“Sources close to Bloomberg campaign tell DRUDGE REPORT that candidate is considering Hillary as running mate, after their polling found the Bloomberg-Clinton combination would be a formidable force...,” the tweet continued, pointing to Drudge’s eponymous website, where the scoop was played in underlined type above the scroll and a bright-red all-caps headline.Yes, I know that the Bloomberg camp did not issue a denial. They probably don't want to annoy the many Hillary fans who still exist in Camp D, and they certainly don't want to trigger the rabid Hill-haters in Camp R. The latter will be screech in equal horror at a confirmation or a denial: Any mention of the Clinton name evokes an autonomic response. From Bloomberg's standpoint, the best course of action would be not to mention the name "Clinton" at all.
It's sad. The name of one of our greatest presidents -- the only one to give us both prosperity and a balanced budget -- is now toxic, thanks to a decades-long propaganda barrage.
How would Drudge, and no-one else, learn of such a thing? This story is ridiculous on its face. Drudge concocted this little fantasia for two reasons: He is tossing raw meat to the Alt Right lions, and he seeks to trigger the godawful Bernie Bros.
As for Bloomberg: Apparently, black people are starting to switch from Biden to Mr. Stop N. Frisk. That...is...insane.
stop and frisk stats over the course of Mike Bloomberg's 12 years as NYC mayor:
— Matt Binder (@MattBinder) February 11, 2020
2002: 97,296
2003: 160,851
2004: 313,523
2005: 352,348
2006: 506,491
2007: 472,096
2008: 540,302
2009: 581,168
2010: 601,285
2011: 685,724
2012: 532,911
2013: 191,851 https://t.co/QSg1uhTDRG
Meanwhile, Anita Hill still won't forgive Joe Biden because Biden blocked a witness from testifying on her behalf -- a witness so weak, so easily discredited, that the Republicans were dying for the chance to cross-examine her. Like Ms. Hill, they haven't forgiven Biden for his refusal to put that witness on TV!
I generally vote the way black people vote, but let's face it: African Americans can be as easily bamboozled as any other voting bloc.
Bloomberg. I cannot freakin' believe it. I'll vote for the guy if I have to, but...jeez. Do I have to?
(That said, I must concede that Bloomberg's ubiquitous TV and YouTube commercials are superb. One of the all-time best ad campaigns. Genuinely artful. Those ads should be studied in cinema classes in every university. Biden and Warren -- who have nothing to lose at this point -- should use Bloomberg's ads as templates for their own attacks on Bernie.)
Finally! Biden has demanded that Bernie Sanders take responsibility for the ghastly online behavior of the Bernie Bros.
“You know me well enough to know if any of my supporters did that, I’d disown them. Flat disown them,” Biden said. “The stuff that was said online. The way they threatened these two women who are leaders in that Culinary union. It is outrageous. Just — just go online.”I've been saying it since 2016. Sanders' supporters are monsters, and Sanders deserves to be held accountable. He's the King of the Monsters. He has never apologized for the hateful antics of H.A. Goodman and Cassandra Fairbanks and all of the other beasts. What the Bernie Bros did in Nevada last time was unforgivable.
In an exclusive interview airing Sunday on NBC’s “Meet The Press,” Biden said the Vermont senator “may not be responsible for it, but he has some accountability.”No, Joe, no! That's not the way to make your point and that's not the way to win an election. You can't weaken your own argument with too many qualifiers. Go for the jugular.
Bernie is responsible. He could have put a stop to the vileness with one stern lecture addressed to his own followers, warning them to start behaving like human goddamned beings. The fact that he has not delivered such a lecture in four fucking years proves that Bernie himself deserves full blame for the many displays of dickishness conducted in his name.
Another point about Bernie...
Florida (29 electoral votes) - Guaranteed win for Trump if Bernie is the nominee simply because of the fact that Sanders praised and had/has a soft spot for Fidel Castro. Cubans make up 1.2 million people in Florida.None of this will matter to the brainwashed Bros, who actually believe that they can win the election WITHOUT voters.
Pennsylvania (20 electoral votes) - Fracking supports 320,000+ jobs in the state. Sanders wants to outlaw fracking by 2025.
I don't see a scenario where Trump wins PA but loses Wisconsin and Michigan. It doesn't matter either way as Florida, Ohio, PA, and NC put him at 279
Here's an interesting follow-up comment:
I believe he'd be Corbyn 2.0 in the general, but you know what makes it hard for the public to see the disaster ahead? The near lack of urgency from other campaigns and the party in general, which serves as a tacit advertisement of his electability. They're not exactly doing anything vigorous to stop him Corbyning us, unless they have convention machinations in mind, which would be terrible because there are many ways of stopping him pre-convention"Lack of urgency." Yes! "Tacit advertisement of his electability." Yes!
I'll say it again: Biden has to go for the jugular. Show some passion, dude. The Bernie Bros are never going to stop biting and snarling and mauling. Time to bite and snarl and maul back.
12 comments:
Biden and Sanders and the mayor are all going to flame out in the next few primaries. Unfortunately Bernie is going to take warren down with him. That leaves klobechar. She is no match for Trump (I saw her on Bill Maher and she isn't even a match for Maher much less Trump).she does well on the debates, but when it comes to thinking fast on your feet, she stumbles.
That leaves Bloomberg. He may not be perfect, but he can think fast on his feet, has the money and the organization behind him that rolls out great ADs in a hurry AND can stand up to Trump.
Added bonus: Bloomberg does not have to pass the democratic litmus tests. He is and will put all his efforts in attacking Trump which is a winning strategy.
