Primary Update–3/11/2020

Posted by TomCat at 11:01 am Politics

Mar 112020

Yesterday, there were Democratic primaries in Idaho, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota, and Washington. It was a very good night for Joe Biden, and sadly, a very bad night for Bernie Sanders. Unless he can turn it around quickly and dramatically, a VERY tall order, it’s over.

Joe Biden is marching to the Democratic presidential nomination.

The former vice president handily defeated Bernie Sanders on Tuesday in Michigan’s primary — halting the Vermont senator’s hopes of a comeback in the state where he’d stunned Hillary Clinton four years ago.

Biden also notched massive wins in Idaho, Mississippi and Missouri. Sanders won in North Dakota. Washington hadn’t been called yet, but as of Wednesday morning, Biden was in a tight race there with Sanders, another state Sanders needed to win.

Tuesday marked a clear turning point in the Democratic race. Biden is building a powerful coalition of African Americans, suburbanites and rural white voters who previously backed Sanders, while Sanders is failing to produce the electorate-changing turnout of young voters that he’s promised. Democratic figures, from one-time 2020 candidate Andrew Yang to the party’s biggest super PAC, Priorities USA, lined up behind Biden after his Michigan win.

Biden and Sanders are scheduled to debate Sunday night in Arizona. But Sanders is entering a brutal stretch, with primaries next week in Arizona, Florida, Illinois and Ohio — all states he lost in 2016. There’s also the reality that coronavirus could crowd Sanders out of national headlines and make it impossible for him to leverage something that separates him from Biden: his ability to turn out massive crowds at rallies. It all makes a comeback even more difficult… [emphasis added]

Inserted from CNN:

Here is the delegate count, as of early this morning.

Democratic Pledged Delegate Count
	Sanders	Biden
Iowa	12	6
New Hampshire	9	0
Nevada	24	9
South Carolina	15	39
Alabama	8	44
American Samoa	0	0
Arkansas	9	17
California	186	150
Colorado	20	12
Maine	9	11
Massachusetts	29	37
Minnesota	27	38
North Carolina	37	67
Oklahoma	13	21
Tennessee	19	33
Texas	111	102
Vermont	11	5
Virginia	31	66
Utah	13	a
Democrats Abroad	0	0
Idaho	11	9
Michigan	51	71
Mississippi	2	29
Missouri	23	40
North Dakota	5	3
Washington	17	17
Totals	692	826

How Joe Biden’s wins differ from Hillary Clinton’s in 2016

Credit where credit is due. Joe has built his coalition well beyond Hillary’s in 2016.

With Biden’s Big Wins, What’s Next For Sanders?

This is not the news I wanted to hear, but I have to admit that it looks mighty bleak for Bernie. As I see it, his only hope is a overwhelming win in Sunday’s debate. If Joe does win the nomination and wants to unify the party, he needs to choose a progressive running mate, preferably a woman, ideally a non-white progressive woman. I’d love AOC, but it won’t happen in my lifetime.

RESIST!!

Open Thread–3/6/2020

Posted by TomCat at 9:37 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Mar 062020

It’s a tired day here in the CatBox. It has been so muggy that I have slept poorly. The powdered pills in apple sauce is working well, as long as I add a Splenda packet. Thank God it’s Friday!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:10 (average 4:54). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Cartoon:

Short Takes:

From Daily Kos: As former Vice President Joe Biden won state after state on Tuesday night, the accusations flew: The Establishment stole the election from Sen. Bernie Sanders. Former rival and current campaign surrogate Marianne Williamson called it “a coup,” in a now-deleted tweet. Another prominent Sanders booster said the “party brass” “wants to foist Biden on the party.” This disrespect for voters needs to stop.

It’s pretty clear that large chunks of the Democratic establishment, however you define it, didn’t want to see Bernie win. But whatever those chunks of that establishment did to block him wasn’t done in some back room conspiracy. It was done out in the open by the most basic, routine of means: in the wake of a big win in South Carolina that suggested Biden was the strongest non-Bernie candidate, two of his competitors dropped out and endorsed him. Some other prominent people endorsed him. And then the voters in 14 states had their say, and it wasn’t good for Sanders—and the fact that that’s all it took to give Biden a surge of this magnitude is something that all of us who were supporting other candidates have to reckon with, seriously.

