Boy, this is really looking like a concerted outbreak of performative fear. https://t.co/jnBlIypUJX
— Charles P. Pierce (@CharlesPPierce) November 4, 2019
So many Wall Street ‘Masters of the Universe’ have denounced Senstor Warren’s candidacy that it’s become a running joke — see NYMag‘s “Elizabeth Warren’s Growing List of Anti-Endorsements”. Not that she doesn’t have Wall Street fans, as well, per Vox:
On Wall Street, there are rich guys, and then there are very rich guys. And in the first camp, there are a surprising number who think an Elizabeth Warren presidency would not be the apocalypse.
“You know what I like about Warren? Warren doesn’t want my money, actually,” said one mid-level hedge fund executive who has already maxed out on his donation to the Massachusetts Democrat in the 2020 presidential primary. “My firm is great, but some people in the industry are scumbags.”…
I spoke with more than three dozen people from across the financial sector — professionals who work at hedge funds, big banks, and private equity funds, in asset management, financial advice, investment banking, trading, research, and compliance — who support Warren’s presidential bid. They know if she lands in the White House that may make their jobs a bit different, their companies a little less lucrative, or mean they’ll pay more in taxes. And they think that’s great. They support Warren because of her policies, not in spite of them.
“Even though, on a personal basis, Elizabeth Warren may be bad for me economically, she would be better for society, which I want my kids to grow up in,” a director at Citi told me…
The latest rash of performative outrage reminded me that I’d been meaning to share a certain historical anecdote. Via the Bill Moyers website, here’s an extract from Warren’s memoir A Fighting Chance:
In early April [2009], I got a call from the office of Larry Summers. I didn’t know Larry well, but I’d met him a few times while he was president of Harvard in the early 2000s. According to reports, Larry had been Tim Geithner’s mentor when they were both in the Treasury Department in the 1990s. Now Larry was the director of the National Economic Council, which meant that, along with Secretary Geithner, he advised President Obama on economic issues. Would I be interested in meeting him for dinner?…
It was a long dinner, with plenty of intense back-and-forth about everything from the bailout, to deregulation, to the foreclosure crisis. I also talked to Larry about an idea I’d been working on for a new consumer financial agency and he seemed interested. We didn’t agree on everything, but I give Larry full credit: I’ll take honest conversation and debate any day of the week over the duck-and-cover stuff I so often saw in Washington that spring.
Late in the evening, Larry leaned back in his chair and offered me some advice. By now, I’d lost count of Larry’s Diet Cokes, and our table was strewn with bits of food and spilled sauces. Larry’s tone was in the friendly-advice category. He teed it up this way: I had a choice. I could be an insider or I could be an outsider. Outsiders can say whatever they want. But people on the inside don’t listen to them. Insiders, however, get lots of access and a chance to push their ideas. People — powerful people — listen to what they have to say. But insiders also understand one unbreakable rule: They don’t criticize other insiders.
I had been warned.
Nevertheless… she persisted!
Warren and her team, meanwhile, clearly see the attacks on her by Wall Street as a political boon for her campaign. So do some Democratic donors in finance — many we talked to refused to share their criticism on the record, fearing it would help Warren. https://t.co/aJXZOZ8SRV https://t.co/7nvVVRLZlM
— Lisa Lerer (@llerer) November 4, 2019
For @nytopinion (https://t.co/SKogXvIDaB), @SteveRattner expands on his "What scares the hell out of me is the way [@ewarren] would fundamentally change our free-enterprise system" argument, which he advanced in a @katekelly/@llerer piece a day earlier (https://t.co/g44HYNP1vJ).
— David Gura (@davidgura) November 5, 2019
"I ask you to judge me by the enemies I have made," FDR said. Elizabeth Warren's include the following good start:
– Steve Rattner
– Larry Summers
– Mark Zuckerberg— laura olin (@lauraolin) November 5, 2019
cain
I’d vote warren just to piss off Facebook execs. Assholes.
JMG
Larry Summers blew the all-time high-pay, high-prestige and almost no work gig, President of Harvard, through blatant and stupid sexism. I’m he hates Warren very much. Lucky her. About five years ago, a car service driver taking me home to Logan spent the whole 30 minute drive telling me what a supreme asshole Summers had been while he drove him someplace.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
zzyzx
There are enough Warren supporters here that maybe someone will know if she’s answered this. I can’t find a link.
