Independent voters, non-voters, and the billionaires who really rule our discourse

 I am starting to see the memes that tell me to check my white privilege if I doubt Kamala Harris is the Second Coming. I am constantly told I have to vote for Biden-Harris if I want to save the Republic and the planet.  I am voted shamed, complete with trolling-style worry about my soul thrown at me.  I am then told Biden-Harris is the ideal ticket because "independents" and "moderates" constitute the majority of American voters, and that, sorry, Mitchell, the majority of Americans know--and mean they just know!--the problem with AOC, Bernie, etc. is they are too "far left" and out of step with that majority of Americans.

Never mind that the majority of Americans, and vast majority of Democratic Party voters, in any analysis of polling data over years now, are more in line with Bernie Sanders' agenda than Joe Biden's agenda (Forget the scheming, chameleon Harris for a moment). Never mind the exit polling data from the primary season just ended showing the majority of Democrats who voted supported Bernie's agenda, but were influenced by corporate media cable news pundits, who exhorted (in what Nate Silver called a "feedback loop") for over a year, that Bernie was not electable and Biden was the most electable.  Oh, and never mind the delta or gap between various official primary results and exit polling. And, if you wonder, Why would anyone rely on exit polling data, let Time magazine explain it to you way back in 2008:

...(T)he U.S. government is a big supporter of exit polling abroad: the practice is widely used by pollsters hired by NGOs and monitors to verify that elections are being conducted legitimately. The U.S. government has even financed exit polls in former Soviet republics and satellites to ensure votes are counted accurately....

Yeah, never mind all that--though I agree with the Boston Globe Editorial Board the United Nations or a reliable international elections watch body should be brought in to monitor this November's United States' elections.

What I want to post about are two questions for those of us in the United States: 1. Who are independent voters? and 2. Who are the people who are eligible to vote, but don't vote?

Independent voters:  Here is a nice summary from the Pew organization about independent voters. The key point about independent voters is they are people who vote, but are largely angry at the duopoly and feel frustrated. They are not your business colleague who claims he or she is "independent" and "vote for the individual." Those people are the lean Republican voters, and have selfishness as their lead value--meaning they almost solely think about themselves and their money interests. They are not the majority of independent voters, per the Pew study, though one can easily extrapolate they are the very people in gated or horse country communities who wealthy Democrats and corporate media executives and talking heads see. And what any good strategist should notice is what the Pew people noticed: the trend among independent voters is male and young.  And you don't have to be Paul Goodman to see that those voters are increasingly going socialist or fascist--and Biden-Harris and the corporate Dems (and their handmaidens in corporate media) are not going to keep pushing, shaming, and sometimes fooling these voters for long. They will go for public populism (socialism in our time) or private populism (fascism in our time).  

Who is eligible to vote in the United States, but don't? The Knight Foundation explodes the myth that it is comfortable, but empathetic progressives like me who, with race and gender privilege, refuse to toe the line in voting for corrupt corporate Democrats who don't give a damn about the working class for decades, and who love symbolism to substitute for true racial and ethnic reckonings in our nation--and therefore we are the ones responsible for the ever-increasing rightward drift into white nationalism and fascism. And of course we progressives are just a bit too close to racist or sexist or whatever some corporate media blowhard says about us. 

But, let's take a look at what is buried in the executive summary is what the Knight Foundation found about who is the typical eligible voter who decides not to vote.  Ready? Here it is:

...(N)on-voters are less educated, poorer, and more likely to be minorities, single and women. Sixty-two percent do not have a college degree, and 20 to 25 percent make less than $50,000 annually. Sixty-five percent are white – versus 15 percent Hispanic and 13 percent black – and 53 percent are women.

