September 3, 2020

I just finished "Melania and Me" by Stephanie Winston Wolkoff

Unless you like wading through banal, stupid, and boring scenes of insider jockeying for power in the West and East wings of the White House, save your money.

The only new info here is what validates what we've always known about Melania -- she's a morally lazy princess who doesn't care about a damned thing, least of all, Americans.
She's a Trump through and through.

Rachel covered it all, which only takes ten pages in the whole book.

And I read it so you don't have to.


UUGGHH!

September 3, 2020

Governor Cuomo: Trump Is Trying to Kill New York City

One does not simply defund the biggest financial center on Earth.

September 2, 2020

Nicolle Wallace asks: Why have Republicans been silent during the campaign?

BECAUSE THEIR OFFICIAL PARTY PLATFORM IS TRUMP!

They have said that everything he's done and stands for (himself) IS the Republican Party.

That's IT. The 30%. Nothing more.

Period.



Therefore, The Democratic Party is the party of America's 70%.

September 2, 2020

VoteVets Every Single Day

September 2, 2020

From Press Blacklist to Journalism Enemies List

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20200828/20403445204/tinpot-administration-is-apparently-building-dossiers-journalists-who-criticize-trump.shtml?fbclid=IwAR29u4vgjINYV2dScoSFuWo8MHM3cxzzVuxXFHWgYt8wyEBk8HwO4-g_rAo



The New York Times gave the public a headsup about the dossier over a year ago.

September 1, 2020

63 days out -- Don't Believe The Hype

Back
Caught you lookin' for the same thing
It's a new thing, check out this I bring
Uh Oh the roll below the level
'Cause I'm livin' low next to the bass, c'mon
Turn up the radio
They claim that I'm a criminal
By now I wonder how
Some people never know
The enemy could be their friend, guardian
I'm not a hooligan
I rock the party and
Clear all the madness, I'm not a racist
Preach to teach to all
'Cause some they never had this
Number one, not born to run
About the gun
I wasn't licensed to have one
The minute they see me, fear me
I'm the epitome, a public enemy
Used, abused without clues
I refused to blow a fuse
They even had it on the news

Don't believe the hype

Yes
Was the start of my last jam
So here it is again, another def jam
But since I gave you all a little something
That we knew you lacked
They still consider me a new jack

All the critics you can hang 'em
I'll hold the rope
But they hope to the pope
And pray it ain't dope
The follower of Farrakhan
Don't tell me that you understand
Until you hear the man

The book of the new school rap game
Writers treat me like Coltrane, insane
Yes to them, but to me I'm a different kind
We're brothers of the same mind, unblind
Caught in the middle and
Not surrenderin'
I don't rhyme for the sake of of riddlin'
Some claim that I'm a smuggler
Some say I never heard of 'ya
A rap burglar, false media
We don't need it do we?
It's fake that's what it be to 'ya, dig me?

Don't believe the hype

Don't believe the hype, its a sequel
As an equal, can I get this through to you
My 98's boomin' with a trunk of funk
All the jealous punks can't stop the dunk
Comin' from the school of hard knocks
Some perpetrate, they drink Clorox
Attack the black, 'cause I know they lack exact
The cold facts, and still they try to Xerox
Leader of the new school, uncool
Never played the fool, just made the rules
Remember there's a need to get alarmed
Again I said I was a timebomb

In the daytime the radio's scared of me
'Cause I'm mad, plus I'm the enemy
They can't c'mon and play with me in primetime
'Cause I know the time, plus I'm gettin' mine
I get on the mix late in the night
They know I'm livin' right, so here go the mike, sike
Before I let it go, don't rush my show
You try to reach and grab and get elbowed
Word to herb, yo if you can't swing this
Just a little bit of the taste of the bass for you
As you get up and dance at the LQ
When some deny it, defy if I swing bolos
Then they clear the lane I go solo
The meaning of all of that
Some media is the whack
You believe it's true, it blows me through the roof
Suckers, liars get me a shovel
Some writers I know are damn devils
For them I say don't believe the hype
Yo Chuck, they must be on a pipe, right?