So I looked up MA’s senatorial replacement laws, and the Republican governor would have the ability to appoint a temporary replacement. If a senator resigns early enough before the general election, the replacement vote would be then, otherwise it would be with the 2021 primaries.
I didn’t think I’d worry about this, but there’s actually a chance of flipping the Senate now for those two years between 2020 and 2022. Is Warren on the record over if she’d resign from her Senate seat immediately if she got the nomination? Otherwise her odds of having a Senate majority leader who isn’t awful are much lower. I fear that McConnell would just change the rules so he would remain majority leader even if the chamber flipped after the special election. On the other hand, I want her in the Senate if she were to lose the election.
What is her plan for this or has she been asked? I’d wonder the same about Sanders but I’ve already ruled him out for a primary vote, so it’s not an issue.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
Something too delicious not to share:
For the amusement of all, I had a first today.
Backstory: I have a little clutch of Bosnian clients, and met today with two people in mid-affair. I was already working on the woman’s divorce, and she brought her cheater mccheater dude to me to start his. Not real surprising; I’ve done this before, no big deal.
The wrinkle: Over the past thirty years, I have never had a case where a man’s soon-to-be ex-wife sent several thousands of dollars to witches in Bosnia in order to curse her soon-to-be ex-husband and his lover. Somehow, she had some strands of my client’s hair.
I’m actually going to be in a position to argue that the woman who sent the money will have to receive a diminished share of the marital estate for having disposed of marital funds for the nonmarital purpose of cursing people.
It’s going to be my greatest, best day EVER!
Immanentize
@zzyzx:
Talk about fretting over unhatched chickens.
Ohio Mom
One thing I can’t figure out: if Trump is removed from office (please FSM, please), and Pence too (why not, this is my question), who becomes the Republican nominee?
Whoever it is, doesn’t have a lot of time to get their campaign up and going. Tne primary season could be in swing or over. Or are there Republicans organizing campaigns on the down low even as I type?
(I have this recurring nightmare that Kasich becomes the next president. He was already my governor and I’d like to keep it at only that. But I fear that he is an “electable” Republican.)
Immanentize
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: isnt attempted murder a basis for forfeiting all her rights to the marital property?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Ohio Mom: Kasich was in New Hampshire today
Even if the unlikely happens and trump becomes enough of a drag on the R Senate that McConnell cuts him loose, they’ll never give up Pence. He’ll say he doesn’t remember whatever events he’s implicated in, Mitch, Mitt and Susan we’ll choose to ignore their lying eyes and (I would think) seeing a weak incumbent, Willard, Tom Cotton, Nikki Haley, Chris Christie, Josh Hawley and just for shits and giggles Marsah Blackburn jump in the crab pot. And Kasich, I suspect he’s got the bug
Baud
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
Horrible. There are plenty of American witches who are more than capable of doing the work.
jl
@Ohio Mom: I have to wonder if even the national Republican Party knows what will happen. They’ve been shutting down state primaries and caucuses as fast as they can to keep the pesky GOP challengers locked out, and I suppose, also locked out of free media. I wonder if the GOP is already fully committed to their vicious fool of a leader and can’t back out.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Immanentize:
You’d think, but it might be hard to get Her Nibs to stop laughing on the bench long enough to make a cogent argument along those lines.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Baud:
Goddamned foreign witches, stealing work from honest American witches. #MAGA
Omnes Omnibus
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: Community property states are so much easier.
Have you thought that this argument may get you cursed? What are your ethical obligations if so? Can you bill the client for witches to keep you safe? So many questions….
Anne Laurie
@zzyzx: MA Governor Charlie Baker is not going to appoint a Republican to Warren’s seat, because he wants to hang on to his own.
We Massholes have a (bad) habit of electing ‘sensible’ Repubs as governors, theoretically to offset the overwhelming Democratic hold on the Legislature. In practice, this has seldom been a problem, because there’s not a whole lot the governor can do under state law without the Lege’s cooperation. (Not quite as extreme a case as Texas, but still disproportionate.) Chickenshit Charlie has risen to the top political job he can reasonably expect, and polls say he can keep that job just as long as he doesn’t piss off MA Democrats.
He might, theoretically, chose a conservative Democrat to replace Warren (Seth Moulton perks up his ears), but there’s nothing the state or even national Republican party can offer him that would tempt him, IMO.
Patricia Kayden
Kathleen
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: What’s your take on the election today?
Immanentize
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
So true! But people in Miami used to take that VERY seriously!
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Omnes Omnibus:
Brother, as you know, where there’s a bill there’s a way, 6 minutes at a time….
