-
Security incident: ISF was recently accessed by intruders. Please change your password, and change it anywhere else you used it. Read more
Who should run for the Dems?
- Thread starter Orphia Nay
- Start date
-
- Tags
- george clooney president
jt512
Philosopher
- Joined
- Sep 24, 2011
- Messages
- 5,612
Too bad they can't vote.
It is obvious that the reference is to me, but it is nevertheless a lie.
Instead of telling the truth, it promotes the very American (and far from skeptical) habit of picking a candidate and lying to oneself and everybody else about him or her. Since it's all about candidates winning the election, any uncomfortable truth about them is interpreted as support for the opponent!
As for Talarico and climate change, all I did was to quote him, which upset some of his fans. It's what subscribing to any cult of personality does to people's brains.
There is much more about Talarico's climate policies in the climate thread.
And there is also much more in the same thread about the attitude of corporate Democrats to climate change in their campaigns before the midterms.
The attitude of the Republican Big Oil shills, people like Ken Paxton, is well-known.
Instead of telling the truth, it promotes the very American (and far from skeptical) habit of picking a candidate and lying to oneself and everybody else about him or her. Since it's all about candidates winning the election, any uncomfortable truth about them is interpreted as support for the opponent!
As for Talarico and climate change, all I did was to quote him, which upset some of his fans. It's what subscribing to any cult of personality does to people's brains.
There is much more about Talarico's climate policies in the climate thread.
And there is also much more in the same thread about the attitude of corporate Democrats to climate change in their campaigns before the midterms.
The attitude of the Republican Big Oil shills, people like Ken Paxton, is well-known.
dudalb
Penultimate Amazing
Crypto investors are in for a rude awakening.
But that is one of the virrues of a market system: Stupidity is usually punished.
At one point, you recommended The Bullwark.
I recommend what The Bulwark's Tim Miller said about corporate Democrats recently:
Tim Miller IN COMPLETE SHOCK At Dem Leaders SABOTAGING The Party (Secular Talk on YouTube, Sep 11, 2026 – 8:28 min.)
So the global-warming fans will have two candidates, and so will the transphobes, I guess:
It's the problem that is immediately apparent when Democrats try to appeal to right-wing voters.
It was the same with the Harris campaign in 2024:
They can't even argue against the nonsense MAGAlytes believe. They can't tell them why MAGA is wrong about anthropogenic global warming. Even if they know it's true, they can no longer say so in their campaign speeches. They can no loger tell global-warming deniers why their beliefs are wrong. It may say somewhere on some obscure site that nobody reads anyway that anthropogenic global warming is a fact, but they can't openly say so or defend that position in a debate.
Talarico goes a step beyond that and actually lies overtly about what can be accomplished with carbon capture. He becomes the spokesperson for Exxon Mobile – whether paid by them or not.
He's on camera promoting the lie to his followers.
Guess who wants to expose Talarico as a dangerous die-hard environmentalist when he is actually an advocate of ExxonMobil's carbon capture lie and Joe Biden's 'We can do both!'
The MAGAlytes!
11:49–> And don't even get me started on the climate change BS. That is also stupid.
That is who James ... I know. I know. James Talarico. He goes around right now because he wants to paint himself as like, 'I'm a, I'm a, I'm a Texan. I'm just on the porch with Papa (?) talking about Texas stuff.'
He's got the big, you know, like the turkey leg, that he's like, "Oh, I love meat."
Even though before he was like in a mask, he's like, "Oh, we were a nonmeat. We're a vegan campaign.'
Like, we know who you are. You don't you you believe in climate change. You think the world's going to end because we all eat a lot of meat and steak, and you think that we shouldn't eat that. You have like your your your girlfriend or your pretend girlfriend or whoever is vegan and then like you were vegan and your campaign was vegan, and now all of a sudden you want to be like. 'I love turkey legs.' We know who you are.
Okay, we've heard you in your own words too many times to mistake it for anything else.
So just remember this is who James Talarico is.
I wonder what Democrats will be saying when Talarico votes with MAGA in the Senate, like former Democratic senators Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin.
As for the latter:
Joe Manchin (Wikipedia)
Funding
Manchin received the most funding from the oil and gas industry of any senator from May 2020 to May 2021,[101] including $1.6 million in donations from fossil fuel PACs.[102] He also received funding from individuals and PACs connected to law and real estate, among others.[103]
In June 2021, ExxonMobil lobbyist Keith McCoy said that Manchin was one of its key targets for funding and that he participated in weekly meetings with the company.[104][31]
On September 30, 2021, an MSNBC news reporter asked Manchin about his opposition to the Build Back Better Act, accusing him of having a conflict of interest with provisions within the bill: "Sir, the company you founded, Enersystems, provides coal to power plants that would be impacted by one of the proposals in the plan. How is that not a conflict of interest?" Manchin replied, "I've been in a blind trust for 20 years. I have no idea what they're doing."[105]
Polymarket on bsky, Sep 23, 2026
BREAKING: Democratic Socialist Nithya Raman surges ahead of Karen Bass in the Los Angeles mayoral election odds.
