The greed of the John Deere company is giving President Biden the perfect opportunity to win back working-class voters. All he needs to do is put up a major fight to stop Deere from shipping U.S.
Another well documented post with an opportunity to engage in serious opposition to the destruction of jobs for US workers. I guess that is why Facebook immediately removed my Share.
Honestly, Les, I don't see how you can continue to support the Democratic Party when they do nothing about this kind of criminality. And that's really what it is. And these people expect us to support their wars against Russia, Iran, China, and the rest of the world. Incredible.
IMHO the Rs are the freeway to plutocratic dictatorship: the Chicago School of Economics so "successful" in Chile and forced onto Iraq. The Ds are traveling a similar route--they're neolibs, after all. Just at leisurely pace while they hide ugliness like devastated environments, abandoned former union people, and a cancerous econ system behind Potemkin scenery. My heart bleeds and my tongue would were I to say it out loud, but the Ds really are the 'lesser of two evils' right now. At least with them we might survive long enough to do what's necessary. Green New Deal eventually; we'll be ready.
How can you say we survive with Democrats when they are trying to start nuclear war? Dude, they couldn't give a lesser shit about the environment. They have done NOTHING for the environment. If you look at all their legislation- the actual content and not the name of the bill- it is all a giveaway to big oil!
And we gonna die a lot faster with nuclear brinkmanship than fossil fuels.
People nowadays need to understand that if one small nuke is shot, that is the end of humanity. You do not survive nuclear war. You think aw i'll be fine, less people, I'll have my little farm. No. You will have darkness and cold for 10 years at least. No ability to grow food. You will have wished you died in the initial fallout.
Apparently you didn't bother to check any of my many Substack comments. Including ones on this site where I've raised these same points over and over--only with precise criticisms based on decades of experience backed up by research.
You can't imagine how deeply I despise the neolib Ds.!!! I was a union activist, a blue collar worker for 28 years, and a local D campaign mgr when the party still depended on rank and file organizing. I subsequently earned a degree in botany, forestry minor, specialty in mycorrhizosphere ecology. I'm a Pac NW Indian (Native) artist. My grandfather was a Wobbly (IWW)--intense labor history there. And I speak Russian and know Russian history, my other degree. Plus it's amusing to me to be addressed as "dude" because I'm trans, a two-spirit.
So nothing about your scattershot alarmism is new to me. Add to that the neocons now running the Biden Dept. of State. People trained by Dick Cheney and fans of PNAC. (Look it up.) Of course they scare me.
But the threat of a nuclear war is a huge hypothetical. Consider that Russia, having lost over 40 million people during the Revolution and WWII, is well aware of what death-filled devastation is like. Consider also how close western Europe is to eastern Europe; the "big" w. Euro countries are about the size of a large U.S. state. They know they wouldn't survive the fall-out.
On the other hand, Trump & the R party of just say NO. Their scary boogeyman is China. As if the U.S. and global neolib corporate elite didn't conspire with Chinese manufacturers. For whom is all this fright mongering?
I urge you to read //The Shock Doctrine// by Naomi Klein. Supporters of the uber right wing Chicago School of Economics, who tend to be neolib libertarian and/or neocons, (think Empire) figured out that intense social shocks causing the disorientation of a very fearful populace get them into power. Results like Chile and what was done in Iraq. Wars and environmental disasters are seen by them as 'investment opportunities.' To them, free markets go best with unfree politics--they love right wing dictatorships. That's what the Rs want.
Of course I don't like Biden and I want to vomit because of the econ status quo apologists the Ds have become. I'm for someone like Bernie or any candidate in favor of econ democracy. But that's not happening now. I also know the price of what another R administration will be--and that's NOT a hypothetical.
How in the world can you think Trump is worse than THIS right now? I'm not voting for Trump, I hate him too, but there is no chance in hell Biden will do a damn thing for workers, he won't stop John Deere, he is the puppet for finance capital! He crushed the rail workers, promised $15/hour then made up a lie about a parliamentarian, he's sending billions of taxpayer dollars to a money laundering operation in Ukraine, he is trying to start WW3, he is funding a genocide of innocent children and civilians, he is allowing financial interests to completely destroy the remaining shreds of the middle class here, his office puts out constant lies about US economic growth, and you can't handle another Trump presidency? The same liberal blinders you remove when writing about Wall St's war on workers are staying on you when you talk about Trump v Biden. They are both terrible but people weren't starving quite as much under Trump. How are you missing the pain that we the working class feel right now, directly caused by the Biden administration?!!!
