Legosi (Tani Coyote)

The store that called the police on Floyd has announced they will no longer be involving police in nonviolent incidents. NYPD is doxxing the mayor's daughter now. Meanwhile we're seeing politicians donating everything they received from police lobbies to bail funds, mutual aid, etc. Police departments are quite possibly othering themselves during all this, actively intimidating the people who are supposed to be their superiors. Executives and legislators across the country should honestly pass bills to fire everyone in these departments and create new bodies that understand their place in the constitutional hierarchy.

"Liberal" Democrat Governors pretty much unanimously calling in National Guard units to support the police now even as evidence mounts of police mishandling. You see, now that the primaries are over, they're free to do this to people because they know they'll win most people over with "but Republicans are so much worse" come November.

I fully anticipate Trump will pull a Nixon and scream about "law and order" as a reason to keep him in office so he can distribute more tanks to the police or something. As for end goals, these protests definitely have a different flavor than what I'm used to seeing. Let's compare Los Angeles '92; it seemed a lot of the rioting was targeting Korean shops, not the police. This... while we do see some businesses being ransacked, there's a lot of high profile destruction and seizure of police precincts. Guns and equipment being distributed across the protestors. I am not sure what kind of organization these groups have. But one thing is for sure, they're definitely making an impression. A lot of times when any violence breaks out, it doesn't seem to ever target the police, the state. This time? We've got BLM flags being raised over precincts in broad daylight. We have countless reporters being arrested, but that's the thing: with social media and smartphones, everyone is a reporter. We have bus drivers refusing to drive arrestees to the jail. I do not know what the future holds. But COVID-19 decimated America's socioeconomic fabric; we have a massive population with nothing left to lose, fresh off several weeks of anxiety about the pandemic. And as politicians in Washington debate the right of every American to have a home and full pantry, I do not expect this to get any better soon. We may be classing violence as race riots now, but I do not doubt we're going to see more and more of a class element to this as time goes on. That is when Hell really breaks loose. A lot depends on organization. If these groups develop any sort of leadership, this could drag on. And have serious consequences in the long run regardless of what happens. Sure, the government can call in a ton of overwhelming firepower. The PR nightmare of engaging your own population aside? We also called in a ton of overwhelming firepower in Southeast Asia. This country spared no expense in Vietnam and the surrounding areas, trying to crush a population that largely did not want us there. It still wasn't enough.

