Democrats 2020

[Jason Harvestdancer]

It’s not a non-sequitur, you just missed the point. The point is that in the senate, and in congressional apportionment due to the static number of 435, rural conservative voters still have an unfair advantage. It takes changing the constitution to change that. I am for that, in the long run, but it will be it’s own long effort and will not save lives today. So however much I might want it, and be willing to give it energy, that’s not the tool that will help people suffering today.

No it doesn't take a change to the constitution. The number of representatives is set by statute, and that statute can be changed. In the past the number of representatives grew as the population grew, but it stopped growing during the early 20th century and we are stuck with it in the 21st century as a result. The only constitutional requirement is that a representative not represent less than 30,000 people excepting that if a state has fewer than that it shall still have a representative. Currently each representative represents approximately 700,000 people, so we could double the size of the house and not even worry the slightest about the constitutional limitation.

Hell, we could increase the House by a factor of 10 and not worry. And I'm actually in favor of that.

 

[TV and credit cards]

Such a comprehensive knowledge of foreign affairs at age 37. I encourage you to watch it in it's entirety. I would not worry about a President Buttigieg resorting to the blunt tool of force to solve problems.

 

[Rhea]

It’s not a non-sequitur, you just missed the point. The point is that in the senate, and in congressional apportionment due to the static number of 435, rural conservative voters still have an unfair advantage. It takes changing the constitution to change that. I am for that, in the long run, but it will be it’s own long effort and will not save lives today. So however much I might want it, and be willing to give it energy, that’s not the tool that will help people suffering today.

No it doesn't take a change to the constitution. The number of representatives is set by statute, and that statute can be changed. In the past the number of representatives grew as the population grew, but it stopped growing during the early 20th century and we are stuck with it in the 21st century as a result. The only constitutional requirement is that a representative not represent less than 30,000 people excepting that if a state has fewer than that it shall still have a representative. Currently each representative represents approximately 700,000 people, so we could double the size of the house and not even worry the slightest about the constitutional limitation.

Hell, we could increase the House by a factor of 10 and not worry. And I'm actually in favor of that.

Me, too, but you can’t change the Senate, and I still expect changing the number oof reps is a whole lot slower than instituting a public option. So partial success now, total success to come!

 

[Jason Harvestdancer]

Yes, you can't change the Senate, and you don't need to. The electors being equal to the sum of representatives and senators will give far less disproportionate representation to small population states if the house increases tenfold as I describe. Would you like me to do the math?

 

[Rhea]

Yes, you can't change the Senate, and you don't need to. The electors being equal to the sum of representatives and senators will give far less disproportionate representation to small population states if the house increases tenfold as I describe. Would you like me to do the math?

Oh, you’re just talking electing a president. I was talking passing universal healthcare in answer to that conversation.

 

[barbos]

Such a comprehensive knowledge of foreign affairs at age 37. I encourage you to watch it in it's entirety. I would not worry about a President Buttigieg resorting to the blunt tool of force to solve problems.

He did not say anything you yourself did not already know, really.
He is very smart, there can't be any argument here, but I think you confuse knowledge with being insanely good speaker.

I remember Obama was was no slouch himself as a speaker (not as good as Buttigieg) but he failed as far as foreign affairs go.

 

[angelo]

Such a comprehensive knowledge of foreign affairs at age 37. I encourage you to watch it in it's entirety. I would not worry about a President Buttigieg resorting to the blunt tool of force to solve problems.

He did not say anything you yourself did not already know, really.
He is very smart, there can't be any argument here, but I think you confuse knowledge with being insanely good speaker.

I remember Obama was was no slouch himself as a speaker (not as good as Buttigieg) but he failed as far as foreign affairs go.

Obama did a splendid job in appeasement, especially to " his father's " religion of Islam. CAIR, who has been named as a terrorist organasaion by such Muslim nations as Saudi Arabia itself and other Muslim nations actually shared Obama's bed!

 

[Rhea]

and other Muslim nations actually shared Obama's bed!

... that’s not what the word “actually” actually means.

 

[Elixir]

and other Muslim nations actually shared Obama's bed!

... that’s not what the word “actually” actually means.

Some people are literally as dumb as a post. Of course, I am using the word "literally" in a figurative sense.

 

[Jason Harvestdancer]

Yes, you can't change the Senate, and you don't need to. The electors being equal to the sum of representatives and senators will give far less disproportionate representation to small population states if the house increases tenfold as I describe. Would you like me to do the math?

Oh, you’re just talking electing a president. I was talking passing universal healthcare in answer to that conversation.

Oh, I see. Well, yes, a constitutional amendment is required to allow the US government to enact universal healthcare. It's about time those who favor the Democrats realized you need to amend the constitution to allow for expanded powers.

 

[Rhea]

Yes, you can't change the Senate, and you don't need to. The electors being equal to the sum of representatives and senators will give far less disproportionate representation to small population states if the house increases tenfold as I describe. Would you like me to do the math?

Oh, you’re just talking electing a president. I was talking passing universal healthcare in answer to that conversation.

