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Lumpenproletariat

Tag Archives: Greg Palast

Election Day, Election Night, & the Aftermath in the United States: November 8, 2016 General Election

08 Tue Nov 2016

Posted by ztnh in Democracy Deferred, Free Speech, Political Science, Presidential Election 2016

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Amy Goodman, Bernie Sanders, Democracy Now!, Dennis Bernstein, Diana Ross, Donald Trump, Dr. Jill Stein, Dr. Michael Parenti, Dr. Richard D. Wolff, Dr. Stephanie Kelton, Eric Zuesse, Flashpoints, Green Party, Greg Palast, Hard Knock Radio, Hillary Rodham Clinton, John Nichols (b. 1959), KPFA, Mark Mericle, neoliberalism, Pacifica Radio Network

Vote_12345LUMPENPROLETARIAT   GONZO:  When many of us woke up this morning, we were quite certain that neoliberal Hillary Clinton would handily win the 2016 U.S. presidential election, whether we liked it or not.  But, now, as the polls close and as states report in favour of Republican Donald Trump, it’s looking like Hillary Clinton is struggling to capture a decisive win.  We underestimated just how much racism and white resentment resides in middle America, not to mention male patriarchy.  There is proving to be just enough to catalyse and propel an openly racist presidential candidate with absolutely no experience in political office into the White House.

In more ethnically diverse states, such as California, we may lull ourselves into thinking the United States has outgrown its white supremacist origins, but only at our own peril.  Evidently, in 2016, police can kill in broad daylight with impunity and a sleazy white man can be a complete bigot, male chauvinist, who boasts of sexually assaulting women, offend every standard of public decency, and still become president of the United States.  White man’s burden, or white man’s privilege?  Such grotesque behavior and rhetoric would have disqualified any woman or person of colour from the presidential candidacy.  But, as long as one saturates broadcast media, one is legitimated by society, no matter how degenerate, juvenile, sexist, or racist one’s attitudes and perspectives.  And, when one is part of the two establishment political parties, and especially when one is pushing the political centre rightward, one can be as toxic to our social discourse as one wants and get a pass because of the sheer establishment power the two-party system wields in its relationships with the corporate media.  It certainly paid off for Trump to have gotten the lion’s share of media exposure, as Edward Bernays or Walter Lippmann (or common sense) would expect.  This is what Dr. Noam Chomsky and Edward Herman called manufacturing consent.  Meanwhile, Dr. Jill Stein, Ajamu Baraka, and the Green Party were virtually ignored by the corporate media jill_and_viggo2016(and even free speech media).  Despite the Green Party’s progressive platform, which best speaks to working class interests, the actuality of mass media propaganda kept voters’ political consciousness confined within a narrow two-party paradigm.  This is symptomatic of a crisis of political imagination.

Beyond the failings of our misguided ideological conclusions, we suffer from a flawed election system, which has already evidenced many examples of electoral fraud or voter suppression, as Greg Palast has documented in his writings, his book, and documentary film, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy.  Voter rolls are being rigged 2016corrupted or deleted.  And alternative political parties and candidates, such as the Green Party‘s Dr. Jill Stein, along with their ideas and policy proposals, are kept away from public view.  And, of course, ideas and perspectives are censored, or suppressed, most vigorously by the corporate media when they reflect political perspectives on the left of the political spectrum, which reflect egalitarian or humanitarian principles.

At my polling location, it seemed everybody, mostly Hispanic, Spanish-speaking voters, coming out in force to vote against Trump, had provisional ballots in their hands, for some reason.  We recall Greg Palast‘s reporting on the many problems with provisional ballots not being counted, of being placebo ballots.  So, to see this in a predominantly Hispanic/Latino community, too, raised questions.  I’ve voted at other polling locations, which did not consist predominantly of Hispanic voters, where this was not the case.  It seems people were given provisional ballots just so that they could avoid the long lines.  Voters seemed to walk past the long lines with their provisional ballots already filled out and sealed to hand them over to poll workers.  We need to make sure that we, the people, get a full audit of all of the ballots and such, at the very least.  We know presidential elections in the recent past have been corrupted, or outright stolen. [1]  At best, we seriously need to ask ourselves if there are modifications we can make to our election system, which can make it more democratic.  Of course, if we had adopted a ranked-choice voting system, then voters would have been liberated to vote their conscience and, possibly, elect a real people’s presidential candidate, such as Dr. Jill Stein, in this 2016 election.  Political alternatives could achieve surprise wins when people are allowed to rank their political preferences so as to fully express their political will and to fully vote their conscience, without fear of throwing their vote away.  Ah, but no.

2016 NOVEMBER GENERAL ELECTION RESULTS

Federal Office:

  • Donald Trump:  279 electoral votes
  • Hillary Clinton:  228 electoral votes

[Hillary Clinton won the popular vote, i.e., more people voted for her.  But Donald Trump won the antidemocratic Electoral College.  Is this the most democratic way to elect the president of the United States?]

California Ballot Propositions

  • Proposition 51 (School Bonds, High-Interest Debt-Funding for K-12 and Community College)—PASSED (54% Yes)
  • Proposition 52 (Medical Hospital Fee Program)—PASSED (70% Yes)
  • Proposition 53 (Revenue Bonds, Require Statewide Voter Approval)—FAILED (53% No)
  • Proposition 54 (Legislature, Legislation and Proceedings Initiative, Increase Transparency)—PASSED (64% Yes)
  • Proposition 55 (‘Millionaire’ Tax Extension to Fund Education and Healthcare)—PASSED (62% Yes)
  • Proposition 56 (Cigarette ‘Sin Tax’ to Fund Healthcare, Research, Law Enforcement, etc.)—PASSED (63% Yes)
  • Proposition 57 (Criminal Sentences, Parole Option, Judiciary Discretion for Trying Juveniles as Adults, etc.)—PASSED (64% Yes)
  • Proposition 58 (English Proficiency, Multilingual Education Option)—PASSED (72% Yes)
  • Proposition 59 (Campaign Finance, Repeal Citizens United)—PASSED (52% Yes)
  • Proposition 60 (Pornographic Films, Redundant Condom Requirement)—FAILED (54% No)
  • Proposition 61 (State Prescription Drug Purchases, Competitive Pricing Standards)—FAILED (54% No)
  • Proposition 62 (End the Death Penalty)—FAILED (54% No)
  • Proposition 63 (Firearms, Ammunition Sales Restrictions)—PASSED (63% Yes)
  • Proposition 64 (Cannabis Legalisation for Adults)—PASSED (56% Yes)
  • Proposition 65 (Redirect Funds Collected for Carryout Plastic Bags)—FAILED (55% No)
  • Proposition 66 (Death Penalty Procedures, Speed Up Execution Process)—PASSED (51% Yes)
  • Proposition 67 (Uphold the Ban on Single-Use Plastic Bags)—PASSED (52% Yes)

Messina

***

2016-general-election-ballot-img_20161108_165445

2016-general-election-ballot-2-img_20161108_165633

Model 100 optical scanner voting machine, ceres community center, ceres, california, 8 NOV 2016

***

FREE SPEECH RADIO GENERAL ELECTION COVERAGE, THE AFTERMATH ON WEDNESDAY

kpfa-free-speech-take-it-back-logo-121199TALKIES—[9 NOV 2016]  The Morning After  With Hosts Norman Solomon and Dante Chinni, Director of The American Communities Project.  Hosted by Kris Welch.  Listeners call ins at 1-800-958-9008

[Host Kris Welch chats, from a liberal perspective, with Norman Solomon and Dante Chinni about the general election aftermath.  There is much brooding about the dynamics between the Democratic and Republican parties, but not much discussion nor interest in expanding the narrow two-party system.  None of the guests during this broadcast lamented the antidemocratic disaster of our democratic process, nor lamented the plight of people who work for political alternatives, such as the Green Party and Dr. Jill Stein and Ajamu Baraka’s progressive politics.  The great bellyache this morning is that they didn’t wake up to a Hillary Clinton America.  But Hillary Clinton would’ve been a neoliberal warhawk, without question.  So, perhaps, our perceptions are skewed.]

[snip]

[(c. 11:00)  Norman Solomon critique of Democratic Party and confronting class struggle]

[(c. 25:00)  In Norman Solomon’s closing remarks, he lamented the many problems with the corporate nature of the Democratic Party’s leadership.  And he urged that progressives need to clean all of that up to be ready to campaign in two years under the Democratic Party label.  That line of argumentation only makes sense if one is seeking to preserve a narrow two-party system, which blocks and suppresses all political alternatives and political competition to the status quo.  Norman Solomon doesn’t acknowledge the popular will and energy and desire for political alternatives, so-called ‘third parties’.  He can never mention the Green Party or expanding the debates, even though they represent a broad, if disaffected, segment of society, because liberals of his kind are so terminally wedded to the notion of reforming-the-Democratic-Party-from-within that they are forced to oppose any political competition.  In that sense, they diminish our collective political imagination and possibility.]

[(c. 32:00)  Kris Welch asks Norman Solomon about Roots Action.]

[(c. 45:00)  Jill Stein supporter calls in and gets bashed by Norman Solomon’s stock anti-third party rhetoric.]

[(c. 47:00)  Next caller cites a white backlash against the first black president.]

[(c. 50:00)  Next caller, Andrew from Los Angeles calls for unity.]

[(c. 53:00)  Next caller, Sharon in Sacramento supports Dr. Jill Stein and celebrates the fact that Dr. Jill Stein went down to the Dakota Access Pipeline and got arrested.  She challenged Norman Solomon to cite an example of a Democrat doing the same.]

[(c. 55:00)  Next caller, Remy in Newark resisted being “cynical”.]

[(c. 57:00)  Last caller, a Bernie Sanders supporter since the earliest primary until the end decried how Bernie Sanders didn’t contest any of the primaries.  Indeed, it sure looked like he went out very compliantly, as if helping cover up electoral fraud and manipulations.  Norman Solomon responded dismissively, saying that the caller’s complaints were exaggerated and that Bernie Sanders did draw attention to the ‘structural challenges’.]

[snip]

[snip]  (c. 59:59)  [9 NOV 2016]

Learn more at TALKIES.

*

Letters-and-Politics-Logo-No-Background-327x230LETTERS AND POLITICS—[9 NOV 2016]  [Intro by Mitch Jeserich.  On today’s broadcast, a roundtable discussion on Trump’s winning of the U.S. presidency.]

[KPFA News Headlines (read by Aileen Alfandary)]

[Adele Stan (AlterNet)]

[Rick Perlstein]

[(c. 41:00)  On how bad the Democratic primary was…]

[snip]  (c. 59:59)

Learn more at LETTERS AND POLITICS.

*

DN! logo (large)DEMOCRACY NOW!—[9 NOV 2016]

Headlines

Donald Trump Elected 45th President of the United States

Donald J. Trump was elected 45th president of the United States on Tuesday, defeating Hillary Rodham Clinton in a stunning upset that reverberated around the world. Trump carried at least 279 Electoral College votes to Clinton’s 218, although Trump appears to have narrowly lost the popular vote. Around 2:50 a.m., Donald Trump took the stage at a New York City victory party, saying he had received a phone call by Hillary Clinton congratulating him on the win.

President-elect Donald Trump: “To all Republicans and Democrats and independents across this nation, I say it is time for us to come together as one united people. It’s time. I pledge to every citizen of our land that I will be president for all Americans, and this is so important to me. For those who have chosen not to support me in the past, of which there were a few people, I am reaching out to you for your guidance and your help, so that we can work together and unify our great country.”

