Current Affairs 2020 Democratic Primary
- Thread starter abelard
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abelard
Player Valuation: £35m
Haha I don't think he's even smart enough to be robotic. He's more like a big slobbery golden retriever, who just wants to you tell him he's a very good boy, and to scratch behind his ears or play fetch.
People call me patronising, but there is literally millions in fossil fuel money invested in the assumption that you'll be won over by watching this cretin visit the barber, or get his teeth flossed. What could possibly be more patronising that that?
It is certainly a relief that he's not doing better in the polls though, or they'd all be trying stunts like this.
Contracted asthma because the factory down the road is spewing poison into the air? Here's a video of Kamala Harris scraping the corns off her soles!
Working 60+ hours a week at three different fast food chains just to meet your rent and student loans? Don't miss Kirsten Gillibrand inserting her thrush treatment applicator!
Forced to beg strangers on the internet to crowdfund your routine medical procedures? This clip of Pete Buttigieg bleaching his anus is change you can believe in!
And so on.
How people can write literally thousands of posts bemoaning the harm from Trump's fusion of politics and mindless celebrity - but not instinctively retch each time the algorithm spits up Beto's lame imitations - is well beyond me.
He'll have a rabble of marketing gurus desperately dialling up the tweeness and hipness as he fades out of view. I don't know how this race is going to go, but smart money is on Beto having the most cynical campaign
I think I wanted Bloomberg to run, which is kinda crazy when I look back!
I think you forgot Bernie cleaning out earwax at his lakefront vacation home.....
Ah, that's right.
BirkenheadBlue
Player Valuation: £70m
Imagine actually being that dumb...
abelard
Player Valuation: £35m
Yes We Can!
If this wasn't already long since obvious, then you should probably reconsider what you're reading, or how you're reading it.
Democrats Cozy Up to Wall Street While Shunning Corporate Cash
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...et-while-shunning-corporate-cash?srnd=premium
Big donors working in finance say candidates—except Sanders and Warren—are dropping by for lunch and money.
In February, Pete Buttigieg stepped into the Manhattan office of Wall Street veteran Charles Myers to talk politics over deli sandwiches. Citigroup Inc. Managing Director Yann Coatanlem hosted a fundraiser in March for Kamala Harris at his Fifth Avenue apartment, where she shook the paw of the banker’s labradoodle. Three days later, former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. partner Bruce Heyman raised more than $100,000 for Amy Klobuchar at his home in Chicago. He’s planning an event for Joe Biden this fall.
The mayor of South Bend, Ind., the senators from California and Minnesota, and the ex-vice president are among the Democratic presidential candidates disavowing corporate cash, lobbyist checks, or the super PAC system. They’re trying to outdo each other with promises to finance their campaigns with grassroots contributions. But while they play down the role of money and influence, longtime Wall Street donors who have both say little has changed. “I’ve talked to about half of them, and I have not run into a single one who said, ‘Hey, you worked at Goldman Sachs, I can’t take your money,’ ” says Heyman, who helped elect Barack Obama by collecting checks from friends, and later became his ambassador to Canada. “I’ve not heard that—ever.”
Wall Street has long been a deep well from which presidential candidates draw hundreds of millions of dollars for advertising, travel, and staff. As the presidential race gears up, almost the entire Democratic field is hitting up the industry’s donors, according to money manager Marc Lasry, who says he’s already met with about 10 Democrats. “At the end of the day, candidates need money,” says Lasry, who was a bundler for Hillary Clinton in 2016, runs Avenue Capital Group, and co-owns the Milwaukee Bucks.
There is one notable difference. “In the past, there was no candidate who didn’t come to New York, Chicago, L.A. for money,” says Lasry. “Today, there are two candidates who aren’t doing that—Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders.” Few bankers would want to promote those senators anyhow. This month, Vermont’s Sanders proposed capping credit card interest rates, calling banks “modern-day loan sharks.” Warren, from Massachusetts, has pitched a tax on family assets above $50 million to wipe out student debt. She wants to jail executives whose companies’ negligence causes harm, citing bank bosses and the financial crisis.
