Will a Green Party spoiler give the margin of victory to far-right GOP candidate in NC’s Senate race?


The Green Party is once again running a spoiler candidate, this time in the very close race for the U.S. Senate in North Carolina. Green candidate Matthew Hoh, an author, peace activist, and disabled former U.S. Marine, may divert enough votes from Democratic candidate Cheri Beasley to guarantee that the GOP wins the seat, thus possibly giving the GOP control of the Senate on top of the House, which the Trump party is already expected to win.

Since the GOP has now unmistakably morphed into a white supremacist, anti-Semitic and violently authoritarian party, a turnover of control of the Senate thanks to a few thousand spoiler votes in North Carolina could spell the beginning of the end for democracy in our country.

But what do the leaders of the Greens care? They are the same sect that didn’t even blink an eye when Jill Stein, their candidate for President in 2016, provided Trump’s margin of victory in four key battleground states (thanks in part to a Moscow social media blitz to get progressive Democrats and independents to vote for her instead of Hillary Clinton). https://www.nbcnews.com/…/russians-launched-pro-jill…). The Greens thus played a major role in unleashing our ongoing national nightmare.

In 2018 an unhinged Green convention virtually declared war on the Democrats, not Trump. They were already in the process of selecting 10 spoiler candidates for potentially close House, Senate and gubernatorial races from Arizona to upstate New York, with the aim of preventing Democratic victories. Luckily none succeeded. https://socialistcurrents.org/?p=3160

The Greens were, in 2016 and 2018, and still are today–even after January 6–motivated by a fanatical hatred of the Democrats. But they see little political difference between the two major parties except that the Democrats are the ones they hope to replace.

Stein has certainly not changed her tune. Since 2016 she has refused to reveal who paid for her trip to Moscow in Dec. 2015 to participate in a round-table dinner with mass murderer and Crimea occupier Vladimir Putin, former U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency chief Mike Flynn, and several other individuals. Also, Stein has not revealed any private discussions she might have held with Russian officials during her trip, in spite of the support her campaign subsequently received from the Russians.

Now Stein is back in the picture, strongly supporting Mr. Hoh, whose views on Putin’s aggression in Ukraine have been, at best, ambiguous. Among other efforts, Stein strongly supported Hoh in a Zoom fireside chat with him on Oct. 5.

If Putin was delighted to make the Greens his puppets in 2016, he must be equally delighted at the prospect of an increasingly pro-Russia and anti-Ukraine GOP winning control of the Senate.

Here are excerpts from a memorandum to President Biden signed by Hoh and other members of the Steering Group of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS) last May, when Putin’s horrifying ruthlessness in Ukraine was already becoming clear.

The memo began: “Mainstream media have marinated the minds of most Americans in a witches’ brew of misleading information on Ukraine…” And then, in one of their summary points, the signers appeared to accept Putin’s view of the nature of the Ukraine government:

“Nazi sympathizers in Ukraine will not escape attention on May 9, as Russia celebrates the 77th anniversary of the victory by the Allies over Nazi Germany. Every Russian knows that more than 26 million Soviets died during that war…Denazification of Ukraine is one of the key factors accounting for Putin’s approval level of above 80 percent….”

In their most cynical paragraph, the signers even tried to blame failure to make progress on global warming on the U.S. decision to help Ukraine fend off invasion: “In last year’s ‘Threat Assessment’, National Intelligence Director Avril Haines identified climate change as a major national security and ‘human security’ challenge that can only be met by nations working together. War in Ukraine is already diverting much needed attention from this impending threat to coming generations.”

Many of the predictions put forward in the memo have subsequently been shown to be wrong. And factually, the “Nazi” nature of the Ukrainian government was already known to be false (the country’s president is Jewish and it was Putin who was bankrolling neo-nazi, neo-fascist and Christian nationalist groups in both Western and Eastern Europe).

Overall, the memo puts the blame for the crisis on the West (“the U.S. and NATO”), not on Putin, although it was his regime that invaded a sovereign nation on trumped-up charges and was already committing horrific war crimes. The memo signers seem unaware that if the U.S. and NATO had not taken action to arm Ukraine, the invasion would have succeeded–and NATO, already weakened by the machinations of former President Trump (clearly a Putin admirer and hostile to NATO), would have become an empty shell.