The contest pitted the two most unpopular candidates in modern presidential history against one another, with a majority of Americans viewing both Trump and Clinton unfavorably. Donald Trump has never held elective office. He opened his campaign in 2015 with a speech calling Mexican immigrants criminals and rapists. Trump has proposed banning all Muslims from entering the United States. He openly mocked his opponents, reporters, Asians, African Americans and the disabled. More than a dozen women have accused Trump of sexual assault, and he was heard in a 2005 videotape boasting about sexually assaulting women. Throughout the campaign, Trump drew the enthusiastic support of white nationalists and hate groups. Former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard David Duke, who ran unsuccessfully for a U.S. Senate seat in Louisiana, cheered the outcome of the election. Duke tweeted, “This is one of the most exciting nights of my life -> make no mistake about it, our people have played a HUGE role in electing Trump! #MAGA.”

Hillary Clinton Supporters Shocked by Loss to Donald Trump

News of Trump’s victory left supporters of Hillary Clinton stunned and shaken. A crowd of thousands—a majority of them women—gathered under the glass ceiling of the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York, where celebration turned to despair as it appeared Clinton was headed to defeat.

Early-Morning Protests Spring Up After Donald Trump Victory

Trump’s victory sparked early-morning protests around the country. At the campus of UCLA in California, about 1,500 people gathered to protest and burn a Trump piñata. Outside the White House, Trump’s opponents shouted at supporters, who responded with chants of “Build that wall!”

Republicans Retain House and Senate Majority

Meanwhile, Republicans captured both the House and Senate, positioning their party to control all three branches of government. Democrats gained a Senate seat but will fall short of the 51 seats needed to overcome Vice President-elect Mike Pence’s tie-breaking power. In the House, Republicans will hold a comfortable majority, with at least 236 of the chamber’s 435 seats.

Republican Sweep Likely to Tilt Supreme Court Balance

The congressional sweep makes it likely that Donald Trump will appoint a conservative to the Supreme Court post left vacant since Antonin Scalia died in February. Republicans have refused to consider Obama’s pick for the high court, Merrick Garland, and will likely ignore his nomination until Trump names his own nominee during the next Congress.

Stock Markets in Turmoil as Donald Trump Stages Upset

Markets in the U.S. and around the world plunged overnight as Trump’s victory became imminent, with the S&P dropping by 5 percent to its “limit down,” the maximum drop allowed before trading curbs kick in. Many stock indices recovered after Trump’s victory speech. The Mexican peso fell 11 percent overnight to an all-time low before recovering some ground.

Long Lines, Voter ID Laws and Fewer Polling Places Suppress Turnout

Tuesday’s election was the first in half a century to take place without the full protection of the Voting Rights Act. The Leadership Conference for Civil Rights says voters had 868 fewer polling locations. In key battleground states, many spent hours in line, while others gave up and left the polls. In Greenbelt, Maryland, voters waited for one ballot scanner for the entire precinct.

Jide Eniola: “I actually asked the lady that’s there, ‘Why do you have one scanner here? I have a friend that lives in Montgomery County, and they have—in one place, they have about six or seven.’ She said that’s what they gave them. Yeah? I asked her, I said, ‘Why do you only have one here?’ The line was about—you have to make a U-turn, like 360, to get up to the first one. And it’s just—three hours is just too long.”

There were hours-long lines in parts of New York City, as well, where Donald Trump was booed as he entered Public School 59 in Midtown Manhattan to cast his ballot. Turnout was down among African-American voters in key battleground states, where federal lawsuits have challenged voter ID laws that civil rights groups say are targeted against communities of color.

House Speaker Paul Ryan Confident He Will Retain Leadership Role

In Wisconsin, Republican Paul Ryan easily reclaimed his House seat Tuesday. Ryan says he is confident he’ll retain his leadership role as speaker of the House.

Speaker Paul Ryan: “I’ve just been sitting there watching the polls. By some accounts, this could be a really good night for America. This could be a good night for us.”

Some Republican congressmembers say they’ll seek to replace Ryan as House speaker, after Ryan repeatedly condemned Donald Trump’s remarks on the campaign trail. Despite the criticisms, Ryan never dropped his endorsement of Trump.

Wisconsin: Russ Feingold Loses to GOP Incumbent Sen. Ron Johnson

Also in Wisconsin, Democrat Russ Feingold narrowly lost his bid to return to the Senate, falling to Republican incumbent Ron Johnson.

Florida: Republican Senator Marco Rubio Re-elected

In Florida, Republican Marco Rubio has retained his Senate seat, after reversing a pledge to retire from politics, and despite a failed bid for the Republican nomination for president. During the campaign, Trump repeatedly mocked Rubio’s appearance, calling him “Little Marco.” At a victory party on Tuesday, Rubio struck a conciliatory tone.

Sen. Marco Rubio: “I hope we will set the example in this great state that while we can disagree on issues, we cannot share a country where people hate each other because of their political affiliations. We cannot move forward as a nation if we cannot have enlightened debates about tough issues. You can disagree with someone without hating them.”

California: Kamala Harris Elected as Second-Ever Black Woman U.S. Senator

In California, state Attorney General Kamala Harris has won the Senate seat vacated by Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer, who is retiring. Harris is a Democrat of Indian and Jamaican ancestry. She becomes only the second black woman ever elected to the U.S. Senate.

Gubernatorial Races Split Between Republicans, Democrats

In gubernatorial races, Democrats and Republicans appear to have evenly split the 12 governor’s seats up for election. In North Carolina, Republican Governor Pat McCrory is demanding a recount, after an initial tally showed him trailing Democratic challenger Roy Cooper by fewer than 5,000 votes.

Voters Raise Minimum Wage, Support Death Penalty, Legalize Marijuana

In ballot measures, 69 percent of voters approved an anti-union measure to make Alabama a right-to-work state, while a similar measure was defeated in Virginia. Voters in Colorado, Maine and Arizona all voted to increase the minimum wage to $12 an hour by 2020, while in Washington state the minimum wage will increase to $13.50 an hour. In Colorado, voters have rejected a measure to create a single-payer health insurance system. Nebraska has voted to restore the death penalty, while in Oklahoma voters have approved a measure that amends the state constitution to guarantee the right to impose the death penalty. In California, a ballot measure to overturn capital punishment is trailing, while another measure to speed up the pace of executions is winning by a narrow margin. Voters in California, Massachusetts and Nevada voted to legalize the recreational use of marijuana, while North Dakota, Arkansas and Florida approved medical marijuana initiatives.

Minnesota: Ilhan Omar Elected as First-Ever Somali-American Legislator

In Minnesota, Ilhan Omar has been elected as the nation’s first Somali-American legislator, winning a seat in the state House as a member of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party.

Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio Loses Bid for Seventh Term, May Be Jailed

In Arizona, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio lost his bid for a seventh term. Arpaio faces the possibility of jail time, after federal prosecutors announced they are charging him with criminal contempt of court over his refusal to end unconstitutional immigration patrols in Arizona.

California: Gunman Fires Near Polling Place, Killing 1 and Injuring 2

In California, two people were left dead and two others wounded after a man high on cocaine and armed with handguns, a rifle and shotgun opened fire near a polling station in the city of Azusa, east of Los Angeles. Police Chief Steve Hunt said the gunman was found dead after a battle with police.

Steve Hunt: “We believe that the suspect was armed with an assault rifle with a rapid-fire capability. Whether it’s fully automatic or semiautomatic, we don’t know at this time.”

The violence halted voting at two polling places and caused a lockdown at a nearby middle school. Police say the gunman fired at least 20 rounds at officers. The shooting came mere hours before California voters approved Proposition 63, which bans possession of magazines that hold more than 10 rounds, and provides a process for felons to have guns confiscated.

Orlando, FL Night Club to Become a Memorial to Gun Massacre Victims

In Orlando, Florida, city officials said Tuesday they will purchase the Pulse nightclub and convert it into a memorial for the 49 people killed there on June 12. It was the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history. Shooter Omar Mateen purchased the guns he used in the killing, including an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle, legally.

World Meteorological Organization Says Recent Years Hottest on Record

In climate news, the World Meteorological Organization said Tuesday that the five years from 2011 to 2015 were the hottest on record, with hundreds of thousands of deaths likely due to global warming from human activity. The findings were presented in Marrakesh, Morocco, where United Nations climate talks got underway this week. The report found human-induced climate change was directly linked to extreme events, including an East African drought and famine in 2011 that claimed over a quarter-million lives. Elena Manaenkova of the World Meteorological Organization says the Earth’s temperature has already risen by 1 degree Celsius, which is nearing the limit of a 1.5 degree rise set by the Paris Agreement.

Elena Manaenkova: “The conclusions are very clear that that was the warmest five-year period on record. We also confirm that the 2015 was the year when the global surface temperature exceeded 1 degree, and it links to the debate during this climate conference and the Paris Agreement targets.”

Trump Climate Denial Threatens U.N. Climate Change Agreement

Meanwhile, many delegates to the U.N. talks are expressing panic over the election of Donald Trump, saying the outcome threatens the future of any international agreement to slow catastrophic climate change. The Republican president-elect has said he will “cancel the Paris climate agreement and stop all payments of U.S. tax dollars to U.N. global warming programs.” Trump has also promised to promote coal power and fracking, and says he will allow for oil and gas drilling on federal lands. He has also promised to ask TransCanada to renew its permit application for the Keystone XL pipeline.

Indian Supreme Court Orders Action on Toxic Air Pollution Crisis

India’s Supreme Court has ordered the federal government to come up with a plan to combat toxic air pollution so thick that it’s being described as “beyond measurable limits.” The government has 48 hours to respond. A recent UNICEF report found 600,000 children under five die of air pollution every year, with about a third of the world’s at-risk children living in northern India and surrounding countries.

North Dakota: Pipeline Company Says It Will Soon Begin Drilling Despite Lack of Permit

In North Dakota, the company building the Dakota Access pipeline says it is preparing to drill beneath Lake Oahe on the Missouri River within two weeks, even though the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has not granted a permit. The announcement shocked and infuriated opponents of the $3.8 billion pipeline, which has faced months of resistance from the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe along with representatives of over 200 other indigenous tribes and non-Native allies. Opponents, who call themselves “water protectors,” say they were promised by an Army Corps of Engineers official that the Dakota Access pipeline would be delayed by at least 30 days, should the Obama administration agree to a permit. But pipeline builder Energy Transfer Partners said Tuesday the Army Corps was mistaken when it said the company had agreed to slow construction. The announcement came one week after President Obama said the Army Corps was looking at a possible “reroute” of the pipeline.

Puerto Rico: Protesters March Against Federal Oversight Board

And in Puerto Rico, activists took to the streets for an Election Day protest against a federally appointed oversight control board with sweeping powers to run Puerto Rico’s economy. Jocelyn Velázquez of the Promises Are Over movement helped organize the protest.

Jocelyn Velázquez: “Today we celebrate the elections in Puerto Rico, and it is a futile exercise, because there is an oversight control board imposed by the United States government that is going to take the transcendental decisions about our future. It was indispensable not only to take this demand to the national level, but take it to the international level, too. In Puerto Rico, there is no democracy and no participation. The electoral exercise is simply a pantomime of what a democracy is.”

On Tuesday, Puerto Ricans elected Ricardo Rosselló of the New Progressive Party as governor. Rosselló is a conservative who strongly favors U.S. statehood for Puerto Rico.

