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(2 comments) SHARE        Friday, November 9, 2018
Don't buy from Fox News advertisers: Progressive, Capital One, Applebees, IHOP, Match.com, Angie's List, Home Advi Fox News is a malevolent and destructive force. Not only is the network's programming becoming increasingly extreme, deceitful, and racist, but Fox News is also functioning as Donald Trump's personal propaganda operation. Please contact Fox News' advertisers and ask them to stop advertising on Fox News. Meanwhile, don't buy from them or patronize them.

(157 comments) SHARE        Friday, February 10, 2012
The myth that the Dems are as bad as the Repugs Many leftists like to say that the Dems are as bad as the Republicans. Not so! As bad as the Dems often are, the Repugs are even worse. Here's why and some thoughts how we should react.

(6 comments) SHARE        Thursday, May 21, 2009
Why Abortion Isn't Murder Abortion isn't murder because until there's a mature nervous system, there's no conscious person, just a potential consciousness (a clump of cells). Nor is there a pre-existing (dormant) consciousness, as there'd be in the case of a sleeping or comatose person. Consciousness and preciousness emerge gradually, along with the gradual development of a mature nervous. The essay elaborates on these ideas in defense of choice.

(9 comments) SHARE        Wednesday, March 13, 2019
Why Dems should be furious at Obama Historians will look back at the presidency of Barack Obama as one that was both triumphant and tragic. The tragic thing about the presidency of Barack Obama was that he was given a once-in-a-generation opportunity to control the narrative, expose GOP corruption, establish a strong Democratic majority and save America from the forces of corporatism and militarism. He barely even tried.

(33 comments) SHARE        Saturday, December 22, 2012
Image essay about blood soaked NRA Powerful images that expose the blood-soaked stupidity and venality of the NRA.

(25 comments) SHARE        Saturday, April 24, 2010
Government is like a computer's operating system: a response to libertarians Government is like the operating system for society.

(38 comments) SHARE        Saturday, August 29, 2009
Failure to prosecute: why Obama is having trouble passing health care reform President Obama apparently believes that prosecuting Bush Administration officials for torture and other crimes would be a "distraction" from more important matters, such as health care reform. Nothing could be further from the truth.

(13 comments) SHARE        Saturday, August 14, 2010
Undividing the Left: Hard-core and Soft-core progressives The animosity between soft-core and medium hard-core progressives is kinda silly. Both factions share the same goals and values (economic justice, civil rights, women's rights, gay rights, environmentalism, unionism, an end to militarism, and justice & accountability). They just disagree on techniques.

(4 comments) SHARE        Friday, September 24, 2010
The Battle over I-1098 in Washington State In Washington State there's a fierce battle underway between supporters and opponents of ballot Initiative 1098. I-1098 will establish an income tax on the wealthiest 1.2% of Washingtonians, while lowering taxes for the middle class and for small businesses. Recently newspapers, blogs, and the airwaves have been filled with pleas for and against I-1098.

(28 comments) SHARE        Wednesday, October 14, 2009
"They're out to get us!" On trust, distrust, and organizing for change People have lost trust in the institutions of society. Like libertarians, many progressives no longer trust government. What can we trust? How can we rebuild trust? (Plus, some cool fractal images that demonstrate self-similarity needed in politics.)

(9 comments) SHARE        Friday, July 29, 2022
Summary of The Devil's Chessboard: Allen Dulles, the C.I.A., and the rise of America's secret government Summary of David Talbot's book The Devil's Chessboard: Allen Dulles and the Rise of America's Secret Government. Allen Dulles comes across as a supremely evil man who aided Nazis, overthrew democratically elected governments, authorized assassinations of foreign leaders, and (allegedly) helped plan the assassination of JFK.

(61 comments) SHARE        Monday, August 23, 2010
Why Obama can't blame the GOP for his inability to pass progressive legislation President Obama and the Democratic leadership blame their inability to effect progressive change on the recalcitrance of the conservative opposition. This effort to deflect blame is belied by one salient fact: had Obama and the Democratic leadership prosecuted the Republicans for their numerous serious criminal acts, then the GOP would no longer be in a position to mount an effective resurgence.

SHARE        Monday, September 14, 2009
Book review: Mark Buchanan's The Social Atom Mark Buchanan's The Social Atom has insightful things to say about politics, economics, and human cooperation.

(10 comments) SHARE        Thursday, August 20, 2009
Where are the religious protesters? Abolitionism and the civil rights movement benefited from the support of religious folks. Where are the religious folks in the anti-war, accountability, and health care reform movements? Is their absence one reason why current progressive movements have failed?

(1 comments) SHARE        Wednesday, November 14, 2012
Right wing website Newsmax suppresses embarrassing survey results about Medicare Right wing website Newsmax held a survey in which they asked whether to cut Medicare. Responders overwhelmingly responded, No, don't cut Medicare. So Newsmax removed those results and replaced them with a survey founded upon a lie.

(4 comments) SHARE        Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Why we need public financing of investigative journalism The decline of privately funded journalism is to be expected. I present the case for public funding of journalism. Perhaps most importantly, I address libertarian objections to such public funding. We need government-funded journalism to act as a watchdog on both private and public corruption.

(1 comments) SHARE        Saturday, May 1, 2010
Ruminations on Four Types of Love I share some thoughts and invite feedback about four types of love: baby love, romantic love, universal benevolence, and toxic love. Is love real? Should we worry about love?

(7 comments) SHARE        Sunday, September 12, 2010
President Obama's emergency speech to the American people Text of President Obama's historic speech to the nation.

(60 comments) SHARE        Sunday, September 21, 2014
The two Democratic Parties: corporate Dems versus progressive Dems On facebook, in comments to articles, and in person I often hear socialists, anarchists, and independents say things like "The Dems are as bad as the Republicans." Such views represent a gross exaggeration or distortion of the facts, but they contain a kernel of truth. The progressive wing of the Democratic Party desperately needs the help of socialists, anarchists, and independents.

