Why Americans are embracing policies they were taught to fear, while rejecting a stupid, oligarchic economic model that's failed us all (except the oligarchs)...
Very often it seems that "leaders" are actually followers who run to get ahead of the crowd. And I hope those at the top of the DNC are listening and willing to really step forward. In the last several national elections they seem to have been more interested in flashy pep rallies than hard, on the ground, programs with outreach to voters and a vision that gave genuine solutions for real problems.
I kept getting in the mail, both physical and electronic, messages that only said, "Republicans bad, send money." Sometimes these came from candidates at the other end of the country, and the bombardment got worse and worse as the election neared. In fact, its starting again. This is a dead-end approach and no way to run a campaign for real change. And if those running the DNC don't want to do what really counts, then it is time to push them out and put in people who have a coherent program that means something.
Well put. For everyone outside of NYC wringing their hands about the 'far left' in the democratic Party, let me help: We voted for Mandami and the people he endorsed (I'm in NY 13) precisely because they clearly articulated actual problems we have right here, right now, and actual solutions. There's palpable energy right now in NYC around that kind of approach.
If I see one more Schumer email starting with 'I'm writing a strongly-worded letter to Pres. Trump' I'm going to plotz. We *know* Trump is bad. You've had plenty of time to do something about it. With respect, GTF outta the way.
Self-interested Schumercrats, corpocrats, and their self-interested consultants stand ready to deliver the nation to fascism. A few days ago Donna Brazile was on the tube counseling moderation, centrism, the usual cautious, uninspiring BS voters everywhere are actively rejecting. Last night Hakeem Jeffries was mush mouthing avoidance of the message voters delivered in NYC Tuesday evening. They and their ilk are a luxury we can no longer afford. If they ever had a time, it is long past. They’ll eventually be pastured, but ‘til then they can and should be ignored.
We are way paste ideology, We are neck deep in fascism
Is this not Germany 1938? It is fair to compare Estrada and antifa(scismmt) Sophie Scholl and the White Rose Society.
DANIEL SANCHEZ ESTRADA wasn’t accused of attempted murder or material support of terrorism after a protest turned catastrophically wrong outside an ICE detention center in Alvarado, Texas. He was merely convicted of obstructing the investigation by moving a box full of antifascist zines after the protest. Giving him a long prison term would make a mockery of justice, his defense attorney, Christopher Weinbel, told U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor on Tuesday.
The following is only the latest move by Trump to steal the election in November. His SAVE act violates the 10th Amendment and thus unconstititutional, and has no force of law,. It should be roundly and publicly denounced as such in the media, the electronic as well as print, And discussed for and wide on substack, reddit,Shitter, etc.
Postmaster General David Steiner told senators Wednesday that, under a proposed USPS rule, the agency would not deliver mail ballots for states that refuse to provide lists of voters who requested absentee or mail ballots. Democrats said the rule would coerce states into sharing sensitive voter data with the Trump administration and turn USPS into an election gatekeeper. Steiner said the Postal Service would comply if a court blocks the proposal. David Shepardson reports for Reuters; Finya Swai reports for The Hill.
Progressive Dems need to quit using the “democratic socialist” label. They’re playing into the Republicans strategy. Republicans have been calling Dems “communists” or “socialists” for 70 years. I recall a time when if a Democrat wore a red tie, Republicans would call him a Communist. This isn’t socialism, it’s democracy and capitalism with fairness and equity….like we had until Reagan began tearing it down in 1981. Check out the reelection platform of Republican President Eisenhower. He supported unions, supported spending on infrastructure, supported hospitals and health insurance companies staying not for profit, supported enforcing anti-trust laws and supported continuing the top marginalized tax rate of 90% on the rich. As a five star general, he also warned us of the “military industrial complex.”
Don’t react to labels, react to real issues. If you want the U.S. to be “great, again”, you have to bring back the policies, regulations, tax codes and laws that created that greatness.
Just as "liberal" became a dirty word, dissolving into the acid of wokeness and attack on it, I find it interesting that if not a dirty word, the label of "progressive" has lost its meaning. Progressive values are human values of dignity, a democratization of wealth, participation and voice. Not "progressive enough" it has been split, to its left, by the now proud label of democratic socialist.
