The United States' client state in Riyadh is importing child soldiers from Rapid Support Forces, the Sudanese paramilitary group that was blamed for the systematic raping of women and girls and indiscriminate killing during the conflict in Darfur, to fight the front lines in Yemen (using, if it needs reminding, American weapons, intelligence and air support). “The Saudis told us what to do through the telephones and devices,” according to Mohamed Suleiman al-Fadil, a 28-year-old member of the Bani Hussein tribe who returned from Yemen at the end of last year. “They never fought with us." "The Saudis would give us a phone call and then pull back,” added Ahmed, a 25-year-old member of the Awlad Zeid tribe. “They treat the Sudanese like their firewood.”
The rest of the story:
Saudi Arabia recruited Darfur children for Yemen war by Chris Mills Rodrigo (The Hill).
A Christmas Carol, American Style
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| Antonio Rodriguez Garcia |
An 8-year-old boy from Guatemala died in United States custody early Christmas Day, the second death of a child in detention at the southwest border in less than three weeks, raising questions about the ability of federal agents running the crowded migrant border facilities to care for those who fall ill: 8-Year-Old Migrant Child From Guatemala Dies in U.S. Custody by Miriam Jordan (New York Times)
The exile of America's greatest living journalist
"The later part of [Seymour] Hersh’s career is the most distressing. He was writing for The New Yorker when Barack Obama was elected president. David Remnick, the magazine’s editor, socialized with Obama and was apparently wary of offending the president. When Hersh exposed the fictitious narrative spun out by the Obama administration about the killing of Bin Laden, the magazine killed the story, running instead a report about the raid, provided by the administration, from the point of view of one of the SEALs who was on the mission. Hersh resigned. He published the account of the raid in the London Review of Books, the beginning of his current exile to foreign publications. When we most urgently need Hersh and good investigative reporters like him, they have largely disappeared. A democracy, at best, tolerates them. A failed democracy, like ours, banishes them, and when it does, it kills its press."
The rest of the story:
Banishing Truth by Chris Hedges (TruthDig)
Banishing Truth by Chris Hedges (TruthDig)
Making Ends Meet
"According to an analysis by New Jersey Policy Perspective, a New Jersey family with one child needs a wage of $20.07 an hour to make ends meet. According to the nonprofit think tank, there’s quite a range between the state’s 21 counties — from $17.32 an hour for workers in Camden to $22.26 in Hunterdon. A boost of the minimum wage 'would inject $3.9 billion into the state’s economy and help over 1 million workers better afford their needs,' according to NJPP. 'Today, there is no region of the state where a single worker with no children can afford basic necessities while making less than $15 per hour. The costs of transportation, food and rent are simply too high for a minimum wage worker to afford without suffering in poverty.'”
The rest of the story:
Of Safaris, Dungeons and Dragons, and the Real World of the Working Poor by Bob Hennelly (Insider NJ)
The rest of the story:
Of Safaris, Dungeons and Dragons, and the Real World of the Working Poor by Bob Hennelly (Insider NJ)
With apologies to Theodor Geisel
"It could be the head wasn't screwed on just right. It could be, perhaps, that his shoes were too tight. But we think that the most likely reason of all may have been that his heart was two sizes too small." -- NY Daily News
From The-Joke's-On-You Desk:
Trump Winery has reportedly applied for permission to hire six foreign workers under the H-2 visa program. BuzzFeed reports that “combined with this latest request, companies owned by Trump or bearing his name have sought permission from the Department of Labor to hire at least 263 foreign guest workers since he launched his presidential campaign.”
Safe, affordable housing is a right.
"Under capitalism, housing provision is based on what will make developers, lenders, and landlords rich -- not what average people need to survive. That’s why we’ll never get decent, affordable housing for everyone under the free market.
----
"The hyper-financialization of home mortgages in the mid-2000s is perhaps the most dramatic example of how treating housing like a speculative commodity can spiral out of control, grotesquely distorting the provision of a basic necessity.
"After the 2007–2008 financial crash, many liberal capitalists argued that better regulations on the secondary mortgage market might have prevented the worst aspects of the crisis. There might even be good reason to welcome such regulations. But the constant oscillations of housing prices will never disappear under capitalism, because these boom-bust cycles are inherent to any kind of capitalist commodity."
The rest of the story: Capitalism Can’t Give Us Affordable Housing by Robbie Nelson (Jacobin)
----
"The hyper-financialization of home mortgages in the mid-2000s is perhaps the most dramatic example of how treating housing like a speculative commodity can spiral out of control, grotesquely distorting the provision of a basic necessity.
"After the 2007–2008 financial crash, many liberal capitalists argued that better regulations on the secondary mortgage market might have prevented the worst aspects of the crisis. There might even be good reason to welcome such regulations. But the constant oscillations of housing prices will never disappear under capitalism, because these boom-bust cycles are inherent to any kind of capitalist commodity."
The rest of the story: Capitalism Can’t Give Us Affordable Housing by Robbie Nelson (Jacobin)
Carpe Diem
"One of the most important movements that made its presence felt this year was the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival. The campaign seeks to achieve the vision of Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King to unite the working class of the US, bridging historical divisions to combat systemic racism, poverty, ecological devastation, and the war economy and militarism."
Veteran organizer Willie Baptist reflects on the historical importance of this moment in the US and across the world, and the need to take strategic, coordinated action. We can’t miss this moment: Willie Baptist (People's Dispatch)
It was so surprising
to see Joe Manchin voting with his fellow Democrats on something today, it actually made headlines.
Can America Survive the Rule of a “Stupified Plutocracy”?
Lewis Lapham, who as editor of Harper's magazine made it essential reading, is without doubt our greatest living satirist, sardonic, erudite, righteous in the tradition of Twain, Mencken, Vidal and Hitchens. As the Times put it, "Lapham's portraits of his country are astute and his dry wit as sharp as a knife."
The occasion for this interview is the 30th anniversary reissue of his book of essays, Money and Class in America (with a new introduction by Thomas Frank), as essential a deconstruction of American political culture today as it was the moment it was first published in the decade that sent us spiraling down our current path.
Incidentally, Lapham Quarterly, the project of his "retirement," is out with a Special Issue: A History of Fake News.
Herding cats: Why being governor or mayor is good preparation for a president
Herding cats: An idiom denoting a futile attempt to control or organize a class of entities which are inherently uncontrollable, such as legislators or city councilors.I hope the Democrats will look beyond Congress -- especially beyond the handful of self-anointed U.S. Senators banging around the Beltway like so many ego-filled hot air balloons -- at some of the mayors and governors who have expressed an interest in running or might be persuaded to get in the race. Governors and mayors deal with real issues with constrained resources. Mayors are typically very good at retail politics. They have experience handling legislative bodies. And neither is tainted by
Many of the parishes mayors manage are not small-scale operations. For example, only seven states in the nation are bigger than L.A. County (Los Angeles, by far its largest city, is bigger than 23 of the states). The populations of 38 states are smaller than NYC's. Chicago, Houston: these places are huge. Being chief executive in any of theses hamlets is going to give you more relevant experience than you'd get as, say, governor of Arkansas.
Even in smaller cities, mayors are dealing with issues like poverty, housing, immigration, schools, medical services, police and fire protection, infrastructure, utilities, transportation, even massive problems like global warming and international trade, while senators spend most of their time raising campaign dollars and whining that the other side won't let them get anything done.
