This Is Something You Can Do Right Now to Stop Trump

Please join me in signing this pledge and passing on this step we can each take now to stop our worst nightmare from becoming a reality. Trump must be defeated! Joe Biden cannot do that. And the stakes could not be higher. We need to energize the Democratic Party with a new face which will inspire millions more Americans to turn out to stop the greatest existential threat to our nation and the planet that has truly ever existed. This is something that we can do right now, this very moment. Thank you. — Molly

STEP ASIDE JOE

In 2024 our nation faces the dual imperatives of preventing a Republican takeover of the White House and advancing a truly progressive agenda. The stakes could not be higher. The threat of a neofascist GOP has become all too obvious. Bold and inspiring presidential leadership is essential to countering that threat.  

Unfortunately, President Biden has been neither bold nor inspiring — including his abject failure to call for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, while continuing to push for additional military weaponry to Israel. His decisions to promote LNG exports and oil drilling in the Arctic and in the Gulf of Mexico break 2020 campaign pledges. These moves and others have insulted and/or dampened enthusiasm of key Democratic Party constituencies, including young voters, racial justice advocates and climate activists. 

Biden’s policies have failed to seriously address health care, corporate price-gouging, voting rights, skyrocketing college tuition, and bloated military spending that diverts funds away from pressing human and environmental needs.  

The president’s prospects for winning re-election appear to be bleak, even in the face of GOP extremism. With so much at stake, anointing him as the Democratic Party’s 2024 standard-bearer would be a tragic mistake.

Biden triumphed over Donald Trump in 2020 with vital help from extraordinary grassroots efforts in swing states by progressive organizations (including RootsAction). But in 2024, Biden would be the candidate representing the status quo – not Trump – as polls show record-breaking majorities of voters believing our country is on “the wrong track.”  

We call on President Biden to step aside. We want an open convention in order to defeat the GOP, the top priority of those who care about democracy in our country. 

Please go here to add your name to the pledge: https://stepasidejoe.org/

Contact: info@rootsaction.org | Learn more at our FAQ

EXCELLENT — Bill McKibben: The View from 'The Doors'

My husband and I had the great pleasure of seeing Bill McKibben speak here in Portland last night. I can't even remember how many times I've seen Bill, or how many articles and books and talks of his that I've read and seen, and all over so many years now. And each and every time it is a a deeply informative, illuminating, and inspiring experience. Truly, Bill McKibben is a national and international treasure. 

And now, this day after his event yesterday, there is this excellent, spot on, and incredibly important article. Maybe with my picture included here, more people will actually read it. I hope so! Because I recognized in Biden a week ago images of my mother, who had her good days and her bad days, and who ultimately died of Alzheimer's. It is also true that the reality of what we are seeing now also began well before the excruciating debate. There is a much larger picture here. 

Without question, more and more — and including doctors and some of those who are closest to Biden — are also speaking up about their very real and deep concerns about our current President's mental and physical health. We Americans need to be courageous enough to see what we see and know what we know and voice the truth — Joe Biden must pass the baton. He must. Otherwise, our worst nightmare will become a reality.

Deepest bow of gratitude, as always, to Bill McKibben for the wisdom and courage, integrity and inspiration, deep heart and passionate caring for all of life on Earth, and strong voice of truth and relentless activism embodied this amazing human being. May we all be informed and inspired — and especially now in these critical times! — Molly

With Bill McKibben, Portland, OR 7/5/24

The View from 'The Doors'

An Organizer's View on Why It's Time for Biden

to Concede to Political and Human Reality

BILL MCKIBBEN

JUL 6

Last week I wrote that, given some room, I thought Joe Biden would figure out that he had a unique opportunity to help his country—that by stepping down and turning over the nomination to someone younger, he could make it clear that any ‘cognitive impairment’ he was suffering hadn’t affected his heart and soul. That may have been optimistic—the week since has been a display of what increasingly looks like bull-headed selfishness. His insistence to George Stephanopolous last night that only he could carry the ball echoed too closely the Trumpian insistence that he alone could save the Republic.

I’m grateful for Joe Biden’s presidency; it has been, by and large, successful, and it was psychically relaxing after the daily chaos of the Trump years, a respite I think we underestimate. But there is no reason to think he’s uniquely qualified to run the country, and in any event it doesn’t matter if he can’t win the election. There’s been a huge quantity of punditry and tweetery this past week, most of which I’ve tried to ignore—a lot of it has consisted of raging at journalists and other elites. (Unsurpassed version from David Roberts). I’ve been more interested in talking with fellow organizers around the country—people who do the work of campaigns, which involves knocking on doors and making phone calls. And it’s clear to most of them that I’ve talked to that dragging Biden across the finish line will be a hugely hard—probably impossibly hard—task.