So hang from a tree, wear a clown suit, and hold your nose, but vote for Bloomberg if he is the nominee. Because on any given minute of any given day, he is a hundred times better than Trump.
And that's why we call this place Despair Central.
Although we may have to revert to the name "Cannonfire." A few sites still link here. They may not continue to offer those links if they notice the name change.
-- W
Krugman said it, Bernie is no socialist. He is playing one on tv.
Anon, you're missing the point. There is no need to "play one on TV." Playing one on TV is counterproductive. How many times must we say it? SOCIALISM IS NOT POPULAR.
No, I am not referring to programs or ideas which right-wingers would identify as "socialist." I am saying that the WORD ITSELF is not popular. It is, in fact, hated. In the public mind, socialism will always and forever be associated with the USSR. That association is simplistic and foolish, but it cannot be eradicated anytime soon, so we must live with it.
FDR figured it out: He enacted socialistic programs while decrying the word itself. Had he embraced the word, he never would have been elected. Would the world be a better place right now if FDR had never been elected? No, it would not!
Bernie is doing the exact opposite. He is embracing the word but not the programs. He is thus the ANTI-FDR. He won't be elected -- but he will forevermore associate the Democratic party with an unpopular label.
Get it?
Of course I get it. What I am trying to say is that he's a fake. I am a leftist far leftist in fact. The word socialism is very attractive to me, at the same time Bernie repulse me. I don't share your opinion that all Americans strongly associate socialism with USSR because along time had passed since the cold war. A lot of Americans didn't mind that Putin had picked their president. I know Putin isn't a communist but still. Anyway, foe younger generations the S word isn't scary, some are curious about it. That's why Sanders successfully rides that horse still. I think we should use that against him the fact he has nothing to show for as a socialist and he said he isn't a democrat. So what is he.
No bernei
Anon
You must be young. Under 30, am I right?
When I was your age, I was smart, progressive and lived in a bubble.
I wanted to be heard, to be different, to change the world, to spit in the face of tradition,to be part of the future not the past. I read, I participated,I stood up and protested.
I don't regret what I did, but I wish I was smarter, more informed, smarter, more realistic .
Now, I am still a fighter,I still read, I still participate, I still stand up.
What I don't do anymore is be reactionary, let ideals move me where I should not go, ignore obvious problematic situations, and above all, chase unicorns.
So please, don't lose your passion, or your idealism. But please understand that this election is EXISTENTIAL .
Trust the people that have lived a few more decades than you to say, don't play around. This is important. You can have time and space to play once we have dodged this bullet.
Has it occurred to anyone besides me that Bernie does not really want to be President -- that he is merely campaigning for the grift?
He certainly is not the only one to do so. It is clear that he cares not what damage his campaigning nor his rabid supporters do to the chances of real Democrats. He was perfectly happy to let the country suffer under Trump so that he could run his grift one more time.
Well, my problem with our young friend comes down to that old saying: "You're entitled to your own opinion but not to your own facts." Your opinion of socialism may be positive, but the fact is that the term is toxic with voters. All polls indicate that fact. Only a fool relies on bullshit rationalizations to sweep away data that does not accord with said fool's prejudices.
"But...YOUNG PEOPLE!"
They're not the only voters. And they are not the category most likely to vote. In 1972, many starry-eyed idealists sincerely thought that a youth wave would propel McGovern to the presidency. Didn't happen.
Besides, people become more conservative over time. That tendency has been noted for a couple of centuries. You think YOUR generation will be the great exception to that rule? Back in the 1965-72 period, the hippies were absolutely 100 percent convinced that THEY were the big exception to that rule. The truly believed that, within ten years, we would all be living as one in groovy back-to-nature communes in the new Socialist Utopia -- an Age of Aquarius, with harmony and understanding and sympathy and trust abounding, with mystic crystal revelations and the mind's true liberation. What self-deluded ninnies! By 1980, they were voting for Reagan.
As then, so now. Bank on it.
Besides, the young are more attracted to libertarianism and the Alt Right than to socialism. I did a fair amount of research into the Occupy movement and found that a lot (as in a LOT) of those dunderheads had actually drunk the Prager U kool-aid. I didn't notice a lot of greybeards weilding tiki-torches in Charlottesville. Gamergate was not something that attracted the attention Old Fuckers like me. The Klan is more powerful than before, and they are recruiting young people. This generation is by far the most racist and anti-progressive I've ever known.
Don't kid yourself, and don't stay locked within a bubble. Don't fall for the "Me and my friends" fallacy. The world is WAY bigger than you and your friends. Instead, read some history. In particular, read about the rise of the Nazi movement in Germany. You'll see that the far left inadvertently aided Adolf's rise to power every step of the way -- and in the end, many of them joined the Nazi party.
To avoid that fate, the center must hold. The CENTER.
Good piece on Bloomberg and his friendship with China:
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/12/michael-bloomberg-china-pbs-climate-xi-dictator.html?referringSource=articleShare
Tom
The last time someone called me young was decades ago. My point which got lost the minute I declared my leanings is that attacking Sanders as a socialist is less effective than calling him a failed one. For over four decades he did nothing to advance his beliefs no extensive literature, as a senator no work there to distinguish him as one. Also in his state nothing either. So why investing and wasting our time on him. He is fake and a failure. He was sold to people as a different politician so let's examine that claim closely. Let's tell people whether you hate or like the S word he isn't going to deliver.
anon- your second comment clarifies your point much better and you do have a valid point. I don't have a short answer for your question, but I just read an article in NYT that touches on the subject indirectly.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/17/opinion/democratic-primary.html
And here is another article about Sanders and his appeal to the under 30 population.
https://digbysblog.net/2020/02/you-say-you-want-a-revolution/
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