So someone close to me and without a lot of time for politics said something interesting while the "P"BS NewsHour was on. "I loathe Biden even more than I hate Trump," she said. I asked her what she meant. "Trump let's you know he's a disgusting pig. He doesn't really hide it. Biden pretends he's something other than what he is. He pretends he's decent and caring and progressive. He's none of those things."
I will not hold my nose to vote for dismal democratic, genocide, lying Joe, or the lackeys that are apparently doing and saying whatever they like, with or without pitiful old Joe. The "democratic" apparatus is sickening and stupid to offer up the old fart and put us in this position. I don't believe the democrats have any strategy or even plans for the future, unlike the Republicans! I don't believe anything they say in order to "get elected" now or until they show themselves worthy, and for G-d sake, get rid of Hilary and Obama; I don't need or want any advice from them! I'm voting for Jill Stein
even though my friends look at me with daggers in their eyes to say that's a vote for D. Trump. And that's the fault of our political bodies, 2 parties only and no primaries, not me!. I won't be blackmailed or blamed for the extreme corruption of almost our entire governing bodies who take the money and run and only offer something at the last minute for which they're likely to do the opposite and pretend otherwise.
They will all be responsible for the downfall of the "great American dream", only available for billionaire tax cheats and their ilk.
Okay but why do you make it abut voting under the masters' BEB/bourgeois electoral bullshit, which in the US includes the preposterous slaveowners' Electoral College system? What does voting for JS have to do with anything revolutionary?
I agree with you. With 300 Million people in America the fact that we get two canidates like Trump or Biden or the previous occupants like Obama,Clinton W does not speak well for our intelligence or the quality of our electoral system
Why is Trump walking around raising money. He should be in Rikers when he is not in court. Lindsay Graham is a moral disgrace to humanity and he still gets elected. This country is in big trouble more so if they go to war with Russia,China or Iran.
By the way, some readers of this essay and TPSR might find this interesting: 'While much of the focus on authoritarianism in the United States has been on Republican voters, it is also a powerful force in the Democratic electorate. 'In their 2018 paper “A Tale of Two Democrats: How Authoritarianism Divides the Democratic Party,” five political scientists — Julie Wronski, Alexa Bankert, Karyn Amira, April A. Johnson and Lindsey C. Levitan — found that in 2016 “authoritarianism consistently predicts differences in primary voting among Democrats, particularly support for Hillary Clinton over Bernie Sanders.” More specifically, “as a Democrat in the Cooperative Election Study survey sample moves from the minimum value on the authoritarianism scale to the maximum value, the probability of voting for Clinton increases from 0.33 to 0.76.” Wronski and her colleagues determined that “Republicans are significantly more authoritarian than Democrats” but “the variation in authoritarianism is significantly higher among Democrats than Republicans.” Put another way: The level of authoritarianism among the top half of Democrats is almost the same as it is among Republicans.' See this: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/15/opinion/trump-authoritarianism-democracy.html?
So Clinton-Biden-type Dems are as authoritarian as Republi-fascists. Who knew? Wronski et al's findings are constitent with my interactions with nasty and mean Biden backers during the 2020 Iowa Caucus. I had a number of depressing convos with them. They had the bearing and language of Republicans.
What the genocide liberals apparently do not seem to remember about the great unwashed masses is that an entire generation grew up watching 500 Nations right on their hi-def televisions, with several subsequent helpings of How the West Was Lost as well. And that series narrator's unforgettable voice is now on Ancient Aliens- which I add solely to hypothesize the power of vocal sound to evoke an earlier memory of that voice, like I most certainly do. The battle today is again mostly generational, with the oldsters being caught in their own parents' evil empire-soaked mind trap.
