From Citizens United to Trump-era oligarchy, the billionaire takeover of American politics seemed unstoppable. Then Hawaii found a way to strike at the heart of the system…
Liberals, at least a certain faction of liberals are their own worst enemies. Tag a candidate with a label, even if the basis is spurious, as in the case of Graham Platner and they will knee jerk react, no wonder Trump got 77 million popular votes, The American public is reactive and stupid.
A certain faction is wetting their pants because oppo research within the party has interpreted the tattoo on Platners chest as an SS totenkopf, deaths head. The SS death head is just that a skull, no cross bones, add crossbones as in Platners tattoo, now covered up by a Celtic knot, and you get a macho tat, the skull and crossbones of a pirates, motorcycle gangs and drunk Marines.
Even if it was, people change. I once voted for Goldwater and was a right wing extremist, now I am older,wise and a proud progressive, yea even a socialist.
Dunno abt Platner's. But a normal one has crossbones. Behind the skull.
Totenkopf (German for "death's head") is the historical German term for a skull and crossbones symbol. While it originally represented mortality, defiance, and courage across European military units, it is most infamously associated with Nazi Germany, where it was adopted by Hitler's SS, the Schutzstaffel.
It appears you are correct. Here is the photo of PlatnersTattoo. The crossed bones are behind the skull not under it,and the picture is indistinct, but on inspection it does appear that the cross bones are behind the skull, like the Schutzstaffel .
However there is a problem with any idea that he was a NAZI symp, his wife is Jewish
He has repeatedly pointed to this to argue that he did not know the skull and crossbones image on his chest resembled a Nazi symbol (the SS Totenkopf), stating: "I took my shirt off in front of my Jewish family for 17 years. If I thought that I had some obvious symbol associated with Nazism, I would not have done that."
Nut the Schumer faction and a similar faction within the public doesn't want to hear that, there is a reflexive reaction to anything NAZI, except when one can make a buck off selling it.
Thom is testing to see who is paying attention and reading carefully. Did you pass the test? He stated that Collins is a Democrat. Of course, he knows better than anyone that she is a Republican. Now pay attention. This is important!
I agree with the article in the majority but you have a rather huge typo
Susan Collins is a REPUBLICAN -- not a Democrat.
"Now look at the woman he’s running against. Susan Collins is the ranking Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, which means she sits atop the federal spending faucet for defense"
I had to reread it four times to make sure I read it correctly. Thanks for helping me to forgive my typos.
Thanks Thom: another incredible list of ongoing treachery to this country -
No wonder the price of beef and the huge May gain in the cost of living are both going up higher and higher.
The 99% need to get in sink with the new young defenders of Democracy in this country at ALL elections - give them the break they need to overwhelm these old money grubbers and power gangsters.
Don't let the latest gilded age and multiple wars lead to the Great Depression 2.0
VOTE! We can do it! Keep the MAGA criminals away from our election booths and the crooked machine counting
Meanwhile, in Delaware, corporations have begun the push for a right to vote. It may only be the tiny town of Fenwick Island, but it's a beachhead. As for actual human voting rights, the courts have decided to abridge, not affirm, that right for women and minorities. The problem with democracy, it appears, is that it is full of people.
It is still the U.S.A but more expensive, everything,but pineapples are imported. I live in the Pacific NW and becaise the west coast depends on oil shipped by tank car from Texas or tankers from the Gulf of Persia, our gas ranges from $5.50 to $6.50 a gallon, in LA, 6.00 is standard,$8 if you live in Hollywood.
Hawaii stands against dark money because its Indigenous soul has never forgotten that governance belongs to the people and the land, not to those who can afford to buy both.
We all need to support candidates who thumb their noses at corporate PAC money and the billionaires who back them. This is their tool to drive the herd.
Severing ourselves from this herd mentality and align ourselves with clean candidates not beholden and tied to the billionaire’s bucks should be the goal of all American’s. It’s a good one and one that may promote more interest in our country, our world, and what’s going on in it.
Like Thom’s article on the inner cooperation of the forest in his “Wisdom School” essay, we as humans could not have survived the last ice age if it were not for cooperation.
Yes, survival is an issue, but when you make separation and autonomy the goal in order to drain power from others for control, you are merely a vampire of energy. This is how you set the clock for extinction.
Yes, we can do our damage and then fly to some distant place and hide out in our expensive bunker, but that just becomes our coffin that we crawl out of to do our dirty work in order to survive. We can’t really thrive or be happy that way.