The real engine for Biden’s comeback was built from voters. That started with the overwhelmingly black voters of South Carolina—people too many Sanders supporters have been eager to dismiss and denigrate, now as in 2016, but certainly not billionaires buying an election or shadowy operatives rigging, well, anything—but it didn’t stop there. While Sanders had built admirable strength among Latino voters and younger voters, he didn’t expand his support enough.

I have to agree with this author with one caveat. What drove voters on Super Tuesday to what they considered a “safe” choice is fear of a Trump second term far too intense to take a chance the more beneficial, but more radical policies of Bernie and Liz. Furthermore, Bernie has done little to broaden his base beyond the coalition that he lost with in 2016, so even though I support him, now that Liz has withdrawn, I do not consider him the likely nominee. RESIST!!

From The New Yorker: A resident of Washington, D.C., has been identified as the source of the community spread of coronavirus misinformation throughout the United States.

Officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Thursday that the man had ignored the advice of public-health experts and spewed a toxic strain of ignorance, potentially infecting millions.

The man, believed to be a fact-resistant organism, travelled last week to South Carolina, where he came in contact with thousands of people who, as a result of community spread, now believe that coronavirus is a hoax.

The epidemic of cluelessness expanded last night, when the man called in to a Fox News television program to encourage people with coronavirus to go to work rather than stay at home, as scientists have urged.

Andy is reporting straight news again. Would anyone like to guess the identity of this idiot? RESIST!!

From YouTube (a blast from the past): The Shirelles Will you still love me tomorrow (Top Quality + Lyrics)

Ah… the memories! RESIST!!

Vote Blue!!

Super Tuesday or Pooper Tuesday

Posted by TomCat at 10:31 am Politics

Mar 042020

Well, I trust you have already surmised that I am are not Happy with the Super Tuesday primary results. I have come to the same conclusion about most of you. I blame Jim Clyburn, Pete Buttigieg, Amy Klobuchar, and Beto O’Rourke for the size of Biden’s win. I also blame young Americans who sat out the primaries en masse. I guess they had something better to do, like playing on social media. Shame!

Well, it’ll still be days or weeks before we have the full vote total in California, and it’s still too close to call in Maine, but with Texas now in the win column for Biden, this evening’s top-line takeaway is even clearer: Biden mounted a comeback and won Super Tuesday.

In total, Biden won nine of the 15 primary contests at stake tonight, pulling off a number of upset victories, including a win in Minnesota (we’d projected Sanders would win there), a win in Massachusetts (Sanders again), and a win in Texas (that was more of a toss-up going into tonight), but basically Biden cleaned up across the board. He performed well in states where he wasn’t even really competing, and he proved he’s more than a regional candidate.

Sanders, on the other hand, did not have a great evening. He won just three states outright (Colorado, Utah and Vermont) and underperformed expectations. So far, he does seem on track to win delegate-rich California, though we won’t know the exact margin for a while yet.

Once all the Super Tuesday results are fully counted, 38 percent of delegates will have been awarded in the primary race, but this nomination fight is far from over, and there’s a real question about where it will go from here…

Inserted from <fivethirtyeight.com>

Map source: Real Clear Politics

Here’s the count:

Democratic Pledged
Delegate Count

Sanders

Buttigieg*

Biden

Warren

Klobichar*

BloomBarf*

Iowa

New
Hampshire

Nevada

South
Carolina

Alabama

American
Samoa

Arkansas

California

Colorado

Maine

Massachusetts

Minnesota

North
Carolina

Oklahoma

Tennessee

Texas

Vermont

Virginia

Utah

Totals

392

467

Spreadsheet data source: Real Clear Politics

The Big Winner was Joe, but the Biggest loser wasn’t Bernie. It was Billionaire Bloombarf, who spent all those $millions for nothing. When California delegates are fully allocated, it will pull Bernie closer, but I would be surprised if Joe does not lead when done.

Liz Warren’s results were also very disappointing. At this point, I see no viable way for her to win the nomination. I think it’s time for her to drop out, as much as I hate to say it. The biggest irony here, is that either Liz or Bernie would do far more for the Black Community than Joe would.

Nevertheless, whoever wins the Democratic nomination, even if it’s Joe, is MY candidate.

I’ll post another sheet when all the delegates from Pooper Tuesday states are allocated.

RESIST!!

