SURPRISE! Joe Biden announced he is running for POTUS.

This is the most unexpected news since someone reported that, roughly every twenty-four hours, the sun rises in the east. Please try to recover from the shock.

Creepy, privileged Joe Biden finally formally entered the race for the Democratic Presidential nomination.

CBS This Morning described him as "Uncle Joe, regular Joe," who will get the working class votes Democrats lost in the 2016 Presidential. Meanwhile, any reader of Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr.'s wikipedia article knows better. But, why on earth would we expect an alleged newsperson on a major network to know as much about a politician as his wikipedia article contains? And, if they don't know, it doesn't matter: They'll give you the establishment version of the hair inhaler anyway.

Oh, yes, they also said he was "considered" the frontrunner. Funny, I never heard that said about Sanders, who has led in most polls for months. I wonder why that is?

Speaking of the hair inhaler, he said he knew that he had to enter the race because America is facing the biggest threat it has faced in his lifetime.

Well, that, and he has obviously wanted to be President for a long time, which I happen to believe is the only reason he has enlarged an already large Democratic field.

The number of Democrats who have announced for the Presidency is now about 22. Remember all the snark from the Democratic faithful calling large Republican fields "clown car?" Please don't hold me to it, but I think this Democratic field is larger than any Republican field in the last decade. But, I don't expect the kings and queens of hypocrisy and double standards to say a word about the size of this field.

Bit of hubris there, to imply that, with all those Dems in the race, America needs to be rescued Joe Biden. What the hell does that say about the rest of the Dem field? And what makes Joe Biden so different from them? Oh, that's right: He "gets it." Or so he says, just before making it crystal clear that he doesn't get it.

Enjoy: https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/25/politics/joe-biden-2020-president/index.html
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJHumJ6wkkE]

Meanwhile, whether or not you agree with his position, I hope more than ever that Sanders' stand on a murderer, including the Boston Marathon bomber, voting while still in prison is not his Dukakis moment. https://vtdigger.org/2019/04/24/fact-check-sanders-set-off-firestorm-pri... https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2019/04/23/bernie... https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1988-10-08-mn-2922-story.html

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The Aspie Corner's picture

Was there really any doubt? I mean, sure, they're actually okay with the cheeto, but the cheeto can't put on a facade of decorum like Biden can.

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Modern education is little more than toeing the line for the capitalist pigs.

Guerrilla Liberalism won't liberate the US or the world from the iron fist of capital.

@The Aspie Corner

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thanatokephaloides's picture

@HenryAWallace

From about 2014, I thought they had anointed Kamala Harass.

Biden/Harris 2020..... Bad

Cthulhu as LOTE voting..... who'd have imagined it??

Wink

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"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar

"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides

@thanatokephaloides

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Benny's picture

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One equal temper of heroic hearts, Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will. To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.--Tennyson

@Benny

inappropriate touching and a long, unpleasant record as a Senator.

According to one of Obama's 2008 campaign advisors who had served in the Senate, when Obama was approached to run for POTUS in 2008, this advisor, who had run for President, but lost the primary, told Obama that it might be better for him (Obama) to run BEFORE accumulating a record that voters could hold against him. And they call it 'democracy." With a straight face, too!

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Cassiodorus's picture

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"The war on Gaza, backed by the West, is a demonstration that the West is willing to cross all lines. That it will discard any nuance of humanity. That it is willing to commit genocide" -- Moon of Alabama

WoodsDweller's picture

@Cassiodorus
A blueprint for 100 YouTube videos and attack ads. Too bad Sanders doesn't do attack ads. Maybe there is a PAC somewhere that will make and run the ads for him.

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"The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function." -- Albert Bartlett
"A species that is hurtling toward extinction has no business promoting slow incremental change." -- Caitlin Johnstone

@WoodsDweller

Much as the Hillarious tried to pretend that a nurses' union PAC that supported him because the union wanted Medicare for All was no different from the PACs that supported Hillary, that claim was, well, Hillarious.

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@Cassiodorus

for the rest of the morning and early afternoon. However, on a quick look, it appears to be a good summary, "good" in the sense of bad for Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr.

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earthling1's picture

@Cassiodorus
some of the crap this party has done over the decades, with 'O Joe cop a feel Biden right there in the forefront.
Long ago the Democrat Party was hijacked from us. And the current crop of phoney dems aren't worth two shits in the wind.
Would you rather be shot in the head with a .38 or a 44 magnum?
Those are our choices.

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Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.

Cassiodorus's picture

@earthling1 Hours After Entering 2020 Race, Biden to Attend Big-Money Fundraiser Hosted by Comcast, Blue Cross Execs

You know what the health insurance industry is about -- and as for what Comcast wants from Joe Biden:

As Sludge's Donald Shaw reported, Comcast "has been a leading voice in the telecommunication industry's efforts to oppose net neutrality rules, spending millions on lobbying against laws at the federal and state levels that would prohibit internet service providers (ISPs) from giving priority treatment to certain types of traffic."

Lovely.

