Articles about the 2020 election and related politics.
ELECTION REFLECTIONS
“In 2016 especially news reporters began to consciously divide and radicalize audiences. The cover was that we were merely ‘calling out’ our divisive new president, Donald Trump. But from where I sat, the press was now working in collaboration with Trump, acting in his simplistic mirror image, creating a caricatured oppositional demographic and feeding it content. As Trump rode to the White House, we rode to massive profits.
“The only losers were the American people, who were now more steeped in hate than ever.”
—Matt Taibbi in HATE INC, Why Today’s Media Makes Us Despise One Another
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‘Don’t Let Anyone Fool You,’ Says Sanders. Primary Wins Show Progressives ‘Transforming American Politics’ |
#TRUMP HAS NO PLAN
One million views and counting. Please keep retweeting #TrumpHasNoPlan
— MeidasTouch.com (@MeidasTouch) August 2, 2020
Trump Willing to Kill Hundreds of Thousands of Americans in Effort to Win Election
Trump and Pence on Monday were busy trying to spread the Big Lie that the only reason the US coronavirus numbers are spiking is increased testing
.“This is really quite bad. And the level of virus and the level of disease burden in our country is very, very large.”
Prof. Ashish Jha, Harvard’s Global Health Institute
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#DropOutHickenlooper, Say Indigenous Activists, After ‘Disgraceful’ Photos Surface of Former Gov in Imitative Native American Dress
“These actions are not missteps. They are not one-time, isolated incidents.”
The letter cites multiple appearances by Hickenlooper at the One Shot Antelope Hunt in Wyoming, an event where participants compete to see who can fell an antelope in one shot. The winners dress in an imitation headdress while the losers dress as so-called “squaws,” a racist term for Indigenous women.
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New DNC ‘Descent’ ad encapsulates all the ways Trump has ‘brought America down with him’
Say this for the impeached popular-vote losing, white supremacist, wanna-be dictator, grifting demagogue squatting in the Oval Office—he makes for good opposition ad fodder. Like this one done by the DNC for Joe Biden called “Descent.”
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NY Times: Senator Kamala Harris emerges as the front-runner in a short list of six
The NY Times has issued an article that states that Senator Kamala Harris has emerged as the front-runner as Biden’s team has narrowed down the potential running mates to a short list of six.
Editor’s Note: Harris does not have a good record in California in regard to justice for people of color. Once again we get a mediocre second choice if she is chosen.
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by Jake Johnson, staff writer Common Dreams June 12, 2020
“Preparing for the possibility of Trump refusing to concede isn’t just reasonable, it’s the responsible thing to do.”
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Trump Just Showed Us His Core Campaign Message: Chaos in the Streets
“It’s time for this madness to END.”
Evan Vucci/AP
Chaos in the streets. Looters running free. Rioters threatening you and your family. Anarchists destroying…everything. And there’s only one way to stop the end of civilization: reelect Donald J. Trump as president.
That’s what Trump’s core campaign message is becoming. While once Trump intended to run in 2020 on the strength of the US economy, he has now shifted to a new narrative: Americans are in immediate danger due to the Black Lives Matter protests that have spread across the nation. Focusing on the limited violence and looting that has accompanied the demonstrations (which have mostly been peaceful), Trump is selling a dark and apocalyptic vision. The end is nigh, unless Trump can deliver the “LAW & ORDER,” he repeatedly vows in his tweets.
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Sen. Warren Demands Federal Probe Into Attorney General Barr’s Order to Tear-Gas Peaceful Protesters
Rep. Ilhan Omar is challenged by the Israel lobby
ILHAN OMAR (PHOTO: WIKIMEDIA)Congressional history is replete with examples of members who have been condemned by pro-Israel groups because of their criticisms of Israel and their support of human rights for Palestinians. Some have seen their legislative careers under threat and even ended with the help of pro-Israel entities. Past legislators who suffered from the ire of these groups are Adlai Stevenson III, Paul Findley, Charles Percy, Earl Hilliard (first African American representing Alabama since Reconstruction), Cynthia McKinney, and Dennis Kucinich, and more recently, Keith Ellison and Betty McCollum.
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Pelosi caves to special interests on health care
Source: Email from Our Revolution
Bernie Sanders and Pramila Jayapal are fighting to guarantee health care as a human right through Medicare for All, and recently introduced legislation to immediately expand Medicare and Medicaid eligibility to all who need it during the COVID-19 crisis.
Unfortunately, Nancy Pelosi and Democratic leadership are instead supporting legislation approved by the health insurance industry.
Pelosi’s proposal would only expand COBRA subsidies for workers who recently lost their employer-sponsored health care.
Not only is COBRA significantly more expensive, but it also covers only a small percentage of people suffering without health insurance in the middle of this devastating pandemic.
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A DYING EMPIRE
Washington’s ire has not been focused on China alone, however. On Wednesday, the State Department released a list of states that it claims are not cooperating fully with U.S. efforts to rid the world of terror. All of the countries on the list – Iran, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Venezuela, Cuba, and Syria – are all currently facing U.S. sanctions, even during a pandemic. Most of them have also been the victims of massive U.S. terror campaigns. CIA agent Luis Posada Carriles, for example, blew up a Cuban airliner in 1976, while the U.S. Navy shot down an Iranian passenger plane in 1989, killing all 290 civilians onboard. Cuba has also been the subject of countless acts of chemical and biological warfare by the superpower to its north. Meanwhile, the U.S. government has supported at least five coup attempts in the previous 18 months in Venezuela, and in January, Trump threatened to carry out a detailed plan of war crimes against Iran.
