Politics 2020

[Buster's Uncle]

-There's a thing I want to say about Sanders that it's difficult to articulate briefly - simply that the idea/usual portrayal that Bernie is mean, angry and rant-y is just not a fair cop.

He's got a resting-[complaint or disagreeable woman]-face problem, to be sure, but when you actually listen to him talk, he is, in fact, warm, reasonable-sounding and frequently engaging in a  dry sarcasm sort of humor.  I find him very funny.

Everyone will have noticed by now that Shoddy Journalism is a peeve of mine, and I have considerable formal training in journalism and a little professional experience to back that up.  I believed the Mass Media Group Mind put him down as a crank on first sight last time, and as such pretty frequently failed to extend him a common courtesy that no one ever talks about; journalists clean up quotes and editors preferentially pick flattering photos.  Like, everyone says "um" and so on while talking, and leaving out the meaningless grunts and even a certain amount of fixing grammar is just standard practice.  Similar applies to the 200 photos taken at a speech - the ones of eyes half-open and so on are eliminated almost as quickly as the out-of-focus stuff.

And Bernie's a Jew from Brooklyn who talks with his hands, always, and has an unfortunate default sour expression.  He's giving a speech, so his mouth's open in nine of the ten best shots being winnowed down, and he's always gesturing - still photography just innately isn't his best way to be presented, and his enemy was probably more eternal deadline time-pressures than bias, maybe, but I still think he deserved more considerate treatment than he got in 2016 with the ranty photos leading every print/net story about him.  Nothing's really changed this cycle.


SO watch the debate tonight, and actually consider the man as he actually is, trying to avoid conformation bias that he's shoutyman.


-I note that he's got all the reasons in the world to go after Biden tonight like Warren on Bloomberg -get pretty intense- so this may be a bad sample to work with - but I perceive that he's very aware of the problem I'm talking about, and will likely put far more emphasis on speaking in complete grammatical sentences and demonstrating mastery of policy and detail.

If I'm wrong and it's all shoutyman tonight, well, his recent town hall on Fox isn't hard to find, and you'll see the good form I've noticed as his usual, not least some rather funny sarcasm...

Check out the real Bernie sometime, please.

[Rusty Edge]

I find Bernie acceptable. Like Gary Johnson, I found that taking the I side with quiz gave me about a 70% agreement with Sanders, more than most Democrats. Why? Because he's against Crony Capitalism, the source of many of our healthcare inefficiencies. And the 30% I disagree with? I don't really think that will be implemented in a recognizable form anyway.

[Buster's Uncle]

To expand on your last phrase, I will say that the Party closing ranks and organizing against him so completely hints that a Sanders presidency would be a lot like a Romney one would have been - born dead, because you can't do ANYthing without the support of your own side...

[Rusty Edge]

To expand on your last phrase, I will say that the Party closing ranks and organizing against him so completely hints that a Sanders presidency would be a lot like a Romney one would have been - born dead, because you can't do ANYthing without the support of your own side...

Uh... Sadly so. If only it were enough to be right.

[Buster's Uncle]

Here's the first ten minutes:

Bernie seems sharper, but Joe definitely don't look a bit senile.  I'm calling this bit for Joe, as all he needed was not to lose decisively.

Both gentlemen, IMAO, err in not turning their answers, on this of all nights, into a contest to see who can slam the Pig as a joke, a failure, a traitor and a murderer the hardest.

[Buster's Uncle]

JOE AIN"T SENILE.  Nobody talk about that anymore.  I'm looking at you, everyone everywhere in the country.

Points to the moderators for letting the back and forth go on for so long.

Bernie shouldn't have let him off the hook naming the nine superpacs.  Dr. Warren wouldn't have unless she thought he might could name at least six...

Both gentlemen, again, are making a mistake giving their stump positions instead of answering all questions with We Are In A National Disaster Of The Pig's Making.  -Because we are.  Nobody cares about who said what when about Social Security tonight.

Joe still wins by not losing.

