progressive

The Secret History of ‘Wokeness’

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The idea of 'wokeness' was actually coined by a black musician who traveled the backroads of the Jim Crow South, Lead Belly.

In Lewis Carroll's "Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There," Humpty Dumpty scornfully declares that "When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean." So, what does "wokeness" mean?

"Woke" has become the pet political aspersion that today's kooky right-wing hucksters hurl at liberals, but the hurlers would be whopperjawed to learn that it's was actually coined by and for progressives! Indeed, it admonishes people to be awake to the dangers posed by hate-filled bigots and reactionaries like... well, like today's right-wing extremists.

Surprising historical tidbit: The first person reported to have used the word was Huddie Ledbetter, the legendary black blues artist known as Lead Belly. Among his many classic songs was "Scottsboro Boys," about nine black teenagers falsely accused in 1931 of raping two Alabama white women. As a black musician who traveled the backroads of the Jim Crow South, Lead Belly warned others to pay attention when in a viciously racist state: "Best stay woke," he cautioned.

But -- out of blind ignorance, blind arrogance, or both -- today's adapters of the Jim Crow mentality have perverted common-sense wokeness into a verbal whip to lash African Americans, immigrants, Democrats, women, LGBTQ+ people and all others they don't like (pretty much everyone who looks, thinks, prays and acts different from them).

How kooky? They've declared librarians, science, Mickey Mouse and Bud Light to be their evil enemies. "Don't be woke," they bark, demanding autocratic, plutocratic and theocratic laws to coerce compliance with their own retrogressive bigotries.

This is Jim Hightower saying: Bear in mind that this is no longer a fringe cult, but the mainstream of the Republican Party, including its top congressional leaders, presidential wannabes and state officials. Actually, you can easily comprehend what these Humpty Dumpties really mean by their "Don't Be Woke" war cry. Just substitute the word "sane" for "woke."

The Most Influential Musician You Never Heard Of

When you think of Americans whose music has made a lasting difference, you might think of Scott Joplin, Woody Guthrie, Maybelle Carter, Harry Belafonte... or Roger Payne.

Who? I came across Payne in a June obituary, reporting that he'd died at age 88 (yes, I occasionally scan the obits, not out of morbid curiosity but because these little death notices encompass our people's history, reconnecting us to common lives that had some small or surprisingly large impact).

Payne's impact is still reverberating around the globe, even though few know his name. A biologist who studied moths, in the 1960s he chanced upon a technical military recording of undersea sounds that incidentally included a cacophony of baying, shrieking, mooing, squealing and caterwauling. They were the voices of humpback whales. What others had considered noise "blew my mind," Payne said, describing them as a musical chorus of "exuberant, uninterrupted rivers of sound." His life's work shifted from moths to whales... to the interdependence of all species.

At the time, whales were treated by industry and governments as dull, lumbering nuisances. But Payne's musical instincts came into play, sensing that the "singing" of these magnificent mammals might reach the primordial soul of humans. So, he collected their rhythmic, haunting melodies into a momentous 1970 recording titled "Songs of the Humpback Whale." It became a huge bestseller, altered public perception and spawned a global "Save the Whales" campaign -- one of the most successful conservation movements ever.

So, without writing or performing a single musical note, this scientist produced a truly powerful serenade from nature that continues to make a difference. To connect with Roger Payne's work and help extend his deep understanding that all of us beings are related, contact the global advocacy group he founded, Ocean Alliance, at whale.org.
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The idea of ‘wokeness’ was actually coined by a black musician who traveled the backroads of the Jim Crow South, Lead Belly. In Lewis Carroll’s “Through the Looking-Glass … Read more

What? Progress Being Made in Mississippi? Seriously?

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A working-class Democrat has pulled even with the right-wing incumbent governor, indicating there's progress being made in Mississippi!

There's a common political refrain among Texas progressives: "Thank God for Mississippi."

Our own state government, run by corporate lobbyists and right-wing nutballs, is a notorious hellhole for efforts to provide even a little more fairness for the poor, the working class and the environment. So, Lone Star progressives need some straw to grasp to keep from tumbling into the ditch of total despair. Mississippi has been that straw: No matter how mingy our state officials are, Texans can count on the Magnolia State to be one digit worse.

But -- Have Mercy! -- Texans are suddenly in danger of losing our reputational buffer, for Mississippi is close to making a momentous upgrade this election year. An unabashed working-class Democrat with a program of For-The-People reforms and an anti-plutocrat campaign for governor has already pulled even with the right-wing incumbent. Thus indicating there is actually some real progress being made in Mississippi!

