Democrats

With Celebration Of Former MI Gov. And ‘Mass Poisoner’ Rick Snyder’s Endorsement, Biden Solidly Aligns Himself With Evil

Biden is perfectly comfortable with the moral universe of Rick Snyder, where the mass poisoning of children is perfectly acceptable. As a neoliberal democrat, that is his universe. By Mark L. Taylor The Commoner Call (9/7/20) It has been clear that the Biden campaign has no use for wooing progressives, believing, as Bill Maher has dismissively said: “Where else are they gonna go?” As a result, the Democratic National Convention featured a tacky chorus line of anti-labor, anti-choice, born-again, has-been Republicans supporting Biden’s campaign while progressive heroes like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez got a scant 60 seconds for a pre-recorded…

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“I said I wanted you to panic…”

“One year ago I came to Davos and told you that our house is on fire. I said I wanted you to panic.… And for the record, when we children tell you to panic, we’re not telling you to go on like before. We’re not telling you to rely on technologies that don’t even exist today at scale and that science says perhaps never will. We are not telling you to keep talking about reaching “net zero emissions” or “carbon neutrality” by cheating and fiddling around with the numbers.… Let’s be clear. We don’t need a “low carbon-economy.” We don’t…


Four Years Ago, We Warned That Trump Could Win. Now, We’re Warning Again.

Trump really could win again. The more progressives wrap their minds around that reality now, the less likely they’ll have to live with it for another four years. [Editor’s Note: The authors make some good points here but they are off on one major aspect: the letter doesn’t need to be written to progressives; it should be addressed to the corporate dems campaigning with their heads up their rear-ends. You know, the geniuses running a campaign following the script of that oh-so-winning 2016 campaign. Progressives have been sounding a warning about corporate dem campaign malpractice for years. — Mark L. Taylor]  By Norman…


Life In A Socialist Hellscape

“Finns live longer and are less likely to die in childhood or in giving birth than Americans. Danes earn roughly the same after-tax income as Americans, while working 20 percent less. They pay in taxes an extra 19 cents for every dollar earned. But in return they get free health care, free education from pre-school through university, and the opportunity to prosper in a thriving free-market economy with dramatically lower levels of poverty, homelessness, crime, and inequality. The average worker is paid better, treated more respectfully, and rewarded with life insurance, pension plans, maternity leave, and six weeks of paid…


To See The Politics Clearly: Think & Talk Vertically, Not Horizontally

Thinking vertically not only has the potential to unite those who are currently divided but also empower those who are presently conquered.” “As old labels indicate, we’ve all been conditioned to think about politics horizontally, from right to left. This way of thinking needlessly divides us by magnifying our differences and glossing over our commonalities. Turn the political spectrum on its head, and think top to bottom instead of left to right, and a magical thing can happen. Picture a man and a woman. He’s white. She’s black, He’s a farmworker, she’s a childcare provider. Both are struggling to make…


The Apocalypse Is Here: Will We Ever Listen To The Warnings?

What is it going to take to get us to listen and to act? How much worse do things have to become?  By David Sirota TMI (8/25/20) This is a cautionary tale, written as I try to figure out how to construct the “safe room” that state officials now say I need to build for me and my family. And this cautionary tale is not just about one state or one election — it is about our democracy, our head-in-the-sand political establishment, and most important, about whether or not we have the ability to listen and to change as our…


New York’s Successful Socialist Slate Gives Hope & Shows The Left Needs To Think BIG

In New York, voters’ despair over Albany’s twisted politics was met with a movement of reasoned hope.  By Rachel Himes & Ansley Pentz Jacobin (8/21/20) our socialist legislators will join New York State senator Julia Salazar in Albany next year. In June, candidates backed by New York City’s Democratic Socialists of America (NYC-DSA), the nation’s largest chapter with over 5,800 dues-paying members, swept races in Brooklyn and Queens, solidifying the organization’s role as one of the most powerful forces in electoral politics in the state. In the midst of a devastating pandemic, a national uprising, and economic recession, 100,000 New…


Dems Better Understand — And Quick — Hugs & Empathy Won’t Defeat Trump

Not being Trump seems like Biden’s main pitch. By Suzanne Moore The Guardian (8/21/20) I missed the balloons, the streamers, the strutting around the stage. I missed the lines carefully calibrated for applause and the veering off-script. I missed the theatricality. But the revolution is now streaming. The pandemic meant the Democratic convention was televised online, in four nights of two-hour party political broadcasts. There was no pizza big enough for this endurance test. The convention felt like a charity marathon without an audience, punctuated with unfunny comedy and sob stories. Tear-jerking speeches informed us that Joe Biden is a nice man….


