Just wanted to throw this graph out there. Dems did better in the Senate than many think, even if they didn’t take it back. If we can keep this momentum up in 2020, we could take the Senate back.
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/12/the-democrats-white-people-problem/573901/
This is such a good article. It speaks directly to the issues of racism vs. economics as drivers of political discussion. The short answer is “talk about them both.” Or maybe “don’t claim we live in a post-racial society, but do recognize that money is a fundamental driver.” Or something. Maybe read the entire article, because I can’t boil it down to a tweet.
«To counter the far right’s story line, Democrats must acknowledge the persistence of racism while shifting attention to the American dream of social mobility.»
Cleaning out my old email and ran across this from September:
«Former cop Roy Oliver begins 15-year prison sentence for murdering Jordan Edwards»
Not sure being a “survivor” in politics is really a thing to be all that proud of. There’s another creature we refer to as something that will probably “survive” long after humans cease to exist on the earth, either because of nuclear war or catastrophic climate change.
«“Rubio is a survivor who constantly reassesses the political environment,” said Dan Eberhart, a donor to Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R), who sealed his victory in the Senate race Sunday when Sen. Bill Nelson (D) conceded defeat at the conclusion of a manual recount.»
https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2018/11/16/why-britain-needs-its-own-mueller/
«Critically, it’s what happened on Facebook that remains the biggest question of all. The control of money spent during elections is the very basis of our electoral laws. But they no longer work. Facebook has become a giant funnel not just for dark ads, but for dark money that evades election finance laws. It is now not in doubt that Facebook facilitated data crimes, what we’ve failed to reckon with is how it has broken our democracy, too.
Five times, a parliamentary committee has asked Mark Zuckerberg to answer its questions. And five times, Zuckerberg has refused. In the last instance, he said no to five national assemblies, when, in an unprecedented act, the British Parliament joined forces with counterparts in Canada, Australia, Argentina, and Ireland to invite Facebook’s chief executive to an extraordinary joint international committee on November 27. It’s often said that Facebook is more powerful than a nation-state. It’s not; it’s more powerful than five nation-states.
….
However bleak and dark and troubled America seems right now, it’s not as bleak and dark and troubled as Britain. You have Robert S. Mueller. We don’t.»
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/when-the-good-guy-with-a-gun-is-a-black-man/
American Conservative magazine:
«“Everybody was screaming out, ‘Security!’ He was a security guard,” a witness chillingly told the Chicago news station WGN9. “And they still did their job, and saw a black man with a gun, and basically killed him.”
….
Yet the cold resignation in the witness’s account originates in the experiences of many African Americans. There is a burgeoning number of cases in which the police conduct that results in a dead black man is at least highly questionable.
So too is the relative silence of gun rights groups when these situations entail law-abiding black gun owners’ interactions with law enforcement. The most prominent example is Philando Castile, a valid gun permit holder who was slain despite informing police officers he was armed. The National Rifle Association faced questions about its handling of the incident—not least from its own members.
Unless new information emerges that radically changes what we know about the underlying facts, Roberson represents the next test for gun rights supporters. He stopped a bad guy with a gun, fulfilling the promise of the Second Amendment, and then died at the hands of government employees who would exercise a near-monopoly on firearms ownership if the most extreme anti-gun activists had their way.»
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/13/opinion/jeff-flake-book-review.html
No. It was impotent, pious handwringing by an impotent man. Or it was simply posturing.
«In which case, perhaps I should soften my critique of my critique. It wasn’t that I was too kind to Flake when his book came out. It was that I mischaracterized his book altogether. “Conscience of a Conservative” was not a cri de coeur, a critique of Trump, an analysis of the sorry state of our politics or an invitation to recommit to Goldwater’s philosophy.
It was a relic. It was a bit of quixotica. It was a tragedy.»
Not generally a HuffPo reader, but…
«To a certain Beltway mindset, it is the height of seriousness not to take political ideas so seriously that you attach life-or-death significance to them. For the “Pod Save America” hosts and for most of the other liberals eagerly embracing Never Trumpers, showing off your Republican pal — the good, polite kind of Republican! — feels harmless because most of them will never actually have to deal with the consequences of actual Republican policies.
It’s uncomfortable to acknowledge that the person you’ve been joking around with the past few years is exactly the guy your harshest critics said he was. But if Crooked Media is serious about being a fresh voice for progressives, it’s time to stop pretending that Miller is anything other than what it’s supposed to be fighting against.»
Suddenly, it’s not just social media follows, discord chats, and guns bought online with Bitcoin.
«Clark, wearing an orange prison jumpsuit, did not enter a plea and said little at the hearing beyond confirming that he was a high school graduate and needed an appointed attorney.»
Here, Read This 