US Politics XXIII: Law & Order SOU (Stupid Orange Unit)

[anitram]

To be fair, people like this are likely a very small percentage of his voting base. Hedge fund managers aren't going to swing any states.

They're the ones buying votes.

 

[Jerry Dunk]

Finally somebody goes on live TV and calls Trump an imbecile and an idiot. It's as if "civility" has paralyzed everybody while Trump treats America and the rest of the world as his personal toilet to shit in on a daily basis.

You can never let your guard down, but I am now thinking more and more that he will get absolutely humiliated at the polls. The reason I say this, aside from his various current failures, is that anecdotally, all these fund managers and investor class that my husband interfaces who care about only tax cuts and business deregulation can't stand the man and are not going to vote for him. They think Biden will be acceptable (probably not great news for the left) and are totally committed to getting Trump out and removing the 24/7 state of uncertainty in the markets, not to mention the handicapping of US businesses on the world stage given COVID.

He has his insane deplorables left, but the others have already departed the ship.

I have an uncle who worked in a local office Republican administration for 30 years, and he sat out in 2016 because he thought Trump was stupid. He plans to do so again in 2020.

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

To be fair, people like this are likely a very small percentage of his voting base. Hedge fund managers aren't going to swing any states.

They really are, though.

The difference between Trump and Clinton in the states that swung the EC to Trump was smaller than his inauguration crowd.

If moderate republicans and independents and suburban white women swing away from Trump - which it looks like they will - he can't win.

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

this is real life and not The Onion.

“Years ago when Nelson Mandela came to America after years of political persecution he was treated like a rock star by Americans,” John McLaughlin, one of President Trump’s chief pollsters, told The Daily Beast on Thursday evening. “Now after over three years of political persecution General Flynn is our rock star. A big difference is that he was persecuted in America.”

 

[BEAL]

https://twitter.com/eorden/status/1275793149793898496?s=21

 

[womanfish]

So one of the few A+ rated pollsters on 538 (Sienna College/NYT Upshot)
released a poll last night with Biden +14

Biden's average on 538 is now +9.8
and on RealClearPolitics it is +10.2

These of course taken before the rally debacle and the latest rabid racist rants.

 

[Jerry Dunk]

The electoral map heavily skews in Trump's favor because it's by design not reflective of the actual people and drives down voter turnout, but that's a clear win for Biden as we sit here today. Following the start of the pandemic and the ongoing fallout, it's undoubtedly his election to lose.

 

[Irvine511]

i don't like mobs.

https://www.jsonline.com/story/news...attack-senator-sculptures-in-lake/3247948001/

 

[Jerry Dunk]

Speaking of Milwaukee, it appears there has been a human trafficking ring operating there that the police at the very least failed to recognize obvious signs of, and may have in fact been working to cover things up. Two young black girls were kidnapped, and the police essentially ignored them even when evidence was brought forth that indicated where they were located. They never issued an Amber Alert or anything.

So the community rallied together to track them down. The fallout included a gunfight and an arson, but the girls were rescued alive. It's unclear how the fire started: the police blame the community members who stormed the house, the community and protestors strongly suspect that the police set the fire themselves to cover up evidence. Further study has revealed that the house is located in the center of an area that has seen a lot of disappearances over the years, and there were apparently names of missing people found inside the house before the fire. Now, there are growing protests, and the police are doing much more to fight back against the protestors than they ever did with trying to rescue the missing girls.

The story has largely remained out of the public eye, but is making the rounds on social media.

 

[Jerry Dunk]

I'm also fascinated to see the results of the Booker-McGrath race in Kentucky. McGrath showed herself to be a pretender, in my view, and my hope is that this discourages Democrats from trotting out the "centrist troop" opposition candidate as much as they have in recent years. Booker made real connections with people, and his grassroots campaign really built something there. I don't think either of them had a chance in a heavily red state going against McConnell, but Booker certainly seems more in line with the times if anyone's going to put up a real fight.

 

[Irvine511]

here's an article on that story:

What started Tuesday as a missing-persons investigation morphed over the course of several hours as tensions about police treatment ran high and rumors spread online.

By nightfall, three people — including two 14-year-olds — had been shot, a house was set on fire, and police had fired tear gas and pepper spray on some members of a scattered crowd of hundreds who'd gathered outside a Milwaukee house where police earlier conducted an investigation into two missing teenage girls.

