TomCADem
TomCADem's JournalWhy Aren't Bernie Sanders and Other So-Called Working Class Progressives In Kansas?
What have we heard on this board and from many progressives? That the Democratic party has not paid attention to working class (often white) voters who voted for Donald Trump. Or, that the Democratic party has been caught up in "identity politics" issues. Or, that the Democratic Party has been elitist. Often, Bernie himself would offer these criticisms while promising to lead a working class revolution:
Bernie Sanders 'deeply humiliated' Democrats lost white working-class voters
http://www.cnn.com/2016/11/14/politics/bernie-sanders-humiliated-democrats-loss-working-class-voters/
Yet, where has Bernie made recent speeches since the election? In Berkeley, CA. In New York to promote tuition-free colleges. At Kenosha college in Wisconsin. In other words, Bernie is preaching to the choir, rather than reaching out to the working class whites who he himself has argued have left the Democratic Party for Donald Trump to support policies that are harmful to their interests.
Progressives, including Bernie Sanders, need to do more than quote Martin Luther King, but they need to heed his example. MLK did not give primarily give speeches or march in areas that were not segregated. MLK demonstrated and took his message deep into the South where segregation was most egregious. MLK did not merely preach to the choir.
This is why I think Bernie Sanders needs to walk the walk and bring his message to Kansas where a preview of the harm visited by Republican policies is well underway. Kansas Governor Brownback cut taxes, then cut services to pay for these tax cuts, and Kansas has been mired in an economic downturn with public services suffering.
It is easy for Bernie to be an arm chair progressive and attack centrist/DLC/Blue Dog/Dino Democrats who manage to get elected in red areas for not being liberal enough. However, progressives need to put their money where their mouth is and take their message directly to the working class white voters who progressives claim they are advocating for. Not doing so would be like MLK giving speeches in Harlam about Jim Crow Laws in Alabama, rather than protesting and going to jail for such actions from Birmingham.
Kansas has been devastated by Republican policies, yet voters still voted in favor of Republicans. Giving speeches at colleges in deep blue states is not going to lead to a working class revolution.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/21/us/politics/kansas-republicans-democrats-elections.html?_r=0
In Kansas, Where Republicans and Fiscal Woes Reign, Democrats Made Inroads
OVERLAND PARK, Kan. — Brett Parker, an elementary school teacher and rookie politician, was a Democrat running against a Republican incumbent in a Republican state that the Republican presidential candidate, Donald J. Trump, clinched by 20 percentage points.
In spite of all that, Mr. Parker will be sworn into the Kansas House of Representatives next month, one of 13 legislative seats the Democrats picked up here.
In this election year, voters across Kansas leaned firmly to the right at the federal level, but showed far more nuance when it came to their state. In parts of Kansas, they punished conservative legislators linked to Gov. Sam Brownback’s tax-cutting doctrine, instead gravitating toward moderate Republicans and Democrats like Mr. Parker who blame the governor and his legislative allies for imperiling the state’s finances and putting public schools at risk.
“Their goal was very simple, and that was to associate me with Brownback,” said James Todd, the two-term Republican lawmaker Mr. Parker challenged here in suburban Kansas City. “That obviously was effective enough to beat me.”
Bloomberg: "Russia Today - Vladimir Putin's On-Air Media Machine"
I occasionally see folks defending Russia Today or dismissing concerns about stories appearing on it as being equivalent to stories pushed by privately owned media outlets. "Hey, Jeff Bezos owns the Washington Post. It's no different." Actually, it is different, and Russia itself understands the difference, since it has steadily passed laws restricting foreign ownership of Russian media on the grounds that such media outlets could be used to destabilize Russia:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2014-09-24/russia-advances-media-law-testing-pearson-springer
Conversely, with the 2016 election, we saw how Russian Hackers stole data from the Democrats, posted on WikiLeaks as a fence, then Russia Today immediately sorting and categorizing these e-mails to facilitate their use against Democrats. And, these efforts were successful in not only electing Trump, but also causing some Republicans to side with Russia and Trump and dismiss such hacking efforts as no big deal:
https://www.rawstory.com/2016/12/im-an-american-cnns-jim-sciutto-eviscerates-former-gop-rep-saying-russian-hacking-is-no-big-deal/
Put another, independent journalism is not only under threat from corporate ownership and centralization, but also from being coopted by foreign actors.
