President Joe Biden's approval rating is in a tailspin. Dr. Cornel West is a logical choice for defecting Democrats, but a distaste for "kissing ass" may doom his independent run
Don't forget that Matt, by virtue of what he is against, has broad support among conservatives with whom I have nothing in common besides contempt for Democrats. At this moment in time, that commonality feels very important indeed, and I'm more than happy to join forces for the greater good. But at some point it's gonna be time to push back on the red-flavored "REEEing" I see in the comments of every article.
I'm an indie grossed out by Dems and Reps. But let's call a duck a duck. The Dems have chosen to partner with tech companies to censor us, independent journalists like Matt, attempt forced vaccinations and threaten to lose your job if you don't get it and have attempted Orwellian efforts to equate terrorism with spreading malinformation - meaning information that's true but goes against what the government/NBC/Fauci says is true. They're the party that says they want uncontrolled immigration and then when Dem cities get what they asked for, they say they can't take any more and call border state governors racists. They're the party of Claudine Gay.
I have no interest in voting for a Republican, but you can be damn sure I will never vote for a Dem. These Dem sociopaths have in a very short period of time, trashed trust in key institutions. Republicans couldn't have dreamed of that in their wildest, wettest dreams.
There is no liberal party. There is no conservative party. Believing in those quaint labels is like believing in Santa Claus.
100% agreed. I haven't been a Democrat since Obama pretended he was going to buck the system and then did the opposite, but it's still wild to have witnessed them go from genuinely the lesser of two evils to what they are now, a raging and brazen late-stage capitalism authoritarian regime.
Same here but for me it was when Bill Clinton showed his true colors. I saw Obama coming along with flying colors when as a Senator he voted to let AT&T off the hook for illegally wiretapping US citizens.
I'm in this boat too. Voted Nader 2000/2004, then Stein, and Bernie, with one lapse into Obama-land when I, like so many others, got fooled for the last time. In other words, I've been doing "exactly what Putin wants," in the words of some of my more libtarded friends.
It was the time of Obama that the race-obsessed progressives abandoned the policy I agreed with them on: foreign policy. The Dems became more pro-war than the republicans without any kickback from the progressives. Now they are prettt much exactly as you describe.
I’ve never been a D-always been a libertarian/Goldwater GOP type, but Obama was the first type of new coporatist D that I recognized. Coporatism-which Mussolini basically originated-basically says the State has something for everyone-Wall St and welfare bums-but the State is all powerful-and is thus exempt from the fiscal restraint and responsibility that would naturally curb it’s powers.
Dems have sided with unelected Bureaucrats that have nothing but contempt for us useless eaters. When Barrack shutdown Occupy Wall Street I was done with Democrats. I have never been able to bring myself to the Republican side, but I can at least hold my nose with them.
The pure hypocrisy spewed by the left and those that follow the "talking Points" is just incredible. They speak about Fascists, and Authoritarians, and racists and bigots, and people who don't think... The Democratic party is without mirrors for certain.
The Dems are the party of the WEF. They are the party of forced science. They are the party of re-writing history. They are the party of division and control. They are the party that thinks themselves above others, and educated. They are truly the party of ignorant snobs.
I became 18 and a Democrat in 1972, the year 18 year-olds got the right to vote. Under Nixon. Which happened mostly because kids were being sent to Viet Nam. It was hard to deny them the right to vote while being forced to die for the/some country.
So here I am now. Former Dem. And repulsed by the tactics now being employed by the party to win an election.
This is going to go beyond politics. The Nazi template is being laid down. When you see Dem leaders referring to voters on the other side --- this is not going to end well for any of us.
I remember the "LUV" (Let Us Vote) campaign. I think Boyce and Hart wrote a promotional pop song for the constitutional amendment. I was11. My mother still has that LUV sweatshirt in a drawer somewhere.
Lowering the voting age was a big mistake. Now that the draft has been suspended for many years, what makes this an appropriate voting age? Just out of high school where they likely learned little about American government despite the required courses, they must be the least informed and most reactionary voting bloc (at least if most 18-20-year-old voters are as naive and gullible as I was at that age).
Matt's (excellent) reporting and writing about the cruelty campaign being leveraged against vaccine skeptics was a real eye-opener for me personally. Not because I hadn't noticed it myself, but for how clearly he's been able to articulate exactly how the levers of power were used - and for what objectives.
Most of the "Occupy Wall Street" crowd were nice and non-disruptive people.
They camped out for two months in the cold autumn in a small sliver of land, Zuccotti Park, which is located in the tip of Manhattan. We went into the city to see the camp and to donate to them which went to feeding them. They had a little makeshift outdoor kitchen in their compact camp.
Not so much. I'm not by any stretch a Trumper but several years of the Russiagate conspiracy theory and all that nonsense.. If that's not election denial, I don't know what is.
Oh, that's right. Trump is still in the White House and never left..... He's our dictator now.... right. I am sorry, I forgot.
My issue is that as bad as Trump is, he's not doing the things that the current admin is doing. The current admin is doing everything they accused Trump of doing, and at the moment, we don't even know the half of it. The biggest shame is that Trump got the Abraham accords, and the current admin allowed it to rot leading to the chaos over there now, most likely because they didn't want to let Trump get the credit for likely the greatest ME achievement in modern times.
I don’t know: in my lifetime as a voting adult the only loser that hasn’t challenged the election was Mitt Romney - the absolute douchebag - but I remember “the hanging chad”, “Russian election interference”, and I remember Trump…
Seems to me there were irregularities and Joe didn’t campaign at all. But Trump has lost 62/62 court cases regarding the issue so maybe Bribem did actually get 81 million votes.
Indecisive: Yes, it is a uniparty. Our government has long been an organized criminal enterprise, but the Dems have, over the last eight years brought it out of the shadows, proudly governing like the Mafia dons they are. The Republicans are just as compromised and treacherous. An excellent read is Whitney Webb's two-volume, "One Nation under Blackmail."
It like the reference to transactional politics. Its a term used by people having gained power, wanting to consolidate it by repudiating the things they used to believe in, or at least said they did. Dark money was bad when it was an advantage tot he the other side. Now its good.
For those who don't know, Whitney is forecasting a staged cyber attack on the American grid and a faux terrorist crackdown in an attempt to stop the coming Presidential election.
In 2000 I heard Ralph Nader say, "listen to my opponents. Each will promise to give more to the military than the other." So I listened to his opponents. Ralph was right.
It's to be expected. Millions of voters depend on military spending. Maybe you own a grocery store near a military base. Are you going to vote yourself a raise or are you going to vote yourself a pay cut?
So the military has huge political clout unrelated to any need for "defense." It grows for its own sake, without limit.
To a large extent, the MIC is a welfare program in disguise. There are many others.
And the beneficiaries want it this way. With an honest welfare program, we can have honest discussions about who is justifiably eligible and who is not. With these disguised programs, such a discussion becomes obfuscated by the pretenses of the programs, protecting many beneficiaries that few would find justified.
No one cares if billionaires are billionaires, or shop keepers near a military base make a buck because of it, or bow wow wow free enterprise. The problem is criminal finance and a handful of D.C. politicians running the same 20th Century grift that ultimately slaughtered millions and sparked the A-Bomb. They are (if you believe James Lindsay) a death cult. And I agree. We are dealing with pathology not politics. They represent the same visionless 20th Century grifters who over played their nasty little hand and almost destroyed the world. They possess no actual altruistic moral vision of a brighter future. ACCEPT THAT THE PROBLEM IS AN ILLEGITIMATE HANDFUL OF CRIMINAL FINANCIERS AND WHORE POLITICIANS AND LIVE.
Good points. What scares me about the democrats is all those things and their general political competence as well as their hold on the administrative state. (Administrative state sounds more boring then Deep State but is actually much more concerning.) My tendency to vote Republican has been my confidence in the fact that they are incompetent morons and cannot accomplish anything.
"general political competence" is hardly laudatory praise. but to your point, in comparison to the GOP they are virtuosos.
You make a fair point as i was not impressed with my choice of words either but the implication is that the democratic party is better at accumulating and maintaining power for the sake of maintaining party then the GOP is. i stand by that.
I agree to a degree. Class in the sense that most public schools in deep blue states are terrible and that healthcare, insurance and housing is out of reach for many and inflation has trampled on most.
But West is a charlatan. He's like "one bill Gil" Cedillo in California, a politician whose only goal was to get driver licenses into illegal alien's hands. West knows one note to hum - Racism and oppression. That's it. Nothing more. He's DEI on crack.
West is the answer to the aforementioned problems in the same way that Trump is. It may feel good to 'stick it to the man' by voting for either, but neither has the interest, focus, awareness, knowledge, judgement or team to solve them. That Jimmy Dore interview with West highlighted his silliness and unpreparedness.
Between the 2, Trump has a better chance at improving some things as he did before, but he appears incapable of learning from his mistakes. His ceiling is low. West's ceiling is 1/2 as high as that.
Jimmy Dore vehemently disagrees with Cornel West especially on vaccine mandates. And is disappointed that West will not call out the "fascism" of Biden rather than just labeling Trump a fascist. This term "facist" has lost all its meaning. https://youtu.be/o253Y8E0QUE?si=ot7Q1QCnfcuD4BmJ
Al Gore's final successful solo campaign for office before assuming the vice-presidency was his Tennessee Senate race in 1985. Tennessee had long been on the road to radical reactionary far-right Alabama-style backwoods peckerwood politics by the time of the 2000 election.
Would have been weird if Gore had carried his home state in 2000. Volunteer Staters haven't yet reverted to electing Grand Wizard moonshiners for office, but they're working on it.
I'm with you on this. The sad reality is the culture war has made everyone expect to be in an echo chamber. So it's ok to see dissent.
I'm personally on team West for the sake of finally seeing a candidate who is both closely aligned with my world view and also morally clear.
But it does scare the hell out of me that he's only on one ballot at this stage, and in my own primary the Democrats have boxed out any options. I have Joe Biden and 'No Preference' which actually feels like more of a slap in the face than just giving me a blank line.
So, West it is unless another late horse springs up. I frankly don't see why people angry at Biden and the Dems (justifiably) would turn to the Republicans or Trump.
Q. Is there an option for "write in candidates?" A. Not if the Dem Party doesn't even allow a primary vote. But can we expect a push for write-in votes in November? If for no other reason than to rebel? It's better than not voting at all. (Nice article on C. West. Even when I'm not interested or don't have time for it, Matt takes me through to the end.)
So I am used to seeing a write in spot but this may be recollection from past states I've voted in, or from the general election and not the primary which we all acknowledge is ran by and for the party above all else.
But, it does irk me that the party of supposed democracy and upholding voter choice (see the fearmongering over Trump and the general push back to GOP voter access laws) is also reducing all choice from their own ballots. And the Shakesperean tragedy aspect is that they are doing it for a guy who is now <35% approval rating and increasingly becoming the face of all things wrong with the current Democratic brand.
Worst case I do hope I at least get a write-in option in November and will vote West assuming he's still active. But I was really, really hoping to provide a clear protest vote in March when something could maybe be made of it to avoid the Biden candidacy in November. As I do ultimately not want the GOP in power. But the hand is being forced to eat the consequences of the Dems not taking lessons from 2016 and over relying on the freak scenario that occurred in 2020 which barely saved them.