So, the person not exercising the right to vote under this electoral system is not me, or anyone who looks like me. If anything, the typical non-voter looks more like the Bernie Sanders' constituencies (and let's remember Bernie's popularity among military personnel as part of our analysis). Now, I essentially vote on their behalf when I vote, and always have. For decades, I voiced loud opposition to corporate trade deals and global corporate trends undermining what we used to call the "heartland" of America. I showed up, with other "walking wounded" activists, in the 1980s and 1990s to protest in California against the War on Poor People--I mean, Drugs, and, in the early to mid 1990s, against "three strikes" laws. Can Biden and corporate Democratic Party voters say the same? And, if you can, ask yourself if you are typical in that regard. Also, please, don't compare yourself to a Republican voter right now. That is letting yourself off the hook when you need to look in the mirror and ask yourself, really, why are corporate Democrats, safe in horse country or behind gated community fences, so afraid of Bernie Sanders' agenda?  What makes you complicit with the billionaires who are loving this year's presidential choices from the duopoly, as they loved the previous choices over decades or more--and who love Kamala Harris! Why are you so sure the propaganda you hear from fact-free pundits on corporate television is worthy of your trust?  

So, let's stop the vote shaming. Instead, let's maybe apologize to our children and grandchildren how we messed up again, and didn't care to listen to them, when they were supporting Bernie in 2016 and especially in 2020.  

We can say, oh, enough young voters and non-voters didn't vote this time.  But, that also lets you off the hook.  Have you ever heard of being a parent?  I voted for those who don't vote or who are too uninformed, or worse, despairing, about the connection between their misery and the political-economic-and-social structures.  

For me, I may end up voting for Biden here in New Mexico this November. If I was in North Carolina, where my son is, I'd vote for Biden. If I was still in CA, I'd be ready to vote for the Green Party presidential candidate, just as I did in 2012 when I voted for Jill Stein. Here in New Mexico, I just want to see the polling data by late October. If Biden is up by more than twelve points, as I don't even trust ten points when Trump actively wants to undermine mail in voting, and Republicans are going to station people at various places to scare people into not voting, I may well vote for Howie Hawkins, the Green Party presidential candidate. I am thoroughly disgusted with the national party known as the "Democrats."  They hate people such as me, and the feeling is mutual.

George Carlin understood what the owners of this nation want. See this bit. And, more ominously, I have heard wealthy people over the years tell me they don't really want the great mass of people eligible to vote to in fact vote. They are secretly--perhaps even to themselves--proud of the fact the US lags behind most other nations in voter participation.  Right now, I see the condescending smugness of those who want to vote shame people such as me, with their undefined definitions of "far left," "moderate," and "independent"--and fail to come to grips with the "reality" of electoral politics in our oligopoly posing as a Republic, where the disconnect is between what the majority of voters actually want and what they are herded or pushed into resigning for something else entirely.  If anyone is not ashamed at what we just saw last week at the Democratic National Convention--forget the perverse show at the Republican National Convention this week for a moment--we are complicit in the undermining of our nation. There. How's that feel?  That is where the shame should be.  

However, if you want to keep telling me how I need to check my privilege, or you want to save my soul, at least tell me your data points. At least tell me what you are relying on for your opinions, facts, and conclusions.  If you are not using polling data, with the wrong belief that polling is inherently unreliable (even though national polls were right Hillary won the popular vote, for example), then tell me the factual basis for your views about what the majority of the nation believes about various policy proposals. 

Otherwise, as Cartman on South Park says, Namaste.

The article-opinion piece to read about the US Post Office.

 Yeah, it's a long one, and with links.  But this article from David Sirota tells us pretty much all we should know about the state of the US Post Office, and how much of a criminal enterprise the Trump administration is with respect to this constitutionally named institution.

My review of the new book, "The Perfect Fascist," published in the San Diego Jewish World

 Don Harrison, the proprietor of the San Diego Jewish World, remains a close acquaintance of mine.  I have always admired Don's work as a publisher, writer, and historian.  His book on one of the first modern Jewish pioneers in mid to late 19th Century San Diego, Louis Rose, remains for me a great work of historical research.  About six weeks ago, Don asked me to read and review a new book from Harvard U Press, "The Perfect Fascist," by noted Columbia University professor, Victoria de Grazia.  I agreed, as, at the time, I had not been hired to work anywhere as a teacher.  Then, of course, I did get a teaching job, and the nearly 500 page book arrived a week later.  Sigh.