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"The war on Gaza, backed by the West, is a demonstration that the West is willing to cross all lines. That it will discard any nuance of humanity. That it is willing to commit genocide" -- Moon of Alabama

Benny's picture

@Cassiodorus

Who is GOS gonna hate more? Creepy Joe (who may not have asked for DK/Civiqs consults) or Bernie the Democratic Socialist who has his own e-mail list?

Popcorn anyone?

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One equal temper of heroic hearts, Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will. To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.--Tennyson

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O.k. When is the next meeting for the revolution?
-FuturePassed on Sunday, November 25, 2018 10:22 p.m.

Azazello's picture

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We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.

@Azazello Good

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O.k. When is the next meeting for the revolution?
-FuturePassed on Sunday, November 25, 2018 10:22 p.m.

WoodsDweller's picture

but he never grabbed them by the pussy, right? Clearly he's the Great Non-Orange Hope.

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"The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function." -- Albert Bartlett
"A species that is hurtling toward extinction has no business promoting slow incremental change." -- Caitlin Johnstone

@WoodsDweller that rallying cry worked so well for Hill last time. I wish Joe the same success.

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Idolizing a politician is like believing the stripper really likes you.

@WoodsDweller

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I hope more than ever that Sanders' stand on a murderer, including the Boston Marathon bomber, voting while still in prison is not his Dukakis moment.

Tailor made for 30 second ads. He forgot to keep his remarks general. Of course, it makes no difference at all if the Marathon bomber votes. The numbers of murderers and rapists is too low to affect any election. But the optics! OMG!
In the past, on the radio, he has talked about those with drug convictions and misdemeanors amped up to felonies particularly for the poor and non-white. Now, voting for mass murderers will become the center of his campaign instead of Medicare for all and the 1 per cent.

I remember those endless commercials with the revolving door against Dukakis. Simple and easy for voters to grasp. No annoying numbers or policy. Maybe he is getting senile.

What America wants to hear is that the Boston Marathon Bomber should be tortured to death and you can be sure Trump will say it. Along with "Bernie Sanders cares more for terrorists than he does for your job!" (cuing the phony "job creators" theme.

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I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

@The Voice In the Wilderness

get to vote when they are released.... or not. Bernie is simply stating what the law provides. No one gets to pick and choose who this law applies to. He needs to remind people of that.

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"Without the right to offend, freedom of speech does not exist." Taslima Nasrin

@Fishtroller 02

And not only felons, but a terrorist who left children and adults dead and turned one Boston rehab hospital into a nationally-recognized center for rehabilitation of amputees.

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@HenryAWallace that Bernie's proposal would let all felons currently in prison vote. As I recall in his defensive and not entirely satisfactory answer at the recent town hall, it was to give the prisoners dignity by not stripping them of their citizenship rights. I think the answer needs to be much stronger, including the reasoning that without it, mischievous partisan pols are able to create another Jim Crow means by which there is clear incentive to target, arrest and incarcerate, and therefore disenfranchise people they don't want voting.

So far however I have not heard Bernie or any other Dem supporting this give a strong raison d'être for it, as it will be attacked by Trump along the lines that the CNN moderator and poster HAW above offer. It's a counter argument taking a very few of the absolutely worst examples, percentage-wise a very small fraction of total felons affected, and mischievously making the very few stand for the much larger whole. This is what the right does in the abortion discussion, taking the rare 3d-trimester termination to stand for the 99.9% of non-3d abortions.

I might prefer that Bernie and others make one important qualification, which would take the counterargument off the table, whereby (as at least one Euro country does) violent felons who have committed crimes which directly and substantially impact the social-political order are not allowed to vote until having finished their sentence. This would be determined by the judge at sentencing, subject to review by the appellate courts and eligible for adjustment by the president.

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OzoneTom's picture

@wokkamile
Thanks to AOC:

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@OzoneTom
But Bernie foolishly agreed that the Boston Marathon bomber specifically has the right to vote. he may be legally correct, but it is a political tin ear.

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I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

@The Voice In the Wilderness

other state. https://www.sevendaysvt.com/vermont/vermont-is-one-of-two-us-states-that.... And only twenty-eight states let those who have finished serving their time vote.

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@wokkamile
difference! As far as the Boston Marathon bomber, although that killed and maimed individuals, it was clearly intended as a terrorist attack on the US. And Bernie specified that the Boston Marathon Bomber should be able to vote.

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@HenryAWallace to amend his proposal, along the lines I suggested. Always with the need to have a stronger message for its passage, rather than weak partial reasoning in defense.

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@wokkamile

that he wants to amend what he said? I'm sure this is not the first time he's considered the issue.

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@HenryAWallace

should be allowed to vote, and he made a really passionate statement about it. He pointed out how slippery the slope is when you try to make choices about who should and who shouldn't lose their voting rights (which are tied to our rights as citizens). I had never thought about that issue, but I found his arguments compelling.
Certainly you can not give some people in prison the right to vote and not others, no matter what they did.