Brandon Presley is the upstart's name. A "little d" democratic populist elected at 23 years old to be mayor of his small hometown (where he still lives), he's now in his fourth term as a highly effective, widely popular member of the state utility commission. There, he has successfully battled the electric power giants and telecom profiteers on behalf of everyday ratepayers, workers and the environment.

Presley (who actually is an Elvis cousin!) is not a pure liberal -- he's pro-gun and anti-choice. But this is Mississippi, and while it's essential to strive for the pure light of liberalism, a multiracial majority of workaday Mississippians see Presley as a pure champion of basics they've long been denied -- from health care to voting rights. So, they're rallying for change -- after all, even a dog knows the difference between being stumbled over and being kicked!

The people of Mississippi know they're being kicked by the moneyed powers, and Brandon Presley is saying, "Let's kick back." To learn more, go to brandonpresley.com.

Checking the Price You Pay for Corporate Food

Oftentimes, when you suspect you're being gouged by corporate price fixers -- you are.

Take the rat-a-tat-tat of today's price jumps at supermarkets and chain restaurants. They make you want to race to the cash register before they raise prices again!

"No, no," cry the CEOs of food giants. "It's not us, it's 'supply chain disruptions;'" then corporate politicians and economists chime in with old platitudes about the invisible hand of "supply and demand;" and media know-nothings also pile on, blathering about "ne'er-do-wells" causing a labor shortage.

But, hogwash -- your suspicions are right: It's plain ol' price fixing by avaricious food monopolies. Top executives even brag about it when talking to their bankers and stockholders. McDonald's for example, recently told investors that "strategic menu price increases" in the past three months had boosted profits by 63%. Big Mac's CEO exulted: "I'm really proud of how our system has executed pricing." Never mind that it's their customers being executed.

"Well," say free-market proselytizers, "just buy from a competitor." But in nearly all segments of today's food economy, a handful of giants control the market, with each one in on the fix. For example, Chipotle, a McDonald's rival, also jacked up prices in the same three-month period, manufacturing an 84% profit increase. Its CEO then gloated to Wall Streeters: "I think we've demonstrated we do have pricing power."

By the way, these same giants are also fattening their profits by ripping off their workers. The federal poverty level is now $25,000 a year, with fast-food workers typically getting only $3,000 a year more than that bare minimum for a 40-hour week. But there's the "gotcha" -- the profiteering executives hold each worker to about 26 hours a week, creating a sub-poverty labor force for this multibillion-dollar industry.
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A working-class Democrat has pulled even with the right-wing incumbent governor, indicating there’s progress being made in Mississippi! There’s a common political refrain among Texas progressives: “Thank God … Read more

How to Guarantee a Train Wreck

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Who would've thought that in these modern times of digital monitoring of everything, a train wreck could spew a toxic fireball?

Stuff happens, right? A train wreck here and there is just unfortunate, that's all.

I mean, who could've thought that in these modern times of digital monitoring of everything, something as massive as a freight train could become a toxic fireball rolling undetected and unslowed into an Ohio town? But a Norfolk Southern train did just that, derailing in East Palestine and contaminating the air, water, land and families with tons of cancer-causing chemicals.

"Gosh," exclaimed Norfolk Southern's CEO; "Gosh," exclaimed the Ohio governor; "Gosh," exclaimed the U.S. transportation chief; gosh exclaimed the GOP chair of the rail transportation committee -- this is a terrible, unexpected accident and we're all appalled by it!

Only... all of these officials knew full well that this disaster would happen (though they didn't know exactly where). Indeed, far from unexpected, there are more than 1,000 preventable train derailments in the U.S. every year (Norfolk Southern had another only days after the one in Ohio). And these things don't just happen -- they are caused by the profiteering greed of the monopolistic industry's top executives and rich investors.

While Norfolk's boardroom elites have been pocketing record profits in recent years, they've used armies of lobbyists and multimillion-dollar political donations to kill safety protections that would prevent such a disastrous record. To cut costs and jack up profits, railroad bosses have rigged the rules to run trains that are absurdly long, go too fast, carry ever-heavier loads of undisclosed toxics in weak tanker cars, have no fire detectors, use outmoded braking systems -- and have as few as one crew member on board. One!

Norfolk's derailed train was made to derail. It pulled 149 cars, stretching nearly two miles down the track, and it was unequipped to detect fires and other problems. This disaster was not an "accident" -- it (and those that will come next) was mandated by the corporate and government officials now professing outrage.

