Saturday, August 29, 2020

Joe Kennedy III is a huge embarrassment and an even bigger fake

First off, let me note Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "Nancy and Ginger Joe"one more time this week (it went up Sunday).

Joe Kennedy III? A loser. As the comic notes, he's safe if you can keep him away from women and bodies of water. All freckles has as an accomplishment is his name.

Luke Savage agrees. This is from his Thursday article at JACOBIN:

As the curtain was set to fall on the final debate between Senator Ed Markey and Congressman Joe Kennedy III ahead of their September 1 primary face-off, the latter made his final pitch to the people of Massachusetts: “My family taught me that leadership isn’t about power. It’s about humanity. It’s about the messy stuff. The hope and the hurt. The common currency we share in a world that gives and takes far too much far too often.”

Though the moderator had given him forty-five seconds, Kennedy could probably have said the same thing in only one or two. Much like his utterly pointless campaign for Senate, most of the spiel was needless adornment for what everyone, including the congressman’s own supporters, already knows, the first two words more or less summing up the stakes of his primary challenge without need of further exposition.

Anyone actually paying attention probably found the rest of what Kennedy said difficult to parse, all of it taking the form of evocative-sounding rhetorical binaries carefully crafted to mean nothing except whatever the audience chose to make of them: humanity not power; hope and hurt; a world that, somehow, both gives and takes in excess with too much frequency (the question of what exactly the world is respectively taking and giving being perhaps best left to philosophers).

Coming with visibly rehearsed sniffles and a treacly delivery to put even the most seasoned bullshit artists in American politics to shame, Kennedy’s cul-de-sac of fatuous verbiage summed up the spirit of a campaign that was until a few weeks ago poised to carry the man at its center into the Senate with ease.

No one named Kennedy, after all, has ever lost an election in Massachusetts.

Kennedy’s victory was supposed to be a cakewalk, the inevitable triumph of youthful dynamism over an ossified incumbent who first entered politics in the early 1970s. This, at any rate, was the script many expected the contest to follow — not least the thirty-nine-year-old grandnephew of John F. Kennedy himself, who has struggled to offer any compelling reason for his challenge, a difficulty born of the fact that there isn’t one. As a report in the Atlantic put it earlier this month:

Kennedy is betting that rank-and-file Democrats, especially those who don’t follow every policy battle or vote in the Senate, will…see a choice between two good progressives, including one who is younger, more vigorous, and more famous than the other.

With a privately-commissioned poll last summer showing Kennedy some fourteen points ahead of the incumbent in a head-to-head matchup, a degenerated political dynasty evidently saw an opportunity and pounced.

As sheer opportunism goes, this calculation wasn’t necessarily misplaced. American politics has regularly rewarded the superficial appeals of celebrity and nostalgia, and so much the better if the two can be deployed in tandem.

With a brand consolidated around the candidate’s youth (or rather Youth™) the campaign had in theory the perfect vehicle for an easy victory in the erstwhile Kennedy heartland. A run for president, similarly leveraging the family crest and little else, would probably follow in due course.

Until a few months ago, the gamble looked certain to pay off. Polling throughout much of the race, in fact, has been so slanted in Kennedy’s favor there was briefly speculation that Markey might retire by his own hand to avoid an embarrassing defeat. But the senator, who won the seat seven years ago after a lengthy stint in the House of Representatives, has built what appears to be a formidable coalition that includes both mainstream Democratic groups and those aligned with the party’s left.

By helping introduce the most potentially transformative piece of environmental legislation in US history, Markey has staked out clear ground as a progressively oriented figure, despite a mixed record that includes an indefensible vote to authorize the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

With the backing of the Sunrise Movement, endorsement of fellow Green New Deal champion Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and a campaign vastly more in sync with the moment than the one Democrats are currently running nationally, the seventy-four-year-old senator has successfully turned an all but certain Kennedy victory into a competitive race — a recent University of Massachusetts⁠-Amherst poll actually put him ahead by fifteen points. In a delicious irony, Markey reportedly now leads the supposed candidate of youth among actual youth voters 71 to 21.

