Tag: Progressives

US Needs A Bull!

Not Bullsh*t….but a Progressive Bull Moose Party….and we need it desperately…..our failing country is a prime illustration for change and change will not come if we stick with the two tired old parties.

This country has been driven into the ground by conserv and centrist policies…..it is time for America to once again wake up and do the big ideas that it is famous for in the past.

For years I have been calling for a Progressive Party…..here on IST…….https://lobotero.com/2016/05/24/a-new-national-progressive-movement/

https://lobotero.com/2010/11/12/how-about-a-new-bull-moose-party-2/

The politics of the past decades has killed political thought……Clinton (Bubba not Hil) started down a path of ruination and we continue through the death of real political thought…..https://lobotero.com/2013/01/10/who-killed-political-thought/

There is a chance for this to happen…it is the Progressive Bull Moose Party…..check them out…..http://www.progressivebullmoose.party/

Why do we need a Progressive Party?

Good question and the answer is simple……

There is no room for progressives in the Democratic Party.

No matter how many votes he or she gets, no progressive will be permitted to be the presidential nominee of the Democratic Party.

Progressives who try to work inside of, contribute to and support the Democratic Party have no real chance of moving its candidates or policies to the left.

Remaining inside the Democratic Party achieves nothing; to the contrary, it is insidiously counterproductive. Working for “change from the inside” strengthens centrist politicians who oppose progressivism with every fiber of their being.

If American electoral democracy has a future, and progressives want to be part of that future, there is only one way forward: create and build a new party in which progressivism isn’t merely tolerated or partly accommodated as some fringe or necessary nuisance but is its core mission.

Why We Need a New Progressive Party and How We Can Create It

For too long big ideas have been at the mercy of the “Good Old Boys” of the DNC….time for them to move over or go to a mountain top and wait for the end……this country can NO longer afford to to wait for the slow turning wheels to catch up.

ALL progressives need to embrace a progressive platform……and to do so you need to read another op-ed I wrote awhile back for my opinion blog, Gulf South Free Press…..https://gulfsouthfreepress.wordpress.com/2018/09/26/why-not-elect-progressives/

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Kamala Is Not The First

We get lots of news that is wrong…..and then these sources back step to make it seem like we are just not understanding what they are putting down.

One such wrong information is that Kamala Harris is the first black woman in our history to be on a ticket as the VP candidate….this is not true……the year is 1952 and the Progressive Party pick a black woman to share the ticket with Vincent Hallinan…..

Harris may well be the first Indian-Black woman to run as the VP candidate…..but not the first black woman….not the first woman…..

Charlotta Bass strode onto a stage in Chicago and gave a speech as the first Black female candidate for Vice President.

As a candidate for the nation’s second highest office under the Progressive Party ticket in 1952, she addressed convention attendees on March 30 that year.
“I stand before you with great pride,” she said. “This is a historic moment in American political life. Historic for myself, for my people, for all women. For the first time in the history of this nation a political party has chosen a Negro woman for the second highest office in the land.”
While Kamala Harris became the first Indian-American and first Black woman this week to run for Vice President on a major party ticket, Bass came before her decades ago in that long-shot bid.
 
In a nod to her minimal chances of winning, Bass’ campaign slogan was, “Win or lose, we win by raising the issues.” Her party lost to Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower, but her campaign decades ago helped open doors for minority candidates today, according to experts.
 
Just because Bass was on a alternative party ticket does not diminish the fact that she is the FIRST Black woman on a political ticket mas VP candidate.
 
Learn about this historic figure…..http://blackhistorynow.com/charlotta-bass/
 
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Progressive International

That is right….Progressives are banding together around the world for it is time for real ideas and policies to make their way to the forefront…..and solutions that we all need.

As of 11May20 there is a new organization that has been formed to push progressive policies…..issues that need attention and situations that need solutions.

A coalition of left-leaning thinkers, activists, organizations, and political leaders from around the world on Monday officially launched the Progressive International, a new global effort aimed to provide the world with an alternative to the ravages of neoliberal capitalism in a world gripped by the coronavirus pandemic, gross economic inequality, and corporate domination.

