U.S. Senate
See Full Big Line
(D) J. Hickenlooper*
(R) Somebody
80%
20%
Governor
See Full Big Line
(D) Joe Neguse
(D) Phil Weiser
(D) Jena Griswold
60%
60%
40%↓
Att. General
See Full Big Line
(D) M. Dougherty
(D) Alexis King
(D) Brian Mason
40%
40%
30%
Sec. of State
See Full Big Line
(D) George Stern
(D) A. Gonzalez
(R) Sheri Davis
40%
40%
30%
State Treasurer
See Full Big Line
(D) Brianna Titone
(R) Kevin Grantham
(D) Jerry DiTullio
60%
30%
20%
CO-01 (Denver)
See Full Big Line
(D) Diana DeGette*
(R) Somebody
90%
2%
CO-02 (Boulder-ish)
See Full Big Line
(D) Joe Neguse*
(R) Somebody
90%
2%
CO-03 (West & Southern CO)
See Full Big Line
(R) Jeff Hurd*
(D) Somebody
80%
40%
CO-04 (Northeast-ish Colorado)
See Full Big Line
(R) Lauren Boebert*
(D) Somebody
90%
10%
CO-05 (Colorado Springs)
See Full Big Line
(R) Jeff Crank*
(D) Somebody
80%
20%
CO-06 (Aurora)
See Full Big Line
(D) Jason Crow*
(R) Somebody
90%
10%
CO-07 (Jefferson County)
See Full Big Line
(D) B. Pettersen*
(R) Somebody
90%
10%
CO-08 (Northern Colo.)
See Full Big Line
(R) Gabe Evans*
(D) Yadira Caraveo
(D) Joe Salazar
50%
40%
40%
State Senate Majority
See Full Big Line
DEMOCRATS
REPUBLICANS
80%
20%
State House Majority
See Full Big Line
DEMOCRATS
REPUBLICANS
95%
5%
June 15, 2009 03:52 PM UTC
70 Comments
at http://www.coloradopols.com/di…
Link:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06…
Excellent discussion of the poison atmosphere being created
in some media circles. Attention must be paid.
Living in Grand Junction, we are at the center of a hive of “Obama haters”. It is, indeed, scary.
Most peer reviewed studies and polls show 50-60% of the people like Prez Obama, its just a lot less that like all “his” policies. I don’t think they really “hate” him, I certainly do not.
As to people who “hate” their prez, well that is just an un-American approach. Maybe people are confusing “hate” with citizen’s expressing concern for their countries direction. Certianly those Bush “haters” weren’t un-American.
Now for all you folks that plan to post some “radical” comment from Rush … go back to monitoring your radio, youtube clips and TV [if he still has that TV show] find some choice ones.
In the meantime I’ll be reading up the CIA Directors and VP Biden’s secret analysis of why VP Cheney’s “real” desire is to see America be attacked by terrorists.
You don’t have a clue, buddy. There is a difference between expressing a real concern about the “prez’s” policies and calling him and his “regime” illegitimate…
I get real pissed when I am patronized.
As to Prez’s Obama and Bush administrations, I stand by my comments. Prez Obama’s administration is not some 3rd world regime, as an American I take offence to you implying I hold that notion.
I read the Frank Rich OP-ED. It seemed to be an emotional opinionated rant targeting the usual suspects.
The takeaway I was left with after reading Rich’s interpretation of reality was the Fox News hosts comment … “These are Americans “out there in a scary place,” O
bviously these murderers who have killed a U.S. military recruiter, abortionist, etc… were in a scary place personally. You know these people that are so bitter are usually on the verge of making real bad decisions.
Having read the piece, then you can comment on it. Which you have. Welcome to rational discussion.
The takeaway I took was that there is a media climate, in some circles, which encourages or reflects a belief that Obama is not legtimate and that he is undermining the American we know and love…which could possibily be a rationale for violent action.. I hear stuff on the local radio which makes me concerned…Rich’s piece indicated that this is a national theme in some circles..
The term “regime” is used on right wing radio all the time.