David ??Booooooo?? Koch
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: more likely Pence will confess he sinned and say Jebus has forgave him.
Zzyzx
@Anne Laurie: thank you. The senate really was the second biggest mistake the founders made. I have no problem with a short term conservative Democrat but the vote for majority leader could be close.
taumaturgo
Very smart move by the elitist oligarchs. While they band together to preserve and increase their wealth and power, they lecture the working stiffs to shun unions and get with the rat race despite the unfavorably tilted economy. Most of the privilege the oligarchs enjoy wasn’t earned by hard work, it was bestowed on them by the same system they defend at the expense of the working class. Lack of wisdom and clear thinking favors the wealthy, aided by the “two parties one corporate ideology” that has been bought and paid in bribes with a fraction of the saved corporate tax that otherwise should have been paid into the government coffers. As a recent example, Apple is set to enter the real estate business with a $2.5 billion fund in order to help the homelessness situation in California. No admitting to the fact that they have paid zero taxes over many years and have shuttle billions of dollars to offshores heavens in order not to help the homeless, but to exacerbate their condition along with many other community needs.
“By refusing to risk its way of life, by rejecting the idea that the powerful might have to sacrifice for the common good, it clings to a set of social arrangements that allow it to monopolize progress and then give symbolic scraps to the forsaken—many of whom wouldn’t need the scraps if the society were working right.”
― Anand Giridharadas, Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Kathleen:
Kentucky is boned. Andy Beshear is a nice guy and not the second coming of Trotsky, but the voters of this suppurating red pustule are all in for cruelty. They’re going to wrench every dollar they can from Louisville while strangling our revenue stream and insulting us in the process.
Chyron HR
But, but the demented piece of shit from Vermont has commanded his mentally diseased worshipers to believe that Warren is outpolling him because she’s the Wall Street candidate. Who should I believe?
David ??Booooooo?? Koch
I’m thinking they dislike Warren more because she’s female than because of any of her proposals.
After all, Dump ran against Wall Street, including vile anti-Semitic attacks, eliminating the carried-interest scam and a 14.5% wealth tax and it didn’t bother them at all.
jl
Funny, back when Warren was perceived as an also-ran who had the potential to split the progressive vote with Sanders, she was the reasonable rational progressive that big finance could work with. Now that Sanders is in definite third place, and Warren showing potential to compete for nomination with Biden, she is the devil, she is Satan, she is…. a witch!
VeniceRiley
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: Outstanding! The curse is foiled again!
Immanentize
@David ??Booooooo?? Koch:
I disagree, they oppose Warren because of her policies and they know she is effective. They didn’t oppose Trump because they knew that what he said was just hog draw for the rubes.
Another Scott
I recently heard part of an “On Point” radio show with Summers and Saes discussing Warren’s wealth tax.
I forgot what a gigantic, self-important, blowhard Summers was. I can hear him now, saying that stuff about Insiders and Outsiders…
To be clear, I think a wealth tax may have issues, Constitutionality among them, but the idea that it’s impossible to tax wealth in a meaningful way in the US is just ridiculous. The Constitution can be amended, and it’s long past time that we did so in many areas. And even without that, there are likely ways to claw back the monstrous fortunes that the billionaires have accumulated.
Cheers,
Scott.
Kathleen
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: Thanks. I was afraid of that but I have not doubt you are right. Thoughts and prayers.
jk
I’ve been all in for Elizabeth Warren ever since she entered this race. The more I see of her on the campaign trail the more impressed I am with her. I look forward to her wrapping up this nomination early and being able to focus all her energy on the lunatic currently occupying the White House.
Chetan Murthy
@JMG:
Preach it, sister/brother! Preach it! Amen! Amen! That fucker, I still remember that goddamn speech he gave about differential achievement in academia by women vs. men. And the pre-buttal by one of the highest-ranking female professors at MIT, who just co-incidentally had chaired a group that wrote a report about same, and all the roadblocks in women’s way. Summers, like so many high-achievers, has massive Dunning-Kruger outside his field.
chris
Dear FSM, why is Toad is interviewing Bullock on the TV? Reminds me of this seen earlier today:
debbie
@David ??Booooooo?? Koch:
No, it’s the proposals, not the woman. I know more than a few who insisted they would leave the country if the socialist ACA was passed.
Mary G
Larry Summers is out today with a “the sky is falling” screed in WaPo, “Warren’s plan to finance Medicare-for-all pushes into dangerous and uncharted territory”
Alexandra Petri’s latest column pushed Larry down the front page. ???