http://time.com/rt-putin/
It was just past midnight on Feb. 28 in the Moscow studios of RT, Russia’s state-funded international television news network, when word of the assassination reached the staff: Boris Nemtsov, a leading figure in the fractious opposition to President Vladimir Putin, had been shot dead a short walk from Red Square. Later that morning, Putin’s spokesman set the tone for RT’s coverage. “What goes without saying,” said Dmitri Peskov, “is that this is a 100% provocation.” His implication was clear: the Nemtsov shooting was staged by Russia’s enemies, not to silence the victim but to discredit the regime he opposed.
* * *
Putin founded RT in 2005 with a budget of about $30 million and gradually ramped it up to more than $300 million per year by 2010. (By comparison, the BBC World Service Group, which includes TV, radio and online news distribution, has a budget of $376 million for 2014–15. The BBC’s International Service is the biggest broadcast newsgathering operation in the world.) The network has already gone a long way toward “breaking the Anglo-Saxon monopoly on global information streams,” as Putin instructed it to do during a visit to RT’s brand-new studios in Moscow in 2013. For him this project is about much more than vanity in an era when digital media are, as he unabashedly put it in October, “a formidable weapon enabling the manipulation of public opinion.”
It has proved formidable enough to put the West on the defensive. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry denounced RT last April as a “propaganda bullhorn” for Putin, accusing it of “distorting what is happening, or not happening, in Ukraine.” Western policymakers have increasingly debated the need for a more vigorous response, either with fresh funding for their own media outlets, such as Voice of America, or a new Russian-language channel to fight Putin on his own turf.
But experts warn that getting into a propaganda war with Russia will be self-defeating. The only way to counter misinformation, they say, is to doggedly stick to the facts. The aim of RT is to “inundate the viewer with theories about Western plots, to keep them dazed and confused,” says Peter Pomerantsev, a British expert on Russian propaganda. Trying to counter that RT-type spin with Western counter-spin would only serve to legitimize RT. That would only play into Putin’s hands.?w=380
WaPo - How Ed Schultz transformed from MSNBC lefty to the American face of Moscow media
The story of Ed Schultz selling out to notable in two respects. First, his hiring by Russia Today reflects a comprehensive propaganda strategy by the Russians to influence not only Republicans, most notably Donald Trump, but to also try to influence the left and undermine Democrats who are not seen as friendly to Russia. Second, it seems that everyone has price, and in the case of Ed Schultz, he is now on the Russia Today payroll carrying water for Donald Trump and Putin. It is not just matter of watching out for right wing corporate media, but you can very well have media targeting the left that is heavily controlled by foreign actors.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/how-ed-schultz-transformed-from-msnbc-lefty-to-the-american-face-of-moscow-media/2016/12/20/320713f4-c322-11e6-8422-eac61c0ef74d_story.html?utm_term=.87f88a2a9925
Ed Schultz used to be the bombastic lefty host of a syndicated radio show and daily MSNBC program. He befriended Hillary Clinton, called Donald Trump “a racist” for his birther views, and once beseeched God to take Dick Cheney “to the promised land.”
In 2014, he ripped Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “nasty” human rights record. He also torched American conservatives for siding with the Russian president as a counter to President Obama. “Putie is their new hero,” sneered Schultz. But the times have changed. And so has Ed Schultz.
* * *
Schultz now hosts RT America’s signature evening newscast, “News With Ed Schultz,” produced in a studio located three blocks from the White House. Schultz is the American face — ruddy, beefy, with a megaphone voice — of a Moscow-based media organization that reports the news a little differently than CNN or NBC.
“Good evening, friends,” Schultz boomed on his program one recent evening before swiftly segueing into “the alleged hacking” of the presidential election by Russia. Schultz skipped the latest details, such as President Obama’s views on the matter or the consensus among American intelligence agencies about the extent of Russian meddling. Instead he went straight to Ed Schultz’s view of the matter: “This has become a lifeline for Clinton supporters in an effort to reverse the outcome of the election. . . . In the meantime, the story has entered the arena of outrageous.”