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CHRIS HEDGES ON BIDEN VS. TRUMP, BERNIE SANDERS, CORPORATE MEDIA, ASSANGE & STATE OF THE LEFT (VIDEO)
In this interview with Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and New York Times best-selling author Chris Hedges, we discuss his past work as a foreign correspondent with the New York Times and why he chose to quit. In addition, we compare Donald Trump and Joe Biden in the context of domestic and foreign policy with a focus on Europe. Lastly we explore the importance of economic policy solutions, activism and independent media in this day and age.
Also includes a short video by Edward Snowden on Quarantine.
Interview and video by Activism.
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Rep. Omar Recently Commended The US War Machine For Increasing The “Transparency” And “Accountability” Of Its Bombing Of Her Native Country.
“Instead of this being an asset to expose AFRICOM and to the decolonization Africa, Rep. Omar validates the role of AFRICOM.”
As posted on Popular Resistance
United States representatives, no matter their racial or ethnic backgrounds, appear unable to perceive the inherent white supremacy in the notion that the US has some altruistic responsibility to police the continent of Africa with military troops and supervisors. As a result, “people of color,” such as the Somali-“American” Congresswoman IIhan Omar provide political and moral cover to the presence of the U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) and the dubious claims about “US interests” on the continent..
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50 Years of Bat-Shit Crazy Televised Presidential Warmongering
In the decades since Nixon’s Cambodia speech, presidents have avoided repeating his reference to America being perceived as “a pitiful, helpless giant.” But too many presidents have repeated his refrain that failing to bomb abroad would mean that “our will and character” were tested and failed.
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THE DEMOCRATIC AND Republican parties are set to run candidates for president in 2020 who have been accused by women of sexually assaulting them. This week on Intercepted: Two dozen women have accused Donald Trump of sexual misconduct, harassment, and assault, including rape.
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Former Nevada lawmaker Lucy Flores says Biden touched her inappropriately, kissed her head, and sniffed her hair when he was campaigning for her. She says she didn’t report it to the Obama White House at the time for fear of retaliation or rejection, but when Biden began to run for president, she felt an obligation to speak out. Flores was soon followed by seven other women sharing similar stories. She discusses her experience with Biden, what it means that the Democratic Party is standing by him, and the impact of a choice between Trump and Biden.
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Abolish Nuclear Weapons; Resist and Reverse the Climate Crisis; For Social and Economic Justice
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Some Progressives Are in Denial About Trump’s Fascist Momentum
Some say preventing the re-election of Trump isn’t important. That amounts to ignoring political reality, an evasion with potentially vast consequences.
Everything Has Changed Overnight
By Nathan J. Robinson Current Affairs April 27, 2020
The Democratic primary is no longer over. This is a historic crisis requiring nothing less than FDR-style ambition and leadership. We’ve got just the guy.
The Democratic primary is not over. And Sanders supporters need to immediately recognize that it isn’t over. It was over. But it’s back on. And Sanders needs to be in it to win it, because the consequences of putting Joe Biden up against Donald Trump during this kind of historic calamity are unthinkable.
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Free Fauci
Dr. Fauci, with decades of experience in combating infectious diseases, has said he finds the briefings “draining.” Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images
The White House statement said that while the Trump administration “continues its whole-of-government response to COVID-19…it is counter-productive to have the very individuals involved in those efforts” speak to Congress, though they’d be happy to “offer testimony at the appropriate time,” like, never. Their latest insanity quickly prompted the furious hashtags #TestifyFauci and #FreeFauci. Nothing to see here except the flouting of utter criminality and the brazen shredding of democracy.
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After a message from Martin Sheen this short video explains about what Trump is doing to further endanger the water supply across the country by overturning Obama legislation with predictable disastrous results.
From Brave New Films April 22, 2020
Make your voice heard at https://www.bnfactionfund.org/vote
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MSM China Hysteria Gets Way Crazier And Dumber
By Caitlin Johnstone CaitlinJohnstone.com April 20, 2020
Hysteria about China has been kicked into high gear by the political/media class who are responsible for manufacturing support for the cold war escalations which will be necessary to prevent the US from being surpassed on the world stage as a unipolar superpower.
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If we want a government that represents us and works for our interests, the way we vote needs to change immediately.
Winner-take-all
There are many forms of voter suppression and disenfranchisement in the United States, but the one I’m going to focus on is winner-take-all voting. With winner-take-all voting, many votes across the country simply don’t matter. If you live in a deep blue state and vote Republican, your vote literally does not matter. If you live in a deep red state and vote Democrat, your vote literally does not matter. Of course, this is not the case for swing states.
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Vote-by-Mail could cost Dems the Election
Mail-in Voting puts Millions of Minority Ballots at Risk
By Greg Palast for Nation of Change April 16, 2020
I get it: We all must vote by mail—or we die. There is really no other safe choice.
But there is much to fear, especially for minority and young voters, with a switch to all-mail voting—unless our broken absentee ballot system is fixed.
Here’s what the “Go Postal” crowd doesn’t tell you: In 2016, 512,696 mail-in ballots—over half a million—were simply rejected, not counted. That’s official, from the federal Elections Assistance Commission (EAC).
But that’s just the tip of the ballot-berg of uncounted mail-in votes. A study by MIT, Losing Votes by Mail, puts the total loss of mail-in votes at a breathtaking 22%.
Move to 80% mail-in voting and 25 million will lose their vote.
And not just anyone’s mail-in ballots are dumped in the electoral trashcan. Overwhelmingly, those junked are ballots mailed by poorer, younger, non-white Americans.
Senator Amy Klobuchar’s proposed bill takes baby steps to expanding vote-by-mail protection but will barely bite into the 22% loss of votes especially among minorities.
Columbia Law professor Barbara Arnwine, founder of the Transformative Justice Coalition, says that a move to mail-in voting is, “really, really dangerous to the Black vote.” Millions of low-income voters who rarely vote absentee will now have fill out multi-step forms for the first time, which, “will lead to disaster,” says Arnwine.
