Yet another nail in the coffin of the much vaunted so-called democracy of the US (beyond the gerrymandered electorates, the weirdly anti-democratic Electoral College system; the hundreds of millions of dollars it takes to mount a campaign, back room deals and the support of big business/corporations) this exposé of how truly representative candidates are stymied from participation - by uniquely engineered exclusionary laws in most of the states is simply mind-blowing. And yet the US puffs itself up before the world as somehow worthy of emulation??!! Instead of cringing in shame and embarrassment. Brilliantly enumerated - thanks otra vez otra vez Chris Hedges!
Glad to see Ted Lowi ("The End of Liberalism" was his classic) remembered.
I took a class with Lowi in grad school at Cornell. The lectures covered a lot of ground in history, philosophy, and political science that was new to me and the students were all far more broadly read than I was, so it was a struggle and I learned a lot. I can still recall Lowi's comments on an exam essay in red pen: "Stop spewing drivel and parroting lectures!". Ouch.
But, he praised my final paper for the course and pledged to help me get it published. That stuff stays with you for 40 years!
'Professor Lowi, I see hear that you have written to a student, "Stop spewing drivel and parroting lectures!" Professor Lowi, I must express my disappointment in your attempts at education. Have you truly no concept of the purpose of this institution?'
The University, in the 70's and 80's when I was there, although corporate funded, elite bourgeois student body, and on the cusp of the Neoliberal reaction, still maintained a sense of independence and integrity. There were plenty of lefties at SUNY Binghamton, and fewer but still plenty, at Cornell. Unfortunately, far too few "public intellectuals" like Lowi and Dr. West.
Jill Stein and her running mate of Green Party were arrested/detained twice for attempting to access the debate sites. In 2012 debate between Romney and Obama, for disorderly conduct charge. In 2016 Dr. Stein was presidential candidate on 85% of states’ ballots and again tried to enter the Clinton/Trump debate at Hofstra University. They were speaking and carrying an American flag and were stopped and held physically by police in the parking lot. They eventually sat on pavement and then were charged with blocking a car and taken into detention to a large warehouse and plastic tied to chairs for 8 hours guarded by a dozen troopers, then released on a misdemeanor.
Great job, Chris. I worked in a minor state roll for Nader in Florida in 2000. I'll never forget him getting dragged out of debate he tried to attend with a ticket.
Chris - I think that "support Israel" was a cheap shot on Kennedy.
Kennedy and Cornel West agree on many major issues, including dismantling the the US empire, reigning in corporate power, ending permanent war, taking real action on the climate emergency, protecting free speech, criticizing the bias and lies of corporate media, investing in the people and US communities, and reducing inequality. Kennedy has even called for abolishing the CIA.
It was a shortsighted and divisive cheap shot too that reflects poor strategy..
Things are up for grabs and could go either way. Kennedy has a lot of his support from libertarians and the "populist right". If their views prevail, the Country goes even further to the fascist right (in the likely event that the Democrats sabotage him like they did Bernie, those Kennedy supporters will go to Trump)..
You should be seeking common ground from the left and forcing Kennedy (and the Dems) to the left. That way, Kennedy's people are more likely to go to West, and we begin to form a movement from the left.
I don't know how Hedges' stating the truth there is a cheap shot (at Kennedy). RFK Jr. was very clear in that position, and quite frankly, it was enough to make me realize that he's either completely ignorant about one of the world's (and U.S.'s) great, continuing injustices, or else he is willing to sell out the Palestinian people because he thinks speaking up for them would cost too many votes and draw too much AIPAC money against him. Neither is acceptable to me.
Yes, these two (RFK Jr. and West) do agree on many fundamentally important issues- and that matters. But Kennedy has a near-absolute-zero chance of securing the Democratic Party nomination. If the oligarchs & corporatist establishment that runs that Party were actually to allow him to win, that would itself be a strong warning sign to progressives and anti-establishment folk generally. But it won't happen. DNC, Inc., along with their networks of media and 'info' sources, will sandbag him even worse than they did Sanders in '16 and '20.
And given the very high likelihood that he won't be the Dem nominee, the libertarian fans of RFK will certainly not go to West; (but to Trump, as you suggest); and the progressive left who might be in RFK's camp will either go to West or else choose the LOTE choice ('team Blue') as they have many times before. So there is no reason NOT to speak honestly in our critiques of these candidates.
I don't want to rehash this debate, but you are missing my point.
You are taking a narrow electoral focus - but this is not about the '24 election and which candidates are on the ballot. This is about shifting the ideological conversation, educating people, and building a movement. That project is undermined when a single litmus test issue (Israel-Palestine) is used to sow division - while all other equally or more important issues of agreement are ignored - instead of promoting unity.
I agree with your claim that "the libertarian fans of RFK will certainly not go to West". Kennedy has a libertarian streak and he is a capitalist too. Kennedy's environmental politics are largely market based, despite the fact he spent the majority of his career suing corporate polluters. If those tendencies are allowed to continue to form coalition with the cultural right (largely white Christian nationalist fascists) and corporate power, we are in deep deep trouble.
Bill, I'm not seeking debate either. It's possible, but I don't think I missed your point. Rather, I'm not sure I agree with it.
