triplehorn

Shit that is funny because it's so revealing and refreshing. really melts away the veneer of a brutal autocrat.

Apart from big pharma patent/Rx costs, this news aggregate doesn't touch on his health care outlook, but everything else looks headed in the right direction. On some things, he has simply put his own money where his mouth is. Bloomberg Pitches Program to Boost Black Economic Progress https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-01-19/bloomberg-pitches-program-to-boost-black-businesses-homeowners Bloomberg tax proposal seeks to collect $5T from high-income taxpayers https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/481031-bloomberg-tax-proposal-seeks-to-collect-5-trillion-from-high-income Bloomberg Seeks to Limit Drug Patent Protection to Reduce Costs https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-01-27/bloomberg-seeks-to-limit-drug-patent-protection-to-reduce-costs Bloomberg unveils plan to boost housing affordability, tackle homelessness https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/480667-bloomberg-unveils-plan-to-boost-housing-affordability-tackle-homelessness Bloomberg Proposes $1 Trillion Public Works Plan https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-01-22/michael-bloomberg-unveils-1-trillion-public-works-plan?srnd=politics-vp Bloomberg donates $4.5M to U.N. climate body after U.S. cuts https://www.nbcnews.com/science/environment/michael-bloomberg-donates-4-5m-u-n-climate-body-after-n868266 Bloomberg gave $500M to clean energy effort https://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny-michael-bloomberg-500-million-clean-energy-20190607-v2lq7vufxjc2dj34jeganghh4i-story.html He came out in support of marriage equality in 2005. https://www.advocate.com/commentary/2020/2/05/michael-bloomberg-his-lgbtq-priorities Bloomberg statement on Black History month https://www.mikebloomberg.com/news/statement-from-mike-bloomberg-on-black-history-month Bloomberg gave Johns Hopkins $1.8 billion for financial aid https://www.rawstory.com/2018/11/former-nyc-mayor-michael-bloomberg-giving-johns-hopkins-1-8-billion-financial-aid/

Considering that this is a not entirely unreasonable question, it’s a testament to where we are. I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised to definitively learn Trump knew WaPo journalist Khashoggi was going to be killed before he was dismembered with a bone saw to fit in a duffel bag, and offered MBS assurances it would be let go. Erdogan having evidence of it is the kind of thing he’d use as a leverage if, say, he wanted something like the US military to abruptly pull out and bail on the Kurds in Syria and do nothing as they’re massacred.

Woah - turns out the whole program got shut down "for the foreseeable future" just 2 months ago stemming from an ACLU lawsuit: Multistate voter database suspended in lawsuit settlement "Dec 10, 2019 WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A much-criticized database that checks whether voters are registered in multiple states has been suspended “for the foreseeable future” until security safeguards are put in place as part of a settlement of a federal lawsuit, a civil rights group said Tuesday. The Interstate Crosscheck program was the subject a class-action lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas on behalf of 945 voters whose partial Social Security numbers were exposed by Florida officials through an open records request. Kansas has operated the multistate program since 2005, although the program hasn’t been used since 2017 when a Homeland Security audit discovered security vulnerabilities. The settlement includes a list of safeguards the state has agreed to implement to protect voter’s personal information before the program can resume, the ACLU said in a news release. cont." -----> So this new info acquired by by Palast may blow open new holes in the system to keep it shuttered permanently. At the very least, individual states with Dem Governors/Sec. of State that previously participated in Crosscheck should permanently withdraw from it. I forget which battleground states have flipped to Dem control since 2018, but I believe there at least 2-3 that Trump took by reversible margins in 2016 that should bail on that rigged system. recall this Trump/Kobach moment with Kobach's "immigration plans" accidentally being flashed:

The Interstate Crosscheck system is election fraud goddammit. Georgia's voter rolls were used to purge voters in other states via Crosscheck. Kemp Loses Vote Purge Suit Brought by Reporter Palast & nbsp; FEBRUARY 8, 2020 "Atlanta-Feb 9] In an extraordinary and unexpected move, Federal Judge Eleanor Ross has declared Gov. Brian Kemp the loser in a lawsuit brought by investigative journalist Greg Palast to compel the State of Georgia to open up its complete files on the mass purge of over half a million voters from the rolls. Surprising all parties, the judge ruled that Kemp’s defense was so weak that no trial is needed. The judge acted “sua sponte” — on her own initiative, unrequested by Palast’s attorneys. Palast has been fighting Kemp to release his hidden purge lists and methods for six years, for Rolling Stone, Aljazeera, Salon, Democracy Now and currently, The Guardian. Palast said, “Kemp and the new Sec. of State of Georgia want to keep the lid on their methods for removing literally hundreds of thousands of low-income, young and minority voters on the basis of false information. They cannot hide any more. This is a huge win and precedent for reporters trying to pry information from the hands of guilty officials.” A key issue at stake are the “Interstate Crosscheck” purge lists secretly provided to Georgia by the Kansas Secretary of State in 2015 and 2017. Kemp had turned over Georgia’s voter rolls to Kansas official Kris Kobach, who worked closely with Donald Trump, and is known for his racially biased vote suppression techniques. “Kemp tried to hide the Crosscheck lists which he got from his crony Kobach. The lists are at least 99.9% wrong. Kemp’s office claimed he did not use the lists to purge voters, an assertion contradicted by his GOP predecessor. Moreover, Zach D. Reports of the Palast investigative team obtained the Georgia 2013 purge list provided by Kobach through (legal) investigative techniques — so we know, and the judge knows, he has more squirreled away. “Kemp finally turned over evidence that he purged 106,000 voters, overwhelmingly voters of color, that were on the Crosscheck list. But that’s just the tip of the purge-berg.” Palast’s co-plaintiff Helen Butler is the Executive Director of the Georgia Coalition for the Peoples Agenda, a non-partisan group founded by civil rights legend Rev. Joseph Lowery. Lowery, commenting on the Crosscheck purge system, told Palast, “It’s Jim Crow all over again.” Oddly, one of Kemp’s defenses was that he turned over Georgia’s confidential voter information to Kobach so it could be used to purge voters in 29 other states, but not Georgia. Kobach’s list showed thousands of Michigan voters who’d supposedly also registered or voted in Georgia. Michigan removed tens of thousands of voters with names like “James Brown” and “Mohammed Mohammed” — almost all with mismatched middle names. The Michigan purge of Georgia voters was key to Trump’s official victory margin of 10,700 in Michigan, putting Trump over the top in the electoral college. While Palast says, “The evidence is overwhelming that Kemp used the Crosscheck list in some way to purge Georgians — 106,000 is not a ‘coincidence’ — I do want to find out why Kemp was using Georgia voter rolls to remove voters in other states.” The Crosscheck list identifies over half a million Georgians — including one in seven African-Americans in the state — as having moved out of Georgia, according to an investigative report on Kemp and Kobach published by Palast in Rolling Stone in 2016. “My job as an investigative journalist is not to change laws or affect elections, but to expose official shenanigans. I thank my lawyers Brian Spears of Atlanta and Jeanne Mirer of New York for taking this case pro bono to rip the cover off Kemp’s and the state of Georgia’s racially poisonous undermining of democracy.” The Palast team is providing investigative reports to The Guardian’s “Fight for the Vote” series." --------> If you understand what Interstate Crosscheck is, and how it's being fraudulently used, recall all those hacker incursions (Russian) into State election systems. If you altered voter roll data by adding names to a state's database from other state voter rolls, they would light up in Interstate Crosscheck and be nullified. So what exactly did Kobach DO with the voter data from Kemp? Who did he give it to and how did they use it? We're only getting a glimpse of what is going on here.