The support that is swelling for both certainly comes as a result of citizens yelling "fight" -- a call that has, up to now, fallen on the deaf ears of the status quo & so called "moderate & centrist" officials and politicians of the Democrat Party.
It's always infighting or the "circular firing squad" rather than the power of the message and policy proposals of the democrats that is emphasized in the media. I fear that this division may become an opening for continued focus discord rather than unity of purpose in the coming midterms. Trump conflates "socialism" with "communism"; this must remind us that many people will still be leery of the designation of "socialist" -- more "radical" than progressive?
Now, if Schumer would only take off his readers, and look into the camera, perhaps we can show a public face of willingness to stand tall in this to-the-death fight for democracy.
P.S. I just love that you called WWII the antifa war! My Dad too, came home, became a postal worker with good benefits and a good pension, raising 2 professional children. He often said that he didn't know what people had against unions and by extension the democrats because of these very things. My father-in-law used the GI Bill to buy a house and start a garment business. A life-long Republican he knew that government was there to serve its citizens not fleece them.
Industrial and post-industrial capitalism is the privatization of dictatorship, and fully contradictory to the values of democracy. We have always wanted/needed an economic democracy in harmony with the political democracy our founding fathers created. It was the abuses arising from the Industrial Revolution that led to the Paris Commune, Das Kapital, The Molly Maguires, and the IWW. The base line of Capitalism is that everything is a commodity, including people, and that owners have all the power to decide, which they call "freedom". Thomas Paine and Eugene Debs would like to have a word about that.
The Roberts Court: The Nazi Republican Judicial Tool
An in depth review of John Roberts (bit.ly/4gEvZDR) as chief justice, partnering with his Federalist appointees Alito and Thomas, joined at the hip by a McConnell manipulated Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Barrett all join to create a Nazi Republican tool to judicially advance the CNPP(Christian Nationalist Pedo Party) agenda now commonly thought of as Project 2025.
These Nazi Republican judicially robed hacks have been planted over the years to direct the demise of voting rights(removal of Sections 2 and 5 of the VRA), reproductive health care for American women(Roe v Wade), allowing campaign contributions to flood the political zone(Citizens United decision), ensuring that the minority Nazi Republicans could be justified in holding power even if they didn’t fulfill their obligations to WE the People(GW Bush presidential campaign succeeds over Gore settled by a conservative SCOTUS without all the Florida ballots being counted), and most recently giving Cheeto a wanna be dictator full immunity from actions as president. Pretty awesome work by JR and his partisan political judicial incompetents.
Now at the apex of their power the Nazi Republicans with all branches of government under their control, it’s now to power through holding onto power. So election subversion, interference, and if push comes to shove, a judicial ruling protecting the federal removal of ballots or voting machines. Time for SCOTUS expansion which should be one of the first on the agenda in 2029.
The Democratic Party is mostly bought, complicit an so far behind that they’re dysfunctional. The forces behind project 25 are moving faster than anyone can stop their goal of a one world total domination.
I've had a draft form of a "basics" newsletter of this issue around for a while. Time to flush it out. The Harrtmann Report goes into much greater depth, and backstory, than mine will. On the other hand, mine will spread out into the misuse of names. A "Patriot" missile anyone?
More and more workers are beginning to feel poor in the "richest" country in the world.
The real elites are the ones that can afford any damn thing they want but refuse to pay for the services and infrastructure they use daily.
Peter Thiel created a club; he is manipulating and using the members for street cred. The money is never enough and neither is the power over the workforce. Read about "Dialog" that has been described as Bilderberg meets Silicon Valley: Leak Exposes Members of Peter Thiel’s Secretive ‘Dialog ... - WIRED
Democratic socialism is coming to a district near you, because creepy, greedy Tech Bros will gobble-up everything and everyone if we don't stop them. We're off to a good start. See you in the streets.
Thank you, Thom, as always a brilliant commentary and references..
My question, as a California democrat, is how to call Congress people in red states to demand changes.. All of my reps in California are supposedly voting as I want, but their singing for the choir.. Besides ACT Blue and other progressive orgs, I don't know what else to do after parading in the streets..
People who are against Socialism practice Antisocial-ism. Look up “antisocial behavior” to find out how they think.
Absolutely right, Paul. This Administration and the syndicate they have formed is literally filled with psychos and sickos.
