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Democratic presidential candidates Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), former Vice President Joe Biden, and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) raise their hands during the Democratic Presidential Debate at Texas Southern University's Health and PE Center on September 12, 2019 in Houston, Texas. (Photo: Win McNamee/Getty Images)
Tuesday's Democratic debate boiled down to a war between the centrists and the progressives. Or, to put it another way, between those who would represent the people, and those who would represent billionaires, millionaires, and corporations.
The centrists/corporatists can't run on issues, so they're trying to run on being "realistic" and electable. Both Buttigieg and Klobuchar tried to push this line for most of the night, and claimed the progressives--particularly Warren and Sanders--are too far left to win against Trump.
Many in the corporate media claimed that flailing candidates like Buttigieg and Klobuchar did well in the debate (see here, for example), mostly because such pundits have been pushing the whole myth that the way to win isn't by appealing to the progressive majority; rather it's by trying to peel off a few people from the minuscule so-called "center" of the party.
There are two things wrong with this. The first was addressed by Sanders when he noted that polling clearly showed that most of the electorate favored progressive issues, so running on them wasn't only the right thing to do, it was the smart thing to do. But the second problem is deeper, and reveals that the centrist/corporatists either have a fundamental misunderstanding of how and why Trump won, or--more likely--they're mounting a cynical, disingenuous and intentional campaign to deceive voters, done on behalf of their corporate benefactors.
The problem with the centrist's attempt to deceive voters is that if it works and Democrats nominate another centrist, it's just about the only way Trump could win again (assuming he isn't impeached).
At the end of the day, Trump is President because people don't trust government, and they're right not to. Pew has been tracking trust in government for more than half a century, and the trend is grim. In the early sixties, about 80 percent of Americans trusted government to do what was right "most of the time." By 2019, that number had fallen to about 17 percent, with only 3 percent believing government does what's right "just about always."
There's a lot of reasons people have lost trust in government, not the least of which is that oligarchs and corporatists have been running a well-funded, strategic coup which featured a propaganda campaign designed to rebrand government from what it had been up until the late 1970's--the source of much innovation and prosperity, a champion of the people, and a defender of the middle class--to the source of our problems, while simultaneously selling the free market and corporations as the source of all good things.
But their propaganda campaign succeeded only because over the years, the ultra-rich and corporations were ceded more and more power, until by the early 21st century, government no longer represented the people's interests and they knew it. By 2014, Gilens and Paige concluded, after studying money and power in politics: 'The preferences of the average American appear to have only a miniscule, near-zero, statistically non-significant impact upon public policy."
Meanwhile, since 1980 half of all Americans saw almost no gains in wealth, while the oligarchs walked away with the vast majority of wealth generated in that time. Today, the three richest Americans have as much wealth as the bottom half of all Americans.
In short, the U.S. has a government of the rich and corporations, by the rich and corporations, and for the rich and corporations. No wonder people don't trust government and no wonder the people elected a renegade like Trump. If you were a voter who was serious about good governance the best you could hope for was a centrist who paid lip service to the people around election time but governed for the oligarchs. Not surprisingly, many in the progressive majority didn't turn out to vote, and so elections have been ceded to the angry, the ignorant, the hateful and the fearful, who--fed by their rage--do turn out in force.
Buttigieg, Klobuchar, and Biden are attempting to pass themselves off as candidates who represent the people, even as they rail against the issues people favor, and take corporate money, and criticize policies which will spread the prosperity to the people, and preserve a livable planet.
There's always been a simple and effective response to the oligarch's propaganda campaign and the distrust it's bred: a political campaign based on New Deal values, transparency, and accountability. This is precisely what the progressive wing of the Democratic party is doing and it's why Warren is surging and why Sanders has been the most popular politician in America since 2016.
But since Bill Clinton, centrists have been increasingly dependent upon the ultra-rich and corporations, and they've drifted to the right, and as a result, voters drifted away from them.
That's why we have Trump; that's why until 2018 Democrats had been losing ground at all levels of government for decades.
And once again, the corporate centrists are trying to sell the idea that progressive ideas are just too far out there.
