Once more, Biden and Trump are symptoms of the problems besetting America and, by extension, the world.
The only thing Harris offers over Biden is a slightly more articulate manner of speaking and some idpol points for those who thrill to the idea that a woman is ordering the bombing this time around.
Agreed. Media reporting of politics has taken a chapter from Little League baseball which it increasingly resembles. Except less sophisticated. Vide parents from opposing teams brawling under the stands. After all there are only two teams to cover in American politics and their uniforms and their core values and are virtually identical. Of course presentations of self may differ superficially.but as Hedges and others point out, no one should be misled. So It’s all about the gaming and who is “winning”. This means breathlessly reported daily polls, known to be near useless, especially now that voters game them by lying about their leanings. But what do the pollsters care?. They get it wrong with impunity. Their own results are themselves gamed by shrewd weaselly ascertainment, and note how the populations studied are highly variable. A good pollster should be able to come up with any result pleasing to their employers, if they have any skill at all.. and those results translate into donors favour? You betcha.
The staggeringly low compliance rate of phone polls - often <10% , would trigger immediate rejection of any paper with such cripplingly low hit rates at a scientific journal, without them even taking the trouble to send it out for review. In fact for clinical trials a follow-up rate of only 80% (dropout rate of even 20%) would cause alarm.
So what does Kamala Harris actually stand for? The media friendliness to her now contrasts with the habitual sliming of her just a few months ago. The media must have been on the road to Damascus when they saw the light. St. Kamala in their future.
Some democracy! Ranked 26th in the world in the Economist’s Democratic Index the US is hardly posterizing democracy. And 26th is ironically where America ranks on OECD’s PISA which evaluates adolescent educational achievement.
Real change requires the people to have the courage to reject both faces of the uni-party and elect someone they actually agree with on substance. Stop voting against and out of fear. Vote for who you actually want. Courage is being afraid and doing the right thing anyway.
Agree. And how often has an American voter actually directly voted on something important? A Hobson’s choice every 4 years doesn’t qualify?
So the government can piss away $8 trillion on NamIraqAfghan (25x what it would take to end world hunger) and never actually vote on any of them. Referenda are used in many countries and they work. Any pol who opposes this should be grilled as to why.
I'm not as intelligent or as eloquent as our dear Chris Hedges but I've been singing the same song, albeit it in a different key, for ages. I always go back to the Powell Memorandum of 1971 and the various Supreme Court decisions, especially Citizens United, which allowed unregulated funding for campaigns. The influence, or should I say takeover, of the military/industrial/political complex.
Both parties are guilty. If Trump wins we're doomed. If Harris, or whoever becomes the Democratic candidate, wins will they address the real problems with our dysfunctional government. Curiosity will keep me around until November. ;-)
If Trump wins, we're doomed. If Harris or whoever the corporate Dems select wins, we're doomed in a slightly altered way. Both wings of the Business/War party are destroying this country and as much of the rest of the world they can get their greedy hands on. A vote for either of these charlatans is a vote for suicide.
As I said both parties are guilty. This hasn't happened over night. Once again we are choosing between the lesser of 2 evils. However with one evil we are really doomed. The other we may have a chance of surviving. In an earlier post I pointed out that there are numerous groups, most of which have some form of "save/preserve/protect our democracy" in their title. Many are aware of the problem but sadly we lack a leader. Most successful movements have had someone with charisma who knows how to "herd the cats". We need a JFK, MLK, Gloria Steinem. We may have passed our expiration date but I have not totally given up.
None of this can be fixed. It's gone on far too long and there are too many moving parts impossible to track and do anything about. We have to learn how to Live in a World that Can't Be Fixed. TPTB have fucked it beyond all repair. To fix any of it we'd need to ORGANIZE effectively, and we've proven over decades that we have no skill or even serious interest in doing that. We're as irresponsible as the assholes who have wrecked the world.
Ms. Steinem worked hand in glove with the CIA. Reportedly she felt the organization was benevolent in the '60s and '70s, as if Operation CHAOS, its infiltration of anti-war organizations in violation of its charter to stay out of domestic surveillance, didn't exist.
Thanks for that. Was not aware. Just proves the same person, self included, is capable of good and bad. My favorite word fits again, agakakological. :-)
You must have looked it up. Thanks for spelling correction. One does that at 91. It also challenges the tongue when saying it. Believe it or not I use it a lot, especially at school board meetings.
The "problem" is that so very few really understand this. And so we keep doing the same things decade after decade expecting different results, believing *this* time we'll really change things! Are Americans the only people who refuse to ever learn anything that might matter?
I fear that we are quite simply too comfortable to create the massive change required to actually shatter the current system. As a mass of populace we're informed enough to know the horrible happenings erupting but we're too occupied with the details of living to even figure out how to effect change. This is the situation our "leaders" have created and I suspect lots of these nesting particulars are not coincidental. Folks gotta hustle cause good jobs are rare. It's going to catastrophically end at some point but so many of us are preoccupied with culture clash nonsense and entertainment diversions we are unable to catalyze a critical mass even when the offenses are so blatant and unmistakable (see Gazan extermination and climate collapse). Mad Max hellscape is rapidly approaching.
No it's not just Americans. The British are the same. (See the recent election results). It's partly because of our electoral systems which means that any alternative to the two big parties hasn't a hope of getting into power. Having said that, the French seem to have destroyed their two big parties in a way that would have seemed impossible just ten years ago.
My one point of dissent is that speaking very generally, I don’t think Trump, or his followers, are more fascist inclined than the Democrats. Having lived in a blue state for a time, I actually find Trump supporters more tolerant, and more fun actually, than the NYTimes crowd, who really are unbearable.
Usually I agree with what Chris Hedges writes. This time, however, something of bitterness overcomes his rhetoric. I too hated the way the Dems worked against Bernie but since then I have watched Bernie make common cause with them because of the threats of corporatism and fascism that have completely overtaken the insane Right. A "genuine and committed base"on that Right is nothing to envy or juxtapose with the Democratic base that could turn the tide away from Trump. That is, if you are "committed" to racism, gun rights, misogyny, and Christian nationalism, then your commitment is just about as evil as we have seen in this country. Now, and just for a moment, I want to applaud Biden for stepping away, as he should have done earlier. What else can we say is possible given the system under which we live? Ever since I've been able to vote, I have mostly voted for the Democrat, and never wholeheartedly. I voted for Nader; and where did that get us? My state still went for Gore and it seemed, as it seems now, a useless shot across the bow unless we are ready for a revolution. Are we? And what would that cost in human lives? It would be put down so viciously that I would hate to see it happen. I thought I would not live to see a woman elected president, but I might now. With all her (many) flaws, I have some hope I will see it and maybe, as I've seen over the decades some bending the arc toward justice. It's slow and frustrating but I wouldn't want to live elsewhere or at another time.
The commitment to racism, misogyny, etc is as ginned up as the commitment to DEI as a solution to these issues. The point is to silo us into 2 opposing camps and get us to war with each other.
There is a reason Roe never got codified. It was a useful campaign issue. There is a reason schools never got fixed - regardless of party, and why campaign cash is plowed into the system to make sure university education is a road to debt slavery; educated proletariats are dangerous to both parties.