HuffPo - This Photo Of A Trump Billboard In Mumbai Is Real, And So Is The Dark Irony
Trump is not going to "Make America Great Again." He is not going to even try. Instead, Republicans are going to cut benefits to the working class, and use any savings to give even bigger tax cuts to folks like himself.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-tower-billboard-mumbai-homeless_us_586813c3e4b0d9a5945bb091
It’s a photo so poignant and so symbolic you’d be forgiven for assuming it’s faked.
And you wouldn’t be alone in that conclusion: Both Reddit and Snopes dismissed it as fake when it went viral earlier this year. And yet this is a real photo of a real billboard, featuring President-elect Donald Trump promoting Trump Tower in Mumbai while homeless children camp in the street below.
“There is only one way to live,” the billboard reads, next to a larger-than-life photo of Trump smiling down on a scene of poverty from his gilded room. “The Trump way.?cache=gjx0zavtcl
“I was inspired to take the photo because of the jarring juxtaposition of the Trump billboard and the poverty and homelessness down below,” he said. “The text on the billboard struck me as particularly naive and offensive.”
WaPo Editorial Board - Trump refuses to face reality about Russia
Nice editorial from the WaPo urging the public to demand answers to questions regarding the extent of Russia's efforts to aid Trump's election effort, as well as Trump's ongoing refusal to be transparent about his financial dealings.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/trump-refuses-to-face-reality-about-russia/2016/12/30/5a69d692-ceb7-11e6-a747-d03044780a02_story.html?utm_term=.e548f180f490
ALTHOUGH PRESIDENT Obama’s sanctions against Russia for interfering with the U.S. presidential election came late, his action on Thursday reflected a bipartisan consensus that penalties must be imposed for Moscow’s audacious hacking and meddling. But one prominent voice in the United States reacted differently. President-elect Donald Trump said “it’s time for our country to move on to bigger and better things.” Earlier in the week, he asserted that the “whole age of computer has made it where nobody knows exactly what is going on.”
No, Mr. Trump, it is not time to move on. U.S. intelligence agencies are in agreement about “what is going on”: a brazen and unprecedented attempt by a hostile power to covertly sway the outcome of a U.S. presidential election through the theft and release of material damaging to Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. The president-elect’s dismissive response only deepens unanswered questions about his ties to Russia in the past and his plans for cooperation with Vladimir Putin.
For his part, Mr. Putin seems to be eagerly anticipating the Trump presidency. On Friday, he promised to withhold retaliatory sanctions, clearly hoping the new Trump administration will nullify Mr. Obama’s acts. Then Mr. Trump cheered on Twitter: “Great move on delay (by V. Putin) — I always knew he was very smart!”
* * *
Why is Mr. Trump so dismissive of Russia’s dangerous behavior? Some say it is his lack of experience in foreign policy, or an oft-stated admiration for strongmen, or naivete about Russian intentions. But darker suspicions persist. Mr. Trump has steadfastly refused to be transparent about his multibillion-dollar business empire. Are there loans or deals with Russian businesses or the state that were concealed during the campaign? Are there hidden communications with Mr. Putin or his representatives? We would be thrilled to see all the doubts dispelled, but Mr. Trump’s odd behavior in the face of a clear threat from Russia, matched by Mr. Putin’s evident enthusiasm for the president-elect, cannot be easily explained.
Trump's Pro-Russia/Big Oil Agenda - Making The US Guzzle Again!
Trump's proposed policies are a study in disaster capitalism, as Trump pursues policies designed to increase oil demand, increase oil prices, and allow domestic oil companies to drill for more oil in the artificially inflated oil market that Trump's policies are designed to create. It is not an accident. It is part of the plan to fleece American consumers for the benefit of Trump's Russian and Oil Industry sponsors:
1. Under President Obama, even though domestic oil production grew in the U.S.:
2. But, gross and per capita oil consumption fell:
3. And the Iran Nuclear Deal further put downward pressure on oil prices:
https://www.ft.com/content/23fc0200-55ad-11e3-96f5-00144feabdc0
Iran nuclear deal pushes oil prices lower
Thus, even though oil production grew under President Obama due to greater efficiency in oil production and the Iran nuclear deal, consumption went down in the U.S. despite falling gas prices due in large part to the Obama administration's increased auto efficiency standards and emphasis on renewable energy.