Their pens and pads I'll snatch
'Cause I've had it
I'm not an addict fiendin' for static
I'll see their tape recoreder and grab it
No, you can't have it back silly rabbit
I'm going' to my media assassin
Harry Allen, I gotta ask him
Yo Harry, you're a writer, are we that type?

Don't believe the hype

I got flavor and all those things you know
Yeah boy, part two bum rush and show
Yo Griff, get the green black red and
Gold down countdown to Armageddon
88 you wait the S1Ws will
Rock the hard jams, treat it like a seminar
Teach the bourgeois, and rock the boulevard
Some say I'm negative
But they're not positive
But what I got to give
The media says this


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don%27t_Believe_the_Hype

September 1, 2020

Joe Biden's Presidential Pittsburgh Speech, Full Transcript

"The Road Back" speech of a true president.





I want to thank Carnegie Mellon for providing this space and all the promise it holds for future jobs in the high tech world. In recent days, we’ve had a lot of talk about who’s going where and how I’ve decided to come to Pittsburgh to talk a little bit about what’s going on right now. In the early days of World War II, Franklin Roosevelt told the country, and I quote, “The news is going to get worse and worse before it gets better and better. And the American people deserve to have it straight from the shoulder.” Straight from the shoulder.

The job of a president is to tell it straight from the shoulder, tell the truth, to be candid, to face facts, to lead, not to insight. That’s why I’m speaking to you today. The incumbant president is incapable of telling us the truth, incapable of facing the facts and incapable of healing. He doesn’t want to shed light, he wants to generate heat and he’s stroking violence in our cities.

This is a tragic fact of the matter, how he’s dealing with this perilous hour in our nation. And now we have to stand against violence in every form it takes. Violence we’ve seen again and again and again, of unwarranted police shooting, excessive force, seven bullets in the back of Jacob Blake. Knee on the neck of George Floyd, killing of Breonna Taylor in her own apartment, violence of extremists and opportunists, right wing militias… And to derail any hope and support for progress, the senseless violence of looting and burning and destruction of property. I want to make it absolutely clear, so I’m going to be very clear about all of this, rioting is not protesting. Looting is not protesting. Setting fires is not protesting. None of this is protesting. It’s lawlessness, plain and simple. And those who do it should be prosecuted. Violence will not bring change, it will only bring destruction. It’s wrong in every way. It divides instead of unites, destroys businesses, only hurts the working families that serve the community. It makes things worse across the board, not better.

It’s not what Dr. King or John Lewis taught and it must end. Fires are burning and we have a president who fans the flames rather than fighting the flames. But we must not burn, we have to build. This president, long ago, forfeited any moral leadership in this country. He can’t stop the violence because for years he’s formatted it. He may believe mouthing the words law and order makes him strong. But his failure to call on his own supporters to stop acting as an armed militia in this country shows how weak he is. Does anyone believe there’ll be less violence in America if Donald Trump is reelected?

We need justice in America. We need safety in America. We’re facing multiple crises. Crises that under Donald Trump have kept multiplying. COVID, economic devastation, unwarranted police violence, [inaudible 00:03:48] white nationalists, a reckoning on race, declining faith in the birth of the right American future. There’s no reason why we can’t just do so much more than we’re doing.

The common threat, the incumbent president who makes things worse, not better, an incumbent president who sows chaos rather than providing order. An incumbent president who fails in the basic duty of the job, which is to advance the truth that all of us know, that we’re all born with the right to life, Liberty, and pursuit of happiness. That’s right. All of us, the moms and dads in Scranton, where I grew up, who have worked and scraped for everything they’ve ever gotten in life.