Several mayors are considering runs, most seriously Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, former New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu (a small city with big problems) and South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg. Also being talked up are New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, a progressive favorite, and Boston Mayor and former labor leader Marty Walsh.
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| Only 7 states are bigger than L.A. |
Governors, too, who deal with political problems at the granular level, need a closer look, although in the wake of the calamitous Obama years, the ranks of experienced Democratic governors are thin. California ex-Gov. Jerry Brown is probably too old (although nowhere has he said he'd turn it down). CA Gov. Gavin Newsom, IL Gov. JB Pritzker, WI Gov. Tony Evers, MI Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and CO Gov. Jared Polis are all too new, and NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo has taken himself out of the 2020 competition. But MT Gov. Steve Bullock and former MA Gov. Deval Patrick are exploring runs; MD ex-Gov. Martin O'Malley will want another shot; WA Gov. Jay Inslee gets high marks from all sectors of the party, especially on climate change; and the party ought to take at least cursory looks at other governors like LA's John Bel Edwards, NC's Roy Cooper and RI's Gina Raimundo, as well as ex-govs like VA's Terry McAuliffe and CO's progressive John Hickenlooper.
Reading list:
✓ Why Democrats should take mayors seriously as presidential candidates: From City Hall to the White House by Alex Shephard (The New Republic)
✓ The bloom has come off the gubernatorial rose in presidential politics and that might be good news for Democrats: Maybe a Democratic mayor should be president by Jamal Simmons (The Hill)
✓ Democrats might need a straight white man from the middle of the country, like Steve Bullock, to win the 2020 election. But do they want one?: Could This Unknown Montana Governor Be Our Next President? by Anne Helen Petersen (BuzzFeed)
✓ As mayor, he has helped usher in Los Angeles's renaissance, most recently by bringing George Lucas's Museum of Narrative Art to the city. Can he work the same magic in a possible 2020 challenge to Trump?: Eric Garcetti Is the Anti-Trump, Pro–Star Wars Man We Need by Chanan Tigay (GQ)
✓ Democratic insiders can’t stand the progressive New York mayor and want him to pipe down, despite his record of real accomplishment back home. What gives?: What’s Bill de Blasio’s Problem? by Edward-Isaac Dovere (Politico)
✓ Can an Obama acolyte be elected after Trump?: Deval Patrick’s Presidential Prospects by Jeffrey Toobin (The New Yorker)
✓ Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper is gearing up for an unconventional 2020 presidential run: ‘He’s going to do it … He’s got a theory’ by David Siders (Politico)
Extra credit:
✓ Top party donors and operatives are eager to see the Texas congressman jump into the presidential race: Beto O’Rourke blows up the 2020 Democratic primary by David Siders (Politico)
quote unquote: Arundhati Roy
“The trouble is that once you see it, you can’t unsee it. And once you’ve seen it, keeping quiet, saying nothing, becomes as political an act as speaking out. There’s no innocence. Either way, you’re accountable.” -- Arundhati Roy
Happyish Days Are Here Again
Here's how the top scorers in the California Republican delegation on the
question "How often a member votes in line with Trump's position" fared in the
election:
David Valadao (CA-21), with Trump 98.1%: Still counting, currently less than 2000 votes ahead of Democrat TJ Cox
Stephen Knight (CA-25), 98.1%: Gone - Democrat Katie Hill
Mimi Walters (CA-45) 98.1%: Gone - Democrat Katie Porter
Jeff Denham (CA-10) 98.1%: Gone - Democrat Josh Harder
Ken Calvert (CA-42) 98.1%: Reelected
Paul Cook (CA-8) 98.1%: Reelected against a GOP opponent
Kevin McCarthy (CA-23) 98.1%: Reelected
Doug LaMalfa (CA-1), 98.1%: Reelected
Devin Nunes (CA-22) 98%: Reelected
Ed Royce (CA-39) 96.2%: Quit; replaced by Democrat Gil Cisneros
Darrell Issa (CA-49) 96.2%: Quit; replaced by Democrat Mike Levin
Dana Rohrabacker (CA-48) 92.5%: Gone - Democrat Harley Rouda
Tom McClintock (CA-4) 88.7%: Reelected
Wouldn't be so bad, except most of these GOPers are embarrassments to humanity let alone the good name of California.
David Valadao (CA-21), with Trump 98.1%: Still counting, currently less than 2000 votes ahead of Democrat TJ Cox
Stephen Knight (CA-25), 98.1%: Gone - Democrat Katie Hill
Mimi Walters (CA-45) 98.1%: Gone - Democrat Katie Porter
Jeff Denham (CA-10) 98.1%: Gone - Democrat Josh Harder
Ken Calvert (CA-42) 98.1%: Reelected
Paul Cook (CA-8) 98.1%: Reelected against a GOP opponent
Kevin McCarthy (CA-23) 98.1%: Reelected
Doug LaMalfa (CA-1), 98.1%: Reelected
Devin Nunes (CA-22) 98%: Reelected
Ed Royce (CA-39) 96.2%: Quit; replaced by Democrat Gil Cisneros
Darrell Issa (CA-49) 96.2%: Quit; replaced by Democrat Mike Levin
Dana Rohrabacker (CA-48) 92.5%: Gone - Democrat Harley Rouda
Tom McClintock (CA-4) 88.7%: Reelected
Wouldn't be so bad, except most of these GOPers are embarrassments to humanity let alone the good name of California.
Down, Boy
No need to fret over Sen. Lindsey Graham’s expected elevation to chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Even though he's one of President Trump’s most slavish lapdogs and will be in charge of a panel overseeing Robert Mueller's Russian probe, Sens. Kamala Harris and Cory Booker should have little trouble keeping him in a perpetual dither.
It's legislative accomplishment, stupid
A lot of time is being wasted right now gaming the next Congress and 2020 (with ideas good: Sanders-Gabbard; bad: Biden-Murphy; indifferent: "investigate, investigate, investigate"; and ridiculous: Hillary Clinton as Speaker of the House) when what should be happening is making sure the Democrats in the House use the next two years to build a record of achievement by passing meaningful immigration reform; truly affordable, universal health care (Medicare for All); and a massive infrastructure program.
Building Economic Democracy One Worker Co-op at a Time
A worker cooperative is a business that is owned and democratically governed by the people who work in it.Own the Change, a 22 minute, free documentary produced by TESA Collective and the Laura Flanders Show, is a guide to starting worker co-ops. The video lays out the the real-world challenges of launching a co-op and the transformative benefits co-ops offer to workers. It includes interviews with people who have launched their own co-ops.
Available since 2015, Own the Change has been watched nearly 35,000 times on YouTube, and has been screened in community centers and at organizing events around the country. There is also an accompanying education guide.
TESA collaborates with organizations to develop educational projects big or small from start to finish, and to improve existing programs, tools and curricula. The group can build custom games for a campaign, organization or company, merging cause with play. In addition to making games and programs for others, they design and produce their own games, including Rise up: The Game of People & Power, Co-opoly: The Game of Co-operatives, Loud & Proud: A Fast-Paced Social Justice Word Association Game, and Space Cats Fight Fascism: The Board Game.