Immanentize
@Chetan Murthy: Well you know it’s a scary time to be a white male.
Or so I’m told.
By some white males.
ruemara
All I can say is, she needs to connect with the minority community. Much like Bernie, fans of hers need to understand this. The issues that are getting you all warm and toasty with love mean very little to minorities. Sure, they are important, but they’re not going to get her the vote. AND, she needs to start seeming comfortable around us because the levels of awkward when she discusses anything that isn’t a tax plan and is concerning civil rights, her past performance regarding such, that’s not endearing. Blowing off SC is not going down well. I’ve never been a fan and I won’t be fanning anyone now or in future. I just can’t believe connecting with the fucking minority vote is so poor among the better candidates that the fucking leader in those groups is Biden because fuck it, nostalgia.
jl
@Immanentize: I tend to agree. It takes one to know one, and since many of the big finance billionaires are not much more than swindlers they knew a a fellow swindler when they saw one. And Trump gave very mixed signals during his campaign, including opposition to to a minimum wage. And so much of Trump’s supposed anti-finance campaign schtick was really, a transparent vehicle for asinine and vicious ant-semitism, it was easy to see it for what it was, a pitch a certain type of bigoted gullible low info mark.
RAVEN
@Immanentize: It was a lot scarier in 1968 depending on your location!
Avalune
@Ohio Mom: Mittens Romneyford!
Chetan Murthy
@Immanentize:
FTFY.
Martin
Because I keep seeing Warren and Sanders conflated, they couldn’t be more different in terms of their economic views. Warren is a straight capitalist and opposes these groups because they stifle competition. She’s not interested in nationalizing them, unlike Sanders. She’s interested in mechanisms that will make more of them so that we can dump the bad actors and choose the good ones. Bernie is motivated to make none of them.
That they have a shared goal regarding Medicare is an entirely different dynamic. Bernie believes in Medicare for All because he believes capitalism is inherently bad and should be tolerated no more than necessary. Warren believes in Medicare for All because critical healthcare is beyond the capabilities of capitalism (because citizens can’t ethically opt out of the market) and forcing capitalism to solve problems it’s ill suited to solve is bad for capitalism, and is causing more and more americans to turn against capitalism broadly. Her argument is that capitalism is better when we have more of it and don’t try to force it to solve problems it’s unable to solve.
So Warrens enemies fear competition. The fear capitalism more properly practiced. Don’t let them get away arguing otherwise.
jl
@ruemara: I don’t agree about any of the major candidates not having support among the minority community. From polls I’ve seen, it is true that Biden is sucking up most of the expressed support among minority voters. But all of the major candidates have high, nearly identical approval ratings, across all races and ethnicities.
I do agree that the neglect of civil rights issues has been disappointing. The neglect of voting rights is particularly disappointing to me.
karen marie
@Mary G: Yeah, the “dangerous and uncharted territory” of people having access to health care without it bankrupting them.
Martin
@Another Scott: Everyone that pays property tax pays a wealth tax. It’s been around longer than income taxes.
debbie
@ruemara:
I haven’t been able to keep up with everything. Other than the memory of literally standing next to Obama, has Biden offered minorities anything concrete?
Catherine D.
So I voted today in my local elections in NY with a horrible electronic pen. My mother, who lives downstate and voted early, had mentioned how bad the stylus was. She was not kidding. So I emailed this to the county legislators:
And yeah, the poll worker (a totally new face, probably supplied by the county) said sign or driver’s license. I was polite and did not scream bullshit, but I did voice my displeasure with the pen.
Anyway, if you’re in NY and don’t like this setup, please complain.
Mary G
@ruemara: Mayor Pete is also botching outreach, and still says he’ll be in the top two primary candidates. It’s so frustrating that so many people are turning a deaf ear to the warnings. I’m afraid we’ll end up with Biden and da youts will sit out the election – he’s terrible with them.
Kamala checks both boxes, but the bots and trolls are flaming emotions for and against her and I fear grudges will be at 2016 levels.
The good news is that Trump is getting crazier every day, and hopefully any Democrat with a pulse can beat him.
jl
@Martin: I think that Sanders and Warren attract different types of supporters. And ups and downs in their support is not due to a flow of commons support between those two, but between different, more centrist, candidates and the favored progressive. Warren’s very clear embrace of capitalism, and Sanders’ insistence of describing himself (misleadingly, IMHO) as socialist is one important reason.