Vote by mail is not as simple as “pick and lick”—picking candidates and licking the envelope.
Eight states, including the swing states of Wisconsin, North Carolina and Klobuchar’s Minnesota, require mail-in voters to have the ballot signed by a witness. The required double-verification is a nightmare—it requires breaking the lock-down—and is an invitation to ballot challenges.
Three states, including swing state Missouri, require the ballot to be notarized. (Alabama requires a notary or two witnesses.)
All but six states “verify” your signature against your registration signature. Partisan officials decide if there is a “match.” No less than 141,000 ballots were rejected as “unmatched” in 2016.
Why? To prevent vote fraud, someone stealing your ballot and voting in your name. President Trump warns, “Mail ballots are very dangerous for this country because of cheaters.”
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Why You Should Never Vote for Joe Biden
There’s a video of Lawrence O’Donnell, spokesperson for MSNBC, saying in 2020 what he’s paid to say, namely that electing a candidate with a platform you approve of is somehow in conflict with electing a candidate who can win. The logic of this is that most people are expected to vote for a candidate with a less desirable platform, which is only self-fulfilling if nobody shouts out that the hold-your-nose candidate has no clothes before a mysterious substance called “momentum” can be declared to exist and the candidate whom people actually prefer can be persuaded to give up.
There’s a video of Lawrence O’Donnell, years ago, saying something that would get him fired from MSNBC in a heartbeat:
“If you want to pull the major party that is closest to the way you’re thinking to what you’re thinking you must show them that you’re capable of not voting for them. If you don’t show them that you’re capable of not voting for them, they don’t have to listen to you. I promise you that. I worked within the Democratic Party. I didn’t listen or have to listen to anything on the left while I was working in the Democratic Party because the left had nowhere to go.”
Also featured on Counterpunch
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WATCH: Bernie Sanders on how Socialism can defeat Oligarchy
How corporations are profiting from the COVID-19 and how the Trump administration made it possible. History of savage capitalism and racism.
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David Sirota: The Democratic Party’s Tyranny of Decorum Helped Sink Bernie
Sanders could have gone harder against Biden, but ultimately it was the establishment that stood in his way.
By David Sirota TMI April 15, 2020 In These Times, April 16, 2020
Note: I’ve known Bernie Sanders for 21 years. He’s been a hero for me. I deeply respect his life’s work and he remains an inspiration to me — and no amount of post-election gossip, punditry or backbiting will change that. Working on his campaign was a great honor, and I’ve thanked him and so many others for that experience. What follows are some frank takeaways from the campaign. We did not run a perfect race — and having worked on both winning and losing campaigns, I accept my share of responsibility for that. Lord knows I was hardly perfect — and from the very beginning until the very end, I’ve taken my share of criticism. But I believe that we have an obligation to look back on the painful past because we must always try to learn lessons for the future. – D
The establishment may be weaker than ever—but it is still enormously powerful, especially because so much of the media often echoes its objectives.
If you’ve read the autopsies of the Bernie 2020 campaign in the New York Times, the Huffington Post, the Wall Street Journal, Politico, Buzzfeed or CNN, you’ve probably read a version of a story that goes something like this: pollster Ben Tulchin, co-chair Nina Turner and I were fire-breathing monsters aggressively pushing Bernie to “attack” Joe Biden, Bernie refused to do it, and that’s why Bernie lost.
There are some nuggets of truth in here, but there’s also some fiction — and so it is worth separating the facts from the fantasy, in order to understand a huge-but-little-discussed problem plaguing the Democratic Party that I call the tyranny of decorum.
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Bernie’s Decision: Retreat Should Not Be Confused With Surrender
Presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders speaks during a rally at Grant Park on March 7, 2020, in Chicago. (photo: John J. Kim/Chicago Tribune)
By Norman Solomon, Reader Supported News 09 April 20
olitics is ultimately about life and death, as the current pandemic horrors make clear. Policies that can seem abstract not only routinely harm quality of life; they also kill.
Both Bernie Sanders campaigns for president have brought a principled seriousness to the national discourse that no other candidate has come near matching. Now, we seem to be entering new terrain. Or are we?
You might not like “war” metaphors — but a vicious reality is that various types of warfare are constantly happening against billions of people on this planet. Humanity is under siege from structured injustice due to anti-democratic power.
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YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Gi5qGHRJ9c
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Suspending the Campaign, Not the Movement: Sanders Pulls Out of 2020 Race But Will Stay on Ballot
STORYAPR 09, 2020Democracy Now! April 9, 2020
The path to flipping the Senate—and ridding us of Mitch McConnell—starts in North Carolina
Daily Kos April 4, 2020
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Bernie Sanders Calls for ‘Boldest Legislation in History’ to Halt Spiraling Covid-19 Catastrophe
“In this unprecedented moment in modern American history, it is imperative that we respond in an unprecedented way.”
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) speaks during a campaign event at NOAH’s Events Venue on December 30, 2019 in West Des Moines, Iowa. (Photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
Sen. Bernie Sanders on Friday released his demands for six key priorities that he said must be included in the next round of federal economic relief for suffering Americans as the coronavirus pandemic cripples the country’s healthcare system and eviscerates the economy.
“We are in the midst of a COVID-19 pandemic that could lead to the death of hundreds of thousands of Americans and infect millions of others, and we are entering an economic downturn that could be worse than the Great Depression of the 1930s,” Sanders said. “In this unprecedented moment in modern American history, it is imperative that we respond in an unprecedented way.”
