Interesting video from Hakim.

Would like to hear your take on that, WV.

My own: I start out vehemently anticapitalist. I think that has to be the left’s end goal — to get rid of capitalism entirely. No remnants. All of it. Replace it with full-on economic democracy, democratize the workplace, and do a 180 with regard to the purpose of the economy itself. It never, ever should have been to make a tiny few rich. It should always have been for the purpose of fulfilling our needs, with no one left out. Ever. Anywhere. At any time. And, as Martin Hagglund writes in This Life, we’d also solve problems/crises, together, work toward the common good, and generate as much free time as possible.

(The last one is where the Soviet Union really screwed up. They became every bit the task-masters as the capitalist West, when it came to focusing on endless production, etc. If they had paid attention to Marx’s goal of radically reducing the work day . . . and, of course, democratized, decentralized and broken up all concentrations of power . . . they never would have failed.)

And I lean anarchist. Love what I’ve read by Kropotkin and others in that “camp.” However, I think the left actually need to form coalitions, if we’re to get anything done. In fact, I think we should even go so far as form coalitions with center-left Dems, as we pull them toward our own philosophies, policies, etc.

I’m not good with the nitty gritty stuff on how to do the above. But I think we can find “common ground” enough to work together, and that’s a must, IMO.

Sorry for all of these posts. But thought this was important.

Just saw on CNN that the Republican-controlled legislature in Pennsylvania is the reason why they can’t even start counting votes until Election Morning. They put those rules in place.

It’s a very well-coordinated GOP plan, nation-wide, to suppress the vote to favor the GOP. They’re attacking the Dem votes from all angles, using every lever of power they can muster.

Also: While I’d much prefer changing our system to democratic sortition, rotating reps locally, regionally, and nationally via lottery, instead of elections, as a kind of Civic Peace Corp for all . . . We have got to fix the system we have until we evolve.

It’s insane that most states can’t even start to count votes until Election Day. That’s just nutz. We should have even earlier open voting, and votes should be tabulated as the come in. I also think we need to work on smartphone and computer voting as an option. Official apps. Unbreakable encryption. VPN and unique identifier come with the app. Software to make sure no duplicate numbers are tallied, etc.

If the youngins could vote from their phones? Sheeesh. We’d likely see a much needed “revolution” in our politics.

IMO, that’s not why he may “win.” He simply doesn’t have the votes. Which is why he and the GOP have worked so hard to steal the election, primarily via voter suppression, direct intimidation, armed “militias” at polling places, the corruption of the Postal Service, and an endless parade of lawsuits to shut down vote counting.

The plan regarding those last two items is beyond clear. Trump and the GOP purposely slowed down the mail on the front end, so they could claim, later, that no vote counted after the 3rd is legit. Trump has said, publicly, that it’s “fraud” to do what we’ve always done in our elections, and what state laws force us to do. How many of Trump’s supporters know this or care? Some states can’t even start counting votes until Election Day, and Trump and the GOP are trying to make the case that if they can’t finish the count — and most states can’t — the uncounted votes get tossed.

Throw in a more surgical approach, where Trump and the GOP have gone after specific batches of votes in Dem areas — into the hundreds of thousands — and it’s beyond clear they know they can’t win without cheating. They know it, or they wouldn’t be so desperately corrupting the process.

Both really good videos.

Big loss to America, with Graeber’s passing. One of the main drivers of the Occupy movement, and a great exemplar for anarchism — the real thing, not the cartoon version. Brilliant guy, and he could communicate.

Might be a poor analogy, but I see the difference between conservative, liberal and leftist, kinda like this, with regard to the economic system, at least:

Cigarettes (capitalism). Liberals want to put filters on them, so the dire effects are lessened a bit.

Conservatives want to get rid of the filters and smoke ’em straight up. Puts hair on your chest!

Leftists say get rid of the cigarettes (capitalism), period. Why spend all this time and energy trying to figure out ways to mitigate for its effects when there’s absolutely no reason for its existence in the first place?

