Bryan Leach’s Post

I was thinking about how poor the candidates are for US President in 2024, and what they say about the two parties. I used to consider myself a leftist, but before that I was a centrist, and now I'm a centrist again. I have voted for Republicans, including, shamefully, George W. Bush. So I think I can make a good list of the virtues and vices of each party's loyal members. Republicans believe in personal liberty, economic freedom, and small government. They also tend to be greedy, self-centered, seek to restrict others' behavior on "moral" issues despite that conflicting with their own belief in personal liberty, believe people's worth is based on their wealth and political/social power, believe we need a massive military to threaten the rest of the world, and they give corporations a free pass instead of holding them to the same skepticism that they do to government. Democrats believe in social well-being, protecting the environment (including climate change and endangered species), and regulating corporations. They also tend to be self-righteous, humorless, self-centered, seek to restrict others' behavior based on their pet issues, believe people's worth is based on a fixed hierarchy of victimization and oppression that we have no control over, demonize people based on personal beliefs (J. K. Rowling and Graham Linehan may as well be Hitler for pushing back on mandatory trans ideology) and they give government a free pass instead of holding it to the same skepticism that they do to corporations. What I despise about Donald Trump is that he gives lip service to Republican virtues while not exemplifying any of them in his own life. He's immoral, lies and cheats at everything, from his businesses to his golf score, he's cowardly, willfully ignorant, and he says whatever he thinks will get the most people to like him. He's a puppet of business and right-wing Christian interests (Project 2025) and he's a born politician (in the worst sense). I don't despise Joe Biden, but I think he's mediocre, also a born politician, a puppet of business and Democratic policy interests (encouraging kids into gender transition is already backfiring now that we see more and more regretful detransitioners and parental alienation due to schools keeping secrets from the parents), and he's utterly lacking in the charisma needed to push back against Trump's ability to charm his supporters. While Trump is showing increasingly worrying signs of frontotemporal dementia (I've seen signs he's had that since 2017), Biden has really gone downhill just in the last year, and he looks feeble and confused. I can see why people now think Trump is more aware of what's going on than Biden. If Trump weren't so lacking in morals, and such a puppet of far-right interests, I'd vote for the Republican candidate. Instead, I'm going to have to reluctantly vote for the Democratic candidate despite my misgivings. I won't condemn anyone for weighing the two bad options differently. Sad.

https://lnkd.in/eB5di-Wn We’re in a pivotal moment in #American history. We cannot retreat #BernieSanders ..."Are you concerned about the right of #women to control their own #bodies? #Trump brags about how he appointed three supreme court justices who helped overturn Roe v Wade. #Biden is solidly pro-choice. Are you concerned about the #climate #crisis? Donald Trump thinks climate change is a “hoax”. A Trump victory will tell the entire world to continue their support for fossil fuels, and the planet we leave our kids and future generations will be increasingly unhealthy. Biden, on the other hand, has helped invest more money into sustainable energy and energy efficiency than any president in history. And if you have problems with Biden’s position on Israel and the war in Gaza, Trump’s position is far worse. Biden has at least restricted some powerful bombs from going to the Israel and has been critical of Netanyahu. Trump and his Republican colleagues are “all in” for the massive destruction of the Palestinian people. Oh. And there’s one other thing. And that’s the small matter of retaining our democracy. Biden is a traditional American politician who believes in democracy, free elections and the right of dissent. That’s not what Trump believes. He and his supporters have spent the last four years undermining faith in the rule of law and our democratic form of government. He is weighing pardons for more than 800 of his supporters who attacked the Capitol in the January 6 insurrection. And his advisers are drawing up plans to invoke the Insurrection Act to allow him to deploy the military against civil demonstrations. Clearly, our job is not just to re-elect Biden. It’s much more than that. We must defend the many progressives that we have elected to the House, some of whom who face significant financial opposition from Aipac and other special interest Pacs. And we must elect more strong progressive candidates who are on the ballot to the House, and state and local governments. We must work in coalition with all those who understand that we must do everything possible to defeat Donald Trump and his extreme rightwing Republican party, not just because he is “worse”, but because nothing less than the future of our democracy is at stake in this election. Further, we must demand that Biden and the Democrats begin campaigning on a truly progressive agenda that addresses the needs of the working families of our country."...