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“It’s Not Like We Have a Massive Recession or Worse,” Says Trump After 10 Million Lost Their Jobs in Two Weeks
“It’s artificial because we turned it off,” Trump said of the economic crisis, a distinction that makes no difference to the millions who have lost their jobs and their health insurance.
Socialists for Biden – and the Power of Corporate Media
By Jeff Cohen, Reader Supported News 16 March 20
t’s doubtful that Sunday night’s CNN debate shifted momentum in the presidential race currently favoring Joe Biden. The next few weeks offer the Bernie Sanders movement perhaps its last chance to win over – mostly through electronic means – Democratic primary voters.
One voting bloc to focus on might be called “socialists for Biden.”
In a speech last week from Vermont, Sanders made two key assertions. First, he said: “Poll after poll, including exit polls, show that a strong majority of the American people support our progressive agenda.” He then added: “While our campaign has won the ideological debate, we are losing the debate over electability.”
Sanders was correct on both points – which tells us something about the persuasive powers (and limits) of “corporate liberal” news outlets like MSNBC, CNN, NPR, The New York Times and The Washington Post. Despite those outlets having long maligned Sanders’ progressive proposals – from Medicare for All to big tax increases on the wealthy – his policy agenda is remarkably popular with Democratic primary voters.
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Bernie Sanders Speech on the Senate Floor on Covid 19 Crisis and the Stimulus Package
Reader Supported News 26 March 20
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WATCH: In Fiery Floor Speech, Sanders Rips GOP for Relentless Efforts to ‘Punish’ Poor People
“Meanwhile, these very same folks had no problem a couple years ago voting for a trillion dollars in tax breaks for billionaires and large profitable corporations. Not a problem.”
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Trump’s Mass Negligent Homicide Doesn’t Let Democratic Leaders Off the Hook
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker speaks at his daily coronavirus briefing from the Thompson Center in Chicago, on March 28, 2020. At right is Dr. Ngozi Ezike, Illinois Dept. of Public Health director. (photo: Chris Sweda/Chicago Tribune)
n the last few days, New York and Pennsylvania postponed voting in presidential primaries from April until June. A dozen other states have also rescheduled. Those wise decisions are in sharp contrast to a failure of leadership from Joe Biden and the Democratic National Committee.
Just two weeks ago, the party establishment was vehemently pushing back against efforts to delay several mid-March primaries in response to the coronavirus emergency. DNC Chair Tom Perez issued a statement that The Hill newspaper summed up with the headline “DNC Calls on States Not to Postpone Primaries.” Perez put out the statement on the day that three states were holding primary elections.
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As Corporate Capitalists Beg For Socialism, Let’s Not Forget They Tried To Destroy It
AOC breaks with Bernie on how to lead the left
*I suppose that depends on how you define ‘Democrats.’ So many analysts again and again point out that the Democratic Party has betrayed the American people and that decades ago ceased to be the “party of the people” although the myth lives on.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. | Samuel Corum/Getty ImagesSoon after her upset primary victory against a Democratic Party boss in 2018, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez traveled to St. Louis to prove her victory wasn’t a one-off by campaigning for Cori Bush, who was similarly taking on a longtime Democratic congressman.
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Who Wants a Revolution? No One Who Owns a Major Media Outlet
Election Focus 2020: With a sudden turnaround in the race after Super Tuesday that finds Joe Biden in the lead both in polls and delegates, corporate media have been quick to spin the reversal as a rejection of progressive politics.
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Sanders responds angrily to reporter when asked about his campaign: ‘I’m dealing with a f**king global crisis’
(CNN)Bernie Sanders has a decision to make about his campaign now that his path to the Democratic presidential nomination has effectively closed and the coronavirus pandemic has thrown into question the timing of future primary elections.
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On the media: The mainstream corporate media coddles Biden and criticizes Sanders at every opportunity. Matt Taibbi observes in Hate Inc that the media turns the election into a 3-ring circus focused on personality instead of issues. Bernie always talks about the issues, and is better on the issues, and has a better Congressional record on the issues, while the media calls Biden “presidential” and stories abound that Bernie is “rigid.” Both comments are about personality, not issues.
The mainstream corporate media attempts for the most part to detract us as much as possible from the many serious issues around the environment, climate crisis, gun control, endless war, and the militarization of US culture, as well as Trump’s authoritarianism that slides toward fascism. You wouldn’t know from the mainstream corporate media what a crisis of democracy this country is in. It shows though by how poorly the Coronavirus crisis is being handled. Trump is still trying to make a buck for the corporations by privatizing care while the number of cases continues to grow in the U.S. He closed down the crisis response center that Obama had created. He cut the Center for Disease Control’s budget by 16 percent. And then he says we have to have privatization to control the virus, so his corporate buddies can make money.
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Professor Noam Chomsky. (photo: Getty)
Noam Chomsky: “Bernie Is Vilified Because He Has Inspired a Movement”
In this interview, Noam Chomsky speaks to Tribune at a moment when socialists across the world are looking to the United States and the Bernie Sanders campaign for inspiration. He discusses the barriers facing a potential Sanders presidency, the importance of the labour movement to any prospect of meaningful change – and why the US business class will bitterly resist any attempt at social democratic reform.
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Democrats Sleepwalk Into the Nomination of Joe Biden
Fueled by fear of Trump and assurances of electability, primary voters have gone all in on a very big blind.
CHANG W. LEE – NEW YORK TIMES
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While our campaign has won the ideological debate, we are losing the debate over electability,” Sanders said, meaning Democrats think Biden has a better chance of beating President Donald Trump in the fall. “That is what millions of Democrats and independents today believe.”
He was quick to add that he thinks he’s the stronger choice, and that he could show that during Sunday’s debate. Sanders promised to press Biden for answers about millions of Americans who don’t have health insurance, a criminal justice system he said unfairly targets and punishes minorities and raising the federal minimum wage.