The auto worker in Michigan, who still makes the best automobile in the world, single mom in Ohio, working three jobs just to stay afloat who’ll do anything for her child. Retired veteran in Florida who gave everything he had to this country. And now just wants us to honor the promises made to him. [inaudible 00:04:58] salesperson who just lost their job. A store closing after 194 years in business. Nurses and doctors in Wisconsin who’ve seen so much sickness, so much death in the past six months. And they wonder how much more can they take, but still they muster up the courage to take care of those patients in this pandemic while risking their own lives. Researchers in Minnesota who woke up this morning determined to find a breakthrough in treating cancer and who’ll do the same thing tomorrow and the day after and the day after, because she’ll never give up. White, Black, Latino, Asian American, Native Americans, everybody, I’m in this campaign for you. No matter your color, no matter your zip code, no matter your politics.

When I think of the presidency, I don’t think about myself. It isn’t about my brand. It’s about you, the American people. We can do better and we have to do better. I promise you this. We will do better. The road back begins now in this campaign. You know me, you know my heart, you know my story, my family story. Ask yourself, do I look like a radical socialist with a soft spot for rioters? Really?

I want a safe America, safe from COVID, safe from crime and looting, safe from racially motivated violence, safe from bad cops. Let me be crystal clear, safe from four more years of Donald Trump. I look at this violence and I see lives and communities and the dreams of small businesses being destroyed and the opportunity for real progress on issues of race and police reform and justice being put to the test. Donald Trump looks at this violence and he sees a political lifeline. Having failed to protect this nation from the virus that has killed more than 180,000 Americans so far, Trump posts an all caps tweet, screaming, “Law and order,” to save his campaign.

One of his closest political advisers in the White House doesn’t even bother to speak in code, just comes out and she says it. “The more chaos, violence, the better it is for Trump’s reelection.” Just think about that. This is a sitting president of the United States of America. He’s supposed to be protecting this country, but instead he’s rooting for chaos and violence.

The simple truth is Donald Trump failed to protect America. So now he’s trying to scare America. Since Donald Trump and Mike Prince can’t run on their record that has seen more American death to a virus, this virus, then the nation suffered in every war since Korea combined, since they can’t run on their economy that has seen more people lose their jobs than any time since the Great Depression, since they can’t run on a simple proposition of sending our children safely back to school, since they have no agenda or vision for a second term, Trump and Pence are running on this.

And I find it fascinating. “You won’t be safe in Joe Biden’s America.” And what’s their proof? The violence we’re seeing in Donald Trump’s America. These are not images of some imagined Joe Biden America in the future. These are images of Donald Trump’s America today. He keeps telling you if only he was president, it wouldn’t happen. If he was president.

He keeps telling us that he was president you’d feel safe. Well he is president. Whether he knows it or not, and it is happening, it’s getting worse. And you know why? Because Donald Trump adds fuel to every fire because he refuses to even acknowledge that there’s a racial justice problem in America because he won’t stand up to any form of violence. He’s got no problem with right-wing militia, white supremacists, and vigilantes with assault weapons often better armed than the police. Often in the middle of the violence at the protestors and aiming it there. And because tens of millions of Americans simply don’t trust this president to respect their rights, to hear their concerns or to protect them. It doesn’t have to be this way.

When President Obama and I were in the White House, we had to defend federal property. We did it. We didn’t see it. You didn’t see us whipping up fears around the deployment of secret federal troops. We just did our job and the federal property was protected. When president Obama and I were in office, we didn’t look at cities as Democratic or Republican run. These are American cities. But Trump doesn’t seem himself as president for all of America.

Frankly, I believe if I were president today, the country would be safer and we’d be seeing a lot less violence, and here’s why. I have said we must address the issue of racial injustice. I’ve personally spoken to George Floyd’s family, and to Jacob Blake’s family. I know their pain. And so do you. I know the justice they seek and so do you. They’ve told us, “None of this violence respects or honors George or Jacob.” I believe it can bring these folks fighting for racial justice to the table.