TRACKING NORFOLK SOUTHERN'S DERAILMENT

"The Wreck of the Old 97" is a classic bluegrass song recounting a spectacular train crash in 1903, caused by the company's demand that the engineer speed down a dangerous track to deliver cargo on time.

One hundred twenty years later we have the "Wreck of the Norfolk Southern" -- a devastating crash caused by the corporate demand that it be allowed to run an ill-equipped, understaffed, largely unregulated, 1.7-mile train carrying flammable, cancer-causing toxics through communities, putting profit over people and public safety.

This rolling bomb of a train was hardly unique, for the handful of multibillion-dollar railroad giants that control the industry also control lawmakers and regulators who're supposed to protect the public from public-be-damned profiteers. A measure of their arrogance came just two years ago, when an Ohio legislative committee dared to consider a modest proposal for just a bit more rail safety. Norfolk Southern executives squawked like Chicken Little, asserting a plutocratic doctrine of corporate supremacy on such decisions. They even imperiously proclaimed that state lawmakers have no right to interfere in safety matters.

Ohio's Chamber of Commerce dutifully echoed Norfolk's concern for profit over people, testifying that "Ohio's business climate would be negatively impacted" by the bill. Never mind that Ohio's public safety climate can literally be "negatively impacted" by train wrecks! Plunging deeper down the autocratic rabbit hole, the Chamber insisted that corporate control over workers is sacrosanct. It postulated that a crew-safety provision in the Ohio bill is illegal because it "would interfere with the employment relationship between employers and their employees." Yes, that's a corporate claim that executives have an inalienable right to endanger workers.

Sure enough, bowing to the corporate powers, Ohio lawmakers rejected the 2021 safety bill. And that, boys and girls, is why train catastrophes keep happening.
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Who would’ve thought that in these modern times of digital monitoring of everything, a train wreck could spew a toxic fireball? Stuff happens, right? A train wreck here … Read more

Finding Reasons for Progressive Optimism

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Progressive optimism and political reform don't come by saying "pretty please" to the power structure.

From corporate polluters to political bosses, power elites try to create a myth of inevitability, trying to make workaday people feel helpless, too small to change the injustices of the system. "Don't bother" is their message, "progressive optimism" is futile.

But the feisty residents of Boxtown, Tennessee, definitely did bother when they learned that a couple of profiteering fossil fuel giants were targeting them. Boxtown, a historic Black neighborhood of Memphis settled by former slaves 160 years ago, was considered by Valero Energy and Plains All-American Pipeline to be politically powerless, so when these multibillion-dollar petro powers decided to ram a dirty and dangerous pipeline through the Memphis area, Boxtown was their chosen route. The rich Texas oil barons even sneeringly called the lower-income community the "point of least resistance."

Boy, did they get that wrong! Those "small" people of Boxtown resisted fiercely and smartly. Most flat-out refused to sell their family land at the thieving price offered by the oil slicks. They forged a unified grassroots coalition (Memphis Community Against the Pipeline), reached out to other neighborhoods and educated locals about the terrible safety records of the two corporate plunderers. They also enlisted environmental groups to help beat back the strong-arm attempt by Valero and Plains All-American to seize the people's property through eminent domain. It's a long story, with many ups and downs, but the inspiring essence of it is that local "nobodies" defeated the big money and raw, racist arrogance of a powerhouse duo of absentee corporate elites that disrespected -- and misjudged -- them. We're not helpless or too small -- remember this: Even the smallest dog can lift its leg on the tallest building!

It gets little national media attention, but regular grassroots communities and coalitions are mounting -- and winning -- gutsy fights against corporate and political exploiters all across America. Start with this: Tuition-free higher education for all residents. While Biden gave up on his pledge to provide free community college access for Americans, New Mexico has done that and more, enacting (and funding) a bipartisan program to cover tuition and fees at all state colleges, universities, community colleges and tribal colleges. Yes, bipartisan -- the state seems to be blessed with a gutsy governor and some GOP legislators who've been persuaded that education, not extremist ideology, is the real path for peoples' progress, and that higher education for all is a public resource, equivalent today to what free universal enrollment in high school was a century ago.

And how about this? New Mexico -- ranked as one of the poorest states in the country -- has prioritized free child care as an essential need and common good for families, the economy and the state's future. The product of a decadelong grassroots push by groups like New Mexico Voices for Children, the program is open to all 0- to 5-year-olds -- and it also provides decent pay (starting at $18 an hour) to attract quality caregivers and instructors. The "Land of Enchantment" has become the Land of Can-do.

