The Democrats are not going to resist this administration

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Monday January 30, 2017 · 1:31 PM PST

2017/01/30 · 13:31

A republican shows how he believes the game is played

We have already seen time and again that the Democrats in the Senate have no interest in resisting the trump administration’s shredding of the Constitution. Elizabeth Warren voted for confirming Ben “I’m not qualified” Carson after all. And Chuck Schumer *says* he’s going to oppose trump’s nominees, but he’s already voted YES on the ones that have come to the floor. It’s time we all realized this and planned accordingly for the best ways to make sure trump is stopped at all costs.

On that front, I’ve had a couple of ideas of how best to hit trump where it hurts, and also make sure that we are resisting to the best of our abilities. First on that list is to call any and all trump properties and lodge public complaints about the job “our president” is doing. He insists he does not have to divest from his business as president, therefore we should treat his businesses as extensions of the White House. Marching and yelling at them is not sufficient, we should be tying up his business lines if for no other reason than to prove that holding profit-making enterprises as president is not in his best interests.

Secondly, we should be making up press credentials before heading out to any public protests. Given how much fake news is out there, I encourage anyone who has the means to register a fake news domain and “publish” some stories that are plausible but not exactly true. Remember that there is still a freedom of the press in the US, and publishing a story that is based on rumor and innuendo is covered by the 1st Amendment. This gives you cover so you can flash your “credentials” and any and all police action against you is a Federal matter rather than just the run-of-the-mill brutality. Perhaps if kos were willing, any reporting that DK users have posted would be “good enough” to become credentialed as press. Not only does this give you a right to video any and all actions, but you are also documenting any and all actions taken against protestors as they happen.

We’ve already seen that this administration is nothing like anything we’ve experienced in our lifetimes. We have to change tactics in order to keep up the pressure on our elected officials to finally do the right thing, but likewise we cannot count on them to follow our lead even if they say they are going to lead the fight for us.

Let's stop the blame game. Stein did NOT influence this race.

anyman

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Wednesday November 09, 2016 · 4:54 AM PST

2016/11/09 · 04:54

The notion that Green Party votes automatically equals Democraric votes needs to finally be put to bed. Jill Stein did not cost Hillary ANY states last night. It is just as accurate to say Gary Johnson kept this from being a worse loss than it already ended up being. Much like the trump vote, Democrats underestimate what motivates people to pull the lever for their candidate.

My first election was to vote for Bill in 1992. In 1996 I moved to another state and did not register to vote in time so I ended up sitting that one out. But last night was the first time I've cast a non-3rd party vote for a Democrat for president since 1992. I did so because Jill Stein, like Gary Johnson, proved incapable of taking her role seriously as an ambassador for American democracy. My vote for Hillary was a protest to the concept that 3rd party candidates should get serious if they want to influence politics and policy.

This is the point I am trying to get to: Talk to any average Green or Libertarian voter and you will find that they literally have zero interest in major party politics, therefore it is disingenuous to say the Democrat “deserves” those votes. In the vast majority of cases, those votes were ALWAYS going to be cast for Greens/Libertarians. There has been so much wasted time and effort focusing on telling other people to abandon something they believe in to scare them into voting Democratic. That time and energy is much better served encouraging people to vote Democratic, not browbeating people you will agree with on 90% of the issues even if you disagree on the methods of implementation and it only serves to encourage them to vote 3rd party even more. It seems to me that the Democrats at the national level spend far more time taking their base for granted than they do listening to what people say they are looking for from their candidate.

So please stop trying to always blame voters who would have never voted for your candidate in the first place. This is something that is beyond control and should be treated as such. Castigating people who largely agree with your politics is not how you win the hearts and minds of voters. And mostly it comes across as looking for something or someone to blame rather than looking deeper for the real reasons your candidate didn't get enough votes.

Markos is directly responsible for the rise of Trump!

anyman

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Wednesday October 26, 2016 · 3:11 PM PDT

2016/10/26 · 15:11

Before you start directing your ire at me, think it through: Before Markos started up this site, nobody had ever heard of the GREAT ORANGE SATAN. Now that DKos has been at the forefront of the political shift in this country, who else but the actual, living GREAT ORANGE SATAN would arise to claim the nomination of one of the major parties? It took over a decade, but the GREAT ORANGE SATAN finally took over the political discourse in America….