“The time has come for progressives everywhere to form a common front,” the group declared on Monday as it called on people around the world to sign on for the effort.

…

In an official statement announcing its formation on Monday, the Progressive International said it was now taking up that call and would act as an “institution for the world’s progressive forces, with a mission to make solidarity more than a slogan.”

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/05/11/progressive-international-launches-form-common-front-global-struggle-justice-and

Time is now…..the need is immediate……and radical renewal is much needed……

As opportunities for of radical renewal, however, moments like this are too short. Blink and it’s over, and someone else will have written the rulebook. The struggle over the social order in the world after coronavirus is already underway. In boardrooms beyond public scrutiny, those who have captured the lion’s share over the last decades are busy putting in place mechanisms to secure their privileges at the expense of everyone else. These plans will shape our lives for a generation — and lock us into an economic model that will determine the fate of our planet for centuries. We have only a narrow window in which to impact the political arena and shape the policymaking process.

https://progressive.international/blueprint/bed8719f-4c2d-4d19-850c-3f574e4c66c9-introducing-the-inaugural-blueprint-collection/en

Please check them out….and join the movement for a better world.

My thoughts are as an aging radical it is time for the people to stand up for themselves and this group will give them the clout to demand the change we all desire.

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Did Covid-19 Kill Progressivism?

At the start of this election cycle I was pleased even proud to see that Dems were embracing progressivism….actual embracing not giving it some lip service……and then Covid-19 reared its ugly head and I fear that it not only killed Americans but the progressive movement as well.

For progressive activists, this primary season started off with a bang. They won a close race in Illinois, lost a close one in Texas, and have many other competitive candidates running across the country.

But the coronavirus pandemic has the potential to roil these races in unpredictable ways. The end of direct voter contact and door-to-door canvassing — tactics used by underdog progressives to even the odds against better-funded opponents — could potentially handicap these challengers.

After losing to conservative Democrat Dan Lipinski in Illinois’s 3rd Congressional District in 2018, progressive challenger Marie Newman reversed the outcome this year, topping the incumbent by a comfortable 3.5 percent. And that was not the only hopeful sign for the party’s left wing.

Will the Coronavirus Undercut 2020 Progressive Insurgents?

Now that the progressive leader has decided to bow out of the hunt for the nomination…..https://lobotero.com/2020/04/08/2020-dem-candidates-this-is-the-end/  ….where does that leave the movement and the young that make up the bulk of the progressive support?

Will they jump on the bandwagon for Biden?

Good question!

A group of progressive, youth-led organizations on Wednesday released an open letter to former Vice President Joe Biden urging the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee to “champion the bold ideas” that have energized younger voters.

The new letter, signed by coalition of eight youth movement leaders—including Alliance for Youth Action, March for Our Lives Action Fund, and the Sunrise Movement—was released the same day Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) announced the end of his presidential campaign run and just as Biden responded with a statment in which he appealed to Sanders supporters saying, “I understand the urgency of what it is we have to get done in this country,” and vowed to defeat President Donald Trump in the general election.

But to realize that victory and win them over, the groups wrote, Biden still has a lot of work to do.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/04/08/return-normalcy-not-going-be-enough-win-our-support-young-progressives-tell-joe

One thing to consider…..since 2000 centrists Dems have lost….Gore, Kerry, Hillary and Obama won but as a centrist in progressive clothing…..

We have an election coming that has nothing for the voter….only a vote for dumb and dumber…..

There’s an interesting parallel between Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 Democratic primary and Donald Trump’s victory in the 2016 Republican primary. Both ran weak campaigns that managed, through completely different means, to dominate “free” media coverage when it mattered most. And that free coverage outweighed all their election efforts’ floundering in other areas—fundraising, advertising, volunteer support, strategic communication choices. Their shared success, despite their glaring limitations, suggests that the general election will probably be decided by which candidate is better able to manipulate the topics that the mainstream media chooses to cover. That’s true even in the modern era of microtargeted advertising and social-media-enabled disinformation; and it’s particularly relevant as we begin to imagine what electoral campaigns will look like in the midst of (or, hopefully, the aftermath of) the Covid-19 pandemic.

https://www.wired.com/story/bidens-path-to-victory-does-not-bode-well-for-voters/

So to answer the question…yes progressive politics id dead for awhile killed by the Covid-19.

