November 9, 2019

"Warren Plays to Empty Hall."



That's the Drudge headline. It links to a tweet with 2 photos and the description, "ORANGEBURG — Elizabeth Warren takes the stage at an Environmental Justice forum in South Carolina before a sparse audience. Tom Steyer spoke before her; numerous rivals skipped it."

You can criticize Warren for not drawing a crowd, but everyone who skipped it also faces criticism. It was an Environmental Justice forum.

80 comments:

tim maguire said...

Typical Drudge—the story is much less sensational than the headline. It wasn’t a Warren event, it was an event Warren appeared at. She should get points for her willingness to show up even for smaller groups.

wendybar said...

People don't want them to steal their paychecks for the "environment". They are smarter than that.

Temujin said...

They day someone can explain to me what 'environmental justice' is, then maybe I'll start listening. On the face of it, it's just putting a new name to socialist power grabs. Determining how to take money from person A, and secure it for themselves, while leaking some out to preferred 'projects' (read: friends who agree). And determining who is guilty. Guilty of what, you might ask? That's not important. They can make the rules up as they go, and not even have to announce it. Just say that you are guilty of environmental injustice- some vague, ever changing concept. It can be whatever they want it to be.

There is nothing new in the concept. Just the name. And calling it 'justice' is akin Lenin saying he had to beat up and kill his fellow Russians to make them understand the need to change. He had his form of justice as well. And that was later honed by Stalin who didn't even feel the need to give a reason to slaughter millions.

These people aren't interested in justice. They are interested in power- absolute and unquestioned. Just like their predecessors.

rhhardin said...

On the credenza in the empty hall, no ptyx.

John said...

I would also note that this forum was held at South Carolina State University which is a historically black university. From what I read, only Warren, Tom Steyer, and Cory Booker attended. Over and above the environmental issues, you would think that the other candidates would want to be there to at least play to what is perceived as their base.

iowan2 said...

AND....this is the hill Democrats have chosen to die on. But you know what is the true barometer of the 2020 election??? the Governors election in Kentucky. Yep, it is impossible to mock the news anymore

AllenS said...

Warren would draw more people if she would just announce: "I'll be wearing something different today."

Jersey Fled said...

You would have at least though some of those 11,000 fake environmental scientists would have shown up.

The Bergall said...

What in the hell is the "Environmental Justice forum"?

MadisonMan said...

but everyone who skipped it also faces criticism. It was an Environmental Justice forum

Maybe everyone was home trying to find a good definition of Environmental Justice .

Curious George said...

"You can criticize Warren for not drawing a crowd, but everyone who skipped it also faces criticism. It was an Environmental Justice forum."

Even the polar bears skipped it.

tim in vermont said...

“Environmental Justice”

Isn’t that what they had behind the iron curtain where they burned coal laced with uranium even though the government was running the power plants scientifically addressing the needs of the people?

traditionalguy said...

South Carolina is not yet gone insane. They will keep their rising standard of living, their racial harmony and their air conditioning, thank you very much. The blessings of Communism can spread elsewhere.

stlcdr said...

So environmental justice is actually a thing?! I thought it was just a made up phrase for humorous effect, or to make a point, like Department of Redundancy Department.

Unknown said...

white liberal women require her to be there

Warren keeps the faith for her constituency, and they will return the favor.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

Why criticize those who (smartly) skipped the event? I think it shows a good sense of proportion, time management, cost control, use of resources and even environmentally friendly by skipping a non event in a big building.

They had better and more productive things to do.

Chris of Rights said...

I wasn't even aware that the environment needed justice, nor a forum for it.

I don't blame the people for not showing up. I blame the organizers for creating it.

AllenS said...

I guess that you could give the Fake Indian some credit. The crowd was about the average size of the Bill and Hillary speaking tour.

Rosa Marie Yoder said...

Have you ever attended an Environmental Justice forum? In Detroit? You should; and don't forget the popcorn just in case someone tries to push back at the crazies.

Hammond X. Gritzkofe said...

You can criticize Warren for not drawing a crowd, but everyone who attended faces criticism. It was an Environmental Justice forum.

FIFY. Tom J. was a nice guy, but replacing Locke's "property" with "pursuit of happiness" was a bad idea.

rcocean said...

I don't sense a lot of passion for Warren. The Left loves Bernie - he's their guy. I think most will let their head overrule their heart and vote for Warren. She's the only real credible Lefty.

rcocean said...

