Today is also Bloody Thursday

https://www.ilwu.org/bloody-thursday-1934-the-strike-that-shook-san-francisco-and-rocked-the-pacific-coast/

Sigh. Maybe actually do the research before the savvy snark instead of being an example of lazy "journalism" that is the norm today with the press?

Recompose is $7K to start or over 3x the basic cost as listed. If you want the ceremony then you cough up extra.

https://recompose.life/death-care/#pricing

@2 Sigh. Maybe do some actual reading before slagging off the article? Nobody said Recompose was cheaper.

Abigail Disney is clearly a selfish progressive who hates America and is helping Trump win

That fireworks incident happened 12 years ago.

"He's the first Labour PM since Tony Blair"

You forgot, or don't know, about Gordon Brown (2007-2010) although it is understandable given business as usual is not exactly memorable

Reading comprehension? Fireworks date clearly 2012 at beginning of entry. Also re: burial, last sentence stated if one wanted to pay big bucks for Seattle burial, might as well choose composting. Nothing infers it was cheaper.

@8 It’s almost as warped as someone who says they value civility supporting Trump.

It took 16 hours of prep to get Biden ready for the debate and he bombed. "We beat Medicare!"

Since then he's rambled on incoherently every time he opens his mouth, including the latest gem of him saying he's proud of being "the first Black woman in the White House."

He has to be tucked into bed by 8PM, needs to sleep until 10AM and needs a daily nap (no events at night! - so if the call comes at 3AM it will go to voicemail)?

BIDEN MUST RESIGN NOW. Doing so is the only right thing to do.

From the moment Biden took office, his administration and the Democrats have had the power to ensure Trump would never, EVER be allowed near the White House again. Merrick Garland and the farce of the "Department of Justice" and all of the Democrats just as interested in SOLELY collecting paychecks, bribery money (like from Israel via AIPAC), and keeping their congressional seat warm with their asses chose, instead, to do nothing, and here we are.

Biden being an incoherent babbling 81 year old and his refusal to resign and step aside and allow THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES choose who THEY would like to lead the country (no convicted felons as a given) can't be blamed on the Republicans.

Joe Biden's legacy is going to be arming and funding a genocide while he lost his fucking mind.

@8 @11
Yes and yes
The question isn’t what Biden can do 1/2 year from now (still Pres in 1/5/25) but what will he be like 4 1/2 years from now (if elected) in 1/5/29.
“China and N Korea are nuking us after invading Taiwan at 8:56 pm east coast time. What do we do?”
Wait until 10:00 am the next day?

“The quiet part” being something everyone has been saying out loud for an entire week.

You don’t even understand basic idioms, let alone what a progressive is (hint: it’s not a multi-decade career centrist whose greatest hits include seating Clarence Thomas, a crime bill that spurred mass incarceration, and a blank check to Israel). You’re just a bunch of monkeys and a typewriter in a trench coat.

Wow, Raindrop and xina agree!
BTW I tried spelling xina in a response a couple days ago.
But auto-correct kept coming back with Xanax! I think we could all use a few Xanax these days- hope everyone has a great summer weekend!

@12,

Honestly, if he can still somehow manage to win come November, I'm not terribly concerned about catastrophe befalling us in the next four years, at least not as it relates to his general competence. I feel like at least 70-80% of a president's job consists of surrounding himself with intelligent people, in particular cabinet appointees, and allowing them to make the critical life altering decisions we're all depending on him to make. And even beyond that 70% it's mostly scripted speeches and existence as a figurehead. Reagan made abundantly clear for us that, once actually seated, competence in that job is vastly overrated. I'm just still highly skeptical that he can win the seat.

In 2016, the polls did indicate Hillary would win, even though she ran a lackluster campaign, and ignored the advice of her husband, Bill. So to an extent, she can be forgiven. (Of course she did win the overall vote.)
But Biden has consistently been 1 or 2 points behind Trump in the polls. The magical thinking that he can instantly reverse public perception of him just highlights the level of delusion. At this point, he is Captain Ahab, obsessed with chasing the giant whale. And Trump is a fat, orange whale.

“President Biden remained defiant at a rally in Wisconsin on Friday amid calls for him to drop out of the 2024 race following his poor debate performance. Mr. Biden said he's still running, will win the Badger State and beat former President Donald Trump again.”