(51 comments) SHARE        Sunday, November 27, 2011
On Occupying the Democratic Party Can the further Left (Occupiers, anarchists, and Socialists) work, in some fashion, with the nearer Left (progressive Democrats, Labor, and groups like MoveOn.org)? Can the Occupy Movement find allies without getting co-opted?

(22 comments) SHARE        Friday, August 14, 2009
Where's the music? In the 1960s protest songs inspired the civil rights movement and the anti-war movement. Where are the popular protest songs for the current progressive movements?

(28 comments) SHARE        Saturday, August 7, 2010
Are the Democrats as bad as the Republicans? Should progressives form their own party? Common sense thoughts about how progressives should deal with evil Republicans, mixed Dems, and a mysteriously wimpy President Obama.

(63 comments) SHARE        Saturday, September 15, 2012
Are anarchists in Occupy aiding Grover Norquist? Like Tea Partiers, many Occupiers hate government. The Occupy movement has raised awareness about gross injustices in our political and economic system, but the anarchist tendencies perplex me. I explain why and solicit feedback from Occupiers about why they're attracted to anarchism.

(18 comments) SHARE        Friday, August 26, 2011
How to stop the Tea Party: a response to Sam Harris To stop the Tea Party, progressives need to both take over the Democratic Party and market the ideas of good government and fair taxation. To win that argument, progressives need to frame the issues correctly.

(21 comments) SHARE        Thursday, August 2, 2018
Socialism, even democratic socialism, is quite different from progressivism Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez call themselves democratic socialists, but lots of experts agree that they they are just social democrats. Democratic socialists want public ownership of the means of production. Social democrats are OK with private ownership as long as it's well taxed well regulated and well balanced by an ample safety net. Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez should be less sloppy in their choice of words.

(29 comments) SHARE        Friday, December 20, 2013
Five Political Ideologies, in one easy image A concise image explaining the competing political ideologies in the US at this time.

(2 comments) SHARE        Sunday, June 27, 2010
Report on the 2010 Washington State Democratic Convention On the weekend of June 25 I attended the Washington State Democratic Convention, in Vancouver, WA. Here's a report of some of what I observed and learned.

(18 comments) SHARE        Saturday, September 19, 2009
Arguing with conservatives about health care My response to a conservative's call for more "market-based competition" in health care. Market-based competition is unlikely to work, and Singapore is a poor example. This article summarizes the case against Big Insurance and Big Pharma.

(1 comments) SHARE        Sunday, June 13, 2010
Centrists and Progressives Fight for Control of Washington State Democrats A report on Democratic politics in Washington State.

(2 comments) SHARE        Sunday, July 24, 2011
Kucinich, Ron Reagan, Jr, Randi Rhodes and others speak at forum, mostly defend Obama On Saturday about a thousand people went to the Showare Center in Kent, WA to hear speeches and a panel discussion by Dennis Kucinich, Ron Reagan, Jr., Norman Goldman, Randi Rhodes, Stephanie Miller, Mike Malloy, and Mike Papantonio. They both criticized and defended President Obama and the Democrats.

(8 comments) SHARE        Sunday, February 20, 2011
Name-calling works, if you can make it stick How can we prevent the slide into theocratic banana Republicanism?

(5 comments) SHARE        Thursday, May 27, 2010
The banal evil of predatory capitalism Many left-wingers decry the evilness of corporations. Yes, they're often evil, but not necessarily in the black-and-white way that left-wingers often portray them. The evil is mostly a banal, bureaucratic evil that arises not, typically, from any malice towards others so much as from uncontrolled greed. On the other hand, some actions by politicians and corporations are evil in an active, non-banal way.

(5 comments) SHARE        Saturday, October 16, 2010
US Congressman Dave Reichert doesn't know what the Glass-Steagall Act is At a candidates' forum in Washington State, US Congressman Dave Reichert admitted that he's not familiar with the Glass-Steagall Act.

(2 comments) SHARE        Monday, June 27, 2011
Coverups concerning former Republican Senator Chuck Hagel There are credible allegations of a coverup concerning former Republican US Senator Chuck Hagel. He hid his ownership in AIS (a voting machine manufacturer), even though his machines counted the votes in the election that Hagel won in an upset. Someone removed this story from the wikipedia article about Hagel.

(2 comments) SHARE        Saturday, January 15, 2011
Washington State's Unconstitutional Initiative: I-1053 Constitutions exist to protect the People from unjust laws and initiatives. The Washington State Constitution specifies that a bill becomes law if a majority of legislators support it. Hence I-1053 (the voter initiative requiring 2/3 majorities of legislators to approve tax increases) would appear to be unconstitutional, as would many or all of Tim Eyman's similar initiatives.

(11 comments) SHARE        Saturday, February 12, 2011
The Market for Progressive Groups and Websites The sale of HuffPost to AOL raises questions about corporate ownership of progressive infrastructure. House Republicans' efforts to defund NPR and CPB further threaten the Left's ability to get its message out. How can the left build an effective media and political infrastructure outside the market system?

(16 comments) SHARE        Tuesday, December 17, 2019
How conservatives and evangelicals are smarter than Dems and progressives Progressives and Democrats like to look down on conservatives, including evangelicals. But the facts suggest that it's the progressives and Democrats who aren't so smart. This article has some painful truths for progressives and Dems.

(50 comments) SHARE        Saturday, October 17, 2015
Is Sanders' democratic socialism compatible with capitalism? Bernie Sanders has said that he's a democratic socialist and that he's not a (casino) capitalist. And he lists Scandinavian countries as models that the U.S. should emulate. But Scandinavian countries have private wealth and corporations. Does Sanders support capitalism as long as it's regulated? Or does he want to do away with private ownership unless the owners are worker cooperatives?

(3 comments) SHARE        Friday, September 4, 2009
Close friendships: why so few? Many Americans have trouble maintaining close non-romantic friendships. Why is that?

