CO-04 (Special Election)
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(R) Greg Lopez
(R) Trisha Calvarese
90%
10%
President (To Win Colorado)
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(D) Joe Biden*
(R) Donald Trump
80%
20%↓
CO-01 (Denver)
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(D) Diana DeGette*
90%
CO-02 (Boulder-ish)
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(D) Joe Neguse*
90%
CO-03 (West & Southern CO)
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(D) Adam Frisch
(R) Jeff Hurd
(R) Ron Hanks
40%
30%
20%
CO-04 (Northeast-ish Colorado)
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(R) Lauren Boebert
(R) Deborah Flora
(R) J. Sonnenberg
30%↑
15%↑
10%↓
CO-05 (Colorado Springs)
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(R) Dave Williams
(R) Jeff Crank
50%↓
50%↑
CO-06 (Aurora)
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(D) Jason Crow*
90%
CO-07 (Jefferson County)
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(D) Brittany Pettersen
85%↑
CO-08 (Northern Colo.)
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(D) Yadira Caraveo
(R) Gabe Evans
(R) Janak Joshi
60%↑
35%↓
30%↑
State Senate Majority
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DEMOCRATS
REPUBLICANS
80%
20%
State House Majority
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DEMOCRATS
REPUBLICANS
95%
5%
August 10, 2015 11:32 AM UTC
20 Comments
Ready for another
While I agree that the death penalty no longer has any place in Colorado (or in the country), I feel that Rep. Melton's statement brings up race when it shouldn't. The few people on death row here in Colorado – all Black, as the Representative points out – are all models of sanity compared to the Aurora shooter. And the prosecutor in this case really, really wanted the death penalty – there is not the slightest evidence of racial bias involved.
We need to be aware that the justice system is heavily biased against Black and Hispanic populations here and throughout the nation, but I'd be hard-pressed to justify our current death row – or the outcome of this trial – based on racial discrimination and bias. So let's not cry "Wolf!" in this case, when there are plenty of racial bias wolves out and about that really need our attention.
+1000
Well, the counterpoint to your argument, Phoenix, is that the last white mass murder suspect, James King, didn't face the death penalty:
And of course, Denver is currently trying to convict and kill another black man, Lewis Harris. So I'm not convinced that Rep. Melton's comments are all that out of order.
I don't think PR is arguing the basic bias involved in the distribution of death penalty convictions. Just noting that this particular case is not a good example of that bias, with which, I agree.
Or maybe the 140 character limitation constrained Rep. Melton's ability to put his statement in full context.
While we're not Texas by any stretch, if Holmes had been black, do you think the 9 for, 2 maybe and 1 against would still hold true?
I have doubts… Just sayin'
If I had 140 characters to gripe about the death penalty in conjunction with this case, I wouldn't spend time talking about racial bias – I'd talk about the problems with the death penalty.
This.
I don't understand what #BlackLivesMatter hopes to accomplish by repeatedly interrupting Sanders' events, other than that they get a platform in front of the largest politically active audiences in the nation. As far as I'm concerned, if someone interrupted an event I had taken time to see, I'd be miffed. I'd be doubly miffed if that event was showcasing the guy who started his political career as a Civil Rights activist and who undeniably has the most well-defined and farthest-reaching proposals to begin to deal with the problem of racial inequality and discrimination.
I know that there are a lot of liberals, progressives, and civil rights activists out there who don't agree with me – that #BLM is doing good in forcing their case into the public eye by disrupting Sanders' events. But, frankly – I can hear and see just fine, and understand the level of impatience built up by decades (centuries) of discrimination. Demonstrating it in this way only pushes me to focus on other groups. There are better ways. Just MNSHO.
And why Bernie in particular?
See above: because he's drawing huge crowds of activists who might be inclined to listen. And, at least from things I've read, "because it will force white people to listen" (vs. having a rally where mostly black people show up).
What about HRC?
The real Black Lives Matter is an authentic grassroots movement. Sanders is working with them, now, has a press secretary who is dynamite (video below) who is a member of BLM.
The people who interrupted Sanders latest event in Seattle are not actually Black Lives Matter grassroots people. They are affiliated with the Socialist Worker Organization. Yes, they are Trotskyites, like the old Socialist Workers Party, which disrupted so many grassroots movements in the 1970s.
See my comment from last Saturday, or my recent comments as mj55 on kos for more clarification and links. In brief, the reason the Trots are disrupting Bernie's rallies are a) because they can – it's easy to access the stage. b) they see an organizing and recruitment opportunity, both with Black Lives Matter and with the Sanders supporters, and c) they are ideologically opposed to both Bernie's brand of Democratic socialism, and to black activists affiliating with the Democratic party.
I'm very curious about this and am Googling to learn more. Links?
Were the same people responsible for the NetrootsNation protest? I don't think so. And most #BLM grassroots supporters seem to still be in support of the protests.
If you're right and these two black activists really are opposed to black people supporting the Democratic Party, then you've got to shout louder – the headwinds are at hurricane strength right now.
bullshit – I don't know about the Netroots Nation protest, wasn't following this then. And I haven't really checked into any of the previous interruptions of Bernie's events. I've avoided writing a diary about it, so far. Partly because I do support the goals of Black Lives Matter, with my writing and with activism within my social circles. I am concerned that these Trotskyite activists are giving them a bad reputation, and probably dividing their groups.