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"Without the right to offend, freedom of speech does not exist." Taslima Nasrin

@Fishtroller 02

Certainly you can not give some people in prison the right to vote and not others, no matter what they did.

Why not? All kinds of laws make all kinds of distinctions.

And that is a different issue from what the law already provides.

But again, the issue that my OP raised is not whether Bernie was right or wrong, or even whether or not he simply said what existing law provides. The issue that I raised is whether his statement, however right or wrong, will cost him votes. It's not the result I want, but I think it will cost him votes. Will it cost him enough votes to cost him a primary or a general? I have no idea. But the pity of it in my eyes was that he did not even have to say what he did.

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@Fishtroller 02 @Fishtroller 02

those still incarcerated to vote, one of which is Vermont. And only 28 states allow those who have served their time to vote. If it were already the law in most or all states, it would not be an issue. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felony_disenfranchisement; https://www.sevendaysvt.com/vermont/vermont-is-one-of-two-us-states-that...

I wish he had simply said that it is a matter for states to decide, which is the reality. If congress decides to override the states on this matter, that may or may not even be constitutional under the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. But unless Congress acts, the states decide; and, either way, it's not the President's initiative. The most a President can do would be to veto (pocket or otherwise) or sign a bill passed by Congress; and, as previously stated, such a bill might not even be constitutional. This was not a hill any Presidential hopeful had to die on.

In the end, what we agree to is not the point. The point is how most voters react; and I don't think they will react favorably.

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@HenryAWallace would be sound if Congress/Bernie were making it the right for incarcerated felons to vote in federal elections.

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@wokkamile

issue.

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@HenryAWallace 10th Am argument. What you've written is a confused jumble of statements. Lay out your argument coherently.

Congress is always free to legislate on voting in federal elections. This is quite clear. Do you dispute this?

It can also act to prohibit discrimination in voting generally, such as in statewide elections.

Where exactly did you want to insert a 10th Am objection, and on what grounds?

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@wokkamile

to that post. And, at this moment, I'm not inclined to post otherwise.

For the benefit of readers, however, I will note that your making unsupported claims about what the federal government may or may not do with respect to deciding who votes does not make those claims true. Anyone interested in the truth can google.

Oh and "discrimination" by states against rapists, murderers and terrorists as to voting is not forbidden by the Civil War Amendments or any other part of the US Constitution.

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In their dreams! Personally, I'd rather vote for the Camel than this geriatric male HRC clone.

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I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

detroitmechworks's picture

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTNpjWZc34E]

Hey Joe, where you goin' with that campaign?
Hey Joe, I said where you goin' with that campaign plan,
oh I'm goin' down to shoot Bernie
You know I caught him messin' 'round with my funding man...
I'm goin' down to shoot Bernie
You know I caught him messin' 'round with my funding man...

And that ain't too cool
Huh, hey Joe, I heard you grabbed a girl, grabbed a girl now
Hey Joe, I heard you grabbed a lady
You grabbed her up on the stage, yeah Yeah Yes, I did, I grabbed her

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I do not pretend I know what I do not know.

WaterLily's picture

But if Bernie's comments on voting do become his Dukakis moment, then Americans truly deserve the shitty "democracy" they get.

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Shahryar's picture

@WaterLily

and he's out. Meanwhile centrists not only get unlimited strikes, in fact (according to those in charge) they aren't even strikes.

Biden's long career is filled with decisions, votes, statements that would "disqualify" Bernie if Bernie did any one of them.

And the corollary, things Bernie did that were good are considered strikes. See 2016 when he was criticized...criticized!...for photos of him in the 60s when he went to the South to protest discrimination.

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@Shahryar the strike issued against him by the MSM for being a millionaire for a couple of years as the result of good book sales.

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Shahryar's picture

@wokkamile

and exposing Her weaknesses

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@Shahryar

competition.

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WaterLily's picture

@HenryAWallace So true.

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Shahryar's picture

@wokkamile @wokkamile
I can't even get this done in the right order!

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Shahryar's picture

@wokkamile @wokkamile

whoops....it'd be nice if I had something brilliant to put in this space but alas!

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Shahryar's picture

@wokkamile @wokkamile

I blame my dying mouse batteries

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Shahryar's picture

@wokkamile @wokkamile

I'll just enjoy this until they get deleted...sorry, everyone!

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@WaterLily

the bit about the Boston Marathon bomber, who, after all, attacked the US. Sure, the bomb went off on individuals, but it was intended as an attack on the US. That is not what I want, but I have little doubt it will be that way, at least as to the primary.

Thing is, Bernie's putting his foot in this particular antihill was SO unnecessary. Each state decides who gets to vote in that state. That, or some variant thereof, is all that he had to say.

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@HenryAWallace decide" -- leave it to the states sounds a little too GOP to come out of the mouth of a progressive socialist democratic candidate. And it's not true -- feds can set the rules for fed office elections and states cannot impair clearly established federal laws on voting rights.

Going back to review the tape, I see that Bernie starts with an absolutist Every Citizen Over 18 stance and stands firm. No chipping away. He's making the slopery slip argument. Fine. I gather that VT and ME have this standard. A good argument, but it needs buttressing with further arguments in support.