The Great Charade: Dems Campaign For … What, Exactly?

In our tribalized politics, war is peace, freedom is slavery and dissent is disloyalty. “This is a moment of apolitical crises — that is, crises that aren’t just manufactured by and confined to the political soundstage, but instead life-and-death, out-here-in-the-real-world emergencies in the realms of money, biology and ecology. We’re facing an economic and environmental collapse in the midst of a lethal pandemic. And we’re going through this cataclysm with a legislative branch controlled by right-wing senators, a court system that rubber stamps corporate demands and an authoritarian president whose major crisis-management experience was firing people on The Apprentice. “And yet, in the…


Get Ready For Yet Another Post-Election Dem Retreat n’ Betrayal On Health Care

Democratic lawmakers have received $86 million from donors in the health care industry since 2019, according to OpenSecrets. That’s an average of $310,000 per politician. By Andrew Perez & David Sirota Jacobin (8/17/20) On the eve of a Democratic National Convention taking place as millions lose health care coverage, the health care industry is launching a new ad campaign pressing Democrats to back off the party’s already compromised health care promises. That pressure seems to be having its intended effect on Capitol Hill as congressional aides say the party will not push the initiative if Biden wins. The signs of retreat…


Democrat’s Flip-Flop On Fossil Fuel Subsidies Follows Deep Financial Ties To The Industry

The DNC quietly removed language from the party platform yesterday that endorsed an end to fossil fuel subsidies, after voting two years ago to allow itself to accept fossil fuel PAC contributions. By Donald Shaw Sludge (8/18/20) The Democratic National Committee has quietly dropped from its party platform language calling for an end to subsidies and tax breaks for fossil fuel companies, HuffPost reported on Tuesday. The language had been added to the platform in error, a DNC spokesperson told HuffPost. The day after a draft of the Democrats’ 2020 policy platform was released, July 23, climate journalist Emily Atkin noted that unlike the…


Greta Thunberg: After Two Years Of School Strikes, The World Is Still In A State Of Climate Catastrophe Denial

We can have as many meetings as we like, but the will to change is nowhere in sight. Society must start treating this as a crisis. By Greta Thunberg, Luisa Neubauer, Anuna De Wever & Adélaïde Charlier The Guardian (8/19/20) On Thursday 20 August, it will be exactly two years since the first school strike for the climate took place. Looking back, a lot has happened. Many millions have taken to the streets to join the decades-long fight for climate and environmental justice. And on 28 November 2019, the European parliament declared a “climate and environmental emergency”. But over these past two years, the…


Instead Of A Much-Needed Political Revolution, Dem’s Chose Biden’s Easy Street Fantasy

  “If the Sanders-Biden battle was perceived as a choice between Sanders’s daunting promise of an exhausting revolutionary struggle and Biden’s promise of a glide path back to normal, then it’s no mystery why Biden ultimately prevailed. Easy street was an understandably alluring vision for an electorate already tired out by Trump’s never-ending conflicts and controversies. “In reality, though, this was not a choice between two possibilities — it was a choice between honesty and fantasy, and Democratic voters picked the latter. “That’s a problem, because Sanders was giving voice to truths that we cannot keep avoiding, omitting, or rejecting at…


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‘Exact Right Message’: Ed Markey’s Must-Watch 2020 Campaign Ad Praised For Hitting Trump’s Betrayal Of Social Contract

  “Can Ed Markey just take over marketing for the DNC? This pisses all over ‘build back better.’” — Amy Westerveldt, environmental journalist. By Julia Conley Common Dreams (8/14/20) With Americans demanding a “new deal” including racial justice, Medicare for All, far-reaching climate action, and an economy that works for working people, Markey positions himself as “The Green New Dealmaker” in the ad, noting his co-sponsorship of the landmark climate legislation with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.). After detailing his work in the Senate during the pandemic—securing $300 million for fishing industry disaster relief in the CARES Act and rejecting Trump’s attempt to “cheap out” by…


Cornel West: Joe Biden Is A Neoliberal Disaster & Donald Trump A Neofascist Catastrophe!