I’ve worked with police in this country for many years. I know most cops are good, decent people. I know how they risk their lives every time they put that shield on and go out the door. I’m confident I can bring the police to the table as well. I’d make sure every mayor and governor had the support they needed from the federal government. But I wouldn’t be looking to use the United States military against our own people. If I were president, my language would be less divisive, I’d be looking to lower the temperature in this country, not raise it. I’d be looking to unite the nation.

But look, if Donald Trump wants to ask the question, “Who will keep you safer as president?” Let’s answer that question. First, some simple facts. When I was vice president, violent crime fell 15% in this country. We did it without chaos and disorder.

And yes, we did it with democratic mayors in most of the major cities in this country. The murder right now is up 26% across the nation this year under Donald Trump. Do you really feel safer under Donald Trump?

COVID has taken this year, just since the outbreak, has taken more than 100… Look, the lives, when you think about it, more lives this year than any other year for the past 100 years. More than 180,000 lives in just six months, an average of 1,000 people dying every day in the month of August. Do you really feel safe under Donald Trump?

Mr. Trump, you want to talk about fear? Do you know what people are afraid of in America? Afraid they’re going to get COVID. They’re afraid they’re going to get sick and die. And that is in no small part because of you. We’re now on track to more than 200,000 deaths in this country due to COVID. More than 100,000 seniors have lost their lives to the virus.

More cops have died from COVID this year than have been killed on patrol. Nearly one in six small businesses have closed in this country today. Do you really feel safer under Trump?

What about Trump’s plan to destroy the Affordable Care Act, and with it, the protections for preexisting conditions that impacts more than 100 million Americans? Does that make you feel safer?

Or how about Trump’s plan to defund social security? The social security administration’s chief actuary just released a report saying that if a plan like the one Trump is proposing goes into effect, the social security trust fund would be, and I quote, “Permanently depleted by the middle of calendar year 2023, with no ability to pay benefits thereafter.” To put it plainly, Trump’s plan with wipe out social security period. Do you feel safer and more secure now?

The fear that reigns under this president doesn’t stop at our shores. The Kremlin has put bounties on the heads of American soldiers.

And instead of telling Vladimir Putin that there’d be no putting up with this, that there’d be a heavy price to pay if they dare touch an American soldier, this president doesn’t even bring up the subject in his multiple phone calls with Putin. It’s been reported that Russian forces just attacked American troops in Syria, injuring our service members.

Did you hear the president say a single word? Did he lift one finger? Never before has an American president played such a subservient role to a Russian leader. It’s not only dangerous, it’s humiliating and embarrassing for the rest of the world to see, it weakens us. Not even American troops can feel safer under Trump.

Donald Trump’s role as a bystander in his own presidency extends to the economic plan and pain. The plan he doesn’t have and the pain being felt by millions of Americans. He said this week, and I quote, “You better vote for me, or you’re going to have the greatest depression you’ve ever seen.” Does he not understand and see the tens of millions of people who’ve had to file for unemployment this year so far?

The people who won’t be able to make next month’s rent payment? The people who lost wages or the cost of groceries have gone up dramatically? President Obama and I stopped a depression in 2009. We took a bad economy that was falling and turned it around.

Trump took a good economy and drove it back into the ditch. Through his failure to get COVID under control, his failure to pull together the leaders in Congress, his failure to deliver real relief to working people, has made our country’s economic situation so much worse, so much worse than it had to be. We talk about safety and security. We should talk about basic security of being able to look your child in the eye and tell them, “Everything’s going to be okay. Don’t worry, honey. We’re not going to lose our home. We’re going to be able to put food on the table. It’s going to be okay.”

