The SEP brief presents a detailed review of the election campaign
from the initial announcement of Kishore and Santa Cruz as the party’s
candidates on January 21, 2020 through to the cancellation of all
campaign activities in early March due to the pandemic. The SEP “decided
to suspend all subsequent public events, including future plans for
ballot gathering initiatives, in order to protect volunteers, staff and
the public at large from spreading the coronavirus,” the brief states.
The appeal quotes several statements by Governor Whitmer that
directly contradict the position being argued in court that the SEP
should be collecting signatures to be placed on the ballot. One of these
was a press conference on July 9, where the Governor focused on the
increasing spread of the virus in Michigan during June and July, saying,
“If we let our guard down, we could see a rapid increase in cases and
deaths here in Michigan. … We’ve got to all work together to protect one
another.”
The appeal brief also reviews in detail the history of the SEP (and
its predecessor the Workers League) in Michigan, including the
relocation of the party’s center to Southeast Michigan in 1978, the
large readership in Michigan of the World Socialist Web Site,
the numerous elections in which the organization has achieved statewide
ballot access going back to the 1984 presidential elections and many
other campaigns and initiatives of the party in Detroit and surrounding
areas over the past three decades.
The candidates noted the growing support for the SEP over the years
and argue that, had they “been able to run a ballot drive statewide this
year, the total number of required signatures was certainly well within
their reach, especially in light of a rapid leftward shift in the
population and the growing popularity of socialism.”
-- Kevin Reed, "SEP files appeal to Federal Sixth Circuit Court in Michigan ballot access case" (WSWS).
Tuesday, July 28, 2020
Truest statement of the week II
Over the past four months, while the financial aristocracy has
actually increased its wealth, the severe limitations in the benefits
provided to working people under the CARES Act have become apparent.
Some 53 million people filed new claims for unemployment insurance
during that period, and at least 32 million are still out of work, but
only 20 million are currently receiving the $600-per-week federal
supplement.
Millions of workers lost their benefits when they were forced to return to work at unsafe workplaces. Many more lost their benefits because they refused to go back to work, fearing their health and lives were in danger. Many others never received the federal supplement in the first place because their state unemployment compensation systems were so decrepit they could not program the additional payments.
The federal supplement expires on July 31, but since state systems pay benefits on a full-week basis only, with the benefit week ending on a Saturday or Sunday, benefits stopped for nearly all eligible workers on July 26 or July 27, for the week that ends August 1 or August 2.
The consequences of this cutoff will be felt in mass impoverishment, hunger, foreclosures, evictions and a dramatic increase in homelessness. This in turn will provide additional fuel for the coronavirus pandemic, which has a hugely disproportionate impact on the most vulnerable sections of working people.
The cutoff comes as the number of jobless continues to climb, with 1.4 million workers filing new claims for unemployment compensation for the week ending July 17, a figure that is widely expected to rise even further in subsequent reporting periods.
-- Patrick Martin, "$600-per-week jobless benefit expires for 20 million US workers" (WSWS).
Millions of workers lost their benefits when they were forced to return to work at unsafe workplaces. Many more lost their benefits because they refused to go back to work, fearing their health and lives were in danger. Many others never received the federal supplement in the first place because their state unemployment compensation systems were so decrepit they could not program the additional payments.
The federal supplement expires on July 31, but since state systems pay benefits on a full-week basis only, with the benefit week ending on a Saturday or Sunday, benefits stopped for nearly all eligible workers on July 26 or July 27, for the week that ends August 1 or August 2.
The consequences of this cutoff will be felt in mass impoverishment, hunger, foreclosures, evictions and a dramatic increase in homelessness. This in turn will provide additional fuel for the coronavirus pandemic, which has a hugely disproportionate impact on the most vulnerable sections of working people.
The cutoff comes as the number of jobless continues to climb, with 1.4 million workers filing new claims for unemployment compensation for the week ending July 17, a figure that is widely expected to rise even further in subsequent reporting periods.
-- Patrick Martin, "$600-per-week jobless benefit expires for 20 million US workers" (WSWS).
A note to our readers
Hey --
Early Tuesday morning. Are you shocked? Us too.
Let's thank all who participated this edition which includes Dallas and the following:
The Third Estate Sunday Review's Jim, Dona, Ty, Jess and Ava,
Rebecca of Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude,
And what did we come up with?
Peace,
-- Jim, Dona, Ty, Jess, Ava and C.I.
Early Tuesday morning. Are you shocked? Us too.
