Halitics

Whether he wins or loses in November, Donald Trump will receive well over 40% of the votes of Americans. His strongest support is from those without college degrees. Yet none of the top newspapers with which I have at least a passing familiarity – NYT, WaPo, USA Today, SF Chronicle, Chicago Tribune, LA Times – have, to my knowledge, even one Trump supporter on their editorial staff. Now, that’s fine. His record demonstrates unfitness to be President.

But shouldn’t the influencers at these (still) influential papers be willing to delve, without condescension, arrogance and accusations of bigotry, into why so many of America’s have-nots have abandoned both the Democratic Party and more traditional Republicans like Nikki Haley? Shouldn’t they wonder in print whether the fault lies at least in part with the policies of the elites who pull the strings in Washington? Shouldn’t affluent highly-educated media big shots question why their own superiority complex and self-serving wokeness turns off so many people who are barely making it – if they’re making it at all. Just wonderin’.

Mother Jones Magazine is asking those who voted 3rd Party why and if they’d do so again. Here’s my answer:

I voted for Jill Stein in Nov 2016. I believe it was the right decision. There was little decent in either of the duopoly candidates. We know that Trump was (and may again be) an awful President. We don’t know what kind of President Hillary would have been. But, unlike Trump, she might have embroiled us in another deadly and destructive major war – similar to our current proxy war against Russia. It is doubtful that she would have begun the process of withdrawing from Afghanistan. Her corporatist bent might have meant more community-destroying free trade deals.

I dislike Biden. I voted for him in 2020 because Trump 1) made cruel immigration policies crueler, 2) tried to repeal Obamacare w/o addressing the underlying crisis, 3) denied the fossil fuel-caused climate holocaust.

But this year, Biden’s 1) full-throated support for endless carnage in Ukraine, 2) refusal to call for an end to arms shipments to Israel, 3) support for oil & gas incline me towards Stein once more.

Click here to answer MoJo’s call.

I’m going to be doing a live show for the first time in 7 years. I hope you can join me at the Halitics Channel on YouTube. I’m taking calls at 240-283-7262.

After voting for Pelosi to be Speaker of the House, AOC rightly calls her out for supporting pro-gun anti-choice “Democrat” Henry Cuellar.

There are three Democratic Presidential candidates who truly understand the essential immorality of and existential threat posed by A) wealth and income inequality and B) the military industrial complex which have combined forces to make C) anthropogenic global warming, unstoppable. Fortunately, all three are among the 11 who have qualified for the primary debate stage based on both polling and number of donors.

You hear plenty about Bernie (much of it misleading and negative) and Elizabeth Warren. Interestingly Tulsi Gabbard is hardly ever mentioned in the corporate media except perhaps on MSNBC which deigns to join “liberal” outlets like HuffPost, Kos, and Salon to smear her. https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/heres-how-the-democrats-will-limit-the-debate-field-if-too-many-people-qualify/

Amazon Warehouse – via Orlando Weekly

“Free” or even somewhat lightly regulated trade with low wage nations will always reduce employment and wages at home because it exposes higher-paid American workers to direct competition with low-wage labor. Moreover, we can’t fully protect foreign workers in trade agreements because we will never have nearly as much information about labor conditions in other countries as we do about our conditions. Continue reading →

Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard certainly excites strong emotions. Some pro-peace progressives responded rapturously when the Hawaii Democrat announced her candidacy for President. Centrist and establishment Democrats rushed to denounce her as a racist homophobic consorter with tyrants. While there is dissent among American Muslims, it appears that many consider her to be an Islamophobe and oppose her candidacy. Continue reading →

While it is likely to come as a surprise to those who explain November 2016 by referencing memes, conspiracies, and barely submerged racism and sexism in America’s heartland, people actually vote for candidates whom they believe will make their lives better. Not all voters and not all the time but most and most it. Do people dope things out wrong? Sure. With the help of both right-wing and mainstream media, lots of times. Ronald Reagan was awful for our nation. W too. Trump is a proto-fascist. Continue reading →

A response to those who insist that we speak no ill of other Democrats because of the pressing need to unify behind whoever emerges from next year’s primary scrum: Continue reading →

