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Honestly, I was sitting a training by Indiana Democrats and the person next to me said he read a great book called Run for Something. I picked up a copy, read it, saw they were endorsing candidates and applied for it and got it. I could probably use the slack a bit more, but for me, they hooked me up with a mentor who was GREAT to talk to and really just encouraged me. They also have created a lot of resources like a Canva style guide that helped for fast graphic creation. They have been great and I love being a part of it and the work they are doing.

I have also been active in a program by Indiana Democrats called the Emerging Leaders which has been AMAZING in preparing me for being a candidate. They have equipped us a lot with basic skills, how to fundraise, use voterfiles, etc..

If people want to run, I'd recommend reading the Run for Something book.

For me, the biggest challenge is name recognition and getting in front of voters. People start out as republican here, but if i can get in front of them, tell them why i am running and the issues that concern me, then I can get them on my side. At the local level its less political party and who is the person who can get things done.

As far as savvy, I use weebly for the website, crowdpac to online raise $$$, and canva for everything else. You gotta have some tech sense if you want to kick butt, but you also have to have the personality to connect with strangers and meet people.

I think as a party we need to invest in more pipelines for future candidates and start up funds for local races that can cover some basics like yard signs, ads in papers, digital advertising.

I'm in Austria, right next door to /u/rommelo in Germany (no kangaroos). We have similar systems. So everything s|he said applies as a worker here. I also lived and worked in the Netherlands for some years. The similar system exists there.

First I'll respond to you specific questions from your dad:

• Name one country whose economy is better than the US with socialized healthcare
  First, define "better" If your dad mentions GDP, ask him if his personal well being is tied to the US stock market (if you want to win the argument and he happens to be a major stockholder, maybe don't ask this question). For 99% of the US, the answer is "no." Then look at the countries with the highest happiness and quality of life values. They are all countries with socialized healthcare. I live in Vienna, that has won Mercers worldwide award for the highest quality of life for the last 9 years straight.
  
  
• US has more competition thus better healthcare, other countries come to us when they need something important done
  The US does not have either more ("better") competition, nor better healthcare. Empirical studies list the US as 11th of 11 in healthcare results for industrialized nations.
  
  Regarding the second portion of the statement: This is only true for the ultra-wealthy and only for some specific organs like heart issues at the Mayo Clinic. For example, alpine skiing was invented in Austria, and thus knee injuries due to alpine skiing are really, really common here. You want the best knee surgeon, see Dr. Schabus in Vienna (he literally wrote a book titled, "The Knee").
  
  
• Something about long lines
  This is just incorrect. I walk next door to my GP. I wait between 5-15 minutes to see her.
  
  
• Something about how Trump is creating (or trying to create) competition between insurance companies which somehow fixes things?
  This is bullshit and won't help healthcare, it will actually make it worse. Trump suggests allowing insurance companies to sell across state lines to "increase competition." In reality, it will mean all insurance companies will relocate to business tax haven states like Joe Biden's Delaware. They'll make higher profits and be protected by those state laws against their customers' rightful claims.
  
  Back to the beginning. I also run a business here in Austria for nearly 25 years. Socialized healthcare is expensive for a startup. We are a small, niche consulting company, so employee costs are our biggest financial liability. But! In nearly 25 years I have never had to spend time negotiating with an insurance company about plans. I don't have to deal with unexpected price jumps, service changes, plan changes, etc. I don't have to discuss this with potential employees beforehand. Our health insurance is a non-issue during hiring. Health insurance is for our business a complete non-issue except for costs, which are known and easy to estimate - I fire up a website and plug in potential salaries and a few (like 4) details about where we're located and I know in 10 seconds how much healthcare will cost for a new hire, or if I'm considering giving someone a raise. This is super nice as an employer. I was a partner in a US company for a couple years, and I know health insurance is something that has to be looked after very often to not get a nasty surprise (and this was 15 years ago).
  
  Hope this helps!

>So, maybe it’s not just those pesky Russian Robots infiltrating our brains that are destroying our Democracy. It’s Corporate money – born and bred in the good ole USA. Sorry, baseball, hot dogs, and apple pie, but nothing is more American than big money shrinking great minds to small. I’d certainly recommend looking through Beth Lynchs’ masterful series on how this transformation occurred at MSNBC.