RFK is running as a Dem (a questionable move IMO); and therefore there is automatically a division between any left-leaning 3rd Party and somewhat left- (or libertarian-) leaning candidate in the Dem. Party. There will be no 'unity' within the 'left' (though I really dislike such labels as they've become largely meaningless, being so subjective); aside from perhaps a consensus in backing RFK in the Dem Primary if possible and see where the chips fall. If I were to vote in the Dem Primary (I'm no longer registered "D"), I'd certainly pick RFK Jr. ; and in the general almost certainly vote for West against what will inevitably be the power establishment's pick. I think there can be widespread agreement on such a strategy.
Btw, I don't see Palestine as a litmus test. In fact, I learned long ago not to put any political figure on a pedestal, expecting saintly perfection and agreement with me on every issue. But pointing out that RFK Jr. is on the wrong side on Palestine strikes me as consistent with trying (at least) to push him to more progressive policies; and is consistent with a focus on democratic ideals, protection of human rights (and to the extent that Israel has become an essential part of the projection of U.S. hegemonic goals, a rejection of imperialism.)
I believe one can both be simultaneously progressive and populist. I ran such a campaign myself (as a "D"), and despite D's being only about 27% of the registered voters in a heavily "R" county, came within 0.05% of the win. We didn't know until 6 weeks later who'd won.
Lastly, I don't think in our discussing / debating Kennedy's positions here, we are going to have any influence whatsoever about RFK's campaign; or how much the cultural right supports him or influences him down the line. If anything, pushing him to be more true to anti-imperial, anti-war, anti-Apartheid positions would seem consistent with your own thoughts.
I'll extend a little benefit of the doubt to RFK Jr., in terms of his willingness to sell out. I do think it's a risk for anyone running in the Dem Party; and his position on Israel may hint of that. Yet, too, I do think that in his role challenging the powerful on other issues (whether environmental, the corrupting power of corporations (Pharma/health care, etc.), he has also demonstrated considerable spine... the kind many had perhaps too-trustingly hoped Sanders might have. Now that the latter has shrunk mainly into simple advocacy for a fairer tax allocation and whatever other economic crumbs he thinks the Party elites might consider, some say he betrayed them; but I just see that my own hopes were outsized, and not within the abilities or character of the man.
In any case, I'll back West. He 'gets it' (the connection between all of the issues that concern us) and he, too has demonstrated consistency in his principles- which strongly mesh with my own.
Just now I'm reading Edward Curtin's collected essays of 2020 Seeking Truth in a Country of Lies. It explains well through lots of essays (I'm 2/3 through) why RFK Jr might want to see the CIA gone - his uncle, his father, MLK and Malcolm X assassinated by the CIA - and I know that currently there is a scurrilous campaign - not unlike that against Julian Assange - to smear and demean him...
Thanks, Mr. Hedges. What we need is the truth and no political expediency. I'm independent and definitely RFK will not be my candidate. I'm leaning for Dr. West who, among many other good things, understands the Israel-Palestinian conflict.
Almost every democracy on the planet has had proportional representation for decades. This is long overdue in the U.S. The winner-take-all system that the U.S. and U.K. have is unrepresentative, and is designed to keep non-establishment parties from getting candidates elected. Without changing to a proportional representation system, we'll never get a halfway decent government. Other changes, like eliminating all private campaign contributions and equal TV time for all candidates, are also needed, but changing to proportional representation is fundamentally needed.
Wow.. Just wow. Thank you so much for your clear, reasoned articulation of the political situation in the US. With the 2024 election a year and a half away, if amazes me to see otherwise sensible people become deranged by the prospect of a third party candidate. After the GWB and DJT election debacles, some people are just crazy because of that. Meanwhile, the Orwellian Democrats seize advantage of that fear to hold onto power.
Great take down of the system that has not produced a desirable candidate in either of the two corporate parties in at least the last 30 years. Of course, what you describe is the political collapse of the US. At that point do we become a failed state or a zombie state?
Am I the only person in this hemisphere who has grown tired of hearing Hedges tell us how gloomy things are? ... In this article, he conveys the hopelessness of ever forming a third-party movement with a true voice ... agreed, things look bleak ... he could have also admitted that our only hope lies in the power of local government, but he just won't go there ...
Ever notice? ... Hedges will quickly point out the deep-seeded divisiveness among us and then reach into his bag of wedge issues to tell us our problem is Trump-MAGA ... The problem in America IS NOT Trump-MAGA ... the problem is the Elite's relentless pursuit of the goals of UN Agenda 21/30, and he obviously has no intention of ever going there ... I've followed him very closely since 2011 ... he has never even mentioned Agenda 21, the Book "the Fourth Industrial Revolution, The Great Reset or the World Economic Forum ... NOT ONCE, EVER! ... BTW, those Trump-MAGA types actually want the same things we do, like fair elections ...
Did you know? ... Hedges has cynically labeled those of us who openly question the motives and tactics of our elected officials as "conspiracy theorists" ... that's right and he's done it more than once ... ... if you happen to believe that 9/11 was an inside job as I do, Chris has in fact called us conspiracy theorists ...