4. However, Trump has proposed to scrap fuel efficiency standards:
http://www.latimes.com/business/autos/la-fi-hy-trump-electric-vehicles-20161121-story.html
Under Trump, fuel economy standards for cars and trucks may be scaled back
5. Scrap the Iran Nuclear Deal:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/timdaiss/2016/11/22/trumps-iran-deal-rhetoric-israelis-say-not-so-fast/#7341a4fa61c6
Trump Pledges To Rip Up Iran Deal
6. While allowing oil companies to drill for more oil in environmentally sensitive areas in order to meet the increased demand and rising oil prices due to Trump's afforementioned actions:
http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/columnist/2016/11/13/what-trumps-pro-drilling-stance-means-oil-gas-industry/93650360/
What Trump's pro-drilling stance means for oil, gas industry
7. And, with Rex Tillerson as Secretary of State, oil exploration in Russia will expand allowing Russia to gain more influence over an increasingly oil dependent U.S:
http://time.com/4599771/russia-donald-trump-secretary-of-state/
Why Russia Is Excited About Donald Trump’s Pick for Secretary of State
We Should Only Let Democrats Choose Our Nominee
I don't understand the point of letting non-Democrats participate in choosing our parties nominee. Republicans rarely allow open primaries, yet Democrats use them in several states.
Likewise, in a large state like Washington what is the point of a caucus that only a few Democrats can participate in? I can understand a caucus in a smaller, less urban state, but a caucus disenfranchises Democrats who cannot devote the time to attend.
The vote of several WA electors chosen through a caucus that went for Bernie even though Hillary won that State's primary for a Republican illustrates how the system works to disenfranchise Democrats.
I don't mind getting rid of superdelegates, but we should get rid of open primaries and most caucuses, except for smaller rural states.
Kansas Is a Testing Ground of Trump-onmics. It Failed, Yet Kansas Is Still Deep Red
Kansas Governor Sam Brownback embarked Kansas on a right wing economic experiment based on the fantasy that huge tax cuts to the rich would pay for themselves and lead to a roaring economy. When that did not occur, Brownback argued that Kansas did not have a revenue problem, but a spending problem, and predictably cut health care and education funding, which still did not lead Kansas to the economic promised land. Yet, despite these economic struggles, Kansas still a deep red state, which went for Donald Trump.
There is this theory that Trump won because he was responsive to the concerns of the working class. Yet, in Kansas, its citizens have suffered through year's of right wing economic policies designed to favor the rich, yet Kansans continue to vote for Republicans.
Personally, I think that the Republican party has found something more powerful than offering an economic solution to its voters. The Republican party offers a scapegoat. Consider that Kris Kobach, Kansas's chief voting official, has rose to popularity by championing the cause of fraud by immigrants even though Kansas is one of the less diverse states in the Nation. Put another way, Kansas has become a prime testing ground for using racism to oppress white people. Kansas is over 75% white. Yet, Kris Kobach has become one of the most prominent Republicans in the State based on his voter suppression efforts in a State that is already very white to begin with.
I personally think that it is not either/or question for Democrats between addressing social justice issues regarding racism and sexism versus issues of relevance to the white working class. To the contrary, I think it is vital to raise awareness of how Republicans are using racism and sexism to not only oppress minorities and women, but to oppress working class white males. Nowhere is the more apparent then in Kansas.
http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-kansas-hard-times-snap-20161121-story.html
Hard times for Kansas and its schools as economic 'experiment' creates gaping budget hole
Kansas began a supply-side economics experiment five years ago that was supposed to showcase a grand economic expansion. Here's why the state is struggling financially.
In February 2015, three years into the supply-side economics experiment that would upend a once steady Midwestern economy, a hole appeared in Kansas’ finances. To fill it, Gov. Sam Brownback took $45 million in public education funding. By April of this year, with the hole at $290 million, Brownback took highway money to plug it. A month later, state money for Medicaid coverage went into the hole, but the gap continued to grow.
