5220

Exactly. Frankly, if they have two brain cells to rub together, there’s no chance they’re going to vote R in the first place. Persuadable voters are, by definition at this point, irrational.

5221

Former FBI Assistant Directed unfamiliar with First Amendment. Which explains a lot really.

5222

Really good article/interview on the liberal/progressive embrace of dark money. Will depend on your take on dark money about whether this is stupid shit, but couldn’t think of a better thread to put it in.

The Sixteen Thirty Fund—the indisputable heavyweight of Democratic dark money—was the second-largest super-PAC donor in 2020, according to the investigative organization OpenSecrets, giving roughly $61 million of effectively untraceable money to progressive causes. The organization that connects many of these groups—what a critic might call the mothership—is called Arabella Advisors.

Here is a portion of the interview, with Green pressing the Arabella Advisors’ CEO Ganguli.

Green: Right. You both take advantage of similar legal structures, federal regulations, and the ability to put lots of money toward politics, little p . They just work on the opposite side, for opposite causes.

Do you feel good that you’re the left’s equivalent of the Koch brothers?

Ganguli: Yeah.

Green: You do! Tell me why.

Ganguli: Because we believe in many of those causes.

Green: So you think it’s good to take advantage of the existing legal structures because ultimately you’re going to do good?

Ganguli: We will make sure we are compliant with all of the laws as they are. And should they change, we will make sure we are compliant.

5223

I wouldn’t say stupid, it is playing the game with the rules as they are post CU.

I hate that this is the case. I abhor the CU decision, and find it one of the most grotesque decisions since the Reconstruction era. But I can’t fault this group for existing, because it is, unfortunately, probably a necessity in this era.

5224
5225

Not sure Yang fits all that well in the “liberal” category, but woof.

5226

Yeah, he’s even been disowned by the libs now. The leftists who had more than superficial knowledge of things never trusted him.

5227

Well said.

5228

Founding member of the Yang Gang:

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5229

And here we go. The original story in WSJ is paywalled, so I didn’t read it, but damn, are we so hard-up for leaders in the Democratic party that we have to start fantasizing about Hillary Clinton running again?

Clinton will be 77 in November 2024. Forget every other reason why it’d be a terrible idea for her to run: she’s too old.

5230

The guy who wrote the piece is a professional Hillary should run guy, Doug Schoen. I think he did this before, too. You would not think such a narrow job would pay, but apparently it does.

5231

In 2016, he did a “but her emails” article explaining why he wouldn’t vote for Hillary.

This clown has zero cred.

Seriously, if we want a good, centrist, woman candidate- we have the Klob. I’d be ok voting for her.

5232

The Democratic Party is based around making sure new blood is kept in their place, imo.

There are certainly advantages to such a system, but they also tend to do best when some relatively young wild card bucks the process.

I literally saw someone say Gore should run the other day and I think I went blind for a few minutes while my eyes were attempting to recover from rolling to the back of my skull.

5233

I don’t know why two term Carter is bad idea.

5234

Lol, I thought Gore should have run in 2020. In hindsight, I’m glad he didn’t, because Biden seems to have been the secret sauce in booting Trump. But Gore is younger than Biden or Trump, younger than Hillary, and on policy would be a great candidate. Maybe he’s less stiff these days, too.

5235

No, it means CNN is hard up for clicks.

5236

If you want a technocrat, I’d go with (blech) Pete over Gore.

If you want another Biden, Pritzker or Cooper might be best option there. (and this would be my first choice in the primaries)

If you want another Harris, just don’t.

There’s no real heir to Bernie right now, AOC can’t run. I think the only path to a new Bernie is going to come from a young Southern black women progressive who can beat the black political Southern machines, or a young Hispanic who cleans up out west and forces the southern machine into the 2020s.

5237

This is accurate, but Bernie Sanders ran and people supported him, and he was even older.

5238

Yeah, but he’s got that old annoyed Jewish guy returning soup at a deli shtick that really works for him.

5240

Every time I hear him speak I have a craving for a Dr. Brown’s cream soda.