One of the two girls had been found as of Tuesday night, Milwaukee Police Chief Alfonso Morales said in a news conference. TV stations reported earlier that family members of the girls — ages 13 and 15, last seen Sunday — said they'd both been found safe during the afternoon.

Police are also investigating whether the girls may have been victims of sex trafficking, police spokeswoman Sgt. Sheronda Grant said.

"That's something that we are looking into," she said. "So that's under review. However I cannot confirm that that is the case."

The two girls had not been considered critical missing and did not meet the criteria for an Amber Alert, Grant said.

The crowd that gathered Tuesday near the police investigation in the 2100 block of North 40th Street was a mix of neighbors observing the situation, people expressing frustration with police and activists who'd marched in Milwaukee's racial justice protests.

Some wanted to take the investigation into their own hands. Others joined the melee to express their grievances with police violence in general.

Police reported a boy and a girl, both 14, were shot near the scene around 5:45 p.m. and suffered injuries that were not life-threatening.

Then a 24-year-old man was shot near the scene around 7:30 p.m. as someone fired shots at his vehicle, police said. He refused medical treatment and his injuries were not life-threatening.

Seven police officers and one firefighter were injured in the unrest, Morales said.

Police responded to the home multiple times Monday and Tuesday to check for the missing girls, Morales said, but officers did not find them.

Then around 10 a.m. Tuesday, a group of people looking for the girls went to the home, Morales said. Police responded to the scene as well for a "trouble with subject" call and did not locate the girls.

Police then responded again around 11 a.m. after there was an "exchange of gunfire" between someone inside and someone from a group of people trying to get inside, Morales said. No injuries were reported.

A crowd grew near the home late Tuesday morning. Police officers stood outside the house as investigators worked inside, and some people were shouting at the officers, according to livestreams from the scene.

Some in the crowd threw bricks at officers, Morales said, prompting more officers to respond.

By mid-afternoon, the crowd had swelled to hundreds of onlookers. About 15 to 20 officers formed a line outside the house to keep the crowd back but left after investigators completed their work.

The crowd then surged toward the house, as some in the group wanted to look for evidence that supported the rumors of sex trafficking. Some broke into the house, while others smashed the windows of a vehicle parked on the property.

Local protest organizer Frank Sensabaugh — also known as Frank Nitty — talked to many of the angriest participants to defuse tension.

Police wearing face shields and holding batons arrived and formed lines outside the house and on nearby streets.

Groups of people also began an effort to look for the girls in nearby residences.

Around 5:45 p.m. people set a couch, a vehicle and a house on fire, Morales said. Fire crews were on the scene to extinguish the fires.

As crews were fighting the fires, the unrest escalated. Two 14-year-olds were shot — not by police, Morales said.

Police fired tear gas, rubber bullets and pepper spray at some protesters, according to Sensabaugh’s livestream. Several people appeared to be injured, and volunteer medics were treating them — pouring milk on eyes and wrapping limbs.

Morales defended the use of force, saying police needed to make sure the scene was secure for fire crews to work as well as provide aid to one of the people shot in the crowd.

"We had to go out there and now do a rescue in the middle of an angry crowd," Morales said.

He said bricks and other projectiles were being thrown at officers and firefighters.

After 7 p.m., Sensabaugh and a small group of others began a protest march away from the scene. A caravan of cars followed.

"This whole chain of events could have been avoided," Morales said at the news conference. "And my heart goes out for the people that live in this community."

Morales said he spoke to neighbors who wanted peace and worried about fires spreading to their own homes. He also denounced the "vigilantism" at the scene.

"We investigate the information that is given to us. We can't allow an unruly crowd to determine what that investigation is," Morales said.

"What you had today is vigilantism. You had people take the law into their own hands and run off of information that has not been proven," he continued. "We need to investigate that. That's what the police is here for."

Morales was frustrated with the misinformation he said proliferated throughout the day.

"We have to be allowed to conduct our investigation and not chase a crowd and take that information from that crowd to be factual," he said.

https://www.jsonline.com/story/news...icking-house-shooting-fire-starts/3246406001/

it sounds like a difficult situation. definitely underscores my concerns.

