Jim (Con't): Jim: So . . . what a week. Iowa? Mike: Can I stress something at the beginning because I have gotten e-mails on this. When we say "Iowa," we are not talking about the people, we are not even talking about their government officials. We are talking about the Democratic Party honchos in Iowa. That is who we are aiming our ire at.
Dona: Good point, thanks for making that clarification. And just to get us all on the same page, Donald Trump will most likely be the Republican presidential nominee. Elections will be held in November. In the meantime, other parties have to select their nominee. The Libertarian Party has several nominees. At this site, we would love to see Iraq War veteran Adam Kokesh get the nomination. The Green Party also has to determine their nominee. Let me go to Ann. Ann is a lifelong Green Party member. Her parents are Greens as well. Ann, who are you supporting?
Ann: I am excited by Dario Hunter. But -- I do have a but. I think he's exciting in his speeches and in what he proposes for the country. I do not think he knows how to run an online campaign. I wish he did. His Twitter feed is silent for days. We are Greens, we're not going to get much attention from the corporate media. We need candidates who can create excitement -- which he can -- and we need candidates who can use the internet and social media to get their campaigns the attention they need.
Dona: Can't argue with that. Jess is also a Green so let me bring him in.
Jess: Like Ann, I would gladly vote for Dario Hunter. Ann and I have talked about the other big candidate, Howie Hawkins. We're not anti-Howie. We can support Howie but we would prefer Dario. Unlike Dario, Howie knows how to use social media. Let me go into something here, Ann pipe in at any time. Ann and I are Greens. We are aware when we are welcome and when we are unwelcome. THE COMMON ILLS started before any of the other community sites. And, at THIRD, we were big fans of THE COMMON ILLS because C.I. was so strongly against the Iraq War and because she never shied from calling someone out if they needed to be called out. Her work exposing THE NEW YORK TIMES' many problems covering Iraq was vital. But we also noted that she was someone who promoted independent media and independent thought. There was no blame the Green Party at her site. There was a feeling that the Green Party and other voices that were shut out of the corporate media needed to be noted. I'm a Green, the rest of us at THIRD are not. But we all appreciated that THE COMMON ILLS was an inclusive site for Greens. And we've tried to be that way here as well. Which presents a real problem in 2020. How do we promote the Green candidates if Howie is the only one really working social media? We went back and forth on this -- Ann, C.I. and myself. How do we, at THIRD, at THE COMMON ILLS and at ANN'S MEGA DUB promote the candidates if one is releasing content constantly and the other doesn't? The way we've decided? Howie's going to get promoted. That's not an effort to slide the nomination to him. It is just the simple fact that Howie is producing content we can share. Ann?
Ann: I think you summed it up beautifully. I really don't think there's anything to add other than to repeat that Dario Hunter would be Jess and my first choice when it comes to voting.
Dona: One more thing for Ann. Ann, Dario is a smart person. Why is he being outshined on Twitter or whatever by Howie Hawkins?
Ann: That's a wonderful question. A guess is all I can offer. I would guess that Dario's newer to the national stage. Howie Hawkins is not. He's run for governor, for example. He's run many campaigns. And that may be why.
Betty: Another difference would be that Howie lives in a media intensive environment. New York and California are more media intensive than, say, Atlanta even though Atlanta is a big city. I'm using Atlanta as an example because it's where I was born and lived for over 30 years.
Jim: Where does Dario Hunter live?
Jess: He's from Ohio, right?
C.I.: He is from Youngstown, Ohio but he has been living in Los Angeles, California.
Jim: So he does live in a media intensive environment.
C.I.: He has for several months now.
Jim: I don't know. I'm not a Green. But I don't think much of a candidate -- Dario or anyone -- who can't pull the online together. I mean, we set the standard here on covering the online --
Ty: Ava and C.I. set it.
Jim: Correct, Ava and C.I. set it here. They are the ones who noted that your online site was your office. Times have changed. It's not 1992. You don't run into the physical office of Bill Clinton's campaign and say, "Can I get some material for this issue or that?" Now you go to their "online office" -- the point Ava and C.I. drove home in 2008 and they covered the online offices of the candidates. Now everyone does or tries to.
Ava: Let me jump in on that. C.I. told a story, we all know it, the story, once about how a friend's child was doing a project for school in 1992 and it was a Sunday and the child couldn't find anything. So the friend called C.I. and she called a friend and they went to the closed Bill Clinton office and got the papers and that's why we were using "online office" because there was a tech change, as C.I. pointed out, that was huge. If you were a student working on a project about a candidate, you could go online and get the information you needed -- or the fact that the candidate did not have a position on it. We live in a world that has many problems, yes, but think about the sea change we have in terms of the internet and the information we can garner from it at any time of day.
Jim: Very good point. Back to me. So Dario or whomever needs to up their game. That's reality. He wants to have the Green Party's presidential nomination, he needs to up his game. That's true of anyone running. Marianne Williamson was running for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination, she worked social media. I was highly impressed with her efforts to get her beliefs and her policies out there.
Isaiah: I would second that. She raised very important issues and she was very impressive to me. Of all the candidates for the Dems, I would have gladly voted for her.
Jim: Good point.
