Tag: Political Alternatives

The EU’s “Freedom Caucus”?

First let me explain the “Freedom Caucus” in the US House of Representatives…..

The caucus is positioned right-wing to far-right on the political spectrum. The group takes hardline conservative positions and favors social conservatism and small government, along with right-wing populist beliefs such as opposition to immigration reform. The group sought dozens of times to repeal the Affordable Care Act Established as a more conservative alternative to the Republican Study Committee, the group initially emphasized fiscal conservatism and concerns about House rules, favoring budget cuts and a decentralization of power within the House of Representatives.

(wikipedia)

It appears that the parliament of the European Union has its own version of this far Right clusterf*ck…..headed by Hungary’s Orban…..and it is expanding….

The Party for Freedom (PVV), a Dutch far-right nationalist party, will join a new alliance of similarly like-minded parties in the European Parliament, its leader said.

Dubbed the Patriots for Europe, the alliance was recently formed by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.

“We are PVV patriots, we love our nation. Strong and sovereign. Resisting illegal immigration. We defend peace and freedom. And support Ukraine. We protect our Judeo-Christian heritage. And our families,” wrote PVV leader Geert Wilders on X on Friday evening.

“We want to combine forces in the EP and will proudly join Patriots For Europe!”

Wilders’ party won the parliamentary elections in the Netherlands last November. The PVV is the largest party in the new four-way right-wing coalition that was sworn in on Tuesday. Dick Schoof, the former head of the Dutch intelligence service, leads it as prime minister.

In June’s elections for the European Parliament, the PVV won six seats.

Orbán’s Fidesz party, Austria’s far-right Freedom Party and the populist Czech ANO party were the first members the Patriots for Europe alliance when it was announced late last month.

Spain’s far-right Vox and the Portuguese far-right party Chega also recently said they would join.

With Wilders’ announcement, the new group would have MEPs from six countries – membership of MEPs from at least seven countries is required for group status in the European Parliament.

So far, the Alternative for Germany (AfD) has declined to join.

(nordot.app)

This is just a way for the far Right to throw a wrench into the workings of the EU.

The Freedom Caucus has about 41 members on the House (numbers are keep secret for some reason)….will these members align themselves with this up-start in the EU?

Will these people be as obstructive as the House version?

All this is scary….the rise of the Far Right cannot be good for any country.

On an upside I see the elections in France has stomped on the LePen and her group….

France’s populist, anti-immigration party appears to have been unable to repeat its success in the first round of the legislative election, with the first projections after polls closed Sunday showing left-wing and centrist parties blocking the National Rally from taking power. The final results of the runoff may vary, and could leave France in gridlock, with no party winning a majority, the Washington Post reports. Weeks of negotiations would be the next step. Just after the first projections were released, Jean-Luc Mélenchon of the far-left France Unbowed called for centrist President Emmanuel Macron to invite the bloc to form a government. Macron’s office said those decisions will wait a bit.

Voters seem to have responded to calls to prevent France from having its first far-right government since World War II. That would mean Macron’s gamble in calling the election paid off, though not enough to keep him in office. “As his minority government was set to lose political support while facing a rising far right, he [counterintuitively] decided to accelerate that process as the best antidote against its full realization,” said Alberto Alemanno, a professor of European Union law in Paris. “Today’s electoral results proved him right.” A government statement Sunday said Macron “will ensure that the sovereign choice of the French people is respected,” per CNN.

At least French voters are showing some good sense……maybe the American voter will follow in their shoes.

The world needs to stop this Far Right rise as soon as possible….for the sake of the planet.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

‘Uncommitted’ By Choice

In a twist of the dagger voters are trying to get the attention of candidates….trying to have them mend their idiotic ways.

The new movement is to vote ‘uncommitted’…..

It all began in Michigan…..

