Everything Southern Humboldt and more
It’s possible, but only if the Jewish left is willing to coalition with Arabs.
You can find updates here. They’re still counting and it’s really close, but all three major networks have exit polls which suggest that Netanyahu is toast. It might mean he’s going to jail!
Update: Gantz, the Blue and White leader, will meet with Odeh, the head of Joint List, the Arab party. If the Arabs are invited into a winning coalition, this will make history!
Emerson poll – with some interesting notes.
Harris should probably drop out as this is her home state and she’s in single digits fifth behind Yang. She made an impression as being “tough” when she went after Biden in the first debate, but then leftists in California started posting about her very conservative prosecution record and the fact that she was essentially recruited by the “downtown interests” in San Francisco to defeat Terrence Hallinan, a genuine progressive DA who prosecuted white collar crime and cop abuses of power. She was young, black, and female and so shiny to clueless tech liberals with no understanding of the politics and history of their city.
Also, she probably started selling out too quickly moving from a Medicare for All position to maintaining private insurance overnight. You should at least wait until you’ve won a few primaries/caucuses before selling out!
Warren is in third in a “statistical tie” with Biden and Bernie. She will probably improve after last night’s rally and her campaign is on fire!
This law would force the American Independent Party to change its name.
I really don’t think a law should be passed forcing a decades old party to change its name because some people don’t read carefully, but it must be quite a shock when you find out that you’ve joined George Wallace’s pro-segregation party. It happened to the Communist historian Herbert Aptheker who was wondering why he was getting strange right wing mass mailings.
But I see the proposal as a First Amendment violation for issues which are of little consequence. It’s very simple to change your registration status, and it certainly doesn’t dictate how you vote. And in California (thanks to a silly proposition we passed a few years back) we only have party primaries for the Presidential race. The Democrats allow indepedents to vote in their primary. However, the Republicans, Greens, and Peace and Freedom Party require that you register with their parties. So basically, if you accidentally register American Independent, you can’t vote in the Democratic primary. Nor the Libertarian which is also open.
The segregationist party has pretty much been taken over by the John Birch Society so if you do accidentally register with them, you will receive all kinds of black helicopter international conspiracy theory literature and calls to leave the U.N. And they won’t be holding a primary here as they have already decided to endorse Trump, much like the Republican Party in South Carolina and a few other states.
Ballad of Birmingham
BY DUDLEY RANDALL
(On the bombing of a church on this day in Birmingham, Alabama, 1963)
“Mother dear, may I go downtown
Instead of out to play,
And march the streets of Birmingham
In a Freedom March today?”
“No, baby, no, you may not go,
For the dogs are fierce and wild,
And clubs and hoses, guns and jails
Aren’t good for a little child.”
“But, mother, I won’t be alone.
Other children will go with me,
And march the streets of Birmingham
To make our country free.”
“No, baby, no, you may not go,
For I fear those guns will fire.
But you may go to church instead
And sing in the children’s choir.”
She has combed and brushed her night-dark hair,
And bathed rose petal sweet,
And drawn white gloves on her small brown hands,
And white shoes on her feet.
The mother smiled to know her child
Was in the sacred place,
But that smile was the last smile
To come upon her face.
For when she heard the explosion,
Her eyes grew wet and wild.
She raced through the streets of Birmingham
Calling for her child.
She clawed through bits of glass and brick,
Then lifted out a shoe.
“O, here’s the shoe my baby wore,
But, baby, where are you?”
It was back to school night last evening, so I missed much of the debate. I did get to see the highlights later. Someone asked me whom I think “won.” Just my impression, but since Biden is the front-runner in most polls, I would say that any debate performance in which he does not show signs of dementia is to his favor. But I think the first primaries and caucuses are going to be influenced by the ground games each candidate has, and there’s no way to measure that right now. If Biden isn’t bleeding going into Super Tuesday he will be the candidate. Otherwise, flip a coin between Bernie and Warren. I think Harris already peaked – she really should have waited for the primaries before she started switching her positions. You have to price to a premium before you sell out. I don’t see anybody else making any big moves in the polls. Yang’s stunt was cute, but I really don’t think it’s going to give him traction over what he already has. Booker and Castro did well (Castro might have pissed some people off), but they did well in the past two debates and although more people now know them and like them, it hasn’t moved them up in polls much. Beto seems to be auditioning for a VP gig. Klobuchar was as boring and bland as ever. And any candidate who didn’t make it into the debate last night is probably toast, with the dubious exceptions of Steyer and Tulsi. I expect most of the rest will drop out before the 4th debate.