Anyway, here is my review of the book.  It is an excellent work, and I am glad to have read through the entire work, including the copious and often fascinating endnotes.

UPDATE: September 14, 2020: I checked in at Harvard U Press to see if they posted any reference to my review of the book. I was shocked, and humbled, to find Harvard U Press has posted a portion of my review at the top--at the top!-- of the reviews which they received.  I am so honored, as I continue to view Harvard as the pinnacle of American higher education. 

The only left case for Biden-Harris, as stated by Nathan Robinson

Nathan Robinson is one of my young heroes of the political commentary world. He is truly a wise young man. Here, in his magazine, Current Affairs, Nathan makes the case for voting Biden-Harris against Trump-Pence akin to the way in which Angela Davis spoke two months ago. Nathan's article, however, is chock full of links that are worth clicking on. The interview Harris did a short while ago with Colbert is shocking, but not surprising, as I do see Harris as a grifter, and Joe Biden wannabe.

My caveats to Nathan Robinson's arguments are as follows:

1. If you live in a solid Red or solid Blue state, and polling data looks solid of more than ten points in late October, I think leftists should be voting Green for President, if the Green Party is on the ballot in your solid Red or solid Blue state. I plan to do my best to wait to vote here in NM, and may even not fill out my ballot till the day of the election, and just walk mine in wearing a mask and gloves.  I plan to vote Democratic down ballot, completely down ballot.

2. I agree with Nathan the movements are more important than electoral politics at the national level. However, I think we should already be supporting the formation of a People's Party, as that is the only way to electorally mobilize people in a manner that breaks their trust in corporate media, meaning CNN and MSNBC. We already saw this year how Democrats herded themselves into Biden, and now desperately trying to tell themselves Harris is anything other than a grifter of the modern type. 

The only effective way to help people wean themselves off corporate media is first help people go outside the Democratic Party.  Young people, in particular, are not wedded to the Democratic Party, and with good reason. Obama screwed them pretty thoroughly, and showed them he did not stand wit them.  Older people who watch cable news are ultimately passive, afraid of change, but will herd themselves over to wherever the winds blow. The point is to blow the political winds to where the majority of Americans already are, so the politics line up with the policy views of the majority of Americans. That cannot be done in the national Democratic Party. It is too corrupt, in being tied to corporate donors, and too venal, in its symbiotic relationship with talking heads on cable news.

Male-dominated corporation, posing as a nation, cements ties with Israel; Israel gives up annexing West Bank...for now

I admit I did not find it very noteworthy that Israel cemented its already significant ties to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) this week. The only noteworthy aspect is the UAE, in moving from its informal relationship with Israel to a formal one, convinced Israeli leaders to not immediately annex the West Bank--something the Trump administration was enabling Israel to do.

For me, the UAE has long been a He-Man-Woman-Hater's-Corporation posing as a nation, where nearly 90% of people living there are non-citizens, and a small cadre of superrich people control that non-citizen population to an extent long dreamed of by modern US business executives. It is what the right-wing, corporate funded Heritage Foundation believes is "freedom," I suppose. 

But, first, let's talk about how women fare in the UAE. As with Saudi Arabia, the UAE is a horrorshow for any modern woman. Let's let Amnesty International summarize what I mean:

...(W)omen continued to face discrimination in law and in practice. For example, the Personal Status Law of 2005 states that “a husband’s rights over his wife” include the wife’s “courteous obedience to him” (Article 56), and places conditions on a married woman’s right to work or leave the house (Article 72). Under Article 356 of the Penal Code, “debasement of honour with consent” is punishable by one year or more in prison. On the basis of this law, a Swedish-run hospital in Ajman Emirate was forced to report pregnant, unmarried women to the police. In some cases these referrals have led to prosecution and deportation. The government failed to adequately protect women from sexual and domestic violence. Under Article 53 of the Penal Code, “a husband’s discipline of his wife” is “considered an exercise of rights”, language that can be read as official sanction of spousal abuse.

