Political Obituary? Donald Trump

 Donald Trump is in so much trouble on so many fronts, I think we can stick a fork in his political fortunes in 2024.

However, his cult followers are the ones who refuse to see the obvious about their hero, especially those labeled as "Christian nationalists."  They are particularly dangerous, as we have seen, and I don't think we have seen the worst from them.

Judge granted the motion to unseal the warrant and receipts.  Trump could be in violation of the Espionage Act plus in violation of the statutes against the removal and destruction of governmental documents.  ALL presidential documents are supposed to be under the control of the National Archives.

I have seen where some observers think any nuclear-related documents might be part of a political dirty trick against the Democrats.  It makes a hell of a lot of sense to me.

Live coverage here.

Obituary of Sorts: Maybe Miracles DO Exist After All

A political obituary:  Ratfucker extraordinaire Bernie Sanders shocked the world, or at least me, when he announced today  he was DROPPING OUT of the Democratic race for the presidency.  This means Joe Biden by default is the nominee, just as he was always going to be from the time Biden announced.

Because of the financial debts and such, Sanders said he was "suspending" his campaign, which is the same thing as ending it.

More details:

Sanders made the announcement in a call with his campaign staff, his campaign said.

Sanders' exit caps a stunning reversal of fortune following a strong performance in the first three states that voted in February. The nomination appeared his for the taking until, on the last day of February, Biden surged to a blowout victory in South Carolina that set off a consolidation of moderate voters around the former vice president. The contest ends now as the country continues to grapple with the coronavirus pandemic, which halted in-person campaigning for both Sanders and Biden and has led many states to delay their primary elections.

Sanders' departure from the race is a sharp blow to progressives, who rose up during and after the 2016 campaign and commanded the Democratic Party's Trump era debates over issues like health care, climate change and the effects of growing economic inequality.

But even as his policies grew more popular over the years and into the primary season, the Vermont senator struggled to broaden his own support and galvanize a winning coalition. Now, as he did after leaving the 2016 primary, Sanders will seek to influence the presumptive nominee through the means he knows best -- from the outside.

I hope this is the end of his political career and he retires from the Senate. He is pushing 80 years old as it is, plus he has heart issues.

From the horse's mouth:

Today I am suspending my campaign. But while the campaign ends, the struggle for justice continues on. https://t.co/MYc7kt2b16

— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) April 8, 2020

Obituary: Elizabeth Warren's Campaign

The biggest news of the day, save for any further coronavirus news, is the death by delegate starvation Elizabeth Warren's quest for the White House, which was probably doomed to die from the beginning, since she had to constantly talk about how she was going to pay for Medicare for All and also about her views on a wealth tax.

She was usually right on the issues except for being so damned dumb when it came to the trans issue.  She went out of her way to alienate women with that bullshit, and it is a loser if any candidate is dumb enough to promote it.  Warren had to be getting oodles of Pritzker money to make a complete jackass out of herself on this.

I was an early donor and supporter of her campaign, but I knew the minute Joe Biden decided to throw his hat into the ring, the campaign was really over.  At 70 she is too old to be considered VP material, and I am guessing Biden will likely pick Amy Klobuchar as his running mate.  She is ten years younger than Warren and would not be too old by the time she would run for president as a sitting VP.

Elizabeth Warren's campaign was her first and only shot.  She was overshadowed by somebody with a tremendous resume with well over forty years, closer to fifty, in governmental experience plus was a former vice president. Now time for an aside:   Vice presidents as a rule are almost never rejected as presidential nominees.  The big exception was Hubert Humphrey.  He ran for president in 1952 and 1960, and then as a sitting vice president in 1968 (for which he was nominated), and finally as a former vice president in 1972 and 1976.  I am sure that isn't the record for presidential runs, but it is up there.  Five times he ran, and he never won.  The closest he came was in 1968, but Nixon made goddamned sure Humphrey would not win when he, through third parties, sabotaged the Paris Peace Talks.  HHH was also a target of Nixon's dirty tricks in 1972.  By 1976, however, HHH was getting old, and it wasn't long before cancer ended an otherwise stellar career as a public servant.  I miss HHH, a true liberal, a lot.

So this was Warren's first and only shot for the job.  She is going to have to work to keep her Massachusetts Senate seat given how badly she was beaten Tuesday by both Biden--who spent only 11 grand in the state--and Bernie Sanders.  That should be her focus now.

Here is an analysis of why Medicare for All wrecked Warren's campaign but not Sanders'.  I think it is obvious.  Warren at one time had a realistic shot at the nomination, while Sanders was never considered a serious contender.  He certainly isn't that now.

This has to be the stupidest goddamned tweet I have read in a long time:

Stop telling Warren supporters to suck it up and support Sanders or Biden.

Of course we will do that, we're strong, capable women and we are fucking used to supporting whichever less-qualified white man seems to hate us least.

But we get to be mad as hell first.

— Virginia Sole-Smith (@v_solesmith) March 4, 2020

Moron doesn't understand Warren's resume is very, very thin when it comes to elected political office experience. Sanders, though a grifter, has around 30 years in Congress (while achieving little), while Biden has about FIFTY years of experience in public office, including being vice president of the United States and assisted Obama in the area of foreign policy. Warren's resume comes up short by comparison.

Morons like this person who tweeted should get her facts straight before making a jackass out of herself.

Obituaries

It might as well be an obit: North Korea leader Kim Jong-il has pancreatic cancer, which is almost always fatal, usually within months.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has pancreatic cancer and the illness is life-threatening, South Korean broadcaster YTN said on Monday based on information gathered by Chinese and South Korean intelligence sources.

Kim's health is one of the most closely guarded secrets in the reclusive communist state. Kim, 67, was widely thought to have suffered a stroke last year, but there has never been official confirmation.

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Sarah Palin's political career, dead on arrival.
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Musician Drake Levin, 62, how was guitarist for the sixties bank Paul Revere and the Raiders, of cancer, according to his wife.
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Rock climber John Bachar, 51, not surprisingly in a fall:

Bachar left his mark across the Yosemite Valley, the worldwide focal point of elite climbing in the 1970s, by making terrifying ascents of spectacular rock formations like El Capitan.

To critics, Bachar cut a stubborn, self-righteous figure, uncompromising on matters of daring style and minimal gear. To admirers, he represented the vanishing purity of a simpler age, a time when rocks and mountains were to be ascended only from the ground up, without advance rigging. For about half a decade at his prime, Bachar enjoyed a reputation comparable only to that of Royal Robbins in the 1950s.

“Since Bachar, I don’t think there was anybody you could say was the greatest, most influential climber in the world in his time, ” said Pete Mortimer, a well-known climber based in Boulder, Colo.

In other words, Bachar was a fool like all climbers, but even more so when he went with as little gear as possible.
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