Political reform and progressive optimism doesn't come by saying "pretty please" to the power structure, but by steadily organizing to gain enough force that you can jettison the powers that be. You could ask Sen. Joe Manchin about it. He's a one-man political steamroller in Washington -- a Democrat. Except when he's not, which is most of the time. The multimillionaire West Virginia coal executive is the darling of fossil fuel and pipeline lobbyists, as well as Republican opponents of progressive Democratic policies. Indeed, he's funded by Republican billionaires.

But Washington lobbyists and billionaires are not the only source of personal political power that allows him to hold office and block "small d" democratic policies that the American majority wants and needs. Back home, Joe has maintained a tight, authoritarian grip on West Virginia's Democratic Party structure, rigging the rules to put little Joes in each and every party position. In turn, this has long given Boss Manchin control over who gets to run as Democrats for down-ballot elected offices in the Mountain State.

Until June 18, that is. That's when a statewide democratic rebellion that had been organizing for six years elected its slate of over 50 candidates to oust the Manchinites on the Party executive committee, replacing all but one of the top Party officers with grassroots activists. It truly was a diverse, people-run victory. Selina Vickers, a social worker, was chief strategist, and Mike Pushkin, a cab driver, is now the party chair. Danielle Walker (now vice-chair of the committee and the first person of color in state history to sit on the Party's governing body) summed up the significance of this turnaround: "There's a new beacon of light shining down on the government with people energized and ready to strategize with a return to the democratic process."

For guidance on bringing this kind of progressive reform to your local/state Dem Party hierarchy, go to Our Revolution, the one national group that is prioritizing work on this fundamental democratic change to the Democratic Party.
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Progressive optimism and political reform don’t come by saying “pretty please” to the power structure. From corporate polluters to political bosses, power elites try to create a myth … Read more

How Can Democrats Save the Party… from their Leaders?

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Instead of blame or surrender, more of Harry Truman's feisty, can-do spirit is needed to save the party from itself.

President Joe Biden recently flew off to Taiwan to assure our allies there that he will fight for them. And a couple of weeks later he was winging off to Saudi Arabia, intending to "repair ties" with that repressive monarchy.

In terms of international realpolitik, this flurry of foreign travel might be strategically important, but there's a strategic political reality right here at home that calls for a different presidential itinerary: Our country's midterm congressional elections are less than five months away! Taiwan and Saudi Arabia don't get to vote, but Texas and South Carolina do. So, how about spending a bit more time flying, driving or even whistle-stopping to such places, where many hard-hit working-class families are feeling ignored by the national Democratic Party? They'd like to see President Joe fight for and repair ties with them, and in the process, save the party.

In fairness, Biden came through for such families early in his tenure, and his proposals to do more have been deliberately gummed up by such congressional blobs of do-nothingism as Sens. Mitch McConnell and Joe Manchin. But blaming them isn't winning any points for him -- or helping the families now struggling with baby formula shortages, $5 gasoline, continuing farm and factory depression, housing evictions, etc.

Instead of blame or surrender, more of former President Harry Truman's feisty, can-do spirit is called for, going straight to the people with an urgent program of Big Actions that people need and want. To hell with placating McConnell and Manchin -- come on, Joe; you're president, not them. And you're not powerless to help people! Want to DO something about corporate price spikes on food and fuel? Rep. Ro Khanna points out that you can and should use the government's emergency authority to do "preemptive buying" on the open market. This would quickly and dramatically cut what consumers now pay, plus the authority is already on the books, so no need to kiss McConnell's butt -- just take direct presidential action for ordinary Americans.

This is the difference between giving speeches telling voters you're on their side... and actually being there, so they can see it for themselves. It's honest politics. And it would do a lot to mitigate the cries of "It's over" and "Biden numbers are in the ditch" and "Democrats are doomed."

And these are (em) Democrats (/em) talking! Even before November's congressional elections are run, too many conventional-thinking Democratic operatives are surrendering to a presumed Republican sweep. You don't need a political science degree to know that if you start out announcing that you'll lose, chances are you will. After all, who wants to vote for a party that shows no fighting spirit, no confidence in the appeal of its own ideas?

A major reason for pessimism about the party's November chances is that its top leaders have decided their candidates can't win in rural areas and smaller factory cities -- so they've quit trying. Worse, they blame the voters, claiming that Trumpism, Fox News BS and culture war conspiracy nonsense have poisoned the minds of people "out there." Thus, they've abandoned the countryside to go all out in big urban areas. Democratic congressional leaders even killed their rural outreach programs, and the former Party chairman officially abandoned the turf in 2018, meekly declaring: "You can't door-knock in rural America."

