19 December 2015

Live Blogging the Democratic Debates

Note:  If you are seeing this of Facebook, it will not update as I update.

10:50 pm
Hillary ended her closing statement with, "May the force be with you."
That is f%$#ing awesome.

10:49 pm
Closing statements:
Bernie Sanders: Talked about his background, growing up poor, and how it shaped is opinions on the economy, education, etc.
Martin O'Malley: Republicans will do nothing the make the country, endorses path to citizenship for undocumented, we must act on climate change.
Hillary Clinton: Republicans are scary and evil assholes.  I just became a grandmother, and think about her future.

10:37 pm
Martin O'Malley just talked about his wife Katie in glowing terms when he got to talk about the first spouse thing, extolling her lawyering, judging, and advocacy against domestic violence.
He is so getting laid tonight.

10:36 pm
What the F%$#?
A question about the role of the first spouse, and talked about Bill Clinton not supervising flower arrangements?
What the F%$#ing F%$#?

10:33 pm
Radditz just asked about the mess that is Libya, and how much blame she bears for that.Clinton's reply was not particularly meaningful, and Radditz basically repeated her question.
Neither Sanders or O'Malley are saying that they need to talk, because they recognize that she is digging herself a hole.
Sanders finally gets to talk, and notes, once again, that the unintended consequences of regime change are tend to be disastrous.
O'Malley, says that we let our, "Lust for regime change," to override our ability manage the situation.

10:26 pm
A Union-Leader editor just asked Sanders how to handle the recent Heroine epidemic.
Sanders response is that we need to look at doctors and pharmaceutical companies and the over prescription of opiates, and that addiction is a disease, not a a crime, and that it is immoral for addicts to wait months for treatment.
Hillary talks about how this was brought up to her at her talks in New Hampshire (good move), and largely agrees with Sanders.
O'Malley talks about the loss of a daughter and a mother of his friends to addiction.  It is a human and touching moment.
He also specifically talked about how we need to have interventions from the first time that someone hits a hospital with addiction problems.

10:20 pm
They ask Hillary Clinton about racism and law enforcement misconduct.
Clinton talked primarily about rebuilding trust between the police and the populace.
O'Malley talked about how he worked to fix Baltimore when he was mayor (IMNSHO, too aggressive policing) and that he reduced incarceration as governor.
O'Malley went there, saying that police forces need to be more open and accountable.
Sanders notes that we are a prison society, with the highest incarceration in the history of history.  He said that racism is real.
He then said that cops should not shoot unarmed civilians, and that we should legalize pot, and end the war on drugs, "Spend more on jobs and education, not incarceration."

10:10 pm
Another break, and the talking heads come on (Stephanopoulos and Karl, not David Byrne, Chris Frantz, Tina Weymouth, and Jerry Harrison, the band Talking Heads make a comment would be cool)
I screamed, "SHUT UP GEORGE!"

10:08 pm
Clinton is trying to say that people earning a $¼ million a year are middle class who must not pay a few bucks more a week for health care and family leave.
Sanders again notes that his proposals would be a net saver for the middle class.
O'Malley noted that he balanced all his budgets (a bit of a fib, it's required in the state constitution, not a choice) and that he made taxes more progressive (true)

10:05 pm
Quote of the night.  When Sanders and Clinton get into it on taxes, Bernie says, "Oh, now this is getting fun."

10:04 pm
They switch to education, and call out an educators ask Sanders how free tuition won't just load up the taxpayers.
Sanders goes back to his Tobin tax.
O'Malley says, "I have actually done this," as Governor.  Point, O'Malley.
Clinton talks about her educational compact, and then says that Sanders single payer is unaffordable.
Sanders replied how the costs of healthcare are born by the ordinary people, and that single payer will save them money,

9:57 pm
We move to healthcare, Hillary is asked about increases in healthcare prices.
She talks about needing new regulations, and calls out governors who opted out of Medicaid expansion.
Sanders still calls for single payer.  He says that everyone should have the right to health coverage.  Martha Radditz demands to know the exact amount of tax increases, and Sanders replied that ordinary family will save thousands of dollars a year.

9:52 pm
Sanders calls out Bill Clinton's role in repealing Glass-Steagall and deregulating the financial industry.

9:50 pm
Clinton just  made a little fib:  She said that she had more donations from teachers and students than she has from Wall Street.  There may be more $20 dollar checks from teachers, but the banksters cut bigger checks, and gave her more money.

9:48 pm
Hillary is asked about what she would do, and who should like her.  Her response, "Everyone."
Sanders explicitly says that big business will not like him.  He wants the big banks up, and says that the greed of the billionaire class are destroying the economy and people's lives.
O'Malley just called out Hillary Clinton for invoking 911 to excuse her support for the big banks.
Charlie just said, "I want O'Malley to be Bernie Sanders' running mate."