Like it or not, but Cornel West has worked hard to earn his bad reputation. For example, he has endorsed the lies of Nikole Hannah-Jones. She is a fraud embraced by him.
Yes, Nikole Hannah-Jones...she, along with West, are part of the cadre of race hustling blacks whose chief job it is to inflame racial differences in order to distract us from seeing the rise of a globalist oligarchy. This cadre, which Ibram X Kendi, and Ta Nehisi Coates, is, of course, well rewarded for their service to said globalist oligarchy.
"Yes, Nikole Hannah-Jones...she, along with West, are part of the cadre of race hustling blacks whose chief job it is to inflame racial differences in order to distract us from seeing the rise of a globalist oligarchy". I have mixed view on this. Note that I have used this argument. However, there is a counterargument. NHJ, West, Rogers, and DiAngelo would all vehemently deny they are working on behalf of anyone.
My current view is that identity-politics are the current fixation of upper-class, white, liberals. Since they run everything, their views are the only views that count.
Well of course Hannah-Jones, et al, deny working for anyone. But if you follow the money, it tells another story. And whatever the professed motives of these race hustlers, the effect of their work is to, as I said, distract from rise of a globalist oligarchy.
NHJ, H. Rogers, R. DiAngelo, and C. West might well have hidden motives for pretending to be the standard-bearers of identity politics. However, the ‘woke’ left includes a lot people. They don’t all have hidden motives (as in monetary incentives) . My guess is that they are true believers in wokedom. They have found (or think they have found) an ideology that both make them heroes (the PC term is ‘allies’) and doesn’t threaten them.
Some time ago, I ran across a comment by a disgruntled liberal/leftist. His observation was “we are going to hear a lot more about transgender issues than the minimum wage in the coming year”. Of course, he was entirely right. To state this directly, upscale progressives care a lot more about transgender issues than the minimum wage. They are not secretly working on behalf of the global elite. They are pursuing the agenda that they really care about.
That's a bit of an imaginative stretch, Pac, but points for creativity. I will say this, though: If there is a cohort of people with whom I wouldn't want to make a lunch date or take a meeting, it's the poor souls who are distracted from the rise of a global oligarchy by the work of Hannah-Jones and Co.
Thanks for the likes, Susan, but you have not answered my question as to why, if we want the slaughter in Gaza to end, all of us are not speaking as one voice in demanding that Hamas come out of the tunnels and surrender... Hamas started it, it is entirely on them to end it. What am I missing here?
You are one of the many who have been convinced that history began on October 7, 2023. However, you have fallen for US/Israeli propaganda.
1) Hamas did not "start this." The Zionists who landed in Palestine and started the process of driving the Palestinians off the land started, at the very least, in 1948.
2) Hamas has several times asked for negotiations and an agreement with Israel, which Israel and the US have refused.
3) Ask yourself this: How is it possible that the US could hunt down and assassinate one man, Osama bin Laden, without destroying the country he came from, (our buddies) Saudi Arabia?
4) How do you explain that Netanyahu originally started and funded Hamas?
If the US/Israeli governments really wanted to target Hamas only, I think they are clever enough to do it. Why are they using the excuse "We have to get Hamas" to destroy an entire country and all of the people in it?
Why are you apologizing for their unconscionable actions? Where do you get your information? The TV?
Well Susan, I certainly do not think the history of the israeli-palestinian conflict started on Oct 7. In fact, I'm not sure I or anyone else can put a firm date on it, maybe it "began" a couple thousand years ago. And yes, it is a complicated situation. I have opposed Israel's settlement policy for years. In fact, I have advocated for a Gene Sharp inspired approach to peacemaking in the region. You remember Gene Sharp dont you? But a criss border sneak
attack that results in a thousand civilian deaths, and in which civilians were the primary targets, makes a Gene Sharp approach impossible--no people, least of all the Jews, are obligated to let that go unpunished, to allow the group that launched this sneak attack to survive and thus claim "victory." On October 6, a shaky ceasefire had kept a lid on hostilities. By choosing to shatter this ceasefire on Oct 7, Hamas has set itself up for a terrible retribution. That they choose to hide behind their own civilians is to me as despicable as the attack itself. I am not Jewish, but it is not hard for me to understand why Israel must do whatever is necessary to defend its security and destroy a group with whom a peace agreement is now an impossibility.
So I repeat: let us all speak with one voice and de.and that Hamas come out of the tunnels and surrender, as justice demands. Then we can begin to rebuild the peace process.
And let me assure you that my knowledge of this entire question is somewhat greater than TV news.
Except that several reliable sources say that most of the deaths were actually caused by the Israeli military. Like Max Blumenthal and Aaron Mate'.
And Caitlin Johnstone points out that an invading empirical power doesn't "have the right" to "defend" itself.
Why are you giving in to Israeli propaganda?
If you are on this channel, you seem to believe in thinking for yourself, but you are only an Israeli apologist. In other words, a mouthpiece for them.
Do we call you P.P. for short? (Pun intended man!!--I have an old uncle with those initials who used the line too often in mixed company.)
I think our common ground is disappointment in our fellow fans general inability to escape the polarity created by a propagandist MSM that reduces everything and everyone to a lowest stereotypical emotional caricature of itself. And, demands that all political, social and economic discourse exist on that level. It's part of the psyop dumb down meant to dumb down.
I'm not a Marxist but I am a child of the 60's and I recognize the conversation Mr. West is trying to have. The problem for us (which subscription journalism is beginning to solve as we speak) is the capture of the American national dialogue by a whore MSM, international criminal financiers and a handful of corrupt D.C. politicians. "We the people" aren't communists, capitalists, socialists, woke or otherwise. But we're being forced to have a weaponized and manipulated conversation by the criminal gang that gutted American industry and looted the American economy. And have the conversation on their terms. And, they're doing it on our dime. The Republics problems are, to borrow a phrase, "self evident".
My point is that part of our necessary recovery involves an escape from the knee-jerk click bait emotional ping pong attempting to mask the actual cause and effect consequences of the failed social/economic/political policy that D.C. grifters have implemented to aid international criminal finance in evading responsibility for its continued looting of the Republic. Their entire platform amounts to nothing more than implied threats and a ball gag. The DNC/CCP/EU/Davos crowd is openly calling for the destruction of American free speech and thought. D.C.? Crickets.
West, like many Americans, has unfortunately hitched his star to an "ism". "Ism's" are dead. But that doesn't mean he doesn't make sense. When considering the battering the American psyche receives every day I don't know how any of us do.
The ideological utopian poseurs of the left and the criminal politicians and financiers they serve are just that. Investigation, prosecution and incarceration is the obvious next step. Amazingly, they believe in the possibility of sacrificing the Republic in order to create a fix that will allow them to get away with it. The Constitution and the Republic are now the American citizens only legitimate frame of political reference. Vivek is correct. 1776 is still happening.
Taibbi is one of the new and powerful truth/fact based voices exploring the possibility of the American future our children deserve. Some are journalists. Others (despite the foul odor of American education) are educators. The voices are there. Some present the opportunity for actionable wisdom. This is a new age. It is demanding clarity and the abandonment of the psyop driven convenient self-serving opinionated emotionality that allows us to evade and escape the core reality and the call for personal responsibility that informs the fact of the Republic. It's not them. It's us.
Yep. Subscription journalism often keeps me a week or ten days ahead of what's happening. The American psyche and American moral reason has been exploited and violated for decades. I don't think most of us grasp how powerful a unified people existing in a truth/fact based human reality can be. But the fascists study it night and day. And they don't like it.
Exactly. Probably one of the only things that gives me any hope these days is watching the establishment frantically try to snuff out every flicker of awareness that lights up among the population from time to time. If us putting things together freaks them out that badly, they obviously don't have this quite in the bag yet.
I wish that you knew what the real Left was, so you would stop calling the liberal class "the left." They aren't leftists; in fact they oppose almost every issue that the real Left proposes.
Chris Hedges is the real Left. Jimmy Dore is the real Left.
I am the real Left.
The corporations stamped out the real Left after the New Deal, because they were the best organizers of the labor movement. The elite hated them and hated the New Deal. They have worked to overturn it ever since it was passed. The neoliberals such as the Clintons are their soldiers. There is no organized Left any more, not after Joe McCarthy did the elites' bidding and drove the real Left out of the country.
I agree. Your description is accurate and Hedges et al are voices I admire. I just don't believe there is a "right" or "left" anymore. There is the Republic, the Constitution and the citizen. Unchecked criminal finance and our culpability in allowing a corrupt elected political leadership to stand is allowing the repeat of the retro 20th Century A-Bomb totalitarianism that slaughtered millions. Ideological utopianism ("woke") in service to corporate fascism (DNC/CCP/Davos) .It's pathology not politics. Two sided bad penny totalitarianism all over again. The Republic, the citizen and the Constitution are the only engines of survival. More importantly the only way forward in creating the THIRD that will unite the political opposites and bring about the wholeness needed to carry America into the future it deserves.
Risking putting too fine a point on matters but I'd only add quotes.
Namely, he's a "career academic" which is to be contrasted with someone who is a scholar or otherwise genuinely devoted to their pursuits.
Lots of academics are insecure as it can be a tough business -- thare are plenty of "sharp elbows" in academic quarters and "turf" is guarded jealously.
As such, there is no shortage of academics who are happy to get a little glimpse of sunshine, a little attention from the outside world.
Others are able to parlay their niche into a media career. West arguably did this. He's also far from alone. Far from alone.
Yes. Sounds like you're familiar with the species. I spent 20 years among them as a minuscule academic with no hope ever for tenure. All I did was teach.
Also if you want to know the actual backstory of the I had a dream speech the Free Press did a story on King's speechwriter Clarence B. Jones yesterday which is much better than reading about West's nonsense. Jones among other revelations credited Jews with being instrumental in the passage of civil rights legislation.
“Your economic team has little or no concern about poor and working people,” West wrote to Obama, on the first anniversary of his inauguration. “Job creation is an afterthought.”
Like it or not, but Cornel West has worked hard to earn his bad reputation. For example, he has endorsed the lies of Nikole Hannah-Jones. She is a fraud embraced by him.
No idea about him being a grifter of a race baiter, I am not an American, but from listening to him and reading a few articles I find his views and thoughts remarkably shallow and eclectic for a philosopher, not unlike Fukuyama. Doesn’t make him a bad media figure, though.
Cornel West's campaign imploded into irrelevancy when he self destructed on the Jimmy Dore show. West's weird jazz man persona fell flat, and his stances were basically identical to Biden. It was clear that his campaign boils down to "Vote blue no matter who". (West has broken from Biden over Palestine, but is otherwise little different from Biden. At the end of the day, he is just a prog wrangler for the DNC.)
Because West has NO chance of winning -- he has so far not qualified for a single state ballot -- and all he could do is draw support away from Biden and West knows this.
Huh. To my eyes, West's ego (think 1619 Project) is what we're seeing. He loves the attention, he's hired apparent fools to run his campaign, but he's so in love with the sound of his voice that he can't quit. Most of these narcissists are completely unaware of the bigger picture. It's just all about them.