Actually, sir, you can. And if you choose to abandon this whole working-class constituency -- surprise! -- it will abandon you. And the cold fact is that national Democrats didn't just quit going down the dirt roads and factory streets, they've actively been working for several years against families living there -- the trade scams that sucked out union jobs; the shameful bailout of Wall Street bankers who crashed our real economy, while ignoring millions of devastated workaday people; protecting drug profiteers who caused the brutal opioid epidemic; doing nothing about the corporate-caused farm depression still ripping across our land; and so many other vivid examples of top Democrats not hearing, seeing or responding to this vital, FDR-ish constituency of millions that they now blithely dismiss as irredeemable.

Did party poobahs think voters wouldn't notice or care how they're being treated? If we want to get them back on our side to help save the party -- then go to them... and get back on their side!
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Instead of blame or surrender, more of Harry Truman’s feisty, can-do spirit is needed to save the party from itself. President Joe Biden recently flew off to Taiwan … Read more

Democrats, Please Be Democrats!

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This is prime time for the party to actually be Democrats, to unite ordinary Americans behind a national agenda of lasting progressive change.

I think we can now say the obvious: The Republican Party has gone bull-goose bonkers. Its leaders have turned the once-proud GOP brand into an unprincipled gaggle of corporate profiteers, hatemongers and screwball conspiracy theorists. They're so far-out that the Hubble Space Telescope can't find them!

But where is my Democratic Party? Here's a transformative opportunity to forge a solid political coalition -- a multiracial, urban-rural, farm-labor alliance based on fundamental principles and programs of fairness and opportunity for all. Isn't that what the party says it stands for? This is the prime time to demonstrate it, to actually be Democrats, to reach out and unite ordinary Americans behind a national agenda of lasting progressive change.

It's not like the party elders would have to start from scratch, for an energized, feisty movement of grassroots battlers against corporate greed and government injustice is already organizing, winning and growing popular support all across the country. But the national party's old-line clique of big funders, paid consultants and corporate politicos shun the little-d democrats as unruly outsiders. Rather than welcoming and building on the exciting advances of these popular movements, the insiders keep hoping that the GOP's goofiness and nastiness will turn off enough voters that Democrats can win by default.

Meanwhile, the establishment insists that Dems only push modest, incremental reforms so as not to offend corporate funders or spook moderate Republicans. Hellooooo, brilliant strategists: A primary function of the Democratic Party is to offend the corporate powers! Also, there are only about six moderate Republicans left in America, so appeasing them is not a big win -- especially when it costs you the support of grassroots voters eager for a politics bold enough and big enough to end business-as-usual economics.

As our own history teaches, it takes intentional gutsiness to create a politics that matters -- one that actually advances America's historic democratic promise. Republicans won't do that. Will Democrats?

The opposite of courage is not cowardice -- it's conformity. And right there's the problem with the Big Money establishment that now controls the Party.

This group certainly wants Democrats to be the majority party... but for what purpose? Based on the policies they actually push, they seek "progress" without change. Go slow and go small, they urge, only offering policy tweaks that conform to the existing corporate structure. Their idea of change is what near beer is to beer -- only less satisfying.

Worse, when grassroots progressives put real, FDR-style, "Big D" Democratic ideas on the national agenda, the Dem hierarchy turns into a bunch of fraidy-cat Democrats, mewling that a federal living wage, a tax on billionaires, health care for all, breaking up monopoly power, strengthening unions, a nationwide child care program and other fundamental changes are too extreme. Such boldness, they cry, will frighten voters!

They are, of course, wrong... and politically inept, for such direct-benefit, we're-on-your-side changes in today's corporate-run system are the Democrats' most popular proposals. Polls confirm that this is especially true among working-class voters in small and medium-sized manufacturing towns, where Democrats have been getting creamed. In-depth surveys by a group called American Family Voices show that these people don't think the party is too socialist or too "woke," but rather too meek, too corporate, and especially MIA: missing in action.

After all, they've seen CEOs move their decent-paying jobs out, watched monopolies and Wall Street squeeze the lifeblood out of family farm opportunities and witnessed Amazon and Walmart eating Main Street alive. Where, they ask, is the Democratic Party that once stood up for us? Contrary to the contrived "wisdom" of party elites, these people despise big corporations, love unions, and have minimal interest in the GOP's culture war issues. They yearn for a party that'll join the grassroots battling the bastards and fight for a no-BS agenda of economic fairness.