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@wokkamile

First and foremost, "Leave it to the states" is what the Tenth Amendment says, right along with leave it to the people. Neither of those things is inherently right wing. In fact, nothing in the Bill of Rights is inherently right wing.

Second, "leave it to the states" is also what Democrats said when Republicans wanted to make federal laws negating state-granted Right to Die and Equal Marrriage. Right to Die and right to equal marriage were was becoming the law in some states, which made Republicans want to enact DOMA, which they did. So, it was the direct opposite of right wing in those cases.

And it's not true -- feds can set the rules for fed office elections .

Only pursuant to the Civil War Amendments to the Constitution. Of course, states cannot override Constitutional federal laws. However, if you are claiming the existence of other federal laws overriding state laws about who can and who cannot vote that are not pursuant to the Civil War amendments, that's fine. I am not infallible. However, please link to some authority.

As far as slippery slope, I see no compelling reason why anyone who committed a terrorist attack on the US should have a right to vote. That would have been a great place to draw a line--and laws draw lines all the time.

However, none of this is the issue that I raised. The issue that I raised is whether claiming terrorist killers, murderers and rapists, including those who have not yet paid their "debt to society" will turn off American voters. I think it will certainly turn off a good number of voters.

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@HenryAWallace the first part of the 10th -- the powers that are delegated to the federal govt by the constitution. Clearly the Con gives such power to the feds in the area of voting and they have acted in many ways over the years, with fed legislation and constitutional amendments, to further define rights and limitations on rights in voting. If they didn't have such right, numerous old Confederacy states would have Jim Crow laws up the wazoo restricting voting for minorities, including poll taxes and literacy tests, probably including a skin darkness test. How do you think they are prevented from doing so? Has the Voting Rights Act of 1965 been successfully challenged on 10th Am grounds in the Sup Ct?

On the Civil War amendments, are you saying they are somehow invalid? Why?

As to Bernie's proposal, giving incarcerated felons voting rights is a fairly new issue for voters, so this is just the introductory period and nothing is too late to make further revisions, as I suggested he make. Few would care if he did so, especially if it were adjusted to come closer to what is probably the majority view. But I doubt if he will take my advice. He seems firm on his slippery slope position.

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@wokkamile

1. A common message board tactic is simply ignoring that which cannot be refuted. Nonetheless, I'm glad to see that you are not insisting that mentioning a part of the Bill of Rights, a part mentioned by Ted Kennedy, among many others, is inherently right wing. But, how about responding to my my request that you link to some authority to support your claim about the federal government being able to override state laws as to voting by felons, incarcerated or not?

Also, in my prior post, I reminded you that I had raised the Tenth Amendment initially solely to say that Sanders could easily have responded to questions about terrorists voting in a way that would not have risked votes. I'm not sure why we keep going on about it as though it were the OP topic, but, as long as you are, I will respond.

the first part of the 10th -- the powers that are delegated to the federal govt by the constitution.

2. Nope. I am not forgetting a thing about the Tenth Amendment. I was the one who brought it up. And again, I brought it up only to say that Bernie could easily have avoided risky comments.

However, your statement of how the Tenth begins is incorrect. The Tenth Amendment says

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it {the Constitution} to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

That distinction is important. It means that, if the Constitution does not grant the federal government a power, the federal government does not have that power, full stop. Rather, the states and/or the people have that power because they retained it, all governing powers having been in the colonies/states or the people in the first instance (once the colonies declared independence from the monarchy, of course).

That the form of government the Constitution established was federalism is basic civics (also part of the Pledge of Allegiance). Federalism means that the powers of the federal government are only those specified in the Constitution--that the federal government is a government of limited powers, delegated to the federal government by the states and the people. powers/ And, of course, it was the colonies/states that granted the federal government whatever powers the Constitution gives the federal government when they ratified the Constitution. Anyway, that's how the Tenth Amendment reads and what it means.

So, per the words of the Tenth Amendment, unless you find somewhere in the Constitution of the US a provision whereby the colonies/states granted the feds power to decide whether states can withhold voting rights from felons or a provision of the Constitution that forbids the states from making that determination...

Clearly the Con gives such power to the feds in the area of voting and they have acted in many ways over the years, with fed legislation and constitutional amendments, to further define rights and limitations on rights in voting.

3. What you keep claiming is clear is not at all clear. Again, I requested a link to authority. If it's as clear as you keep claiming it is, finding a links to a Constitutional provision or a Supreme Court case or some other unequivocal authority should be quick and easy.

If they didn't have such right, numerous old Confederacy states would have Jim Crow laws up the wazoo restricting voting for minorities, including poll taxes and literacy tests, probably including a skin darkness test.

4. No. Again, this is basic civics, but here goes. You can't simply conflate a Constitutional amendment with a federal statute, as does the above quote from your post. A Constitutional amendment requires ratification by a certain percentage state legislatures.