It’s as sure a sign as any that Kennedy’s “voice of a new generation” schtick hasn’t worked out as planned, and that his transparently opportunistic pivot to the left ahead of the primary isn’t convincing young voters in Massachusetts. Much like Pete Buttigieg and Beto O’Rourke, his closest analogues during the recent presidential primary, Kennedy III attempted the hallowed election season rebrand as a dyed-in-the-wool progressive hip to social justice, despite a recent past as a fairly bog standard centrist Dem.

Here's Ryan Grimm discussing the hideous Joe Kennedy III on RISING.

Here's C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"

Friday, August 28, 2020. A look at some of the liars trying to bully voters and some of the campaigns beyond the duopoly.

Last night, at the Republican's national convention, President Donald Trump spoke and formally became the GOP's presidential nominee. At VOX, Little Ezzie Klein squirts in tighty whiteys as he masturbates to his fantasy of a direct link between Bully Boy Bush and Donald Trump. "From the Iraq War to the coronavirus: why Republicans fail at governance" is how the little priss subtitles his article. We don't link to garbage -- that's the article and that's Ezzie.

Ezra Klein got name-checked, shouted-out on RISING this week which makes me question whether or not we'll continue to note RISING here. I am not joking.

There's the Journo-list scandal. That's where Ezra and others worked overtime to craft media narratives, worked overtime to figure out what to lie about. For example, Katha Pollitt watches the 2008 GOP convention and feels Sarah Palin was strong in her speech. She shares that 'horror' with her friends on the list. At THE NATION, she writes a column slamming Palin and never notes that Palin was an effective speaker. Or there's all the work they did on how to call anyone questioning St. Barack's sainthood or maidenhood as a racist. Spencer Ackerman came up with that delightful technique.

Ezra did all of this behind the curtain, deceiving the world.

And it wasn't his first time. If you're unhappy with the way the internet turned out, lay it at Ezra Klein. For years, he cultivated an online circle-jerk which involved other bloggers and young interns and reporters at various sites -- including the supposed journalistic watchdog CJR. In fact, CJR did a daily blogger roundup that was nothing but a circle-jerk of Ezra and the other friends -- and they never explained that to the readers -- did they tell their editors?

His whole career is built on lies.

He wants to trace a line between Bully Boy Bush to Donald Trump -- a line that leaves out Saint Barack, of course. Even though Barack promised to bring US troops home from Iraq but left the White House, after two terms, with troops still stationed in Iraq.

Ezra's a known liar. If that's who RISING is going to reference then I will judge by the company that they keep and I will stop noting them here.

Ezra's career is based on astroturf. He's the left's version of Jeff Gannon -- or how about the center-left's version.

Ezra is a whore and he's shading reality to let Barack off the hook. I have no use for it.

He never cared about the Iraq War -- except how it could be used for partisan gain. Anyone who gave a damn about the Iraq War wouldn't have gone into business with Matthew Yglesias who screamed for the war and demonized whole countries and their people.

The Democratic Party is going to have to get honest at some point about their own history. The Iraq War was one of the greatest crimes of this century. The refusal of the party to be honest is why, in 2020, they've got another ticket with someone who voted for the Iraq War.

Grasp that. The Iraq War started in 2003. In 2004, the ticket was John Kerry and John Edwards -- both voted for the Iraq War. In 2008 the ticket was Barack Obama -- who despite the lies of Patricia J. Williams on KPFA -- was not in the Senate and did not vote against the Iraq War (he even stated that he would probably have voted for it if he'd been in the Senate at that time) and his running mate was Joe Biden who voted for the Iraq War. In 2012, Joe was on the ticket again. In 2016, Hillary headed the ticket and she voted for the Iraq War. In 2016, Joe heads the ticket and he voted for it.

B-b-b-but C.I., the running mates haven't voted for the war!!!!

