What is one to make of the fact that SYRIZA, a progressive party with socialist values, formed a government with Independent Greeks (AN.EL), a populist right-wing party that opposed immigration and was accused of racism? Has it gone mad? Betrayed its initial promises? Continue reading
An anecdote: in our travels through Greece in the 1980s, our daughter suffered from car-motion sickness. She wrote in her diary: “We left Delphi, and I felt sick. Mom stuffed me with bread, and I threw up. Dad told me a Greek tragedy, and I felt better.” She was twelve but understood catharsis. Continue reading
Europe is stunned, and bankers aghast, that polls show the new party of the Left, Syriza, will win Greece’s parliamentary elections to be held this coming Sunday, January 25. Continue reading
In the US, a Western democracy with a population of 316 million, it’s astonishing that whenever there’s a presidential election in the offing, the same old familiar names are trotted out time and time again. And when one of them has a dynastic ring about it, the American public hardly blinks. Can it be mere happenstance of fate that candidates have been plucked from a handful of mega-wealthy establishment families more often than not? Continue reading
For decades the working stiff has looked to the Democratic Party for salvation and protection from the Republican Party. And, let’s face it, we do need protection from a party that has claimed the rich and famous as its constituents. Continue reading
Glenn Greenwald has revealed that Hillary Clinton is the presidential candidate of the banksters and warmongers. Pam and Russ Martens note that Elizabeth Warren is the populist alternative. I doubt that a politician who represents the people can acquire the campaign funds needed to run a campaign. If Warren becomes a threat, the Establishment will frame her with bogus charges and move her aside. Continue reading
Every two years, the deck chairs rearrange on the Titanic known as American democracy, as it continues to head towards certain disaster. The 2014 midterm election was another harbinger of calamity. Continue reading
Since the Bush-Cheney-Rove theft of the 2000 election in Florida, the right of millions of American citizens to vote and have that vote counted has been under constant assault. Continue reading
The GOP/corporate coup d’état is nearly complete. Continue reading
Ignore scoundrel media who won, who lost horserace rubbish. US electoral politics is too debauched to fix. Big money corrupts it. Continue reading
Obama reacted as expected. He “congratulated the people of Ukraine on holding successful parliamentary elections . . .” Continue reading
So-called Ukrainian democracy is pure fantasy. Tyranny masquerading as rule by the people. Continue reading
Our country’s oldest and longest struggle has been to enlarge democracy by making it possible for more and more people to be treated equally at the polls. The right to participate in choosing our representatives—to vote—is the very right that inflamed the American colonies and marched us toward revolution and independence. Continue reading
I receive a continuous stream of emails from “progressive” organizations asking me to vote for Senator Franken or contribute to his re-election campaign this November, and I don’t even live in Minnesota. Even if I could vote for him, I wouldn’t. No one who was a supporter of the war in Iraq will get my vote unless they unequivocally renounce that support. And I don’t mean renounce it like Hillary Clinton’s nonsense about not having known enough. Continue reading
When the Citizens United decision came down in 2010, many feared the Supreme Court had unleashed vast and unfettered campaign contributions from corporations bent on tightening their hammerlock on government and politics. Continue reading
(WMR)—After the corporate media and the CIA and George Soros manipulators tried to engineer Green Party-turned-Brazilian Socialist presidential candidate Marina Silva into the Brazilian presidency after the classic CIA textbook aerial assassination of Socialist Party presidential standard bearer Eduardo Campos, these same forces are at it again on behalf of Social Democratic Party candidate Aecio Neves. Neves finished second ahead of Silva, who came in third, in the first-round of the Brazilian presidential election that has seen the CIA, Soros, and the other agents of Wall Street try every trick in the book to ensure that President Dilma Rousseff fails to win a second term. Continue reading
“Gov. Tom Corbett, who claims he opposes legalization of marijuana, was seen behind a barn smoking weed. Just a-puffin’ and a-grinnin.’” Continue reading
Go to dictionary.com and enter—never mind. Just click this to see a new synonym for voting, the word juggernaut. Continue reading
Dave Brat, a professor of economics at Virginia’s Randolph-Macon College, is a marked man. Professor Brat defeated Republican House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, a prime trophy of the Israel Lobby. I doubt that Eric Cantor ever lost an opportunity to place Israel’s interests above the interests of his constituents. Under US laws, Cantor should have been required to register as a foreign agent. Continue reading
Primary elections originated in the American progressive movement and were intended to take the power of candidate nomination away from party leaders and deliver it to the people. California’s Top Two Primary takes power away from those third parties representing the 99% and delivers it to the 1%. Continue reading
In a very short time, voters across the EU (that is those who decide to vote) will head to the polls to elect the new European Parliament. And obviously without any doubt, here in Malta, we are having a good serving of this whole charade, with the typical pageantry. Continue reading
There are no ifs or buts about it. The word on the street is “When Al Sissi comes . . .” the operative word being “when.” This hypothesis is supported by polls indicating the former army chief can expect to garner between 72–82 percent of the vote that is scheduled for May 26 and 27, while his only rival, the veteran leftist politician and leader of the Nasserist Party, Hamdeen Sabahi, can expect no more than two percent. Such assumptions come with their own risks. Continue reading
California Governor Jerry Brown is going around the world with one simple, yet simply wrong message, “California is Back.” The problems with this statement is that it is false and that Jerry Brown is obviously out of touch with the people of the state that he “governs.” Continue reading
The referendum on Egypt’s new constitution passed without any serious incident, despite threats from the Muslim Brotherhood which Egypt has branded ‘terrorist.’ Continue reading
Governor Jerry Brown and his staff are exchanging high-fives over balancing California’s budget, but the people on whose backs it was balanced are not rejoicing. The state’s high-wire act has been called “the ultimate in austerity budgets.” Continue reading
Bill de Blasio, who transformed himself from a little-known occupant of an obscure office into the fiery voice of New York’s disillusionment with a new gilded age, was elected the city’s 109th mayor last Tuesday. The city seemed to be saying in its vote, “Enough is enough” after 12 years of the autocratic Michael Bloomberg and honcho Ray Kelly’s “stop and frisk” police force. Continue reading
Not that it really matters who the Democrats nominate for the presidency in 2016. Whoever that politically regressive and morally bankrupt party chooses will be at best an uninspired and uninspiring centrist; in European terms a center-rightist; who believes that the American Empire—despite the admittedly occasional excessive behavior—is mankind’s last great hope. Continue reading
The elections are over and while many Demo-liberals are heartened by the results the rest of us should understand that we have a long way to go. Continue reading
Acceptance of voting machines and the electronic counting of votes is the acceptance of corruption and tyranny. Remember that Stalin is reported to have said that who votes does not matter but the who counts the votes does. Continue reading
If you want to see how grossly money can distort democracy, just go to the state of Virginia, where there are no limits on how big a check can be written for statewide office. Groups and individuals from outside the Old Dominion are taking full advantage, pouring millions into a governor’s race they see as a dry run for the tactics they’ll use in the 2014 midterms and the 2016 presidential race—sort of the way the Spanish civil war turned out to be a testing ground for many of the deadly weapons of World War II. Continue reading
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Politicians show their gratitude where it count$
Posted on October 9, 2014 by Bill Moyers and Michael Winship
There shall be eternal summer in the grateful heart, a poet wrote, and as this year’s summer winds toward its end and elections approach, gratitude is indeed what our politicians have flowing from that space where their hearts should be. Continue reading →