(https://www.cbsnews.com/video/biden-staying-2024-race-beat-trump-again/)

If he performs reasonably well at this thing tonight, and I suspect he will (George Stephaprhrondlkdjous strikes me as a decent journalist who won't just lob him softballs, but the interview is less than a half hour long, and it won't be anywhere near as charged an environment as the debate stage) I suspect we're probably stuck with him until November, and will probably need to reconcile that. Gah.

@18 that's the rally where he said "I'm gonna beat him again in 2020!" For anyone else an innocent slip of the tongue, for someone who desperately needs to convince America he isn't going senile it's another nail in the coffin.

So.... How does any of this work?
- "Democracy is on the ballot, which is why the guy who won the primary must be replaced!"
- "We respect a woman's right to choose, unless it's in a Democratic Party Primary."
- "Kamala is ready to be president; we just don't trust her to asses if Biden can do the job or make the hard decisions like it or when to invoke Section 4 of the 25th Amendment."

@21 there wasn't a contested primary this year. Polls show close to half of registered Democrats think Biden isn't cognitively up to the task, not to mention the three quarters of overall voters who feel the same. The idea that it's somehow overriding democracy or "a woman's right to choose" (seriously?) to sub out a sure loser is too great a stretch.

@17 - the sooner someone harpoons Trump the better. Preferably with a poisoned harpoon.

And Hillary didn't run a lackluster campaign. She ran a TERRIBLE campaign. That was not the only reason for her loss (or even the biggest), but JFC, no one knows how to campaign like Bill Clinton and her not listening to his experience was insane. I'm pretty sure he didn't tell her to call half the country "Deplorable".

And it occurs to me - after months of telling us that the world is going to end because both political parties are the same etc. etc., xina has never told us who SHE thinks should be President. I'm curious.

The Stranger reports about the 13 year old girl innocent bystander who was murdered in a mall food court. The Stranger, big on NO YOUTH JAIL, fails to report on the fact that the murder suspect is out on bail and having a big mac in mom’s basement tonight. I was a leftist progressive but then the Seattle ideologies became corrupt. It is now “you can shoot a middle school girl in broad daylight and still be home in time for dinner”. And what is sick is that

@22 I seem to remember a campaign for uncommitted. (I believe that the main reason it wasn't a contested primary, is because "win" or "lose" with an incumbent, historically, it's a good way to get trounced in the general.)

Anyway, I should have been clearer: given our current media landscape, how will Dems be able to deploy their main arguments about this election, if the "sub out" (torpedo?) Biden?

I'd like to be wrong, but from here, this looks a lot less like an attempted substitution, and a lot more like an own goal.

…the “journalists” at The Stranger, who are predominantly white, feel good about this dynamic. They would rather have murderers of middle school girls walk free, than to have to question their ideology. The KUOW article about The Stranger journalist who is posting comments as “thirteen twelve” will be the nail in the coffin for The Stranger. The journalistic integrity is shot when you have a staffer making comments under an alias.

@24 "I used to dig LaRouche Jr., until he went all main stream. Now, I'm like really into this Tik Tok person. They are like so ideologically pure; I bet you've never heard of them."

@27 "The KUOW article about The Stranger journalist who is posting comments as “thirteen twelve”

Can't wait for this article make sure to link it when it's published

@26 "given our current media landscape, how will Dems be able to deploy their main arguments about this election, if the "sub out" (torpedo?) Biden?"

Main argument seems to be "stop Trump and save America" and that works with any old Democrat

25, You’re blaming The Stranger and “leftist progressives” because a shooter is out on bail? What is going on here?

Read the room, Joe.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Dianne Feinstein
Joe Biden

our
Future
is our Past.

Go, smokin' Joe.
just Go.

Please.

Whitehouse
Whitmar
Bernie

@35 Being slightly older, Bernie might be one of Joe's friends who could talk him into stepping down for health reasons. That would only work if Joe knew Bernie was staying in the Senate. Never mind that the Party Establishment would never go with Joe.

If there is going to be a replacement of Joe Biden, I think the only ticket that makes sense would be Harris/Newsom. The biggest reason being that the Biden/Harris campaign funds can transfer directly with Harris. Any other ticket would need those hesitant donor to open wallets deep, and quickly. The other is that I think just about any other ticket would be more likely to split than unite the party. Part of why Biden beat Trump last time is that as soon as it was clear he had the delegates, he brought Bernie and his people into his campaign, reuniting the party. Party Division has also been part of why Democrats lose.

