US Elections 2020 IV: The Two Gentlemen of Corona

[Hand Solo]

And don't forget Rowdy "Roddy" Piper.

That man is sick, listen to the music - he's evil!

[jobotic]

Clint Eastwood's character from Rawhide

Aah, makes a lot of sense. Ta.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/nov/24/bernie-sanders-working-class-win-back-from-donald-trump

Bernie knows.

Any Democrat looking at their failure to win back support from the rust belt voters who deserted them in 2016 should be sitting to attention.

There is an even more important message. No progressive political force should ever ignore the working class, because the alternatives they will look for are so many times worse.

[ajsmith2]

The Guardian let Bernie Sanders write an article for them? Genuinely surprised.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

The Guardian let Bernie Sanders write an article for them? Genuinely surprised.

Bernie chose to make his points circuitously without outright criticizing Biden which might be why it passed the bar.

[greenman]

Bernie chose to make his points circuitously without outright criticizing Biden which might be why it passed the bar.

It also provides a nice cloak to an anti progressive agenda, praise politicians in other nations but the ones at home? nope theres something seriously wrong with them.

The idea of "why couldn't we have had Sanders instead of Corbyn" seems very common in such circles but really ignores that Sanders and his supporters in the US got a lot of the same kind of negative coverage from "liberal media".

[rjd2]

Not an exaggeration but the coverage of Biden from the DNC establishment and blue MAGA online is going to horrific in how fawning it is.  Its easy to mock MAGA hangers on for their loyalty but lordy BlueMAGA isn't much better sadly.

While MSNBC fawn you can see how easy it is going to be for some horror from the GOP to emerge for 2024, most depressingly he isn't actually saying anything that wrong here either.


https://twitter.com/HawleyMO/status/1331244244170911750

[Rainbow Moses]

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/nov/24/bernie-sanders-working-class-win-back-from-donald-trump

Bernie knows.

Any Democrat looking at their failure to win back support from the rust belt voters who deserted them in 2016 should be sitting to attention.

There is an even more important message. No progressive political force should ever ignore the working class, because the alternatives they will look for are so many times worse.

Democratic and Labour may succeed, as long they don't make the mistake of believing those traditional supporters they need to 'win back' ever cast their votes on the basis of anything other than class and economic self-interest. Votes for socialist or social liberal parties was never necessarily a vote for either socialism or liberalism.

It's hard to see how it's possible to regain support when such people have little feeling for social reform and left-wing ideas beyond how they might benefit them economically or make them believe their free flow of donkey-brained ideas is the lifeblood of democracy.

[Urinal Cake]

The issue is that Democrats are happy with the PMC as well as small business owners etc as being the Democray base. Part of it is practical and part of it is ideological. Practically they get out to vote and aren't 'fickle.' They are happy with the status quo. They don't cause problems with donors since their concerns about the environment and racism can be solved by corporations.
Idealogically they want their base to be the 'winners' not the losers in this economy. They want the merit crowd to be the Democratic crowd.
Now the problem is Biden has won with this strategy, they might've just kept the house and still lost the Senate but maybe the real prize is keeping control of the party, making sure everybody has careers and donations and job opportunities still keep coming in.

[kngen]

Not an exaggeration but the coverage of Biden from the DNC establishment and blue MAGA online is going to horrific in how fawning it is.  Its easy to mock MAGA hangers on for their loyalty but lordy BlueMAGA isn't much better sadly.

While MSNBC fawn you can see how easy it is going to be for some horror from the GOP to emerge for 2024, most depressingly he isn't actually saying anything that wrong here either.


https://twitter.com/HawleyMO/status/1331244244170911750

My partner was very involved in some local political activism in the run-up to the election (local school boards, councils etc) and the biggest opposition they came up against was a bunch of Blue Wave suburban white women (self-anointed 'The Coven') who would cry racism, sexism, all the shite of the day when the candidate of their choice (a centrist corporate stooge parachuted into the district by a bunch of other centrist corporate stooges) was challenged on her flimsy record. They lost, and they are fucking livid - and we can already see that all their energies are going to be spent in the next couple of years punching left while Team Q Kraken Maga will be creeping in behind them.

I hate these fucking pricks more than I hate the red-hat dullards. They are absolute poison, but - as Thomas Frank says - they waft around with an impenetrable sense of entitlement because they believe they are 'so fucking good!' Hell fucking mend them.

[pcsjwgm]

https://twitter.com/HawleyMO/status/1331244244170911750

Fucking grifting cunt like Trump. Josh Hawley voted to withdraw from the Iran deal, opposed the Iran War Powers Resolution, received a $10,000 donation from John Bolton, happily accepted and promoted Bolton's endorsement, supports Israel, is extremely hawkish against China, opposes the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, supports "Right to Work", and claims a minimum wage increase will result in unemployment.

https://www.ontheissues.org/Senate/Josh_Hawley.htm
https://www.kansascity.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/mary-sanchez/article210906469.html
https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2017/12/12/1253344/0/en/AMBASSADOR-JOHN-BOLTON-ENDORSES-JOSH-HAWLEY-FOR-U-S-SENATE-IN-MISSOURI.html

Speaking of pseudo-populist paleocon grifters...

Tucker Carlson slammed former president Barack Obama in April 2017 for giving a $400,000 paid Wall Street speech, calling it "indefensible."

"What could the former president possibly say a) that we haven't heard, b) that would be worth $400,000 for an hour?" the Fox News host asked on his show.

Five months later, Carlson and Obama both spoke at the same conference hosted by the Wall Street giant The Carlyle Group, a private equity colossus.

According to Bloomberg, Obama "discussed his life and the decisions he made in the White House." It was one of three finance industry speeches Obama did in the span of weeks.