It’s the job of the president. I’ve laid out an agenda for economic recovery that will restore a sense of security for working families. We won’t just build things back the way they were before. We’re going to build them back better with good paying jobs. Building our nation’s roads, bridges, solar rays, windmills with investments in our healthcare and childcare workers so they get the pay and dignity they deserve while easing the financial burdens on millions of families with a clean energy strategy that has a place for the energy workers right here in Western Pennsylvania. I am not banning fracking.

Let me say that again. I am not banning fracking. No matter how many times Donald Trump lies about me, the future, that’s what this is all about. We hear Donald Trump’s self centered rants and riffs, but the voice of Americans should be heard. And one you should listen to is Julia Jackson, the mother of Jacob Blake. Hers is a voice of courage, character and wisdom.

Looking at the damage that has been done in her city, she said, “The violence and destruction doesn’t reflect my son or my family.” These are the words of a mom, a mother whose son had just been shot seven times in front of his children, badly injured, paralyzed, perhaps permanently. And even as she seeks justice for her son, she’s pleading for an end to the violence and for this nation to heal. She said she was praying for her son.

Then she said something to me that that surprised me. She said she was praying for all police officers. She said was already been praying for America even before her son was shot. She’s publicly asked all of us to examine our hearts, citizens, elected officials, the police, all of us. And then she said, this. “We need healing. More than anything, that’s what we need to do as a nation. We need to heal.”

Our current president wants you to live in fear, he advertises himself as a figure of order. He isn’t, and he’s not been part of the solution thus far. He’s part of the problem. The problem, I, as president, will give you my all resolve to stop. I’ll deal with the virus, I’ll deal with the economic crisis, and I’ll work to bring a quality and opportunity to everyone. We’ve arrived at a moment in this campaign, we all know, including the press in front of me, knew we’d get to.

The moment when Donald Trump would be so desperate, he’d do anything to hold onto power. Donald Trump has been a toxic presence in our nation for four years. Poisoning how we talk to one another, poisoning how we treat one another, poisoning the values this nation has always held dear, poisoning our very democracy. Now, in just a little over 60 days, we have a decision to make. Will we rid ourselves of this toxin or will we make it a permanent part of our nation’s character?

As Americans, I’m confident we believe in honesty and decency, treating everyone with dignity and respect, giving everyone a fair shot, leaving no one behind, giving hate no safe harbor, and demonizing no one. We, up to now, always recognize there’s something bigger than ourselves, that’s what we’re about.

Trump doesn’t seem to believe in any of that. Look, I’ve said it before and I’ll keep saying it, America is an idea. It’s the most powerful idea in the history of the world. And I believe it beats in the hearts of the people of this country. All men and women are created equal and they deserve to be treated equally.

Trump has sought to remake this nation in his image. Selfish, angry, dark, and divisive. This is not who we are. At her best, america’s always been, and if I have anything to do it, it will be again, generous, confident, an optimistic nation full of hope and resolve.

Donald Trump is determined to instill fear in America. That’s what his entire campaign for the president has come down to, fear. But I believe Americans are stronger than that. I believe we’ll be guided by the words of Pope John Paul II, words drawn from the scriptures. Be not afraid, be not afraid. Fear never builds the future, but hope does. And building the future is what America does, what we’ve always done. In fact, it’s what we have done best and continue to do best. This is the United States of America. There’s not a single thing beyond our capacity when we decide to do it together. So let’s get together. I want to thank you all. May God bless you, and may God protect our troops.

August 31, 2020

HOW THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY CAN GET BETTER AND STAY ON TOP

If we feel that the party has been casting about for a good transformative strategy, and permanently establishing trust, this review can save us reading time over the next 60 days.

O’Neill writes a fine summary of Hersh. He further gives timely, important advice to unify and permanently establish the Democratic Party as the natural basis of good governance and protector of equality and rule of law for Americans.

His review is also about how we win in 2020 and every election after.
(This is a paraphrased summary of his review. I've bolded what I believe are key points.)

