🗳 2020 Primary Election

dragonfly9 · April 24, 2020, 7:02pm

I like these two…but honestly I want someone who will add to the ticket in every way. Harris is smart, tenacious. Same for Stacy Abrams…

I just want it to be a calculation (honestly) to WIN. No matter what…

We need to return to real governing…and with a country so polarized, and battle ready…it is going to be THE test of all time.

Obama/Biden were really effective leaders given that they were up against the 2008 credit default swap mess and economic free fall…and they got through with Pelosi’s help the ACA, which was so significant in the second term. (but half the country hated Obama…)

Then came the wild card, T who influenced/bought/stole his way into the Presidency, and ignited the right to the such a polarizing degree, that the country seems way too divided.T can not govern, he can not lead, and he’s in it for himself only. We see the entire R Senate and house and financial backers with the exception of Sen Romney back him for all that T can get.

If ever there was a ‘level the playing field’ situation with the Coronavirus/pandemic…it is now. As dangerous as it all is…it may just re-open the conscious of Americans to know that a well-run government, with an eye towards helping the nation, can be an ideal. And hopefully we won’t bankrupt the country, or head over a cliff financially with a depression or war or worse before November.

But if we can turn the ship around…and move towards a more peaceable, honest nation, despite all the Corporate money in supporting candidates I will be happy with the mild-mannered Biden and whoever the F**k he can get. Believe me, in the best of all worlds we’d switch his running mate and put that women on the top of the ticket…ie Harris, Warren etc…but we are not there yet.

Deep breath…sigh.

Anyone functioning adult is FINE.

Pet_Proletariat · April 24, 2020, 8:58pm

I love her too but I want more experience in office. Top three picks for me are Harris, Val Demings and Abrams. I love Warren but we need her in the Senate or head of the CPB.

dragonfly9 · April 25, 2020, 2:22am

Stacey Abrams Makes Her Veep Case - The Atlantic

dragonfly9 · April 28, 2020, 1:01am

Ok…well, some opposition within the R party…

The conservative group Republicans for the Rule of Law (RRL) will air a national TV ad during Fox & Friends on Thursday calling President Donald Trump “unfit, unwell, unacceptable” for his suggestion at the April 23 White House daily coronavirus briefing that the virus might be cured by exposing bodies to radiation and injecting disinfectant.

"50,000 people have died and this is our president," the ad says via on-screen text before cutting to footage of Trump from the April 23 briefing.

…

The video then shows Dr. Birx looking forward, her hands folded in her lap without acknowledging the president’s question.

“You can apply light and heat to cure,” Trump says, still looking at Dr. Birx.

"I’m not a doctor," Trump says, “but I’m like a person who has a good you know what,” with his right index finger gesturing towards his head.

…

Sarah Longwell, a spokeswoman for Republicans for the Rule of Law, said in a statement given to Newsweek , “It’s dangerous for the President to use the global reach of his press conferences to speculate wildly about untested cures for coronavirus.”

“Instead,” Longwell continued, “he should focus on the more than 50,000 Americans who lost their lives, and coordinating a federal response to the pandemic that includes widespread testing and ensuring our hospitals and healthcare workers have the equipment they need to save lives. America deserves better leadership.”

Newsweek reached out to the White House for comment.

Pet_Proletariat · April 29, 2020, 2:13am

Trump campaign lashes out over ‘Don’t defend Trump’ memo

On Monday — just days after POLITICO first reported the existence of the memo — Trump political adviser Justin Clark told NRSC executive director Kevin McLaughlin that any Republican candidate who followed the memo’s advice shouldn’t expect the active support of the reelection campaign and risked losing the support of Republican voters.

McLaughlin responded by saying he agreed with the Trump campaign’s position and, according to two people familiar with the conversation, clarified that the committee wasn’t advising candidates to not defend Trump over his response.

The episode illustrates how the Trump political apparatus demands — and receives — fealty from fellow Republicans and moves aggressively to tamp down on any perceived dissent within the GOP. The president maintains an iron grip on his party, even as his poll numbers sag and he confronts fierce criticism from Democrats over his response to the coronavirus pandemic.