A constitutional amendment is not the federal government deciding for the states and the people. In fact, it's just the opposite: A Constitutional Amendment is the Constitutionally-mandated percentage of state legislatures deciding what the federal government has power do, as state legislatures have been doing since state legislatures ratified the Constitution in 1789. (These days, the state legislatures voluntarily put it to a vote of their citizens before deciding whether or not to ratify, but that is political, not required and was not always the case.)

On the Civil War amendments, are you saying they are somehow invalid? Why?

5. No. I neither said nor implied anything remotely like that. Thank heaven, slavery is still illegal in the US' and, thank heaven, I still know that.

If they didn't have such right, numerous old Confederacy states would have Jim Crow laws up the wazoo restricting voting for minorities, including poll taxes and literacy tests, probably including a skin darkness test. How do you think they are prevented from doing so?

6. Good grief. Everyone who posts on political boards should know that.

States are prevented from discriminating against constitutionally-protected classes pursuant to an express, but limited, grant of power, in the Civil Rights Amendments to the Constitution of the United States, just as a prior post of mine to you referenced. The Constitutional provisions are not about voting per se, but about impermissible kinds of discrimination. And they are also about deprivations without due process. A criminal trial, held in accordance with the Constitution, is more due process than citizens get in other contexts, including civil trials.

The requisite percentage of states ratified the Civil War Amendments, so the states expressly granted the federal government certain, limited powers over discrimination. Hence my reference to the Civil War Amendments in my earlier post. However, the Civil War Amendments did not grant Congress the power to force states to allow convicted felons to vote.

7. As to poll taxes, a 1965 amendment to the US Constitution outlawed poll taxes. And, again, a Constitutional Amendment is the states telling the federal government what the federal government has power to do, not the federal government usurping the power reserved to the states by the Tenth Amendment and by the general structure of federalism itself.

8. As for the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act: The Supreme Court Constitutional holding in Plessy v. Ferguson, a case decided in the late 1800s and interpreting the equal rights clause of the 14th Amendment, permitted "separate but equal" facilities. Sadly, that took the form of Jim Crow, about which Congress didn't even try to do a thing until the Great Migration made electing Democratic Presidents difficult. However, in Bd. of Ed. v. Brown, decided in 1956, the Supreme Court reversed its holding in Plessy, holding in Brown instead that separate was not equal after all and therefore "separate but (allegedly) equal" violates the Fourteenth Amendment. Brown's reversal of Plessy, along with the Civil War Amendments themselves, empowered Congress to pass both the Civil Rights Act of 1964, abolishing Jim Crow and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Again, however, nothing in the Civil War Amendments empowers Congress to override state laws about voting (or not) by felons.

Has the Voting Rights Act of 1965 been successfully challenged on 10th Am grounds in the Sup Ct?

9. Yes.

However, that is not a question one should ask a fellow poster.

The case is a very well-known, much posted about and relatively recent decision. And, again, the Voting Rights Act was passed pursuant to a specific provision of the Civil War Amendments to the Constitution, not pursuant to some non-existent, vague, wide-ranging power of Congress to decide what states may or may not do about voting by convicted felons.
I personally think the Supreme Court overreached, but that is beside the point.

I've responded to your specific comments and questions about the Constitution, even though I said it was a tangent. However, this is not the reason I post. From this point forward, I'll respond substantively only if you provide specific authority for your claims.

As for the rest of your comments, I've already commented on them and see no reason for repetition.

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I go back to Brazille's book where there was concern that Hillary would have to drop out due to her health during primaries. She said if that happened, she would get Biden appointed the official candidate even though he did not run in any primary. Yup, all the while Bernie had racked up a bunch of primary victories.

It is sorta crazy. Good parts of the democratic base has become anxious wondering how Bernie will be cheated.

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@MrWebster

back in his day. However, Truman and other party bosses didn't want him as the nominee because his Senate hearings had revealed ties between some Democratic party bosses and organized crime. Yadda, yadda, yadda. Adlai Stevenson vs. a World War II hero in a 1952 election, while the war was still very fresh in everyone's mind.

Hubert Humphrey did not run in single primary. Got the nomination via the "favorite son" maneuver, which I don't know if I fully understand. Another Democratic loss. Any wonder?

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snoopydawg's picture

@MrWebster

One ran for president and won, the other one didn't run for president, but he has been appointed one by our government. Maybe this idea came from Donna's book? Can you imagine what would have happened if they did that? Again?

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

The Liberal Moonbat's picture

...anyone actually tried to beat Biden up with the "privileged white male" thing? Is that garbage still going around? Why did it even come from (I know, some pseudointellectual in the 1980s, but why is it everywhere NOW)? These last 5 years of political discourse have been messed up in ways I've never seen before, and I'm NOT talking about Trump....

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In the Land of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man is declared mentally ill for describing colors.