If that's true, it sounds like a Biden problem, not a Karen problem, and sure as hell not mine. Biden could do things to not be so bad. Yet he doesn't. I don't like Trump, but Biden doesn't deserve a second term, if he can even comprehend what that means.
The way our system works is that either a Republican or a Democrat will be sworn in on January 20, 2025. Donald Trump is going to be the Republican nominee and Joe Biden the Democrat. If you refuse to support one, by default you support and endorse the other one. If you don’t want Biden, you get Trump.
That's what Biden told me in 2020, after I had sat out 2016. It's a decision I regret, but I voted for him as the non-Trump candidate. And it's been an astonishing display of not only non-Democrat crap, but anti-democracy as well.
West seems to be looking for a book deal or a talk show or something because the goal can't possibly be President West. Or maybe he just did it on a dare.
115 upvotes, for an unsupported- and unsupportable- boilerplate hot take that reads like an AI bot peddling a stock trigger phrase cliche. What did Cornel West do to deserve that?
How many of the upvotes are bots? No way to tell. Which is reason enough to disregard the whole "Top Comment" con game, if you think about it.
For some reason, they don't find "I want to take people who look like you down a peg or three" a compelling political prospect. Weird. I guess they must just be crazy!
The people who would be fond of West, such as myself, watched him throw his hat in the race, bounce ineptly between parties, go on Jimmy Dore and get bodied by a comedian, and then said "whatever is going on here, I'm gonna pass."
I don't care who you are or how eloquently you're able to express yourself - keep bringing up race and oppression and you'll be shut down... most people are way over this crap.
True, but it doesn't make echoing the rhetoric of oppression any less bitter and humiliating for its targets. And why? Are you the kind of person who enjoys humiliating people?
Speaking of Wallace, Gay Talese wrote a several page article in the NY Times several years back, in which he told an interesting story of an interview he did with Wallace in the Pierre Hotel along Central Park South, very early in Talese's career.
From Wallace's hotel room, Wallace pointed down to the Upper East Side of Manhattan and said to Talese that the ES is the "citadel of hypocrisy", that it was an all white neighborhood that pushed segregation on everyone else.
Talese at the time lived in that neighborhood and still did after all these decades, and he said it is/was true- that to this day his immediate neighborhood is all white and filled with hypocrisy.
It's interesting the NY Times proofreaders missed what Talese reported.
The George Wallace reference was so good. My dad took me to see Wallace speak during the 1976 primary in Illinois. I asked him if this was the guy he and Mom planned to vote for. He said, "Oh no, never, but it's a rare opportunity to see a presidential candidate speak, and better understand the process of choosing the President."
During the speech I understood why my parents would not be voting for him.
It is the baggage they were born with. There are rewards for dipping into that bag. The elite white folk give them out freely. Keep you mouth shut and you are non grata.
West, as far as I know, didn't make a peep throughout the years-long Russiagate coup by the Deep State. It was made-for-the-Left grist and he didn't touch it. He cheered for the Don of the Medical Mafia, Fauci, and still thinks the (FBI inspired and orchestrated) Jan 6 cluster was a white supremacist insurrection. He's a fraud.
Wow Matt. You've finally written something I can't read. Dude! If you can't recognize him for the self centered fake intellectual trading on his race, maybe you really are still in the clutches of the left?
Interesting take. I have to say I enjoyed reading this one, in part because it's fun to see Matt back on the campaign trail (or what passes for one) doing whistle-stop reporting. Personally, I don't know much about West, but after reading this piece I feel like I have a pretty good picture, certainly a more accurate one than I'd get in MSM.
That Matt does it without broadcasting his political persuasions? Even better.
IMHO, Campaign Trail Matt is like Hunter S Thompson without the acid. (I hope!)
I did. And I lived through the 1960s, so I'm very well aware of the White Supremacy that he talks about. Only thing is, time has moved on. He's a more educated Kamala Harris: lots of verbiage and no meaning.
Right on Susan. Yeah, the current fashion of re-cycling the "white supremacy" label, esp to someone who really knows what real, Bull Connor-style white supremacy was, is both outrageous and deeply cynical. West is guilty on both counts.
Agree! Very disappointing, Matt. West perpetuates lies and hatred about Israel and is especially offensive since he is an academic, a scholar. How about reading a book and learning the facts before taking a position that is supported by neither the facts nor international law.
If ever you deign to read the comments, Matt, I hope ones like this one day remind you that your appeals to the alt-right, lucrative as they may be, will only net you a fragile truce. If ever you get fed up and decide to stop treating the Trump personality cult with the kid gloves you have on, they’ll abandon you and curse your name at a moment’s notice.
So I'm alt-right because I give Matt 5 bucks a month? And like and respect the work he does 90% of the time? If you're gonna whip out the "alt-right label, just go ahead and call me Hitler, too
Cornel is part carnival barker, woke college professor and narcissistic race baiting Jesse Jackson wannabe. He's less of an iconoclast and more someone without any kind of filter. He's definitely entertaining, but at the heart of it, he'd be better on MSNBC telling the 40-50k people who would tune in how much of a victim they are.
Gonzo came to my mind, yes. . .straight reporting with personality and colorful impressions and artful language. Lightyears away better than corporate drivel that lets you know precisely what to think, and if you don’t agree, you’re the problem.
Hmmm, well, technically I didn't say he isn't ... I said he writes like Hunter S w/out the tabs. Never having taken it, I can't be sure, but I'm guessing it would be pretty hard to produce the output Matt does while on a hallucinogen. I say this realizing full well that given the electoral choice, it might not change matter much who takes what when writing and reading about the 2024 election.
The only candidate committed to speaking truth to power. If you have followed his career as a philosopher then you know he has practiced what he has preached. You can really see how much an honest public intellectual bothers people by how the only critique is character assassination, never anything substantial about his policies, values, etc.
He started out that way, but jumped head over heels to cheer on Israel and its destruction of Gaza (losing his campaign manager, Dennis Kucinich, in the process), and lost all credibility.
Traditional liberals are concerned with the following:
1. free speech
2. anti-war
3. anti-spying on Americans
4. care about workers and the poor
Biden has f----d all of those, and more. Bobby's IMMEDIATE embrace of Israel and Bibi (why? because the DNC was claiming he was antisemitic?) doesn't put him on a good path. How the hell can one recognize that funding a war in Ukraine and one in Israel (and seemingly Yemen as well, Iran and others--Taiwan?--planned for Biden's 2nd term) is the same, depressing thing. Israel is a rich country (citizens live far better than many Americans) that can afford to buy its own damn bombs, or build them themselves. What will he weaken on next? Spying on Americans or caring about working people?
That's a fair point. But to me, it's not about one policy issue with which I disagree. It's the usual suspect, slimy, politician operating. AIPAC, in concert with the DNC and the Biden reelection campaign, began to paint Kennedy as an antisemite because he had said that there was a certain group of Jews who were not as badly impacted by COVID. Who knows if that's valid data? AIPAC interpreted it as if he had accused Jews of somehow managing COVID, knowing it wouldn't hit them as hard. Which of course he didn't say. So he went on a rabbi's podcast and the rabbi assured Jews that Bobby had their backs.
That was it. It disappeared from the conversation as Bobby planned his independent announcement, which was planned for October 9, two days after Hamas's attack. He could have taken a measured approach in his response--"we condemn this terrorist attack and continue to support our allies in Israel, yadayadayada." Instead, he went full-on Ben Shapiro, letting the world know that he would have no problem with Israel turning Gaza into a parking lot. He didn't use those words, but his response was so much more hawk-like than even Biden's. This was nothing more than a political calculation, aimed at gaining support from liberal Jewish Democrats. And I suppose to generate attention.
And when his campaign manager, Dennis Kucinich, among the most high integrity national politicians of the past 30 years, suddenly left the campaign, it couldn't be good. Whether he quit on principle or was fired for standing for his principles is immaterial.
Buy I did ask the campaign what the hell happened. (I had signed up online as a supporter, and thus got a lot of correspondence. I even bought a sweatshirt--a nice Champion one--and a really nice insulated water bottle. Only about $100.) So I answered 4 separate emails, asking what happened. I got three responses, all from the same, poor volunteer who had to deal with my increasing impatience with her responses, which were all "The candidate will be releasing a statement shortly." Which he of course did not. Over two weeks later, my 4th response, which was not pleasant, was not replied to.
I consider his position on Israel and Gaza not only wrong, but a betrayal of the crooked politics kind. If he somehow pulls a miracle and wins, it won't bother me, but he doesn't get my vote. And if he helps either Trump or Biden win, I don't care.
“He blames Republicans equally or more, but never having been a Republican, the feelings aren’t as hard.”
Thanks for this - it exactly explains why I am so much angrier with the democrats. I foolishly expected better from them; I’ve never been so naive to expect anything from Republicans.
Your vote doesn't matter anyway. Politics is just show business. And once they're above the law animal instincts take over. Climb the food chain. Fuck who you please. Kill or be killed.
“No, no, the main reason for running is the way they treat poor people and working people."
This from the guy who talks about "the neo-fascist moment that produced Trump in 2016!
The people being hounded by the DOJ/FBI all over the country for being in D.C. on Jan. 6 2021, and the ones sitting in D.C. jails without bail, many in deplorable conditions, those poor people and working people?
No. He's shoulder to shoulder (or mouth to ass) with those "upscale white liberals" who are proud of their political prisoners (and I'm ok with "hostages" too), and looking for more!
West is a race baiting grievance fossil, a sophistic clown who speaks in indeterminate riddles and meaningless rhymes. The Democrat party is led by a bunch of grifters using such hackneyed scam lines that at this point it's more pitiful than annoying. The problem is, moderates were [and maybe still are] too stupid to see the grift would lead to bio-weaponized pestilence, intentional famine, unjustified wars of conquest, and the willingness to destroy the village of civilization in order to save it.
I'm smart. I use big words. And Cornel West seems to me to be a more educated Kamala Harris: he speaks a lot but it doesn't mean anything. Just word salad.
Are you voting for him BECAUSE he's a black guy who uses big words?
Once again, the specter of the untainted outsider - fearlessly charging down the corruption in DC. Ya know, this was Trump's shtick too. It works, because there are a whole lot of Americans that want to believe. Jimmy Carter was the outsider of the Democratic establishment - how'd that work out (even with his party in control of both chambers in Congress)? Ronald Reagan, despite being governor, was still the DC outsider - how'd that work out? From Hope Arkansas to hope and change from Chicago - we repeat the bullshittery over and over and over. Doesn't matter if from the "left" or the "right" (which are both the center in any other western political system).
The fact is the parties are organs of the State - that's why the primaries are run as official elections and not as private matters as before WWII. Until the parties are divorced from the State, no outsiders need apply.
I agree with Matt. I like Cornel West. He can be annoyingly woke, but if he's on the ballot in my state (a big if, unfortunately) I'll probably vote for him.
Comes off as a crazy demagogue to me. Fomenting Israel hatred in crowds to wild applause, screaming and gesticulating like a wanna be Fuhrer. I'll be voting for RFK, so if he draws votes from Biden, I'm all for it.
I have to say, the only selling point of West is his position on Israel. If I believed for one second he was a real candidate I might give him a 2nd look....
