Good discussion of gun choices in the latest RR podcast:
Gun bit starts at 44 minutes in. Working-class as usual; focused on price and ammunition availability.
TLDL version: AR-15s are expensive and not much more effective than a semi-auto hunting rifle. But the ammo is very easily available in the USA. A cheap gun is better than no gun.
OTOH, they’re talking about community defence stuff here; rifles. If you’re just thinking about worst-case personal defence, a pistol may be better.
BTW: folks may be getting worried about the personal security aspect of accessing radical media online.
On that front, I’d say that anyone with a history of hanging around places like here or BB is already fucked. Either commit to resistance, or run. Now.
There is still a chance to do this peacefully.
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Dark, but accurate.
Not sure I agree with the numbers, at least in practice. The left has no power and no representation. If the Democrats (the 1/6?) continue to put forward right-wing candidates who seek appeasement with the far-right, and the left continues to support them due to the ‘lesser of two evils’ fallacy and a lack of options, then it’s pretty close to 6/6ths far-right in terms of power.
I don’t know what that is so I looked it up on Wikipedia… 
Gotta love the description on that one.
It does sound appropriate for Clinton, mostly, it’s a bit unusual that she announced it on Twitter instead of AOL. She must’ve spent some time trying to catch up since the campaign.
Is there any non-radical media left? Any that couldn’t be perceived as radical by the type of people that consider wearing a scarf or having darker skin or an accent to be radical? Once thoughtcrime is invoked, anything and everything is dangerous if someone with power wants it to be.
I was using those numbers somewhat loosely for rhetorical purposes. 
I do think that they’re roughly correct, though. As you say, the left has more people than power at present.
I think that this is probably going to be resolved one way or another long before elections become a factor, and no election under Trumpist control has the slightest chance of being honestly conducted. There is no voting-based solution to fascism at this stage.
If a legitimate national election ever occurs again in the USA, the Democrats will not be a major party. Virtually no-one to the left of the true-believer Clintonistas is ever going to vote for a Democrat again.
It’s an attempt to isolate the liberal rump from competing messaging, so they can continue to be comfortably cocooned in their bubbles. And be marketed to and monetised in the process.
Really, Clinton is way off into self-parody by this point.
In terms of a Trumpist perspective: anything left of Fox is suspect, and anything left of MSNBC is fatal.
In terms of reality: there is some very good radical media around. Podcasts by It’s Going Down, Helluva Way to Die, Redneck Revolt, Chapo Traphouse, etc.
In the mainstream arena, Newsweek is on side, Politico and The Hill are okay, Cracked is great, Vox and Slate are alternating okay vs counterproductive, mainstream TV news is useless at best, the NYT is actively working for Trump. MSNBC and NPR are packed with catastrophically stupid paralysed Liberals.
I wish I could believe that, but all currently-living U.S. citizens have been conditioned from birth (or from the time that they entered the country) to believe that there are only 2 ‘real’ parties - Republican and Democrat. And that they will get reamed even by people on their own side if they vote for a third-party - “If you voted third-party, it’s your fault that Trump got elected!”
It’s a system designed to keep the people in power in power. It’ll take a lot to bust up and replace the Democrats. Despite all that we’ve seen, close to half the voting population would still go to the polls and pick Democrat as it’s an innate habit/religion/addiction/belief that they have to.
Unless a true leader arises to get us out of this mess. Someone who can break through a lifetime of conditioning and convince people. That’s still a possibility.
Alternatively, one party screws the pooch so badly that essentially for a while you have the single non-destroyed party until someone steps in to fill the blank space. In the US, I hesitate to think how far beyond the line the entire party would have to go to cause that level of implosion, however, given that it hasn’t happened, yet.
Interestingly, al Jazeera is putting out quality left-friendly content.
The Qataris know that they’re screwed if Trump remains.
Yeah. It’ll take a revolution, same as it did to destroy the Whigs.
There really is a very close parallel between the two parties.
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The whole private-social-network-for-Clintonistas thing is very reminiscent of the plug-in lifestyle from Shockwave Rider.
Actually, an addendum to that:
If I’m going to go wildly hypothetical, I could see a slight possibility of the Democratic name being applied to the new Conservative party in post-revolutionary America.
And if the Trumpists win, they’ll probably keep the Democrats around as a puppet token opposition. Those won’t be real elections, though.
Reasons for the six-month delay on DACA deportations:
Any of the locals have a feel for the blue state governments? Is there any chance of California seriously stepping up to protect its citizens as things get more extreme?
Are they packed with Pelosi/Schumer types, or is there a hint of intelligence present?
okay, i’ve been reading through your posts and comments here with a certain amount of bemusement but you are making some assertions here which really don’t seem to have much of a basis in reality from what i can see. as a counterexample to your rather sweeping statement, i am well to the left of clinton, to the left of sanders even, but i’m voting democratic until either a new party develops with the strength to capture at least as many seats in congress as the democrats currently have as well as the resources to support the national candidacy of a presidential contender or the democratic party is disbanded after premier trump is installed as the emergency president-for-life.
in my opinion anyone on the left who is not voting democratic is working against their own beliefs and interests. the democratic party of 2017 is easily to the left of the democratic party of 2012 and it is substantially to the left of the party of 2006. the “blue dog” democrats are gone mostly voted out by an electorate that, given a choice between a republican and a republican “light,” chose to vote for the republican republican, although a few retired and a few were gerrymandered out of existence as part of the republican efforts to make it impossible for the democrats to gain a majority in congress–demographics be damned. i don’t understand how you expect to make changes in what’s happening by unilaterally disarming. unless you really do think it’s time to give up on democracy and move on to armed rebellion.
what is it you see in the current situation that makes worthwhile abandoning the most liberal democratic party in my lifetime? if people on the left refuse to vote for the democratic candidates what choice will the party be left with other than to move back to the right in an attempt to split off independent voters who lean republican? i’d appreciate some clarification of the analysis that makes this seem reasonable to you.
edited to be less categorical.
The complete lack of any possibility of a genuine democratic election unless the Trump regime is overthrown in the near future.
As I said upthread: in my view, the US revolution has already begun, and it was started by the right. There is now a leftist counter-revolution brewing in response. It’s not yet at the point where a peaceful revolution is impossible, but it’s damned close.
Unless that revolutionary struggle is won by the left, there is not going to be another real federal election in the USA. By the time you get back to having real elections again, if you ever do, the US political party structure is likely to be completely unrecognisable.
At a guess, I would expect the main left party to rise out of some sort of coalition between BLM and the DSA. No more fascist party at all, but probably some sort of liberal party to represent the centre right. Which may end up adopting the name of Democrats, if it isn’t totally discredited by then.
I don’t expect you to agree with this analysis. But this is how I view the situation.
good call.