They all just roll over for him. There is no Republican platform there is only Trumpism, which simply protects the boss at all cost.

GracieC · April 29, 2020, 3:03am

This makes me wonder what the campaign donors are thinking? I know they are using this administration for dismantling the law, but are they really comfortable with this amount of fealty? Especially to trump & Moscow mitch?

dragonfly9 · April 30, 2020, 5:48am

The video…here.

Windthin · April 30, 2020, 8:08pm

The Graham campaign suffered a major defection.

Richard Wilkerson had served on Graham’s short-lived presidential campaign. Now he’s backing the senator’s rival, Jaime Harrison.

https://www.thestate.com/news/politics-government/election/article242344491.html

Pet_Proletariat · May 1, 2020, 2:12am

I believe everyone deserves to tell their story.

I’m not sure what to think about the allegations against Joe Biden.

I do know that my health insurance through my partner’s employer changed five times in the last two years while I was being treated for two different cancers. I saw four different specialists and it delayed my treatment for a whole year in one case. I’m self-employed, it nearly bankrupted my business because I couldn’t book clients for six months while we figured out the treatments. That wouldn’t have happened if I stayed with my Obamacare plan. I’m not even forty yet so this made me a single issue voter. I’m a feminist and a survivor but bet your ass I will vote a straight democratic ticket for healthcare, especially during a pandemic.

Windthin · May 1, 2020, 3:58am

I’ve been following this since it first came up. I’ve read a lot of vitriol, angry posts, articles that ignored some things, and a lot of articles noting how there are some serious holes in her story. I am glad Biden is finally going to address this; it was a bad, bad look for him not to do so.

These are the articles I’ve found that seem to help:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/biden-himself-should-address-the-tara-reade-allegations-and-release-relevant-records/2020/04/29/55a36694-8a45-11ea-9dfd-990f9dcc71fc_story.html

On a side note, some of Biden’s defenders have been touting the NYT investigation as proof that the claim was debunked, but the NYT said simply it could not find anything one way or the other.

There are also side issues with Reade having been accused of stealing from a charity that I don’t think is mentioned in these articles, but they do mention her bizarre history of flipping stances and the brief infatuation with Putin.

dragonfly9 · May 1, 2020, 4:01am

More from Biden…attempting to build a Democratic coalition…from those who showed promise during the Primary.

Yes…seems that Tara Reade Is trying to upend Biden for political purposes only. He will be our only chance to rid ourselves of T.

Windthin · May 1, 2020, 4:07am

Basically, this. I’ve been deep diving on this since it first came out and following it. The more I read, the more hinky it feels, and I’m not the only one. A lot of people who feel the same are tiptoeing because this is such a delicate issue, and we don’t want to discount allegations out of hand.

dragonfly9 · May 1, 2020, 4:44am

Yes hinky…and very much a political ploy.

Here is what Heather Coxe Richardson says about it…and the supporting links.

The other big story today is Trump’s attacks on presumptive Democratic presidential nominee former Vice President Joe Biden, designed to inoculate Trump against similar attacks. Trump insists that Biden has mental impairments that make him unsuitable for the presidency, an echo of the many stories of Trump’s own mental impairment. Neither are young men, but Biden’s stuttering is well-known, and likely behind some of his problems speaking. This attack on Biden’s health is similar to the attacks the Trump campaign made on Hillary Clinton in 2016, arguing that she was too ill to serve as president.

Second, Trump and his supporters are hammering on Tara Reade’s accusations that Biden raped her. This accusation would inoculate Trump from the sixteen credible accusations made against him, and is harder for Democrats to address, especially as supporters of Vermont Independent Senator Bernie Sanders have joined in the chorus for Biden to resign in favor of their candidate.

Democrats are torn between their support for the #MeToo Movement in which myriad women related their experiences with sexual harassment and assault, and their concern that Reade’s vague accusation is related to the 2020 campaign, especially since her story has been inconsistent in ways that are unlike the usual inconsistencies in traumatized rape victims. There are a number of smart explications of the Reade accusation that I will link in the notes, most of which suggest there are serious problems with her account, but I thought the smartest approach to these accusations came from women’s health journalist Lindsay Beyerstein.