>The Democratic Party has now descended from a marketplace of ideas into a cult-of-personality. It’s not about ideas. These churn regularly. Democrats are passionate about people. The vision of Hillary Clinton as a divine infallible savior has taken over the party of small minds – long after her embarrassing loss to an asshole. This has broken down people I once respected, admired, and cared for- broken my heart. This lifelong Democrat is mourning the loss of intellect from Democratic Party circles:

>The moneyed interests know: While you can’t fix stupid, you can sure buy their votes!

Edit to add link.

Glad you looked that up, last time I checked she was proposing $100 billion which MIT Grad/Duke economist Sandy Darity said was inadequate.

>Thanks for including my comments in this important article. Just one proviso; while I do think that @marwilliamson's initial proposed amount for reparations, $100 billion, is paltry, I also think she is open to modifying her proposal toward a much larger sum.

@emarvelous:

>"Universal programs are not specific to the injustices that have been inflicted on African-Americans." Talked to some smart folks on the 2020 conversation on reparations including ⁦@SandyDarity⁩. All say start with HR40, first proposed 30+ yrs ago:

SD:

>Thank you for writing this excellent article. I am especially curious about one matter: Would Whit Ayres endorse black reparations if it was not financed "by taking money away from white people and giving it to black people"?

-

He's been interfacing with Yvette Carnell and Antonio Moore and was on Ezra Klein's show a few months ago:

Sandy Darity has a plan to close the wealth gap | The Ezra Klein Show

>Published on Nov 6, 2018

> Here’s something to consider: For families in which the lead earner has a college degree, the average white family has $180,500 in wealth. The average black family? $23,400. That’s a difference of almost $160,000 — $160,000 that could be used to send a kid to college, get through an illness, start a small business, or make a down payment on a home that builds wealth for the next generation, too.
>
> Sandy Darity is an economist at Duke University, and much of his work has focused on the racial wealth gap, and how to close it. He’s a pioneer of “stratification economics” — a branch of study that takes groups seriously as economic units and thinks hard about how group incentives change our behavior and drive our decisions.
>
> In this podcast, we talk about stratification economics, as well as Darity’s idea of “baby bonds”: assets that would build to give poor children up to $50,000 in wealth by the time they become adults, which would, in turn, give them a chance to invest in themselves or their future the same way children from richer families do. Think of it as a plan for universal basic wealth — and people are listening: Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ), a past guest on this show, recently released a plan to closely tracked Darity’s proposal.
>
> I know, I know, the election is in a day. But right now, we don’t know who will win. So how about spending some time thinking about what someone who actually wanted to ease problems like wealth inequality could do if they did have power?

-

>Recommended books:

>Caste, Class, and Race by Oliver Cox

>https://www.amazon.com/Caste-Class-Race-Social-Dynamics/dp/0853451168

>Capitalism and Slavery by Eric Williams

>https://www.amazon.com/Capitalism-Slavery-Eric-Williams/dp/0807844888/

>Black Reconstruction in America by W.E.B. DuBois

>https://www.amazon.com/Black-Reconstruction-America-1860-1880-Burghardt/dp/0684856573/

MS: What about the next day?

AP: On March 4, we went back there, because the snow melted in London, it was warm.

RB: It was sunny.

AP: And we thought, we really wanted to see Old Sarum and the cathedral. So we decided to give it another try on March 4.

MS: Another try to do what?

AP: To go sightseeing.

RB: To see this famous cathedral. To visit Old Sarum.

MS: So, did you see it?

RB: Yes, we did.

AP: On March 4, we did. But again, by lunchtime, there was heavy rain with snow.

RB: For some reason, nobody talks about this fact.

AP: So we left early.

MS: Is it beautiful?

RB: The cathedral is very beautiful. They have lots of tourists, lots of Russian tourists, lots of Russian-speaking tourists.

AP: By the way, they should have a lot of pictures from the cathedral.

MS: Your pictures, you mean?

AP: They should show them.

MS: I assume you took some pictures while at the cathedral?

RB: Of course.

AP: Sure, we did.

RB: We went to a park, we had some coffee. We went to a coffee shop and drank coffee. We walked around, enjoying those beautiful English Gothic buildings.

