I prob. don’t have anything unique to say on this. But I have always paid attention to
the CEO/Owner who thinks they are the rightful lawgivers to their whole organization; and that it just naturally follows that they expand the franchise. They have a plan, a model, a moral code and at least the success of their Corporate system which they think they can bring to govt.
Chump doesn’t really fall into that category. His ego of course led him to get his foul mug on TV and rail about politicians and Obama and flirt with running for prez. His native laziness of mind and body, cowardice, and avarice pretty thoroughly ruled out his wanting the actual job. I believe he was so compromised by Putin that he got sort of “forced” into going through with it; AND in his sinister Smeagol-mind, he thought being elevated to President would give him the leverage to finally get out from under.
Seriously, when you are owned by mobsters who don’t even have to worry about US laws and prosecutors - it must be harrowing. We don’t need to keep asking “what does Putin have on him…it must be big”. We know it is at least for Chump…plenty big. Everything he has done can be explained by watching him try to pay off Putin until he can get the “we’re square” signal. I doubt Putin gives a fuck and will use or discard Chump as it suits him. Chump actually might have been able to use the US power and with brains could have maneuvered a truce. Instead, his abject bootlicking shows he is a mere supplicant, giving with both hands to a ravenous beast that he never stood a chance against. Of course, any good maneuvering by Chump would have somehow been hidden from the public…and he couldn’t negotiate that terrain either. It has been clumsy and ham-handed and obvious. Shame on every American and Media group that won’t take off the blinders.
Barista training takes ages and gets mixed results. To overcome this, Schultz automated the most critical aspect of the coffee ritual on the preparation side. Now the employee merely pushes buttons, loads machines, pours, wipes and hands out drinks. All skills that can also be given to robots eventually when the cost-efficiencies exceed minimum wage in the tradeoff. There is this perception that because robots can’t vote, they don’t matter in elections. But the better question might be is whether robots can be determinative of election outcomes as that is what matters for candidates. With enough AI, Shultz, portrayed as a humble bespoke coffee-perveyor, could go all the way. He’s a great talker and may be the perfect candidate to lead the Democrats into a Cat’s Cradle world.
Ain’t it so. As if he had a vision where people stand in line waiting to buy a $5 coffee while chatting with others would become part of the American culture. And that people would actually dress up, looking their best while standing on line (my view). And somehow Schultz figured all this out late one night when he couldn’t sleep. The billionaire wannabe presidents should go build their own gated Mt Rushmore.
Do you refer to what I wrote? If so, I was not exactly clear. There is plenty of ego and vanity, and it could very likely be the case here. But I never underestimate Republicans pulling EVERY trick known to man with elections. Them funding and hyping and doing everything necessary to get someone to split the Dem vote is more likely every election. And this would be for all the marbles. If this guy fizzles, expect them to keep backing and putting forth splitter candidates until they find one who sticks.
We did to some extent come down on opposite ends of the question, and I wondered if you were talking to me, actually, but I do see some common ground in that yeah, they’ll pull some shit for sure, they’ll try any trick they think will work. Remember when they all tried to vote in Obama in the 2008 primaries because they thought he’d be a weaker candidate? Oh, the diabolical cleverness! Heh. But seriously folks, yes, they do that stuff. But I question if at the national level it’s more likely than ego and vanity that they go to people like Schultz and pay them to run and split the vote. If that came out it would be explosive, it would end whoever’s career, it might well be wildly illegal, I just think it would be nuts to do it routinely at the national level. The Russians did it with Trump because he’s a reckless insane moron and they don’t have to live here if the plot comes out. And even so, it did come out, and there’s a lot of suspicion of Jill Stein and all the rest. In general I’m an Occam’s razor guy about conspiracy stuff like that. So at that level I do think it’s doubtful they pull that often or ever. Too fraught IMHO.
As I mentioned before, this is a vanity project for him, a way to fluff his ego. He doesn’t care about harm to the nation. He just wants to strut around on the national stage doing a mano-a-mano with Donald Trump.
The only thing that would get through to him is a huge national boycott against Starbucks. I hope that happens because he deserves it.
God I hate third parties. There is NO NEED for them unless and until the Democratic Party becomes as bad as the Republican, which won’t happen. All they do is elect the right-wing.
Schultz is not stupid, he knows how this works, and how he is trying to scuttle the Dems chances in 2020. His entry into the race as an independent is a vote for oligarchy, of which he is one.
She’s also going to be attacked for being part of a “justice” system that is systemically racist. Similar to the attacks on Hillary for acting as defense attorney for a rapist. These attacks will be effective.
Note that when we had the chance to set up new governments in Japan and Germany after WWII, we deliberately did NOT mimic our own flawed setup, but went with Parliamentarian systems where multiple parties can actually function.
It is a pity that we are pretty much locked into a two-party dominance game, with no legitimate path towards breaking that up.
There’s a difference. Bernie ran as a Democrat, which meant he went through the primary process with all the other viable candidates, which permitted non-Republicans to decide between him and HRC. And they did decide, at which point Bernie threw all his support behind Hillary. Bernie did it right, and it had a lasting effect: it modified the party platform, which Bernie supporters like myself were pleased by.
Schultz and other posers choose to run Independent because it’s the only way to short-circuit the primary process that is mandatory within the two major parties.
In theory I don’t hate the idea of third parties, but after the results from 2016 we know we can’t go there again. Wish we could get rid the the Rethugs and have a Dem and Indy party and wish for the old days when the parties did actually talk to each other and negotiate and compromise.
So, if there were several Indys running would they have to have a primary too?
