And They're Off! The Democratic Candidates for 2020

[Karl Henning]

Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), who has been running away from reporters and voters who dare ask whether she objects to using U.S. aid to extort a foreign government to interfere in our election, let the cat out of the bag. During a brief media availability on Monday, she rightly declared that the Iowa caucuses are set for next Monday. She then stepped into the political quicksand, confessing that she was "really interested to see how this discussion today informs and influences the Iowa caucus voters, those Democratic caucus goers. Will they be supporting VP Biden at this point?" Oops.

She is not supposed to be cheering in public for Biden's demise as a result of already debunked conspiracy theories. Her confession however, like then-House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) letting on that the Benghazi hearings would bring down Hillary Clinton's favorability numbers, reminds this that the Trump extortion plan and the defense his legal team is conducting are very much — make that entirely — about undermining a rival who he became convinced would be his most dangerous opponent.

[Karl Henning]

Oh, don't read that Poju, we all know that Trump is much more afraid of running against someone he can tar as a Socialist.

[71 dB]

Oh, don't read that Poju, we all know that Trump is much more afraid of running against someone he can tar as a Socialist.

Leaked Audio Confirms Trump is Scared of Bernie

https://www.youtube.com/v/QtaqT7OJ0gw

If Trump tries to tar Bernie as a socialist, Bernie will ask back if people prefer democratic socialism (social democracy actually, but Bernie uses a bit wrong termilogy here so it is what it is), or corporate socialism favored by corporate Dems and Reps. More tax cuts for the rich or healthcare for you? Good luck to Trump to win that issue.  For once he is smart for being scared of Bernie.

[ritter]

Leaked Audio Confirms Trump is Scared of Bernie

https://www.youtube.com/v/QtaqT7OJ0gw

If Trump tries to tar Bernie as a socialist, Bernie will ask back if people prefer democratic socialism (social democracy actually, but Bernie uses a bit wrong terminology here so it is what it is), or corporate socialism favored by corporate Dems and Reps. More tax cuts for the rich or healthcare for you? Good luck to Trump to win that issue.  For once he is smart for being scared of Bernie.

The way you put it, 71db, Mr. Trump needs no luck in winning that issue (and this is an avowed social democrat talking). The very notion that such terminology can have any persuasive effects on American voters simply reflects an absolute ignorance of the "American way".

And, with all due respect and sympathy, your futile attempts to shove your personal political agenda (some of which I--partly--may share, but is argued in such an uniformed and dogmatic way that it becomes ridiculous) down the throats of our fellow GMGers across the Atlantic, as if you, by some miraculous power, knew what is good for them better than they themselves, were perhaps quaint at the start, then mildly amusing, and now completely insufferable (not to mention insulting, not only to Americans).

[JBS]

In other words you have gotten used to the system you have and are scared of change.

What I meant is, that I know how private insurance works here and how public insurance works here.  I see how the low level of care that people on Medicare and Medicaid get.  It's factory medicine, and no better than what I have now.

How would you make both CNN and the Young Turks stop talking about the issue? It's a hot potato. Millions of people demand single payer healthcare while the insurance companies and Big Pharma try to uphold the rigged system that benefits them.

I wouldn't stop them talking.  But I know they are inaccurate and unreliable, so I know not to believe everything they say. 

I don't know what would "emerge". However, I am confident it would be a clear improvent to the current system. As Kyle Kulinski says, even if Bernie gets only 20 % of his stuff implemented it would mean significant improvements to the country.

About half the GOP senators running for re-election this year are from states that are safely Republican.  Which means that the GOP will be able to filibuster and block any Democratic plan.  The best you can hope for is an expansion of Medicare as it is now, with all its many problems.

And implementing anything of Bernie's plan will not improve anything.  I've already explained to you why it won't bring down drug prices and won't really keep people from going bankrupt.  But you prefer to believe Kulinski even when I show you that's he's not a reliable source.  The obvious reason is that you subscribe to the same ideology he does.  To those of us who don't, he's just another leftist propaganda outlet.

[JBS]

(See, there's one essential way in which US healthcare is way better than Finland --- getting laid is much easier in the former than in the latter) --- my apologies toJBS, it's not that I couldn't resist, it's that there is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

I will remain skeptical of that until we find someone with appropriate experience of both American and Finnish ladies.  I certainly don't have experience of the latter.

[JBS]

The last thing Poju need is a lady, be her American or Finnish. He needs an experienced whore, no matter what nationality, to give him a good fuck, period. I know you would disagree with me but I stand by it.

Being a lady and being a harlot are not mutually exclusive things.

[71 dB]

The way you put it, 71db, Mr. Trump needs no luck in winning that issue (and this is an avowed social democrat talking). The very notion that such terminology can have any persuasive effects on American voters simply reflects an absolute ignorance of the "American way".

Well is Bernie doing badly or well in the race? According to your "American way" he should have near zero support, am I wrong? Left-wing ideas have a long history in the US (FDR, MLK, JFK...), but of course the corporate media tries to render a completely different narrative.

And, with all due respect and sympathy, your futile attempts to shove your personal political agenda (some of which I--partly--may share, but is argued in such an uniformed and dogmatic way that it becomes ridiculous) down the throats of our fellow GMGers across the Atlantic, as if you, by some miraculous power, knew what is good for them better than they themselves, were perhaps quaint at the start, then mildly amusing, and now completely insufferable (not to mention insulting, not only to Americans).

Considering who is the current president of the US, one might argue Americans could benefit from the insight of people on the other side of the Atlantic ocean...  ...Trump is the symptom of four decades of oligarchy. Removing Trump is not enough, you need to remove oligarcy too. That's when people don't vote for reality tv baffoons out of desperation.