And the usual suspects - the pols, pundits and mainstream media who told Democrats that Trump couldn't win, and who told them to run a centrist in 2016 -- are telling the Party that if they want to beat Trump, they need to ... well ... run a centrist.
The scary thing is, since they control much of the media, and most of the Party, they just might convince folks to commit the same mistake they made in 2016.
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Tuesday's Democratic debate boiled down to a war between the centrists and the progressives. Or, to put it another way, between those who would represent the people, and those who would represent billionaires, millionaires, and corporations.
The centrists/corporatists can't run on issues, so they're trying to run on being "realistic" and electable. Both Buttigieg and Klobuchar tried to push this line for most of the night, and claimed the progressives--particularly Warren and Sanders--are too far left to win against Trump.
Many in the corporate media claimed that flailing candidates like Buttigieg and Klobuchar did well in the debate (see here, for example), mostly because such pundits have been pushing the whole myth that the way to win isn't by appealing to the progressive majority; rather it's by trying to peel off a few people from the minuscule so-called "center" of the party.
There are two things wrong with this. The first was addressed by Sanders when he noted that polling clearly showed that most of the electorate favored progressive issues, so running on them wasn't only the right thing to do, it was the smart thing to do. But the second problem is deeper, and reveals that the centrist/corporatists either have a fundamental misunderstanding of how and why Trump won, or--more likely--they're mounting a cynical, disingenuous and intentional campaign to deceive voters, done on behalf of their corporate benefactors.
The problem with the centrist's attempt to deceive voters is that if it works and Democrats nominate another centrist, it's just about the only way Trump could win again (assuming he isn't impeached).
At the end of the day, Trump is President because people don't trust government, and they're right not to. Pew has been tracking trust in government for more than half a century, and the trend is grim. In the early sixties, about 80 percent of Americans trusted government to do what was right "most of the time." By 2019, that number had fallen to about 17 percent, with only 3 percent believing government does what's right "just about always."
There's a lot of reasons people have lost trust in government, not the least of which is that oligarchs and corporatists have been running a well-funded, strategic coup which featured a propaganda campaign designed to rebrand government from what it had been up until the late 1970's--the source of much innovation and prosperity, a champion of the people, and a defender of the middle class--to the source of our problems, while simultaneously selling the free market and corporations as the source of all good things.
But their propaganda campaign succeeded only because over the years, the ultra-rich and corporations were ceded more and more power, until by the early 21st century, government no longer represented the people's interests and they knew it. By 2014, Gilens and Paige concluded, after studying money and power in politics: 'The preferences of the average American appear to have only a miniscule, near-zero, statistically non-significant impact upon public policy."
Meanwhile, since 1980 half of all Americans saw almost no gains in wealth, while the oligarchs walked away with the vast majority of wealth generated in that time. Today, the three richest Americans have as much wealth as the bottom half of all Americans.
In short, the U.S. has a government of the rich and corporations, by the rich and corporations, and for the rich and corporations. No wonder people don't trust government and no wonder the people elected a renegade like Trump. If you were a voter who was serious about good governance the best you could hope for was a centrist who paid lip service to the people around election time but governed for the oligarchs. Not surprisingly, many in the progressive majority didn't turn out to vote, and so elections have been ceded to the angry, the ignorant, the hateful and the fearful, who--fed by their rage--do turn out in force.
Buttigieg, Klobuchar, and Biden are attempting to pass themselves off as candidates who represent the people, even as they rail against the issues people favor, and take corporate money, and criticize policies which will spread the prosperity to the people, and preserve a livable planet.
There's always been a simple and effective response to the oligarch's propaganda campaign and the distrust it's bred: a political campaign based on New Deal values, transparency, and accountability. This is precisely what the progressive wing of the Democratic party is doing and it's why Warren is surging and why Sanders has been the most popular politician in America since 2016.
But since Bill Clinton, centrists have been increasingly dependent upon the ultra-rich and corporations, and they've drifted to the right, and as a result, voters drifted away from them.
That's why we have Trump; that's why until 2018 Democrats had been losing ground at all levels of government for decades.
And once again, the corporate centrists are trying to sell the idea that progressive ideas are just too far out there.