The emphasis on the looting honestly distracts from the way precincts are being systematically targeted; in some cases the armories have actually been raided and the weapons distributed. These aren't your typical protests and riots. This is storming the Bastille. Perhaps the comparisons to Weimar Germany aren't entirely off. We have record unemployment. COVID-19 has torn the fabric of life apart and created large numbers of people with nothing to lose. And as "liberal" mayors and governors largely close ranks around the police, we're quickly seeing both major parties losing legitimacy. This is going to be an ugly Summer. Amazing how a few days ago the news of the day was the fact the Democratic Presidential candidate shat himself on a livestream. ** Also, here's my problem with this "We have to beat Trump or else fascism" take, forgive me being late to the party. This assumes that the moment Trump is gone, we will snap back to normal. I highly doubt it. He changed the Overton Window the same way Sanders did. The next Republican nominee is likely going to be as openly a piece of shit as Trump is. So that's why I don't buy the "we must vote Biden to stop him" narrative. Because guess what? As soon as he's out, the next Republican will peddle the same bullshit, attract the same base, inflict the same cruelty. And the Democrats will peddle the same bullshit as well, saying they don't need to stand for anything because they're "so much better" than the monster the Republican Party puts before us. The left in this country is fed up. We want politicians who we vote for based on who they are, not who they aren't. Yes, it is a privileged position to do this, because the Democratic politicians don't do as much damage as the Republicans. But in rational choice, there is this concept called a "time horizon." Part of being privileged is you can have a longer one. You can afford to take a loss now to try and secure a gain down the line. And I want a Party that's actually promising to tear this socioeconomic system apart. We are the wealthiest country on Earth. There is no reason to have homelessness, starvation, and crippling medical and student debt. There is no reason Jeff Bezos should be the richest man on Earth yet guilt us into funding his employees' health plans, or his contractor's tips, while his rich Lex Luthor knockoff ass robs our society blind by using the USPS to avoid giving his employees benefits. Your typical Democrat makes things a little more tolerable, absolutely. But a few more minorities in power, a few more body cameras on cops, a few less children in cages... it's not really solving the underlying problem now is it? Now, what I do think we should all do is turn out to support Democrats in the House and Senate. It is hard for independents to succeed in this country, and until that is fixed, it is absolutely a good idea to check the power of the President with a coherent opposition. We just gotta remember that we can definitely do better than that same opposition going forward. Primary the rotting corpses that we call incumbents. Demand independent redistricting. Give your signature to ranked choice ballot initiatives. Also, while we're talking Democrats, a relevant topic on this theme of protests. Keep in mind your typical liberal politician who gives police brutality protests their moral support, will sooner take your guns away than the police's. We can do better. There is fertile ground for lasting socioeconomic reform in this country, but it requires dissolving this cartel these "separate" parties have created for themselves by partitioning almost every district in this country into an uncompetitive safe seat. tl;dr: Here's food for thought. We're so terrified of this autocracy that Trump will surely be able to impose even if his party loses control of a Congress which apparently doesn't exist. Yet here's the funny thing about autocracies: they tend to endure specifically because they can always point to a "greater evil" in their society. And if you challenge them in any way, expect them to do better, you are just really siding with the greater evil. Sound familiar?

Re: the Supreme Court. The GOP is playing to lose with how openly they want to pack it, honestly. The thing about the Supreme Court is it derives its power entirely from legitimacy... which it derives from giving an illusion of not being partisan hacks. The moment the Supreme Court starts throwing out Roe and Obergefell and all those is the moment we stop paying attention to what a bunch of unelected old people in robes yell at us. I am not optimistic Dems will carry the Senate with or without Biden at the top, either, so what we would really be playing is "Biden cannot put anyone on the bench as the GOP's Senate majority grows in 2022 so the next GOP President can efficiently pack it." ** Plus, political considerations aside, I really can't bring myself to vote for a guy getting buried in sexual misconduct accusations. Yeah yeah, the whole "lesser evil" thing. But at what point do you make a stand? I'm gonna go full Godwin on this one: "well he committed atrocities against fewer people" is literally the argument fascist apologists make to say Hitler was better than Stalin. No, they were both mass murdering sociopaths. In 2016, I was told not voting for a candidate because they were not an ideal choice was a sign of privilege. I took that to heart, and largely considered it to be true; black people have to work with less than ideal choices all the time, this is true. But Hillary was different. For all her flaws and for how obnoxiously the Democratic leadership and media pushed her on us, she didn't perpetrate sexual assault. She was a typical boring neoliberal as opposed to someone who actively is going around hurting people directly. So yes. Choosing not to vote Biden is a privileged thing to do. But on the other hand, choosing to vote Biden is giving a blank check to every despicable human being that they are free to be our President, that all the backdoor politics (I'm sure it was entirely chance everyone suddenly dropped to endorse Biden the eve of Super Tuesday) is a-okay, all on the basis of "well he's the lesser evil." No thanks. I will vote downticket for Democrats to check the abuses of Trump (who I think is a favorite to win anyway unless the economy just collapses), but I can't really get behind backing Biden at the top. While I'm here. There is one big problem with the black voter comparison and the privilege narrative that stems from it. Black voters tend to fairly solidly support the moderate in the primary anyway, so of course there's no issue with backing them in the general; this was true this year, when Biden absolutely destroyed Bernie among black voters (especially older black voters). Once you go beyond that community, however, there is often a lot more incongruency between your primary pick and the nominee. This is going to lead to a very different electoral experience and voting decision. Or, another way to put it: privilege is multifaceted here. Chances are a black voter's primary election preference is the nominee anyway, so of course it's not difficult to get behind the nominee.

