scrubbedexpat099

Trouble is there is no discernible difference.

zzrmark

That only applies to middle aged white men.

carcajou

The group currently fronting the protests (in the PNW) are the Youth Liberation Front. One of their stated objectives is to end capitalism. Patrisse Cullors boasts that she is a "trained Marxist."

Karl Marx was a violent revolutionary who repeatedly wrote that "forcible overthrow" and "revolutionary terror" were the "only" ways to achieve their stated ends.

As "trained Marxists" they would be highly aware of Marx's thoughts on protest and I think you now have your answer as to why there is violence. It's a feature, not a bug. The ironic thing is, for the past few years "Nazi," "Communist," etc hyperbolic and hysterical slurs have been thrown about over tiny things and now real Marxists have actually shown up for, what, the first time in 50 years? And it's slid right under the radar because the boy has cried wolf so many times.

Funny, I went onto Patrisse Cullors' Twitter page just now expecting to find condemnation of the violence and an attempt to distance BLM from it, but there is nothing of the sort.

civilservant

An interesting, if highly theoretical, look at how the election system could collapse if Trump is not soundly rejected in November:

https://www.theguardian.com/commenti...-possibilities

carcajou

Joe Biden leads Donald Trump 51-44% in North Carolina, according to the latest NBC News/Marist Poll.

If the poll is accurate and stays that way, the rout will be on.

Giantaxe

There's an awful long way to go... and so many unknowns, particularly how much vote suppression there will be in key states.

paulry

It seems that kind of violence and terror is acceptable. That it isn't being condemned tells us all that we need to know.

The Mirror

Ever hear of the Boston Tea Party? Just remember, this country was founded on protest: It is called the American Revolution, and every step of progress in this country, every expansion of freedom, every expression of its deepest ideals has been won through efforts that made the staus quo uncomfortable. The protestors wouldnt achieve anything whithout attacking commerce, because commerce is the only entity with a voice in the Unites States.

And Antifa, who the Trump administration has labeled a menace........ has mostly been nonexistent, experts and law enforcement officials say, and certainly has not been orchestrating what have been largely peaceful protests from a broad cross section of Americans. And we should all be thankful for folks who are willing to be out there making a difference.

After 19,000 lies and counting, why would anybody believe Trump?

Steerpike

I'm not in the least bit 'believing Trump' - I think he's a lying turd and I will dance on his grave. I want to see him not just gone, but resoundingly defeated so that the Republican party will think three times before going down this path again. But the article I posted was from a left-leaning publication, not Faux Noise. I would agree that the protests have been 'largely peaceful' but there ought to be universal condemnation of the destruction of property. I'm losing my patience with it and I'm a lifelong democrat. Luckily, the orange turd in the White House is such a monster that I am hopeful that enough people will still vote to get rid of him, but I see the current activity as being entirely counter-productive. Moderate Americans in the swing states are going to have to change their vote from last time if we are to see the back of him, and those moderate voters are likely to be strongly opposed to the destruction of property. Not to mention the utterly stupid narrative around 'defund the police'. Biden is going to have to thoroughly distance himself from that utter nonsense if he is to maintain his lead. Why the narrative is not 'Reform the Police' I cannot imagine.

Steerpike

In the 'other' thread (Trump...) I posted this information about the 5 'swing states' and their Electoral College votes. Do folks on here have a good sense of which of these states have decent 'vote by mail' systems setup? I happen to know that AZ is heavily invested in Vote By Mail, so there's no issue in AZ. Another poster recently confirmed that Florida has a pretty robust Vote By Mail + Early Voting system. So how about the rest? Are any of these states known for severely limiting VBM? I believe Leslie indicated Texas is doing all it can to stop VBM, so it may be too optimistic that Texas will swing, but the Dem's don't need to win all of them ...

