And They're Off! The Democratic Candidates for 2020

[Karl Henning]

Confidence Interval: Sanders still has a shot -- seems to be a pereiodic piece on fivethirtyeight.com

[Karl Henning]

Interesting:

Bernie Sanders Has Already Won the Democratic Primary

He set the tone, determined the issues and tugged the party toward him.

[Karl Henning]

For anyone wondering how "frightened" Republicans are about running against Bernie the All-Awesome:

Bernie Sanders Is Wrong about Cuba's Literacy Program
By FREDERICK M. HESS
& BRENDAN BELL
March 6, 2020 3:40 PM

[snip]
Sanders's defense of Castro was roundly condemned. New Jersey Democratic senator Robert Menendez thundered, "I'm sure all of those who died at Castro's hands and were shot at firing squads, all those who were tortured, those who live in my state and suffered enormously under the regime, the more than a million people who fled, I'm sure they all think that the literacy program was worth all of that."

But the responses were so focused on Sanders's moral obtuseness that they often left his point about the purported merits of the literacy program unchallenged. This is a mistake. For the evidence that Castro's program, launched in 1961, drove big increases in Cuban literacy is dubious. Cuba's supposed educational triumph is better understood as a product of propaganda and statistical chicanery.

[Karl Henning]

(Bernie): "At the end of the count in California, where we have won and will win a whole lot of delegates, I think at the end of the day, we may be a little bit ahead of Biden."

But here's the math why the remaining California delegates won't push Sanders into the lead.

[drogulus]

Are you saying we on the left are wrong about this and Biden is hiding nothing? Are you saying he doesn't have cognitive decline?

     It's a sensible strategy for any campaign to hide a glaring weakness.

OOPS: Joe Biden's Campaign LEAKS His Vice President On ACCIDENT!
(Amy Klobuchar).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ce7sjbqfBQY

     Funny, I've been thinking for days that it could be Amy K. Reason: No obvious negatives. Unlike Hillary, who is better liked by people who are close to her, K. is better liked by people who aren't.

[71 dB]

What's all this "we on the left" stuff? Plenty on the left disagree with Sander and everyone on the left on this forum disagrees with you, myself included. You don't speak for them and neither does Kyle or Basement Guy, whatever his name is.

You" don't have a clue why"? Oh yes you do. You're being utterly dishonest by saying you don't because its been explained to you hundreds of times. And I never said Sanders would be a bad president, I just don't believe for a second he can deliver the icecreams and ponies he's promising.

I almost said in my previous post that you were like someone who gets all their news exclusively from Stephen Colbert, but then had to stop myself because you'd in all honesty be vastly better informed if that's what you did.

I thought you are a centrist. What is your left wing visio for the US? Incrementalism? That's centrism and it led to Trump. Not good.

How come other countries can do  "icecreams and ponies"? The sole superpower in the world can't. Weird...

[71 dB]

You demonstrate constantly that you fail to think for yourself.  You are the laziest excuse for an "intelllectual" that I have ever encountered.  And since I know some Trump voters, that is saying something.

I thought we are on the path of more friendly times now... ...for some reason you want to continue this negativity...

[SimonNZ]

I thought you are a centrist. What is your left wing visio for the US? Incrementalism? That's centrism and it led to Trump. Not good.

How come other countries can do  "icecreams and ponies"? The sole superpower in the world can't. Weird...

I have never once referred to myself as a "centrist"(a term which at any rate I find to be so elastic as to be meaningless), you only think so because of your personal Overton Window, as I tried to point out a few pages back.

The idea of my having a "vision for the US" is laughable. Or at least beyond "that buffoon is a global menace". I could say which candidates I like from this distance, but unless they too turn out to be a global menace then I'm just a spectator and many of my needs wont be the needs they're addressing. I'm most certainly not, for example, going to tell any American what kind of healthcare they should vote for.

But its still fascinating to watch and discuss.


in other news, someone at The Hill needs to put down the crack pipe:

A Biden-Bernie ticket can defeat Trump and defend democracy

[JBS]

For anyone wondering how "frightened" Republicans are about running against Bernie the All-Awesome:

Bernie Sanders Is Wrong about Cuba's Literacy Program
By FREDERICK M. HESS
& BRENDAN BELL
March 6, 2020 3:40 PM

[snip]
Sanders's defense of Castro was roundly condemned. New Jersey Democratic senator Robert Menendez thundered, "I'm sure all of those who died at Castro's hands and were shot at firing squads, all those who were tortured, those who live in my state and suffered enormously under the regime, the more than a million people who fled, I'm sure they all think that the literacy program was worth all of that."

But the responses were so focused on Sanders's moral obtuseness that they often left his point about the purported merits of the literacy program unchallenged. This is a mistake. For the evidence that Castro's program, launched in 1961, drove big increases in Cuban literacy is dubious. Cuba's supposed educational triumph is better understood as a product of propaganda and statistical chicanery.

Sanders's inability to not give praise to authoritarian leftists is reminiscent of Trump's inability to not give praise to authoritarian rightwingers, and shows a cognitive deficiency worse than anything Biden demonstrates.  And since it has been going on for about as long as Bernie's been in politics, it can't be called a decline.  He should at least be alert to the need to not say it publicly, and thereby alienate considerable groups of voters in states like Florida.

[71 dB]

I have never once referred to myself as a "centrist"(a term which at any rate I find to be so elastic as to be meaningless), you only think so because of your personal Overton Window, as I tried to point out a few pages back.