And the usual suspects - the pols, pundits and mainstream media who told Democrats that Trump couldn't win, and who told them to run a centrist in 2016 -- are telling the Party that if they want to beat Trump, they need to ... well ... run a centrist.
The scary thing is, since they control much of the media, and most of the Party, they just might convince folks to commit the same mistake they made in 2016.
Tuesday's Democratic debate boiled down to a war between the centrists and the progressives. Or, to put it another way, between those who would represent the people, and those who would represent billionaires, millionaires, and corporations.
The centrists/corporatists can't run on issues, so they're trying to run on being "realistic" and electable. Both Buttigieg and Klobuchar tried to push this line for most of the night, and claimed the progressives--particularly Warren and Sanders--are too far left to win against Trump.
Many in the corporate media claimed that flailing candidates like Buttigieg and Klobuchar did well in the debate (see here, for example), mostly because such pundits have been pushing the whole myth that the way to win isn't by appealing to the progressive majority; rather it's by trying to peel off a few people from the minuscule so-called "center" of the party.
There are two things wrong with this. The first was addressed by Sanders when he noted that polling clearly showed that most of the electorate favored progressive issues, so running on them wasn't only the right thing to do, it was the smart thing to do. But the second problem is deeper, and reveals that the centrist/corporatists either have a fundamental misunderstanding of how and why Trump won, or--more likely--they're mounting a cynical, disingenuous and intentional campaign to deceive voters, done on behalf of their corporate benefactors.
The problem with the centrist's attempt to deceive voters is that if it works and Democrats nominate another centrist, it's just about the only way Trump could win again (assuming he isn't impeached).
At the end of the day, Trump is President because people don't trust government, and they're right not to. Pew has been tracking trust in government for more than half a century, and the trend is grim. In the early sixties, about 80 percent of Americans trusted government to do what was right "most of the time." By 2019, that number had fallen to about 17 percent, with only 3 percent believing government does what's right "just about always."
There's a lot of reasons people have lost trust in government, not the least of which is that oligarchs and corporatists have been running a well-funded, strategic coup which featured a propaganda campaign designed to rebrand government from what it had been up until the late 1970's--the source of much innovation and prosperity, a champion of the people, and a defender of the middle class--to the source of our problems, while simultaneously selling the free market and corporations as the source of all good things.
But their propaganda campaign succeeded only because over the years, the ultra-rich and corporations were ceded more and more power, until by the early 21st century, government no longer represented the people's interests and they knew it. By 2014, Gilens and Paige concluded, after studying money and power in politics: 'The preferences of the average American appear to have only a miniscule, near-zero, statistically non-significant impact upon public policy."
Meanwhile, since 1980 half of all Americans saw almost no gains in wealth, while the oligarchs walked away with the vast majority of wealth generated in that time. Today, the three richest Americans have as much wealth as the bottom half of all Americans.
In short, the U.S. has a government of the rich and corporations, by the rich and corporations, and for the rich and corporations. No wonder people don't trust government and no wonder the people elected a renegade like Trump. If you were a voter who was serious about good governance the best you could hope for was a centrist who paid lip service to the people around election time but governed for the oligarchs. Not surprisingly, many in the progressive majority didn't turn out to vote, and so elections have been ceded to the angry, the ignorant, the hateful and the fearful, who--fed by their rage--do turn out in force.
Buttigieg, Klobuchar, and Biden are attempting to pass themselves off as candidates who represent the people, even as they rail against the issues people favor, and take corporate money, and criticize policies which will spread the prosperity to the people, and preserve a livable planet.
There's always been a simple and effective response to the oligarch's propaganda campaign and the distrust it's bred: a political campaign based on New Deal values, transparency, and accountability. This is precisely what the progressive wing of the Democratic party is doing and it's why Warren is surging and why Sanders has been the most popular politician in America since 2016.
But since Bill Clinton, centrists have been increasingly dependent upon the ultra-rich and corporations, and they've drifted to the right, and as a result, voters drifted away from them.
That's why we have Trump; that's why until 2018 Democrats had been losing ground at all levels of government for decades.
