2020 Democratic Candidates Tracker

[Foolmewunz]

I asked specific questions about the proposal and how it would make sense. In return I got "I don't know, ask Bernie" from one side, and I got called a merkin from the other side. If it makes so much sense, why is it so hard to answer questions about it and explain why it makes sense?

You'll be voting for Bernie if we explain it sufficiently? How about Warren? Bernie and AOC got the headlines this week but Eliz. Warren has had it on her agenda for five years.

 

[theprestige]

You'll be voting for Bernie if we explain it sufficiently? How about Warren? Bernie and AOC got the headlines this week but Eliz. Warren has had it on her agenda for five years.

You've had at least five years to come up with something that might answer my questions, and all you've brought to the table so far is "merkins".

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

All of this, 'the other guys do it', misses the key issue, locations and knowing addresses is a small fraction of what is needed to make the needed transformation. For example, in a busy crowded post office, where are you going to fit in additional services? Will a large safe fit? Additional space for all the tellers? Or are you just picturing longer lines?

It does mean Bernie is less crazy. It also means it's one more proposal that will make him unelectable. You cannot remake the country all at once like that. It scares people off. Voters would rather be lied to about going back to the imaginary old days (MAGA) than they would be promised a complete remake of the country.

What Sanders and Warren need to do is present the same ideas in less radical packaging.

 

[BobTheCoward]

You've had at least five years to come up with something that might answer my questions, and all you've brought to the table so far is "merkins".

If it won't change your opinion to have the answers, why should they invest the time?

 

[theprestige]

All of this, 'the other guys do it', misses the key issue,

It also misses the issue of historical relevance. These other places have been doing it for a while for reasons that may or may not actually apply to implementing a similar policy in the US today. (And may or may not have actually been good reasons or good implementations to begin with.)

 

[theprestige]

If it won't change your opinion to have the answers, why should they invest the time?

"If."

 

[Brainster]

Kamala Harris was apparently another "red diaper" baby. Here's a rather gushing tribute to her mother, which includes this:

Harris’ parents met as doctoral students at the University of California, Berkeley at the dawn of the 1960s. Her father, a Jamaican named Donald Harris, came to study economics. Her mother studied nutrition and endocrinology.

For two freethinking young people drawn to activism, they landed on campus from opposite sides of the world just as protests exploded around civil rights, the Vietnam War and voting rights. Their paths crossed in those movements, and they fell in love.

At the heart of their activism was a small group of students who met every Sunday to discuss the books of black authors and grassroots activity around the world, from the anti-apartheid Black Consciousness Movement in South Africa to liberation movements in Latin America to the black separatist preaching of Malcolm X in the U.S.

A member of the group, Aubrey Labrie, says the weekly gathering was one in which figures such as Mao Zedong and Fidel Castro were admired, and would later provide some inspiration to the founders of the Black Panther Party.

I know, I know, the sins of the mother, etc. But the point of the article is how much of an influence Harris' mother was on her thinking.

 

[The Atheist]

The sad thing is that you probably believe that's all it takes.

Not believe, know.

I've worked in positions up to what you Americans would call Vice President in a registered trading bank. The idea that banking is complicated is a fallacy sold by the banks to protect their interests.

Aussies own half the banks on the planet, if they can do it, can't be all that hard...

I do have to note that those Aussie banks have about 5% of their shares owned by Australians.

 

[Delvo]

The idea that banking is complicated is a fallacy sold by the banks to protect their interests.

Part of the idea comes not from the personal banking that most of us will ever deal with, but from the world of massive-scale financing and stock trading and bubbles and such. That world is full of weird language that just makes no sense to outsiders, words with randomly reassigned definitions like "short" and "instrument" and "futures" and "market capitalization", and the "experts" keep getting things so badly wrong that it seems like surely it must be insanely hard stuff to figure out, because surely if it could be comprehended, then those "experts" would be the people who do get it, and they wouldn't keep screwing it up.

For anybody to whom that stuff is the first thing that comes to mind with the word "banking", I get why this would seem outlandish. But what's actually being proposed is pretty simple and straightforward: give people bank accounts, at branch locations they can get to; nothing else to make a mess out of it.

 

[The Atheist]

Part of the idea comes not from the personal banking that most of us will ever deal with, but from the world of massive-scale financing and stock trading and bubbles and such.

Given that Bernie's idea relates to small banking, the corporate part isn't very relevant.

Foolmewunz gave a fairly comprehensive list of countries who have managed it easily. It just isn't that hard.

The corporate side hides behind obscure terms to obscure the fact that it's all just straw.

But what's actually being proposed is pretty simple and straightforward: give people bank accounts, at branch locations they can get to; nothing else to make a mess out of it.

Exactly that. Low capital requirements, heavy on customer service and a perfect fit for a shrinking postal service.

 

[theprestige]

There are already consumer banking branches pretty much everywhere there's post offices. What problem is Bernie trying to solve? Or Warren, for that matter?

 

[The Atheist]

There are already consumer banking branches pretty much everywhere there's post offices. What problem is Bernie trying to solve? Or Warren, for that matter?

You know, if you'd followed any of the articles on the announcement, the answer to that question is contained every piece on the subject.

1 to protect consumers from “exorbitant” credit card interest rates.

2 allowing people to cash paychecks, transfer money electronically, and pay bills.