So Biden and Bernie neck and neck in Washington. A ton of delegates still remain uncounted from the pro-Bernie states of March 3rd's race. Biden won Idaho and Michigan despite Bernie's supposed rural appeal. Short of some miracle after the 15th's debate impacting the 17th primaries, Biden is the nominee. He generally polls better than Trump but given he's clearly losing his marbles, I would not be surprised if that changes. We can only hope that Dems can still do well downticket so Trump doesn't enter his second term with both Houses of Congress again.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/08/politics/jesse-jackson-bernie-sanders-endorsement/index.html Even that might change soon. While Biden was busy gobbling up every nomination he could find, he didn't invite Jesse Jackson to the party. Jackson has endorsed Bernie Sanders. Considering he towed the establishment line and backed Clinton in 2016, this is actually a potentially huge development. As one of the more prominent black leaders, and given what we know about elite cues in voting behavior, Jackson going against the grain could have a serious impact.

We have about 115 delegates from Super Tuesday to go, and Biden is ahead by 91. He will most likely maintain his lead. Current polls put Bernie as non-viable in Florida. If that continues, Biden will win 200 delegates from it, and this is basically over. Now, as for this upcoming Tuesday. I looked at polling averages, which admittedly are flawed since most don't account for this being a two candidate race (lol Tulsi), and split the delegates in each state proportionate to the candidate's share of the vote: Idaho (20) – No polling. Sanders stomped Clinton here in 2016. Michigan (125) – 70 Biden, 55 Sanders Mississippi (36) – 25 Biden, 11 Sanders Missouri (68) – 43 Biden, 25 Sanders North Dakota (14) – No polling. Ditto with Idaho. Washington (89) – 46 Sanders, 43 Biden Net: 181 for Biden, 137 for Sanders. Even if Bernie sweeps Idaho and North Dakota, he remains behind. It looks like Biden is on the path to crush Sanders. But a lot can change in a two-candidate race. If you are a Bernie supporter, going out to vote is more important than ever now. What is most eye-opening about the current polls is Biden's surge in Michigan. It is possible he's just enjoying a boost from every single Democrat coalescing behind him, but if Bernie can't beat Biden in the Rust Belt, I just don't see a path forward. Multiple things. In general, the South is more conservative, so black voters from there will reflect that. Speaking of the black community as a whole, there has been some research done on the topic. In some cases, it's the influence of the church in many communities that pushes it a little more towards conservative ideology, but the racism of the Republican Party keeps even conservative black people from joining the GOP for the most part. There are other factors in play as well. What has been found is black voters tend to feel moderates deliver more on their promises than radicals. Clinton signed into law a bill that fell heavily on African Americans, but he also oversaw their greatest period of economic prosperity. Meanwhile, black radicalism in the 1960s paved the way for Nixon's Southern Strategy and the modern American police state that imprisons and murders black people with impunity. In addition, the experience with racism seems to have overall lowered black voters' expectations, so going with a moderate means the least chance of being disappointed. But yes, last I saw, about 40% of black voters identify as conservative and 40% as moderate. Social pressure goes a long way to maintain cohesion with the Democratic Party, but there are strategic reasons to as well. Of course, then you have black leaders like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, who are tied very heavily to moderate Democratic politicians. But it's better to look at black leaders in the aggregate... the issue they tend to rank most highly is not police brutality, but affirmative action in college. They, the relatively well to do black Americans, are more interested in putting their kids in college than keeping everyone else's kids out of jail. There is a reason Black Lives Matter groups tend to politely tell traditional black leaders to piss off. They recognize the affiliation with the neoliberal leadership of the Democratic Party only benefits wealthier black people. This is the same pattern we have seen for hundreds of years. A colonized population's leaders are just agents of the colonizer. The Palestinian leaders live in plush mansions while their people can barely fit in their housing, if their house isn't demolished by Israeli settlements. Is it any surprise that black leaders tend to celebrate moderates like Biden as helping to fend off the evils of Republican racism, even though Biden's weak commitment to ending the Drug War or overdue investment in black communities means oppression will continue with little change?