Ever notice? ... although his core message has always been to confront tyranny, Hedges threw the working class under the bus with COVID once the March 2020 lock-downs were declared ... he has since refused to stand with us against the illegal and unconstitutional mandates and passports ...
Did you know? ... Hedges actually stood with big pharma and endorsed their "safe & effective" narrative just 30 days after the explosive court-ordered FDA FOIA release that revealed over 1200 deaths and 34,000 adverse events in the first 10 weeks of their COVID vaccine trial ... and after taking sides with big pharma in a 2022 interview with Krystal & Kyle, he also openly admitted that he does not trust Moderna and Phizer ... clearly this man did not give a hoot about the consequences ...
Ever notice? ... Hedges' position on the climate change aligns perfectly with the "existential threat" narrative pushed by unhinged Davos converts Al Gore and John Kerry ... more people are waking up to the existential threat BS, but Hedges keeps pushing it ... did you see how Gore and Kerry acted like complete, unhinged jack-asses when discussing this topic at the recent Davos conclave? ... great company Chris!
I've got all the details, all ya gotta do is ask ... times, dates and context for some truly damning, head-scratching quotes by St. Chris ... all ya gotta do is ask!
The CO2 threshold at which all plant and animal life dies is 270 ppm and current level is 420 ppm ... just Google it for yourself ... the globalists, with help of DS tools like Hedges are distorting the climate change issue to tax and limit and hinder our ability to live freely ... the diff between you and I is that I understand these fundamental facts of climate change and I base my belief on suppressed science ... you on the other hand, believe the climate poses an existential threat just because Chris Hedges said so ... if you want to challenge me on these stats, I'm ready ... so go ahead, make my day ...
Your obsession with CO2 is telling, considering you are the one who brought it up here in the first place. Is CO2 all you know to strawman against? Hedges wrote "They will not curb the fossil fuel industry or combat ecocide" and while the former could reasonably be read as indirectly in part about CO2 emissions, it is unreasonable to read it as singularly so; let's not pretend that the pollution and environmental destruction caused by the fossil fuel industry is irrelevant.
Hedges typically refers to "climate crisis," "ecocide," etc, while it is *you* referring to "climate change" and CO2 itself somehow leading to extinction (that you bring up as a strawman to attack). Environment (and terms such as ecocide) by definition refer to ecology and the biosphere—not to the atmosphere—the total collapse thereof is hardly in dispute by any biologist whose observation is done from the real world where the destruction of the forests and all ecosystem is obvious.
The omens of death do not belong to the spheres of public opinion or worldview, but are statistics, facts, arithmetics. Nonetheless, the conservation of Earth's life as diverse and lush is a sacred matter and not only one of reason and logic, because the opposition of this ecocide is the opposition of the horrendous sowing of death that is causing the death of half a million to millions of species of animals, plants, and fungi a year. Human life, livestock, and domesticated animals make up 94% of the biomass of land mammals. If we continue to scavenge the globe to its bones, the only path forward is to that black pit of extinction with all the other megafauna made extinct in every continent humans have become dominant in over the past 12,000 years.
Challenging your stats is easy: they are irrelevant. They are the concern of the shallow ecologist as opposed to the deep ecologist. It is obvious all of this destruction will lead to our own, look at what it has gotten us: by desolating the Earth, we have exchanged the natural world and species egalitarianism inherent to nature for technology used to enslave us and destroy our minds, bodies, and souls—such as billions of cars and electronic entertainment devices—all in the name of "progress" and the holy religion of our technocratic priests. This miserable exchange has made the people of wealthy countries into the most unhappy, unemployed, sedentary, frustrated, aimless, and suicidal people in history.
By ignoring it and completely denying reality as you are doing—to instead chase after the shadows on the cave wall artificed by those whose sole objective is not the environment but to cynically maintain power and elite way of life in the face of limited resources and imminent collapse, such as those in the WEF—we continue onward, as Hedges has written, on our path of collective suicide. Do you really think we will maintain the "ability to live freely" on our current course, that we will march toward oblivion while hugging each other? The suffering will be maximal.
But you're confusing me with the other guy ... I never suggested that "CO2 itself would somehow lead to extinction" ... much to the contrary, I merely contend that climate change IS NOT an existential threat ... I also never said that the damage done by the MIC is irrelevant ...
Stop listening to mainstream media reports ... the globalists control all the levers of power, including the mainstream media outlets ... but you're ignoring the CO2 level ... Google claims that the CO2 level at which plant life dies is actually lower than my figure of 270 ppm ... Google puts it at only 150 ppm ...
That monster Tedros is one of Schwab's buddies ...
You can believe them, but based on the BS they're pulling on us right now with those amendments to the IHT, I'd never believe a word they say ... the WHO IS NOT accountable to anybody ... they can do and say whatever they want ... consider the source Jon ...
The only possible rational for Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signing a law into power, which prevents construction workers from taking water breaks — is that some of the rich and powerful are knowingly trying to kill-off and eliminate surplus population of people who are not rich and powerful.
