Capitol Hill Blue Forums Political Issues Campaign 2020 First Bernie Sanders Thread 2020

Perhaps a match made in heaven. Or the underworld, depending on your beliefs. But these matches never seem to happen in real life.

Can a capitalist and a socialist work together? I think so, as long as there are no partisan divides. Social democracy requires the expertise of both. If you plan to tax the living f*ck out of rich people you've got to work hard to keep their profits high. You keep their profits high by making them pay a living wage so workers can afford to buy the products they make. Then you tax the workers so the rich aren't driven out of business by high taxes. Everybody pays more taxes but also receive more services. Free higher education provides the skilled workers needed and the innovation required to compete. Socialized healthcare keeps the workers healthy and boosts production.
Capitalists and socialists march together hand in hand to a better future!

No. They've got the fix in already for the convention. It's looks to be a wonder if they'll keep the rules for no super delegates in the first round should Sanders prevail in the delegates leading up to the convention.

I'm seeing Bernie rising in the polls as the street level campaign continues to spread. I see the plutocrat buying the party off in his favor at the top of the primary food chain currently. He's sucking the air out of the campaigns of his competitors currently by poaching all the staff with sign on bonuses, gifts etc...

So it's mikes billions doing a hostile takeover vs a street level populist campaign of Sanders, IMO.

Delegates being assigned is a corrupt farce as we keep seeing. Now if your interests get served by that corruption, that's another story and I'm sure it's beyond reproach and should be treated with solemnity and reverence, etc, etc...

This business about Socialism is a bit confusing. We live in a capitalist country and we get along with social/tax paid services all the time. Police, Firemen, public schools, etc. all qualify as socialist in the end and they all work fine if the tax payers support them and, for the most part, they do. There are a bunch of other services too.

One of my problems with those all for some kind of socialism is the universality of some of their wants. "Free higher education" is one of those. There are no boundaries so I have to assume that anybody can goto university whether they are qualified, keep their grades up, whatever. I don't think anybody is for that but "free higher education" doesn't put any regulations on it so I guess its just something free for everybody no matter what. I know (or suspect) that there really are some boundaries but the statement don't mention those. the same applies to healthcare. In this case everybody is included but there is a LOT more that goes along with that one. Basically, right now, healthcare is one of our major capitalist industries and its running brave, free, and powered by pure greed. To provide healthcare, if done right, takes control of healthcare, controls profits, access, etc. This is necessary or we would be broke in a couple of months. How this is done is a serious question which, as far as I can tell, is not even addressed.

So, when I hear the politicians promising this and that, all we get are the bones and the bones just don't cut it. Free, as scooter says "is a very good price". The problem is that "free" is, basically pure bullsh*t. How much depends on the future which brings up the little thing called trust. I don't trust any of them so far.

Just saying..............

I don't believe a socialist (whatever that means) can work with a capitalist as capitalism currently exists.

Sanders won't work with the Pedophile adjacent, racist Oligarch.

Bets?

By golly I think you're right.

It's marketing forces and unlimited funds versus the populist. (Bougies vs Proles)

I'm hoping for a backfire, probably you are too.

I got a few reminders of Bloomberg's positions, which he seems to be covering up right now, but as with all month old kitty litter, the stench overpowers.
Chunk is right, or at any rate Bernie would vomit before giving the nod to help from Bloomberg, and besides, it is moot because no question about it, Bloomberg would rather walk it back and say he never imagined helping Bernie anyway.

More to come, but BB is looking more and more like a crypto-fasc trying to buy the Democratic Party outright.

God Almighty, sometimes I am downright stupid.

I don't know how much you were following the Occupy movement as it was happening but you could hear the distant drums beating all the way in Upstate NY. Alex Pareene Did a good Bloomberg take recently that sheds light on how this guy would rule. For many in NY, we haven't forgotten.

"Earlier this week, when audio resurfaced of Bloomberg defending racial profiling by police and lamenting that police “disproportionately stop whites too much and minorities too little,” his comments were treated as newly uncovered bombshells. But he said these things all the time—on the radio, on television, to newspaper reporters—for years."

Michael Bloomberg’s Polite Authoritarianism

Conversely, Another very good writer, Matt Taibbi, covered Sanders up close around the same time as Bloomberg was imposing defacto martial law in the minority neighborhoods of NYC:

"I thought Sanders would be an ideal subject for a variety of reasons, but mainly for his Independent status. For all the fuss over his “socialist” tag, Sanders is really a classic populist outsider. The mere fact that Sanders signed off on the idea of serving as my guide says a lot about his attitude toward government in general: He wants people to see exactly what he’s up against.

I had no way of knowing that Sanders would be a perfect subject for another, more compelling reason. In the first few weeks of my stay in Washington, Sanders introduced and passed, against very long odds, three important amendment. A fourth very nearly made it and would have passed had it gone to a vote. During this time, Sanders took on powerful adversaries, including Lockheed Martin, Westinghouse, the Export-Import Bank and the Bush administration. And by using the basic tools of democracy – floor votes on clearly posed questions, with the aid of painstakingly built coalitions of allies from both sides of the aisle – he, a lone Independent, beat them all."

Inside the Horror Show That Is Congress

The two articles are like reading 'Atlas Shrugged' and then 'The Iron Heel' back to back. Only this isn't fiction..

I followed it VERY closely, it's victories and its failings.
More later, life's getting in the way at the moment.

Just wondering how many are down with Aunt Nancy and Koch money working to re-elect a conservative rebadged Republican over a progressive.
Side note: all progressive primary candidates are barred from the party now.

Wonder why I don’t see much difference between establishment Dems and Republicans these days. I guess we’ve been pretty conditioned into believing there’s differences where it doesn’t matter and no difference where it does.

“It's not the first time this cycle that Pelosi, a California Democrat, has stepped into the primary. In September, as Common Dreams reported, the speaker publicly backed the incumbent during an appearance in Texas.

"Henry Cuellar has an A rating from the NRA, wants more drilling, is anti-choice, fundraised for GOP, is the #1 recipient of private prison money, and receives donations from the Koch family," tweeted Justice Democrats spokesman Waleed Shahid. "Jessica Cisneros is a progressive Democrat. DCCC and Speaker Pelosi, what are you doing?”


Blue no matter who...

Nice!

BERNIE SANDERS PROMISES TO LEGALIZE MARIJUANA FEDERALLY BY EXECUTIVE ORDER, EXPUNGE RECORDS OF THOSE CONVICTED OF POT CRIMES