Anne Laurie
@Mary G: Some people say that Warren cost Summers his dream job as Chairman of the Federal Reserve, back in 2013. Can’t find a cite at the moment, but it’s been widely mooted that one of those people is Larry Summers.
Immanentize
@RAVEN:
QFT
Chetan Murthy
@Anne Laurie: Heh. That would be *so* delicious, if it were true. I -so- look forward to PPW (or President Harris), and their administration led by women in as many top positions as possible. And the large tears of butthurt bros.
Catherine D.
@Anne Laurie: Larry Summers should stay at home and play with his math-is-hard Barbie.
Another Scott
@Martin: But there isn’t a federal property tax. Unfortunately.
Cheers,
Scott.
jk
@debbie:
Don’t forget that Biden reminded African American parents to play the phonograph for longer stretches of time.
ruemara
@debbie: I believe I did say nostalgia. Folks older than me have pointed to his work under Obama and the VAWA. I’m not a Biden supporter and am not really interested in being one unless that’s the alternative.
@jl: I didn’t say they had no support, I said they’re failing to connect with the communities & the support is poor. Her deer in the headlights responses at the LGBTQIA forum was stunning, because I’d always assumed she was one of those hereditary republicans but she’d do the usual, “I always supported gay rights and disagreed with my party on the issue. I supported gay rights by [advocation of some sort].” Based on listening to her, that was a very standard response that seemed to be where she’d come out. I was prepared to be mildly annoyed but shrug it off, not be surprised that she couldn’t think of anything.
Mary G
This sounds great!
GOTV for the win!
ruemara
@Mary G: PLEASEOHPLEASE BE A SWEEP. Prayers for KY and all my Dems in red states always fighting against the odds.
Immanentize
Just part of this discussion. Billionaire hedge fund guy says he opposes impeachment, doesn’t like Trump, but wants a unifier. Then he tears up saying, “he cares.”. What a drug addict way to behave. Warren:
That is why she resonates.
chopper
@Mary G:
from your lips to FSM’s al dente orecchiette.
rikyrah
@Mary G:
Yes ?? ?? ?
Miss Bianca
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: That is…uh…amazing. No further words.
Mary G
@Anne Laurie: Larry can blame EW, but Larry torpedoed himself between the “women are bad at math” and “deregulating banks will help the economy, even though they crashed the economy in 2008” takes.
jl
@ruemara: thanks for clarification. I agree with that. Odd disconnect from the candidates on a variety of minority issues.
Edit; Biden seems to enjoy dismissing concerns of the youth vote. He has a reputation for being very aggressive on voting rights, but I don’t see much of it in his campaign. Seems like would be a natural issue for him.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
BruceFromOhio
@taumaturgo: I think one of the tags on this site is We Will Grease The Guillotines With The Fat Of Billionaires.
Miss Bianca
@ruemara: Warren is blowing off SC?
Immanentize
@ruemara: Just curious really, how was Obama doing with his connection with communities of color at this point in 2007?
I’ll take my answer off the phone.
Ohio Mom
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Kasich was in New Hampshire today?! I don’t know whether to be pleased I have such a highly-tuned spidey sense or petrified I’m seeing into the future accurately.
rikyrah
@debbie:
Folks remember the list of who had 44’s back and who didn’t. Joey B tops the list. Minimize it if you want to ?
trnc
@JMG:
Mary G
Miss Bianca
@rikyrah:
I don’t minimize it. I think it’s his most endearing trait, and probably the only thing that would really make me want to vote for him. I just wish he weren’t so old and…out of it, it seems, a lot of times.
Sigh. I know nobody’s perfect, but…
Mary G
Duane
Every so often the fuckers need reminding they can jump if they don’t like it. Warren’s got their number. She’s smarter than they are. If they are scared of a closer watch and paying more too bad.
senyordave
I like Warren, she is smart as hell and understands finance (she’s an expert in bankruptcy law which means she real can walk the walk). She is definitely by preferred candidate. She screwed up royally with M4A, especially by putting forth a coherent plan. Detailed plans are never winners for a presidential candidate because there are always think tanks that will label the plan as unworkable or bad for the middle class. All she had to do was talk about moving towards insurance for all Americans, the usual platitudes. Now she is married to her plan. I think it will cost her the nomination.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
If Republicans in Mississippi, Louisiana and Kentucky, it will be because Dems… overreached!