The question they have for Democrats is basic: Do you just intend to hold office... or use it?
    [post_title] => Democrats, Please Be Democrats!
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This is prime time for the party to actually be Democrats, to unite ordinary Americans behind a national agenda of lasting progressive change. I think we can now … Read more

Once Again Congress Exposes Its Butt-Ugly Morality

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Chicken Little Democrats are a subset whose members call themselves moderates, but whose ethics are as butt-ugly as the Republicans'.

Here they come again -- the usual butt-ugly gaggle of Washington politicos and pundits who keep assailing President Joe Biden's package of FDR-ish proposals that, at long last, would begin lifting up America's infrastructure and working class.

"Too big," screech these small thinkers and servants of the established plutocratic order. "Too costly, too ambitious, and ... well, too democratic." You would expect such adamant minginess from anti-everything Republicans -- but these are Democrats! Well, sort of. They're Chicken Little Democrats, a subset whose members fastidiously call themselves middle-of-the-road moderates. Actually, though, you can almost always find them hugging the right-hand lane, clucking that the Party of the People is scaring the people with policies that -- get this -- directly benefit the people.

The latest example of their perverse assertion came after one of their own political adherents, Terry McAuliffe, recently lost the Virginia gubernatorial election. It's their fault, cried the mods, pointing their blamethrowers at the Party's progressive forces, claiming that poor Terry lost because progressives refused to cave in to conservative demands that key democratic reforms from Biden's infrastructure bill be slashed. The go-small cognoscenti claimed that cutting the bill's proposals to raise wages, lower drug prices, etc., would've made it more acceptable to Virginians. As one Washington political columnist wailed, "Had congressional Democrats given voters a reason to turn out, that could well have made the difference."

But wait -- isn't it the job of the candidate to motivate voters? McAuliffe, a lackluster corporatist and peer of the business-as-usual Washington power structure, ran a lousy campaign basically assailing his Republican opponent for being a less-blustery political clone of former President Donald Trump. That's true, but besides not being Trump, what was Terry offering to grassroots families to excite them about voting for him?
How's this for poetic justice? One issue that would've been a winner for McAuliffe is that big progressive version of Biden's infrastructure bill! It happens to be very popular among the voters he needed.

Sometimes, when I watch Congress in action, I can't decide whether to laugh, cry or check myself into an insane asylum.

I'm not one who thinks all lawmakers are political hacks, quacks and corporate toadies -- but that contingent does seem to dominate. Most infuriating is that our nation's legislative institution, Congress, which purports to represent the people, routinely does what the American majority does not want done and fails to do what people do want. Take a peek at the long, slow legislative hash that Congress is making of Biden's landmark infrastructure proposals, submitted months ago.

This is a monumental, long-overdue undertaking to reinvest in America's physical house and social underpinnings (everything from roads and broadband networks to child care and paid family leave). The package would deliver real, tangible benefits across our nation, especially for low- and middle-income families, so it is enormously popular. Yet, when the first half of the plan recently came to a vote in the House, Republican leaders turned the people's needs into a partisan mud-wrestling show. Nearly every GOP member voted a loud NO on such obvious needs as fixing decrepit bridges, providing clean tap water in every community and opening preschool education programs to all 3- and 4-year-olds.

Cynical Republican gamesmanship aside, even more infuriating is the clique of self-described "moderate" Democrats who pose as champions of workaday Americans but constantly scuttle public policies that would make their lives better, instead selling them out to the priorities and power of wealthy interests. That has been the ugly "ethics" behind the stalling and track-offs in the joint demand by GOP and corporate Democrats for a trillion-dollar "compromise" in Biden's national investment plans. What's being compromised? Not proposals to fund the corporate wish list, but long-postponed needs of everyday Americans, including home health care, free community college, affordable housing, wage hikes, environmental justice, etc.

The wealthy and their political enablers complain that America can't afford such projects. But, hello -- these aren't "projects," they're people! And permitting politicos and lobbyists to leave them behind yet again would be an abominable moral failure of our society.
    [post_title] => Once Again Congress Exposes Its Butt-Ugly Morality
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Chicken Little Democrats are a subset whose members call themselves moderates, but whose ethics are as butt-ugly as the Republicans’. Here they come again — the usual butt-ugly … Read more

This is Your Brain on Aphorisms: Giuliani Jerk Reactions

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This is Your Brain on Aphorisms: Giuliani Jerk Reactions
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    [post_date] => 2020-12-01 16:54:18
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Rudy suffers from Giuliani jerk reactions.

[caption id="attachment_89101" align="alignleft" width="400"]Giuliani jerk reactions Rudy suffers from Giuliani jerk reactions.[/caption]

Giuliani is like an unhinged shudder.

Bad losers always lose badly.

Trump will miss leading us.

