Third-party news roundup

The Green Party's Jill Stein and Party for Socialism and Liberation's Claudia de la Cruz will be among individual leaders in an ANSWER-connected National Day of Action Jan. 20. That should give genocide-backing Cort Greene a coronary and set off his blather-meter. Dood? Do you hunt down every third-party commenter?

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The Liberal Party, the libertarians who broke from the Libertarian Party — the fourth-place Libertarian Party that imploded this election — when they could no longer tolerate the Mises Mice, have announced details of their planned initial convention this weekend. Former Illinois Congresscritter (presumably former on the GOP as well) will be keynote speaker. (I still say that in states where they had a friendly state Libertarian Party, or an independent group planning on joining the new org, they should have run their own presidential line this year, but they didn't. Not being officially organized yet may have been one reason.) And, interesting is that former Liberertarian National Committee Chairman Whitney Bilyeu will be on one panel. Will the Mice get indignant, even trash-talking indignant, or will they try to ignore this?

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On the "imploded" issue, neither IPR nor Richard Winger's Ballot Access News has yet to discuss it in depth. Will it come up at that Liberal Party confab? 

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Meanwhile, per Independent Political Report (where the main links for the first two came from) the Mice continue to have a hard-on for Brainworm Bobby, even as he lies about "always" being a libertarian. Dood, there was nothing libertarian about your old stance on environmentalism.

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Also per IPR, Green Party vice presidential candidate Butch Ware has confirmed he plans to run for governor on the VP line in 2026.

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I'm with the Colorado GP: Why IS Colorado's Democratic governor, Jared Polis, sporting a hard-on for Brainworm Bobby to run Health and Human Services? The hard-on is weird in its particulars, too.

Polis not only supports Brainworm Bobby as an antivaxxer, he thinks Trump will actually do something about RFK's call for drug pricing parity when Trump said nothing about it in his first term. Ditto, on FDA doing more to regulate kids' meds or whatever Brainworm is proposing.

Third party news roundup, Oct. 11

Although Claudia de la Cruz will be my protest vote within a protest vote, her campaign never responded to me asking by email why she had yet to register to attend a third-party candidate forum, the Free and Equal Elections Debate, to which she had been invited. Other than travel costs from NYC to LA, it's FREE exposure! 

Hey, Claudia? The few bucks I might have given you personally or PSL? Maybe not.

I emailed a second time. We'll see if I hear back.

(Hey, Cort Greene? In 2028, I COULD vote for the SWP cultist party. But won't.)

Next, though I'm protesting against Jill Stein, the Abandon Harris movement, formerly Abandon Biden, has officially endorsed her. That's unlike Lexie Zeidan and fellow DSA Rosey shitheads at the "Uncommitted" movement, whom I originally called "Abandon Biden" but who have no actual connection to any "Abandon" movement. They're "committed" — to keep supporting genocide.

The Democraps are doubling down on the "A vote for Stein is a vote for Trump" bullshit. You don't own my vote, as I said in 2016 and spelled out in 2020 (with a GP skeptical analysis) so fuck off. Reminder: Even in a swing state like Georgia with a large Libertarian Party, you never hear Rethuglicans doing this.

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Update: For Cort Greene and any SWP cultists he drags here in his train? 

First, there are plenty more things in life to focus on than intra-Trot fights, Trot vs Tankie fights, Trot vs Maoist fights, or pseudo-Trot Zionist fights against all of the above! Remember, that's who today's SWP is. As for Cort's Fashbusters, given that the "about" page really doesn't have anything about it, the simplest conclusion is that it's SWP fellow-travelers/front-group/entryism project. I still haven't forgotten about entryism, dude.

Second, one can oppose what China is doing in Xinjiang, and in Tibet, AND oppose US foreign policy spinning on it AND oppose American stanners for Beijing like Max Blumenthal. Not hard to do.

Third, one can express legitimate concerns about Iran, while calling out blind hatred of Iran that's driven by Zionism.

Fourth, back to the start of the first point? Go hiking. Take a walk in your city park, or in a state or national recreation area. Watch butterflies. Cook something, like a frittata. I've done all in the past four days. In other words, get a life.

Alternet? Worse than Counterpunch on electoral politics

After what is pretty close to the last straw with Counterpunch recently, over the anniversary of the Third Gazan War, as I'm calling it, I thought, let's check other allegedly leftist sites.

First stop? Alternet.

Alternet has a mix of head-fake pseudo-legit critiques of Stein and stuff that's "gotcha" right off the bat.

Among the "gotcha"? Calling out Stein for using a signature gathering firm with connections to Trump and possibly to J6. Is there any callout of Democrats' democracy suppression? No. Worse? It's a fucking reprint of a Salon article. THIS gotcha, signal-boosting AOC in the process, on the other hand? All their own. I'd thought of putting Alternet on my new blogs feed. Nuh-uh. This one, though behind Counterpunch's paywall? An APRIL payment by Stein's campaign (NOT her, technically) to a "Church of Cannabis"? Found for free at MSN, the payment was just $300 and was for renting the building for a speech. The piece, originally at Raw Story, has Russiagate Stein/Putin/Mike Flynn gotcha in it, too.

Candidates to the left of Stein? Not.Even.Covered.

Can't we have better independent and third-party campaign coverage?

The two best blog-type sites out there that I am aware of are Bill Redpath and Richard Winger's Ballot Access News, and Independent Political Report.

Neither has comment moderation. Neither uses IP addresses or other things to block anybody, AFAIK.

BAN has long been run over by troll-type commenters who aren't even funny.

IPR has this "Nuña," about whom I've commented before, who's now more and more at BAN. He's some type of alt-right, alt-white paleoconservative, and a proven liar (and an Islamophobe with that). And, he's made what I consider a veiled threat. And, I've told Jordan at IPR about it. It has been hauled down, and they're going to look at their bigger policy issues.

I've seen this rodeo before at places like High Country News, which semi-caved to the wingers on their website, but then eventually turned off comments there, but still allows them on their Facebook page.

Look at Mondoweiss. It has a formal username policy, and it will ban you by IP if you break any of its rules.

OTOH, this shows that, despite many ardent third party protestors that "many people agree with us," uh, no they don't. Sadly, definitely not so on the left.

