Anti-Trump crowds going to the barricades for Hillary ?

Anti-Trump protesters storm the streets

As a supporter of Bernie Sanders I do not recommend that the anti-Trump crowds harm themselves or endanger tense police officers by " doing the barricades " thing- for Hillary Clinton ?
Jesus would not vote for Trump ? Celebrity astrophysicist Neil De Grasse Tyson more than hinted that Jesus would vote for that Jewish socialist with roots in Brooklyn.

PEACE !

Is Jonathan Kozol in " Savage Inequalities " mostly preaching identity politics ?

Conservative criticism of Jonathan Kozol

  As a democratic socialist myself, from a white working class, Catholic background, also influenced by Marx, I have observed that conservative criticism of American public school is as often lucid as Jonathan Kozol's is sensitive and compassionate.

    But in the final analysis, class injustice not racism is the better explanation for " Savage Inequalities ". And I just finished reading Chapter 4 of that book : " Children of the City Invincible: Camden, New Jersey."

   " Again there is this stunted image of our nation as a land that can afford one of two dreams-liberty or equity-but cannot manage both " ( Kozol )

   But too much of Jonathan Kozol's writing here seems to nurture now effete- and often reactionary from a working class point of view- " identity politics ".

   Neo- Democrat Hillary Clinton is the favored presidential candidate of black voters in 2016. What have the Neo-Democrats done for any working class Americans ?

   I myself am " feeling the Bern ". Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont focuses on " unacceptable economic inequality ".

   And way back in 1965 Black Muslim Malcolm X made a connection between racism and American capitalism, between racism and U.S. imperialism.

   I can't imagine Malcolm X endorsing Hillary Clinton. But black astrophysicist Neil De Grasse Tyson has recently endorsed " socialist " Bernie Sanders. So has movie director Spike Lee ( " X " ) .

[ " I greatly appreciated your interview with Jonathan Kozol. Truth tellers like him are priceless national treasures. However, I have to say that I strongly disagree with Mr. Kozol’s assertion that the foundational factor at work in educational inequality is race and not class.
I note that Mr. Kozol mostly visits inner-city urban schools, north of the Mason-Dixon line. He should expand his itinerary.
I grew up in the very majority white rural South, and I can tell you, it is not race that makes the difference. It is class. Many majority white schools (my own was lily-white, with only one African-American student, and the only Latino student was in fact biracial, with one white parent) in rural areas of the South face the same problems as the schools Kozol mentions. Few if any of the students are encouraged to go to college, to dream big, to have ambition. No college prep courses are offered — at least partly because there is not enough money or interest to support their existence or attract qualified teachers — and very few kids manage to graduate without taking “shop” or home economics. "  ]


 

Does anybody remember Norman Thomas of the Socialist Party ?

As a democratic socialist ( independent ) myself I am a critical supporter of "socialist" Bernie Sanders of Vermont. Also a registered Democrat I understand the "pragmatic" politics argument. I will vote for "socialist" Bernie in our Rhode Island primary. But if you want to learn more about the all-American brand of socialism, you should read the speeches of Eugene V. Debs or even Norman Thomas of the Socialist Party.

Does anybody remember Norman Thomas? Thomas was closer to Bernie Sanders in temperament than the fiery radical Eugene V. Debs.

Being a life long "socialist" is hardly a single issue obsession. What social , economic, political issue is not connected to the capitalist economic disorder? Even the ecological crisis of planet Earth is connected to " limits of growth "? Does capitalist production for profit acknowledge "limits of growth"?

Would a socialist America have a belligerent foreign policy? Would a socialist America let millions of citizens be jobless or homeless- and basically hopeless?

How can Hillary or  other American presidential candidates call themselves " progressive "  without questioning the moral legitimacy of even "legitimate" wealth?

Real socialists would make our ruling class very, very, nervous, in fact, would let them tremble.

One way to make a Sanders' "political revolution" peaceful would be to win over our now ruined middle class. But are they listening -with more enthusiasm- to Republican Donald Trump?

Not for nothing Hitler called his reactionary program in Nazi Germany "National Socialism."
Not a few working class Germans were fooled.

What kind of " democracy " is preserved by a low voter turnout ?

Ralph Nader reflects on a Donald Trump third party

   I  am tired of reading how Ralph Nader's ego spoiled election night for Al Gore. The undemocratic Electoral College was a big factor in the disastrous victory of George W. Bush.
     Nader-like many obscure socialist parties - has said for years that Corporate America controls both the Democratic and Republican parties.
       I  am registered Democrat . The insane hatred of conservative Republicans for Bill Clinton motivated me to vote for him twice. But Clinton is a neo-Democrat not even an FDR liberal. Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont is really an FDR liberal-not a militant " socialist ".
       It seems that ONLY hard core socialists preserve their ideological integrity. But I have no problem with " pragmatism " on the left-as long as it does not weaken class consciousness.
        Cynics now hope that critical support for Bernie Sanders can be channeled into political support for Hillary Clinton on election 2016. But what a soporific choice : Hillary vs.Jeb Bush !
            I think the most progressive thing Donald Trump can do is destroy the Republican Party.
    A bunch of privileged rich people imagine that THEY represent America.What kind of " democracy " is preserved by a low voter turnout ?
   

America is cracking up !

 

   

   The deranged killer Houser ” was nuts so who cares “. Our mental health system stinks. Very few mental health professionals have the backbone to decry that miserable failure called ” de-institutionalization.
Still there is also a political lesson here. In the ruined Germany of the 1920s it was the ruined middle class that was more inclined to Hitler’s Nazism than any other group.
America today is cracking up in more ways than one. American capitalism is as insane as these mass killer-suicides we read about every week now.
I recommend we listen to ” socialist ” Bernie Sanders before other voices -on the far right-grow even louder and more hysterical.