58% chance she wins. 1/2
Last edited:
17:30–> ... if and when Gavin Newsome runs for president. So the logic is, it's kind of an old-school late-90s mid-2000s democratic-politician view of how politics works. And that view is uh coddle, court and raise as much money as possible from the billionaire class, knowing or assuming that that money will be so vast that you can essentially buy election after
election with name ID and enough ads that voters won't really know that you are a ◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊ artist when it comes to the basic economic agenda that those voters care about.
So the cynical logic is: Gavin Newsome can try to protect billionaires, do them a huge favor. They will likely, I'm assuming that he presumes they will return the favor by bankrolling super PACs to fund his presidential campaign. And he will go to places like Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and depict himself in ads as a great economic populist, assuming that enough ads and enough money will obscure the fact or confuse voters or mislead them into thinking that what he's saying is true and that there won't be enough money or awareness on the other side to make clear that, actually, Gavin Newsome has become the biggest ally to the Trump machine of any Democrat in the United States.
Gavin Newsome, let's be clear, in trying to destroy the billionaire tax in his own state, is literally defending the financial power and the political power of Donald Trump's billionaires.
Last edited:
On the one hand:
Rising Abdul Lifts All Boats | Adam Green & Will Lawrence (The Majority Report on YouTube, Oct 31, 2026 – 38 min.)
But on the other hand:
AIPAC Dems Keep Sabotaging El-Sayed (The Majority Report on YouTube, Oct 31, 2026 – 28:42 min.)
Rising Abdul Lifts All Boats | Adam Green & Will Lawrence (The Majority Report on YouTube, Oct 31, 2026 – 38 min.)
But on the other hand:
AIPAC Dems Keep Sabotaging El-Sayed (The Majority Report on YouTube, Oct 31, 2026 – 28:42 min.)
AmyStrange
Philosopher
I'd still like to see Al Franken run if only to watch the debate. I'm sure it would be hilarious, but hey, that's just my opinion.
Your mileage may vary of course.
Your mileage may vary of course.
Trebuchet
Penultimate Amazing
Barack Obama. Trump thinks he can run again, let him run against Obama.
Segnosaur
Penultimate Amazing
Yes, a moderate democrat (Haley Stevens) ended up endorsing a republican. At this point we have no idea exactly what was going through her head, and it may be due to factors that have nothing to do with policy. Its a single data point, and its not enough to conclude "those moderate democrats are basically republicans". I suspect there are plenty of other moderate democrats who might not agree with El Sayed on everything but would still support him over Rogers.
Remember, both Krysten Sinema and Fetterman both seemed to have solid left-wing credentials before making some rather... questionable... political positions. (Sinema had at one time been a member of the green party and opposed military action in Afghanistan, but ended up supporting Trump's attacks on Syria. Fetterman was endorsed by Bernie Sanders, but did a video appearance before a republican campaign event.) Sometimes politicians do dumb things.
The Great Zaganza
Maledictorian
- Joined
- Aug 14, 2016
- Messages
- 33,051
*cough* big Donors*cough*
Of course, it's "for the networks," i.e. to change public opinion. High school gossip isn't for the networks.
Stevens is trying to make Abdul El-Sayed look like an Islamist extremist and at the same time like a radical left extremist. It's what Scott Jennings also tried to do very recently. I look forward to the lawsuit against him playing out.
She didn't just 'end up' endorsing a Republican. She had been very vocal about being against everything he stands for and calling a vote for him a vote for Trump, until she incredibly abruptly switched to endorsing him – apparently without even informing her staff and against their wishes:
The Tennessee Holler on bsky, Nov 1, 2026
“Shocked and heartbroken” -
@haleyformi.bsky.social’s Chief of staff resigns
Selling out is a lonely game
The night before she had told Rep. Debbie Dingell that she wouldn't do what she did:
Rep. Debbie Dingell reacts to Anderson Cooper's interview with Rep. Haley Stevens (CNN, Nov 1, 2026)
As for your "Sometimes politicians do dumb things." Sometimes politicians are paid to do dumb things.
And we'll never know "exactly what was going through her head," because she is obviously lying about it.
Rep. Haley Stevens speaks with Anderson Cooper on endorsement of GOP senate candidate Mike Rogers (CNN, Nov 1, 2026)
AIPAC, specifically.
Gulliver Foyle
Penultimate Amazing
Probably the same thing that went through von Papen's head "what! Somebody who wants to improve the country might win‽ I can't allow that! Get the biggest nazi on the line, now."