Going Underground / RT (8/8/20) On this special episode of Going Underground, we speak to Prof. Cornel West. He discusses the 2020 election of Donald Trump vs Joe Biden, Joe Biden’s role in the rise of mass incarceration, US imperialism and foreign policy in the Middle East, the explosion at Beirut port in Lebanon, why Donald Trump’s opposition to Middle East intervention is farcical, the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic and the Trump Administration’s response, the loss of Bernie Sanders in the democratic primary, the murder of George Floyd and the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement and the challenging of…


Really, How Did Americans Become Such Wimps?

In fact, Americans are masochistic sheeple who let the rich and powerful walk all over them and thank them for the privilege. [Editor’s Note: Wimps? Yes, but don’t stop there, we can also add: suckers; patsies; blowhards; sheeple; yokels; dupes; dopes and marks. The list of American supine character goes on and on. — Mark L. Taylor] By Juan Cole Informed Comment (8/10/20) Nicole Winfield and Lisa Marie Pane at the Associated Press write at the unbelief with which Europeans are staring at the United States, as we head for 300,000 dead from the coronavirus and our economy shranks 33% on an…


Why Black Progressive Women Feel Torn About Kamala Harris

By Derecka Purnell The Guardian (8/12/20) Joe Biden has announced that Senator Kamala Harris will join his political pursuit of the White House. Women of color, particularly progressives, might feel torn. Perhaps they will be excited. Harris is sharp, strategic and witty, undoubtedly qualified to be vice-president of the United States. She graduated from a historically Black college and belongs to a prestigious Black sorority. A biracial woman with Jamaican and Indian heritage, we have seen her break color barriers and shatter glass ceilings, even though poor, Black women have felt and swept the falling shards. Thousands celebrated her senate seat win and…


Young Black Americans Are Not Sold On Biden, The Democrats … Or Even Voting

 “They’ve seen the election of Black mayors, they’ve seen the election of the first Black president, and they’ve also seen that their lives have not changed.” By David C. Barker & Sam Fulwood III The Conversation (8/5/20) Most political analysts define “swing voters” as those who swing their support from one party to the other between election cycles – determining winners and losers in the process. According to this conventional wisdom, the “swingiest” voters are working-class whites in the Midwest, who supposedly hold the keys to the White House. Meanwhile, by contrast, pundits often portray Black Americans as an undifferentiated mass – loyal Democrat-supporting foot…


Why The Left Must Both Reject & Elect Biden At The Same Time

To make a progressive future possible, beating Trump is absolutely necessary while very far from sufficient. By Norman Solomon Reader Supported News (8/6/20) n the next three months, a dozen states will determine whether Donald Trump wins another four years as president. Those swing states should be central to the work of progressives who are determined to prevent that outcome. With so much at stake, we can’t afford the luxury of devoting time and energy to endless arguments about whether progressives should vote for Joe Biden if they live in California or New York, or Alabama or Alaska, or other…


A Political Earthquake: Alexandra Rojas Of Justice Democrats Talks Of Recent Progressive Wins

  By Michael Moore Rumble (8/6/20) At the forefront of the movement to elect progressive Democrats who are not tied to Wall Street and who are of, by and for the working class, is a group called Justice Democrats. At the forefront of Justice Democrats is their 25-year old Executive Director and co-founder, Alexandra Rojas. She joins Michael to discuss Cori Bush’s monumental upset in Missouri’s 1st Congressional District, Rashida Tlaib’s landslide victory in Detroit, which upcoming races we should be following, and how to mobilize the progressive left for November 3rd and beyond. Do you know a working class…


Republicans Are Standing On A Sinking Ship, But Democrats Need A Vision Far Beyond Just Electing Biden