Oh, I see. Well, yes, a constitutional amendment is required to allow the US government to enact universal healthcare. It's about time those who favor the Democrats realized you need to amend the constitution to allow for expanded powers.

Not what I said.

Due to the way the Senate is designed, passing a bill has to go through a process which delivers outsized influence to small states and rural, conservative voters. This is a SIGNIFICANT outsize influence. Changing that outsized influence would require a constitutional amendment, so until then we need to use other methods to get access to healthcare into the hands of the people that the rural conservative voters don’t think should have it. This means getting moderate voters to see what we mean by the benefits of access to healthcare, perhaps by an intermediate step that is not too painful or permanent, such as a public option. It is the opinion of most progressives that once people experience universal access to health care, they will embrace it. But because of all of the above, we have a very poor chance of just passing anything that leads immediately to a government-run Universal Health Care, and since the people who need it cannot afford to wait for us to unravel the detriments of the outsized legislative influence of rural conservative voters, then things like a public option are a viable path to help those people.


Sorry to be so confusing about that, hope this makes more sense.

 

[lpetrich]

Sanders, campaigning with AOC, says potential Bloomberg bid shows 'the arrogance of billionaires' - ABC News
Someone grabbed and reposted the interview as Bernie AOC - YouTube

"I'm doing five events this weekend right here in Iowa," Sanders continued. "We're all over New Hampshire, South Carolina, Nevada, California. But he's too important. You see, when you're worth $50 billion, I guess you don't have to have town meetings, you don't have to talk to ordinary people. What you do is you take out, I guess a couple of billion dollars, and you buy the state of California."

"I don't think billionaires should be president right now," Ocasio-Cortez added. "I don't think that that's what this country needs, and I think that is going to take us further in the direction of wealth and political power concentrating at the very, very top of our country, and I think that our democracy should be for everyday people, not for purchase."

...
"To this day, he still defends his policy of stop-and-frisk, which impacted families like mine," the congresswoman said. "It was my cousins and my friends that were stopped on the New York City subway system and racially profiled and patted down and thrown into jail for low-level marijuana offenses."

AOC chose him for his decades of progressive activism and support of Medicare for All.

If BS gets elected,

"If I am in the White House," Sanders added, "she will play a very, very important role, no question, in one way or the other."

Sanders was asked what type of role.

"No hints," he said.

AOC, however, is running for re-election in her House district.

 

[lpetrich]

AOC brings star power to Iowa for Sanders - POLITICO

All three stops this weekend were larger than any Sanders had previously held in Iowa this year, bringing between 2,000 and 2,400 people each, according to the campaign. Sanders aides said the Council Bluffs rally drew more people than any other presidential campaign event in the state in 2019.

“Some campaigns struggle to make 1,000 face-to-face contacts in a week,” boasted Misty Rebik, Sanders’ Iowa state director. "We just tripled that in 24 hours.”

BS's recent rally in NYC had 26,000 people attending - the biggest ever so far. AOC was there also.

Ocasio-Cortez also took jabs at some of Sanders’ rivals. She made a thinly veiled dig at Pete Buttigieg’s “Medicare for All Who Want It” plan, saying "we're not going to get there with Medicare for some.” She said change comes “not through a technocratic policy proposal, but through a political revolution,” which some on social media interpreted as a contrast with Elizabeth Warren, though Ocasio-Cortez has repeatedly praised her and was initially eyeing Warren and Sanders when deciding whom to potentially endorse.

Reps. Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, who are also part of the so-called “Squad,” have held well-attended rallies with Sanders in their home states. Faiz Shakir, Sanders’ campaign manager, said they will stump for Sanders in the early-voting states “soon.”

AOC also knocked on a lot of doors in her Iowa visit.

“Having knocked a lot of doors in New York City, knocking doors in Iowa is a much nicer thing. In New York, they’re like, ‘I don’t want to change my cable. Leave me alone,’” Ocasio-Cortez joked at a rally in Coralville. “But in Iowa, you just knock on a door and people are just open for a conversation. It’s really amazing and it's beautiful."

Turns Out, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Is Huge in Iowa – Mother Jones - "And she might just be Bernie Sanders’ most important surrogate."

She had hardly any protests - "I saw four people with weird signs on Saturday making fun of her for being a bartender" - and a lot of cheers.

The centerpiece of Ocasio-Cortez’s visit was a three-hour long climate summit at Drake University on Saturday. People heard from speakers such as Zina Precht-Rodriguez, an organizer at the Sunrise Movement, and the writer and activist Naomi Klein. Panelists discussed chicken farming and water quality and renewable energy while sitting in front of big watercolor panels painted by the artist Molly Crabapple—workers in orange vests putting up solar panels, workers in orange vests working on wind turbines, workers in orange vests…farming, maybe?

Then, the remarkable fact that this conference was happening at all. He'd been making an issue out of it back in 2016, but not like this.

But he wasn’t running on it quite like this, with three-hour summits where people who aren’t running for any office at all talked about the poultry industry, and corporate consolidation of pig-farming, and electrification of freight rail.

Some of BS's supporters grumble that his rivals have appropriated parts of his agenda.