Are you ready for Trump 2.0? Chris Hedges, one of the greatest minds in the USA predicts that will be the case. I happen to concur and for many more reasons that Mr Hedges mentions. Consider Biden's legacy? Decades of sexism, racism, segregation, homophobia, transphobia, corruption. Consider Biden's presidential legacy? Record US National Debt Record war budget/spending Record Defense Industry profits Record Corporate Profits Record police budget/spending Record incarceration Record Homelessness (over 660k) Record Child Poverty (over 40%) Record COVID deaths Record Wealth Inequality Record LOW (62%) Labor Participation Rate Record Global Warming (+1.4° in 2023) Lost Roe June 22, 2022 with majority in BOTH Houses of Congress until Jan 21, 2023 & did absolutely NOTHING. Before Biden, Trump held all of these records, before Trump, Obama had all of these records, and so on back to Reagan. The USA is in late stage Capitalism & we have since 1985 crossed the threshold into Fascism. The ONLY measure of Fascism that the USA does not have is a dictator. But with 2 unpopular negative polling war hawks being shoved down our throat: what we have is the ILLUSION of democracy but not the reality of it. Multiple states: the DNC did not even have a primary. The DNC is proven to rig primaries. The RNC is proven to block who can vote; while the DNC blocks third party ballot access blocking who we can vote for. This is literally degrees of separation from a dictatorship; what the duopoly have set up is a choice of dictators every 4 years. That is NOT what Democracy or Republics look like at all. The dictators are chosen by the DNC Services Corporation & the RNC Corporate Lobbyist Committee. Basically corporations buy the right to appoint/choose the nominees; which is NOT democracy or in any way Representative Government. There are some folks not paying attention who still believe in the DNC or RNC are better than the other. But DECADES of St Louis Fed data show that: In DNC states, in DNC administrations & majorities; or in RNC states, in RNC administrations & majorities ALWAYS the working class loses to the top 20% at the exact same trajectory regardless of whether it is a DNC or RNC government in DC or in any state. We cannot move from a blue state to a red one or back in order to have any significant improvement in the amount of wealth being transferred from most of us increasingly in the hands of fewer people. The 2 parties are 99% the same; with a few illusory differences. Biden & Trump have alienated so many that the illusion is hopefully finally beyond recovery. Regardless of whether Biden or Trump wins: the #1 US budget priority will be (as it always is) a continuing bloodbath of war & genocide at the expense of all else. Because of this: I vote third party (Green) for peace ONLY. https://lnkd.in/d9M8c8su

#politics #unitedstates Jamie Dimon, the long time CEO of J.P. Morgan Chase, one of the most consistently profitable U.S. banks, the bank symbolic of U.S. finance since the 1907 Panic which was fixed by John Pierpont Morgan before there was a #federalreserve, a billionaire on a CEO salary and benefits, a big beneficiary of the 1999 Gramm-Leach-Bliley (GLB) when Citigroup was formed and of financial globalization since Clintonomics, said in Davos at the World Economic Forum (WEF) that President Joe Biden must take it easy on conflating MAGA supporters with the antics of Donald Trump if he is to win reelection in 2024. He knows what he is talking about. Hillary Clinton lost the 2016 election to Trump precisely because she did then what the Democrats have been doing since, still not having learned their lesson, by calling the Americans who lost out because of Clintonomics “deplorables”, making the social situation worse in the United States because of the politics of “woke.” As wealth disparity in the United States has become steadily worse over the last 30 years, making Dimon a very wealthy man, widening the gap between the top 10% of income earners and the bottom 90%, with the top 10% comprising of all races, ethnicities, and genders, and the foreign wealthy peers of the US wealthy across all inhabited continents including Africa, Biden’s unfinished job from his tenure of over 8 years as Barack Obama’s vice president is restoring the American middle class which is what #bidenomics is about. Biden is correct about the JFK maxim when JFK cut taxes from the FDR-Truman-Eisenhower high levels of marginal tax rates that the rising tide is going to lift all boats has not happened. In fact, the opposite has occurred since 1993: it became trickle-up economics, from trickle-down economics, reversing the flow of wealth from the bottom 90% to the top 10% by overconsumption due to both rising personal debt and national debt, and stagnating wages, as the top 10% benefited from globalization. The bottom 90% is just as sociallly diverse as the top 10% but it is still the economy, stupid. The wealthy were put first, not the people. Woke is, therefore, a meaningless debate to have and is a distraction from the core problem Biden is trying to solve. Rather than the Democrats forcing a return to the post-war high marginal tax rates on the wealthy, citing the ongoing foreign wars, which they see as akin to World War II to pay the bills for restoring domestic and foreign democracy, the tax rates ought to be left alone, the policy of unionization must be ended, for the corporations to reform corporate governance to ensure wealth is equitably redistributed within a corporation, instead of the Dead Weight Loss (DWL) of the government, to narrow the wealth gap. The total compensation of the bottom 90%, similar to that of the C-Suite, and their domestic savings should rise rather than rely on the foreign savings glut.

