I joined Monocle 24’s Emma North on Thursday to assess the second set of Democratic Presidential debates, cutting through the disruptive chaff of “moderate v. liberal” and personality politics to highlight the significance of the issues being discussed.
We deal with the headline question from Wednesday night, “Did Joe Biden bolster his chances?” — “He didn’t lose, but he didn’t win” — to get to more important matters:
*A consensus — the first in my lifetime — for national health care, moving discussion to aspects such as the balance between publicly-guaranteed and privately-provided insurance
*An attention to education, climate change, immigration, gun control, and other key issues
*Those candidates who have risen by addressing those issues
*And a call to the media not to sabotage this with “horse race” coverage of the campaign
Listen from 7:05:
EA on CNN: Previewing the 2nd Democratic Debates — “It’s the Issues, Stupid”
If the media get sucked into personality, punching bag politics and take their eye off the issues, Trump benefits.
But you know what? If the media live up to a higher responsibility, these debates are talking about the future of America in the most important election since 1945 — and I think that’s a positive for the Democrats.
40 years after Bernie Sanders and Murray Bookchin tussled for ascendancy in Burlington’s radical left, the ideas of both men are receiving a second airing – Sanders’s on the campaign trail, Bookchin’s (at least in inspiration) in Rojava, NE Syria. newrepublic.com/article/154086… https://t.co/owzaGV8VWv
https://twitter.com/tom_d_/status/1152683219944398848 7/20/2019
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Trump responds to Tulsi Gabbard claim he helps al Qaeda
President Trump responded to Rep. Tulsi Gabbard’s claim in the second Democratic presidential debate that he is helping al Qaeda. […] In an interview with CNN host Anderson Cooper after the debate, Gabbard claimed Trump was “directly or indirectly” propping up [AQ] by keeping Syria and the Russians from going after al Qaeda in Idlib, Syria.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/trump-responds-to-tulsi-gabbard-claim-he-helps-al-qaeda 8/1/2019
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Marianne Williamson fans start ‘occult task force’ to keep her in the Democratic race with ‘chaos magick’
Marianne Williamson fans have started an ‘occult task force’ to help the spiritual guru in her quest to win the Democratic presidential nomination. Informally known as the ‘orb gang,’ they worked ‘to influence the events at the debate so that Marianne gets as much airtime as possible,’ according to their Reddit web page. An organizer for the group told The Washington Post they consisted of 13 chaos magicians, witches and energy workers and were doing synchronized ‘gestures’ to help Williamson gain traction in the presidential race.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7307309/Marianne-Williamson-fans-start-occult-task-force-Democratic-race.html 7/31/2019
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Chaos magick is a postmodern occult belief system that dates to the 1970s, and bears similarities to the “Course in Miracles” that Williamson preaches, insofar as both treat reality as a fungible thing that can be manipulated with ritualized thoughts. […] “I am very, very concerned about the word occultist,” Williamson’s communication director Patricia Ewing wrote when asked about the evolving fanbase. She said she had been unaware that witches and chaos magicians now mingled with the ironic orb memers. But magical thinking is not wholly alien to American politics. In “Dark Star Rising: Magick and Power in the Age of Trump,” the Blondie-bassist-turned-author Gary Lachman chronicles how a handful of Internet jokesters coalesced in 2015 to make ironic memes about Donald Trump somehow winning the presidency. As with Williamson, the memes themselves fueled viral fascination in Trump. By the time he claimed the Republican nomination, the jokesters had evolved into a hyper-loyal online fanbase, many of whom claim they helped put him in the White House with “meme magic.” It’s only fitting Democrat occultists should have their own option. “Let’s have a magically informed candidate on the left side,” Lachman said. “Why not?”
https://www.marianne2020.com/posts/marianne-williamsons-fans-made-her-the-orb-queen-of-the-2020-campaign 7/31/2019