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Bernie Sanders Is Trying to Save the Democratic Party From Itself
By Robert Sheer Truthdig March 8, 2020
The movement that has grown around Sen. Bernie Sanders has become a political force to reckon with in the 2020 presidential election. Part of its strength is the many intersections it has with other progressive movements, some of which have been around for many years, others which stemmed from his 2016 primary campaign against Hillary Clinton. Sanders’ campaign has been endorsed by or includes members from Black Lives Matter and the Sunrise Movement, among many others, and from its inception was made up of activists.
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TRUMP IS A DISASTER FOR ABORTION RIGHTS — BUT JOE BIDEN CAN’T BE TRUSTED TO FIGHT FOR CHOICE
Until last year, Joe Biden supported a law that restricted federal funding for abortion — and his flip-flop smacks of political expediency.
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ELIZABETH WARREN SHOULD ENDORSE BERNIE SANDERS — NOT FOR HIM, BUT FOR HERSELF AND HER MISSION
Warren stayed out of the 2016 Democratic primary, and it hurt her badly.
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VoicesBIDEN WANTS TO EXPAND THE ACA. BLUE STATES CAN’T FIGURE OUT HOW TO RUN IT IN THE FIRST PLACE.
Democrats have failed to build on the Affordable Care Act, not from a lack of good intentions, because of the fatal complexity of the law itself.
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Can Moderate Democrats Sign On to a Progressive President?
Chris Winters Yes! Magazine March 4, 2020
The short answer could have been ripped from Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign: “Yes, We Can!”
The longer answer is more qualified, but it does seem to point to the central question of whether an unabashed progressive such as U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders will win over the Democratic electorate and ride that support to the White House.
The Super Tuesday primaries this week point to a qualified “yes.” Sanders certainly has momentum, despite former Vice President Joe Biden’s comeback, and he could still secure a majority of delegates ahead of the convention in July.
The road ahead can be perilous, however, not least because a contested convention in July could lead to a repeat of 2016.
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FEAR PERVADES BLACK POLITICS, AND MAKES US AGENTS OF OUR OWN OPPRESSION
Bernie Sanders Can Still Win the Nomination and the Presidency
By Matt Karp, Jacobin 04 March 20
or a few beautiful moments last week, it looked like it might be easy.
Sanders appeared ready to annihilate all three on Super Tuesday, claim a massive delegate lead, and hold a commanding position in the race ahead, even if the so-called “moderates” could finally consolidate around one candidate.
Today, the baseless fabric of this vision has dissolved, leaving only the grim spectacle of Joe Biden, the new Democratic front-runner, ascending the stage in Los Angeles and confusing his wife with his sister.
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‘Their blood is on your hands’: Veterans confront Joe Biden over support for Iraq war
Group confronts former vice president for past support ‘enabling a war that killed thousands of our brothers and sisters’
During a campaign event in Oakland, California on 3 March, Michael Thurman asked Mr Biden: “We are just wondering why we should vote for someone who voted for a war and enabled a war that killed thousands of our brothers and sisters [and] countless Iraqi civilians.”
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By Robert Reich Nation of Change March 5, 2020
The Democratic establishment is wrong to think Sanders is too liberal to win a general election. To the contrary, he’s the Democrats’ best shot at taking back the White House.
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The answer? Warren ends her campaign and Sanders makes her his VP choice
Democratic Party leaders are at war with Sanders…
Rise Up Times Editor’s Note: And the mainstream corporate media is practicing its usual negative press about Bernie…
Word that Elizabeth Warren is reconsidering her run for the Democratic presidential nomination, and that she and Bernie Sanders are looking at the idea joining to form a progressive “united front,” are encouraging.
It is clear that the Democratic neoliberal establishment has gone to war on its left wing — willing to risk losing the November election to keep the Democratic Party from being taken over by progressives and democratic socialists.
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Texas closes hundreds of polling sites in areas where minorities vote
“For many people, and particularly for voters of color, older voters, rural voters, and voters with disabilities, these burdens make it harder — and sometimes impossible — to vote.”
Bernie Or Biden?
Why Is Joe Biden Even Still in This Race?
The recently retired (forced out) MSNBC anchor and ardent Joe Biden Supporter Chris Matthews. (photo: Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily Beast/Getty)
he ultimate political retread, a guy on his third run for the Democratic nomination after the first two failed decades ago, who would be considered a racist if the obvious were not banned from the discourse, is leading the race for the Democratic presidential nomination on the backs of African American voters, mostly in former slave-states twenty years into the twenty-first century. How can this be?
Propaganda, propaganda, and more propaganda.
Fear the cable networks, for they enslave you. How did the Democrats get their good old boy, game manager Joe Biden back in the game? With a massive onslaught of unreported campaign donations in the form of campaign promotion on cable news.
Try not to lose sight of the fact that Biden is almost entirely bereft of new ideas or solutions. What he is selling is being kinder, gentler, and better than Donald Trump. That bar is so low you have to dig a tunnel to get under it.
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From Truthout March 5, 2020
Trump’s Harsh Iran Policy Helped Hardliners Win Iran’s Elections
Elizabeth Warren Drops Out of 2020 Race Without Announcing Endorsement
Sanders Says He Would Love to Debate Biden on Medicare for All
After Biden’s Super Tuesday Surge, Sanders Campaign Faces Questions About African-American Support
Democracy Now! March 4, 2020 Full Transcript is available on the Democracy Now! website.
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The Case Against Joe Biden: Former VP’s Long Career Shows a Recurring Theme of “Appeasing the Right”
WILL CALIFORNIA STEAL 553,000 VOTES FROM BERNIE SANDERS?
