Biden, Trump, the left, elections…

[Billy_T]

wv wrote:

Zooey wrote:

================

Jeezus fucking christ, zooey. I just ate.

Lord.

This is way worse than calling an Admin a bozo. Something needs to be done about zooey.

w
v

;>)

Don’t know the writer, but I think she gets some of that right. Some of it wrong. But it mostly sounds like excuses.

No, Sanders didn’t do that. Didn’t try to do that. If anything, he was far too easy on her in 2016.

Yes, Russia and Trump created a faux she-devil out of Clinton, who is, IMO, just a garden-variety moderate Republican in Dem clothes, and not uniquely horrible, as some would have it. Oh, and Bill Clinton was/is much worse.

Yes, the MSM trashed her. Multiple studies have shown that her emails (nothing burger) garnered far more media attention than anything Trump ever did, and that’s media malpractice, by definition.

Yes, Republican Comey did stick a knife in her, going against FBI policy of not swaying the election in the last 90 days. He did this ten days before the election, while hiding the fact that Trump was under investigation too.

Some Dems blamed her. Not enough, though. Most Dems won’t let this go, nor will Trump, nor will Russia, etc. etc.

[wv]

The DNC-Corporatists gave AOC an entire sixty seconds. What a shock.

===========

“I only have a minute.
Sixty seconds in it.
Forced upon me, I did not choose it,
But I know that I must use it.
Give account if I abuse it.
Suffer, if I lose it.

Only a tiny little minute,
But eternity is in it.”

– Dr. Benjamin E. Mays
(and recited by Elijah Cummings) 💜 https://t.co/ul9CE7NriV

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) August 12, 2020

[Billy_T]

wv wrote:

The DNC-Corporatists gave AOC an entire sixty seconds. What a shock.

===========

Apparently, Pelosi got the message and publicly supported Tlaib and Omar in their respective intra-Dem election battles. Looks like she did the same for AOC. The last member of the Squad, Pressley, isn’t being challenged by a fellow Dem. So it looks like they’ll all return for Round Two.

Of course, we don’t know what the Dem establishment does (or did) behind the scenes, but at least they’re publicly supporting their leftward most flank. That’s encouraging.

Baby steps, etc.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 3 months ago by Billy_T.

[wv]

Billy_T wrote:

…Of course, we don’t know what the Dem establishment does (or did) behind the scenes, but at least they’re publicly supporting their leftward most flank. That’s encouraging.

Baby steps, etc.

================

We know the 99 to 1 number. Whats the algebra in the House. How many leftist-squad members are there, compared to the Dem/Rep Corporatist-Biosphere-Killers ?

I’ve been trying to figure it out. Its harder than i thought because there’s so many ways to define progressive/radical/leftist, etc.

If we look at the term ‘Democratic Socialist’ its easy – the algebra is:

432 to 3.

AOC, Talib, and….Danny Davis? Why have i never heard of fucking Danny Davis?
From Illinois, since 1997.

link:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Democratic_Socialists_of_America_members_who_have_held_office_in_the_United_States
w
v

[Billy_T]

wv wrote:

Billy_T wrote:

…Of course, we don’t know what the Dem establishment does (or did) behind the scenes, but at least they’re publicly supporting their leftward most flank. That’s encouraging.

Baby steps, etc.

================

We know the 99 to 1 number. Whats the algebra in the House. How many leftist-squad members are there, compared to the Dem/Rep Corporatist-Biosphere-Killers ?

I’ve been trying to figure it out. Its harder than i thought because there’s so many ways to define progressive/radical/leftist, etc.

If we look at the term ‘Democratic Socialist’ its easy – the algebra is:

432 to 3.

AOC, Talib, and….Danny Davis? Why have i never heard of fucking Danny Davis?
From Illinois, since 1997.

link:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Democratic_Socialists_of_America_members_who_have_held_office_in_the_United_States
w
v

Had not heard of Danny Davis either. But I am surprised that Omar and Pressley aren’t considered DSA. Haven’t really done the legwork on the subject. Just assumed they were.