I agree with you, especially about DEI as weaponized as it is. I want to see more attention given to issues of socioeconomic class as well as to the plutocratic tendencies among Dems as well as Republicans. I want to push Harris to abandon the awful genocide we are complicit in in Gaza and I think she might be able to be pushed as Biden was not. I want those Progressives in congress to pledge loyalty to her but only with strings attached: that is, to work hard for her election in a transaction that involves her commitment to a living wage, affordable housing, better infrastructure, a reformed judiciary (really our biggest threat now is the Supremes), fair tax laws, and end to the very billionaire oligarchy that has evolved for decades. As a retired public university professor I want also to see her lead the charge for free higher ed and also for quality free education and health care for all. I hope Progressives can make her see these issues as central while we dismantle the military-industrial complex. It will take time and perhaps many seasons of elections. Hope I live to see it.
She has absolutely no record on which to base those hopes. She is a product of the Burton machine in California. She is on every metric right of center, has never been a progressive (in spite of rather confusing rhetoric that makes her sound like a stoned yoga teacher.) She is currently serving I. The role of sacrificial lamb, but after Trump slaughters her (and he will), she will be well rewarded. Her political career will be done, but she will earn far more money on her speaking tour.
I didn't say that Harris herself was a Progressive. I said that the Progressives in the legislature need to hold her feet to the fire, as they have started to do with Biden, to get more of the Progressive agenda passed. That's never going to happen if we give up to this kind of cynicism.
It's impossible to be too "cynical" (read: realistic) about either of these billionaire funded parties. You're either professionally naive or too young to know any better. That "feet to the fire" bromide was proven to be utter bullshit decades ago. It never happens. And even if it does the Dem politician getting a foot warmer is always wearing asbestos boots.
What's the solution then to the dilemma? We have moved some since the founding of this country in the 18th century. Not enough, of course. We cannot be complacent, but we cannot be nihilistic. I'm 75 years old and I've seen progress, again, not enough. How old are YOU?
Biden did nothing remotely "progressive." His "historic" climate initiatives spend less than 15% of what we do on blowing up stuff and massacring peple around the world. And those initiatives are neutered by requirements to open up millions of acres per year for gas and oil exploration before any of the initiatives can even be started. And that historic legislation to negotiate pharmaceutical prices with Medicare? That applies to 10 medications out of 2000 prescribed in the US and doesn't go into effect for three years. In response to this, pharmaceutical companies have been raising prices on most other prescription drugs including generics. Holding their feet tot he fire is nonsense because they will play pretend as if they are listening, nip a bit around the edges so they can campaign on something, and for the average American everything from health care to cost of living just gets exponentially worse. The Demcoratic Party crushes progressivism at every turn, now to the poinst that AOC and Ilhan Omar are lapdogs for Biden and Harris.
A useful perspective from a medical professional. I hope that the AMA and other such institutions will join those of us, including Kamala Harris, in supporting the policy of Medicare for All--as she did in 2020. If not, then what is the alternative? What is your Plan B? Moving to France?! Like you, I find the Dems never Progressive enough. In fact, they're too beholden to the military industrial complex. Yet, so long as there are only two major parties, I'm going to try to influence one of them. I know I'll die before this country becomes what I'd like it to be. But I cannot be hopeless.
So how you gonna "hold her feet to the fire" after Harris gets elected?
It's as if you've never heard of a politician who forgets her campaign promises, or the first rule of bait and switch "put the gun down and then we'll talk".
Please check out her speech on the Edmund Petis bridge back in March. You will see her not just calling for a ceasefire multiple times but going into details about the suffering of the Palestinians. I'm sure Biden raked her over the coals for that.
Thank you, Lily Witham, for your post. I don't know much about that woman and so I will have to research deeply into her stand against genocide as with the other candidates. For me it is more important to stop the murdering of children and babies than the luxuries we believe we deserve. I will vote only for the one I'm sure is not a murderer.
Can and will the Progressives do the right thing and steer Harris away from corporate America which owns the government? Harris must stop the genocide in Gaza. Put a stop to the military/industrial complex that controls the government and perpetuates these proxy wars around the globe.
She has taken $5 million from AIPAC and made some sickening Zionist speeches to them. She just released a statement as to how firmly she stands with Israel. Turn the page.
I have protested (in the streets and elsewhere) every war since Vietnam. I don't rationalize here; I believe in putting pressure on elected officials to end war, to dismantle the military-industrial complex. I do what I can to stop the genocide in Gaza. Who among us is infallible? Show me and I'll vote for that person.
However much you're "against" war and the genocide in Gaza, when you vote for someone who aids, abets, funds and defends genocide, you've gone to the dark side. Period. Your values are hazy and fluid. That's no red line.
Well there still must be such a thing as moral and amoral, right and wrong. Just not when it comes to those in power I suppose, for that we must set those things aside and expect amorality, pathologic lying and gaslighting.
"... this assault on the working class created a crisis that forced the ruling elites to devise a new political paradigm. Trumpeted by a compliant media, this paradigm shifted its focus from the common good to race, crime and law and order." BINGO!! Penetrating, succinct, true.
Biden was allowed a contest-free path to the Democratic nomination for President. This means that Ms. Harris was along for the ride.
The last time Vice President Harris actually faced voters on her own was during the 2020 Democratic Presidential primary contests. She won no primary contest. She did win the hearts of the Hamptons' billionaires.
Will voters view her presidential campaign as legitimate? This voter will not.
My state has not given ballot line access nor a certificate of candidacy to the Green Party. I cannot write in Jill Stein, M.D. Wrenching control of ballot line access from the duopoly in every state must be a priority.
Okay, I'm as cynical as the next guy. But what proof do you actually have that Kamala Harris is Joe Biden with a tan in skirts and high heels? I've been watching her for two decades and have not seen any proof of this. It may happen, the deep state being the monster it is. But give the woman a break, especially since attacking her is only a favor for Trump. What's wrong with you? The slightest bit of daylight is a helluva lot better than no light at all. She does NOT have the same attitude towards Israel as Biden does. That is an outright lie. Not that I think our votes really matter. We need to get rid of Citizens United, cut 3/4 of the CIA and bring it under someone's control, separate the Jewish mafia from our government, end all this lobbying of high tech and the arms industry, cut the DOD and bring it under the control of the Executive, for god's sake. Opportunism has no place in government. Or in a nation's finances.
Trump's base will turn on him as quickly as the Democratic base will turn when the dollar collapses. I'm glad to see the end of Biden. But let's create something that will save the multitude who have no clue what is going on behind the scenes.
Then you haven't been paying attention. I'm not saying she's the messiah. She's not. I'm not saying she's not as vulnerable to the Zionist predators as everyone else. She's not. But she sure as hell ain't Biden. He included her on the ticket because she's female, Black and Asian. And Californian. So she helped get him elected. Just because she didn't attack him when he was President doesn't mean she agrees with him right down the line. She does not. And she cannot possibly be as bad as he has been. That's just not possible. For just about anyone. Trump is a crap shoot. But the minute his giving billions to Israel turns into a bump in inflation, his base will scream and he will back down. One difference between Biden and Harris is about 100 IQ points in her favor.
I want evidence too. I'm tired of opinions passing for news, including on Substack. We don't know the backgrounds of any of the people commenting or running Substacks so we haven't a clue how to assess what they or we say. Harris has a long history serving in government at various levels. You can look up her record. Are you saying you need it spoon-fed to you? I respect you too much to believe that. You can do the research. If you care, do it.
I don't think you understand how the burden of proof works.
Meanwhile,
“She and President Biden are in lockstep when it comes to Israel. There is no daylight between them to be found,” said Halie Soifer, who was Harris’ national security adviser when she was a senator.