(18 comments) SHARE        Sunday, July 5, 2009
Holding Dems like Baucus and Cantwell Accountable on Health Care Senator Maria Cantwell and other "moderate" Democrats are coming under increasing criticism within the Democratic Party for their wishy-washy stance on health care reform and other issues.

(1 comments) SHARE        Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Mad as Hell Doctors stop in Seattle The Mad As Hell Doctors are touring the country. They stopped in Seattle this afternoon. Impressive people and energy. Will the American people learn the truth? Please check out a great video they produced: OurAilingHealthcare.com .

(3 comments) SHARE        Monday, February 28, 2011
Are conservatives mean, greedy, and stupid? A response to Lakoff By insisting that conservatives are neither mean, greedy, or stupid, Lakoff too is enabling the right.

(21 comments) SHARE        Sunday, April 15, 2012
Breaking news: Kucinich seriously considering running for Congress in Washington State Dennis Kucinich is seriously considering running for Congress in Washington State, where a group of progressive activists has set up a website and petition calling on him to run here.

(18 comments) SHARE        Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Blame conservatives and Obama, not all the Dems Can progressives punish Obama and defend their honor without helping the Republicans?

(1 comments) SHARE        Sunday, September 22, 2019
UFOs, Climate Change, and Trump: an explanation There has been a recent uptick in UFO sightings, as reported by U.S. Navy pilots and others. The explanation for the uptick is related to the climate change crisis, as described in this video.

(20 comments) SHARE        Tuesday, December 18, 2012
Obama agrees to cut Social Security, largely spare the Pentagon, and retain many Bush era tax cuts Obama recently said of himself, "My policies are so mainstream that if I had set the same policies " back in the 1980s, I would be considered a moderate Republican."

(3 comments) SHARE        Sunday, October 4, 2009
White House spurns Mad As Hell Docs, invites "friendlier" docs On September 30th, the Mad As Hell Docs arrived in Washington, D.C., and held a rally in Lafayette Park in front of the White House. Doctors from across the country attended. They told the crowd why they believed, based on their years of practicing medicine and the stories Their voices were not heard in the White House. Or were they?

(95 comments) SHARE        Friday, October 4, 2013
Anarchism, libertarianism, and the way forward How does anarchism differ from libertarianism? How should a progressive liberal who supports government programs (such as Social Security, Medicare, public education, and public transportation) respond to libertarian and anarchist attacks on government? Finally, how do anarchists expect to defang corporations without government power?

(6 comments) SHARE        Tuesday, December 10, 2019
Dems agree to a horrible National Defense Authorization Act House Dems agreed on a compromise National Defense Authorization Act that eliminates virtually all the progressive amendments that had originally appeared in the bill this summer.

(11 comments) SHARE        Wednesday, April 19, 2017
Republican Jesus How Jesus would preach if he were a Republican. He would eliminate Meals on Wheels. He would repeal your health care, and ....
Series: Videos (1 Articles, 1766 views)

(12 comments) SHARE        Thursday, November 8, 2018
Galloping towards the Apocalypse Is the USA headed for the breakdown of civil society? The evidence is pointing that way. Almost half the population is deranged, living in fantasy world of conspiracy theories. The Left is divided. Ruth Bader Ginsburg's fall makes the problem much worse. The conservative Supreme Court may prevent Dems from investigating Trump or from stopping him from firing Mueller.

(3 comments) SHARE        Tuesday, May 12, 2015
How President Obama and his supporters damaged the Democratic Party In 2008 I donated hundreds of dollars and many hours to the campaign of candidate Barack Obama. When he won on Nov. 4, 2008, I texted "Happy day!" to my brother. Within a year I had sorely regretted my support for Obama. I wrote articles, submitted resolutions, and advocated for accountability, to save the Democratic Party from looming catastrophe. In this article I collect evidence showing how Obama betrayed his party.

SHARE        Thursday, June 18, 2009
A Political Love Story (a musical animation about Bush and Pelosi) A light-hearted musical Flash animation that explains why Nancy Pelosi took impeachment off the table.

(10 comments) SHARE        Sunday, September 1, 2019
The debate about Russiagate and the fight against Trump On social media and online discussions, there's a big battle between believers in and deniers of Russiagate. It's highly politicized, with progressives like Glenn Greenwald supporting the views of Fox News and other defenders of the president. Deniers of Russiagate go too far -- the Russians did interfere in the election, and their were numerous links between Russian and Trump. But the Mueller Report was no silver bullet.

(17 comments) SHARE        Thursday, July 29, 2021
On the stupidity of preparing to wage war with China Despite disastrous wars against poor, third world countries Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan, the U.S. is preparing to to wage war with China, a technologically advanced nation four times its size. And the U.S. is doing this in China's backyard. How stupid is that?

(2 comments) SHARE        Sunday, July 3, 2011
Scary reports from Bev Harris's Black Box Voting Bev Harris' book Black Box Voting describes how electronic voting machines open up our electoral system to risks of error and fraud.

(10 comments) SHARE        Thursday, October 26, 2017
Was the Noble Savage noble? Or savage? There has been a debate in the press recently about whether the state (nation) is fundamentally a source of exploitation and war, or whether it's a source civilizing influence on humans' natural brutal nature. The debate has echoes of Thomas Hobbes and Renee Descartes, as well as echos of FDR versus the Koch brothers. In short, is the Noble Savage noble or savage?

(15 comments) SHARE        Wednesday, April 15, 2020
Yes, Nader and his supporters DID cause Gore to lose to Bush Many progressive writers have claimed that it's a myth that Ralph Nader caused Al Gore to lose the 2000 presidential election to Bush. They're wrong. Here's why.

(16 comments) SHARE        Sunday, October 24, 2010
Why do believers pray? If God is all-knowing and all-loving, why should believers need to pray to Him for results?