My most recent double-sided, ad-hoc, focus-group tested, and 100% approved Demonstration signs, which I employ daily in Portland Maine & Portsmouth NH. simply say:
INEQUALITY
CAUSED BY
BILLIONAIRE
BASTARDS
and on the other side:
DEMOCRATIC
SOCIALISM
LOVE FOR
PEOPLE
Since, "these 'TIMES' they are a-changing" — hopefully toward the long arc of history to social, political, and economic progressivism in the human interest of all people of our world — not only for purely economic, militarist, and further inequality merely focused on the UHNWIs and self-appointed "Masters of the Universe".
However as the 'TIMES' reports here that "China’s leadership, which recently issued regulations demanding that A.I. chatbots must promote “socialist core values” — totally misses the point that Xi Jinping has repeatedly called for over four years at Chinese Party Congress sessions, where he 'upped the ante', accepting that broad focus on both leveraging technology and equality for the people verses excessive 'GINI Coefficient of Wealth Inequality' by the uber-rich should be reduced to a moderate 'mean' for all people to prosper, nearer to China's broad 'fair deal' of a GINI of 0.70, than America's world leading and excessive GINI of 0.90.
IMHO, the real value of any advanced country's economic, political, social, and progressive equality efforts as Xi committed to 'socialist democracy with Chinese characteristics' and invited Biden to 'see him' and commit to 'democratic socialism with American characteristics'.
The only possible rational for Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signing a law into power, which prevents construction workers from taking water breaks — is that some of the rich and powerful are knowingly trying to kill-off and eliminate surplus population of people who are not rich and powerful.
My most recent double-sided, ad-hoc, focus-group tested, and 100% approved Demonstration signs, which I employ daily in Portland Maine & Portsmouth NH. simply say:
INEQUALITY
CAUSED BY
BILLIONAIRE
BASTARDS
and on the other side:
DEMOCRATIC
SOCIALISM
LOVE FOR
PEOPLE
Since, "these 'TIMES' they are a-changing" — hopefully toward the long arc of history to social, political, and economic progressivism in the human interest of all people of our world — not only for purely economic, militarist, and further inequality merely focused on the UHNWIs and self-appointed "Masters of the Universe".
However as the 'TIMES' reports here that "China’s leadership, which recently issued regulations demanding that A.I. chatbots must promote “socialist core values” — totally misses the point that Xi Jinping has repeatedly called for over four years at Chinese Party Congress sessions, where he 'upped the ante', accepting that broad focus on both leveraging technology and equality for the people verses excessive 'GINI Coefficient of Wealth Inequality' by the uber-rich should be reduced to a moderate 'mean' for all people to prosper, nearer to China's broad 'fair deal' of a GINI of 0.70, than America's world leading and excessive GINI of 0.90.
IMHO, the real value of any advanced country's economic, political, social, and progressive equality efforts as Xi committed to 'socialist democracy with Chinese characteristics' and invited Biden to 'see him' and commit to 'democratic socialism with American characteristics'.
There has not been progress or support for the Palestinian people in a long while. Meanwhile the Dems are embarrassingly unrecognizable and we’re back in another destructive war. The two party state is what we’ve got, a third party candidate would still be working within this system. RFK Jr is the best choice in this two party system. I will not vote for either of the current leading candidates, Trump or Biden.
I find the reference to the apartheid (pron. correctly as "apart-hate", btw) state of Israel is both honest and appropriate. In fact I have just finished reading Antony Lowenstein's latest exposé on Zionist Israel and its weapons production and testing, on its surveillance testing on the Palestinians living now for decades under the Occupation of ever-increasing ugliness by the latest incarnation of a Netanyahu regime. "The Palestine Laboratory." And it exports its weapons and surveillance/phone hacking and worse systems to the worst of the dictatorships around the world - with seeming immunity from controls - all to turn a profit. Antony - from Melbourne - who has lived extensively in Israel and is also a German citizen - has impeccable qualifications for calling out Israel as an apartheid dealing ethno-nationalist theocratic Zionist state!
Thank you Chris. These are crucial words and a crucial reality. Those 2 parties are full of criminality and corruption.
Yet another nail in the coffin of the much vaunted so-called democracy of the US (beyond the gerrymandered electorates, the weirdly anti-democratic Electoral College system; the hundreds of millions of dollars it takes to mount a campaign, back room deals and the support of big business/corporations) this exposé of how truly representative candidates are stymied from participation - by uniquely engineered exclusionary laws in most of the states is simply mind-blowing. And yet the US puffs itself up before the world as somehow worthy of emulation??!! Instead of cringing in shame and embarrassment. Brilliantly enumerated - thanks otra vez otra vez Chris Hedges!
Glad to see Ted Lowi ("The End of Liberalism" was his classic) remembered.
I took a class with Lowi in grad school at Cornell. The lectures covered a lot of ground in history, philosophy, and political science that was new to me and the students were all far more broadly read than I was, so it was a struggle and I learned a lot. I can still recall Lowi's comments on an exam essay in red pen: "Stop spewing drivel and parroting lectures!". Ouch.
But, he praised my final paper for the course and pledged to help me get it published. That stuff stays with you for 40 years!
"Stop spewing drivel and parroting lectures!"
Today would he get fired for that?
Probably.
Lowi was quite a presence. He'd have no truck with silly ideas like students feeling "safe".