Beto O’Rourke, Bernie Sanders Photo: Getty Images

New York Magazine has just published a provocative article by Jonathan Chait critiquing recent criticism of Beto O’Rourke by left-wing intellectuals who support Bernie Sanders. Chait backed Hillary Clinton in the 2016 primaries and has argued that neoliberalism is a progressive bogey not a destructive ideology. He is admittedly unsympathetic to democratic socialism. Continue reading →

In “Democrats’ Left Turn is Not an Illusion” [NYT 10/18], Thomas B. Edsall notes that white liberals are more likely than African Americans to blame racism for the difficulties that the latter face. What is striking about the Pew Survey question and contrasting responses which Edsall cites is that those polled were offered a choice between just two explanations for the persistent wealth and income gap – racism or a lack of initiative. Nevertheless, four times as many blacks responded that the causes might include both, neither, or other factors. Continue reading →

In (I’m guessing) an over one-thousand word article, NYT wrings its hands over the possibility that Europe is reverting into the perpetually at-war continent it nearly always was. Yet the predominant explanation hazarded for this onrushing tragedy is that barely a handful of people alive today experienced the Great War and even WWII and the Holocaust are only a distant memory for a rapidly dwindling minority. Continue reading →

Four men control the Washington Post. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns the newspaper. Frederick J. Ryan, Jr., is the Publisher and CEO. Martin Baron, hero of the movie Spotlight is Executive Editor. Fred Hiatt is Editorial Page Editor. Despite all that testosterone at the top and presumably with either pre or post-hoc approval from Bezos and Ryan, Hiatt green-lighted publication Sunday of Suzanna Danuta Walters brief op-ed “Why can’t we hate men?” Continue reading →

I didn’t write the caption but I approve.

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Busboys and Poets owner Andy Shallal deserves credit for conducting consciousness-raising sessions on race with new employees [“You’re hired. Let’s talk about race.,” Business, May 20]. But a question struck me when reading how Mr. Shallal challenges his incipient staff members’ conceptions about tipping practices . . . [Read the rest of my letter in the Washington Post here.]

I’ve been enjoying three days at the beautiful Hotel Shattuck Plaza, est. 1908, in downtown Berkeley where I arrived Friday night. Still on east coast time, I took a very early Saturday morning walk and enjoyed the cool lifting fog over the coastal range. What a glorious change from the broiling east coast. Continue reading →

Caitlin Johnstone writes provocative columns that usually contain as much truth as anybody else’s and more than most. Her latest at Medium opens laudably by issuing a call to arms to the myriad victims of the “nationless plutocratic power structure,” i.e., virtually everybody. Johnstone urges us to unite against the “sociopathic class of elites who use propaganda to manipulate the way we think and keep us divided against each other.” So far so good, Johnstone is on rock-solid ground. Continue reading →

Democrat Conor Lamb appears to have prevailed in a gerrymandered Pennsylvania Congressional district that Donald Trump won by over 20 points less than two years ago. Hard on the heels of several other surprising victories by red state Democrats, Lamb’s strong showing Tuesday furnishes additional evidence that the Democratic Party’s road to relevance was paved by Bernie Sanders in 2016. Continue reading →

The California Democratic Party (CDP) declined to endorse anybody in this year’s U.S. Senate race. Since the two most popular candidates are Democrats – one of whom will almost certainly win in November – some may see nothing more than a decision not to upset an apple cart that’s rolling downhill. Continue reading →

Recent polls showing that Trump’s approval ratings bottomed out several months ago coupled with a reduced Democratic advantage on the generic Congressional ballot have dampened Democrats’ hopes for a landslide in the mid-terms. Continued job growth, slowly rising wages, and possibly the passage of the Republican tax bill in December have apparently redounded to the GOP ‘s benefit. Continue reading →

After delivering a powerful speech at the Golden Globes, Oprah Winfrey is being touted as a potential Democratic Presidential candidate. In response, at least one liberal website – DailyKos – posted an article bashing her for allegedly supporting America’s destruction of Iraq beginning March 2003. It is true that she aired a program in October 2002 that was light on facts and heavy on pro-war propaganda. Continue reading →