Thank You for having Kshama Sawant on today. She is probably the only honest, sincere and respectful politician we have working in America today and her words match her actions unlike our so-called progressives like "the squad" and Bernie Sanders. I wish we had 1000 more like her. I am now an annual paid subscriber to The Chris Hedges Report.
Kshama is one of the vanishingly small number of politicians who refuse to be bought and/or neutered by the political establishment. The very fact that they try, repeatedly, to get rid of her is the surest sign that she is an effective champion of the people against corporate America. Furthermore, she also really, *really* gets up the nose of conservatives, as seen in the bitter and resentful comments being posted here. Lmao
OMG! I had to pay $6 just to subscribe so I could comment. And then I'll delete this substack permanently. Sawant is a HORRIBLE hypocrite and I don't know a single sane person in the Seattle area who wants her in office. If you like hypocritical Marxism then sure, she's your gal. But get your facts straight! It wasn't the business community who tried to run her out of office. It was a grassroots campaign and her own constituents. A total controlling and disgusting nut job. I grew up in Seattle and she is a STAIN on it's existence. I can't support anyone who likes her.
Great Socialist Alternative Strategy, Chris and Kshama, in your podcast regarding the "Quiet American" duopoly Empire regarding the need for a second workers' American "Revolution Against Empire" [Justin duRivage].
My two following comments to Nicholas Kristof's same excellent column, are as follows:
"These Gun Reforms Could Save 15,000 Lives. We Can Achieve Them", could actually and cogently be employed to focus not only on guns, but also on the seminal factor of exposing what, Ron Suskind hectored Karl Rove into admitting in the 'Times' in 2004, that "We're an Empire Now".
My First Comment to Nick in the NYT:
Nicholas, I would take another chance at describing how the gun industry has the unique power of having been given a waiver on product liability — however, after a decade as a subscriber, and very frequent commenter on “these ‘Times’ they are not a-changing” fast enough to remedy “our failure to communicate” [Cool Hand Luke].
I have to take “the road less traveled”, as Chris Hedges, did, to leave these Times because of the ‘Times’ following ‘the long arc of history toward’, rather than away from, Empire with this the NYT's too often non-reply to my comments which the 'Times' invites and says it "needs our voice", but then says:
“The comment you are looking for is currently unavailable” — because of censorship.
My second comment today to Nick was that:
Nicholas, I would strongly suspect that if the NYT’s extreme excellence in investigative reporting (visual, or otherwise) in targeting the likelihood that the ‘orders of magnitude greater’ profits of the insanely named ‘Defense Industry’ [aka, “Merchants of Death” Nye Report] might well be discovered to be funding the NRA through a “Quiet American” Empire of wealth, deceit, power, and ‘Divide and Conquer’ social-media propaganda, far more likely than the puny, and at times, almost bankrupt, small arms industry.
She has no respect for rules or laws. I’m fine with pushing against the system for change but she is an anarchist that only will listen to her own opinion. She does not have conversations with the city or lawmakers. Seattle is a covered in homeless camps and drug addicts and her response is to give them free housing so they can do drugs openly in taxpayer funded housing. Like marching on the Mayor’s house with protestors even though Durkin was under a protection order and her address was supposed to be secret. She had no problem with big corporations when her husband worked at Microsoft and made them $$$. Once she got money then she can rail against the same people that made her rich. How noble.
Hah! I find it insane that the elite funded campaign to oppose Ms Sawant even found its way here, given that Chris' substack doesn't make the headlines. Still they had to pay & sign up to push their poisonous tosh, so there are silver linings.
As a lifelong socialist who represented co-workers at state and national level during my working life I'm familiar with the dodges these types get up to.
Some of our biggest hassles came from the paid employees of our union who rarely if ever had experience in our industry and regarded their job solely as a stepping stone to a political career representing a party which sold workers down the river at first opportunity whilst promising to "look after them".
I decided long time ago that as I'm opposed to top down centralised government in any form, the only way to even attempt to live one's ideals is to get stuck in to grass roots community based efforts. That way one gets to spend less time in pointless conflict with arseholes and can actually get things done whilst simultaneously demonstrating to fellow humans what socialism is & what it can do.
The only issue Ms. Sawant appears to support that makes any sense whatsoever is the living min. wage. I'm all for businesses agreeing, in principle, to honer the necessity of paying a minimal living wage. However employees are ffree to demand for this themselves; they don't need government to mandate it for them.
My advice is to work hard and make yourself as valuable a commodity as possible. Then you can demand your fee accordingly. You will never subvert the principle of supply and demand in a capitalistic economy. While I don't care one whit if somebody wants to join a commune (your free to do it --and there's been plenty of failed precedent for that in the U.S. ---and I imagine China or Russia will allow you to emigrate if you want a real good taste of it-- I don't want a communist government forced upon me. I was born into a Republic with constitutional rights. I intend to do whatever I can to keep them--all of them. That means Ms. Sawant would fail to get my vote.