I held Tim “Faith” Russert in minimum high regard, David Gregory was an embarrassment to Davids and Gregorys, but… I don’t think even David Gregory was dumb enough for this. And his people tweeted out this brilliant aperçu. They’re proud of this.
rikyrah
@Immanentize:
Obama was laying the ground work in South Carolina, in preparation for if things went well in Iowa.
Michelle Obama was very effective in that preparation. She spent a lot of time in South Carolina, as the Senator’s advocate.
I will say this again..
I do not believe that this is 2007.
I believe that it will be a repeat of 2016.
Bernie did well in Iowa.and.New Hampshire.Ran into a buzzsaw in the South, cause he had no connections or relationships.
Amir Khalid
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
Are these Bosnian clients of yours Muslim, by any chance?
debbie
@rikyrah:
I’m not minimizing anything.
Immanentize
Should get much more attention, but with so much crap flowing downstream:
This is, as a decade younger Joey B. Might say, “A big fucking deal.”
debbie
I’m watching this video of Paula White. I wonder what a shout-down with Jeannine Pirro would be like.
Immanentize
@rikyrah:
Well, here is a discussion regarding how Warren has a very serious South Carolina plan, and that she is working it:
linky
I am personally still supporting Harris, who is also doing as poorly as Warren among the AA community in South (by God!) Carolina. But I think any candidate can make that turn as the months go on. Even Buttigieg who Dems like the least likely to be able to do so. I really do not understand the current tear downs of Warren alone.
So, does Harris have no chance with the critical minority voters of South Carolina? Is Biden the one true and only love until death do they part?
Mary G
@rikyrah: I remember this:
A lot of Democrats were wringing their hands about how terrible saying that was, yada yada. He was not far off. It’s right there in MAGA. Joe at least knows the stakes.
different-church-lady
So, they’re threatening to do something they were going to do anyway?
chris
@debbie: Whoa! She… seems nice. Demented but nice.
Martin
@Another Scott: No, there isn’t, but constitutionality arguments apply to state and local, so if a federal wealth tax is ruled unconstitutional, then so would local property taxes.
TS (the original)
@rikyrah:
Is it my imagination that in 2016 & now, spouses have been almost invisible in the campaigns. Maybe they realise they can NEVER approach whatever it is that Michelle Obama added to the campaign and the White House.
Ohio Mom
@Mary G: I follow Hecate too. Over the years she has helped me see many things in new ways.
Mary G
Kentucky:
Immanentize
@debbie:
I kinda have a politi-crush on Alyssa Milano.
(Neither Charmed nor Insatiable have anything to do with my attraction to her all-in political views.)
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Speaking of Meet The Press, for how many years was this dryer lint presented as a foreign policy wiseman?
God bless the historians
Just waiting for Johnson or Cornyn to channel Roman Hruska and tell us the corrupt deserve a voice in diplomacy
Omnes Omnibus
@Martin: That is not true. States can do many things that the federal government cannot.
Immanentize
@Omnes Omnibus: thank you for that.
Sab
@Another Scott: My brother is an actual finance guy who used to be (very recently) a republican. He has always called Larry Summers an idiot savant who can crunch numbers but knows nothing about anything political.
guachi
I was looking over recent polling and what I found most surprising is the complete collapse of Harris’s campaign. She had stabilized about equal to Buttigieg at 6% in polling but she’s actually managed to sink to new lows at around 4% and Buttigieg is at new highs around 7.5%.
Klobuchar is doing better having upped her poll numbers to about 2.5%.
Warren’s surge has ended. She’s fallen 4% in the last few weeks. She’s been ahead in 1 of the last 16 national polls while having been head in 9 of the 16 before that.
Biden continues to wobble between 26% and 29% and Sanders between 16%-17%.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Harris pulls the plug before Iowa and I’m not actually sure what would materially effect Sanders’ and Biden’s support. I suspect that fewer candidates would benefit everyone else more than those two and the few polls that survey “2nd choice” bear that out.
Omnes Omnibus
@Immanentize: It took me a while. It was either going to be that short or it was going to be 30-40 pages.
different-church-lady
@ruemara: I got so desperate for stimulation today that I wandered back over to DKos and came across a worthwhile diary. The takeaway quote:
Then I look at the comments and not one of them says they blindingly obvious: “Okay, what would the reasons be? Tell us and we should get them in front of the candidates.” Not one of them. Instead they all wank away about odds and who’s electable and the dynamics of the horse race. They missed the entire point of the diary. (And because I didn’t want to get back in the quicksand, I didn’t say so there.)