Extra credit:
✓ What Is a Worker Cooperative? (Democracy At Work Institute/US Federation of Worker Cooperatives)
✓ When maximizing profits isn’t the only goal, companies can actually work better: Worker Cooperatives Are More Productive Than Normal Companies by Michelle Chen (The Nation)
✓ With new tools and political policies now in place to support them, there could be a boom in employee-owned business ahead as baby boomers retire and sell their companies to their workers: More U.S. businesses are becoming worker co-ops. Here’s why. by Eillie Anzilotti (FastCompany)
✓ Getting Rid of Bosses: Can a company succeed if no one is in charge? by Alana Semuels (The Atlantic)
✓ Why are we told a broken system that creates vast inequality is the only choice? Spain's amazing co-op is living proof otherwise: Yes, there is an alternative to capitalism. Mondragon shows the way Richard Wolff (The Guardian)
A step in the right direction
San Francisco approved a ballot initiative, Prop C, despite opposition by incoming governor Gavin Newsom, aimed at curbing homelessness, dealing a political blow also to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, who publicly opposed the measure. It's set to raise up to $300 million to fund housing, mental health and homeless initiatives by taxing large corporations. Dorsey opposed it because, he said, it could prove stifling for smaller corporations, a position that drew him into a public feud with vocal initiative backer Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce.
A billion here, a billion there, etc.
There may be a door opening to opponents of military adventurism and unbridled military spending. Politico says that House Armed Services ranking Democrat Adam Smith from Seattle is poised to take over as chairman and likely give the Pentagon some heartburn.
The Washington state congressman has often decried his fellow lawmakers for ducking tough choices on the defense budget and big ticket military programs and has said he'll take a skeptical eye to historically high military spending enacted by Republicans over the past two years.
He's also made clear he'll beef up the panel's oversight of U.S. military operations abroad, including our support for the Saudi-led coalition battering Yemen, and work to roll back Trump's plans to modernize and expand the nuclear arsenal.
Stay tuned.
Headline of the day: "Man Who Was Shot By His Dog Insists He Is Still A Good Boy."
The perp, Charlie, a 120-pound Rottweiler mix, was one of three dogs literally riding shotgun in a pickup truck when the shooting occurred.
Vote like your Medicare and Social Security depend on it
In recent years, almost two dozen states have implemented laws that impose new restrictions on voting. Here's what to do if you're turned away at the polls by Christina Maxouris and AJ Willingham (CNN)
Congressional wit, dim division
“Rep. Steve King says he hopes Supreme Court Justices [Sonia] Sotomayor and [Elena] Kagan ‘will elope to Cuba.’” (WaPo)
Good one, Steve.
Also, with any luck today, your last one.
Political news from wherever
Exciting news for the Red Tide State today. Maine's governor and chief right wing crank Paul LePage “said Monday that he plans to move to Florida for tax reasons and teach at a university there regardless of who Mainers elect to succeed him.”
School Bus Safety Not Involving Arming Teachers
According to Politico, safety advocates are asking Congress to take up a bill aimed at making school buses safer in the wake of recent crashes in several states that have killed five children and injured dozens of people. Introduced in September, the legislation, S. 3432 (115), would require buses to have seat belts in every seat, use technology like automatic emergency braking and electronic stability control, and carry an event data recorder. "We laud the leadership of Senator Tammy Duckworth and Representative Steve Cohen [both Democrats] for introducing this lifesaving, commonsense bill and urge Congress to take action on it immediately," said Cathy Chase, president of Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, in a statement. The bill, which is based on recommendations from NTSB, has not advanced in either the House or Senate, but a Democratic win today will get it moving.
From the Winning! desk:
U.S. pork exports to Mexico have fallen in value in the face of Mexico's retaliatory tariffs, while European and Canadian pork producers are seizing the opportunity.
Can we have less "lesser"
Good candidates are running across the country, and pretty much every Democrat is better than his or her opponent. But the national leadership has not crafted a compelling program comparable to the New Deal or the Great Society (to say nothing of MAGA). They haven't even tried, the closest thing being the proposal to use the tax cut to pay teachers, a pr stunt not a program.
Many of the most compelling candidates (in Texas, Florida and Georgia, for example) owe little or nothing to the national party. In many cases, the "great candidates" the DNC and DCCC did recruit are ex-military and veterans of the security state apparatus, which means they will not be of great help in turning swords into plowshares, an essential project if we are to find solutions to our festering problems in such areas as poverty, infrastructure, housing, education, and health care.
When Republicans got the polls, they know what they're going to get, as awful as that is. The same cannot be said for Democrats, who once again are being asked to vote against rather than for something. Will the Democrats as a party fight for infrastructure spending, progressive taxes, Medicare for All, a living wage and universal basic income? Who can say? Are they going to take on the military-industrial giants and the security state? Not likely, but who really knows.
The House and maybe the Senate are at stake; it would be helpful to know what the stakes really are.
And, parenthetically, in a census year, the outcomes in races for governor mansions and state legislatures will determine the makeup of the House for at least a decade.
Just sayin'
Thomas Jefferson: John Adams has a “hideous hermaphroditic character.”
John Adams: Thomas Jefferson is “the son of a half breed Indian squaw.”
Where's the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act when you need it?
Here's an account, from a judicial ruling, of the experience of a citizen trying to vote in Georgia:
"Prior to voting early in the November 6, 2018 election, Mr. Oren checked Defendant Kemp’s Secretary of State website, which informed Mr. Oren that he could vote if he brought proof of citizenship to the polling station. On October 16, 2018, Mr. Oren went to his designated early-voting polling location in Fulton County. He checked in with a poll worker and showed her his valid United States passport as proof of citizenship. The poll worker directed Mr. Oren to another election official, who informed Mr. Oren that she would need to call yet another person to change his status from 'pending' to 'active' so that he could vote. While Mr. Oren waited, the official was unable to reach the intended person on the phone and informed Mr. Oren that he could continue to wait or come back another time to vote. No one offered Mr. Oren an option to cast a provisional ballot. Mr. Oren did not want to wait any longer and left."It seems to me clear that Brian Kemp and his associates are engaged in a criminal conspiracy. RICO laws should be applied.
SNAFU
We spent $13 billion on a naval vessel that can't access its own bombs. "The $13 billion Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier, the U.S. Navy’s costliest warship, was delivered last year without elevators needed to lift bombs from below deck magazines for loading on fighter jets."
So tell me again how we can't afford Medicare for All.
The rest of the story:
U.S. Navy’s Costliest Carrier Was Delivered Without Elevators to Lift Bombs: Futuristic elevator’s ‘uncommanded movements’ among problems by Anthony Capaccio (Bloomberg)
If you hear the word "reform," reach for your gun.
Term limits are on the ballot in Santa Monica and, I suspect, in other places where voters are frustrated. To put it as positively as possible, term limits are intended to bring new ideas and put a brake on entrenched interests. But there is no evidence that either of these outcomes occur.
In 2004, the Public Policy Institute of California published a research paper about the state legislative term limits that California voters enacted in 1990. The analysis found that rather than representing a new breed of "citizen legislator," "new members after term limits behave a great deal like their precursors.”
Term limits are a terrible idea. Here are some reasons why:
1. Term limits are anti-democratic. A fundamental principle in our system of government is that citizens get to choose their representatives. Term limits curtail that fundamental right. Voters should be able to vote for whomever they want to represent them.
2. Like it or not, politics is a profession. We ask our representatives to find solutions to pressing problems, often problems with no simple answers. Political representation is a learned skill; as with any profession, experience matters. The public is not well served by inexperienced people making policy choices with widespread, lasting consequences. In effect, term limits deny voters expert representation. Government is complicated. Just when representatives begin to learn their job, they are termed out.
