(34 comments) SHARE        Tuesday, May 31, 2016
Carl Bernstein: The White House Is Terrified the Clinton Campaign "Is In Freefall" I'm not writing a hit piece on Clinton; I'm showing this to make a more general point, that Carl Bernstein carries messages from the White House to the public, from Valerie Jarrett perhaps, or someone else just a step removed from the president, & Bernstein is clearly speaking with Team Obama's permission (& likely encouragement). Which has to mean, with President Obama's permission. This is Bernstein delivering WH messaging

(22 comments) SHARE        Saturday, August 20, 2016
You Broke It, You Bought It": A Sanders Activist Challenges Clinton Supporters What happens when a newly installed President Clinton "pulls an Obama" -- if she starts supporting job-killing trade deals, say, and sells them as "well managed" and "a way to keep China and Russia in check"? Or institutes a large, climate-killing, fracked-methane buildout and calls it a "bridge fuel to a safe and energy-independent future"? What will Clinton supporters, those who happily helped bring down Sanders, do then?

(18 comments) SHARE        Thursday, December 29, 2016
Who Leaked the Podesta and DNC Emails? A Look at the Other Side There's a full-court press in the press to tag the Russians in general and Putin in particular with ... some say "interfering with," some say "hacking" ... the recent U.S. presidential election. The push to tag Russia is so aggressive, including accusations from President Obama, that it makes one suspicious.

(2 comments) SHARE        Friday, July 8, 2016
Could Endorsing Clinton Hurt Down-Ticket Democrats? Polling Says Yes. An offshoot of Mrs. Clinton's low favorability rating is that candidates who tie themselves to her risk alienating voters they need to win, polling shows.

(9 comments) SHARE        Wednesday, December 20, 2017
What Would Happen If Sanders Ran for President in 2020? If nothing else, there's media interest in promoting a Bernie Sanders' contest, and I strongly suspect there's great public interest as well. Don't be surprised if he enters the race. In fact, be surprised if he doesn't, barring an unforeseen derailment.

(9 comments) SHARE        Saturday, June 10, 2017
What's the Cost to the American People of Keeping Senators Like Patty Murray in Office? The answer to the headline question is -- across all industries and monopoly protection schemes regulated and allowed by Congress, easily more than $100 billion per year. That's the dollar price of keeping "fake progressives" like Cory Booker and Patty Murray well-fed and happy in Washington, D.C. Over $100 billion. Per year.

(9 comments) SHARE        Friday, June 23, 2017
How The Democrats' Worst Enemy Is... The DCCC Yesterday's Democratic operative quote of the day was "We no longer have a party caucus capable of riding this wave. We have 80-year-old leaders and 90-year-old ranking members. This isn't a party. It's a giant assisted living center.

(13 comments) SHARE        Tuesday, April 18, 2017
New Evidence that Syrian Gas Story Was Fabricated Events have moved along. Nothing, though, has dismissed the doubts of those willing to entertain doubts that the story as told by the White House -- and repeated by Democrats and Republicans alike -- is baseless, a fabrication.

(5 comments) SHARE        Tuesday, November 28, 2017
Verizon and the Death of the Internet Without net neutrality, some content -- for example, political discussion groups and websites -- may never be accessible, no matter what you may want to pay, turning the U.S. into China in that regard. Will people really stand for that? it's possible the tired and harried masses will. After all, betting on the willingness of most Americans to surrender their liberties was an easy call, ever since 9/11 "changed everything."

(15 comments) SHARE        Saturday, March 4, 2017
Massive Permafrost Thaw Documented in Canada, Huge Carbon Release May Be Coming things are happening on the climate front much more quickly than anyone anticipates. I've called this tendency to under-anticipate the pace of climate change "being wrong to the slow side." We have a strong (and encouraged) tendency to believe that the relentless march out of the climate range that nurtured human civilization will happen slowly, incrementally, gradually -- yet we consistently find out, again and again

(13 comments) SHARE        Thursday, July 27, 2017
Can Chuck Schumer Lead the Democrats to "Unity" on Economic Issues? These are the voters who think "the rules of the economy are rigged" and "[the very rich] have a stranglehold on Washington." Do Americans expect the Democratic Party, as currently led, to change any of this? Will a slogan -- "A Better Deal" do it? You have to change the singers, not just music, to get a different sound from the choir.

(1 comments) SHARE        Wednesday, May 16, 2018
Setting a Perjury Trap for Trump It's impossible to imagine an undisciplined Trump not freelancing and not lying. If he lies, he will be charged with perjury and Mueller will have succeeded. Whether that brings him down, however, is anyone's guess. After all, the House would still have to impeach him, and even Nancy Pelosi has said impeachment is off the table (again).