You make many good points. But the attack on the working-class began 50 years ago, not with Biden. My major beef with him is that he shouldn't be running at all. And there's just no way that I can vote for someone who tried to overturn an election. As my late mentor Tony Mazzocchi (whose birthday is today) said repeatedly, "The bosses have two parties. We need one of our own."
I know it started many many many years ago. My point is that there is no hope in either Dems or Republicans. In fact, I found that my Democrat friends suddenly stopped complaining about EVERYTHING related to the economy when Biden took office. He crushed the rail workers. My Georgia Senator Warnock did not even show up to vote for sick days! Neither did 2 other Dem senators! They did not even complete the theater of support. It was a total hoax.
I've gotten considerably poorer under Biden and I wake up every morning thanking my lucky stars I woke up, because of Biden's nuclear brinkmanship. He's arming literal Nazis in Ukraine, fighting an imperialist (monopoly capitalist) war. This isn't about Ukrainians, it's about spreading finance capital.
There is no "lesser" evil here but at least Trump MET w/ North Korea. Biden just shot missiles over them. And a million other places. Sure Trump sent weapons to Ukraine. But I'm pretty sure Biden wins on that one. Biden keeps saying the President of China is a dictator. How are Americans going to afford anything when Biden blows up Taiwan and China says, "enough with American markets, they're not worth it."
Here's the thing. Both parties are exactly the same on every economic issue. In fact it appears lately Democrats are WORSE than Republicans because it doesn't even make the news when Democrats screw the people over! The news lies about it and makes excuses for them!
I used to call myself "left". I thoroughly renounce leftism now. Life in Communist China is so much better for the people than life here in the US. Communist China does not care about lgbtq. They live and let live, they don't have Blackrock carrying rainbow flags because they do not allow Blackrock. You can be cool with gay people without basing a political party on it.
There is zero difference between Democrats and Republicans. You are an economist, right? I'm not sure if that is your specialty exactly (like assuming you have a PhD in something, I would guess it was sociology or economics or something.) So ignore all the corporate news and sit down with a pen and paper and try to think of any way the Democrats CURRENTLY help working people. Even those child tax credits were nixed by Biden and Democrats.
It used to be an argument 8 years ago. It is no longer valid. They've dropped everything, even the veneer of caring.
And Senator Warnock's office never answered my email about why he didn't vote for the railworkers. I live in Georgia. That was the end of my illusion that Democrats were on my side.
I've changed my mind. I admit I agree with you and I apologize for trying to argue otherwise. What you say I've been trying hard not to give in to.
The Ds abandoned labor, are fine with a destructive econ system, and now support horrific wars --I can't in good conscience vote for their national ticket. I just can't. That before the Biden debate debacle.
I detest those I call Ivy Ds, a smug administrative and professional elite who believe their superiority gives them the right to rule the rest of us mere peasant workers. That includes Kamala Harris; just because she's BIPOC and a woman doesn't mean she's the least bit egalitarian.
Just because Trump and the Rs are so hideous does not make the Ds good.
We can ask them to do the right thing without the hyperventilating about Muh Democracy and going along with the false narratives of the worst people in our society.
Did you see the article in today's LA Times about the fake stats the fast food corporations are using to complain about workers getting a decent wage? Claiming10 k job loss when the truth is 7 k more jobs. If they want to save $$$ let it come out of the CEO bloated salaries and benefits.
PS--Don't you just love how anything to do with workers is shunted to a de facto footnote in the biz pages? 1930s-70s newspapers had actual labor sections.
I forgot to mention there's a link in the article I cited to another by the same author titled "American unions have finally remembered how to win." It's just below the graph and accompanied by a picture of Shawn Fain. Begins with an upbeat update regarding Thomas Geoghegan's 1991 book.
Another well documented post with an opportunity to engage in serious opposition to the destruction of jobs for US workers. I guess that is why Facebook immediately removed my Share.
Hmm. Maybe that's why my reading audience gets curtailed. Thx for your kind words.