Dona: So that's two of the other parties. And Marianne was seeking the Democratic Party's presidential nomination. So we're back to that. For months and months, various candidates have been campaigning. Still in the race now would include Tulsi Gabbard, Andrew Yang, Tom Steyer, Mike Bloomberg, Tiny Pete, Amy Klobuchar, Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden. It has been tough at times waiting and waiting. People knew that they had to wait until February when Iowa would kick off the contest with their caucus. Monday was the caucus. It was a nightmare. Ruth had several posts -- great posts -- about it including:
Dona (Con't): We should not still be waiting. On Friday, noting errors and irregularities, AP said they weren't declaring the So what would we like to talk about? Sunday, NBC NEWS made the same call. It is now Monday, a week after the caucus and the caucus is now meaningless. All eyes are on New Hampshire which votes today.
Cedric: The whole point of these things was wasted on Iowa. Their failure should really cost them in 2024. I don't want to see them at the front end of the cycle in four years. They need to be held accountable. They exist solely to be a weather vein and they failed.
Dona: Agreed. Thus far, what has stood out in the run up to the primaries?
Trina: Wasted debates. I'll zero in one aspect. Iraq. You had protesters, you had then being attacked. It had been going on for months. And Anderson Cooper ignored the topic of Iraq but did manage to ask about his friend Ellen DeGeneres. What a light weight. What a star f**ker posing as a journalist.
Rebecca: I'd agree with Trina. I'd also add the inability to put all the candidates on stage. I don't think that, early on, there should have been any guidelines other than that you had formally declared and you were getting donations -- I don't care how much in donations. I think Seth Moulton, for instance, should have made the debate stage and he never did. I think his voice -- and I probably would not have voted for him -- was needed. I think all the voices were needed.
Marcia: One thing I didn't like was how Mike Bloomberg and Tom Steyer were accused of trying to buy the vote. Yeah, they were. But what about Andrew Yang? He was offering a thousand dollars at one point. Yes, he bought his way on the stage and he was worthless. I've never seen anyone as worthless on stage as Andrew Yang. Was there ever a debate -- even at the beginning -- where he acted like he might win? It was the ultimate vanity contest.
Mike: Clearly, the biggest moment was at the end of July when Tulsi Gabbard was on stage. Jake Tapper was a moderator. He asked her a question and it was the perfect chance for her to rip into War Hawk Joe Biden -- she was supposed to be the anti-war candidate, remember? And she took a pass. He then went back to her a few minutes later and this time she offered Joe a pass. What a fake ass. That's what she looked like. Prior to that moment, I was supporting her. I was donating to her. She lost me in that moment. Then she made it worse by giving all these interviews excusing Joe Biden. What a fake ass.
Betty: And her circle jerk -- Michael Tracey and Aaron Mate among others -- would not hold her accountable. It was C.I. and Sami Husseini that held her accountable. Michael Tracey and Aaron Mate acted as though nothing had happened.
Stan: Michael Tracey was among the worst actors in the entire process. I got so sick of him. He's a liar and he slants reality. The way he tried to beat up Kamala Harris on Twitter was disgusting and I loved how C.I. noted that in one day he had Tweeted over 20 times trashing Kamala but when Bullock or whomever had dropped out of the race it was only one Tweet. He's a hateful, little man.
Elaine: I wouldn't vote for Kamala Harris and I said that at my site. I also said that there were some areas where she was impressive. I wished she'd hung on for a little bit more because there were some issues only she spoke to. Cory Booker? I felt he got trapped into party cheerleader and didn't use enough of his time to make his own case.
Ty: The field started off diverse in a lot of ways. In terms of race, you had people of color such as Yang, Harris, Booker, Deval Patrick and Tulsi Gabbard. You also had diversity in terms of thought but as the race wound down it really seemed to be Bernie as one view point, Elizabeth Warren as a middle view point and then a ton of corporatists such as Tiny Pete, Joe Biden, Amy Klobuchar, Tom Steyer, Mike Bloomberg and pro-nuke Andrew Yang.
Ruth: This round may be best remembered as a round where women stepped forward. Still in the race at this point are Elizabeth Warren, Amy Klobuchar and Tulsi Gabbard. In the race earlier but having dropped out are Kirsten Gillibrand, Marianne Williamson and Kamala Harris. That was a lot of firepower and that is worth noting.
Jim: Ruth, can you please rank the six women in order of your preference?
Ruth: Sure. I would rank Marianne first, she raised real issues over and did so in a way that really contributed to the discussion. After her? I would say Senator Gillibrand. She really got not traction in the media but she was a serious candidate and made some serious moves. After her? One of the two women standing: Elizabeth Warren. Whatever happens, Warren has proved she can stand on the national stage. Then I would say -- hmmm. I am going to go with Senator Kamala Harris. She did make some interesting remarks in the debates, more so than most people. After that? Tulsi Gabbard. Had she not betrayed her anti-war stance, I would have ranked her much higher, maybe even first. But that July debate where she not only refused to challenge War Hawk Joe Biden but gave him a pass? After that disgrace, there was no coming back for her. Lastly, Senator Amy Klobuchar. It is a shame that her politics are so hideous because the senator herself is rather likable.
Kat: I just want the whole thing to be over, sorry. Iowa was such a huge screw up that it's left me on edge. I'm rooting for Bernie, I want him to get it and I want the whole thing to come to a close quickly. The worst possible outcome? Joe Biden gets the nomination.
Wally: Agreed. We're all screwed then.
Jim: And on that note, let's wrap up. This is a rush transcript.
