looks like he’s handling himself (ya I know…) and that isn’t good. He’s not the person we need at this point and that will become obvious. What about those 100 black women of South Carolina, who have already endorsed Harris? Is that going to help him? A couple more of those non support endorsements for others and how’s he going to look then?

  53. 53.

    Comrade Colette Collaboratrice

    So Mr. Colette and I were driving back into San Francisco the other night and saw some strange glowing blue-white clouds to the north. We were baffled – it was long after sunset, but they were the wrong color to be illuminated by city lights and clearly weren’t smoke or fog. It turns out they were a rare southerly occurrence of noctilucent clouds. Beautiful!

    And just now I could see three of Jupiter’s moons even with my little tiny binoculars. Wish I had BillinG’s night sky photo skills.

    Was there something happening down here on earth? I refuse to look.

  54. 54.

    Mary G

    Joe thinks he can shame Republicans into compromising? WTF? Has he been asleep for the last ten years or is he going senile?

    And the walking over to Joy to physically try to dominate her when she was being tough on him completely disqualifies him in my book

  55. 55.

    Sab

    @NotMax: When he campaigned in NE Ohio in 2008 he turned up locally for a pressconference and the only reporter who showed up was in the Army Reserves, an Iraq War vet who showed up out of respect for him as the parent of a deployed soldier’s father.

    He has no base outside of Delaware, except for Obama fans. If he doesn’t follow Obama positions ( respecting women, especially women of color) he’s just another Democratic disapointment and everyone will move on.

  56. 56.

    The Castle

    Biden is a terrible campaigner. He has never had to work very hard to retain his Senate seat, so this weakness largely remains hidden. But his last 2 attempts to win the Dem Prez nomination ended quite badly, and I have no reason to think that this won’t end badly too, given that he is the same man with the same flaws, running against some really strong candidates.

    One of the best descriptions of Biden I’ve read comes from the excellent book The Unwinding. One of his campaign staffers happened to be profiled in it and the disappointment this staffer felt over Biden’s character was eye-opening. The book is worth reading otherwise as it describes the sad, current American cultural moment very well.

    I also remember an Atlantic article long ago pigeon-holeing Biden as a show pony or show horse (as opposed to a work horse). It may have been a quote of some Senator advising then-Senator Hillary Clinton what not to emulate.

  57. 57.

    Mandalay

    @Aleta:

    He doesn’t want to win, or he doesn’t agree he should change, or he can’t change — nothing respectable.

    Well with respect to his behavior towards women, it’s pretty obvious that he’s can’t change.

    Back in April Biden posted a video on twitter insisting:

    Social norms are changing. I understand that, and I’ve heard what these women are saying. Politics to me has always been about making connections, but I will be more mindful about respecting personal space in the future. That’s my responsibility and I will meet it.

    Except he’s incapable of meeting that responsibility. He was handsy with a ten year old girl a couple of weeks ago, and he was in Joy Reid’s face, speaking at her as though she was the help.

    He’s an arrogant mediocrity, gratuitously abrasive, and he’ll get shredded by Trump if he’s allowed to get the nomination.

  58. 58.

    mrmoshpotato

    @NotMax: Circumcision story? Nah.

    Has the sun even gone beddybye in your long-pantsless-for-35+-years island paradise?

  59. 59.

    Jay

    5/ See, Ben gets paid very well to open the door to violent white supremacy, while violent white supremacists collect anyone who walks through them.They don't have to be in the same room to be working together, just as long as they're working opposite sides of the same door. pic.twitter.com/yv1cWmb1u7— Gwen Snyder is uncivil (@gwensnyderPHL) June 17, 2019

    Interesting thread.

  60. 60.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Mary G:

    Has he been asleep for the last ten years or is he going senile?

    Forgot the multiplier of 4 there. :)

  61. 61.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Ruckus: I am not here to advocate for him. Really my point is two fold. First, he is currently the front runner and one can’t simply say that he will automatically fall to the wayside. Second, I don’t know about the rest of the commenters, but I am trying to be judicious in my criticisms of any of the Dem candidates. I don’t know who the nominee is going to be, and I don’t feel like publicly crapping on anyone who could end up as our standard bearer. YMMV. I will leave it at that for now because I don’t really feel appointing myself as Joe’s keeper on this blog when it is a pretty sure thing that I will not be voting for him in the primary.

  62. 62.

    NotMax

    @The Castle

    As have stated previously about Biden, a weather vane is an appropriate addition to a rooftop. Less than useless in an office (oval or not).

  65. 65.

    mrmoshpotato

    @NotMax:

    Give the host credit for not cutting him off.

    ?

    Sunsets are so 20th century.

    What weirdness is going on out there that we mainlanders don’t know about?

  67. 67.

    Ruckus

    @Omnes Omnibus:
    More than fair enough, it’s what I expected to hear you say.
    I’m not willing to give him as much room, even though I feel he will use it badly. This is too important to me and I’d bet all of us. I expect not to get my current fav, my life doesn’t work that way. But fortunately we have a full house of possibilities and any one of them could do a good job.