3. Representative government is dependent on compromise. Term limits severely hamper the opportunity for understanding and trust to develop between council members. Strangers in a new environment can't know whose judgement to accept and which colleagues know what they're doing. Also,decreasing the number of seasoned elected officials results in greater deference to bureaucrats, especially in cases like Santa Monica's where elected officials have no independent staff of their own.
4. Term limits discourage the development policy expertise: members who know their time on the city council (or any office) is limited will be disinclined to spending the time and effort necessary to acquire expertise on specific issues knowing that, in most cases, that difficult-to-acquire knowledge won’t be nearly as valuable or useful in the assembly or state senate or wherever they're forced to head next. Also, special interests are always ready to jump in to help elected officials bone up on an issue, which distorts policy in favor of those interests.
5. Term limits empower bureaucrats and the special interests. Institutional memory is in the hands of staff: it is difficult to know when you are being manipulated or misled if you don't know the history of the issue being considered. By the same token, if lobbyists don't like an outcome, they don't have to wait long before they can take another shot at new arrivals. The people's representatives will soon be gone; the bureaucrats and special interests will be around forever.
6. Inevitably, there will be the temptation to defer to individuals, groups, and lobbies with matters before the council that may be helpful in getting the next political job.
7. Special interests are empowered at election time: campaign spending becomes all important when new faces need to be sold at every election.
8. Knowing they are going to be termed out, incumbents spend their time running for their next job instead of doing the job they have now.
9. We already have term limits. They're called elections.
Term limit campaigns are often cynical attempts by politicians to exploit voters' frustrations by appearing to favor a "reform." They often reveal a deep distrust of the democratic process. If you're unhappy with the government you have, you have the power to change it. Get involved. Vote.
Vote no on Prop TL.
In 2004, the Public Policy Institute of California published a research paper about the state legislative term limits that California voters enacted in 1990. The analysis found that rather than representing a new breed of "citizen legislator," "new members after term limits behave a great deal like their precursors.”
Term limits are a terrible idea. Here are some reasons why:
1. Term limits are anti-democratic. A fundamental principle in our system of government is that citizens get to choose their representatives. Term limits curtail that fundamental right. Voters should be able to vote for whomever they want to represent them.
2. Like it or not, politics is a profession. We ask our representatives to find solutions to pressing problems, often problems with no simple answers. Political representation is a learned skill; as with any profession, experience matters. The public is not well served by inexperienced people making policy choices with widespread, lasting consequences. In effect, term limits deny voters expert representation. Government is complicated. Just when representatives begin to learn their job, they are termed out.
3. Representative government is dependent on compromise. Term limits severely hamper the opportunity for understanding and trust to develop between council members. Strangers in a new environment can't know whose judgement to accept and which colleagues know what they're doing. Also,decreasing the number of seasoned elected officials results in greater deference to bureaucrats, especially in cases like Santa Monica's where elected officials have no independent staff of their own.
4. Term limits discourage the development policy expertise: members who know their time on the city council (or any office) is limited will be disinclined to spending the time and effort necessary to acquire expertise on specific issues knowing that, in most cases, that difficult-to-acquire knowledge won’t be nearly as valuable or useful in the assembly or state senate or wherever they're forced to head next. Also, special interests are always ready to jump in to help elected officials bone up on an issue, which distorts policy in favor of those interests.
5. Term limits empower bureaucrats and the special interests. Institutional memory is in the hands of staff: it is difficult to know when you are being manipulated or misled if you don't know the history of the issue being considered. By the same token, if lobbyists don't like an outcome, they don't have to wait long before they can take another shot at new arrivals. The people's representatives will soon be gone; the bureaucrats and special interests will be around forever.
6. Inevitably, there will be the temptation to defer to individuals, groups, and lobbies with matters before the council that may be helpful in getting the next political job.
7. Special interests are empowered at election time: campaign spending becomes all important when new faces need to be sold at every election.
8. Knowing they are going to be termed out, incumbents spend their time running for their next job instead of doing the job they have now.
9. We already have term limits. They're called elections.
Term limit campaigns are often cynical attempts by politicians to exploit voters' frustrations by appearing to favor a "reform." They often reveal a deep distrust of the democratic process. If you're unhappy with the government you have, you have the power to change it. Get involved. Vote.
Vote no on Prop TL.
Mob Rule
In 2016, the Republican primaries were a joke not just because so many who ran were ridiculous, but because so many ran. For the Democrats, 2020 looks even worse, with by one account nearly 50 infected with the presidential bug.
But what if all the Democratic senators were to get together in pre-primary caucuses to pick one from their ranks to run? (Sen. Gillibrand estimates, perhaps over-optimistically, only eight senators will finally do so.)
And what if all the independent senators (there are currently two, both affiliated with the Democrats); all the members of the House (like Seth Moulton, John Delaney and Sean Patrick Maloney); all the governors (like John Hickenlooper, Steve Bullock and Terry McAuliffe); all the mayors (like Bill de Blasio and Pete Buttigieg); all the former office-holders (like Julián Castro, Martin O’Malley, Al Franken, Eric Holder and Mitch Landrieu); all the former losing presidential candidates (you know who they are); all the celebrities (like Oprah Winfrey, Katy Perry, Alec Baldwin, Chris Rock and The Rock); and all the gazillionaires (like Mark Cuban, Mark Zuckerberg, Howard Schultz and Tom Steyer); what if each of these factions gathers in caucus to pick one each to represent them?
Thus, instead of being absurdly overcrowded, the debates will be manageable and informative. We might reasonably expect to end up with something on the order of this: Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Ind. Sen. Bernie Sanders, Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, Gov. Jay Inslee, Mayor Eric Garcetti, former Gov. Deval Patrick, former senator and presidential candidate John Kerry, celebrity Will Smith and billionaire Michael Bloomberg.
Nine candidates on the debate stage. That'd work.
Better than 50, anyway.
And what if all the independent senators (there are currently two, both affiliated with the Democrats); all the members of the House (like Seth Moulton, John Delaney and Sean Patrick Maloney); all the governors (like John Hickenlooper, Steve Bullock and Terry McAuliffe); all the mayors (like Bill de Blasio and Pete Buttigieg); all the former office-holders (like Julián Castro, Martin O’Malley, Al Franken, Eric Holder and Mitch Landrieu); all the former losing presidential candidates (you know who they are); all the celebrities (like Oprah Winfrey, Katy Perry, Alec Baldwin, Chris Rock and The Rock); and all the gazillionaires (like Mark Cuban, Mark Zuckerberg, Howard Schultz and Tom Steyer); what if each of these factions gathers in caucus to pick one each to represent them?
Thus, instead of being absurdly overcrowded, the debates will be manageable and informative. We might reasonably expect to end up with something on the order of this: Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Ind. Sen. Bernie Sanders, Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, Gov. Jay Inslee, Mayor Eric Garcetti, former Gov. Deval Patrick, former senator and presidential candidate John Kerry, celebrity Will Smith and billionaire Michael Bloomberg.
Nine candidates on the debate stage. That'd work.
Better than 50, anyway.
Hit Parade
Saudi Arabia now admits that Jamal Khashoggi died accidentally during fisticuffs with the 15 assassins and clean-up crew sent to Turkey by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to kill him. "During the incident," according to Business Insider, "a forensic specialist suspected to have played a role in the alleged incident recommended that people nearby should listen to music as they dismembered Khashoggi's body."
