alanjjohnstone
Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Chris Hedges
Well, it’s over. Not the election. The capitalist democracy. However biased it was towards the interests of the rich and however hostile it was to the poor and minorities, the capitalist democracy at least offered the possibility of incremental and piecemeal reform. Now it is a corpse…The oligarchs always win. The people always lose. It does not matter who sits in the White House. America is a failed state.
Jonathan Cook on Biden
“Sleepy Joe’s task is to put liberal America back to sleep”
ELECTION 2020: ‘Sleepy Joe’s’ Task Is to Put Liberal America Back to Sleep
Trump channels Americans’ frustration and anger at a political and economic system they rightly see as failing them. He articulates who should be falsely blamed for their woes: be it immigrants, minorities, socialists, or the New World Order. He offers justified, if misdirected, rage …And among Trump’s supporters too, there are many desperate for wholesale change. They voted for Trump because at least he paid lip service to change…If Biden becomes president, his victory will be a temporary win for torpor, for complacency. But a new Trump will emerge soon enough to potentise – and misdirect – the fury steadily building beneath the surface. If we let it, the pendulum will swing back and forth, between ineffectual lethargy and ineffectual rage..,
124 questions were put to voters this year in 32 US states and DC
New Jersey, Arizona, South Dakota and Montana approved legalised marijuana for recreational use, and South Dakota and Mississippi approved the drug’s use for medical purposes. Magic mushrooms, was approved by Oregon for therapeutic use. Washington DC voters approved Initiative 81, which directs police to rank “entheogenic plants and fungi,” including psilocybin and mescaline, among its lowest enforcement priorities.
Florida approved a measure to amend the state constitution to gradually increase its $8.56 per hour minimum wage to $15 by 30 September 2026.
California approved to exempt ride-share and delivery drivers from a state law that makes them employees, not contractors.
Colorado voters rejected a measure to ban abortions. In Louisiana, voters approved an amendment that makes clear that the state constitution does not protect abortion rights or funding for abortions.
Ranked-choice voting, which lets voters select state and federal candidates in order of preference, was rejected by Massachusetts voters. In Alaska a similar proposition is still to be called.(Only Maine lets its voters use the method statewide.)
California approved a measure to restore the right to vote to parolees convicted of felonies.
Also in California, a proposal to roll back a portion of the state’s landmark Proposition 13 law limiting property taxes was too close to call on Wednesday. The measure, Proposition 15 on the state’s 2020 ballot, would leave in place protections for residential properties but raise taxes on commercial properties worth more than $3m.
The protests in Poland continue
the protests …“They are led by young women. This is decentralised, locally based, grassroots…”
…it was unclear how the protests would immediately affect Poland’s politics because the protesters had no clear links to parliamentary politics, and their leaders have said they do not want to become a political movement. “But it feels like something, definitely, is shifting,”
“We are a religious state where we are all demanded to think in one possible way.”
Poland was “years behind. In this country, because of the politics and doctrine of the government and the religious fanatics, someone who is different is worse. The way they treat LGBT people, migrants, all minorities – and now women … Society has had enough.”
protesting “not just against this hell for women, decided by this so-called constitutional court, but against this government, against church involvement in political affairs, for minority rights. Simply for freedom.”
LT, you lose the argument when you cherry-picking facts.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jan/09/america-dropped-26171-bombs-2016-obama-legacy
And that is not including either of the Iraq Wars. Even before 2003, under Bill Clinton in 1999, the US spent $1 billion dropping bombs in Iraq; in 2000, that number was up to $1.4 billion.
As for referring to Biden being incapable of any effective reform i mention it to disillusion those left progressives who insist it is easier under Biden. I have also said on this thread if you care to go further back, that even with a Congress majority, Biden will not pass the Justice Democrat agenda and he would have Republican allies to oppose it. After all, it was not Trump who said, if M4A came to the Oval Office, i will veto it.
And regards Libya, can you refer me to any protest at the policy of regime change from Biden at the time. I’ll ignore the QAnon slur.
Then i’m chastised for bringing up Biden’s role in passing a racially-based crime law. OK, his pick for VP is a former State Attorney who herself had a reputation for conducting draconian prosecution practices.
Finally, it was Bush who walked away from the Kyoto Treaty, if you recall.
Do you equate Bush with Trump who did annihilate a nation on the greatest of lies that makes Trump’s deceit insignificant.
“If you think Trump is better than Biden or even equal to Biden, then you haven’t been paying attention over the last 4 years.”
We are world socialists and it all depends on who you are. What if i was Libyan? Seeing your country destroyed and turned into a failed state when Biden was VP. What if you were an African American incarcerated when he helped the 1994 Crime Bill? Listening to politicians claiming to be tough on crime calling you a super-predator? Don’t trust me…listen to Sanders and his de-construction of Biden during the nomination debates.
Biden is not the lesser evil…he is the proven evil.
None of what is transpiring now is unexpected. Trump telegraphed it months ago and the Democratic Party fully expected legal challenges. After all, they went to the courts too in Florida in 1990. Inciting a mob is no way near launching a coup, LT.
What you are missing is what is the point of a Democratic Party president if he cannot rule because of a Republican Senate as it seems to look like happening. Come 2022 mid-terms they will also likely lose the House of Representatives. Biden can carry out some Presidential Executive Orders but won’t be able to initiate any substantial legislation…no Biden-Care, no Biden-Green-Deal. He will have to go cap-in-hand to the Republicans to get anything passed. The Squad and the Justice Democrats have become an irrelevancy since they will not have any leverage … it is going to be the Mitt Romneys of the Republican Party who will prop up Biden. The DNC know it, if you don’t.
