Why Joe Biden is Up...
By Thom Hartmann A...
Joe Biden outperformed both polls and expectations on Super Tuesday. There are probably four reasons why this happened.-- First, the Virginia open primary numbers showing huge turnout suggest that many Republicans and independents, sickened by Trump but unwilling to vote for Bernie, showed up in open primary states and voted for Biden in the hopes that, in the fall, they can vote for a "Republican/independent-acceptable" guy to beat Trump.
-- Second, Jim Clyburn's all-in embrace of Joe Biden had a huge impact that echoed across the African-American community nationwide, which can be seen in the exit survey poll results in states way beyond South Carolina.
-- Third, Joe Biden had almost wall-to-wall positive coverage, and Bernie a lot of negative coverage after his Cuba remark, on cable television and in major national newspapers for the previous week.
-- And, finally, people are frightened by the coronavirus and when people are afraid they tend to become more cautious and conservative in their decision-making, which means in this case they are going for someone they know, the "tried and true," rather than being willing to jump in on a "revolution."
The big question going forward is whether these dynamics will continue to play out over the next three Tuesdays, or whether things like the coronavirus will highlight the need for Medicare For All and other solutions Sanders is proposing.
Plus... Like Autocrats Everywhere - Trump Cracks Down on the Press
Trump is suing The Washington Post and the New York Time plus he wouldn't open the Coronavirus briefing to the press. In order for autocrats to seize and hold control of government they must intimidate and cow the press. We are watching that is real time.
-Thom
Comments
#2
To Thom's third point above: One of the leading reasons the fickle Democratic pendulum has swung back so hard and fast to the capitalistic right is that the billionaire-owned political establishment loves to wield the club of "evil socialism" against Bernie -- a hollow but wickedly effective game of negative labeling that is as old as Neanderthal politics. Trouble is, engaged young people today aren't buying it. After all, it's their future too.
When it comes to mischaracterizing democratic socialism -- which is essentially FDR socialism, regulated capitalism, and that healthy balance between "the commons" and "free enterprise" (in the words of the Founders) -- corporate Democrats sound exactly like corporate Republicans. What a mystery. By hissing out the syllables and consonants of just one word free of definition and context, they can scare the capitalistic crap out of millions of low-information voters into acting against their own best interests. Again and again.
Yet, the real issue facing We the People is not the big lie about a "lurch to the left" that the splashy media loudly propagates; it is rather the headlong rush to the pervasive corporate fascism of the radical right, which is deliberately engineered by the Republican Party and their Democratic enablers, and which poses the biggest threat to everyday people and the American way of life (the good part).
A greedy cabal of millionaires, billionaires, and bought-off politicians lusting after power is the number one, immediate, mortal danger to our democracy, principles, and constitution. Their despicable lies aim at the very heart of who we are as a people who actually own their own government, collectively, i.e. democratic socialism, which the first Republican president so succinctly and elegantly conferred upon succeeding generations:
"... It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth." -- Abraham Lincoln
Sounds just like Bernie.
#3
".....highlight the need for M4A and other solutions Sanders is proposing" Thom H.
The things Sanders is proposing would throw the US economy into a death spiral.
Medicare for all.
Free State College/University
Student debt forgiveness
Ban fossil fuels
Huge tax increases
Green New Deal
The Trump economy is humming right along and I have heard NONE of the Democrats talk about how they will make the economy even better. Because they can't.
One more thing. The BIG difference between Trump, Biden, and Sanders is that Donald Trump made his fortune BEFORE he got into politics. Biden and Sanders, after they got into politics. How does that happen?
K2
#4
...and out of 17 Republican lickspittles, the bigots, racists, and assorted reprobates on the far right of Attila the Hun picked a mentally unbalanced, wannabe tinpot dictator with ridiculous clown hair and caked-on makeup, who blames everyone else for his own abundant inadequacies, to represent their best interests. Which is what exactly?
Never mind the two old white guys presently running the Republican sh*t show while gleefully dismantling the institutions of pragmatic democratic governance before our very eyes. Yup, what a breed of blowhards, religious wackos, and eminently unqualified lowlifes now making up the Republican Party. Way to go; way to flush your worthless vote down the goddamn toilet ...along with your last vestige of respect.
#5
You can be old and wise or old and not wise .
You can be young and have great wisdom at the same time.
I think it's a matter of conciousness . Be ever vigilant, then .For
people of both high and low conciousness walk among us -even
as we walk among others.
Which conciousness do you take with you ?
The only question the universe asks is Who Are You ?
The answer you give is your life lived .
#6
But who exactly defines consciousness?
#7
Tinhip and K2 are so smart to be Trumpsters. Thier savior recommended on Fox News last night that people with Corona Virus should continue to go to work.
https://www.yahoo.com/huffpost/trump-work-coronavirus-074817221.html
#8
SueN You have not explained how Sanders and Biden got so wealthy working as members of Congress. Nobody should become a millionaire that way. I guess you are okay with it. Heaven forbid someone getting wealthy in the private sector. You are a hypocrite.
K2
#9
K2 do you have documented sources for their wealth? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_current_members_of_the_United_States_Congress_by_wealth
#10
How would Medicare for all harm the economy? ALl the other developed countries have it and it costs them half as much. It also helps companies like car manufacturers be more competitive, as health care is a significant part of the price of a car. If everyone could afford to report sick, it would reduce the spread of inectious diseases, which cause many meployees to go off sick around the same time.
Renewable energy is becoming very cometitive these days, and will become more so as prices drop and the easily and cheaply extracted fossil fuels run out.
Education is an investment that pays for itself in better pool of skilled workers for employeres to tap. And former students who are unburdened by debt are far more likely to feel able to start their own businesses (having health care should help there too).