Primary is not General, as you are aware. I think GOP calculus is that their oppo playbook on Sanders is far worse with him as the Dem nominee than the negative effect of any prolonged primary fight. I’m voting against Trump under all circumstances, but I don’t trust Sanders’ ability to actually deliver. Worst case is he accomplishes little to nothing, especially if his nomination doesn’t carry a flip in control of the Senate. If there’s a Dem candidate that’s more likely to flip the Senate, then by all means support that one. Conceivably Dems could flip the Senate and lose key battleground states and the WH, but unlikely. If the eventual Dem nominee wins the primaries in the states where vulnerable Senate GOP reside, that would be great. Something to keep an eye on.

Funneling Russian propaganda straight to the Attorney General. Sickening.

based on trump rules of instant reverse attribution, yes.

I take issue with the partial if not glancing context of the data and sources you provide combined with sounding cocksure when anyone who has been paying attention knows it’s more variable and unknown than you project.

I don’t actually think you know what you’re talking about.

When Putin powers your election, you’re going to serve him. We see that in the WH right now.

Wrong. Sanders is set up to be the analogue. Hillary was easy to attack and make people hate. Bernie is easy to attack and make people fear due to the deeply conditioned response to "socialism." Beating Hillary in a primary is not the same as beating Trump in the general, especially when foreign interference was targeting HRC and boosting Sanders. See first response above. I'm an animal. Aren't you? FEAR is a primary motivator for all animals to do something. It can be harnessed responsibly by leaders when when a real and credible threat exists, and it can be abused by leaders who seek to manipulate the truth for personal power and gain. Trump the demagogue, with Cambridge Analytica, and the Russian IRA induced people not only hate, but fear Clinton, and it sunk her. The more extreme the characteristics of a candidate, the more easily exploitable those characteristics become. Sanders' relates to "socialism". If and when Sanders is the nominee, it's going to be brutal. Between 2016 and up until now, we haven't even caught a whiff of what's in store. Responsible use of fear to attack Trump includes focusing on the tangible traumatic results of his racism as POTUS, and the harm that he will inflict on millions of people with his gutting of available affordable health care, for example. With regard to minorities, I think responsibly tapping fear is particularly important because of the need to overcome hopelessness and apathy that something promised won't be delivered based on past years of being left out.

Who won 2016 Dem primaries in Ohio and Pennsylvania by large margins ? It's a virtual law of physics that it's easier to get somebody stay home and do nothing than it is to motivate them to expend energy. That is voter suppression versus positive shift in GOTV. Realize also that in 2016, Clinton was the singular target of Russian Internet Research Agency interference. Apart from Trump, Sanders was the sole beneficiary of Russian IRA boosting. Between 2016 and 2020, we have yet to see the effects of the full brunt of foreign interference targeting "The Socialist." I don't want to see it, especially considering virtually NOTHING has been done to counter it. I think the wheelhouse is those active battleground voters who know how to - and do - vote, are undecided, and are susceptible to psychographic suppression. The minority vote turnout against Trump should increase if anything because of his now well established record of overt racist sentiment and behavior ranging from Charlottesville, to migrant child separation, and prolonged time in caged detention for misdemeanors. It's a survival response more so than than a drive from a belief you'll actually get something for your minority vote.

With an eye on the battleground states MI/OH/WI/PA, especially those where the margin was razor thin, you get 2016 non-voting and 2016 disillusioned Trump voting whites to vote for a moderate Dem candidate. The non-voting demographic will always tilt towards minorities. That doesn't mean you gift Trump non-voting whites with either their votes or no-shows in 2020 by serving up a made to order boogeyman to amplify their disinfo and psyops. Even if minority turnout remains the same in 2020 it's a win. Note while Biden is perceived as least extreme, Pete is about equidistant with Trump. Also note the point made about Trump campaigning against "elites" where countless got conned. Now we're hearing "billionaires for buttigieg." Sanders like to tout his small donor base but PACs are a different source of campaign cash. Pete has 1 PAC. Sanders has, what 5 PAC's ? sound familiar ?

incredulous lady in blue: "how does he take the length?'

