It's easy, as it turns out, though it took me some time to make out the how. I simply held the top of the candle for the first dip, then clipped a clothespin onto the wick sticking out the top. Then I slid most of the clothespin under a can of tomatoes on my open cupboard, with the candle hanging down in front of the cupboard. Worked great!
Last night I watched Cory Booker's announcement video; it was pretty good. Then YouTube kicked over into a TV panel interview with him. I think it was on NBC, but could be wrong about that; it doesn't matter. The panelists were all women, one of whom I recognized, but I don't recall her name. The questions were not particularly deep and shouldn't have been difficult, but that is reasonable for a TV audience that doesn't know the candidate. What struck me was that (after the initial pleasantries) almost whatever question was asked, Sen. Booker responded with one of the lines from his announcement video--verbatim! He seemed for all the world like one of those dolls that can say TEN! different things; pull the string (push the button these days, I suppose) and it says one of those TEN! things at random. That got old very quickly. One never has a second chance to make a good first impression, and that is my first impression of Sen. Booker. I bear in mind, however, his record.
I don't like most of the candidates at this point. Several of them I actively dislike because of their past actions. I'm sure still more will be jumping into the race and I'll just wait and see. I do think, though, that the DNC figures we will have to vote "D" no matter who they put up just to make sure we get rid of trump. This election feels to me a lot like "you'll eat what I serve and like it!"
So, what do we do about it? I'll be damned if I'm going to vote for some lesser weevil. Either the Dems nominate someone who vaguely approximates my values and beliefs, or I take my vote elsewhere. Only, that didn't work so well last time. So, what do we do?
I am at the moment a bit more optimistic than you, Susan. The DNC shows signs of coming around, the crowd is probably too big for them to control, and it's likely IMO to be a sudden-death primary season because of the front-loading of the schedule. The DNC might just have to eat its spinach. It's very early days, though.
My limited apologies for the size of this news dump; retirement gives me more time to do such things!
As for the sudden-death primary, I don't think so. Simply because of the huge field. It seems to me unlikely that the leading vote-getter will have more than 25-30% of the vote and therefore 25-30% of the delegates. That seems unlikely to put them far enough ahead of the second- and third-place candidates to settle anything.
OK, here are two from politicalwire.com, at length rather than linked: ================================ Bernie Sanders Set to Announce 2020 Bid
February 2, 2019 at 12:40 pm EST By Taegan Goddard
“Two sources with direct knowledge of his plans told Yahoo News that Sanders, an independent and self-described ‘democratic socialist,’ plans to announce his presidential bid imminently. While Sanders has been considering a bid for months, one of the sources said he was emboldened by early polls of the race that have consistently showed him as one of the top candidates in a crowded Democratic primary field.”
“In particular, the source said Sanders was heartened to see numbers indicating he is one of the leading candidates among African American and Latino voters, two groups he was perceived as struggling with in 2016.”
“The source also alluded to a spate of recent polls that show Sanders as the most popular politician in the country. They attributed Sanders’ strength in the polls to the base and name recognition he built with the prior presidential bid.” ========================================= Moderate Democrats Rethink Plans to Run
February 2, 2019 at 12:00 pm EST By Taegan Goddard
“The rising Democratic enthusiasm for big government liberalism is forcing a trio of leading 2020 contenders to rethink jumping in,” several sources tell Axios.
“Michael Bloomberg and former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, each of whom were virtual locks to run, are having serious second thoughts after watching Democrats embrace ‘Medicare for All,’ big tax increases and the Green New Deal. Joe Biden, who still wants to run, is being advised to delay any plans to see how this lurch to the left plays out. If Biden runs, look for Bloomberg and McAuliffe to bow out, the sources tell us.”
Key takeaway: “Iowa polling by a prominent 2020 hopeful found that the Democratic electorate has moved sharply left. For instance, the polling found that ‘socialism’ had a net positive rating, while ‘capitalism’ had a net negative rating.”
The PCCC poll that asked me to select my first choice for Dem presidential nominee also asked for an optional expression of why one made the choice one did. Here's what I said:
Capitalism without corporate accountability and good citizenship pracgtices together with mega-business' underwriting of Congress and the presidency has failed. We need sober, intelligent 'social democratic' policies to get business interests out of politics, lower corporate executive compensation to rational levels, raise wages and salaries for ordinary people and introduce a raft of other desperately needed commonsense reforms. The Right lunatic fringe together with mainstream, corporate-friendly Democrats have all but destroyed our country. A return to FDR and LBJ type Democratic party values is all that has a hope of saving us, especially after Trump.