If President Biden thought Michigan’s sizable “uncommitted” protest vote in the state’s primary last month was a fluke, he learned otherwise on Super Tuesday. In Minnesota, for example, about 19% of voters checked the “uncommitted” option, largely in protest of Biden’s support of Israel in the Hamas war. The results “again raised uncomfortable questions” for Biden not only regarding the remaining primaries but the general election as well, per Reuters. The results, as laid out by Axios:

  • North Carolina: About 88,000 uncommitted votes, or 12.7%
  • Massachusetts: 55,800, 9.4%
  • Minnesota: 45,900, 18.9%
  • Colorado: 43,400, 8.1%
  • Alabama: 11,200, 6%
  • Tennessee: 10,400, 7.9%
  • Iowa: 480, 3.9%
  • Spreading? In Minnesota’s case, the state has a sizable population of Somali residents, but the large percentage of dissatisfied voters suggests anger over Biden’s support of Israel has “spread beyond Muslim Americans to progressives and younger voters,” per the New York Times. The Hill similarly points to a “wave of urgency among progressive Americans” on the issue.
  • White House responds: “The president believes making your voice heard and participating in our democracy is fundamental to who we are as Americans,” said campaign spokeswoman Lauren Hitt early Wednesday, per the Times. “He shares the goal for an end to the violence and a just, lasting peace in the Middle East. He’s working tirelessly to that end.”
  • Harris’ speech: Another sign that the White House is taking this seriously is that VP Kamala Harris delivered a strong call for a ceasefire in a speech last week. “I don’t think the vice president would have made such a sweeping statement if Super Tuesday wasn’t happening, and we have been seeing the same thing with President Biden,” Asma Nizami, an organizer of Vote Uncommitted in Minnesota, tells Reuters.

Biden and his gang will say and do anything to try and stave off this movement…..they will lie and misinform, the same as any candidate would do, but it is time to cut through the BS and Americans to make their feelings be known and if this is what it takes then I am all for it.

Me?  I could not vote ‘uncommitted’ for my state you can only have 2 choices, GOP or Dem, and I think both are as worthless as they come.

This is a great idea and we should carry it forward from these primaries.

Put some fear in these slugs….fear of the people which they have bred out of Americans….time to re-awake our political spirit and time to make government truly….’of the people, by the people and for the people’.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

The Faces Of Fascism

Fascism now there is a word that is getting a workout these days….almost as popular as ‘socialist’ was in the not so distant past.

But how many that use the term actually know anything about it?

Here’s a hint: Very Few!

Then here is a very simple definition to get us started….a governmental system led by a dictator having complete power, forcibly suppressing opposition and criticism, regimenting all industry, commerce, etc., and emphasizing an aggressive nationalism and often racism.

But if that is too simplistic for you then maybe this will make more sense to you…..

When far-right personalities and movements started popping up during the last two decades, there was, in some quarters, strong hesitation to use the “f” word to describe them. Indeed, as late as less than three years ago, I had to defend the use of the word fascist in the Cambridge Union debate against academics who were squeamish about employing it to describe far-right movements in Europe, the United States, and other parts of the world. What Donald Trump and the Jan 6, 2021, insurrection have shown, however, is that the distinction between “far right” and “fascist” is academic. Or one can say that a “far-rightist” is a fascist who has not yet seized power, for it is only once they are in power that fascists fully reveal their political propensities.

Fascism 101 for Today’s Geopolitics

But like so many other political philosophies there are many aspects within the ‘movement’….

Primo Levi used to say that every era has its own fascism. What is the fascism of our time? I define fascism as the socio-political condition of capital concentration which, without democratic control, legitimizes total indifference to the humanity of others. Therefore, fascism is a phenomenon specific to capitalist societies. I’ve been making a distinction between societal fascism (when one social group holds the right of veto over the life of another group) and political fascism (a type of authoritarian regime). Today, I think we are moving towards fascist assemblages in which previously distinct components (cultural, economic, social and political) are combined. The fascism of our time has the following faces: social neo-Darwinism, political religion, the traditional far right, lawfare, acedia individualism. Any of them is compatible with democracy, as long as democracy is not much more than a game of appearances.

Social neo-Darwinism. Neoliberalism, as an economic policy, is a device for concentrating wealth through transfers from the poor and middle classes to the upper classes by reducing the freedoms proposed by liberalism to economic freedom. As a social policy, neoliberalism translates into neo-social Darwinism: sacralization of individual autonomy in parallel with the denial of the conditions for being effectively autonomous, which leads to defending the incapacity of the state to alleviate inequalities of opportunity; glorification of order, security and tranquillity guaranteed by police repression and the mass incarceration of discontents or nonconformists; conversion of wealth and economic power into privileged criteria of human dignity; cooperation and altruism are unnatural; the means are always more contingent and disposable than the ends; the production of death is collateral damage in the struggle for success or power.