The problem with the way we approach cases of sexual assault, she says, is that we treat them as if they are uncommon. In fact, they are quite common, and women are as unlikely to lie about them as they are about any other common crime. We should start from a presumption that they are telling the truth, as you would if someone told you they had been mugged. But those claims of a common crime should still be evaluated if they are questioned. If I tell you I was mugged, and you say, “But you were with me the whole time and no one bothered us,” my claims need to be investigated. I am not entitled to be believed automatically.

Links to these

Sexual assault claim against Biden makes me skeptical: Ex-prosecutor

Pet_Proletariat · May 1, 2020, 6:45am

I just don’t understand why she waited until this moment? Joe Biden has won term after term but now he’s all but won the nomination she comes forward? Not for justice but for what? Scandal? That’s what feels hinky. Would have more helpful early in the primary when we all had options.

Part of me knows however trauma is difficult and sometimes it can manifest years later, even after you feel like you’ve moved on. I think it’s best to hear the story but I don’t think she will change anyone mind. The people who hate Trump will still hate Trump and vote for Joe Biden anyways.

Windthin · May 1, 2020, 9:48am

It’s more than the wait, though. Up until 2017 she was actively praising Biden for his efforts to protect women and combat sexual harassment. She also used to post anti-Russia stuff, including a post about the Russian parliament passing a bill that basically rubber stamped domestic abuse. Then she came out against Biden when others did, but explicitly noted no sexual harassment, at the same time she started posting truly bizarre articles praising Putin. Then she flipped again, claiming Biden harassed her and that she had abandoned Putin and didn’t know about his own issues, despite having posted about it. This flip happened right when Biden was gaining steam. At that time the story was now just harassment; the rape accusation didn’t come until very recently. She’s also named three different Biden aides she supposedly reported this to, with the story changing each time as to who she complained to and all of them denying it. Even her story of how she arrived in Washington has at least two versions, one where she drove all night and one where she arrived by plane.

It’s not just one inconsistency, it’s a whole slew of them, coupled with bizarre shifts in her stances and multiple inexplicable gaps after which claims keep growing with very suspicious timing.

The Larry King recording also can’t be verified and makes no mention of harassment, making it all sound more like a disagreement; the call did apparently originate from a town her mother lived in at the time, but there’s again no evidence the call was related to harassment.

And on the Time’s Up thing? They’re not allowed to get involved in anything remotely resembling electioneering, so they had to walk softly, but they were trying to help get her with a lawyer to press her case. Only she didn’t want to make a case about being harassed or raped, she wanted the lawyers to silence people accusing her of working for Russia, which neither the lawyers nor Time’s Up do.

Like I said, it’s one big morass and it stinks to high heaven.

dragonfly9 · May 1, 2020, 12:57pm

Joe’s official response…and he’s saying, just look at the facts.

I keep coming back to my reaction that she has the appearance of trying to ‘pin’ something on him.

Maybe post-trauma perhaps…maybe Biden was inappropriate…now what. Leave it be…move along Tara.

Pet_Proletariat · May 1, 2020, 5:24pm

For those who missed it, here’s the full Joe Biden interview on Morning Joe.

https://youtu.be/seu_C08yAAM

Windthin · May 1, 2020, 6:40pm

Mika Brzezinski posted the following highly disingenuous and heavily ratioed tweet after:

Pet_Proletariat · May 1, 2020, 10:39pm

Yes, people, not just women, should be believed and justice should be served. If a person went to the police and reported an sexual assault, it should be investigated, plain and simple, the same any other violent crime.

People don’t report these as crimes because of the shame victims and survivors endure from the assault.

I believe her allegations warrant a proper investigation, which we did not get before in the Kavanaugh confirmation hearings. Justice can only be served with due process. Ms. Reade’s allegations deserve respect, if she is indeed seeking justice and she should prepare herself for the difficult task ahead with legal counsel beyond just talking to news outlets.

The path forward requires us to take these claims seriously but also follow up with an actual investigation that proves or disproves one’s innocence. If Ms. Reade isn’t seeking justice it brings her motivations for coming forward into question. And that actually does a disservice to those who do wish to seek justice.

Windthin · May 1, 2020, 10:27pm