(4 comments) SHARE        Sunday, September 20, 2009
Do protest marches and rallies do much good? What are the alternatives? Stories and reflections about the role of protest marches and rallies in achieving progressive ends. A discussion of the slow, tedious, unfun alternatives.

(52 comments) SHARE        Saturday, March 9, 2019
The movement to rein in U.S. militarism is gaining momentum An abundance of progressive legislation is being introduced in the House of Representatives, setting the stage for eventual passage, when the Democrats take back control of the Senate: Medicare for All, H.R. 1, a Green New Deal. Next up: end the insane U.S. war-mongering, secrecy and military spending.

(4 comments) SHARE        Saturday, September 7, 2019
Do it, Jeff! A poster seen on a wall a few blocks from Amazon.com's headquarters in Seattle, WA suggests a focus for activism.

(16 comments) SHARE        Sunday, July 10, 2011
Dennis Kucinich looking for a political home, needs our help? Dennis Kucinich has been holding speaking engagements in Washington State, apparently in an effort to test the waters about relocating here and running for Congress. But support for him is lukewarm. Should progressives be advocating for him?

(4 comments) SHARE        Friday, March 22, 2019
Uh-oh, defense spending may rise again, and the Democratic leadership is on board Democrats in Congress appear ready to give into most of Donald Trump's request for a $750 billion defense budget. There are progressive voices calling for fiscal restraint in the Pentagon, but they appear to be losing out to the hawks and to the power of pork from military spending.

(4 comments) SHARE        Sunday, August 12, 2012
Government doesn't take away your freedoms; corrupt politicians, bureaucrats, and corporations do If conservatives really believe that guns don't kill, then by the same reasoning, they should really believe that government doesn't waste their money and take away their freedoms; people do. Specifically, corrupt politicians, bureaucrats, and corporations subvert government and use it to enrich themselves.

(7 comments) SHARE        Thursday, August 29, 2019
Cenk Uygur of TYT is a believer in Russiagate Surprise, surprise. Cenk Uygur of The Yong Turks sounds like a true believer in Russiagate in this youtube video describing apparent connections between Trump and Russian oligarchs via Deutsche Bank loans.What is Trump trying to hide? Cenk Uygur and Ana Kasparian, hosts of The Young Turks, break it down. MORE TYT: .com/trial Read more here: ...

(7 comments) SHARE        Tuesday, September 7, 2010
President Obama is looking forward -- to a Republican-controlled Congress Are the Dems gonna stand up and defend themselves or not? Apparently not. President Obama is looking forward ---- to a GOP-controlled Congress. He's gotta look back and tell the Americans what happened!

(2 comments) SHARE        Sunday, August 25, 2019
Bernie Sanders Speaks at the DNC Summer Meeting Matt of the Zach and Matt show posts a video of 2020 Democratic Presidential candidate Bernie Sander's full speech today at the 2019 Democratic National Committee Summer Meetings. Senator Sanders makes the case for why Democratic voters should choose him to be their nominee against Donald Trump in the 2020 election.

(22 comments) SHARE        Wednesday, August 7, 2013
Blame poverty, not public schools Conservatives love to hate public schools and try to blame public schools for low educational outcomes compared to other countries. But a closer look shows that poverty, now public schools, are to blame for the problem.

(19 comments) SHARE        Saturday, July 15, 2017
Review of Matt Ridley's Evolution of Everything A review of Matt Ridley's "Evolution of Everything: How New Ideas Emerge." Ridley's book is an imbalanced, libertarian attack on government, regulation, environmentalism, public education, and taxation.

SHARE        Tuesday, August 15, 2017
Review of Martin Nowak's Super Cooperators: Altruism, Evolution, and Why We Need Each Other to Succeed How can cooperation emerge in a world of selfish individuals ruled by Darwinian competition for survival? This is the question that Martin Nowak, Professor of Mathematics and Biology at Harvard University, discusses in Super Cooperators: Altruism, Evolution, and Why We Need Each Other to Succeed. Nowak say, "I propose that 'natural cooperation' be included as a fundamental principle to bolster those laid down by Darwin."

(21 comments) SHARE        Thursday, November 12, 2009
Understanding political anger Why are people so angry about politics? How has anger affected your life?

(2 comments) SHARE        Thursday, December 2, 2010
Democrats and Progressives Need Each Other Angry conservatives take over the GOP. Angry progressives join a third party or an advocacy group.

(2 comments) SHARE        Monday, June 24, 2013
About the war in Afghanistan, from "The Operators" by Michael Hastings In March I wrote the following summary of Michael Hastings' book The Operators. Because of Hastings' untimely death, and because Hastings sent email about an FBI probe hours before his death, the following summary may be of interest to the readers

(3 comments) SHARE        Thursday, December 9, 2010
The straw that breaks, or strengthens, the Donkey's back Is President Obama's compromise on the Bush tax cuts for the super-rich the final straw, the one that breaks the Donkey's back? In fact, it's a great opportunity for progressives to revitalize the Democratic Party. Will the Party allow progressives to share some power? Will progressives flee to a third party?

(1 comments) SHARE        Wednesday, January 29, 2020
The Warning: a summary Anonymous, a self-styled "senior Trump administration official," has written a book A Warning as a follow-up to his (or her) September, 2018 op-ed in the New York Times, "I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration." The Warning describes a White House in chaos, with aides struggling to protect America from an impulsive and ignorant president.

(12 comments) SHARE        Saturday, October 15, 2011
Tea Party versus the Occupy Movement Republicans were able to absorb, co-opt, and be transformed by the Tea Party movement. But it seems that many people in the Occupy Movement don't trust the Democratic Party and are suspicious of its support. Can this be fixed?

(18 comments) SHARE        Wednesday, October 6, 2010
On Punishing the Dems Many progressives want to "punish the Dems" by refusing to vote, or by voting for a third party candidate this November. I can respect such progressives, because I too am upset with Obama. But I wonder: have these hardcore progressives really thought through the costs of their choice? Moreover, are they willing to respect other progressives who choose not to follow their (risky) st

(3 comments) SHARE        Sunday, June 12, 2011
Interactive 3D Visualizations of 111th Congress Voting Records This interactive 3D visualization of US Senators' voting records is based on public voting records. The visualization allows you to navigate in 3D space to see individual senators' and representatives' positions.