Most D's in South Carolina are black, and I don't think many are interested in "Environmental Justice".

Howard said...

Temujin: environmental justice is the simple concept that poor people are exposed to more industrial, metropolitan and agricultural toxins and mutagens than the middle and upper classes. It's one factor of many in planning matrices for redevelopment, development and site cleanup. You will be happy to know that EJ is a big part of my opposition to the current popular solutions to climate change.

Crimso said...

You have it backwards. The people who should be criticized are the ones who attended. Those who skipped shouldn't necessarily be praised, merely noted as less idiotic.

Let's just start slapping "justice" on every concept. My most immediate concern is breakfast justice.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

“Black trans and cis women, gender-nonconforming, and nonbinary people are the backbone of our democracy... “

Cis Women? What! Leave me out of your imaginary stew.

MadisonMan said...

"I'll be wearing something different today."
As far as I can tell from the picture -- she's wearing a blue top, not red. That's different. FWIW, I have no complaints about what she wears. It looks comfortable and functional. I wonder how she stays warm -- the black cardigan-y things always look awful thin to me -- but that's about it.

Tina Trent said...

Drudge loves this stuff. And extreme weather. And extraterrestrials.

His autobiography is very interesting. So is his speech to the National Press Club. Now that he's become politically unreliable, it's really something to look at what he said to them, back when there were actual protests by journalists complaining that it would "degrade" the professionalism and integrity of the Press Club to have a Drudge darken their doors. Heh. Integrity. They have scotch dispensers in the toilets.

It's a good point that Drudge has manipulated this context so much. He and Bloomberg are just using what they've got to try to pick the Democrat candidate. Bloomberg always does this. He wants to be the bridesmaid, never the bride. Worst case scenario, he'll use his clout to bring back Hillary.

Kevin said...

It was an Environmental Justice forum.

Slapping the word “justice” on something doesn’t make it important.

Quite the opposite.

Danno said...

Temujin said..."They day someone can explain to me what 'environmental justice' is, then maybe I'll start listening."

Environmental Just-us is the state of affairs where the ordinary people will live in poverty and despair while our betters will still have their private jets, luxury yachts and property on the ocean front. Nuff said?

narciso said...

That was van jones the marxist shtict.

gilbar said...

Dust Bunny Queen said...
“Black trans and cis women, gender-nonconforming, and nonbinary people are the backbone of our democracy... “
Cis Women? What! Leave me out of your imaginary stew.


DBQ, judging from your profile pic, i don't think you need to worry;
I'm reading that as [trans and cis], so since you(r profile pix) ain't a member of
Black trans women
Black cis women
or
gender-nonconforming
or
nonbinary people

I think you're left out

Bob Boyd said...

How come we never have Deplorable Justice forums?
Oh wait, we do, they're called Trump Rallies.

madAsHell said...

I'm sure I've mentioned this before, but..........why does Drudge include a Yahoo news icon in the URL?

Maybe I just need to clear out my cookies, but the editorial bias at Drudge has changed as well.

Rusty said...

Howard said...
"Temujin: environmental justice is the simple concept that poor people are exposed to more industrial, metropolitan and agricultural toxins and mutagens than the middle and upper classes. It's one factor of many in planning matrices for redevelopment, development and site cleanup. You will be happy to know that EJ is a big part of my opposition to the current popular solutions to climate change."
Shorter Howard. A means to insure the free flow of graft. You're not fooling anyone.

narciso said...

In practice it leads to the transit fee hikes, weve seen the results of in chile.

Amadeus 48 said...

I sat next to a lovely suburban woman last night at dinner. Her husband is retiring from a major law firm after a long career. She was to a degree impressed with Mayor Pete ("He's so smart. He has been a Rhodes scholar. He speaks nine languages. He says he only wants the smartest people around him!"). Trump will not be getting her vote. The question is, can we get her to stay home.

She wishes there were a third party representing the "middle". She liked John Kasich, but saw that several things went wrong there--he never caught fire as an alternative to Trump. It was Trump vs. Cruz at the end.

I think she will reluctantly vote for anyone the Dems nominate--Biden, Warren, Pete, Bloomberg, probably even Hillary. She sees Pete as the gay Obama, liberating America from its historic bigotry--I think she said she has a gay son who just got married. She sees the GOP other than Trump as being dominated by the Christian right. Curiously, she saw the GOP as being exemplified by Joe Walsh, the lunatic who served one term in Congress from Illinois, was voted out in 2012, was rewarded for his controversial persona with a local talk radio program, and continues to spout crazy in the Chicago area in the name of the GOP. And, to put whipped cream on it, Walsh recently changed his spots to never-Trumper, I suppose in a desperate bid to stay on the air in the Chicago market.