2. (After reading comments) If West is a grifter, he is so far behind the Rev. Al. Please.
3. This is America --- or at least it used to be. Speak up, baby, speak up. Run, baby, run. Unless the Democratic Party says you can't, of course.
If anyone is paying attention --- which Nazi party here in the US of A actually has ballots and where people get to vote in a primary? For the Dems, first stop: South Carolina. James Clyburn. JC gave us Pres. Joey. Do we really owe him anything?
West is one of a slew of people on the anti-establishment left I want to shout at and say “West, the Obama era Deep State broke with Israel over 10 damn years ago!”
I’m a radical civil libertarian and economic moderate but I think there’s always a place for a push and pull between free market and left-wing economics. I would like that left to be against the power structures in America, but unfortunately, for whatever reason, that side of the debate cannot wrap their heads around what the actual state of play of those power structures are.
In particular, they will not budge on what actually went on during the 2010’s foreign policy-wise. Obama’s intel agency and security state ghouls run this country. They built the mass censorship apparatus. They built CTIL for active psyops. Jake Sullivan and Tony Blinken are back in power, John Brennan and Jim Clapper were hired back into DHS.
Obama’s obsession was the JCPOA, the Iran deal. This infuriated Israel. Obama and Netenyahu hated each other with a burning passion. Trump ripping up the Iran deal was the thing that pissed Obama off more than any decision he made. Why the hell was Obama so obsessed with making a deal with Iran and throwing the Israel/Saudi relationship into a woodchipper? Well, there are troubling stories about a conversation he had with an Ex-girlfriend at a Holocaust museum. One can speculate.
The first thing Biden did in foreign policy was pull the Houthis off the terror watchlist and try to restart the Iran deal with Jake Sullivan and Robert Malley, same guys who negotiated it before. Malley recently got his security clearance pulled, probably because he was hiring Iranian spies. No, I’m not kidding.
The CCP, the Progressive billionaire NGOs who are the biggest DNC funders (and who helped bankroll the censorship regime), Qatar, the Obama era Deep State, all fund the and prop up the Anti-Israel cause, and 1 or more of them run massive damn bot networks on social media. The People’s Forum, who run a DSA office, are run by Neville Roy Singham. Neville works for the CCP. Again, I’m not kidding.
This may seem like a massive tangent but context is important. West is a guy that could be a good ally against the CIA, FBI, DHS, DEA, etc, but until he recognizes what happened around the building of the Iran deal, he’s not actually fighting power.
The 2 most powerful entities on Earth are the Western left/liberal elite establishment and the CCP. If you are not fighting them, you are not fighting power, instead you are fighting ghosts.
It’s just disappointing. Eh well, my main political desire is ripping away power from the intel agencies, tearing down the Deep State, and blowing up the mass censorship and psyop apparatus the elite left has cast over the Western world. And making sure Xi Jinping doesn’t seize the Taiwanese fabrication plants, which would make him control 90% of electronics production and effectively rule the world.
I ain’t in a swing state, so I can casually vote RFK om that. He wants personal revenge against the CIA, which I find a poetic way to rip apart that viper’s nest.
A long essay for a Substack comment but I can never help myself but lay this out. Cornel is seeing a warped view of actual power structures, a warped view deliberately built with a massive psyop mainly starting in 2014.
You might want to look into the work of the late Dr Gene Sharp. He spent his life studying nonviolent civil disobedience and he discovered that it is more successful against your own oppressive government than violence.
He wrote From Dictatorship to Democracy and there's a documentary about him called How to Start a Revolution (not what it sounds like).
If you want to tear power away from the agencies, Dr Sharp is a good place to start.
And don't come back to me with a slew of arguments when you haven't read the book. I get that too often. You won't know what you will be talking about.
I’ll give Gene a look, but I didn’t fully break out and elaborate my anger at the intel agencies.
I have a personal axe to grind with them, one I want to get people to see, individual by individual. 2 decisions made by the Obama Administration related to opioids, in particular post Sept. 2013 him sending the DEA to threaten doctors to stop prescribing painkillers, pushing them onto the deadliest drug in existence; Fentanyl, creating the Fentanyl death crisis and killing 600,000 people.
But that’s a story for another day, I’ve got too much text already on the comment section.
Was it when Nestle screwed new mothers in developing nations by first giving them free formula, then pricing it high? I think it was either the WHO or UN who voted 118-1 to censure Nestle. The 1 naysayer? Not Switzerland, where Nestle is headquartered. The United States voted not to scold a multinational (not even an American one) for egregious actions.
First it was that Nestle was pumping water in California, where they had been having a drought for ten years - out of a nature reserve for which they had a permit which had expired several years before - and then it was the selling of formula to mothers in sub-Saharan Africa.
Then, after the scandal of the poisonous water in Flint, MI, they started pumping water ten miles from Flint. Was it to help? No, it was probably to sell them the water.
They are evil.
I won't even buy from any of their subsidiaries, which includes Purina pet foods and Quaker oatmeal. I found the list of their subsidiaries on Wikipedia (itself questionable).
And the sales of formula was worse than you mentioned: they don't even have clean water in some of those areas of Africa.
Not a nice company at all. You can buy Quaker oatmeal, however. They are owned by a former employer of mine, PepsiCo. PepsiCo acquired Quaker Oats/Gatorade (Gatorade being the real prize) in 1999 or 2000, and still has it.
But for oatmeal, I've found that Bob's Red Mill makes excellent product. Recommended.
Right on Susan, keep promoting Gene Sharp and his work. I urge one and all to check it out, it can change how you look at the world. Yep, turns out that creative non-violence really is more powerful than the sword, if you know how to use it.
Thank you! I try to urge everyone to look him up, but YouTube has been censoring it for a while. For answers, what I usually get is people who want to argue with me and haven't bothered even to read his work, or even to skim through it. Consequently, they are stubbornly defending their previously-held convictions. I finally gathered that they don't want to learn; they're convinced that they are right. It's very discouraging.
I'll look into Sharp's work, but would like to know what might be said to the people throwing stuff on works of art. Even though the works are now protected, does this form of protest accomplish anything? I think it might generate a backlash.
The unmaking of America started well before Obama, but he was the needed vehicle to speed it up. He was actually installed his second term - he had unfinished business to complete. First term he tore through our health insurance structure and gutted over 100 officers from the military. The second term was Jarrett's Iran deal, the 2015 Paris Accord, and the war against the police (brought under DOJ scrutiny), and on and on. Hillary was supposed to finish the deal with her eight years ending this year. The prize was a nice slide into the one world order.
there are very few things that interest me less then hearing about this race baiting grifter.
I find this comment and its support very disappointing.
Don't forget that Matt, by virtue of what he is against, has broad support among conservatives with whom I have nothing in common besides contempt for Democrats. At this moment in time, that commonality feels very important indeed, and I'm more than happy to join forces for the greater good. But at some point it's gonna be time to push back on the red-flavored "REEEing" I see in the comments of every article.
I'm an indie grossed out by Dems and Reps. But let's call a duck a duck. The Dems have chosen to partner with tech companies to censor us, independent journalists like Matt, attempt forced vaccinations and threaten to lose your job if you don't get it and have attempted Orwellian efforts to equate terrorism with spreading malinformation - meaning information that's true but goes against what the government/NBC/Fauci says is true. They're the party that says they want uncontrolled immigration and then when Dem cities get what they asked for, they say they can't take any more and call border state governors racists. They're the party of Claudine Gay.
I have no interest in voting for a Republican, but you can be damn sure I will never vote for a Dem. These Dem sociopaths have in a very short period of time, trashed trust in key institutions. Republicans couldn't have dreamed of that in their wildest, wettest dreams.
There is no liberal party. There is no conservative party. Believing in those quaint labels is like believing in Santa Claus.
100% agreed. I haven't been a Democrat since Obama pretended he was going to buck the system and then did the opposite, but it's still wild to have witnessed them go from genuinely the lesser of two evils to what they are now, a raging and brazen late-stage capitalism authoritarian regime.
Same here but for me it was when Bill Clinton showed his true colors. I saw Obama coming along with flying colors when as a Senator he voted to let AT&T off the hook for illegally wiretapping US citizens.
I'm in this boat too. Voted Nader 2000/2004, then Stein, and Bernie, with one lapse into Obama-land when I, like so many others, got fooled for the last time. In other words, I've been doing "exactly what Putin wants," in the words of some of my more libtarded friends.
Slick Willy is the reason I'm a Green - and his wife only confirmed the choice. He was a Republican in a donkey suit.
Then you had clearer sight than I did! Hopefully I've closed the gap a little since then :)
It was the time of Obama that the race-obsessed progressives abandoned the policy I agreed with them on: foreign policy. The Dems became more pro-war than the republicans without any kickback from the progressives. Now they are prettt much exactly as you describe.
I’ve never been a D-always been a libertarian/Goldwater GOP type, but Obama was the first type of new coporatist D that I recognized. Coporatism-which Mussolini basically originated-basically says the State has something for everyone-Wall St and welfare bums-but the State is all powerful-and is thus exempt from the fiscal restraint and responsibility that would naturally curb it’s powers.
Dems have sided with unelected Bureaucrats that have nothing but contempt for us useless eaters. When Barrack shutdown Occupy Wall Street I was done with Democrats. I have never been able to bring myself to the Republican side, but I can at least hold my nose with them.
The pure hypocrisy spewed by the left and those that follow the "talking Points" is just incredible. They speak about Fascists, and Authoritarians, and racists and bigots, and people who don't think... The Democratic party is without mirrors for certain.
The Dems are the party of the WEF. They are the party of forced science. They are the party of re-writing history. They are the party of division and control. They are the party that thinks themselves above others, and educated. They are truly the party of ignorant snobs.
I became 18 and a Democrat in 1972, the year 18 year-olds got the right to vote. Under Nixon. Which happened mostly because kids were being sent to Viet Nam. It was hard to deny them the right to vote while being forced to die for the/some country.
So here I am now. Former Dem. And repulsed by the tactics now being employed by the party to win an election.
This is going to go beyond politics. The Nazi template is being laid down. When you see Dem leaders referring to voters on the other side --- this is not going to end well for any of us.
I remember the "LUV" (Let Us Vote) campaign. I think Boyce and Hart wrote a promotional pop song for the constitutional amendment. I was11. My mother still has that LUV sweatshirt in a drawer somewhere.
Lowering the voting age was a big mistake. Now that the draft has been suspended for many years, what makes this an appropriate voting age? Just out of high school where they likely learned little about American government despite the required courses, they must be the least informed and most reactionary voting bloc (at least if most 18-20-year-old voters are as naive and gullible as I was at that age).
Matt's (excellent) reporting and writing about the cruelty campaign being leveraged against vaccine skeptics was a real eye-opener for me personally. Not because I hadn't noticed it myself, but for how clearly he's been able to articulate exactly how the levers of power were used - and for what objectives.
hey - you also got the right to drink in a lot of states when that happened.
Three years later for me.
But, what the hell? Where was everybody? Left Ol' McGovern hanging out on that limb.
Most of the "Occupy Wall Street" crowd were nice and non-disruptive people.
