Meanwhile...

[Content Note: Privilege.]

In case you're wondering what are the Democrats are getting up to during this delightful primary season, since I've been too fucking disinterested and uninspired to write a Primarily Speaking post in a few days, here's the latest:

Hillary Clinton has said she opposes the Keystone Pipeline: "I think it is imperative that we look at the Keystone pipeline as what I believe it is: A distraction from important work we have to do on climate change. And unfortunately, from my perspective, one that interferes with our ability to move forward with all the other issues. Therefore, I oppose it."

This follows her explanation last week for why she hadn't made a definitive position statement until now: "I have been waiting for the administration to make a decision. I thought I owed them that. I worked in the administration. I started the process that is supposed to lead to a decision. I can't wait too much longer, and I am putting the White House on notice. I'm gonna tell you what I think soon because I can't wait. I thought they would have it decided way, you know, way by now, and they haven't."

Which was pretty much what everyone who doesn't have an anti-Clinton agenda suspected, because she is a savvy politician who didn't want to fuck over her former boss and ally if she didn't have to.

Of course, her being a savvy politician also means that maybe she's not too thrilled about hearing the President is likely to endorse the Vice President if he runs, and decided she didn't owe him any more silence, at the expense of her credibility.

Or maybe she was just being cautious, for stupid reasons. And let's be real: If that's the case, it wouldn't be the first time Clinton has failed to be bold in deference to a frustratingly ineffective caution.

In any case, Clinton's finally on board with opposition to the Keystone Pipeline, which her primary Democratic competitors (Sanders and O'Malley, and take that gift and run with it, O'Malley) have opposed for a long time.

Bernie Sanders today aligned himself with Pope Francis on income inequality by joining "a rally of striking government workers on Tuesday at the Lutheran Church of the Reformation in Washington [to press] Congress and President Obama to heed Pope Francis' call for social and economic justice. Comparing the federal government to a low-wage employer such as Walmart or McDonald's, he said, 'there is no justice when so few have so much and so many have so little.' ...For Mr. Sanders, the rally was an opportunity to use the pope's visit to promote an important part of his political platform: income inequality. His brief remarks drew enthusiastic cheers from the mostly black and Hispanic workers who packed the church near the Capitol."

Given my previous criticisms (for example) of Sanders' failure to incorporate an intersectional critique into his class analysis, it's no surprise that he's on the same side as the Pope, who does exactly the same shit, routinely talking about poverty and income inequality as if systemic oppression and the inability to control one's reproduction have no effect on one's financial stability.

Maybe it's actually not a cool idea to urge other political leaders to "heed Pope Francis' call for social and economic justice," when Pope Francis' call for social and economic justice is predicated on ignoring inconvenient facts like how most of his positions on gender and sexuality are fundamentally incompatible with both social and economic justice.

I dunno, y'all. I'm beginning to think that highly privileged white men maybe aren't the best messengers for talking about class inequality! Ahem.

Joe Biden is still thinking about it!

And Martin O'Malley, Lincoln Chafee, and Jim Webb are presumably still somewhere on the planet doing something that is related to running for president.

Talk about these things! Or don't. Whatever makes you happy. Life is short.