Counterpunch bitches about the duopoly enough, but then stans for anti-BDSer and hardcore duopolist Noam Chomsky AND duopoly fellator Ralph Nader. (Ralph is still butt-hurt over the Green Party in 2004 and Jeff St. Clair largely accepts that straight up, while also ignoring that Ralphie is against organized labor in many ways and sucked personally as a boss.) Alternet? Straight up BlueAnon.

Update, Oct. 25: It gets worse. This Counterpunch piece all but goes in the BlueAnon tank, talking about Republican election suppression while ignoring Democratic third-party ballot access election suppression. I've long, long said that Counterpunch, even more than other theoretically leftist political commentary magazines, is sorely lacking in establishing some sort of overall editorial direction and oversight in areas like this. Of course, managing editor Josh Frank himself has had a piece or two this year that came close to semi-officially stanning for the lesser evilism half of the duopoly. 

Places like Alternet, per a separate piece? Even worse.

The Nation? Bullshit from the likes of Green-hating John Nichols and Hillbot Joan Walsh, as well as pseudo-Communist Adolph Reed. Let's throw other names like his under the bus. Let's not forget that Noam Chomsky and the late Barbara Ehrenreich, a self-alleged Maoist, both stanned for the duopoly.

Why I wouldn't vote for the Socialist Equality Party even if it's on the ballot

I decided to pull this out as a separate piece before running my "Gadfly slate" presidential endorsement.

IF Joseph Kishore, the candidate of the Trots of the Socialist Equality Party, were available by write-in, that's would be an option to whom my choice will be. But it's not, because the SEP, despite some bashing of the PSL, doesn't get on hardly any states' ballots. As of late August, per Wiki, it was only eligible to win 17 electoral votes and has NEVER been on enough ballots to be eligible for more than 73. The PSL has never been eligible to win a majority, but it has never been below 125 EVs. Oh, and Blue Anon snowflakes claiming "below 270" means they're a spoiler? Shut up until you admit being part of the anti-democratic party. (As of earlier this month, the tiny, pseudo-Trot cultists of the Socialist Workers Party were actually on the ballot on more states with more EVs.)

That said, two other things:

First, the WSWS is basically the "house organ" of the SEP. I used to belong to the World Socialist Web Site email group back when Yahoo Groups existed, but let that go. And, the SEP in general, and Kishore in particular, oppose identity politics period, full stop. And, in Kishore's case, virulently. Also, contra Kishore, the Wuhan lab leak theory is NOT a lie. I am guessing he attacks it because he defends the idea that China is actually a Communist state, which, of course, it is not. (Oh, also, Kishore? It's called "Xinjiang." And, no, that's not US-CIA bullshit.)

And, while I think identity politics can be pushed too hard, and, within the duopoly, can be a source of grifting, I don't have blanket opposition to them, either. I certainly don't think that identity politics are per se an instrument of capitalism. As for him co-authoring a set of essays against the  1619 project, I know it has problems, too. Was it totally wrong, though? No.

That said, with the killing of Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman, the party, with both its 2012 presidential candidate, and Kishore, then as now the national secretary, officially denied his killing was about race.  That link, per the person's Blogger profile, is from some Maoist time, but, it deserves an extensive pull quote.

A subsequent SEP article on its World Socialist Web Site titled “The Killing of Trayvon Martin and Racial Politics in America” (wsws.org, 5 April) by its National Secretary Joseph Kishore allows that “racial prejudice may [!!] have played a role in the killing of Martin.” But he asserts that the eruption of massive protests had nothing to do with race, much less the daily reality of racist terror against black people in this society. That Martin’s killer, George Zimmerman, saw a young black man in a hoodie as a dangerous predator also is of no consequence to Kishore. Instead, he presents this cop wannabe as one of many “disturbed individuals” whose “violent actions” are the product of the “tensions building up in American society” as a result of the current economic crisis. This is kind of like describing lynchings in the Jim Crow South as the product of the economic dislocations resulting from the destruction of slavery but…having nothing to do with race.

Kishore presents such arguments as a statement of supposed working-class opposition to the Democratic Party, which he proclaims is using “the killing of Martin to promote the reactionary politics of racial identity.” As evidence, Kishore points to an observation by Jesse Jackson that “racial profiling is all too common in the US, and has led to the killing of a young man.” Who other than an apologist for racism or perhaps an escapee from an asylum for the criminally insane could deny that this is an elementary statement of fact? The problem isn’t that Jackson, Al Sharpton and others of their ilk are fanning the flames of outrage against racist reaction in America. On the contrary, their purpose is precisely to contain such outrage and keep it safely in the channels of pro-Democratic Party electoralism.

Wowsa. 

I found the piece while doing a net search to try to find out Kishore's ethnic background. Of which, I got zero hits. AFAIK, from one video in particular, he's not only not Black, but not Black-White biracial. Maybe partially Indian, as in ancestors from the subcontinent? "Kishore" is, at least in people with that background, a Sanskrit-derived name.

That said, he looks awfully Anglo in a photo near the end of this WSWS piece. And, in that photo at left.

I'll add that it's "interesting" that EVERY one of the SEP presidential candidates has been White since Helen Halyard of its predecessor in 1992.

It's also also interesting that every one of them has been male, other than Halyard of the pre-SEP era. The White male Trots party. You want that on your tombstone? 

I don't know what Halyard thought of any of this; she lived until 2023.

Also interesting? The UK branch of the SEP, though presumably preaching for a classless society, uses "sir" for people like Sir Keir Starmer. Reminds me of Churchill saying that Clement Atlee ran the monarchy up the flagpole and saluted more than he did.

People like Mark Lause and the late Mimi Soltysik have decried Leftist infighting. Within the Communist-rooted portion of the American Left, I think you'll never get rid of it.

Third-party update, Sept. 13

The Fifth Circuit has officially screwed third parties in Texas, upholding a district court ruling on Tex-ass's 2019 ballot access law. (BAN link has the court opinion, or click here.)

It not only upheld the district court's opinion, it overturned the one ray of sunshine in that opinion. The district court had ruled that the state had to accept electronic signatures and electronic ballot access petitions. That, too got tossed.

Thanks, Drew Springer.

Interestingly, as of the time I posted this Friday afternoon, neither the Green Party nor the Libertarian Party of Texas has it on Twitter. And, after I tagged both parties, as of Friday night, neither had it on their websites. Texas Greens also didn't have it on their Facebook.

