Saturday, July 6, 2019

Kamala Harris Is an Oligarch's Dream Politician

This may be a hard article for some to look at and absorb. I continue to shine light on dark places because of my commitment to the truth, to placing principles before personalities, and to placing the welfare of my children and all children and all of life on Earth first.
If we don't learn how to follow the money, dive deep in our pursuit of truth, and empower ourselves to intervene on the longstanding patterns of electing corporate Democrats or corporate Republicans, the future for all of us looks very bleak.
The oligarchs do not care if we reelect a fascist president or if we elect another neoliberal president. They just DO NOT want anyone who has the audacity to take on and fiercely challenge their power. Otherwise, they don't care. Either way — with a fascist or a neoliberal — there will be no end to drill baby drill, to endless war, to the vast redistribution of wealth upwards, to unfathomable suffering, to catastrophic man made climate change related events, and we will all continue on the suicidal path that now has us headed towards an unlivable planet by the end of the century or sooner.
All this is NOT about "liking" or not liking any particular candidate. That mindset is just a distraction from the much larger picture. The reality is that this is about our lives, our planet, and standing firmly and consistently in protection of life — all life.
There is truly an imperative that we face head on that our nation has been overtaken by large multinational corporations and the extremely poisonous and deadly financial interests embodied in the fossil fuel industry and the likes of the Koch brothers and others who really don't give a damn what happens to the vast majority of life on Earth as long as their wealth is not threatened and continues to grow exponentially. They are sociopaths to the extreme in that there is no concern whatsoever for the suffering of billions of human beings and other beings worldwide. They truly don't care about anything but themselves.
This is what late stage addiction to greed and power looks like. It is deadly and right now these huge moneyed interests are on target to take all of us over the cliff into our own annihilation UNLESS we wise up, inform ourselves, and recognize that our vital task at this time is far greater than removing Trump alone.
Let us please, for the sake of all children everywhere, inform ourselves! And fight together for a country and a planet that protects and cherishes life rather than destroys it. I break it down this way because our "enemy" is really not those Republicans or those Democrats. In addition to the toxic financial interests which are destroying our nation and our Earth, what most threatens us is our own ignorance, inflexible belief systems, attachments to what is not healthy or helpful, buying into the politics of polarization, our indoctrination and brainwashing, our fears and apathy, our impaired commitment to truth.
And, because I have personally both experienced all of the above AND been for some time now working to transform all of this into greater awareness, understanding, consciousness, wisdom, and love — I know that radical change IS POSSIBLE. And that it begins within each and every one of us as we root ever more deeply into our paths of awakening from the illusions we are taught to mistake for truth. We're all truly in this together. Another world is possible! May we each do our courageous part in the Great Awakening that is unfolding in the midst of these painful times. — Molly
 By Caitlin Johnstone
California Senator Kamala Harris won the Democratic presidential debate Thursday night. It was not a close contest. She will win every debate she enters during this election cycle. If she becomes the nominee, she will win every debate with President Trump.
Night two of the debates was just as vapid and ridiculous as night one. Candidates interrupted and talked over each other a lot, questions about foreign policy were avoided like the plague to prevent NBC viewers from thinking critically about the mechanics of empire, and Eric Swalwell kept talking despite everyone in the universe desperately wanting him not to. Buttigieg and Gillibrand did alright, Bernie played the same note he’s been playing for decades, and everyone was reminded how bad Joe Biden is at talking and thinking.
Biden has been treated kindly by polls and regarded as a “frontrunner” in this race exclusively because for the last decade he hasn’t had to do anything other than be associated with Barack Obama. Now that he’s had to step out of that insulated role and interact with reality again, everyone’s seeing the same old garbage right-wing Democrat who sucks at making himself look appealing just as badly as he did in his last two presidential campaigns. By the end of the night, even Michael Bennet was slapping him around.
"The full exchange between Kamala Harris and Joe Biden on Biden’s history with racial issues. pic.twitter.com/sK950pFyvf" — Axios (@axios) June 28, 2019

The moment everyone’s talking about was when Harris created a space for herself to attack Biden on his citing his collaboration with segregationists as an example of his ability to reach across the aisle and “get things done”. Harris had not been called upon to speak, and once given the go-ahead by moderator Rachel Maddow after interjecting went way beyond the 30 seconds she’d been allotted in tearing Biden apart. She skillfully took control of the stage and engineered the entire space for the confrontation by sheer dominance of personality, and Biden had no answer for it.

That’s the moment everyone’s talking about. But Harris had already been owning the debate prior to that.

The goal of a political debate is to make yourself look appealing and electable to your audience. You can do that by having a very good platform, or you can do it with charisma and oratory skills. It turns out that Kamala Harris is really, really good at doing the latter. She made frequent and effective appeals to emotion, she built to applause lines far more skillfully than anyone else on the stage, she kept her voice unwavering and without stammer, she made herself look like a leader by admonishing the other candidates to stop talking over each other, and she hit all the right progressive notes you’re supposed to hit in such a debate.

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