I have yet to hear a reasonable argument for relieving student debt or deferring rent due to the pandemic. I didn't here it at all from the radical socialist Chris hosted. My arguments against:
STUDENT LOAN DEBT FORGIVENESS:
1.These folks knew what they were getting into when they signed the loan agreement. If they didn't than what we are really being asked to forgive is individual foolishness. What is the precedent and legal basis for compensating that? I was brought up to understand the principle that a fool and his/her money are soon parted.
2. How about those that actually paid for there student debt in the past. Do they get a refund? With the current lack of logic coming from those advocating for this measure, why stop at student loans? Why not apply loan forgiveness to all mortgages and vehicle loans? Who is going to pay for all of this? We are already $30T in federal net operation debt costing the taxpayer nearly $350B a year? On what basis does anyone think any of these debt forgiveness notions are rational..let alone feasible?
2.What about those that chose not to take on the debt burden of higher education and limited their educational opportunity accordingly. There is actually a price paid by those that didn't choose the path of higher education and the cost involved. How does one propose compensating them?
RENT DEFERMENT
1. Why should a landlord forgo rent payment during any state of emergency; let alone one that is seemingly without end? Who or Where does that lack of logic emanate from?; by those that still believe in and live in the land of the tooth fairy? How should the property owner be expected to pay a possible mortgage payment (I don't see all those being perpetually deferred) or real estate tax (those haven't been deferred at all--at least in my State and County at all). In fact, most all of these real costs have increased during the pandemic...and aren't being forgiven in the least.
I love this content. Who wouldn't want Kshama in their corner?!? I DO wish it could be made available in print so that I can print+read or just read-on-screen. The sound quality can be very challenging.
Excellent article from Socialist Alternative, the party of Kshama Sawant, “We need a new party! One that fights tooth and nail to defend reproductive rights, workers rights, LGBTQ rights and against racism!”
‘Thousands Flood the Streets for Abortion Rights - What Next?’
Thank You for having Kshama Sawant on today. She is probably the only honest, sincere and respectful politician we have working in America today and her words match her actions unlike our so-called progressives like "the squad" and Bernie Sanders. I wish we had 1000 more like her. I am now an annual paid subscriber to The Chris Hedges Report.
Kshama is one of the vanishingly small number of politicians who refuse to be bought and/or neutered by the political establishment. The very fact that they try, repeatedly, to get rid of her is the surest sign that she is an effective champion of the people against corporate America. Furthermore, she also really, *really* gets up the nose of conservatives, as seen in the bitter and resentful comments being posted here. Lmao
OMG! I had to pay $6 just to subscribe so I could comment. And then I'll delete this substack permanently. Sawant is a HORRIBLE hypocrite and I don't know a single sane person in the Seattle area who wants her in office. If you like hypocritical Marxism then sure, she's your gal. But get your facts straight! It wasn't the business community who tried to run her out of office. It was a grassroots campaign and her own constituents. A total controlling and disgusting nut job. I grew up in Seattle and she is a STAIN on it's existence. I can't support anyone who likes her.
Yet Republicans are always commenting disparagingly about Biden’s socialist agenda! No sign of it that I can see!!
She defeated it by 300 votes. Now much to crow about. So I am sure she will now go forward as if she has a radical mandate.
She was/is a BLM defund the cops advocate.
My guess that today, given the news about the BLM organization and leaders, she would go down to defeat. Sometimes elections are just timing issues.
But generally, voters get the politicians they deserve.
Great Socialist Alternative Strategy, Chris and Kshama, in your podcast regarding the "Quiet American" duopoly Empire regarding the need for a second workers' American "Revolution Against Empire" [Justin duRivage].
My two following comments to Nicholas Kristof's same excellent column, are as follows:
"These Gun Reforms Could Save 15,000 Lives. We Can Achieve Them", could actually and cogently be employed to focus not only on guns, but also on the seminal factor of exposing what, Ron Suskind hectored Karl Rove into admitting in the 'Times' in 2004, that "We're an Empire Now".
My First Comment to Nick in the NYT:
Nicholas, I would take another chance at describing how the gun industry has the unique power of having been given a waiver on product liability — however, after a decade as a subscriber, and very frequent commenter on “these ‘Times’ they are not a-changing” fast enough to remedy “our failure to communicate” [Cool Hand Luke].
I have to take “the road less traveled”, as Chris Hedges, did, to leave these Times because of the ‘Times’ following ‘the long arc of history toward’, rather than away from, Empire with this the NYT's too often non-reply to my comments which the 'Times' invites and says it "needs our voice", but then says:
“The comment you are looking for is currently unavailable” — because of censorship.
