THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY ESTABLISHMENT'S CURRENT FRAMING OF THE COUPUBLICANS IS CONCERNING TO SAY THE LEAST (OR A FEW THOUGHTS ON WHY THEY SHOULD STOP COWERING AND FIGHT)

 It's June 23, 2022 as I type this. We are just slightly over four months away from the 2022 midterm election - and the the Democratic party mainstream appears to be hanging on by a thread.

Decades of catering to the middle of the road Road White soccer moms in the suburbs instead of the people who historically make up their base have created a situation where the party has largely failed to gain that vote and has partially damaged the power of Labor teachers and civil rights organizations that decades ago made up their base. As a result, mainstream wisdom is predicting a big win for the Coupublicans this November with third-party winning either one or both houses of Congress in the process.

Meanwhile, on a variety of issues, establishment Democrats appear to be playing from behind when it comes to messaging.  From the various culture war issues that the American right-wing seems to rely on this bread and butter even issues of the economy and energy issues the dumb seem to accept the right-wing messaging spread through the corporate own mainstream media rather than go out and create their own or fight back.

Part of this lies in the fact that the democratic party establishment manage to hold on to what power they had through constant appealing to the center instead of standing on what they're supposed to stand for. While this strategy was successful in earning money from wealthy donors it also gave the party at appearance of being wishy-washy and wimpy in the eyes of many people.

So what does this have to do with the Democratic party establishment today? Even as they're facing a crucial midterm election establishment Dems sing to go out their way to point out a difference between who they call "typical Republicans" and the Mad Fuhrer (Now currently in Exile @) Mar-A-Lago. On the surface it is an old political ploy play in a way to get votes On The Other Side by claiming they're not like the guy at the top of the ticket. While an approach like this may have worked somewhat in the past it is a dangerous road to go down to in an age of political polarization like the last twenty or so years.

In the 2016 election, for example, this approach almost cost them the Senate as a number of GOP voters either voted for Biden or left the top of the ticket blank but still voted for Coupublicans in the Senate and House races. On the surface right now it appears they're going to try the same tactic for the 2022 midterms.

What the strategy leaves out is that, to varying degrees, each of our two major political parties how shockingly different attitudes towards the other one. Establishment Democrats have often gone on record claiming the need for a strong opposition party; an understandable point but one seemingly at odds with the current political climate. Mainstream Coupublican politics, meanwhile, has gotten increasingly wrapped up in conspiracy theories such as QANON and the like and as such have been feeding the worst amongst them (and their supposed belief that all Democrats are a satanic cabal who do sick things to children [all without any actual concrete proof] and need to be wiped off the face of the Earth). As you can see, the two parties are not the same when it comes to how they regard each other.  One is showing respect to the other in a dignified way and the other is increasing engaged (either out of a sincere belief or in bad faith messaging to gain votes) with bad faith based arguments that dehumanize their political opposition and appear to be edging closer and closer to being fascism adjacent.  It also means that the Democratic party establishment I may be blind to the fact that these conspiracies are somewhat of an existential threat and and they can't be reasoned with.

So what do the Democrats need to do? First up they need to fight and fight hard against the Coupublicans instead of hoping to chip away at a few of their votes. Now is not the time to try and claim that the average person in the opposition party can be reasoned with and is not as extreme ask the guy who led them for 5 plus years (especially since many of them either hope to vote for him again or are looking at someone equally as extreme such as Florida Gov. Ron Desantis, for example). They need to try and get has many of the Dems in office as possible and not cave when it turns out an establishment Dem loses a primary or something like that.

It's not that the Democratic party establishment is incapable of fighting. In fact, they can be quite vicious when they need to be. Unfortunately, they are more likely to be aggressive when fighting progressives on their side(such as the Congresspeople involved in what's called The Squad or Sen. Bernie Sanders (I know Bernie's technically an independent but it still qualifies)) than their political enemies on the other party that are way more willing to go for the throat. If they really want to win that shit has to stop, they need to focus some of that anger they spew towards non moderates on their side and aim it at the Republicans. More often than just during a campaign ad a month before election.

At this point the good news is nothing is absolutely certain. The January 6th select Congressional committee hearings actually found the domes leading on the issue rather than catching up with right-wing framing in regards to the coup attempt year-and-a-half ago. While there is no guarantee that this will win over those few moderate Republicans left (who appear to be getting more and more rare by the minute) it has managed to put on the map pure Earth than there was during the first hearing a couple weeks back (according to polls a majority of Americans claim to want the Mad Fuhrer prosecuted for his role leading up to the January 6th coup attempt). But there is still four months until the midterm elections and a lot can change between now and then.