I like Whitmer.
attacked by reich wing
thugs intent on terrorizingn her a
former prosecutor who won't put up
with Eltrumpfster's disciples' & magats' Antics

and This guy

'Sheldon Whitehouse (born October 20, 1955) is an American lawyer and politician serving as the junior United States senator from Rhode Island since 2007.

A member of the Democratic Party, he served as the United States Attorney for the District of Rhode Island from 1993 to 1998 and as the 71st attorney general of Rhode Island from 1999 to 2003.

A political progressive and climate hawk, Whitehouse became chair of the United States Senate Committee on the Budget in 2023.

He has given hundreds of Senate floor speeches about climate change and has made his assertion that politically conservative "dark money" groups are conducting a campaign to seize control of the American government, specifically the Supreme Court of the United States, a hallmark of his Senate tenure.'
--wikipedia

well
they've
Already
seized it

perhaps we
might re-engineer
Our USSC in Our Very OWN Image

and let the Bajillionaires'
purchases languish
on the Bench

But fucking Bernie
wouldda tarnshed El-
trumpfster laffed in his
face & provoked tubbalardo
del toddler into an aneurism or
better, called out his 30-some Lies

and basically
wiped the Floor
with what's his name
an Opportunity tossed
& now Defended by Joe
who says it's His Decision &
to Hell with the 70% of America
Who realizes he did an Awesome
Job but this Affirmation of Democracy
is vastly too Important to leave it up to
a man incapable of Big Decisions after 8pm

every day a day
Wasted his and his
Endablers' Denial may
well cost us this Election

but fucking Bernie
wouldda tarnished
Eltrumpfster's soul.

if that's still
even Possible

from Mother Jones:

[Senators] Schiff, Murphy Express
Alarm Over Biden: He Should Be
“Mopping the Floor With
Donald Trump”

As the crisis over President Biden’s candidacy following a disastrous debate performance extends into a second week, more top Democrats are publicly voicing their deep concerns over Biden remaining in the race against Donald Trump.

“Given Joe Biden’s incredible record, given Donald Trump’s terrible record, he should be mopping the floor with Donald Trump,” Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) said during an appearance on Meet the Press on Sunday.

“Joe Biden is running against a criminal.
It should not be even close,” he added.

Urging the president to consult the advice of advisers who are not in his immediate circle, Schiff appeared to suggest that he was concerned over multiple reports that Biden’s inner circle and family members, including his son Hunter Biden, are having an outsized—and potentially damaging—influence on the president’s defiance in staying in the race.

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) also appeared frustrated on Sunday, expressing disappointment with Biden’s interview with George Stephanopoulos that aired on Friday night.

“I don’t know that the interview did enough to answer those questions,” Murphy said on CNN’s State of the Union. “This week is going to be absolutely critical. I think the president needs to do more.”

Like Schiff, Murphy stopped short of calling on Biden to step aside. But the pair of remarks, both by prominent Democrats and close allies of the president, adds substantial weight to the growing list of Democrats going public with serious doubts over Biden’s chances of defeating Trump this November.

Though it’s been reported that the president has privately weighed the question of stepping aside, publicly, Biden has remained defiant. Some might even say delusional.

--by Inae Oh; Senior News and Engagement Editor

more:
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2024/07/schiff-murphy-biden-trump-election-debate-reaction/

Biden ? ? ?

For president ? ? ?

He's about the only guy who could make Trump look good.

Thank you, xina, pat L, dvs99, kristofarian, C Dizzle (Garb Garblar?), et. al., for beating me to it.
I don't have a TV (thank JFC!) and didn't see the disastrous recent presidential debate, but "Read the room, Joe" pretty much covers it. I'm still trying to get over that it was Biden who helped put billionaire water boy, Clarence Thomas into SCOTUS for life (I didn't know this--thank you, kris?...xina?, or whoever mentioned this in a previous SLOG).

@36 Greenwood Bob: Passing the Democratic ticket to VP Kamala Harris at this point seems the logical step. She and California Governor Gavin Newsom go way back in law school.

@37, @38, and @39 kristofarian: +1 I like your thinking and Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, too. Spot on, too, and agreed with you and Rep. Adam Schiff (D-California): Smokin' Joe, for all his accomplishments, should indeed be mopping the floor with the Orange Turd. Or better yet---Biden should be flushing DJT down an elephant sized toilet once and for all.
What to do, though, when the gloating, lying, criminally convicted (34 counts, fer chrissakes!), psychopathically neofascist nuclear orange piece of shit keeps floating to the surface?