I don’t put the alleged shooter of the military recruiter in the same box as the other two. I think that is a failure of Homeland Security, etc. He is someone who has traveled to the mideast and been trained as a so-called warrior….he certainly sees himself as an agent of Muslim terrorists…..he should have been under better survillence..that ,murder should not have happened…
…and at the risk of going overboard…
The “political” dialogue, such as it is, since lat November has shifted away from “ideology” (“the best approach to solving problems”) and towards the world of ad hominem. See, for example, the South Carolina politico who “joked” over the weekend than a gorilla that escaped from a zoo in that state was “an ancestor of Michelle.”
I’d argue that the GOP, unable to defend its underlying ideology in the light of the Bush catastrophe, has reverted to a pure quest for power. AND that this has led to a greater role for racism, tribalism, religiosity, etc., the “etc. including the unstable world of white supremacist militias, fringe NRA types, and anti-abortion super-zealots.
It’s not as if the election last November made any of these people go away and, not seeing organized government as a channel for their bile, they are now/may in the future turn to other approaches.
As Rich observes, there’s no doubt…no room for doubt…that O’Reilly, Limbaugh, et al. facilitate this process and even give it an air of “legitimacy.”
Is the era of electoral politics behind us? It doesn’t necessarily take large numbers of nuts with guns to have a serious impact.
It is interesting to note that the racist at the holocaust museum was a leftist and hated Rush Limbaugh and the “religious right”. The biggest anti-semites I have seen are on the left – not the right.
Obama himself has contributed to the hatred of the jews. His policies are decidedly anti-jewish and even give hatred of jews an “air of legitimacy.”
It is interesting to note that the ad hominem attacks by the left are ignored or attributed to the right. I think you all need a mirror.
I am glad to know that people like Jo were not Bush haters and that you were striving to get along with the past administration.
He was a leftist if you consider Nazis leftists, the latest wacko rightie spin, which is convenient for the rightie hate crowd because then you get to call Nazis AND Communists and whoever you don’t like this week leftists. I’ve heard all of your talking points in clips from wacko talk shows.
Hitler would have sent you to a camp for making that statement.
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I don’t follow the characterization “fringe NRA types.”
My impression, most folks in Colorado have at least 1 firearm in the house.
I think supporting the goals of NRA are pretty mainstream out West.
I think that the “fringe” position here is the gun control, gun registration, gun confiscation element.
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As to the statement that a gorilla is an ancestor of Mrs. Prez Obama, kinda stupid.
Unless the speaker meant that Mrs. Obama and the gorilla had a common ancestor, which I think is inherent in the theory of evolution.
Of course, the theory also asserts that lil’ ol’ (apparently) Caucasian me has the same common ancestor.
I don’t know if Leakey’s “Eve” was Caucasian or Negroid or something else, but if the theoretical “Eve” of evolution (similar to, not the same as Leakey’s) was the mother from whence all “races” sprang 50,000 years ago,
then is is consistent with the theory of evolution to say that Mrs. Obama, the gorilla, and Adolph Hitler, as well as the speaker, share ancestors among the primates.
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“Eve” is not Leakey’s. Lucy is Leakey’s…some two to three million years ago, Lucy was a primitive humanoid who walked upright. Eve is a result of DNA studies which suggest that we, modern humans, are all the children of one woman in Africa, 200,000 years ago.
However, the speaker did not say that he was related to the gorilla, only that the gorilla was named Michelle….or some such rot.
You should be better than than. Repudiate that racist statement, less you risk tainting all pro-lifers with a racist brush….
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Seems that all I got right were the names Leakey and Eve.
As for repudiating the racist statement, I did above.
If one assumes that evolution comes close to reflecting how natural selection and random genetic mutations might have produced all living things from an amoeba, and all mammals from a mole, and all apes and primates (including humans) from some single set of parents, then that gorilla is descended from that ancestor of mine as well as of every other human being.
And if you take a strict “Creationist” view, one that excludes evolution, then none of us are descended from apes.
I believe in creation by an all-powerful God, and find evolution consistent with that explanation/ belief. I think “evolution” and “creation” are “truthful” answers to two different questions.*
So, Mrs. Obama and me are siblings in an extended family, which also includes you.
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But you have raised another problem.