From the First African-American President to One Supported by the Ku Klux Klan: Trump Wins in Upset

Donald J. Trump was elected 45th president of the United States on Tuesday, defeating Hillary Rodham Clinton in a stunning upset that reverberated around the world. Trump carried at least 279 Electoral College votes to Clinton’s 218, although Trump appears to have narrowly lost the popular vote. Donald Trump has never held elective office. He opened his campaign in 2015 with a speech calling Mexican immigrants criminals and rapists. Trump has proposed banning all Muslims from entering the United States. He openly mocked his opponents, reporters, Asians, African Americans and the disabled. More than a dozen women have accused Trump of sexual assault, and he was heard in a 2005 videotape boasting about sexually assaulting women. Throughout the campaign, Trump drew the enthusiastic support of white nationalists and hate groups. Former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard David Duke, who ran unsuccessfully for a U.S. Senate seat in Louisiana, cheered the outcome of the election. Duke tweeted, “This is one of the most exciting nights of my life -> make no mistake about it, our people have played a HUGE role in electing Trump! #MakeAmericaGreatAgain.”

AMY GOODMAN: Donald Trump has been elected the 45th president of the United States, defeating Hillary Clinton in a stunning upset that reverberated around the world. Trump carried at least 279 Electoral College votes to Clinton’s 218, although Trump appears to have narrowly lost the popular vote. As recently as yesterday, some pollsters were predicting Clinton had a 99 percent chance of winning the election, but that was before Trump pulled off victories in the key battleground states of Florida, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, North Carolina and Ohio.

Donald Trump, who has never held elective office, opened his campaign in 2015 with a speech calling Mexican immigrants criminals and rapists. He has proposed banning all Muslims from entering the United States. He openly mocked his opponents, reporters, Asians, African Americans and the disabled. More than a dozen women have accused Trump of sexual assault, and he can be heard in a 2005 videotape boasting about sexually assaulting women. Throughout the campaign, Donald Trump drew the enthusiastic support of the Ku Klux Klan and other white nationalist and hate groups. Former KKK Grand Wizard David Duke, who ran unsuccessfully for a U.S. Senate seat in Louisiana, cheered the outcome of the election. Duke tweeted, “This is one of the most exciting nights of my life -> make no mistake about it, our people have played a HUGE role in electing Trump! #MAGA [Make America Great Again],” unquote.

Around 2:50 Eastern time this morning, Donald Trump took the stage at the New York Hilton Hotel victory party, saying he had received a phone call from Hillary Clinton congratulating him on the win.

PRESIDENT–ELECT DONALD TRUMP: I have just received a call from Secretary Clinton. She congratulated us—it’s about us—on our victory. And I congratulated her and her family on a very, very hard-fought campaign. I mean, she—she fought very hard. Hillary has worked very long and very hard over a long period of time, and we owe her a major debt of gratitude for her service to our country. I mean that very sincerely.

Now it’s time for America to bind the wounds of division, have to get together. To all Republicans and Democrats and independents across this nation, I say it is time for us to come together as one united people. It’s time. I pledge to every citizen of our land that I will be president for all Americans, and this is so important to me. For those who have chosen not to support me in the past, of which there were a few people, I am reaching out to you for your guidance and your help, so that we can work together and unify our great country.

As I’ve said from the beginning, ours was not a campaign, but rather an incredible and great movement made up of millions of hard-working men and women who love their country and want a better, brighter future for themselves and for their family. It’s a movement comprised of Americans from all races, religions, backgrounds and beliefs, who want and expect our government to serve the people.

And serve the people it will. Working together, we will begin the urgent task of rebuilding our nation and renewing the American dream. I’ve spent my entire life in business, looking at the untapped potential in projects and in people all over the world. That is now what I want to do for our country.

AMY GOODMAN: We’ll have more on Donald Trump’s election as 45th president of the United States in a minute.

[snip]  (c. 52:00)

[snip]

[In her closing remarks, Amy Goodman announced that a second hour of coverage will be available at DemocracyNow.org.]  [9 NOV 2016]

Learn more at DEMOCRACY NOW!

*

ELECTION NIGHT COVERAGE, TUESDAY

KPFA NEWS—[8 NOV 2016]  [Three-hour broadcast from 9pm PST to midnight.]

[The end of the Democracy Now! Election Night coverage ended at 9pm PST with a music break and local station identifications, appeals for support, and local announcements.  KPFA Radio has Mark Mericle come on the air announcing Trump is polling stronger than expected.  And stocks are crashing in response to the uncertainty associated with a potential Trump presidency.]

MARK MERICLE:  (c. 0:01)  “Republican Donald Trump has won his point, at least.  He proved he can run a cooperative and a competitive presidential campaign on his own idiosyncratic terms.  He still may win the presidency itself yet tonight.  All the signs are pointing to it.  Hillary Clinton, who has not performed as expected in state after state, must win nearly all the battles, which remain to be decided.  It’s still too close to call.  But it’s a lot closer than almost all the experts predicted.

“And stock analysts are warning investors not to make any hasty decisions to buy or sell.  The Dow futures and Asian markets are crashing.

“Meanwhile, plenty of business still tonight in California:  17 propositions are on the statewide ballot.  ”

[News Headlines are read by Mark Mericle.  Mark Mericle interviews Mitch Perry(sp?) in Tampa, Florida with FloridaPolitics.com.  (21:19 PST)  Mericle continues updating the ‘horse race’.  (21:20 PST) (c. 0:20) Sharon Saboda(sp?) reports from Hillary Clinton camp.  Mark Mericle interview Gavin Newsom.]

[KPFA News Department’s Max Pringle reads KPFA News Headlines]

[(c. 21:35 PST) (c. 35:00)  Next report.]

[(c. 21:45 PST)  Mark Mericle speaks with Tom Campbell, former south bay congressperson.]

[(c. 21:47 PST) (c. 47:00)  Mark Mericle interviews Brit-sounding Matt Cherry, who led the campaign for Proposition 62, to abolish the death penalty in California.  SF Bay Area is trending in favour of Prop. 62, but the rest of California seems to be against Prop. 62.  Matt Cherry cautions premature calls, as the Los Angeles area has still not fully reported election results.  (c. 21:52)  Mark Mericle dismissed Matt Cherry.]

[(c. 21:52 PST)  Mark Mericle gets into local SF Bay Area measures.  Oakland Measure HH, the sugar soda tax seems to be winning.  Unidentified guest interviews Dianne Wolsen(sp?) on the sugar soda tax.]

[snip]

[(c. 22:02 PST)  News Headlines (read by Aileen Alfandary)]

[(c. 22:17 PST)  Mark Mericle dismisses Don Nielsen(sp?) on presidential election commentary.]

[(c. 22:17 PST)  Next guest, Mike Walinski (CA Teachers Association), on statewide ballot propositions.]

[(c. 22:25 PST)  KPFA reporter on local politician Jesse Arreguin poised to be the first Latino mayor of Berkeley, endorsed by Bernie Sanders.  Arreguin speaks with KPFA’s Mark Mericle.  (c. 22:31)  Mark Mericle dismisses Arreguin.]

[(c. 22:32)  Music break]

[(c. 23:23 PST)  Podesta asks the audience to call it a night, as there’s still a few states, which are too close to call tonight.  Podesta asks everyone to go home for the night and tries to pump up the crowd one last time.  But signs of cracks in the veneer are starting to show.]

Podesta announces that Hillary Clinton will not be speaking on Election Night

Trump Speech After 2016 November Election

[(c. 23:46 PST)  New VP Mike Pence gave a victory speech and introduced the new US president Donald Trump.]

[(c. 23:51 PST)  Donald Trump took the stage, announced that Hillary Clinton just telephoned him to concede the election, gave a bloated and vacuous victory speech. (c. 23:59 PST)  Trump acknowledged his campaign team and offered his concluding remarks, including thanks to Rudy Giuliani, Governor Chris Christy, Senator Jeff Sessions, Dr. Ben Carson, Mike Huckabee and family, General Mike Flynn(sp?), General Kellog(sp?), et al.]

[Three-hour broadcast of the KPFA News Department’s Election Night coverage ended at midnight, in terms of the time-blocks in which the radio broadcasts are archived.  But, in reality, Mark Mericle and the KPFA News Department stayed on the air past midnight with their coverage of the U.S. presidential election.  The regularly scheduled programme, No Other Radio Network, was preempted for a few minutes, as Trump’s victory speech carried on.]

[(c. 00:03 PST)  Donald Trump continued after somebody, apparently his campaign manager, announced him as the ‘next president of the United States’.  Trump acknowledged the Secret Service and “law enforcement”.  Trump promised to “do a great job”.]

PRESIDENT-ELECT DONALD TRUMP:  “And law enforcement in New York City, they’re here tonight.  [audience cheers and applauds]  These are spectacular people, sometimes underappreciated, unfortunately, but we appreciate them.  We know what they go through.  So, it’s been what they call a historic event.  But, to be really historic, we have to do a great job.  [Audience member: Yeah!]  And, I promise you, that I will not let you down.  We will do a great job.  We will do a great job.  I look very much forward to being your president.  And, hopefully, at the end of two years or three years or four years or, maybe, even eight years—[audience cheers]—you will say—so many worked so hard for us, but—you will say that that was something that you were really were very proud to do.  And I can only—[responding to voice in the crowd] thank you—that, while the campaign is over, our work on this movement is, now, really, just beginning. [audience cheers]  We’re going to—”  [(c. 00:04 PST) (c. 04:27)  Mark Mericle cut into the broadcast, as it seemed Donald Trump had no intention of wrapping up his victory speech anytime soon.  In fact, it went on about four more minutes.  (See video above for extended audio of Trump’s remarks.)  On free speech radio, KPFA News Department boss Mark Mericle read credits of KPFA News Department’s coverage of the 2016 November General Election coverage.]

MARK MERICLE:  “And that’s it, folks.  We do have a winner.  His name is Donald Trump.  That’s a wrap.  But this is not a movie.  That will conclude KPFA’s Election Night coverage.  Donald Trump has been elected the next president of the United States.  Hillary Clinton conceded to him in a telephone call tonight without speaking to the nation at all.

“Thanks for joining us tonight, and thanks to the team, that produced this coverage.  Aileen Alfandary was our executive producer and newscaster.  Christina Aanestad was our producer.  Assistant producer: Corrine Smith.  Janeen Edder(sp?) was our engineer.  Max Pringle: our newscaster.  Christopher Martinez and Mike Cohn(sp?) provided statewide returns.  Megan Sussman provided returns from San Francisco.  Sadia Malik(sp?) handled the returns in Alameda County.  Tia Monroe(sp?) covered the Berkeley mayor’s race.  Justin Gold covered Proposition 64, the legalise marijuana measure, which easily passed.  Sharon Sabodo(sp?) was with the Democratic Party in San Francisco.  Taylor Romine(sp?) with Scott Weiner For State Senate.  Simon Peltier was our sound editor.  China Armstrong covered the Richmond Progressive Alliance and the Richmond Rent Control measure.  Amber Miles was with the Jane Kim For State Senate race in San Francisco.  Ruben Sapphire was with the Green County in the East Bay.  Vic Bedoyin(sp?) covered the central valley races from Fresno.  Glen Reader(sp?) was on the Oakland Measure HH, the soda tax measure.  Karen Argood(sp?) produced the voices of voters.  And our technical producer tonight was Dev Ross.

“If you appreciated this coverage, here, on KPFA, and our coverage of the election season throughout the last 18 months and can help us continue this work, please go to kpfa.org and make whatever contribution you can.  I’m Mark Mericle.  Good night.  [theme music funk instrumental]  (c. 6:43)  [(c. 7:25)  Hosts of No Other Radio Network take over the radio trransmission with its abstract audio collages, reflecting a particularly jilted sense of American pride amongst the liberals and progressives in the wake of Trump’s demagogic electoral victory.  Abolish the Electoral College.]

(c. 2:59:59)

Learn more at KPFA NEWS.

