Harris/Walz: Radical Leftists?

Please do not make me laugh.  Only a mental midget would think that Harris or Walz is a radical Leftist.

Anyone that believes that crap is smoking crack.

Some yahoo on FOX (go figure) stated that Harris is the most leftist candidate in history….I guess he never heard of Eugene Debs. (For Christ sake look it up)

I was impressed with Harris when she came out as a senator and endorsed the Green New Deal and Medicare For All….but does that make her a radical Leftist?

No it does not!

I am a radical Leftist and have been for 60 years and Harris is nowhere close to being radical…..an opportunistic Dem….then yes.

Some progressives in the Democratic Party would like to see Harris as someone like themselves, but there is little basis for it. She fully supported Biden’s economic and social programs—the most significant in half a century—most notably the American Rescue Plan Act ($1.9 trillion) to support business and workers during COVID, Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act ($1.2 trillion), and the Inflation Reduction Act ($369 billion) to deal with climate issues. Vice-president’s never present their own views, and neither did Harris.

She has also completely supported Biden’s foreign policy, backing Israel and its war on Gaza, supporting Ukraine against the Russian invasion, and opposing China’s rival imperial ambitions. Harris’ reputation for being more progressive regarding Israel is based on statements like this one a few days ago after her meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, “What has happened in Gaza over the past nine months is devastating,” she said. “The images of dead children and desperate, hungry people fleeing for safety, sometimes displaced for the second, third or fourth time — we cannot look away in the face of these tragedies,” she said, adding, “I will not be silent.”

Perhaps she will not be silent, but she has not said how she would change U.S. policy, if at all.

I have been waiting for her to back away from any true progressive ideas just to garner votes.

She started backing away when in 2019 and her run for the Dem nomination…..and this will not stop….

During her short-lived 2019 presidential campaign, Harris was a supporter of single-payer healthcare, a fracking ban, and a federal jobs guarantee. No longer. On July 26th, a campaign official told the Hill that Harris “will not seek to ban fracking if she’s elected,” even though she had previously said there was “no question I’m in favor of banning fracking.” The following day, CNN reported that “the vice president no longer supports a single-payer health care system,” despite having co-sponsored Bernie Sanders’ Medicare for All bill back in 2017. And on July 31, a Washington Examiner exclusive revealed that Harris has “changed her position” on a federal jobs guarantee—a component of the Green New Deal she backed in 2019—and no longer supports that either. 

Moreover, moving to the right on policy will not prevent Trump and his proxies from attacking Harris as “dangerously liberal,” a line they’ve already started using. This is a lesson Democrats should have learned in the Obama years. No matter how much Barack Obama tried to portray himself as a reasonable centrist and make compromises with Republicans, he was still attacked as a “socialist” whose healthcare plans would lead to “death panels.” Today, the GOP is not going to suddenly say “Well, I guess we should stop attacking Harris as a radical.” But her abrupt U-turns on policy will allow them to deploy a second line of attack, namely that she’s untrustworthy and doesn’t keep a consistent position on anything, which wouldn’t be wrong. 

https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/its-a-bad-idea-for-harris-to-abandon-progressive-policies

Harris was one of 16 co-sponsors of Sanders’s socialized health-care plan branded as “Medicare for All,” which would have cost $34 trillion over a decade, according to the left-wing Urban Institute. It would also have necessitated kicking about 180 million people off their private insurance plans. She also signed on to the Senate version of Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s radical Green New Deal.

In 2019, as the Democratic primaries took off, there was fierce competition to the left of Joe Biden. Harris dug into her support for banning private insurance before (unconvincingly) trying to take it back. She called for banning fracking and offshore drilling. She said those who crossed the border illegally shouldn’t be treated as criminals and called for getting rid of ICE and starting from scratch. She advocated banning AR-15s and confiscating them (under the euphemism “mandatory buybacks”).

This will continue for the policies that got her elected to the Senate will now be liabilities….so progressives do not too excited on the Harris/Walz team.

Now Walz…..

Clips of Tim Walz have spread widely, helping cement him as Kamala Harris’s pick to run alongside her as vice-president.

It’s not just the “weird” of it all: he’s been able to run through a list of what Democrats want, and what he’s done as governor during a banner time for Democrats in his state, that articulates to voters what they would be voting for, not just the danger of what they’re voting against. He speaks plainly and pragmatically, showing the commonsense policies his party stands for.

Walz, 60, was born and raised in small-town Nebraska. He became a teacher, first in China, then in Nebraska and finally in Mankato, Minnesota, where he taught geography and coached the high school football team. He was the faculty adviser for the school’s first gay-straight alliance chapter in 1999, long before Democrats nationally stood for gay rights. He also served in the army national guard for 24 years, enlisting at age 17, a role that took him around the country and on a deployment to Europe. And like JD Vance, Walz has a penchant for Diet Mountain Dew.

