"President Donald Trump visited Phoenix, Arizona for a rally Wednesday night, February 19, 2020. The rally was part of his 2020 campaign and took place on the same night that the Democrats are hosting their latest debate. The venue, which holds at least 14,500, reached capacity and overflow space was needed for what looked like thousands of people outside. Read on to learn more and see crowd and overflow photos and videos from the rally."
https://heavy.com/news/2020/02/trump-phoenix-arizona-rally-crowd-photos/
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"Michael Bloomberg: The first hour of the debate was an absolute and total disaster for the former mayor. He looked lost at times — and those were the best times for him! Warren dunked on him repeatedly. Sanders slammed him. Biden bashed him. It was like watching a pro wrestling match where everyone decided to gang up on a single wrestler in the ring — and that wrestler was totally and completely caught off-guard. Bloomberg is still very, very rich — and will continue to spend his money on the race. So he's not going away. But it's hard to see how the momentum Bloomberg had built through his heavy ad spending wasn't slowed considerably by a performance that slid waaaaay under what was a very low bar of expectations."
https://www.cnn.com/2020/02/19/politics/who-won-democratic-debate/index.html
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Trump had his usual experience of a filled stadium with an overflow crowd watching outside on the big screen, content to be near him.
In Las Vegas the attacks on Bloomberg were ferocious. His inability to deal with other humans as though they were his equals was spectacular in its naked visibility. He seems to think that his statement of availability + his expenditure of a billion or two insures his election. It was clear that he does not think his magnificence should be questioned.
There has been an excellent mini-series on George Washington on the History Channel this week. One of the points made about him is that after winning independence from Great Britain all he wanted from life was to be allowed to go home to his farming business and his SWMBO. He was reluctant to attend the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia and even more reluctant to accept the presidency when it was universally demanded that he take it. HE DID NOT WANT IT. The contrast with Bloomberg could not be greater. BTW, Bloomberg hates guns. Washington armed his male adult slaves with firearms so that they could act as a posse to defend the property against thieves and hunt for themselves and for his own table.
Some particulars:
1. Bloomberg is revealed as having said in public that all the disposable income of the poor should be taxed away so that they will not have funds with which to do mischief like buying fast food or sugary drinks.
2. Bloomberg described Sanders as a Communist who cannot be elected. In this he was correct.
3. Bloomberg was described by Warren as a cold-hearted and insulting man who openly scorns women, gays and minorities.
4. Mayor Pete mocked Klobuchar for her inability to remember the name of the president of Mexico. She asked if he was calling her "stupid."
These six dwarves will probably persist in their quest for the brass ring all the way to the convention. In the mayhem there, the "winner" will probably have to choose one of the "losers" to be his VP running mate.
This should be fun all the way to November. pl
I watched the History Channel series on Washington. It was very good, and it was inspiring.
The Eighteenth Century is often called the Age of Reason. Certainly some very great minds wrote during that time. I can’t think of anyone today who could match many of the greats of that time period.
I was blessed by having excellent History teachers as I grew up. The series reminded me of so much of what I had read and learned. It’s quite sad to me how little our young people know of our country’s founding and of the ideas of the philosophers of that time period.
When I graduated from high school, my counselor persuaded me to major in English rather than History. It was a good choice since my English education also really provided history lessons. I got to read literature that was inspired by the philosophers throughout English and American literature.
If I had majored in History, I would have been expected to coach some sport. That is why our history education is now terrible. Those teachers are not teaching but showing videos and even Hollywood movies based on whatever they are supposed to be teaching. There is no discussion happening–just true/false and multiple choice and fill in the blank worksheets being filled out and grades by student helpers. The teachers are busy planning their strategies for the next game.
And now History and English instruction is also controlled by the particular “ism” that each teacher prefers: socialism and feminism being the preferred isms, though deconstructionism also had some sway for a while.
Again I give credit to parents who home school or send their kids to charger schools and private schools, usually at great financial cost. They are doing it to make sure their children do get an eduction.