'Professor Lowi, I see hear that you have written to a student, "Stop spewing drivel and parroting lectures!" Professor Lowi, I must express my disappointment in your attempts at education. Have you truly no concept of the purpose of this institution?'
Cheap shot.
The University, in the 70's and 80's when I was there, although corporate funded, elite bourgeois student body, and on the cusp of the Neoliberal reaction, still maintained a sense of independence and integrity. There were plenty of lefties at SUNY Binghamton, and fewer but still plenty, at Cornell. Unfortunately, far too few "public intellectuals" like Lowi and Dr. West.
I would suggest that Prof. Lowi knew his student and knew that (respectful) bluntness would get through...
Gotta love the self-deprecation in the implication that "parroting lectures" = "spewing drivel"!
Jill Stein and her running mate of Green Party were arrested/detained twice for attempting to access the debate sites. In 2012 debate between Romney and Obama, for disorderly conduct charge. In 2016 Dr. Stein was presidential candidate on 85% of states’ ballots and again tried to enter the Clinton/Trump debate at Hofstra University. They were speaking and carrying an American flag and were stopped and held physically by police in the parking lot. They eventually sat on pavement and then were charged with blocking a car and taken into detention to a large warehouse and plastic tied to chairs for 8 hours guarded by a dozen troopers, then released on a misdemeanor.
Can you spell fascism any better than this?
No need. You already spelled it by naming Romney, Obama, Clinton and Trump. The rest is our sad history.
Great job, Chris. I worked in a minor state roll for Nader in Florida in 2000. I'll never forget him getting dragged out of debate he tried to attend with a ticket.
Did Ralph try to go up on the podium, or just wanted to sit quietly in the audience.
He just wanted to sit in the audience. And he had a ticket someone had given him
Chris - I think that "support Israel" was a cheap shot on Kennedy.
Kennedy and Cornel West agree on many major issues, including dismantling the the US empire, reigning in corporate power, ending permanent war, taking real action on the climate emergency, protecting free speech, criticizing the bias and lies of corporate media, investing in the people and US communities, and reducing inequality. Kennedy has even called for abolishing the CIA.
It was a shortsighted and divisive cheap shot too that reflects poor strategy..
Things are up for grabs and could go either way. Kennedy has a lot of his support from libertarians and the "populist right". If their views prevail, the Country goes even further to the fascist right (in the likely event that the Democrats sabotage him like they did Bernie, those Kennedy supporters will go to Trump)..
You should be seeking common ground from the left and forcing Kennedy (and the Dems) to the left. That way, Kennedy's people are more likely to go to West, and we begin to form a movement from the left.
I don't know how Hedges' stating the truth there is a cheap shot (at Kennedy). RFK Jr. was very clear in that position, and quite frankly, it was enough to make me realize that he's either completely ignorant about one of the world's (and U.S.'s) great, continuing injustices, or else he is willing to sell out the Palestinian people because he thinks speaking up for them would cost too many votes and draw too much AIPAC money against him. Neither is acceptable to me.
Yes, these two (RFK Jr. and West) do agree on many fundamentally important issues- and that matters. But Kennedy has a near-absolute-zero chance of securing the Democratic Party nomination. If the oligarchs & corporatist establishment that runs that Party were actually to allow him to win, that would itself be a strong warning sign to progressives and anti-establishment folk generally. But it won't happen. DNC, Inc., along with their networks of media and 'info' sources, will sandbag him even worse than they did Sanders in '16 and '20.
And given the very high likelihood that he won't be the Dem nominee, the libertarian fans of RFK will certainly not go to West; (but to Trump, as you suggest); and the progressive left who might be in RFK's camp will either go to West or else choose the LOTE choice ('team Blue') as they have many times before. So there is no reason NOT to speak honestly in our critiques of these candidates.
I don't want to rehash this debate, but you are missing my point.
You are taking a narrow electoral focus - but this is not about the '24 election and which candidates are on the ballot. This is about shifting the ideological conversation, educating people, and building a movement. That project is undermined when a single litmus test issue (Israel-Palestine) is used to sow division - while all other equally or more important issues of agreement are ignored - instead of promoting unity.
I agree with your claim that "the libertarian fans of RFK will certainly not go to West". Kennedy has a libertarian streak and he is a capitalist too. Kennedy's environmental politics are largely market based, despite the fact he spent the majority of his career suing corporate polluters. If those tendencies are allowed to continue to form coalition with the cultural right (largely white Christian nationalist fascists) and corporate power, we are in deep deep trouble.
Bill, I'm not seeking debate either. It's possible, but I don't think I missed your point. Rather, I'm not sure I agree with it.
RFK is running as a Dem (a questionable move IMO); and therefore there is automatically a division between any left-leaning 3rd Party and somewhat left- (or libertarian-) leaning candidate in the Dem. Party. There will be no 'unity' within the 'left' (though I really dislike such labels as they've become largely meaningless, being so subjective); aside from perhaps a consensus in backing RFK in the Dem Primary if possible and see where the chips fall. If I were to vote in the Dem Primary (I'm no longer registered "D"), I'd certainly pick RFK Jr. ; and in the general almost certainly vote for West against what will inevitably be the power establishment's pick. I think there can be widespread agreement on such a strategy.