    One a side note about me not getting my way, I was told that I have progressed far enough health wise to get to the point of actual knowledge and diagnosis and I don’t have Parkinson’s. What I do have isn’t as bad but all of the medications that are used to treat it I am already taking the max or have taken and they have proved to be unusable for me, they make things worse to far worse. We are working on further options, right now possible brain surgery was put on the table. But in the future, the risk is relatively high for the symptoms I’m currently not enjoying. So ta ta for now, it’s been a long day and I have work tomorrow.

  68. 68.

    Redshift

    @Omnes Omnibus: In ’08, Hillary had strong support from African American voters until after Iowa, and then there was a big shift. If I’m remembering currently, Biden’s lead has eroded a bit since he first announced, and while he’s the frontrunner, he’s not a really strong frontrunner.

    I don’t think anyone should assume he will fade, but don’t think anyone would assume he won’t, either. If he maintains his lead, obviously he won’t drop out, but that’s by no means assured. Early favorites have often faded.

  70. 70.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Ruckus: Well, hooray for the not Parkinson’s. And good wishes for the successful treatment of whatever the fuck you do have.

  71. 71.

    Mnemosyne

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    I’m not going to either pump Biden up or run him down, because I’m pretty convinced that he’s going to manage to shoot himself in the foot before December and end his campaign. It’s kind of what he does. He’s a much better at being a team player than he is at being the team captain or coach.

  72. 72.

    prostratedragon

    @NotMax: I couldn’t dash through the comments fast enough not to notice that someone said something about the captain’s log.

  74. 74.

    tobie

    In other news, Germany has thrown its support behind the EU plan to reach net zero emissions by 2050. Seems like everyone should happy about this with the exception of the Sunrise Movement, which has the preposterous idea that we can reach net zero by 2030.

    I’ve also noticed that European papers now put square quotes around the US’s purported reasons for sending 1000 troops to the Middle East. I’m trying to save some examples to show my Trump-lovin’ neighbors in the US what it means to have your credibility flushed down the toilet.

  76. 76.

    J R in WV

    @Chetan Murthy:

    Regarding Joe Biden, standing up, walking over to Joy Reid to tell her how much smarter he was than she was, unable to answer her question about getting legislation past Mitch McConnell, so telling her he was the man who could work with McConnell, while looking down at her, seated in a chair below him…

    REALLY, Joe? You haven’t FUCKING LEARNED to give women their space? To only approach when invited? FUCK YOU, Joe Biden.

    Gah. I cringe to think that I’ll have to vote for him for President.

    Well said!

    I saw that piece of video, it was nearly as bad as when Trump lurched around the debate stage behind Sec. Clinton like a Frankenstein monster. I was appalled! Biden was disgusting, and needs to have someone intervene, show him the video, explain in small words how bad it looks to any woman who has ever been approached like that by a former boyfriend or current boss. In other words all women. My wife was horrified!

    I really think there’s no hope of changing Biden’s behavior around women, he’s totally lost in his fake masculinity. We can only hope women stop supporting him either in early polling or in the early primaries. I don’t know if I can vote for the man, and plan to write a letter to him telling his just that. He’s lost this 68 y o white guy. Since I’m in WV it might not matter. I have thought about registering to vote in AZ, where we have a small ranch, and working out there where vote and some volunteer work might make a difference.

  77. 77.

    J R in WV

    @Gretchen:

    @Omnes Omnibus: looming over a prominent African American reporter won’t solidify his base.

    @Major Major Major Major:

    @Gretchen: they will probably not be aware of it for the most part.

    Major^4, Joy is a rock superstar in the black female community, I’ll bet this event circulates really fast, aided by the AKA sorority who recently committed to Kamala Harris. I sure hope so, anyway. Living in WV, my votes over the years have often been less meaningful, which is partly why I contribute a lot to candidates in other states, and volunteer for some of our Democratic candidates.

    My first donation for this election cycle was for Senator Harris, and I also support Senator Warren, who are my top two. Joe Biden is down with Tulsi and the fitness guru, just a couple mm above Bernie Sanders, the not-a-Democrat of the race at the bottom.

  80. 80.

    wenchacha

    @Gretchen: I hesitate to say it, but Jill Biden is a smart woman, and I would think/hope/imagine she has had some discussions with Joe about this stuff. Maybe not, but it just makes me wonder.

  81. 81.

    wenchacha

    @Ruckus: I am being forward: if not Parkinson’s, is it essential tremor? My mom is shakier than Kate Hepburn, both her hands, and her head. If she were younger and healthier (94), I would love to see her have the high-frequency ultrasound to treat the tremors. Medication has not really been helpful. If you indeed are experiencing a similar condition, you have my empathy. I hope you are able to find a successful treatment.

  82. 82.

    low-tech cyclist

    @Aleta: Jeez. Apparently getting rid of the filibuster would be an abuse of Executive power, would somehow violate the principle that we work for change within the system, and also be in opposition to “we the people” and “we hold these truths [to be] self evident.”

    Oh, and if you’re against the filibuster, why not just bring on a real, physical revolution?

    I am so totally done with Joe Biden.

  84. 84.

    Avery Greynold

    It burns! When people like Kara Voght think that Warren’s plan taxes 2% on what people “make” above $50 million. What people “make” is income. What Warren would tax is wealth, with the current tax rate being zero percent.

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