I’ve talked with people who’ve spent their lives as union organizers, and people who are state legislators in swing states, and I’ve been out on an organizing tour for Third Act, speaking with people who between them will write hundreds of thousands of postcards and phone bank for untold hours between now and November. And what I hear, overwhelmingly, is that this view from ‘the doors’ makes them think Biden must do the realistic thing.

Yes, they’ll work for the president’s reelection if that’s the only choice. We all are so scared of Trumpism that, in that sense, Biden has us over a barrel—no one is going to walk away from this election. But there’s a growing sense of anger that we’re being put in an almost impossible situation. We want to talk, at every door and on every call, about the climate crisis, about abortion, about a dozen other places where the contrast between progressives and MAGA blowhards is enormous and works in our favor. But that’s impossible when you first have to have a conversation about whether or not Biden can do the job—a conversation none of us can win with any real conviction even in our own minds.

The perfect example is last week’s run of Supreme Court decisions, so radical in their implications that at any other time they’d be not just dominant stories but also a huge help in getting people to understand Trump’s threat. Instead, they’ve barely been noticed. You can blame the media for that, but one of the things you learn on ‘the doors’ is that people care mostly about things that seem immediate and real to them. We all have opinions about aging, because we’ve all gone through something like this with our parents or grandparents; it’s visceral, real, fascinating. Most people aren’t experts on constitutional law; most people have had an aunt or a father who needed to have their car keys negotiated away.

It’s precisely because the stakes are so high—the future of our democracy, and the chance to avoid the very worst of climate disaster—that there’s a desperate need to change this conversation, to get back on topics where we can win. We may wish there was some way other than Biden stepping aside to do that, but that’s kind of like wishing carbon didn’t trap heat. Political reality may not be as decisive as physical reality, but it’s stronger than wishful thinking.

What follows Biden doing the honorable thing is unclear—perhaps it’s the anointing of Kamala Harris, or perhaps some kind of open convention. It may well be messy (Biden’s obstinacy is a reminder that politicians do not usually let love of country trump love of self) and it too will be a distraction at least for a while, but it’s possible to imagine that distraction ending. And a change could, even, set off some new energy: America has been saying for two years that it hates the choice it’s been given, so maybe a new choice will unleash something that looks like hope.

But whatever the fallout, it will be something that we can work with on the doors and on the phones. It won’t be impossible.

Please go here for the original article: https://billmckibben.substack.com/p/the-view-from-the-doors?utm_source=substack&publication_id=438146&post_id=146134273&utm_medium=email&utm_content=share&utm_campaign=email-share&triggerShare=true&isFreemail=true&r=1ifxu&triedRedirect=true

EXCELLENT — Michael Moore: We Are Asking the Wrong Question About Joe Biden on this Fourth of July

This is such an excellent, wise, compassionate and humane, powerful and spot on piece! Thank you, Michael Moore!! — Molly

By MICHAEL MOORE

“To paraphrase an old Richard Pryor joke, “Who are you going to believe? Me, or your own lying eyes?”

Since the presidential debate last week, the leaders of the Democratic Party, in full 5-alarm fire mode, want us to believe we didn’t see what we saw.

“It was just a cold.”

“Everybody has an off night.”

“Ok, so it wasn’t his best performance.”

“All presidents have one bad debate.”

“You’re not going to judge 52 years of public service by 90 minutes of a lousy debate, are you?”

“He’s 81! What do you expect? You’ll be 81 someday!”

“He’s not a quitter. He’s all in. This is Scranton Joe we’re talkin’ about!”

“Yeah. Sure. The debate was a disaster. So what?”

These answers are all malarkey. That’s probably because we are asking the wrong question when we ask “What are we going to do about Joe?”

Maybe we should be asking what are we going to do about ourselves — and what can we do to get him some help?

Perhaps we should start with a definition of terms. Why do people keep calling it a “debate?” Isn’t that kind of like saying Israel is at “war” with Hamas? After all, if it’s a “war,” don’t there have to be things like armies, tanks, fighter jets, aircraft carriers, and the threat of nuclear annihilation on both sides? If only one side has these things, and the other side has none of them, is it really a war?

Was it really a debate if one of the debaters is so mentally and physically incapacitated that he cannot complete a sentence, randomly flips between discussing abortion, the three trimesters of a pregnancy and how great his golf game is, then looking around, unable to find one of the four cameras pointing at him, he suddenly turns his head all the way to the left as if he were looking for Rhode Island, and then out of nowhere raises his voice and shouts, “WE FINALLY BEAT MEDICARE!” Not Ohio State, but Medicare.