The Different Faces of Fascism

There are many faces to fascism and I feel we have not seen the end of any of them.

Be Smart!

Learn Stuff!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

A New “GOP” On The Horizon

There are those true conservs that are fed up with the Trumpian BS and have decided that they may start a third party so the country can have true conservatism once again…..

Christine Todd Whitman and Tom Ridge are among the more than 100 Republicans who have said they’ll sign a letter demanding that the party change direction. If it doesn’t, the group warns, the GOP can expect to be challenged by a third political party. The group is opposed to former President Trump’s continued control of the Republican Party, the New York Times reports. “When in our democratic republic, forces of conspiracy, division, and despotism arise, it is the patriotic duty of citizens to act collectively in defense of liberty and justice,” says the statement’s preamble. The letter, which is scheduled to be published Thursday, calls on Republicans to “either re-imagine a party dedicated to our founding ideals or else hasten the creation” of an alternative party.

Other former officeholders behind the letter include Mary Peters, Charlie Dent, and Barbara Comstock. Former Rep. Denver Riggleman said the group would prefer not to start another party, per USA Today. “The objective is to create a common sense coalition and policy-driven movement that pushes back against disinformation like the Big Lie” about the 2020 presidential election, Riggleman said. One of the organizers is Miles Taylor, a former Trump administration official who anonymously wrote a New York Times oped piece critical of the president in 2018, as well as a book. He said former governors, party chairmen, Cabinet secretaries and state officials plan to sign the letter, which Taylor called the first step. “If we can’t get the GOP back to a rational party that supports free minds, free markets, and free people,” he said, “I’m out, and a lot of people are coming with me.”

For more information on this possibility…..https://www.rawstory.com/republicans-threaten-leaev-party/

Will they make good on this threat?

How successful will they be in the age of Trumpism and misinformation?

We already have a centrist party….the Dems….what we need is more progressive thinking.

I am all for a third party….but I do not think it will be one that I will support….but I need to see their platform before I rule them out.

Thoughts?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Could Donald Be The Next Mikhail

If you read my “Tags” you will see it has USSR and being the way things are these days one might think that this post is about Russia-gate…..but sorry to disappoint….it is not about that at all.

It is a comparison by The American Conservative between Donald Trump and Mikhail Gorbachev….

Back in the waning days of the USSR the leader Gorbachev tried to change things in his country the tired old orthodoxies into a new way of thinking…..some could say this is what Fearless Leader is trying to do…..only with less real humpf behind the try….

TAC’s own Rod Dreher recently highlighted an American professor’s exchange with an African diplomat, who compared Donald Trump to Mikhail Gorbachev. Just as the last Soviet premier unwittingly became “the man who destroyed a superpower,” Trump in this view is recklessly squandering the United States’ global position. But upon reflection, the analogy holds for another reason: Whatever Trump’s own mixture of “irritable mental gestures,” Trumpism—as articulated by Steve Bannon, Laura Ingraham, Michael Anton & Company—can be read as a sort of perestroika for the American Right.

A reader may naturally look warily at the comparison. Can one discern a link between the rhetoric of Breitbart and Gorbachev’s exhortation, “to reject obedience to any dogma, to think independently, to submit one’s thoughts and plans of action to the test of morality”? However reaching, the comparison may allow us to discern why debates over immigration and trade now capture the conservative imagination in a way not reducible to “white identity politics” or reflexive loyalty to the president.

http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/is-donald-trump-the-new-mikhail-gorbachev/

Hopefully the US does not suffer the way Russia did after the fall…..I can see no good coming out of a Trump presidency……sorry for that……

Trumpocracy

I realize that there are some that will refute stuff about Trump….they will come to his rescue whenever something negative is written or uttered.

But put hero worship aside and one will see clearly the creeping authoritarianism 0f the Trump admin……

Below is a long piece but it does track all the moves made by the Trump admin….bears reading in full…..

Is Donald Trump a threat to democracy? From his executive orders targeting immigrants to his personal attacks on federal judges and his demonization of the media as the “enemy of the American people,” the 45th president’s actions and behavior have alarmed political observers of allstripes. Below is a running timeline (in reverse chronological order) tracking Trump’s numerous displays of authoritarian tendencies, beginning from the day he was sworn in. Check back regularly for updates.

