A place for progressive atheists.
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It is comforting to hear from so many on this thread about their own struggles reacting to Drump's vitriol. Thanks for sharing where you find your own antidotes to the scourge of that man on American life. Yeah for John Stewart's proteges and let me add Hasan Minhaj.
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Just an FYI. Bernie Sanders visited Tacoma yesterday evening and 17,000 people went to hear him.
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Feeling the need of a pick-me-upper today and I found it.
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Self-respect cannot be hunted. It cannot be purchased. It is never for sale. It cannot be fabricated out of public relations. It comes to us when we are alone, in quiet moments, in quiet places, when we suddenly realize that, knowing the good, we have done it; knowing the beautiful, we have served it; knowing the truth, we have spoken it.
Whitney Griswold
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That note is fabulous!! We should print them up on post-its, and put them on every car we see w a trump sticker!!!!!
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Here is an article about Stop and Frisk. Bloomberg was wrong but in the author's opinion not a racist. It's how I read him, too.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/19/opinion/bloombe...
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I think if he wants the black vote, he should say he was wrong and apologize. It would mean a lot.
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I thought Elizabeth did very well tonight
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Wren44, Bloomberg did apologized.
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Your worth is not measured by what you do. Nor can you calculate the degree of your worthiness by what you possess. Your worth is a function of your being. Your being is colorless, genderless, and believe it or not, ageless. Your being is worthy of honor, admiration, and respect. It is a vessel of love and light. It is a beacon of inspiration. - Iyanla Vanzant
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FYI. I didn't care much for Sanders during 2016. I'm not liking him now either -- but if he ended up the candidate I'd have to vote for him.
Bernie Sanders Knew For A Month That Russia Was Helping His Campaign, But Said Nothing
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) has known for a month that Russia was trying to help his presidential campaign, but didn't speak out until it went public.
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Always look forward to the week-ends. Most times there are more repeats of the weeks issues and it is a chance to take a break. Good time to get re-inspired for the up-coming week. Sure need up-lifting ideas because the current government can be a downer on almost any day.
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A habit for all of us to develop would be to look for something to appreciate in everyone we meet. We can all be generous with appreciation. Everyone is grateful for it. It improves every human relationship, it brings new courage to people facing difficulties, and it brings out the best in everyone. So, give appreciation generously whenever you can. You will never regret it. -Carl Holmes
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Seems to make things clearer for me.
Heather Cox Richardson
9 hrs ·February 24, 2020 (Monday)
The major news today, both at home and abroad, is the spread, containment, and management of coronavirus. I am going to write about its political implications. I am neither a doctor nor an epidemiologist, and cannot weigh in on anything other than what this moment looks like to a political historian.
And, while that sounds like a strange lens through which to see this new disease, the virus is actually quite important for American politics.
By now, everyone knows the key elements of the coronavirus story: a pneumonia outbreak appeared in December in Wuhan, China, and scientists traced it to a new strain of coronavirus. After the disease claimed a number of lives, China issued the largest quarantine in history, keeping about 45 million people home from work and public spaces. Epidemiologists were impressively fast off the mark, isolating the new virus and beginning to develop models for how it spreads and vaccinations for how to stop it.
But it has moved quickly. As of 9:30 tonight, there have been slightly over 80,000 confirmed cases around the world and 2,699 confirmed deaths. (Let me reiterate: these are the existing numbers, but there are many reasons why they are not in any way definitive as a measure of health or of the epidemic. I'm just giving a sense of the scope of the crisis here for a political read on it.)
Last weekend, as I wrote here, the World Health Organization suggested that the window for containing the coronavirus was closing, but many scientists think the window has already closed.
And yet, the U.S. seems to be unprepared. In May 2018, under then-National Security Advisor John Bolton, the administration got rid of the official in charge of overseeing a U.S. response to a pandemic and disbanded the global health security team. Today Acting Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security Ken Cuccinelli went on Twitter to ask people if they, too, were having trouble accessing the coronavirus map maintained by Johns Hopkins University. "Has the Johns Hopkins map of the coronavirus stopped working for other people, or just me?" Cuccinelli tweeted. "I just tried again, and it looks like Johns Hopkins put the information behind a membership wall of some kind. Seems like bad timing to stop helping the world with this (previously) useful resource. Here's hoping it goes back up soon."
Newspaper columnist Max Burbank shared the popular outrage: "Thanks for inspiring confidence. Shouldn't YOU GUYS have a map of this? Shouldn't the CDC? You know who they are, right? Isn't there anyone in charge of response to this? Or did someone colossally stupid eliminate that position?" American historian L. D. Burnett tweeted: "there is literally an ENTIRE FEDERAL AGENCY working for you that you could ask to provide you and all Americans with the latest information on the Coronavirus." Health policy professor Howard Forman begged: "PLEASE can someone tell me that this is a parody account and that our Executive branch has a CLUE of what is going on? PLEASE!?" Forman then helpfully included links to useful resources for his followers.
The administration has been uncharacteristically quiet about the crisis, and seems unable to figure out how to handle it. I wrote before about its decision to return 14 infected people from the cruise ship the Diamond Princess to America in the same plane as uninfected people despite the protests of CDC officials, and now officials find themselves unable to find a place to house those people still in quarantine because of the flight. The infected travelers have brought the official count of U.S. cases to over 50, but experts think the number might be higher because we are not testing for it.