That playlist has now been released:
Bill Haley & the Comets: Mack the Knife (instrumental -- to set the mood)
The Rocky Horror Picture Show: Sword of Damocles ("I'm at the start of a pretty big downer")
Rage Against the Machine: Killing In The Name Of! ("Fuck you, I won't do what you tell me
AC-DC: Night Of The Long Knives ("Stab him in the back")
Pink Floyd: One Of These Days ("I'm going to cut you in little pieces")
Talking Heads: Psycho Killer ("Oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh....")
Velvet Acid Christ: Fun with Knives ("Blood, guts, fun with knives, die, die, die, die for me")
The Cure: Killing An Arab ('I'm alive, I'm dead, I'm the stranger killing an Arab")
Queen: Bohemian Rhapsody ("Too late, my time has come, sends shivers down my spine, body's aching all the time, goodbye, everybody")
Radio Head: Knives Out ("I want you to know...I'm not coming back")
G.G. Allin: 99 Stab Wounds ("Decapitation, decapitation, decapitation, decapitation")
Bobby Darin: Mack the Knife ("There's a tugboat, huh, huh, down by the river don'tcha know, where a cement bag's just a'droppin' on down, oh, that cement is just, it's there for the weight, dear")
Police: Murder By Numbers ("But you can reach the top of your profession, if you become the leader of the land, for murder is the sport of the elected and you don't need to lift a finger of your hand")
Michael Jackson: Smooth Criminal ("Okay, I want everybody to clear the area right now!")
Nine Inch Nails: Another Version of the Truth (instrumental close)
That playlist has now been released:
Bill Haley & the Comets: Mack the Knife (instrumental -- to set the mood)
The Rocky Horror Picture Show: Sword of Damocles ("I'm at the start of a pretty big downer")
Rage Against the Machine: Killing In The Name Of! ("Fuck you, I won't do what you tell me
AC-DC: Night Of The Long Knives ("Stab him in the back")
Pink Floyd: One Of These Days ("I'm going to cut you in little pieces")
Talking Heads: Psycho Killer ("Oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh....")
Velvet Acid Christ: Fun with Knives ("Blood, guts, fun with knives, die, die, die, die for me")
The Cure: Killing An Arab ('I'm alive, I'm dead, I'm the stranger killing an Arab")
Queen: Bohemian Rhapsody ("Too late, my time has come, sends shivers down my spine, body's aching all the time, goodbye, everybody")
Radio Head: Knives Out ("I want you to know...I'm not coming back")
G.G. Allin: 99 Stab Wounds ("Decapitation, decapitation, decapitation, decapitation")
Bobby Darin: Mack the Knife ("There's a tugboat, huh, huh, down by the river don'tcha know, where a cement bag's just a'droppin' on down, oh, that cement is just, it's there for the weight, dear")
Police: Murder By Numbers ("But you can reach the top of your profession, if you become the leader of the land, for murder is the sport of the elected and you don't need to lift a finger of your hand")
Michael Jackson: Smooth Criminal ("Okay, I want everybody to clear the area right now!")
Nine Inch Nails: Another Version of the Truth (instrumental close)
A rose is a rose is a rose is a rose
Donald Trump should be referred to hereafter by his childhood nickname, Tiny.
Or, with all due respect, President Tiny.
Heading for the Lifeboats:
“According to recently released data from the Office of Personnel Management, the number of federal employees who filed for retirement increased 24 percent in fiscal 2018 over the previous year.” (Government Executive)
From the Elders of Zion desk:
Tough time for anti-semites with a political bent. Not possible to hate Sheldon Adelson, Michael Bloomberg and George Soros at the same time. One of them is your man.
From the Political Sideshows Desk:
Donald Trump’s racism, corruption, kleptocracy, endless war, poverty, homelessness -- these, not Elizabeth Warren’s DNA, are the real issues. Another sideshow in our political carnival.
quote unquote: James Joyce
"The actions of men are the best interpreters of their thoughts." -- James Joyce's version of "Watch the feet not the mouth."
Hey, San Diego, what up?:
"In California, Republican Duncan Hunter -- the second congressman to endorse Trump for president –-- claims in television ads and speeches that his Democratic challenger, Ammar Campa-Najjar, is named after Yasser Arafat, and is supported by the Muslim Brotherhood in an attempt by ‘Islamists’ ‘to infiltrate Congress’. Campa-Najjar is of Mexican and Palestinian descent and is a practicing Christian. (Hunter has been indicted and is awaiting trial for spending at least $250,000 in campaign funds on personal expenses, including trips to Italy and Hawaii, his family’s dental work, his children’s tuition, movie tickets, video games, groceries, international travel for nearly a dozen relatives, and a $600 plane ticket for the family’s pet rabbit. He also purchased golf equipment for himself which he declared on finance forms was for wounded veterans. He first tried to blame his wife for these expenses, but after an outcry took responsibility. He is currently leading in the polls.) " -- Eliot Weinberger, London Review of Books
The rest of the story:
Ten Typical Days in Trump’s America by Eliot Weinberger, London Review of Books
Vote!
The Brett Kavanaugh thing isn't going away. A majority of Americans wants the investigation to continue, despite his confirmation. A lot is going to depend on the outcome of the November election. The Democrats may gain the House, but control of the Senate is crucial, too. Consider this: in 2013, the six senior Republican members of the Judiciary Committee all voted against the reauthorisation of the Clinton-era Violence against Women Act. It ultimately passed the Senate 78-22, but the upper body has continued its rightward drift since then. Who wins matters. Vote.
From the Keeping Outrage Alive desk:
Since Donald Trump’s inauguration, some 1600 jobs at the EPA have been eliminated.
"Vote for Yetta and watch things get betta" (slogan, Yetta Bronstein presidential campaign, 1964)
Both major parties follow scripts leading up to elections. The GOP pitches prayer in the schools, criminalizing abortion and what amounts to racial cleansing. Never happens. The Democrats hawk social and economic justice (this year in the form of free education, Medicare for All and criminal justice reform). Never happens. Whatever is promised turns out to be "too hard," we can't afford it, the other side just won't compromise.
Whichever party wins, though, what does happen is this: endless war, corporate welfare, and unimpeded transfer of public wealth into private hands.
Vote. Vote locally. Vote strategically. But, wherever possible, don't vote for corporate shills and the war machine. Change is a long, slow process. It's not going to happen in one election. Or two. Or probably ten. But it's not going to happen at all if we keep falling for false narratives.
There are plenty of Democrats to vote for, especially at the local level. But we need to be selective. The Democratic establishment
If you don't favor kleptocracy and militarism, then in races where the outcome will be the same, don't vote. Or vote Green or Peace & Freedom or Working Families or whatever other off-brand choice you have. Or write in yourself or Lebron James or Kshama Sawant or Jimmy Dore or Helen Keller or Stormy Daniels or Noam Chomsky or the progressive who got outspent in the primary or anyone else you think will get across the point that you're not accepting business as usual or the lesser evil anymore.
Otherwise, change? Never happens.
Resource: Worker Writers
Worker Writers, an institute founded and directed by poet Mark Nowak, organizes and facilitates poetry workshops with global trade unions, workers’ centers, and other progressive labor organizations. These workshops create a space for participants to re-imagine their working lives, nurture new literary voices directly from the global working class, and produce new tactics and imagine new futures for working class social change.