Trump is never going to move this woman--even though he is the most pro-gay POTUS ever elected, and his campaign will essentially be Peace and Prosperity, plus a bunch of other stuff about how crazy the Dems are.

How can the GOP neutralize or win over voters like this? This is the challenge for 2020 and after. Trump can get his voters out. What happens after?

Jeff Brokaw said...

“Environmental justice” oh that’s great, one more thing for Democrats to brainwash people about and waste our time and money trying to fix.

You can’t just tag “justice” on the end of everything and insist the world change it according to your vision of perfection!

mockturtle said...

Environmental Justice? Is that a new thing now, like LGBTQ, that demands our obeisance?

CWJ said...

Environmental justice. Otherwise known as what to do about the unequal distribution of externalities?

wildswan said...

Stalin's Socialism:
Industrial Justice Bring justice by industrializing on behalf of the people

Warren's Socialism:
Environmental Justice: Bring justice by de-industrializing on behalf of the people.

Lurker21 said...

It could have been Steyer that people were not coming to hear.

If you ever get a chance to not hear Tom Steyer, take it.

Freeman Hunt said...

I assume the only people who went were from the local S&M club, the masochists.

Rory said...

"I'm sure I've mentioned this before, but..........why does Drudge include a Yahoo news icon in the URL?"

I don't get that, searching on Google or Yahoo.

rcocean said...

Environmental "Justice" - is another way for Leftists to push the Left-wing agenda and gain power, while PRETENDING to be all full of concern for Poor Folks. Who's FOR pollution? That's why we have an EPA.

My name goes here. said...

Temujin said..."They day someone can explain to me what 'environmental justice' is, then maybe I'll start listening."

Temujin, let me break it down for you. Any time someone puts and adjective in front of the word justice, like Environmental (or Social, or Racial, or Economic, etc.) the new compound word mean the opposite of justice.

Justice does not care if you are rich or poor. Justice, applied ideally, does not care about rich or poor. Justice does not care about smart or dumb. Justice does not care about titles, credentials, or degrees. Justice is impartial.

Anytime you put an adjective in front of the word justice you create the opposite of what justice is supposed to be. Environmental Justice is about only hurting rich people, it is about only helping the connected credentialed pseudo-elite, it is about telling everyone with who are the smart people (those that believe in Environmental Justice) and those that are the dumb people (those that do not) as the foundation and excuse to punish all wrongthink.

Iman said...

"environmental justice"? Just another way to split people off from each other into tribes.

rcocean said...

BTW, Trump showed the "Paris Accords" weren't really about stopping climate change, but $$$. Its the old Left-wing shell game. Think up some cause, then use it to pick someone's pockets and distribute the Money. Of course, quite a bit ends up sticking to the fingers of those in charge of the scam.

Michael K said...

Temujin: environmental justice is the simple concept that poor people are exposed to more industrial, metropolitan and agricultural toxins and mutagens than the middle and upper classes.

Whereas the rich, especially in California, are exposed to shit on the sidewalk, crazies barring the doors, hepatitis, needles everywhere and burning forests. Plus no juice to charge the electrocar. Fair's fair.

traditionalguy said...

Trump has big support in the South. He was in Atlanta yesterday and apparently in Birmingham last night before the Alabama game. The son told me his friend in Birmingham was hosting DJT Jr and Kim Guilfoyle in their home last night. And the Trial lawyers really hate the GOP for legislating Negligence Damages down with caps. But Trump has won most of them over anyway.

mockturtle said...

Lurker21 observes: It could have been Steyer that people were not coming to hear.

If you ever get a chance to not hear Tom Steyer, take it.


Yes. His campaign commercials are the most obnoxious I've ever seen.

Birkel said...

Howard's definition is an accurate assessment of the views of the adherents.

It suffers one flaw, namely that every asserted basis for the belief is wrong.
Terminally wrong.

Ken B said...

Drudge long ago forfeited any claim to be anything but a link whore. I think he took some sort of “investment” in his page. It’s pretty worthless now.

Ken B said...

Why should candidates be criticized for not attending what was obviously a fringe event with few people, and instead choosing to see more people in other places? I am holding a debate in my garage next week, it is about er, um, er, snow plowing justice, and have invited twelve neighbors. Is it wrong for the candidates to skip it?