If we elect another spineless centrist nothing will change…..wages will be lacking, racial division will continue…..health care will remain a joke…..and endless wars shall continue…..personally this is not what I want for my country and its people.

Let’s look at the markets…..after Bernie bows out and Biden becomes the presumptive nominee the markets rose 700 points….that should tell any voter everything they need to know about Biden’s governing style.

How about you?

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Somethings Never Change

Closing Thought–11Jul19

Back in my younger days I was at odds with the leadership of my party (It was not the Democratic Party, FYI)….it seems they did not appreciate my outspoken criticisms and told me to hold my tongue and keep any disagreement private…..I gave them the finger and resigned from the party for when dealing with the people there should never be any secrets after all we are their representatives (at least that is what I thought).

I read something that made me wax nostalgic…..

U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday urged unity among fellow Democrats in the face of battles over the direction of the party and warned members to ditch Twitter and keep their disagreements private.

“You got a complaint? You come and talk to me about it. But do not tweet about our members and expect us to think that that is just OK,” Pelosi said during a closed meeting of House Democrats, according to a source who was in the room.

It was not clear if Pelosi, the top elected U.S. Democrat, was aiming her remarks at a specific lawmaker’s tweet or issuing a general warning about using social media, the favourite means of communication for Republican President Donald Trump.

https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-usa-congress-pelosi/u-s-house-speaker-pelosi-tells-her-democrats-to-kill-the-tweets-idUKKCN1U52N7

Looks like the corporations are winning again…..Pelosi is just protecting the collaborators not looking for a future for the country just the corporate profits….

https://www.commondreams.org/views/2019/07/09/aoc-wants-change-world-through-action-nancy-pelosi-wants-do-it-through-pithy

More on this …..

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/07/10/pelosi-after-railing-against-aoc-and-others-nyt-interview-tells-critics-caucus-not

Plus Pelosi knows how influential Twitter and social media can be and that is a stake in the heart of corporate America.

The more they champion change the more things remain the same.  Corporations want the status quo….for they are making obscene profits and any progress will lessen that and they will not stand for it…..ergo Pelosi’s dictum.

Let’s not pretend this is about unity….it is about control….and the corporations are in control.

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Those “Progressive” Democrats

I have been a radical for many years and many of my radical ideas are now what the country calls “progressive” ideas…..personally, I get pissed if one calls me a “liberal” for I am so much more than a limp dick liberal…..and calling me a progressive also gets my dander up for basically the same reason.

Being a Democrat means that you are willing to give away all your big ideas in the name of bi-partisanship and water down any progress i the name of their re-election campaign…….

Great ideas that have been pissed away…..

+  the public financing of elections

+ proportional representation in elected legislative assemblies

+ abolition of the archaic Electoral College in US presidential elections

+  breaking up giant corporations and placing corporations under popular control

+ making corporate directors personally liable for company crimes

+  limiting and transforming corporate charters in accord with social and environmental needs and priorities

+ the replacement of toxic corporate agribusiness with sustainable and organic agriculture measures to ensure conservation and ecological restoration

+ the replacement of fossil fuels with alternative renewable energy

+ the introduction single payer national health insurance for all – the de-commodification of  health care

+  the development of rapid mass-transit

+ statehood for Washington DC

+  steep progressive income, wealth and business taxes

+  giant jobs programs to meet social and environmental needs

+  the re-legalization of union organizing

+ massive slashing of the giant Pentagon budget and conversion to a peacetime economy in which resources formerly dedicated to the military are directed to meeting social needs

+ repealing so-called free trade agreements

+ the progressive funding and reform of Social Security

+ a financial transactions tax and a carbon tax to help pay for renewable energy programs and other worthy social and environmental investments.