Their rivals are giving the sense that they share the same rage about the influence of special interests—including multinational corporations, Wall Street, and Silicon Valley. But while the candidates seek to polish their populist appeal, they still need to raise hundreds of millions of dollars to get to June’s Democratic debates in Miami, the Iowa caucuses next February, and the end of primary season in June 2020.
To critics, accepting money from Wall Street executives and investors but not corporate political action committees or lobbyists has the whiff of hypocrisy. “It’s hard to believe that they think that campaign contributions from wealthy Wall Street donors might not also be a liability,” says Ann Ravel, a former chairperson of the Federal Election Commission. But the field of candidates is crowded. The need to fight off so many rivals “is a strong motivator for them to accept it anyway.”
Near the end of April, Buttigieg said he was returning $30,250 from lobbyists. Two days later, Biden said he was rejecting support from super PACs to increase his appeal to middle-class voters. Super PACs blossomed after the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United decision, and they now raise unlimited amounts from companies and people. New York’s Kirsten Gillibrand, who was a corporate lawyer before becoming a senator, and her New Jersey colleague Cory Booker, a Wall Street favorite for years, have both said they won’t take money from corporate PACs. But Buttigieg, Biden, Gillibrand, and Booker are meeting with bankers and investors to talk policy or raise money. Those four campaigns didn't respond to requests for comment. Wall Street fundraisers often ask guests to give a candidate $2,800, the most allowed in the primaries.
President Donald Trump seems to have few qualms about big money. Last week, Cantor Fitzgerald LP boss Howard Lutnick raised over $5 million at his triplex penthouse for Trump’s reelection, two days after his campaign took in almost as much at the New Orleans home of First Bank & Trust director Joe Canizaro.
Robert Wolf, who ran UBS Group AG’s Americas unit, says he’s already donated to nine Democratic presidential candidates and plans to meet with about 15. “You have to, more than ever, be involved,” says Wolf, who started the strategy and investment firm 32 Advisors.
Besides Buttigieg, Myers has had John Hickenlooper, the ex-governor of Colorado, and Jay Inslee, Washington’s governor, drop by his office for what he calls policy lunches. He says the idea isn’t to get them to go easy on Wall Street. What he really wants is to resist what he sees as the party’s socialist tilt while fighting Trump. “I don’t feel embarrassed at all,” says Myers, who was vice chairman of Evercore Inc. before he started Signum Global Advisors, which does policy research for finance firms. “Running for president and winning a general election is incredibly expensive, and the other side will raise enormous amounts of money.” He’s right so far: Trump’s reelection campaign and joint fundraising committees raised $38.3 million in the first quarter of 2019. Sanders, the Democratic contender with the most cash, raised $18.2 million. Harris raised about $12 million, with only about 37 percent in amounts of $200 or less.
At the fundraiser hosted by Citigroup’s Coatanlem, his labradoodle, named Possum, started barking just before the senator addressed guests, according to a person there. “I agree with you,” Harris told the dog. “There’s a lot to bark about.”
If this wasn't already long since obvious, then you should probably reconsider what you're reading, or how you're reading it.
Democrats Cozy Up to Wall Street While Shunning Corporate Cash
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...et-while-shunning-corporate-cash?srnd=premium
Big donors working in finance say candidates—except Sanders and Warren—are dropping by for lunch and money.
In February, Pete Buttigieg stepped into the Manhattan office of Wall Street veteran Charles Myers to talk politics over deli sandwiches. Citigroup Inc. Managing Director Yann Coatanlem hosted a fundraiser in March for Kamala Harris at his Fifth Avenue apartment, where she shook the paw of the banker’s labradoodle. Three days later, former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. partner Bruce Heyman raised more than $100,000 for Amy Klobuchar at his home in Chicago. He’s planning an event for Joe Biden this fall.
The mayor of South Bend, Ind., the senators from California and Minnesota, and the ex-vice president are among the Democratic presidential candidates disavowing corporate cash, lobbyist checks, or the super PAC system. They’re trying to outdo each other with promises to finance their campaigns with grassroots contributions. But while they play down the role of money and influence, longtime Wall Street donors who have both say little has changed. “I’ve talked to about half of them, and I have not run into a single one who said, ‘Hey, you worked at Goldman Sachs, I can’t take your money,’ ” says Heyman, who helped elect Barack Obama by collecting checks from friends, and later became his ambassador to Canada. “I’ve not heard that—ever.”