It's actually OK if Keith Lamont Scott had a gun

anyman

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Friday September 23, 2016 · 3:25 PM PDT

2016/09/23 · 15:25

As far as I can tell — without being an actual lawyer — it seems that having a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI as his wife says on the newly released video) does not bar you from possessing a weapon under federal or North Carolina law. Since we are relatively sure Mr. Scott is also not a convicted felon ordinarily barred from firearm ownership, he has just about every right to have a gun on his person as long as he uses and carries it responsibly.

This is unfortunately a typical case where 2nd Amendment carry rights and law enforcement meet with tragic results. Because if we assume the gun “found” on the scene is in fact his, and if he was legally cleared to own a gun, then his having a gun does not automatically make him any of the various things the usual crowd is going to say about him after being fatally shot by police. We only know he was sitting in his car and was accosted by a plain clothes officer, who conveniently enough did not have a functional body camera on at the time of the encounter. I am perfectly fine with him having a gun if it indeed is his, as long as we get whatever other video the police have to prove he used it both incorrectly and illegally in such a manner that he actually *WAS* such a threat to them they had literally no other choice but to fire. From the number of shots fired and how close the officers were to him, I’m personally skeptical of this claim as I’m sure we all should be.

However, if it’s also true he was suffering from symptoms of TBI and not on his medication at the time, the police will have doubly used excessive force. Once by shooting a man in the midst of a medical episode, and once again by closing him in during his episode and shouting at him from various angles. For someone who might be in the throes of an episode that could make them act erratically, they should have called in a medical specialist rather than their marksmen...

Bernie Sanders finally getting the Howard Dean treatment

anyman

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Wednesday May 25, 2016 · 2:18 PM PDT

2016/05/25 · 14:18

I am neither a Bernie Sanders nor Hillary Clinton supporter. I am not going to refuse to vote for one if the other doesn’t win. But it seems to me that Hillary supporters in the Democratic Establishment — and that goes for kos as well — have finally found *something* they can use to try to push Bernie to the margins where they’ve always wanted him to remain with the Nevada shenanigans. Nevermind that most observers have a far different view of what happened than the narrative, they have to push story after story after story denigrating Sanders for something he had no part of. Much like Dean’s yell after trying to fire up his supporters, the media has had a field day with the opportunity to portray Sanders as the out-of-touch, curmudgeonly wing-nut they’ve always tried to portray him as.

Also, much like Dean’s “meltdown”, we see again how the Establishment tries to rally support behind “the inevitable nominee” by insulting the very people whose votes and support they will need to win. Thankfully for Hillary, the odds are extremely favorable for her to do absolutely the bare minimum and still win. But it seems to me that if this were a much closer election, telling Sanders supporters, essentially, “You’ll vote for Hillary and like it” is a poor message when attempting some semblance of “unity” before the election. If I were inclined to work for a campaign, I would not want to work for one who considered the millions of activists and supporters of my primary opponent as more harmful to my election chances than the actual opposition party’s campaign machine.

This is an all-too-familiar pattern that we’ve seen time and time again in every election since 2004. Establishment Democrats say “Why do you want to support [Howard Dean/Dennis Kucinich/Barack Obama]? You know they can’t possibly get elected right? All you tens of thousands of small-donation supporters don’t have any idea what it takes to get people involved in Presidential political campaigns! You need to support [John Kerry/Hillary Clinton] because they’ve worked hard to be the nominee. It doesn’t matter that you don’t agree with their policy decisions, why would you care about that? We have to win this election, IT’S NEVER BEEN MORE IMPORTANT! THERE IS SO MUCH AT STAKE! JUST SUPPORT THE NOMINEE ALREADY!” It’s been said that the Democratic primary process is where progressive politics goes to die and I think that has also never been more true than this election season…..