  The curtain is coming down on the Trump show. We need to make sure it rises on a better day. By Ruth Coniff Wisconsin Examiner (8/3/20) Reality is finally catching up with our reality TV star president. Faced with an unprecedented economic collapse triggered by his own clear failure to contain the COVID-19 pandemic (something other industrialized nations have managed to pull off) the Donald tweeted hopefully last week that the November election might need to be rescheduled.  No one really knows if Trump is hoping to emulate the strongmen he admires and name himself president-for-life, or if he was just…


At A Time Of Historic Crisis Both Political Parties Have Abandoned All But The Wealthy

By Mark L. Taylor The Commoner Call (8/6/20) In the midst of a deadly pandemic all the false illusions, flaws and deadly foibles of the American medical industry have been stripped bare. Before the pandemic some 30 million limped along without health insurance and many millions more had over-priced, high-deductable plans that were essentially useless, leaving many families essentially uninsured. Now, in the midst of a deadly pandemic, we have millions losing their jobs, and with that … health insurance for their families. In one of the most callously cruel acts of political malpractice ever, neither party is addressing the…


Democratic Leaders Have Protected Insurance Companies & Blocked Real Healthcare Reform For Decades. Time To Give ‘Em Hell.

  By Jeff Cohen Common Dreams (7/28/20) In 1948, Harry Truman pushed for a national nonprofit health insurance program in his successful, come-from-behind presidential campaign. When Truman’s plan was denounced as “socialized medicine” and “un-American” by the powerful American Medical Association, “Give ‘’Em Hell Harry” stood his ground, defending his proposal as “simple Christianity.” In 1965, when President Lyndon Johnson secured passage of Medicare (and Medicaid), he traveled to Missouri to formally sign it into law in Truman’s presence—declaring that “the real daddy of Medicare” was Truman. Medicare was federal health insurance for those 65 and older, but proponents hoped it was…


Nancy Pelosi Writes To Ralph Nader. He Writes Back

But winning elections without enabling basic mandates that translate into good livelihoods can leave voters with that familiar empty post-election letdown malady. May we hear from you? By Ralph Nader Common Dreams (8/1/20) Years ago, Elizabeth Brennan Moynihan told me about her disgust with the Democratic Party’s outside consultants. These consultants were not competent. They were arrogant, costly, and looking out first for their interests, not the candidates they were supposed to advance. She threw them out and personally took over her husband, Senator Daniel P. Moynihan’s successful re-election campaign. Bill Curry, former counselor to President Bill Clinton and later…


Sanders’ Campaign Co-Chair Nina Turner Compares Voting For Biden To Eating ‘Sh*t’

By Ron Dicker Huffington Post (7/28/20) The co-chair of Sen. Bernie Sanders’ failed presidential campaign profanely blasted presumed Democratic nominee Joe Biden on Monday, striking a divisive note on behalf of unsatisfied progressive voters. Nina Turner, assessing the choice of Biden against President Donald Trump in the November presidential election, told The Atlantic: “It’s like saying to somebody, ‘You have a bowl of shit in front of you, and all you’ve got to do is eat half of it instead of the whole thing.’ It’s still shit.” The Atlantic article, headlined “Don’t Count Trump Out,” detailed several ways Trump could end up winning on Election Day….


Health Care ‘Scaredy-Crats’ Abandon The Voters At A Time Of Great Need … Again

  By Mike McCabe, Executive Director Our Wisconsin Revolution (7/28/20) I’ve said it many times before and will say it again. We have one party that’s scary and another that’s scared in this country. The Republican Party grows scarier by the day. And on the crucial issue of health care, establishment Democrats are proving themselves not only afraid to lead, but even afraid to follow public opinion.   That vote was all about the establishment working the system, abandoning progressive principles and obstructing change. Polling in April showed that 69% of voters in the U.S. support Medicare for All. Support among…


Okay, Okay … Vote For Joe Biden, But Inoculate Yourself From Any Illusions He Will Fundamentally Change Anything