Let's thank all who participated this edition which includes Dallas and the following:
The Third Estate Sunday Review's Jim, Dona, Ty, Jess and Ava,
Rebecca of Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude,
Betty of Thomas Friedman Is a Great Man,
C.I. of The Common Ills and The Third Estate Sunday Review,
Kat of Kat's Korner (of The Common Ills),
Mike of Mikey Likes It!,
Elaine of Like Maria Said Paz),
Cedric of Cedric's Big Mix,
Ruth of Ruth's Report,
Wally of The Daily Jot,
Trina of Trina's Kitchen,
C.I. of The Common Ills and The Third Estate Sunday Review,
Kat of Kat's Korner (of The Common Ills),
Mike of Mikey Likes It!,
Elaine of Like Maria Said Paz),
Cedric of Cedric's Big Mix,
Ruth of Ruth's Report,
Wally of The Daily Jot,
Trina of Trina's Kitchen,
Marcia of SICKOFITRDLZ,
Stan of Oh Boy It Never Ends,
Isaiah of The World Today Just Nuts,
and Ann of Ann's Mega Dub.
Stan of Oh Boy It Never Ends,
Isaiah of The World Today Just Nuts,
and Ann of Ann's Mega Dub.
And what did we come up with?
Kevin Reed gets a truest.
Patrick Martin gets another truest.
In Iraq, government forces are shooting at protesters again.
Ava and C.I. cover the streaming services.
Dario needs to take accountability for running a s**ty campaign.
Brett, more than just a War Criminal, also a joke.
We look at candy.
Goes to John Stauber.
It took a few weeks, but as promised, we did a collage, our first since Bully Boy Bush occupied the White House.
We love the new Pretenders album.
What we listened to while working on this edition.
An important commentary from Jimmy Dore.
From the Howie Hawkins campaign.
From the Green Party.
Mike and the gang wrote this and we thank them for it.Peace,
-- Jim, Dona, Ty, Jess, Ava and C.I.
Editorial: Attacks on protesters continue
Two Killed In Renewed Anti Government Protests In Iraq
Samya Kullab (AP) reports, "Iraq’s prime minister said Monday he had ordered an investigation into the killing of two anti-government protesters, saying security forces were not authorized to fire 'a single bullet' toward the demonstrators. Twenty-one protesters were also wounded in the overnight clashes." An investigation?
Doesn't he have investigations already into previous attacks on protesters?
And no one's been punished for those attacks -- attacks carried out by security forces under the command of the prime minister. To be fair, these previous attacks? We're talking about attacks carried out before Mustafa al-Kadhimi became prime minister (May 7th).
But he made promises. As AL KHALEEJ TODAY reminds, "Prior to joining office Mr Al Kadhimi vowed to meet protester demands by holding early elections and investigating protester deaths. Yet the new prime minister has had to deal with a catastrophic economic crisis triggered by a decline in oil prices caused by the coronavirus pandemic."
Are any of these promises going to be kept?
Oh, he's dealing with an economic crisis? Wow. Poor baby. All the leaders of countries are dealing with economic crisis in one form or another -- with or without oil being factored in.
Yes, AP, Mustafa did Tweet:
Yesterday's protest by young Iraqis are a legitimate right, and the security forces do not have permission to fire a single bullet towards our protestors.
What does that have to do with his failure to keep promises?
TV: Navigating the stream shouldn't be this hard
"We are crossing Jordan River, want my crown, I want my crown . . ." Okay, well it's not Jordan River but we are crossing and, damn it, we are crossed. We want our streams, we want our streams.
It shouldn't be difficult at all. In most cases, you're paying for the streaming so it especially shouldn't be difficult. But it is.
Take PEACOCK, the new streamer. We hadn't noticed the problem until Ty read us the e-mails (25) from readers complaining that they were paying for PEACOCK and had trouble streaming it -- not on ROKU, mind you, where it's not available, but on their iPhones. So we tried as well.
It takes forever to load. When it does load, two out of three times, it tends to either freeze or crash.
This is how you run a streaming service?
Ourselves, we agreed with Hannah who e-mailed to note a different problem. This has to do with HULU. First an update for those not using, it's strictly a pay site now. We weren't aware of that until we saw the articles about PEACOCK before it debuted. PEACOCK, for all content, is a for-pay site. You can sample about half the content by just streaming -- the way HULU used to allow you to do.
We're HULU payers and have been for awhile. As soon as the pay service HULU-PLUS was offered, we signed up. We loved what HULU had to offer -- except in the summers when, as we would note back in the day, they had USA programs and that was often about all they had. Things have since changed and HULU has original programming -- some of it even worth watching, imagine that. But it also has new levels. We're HULU LIVE PLUS now, or whatever it's called when you can watch live TV. We are not commercial free -- sometimes, we get ideas for pieces based on commercials, we're not joking. We do get all our premium cable stations through HULU -- HBO, SHOWTIME and STARZ.
