As much as I've tried to ignore the hype, it has become near- impossible to avoid the media-manufactured reality that Decision '24 is now officially underway. It's hard, because the first Republican primary debate tonight is being marketed as a blockbuster double bill. Or more accurately, it's a teaser for the much more thrilling show of Donald Trump and his racket getting booked on yet more criminal charges. Seeing as how Trump is skipping the debate, his fans will likely also skip the debate in favor of a third big draw - the rumored Tucker Carlson interview. The target audience for the actual debate itself are the Democrats, who are reported to be getting the popcorn and the booze ready in anticipation of just how boring and out of touch Ron DeSantis will be, and how many zingers Chris Christie will manage to lob, and how many of the candidates will visibly squirm when asked if they will sign a loyalty oath to support the ultimate victor (who, by popular polling and media acclaim is said to be the absent Donald Trump.) The mainstream media outlets are rife with articles about all the complicated different ways that your captive eyeballs can glue themselves to the Fox show - not to mention all the takeaways to be had from doing your civic duty of watching it, and then listening to rival cable channels analyzing it to death into the wee, bleak hours of Thursday morning and beyond.
The more I think about it, the more I doubt that the general election will, in fact, be a contest between Trump and Joe Biden. Trump looks more bloated and pasty by the day. He is spending all his political contributions on his own legal defense. His only campaign theme is martyrdom. The phony appeal to the working stiff is running a sloppy second.
And between the Hunter mess and his own visibly deteriorating mental and physical state, Joe Biden will be lucky to outlast even his first term in office. The establishment media, which had breathlessly reported on his visit to Maui, went into radio silence mode in the wake of the actual visit. If you wanted to find out that Biden actually compared hundreds of people losing their lives to the worst United States fire in more than a century to a minor kitchen fire decades ago in his Delaware home, when -no joke - he nearly lost his wife, his cat, and his vintage Corvette, then you had to read about it in the New York Post or The Daily Mail. The New York Times abruptly stopped its own Biden-Maui coverage after a last photo of the president waving from Air Force One en route to Hawaii. Meanwhile, they are oh so subtly boosting the hapless Kamala Harris and keeping Gavin Newsom on 24-hour call. Little by little, they seem to be giving up on their Philip K. Dick simulacrum of a president. He's winding down, creaking to a halt, and painfully so. It's a case of political elder abuse if there ever was one. Dianne Feinstein is still around, in part because she serves to make Biden seem spry.
As a matter of fact, the Times coverage of the Maui catastrophe already had been taking second place to the Trump indictment, and which unknown GOP politician had just made the donation/polling cut for the debate. One of them, I forget his name, apparently got hurt in a basketball game and may or may not appear. This news is interspersed with breaking news accounts of which Trump racketeer has had his or her mug shot taken in Georgia.
To the extent that the corporate media are covering such news as that food insecurity in the richest country on earth has increased for the fifth straight month, or squeamishly euphemizing the mass expulsion of millions of Medicaid recipients from their health care as "the Great Unraveling" rather than eugenics on steroids, or is downplaying the surge of still more coronavirus strains in an increasingly strained denial that many more people are getting sick, you'd be pretty hard-pressed to learn about these things even if you're a stalwart doom-scroller of approved news sites. Read the comments section of any Times article trying to convince you that catching Covid, and catching it often, is actually good for your immune system. The definition of "mild" has been upgraded to anything that doesn't kill you within a week. And even then, you will be said to have died "with" Covid, not of it. New public health emergencies will be declared over your dead bodies, if not theirs.
It's all Trump all the time if your reading is restricted to consolidated Democratic Party-aligned media. It's all Biden scandal all the time if you're more inclined toward the right-leaning outlets. Personally, I always sample everything out there.
Everything is centered on all this divisiveness that has supposedly reached such new epidemic proportions. The sub-headline in an otherwise good Times article on the health and financial effects of the Palestine, Ohio train disaster is that residents have allegedly returned to a "newly divided community." The contrived dichotomy of partisan politics must always take precedence over human solidarity, which is very threatening to the powers-that-be.