 

[LuckyNumber7]

I'm also fascinated to see the results of the Booker-McGrath race in Kentucky. McGrath showed herself to be a pretender, in my view, and my hope is that this discourages Democrats from trotting out the "centrist troop" opposition candidate as much as they have in recent years. Booker made real connections with people, and his grassroots campaign really built something there. I don't think either of them had a chance in a heavily red state going against McConnell, but Booker certainly seems more in line with the times if anyone's going to put up a real fight.

I think you’re underestimating Kentucky as a “heavily red state.” There’s been an Appalachian blue brew being made for a while, recently. More at the grassroots level. Complex state.

 

[Jerry Dunk]

here's an article on that story:

it sounds like a difficult situation. definitely underscores my concerns.

I will just say that a lot of this is wildly at odds with how the situation has been explained by most non-law enforcement sources, and that my skepticism of those "official" sources is at an all-time high.

 

[Jerry Dunk]

I think you’re underestimating Kentucky as a “heavily red state.” There’s been an Appalachian blue brew being made for a while, recently. More at the grassroots level. Complex state.

That's good to hear, but November is the presidential election, which will help McConnell because Trump is popular there. He took 1.2 million votes to Clinton's 630k in 2016.

We'll see how this shakes out in the primary first.

 

[Jerry Dunk]

[TWEET]1275808827326201856[/TWEET]

Would love to see them stop this fucking bullshit. George Bush may have been more polite than Donald Trump and less outwardly fascist, but he spit on the rule of law.

 

[BEAL]

here's an article on that story:











it sounds like a difficult situation. definitely underscores my concerns.

Justice has to be rooted in the truth, in reality. We can’t even have conversations anymore without emotions taking over. Without jumping to conclusions (insert office space photo). Without the ability to have discussions all that’s left is violence.

I’m perfectly OK with confederacy monuments, statues and flags being removed from the public spaces. Put them in a museum.

We need reform across the board in this country but if we turn to riots and violence you’re going to get the exact opposite of what you want. We have to be able to discuss these issues without fear of being labeled a racist, a establishment, Antifa (the way Trump and GOP use it).

 

[Irvine511]

i found this article fascinating. it could describe my neighborhood, although no camps here.

i'm very curious to see how this pans out. it's a little long but worth the read.

A Minneapolis Neighborhood Vowed to Check Its Privilege. It’s Already Being Tested.


Caitlin Dickerson
By Caitlin Dickerson
June 24, 2020
Updated 10:58 a.m. ET


MINNEAPOLIS — When Shari Albers moved three decades ago into Powderhorn Park, a tree-lined Minneapolis neighborhood known as a haven to leftist activists and bohemian artists like herself, she went to work sprucing it up.

She became a block club leader, organizing her mostly white neighbors to bring in playgrounds and help tackle longstanding issues with crime.

On many nights, she banged on the car windows of men who had come to solicit prostitutes outside her door, she said. She kept meticulous notes when dozens of men would gather in a circle for gang meetings in the park across from her house. After each episode, she called the police.

But times have changed. After the death of George Floyd at the hands of the police, Ms. Albers, who is white, and many of her progressive neighbors have vowed to avoid calling law enforcement into their community. Doing so, they believed, would add to the pain that black residents of Minneapolis were feeling and could put them in danger.

Already, that commitment is being challenged. Two weeks ago, dozens of multicolored tents appeared in the neighborhood park. They were brought by homeless people who were displaced during the unrest that gripped the city. The multiracial group of roughly 300 new residents seems to grow larger and more entrenched every day. They do laundry, listen to music and strategize about how to find permanent housing. Some are hampered by mental illness, addiction or both.

Their presence has drawn heavy car traffic into the neighborhood, some from drug dealers. At least two residents have overdosed in the encampment and had to be taken away in ambulances.

After the death of George Floyd, Shari Albers and many of her progressive neighbors have vowed to avoid calling law enforcement into their community.

The influx of outsiders has kept Ms. Albers awake at night. Though it is unlikely to happen, she has had visions of people from the tent camp forcing their way into her home. She imagines using a baseball bat to defend herself.

Not being able to call the police, as she has done for decades, has shaken her.

“I am afraid,” she said. “I know my neighbors are around, but I’m not feeling grounded in my city at all. Anything could happen.”

The video of Mr. Floyd’s death and the outcry over racial injustice that came after has awakened many white Americans to a reality that people of color have known their whole lives: The scores of police killings they have seen in the news in recent years were not one-off incidents, but part of a systemic problem of the dehumanization of black people by the police.