SHARE        Thursday, November 17, 2022
AI-generated images about Donald Trump Some AI-generated images making fun of Donald Trump. The AI has gotten scary smart.

(3 comments) SHARE        Thursday, November 10, 2016
Obama and other reasons for the election debacle As leader of the Democratic Party, President Obama bears a large proportion of responsibility for the election debacle. Though he saved the economy, he sold out to Wall Street and the Pentagon, and he allowed the GOP to set the agenda and blame Democrats for the decline of the middle class.

(47 comments) SHARE        Sunday, February 3, 2013
Should we call gun nuts "gun nuts"? Are gun nuts really nuts? Is it counter-productive to insult them? How can progressives win in the battle for the hearts and minds of Americans on this issue and other issues dear to us?

(10 comments) SHARE        Tuesday, October 23, 2018
On the logic of lesser-of-two-evils An examination of the logic of lesser-of-two-evils, with reference to the elections of 2000 and 2016.

SHARE        Saturday, December 16, 2017
Donald Trump dreams of a "white" Christmas [[TrumpWhiteChristmas]] I'm dreaming of a "white" Christmas With every Fascist I appoint Where we fill the prisons And people listen to skinheads marching in the streets. I'm dreaming of a white Christmas with every stupid tweet I write. May my policies help the wealthy and the white And may there be no Latinos or Muslims in my sight.

(1 comments) SHARE        Thursday, July 2, 2020
The U.S. is preparing for war with China The Pentagon is releasing videos promoting preparations for war with China. Congress is funding a Pacific Deterrence Initiative meant to confront China. Do Americans know or care?

(6 comments) SHARE        Thursday, November 18, 2010
The Reagan Revolution Redux The Right Wing plan to drown government in a bathtub is coming to fruition right before our eyes, especially here in Washington State. Here's how conservatives did it, with help from the feckless Democrats.

(5 comments) SHARE        Monday, May 8, 2017
Donald Trump sings: Don't know much about history Donald Trump sings "Don't know much about history"

(11 comments) SHARE        Thursday, December 27, 2012
Battle over the facts concerning Chuck Hagel I have been engaged in an ongoing edit war concerning the Wikipedia article on Chuck Hagel, whose name is being mentioned as a possible nominee for Secretary of Defense. Hagel is coming under criticism from Republicans and neocons who are unhappy with Hagel's statements critical of defense spending.

(2 comments) SHARE        Sunday, July 28, 2019
How the Repubs are more pro-death than the Dems The GOP's environmental policies are likely to bring about a massive abortion of humanity. Denying medical care to people who can't afford it shortens lives. War is abortion of born people. Mistreatment of desperate asylum seekers is brutal. Odd that conservative Christians support these and other GOP policies.

(47 comments) SHARE        Monday, December 17, 2018
Hey, Russiagate deniers, it's time to throw in the towel. Russiagate deniers should have thrown in the towel months ago. The evidence is overwhelming.

(5 comments) SHARE        Sunday, May 6, 2012
Rocky Anderson calls for rejection of "lesser-of-two-evils-ism' Justice Party candidate and former Salt Lake City mayor Rocky Anderson speaks in Seattle on getting beyond lesser-of-two-evils thinking.

SHARE        Tuesday, August 24, 2021
The New York Times regrets that Afghanistan may distract from the need to fight China and Russia The New York Times continues its tradition of promoting a militaristic foreign policy.

(10 comments) SHARE        Monday, March 19, 2012
Draft Kucinich movement starts in Washington State There's a movement underway to draft Dennis Kucinich to run for Congress in Washington State.

(14 comments) SHARE        Sunday, February 10, 2019
Bill Maher: "New Rule: The Republicans Are the Problem" Starbucks CEO and presidential candidate Howard Schultz is one of many people saying that both parties are equally to blame. And many leftists and socialists say the Dems are as bad as the Repugs. But Bill Maher makes a convincing and hilarious case for the idea that it's the Republicans, not the Democrats, who are most to blame for the mess that the country is in.

(9 comments) SHARE        Tuesday, April 17, 2012
Is Washington State Dem Chair Dwight Pelz trying to help Republicans? Washington State Democratic Chair Dwight Pelz has viciously ridiculed Dennis Kucinich, who is considering running for Congress in Washington State. Why is Pelz targeting a Democratic hero and alienating important constituencies?

(36 comments) SHARE        Wednesday, October 10, 2018
Repugs, Dumbs and Dumbers: a rant Heaven help America! On the one side we have evil Repugs. On the other side we have Dumb Dems and the even dumber progressives.

(17 comments) SHARE        Saturday, November 8, 2014
Who's to blame for the 2014 election debacle? Some people blame Democratic National Committee Chair Debbie Wasserman-Schultz for the 2014 election debacle. Here's why President Obama shares much of the blame.

SHARE        Wednesday, April 4, 2012
Conservatives love to hate Islam: evidence from a questionable Newsmax article Evidence that conservative website Newsmax distorted the facts in an article critical of Muslims.

(27 comments) SHARE        Friday, February 3, 2017
Hillary was swift-boated: Blame the GOP Propaganda Machine The most striking and scary thing about the 2016 election was that a candidate as bad as Donald Trump could win. How could that happen? Yes, Hillary and the Democrats made policy and tactical errors that suppressed turnout and allowed Trump to pursue his populist playbook, but the main cause of GOP victories is the formidable propaganda machine of the Republican Party. Almost half the country live in an alternate reality.

(17 comments) SHARE        Wednesday, November 17, 2010
How the Left can better market its message The disappointing outcome of the 2010 general election was a result of various factors: the Citizens United Supreme Court decision, an influx of corporate cash into the elections, superior organization and party discipline on the Right, and weak leadership, messaging, and media access on the Left. We can ameliorate the problem locally, in various states: adopt standard, shared, community-owned websites.

