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Duncan Saunders's avatar

Bravo!!! Bravo!!! By walking into the GOP office and creating the circumstances so that a dialogue could happen is exactly what is needed if we are going to move towards some common ground to remove the "us/them" environment which needs changing. By the way, I worked for Goldwater as a volunteer back in 1964 but became a conscientious objector/war resister a few years later.

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Mark Taylor's avatar

Thanks. Yeah, my path went far away from Goldwater.

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djean111's avatar

That was an epic Cenk rant. But saying what Kamala should have said and done just to win misses the point. If she won, we would have had the same old shit.

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Mark Taylor's avatar

You are absolutely right., djean

That's why I said in my suggestion: "Imagine — just imagine — if the Democrats had genuinely run on such a message and had a track record to back it up."

Be sure to listen to that Caitlin commentary. As usual, she nails it.

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djean111's avatar

Oh, I know - my remark was meant for Cenk. But I have as much access to Cenk as he did to Walz. And IMO good thing he did not get the Dems to follow his advice. The Dems are very clear that it is fine to lie when campaigning, it is expected, and the voters are fools - again - if they believe the lies.

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Mark Taylor's avatar

The entire system is rotted out and beyond redemption.

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Matthew Hoh's avatar

Thanks for voting for my friend Phil Anderson!

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Mark Taylor's avatar

Happy to do so. Baldwin won by less than 1 percentage point. I think Phil got 1.3%.

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Diana van Eyk's avatar

What a great thing to have done, Mark! Class is the thing, alright. So many are turning to the far right, it blows my mind. I'd like to see something that could persuade them that solidarity might be better for all of us.

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Mark Taylor's avatar

This is really like what was going on in the Progressive era. The IWW 'Wobblies' did this in organizing , they accepted all workers -- skilled and unskilled -- all races. They set a model that rippled outward through the progressive movement,. They were so effective, they were targeted by the oligarchs and ground down. We need the same energy now.

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Diana van Eyk's avatar

Do we ever!

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John Stuckey's avatar

Thanks, Mark. I have been writing essay after essay for my Substack talking about the same thing, from many different angles. Since the only reason I write is to encourage the very kind of discussion you describe here, it would be great if we shared and passed along each other's efforts. Lemme know if it's OK with you, and I will post this as a guest article on my Substack, whether or not you reciprocate. https://jstuckey.substack.com/ While I haven't visited the local GOP office, I have regular conversations with Trump voters at the dog park. LOL

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Mark Taylor's avatar

Hey, John, thanks and feel free to repost the piece, or anything else I've written or any of the cartoons/art. I'll take a look at your work and am open to reposting. Originally, I looked to do posts 3 or 4 times per week, but with the accelerating collapse I'm posting most days.

I will be going in for some surgery tomorrow and will be offline for a couple days. How about sending me a link to a piece you'd like for repost and I'll take a look and perhaps I can schedule it to run in the next couple days.

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Mark Taylor's avatar

This recent story adds to the theme of this post: "We can rage about Donald Trump. Or we can be curious about why he appealed to so many"

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/nov/09/we-can-rage-about-donald-trump-or-we-can-be-curious-about-why-he-appealed-to-so-many

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Boris Petrov's avatar

Thank you, Mark.

We still have bipartisan “antisemitism” laws and their free speech persecution

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Diana van Eyk's avatar

Does anyone know what percentage of the votes Jill Stein received, Mark?

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Mark Taylor's avatar

Check out this map on the Guardian. The states I checked had her at less than 1 percentage point. The USA electoral/political system is so rigged against third parties, the very thing we need if we are to have any chance of saving ourselves.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2024/nov/06/us-election-results-map-2024-live-donald-trump-kamala-harris-president

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The Revolution Continues's avatar

Ohio Greens are attempting to find the number of Jill Stein votes, but the individual county Boards of Elections are not so forthcoming. (The signs they posted in the polling places saying, "Votes for Jill Stein won't be counted" didn't help any.) But we're collecting as many vote tallies as we can and making an educated guess on the missing counties. Lawsuits are coming. #CountOurVotes

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Mark Taylor's avatar

More of the mockery of democracy.

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Diana van Eyk's avatar

Thanks, Mark. Very informative -- and depressing.

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Mark Taylor's avatar

I went looking for that earlier. I know in my county in NE Wisconsin it was 1.1%

I was one of something like 111 Stein voters in my county.

I'll plug that info in when I find it.

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Diana van Eyk's avatar

Thanks, Mark. Good for you!

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The Revolution Continues's avatar

Wonderful! I'm so glad you were able to have a civil discourse with the Repugs. There may be some hope you can do the same with the Dems. I wish I had your persuasive ability and style and could do likewise. I cannot even stand to look at my neighbors with their Holocaust Harris signs in their front yards. (See this week's post for details.) But we all need to reach out and start forming coalitions if we're serious about wanting to save this planet from obliteration. People. Planet. Peace.

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gypsy33's avatar

Hi TRC

Sadly, the only Jill Stein sign I saw in my area was in my front yard (though I saw many when I was in Denver in September.)

I have always thought that in order for a successful revolution, we must find common ground with those we perceive as the “enemy”…in this case, both D’s and Rs. Because right now it looks as though it’s from the frying pan into the fire.

I was a one-issue voter this year, and my issue is, of course, genocide. I feel so helpless and hopeless. The only way I can make a difference is to join the Hout’his!

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Mark Taylor's avatar

It is pretty grim. It will be interesting to see where the Trump supporters are in a year as supports are cut, more money goes to the billionaires and people's kids are being drafted. They will then learn they was as badly scammed as the Democrats.

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Nov 6
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Mark Taylor's avatar

Thanks.

We need People to People, not Politician to People.

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