We saw and we heard all of that, no matter what the Party hacks keep telling us. It was heartbreaking. It was truly, without equivocation, unlike anything any of us had ever seen. No matter where you stood on the Joe Biden scale, from Joe the Working Class Hero to Joe the Banker of Palestinian Ethnic Cleansing, one thing was certain: This was not a cold. This was a human being in utter collapse. Not just political collapse, or performance collapse, but rather a full frontal lobe meltdown where at any moment you had to wonder… was it possible that the sweet and fragile existence we call “life” was about to short-circuit, or worse, lose power (to Trump)? And that no amount of shouting “STAT!” or cutting quickly to a commercial break was going to restore the President-cum-Patient to full capacity in order to save this even more fragile Democracy.

Do not mistake my criticisms of Biden spending 9 months in the loving embrace of Bibi Netanyahu as meaning that I do not deeply appreciate his 3 years of being the most progressive President of my lifetime. That’s right, my friends, there has been more action taken, through executive orders and legislation, to protect the environment, more government officials appointed who are, in their heart of hearts, Democratic Socialists, more serious funding to lift millions out of poverty, more support for labor unions, libraries, single mothers and college students deep in debt. And he has had this fervent, almost religious zeal to fight greed and obscene profits due to a true compassion he has for those dealt a bad hand in life — and he has had more of all of that than all the good presidents like Kennedy, Obama, and Carter were able to muster.

He will have another mini stroke in the next few months (he’s probably had one or two already) and then, sadly, the decline will not be reversed. Best to make a plan now and not wait until October. This is not about whether he’s fit to serve another four years — this is about whether he should serve another four days in the toughest job in the world. That’s the question we should be asking. If he offered to drive you from Flint to Detroit tonight, would you get in the car?

I’m not a doctor. I could be (and hopefully am) wrong about all this. But I do have eyes. They don’t lie. I, like nearly every one of you, had (or currently have) four grandparents and two parents (some of you have even more, with wonderful step-parents and step-grandparents). And if you yourself are over the age of 40, your eyes have seen it, too. The slow decline of your elders, followed by a sudden incident or event and then, without warning, your loved one is confused, not sure where he or she is at, can’t find the keys, can’t find the rest of the thought she just had, or the ability to even end the sentence he was in the middle of. It’s all quite normal and to be expected — and it will visit all of us one day. It won’t feel good. It won’t look pretty. But more than likely, that feeble, humbling moment will not be televised LIVE to an audience of 2 billion people around the world, with Jake Tapper’s hot breath breathing down your neck and telling you, ironically, that your time is up. Who exactly is Jake Tapper, you might ask yourself at 81. It won’t matter. Because at that point, when you suddenly blurt out that there are “1,000 trillionaires in America!” and you’ve spent your presidency trying to make them just pay their friggin’ taxes but now you realize these rich-ass barbarians are at your gate — well, then, nothing will really matter.

I’m sorry, my friends, but if I have to be the only one to stand for Joe Biden, to protect him from the cruelest form of elder abuse I’ve ever been forced to watch, well then that’s what I’ll do. He was in epic distress that Thursday night. Every cognitive default in his mind was shutting down. If this had been someone you truly cared about, loved, embraced — what would you have done? Would you have seriously even let him go out on that stage? Who would send an 81-year-old out onto any stage to debate a living monster at 9 o’clock at night for a brawl that would not end until 10:42 PM? Honestly, have any one of you ever looked at the clock, saw that it was getting near 11 PM, and said to yourself, “I think I’m going to give Grams and Gramps a call!” You never did that because it would be cruel. The only people who would think of forcing an elder to perform at that hour of the night would be the same people who would insist on 6 straight days of non-stop “debate prep” — hours and hours each day of standing and talking until you were hoarse and exhausted. Trump was right when he turned to Biden to ask him what his problem was as to why he never fires anybody. It’s amazing to me that how, a week later, anyone on this campaign staff still has a job after running this tired and grieving father into the ground. A man who had just watched his only remaining son convicted as a felon for the outrageous crime of needing help, for being an addict. Who would put this old man through a brutal boot camp, make him memorize 200 facts and stats and then pick the wrong podium without once going on the stage the day before to check the lighting, the sight lines, and where the bully would be standing, lying, a smug TV star who knew what the red light on the camera meant, who knew timing and how to wait and when to pounce and devour his prey — all while speaking in his softest, most fake-empathic voice, his most honest statement of the night: “I really don’t know what he said at the end of that sentence — and I don’t think he knows what he said either.”

Biden was not well. Biden did not possess the faculties he needed. Something was wrong. Did nobody see this in the days leading up to the collapse? Did not a single person raise their voice to ask, “Maybe we shouldn’t do this to him?”