Review of Joseph O’Neill in NY Review of Books

From Politics Is for Power: How to Move Beyond Political Hobbyism, Take Action and Make Real Change by Eitan Hersh (Scribner 2020)

"“Partisan” does not connote gratuitous animosity against one's political opponents. It refers to embracing a party, and a party identity, as the prime means to advancing a political agenda. It involves identifying the opposing party (rather than its supporters or even its leading figures) as your stated adversary, and waging a perpetual campaign of negative partisanship against that adversary.
(as when Margaret Thatcher/John Major retained power for almost 20 years by consistently characterizing the rival Labour Party as "unfit for power;" and as Republicans have explicitly bashed Dems for years with some success).

“Ideology," in this sense, isn’t exhausted by the concept of a policy agenda. But if Democrats want to win elections repeatedly, the must enact policies that are both effective and popular with Democrats.
It’s an insight that’s been mislaid by the left but not by the right: an American political party can’t consistently win elections, mid-term and state-level races in particular, without the sustained and vigorous grassroots participation of its base.
Which means swing voters, shrunk to small numbers lately will support you if the big outcome) — jobs + economy in particular — are favorable, and your branding strategy (positive and negative) is strong.
Base turnout won’t happen unless the grassroots identifies strongly with the party, is united by a common purpose, and is determined to win.

Dignity galvanizes a moral claim to power that’s fresh, clear and collectively shared by young progressives and the oldest moderates within the party. The politics of dignity (as opposed to the Republicans’ politics of spite) brings progressives and moderates together to close the deep social divides across the country.

It opens a new way to solidarity that requires the next big thing: reckoning with the urgency of overcoming the injuries of race and gender and also class. “Dignity” is defined in Article 1 of the Univ. Declaration of Human Rights. Even Democrats from Biden to Ocasio-Cortez to Sherrod regularly use the concept in their public remarks, though it’s only peripheral in liberal left discourse.
Dignity synthesizes issues of justice & recognition, tax & economic policy, statehood for DC. It links working class whites’ struggles with struggles of American minorities. “Dignity” can unify the Big Tent requirement of finding a generalizable, unsullied, instantly usable theme; “dignity” is as actionable and inspiring as any.

Charismatic political issues — those that involve violence, sex, or anti-social or hateful behavior — generate a lot of excitement, but the excitement is confined to those specific issues.

If your goal, as a Democrat, is to create a successful partisan movement, this habitual distributing of emotion and eyeballs is not ideal. You want millions of political hobbyists directing their power in support of the Democratic Party and against the Republican Party.

Hersh tells a highly instructive personal story. In 2016 he approached his local Democratic Party organization in Brookline, MA, and offered to do year-round community outreach on behalf of the party. He was met with a “hard no.”

The local Democratic committee focused exclusively on mobilizing voters shortly before state elections. Hersh persisted, offering to help raise turnout for municipal elections. Again, he drew a blank. Hersh writes:

'For the Democrats to get their vote out even when their candidates are weak but the stakes are high, such as in that 2010 special election [when Sen. Ted Kennedy’s seat was won by a Republican, denying Democrats a Senate supermajority], communities such as Brookline need robust, long-term party engagement. That’s what they lack in communities all around the state and country.’

… the difficulty Hersh ran into wasn’t political hobbyism. It was the inadequacy of the local Democratic Party — specifically, its refusal to confer agency on a volunteer itching to show ordinary constituents that the party cared about their concerns. This is a structural problem.

A flurry of studies have shown that this kind of grassroots neglect has been devastating to Democratic electoral performance. You see a lot of discussion, especially on the left, about the need to implement policies that effect structural change. What’s often overlooked is that the two American parties are themselves structures, with extraordinary power. Change them and you change a lot.

All that Democrats can do to change the GOP is to defeat it. Reduce it to electoral rubble and force it to rebuild itself as a party that is basically competent and doesn’t pose a threat to organic and democratic life on Earth.