Go with something that doesn’t require filters (up front) — endless attempts at reform, offsets, protections, etc. etc.

Dumb question, mostly cuz I should already know this, and also cuz I kinda think I do. And, well, cuz it’s not all that important.

But, anyway, just to be sure:

When the other team scores cuz of an offensive turnover, where do the stats go? The Rams’ D doesn’t get dinged for that, right?

The defense looked great. Hekker and the D get the game balls, IMO. Floyd is becoming what they hoped he’d be: great against the run and the pass.

Goff is a bit erratic, though, showing Top-Five-level game on one play, and then journey-man stuff on another. He’s got to find a way to steady up, if the Rams want to play well into the playoffs. Throw it away if there’s nothing there. He can force it at bad moments, etc.

Overall, it was a lot of fun to watch this one. The Rams of Monday Night are a solid playoff contender. Given how tough the remainder of the schedule is, we’re going to see if this same team shows up for the rest of the season. I think it will. Actually, I think they’ll get even better, especially when Robinson joins the DT rotation.

Cal wrote:

I agree, Billy, Trump is toast this year–People are tired of his act. But this election will still be close because there is so much support for Trump.

One of the interesting things from the 2106 exit polls was that 45% voters said the government needs to do more, while 50% say that the gov’t does too much. I’d guess the number of people who believe the gov’t should do more will be much this higher this year in the turmoil caused by the pandemic.

Americans are just plain dumb about the role that government could play in our lives.

Good points, as always.

Just speaking for myself, I want the government to do far, far less in certain areas, and far, far more in others. I want it to get out of the war business entirely, for instance; stop pumping up Wall Street, corporations, billionaires and millionaires; end its war on migrants, drugs, dissidents, etc. I’d love to see it slash the military budget, intel, zero-out ICE, radically demilitarize the police, reverse all privatization of the carceral system and decriminalize all non-violent, victimless crimes . . . As in, set those people free. Swap public service terms for jail sentences, where applicable, etc.

To try to make a long story short . . . I’d get the government out of the war and punishment business to the extent humanly possible . . . But I’d ramp up its involvement in all “caring and helping” fields, education (free, cradle to grave, at all public institutions), health care (M4A and free clinics nationwide), scientific research, environmental protections (GND) and so on. I also think it’s time for a serious look at UBI, though, IMO, it has to be more than the amount usually proposed. It needs to be enough to actually live on.

And, contrary to what many say, that we can’t afford this, I think we can’t afford not to. Climate Change and Mass Inequality alone are enough to say we must, and the following article makes it abundantly clear that we have the money to do all the above:

Billionaire wealth rises to more than $10 trillion for first time ever amid pandemic: analysis Rich get richer as millions of Americans fall into poverty and 100 million plunge into “extreme poverty” globally

Cal wrote:

Billy_T wrote:

For others, however, this discrepancy isn’t an indictment of Trump. It’s an indictment of the exit polls.

I haven’t studied their methodologies, histories, etc. etc. enough to really know one way or another. But I am deeply suspicious.

Clinton was a terrible candidate, and the Dems made a huge mistake clearing the field for her. But even with all of that, I think she actually won the election, and Trump and the GOP stole it, as did Dubya. Of course, a better Dem candidate should have been able to overcome all of those shenanigans, etc.

I think we had a discussion similar to this a while back and I was surprised to find that voter suppression was a real thing in Wisconsin. But this isn’t surprising, since republicans control a lot of the levers of power in Wisconsin or they did until the democrats won the governor back in 2018.

The other states, I wasn’t convinced because an important part of Trump’s victory was that he turned out people who just didn’t vote in past elections. Look at the numbers in places like Pennsylvania where the voter turnout was much higher than the past.

This voter turnout is real–this is not some grand some conspiracy. The evidence that Americans really like Trump is everywhere.

Look at the Trump rallies. Tucker Carlson–yes, Tucker fucking Carlson–has the number 1 cable TV news show. Americans love them some Fox News.

I also looked at the exit data for Florida that you linked and the exit data matched the election results perfectly (if my math is correct.) That was the first and only state that I looked at.