No one on the ticket since the war began has voted against the Iraq War. The ticket has always been someone who voted for the war and someone who wasn't in Congress to vote against it.

If Bernie Sanders had gotten the nomination this year -- a rigged system and backroom deals kept him from getting the nomination -- he would have been the first one on a Democratic Party presidential ticket since the war began back in 2003 who had actually voted against the war.

The Iraq War is the biggest crime of the 21st century, it is a global crime that destroyed the lives of many. But somehow not only is there no accountability, but the people responsible for it keep getting rewarded.

That's Joe Biden. That's Matthew Yglesias, that's the hideous Kevin Drum. Grasp that. MOTHER JONES could hire anyone. But instead of hiring a blogger who went up against the press and called out the Iraq War, they use their 'left' money to support Kevin Drum who did everything he could to ensure that the Iraq War started.

People are dead because of him.

But MOTHER JONES employs him and not someone who rightly railed against the Iraq War. They go with a Kevin Drum and not a David Lindorff. There was no accountability at all for bringing on the Iraq War. Politicians, journalists, bloggers, all of them -- if you were for the Iraq War, your career was made.

It was made from the blood of dead and wounded Iraqis, Americans, British, Australians (Jake Kovco), etc. People are dead and injured because of the actions of Joe Biden, Kevin Drum, Matthew Yglesias and others. They shouldn't be applauded, they should be shunned.

There have been no demands for accountability because . . . Well who would make them? Corporate media hides behind Judith Miller but she wasn't the only one egging on the Iraq War as a 'journalist.' So what about media watchdogs? CJR proved that they were just whores long, long ago -- long before they got their own little Harvey Weinstein who can't keep his hands off women. FAIR? There's nothing fair about FAIR and that includes their blatant hypocrisy. They once called out PBS for having a limited number of women on THE NEWSHOUR. Ava and I responded at THIRD with a series on how FAIR's own program, COUNTERSPIN, had an even smaller number of female guests during the same time period. On Iraq? FAIR loved to hector the corporate media about hiring this or that pro-Iraq War pundit. But somehow, it wasn't their job to note that MOTHER JONES and other 'left' outlets were doing the same.

Barack Obama failed America but, let's be honest, he never would have gotten to fail America in the first place if FAIR and others hadn't already failed the county.

We almost noted RISING's segment yesterday on a 'people's convention' yesterday. Then, after I'd copied and pasted, I listened to the segment and Cornel was telling people to vote for Joe Biden. That's not an independent organization. I didn't post that segment. We did post a thing on it that did not promote a candidate. But John Stauber is exactly right in the following Tweet:

Stop pretending that #PeoplesConvention is something radical and outside the oligarchy’s 2 parties. The overwhelming majority of participants are advocating for #BidenHarris2020. #ColorRevolution in America, #cooptation on behalf of

@TheDemocrats

, that’s what this s**t is.

Exactly.

If they're anything but a get-out-the-vote org for Biden, they'll surely be noting other candidates for president.

Candidates like the Green Party's Howie Hawkins whose campaign issued the following this week:

August 23, 2020

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION

Kevin Zeese, Press Secretary
KZeese@HowieHawkins.us

Robert Smith, Media Coordinator
Robert@HowieHawkins.us

Hawkins Releases 12 Years of Tax Returns and Asks, Where Are Trump’s?

Green Party presidential candidate Howie Hawkins released the last 12 years of his tax returns today.“It’s easy, Donald Trump. What are you hiding?,” Hawkins said.

Hawkins also asked why the Democratic Chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, Richard Neal (D-MA), refuses to take advantage of a law passed by New York a year ago that enables Congress to access Trump’s New York State tax returns, which closely follow the federal income tax forms in what they report.

“What are the Democrats hiding?” Hawkins asked. “They could get Trump on tax fraud like the Feds got Capone. The New York law means his tax returns are there for the taking. The Democrats are not standing up to Trump, they’re sitting on their hands.”