“His inability to deal with other humans as though they were his equals was spectacular in its naked visibility. He seems to think that his statement of availability + his expenditure of a billion or two insures his election. It was clear that he does not think his magnificence should be questioned.”
Doesn’t this describe our current President pretty well? Maybe this is the new normal for our elected officials….Thank God television did not exist in 1786!
The media is cheering wildly for Warren and saying that she won the debate, but I found her to be utterly repugnant. She comes across, to me, as even more shrill, harsh, angry and unlikeable than Clinton did at her worst.
Bummer. Does this mean we really have to look at Mooshell Obama leading the Democrat ticket this Fall?
I like the idea of Democrats fielding Sanders-Abrams ticket myself. Clearer ideological choices make outcomes more substantive. Put it all out there, Dems. Run with your greatest contrasts. Not your socialists that proudly claim they are capitalists.
Plus I want to learn how Sanders will make the US exactly like Denmark. Does this include free blue contact lenses that must be worn at all times?
Sure hope it also means we all get Danish pastries as good as one still finds in Bornholm. That you will have to take from my cold Viking hands, Bloomberg. More rhubarb. More rhubarb. More rhubarb.
Laura Wilson
Trump is actually campaigning for president and he beat HC with far less money than she spent.
Diana Croissant
I, too, was an English Major at a school that was primarily a STEM college, the 3rd oldest undergraduate college of engineering in the US – 1839. The English faculty were allowed a few students as majors probably to compensate them for the enforced company of engineers.
The longer this Democrat dog and pony show continues the more I have a sense that it is a false flag operation whereby the most unelectable (Feel the Bern) is being raised while the most competitive (Tulsi Gabbard) has been shunted aside leaving no trace.
Bloomberg will fund the campaign of any Dem against Trump & if that
campaign needs money it will carry Bloomberg’s water. Last nights debate was just an entertaining distraction, a true circular firing
squad, fodder for Trump’s campaign.
Yeah, it gave me that WWE feeling too. The whole Dem primary is starting to seem so contrived somehow–a bit like a reality TV show. And I’m not the only one who feels that way: https://off-guardian.org/2020/02/20/michael-bloomberg-the-democrats-billionaire-strawman/
I don’t know about “fun” until November.
I don’t have a lot of faith in the American electorate to resist the siren song of “FREE” everything.
The end of democracy begins when the electorate discovers that it can vote itself free money.
That “debate” was highly amusing. But I’m concerned that Bernie is going to get the nomination and has a good chance of winning the election due to the impact of shortages on Chinese goods. Price increases and shortage induced job losses will be wrongly blamed on Trump. Bernie is an outsider promising bread, circuses, and healthcare.
As much as the Dem establishment hates Bernie, they hate Trump more. The Dems will coalesce around Bernie just like the Never Trumper Republicans did with DJT.
Setting aside your comments about Democrats, of whom I am one, I’m very glad to see you give props to President George Washington. His greatness is largely forgotten today. Without him, the nation would have died early. His story is in many ways a tragedy. He wanted others, including his cabinet, to serve with the same nonpartisan public spirit as he did himself, and he was terribly disappointed in that.
Master Slacker et al
Was privileged to attend a Tulsi Town Hall last evening in Colorado Springs.
Very impressive from start to finish. Estimate 300 attended, many young military, and many there identified as Republicans including a former CO State Senator.
Try to catch this wonderful candidate in person. Her positions are available in considerable detail on Wikipedia.
She may be shunted aside by the MSM, but she’s leaving way more than a trace for sure — a redemptive force for a troubled and divided nation.
offtrail
I grieve for you. Which Democratic Party do you cling to?
With exception of Sanders I can’t imagine any candidate on the stage last night offering Gabbards a position in their administration.
If Bernie Sanders were President of say any South American country every other Democrat on stage last night would be delighted as president themselves to covertly and overtly destroy him and his nation. Think Honduras, Paraguay, Venezuela and Bolivia for the most recent examples.