What is true when all is said and done is that the Democratic party establishment needs to stop its constant catering to the middle and fight like hell to make sure they went in November.  The fact that the progressives in the HOuse and Senate the Dems often tend to attack in one way or another were the ones fighting hardest to try and make President Biden'[s agenda happen while "moderates" such as Senators Joe Machin (WV) or Kyrsten Sinema (AZ) do almost more damage to Biden than the GOP does a lot of times is proof that they need to get the courage and adapt to changing political times.  If that means speaking to more and doing things for more average people than their  wealthy donors they need to take that step.

It's up to them to do so. Nobody else can do it for them. While I cannot see how the midterms will turn out I can say that if the Coupublicans when one or both houses of Congress then this country's future will be very bleak indeed.

THE LEAKED SUPREME COURT DECISION REGARDING ROE V WADE AND WHY IT MAY BE MORE DIRE THAN PEOPLE THINK

 

I've been meaning to write this post for about the past week and a half but have been germinating over what to say.  This may do little more than scratch the surface but it's something still need to think about right now.

Like the majority of Americans I was shocked when news broke of the Supreme Court opinion by Justice Samuel Alito that's most likely going to overturn Roe v Wade, the 1973 ruling that struck down state laws outlawing abortion.  If this is correct something that has been a constitutionally-protected right this country for 49 years will become illegal in much of the country, stripping those who can get pregnant the ability to make the decision of what to do with said pregnancy when it happens.

With this leak many Americans have found themselves angry and have taken to the streets in protest in actions ranging from simple protest rallies to at least one instance I know about of an intersection being blocked. All of this occurring while the corporate-owned mainstream media seems to have taken the right focusing on the leak rather than the content in the leak. 

By letting the news story be about the leak rather than about half the population of a constitutional right the corporate-owned mainstream media dilute some of the anger from the story.  It also runs the risk of what's really at stake at this does happen.

Those in the pro forced childbirth camp (most of them aren't actually "pro life" so we will not call them that) claim that by getting rid of Roe it will provide protection to what they consider "unborn babies." what it really will do is make access to abortion virtually a nonentity if you are not middle to upper middle-class or above. At the same time at this decision will be released this many states that would seek to Outlaw abortion (if they wouldn't already outlawed do to fucked up trigger laws that would automatically make abortion illegal once Roe is overturned) will place various laws to push through said bans and punish those that perform or seek them (we;ll touch upon that later in the post).  These states, in many cases, also don't have infrastructure in place to help the possible rise in expectant mothers who would be struggling financially with next to no relief and no options thanks to right wing ignorance and short-sightedness. And some of these states baby been cut unemployment benefits and would force people to take lower-paying jobs under the guise of "keeping the economy going."

In addition, there is no mandatory maternity or paternity leave in this country, and there seems to be a mockery of the idea of extending that very same right to people from many of those who desire to take away the right of a woman (as well as those trans men and non-binary people can get pregnant) from being able to control their own bodies and plan their own families if they so choose. 

Overturning Roe will also do is play a role in stripping back to rights men at least five or six decades.  People forget that it wasn't until the 1970s but a woman could have a bank account in her own name.  It was also around that time that people began to slowly realize it's wrong for a woman to be raped by her husband (yes, sickeningly enough, marital rape was legal until sometime within the last five decades). I give these two examples the show things have in fact come along way for women in those five decades but, if Roe goes away then those rights we take for granted could be on shaky ground as well.

On the more immediate front, stripping away the right to choose doesn't affect just abortion. Being forced to have a child before you're ready also potentially limits job prospects (having to take care of a kid is a time commitment that can't eat up time normally spent studying or working even when the child is wanted) as well as possibly forcing women into bad and/or abusive relationships because of the pregnancy (and the pressure to stick together for the kids).  While these everyday doors are bad enough late for those who can get pregnant whether they are women, trans men, or non binary people is even worse and more horrendous than pre Roe.

Several states have legislation in the pipe that would make it illegal women to go to a state where abortion is legal to take care of the procedure.  Never mind that legislation such as this in reality actually violates the right to travel that most Americans assume is automatic, legislation like this basically makes those who can get pregnant prisoners under a repressive form of house arrest and gives them less rights than residents of said states born with a penis. Some states are even planning state laws that would prosecute abortion providers in states where are the procedure would still be legal the face prison time or doing what is legal in the state they worked in if they perform an abortion on someone living in a state where it isn't legal.