So it comes down to the three and I’m already thinking VP. If Warren gets the nomination – and there is a very good chance of that – I think her best choice would be Sherrod Brown – bona fide progressive particularly with class and labor issues who has fended off more dark money in his Senate runs than any non-Presidential candidate for anything. If the Republicans don’t win Ohio, they lose – plain and simple.
If Biden wins he will probably court Stacy Abrams again. I think he will have to go female. Castro burned that bridge last night anyway.
For Bernie, I would say Abrams, Castro, or possibly someone completely out of the box.
KHSU is zombie station at this point and nothing is going to change anytime soon. But some of the lost KHSU local talent is making its way to other venues. KMUD is looking to bring some of it into its fold. But there is a young station sponsored by Access Humboldt which is generating some creative programming. They air out of a studio at Eureka High School and they now have a recording studio at the Creamery in Arcata.
I was asked to record some content for this three-year-old station. They don’t yet have the capability for live programming and so no phone calls, but Chuck Rogers and I have agreed to do a monthly show on national politics. We recorded our first show last night. We have to come up with a name, some theme music and such. It will air probably more than once sometime next week. The local programing isn’t yet consistent enough for a regular schedule, but that’s in the works. They have borrowed some content from KMUD, including my last show, and they are slowly picking up listeners. The range is limited, but you can listen live online through this link.
It’s still kind of raw, but it feels like history is being made. Something like KMUD back when it first operated out of a motel room in Garberville. Or KPFA back in the 1950s when an innovative team were “picking ideas and thoughts right out of the air.”
From the site:
KZZH-LP 96.7 FM is a non-commercial, community based station operated by Access Humboldt from the Community Media Center studios at Eureka High School.
With the help of Common Frequency and the Prometheus Radio Project, Access Humboldt’s “license to cover” was approved by the Federal Communications Commission on August 22, 2016, with service covering Eureka, Arcata, Humboldt Bay and adjacent areas of Humboldt County, California.
Local programming sources for KZZH include:
If you would like more information or can offer support to help sustain KZZH, please contact Matthew Knight, Station Manager, via email at: KZZH@accesshumboldt.net or call 707-476-1798.
I’m glad the majority of the Fortuna City Council is…. well, emotionally well adjusted.
“There’s two people in the audience. There’s 14,000 people in this city,” Glaser declared at the council’s Aug. 18 meeting. “Where is the support for this monumental idea to put something in our city that makes a statement, just as the statement of any single liberal city, whether it be in California or the other 50 states, that expresses pacifism, liberalism, the conquest of the ideals that a community or a city has? I consider Fortuna to be a very conservative city. … I don’t think something like this should be on any city property. I don’t need to be driving down Main Street and seeing it in front of the Monday Club. It’s going to tick me off. I don’t like this kind of political statement.”
Okay. There’s a photo of the offending art in the NCJ article through this link.
It’s almost like certain people in power want to see how low we can go as a nation – just because.
In an earlier post I described the First District race as a contest of two progressives against one conservative. Few are questioning Cliff Berkowitz’s progressive credentials, but on another forum and in emails and private messages I have been told that Elias Garcia-Munguia, the 18-year-old in the race, is more conservative than not and that his familial relationship with former candidate Alan McCloskey should not lead to assumptions about his politics.
Point taken. The above-linked article mentions his support for more money to law enforcement, which is I guess kind of “conservative” although progressives have also complained about the lack of adequate funding for law enforcement as well as other agencies. And Garcia-Munguia also supports increased funding for other agencies, right there in the article. Increased money to government anywhere except for the military is generally considered “liberal.”
But he is also against the needle exchange and discusses homelessness from more of a law enforcement perspective than a solution orientation. Okay. Fine.
Still, what we have is an 18-year-old stepping up and running for office. He’s young and is approaching politics from the perspective of youth and if he continues as a leader regardless of the election results, his politics will evolve as he is more informed and experienced in life. We probably shouldn’t characterize him in any way until is ideas are more developed. Maybe they will be more developed by the election.
The point is that in a country where getting young people to vote is a major chore, having some of them show some bravery to actually run for office is something progressives should encourage and nurture. Give him a chance to define himself before we define him. So I hereby retract my characterization of him as a “progressive,” but I also won’t characterize him as a conservative. I will let him speak for himself.
The photo is borrowed from the article linked above.
Federal judge enjoins the administration’s policy of requiring that asylum applicants apply for asylum and be denied in Mexico (if they are Central American) before leaving that country. This is a pretty good indication that the executive order will ultimately be overturned. Apparently some federal judges still believe that Congress writes the laws.
This is really good news for a bunch of recently-interviewed asylum applicants! It seemed like there was a rush to process and deport a large number of Central Americans, who would have been returned not to Mexico but to their countries of origin where they could be killed.
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