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2020/president/ca/california_democratic_primary-6879.html Super Tuesday could actually end this quickly. California has over 400 delegates, and... only Bernie is polling over 15 percent. Warren, Biden and Bloomberg are all bouncing in the 13-15 range. Since the primaries require getting at least 15 percent of the vote to qualify for delegates... it's possible only Bernie will get any. For consideration: there is a little under 4,000 delegates total. Bernie basically wins the race if he gets all of California. He is also ahead in Texas (Biden second) and Virginia (Bloomberg second), and recently overtook Warren in her home state of Massachusetts. The other Democrats are terrified, because they know there's a real chance Bernie will just destroy everyone in a week. A very good question. Most superdelegates are currently-serving elected officials. If Bernie rides into the convention with 40%+, it's really down to whether they want to risk being thrown out in a red wave if they alienate a lot of Democratic voters by simply ignoring him. I would need a source for this. While Bernie circulated a story about high priced tickets for entry, that's manufactured outrage. The bulk of those in attendance are people who work on the campaigns or are prominent local Democrats. The same way it's been for all the other first four primary debates. Now if you want a real lol about Bloomberg, how about how they are destroying their own volunteer offices and heavily implying in most statements that it's Sanders and Warren: Notice the fact the glass is on the outside of the window... and how there's a pile of rocks just sitting inside. Now either somehow this office got broken into and someone stayed there a lengthy amount of time to break the windows, or...

50 percent in with Nevada. Bernie has 47 percent of the vote to Biden's 19 and Buttigieg's 15. It's actually possible Buttigieg will come out of this with no delegates, leaving Bernie as the clear frontrunner. The media's desperate to destroy Bernie at this point, they've just kind of removed the filter and are letting whatever comes to mind go on air. They're too dense to realize that giving all the attention to the guy they hate is a great way to get him elected. I guess I can be happy they learned nothing from 2016? Andrew Yang has become a CNN correspondent, the first thing he did was start lying about how Bernie gets crushed by Trump in all the swing states. From polls I've seen, Bernie beats Trump in all the swing states but Wisconsin. Most Dems do that too, actually. Pete Buttigieg got up on his pedestal after tonight's caucus to yell about how we need a candidate everyone unites behind, not someone who divides the Party, even though Bernie's the only candidate so far who has support in every state, first or second place. The Culinary Workers Union, meanwhile, was telling its rank and file that Bernie and Warren's Medicare for All would mean they lose their union health insurance. ... union members overwhelmingly backed them anyway. When you're poor, you know how to budget, and loss aversion fallacies don't work on you, apparently. MSNBC's election coverage casually implied they'd rather have 4 more years of Trump than have a Bernie Presidency permanently reshape the Democrats into a further left, solidarity-based party. The louder they yell, the more Sanders supporters go out and vote. The more people who are fairly aloof from politics make a connection, "hey, everyone who is in power doesn't like this guy. He's the guy for me then."

Update: With 11% of the vote in, Sanders has 46.6% of the vote. Short of some real surprises from other precincts, he has crushed this race, and all outlets are calling it for him. https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/davidmack/chris-matthews-bernie-sanders-nazi-germany-france-invasion MSNBC's Chris Matthews, meanwhile, decided it was intelligent to compare someone who could be the very first Jewish President, whose family were massacred by the Nazis, to the Nazis. I hope this guy loses his job.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/politics/entrance-polls-2020-nevada-caucuses/ Just an entrance poll but umm... Bernie looks poised to absolutely crush everyone at the Nevada caucuses. He leads in basically every voter category. Seems those polls putting him at 30%+ were on the money. I would not be surprised if we see someone drop tonight.