But they did do it to him. And the repercussions that we, the world, and the generations after us will have to suffer through are not even part of the discussion this week. It’s all about making sure he stays in the race — and nothing about the risk to his life he is facing as they push him to soldier onward.

So I will say this to protect him from an out-of-control Party machine that is in a panic over what to do. For any of us to be silent now is exactly what the term “elder abuse” is meant to describe.

Leave Mr. Biden alone. Let him rest. Let him go home.

He has done his job. Let him have his dignity. Do him this favor.

Tell the press that President Biden has asked to have an independent team of doctors do a full medical evaluation of his mental and physical health.

When they are through, they, along with the President, will then announce the full results to the public and give their honest assessment: “For the good of his well-being, he must stop work, he must step down.”

The next day, President Biden will give his final remarks in a short and beautiful statement on the South Lawn of the White House. The place will be packed with thousands of grateful, everyday Americans — fry cooks and teachers, bricklayers and nurses, gay teens and vets, the homeless, the union members and the elder-care workers — all of whom know what he is doing is for the good of the country he loves so dearly. He once saved the world from a man named Trump, and now, in one last selfless act, he is stepping aside to ensure this Trump will be banished for good. Millions, upon hearing him speak while he wipes the tears from his eyes, will weep, too. Biden will never be forgotten. A profile in courage.

The Founders of this country were smart in many ways. They knew there would be presidents who would not make it through even a four-year term. So they set up a position called “Vice President” just for that reason. It’s amazing to think that we’ve had only 46 presidents and that 9 of them (20%) never made it to the end of their term. Four were assassinated. One resigned. Four more died of various illnesses. Each time there was a smooth and peaceful transition with the Vice President being sworn in as the new President.

This is not an unusual moment we are in this week. It happens. There’s precedent. And if President Biden is unable to perform his duties, there is a tried and true solution. He resigns due to the obvious medical issues that were on full display the night of June 27th. His vice president, Kamala Harris, is sworn in as President. By federal campaign rules, she, and only she, inherits all the campaign funds in the Biden-Harris war chest. Biden will urge all his Biden-Harris convention delegates to support her. She will now be the Incumbent President who will run on the incredible accomplishments of the Biden-Harris administration. There will be no real convention fight, and nearly every American who had planned to vote for Biden will vote for Harris (as recent polling has revealed). Many have already stated that they’d vote for a dead cat or a ficus plant instead of Trump. Some have even said that they would go all-out-Weekend-at-Bernie’s and vote for a “dead” Biden if that meant keeping Trump out of the White House.

One possible bonus in all of this will be that a record number of votes from women for Harris will make up for some of Biden’s loss of the youth and Arab vote. And there’s this: For over 8 months, it has been reported that Kamala Harris has pushed for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. One thing seems possible from this mess we’re in — less Palestinians will die with her in the Oval Office.

And this: Some day we will look back and see that we grew and got better as a country and finally finished the job of having a full, equal and complete Democracy. Our first female President, it turns out, ended up playing a big role in making that happen. Another gift from Joe Biden, picking her, knowing she was the right one when, during their own debate on a stage in 2020, she gently but caustically reminded him that as a Senator in D.C., he once stood in the way of her going to an integrated school in Berkley, CA.

You could see, in that moment, the sadness and shame on his face. He knew right from wrong. And in 2020, he knew, even if most of his supporters weren’t sure about her as his VP, and even if her platform was essentially Bernie’s, that she was the one — and the first of many women and people of color who would lead us to our better selves.

I’m ok with that, aren’t you? Let’s find the courage to fix this. On our 248th birthday.

Now that’s old.”

Please go here for the original article: https://www.michaelmoore.com/p/we-are-asking-the-wrong-question

Project 2025 Architect Signals Bloodshed If Left Opposes Trump-Led 'Revolution'

Incredibly chilling and deeply important to know. 

We must unite in stopping this madness. 

We must. — Molly

Heritage Foundation president Kevin Roberts speaks at an event in Washington, D.C. on October 19, 2022. (Photo: Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc. via Getty Images)

The "second American Revolution" now underway will "remain bloodless," said the president of the right-wing Heritage Foundation, "if the left allows it to be."

By JAKE JOHNSON

The president of the right-wing group spearheading Project 2025 raised the specter of violence Tuesday against those who refuse to capitulate to what he characterized as "the second American Revolution" ushered in by presumptive GOP nominee and would-be authoritarian Donald Trump.

Kevin Roberts, head of the Heritage Foundation, said in an appearance on "Real America's Voice" that the coming "revolution" will "remain bloodless if the left allows it to be"—a thinly veiled threat against those who resist the far-right's efforts to seize power.

Trump said in April that whether there is violence surrounding the 2024 presidential election "depends" on the "fairness" of the contest and the outcome.