[ritter]

https://www.youtube.com/v/rCxgDhMudFY
From 1'08" to 1'55", but the whole thing is wonderful (artificial as it is--IIRC, Sinatra and Frankiln never met to record this, as can be deducted from the video)...

[Madiel]

If anyone wants to hear some analysis of various policy proposals instead of merely slagging each other off constantly about whether or not things can possibly work in the USA how they work anywhere else, I suggest trying the latest season of the podcast The Impact.

You won't even go metric. You'd have your own laws of physics if possible...

[Karl Henning]

You won't even go metric. You'd have your own laws of physics if possible...

Pardon my ignorznce, but is that "slagging"?

[71 dB]

You'd have your own laws of physics if possible...

I believe some flat-Earthers say gravity* doesn't exist... ...it's all buoyancy! 

(buoyancy is caused by gravity and density difference)

* Yeah yeah I know, it's curvature of spacetime**, but we experience it as the force of gravity because we don't experience spacetime as it is, but totally separate space and time instead.

** As a matter of fact, spacetime is probably just an emergent property of the underlying reality just like gravity is an emergent property of curvature of spacetime, but that's stuff only the smartest minds in the field of physics are debating about. Space and time (separated or together) may end up being concepts science needs to throw away to advance. Concepts that served science well for some 400 years, but need to give place for something deeper.

[71 dB]

You won't even go metric.

The US is more metric than people think.

https://www.youtube.com/v/MJd0aBQuTYQ

[Madiel]

Pardon my ignorznce, but is that "slagging"?

Near enough.

[greg]

You won't even go metric. You'd have your own laws of physics if possible...

I think most people probably want to? But it's not something that can easily change.

And of course, the sciences are a different story.

[71 dB]

But it's not something that can easily change.

In 2002 Finland started using euros instead of Finnish mark (mk). One Euro was just under 6 mk, so multiplying the euro prices by 6 gave the price in Finnish marks. So, CDs that used to cost ~120 mk were ~20 euros and so on... ...for about two years some people said they keep converting prices to Finnish marks in their head to have an idea of how expensive things are, but after that everyone just used euros: ~20 euros was the normal price for CDs, 10 euros was a cheap CD and 5 euros bargain bin price... ...then came LED lightning and multiplying by 6 was a thing again: 10 W LED equals 60 W incandescent lamp. 

...people learn to use other "units" if they just start doing so.

[Karl Henning]

The numbers that stand out concern Sanders. Sanders's favorability hit 70 percent in early January but has now dropped to 61 percent, while his unfavorable number has gone from 22 percent to 32 percent. This coincides with a flurry of negative stories about Sanders: his overly aggressive Bernie Bros, the revelation that he reportedly told Warren that a woman was not electable (which Sanders denied), his false attacks on Biden on Social Security, his refusal to say how much his extravagant plans cost, his apology for spreading a Trump-like attack that Biden is "corrupt" and rising concern among Democrats that he might be the least electable of the top contenders. Others have raised the point that he has never been thoroughly vetted.

Perhaps for the first time in his political career, he is getting thoroughly blasted by fellow Democrats, and he has not been able to do much about it. For one thing, he has been tied up in the impeachment trial. (The Biden camp fully appreciates the irony.) More than that, he seems at a loss to respond to real scrutiny, not an encouraging sign for a party about to go up against President Trump. This is a case in which the candidates and his followers know how to dish it out but not how to take it.

To a much greater degree, the glass-jaw phenomenon afflicted Warren when her Medicare-for-all scheme went under the microscope. (First she refused to say how much it would cost, then she put out a controversial and eye-popping funding scheme and eventually backed away from the whole thing.) She has yet to recover fully.

Biden's campaign is happy to point out that Biden has been bashed for a year (and targeted by Trump in his Ukraine scheme) but is still standing. Resilience might be the most under-appreciated quality in a presidential candidate.

[JBS]

Be it noted that Florida's primary is March 17. The most recent polls show Biden in the 35-40% range, Bernie in the 12-15% range, and Bloomberg at 12%, with everyone else below 10%.

One recent poll shows Bloomberg at 17% and Bernie at 9%. 
Florida being what it is, we have plenty of experience with health care and all its problems. If the Young Turks were right, we ought to be lining up enthusiastically for Bernie. But somehow  we aren't.  Maybe because the corporate "brainwashing" against Medicare for All has a solid basis in reality, after all.

Table of polls here
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_Florida_Democratic_primary

[greg]

In 2002 Finland started using euros instead of Finnish mark (mk). One Euro was just under 6 mk, so multiplying the euro prices by 6 gave the price in Finnish marks. So, CDs that used to cost ~120 mk were ~20 euros and so on... ...for about two years some people said they keep converting prices to Finnish marks in their head to have an idea of how expensive things are, but after that everyone just used euros: ~20 euros was the normal price for CDs, 10 euros was a cheap CD and 5 euros bargain bin price... ...then came LED lightning and multiplying by 6 was a thing again: 10 W LED equals 60 W incandescent lamp. 

...people learn to use other "units" if they just start doing so.

Well, that's great. But honestly I think that's totally incomparable with the US adopting metric.

300 million more people and things that provide American measurement won't just go away. For example, a lot of people will have cars for 10, 20 years or longer that show speed as mph. All of the signs are still in mph. So the average person has no incentive to learn kph.

[JBS]

Well, that's great. But honestly I think that's totally incomparable with the US adopting metric.

300 million more people and things that provide American measurement won't just go away. For example, a lot of people will have cars for 10, 20 years or longer that show speed as mph. All of the signs are still in mph. So the average person has no incentive to learn kph.

A lot of speedometers have kph already. Most rules show both metric and American, and so on. But plenty of things presume the standard America measurements.  It will take the building trades a long time to get used to using 5 by 10s instead of 2 by 4s.