You know, if you are going to complain about vote suppression, at least publicize something like this in a timely fashion.

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Strange that part of why Brainworm Bobby dropped out (he did, the "suspended" is just to remain eligible for any dribblings of federal matching funds) was because his campaign was reportedly getting tight on cash and I presume his Veep Nicole Shanahan wouldn't loan it any more. (Or "loan" it. I presume she's not dumb enough to have considered that a literal loan.)

But? He has money to sue Michigan (and lose), Wisconsin, North Carolina (and lose), and counting to get back off the ballot. He also wound up losing New York to get ON the ballot, which he was still pursuing.

Those lawyers aren't cheap.

Well, Wasted Space is a lawyer himself, so, like Tricky Dick, these are lawyer's lawyers.

 And, as of Sept. 6, Wasted Space officially and truly withdrew, other than sucking on the FEC teat for the rest of the third quarter, by asking all his voters in all states to vote for Trump. Nuña the Nutter will still refuse to eat any crow, but, he gets more and more ridicule at BAN all the time from others besides me.

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As of last week, while it appears the PSL will still fall short of being eligible to have 270 electors elected, it's still above 200, a first, per Wiki. That's far and away the best of parties to the left of the Greens.

As I've hammered on, off and on, for months, the Socialist Party USA has been basically invisible this election cycle. Per the link above, as of early September, it was only on the ballot by name in one state and write-in for Bill Stodden in eight others. That puts them behind the Trots of the Socialist Equality Party and the cultists of the Socialist Workers party, who somehow are ahead of the SEP.

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Independent Political Report has a roundup of nonduopoly candidates' responses to the duopoly parties' presidential debate.

Related? Free and Equal Elections Foundation has reportedly invited seven candidates, including the two duopoly ones, to its fourth debate. (Nuña the Nutter raised all three Cerberus heads in a comment there — racism, sexism and Islamophobia.) Let's see if that holds. Claudia de la Cruz didn't make the invite cut for the third one, meaning there was nobody to the left of Jill Stein, which she loved.

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Robert Kraus is the interim head of the Liberal Party, the Libertarian break-off for the non-Mises Mice.

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If you ever wondered how much state legal systems can be biased against third-party and independent candidates, Georgia is the new poster child, per Ballot Access News.

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Not all third parties, or even all third parties of the alleged left, oppose Israel's genocide in Gaza. Learn the cultist story behind the pseudo-Trots of the Socialist Workers Party.

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The Texas Trib had a semi-failure (shock me) in discussing independent voters.

About that pending new 'Liberal Party'

I had originally scheduled this as the next presidential news roundup, but with all the focus on one potential new political party, shifted to it being just about that.

Via Independent Political Report, a "Liberal Party," long rumored, the work of Ye Olde Tyme Libertarians fed up with the Mises Mice, will officially meet in Houston in December. Per links off that link, this has roots going back to 2022, when the NM LP disaffiliated from LP National, which in turn disaffiliated it back.

As for the logo? Not sure why on a bison. Hope of resurgence? Or is that an already-extinct aurochs? More on the party here.

More related background, vis-a-vis this year's election cycle, can be seen in my update from two weeks ago.

George Phillies has more at Third Party Watch, which directly ties to my update of June 6. He notes that Liberal Party organizers at first thought the nomination of Chase Oliver, a non-Mouse, was bad for the movement. But, LP chair Angela McAwful giving him only a conditional endorsement in "blue" states (interesting for a third-party leader to fall into duopoly-speak), and the Montana LP saying we won't back him, gives them new light. 

There is funniness at that link, too. Some of the Liberal Party's would-be organizers claim that Mice shadowed them last month at the LP national convention. IMO, paranoia is second to a fondness for lawsuits as a requirement to be a good Libertarian. And, near the end of that Phillies piece, within the current LP at least, at least some are loading up their lawsuit guns further.

As for the name? Yes, as made explicit at 3PW, it's an appeal to the classical liberal tradition. Well, in the US, to the degree that had any footage, it died with the old Whig Party. In Europe, which is what the "classical liberal" appeal often looks to, William Gladstone died well over a century ago and the Liberal Party died a flat 100 years ago, notwithstanding its anemic LDP successor, as I told IPR.

In the US? The Whig Party died before the Civil War and anyway, since it favored a high protective tariff, wasn't really classical liberal in any case.

Back to that name, and three other problems with it.

First, being "classical liberals" doesn't guarantee a party free of bigotry. Look at "classical liberal" racist Andrew Sullivan.

Second, whether party founders are more elitist, more effitist or a mix of both, I don't know. They are something in that ballpark, though, and this is where branding and perceptions will hurt them. The Mice will play off that to look like "blue collar libertarians," I'm sure.

Third, IPR comment nutter "Nuña" gets the idea but thinks that both the LP and the Liberals are quasi-leftist. He gets FAR MORE nutter on Ballot-Access's posting of IPR's link. So do others, like Pig Farmer, sometimes halfway reasonable there, getting nostalgic for Lester Maddox.

I am curious how Texas Libertarians respond to this.

Given this news release during the LP National Convention strongly opposing Trump being there (don't forget McAwful lives right here in Tex-ass), I would say the Texas LP will at least kick the tires on the Liberal Party.

Presidential briefs, Feb. 29: Biden polling, de la Cruz bashing, Michigan

Happy Leap Day! Rock on!

Genocide Joe is probably rocking, if Quinnipiac was right a week ago in its poll stating he's up on Trump 49-45 percent. Not the first time recently QP has had him in the lead, and it has a history of GOP lean.

That said, contra Meidas Brothers, where I saw it, if we go beyond the duopoly, QP says the news is not so good:

When the hypothetical matchup is expanded to include independent and Green Party candidates, Biden receives 38 percent support, Trump receives 37 percent support, independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. receives 15 percent support, independent candidate Cornel West receives 3 percent support, and Green Party candidate Jill Stein receives 3 percent support.

I find it hard to believe that Bob Jr. is polling 15 percent and know that won't last.

That ALSO said, Meidas won't tell you there's not so good news for #DementiaDon:

Voters 67 - 31 percent think that President Joe Biden is too old to effectively serve another 4-year term as president, compared to 68 - 28 percent in Quinnipiac University's September 2023 poll.

IF IF IF some of his shite is just "gaffes," his handlers will try to fix that by zipping him up, which means anything off script will look even more zaftig. And, I suppose Meidas et al can spin by saying fewer people in February thought he was dementiaed than did in last September.