Watch Roberts' remarks:

The president of the ultra-conservative Heritage Foundation, which is behind Project 2025:

"We are in the process of the second American Revolution, which will remain bloodless if the left allows it to be." pic.twitter.com/g0oKslNwkA
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) July 3, 2024

"We are going to win. We're in the process of taking this country back," declared Roberts, who has said Project 2025 is "institutionalizing Trumpism" in preparation for a possible victory in November.

The Heritage Foundation president also hailed as "vital" the U.S. Supreme Court's decision earlier this week bestowing what analysts and critics described as king-like powers on the presidency—powers that Trump is already planning to exploit.

Project 2025, a sweeping 922-page document, provides Trump with a detailed blueprint to advance his far-right agenda, including by purging career federal civil servants and replacing them with loyalists and centralizing power in the executive branch.

Kim Lane Scheppele, a professor of sociology and international affairs at Princeton University, has called Project 2025 "a blueprint for autocracy," characterizing it as "a direct copy of the plan that Viktor Orban used to take over the Hungarian government in 2010."

"If it is carried out, Project 2025 will concentrate huge power in the hands of the president, giving him the power to control the whole federal government at his whim," Scheppele added.

Scheppele's assessment echoed that of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, which warned in an analysis published late last year that "the entire project is devoted to aggrandizing executive power by centralizing authority in the presidency, and a key aspect of democratic backsliding is viewing opposition elements as attempting to destroy the 'real' community, an essential aspect to quashing dissent."

"Project 2025 paints progressives and liberals as outside acceptable politics, and not just ideological opponents, but inherently anti-American and 'replacing American values,'" the analysis said. "Targeting vulnerable communities is a core tenet of Project 2025. Project 2025 is very clearly on a path to Christian nationalism as well as authoritarianism."

Please go here for the original article: https://www.commondreams.org/news/trump-project-2025 

Howard Zinn: A Fourth of July Commentary

This powerful piece from 2000 by Howard Zinn — reflecting the voice of Frederick Douglas — is something I have been moved to post again and again. Howard Zinn has been among my great teachers who have taught me to question, question, question. To be curious and explore and research, deeply. To embrace humility and to see with new eyes. To be rooted ever more deeply in the courage and ongoing commitment to truth. To recognize and shed layer after layer of my ignorance, indoctrination, and illusions. Howard Zinn has been among those great visionary truth-tellers, activists and authors, elders and wisdom holders who has empowered me to awaken more deeply, to experience and grow my heart larger, and to expand my circle of caring — recognizing and experiencing my interconnection with all of life. May he inform and inspire us all. And may we remember that what we deny cannot heal and be transformed. Truly, only the truth can set us all free. — Molly

By Howard Zinn

In this year 2000, I cannot comment more meaningfully on the Fourth of July than Frederick Douglass did when he was invited in 1852 to give an Independence Day address. He could not help thinking about the irony of the promise of the Declaration of Independence, of equality, life, liberty made by slaveowners, and how slavery was made legitimate in the writing of the Constitution after a victory for “freedom” over England. And his invitation to speak came just two years after the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act, committing the national government to return fugitives to slavery with all the force of the law.

So it is fitting, at a time when police are exonerated in the killing of unarmed black men, when the electric chair and the gas chamber are used most often against people of color, that we refrain from celebration and instead listen to Douglass’ sobering words:

“Fellow citizens: Pardon me, and allow me to ask, why am I called upon to speak here today? What have I or those I represent to do with your national independence? Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us? And am I, therefore, called upon to bring our humble offering to the national altar, and to confess the benefits, and express devout gratitude for the blessings resulting from your independence to us?

“What to the American slave is your Fourth of July? I answer, a day that reveals to him more than all other days of the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him your celebration s a sham; your boasted liberty an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciation of tyrants, brass-fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade and solemnity, are to him mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy — a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages. There is not a nation of the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people of these United States at this very hour.

“Go and search wherever you will, roam through all the monarchies and despotisms of the Old World, travel through South America, search out every abuse and when you have found the last, lay your facts by the side of the everyday practices of this nation, and you will say with me that, for revolting barbarity and shameless hypocrisy, American reigns without a rival….”