In other words, states where abortion would be outlawed are planning to prosecute and imprison women buys they're not ready to have a kid and choose to have an abortion, possibly with homicide charges. This differs from before Roe v Wade in that back then fetal life wasn't the reason why was it illegal and prosecutions tended to be related to vice and morals issues more than anything else.  They also generally didn't target the women that sought out abortions but targeted doctors.  This time around,  though the legislation proposed against abortion rights in various states has a hatefulness to it that targets women as well as LGBTQ people and non binary people who can get pregnant. Their proponents almost seem to salivate at the chance to punish these people if they make a choice that goes against interpretation of a specific religion that seems to have grabbed one political party in this country rather than laws based in reality.

Who this would really target though are poor and lower middle class women, especially those that aren't white, who often don't have the resources or aren't able to get the time the travel hours out of their way to you have a medical procedure they should rightfully have access to. Laws like these also are hard to enforce on those who can get pregnant who are at least middle middle class or higher-income who have more resources and may be able to travel more easily and without questions to have the procedure done.

It should be clear at this point that while these laws might not mention race or class specifically. The people who would most likely be affected by this would be non-white women and poor people of all races. Some of these people will face more desperate situations pigeons well upper-class white women will be able to able to make the decision Bible where they can with minimal hassle (and you know damn well that this purses of corporate CEOs and right-wing politicians what happened abortions done no questions asked - all while the latter proposes and passes more restrictive laws to limit what those who can get pregnant do with their bodies).

Now some moderates and right-wingers may try to gaslight those being alarmed at this, claiming it's about protecting "the unborn" and wouldn't really affect other parts of life. The problem with this is shit like this always snowballs and has unintended consequences that takes rights form people other than those targeted). Even before this decision became public right-wingers are already proposing that the Supreme Court overturn Obergefell v Hodges, the 2013 SCOTUS decision that made same-sex marriages legal nationwide. Also, a number of right-wing politicians are already proposing going after the right to contraception (something, ironically enough, that lessens the number of abortions), either wanting them outlawed out right or making it illegal for single women to have birth control. Even if this is nothing more than culture-war talking points heading to the midterms the fact that some people in positions of power or even proposing this shows that this has nothing to do with protecting families or even protecting those who can get pregnant but is actually about control, power, and a desire to punish those who don't fit their narrow definition of what their interpretation of their religion says people should live and love.

As I mentioned earlier one heartening thing about all the sickening turn in the wars on both women and LGBTQ people who can get pregnant is that is has pissed off a lot of people and made them take out to the street in protest, from the typical marches to, in some instances, people blocking traffic to peaceful protests outside the homes of Supreme Court Justices, who are crying butt hurt over this supposed " invasion" of their privacy even as barriers were put up in front of the Supreme Court so people couldn't protest there. This anger and outrage (as well as the desire to fight against it) is unlikely to go away - nor should it. And I have a feeling once the ruling is made public that people will be in the streets voicing their outrage over SCOTUS and right-wing politicians taking rights away from over half the country's population.  This is going to get tense, and possibly ugly, but it will have to be done.

As I post this the US Senate is voting on The Women's Health Protection Act, which would codify Roe v Wade into federal law (something they should have done a long damn time ago). Like many I called my senators (though those doing so in blood red states may wonder if it does any damn good). The Democrats seem to be slightly recharged by this (we'll focus on that in another post) but if this vote fails they better be prepared to bring it up until they get it passed. It will take a while but establishment Dems need to fight their natural urge to cave to Coupublicans and actually work for the people instead of their wealthy donors to make this so.

The upcoming SCOTUS ruling on Roe isn't completely unexpected given the shenanigans Coupublicans have pulled they've had control of Congress.  However at this point in time it will not be the end of the story people will need to fight back against this and realize that things are going to get worse and very very ugly before they get better.

Yes, I’m aware that this post is a very brief detailing of what’s at stake here if Roe v Wade is overturned but it should be something to consider for those wondering what the fuss is about or those naïve enough to think that the right wing will stop with abortion and not touch other rights.  They want to push the country back decades and it’s up to the rest of us to do what we can to fight that tide and stop it.

A BRIEF EXPLANATION ON WHY I HAVE BEEN SCARCE ON THE BLOG OVER THE PAST FEW MONTHS.