As we’ve talked about before . . . lotsa room for differences even among leftists . . . and my conception of “democratic socialism” is likely different from some others. As in, not sure every leftist sees it meaning/calling for the full replacement of capitalism with economic democracy, as I do and advocate for . . . as did Orwell, Gandhi, Einstein, Camus, Dorothy Day, Upton Sinclair, Bertrand Russell and, more recently, the Dalai Lama.

And so on and so forth . . .

But it gives me great hope that the fear seems to be fading a bit when it comes to using the two words, identifying with them, etc. . . . and recent studies suggest Gen Z is even more left-leaning than the Millennials.

Green shoots.

[Zooey]

Realignment: Trump will be gone and the Republicans from the Lincoln Project will have more power in the Democratic Party than the Squad.

— Benjamin Dixon (@BenjaminPDixon) August 15, 2020

[Zooey]

[Zooey]

[Zooey]

So…I joined Facebook when a bunch of friends at a high school reunion convinced me it was the way to stay in touch. And after that, I began accepting Friend requests as they came in, for the most part. This is a post from a guy who is the father of a couple of kids I had in my theatre program. I don’t know what to say about this, except, Wow.

[Zooey]

[Zooey]

[wv]

2020 election is like:

Trump's team: "Biden is a radical who'll give you healthcare, promote racial justice and fight the billionaires."

Biden: "I promise you I will do none of those things."

— Alan MacLeod (@AlanRMacLeod) August 31, 2020

[wv]

I assume this just means americans have other things on their minds. Or to restate that, they’ve had other things put into their minds.
—

The federal budget deficit grew from $779.1 billion at the end of fiscal 2018 to $2.8 trillion at the end of July. Over roughly that same period, the share of U.S. adults calling the deficit a "very big problem" fell from 55% to 47%. https://t.co/mgvIIVuY9r pic.twitter.com/S25C8YWGjp

— Pew Research Center (@pewresearch) September 4, 2020

[wv]

Your Labor Day moment of Zen:

Trump going down.

You’re welcome… pic.twitter.com/KwSRtHd7Mh

— Rex Chapman🏇🏼 (@RexChapman) September 7, 2020

[Zooey]

She’s not wrong, but the responses make me bleed out of my eyes.

Remember the theory that Trump winning in 2016 would galvanize the left behind a progressive nominee that would bring the Democratic Party to its knees in 2020, and thus Trump winning was better for progressives than HRC winning?

It was stupid then. Now it’s definitively stupid.

— Emma Vigeland (@EmmaVigeland) September 8, 2020

[zn]

[Zooey]

zn wrote:

Saw a meme once that said that NPR is the preferred news source for people who support coups and drone attacks as long as the paperwork is filled out correctly. Or something along those lines.

[wv]

This was one of the replies to that angela vang, meme about npr:

“npr: are enough of our drone pilots women? we speak to the young woman in charge of Signature Strike Operations about her “more teats in the seats” campaign to train more women drone operators.”
===========

the right: npr is a radical left organization

npr: does everyone deserve housing? we discuss with a landlord

— angela vang (@angvaj) September 4, 2020

[Zooey]

[Zooey]

Fair enough.

[Zooey]

Wouldn’t shutting down FOX be a kind of mercy killing?

[Zooey]

Yes. It is what you think it is.

[JackPMiller]

• This reply was modified 4 years, 1 month ago by JackPMiller.

[Zooey]

[wv]

Tapping protesters’ phones. This shit is wild. Where is elite media coverage? https://t.co/4bjf8xrQcR

— Krystal Ball (@krystalball) September 22, 2020

[Zooey]

wv wrote:

Tapping protesters’ phones. This shit is wild. Where is elite media coverage?

They made that legal in the patriot act, I think.

This country jumped the shark when it got rid of Habeas Corpus. Talk about…”where is media coverage?” I mean…that fundamental right was disposed of without a whimper.