In the city where the movement began, residents are not surprised that it is being taken especially seriously in Powderhorn Park, just blocks from Mr. Floyd’s deadly encounter with the police. For decades, the community has been a refuge for scrappy working-class activists with far-left politics. The biggest day of the year, locals often boast, is the May Day parade celebrating laborers.

Though it is one of the most diverse neighborhoods in Minneapolis, with black residents making up about 17 percent of the population, white people make up the largest group. About a third of the population is Latino.

Since the camp appeared, the community has organized shifts for delivering warm meals, medical care and counseling to people living in the park. They persuaded officials to back off an eviction notice served shortly after the campers arrived.

But many in the neighborhood, who were already beleaguered from the financial stresses of the coronavirus, now say they are eager for the campers to move on to stable housing away from the park.

“I’m not being judgmental,” said Carrie Nightshade, 44, who explained that she no longer felt comfortable letting her children, 12 and 9, play in the park by themselves. “It’s not personal. It’s just not safe.”

On Friday, she sat in a shared backyard with four other women who live in neighboring houses. The women, four of whom are white, had called a meeting to vent about the camp.

Angelina Roslik burst into tears, explaining that she had spent the past four years fleeing unstable housing conditions and was struggling more than she cared to admit with the chaos the camp had brought into the neighborhood. Linnea Borden said she had stopped walking her dog through the park because she was tired of being catcalled. “My emotions change every 30 seconds,” said Tria Houser, who is part Native American.

The women agreed to let any property damage, including to their own homes, go ignored and to request a block party permit from the city to limit car traffic. Rather than turn to law enforcement if they saw anyone in physical danger, they resolved to call the American Indian Movement — a national organization created in 1968 to address Native American grievances such as police brutality — which had been policing its own community locally for years.

But some people in the neighborhood have already found their best-laid plans to avoid calling the police harder to execute than they had imagined.

Last Thursday night, Joseph Menkevich found a black man wearing a hospital bracelet passed out in the elevator of his apartment building two blocks away from the park. Mr. Menkevich, who is white, quickly phoned a community activist but she did not pick up. He felt he had no choice but to call 911, so he did, but requested an ambulance only, not the police.

Ultimately, a white police officer arrived at the scene. The officer checked the situation out briefly and then returned to his squad car.

“It didn’t resolve in a way that I had hoped,” Mr. Menkevich said. “All they did was offer to bring him back to the hospital. He refused, so they kicked him out on a rainy night.”

Joseph Menkevich found a black man with a hospital bracelet passed out in the elevator of his apartment building last week. He phoned a community activist but got no answer. He believed he had no choice but to call 911, but requested an ambulance only, not the police. Ultimately, a white police officer arrived at the scene.

Joseph Menkevich found a black man with a hospital bracelet passed out in the elevator of his apartment building last week. He phoned a community activist but got no answer. He believed he had no choice but to call 911, but requested an ambulance only, not the police. Ultimately, a white police officer arrived at the scene.

The impulse many white Powderhorn Park residents have to seek help from community groups rather than from the police is being felt in neighborhoods across the country. But some are finding the commitment hard to stand by when faced with the complex realities of life. While friends, neighbors and even family members in Powderhorn Park agree to avoid calling the police at all costs, it has been harder to establish where to draw the line.

Tobie Miller, Ms. Albers’s 34-year-old daughter, lives just a block away from her mother, but lately, she said, they have felt a world apart. Ms. Miller began a concerted effort last year to challenge her own privileges by taking a class on racial biases.

She worries that a lot of what has been written about the camp on community message boards has been influenced by racial profiling. To the extent that illegal activity is going on in the park, Ms. Miller does not blame the tent residents. “My feeling around it is those are symptoms of systemic oppression,” she said. “And that’s not on them.”

Some of the self-examination she and her mother have done recently has led them to the same place. Ms. Miller came to see her decision to buy a home in the neighborhood as potentially preventing a person of color from doing so. And while Ms. Albers used to feel only pride about the work she put in to revitalizing the community, now, she sees her work as gentrification that may have pushed out nonwhite residents. The neighborhood’s black population has dropped more than 5 percent since 2000.

