Day: September 30, 2024

A 10 Point Progressive Plan

College of Political Knowledge

2024 Election Series

As the election slowly grinds into the minds of our fellow citizens I would like to offer up a quote for them to consider…..

Political parties exist to secure responsible government and to execute the will of the people.

From these great tasks both of the old parties have turned aside. Instead of instruments to promote the general welfare, they have become the tools of corrupt interests which use them impartially to serve their selfish purposes. Behind the ostensible government sits enthroned an invisible government owing no allegiance and acknowledging no responsibility to the people.

To destroy this invisible government, to dissolve the unholy alliance between corrupt business and corrupt politics is the first task of the statesmanship of the day.

The deliberate betrayal of its trust by the Republican party, the fatal incapacity of the Democratic party to deal with the new issues of the new time, have compelled the people to forge a new instrument of government through which to give effect to their will in laws and institutions.

Unhampered by tradition, uncorrupted by power, undismayed by the magnitude of the task, the new party offers itself as the instrument of the people to sweep away old abuses, to build a new and nobler commonwealth.

That is a quote from 1912 Progressive Party (Bull Moose)….it rings even more true today than in those days.

As the Congress slowly returns to what they pretend is normal…. Progressives in the country have released a 10 point plan going forward……list of 10 policy objectives….as usual Progressives have some great ideas but the so-called ‘centrist’ Dems will fight this plan tooth and nail and then there is the Repubs who cannot get behind anything that would benefit us peasants.

The plan is ambitious and very based on reality…..

A coalition of national progressive advocacy groups on Monday released a list of 10 policy objectives that it believes President Joe Biden should embrace to consolidate support for his high-stakes electoral rematch against presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump.

The platform—released by Our Revolution, Progressive Democrats of America (PDA), and the State Democratic Party Progressive Network—frontloads the threat that Trump and the fascist movement at his back pose to basic freedoms and democracy itself.

“The 2024 presidential election presents a challenge for progressives to preserve and amplify our voice while fighting the most dangerous threat to U.S. democracy in our nation’s history,” reads the platform’s introduction. “Our best strategy to advance both goals is to become state and national Biden delegates at the state and national Democratic Party conventions, and to elect Joe Biden for a second term. Throughout this process, we must advocate for a progressive policy agenda that builds and expands upon progressive elements of President Biden’s original Build Back Better (BBB) plan.”

“With our support and voice,” the document adds, “progressives may persuade and enable President Biden to achieve more progressive policy objectives during his second term and prevent a fascist takeover.”

The first plank of the agenda urges Biden and the Democratic Party to “develop and repetitively use more aggressive messaging against and educate the public about the dangers of fascism including exposing and condemning Project 2025, the fascist blueprint for a second Trump administration.”

https://www.commondreams.org/news/progressive-coalition-platform

Like I said an ambitious plan and one that I will endorse whenever I can….but the real test will be those Progressives in Congress will they go bold or will the wimp out as they have done so many times before?

Then there is the ‘Progressive Promise’ from the Progressive Caucus in the House….

  1. Advancing justice, dignity, and peace for all. 

At the Progressive Caucus, we believe that government must be the great equalizer of opportunity for everyone. We are committed to passing legislation that advances justice, dignity, and peace for all people. 

  • Realizing the goal of a universal, high-quality, Medicare For All health care system for all. 

  • Advancing the right of every American to retire with security and dignity.

  • Ending poverty and income inequality and securing a living wage for all people.

  • Protecting the fundamental right to organize. 

  • Ending mass incarceration and advancing equal justice under the law.

  • Taking urgent, inclusive, and transformative action on climate change. 

  • Upholding the fundamental reproductive rights of all people. 

  • Ending our forever wars, cutting the bloated Pentagon budget, and prioritizing diplomacy.

  • Advancing humane, fair and just immigration laws.
  • Advancing racial justice and equity. 

There is more so read on…..

For me these principles are more in line with my thinking than the mainstream Dem which is a little better than a conservative.

Sadly there is no major candidate that will fight for these principles in 2024…..instead we will have the usual corrupt POS that has plagued our system for 40+ years.

Will I have to go in search of an alternate candidate?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Kris Kristofferson–R.I.P.

Another star is gone.

A musical icon from the 60s has died….this time it is one of my favorites….Kris Kristofferson.

Kris Kristofferson, a Rhodes scholar with a deft writing style and rough charisma who became a country music superstar and A-list Hollywood actor, has died, reports the AP. Kristofferson died at his home in Maui, Hawaii, on Saturday, family spokeswoman Ebie McFarland said. He was 88. McFarland said Kristofferson died peacefully, surrounded by his family. No cause was given. Starting in the late 1960s, the Brownsville, Texas, native wrote such classics standards as “Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down,” “Help Me Make it Through the Night,” “For the Good Times” and “Me and Bobby McGee.” Kristofferson was a singer himself, but many of his songs were best known as performed by others, whether Ray Price crooning “For the Good Times” or Janis Joplin belting out “Me and Bobby McGee.”

Kristofferson, who could recite William Blake from memory, wove intricate folk music lyrics about loneliness and tender romance into popular country music. With his long hair and bell-bottomed slacks and counterculture songs influenced by Bob Dylan, he represented a new breed of country songwriters along with such peers as Willie Nelson, John Prine, and Tom T. Hall. “There’s no better songwriter alive than Kris Kristofferson,” Nelson said during a November 2009 award ceremony for Kristofferson. “Everything he writes is a standard and we’re all just going to have to live with that.”

As an actor, he played the leading man opposite Barbara Streisand and Ellen Burstyn, but also had a fondness for shoot-out Westerns and cowboy dramas. He was a Golden Gloves boxer and football player in college, received a master’s degree in English from Merton College at the University of Oxford in England and turned down an appointment to teach at the US Military Academy at West Point to pursue songwriting in Nashville. Hoping to break into the industry, he worked as a part-time janitor at Columbia Records’ Music Row studio in 1966 when Dylan recorded tracks for the seminal “Blonde on Blonde” double album.

His music will live on but he will be missed.

In closing I leave you with a couple of my favorite songs …..

This one is from the American Outlaws, The Highwaymen tour with Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings….

Great music for the soul of us old farts….thank you Kris!

May he rest in peace.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”