Truth is not truth... when it lies in an alternate universe.

Know-nothings no more answers.

Scoundrels huddle in the muddle.

Election lawsuits are conspiraling out of control.

Sham on you.

Free the dumb of speech.

MAGA: Make Asshole Go Away!

Admission accomplished, Joe. You're certifiered.

A progressive agenda means no more business as use-you-all.

The smart money's always on education.

I owe it all to my creditors.

A closed mind, like a closed hand, can grasp nothing.

This crazy world keeps on moving for weird.

When searching for yourself look within, so you won't end up without.

I column as I see 'em.

Dig deep thoughts.
    [post_title] => This is Your Brain on Aphorisms: Giuliani Jerk Reactions
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Rudy suffers from Giuliani jerk reactions. Giuliani is like an unhinged shudder. Bad losers always lose badly. Trump will miss leading us. Truth is not truth… when it … Read more

‘Lefty Righties’ Appear in ‘Trump Country’

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    [post_date] => 2020-11-08 12:59:35
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Lefty righties? A multitude of overtly progressive ballot issues won majority support on Tuesday, even in so-called Trump Country.

Many years ago, literary critic Dorothy Parker skewered an unfortunate author with her sharp wit: "This is not a novel to be tossed aside lightly. It should be thrown with great force!"

That's how a lot of us feel about this presidential election year, which has been distinguished by an incumbent who is so self-centered, incompetent and both mentally and morally unsteady that he's more dangerous than a baby who's gotten hold of a hammer. Swinging wildly, he's tried to win by demolishing the truth, shattering the law, smashing basic rights, annihilating fair play, trashing the common good, busting up social trust, splintering justice and ... well, generally eradicating the egalitarian principles that unify Americans into a functioning democracy. The worst, most divisive election ever, right?

No. That horror belongs to the 1860 contest, a four-man race that Abraham Lincoln won with 39.8% of the vote: rabid racism; furious intimidation of voters; blatant manipulation of ballots; personal attacks so vicious they'd even make President Donald Trump cringe; and daily death threats not only from the goofball "proud boys" of the day but from Southern elected officials and establishment newspapers. "If Lincoln is elected," a Virginia member of Congress told the New York Herald, "we will go to Washington and assassinate him before his inauguration." It was a campaign of demonic fury: Mobs attacked and wrecked Republican offices in Washington and Baltimore, and 10 Southern states wouldn't even put his name on the ballot.

Despite the vitriol and violence, Lincoln won, stayed calm yet firm in a time of dangerous turmoil, held a bitterly divided nation together and even expanded our democratic ideals and advanced the possibilities for ordinary people to achieve them. He didn't wear a silly red cap arrogantly proclaiming, "Make America Great Again." He did it. Indeed, he died for it.

The point is that Lincoln didn't preserve the noble idea of America by rewriting the law but by altering the culture, pushing the people themselves to act on their better natures. So, 160 years after that toxic election, here's another one, and there's no Lincoln in sight. That means that We the People have to do the healing ourselves.

"Good grief!" cry many progressives. "How has America turned so right-wing that a flabby, narcissistic, wannabe dictator such as Trump is even in the running?"

But wait. Aside from a minority of racist, xenophobic, misogynistic voters, plus a bunch of uber-wealthy corporate profiteers making a killing from his rich-man's agenda, most of Trump's rank-and-file voters are not right-wingers at all. To see evidence of these "lefty righties," look at the multitude of overtly progressive ballot issues that won majority support on Tuesday, even in so-called Trump Country.

    
 	
  • Fifty-three percent of Arizona voters said yes to a tax surcharge on incomes above $250,000 a year for individuals and $500,000 for joint filers, specifically to raise teacher pay and recruit more teachers.
    • 
 	
  • A whopping 78% of Oregon voters approved a populist proposition to put strict controls on the corrupting power of big-money corporate donations in elections.
    • 
 	
  • Sixty-one percent of Floridians voted to raise the state's minimum wage to $15 an hour, a working-class advance vehemently opposed by corporate giants and right-wing groups.
    • 
 	
  • Fifty-seven percent voted yes on a Colorado provision requiring corporations to let employees earn paid time off for medical and family needs.
    • 
 	
  • Between 53% and 69% of voters in six states -- including such supposedly conservative bastions as Arizona, Mississippi and South Dakota -- approved initiatives liberalizing and even legalizing marijuana and other drug use.
    • 
 	
  • Plus, there were some big symbolic victories, such as Mississippi replacing a Confederate symbol on its state flag with a magnolia blossom, and the people of Nebraska overwhelmingly voting to amend their constitution to excise an antiquated provision authorizing slavery as a punishment for certain crimes!
    • 