Btw, I don't see Palestine as a litmus test. In fact, I learned long ago not to put any political figure on a pedestal, expecting saintly perfection and agreement with me on every issue. But pointing out that RFK Jr. is on the wrong side on Palestine strikes me as consistent with trying (at least) to push him to more progressive policies; and is consistent with a focus on democratic ideals, protection of human rights (and to the extent that Israel has become an essential part of the projection of U.S. hegemonic goals, a rejection of imperialism.)
I believe one can both be simultaneously progressive and populist. I ran such a campaign myself (as a "D"), and despite D's being only about 27% of the registered voters in a heavily "R" county, came within 0.05% of the win. We didn't know until 6 weeks later who'd won.
Lastly, I don't think in our discussing / debating Kennedy's positions here, we are going to have any influence whatsoever about RFK's campaign; or how much the cultural right supports him or influences him down the line. If anything, pushing him to be more true to anti-imperial, anti-war, anti-Apartheid positions would seem consistent with your own thoughts.
I'll extend a little benefit of the doubt to RFK Jr., in terms of his willingness to sell out. I do think it's a risk for anyone running in the Dem Party; and his position on Israel may hint of that. Yet, too, I do think that in his role challenging the powerful on other issues (whether environmental, the corrupting power of corporations (Pharma/health care, etc.), he has also demonstrated considerable spine... the kind many had perhaps too-trustingly hoped Sanders might have. Now that the latter has shrunk mainly into simple advocacy for a fairer tax allocation and whatever other economic crumbs he thinks the Party elites might consider, some say he betrayed them; but I just see that my own hopes were outsized, and not within the abilities or character of the man.
In any case, I'll back West. He 'gets it' (the connection between all of the issues that concern us) and he, too has demonstrated consistency in his principles- which strongly mesh with my own.
Just now I'm reading Edward Curtin's collected essays of 2020 Seeking Truth in a Country of Lies. It explains well through lots of essays (I'm 2/3 through) why RFK Jr might want to see the CIA gone - his uncle, his father, MLK and Malcolm X assassinated by the CIA - and I know that currently there is a scurrilous campaign - not unlike that against Julian Assange - to smear and demean him...
Thanks, Mr. Hedges. What we need is the truth and no political expediency. I'm independent and definitely RFK will not be my candidate. I'm leaning for Dr. West who, among many other good things, understands the Israel-Palestinian conflict.
I really don't think that West cares about political arithmetic. He's concerned with morality.
Almost every democracy on the planet has had proportional representation for decades. This is long overdue in the U.S. The winner-take-all system that the U.S. and U.K. have is unrepresentative, and is designed to keep non-establishment parties from getting candidates elected. Without changing to a proportional representation system, we'll never get a halfway decent government. Other changes, like eliminating all private campaign contributions and equal TV time for all candidates, are also needed, but changing to proportional representation is fundamentally needed.
Wow.. Just wow. Thank you so much for your clear, reasoned articulation of the political situation in the US. With the 2024 election a year and a half away, if amazes me to see otherwise sensible people become deranged by the prospect of a third party candidate. After the GWB and DJT election debacles, some people are just crazy because of that. Meanwhile, the Orwellian Democrats seize advantage of that fear to hold onto power.
Cornel West looks to be my candidate of choice do gsr in this early election cycle. Please unzombify yourself and consider 3rd party.
PS your individual vote should count in electing the POTUS not an electorial college official.
Great take down of the system that has not produced a desirable candidate in either of the two corporate parties in at least the last 30 years. Of course, what you describe is the political collapse of the US. At that point do we become a failed state or a zombie state?
Am I the only person in this hemisphere who has grown tired of hearing Hedges tell us how gloomy things are? ... In this article, he conveys the hopelessness of ever forming a third-party movement with a true voice ... agreed, things look bleak ... he could have also admitted that our only hope lies in the power of local government, but he just won't go there ...
Ever notice? ... Hedges will quickly point out the deep-seeded divisiveness among us and then reach into his bag of wedge issues to tell us our problem is Trump-MAGA ... The problem in America IS NOT Trump-MAGA ... the problem is the Elite's relentless pursuit of the goals of UN Agenda 21/30, and he obviously has no intention of ever going there ... I've followed him very closely since 2011 ... he has never even mentioned Agenda 21, the Book "the Fourth Industrial Revolution, The Great Reset or the World Economic Forum ... NOT ONCE, EVER! ... BTW, those Trump-MAGA types actually want the same things we do, like fair elections ...
Did you know? ... Hedges has cynically labeled those of us who openly question the motives and tactics of our elected officials as "conspiracy theorists" ... that's right and he's done it more than once ... ... if you happen to believe that 9/11 was an inside job as I do, Chris has in fact called us conspiracy theorists ...
Ever notice? ... although his core message has always been to confront tyranny, Hedges threw the working class under the bus with COVID once the March 2020 lock-downs were declared ... he has since refused to stand with us against the illegal and unconstitutional mandates and passports ...
Did you know? ... Hedges actually stood with big pharma and endorsed their "safe & effective" narrative just 30 days after the explosive court-ordered FDA FOIA release that revealed over 1200 deaths and 34,000 adverse events in the first 10 weeks of their COVID vaccine trial ... and after taking sides with big pharma in a 2022 interview with Krystal & Kyle, he also openly admitted that he does not trust Moderna and Phizer ... clearly this man did not give a hoot about the consequences ...