If you're boosting Sanders like a meth addled monkey on a keyboard while admitting voters will "will come home because their class interests are more important to them than anything else", what does that make you? Just sayin'. The phenomenon we continue to witness is that Trump/GOP disinformation, propaganda, and racism pumping creates the illusion for those in need that they are somehow winning and maintaining some kind of superiority that is threatened by "socialism." We all know the scam by now. It can be argued both ways, but having a moderate nominee is a relative antidote to the military grade psy-ops campaign that's fire-hosing us..

The kind of daily pressure Trump has been under to sustain the lies and obfuscation for all his WH criminality, including 3 years of Mueller, do take a toll on even the most reptilian mind. He's definitely glitching under prolonged public scrutiny. But it's reversible when he's in the warm confines of his den of thieves. Back when, in the 5th Ave days, he felt bulletproof and dissociated from criminality. Being potus has been a severe and sustained stress test on the function of that personal reality. And today he's nowhere near out of the woods.

Your prediction sure sounds like an argument unfavorable to your guy. Weird, and I assume unintentional.

If you listen to the stealth hour plus Lev Parnas recording of Trump, you realize that he has a different personality in private and does not appear cognitively impaired. He's not a bright bulb by any stretch, but it's nothing resembling dementia. What we see at rallies, helo-pressers, and in other soundbites is a false character. He appears cognitively impaired because of the ill-fitting combination of his perpetual lying, lack of understanding of complex matters facing a fit POTUS, and criminal personality. It's actually easier for him to get by appearing cognitively confused or limited because the alternative of maintaining credibility with his shit together while lying and deceiving the hell out of his followers is impossible for him. People who give him the benefit of the doubt are just favorably filling in the blanks for what he's deliberately hiding.

You get partial credit for understanding the Mueller report. Russian election interference was designed to help Sanders in 2016. And yes, they've picked up again where they left off.

Sirota playing dirty pool? In that tweet, David Sirota appears to be misrepresenting the contents of that Politico article. Pete isn't "attacking MFA", he's talking about a different path with an eye on the same universal health care endpoint. Warren has also acknowledged the difficult realities around implementation, though how bluntly she has advertised that has varied. Bernie varies in how he relates his vision, but is at his worst when he stumbles in explaining costs and realistic implementation:

I was just vacationing in Utah this week and was reminded that Salt Lake City elected a lesbian mayor. Pete is from a mostly conservative Republican state. We're seeing more and more examples of this happening in traditionally conservative places. Sexual orientation versus race, for example, seems to not necessarily follow the rules when it comes to assumed outward stance versus underlying sentiment. There are probably a whole lot of people who can vote privately in support of a gay person they understand but otherwise can't muster the nerve publicly put it into words. It seems different when it comes to race. If your public face is one of racial bias, less likely you secretly vote for someone not your skin color.

"Billionaires for Buttigieg" -Faiz Shakir today. has a nice ring to it.

Iowa results support your first two sentences. It's eye opening that someone who's been in a position of national political visibility for a long time, who made it to a contentious final two in 2016, and who threw $50M at Iowa just got stood up by a young new faced mayor of a town with a population of 100k. I didn't see that coming. I'm not disappointed at all, just reminded of what we don't know and can't control. I do think the old established folks are the most likely have already hit their ceiling and have a thoroughly tested psychographic oppo playbook pre-packaged and ready to unleash across all platforms, Bernie topping the list. They had it ready for Bernie in 2016, had he been the nom, and it would have been brutal. All the pro-Trump bot and troll farm work has been heavily boosting Bernie. The turrets are ready for the 180 and know the exact coordinates. I don't think they have anywhere near the formula to counter a Pete today. I'm looking at this as how to get past the lawless fuck in the WH, not whose policies resonate with me the most.

GOP Plan A for Trump re-election. Wake the fuck up.