Why does nobody want Elizabeth Warren for Treasury or Federal Reserve Chair?

anyman

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Wednesday May 04, 2016 · 2:09 PM PDT

2016/05/04 · 14:09

Just a quick thought, but I wonder what people are thinking, trying to get Senator Warren to take a job she has adamantly refused to take time and time again. She is clearly not interested in being President, and Vice President is probably on her short list of “things not to ever do in my lifetime” as well.

HOWEVER

She would make a great Secretary of Treasury. Barring that, she would probably be an even better Chair of the Federal Reserve system. Would you rather have her in charge of breaking tie votes in the Senate? Or in charge of bank regulation? I’m pretty sure I know what her record makes her more suited for, now we just have to find out whether she’d like to keep being a Senator or finally bust the big banks down to a more manageable size.

A suggestion for DK5 (and DK in general)

anyman

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Tuesday November 10, 2015 · 10:52 AM PST

2015/11/10 · 10:52

Now that we have a brand new everything, is it too much to ask that the link to “Read more” actually goes to the same point in the post that it is linked from? Maybe it’s just nitpicking, but when I “Click to read more” or “Go below the fold” as it were, it would be AMAZING to be able to pick up where I left off, rather than scroll down to where I left off. I wouldn’t turn a page in a newspaper just to read the entire story again, and with the wonders of HTML we should also be able to get the rest of the story on the next page continuation with the option to go back to the beginning if we choose.

A sad irony in the death of Walter Scott

anyman

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Thursday April 23, 2015 · 2:54 PM PDT

2015/04/23 · 14:54

I just saw the dashcam footage of the police officer stopping Walter Scott, which took place in the moments before Scott took off running and ended up in the park where he lost his life. Since this particular footage came with audio, it was capturing the radio (or music player) in the patrol car during those moments. And the song captured in those minutes before Walter Scott lost his life was "What It's Like" from Everlast. I think if the officer actually knew and understood the lyrics, he may not have shot first and acted the way he acted. Probably wishful thinking, but that's my theory. Lyrics and music below the fold....

anyman

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Tuesday January 06, 2015 · 9:45 AM PST

2015/01/06 · 09:45

I realize that MLB and community policing are vastly different animals, but I thought there were a lot of parallels between the 1999 MLB Umpire labor action and the current NYPD "protests". For those who don't follow sports (and I rarely follow baseball anymore myself), back in 1999 there was an upcoming labor dispute between the union representing the Umpires -- The Major League Umpires Association (MLUA) -- and the collective league(s) of Major League Baseball (MLB). One of the biggest points of contention was the ever-shrinking strike zone, which MLB wanted to be called more closely to the way the rules were written but which MLUA members insisted was being called correctly.

anyman

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Tuesday August 05, 2014 · 10:11 AM PDT

2014/08/05 · 10:11

$8 million per day. This is the total of US tax dollars which go to Israel every single day on average. This is simply an extrapolation of the $3 Billion (with a B) which is guaranteed to Israel, it does not count the extra aid and support which is typically approved on a case by case basis (or just as a rider to another bill, because our Congress is all too happy to pile more money onto our best friend in the whole world). Most estimates are that we give them $13 million per day, which translates to about $4 Billion per year. Keep this in mind as the pictures of mangled children and civilians keep coming in from Gaza, and think about what else we could be buying for $8 million per day.

My favorite "liberal" Xmas songs part 2 - Tim Minchin

anyman

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Monday December 09, 2013 · 11:20 AM PST

2013/12/09 · 11:20

For those unfamiliar with Tim Minchin, he is an Australian comedian and musician who is both amazingly funny and supremely talented on the piano. He is also an atheist, which makes his writing of a Christmas song ironic in a way, but I hope you can agree that he's captured the spirit of the season, if not the religious message at the center of it. I would encourage everyone who has not heard of him to check out his other works, especially if you like comedy and/or music!