Source: Trumpocracy: Tracking the Creeping Authoritarianism of the 45th President – Mother Jones

I am not positive that American will be great again under this administration……so far everything done has been for the benefit of the Trump empire and not this country.

You Really Want Change?

Every election the news is that the people of this country are looking for change in DC…..and yet they vote for the same tired people that do nothing of value in governing….

In the early days of this blog….well it was titled “Studies and Observations” back in those days…..I was writing a lot about politics and elections….I even wrote about what I saw as the need for a successful third party……(from 2006)

The US there has been lots of third parties and candidates, but most have been unsuccessful because many reason. The following is, in my opinion, a recipe for a third party to be used if it wants to be successful in its endeavors. For years these parties have been plagued by a one issue platform, or a weak leader or other problems that have help it be defeated in the polls.

Source: Successful Third Party – In Saner Thought

So far the necessities have not been met for a successful third party…..so I thought I would approach it from a different slant….

Most Americans want change….can we agree on that?

Then maybe a little research into our past would give us an idea how to achieve that change.

Maybe a good place to begin would be the election of 1912……

The 1912 presidential election showcased four impressive candidates who engaged in a remarkable debate about the future of American politics. Besides William Howard Taft, the incumbent Republican president, the campaign was joined by Eugene Debs, the labor leader from Indiana, who ran on the Socialist Party ticket; the irrepressible Theodore Roosevelt, who bolted from the GOP and ran as the champion of the Progressive Party; and Woodrow Wilson, the Democratic governor of New Jersey, who was elected president. All four candidates acknowledged that fundamental changes were occurring in the American political landscape, and each attempted to define the Progressive Era’s answer to the questions raised by the new industrial order that had grown up within the American constitutional system.

Source: Why the Election of 1912 Changed America

If you read the above reference then you will see that all candidates saw the changes coming in this country…..and changes are occurring in this country again……

What we need is more independents winning elections…..if they could get into the Senate and deny a 50 majority then there would be room for compromise…all it would take is 5  true independents…..then the House…..25 or 30 independents could make a difference in the voting and this could possibly break this damnable cycle of partisanship.

A third party would make a difference but since that is a far-fetched plan….why not just run as an independent?  I am not talking about some party member that got beat in a primary….I am talking about a true independent….a person that can see the good in liberal ideas as well as conserv ones.

If enough independents are elected in both the House and the Senate then they could control both houses….if an agenda needs to be passed then there would have to be working together….compromise would once again be in the line-up…..thus returning this country back to sanity.

The “Fearsome” Return

The 20th century gave rise to a wealth of democratic movements….but in the last couple decades it appears that it is waning…..at first just a bit…but it seems to be getting stronger every year…..

In his brief time in the White House, US President Donald J. Trump has made a point of bestowing praise on the world’s leading autocrats. He repeatedly called Vladimir Putin a “strong leader,” described Xi Jinping as “a very good man,” said Egypt’s Abdel Fattah el-Sisi was doing a “fantastic job,” and lauded Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdoğan for his triumph in a referendum that greatly expanded his presidential powers.

Trump’s new friends represent a rogues’ gallery of modern authoritarians.  These 21st-century strongmen are responsible for introducing an arsenal of new tactics to use against their domestic opponents, and have gone on the offensive in an effort to subvert and replace the liberal international order.

Source: Surging Autocrats, Wavering Democrats

As democratic movements wane the authoritarian movements gain strength…..and with that new found power the tactics must be fought to preserve democracy wherever it exists…..

After the spread of democracy at the end of the 20th century, authoritarianism is now rolling back democracy around the globe. In the US, supporters of democracy disarmed themselves by imagining an “end of history” in which nothing but their own ideas were possible. Authoritarians, meanwhile, keep practicing their old tactics and devising new ones.

It is time for those who support democracy to remember what activists from around the world have paid a price to learn: how to win.

Source: Authoritarianism is making a comeback. Here’s the time-tested way to defeat it | Maria J Stephan and Timothy Snyder | Opinion | The Guardian

We must attack authoritarianism where it exists……democracy must prevail.

Closing Thought–21Apr17

The Left Shall Rise Again!