Atrocity committer-Political party
Andrew Jackson (Indian Removal Act)-Democrat
Harry Truman (The Bombs on Japan)-Democrat
Lyndon Johnson (Vietnam)-Democrat
Joe Biden(Palestinian genocide)-Democrat
The greater of two evils, the dastardly GOP, are always complicit, and since the Gilded Age have been the main impetus for much of the Democrats' lesser evilism as well. This is all downstream from greed. State evil has always been from the people who, like royalty of the past, declare themselves divinely entitled after enriching themselves at the hands of the wage slaves, to whom corporate profits are little different than taxes.
Bloody seizure of US Southwest and California in the name of Manifest Destiny under Dem Polk in "Mexican-American War"... the proto-fascization of America at home and imperial wars abroad fought under Dem Wilson....
You might include the carpet bombing of Korea under Truman. Unspeakable mass murderous devasation. I would politely add that you have very different US party systems between Jackson and Johnson; of courrse the latter loses the Solid South for the dismal Dems when he signs the Civil and Voting Rights Acts in 1964 and 1965.
I live in a Red State, though in a somewhat more progressive area, where we have a regional tier-2 level state university. I have recently begun to work with the local County Democratic Party, not composed of finance capital vultures and/or war criminals; but just decent concerned people. The issues here span the gamut. But while we have both R's and D's in our local governments; we have D's as our county and other clerks. As a result our votes are counted honestly, we still have a ballot drop-box standing outside a county court building where a voter can leave their absentee or mail-in ballot. (and no Assault Rifle toting thug is hanging around). Nobody is purging our voter rolls and you don't have to worry about losing your right to vote.
The State's elected Attorney General, a truly evil and vicious character, works constantly to strip us of our rights. The State Legislature passed a law requiring women who obtain abortions to answer a bunch of questions about why they have chosen abortion and the State will now keep dossiers on all these women. Our Democratic Governor vetoed the bill but the State Legislature over rode her veto. She has vetoed other reactionary bills which the Republican majorities could not coalesce to over ride those vetoes.
I recommend that Blue State readers here take a look at the substack blog "The View from Rural Missouri by Jess Piper", at < https://jesspiper.substack.com/ >. Jess provides interesting insights there.
just to note that here in the UK we face a similar choice between two seriously bad options. On the one hand an incompetent, failed party - the tories - who, with a combination of Brexit, austerity, corruption, cronyism, foul anti-immigration rhetoric and ineffective border policies, privatisation and running down of public services are so bad they will likely lose to a party that connived in it's own defeat in 2 elections via a filthy and mendacious campaign of accusations of antisemitism against the left wing leader of the time because the controlling interests didn't like him, who have moved to the right so far that they are indistinguishable from the tories, and whose leader lies consistently, backtracks, backstabs, reneges on every promise and pledge he ever made, who has ruthlessly expunged from the labour party any even slightly socialist members. Meanwhile both parties are bought and paid for by the Israel lobby, corporate sponsors and military minded morons, happily cheering on genocide in Gaza and provoking conflict with Russia. The same 2 party elective dictatorship in fact.
Eminently passionate and quotable as usual. The crescendo of righteous analysis, (although sometimes a bit convoluted), builds to the only conclusion that's viable, sustainable and equitable--the total overthrow of the capitalist system lest we suffer the "common ruin of all." Paul Street for President!
One of my main differences with you, Paul, is the importance of a key political skill: knowing how to count. I think we would agree on the other key skill, knowing our core values. But 'counting' is not just about voter polls. It's mainly about assessing the numbers in a variety of political trends, surveying the terrain, as Sun Tzu suggested, knowing ourselves and our adversaries, and understanding how various proportions are always changing. At the moment, fo example, calls for revoultion are, at best, only likely to unite a rather small grouping of a militant minority. We can do that in various ways, but more important, I think, is finding an antifascist majority. I think it's out there, largely 'in itself,' and our pressing task is helping it to become 'for itself,' with a tip of the hat to Hegel. In certain 'blue' base areas, we can elect some people on a platform of bringing to power a government of a third reconstruction as a transitional and transformative tool, but I doubt we can get very much resonance for and of the p.' In any case, the practice of the mass line matters. We don't just press our views 'on' people; we have to gather up theirs as well, and see what we can find the combination that will unite the many to defeat the dew.