Very often it seems that "leaders" are actually followers who run to get ahead of the crowd. And I hope those at the top of the DNC are listening and willing to really step forward. In the last several national elections they seem to have been more interested in flashy pep rallies than hard, on the ground, programs with outreach to voters and a vision that gave genuine solutions for real problems.
I kept getting in the mail, both physical and electronic, messages that only said, "Republicans bad, send money." Sometimes these came from candidates at the other end of the country, and the bombardment got worse and worse as the election neared. In fact, its starting again. This is a dead-end approach and no way to run a campaign for real change. And if those running the DNC don't want to do what really counts, then it is time to push them out and put in people who have a coherent program that means something.
Well put. For everyone outside of NYC wringing their hands about the 'far left' in the democratic Party, let me help: We voted for Mandami and the people he endorsed (I'm in NY 13) precisely because they clearly articulated actual problems we have right here, right now, and actual solutions. There's palpable energy right now in NYC around that kind of approach.
If I see one more Schumer email starting with 'I'm writing a strongly-worded letter to Pres. Trump' I'm going to plotz. We *know* Trump is bad. You've had plenty of time to do something about it. With respect, GTF outta the way.
Self-interested Schumercrats, corpocrats, and their self-interested consultants stand ready to deliver the nation to fascism. A few days ago Donna Brazile was on the tube counseling moderation, centrism, the usual cautious, uninspiring BS voters everywhere are actively rejecting. Last night Hakeem Jeffries was mush mouthing avoidance of the message voters delivered in NYC Tuesday evening. They and their ilk are a luxury we can no longer afford. If they ever had a time, it is long past. They’ll eventually be pastured, but ‘til then they can and should be ignored.
We are way paste ideology, We are neck deep in fascism
Is this not Germany 1938? It is fair to compare Estrada and antifa(scismmt) Sophie Scholl and the White Rose Society.
DANIEL SANCHEZ ESTRADA wasn’t accused of attempted murder or material support of terrorism after a protest turned catastrophically wrong outside an ICE detention center in Alvarado, Texas. He was merely convicted of obstructing the investigation by moving a box full of antifascist zines after the protest. Giving him a long prison term would make a mockery of justice, his defense attorney, Christopher Weinbel, told U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor on Tuesday.
The following is only the latest move by Trump to steal the election in November. His SAVE act violates the 10th Amendment and thus unconstititutional, and has no force of law,. It should be roundly and publicly denounced as such in the media, the electronic as well as print, And discussed for and wide on substack, reddit,Shitter, etc.
Postmaster General David Steiner told senators Wednesday that, under a proposed USPS rule, the agency would not deliver mail ballots for states that refuse to provide lists of voters who requested absentee or mail ballots. Democrats said the rule would coerce states into sharing sensitive voter data with the Trump administration and turn USPS into an election gatekeeper. Steiner said the Postal Service would comply if a court blocks the proposal. David Shepardson reports for Reuters; Finya Swai reports for The Hill.
Progressive Dems need to quit using the “democratic socialist” label. They’re playing into the Republicans strategy. Republicans have been calling Dems “communists” or “socialists” for 70 years. I recall a time when if a Democrat wore a red tie, Republicans would call him a Communist. This isn’t socialism, it’s democracy and capitalism with fairness and equity….like we had until Reagan began tearing it down in 1981. Check out the reelection platform of Republican President Eisenhower. He supported unions, supported spending on infrastructure, supported hospitals and health insurance companies staying not for profit, supported enforcing anti-trust laws and supported continuing the top marginalized tax rate of 90% on the rich. As a five star general, he also warned us of the “military industrial complex.”
Don’t react to labels, react to real issues. If you want the U.S. to be “great, again”, you have to bring back the policies, regulations, tax codes and laws that created that greatness.
Just as "liberal" became a dirty word, dissolving into the acid of wokeness and attack on it, I find it interesting that if not a dirty word, the label of "progressive" has lost its meaning. Progressive values are human values of dignity, a democratization of wealth, participation and voice. Not "progressive enough" it has been split, to its left, by the now proud label of democratic socialist.
The support that is swelling for both certainly comes as a result of citizens yelling "fight" -- a call that has, up to now, fallen on the deaf ears of the status quo & so called "moderate & centrist" officials and politicians of the Democrat Party.