Since the last election there has been a new wild swing of young Americans looking into the “Left” of days gone by….

Social media seems to be the meeting place for these “newcomers”……

From Axios:

NewsWhip spokesman Liam Corcoran says general news sites don’t always post about political news, which lowers their average, but when they do, the uptick in engagement is significant. CNN, for example, saw an increase of over 68% in Facebook engagement year over year due to a higher volume of politically-related posts.

Facebook is a good tool for observing the rise of political movements: And its role in activism will only grow bigger. New tools, like call-to-action buttons, fundraising buttons and buttons to contact elected officials, combined with traditional tools, like mass-event invitations, make it easy for political groups to form and spread on Facebook. For example, The Women’s Marches that made national headlines all over the country in January were organized by one woman on Facebook and according to a University of Maryland study cited by CNN, 70% of people who attended the march in Washington heard about the event on Facebook.

It does this old radical’s heart good to see the interests in Left politics…..some further reading on this phenom……

Source: The Millennial Generation Is a Perfect Fit for Socialism | Alternet

Source: More Americans joining socialist groups under Trump | USA | Al Jazeera

Source: Socialism’s Return | The Nation

I feel this is a good thing….because that would give us a truly accurate political system….as it is now we have a one party system with slightly different views on issues…..there is NO opposition other than the silly theatrics of our Congress.

I be finished for the day…..I be weary and must relax and unwind…I shall return tomorrow to begin my weekend and my cleansing of the mind….thanx everyone for all your visits and comments for the past week……I appreciate each and every one of you……chuq

Long Live The Oligarchy

Whenever I write about the failing of our democratic principles there will always be someone who, without an argument, wants to remind me that we are a republic not a democracy.

Yes we are a republic so then maybe we ALL should stop using the term “democracy” all together…..and stop saying we are promoting “democracy” around the world….apparently we are not.

I have had many conversations here on IST about the possibility that we are not a democracy but rather an oligarchy….

Huh?

Oligarchy (Greek Ὀλιγαρχία, Oligarkhía, from óligon, “few,” and arkho, “rule” ) is a form of government in which political power effectively rests with a small, elite segment of society. The term was used by Aristotle to refer to despotic power exercised by a small and privileged group for often corrupt or selfish purposes. In most classic oligarchies, governing elites were recruited exclusively from a hereditary ruling caste, whose members tended to exercise power in the interests of their own class.

Oligarchies have sometimes been synonymous with aristocracies, which were ruled by members of a noble class, or with plutocracies, ruled by the wealthy members of a community. However, neither wealth nor noble birth are necessary conditions for belonging to the privileged group which rules an oligarchy. Historically, there have been organized oligarchies, and unofficial oligarchies in which a group of “advisers” dictated the policies of an official ruler. In practice, almost all governments, whatever their form, are run by a small minority of members of society, and it is necessary to further examine the ways in which these individuals acquire and retain power in order to correctly understand whether a system of government is a oligarchy.

A couple of years ago this supposition was covered by the New Yorker…..

From the Dept. of Academics Confirming Something You Already Suspected comes a new study concluding that rich people and organizations representing business interests have a powerful grip on U.S. government policy. After examining differences in public opinion across income groups on a wide variety of issues, the political scientists Martin Gilens, of Princeton, and Benjamin Page, of Northwestern, found that the preferences of rich people had a much bigger impact on subsequent policy decisions than the views of middle-income and poor Americans. Indeed, the opinions of lower-income groups, and the interest groups that represent them, appear to have little or no independent impact on policy.

Source: Is America an Oligarchy? – The New Yorker

Now a new study as confirmed our greatest fear…..IT is official!

The U.S. government does not represent the interests of the majority of the country’s citizens, but is instead ruled by those of the rich and powerful, a new study from Princeton and Northwestern universities has concluded.

The report, “Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups, and Average Citizens” (PDF)

After sifting through nearly 1,800 U.S. policies enacted in that period and comparing them to the expressed preferences of average Americans (50th percentile of income), affluent Americans (90th percentile), and large special interests groups, researchers concluded that the U.S. is dominated by its economic elite.

Source: Major Study Finds The US Is An Oligarchy – Business Insider

You can sleep well tonight in knowing that our country is now in the hands of the oligarchy.