(5 comments) SHARE        Saturday, April 25, 2015
Apparent anti-semitic headline on TheMarketBusiness, recommended by google The news aggregator site, news.google.com, recommended an apparently anti-semitic article by The Market Business. The headline reads "To Meet jews Donors, Ted Cruz heads to Vegas." The article is largely ungrammatical.

(2 comments) SHARE        Monday, May 27, 2019
A Call for a World Peace Concert In the 1960s, anti-war music, rock music, and folk music transformed culture and helped bring an end to the Vietnam War. It's time for a World Peace Concert similar to Live Aid and other benefit concerts

SHARE        Sunday, September 13, 2009
Market-based competition in medical care? Some conservatives think that the way to control medical costs is to have market-based competition between health care providers. I don't think so, and this one-minute animation shows why.

(14 comments) SHARE        Wednesday, January 1, 2014
Size matters, but not as much as quality: More good government, less bad government, please! The Big versus Small framing doesn't address the real issues we face. The problem isn't that we have too much government or too little government. The problem is that we have too much bad government and too little good government.

(3 comments) SHARE        Monday, November 17, 2014
Look who doesn't pay their fair share An analysis of publicly available, aggregated income and tax data from the IRS shows that residents of rich zipcodes manage to avoid progressive taxation. They pay little or no more in taxes, as a proportion of income, than many poorer zipcodes.

(3 comments) SHARE        Monday, March 28, 2016
Ten reasons why WA superdelegates should support Bernie Sanders Washington State Democratic caucus attendees overwhelmingly voted for Bernie Sanders, but the governor and most other superdelegates say they support Hillary Clinton. Here's why the superdelegates should switch their votes to Hillary.

(6 comments) SHARE        Thursday, June 19, 2014
Visualization of US lawmakers based on similarity of their voting records The following images show US Senators and Representatives clustered according to the similarity of their voting records in 2013 and 2014. What's most notable is how different the Dems are from the Repugs. Please realize that the two dimensional images below are projections from a high-dimensional space of data, and so there is loss of information. The images represent approximate summaries.

(10 comments) SHARE        Saturday, February 6, 2010
The Battle for Good Government: Why I canceled my Seattle Times subscription The conservative plan to drown government in a bathtub of debt, mismanagement, and corruption is nearing completion. In this context, I have canceled my subscription to the Seattle Times, and I encourage others to do the same.

(6 comments) SHARE        Monday, July 18, 2022
Can non-violent protest and civil disobedience achieve justice in this era? Some progressive activists call for mass protests, civil disobedience, strikes, boycotts, tax refusal, or other forms of nonviolent resistance to injustice. This essay discusses how the right wing and neoliberal opponents of progressives will likely be able to subvert and undermine such resistance.

(3 comments) SHARE        Thursday, June 23, 2022
Warning to Dems from antiwar conservatives: Dems' militarism "is going to bite them pretty hard very soon" Antiwar conservatives vow to make Dems pay for supporting out-of-control militarism such as the war in Ukraine.

(7 comments) SHARE        Sunday, April 20, 2014
Why in Oregon, Washington, and California (but not Texas or New York) did poorer counties vote for Romney? Analysis of census data from 2010 and election data from 2012 indicates that in Washington State, Oregon, and California, high poverty counties tended to vote for Romney. On the other hand, in Texas and New York, it was the opposite: high poverty counties tended to vote for Obama? Why this difference?

SHARE        Saturday, October 12, 2013
More GMO propaganda from Big Ag Big Ag is spending big bucks to defeat a GMO labeling initiative in Washington State.

(1 comments) SHARE        Wednesday, May 28, 2014
Hey, anti-war conservatives, can we work together to rein in military waste and destruction? Can progressives and libertarians work together to reduce military waste and adventurism? It's happened in the past and it would be a groundbreaking breakthrough that would garner lots of interest and might have a big effect. The effort would require overcoming

(1 comments) SHARE        Friday, December 24, 2010
Thoughts on Bob Woodward's book "Obama's Wars" Bob Woodward's book "Obama's Wars" concerns not just the war in Afghanistan but also the ideological war in the White House between hawks and doves, as well as the war that occurred inside the President's head.

(4 comments) SHARE        Thursday, September 24, 2009
The Real Meaning of Accountability: Reflections on Obama's UN Speech Accountability is not just a matter of throwing a few Bush Administration officials in jail. Not at all. The real meaning of accountability is this: will America face the past and repudiate the ideologies, policies, and individuals who brought the nation to the brink of disaster? Torture and lying about war are just the tip of the iceberg. Many of the people responsible for crimes and for mismanagement remain in office.

SHARE        Saturday, November 12, 2011
ExxonMobil & Goldman Sachs: a winning ticket for the GOP in 2012 Now that corporations are persons, there's an obvious choice of candidates for the Republican ticket in 2012: ExxonMobil and Goldman Sachs.

(1 comments) SHARE        Tuesday, December 28, 2021
The situation is dire, but the GOP is fragile Progressives' highest priority should be to stop the GOP from winning in 2022, because if the GOP wins, we lose on every other issue. This may require some painful sacrifices. But there are rays of hope.

(3 comments) SHARE        Monday, February 25, 2019
Push-back from Congress on US meddling in Venezuela Several lawmakers in Congress have announced their opposition to U.S. military presence in Venezuela. Will others? Over the years, Congress has ceded more and more war-making power to the executive branch and has allowed interventions, proxy wars, and clone attacks, partly based on the Authorization of Military Force resolution that was signed on Sept 18, 2001, just one week after the 9/11 attacks.