But how do you change the Democratic Party into a partisan movement that is capable of inflicting such a defeat?

You can’t simply exhort ideology into existence. Democrats have to cohere around the principles of dignity and grassroots power. It requires action by three main stakeholders:
— the Democratic Party apparatus — the DNC in particular
— Democratic elected officials
— potential and actual supporters of the party, ordinary civilians across regions

Of these stakeholders, the institutional ones have the most immediate agency — the power to generate partisan coherence by action. What they must do: gain the trust and loyalty of the younger, more progressive cohort; keep the trust of the more centrist party failthful, make swing voters trust Democrats more than they distrust Republicans.

To do that, they must take these seven steps:

1. Embrace the principle of dignity a a central partisan theme. This theme will not only help unify and enrgize the party through this campaign, but provide a powerful and protective narrative for future partisan action.

2. Appoint figures trusted from the left to senior positions in the Biden administration & party organization. The Progressives (younger) Wing is almost completely without representation in the congressional and DNC leaderships. It’s a scandal and must be fixed right away. The Biden-Sanders Unity Task Forces (producing joint policy recommendations in various areas) are a good step in that direction.

3. Biden’s administration & allies in congress must take the strongest legislative and executive actions possible to do what Dems, younger ones in particular, want them to do. A Green New Deal — w/ a jobs component, not some pro forma one — will be crucial. Taxing the rich a lot more will be essential. An historical leap forward in health care is essential. Doing stuff Democrats like will be powerful in creating partisan loyalty — more than saying stuff Democrats like.

4. Substantiate the narrative of Dignity by reforming police and ICE, fixing voter suppression, fast-tracking immigration reform. These actions are supported by the majority of Americans, and urgently are awaited by party loyalists of color. A narrative of acted upon Dignity — applied to the economically progressive measures outlined above — will enable a wide range of liberals to support these measures.

5. Enact reforms that correct dangerous electoral advantages enjoyed by the GOP. Statehood for DC, and restoring the Voting Rights Act are no-brainers. Scrap the Senate filibuster rule if need be. Criminalize voter disenfranchisement, intentional or accidental. Expand the Supreme Court, if necessary to give legal permanence to these changes.

6. Start thinking about 2022 midterms from day one. These are won by base turnout, and Democrats must rebrand the party as a party of grassroots organizers toward 2022. That means more than a PR campaign: it requires funding, empowering, privileging grassroots orgs, and putting the DNC apparatus at their disposal/ Primary challenges should NOT be discourage. Faction disputes must be viewed as good-faith differences of opinion — unless they undermine shared partisan purpose and mutual respect that the party ethos of Dignity requires.

7. Stoke negative partisanship. Americans must go to the 2022 and 2024 polls with a strong and valid fear of letting the GOP back into power. Always be negatively branding the GOP in the eyes of swing and persuadable voters. Approaches are arguable, but the master narrative is: The Republican Party can no longer be trusted with power. Repeat this endlessly, verify this narrative with public record misdeeds. Brand the Republican Party as the party of misdeeds, not just as current aberrant Trumpist corruption that defines their current platform.

Call the disastrous Republican economy that Biden will inherit “the disastrous Republican economy.”
Call the Republican pandemic crisis “the Republican pandemic crisis.”
Always trumpet the success of Democratic initiatives.
Always trumpet the danger of letting Republicans back into power.

Never repeat the mistakes of 2010, when Democrats apologized for the Affordable Care Act and took ownership of the Republican financial crisis.
Democrats must comport themselves as the natural party of government so that they will be perceived as such and win more future elections.

Joe Biden will be crucial in all this. Biden is broadly viewed as earning bipartisan political capital and personal honor over his 50 years of public service. He is responding to this moment of historic need and opportunity. There could be no more credible messenger against the GOP, no more reassuring leader in an era of transformative, partisan legislative action, than Joe Biden. "

August 30, 2020

These are not rallies. These are militia parades. They are NOT caravans. They are truck battalions.