Planned Parenthood was originally founded as a racist organization. It was started by Ms. Sanger as a way to stop Catholics and Blacks and other less desirables from procreating, as a way to reduce birth defects by preventing the births of those with certain “defects,” and as a way to improve the gene pool.
Later, the March of Dimes picked up on that second rationale.
To the best of my knowledge the “pro-life” movement opposes the abortion of any child, regardless of skin color or straightness of their hair.
The “pro-choice” movement was racist at its core when it started. I don’t believe the organization still embraces that racism.
However, I suspect (your editorial/ fact checking skills may be of value here) that abortions are skewed to kill more Black babies than Caucasian ones, on a proportional basis. That does not mean that there is racist intent, but I believe (subject to your correction) that it produces racist outcomes.
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* some of my friends here will wonder how I can call myself a Christian Fundamentalist and yet accept the Theory of Evolution as a “truthful” answer to some question about how we got here.
Fundamentalist => gives no ground on the fundamentals.
Jesus had no brief on this issue. He neither tried to defend the Biblical narrative of Creation, nor did He refute it. It just didn’t rise to the level of importance that required Him to, in His 3 years of ministry, devote any time to this contrived argument.
Ergo, this is not a fundamental issue.
Another type of Christian “Fundamentalist” can take issue with my position. They can argue that God personally dictated this narrative to some unnamed scribe or prophet, the way Muslims believe that Allah dictated the Koran to Muhammad, pbuh. That wouldn’t jive with the Judaic traditions I’m familiar with, but so what.
Except that there are two accounts of Creation in Genesis, and they are not identical. And, variations of these creation accounts were written down by the scribes of earlier religious traditions before they were ever written into the Mosaic Pentateuch. Did the God of the Israelites plagiarize ?
I recommend sticking to the fundamentals: sin, forgiveness and faith. Covenant. Service and humility. The Gospels of the disciples.
If you have to reach back and pull a sentence out of Daniel, out of context, and run it on with another sentence pulled out of Isiah, again out of context, if that’s allowed, then you could “prove” almost anything.
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Given the context, calling the gorilla “Michelle” was insulting and racist..not scientific, and should provoke from you a disclaimer not an off the wall debate on evolution…
It was an awful comment designed to appeal to racists, be they christian or not…
My commitment is to the facts, so that I can profess opinions which make sense. If I had any “editorial” ambitions, I would probably figure out how to work spell check on this blog.
As for Planned Parenthood, etc., I have no quarrel with your historical facts. However, today, for reasons which I believe demand full scientific inquiry, the birthrate among Europeans, white Americans and Japanese is in sharp decline. Why? I am not sure. However, African-American females and Latina females have a higher birthrate..which may account for a higher rate of abortion, because they may be pregnant more often.
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if you would have quoted the statement that you are challenging me to repudiate.
It might have said this, and it might have said that.
I assume that the speaker was, or appeared to be, Caucasian. I assume that he said or implied that Mrs. Obama was more closely related to the apes than he was because she has darker skin.
If I have accurately described the statement, then I categorically denounce it. It would be outrageous and indefensible.
But no, I was not all over the place. Racism must be understood in context. Racism is ALWAYS personal.
It is fundamentally about asserting that one’s group is superior to another group, or that other group A is superior to other group B.
I put myself into the context and allied myself with my sister Michelle.
If that is too subtle for you, what can I say ?
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I never heard the quote…I think it was referred to on this blog….
Hate Speech on This Site
I don’t mind generating controversy or disagreement, or even insults. Goes with the territory, no problem.
But some time ago, one anonymous poster under the name Michael Doresett MD headlined a response to a post of mine: “JO is an enemy of the U.S.”
In my view–which I expressed to the Webmaster via email, never acknowledged–this crossed the line into hate speech. I refuse to participate in such a dialogue, if dialogue it be.
Put another way: There is not room on this site for both Michael Dorsett MD and JO. This will come as welcome news to many, including Michael Dorsett MD, while others may say that no one should allow themselves to be run off by marginal characters.
This site is not the only game in town. If ColoradoPols.com has no rules governing personal attacks such as “XXX is an enemy of the United States,” “YYY is a Baby Killer,” and the like –and/or declines to enforce such rules as there may be–well, it’s your site, your rules, your practices, and my decision whether to participate in a site that allows hate speech of this sort, or of any sort. In my view, very small doses of poison contaminate entire wells.
