Impunity, U.S. style

Iran

What I want to know is, how did we as a nation, as a species, ever get to a point where killing and torturing people is not a criminal offense, not an impeachable offense?


Democrats (neoliberals)


Cognitive Decline for president 2020

Joe Biden

It’s the bipartisan solution to political polarization:

I must confess, I had not considered the question of whether Joe Biden or Donald Trump suffers more severely from cognitive decline. I suspect this is one of those cases where the two values I would compare are so far beyond my threshold that I cannot rank them.

And I cannot be certain that the starting values, from which these cognitive capacities are alleged to have declined, are much better.


Bernie Sanders


Elizabeth Warren

Asked if she believed gender was a factor in her repeated losses, [Elizabeth] Warren called that a “trap question for every woman” in politics.

“If you say, ‘Yeah, there was sexism in this race,’ everyone says, ‘Whiner!’” she said. “And if you say, ‘No, there was no sexism,’ about a bazillion women think, ‘What planet do you live on?’“

Reflecting on why she thought her campaign did not end up garnering more support Warren said she found no political opening between the established candidates of the party’s left and center.[1]

It’s the third paragraph in that quote that reflects my perception, more specifically:

This time, [Bernie] Sanders’ prominence forced Warren to embrace his signature proposal, so-called “Medicare for all,” a politically fraught issue that many progressives view as a litmus test — but that some moderates view with alarm.

After declining to outline a healthcare plan of her own for months, Warren proposed one in November that would cost taxpayers nearly $20 trillion over a decade, according to her own estimates.

Weeks later, she attempted to alleviate moderates’ fears by releasing a second plan that called for a phased-in approach that would preserve private insurance until her third year in office.

Instead of splitting the difference, Warren seemed to lose voters on both sides, starting a steady slide in the polls.[2]


  1. [1]Janet Hook and Noah Bierman, “Elizabeth Warren drops out of presidential race,” Los Angeles Times, March 5, 2020, https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2020-03-05/elizabeth-warren-will-drop-out-of-presidential-race
  2. [2]Janet Hook and Noah Bierman, “Elizabeth Warren drops out of presidential race,” Los Angeles Times, March 5, 2020, https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2020-03-05/elizabeth-warren-will-drop-out-of-presidential-race