Just a short list of great ideas that were pissed away to please everybody……and more “centrist” ideas were bought in by big business……

So these “progressive” Dems that the news goes on and on about are NO such thing…..they will call themselves as pragmatist but that is a lie also…..the Dems since Bubba Clinton have allowed more conserv ideas to creep into the party….they beat their chest about “big ideas” and let them die a cowardly death on the floor of Congress.

Do not buy the Progressive label without researching their ideas…..and keep in mind that talk is cheap…their actions in the past speak volumes of the cowardice.

Plus these “Progressive” Dems want to silence a member for having an opinion that they do not agree with…..as I said before…..Progressive my ass!

Just Not Good Enough

We have finished the midterms and now all eyes will turn to the 2020 elections…..there is a wealth of opinions out there in what to expect with this voting…….

So why not let the old professor throw stuff out there for your consideration….

There is a small group that thinks that Trump will not run for re-election…they say that he would want to go out on top and not from a possible stinging loss that would follow him throughout the rest of his life both personal and professional.

There are Progressives that say that being anti-Trump is not enough to win in 2020….I agree…..

While affirming that he “strongly” disagrees with former Newt Gingrich, who led the GOP in the House in the mid-1990s, “on virtually every issue,” Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is calling on Democrats in Congress to rip a page of out the Georgia Republican’s playbook by creating—and aggressively pushing—a new progressive version of the Contract With America in order to galvanize the nation, offer real solutions to its most urgent problems, and go beyond being simply anti-Trump.

In stark contrast to Gingrich’s original version—”a radical right-wing agenda full of tax breaks for the wealthy, massive cuts to programs vital to working families, and racist and cruel bills to ‘reform’ welfare and our criminal-justice system”—Sanders argues in a Washington Post op-ed on Thursday that Democrats should instead forge a vision that “reflects the needs of working Americans — centered on economic, political, social, racial and environmental justice.”

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2018/11/22/just-being-anti-trump-not-good-enough-sanders-urges-democrats-new-congress-embrace

ME?

If he stands for re-election as it is today I think he can win the election…..why?   I cannot see anyone in the DNC that could win on a head to head election.

Why?

Too many Clintonites to make a difference…..the Clintonites are NO better than the big business GOP……they stand up for progressism but are just a neo-liberal pack of manure……

https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/04/27/how-clintonites-are-manufacturing-faux-progressive-congressional-campaigns/

There is lots of noise coming from the Dems…but right now it is all noise and optics.

Sorry, wish I had better thoughts but looking at the political landscape these days and the Dems have zilch.

I agree…..anti-Trump is not a winning policy…..Dems need to dig deep and find some policies not rooted in the 1950s….or a placate of the big dollar donors.

That “Green New Deal”

I know if you are on the Right then you probably think that the whole climate change thing is just so much hysteria by the Left……and if you are on the Left then it is important but not that important that it deserves a lot of attention.

Well the new Dems in the House are not going to let climate change go the way of the Do-Do…..

If the recent report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is to be believed, humanity has just over a decade to get carbon emissions under control before catastrophic climate change impacts become unavoidable.

The Republican Party generally ignores or denies that problem. But the Democratic Party claims to accept and understand it.

It is odd, then, that Democrats do not have a plan to address climate change.

https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2018/12/21/18144138/green-new-deal-alexandria-ocasio-cortez

JD_Sunrise_ClimatePetition_THX_Reps_43_1200_122018.png

The problem is not with the policy…the problem is that corporate slugs will fight this….including the MSM…they will not talk about this proposal so that the people will learn about it and possibly support the creation of the Green New Deal…..and when they face re-election and the money pours in they will make a “one time” exception…..work on getting money out of our elections!

Sorry I digress……

Then some are not so sure about this Deal……

A burgeoning save-the-climate effort called the Green New Deal, explains Vox’s David Roberts, “has thrust climate change into the national conversation, put House Democrats on notice, and created an intense and escalating bandwagon effect. … everyone involved in green politics is talking about the GND. … But WTF is it?”