*

Vote_12345PACIFICA RADIO—[8 NOV 2016]  [Four-hour broadcast from 5pm to 9pm PST, produced by Democracy Now!]

[Four-hour special broadcast is scheduled for Election Day, Tuesday, November 8, 2016, starting at 5pm (when the first time zone of election polls close on the east coast at 8pm eastern time zone).]

[(c. 62:00)  Second hour begins.  Florida overwhelmingly passes medical cannabis legalisation.]

[(c. 74:00)  Thomas Frank critiques Hillary Clinton’s type of “liberalism”.  But he, nevertheless, admits that he voted for Hillary Clinton.  And, saliently, he carefully avoids the word neoliberalism]

[(c. 76:00)  Dr. Malveaux tepidly enunciates the explosive word “neoliberalism”.  But she does so dismissively.]

[(c. 77:00)  Amy Goodman moves on to voter suppression issues, including a lawsuit invoking the Ku Klux Klan Act and its legacy.]

[Guest argues that a moral hunger exists among liberals to reclaim the moral centre.]

[(c. 95:00)  Dr. Malveaux, the indefatigable Hillary Clinton apologist, says she’s not voting against Donald Trump but for Hillary Clinton.]

[(c. 96:00)  Reverend Barber:  There wouldn’t be a Donald Trump without a backlash against Obama.  On the race question:  People have suffered for rights, “died and bled”.]

[(c. 92:00)  Next guests…Mitch Perry(sp?)]

[(c. 97:00)  AG gives Thomas Frank an opportunity to respond, as she ‘knows he must leave the broadcast soon.]

[(c. 1:13:00)  Greg Grandin…]

[(19:04 PST) (c. 2:04:00)  Eddie Glaude:  There are no surprises.]  [This sounds like a repeat of what was said, or broadcast, earlier at 17:00 PDT, or earlier in the day, during the regular Democracy Now! broadcast.]

[Dr. Malveaux chimes in, largely agreeing and perpetuating this subtle Democratic Party apologia.]

[(19:08 PST) (c. 2:08:00)  AG updates the two-party dictatorship ‘horse race’.]

[snip]

[(20:06 PST)  Allan Nairn alleges the FBI may be swinging the vote in favour of Trump.]

[(20:08 PST)  CBS News has just reported that Trump has won North Carolina.]

[(20:13 PST)  (c. 3:13:00) Sheriff Joe Arpaio(sp?) has lost his election.]

[(20:13 PST)  (c. 3:13:00)  Next guest:  ]

[(20:23 PST)  Dr. Malveaux cites Dr. Ralph Nader]

[(20:23 PST)  John Nichols cuts in.]

[(20:25 PST)  Alan Nairn cuts in.]

[(20:26 PST)  Amy Goodman cuts in, brings up other issues, including 84-year old Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who is facing criminal charges and facing possible jail time.]

[(20:27 PST)  Alan Nairn applauds justice being served against Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who once called for prisoners caloric intake to be reduced, so that they wouldn’t have the energy to resist prison injustices.]

[c. 20:28 PST]  Female pundit joins in.

[(20:40 PST)  John Nichols retorts.]

[Professor Eddie Glaude, Hillary Rodham Clinton supporter, chimes in.]

[(20:43 PST)  The other male guest chimes in.]

[(20:43 PST)  Dr. Malveaux chimes in.]

[Back and forth chatter within a narrow two-party paradigm continues.]

[(20:44 PST)  Dr. Malveaux invokes Russia fearmongering:  ‘Maybe Trump has dealings with Russia.’]

[Back and forth chatter within a narrow two-party paradigm continues.  No mention of the erosion of democracy, which only Dr. Jill Stein and Ajamu Baraka’s Green Party campaign are countering.]

[(20:25 PST)  Amy Goodman cuts in to the horse race banter to introduce Wayne Barrett(sp?).  AG reports the corporate media has now reported Iowa coming in favour of Trump.  Barett invokes Bruce Springsteen, a ‘man of the people’, who was ‘never asked’ to campaign for Hillary Clinton.  Deluded liberals are reeling as Trump appears to be winning county after county and state after state on election day.]

[(20:48 PST)  Amy Goodman cuts in to report that ‘Donald Trump has just won the battleground state of Georgia’.]

[(20:54 PST)  Amy Goodman asks about Trump’s relationship with the FBI, including James Comey (b. 1960).]

[Democracy Now’s neoliberal rhetoric continues until the KPFA News Department cuts in, giving no word that the broadcast will not be returning to Democracy Now’s ‘expert’ panel.]

[(21:00 PST)  Democracy Now! team silently ends their broadcast transmission.]

[snip]

[snip]  (c. 3:59:59)

Learn more at PACIFICA RADIO.

*

FLASHPOINTS—[8 NOV 2016]   [Broadcast summary from kpfa.org broadcast archive page:  “Today on Flashpoints: Greg Palast joins us for an election daypost mortem on voter-intimidation. Also The Pipeline: How Marin and San Francisco Financial Firms Fuel the Fracking Boom. And we’ll see if we can get in a few listener phone calls.”]

[snip]

Learn more at FLASHPOINTS.

*

HARD KNOCK RADIO—[8 NOV 2016]  [During the first half hour, Davey D spoke with a centrist liberal, whose remarks largely bolstered a Democrat apologist line of argumentation in the context of the 2016 November general election.]

[snip]

[snip]  (c. 59:59)

Learn more at HARD KNOCK RADIO.

*

LETTERS AND POLITICS—[8 NOV 2016]  [“Election Commentary with Richard Wolff” broadcast preview summary (accessed at 10:21 PDT on 8 NOV 2016):  “with Dr. Richard Wolff, a renowned American Marxist economist, and Professor of Economics Emeritus, about the elections, the state of politics in the US and his ideas for rewriting the economic script in the country.  His latest book is Democracy at Work: A Cure for Capitalism.”] 

[transcript pending]

[Messina called in during the call-in section and raised a bunch of issues, particularly the economic fact that we can end involuntary unemployment as we know it through an MMT-based job guarantee programme.  MMT stands for modern money theory, which, as taught at heterodox economics departments throughout the United States, such as at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, shows us how we have monetary sovereignty, which allows us to use modern money for public purpose.  Your author’s former professor, Dr. Stephanie Kelton, for example, shows us that all money exists as an IOU.  This means, technically, taxes don’t pay for federal spending.  They pay for state spending, but not federal spending.  Dr. Richard Wolff agreed that everything was “correct”.  But he didn’t really delve into, or engage with, the issue of the MMT-based job guarantee programme because it seems to clash with his particular variety of Marxian ideology.]

[snip]  (c. 59:59)

Learn more at LETTERS AND POLITICS.

*

DEMOCRACY NOW!—[8 NOV 2016]  [Listen to this radio broadcast here; or view the TV version here.]

[Democracy Now! featured coverage of the many local ballot measures throughout the nation, apparently the most in any general election in recent history.  Many of the local ballot measures involve minimum wage laws, local revenue needs, medicinal (and so-called non-medicinal) cannabis sales, sin taxes, and other health care initiatives.]

[(c. 27:00)  Inequality.org]

[(c. 30:00)  Graham Nash music break/local station identifications and announcements]

[Rolling Stone’s Greg Palast (author of The Best Democracy Money Can Buy) reported from the ‘battleground’ state of Ohio.  Greg Palast has also reported for free speech KPFA Radio’s Flashpoints for its Election Protection series during the 2016 presidential election.]

[On charges of ‘double-voting’ found through ‘cross-checking’ of ballots with similar names as a pretense for purging voters of colour from voter rolls.  At least one million voters are being deleted from the voter rolls; their ballots are being invalidated.  Audit functions are being turned off in Ohio.]

[(c. 45:00)  Amy Goodman dismisses Greg Palast]

[(c. 45:30)  music break/local station identifications and announcements/on KPFA, Christina Aanestad appeals for listener donations]

[On upgrading our democratic process:  abolishing the electoral college; National Popular Vote Interstate Compact; ranked-choice voting (or instant run-off voting); proportional representation.]  (c. 51:00)

[Guest from Fair Vote.]

[(c. 55:00)  Archive clip from Amy Goodman’s ambush interview of Bill Clinton on the political bankruptcy of the two-party system]

[snip]  (c. 59:59)

Learn more at DEMOCRACY NOW!.

***

ENDNOTES

[1]  For example, see the following articles:

  • “The Stolen Presidential Elections” by Michael Parenti, MichaelParenti.org, May 2007 (updated version)
  • “How the 2004 Presidential ‘Election’ Was Stolen by George W. Bush” by Eric Zuesse, 25 OCT 2016.

***

[‘ranked-choice ballot’ image by source, used via fair use. ]

[‘Model 100 voting machine’ by Messina]

[8 NOV 2016]

[Last modified 17:37 PST  10 NOV 2016]

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2016 Green Party National Convention

06 Sat Aug 2016

Posted by ztnh in Anti-Fascism, Anti-Imperialism, Democracy Deferred, First Amendment (U.S. Constitution), Freedom of Speech, Political Economy, Political Science, Presidential Election 2016, Racism (phenotype)

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

2016 Green National Convention, Ajamu Baraka, Ann Garrison, Bernie Or Bust movement, Black Agenda Report, Bruce Dixon, Cheri Honkala (b. 1953), Commission on Presidential Debates, Dahr Jamail (b. 1968), David Cobb (b. 1962), Dr. Cornel West, Dr. Jill Stein, Green Party, Greg Palast, Jonathan Fluck (Nat'l Coordinator Jill Stein Campaign), KPFA, KPFT, League of Women Voters, Libertarian Party, Mark Bebawi, non-profit industrial complex, Otis Maclay, Pacifica Radio Network, Rosemary M. Collyer (federal judge), spoiler effect, Two-Party Dictatorship, YahNe’ Ndgo

GP_Con_2016LUMPENPROLETARIAT—The Green Party has convened once again to confirm the nomination of their candidate for the presidency of the United States.  The 2016 Green National Convention (GNC) is being held August 4–7, 2016 in Houston, Texas.  And the nomination is pretty much locked in for Dr. Jill Stein, a progressive candidate who has a strong grasp of all of the issues of concern to Americans civically engaged in their communities and society.

Even Americans, who are divorced or barred from civic engagement, would find Jill Stein‘s platform sensible.  Even the disenfranchised, including excluded immigrants, economic refugees, and migrant workers, would find a voice advocating on their behalf in Dr. Jill Stein.  But that is only if Dr. Stein and the Green Party were given an equitable opportunity to participate and debate the presidential nominees of the two dominant corporate political parties.  This, Ralph Nader, and anyone running for president from outside of the bounds of the two-party dictatorship, can attest.

As the 2016 presidential cycle developed, a lawsuit was filed by the Libertarian Party‘s Gary Johnson and the Green Party‘s Dr. Jill Stein to re-open the presidential debates to alternative political parties and give them a chance to debate the political cartel of the two corporate parties—the Democratic and Republican parties.  Ross Perot‘s participation in the 1992 presidential debates is the only example Americans have in recorded history of any candidate participating in the ‘official’ presidential debates, who was not a Republican or a Democrat.

