Leon Troutsky

^^^Progressives also seem to misunderstand this.

I read 99 posts a day. And ain’t one of them by WFW.

Shot.... ...chaser.

We need video.

Then the GOP would have adopted fascism as a governing ideology. But not all illiberal or authoritarian leaders are fascist, which is why I make a hard distinction between Trump’s type of authoritarianism and actual fascism.

I usually stay out of abortion discussions because i view them as largely unnecessary and centered around culture war and identity stuff. The fact is that with better government policies promoting contraceptives and other efforts to prevent unplanned pregnancy, the entire abortion discussion would be moot. Both sides generally want to reduce or eliminate abortions. If there are no unwanted and unplanned pregnancies then there would be no abortions. So all the “life at conception” and “not personhood” stuff is just so much noise that ignores efforts to solve the underlying problem.

I think there are a lot of people who just blindly regurgitate the weak arguments from the Republicans and don’t think too much about it. Look at the other two largest democracies in the world, though. You have India where they paid government workers to carry a voting booth 50-60 miles into a jungle, fighting off poisonous snakes and other dangerous animals, so that one person who lives there can vote. Think about that...they carried a voting machine through a jungle so a single person can cast their vote. Then you have Indonesia, where the government pays citizens to go around

I’ve intentionally stayed out of all this, but I want to point out that I’ve long opposed people using the word “fascist” against Republicans and even Trump. Trump is unquestionably authoritarian. He’s said so outright in his comments about the Chinese and NK presidents. But he’s not fascist. Qanon, on the other hand, is absolutely fascist and it’s becoming mainstream in the Republican Party. All of that is just a general statement, not aimed at anyone in particular, and now I’ll step out of this fight again.

This is something that doesn’t get enough consideration, I think. The public isn’t guided by process stuff, but in this case the voter suppression efforts are effectively undermining democracy. And the arguments supporting them (or trivializing them, more often) are so transparently weak and obnoxious to the point of being pathetic. Let’s start with a simple statement that everybody should agree with — nobody should have to stand in line for eight hours because they live in an area that votes a certain way. And nobody should get to vote in 15 minutes because they live in an area

The sentiment is all well and good, but one of the biggest obstacles to us getting a handle on it is an utter failure of leadership. You have a spike in cases while the President of the United States says we’re “rounding the turn” and is holding rallies with thousands of people not socially distancing or wearing masks packed indoors. When you have that level of malignant stupidity by the President of the United States, it’s fair game to point out that he’s partly to blame for the problems we’re facing right now.

Nah, I’m good.

Something that I don’t understand about the right’s war on Facebook is, first, Facebook has very lenient policies about what can be said on their platform and, second, if the GOP gets its way and removes liability protection for Facebook (and Twitter), it’s going to result in MORE crackdowns on misinformation because now Facebook could be held legally liable for any defamation committed on its platform. In other words, it’s going to make it even harder for the right to spread their lies and fake news and other disinformation on social media.

I watch very little politically themed TV shows. House of Cards was probably the last one. Get enough of this stuff in my professional life and when I wind down to watch TV, I kind of prefer to leave politics in the office.

Never watched the show.

I think you meant for SC to be red and NC to be blue. Edit: Or maybe this isn’t what I think it is. So what are we looking at?

Nevermind, I just got caught up.

Just a quick note — the race is definitely tightening. RCP average is down to 7% Biden lead and 538 average is 9% Biden lead. Those are still great numbers for Biden, but the trend is moving against him right now. More notable, his lead in PA is down to 5%, though he’s still hanging around the 50% mark.

I don’t think Dems will do this, but if they get the majority they do have the power to restrict SCOTUS jurisdiction. So hypothetically, they could pass a law that says SCOTUS cannot rule on abortion, for example. It’s a terrible idea. If they want to unpack the SCOTUS, then go with the eliminate filibuster + expand court + statehood for DC and PR path.

Where they start depends on what SCOTUS does with the ACA. If they strike it down, that could force Joe into some policy positions that wouldn’t have been possible otherwise (like M4A). We’ll see. I’m not saying that we’ll get a progressive agenda. But at least we won’t have the dumpster fire we’ve had the last four years.

That requires people to vote Democratic this year.

I don’t think he’ll have a choice.

That’s why Dems couple it with statehood for DC and Puerto Rico. Add 4 Democrats to the Senate and the GOP has lost the Senate for a generation. Look at the 2022 and 2024 senate maps.

Makes me want to vote straight ticket third party.

They’re trying to provoke that communist revolution that Achille’s is dreaming about, aren’t they?

That only happens if Democrats win.