Then there's this:

Physical fitness: Biden: 35 percent say yes, 62 percent say no; Trump: 60 percent say yes, 37 percent say no.

Really? The fat bastich from Queens is more fit than Biden?

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If running as a third party candidate, independent candidate or whatever, shouldn't you at least pretend to be actually trying to win? On Twitter last week, there was news that Cornel West has spent almost zero on ballot access so far.

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If running as a third party candidate for a party that doesn't have party line ballot access in most states, shouldn't you address questions about access in a particular state when asked? I emailed Claudia de la Cruz of the Party of Socialism and Liberation about whether or not she and it would be making an effort to get on the Texas ballot when that time comes. So far, I got a mass blast email that did mention the PSL trying to get onto a new high of 23 states' ballots. BUT? It didn't list what those states are; I'm not clicking on a volunteer button until I know that Texas is one of them. (I had said I would publicize Texas petition-signing activities when I contacted them.)

PSL is also supposed to have a Dallas regional contact. I emailed it and have yet to hear back.

That said, a volunteer responded on Twitter that because of Tex-ass onerous burden, they're not seeking by-name ballot access but do plan the much easier write-in status. I told them to tell me when they got that started.

That said, "Pat the Socialist" (the former "Pat the Berner," which Twitter account is not suspended, but rather, no longer exists) claims she "just sucks" on COVID. From what I've seen on Google, she's not totally enlightened, and likes to use the issue to bash capitalism, but I think "just sucks" is an overly harsh take, as I look through responses to him, and his own replies to those. (It should also be noted that I am not a "COVID Doomer." Like Jessica Lexicus, a Grade-A example. Or like Pat the Berner, on multiple)

Side note: Why did Pat delete his Berner account? I mean, those of us who know that was him knows he can't hide from that.

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Re de la Cruz and chasing the write-in status, this does mean that I could, by my political lights, vote in the Texas primary now. Per the SOS, write-in candidates for president merely need statements from themselves AND their Veep (important; they can toss you if you don't have a ticket) and 40 pledged electors with statements of assent.

As for candidates who might be trying the independent tack and would need signatures? Tex-ass will be less close than in 2020, so no stratchery reasons to sign Bob Jr.'s petition. And, the desire to sign Cornel West's petition diminishes in my rearview mirror as he becomes ever more of a goofball. I assume SPUSA's Bill Stodden will go the write-in route, as the late Mimi Soltysik did in 2016. But, it's still a matter of principal combined with a suck-ass ballot. No Dems running for state House. Nothing to really separate Dems running for state Senate. An unopposed Dem in CD-26 I personally think Roland Gutierrez would be better for Senate than Colin Allred. And that Carl Sherman would have been much better off running for Allred's House district.

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The #AbandonBiden (for now, until they presumably sheepdog in November) movement in Michigan to vote "uncommitted" in the Democratic primary got more votes than Marianne Williamson was able to manifest for herself. (And yes, stanners, once again, she does believe in "manifesting" and related shit.) Nonetheless, the New Age quack — and pro-genocidalist by her silence on the issue — thinks she needs to "unsuspend" her campaign.

No, really. As I told her on Twitter:

.@marwilliamson Given that you're pro-genocidalist by a mix of your silence and your laughable claim a few years ago that Avatar could solve the Israel-Palestine issue, you're taking the wrong message from the #AbandonBiden "uncommitted" vote in Michigan. (That doesn't surprise.)

— TheRealSocraticGadfly 🥝☢️🌻🌲 (@real_gadfly) February 29, 2024

Speaking of, Mondoweiss has more. That said, as I've said repeatedly on Twitter about THIS, this portion of the #AbandonBiden movement, like the rest of it, means nothing if confined to a few Democratic primaries, and a few high-dollar Arab-American / Muslim-American donors. Call me in November. Rashida Tlaib is a sitting Democrat Congresscritter. She'll be backing #GenocideJoe. Michael Moore? Straight duopolist. Don't believe me? His name is NOT on Jill Stein 2016 endorsees.

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Meanwhile, on the GOP side, Trump underperformed. As he has in every contest so far. He'll blow it off if asked, but his handlers have to be concerned.

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Update, via a Kuff gloat-post in his weekend links. Fuck Greg Sargent, in a piece showing TNR still has one foot in the #BlueAnon world. No Labels' main rationale has not gone away. Rightly or wrongly, many "independents" think Biden in particular and the Democratic Party in general are too far left. Second, Sargent himself, a #BlueAnon of long standing, notes No Labels' caveat not to run a "spoiler" ticket but decides to bash it anyway.

Just when I think Cornel West can't get stupider, or more egocentric

Cornel West, finally disabused of his cluelessness of how hard it is to get presidential ballot access as an independent candidate running outside any party, and obviously having burned his Green Party bridges, has now launched a "Justice for All Party," per an announcement on his campaign website, as seen via Independent Politcal Report. Apparently, he's yet to be disabused of his cluelessness about how hard this will be.

Let me quote the opening graf:

In an effort to directly confront the suppression of voter choice and participation by legacy political parties, Independent candidate for President of the United States, Dr. Cornel West, announced the establishment of the Justice For All Party (JFA). The party will primarily be utilized as a grassroots, people-powered vehicle to secure ballot access in specific states. Additionally, JFA will grow into a larger formation that galvanizes people-powered initiatives to promote transformational change beyond the 2024 election cycle.

Really? Existing third parties of the left could use your help with that suppression, without you going off and starting another one, first.

Second, per my opening graf, this won't seriously help you get on the ballot this cycle. Starting a third party from scratch often requires somewhere around the same number of petition signatures as an independent candidacy.

Let us continue:

JFA builds off the foundation and tradition of grassroots political parties like the Lowndes County Freedom Organization, founded under the leadership of Ella Baker, Kwame Ture, and John Hulett, and the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party under the leadership of Civil Rights titans like Fannie Lou Hamer and the legendary Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.

All 1960s orgs; way to date yourself, Cornel. Nostalgia's fun, but bupkis in the world of actual politics. And, the MFDP was a pressure organization within the Democratic Party, anyway, kind of like today's DSA Roseys, not a third party.

Also, beyond the issue of ego, this ignores the question of "why," which really has no answer beyond Cornel West's ego.