Only through cooperation will humanity truly come into its own and learn to use all of our many latent talents we have lost or that lie in potential.
Thom is allowed a Freudian slip now and then when you think about ALL the things he covers. None of us are perfect and he would be the first one to admit that.
Wow! HA defangs Citizens United. I encourage everyone to go back and follow the hotlink to the legislation. States are the primary branch of government, as Thom and Christopher Armitage will point out, and all politics is local.
One thing I can't help but notice is that you barely even mentioned Zohran Mamdani and his truly progressive grassroots campaign. Mamdani was a "clean" candidate--no history of amoral conduct, no PTSD, no unpredictable behavior, no former campaign managers leaving because of pathological lying--yet somehow you didn't champion his cause. Perhaps it's the same reason you've convinced your minions that the genocide in Gaza doesn't qualify as genocide and is not relevant to our current situation in being under the rule of dueling political mafias. Is it because Platner could defeat a Senate Republican? Last I checked Democrats in the majority have done little to nothing apart from aiding and abetting a genocide, blocking a railway workers strike, bailing out Wall Street while leaving homeowners in the dust and privatizing our health care system. It is telling that you would champion an amoral pig like Platner but ignore an upstanding, smart progressive like Mamdani. Neither one will save us, but one is certainly has more integrity and is far more trustworthy.
Loved, loved "The Islands Rise." I lived in HI as the child of a career Navy submariner. We arrived in 1957 and returned stateside after celebrating HI statehood in 1959. I have returned many times over the years. Every visit has been an enchanting experience. Mahalo nui loa for taking corporate money out of elections in your state — a compelling call to action for 49 others.
Statement on your writing: Why not pull the charts and discussion of Hawaii's bill to the front of your discussion and then cover the other related issues? We hear a lot about the Citizen United problem, but the Hawaii news is distinct and encouraging.
Thank you. See worldviewliteracy.org or check out my website at wahinkpe.substack. Thom has written the Foreword for my forthcoming book, One Mandate, Two Worldviews, Seven Generations about how liberal policies from dems, well-intended and good in many ways to counter Project 2025 implementation under Trump, won't work without the Indigenous worldview restored.
Anyone interested in case we need a plan B if the Nov. elections are purposely bottlenecked.? or? If Fascists do not leave in Nov. than whart? Here is a wild-card idea that cannot wait till Nov. This is the minimum of what we should do now in addition to working the political scheme, getting the right folks elected .
Lets simplify all this.
This is a long term historical battle between the Uber wealthy and the Middle / lower classes, and by the way, it is these two classes that are the majority of Americans. So I'm an old VietNam war cogger,protester occupier, and still looking ahead.
And we know that the two party system has failed us. This is not to say that there aren't people in these parties that likely are trying and want to see a fair multinational/racial/gay/straight governmental system survive and thrive . There is many social, economic, and racial justice organizations that are onboard. The No Kings rallies, racial justice rallies, ecomomic justice, socialists ,progressives. Remember we are the majority and by far.
Legalization of corruption particulalrly around finance and money makes it t's easy to be depressed. We need to RISE UP as the majority...People Power... organize and unite all the organizations and start an occupation in Washington DC with 1/2 million strong give or take some. Folks can stay a while and leave as new folks come in.
We are there for three reasons. #1 -Take the newstream media for a couple of months,Run a peoples trial and prosecute the regime /Trump too on paper and prosecute this illegal war. #2 Develop a document for our future as a governed country and society through a Constitutional-Like- Convention. This can be created with cell phone technology and we can draw millions more that are not able to get to DC. We can tally votes and names with a well organized movement and may take 2-3 months time obviously over warmer weather. #3 At the end we will have a document that was created by the common people and we'd expect any governing body to follow closely what the peoples majority has created.
We can overpower this fascist regime ... We have a short window of time...6 months at most. This regime will not leave, We can be assured that law suits will be filed and of course the punny do nothing old democrats in Congress will go along. But we could change this. We need to b e brave ...it's clear we need another American revolution and without it we'll just go back to what was before Trump and we were all ready in deep financial crookery than
Liberals, at least a certain faction of liberals are their own worst enemies. Tag a candidate with a label, even if the basis is spurious, as in the case of Graham Platner and they will knee jerk react, no wonder Trump got 77 million popular votes, The American public is reactive and stupid.