I signed a petition supporting universal healthcare coverage for Bernie and made a modest donation. At the end of that process a screen popped up asking for an optional expression of why I donated. Here's what I said:
I believe Bernie's brand of intelligent, commonsense 'democratic socialism' can begin to straighten out the chaos and heal the damage done to this country by the lunatic right fringe that has taken over the Republican Party and the corporate-friendly complacency that has become the norm in the Democratic Party. We need a country that is centered on its people, not its mega-corporations and the greed of stockholders.
I think that what is most important is to not send the signals that were sent in 2016, which is, “We’ve got young people, we’ve got minorities, we’ve got women, so, you white working-class guys, we don’t really need you.” They believed it. They voted for Trump. And that is something that you can affect at the margins by addressing your message broadly, and I think Democrats should do that.
Anybody remember, "We're going to put coal miners out of work"? With one stroke, HRC drove what should be a fundamentally Dem constituency, laboring men, squarely into Trump's arm. And that's not all she did with her overweening pride and arrogance. But she's really just the symptom. The underlying problem is the whole "New Democrat" project, which has become ossified till presumably serious journalists like Chotiner can ask with a straight face if there is a danger of the Democratic Party shifting too far to the left. From where it is now, it could move a hundred miles to the left and still be somewhere to the right of Attila the bloody Hun!
I've gotten e-mails that talk about the Dem establishment plotting to make AOC a one-term representative, and they are not happy with some of the other young female first-term reps either. And of course there's the whole saga of Tim Canova.
So, as far as it goes, Axelrod is correct. The Democratic nominee's platform needs to offer substance to all the traditional Democratic constituencies and if possible outliers as well. But that is not going to happen as long as the DNC continues to be run by New Democrats who would have been horrified at Johnson, to say nothing of that pinko lefty, Franklin Roosevelt!
First we've got to reclaim the party. Then we can worry about reclaiming the country. But Clintonistas cling like burrs. And they hate Bernie with an unholy passion. Warren might be able to get through, Much as I like and admire her though, she does have, or can be made to seem to have, some of the same negatives as HRC. After all, she is an extremely intelligent, strong and successful woman, if a far more personable one. A lot of people of both sexes don't feel comfortable with strong, intelligent women. But she's the only viable alternative to Bernie I can see; and she has a solid organization and decent name recognition.
In the past three presidential elections I have voted for a woman. My wife joshes me, with some justice, that whomever I vote for is doomed. But I am in the throes of the gambler's fallacy: the longer I have been losing, the closer I am to winning. Maybe the fourth time's the charm!
Warren flexes muscles with campaign kickoff tour [Click] “Sen. Elizabeth Warren is preparing a robust, official launch to her presidential campaign in her home state of Massachusetts next week, followed by a six-state, cross country tour that will take her to four early presidential states, key southern states and to delegate-rich California…” Well, OK; now I wonder where she will be campaigning in California
It seems to me that in the general election those of us who live in states that are dead certain to go one way or another have the luxury of casting a protest vote; if there is any doubt about the issue, we should vote strategically. No matter how things might go in the general, I'd say that in the primary we should follow the advice of Gene Debs: "It is better to vote for what you want and not get it than to vote for what you don't want and get it." As for predicting who will be the greater rascal, I suppose we must simply take our chances.
Agreed. I always vote my convictions in the primary and last time, being in a solidly blue state, felt no compunction whatever in voting it again in the general
Wish we had instant runoff voting, both in my state for primaries and nationally for the general. Then I could, for instance, vote Bernie No. 1 and Warren No. 2 both times with again a clear conscience. It also seems to me that the old practice of the highest vote getter becoming president and the second highest becoming VP has a lot to recommend it.
How do you dip the candles without long wicks?
ReplyDeleteIt's easy, as it turns out, though it took me some time to make out the how. I simply held the top of the candle for the first dip, then clipped a clothespin onto the wick sticking out the top. Then I slid most of the clothespin under a can of tomatoes on my open cupboard, with the candle hanging down in front of the cupboard. Worked great!
DeleteA very nice range of colors.
ReplyDeleteLast night I watched Cory Booker's announcement video; it was pretty good. Then YouTube kicked over into a TV panel interview with him. I think it was on NBC, but could be wrong about that; it doesn't matter. The panelists were all women, one of whom I recognized, but I don't recall her name. The questions were not particularly deep and shouldn't have been difficult, but that is reasonable for a TV audience that doesn't know the candidate. What struck me was that (after the initial pleasantries) almost whatever question was asked, Sen. Booker responded with one of the lines from his announcement video--verbatim! He seemed for all the world like one of those dolls that can say TEN! different things; pull the string (push the button these days, I suppose) and it says one of those TEN! things at random. That got old very quickly. One never has a second chance to make a good first impression, and that is my first impression of Sen. Booker. I bear in mind, however, his record.