This election is certainly making good drama, much more exciting than the boring debates did, and got all the makings of a future movie.
Intriguing speculation –
“I won’t say the Republican Party is a working class party right now, but more and more are seeing that as the only plausible future to actually win elections going forward,” – American Affairs editor Julius Krein
… industrial policy issues are one of “the last remaining areas of legislative common ground” between both parties.
“Given how divided the Congress is going to be, regardless of who wins the presidency, if anything possible is going to happen, it’s going to be along those lines,” Krein said.
Meanwhile
George Goehl, director of People’s Action, said on Hill.TV’s “Rising” that Democrats need to embrace populism if they want to win over rural voters.
Goehl said that the nation is in the middle of a populist moment that Democrats are not recognizing, adding that they fail to name some of the “villains” facing the nation such as pharmaceutical companies and “big banks.”
“Everybody talks about narratives these days, well narratives need villains and heroes,” Goehl said. “And, if you’re not going to name them, then the other side’s going to name them for you, and they will name women, people of color, Muslims, big government.”
LT, are you denying that Trump still has a massive support albeit a slightly less number than Biden?
If not then you must offer some sort of analysis of his appeal. They aren’t the White Guard but ordinary working men and women who very erroneously believe Trump has answers to their problems. Whereas the Biden supporters are less ideological, more an anti-Trump movement and willing to accept any compromise on principles if it means getting rid of Trump.
Trump may disappear but will the Trumpeteers fade away with him? Against Obama there was the righgt-wing Tea Party that destroyed his mandate in the mid-term elections. What can the Democrats offer in 2022 except, you don’t want another Trump. do you?” and the answer will be “Yes we do.”
Roger Harris may be a member of a left-wing political party we are opposed to but he has been posting interesting commentaries on the election.
His latest here
” Substantial differences exist between Trump and Biden, but those differences do not extend to which class they serve…never before have so many voted for so little….After campaigning for the Democrat, it will be problematic for these same left forces to credibly do an about-face and fight him.
Another example of XR anti-democratic tendency?
Scotland’s Climate Assembly was set up to allow people to make recommendations on tackling climate change. It is independent of government. Extinction Rebellion says it is withdrawing from Scotland’s citizens’ assembly days before their first meeting.
XR say it is “increasingly controlled” by civil servants.
XR Scotland says it has decided to leave the assembly’s stewarding group – which advises on the running of the assembly. It has also withdrawn its endorsement of the citizens’ assembly – saying it is “no longer a good enough response to the climate emergency”. It says the assembly has been “blinkered” and therefore cannot come up with radical enough solutions to climate change.
XR claims the secretariat – responsible for organising and running the assembly – has “actively resisted” including views of certain experts “because of their association with XR”. Despite initially being open to the assembly setting its own ambitions the secretariat has started to insist that any recommendations are actionable by the Scottish government, XR claims. And the civil servants seconded to the assembly use “government processes, ways of working and attitudes towards the scale of the crisis”.
“We invited Extinction Rebellion to join our stewarding group in the spirit of transparency and to ensure a range of perspectives informed the assembly design,” a climate assembly spokesman said. “They provided some constructive insight, and we are disappointed they have decided to leave. Our first commitment is always to our assembly members. We must ensure they hear balanced evidence from a range of experts that allows them to discuss and make recommendations on how Scotland should change to tackle the climate emergency in an effective and fair way.”
A spokesman for the Scottish government said the assembly was independent and it had no influence over the content of its meetings.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-54830823
XR…its ma’ ba’ and i’m goin’ hame in a huff ?
Other than many states relaxing their draconian drug laws, San Francisco voted for tax increases on the rich.
Any company whose top executive earns 100 times more than their average worker will pay an extra 0.1% surcharge on its annual business tax payment. If a CEO makes 200 times more than the average employee, the surcharge increases to 0.2%; 300 times gets a 0.3% surcharge and so on.
Voters also agreed to sweeping business tax changes that will lead to a higher tax rate for many tech companies, and a higher transfer tax on property sales valued between $10m and $25m.
“We’re not gonna shed any tears if penthouse dwellers have to cough up,” the San Francisco League of Pissed Off Voters wrote in its voter guide.
(Nice name which perhaps we should register … Party of Pissed Off Workers – PPOW !!)
the study showed clearly that all of the world’s increasing population could be fed a healthy diet while meeting the Paris goals, as long as concerted action was taken to reform the global food production system.
People would not have to adopt vegan diets, as some have called for, but reduce their consumption of high-carbon foods that are unhealthy in large quantities, such as meat and dairy.
If that was achieved, poor nations could feed their populations better, and could increase their consumption of animal products without exhausting the global carbon budget.
And as ALB has warned us, there is always the possibility of the faithless electors.
December 8: State executives are to resolve disputes over, and designate, their state’s electors (those named by the party whose candidates won the state’s popular vote) by sending a “certificate of … ascertainment”
December 14: The states’ designated slates of electors (which, as noted might not be clear in some states), meet in their respective state capitals to cast the official votes that elect the president.
December 23: States are to send their electoral votes to the president of the Senate ( i.e., Vice President Pence).
January 6: With the vice president presiding, the electoral votes are tallied before the newly convened Senate and House of Representatives, and a president-elect certified—assuming a candidate gets an Electoral College majority of at least 270.
Another aspect is the Lincoln Project and the “Never Trump Republicans” were insignificant in their impact despite some of the best anti-Trump videoes and tens of millions of dollar advertising. Full story here.
