Things I learned from the Dem Debate (1/14/20)

Joe Biden said that North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong un called him a rabid dog who should be beaten with a stick. Overnight polling of likely Dem voters after the debate shows Kim pulling ahead of John Delaney in Iowa.

Tom Steyer argues that only a billionaire can solve the problem of billionaires causing problems, which supposedly includes the problem of billionaires spending their billions to buy elections.

Pete Buttigieg thinks that restating every problem in a patronizing, 'gee whiz' lilt makes him sound profound and smart, so smart that we won't notice the 'noblesse oblige' stupidity of opposing free public college for all just to prevent a few kids born to wealthy parents from slipping outside their assigned class lane.

Someone really needs to tell Amy Klobuchar that claiming M4A will never pass because of opposition from DEMOCRATS is probably not the best look for the party.

Elizabeth Warren has an Aunt Bee, which is presumably why with every debate appearance she sounds more and more like Opey.

Four anonymous sources linked to the Warren campaign say that Bernie doesn't wash his hands after going to the bathroom. CNN has wall to wall coverage.

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Cassiodorus's picture

sounds like one of these entities you'd see on the old Star Trek series, in which Captain Kirk goes downplanet with Spock and McCoy to confront the natives, who worship a god named Klobuchar (represented in much the same way that the Wizard of Oz was represented in the old movie with Judy Garland, Ray Bolger, Jack Haley, and Bert Lahr.)

If she becomes President we can expect a booming voice to emanate from the White House: "Klobuchar has spoken!" I will put in a formal request to be beamed up to the Enterprise.

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"Israel is in the process of destroying itself" -- Miko Peled

@Cassiodorus @Cassiodorus was originally from Slovenia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Klobuchar

As senator, Klobuchar has been a reliable vote for Monsanto and GMO technology. Someone ought to ask her if the recent trials, in which Monsanto lost, have caused her to change her mind about that support.

I will say that Klobuchar looked good, to the extent that optics matter. I wish Warren would understand that skinny jeans and a T-shirt with too much décolletage, not to mention a rumpled jacket that badly needed ironing, is not a good look for a woman in her 70s, no matter how fashionably thin she might be. I am glad to see that none of this year's group of women candidates has gone all Klinton with the chunky jewelry.

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Mary Bennett

Not Henry Kissinger's picture

@Cassiodorus

My Obamacare doesn't cover me off world!

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25 users have voted.

The current working assumption appears to be that our Shroedinger's Cat system is still alive. But what if we all suspect it's not, and the real problem is we just can't bring ourselves to open the box?

Alligator Ed's picture

@Not Henry Kissinger First you must assure the Alien has casualty insurance, after which Liz's M4A Admin will means test you--if you survive. Then you may (possibly [perhaps]) obtain coverage.

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@Cassiodorus what they call it when Vulcans go into heat?

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14 users have voted.

They say that there's a broken light for every heart on Broadway
They say that life's a game and then they take the board away
They give you masks and costumes and an outline of the story
And leave you all to improvise their vicious cabaret-- A. Moore

Pluto's Republic's picture

@Johnny Q

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____________________

The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
GreatLakeSailor's picture

@Cassiodorus

Introducing the klobu-char 1990!
For that taste from the past.
Keeping bland food bland.

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11 users have voted.

Compensated Spokes Model for Big Poor.

earthling1's picture

to the employees of the insurance industry after M4A passes is like asking what would happen to the soldiers after peace breaks out worldwide if we bring our troops home.
We will retrain them for useful occupations.

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30 users have voted.

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

@earthling1 What will happen to all the torturers?

I suspect that if a candidate suggested the bureaucrats who throw people into a paper maze from The Trial be left hanging by their thumbs, there would be a hearty round of cheers. But it would leave all those people who are employed for the purpose of carrying out the dictates of the bosses stuck between Scylla and Charybdis.

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Cassiodorus's picture

@tle so they can't do this:

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"Israel is in the process of destroying itself" -- Miko Peled

snoopydawg's picture

@earthling1

the many corporations that have been laying off thousands of people or how congress passed legislation that allows 300,000 foreigners to take American jobs.

As always it's the f'cking hypocrisy!

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14 users have voted.

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

Voting is like driving with a toy steering wheel.

Someone really needs to tell Amy Klobuchar that claiming M4A will never pass because of opposition from DEMOCRATS is probably not the best look for the party.

Meanwhile, what do Democratic voters think?

When the subject of “Medicare for All” came up during the Democratic debate last week, former Vice President Joe Biden claimed that the majority of his party does not favor it.