They camped out for two months in the cold autumn in a small sliver of land, Zuccotti Park, which is located in the tip of Manhattan. We went into the city to see the camp and to donate to them which went to feeding them. They had a little makeshift outdoor kitchen in their compact camp.
I will never forget what happened to Occupy.
Don't forget the voters who are enthusiastically fucking their cousins. Another group the Dems needlessly condescend to.
True, perhaps, but at least their presidential candidates concede elections when they lose…
Not so much. I'm not by any stretch a Trumper but several years of the Russiagate conspiracy theory and all that nonsense.. If that's not election denial, I don't know what is.
Oh, that's right. Trump is still in the White House and never left..... He's our dictator now.... right. I am sorry, I forgot.
My issue is that as bad as Trump is, he's not doing the things that the current admin is doing. The current admin is doing everything they accused Trump of doing, and at the moment, we don't even know the half of it. The biggest shame is that Trump got the Abraham accords, and the current admin allowed it to rot leading to the chaos over there now, most likely because they didn't want to let Trump get the credit for likely the greatest ME achievement in modern times.
I don’t know: in my lifetime as a voting adult the only loser that hasn’t challenged the election was Mitt Romney - the absolute douchebag - but I remember “the hanging chad”, “Russian election interference”, and I remember Trump…
Seems to me there were irregularities and Joe didn’t campaign at all. But Trump has lost 62/62 court cases regarding the issue so maybe Bribem did actually get 81 million votes.
Indecisive: Yes, it is a uniparty. Our government has long been an organized criminal enterprise, but the Dems have, over the last eight years brought it out of the shadows, proudly governing like the Mafia dons they are. The Republicans are just as compromised and treacherous. An excellent read is Whitney Webb's two-volume, "One Nation under Blackmail."
You notice Dems never make a complaint about dark money these days. Because they are now better at it than the Repubs were in their glory days.
It like the reference to transactional politics. Its a term used by people having gained power, wanting to consolidate it by repudiating the things they used to believe in, or at least said they did. Dark money was bad when it was an advantage tot he the other side. Now its good.
Oh man! Isn’t that the truth!
For those who don't know, Whitney is forecasting a staged cyber attack on the American grid and a faux terrorist crackdown in an attempt to stop the coming Presidential election.
Yes, but that was with a cracked crystal ball.
In 2000 I heard Ralph Nader say, "listen to my opponents. Each will promise to give more to the military than the other." So I listened to his opponents. Ralph was right.
It's to be expected. Millions of voters depend on military spending. Maybe you own a grocery store near a military base. Are you going to vote yourself a raise or are you going to vote yourself a pay cut?
So the military has huge political clout unrelated to any need for "defense." It grows for its own sake, without limit.
To a large extent, the MIC is a welfare program in disguise. There are many others.
And the beneficiaries want it this way. With an honest welfare program, we can have honest discussions about who is justifiably eligible and who is not. With these disguised programs, such a discussion becomes obfuscated by the pretenses of the programs, protecting many beneficiaries that few would find justified.
No one cares if billionaires are billionaires, or shop keepers near a military base make a buck because of it, or bow wow wow free enterprise. The problem is criminal finance and a handful of D.C. politicians running the same 20th Century grift that ultimately slaughtered millions and sparked the A-Bomb. They are (if you believe James Lindsay) a death cult. And I agree. We are dealing with pathology not politics. They represent the same visionless 20th Century grifters who over played their nasty little hand and almost destroyed the world. They possess no actual altruistic moral vision of a brighter future. ACCEPT THAT THE PROBLEM IS AN ILLEGITIMATE HANDFUL OF CRIMINAL FINANCIERS AND WHORE POLITICIANS AND LIVE.
No, I don't believe James Lindsay.
"The Dems have chosen to partner with tech companies to censor us," - Neofascists indeed.
Good points. What scares me about the democrats is all those things and their general political competence as well as their hold on the administrative state. (Administrative state sounds more boring then Deep State but is actually much more concerning.) My tendency to vote Republican has been my confidence in the fact that they are incompetent morons and cannot accomplish anything.
"general political competence" is hardly laudatory praise. but to your point, in comparison to the GOP they are virtuosos.
You make a fair point as i was not impressed with my choice of words either but the implication is that the democratic party is better at accumulating and maintaining power for the sake of maintaining party then the GOP is. i stand by that.
Class is everything. You know it's true, that's why nobody but West talks about it.
I agree to a degree. Class in the sense that most public schools in deep blue states are terrible and that healthcare, insurance and housing is out of reach for many and inflation has trampled on most.
But West is a charlatan. He's like "one bill Gil" Cedillo in California, a politician whose only goal was to get driver licenses into illegal alien's hands. West knows one note to hum - Racism and oppression. That's it. Nothing more. He's DEI on crack.
West is the answer to the aforementioned problems in the same way that Trump is. It may feel good to 'stick it to the man' by voting for either, but neither has the interest, focus, awareness, knowledge, judgement or team to solve them. That Jimmy Dore interview with West highlighted his silliness and unpreparedness.
Between the 2, Trump has a better chance at improving some things as he did before, but he appears incapable of learning from his mistakes. His ceiling is low. West's ceiling is 1/2 as high as that.
Jimmy Dore vehemently disagrees with Cornel West especially on vaccine mandates. And is disappointed that West will not call out the "fascism" of Biden rather than just labeling Trump a fascist. This term "facist" has lost all its meaning. https://youtu.be/o253Y8E0QUE?si=ot7Q1QCnfcuD4BmJ
Exactly. Fascism is on the left wing of politics. Mussolini, for example, was a socialist all of his adult life.
That's an interesting yet long-winded, prevaricating way to say "I'm a Republican."
The last republican I voted for was W. That was quite enough for me. When he ran against Mr inconvenient truth. Who lost his home state.
Al Gore's final successful solo campaign for office before assuming the vice-presidency was his Tennessee Senate race in 1985. Tennessee had long been on the road to radical reactionary far-right Alabama-style backwoods peckerwood politics by the time of the 2000 election.
Would have been weird if Gore had carried his home state in 2000. Volunteer Staters haven't yet reverted to electing Grand Wizard moonshiners for office, but they're working on it.
I'll take Santa Claus fo'sho.
I'm with you on this. The sad reality is the culture war has made everyone expect to be in an echo chamber. So it's ok to see dissent.
I'm personally on team West for the sake of finally seeing a candidate who is both closely aligned with my world view and also morally clear.
But it does scare the hell out of me that he's only on one ballot at this stage, and in my own primary the Democrats have boxed out any options. I have Joe Biden and 'No Preference' which actually feels like more of a slap in the face than just giving me a blank line.
So, West it is unless another late horse springs up. I frankly don't see why people angry at Biden and the Dems (justifiably) would turn to the Republicans or Trump.
Q. Is there an option for "write in candidates?" A. Not if the Dem Party doesn't even allow a primary vote. But can we expect a push for write-in votes in November? If for no other reason than to rebel? It's better than not voting at all. (Nice article on C. West. Even when I'm not interested or don't have time for it, Matt takes me through to the end.)
So I am used to seeing a write in spot but this may be recollection from past states I've voted in, or from the general election and not the primary which we all acknowledge is ran by and for the party above all else.
But, it does irk me that the party of supposed democracy and upholding voter choice (see the fearmongering over Trump and the general push back to GOP voter access laws) is also reducing all choice from their own ballots. And the Shakesperean tragedy aspect is that they are doing it for a guy who is now <35% approval rating and increasingly becoming the face of all things wrong with the current Democratic brand.
Worst case I do hope I at least get a write-in option in November and will vote West assuming he's still active. But I was really, really hoping to provide a clear protest vote in March when something could maybe be made of it to avoid the Biden candidacy in November. As I do ultimately not want the GOP in power. But the hand is being forced to eat the consequences of the Dems not taking lessons from 2016 and over relying on the freak scenario that occurred in 2020 which barely saved them.
You know, in the end, the differences may not actually seem so important after all. But in the meantime, I am very much enjoying this ride. Cheers!
Like it or not, but Cornel West has worked hard to earn his bad reputation. For example, he has endorsed the lies of Nikole Hannah-Jones. She is a fraud embraced by him.
Yes, Nikole Hannah-Jones...she, along with West, are part of the cadre of race hustling blacks whose chief job it is to inflame racial differences in order to distract us from seeing the rise of a globalist oligarchy. This cadre, which Ibram X Kendi, and Ta Nehisi Coates, is, of course, well rewarded for their service to said globalist oligarchy.
"Yes, Nikole Hannah-Jones...she, along with West, are part of the cadre of race hustling blacks whose chief job it is to inflame racial differences in order to distract us from seeing the rise of a globalist oligarchy". I have mixed view on this. Note that I have used this argument. However, there is a counterargument. NHJ, West, Rogers, and DiAngelo would all vehemently deny they are working on behalf of anyone.
My current view is that identity-politics are the current fixation of upper-class, white, liberals. Since they run everything, their views are the only views that count.
Well of course Hannah-Jones, et al, deny working for anyone. But if you follow the money, it tells another story. And whatever the professed motives of these race hustlers, the effect of their work is to, as I said, distract from rise of a globalist oligarchy.
NHJ, H. Rogers, R. DiAngelo, and C. West might well have hidden motives for pretending to be the standard-bearers of identity politics. However, the ‘woke’ left includes a lot people. They don’t all have hidden motives (as in monetary incentives) . My guess is that they are true believers in wokedom. They have found (or think they have found) an ideology that both make them heroes (the PC term is ‘allies’) and doesn’t threaten them.
Some time ago, I ran across a comment by a disgruntled liberal/leftist. His observation was “we are going to hear a lot more about transgender issues than the minimum wage in the coming year”. Of course, he was entirely right. To state this directly, upscale progressives care a lot more about transgender issues than the minimum wage. They are not secretly working on behalf of the global elite. They are pursuing the agenda that they really care about.
That's a bit of an imaginative stretch, Pac, but points for creativity. I will say this, though: If there is a cohort of people with whom I wouldn't want to make a lunch date or take a meeting, it's the poor souls who are distracted from the rise of a global oligarchy by the work of Hannah-Jones and Co.
We're not here to please you.
Of course not but I can share my distaste. And hope I don’t have to see another boring on a race baiting grifter
Why disappointing Patrick? Because you don't think West is a race baiting grifter?
Thanks for the likes, Susan, but you have not answered my question as to why, if we want the slaughter in Gaza to end, all of us are not speaking as one voice in demanding that Hamas come out of the tunnels and surrender... Hamas started it, it is entirely on them to end it. What am I missing here?
This is what you are missing:
You are one of the many who have been convinced that history began on October 7, 2023. However, you have fallen for US/Israeli propaganda.
1) Hamas did not "start this." The Zionists who landed in Palestine and started the process of driving the Palestinians off the land started, at the very least, in 1948.
2) Hamas has several times asked for negotiations and an agreement with Israel, which Israel and the US have refused.
3) Ask yourself this: How is it possible that the US could hunt down and assassinate one man, Osama bin Laden, without destroying the country he came from, (our buddies) Saudi Arabia?
4) How do you explain that Netanyahu originally started and funded Hamas?
If the US/Israeli governments really wanted to target Hamas only, I think they are clever enough to do it. Why are they using the excuse "We have to get Hamas" to destroy an entire country and all of the people in it?