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Sidebar: At the time I posted this last Saturday morning, West was also getting roasted on Twitter for his uncritical encomium-eulogy to Navalny.

My prayers are with the precious family of the courageous Russian political prisoner the late Alexei Navalny, just as I pray for my dear brothers Mumia Abu-Jamal, Imam Jamil Abdullah al-Amin, Leonard Peltier, and sister Narges Mohammadi and all other political prisoners in US… pic.twitter.com/u83HSNtiAr

— Cornel West (@CornelWest) February 17, 2024

The truth, known by many others besides me, is that Navalny had a past as a alt-right white Russian nationalist and Islamophobe. He eventually worked to rebrand himself, but never did repudiate that past, to my knowledge.

Also, contra some fellow leftists, and contra whatever West is, while I have not read the details of Mumia Abu-Jamal's case as closely as Leonard Peltier's, I've read enough of it that I don't think his and his defenders' cry for justice has quite as solid of a standing.

Ralph Nader officially jumps in the lesser-evilism tank

Via Independent Political Report, I did not have Ralph Nader openly plumping for the lesser evilism of the right hand of the duopoly. That's even though, given his broad political history (see below) this really is not shocking.

But, here he is, in the Washington Post, doing exactly just that.

A few highlights?

Followed by analysis on a couple of them?

He accepts the duopoly:

“We are stuck with Biden now,” Nader says in his cantankerous way. “In a two-party duopoly, if one should be defeated ferociously, the logic is that the other one prevails.”

So, it's work for Biden:

“I know the difference between fascism and autocracy, and I’ll take autocracy any time,” Nader said in a recent telephone interview. “Fascism is what the GOP is the architecture of, and autocracy is what the Democrats are practitioners of. But autocracy leaves an opening. They don’t suppress votes. They don’t suppress free speech.”

And work more for Biden:

For months, he has been calling and snail-mailing elected officials and operatives his thoughts about how the party must improve its sales pitches. He produced a 10-point plan for improving the party’s messaging and campaign tactics last year, calling for harder punches at the GOP and more liberal policy solutions.

And, there you go.

As for the reality?

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First, when I saw this as the header for the Independent Political Report piece?

I was thinking, great! Nader's going to call Trump an autocrat, not a fascist. And, I was soon disillusioned.

Nader knows that Dems as well as Rethugs suppress third-party votes and third-party ballot access.

Update: Per Nader's semi-diss of Peter Daou, Daou talks with the New Yorker about his #DemExit.

This, in the Q and A interview, is the nut graf, and the refutation of Nader, about halfway down.

As recently as 2020, you were opposed to a third-party candidate because of the urgent need to beat Donald Trump. What changed between early 2020 and now?

Yeah, it’s a very fundamental change in perspective. It’s almost like I took a different set of glasses or lenses and I put them on, and that lens is the systemic lens. During the years I worked as a Democrat, I bought into the general thinking that Democrats are better and therefore we need Democrats to stop the fascist domination of Republicans. If you go back ten, twenty, thirty, forty years, it’s the same argument: Oh, my God, if you let them get elected, the world’s going to end. This is a very standard duopoly technique.

Read the full thing. 

Daou finds his Chomsky (sans Chomsky still being a sheepdogger) and says both Trump and Biden could be impeached for Mexican border issues and other things.

And, the lawsuit over President Biden and social media? They try to "nudge" speech on social media. No, that's not book bans, but it's not totally innocent. I don't totally support the lawsuit, but I see where it comes from.

Ralph also also knows that Republicans never bitch about Libertarians the way Democrats bitch about Greens. (It's interesting that the LP doesn't even get the time of day from him, not even with .... see below.)

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Otherwise?

Nader goes on to say that current Democratic challenger to President Joe Biden, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has a better take against corporate power than Biden, but then "he has this bizarre tick on vaccines and Ashkenazi Jews." He doesn't mention RFK Jr.'s flirtation with the LP.

On Cornel West? This:

“Cornel West has the most complete progressive agenda. It almost doesn’t have any progressive aberrations,” Nader said. “The problem is that the Greens are not that organized. It is hardly a secret. And you can’t run a presidential campaign if you don’t have local candidates and some kind of organization round the country.”

Well, contra Jeff St. Clair, re the 2004 Green Party national convention and run-up to it? While David Cobb and other AccommoGreens may have been 2/3 the problem, I still see Saint Ralph of Nader as 1/3 of the problem on organization and related issues.

And weirdly, this:

He remains offended by the accusation that he cost Democrats the 2000 election in Florida. He similarly scoffs at the claims that Green Party candidate Jill Stein hurt Hillary Clinton in 2016.

OK. Maybe Nader feels the turning of the page of the calendar, knows he's aging out, and wants one last shot at relevance. And, he's not going to get it. The phone calls will remain unreturned and the Rolodex will keep spinning like a hamster wheel.

One final shot against St. Ralph of Nader's claims that Trump is a fascist. Dear Leader had his original attorney general, Eric Holder, spy on the Associated Press. Did Trump ever do that?

===

That said, for people think this is a one-off by St. Ralph of Nader? Think again.

In 2005, he jumped up along with Randall Terry (THAT Randall Terry) and demanded that Terri Schiavo be reintubated.

In 2011, the Nader who claimed Greens were too soft mulled primarying Obama as a Democrat.

And, going back to 2000, in his presidential run, we had Nader the candidate who owned oil and defense stocks (and I think tobacco ones). Yes, it was via mutual funds, but "ethical" mutual funds existed back then. (They certainly existed in 2012 and 2016, Jill Stein, who owned all three evils.) Maybe they have a slightly lower rate of return, but? "Purer than Caesar's wife" applies here in spades.

But let's go back to his more limited 1996 run. That, reportedly, was done the way it was to avoid Federal Election Commission filings. Shock me.

Finally, we have Nader as boss, described by former employee Kurt Eichenwald as being a pretty big hypocrite and an ax-grinder at times. And, he's not the only former employee to talk about Nader's reality not matching the myth. That would include three editors of his, made "former" by him firing them, which they said was him busting their attempt to unionize. One of those was Tim Shorrock. 

Shorrock, who earned $13,000 a year, said he and the other editors had long complained about 60- to 80-hour work weeks, publication pressures, working conditions, and lack of grievance procedures. Nader's response to complaints, Shorrock said, was: "You shouldn't think of this as a job," but rather as a higher calling of serving the public interest.