I know back when I was hanging there DKos was gaining a reputation for having a lack of diversity. Perhaps it’s gotten worse. So screw them, but damn I want to know. I can’t even pretend I’ve got much diversity in my life, so I’m nothing but ears.
Mary G
The Kentucky numbers on WaPo don’t look that great, but hoping this person knows more than I do.
TS (the original)
@Mary G: I’m such a worry wart – I do wonder if the turnout is magas wanting to support their master. So hope I’m wrong
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Mary G: I follow Taniel on election nights. He’s like Steve Kornacki before he decided, or somebody told him, to start hopping around on camera
Keeping my expectations limited because it’s still Kentucky, but oh, it would be sweet
Dan B
@debbie: Paula White is alarming the LGBT blogs. And thanks to your link to the video I have to run a special errand for extra strength brain cleaner.
These people want to take over the country and put everybody in their place. I so look forward to my non stop all bible all day radio show with no off switch.
Mary G
I may have to give up Twitter.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Wasserman is also good, and I don’t think anyone would accuse him of being a liberal looking for confirmation bias
this race has not been on my radar, but I believe there have been stories that Bevin really pissed people off when shivved the program they didn’t know was Obamacare? and Steve Beshear was very popular (?, again)
Mary G
JR
Honestly, I don’t care about Warren’s enemies. I want her (or whoever is the nominee) to have as many friends as possible.
Jay
Baud
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Chuck Todd is never overprepared.
Dan B
@TS (the original): The notable exception is Chasten Buttigieg. He’s as popular with the fans as Pete.
I look forward to Michelle on the campaign trail. Harris’ spouse us a great guy but I don’t see him motivating the base or any minority communities. Michelle, however, is like lightning in a bottle with an extra dise of honey.
noncarborundum
@zzyzx:
I don’t think this is right. By law the special election must be held within 160 days of the vacancy, which would be June 28, 2021 at the very latest. And as far as I can tell there are no primaries in Mass in 2021. (Or maybe my Google-fu is just weak this evening.)
Jay
oatler.
hog draw for the rubes.
Or as the Duke of Bilgewater said, “If that don’t fetch ’em, I don’t know Arkansaw.”
Dan B
@Jay: What will it take to get Facebook to have a moral compass? A propaganda attack on white bros who are coders? The Rohingya debacle seems to have done nothing to awaken them to the evil they have become.
Mary G
Yet CNN has Bevin up by 53/44 and WaPo 52/45.
I just want the voters of KY to kick Twitler in the teeth. I want the big production to have been useless. I need to do something besides Twitter.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Dan B:
Look on the bright side, if you become a member of the Inner Party, you could turn off your radio sometimes
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Kent
@Ohio Mom: The RNC meets and puts whoever they want on the ballot if we are past the primaries and convention.
different-church-lady
@Dan B: Nothing will get Facebook to have a moral compass. Their entire business model is built on leveraging the dark side of human nature.
jl
@different-church-lady: Wholesome activities like chit chat and sharing pictures with friends and family were a loss-leaders for the real business models: social engineering via algorithm to get people to part with their money, and ripping off personal data for profit.
Facebook’s roots were a sketchy ‘hot or not’ pix site that may have pilfered data unethically. So, what do people expect?
Kent
Back to the original theme of this thread. I have to believe that Warren gains a whole lot more votes by attacking Wall Street than Clinton ever did by cozying up to it. Those are your two basic options as Wall Street is not going to be ignored.
Clinton spent 2015 cashing in with the private speaking tour to Wall Street and had a whole lot of Wall Street folks connected to her campaign.
Warren is making Wall Street reform and redistribution a signature point of her campaign.
We will soon know which strategy is more effective. I gotta believe that Warren has a finger closer to the pulse of the country than Clinton did.
Kathleen
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Don’t agree with assessment of Northern Kentucky counties (aka “Cincy Burbs”). I think they’re the the biggest concentration of right wing Christo Fascists in the state. I just saw where Boone County flew its rabid racist right wing flag and I expect Kenton & Campbell will follow suit. Northern Kentucky is a cesspool but I’m still hoping & praying for victory for Beshear and the Dem ticket.
Looking at comments I can see I might be totally wrong with what I said. I hope to hell I am.
Bevin really pissed off Kentucky teachers by effing with their pensions and a lot of Kentuckians supported the teachers. I was hoping this would have fired up some backlash votes from suburban parents in Northern Ky.
Kathleen
@Mary G: If Beshear wins Campbell County I’ll …I’ll …oh hell, I’ll do something. Just haven’t figured it out yet.