Richard M. Nixon, Ronald Reagan, and George H.W. "Read my lips: No New Taxes[for the Rich]!" Bush are all most likely laughing their asses off in Hell.

I like that Whitmer is probably holding a grudge against the American Nazi types and might be willing to fry a few of them. But I just cannot see the broader American public voting for two women on the ticket. Archie Bunker remains among us.

Looks like the Far Right is losing in France:

“French Leftist Coalition Prevails in Parliamentary Elections”

How did liberals and lefties defeat Le Pen?

“The New Popular Front and Macron’s ranks responded by agreeing to try to pool their voters by withdrawing hundreds of third-place candidates in order to set up head-to-head matchups with Le Pen candidates for the final round.”

(https://www.wsj.com/world/europe/french-election-results-2024-4fc64d09?mod=mhp)

By eschewing the allure of third-place candidates, and going head-to-head against the right-wingers, French liberals and lefties have prevailed.

Hey, Stranger & supportive commenters, can you describe a race, closer to home, where lefties have been throwing out the names of fringe candidates, instead of uniting behind a proven winner?

.
.
.

(Crickets)

Nope, I didn’t think you could, either.

You...do know that France has a parliamentary system, and therefore said electoral strategy mentioned above has no relevance to the US presidential election and the Electoral College that awards all delegates to the winner in each State, correct?

nyt:

After
9 Months
of War, Israelis Call
for a Cease-Fire Deal and Elections

A day of nationwide
anti-government protests
comes amid signs of progress
toward a truce and hostage deal
with Hamas. Meanwhile, the fighting continues.

more on bibi’s continuing Genocidal Massacre:
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/07/world/middleeast/israel-gaza-protests.html

@45 ya in France centrists, led by a President who had entirely lost the public's trust, put their egos to the side and made way for leftists to defeat the rising far-right threat. Meanwhile in this country we're looking at minimum four more years of Trump. Wait what was your point?

mainstream centrists
terrified of progress?
nah. say it just ain't
So, Joe & let it Go.

@46: Yes, and our Electoral College system actually exacerbates the issue of third-place / third-party candidates causing undemocratic outcomes. Everyone here who claims Clinton ran a bad campaign in 2016 needs to recognize explicitly she won the popular vote outright; every supporter of Sawant here needs to explain why a radical in Seattle went far inland that same year, to the exact states she did, spouting the exact lies she told.

@48: “Meanwhile in this country we're looking at minimum four more years of Trump. Wait what was your point?”

That lefties voting uncommitted, and otherwise publicly preening perfect purity, is one reason why “… in this country we're looking at minimum four more years of Trump.”

I trust the democrats will find a candidate who hasn’t been silenced or jailed to run against Don Jr in 2028.

nyt:

New Pushback From
Netanyahu Narrows
Hopes for a Truce
in Gaza

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would not agree to a permanent cease-fire, digging in at a sensitive moment in the negotiations with Hamas.

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/07/08/world/israel-gaza-war-hamas

reich wing Dictators*
got No Business
running this
Marvelous
little blue
Planet.

be Rid of bibi, Israel
you’ll be Elated
you Did.

*Evict
‘em ALL.

There's always going to be some small faction of self-important and/or otherwise disaffected outliers who vote in contrast to their stated short term interests in favor of something closer to personal ideological purity. On the left, we've got the Greens and some stubborn Socialists and other miscellaneous interests. On the right, they're the Libertarians, Alex Jonesian Info-Warriors and other delightful weirdos. I'm too lazy to look up numbers, but would bet they're roughly comparable in terms of the relative damage they do their stated interests by refusing to join the "big tent" party apparatus. I guess it doesn't hurt to rail against them, but I'm skeptical that you'll achieve all that much for your efforts, all the same.

nyt:
Biden’s
Strategy to
Make the Race About
Trump Is Suddenly in Doubt

The Biden campaign’s effort to raise questions
about Donald J. Trump’s ability to be
president has boomeranged into
a referendum on the
president’s own
competence.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/08/us/politics/biden-trump-strategy.html

after that
Disastrous
Debate? well, Duh.

one delightful nyt reader’s comment:

That has always been the strategy, right? No matter what voters think about Biden, when faced with a choice against Trump, they will vote for Biden anyway. Who could possibly vote for Trump?