Yes Virginia, there is a Global Banking Conspiracy!

lotlizard's picture

@The Liberal Moonbat  
One term for it is “Critical Race and Ethnic Studies”:

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=critical+race+ethnic+studies

Even in the field of mathematics, it’s in fashion . . .
https://blogs.ams.org/inclusionexclusion/2017/05/11/get-out-the-way/

No one, not even Linux’s originator Linus Torvalds within the Linux community, has enough standing to resist. Trans activist Coraline Ada Ehmke successfully pressured the Linux project into replacing Torvalds’s decades-old “code of conflict” with her more politically correct “Contributor Covenant.”

https://hardforum.com/threads/linux-developers-threaten-to-pull-kill-swi...

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=linus+torvalds+contributor+covenant

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The Liberal Moonbat's picture

@lotlizard That's the last thing I need.

Question is, why are they getting away with this, and what's to be done?

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In the Land of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man is declared mentally ill for describing colors.

Yes Virginia, there is a Global Banking Conspiracy!

@The Liberal Moonbat
they're basically co-opting the authentic suffering of billions of people who have come before them.

it's slightly embarrassing to watch, actually.

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The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.

lotlizard's picture

@The Liberal Moonbat  
https://going-postal.com/2018/01/book-review-sjws-always-lie-by-vox-day/

Vox Day (pen name of Theodore Beale) comes from the other side of the right-left divide, so be warned.

Road map of today’s new non-traditional right-wing turf, according to Vox Day:

Real alt-right: Stefan Molyneux, Mike Cernovich, John C. Wright, Larry Correia [and Vox Day himself]

Fake alt-right: Richard Spencer [notorious as the organizer of the Charlottesville “Unite the Right” rally], Jordan Peterson*, Andrew Anglin [“political performance artist” who runs the website Daily Stormer], Sam Harris*, Ben Shapiro*, Jonah Goldberg, Mike Enoch [another “political performance artist” who runs the website TheRightStuff.biz], and others

* A New York Times article named Peterson, Harris, and Shapiro as part of a right-wing “renegade” movement it touted as constituting an “Intellectual Dark Web.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/08/opinion/intellectual-dark-web.html

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Lily O Lady's picture

@The Liberal Moonbat

Joe has openly considered the presidency. Puttin’ us ladies back in our place.

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"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"

The Liberal Moonbat's picture

@Lily O Lady I always knew there was something fundamentally wrong with all that, despite the fact that, at face value, I should totally be in their camp: I've been sexually harassed (by girls), I'm pretty hypersensitive, and I've also experienced traumatic (nonsexual) abuse in my pursuit of a film career - yet seemingly overnight, I've found myself swapped from Camp-People-Deserving-Protection to Camp-People-Deserving-Demonization; what you say is a pretty clear indication it's all just been a REALLY underhanded Establishment psyop...and it makes sense. I didn't spend the last half my lifetime learning about the psychology beneath fascism just so I could fail to recognize it when it put on a different pair of novelty glasses.

whywouldisave-200x200.jpg

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In the Land of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man is declared mentally ill for describing colors.

Yes Virginia, there is a Global Banking Conspiracy!

Lily O Lady's picture

@The Liberal Moonbat

as it had a sort of lynch-mobby feel to it. Still, it brought sexual harassment and assault into the light for a least a while. But it’s passing will leave people like Harvey Weinstein, Kevin Spacey, Al Franken and others on the pariah list while leaving untouched people like Woody Allen and, of course, Uncle Joe Biden. Never mind that Biden helped pillory Anita Hill and has never apologized. He is pure as the driven snow.

Looks like we will get to choose between Tweedle Dumb and Tweedle Dumber.

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"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"

@Lily O Lady

his announcement. Hill ain't buying it, though. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/25/us/politics/joe-biden-anita-hill.html

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@Lily O Lady #meeto started out as a pretty serious thing. It's kind of turned into a hats/tshirt festival and manifested in women who have the clout to take the afternoon or the day off to march without repercussion. Same with the glass ceiling. The ceiling kind of says you're on the top rung, and not much about the women getting stepped on, being on the lower rungs. I guess they just have to "lean in".

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@Lily O Lady
It bothers me a lot that decent human beings were ruined, and are being ruined.

I only hope that it all leads to some sort of reasonably permanent improvement in the general culture, given the price being paid by various innocents. The great mystery to me was that everyone acted surprised. Of all the moments when people have rolled out the Casablanca "Shocked! Shocked!" meme, this was the time I found most bizarre. Literally anybody who's paid any attention at all to the culture of the entertainment industry knew exactly how prevalent this predatory behavior was. Literally anybody who ever spent ten minutes listening to working women discuss their lives in the workplace knew exactly how prevalent this predatory behavior was.

The only strange thing was that, although we've all been talking about it, endlessly, for at least 25 years ... there were still so many people who somehow failed to get the memo.

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The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.

The Liberal Moonbat's picture

@UntimelyRippd Mob hiveminds are the gold-standard of Evil to me. #MeToo should be actively held accountable for ITS OWN crimes, and pay the price for them - which will help roll back the damage it's done to its own putative cause, as well. It should go down in history as a "bad-guy" movement. The fact that its warpath BEGAN with the fall of Harvey Weinstein (who it seems to me was a rotten tree finally going "TIMBER" after earning enough enemies with money and power of their own) rather than END with it says a great deal about it. I have NO sympathy for mobs or the hominid barnacles who glom onto them.