Sheldon Stately Sr., 43, grew up in Powderhorn Park with his grandmother, one of the community’s few black homeowners at the time. He returned there recently in a tent. Mr. Stately said he had been homeless for three years after he could not make rent and lost his identification, which he could not afford to replace.

“I would like to get back working and feel better about my life,” said Sheldon Stately Sr., who grew up in Powderhorn Park and recently returned there in a tent. He said he had been homeless for three years.

On a recent afternoon, Sarah Kenney and Diane Cullumber, who are both white, were speedwalking behind their toddler sons through the park leading up to the camp. Ms. Kenney had been volunteering there a few times a week.

She said the experience had challenged her to consider not only the safety of her own family, which has a comfortable home and locked doors to retreat behind when they feel uncomfortable, but also that of people living outside without protection. Ms. Cullumber agreed.

Some people of color in the neighborhood, however, said they were skeptical that the community would allow the encampment to stay. “This thing is probably going to last two or three weeks,” said Aza Ochoa, a Mexican and Native American father who was walking through the park with his three children, 12, 11 and 6. Several Spanish-speaking members of the community said they had not been able to take part in collective discussions about the camp because they were in English.

Akhmiri Sekhr-Ra, a black woman who rented in Powderhorn Park for 10 years, said she was making plans to move back with her daughter. Though Ms. Sekhr-Ra said she had had a personal no-police policy for years, she questioned whether her white former neighbors would be able to stick to theirs. “If something really goes down that makes people uncomfortable, I think they’re going to call,” she said.

Mitchell Erickson’s fingers began dialing 911 last week before he had a chance to even consider alternatives, when two black teenagers who looked to be 15, at most, cornered him outside his home a block away from the park.

One of the boys pointed a gun at Mr. Erickson’s chest, demanding his car keys.

Flustered, Mr. Erickson handed over a set, but it turned out to be house keys. The teenagers got frustrated and ran off, then stole a different car down the street.

Mr. Erickson said later that he would not cooperate with prosecutors in a case against the boys. After the altercation, he realized that if there was anything he wanted, it was to offer them help. But he still felt it had been right to call the authorities because there was a gun involved.

Two days after an initial conversation, his position had evolved. “Been thinking more about it,” he wrote in a text message. “I regret calling the police. It was my instinct but I wish it hadn’t been. I put those boys in danger of death by calling the cops.”

What about the fact that the boys had put his life in danger?

“Yeah I know and yeah it was scary but the cops didn’t really have much to add after I called them,” he replied. “I haven’t been forced to think like this before. So I would have lost my car. So what? At least no one would have been killed.”

 

[Hewson]

I will just say that a lot of this is wildly at odds with how the situation has been explained by most non-law enforcement sources, and that my skepticism of those "official" sources is at an all-time high.

Of course social media is not always 100% accurate and unbiased reporting either.
The truth likely lies in between somewhere.

 

[LuckyNumber7]

That's good to hear, but November is the presidential election, which will help McConnell because Trump is popular there. He took 1.2 million votes to Clinton's 630k in 2016.



We'll see how this shakes out in the primary first.

It’s not going blue, I have no imagination of that.

I was more identifying that the former unit of libertarians in Kentucky have been generally disillusioned by Rand Paul’s treachery (supposed to be their “anti establishment” candidate), and we saw a lot of those Appalachian areas in Kentucky and VA going the other way in 2019. This time with a twist... tend to be more “progressive.” For what reason, you can conclude yourself. It’s the missing third party.

 

[BEAL]

i found this article fascinating. it could describe my neighborhood, although no camps here.

i'm very curious to see how this pans out. it's a little long but worth the read.

I read this and I’m still trying to figure out what exactly is going on, what’s the outcome ?

They don’t want cops involved because fear of the tension that comes with it.

They don’t feel safe in their neighborhood because of the rising drug use and traffic that comes with it.

The comment that was tough to read was stating that it was the system at fault, not those in the camps. I don’t subscribe to the pull yourself up by the bootstraps BS that gets thrown around cause it implies it’s just so easy to become well off.

But people have to take some ownership for the situation they are in. Blaming others may give you some fuel for the short term but eventually you need more people to blame or your faced with reality.

 

[Jerry Dunk]

Of course social media is not always 100% accurate and unbiased reporting either.
The truth likely lies in between somewhere.

Of course. I'd love to see a number of journalists dig into what happened and get a more complete story.