In 2014, when 2 health care workers infected with the Ebola virus were brought back to America for treatment, Trump had plenty to say. He tweeted: "Ebola patient will be brought to the U.S. in a few days — now I know for sure that our leaders are incompetent. KEEP THEM OUT OF HERE!" The next day he continued: "The U.S. cannot allow EBOLA infected people back…. People that go to far away places to help out are great — but must suffer the consequences!" He called for strict flight bans and quarantines and called it "morally unfair" when President Barack Obama sent troops to help contain the outbreak.
This time, though, Trump has been largely silent about the crisis except to say it is under control. On February 16, the Washington Post reported that Trump was worried by a 600 point stock market drop on January 31 after major airlines suspended flights to China. Afraid that strong action against the virus would worry people and thus hurt the economy, he focused on calming the markets by staying quiet, since he sees a strong economy as his primary strength going into the election. "The biggest current threat to the president's reelection is this thing getting out of control and creating a health and economic impact," according to Chris Meekins, a former Trump administration emergency-preparedness official.
Today, the administration's silence changed. It requested $2.5 billion in emergency funding for the crisis (significantly less than the $6 billion Obama asked for to combat Ebola), and Trump, who is on a trip to India, weighed in. "The Coronavirus is very much under control in the USA. We are in contact with everyone and all relevant countries. CDC & World Health have been working hard and very smart. Stock Market starting to look very good to me!"
Trump appears to have been pressured into acknowledging the crisis by its growing impact on the economy. The Chinese quarantine has slowed or stopped production there, emptying the pipeline of supplies flowing to American manufacturing and merchants, and this weekend's news that the virus is spreading outside Asia sparked economic fears. The U.S. stock market dropped 1000 points today, a drop of 3.5%, its worst in two years. Airline stocks led the slide. And now, tonight, which is Tuesday morning in Japan, Tokyo stocks opened down about 1000 points on coronavirus fears. (The market was closed on Monday.)
As I say, I am 100% not going to weigh in on this as a medical issue—I am neither a doctor nor an epidemiologist—but as a political historian I will note two things. First, Trump's instincts are right: this health crisis will definitely slow down the economy and could trigger a recession, and that would indeed cripple his reelection campaign.
Second, our public safety should matter more to a president than his reelection campaign.
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Anyone else in this thread liking Elizabeth?
To me she is not only very appealing but also the only one who can get the Sanders supporters behind her too.
She is pleasant, smart, reasonable, progressive, tough, fearless, a good explainer, a good reformer, and a person who I could imagine hearing from for the next 4 years without cringing every time.
IMO We need to start phoning voters in SC to boost Warren. Warren is a Sanders who others can get behind.
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FiveThirtyEight is a site run by the pollster, Nate Silver. Here are polls pitting each Democratic candidate against Trump. The polls vary quite a bit by pollster and date.
https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/polls/?ex_cid...
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I really like Warren. If she wins the nomination, I will gladly vote for her. If Bloomberg wins, I would love to see him pick Warren for VP but the governor of Massachusetts is a Republican so we would lose a seat in the Senate because he can name Warren's replacement. If Bloomberg gets the nomination, he will need to pick a VP from outside the Senate.
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I could go for Warren, or Bloomberg. Combination of the two would be fine.
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We could go full on billionaires and Bloomberg could pick Tom Steyer as VP.
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I think we need Klobuchar in their somewhere too.
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I voted for Warren in the primaries, but I will vote for WHOEVER gets the nomination in the general election. Anyone but that rat bastard in office.
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Klobuchar would make a great President or VP. She has a safe seat in the Senate so it won't hurt the numbers to remove her to the administration. She would be great in almost any cabinet post.
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I believe Warren has the best shot at uniting the party AND being an effective reformer. She needs an Amy-type at her elbow for VP to extend her reach. Or Julian, Cory, Kamala. I think Warren is the only Non-Bernie left who could get Bernie fans on board and often-non-voters off their asses. Meanwhile nothing to smear, except one long-ago exaggeration of her native ancestry that didn't affect anything.
She has been a single Mom. a dropout, a community college kid, and a working mother. SHE CAN PULL US UP! Women who get this need to pass it on!
My *fantasy debate moment* is Elizabeth, like a NICE Tracey Flick, chiding "You don't scare me... you're just a fake tan fraud"
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What you said!! Santa Barbarian. My *fantasy debate moment* is Elizabeth, like a NICE Tracey Flick, chiding "You don't scare me... you're just a fake tan fraud". I'm still chuckling, and you can almost see that.
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I would love to vote for Warren. She's incredibly smart and capable.
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As deteriorated as Trump is, does anyone actually think he will participate in a debate? No matter who the nominee is for the Democrats, Trump will never debate.
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My fear with a female nominee (and I label myself a feminist) is that all of those who didn't vote for Clinton (because she was a female) haven't changed their minds. I like Warren. She is smart and not afraid to speak her mind. I'm in NC and not sure who I'm going to vote for.
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I voted today in early voting. I think Bloomberg has the best chance of beating Trump so he has my vote. The Super Tuesday results should be very interesting. I hope it narrows the field.
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I’m voting tomorrow. I’d love to vote for Klobuchar but she is too far behind. Warren is my heart choice but I don’t know if she can overtake Bernie. I might hold my nose and vote for Biden because I think he’s got a chance. Overall, I think anything I do won’t help because iPOTUS* is going to be re-elected.
I wish they would announce their VP choices. That might help me decide. It’s all depressing lol.
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Who ever wins the nomination, we all need to volunteer to make calls to other Democrats to turn out the vote.
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