Short version: Either Michael Dorsett MD (and any subsequent sock puppets or other posters who exhibit similar behavior) is banned from here forward, or this is my last post. I’ll take an absence of a reply to this post over the next two hours–as your Webmaster ignored my earlier private email message–as your passive endorsement of Michael Dorsett MD’s practices and privileges.
You’ve got to be kidding me.
Jo likes to dish it out. Jo doesn’t take it nearly as well as she doles it out. For Christ’s sake, I was called an anti-Semite two days ago. It’s par for the course on the blogs. If you can’t take the heat, Jo, find an exit.
The opportunity to read what racists, bigots and the fringe think, gives all of the opportunity to see our work against should not be stopped. We have brain dead idiots like Michael Dorsett MD, MesaMod and Karate Kid (aka KKK)come through all the time.
Hell, I’ve been falsely accused of much, from being gay to running failed campaigns in the past, none of it true but it just shows what these braindead low-lifes will stoop to.
It is our opportunity to show how bizzare and inhuman they are, Jo.
Cheap shots at Jo aside, I really do. I said as much about a week ago when another poster was begging for the Good Doctor to be banned after some truly vile postings about abortion. Hey, I’d rather have the whole world see what he’s about and what he advocates and what he believes then hide it away and pretend it doesn’t exist. Hate exists. It’s real. It’s tangible. May as well acknowledge that and shine a light on it.
As for blogging in general, it isn’t for the thin skinned, that’s for sure. I’ve had moments where my feelings have been hurt and where I thought someone had really crossed a line. But was it ever enough to rise to the level of deserving to be banned? Hell fucking no. If I don’t like it, I can always leave.
Am I the only one who’s been noticing a lot – I mean a LOT – of GBCW/”Screw you guys I’m going home” posts lately? Not just here, but in lots of forums? I think we should be asking if there’s a more widespread mass psychology thing going on here.
I’m serious about this: Obama reality letdown, somewhat fractious situation both nationally and in this state among majority Democrats. We haven’t had a situation quite like this in a number of years. Is there a more subtle and corrosive toll being taken from the majority?
Thoughts? I’ve been thinking about it for a few days but this post from JO really got me considering.
like MesaMod, claiming to be something they are not. But anyone who reads more than one of their posts can figure out their childish game quite easily.
In Jo’s case, I’m not willing to go to the bigger picture, not after reading her constant bitching and moaning about anything and everything here (and her complete unwillingness to do anything other than bitch and moan) but I have to say that I think you are on to something–I’ve been seeing a sudden uptick in this type of thing on two other blogs I frequent and I think you may be onto something.
Although it has been noticed that most GBCWs don’t last very long.
I think a lot of it is just election fatigue. This one was a big deal, and many of us have to get back to our lives. You can argue about specific policies, but for most people it’s not much fun.
And telling us to wait until 2010 when the Republican majority would retake Congress got a bit old, especially once everyone got a good look at the Republican leadership.
Besides, we act like a high school clique, and we’ve been throwing eggs at JO’s lonely lunch table for weeks now. We do it to most people whom we don’t recognize, or who aren’t as proudly moderately liberally centrist as we are. I think it gets exhausting.
these are stressful times for many. And the easy part is over (winning the election). Now we are in the hard part – governing effectively.
Is this the exchange she is speaking of? JO, is this the post?
http://www.coloradopols.com/sh…
besides other lovely comments.
Call me whatever you like…it doesn’t bother me very often….
And I was once called a maoist and bunch of other weird stuff, and somehow we all lived to fight another day!
we all lived to fight another day!
Everyone on this site has been either flamed by another person, or has done some themselves… some are more direct, while others are much more discrete.
I will say that I didn’t see the diary that you refer to, and doubt that it it got a lot of traffic, and while I disagree with the premise of writing a diary that “XXX is an enemy of the US” or “YYY is a flaming idiot”, that I actually have to admire the chutzpah (I think that it a good word to use, if not flame me) of whoever would post such a diary. I don’t think it would occur to most of us who have been reading this site for years to have ever done that….