(7 comments) SHARE        Tuesday, February 28, 2017
Obama and the Perez Election -- Are the Democrats Trying to Fail? It clearly mattered very much, to Obama, to high Party insiders, and to the support ecosystem around them, that no one representing the Sanders camp be allowed real power in the Party.Why did winning DNC Chair matter so much that Barack Obama, personally, whipped for Perez? Not only did control of the DNC matter to him and his fellow insiders, but the appearance of control matters as well.

(3 comments) SHARE        Friday, June 23, 2017
Some People "Would Rather Have 1st Class Seats on the Titanic Than Change the Course of the Ship" Read the quote in the graphic above again. Insider Party consultants made millions off of Jon Ossoff's loss. Would those insiders take an Ossoff win if it meant no money for them? These people, Democratic Party elites, are not your friends and they're not the nation's friends. They are their own friends, period.

(6 comments) SHARE        Wednesday, August 2, 2017
Democrats Complicit in Advancing Christopher Wray Confirmation as FBI Director They never learn. How do they expect us to think they've turned a new leaf if they keep showing us the old one? So we're back to the question we asked earlier -- how much Democratic complicity is too much? It seems that Democratic senators are determined to help us find out.

(17 comments) SHARE        Wednesday, September 21, 2016
Climate Change and Barack Obama's Legacy How will you know whether the administration is serious or not about standing with native Americans, and all Americans, in ending this project? When it ends the project using the authority it has without mass civil disobedience forcing them to do it. Or when the money a completed pipeline generates flows to its financiers -- Citibank, Wells Fargo, et al. Keep watching.

(1 comments) SHARE        Monday, April 10, 2017
The "Assad Launched a Chemical Attack" Story Has Not Been Proved It's dangerous for the major media, all major media really, to continually tout as proven what is only surmised. The current push for war is not only not well grounded, it's bipartisan, which makes it even more dangerous. The last time the bipartisan elite wanted a not-well-grounded war, it did not go well.

(10 comments) SHARE        Friday, March 31, 2017
The State of the Climate in 2017: "Truly Uncharted Territory" it's going to take a revolution or a national panic to get us out of this global warming mess. Or both. An odd set of things to hope for, but the alternative is very much worse. So here's hoping.

(2 comments) SHARE        Thursday, June 15, 2017
Trump's Infrastructure Theft Explained DownWithTyranny!: Trump's Infrastructure Theft Explained

(9 comments) SHARE        Wednesday, June 21, 2017
Finding the Greater Fool -- The Elite Logic Behind "Going Over the Climate Cliff" The "Seneca Cliff" is the point at which a system that grew large slowly, starts to collapse rapidly. This is the way the 1929 stock market and 2008 banking assets collapsed (image source). Any complex system can go over the Seneca Cliff, says climate scientist Ugo Bardi. (Can you guess why he's studying it?)

(7 comments) SHARE        Thursday, February 2, 2017
Should Progressives Let Corporate Democrats Lead and Be the Face Of the Resistance? Corporate Democrats are all for party unity, so long as they're in charge. Challenge that unity and they'll rip our throats out. Will that challenge be now, when they're weaker, or later, when they've been made stronger with our help? Progressives are doomed to be trying, yet again, to win the race from behind. Only this time it will have been by choice.

(5 comments) SHARE        Tuesday, November 29, 2016
Donald Trump: "My 100-Day Action Plan" America was in a pre-revolutionary state before the primary, in fact was in that state ever since the crisis of 2007-2008 and its follow-on "[False] Hope and [Neoliberals Don't] Change" election, which seated neoliberal Barack Obama as neoliberal Bill Clinton's successor. The Sanders and Trump ascendancies both demonstrate how strongly people want that change to occur.

(1 comments) SHARE        Tuesday, October 31, 2017
The Resistance, the #Resistance and Harvey Weinstein Is the anti-Trump #Resistance, the professional broadcast version with its behind-the-scenes security state actors, simply setting us up for a Restoration of those -- a Pence, a Biden, or another darling of our dual mainstream parties -- who "weep tears of admiration for their own virtue" as they tank or attempt to co-opt the next Bernie Sanders, or re-destroy the last one?

(2 comments) SHARE        Saturday, October 28, 2017
Defining Neoliberalism If neoliberalism is the belief that the proper role of government is to enrich the rich -- in Democratic circles they call it "wealth creation" to hide the recipients; Republicans are much more blatant -- then the "shock doctrine" is its action plan. That's sounds pretty blunt, but it's a true statement, even among academics.