Ever notice? ... Hedges' position on the climate change aligns perfectly with the "existential threat" narrative pushed by unhinged Davos converts Al Gore and John Kerry ... more people are waking up to the existential threat BS, but Hedges keeps pushing it ... did you see how Gore and Kerry acted like complete, unhinged jack-asses when discussing this topic at the recent Davos conclave? ... great company Chris!
I've got all the details, all ya gotta do is ask ... times, dates and context for some truly damning, head-scratching quotes by St. Chris ... all ya gotta do is ask!
I like Chris but he is a little partisan, he sticks to left orthodoxy against what seems to be the obvious.
I used to love the guy, but not anymore ...
Things got dicey with COVID and he did a "tuck-and-run" ...
I hear ya, but he’s all right.
No, I'm not dumb ...
The CO2 threshold at which all plant and animal life dies is 270 ppm and current level is 420 ppm ... just Google it for yourself ... the globalists, with help of DS tools like Hedges are distorting the climate change issue to tax and limit and hinder our ability to live freely ... the diff between you and I is that I understand these fundamental facts of climate change and I base my belief on suppressed science ... you on the other hand, believe the climate poses an existential threat just because Chris Hedges said so ... if you want to challenge me on these stats, I'm ready ... so go ahead, make my day ...
Your obsession with CO2 is telling, considering you are the one who brought it up here in the first place. Is CO2 all you know to strawman against? Hedges wrote "They will not curb the fossil fuel industry or combat ecocide" and while the former could reasonably be read as indirectly in part about CO2 emissions, it is unreasonable to read it as singularly so; let's not pretend that the pollution and environmental destruction caused by the fossil fuel industry is irrelevant.
Hedges typically refers to "climate crisis," "ecocide," etc, while it is *you* referring to "climate change" and CO2 itself somehow leading to extinction (that you bring up as a strawman to attack). Environment (and terms such as ecocide) by definition refer to ecology and the biosphere—not to the atmosphere—the total collapse thereof is hardly in dispute by any biologist whose observation is done from the real world where the destruction of the forests and all ecosystem is obvious.
The omens of death do not belong to the spheres of public opinion or worldview, but are statistics, facts, arithmetics. Nonetheless, the conservation of Earth's life as diverse and lush is a sacred matter and not only one of reason and logic, because the opposition of this ecocide is the opposition of the horrendous sowing of death that is causing the death of half a million to millions of species of animals, plants, and fungi a year. Human life, livestock, and domesticated animals make up 94% of the biomass of land mammals. If we continue to scavenge the globe to its bones, the only path forward is to that black pit of extinction with all the other megafauna made extinct in every continent humans have become dominant in over the past 12,000 years.
Challenging your stats is easy: they are irrelevant. They are the concern of the shallow ecologist as opposed to the deep ecologist. It is obvious all of this destruction will lead to our own, look at what it has gotten us: by desolating the Earth, we have exchanged the natural world and species egalitarianism inherent to nature for technology used to enslave us and destroy our minds, bodies, and souls—such as billions of cars and electronic entertainment devices—all in the name of "progress" and the holy religion of our technocratic priests. This miserable exchange has made the people of wealthy countries into the most unhappy, unemployed, sedentary, frustrated, aimless, and suicidal people in history.
By ignoring it and completely denying reality as you are doing—to instead chase after the shadows on the cave wall artificed by those whose sole objective is not the environment but to cynically maintain power and elite way of life in the face of limited resources and imminent collapse, such as those in the WEF—we continue onward, as Hedges has written, on our path of collective suicide. Do you really think we will maintain the "ability to live freely" on our current course, that we will march toward oblivion while hugging each other? The suffering will be maximal.
And one more thing ...
It really looks like you created a strawman at which to direct your criticism ...
Clearly, your ability to "listen" as you read is a bit lacking ...
Thank you Emma ...
But you're confusing me with the other guy ... I never suggested that "CO2 itself would somehow lead to extinction" ... much to the contrary, I merely contend that climate change IS NOT an existential threat ... I also never said that the damage done by the MIC is irrelevant ...
We don't know that Jon ...
If I'm dumb, then you're gullible as hell ...
Stop listening to mainstream media reports ... the globalists control all the levers of power, including the mainstream media outlets ... but you're ignoring the CO2 level ... Google claims that the CO2 level at which plant life dies is actually lower than my figure of 270 ppm ... Google puts it at only 150 ppm ...
You make a very reasonable point Jon ...
But this does not make me dumb ...
Once again, consider the source Jon ...
Bloomberg is big business and big biz is Wall Street ...
This article just follows the globalists narrative ...
Why don't you quit listening to these bullies and do your own research?
Consider the source Jon ...
That monster Tedros is one of Schwab's buddies ...
You can believe them, but based on the BS they're pulling on us right now with those amendments to the IHT, I'd never believe a word they say ... the WHO IS NOT accountable to anybody ... they can do and say whatever they want ... consider the source Jon ...