I voted once for Biden despite his stealing the nomination from Bernie because he was not Trump. Big mistake. Trump is an immoral rascist long time crook who is mentally unstable to put it mildly. Yet I fear Biden more because of his support for Israel slaughtering the Palestinians. This with a little effort could turn into a planet ending Nuclear War.
Oh I don't know if it was a mistake, really. I think some of us forget how much covid was a factor on top of everything in 2020. The guy was spreading the pandemic. But the main problem with your comment in my opinion is you don't understand that Trump is even worse than Biden on Israel and Gaza. Are you unaware that the Republi-fascists are aligned with the Zionist far right and would like even more death of Palestinian civilians? My point is while I'm not vote-shaming anyone it's just not my job to promote the BEB at this point...we need a revolution now and not is some distant far away time. But that said, "fearing Biden more because of his support for Israel slaughtrering the Palestinians" is just way off base imho: Trump would like to see MORE slaughtered! and Trump would like to see the protests here ended with live ammo, comrade.
I know its your style, Paul, but can you possibly deliver your hard-hitting and vitally necessary message, without so much contortion, sentence manipulation, endless qualification, and elusive references? Got tedious after only halfway through your latest. You represent one of the few voices that should be rendered in a 'clear as a bell' fashion and I don't see any benefit from indulging in this game of elaborate, over the top criticism,, indeed I see it as confusing and somewhat 'off-putting', while I'd guess it also generates definite WTF moments from some of your readers. You're crowding out intelligent discourse for the pleasure of slamming the opposition. While I'm guessing, I'll extend it to seeing your style as the product of the genuine frustration of a lonely voice, in a veritable sea of propaganda and outright BS,, but it's precisely the fact that you're a lonely voice that it should clear of confusion. With the best of intentions, from one of your fans.
So someone close to me and without a lot of time for politics said something interesting while the "P"BS NewsHour was on. "I loathe Biden even more than I hate Trump," she said. I asked her what she meant. "Trump let's you know he's a disgusting pig. He doesn't really hide it. Biden pretends he's something other than what he is. He pretends he's decent and caring and progressive. He's none of those things."
I will not hold my nose to vote for dismal democratic, genocide, lying Joe, or the lackeys that are apparently doing and saying whatever they like, with or without pitiful old Joe. The "democratic" apparatus is sickening and stupid to offer up the old fart and put us in this position. I don't believe the democrats have any strategy or even plans for the future, unlike the Republicans! I don't believe anything they say in order to "get elected" now or until they show themselves worthy, and for G-d sake, get rid of Hilary and Obama; I don't need or want any advice from them! I'm voting for Jill Stein
even though my friends look at me with daggers in their eyes to say that's a vote for D. Trump. And that's the fault of our political bodies, 2 parties only and no primaries, not me!. I won't be blackmailed or blamed for the extreme corruption of almost our entire governing bodies who take the money and run and only offer something at the last minute for which they're likely to do the opposite and pretend otherwise.
They will all be responsible for the downfall of the "great American dream", only available for billionaire tax cheats and their ilk.
Okay but why do you make it abut voting under the masters' BEB/bourgeois electoral bullshit, which in the US includes the preposterous slaveowners' Electoral College system? What does voting for JS have to do with anything revolutionary?
I agree with you. With 300 Million people in America the fact that we get two canidates like Trump or Biden or the previous occupants like Obama,Clinton W does not speak well for our intelligence or the quality of our electoral system
Why is Trump walking around raising money. He should be in Rikers when he is not in court. Lindsay Graham is a moral disgrace to humanity and he still gets elected. This country is in big trouble more so if they go to war with Russia,China or Iran.
