Friday, September 22, 2017

Blame Bernie: The follow-up

Following up on the previous post, which argues that Bernie deliberately empowered Cassidy-Graham by refusing to wait until October to push for his pie-in-the-sky single-payer proposal: I invite you to check out this DU thread. The truth is starting to dawn on others, although the originator of that thread was a ninny:
Bernie and Amy Klouchbar better make Bill Cassidy and Lindsey Graham look stupid in their upcoming health care debate. The stakes can not be higher. Failure is not an option They must crush them and their utter defeat needs to be apparent to most Americans, not just to the members of this board.
One response:
They should not even mention single payer.

The subject of the debate is the G-C bill. If Bernie mentions single payer, Graham will respond with his 'Bernie is a socialist and single payer is a Commie plan and an attack on our democracy' bit. And Graham wins because the debate will become about something having nothing to do with the terrible content of the G-C bill.

Before we can even address single payer, the G-C bill, the subject of the debate, must be defeated.

My fear is that Bernie, not a details guy, won't let go of his agenda and instead focus his comments on killing the bill.
Oh, he will definitely refuse to let go of his agenda.

That's his purpose. He's working for Trump. Maybe Bernie knows it and maybe he doesn't -- but either way, he's working for Trump.

Bernie will demonstrate who-owns-whom when he mounts a "noble" fight for single payer which will have the precise opposite of the intended effect.

Why couldn't he have waited until October to announce his sure-to-lose legislation? He just had to do it now, in September. He choose to do it this month because the threat of "socialized medicine" impels Republicans to support a hastily-drafted Obamacare-killer. If Bernie had kept his goddamned mouth shut until October, Cassidy and Graham probably would not have rolled out their bad bill -- and even if they had, the engine would have had less fuel.

(As a reminder: Until September 30, the Republicans can pass a bill with a simple 50-vote majority. After that date, they will need 60 votes.)

Comedian Jen Kirkman, whom we have mentioned before, understands what is going on:
Now that the woman is safely nowhere near the White House - it seems as though the media is finally vetting Sanders.
They’re slowly starting to say his insistence on Medicare for all instead of defending current ACA gives R’s what they want.
Also:
Be honest. Do you think Tad Devine will come to my comedy show in DC this Sunday??
Also:
.@maddow @Lawrence @AriMelber I feel you 3 are most likely to do so....so why no pontificate-y deep dives on Tad Devine’s ties to Manafort?
Well, you haven't heard it from Maddow -- but you have heard it from me, here and here and elsewhere. The image at the top of this page may puzzle some of you: It refers to the fact that Tad Devine worked for a filthy Ukrainian politician named Viktor Yanukovych (backed by Putin) who used poison to take out a rival. The toxin did not kill, but it sure as hell did a number on the poor guy's face.

Taddikins worked for Yanukovich after the poisoning incident shocked the world.

At the time Bernie hired Devine, the Yanukovich account was THE number one item on Tad's resume. There is no way Bernie can plead ignorance. There is no way Bernie could not have known just how dirty Tad Devine was and is. 

It's high time Rachel Maddow or one of the other MSNBC-ers talked about that.

And yet the motherfucking hypocritical BernieBots lambasted Hillary for delivering some boilerplate speeches to Goldman Sachs -- and then giving the proceeds to charity!

10 comments:

nemdam said...

In a bit of good news I'm sure you have all heard by now, McCain is a hard no on C-G.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/mccain-says-he-will-vote-no-for-gop-health-care-bill-dealing-major-blow-to-repeal-effort/2017/09/22/077ba8a4-9fc0-11e7-9c8d-cf053ff30921_story.html?deferJs=true&outputType=default-article&utm_term=.ee41f4d006fb

Sadly, I cannot report that Bernie has decided his debate is pointless and is canceling it. He's too busy giving his Medicare-for-all speech.

Anonymous said...

Nemdam:

Of course Sanders won't cancel his damn debate because we're into grandstanding moments, pushing single-payer to the max when single-payer doesn't have a chance in hell in this political climate, not to mention Dems being in the minority. But Bernie Sanders will keep howling into the wind because . . . he's Bernie Sanders. What thoroughly pisses me off is you can't suggest that the timing of this nonsense is counterproductive (as if October 1st was a lifetime away) without Bernie's supporters shouting, 'Foul, Foul.'

I'm sick of it. Sick of Bernie, sick of his blind supporters. Here's the rub: though I was a steady Clinton supporter, I actually wanted Sanders to run in 2016 to push the Dem platform left of center. Well, that happened. Then the entire 2016 debacle unfolded and here we are.

Fool me once. Never again.

Peggysue

Prowlerzee said...

I hope Maddie gets shamed into Tad Devine busting.

CambridgeKnitter said...

A question and a comment.

Why didn't the 16 co-sponsors object to introducing the Medicare for All bill now instead of in October?

Luckily for all of us, Senators Graham and Cassidy aren't much for details either. If Senator Klobuchar is, it should go well. Maybe she and Bernie could watch Jimmy Kimmel's most recent monologue and commit it to memory.

Big Guy said...

@NemDam

Someone on Twitter (maybe Joseph provided the link) posted that an ad for Bernie's M4A bill was on Breitbart. The Tweeter clicked through the links and, surprise surprise, Slanders has started a PAC to support the bill accompanied by a convenient "Donate" button (unlike any of the Dem co-sponsors). Supposedly, if you kept clicking you would find ad for Bernie for Pres in 2020 which I think lead to another donation page.

Too lazy to find the tweet deck and link, but it's part of the ongoing grift and chicken copulation of the Democratic party.

Anonymous said...

It's all Hillary's fault. Why she has to have a good well written book out and manipulate people into buying it bigly. As if that's not enough she is everywhere. Looking good too. So what's an old goat do, he can't let her upstage him.

nemdam said...

@Big Guy

Oh yeah, I'm aware of all of this. He wants to reach Trump voters, and he's using his M4A pitch to help him fundraise and promote himself for 2020. I would have no problem believing this even if I hadn't seen it myself as it's just who he is. I guess the sarcasm about my comment saying he won't cancel his stupid debate didn't come through. OF COURSE he won't cancel it. In fact, this has probably convinced him that Obamacare repeal is dead (even though they have until 9/30), so he will schedule another debate! And this time without any corrupt Democrats by his side.

Prowlerzee said...

Peggy Sue, grandstanding is the perfect term.

Unknown said...

I did get your sarcasm and I loved it,Spot on.

Unknown said...

Me too.