Why are you apologizing for their unconscionable actions? Where do you get your information? The TV?
Well Susan, I certainly do not think the history of the israeli-palestinian conflict started on Oct 7. In fact, I'm not sure I or anyone else can put a firm date on it, maybe it "began" a couple thousand years ago. And yes, it is a complicated situation. I have opposed Israel's settlement policy for years. In fact, I have advocated for a Gene Sharp inspired approach to peacemaking in the region. You remember Gene Sharp dont you? But a criss border sneak
attack that results in a thousand civilian deaths, and in which civilians were the primary targets, makes a Gene Sharp approach impossible--no people, least of all the Jews, are obligated to let that go unpunished, to allow the group that launched this sneak attack to survive and thus claim "victory." On October 6, a shaky ceasefire had kept a lid on hostilities. By choosing to shatter this ceasefire on Oct 7, Hamas has set itself up for a terrible retribution. That they choose to hide behind their own civilians is to me as despicable as the attack itself. I am not Jewish, but it is not hard for me to understand why Israel must do whatever is necessary to defend its security and destroy a group with whom a peace agreement is now an impossibility.
So I repeat: let us all speak with one voice and de.and that Hamas come out of the tunnels and surrender, as justice demands. Then we can begin to rebuild the peace process.
And let me assure you that my knowledge of this entire question is somewhat greater than TV news.
Except that several reliable sources say that most of the deaths were actually caused by the Israeli military. Like Max Blumenthal and Aaron Mate'.
And Caitlin Johnstone points out that an invading empirical power doesn't "have the right" to "defend" itself.
Why are you giving in to Israeli propaganda?
If you are on this channel, you seem to believe in thinking for yourself, but you are only an Israeli apologist. In other words, a mouthpiece for them.
Do we call you P.P. for short? (Pun intended man!!--I have an old uncle with those initials who used the line too often in mixed company.)
I think our common ground is disappointment in our fellow fans general inability to escape the polarity created by a propagandist MSM that reduces everything and everyone to a lowest stereotypical emotional caricature of itself. And, demands that all political, social and economic discourse exist on that level. It's part of the psyop dumb down meant to dumb down.
I'm not a Marxist but I am a child of the 60's and I recognize the conversation Mr. West is trying to have. The problem for us (which subscription journalism is beginning to solve as we speak) is the capture of the American national dialogue by a whore MSM, international criminal financiers and a handful of corrupt D.C. politicians. "We the people" aren't communists, capitalists, socialists, woke or otherwise. But we're being forced to have a weaponized and manipulated conversation by the criminal gang that gutted American industry and looted the American economy. And have the conversation on their terms. And, they're doing it on our dime. The Republics problems are, to borrow a phrase, "self evident".
My point is that part of our necessary recovery involves an escape from the knee-jerk click bait emotional ping pong attempting to mask the actual cause and effect consequences of the failed social/economic/political policy that D.C. grifters have implemented to aid international criminal finance in evading responsibility for its continued looting of the Republic. Their entire platform amounts to nothing more than implied threats and a ball gag. The DNC/CCP/EU/Davos crowd is openly calling for the destruction of American free speech and thought. D.C.? Crickets.
West, like many Americans, has unfortunately hitched his star to an "ism". "Ism's" are dead. But that doesn't mean he doesn't make sense. When considering the battering the American psyche receives every day I don't know how any of us do.
The ideological utopian poseurs of the left and the criminal politicians and financiers they serve are just that. Investigation, prosecution and incarceration is the obvious next step. Amazingly, they believe in the possibility of sacrificing the Republic in order to create a fix that will allow them to get away with it. The Constitution and the Republic are now the American citizens only legitimate frame of political reference. Vivek is correct. 1776 is still happening.
Taibbi is one of the new and powerful truth/fact based voices exploring the possibility of the American future our children deserve. Some are journalists. Others (despite the foul odor of American education) are educators. The voices are there. Some present the opportunity for actionable wisdom. This is a new age. It is demanding clarity and the abandonment of the psyop driven convenient self-serving opinionated emotionality that allows us to evade and escape the core reality and the call for personal responsibility that informs the fact of the Republic. It's not them. It's us.
Goddamn, what a comment. I'm getting better analysis in Matt Taibbi's comments than anyone's gotten in the last 20 years of "journalism"
Yep. Subscription journalism often keeps me a week or ten days ahead of what's happening. The American psyche and American moral reason has been exploited and violated for decades. I don't think most of us grasp how powerful a unified people existing in a truth/fact based human reality can be. But the fascists study it night and day. And they don't like it.
Exactly. Probably one of the only things that gives me any hope these days is watching the establishment frantically try to snuff out every flicker of awareness that lights up among the population from time to time. If us putting things together freaks them out that badly, they obviously don't have this quite in the bag yet.
My thoughts exactly. The POWER is still--no matter what desperate measures the fascists employ--"we the people".
I wish that you knew what the real Left was, so you would stop calling the liberal class "the left." They aren't leftists; in fact they oppose almost every issue that the real Left proposes.
Chris Hedges is the real Left. Jimmy Dore is the real Left.
I am the real Left.
The corporations stamped out the real Left after the New Deal, because they were the best organizers of the labor movement. The elite hated them and hated the New Deal. They have worked to overturn it ever since it was passed. The neoliberals such as the Clintons are their soldiers. There is no organized Left any more, not after Joe McCarthy did the elites' bidding and drove the real Left out of the country.
I agree. Your description is accurate and Hedges et al are voices I admire. I just don't believe there is a "right" or "left" anymore. There is the Republic, the Constitution and the citizen. Unchecked criminal finance and our culpability in allowing a corrupt elected political leadership to stand is allowing the repeat of the retro 20th Century A-Bomb totalitarianism that slaughtered millions. Ideological utopianism ("woke") in service to corporate fascism (DNC/CCP/Davos) .It's pathology not politics. Two sided bad penny totalitarianism all over again. The Republic, the citizen and the Constitution are the only engines of survival. More importantly the only way forward in creating the THIRD that will unite the political opposites and bring about the wholeness needed to carry America into the future it deserves.
Thank you.
I would say that there is the government on one side and the citizens with the Constitution on the other side.
And I don't think that voting is going to help with this, considering that the government controls the electoral system.
Or a group of grifters who fear you attempting to convince you of your powerlessness.
Aaaaaaw. Of course he's a race-baiting grifter. He's a career academic.
Risking putting too fine a point on matters but I'd only add quotes.
Namely, he's a "career academic" which is to be contrasted with someone who is a scholar or otherwise genuinely devoted to their pursuits.
Lots of academics are insecure as it can be a tough business -- thare are plenty of "sharp elbows" in academic quarters and "turf" is guarded jealously.
As such, there is no shortage of academics who are happy to get a little glimpse of sunshine, a little attention from the outside world.
Others are able to parlay their niche into a media career. West arguably did this. He's also far from alone. Far from alone.
Yes. Sounds like you're familiar with the species. I spent 20 years among them as a minuscule academic with no hope ever for tenure. All I did was teach.
Post-facto apologies as you connoted the essence of my point. I felt compelled to add illustration which hopefully wasn't superfluous.
Yes. This is someone who hasn't seen West speak. That's why he needs to get more exposure.
Awww...be careful, temps are expected to rise above 32 degrees.
...But not surprising given the nature of our country.
Also if you want to know the actual backstory of the I had a dream speech the Free Press did a story on King's speechwriter Clarence B. Jones yesterday which is much better than reading about West's nonsense. Jones among other revelations credited Jews with being instrumental in the passage of civil rights legislation.
The Free Press has resumed stories about other things in the world than Hamas and antisemitism? That's all they ran for 3 months.
Because they're compassionate about other races? Or because they saw a demographic they could turn into a reliable vote farm?
I would say neither. Back then, Jews viewed Blacks as another group that WASPs discriminated against.
“Your economic team has little or no concern about poor and working people,” West wrote to Obama, on the first anniversary of his inauguration. “Job creation is an afterthought.”
Like it or not, but Cornel West has worked hard to earn his bad reputation. For example, he has endorsed the lies of Nikole Hannah-Jones. She is a fraud embraced by him.
Agree 100%.
No idea about him being a grifter of a race baiter, I am not an American, but from listening to him and reading a few articles I find his views and thoughts remarkably shallow and eclectic for a philosopher, not unlike Fukuyama. Doesn’t make him a bad media figure, though.
Cornel West's campaign imploded into irrelevancy when he self destructed on the Jimmy Dore show. West's weird jazz man persona fell flat, and his stances were basically identical to Biden. It was clear that his campaign boils down to "Vote blue no matter who". (West has broken from Biden over Palestine, but is otherwise little different from Biden. At the end of the day, he is just a prog wrangler for the DNC.)
No one forcing you to read. I read it all the way through because I found it interesting
And I didnt.
Thank you.
Who won't even be on the ballot in more than half the states. The ONLY reason West is doing this is to ensure Trump wins.
lol, because Trump shares Cornel's love of religion and quoting the bible?
Because West has NO chance of winning -- he has so far not qualified for a single state ballot -- and all he could do is draw support away from Biden and West knows this.
Huh. To my eyes, West's ego (think 1619 Project) is what we're seeing. He loves the attention, he's hired apparent fools to run his campaign, but he's so in love with the sound of his voice that he can't quit. Most of these narcissists are completely unaware of the bigger picture. It's just all about them.
His campaign will bear a strong resemblance to Kendi's faltering institute?
That's true.
If that's true, it sounds like a Biden problem, not a Karen problem, and sure as hell not mine. Biden could do things to not be so bad. Yet he doesn't. I don't like Trump, but Biden doesn't deserve a second term, if he can even comprehend what that means.
The way our system works is that either a Republican or a Democrat will be sworn in on January 20, 2025. Donald Trump is going to be the Republican nominee and Joe Biden the Democrat. If you refuse to support one, by default you support and endorse the other one. If you don’t want Biden, you get Trump.
Tell me you don't understand what the electoral college does..
My state is a "safe" state for democrats and voting for one would be a waste of my vote.
Furthermore, if democrats want my vote, they need be seen at least trying to do my business. This, they refuse to attempt.
Voting for that trash is my last concern. Last time I did, it took ages to wash the blood and shit off my hands.
That's what Biden told me in 2020, after I had sat out 2016. It's a decision I regret, but I voted for him as the non-Trump candidate. And it's been an astonishing display of not only non-Democrat crap, but anti-democracy as well.
OK, Karen.
Good!
Biden doesn't deserve our support.
And in your mind Trump does.
False alternative. You aren't speaking in good faith.
Where did he write that? I just see "Good! Biden doesn't deserve our support." Did Moviedad come back and edit it?
Works for me.
Anyone but Biden.
This doesn’t make him pro Trump. He describes Trump as a neo fascist.
That's to get progressive dicks hard so they don't get enough blood to their brains.
lol, brutal takedown!~
But he’s still working to get Trump elected.
And you're Democratic Party shill. More than one can play your game.
This article says he's on the Alaska ballot. So he has qualified for at least a single state ballot.
That’s three possible EC votes. Which he won’t win.
So why do you consider that alarming?
