The Smoke Eater For March 5, 2020
Warren's out, crying in baseball, and where no human has been before.
Good afternoon, this is The Smoke Eater for Thursday, March 5, 2020, and they'll tango 'till they're sore.
Quick Hit
* Warren is out * Bernie and Biden are mad as hell * Steve Bullock might run after all * Democrats cry about baseball * Voyager 2 keeps on trucking *
NOTE: This 2020 stuff is KILLING me, so it's a good thing The Smoker Eater is mobile friendly, ad-free and supported by super awesome readers. If you want to be super awesome, tip me on Ko-Fi, or subscribe to my Patreon!
She Persisted
Late this morning Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren announced she was ending her 2020 presidential run after a poor showing on Super Tuesday. As rumors of Warren's departure from the race began circulating yesterday, so too did rumors of the courtship of Joe Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders. In a statement, Warren seemed to be telling her supporters to voter their conscience. During an emotional press gaggle early this afternoon, Warren expressed sympathy for all the young girls who will have to sit through least another four years of old white guys running things.
I think it's a little disingenuous to expect Warren to jump on Bernie's bio-diesel mini-bus, or the brand new Biden bandwagon. Warren got into politics when Biden criticized her during a 2005 congressional hearing on the infamous bankruptcy bill, a fact she's touted on the 2020 campaign trail. She's since built a political career fighting corporations and expanding consumer protections. Warren may be more ideologically aligned with Sanders, but the campaign has likely diminished the chance of a progressive “dream ticket.” Sanders claimed Warren lied during a debate just before the Iowa caucuses (here's that video). Additionally, Bernie bots have been so genuinely shitty to Warren supporters over the last several months that Sanders and his surrogates have had to repeatedly call off their toxic hivemind as recently as yesterday.
Grumpier Old Men
Less than 24 hours after Super Tuesday, the Sanders and Biden campaigns started throwing bombs at each other. Biden's campaign is currently dusting off Hillary Clinton's 2016 subpar strategy of portraying Sanders as the leader of a radical Red Army full of angry children who want to watch the world burn, and Biden as an übermensch who can sock Donald Trump under the bleachers. Sanders has responded with his own negative ads that attack Biden as free trade DINO who hates poor people and wants to steal government cheese from the elderly.
Both campaigns are hoping for big wins in the March 17 primaries. Biden wants to shut Bernie down in Michigan, Illinois, and Missouri after securing more high profile endorsements, including Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer this morning. Sanders is hoping to pick up wins in Illinois, Arizona, and Missouri by blanketing the airwaves with negative ads and holding rallies in Kansas City and St. Louis.
The Sanders campaign has hastily copied a page from Biden's playbook and launched a deceptively-edited ad that suggests Bernie and Obama have been best friends forever (no mention of that 2012 primary challenge). In a rather uncomfortable interview with Rachel Maddow, Sanders admitted he still had a problem attracting older and black voters, and defended the ad.
Actually Important Policy Stuff
An simple bill to ban hydroflorocarbons (HFCs) proposed by Republican Sen. John Kennedy and Democratic Sen. Tom Carper has suddenly been bogged down with so many amendments the bill may be sinking. Many of the amendments are pet projects often championed by environmentalists; others prevent the administration from filling the Environmental Protection Agency with toxic sludge, and the proposals come from both sides of the aisle. Writing in Roll Call, Benjamin J. Hulac notes the Senate could work around the bottle neck by ratifying the Kigali amendment to the 2016 Montreal Protocol, but that requires the administration to do some paperwork. Fun Fact: The US pushed for the Kigali Amendment under the Obama administration, but today the US is one of the only nations that has not ratified a measure to dramatically reduce one of the most dangerous greenhouse gases.
House Republicans were butthurt after the House Oversight committee debated whether or not the Government Accountability Office should study the social, economic, and historic contributions of Minor League Baseball. The debate comes after senators dropped a bipartisan bill rebuking Major Leage Basbeball's move to cut 42 minor league teams in 22 states after the 2020 season. Republicans tried to frame the debate as government overreach, while some Democrats said they were protecting fields of dreams.
Roll Call got its hands on documents from NOAA that show the administration watered down language aimed at helping endangered whales in the North Atlantic. The administration argues that there is untapped energy potential in the North Atlantic, and that any damage to marine life in the fragile ecosystems is overblown. Nerds and tree huggers argue the administration's routine political interference in basic scientific research could lead to dire consequences beyond singulary bad news cycle.
Electing To Change Your Mind
Montana Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock is finalizing a decision to challenge Republican Sen. Steve Daines, Jonathan Martin reports. During his failed presidential campaign last year, Bullock often barked that he'd twice won a red state, but he failed to qualify for nine out of 10 Democratic primary debates and his campaign died with a whimper before it could even be subjected to a purity test. Democratic Party leaders have lobbied Bullock for months to change his mind, but he has has repeatedly shot down calls to challenge Daines despite data in Bullock's favor.
Republicans in the Senate want to start considering Texas lawyer James "Trey" Trainor III to replace former Republican FEC Commissioner Matthew Petersen. Trainor's nomination hearing is set for March 10, and its likely his skepticism on disclosing campaign donations will come up. The FEC hasn't had a quorum since last summer when Petersen left, and has since been unable to perform any enforcement actions on shady political campaigns.
Fun With Numbers
A new study from a progressive brain trust scrounged together some numbers and produced a study that says a single-payer healthcare system will (eventually) lead to a more robust job market (after everyone loses their current gig). The study argues that the decoupling of labor and healthcare markets will free up money that could be spent elsewhere. It concludes by saying everyone would be free to follow their passions, like starting a small business, or becoming a traveling Deadhead who sells macrame and acid in stadium parking lots. [Study]
One More Thing...
For the next 11 months Voyager 2 will be all alone as it coasts into the outer limits of our solar system. NASA is gearing up for all the new Mars missions that are about to go online and it needs to upgrade the 48-year old Deep Space Network antenna in Canberra, Australia that talks to the craft. The 43 year-old Voyager 2 will still send data about interstellar space back to Earth, but it'll met with radio silence as it boldly sails where no one has gone before.
OK, now here's a warm and fuzzy critter video: A KOALA JOEY!
Follow Dominic on Twitter and Instagram.
The Smoke Eater is mobile friendly, ad-free and relies on your tips and subscriptions. It takes a lot of time and energy to put each issue together, so consider tipping me on Ko-Fi, or subscribing to my Patreon.
Questions? Comments? Complaints? Shoot me an email or slide into my DMs!