I really like Christmas.
It's sentimental I know, but I still really like it.
I am hardly religious.
I'd rather break bread with Dawkins than Desmond Tutu to be honest.
And yes, I have all of the usual objections to consumerism; to the commercialization of an ancient religion.
To the Westernization of a dead Palestinian press-ganged into selling Playstations and beer.
But I still really like it.
I'm looking forward to Christmas though I'm not expecting a visit from Jesus.
I'll be seeing my dad, my brothers and sisters, my Gran and my mom.
They'll be drinking white wine in the sun

I don't go in for ancient wisdom.
I don't believe just 'cause ideas are tenacious it means that they're worthy.
I get freaked out by churches.
Some of the hymns that they sing have nice chords but the lyrics are dodgy.
And yes I have all of the usual objections to the mis-education of children.
Who, in tax exempt institutions, are taught to externalize blame, and to feel ashamed, and to judge things as plain right or wrong.
But I still like the songs.
I'm not expecting big presents.
The old combination of socks, jocks and chocolates is just fine by me.

Cause I'll be seeing my dad, my brothers and sisters, my Gran and my mom.
They'll be drinking white wine in the sun

And you, my baby girl.
My jet-lagged infant daughter.
You'll be handed 'round the room, like a puppy at a primary school.
And you won't understand, but you will learn someday, that where-ever you are and whatever you face, these are the people that make you feel safe in this world.
My sweet blue-eyed girl.
And if, my baby girl, when you're 21 or 31 and Christmas comes around
And you find yourself 9,000 miles from home, you'll know whatever comes...

Your brothers and sisters, and me and your mom, will be waiting for you in the sun
Whenever you come, your brothers and sisters, your aunts and your uncles, your grandparents, cousins, and me and your mom
Will be waiting for you in the sun
Drinking white wine in the sun
Darling when Christmas comes
We'll be waiting for you in the sun
Drinking white wine in the sun
Waiting for you

I really like Christmas. It's sentimental, I know....

anyman

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Friday December 06, 2013 · 9:25 AM PST

2013/12/06 · 09:25

I'm sure many here are familiar with the works of Phil Ochs. This is one of those songs I try to get non-activist friends to listen to and they indulge me because we are friends but I rarely get acknowledgement of the message Phil is trying to convey here -- namely that the spirit of the season is not "Where would Jesus shop?" but rather "Who would Jesus help?" The lyrics are pasted below, and all copyright is with whoever owns Phil Ochs' works. I've tried to paste a YouTube video of the song below the fold.

Christmas shoppers shopping on a neon city street
Another Christmas dollar for another Christmas treat
There's satin on the pretty dolls that make the children glow
While a boy is walking ragged in the cold Kentucky snow
No, they don't have Christmas in Kentucky
There's no holly on a West Virginia door
For the trees don't twinkle when you're hungry
And the jingle bells don't jingle when you're poor

There's lots of toys for children when the Christmas time is near
But the present for the miners is a stocking full of beer
In the dark hills of Kentucky there's one gift that may be found
The coal dust of forgotten days that's lying on the ground

No, they don't have Christmas in Kentucky
There's no holly on a West Virginia door
For the trees don't twinkle when you're hungry
And the jingle bells don't jingle when you're poor

Let's drink a toast to Congress and a toast to Santa Claus
And a toast to all the speeches that bring the loud applause
There's not enough to give, no, there's just not enough to share
So let's drown the sounds of sorrow with a hearty Christmas cheer

No, they don't have Christmas in Kentucky
There's no holly on a West Virginia door
For the trees don't twinkle when you're hungry
And the jingle bells don't jingle when you're poor

Have a very merry Christmas and a happy New Year's Day
For now's a time of plenty and plenty's here to stay
But if you knew what Christmas was, I think that you would find
Christ is spending Christmas in the cold Kentucky mine

No, they don't have Christmas in Kentucky
There's no holly on a West Virginia door
For the trees don't twinkle when you're hungry
And the jingle bells don't jingle when you're poor

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The Democrats are not going to resist this administration

Let's stop the blame game. Stein did NOT influence this race.

Markos is directly responsible for the rise of Trump!

It's actually OK if Keith Lamont Scott had a gun

Bernie Sanders finally getting the Howard Dean treatment

Why does nobody want Elizabeth Warren for Treasury or Federal Reserve Chair?

A suggestion for DK5 (and DK in general)

A sad irony in the death of Walter Scott

MLB Umpires and the NYPD tantrums

$8 million per day

My favorite "liberal" Xmas songs part 2 - Tim Minchin

My favorite "liberal" Xmas songs part 1 - Phil Ochs