And once again, the corporate centrists are trying to sell the idea that progressive ideas are just too far out there.
And the usual suspects - the pols, pundits and mainstream media who told Democrats that Trump couldn't win, and who told them to run a centrist in 2016 -- are telling the Party that if they want to beat Trump, they need to ... well ... run a centrist.
The scary thing is, since they control much of the media, and most of the Party, they just might convince folks to commit the same mistake they made in 2016.
Judge Rossie Alston Jr. ruled the plaintiffs had failed to prove the groups provided "ongoing, continuous, systematic, and material support for Hamas and its affiliates."
A federal judge appointed in 2019 by US President Donald Trump has dismissed a lawsuit filed against pro-Palestinian organizations that alleged they were fronts for the terrorist organization Hamas.
In a ruling issued on Friday, Judge Rossie Alston Jr. of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia found that the plaintiffs who filed the case against the pro-Palestine groups had not sufficiently demonstrated a clear link between the groups and Hamas' attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.
The plaintiffs in the case—consisting of seven Americans and two Israelis—were all victims of the Hamas attack that killed an estimated 1,200 people, including more than 700 Israeli civilians.
They alleged that the pro-Palestinian groups—including National Students for Justice in Palestine, WESPAC Foundation, and Americans for Justice in Palestine Educational Foundation—provided material support to Hamas that directly led to injuries they suffered as a result of the October 7 attack.
This alleged support for Hamas, the plaintiffs argued, violated both the Anti-Terrorism Act and the Alien Tort Statute.
However, after examining all the evidence presented by the plaintiffs, Alston found they had not proven their claim that the organizations in question provide "ongoing, continuous, systematic, and material support for Hamas and its affiliates."
Specifically, Alston said that the claims made by the plaintiffs "are all very general and conclusory and do not specifically relate to the injuries" that they suffered in the Hamas attack.
"Although plaintiffs conclude that defendants have aided and abetted Hamas by providing it with 'material support despite knowledge of Hamas' terrorist activity both before, during, and after its October 7 terrorist attack,' plaintiffs do not allege that any planning, preparation, funding, or execution of the October 7, 2023 attack or any violations of international law by Hamas occurred in the United States," Alston emphasized. "None of the direct attackers are alleged to be citizens of the United States."
Alston was unconvinced by the plaintiffs' claims that the pro-Palestinian organizations "act as Hamas' public relations division, recruiting domestic foot soldiers to disseminate Hamas’s propaganda," and he similarly dismissed them as "vague and conclusory."
He then said that the plaintiffs did not establish that these "public relations" activities purportedly done on behalf of Hamas had "aided and abetted Hamas in carrying out the specific October 7, 2023 attack (or subsequent or continuing Hamas violations) that caused the Israeli Plaintiffs' injuries."
Alston concluded by dismissing the plaintiffs' case without prejudice, meaning they are free to file an amended lawsuit against the plaintiffs within 30 days of the judge's ruling.
"Putin got one hell of a photo op out of Trump," wrote one critic.
US President Donald Trump on Saturday morning tried to put his best spin on a Friday summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin that yielded neither a cease-fire agreement nor a comprehensive peace deal to end the war in Ukraine.
Writing on his Truth Social page, the president took a victory lap over the summit despite coming home completely empty-handed when he flew back from Alaska on Friday night.
"A great and very successful day in Alaska!" Trump began. "The meeting with President Vladimir Putin of Russia went very well, as did a late night phone call with President Zelenskyy of Ukraine, and various European Leaders, including the highly respected Secretary General of NATO."
Trump then pivoted to saying that he was fine with not obtaining a cease-fire agreement, even though he said just days before that he'd impose "severe consequences" on Russia if it did not agree to one.
"It was determined by all that the best way to end the horrific war between Russia and Ukraine is to go directly to a Peace Agreement, which would end the war, and not a mere Cease-fire Agreement, which often times do not hold up," Trump said. "President Zelenskyy will be coming to DC, the Oval Office, on Monday afternoon. If all works out, we will then schedule a meeting with President Putin. Potentially, millions of people's lives will be saved."
While Trump did his best to put a happy face on the summit, many critics contended it was nothing short of a debacle for the US president.