If you consider yourself a lefty and you take too much issue with the Democrats, you're either a closet Trump supporter yourself or you are propelling others into a Trumpian orbit of doom. You could even be a Putin plant if you're anti-war. You can preface your Biden or anti-military critiques with all the Trump disclaimers you want, and it still won't matter. If you raise your voice and persist on harping on Medicare For All, then all you will succeed in doing is ushering in a reprise of fascist rule under Donald Trump or one of his imitators. Think, for example, of Mike Pompeo, or some other more intelligent version of Trump. Or don't even take the trouble to think, because Victoria Nuland, the newly appointed acting undersecretary of state under Biden was also a protegee of Dick Cheney.
Because of course, we already live under fascism in this country. Bertram Gross wrote about it a long time ago in his book "Friendly Fascism." So did Sheldon Wolin with his critique of "inverted totalitarianism." It's also known as corporatism, or rule by predatory capitalists. Its appeals to patriotism and nationalism may vary in intensity depending on the party in power, but it transcends all the usual geographical boundaries, which are artificially put in place by the same corporatists in every single one of their bloody climate-destroying wars for endless profit.
Getting you to fight with your neighbors and even with your family members over allegiance to one of the two US-based corporations known as legacy political parties is exactly what they want. It's their weapon on of mass distraction, so you won't focus over-much on your lack of medical care, a livable income, secure housing or a lifetime of education debt. Keeping your focus off their relentless exploitation of humanity is of the utmost importance to them. Heaven forfend that you would expend whatever physical or mental energy ou still have in organizing a labor or rent strike, or a patient-led occupation of a private equity-owned clinic or hospital.
Howard Zinn had it right when he said it's not who's sitting in the White House (or spieling on a Fox News "debate" stage) that should concern us, but who is out there marching or sitting in the streets or any number of semi-public spaces.
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“One of the mistakes we make when we try to talk about politics in this country is we keep pretending that the political spectrum runs from right to left. It doesn’t. It runs from top to bottom. We live in a country where the richest 1% of the people in this nation control 40% of the total wealth, and those numbers get worse every year.”
~ Molly Ivins
“Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience. Our problem is that people all over the world have obeyed the dictates of leaders … and millions have been killed because of this obedience … Our problem is that people are obedient all over the world in the face of poverty and starvation and stupidity, and war, and cruelty. Our problem is that people are obedient while the jails are full of petty thieves … (and) the grand thieves are running the country. That’s our problem.”
~ Howard Zinn
I was watching a video of Kim Iversen interviewing Bret Weinstien. Kim brought up the phenomenon of the coalescing of people from the Left and the Right that seems to be quietly taking place. Kim asked Bret what do we call these people? He answered, "patriots." I have to agree - although the word doesn't sit well with me. These are people from both parties who are thinking and reading and listening to other points of view and weighing it against what they know to be true. These are people who care about their country and the terrible trajectory we are on.
The biggest fear of both major parties is that the 80% - 90% will realise that they have more in common with each other than they have with the elites and that it is in their best interest to coalesce around issues like income inequality, universal health care, free speech and shutting down the forever wars - and for voting for candidates who acknowledge these are our top priorities. As I wrote in a previous comment, the Democrats really blew it when they cheated Bernie out of the nomination. There was definitely a group that didn't want to vote for Trump but given the choice between him and Hillary, either didn't vote at all (like me) or reluctantly voted for Trump. According to Chris Hedges and places I've read elsewhere, a lot of the disenfranchised working class were prepared to vote for Bernie, but when he was unfairly pushed out, voted for Trump. Now the Democrats are doomed.
I like the quote from Molly Ivins that Erik shared. Maybe this is the time when we finally acknowledge that it is the top (elite in both parties) vs the bottom (the 80% - 90% of the rest of us).
And can I just say something about RFK? And Karen you can elect not to publish this if you don't think it is appropriate.
I don't agree with RFK on a lot of issues, but shutting down the secretive agencies and the war machine and fighting for Free Speech are huge for me. Kennedy seems to be for transparency in all these areas.