Open Thread–3/3/2020

Posted by TomCat at 10:22 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Mar 032020

It’s a very busy day here in the CatBox. I had to prepare and send my grocery order. I spent over an hour on the phone trying to line up the oncologist for my cancer treatments. I think I have, but I still have no results from my PET Scan. I’m hoping for a call tomorrow. I’ll keep you posted. I still have to do the prep work for covering Super Tuesday. I am experimenting with mi diet and found that I’m not plugging the passageway as badly, when I eat a soft solid food and goop together. Yesterday for lunch I had a small portion of ground turkey sandwich. That was borderline. For supper, I had chili goop over rice. That worked great. For breakfast, I had New England clam chowder goop with a bite of saltine with each bite of goop. That worked well too. May Liz and Bernie kick ass today!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:36 (average 5:10): To do it, click here. How did you do?

Cartoon:

Short Takes:

From Alternet: A former Justice Department attorney compared her service under President Donald Trump as somewhere in between Nazi Germany and “The Apprentice.”

Erica Newland went to work at the Department of Justice in the summer before the 2016 election, and stayed under Trump because she liked her colleagues and believed she could make a difference — but soon learned an uncomfortable truth about herself, reported The Atlantic.

“I guess I know what kind [of German bureaucrat] I would have been,” Newland said, imagining how she might have served in the 1930s. “I would have stayed in the Nazi administration initially and then fled.”

She lasted in Trump’s government until October 2018, when an anti-Semitic extremist killed 11 worshipers at a Pittsburgh synagogue, and that same week her colleagues at the Office of Legal Counsel were tasked with justifying Trump’s order to refuse all asylum claims at the southern border — mirroring language the gunman had used against foreign “invaders.”

Newland, who is Jewish, recalled an exchange she had with a supervisor who often reminded staffers they worked for the president by saying, “We’re just following orders.

The bureaucrats under Hitler were “just following orders” too. What’s the difference? Fuhrer Hitler’s Nazi Reich was the Third Reich. Criminal Fuhrer Trump’s* Republican Reich is the Fifth Reich. The similarities are undeniable. RESIST!!

From The New Yorker: Representative Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) is under intense pressure to drop out of the 2020 race for the Democratic Presidential nomination, her nine supporters announced on Monday.

The announcement from Gabbard’s nine followers surprised many Democrats, who had been unaware that the Hawaii congresswoman was still running.

In a conference call after the South Carolina primary, the nine members of Team Tulsi concluded that Gabbard’s path to the nomination had grown “dauntingly narrow.”

“We believe that Tulsi would be an amazing President of the United States,” Harland Dorrinson, a spokesman for the other eight Gabbard supporters, said. “But we have regretfully come to the conclusion that this is not her time.”

Andy, is that a good idea? The nine fools stupid enough to vote for Tulsi should still vote for her. That way, they won’t damage the nation by voting for Bloombarf or criminal Fuhrer Trump*. RESIST!!

From YouTube (Robert Reich Channel): What Bernie Skeptics Need to Know Before Super Tuesday

Of course the Reich on the left, Robert Reich, is right, and the Reich on the Right, the evil Republican Reich, in addition to corporate Democrats, have their heads up their asses. 1. Amen! FDR was a democratic socialist. Amen! Trump promised reform and delivered National Socialism. 3. Amen! A Wall Street speculation tax to pay for public needs is far better for America than Republican welfare for billionaires. 4. Amen! Congress will pass progressive legislation, if we get off our asses, flush the Republican Reich, and replace DINOs in the primaries. 5. Amen! Bernie acts younger than Biden. 6. Amen! With criminal Fuhrer Trump* in power, the Democrats will unite behind any candidate, who wins the nomination, as long as they win it fairly! However, if DNC Superdelegates take the nomination from the voters’ choice and land it to another, they will destroy the party and the nation. RESIST!!

From YouTube (a blast from the past): The Monkees – Last Train To Clarksville 1966

Ah… the memories! RESIST!!

Vote Blue!!

Open Thread–3/2/2020

Posted by TomCat at 7:53 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Mar 022020

Please pardon my brevity. I’ve made ~~five~~ six trips to the throne since 2 AM, and my breakfast experiment went into the sink, leaving screaming heartburn. Oh God, it’s Monday.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 5:26 (average 5:28). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Cartoon:

Short Takes:

From Alternet: Radio personality and CNN weekend host Michael Smerconish came under fire Saturday morning—along with the network—for “casually” portraying the surging prospects of Democratic presidential frontrunner Sen. Bernie Sanders as comparable to the threat of the infectious coronavirus which continues to spread in the United States and around the world.