9:43 pm
Clinton was a little late coming back from the break.  She apologized, and Charlie, my son, said, "This is the most entertaining she has been all night."
Sanders is asked about middle class stagnation, and he listed them off quickly:
  • Increase to minimum wage
  • A Tobin tax on speculation to make public college free.
O'Malley noted how he has walked the walk, raising Maryland's minimum wage, and having the highest median wage in the nation.
Clinton basically calls out the Republicans, doing the front runner again.

9:33 pm
I'm watching a break, and the f%$#ing talking heads have taken advantage of the beak to have George Stephanopoulos and Jonathan Karl bloviating.
Please, run ads instead.

9:27 pm
Clinton just said that we have to remove Assad first.   (Gawd, her foreign policy sucks)
Sanders notes that her priorities are wrong, and that we need to focus on ISIS, and that Assad is a distraction.
O'Malley notes that Clinton is engaging in cold war thinking, where we pick and choose who we want to overthrow.  Has a great quote, "It is not our role to roam the world looking for monsters to destroy.


9:21 pm
Sanders is asked about ISIS, and he says that the US should not be the policemen of the world.
He called out Saudi Arabia and Qatar for not dealing with ISIS.  He specifically called out the war in Yemen, and Qatar's profligate spending on the world cup.
Clinton was asked whether we are already on the ground, as we lost a special forces member there, and there are more special forces on the ground.
She denied that this is an escalation, and Martha Radditz suggested that our current actions will lead to an escalation.
Radditz asked O'Malley about his accusations of lack of adequate human intelligence in the region.
O'Malley makes note that we are under resourcing foreign policy, and sustainable development.
Clinton replies that she is still arguing for a no-fly zone.  Again, stupid.  A no-fly zone is declare war against Syria.
Gawd, she is stupidly bellicose in her foreign policy.
Sanders noted that Clinton is too eager for regime change, and does not consider the blowback.
He notes that we have created vacuums have created safe havens for terrorists.

9:10 pm
Clinton is asked about a Syrian refugee ban, and goes full weasel, and says nothing of note.
O'Malley calls the talk of a Refugee ban a betrayal of American values.

9:07 pm
Clinton is asked about banning encryption, and suggests a "Manhattan like Project for Tech."
Stupid, stupid, stupid.
If law enforcement has access, then the companies have access, then the crooks have access.
O'Malley was asked, and said that we should not asked to give up our rights for security.

9:03 pm
Clinton is asked of Trump supporters are wrong.
She just called him ISIS's best recruiter directly.
Sanders comes back with the fact that Trump is using hatred and bigotry to rip off ordinary people.
O'Malley objects to being ignored again.

8:59 pm
Clinton claims that O'Malley mischaracterized her positions.
I would note that Clinton is clearly playing the front-runner in her debate strategey.

8:56 pm
Clinton is asked why she supports gun control when many Americans want more guns.
Clinton shot this down, noted that she does not feel that this is helpful.
She also went after Trump, essentially calling him an ISIS recruiting tool.
Sanders was then asked about guns, and he said that wants better background checks and an end tyo the gun show loophole.  More significantly, he came out for an assault weapons ban, which is a big deal.
Martin O'Malley had to break in to note that he actually passed gun control laws, and noted that Sanders voted against the Brady bill, and that Clinton has flip flopped on this issue.
He scored a good point when he said that ISIS propaganda videos suggest buying from gun shows.
Sanders got pissed off, and noted his record.

8:48 pm
The moderators bring up the San Bernardino attack, asking Hillary Clinton.
She calls for an American led air campaign with Arab and Kurd boots on the ground.  (Hasn't work so far)
She also talks about working with the tech companies, which sounds a lot like carrots and sticks to get them to look through our personal statements.
O'Malley brings up that we have failed to invest in intelligence, and brought up his close ties to first responders, and increase data sharing.
Sanders told by the moderators that 78% of the population believes the government cannot defend against lone wolf terrorists.  Sanders agreed, and noted that it was a fruit our our ill considered Iraq invasion.

8:43 pm
The moderators started with a question on the data breach issues (FYI).
Bernie Sanders was very forthcoming, noted that there have been repeated problems with the way that the data is (mishandled) the data.
He admitted that his staff did the wrong thing, and that he would fire anyone involved in this breach.
When he asked, he apologized immediately to Clinton.
Clinton was reasonably gracious in reply.
O'Malley condemned the whole thing as a distraction from the issues, and brought up terrorism again.

8:38 pm
Clinton, then O'Malley, and then Sanders.
Clinton did a fairly generic opening that leaned on her inevitabiliuty, and claimed that she had a plan to defeat ISIS.
O'Malley went big on national security and terrorism.  Oh, snap!  O'Malley called Trump out as a fascist, though not by name.
Sanders opened with his fairly standard positions: Changing the economy to benefit us all, moving away from fossil fuels, and he said that our foreign policy needs to change

8:32 pm
Skipped the 30 minutes of talking heads, they walked on the stage and are about to start the opening statements.

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