American progressives who are alarmed by the spread of authoritarianism/fascism in our own country and around the world should stop ignoring the U.S. Green sect’s self-serving addiction to spoiler races that always help the Right and, in recent years, the farthest Right. The Green sect (the national leadership and some of the state parties) are not part of the progressive movement. They are a malignant faction with no sense of the danger of fascism that is looming in our country, only a concentration on their own political fantasies. This faction should be boycotted by progressives, and its attempts to make alliances on the liberal-left should be rebuffed in no uncertain language. When possible, state and local Green organizations that truly operate in a decentralized fashion and try to avoid helping the GOP should be encouraged to publicly acknowledge the destructiveness of the national leadership’s spoiler tactics.

The trickery of the Greens in North Carolina this year may not work; Beasley may win anyway or she may lose by a margin far beyond what the Greens took away. But the Green spoiler in 2024 when Trump or one of his clones is on the ballot may do better, especially if Democrats are demoralized by increased political polarization. Activists and campaign teams should be prepared to warn the public against the Greens’ favorite political tactic in a more aggressive manner than anyone has attempted before now.

Obama's leadership in the Tax Debates?

Over the last week I have been paying intense attention the issues surrounding  the Obama / Republican middle and upper class tax deal.  In the past I have  generally supported President Obama in such things as his  bail out of banks to save the economy and in his jettisoning of single payer health insurance because it  simply was not doable. In this debate my positions is  much closer to those of much of the political left. I think that there are several reasons for my change in attitude. First my knowledge of the economics of the earlier liquidity crisis was very weak. This fact when combined with  my liking for Obama and my dislike of Left “purism” a real tendency in much of  the left caused me to support Obama policies at that time. Since many economists still believe that Obama and his people saved the economy  I do not renounce my position. The same tendencies also were major factors in my support of the Obama health care bill. I thought that it was simply perverse for many in the left to reject a very imperfect health care bill in the name of a non existing perfect one. Another factor in my support of Obama has  been my general support of Barack Obama’s positions on foreign policy. I see nothing moral about throwing Afghanistan and Iraq to the friendly embrace of the Taliban and Al Qaeda theocracy and terrorism. I am very aware that the Karzai government is corrupt to its core but will a Taliban triumph in Afghanistan , the collapse of Iraq into anarchy, and using a domino theory analogy the triumph of Islamic theocracy over Pakistan and much of the Mid East be good for the peoples of those societies and America and humanity in general? I doubt it. However the resource drain is intense. Perhaps these wars are not winnable and it is time to cut and run. But if America does make a strategic retreat lets not make out that this will be the triumph of peace and love. It will be a triumph of evil and probably long term greater danger.

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Cambodian Workers Fired

by Jeff Ballinger

From Phnom Penh Post:  “…industry representatives have disputed the number of people fired and suspended after the strikes. GMAC Secretary General Ken Loo said yesterday that 38 workers were dismissed and 358 suspended, most of whom had since been  allowed to return to work. ‘Most if not all have been reinstated,’ he said.”
Whatever the true number is, the unrest over the summer underscores a huge problem with the “Better Factories” model promoted by the ILO and foreign donors and now being expanded to other countries.  In fact, the U.S. Dept. of Labor has underwritten “Better Work” in Nicaragua ($2 mil.) – praised by footwear/apparel industry association.

Nearly 800 Cambodian garment workers fired over strike
2010-12-03
By Prak Chan Thul

PHNOM PENH, Dec 3 (Reuters) – Sixteen Cambodian factories producing clothing for big brands such as Adidas AG and Gap Inc have dismissed nearly 800 employees for taking part in a nationwide strike, a union leader said on Friday.

Unions were preparing to issue demands to the factories to reinstate the 799 sacked workers by Dec. 15 or face legal action and possibly more strikes, which could further disrupt a sector that is a big currency earner for the impoverished country.