 Hey! Sorry for not being on here very much (or really almost at all) recently. Been meaning to get on here but the scheudling at the paying job had been crazy and that, combined with a number of other obligations, means I don't get to the blog as often as I'd like.  While I wish I could post more often life often gets in the way and I don't always get to be on here (even when I have ideas for posts as I'm working on the print issues). Then there's the issue of feeling burnt out and overwhelmed in the midst of it all, which I felt at the start of this year.  Please accept my apologies for not posting all that often and, while I hope to rectify that in the future, if I'm not able to post very often I hope this explains some of the situation why this doesn't get updated as much as I'd like.

Here's hoping I can get on here more often.  

SO THOSE POLITICIANS AND PUNDITS DOWNPLAYING THE COUP ATTEMPT TEXTED WHAT?

 

So the past week The House Select Committee on 1/6 come across some definite revelations regarding what happened back on January 6, 2021.

Documents released to the committee by former chief of staff to the Mad Fuhrer (Now Currently in Exile at) Mar-A-Lago Mark Meadows (who was supposed to cooperate and testify to the Committee but backed out last week) have found that while the coup attempt was going down in the Capital, several politicians were texting him asking him to tell the Mad Fuhrer (a/k/a: now former electoral vote winner Donny) to tell those who stormed the building to stop and go home.  In addition Fox News personalities Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham and Bryan Kilmeade texted Meadows asking him to get his boss to stop what went down. All of this while the Mad Fuhrer watched the violence on TV and refused to comment or take action to halt it for several hours. 

So why are these text messages important? Some people would say they don't mean much or that they didn't believe that add pure was in fact responsible for the capitol on January 6th. However, if that were the case I would they be texting Mark Meadows ask him to speak to his boss? When they just be asking the police for help? The answer to these questions lies in two the text messages themselves those Meadows by Fox News personalities.

For example the politicians who texted Meadows while this is going on we're asking for help because they were being ambushed. They were warning of violence at the Capitol building that was going down at the moment. Later on many of these Coupublican politicians but deny that there was violence on January 6th with some referring to it as a normal protest and one congressperson all in the mob that stormed the capital "a tourist group (never mind that no one in a tourist group as ever had attacking police officer for blue lives matter flags, stealIng fixtures and documents, are busting into a main number what chance to hang someone - in this instance co electoral vote winner Mikey - as part of their itinerary).

The texts to Meadows from two of the Fox News  personalities who contacted him that day are especially telling. Laura Ingraham's text urged Meadows that " the president needs to tell people to go home" and that he was " destroying his legacy." Kilmeade's text seconded what Ingraham said claiming that those involved in the insurrection were " destroying everything [now former el electoral vote winner Donny] had accomplished." it is telling because, even though publicly that night they would downplay the violence that happened at the Capital (with Ingram even suggesting it was possibly started by activist from Black Lives Matter or Antifa), they're private text to a chief of staff urged him to get his boss to say something to stop what was going down. In other words, they knew the shit was bad and had a pretty good idea who was the blame for riling everyone up tell a March to the Capital and then and decided to see search through the capital injury not only Capital police officers but even some of their own that got caught in the stampede.

Yes  a case could be made that their statements on the air left some gray area as to who is responsible. Still, if they really thought that b l m or antifa or the ones responsible for this do they think that they would have stopped because the Mad Fuhrer  told them to?

The truth is they knew, or had a pretty good idea, who was responsible for the tragedy that happened last year because their guy didn't get the election results he wanted. In fact, one particular text that we haven't mentioned yet pretty much goes straight to the point of this.

In a series of texts to Meadows the Mad Fuhrer (Now Currently In Exile at) Mar-A-Lago's oldest son Little Donny urged Meadows to tell his father that " he needs to make an Oval [Office]address" and that this had " too far and had gotten out of hand." he also told Meadows that his father needed to "condemn the shit ASAP."

Put aside the strangeness of Little Donny texting his father's Chief of Staff instead of calling his father outright, what is text is that that some of this may be planned but didn't expect results to be as violent as they ended up being. As a result this awkward questions that people need to be subpoenaed and made to testify about.

Was the storming of the capital planned? If so, who was responsible for planning the siege?  If the administration knew about it then how far up  did the knowledge of this go? Until we get some clear answers on this the coup attempt is going to be problem or if you know of any are held to account.