AP: For some reason, they don't show this. They only show how we went to the train station.

MS: If you give us your pictures, we can show them. So, while you were in Salisbury, did you go anywhere near the house of the Skripals?

AP: Maybe. We don't know.

RB: What about you? Do you know where their house is?

MS: I don't. Do you?

RB: We don't either.

AP: I wish somebody would tell us where it is.

--------------

Apparently it occurred to few that Russians - who tend to be religious - might be interested in visiting one of England's most revered religious monuments.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salisbury_Cathedral

Did YOU know that it had one of the four surviving originals of the Magna Carta, one of the oldest functioning clocks in the world, and the tallest spire in England? I didn't. I bet they did.

If their story isn't bull, they should be able to show the photos they took of it - and the British police have been ignoring CCTV footage of their visit to the cathedral.

If those photos exist, I wonder if the Brits will close down the cathedral for several months for Novichok decontamination.

And here is a description of the Old Sarum they had planned to visit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Sarum. Note the proximity to Stonehenge.

I own a CD of Sarum chant; the Tallis Scholars are glorious.

https://www.amazon.com/Sarum-Chant-Tallis-Scholars/dp/B00007GX35/ref=sr_1_4?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1536851280&sr=1-4&keywords=sarum+chant

Perhaps now, if they learn a litte shtick, Petrov and Boshirov can become Russia's Rowan and Martin.

TY Caitlin! One of my dawning realizations over the past few years was the power of propaganda. I realized it, oddly enough, while watching a FANTABULOUS Danish film - in subtitles and everything. It is the story of the struggle by the Queen and the King's physician to advance progressive ideals into the aristocratic, orthodox establishment. At one point, the evil monarchs who want to keep the status quo intentionally send some folks into the city to spread false news about the physician, yada, yada, yada. Which resulted in the villagers getting all worked up and essentially turning into a lynch mob, as villagers seem prone to do.

It occurred to me that rich people have the time and money to do things like create and spread "fake news" in order to stir up the passions of a mob. Poor people tend to not do this, they tend to lack the necessary resources. And then I realized that RW folks, such as Fox News, were essentially following this program EXACTLY themselves.

I see today's events as a fierce political struggle over "propaganda."
Who is writing "fake news" and who is not? The answer now for many people, sadly, seems to increasingly depend not on things like FACTS and HISTORY but on their own political affinities and identities.

Who decides what the TRUTH is? We seem to be having an intense power struggle over that very issue. And that is so shocking to see because most of us thought we were actually living in an ENLIGHTENED AGE where the answer to such a question was not a matter of one's politics.

I recognize you as a seeker and passionate of the TRUTH, and you share it in such a powerful way. I fell in love with your writing fairly early this season, and have been so grateful having you as an advocate for the progressive cause.

> It can be, and has been, wielded for great good in helping women build equal rights within our society.

No it hasn't. In the US, women literally have more rights than men* and fare better on almost every quality of life indicator, yet I see no attempt by feminists to correct this.

• (1) females have the right to genital integrity. It is legal to mutilate the genitals of baby boys but not baby girls (2) women have the right to vote without signing over their body to the state. It is illegal for men to vote without signing up for selective service (conscription). (3) Women have the right to legal parental surrender. If a woman doesn't want her child she can drop it off at a safe haven. If a man doesn't want his child he will be sent to prison if he fails to pay child support.
  
  And those are just the legal rights. Discussing the privileges of the female sex would require an entire book. The reality is that females are now institutionally privileged in nearly ever facet of modern life. From the education system to the criminal justice system to politics. Strangely, this has not resulted in increased happiness. Female happiness rates have been steadily declining since the 1970's.
  
  In case you're wondering whether I'm some right wing tradcon -- no, I'm not. I support abortion rights, free birth control, public funding of daycare etc. etc. I oppose feminism precisely because I support gender equality.

I feel you. It can be extremely demoralizing. It's designed to feel that way.

Despite the feeling of stagnation, we are making progress. We are making huge progress in the minds of the people. I would say that we are in the eye of the storm right now, which is why it feels so eerie and stagnant. Remember that almost no one knew who Bernie Sanders was two years ago (I remember, this is around the time I discovered him myself, and nobody I talked to about him had ever heard of him). And now is the most popular politician in the country. That is BIG. Think of all the lexicon and "common sense" he's introduced into daily discourse.