ReplyDeleteI don't like most of the candidates at this point. Several of them I actively dislike because of their past actions. I'm sure still more will be jumping into the race and I'll just wait and see. I do think, though, that the DNC figures we will have to vote "D" no matter who they put up just to make sure we get rid of trump. This election feels to me a lot like "you'll eat what I serve and like it!"
ReplyDeleteSo, what do we do about it? I'll be damned if I'm going to vote for some lesser weevil. Either the Dems nominate someone who vaguely approximates my values and beliefs, or I take my vote elsewhere. Only, that didn't work so well last time. So, what do we do?
DeleteI am at the moment a bit more optimistic than you, Susan. The DNC shows signs of coming around, the crowd is probably too big for them to control, and it's likely IMO to be a sudden-death primary season because of the front-loading of the schedule. The DNC might just have to eat its spinach. It's very early days, though.
ReplyDeleteMy limited apologies for the size of this news dump; retirement gives me more time to do such things!
Does Russia Already Have a Favorite for 2020? [Click] Sounds like it might be a probe to check whether such activities can still sneak in under the radar.
A new filing by Special Counsel Robert Mueller shows how Russia uses the US federal courts to go after its adversaries. [Click]
While the government was shut down over the president’s wall, native-born white men proved, once again, to be America’s biggest terrorist danger [Click] Not that this is news, but data aid understanding.
Why record job growth in America hides a troubling reality [Click] “High employment rates gloss over a ‘much more complicated story’ of stagnant wages and vanishing mid-level.” Again, hardly news.
Inequality is so bad, even Fox News anchors decry capitalism [Click] “In a recent monologue, Tucker Carlson sounded like Bernie Sanders. And he’s not the only one.” So Fox thinks there is more money to be had in a changed attitude?
Elephant seals take over beach left vacant by US shutdown [Click]
The GM chickens that lay eggs with anti-cancer drugs [Click]
Norfolk study shows new ditches could help improve rivers [Click] Very sensible.
And one last thing before I get moving:
Video: UK vs US: Which is more dysfunctional? [Click]
As for the sudden-death primary, I don't think so. Simply because of the huge field. It seems to me unlikely that the leading vote-getter will have more than 25-30% of the vote and therefore 25-30% of the delegates. That seems unlikely to put them far enough ahead of the second- and third-place candidates to settle anything.
DeleteOK, here are two from politicalwire.com, at length rather than linked:
ReplyDelete================================
Bernie Sanders Set to Announce 2020 Bid
February 2, 2019 at 12:40 pm EST By Taegan Goddard
“Two sources with direct knowledge of his plans told Yahoo News that Sanders, an independent and self-described ‘democratic socialist,’ plans to announce his presidential bid imminently. While Sanders has been considering a bid for months, one of the sources said he was emboldened by early polls of the race that have consistently showed him as one of the top candidates in a crowded Democratic primary field.”
“In particular, the source said Sanders was heartened to see numbers indicating he is one of the leading candidates among African American and Latino voters, two groups he was perceived as struggling with in 2016.”
“The source also alluded to a spate of recent polls that show Sanders as the most popular politician in the country. They attributed Sanders’ strength in the polls to the base and name recognition he built with the prior presidential bid.”
=========================================
Moderate Democrats Rethink Plans to Run
February 2, 2019 at 12:00 pm EST By Taegan Goddard
“The rising Democratic enthusiasm for big government liberalism is forcing a trio of leading 2020 contenders to rethink jumping in,” several sources tell Axios.
“Michael Bloomberg and former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, each of whom were virtual locks to run, are having serious second thoughts after watching Democrats embrace ‘Medicare for All,’ big tax increases and the Green New Deal. Joe Biden, who still wants to run, is being advised to delay any plans to see how this lurch to the left plays out. If Biden runs, look for Bloomberg and McAuliffe to bow out, the sources tell us.”
Key takeaway: “Iowa polling by a prominent 2020 hopeful found that the Democratic electorate has moved sharply left. For instance, the polling found that ‘socialism’ had a net positive rating, while ‘capitalism’ had a net negative rating.”
YYYYEEEEAAAAHHHH!!!! Go Bernie!!!