So, Gary Johnson (Libertarian Party) and Dr. Stein (Green Party) sued the Commission On Presidential Debates (CPD) “alleging violations of anti-trust law and the First Amendment”.  Since the CPD is a private corporation, its legal eagles unscrupulously argued that the presidential debates are actually a private forum.  It may be the case that the CPD is a private corporation, but the presidential debates are not a private forum.  The presidential debates are essential to our democratic process, as they help voters compare, contrast, critically analyse, and reflect in an unfettered fashion upon the political choices, which will be appearing on their ballots.  And allowing the presidential debates to become the exclusive domain of the political cartel of the Republican and Democratic parties undermines our democratic process.  Nevertheless, G.W. Bush-appointed “federal judge Rosemary M. Collyer threw out the lawsuit on Friday.” [1]

Electoral problems flow from the fact that we, as a society, have allowed our political process to be privatised, along with so many other aspects of our lives, which are impacted by neoliberalism.  The legal challenge to the currently antidemocratic nature of the presidential debates, as it is being monopolised by the collusion between the Democratic and Republican parties against any and all political alternatives, will have to involve the public wresting control over the presidential debates away from those two corporate political parties.  Previously, the League of Women Voters, a neutral organisation, moderated the presidential debates.

But, in 1988, the League of Women Voters withdrew its sponsorship of the presidential debates after the George H.W. Bush and Michael Dukakis campaigns secretly agreed to a ‘memorandum of understanding’, which would decide which candidates could participate in the debates, which individuals would be panelists (and therefore able to ask questions), and even the height of the podiums.  The League rejected their bipartisan and oligopolistic demands and released a statement saying that they were withdrawing support for the presidential debates because “the demands of the two campaign organizations would perpetrate a fraud on the American voter.” [2]

But the bipartisan fraud and the marginalisation of political alternatives, such as the Green Party, doesn’t end with the corporate media or the corporate-sponsored presidential debates.  Even free speech radio doesn’t deem the Green National Convention worthy of full coverage.  For example, the largest free speech radio network in the nation, Pacifica Radio, has only broadcast coverage on one of the four days in which the 2016 Green National Convention was held.  By contrast, Pacifica Radio provided coverage of all four days of each of the DNC and RNC, respectively.  (But, actually, this GNC coverage is an improvement for free speech radio compared with past presidential election cycles.  Waking the folk up can be a slow, incremental, process.)

“Wake up!” scene (taken from School Daze)

Helping us wake the folk up, Dr. Cornel West delivered a stirring speech of moral outrage and in support of the Green Party‘s challenge to the two-party dictatorship.  Major addresses also included Green Party presidential candidate Dr. Jill Stein and ‘Bernie Or Bust‘ movement spokesperson YahNe’ Ndgo.

One commendable aspect of Pacifica’s coverage of the Green National Convention is the inclusion of independent journalist and KPFA contributor Ann Garrison, alongside Mark Bebawi from KPFT, a Pacifica station in Houston, Texas.  Mark Bebawi is host of The Monitor on Pacifica station KPFT.  Ann Garrison‘s writing is currently featured in the San Francisco Bayview, CounterPunch, the Black Agenda Report, and Global Research.  Ann Garrison also  produces news for KPFA in the San Francisco Bay Area.  Ann Garrison, a personal acquaintance and friend of Lumpenproletariat, is an uncloseted Green.  Regardless of her partisanship, Ann Garrison is one of the most brutally honest reporters around today, alongside Jeremy Scahill and a few others.  Listen (and/or download) here. [3]

Messina

***

PACIFICA RADIO—[6 AUG 2016] The Green Party National Convention will be held from Aug 4 – 7th in Houston, TX. Pacifica will carry much of the convention live, culminating in the acceptance speeches of the Presidential and Vice Presidential candidates.

The four hours will give a broad picture of the Green Party, its activities and impact on the 2016 presidential election along recordings of events of Thursday and Friday, and interviews with people involved with the platform, proceedings, and commentary from experts in history and politics.

Speeches will include: Jill Stein, Presidential nominee, Cornel West, or YahNe’ Ndgo, spokesperson for the Bernie or Bust movement. . .

Host: Mark Bebawi, of “The Monitor” – KPFT-Pacifica

Learn more at PACIFICA RADIO.

***

[Working draft transcript of actual radio broadcast by Messina for Lumpenproletariat and Pacifica Radio Network.]

PACIFICA RADIO—[6 AUG 2016]  [dead air; technical difficulties]  (c. 0:20)

[music break:  uptempo blues song]

MARK BEBAWI:  “It’s the pleasure of live radio.  You’re listening to the Pacifica Network coverage of the Green Convention—is here at the University of Houston.  It was partly today, and also yesterday.  And we’re gonna be with you for the next four hours.

“If you’re listening in the central time zone, that will be from 1pm to 5pm, east coast 2- to 6-.  I’m sure you can do the math on all the other time zones.  Uh, I know that all five Pacifica stations are tuned in.  So, welcome to you all, wherever you are across the country.  And I don’t have a total number of affiliates, who are joining us.  But, hopefully, it’s substantial.  The audio today is gonna be, maybe, different from what you would expect from Pacifica because we are in an open convention hall.  There’s ambient background noise.  And we’re expecting occasional, perhaps quite disruptive interruptions from the loudspeaker system, that is piped into our room, even though we are not on the convention hall, itself.  So, if you hear stuff in the background, please excuse us.

“I should mention that my name is Mark Bebawi.  I have a show on Pacifica‘s KPFT station in Houston.  Sitting next to me is Ann Garrison, who does some news stuff for ‘BAI and—is it KPFA as well, Ann?”  (c. 2:02)

ANN GARRISON:  “Yes.  And I am an embedded journalist because I am a registered Green here at the Green Party Convention.”

MARK BEBAWI:  “So, Ann is with us.  And, you know, there’s gonna be a lot of stuff happening a little bit by-the-seat-of-the-pants today.  I’ll give you a brief rundown [producer interjects] of what we are hoping is going to happen.  And, then, if you listen for the whole four hours, you might hear something other than what we hoped.

“So, between now and about 1:40—these times, that I am mentioning, they are all local, so central time—between now and about 1:40, we’re going to be playing various clips of interviews of attendees, delegates, and even one of the keynote speakers, potentially.  And, then, at around 1:40, we’re expecting to hear live audio from the convention floor of YahNe’ Ndgo.  She’s one of the keynote speakers.  She’ll be followed by Dr. Cornel West.  Those two speeches, we think, are going to wrap up at around 2:15.

“From about 2:15 to roughly 3:15, we’re gonna be with you for the hour.  And, during that time, we have several people, who are either here or are gonna be on the phone, who we are going to be discussing a whole range of topics.  I’ll give you a preview of at least one of ’em.  And that is the whole spoiler effect. , whether or not the Greens and, to some extent, the Libertarians are pulling votes away from the two main parties and what impact that might have on the general election.  I know that’s gonna be one of the topics.  There will be others as well.  (c. 3:30)

“We have several interviews already lined up.  And that’s gonna be, predominantly, covering the 2:15 to 3:15 hour, if the timing goes the way it’s supposed to.

“At 3:15, we’ll be hearing the acceptance speech of the vice presidential nominee, presumptive at this stage because a roll call [vote] hasn’t been done.  But he is, we think, gonna be Ajamu Baraka, who has actually been on The Monitor show, that I’ve done, a couple of times.  He’s an interesting speaker and has a long commitment to many social justice issues.  So, I think that that’s going to be a pretty interesting speech, although, I suspect, it’s gonna be brief.

“One of the, sort of, recurring themes at this convention is that all of the speeches are quite brief.  Most of this morning, starting at 9am local time, Houston, all the way up into the lunch break at noon there were all sorts of candidates and delegates speaking on the convention floor.  And they very strictly enforced, from what I saw, a five-minute rule.  So, no one, no matter who they were, was allowed to speak for, really, any longer than that.

“So, with that said, the vice presidential nomination acceptance speech is supposed to be 15 minutes, from 3:15 to 3:30.  And, then, the presidential nominee’s acceptance speech, which, again, we presume is gonna be Jill Stein.  I guess we’re waiting on the formality of the delegate counts and the roll call of states, which will be about 2:15 local time.  (c. 4:59)

“So, that’s all coming up.  It’s gonna be a pretty busy schedule.  We invite you to stay with us and to experience the convention and to experience Pacifica‘s coverage of this convention in all of its live, and slightly disjointed, glory.

“Otis Maclay is producing this show.  We have some audio, Otis, which you can just wave at me and tell me that you’re ready to punch it whenever you want.  (c. 5:25)  [SNIP]

[SNIP]

[(c. 6:45) Interview with YahNe’ Ndgo, spokesperson for Bernie Or Bust movement, who ‘went viral‘ with her effective arguments against Hillary Clinton, discusses the ‘spoiler effect’ myth]  (c. 22:35)

[SNIP]

[Hosts and guests discuss the contrast between the big budget DNC and RNC conventions and the GNC.  There was virtually no national media present at the GNC, other than Al Jazeera, RT, The Young Turks, Real News, other independent media, and a few local TV stations]

[(c. 31:40)  On the “enshrinement of the two-party system”, including a conversation with former Green Party Presidential Candidate, David Cobb, who kind of played a scab role, taking Ralph Nader‘s place in the Green Party when the Green Party decided to acquiesce to the ‘spoiler vote’ argument.  David Cobb, unlike Ralph Nader, was willing to pull out of the presidential campaign should the Democrats feel they’re being undermined by the Green Party.  Your author challenged David Cobb on this issue, whilst enrolled in the University of Missouri-Kansas City, when Cobb delivered a Move To Amend address on campus.  Cobb was a pretty good sport about it.  He’s an interesting cat.]

[SNIP]

MARK BEBAWI:  “It’s not in a massive arena, like the two conventions we saw a week ago and the week before that.  But it’s here.  And it’s happening.  And people are following up and getting involved.

“So, those are my observations.  Ann Garrison is sitting next to me.  And I know, Ann, you have a bunch of other observations as well.  You’ve been asking people questions about the platform and digging into the details a little bit.”

ANN GARRISON:  “Yeah.  I—”

MARK BEBAWI:  “Tell us what—”

ANN GARRISON:  “I attended a number of the workshops.  But, first, I want to catch up on some news about the Green Party.

“Yesterday, a judge, a federal judge threw out a lawsuit brought by Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson and Green Party candidate Jill Stein, asking for inclusion in the presidential debates.  And, sort of astonishingly, this judge ruled that the Commission on Presidential Debates is a private entity, a private corporation, not a public forum, as the plaintiffs had argued.”

MARK BEBAWI:  “Right.”

ANN GARRISON:  “And, therefore, they have no right to claim spots in the debate.”

MARK BEBAWI:  “That’s not too surprising.  I don’t think.”

ANN GARRISON:  “No, it’s not.  And the rule is, the rule, that the Commission on Presidential Debates, which replaced the League of Women Voters after 1992 to keep any independent candidates off the ballot, is that a candidate has to be polling at 15% in three major nationally-recognised polls to get into the debates.”  (c. 29:03)

“Now, the other news is about ballot access.  I have a ballot access map in front of me right now.”

MARK BEBAWI:  “Okay.”

ANN GARRISON:  “And there are 14 states where the Greens have not filed yet.  In every other state they’ve filed.  In some states, they’re already on the ballot, or rather this is Jill Stein.  We’re talking about the Jill Stein campaign.  But, if Jill gets on the ballot, then downticket candidates are on the ballot as well as Greens.  So, there are 14 states where they haven’t filed yet.  And most of the other 36 are states where she’s already on there.  One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, seven where they’ve filed—no, it’s eight, eight states, where they’ve filed.  And they’re waiting for the response.

“In some of these states really heroic efforts were made.  In Pennsylvania, 5,000 signatures were required.  And they filed 25,000.”

MARK BEBAWI:  “And there are a couple of states—I’m looking kind of over your shoulder.”

ANN GARRISON:  “Sure.”

MARK BEBAWI:  “And there are a couple of states where you can write in.”