Worker Writers has run workshops with organizations as varied as Domestic Workers United in New York City, the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa in Port Elizabeth and Pretoria, Justice for Domestic Workers in London, and the Indonesian Migrant Workers Union in Amsterdam and The Hague. For the past four years, Worker Writers has facilitated annual workshops for the PEN World Voices Festival.
Other links:
PEN American Center
Organization for Undocumented Workers
The Working-Class Studies Association supports scholarship, teaching and activism related to working-class life and cultures.
Haley Bails
No surprise or consternation over the news that Nikki Haley is stepping down as United States ambassador to the United Nations. It must be wearisome to take Donald Trump's crap as a regular diet. Besides, it's well-known that she has higher aspirations. She wants to be the first female President of the United States.
Yeah. Well. Of course. But for Nikki Haley to be their nominee will require the Republicans to be rational enough to allow it. In the event, probably too few GOP leaders will be able to overcome their misogyny, but neither that nor the assumption that she'd make a terrible president should obscure the fact that it would be a clever move for the Republicans to nominate her. Good presidential candidates and good presidents are not necessarily cut from the same cloth. As a candidate, she'd be hard to beat.
Haley's articulate enough, and she cleans up good, as we used to say of someone making themselves presentable. She has a more solid record than any of the Senate blowhards who will offer themselves: she has business experience, including as a CFO; she was treasurer and then president of the National Association of Women Business Owners; she
served in the state legislature, in her first term beating a long-sitting GOP incumbent, in her last winning re-election by 83 - 17% over the Democrat; she served nearly two terms as governor before resigning to go to the UN: added together, business experience, a national network of contacts, both legislative and executive government service, and extensive foreign policy exposure make her CV hard to top.
In addition, because she agreed to serve Trump, the party whackos will give her a pass: the moneybags never had a problem with her. She demonstrated just enough independence from Trump at the UN to be plausible as an alternative. Now she's jumping ship just as a sea of troubles is washing over the president's gunwales (one way or another Trump himself is likely headed for the lifeboat: impeachment in the remote event the Democrats control the Senate and, even more remotely, man up; evidence of criminal activity -- from Mueller's or other investigations -- so incontestable the president will resign in exchange for immunity or pardon; a stroke; or retirement to his dacha in Mar-A-Lago so to gaze at leisure into gilded mirrors at the greatest president ever).
Finally, as both female and off-white, Haley cuts into two electoral assets the Democrats tend to fetishize (these advantages, if that's what they really are -- it's still the economy, stupid..., these advantages will evaporate if the Dems nominate an elderly white male). If it happened, her presidency would be about as good for women as Obama's was for African-Americans, but inevitably she would get a measurable amount of campaign support because of her gender and the Democrats would lose their "party of women" props in the process.
Nikki Haley's politics are terrible -- the best that can be said is that she evolved on the confederate flag issue under political pressure and she demonstrated a degree of independence on women's issues, but on other matters her policy positions are hard right: she was the Tea Party candidate for governor with a rousing endorsement from Sarah Palin, she is hostile to unions, she opposed the Affordable Care Act, she is against gun control, she has consistently voted for bills that restrict abortion, as governor she slashed the state budget at the expense of social programs, and she resigned her UN job one-day after being accused of accepting while in office a series of free private luxury plane flights from three South Carolina businessmen and GOP donors. She can't be held directly responsible for promoting Trump's anti-human rights agenda at the UN, because she was just doing her job, but she can be blamed for taking the job. Still, having shown a willingness to work across the aisle as legislator and governor, she will be hard to demonize. She'd be a formidable candidate for the Democrats to run against.
The next president will be a woman. Elizabeth Warren or Nikki Haley: Your choice.
The rest of the story:
Nikki Haley to Resign as Trump’s Ambassador to the U.N. by Maggie Haberman (New York Times)
Yeah. Well. Of course. But for Nikki Haley to be their nominee will require the Republicans to be rational enough to allow it. In the event, probably too few GOP leaders will be able to overcome their misogyny, but neither that nor the assumption that she'd make a terrible president should obscure the fact that it would be a clever move for the Republicans to nominate her. Good presidential candidates and good presidents are not necessarily cut from the same cloth. As a candidate, she'd be hard to beat.
Haley's articulate enough, and she cleans up good, as we used to say of someone making themselves presentable. She has a more solid record than any of the Senate blowhards who will offer themselves: she has business experience, including as a CFO; she was treasurer and then president of the National Association of Women Business Owners; she
 |
| Her Master's Voice |
In addition, because she agreed to serve Trump, the party whackos will give her a pass: the moneybags never had a problem with her. She demonstrated just enough independence from Trump at the UN to be plausible as an alternative. Now she's jumping ship just as a sea of troubles is washing over the president's gunwales (one way or another Trump himself is likely headed for the lifeboat: impeachment in the remote event the Democrats control the Senate and, even more remotely, man up; evidence of criminal activity -- from Mueller's or other investigations -- so incontestable the president will resign in exchange for immunity or pardon; a stroke; or retirement to his dacha in Mar-A-Lago so to gaze at leisure into gilded mirrors at the greatest president ever).
Finally, as both female and off-white, Haley cuts into two electoral assets the Democrats tend to fetishize (these advantages, if that's what they really are -- it's still the economy, stupid..., these advantages will evaporate if the Dems nominate an elderly white male). If it happened, her presidency would be about as good for women as Obama's was for African-Americans, but inevitably she would get a measurable amount of campaign support because of her gender and the Democrats would lose their "party of women" props in the process.
Nikki Haley's politics are terrible -- the best that can be said is that she evolved on the confederate flag issue under political pressure and she demonstrated a degree of independence on women's issues, but on other matters her policy positions are hard right: she was the Tea Party candidate for governor with a rousing endorsement from Sarah Palin, she is hostile to unions, she opposed the Affordable Care Act, she is against gun control, she has consistently voted for bills that restrict abortion, as governor she slashed the state budget at the expense of social programs, and she resigned her UN job one-day after being accused of accepting while in office a series of free private luxury plane flights from three South Carolina businessmen and GOP donors. She can't be held directly responsible for promoting Trump's anti-human rights agenda at the UN, because she was just doing her job, but she can be blamed for taking the job. Still, having shown a willingness to work across the aisle as legislator and governor, she will be hard to demonize. She'd be a formidable candidate for the Democrats to run against.
The next president will be a woman. Elizabeth Warren or Nikki Haley: Your choice.
The rest of the story:
Nikki Haley to Resign as Trump’s Ambassador to the U.N. by Maggie Haberman (New York Times)
Organize!
Today is the birthday of Joe Hill (Oct. 7, 1879 – Nov. 19, 1915), a Swedish-American labor activist, songwriter, and member of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW).
One Person, One Vote
We will never have a genuine democracy until the upper house is reformed. In 1787, political compromise dictated that the Senate represent the States. In 2020, political justice demands that it represent the People.
Roots of Trumpism - a series
I think it was Nebraska Sen. Roman Hruska who memorably told the Senate, during the aborted* attempt to appoint Harold Carswell to the U.S. Supreme Court, that "It has been held against this nominee that he is a lying sack of shit. Even if he is a lying sack of shit, there are a lot of judges and people and lawyers who are lying sacks of shit. They are entitled to a little representation, aren't they? And a little chance? We can't have all Brandeises, Cardozos and Frankfurters and stuff like that there." Or words to that effect.
*If you'll pardon the expression.
*If you'll pardon the expression.
Be afraid
Think of the Presidential Alert as a kind of Amber Alert. It warns that a sexual predator is on the loose in the West Wing.