Are you an attorney? I'm not. However, I did work under Harris when she was DA (far down the food chain) and have watched her career with interest ever since. Because of the work I did I probably know how the legal and law enforcement systems in the City and County of San Francisco works better than you but I won't bore you with the details. The law is rarely clean. Many guilty parties get off on technicalities. There are good reasons for many of the things Harris decided. Or if not good reasons, significant reasons. The world isn't black and white. If it were, we could represent ourselves in court. But I do not recommend it.
The situation in 2016 vis a vis Israel has changed a lot and very few people on this planet (outside rabid Zionists) agree with Biden 100 percent. I doubt Harris does either. In any case, Trump is a nutcase and the people behind him are ethically challenged and the US has too much power over at least half the planet. So unless she's actively pro-Israel, I will consider voting for her. Not that it matters. I could wax eloquent on the subject of burden of proof. But won't. Suffice it to say, it usually does not apply to the poor, people of color, most women or many immigrants.
I believe the great part of Donald Duck's constituency is the 30% religious nuts of this country who consider him the Messiah and they are not going to turn against him no matter what, inflation, crime, more convictions etc.
From what I have seen most Christian ministers--including an alarming number who have been to theological seminary--do not understand basic Christianity. And even though they are threatened with losing their tax-free status as a church if they preach politics from the pulpit, most of them do one way or another. In rural America, you can wake up and say you dreamed God told you you had a calling. To be a Baptist minister and start a church (which pays 8-10% tithing to keep you in beer) you just need 5 or 6 ministers to say you are telling the truth. WTF? You do not need to know ANYTHING about Christianity. I know quite a few people around here who make a living, or a partial living, this way. Are they Christian? No. They are predators of rubes. This cultural meme goes way back in history. Read Flannery O'Connor. Just as their congregations can be manipulated one direction, they can be manipulated another. They only need to be convinced it is in their personal interest. Take the financial aspect out of the equation and most of these ministers would be preaching a very different tune. Remove money from religion. Good luck on that. If you really wanted to do so, you could shut down a LOT of churches by videotaping their political preaching and sending it to the IRS. Being paid to be hypocrites. How F'ing Christian is that? I would love to hear Jesus on the topic. Obviously, no genuine Christian could ever consider DD the messiah. Let me add that if they could crucify Jesus they can crucify Donald Duck. No one is above the law in human nature. Not even an inflated orange pumpkin.
"Obviously, no genuine Christian could ever consider DD the messiah. Let me add that if they could crucify Jesus they can crucify Donald Duck." The problem is IMHO to define what is genuine Christianity. If it is Jesus's allegedly teachings that the gospels tell us, then you are right. But by the time that the Romans executed that seditious rabi there were not Christians, only a bunch of illiterate Jewish disciples who listened to him for three years and learned nothing. We can only talk of Christianity when a well-educated Jew, Paul, thought he had a revelation and he and his followers for two thousand years betrayed the original teachings. The result was the collapse of western civilization and the enthroning of fanatism.
Hi, Julio, No-one can argue that the disciples weren’t a bit thick, but remember Isaiah 55v11 : [My word] shall not return unto me void but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it”.
I was under the impression that Christianity had contributed to the growth as much as to the decline of western civilisation; if we had stuck with the Vikings you might have had a bit more equal opportunity slavery, but Christianity eventually helped put the brakes on legalised slavery.
St Paul was, oddly, responsible both for missionary “church planting” and for a certain nombrilism in the billions of hours of exegetics required to establish that the devotees have righteously considered everything he said.
The four short gospels seem to basically agree on the teachings of Christ, which are still accessible. Nobody need be shipwrecked for you to hear the good news. He who has ears to hear…
Tulsi Gabbard absolutely decimated Kamala Harris regarding these issues in the democratic debates of 2019. No one seems to remember any of these glaring deficiencies of judgment nor Ms. Harris's Lawful misfeasance. Excellent link. Thanks.
True. Biden never slept with Willie Brown to advance his career. (He did sleep with Storm Thurmond as I recall, though the sex was probably not carnal.)
Harris in March on Gaza: “People in Gaza are starving. The conditions are inhumane. And our common humanity compels us to act. Given the immense scale of suffering in Gaza, there must be an immediate ceasefire for six weeks." Empty rhetoric.
From a NYT oped (2019) by a CA law professor:
"Time after time, when progressives urged her to embrace criminal justice reforms as a district attorney and then the state’s attorney general, Ms. Harris opposed them or stayed silent. Most troubling, Ms. Harris fought tooth and nail to uphold wrongful convictions that had been secured through official misconduct that included evidence tampering, false testimony and the suppression of crucial information by prosecutors.
Consider her record as San Francisco’s district attorney from 2004 to 2011. Ms. Harris was criticized in 2010 for withholding information about a police laboratory technician who had been accused of “intentionally sabotaging” her work and stealing drugs from the lab. After a memo surfaced showing that Ms. Harris’s deputies knew about the technician’s wrongdoing and recent conviction, but failed to alert defense lawyers, a judge condemned Ms. Harris’s indifference to the systemic violation of the defendants’ constitutional rights.
Ms. Harris contested the ruling by arguing that the judge, whose husband was a defense attorney and had spoken publicly about the importance of disclosing evidence, had a conflict of interest. Ms. Harris lost. More than 600 cases handled by the corrupt technician were dismissed."
The United States is a failing empire and no amount of politicians or soldiers can bring it back. Not that it was great to begin with. The U.S. was always built on the bones of those who stood in its way as it strived to be relevant on the worlds stage throughout its history. WWII just gave it a better opportunity after Europe and Asia were destroyed and depopulated. But it was always a house of cards propped up by the military industrial complex and greedy politicians.
I salute this courageous, timely article, anathema even to most "progressive" Democrats. I'm curious to hear Chris's thoughts--which I always value and consider--on whether the climate issue will make a vote for presumptive Dem nominee Kamala Harris worthwhile. Republicans are clearly reckless climate terrorists, but is there any hope that a Harris administration will actually start REPLACING fossil fuels with renewables, rather than continue the indefensible "all of the above" policies of Joe Biden, which in 2024 produced more fossil fuel than Trump ever did. I'd like to have SOME intelligent rationale for voting in this purportedly "watershed" election.
Let me offer a possible (plausible?) scenario. Harris is led to believe--the simple truth--that Republican's lunatic climate policy is their worst Achilles heel and starts to emphasize it in debates with Trump and in her campaign. Hell, JD Vance, a Catholic convert, is spitting in the face of his Vicar of Christ, Pope Francis, on this issue. BIG political points can be scored by pointing all of this out. Hence, Harris paints herself (Whore of Babylon makeup?) as robust climate champion. Do you seriously think enraptured young supporters--like the Sunrise Movement--will at this late stage in the climate emergency--let her get away with not "walking the talk"? Donors are potent--but not everything--and besides, Dems now have (by default, of course) many wealthy donors on the renewables side of things.
Perhaps, but climate change is one of the VERY few issues (Palestine genocide certainly isn't) where there is noticeable, OBVIOUS daylight between Dems and Repugs. Almost out of desperation for something to stand on, Harris might be obligated to take up this issue.
My suspicion is that Harris is an unprincipled political opportunist like Biden, who swings with the political winds. That said, those winds change--sometimes with gale force. Hence, I wonder whether the same forces that drove Biden, first to offer strong support for the climate-friendly features of the Inflation Reduction Act--and now to drop out--could sway Harris to do the right thing on climate. Republican's policy is so manifestly criminally insane (in effect, genocidal) and the climate emergency itself is so manifest that it might offer a political weathervane like Harris no choice. Am I dreaming here?