 

 https://www.howardzinn.org/

 

Please go here for the original article:

https://www.howardzinn.org/collection/fourth-of-july-commentary/ 

Howard Zinn: Patriotism & The Fourth of July

This post by Howard Zinn from many years ago remains deeply relevant to today. Howard Zinn will always remain a national and international treasure. His wisdom and integrity, courage and truth-telling, relentless call to our higher nature and greater consciousness, and his big and passionately caring heart for all of life lives on. I miss Howard Zinn deeply. And I will always, always be eternally grateful to him. What an amazing, beautiful soul. May we listen and heed the deeper truths that Howard Zinn illuminated throughout his lifetime. Another world is possible. — Molly

Patriotism & The Fourth of July

In celebration of the 4th of July there will be many speeches about the young people who “died for their country.” Let's be honest about war. Those who gave their lives did not die for their country, as they were led to believe but for their government. The distinction between country and government is at the heart of the Declaration of Independence, which will be referred to again and again on July 4, but without attention to its meaning.

According to the Declaration of Independence—the fundamental document of democracy—governments are artificial creations, established by the people, “deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,” and charged by the people to ensure the equal right of all to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” Furthermore, as the Declaration says, “whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it.”

It is the country that is primary—the people, the ideals of the sanctity of human life and the promotion of liberty. When a government recklessly expends the lives of its young for crass motives of profit and power, always claiming that its motives are pure and moral (“Operation Just Cause” was the invasion of Panama and “Operation Iraqi Freedom” in the present instance), it is violating its promise to the country. War is almost always a breaking of that promise. It does not enable the pursuit of happiness but brings despair and grief.

Mark Twain, having been called a “traitor” for criticizing the U.S. invasion of the Philippines, derided what he called “monarchical patriotism.” He said: “The gospel of the monarchical patriotism is: ‘The King can do no wrong.’ We have adopted it with all its servility, with an unimportant change in the wording: ‘Our country, right or wrong!’ We have thrown away the most valuable asset we had—the individual’s right to oppose both flag and country when he believed them to be in the wrong. We have thrown it away; and with it, all that was really respectable about that grotesque and laughable word, Patriotism.”

If patriotism in the best sense (not in the monarchical sense) is loyalty to the principles of democracy, then who was the true patriot, Theodore Roosevelt, who applauded a massacre by American soldiers of 600 Filipino men, women, and children on a remote Philippine island, or Mark Twain, who denounced it?

Today, U.S. soldiers are dying in Iraq and Afghanistan are not dying for their country, they are dying for their government. They are dying for Bush and Cheney and Rumsfeld. And yes, they are dying for the greed of the oil cartels, for the expansion of the American empire, for the political ambitions of the President. They are dying to cover up the theft of the nation’s wealth to pay for the machines of death. As of July 4, 2006, more than 2,500 US soldiers have been killed in Iraq, more than 8,500 maimed or injured.

With the war in Iraq long declared a “Mission Accomplished,” shall we revel in American military power and—against the history of modern empires—insist that the American empire will be beneficent?

Our own history shows something different. It begins with what was called, in our high school history classes, “westward expansion”—a euphemism for the annihilation or expulsion of the Indian tribes inhabiting the continent, all in the name of “progress” and “civilization.” It continues with the expansion of American power into the Caribbean at the turn of the century, then into the Philippines, and then repeated Marine invasions of Central America and long military occupations of Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

After World War II, Henry Luce, owner of Time, LIFE, and Fortune, spoke of “the American Century,” in which this country would organize the world “as we see fit.” Indeed, the expansion of American power continued, too often supporting military dictatorships in Asia, Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, because they were friendly to American corporations and the American government.

The record does not justify confidence in Bush’s boast that the United States will bring democracy to Iraq. Should Americans welcome the expansion of the nation’s power, with the anger this has generated among so many people in the world? Should we welcome the huge growth of the military budget at the expense of health, education, the needs of children, one fifth of whom grow up in poverty?

Instead of being feared for our military prowess, we should want to be respected for our dedication to human rights. I suggest that a patriotic American who cares for her or his country might act on behalf of a different vision.

Should we not begin to redefine patriotism? We need to expand it beyond that narrow nationalism that has caused so much death and suffering. If national boundaries should not be obstacles to trade—some call it “globalization”—should they also not be obstacles to compassion and generosity?

Should we not begin to consider all children, everywhere, as our own? In that case, war, which in our time is always an assault on children, would be unacceptable as a solution to the problems of the world. Human ingenuity would have to search for other ways.

— Howard Zinn 

https://www.howardzinn.org/ 

 

Please go here for the original article:

http://hnn.us/roundup/entries/27752.html 

'The Stakes Could Not Be Higher': Debate Disaster Ignites Calls for Biden to Step Aside

I am grateful for all those who are flashing neon warning signals over and over and over again that there is one path forward in beating Trump — and that is for Biden to step down and be replaced by someone who would energize and galvanize the voting public to fight together for ourselves, our nation, and the world. It also needs to be noted that the calls for someone other than Biden to run on the top of the ticket began well before the debate. This is much bigger than any one performance on any one night. There have been those who have been warning us for months that a Biden-Trump run would result in a second Trump presidency — something which terrifies me and millions of others in our country and worldwide. As a mother and grandmother and an elder who cares so deeply about all of life on Earth, I am inspired to repeatedly speak up on behalf of preserving and strengthening the threads of democracy which remain in our nation. — Molly

U.S. President Joe Biden speaks during the presidential debate in Atlanta, Georgia on June 27, 2024.