Oh, that was before his first prez run, as I think was Eichenwald's employment time.

Let's also not forget that the labor-hating Work for Progress sprung out of the Nader-inspired Public Interest Research Group movement, which per its Wiki page has had other issues.

So, as for this tweet, 

Don't care. He challenged the system the best he could, and not enough of us backed him up. I'm not bothered by anyone voting lesser-evil, unless we finally have a serious movement. But so long as we don't have our shit together, I understand the choice even if I don't choose it.

— k e n n e t h (@cawmoonism) September 28, 2023

sent in response to said person's earlier tweet 

I'm not mad at Ralph for this.

No one person's opinion on US politics matters anyway, and if Cornel West can't break at least 10%, his candidacy won't matter either. It will take some kind of seismic shift in public consciousness in order to free us from this two-party trap. https://t.co/TaGQT9uOeR

— k e n n e t h (@cawmoonism) September 27, 2023

and me tagging him with a Twitter thread?

Nader, like St. Bernard of Sanders, has his fanbois. I'm not one, in either case. And, as I open-Tweeted, not tagging that person, because I hadn't looked at that 10 percent high bar before.

Nader his own self didn't hit 3 percent in 2000 and you're saying the bar for Cornel is 10 percent? Worse, this guy is clearly outside the duopoly. Except for St. Ralph, I guess.

Also, which I forgot, until Counterpunch reminded me, under Nader's tagline on his stories? This is the same Ralph who wrote the laugher, "Only the Super-Rich Can Save Us."

To take it back to this election? Nader (who never really addressed foreign policy issues in 2000, and probably not in 1996), has chosen to throw himself in with warmongers like David Corn.

Otherwise? Nader very much likes to row his own oar. I think the idea of being the Democratic Party's savior is something that's definitely floating his boat right now.

If not that, it's a legacy issue. Maybe the claim that he gave the 2000 election to Shrub Bush still stings, even though intellectually he knows it's not true. So, he's trying to be Warmonger Joe's savior even as he knows the calls not being returned right now won't be returned over the next 13 months, either.

For that matter, contra Jeff St. Clair's buzziness about St. Ralph of Nader, which in 2004 was partially but not entirely true re the national GP convention, where was Ralph doing more heavy lifting on national party organization that might trickle down better? And, also as noted by me, Ralph pledged to run a "safe states" strategy in 2000 — and of course didn't. Maybe some Greens were gun-shy?

==

It's interesting, that as of the morning of posting this, Nader, who has a byline at Counterpunch, has said nothing there. (His most recent piece was Sept. 22, so he's not a stranger there.) And, editor Jeff St. Clair hasn't written, either. And, didn't have a thing on his Roaming Reports this Friday, Sept. 29.

Nader writes something there about once a week.

And, St. Ralph dropped a new piece Oct. 2. He talks about retired Gen. Mark Milley broaching a call for negotiations in Ukraine, but doesn't mention Warmonger Joe by name in needing to take the lead on that. He talks about the banksters, but doesn't tell Inflationmonger Joe by name to stop taking their money. It's all a vague "out there," semi-platitudinous piece.

Tony Bellatier rightly hammers Movement for a People's Party

Tony Bellatier wasn't satisfied with one takedown of "Brawny" Nick Brana and the Movement for a People's Party, which he wrote for DC Babylon about a month ago and which I somehow missed. He added a second while I was on vacation.

A key issue in both? Just to become a member, you have to sign a non-disclosure agreement. You know, like the non-disclosure and non-compete agreements that capitalist big businesses foist on employees, only even less legally enforceable. Indeed, MPP right there lives up to its claim at its inception to NOT be a party of the left.

Next, from the first piece, the lack of organization, despite Brawny Nick having held a position as Bernie Sanders' "National Political Outreach Coordinator" in 2016. (That's if he really was that; see the end of the first piece.) Despite having filed for party line ballot access in California, they're apparently clueless in general about state-by-state requirements for getting a third party on the ballot. Volunteers offered to help, but were largely shut out. (That's not counting the burn rate on volunteers seeing that NDA.)

And, after that, from the first piece? Jimmy Dore is a grifter as well as a nutbar. (Tony Bellatier doesn't mention that he's also a conspiracy theorist, which he is. But hold on to that thought.)

A year after MPP's founding convention, clockwise fr top left:
Cornel West still pretends he's not self-deceiving; Nina Turner
is an official loser; Marianne Williamson's still a nutter;
Jimmy Dore (OLD photo; vanity?) is a bigger nutter and
a conspiracy theorist; conspiracy theorist and liar Mike
Gravel is dead; Ryan Knight's still a flip-flopper, I think.

The second piece adds fuel to the fire in two ways.

First, it looks more at the autocratic control of MPP.

Second (remember that thought?) it notes many MPPers have a conspiracy-theory view of Geoff Campbell. That's laughable. 

Personally (as in, never met him, but from what I know online, and I do "follow" on Twitter), I've got other problems with Geoff. No. 1 is that he seems too much in bed with Zionism. He may not be explicitly anti-BDS, but I've never seen anything in the way of BDS supporting. (The Google search "Geoff Campbell" + "BDS" returns all of 52 results.) No. 2 is that ... while he's not a ConservaDem, he may not be at the leftmost edge of the Democratic Party and that, related to that, he's a full-stop Democrat. Even were they not mocking him as an agent of the DNC, or worse, Geoff would never join MPP.

Update, April 20, 2022: I seem to have cheesed off the old Miami Gator Campbell last night with this tweet.

Yeah, if anything, Geoff strikes me as a down the line bipartisan foreign policy establishment blank check backer of Ukraine. (And, given his Zionist-based stance on Palestine, totally not surprising.)

— TheRealSocraticGadfly: Friends Crushes Xi Jinping (@real_gadfly) April 16, 2022

To which he responded:

“Zionist-based stance?”
Wtf are you talking about?

Why do you folks just make things up about me? Seriously?