The hope that resides in these progressive policy positions is the prospect that a truly great American majority might yet be forged -- not around some mega-politician but around our people's basic shared values of fairness, justice and equal opportunity for all.
    [post_title] => 'Lefty Righties' Appear in 'Trump Country'
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Lefty righties? A multitude of overtly progressive ballot issues won majority support on Tuesday, even in so-called Trump Country. Many years ago, literary critic Dorothy Parker skewered an … Read more

Prop 22 Helps Gig Giants Strip Health Care from Low-Wage Workers

, 
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    [post_date] => 2020-10-29 17:20:34
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It's just an attempt by Uber, Lyft and other gig giants to keep low-wage workers down.

There's a mournful Peggy Lee song that asks the existential question: "Is that all there is?" Some progressives are asking that when looking at whether to vote this year -- Biden or Trump... is that all there is?

First, for me, that's an easy choice if we want to have even a small chance of making any little-d democratic progress in the next decade or two. Second, no, that's not all there is. Just scroll down the ballot in most voting districts and you'll find a choice of solid progressive contenders in congressional, state legislative, city council, sheriff and school board races, and other races for grassroots offices, all of which offer tremendous potential for both big policy changes and for expanding America's progressive movement.

But wait; there's more! Scroll a bit lower and you're likely to discover direct democracy allowing ordinary people -- you and me -- to make our own policies and laws, rather than hoping that legislators and lobbyists will do right by us. These are "ballot initiatives" -- policy ideas and procedural changes that are put directly to voters in a state, county or city. Most are put on the ballot by groups that get enough voters to sign petitions demanding that a particular proposal be listed.

It's not an easy process, but it has become a more common legislative tool, as shown by the number and variety of propositions on next Tuesday's ballots. Just counting statewide initiatives, voters in 32 states will be making their will known on a total of 120 ideas. They include such solidly progressive actions as Arizona's proposal to raise taxes slightly on the superrich to cover an overdue raise in pay for schoolteachers. They also include such blatantly regressive schemes as California's Prop 22, the attempt by Uber, Lyft and other gig giants to strip health care from their low-wage workers.

Especially prominent in this year of pandemic disease, mass job losses and ever-spreading inequality are citizen initiatives to start restoring worker rights and income. These illustrate the importance of direct ballot lawmaking: When public officials and corporate hierarchies snub people's needs or carelessly harm them, the initiative is a democratic path for asserting The People's will. If lawmakers don't act, the people can!

Here are some big public policies people clearly want but lawmakers consistently ignore: Pay for family leave time; restrict the power of Big Money in our elections; stop rent gouging by greedy corporate landlords; assert real public oversight to stop police abuses.

Now the good news: You don't have to vote for Sen. Foghorn or Gov. Blowhard in the futile hope that they'll ever work to pass such progressive policies. Rather, each of the above ideas is on the ballot next Tuesday in various states across the country -- do-it-yourself democracy in action!

Of course, democracy can be messy, and bypassing the backroom chicanery of legislative bodies doesn't necessarily bypass the insider power of Big Money. But at least ballot initiatives force moneyed interests to do their avaricious dirty work outside, allowing us commoners to glimpse their greed.

That's certainly the case of a money-soaked mega-fight underway in California over Prop 22. Uber, Lyft and other multibillion-dollar behemoths have amassed their billions by claiming that their hundreds of thousands of workers are independent contractors, not employees. Therefore, say the corporations, they don't have to provide health care or comply with basic labor protections.

This year, though, a new California law rejected this blatant corporate ruse by gig giants, at last allowing employees to get the essential benefits due to them. However, rather than do right by the people who do their work, a cabal of these giants has ponied up more than $200 million to try ramming through Prop 22. This self-serving corporate ballot measure openly asserts that they're above the law, entitled to exploit their low-paid, no-benefit workforce (and a study says 8 in 10 of gig workers are people of color). If you wonder why our fabulously rich nation keeps sinking deeper into self-destructive inequality, look no further than Prop 22. It's such a piece of plutocratic nastiness that, to get their way, the handful of profiteers behind it are running the most expensive and one of the most underhanded PR campaigns in the history of ballot initiatives.

For more information, go to the Gig Workers Rising website.
    [post_title] => Prop 22 Helps Gig Giants Strip Health Care from Low-Wage Workers
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It’s just an attempt by Uber, Lyft and other gig giants to keep low-wage workers down. There’s a mournful Peggy Lee song that asks the existential question: “Is … Read more

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