Roberts goes on to give a good summary, but no one can fully answer that question until someone puts a complete plan down on paper. We do know that the vision as it’s being described by its fans (and it seems to have nothing but fans in the climate movement) explicitly draws its inspiration from the New Deal that the Roosevelt Administration launched eighty-four years ago in an effort to end the Great Depression.

https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/01/17/that-green-growth-at-the-heart-of-the-green-new-deal-its-malignant/

A new analysis by one of the nation’s top public interest advocacy groups shows that even as the planet and humanity face an existential threat due to the climate crisis, most corporate media outlets in the U.S. have largely ignored the urgent need  for a Green New Deal and the growing political movement demanding it.

Following the midterm elections in November, the youth-led Sunrise Movement flooded congressional offices and demanded that representatives back a Green New Deal and the creation of a House select committee that would be tasked with drafting legislation to create one, successfully convincing 45 members of Congress to support the proposal.

But despite the energy behind the plan, 82 percent of Americans in a Yale/George Mason poll  said they had never heard of the Green New Deal, and researchers behind the new Public Citizen study are blaming corporate news networks for failing to educate the public about the proposal.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/01/11/new-analysis-shows-push-green-new-deal-hindered-silence-corporate-media

I support this and I think the more the American people see about this policy the they will support…..but as long as the MSM is helping tap down any enthusiasm the popularity will not be realized.

As long as we are talking about it….the corporate media refuse to talk about the policies that actually matter…..

A new analysis by one of the nation’s top public interest advocacy groups shows that even as the planet and humanity face an existential threat due to the climate crisis, most corporate media outlets in the U.S. have largely ignored the urgent need  for a Green New Deal and the growing political movement demanding it.

Following the midterm elections in November, the youth-led Sunrise Movement flooded congressional offices and demanded that representatives back a Green New Deal and the creation of a House select committee that would be tasked with drafting legislation to create one, successfully convincing 45 members of Congress to support the proposal.

But despite the energy behind the plan, 82 percent of Americans in a Yale/George Mason poll  said they had never heard of the Green New Deal, and researchers behind the new Public Citizen study are blaming corporate news networks for failing to educate the public about the proposal.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/01/11/new-analysis-shows-push-green-new-deal-hindered-silence-corporate-media

The American voter should DEMAND truth, honesty and accuracy in the report that the MSM feeds to the public…..then maybe we all can make the best decisions for the country.

More on these and other issues to come……

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Tax The Rich

The chant goes up…Tax the rich….Tax the rich…..somewhere there will be villagers with pitchforks waiting on the arrival of the “tax man”…..

Enough fanciful stuff……there is a movement taking to the airwaves a proposal for a 70% tax on the ultra-rich…..and by damn the idea has got a majority approval in the polls…..

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) sparked a flood of hysterical and error-filled responses from the right when she suggested in a recent “60 Minutes” interview that America’s top marginal tax rate should be hiked to 70 percent to help pay for bold progressive programs, but a survey published on Tuesday found that the majority of Americans are on the freshman congresswoman’s side.

Conducted by The Hill in partnership with the market research firm HarrisX, the poll found that 59 percent of the U.S. public supports raising the marginal tax rate on the richest Americans to 70 percent. The poll also found a “surprising amount of support” for the proposal among Republicans, with 45 percent backing the idea along with 71 percent of Democrats.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/01/15/poll-shows-majority-

back-70-tax-rate-ultra-rich-ocasio-cortezs-radical-proposal

The media is not down with this proposal……however the economics of this are sound…looking at it without the bias of a political party……

Taxes impede economic growth and high taxes kill the economy, right?. This is the belief among many who criticize Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s proposal to raise taxes on the wealthy to 70% or more. But what does the evidence really tell us?