He should be fired immediately. RESIST!!

From YouTube (MSNBC Channel): Buttigieg Suspends 2020 Race To ‘Bring Our Party And Country Together’

I think he’s a good VP choice. RESIST!!

From YouTube (a blast from the past): Del Shannon – Runaway (Rare Stereo Version)

Ah… the memories! RESIST!!

Vote Blue!!

The SC Debate

Posted by TomCat at 9:47 am Politics

Feb 262020

The performance that I liked best in the SC debate was that of Elizabeth Warren, but I’m sure my own bias enters into that. I think that Bernie, Joe and Liz did well. Amy and Pete barely held their own, at best. Bloomberg was weak, and Steyer did not belong on the stage at all. Other losers were the boo birds that the Biden campaign planted in the audience to scream BOO every time Bernie opened his mouth.

Seven Democratic presidential candidates took the stage Tuesday night in Charleston, S.C., for a fiery debate days before the state’s primary on Saturday.

The showdown in the Palmetto State also marked the final debate before Democrats battle in the biggest day on the primary calendar — Super Tuesday — next week.

Who won and lost in the latest debate?

WINNERS

Former Vice President Joe Biden

Biden kept his hopes alive with one of his strongest debate performances.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.)

Warren is the most consistent debater left in the race.

She went after former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg once again in this debate. She did not eviscerate him as thoroughly as she did last week in Las Vegas, but she again raised questions about his treatment of women in the workplace….

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)

Sanders won on Tuesday by not obviously losing.

He came under the kind of sustained attack that any front-runner faces…

Inserted from <The Hill>

The biggest loser in the debate was CBS News. Here’s an excerpt from an email from Marcos Moulitsas of Daily Kos.

We went from perhaps the best debate ever, last week, to one of the worst ever, Tuesday night. What a disaster, from the questions, to the moderation, to the way they shoehorned one last commercial break at the end, without nothing but a “goodbye!” on the other side, Taking ad money from both Mike Bloomberg and Tom Steyer for commercials was an added insult.

It was insulting that in a DEMOCRATIC debate, moderators spent valuable time asking about North Korea, China, Syria, and other issues that fail to inform the vote of a single Democratic primary voter. As a result, climate change, choice, unions, and other key progressive priorities were ignored.

This was the worst moderation and production of any debate this season.

South Carolina debate wrap: Rivals take aim at Sanders

I disagree that Liz’ statement that she would be a better President was an attack. She was saying something good about herself, not something bad about Bernie. Everyone else on the stage attacked Bernie. Bernie’s honest statement that, over his long career, he has made some bad votes was honest. Kudos. He defused all the attacks well.

Elizabeth Warren: People Want to Hear From the Women Who Worked for Mayor Bloomberg

Mike “Kill It” Bloomberg [R-NY] had to buy that woman’s silence with an out of court settlement. The establishment media attacked Liz for attacking Bloomberg. They said she should have gone after Bernie, because Bloomberg isn’t even on the SC ballot. I disagree. That debate may have in SC, but it was also the debate for Super Tuesday, where Bloomberg hopes to excel and replace Biden as the establishment alternative to Bernie.

I look forward to Saturday and Tuesday with fingers crossed

RESIST!!

Open Thread–2/26/2020

Posted by TomCat at 9:45 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Feb 262020

It’s a tired day here in the CatBox, but I did stomach the last three meals with minimal pain. Tonight is a WWWendy night. Happy Hump Day to all.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:43 (average 5:25). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Cartoon:

Yesterday was soup and crackers. This is the chili and rice.

0226Chili

Short Takes:

From Crooks and Liars: At the last debate, Bernie Sanders defended his supporters while also condemning anyone who exhibited the culture of bullying that many who claim to support him display online. Earlier tonight, reporter Scott Bixby of The Daily Beast reported that one of Bernie Sanders staffers was using a private Twitter account to trash the other Democratic candidates.

Using the account @perma_ben, Ben Mora, a regional field director for Sanders’ campaign based in Michigan, has attacked other Democrats in the field—as well as their family members, surrogates, journalists, and politically active celebrities—in deeply personal terms, mocking their physical appearance, gender, and sexuality, among other things.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Mora has tweeted, “looks like her name: pained, chunky, [and] confused origin/purpose.” Former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg “is what happens when the therapist botches the conversion,” and his husband, Chasten, Mora predicts, will be “busted for running a meth racket” in 10 years. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), a frequent subject of Mora’s private account, is called a “dumb Okie,” “an adult diaper fetishist” who “looks like shit” and who lied about having Native American ancestry “to get into Harvard.”