ANN GARRISON:  “Yes.  (c. 30:11)  [SNIP]  ”

[SNIP]

[(c. 45:00)  YahNe’ Ndgo speech on stage]

[SNIP]

[(c. 1:04:00)  Dr. Cornel West speech on stage]

DR. CORNEL WEST:  ”  [SNIP]

“Do we have what it takes?”

AUDIENCE MEMBERS:  “We do!”

DR. CORNEL WEST:  ”  [SNIP]

[SNIP]   (c. 1:19:50)

[music break for station identifications]

MARK BEBAWI:  “[speaking to producer, apparently unaware the producer had turned on his microphone]  Do we have a list of who’s carrying this show?  I know that all the Pacifica affiliates are.  I think my mic might be down because I’m hearing myself slightly echoey.”

OTIS MACLAY:  [inaudible]

MARK BEBAWI:  “[speaking to producer, apparently unaware the producer had turned on his microphone]  No, still a little bit echoey.”

OTIS MACLAY:  “[inaudible, but perhaps he said] You’ll get used to it.”

“Yeah.  You’re, you’re—it’s live radio.  What can we do?

“Okay.  There we go.  [transitioning to speak to the radio audience]  Now, I sound like I’m talking to you again.

“I know that the five Pacifica stations are carrying this show live, as are many affiliates.  That was a very brief break for you to identify yourselves as stations.  We were not able to go to the top of the hour because speeches were running.  David Cobb has had to leave.  But we have lots more content coming up for you, including, just in a second here, a bunch of recordings and interviews, that Ann Garrison did.  I’ll let her introduce those in just a second.  But I also wanna give you a quick heads-up that the final hour of this broadcast here will feature two live guests.  One of them is Dahr Jamail.  The other is Greg Palast.  They’ll be with us for the final 30 or 40 minutes of this four-hour broadcast.  (c. 1:20:20)

“Sitting next to me, here, of course, is Ann Garrison.  She was—hopefully, you’ve been listening and you’ve heard her already; if you haven’t, Ann, just remind people, briefly, who you are and what they are about to hear from you.”

ANN GARRISON:  “I am Ann Garrison.  I write for the San Francisco Bayview, CounterPunch, the Black Agenda Report, and Global Research.  And I produce some news for KPFA in the [San Francisco] Bay Area.

“I did some interviews with people, who gave workshops here.  And we’re gonna start with Bruce Dixon.  Bruce Dixon and Howie Hawkins gave a workshop on reorganising the Green Party into a mass party and an effective party.”  (c. 1:20:58)

[Ann Garrison interview with Bruce Dixon (of Black Agenda Report) on the necessary transformation of the Green Party, the non-profit industrial complex, and more.]

ANN GARRISON:  “Bruce Dixon, could you tell us about your ideas about restructuring the Green Party into a mass party?”

BRUCE DIXON:  “Right now, there are thousands, tens of thousands of young and old activists looking for a new political home.  The question we, as Greens—and I’m the Co-Chair of the Georgia Green Party as well as being part of Black Agenda Report—the question we, Greens, have to ask ourselves is:  Are we a fit home for their activism?  And, if we’re honest, right now, we have to answer the answer is: No, we are not.

“No matter what state you’re in, if 300 people come forth, can you actually give them something to do, that’s constructive?  Can you actually return all their calls, turning them on to everything they wanna be turned on?  The answer is:  You cannot.

“Why can’t you?  Because, right now, our Green parties are underfunded and understaffed.  And, consequently, much weaker than they need to be, if we are really going to change this country and change the world for the better and put people in front of profits and peace and stand up for each other in the planet.

“So, the answer is that: We’ve got to change the Green Party.  We’ve got to re-imagine and redesign the Green Party, so that it become a membership-supported, dues-paying, membership organisation.

“When you look around the world, and around this country, and across the historical record, the only way anyone on this planet in the last 150 years has ever built a mass opposition party of the left is to become a dues-paying membership organisation, wherein the officers are elected by dues-paying members and totally responsible to them.

“And that’s the model, that we’ve got to follow here.  Right now, unfortunately, and contradictory as it may seem, we are following the same example, the same model, as Republicans and Democrats.  Republicans and Democrats, both, use one-percenter money and corporate media to lead a mass following.  Their candidates and campaigns are totally independent of local party organisations and are totally independent and unresponsive to their voter base.

“Trump got the Republican nomination in spite of all the local Republican organisations.  He used reality star cache and corporate media, free corporate media, to build a mass following and win the primaries.

“Bernie Sanders also proved his independence from his own base by building his base up, saying that he was for a political revolution, saying tht he was for, you know, debt relief and cancelling the debts of students, and many other things.  And, then, he turned around and uncritically embraced Hillary Clinton and her agenda.  And a large part of his following said:  Heck, no!  We ain’t with that!

“But he was not responsible to them anymore than Trump is responsible to the local Republican organisations.

“And, unfortunately, the Green Party, so far, has been following that same model, only without the big money, without the one-percenter money, the big money, and without the media, also without much success.  That is why the Green Party is weak and fragmented.  (c. 1:24:00)

“Seven years ago in Georgia there was a prisoner hunger strike.  You remember that.”

ANN GARRISON:  “Yeah.”

BRUCE DIXON:  “Okay.  We knew some of those people.  Ajamu Baraka, who is the vice presidential candidate of the Green Party, he was working with us, then, also.  But the Green Party took a prominent part in calling the press conferences, calling on the governor.  We got to meet with the governor’s representatives.  And Ajamu Baraka was part of a team, that did civilian inspections of two state prisons in Georgia, where they got relatively unfettered access to staff and the rest of it.

“And, after that, we started getting calls for families of inmates and for people, who were behind the walls.  We couldn’t even answer all those collect calls.  We couldn’t do it because we didn’t have the money; we didn’t have the staff; we didn’t have the resources to follow it up.  Okay?  And we failed those people.  We failed them.  (c. 1:25:05)

“And the Green Party is going to continue to fail, unless and until it restructures.  And it is.  In Georgia, we are becoming a membership-driven organisation, a dues-paying organisation, wherein all the officers will be elected directly on the local level.  And we’re just gonna do that.

“We’re gonna adopt a different model, a model, that actually works.”

ANN GARRISON:  “But you’re also talking about being politically active in between elections and engaged in the social movements.  Right?”

BRUCE DIXON:  “The local chapters of the Green Party are where the social movement must take place.  And, if we have Green Party locals with staffs, then that means that we can take an active part in the social movement in a way, that we’ve never been able to do it before.

“Right now, with the Green Party underfunded and understaffed as it is, if you wanna show up on the scene of what social movements are already in motion, you’re gonna wind up sooner or later coming to the offices and the meetings of this or that non-profit organisation.  And the way the non-profit is gonna look at you—they’re gonna look at you—in their view, you are just another representative of a different potentially competing single-issue organisation, only your issue is electing people.  How backwards is that?

“But that’s the way we look.  That’s the way we look.  If we don’t have staff; if we don’t have resources, the only way to get—every time an outreach happens and people are outraged and come to the streets and come to meetings all of a sudden, that they didn’t come to before, that outrage dies back after a few weeks and months.  And who comes in?  The non-profits, who actually have staff and staying power.  They’re the only ones with staff and staying power.

“Now, if we constitute ourselves as a membership, dues-paying organisation, then we’ll have local staff.  We’ll be able to go to the scene of local movements and give them real aid and real assistance.  And we’ll be able to start actions and start social movements ourselves.

“The Green Party locals are gonna have to compete with the non-profit industrial complex for the leadership of the social movement because the social movement is way too important to be left to the whims of non-profit funders, who are the 1%.”  (c. 1:27:25)

ANN GARRISON:  “You know; I’ve been saying I’m an embedded journalist because I’m a Green and I’m here covering the Green Party convention.  This really appeals to me because, every time I open my email inbox, I have 15 more pleas from 15 single-issue organisations.”

BRUCE DIXON:  “And where did the single-issue organisation come from?  Did these even exist back in the 1920s?  In the ’30s and the ’40s and the ’50s?  The answer is:  No.  Did they originate anywhere but this country?  They originated only here.  And they are now being exported from this country to other places.

“Non-profit organisations, the whole non-profit matrix is a creature of the 1%.  It’s how the 1% have managed to contain the social movement and control it, by isolating each issue in its own silo.  And you can only do direct political interventions under certain limited conditions.  And, of course, as someone who worked in the non-profit sector for a few years in Chicago, what used to happen is every springtime all useful work stops while we concentrate on electing the right Democrats, [laughs] although we’re not supposed to be doing that.  (c. 1:28:49)

“And many non-profit organisations, advocacy organisations, like the NAACP, as Glen [Ford] says, are virtual annexes of the Democratic Party.”

ANN GARRISON:  “I got a note from them today asking me whether I was registered to vote.”

BRUCE DIXON:  “Are you?”

ANN GARRISON:  “Yes!  Green!”

BRUCE DIXON:  “There you go.”

ANN GARRISON:  “I’m registered Green. [laughs]”

BRUCE DIXON:  “There you go.  But I mean; a few years ago, in the month of July I was in Chicago.  And I was opening up my morning email.  And I got an email from the NAACP Legal Defense Fund (LDF).  And the letter said:  We just suffered a terrific loss in court today.  The federal government says that the—what was that act called? the act, that reduced the crack cocaine disparity [in criminal sentencing] from 100-to-one to 18-to-1, that was passed a few months before. [4]  They said that the federal government went to court and they said that there would be no retroactive reduction of sentences, that people already had.  And they said that: We lost that case.  And, so, you should send us money, so we can win future cases, and bring future cases.

“But they never mention that the Justice Department, who they were fighting against, was under the Obama administration and Eric Holder, the attorney general, that Eric Holder‘s people had argued, that although the sentences were unjust, that they should be kept in there, anyway.

“It turned out that there was no retroactive sentence reduction for another three and a half years after that.  And, of course, the NAACP LDF couldn’t say that because they’re Democrats.  And they don’t criticise other Democrats.  (c. 1:30:23)

“So, that’s what happens when you leave the leadership of the social movement to the non-profit industrial complex.  They got priorities.  And their priorities are not necessarily the people’s or the planet’s priorities.”

ANN GARRISON:  “So, this morning at the workshop you mentioned some numbers.  If x number of people gave a small amount, relatively—”

BRUCE DIXON:  “Yeah, well, we’re still arguing about what the recommended dues level in Georgia is gonna be.  We think it’s gonna be $15 a month to start.  And, you know, there’s breaks for a limited number of people.  But let’s suppose that we had a thousand members paying $15 dollars a month.  Well, that’s $15,000 dollars a month.  And 15 times 12 is [180]—now, you can run an organisation off of $20,000 dollars a month.

“Okay, you can hire some staff.  You can have a few permanent meeting halls.”

ANN GARRISON:  “M-hm.”

BRUCE DIXON:  “I mean, right now, when Jill Stein came to town, back last November and we took her through North Carolina, all the places we had to meet were university campuses—”

ANN GARRISON:  “Uh-huh.”

BRUCE DIXON:  “—where we were not allowed to collect money—”

ANN GARRISON:  “Uh-huh.”

BRUCE DIXON:  “—or identify ourselves as a political campaign.”

ANN GARRISON:  “Uh-huh.”

BRUCE DIXON:  “You know there were churches and schools where we were not allowed to even be ourselves. [5]

“When you go and you visit the social movement in some other country, they don’t do that.  They have got their own meeting hall.  Okay?  They’ve got their own place where you can say what needs to be said and do what needs to be done.

“The United States is the only place, where we leave the actual leadership of the social movements to the non-profits, that you cannot do this.  (c. 1:32:08)

“Look at the Labour Party in Britain.  Look at Jeremy Corbin.”

ANN GARRISON:  “Uh-huh.”