Birkel said...

1) Ice cream 2) shit.
Add some shit to ice cream.
No matter the proportions, the results are shit.

Now do 1) Environmental 2) Justice.

Quaestor said...

Environmental justice means making sure people get the environment they deserve.

Environment justice has been hard at work in California recently.

LA_Bob said...

"...everyone who skipped it also faces criticism. It was an Environmental Justice forum."

We kan kount on Kamala to prosecute those who skipped it!

Oh, wait...Kamala wasn't there?

Oh..............

Strange, because that seems like a great forum for Harris. Connect with minorities, threaten justice against polluters, and so on.

But, Kamala lives in Iowa, so maybe not. Things are different in Iowa. "ORANGEBURG Bad!"

Bruce Hayden said...

“Temujin: environmental justice is the simple concept that poor people are exposed to more industrial, metropolitan and agricultural toxins and mutagens than the middle and upper classes. It's one factor of many in planning matrices for redevelopment, development and site cleanup. You will be happy to know that EJ is a big part of my opposition to the current popular solutions to climate change.”

What I think is obvious to many of us is that EJ and the GND, etc, and other economy destroying climate change hoax solutions, are contradictory. You can’t logically support EJ and GND (etc) at the same time, because the most vulnerable, the most downtrodden, etc, are the most vulnerable, and most likely to suffer from squandering trillions of dollars combating “climate change”. As Dr K pointed out, the upper classes aren’t the ones dealing with the excrement and needles on the streets in deep blue cities like SFO and LAX. Or not being able to afford a place to live.

Of course, logical consistency, or probably even understanding logic, have never been strong points for either Dem voters, or the politicians who lead them like sheep. Logically, subjects like fracking should be defining issues - you are either for raising the poor out of poverty by giving them jobs, generated through fracking and the energy independence it has brought us, or you can virtue signal your support of economy (and job) destroying efforts to combat “climate change”. Or, you can live in CA, buy an overpriced electric car, in order to pretend to reduce your carbon footprint, then find yourself stuck at home because of the electrical system blackouts preventing your electrical vehicle from recharging. While, of course, both your refrigerator and A/C are off, as well as the Internet and TVs. If you are rich enough, you can just fly to one of your other houses until the fires are over, for the year, and PG&E has its power grid back up and operational. The poor? Not so much. Of course, if you are like me, you would just put in a generator and hook it to the gas line or the propane tank. But I don’t try to reconcile EJ with fighting climate change either.

Yancey Ward said...

Tim Maguire is correct- this wasn't a Warren campaign event- it was a Democratic campaign event, and, in particular, was one that was unlikely to draw a large crowd in a state like South Carolina no matter who was there.

effinayright said...

AllenS said...
Warren would draw more people if she would just announce: "I'll be wearing something different today."

***********

I saw her up close a month ago while parked at Boston's Logan airport waiting for my wife.

What drew my attention was Warren's "uniform" of a blue tunic top and black slacks.

She ought to put on a dark gray Mao jacket and just declare herself for what she is.

Big Mike said...

It was an Environmental Justice forum.

Per Wikipedia: "Environmental justice emerged as a concept in the United States in the early 1980s. The term has two distinct uses with the more common usage describing a social movement that focuses on the fair distribution of environmental benefits and burdens. The other use is an interdisciplinary body of social science literature that includes theories of the environment and justice, environmental laws and their implementations, environmental policy and planning and governance for development and sustainability, and political ecology."

In other words, it's a bullshit term derived from the understandable and perfectly plausible notion that it is wrong to fix environmental issues by dumping them onto poor people, but the social so-called scientists have adopted it as a banner to screw up the environment in the name of social justice.

Yancey Ward said...

On Drudge,

I suspsect he no longer runs the operation. He may well have retired.

Lucien said...

Now that “It’s for the Children!” has become more of a punchline, putting “justice” after some other word has to do more of the heavy bullshit shoveling.

Narayanan said...

note that this forum was held at South Carolina State University which is a historically black university
_''''''
$$$ enough to hold such event ...
SC Richer than expected!
Or votes in the bag already.

Howard said...

You people sure are eloquent spewing fox Limbaugh talking points out your ass. Thanks to Gaia you are literally a dying breed

Tina Trent said...

Don't rule out Drudge. Yet. He likes to goose the primaries.