Honestly, Les, I don't see how you can continue to support the Democratic Party when they do nothing about this kind of criminality. And that's really what it is. And these people expect us to support their wars against Russia, Iran, China, and the rest of the world. Incredible.
https://www.amazon.com/Our-Country-Then-Richard-Cook/dp/1949762858
I hear you, but I really can't live with another Trump show.
IMHO the Rs are the freeway to plutocratic dictatorship: the Chicago School of Economics so "successful" in Chile and forced onto Iraq. The Ds are traveling a similar route--they're neolibs, after all. Just at leisurely pace while they hide ugliness like devastated environments, abandoned former union people, and a cancerous econ system behind Potemkin scenery. My heart bleeds and my tongue would were I to say it out loud, but the Ds really are the 'lesser of two evils' right now. At least with them we might survive long enough to do what's necessary. Green New Deal eventually; we'll be ready.
How can you say we survive with Democrats when they are trying to start nuclear war? Dude, they couldn't give a lesser shit about the environment. They have done NOTHING for the environment. If you look at all their legislation- the actual content and not the name of the bill- it is all a giveaway to big oil!
And we gonna die a lot faster with nuclear brinkmanship than fossil fuels.
People nowadays need to understand that if one small nuke is shot, that is the end of humanity. You do not survive nuclear war. You think aw i'll be fine, less people, I'll have my little farm. No. You will have darkness and cold for 10 years at least. No ability to grow food. You will have wished you died in the initial fallout.
Apparently you didn't bother to check any of my many Substack comments. Including ones on this site where I've raised these same points over and over--only with precise criticisms based on decades of experience backed up by research.
You can't imagine how deeply I despise the neolib Ds.!!! I was a union activist, a blue collar worker for 28 years, and a local D campaign mgr when the party still depended on rank and file organizing. I subsequently earned a degree in botany, forestry minor, specialty in mycorrhizosphere ecology. I'm a Pac NW Indian (Native) artist. My grandfather was a Wobbly (IWW)--intense labor history there. And I speak Russian and know Russian history, my other degree. Plus it's amusing to me to be addressed as "dude" because I'm trans, a two-spirit.
So nothing about your scattershot alarmism is new to me. Add to that the neocons now running the Biden Dept. of State. People trained by Dick Cheney and fans of PNAC. (Look it up.) Of course they scare me.
But the threat of a nuclear war is a huge hypothetical. Consider that Russia, having lost over 40 million people during the Revolution and WWII, is well aware of what death-filled devastation is like. Consider also how close western Europe is to eastern Europe; the "big" w. Euro countries are about the size of a large U.S. state. They know they wouldn't survive the fall-out.
On the other hand, Trump & the R party of just say NO. Their scary boogeyman is China. As if the U.S. and global neolib corporate elite didn't conspire with Chinese manufacturers. For whom is all this fright mongering?
I urge you to read //The Shock Doctrine// by Naomi Klein. Supporters of the uber right wing Chicago School of Economics, who tend to be neolib libertarian and/or neocons, (think Empire) figured out that intense social shocks causing the disorientation of a very fearful populace get them into power. Results like Chile and what was done in Iraq. Wars and environmental disasters are seen by them as 'investment opportunities.' To them, free markets go best with unfree politics--they love right wing dictatorships. That's what the Rs want.
Of course I don't like Biden and I want to vomit because of the econ status quo apologists the Ds have become. I'm for someone like Bernie or any candidate in favor of econ democracy. But that's not happening now. I also know the price of what another R administration will be--and that's NOT a hypothetical.
How in the world can you think Trump is worse than THIS right now? I'm not voting for Trump, I hate him too, but there is no chance in hell Biden will do a damn thing for workers, he won't stop John Deere, he is the puppet for finance capital! He crushed the rail workers, promised $15/hour then made up a lie about a parliamentarian, he's sending billions of taxpayer dollars to a money laundering operation in Ukraine, he is trying to start WW3, he is funding a genocide of innocent children and civilians, he is allowing financial interests to completely destroy the remaining shreds of the middle class here, his office puts out constant lies about US economic growth, and you can't handle another Trump presidency? The same liberal blinders you remove when writing about Wall St's war on workers are staying on you when you talk about Trump v Biden. They are both terrible but people weren't starving quite as much under Trump. How are you missing the pain that we the working class feel right now, directly caused by the Biden administration?!!!