This country is getting a very clear lesson in the fact not only is not a democracy, it’s anti-democratic to its core. I hope at long last it finally sinks in among the half of eligible voters who still legitimize it with their vote.
The US of A should do as EVERY other advanced economy did – and implement single payer healthcare and eject the profiteers from the medical system, which is a public good. Germany has had universal medical care since Otto von Bismarck implemented in the 1870’s to unify the country – most other countries implemented it in the 20th century (UK just after WW2; Canada in 1963′ and so on). This will liberate US Americans from the advanced world’s most expensive and inefficient health insurance system, with administrative costs of over 20% compared to Canada’s 2-3% depending on province. And Bernie Sanders is the only Dem candidate who unequivocally stands for Medicare for all – the rest are to some degree or other captured by health industry cartel payoffs, much as the Dem party is.
Bernie or bust! He’s not a commie; he’s a democratic socialist, in the model of FDR’s New Deal. Yes he’s bad on foreign policy – do you-all really approve of what Trump has been doing on behalf of “client states” who really run the foreign policy show in their domains? I’m not sure if this will ever change – no president wants to end up like JFK. But what is important is to improve the lot of all of us poor citizens who get to pay for all these shitshow foreign SNAFU’s – will they ever end? Not while the likes of Pompeus Maximus is in charge….
The question on my mind is which of these clowns has the highest probability of doing something stupid that ends in a major war, if not an apocalyptic one. IMO Biden, Buttigieg, and Sacagawea have sadistic/psychotic tendencies that make them the most dangerous candidates. Sanders and Klobuchar strike me as the least violent. The Monopoly Man possibly views warfare as something beneath the station of a financial aristocrat such as himself, which if nothing else might give him some immunity from feeling the need to prove how “tough” he is. I put Trump somewhere in the middle.
Colonel, I’m in the Bernie Sanders – Elizabeth Warren wing, while favoring a Tulsi Gabbard foreign policy.
Offtrail,
Bernie’s and Tulsi’s foreign and domestic policy positions are damned near identical. That and the fact that Tulsi was one of Bernie’s most ardent supporters in 2016 leads me to believe that they may very well share the ticket. I think they would be a formidable team.
He’s a plutocratic cosmopolitan for whom I would never vote, but I will allow that some of the things that Bloomberg had said in the past and is being attacked for now are at least partly if not mostly true. So I hope he stays in at least long enough to push the Democratic party even further in the direction of unreality.
Hopefully this will give us time to liquidate Conservative Inc and perhaps 4/5ths of all sitting Republican Senators and Congressmen. This is unavoidable if the GOP is to be remolded as a vehicle for a non-interventionist nationalism which combines economic populism with social conservatism.
divadab:
First, it’s not “Medicare for all”, it’s MEDICAID for all.
Current Medicare has less than a 10 year ETA for running out of money.
Sanders’ plan has been estimated at $3.3 trln/year and we all know how wildly UNDERestimated govt. programs are.
Finally, no one will admit it, but any universal payer depends on rationing – which is already part of the “much loved” Medicare -, long wait periods and hospital budgets at the mercy of politicians.
Think Sanders, or any other politician, is going to wait 6 months to see a cardiologist?
Like the much-missed USSR – at least by Bernie – it’s “socialism” (everyone is equal – in shared misery) for the masses, 1% capitalism for the rulers.
In spite of Bloomberg’s poor debate performance, since he’s got the establishment Democrats/MSM on his side (although last night must’ve been absolutely crushing for them, poor dears) and he’s willing to spend at an immeasurable burn rate, I guess I’m not counting him out just yet. But admittedly, it’s not looking good for him. He had a brutal week so the debate was his chance to overcome the nasty revelations, but he failed – bigly. People I know who regarded him as the Great White Hope are crestfallen today. Still, they’ll vote for anyone who opposes their anti-Christ.
The “Washington” miniseries was a wonderful way to celebrate President’s Day (and beyond). Great stuff. Imagine owning 1800 contiguous acres in VA. Yowza.
