Willie Pep
Willie Pep's JournalA journey through a land of extreme poverty: welcome to America
Pretty depressing but important article from The Guardian on extreme poverty in the United States.
Link: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/dec/15/america-extreme-poverty-un-special-rapporteur
Alabama proves that turnout is everything
I saw this tidbit on a blog post regarding the special election in Alabama. The piece is entitled "10 Thoughts After the Alabama Senate Election."
Full article: https://www.insideelections.com/news/article/10-thoughts-after-the-alabama-senate-election
35 percent is still pretty abysmal but I think this shows that even somewhat higher turnout can really improve our chances of winning. Nonvoters are more likely to be poorer and non-white, the demographics that are likely to vote for Democrats if they vote. We can even win in red states if we put a lot of effort into voter registration and GOTV campaigns. The Republicans know this hence their constant attempts to suppress voting rights.
Doug Jones's Victory Shows Why Democrats Must Compete Everywhere
I thought this was a good article on Doug Jones's victory over Moore and the lessons that the Democratic Party should learn. Here is a good excerpt:
Full article: http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/12/joness-victory-shows-why-democrats-must-compete-everywhere.html
This is why we need a 50-state strategy. We have to contest every race even if it is for seemingly minor local offices because that is how you build up a presence in a community and develop relationships with voters.
Was Franken thinking about running in 2020?
Was Franken thinking about running in 2020? I ask this because I thought he was one of the strongest possible opponents for Trump in 2020. Franken is from the Midwest, a crucial region filled with swing states that Clinton narrowly lost and a Democrat could win again. Franken also had the verbal chops to go toe-to-toe with Trump since like Trump he was an entertainer and used to talking in front of cameras. I could see Franken coming up with funny jabs at Trump during the debates.
I think we just lost one of our strongest possible candidates for 2020.
"Both parties are the same" and Franken
This will be another meme that comes from this tragedy. It is totally false as Trump supporters proudly wore shirts with his "pussy grab" quote while even Franken's supporters at least called for an ethics investigation and did not treat the accusations as a total joke like Republicans did with Trump.
But will the media make this important distinction? No. Much of the population already hates both parties and thinks they are the same and this will just help to further this idea in the minds of Americans. I am worried that we will have lower turnout for 2018 because of this which will hurt us and help the Republicans.
What the Republicans will learn from the Franken debacle.
Franken's resignation means the following to Republicans and Republican operatives:
1. That accusations of sexual harassment can end the career of a Democratic politician but not a Republican politician, meaning that the Democrats have a major weak spot that Republicans don't have.
2. That Democrats will cave in and throw other Democrats under the bus without even demanding an ethics investigation first so that trial by media is enough to produce a resignation.
3. That the intense media coverage of sex scandals will distract the media and much of the public from bad GOP policy such as the tax bill given that sex issues are more exciting and juicy than dry policy debates like tax cuts.
Why Democrats Must Regain the Trust of Religious Voters
I thought this was a good article from The Atlantic by Michael Wear who headed President Obama's faith outreach for the 2012 presidential campaign. I think he makes a strong case for the Democratic Party improving outreach among religious voters.
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/11/why-democrats-must-regain-faith-among-religious-voters/546434/
Europeans like Columbus were not the only violent people.
In light of the present controversy over Columbus Day, I think it is important to note that Europeans weren't the only violent people in the world during the period. On Aztec human sacrifices:
https://qz.com/374994/aztec-sacrifice-was-real-and-its-not-fetishistic-to-be-fascinated
There is an unfortunate tendency among some liberals to concentrate solely on atrocities committed by Europeans while ignoring the sometimes unpleasant historical evidence about non-European societies. The tendency sometimes goes so far as to paint non-Europeans as living in Edenic harmony with each other and nature until the evil Europeans showed up and made a mess of things. This itself can be seen as a racist trope, that of the "noble savage" untouched by the evils of modern Western civilization. It denies the reality and complexity of non-European societies.
Please note that I am NOT making excuses for the many atrocities and injustices committed by European colonialists, just that there is a very strong tendency on the part of some people on the left to have a biased and selective view of history.
They thought they were going to rehab. They ended up in chicken plants.
Very depressing but important article on rehabilitation work programs.
But in the rush to spare people from prison, some judges are steering defendants into rehabs that are little more than lucrative work camps for private industry, an investigation by Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting has found.
The programs promise freedom from addiction. Instead, they’ve turned thousands of men and women into indentured servants.
The beneficiaries of these programs span the country, from Fortune 500 companies to factories and local businesses. The defendants work at a Coca-Cola bottling plant in Oklahoma, a construction firm in Alabama, a nursing home in North Carolina.
Full article: https://www.revealnews.org/article/they-thought-they-were-going-to-rehab-they-ended-up-in-chicken-plants/
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Member since: Sun Oct 16, 2016, 06:41 PMNumber of posts: 841
