Primarily Speaking

Welcome to another edition of Primarily Speaking, because presidential primaries now begin fully one million years before the election!

It's official: Billionaire Democratic donor Tom Steyer, who said earlier this year that he wouldn't be running for president, is running for president. [Content Note: Video autoplays at link.] Here is his very boring announcement video, where you can see him sitting in a barn talking about being a generous billionaire and also see him rolling up the sleeves of his blue button-down shirts to talk to peasants.

According to the New York Times, he is fixing to spend $100 Million on his presidential bid, and that is reason #1 why I would never support his vanity candidacy. Give that money directly to people who need it, who would put it to far better use than paying already-wealthy political consultants to make boring-ass videos for a losing candidate.

Meanwhile, Rep. Eric Swalwell has officially dropped out of the race. Unfortunately, he did not take Michael Bennet, Steve Bullock, Bill de Blasio, John Delaney, Tulsi Gabbard, Mike Gravel, John Hickenlooper, Jay Inslee, Wayne Messam, Seth Moulton, Beto O'Rourke, Tim Ryan, Joe Sestak, Tom Steyer, Marianne Williamson, and Andrew Yang with him.

He is going out in style, with a great tweet supporting Amy McGrath's senate run: "A lot of Dem presidential candidates were asked how they'd work with @senatemajldr McConnell. Lots of different approaches. But the right answer is, 'He won't be in the Senate. @AmyMcGrathKY will beat him.' #DitchMitch2020."

And, reminding us once again how every candidate on the Democratic side is at least one million times better a human being than the current White House occupant, Senator Cory Booker wished Swalwell well with a kind tweet: "Thank you, @EricSwalwell. Grateful for your public service and your leadership on working to end gun violence in our communities — I look forward to continuing to work together on this urgent issue and more."

Such a good dude. Booker also gave a typically strong interview earlier today where he talked about lots of cool stuff, including his "baby bonds" proposal.

[CN: Sexual violence] Senator Amy Klobuchar is tweeting about the Jeffrey Epstein case and Labor Secretary Alex Acosta's deplorable role in it: "Since when do underage girl sex ring traffickers get to go to their office every day while they serve their time? The victims should have had a say. That's what the law says. I didn't vote for former Florida U.S. Attorney Acosta to begin with and he should step down." Right on.

Senator Kamala Harris is tweeting about the Trump Regime's renewed attack on the Affordable Healthcare Act: "As California Attorney General, I fought to protect the ACA in court. As Senator, I've fought its repeal at every turn. And to the millions of people who depend on the ACA's protections: As President, I will stop these attacks and fight to expand your care. We won't go back."

Jesus fucking Jones this entire article. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand is boring? Well, that's news to me!

I guess it's just because I'm boring myself that I find it interesting when a senator and presidential candidate tweets stuff like this: "A year ago today, I visited a Brownsville, TX detention facility housing over 1,400 migrant children in prison-like conditions. Since then, the crisis created by Trump's inhumane policy has gotten worse — and his administration still has no plan to reunite many of these families. I've said it before, and I'll say it again: [Donald] Trump, and every member of his administration responsible for the abuses committed against immigrant families, must be held accountable. I refuse to accept another year-plus of children traumatized at our government's hands."

Senator Elizabeth Warren is running an "unconventional" campaign, and she's doing very well by shunning "the consultant-heavy model of campaigns." Less money in consultants' pockets means more money to spend actually campaigning. Imagine that! And she's raising lots of money for the spending, too! Despite holding no fundraisers, even!

Warren is also tweeting about the executive action she would take on day one of her presidency to boost wages for women of color.

In spite of everyone else's hard work, Joe Biden continues to maintain his lead in national polling. We'll see about that after the second debate.

Bernie Sanders is still definitely running for president.

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