Do you have any states where the exit polls don’t match the election results?

Hey, Cal,

Hope all is well.

In the Heavy article (the third link), it shows that in four key states, Clinton won the exit polls, but lost the states, “officially.” It also shows that that her margin of victory in states she won, officially, was often higher in the exit polls than in the final counts. I noticed, also, that the margin of victory for Trump was higher in the official counts than in some of those exit polls. Exceptions, of course. But, overall, it appears that the exit polls favored Clinton more than the final results indicated.

As for Trump’s popularity, voter turnout and Fox popularity: Roughly 105 million potential voters stayed home. It wasn’t a good turnout. The estimates vary a tad, give or take, but it was in the neighborhood of just 55% of the potential vote. Trump “won” just 26% of the electorate, to Clinton’s 28%.

(We should have turnouts in the 80s, at least, but rarely get much above 50% since the 1960s.)

Trump has never cracked 50% in popularity, and has been in the high 30s to low 40s throughout his time in office. He scores terribly in nearly all demos except white Christian males without post-secondary education. Low scores on trust, on handling of the pandemic, on personal character, on health care, on pretty much every possible issue. The only thing keeping him in the range he’s been in is diehard Republican support. As in, people who would support a ham sandwich if it had an R attached.

(I think it’s safe to say that blind loyalty to either of the two major parties is a bad thing for this country.)

Fox, Carlson and company? Yes, they top the cable wars. But they’re in the 3-5 million viewers a night range. That’s less than the network news shows on ABC, CBS and NBC, and it’s obviously not all that much as a percentage of the American population.

IMO, Trump, qua Trump, isn’t especially popular even among Republicans (historically speaking). I remember the same kind of diehard, fanatical allegiance to Dubya, Reagan, and Nixon in the past. Oddly enough, for Palin, too. I also predict it will quickly fade if he loses, and then a new messiah will rise, etc. etc.

The GOP is like a good cornerback. It forgets the last toasting and moves on.

This is not healthy:

September 16, 2020 Political Divides, Conspiracy Theories and Divergent News Sources Heading Into 2020 Election

In this environment, the QAnon conspiracy theories have become another area of partisan divide. An overwhelming majority of Democrats who have heard something about QAnon (90%) say it is at least “somewhat bad” for the country, including 77% who say it is “very bad.” But 41% of Republicans who have heard something about it say QAnon is somewhat or very good for the country, modestly fewer than the 50% who think it is at least somewhat bad.

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

It’s keeping me awake at night, thinking about what might happen at the polls. Far-right “militias” are saying, outright, that they’re going to be armed and ready to draw their weapons if they think it’s warranted. If they see a mouse and call it “antifa,” I suppose. And Trump has consistently egged them on, telling them to “liberate” this or that state. The attempted kidnap and murder of Michigan’s governor is at least partially on Trump’s hands, and we learned today they were considering other Democratic governors too, like Northam in Virginia.

First off, it’s yet one more way America is insane — that we allow anyone to open carry, anywhere, but especially at the polls. How on earth could that NOT be voter/poll-worker intimidation? How on earth could that NOT be voter suppression, discourage turnout, or staying in line?

Guns everywhere. Violent nutcases everywhere, overwhelmingly right-wing.

A little something I’ve noticed about MSM reporting? They tend to refrain from calling violent right-wingers “right-wingers.” No problem calling out “the left” for supposed violence. But they seem a bit leery of naming names when it’s a righty. Exceptions, of course. But, in general, they don’t.

My guess is that “conservatives” have been all too successful at whining to the refs, and they’ve caved in. Same thing happened when Bush’s own admin came up with a report on right-wing violent extremism, which Obama’s AG later tried to release. The right, with its hair on fire, claimed “bias” and Obama withdrew said report. Huge error. And it’s a pattern.

Grade the right on a steep curve. Cave into their whining and moaning. Hold the left to much, much higher standards. No wonder America is awash in ignorance, especially about history, and “bothsiderism.”