(5 comments) SHARE        Thursday, October 2, 2014
Joshua Greene's Moral Tribes -- Emotion, Reason, and the Gap between Us and Them A book review and summary of Joshua Greene's book about psychology, philosophy, politics, and ethics. The central question of the book is: In a modern, pluralistic society, how can diverse groups who disagree on fundamental issues come to agreement on matters of morality and public policy? Greene argues for a liberal (progressive) morality in contrast to the libertarian morality of philosopher John Rawls.

(3 comments) SHARE        Friday, February 26, 2010
Obama, Democrats playing into Republicans' hands My response to a local conservative journalist: Until Obama and Democrats nationwide turn decisively against conservative rhetoric and policies, the people will continue to get the short end of the stick.

(14 comments) SHARE        Thursday, June 25, 2009
Dick Cheney for President in 2012 A conservative group is distributing a petition to nominate Dick Cheney for the GOP presidential candidate in 2012.

(1 comments) SHARE        Monday, January 11, 2021
Sam Harris' false equivalence In a podcast dated Jan 11, 2021 Sam Harris denounces both Trump supporters and BLM social justice activists and calls them both "grotesque" and hysterical. This false equivalence reveals Harris' biases.

(5 comments) SHARE        Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Single-payer versus a strong public option: division within the progressive movement Over the last couple of months, I've observed increasing disagreement, bordering on acrimony, within the progressive movement between those, like PDA (Progressive Democratics of America), who are pushing exclusively for single-payer health care and those, like MoveOn.org, DFA (Democracy for America), and Organizing for America (OFA) who are settling for some sort of "public option."

(3 comments) SHARE        Friday, August 7, 2009
H.R. 676: a stronger public option than expected H.R. 676 prohibits private insurance that competes with the government plan. H.R. 676 also prohibits private, for-profit institutional providers. Must progressives support such a single-play plan or can they gladly settle for a strong public option that competes successfully with private insurance companies and providers? Are progressives allowing the perfect to be the enemy of the good?

SHARE        Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Tea Party Protests: the Real Meaning Tea Party Protests: the Real Meaning

(7 comments) SHARE        Saturday, November 3, 2012
The Republicon con game, and why impeachment mattered The Republicons are masters of propaganda. They construct vivid alternate universes, populated by imaginary demons who must be battled to the death. Republicons are able to convince tens of millions of Americans that their imagined worlds are real. Even when their ideas lead to disaster, they are able to blame their ideological opponents. The Democrats have not done a good job at holding them accountable or refuting them.

(1 comments) SHARE        Tuesday, March 1, 2022
Putin is a neocon's wet dream come true You gotta hand it to the people in the U.S. MiC (Nuland, etc) who planned the situation in Ukraine. They backed Putin into a corner, made him look bad -- which he is -- and covered their tracks. Yes, the U.S. provoked the war. Yes, Putin felt that he needed to defend his people. And, yes, the U.S. has launched plenty of evil and stupid invasions all over the world. But the MiC won the messaging war and Putin is evil.

(4 comments) SHARE        Saturday, September 5, 2009
Shouting conservative accused of assaulting elderly woman at health care rally At a health care rally on Mercer Island, WA, a shouting conservative woman disrupted a speech and is alleged to have assaulted a 74 year old woman. I tell the story and make comments on nonprofessional journalism on a blog like OpEdNews. I also identify at least one valid point made by the angry conservative.

(3 comments) SHARE        Friday, April 5, 2019
Robert Wright's Nonzero and the growth of cooperative complexity Nonzero: The Logic of Human Destiny, is an ambitious book, with a title that one might deem grandiose. But the author, Robert Wright, crafts a satisfying, readable tour de force that synthesizes human history, anthropology, game theory, biology, and ethics. The book speaks to hopes for progressive reforms and transcends debates about top-down versus bottom-up change.

(2 comments) SHARE        Sunday, July 15, 2018
Fake news about "global cooling" Right wing websites have been promoting a deceptive headline about alleged "global cooling" since 2016. The explanation is that 2016 was the hottest year on record.

(1 comments) SHARE        Thursday, August 27, 2009
Conservative bullies, progressive wimps? No more! Some ways in which progressives can kick conservative butt. True bipartisanship means: opposition to conservatives whether they're Democrats or Republicans.

(5 comments) SHARE        Tuesday, June 21, 2011
MoveOn's plan for a mass movement MoveOn aims to build a mass movement. But they're always asking for money, and do they have the correct approach?

(3 comments) SHARE        Wednesday, November 9, 2011
Occupy Denver Elects a Leader In response to Denver Mayor Michael Hancock's insistence that Occupy Denver choose leadership to deal with City and State officials, and drawing inspiration from the notion that corporations are people, Occupy Denver's General Assembly has elected a leader: Shelby, a three year old Border Collie. "Shelby is closer to a person than any corporation: She can bleed, she can breed, and she can show emotion. Either Shelby is a pers

SHARE        Friday, July 17, 2009
FAIR: Censored By ABC, Obama's Longtime Doctor Speaks Out (on single-payer) FAIR (Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting) is accusing of ABC of suppressing participation by a single-payer supporter. This article has some powerful facts about the high support for single-payer and the low coverage by media of single-payer supporters. The article also has a petition to sign.

(3 comments) SHARE        Sunday, June 1, 2014
Bloomberg is intolerant of reasonable protests Michael Bloomberg criticized cases in which liberal students prevented speakers from speaking at universities. "In each case, liberals silenced a voice -- and denied an honorary degree -- to individuals they deemed politically objectionable. This is an outrage." He compared students protests to the efforts of gun rights' advocates in Congress to prevent research into gun control. The comparison is unreasonable.

(1 comments) SHARE        Monday, September 20, 2021
A difficult discourse about Dems and abortion This is a difficult and necessary discourse about abortion rights. It may piss some people off. Democrats have election after election and many other issues over the single wedge issue of abortion. And now the Supreme Court has a solid conservative majority, so Roe vs. Wade is likely to be overturned. Here's why the Dems mismanaged the issue.