As for you, the blogoshpere is kind of a cut-throat world, so if you cant take some heat from another pseudonym and have to run to the teacher if they say or do something you don’t like, then perhaps this medium is not for you.
This seems kind of silly to issue an ultimatum to the providers of such free entertainment as this site to conform to your wishes….
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nobody’s ever said that about me.
not sure how I’d take it.
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that he didn’t say “”RedGreen is an enemy of the U.S.”
This isn’t the only site in town, but it’s the best. You deal with maroons like MDMD because of the good commentary you get from everyone else.
We deal with offensive content on a case-by-case basis and take action where necessary. What you describe does not rise to that level, and frankly you debase accurate definitions of “hate speech” by referring to this comment as such.
“Jo, you’re being a Dumbass”
Would that get me banned?
But people would be free to call you a dumbass for doing so–that’s how it goes in the old marketplace of ideas.
http://www.coloradopols.com/di…
OK, have at me. The poll is fun though..
We all know that the posts from “Michael Dorsett MD” have all the worth of a rat turd in the sewer. I’m surprised you’re giving his statement any more credence than that, especially after the way you went at Steve Harvey just a few weeks ago. (Or maybe that’s why you took it so seriously?)
Anyway, I suggest taking a little time off to get your bearings, but don’t abandon the site over this. They say “don’t feed the trolls;” allowing the human loogie known as “Michael Dorsett MD” to drive you away would give him an all-day free pass to the country buffet.
I disagree with the characterizations of your posts as whining, bitching or moaning. Your posts have been interesting, with depth and historical accuracy. I really don’t give a rats ass whether you piss someone off or not….THAT is the blogosphere, and true in any spirited debate, whether in person or otherwise.
Don’t expect an apology from MDMD. But don’t leave because you don’t get one. IMHO, that would be a bit immature.
Stick with us here at CoPols. God knows many have stuck with me, and I’m a REAL pain in the ass, with my cut and pastes, my shallow thinking, my frivolous arguements, my lack of moral compass, my small penis….you get the idea.
Stay JO…you’re a valuable contributor.
Plus, JO’s posts are so provocative they brought Laughing Boy back. Even the moderate liberal centrists should be able to appreciate that.
Except, it one thing to call a fellow blogger an idiot or full of crap and quite another to say that he/she is “an enemy of the United States.” I think the latter is unacceptable. I support JO’s position. I urge Colorado Pols to heed her request.
I think MD’s endorsement of the killing of Dr. Tiller was far worse. As for “enemy of the U.S.,” that sort of charge has been flying around since 9/11 among the right-wing nutjobs (“they’re not antiwar, they’re just on the other side”), and for MD that’s just part of the game.
Although as everyone here should know by now, MD is a schtick by a person who used to go by “Sybil,” and who at one point after being outed as such, explicitly admitted that s/he was posting as a “multiple personality” game to get attention.
JO is somewhat new here, but it was a fun project to discover this.
Read the comments toward the bottom for the full story, including MD’s admission that everything s/he writes is just trolling.
http://www.coloradopols.com/di…
to a point. Blather is blather after all.
And…..its all cut and paste…Especially from the less fortunate among us, when it comes to intelligence, conscience, moral and human compass, compassionate thinking, progessive and evolutionary….necessary thought.
and the edgy repartee on this site. In fact, it is far more entertaining than the juvenile, white bread attitude of the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel and the people who monitor its’ blogs.
I was infuriated yesterday when they pulled a post of mine, without warning, because I challenged a moronic letter writer and used the term “wealthy SOBs”. I agree with dwyer that a little name calling isn’t such a big deal, but I got seriously tired of being called a “traitor”,”Un-American”, and a “terrorist supporter” by the oil and gas lobby because I worked to pass the new O&G rules.
Call me an idiot, an enviro-whacko, or whatever insult you desire, and I take it with the territory. I do take offense to attacks on my patriotism, however. I love my country.