FDR was said to have been a traitor to his class and I have often wondered if Clinton and Obama betrayed their constituencies in order to be accepted into the Elite and Plutocracy club. There is something in the psyche of many of us where we idolise these people and their wealth and standing in society. I suspect both Clinton because he was raised in backwater Arkansas and Obama, because he is black, aspired to be part of the Club (as Carlin named it.) One thing with RFK is that, like Roosevelt, he is already part of the Elite and doesn't idolise them. And he has proven through his stance on vaccines and the environment that he is prepared to take on the the establishment and stand his ground.
RFK is also active in a 12 Step program - I think he said he goes to an average of 9 meetings a week - and has done so for around 40 years. While 12 Step Programs aren't for everyone, for some people these programs are profound and life changing. I have known friends and even a member of my own family to become the most compassionate, understanding and decent people I know. A 12 Step Program demands a pretty brutal self-examination, not only of the addiction but of a person's underlying character. It is not for the faint of heart. I can't really see many people on the political scene having the depth to do this. And I respect anyone who can do this for 40 years.
And like Cornell, RFK is highly intelligent - a refreshing change from the other clowns who have thrown their hats in the ring.
At this point, I am still a registered Democrat and I plan to remain so until after the Primary. I won't be voting for Biden, Harris or Neusom - and Cornell is running on the Green ticket.
While I love Cornell West, and I disagree with Kennedy on some big issues - I can see that RFK holds an appeal for people in both parties. Like Trump, the big knives are out for him and the smear machine is at full throttle. The last thing the establishment wants is someone who isn't afraid of them and someone who appeals to people in both parties. I reckon if they knock Trump out of the race with all these law suits, many of his supporters will move over to RFK and Democrats with a belly full of Biden Inc will do the same. While we have trusted wrongly before, what choice do we have?
@Valerie
Totally agree about Kennedy. That said, it looks like a fool's errand for him to run within the anti-Democratic Party but his plan is probably to win enough delegates during the primaries to negotiate something useful at the convention - providing they don't kick him out first.
It's important to remember that there are now more registered Inds than either Rs or Ds and likely growing by the day. Bobby could pick up a lot of votes from us Indies and I've already read many Rs wishing he'd run with Trump.
I seriously doubt Biden even makes it to 2024 and I don't believe he can get re-elected. Claiming the economy is great for ordinary people? Unbelievable. Evidence is also coming to light, finally, that the Intelligence Cabal and corporate media colluded (i.e., Operation Mockingbird) to discredit and hide the Hunter laptop motherload before the election. The FBI already had it analyzed so knew it was full of email evidence of the lucrative Biden extended-family foreign influence peddling racket. They had to prevent Biden's probable loss to Trump had it come out and been given the credence it deserved.
So actually Trump and his supporters were only wrong about HOW the election was stolen and by whom, but not that it WAS and HOW. Stolen, rigged, manipulated, election interference, whatever. And that doesn't even include the preceding lawfare to damage and/or remove Trump, too numerous to mention but mostly created out of whole cloth with Hillary's name on the label.
Regarding Trump looking bloated and pasty, I don't see it. Maybe it's the filters media uses, like Hillary used to make Obama's skin tone darker. And weighed down by legal fees? He gets unlimited free media coverage because the media cashes in, so Trump doesn't need to even campaign. It all backfires anyway just as it did with Hillary's Pied Piper strategy because a majority of the public distrusts the media. Being attacked or mocked by them is a badge of honor.
Anyway, Trump is not a quitter. Just look at his mugshot - he's defiant Dark Don lacking only the red glowing eyes. While Biden prefers to fight behind the high school stadium and use proxies to throw punches, Trump is a street fighter who wants his fights in the open arena for all to see and hear, unfiltered by the gatekeeping media. BTW, he's back on X/Twitter, the Free Speech Zone.