 

[Jerry Dunk]

I read this and I’m still trying to figure out what exactly is going on, what’s the outcome ?

They don’t want cops involved because fear of the tension that comes with it.

They don’t feel safe in their neighborhood because of the rising drug use and traffic that comes with it.

The comment that was tough to read was stating that it was the system at fault, not those in the camps. I don’t subscribe to the pull yourself up by the bootstraps BS that gets thrown around cause it implies it’s just so easy to become well off.

But people have to take some ownership for the situation they are in. Blaming others may give you some fuel for the short term but eventually you need more people to blame or your faced with reality.

We need to combat poverty, which is the main cause of crime. That's why the call to defund the police (not reform) is the solution people should be rallying around. Defunding the police directly results in critical social programs and education seeing an increase in their funding. That combats poverty. Policing does not.

 

[BEAL]

US Politics XXIII: Law & Order SOU (Stupid Orange Unit)

don’t disagree with the underlying issue.

Healthcare for all
Universal basic income
Regulate + tax corporations
Legalize drugs

I’d still argue over semantics with defund policing, but whatever works to get to a better society.

Unfortunately those topics are going to take time to achieve. And i know it sucks but the only way to move towards it is with a Biden administration. He won’t probably do much to achieve these goals but he does the first step, reverse the damage of Trump.

 

[LuckyNumber7]

We need to combat poverty, which is the main cause of crime. That's why the call to defund the police (not reform) is the solution people should be rallying around. Defunding the police directly results in critical social programs and education seeing an increase in their funding. That combats poverty. Policing does not.

Sorry man but to state that taking an action to defund something “directly” results in the funding of something else is your imagination.

I’m not going to stop someone from yelling defund the police because I refuse to obstruct the outrage. But the demand is not posing a solution. Disarm the police will be what I return to time and time again.

 

[womanfish]

Even with everything that has gone on over the past few months, and yes along with the previous 3 years. You still have media and "journalists" straining to make this another 2016. The both-sideism, the using terms about Trump like "unprecedented" or unconventional, and making sure to note that Biden is also a flawed candidate. Yes idiots. EVERY candidate is flawed candidate. But it would be like two cars. One has a broken headlight and scratch on the door, and the other one is on fire.

Since Joe is playing rope-a-dope with Trump, the media and NYT in particular, can't stand it. They need to have this be a close race with bad stories on both sides to feel like they are doing something i guess.

anyway. Great quote from one of my favorite authors.

 

[BEAL]

https://twitter.com/thetnholler/status/1275841238311276545?s=21

What an utter disgrace. It’s long past but the GOP just doesn’t care. All they want is to remain in power.

What does it say about the people he represents that this is who they want ?

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

anyway. Great quote from one of my favorite authors.

[emoji813]

Stealing

 

[womanfish]

Good high quality polls out today

3 National polls - Biden +14 Biden +8 and Biden +8
North Carolina - Biden +2
Ohio - Biden +1
Wisconsin - Biden +9 (up 6 points in a 45 days with same pollster)


Also - Cunningham +4 in North Carolina Senate race

 

[anitram]

Good high quality polls out today

3 National polls - Biden +14 Biden +8 and Biden +8
North Carolina - Biden +2
Ohio - Biden +1
Wisconsin - Biden +9 (up 6 points in a 45 days with same pollster)


Also - Cunningham +4 in North Carolina Senate race

The Wisconsin one is what I've been waiting for. To me, it was just a matter of time before it fell largely in line with what we're seeing in MI and PA.

The best part of the 3-year-long teeth gnashing over how polls meant nothing in 2016 (not true) is that basically all the Trump supporters everywhere think he is going to win in a landslide. Keep at it guys.

 

[Irvine511]

3 National polls - Biden +14 Biden +8 and Biden +8
North Carolina - Biden +2
Ohio - Biden +1
Wisconsin - Biden +9 (up 6 points in a 45 days with same pollster)

it's quite good that Uncle Joe is a safe candidate -- it helps the olds and independents feel comfortable leaving Trump and his racist daily dramas. they're exhausted, and the thrill of 2016's shiny new penny is long gone. these are people who want stability and a sense of reality. further, the rise of BLM is basically perfect for a man who was the VP to the first black president. not all candidates were good at all dealing with race issues, and Joe is. empathy is what people want when ruled by a sociopath.

it's really nice to see these numbers.