Wall Street has long been a deep well from which presidential candidates draw hundreds of millions of dollars for advertising, travel, and staff. As the presidential race gears up, almost the entire Democratic field is hitting up the industry’s donors, according to money manager Marc Lasry, who says he’s already met with about 10 Democrats. “At the end of the day, candidates need money,” says Lasry, who was a bundler for Hillary Clinton in 2016, runs Avenue Capital Group, and co-owns the Milwaukee Bucks.
There is one notable difference. “In the past, there was no candidate who didn’t come to New York, Chicago, L.A. for money,” says Lasry. “Today, there are two candidates who aren’t doing that—Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders.” Few bankers would want to promote those senators anyhow. This month, Vermont’s Sanders proposed capping credit card interest rates, calling banks “modern-day loan sharks.” Warren, from Massachusetts, has pitched a tax on family assets above $50 million to wipe out student debt. She wants to jail executives whose companies’ negligence causes harm, citing bank bosses and the financial crisis.
Their rivals are giving the sense that they share the same rage about the influence of special interests—including multinational corporations, Wall Street, and Silicon Valley. But while the candidates seek to polish their populist appeal, they still need to raise hundreds of millions of dollars to get to June’s Democratic debates in Miami, the Iowa caucuses next February, and the end of primary season in June 2020.
To critics, accepting money from Wall Street executives and investors but not corporate political action committees or lobbyists has the whiff of hypocrisy. “It’s hard to believe that they think that campaign contributions from wealthy Wall Street donors might not also be a liability,” says Ann Ravel, a former chairperson of the Federal Election Commission. But the field of candidates is crowded. The need to fight off so many rivals “is a strong motivator for them to accept it anyway.”
Near the end of April, Buttigieg said he was returning $30,250 from lobbyists. Two days later, Biden said he was rejecting support from super PACs to increase his appeal to middle-class voters. Super PACs blossomed after the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United decision, and they now raise unlimited amounts from companies and people. New York’s Kirsten Gillibrand, who was a corporate lawyer before becoming a senator, and her New Jersey colleague Cory Booker, a Wall Street favorite for years, have both said they won’t take money from corporate PACs. But Buttigieg, Biden, Gillibrand, and Booker are meeting with bankers and investors to talk policy or raise money. Those four campaigns didn't respond to requests for comment. Wall Street fundraisers often ask guests to give a candidate $2,800, the most allowed in the primaries.
President Donald Trump seems to have few qualms about big money. Last week, Cantor Fitzgerald LP boss Howard Lutnick raised over $5 million at his triplex penthouse for Trump’s reelection, two days after his campaign took in almost as much at the New Orleans home of First Bank & Trust director Joe Canizaro.
Robert Wolf, who ran UBS Group AG’s Americas unit, says he’s already donated to nine Democratic presidential candidates and plans to meet with about 15. “You have to, more than ever, be involved,” says Wolf, who started the strategy and investment firm 32 Advisors.
Besides Buttigieg, Myers has had John Hickenlooper, the ex-governor of Colorado, and Jay Inslee, Washington’s governor, drop by his office for what he calls policy lunches. He says the idea isn’t to get them to go easy on Wall Street. What he really wants is to resist what he sees as the party’s socialist tilt while fighting Trump. “I don’t feel embarrassed at all,” says Myers, who was vice chairman of Evercore Inc. before he started Signum Global Advisors, which does policy research for finance firms. “Running for president and winning a general election is incredibly expensive, and the other side will raise enormous amounts of money.” He’s right so far: Trump’s reelection campaign and joint fundraising committees raised $38.3 million in the first quarter of 2019. Sanders, the Democratic contender with the most cash, raised $18.2 million. Harris raised about $12 million, with only about 37 percent in amounts of $200 or less.
At the fundraiser hosted by Citigroup’s Coatanlem, his labradoodle, named Possum, started barking just before the senator addressed guests, according to a person there. “I agree with you,” Harris told the dog. “There’s a lot to bark about.”
abelard
Player Valuation: £35m
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/03/us/politics/biden-1988-presidential-campaign.html
Joe Biden was riffing again — an R.F.K. anecdote, a word about “civil wrongs,” a meandering joke about the baseball commissioner — and aides knew enough to worry a little.