He was the original Donald viz the MSM. You'd think they would be politically simpatico. Drudge's big issues are pro-life and anti-illegal immigration. He's friends with Ann Coulter. Maybe he's punishing Trump for not following through on immigration. Maybe he'll change his tune.

Although his mother worked for Ted Kennedy, Drudge had a tough life. Both parents went to court to try to reject custody of him in the divorce. He dreamed of being Walter Winchell, but the only job he could get was in the gift shop at CBS.

Then he discovered that the gift shop storage room also housed all the yet-unshredded papers off executives' desks. He began publishing insider gossip on an early for-fee site. The executives went nuts trying to figure out who was leaking information. Nobody checked the weird guy selling 60 Minutes mugs to tourists downstairs.

There's a weird poetic justice to all of this.



Eric said...

Some see the hall as mostly empty and some see it as partly full.

Tina Trent said...

Amadeus: we can't neutralize the nice suburban ladies. We can only lift a glass of scaudenfraude from beyond the grave as they take our places in the re-education gulag.

narciso said...

now lael brainerd, the fed governor from Minneapolis? is all concerned about skydragon, so is david eigen (sic) the hedge fund gadfly, in the 'big short' he seems to have been caught in the long con, again

Jim at said...

Just what in the hell is 'environmental justice?'

Quaestor said...

Howard writes: ...It's one factor of many in planning matrices for redevelopment, development and site cleanup.

Planning matrices... Howard's getting all operation researchy on us all of a sudden. Is that an n-dimentional matrix or just two variables to optimize? What are the dot product rules for the unqualified term "environmental justice"?

Poor people tend to vote for the party that promises the most "free stuff" because the poverty data tend to cluster on the left side of the IQ distribution, making the consequences of "free stuff" a bit harder to anticipate. This is how Venezuela became such a beacon of socialist hope and how California's poor people are getting their "environment justice" good and hard.

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

yeah- not many are into rich elites lecturing re: "do as I say, not as I do"

Howard said...

Free stuff, like the federal largesse that flows from elite blue counties to low IQ red counties.

The ironical nature of your sacred cows is precious

stan said...

Environmental justice is one more brain dead lefty meme.

traditionalguy said...

The NIMBY reaction to all chemically,smelly, noisy and industrially stuff is often called Environmental Racism. I suspect the Justice buzzword was inserted to give it a new and improved slogan.

DavidD said...

There’s no such thing as environmental justice.

There’s only justice and not-justice.

Maillard Reactionary said...

An "environmental justice" forum?

Well no wonder. That self-selects for people with nothing better to do. Who appear to be relatively few in number.

I skipped it. Go ahead, criticize me.

stevew said...

People skipped the forum, Warren, and Steyer, failed to draw them in. Says more about the interest in a so-called Environmental Justice Forum than it does about the candidates.

narciso said...


I was referring to this:


https://kfgo.com/news/articles/2019/nov/08/feds-brainard-says-climate-change-poses-profound-risks/955654/?fbclid=IwAR0GJwR9wxdDDwYNeGOWcnh-g7NIoKicQDeVVN_AsIkVhBMQlI4k6K7MRuw#.XcdteNIKA7k.facebook

Bunkypotatohead said...

Justice means paying off some favored constituency.

Tina Trent said...

Environmental Justice was specifically invented to shake down the cash-rich Sierra Club.

From a distance, it's sort of funny.

Howard: do you have any idea what percentage of college-educated black people over 40 make their living either in bloated do-nothing benefit-rich government jobs or in quasi-governmental NGO and nonprofit gigs that essentially set-aside the same?

For example, Michelle Obama. For example: the rest of Chicago. For example, the vast majority of the legacy minority middle class in Atlanta and scores of other cities. For example, any black person in academia. Forget "over 40" there.

What's really interesting now is that those jobs are so unchallenging and nepotistic and neatly sewn up that a new class of self-made middle class black people in the real marketplace are becoming dominant. And they're no different from anyone else humping a real job to stay on the margins or better themselves.

And they have the same resentment we have towards the elite do-nothings of their race and other races bleeding them dry.

This is healthy. The problem with your politics is that it's very personally threatening to you to feel your way through the world without imagining your political preening is being bolstered by armies of lesser ones greatful for the magnaminity of your thoughts.

I suggest you read Confederacy of Idiots. Pay special attention to the union protest scene and what happens to the sheet in it. And remember, it's a sheet. It's the nastiest and most on-point metaphor in all of Southern literature. And there's a lot of competition.