That, and Twitter and Facebook should be shut down and banned. The Human Hivemind is the root of the most heinous human Evils, and I want a counter-inquisition against things that glorify it (US sports culture would be another ideal such target, as would fraternities/sororities, and we around here already know that the Military-Industrial Complex is Morgoth). Surrendering to the Hivemind for whatever reasons should be made to be seen as SHAMEFUL and SELFISH behavior.

It's horrifying that people are trying to "fix" - or even worse, "cure" - autistic people. Name a major human Evil, and you'll discover groupthink is indispensable to its virulence. Autism IS the cure...and the fact that I'm starting to believe what I've seen on some (mostly "right-wing") sites about a "War on Nerds" is very, very upsetting. It's like they're trying to proactively crush anything and anyone resembling Aaron Swartz.

Evil doesn't come from the belief that one somehow has the right to do wrong (that being mostly a fiction of slave-religions, I think); it comes from the belief that, somehow, one cannot possibly do wrong.

At a time when Justice is what we need most in the world, its sacred name has been desecrated.

"Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity."
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

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In the Land of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man is declared mentally ill for describing colors.

Yes Virginia, there is a Global Banking Conspiracy!

@The Liberal Moonbat
https://caucus99percent.com/comment/416238#comment-416238

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0 users have voted.

The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.

The Liberal Moonbat's picture

@UntimelyRippd

#MeToo is a RIGHT-WING movement.

"Distrust all in whom the impulse to punish is powerful."
- Friedrich Nietzsche

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In the Land of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man is declared mentally ill for describing colors.

Yes Virginia, there is a Global Banking Conspiracy!

The Liberal Moonbat's picture

@Lily O Lady The #MeToo terror appears to have achieved its 'Robespierre moment':
https://www.latimes.com/politics/essential/la-pol-ca-essential-politics-...

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In the Land of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man is declared mentally ill for describing colors.

Yes Virginia, there is a Global Banking Conspiracy!

Lily O Lady's picture

@The Liberal Moonbat

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"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"

@The Liberal Moonbat

skin color. It has to do with the perception that Joe could not be more down to earth--a perfect candidate for working class voters, per the CBS reporter. It's not true. He was born into money and political connections and then spent 50 years in politics, most of them as a member of US Senate and Vice President. And loving him some pro-bankster laws to boot.

The notion that Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr. is particularly relevant or connected to the working class is borderline insane.

I realize you did not say anything about my OP, but I did want to make it clear in case any reader conflated "privilege," as used in my OP and in the essay to which my OP linked, with "white male privilege."

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The Liberal Moonbat's picture

@HenryAWallace I'm all in favor of not allowing Newspeak to change proper speech - after all, otherwise you're just handing the keys over to the LCD if you let them dictate the language.

And of course, a very good point to raise about Biden - he has been sold as precisely that. It's why Obama ostensibly picked him as his running mate, after all (ironically, HIS background is much more down-to-earth - 'politics of illusion', indeed).

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In the Land of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man is declared mentally ill for describing colors.

Yes Virginia, there is a Global Banking Conspiracy!

WoodsDweller's picture

( deep breath )

HAHAHAHA

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/live/2019/apr/25/trump-biden-news-li...

More on Joe Biden’s claim that he asked former President Barack Obama not to make an endorsement: “I asked President Obama not to endorse,” he told reporters when he arrived Thursday in Delaware, according to MSNBC. “And he doesn’t want to, listen, we should - Whoever wins this nomination should win it on their own merits.”
...
His campaign communications director, Kate Bedingfield, also told MSNBC that Biden asked Obama not to endorse.

Note that they’re not actually claiming that Obama would be endorsing Biden minus this ask. If Obama wasn’t going to endorse him anyway, the request could be a way to save face.

OMFG!!!

Running on Obama's legacy, he's an Obama-Biden Democrat, without an Obama endorsement. But hey, he has Meghan McCain's endorsement, and only Republican votes matter anyway.

EDIT: maybe what he actually asked Obama to do was not to publicly endorse O'Rourke. "If you're not going to endorse me, at least don't endorse the other guy."

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"The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function." -- Albert Bartlett
"A species that is hurtling toward extinction has no business promoting slow incremental change." -- Caitlin Johnstone

@WoodsDweller

"If you're not going to endorse me, at least don't endorse the other guy."

Beto has been rumored to be Obama's choice, at least before Unca Joe announced. If so, perhaps that is the reason they've been referring to him as the "new Obama."

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Establishment Dems' first choice, with probably Kamala Harris as Plan B or a good running mate for Joe. Bootajudge would be their Plan C.