(2 comments) SHARE        Wednesday, September 20, 2017
Medicare-For-All: Open Rebellion, Paid Politicians & Net Family Savings Opposition by Democratic office holders to Medicare-for-All can be predicted by financial support taken from the insurance and pharmaceutical industries. Some of this support works like a bribe, and some works like Thank You money. Either way, there's a real financial benefit to opponents.

(1 comments) SHARE        Wednesday, January 31, 2018
2017 Breaks Climate Records Despite No "El Nino Boost" People are much more aware -- today -- of global warming than any in the corporatized media gives them credit for. That awareness, unreported for now, will come bursting through sooner than expected, with undeniable, and non-linear, consequences.

(5 comments) SHARE        Friday, June 16, 2017
The Collapsing Social Contract When the social contract breaks from above, it breaks from below as well. Until elites stand down and stop the brutal squeeze, expect more after painful more of this. It's what happens when societies come apart. Unless elites (of both parties) stop the push for "profit before people," policies that dominate the whole of the Neoliberal Era, there are only two outcomes for a nation on this track, each worse than the other.

(14 comments) SHARE        Wednesday, June 20, 2018
Is Anti-War Fever Building in the U.S.? How different the outcomes are when the public indicates policy preferences with their votes versus polling data. DC politicians of both parties ignore polling with impunity. Votes, on the other hand, especially in party primaries, can force change -- witness the Trump nomination and the Sanders (stolen) near-nomination.

SHARE        Friday, June 3, 2016
Three Data Points Regarding Clinton's Email Server and the Law I've been writing for weeks that there are two aspects to the Clinton "secret server" issue -- the way the server was handled, and the content of the messages it contained. Regarding the way the server was handled, almost everything needed to determine criminal liability is already in the public record and has been for a while. So here are three data points, just three. They line up perfectly so the main idea is easy to grasp

(6 comments) SHARE        Thursday, May 25, 2017
That Word "Allegedly"... The bulk of the country identifies as "independents" and they're not a patient lot (discussed here). This is who progressives have to look reasonable to when the airship Age of Trump comes crashing to the ground. Something to consider for after the airship Age of Trump comes crashing down. If we want to seem reasonable then, we need to start now.

(6 comments) SHARE        Tuesday, July 31, 2018
A Looming War with Iran...What It Will Look Like War against Iran does seem more likely than not -- though clearly not certain -- unless another round of sanctions tips the current government into collapse instead. That regime-change tactic has already failed and will likely fail again.

(1 comments) SHARE        Wednesday, June 27, 2018
Notes on Seymour Hersh's book "Reporter" Seymour Hersh has committed journalism of the most dangerous kind, putting him several steps ahead of what is now delivered to us as reporting. It would be nice to find a few more like him among the current crop.

SHARE        Wednesday, October 17, 2018
IPCC Releases Climate Report -- First Thoughts The next few years are critical for the world to embark on a transformational path to reduce its carbon emissions and increase its forests to bring emissions to net zero by mid century the latest. With countries' current climate targets for 2030, we would have no chance. So they must be improved.

(4 comments) SHARE        Monday, January 23, 2017
The Sanders Conundrum Does Sanders -- do progressives -- have a path against Trump that doesn't involve restoring one enemy while defeating the other? How do we turn anger at Trump into a win for progressives, instead of a win for the Clinton wing of the Party? I'll leave you to ponder that. A conundrum.

SHARE        Friday, June 9, 2017
What If Clinton Were a Man and Trump Were a Woman? Among mainstreamers, the question "Was it Clinton's fault?" seems not to be asked at all, at least publicly. Of these questions, one of the most intriguing in terms of its subtlety is "Was it sexism's fault?" In other words, was it the fault of inbred American sexism that Clinton, who would have been the first woman president, was not elected? The question needs answering even if there were other factors in her loss

(3 comments) SHARE        Sunday, July 3, 2016
Let Slip the Dogs of War Hillary Clinton on Monday broke from President Barack Obama in referring to the terrorist attack as 'radical Islamism,' countering Donald Trump's accusations that both she and Obama are weak on tackling terrorist threats. Clinton said words matter less than actions. That's worrisome. One should kill, if at all, reluctantly. Or so one would hope.

(3 comments) SHARE        Tuesday, April 17, 2018
War with Syria -- What Is It Good For? We May Soon Find Out The American people may not favor this war -- though I can't see the unwashed (those of us with non-political lives) being much opposed. Yet should it come home, they'll surely pay most of the price -- and no doubt be thanked for their service after their deaths by those in the safe seats at corporate-owned cable news.

