SocraticGadfly: Our Revolution
Showing posts with label Our Revolution. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Our Revolution. Show all posts

August 28, 2020

Fuck the Movement for a People's Party and its grift

Editor-blogger's note-update, March 6, 2021: Pretty funny how I pegged the grift angle, as well as, apparently, the "they're not really a left party, but a liberal one" angle, at the time I wrote this last summer. A post last month, a roundup of "third parties of the left" news, included plenty of details about the grift and the not-so-left angles both.

Back to the original.

Seen via IPR, here's a presser about the latest news in their plans for an Aug. 30 convention, which plans to discuss the possibility of a new third party running in races in 2022 and beyond.

My thought?

Fuck em. If Movement for a People's Party wants to truly be a party of the left, we've already got  semi-left Greens and other parties further left than that. Per Mimi Soltysik, we don't need yet more factionalism, and we also CERTAINLY don't need vanity projects. Nor do we need grifting off connections within foundations, etc., connected to one former Democratic presidential candidate. (Ahem.)

And, on their about page? No case is made for why a new third party rather than reforming, etc., the Green Party and going from there. NOR is a case presented that the GP is beyond fixing.

COULD such argument be made? Hell, yes. I've mentioned things here in these pages that have me close to moving beyond.

Fuck em for some specific reasons, too, starting with the main speakers and organizers, and moving on, as in these, as much as the worst within the Green Party, are people I don't want to associate with.

Mike Gravel? Conspiracy theorist and Tulsi-stanner.

Marianne Williamson? Present New Age Kumbayaer, antivaxxer of long standing, past history of anti-unionism at her own company. (And, Dec. 6, now that MPP has filed the paperwork in their first state, Maine, to become an official political party, with perfect timing, Encyclopedia of American Loons profiles her.)

Nina Turner? Butt-hurt Berner.

Ryan Knight? DSA Rosey. And, Tulsi Gabbard Kool-Aid swallower. You're surely less of a socialist than I am.
As of Aug. 27? As I said in response?

Still the case today. 

That said? If the MPP is a separate party, doesn't it need an icon that's not the DSA rose?

Cornel West? Knows there's a third party called the Greens, per Black Agenda Report.

Chris Hedges (new addition). Even more than Cornel West, knows the Greens exist, as he was going to run as one earlier this year until seeing that meant he'd have to quit RT.

Jimmy Dore? Multiple conspiracy theorist, including Seth Rich conspiracy theorist. (And, I've now learned, a Jungian-type New Ager as well.)

Scott Santens? Also surely knows third parties exist. May be butthurt at Greens for not giving basic income in general, and his libertarian version in particular (it is, Scott, and you get butthurt when people correctly call it that) enough airtime. I told Texas Greens (and Laura Palmer in particular, indirectly) exactly that.

The full list of people on the "movement" webpage?

This:

That's the reality.

That includes founder Nick Brana. Let's note that pre-Berner, he worked for Clintonite Terry McAuliffe. More to the point, let's note that he started MPP in 2017, presumably based on the idea that Bernie would NOT run again in 2020. Going back older? Two internships for John Kerry. Enough money and/or connections to attend London School of Economics. In other words, "connected." If not part of the 1 percent, then part of the 10 percent.

Fernando at IPR has a liveblog of the meeting if you're interested. I'm just doing further sharpshooting based on it. He notes somebody from Move to Amend was from the Green Party. "Thanks." Another speaker? Mike Gamms-connected Ron Placone. "Thanks."

David Bruce Collins has an extensive eight-part liveblog. As I commented on his part 5, he seems to be ... kind of a sucker almost? Lauded Santens, for example, and I told him the truth about what I thought about Santens' libertarian ideas of BI, just updated later this week. Sucker for Cornel West, who was a sucker for Obama and so DIDN'T know the score.

He also confirms that half-Libertarian, full grifter, Trump supporter and antivaxxer Jesse Ventura spoke. Fuck you even more. (That said, the first link reminds me of why I have a lesser fuck you for the Green Party right now and haven't given Howie any money this year. So fucking sue me.)

Look, if you all want to be a paragroup to/within the GP, or the SPUSA, like the DSA Roseys are to Democrats, fine. But, unless the Green Party finishes falling apart and needs to be abandoned, AND you offer a better option for a third party of the left than the SPUSA? Not fine. I'll fight you. After all, I first wrote in depth about the Roseys, and the vacuousness of many of them on foreign policy, and related matters, almost two years ago, at the 2018 midterms.

Update, Sept. 9: Fake Greens, like Democrat in lurking William Boartfield in Louisiana, are now trying to make state GPs, at least into this one case, into a state MPP branch.