I read that article as well. I wish she had also discussed Harris's campaign against Terrence Hallinan for DA. I think that contains much that would show a lack of progressive ideals from Ms Harris.
This is more of the same! The Dems lie to your face and serve the elite just as much as Republicans do. Elect Jill Stein! She has enough states to get to 270 right now and more on the way. Great platform and an answer to the lesser evil BS they've been shoveling my entire life. I am so dismayed that people are even considering Harris. Her top cop record is atrocious and she will say anything to get elected. Nov 6th will be business as usual -nothing for the American people! Workers Strike Back started by the highly effective Kshama Sawant just endorsed Jill Stein 2024!! Join the real revolution!
They are rallying outside the DNC Convention in August. We're all invited
Thank you Chris for telling it it IS. Not mincing words. Elucidating the true crimes against most ordinary Americans that the Dishonest Dems, who we expected to differentiate themselves from amoral wealthy corporate Republicans an donations from Multi Millionaires and Billionaires.
Well, you've done a good job of getting everybody's tongue wagging! It means people are thinking. But, like Monty Python, I think that all right thinking people are wrong. Personally, I blame St. Ronnie who pushed the Republicans so far to the right that all the reasonable Republicans fled to the Democratic party which destroyed the party and turned it into a zombified Republican lite. The reason people game the voting is simple. They don't have a choice to vote for some one that they want to vote for so they vote for somebody that they figure will screw the other side up.
The media is even worse. They are such craven suckups because we skipped out on the trust busters of the last century and the media became concentrated in the hands of a very few right thinking people who then told the nation what the right thinking answer was. Finally, the media has become infotainment. It's telling you what you think you want to hear, not what you need to know. Oh, right. And we did away with the fairness doctrine. So you don't have to be bothered by contending thoughts.
Lastly, we are not a democracy. We are a plutocracy. Anytime that your vote is equivalent to money, any time the loudness of your voice is governed by how much money you have, you no longer have a demos anything and you have nothing but plutos.
I blame Clinton and other Dems from that time who decided that the best way to win back the working white males who left to join the GOP was to emulate the GOP. NAFTA, incarceration, ending welfare as we know it, etc. have gotten us here. And yet Dems haven't won those folks back. In the meantime they have ignored the base that remained, many of whom have now left for other parties or simply stopped voting.
Meanwhile the political media have bypassed the Venerable and Blessed stages of cannonization and gone directly to Sainthood for Biden. Hard to stomach.
Another thought that occurred - If Biden's not compos mentis to stand in a campaign, he does not have the capacity to run the domestic and foreign affairs of a national government with a massive nuclear arsenal.
This last concept is popular with Republicans, but that doesn't make it untrue.
To use Chris’ analytic framework, what we have is an inverted totalitarian state, for which Biden served as the hood ornament. Trump wants to be as big a part of the engine as possible. And, he has some scores to settle with portions of the MICIMATT. The second I- the intelligence community, and the second M, the media. If Trump wins, an elected person who is personally a narcissist and delusional will be added to a totalitarian system whose guiding principle is that of neoconservatism, which is based on systemic narcissism (the city on the hill; the indispensable nation) and systemic delusion (full-spectrum domination of the world). Interesting times.
I know by extensive and bitter personal experience that Chris's account is true. As a local D campaign mgr and blue collar union activist, I fought the neolib leveraged buy-out of the D party. I witnessed the purging of the New Deal and abandonment of labor; thereby the abandonment of the majority working class. As well as of any notion of the common good.
The Ds represent the 10-20% administrative and professional class. Who live in the same upper middle class neighborhoods and graduated from the same elite universities as their corporate class neighbors. People who aren't affected by mass layoffs, the lack of a national healthcare system, or deaths of despair. And who benefit from neolib trickle-up. The same who as well paid bureaucrats enable oligarchies, plutocracies, and dictatorships by keeping them functioning.
Apparently the D elite has also accustomed itself to serving as an ally for the neocons--how else could they feel comfortable with the Dick Cheney trained neocons running the Biden Dept. of State? Few, if any, of the D apologists ever even acknowledge this, let alone explain it. For years I've asked the D faithful why they are for a neolib party that never questions an econ system destroying life on Earth. Then add why they're okay with the Biden neocons. So far the only "answers" I've received are ad hominems, whataboutisms, slippery slope, straw man, irrelevant reactive criticisms, and other common logical fallacies--whatever it takes to deflect the subject away from uncomfortable evidence and onto the person who asks.
The idea that Kamala Harris must be better because BIPOC ignores yet more uncomfortable evidence. The D elite has no problem with race, religion, gender, or sexual orientation. As long as you have been clearly differentiated from the unimportant and declasse' masses. Most often through the requisite Ivy education or the equivalent by which you qualify as part of their "meritocracy." So memorably named as //The Best and the Brightest,// David Halberstam's book about how the Ivy Ds of that era got us into the horrors of Vietnam.
What we peasant nobodies see as a fatal arrogance, they see as certainty, control, precision, and an either/or logic. With us or against us, good guy or bad guy, true or false, winner or loser. Yet in the post-Einstein world quantum physicists have been telling us about for over 100 years relativity, uncertainty, and ambiguity are reality.
Wow. I am uncomfortably enjoying this journey through the comments. I've long appreciated Mr. Hedges writing and reporting but spending time immersed in this community is well worth the tiny price of admission. Thank you all for sharing your thoughts and experiences. I'm richer for your contributions.
Wow. I am uncomfortably enjoying this journey through the comments. I've long appreciated Mr. Hedges writing and reporting but spending time immersed in this community is well worth the tiny price of admission. Thank you all for sharing your thoughts and experiences. I'm richer for your contributions.
Once more, Biden and Trump are symptoms of the problems besetting America and, by extension, the world.
The only thing Harris offers over Biden is a slightly more articulate manner of speaking and some idpol points for those who thrill to the idea that a woman is ordering the bombing this time around.
Agreed. Media reporting of politics has taken a chapter from Little League baseball which it increasingly resembles. Except less sophisticated. Vide parents from opposing teams brawling under the stands. After all there are only two teams to cover in American politics and their uniforms and their core values and are virtually identical. Of course presentations of self may differ superficially.but as Hedges and others point out, no one should be misled. So It’s all about the gaming and who is “winning”. This means breathlessly reported daily polls, known to be near useless, especially now that voters game them by lying about their leanings. But what do the pollsters care?. They get it wrong with impunity. Their own results are themselves gamed by shrewd weaselly ascertainment, and note how the populations studied are highly variable. A good pollster should be able to come up with any result pleasing to their employers, if they have any skill at all.. and those results translate into donors favour? You betcha.
The staggeringly low compliance rate of phone polls - often <10% , would trigger immediate rejection of any paper with such cripplingly low hit rates at a scientific journal, without them even taking the trouble to send it out for review. In fact for clinical trials a follow-up rate of only 80% (dropout rate of even 20%) would cause alarm.
So what does Kamala Harris actually stand for? The media friendliness to her now contrasts with the habitual sliming of her just a few months ago. The media must have been on the road to Damascus when they saw the light. St. Kamala in their future.
Some democracy! Ranked 26th in the world in the Economist’s Democratic Index the US is hardly posterizing democracy. And 26th is ironically where America ranks on OECD’s PISA which evaluates adolescent educational achievement.
Real change requires the people to have the courage to reject both faces of the uni-party and elect someone they actually agree with on substance. Stop voting against and out of fear. Vote for who you actually want. Courage is being afraid and doing the right thing anyway.