A certain faction is wetting their pants because oppo research within the party has interpreted the tattoo on Platners chest as an SS totenkopf, deaths head. The SS death head is just that a skull, no cross bones, add crossbones as in Platners tattoo, now covered up by a Celtic knot, and you get a macho tat, the skull and crossbones of a pirates, motorcycle gangs and drunk Marines.
Even if it was, people change. I once voted for Goldwater and was a right wing extremist, now I am older,wise and a proud progressive, yea even a socialist.
Dunno abt Platner's. But a normal one has crossbones. Behind the skull.
Totenkopf (German for "death's head") is the historical German term for a skull and crossbones symbol. While it originally represented mortality, defiance, and courage across European military units, it is most infamously associated with Nazi Germany, where it was adopted by Hitler's SS, the Schutzstaffel.
It appears you are correct. Here is the photo of PlatnersTattoo. The crossed bones are behind the skull not under it,and the picture is indistinct, but on inspection it does appear that the cross bones are behind the skull, like the Schutzstaffel .
However there is a problem with any idea that he was a NAZI symp, his wife is Jewish
He has repeatedly pointed to this to argue that he did not know the skull and crossbones image on his chest resembled a Nazi symbol (the SS Totenkopf), stating: "I took my shirt off in front of my Jewish family for 17 years. If I thought that I had some obvious symbol associated with Nazism, I would not have done that."
Nut the Schumer faction and a similar faction within the public doesn't want to hear that, there is a reflexive reaction to anything NAZI, except when one can make a buck off selling it.
Thom is testing to see who is paying attention and reading carefully. Did you pass the test? He stated that Collins is a Democrat. Of course, he knows better than anyone that she is a Republican. Now pay attention. This is important!
Ignore such obvious typos - let;s talk about the real issues that Thom has raised so eloquently - many times-
Lol.
I agree with the article in the majority but you have a rather huge typo
Susan Collins is a REPUBLICAN -- not a Democrat.
"Now look at the woman he’s running against. Susan Collins is the ranking Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, which means she sits atop the federal spending faucet for defense"
I had to reread it four times to make sure I read it correctly. Thanks for helping me to forgive my typos.
Thanks Thom: another incredible list of ongoing treachery to this country -
No wonder the price of beef and the huge May gain in the cost of living are both going up higher and higher.
The 99% need to get in sink with the new young defenders of Democracy in this country at ALL elections - give them the break they need to overwhelm these old money grubbers and power gangsters.
Don't let the latest gilded age and multiple wars lead to the Great Depression 2.0
VOTE! We can do it! Keep the MAGA criminals away from our election booths and the crooked machine counting
Meanwhile, in Delaware, corporations have begun the push for a right to vote. It may only be the tiny town of Fenwick Island, but it's a beachhead. As for actual human voting rights, the courts have decided to abridge, not affirm, that right for women and minorities. The problem with democracy, it appears, is that it is full of people.
You're right. It's a beachhead, sometimes called a "foothold." That's how it starts.
My wife recently suggested we visit HA. I think perhaps we should MOVE THERE.
It is still the U.S.A but more expensive, everything,but pineapples are imported. I live in the Pacific NW and becaise the west coast depends on oil shipped by tank car from Texas or tankers from the Gulf of Persia, our gas ranges from $5.50 to $6.50 a gallon, in LA, 6.00 is standard,$8 if you live in Hollywood.
Ah I gotcha
Hawaii stands against dark money because its Indigenous soul has never forgotten that governance belongs to the people and the land, not to those who can afford to buy both.
Roberts is a stumble-bum shill for the Confederacy who hates America.
Clarabell Thomas is a materialistic, self-hating Black, formerly an [ersatz] Black Panther Lite.
The remaining inglorious four? They are cosplaying as justices, basically hollow furries.
Corporations equalling people? For 140 years, no less?
That's not unlike Jim Crow for every single U.S. citizen, regardless of race.
Donald is the unholy afterbirth of Citizens United, making a spectacular ass of America.
All for Vladimir the Poot's money and amusement.
#VOTE #Eric to Hormuz #Don Jr. to Kyiv #Barron to Syria
We all need to support candidates who thumb their noses at corporate PAC money and the billionaires who back them. This is their tool to drive the herd.
Severing ourselves from this herd mentality and align ourselves with clean candidates not beholden and tied to the billionaire’s bucks should be the goal of all American’s. It’s a good one and one that may promote more interest in our country, our world, and what’s going on in it.
Like Thom’s article on the inner cooperation of the forest in his “Wisdom School” essay, we as humans could not have survived the last ice age if it were not for cooperation.