“We will take action in accordance with the law and we are trying to avoid a strike,” Kong Athit, deputy president of the Coalition of Cambodian Apparel Workers Democratic Union (CCAWDU), told Reuters.

“The government and the courts have already ordered that these workers be reinstated, so these dismissals are illegal,” added Kong Athit, whose union represents 40,000 workers.

The union said the factories that dismissed the workers produced clothing for major Western companies including Marks and Spencer Group PLC , Tesco PLC , H & M Hennes & Mauritz AB , Puma , Next Plc and Inditex , the world’s biggest clothing retailer and owner of Zara.

Those sacked were among the estimated 210,000 garment workers — about two-thirds of the sector’s workforce — from 95 factories who took part in the September strike to demand better working conditions and a wage increase to $93 a month from $56.

The strike was halted after three days when the government agreed to hold more talks to avoid damage to the industry, which is Cambodia’s third-largest foreign currency earner after agriculture and tourism.

Garments also provide a vital source of income for rural families, and the sector is credited with helping to reduce poverty in a country where about a third of the population live on less than $1 a day.

The country’s garment exports rose 12 percent in the first half of 2010 from a year earlier, hitting $1.25 billion, according to the Economic Institute of Cambodia, an independent think tank.

Worker disputes this year in China, mostly at foreign-owned factories, have raised questions over whether other low-cost Asian manufacturing centres would also have to pay higher wages as their workers became more assertive. (Editing by Martin Petty) ((prak.chanthul@thomsonreuters.com; +855 23 99 2102; Reuters Messaging: prak.chanthul.reuters.com@reuters.net)) ((If you have a query or comment on this story, e-mail to news.feedback.asia@thomsonreuters.com

The SDUSA Domestic Agenda for 2011 and 2012

Unlike most posts on the blog the following SDUSA Seven Point Domestic Agenda for 2011 and 2012 does represent the official position of the Social Democrats USA on the positions addressed.
Glenn King

On November 14, 2010 the National Committee of the Social Democrats USA adopted the following Introduction and Seven Point Domestic Agenda for 2011 and 2012.
Introduction
During the past year the Social Democrats USA has been at work rebuilding  mediums of communication as a result of its  2009 internal political crisis. Thus a new official web site called “Social Democracy for the 21st Century” was developed. New and improved discussion groups and the Socialist Currents blog also had to be developed. Work with the  medium of Face Book has also commenced. A National Convention was held on September 1 and  several important revisions to the SD Constitution have been made to make the constitution a more  effective and democratic document more in line with organizational realities of the SD.
Other important work has also been proceeding . Leaders such as Chairman Rick D’Loss have been reaching out to important members of the old pre-reformed organization. Members have participated in important events such as the  One Nation United rally in Washington DC.  Finally it must not be ignored that the two Co Chairs of the Social Democrats USA Rabbi Craig Miller and Rick D’loss both hold elected local offices in  New Jersey and Pennsylvania respectively. The Social Democrats USA is one of the very few socialist organizations in the nation with members who now hold elected political positions.  Thus this has been a busy and productive year for  the Social Democrats USA.

What you won’t learn about Pakistan in the WikiLeaks revelations

By Jeff Ballinger

Recent reports from three disparate sources provide an explanation for the parlous state of publiceducation in Pakistan, a major factor behind increasing instability there.  In early June, both Brookings and the International Labor Rights Forum released studies which bespeak a fateful symmetry; Brookings’ researchers point to tens of millions of dollars (each year for several years) pledged by Western donors to shore up the long-neglected school system – far from enough to fix it – while the ILRF report documented wage-cheating in the soccer ball-stitching industry.  Those greedy bosses join thousands of others according to our third field report – an August newspaper story quoting Karamat Ali, executive director of the Pakistan Institute of Labor Education and Research (Piler).  He says that 80 per cent of employers across Pakistan fail to pay the miserly minimum wage of PKR  7,000 per month.  Added up, it is a figure which easily matches the donors’ education dollars.  Numbers from the Brookings report show that the free schooling offered by the religious madrasas attract hundreds of thousands of young men whose parents cannot afford modest school fees that would assist in reforming the dysfunctional state system.

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