— Geoff Campbell (MiamiGator) (@GeoffMiami) April 20, 2022

 To which I offered this:

Uhh, Geoff, you used to have "Zionist" in yr profile. (I see that, for whatever reason, you've deleted that now. And the "Ashkenazi.") That would be the first reason why. 2nd reason? Even with dropping that? Discussed the back story a year ago https://t.co/HQ2UW6RpRT

— TheRealSocraticGadfly: Friends Crushes Xi Jinping (@real_gadfly) April 20, 2022

Then this:

Let's just do a thread on this to save Miami Geoff's fanbois a bit of reading. The backstory is BDS, and how much, or how little, the Gator may tweet and talk about it. (I DO find it interesting that he's edited his profile bio, and relatively recently.) 2/x

— TheRealSocraticGadfly: Friends Crushes Xi Jinping (@real_gadfly) April 20, 2022

If I have more on the thread, just go there. 

Let me add  more things to the original post. (And, this may become a separate blog post.) Both are related to that Google search last year. First, the Gator isn't the only Geoff Campbell I get when I re-run that "Geoff Campbell" + "BDS" search. Second, even if he were the only one? I'd probably done 10x that many Tweets mentioning BDS counting backward from last August to the start of my Twitter presence on my first account. And, I've done at least 52 since then.

 

For the claims in the caption? My semi-takedown obit on Gravel. A quick takedown of Dore the conspiracy theorist. One of several pieces and comments about West willingly kissing Obama's ass in 2008. My 2020 Dem primaries takedown of Williamson. Knight the flip-flopper? This piece from early this year about Knight distancing himself from the MPP problems mentioned in my original piece on the MPP plus stuff Bellatier covers.

Miami Geoff issues aside, this largely squares with my own observations about MPP.

In fact, I wrote in depth about it a full year ago, in reference to the organizing convention Tony mentions.

My first take was, we've got a party of the left, in the Greens. (In reality, I've learned that this isn't so true, about the Greens being left, but that's another story.) Second, re Tony's take, I noted the MPP offered no justification on its website about why it was needed. (Well, Nick Brana's grift is why!)

Third, speaking of Jimmy Dore as conspiracy theorist, I noted that speakers included conspiracy theorist Mike Gravel, New Age nutter Marianne Williamson, Ryan Knight who had swallowed the Tulsi Gabbard Kool-Aid (now at Rumble!), Dore, and math-addled Basic Income cultist Scott Santens, who's also surely grifting off his BI touts.

Fourth, I also noted that the DECIDEDLY illiberal in ways Jesse Ventura, who continues to shop "The Body" to whatever political party will give him a quick ticket to its prez nomination, was another speaker.

Fifth, I noted that Brana wasn't so librul in his past, having worked for people like Clinton acolyte Terry McAuliffe.

Points third and fourth corroborate Bellatier's point about celebrity name-dropping.

National third-party left news roundup

There's several big things going on in and related to third parties of the left. 

It's enough that I thought it needed to be broken out of my version of the Texas Progressives weekly roundup and made into its own post.

The Lavender Caucus' request to deaccredit the Georgia Green Party on false claims it is "transphobic" has been approved by the Accreditation Committee for forwarding to the National Committee. I think Georgia Greens are (sadly) likely to lose, and to be further tarred and feathered in various ways in the process. Click the link to learn the truth about its 2020 platform. I offered my personal take on the largely fact-free, science-light claims of the Lavender Caucus last summer, and have had follow-ups since then. I'll have additional follows after the NC vote.

Ryan Knight has ended active involvement with the Movement for a People's Party and says he won't go back unless it makes socialism a core issue. For right now, assuming he's not a communist, that leaves Greens and SPUSA. We'll see how this plays out. I've seen the MPP, based on its convention last year, as a mix of butthurt Berners (including grifters on that like Nina Turner and Nick Brana) and conspiracy theorist types, especially Jesse Ventura fanbois. Especially on the second part, I don't know if that's part of Ryan's concern. Stand by. I offered my take on all of that AND on Ryan as a Tulsi Kool-aid peddler in a piece at the start of last fall.

Meanwhile, the MPP has officially been registered with the state of California. Per its presser, it needs 80K signatures for ballot access. This is interesting because, among states where Greens have had the most dropoff is in the Golden State. At the same time, at the sub-presidential level, California is a top-two / jungle primary state. As of right now, its efforts have the highest potential payoff level in Maine, since that state has ranked choice voting.

At IPR, Fernando Reports that MPP is facing further crack-ups. Just after it registered with the state of California, Our Revolution's LA branch said it was disaffiliating from MPP. It in part reflected Ryan's claims, and in part claimed organizational issues, including various forms of authoritarianism, and that this was enabled by a lack of bylaws, etc.

On Twitter, David Bruce Collins says he's staying Green for now, but keeping an open eye on the development of the MPP. (Said a day before Ryan's announcement and obviously a few days before the news out of California.) Off Twitter, DBC supports Caitlin Johnstone's plea for greater left unity. Lemme see, this is the same Caity who called for red-brown alliance a few years ago, and I don't think ever repented of this. On Twitter again, DBC thinks Jimmy Dore is a good dood, ignoring that his political framing on Force the Vote was likely wrong, and all of Dore's other issues. (He also ignores, if he knows about it, Glenn Greenwald's history of sexism. Note: It goes back to before Greenwald was famous.)

Update, Feb 20: New grifting by MPP over Houston's electricity and water woes, flagged on Twitter by Miami Geoff.

Quick question for MPP, why does a donate link that claims it will 'split a contribution between Houston Food Bank and the Souther Workers Assembly' lead to the MPP donation form where contributions go to "Movement for a People's Party"?

Seems like fraud to me. https://t.co/OFlhB08MmC pic.twitter.com/IWikMLdZ4M

— Geoff Campbell (MiamiGator) (@GeoffMiami) February 20, 2021

Oops!

Green Feminists have responded to the Lavender Caucus' complaint against the Georgia Green Party.

Yeah, right on a Patriot Party (or MAGA Party, or whatever's next)

Trump's helicopter-fueled fade to black from DC this morning included these not-so-Stentorian words: "Have a good life. We will see you soon."

That said, per yesterday's Wall Street Journal, Trump allegedly hopes to see people soon as head of a new Patriot Party.

Which is to laugh. 

First, this would be as big a clusterfuck as anything else created by Donald J. Trump, especially with no inherited daddy money, let alone daddy tax-dodging loans. His kids would be of no more help.

And, every day further that he delays on this, the more he becomes yesterday's news, especially with no post-presidential Twitter megaphone.

Any Rethuglicans who might be tempted, yet know Trump's weathervane mind, are going to wait for him to take the first official steps. Those include MONEY for ballot access and state-level party formation.