“The fact is that right now the vast majority of Democrats do not support Medicare for All,” he said, adding, “It couldn’t pass the United States Senate right now with Democrats. It couldn’t pass the House.”
...
The KFF Health Tracking Poll, done monthly, indicates Democrats’ support for Medicare for All has weakened, but not entirely. Its most recent version, published in November, revealed large majorities of Democrats support a public option (88%) and Medicare for All (77%), while a January poll showed 85% of Democrats backed a Medicare buy-in.
...
Other polls show similar results: support for Medicare for All among Democrats but stronger support for the incremental approaches Biden backs.

A September NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, for instance, found 67% of Democrats said they supported adopting Medicare for All.

When the corporate Dems say "democrats" they don't mean working people.

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Raggedy Ann's picture

@gjohnsit
They should say, the 1% Corporatists in their party will be against M4A. That is the reality!

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"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11

Joe Biden said that North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong un called him a rabid dog who should be beaten with a stick.

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17 users have voted.

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

Pluto's Republic's picture

...his campaign for a really long time.

I could see him as a VP pick for Biden.

z.prez_.jpg

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16 users have voted.

____________________

The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
Pluto's Republic's picture

"What, Me Worry?"
It really captures the American Centrist view.

z.whatmeworry.jpg

@Pluto's Republic

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14 users have voted.

____________________

The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
Not Henry Kissinger's picture

@Pluto's Republic
mad obama spy v spy.jpg

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15 users have voted.

The current working assumption appears to be that our Shroedinger's Cat system is still alive. But what if we all suspect it's not, and the real problem is we just can't bring ourselves to open the box?

Alligator Ed's picture

I always thought he was a Biden man.

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7 users have voted.
Situational Lefty's picture

Overnight polling of likely Dem voters after the debate shows Kim pulling ahead of John Delaney in Iowa.

It's funny because it's true.

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5 users have voted.

"The enemy is anybody who is going to get you killed, no matter which side he's on." Yossarian

wendy davis's picture

but i have a Q: did it really go like this as patrick martin claims?:

"All six candidates on the stage—including the nominal “socialist” Bernie Sanders, who has been appealing to antiwar sentiment at his campaign rallies—criticized Trump’s actions from the standpoint of advocating a more carefully considered strategy to defend and advance the interests of American imperialism in the Middle East and throughout the world.

Not one of the candidates called the killing of Suleimani what it clearly was—a criminal action by a criminal president. The word “assassination,” initially used by Sanders and Senator Elizabeth Warren in statements following the drone missile attack that killed the Iranian leader near the Baghdad airport, was not uttered in the course of the two-hour debate. Not one candidate so much as mentioned Suleimani’s name.

There was no discussion of the fact that world politics has crossed an ominous line, entering new and uncharted territory, with the most powerful nation in the world killing a top military leader of a country with which it is not at war, and carrying out that action on the soil of a third country in gross violation of its national sovereignty.
.........................................
The other candidates postured as opponents of the war in Iraq in order to chip away at Biden’s frontrunner status, while offering nearly identical foreign policy perspectives. All of them, including Sanders, supported continuing the US military intervention in the Middle East and Central Asia, differing only on the exact mix of special forces, ground troops and naval and air assets they would deploy.

It was characteristic of the right-wing political framework shared by both the candidates and the debate moderators, led by the apologist for imperialist violence Wolf Blitzer of CNN, that there were no follow-up questions on the killing of Suleimani. The discussion of Iran revolved entirely around the claim that the Iranian regime was seeking to develop nuclear weapons.

The candidates indicated, in virtually identical terms, that the US government had to prevent such a development, and that this was one of the highest priorities of American foreign policy—even though Iran has no ongoing nuclear weapons program and is cooperating with the nuclear non-proliferation treaty.
.......................................
Sanders followed suit, saying, “We have got to undo what Trump did, bring that coalition together, and make sure that Iran never gets a nuclear weapon.”

Former South Bend, Indiana, mayor Pete Buttigieg said, “Ensuring that Iran does not develop nuclear weapons will, of course, be a priority, because it’s such an important part of keeping America safe.”

Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota argued that Trump’s killing of Suleimani risked provoking an Iranian nuclear breakout, saying, “I would not allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon.”

Senator Elizabeth Warren and hedge fund billionaire Tom Steyer did not address the Iran nuclear question directly, but each pledged to use military force when US interests were threatened. Warren said that an “imminent threat” was her criterion—the same language used by Trump to justify the assassination of Suleimani.

Steyer said, “I would take military action to protect the lives and safety of American citizens,” while adding that he was in general agreement with Biden, the most adamant defender of American military intervention in the Middle East."

...etc.

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