By the way, some readers of this essay and TPSR might find this interesting: 'While much of the focus on authoritarianism in the United States has been on Republican voters, it is also a powerful force in the Democratic electorate. 'In their 2018 paper “A Tale of Two Democrats: How Authoritarianism Divides the Democratic Party,” five political scientists — Julie Wronski, Alexa Bankert, Karyn Amira, April A. Johnson and Lindsey C. Levitan — found that in 2016 “authoritarianism consistently predicts differences in primary voting among Democrats, particularly support for Hillary Clinton over Bernie Sanders.” More specifically, “as a Democrat in the Cooperative Election Study survey sample moves from the minimum value on the authoritarianism scale to the maximum value, the probability of voting for Clinton increases from 0.33 to 0.76.” Wronski and her colleagues determined that “Republicans are significantly more authoritarian than Democrats” but “the variation in authoritarianism is significantly higher among Democrats than Republicans.” Put another way: The level of authoritarianism among the top half of Democrats is almost the same as it is among Republicans.' See this: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/15/opinion/trump-authoritarianism-democracy.html?
So Clinton-Biden-type Dems are as authoritarian as Republi-fascists. Who knew? Wronski et al's findings are constitent with my interactions with nasty and mean Biden backers during the 2020 Iowa Caucus. I had a number of depressing convos with them. They had the bearing and language of Republicans.
What the genocide liberals apparently do not seem to remember about the great unwashed masses is that an entire generation grew up watching 500 Nations right on their hi-def televisions, with several subsequent helpings of How the West Was Lost as well. And that series narrator's unforgettable voice is now on Ancient Aliens- which I add solely to hypothesize the power of vocal sound to evoke an earlier memory of that voice, like I most certainly do. The battle today is again mostly generational, with the oldsters being caught in their own parents' evil empire-soaked mind trap.
Atrocity committer-Political party
Andrew Jackson (Indian Removal Act)-Democrat
Harry Truman (The Bombs on Japan)-Democrat
Lyndon Johnson (Vietnam)-Democrat
Joe Biden(Palestinian genocide)-Democrat
The greater of two evils, the dastardly GOP, are always complicit, and since the Gilded Age have been the main impetus for much of the Democrats' lesser evilism as well. This is all downstream from greed. State evil has always been from the people who, like royalty of the past, declare themselves divinely entitled after enriching themselves at the hands of the wage slaves, to whom corporate profits are little different than taxes.
Bloody seizure of US Southwest and California in the name of Manifest Destiny under Dem Polk in "Mexican-American War"... the proto-fascization of America at home and imperial wars abroad fought under Dem Wilson....
You might include the carpet bombing of Korea under Truman. Unspeakable mass murderous devasation. I would politely add that you have very different US party systems between Jackson and Johnson; of courrse the latter loses the Solid South for the dismal Dems when he signs the Civil and Voting Rights Acts in 1964 and 1965.
Dear America: You are waking up, as Germany once did, to the awareness that 1/3 of your people would kill another 1/3,
while 1/3 watches.
I live in a Red State, though in a somewhat more progressive area, where we have a regional tier-2 level state university. I have recently begun to work with the local County Democratic Party, not composed of finance capital vultures and/or war criminals; but just decent concerned people. The issues here span the gamut. But while we have both R's and D's in our local governments; we have D's as our county and other clerks. As a result our votes are counted honestly, we still have a ballot drop-box standing outside a county court building where a voter can leave their absentee or mail-in ballot. (and no Assault Rifle toting thug is hanging around). Nobody is purging our voter rolls and you don't have to worry about losing your right to vote.
The State's elected Attorney General, a truly evil and vicious character, works constantly to strip us of our rights. The State Legislature passed a law requiring women who obtain abortions to answer a bunch of questions about why they have chosen abortion and the State will now keep dossiers on all these women. Our Democratic Governor vetoed the bill but the State Legislature over rode her veto. She has vetoed other reactionary bills which the Republican majorities could not coalesce to over ride those vetoes.