Today, the state’s budget hole is $345 million and threatens the foundation of this state, which was supposed to be the setting for a grand economic expansion but now more closely resembles a battleground, with accusations and lawsuits flying over how to get the state’s finances in order.
The yawning deficits were caused by huge tax cuts, championed by Brownback and the Republican-dominated Legislature, that were supposed set the economy roaring. They didn’t.
By Accident or Design, Trump Will Make US Oil Dependent on Russia...
...for the benefit of Russia and U.S. Oil interests. It is a pretty straight forward three step plan.
Step One: Trump will support Russian military intervention in the Middle East - Under the guise of fighting terrorism, Trump has signaled that he is willing to support Russia's military intervention in Syria. Also, by threatening to walk-away from the Iran nuclear deal, Trump is isolating the U.S. by signaling that it is unreliable when it comes to such deals. Russia alone becomes the consistent and active power in the Middle East, particularly given Trump's reluctance to confront Russia. Indeed, U.S. oil interests may support policies that inflate oil prices as a result of turmoil in the middle east.
Put another way, remember when McCain attacked candidate Obama for failing to have a plan to combat high oil prices near the end of Dubya's term? Well, with the Iran deal, oil prices have remained at historic lows:
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-global-oil-idUSKCN12401K
A Trump administration's threats to walk away from the Iran deal would cause an increase in oil prices, which benefits U.S. oil interests, but harms U.S. consumers.
Step Two: Trump will work to roll back sanctions against Russian, particularly with respect to oil exploration. This is why Trump's appointment of Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson as Secretary of State is key. As Russian oil interests are developed, and the U.S. becomes dependent on Russian oil, Russia is in a better position to both profit, as well as manipulate oil prices and threaten energy supplies. In addition, this puts Russian in a position to threaten the U.S., China, as well as Europe's energy supplies:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/putins-gas-threat-what-happens-if-russia-cuts-the-gas-to-europe-10074294.html
Thus, Russia accomplishes the hat trick of marginalizing both the U.S. and China, which are heavily dependent on foreign oil.
Step Three: Trump will work to roll back U.S. renewable energy initiatives - Trump's skepticism regarding climate change and hostility to the EPA serves as a foundation for Trump to walk away from renewable energy sources, thus increasing U.S. dependence on fossil fuels, which Russia will be in a better position to control. Also, as oil prices increase, Trump will predictably call for further roll backs against environmental regulations and allow expanded drilling, which again serves U.S. oil interests, but hurts consumers and the environment. Finally, Trump will use the increased oil prices to argue for further oil deals with Russia, thus further increasing U.S. dependence on Russia.
Put another way, whether by accident or design, Trump's policies will put Russia in a position of strategic dominance over the U.S. by allowing Russia to both control oil while also increasing U.S. dependence on foreign oil.
C.I.A. Judgment on Russia Built on Swell of Evidence
Source: MSN/NY Times
WASHINGTON — American spy and law enforcement agencies were united in the belief, in the weeks before the presidential election, that the Russian government had deployed computer hackers to sow chaos during the campaign. But they had conflicting views about the specific goals of the subterfuge.
Last week, Central Intelligence Agency officials presented lawmakers with a stunning new judgment that upended the debate: Russia, they said, had intervened with the primary aim of helping make Donald J. Trump president.
The C.I.A.’s conclusion does not appear to be the product of specific new intelligence obtained since the election, several American officials, including some who had read the agency’s briefing, said on Sunday. Rather, it was an analysis of what many believe is overwhelming circumstantial evidence — evidence that others feel does not support firm judgments — that the Russians put a thumb on the scale for Mr. Trump, and got their desired outcome.
It is unclear why the C.I.A. did not produce this formal assessment before the election, although several officials said that parts of it had been made available to President Obama in the presidential daily briefing in the weeks before the vote. But the conclusion that Moscow ran an operation to help install the next president is one of the most consequential analyses by American spy agencies in years.
Read more: http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/cia-judgment-on-russia-built-on-swell-of-evidence/ar-AAlrchP
My take is that it is like the US operation to kill Osama Bin Ladin. Leading up to it, information was kept very well secret. Of course, once it happened, people rushed to take credit for the success of the operation even if it may have compromised intelligence sources. Human nature is universal.
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