Like the Fox News commentators numbers in Congress who downplayed the coup attempt Little Donny has done his part to try and deflect from what the texts he sent Meadows actually said your suit texted Meadows on that January Wednesday afternoon Little Donny also ask some idea of where are the responsibilities lies for the events of that day as his father stirred shut up and had his fans march toward the Capital to try and overturn the election results claiming  he might join them (as I said earlier in this piece he didn't join them but watched it on TV instead). While they later downplayed what had happened that day all the people who texted Meadows contacted him try and get the match your to stop the storming of the Capital. The fact The Meadows is trying to claim executive privilege the reason not to testify  (even though he has his own coming out on his time at the White House) shows that really didn't do much to try and make boss do something to Halt the coup attempt that day.

If these were normal times the committee would be far more of a news item than it is now. However for too long scandals have been allowed to pop up and then disappear when the pundits of the corporate controlled mainstream media go on to something else in pursuit of ratings or to distract from some issue those who owned media Outlets stop focus on.

Regardless there needs to be accountability for what happened on January 6th. We need to know how far up the ladder the attempted coup planning went, if anyone from the previous dministration was involved, and what - if anything - did the Mad Fuhrer of Mar-A-Lago know about this. Until these steps are taken The Coop applicants will continue to not take this seriously and think no one needs to be held accountable for it.

If we don't want another coup attempt to happen again in this country we need to make sure that someone is held accountable for this.

SOMETHING DEMOCRATS NEED TO LEARN AND TAKE TO HEART

 

It’s the end of 2021. We’re one year into the Biden-Harris administration and the 2022 midterm elections are about 11 months away (give or take a few days).  And the Democrats are in trouble.

Recent polls show the Democrats taking a plunge in support from the general public – or at least those willing to take part in a poll or survey.  Much of President Biden’s agenda has been held up at the moment not just by Coupublicans but by two Dems in the Senate (Joe Manchin [WV] and Kyrsten Sinema [AZ]) who’s refusal to support abolishing the filibuster much less anything that could raise taxes for wealthy donors or actually provide concrete support for those people who may need it the most has not only forced Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris to scrap key parts of the Build Back Better agenda, but also hurts an already fragile Democratic party majority in both houses of Congress.  All of this has the mainstream media predicting the Coupublicans resuming control of at least one house of Congress in the midterms, despite said party refusing to accept the severity of the January 6, 2001 coup attempt or fully deal with very real problems this country still faces.

So what needs to be done?  Mainstream pundits in the corporate owned media claim the Dems are in trouble for adopting policies that are supposedly "too far left."  They claim this is losing the elusive suburban moderate, citing the recent loss to the Coupubs in the VA Governors Race. However, the far left of the party are the ones fighting hardest to try and get most of Biden's agenda passed. We';re also living in a time when many people are leaving jobs that a lot of them can't afford to quit due to a mix of COVID, not being paid enough, and increasingly untenable working conditions. Add to this a rise in workers strikes with some gaining the most amount of ground since before Reagan fired the air traffic controllers back in 1981.  

This is where the Dems need to put their energy and focus. Over the past few decades they've shifted focus from the working class to the upper middle class and the suburbs with mixed success (Bill Clinton's two terms as President is cited though the 1994 Repub counterrevolution was a fairly large slide backwards, for example). It also led them to try and emulate what the Coupublicans used to be, causing them to move even further to the right in the process.  As a result, those the Democrats could get as solid voters have gotten overlooked in hopes of gaining Coupub voters who tire of the culture war shtick. 

This tends to fail more than they succeed.  

So what should the Dems do?  They should embrace what's going on and focus on working class issues such as making the minimum wage a living wage, improving access to healthcare (including where it applies to reproductive justice issues), and the like.  This, along with making sure we focus on the truth about our history as something to reckon with and make this place better are a couple of things that the establishment democrats should do, not just as a strategy, but because it's the right thing to do.

Will the establishment democrats do this? I wish I could say yes. However, given that both parties in the U.S. listen to wealthy donors way more than actual people I have a fear they'll gladly throw themsleves on a grenade to keep that gravy train flowing while those they're supposed to help suffer.  It;s easy for those in power to accept repeatedly losing what they're supposed to get for their voters as long as they make money.

Times are hard now, both in realistic terms as well as politics. The Democrats are in trouble but it isn't terminal. Still, unless they move away from trying to be a slightly less hard right imitation of the Coupubs and become devoted to actually helping those they represent then even abolishing the filibuster (which they should've done months ago) might not help them when all is said and done.