GregPalast.com March 2, 2020
“Particularly at risk of losing their vote are 18 to 24-year olds and LatinX voters, groups that strongly favor “Tio Bernie.” A quarter of independent voters are LatinX.”
Editor’s Note: they may register for a party at their polling place and receive a ballot, but this information has not been publically promoted.
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Chris Hedges, Class: The Little Word the Elites Want You to Forget
The Democratic Party, should it resurrect such policies [as Roosevelt’s New Deal], would win every election in a landslide.
Mr. Fish / Truthdig
Aristotle, Niccolò Machiavelli, Alexis de Tocqueville, Adam Smith and Karl Marx grounded their philosophies in the understanding that there is a natural antagonism between the rich and the rest of us. The interests of the rich are not our interests. The truths of the rich are not our truths. The lives of the rich are not our lives. Great wealth not only breeds contempt for those who do not have it but it empowers oligarchs to pay armies of lawyers, publicists, politicians, judges, academics and journalists to censure and control public debate and stifle dissent.
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By
ST. LOUIS PARK, Minn. — Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar canceled a rally in her home state Sunday after protesters took over the stage shouting for her to drop out of the presidential race over the case of a black teen sentenced to life in prison while Klobuchar was the county’s top prosecutor.
Klobuchar was scheduled to speak at St. Louis Park High School in suburban Minneapolis ahead of Tuesday’s Minnesota primary, which she is fighting to win and notch her first victory. But dozens of protesters entered the gymnasium, raised signs and chanted “black lives matter” and “Myon,” a reference to Myon Burrell, who was convicted of the murder of 11-year-old Tyesha Edwards.
An Associated Press investigation questioned Klobuchar’s handling of the 2002 case, in which Burrell was sent to prison for life following a police investigation some say was flawed. Klobuchar has said if there is new information in the case it should be considered — a response that some activists have said doesn’t go far enough.
Klobuchar has struggled to win support from black voters, a major problem for her campaign as she seeks the Democratic nomination. Her best finish in the first four contests was in New Hampshire, an overwhelmingly white state where she came in third. In both Nevada and South Carolina she trailed far behind the front-runners, failing to win a single delegate.
She has rejected suggestions she drop out of the race, saying she plans to compete at least through the upcoming Super Tuesday contests, when 14 states will vote and about one-third of delegates will be up for grabs.
Klobuchar has said she expects to win her state, but she’s facing tough competition from Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who leads in delegates overall. Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist, won the Minnesota vote in 2016 over Hillary Clinton and has made a big push to win again.
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- ST. PAUL, Minn. — Bernie Sanders has a shot to deliver an embarrassing blow to Amy Klobuchar in the moderate senator’s home state on Super Tuesday, thanks to a large and motivated progressive base in a state where she was once considered a shoo-in to win.
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Neoliberalism Has Radicalized a Whole Generation
When the conversation veered toward “capitalism” and “socialism” at last week’s Democratic presidential debate in Las Vegas, the preeminent capitalist on the stage, Michael Bloomberg, could hardly believe what he was hearing.
By Conor Lynch Truthdig February 26, 2020
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Sanders won’t attend AIPAC conference, says the group opposes ‘basic Palestinian rights’
Michael Arria Mondoweiss
Bernie Sanders speaking at a campaign rally for Hillary Clinton in Arizona, November 2016 (Photo: Gage Skidmore)On Sunday, Democratic frontrunner Bernie Sanders confirmed that he would be skipping this year’s American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) conference and attacked the pro-Israel organization on his Twitter page.
“The Israeli people have the right to live in peace and security. So do the Palestinian people. I remain concerned about the platform AIPAC provides for leaders who express bigotry and oppose basic Palestinian rights. For that reason I will not attend their conference,” tweeted Sanders, “As president, I will support the rights of both Israelis and Palestinians and do everything possible to bring peace and security to the region.”
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Factchecking NPR’s Attempted Takedown of Bernie Sanders
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Sanders has wide leads in two of three battleground states: survey
By Rebecca Klar The Hill February 23, 2020
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has wide leads over the Democratic presidential field in Michigan and Wisconsin but is facing a tighter race in Pennsylvania, according to a poll released Sunday.
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Environmentalist in Klobuchar’s Home State Says She’s “Owned by Big Agriculture”
Amy Klobuchar has also shown a staunch unwillingness to challenge mining or pipeline interests.
Klobuchar’s dedication to mining interests is also apparent when it comes to her position on another contentious copper-nickel mining project by Twin Metals in northern Minnesota — a copper-nickel mine that other 2020 hopefuls, including Bernie Sanders and Pete Buttigieg, have opposed because of its proximity to Minnesota’s historic Boundary Waters. One of the last actions of the Obama administration was to ban this mine; a leaked email shows her displeasure with the ban.
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Buttigieg and Centrist Dems Want a Military Response to Climate Change. That’s Dangerous.
The Pentagon sees climate victims as threats.
Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg speaks at a town hall event in Coralville, Iowa on Feb. 2, 2020. (Photo: Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images)
Mayor Pete Buttigieg says that if he were elected president, he would use the Department of Defense to fight climate change by creating “a senior climate security role in the Secretary of Defense’s office responsible for managing climate security risks” and boosting the Pentagon’s budget to “allow our military leaders to build resilience for military bases and installations.”
These efforts to address climate change through a national security lens are deeply worrisome. If an ethic of fear and national self-interest—and not justice and solidarity—shapes the U.S. response to climate change, it could unleash a number of frightening actions, in which the U.S. fortresses its borders, protects its military bases and slams the door on those its emissions have harmed.