 (Photo: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images)

"You're deluded if you believe Joe Biden, at this stage of his life, is the best person Democrats have to offer against Donald Trump, against a fascist," said journalist Mehdi Hasan.

By JAKE JOHNSON

President Joe Biden's disastrous debate performance Thursday evening against presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump—an unhinged, would-be authoritarian whose lies were glaring and constant—sent much of the Democratic Party establishment into a spiral of panic and ignited calls for the incumbent to step aside to allow another Democratic candidate to take on the former president in November.

The alarm began to set in just minutes into the CNN-moderated event in Atlanta, with Democratic operatives and lawmakers exchanging despairing texts with reporters and each other after the president declared—after appearing to lose his train of thought—that "we finally beat Medicare," an absurd line that followed his stumbling attempt to explain that the nation's ultra-rich pay far too little in taxes.

"For example, we have a thousand trillionaires in America—I mean billionaires, in America," said Biden, his voice raspy from what his campaign says was a cold. "And what's happening? They're in a situation where they, in fact, pay 8.2% in taxes. If they just paid 24% or 25%, either one of those numbers, they'd raised $500 million—billion dollars, I should say, in a 10-year period."

The beltway access outlet Politico reported that the text message inboxes of its journalists quickly blew up with expressions of dismay from Democratic lawmakers and the names of potential options to replace the 81-year-old incumbent, who cruised through the primary process without a serious challenge.

"I picked the wrong day to stop sniffing glue," an unnamed member of the House Democratic caucus wrote to Politico. An anonymous Democratic insider told the outlet that they believe "there are short lists being made" for Biden's potential replacement, lists that reportedly include Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, and California Gov. Gavin Newsom.

An unnamed Democratic lawmaker told The Financial Times that "many House Democrats tonight, representing a wide cross-section of the Democratic caucus, were privately texting one another that Biden needs to announce he's decided not to run for reelection"—a belated conclusion that drew disdain from commentators who have been warning for months that a Biden reelection bid could be calamitous.

"Hilarious to watch elite consensus shift and see all the media folk who knowingly created the Biden 2024 catastrophe now desperately try to maintain credibility by depicting themselves as the courageous voices demanding a course correction when it may already be too late," The Lever's David Sirota wrote Friday morning.

The frenzied discussions of a last-ditch replacement effort spilled over into the editorial pages of major newspapers, panel discussions with former White House officials and ex-lawmakers, and the segments of prominent corporate television shows, including MSNBC's "Morning Joe"—which Biden reportedly watches obsessively.

Morning Joe, Biden’s favorite show, is wavering.

“If he were CEO and he turned in a performance like that, would any corporation in America, any Fortune 500 corporation in America keep him on as CEO?”
pic.twitter.com/bSZisE3FDU
— Alex Thompson (@AlexThomp) June 28, 2024

In a panel discussion following Thursday night's 90-minute debate, CNN national political correspondent John King said that "there is a deep, a wide, and a very aggressive panic in the Democratic Party" that began shortly after the debate kicked off and "continues right now."

"It involves party strategists, it involves elected officials, and it involves fundraisers. They are having conversations about the president's performance, which they think was dismal, which they think will hurt other people down the party in the ticket," said King. "And they're having conversations about what they should do about it. Some of those conversations include should we go to the White House and ask the president to step aside. Other conversations are about should prominent Democrats go public with that call."

Dire concerns about Biden's performance and broader readiness to compete in the November election were amplified by Trump's showing during Thursday night's debate, which further showed that the presumptive Republican candidate poses a grave threat to democracy, the climate, workers, and fundamental rights.

"Tonight put on full display how broken our political system is. Our generation deserves better," Stevie O'Hanlon, communications director for the youth-led Sunrise Movement, said in a statement. "The debate also made it undeniable that a Trump presidency would be a climate catastrophe. When Trump was asked if he would address the climate crisis, he ignored the question completely—because he can't answer it. He has promised oil and gas CEOs that he will expedite drilling permits, hasten fracked gas pipeline approvals, and release 'vast stores' of oil and gas on public lands. In return, they're bankrolling his campaign."