SHARE        Monday, July 10, 2017
Trump Considering Trade Tariffs: Is That Good or Bad? If we are not willing to change the way the world is run, we'll never move out of the painful place we're in until the whole thing just comes apart. Best to take down the current situation in pieces. Protecting American jobs and local industries is a great way to start.

(3 comments) SHARE        Monday, December 26, 2016
Life in Trump Country: "I make $2.35 an hour in coal country. I want a living wage." The gold-plated Trump regime will serve only itself, never the voters who handed him the power he now revels in. Trump is creating against himself the rebellion he rode to power on. And maybe because institutional Democrats are now out of power, some of them might actually join it.

(1 comments) SHARE        Wednesday, October 25, 2017
Shocking the Shock Doctrine: What Recovery in Puerto Rico Could Look Like What we're about to witness in Puerto Rico is an island-wide pitched battle for and against broad-stroke neoliberal solutions to the island's combined and massive debt and hurricane crises. The Puerto Ricans may not go down easily; and they may even win. Good for them if they do; they deserve all of our help for just that effort alone.

(2 comments) SHARE        Friday, May 5, 2017
Honeymoon of the Generals in the Age of Trump In all the talk of the multiple domestic disasters that the Age of Trump will usher in -- health care destruction, assaults on immigrants, a new surge in death-by-lying-cop, a breaking broken climate, and all the rest -- Americans have conveniently forgotten one of the worst, the loosing of our generals and their weapons of war upon the poor and brown of the world.

(1 comments) SHARE        Wednesday, May 11, 2016
A Corporate Convention: "Comcast Presents ... The Democratic Party. Welcome to Philadelphia." Banks, cable companies (like Comcast, which as you'll see has a special seat at this year's well-bought table), health insurance companies, fracking companies, airlines and lobbying firms -- all are in all likelihood all lined up to foot the bill for the Establishment-run Democratic Convention. The Party fêtes its patrons. The patrons smile down at the Party.

(2 comments) SHARE        Wednesday, March 28, 2018
How Many Democratic Senators Will Approve Gina Haspel For CIA Chief? Most of those we torture are dark-skinned and Muslim -- an identity-politics gotcha for the gotcha-inclined. These are the same people targeted by Trump's widely hated travel ban, which Democrats came out strongly against. Of course, as Yahoo News points out, "If confirmed, 61-year-old Gina Haspel would become the first female head of the CIA."

(6 comments) SHARE        Tuesday, April 24, 2018
How Democrats Can Win with a Mandate in 2020, and Why They Likely Won't How can the Democratic Party claim victory from the jaws of opportunity in 2020? By offering an actual change candidate of their own to run against the Republican fake. By running alongside the crowd that still wants to overturn the Establishment, and not against it. By offering someone real for change voters to vote for. In other words, the 2020 version of Bernie Sanders.

SHARE        Thursday, January 5, 2017
Hospitalized Patients Treated by Female Doctors Show Lower Mortality Researchers estimated that if male physicians could achieve the same outcomes as their female colleagues, there would be 32,000 fewer deaths each year among Medicare patients alone -- a number comparable to the annual number of motor vehicle accident deaths nationally.

(1 comments) SHARE        Saturday, May 19, 2018
Ecuador Hints It May Hand Over Assange If the American state acquires Assange, it may torture and kill him. It certainly wishes to. Chelsea Manning was tortured for exposing a whole lot less, and Manning's crime included revelations about torture and murder.

(1 comments) SHARE        Tuesday, July 3, 2018
Anthony Kennedy and Our Delayed Constitutional Crisis If the Supreme Court were part of a coup that makes a losing presidential candidate the winner, and makes that ruling along partisan and preferential lines that can't be judicially defended, how could any decision issued by that court be deemed legitimate afterward?

(1 comments) SHARE        Wednesday, May 2, 2018
What To Do About Facebook -- First Thoughts The questions surrounding Facebook are many and serious. Facebook is first a monopoly; next, a mass manipulator capable of swinging elections and other social decisions in an order-of-magnitude-greater way than simple common advertising, no matter how targeted; third, a source of enormous wealth to a powerful few.

(2 comments) SHARE        Tuesday, June 12, 2018
The Importance of Supporting Aggressive Progressives for Very High-Leverage Offices Democrats may win the House in a 2018 wave election. But which Democrats will control the Party if they do? Even if Democrats take the House and Senate in 2019, those who bitterly fought and defeated Bernie Sanders will still run the show, even if the number of actual, Sanders-like progressives continues to increase.