Normally, I’m not someone who posts about politics. With that said, this election is probably the most important in modern times. Plausible deniability exists for anyone who voted Trump in 2016. It was easy to buy into the “political outsider” claims and the anti-Hillary talking points. But it is different now. We have all seen the truth: Trump is a weird pathological liar, moron, and cares more about himself than our country. He is also a felon, the subject of countless sexual assault allegations, and was a close friend and frequent travel companion with the child trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. There are only two reasons anyone would vote for Trump this election: 1) Severe mental deficiency that makes it impossible for them to absorb information and think critically, or 2) discriminatory intent (be it sexist, racist, xenophobic, transphobic, homophobic, etc.). Few are willing to openly admit the latter reason and instead spew nonsensical or inaccurate information in an attempt to hide their real agenda. If you vote for Trump, I will consider you as falling in one of those two categories. Research Project 2025. Listen to the hate and nonsense Trump spews. Be honest with yourself about how your biases or lack of intelligence may be impeding your judgment. A vote for Trump is a vote against America, against equality and love, and against a free and prosperous future for our citizens and their descendants. Let’s finally move past the era of decrepit and selfish old men who have no interest in the prosperity, health, and wellness of future generations. It’s an absolute embarrassment and historic blemish on this country that this lifelong conman has managed to garner such an insidious and mindless cult. It’s 2024, the future we could only hypothesize about in 1980’s sci-fi movies. Why are we allowing ourselves to go down the distopian path and not opening our eyes to the stupidity of these fabricated culture wars, which are intended to distract normal working class people from the true cause of the vast majority of their problems - unchecked capitalism and rich oligarchs trying to bleed every cent out of the dwindling middle class and lower classes with no concern for their health, safety, or wellness. These powerful corporate interests will, without hesitation, destroy the environment, your health, your safety, and the world if it would increase their short-term profit margins. Trump is just another billionaire trying to manipulate and control the working class for his own personal and financial benefit (and those of his rich donors). I’m sick of it. Enough is enough. We can no longer be this ignorant and stupid or this hateful of our peers over their gender, race, sexual orientation, place of birth, or otherwise (none of which those people had any choice on as they had no choice on who they were born as and where they were born). It’s time to grow up. #Harris2024

"There's a new Sheriff in town."...And she's formidable. Who knew? In just a week, the energy around the Kamala Harris campaign is notable and shows no signs of stopping. I was one of those wanting President Biden to make his own decision and I trusted him to weigh it carefully.  It was his choice to make and as always, he chose the path that best served his party and his country.  I'm sure it was even more difficult because his leadership role has been carved out of a lifetime of working for the common good. Part of any chosen career includes the added pleasure (if you have a career you love) of engaging with those in your field who value and respect you. More importantly, it gives you purpose, and that's really hard to give up. I will always hold Joe Biden as the President who brought us through our country's worst years, as his list of accomplishment is long and his place in history is solid. The good news is we still have him leading our country without him needing to campaign.  With the wars looming in The Middle East, and Ukraine still needing support, his expertise is needed and necessary, and his team is still in place to get the job done. This shortened campaign cycle could be a great experiment to consider going forward. With America's four-year election cycle, the last two years are spent fundraising for the next four year term; it seems wasteful to give up two years of leadership. Europe already recognizes this phenom with shorter campaigns and we now know it can work. We're clearly in a sprint to the finish, with Trump now the oldest candidate to run, and facing a woman more gifted than he expected. At a time when women's health needs have been targeted, Kamala Harris appears to be the perfect candidate at the perfect time. The match up between Trump and Harris is now making history, not just for how it came about, but for what it represents. Those who know Kamala are not surprised by her easy ascendency; those who don't, have to catch up quick. The issues we face won't just impact Democrats... Women's health issues affect ALL women, our planet is heating up, fires are destroying forests, air and water is at risk in many states, guns and drugs are too easy to get and our borders must be protected with meaningful change. We need answers that address these issues and not personal attacks.  "Let the games begin".....

