Being Libertarian | The extent to which a state should exist Being Libertarian This has been a constant issue in the libertarian movement: between non-libertarians attacking our movement because they mistakenly view Somalia as an example of a failed libertarian state and the thriving size of the anarcho-capitalist faction in the ... |
More here:
The extent to which a state should exist - Being Libertarian
Being Libertarian (satire) | Democrats Commit Suicide by Testimony The Lowdown On Liberty Being Libertarian (satire) Thursday's charade helped solidify the notion from libertarians that the right and left are one in the same. As if watching both parties trip over themselves as they quietly teeter-tottered with their love-hate relationship for Comey during the past ... Four top law firms turned down requests to represent Trump - Yahoo |
Read more:
Democrats Commit Suicide by Testimony The Lowdown On Liberty - Being Libertarian (satire)
By Chris Kenning | CHICAGO
CHICAGO Buoyed by the British Labour Party election gains this week, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders on Saturday urged a summit of progressive activists who propelled his presidential candidacy to ramp up efforts to win elections and help remake a Democratic Party he deemed a failure.
"They won those seats by standing up to the ruling class," he said, referring to the British elections and citing wins by progressive U.S. candidates in several state and local races while writing off losses as evidence liberal progressives could still be competitive even in conservative states.
But Sanders, who lost the Democratic nomination nearly a year ago to Hillary Clinton, showed little interest in a push by "Draft Bernie" activists who want him to start his own "People's Party." Many activists blame establishment Democrats for losing to President Donald Trump by failing to embrace a more populist left-leaning agenda.
Sanders headlined the three-day "People's Summit" in Chicago, attended by celebrity activists including actors Danny Glover and John Cusack, which brought together main progressive groups such as National Nurses United, Democratic Socialists of America and People for Bernie.
Many activists said they hoped to transform the momentum from recent protests such as January's Women's March in Washington into concrete plans to support a growing wave of grassroots candidates to secure electoral power.
"We could have 10,000 people marching, but if we don't have some means of translating that into winning political office and enacting a legislative progressive agenda, at the end of the day, what does it amount to?" said Nick Brana, the former staffer for theSanders campaign leading the "Draft Bernie" group.
With Trump mired in controversy over incidents such as the firing of former FBI Director James Comey, and Democrats having lost ground in statehouses and in Congress, RoseAnn Demoro, head of the nurses union, said the movement Sanders began was at a "tipping point" of broadening its support.
Leaders with the Democratic Socialists of America said their membership has bloomed from 6,000 before the election to 22,000.
Others warned that progressives dont have the fundraising firepower they need or that gains were still fledgling.
"We're closer but we're not yet winning," said activist and writer Naomi Klein.
Still, Sanders credited progressives with increasing public acceptance of proposals such as a $15 minimum wage, renegotiating trade policies and offering free college tuition. He got a standing ovation when he said the California Senate recently passed a single-payer health care plan.
(Reporting by Chris Kenning; Editing by Robert Birsel)
SAN JUAN Puerto Ricans head to the polls on Sunday to decide whether they want their struggling U.S. territory to become the 51st U.S. state, although a vote in favor would likely face an uphill battle in Congress and with President Donald Trump.
WASHINGTON U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday denied he tried to interfere with an FBI investigation, effectively accusing James Comey, the FBI's former director, of lying under oath to Congress.
The rest is here:
Bernie Sanders urges progressives to seek more electoral wins - Reuters
Audience at Van Jones speech, People's Summit 2017. National Nurses United
CHICAGO In remarks to thousands at the Peoples Summit here June 10, Van Jones said Progressives are too often absent where some of the worse pain is present.
The popular leader of the Dream Corp, now a TV personality, talked about his recent experiences backing coal miners who have been cheated out of their pensions and healthcare benefits. Most of those miners had voted for Trump.
They descended daily, miles down into these deep black holes where they knew their bodies would break but they did it because in exchange they are getting a modest paycheck to feed their families, and they expected that in their sick old age they would at least be able to afford some reasonable health care, Jones explained.
He described how the same coal companies that poison the environment then reneged on their promises to these miners taking away their pensions and healthcare.
So I took the opportunity to go to coal country to demonstrate in support of these miners, thinking that as a life long demonstrator and marcher Id have something to offer, Jones said. Ive done a lot of chanting and singing in my life, he added.
He described how he tried to start a chant: There aint no power like the power of the people cause the power of the people dont stop! He tried three times, no one picked it up, and then the wife of a miner tapped him on the elbow.
Dont feel bad Mr. Jones, it isnt you. They are glad you are here. Its them. They cant chant, they cant sing, they can hardly talk or breathe sometimes. They have black lung disease.
We have to be there for Black Lives Matter and we have to be there for Latinos in Florida when attempts to block their right to vote are underway. But we also have to be there for those miners in West Virginia. When we fought alongside of them we won back some of the healthcare and pension benefits for 20,000 of them.
I may not like how you voted but you are my brother and I dont want you to die. By sticking together all of us will win.
The hall rose to its feet in continuous and sustained applause.
Your donation keeps Peoples World on line and up to date! Even a small donation of as little as $5 every month has a big impact.
GET PEOPLE'S WORLD UPDATES
See the article here:
Van Jones at People's Summit: Progressives must engage Trump voters - People's World
The outrage over Trumps rejection of the Paris accord raises a number of issues.
1. There is a distinction between three types of opinions. There are our personal and social biases.
Chocolate ice cream may be preferable to vanilla. There are scientific opinions which are generally created by research or the conclusion of mathematical manipulation. Then there are opinions that might be called religious. A person may say, I have never seen an angel, and you have never seen an angel, but I believe angels exist.
As demonstrated by the climate change debate, it is easy for scientific opinion to become doctrinaire and begin to fall into the religious category.
When a person or organization picks out individuals who do not appear doctrinally pure and charges them with being unscientific or science deniers, then you know you are not only dealing with ignorance, but those making the accusation are doing so in a mindset indistinguishable from religious fervor.
2. Science and politics dont mix well. Carl Popper claimed mixing the two created something akin to astrology. This is especially true when politicians are out in front of the movement followed by a mass of true believers, with scientists bringing up the rear.
The political solution to climate change demands one of the largest transfers of wealth in human history. Where do you think it will go? Of course, you already know the answer to that. How much difference in climate change will be experienced by the hundreds of millions of small people sacrificing to pay the bills? The scientists have told us we shouldnt expect much. The priests of the new religious orders have already decreed that because of our environmental sins, we are all going to a purgatory that looks remarkably like Beijing. The last time we checked, Beijing may or may not abide by the Paris accord, at least in the near future.
3. The ruling elites who were defeated last election were banking on climate change doctrine to fulfill several essential functions. It creates a religious-type motivation that unifies their rank-and-file followers. It is a cause that can be used to consolidate wealth, power and influence. Think of Al Gore if an example is necessary. And last, but certainly not least, it is an issue that can successfully be used to defeat and maybe even destroy their enemies.
Losing power creates a temper tantrum, but for the true believers marginalizing the elites ability to manipulate the apparatus of climate change creates an existential crisis.
4. Will the left now see the wisdom of not having an all-powerful president with pen and a phone? When they are in power, they act like nothing could be finer than a president who can do anything he wants as if he ruled some banana republic. But Trump has demonstrated they are not always in control, and what one president can do, another can also do.
Having constitutional restraints on power is a very, very good idea.
Dennis Clayson is a marketing professor at the University of Northern Iowa.
Original post:
Liberals' climate hysteria - Waterloo Cedar Falls Courier