It’s a waste of time, money, and attention that needs to be directed toward other races. Why don’t these guys ever run for, say, city council first?
As someone else alluded, narcissists with egos the size of West's prefer to grab the biggest prize and think they can get it.
West could win against Trump, IMO. To ensure that Trump wins requires the Democratic Party.
And that's... OK.
> West is doing this . . . to ensure Trump wins
The Democrats can manage that all on their own.
West seems to be looking for a book deal or a talk show or something because the goal can't possibly be President West. Or maybe he just did it on a dare.
115 upvotes, for an unsupported- and unsupportable- boilerplate hot take that reads like an AI bot peddling a stock trigger phrase cliche. What did Cornel West do to deserve that?
How many of the upvotes are bots? No way to tell. Which is reason enough to disregard the whole "Top Comment" con game, if you think about it.
white boy run for cover.
Than, not then. Jesus...
Trump supporters showing their true face. Good.
Oh of course here it comes!
If you don’t like West you must be a Trump supporter is that how it works?
Unfortunetely seems so, havent met any MAGA people fond of West
For some reason, they don't find "I want to take people who look like you down a peg or three" a compelling political prospect. Weird. I guess they must just be crazy!
Haven’t meet many fond of West in general. Why isnt he leading the field? Thats the problem with people like you. You fail to see any nuance.
The people who would be fond of West, such as myself, watched him throw his hat in the race, bounce ineptly between parties, go on Jimmy Dore and get bodied by a comedian, and then said "whatever is going on here, I'm gonna pass."
The master of polysyllabic drivel.
Maybe one step up from a chimp with a thesaurus.
I don't care who you are or how eloquently you're able to express yourself - keep bringing up race and oppression and you'll be shut down... most people are way over this crap.
Black folk just love being compared to monkeys. Don't be a bigot
You were the one to notice the comparison and consider it bigoted. I suppose you can't be compared to a chimp, eh?
It doesn't have the same import. My people haven't been being called animals for a couple of centuries.
Don't kid yourself. We're all animals. The insanity that currently plagues our civilization is proof of that.
True, but it doesn't make echoing the rhetoric of oppression any less bitter and humiliating for its targets. And why? Are you the kind of person who enjoys humiliating people?
And you are a half step up from George Wallace with a smart phone.
Speaking of Wallace, Gay Talese wrote a several page article in the NY Times several years back, in which he told an interesting story of an interview he did with Wallace in the Pierre Hotel along Central Park South, very early in Talese's career.
From Wallace's hotel room, Wallace pointed down to the Upper East Side of Manhattan and said to Talese that the ES is the "citadel of hypocrisy", that it was an all white neighborhood that pushed segregation on everyone else.
Talese at the time lived in that neighborhood and still did after all these decades, and he said it is/was true- that to this day his immediate neighborhood is all white and filled with hypocrisy.
It's interesting the NY Times proofreaders missed what Talese reported.
The truth doesn't fit the NY Times.
I believe Talese is still alive. He must be in his nineties. Thanks for the story.
Bill, that is simply, fucking awesome. Thanks.
You’re welcome
The George Wallace reference was so good. My dad took me to see Wallace speak during the 1976 primary in Illinois. I asked him if this was the guy he and Mom planned to vote for. He said, "Oh no, never, but it's a rare opportunity to see a presidential candidate speak, and better understand the process of choosing the President."
During the speech I understood why my parents would not be voting for him.
When you can speak that elegantly and coherently in a public setting, please let us all know.
It is the baggage they were born with. There are rewards for dipping into that bag. The elite white folk give them out freely. Keep you mouth shut and you are non grata.
West, as far as I know, didn't make a peep throughout the years-long Russiagate coup by the Deep State. It was made-for-the-Left grist and he didn't touch it. He cheered for the Don of the Medical Mafia, Fauci, and still thinks the (FBI inspired and orchestrated) Jan 6 cluster was a white supremacist insurrection. He's a fraud.
Wow Matt. You've finally written something I can't read. Dude! If you can't recognize him for the self centered fake intellectual trading on his race, maybe you really are still in the clutches of the left?
Interesting take. I have to say I enjoyed reading this one, in part because it's fun to see Matt back on the campaign trail (or what passes for one) doing whistle-stop reporting. Personally, I don't know much about West, but after reading this piece I feel like I have a pretty good picture, certainly a more accurate one than I'd get in MSM.
That Matt does it without broadcasting his political persuasions? Even better.
IMHO, Campaign Trail Matt is like Hunter S Thompson without the acid. (I hope!)
I can't speak for Matt, but i'm left and i never said that i wasn't. I'm just not a Democrat (or a Democratic "progressive"), who aren't left.
I think you must not have ever listened to Brother West.
I did. And I lived through the 1960s, so I'm very well aware of the White Supremacy that he talks about. Only thing is, time has moved on. He's a more educated Kamala Harris: lots of verbiage and no meaning.
Right on Susan. Yeah, the current fashion of re-cycling the "white supremacy" label, esp to someone who really knows what real, Bull Connor-style white supremacy was, is both outrageous and deeply cynical. West is guilty on both counts.
I have. Multiple times. He's entertaining, but he's a barking seal.
I have. He's phony
‘Brother West’ lol. You copped his fake preacher speech
I did :)
Agree! Very disappointing, Matt. West perpetuates lies and hatred about Israel and is especially offensive since he is an academic, a scholar. How about reading a book and learning the facts before taking a position that is supported by neither the facts nor international law.
If ever you deign to read the comments, Matt, I hope ones like this one day remind you that your appeals to the alt-right, lucrative as they may be, will only net you a fragile truce. If ever you get fed up and decide to stop treating the Trump personality cult with the kid gloves you have on, they’ll abandon you and curse your name at a moment’s notice.
So I'm alt-right because I give Matt 5 bucks a month? And like and respect the work he does 90% of the time? If you're gonna whip out the "alt-right label, just go ahead and call me Hitler, too
Or at least Mussolini.
Well I'll take whatever bad-guy analogy I can get, but with a last name like mine I was really hoping for something more Germanic
I agree. Am a paid supporter and a Republican.
Better to throw your fate in with a small gaggle of Bernie Sanders dead-enders, amirite?
Cornel is part carnival barker, woke college professor and narcissistic race baiting Jesse Jackson wannabe. He's less of an iconoclast and more someone without any kind of filter. He's definitely entertaining, but at the heart of it, he'd be better on MSNBC telling the 40-50k people who would tune in how much of a victim they are.
They already have Al Sharpton to fill that role. One is enough.
Sus.
Good reporting Matt. You leave lots of room for people to come to their own conclusions, which is what it’s about.
Amen! Like Hunter S Thompson only without the acid.
Gonzo came to my mind, yes. . .straight reporting with personality and colorful impressions and artful language. Lightyears away better than corporate drivel that lets you know precisely what to think, and if you don’t agree, you’re the problem.
What makes you think Taibbi isn't taking acid?
When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.
Hmmm, well, technically I didn't say he isn't ... I said he writes like Hunter S w/out the tabs. Never having taken it, I can't be sure, but I'm guessing it would be pretty hard to produce the output Matt does while on a hallucinogen. I say this realizing full well that given the electoral choice, it might not change matter much who takes what when writing and reading about the 2024 election.
I know Taibbi had a long history of drug use, but I'm not sure now. Guessing pot?
How do we know no tabs have been consumed in the writing of this piece? 🤣 Anyway, love the Gonzo! We need it!
Good point, though in this election, isn't it the voters who need to alter their reality? Lawmakers have given us little choice!
👍🏼🤠
The only candidate committed to speaking truth to power. If you have followed his career as a philosopher then you know he has practiced what he has preached. You can really see how much an honest public intellectual bothers people by how the only critique is character assassination, never anything substantial about his policies, values, etc.
You lost me after "truth to power...."
So if not West, who do you think is actually speaking truth to power?
No one.
RFK Jr
He started out that way, but jumped head over heels to cheer on Israel and its destruction of Gaza (losing his campaign manager, Dennis Kucinich, in the process), and lost all credibility.
Traditional liberals are concerned with the following:
1. free speech
2. anti-war
3. anti-spying on Americans
4. care about workers and the poor
Biden has f----d all of those, and more. Bobby's IMMEDIATE embrace of Israel and Bibi (why? because the DNC was claiming he was antisemitic?) doesn't put him on a good path. How the hell can one recognize that funding a war in Ukraine and one in Israel (and seemingly Yemen as well, Iran and others--Taiwan?--planned for Biden's 2nd term) is the same, depressing thing. Israel is a rich country (citizens live far better than many Americans) that can afford to buy its own damn bombs, or build them themselves. What will he weaken on next? Spying on Americans or caring about working people?
I don't know what to think about the whole Gaza versus Israel thing, but I'm not going to write off a promising candidate based on one single issue.
That's a fair point. But to me, it's not about one policy issue with which I disagree. It's the usual suspect, slimy, politician operating. AIPAC, in concert with the DNC and the Biden reelection campaign, began to paint Kennedy as an antisemite because he had said that there was a certain group of Jews who were not as badly impacted by COVID. Who knows if that's valid data? AIPAC interpreted it as if he had accused Jews of somehow managing COVID, knowing it wouldn't hit them as hard. Which of course he didn't say. So he went on a rabbi's podcast and the rabbi assured Jews that Bobby had their backs.
That was it. It disappeared from the conversation as Bobby planned his independent announcement, which was planned for October 9, two days after Hamas's attack. He could have taken a measured approach in his response--"we condemn this terrorist attack and continue to support our allies in Israel, yadayadayada." Instead, he went full-on Ben Shapiro, letting the world know that he would have no problem with Israel turning Gaza into a parking lot. He didn't use those words, but his response was so much more hawk-like than even Biden's. This was nothing more than a political calculation, aimed at gaining support from liberal Jewish Democrats. And I suppose to generate attention.
And when his campaign manager, Dennis Kucinich, among the most high integrity national politicians of the past 30 years, suddenly left the campaign, it couldn't be good. Whether he quit on principle or was fired for standing for his principles is immaterial.
Buy I did ask the campaign what the hell happened. (I had signed up online as a supporter, and thus got a lot of correspondence. I even bought a sweatshirt--a nice Champion one--and a really nice insulated water bottle. Only about $100.) So I answered 4 separate emails, asking what happened. I got three responses, all from the same, poor volunteer who had to deal with my increasing impatience with her responses, which were all "The candidate will be releasing a statement shortly." Which he of course did not. Over two weeks later, my 4th response, which was not pleasant, was not replied to.
I consider his position on Israel and Gaza not only wrong, but a betrayal of the crooked politics kind. If he somehow pulls a miracle and wins, it won't bother me, but he doesn't get my vote. And if he helps either Trump or Biden win, I don't care.
Sorry, long answer to a short question.
When one’s character is faulty, it’s easy to assassinate it. The guy is the wizard in oz. Lol
Watch his interview with Jimmy Dore to see how much he fawns over Bru-tha Biden. West sucks up to power.
“He blames Republicans equally or more, but never having been a Republican, the feelings aren’t as hard.”
Thanks for this - it exactly explains why I am so much angrier with the democrats. I foolishly expected better from them; I’ve never been so naive to expect anything from Republicans.