Second? Speaking of state-level party formation? The anti-third party laws in various states, pushed through both by Trump's current Rethuglicans AND Trump's former Democraps, handicap even legit attempt at forming new parties, like the Movement for a People's Party. A Trumpian effort would be binned from the start if it involves Trump's lazy, flighty ass leading it.

The big question is, how much would this hurt Rethuglicans?

Meanwhile, someone like Matt Welch, largely agrees.

UPDATE: Egged on by someone in Arizona, he's still talking about it, but now calling it a "MAGA Party."

And, with that, and per the image, associated with this 2019 story, if Trump thinks he can still MAKE money by blathering about a MAGA party without actually doing anything to start one? He's there in a New York minute, because, as P.T. Barnum knew, "There's a MAGA-sized sucker born every minute."

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.

Dear @TulsiGabbard,

Since the DNC didn’t honor its tradition of inviting every presidential candidate who earned delegates to speak, we’d be honored to have you speak on August 30th at the https://t.co/MH2EuPtw1P.

We’re building a new progressive populist party for 2022 & 2024.

— Ryan Knight 🌹 (@ProudSocialist) August 21, 2020

As of Aug. 27? As I said in response?

Apparently the post-Bernie Berners and DSA Roseys even don't like Tulsi, or else she's afraid of being challenged, as I see she's not on your speakers' list.

— I come to Bari Weiss, not to praise her 🚩🌻 (@AFCC_Esq) August 27, 2020

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:

The larger listing of ppl on the Movement for a People's Party? Lots o butthurt Berners. Sprinkling of vanity politics ppl. Sprinkling of conspiracy theorists. All refusing to work with the Greens or other already existing semi-left or left 3rd parties. https://t.co/Yqnfz13w7M

— I come to Bari Weiss, not to praise her 🚩🌻 (@AFCC_Esq) August 20, 2020

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.

Texas Progressives talk primary runoffs, other things

Lots of stuff to dig into this week, as we await the results of primary runoffs and continue to watch the surge in Texas coronavirus cases, with more details on that, statewide, nationally, and globally, in the split-off portion of this week's Roundup.

That said, politicization claims aside, COVID and GOP politics do intersect. Let's dig in.

Both Strangeabbott and Danny Goeb have officially confirmed they have no balls, as the Texas GOP has said its state convention remains on to meet in person, but all bigwigs will speak virtually. Abbott has none over facing wingnut-plusers calling him out for "Masks On," and Patrick has none on matching words to mouth on dissing COVID, or on being 70-plus and not considering himself personally dispensable. Surprised? Sadly, since that initial story, Helltown Mayor Sly Turner removed their balllessness excuse by canceling the in-person convention.

That privately built border fence in the lower Valley? A stupidity that's going to fall into the Rio Grande sooner rather than later.

Meet the Texas GOP wingnut political candidates touting Q, whether as true believers or as political grifters. (Also note how many of them refused to talk to Texas Monthly.)

The challenges of being young, liberal (and, overlooked by Texas Monthly) wedded to the Democratic Party in Austin and having to deal with old, white liberals, especially when they demonstrate that they're far from free from implicit bias.

Trump and Cruz have dueling endorsements in the runoff in CD24 to see who will try to replace Will Hurd. Ronny Jackson, Trump's choice in CD13, will almost certainly get smoked. Trump's choice in Colorado CD5 got smoked by someone even more nutbar. Especially for endorsements to the "less nutbar" side of the GOP than Trump's, if they win nominations, whether or not general elections, how many of these will it take for the GOP to distance from Trump? And, if Trump loses re-election, how involved will he personally be in 2022?

SocraticGadfly had two third-party items of note. First, he said RIP to Mimi Soltysik, 2016 SPUSA presidential nominee. Second, he called out losing Green Party presidential candidate Dario Hunter for "going there" with identity politics and various other matters.

Related? The Supreme Court unanimously ruled states can punish so-called "faithless electors" in the electoral college. This is of a piece with state and federal courts boosting the duopoly parties and supporting third-party voter suppression, although mainstream media, and even a Rick Hasen at Election Law Blog fail to recognize this.

Off the Kuff has two more polls to analyze.

DosCentavos' early voting experience was quick, yet harrowing. The moral of the story ... don't leave until you click "CAST BALLOT."

Long read, but Scott Ritter has the nuanced truth about alleged Russian bounties on US troops. Have the MSM been hyping this to try to keep us in the hellhole of Afghanistan?

Federal judge rules the Dakota pipeline must be shut by early August, and stay shut for the duration of a review that's expected to last a full year.

Grits for Breakfast presents a primer for new, local police-reform advocates in Texas.

Dwight Silverman updates the "how to cut the cord" manual.

Christoph Spieler discusses why race is always there when we talk about transit.

Pedro Noguera wants a focus on equity when we reopen the schools.

Gadfly also offered a media analysis of the Democratic Senate runoff between MJ Hegar and Royce West.

RIP Mimi Soltysik

RIP 2016 SPUSA presidential candidate Mimi Soltysik. I had known he was sick, badly, and that it was a struggle, but didn't know it was liver cancer. Note: His Veep pick, Angela Walker, is Howie Hawkins Veep pick this year. Read this interview for more on his background. He's right about the sectarianism on the left. I've seen enough of that within the Green Party, and plenty of people who I wouldn't even consider leftist or that close to it. That's YOU, Jesse-stanners.

I have no idea why the Party for Socialism and Liberation separately exists, other than the sectarianism that led it to fracture off another communist party which was itself part of a fracture. Socialist Alternative? It's just a somewhat more left version of the Democratic Socialists of America, sometimes working inside the Dem party. I do know why it exists separately and I just told you. I've written about it before, and the hypocrisy of Kshama Sawant, specifically about its and her attempt to work inside the Dem Party as Berners. (Per Wiki, it claims to be Trots, but "Trots for Bernie"? Really?)

Yes, I'm armchair-quarterbacking, but I would never vote for an alleged or actual Marxist party. Non-Marxist socialists? Yes. I almost voted Soltysik instead of Jill Stein in 2016.

On Mimi's personal background, reading between the lines and knowing he had liver cancer? It sounds like he became an IV drug addict, but eventually got clean. It could have been dirty tattoo needles, too, I suppose, but the story sounds more than that. Or, for that matter, it could have been "good old" booze.