It's always infighting or the "circular firing squad" rather than the power of the message and policy proposals of the democrats that is emphasized in the media. I fear that this division may become an opening for continued focus discord rather than unity of purpose in the coming midterms. Trump conflates "socialism" with "communism"; this must remind us that many people will still be leery of the designation of "socialist" -- more "radical" than progressive?
Now, if Schumer would only take off his readers, and look into the camera, perhaps we can show a public face of willingness to stand tall in this to-the-death fight for democracy.
P.S. I just love that you called WWII the antifa war! My Dad too, came home, became a postal worker with good benefits and a good pension, raising 2 professional children. He often said that he didn't know what people had against unions and by extension the democrats because of these very things. My father-in-law used the GI Bill to buy a house and start a garment business. A life-long Republican he knew that government was there to serve its citizens not fleece them.
Industrial and post-industrial capitalism is the privatization of dictatorship, and fully contradictory to the values of democracy. We have always wanted/needed an economic democracy in harmony with the political democracy our founding fathers created. It was the abuses arising from the Industrial Revolution that led to the Paris Commune, Das Kapital, The Molly Maguires, and the IWW. The base line of Capitalism is that everything is a commodity, including people, and that owners have all the power to decide, which they call "freedom". Thomas Paine and Eugene Debs would like to have a word about that.
The Roberts Court: The Nazi Republican Judicial Tool
An in depth review of John Roberts (bit.ly/4gEvZDR) as chief justice, partnering with his Federalist appointees Alito and Thomas, joined at the hip by a McConnell manipulated Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Barrett all join to create a Nazi Republican tool to judicially advance the CNPP(Christian Nationalist Pedo Party) agenda now commonly thought of as Project 2025.
These Nazi Republican judicially robed hacks have been planted over the years to direct the demise of voting rights(removal of Sections 2 and 5 of the VRA), reproductive health care for American women(Roe v Wade), allowing campaign contributions to flood the political zone(Citizens United decision), ensuring that the minority Nazi Republicans could be justified in holding power even if they didn’t fulfill their obligations to WE the People(GW Bush presidential campaign succeeds over Gore settled by a conservative SCOTUS without all the Florida ballots being counted), and most recently giving Cheeto a wanna be dictator full immunity from actions as president. Pretty awesome work by JR and his partisan political judicial incompetents.
Now at the apex of their power the Nazi Republicans with all branches of government under their control, it’s now to power through holding onto power. So election subversion, interference, and if push comes to shove, a judicial ruling protecting the federal removal of ballots or voting machines. Time for SCOTUS expansion which should be one of the first on the agenda in 2029.
The Democratic Party is mostly bought, complicit an so far behind that they’re dysfunctional. The forces behind project 25 are moving faster than anyone can stop their goal of a one world total domination.
I've had a draft form of a "basics" newsletter of this issue around for a while. Time to flush it out. The Harrtmann Report goes into much greater depth, and backstory, than mine will. On the other hand, mine will spread out into the misuse of names. A "Patriot" missile anyone?
Another fine post, Thom! But I think that progressives won't change the oligarchical system unless there's some REAL socialism in their program -- not just "tax the rich." I argue this at greater length at https://www.transcend.org/tms/2026/06/elon-musk-spacex-and-the-dogma-of-ownership-rights/
More and more workers are beginning to feel poor in the "richest" country in the world.
The real elites are the ones that can afford any damn thing they want but refuse to pay for the services and infrastructure they use daily.
Peter Thiel created a club; he is manipulating and using the members for street cred. The money is never enough and neither is the power over the workforce. Read about "Dialog" that has been described as Bilderberg meets Silicon Valley: Leak Exposes Members of Peter Thiel’s Secretive ‘Dialog ... - WIRED
Democratic socialism is coming to a district near you, because creepy, greedy Tech Bros will gobble-up everything and everyone if we don't stop them. We're off to a good start. See you in the streets.
Thank you, Thom, as always a brilliant commentary and references..
My question, as a California democrat, is how to call Congress people in red states to demand changes.. All of my reps in California are supposedly voting as I want, but their singing for the choir.. Besides ACT Blue and other progressive orgs, I don't know what else to do after parading in the streets..