And here is Amnesty International summarizing workers' plight in the UAE:

Migrant workers remained tied to employers under the kafala (sponsorship) system, making them vulnerable to labour abuses and exploitation. In a positive development, the authorities removed the job title criteria for sponsorship, allowing more residents to sponsor family members to live in the UAE.

The UAE maintained its no-minimum wage policy. This had a particularly negative impact on migrant workers, who comprised more than 90% of the country’s workforce. Unlike UAE nationals, migrant workers did not receive government allowances for housing, subsidized health care or other services and were therefore dependent on their wages in order to access essential services. Migrants’ wages were typically low relative to the cost of living in the UAE, posing a risk to their right to just and favourable conditions of work, and their right to an adequate standard of living.

Late or non-payment of wages was common, leaving hundreds of low-paid migrant workers stranded in poor living conditions. Mercury MENA, an engineering company, failed to pay many of its workers for more than two years. The workers’ situation remained unresolved at the end of 2019.

Reports continued of migrant workers being fined for overstaying their visas and other immigration violations. Because migrants were unable to pay such fines, which were often too high for them to afford, many were held indefinitely in detention.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) is also unimpressed with the UAE's record concerning workers:

Foreign nationals account for more than 88.5 percent of the UAE’s population, according to 2011 government statistics. Many low-paid migrant workers remain acutely vulnerable to forced labor, despite some reforms.

The kafala (visa-sponsorship) system continues to tie migrant workers to their employers. Those who leave their employers can face punishment for “absconding,” including fines, prison, and deportation.

The UAE’s labor law excludes domestic workers, who face a range of abuses, from unpaid wages, confinement to the house, workdays up to 21 hours with no breaks, to physical or sexual assault by employers, from its protections. Domestic workers face legal and practical obstacles to redress.

The UAE has made some reforms to increase domestic worker protection. In September 2017, the president signed a bill on domestic workers that guarantees domestic workers labor rights for the first time including a weekly rest day, 30 days of paid annual leave, sick leave, and 12 hours of rest a day. In some cases, the law allows for inspections of recruitment agency offices, workplaces, and residences, and sets out penalties for violations.

But the 2017 law does not prohibit employers from charging reimbursement for recruitment expenses and requires that workers who terminate employment without a breach of contract compensate their employers with one month’s salary and pay for their own tickets home. In June, while authorities set out new fixed recruitment fees that included some packages of fixed salaries for domestic workers, these salaries discriminate by nationality.

Until last year, the UAE had been a leading monetary supporter of Saudi Arabia's near-genocidal war against Yemen, as we also know the US and Israel continue to be. 

So, count me as nonplussed by this still-to-be-formalized agreement. The only thing this deal did was give the Israelis a fig leaf to cover its recognition that annexing the West Bank at this time was not a good diplomatic move, and that Trump and his heir-in-law Jared Kushner probably realized was not a good election year move, either. 

Arguing with FB liberals about presidential politics is as exhausting as arguing with Trumpists

I am up early, and must get ready to teach my AP World History and NM History classes today. But I must state this to so many of my FB liberals and even progressives who are so concerned for my political soul.

As I stated in the update I wrote yesterday under my previous July 30 post, I am, first, of the view the big donor class, to whom Biden continually genuflects, forced Harris on Biden. Look at the evidence from corporate media reporting. Chris Dodd, who Biden had put in charge of the VP search, was suddenly pushed aside at the end of July to allow Harris unique access to Biden, and essentially demand he choose her. This was despite the previous leaks from Dodd and long time Biden advisers emphasizing Biden valued personal loyalty above all else--when it was Harris who had shivved Biden during the early primaries. And this on top of the daily drumbeat about how wonderful Harris is for VP in corporate media articles. Every. Single. Day--which was the point in my July 30, 2020 blog post. This had been going on for two straight months or more. Harris was the VP choice among the big Democratic Party donors from Wall Street to Silicon Valley to Hollywood. It was all glitz, show biz, and money. 