Agree. And how often has an American voter actually directly voted on something important? A Hobson’s choice every 4 years doesn’t qualify?
So the government can piss away $8 trillion on NamIraqAfghan (25x what it would take to end world hunger) and never actually vote on any of them. Referenda are used in many countries and they work. Any pol who opposes this should be grilled as to why.
"So what does Kamala Harris actually stand for?"
Harris stands for Team D, which is simply the political manifestation of the PMC, and checks certain idpol boxes.
Team R, FWIW, is merely the class consciousness of Local Gentry made manifest.
What does PMC stand for? What is idpol short for? Please remember that not everyone lives on social media.
Not sure about PMC (private military company?), but idpol is identity politics. Candidates who capitalize on their race, gender, etc.
PMC in this context may mean the Professional Managerial Class.
PMC means Professional Managerial Class.
Idpol refers to identity politics.
and FWIW?
FWIW means For What Its Worth.
"Poor People have been voting for Democrats for the last 50 years, ..... and they are still poor."
- Sir Charles Barkley -
Nearly all the money spent on poor people in the US actually goes to people who are already not poor. -MLK.
Damn straight. 80% of funding slips into the pockets of "our" administrative classes. Martin Luther King knew damn well the system was rigged...
I'm not as intelligent or as eloquent as our dear Chris Hedges but I've been singing the same song, albeit it in a different key, for ages. I always go back to the Powell Memorandum of 1971 and the various Supreme Court decisions, especially Citizens United, which allowed unregulated funding for campaigns. The influence, or should I say takeover, of the military/industrial/political complex.
Both parties are guilty. If Trump wins we're doomed. If Harris, or whoever becomes the Democratic candidate, wins will they address the real problems with our dysfunctional government. Curiosity will keep me around until November. ;-)
If Trump wins, we're doomed. If Harris or whoever the corporate Dems select wins, we're doomed in a slightly altered way. Both wings of the Business/War party are destroying this country and as much of the rest of the world they can get their greedy hands on. A vote for either of these charlatans is a vote for suicide.
As I said both parties are guilty. This hasn't happened over night. Once again we are choosing between the lesser of 2 evils. However with one evil we are really doomed. The other we may have a chance of surviving. In an earlier post I pointed out that there are numerous groups, most of which have some form of "save/preserve/protect our democracy" in their title. Many are aware of the problem but sadly we lack a leader. Most successful movements have had someone with charisma who knows how to "herd the cats". We need a JFK, MLK, Gloria Steinem. We may have passed our expiration date but I have not totally given up.
None of this can be fixed. It's gone on far too long and there are too many moving parts impossible to track and do anything about. We have to learn how to Live in a World that Can't Be Fixed. TPTB have fucked it beyond all repair. To fix any of it we'd need to ORGANIZE effectively, and we've proven over decades that we have no skill or even serious interest in doing that. We're as irresponsible as the assholes who have wrecked the world.
Ms. Steinem worked hand in glove with the CIA. Reportedly she felt the organization was benevolent in the '60s and '70s, as if Operation CHAOS, its infiltration of anti-war organizations in violation of its charter to stay out of domestic surveillance, didn't exist.
Thanks for that. Was not aware. Just proves the same person, self included, is capable of good and bad. My favorite word fits again, agakakological. :-)
Agathokakological. A word to seriously challenge the language centers of one's brain.
You must have looked it up. Thanks for spelling correction. One does that at 91. It also challenges the tongue when saying it. Believe it or not I use it a lot, especially at school board meetings.
The current system has so many entrenched interests as to be unreformable.
The "problem" is that so very few really understand this. And so we keep doing the same things decade after decade expecting different results, believing *this* time we'll really change things! Are Americans the only people who refuse to ever learn anything that might matter?
I fear that we are quite simply too comfortable to create the massive change required to actually shatter the current system. As a mass of populace we're informed enough to know the horrible happenings erupting but we're too occupied with the details of living to even figure out how to effect change. This is the situation our "leaders" have created and I suspect lots of these nesting particulars are not coincidental. Folks gotta hustle cause good jobs are rare. It's going to catastrophically end at some point but so many of us are preoccupied with culture clash nonsense and entertainment diversions we are unable to catalyze a critical mass even when the offenses are so blatant and unmistakable (see Gazan extermination and climate collapse). Mad Max hellscape is rapidly approaching.
Most humans are herd animals to rival and sheep or lemming.
No it's not just Americans. The British are the same. (See the recent election results). It's partly because of our electoral systems which means that any alternative to the two big parties hasn't a hope of getting into power. Having said that, the French seem to have destroyed their two big parties in a way that would have seemed impossible just ten years ago.
My one point of dissent is that speaking very generally, I don’t think Trump, or his followers, are more fascist inclined than the Democrats. Having lived in a blue state for a time, I actually find Trump supporters more tolerant, and more fun actually, than the NYTimes crowd, who really are unbearable.
Usually I agree with what Chris Hedges writes. This time, however, something of bitterness overcomes his rhetoric. I too hated the way the Dems worked against Bernie but since then I have watched Bernie make common cause with them because of the threats of corporatism and fascism that have completely overtaken the insane Right. A "genuine and committed base"on that Right is nothing to envy or juxtapose with the Democratic base that could turn the tide away from Trump. That is, if you are "committed" to racism, gun rights, misogyny, and Christian nationalism, then your commitment is just about as evil as we have seen in this country. Now, and just for a moment, I want to applaud Biden for stepping away, as he should have done earlier. What else can we say is possible given the system under which we live? Ever since I've been able to vote, I have mostly voted for the Democrat, and never wholeheartedly. I voted for Nader; and where did that get us? My state still went for Gore and it seemed, as it seems now, a useless shot across the bow unless we are ready for a revolution. Are we? And what would that cost in human lives? It would be put down so viciously that I would hate to see it happen. I thought I would not live to see a woman elected president, but I might now. With all her (many) flaws, I have some hope I will see it and maybe, as I've seen over the decades some bending the arc toward justice. It's slow and frustrating but I wouldn't want to live elsewhere or at another time.
The commitment to racism, misogyny, etc is as ginned up as the commitment to DEI as a solution to these issues. The point is to silo us into 2 opposing camps and get us to war with each other.
There is a reason Roe never got codified. It was a useful campaign issue. There is a reason schools never got fixed - regardless of party, and why campaign cash is plowed into the system to make sure university education is a road to debt slavery; educated proletariats are dangerous to both parties.
I agree with you, especially about DEI as weaponized as it is. I want to see more attention given to issues of socioeconomic class as well as to the plutocratic tendencies among Dems as well as Republicans. I want to push Harris to abandon the awful genocide we are complicit in in Gaza and I think she might be able to be pushed as Biden was not. I want those Progressives in congress to pledge loyalty to her but only with strings attached: that is, to work hard for her election in a transaction that involves her commitment to a living wage, affordable housing, better infrastructure, a reformed judiciary (really our biggest threat now is the Supremes), fair tax laws, and end to the very billionaire oligarchy that has evolved for decades. As a retired public university professor I want also to see her lead the charge for free higher ed and also for quality free education and health care for all. I hope Progressives can make her see these issues as central while we dismantle the military-industrial complex. It will take time and perhaps many seasons of elections. Hope I live to see it.
She has absolutely no record on which to base those hopes. She is a product of the Burton machine in California. She is on every metric right of center, has never been a progressive (in spite of rather confusing rhetoric that makes her sound like a stoned yoga teacher.) She is currently serving I. The role of sacrificial lamb, but after Trump slaughters her (and he will), she will be well rewarded. Her political career will be done, but she will earn far more money on her speaking tour.