3 many poor people don’t have access to banking services, because the big banks are not worried about somebody who makes $10 an hour.

4 so that people do not have to go into payday lenders,

5 affordable financial services, including ATMs, paycheck cashing, bill payment and electronic money transfers in post offices,” they added.

6 If you’re poor, your interest rates are much higher.

etc...

If you keep asking silly questions like that, people will start doubting your sincerity.

https://www.cnsnews.com/news/articl...postal-service-provide-basic-banking-services

 

[Foolmewunz]

You've had at least five years to come up with something that might answer my questions, and all you've brought to the table so far is "merkins".

I answered your question. Other countries do it successfully. Why is the USPS such an exception? The Japanese post office runs on a profit and 90% of that is attributed to its banking activities.

If you are too lazy to look into it, can't be faulted. (I haven't been working on this for five years; I don't necessarily live to answer your questions, anyway; look up information for yourself and quit quibbling about me using the phonetic spelling of LBJ's famous speech opening.)

 

[Foolmewunz]

All of this, 'the other guys do it', misses the key issue, locations and knowing addresses is a small fraction of what is needed to make the needed transformation. For example, in a busy crowded post office, where are you going to fit in additional services? Will a large safe fit? Additional space for all the tellers? Or are you just picturing longer lines?

It does mean Bernie is less crazy. It also means it's one more proposal that will make him unelectable. You cannot remake the country all at once like that. It scares people off. Voters would rather be lied to about going back to the imaginary old days (MAGA) than they would be promised a complete remake of the country.

What Sanders and Warren need to do is present the same ideas in less radical packaging.

It won't matter if it's less radical packaging because "radical" in terms of the USPS is anything that stabilizes it and makes money. The GOPpers are setting it up for privatization (until Trump realizes that Amazon is likely to be a big player - and they are IMHO - they're trying to monetize their entire logistics network).

Since Postal Money Orders don't frighten people, build outwards from there. And in many cities the USPS is still a cavernous old building with loads of empty space. Hell, half the wickets are closed half the time. A little bit of interior decorating and you could have selective branches handling banking tasks rather easily. If India can figure out how to do it, we can. Hell, France! The Frenchies do it. How come Oklahoma can't keep up with France, I say!

 

[Foolmewunz]

Kamala Harris was apparently another "red diaper" baby. Here's a rather gushing tribute to her mother, which includes this:



I know, I know, the sins of the mother, etc. But the point of the article is how much of an influence Harris' mother (pick one from list)was on her Obama's thinking.

Choose:
Frank Marshall Davis
Malcolm X
Manning Marable
Bill Ayers
Jeremiah Wright


Nice to see you're "on form". You can automate this any time you point out some dubious connections to Wooo Scary Socialists and Commies. Robert Welch and Tailgunner Joe would be so proud!

 

[Lambchops]

Kamala Harris was apparently another "red diaper" baby. Here's a rather gushing tribute to her mother, which includes this:



I know, I know, the sins of the mother, etc. But the point of the article is how much of an influence Harris' mother was on her thinking.

Was your intention with this post to make Kopmala look better?

Because it would be awesome if she was this left leaning. She's not though, sadly.

 

[Brainster]

Meanwhile, Elizabeth Warren finds herself getting the support of deplorables:

It was a startling spectacle in the heart of Trump country: At least a dozen supporters of the president — some wearing MAGA stickers — nodding their heads, at times even clapping, for liberal firebrand Elizabeth Warren.

The sighting alone of a Democratic presidential candidate in this town of fewer than 400 people — in a county where more than four in five voters cast their ballot for Trump in 2016 — was unusual. Warren’s team was apprehensive about how she’d be received.

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

You know, if you'd followed any of the articles on the announcement, the answer to that question is contained every piece on the subject.

1 to protect consumers from “exorbitant” credit card interest rates.

2 allowing people to cash paychecks, transfer money electronically, and pay bills.

3 many poor people don’t have access to banking services, because the big banks are not worried about somebody who makes $10 an hour.

4 so that people do not have to go into payday lenders,

5 affordable financial services, including ATMs, paycheck cashing, bill payment and electronic money transfers in post offices,” they added.

6 If you’re poor, your interest rates are much higher.

etc...

If you keep asking silly questions like that, people will start doubting your sincerity.

https://www.cnsnews.com/news/articl...postal-service-provide-basic-banking-services

I'm on the side there are problems with discrimination, but some of these are not so clear cut.

#3) I've never been in a bank that asked me my income to open an account. Some accounts have minimum amounts to keep open but there are always accounts with no minimum, or maybe anything above zero.

#2 & #4) After the Patriot Act you cannot open a bank account in the US without a valid social security number. It has to match your name/ID and the bank uses e-verify instant check. So people working without a valid SSN have to use PayDay loan sharks. That's a separate problem.

 

[Aridas]

Meanwhile, Elizabeth Warren finds herself getting the support of deplorables:

Mmm. Quibble time. The claim was that, if one were massively generalizing, "half" of Trump supporters were deplorables. That Trump supporters would also support Warren doesn't automatically mean that they're part of the deplorables half. For that matter, it is actually a pretty clear indication that they're likely not part of that half.

So, with that in mind... Go, Warren, Go!

 

[The Great Zaganza]

Warren will, at some point, play the "I used to be a Republican, back when the party was sane" card, though it might only come after getting the nomination.
Hope it gets to that.