"...... he comes across as more sombre now, more edgily reflective. He imbues that mood in an afterword to the new paperback edition of his book, It’s OK to Be Angry About Capitalism, in which he writes that though he would like to be optimistic about the future, he cannot. He invokes his seven grandchildren, and laments that they will inherit a world that faces “more urgent and undeniable crises than at any time in modern history”. I ask him to spell that out. “We’re looking at a series of extraordinary crises. Climate: it’s up in the air whether the world community will make the cuts in carbon emissions to provide a habitable planet for our grandchildren. The growth of oligarchy: a small number of extremely wealthy people control the economic and political life of billions. Democracy: under severe threat from those capitalising on people’s fears.” Not long ago, Sanders used to be ridiculed for such disquieting rhetoric; he was denounced as a firebrand, a rabble-rouser. No one’s laughing at him now. Two wars, a humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in Gaza, vast swathes of North America literally burning, inequality between rich and poor at mind-sizzling levels. As the New Yorker memorably noted, “reality has endorsed Bernie Sanders”. Is that how it seems to him, that all his fears are coming home to roost? “It’s not a great feeling,” he says. “I’m extremely nervous about what is coming.” Ah yes. Donald Trump. Sanders has long had the measure of Trump. In 2016, when Trump said, “I alone can fix it,” as he accepted the Republican presidential nomination, Sanders commented: “Is this guy running for president or dictator?” Two months before the 2020 election, he predicted that a defeated Trump might not go peaceably – another portent that was dramatically fulfilled. Now, as the Iowa caucus kicks off the 2024 primary season on Monday, Sanders is at it again. Except this time, he says, the stakes are much higher. A second Trump presidency will be more extreme. He is a bitter man, having gone through four indictments, humiliated, he’s going to take it out on his enemies Even for a politician who doesn’t mince his words, his assessment of a Trump victory in November is sobering. “It will be the end of democracy, functional democracy.” It may not happen on day one, he says. Trump wouldn’t be as obvious as to abolish elections. But he would steadily weaken democracy, making it harder for young people and people of colour to vote, enervating political opposition, whipping up anger against minorities and immigrants." #USAelections #BernieSanders

Americans should not be hoodwinked and act stupid if Biden is forced out due to his physical limitations and mental acuity on display during the first presidential debate. Changing a horse in midstream of a derby is a reflection of poor judgment by trainers and owners. The damage is already done. If a likely replacement is, Michelle Obama (MO) - it means the Obamas are looking/wanting to build/create a monarchy. America is not set up for that. I bet MO will not run for president, and if she does, she will be humiliated. Biden is toast. Democrats best chance but bitter lame hope laden with strategies to hurt Trump has backfired. And Obama, the kingmaker, is licking his wounds, seeing how his chosen horse isn't suitable to work/walk talkless run. The debate demonstrated that Trump is the 2nd coming and suited for America and the world at large. California Gavin Newsome is a bloated/exaggerated balloon that can not fly. He just looks good but very empty headed - a product of Nancy Pelosi by lineage by hand-me-down political favors. He is hardly a heavy lifter who achieved it by dint of his intellect and hard work. African-Americans will reject MO because she did nothing as first lady except look pretty and is not much of a Strategist or thinker just someone who has looked pretty and some seriously think she is not who she claims. The Obama era showed that because one's own is POTUS - doesn't mean the bacon is coming home. 8 yrs of the Obamas was about developing street celebrity status, not getting anything done that significantly benefitted the electoral constituency - African-Americans who rewarded him with the largest votes. This whole idea of Obama, being a political godfather, is a crock and flimsy because a review of those he has endorsed in gubernatorial and other office elections never won. He endorsed in Georgia (Stacey Adams), and Andrew Gillum (Florida) all flamed out. And if in Democrats sacrosanct god-given minds they force Biden out given his debate performance, Trump should not debate whoever the replacement is. He should just stay on the messages about remaking America and ignoring the failed Biden administration whose policies have BITTEN America and will BITE more if he stumbled into the 2nd term. God forbid. EE OKPA Global Affairs Analyst. #presidentialdebate #obama #donaldtrump #joebiden #uselection