Second, it is pathetic to see Michael Moore, in his podcast yesterday, see Harris' hypocrisy on bussing as a virtue. Harris deliberately attacked Biden for a position she, as the adult Harris, would have supported. Moore knows about Harris' record as DA and AG in gleefully putting minorities in jail for marijuana busts and their children's truancy, her support of dirty cops, her stopping release of exonerating information regarding defendants (minority defendants), and then letting off the hook Steve Mnuchin and a host of banksters, even when her top staff wrote her a memo saying they have to be prosecuted. Then, of course Mnuchin and the banksters bankrolled her senate campaign in 2016. (NOTE: You have been asleep if you need links on this.) It is a dangerous delusion to think Harris is on the side of anyone but herself and the big donors who have funded her. She was funded and bankrolled by the corrupt Willie Brown in San Francisco and Big Banks and Big Tech thereafter. That is her career. She is Senator Payne in "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington." 

I wish people would stop thinking they can convince me, with nothing but the bullshit they hear on television, or the fact-free nonsense they tell themselves, that Biden or Harris care a damn about anyone who is truly vulnerable in our failed society. I wish people would stop worrying about convincing me to drink the Purple Kool Aid they are drinking that somehow I must accept that I must only vote for Biden or Trump. The issue about whether to vote for the Green Party candidate or Democratic Party candidate for president is about where each of us lives, as this is still a presidential electoral system with an Electoral College. If we live in a solid Blue or solid Red state, then know your vote simply does not count for president. Most Americans who vote watch tv and are addled by its propaganda will fall into line in a solid Blue or solid Red state. The only question left in such states is whether you wish to help the Green Party get to 5%, and jump start a party that, for all its eccentricities, at least is not beholden to Steve Mnuchin and his bankster friends. 

Please do not worry about little old me, as I simply don't count. I will personally decide which candidate for president to vote for, meaning Biden or Howie Hawkins of the Green Party (never Trump), in late October, as I survey NM polling data, and my own observations, including whether I think older white people are lying to pollsters. However, I will say this: Even if I vote for Biden, I will consider him and Harris my political enemies the day after Biden and Harris assume office. Neither Harris nor Biden will do what is necessary to help vulnerable Americans, or stop bombing people of color around the world. There is no pivot to be expected from these corrupt, horrible, self-centered people. 

Also, news flash: Getting rid of Trump does not get rid of the fascist white nationalist impulses that drive the Republican Party. The Republicans do not appear to be done as a political force, which means more seemingly qualified "Trumps" are coming. The fear of fascism and more brazen state sponsored racism remains. 

What is so disappointing to me, even as I keep hearing from liberals and progressives who should know better, is the national Democratic Party keeps behaving like Social Democrats during the Weimar Republic. These people are corrupt, stand for nothing, and are weak. Putting the gloss of progressiveness on them is a delusion.

I should add this: Last night, on FB, I said my liberal and progressive fans are listening to "Land of Make Believe" from the Moody Blues' "Seventh Sojourn" album, released in 1972, while I am listening to the first track on that album, "Lost in a Lost World." The lyrics are worth reviewing in each, as I understand the sentiment in "The Land of Make Believe," and love both songs.  I guess life is strange, isn't it?   I have long said, if Justin Hayward and Co. were living in the Bronze Age, they'd have written a better Bible. :)

Anyway, I just think liberals and progressives are fooling ourselves at the moment, as we are so desperate to stop the immediate threat that is Trump. What I am saying is, yes, defeat and remove Trump. However, let's keep our eyes on the reality of the horrible national and often state Democratic Parties, and the candidates who the big donors vomit up. Let us begin to realize there must be a new party forming beyond the party--again because corporate media in the form of CNN and MSNBC is the enabler and enforcer too many of us older Americans are still trusting. Our children know better, and we should, for once, listen to them.