Bernie Sanders a “communist”. You seriously need to join the modern world and catch up on the obvious gaps in your education.
James O’Neill
Always happy to be counseled on my lack of education by an Australian. Were you always a Communist sympathizer? How old are you? It IS true that the Soviet Union only lives in the hearts of a few loyalists like Sanders and you.
Typo: I meant Washington had 18,000 contiguous acres in VA, not 1,800 (SWMBO’s estate)
akapatience
Some of it was her property but he was an excellent businessman and bought much of it himself.
TTG
If that were to occur I would look carefully at the probabilities.
Watched the Washington mini-doc in a hotel room in Savannah. I enjoyed the show, but ugh, that WJC mug with that shit-eating grin marred it for me. Saw the cannons downtown that Washington donated to Savannah. Very moving to stand by the balcony where Lafayette gave his speech from Owens-Thomas House. So much overlapping history, mind-bending irony and pathos and ugliness packed in one place. Probably everyone here knew that Lee’s first assignment out of West Point was to Cockspur to build Ft. Pulaski. I didn’t. No time to see everything. Missed the Mighty Eighth and the Georgia State Railroad museums.
Col., TTG, if it’s Bernie-Tulsi we could expect her to succeed him as I don’t see him surviving the stress of his first term, at which point she’ll have even less allies in office than Trump. Better the devil we know and maybe he’ll have sense enough to offer her a cabinet post or an advisory role even if unofficial.
casey
Yes, to have a cowardly money-grubber like Clinton comment on Washington was a bit much. And, it is interesting to see that Powell seems to have acquired his FY money.
@Upstate – so much misinformation in yr short post:
-nope – it’s medicare for all.
-what you miss is that single payer healthcare REPLACES profiteering health insurance, and gives the government leverage to reduce drug prices, for example – why does insulin cost 30 times as much in the US of A than in Canada? It’s unmitigated greed and profiteering on the backs of people with a permanent health condition. Banting and Best GAVE their patent for insulin to the university of Toronto for general non-profit distribution because they were motivated by service to humanity rather than greed. IN what ethical system is greed other than a sin?
-SO overall healthcare costs per person will go DOWN when you take out the inefficiencies and profiteering of the cartels.
-“6 months to see a cardiologist”? Utter BS. My cousin in Ontario Canada went to his doctor feeling logy, had a stress test, and the next day had a stent installed. There are few waits in Canada for urgent care. Elective surgery, yes, you might have to wait longer but it won;t cost you an arm and a left testicle.
It amazes me how much health cartel propaganda has infected peoples’ brains.
What’s one to make of the rumblings in the press that the Democrats are thinking about ‘investigating’ DJT’S Presidential Pardons, and using this premisis for another round of ‘Impeachment’ trials in the House.
divadab,
Bismark’s Germany did not have 20,000,000 illegal immigrants insure. “REPLACES profiteering health insurance” Great, what will all those people do since Bernie is going to close down the firms they work for? When do we extend “profiteering” to auto insurance companies, social media companies, banks, private universities?
The Twisted Genius. Sanders/Gabbard. God I hope you’re right. The 30 somethings we know would be behind that in a heartbeat.
Fred & davidab,
I would like to extend abolition of profiteers, beyond all forms of insurance, to include home builders and grocery stores and farmers. You can’t have good health or security without food and shelter. How dare they try to make money of those absolute necessities of life! Food and shelter are a right.
Eric,
I demand the right to shade! We must tear down those high rise buildings.
Ah, good to see a judge is already on the case:
https://www.cnn.com/2020/02/15/us/200-amsterdam-tower/index.html
Fred,
Yes. Shade is a basic right! No one in this country should be exposed to the cancer causing rays of the sun!
So are clothes.
Now that I think about it, it’s really amazing how few logical steps it takes to go from capitalism to government provision of all of the “basic rights”. Pretty soon we’re all walking around the people’s potato farm in those grey Mao outfits.