Do not use right wing euphemisms for what is clearly troop rallying.

The armed are threatening death. Not chest beating.

Paint ballers mark their marks. Photograph their targets.

The most threatening militia know police have their backs. Militia have uniformed backup.

The constant drumbeat of right-wing conspiracy theories and hateful political rhetoric has found its way into a sizable portion of the U.S. military’s rank and file.

We need to see that any coming skirmishes are versions of 'The Apprentice,' when you consider that Trump sees current generals as weak and replaceable. Why not with civil war winners.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/if-trumps-rage-brings-civil-war-where-will-the-military-stand

When we really see the positioning going on, we're seeing more than threats to non-whites and liberals. We're seeing a military watching which battalions to draw from. Which to ally with. If Germany can see the terrain of election rigging, so should we.


Know the relative power terrain and positions.
See our relative strengths, weakness, and prepare accordingly.

The last thing we should be seeing is "caravans."

The first thing we should be seeing is who orchestrates the positioning, participants and outcomes.

August 30, 2020

This Is America

This is America
Don't catch you slippin' up
Don't catch you slippin' up
Look what I'm whippin' up
This is America (woo)
Don't catch you slippin' up
Don't catch you slippin' up
Look what I'm whippin' up

This is America (skrrt, skrrt, woo)
Don't catch you slippin' up (ayy)
Look at how I'm livin' now
Police be trippin' now (woo)
Yeah, this is America (woo, ayy)
Guns in my area (word, my area)
I got the strap (ayy, ayy)
I gotta carry 'em
Yeah, yeah, I'ma go into this (ugh)
Yeah, yeah, this is guerilla (woo)
Yeah, yeah, I'ma go get the bag
Yeah, yeah, or I'ma get the pad
Yeah, yeah, I'm so cold like yeah (yeah)
I'm so dope like yeah (woo)
We gon' blow like yeah (straight up, uh)

Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh, tell somebody
You go tell somebody
Grandma told me
Get your money, black man (get your money)
Get your money, black man (get your money)
Get your money, black man (get your, black man)
Get your money, black man (get your, black man)
Black man

This is America (woo, ayy)
Don't catch you slippin' up (woo, woo, don't catch you slippin', now)
Don't catch you slippin' up (ayy, woah)
Look what I'm whippin' up (Slime!)
This is America (yeah, yeah)
Don't catch you slippin' up (woah, ayy)
Don't catch you slippin' up (ayy, woo)
Look what I'm whippin' up (ayy)

Look how I'm geekin' out (hey)
I'm so fitted (I'm so fitted, woo)
I'm on Gucci (I'm on Gucci)
I'm so pretty (yeah, yeah)
I'm gon' get it (ayy, I'm gon' get it)
Watch me move (blaow)
This a celly (ha)
That's a tool (yeah)

On my Kodak (woo, Black)
Ooh, know that (yeah, know that, hold on)
Get it (get it, get it)
Ooh, work it (21)
Hunnid bands, hunnid bands, hunnid bands (hunnid bands)
Contraband, contraband, contraband (contraband)
I got the plug on Oaxaca (woah)
They gonna find you like blocka (blaow)

Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh, tell somebody
America, I just checked my following list and
You go tell somebody
You mothafuckas owe me
Grandma told me
Get your money, black man (black man)
Get your money, black man (black man)
Get your money, black man (black man)
Get your money, black man (black man)
Black man (one, two, three, get down)

Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh, tell somebody
You go tell somebody
Grandma told me, "Get your money," black man
Get your money, black man (black man)
Get your money, black man (black man)
Get your money, black man (black man)
Black man

You just a black man in this world
You just a barcode, ayy
You just a black man in this world
Drivin' expensive foreigns, ayy
You just a big dawg, yeah
I kenneled him in the backyard
No proper life to a dog
For a big dog