Until this moment, Senators, I think we never really gauged your cruelty, or your recklessness.
So let's see if we have this straight.
The National Council of Churches opposes Brett Kavanagh. Countless Jewish and Roman Catholic leaders and organizations (not associated with fundamentalism) oppose Brett Kavanagh. The Human Rights Campaign opposes Brett Kavanaugh. The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights opposes Brett Kavanaugh. The American Bar Association opposes Brett Kavanagh. The American Civil Liberties Union opposes Brett Kavanagh. The National Women’s Law Center opposes Brett Kavanaugh. Over 1000 law school professors oppose Brett Kavanagh. Hundreds of psychiatrists and psychologists oppose Brett Kavanagh. Every women's group in the country (not associated with fundamentalism) opposes Brett Kavanagh. A majority of Americans opposes Brett Kavanaugh.
Even so, the Senate Republicans think it's a fine idea to install him on the Supreme Court, there to remain until well after most of those who put him there are dead.
Repeal and replace
The National Anthem.
"The Star-Spangled Banner." Too martial.
"This Land Is Your Land" and "America the Beautiful." More uplifting and far easier to sing, although the latter may not be sufficiently secular.
It should have been Woody's song all along:
Rumpled but Right
“I just want to make clear that I send @SenSherrodBrown out of this house in dress shirts ironed with so much spray starch they stand on their own like tombstones on the carpet. Two hours later, reporters are calling him ‘rumpled.’" -- Connie Schultz, tweeting about on her husband’s attire.
Parenthetically, in a Democratic Party that had its priorities straight, Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown would be at the top of the prospective POTUS list.
From the Self-Importance Desk
What a relief that Sen. Gillibrand has called for the withdrawal of the Kavanaugh nomination. Clearly, Sens. Feinstein, Hirono, Booker, Harris, et al, have not been up to the job. Everything's going to work out all right, though, now that Sen. Gillibrand has arrived to save the day.
Vote. But vote strategically.
Both major parties follow scripts leading up to elections. The GOP pitches prayer in the schools, criminalizing abortion and what amounts to racial cleansing. Never happens. The Democrats hawk social and economic justice (this year in the form of free education, Medicare for All and criminal justice reform). Never happens. Whatever was promised turns out to be "too hard," the other side just won't compromise. Whichever party wins, though, what does happen is this: endless war, corporate welfare and unimpeded transfer of public wealth into private hands.
Vote. Vote locally. Vote strategically. But, wherever possible, don't vote for corporate shills and the war machine. Change is a long, slow process. It's not going to happen in one election. Or two. Or probably ten. But it's not going to happen at all if we keep falling for false narratives.
There are plenty of Democrats to vote for, especially at the local level. But we need to be selective. The Democratic establishment apparently learned nothing from 2016. They may need to hear from you again. If you don't favor kleptocracy and militarism, then in races where the outcome will be the same, don't vote. Or vote Green or Peace & Freedom or Working Family or whatever other off-brand choice you have. Or write in yourself or Lebron James or Kshama Sawant or Jimmy Dore or Helen Keller or Stormy Daniels or the progressive who got outspent in the primary or anyone else you think will get across the point that you're not accepting business as usual or the lesser evil anymore.
Otherwise, change? Never happens.
Vote. Vote locally. Vote strategically. But, wherever possible, don't vote for corporate shills and the war machine. Change is a long, slow process. It's not going to happen in one election. Or two. Or probably ten. But it's not going to happen at all if we keep falling for false narratives.
There are plenty of Democrats to vote for, especially at the local level. But we need to be selective. The Democratic establishment apparently learned nothing from 2016. They may need to hear from you again. If you don't favor kleptocracy and militarism, then in races where the outcome will be the same, don't vote. Or vote Green or Peace & Freedom or Working Family or whatever other off-brand choice you have. Or write in yourself or Lebron James or Kshama Sawant or Jimmy Dore or Helen Keller or Stormy Daniels or the progressive who got outspent in the primary or anyone else you think will get across the point that you're not accepting business as usual or the lesser evil anymore.
Otherwise, change? Never happens.
DogGone
A couple of days ago, I'm in a coffee shop on Montana. You know the one. I'm having a scone and coffee near the door at a table next to that counter holding the cream and milks, sweeteners, condiments, straws and napkins. The stream of dogs is unrelenting, but what can you expect in a city that enforces only those laws that affect squeaky wheels.
The entitled have no second thoughts about turning others' protections to their benefit. Case in point: you could open a wildly successful store here selling nothing but counterfeit service-dog outfits.
So, just another day in paradise.
Then this happened, over the top even by Westside standards. A woman enters, wearing expensive workout clothes, apparently aspirational, with a small pooch that also looks like it has missed a few days at the doggie dojo. The woman drags her little darling over to the food-laden counter, grabs a handful of napkins, and proceeds to wipe the dog's ass. Then she reaches up and throws the toilet paper into the hole between the honey and the half and half.
There are good reasons for the regulations prohibiting animals, other than service animals, in places that stock and serve food: hygiene, allergies, disease, noise, bites, fights, the rights of other patrons among them. Service dogs are excepted because they are a necessary aid to people with certain disabilities. They are also well-trained: they don't bark, fight, climb on the furniture, or lick the tables (there is one local mutt that drags his ass around the floor every day while his "master" gets his order; I wonder what level of fecal matter Mythbusters would find on the Sugar in the Raw at that location).
The regulations are reasonable. They should be enforced.
Wanna know how scared Ted Cruz is?
“Searching for new wedge issue, Cruz says O’Rourke will ban barbecue” (Austin American-Statesman headline).
That's how scared Ted Cruz is.
Official campaign site for Beto O'Rourke, the 2018 Democratic Candidate for U.S. Senate in Texas: Beto for Texas.
Whistling past the graveyard
So Andrew Cuomo, smug in the afterglow of his primary win, says the progressive "wave" is "not even a ripple."
But I have to ask, moving forward, do you want to be in the party of, say, Beto O'Rourke and Elizabeth Warren or the party of Andrew Cuomo?
'Cause it's not going to be both.
Senator Elizabeth Warren at Netroots Nation 2018
Sen. Warren tells her own story to show how radically government has abandoned its responsibility to help the poor and working class.
The next president of the United States will be a woman.
Elizabeth Warren or Nikki Haley.
Your choice.
This is what neglect of infrastructure looks like
‘It looked like Armageddon’: Gas explosions trigger deadly chaos in Massachusetts by Karen Weintraub, Frances Stead Sellers Cleve R. Wootson Jr. (Washington Post).
This morning, someone said to me...,
"If we can survive this stupid, ignorant, corrupt dictator-wannabe, we can survive anything." I'm not so sure. What if he was an intelligent, informed, personally ethical dictator-wannabe? Take away Donald Trump's creepiness, avarice and racism, teach him to read and write and hold a coherent thought, and you have Barack Obama, ruling by executive order, conducting endless wars because he can. We have stood by as representative legislative government has become enfeebled, fossilized, barely functional, nearly useless; watched as power has increasingly vested in our serial kings. Isn't there a significant (and probably growing) number of us that would be happy to bring the curtain down on political theater that offers no happy endings, to bring an end to kleptocracy and dysfunction? Aren't there more than few voters who would respond readily to someone who promised convincingly to make the trains run on time?
Noted
Bernie Sanders ran; Hillary Clinton moved left. Cynthia Nixon ran; Andrew Cuomo moved left.