Reddit and the online media are part of a huge bubble. Reddit has always skewed upper middle class, but I really think the concerted shilling efforts have had a markedly noticeable effect on the composition of its primary user base. To be explicit, I think it used to be middle-to-upper-middle-class students and commuting tech workers. Now that shills changed the focus of the discussion, you find a lot more urban professionals and media types. "Journalists", bloggers/vloggers, silicon valley, etc. Plus, I think, more wealthy international redditors (e.g. the 1% in India, China, etc.) Not that all of them are neoliberal of course, just that the ones who are have been empowered to speak their mind more, and the ones who have a progressive or libertarian streak have been pulling back and getting more dormant. The shills are still here as well, but I feel like they have less work to do now.

But the important part to remember is, like they always smugly told us, back before they were the ones who needed reminding, "Reddit is not real life". There is something big going on in the minds of the average American. It takes time for people's worldview to change. By virtue of our participation here, it's evident that we're early adopters. It feels like we've known these things forever. Take heart: I have never been a bleeding edge person. I always adopt new ideas at the cusp, right before the tipping point where it goes mainstream. It's regular enough to be predictive, imo. It happened with smartphones, it happened with Bernie, and it's going to happen with the upcoming revolution (political or otherwise) as well. We will have campaign finance reform, universal healthcare, marijuana legalization, and so on. The collapse of the traditional mainstream media. There will also be violence, and escalation, and war, but whether it's domestic or international I can't say yet. All this within the next ten years.

Read The Fourth Turning if you haven't already. I'm impatient, it's true, but there's no doubt in my mind that it's coming.

lol. no way I could do it justice... thanks!

I like bobswern's comment where he politely suggests kos take a sabbatical and give all this some more thought. Im tempted to pile on and tell markos to log off DKOS, turn off MSNBC for a week or two and go read a few good books. Go hole up or have a few drinks with Meteor Blades maybe, heh.

start with this one:

https://www.amazon.com/Listen-Liberal-Happened-Party-People/dp/1627795391

Im sure we collectively could come up with a pretty good reading list for him lol

I'm glad Jimmy didn't let Thomas Frank off the hook for voting for Clinton. Jimmy obviously loves Frank's book, Listen, Liberal, but seriously, how do write that masterpiece and still remain loyal to the Democratic Party?

>It's important to note that this is a cultural phenomenon, not a political one.

I may be misunderstanding you but I'm not sure you're correct on this particular point. Cultural misandry is indeed being reflected in actual laws. See Legalizing Misandry by the Canadian academics Paul Nathanson and Katherine Young (both left-wingers, incidentally).

Indeed analyses of political discrimination against men go back to at least the late 19th century when the socialist Earnest Belfort Bax wrote The Legal Subjugation of Men (1896).

The very idea that males can suffer gender-based discrimination is extremely counter-intuitive for both men and women. This is in part because the male gender role is rooted in strength. The other problem is that most people in positions of overt power are male; however powerful men do not actually try to "privilege" other males; quite the opposite; males (unlike females) lack in-group preference and indeed tend to favor the opposite sex. Powerful men loving being chivalrous. Study after study has determined that there is a very large "empathy gap" between the sexes. Several have found eg if forced to choose between killing an innocent man or woman, both sexes will choose the man.

One academic, albeit an Israeli right-wing military strategist, has even claimed that females are and always have been the privileged sex. I wouldn't go that far, but it's pretty clear if you look at the statistical data alone that "patriarchy" hypothesis is fundamentally irrational. No, men don't want to oppress their own mothers and daughters, and no, males aren't privileged. Rich men, sure.

Since we're talking about feminism and political power, it's very interesting to note that there is probably a Machiavellian aspect to this as well. The first "gender studies" courses were financed by the Ford and Rockefeller foundations, and extreme anti-male feminism (what we would now call mainstream feminism) arose during the "COINTELPRO" era.

Left wing media analysis Mark Crispin Miller stated the following during Occupy Wall Street, after being accosted by feminist Laurie Pennie:

"It’s interesting to note that Ford and Rockefeller and the other foundations with strong CIA connections started giving grants in the early 70s to study race and gender. It was a sudden move towards identity politics by these organisations and the theory is that the reason they did this was to balkanise the left and to prevent it from pursuing any kind of a class or economic analysis. Without denying the justice of what you’re saying, this is not an irrelevant theory. I don’t think, anyway."