However I don't see this as another cycle for the Establishment wing to assert its dominance, as the tide is turning in favor of bold, progressive ideas and their proponents. Biden will come out insisting he is as progressive as any one else running, but unfortunately he will have to answer for his 46 yr record in public life. Too many issues to answer/apologize for, including the recent touchy-feely stuff. Except for the latter, he is as close as anyone to being this year's Hubert Humphrey shopworn, dead wood candidate whose political positioning is out of step with the times.

Of course, it will take a major Dem rival or two to help point this out. Bernie could do it, without making it a personal attack, just a stark contrast on the issues for voters to consider done in a responsible way which hopefully won't offend his sensitive campaign mgr Ro Khanna.

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@wokkamile

anyone running before he even said he was running. Supposedly, it was a slip of the tongue. Not buying it. https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/434416-biden-on-potential-candidac...

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@HenryAWallace The slippery tongue. Biden, the running dog lackey of the imperialist Maryland based credit card companies.

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repulsive response in me and more then any other candidate I will work to see he is not the nominee.

Speaking of candidates Jimmy Dore posted this interview with the #Gravelanche which I thought was worth sharing if anyone hadn't seen it yet.

I would really like to see Mike Gravel in the debates.

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O.k. When is the next meeting for the revolution?
-FuturePassed on Sunday, November 25, 2018 10:22 p.m.

@WIProgressive
"Do you want some candy, little girl?"

We actually had a Congressman like that here in Cook county.

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I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

@The Voice In the Wilderness And before #metoo was a thing I thought he was creepy around women and little girls. Especially little girls.

Yes, I would like some candy but not from that perv!

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O.k. When is the next meeting for the revolution?
-FuturePassed on Sunday, November 25, 2018 10:22 p.m.

snoopydawg's picture

@The Voice In the Wilderness

IMG_3438.JPG

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

Lily O Lady's picture

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"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"

snoopydawg's picture

@Lily O Lady

I found that in this article on Obama and the democrat's policies going back to Clinton's presidency. Learned a few things I didn't know. Good read.

Time’s article about Obama-as-Roosevelt came a week after a New Yorker feature that sported a similar illustration but took a more tempered view. There, journalist George Packer quoted Cass Sunstein, Obama’s onetime academic colleague and sometime political advisor, describing the newly elected president as post-partisan and a “visionary minimalist”—a man little devoted to great change. This attitude, Packer noted, made Obama “distinctly un-Rooseveltian.” Before long, Packer’s more cautious view was vindicated. By 2009, when the historian William E. Leuchtenburg put out a new edition of his book on the post-1945 presidency, In the Shadow of FDR (1983), adding a chapter on Obama’s first hundred days, Leuchtenburg could already note how frequently “Obama expressed a degree of separation from the age of Roosevelt.” He even quoted the new president as saying, “My interest is finding something that works. . . . whether it’s coming from FDR or it’s coming from Ronald Reagan.”

For the better part of a half century, the Democratic Party has been in this multigenerational crisis over its past. Campaigning against Ronald Reagan in 1980, Jimmy Carter disowned the New Deal’s effort to put Wall Street in harness to Washington, declaring “we believe that we ought to get the Government’s nose out of the private enterprise of this country. We’ve deregulated . . . to make sure that we have a free enterprise system that’s competitive.” Bill Clinton fully assimilated Reaganism in 1996, saying “the era of big government is over.” And now some progressive presidential candidates—together with a base of millennial Democrats—are decrying Obama’s presidency as the last emanation of the Carter-Reagan-Clinton synthesis, a retread of neoliberalism whose weak program for recovery from the economic crisis of 2008 ensured nearly a decade of employment doldrums that aided the rise of Donald Trump.

Just yesterday I read a comment saying that he was the best president since FDR. Of course I laughed out loud.

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

Lily O Lady's picture

@snoopydawg

went him one better and went after the air traffic controllers’ union as well. It’s been a downward spiral ever since.

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"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"

@Lily O Lady

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@Lily O Lady
Major deregulation
Increased military spending
Decreasing deficits

Reagan ran against him on a platform of:
Getting guvmint off your back (deregulation)
Restoring our weakened military (increased military spending)
Fiscal responsibility (lower deficits)

... and the MSM played along, parroting RWR's BS narrative without doing the straightforward analysis of observing that RWR was running on a platform that directly echoed Carter's actual record -- the most significant difference being that RWR's platform rested on what his primary opponent, GHWB, pointedly described as Voodoo Economics: He would add tax cuts to the mix. While continuing to boost military spending. While cutting the deficit. Because Laffable curve.

up
0 users have voted.

The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.

Lily O Lady's picture

@UntimelyRippd

GHWB openly stated that “supply side” economics was magical thinking by calling it “Voodoo Economics” yet the Democrats completely overlooked this beautiful metaphor. And that’s completely overlooking that very laughable name of its proponent Arthur Laffer!

Far from being dignified in their opposition, the Democratic Party completely deserted the field to the GOP. They weakly objected from the sidelines on minor issues but mainly pursued scandals such as Iran/Contra which really didn’t change anything.

The fact that Sanders continues to deal mainly with issues is what makes him so threatening. He’s endangering their phony-baloney jobs by actually doing something!

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"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"

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