DeleteThe PCCC poll that asked me to select my first choice for Dem presidential nominee also asked for an optional expression of why one made the choice one did. Here's what I said:
ReplyDeleteCapitalism without corporate accountability and good citizenship pracgtices together with mega-business' underwriting of Congress and the presidency has failed. We need sober, intelligent 'social democratic' policies to get business interests out of politics, lower corporate executive compensation to rational levels, raise wages and salaries for ordinary people and introduce a raft of other desperately needed commonsense reforms. The Right lunatic fringe together with mainstream, corporate-friendly Democrats have all but destroyed our country. A return to FDR and LBJ type Democratic party values is all that has a hope of saving us, especially after Trump.
I signed a petition supporting universal healthcare coverage for Bernie and made a modest donation. At the end of that process a screen popped up asking for an optional expression of why I donated. Here's what I said:
I believe Bernie's brand of intelligent, commonsense 'democratic socialism' can begin to straighten out the chaos and heal the damage done to this country by the lunatic right fringe that has taken over the Republican Party and the corporate-friendly complacency that has become the norm in the Democratic Party. We need a country that is centered on its people, not its mega-corporations and the greed of stockholders.
Time Magazine: 'Willful Ignorance.' Inside President Trump's Troubled Intelligence Briefings [Click] Not bad; VERY, VERY BAD. I sure hope that the congressional intelligence committees investigate.
ReplyDeleteDavid Axelrod on Kamala Harris, Elizabeth Warren, Joe Biden, and the 2020 Field [Click]
From The New Yorker: Title [Click]
I think that what is most important is to not send the signals that were sent in 2016, which is, “We’ve got young people, we’ve got minorities, we’ve got women, so, you white working-class guys, we don’t really need you.” They believed it. They voted for Trump. And that is something that you can affect at the margins by addressing your message broadly, and I think Democrats should do that.
DeleteAnybody remember, "We're going to put coal miners out of work"? With one stroke, HRC drove what should be a fundamentally Dem constituency, laboring men, squarely into Trump's arm. And that's not all she did with her overweening pride and arrogance. But she's really just the symptom. The underlying problem is the whole "New Democrat" project, which has become ossified till presumably serious journalists like Chotiner can ask with a straight face if there is a danger of the Democratic Party shifting too far to the left. From where it is now, it could move a hundred miles to the left and still be somewhere to the right of Attila the bloody Hun!
I've gotten e-mails that talk about the Dem establishment plotting to make AOC a one-term representative, and they are not happy with some of the other young female first-term reps either. And of course there's the whole saga of Tim Canova.
So, as far as it goes, Axelrod is correct. The Democratic nominee's platform needs to offer substance to all the traditional Democratic constituencies and if possible outliers as well. But that is not going to happen as long as the DNC continues to be run by New Democrats who would have been horrified at Johnson, to say nothing of that pinko lefty, Franklin Roosevelt!
First we've got to reclaim the party. Then we can worry about reclaiming the country. But Clintonistas cling like burrs. And they hate Bernie with an unholy passion. Warren might be able to get through, Much as I like and admire her though, she does have, or can be made to seem to have, some of the same negatives as HRC. After all, she is an extremely intelligent, strong and successful woman, if a far more personable one. A lot of people of both sexes don't feel comfortable with strong, intelligent women. But she's the only viable alternative to Bernie I can see; and she has a solid organization and decent name recognition.
In the past three presidential elections I have voted for a woman. My wife joshes me, with some justice, that whomever I vote for is doomed. But I am in the throes of the gambler's fallacy: the longer I have been losing, the closer I am to winning. Maybe the fourth time's the charm!
Delete
ReplyDeleteWarren flexes muscles with campaign kickoff tour [Click] “Sen. Elizabeth Warren is preparing a robust, official launch to her presidential campaign in her home state of Massachusetts next week, followed by a six-state, cross country tour that will take her to four early presidential states, key southern states and to delegate-rich California…”
Well, OK; now I wonder where she will be campaigning in California
It seems to me that in the general election those of us who live in states that are dead certain to go one way or another have the luxury of casting a protest vote; if there is any doubt about the issue, we should vote strategically. No matter how things might go in the general, I'd say that in the primary we should follow the advice of Gene Debs: "It is better to vote for what you want and not get it than to vote for what you don't want and get it." As for predicting who will be the greater rascal, I suppose we must simply take our chances.
ReplyDeleteAgreed. I always vote my convictions in the primary and last time, being in a solidly blue state, felt no compunction whatever in voting it again in the general
DeleteWish we had instant runoff voting, both in my state for primaries and nationally for the general. Then I could, for instance, vote Bernie No. 1 and Warren No. 2 both times with again a clear conscience. It also seems to me that the old practice of the highest vote getter becoming president and the second highest becoming VP has a lot to recommend it.
I certainly favor ranked choice/instant runoff voting too. Now that Maine has begun using it in statewide elections, others will probably follow.
ReplyDelete