Other BLM activists interrupted Bernie's events, but they didn't actually shut the event down. But in Seattle on Saturday, July 8, a Sanders rally of 15,000 people was completely shut down. I felt that was wrong – Bernie should be working with BLM, sure, speaking out about police violence and racial bias in the criminal justice system, but it was just not OK for two people to shut down a rally of 15,000 people, no matter what their agenda was.
Then I saw a diary on Kos by kbman, about how the women who rushed the stage and grabbed the mic were members of OutsideAgitators206. (OA206) and that their site linked to writings of Glen Ford, a pretty well known black journalist who works for a Canadian leftie TV network, TheRealNewsNetwork (TRRN).
I started researching Glen Ford and found the Socialist Worker Organization connections. Marissa Johnson, one of the two mic-grabbers, spoke at a Socialist Worker/ BLM forum.
SWO split off from Socialist Worker Party (SWP) in the 1980s. This resonated with my own experiences as an activist in the 1970s – SWP ruined the anti-war movement, the local Chicano rights movement, the women's abortion rights movements.
I myself was recruited by the SWP as a young high school anti-war and pro-abortion activist, and it took really seeing how they routinely lie and take credit for other people's organizing work, promote divisions within groups, and push the party membership and the party line constantly. Many of them were provocateurs, as well, possibly paid informers – they would try to create confrontations with the law when other coalition members wanted to keep the peace.
As an example of the lies, the SWP paper had a giant photo of an anti-war rally supposedly organized by the SWP. You had to take a magnifying glass to see that it was the same dozen people, copied and pasted over and over to make up the "crowd".
I started seeing and observing that the SWP did this with other groups, as well. This was during a period of time when the Soviet Union was falling apart, Communist regimes were failing all over the world, and leftists in the US were really questioning the whole "dictatorship of the proletariat" thing – it looked pretty much like a dictatorship of the elite. Still does, to me. I'm not any kind of a Marxist, these days.
And I'm seeing these same patterns – of lies, confrontation, co-optation, divide and conquer tactics – being used to divide Black Lives Matter activists from progressive Sander activists, from the Democratic Party, from mainstream black politicians, etc.
That's the story about why I have no love for Trotskyite socialist groups. Every group they get involved with, they destroy. So, bullshit, here's a couple more links on the actual policy differences that the OA206/Glen Ford / SWO crew have with Bernie Sanders' brand of Democratic Socialism. It explains why they're targeting Sanders instead of , say, Hillary or Trump.
Glen Ford: Obama is not the lesser evil.
Glen Ford:On Black and Working Class Political Independence The implications of His Ideas for Supporters of Bernie Sanders
Glen Ford: The Democratic Party, Death Trap for U.S. Blacks—Independent Labour/Black Political Action”
What's BS? Read the kos diaries and you'll see, by and large, support for these protesters shutting down Bernie's speech – including this morning's "blackness" podcast highlighted on the daily Open Thread. Read the commentary in the diaries that aren't specifically about OA206 that are about BLM and Sanders.
This is a Thing, just like Trump is a Thing with the GOP.
Just guessing, but I think Mama believed she was addressing Mr. B.S. above, not characterizing your comment 😉
Thanks, Davie. Phoenix,I was replying to Mr. Bullshit!, Esq.
I know that the controversy about the BLM protesting Sanders is definitely a "thing", that is not going to go away.
FWIW, I think that the first Netroots protest was genuinely grassroots BLM folks, whose true priority was bringing attention to the plight of people of color constantly getting gunned down by police.
The Seattle 8/8 interruption that shut down the rally was the Socialist Worker folks,whose priorities are:
1. Bring attention to racial injustices in policing, same as the grassroots BLM group.
2. Divide Black justice activists from the Democratic party, from mainstream black politicians, and from Bernie Sanders.
3. Selectively target Sanders because: They don't protest Republicans or Hillary because they have no hope of being listened to, or having access to the stage.
O'Malley has a more complete police reform plan, so he gets slightly more props than Bernie – but they really don't like any Democratic politician. If Sanders wins the nomination or the general,then their whole argument about needing a working class revolution to get socialist-type reforms is shot- as is any hope of recruitment to the Socialist Worker organization.
Trotskyite parties have strict message discipline – they are not going to "negotiate" with Bernie's camp just as they did not return the mic after they had said their piece. And they will vehemently deny that they are under the leadership of a predominantly white, Canadian, Marxist-Leninist group.
For proof, see the links in my previous post to Mr.Bullshit! on this thread.
As far as support on Kos, I'm getting shit on by both sides – so I must be doing something right, as my old papa would say.
You just hit the wrong "reply", Mama. Need to hit the reply in the box of the comment you're replying to. No matter how far down this winds up, it will be inside your reply box and your comment , the one I'm replying to is in Phoenix's reply box even though you've addressed it to Bullshit.
Here is the SymoneD Sanders ( no relation?) video. She is Bernie Sanders press secretary, interviewed several weeks ago, hired Saturday 8/8/15.