Yes, survival is an issue, but when you make separation and autonomy the goal in order to drain power from others for control, you are merely a vampire of energy. This is how you set the clock for extinction.
Yes, we can do our damage and then fly to some distant place and hide out in our expensive bunker, but that just becomes our coffin that we crawl out of to do our dirty work in order to survive. We can’t really thrive or be happy that way.
Only through cooperation will humanity truly come into its own and learn to use all of our many latent talents we have lost or that lie in potential.
Thom is allowed a Freudian slip now and then when you think about ALL the things he covers. None of us are perfect and he would be the first one to admit that.
Wow! HA defangs Citizens United. I encourage everyone to go back and follow the hotlink to the legislation. States are the primary branch of government, as Thom and Christopher Armitage will point out, and all politics is local.
One thing I can't help but notice is that you barely even mentioned Zohran Mamdani and his truly progressive grassroots campaign. Mamdani was a "clean" candidate--no history of amoral conduct, no PTSD, no unpredictable behavior, no former campaign managers leaving because of pathological lying--yet somehow you didn't champion his cause. Perhaps it's the same reason you've convinced your minions that the genocide in Gaza doesn't qualify as genocide and is not relevant to our current situation in being under the rule of dueling political mafias. Is it because Platner could defeat a Senate Republican? Last I checked Democrats in the majority have done little to nothing apart from aiding and abetting a genocide, blocking a railway workers strike, bailing out Wall Street while leaving homeowners in the dust and privatizing our health care system. It is telling that you would champion an amoral pig like Platner but ignore an upstanding, smart progressive like Mamdani. Neither one will save us, but one is certainly has more integrity and is far more trustworthy.
Loved, loved "The Islands Rise." I lived in HI as the child of a career Navy submariner. We arrived in 1957 and returned stateside after celebrating HI statehood in 1959. I have returned many times over the years. Every visit has been an enchanting experience. Mahalo nui loa for taking corporate money out of elections in your state — a compelling call to action for 49 others.
Statement on your writing: Why not pull the charts and discussion of Hawaii's bill to the front of your discussion and then cover the other related issues? We hear a lot about the Citizen United problem, but the Hawaii news is distinct and encouraging.
Thank you. See worldviewliteracy.org or check out my website at wahinkpe.substack. Thom has written the Foreword for my forthcoming book, One Mandate, Two Worldviews, Seven Generations about how liberal policies from dems, well-intended and good in many ways to counter Project 2025 implementation under Trump, won't work without the Indigenous worldview restored.
Anyone interested in case we need a plan B if the Nov. elections are purposely bottlenecked.? or? If Fascists do not leave in Nov. than whart? Here is a wild-card idea that cannot wait till Nov. This is the minimum of what we should do now in addition to working the political scheme, getting the right folks elected .
Lets simplify all this.
This is a long term historical battle between the Uber wealthy and the Middle / lower classes, and by the way, it is these two classes that are the majority of Americans. So I'm an old VietNam war cogger,protester occupier, and still looking ahead.
And we know that the two party system has failed us. This is not to say that there aren't people in these parties that likely are trying and want to see a fair multinational/racial/gay/straight governmental system survive and thrive . There is many social, economic, and racial justice organizations that are onboard. The No Kings rallies, racial justice rallies, ecomomic justice, socialists ,progressives. Remember we are the majority and by far.
Legalization of corruption particulalrly around finance and money makes it t's easy to be depressed. We need to RISE UP as the majority...People Power... organize and unite all the organizations and start an occupation in Washington DC with 1/2 million strong give or take some. Folks can stay a while and leave as new folks come in.
We are there for three reasons. #1 -Take the newstream media for a couple of months,Run a peoples trial and prosecute the regime /Trump too on paper and prosecute this illegal war. #2 Develop a document for our future as a governed country and society through a Constitutional-Like- Convention. This can be created with cell phone technology and we can draw millions more that are not able to get to DC. We can tally votes and names with a well organized movement and may take 2-3 months time obviously over warmer weather. #3 At the end we will have a document that was created by the common people and we'd expect any governing body to follow closely what the peoples majority has created.
We can overpower this fascist regime ... We have a short window of time...6 months at most. This regime will not leave, We can be assured that law suits will be filed and of course the punny do nothing old democrats in Congress will go along. But we could change this. We need to b e brave ...it's clear we need another American revolution and without it we'll just go back to what was before Trump and we were all ready in deep financial crookery than