They assassinate American citizens without a whimper.

They militarized the police. What for? Not to protect the community. They don’t need that level of armor and weaponry to protect. They need it to suppress the community, to coerce it. Why do they think they need to have police militarized to suppress people? Because they are squeezing the shit out of everybody, and they know they are going to continue to squeeze the shit out of us until we snap, and they are prepared for that snap.

Eavesdropping? Yeah, they’ve been doing that without warrants for 20 years without a whimper. Who’s going to whimper? Edwin R. Murrow is dead.

[wv]

Zooey wrote:

…They militarized the police. What for? Not to protect the community. They don’t need that level of armor and weaponry to protect. They need it to suppress the community, to coerce it. Why do they think they need to have police militarized to suppress people? Because they are squeezing the shit out of everybody, and they know they are going to continue to squeeze the shit out of us….

==============

This kinda touches on a couple things that have been rolling around in my head, but i havent had the brainpower to really crystallize my thots.

Uncrystallized-Thot-1 has to do with the purely strategic decision to use the word ‘defund’ as in defund the police. I hate it. I think its terrible terrible strategy to use that term. I think it plays into rightwing arguments that the left wants to destroy law and order, blah blah. The rightwing-argument is being made to the middle-of-the-roaders, of course. The deciders. The folks who could go either way. Now the polls (as i understand it) say most voters are ok with ‘defunding’ the police, but i dont trust those polls. Like, AT ALL. I could go on about this, but i think it was terrible leftist strategy to use the term defund. There were WAY better words/memes/terms.

Uncrystallized-thot-2 has to do with how leftists talk about the ‘function’ of the police and the history of the police, and the reason we have police, etc.
I love Adolph Reed, but i was listnin to his chat with Ralph Nader and he was reducing the ‘function of the police’ down to protecting-rich-folks-property, etc. The usual leftist reductionism concerning the police. I dont like THAT notion as a talking point either. And i dont think its true. A BIG PART of the reason we have police is to protect the dirty rotten capitalist-system. But thats not all of it. We also have police to catch child molesters and rapists, etc. Police WILL go after RICH child molesters as well as poor ones. Ask any middle-class-mon if she wants to get rid of the police.
I dont think its accurate or strategically wise to reduce the police down to “protectors of capitalist-inequality’. The police are a lot of things. Not all of it is about capitalist-inequality. I worry that middle-of-the-roaders will be turned off by the painting of the police in such black and white terms.

Uncrystallized-thot-3 — This goes to your thought above. There are so many catch-22s, paradoxes, and conundrums brought about by capitalism.
Capitalism itself causes an entire underclass of americans to be stressed, oppressed, driven to desperation. That leads to an underclass prone to street violence. Capitalism essentially forces/compels/nudges poor people towards ‘crime’ and violence. Kick a dog enough, and you end up with a dangerous dog.

So that makes capitalist-police ‘necessary’ doesn’t it. Capitalism creates the violent street crime, and then capitalism has to supply the police to protect the underclass and the middle-class. Its an evil game.

Now you have some radical-leftists saying the police are bad, we dont need them. O really? Capitalism has created a lot of desperate people. What do we think would happen without the capitalist-police? Utopia?
It would be bad. Its one kind of bad WITH the police, and it would be another kind of bad WITHOUT the police — but which kind of bad would scare middle-of-the-road-VOTERS MORE?

w
v

[nittany ram]

Trump signs executive order that white-washes history and protects white fragility…

This is the most intellectually terrifying, fascist shit I’ve read to date from this administration. I will continue to teach young adults the truth about histories & legacies kof oppression in this country. You can’t erase us or our truths. https://t.co/vSOqkzVshe

— Sami Schalk (@DrSamiSchalk) September 24, 2020

[Zooey]

Conservatives: Let’s use the military against our populace.

Liberals: Let’s make them change their clothes first.

[Zooey]

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