BRUCE DIXON:  “The only reason Jeremy Corbin is leader of the Labour Party is they went to a membership system.  And 300,000 people joined and voted Jeremy in.  Normally, the Labour Party would be led by parliamentarians.  And they wouldn’t let Jeremy Corbin near the leadership.

“So, the only way he got to be leadership is to go around that to a direct member-supported model.  And that’s what we need to do here.”  (c. 1:32:37)

[End of Bruce Dixon interview]

[Ann Garrison interview with Cheri Honkala on the workshop she led at the Green National Convention entitled “Organizing Front Line Communities” on the urban economics of Kensington, a post-industrial, working class section of Philadelphia.]

ANN GARRISON:  “Okay, now we’re gonna go to Cheri Honkala.  And, to explain what she’s going to talk about, I have to describe the video, that her workshop began with.  She was walking around in her devastated, post-industrial district, or neighborhood, Kensington, a part of Philadelphia.  And she was pointing to the employment possibilities:  Wendy’s, McDonald’s, Taco Bell; and, oh yeah!  Fix-A-Flat.  This is our industrial base at this point.

“She said that she had been involved in over 200 building occupations, abandoned building occupations, claiming them for housing.  She had been arrested at least 200 times.  She has also been involved with setting up homeless camps, and getting people fed.  (c. 1:33:21)  [SNIP]

[SNIP]

[End of Cheri Honkala interview]  (c. 1:38:30)

[Ann Garrison interview with Howie Hawkins on the Green New Deal.]  (c. 1:41:00)

[music break]

[satirical skit:  “Stone White reporting….”]

[SNIP]

[(c. 1:44:20)  Interview with Jonathan Fluck, the National Volunteer Coordinator for the 2016 Jill Stein presidential campaign]  (c. 1:47:40)

[David Cobb]  (c. 2:21:15)

[The activist formerly known as Kat Swift on ballot access laws in Texas, the byzantine legal mess of state voting laws, and how the Green Party can win.  (During her interview, she mentioned having changed her name.)]

KAT SWIFT:  “[pending]”  (c. 2:28:50)

[SNIP]

ANN GARRISON:  “[Some 42 million Americans with student loan debt are enough to get Jill Stein elected, who has vowed to provide student loan debt relief.]”

CHERI HONKALA:  [SNIP]

[SNIP]  (c. 2:37:00)

[SNIP]

[Free speech broadcast suddenly cuts to the stage, as Cheri Honkala introduces the Vice Presidential candidate for the Green Party]

AJAMU BARAKA:  ” [SNIP] ”

[SNIP]  (c. 2:52:30)

[Dr. Jill Stein speech]

Dr. Jill Stein Acceptance Speech, 2016 Green Party Presidential Candidate

DR. JILL STEIN:  “Thank you so much!  We are what democracy looks like!”

AUDIENCE MEMBER:  “Let’s go, Jill!”

DR. JILL STEIN:  “Let’s go, all of us!  Whoo!  Yes; we are what democracy looks like.  And we are what political revolution looks like!”

AUDIENCE:  “[cheers, applause]”

DR. JILL STEIN:  “And thank you, thank everyone of you.  Thank you, Ajamu, for that incredible inspiration.  Thank you to everyone of you for being here and leading the charge for an America and a world, that works for all of us—”

AUDIENCE:  “[cheers, applause]”

DR. JILL STEIN:  “And I want to agree with everything that Ajamu said and everything, that Cheri said, and agree with all of their thank-yous, reiterate them and just add to that a big thank you to Lynn Serpe, who’s been running the show.  A big thank you to Tama Jaeger.

“I am honored beyond words to be your candidate in this election.  I’m honored to be running for President of the United States with the Green Party, the one national party, that stands up for the people, and that’s been ahead of the curve in so many way—on climate change and green energy, on marriage equality, free public higher education and health care as human rights, on stopping the Trans-Pacific Partnership, on reparations for slavery, opposing Saudi war crimes in Yemen, and Israeli human rights abuses and occupation in Palestine, on recognizing indigenous rights.  I want to recognise the heroes, who have kept the party going through thick and thin.  Please stand, if you are a part of a Green Party organization—at the local, state, or national level.

“It’s also so exciting to be running in alliance with the Bernie Sanders movement, that lives on outside the Democratic Party.  We owe you such a debt of gratitude for getting the revolution going.  And then for refusing to be shut down.  It’s so exciting to run with you and for you.  Please stand up if you’re coming here from the Bernie Sanders campaign.

“It’s an honor to be your candidate, running alongside Ajamu Baraka, a powerhouse of human rights—who brings a lifetime of dedication to racial and economic justice.  And I thank Dr. Cornel West, for bringing his powerful voice into the campaign.  And it’s an honor to run along with so many inspirational state and local candidates running for office.  If you are running for office, would you please stand?

“It’s an honor to be your candidate in this historic moment, of unprecedented crisis and unstoppable momentum for transformational change so we can solve those crises. And we have an historic opportunity, an historic responsibility to be the agents of that change. As Martin Luther King said, “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.” I know that arc is bending in us, and through us. And we are actors in something much bigger than us as we struggle for justice, for peace, for community, for healing.

“That arc of justice is moving through us as we mobilize to make black lives matter, and to end violent policing – as the Frisco Five and the Millions March NYC just did. The arc of justice is moving through us as we sit in and lock down to stop fracking pipelines, fossil fuel bomb trains, coal and LNG export terminals, and all manner of fossil fuel and nuclear infrastructure.

“The arc of justice was moving through us in Philadelphia. The city of brotherly love was overrun by love and revolution, as the Bernie or Bust movement declared independence from the Democratic Party, and merged with our campaign in rally after rally, growing stronger by the hour. The power of this movement was clear during our Power Rally at FDR Park, where nature erupted in thunder and lightning as our rally drew to a close, and the heavens opened up as if to say, “get ready, there’s a big change coming.” We sought shelter in a nearby highway underpass and we kept going. This movement is unstoppable.

“So here we are, a movement for justice and democracy that’s sweeping the planet. From living wage campaigns, to fossil fuel blockades, to the fight to end mass incarceration, to cancel student debt, to restore the rights of immigrant rights, indigenous rights, LGBTQ and women’s rights and disability rights. Across the globe people are rising up like we haven’t seen for generations.

“We face unprecedented crises that call for transformational solutions, a new way forward based on democracy, justice and human rights. And that won’t come from corporate political parties funded by predatory banks, war profiteers and fossil fuel giants. It will come from we the people, mobilized in a broad social movement, with an independent voice of political opposition, because, as Frederick Douglass said, “Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never has. It never will.” And we must be that demand.

“They say we’re in a recovery but in fact it’s an emergency. We’ve lost good jobs – replaced by part time and temporary jobs. A generation of young people is locked in predatory student debt. Black lives are on the firing line. Immigrants face mass deportation. Wars for oil are blowing back at us with a vengeance. And the climate meltdown threatens civilization as we know it in our lifetimes.

“Meanwhile, the super-rich party on, richer than ever. Twenty-two of these super-rich people have the wealth equivalent to half of the US population. And the political elite that serve the economic elite are making things worse, inflicting austerity on everyday people while they squander trillions on wars, Wall Street bail outs, and tax favors for the wealthy.

“No wonder people are in revolt. And the good news is that we actually have the power to turn this around, the minute we stand up with the courage of our convictions. Because we have the vision and values of the American people. And, as a broad coalition for justice, we have the numbers to win the day.

“Here’s how. There are 43 million young people – and not so young people – who are locked in predatory student debt, with no prospects for getting out. And there is only one candidate who will cancel that debt – and you’re looking at her. And by the way, we bailed out Wall Street, the guys who crashed the economy with their waste, fraud and abuse. It’s about time we bailed out the young people who are the victims of that abuse. So if young people come out on election day 2016 to vote green to cancel their debt, they can actually take over the election, not only to cancel student debt, but to advance the whole agenda for justice. And the world will be a better place for it! And millennials are the self organizing demographic that can do this.

“So we do have the power to end student debt, and to make public higher education free. This is the right thing to do to provide the younger generation with economic security in the 21st century, just like free high school education provided security in the 20th century. And it pays for itself by a 7:1 margin, as the results of the GI bill demonstrated following the 2nd World War.

“We also have the power to create emergency jobs program, with 20 million living wage jobs as part of a Green New Deal. It’s like the New Deal that got us out of the Great Depression… but a Green New Deal to fix the climate crisis as well as the economic crisis. It creates a wartime level mobilization to green our energy, food and transportation systems, and restore critical infrastructure, including ecosystems. And we’ll do this in the needed time frame – by achieving 100% renewable energy by 2030, and implementing an immediate moratorium on all new fossil fuel infrastructure and exploration. This will revive our economy, turn the tide on climate change, and make wars for oil obsolete, which enables us to cut the military budget to pay for this. In addition, it saves so much money by preventing the fossil fuel-linked diseases like asthma, heart attacks, strokes, cancer and more, it actually pays for itself in health savings alone.

“We can create health care as a human right through an improved Medicare for All system of everybody in, nobody out, and you’re covered head to toe and cradle to grave. You get your choice of doctor and hospital, and you and your doctor are put back in charge of your health decisions, not a profiteering insurance company CEO.

“We must support the disabled members of our community, to ensure they have the needed support, treatment, housing, health care and jobs that enable them to be fully contributing members of society, and respect their human dignity.

“We can revive public education by fully funding it and ensuring kids come to school ready to learn – nourished, healthy and free from poverty, the biggest obstacle to learning. And we must end the high stakes testing that is harmful especially to challenged learners, and used to justify closing and privatizing schools, and to disempower teachers and unions. It’s time to provide small classrooms, to pay our teachers well, to honor their unions, and to teach to the whole student for lifetime learning – with enriched with arts, music and recreation, and nurture the independent, creative minds and spirits that Democracy depends on.

“We can create a welcoming path to citizenship for undocumented Americans who are critical to the diversity and vitality of our communities, economy and culture. We must end the shameful night raids, detentions and deportations of hard working, law abiding immigrants. In fact, one of the most important things we can do to fix the immigration crisis is to stop causing it in the first place with predatory policies like NAFTA, the war on drugs, military interventions, CIA-supported coups and US trained death squads.

“We say to Donald Trump, we don’t need no friggin wall. We just need to stop invading other countries.  And by the way, the Republicans are the party of hate and fear mongering. But Democrats are the party of night raids, detentions, and deportations.

“We will put an immediate halt to deportations, detentions and night raids for people whose only crime was to flee the poverty and violence created by predatory US policies across the border.

“And we can end racist violence and brutality not only in policing, but in courts and prisons, and in the economy at large. We can start by ensuring every community has a police review board, so communities control their police, and not the other way around. And communities must have dedicated investigators so every death or serious injury at the hands of police is investigated. And we must end the racist war on drugs, treat substance abuse as a health issue not a criminal problem, and discharge from our prisons the hundreds of thousands of nonviolent drug offenders who shouldn’t be locked up in the first place.

“We call for a Truth and Reconciliation Commission, to get to the bottom of the crisis of racism, and to provide reparations to acknowledge the enormous debt owed to the African American community for the unimaginable price they paid in building this country and sustaining our economy for generations while they were denied dignity and freedom.

“We must end the assault on our privacy, on freedom of the press, on the free internet, and end the war on whistleblowers, and free the political prisoners – that includes Leonard Peltier, Mumia Abu Jamal, Chelsea Manning, Julian Assange, Edward Snowden, Jeffrey Sterling, and Edward Pinkney, whose only crime was to stand up against the theft of public resources from Benton Harbor, one of the poorest communities in the nation, by the Whirlpool Corporation.