But the polls are telling us something very different, and have been for months. This race should be a landslide for the incumbent even whom he is running against. But it's not even close to that.

And please, no arguments about Biden winning the primary and is therefore the voters' elected choice. There was no primary. There was a coronation. I had no choice on my ballot -- only Biden and no preference.

It's time for the Democrats to step up and do what's right for the country before it's too late. Biden says he only listens to God, but he may listen to Schumer, Pelosi, Jeffries, and Clyburn.

They need to speak up, sooner rather than later.

Democracy, as they like to say,
is on the ballot. And right
now it's not looking
good.

more:
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/08/us/politics/biden-trump-strategy.html#commentsContainer

the “D”NC’s
always Favored
their Coronations
irregardless of their
Efficacy - other than keep-
ing the "d"nc Firmly In Charge.

duh.

I don't freaking get the cost/benefit for Joe here. The absolute best case scenario and outcome for him is a win, and we all breathe a huge sigh of relief for clearing an embarrassingly low bar by barely edging out one of the most flawed and widely despised opposition candidates in history. In contrast, if he loses he'll actually BECOME one of the most widely despised individuals in his own party's history. And yeah, he'd shoulder a ton of blame if he drops out and his replacement loses, but that blame would rightly also be dispersed among the DNC and those in his immediate circle who enabled the shitshow. If he loses it's squarely on him.

@56: This whole business is exactly the same tail-trying-to-wag-the-dog nonsense the Stranger recounted in WA-6, https://www.thestranger.com/news/2024/06/28/79578010/congressional-candidate-emily-randall-loses-the-left-after-taking-a-pro-israel-stance

As commenters there noted, “the left,” (really just a handful of extreme lefties in Tacoma) got mad when they found no Congressional candidate willing to toe their extremist line on their single issue of Palestine. So they threw a hissy-fit at one candidate, which, if it has any effect at all, will be to elect a candidate even further from their position on their one issue.

@50/57 you must have been living in a cave for the past week to think this is about a handful of progressives demanding purity and not the candidate muttering and stuttering through the debate and a subsequent interview to the point numerous mainstream electeds from his own party are publicly calling on him to step aside. Or do you believe the more than two thirds of voters nationwide who don't think Joe is mentally up to the task are all extremist lefties?

@58: Everyone can have a bad day; we’ll see if it’s more than that. Trump’s already an old gibbering loon, so no surprises there.

Months of palaver about how “the left” is mad at the Democrats over the party’s refusal to kowtow on Palestine (e.g. URL @57) don’t just magically go away because it’s now become undeniable there’s a real chance of it helping Trump.

It’s 2016 all over again: the DNC pushing through a flawed candidate by denying voters any real choice. Then when the candidate fails they blame the left (I guess that worked out well for them in 2000 because they still won’t shut up about it) so no one has to own up to their mistakes, or learn from them either.

I think Biden has done a pretty good job given the shitty hand he was dealt but voters don’t agree and it’s been showing in polls for years now. He and Kamala should have sat out 2024 and let someone fresh step up to the plate. All of this could have been avoided.

Time to close out this thread with the immortal wisdom of Our Very Own Divine Mrs. Vel-DuRay, from the very next Slog AM:

“I will vote for anything that is running as a democrat, because that's the only way we keep trump out of The White House. But this nonsense about President Biden resigning as the Democratic candidate is just a bunch of gullible people who think they are the smartest kids in the room being played.”

Read the whole thing, brilliant as usual:

(https://www.thestranger.com/slog-am/2024/07/08/79593735/slog-am-boeing-pleads-guilty-biden-doubles-down-on-staying-in-french-cyclist-fined-for-kissing-wife/comments/7)

@60: God, you Bernie-bro’ fanbois are so tiresome. How dare lifelong Democrats vote for Clinton over Bernie, the latter of whom was a naked opportunist? And yes, believing Nader’s lies in 2000 about no difference between the two parties is just as indefensible as believing Sawant’s very same lies in 2016. (Reproductive freedom? Too hard to spell, apparently…)

Finally, you do know Bernie has office only because the Vermont Democrats prudently won’t risk a Republican winning in a 34-33-33 split amongst three candidates, right?

How do you get all of that bullshit about Bernie and Nader from me saying I think Biden has been doing a good job?

Attacking the left instead of copping to a candidate’s shortcomings and figuring out how to earn people’s votes is the very problem I’m talking about. You’re just making yourself feel better, though it doesn’t appear to be working because you seem miserable.