“Every candidate is saying what Bernie has been saying,” said Robin Ruetenik of Coralville. “It’s a coattail orgy.”

 

[lpetrich]

AOC had some nice lines in the Bernie Sanders rallies:

Matt Pearce on Twitter: "“Iowa, you’re the first in the nation, baby. You need to set the tone,” @AOC says. “I need to go back home to the Bronx and tell my community in the Bronx, ‘We need to fight for Iowa.’” And vice versa, Iowa for the Bronx: “I want something better than unity. I want solidarity.” https://t.co/YLPDPrs8Lx" / Twitter

Matt Pearce on Twitter: "Big roar for @BernieSanders in Council Bluffs, Iowa, and he pays tribute to @AOC, who introduced him to the crowd. “I honestly cannot think of any one member of the congress who has done more to fundamentally transform American politics.” https://t.co/gyaAruwsab" / Twitter
Seems like Bernie Sanders nominating AOC as his successor.

Eliza Collins on Twitter: ".@AOC with the line that gets the crowd to go wild: “When people accuse us of pushing the party left, we are not pushing the party left we are bringing the party home.”" / Twitter

Michael Walsh on Twitter: ""We're not pushing the party left. We are bringing the party home. It's time that we become the party of FDR again." AOC
This is why I suppport Senator Sanders and why all progressives should unite behind him. #Bernie2020 #BernieSanders #BernieSanders2020 #NoMiddleGround #" / Twitter

Bernie 2020 Rally in Council Bluffs, IA with AOC - YouTube
CLIMATE CRISIS SUMMIT WITH BERNIE AND AOC - YouTube in Des Moines
Bernie 2020 Rally in Coralville, IA with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez - YouTube
Bernie 2020 Green Jobs Rally in Charles City, Iowa - YouTube
Green Jobs Town Hall with Bernie in Orange City, Iowa - YouTube
Veterans and Seniors Town Hall with Bernie - YouTube in Des Moines

BS spent 3 days in IA with AOC spending the first 2 days with him. Presumed home base, Des Moines, the most populous city and capital, and a place with nonstop flights between it and NYC.
DM - CB - DM: 4 hr
DM - CV - DM: 3 1/3 hr
DM - CC - OC - DM: 9 1/3 h
A heck of a lot of time on the road, and an impressive feat for a 78-year-old man.

AOC Introduces Bernie Sanders at Des Moines Climate Crisis Summit - YouTube

 

[Derec]

"If I am in the White House," Sanders added, "she will play a very, very important role, no question, in one way or the other."
Sanders was asked what type of role.
"No hints," he said.

Maybe she will be a bartender at the White House bar. About the only position she would be fully qualified for.

AOC, however, is running for re-election in her House district.

Hopefully she will fail.

 

[lpetrich]

Adam Kelsey on Twitter: "Big applause when @AOC calls on the crowd to participate in the presidential election, rather than merely observe:
“This is not something we watch. We don’t watch the polls, we change the polls... We don’t watch the presidential race. This is not a movie, this is a movement.”" / Twitter

How Seriously Should We Take Michael Bloomberg’s Potential 2020 Run? | FiveThirtyEight
From polling early this year, net favorability (favorable - unfavorable) is strongly correlated with familiarity (favorable + unfavorable). The main exceptions were Joe Biden (+15 relative to the line) and Mike Bloomberg (-25 relative to the line).

Our past research indicates that people who win presidential primaries tend to either be (a) already well known and well liked or (b) relative unknowns to start off the campaign. Only one nominee since at least 1980 has been in Bloomberg’s position (well known but not well liked), and that’s Trump himself.

Some fun:

Kamala Harris Dancing at the Des Moines Steak Fry - September 21, 2019 - YouTube

Kamala Harris Dancing To Cardi B Joins List Of Other Politicians Who’ve Gone Viral - YouTube

 

[Jolly_Penguin]

Is it just my impression alone, or does Kamala Harris come across as extremely fake? Especially when she forces a laugh.

 

[PyramidHead]

At this point I have to wonder, what does Bloomberg hope to accomplish? At best, in the primary, he splits the never-Bernie vote and helps him or Warren get the nomination. Other than that, who could he realistically appeal to? We have a billionaire in the race already, believe it or not, and his name is Tom Steyer. And he's just as much of a mayonnaise jar as Bloomberg, and nobody likes him.

 

[PyramidHead]

Inveterate racist Peter King's resignation was the perfect catalyst to demonstrate the vast divide between the old Democratic party:



And the new Democratic party:



Also, in case there was any question, Schumer mindset = boomer mindset.

 

[Elixir]

Inveterate racist Peter King's resignation was the perfect catalyst to demonstrate the vast divide between the old Democratic party:

View attachment 24806

And the new Democratic party:

View attachment 24807

Also, in case there was any question, Schumer mindset = boomer mindset.

Oh puh-leeeze. Don't paint me with any sympathy for the narrow minded bigot. I do NOT think there is any virtue attached to sincere and complete devotion to a racist creed. King is a piece of shit with no business representing anyone who thinks of themselves as an American.