This is obviously not a place for the thin-skinned, but it is vastly superior to a site where you will be summarily censored if you use any language that would embarrass your grandmother. I think I will hang out here a while and leave the Daily Sentinel to the Kindergarten set.
goes against every tenant of free speech. That, from people who call themselves “journalists”. The DS editorial/blog managers do not want certain ideas or complaints to see the light of day. It is why they have such an awful reputation in our community. And if your opinion is deemed by their censorship gods to be from the left, woe to those who attempt to post. At the same time they allow far right extremist Skinhead types to post the vile and disgusting “opinion”. Of course, they play the semantics game, saying that it is their web site, if they take opinion down or allow it, it is at their whim, so it is not really censorship. Hell, they even removed the link to thejunctiondailyblog from their site, only saying that it was an “editorial” decision. But everyone knows the truth behind their juvenile game. It is just who the management of The Daily Sentinel are.
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I think it was because I used the word “moron.”
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Does anyone have tips on good sites to find political job postings in Colorado? I’m a moderate Dem looking for a policy analyst position.
has a job wire at http://www.progressnowcolorado…
Not exactly bumping in the off-year, but I imagine there will be quite a few political jobs next year.
I have a B.S. in general engineering from Mines and worked for five years at Lockheed. I also have a Master of Public Policy from Georgetown.
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please email me. Check my email at my profile, link by clicking my name above.
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There is some amazing footage on Channel 9 right now of a tornado that was on the ground for close to 20 minutes. I’m watching it finally dissipate but at one point, it was so thick that it looked like it was pulsing. Man, this is just stunning footage. It keeps breaking apart and then reforms into yet another tornado. They are saying this was recorded earlier this afternoon, about 7 miles east of Fort Collins.
about their racism, along comes today’s story out of Tennessee about the staffer for Republican State Senator Diane Black, who sent along this lovely little “joke” of a historical picture, depicting our current President as a “spook”.
Yeah, that’s just fucking hilarious. I just can’t imagine why the Republican Party is bleeding support among minorities. No idea at all why that could be. Particularly when the staffer was asked to apologize and the only thing she’s sorry for is that she sent the picture to the wrong email list.
Let’s be realistic here, MOR. The Republican Party is bleeding support among majorities, too.
Okay, you got me there.
Work was very busy today so I just got to the web. Disappointing to see that a meaningless straw poll made the main page, but the revolution in Iran didn’t.
not world affairs
…impact Colorado too. But Kudos to Pols – they did move yesterday’s discussion on Iran to the front page. I did not catch that till now.
that’s true. But unless Josh Penry or Mark Udall somehow has a shady connection to the Ayatollah, it’s still not really Colorado politics.
Have you ever thought about founding and/or joining a think tank David? Most of your comments here seem to be more public policy based, and you seem like a very curious and intelligent person. I would think that think tanking, so to speak, would be right up your alley.
I like creating things and think tanks produce a lot of policies, but most of them seem to get ignored. That would be frustrating.
But you are right that I do gravitate towards discussing policy here rather than the horse racing of the campaigns.
Protests are frequently not a revolution. If they were, I would have been operating the guillotine when the Iraq war started.
“You! Hey you! Your neck looks juicy. Come over here, I want to try something.”
But when the protests are 5 miles long and the government is shooting protestors and entering campuses to beat the crap out of people, that’s a bit more than just a protest.
It just looks different since it’s not how we’ve done it in a long time. We’ve had hundreds of thousands of people protesting in America, and we’ve had protesters shot. Still haven’t had a revolution in a long time.
I’m not saying it won’t eventually lead to a change in the government, but it’s still far from that stage.
Protests are not a revolution but they can frequently lead to one i.e. Romania, Hungary, Germany, Poland, Thailand, South Korea, etc.
i.e., China, most of Latin America, Russia, etc.
Not trying to burst any bubbles, but it’s way too early to say. The fact that the mullahs are conceding on what they think are minor points is a sign that this is serious. Mainly because the surest way to get a protest to fizzle out is to just not take them seriously. Once you make small concessions, they start demanding more and more, and then you’ve got a revolution.
I’ve got Romanian family, so I’m well aware of that story (they tell me the revolution was staged so that Ceaucescu’s underlings could replace him, and that the REAL revolution was quashed by blue-collar workers bussed into the city and provoked into rampaging on the real protesters). Not totally sure what you’re referring to with the other cases, though.