@Wormtongue:

'Misery Loves
Company!
Biden
'24.'

that's the "d"nc
'campaign' in
a Nutshell

where it
Belongs.

@62: I was responding to your second paragraph @60, not to your first paragraph.

“Attacking the left instead of copping to a candidate’s shortcomings and figuring out how to earn people’s votes is the very problem I’m talking about.”

Well, @57 I linked to a story wherein the Stranger makes the same complaint, of a Democratic candidate who lost “the left” because she did not agree with them “liking” statements which praised Hamas’ terrorism against Israel. In other articles, the Stranger has praised campus protests organized by Students for Justice in Palestine, a group which also praised Hamas’ 10/7 attacks on Israelis, and wants Israel eliminated. Are these examples of voters the Democrats should pursue? Should the Democrats embrace terrorism in Israel, and the goal of eliminating Israel? Because that is clearly what those “left” voters want.

@64: Aargh, I was responding to your first paragraph @60, not the second.

Leaving aside that you’re calling me a “Bernie bro” for reasons I still don’t understand, do these voters owe democrats their vote, or are they a lost cause who can’t be reasoned with? It can’t be both. If you don’t think they can be reached, you need to let it go.

You are expecting people to hold their noses and vote Democratic without compromise on any issue — not just Israel, but there are many other issues where Democrats are also indistinguishable from Republicans. You can’t expect everyone to fall in line when they see little daylight between their only two options.

I want Democrats to win elections. The challenge is always figuring out how to hold together a big tent, but instead of trying, the DNC’s preferred line is to tack to the right, lose, then blame the left for not falling in line, and voters like you are happy to help them along even though it’s not working. You’re still carrying on about an election from 2 decades ago and you’re already working on the next one.

"... and
voters like
you are happy
to help them along
even though it’s not working."

it's 'working'
just Fine for those
what already Got Theirs

& isn't
That truly
All that Matters?

@66: I asked if “the left,” as the Stranger defined it in the case of WA-06, was a group of voters the Democrats should pursue. You walked around my question, but it remains valid: how many fringe voters should a major party chase? To get the voters profiled in that article, the Democrats would have to repudiate the very idea of Israel, a diverse democracy and strong ally of the United States, in an effort to get the votes of persons who openly admire misogynistic jihadi terrorists. Does that sound like a sane course of action to you?

I am expecting everyone to understand the reality of presidential elections in the United States, specifically that they are a zero-sum game between the Democratic and Republican parties. Anything which helps the candidate from one party hurts the candidate from the other, and vice versa. There is no middle ground, no third option, no choice at all other than those two parties. None.

Yes, for a single-issue voter, if the two parties have the same position on that issue, then there is no difference between the two parties. Other than showing the perils of single-issue voting, this tells us nothing about the real world, where Democrats and Republicans differ on reproductive rights, rights for LGBTQ+ persons, tax policy, educational policy, and immigration policy, just to name a few. This is why anything which harmed the chances of Al Gore and Hillary Clinton was anti-choice, and anyone who did so needs to be condemned for it — no matter how long ago it happened — because it still has an effect today.

Sorry but I only skim your comments. They’re too worsdy and you’re always so bitter and angry, just really unpleasant to read.

I may have missed a specific question but my response is the same: voters who expect more differentiation between democrats and republicans are not the problem. I know you can’t help yourself but you should learn to accept that and move on.

Obama was the most successful democrat in several generations and he ran on a fairly populist progressive platform, particularly in 2008, while everyone before and since has run on the republican platform from 10-15 years prior. Time for something new because it’s not working, and rigging (2016) or outright avoiding the primaries (2024) only makes the problem worse because would-be dem voters feel even more alienated and disenfranchised.

@69: More gauzy opinion presented as fact, and again, the careful avoidance of an actual example the Stranger recently supplied (upon which you had commented). Also, your whole "mood ring" schtick should have been left in the 1970s.

I'm pretty sure no recent Democratic presidential candidate has "run on the Republican platform of 15 years prior" regarding the topics of reproductive freedom, LGBTQ+ rights, immigration policy, etc. But since you didn't bother to supply a single example, who cares?

Finally, if you think anyone other than a dead-ender Bernie-boi still rants about the Democratic Party cabal "rigging" that party's 2016 presidential primaries, then you've truly lost contact with all external reality.