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“Worth the Price?” New Film Shows How Biden Played Leading Role in Push for U.S. to Invade Iraq
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The Corporate Media Is Directly Profiting from Mike Bloomberg’s Rise as He Spends Fortune on TV Ads
Democracy Now! February 14, 2020
How Billionaire Michael Bloomberg’s Deep Pockets Have Let Him Win Friends and Buy Influence
How Bloomberg-Funded Center for American Progress Censored a Report on NYPD Surveillance of Muslims
Democracy Now! February 17, 2020
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Blankfein, who calls for cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid and who headed Goldman Sachs when it paid Hillary Clinton $675,000 for three speaking engagements in 2013, laid out the stance of the billionaire class that controls the Democratic Party. The New York Times reported that Mike Novogratz, “a Goldman Sachs alumnus who runs the merchant bank Galaxy Digital, said Mr. Sanders’s oppositional nature had prompted ‘too many friends’ to say they would vote against him in November. ‘And they hate Trump,’ he said.”
Truthdig February 17, 2020
Bloomberg Is the Crisis, Not the Cure
Mike Bloomberg at the “Mike for Black America” launch in Houston, Texas. MARK FELIX/Getty Images
Mike Bloomberg at the “Mike for Black America” launch in Houston, Texas. The morning after President’s Day, a new poll found that Michael Bloomberg had captured enough public support to claim a place onstage in the next Democratic presidential debate. On Wednesday night, the business-information tycoon and former Republican mayor of New York City will appear alongside candidates who have spent months or years trying to win over Democratic voters—shaping their policy proposals, cultivating armies of donors and volunteers, gathering support door-to-door—having himself spent only money, a tsunami of it: more than $400 million of his own fortune on campaign expenses, including saturation ads across TV and online media.
By Slate February 18, 2020
Trump says he’d rather run against Bloomberg than Sanders
“Sanders has real followers, whether you like them or not,” the president said.
President Donald Trump. | Mark Wilson/Getty ImagesPresident Donald Trump on Tuesday insisted that he’d rather run against Mike Bloomberg than Bernie Sanders in the general election this November, amplifying complaints from Democrats that the billionaire former mayor of New York was buying his way into contention in the primary field.
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We graded the 2020 Democratic candidates on four key environmental areas.
It is no surprise that Bernie and Warren have the best records. Bloomberg, who is supposedly good on the environment, is not included for reasons stated at the beginning.
January 27, 2020
By Nicole Powers for the Palast Investigative Fund
Rise Up Times Editor’s Note: This is a very important victory. Kemp threw about half a million voters off the voter rolls in Georgia, mostly people of color. You may recall that Stacey Abrams, a woman of color, ran against Kemp in a highly contested election.
[Atlanta-Feb 9] In an extraordinary and unexpected move, Federal Judge Eleanor Ross has declared Gov. Brian Kemp the loser in a lawsuit brought by investigative journalist Greg Palast for the State of Georgia to open up its complete files on the mass purge of over half a million voters from the rolls.
Surprising all parties, the judge ruled that Kemp’s defense was so weak that no trial is needed. The judge acted “sua sponte”—on her own initiative, unrequested by Palast’s attorneys.
GregPalast.com February 9, 2020
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The Weaponization of Data: Cambridge Analytica, Information Warfare & the 2016 Election of Trump
Feminist Scholar Barbara Smith on Identity Politics & Why She Supports Bernie Sanders for President
We speak with the legendary African-American feminist scholar Barbara Smith. She is a founder of the Combahee River Collective and of Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press. Barbara Smith recently wrote a column in The Guardian newspaper titled “I helped coin the term ‘identity politics’. I’m endorsing Bernie Sanders.” Her latest book is “Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around: Forty Years of Movement Building with Barbara Smith.”
Democracy Now! February 12, 2020
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South Bend Politician: I Worked with Pete Buttigieg. He Did Not Respect Black Residents’ Struggles
Democracy Now! February 12, 2020
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Meet the Journalist Who Exposed Bloomberg’s Racist Defense of Targeting Black & Brown Youth
Democracy Now! February 12, 2020
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New Hampshire 2020 Primary: Live Results
5 Takeaways From the New Hampshire Primary
MANCHESTER, N.H. — Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont won New Hampshire’s Democratic presidential primary Tuesday night, consolidating support on the left in his second strong showing in as many weeks.
Mr. Sanders fended off two moderate rivals, former Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Ind., and Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota. Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. finished behind them.
The New York Times February 12, 2020
Sanders jumps out to huge lead in national poll as Biden plummets
If you’re voting on electability, recent polls put Bernie as the best candidate to beat Trump.
PETE BUTTIGIEG REPEATEDLY DODGED A QUESTION ABOUT BLACK MARIJUANA ARRESTS IN SOUTH BEND — THEN INVOKED GANGS
Pete Buttigieg spent the weekend justifying his obfuscation on a debate question about racially disproportionate marijuana arrests in South Bend.
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DNC chair calls for a recanvass in Iowa as chaos ensues
2020 United States presidential primary election results
Iowa Updated at 1:32 PM CST
| Votes | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Delegates | Percent | Count |
 Pete Buttigieg
|
11 | 26.2% | 550 |
|
Bernie Sanders
|
11 | 26.1% | 547 |
|
Elizabeth Warren
|
5 | 18.2% | 381 |
|
Joe Biden
|
0 | 15.8% | 331 |
Show results forIowa
The fact that Sanders can succeed without the party machine enrages those who sacrificed their idealism to play the game
Even in our pitifully broken semi-democracy, rich people shouldn’t be in charge. The math is against them. There are, by definition, comparatively few rich people, and many middle- and lower-class people. In a two-party system where one party represents the interests of the rich and the other party is meant to represent the interests of everyone else, logic says that the rich people party should lose most of the time, based on sheer numbers. The political power of plutocrats should be arbitraged out of existence as parties seek a larger base.