Journalists and law enforcement investigators are interested in Trump’s tax returns because they suspect they will reveal, when checked against bank and insurance records, that Trump is guilty of bank fraud, insurance fraud, and tax fraud. Trump may not want to show his returns because they may show he is not as rich as he claims to be, he didn’t pay taxes he owed, he donates little or nothing to charity, and he has extensive financial ties to Russians.

The sources of the cash that Trump obtained for property investments in the early 2000s, after decades of borrowing to purchase properties, has also raised suspicions that Trump raised his cash by laundering money through his properties from corrupt oligarchs in Russia, the Middle East, and Latin America.

Trump is the only major party presidential nominee since Watergate to refuse to release any past tax returns. A series of rulings by federal courts, including the US Supreme Court, have rejected Trump’s claims that his tax records cannot be subpoenaed by congressional committees or Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance, Jr. But appeals by Trump and further proceedings in lower courts mean Trump’s taxes are unlikely to be revealed before the November election.

Hawkins said, “It is not hard to figure why Trump is hiding his tax returns. But why are the Democrats not getting Trump’s New York tax returns out to the public before the election?”

Hawkins own tax returns are not so interesting. They show a modest income from wages as a UPS Teamster truck unloader and, since he retired 2018, from pensions, as well as investment income from mutual funds.

Hawkins disclosed that in 2019 he received $1,480 in wages, $116 in interest, $12,697 in dividends, $15,201 in pensions, and $12,053 in capital gains for a total income of $41,547. He paid a federal income tax of $578.

In his last full year of work in 2017, his tax returns show that he earned $28,443 in wages, $83 in interest, $9,332 in dividends, and $43,438 in capital gains for a total income of $81,438. The capital gains came from Hawkins selling shares in a stock index mutual fund to buy shares in a bond index mutual fund in order to balance his retirement savings as he approached retirement. He paid $3,382 in federal income taxes.

Hawkins tax forms for 2009 through 2013 can be found here.

###

Whores like Missey Comley Beattie are working the street, out in full force, to tell you not to vote for Hawkins. Remember when Missey used to pretend she gave a damn about the Iraq War. Well whores age and they get uglier, Missey sure has. She needs to take her disease ridden body out of the public square. She's whored for far too long. For those who wrongly assume Missy's syph posing as writing at COUNTERPUNCH this morning is her first attempt at whoring, let's drop back to Ruth's comments in 2009:

I laugh elsewhere at CounterPunch.

Like when I read Missy Comley Beattie. What an idiot. I used to support her, bad writing and all, then 2008 revealed who the real War Hawks were. In her latest useless scribbles, "The Placebo President," Ms. Beattie insists:

Some of us knew. We just knew. We knew because we’d arrived at the truth of politics in American--that anyone who really might deliver change would never receive the Democratic or Republican nomination. Because there is a rule, larger than the will of the people, mandating the survival of the status quo, U.S. corporatocracy and U.S. imperialism/Zionism. Some of us cast our vote for a Green or Independent, those who are considered “spoilers.” Our candidates lost and so did the world.

Some of us knew? Yes, Ms. Beattie. Some of us did know. I knew. I spoke out all during 2008 when it mattered. I spoke out against Barack Obama throughout 2008, from start to end. I spoke out, after the Democratic Party primaries ended, in favor of Ralph Nader and I voted for him.

Ms. Beattie would have you believe she needs to be included with me. The woman is lying.

Ms. Beattie spent the first half of 2008 lying that Hillary Clinton was a racist because Ms. Beattie, like so many of her crowd, cannot stand for a woman to be successful. Ms. Beattie promoted Barack Obama and lied about Hillary not stop.

You can Google her name and "White Heaven" if you need an example. She did not call out Barack Obama. But she could not. She is a third-rate, minor player, a supporting cast to CODESTINK and Jodi Evans was banking it all on Barry O. Ms. Beattie could not insult her mistress' candidate of choice. Poor relations, crust of bread and such. That is Missy Beattie.

