2020 Elections

[Kron3007]

Neither do I, but I do believe that these behaviors are self perpetuating and largely a result of decades/centuries of racism.   

There's a problem with that (source):

Between 1880 and 1960, the proportion of black children in single-parent
families exhibited a remarkable stability hovering in a narrow band around 20 percent. Then, abruptly, after
1960, this demographic equilibrium shattered as the proportion of black children in single-parent families
doubled between 1960 and 1980 then continued its sharp rise reaching a new stable demographic
equilibrium just above 50 percent near 1990.

For nearly a century after the end of slavery, there were vastly fewer fatherless homes. (And if slavery represents the worst degree of racism, then the collapse of families had to be due to something else.)

Like, mass incarceration of Black men?

So what activities were suddenly criminalized that hadn't been for the previous 80 years, resulting in those incarcerations?

The war on drugs?  Maybe not new laws, but more focus.  It can also be about more than what laws are in place, but how they are applied and enforced and how harshly different groups are penalized for the same crimes. 

[mahagonny]

If we could have gotten wealthy liberals to stop stuffing cocaine up their noses we might have had a chance at keeping drugs off the streets.

[jimbogumbo]

Elections meet football!

https://twitter.com/ejmaroun/status/1330994425720426497?s=21

[mamselle]

At least they've finally released the transition budget monies...

   https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2020/11/23/politics/transition-biden-gsa-begin/index.html

Let the games begin...

M.

[spork]

Listening to Biden announce Cabinet picks. It's nice having a President again who is capable of speaking in complete sentences.

[evil_physics_witchcraft]

Listening to Biden announce Cabinet picks. It's nice having a President again who is capable of speaking in complete sentences.

I agree. It is also refreshing to not be lambasted by hatred and vitriol with a side of gas lighting and fearmongering.

[Puget]

Listening to Biden announce Cabinet picks. It's nice having a President again who is capable of speaking in complete sentences.

I agree. It is also refreshing to not be lambasted by hatred and vitriol with a side of gas lighting and fearmongering.

And to have competent, highly experienced people of good will chosen for cabinet posts rather than political hacks who want to destroy the agencies they head. I can only imagine the relief of the career civil servants who will be allowed to simply do their jobs again.

[Parasaurolophus]

Far too many hawks among the cabinet picks for my taste.

[mamselle]

Maybe, but it's not yet time to let the subdivisions within the party start splintering support for Biden overall.

The way things are looking, any slight crack will be used to break up a very necessary unity that will be needed to fend off things like the mess being made with Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac and other schemes to tear the house down and burn up the pieces before handing it on.
   
   https://www.marketwatch.com/amp/story/the-trump-administration-may-privatize-fannie-mae-and-freddie-mac-and-it-could-disrupt-the-nations-housing-finance-system-11606208076

This transition period could be foundational in several different ways.

A bit more discipline might yet be needed; AOC and company really don't seem to realize that, laudable as their goals well may be, they're going to take things down with them if they don't learn some pulling-together-instead-of-pulling-apart strategies.

"Getting things done," vs. "getting your own way," hasn't yet seeped into their understanding, it seems.

Especially if the Senate races in GA don't put Schumer in McConnell's seat, they're neither going to get what they want, nor let anyone else get anything done, and they just don't seem to realize that.

M.

[marshwiggle]

A bit more discipline might yet be needed; AOC and company really don't seem to realize that, laudable as their goals well may be, they're going to take things down with them if they don't learn some pulling-together-instead-of-pulling-apart strategies.

"Getting things done," vs. "getting your own way," hasn't yet seeped into their understanding, it seems.

Especially if the Senate races in GA don't put Schumer in McConnell's seat, they're neither going to get what they want, nor let anyone else get anything done, and they just don't seem to realize that.

M.

This is the kind of thing Bill Maher pointed out about why so many people voted for Trump.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgrZAPUvKyA

[mahagonny]

Minority voters voting republican more often is a good thing. It puts more diversity in their population. Diversity, do we remember that idea?

Both parties should be trying to get black votes and blacks should have real reasons to choose either one over the other.

A bit more discipline might yet be needed; AOC and company really don't seem to realize that, laudable as their goals well may be, they're going to take things down with them if they don't learn some pulling-together-instead-of-pulling-apart strategies.

"Getting things done," vs. "getting your own way," hasn't yet seeped into their understanding, it seems.

Especially if the Senate races in GA don't put Schumer in McConnell's seat, they're neither going to get what they want, nor let anyone else get anything done, and they just don't seem to realize that.

M.

This is the kind of thing Bill Maher pointed out about why so many people voted for Trump.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgrZAPUvKyA

[Parasaurolophus]

Maybe, but it's not yet time to let the subdivisions within the party start splintering support for Biden overall.