US Elites Do Not Want Real Full Democratic Participation: It is largely too inconvenient for them and their lobbies US and overall Western Elites want American public either not really seriously participate, or as political zombies or come out for a few major events and then go home drink beer, watch football or clean the backyard if they have one, then "burp" satisfaction. What really bothers the elites is that there is a large number of angry Americans who are talking up against the elites' divine sense that they really know what they are doing including many of their appointees in Washington largely obsequious to them. And they do not much Iike -or sometimes have no idea or empathy of this anger. Some of these pampered elites are generations away from any in their family having to first struggle with having "nothing" or modest wealth like most Americans. These elites are shaking the heads when people like progressives, Senator Bernie Sanders tell them they are overly privileged oligarchs disconnected from most citizens. These elites get to manufacture different narratives wholeheartedly against people like Sanders and wish such types were politically wiped out if they could .manufacture it. They have tried hard. Interesting Samuel Huntington who was director of the Center for International Affairs at Harvard when I was an Associate there at the time , wrote a book called American Politics The promise of disharmony That he essentially contends that high participation and activism does not necessarily lead to stability. Huntington who was fairly close to liberal Democrats and the Washington political establishment showed this inclination by inside Washington to have some serious scepticism on booming and definitely populist democracy. What the technocrats or what Donald Trump refers to the Deep State or Swamp are seen as self absorbed officials and their political enablers as ruining America by Trumpers. Yet their target of officials are highly sceptical that people power be it of the Sanders type of Trump led can make America better but a mob run government of polarization. But the growing argument given the disastrous continued wars massive debt and struggling masses with the cost of living more and more Americans have had it with a system that seems to privilege Washington at their expense. I As the prolific scholar Noam Chomsky states, "Well, there is a traditional left position, which has been pretty much forgotten, unfortunately, but it's the one I think we should adhere to. That’s the position that real politics is constant activism. It’s quite different from the establishment position, which says politics means focus, laser-like, on the quadrennial extravaganza, then go home and let your superiors take over." That seems to rhyme with Huntington and such. Democracy is best left to not to so many and not too much activism. And nicely dovetails with Washington insiders. Sad https://lnkd.in/guH3Avh6

👹🇺🇲 Our Future and Trump's « beautiful day » in America 🇺🇲👹 « As progressives, it’s important we lay out an agenda the American people would be eager to vote for – not just someone to vote against. What is that agenda? It is an agenda that acknowledges the pain, stress and despair that the majority of our people are experiencing, and provides a path forward to improve their lives. It is an agenda prepared to take on the greed of the oligarchs and corporate America. It is an agenda that boldly confronts the wealth and power of the 1%, and demands that the rich start paying their fair share of taxes.It is an agenda that uses artificial intelligence to benefit all people, not just the owners of large corporations. It is an agenda that ends starvation wages in America, makes it easier for workers to join unions and provides equal pay for equal work. It is an agenda that makes healthcare a human right and substantially lowers the outrageously high cost of prescription drugs in this country. It is an agenda that will make it possible for all working-class young people to gain a college education without going into debt, and will radically improve our dysfunctional childcare system. It is an agenda that will create millions of good-paying jobs as we lead the world in combating climate change and transforming our energy system away from fossil fuels. It is an agenda that will take on the systemic racism that prevails throughout our country and fundamentally reform our broken and racist criminal justice system.It is an agenda that cuts military spending, prevents war and supports diplomacy and international cooperation. It is an agenda that will lead to comprehensive immigration reform and a path towards citizenship for the undocumented. Now, it goes without saying that this is not the agenda of the Democratic establishment and their wealthy campaign funders. You know that. I know that. So, what do we do? As progressives, what should our political strategy be in 2024? [..] In these difficult times it is easy to become victim to despair and cynicism. It is easy to become paralyzed into inaction when one realizes that there are no magic solutions to the complex political crises we face, and that every step forward has its drawbacks and critics. But we truly have no alternative but to stand up and fight for the country we know we can become. This is a struggle not just for our generation, not just for our kids and grandchildren – but for the future of our democracy and our planet. This is not a time to surrender. » –US Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt) https://lnkd.in/giZD6A-F