Does anyone with at least have a brain not see that the letter was written by some right wing troublemaker? There are so many ridiculous giveaways.
Why are we losing this country to people so dumb.
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Correct me if I am wrong but the current line of dialogue seems to be abolish - not start from scratch ?
My hometown!
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Police are evil
ergo
ABOLISH
Went to a vigil for families of people killed by the LVMPD, and then marched on the strip for about an hour with another protest group of about 150. Felt good to get out there
However the march started with the four unmasked leaders of the protest getting everyone basically cheek to cheek and then saying CLOSER! so they could burn sage or something which was pretty disturbing,
If that’s the level of COVID discipline we’re dealing with idk if I can deal with it, too paranoid.
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Since I was there, I’d like to comment. Virtue signaling or whatever is def in play. Having lived here for 10 years and attended today’s rally, what totally surprised me was the number of self described “progressive students” and adult participants. For context, the mayor expended considerable political capital trying to concern troll the rally into a different location. Her “perp walk” after being shouted down by high school students is unprecedented if you live here. The rigor mortis look I saw suggested that she just realized that she has a major re-election problem on her hands. Again, white folk, white problems, but knowing this town’s history, I legit thought I’d be one of 50 protestors. So when 2500 rolled in as the official tally, I about shit myself.
ETA: Not trying to refute your concerns, but again I was stunned today. If this protest had been attempted 12 months ago, it’s not hyperbole to say I might be in bracelets, begging for bail money.
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Florissant, St.Loius Co, MO, is also immediately north of Ferguson, MO.
Yeah seeing the crowd today in Philly I was sad not to be part of it but kind of relieved. I feel like it’s kind of win-win right now for me. If the crowds dwindle, and thus it feels safer, I’m reinforcements. If they don’t, I’ll keep supporting from home unless/until it becomes clear there’s no related spike.
Hopefully there’s no spike and they keep right on coming.
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LA 92 is on Netflix
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This is definitely going to be a thing now.
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Go-go has entered the chat. True rebel music from an oppressed people; the cops have been trying to shut go-go down for decades. It’s a bit like the outlawed Celtic songs. Chuck Brown singing jazz standards is so great; pure class all the way.
https://twitter.com/cuneytdil/status/1269448762704793600?s=20
https://twitter.com/abdallah_fayyad/status/1269407136574066695?s=20
But there’s a competing narrative surrounding go-go, one that’s espoused by local law enforcement, some gentrifiers, and developers looking to convert D.C. into a mini Manhattan. They see the music as a problem; publicly, the talk is about crime surrounding go-go gatherings. “It’s this go-go,” one Metropolitan Police Department officer said during a 2005 hearing over nightclub violence. “If you have a black-tie event, you don’t have any problem. But if you bring go-go in, you’re going to have problems.” In 2010, the Washington City Paper reported that D.C. cops had taken to circulating a secret “go-go report” to keep tabs on the scene. And as DCentric.com’s Elahe Izadi wrote last year, “For many years now, go-go venues have been shut down inside D.C. due to club violence and liability issues, pushing the music further out into the Maryland suburbs like Prince George’s and Charles counties. Meanwhile punk rock, another D.C. musical mainstay, is not experiencing the same bad luck.”
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Fact
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I’m not trying to be a dick here but in this mythical world where there are hundreds of AOC types in the wings how does that actually result in anything? Most states won’t elect AOC to senate seats. I have seen lots of people question running progressives in purple district for house rep. You saw what happened to Bernie and to some extent Warren nationally. Even if the people exist there is 0% chance there is some progressive majority in congress any time soon and our best case scenerio is Joe Biden for 8 years. It’s a nice thought that somehow this results in some meaningful change at the ballot box but there is no actual evidence it’s possible on any large scale anytime soon. Not to mention the Dems themselves will do their thing and sabotage progressives as they have been doing for a long time.
If you aren’t a DNC stooge you are automatically at a fundraising disadvantage that in many cases is hard or impossible to beat. If you watch the AOC doc you see a lot of people trying to unseat the DNC entrenched candidates and by and large they failed with a few exceptions. Maybe I am being too pessimistic but the idea we can get to any meaningful policy reform through the ballot box in this country is not supported by facts and evidence. That being said on the local level winning elections is certainly doable. Some minor change might come from that.
Now should we try. Yes. But it seems like an incredible long shot to think the entire system has any chance of being overthrown at the ballot box.
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I’m not saying they’re going to run, I’m saying they’re out there.
Not right now, but give it a 4-8 years. You don’t need 51 AOCs in the Senate anyway, you need enough to hold the establishment hostage and force concessions.
He’s either getting primaried or not running for re-election imo.
If we apply enough pressure the party will move. But people need to be willing to do so.
I think I have a model to beat them, I’m just not an expert in it and don’t have the right connections to get it out there. But somebody is going to do it. (Spoiler: the eDems suck at social media.)
Most of them were poor candidates. The one in WV was terrible, the one in MO didn’t run a great campaign imo, and the one in NV ran a better campaign but wasn’t as good of a candidate as the one in MO.
This is the cycle where AOC’s model could be followed, and at a low level here a socialist won a State Senate primary damn near 60-40 over an establishment incumbent. The socialist was so far left I didn’t vote for him, but he ran a great campaign. Well organized - I was texted and called a ton. Great TV ads. Never used the s-word.
But he’s not a once in a generation AOC type. Still, to curb stomp an incumbent is pretty impressive even if it’s “only” state Senate.
It’s a long game. It’s not going to happen in 2 or 4 years. You need multiple election cycles. The state senate guy will probably primary someone in the House in a few years or something.
We’re going to lurch leftward in 10-15 years if we still have fair elections. Once Boomer voters yield to Millennial voters in large numbers…
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I hope you are right and I am wrong. Maybe I am overly pessimistic about things. This last primary definitely increased my cynicism to 100 and not just because Bernie lost but because ultimately the guy who won was, of course, the bought and paid for stooge who is at least 15 years past his prime. And lets be honest his prime wasn’t that good in the first place.
40 years of seeing it play out the same way makes it feel impossible when you haven’t really known anything different.
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If it makes you feel any better I’m not as optimistic that we still have free elections long enough for it to matter… But, hey, hopefully.
Socialism is still a dirty word. Bernie made a mistake years ago identifying as such. Warren would have cruised to the nomination if she didn’t flip flop on healthcare. She had Bernie catching the fire from her left, like 18 people splitting the vote to her right, and happened to be pretty damn close to the middle of the party’s base especially if you weight it by energy. She surged into the lead and her job was not to fuck it up.
Whoops.
Most of the field self-sabotaged. DGAF Beto goes pretty far. Focus Group Beto crashes and burns. Let’s all hold hands for some bipartisan kumbaya Booker never gets momentum, he couldn’t read the room - we needed some fire and anger.
Pete would have won if he could have gotten like 3 black people to vote for him. His failure in that regard was consistently epic.
Gillibrand would have been a good candidate, but either had horrible advisors or ignored them and made bad decisions. No Democratic candidate should run in the primary on abortion, because there’s so little room between the candidates it’s really hard to differentiate.
Biden won by default because they were never going to let Bernie win, and everyone else with a chance self-destructed.
People also emptied the clip on him too soon. Castro may have been the one who should have won, but he needed to be more front and center on issues other than immigration (like kitchen table issues), and having the last name Castro isn’t doing him any favors in American politics.
The whole thing was a clusterfuck, but I’m not sure it’s predictive of the next one whatsoever. The circumstances were too unique.
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