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“Progressive Except Palestine” groups gang up on Bernie Sanders
Mike Bloomberg is courting pro-Israel, Jewish voters with conservative-type promises to keep Israel great, and progressive positions on everything else. The Democratic Majority for Israel PAC (DMFI) supports similarly PEP (Progressive Except Palestine) candidates. Both have it out for Bernie Sanders.
Early results of Iowa caucus. Not final.
Behind the app is a dark money operation funded by pro-Israel anti-Sanders billionaires like Seth Klarman, an Israel devotee who backs Buttigieg
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Election Theft Is a 120-Year Tradition. Let’s End It This Year. By Bob Fitrakis 1 
As Bernie Sanders shows strength in the early-voting states, his opponents face a challenge: Attacking him can help fuel his campaign.
DES MOINES — A Democratic super PAC wanted to undermine Senator Bernie Sanders’s presidential candidacy just days before the Iowa caucuses. It may have handed him a gift instead.
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Moscow Mitch Makes Mistake [Updated: He Admits He Doesn’t Have the Votes]
Quick update: The Daily Beast has a story out this morning about Oleksandr Danylyuk, the former chairman of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, who was in the July 10 meeting with Sondland that Bolton had abruptly stopped — only to have Sondland move the meeting elsewhere.
Danylyuk said he and his team, which included Zelensky aide Andriy Yermak, “couldn’t conclude [the meeting] properly” because as The Daily Beast previously reported, Sondland interrupted the conversation to bring up the demands from Trump that Zelensky agree to the investigation of the Bidens. Soon after Sondland’s interjection, Bolton ended the official meeting. That’s when the group, which included Hill, Sondland, and other trop Trump officials, moved into the Ward Room of the White House and Sondland again, but more ferociously, pushed the investigations further, telling Danylyuk and Yermak that it was the only way the two countries could develop a meaningful relationship.
In short, the Ukrainians were being pressured to deliver the goods, and they knew it.
AK-46: The Case Against Amy Klobuchar
By Nick Pemberton CounterPunch.org January 24, 2020
Editor’s Comment. When this article gets to the nitty gritty, Amy’s voting record, it is excellent.
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Amy Klobuchar says she would work on increasing support for Israel if elected president
In an interview with the New York Times editorial board Amy Klobuchar also cited her strong record of pro-Israel votes in the Senate. “I still think that they are in a really tough neighborhood in a really dangerous position,” she explained, “And made worse by what Trump just did with Syria because now Iran has a foothold there.”
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‘If Truth Doesn’t Matter, We’re Lost’: Watch Rep. Adam Schiff’s 9-Minute Closing Argument on Why Senate Must Remove Trump
“You know you can’t trust this president to do what’s right for this country. You can trust he will do what’s right for Donald Trump. He’ll do it now. He’s done it before.” |
An Open Letter to the Green Party for 2020
Noam Chomsky, Barbara Ehrenreich, Bill Fletcher, Leslie Cagan, Ron Daniels, Kathy Kelly, Norman Solomon, Cynthia Peters and Michael Albert
As the 2020 presidential election approaches the Green Party faces the challenge of settling on a platform, choosing a candidate for president, and deciding its campaign strategy. In that context, Howie Hawkins, a contender for Green Party presidential candidate, recently published a clear and cogent essay titled “The Green Party Is Not the Democrats’ Problem.” It represents a precedent Green Party stance which may guide Green campaign policy. We agree with much, but find some ideas very troubling.
Truthdig January 24, 2020
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How the Transformative Power of Solidarity Will Beat Trump
Supporters of Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders at a rally in Minneapolis, Minn., on Nov. 3, 2019. Photo: Scott Heins/Getty Images
Naomi Klein: “I blocked Twitter, chatted with my son about why he’s such a Bernie fan (“He will beat Donald Trump”), and started writing about being on the Sanders campaign trail in Iowa and New Hampshire over the last couple months. Because among Sanders’s steadily growing base of supporters, the mood is about as far from rage tweeting as you can get. In fact, despite the senator’s reputation as a finger-waving grump, the more time I spend with the campaign, whether in small meetups or huge rallies, the more I am struck by the undercurrent of tenderness that runs through all these events. Surprisingly enough, the force that is bridging what at first seem like huge divides — between multiracial urbanite Gen Z-ers and aging white farmers, between lifetime industrial trade unionists and hardcore climate organizers, between a Jewish candidate and a huge Muslim base — is a culture of quiet listening.”
By Naomi Klein The Intercept January 22 2020, 10:48 a.m.
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‘Love Letter to Capitalism and War’: Progressive Scorn Follows New York Times Endorsement
The newspaper’s endorsement of both Warren and Klobuchar, said one critic, reveals “so much about the liberal reaction to a resurgent left, a reaction that holds Trump as an aberration and polite, well-mannered centrism as the greatest virtue.”
2020 will reshape the international order
JENNY CLEGG looks ahead at a year where an increasingly multipolar world will challenge US dominance
By JENNY CLEGG Morningstar January
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The Republican Party versus democracy
In 2018, we learned how Trump’s GOP behaves after losing elections. It could prove disastrous in 2020. Photos: Getty Images. Photo illustrations: Javier Zarracina/Vox
By
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‘Love Letter to Capitalism and War’: Progressive Scorn Follows New York Times Endorsement
The newspaper’s endorsement of both Warren and Klobuchar, said one critic, reveals “so much about the liberal reaction to a resurgent left, a reaction that holds Trump as an aberration and polite, well-mannered centrism as the greatest virtue.”
About that endorsement…
“If I were going to go all weak-kneed like the New York Times,” said Bill McKibben, “I’m not sure I would have picked the day devoted to our most clear-eyed moral leader to do it.”
By
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The contents of Rise Up Times do not necessarily reflect the views of the editor.