I didn't say that Harris herself was a Progressive. I said that the Progressives in the legislature need to hold her feet to the fire, as they have started to do with Biden, to get more of the Progressive agenda passed. That's never going to happen if we give up to this kind of cynicism.
It's impossible to be too "cynical" (read: realistic) about either of these billionaire funded parties. You're either professionally naive or too young to know any better. That "feet to the fire" bromide was proven to be utter bullshit decades ago. It never happens. And even if it does the Dem politician getting a foot warmer is always wearing asbestos boots.
What's the solution then to the dilemma? We have moved some since the founding of this country in the 18th century. Not enough, of course. We cannot be complacent, but we cannot be nihilistic. I'm 75 years old and I've seen progress, again, not enough. How old are YOU?
Because history tells us that we can indeed vote for these people and they will move over our way. Right?
Not.
Biden did nothing remotely "progressive." His "historic" climate initiatives spend less than 15% of what we do on blowing up stuff and massacring peple around the world. And those initiatives are neutered by requirements to open up millions of acres per year for gas and oil exploration before any of the initiatives can even be started. And that historic legislation to negotiate pharmaceutical prices with Medicare? That applies to 10 medications out of 2000 prescribed in the US and doesn't go into effect for three years. In response to this, pharmaceutical companies have been raising prices on most other prescription drugs including generics. Holding their feet tot he fire is nonsense because they will play pretend as if they are listening, nip a bit around the edges so they can campaign on something, and for the average American everything from health care to cost of living just gets exponentially worse. The Demcoratic Party crushes progressivism at every turn, now to the poinst that AOC and Ilhan Omar are lapdogs for Biden and Harris.
A useful perspective from a medical professional. I hope that the AMA and other such institutions will join those of us, including Kamala Harris, in supporting the policy of Medicare for All--as she did in 2020. If not, then what is the alternative? What is your Plan B? Moving to France?! Like you, I find the Dems never Progressive enough. In fact, they're too beholden to the military industrial complex. Yet, so long as there are only two major parties, I'm going to try to influence one of them. I know I'll die before this country becomes what I'd like it to be. But I cannot be hopeless.
So how you gonna "hold her feet to the fire" after Harris gets elected?
It's as if you've never heard of a politician who forgets her campaign promises, or the first rule of bait and switch "put the gun down and then we'll talk".
Please check out her speech on the Edmund Petis bridge back in March. You will see her not just calling for a ceasefire multiple times but going into details about the suffering of the Palestinians. I'm sure Biden raked her over the coals for that.
Thank you, Lily Witham, for your post. I don't know much about that woman and so I will have to research deeply into her stand against genocide as with the other candidates. For me it is more important to stop the murdering of children and babies than the luxuries we believe we deserve. I will vote only for the one I'm sure is not a murderer.
Can and will the Progressives do the right thing and steer Harris away from corporate America which owns the government? Harris must stop the genocide in Gaza. Put a stop to the military/industrial complex that controls the government and perpetuates these proxy wars around the globe.
She has taken $5 million from AIPAC and made some sickening Zionist speeches to them. She just released a statement as to how firmly she stands with Israel. Turn the page.
This x 1 million.
However you rationalize voting for war and genocide.
Sanders is not infallible. Rather, he has shown himself to be weak and amenable to pressure.
I have protested (in the streets and elsewhere) every war since Vietnam. I don't rationalize here; I believe in putting pressure on elected officials to end war, to dismantle the military-industrial complex. I do what I can to stop the genocide in Gaza. Who among us is infallible? Show me and I'll vote for that person.
Dr. JIll Stein, Green Party. Not perfect, but my goodness wouldn't that, uh - put a lump of coal in their stockings.
Yes, it would. At least Jill Stein can complete sentences without reading a cue card...
However much you're "against" war and the genocide in Gaza, when you vote for someone who aids, abets, funds and defends genocide, you've gone to the dark side. Period. Your values are hazy and fluid. That's no red line.
How angry in your judgments, how impotent.
Well there still must be such a thing as moral and amoral, right and wrong. Just not when it comes to those in power I suppose, for that we must set those things aside and expect amorality, pathologic lying and gaslighting.
I'm not the one who held up Sanders as a model.
Baaaaaaahhhhhhh
"... this assault on the working class created a crisis that forced the ruling elites to devise a new political paradigm. Trumpeted by a compliant media, this paradigm shifted its focus from the common good to race, crime and law and order." BINGO!! Penetrating, succinct, true.
Yes. Agreed. The paragraph speaks volumes.
Biden was allowed a contest-free path to the Democratic nomination for President. This means that Ms. Harris was along for the ride.
The last time Vice President Harris actually faced voters on her own was during the 2020 Democratic Presidential primary contests. She won no primary contest. She did win the hearts of the Hamptons' billionaires.
Will voters view her presidential campaign as legitimate? This voter will not.
My state has not given ballot line access nor a certificate of candidacy to the Green Party. I cannot write in Jill Stein, M.D. Wrenching control of ballot line access from the duopoly in every state must be a priority.
I will write her in. Can't vote for the genociders.
Okay, I'm as cynical as the next guy. But what proof do you actually have that Kamala Harris is Joe Biden with a tan in skirts and high heels? I've been watching her for two decades and have not seen any proof of this. It may happen, the deep state being the monster it is. But give the woman a break, especially since attacking her is only a favor for Trump. What's wrong with you? The slightest bit of daylight is a helluva lot better than no light at all. She does NOT have the same attitude towards Israel as Biden does. That is an outright lie. Not that I think our votes really matter. We need to get rid of Citizens United, cut 3/4 of the CIA and bring it under someone's control, separate the Jewish mafia from our government, end all this lobbying of high tech and the arms industry, cut the DOD and bring it under the control of the Executive, for god's sake. Opportunism has no place in government. Or in a nation's finances.
Trump's base will turn on him as quickly as the Democratic base will turn when the dollar collapses. I'm glad to see the end of Biden. But let's create something that will save the multitude who have no clue what is going on behind the scenes.
I keep hearing these statements that Harris is somehow different from Biden, but I see no evidence for any of them.
Then you haven't been paying attention. I'm not saying she's the messiah. She's not. I'm not saying she's not as vulnerable to the Zionist predators as everyone else. She's not. But she sure as hell ain't Biden. He included her on the ticket because she's female, Black and Asian. And Californian. So she helped get him elected. Just because she didn't attack him when he was President doesn't mean she agrees with him right down the line. She does not. And she cannot possibly be as bad as he has been. That's just not possible. For just about anyone. Trump is a crap shoot. But the minute his giving billions to Israel turns into a bump in inflation, his base will scream and he will back down. One difference between Biden and Harris is about 100 IQ points in her favor.
I asked for evidence, not conclusory statements.
I want evidence too. I'm tired of opinions passing for news, including on Substack. We don't know the backgrounds of any of the people commenting or running Substacks so we haven't a clue how to assess what they or we say. Harris has a long history serving in government at various levels. You can look up her record. Are you saying you need it spoon-fed to you? I respect you too much to believe that. You can do the research. If you care, do it.
I don't think you understand how the burden of proof works.
Meanwhile,
“She and President Biden are in lockstep when it comes to Israel. There is no daylight between them to be found,” said Halie Soifer, who was Harris’ national security adviser when she was a senator.