Bottom line regarding our upcoming election cycle - the Presidency is all about who runs our global Empire and who the major investors want to become the "Leader of the Free World". They fund them and try to limit our choices and are usually pretty effective except for Trump, not that they didn't desperately try and still are. We can thwart them again by putting aside our differences to the extent that we support a candidate who first and foremost puts Country over Empire. That's the foundation we must build on.
RFK is on the correct side of the Country Over Empire equation, as is Cornel West, even Trump (51 Intelligence chiefs thought so) and maybe Vivek Ramaswamy. Let's not let domestic and especially cultural issues divide us.
MLK one year before his death and over 50 years ago: "A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death". Well, the USA is spiritually dead and it shows. The interests of Empire always take precedence over Americans and America. I mean $700 each for Maui families but unlimited billions for Ukraine for as long as it takes, or until they're all dead, to defeat Russia on behalf of our Empire? We can't keep allowing this to happen.
The good news is that the recently expanded BRICS++++++ will start putting the American Empire in it's place, so they'll handle that part.
Our work now is to win our independence from another Empire.
@ annenigma -- "there are now more registered Inds than either Rs or Ds and likely growing by the day"
Yes. We should also remember that in many states, like Michigan where I live, have "open primaries," for which nobody needs register as "Independent" nor anything else.
Some still register in a party in order to participate in it, but the rest of voters have no reason to register as anything.
They might tell a pollster that they identify as Independent, but that is much weaker than actually so registering. Those who might feel that way strongly or weakly do not actually have any need to "register" as that.
In Michigan, and I suspect in other places too, there are more Independents than we realize because they don't register as that.
Karen, This post resonated with me in so many ways.
I did reluctantly get vaccinated. Although, I was always suspicious of the mRNA; it just seemed to be pulled from a dusty shelf somewhere and touted as the new wonder of modern medicine. I remember JayOttawa telling me that he wished he could get the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine that relied on traditional vaccine technology. Fortunately, because Australia was low on the vaccine worthiness list, it was all that was offered to the citizens of Oz at the time. I also got a Moderna booster 9 months later because Covid had a huge flair up in New South Wales while we were visiting my 92 year old mother-in-law and I didn't want to catch it and pass Covid onto her. But I am pretty much done with vaccines that haven't been proven effective or even tested properly - and I certainly don't trust Big Pharma to do it properly. I did eventually get Covid and now Long Covid, but I refuse to keep getting boosters. I have a sneaking suspicion that there are many vaccine hesitant people like me who went along with the hoopla at the beginning but who will be less willing to go along this time around. My only big gripe with the anti-vaxers is that they refuse to wear masks. We didn't get much of a push to vaccinate in Australia this winter - unlike the U.S. by the sound of it. It will be interesting to see how many takers they get.
@Annenigma
I'm a bit disappointed in the BRICS - and Modi and Ramaphosa seem to be trying to play it safe. I didn't expect a BRICS currency but I had hoped this group would take a stronger stance against Western interference in the running of their (and other) countries and the weaponisation of the dollar. I get that India and South Africa are scared of the West but still . . .
I always thought that Trump was a lunatic and a megalomaniac but I have to admire him for his tenacity. And I certainly see the Establishment in both parties relentlessly loading on the indictments - hoping a few of them will stick - but mainly, just trying to bankrupt his support. Personally, it looks like he is being legally bullied and harassed - which is turning him into a sympathetic character. People either admire him for his fighting and defiant spirit or because he clearly is being targeted. What I don't get is the effectiveness with which the Biden Administration has been let off the hook from their own dirty dealings in Ukraine - and Hillary is just one big election interference.
As for RFK, I've wondered if his plan has been to run as a Democrat and be a clear foil for Biden, both on an intelligence - as well as physical and mental level - and then at the critical moment, switch over to being an Independent once he and his policies are known. I recall Ralph Nader having a terrible time getting on the ballot in some states - Are Independents on the ballots in all states now? How does that work?
I do love Cornell. He is the brightest of the bunch and certainly has the most integrity and politics that most align with mine. But I am not even seeing him get interviews with Independent Media - like RFK. It's a shame that the most capable and most ethical person can't even get his foot in the door.