It takes an existential threat to their power to make establishment Democrats do the right thing.
Good to know.
It should go without saying
It is unfair and counter-productive of society to dump the job of providing services to the homeless community on businesses, like coffee shops and gas stations, and public organizations, like libraries, that are ill-equipped and unprepared to handle them.
Fear (and Loathing)
Trump's lawyer told him, "Don't testify. It's either that or an orange jumpsuit." Then he resigned.
The rest of the story:
Fear: Trump in the White House by Bob Woodward.
Fear
"Woodward's book, detailing the inner workings of Trump's administration, is set to hit shelves Sept. 11. The White House has issued a blanket refutation of the book's claims, which it says are based on information from disgruntled ex-employees." Except, who has so many disgruntled ex-employees their gripes would fill a book?
What is patriotism?
A veteran asks Texas Rep. Beto O'Rourke (who is challenging Sen. Ted Cruz): Do you share my frustration when NFL players kneel during the anthem?
Recorded at the August 10, 2018 at Senate campaign town hall in Houston.
Why the U.S. Should Provide Universal Basic Income
America is the richest civilization in history. Why, then, are our living standards so low compared to those of other wealthy democracies? A universal basic income would help close the income inequality gap, eliminating poverty and increasing opportunity for all Americans.
David McReynolds 1929-2018
R.I.P.:
✓ David McReynolds: Peace Movement Titan Is Gone by Chuck Fager (A Friendly Letter).
✓ David McReynolds, socialist, photographer, and lifetime WRL member, passes at 88 by Ed Hedemann (War Resistors League).
✓ David McReynolds:Socialist Peacemaker by Paul Buhle (Nonviolent Activist).
✓ A socialist presidential candidate — no, not that one — looks back by Joseph Mulkerin (The Villager).
End: Less War
The Long War has dragged on for nearly two decades, with huge losses in lives and wealth inflicted on countries suffering our attention, but also at great cost to American citizens.
In Yemen alone, for example, since the beginning of the conflict there, more than 10,000 people have been killed and at least 40,000 wounded, mostly from air raids; the collateral deaths from damage to the infrastructure (hospitals, especially) and from "non-lethal" actions such as blockades and sanctions (from starvation, cholera, etc.) is immeasurable. This is just another illegal and immoral war racking up war crimes on our tab, crimes against humanity that have gone on far too long.
And yet there is no peace movement in the United States. Neither moral outrage nor the costs to the nation in lives, in quality of life and in reputation and influence has been enough to strike a spark of resistance.
What is wrong with us?
Must read: The War on Peace by Tino Rozzo (The Dissident).
A parody by a master, and a master parodied.
A take on the great Walt Kelly by the great Wally Wood in a Mad Magazine parody of Pogo from 1961.
The President of the United States hosts bikers at the White House
Donald J. Trump tries on his tough face:
These guys are perfect. Central Casting couldn't have done a better job.
Maybe if you never call a war a war, you never have to call peace peace.
North Korea wants a peace treaty before beginning denuclearization. South Korea wants a peace treaty, period. The U.S., which conducted the war in violation of the U.S. Constitution, is still resisting.
How the U.S. Helped Prevent North Korea and South Korea From Reaching Real Peace in the 1950s by Michael Pembroke (Time)
quote unquote
Man: "Well, baby, now we're poor again."
Woman: "No, we're BROKE again. We were already poor."
-- Overheard at Santa Fe Savers check-out.
Must read: War, war and more war
The War Party, comprised of nearly all Republicans and most Democrats, manipulated by the security-industrial state and the Pentagon, the craftiest lobbying operation inside the Beltway, must be stopped. Nothing can be fixed -- infrastructure, housing, health care, poverty, social services, the environment -- until military adventurism is brought to an end.
On one matter there can be no argument: The policies that sent these men and women abroad, with their emphasis on military action and their visions of reordering nations and cultures, have not succeeded. It is beyond honest dispute that the wars did not achieve what their organizers promised, no matter the party in power or the generals in command. Astonishingly expensive, strategically incoherent, sold by a shifting slate of senior officers and politicians and editorial-page hawks, the wars have continued in varied forms and under different rationales each and every year since passenger jets struck the World Trade Center in 2001. They continue today without an end in sight, reauthorized in Pentagon budgets almost as if distant war is a presumed government action.The rest of the story:
The Pentagon’s failed campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan left a generation of soldiers with little to fight for but one another: War Without End by C.J.Chivers (New York Times).
Down-ticket
California Democratic gubernatorial candidate Gavin Newsom has amassed a massive money pile since starting his campaign more than three years ago. His total is nearly five times that of Republican John Cox.
Newsom can't lose.
Why isn't that dough being passed along to Democrats in tight congressional races?
Ron Dellums, R.I.P.
A Real News interview with Robert Scheer, editor of Truthdig, discussing Congressman Ron Dellums, who died recently of cancer. He was elected in 1971 to represent California's 13th District and was an unrelenting warrior for peace and civil rights. He launched Vietnam war crimes investigations, stood with the Black Panthers, and he was singled out by Nelson Mandela as being integral in the US for helping to end apartheid.
"Denialism...
"...is more than just another manifestation of the humdrum intricacies of our deceptions and self-deceptions. It represents the transformation of the everyday practice of denial into a whole new way of seeing the world and – most important – a collective accomplishment. Denial is furtive and routine; denialism is combative and extraordinary. Denial hides from the truth, denialism builds a new and better truth."
The rest of the story:
From vaccines to climate change to genocide, a new age of denialism is upon us. Why have we failed to understand it? Denialism: what drives people to reject the truth by Keith Kahn-Harris (The Guadian)
The rest of the story:
From vaccines to climate change to genocide, a new age of denialism is upon us. Why have we failed to understand it? Denialism: what drives people to reject the truth by Keith Kahn-Harris (The Guadian)
Talk about mixed messages
"Do you have a story to share about Santa Monica, California?" asks an ad promoting tourism to Santa Monica. "Perhaps it’s about your first visit or something memorable you experienced. Submit it for a chance to win an electric bike."
Motorized vehicles are prohibited on the municipal bike path, but
Here's what the City's code says:
"3.12.550 Bike-path and beach promenade. "(a) It shall be unlawful to ride a bicycle or to coast in any vehicle upon the Beach Promenade; bicycle riding shall be permitted along the beach bike-path, within the City limits and in those areas where the Promenade constitutes a portion of the bikeway and are otherwise permitted by sign. All persons riding bicycles on the bike-path shall comply with all lawful signs and directional markings, including, but not limited to, painted, directional arrows, bike-path route boundaries, and signs designating permissible travel lanes. "(b) It shall be unlawful to operate a pedicab upon the beach bike-path.The City, despite its recent move against Bird scooters and their ilk, is seriously deficient in its maintenance of the bike path. Segways, Vespas, etc., are routine. Signage is confusing when it isn't wrong, misleading or absent. No effort whatsoever is made to control pedestrians and dogs. And pedicabs routinely troll for customers along the bike path, blocking traffic when people get on and off.
"3.12.560 Prohibited vehicles. "In the area where bicycle riding is permitted by Section 3.12.550, no vehicle of any type shall be permitted except unicycles, bicycles, bicycles with training wheels, wheelchairs, and single-person tricycles operated by a person eighteen years of age or older."
It's a tribute to the City's pr flacks that it has a reputation as pro-bicycle and pro-pedestrian.
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