The way things are looking, any slight crack will be used to break up a very necessary unity that will be needed to fend off things like the mess being made with Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac and other schemes to tear the house down and burn up the pieces before handing it on.
   
   https://www.marketwatch.com/amp/story/the-trump-administration-may-privatize-fannie-mae-and-freddie-mac-and-it-could-disrupt-the-nations-housing-finance-system-11606208076

This transition period could be foundational in several different ways.

A bit more discipline might yet be needed; AOC and company really don't seem to realize that, laudable as their goals well may be, they're going to take things down with them if they don't learn some pulling-together-instead-of-pulling-apart strategies.

"Getting things done," vs. "getting your own way," hasn't yet seeped into their understanding, it seems.

Especially if the Senate races in GA don't put Schumer in McConnell's seat, they're neither going to get what they want, nor let anyone else get anything done, and they just don't seem to realize that.

M.

If that's the concern, then it seems to me that the best way to get the left of the party on board is to throw them a bone or two. Telling them to shut up--especially while they throw any number of bones to Republicans and the party's right and centre wings--is not conciliatory. It's antagonistic. If you (a generic you, not you specifically!) want them on board, then give them a reason to get on board. Actually address some of their concerns. Don't just stand there whining about the fact that they aren't supporting you. It's such an entitled Boomer thing to do, and so infantilizing.

Besides, I think that a dose of criticism is a good thing. Biden's never been the drawer's sharpest knife, and his instincts have never been very good. If everyone in the party accepts him as God-Emperor like Fepublicans did Trump, then there will be nobody around to check his worst impulses. We'll be left with another batch of sycophants. (Or, worse, ghouls and pirates with their own agenda who aren't reined in by the president because he's a milquetoast do-nothing.)


As far as the current nominees go:

Antony Blinken is the advisor who got Biden to be the chief Democratic cheerleader for the war in Iraq and was one of the chief architects of the partition plan for that country. He was a big proponent of the war in Libya, too. Then he left government to found a defense consultancy, WestExec Advisors (with Michèle Flournoy, who's also under consideration; Avril Haines, the nominee for National Intelligence Director, was also a principal at WestExec). To my mind, that's a bad confluence of issues for a Secretary of State.

Avril Haines is affiliated with WestExec Advisors and Palantir (so there's that corporate swinging door at work) and was a cheerleader for torture. She helped craft the Obama administration's drone assassination program, was centrally involved in deciding who to murder by drone.

Michèle Flournoy, who is being considered for the Pentagon, helped found WestExec Advisors (gee, that's three of them already). She's on the board of Booz Allen Hamil­ton, a military contractor, and co-founded the Cen­ter for a New Amer­i­can Secu­ri­ty. She helped cheerlead Libya and Afghanistan, and was opposed to getting troops out of Iraq.

Rahm Emanuel is a fucking ghoul who literally covered up a murder (a police murder of a Black teenager). That's what got him booted from the mayorship of Chicago. That he's even being considered for the Biden administration is a fucking disgrace.  And it's shameful that it's fallen on AOC and "The Squad" to point this out. And that's not even getting into his horrible-no-good-very-bad record in the Obama white house where, among other disasters, he did everything he could to tank the ACA.

Bruce Reed, who's under consideration for Management and Budget, is a deficit hawk (oh yeah! That's what we need right now!) who's tried real hard to cut Medicare and Social Security. Then again, Biden has spent most of his career advocating the same cuts, so I guess it's a match made in heaven. Still not a good idea, though.

It seems to me that dissent over these picks is perfectly reasonable. In fact, I think it's a good and necessary thing, because these are terrible picks. Other options are available. They don't have to be perfect--Jake Sullivan, for instance, isn't perfect--but they should be better.


If the party's left doesn't hold Biden's feet to the fire, nobody else will, and he'll govern from the right, which is all he's ever wanted to do throughout his entire career. True, a lot of people don't think that's a bad thing. But a lot do, and as he's so fond of reminding us, he's got to be everybody's president.

[spork]

The USA is a plutocracy. What did you expect?

[Parasaurolophus]

The USA is a plutocracy. What did you expect?

Oh, I don't expect better from Biden. My expectations for him are abysmally low. That doesn't mean the criticism isn't warranted, however.

[spork]

The USA is a plutocracy. What did you expect?

Oh, I don't expect better from Biden. My expectations for him are abysmally low. That doesn't mean the criticism isn't warranted, however.

I agree. Inside the Beltway is similar to the preponderance of Northeast Catholic Harvard/Yale graduates on the Supreme Court.