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2024/07/22/harris-may-not-be-the-savior-on-gaza-some-dems-want-00170420
Are you an attorney? I'm not. However, I did work under Harris when she was DA (far down the food chain) and have watched her career with interest ever since. Because of the work I did I probably know how the legal and law enforcement systems in the City and County of San Francisco works better than you but I won't bore you with the details. The law is rarely clean. Many guilty parties get off on technicalities. There are good reasons for many of the things Harris decided. Or if not good reasons, significant reasons. The world isn't black and white. If it were, we could represent ourselves in court. But I do not recommend it.
The situation in 2016 vis a vis Israel has changed a lot and very few people on this planet (outside rabid Zionists) agree with Biden 100 percent. I doubt Harris does either. In any case, Trump is a nutcase and the people behind him are ethically challenged and the US has too much power over at least half the planet. So unless she's actively pro-Israel, I will consider voting for her. Not that it matters. I could wax eloquent on the subject of burden of proof. But won't. Suffice it to say, it usually does not apply to the poor, people of color, most women or many immigrants.
I believe the great part of Donald Duck's constituency is the 30% religious nuts of this country who consider him the Messiah and they are not going to turn against him no matter what, inflation, crime, more convictions etc.
From what I have seen most Christian ministers--including an alarming number who have been to theological seminary--do not understand basic Christianity. And even though they are threatened with losing their tax-free status as a church if they preach politics from the pulpit, most of them do one way or another. In rural America, you can wake up and say you dreamed God told you you had a calling. To be a Baptist minister and start a church (which pays 8-10% tithing to keep you in beer) you just need 5 or 6 ministers to say you are telling the truth. WTF? You do not need to know ANYTHING about Christianity. I know quite a few people around here who make a living, or a partial living, this way. Are they Christian? No. They are predators of rubes. This cultural meme goes way back in history. Read Flannery O'Connor. Just as their congregations can be manipulated one direction, they can be manipulated another. They only need to be convinced it is in their personal interest. Take the financial aspect out of the equation and most of these ministers would be preaching a very different tune. Remove money from religion. Good luck on that. If you really wanted to do so, you could shut down a LOT of churches by videotaping their political preaching and sending it to the IRS. Being paid to be hypocrites. How F'ing Christian is that? I would love to hear Jesus on the topic. Obviously, no genuine Christian could ever consider DD the messiah. Let me add that if they could crucify Jesus they can crucify Donald Duck. No one is above the law in human nature. Not even an inflated orange pumpkin.
"Obviously, no genuine Christian could ever consider DD the messiah. Let me add that if they could crucify Jesus they can crucify Donald Duck." The problem is IMHO to define what is genuine Christianity. If it is Jesus's allegedly teachings that the gospels tell us, then you are right. But by the time that the Romans executed that seditious rabi there were not Christians, only a bunch of illiterate Jewish disciples who listened to him for three years and learned nothing. We can only talk of Christianity when a well-educated Jew, Paul, thought he had a revelation and he and his followers for two thousand years betrayed the original teachings. The result was the collapse of western civilization and the enthroning of fanatism.
Hi, Julio, No-one can argue that the disciples weren’t a bit thick, but remember Isaiah 55v11 : [My word] shall not return unto me void but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it”.
I was under the impression that Christianity had contributed to the growth as much as to the decline of western civilisation; if we had stuck with the Vikings you might have had a bit more equal opportunity slavery, but Christianity eventually helped put the brakes on legalised slavery.
St Paul was, oddly, responsible both for missionary “church planting” and for a certain nombrilism in the billions of hours of exegetics required to establish that the devotees have righteously considered everything he said.
The four short gospels seem to basically agree on the teachings of Christ, which are still accessible. Nobody need be shipwrecked for you to hear the good news. He who has ears to hear…
Give her a chance. However, I am not optimistic. I hope I am wrong
Why, when her statements show no daylight between her and Biden?
Why throw away what leverage you have, just so you rationalize voting for genocide?
Why does she deserve a break? Did you see this …https://scheerpost.com/2024/07/22/kamala-harriss-distinguished-career-of-serving-injustice/
Tulsi Gabbard absolutely decimated Kamala Harris regarding these issues in the democratic debates of 2019. No one seems to remember any of these glaring deficiencies of judgment nor Ms. Harris's Lawful misfeasance. Excellent link. Thanks.
She was also the first senator to sign on to Bernie's Medicare for All of us.
And then it passed or was voted on or was even mentioned recently (except by Jill Stein)...
True. Biden never slept with Willie Brown to advance his career. (He did sleep with Storm Thurmond as I recall, though the sex was probably not carnal.)
Harris in March on Gaza: “People in Gaza are starving. The conditions are inhumane. And our common humanity compels us to act. Given the immense scale of suffering in Gaza, there must be an immediate ceasefire for six weeks." Empty rhetoric.
From a NYT oped (2019) by a CA law professor:
"Time after time, when progressives urged her to embrace criminal justice reforms as a district attorney and then the state’s attorney general, Ms. Harris opposed them or stayed silent. Most troubling, Ms. Harris fought tooth and nail to uphold wrongful convictions that had been secured through official misconduct that included evidence tampering, false testimony and the suppression of crucial information by prosecutors.
Consider her record as San Francisco’s district attorney from 2004 to 2011. Ms. Harris was criticized in 2010 for withholding information about a police laboratory technician who had been accused of “intentionally sabotaging” her work and stealing drugs from the lab. After a memo surfaced showing that Ms. Harris’s deputies knew about the technician’s wrongdoing and recent conviction, but failed to alert defense lawyers, a judge condemned Ms. Harris’s indifference to the systemic violation of the defendants’ constitutional rights.
Ms. Harris contested the ruling by arguing that the judge, whose husband was a defense attorney and had spoken publicly about the importance of disclosing evidence, had a conflict of interest. Ms. Harris lost. More than 600 cases handled by the corrupt technician were dismissed."
The United States is a failing empire and no amount of politicians or soldiers can bring it back. Not that it was great to begin with. The U.S. was always built on the bones of those who stood in its way as it strived to be relevant on the worlds stage throughout its history. WWII just gave it a better opportunity after Europe and Asia were destroyed and depopulated. But it was always a house of cards propped up by the military industrial complex and greedy politicians.
I salute this courageous, timely article, anathema even to most "progressive" Democrats. I'm curious to hear Chris's thoughts--which I always value and consider--on whether the climate issue will make a vote for presumptive Dem nominee Kamala Harris worthwhile. Republicans are clearly reckless climate terrorists, but is there any hope that a Harris administration will actually start REPLACING fossil fuels with renewables, rather than continue the indefensible "all of the above" policies of Joe Biden, which in 2024 produced more fossil fuel than Trump ever did. I'd like to have SOME intelligent rationale for voting in this purportedly "watershed" election.
Don't kid yourself. Harris will follow the will of the donors.
Let me offer a possible (plausible?) scenario. Harris is led to believe--the simple truth--that Republican's lunatic climate policy is their worst Achilles heel and starts to emphasize it in debates with Trump and in her campaign. Hell, JD Vance, a Catholic convert, is spitting in the face of his Vicar of Christ, Pope Francis, on this issue. BIG political points can be scored by pointing all of this out. Hence, Harris paints herself (Whore of Babylon makeup?) as robust climate champion. Do you seriously think enraptured young supporters--like the Sunrise Movement--will at this late stage in the climate emergency--let her get away with not "walking the talk"? Donors are potent--but not everything--and besides, Dems now have (by default, of course) many wealthy donors on the renewables side of things.