Glad to hear that there are more Independents than registered Democrats and Republicans. Maybe there is a slight hope for the U.S.
Re: Primary Election
My experience is that for the Primary election in an open state, you get to choose which party ballot you want. However, it only includes D or R since the Duopoly owns the Primary election even though we all pay for it.
If you're already a registered D or R, you automatically get their ballot but you could do cross-over voting by re-registering, then changing back later. In my old open Primary state where I was registered as independent, I was sent both an R and a D ballot and mailed back the one I chose. In my current open Primary state I have to make my request in advance so I have to make that decision earlier than I would prefer. I always vote by mail. I have no recent experience in a closed Primary state but I do recall cross-over voting once, a minor hassle which I guess is the point.
If you support someone who's not a D or an R, they won't be on the Primary ballot because those candidates are chosen at their convention. The only thing you can do to support them is by your signature on a petition to get them approved as a party and their candidate placed on the General election ballot. Also donate money to help them fight inevitable legal challenges by the Duopoly in regard to certification of signatures, timing, and any other excuse they can find to knock out the competition in advance.
If the new party is sufficiently successful percentage-wise after the General election as determined by state laws passed by the Duopoly, they can stay on the ballot for the next General election. If not, they get dropped and have to start from scratch. So voting 3rd party is helpful for the future even if unsuccessful now. The Greens in my state flunked out after last General and are currently trying to get back on the ballot.
There's no Independent party, only registered Independent voters who are sometimes labeled Unaffiliatated or Undeclared by the Secretary of State office in charge of voting. Apparently some states don't use any designation for those who don't choose to affiliate as D or R. I wonder if there are even any unaffiliated/undeclared/independents in closed primary states and would they even be able to participate in Primaries if there were. What would be the point? Anyone?
Open Primaries are better for voters, closed Primaries better for the Duopoly.
I think it is good that they are going after Trump for election interference. I think that he is an elite, not "anti establishment". His cabinet was stocked by the usual Republican supply siders. He lost the popular vote twice -- is that what makes him anti establishment? He placed three justices on the supreme court. His base was not working class, despite what pundits tell you. Actual political scientists have disproved that myth. I'll be happy to provide citations if requested. If it has taken so long to prosecute him, it is because he is an elite and they must get their ducks in a row. The law protects the powerful. I welcome him facing accountability for his heinous actions.
The law is always politically motivated. That's how it works. Do you think, say, a janitor who has not been payed overtime can run down to the police and get his boss arrested? What if this janitor (a contractor probably) shoplifts from the Walmart he is cleaning? What would the cops do? Politics is always about power, which is why I find the phrase "power politics" redundant. Politics is not just elections or even what our elected leaders are up to. Zinn understood that.
Bonus question! what do you think a Maga "populist" would say about the janitor that wants to see his boss arrested? If I were to venture a guess, I am fairly certain they would say "If you don't like it, then find a new job loser".
Valerie,
What do you find so courageous about RFK's vaccine stand? I find his talk of freedom and choice consonant with neoliberalism. Actually, it is the very essence of neoliberalism. His crude critique of big pharma is decidedly not left wing (sorry, I actually don't believe there is a false dichotomy between left and right.) There was a measles outbreak after his trip in solidarity with antivaxxers in Samoa. Thirty two children died. Maybe if he was such an anti imperialist, he could have gone to American Samoa instead and stood in solidarity with people that are honest to god colonial subjects of America.
Annenigma,
King punctured the myth of American innocence in his "A Time to Break Silence" address. What would he make of an "anti imperialist" movement that is entirely comfortable demonizing Central American refugees from violence that US had a heavy hand in? What about refugees from climate change? Is there any US responsibility there?
Groups such as the Black Panthers took inspiration from third world anticapitalist and anticolonialist movements. They also understood that there was no sharp dividing line between domestic, cultural, and international issues.
Wonder what King would say about a dear leader who specifically targeted black majority cities as sites of "election fraud".
@Kat
Thank you for your offer of a civil discourse. You made some good points that gave me food for thought.