“And finally we can create a foreign policy based on international law, diplomacy and human rights, not on global military and economic domination, which has been catastrophic. This policy will have cost us $6 trillion dollars including the costs of caring for our wounded veterans, which translates to $75,000 per American household on average. Over a million people have died in Iraq alone, which is not winning us hearts and minds in the Middle East. And tens of thousands of US soldiers have been killed or maimed. And what do we have to show for it? Failed states, worse terrorist threats, and mass refugee migrations that are tearing the EU and the Middle East apart.

“More of the same failed war on terror is not the answer. It’s time to stop ISIS in its tracks and end the Wars for Oil with a new kind of offensive in the Middle East, a Peace Offensive – including a weapons embargo to the Middle East, and a freezing of the bank accounts of countries that are funding international jihadism, including the Saudi’s, who comprised 15 of 19 9/11 attackers, and who were identified as still the leading funder of Sunni extremist terrorism worldwide in State Department cables signed by Hillary Clinton in 2009, released by Wikileaks.

“It’s important to recognize where this violent extremist threat came from in the first place. A global terrorist movement linked to Saudi wahhabism was an idea cooked up  CIA and Saudi Arabia in Afghanistan to grow the Mujaheddin to stop the Soviet Union. And it has continued with Saudi schools – madrassas – that continue to be a recruiting and training ground for tomorrow’s terrorists.”

“We can’t simultaneously fight terrorism with one hand, while we and our allies fund terrorism, train terrorists and arm terrorists with the other. The only ones benefitting from this catastrophic policy are the war profiteers themselves, who are calling the shots in foreign policy by funding the establishment parties and their politicians. In fact, US foreign policy has become fundamentally a marketing strategy for the weapons industry. We started the terrorist threat. Now it’s time to shut it down. That is what our campaign alone will do.

“This is the world we can create outside of the two corporate parties sponsored by predatory banks, fossil fuel giants and war profiteers.  So, it’s time to vote for our deeply held beliefs, not against what we fear.  Because that politics of fear has delivered everything we’re afraid of.  All the reasons you were told you had to vote for the lesser evil – so we wouldn’t get the massive Wall Street bail outs, the offshoring of our jobs, the meltdown of the climate, the endless wars, the attack on civil liberties and on immigrant rights – all of that we’ve gotten by the droves, because we allowed ourselves to be silenced, and to let the lesser evil speak for us.

“But the lesser evil paves the way for greater evil, because people don’t come out to vote for lesser evil politicians who are throwing them under the bus – even if someone else could be even worse. Democracy needs a moral compass. We must be that moral compass.

“The clock is ticking, and this is the Hail Mary moment.  In this election we’re not just deciding what kind of world we will have.  We’re deciding whether we’ll have a world or not in the future. The day of reckoning is drawing closer – on climate change, on endless war, on nuclear weapons, and the next economic meltdown.  We’re accelerating into all of these crises under Republican and Democratic rule.  So, It’s time to reject the lesser evil and fight for the greater good – like our lives depend on it, because they do.

“That means join our campaign – at jill2016.com.  Help us get into the debates, help us get the word out by social media and break into mainstream press. Help us phone bank, canvass, bring a campus event to your college or a super-rally to your region.

“The corporate parties are not going to save us. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.

“Together we can build an America and a world that works for us all, that puts people, planet and peace over profit. The power to create this world is not just in our hopes. Not just in our dreams. Right here. Right now. It’s in our hands. And together, we are unstoppable.” [6]

[Dahr Jamail: interview was botched by Pacifica host and/or technical team]

[SNIP]

[Greg Palast]

[SNIP]

[SNIP]  (c. 3:59:59)

Learn more at PACIFICA RADIO.

[This transcript will be expanded as time constraints, and/or demand or resources, allow.]

***

[1]  On August 1, 2002, Collyer was nominated by President George W. Bush to a seat on the United States District Court for the District of Columbia vacated by Thomas Penfield Jackson. Collyer was confirmed by the United States Senate on November 14, 2002, and received her commission on November 15, 2002.  She assumed senior status on May 18, 2016.  At that time, a motion to dismiss the lawsuit against the Commission on Presidential Debates for keeping out political parties other than their own Republican and Democratic parties was pending.  After Collyer assumed senior status, she threw out the lawsuit, which was brought by Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson and Green Party presidential candidate Dr. Jill Stein.

See also:

  • “Judge dismisses debate lawsuit filed by Gary Johnson and Jill Stein” by Brian Stelter, CNN, 5 AUG 2016.
  • “Result of Third-Party Lawsuit Could Decide Outcome of 2016 Election” by Jason Scheurer, Breitbart, 7 MAR 2016.

[2] See also:

  • “League Refuses to ‘Help Perpetrate a Fraud'” by League of Women Voters, 3 OCT 1988:

WASHINGTON, DC —[3 OCT 1988]  “The League of Women Voters is withdrawing its sponsorship of the presidential debate scheduled for mid-October because the demands of the two campaign organizations would perpetrate a fraud on the American voter,” League President Nancy M. Neuman said today.

“It has become clear to us that the candidates’ organizations aim to add debates to their list of campaign-trail charades devoid of substance, spontaneity and honest answers to tough questions,” Neuman said. “The League has no intention of becoming an accessory to the hoodwinking of the American public.”

Neuman said that the campaigns presented the League with their debate agreement on September 28, two weeks before the scheduled debate. The campaigns’ agreement was negotiated “behind closed doors” and was presented to the League as “a done deal,” she said, its 16 pages of conditions not subject to negotiation.

Most objectionable to the League, Neuman said, were conditions in the agreement that gave the campaigns unprecedented control over the proceedings. Neuman called “outrageous” the campaigns’ demands that they control the selection of questioners, the composition of the audience, hall access for the press and other issues.

“The campaigns’ agreement is a closed-door masterpiece,” Neuman said. “Never in the history of the League of Women Voters have two candidates’ organizations come to us with such stringent, unyielding and self-serving demands.”

Neuman said she and the League regretted that the American people have had no real opportunities to judge the presidential nominees outside of campaign-controlled environments.

“On the threshold of a new millenium, this country remains the brightest hope for all who cherish free speech and open debate,” Neuman said. “Americans deserve to see and hear the men who would be president face each other in a debate on the hard and complex issues critical to our progress into the next century.”

Neuman issued a final challenge to both Vice President Bush and Governor Dukakis to “rise above your handlers and agree to join us in presenting the fair and full discussion the American public expects of a League of Women Voters debate.”

[3]  Terrestrial radio transmission, 94.1 FM (KPFA, Berkeley, CA) (also broadcast simultaneously across the national Pacifica Radio Network) with online simulcast and digital archiving:  Special Programming: Green National Convention, this broadcast hosted by Mark Bebawi with Ann Garrison, Saturday, 6 AUG 2016, 11:00 PDT, four-hour broadcast.

[4]  Cf. Fair Sentencing Act:

The Fair Sentencing Act of 2010 (Public Law 111-220) is a United States federal law that reduces the disparity between the amount of crack cocaine and powder cocaine needed to trigger certain federal criminal penalties from a 100:1 weight ratio to an 18:1 weight ratio and eliminated the five-year mandatory minimum sentence for simple possession of crack cocaine, among other provisions.  The Act was signed into law by U.S. President Barack Obama on August 3, 2010.  Similar bills were introduced in several U.S. Congresses before its passage in 2010, and courts had also acted to reduce the sentencing disparity prior to the bill’s passage.

The Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986 implemented the initial disparity, reflecting Congress’s view that crack cocaine was a more dangerous and harmful drug than powder cocaine.  In the decades since, extensive research by the United States Sentencing Commission and other experts have suggested that the differences between the effects of the two drugs are exaggerated and that the sentencing disparity is unwarranted.  Further controversy surrounding the 100:1 ratio was a result of its description by some as being racially (or ethnically) biased and contributing to a disproportionate number of African Americans being sentenced for crack cocaine offenses.  Legislation to reduce the disparity has been introduced since the mid-1990s, culminating in the signing of the Fair Sentencing Act.

The Act has been described as improving the fairness of the federal criminal justice system,; and prominent politicians and non-profit organisations have called for further reforms, such as making the law retroactive and completely eliminating of the disparity (i.e., enacting a 1:1 sentencing ratio).

[5]  Your author previously wrote about voting Democrat to vote socialist, but was subsequently let down by the Bernie Sanders campaign.  Since then, your author has re-registered with the Green Party, so as to support Dr. Jill Stein and Ajamu Baraka for the presidential and vice presidential offices in the 2016 United States Presidential Election.

[6]  Also see official transcript at Jill2016.com.

***

[Imaege entitled “GP Con 2016” by Source (WP:NFCC#4), used under Fair use licensure via Wikipedia.]

[9 AUG 2016]

[Last modified  01:18 PDT  21 AUG 2016]

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Flashpoints: 2016 California Presidential Primary Election Special

07 Tue Jun 2016

Posted by ztnh in Democracy Deferred, Democratic Party (USA), Political Science, Presidential Election 2016

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Dennis Bernstein, Flashpoints, Greg Palast, KPFA, Pacifica Radio Network, Paul Thomas (Election Justice), Super Tuesday IV, transcript, William Simpich

FlashpointsLOGO19-300x225LUMPENPROLETARIAT—One of the most radical daily investigative radio broadcasts in the nation, free speech radio’s Flashpoints has devoted its broadcast today to Super Tuesday IV, with an emphasis on the California Presidential Primary Election and reports of election poll problems.  Listen (or download) here.

Messina

***

[Working draft transcript of actual radio broadcast by Messina for Lumpenproletariat and Flashpoints]

FLASHPOINTS—[7 JUN 2016]  “Today on Flashpoints, we continue the drumbeat coverage of the California Primary voter ripoff with best-selling muckraker and Rolling Stone‘s man on the election fraud scene, Greg Palast.  Also, we’ll have a call-in speak out with attorney William Simpich, who has been representing and working with poll watchers in California.  And we’ll also be joined by Paul Thomas of Election Justice for that speak out.  I’m Dennis Bernstein.  Greg Palast is in L.A.  He’s about to join us.  All this, comin’ up, straight ahead, on Flashpoints.  Stay tuned.”

[SNIP]

Learn more at FLASHPOINTS.

[This transcript will be expanded as time constraints, and/or demand or resources, allow.]

***

CBS SACRAMENTO—[1 JUN 2016]  Judge Rejects Bernie Sanders Supporter Lawsuit Seeking California Primary Delay

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – A lawsuit by supporters of Bernie Sanders that claimed election officials in California were depriving unaffiliated voters of their right to cast ballots in the June 7 Democratic presidential primary was filed too late and lacked evidence that federal laws were violated, a judge ruled Wednesday.

The Voting Rights Defense Project had argued that county elections officials were failing to inform unaffiliated voters that they could seek a crossover ballot.

The lawsuit also said poll workers were receiving conflicting instructions about whether they could tell voters of that right.

“This is what I call a case of mass confusion,” attorney William Simpich, who represents the group and other plaintiffs, told the judge in court.

The lawsuit named California Secretary of State Alex Padilla and elections officials in Alameda and San Francisco counties as defendants.

Among other things, it sought radio and TV ads telling unaffiliated voters that they can vote in the primaries of the Democratic, American Independent and Libertarian parties.

Learn more at CBS SACRAMENTO.

***

[1]  Terrestrial radio transmission, 94.1 FM (KPFA, Berkeley, CA) with online simulcast and digital archiving:  Flashpoints, hosted by Dennis Bernstein, Tuesday, 7 JUN 2016, 17:00 PDT, one hour broadcast.

***

[7 JUN 2016]

[Last modified  22:54 PDT  7 JUN 2016]

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