Carlson, who has been known to criticize Wall Street on his show, spoke on a panel with other journalists. He has also done speaking gigs with JPMorgan and the investment banking firm Jefferies Group. Carlson bills more than $70,000 per appearance, according to his profile on the Washington Speakers Bureau.

https://jacobinmag.com/2020/11/tucker-carlson-speaking-fees-private-equity

[rjd2]

Yeah not for one moment suggesting Hawley is a good person, pretty sure have read I that Mitch is somehow to the left on him on economics when you compare their voting records, but 4 years of "decency porn" and not much else does pave the way for someone of his ilk to come along in 2024.

[jamiefairlie]

Democratic and Labour may succeed, as long they don't make the mistake of believing those traditional supporters they need to 'win back' ever cast their votes on the basis of anything other than class and economic self-interest. Votes for socialist or social liberal parties was never necessarily a vote for either socialism or liberalism.

Bang on, focus exclusively on making poorer people financially better off and they'll win them back. Problem is that many left wing activists are no longer inspired by dull economics or class warfare, they have something more exciting to champion, and they all have different ones and bicker endlessly about whose is more important.

[greenman]

My partner was very involved in some local political activism in the run-up to the election (local school boards, councils etc) and the biggest opposition they came up against was a bunch of Blue Wave suburban white women (self-anointed 'The Coven') who would cry racism, sexism, all the shite of the day when the candidate of their choice (a centrist corporate stooge parachuted into the district by a bunch of other centrist corporate stooges) was challenged on her flimsy record. They lost, and they are fucking livid - and we can already see that all their energies are going to be spent in the next couple of years punching left while Team Q Kraken Maga will be creeping in behind them.

I hate these fucking pricks more than I hate the red-hat dullards. They are absolute poison, but - as Thomas Frank says - they waft around with an impenetrable sense of entitlement because they believe they are 'so fucking good!' Hell fucking mend them.

I mean that was the tactic in the primaries to beat Sanders wasn't it? field multiple centralist candidates that target different social groups, bring them into conflict with Sanders and then drop out and back Biden.

[Urinal Cake]

I mean that was the tactic in the primaries to beat Sanders wasn't it? field multiple centralist candidates that target different social groups, bring them into conflict with Sanders and then drop out and back Biden.

I think you're giving them too much credit. They all thought they had a shot because with Trump anything was possible. Remember they first co-opted Sanders before starting fights with him. Biden and Kamala were the ones to beat. Then Warren. Then Buttigieg. Then Sanders. In the end it was Obama who stepped in, as elder statesmen to clean the mess that self-interest caused to stop Sanders.

[greenman]

I think you're giving them too much credit. They all thought they had a shot because with Trump anything was possible. Remember they first co-opted Sanders before starting fights with him. Biden and Kamala were the ones to beat. Then Warren. Then Buttigieg. Then Sanders. In the end it was Obama who stepped in, as elder statesmen to clean the mess that self-interest caused to stop Sanders.

They(especially Warren) might have thought they had some shot of replacing Biden in that position but I think you see all of them were strongly antagonistic towards Sanders. The main prize I suspect they were after was the VP position.

I remember taking names at a polling station last year working with a Green in Stroud(were a Green running spilt votes and got a Tory in) and when the US election briefly came up in discussion she was surprise surprise a big Warren booster going on about sexism.

[Urinal Cake]

Kamala and Buttigieg eventually back-flipped on a lot of Sanders positions. It was Biden that was always the ardent centrist. That maybe was a strategy to dull Sanders influence but I think they felt/got told that they were never going to out-flank Sanders on the left and that most primary voters were 'anybody but Trump.'

My feeling is that Kamala as Obama 2.0 and Buttigieg as Gay JFK thought they could pull off the nomination. Castro, Yang and the other fairly blank centerists were looking for VP or cabinet positions. Then you had maybe Williamson and Gabbard looking for media positions or positions in a Sanders possibly Warren government.

[greenman]

They needed to give the appearance of being more progressive than Biden though whilst being antagonistic with Sanders on a more personal level playing into the "Bernie bro" idea so their followers would be turned against him and easier to drag with them to Biden(or not vote at all) even if that was a bigger compromise on what they'd been promising.

[Paul Calf]

Bang on, focus exclusively on making poorer people financially better off and they'll win them back. Problem is that many left wing activists are no longer inspired by dull economics or class warfare, they have something more exciting to champion, and they all have different ones and bicker endlessly about whose is more important.

Well, you would say that. Brocialist.

[Paul Calf]

To avoid doubt, the irony is deliberate ^

[Sebastian Cobb]

"Keep those donations coming in"

Amazed to see Biden is on the "I won,  give me money" gift as well.

[Ferris]

Motherfucker all you people are fucking millionaires, fund your own shit.

The way that's phrased pisses me off as well. When the GSA funds the transition (which they are doing now), are you going to pay me back? No? Then piss off.

[metaltax]

Amazed to see Biden is on the "I won,  give me money" gift as well.

Was. That's 5 days old and precedes the decision to free up the federal transition funding.

[falafel]

Motherfucker all you people are fucking millionaires, fund your own shit.

Are they aloowed to?

[Ferris]

Are they aloowed to?

I have no idea to be fair.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Great photo of the two together

[peanutbutter]

Amazed to see Biden is on the "I won,  give me money" gift as well.

Reckon some data  trying to explain non-policy based reasons why Sanders was popular that told them voters are more likely to stick with you regardless of policies if you've invested some cash.

No way they need the money, like

[Mobius]

here comes the pardonings

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1331706255212228608

[Alberon]

More proof Trump knows he's going.

I presume he'll hold off pardoning himself until just before he leaves.

[C_Larence]

More proof Trump knows he's going.

I presume he'll hold off pardoning himself until just before he leaves.

I wonder what the odds are on Biden pardoning him