I recommend that Blue State readers here take a look at the substack blog "The View from Rural Missouri by Jess Piper", at < https://jesspiper.substack.com/ >. Jess provides interesting insights there.
just to note that here in the UK we face a similar choice between two seriously bad options. On the one hand an incompetent, failed party - the tories - who, with a combination of Brexit, austerity, corruption, cronyism, foul anti-immigration rhetoric and ineffective border policies, privatisation and running down of public services are so bad they will likely lose to a party that connived in it's own defeat in 2 elections via a filthy and mendacious campaign of accusations of antisemitism against the left wing leader of the time because the controlling interests didn't like him, who have moved to the right so far that they are indistinguishable from the tories, and whose leader lies consistently, backtracks, backstabs, reneges on every promise and pledge he ever made, who has ruthlessly expunged from the labour party any even slightly socialist members. Meanwhile both parties are bought and paid for by the Israel lobby, corporate sponsors and military minded morons, happily cheering on genocide in Gaza and provoking conflict with Russia. The same 2 party elective dictatorship in fact.
For some reason I dusted off my copy of Wilhellm Reich’s Listen, Little Man. Much of it is still relevant.
Eminently passionate and quotable as usual. The crescendo of righteous analysis, (although sometimes a bit convoluted), builds to the only conclusion that's viable, sustainable and equitable--the total overthrow of the capitalist system lest we suffer the "common ruin of all." Paul Street for President!
One of my main differences with you, Paul, is the importance of a key political skill: knowing how to count. I think we would agree on the other key skill, knowing our core values. But 'counting' is not just about voter polls. It's mainly about assessing the numbers in a variety of political trends, surveying the terrain, as Sun Tzu suggested, knowing ourselves and our adversaries, and understanding how various proportions are always changing. At the moment, fo example, calls for revoultion are, at best, only likely to unite a rather small grouping of a militant minority. We can do that in various ways, but more important, I think, is finding an antifascist majority. I think it's out there, largely 'in itself,' and our pressing task is helping it to become 'for itself,' with a tip of the hat to Hegel. In certain 'blue' base areas, we can elect some people on a platform of bringing to power a government of a third reconstruction as a transitional and transformative tool, but I doubt we can get very much resonance for and of the p.' In any case, the practice of the mass line matters. We don't just press our views 'on' people; we have to gather up theirs as well, and see what we can find the combination that will unite the many to defeat the dew.
I voted once for Biden despite his stealing the nomination from Bernie because he was not Trump. Big mistake. Trump is an immoral rascist long time crook who is mentally unstable to put it mildly. Yet I fear Biden more because of his support for Israel slaughtering the Palestinians. This with a little effort could turn into a planet ending Nuclear War.
Oh I don't know if it was a mistake, really. I think some of us forget how much covid was a factor on top of everything in 2020. The guy was spreading the pandemic. But the main problem with your comment in my opinion is you don't understand that Trump is even worse than Biden on Israel and Gaza. Are you unaware that the Republi-fascists are aligned with the Zionist far right and would like even more death of Palestinian civilians? My point is while I'm not vote-shaming anyone it's just not my job to promote the BEB at this point...we need a revolution now and not is some distant far away time. But that said, "fearing Biden more because of his support for Israel slaughtrering the Palestinians" is just way off base imho: Trump would like to see MORE slaughtered! and Trump would like to see the protests here ended with live ammo, comrade.
Vote with your feet, RFK all the way
I know its your style, Paul, but can you possibly deliver your hard-hitting and vitally necessary message, without so much contortion, sentence manipulation, endless qualification, and elusive references? Got tedious after only halfway through your latest. You represent one of the few voices that should be rendered in a 'clear as a bell' fashion and I don't see any benefit from indulging in this game of elaborate, over the top criticism,, indeed I see it as confusing and somewhat 'off-putting', while I'd guess it also generates definite WTF moments from some of your readers. You're crowding out intelligent discourse for the pleasure of slamming the opposition. While I'm guessing, I'll extend it to seeing your style as the product of the genuine frustration of a lonely voice, in a veritable sea of propaganda and outright BS,, but it's precisely the fact that you're a lonely voice that it should clear of confusion. With the best of intentions, from one of your fans.