(theguardian.co.uk)

I do not know much about Walz so I cannot say much at this time.

Harris picked him with the hopes that is bona fides as a progressive will help her run….

He has started off badly with me…..he refused to meet with voters…..why?

In March, Walz lauded the “uncommitted movement”, describing the initiative to pressure President Joe Biden to call for a ceasefire as “engaged”. 

“These are voters that are deeply concerned as we all are. The situation in Gaza is intolerable. And I think trying to find a solution, a lasting two-state solution, certainly the President’s move towards humanitarian aid and asking us to get to a ceasefire, that’s what they’re asking to be heard. And that’s what they should be doing,” Walz said.

“We’ve gone through this before. And we know that now we make sure we’ve got eight months [to the election]. We start bringing these folks back in. We listen to what they’re saying,” the governor added.

But according to several activists in Minnesota, not only has the governor refused to meet with Palestinian families who have lost relatives in Israel’s war on Gaza, he has barely acknowledged their concerns and and demands.

(middleeasteye.net)

If true then that would be strike one .

I will continue to monitor these and other concerns to help my readers understand a few things that the MSM probably will not cover.

I am sure someone will say that they are better than the other guys.

That is a given but it does not preclude me looking at all aspects of the positions.

Stay Tuned!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

News From The Front

The Ukraine/Russia front that is…..

This does not seem to be a popular meme these days…..I think all the propaganda and armchair analyst that know everything about nothing have moved on.

Enough said about buffoons.

Looks like we may have an all out cross border war going on……Ukraine enters Russia …..

Vladimir Putin is calling it a “major provocation.” NBC News refers to it as an “unprecedented cross-border incursion.” Russia on Tuesday said as many as 300 Ukrainian troops had attacked the Kursk region in southern Russia with support from tanks and armored vehicles. The details remain somewhat hazy, Ukraine’s leaders have not confirmed the attack, and the AP reports open-source monitors have not yet verified the claims. The Guardian, however, reports it got confirmation from a junior official that an attack was underway. More:

  • On the ground: Things are murky, with Russia’s Defense Ministry originally stating the “Ukrainian sabotage group retreated to its territory,” per the Guardian. But Russian military bloggers have suggested the Ukrainian troops were not pushed out but rather made it up to 9 miles deep into the territory, and the New York Times reports the Ministry confirmed fighting was continuing on Wednesday.
  • What could make it ‘unprecedented’: The Times explains that Ukraine’s previous cross-border assaults involved armed groups of Russian exiles that had military backing. This attack, however, appears to be the work of Ukrainian troops.
  • Implications: If confirmed, NBC News reports it “would mark a dramatic shift in strategy” and raise “questions about why Ukraine might have launched an incursion into Russian territory with regular troops just as military observers say it’s bleeding soldiers and weapons in the vulnerable east, particularly near the towns of Pokrovsk and Toretsk in the Donetsk Region.”
  • Analysts’ take: Those NBC News spoke with suggested Ukraine could be trying to force Russia to shift troops to an area that hasn’t seen much action since spring 2022, or it could be a “publicity stunt” designed to grab the world’s notice.

Now there is an idea I had not considered….a PR stunt….but when I think about it it makes sense….the world has turned a blind eye to this particular conflict and something is needed to return the attention to Ukraine.

Will this continue or will it be short lived?

Will Ukraine use its new F22 jets and attack deeper into Russia?

Did Ukraine sacrifice troops to make a point?

What will they do?

This is getting to the point of ridiculous….this conflict needs to be resolved and save what lives they can now.

Keep in mind that this war is all about the money and will continue as long as there is cash to be made…..

Lindsey Graham voiced out loud part of an agenda that is usually hidden from public view or the media – it isn’t talked about (admitted) openly. It’s a veritable “gold mine,” Graham confessed, and America can’t afford to lose control of it. Here’s the translation of Graham’s admission:

It’s About the Money.

Our reliably hawkish Republican Senator is well known for provocative statements. As early as 2022 (at the beginning of the Ukraine war) Graham was all in for regime change in Russia, when everyone else in the West was trying to downplay such a prospect. Moreover, he is quoted as saying at a press conference with Zylensky that “Russians are dying” in the war, while US aid was the “best money we’ve ever spent.”

But with the panache and subtlety of a train wreck the good senator created another stir recently, admitting on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” why Russia must not be allowed to prevail in Ukraine. The latter possesses $10 to $12 trillion worth of rich deposits of critical minerals.

https://original.antiwar.com/F_Andrew_Wolf/2024/08/05/us-ukraine-russian-war-its-about-the-money/

Not a fan of Graham’s but in this case he is being up front about this conflict.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”