You make many good points. But the attack on the working-class began 50 years ago, not with Biden. My major beef with him is that he shouldn't be running at all. And there's just no way that I can vote for someone who tried to overturn an election. As my late mentor Tony Mazzocchi (whose birthday is today) said repeatedly, "The bosses have two parties. We need one of our own."
I know it started many many many years ago. My point is that there is no hope in either Dems or Republicans. In fact, I found that my Democrat friends suddenly stopped complaining about EVERYTHING related to the economy when Biden took office. He crushed the rail workers. My Georgia Senator Warnock did not even show up to vote for sick days! Neither did 2 other Dem senators! They did not even complete the theater of support. It was a total hoax.
I've gotten considerably poorer under Biden and I wake up every morning thanking my lucky stars I woke up, because of Biden's nuclear brinkmanship. He's arming literal Nazis in Ukraine, fighting an imperialist (monopoly capitalist) war. This isn't about Ukrainians, it's about spreading finance capital.
There is no "lesser" evil here but at least Trump MET w/ North Korea. Biden just shot missiles over them. And a million other places. Sure Trump sent weapons to Ukraine. But I'm pretty sure Biden wins on that one. Biden keeps saying the President of China is a dictator. How are Americans going to afford anything when Biden blows up Taiwan and China says, "enough with American markets, they're not worth it."
Here's the thing. Both parties are exactly the same on every economic issue. In fact it appears lately Democrats are WORSE than Republicans because it doesn't even make the news when Democrats screw the people over! The news lies about it and makes excuses for them!
I used to call myself "left". I thoroughly renounce leftism now. Life in Communist China is so much better for the people than life here in the US. Communist China does not care about lgbtq. They live and let live, they don't have Blackrock carrying rainbow flags because they do not allow Blackrock. You can be cool with gay people without basing a political party on it.
There is zero difference between Democrats and Republicans. You are an economist, right? I'm not sure if that is your specialty exactly (like assuming you have a PhD in something, I would guess it was sociology or economics or something.) So ignore all the corporate news and sit down with a pen and paper and try to think of any way the Democrats CURRENTLY help working people. Even those child tax credits were nixed by Biden and Democrats.
It used to be an argument 8 years ago. It is no longer valid. They've dropped everything, even the veneer of caring.
And Senator Warnock's office never answered my email about why he didn't vote for the railworkers. I live in Georgia. That was the end of my illusion that Democrats were on my side.
I answered all this below your comment to me.
I've changed my mind. I admit I agree with you and I apologize for trying to argue otherwise. What you say I've been trying hard not to give in to.
The Ds abandoned labor, are fine with a destructive econ system, and now support horrific wars --I can't in good conscience vote for their national ticket. I just can't. That before the Biden debate debacle.
I detest those I call Ivy Ds, a smug administrative and professional elite who believe their superiority gives them the right to rule the rest of us mere peasant workers. That includes Kamala Harris; just because she's BIPOC and a woman doesn't mean she's the least bit egalitarian.
Just because Trump and the Rs are so hideous does not make the Ds good.
Then I guess we're just stuck.
How about RFK? Maybe you could teach him something about economics.
The Dad, yes. but not the son who believes Covid was engineered so that Ashkanazi Jews wouldn't get it. hmm.
We can ask them to do the right thing without the hyperventilating about Muh Democracy and going along with the false narratives of the worst people in our society.
Good point. But, I'm too old to hyperventilate without passing out.
Here's my latest Les:
https://rickycook21.substack.com/p/us-collapse-triggers-end-of-500-year
Yes! Thanks for this.
Did you see the article in today's LA Times about the fake stats the fast food corporations are using to complain about workers getting a decent wage? Claiming10 k job loss when the truth is 7 k more jobs. If they want to save $$$ let it come out of the CEO bloated salaries and benefits.
https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2024-06-12/the-fast-food-industry-claims-the-california-minimum-wage-law-is-costing-jobs-its-numbers-are-fake
PS--Don't you just love how anything to do with workers is shunted to a de facto footnote in the biz pages? 1930s-70s newspapers had actual labor sections.
No. I missed it. Thx for sending along.
I forgot to mention there's a link in the article I cited to another by the same author titled "American unions have finally remembered how to win." It's just below the graph and accompanied by a picture of Shawn Fain. Begins with an upbeat update regarding Thomas Geoghegan's 1991 book.
thx!
Except we have a long, long way to go. sigh