My second comment today to Nick was that:
Nicholas, I would strongly suspect that if the NYT’s extreme excellence in investigative reporting (visual, or otherwise) in targeting the likelihood that the ‘orders of magnitude greater’ profits of the insanely named ‘Defense Industry’ [aka, “Merchants of Death” Nye Report] might well be discovered to be funding the NRA through a “Quiet American” Empire of wealth, deceit, power, and ‘Divide and Conquer’ social-media propaganda, far more likely than the puny, and at times, almost bankrupt, small arms industry.
She has no respect for rules or laws. I’m fine with pushing against the system for change but she is an anarchist that only will listen to her own opinion. She does not have conversations with the city or lawmakers. Seattle is a covered in homeless camps and drug addicts and her response is to give them free housing so they can do drugs openly in taxpayer funded housing. Like marching on the Mayor’s house with protestors even though Durkin was under a protection order and her address was supposed to be secret. She had no problem with big corporations when her husband worked at Microsoft and made them $$$. Once she got money then she can rail against the same people that made her rich. How noble.
Hah! I find it insane that the elite funded campaign to oppose Ms Sawant even found its way here, given that Chris' substack doesn't make the headlines. Still they had to pay & sign up to push their poisonous tosh, so there are silver linings.
As a lifelong socialist who represented co-workers at state and national level during my working life I'm familiar with the dodges these types get up to.
Some of our biggest hassles came from the paid employees of our union who rarely if ever had experience in our industry and regarded their job solely as a stepping stone to a political career representing a party which sold workers down the river at first opportunity whilst promising to "look after them".
I decided long time ago that as I'm opposed to top down centralised government in any form, the only way to even attempt to live one's ideals is to get stuck in to grass roots community based efforts. That way one gets to spend less time in pointless conflict with arseholes and can actually get things done whilst simultaneously demonstrating to fellow humans what socialism is & what it can do.
The only issue Ms. Sawant appears to support that makes any sense whatsoever is the living min. wage. I'm all for businesses agreeing, in principle, to honer the necessity of paying a minimal living wage. However employees are ffree to demand for this themselves; they don't need government to mandate it for them.
My advice is to work hard and make yourself as valuable a commodity as possible. Then you can demand your fee accordingly. You will never subvert the principle of supply and demand in a capitalistic economy. While I don't care one whit if somebody wants to join a commune (your free to do it --and there's been plenty of failed precedent for that in the U.S. ---and I imagine China or Russia will allow you to emigrate if you want a real good taste of it-- I don't want a communist government forced upon me. I was born into a Republic with constitutional rights. I intend to do whatever I can to keep them--all of them. That means Ms. Sawant would fail to get my vote.
I have yet to hear a reasonable argument for relieving student debt or deferring rent due to the pandemic. I didn't here it at all from the radical socialist Chris hosted. My arguments against:
STUDENT LOAN DEBT FORGIVENESS:
1.These folks knew what they were getting into when they signed the loan agreement. If they didn't than what we are really being asked to forgive is individual foolishness. What is the precedent and legal basis for compensating that? I was brought up to understand the principle that a fool and his/her money are soon parted.
2. How about those that actually paid for there student debt in the past. Do they get a refund? With the current lack of logic coming from those advocating for this measure, why stop at student loans? Why not apply loan forgiveness to all mortgages and vehicle loans? Who is going to pay for all of this? We are already $30T in federal net operation debt costing the taxpayer nearly $350B a year? On what basis does anyone think any of these debt forgiveness notions are rational..let alone feasible?
2.What about those that chose not to take on the debt burden of higher education and limited their educational opportunity accordingly. There is actually a price paid by those that didn't choose the path of higher education and the cost involved. How does one propose compensating them?
RENT DEFERMENT
1. Why should a landlord forgo rent payment during any state of emergency; let alone one that is seemingly without end? Who or Where does that lack of logic emanate from?; by those that still believe in and live in the land of the tooth fairy? How should the property owner be expected to pay a possible mortgage payment (I don't see all those being perpetually deferred) or real estate tax (those haven't been deferred at all--at least in my State and County at all). In fact, most all of these real costs have increased during the pandemic...and aren't being forgiven in the least.
I love this content. Who wouldn't want Kshama in their corner?!? I DO wish it could be made available in print so that I can print+read or just read-on-screen. The sound quality can be very challenging.
Excellent article from Socialist Alternative, the party of Kshama Sawant, “We need a new party! One that fights tooth and nail to defend reproductive rights, workers rights, LGBTQ rights and against racism!”
‘Thousands Flood the Streets for Abortion Rights - What Next?’
https://www.socialistalternative.org/2022/05/04/thousands-flood-streets-for-abortion-rights-what-next/
https://peoplesparty.org/
Your intro song should be dark was the night, cold was the ground by blind willie Johnson. All I’m sayin
I wonder if people were paid $100 or so, to vote? Would voting increase?