I think it is courageous for anyone to stand up against the Establishment - civilly, backed up by facts - if this is something you genuinely believe is right. RFK Jr has had to endure the label "Conspiracy Theorist" put before his name because he dared to pull back the curtain on the Establishment’s Narrative that vaccines were all good with no side effects and that Covid came to exist because it jumped species due to traditional Chinese people eating animals from a wet market (which always had a bit of a racist ring to me). RFK Jr has also taken on big polluters through his work as a lawyer which wouldn’t have earned him any friends in the corporate world.
Glenn Greenwald had a good interview RFK as did Joe Rogan and now Tucker Carlson. I'm not a big fan of Joe Rogan but he pretty much shut up during the interview and allowed RFK to explain himself and Tucker Carlson was pretty quiet as well. Look, I'm sure RFK (as well as Marianne Williamson and Cornell West) would love the opportunity to get on Mainstream Media to answer questions and make a case for himself, but he is completely locked out (I'm assuming because he is so intelligent – which is a foil for Biden and challenges a lot of the premises put out by the Establishment in both parties.) So, like so many of the great journalists who have questioned the Establishment Narrative, Seymour Hersh, Chris Hedges, Glenn Greenwald, Matt Taibbi, John Pilger - he has had to go to the people (and shows) willing to give him air time.
I was all on board with vaccines at the beginning but time has shown that some of what the anti vaxers were concerned about was real. While some of them were hostile - I've come to accept that the WOKE Left can be super hostile as well when their point of view is even slightly questioned. This rabid defence of one point of view isn’t just a Republican (Maga) issue.
Part Two -
Kat,
I would really like to have a good conversation with you on this issue. I am happy to read or listen to information that you find convincing if you, in exchange, will listen to the interviews with Joe Rogan and Glenn Greenwald with an open mind.
As for Trump - Everything you say is true - He is definitely in the 1% and promoted policies that served the 1% while in office. But there is nothing worse than war - and the environmental impacts of war. I am disgusted with the way the DNC and every Republican in Congress (that I detest) have come together to exploit the Ukrainian people: Blackrock moving in to buy up - on the cheap - some of the best farming land in Europe, selling the Ukrainian government a mish-mash of weapons we don’t want anymore, putting Ukraine into immense debt, inadequately trained conscripted men forced to fight on the front lines, forcing a refugee crisis, not to mention stirring the embers of nuclear war. And Trump, while upping the negative rhetoric on China, didn't start any wars.
I think the reason people are turning to Trump is because the Political Establishment in both parties is so unfit to lead this country and are so corrupted by their own self-serving agendas, that anyone that is not part of that Establishment looks good in comparison. It is not that people want Trump, it is that they don't want the alternative.
This is why RFK looks good. I don’t entirely trust him to be who he says he is or to do what he says he will do. But I ask you, who is the alternative? I don’t particularly want Trump but I need someone who is not part of the DNC or the RNC, who is intelligent, and who can win. If Ralph Nader or the old Bernie were running, I would be 100% behind them – but this is what we have at the moment.
@Kat,
"There was a measles outbreak after his trip in solidarity with antivaxxers in Samoa. Thirty two children died." This was indeed a tragedy. I didn't know of this and I can understand why you would attribute this to RFK's - and other's - stance on childhood vaccination. As I understand it, RFK isn't against the actual childhood vaccines, he believes the vectors are highly toxic. He says it quite frequently, he is not against childhood vaccines, as long as they are safe.
Personally, I don't know what is causing autism, but as a primary teacher of over 35 years, I can assure you, we simply didn't have the exploding numbers of kids with autism that we have today. Now some of this can be attributed to a more indulgent style parenting and maybe a little to the changing definition of "being on the spectrum" - but it is very clear to me that there is something wrong that wasn't wrong before - and it is probably environmental.
"Maybe if he was such an anti imperialist, he could have gone to American Samoa instead and stood in solidarity with people that are honest to god colonial subjects of America." I don't know, but I imagine, like all speakers, he goes where he is invited.
100% agree
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