Trump inherited his money, and there is no evidence that he has done all that well with it - if he had, he would have been happy to provide the evidence instead of refusing and suing to prevent it.
Wherever you got your information from, it does not seem to be based on facts. It is time to invest in the future, not to slam on the brakes.
#11
I don't know about Biden, but Bernie made quite a bit from book sales, I believe, and his wife's inheritance helped.
Until his book did so well, Bernie was one of the poorest members of the senate - you'd make more sense asking where Republican senators are making so much money on a senator's pay.
#12
Sue, do not misunderstand. I hold anyone in Congress in contempt for getting rich while serving. Rep and Dem alike. The old insider trading rules for people serving in Congress were an abomination. That's how they got rich.
Medicare for all is not what you think it is. Most of those other countries that have medicare for all still have private insurance. See Canada. See Great Britian. What most think about medicare for all is actually single payer health care. Of course the other countries that have single payer do not have the defense budget that the US has because we have pledged to come to their defense if/when needed. Also, who determines how much the doctors/health professionals will make? Free college? How much will the professors be paid? Who will pay the professors? They are not going to work for free. Student debt has soared after the Obama admin took over the student loan program.
Sure, Trump inherited a fortune but he has built upon it and has gotten richer. He has employed thousands of workers. He has had to make a payroll. Something Biden or Bernie never had to do. Trump is a business man. He demands results. Something Biden or Bernie are not obligated to do.
By the way. Trump is under no obligation to release his tax returns. I know people want to see them and assume that Trump is hiding something. I guess you have zero faith in the IRS finding something illegal. I guarantee you that the IRS has thoroughly examined them. So why all the interest in them? Just to find dirt is all.
I have had the best years of my 61 years working during the Trump Admin. I can save for retirement and still have money left over for pleasure/leisure. Trump 2020.
K2
#13
ooops double post
#14
Let's give an example of lower and higher consciousness of what it means to be human Hitler and Jesus gave us a context of which we can relate to.
They both gave us the understanding of where human beings can go .A higher level of consciousness would consider consequences of all actions to the self and to the collective .The word evolution means a movement towards unity . To evolve is to move towards unity .So from this we can undestand that for humans to evolve we must transcend Organised Religion and Nationalism.Implement a New principle to guide our civilisation.
We Are All one would be that guiding principle . Not Seperation of each other from one another and a survival of the fittest mentality .
#15
Nicely put, humanitys team.
To separate oneself from reality is to separate from one another and from the essence of what it is to be fully alive, creating needless conflict in one's own mind by incomplete action as well as outwardly in relationship to all things. It is the sad reality of the never-ending machinations of an isolated, ego-oriented, selfish little mind struggling to understand life and meaning yet incessantly creating division where none truly exists.
Such is the utter shallowness and ineffectiveness of the Homo sapien consciousness in these pivotal times. The age of stupidity, the untold thousands of years of learned behavior and violence passed from generation to generation, is tearing us apart, destroying civilization, and murdering Mother Nature. And now, we're simply running out of time and resources.
Just look at the world and our petty, self-centered, uninspiring lives as they actually are, not how we wish them to be: wrapped in false glory, false gods, and false hope. Just look at the failed results of our collective action -- point-blank without coloring the big picture with lame excuses, deluded ideologies, and fragmented surrealistic thoughts that fail to recognize the clear and present danger of abject ignorance and the mindless churning of deliberate falsehoods. Perhaps in that deep awareness of the self is a radical revolution of consciousness and a profound change to a better life.
#16
I live in the UK and the private insurance is for people in a hurry or who want more luxury. Different countries have implemented their healthcare in different ways, the US has a choice of examples to follow, all of which are cheaper than what it has now
The US has an obscene amount of military, mostly used to defend fossil fuels sources and and transport.
Trump has gone bankrupt several times and refused to pay his debts, leaving many others the poorer for having done work for him. He's hired the illegals that he complains so much about.
Don't you want to know if your president is solvent? If he owes money to foreign nationals or government? In short, if he is vulnerable to blackmail or pressure by people he has done deals with.
I'm glad you are doing well, I wish my many friends in the US were, but under Reaganomics they have seen their wages remain pretty static, while costs have risen.
#17
How dare SueN post references. That is like kryptonite to Trumpsters. They have no idea what to do with them. They have never once used them to back up their false facts.
#19
Mea culpa. :)
#20
"Joe Biden outperformed both polls and expectations on Super Tuesday. There are probably four reasons why this happened."
A fifth reason has to do with the way the stock market seemed to respond to the dominance of Bernie Sanders just prior to Super Tuesday. It fell, not only because of the corona virus but also because of the belief that Sanders' ideas might hurt corporations.
Voters with retirement funds, especially older ones, would be inclined to support Biden over Sanders to avoid losses.
The Sanders campaign should counter the misperception: Among other things, corporations will be stronger and valued more highly with employees that are more productive when given more respect. Investors who think otherwise are short-sighted, yet they may have made a difference in the Super Tuesday outcome.
#21
Tom, as a long-time subscriber, you forgot the first two reasons. Election fraud, caging of voters by the democratic establishment and downright vote flipping. Read the TDS research polls which show some of the most egregious election fraud since the republicans.
You need to stop ignoring this. Exit polls are the gold standard all over the world, by the UN and the US State Department except in one place - The United States!
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This is sooo funny. How ironic is it when the Democrats/liberals/progressives have been complaining for years upon years that the problem is all the old white men in charge. Now, lo and behold, the two candidates for the Dem nomination are two old white guys. Both who are older than President Trump.
You people on the left are a special breed for sure.
K2