Writing in The New Yorker, Susan Glasser argued that the entire summit with Putin was a "self-own of embarrassing proportions," given that he literally rolled out the red carpet for his Russian counterpart and did not achieve any success in bringing the war to a close.
"Putin got one hell of a photo op out of Trump, and still more time on the clock to prosecute his war against the 'brotherly' Ukrainian people, as he had the chutzpah to call them during his remarks in Alaska," she wrote. "The most enduring images from Anchorage, it seems, will be its grotesque displays of bonhomie between the dictator and his longtime American admirer."
She also noted that Trump appeared to shift the entire burden of ending the war onto Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and he even said after the Putin summit that "it's really up to President Zelenskyy to get it done."
This led Glasser to comment that "if there's one unwavering Law of Trump, this is it: Whatever happens, it is never, ever, his fault."
Glasser wasn't the only critic to offer a scathing assessment of the summit. The Economist blasted Trump in an editorial about the meeting, which it labeled a "gift" to Putin. The magazine also contrasted the way that Trump treated Putin during his visit to American soil with the way that he treated Zelenskyy during an Oval Office meeting earlier this year.
"The honors for Mr. Putin were in sharp contrast to the public humiliation that Mr. Trump and his advisers inflicted on Mr. Zelenskyy during his first visit to the White House earlier this year," they wrote. "Since then relations with Ukraine have improved, but Mr. Trump has often been quick to blame it for being invaded; and he has proved strangely indulgent with Mr. Putin."
Michael McFaul, an American ambassador to Russia under former President Barack Obama, was struck by just how much effort went into holding a summit that accomplished nothing.
"Summits usually have deliverables," he told The Atlantic. "This meeting had none... I hope that they made some progress towards next steps in the peace process. But there is no evidence of that yet."
Mamdani won the House minority leader's district by double digits in New York City's Democratic mayoral primary, prompting one critic to ask, "Do those voters not matter?"
Zohran Mamdani is the Democratic nominee for New York City mayor, but Democratic U.S. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries—whose district Mamdani won by double digits—is still refusing to endorse him, "blue-no-matter-who" mantra be damned.
Criticism of Jeffries (D-N.Y.) mounted Friday after he sidestepped questions about whether he agreed with the democratic socialist Mamdani's proposed policies—including a rent freeze, universal public transportation, and free supermarkets—during an interview on CNBC's "Squawk Box" earlier this week.
"He's going to have to demonstrate to a broader electorate—including in many of the neighborhoods that I represent in Brooklyn—that his ideas can actually be put into reality," Jeffries said in comments that drew praise from scandal-ridden incumbent Democratic Mayor Eric Adams, who opted to run independently. Another Democrat, disgraced former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, is also running on his own.
"Shit like this does more to undermine faith in the institution of the Democratic Party than anything Mamdani might ever say or do," Amanda Litman, co-founder and executive director of Run For Something—a political action group that recruits young, diverse progressives to run for down-ballot offices—said on social media in response to Jeffries' refusal to endorse Mamdani.
"He won the primary! Handily!!" Litman added. "Does that electorate not count? Do those voters not matter?"
Writer and professor Roxane Gay noted on Bluesky that "Jeffries is an establishment Democrat. He will always work for the establishment. He is not a disruptor or innovator or individual thinker. Within that framework, his gutless behavior toward Mamdani or any progressive candidate makes a lot of sense."
City College of New York professor Angus Johnston said on the social network Bluesky that "even if Jeffries does eventually endorse Mamdani, the only response available to Mamdani next year if someone asks him whether he's endorsing Jeffries is three seconds of incredulous laughter."
Jeffries has repeatedly refused to endorse Mamdani, a staunch supporter of Palestinian liberation and vocal opponent of Israel's genocidal annihilation of Gaza. The minority leader—whose all-time top campaign donor is the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, according to AIPAC Tracker—has especially criticized Mamdani's use of the phrase "globalize the intifada," a call for universal justice and liberation.
Mamdani's stance doesn't seem to have harmed his support among New York's Jewish voters, who according to recent polling prefer him over any other mayoral candidate by a double-digit margin.