The presumptive Democratic nominee is doubling down, literally telling his donors that he is “not proposing any” legislation to change Corporate America. It’s breathtaking. … By Davi Sirota TMI (7/22/20) Two weeks ago, Joe Biden rightly received praise for creating policy task forces that released a package of progressive legislative initiatives. The proposals augmented Biden’s previous legislative initiatives to change corporate behavior. The task forces were meant to unify the Democratic Party after the primary and their recommendations were blared all over the world in glowing headlines promising an era of progressive change under a Biden administration. Then this past Monday, Biden told his Wall Street donors…


Who Is The Most Dangerous Fascist? Trump Isn’t The Only Fascist To Wory About

By Glen Ford Black Agenda Report (7/23/20) Most American leftists are incoherent on the term fascism, and Democrats have utterly destroyed the word’s meaning. “In their cartoon politics, fascist simply means “Trump.” After seizing an initial beachhead around federal buildings in Portland, Oregon, Donald Trump is threatening to send his Homeland Security über alles storm troopers into cities around the country that he says  are “run by very liberal Democrats…by the radical left.” Next on the list is Chicago, where 150 federal agents are set to be deployed in coming days. Homeland Security agents have already been sent to Seattle and Washington DC,…


“The Fight Isn’t Over,” Say Anti-War Groups As 139 House Democrats Betray The Nation & Join GOP To Reject 10% War Budget Cut At A Time Of Suffering

“Though our amendment didn’t pass, progressive power is stronger than ever. We will keep fighting for pro-peace, pro-people budgets until it becomes a reality. — Rep. Mark Pocan (D–WI). By Jake Johnson Common Dreams (7/21/20) Anti-war groups vowed to keep fighting to slash the bloated Pentagon budget after the House of Representatives on Tuesday rejected a proposal to cut U.S. military spending by 10% and invest the savings in housing, healthcare, and education in poor communities. The final vote on the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) amendment sponsored by Reps. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) and Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) was 93-324, with 139…


Ryan Grim: Establishment Dems SHOOK After New Progressive Group Highlights Their Crooked Corporate Ties

The Rising / The Hill (7/21/20) D.C. Bureau Chief of the Intercept, Ryan Grim, explains how a 2009 clash between Rep. Lacy Clay and the Obama administration could impact the Missouri Congressman’s re-election. Link To 11-Minute Video (Commoner Call cartoon by Mark L. Taylor, 2020. Open source and free for non-derivative use with link to www.thecommonercall.org )


Danger Dems: Democratic Complacency Is Back

  I am not a pessimist by nature. What I am is extremely cautious, and because of the utter disaster that was 2016, I would encourage Democrats to take every possible step to avoid lapsing into complacency. [Editor’s Note: Voters will never be as strongly motivated to vote against a candidate as they would be voting for a platform of hope and genuine response to their needs and suffering. So far, the dems don’t get that. One can hope someone in the Biden campaign wakes up, soon. — Mark L. Taylor] By Nathan Robinson Current Affairs (7/13/20) In 2016, many Democrats were…


What’s Missing From The Biden-Bernie Task Force Health Plan? Medicare For All & Basic Human Decency

The recommendations are an improvement on Biden’s previous healthcare plans, but a public option won’t cut it. We need free, universal coverage. By Natalie Shure In These Times (7/9/20) On Wednesday, the “unity task forces” set up by presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden rolled out a set of policy recommendations for the candidate, and, by extension, for the party writ large. Launched in May, the group behind the proposed platform was comprised of a core of establishment-aligned politicos as well as allies of Bernie Sanders, the primary’s runner-up whose campaign advanced an agenda squarely to the left of Biden. While…


The Major Plank In Dem Party Platform Committee: Financial Conflict Of Interest

  By Branko Maretic In These Times (7/9/20) A month out from the Democratic National Convention, the party continues to be pulled in opposing directions by its progressive and corporate wings. While presumptive nominee Joe Biden and the party establishment charts a course of cautious centrism, rejecting policies like Medicare for All and key planks of a Green New Deal, progressives and supporters of Bernie Sanders are attempting to push Biden as far left as they can. With the party platform due to set the agenda for both Biden’s campaign and presidency, Sanders allies have sought to shape the finished…