[Buster's Uncle]

Allow me to underline:  WE ARE AMIDST A MAJOR NATIONAL DISASTER, RIGHT. NOW. TONIGHT.

-And that's even if the Crows is a hoax.  Whole countries have shut down, we're in the middle of half-assing same, and Pig has failed at even the saving the stock market, which he's made clear is all he cares about, not the people he's killed.  Business, especially the small ones, is Officially Having A Bad Year.  Or several.

I give Biden and Sanders both a failing mark for talking about anything else, though I note several Liberals Screaming On Twitter have already called the debate for Joe on the same basis I did; he didn't lose hard enough.  I am honestly gladdened, not just putting a happy face on it, that he held up against a sharp/fierce opponent.  He had to come out of it looking sharp, or else be Bloomberged so utterly he'd lose everything else.

I can vote for him in November and not be sick about it.

[Rusty Edge]

Watching the press conference, president included. He says that the vaccine is already going to trial, and they are working on an anti-viral. He also says that this will last through August.

Of course, I figure his credibility is already shot, and the financial markets know it. Today they only have 8 people behind the podium to advocate for social distancing.

Dr Fauci said, if I can summarize/paraphrase - Act like we're already in Italy because that's our last, best hope.

[Buster's Uncle]

I'm told the stock market fell 600 points while that presser was going on.  The Pig's lips were moving.  A pity there's no way to keep him from making public remarks while the stock exchange is open.

[Buster's Uncle]

Here's Bernie at a town hall two weeks and change ago.  It's much more the personal form I talked about yesterday that was not so much in the debate.  Nailed a couple jokes w/o trying hard, didn't give away the two quick grins he flashed cheap, but grin he indeed did...

-Not because it's not a lost cause, but right up there's what I was talking about, FWIW...

[Buster's Uncle]

Now here's Bernie ranting in 1992...

[Buster's Uncle]

...So I sez to Mom yesterday, I sez "When the other old church ladies say 'socialism' you say 'The New Deal'".

-It didn't really end the Depression -that was WWII turning up- but it kept a lot of people going until it was over.  THAT'S one of those rare things Big Government is good for; getting people over the hump in a crisis.

[Buster's Uncle]

Hey Rusty; what's the Libertarian Party up to this cycle?

[Rusty Edge]

Infighting, mostly.

The re-elected Chairman(Jewish) and new vice-chairman(Hispanic) are good people in my opinion.

However, there's a vocal sector that are what [Sleezebag] used to call "good people on both sides." Alt righters who supported him in 2016 rather than Johnson/Weld. Speaking of Weld, he returned to the GOP to primary [Sleezebag].

A widely respected Larry Sharpe (Black) who ran for VP in 2016, and gov of NY recently, is sitting this election cycle out.

Alicia Dern who also ran for VP in 2016 has become my virtual friend in the years since. She is helping with the Rocque De la Fuente GOP presidential campaign this cycle.

Former FOX Business channel host Austin Petersen turned Republican to run for senate in Missouri and lost.

Actually, political performance artist Vermin Supreme leads any polls I've seen of Libertarians.

The sensible sorts are hoping for Independent Congressman Justin Amash to run for president under the Libertarian banner. You may remember him as the first and only congressional Republican to call for [Sleezebag]'s impeachment. Then they kicked him out of the congressional Freedom Caucus, of which he was the founder, and he resigned from the GOP. I think he's more interested in trying to hold on to his seat with both parties trying to pick it up.

Meanwhile the state Corona restrictions on gatherings are messing up the state conventions, and I don't know if they'll do a virtual national convention- or what.

My guess is we'll run a no-name, which is okay because I intend to vote Democrat...but I would reconsider if they manage to put Hillary on the ballot again somehow. Before anybody says "That can't happen" I understand that if the candidate were to die, say between nomination and the election, the DNC can choose a replacement, same as when Sen. Eagleton resigned as McGovern's Veep.  I don't know if they'd choose Hillary, but I can guarantee they wouldn't go with Tulsi.

[Buster's Uncle]

So is Sen. Ron Johnson fired?