The 5 closest states considered 'too close to call' (with their EC vote count) are: (according to - https://projects.economist.com/us-20...cast/president )
Georgia 16
Arizona 11
Iowa 6
Ohio 18
North Carolina 15

After these states, the 'next level' of states of interest are Florida with 29 EC votes - currently leaning slightly towards Biden, and Texas, with 38 EC votes, currently leaning slightly towards Trump.

robtuck

I believe Georgia, after seeing it be a success in the Primaries (compared to their complete inability to run an in person election as it happens) have decided that they'll revert back to primarily in person for November (makes sense, if you are aiming at reducing turnout).

UkWinds5353

This election is actually surprising me and it was my opinion one year ago, that Trump would struggle and eventually lose to a moderate Democrat candidate. I felt that way because Trump's support in the key swing states was at best in 2016 on the bubble. But now that he is a KNOWN factor and his governing has been left wanting, there is no way Trump would receive the benefit of the doubt in 2020. Many last minute voters swung toward Trump in order to try something different.That was my thinking then. And let's be honest Trump did squeak by in 2016, it was not a blowout.

As an incumbent Trump has two avenues to victory, convince voters that he will turn around the horrible job he has given the nation in the last four years, or actually have done a good job thereby earning another four years and re-election. Even if you suspend reality of disbelief, still none of those two options are possibly connected to Trump's administration. For all intents and purposes his goose is cooked. But what is surprising me is how many factors are blocking Trump's road to re-election.

Before the Coronavirus outbreak Trump odd's of winning in 2020 was a best 40-60 because he had angered many of the voters that sat out in 2016, but after the bungled virus response, and the BlackLivesMatter reaction, Trump would need more than the Inside Straight he got in 2016. The voting public are paying more attention to this election 3 months out from election day, than probably any election in modern times. That is the last thing Trump needs in order to win re-election. He actually would need to benefit from an electorate that is less engaged than the laser focus Trump's actions garner on a day to day basis.

Trump's tendency to do the wrong and extreme behavior only works to make winning re-election problematic. Not responding to fight a raging pandemic will eventually be his epitaph, even more so than him being impeached. Speaking as a person who is out in the field registering new voters, I can honestly say that the way Trump has denigrated the BlackLivesMatter situation has made my job so much easier signing up new voters. And what we're noticing this time around is the number of people that are registering out of anger towards Trump. We are hearing people comment that it is their responsibility to respond to Trump and elected officials connected to him. I personally have not seen this level of anger toward a President since 2008 when Bush Jr was greatly disliked but the reaction to Trump is on a different level.

There were about 2 million African Americans, 800,000 Hispanic Americans that did not vote in 2016 because they did not like Hillary. In 2020 people are so energize to vote that they are willing to go out into the Coronavirus environment to have their voice heard. Early voting starts in 6 weeks in certain swing states.

Btw, Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania are all 8% points ahead in the Biden column. It will be interesting how much of a blue wave this election will be. It appears Arizona, Florida, and North Carolina may be a far reach for Trump. He is flailing.

Former Lancastrian

Isn't this thread very much like the 2016 Election thread or 2016 Who will be the Republican Nominee? Trump has zero chance. Now you have had nearly 4 years of him could he do it again? I know most on here don't support him and neither do I but history has a knack of repeating itself.

johnwoo

How about condemning the violence that resists any change, Government gangs beating the shit out of nonviolent protesters.

Steerpike

Exactly. I can't get out of my head the number of prominent 'experts' who wrote Trump off entirely in 2016, based on perfectly logical reasons - like, he's a disgusting, womanizing, lying turd. But he won. There are a million reasons he should lose again this time; all the reasons from before, PLUS, utter mishandling of the pandemic in every conceivable way, mis-reading the BLM situation, and so on. But - I still believe that, if the stock market is still strong in November (let's not forget it has recovered almost entirely to date), if the economy shows any signs of recovery, if violence is still flaring up in cities, if efforts to block voter suppression fail, and if the virus is seen to be on a downward trend, THEN ... he could still do it.