Winning Isn’t Enough: Time For Democrats To Wake Up & Dream Big Again

Win for what? By John Nichols The Nation (6/15/20) The simple farmhouse where Henry Wallace was born and came of age can be found in Orient Township, on the southern side of Iowa’s Adair County, just off what is referred to as a minimum maintenance road. Drivers are advised to travel it “at your own risk.” That pretty well sums up the approach that has been taken with Wallace, Franklin Roosevelt’s second vice president, over the 75 years since he battled for the soul of the Democratic Party at its 1944 convention, struggled to keep alive the promise of the…


The Establishment Corporate Media Convinced The Old, White Tidal Wave That Sanders Was ‘Unelectable’

The irony was, the fears driving many older liberals from Sanders were never well-founded. By Branko Marcetic Jacobin (7/6/20) Why did Joe Biden win the Democratic primary and Bernie Sanders lose it? Everyone has a theory: Sanders went too far left, or too far woke; he couldn’t expand his base, particularly into the black electorate; his surprise 2016 showing mostly owed to anti-Clintonism, and his insurgent campaign turned off loyal Democrats; meanwhile, Biden was an electoral powerhouse able to excite voters with his “moderate” agenda and historic ties to the party. Accepting all this has meant crashing headlong into a…


WAR Inc. — How Biden’s Foreign-Policy Team Got Rich

When it comes to foreign affairs, Biden and his advisers are nonideological and mainly transactional. By Jonathan Guyer American Prospect (7/6/20) They had been public servants their whole careers. But when Hillary Clinton lost the 2016 election, two departing Obama officials were anxious for work. Trump’s win had caught them by surprise. Sergio Aguirre and Nitin Chadda had reached the most elite quarters of U.S. foreign policy. Aguirre had started out of school as a fellow in the White House and a decade later had become chief of staff to U.N. Ambassador Samantha Power. Chadda, who joined the Pentagon out…


Even If This Dem Wins His Primary, Let’s Hope He Is Soundly Defeated

By Andrew Perez TMI (7/7/20) As Democrats campaign against “tough on crime” policies and for criminal justice reform, the party may end up with a congressional nominee who confined former Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning to an 8-by-6-foot cell at least 23 hours a day. James Averhart, who is competing in a July 14 run-off election for an Alabama congressional seat, also oversaw a Bush-era military push to track down and punish veterans who deserted the Vietnam War — an initiative seen as an attempt to discourage soldiers from deserting during the Iraq War. Averhart, who served as Chief Warrant…


Robert Reich’s (Partial) List Of All The Ways America Is Exceptional In All The Wrong Ways

This pandemic has exposed what has long been true: On the global stage, America is the exception, but not in the way we would like to believe. [Editor’s Note: The one thing Reich does not mention in this list of American failure is that it is a bipartisan failure; both Republicans and Democrats are responsible. While it is easy to focus on the myriad, ever-cascading craplist of Trump failures, never forget that when it comes to issues of war and enriching the corporations there isn’t a frog’s hair of difference between the R’s and the D’s. They have both created…


‘Genocidal Negligence’: Tepid Democratic Climate Action Plan Criticized As Woefully Inadequate To The Threat

“It is simply not an adequate attempt to deal with the crisis we actually face.” By Jessica Corbett Common Dreams (6/30/20) “This is not an emergency response.” That is how Laura Berry, director of research and policy at the Climate Mobilization (TCM), responded to reporting on a congressional “action plan” for the planetary emergency from the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis, which the panel and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) unveiled Tuesday. The climate roadmap features hundreds of policy proposals under 12 key pillars. Specifically, the 538-page plan calls for selling only zero-emissions vehicles by 2035, net-zero greenhouse gas emissions from the power sector…


FDR’s Letter To Corporate Democrats Will Blow Your Mind

  Jimmy Dore Show (3/29/17) Franklin Delano Roosevelt wrote a letter to corporate democrats threatening to withdraw his nomination if they did not support his progressive Vice President pick Henry Wallace. His sentiments about the need for Democrats to be more progressive applies even more to today’s world. Link To 15+-Minute Video ***** FDR’s Letter to the Democratic Convention Delegates in 1940 Franklin D. Roosevelt Letter to the Democratic Convention July 18, 1940 Members of the Convention: In the century in which we live, the Democratic Party has received the support of the electorate only when the party, with absolute…