His opinion is bolstered by an FBI document from 1969:

"The Women’s Liberation Movement may be considered as subversive to the New Left and revolutionary movements as they have proven to be a divisive and factionalizing factor.... It could be well recommended as a counterintelligence movement to weaken the revolutionary movement.” This was from an August, 1969 report by the head of the San Francisco FBI office.[4] Within several years, the Rockefeller and Ford Foundations were pumping millions into women’s studies programs on campus.







If you actually look at the statistics you find that men and boys fare worse on practically every quality of life indicator. So at minimum, leftists need to abandon this "male privilege" nonsense.

> Hillary Clinton's new book is a flop ...

People are more interested in honest stuff nowadays!

• A Letter to American Workingmen – by Vladmir Ilyich Lenin
  
  
• Essential Works of Lenin: "What Is to Be Done?"
  
  xD

Great post.

9) All the way. I have been told that if we the people wanted to fund exit polls, we would need to become a PAC and then set up fundraising, like a kickstarter. Can anyone confirm this? I guess we should bite the bullet and go for it. What should we call our PAC? “NotRussianBots” or “TiredofLivinginaBananaRepublic” or??

Richard Charnin was the mathematician. Here is his book: https://www.amazon.com/77-Billion-One-Election-Fraud/dp/1539309371

This is a good thing to do. I tried to get it all down in a reference guide as a book... please consider using it as a source (also with references to sources, etc...) Thank you. https://www.amazon.com/Fade-Out-Obama-Clinton-Oligarchy-Propaganda/dp/1544288778

Might I suggest also Constructive Thinking? It's graduate-level reading, advancing Martin Seligman's "learned optimism" concepts through empirical studies, with clear and coherent ways to learn constructive ways to think about the world and how one interacts with fellow beings.

A book on the matter:

https://www.amazon.com/77-Billion-One-Election-Fraud/dp/1539309371/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1510079616&sr=8-1-fkmr0&keywords=1+in+77+billion

The people who did the thing.

http://www.democracyintegrity.org/ElectoralFraud/just-doing-the-math.html

NOTE: The book has tons of info and discussion but does have a couple of typos and other syntax problems that suggest it wasn't proofread with the kind of diligence one might hope for but the books is either cheap or free, supports the efforts of those who fight the good fight and you can post a review of the book to offset the 1-star from someone who gave it that rating because they never received the book.

https://www.amazon.com/Giants-Global-Power-Peter-Phillips/dp/1609808711/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

​

Here's a recent book titled "Giants: The Global Power Elite." by a prominent Sociology Professor which really runs down the major financial elites, their various organizations, how they fund their agendas, etc etc.

​

One of things it hipped me to was the 180 on Russia coinciding with Putin being too insular for global financial interests, Crimea tipped the scales then the Trilateral Commission published "Engaging Russia; A Return To Containment" circa 2013.

http://www.trilateral.org/download/doc/TF_Russia_for_WEBSITE_final_15_May_2014.pdf

Or you know science.

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/765552031/The-war-on-boys-young-men-are-facing-a-new-crisis.html?pg=all

http://m.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2000/05/the-war-against-boys/304659/

http://m.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2000/05/the-war-against-boys/304659/

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/rogereolson/2013/02/discrimination-against-boys-in-education-and-elsewhere/

http://www.cornwallcommunitynews.co.uk/2014/05/05/female-teachers-marking-down-boys/

https://www.amazon.com/Second-Sexism-Discrimination-Against-Boys/dp/0470674512

https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/eliminating-feminist-teacher-bias-erases-boys-falling-grades-study-finds

http://www.educationnews.org/k-12-schools/students-can-detect-teachers-gender-bias-boys-suffer-most/

You are right about one thing it is a bad plot line from a dystopian film that would never ever get made by Hollywood.

From cradle to grave men are systematically discriminated against because like it or not Hillary was right.

We are hardwired to prefer girls, to favor girls, to treat them like children, and to view boys as expendable.

You are caught in a false reality bubble.

Here is the mobile version of your link