Do high taxes really hurt the economy as much as they believe, and will lowering them have much of an impact on stimulating it? The economic literature is clear — tax breaks to encourage economic relocation or investment decisions are inefficient and wasteful. Hundreds of studies reach this conclusion. When businesses are surveyed regarding factors important to their investment decisions, taxes often come in behind proximity to markets, suppliers, and the quality of the labor force. These other factors occupy a larger percentage of a business’s budget than do taxes, and all of them are far more critical to long-term success than are taxes. Businesses occasionally admit this. Nearly 62 percent of those interviewed in a California study on hiring tax credits indicated that they had never or rarely affected their decision to employ individuals.

https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/01/09/tax-the-rich-history-proves-alexandria-ocasio-cortez-may-be-correct/

I know this will not fly with the GOP for they think that tax cuts for the rich will solve all our economic problems…..wishful thinking….it has not done so in many decades and will not work now.

Time for the uber rich to start pulling their weight to society….they profit most from society then why can they not pay for their privilege?

Why Not?

As a matter of fact……the entire “progressive agenda” is fiscally  responsible….the agenda…..

  • We are currently planning to spend $45.2 trillion over the next decade on healthcare as a country.
  • A single payer Medicare for All system would cost $32.6 trillion over the next decade, saving us $13.2 trillion.
  • Freezing defense spending at 2017 levels would save us $780 billion over the next decade.
  • Reversing the Trump tax cuts would bring in an additional $1.9 trillion of revenue.
  • Reversing the Bush tax cuts would bring in an additional $3.3 trillion of revenue.
  • Closing three corporate tax loopholes (exclusion of rental income, capital gains, and deferral of controlled foreign corporations’ income) would bring in another $2.72 trillion of revenue.
  • If the entire “progressive agenda” is implemented, we would save $18.74 trillion over the next decade.

I approve of the agenda and will support it as long as too many changes are not included.

That is where it will not fly in DC….it is fiscally responsible…..the GOP has NO idea how to be fiscally responsible…..sounds good in sound bytes but the GOP just cannot find the on switch to fiscal responsibility.

The “Green New Deal”

This is why I dislike the Dems so much….the Progressives have come up with a plan for a “Green New Deal”………

We understand the problem ― we can’t allow temperatures to rise by more than 1.5 degrees Celsius. The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change gives the world 12 years to make substantial reductions in greenhouse gas emissions to avoid severe climate effects later this century ― including in the United States. The urgency of the situation can’t be overstated.

We have momentum ― incoming Democrats, like Reps.-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, are building support for an ambitious climate plan, and more than 15 members of Congress are calling for a select committee with a mandate to draft comprehensive legislation: a Green New Deal. We have the outline of a plan: We need a mass mobilization of people and resources, something not unlike the U.S. involvement in World War II or the Apollo moon missions ― but even bigger. We must transform our energy system, transportation, housing, agriculture and more.

https://www.commondreams.org/views/2018/11/30/we-can-pay-green-new-deal

This is a great idea….the problem is that it is NOT a Dem idea…..this was first proposed 8 years ago by the Green Party USA…….

And if you like facts then read this fact……http://www.gp.org/green_new_deal

But at least I am not alone knowing where this “idea” came from……

This week progressives nationwide are talking about a Green New Deal and, while mainstream media is saying that insurgent Democrats came up with this, we beg to differ! We applaud the efforts of Democrats for finally adopting what the Global Greens began to work on in in 2006 while noting that the delay of 12 years is very significant when it comes to climate change.

The Green Party has been advocating for a massive jobs and public works program to transition our energy infrastructure rapidly over to renewable energy for more than a decade [1]. The project truly began with a Global Greens ‘Green New Deal Task Force’, first formulated in 2006. It was brought into American Green political campaigns by Howie Hawkins when he ran for governor in 2014 [2]. Next Jill Stein and Ajamu Baraka highlighted it in their 2016 presidential campaign [3] while many more American Green candidates have run campaigns using it since that time.

https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/11/29/sorry-democrats-the-green-party-came-up-with-the-green-new-deal/

Time to give credit where credit is due….and bring in the people that thought this idea up as part of the team to pass this policy.

To be honest I do love all these grand plans…..knowing that they will probably go nowhere….but it does make good optics and slogans…that be bitchin’