To put it another way? I see the MPP as being like the Sunrise Movement, the kiddie pool wing of the Sierra Club, which lurked on Twitter for four years, saw AOC, swooped in, used her as a willing tool, plagiarized the Green Party's original Green New Deal, then passed off its lite version as the real deal.

I'll also fight you if, like Never Trumpers of the Lincoln Project, part of this is political grifting. And, yes, I suspect it is. Lots of "Our Revolution" people on that list, who may have learned the fine art of pergressuve political grifting from Mrs. Bernie, Jane O'Meara Sanders. Both Our Revolution, on grifting (and dark money) and the Sanders Institute, on nepotism, show that there's nothing new politically under the Bernie son.

Update, Dec. 5: So, they've filed the official paperwork to be a state party in Maine. I've Tweeted to the MPP account and Ryan Knight's, asking what it offers, either organizationally (anything might be better than the GP) or politics that the GP doesn't.

As I've said before, if I get an answer, and it's a good one, hey, sign me up as a backer. If not? I remain an independent leftist, and will remain critical of it, even as my criticism of the Green Party increases as a critical independent leftist.

September 19, 2018

Our Revolution — grifting away

Per a piece a week ago, if you think the Sanders Institute is dicey, what about Our Revolution? Both got some coverage in the same VT Digger piece.

In May, Politico noted that it, the much larger organization, seems to have the same, or more, disarray.

It has other problems, per Politico. As a 501(c)4, it can't directly promote candidates. So, it formed a separate PAC. Both that PAC, and the fact that the parent org, as a (c)4, can take dark money, seem to backfire on Sanders' image of his 2016 campaign. But, given the history of Vermont nepotism, this was probably deliberate. As a (c)4, not only do donors not have to be disclosed, but generally, expenditures don't have to be itemized. Plus, as VT Digger notes in a critique specific to Our Revolution, other political (c)4 orgs have not been explicitly connected to elected officials, creating other problems.

And, as I've noted before, like the Sanders Institute, Our Revolution has a firm nepotism basis. If nothing else, since it is an IRS-official nonprofit, it's an easy way for Bernie to pay Jane a nice salary while getting a nice tax deduction in return.

Bottom line? Don't be sheepdogged by Bernie.

That's not to say that Our Revolution locals aren't doing what they should in terms of political activism.

The Harris County local refused to endorse Beto O'Rourke for Senate, as well as refusing to endorse Lupe Valdez and Mike Collier for guv and lite guv.

January 23, 2018

TX Progressives scattershoot #shithole worlds and more

The Texas Progressive Alliance remembers the just-passed 45th anniversary of Roe v Wade while admitting your guess is as good as its on shutdown issues.

 Off the Kuff expresses skepticism about a "loose coalition" of business and education interests aiming to weaken Dan Patrick by aiming at his Senate enablers.

SocraticGadfly talks baseball. With Cardinals icon Yadier Molina announcing he'll retire when his current contract ends, is he a Hall of Famer or not?

EgbertoWillies.com said that many Democrats seemed to have believed that because Trump is unpopular they would coast to a Blue Wave. Those who warned were attacked as pessimists not reading the data objectively. The double-digit Democratic generic poll lead evaporated. There is work to be done.

Neil at All People Have Value shared a picture from the weekly John Cornyn Houston Office Protest held each Tuesday 11:30 AM to 1 PM at 5300 Memorial Dr.

Brains and Eggs goes Blackie Sherrod and does some scattershooting of shitholes.

Ted at Jobsanger says merit-based immigration is actually unfriendly to immigrants.

David Bruce Collins attends Our Revolution Texas, Gulf Coast, and merit-based immigration touts its candidate slate — with caveats on foreign policy.

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And here are some posts of interest from other Texas blogs.

Jeff Balke writes all your driving-related New Year's resolutions.

S. L. Wisenberg grapples with the art of men who do despicable things.

Michael Li interprets the latest SCOTUS action on Texas redistricting.

G. Elliott Morris gives a short course in poll tracking.

Therese Odell says we should ignore Trump's "Fake News Awards", but we still have to take them seriously.

The Bloggess celebrates Eeyore Day.

Stuart Williams urges Texas Democrats to compete in rural areas.

In These Times says post-Harvey rebuilding of Houston is being done with exploitatio of immigrant labor, including wage theft.

Texas Standard talks about why Texas might be better off with an outside insurer for state property rather than “self-insuring” by legislation on request.

The Texas Observer says rural health care sucks in the state. (Last year, Texas became about the last state in the nation to approve treating telemedicine just like other medicine.)