"Biden touted achievements that young people fought hard and long to win: the Civilian Climate Corps and the Inflation Reduction Act. Like in 2020, we will fight like hell to defeat Donald Trump so we have the political conditions to end the fossil fuel era and win a Green New Deal," O'Hanlon added. "But President Biden and the Democratic establishment's choices have made an election against a convicted felon dangerously tight. Young people have offered Democrats the vision, energy, and policy on which to beat Donald Trump. They have turned away from it. If there is to be any chance of beating Trump this November, they must listen to young voters."

"Biden is manifestly not up to the task of combating Trump's lies, vitriol, and neofascism—nor is he capable of articulating a coherent progressive vision capable of galvanizing voters this fall."

It's far from clear that mounting calls for Biden to end his reelection campaign and clear the way for a viable replacement will move Democratic leaders or the White House, which has been adamant that the president will be on the ballot in November even as Democratic voters indicate they would prefer someone else as their nominee.

A Gallup survey released ahead of Thursday's debate showed that just 42% of Democratic voters are pleased with Biden as the nominee and a majority want a different candidate.

But Robert Costa of CBS News reported in the debate's aftermath that unnamed sources close to Biden said there is "zero chance" the president "steps away from running."

Newsom, one of the Democrats most commonly floated as a potential alternative to Biden, came to the president's defense Thursday night, urging the party to rally behind the incumbent.

"You don't turn your back because of one performance," Newsom said. "What kind of party does that?"

Alex Wagner presses Gov. Gavin Newsom on questions about whether Biden should step down.

Newsom: “You don’t turn your back because of one performance. What kind of party does that?”

“This president has delivered. We need to deliver for him at this moment.” pic.twitter.com/J5G9XGNYWn
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) June 28, 2024

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) also stood by the president, telling reporters on Friday that he should not drop out of the race even as one unnamed House Democrat—described as an "outspoken defender" of Biden—told Politico's Jonathan Martin that Jeffries and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) should seriously consider a "combined effort" to convince the incumbent to step aside.

"The movement to convince Biden to not run is real," the lawmaker said.

However, Martin noted, "many top party officials" feel that "Biden can't be persuaded let alone pressured."

"One Democratic governor called the debate 'beyond bad,' but said it was 'too late' to nominate a new standard bearer," Martin reported.

But analysts argued Thursday's debacle solidified the case that a Biden candidacy is untenable—and could gift Trump and his far-right allies another four years in power, which they're planning to use to unleash a massive assault on reproductive rights, public education, immigrants, environmental regulations, and more.

"I'm not saying that Joe Biden is going to lose the presidential election because of tonight's debate. The race is still ridiculously too close to call at this point," said Zeteo's Mehdi Hasan, a former MSNBC host. "But it's not looking good. And what I am saying is that you're deluded if you believe Joe Biden, at this stage of his life, is the best person Democrats have to offer against Donald Trump, against a fascist."

"Small-d American democracy, if it is to survive, needs Democrats—big-d Democrats—to put their big boy pants on and get their act together," Hasan added.

I have spent months, both on MSNBC and at Zeteo, refusing to obsess over Biden’s age and fitness for office. But no longer. Not after tonight’s car crash of a ‘debate’.

It’s time for Biden to step aside. The Democrats need to find a new nominee. https://t.co/20UUcW06TK pic.twitter.com/oMtRbED3Bx
— Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) June 28, 2024

After acknowledging that "a comatose Joe Biden would make a better president than Donald Trump," Vox's Eric Levitz wrote Thursday that even though "there is no way for the Democratic Party to deny Biden the nomination at this point," party leaders could "personally lobby the president to step aside and endorse his preferred successor, preempting the hazards of a contested Democratic convention in late August."

"Waiting months to anoint a presumptive nominee would be highly risky. Rallying around Biden's handpicked heir now would be much less so," Levitz added. "The president's policy positions and governing record matter more than his current skills as a rhetorician. But precisely because of how much is substantively at stake in this election, Democrats cannot afford to wager it on American voters changing their minds and deciding that Biden isn't too old for his job after watching him struggle to remember the topics of his own sentences."

RootsAction, a progressive group that urged Biden in late 2022 not to run for reelection and has been calling on the president to step aside for more than a year, said in a statement that Thursday night underscored the incumbent's "severe liabilities as a candidate."

"Biden is manifestly not up to the task of combating Trump's lies, vitriol, and neofascism—nor is he capable of articulating a coherent progressive vision capable of galvanizing voters this fall," the group said. "There is still time before the party convention to decide on a different nominee for the party. Democratic leaders must finally heed the clear preference of Democratic voters and reconsider their backing of Biden's candidacy."

"We need a swift intervention to make Biden voluntarily a one-term president so a Democratic nominee can be up to the job of defeating Trump," RootsAction added. "The stakes could not be higher for the future of the United States, and the world."

Please go here for the original article: https://www.commondreams.org/news/biden-step-aside