Assumes numerous facts not in evidence.
Perhaps, but climate change is one of the VERY few issues (Palestine genocide certainly isn't) where there is noticeable, OBVIOUS daylight between Dems and Repugs. Almost out of desperation for something to stand on, Harris might be obligated to take up this issue.
Sounds like a lot of wishful thinking.
Do we have much else left? Besides, the political rationale at least makes sense.
Take a look at today's Scheerpost.... https://scheerpost.com/2024/07/22/kamala-harriss-distinguished-career-of-serving-injustice/ Then drawn some preliminary conclusions that respond to your own question above about a (hopefully not) Harris administration.
My suspicion is that Harris is an unprincipled political opportunist like Biden, who swings with the political winds. That said, those winds change--sometimes with gale force. Hence, I wonder whether the same forces that drove Biden, first to offer strong support for the climate-friendly features of the Inflation Reduction Act--and now to drop out--could sway Harris to do the right thing on climate. Republican's policy is so manifestly criminally insane (in effect, genocidal) and the climate emergency itself is so manifest that it might offer a political weathervane like Harris no choice. Am I dreaming here?
If that were the case, Biden would have flipped long ago.
I read that article as well. I wish she had also discussed Harris's campaign against Terrence Hallinan for DA. I think that contains much that would show a lack of progressive ideals from Ms Harris.
This is more of the same! The Dems lie to your face and serve the elite just as much as Republicans do. Elect Jill Stein! She has enough states to get to 270 right now and more on the way. Great platform and an answer to the lesser evil BS they've been shoveling my entire life. I am so dismayed that people are even considering Harris. Her top cop record is atrocious and she will say anything to get elected. Nov 6th will be business as usual -nothing for the American people! Workers Strike Back started by the highly effective Kshama Sawant just endorsed Jill Stein 2024!! Join the real revolution!
They are rallying outside the DNC Convention in August. We're all invited
Thank you Chris for telling it it IS. Not mincing words. Elucidating the true crimes against most ordinary Americans that the Dishonest Dems, who we expected to differentiate themselves from amoral wealthy corporate Republicans an donations from Multi Millionaires and Billionaires.
Well, you've done a good job of getting everybody's tongue wagging! It means people are thinking. But, like Monty Python, I think that all right thinking people are wrong. Personally, I blame St. Ronnie who pushed the Republicans so far to the right that all the reasonable Republicans fled to the Democratic party which destroyed the party and turned it into a zombified Republican lite. The reason people game the voting is simple. They don't have a choice to vote for some one that they want to vote for so they vote for somebody that they figure will screw the other side up.
The media is even worse. They are such craven suckups because we skipped out on the trust busters of the last century and the media became concentrated in the hands of a very few right thinking people who then told the nation what the right thinking answer was. Finally, the media has become infotainment. It's telling you what you think you want to hear, not what you need to know. Oh, right. And we did away with the fairness doctrine. So you don't have to be bothered by contending thoughts.
Lastly, we are not a democracy. We are a plutocracy. Anytime that your vote is equivalent to money, any time the loudness of your voice is governed by how much money you have, you no longer have a demos anything and you have nothing but plutos.
I blame Clinton and other Dems from that time who decided that the best way to win back the working white males who left to join the GOP was to emulate the GOP. NAFTA, incarceration, ending welfare as we know it, etc. have gotten us here. And yet Dems haven't won those folks back. In the meantime they have ignored the base that remained, many of whom have now left for other parties or simply stopped voting.
The Donors Giveth, and the Donors Taketh Away.
Meanwhile the political media have bypassed the Venerable and Blessed stages of cannonization and gone directly to Sainthood for Biden. Hard to stomach.
Another thought that occurred - If Biden's not compos mentis to stand in a campaign, he does not have the capacity to run the domestic and foreign affairs of a national government with a massive nuclear arsenal.
This last concept is popular with Republicans, but that doesn't make it untrue.
To use Chris’ analytic framework, what we have is an inverted totalitarian state, for which Biden served as the hood ornament. Trump wants to be as big a part of the engine as possible. And, he has some scores to settle with portions of the MICIMATT. The second I- the intelligence community, and the second M, the media. If Trump wins, an elected person who is personally a narcissist and delusional will be added to a totalitarian system whose guiding principle is that of neoconservatism, which is based on systemic narcissism (the city on the hill; the indispensable nation) and systemic delusion (full-spectrum domination of the world). Interesting times.
My term is "front man for the Blue team," but I like "hood ornament" a lot better. Thanks!
"It's too dark to put the keys in my ignition
And the mornin' sun is yet to climb my hood ornament
But before too long I might see those flashing red lights
Look out, mama, 'cause I'm comin' home tonight." ~~~ Neil Young
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0DjAT41QtAo
I know by extensive and bitter personal experience that Chris's account is true. As a local D campaign mgr and blue collar union activist, I fought the neolib leveraged buy-out of the D party. I witnessed the purging of the New Deal and abandonment of labor; thereby the abandonment of the majority working class. As well as of any notion of the common good.
The Ds represent the 10-20% administrative and professional class. Who live in the same upper middle class neighborhoods and graduated from the same elite universities as their corporate class neighbors. People who aren't affected by mass layoffs, the lack of a national healthcare system, or deaths of despair. And who benefit from neolib trickle-up. The same who as well paid bureaucrats enable oligarchies, plutocracies, and dictatorships by keeping them functioning.
Apparently the D elite has also accustomed itself to serving as an ally for the neocons--how else could they feel comfortable with the Dick Cheney trained neocons running the Biden Dept. of State? Few, if any, of the D apologists ever even acknowledge this, let alone explain it. For years I've asked the D faithful why they are for a neolib party that never questions an econ system destroying life on Earth. Then add why they're okay with the Biden neocons. So far the only "answers" I've received are ad hominems, whataboutisms, slippery slope, straw man, irrelevant reactive criticisms, and other common logical fallacies--whatever it takes to deflect the subject away from uncomfortable evidence and onto the person who asks.
The idea that Kamala Harris must be better because BIPOC ignores yet more uncomfortable evidence. The D elite has no problem with race, religion, gender, or sexual orientation. As long as you have been clearly differentiated from the unimportant and declasse' masses. Most often through the requisite Ivy education or the equivalent by which you qualify as part of their "meritocracy." So memorably named as //The Best and the Brightest,// David Halberstam's book about how the Ivy Ds of that era got us into the horrors of Vietnam.
What we peasant nobodies see as a fatal arrogance, they see as certainty, control, precision, and an either/or logic. With us or against us, good guy or bad guy, true or false, winner or loser. Yet in the post-Einstein world quantum physicists have been telling us about for over 100 years relativity, uncertainty, and ambiguity are reality.
Wow. I am uncomfortably enjoying this journey through the comments. I've long appreciated Mr. Hedges writing and reporting but spending time immersed in this community is well worth the tiny price of admission. Thank you all for sharing your thoughts and experiences. I'm richer for your contributions.
Wow. I am uncomfortably enjoying this journey through the comments. I've long appreciated Mr. Hedges writing and reporting but spending time immersed in this community is well worth the tiny price of admission. Thank you all for sharing your thoughts and experiences. I'm richer for your contributions.
Really excellent post, wish more people saw and understood this. This line of thinking makes me unpopular with my liberal friends, but so be it.
" They orchestrated the deindustrialization of the United States, ensuring that 30 million workers lost their jobs in mass layoffs."
Yes. I've maintained a chart that shows this trend from 1970 to the present: http://critter-labs.com/index.html#Manufacturing