Ohio Mom
@Kent: Thanks for that bit of info. What a thankless task for the RNC that would be — whichever candidate they chose at the last minute would inevitably make lots of their voters feel unheard and cheated. Not that I wouldn’t enjoy their distress, and consider it karma.
Bex
@Ohio Mom: Who becomes the Republican presidential nominee? That would be Alan Keyes, the ultimate last minute choice.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Kathleen:
That’s wear that smirking little punk in the MAGAt hat was from wasn’t it? Sean Trende just threw some cold water on my hopes by pointing out the rural counties will come in last. But I’m glad we have some local perspective here.
jl
@different-church-lady: Also, I don’t know how Facebook gets away with its ‘algorithm’ fraud. They talk like their algorithms are facts of nature. They hired some programmers to discover the true and eternal algorithm that manages its content. That is BS. Facebook uses algorithms designed to maximize segmentation of its audience (in order to maximize profits from the sake if the data it rips off from viewers), and time spent at the site in order to maximize ad revenue and getting people to part with their money.
The idea that Facebook is solely, or even mostly, a neutral platform is ridiculous. It should be regulated just like a broadcasting network.
Kent
@Ohio Mom: It’s called Rule 9. You can read all about the nuances and possible permutations here: https://ballotpedia.org/Rule_9_and_the_2016_presidential_election
Roger Moore
@Martin:
No. There’s a specific reference in the Constitution to direct taxes needing to be apportioned among the states in proportion to their population (Article I, Section 9). The income tax was originally ruled to be unconstitutional because it violated this, which is why we had to pass the 16th Amendment, but that only allows taxation on “incomes, from whatever source derived”, not on wealth. It seems very likely that the Supreme Court would rule that a wealth tax was a violation of Article I, Section 9.
Dan B
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: That is a heartwarming thought. Thank you! /
Being able to turn off the radio is like being so happy when you stop hitting yourself in the head with a hammer.
Roger Moore
@Dan B:
Nothing. There is absolutely nothing that would achieve this. FACEBOOK delenda est.
J R in WV
@debbie:
And where do those few live now? We did pass the socialist ACA some years ago, no?
They’ve had time to relocate to a less socialist nation with shitty health care…. where on Earth did they go?
No offense, I know you were just quoting others!
Another Scott
@Martin: Not really. There’s language in the Constitution that talks about its taxing power.
But you inspired me to read up on the arguments for Warren’s proposal. Johnson et al. at the ABA:
A very interesting read.
Of course lawyers can argue about anything (it’s what they’re trained and paid to do, after all), so who knows how it would actually turn out if/when the SCOTUS takes it up.
Cheers,
Scott.
Citizen Alan
@Roger Moore:
Not true. We could always nationalize it and put the Post Office in charge of it as free, adless service.
different-church-lady
@jl:
Kathleen
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Yup. Kenton County. But per headline Beshear turned a couple of No Ky counties blue so since he lost Boone he must have won Cambell or Kenton or both.
Just saw headline that Ky elected first African American Attorney General, who is a Republican.
Jay
@Dan B:
Being broken up.
Zuck’s allowing Political Campaigns to engage in outright lies and made up events,
except for the guy who expressly is running for office to use Zuck’s “rules” to slag Facebook with poltical ads.
Apparently Politicians can lie about anything*, incite violence, murder, ethnic cleansing and genocide,
except Facebook.
https://www.google.ca/amp/s/amp.cnn.com/cnn/2019/10/29/tech/facebook-california-candidate-false-ads/index.html
Jay
Bill Arnold
@debbie:
That video that Alyssa Milano links is very good, and quick work. And the tweet is getting a lot of twitter action.
Paula White sound very much like a high-level con-woman in that video.
rb
@Martin:
“I’m not going to apologize for writing a New York Times Bestseller.” – Sen Sanders
“Write a bestseller. Then you can be a millionaire too.” – Sen Sanders
When chips are on the table, Bernie doesn’t believe capitalism is inherently bad and he tolerates it just fine.
The difference between him and Warren is she at least has the social grace to admit that her being wealthy is a little unfair to the people on whose broken bodies this system rests (not that this is saying all that much, but at least she admits it.)
Bernie, by contrast, is not going to fucking *apologize* to poor trash like that, and is fucking insulted that you even asked.
Vidya Pradhan
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: People are so crazy and so entertaining!
BigJimSlade
@VeniceRiley: Foil blocks curses? I may need a new hat!