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The 2020 elections, news, and discussions

GRtak

GRtak

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The 2020 election is already underway. Elizabeth Warren announced her exploratory committee on New Year's Eve. A slew of candidates have followed her over the last month, including Cory Booker who is the latest. I will list them all here, along with an NPR list that is updated, and has other potential candidates.

Which Democrats Are Running In 2020 — And Which Still Might

Cory Booker, Senator from New Jersey

Pete Buttigieg, Mayor of South Bend, Ind.

Julián Castro, Former secretary of housing and urban development

John Delaney, Former representative from Maryland's 6th District

Tulsi Gabbard, Representative from Hawaii's 2nd District

Kirsten Gillibrand , Senator from New York

Kamala Harris, Senator from California

Elizabeth Warren, Senator from Massachusetts

Marianne Williamson, Spiritual guru, entrepreneur

Andrew Yang, Founder of Venture for America


That is it for the Democrats for now, but I am sure the bus will be packed before to long. Many expect Bernie Sanders to run again, and Mike Bloomberg* sure seems to be running even though he has not announced. There is also the Starbucks guy who is not sure yet, but will probably run as an independent.


*EDIT: Not Bloomberg, Bill De Blasio seems to be running despite not announcing yet.
 
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Just attended my first ⁦@realDonaldTrump⁩ rally where my colleague BBC cameraman Rob Skeans was attacked by a Trump supporter. The crowd had been whipped up into a frenzy against the media by Trump and other speakers all night #TrumpElPaso
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Video clip at the link.
 
Interrobang said:
Not only the democrats think this way ...
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You mean he thought that way, in the past. Funny how politicians decide whether or not to support the electoral college based on whether it works to their advantage or to their disadvantage. Not that we needed the additional evidence to their almost complete absence of intellectual honesty.
 
Well, Beto just smashed Bernie's single-day fundraising record, so there's hope.

But we know how slim the chances of beating any incumbent president are, so I do rather not think it is about "Trump" or how "good" the country is doing (which is very much dependent on point of view).
 
The Democrats are pulling a GOP move by not finding any good candidates. I can already envision the nicknames too...

Who's going to be a serious Challenger to Trump?

Elizabeth "you were right, I did pretend to be an Indian" Warren?
Beto "The Creepy Poet" O'Rourke?
Cory "Spartacus" Booker?
Bernie "bread lines are good" Sanders?
Kamala "Queen of the Homeless" Harris?
 
I mean, nobody at this stage last go round could have predicted Trump, so I’ll be the first to admit I’m just spitballing here, but..

Out of the current candidates, I think Bernie might have the most traction, even if his politics (like his contemporaries) are fraudulent and misguided (and that last word is being generous). However, IF Biden ran like a moderate and IF Obama came out to campaign for him, I could see that working as well.

Beto is milquetoast, and apparently wants to campaign like the Canadian Liberals traditionally do (no hard platforms, just moving targets desperate to please/lie to everybody).

The intersectionalists desperately want none of the above, so they’re all pushing hard for Kamala Harris. Booker’s a fucking joke. Warren has been caught lying in the intersectional jar, so she’s out.

Regardless, until one of them has the guts to condemn infanticide, Trump can, and should, pull that card from now until election night.
 
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JimCorrigan said:
Regardless, until one of them has the guts to condemn infanticide, Trump can, and should, pull that card from now until election night.
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Good point. The left has gone wildly crazy with abortions now. I always considered myself to be pro-choice but they're taking this to such an extreme that I'm finding myself arguing against abortions for the first time ever.
 
More ammunination to Trump's re-election arsenal

https://www.dailywire.com/news/45143/breaking-ocasio-cortezs-green-new-deal-fails-ryan-saavedra

Daily Wire said:
Socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's (D-NY) "Green New Deal" overwhelmingly failed in the Senate on Tuesday when it was put to a vote, as not a single Senator voted in support of it.

"Not a single senator backed her bill during the vote, a 57-0 filibuster," The Washington Times reported. "Forty-three Democrats voted 'present,' refusing to take a stand."

"Republicans said it was a devastating blow to the democratic socialist movement’s marquee proposal, which called for an upheaval in American energy, overhaul of the construction sector, and the largest expansion in history of the social safety net," The Times added.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he was putting the far-left proposal to a vote to see what Democrats supported it.

"The American people will see," McConnell said before the vote. "They’ll see which senators are so fully committed to radical left-wing ideology that they can’t even vote ‘no’ on self-inflicted economic ruin that would take a sledgehammer to America’s middle class."

The Times noted that even Democrat Senator Ed Markey, who co-authored the bill with Ocasio-Cortez, did not vote for it.
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  • Haha
Reactions: TC
I was watching that earlier today. Disclamer: I'm only 40min into it. However, I have yet to see him address who's going to finance this $1k-for-all idea. If I'm gainfully employed I'll basically be paying that $1k in taxes and then getting it right back... PLUS I'll be paying for everyone else $1k.
 
LeVeL said:
I was watching that earlier today. Disclamer: I'm only 40min into it. However, I have yet to see him address who's going to finance this $1k-for-all idea. If I'm gainfully employed I'll basically be paying that $1k in taxes and then getting it right back... PLUS I'll be paying for everyone else $1k.
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It'll also increase inflation, so you'll be taxed twice in a sense.

Those living in their parent's basement won't have a need to get an entry level job to afford a new Xbox, so McDonald's/Wallmart/Starbucks will need to increase their wages to compete with the basic income, which will translate to costlier goods.

There is a cost to living in society, that comes in the form of a job, raising children, or other way of helping out others in society. UBI bypasses that, creating a class of parasites and generating resentment among those contributing. It does make a nice big voting block, however.
 
LeVeL said:
I was watching that earlier today. Disclamer: I'm only 40min into it. However, I have yet to see him address who's going to finance this $1k-for-all idea. If I'm gainfully employed I'll basically be paying that $1k in taxes and then getting it right back... PLUS I'll be paying for everyone else $1k.
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I don't have his policy proposal, but he mentioned adding a VAT to our tax code. So an extra sales tax. But he also mentioned that you would have to opt-in to his UBI (or as he calls it, a dividend) plan, which would cancel out any other money you receive from the government, like welfare or whatever. So anyone that is currently collecting on the tax payer dime would have to pick one or the other, but not both.

I can sort of see where he is coming from with it, but at this point I'm against any increased government spending. We are already spending more than we have, to increase spending at a time like this is insane. Our national debt will kill us all long before climate change ever does, imo. And no, I don't say that in a partisan way, both parties are a disgrace on that front.
 
I was going to post that video myself after watching it. I’m about 50% in, but so far I can say this: props to Andrew Yang for doing the interview at all. Nearly everyone left of centre is either terrified or just misinformed about Ben Shapiro, and Yang has acquitted himself well (though this is most certainly not a debate, as Ben’s Sunday Specials are meant as a discussion).

I may not agree with Yang’s policies, but I can certainly admire his thoughtfulness. He appears nuanced, and conciliatory.

And that’s means he won’t have a chance in hell in winning the primary.
 
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