Anderson Cooper is no journalistic hero

The CNN TV personality has been garnering a lot of praise for his interview of former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich where he really dragged him across the coals. Blagojevich was one of the well-connected people Donald Trump pardoned recently when he was serving his sentence for trying to sell the Illinois senate seat that became vacant when Barack Obama became president. In the interview, Cooper strongly challenged Blagojevich’s attempts to rewrite history in self-serving ways.
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The strange logic of some anti-Sanders Democrats

I move around in circles that are pretty much entirely supportive of Democrats and hate Donald Trump. But when they express reservations about Bernie Sanders as the nominee, they frequently say that this is because while they may like his plans, they feel that they have zero chance of being passed by Congress. They seem to think that they are being ‘realistic’ and that the Sanders supporters are hopelessly idealistic.
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“Out-of-touch aristocrats in a dying aristocracy”

One of the interesting features about Bernie Sanders’s rise in the Democratic race is that in addition to the panic that it is causing in the party and media establishments and the oligarchy, one also senses a deep sense of puzzlement. In a political and media environment that has been dominated by political and media consultants who carefully polish and market test the image and words of candidates, how can a cranky, disheveled, old person who calls himself a socialist be generating such enthusiastic support across such a diverse population, especially the young?
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Bernie Sanders and the nuances of socialism

On Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman moderates a 28-minute discussion between two economists, New York Times op-ed columnist Paul Krugman and professor emeritus Richard Wolff, about the nuances of socialism. Unlike most ‘debates’ on TV that are really shouting matches, since this is on Democracy Now!, you get a sober and thoughtful discussion about what Bernie Sanders’s democratic socialism means.


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Chris Christie was right? Who would have guessed?

I never thought I would say this but Chris Christie gave a pretty good evaluation of last night’s debate and of Bernie Sanders performance in it and why Elizabeth Warren is struggling.

File this under “I thought it was a good idea at the time”

In his never-ending quest to show that he is always in the middle of any two positions, in the debate yesterday Pete Buttigieg came out with a line that clearly had been carefully rehearsed, like pretty much everything that he says. That it had been planned and that he was proud of it can be seen by the fact that his campaign tweeted it out during the debate right after he said it.


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Reflections on yesterday’s Democratic debate

The debate yesterday involve a lot of cross talk, people speaking over each other and not allowing the person who was asked a question to speak uninterrupted. The moderators did not seem to make a strong enough effort to stop people talking simultaneously so that it was hard to make out what was said. The worst culprit when it came to interruption was Pete Buttigieg, who perhaps should be called Pete Buttinsky in future. It was clear that he sees himself as the establishment hatchet man to go after Bernie Sanders. Even when the moderators directly asked Sanders a question, Buttigieg would start talking immediately over Sanders to try and drown him out. To my mind, he came off as somewhat desperate, knowing that this was his last chance to make an impact. Buttigieg avoided getting into it with Amy Klobuchar this time, since the sharp exchanges last time did not seem to have reflected well on both of them.
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Wow, that was some interview!

Jeremy Scahill of The Intercept interviewed Bernie Sanders’s top national surrogate Sen. Nina Turner and campaign press secretary Briahna Joy Gray about what they experience during the campaign and the racist, misogynistic attacks they face on a regular basis from the media and from members and supporters of rival campaigns, even being called ‘misfit black girls’. You can listen to the 45-minute interview here. I found it utterly gripping. A transcript will soon be added to the link.

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