Or, you can interpret the way I wrote it, which is other people have to say that what happened to so many other black people was indeed police brutality. You can start with Blue Lives Matter, if you actually give a shit.

If we really went deep in the analysis, what we’d find is that the reactionary cares more about a perceived opponent, and about “winning” a limited skirmish, than about the larger issue which they believe to be the true animator of their impulses.

You aren’t going to fix the problem of police brutality if large swaths of people don’t see it as a problem.

We don’t ever quite get over this as we grow, but most of us eventually recognize it as an immature, negative trait.

I can’t count the number of (white? not really sure, but... you know) folks who said it’s too bad Tamir Rice died but he shouldn’t have been...etc. Anyone who hates this attitude about Damond should have been equally upset at that observation too. I suspect they aren’t.

If she was a POC, the conversation would be about whether or not she was really trying to reach for the officer’s gun, what kind of drugs she may or may not have been on, and how obviously you don’t rush at a cop therefore she probably deserved it.

These attempts to rationalize, and ultimately excuse, shitheaded responses to news of death at the hands of the state, are so utterly pathetic. There is no good reason why anyone should respond this way. It’s called being a reactionary, and it’s something that people—no matter what their cause for doing it—need to…

I’ve gotta say, Tokyo 2020 is looking to be the first non-depressing Olympics since Beijing 2008. Their end-of-games announcement somehow ended up being the best thing about Rio 2016.

South Korea (because I lived there for years and was a beneficiary) and Japan (because I’ve read up on how their system works) come immediately to mind. In Korea in particular, cost for procedures is shared between the insurance and the individual (I think it’s something like 70/30?), but that ends up being of little…

I swear, one of the video rental places near where I lived as a kid had this game. You could rent it along with the control mat. Always been amazed at what a rarity the game turned out to be.

Congress has 20% approval rating but most people approve of their individual representatives.

Yeah, because leaks aren’t just part of the marketing process at this point, right?

And no, I think dems should focus the *election* on ethics reform and rooting out corruption...

Ethics reform and anti-corruption is about things like campaign laws, financial laws, and rooting out the shit that is Washington. Basically a *genuine* ‘drain-the-swamp’ campaign and not the fake-ass shit Trump peddled.

And just to go kinda further with this whole thing about why I really don’t think single-payer should be the focus of 2018 elections is because while single-payer *might* be popular with a majority in say, California and New York, that is quite simply not where the dems need to win seats.

You’re right, they should build it on Russia, and on how much of a bad guy Trump is. Because a lot of the animosity toward Dems on the left isn’t already built around how they spend most of their time bogged down in negative campaigning, rather than proposing sound political solutions to human problems.

Trump built a ground campaign over how abysmal the ACA had been for much of the middle class (which it has been, even if his “solution” is far worse). Health insurance is an economic issue, and these issues traditionally dominate the public consciousness during election seasons. I don’t understand why you think the…

How about just someone who espouses a progressive message? I don’t care how young or vibrant they are. Youth and vibrance are often read falsely as signifiers of progressiveness, too.

What you appear to be saying is that single-payer should be on the platform as an act of pandering to a constituency, but never actually pursued. You see single-payer as a poison pill, but what about the anger currently splintering the left because the Dems talk nice from time to time, but never follow it up with real…

Hillary’s husband being president made everyone believe she should be president. She carpetbagged to NY and was put at the head of the line, somehow, for a gimme seat for one of the senate’s most powerful constituencies. She spent more money than any other senatorial campaign in 2006 to win re-election to that seat in…