She's a tacky whore riddled with disease.

Howie Tweeted:

@JoeBiden

has a terrible 47-year record of being wrong, but Trump has a terrible 4-year record as president -- pandemic, economic collapse, racial uprising, climate crisis, growing inequality. Two failed candidates for a failing nation. #RNC2020

At RING OF FIRE, pig boy Farron Cousins tries to act like he's not trying to vote shame:

If you want to vote for the green party, because you say the Democrats done nothing to earn your party fine. Although I am curious to know what the green party has done to earn your vote other than not being the Democrats. I do think that’s a valid question. Not necessarily shaming, but you know, if you’re gonna offer one explanation, offer an explanation for that. I like the green party. I think Howie Hawkins is a loser candidate because the guy has run for office so many times and he’s lost every single time. Cause that’s the problem with the green party, great platform, decent enough party. They pick the worst candidates ever. And that’s why they’ve lost so much power over the last decade. Like they’re almost nonexistent now because they pick the dumbest candidates possible. But if that’s your candidate, you do your thing. You vote for that.

Oh, stop pretending, you ugly eye sore. It's Green Party, first of all and you know that. Equally true, "the Democrats done nothing to earn your party"? WTF? I know you're an idiot but how stupid are you?

People can vote for whomever they want. In a democracy you own your vote. And bullies like Farron are disgusting.

Farron feels that the Greens have picked the worst candidates.

Help me out. When did Farron cover the candidates vying for the nomination of the Green Party this year? Or how about in 2016? Or 2012?

He's just an ugly eye sore. Where's Lady Bird Johnson with a beautification program when we really need one?

(He's trash. They got their link only because of RFK Jr.)

Farron insists that the Green Party has been harmed by its candidates. That's a cute little lie, isn't it? Jacob Crosse (WSWS):

In a series of blatantly undemocratic actions, Democratic Party state election commission members have kicked Green Party candidates off of the ballots in several states within the last week. The moves express the fear within the ruling class over the growth of social opposition and display the political gangsterism of the Democratic Party.

The moves come as Democratic state governors in Michigan and California and bourgeois courts have blocked the Socialist Equality Party’s candidates from the ballot, forcing them to gather signatures despite the coronavirus pandemic. While the SEP opposes the politics of the pro-capitalist Green Party, we defend the democratic right of its presidential nominee, Howie Hawkins, to appear on the ballot in all 50 states.

With regards to the Greens, the Democratic Party’s immediate concern is that any left-wing choice in the November election will subtract votes from the right-wing Biden/Harris ticket. Several last minute decisions have effectively barred Green Party candidates up and down the ballot from appearing in Texas, Montana and Wisconsin.

On Wednesday, three separate rulings in Texas courts blocked Green Party candidates from appearing on the November ballot, including US Senate candidate David Collins, 21st congressional district candidate Tom Wakely and candidate for railroad commissioner Katija Gruene.

Collins, Wakely and Gruene were all ruled ineligible for failing to pay filing fees, newly passed by the state legislature last year, which required candidates to pay as much as $5,000 to appear on the ballot. The ruling was made two days after a deadline for write-in candidates to file.

Green Party lawyers are challenging the filing fees in court as an unconstitutional burden, however, a ruling will likely not be handed down before the ballot certification deadline.

Voter suppression? Don't whine about it if you aren't going to call out efforts to rig the system by keeping candidates off the ballot.

That's Howie's response to Donald Trump's speech last night.

Joseph Kishore is the Socialist Equality Party's presidential candidate.

Joseph Tweeted about the RNC convention here.

Gloria La Riva is the presidential candidate for the Party for Socialism and Liberation. She Tweeted:

Trump's talk of the people "who built America" is a picture of "Davy Crockett, Buffalo Bill," not a word of the gigantic wealth, building by millions of enslaved African people & descendants, not a word of massive land theft & genocide of Native people. Total white supremacy.

Here she is discussing her campaign.