The idea of my having a "vision for the US" is laughable. Or at least beyond "that buffoon is a global menace". I could say which candidates I like from this distance, but unless they too turn out to be a global menace then I'm just a spectator and many of my needs wont be the needs they're addressing. I'm most certainly not, for example, going to tell any American what kind of healthcare they should vote for.

But its still fascinating to watch and discuss.

So you don't have a vision for the US, but you seem to have one for me. You are opinionated about my support of Bernie Sanders and my sources of information. Where is your Overton Window? Where mine is is clear. Kyle Kulinski, TYT, Status Coup etc. ARE the left and I agree with them most of the time. We on the left are for medicare for all. We don't wonder about what kind of system the US should have. We know the answer based on studies and empirical evidence. We know how other kind of healthcare systems than single payer systems are to protect profit of private insurance companies. To us on the left the purpose of healthcare is to provide affordable care for everyone, not make profit. That's why the choice is clear for us. If you are not for medicare for all you are not for affordable care for everyone. You are for profits meaning you are a centrist or a right-winger who think money is more important than people.

Sure, you have never called yourself a centrist, but your doubts about (my) lefty sources of information give me an impression of a moderate, centrist person. Your opinions about Trump show me you are definitely not a right-winger.

[71 dB]

     Funny, I've been thinking for days that it could be Amy K. Reason: No obvious negatives. Unlike Hillary, who is better liked by people who are close to her, K. is better liked by people who aren't.

Why anyone outside the top 1 % "likes" Amy Klobuchar is beyond me and others on the left. What's the appeal? What did she offer to people? Normalcy and decorum after Trump? Nice, but Americans are struggling and need much more than that.

[71 dB]

You demonstrate constantly that you fail to think for yourself.  You are the laziest excuse for an "intelllectual" that I have ever encountered.  And since I know some Trump voters, that is saying something.

I'm sorry you feel that way. I am who I am and I have the opinions I have. I believe I am able to think for myself and I even think questioning things is one of my rare strengths. I don't know what I should do or say to make you have a more positive opinion about me.

[71 dB]

What's all this "we on the left" stuff? Plenty on the left disagree with Sander and everyone on the left on this forum disagrees with you, myself included. You don't speak for them and neither does Kyle or Basement Guy, whatever his name is.

I almost said in my previous post that you were like someone who gets all their news exclusively from Stephen Colbert, but then had to stop myself because you'd in all honesty be vastly better informed if that's what you did.

Well, if I am not a member of the left, what am I? Who on the left disagrees with Bernie Sanders? Maybe YOU aren't as left as you think. Are you on the left on social or on economic issues? Both?

What are YOUR better sources of information? You are eager to tell how my sources suck (they don't), but you don't give hints of better ones. That's why I am clueless about what you are doing. Are you just trying to be a besserwisser or what?

[Madiel]

Well, if I am not a member of the left, what am I?

You've completely missed the logic of the post you're responding to. It did not say you weren't a member of the left. It said you shouldn't act as if everyone on the left thinks exactly the same way that you do.

And your response is basically to suggest that if someone doesn't agree with you, THEY can't be on the left. Good grief.

[71 dB]

Bernie Sanders is actually winning, they're just rigging it for Joe Biden. The exit polls don't match (within normal margin of error) with the reported vote counts and this inconsistency surprise surprise benefits Biden.

For example: In Massachusetts exit polls give Biden 28.9 % and Sanders 30.4 %, but the reported vote counts were 33.4 % for Biden and 26.7 % for Sanders. Elizabeth Warren also suffered this way (exit polls 25.2 %, reported 21.6 %). Funny, it's the two most progressive candidates!

This is oligarchy at work: The rich protect their rigged system by rigging the elections so that only "no real change" candidates can win. For example Bernie should have won Texas, but he didn't. I see stories about voter supression in areas strong for Bernie. Voting placing closing early. One guy spend 7 hours voting. Ridiculous! The US is so pathetic even for a banana republic when it comes to having democratic elections and that's why American won't have the nice things other countries have from clean tap water to single payer healthcare to paid sick leave by law to tuition free education to...

Source: TDMS RESEARCH

[71 dB]

You've completely missed the logic of the post you're responding to. It did not say you weren't a member of the left. It said you shouldn't act as if everyone on the left thinks exactly the same way that you do.

And your response is basically to suggest that if someone doesn't agree with you, THEY can't be on the left. Good grief.

Well, there are of course some disagreement on the left just as there are on the right. For example Kyle Kulinski agrees with Bernie Sanders 95 % of the time. However, that's much more than what he agrees with many other politicians. Some ideas such as medicare for all are accepted by pretty much everyone on the left and I already explained why. There may be disagreement on the left about how much student loans should be canceled. 50 %? 75%? 100%? Or maybe how to increase taxes on the rich. Things like that. The fact that there are disagreement isn't my fault. That's just how it is. Do you disagree with me about everything? How could that even be possible. We both dislike Trump, right? That means we must share some values and ideas. What exactly are our disagreements? Are you AGAINST everything Bernie proposes? Why?

[71 dB]

I think the Republican Party is more democratic than the Democratic Party. The reason for this is pretty self-evident: Republican candidates are NEVER progressive, so there is no need to rig anything.

[71 dB]

Do you like Biden but hate Trump? Why? They are quite similar.

[Madiel]

Noting that you're not in America... all that stuff about voting for whoever is the Democratic nominee would clearly be totally lost on you.

[71 dB]

Election integrity.