“When I marched in the civil rights movement, I did not march with a 12-point program,” Mr. Biden thundered, testing his presidential message in February 1987 before a New Hampshire audience. “I marched with tens of thousands of others to change attitudes. And we changed attitudes.”
More than once, advisers had gently reminded Mr. Biden of the problem with this formulation: He had not actually marched during the civil rights movement. And more than once, Mr. Biden assured them he understood — and kept telling the story anyway.
By that September, his recklessness as a candidate had caught up with him. He was accused of plagiarizing in campaign speeches. He had inflated his academic record. Reporters began calling out his exaggerated youth activism.
“I’ve done some dumb things,” Mr. Biden conceded at a stop-the-bleeding news conference at the Capitol. “And I’ll do dumb things again.”
He vowed that day to fight on. He quit the race within a week.
* * *
Hmmmm I wonder if this had been Trump whether the #resistance would have noticed yet? ; )
Identifying as a Democrat requires a stronger stomach for.... let's say 'inconsistency' than I can usually manage.
Joe Biden was riffing again — an R.F.K. anecdote, a word about “civil wrongs,” a meandering joke about the baseball commissioner — and aides knew enough to worry a little.
“When I marched in the civil rights movement, I did not march with a 12-point program,” Mr. Biden thundered, testing his presidential message in February 1987 before a New Hampshire audience. “I marched with tens of thousands of others to change attitudes. And we changed attitudes.”
More than once, advisers had gently reminded Mr. Biden of the problem with this formulation: He had not actually marched during the civil rights movement. And more than once, Mr. Biden assured them he understood — and kept telling the story anyway.
By that September, his recklessness as a candidate had caught up with him. He was accused of plagiarizing in campaign speeches. He had inflated his academic record. Reporters began calling out his exaggerated youth activism.
“I’ve done some dumb things,” Mr. Biden conceded at a stop-the-bleeding news conference at the Capitol. “And I’ll do dumb things again.”
He vowed that day to fight on. He quit the race within a week.
* * *
Hmmmm I wonder if this had been Trump whether the #resistance would have noticed yet? ; )
Identifying as a Democrat requires a stronger stomach for.... let's say 'inconsistency' than I can usually manage.
Which voters do you feel are the #resistance?
I’d have classed them generally as younger voters and I believe Biden’s previous campaign issues detailed above (not to mention Anita Hill, support for the crime bill and Iraq war, nuzzling/handling of women, frequent foot in mouth etc ) were figured into the poll results such as below. Older voters don’t, at least so far, seem to be bothered by what they presumably witnessed when he ran/was in office before.
abelard
Player Valuation: £35m
I don't think they are particularly young... obviously young people don't like Trump, but they tend to have more substantive things to worry about than much of the frivolity that twitter churns up about him. People who go all in on Eric Garland or Seth Abramson or Louise Mesch or other equally dubious clickbait tend to enjoy a lot of disposable time and income, and tend to be much more credulous than their children or grandchildren about what they read on social media. My aunt, for instance, a retired teacher in the Midwest, has just about lost the ability to hold a conversation since she joined facebook; she literally cannot go more than five minutes at holidays without mentioning the most outlandish conspiracy drivel about Trump or Russia. The internet has broken her brain. Naturally, she's enamoured with Biden.
The Democrats could actually end up electing Biden, who resembles Trump more than just about any other politician out there. The sanctimony and hypocrisy is gruesome, and more than a bit depressing.
If it had reemerged, for instance, that Trump had lied about participating in a Civil Rights march, we'd probably have three pages of fume here within the hour, but for the Dems' likely knight in shining armour, crickets.
Dude, not one person on here is advocating for Biden.
Also, if Trump lied about participating in a civil rights march, it would be lost in the daily fire hose of other crap he and his administration come out with on a daily basis. In fact there's probably a million and one trump lies about how he's helped the African American community but I cant be arsed looking.
So yea, no Biden voters here.
In fact, as I said before, both Biden and Sanders would be better served fading in to the background and acting in an advisory capacity.
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