(5 comments) SHARE        Sunday, May 18, 2014
CredoMobile petition: Oppose Hillary Clinton for president: she's too hawkish and corporatist Hillary Clinton is likely to be even more corporatist and militarist than Barack Obama. Oppose her nomination for as the Democratic candidate for the presidency in 2016.

SHARE        Thursday, March 7, 2019
Washington State legislators want to amend the US Constitution. Is it risky? Efforts are underway in the Washington State legislature to amend the U.S. Constitutions to overturn the Citizens United Supreme Court decision. The legislature is considering two resolutions to this end. One resolution calls on Congress to send to the states an amendment to the Constitution. The second resolution calls for the convening of a constitutional convention. Some progressives think the latter approach is risky.

SHARE        Monday, August 3, 2009
Conservatives' selective concern about deficit spending Single page summary of conservatives' selective concern about deficit spending

(1 comments) SHARE        Saturday, May 14, 2011
Horray for government! It's time to market government. It's time for the left to celebrate and market government as a force of good.

SHARE        Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Government: Unproductive? Wasteful? Corrupt? This essay defends government against the relentless attacks by conservatives about government waste and alleged unproductiveness. The article enumerates many of the ways we depend on government for essential services. It address the question of corruption and waste by pointing out that corruption and waste are present in the private sector too, and we need government also to play a watchdog role on the private sector.

(3 comments) SHARE        Thursday, April 21, 2016
The Revolution will not be pleasant Millions of young, motivated progressives are participating in Democratic Party primaries, caucuses and meetings, thanks to the leadership of Bernie Sanders. But many hard-core leftists (Socialists and Anarchists) still insist on fleeing from the Democratic Party. What are they afraid of? Dealing with unpleasant corporate Democrats? Majority rule? A little hierarchy?

SHARE        Monday, July 13, 2009
Look Back, Barack! -- a YouTube video to President Obama A video plea to President Obama to "look back" and hold members of the Bush Administration accountable for torture and numerous other crimes.

SHARE        Saturday, April 14, 2012
Amazon.com shareholder proposal for disclosure of political spending; company meeting Amazon.com has come under criticism for working with ALEC, a corporate lobbying group that writes model legislation in favor of corporate and conservative causes. For consideration at the company's May 24 company meeting at the Seattle Art Museum, an investor has submitted a shareholder proposal that would force Amazon to disclose political spending. The company's May 24 shareholder meeting is a worthy protest target.

(12 comments) SHARE        Monday, June 15, 2009
Your money or your life! Health care or thievery? Thieves and pirates say "Your money or your life!" The for-profit health care industry is not much better. This image expresses the analogy between thievery and America's heatlh care industry. Support single-payer health care!

(3 comments) SHARE        Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Conservatives are scared that government-run health care will work Conservatives are scared of real health care reform because they fear that a government-run health care system will work! And conservatives don't want government to succeed or else people will vote for progressives.

(2 comments) SHARE        Tuesday, December 19, 2023
The Democrats plan to agree to harsh immigration policies to get funding for wars in Ukraine, Israel, and China The Democrats seem prepared to give into extreme Republican demands about immigration and deportation to fund the war in Ukraine, Israel's brutal destruction of Gaza, and preparations for war with China. Yet the U.S. is lying massively about the background to the war in Ukraine, and U.S. militarism is a major cause of the migration crisis.

SHARE        Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Good news from the (upper) left coast In Washington State, voters expanded gay rights, rejected an anti-tax initiative, and elected a progressive to be King County executive.

(1 comments) SHARE        Thursday, August 13, 2009
Thoughts on the White House chain letter I got the White House chain letter on health care reform. What it proposes is very unsatisfactory, but it is a step forward.

(1 comments) SHARE        Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Musical Flash animation: My Favorite Things (conservative version) A musical Flash animation to the tune of "My Favorite Things".

SHARE        Sunday, September 19, 2010
A conservative's plea for low taxes and small government Will the middle class figure out that conservative talking points about big government and low taxes do not reflect their interests? Conservatives WANT government to be corrupt and WANT government to fail.

(4 comments) SHARE        Saturday, July 25, 2009
Stopping the Circular Firing Squad: Can the Left Succeed without a Charismatic Leader? Can the progressive movement succeed without a charismatic leader? Can the Left organize from the bottom-up and stop fighting among themselves? Health care reform is used as a motivating example.

SHARE        Saturday, December 31, 2011
The Mitt Romney Weather Vane Buy the Mitt Romney Weather Vane. Tracks the winds of political expediency. Yours for only $399.99 (plus installation).

(4 comments) SHARE        Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Funding and coordinating progressive news How can progressives fund and coordinate a viable progressive new media?

(1 comments) SHARE        Thursday, February 11, 2010
Aiding and abetting the enemy: a response to Hendrik Hertzberg A response to Hendrik Hertzberg of the New Yorker, who criticized leftists and blog sites like OpEdNews. Hertzberg thinks the "system" is to blame, not Obama and the Democrats. Here's why he's wrong.

(5 comments) SHARE        Monday, August 10, 2009
Song for Rahm Emanuel Song for Rahm Emanuel (to the tune of the Christmas carol "O Come, O Come, Emannuel")

SHARE        Monday, July 20, 2009
Reclaim the Media: Take action to support Local Community Radio The Local Community Radio Act (HR 1147) will expand the ability of local, low-power community radio stations to compete with huge corporate radio stations. Big Media has been able to convince Congress that low-power radio stations pose a threat of "interference." The real reason is they don't want the competition. Please phone your congressperson.

(3 comments) SHARE        Monday, July 27, 2009
Conservative moles, lesser of two evils Some progressives are more interested in criticizing Democrats than in criticizing Republicans. Are some of these progressives really conservative moles trying to incite division on the Left? Given a choice between two evils, isn't it sometimes wise to choose the lesser of the two?

(3 comments) SHARE        Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Bipartisanship 101: look forward, not backwards Leaked internal Obama Administration training document reveals rationale behind President's slow, bipartisan approach to progressive reform.

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