The thing is, this is a thing. This is exactly what other candidates were complaining about. It’s what many of us experienced online in 2016, and it’s an acknowledged problem by the Sanders campaign despite his disavowal of the attitudes and sentiments expressed by these guys.

So it was encouraging — very encouraging — to hear that Mora had been fired. Unfortunately, that’s not the end of the story. Since Mora was fired, the reporter has been doxed and is being harassed.

Kudos to Bernie for canning the SOB. I think Bernie supporters are great, but some Bernie Bros are just stinking Republicans! RESIST!!

From The Borowitz Report: Asserting that his personal interests put him in direct conflict with the interests of the United States of America, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has demanded that Donald Trump recuse himself from all decisions involving the future of the U.S.

Speaking from her office at the Supreme Court, Ginsburg said that Trump’s oft-stated allegiance to himself makes it impossible for him to render unbiased decisions on issues affecting people other than himself.

“Since the United States is populated by three hundred and thirty-one million people who are not him, any decision regarding their fates would, by definition, ensnare Trump in an insoluble conflict of interest,” she said.

Ginsburg enumerated a list of issues about which Trump should immediately recuse himself, including immigration, trade, taxes, the social safety net, women’s reproductive rights, health care, the economy, the military, the environment, “and any other issues related to domestic or foreign policy not listed above.”

Amen Andy! What else is there to say? RESIST!!

From YouTube (Trae Crowder Channel): Liberal Redneck – Super Tuesday Smorgasboard [sic]

As usual, Trae is funny as hell, but realistically, only two choices are best for America: Liz or Bernie! RESIST!!

From YouTube (a blast from the past): The Turtles – Happy together (video/audio edited & remastered) HQ

Ah… the memories! RESIST!!

Vote Blue!!

The State of the Race–2/24

Posted by TomCat at 11:28 am Politics

Feb 242020

We in a brief pause, before The SC Debate tomorrow, the SC Primary Saturday, and Super Tuesday a week from tomorrow. So here is a look at the state of the race as of now.

Energized by his landslide victory in the Nevada caucuses, Senator Bernie Sanders turned his focus to President Trump on Sunday while his campaign made plans to try to win the coming South Carolina primary and amass an insurmountable delegate lead on Super Tuesday next week.

Mr. Sanders plans to be up on the air with commercials in every South Carolina media market this week, and his staff is scrambling to add new rallies to his schedule as they take aim at their next big target: overtaking the front-runner in Saturday’s primary there, former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., to all but extinguish his candidacy.

But attacks on Mr. Sanders began mounting on Sunday, with Mr. Biden criticizing him as disloyal to former President Barack Obama — a charged message with the predominantly black electorate in South Carolina — and others describing the Vermont senator as a long shot against Mr. Trump. Mr. Sanders, in turn, used a rally in the Super Tuesday state of Texas to highlight some favorable polling numbers against the president — and attempt to reassure Democrats about his electability if he wins the nomination… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <NY Times>

I haven’t given up on Liz, but Joe’s attacks on Bernie are as disingenuous as are criminal Trump’s* attacks on Joe. Bernie criticized Obama, but so did I. Neither of us was disloyal to him at any time. In addition, whether ANY Democrat beats Trump* is up to us. It will happen, if and only if we make it happen!

Here is the latest delegate count.

State

Date ▾

Delegates*

Sanders

Buttigieg

Biden

Warren

Klobuchar

Steyer

Yang

Gabbard

Primaries/

Caucuses

Open/

Closed

Pledged
Delegates

–

3979

Superdelegates

–

(771)

Total
Delegates

(2,382 Needed after 1st
Ballot)

–

4750

–

Pledged
Delegates

(1,991 Needed on 1st
Ballot)

–

3979

Iowa

February
3

41
(8)

Caucus

Semi-open

New Hampshire

February
11

24
(9)

Primary

Semi-closed

Nevada

February
22

36
(12)

Caucus

Closed

Here are latest SC Poll Results

Biden

Sanders

Steyer

Buttigieg

Warren

Klobuchar

Biden +3.0

Bernie Sanders has the best chance of any candidate, at this point. I think that when Super Tuesday is in the books, we’ll all have a much better idea.

RESIST!!

Vote Blue!!

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