The only possible rational for Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signing a law into power, which prevents construction workers from taking water breaks — is that some of the rich and powerful are knowingly trying to kill-off and eliminate surplus population of people who are not rich and powerful.
My most recent double-sided, ad-hoc, focus-group tested, and 100% approved Demonstration signs, which I employ daily in Portland Maine & Portsmouth NH. simply say:
INEQUALITY
CAUSED BY
BILLIONAIRE
BASTARDS
and on the other side:
DEMOCRATIC
SOCIALISM
LOVE FOR
PEOPLE
Since, "these 'TIMES' they are a-changing" — hopefully toward the long arc of history to social, political, and economic progressivism in the human interest of all people of our world — not only for purely economic, militarist, and further inequality merely focused on the UHNWIs and self-appointed "Masters of the Universe".
However as the 'TIMES' reports here that "China’s leadership, which recently issued regulations demanding that A.I. chatbots must promote “socialist core values” — totally misses the point that Xi Jinping has repeatedly called for over four years at Chinese Party Congress sessions, where he 'upped the ante', accepting that broad focus on both leveraging technology and equality for the people verses excessive 'GINI Coefficient of Wealth Inequality' by the uber-rich should be reduced to a moderate 'mean' for all people to prosper, nearer to China's broad 'fair deal' of a GINI of 0.70, than America's world leading and excessive GINI of 0.90.
IMHO, the real value of any advanced country's economic, political, social, and progressive equality efforts as Xi committed to 'socialist democracy with Chinese characteristics' and invited Biden to 'see him' and commit to 'democratic socialism with American characteristics'.
The only possible rational for Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signing a law into power, which prevents construction workers from taking water breaks — is that some of the rich and powerful are knowingly trying to kill-off and eliminate surplus population of people who are not rich and powerful.
My most recent double-sided, ad-hoc, focus-group tested, and 100% approved Demonstration signs, which I employ daily in Portland Maine & Portsmouth NH. simply say:
INEQUALITY
CAUSED BY
BILLIONAIRE
BASTARDS
and on the other side:
DEMOCRATIC
SOCIALISM
LOVE FOR
PEOPLE
Since, "these 'TIMES' they are a-changing" — hopefully toward the long arc of history to social, political, and economic progressivism in the human interest of all people of our world — not only for purely economic, militarist, and further inequality merely focused on the UHNWIs and self-appointed "Masters of the Universe".
However as the 'TIMES' reports here that "China’s leadership, which recently issued regulations demanding that A.I. chatbots must promote “socialist core values” — totally misses the point that Xi Jinping has repeatedly called for over four years at Chinese Party Congress sessions, where he 'upped the ante', accepting that broad focus on both leveraging technology and equality for the people verses excessive 'GINI Coefficient of Wealth Inequality' by the uber-rich should be reduced to a moderate 'mean' for all people to prosper, nearer to China's broad 'fair deal' of a GINI of 0.70, than America's world leading and excessive GINI of 0.90.
IMHO, the real value of any advanced country's economic, political, social, and progressive equality efforts as Xi committed to 'socialist democracy with Chinese characteristics' and invited Biden to 'see him' and commit to 'democratic socialism with American characteristics'.
IMHO the most significant issue is the GINI Coefficient of Wealth
Inequality which is produced by massive greed and the slight-of-
hand to excellently camouflage the distortion of far more faux-
wealth through 'Negative Externality Cost' looting by the self-
appointed "Masters of the Universe" — rather than ‘Positive
Externality Profits' (PEP) — for 'we the people' of our world.
BTW, cute but scam propagandist terms like the worn-out SRI,
and ESG — could better be employed for all the people with
serious and honest investment candor through PEP (Positive
Externality Profits) for the people.
As my two most recent double-sided demonstration signs simply say:
INEQUALITY
CAUSED BY
BILLIONAIRE
BASTARDS
and on the other side:
DEMOCRATIC
SOCIALISM
LOVE FOR
PEACE
second one:
‘NEGATIVE
EXTERNALITY
COST’
LOOTING
and on the other side:
‘POSITIVE
EXTERNALITY
PROFITS’
FOR PEOPLE
There has not been progress or support for the Palestinian people in a long while. Meanwhile the Dems are embarrassingly unrecognizable and we’re back in another destructive war. The two party state is what we’ve got, a third party candidate would still be working within this system. RFK Jr is the best choice in this two party system. I will not vote for either of the current leading candidates, Trump or Biden.
You were going fine till ‘apartheid state of Israel.
The phenomenon you talk about is the same all over the western world. The uni party rules.
I find the reference to the apartheid (pron. correctly as "apart-hate", btw) state of Israel is both honest and appropriate. In fact I have just finished reading Antony Lowenstein's latest exposé on Zionist Israel and its weapons production and testing, on its surveillance testing on the Palestinians living now for decades under the Occupation of ever-increasing ugliness by the latest incarnation of a Netanyahu regime. "The Palestine Laboratory." And it exports its weapons and surveillance/phone hacking and worse systems to the worst of the dictatorships around the world - with seeming immunity from controls - all to turn a profit. Antony - from Melbourne - who has lived extensively in Israel and is also a German citizen - has impeccable qualifications for calling out Israel as an apartheid dealing ethno-nationalist theocratic Zionist state!