I've never voted Republican for potus. But i used to smoke the Democratic crack, and ex-smokers are the worst.
Yeah, voting R is a bridge too far. But Biden is the first time since 1980 that I just could not bring myself to vote for President.
I've been Indy since 2000 when Hillary carpetbagged my (then) state. But i haven't voted D since 2008, it's been 3rd party /write in since then.
Your vote doesn't matter anyway. Politics is just show business. And once they're above the law animal instincts take over. Climb the food chain. Fuck who you please. Kill or be killed.
Democratic crack.
Is that the answer to to the reporter’s question last week “What kind of crack do you smoke Mr. (Hunter) Biden?
His performance with Jimmy Dore was deeply disappointing.
“No, no, the main reason for running is the way they treat poor people and working people."
This from the guy who talks about "the neo-fascist moment that produced Trump in 2016!
The people being hounded by the DOJ/FBI all over the country for being in D.C. on Jan. 6 2021, and the ones sitting in D.C. jails without bail, many in deplorable conditions, those poor people and working people?
No. He's shoulder to shoulder (or mouth to ass) with those "upscale white liberals" who are proud of their political prisoners (and I'm ok with "hostages" too), and looking for more!
Bingo.
West is a race baiting grievance fossil, a sophistic clown who speaks in indeterminate riddles and meaningless rhymes. The Democrat party is led by a bunch of grifters using such hackneyed scam lines that at this point it's more pitiful than annoying. The problem is, moderates were [and maybe still are] too stupid to see the grift would lead to bio-weaponized pestilence, intentional famine, unjustified wars of conquest, and the willingness to destroy the village of civilization in order to save it.
Man you just convince me you are the stupid one afraid of the black guy who uses big words
I'm smart. I use big words. And Cornel West seems to me to be a more educated Kamala Harris: he speaks a lot but it doesn't mean anything. Just word salad.
Are you voting for him BECAUSE he's a black guy who uses big words?
They are "voting" for this "truth to power" leader of men? Do they live in Alaska?
Elagabalus, you might be the stupid one who admires Cornel West because he uses big words. Something to think about.
Ficus, you are SO brilliant. A six year old could do better.
If moderates were stupid, we'd be in a political party! :+)
I'll submit that a true moderate does not struggle to recognize grifting.
Once again, the specter of the untainted outsider - fearlessly charging down the corruption in DC. Ya know, this was Trump's shtick too. It works, because there are a whole lot of Americans that want to believe. Jimmy Carter was the outsider of the Democratic establishment - how'd that work out (even with his party in control of both chambers in Congress)? Ronald Reagan, despite being governor, was still the DC outsider - how'd that work out? From Hope Arkansas to hope and change from Chicago - we repeat the bullshittery over and over and over. Doesn't matter if from the "left" or the "right" (which are both the center in any other western political system).
The fact is the parties are organs of the State - that's why the primaries are run as official elections and not as private matters as before WWII. Until the parties are divorced from the State, no outsiders need apply.
I agree with Matt. I like Cornel West. He can be annoyingly woke, but if he's on the ballot in my state (a big if, unfortunately) I'll probably vote for him.
And then what? What would a West presidency look like?
Comes off as a crazy demagogue to me. Fomenting Israel hatred in crowds to wild applause, screaming and gesticulating like a wanna be Fuhrer. I'll be voting for RFK, so if he draws votes from Biden, I'm all for it.
I have to say, the only selling point of West is his position on Israel. If I believed for one second he was a real candidate I might give him a 2nd look....
1. I enjoyed this. Thanks.
2. (After reading comments) If West is a grifter, he is so far behind the Rev. Al. Please.
3. This is America --- or at least it used to be. Speak up, baby, speak up. Run, baby, run. Unless the Democratic Party says you can't, of course.
If anyone is paying attention --- which Nazi party here in the US of A actually has ballots and where people get to vote in a primary? For the Dems, first stop: South Carolina. James Clyburn. JC gave us Pres. Joey. Do we really owe him anything?
West is one of a slew of people on the anti-establishment left I want to shout at and say “West, the Obama era Deep State broke with Israel over 10 damn years ago!”
I’m a radical civil libertarian and economic moderate but I think there’s always a place for a push and pull between free market and left-wing economics. I would like that left to be against the power structures in America, but unfortunately, for whatever reason, that side of the debate cannot wrap their heads around what the actual state of play of those power structures are.
In particular, they will not budge on what actually went on during the 2010’s foreign policy-wise. Obama’s intel agency and security state ghouls run this country. They built the mass censorship apparatus. They built CTIL for active psyops. Jake Sullivan and Tony Blinken are back in power, John Brennan and Jim Clapper were hired back into DHS.
Obama’s obsession was the JCPOA, the Iran deal. This infuriated Israel. Obama and Netenyahu hated each other with a burning passion. Trump ripping up the Iran deal was the thing that pissed Obama off more than any decision he made. Why the hell was Obama so obsessed with making a deal with Iran and throwing the Israel/Saudi relationship into a woodchipper? Well, there are troubling stories about a conversation he had with an Ex-girlfriend at a Holocaust museum. One can speculate.
The first thing Biden did in foreign policy was pull the Houthis off the terror watchlist and try to restart the Iran deal with Jake Sullivan and Robert Malley, same guys who negotiated it before. Malley recently got his security clearance pulled, probably because he was hiring Iranian spies. No, I’m not kidding.
The CCP, the Progressive billionaire NGOs who are the biggest DNC funders (and who helped bankroll the censorship regime), Qatar, the Obama era Deep State, all fund the and prop up the Anti-Israel cause, and 1 or more of them run massive damn bot networks on social media. The People’s Forum, who run a DSA office, are run by Neville Roy Singham. Neville works for the CCP. Again, I’m not kidding.
This may seem like a massive tangent but context is important. West is a guy that could be a good ally against the CIA, FBI, DHS, DEA, etc, but until he recognizes what happened around the building of the Iran deal, he’s not actually fighting power.
The 2 most powerful entities on Earth are the Western left/liberal elite establishment and the CCP. If you are not fighting them, you are not fighting power, instead you are fighting ghosts.
It’s just disappointing. Eh well, my main political desire is ripping away power from the intel agencies, tearing down the Deep State, and blowing up the mass censorship and psyop apparatus the elite left has cast over the Western world. And making sure Xi Jinping doesn’t seize the Taiwanese fabrication plants, which would make him control 90% of electronics production and effectively rule the world.
I ain’t in a swing state, so I can casually vote RFK om that. He wants personal revenge against the CIA, which I find a poetic way to rip apart that viper’s nest.
A long essay for a Substack comment but I can never help myself but lay this out. Cornel is seeing a warped view of actual power structures, a warped view deliberately built with a massive psyop mainly starting in 2014.
You might want to look into the work of the late Dr Gene Sharp. He spent his life studying nonviolent civil disobedience and he discovered that it is more successful against your own oppressive government than violence.
He wrote From Dictatorship to Democracy and there's a documentary about him called How to Start a Revolution (not what it sounds like).
If you want to tear power away from the agencies, Dr Sharp is a good place to start.
And don't come back to me with a slew of arguments when you haven't read the book. I get that too often. You won't know what you will be talking about.
I’ll give Gene a look, but I didn’t fully break out and elaborate my anger at the intel agencies.
I have a personal axe to grind with them, one I want to get people to see, individual by individual. 2 decisions made by the Obama Administration related to opioids, in particular post Sept. 2013 him sending the DEA to threaten doctors to stop prescribing painkillers, pushing them onto the deadliest drug in existence; Fentanyl, creating the Fentanyl death crisis and killing 600,000 people.
But that’s a story for another day, I’ve got too much text already on the comment section.
JesterColin I like your handle. And no, not really, you haven’t commented too much. Fascinating comments.
Hey Jester, it's not how much you write in these comments, it's how valuable it is. In your case, proceed.
Yes, I saw that in your original comment. Nothing wrong with having a personal reason.
I started boycotting Nestle in 1977 for personal reasons and later I found out what dirty dogs they were in other areas as well.
Was it when Nestle screwed new mothers in developing nations by first giving them free formula, then pricing it high? I think it was either the WHO or UN who voted 118-1 to censure Nestle. The 1 naysayer? Not Switzerland, where Nestle is headquartered. The United States voted not to scold a multinational (not even an American one) for egregious actions.
First it was that Nestle was pumping water in California, where they had been having a drought for ten years - out of a nature reserve for which they had a permit which had expired several years before - and then it was the selling of formula to mothers in sub-Saharan Africa.
Then, after the scandal of the poisonous water in Flint, MI, they started pumping water ten miles from Flint. Was it to help? No, it was probably to sell them the water.
They are evil.
I won't even buy from any of their subsidiaries, which includes Purina pet foods and Quaker oatmeal. I found the list of their subsidiaries on Wikipedia (itself questionable).
And the sales of formula was worse than you mentioned: they don't even have clean water in some of those areas of Africa.
Not a nice company at all. You can buy Quaker oatmeal, however. They are owned by a former employer of mine, PepsiCo. PepsiCo acquired Quaker Oats/Gatorade (Gatorade being the real prize) in 1999 or 2000, and still has it.
But for oatmeal, I've found that Bob's Red Mill makes excellent product. Recommended.
Right on Susan, keep promoting Gene Sharp and his work. I urge one and all to check it out, it can change how you look at the world. Yep, turns out that creative non-violence really is more powerful than the sword, if you know how to use it.
Thank you! I try to urge everyone to look him up, but YouTube has been censoring it for a while. For answers, what I usually get is people who want to argue with me and haven't bothered even to read his work, or even to skim through it. Consequently, they are stubbornly defending their previously-held convictions. I finally gathered that they don't want to learn; they're convinced that they are right. It's very discouraging.
You tube is censoring Gene Sharp videos? Really? That is shocking.
No, it disappears my comment if I put in the information about what his stuff is and where to find it.
Those comments instantly vanish from the chat.
P.S. The documentary used to be on YouTube but they took it down several years ago.
Wow, disappearing Gene Sharp. Things are worse than I thought. But note: it's not Trump, AKA orange Hitler, who did it. Just saying.
I'll look into Sharp's work, but would like to know what might be said to the people throwing stuff on works of art. Even though the works are now protected, does this form of protest accomplish anything? I think it might generate a backlash.
Good stuff, JesterColin... main point: Cornel West is a self-promoting, self-deluding clown. No one should fall for his grift.
You write in Code or ellipses.
I need clarity and facts if you want me to understand.
The unmaking of America started well before Obama, but he was the needed vehicle to speed it up. He was actually installed his second term - he had unfinished business to complete. First term he tore through our health insurance structure and gutted over 100 officers from the military. The second term was Jarrett's Iran deal, the 2015 Paris Accord, and the war against the police (brought under DOJ scrutiny), and on and on. Hillary was supposed to finish the deal with her eight years ending this year. The prize was a nice slide into the one world order.
I’ve been known to be occasionally convoluted. Which part in particular is confusing?
He wants revenge on the CIA and yet his campaign manager/daughter-in-law is a CIA agent. Hmmm...
Not all those who worked for the Agency are compromised. Yes, most are, but you get an occasional Martin Gurri here and there.
Things are more complicated than they seem on the surface Matthew.