We pay and, like Hannah, we're peeved.
We know what we want to watch in most cases. So when we go to HULU, we shouldn't have to flip through everything. As Hannah notes," Where's 'My Channels'? That's all I want when I pull up on my TV -- 'My Channels.' I click all the way down to 'More Channels' at the bottom and then go through the live guide. I don't want 'Live Now' which only lists some of the live programs, I want 'My Channels.'"
We hear you.
We pulled HULU up on the TV and here's what we get right now -- and in this order:
Keep Watching
Live Now
TV for You
Movies for You
Unwatched in My Stuff
Hulu Picks
Adult Animation
Comic Book Heroes
Full Series Comedies
HBO Max
Hulu Originals
FX on Hulu
STARZ
Showtime
Newly Added TV
Newly Added Movies
Crime & Courtroom TV
Action Comedies
Sitcoms
Family TV
Comfort TV
Easy-to-Watch TV
Funny Families
Action-Adventure Movies
Sports for You
News for You
Kids
Premium Add-Ons
Like Hannah, we believe 'My Channels' is a necessity and that it should be the first option. When it has shown up lately, it's been well after 'Hulu Picks.'
We're paying for this service -- stop burying us with the crap you want us to watch and give us 'My Channels' right up front.
Stuff you want us to watch? 'Sports for You.' We don't watch sports, get that crap off our screen. We're paying for this and we should be able to customize what we see but we can't. And every month, HULU's adding more useless recommendations for us about things we are never going to watch.
Here is a work around when HULU doesn't provide 'My Channels' or buries it. At the top of the TV screen when you're on HULU you have six buttons. The first one is HOME, then LIVE TV, then MY STUFF, then BROWSE, then SEARCH and finally your name. Go to "BROWSE." Then choose "Networks." What pulls up is the same display you get with My Channels.
Like Hannah, we click through "Live" to first see if we're missing anything we want to catch. Using "Live" is the only way you can view the content on, for example, all the HBO channels and not just the main HBO channel. After we've clicked through that and found nothing, we'll usually go to "Entertainment" and click on whatever network to see if they've had any recent programming we want to watch.
All of this is under My Channels when My Channels shows up.
When it shows up.
The only thing more irritating than that?
We pay for AMAZON MUSIC which allows us to stream music. Most of the time, that's not a problem. Most of the time. Lately, we've noticed they've begun reducing the number of albums offered -- for example, Diana Ross' discography was greatly reduced two weeks ago. This week, albums like LAST TIME I SAW HIM, BABY IT'S ME, EVERYTHING IS EVERYTHING, TO LOVE AGAIN, AN EVENING WITH DIANA ROSS, SURRENDER and 1978's ROSS (not to be confused with 1983's ROSS) are back up. When albums disappear, there should be some sort of a notice about that. Even a "this album will be removed starting July 30, 2020."
Another irritation is suggestions.
We know what we want to listen to.
Nothing is more irritating for us then pulling up AMAZON MUSIC on the TV and seeing in the first square under "Playlists Just for You" the ugly mug of James Tayler and "HANDPICKED with James Taylor."
We don't listen to James Taylor. That's not an oversight, it's an active choice.
He's a woman hater supreme. He broke up with Joni Mitchell in a rude manner and then ignored her and treated her as though she was dead. Carly Simon overheard a phone conversation where James told Joni she was dead to him. Which is why Carly shouldn't be all that surprised at the way James has repeatedly treated her since their divorce. His refusal to speak about her in interviews, his refusal to credit her gifts and give her the artistic praise she deserves is appalling. They weren't just married and they aren't just the parents of two children, they also worked together. They wrote songs together. They recorded songs together.
There are more reasons we don't listen to him. James is the worst singer -- he has a horrible intonation issue.. (Listen to the chorus of "Shower The People.") Is it cold in the studios he poses for photos in? Is that why he wears the hats? Or is because he's bald. (It's because he's bald.) He's a bald man who still writes likes he's a fresh-faced 18-year-old falling in love for the first time. Of all the many things James Taylor's music misses, perspective is the most obvious absent quality. He's not a very good songwriter to begin with.
There are those and many other reasons we don't -- and won't -- listen to James Taylor.
So why does try to pimp him to us?
And here's another issue -- we listen to Diana, we listen to Carly Simon, to Melanie, to Aretha, to Cher, to Tori Amos, to Fiona Apple, to Erykah Badu, to Joni Mitchell, to Laura Nyro, to Sade, to the Rolling Stones . . .
Did you notice something there?
We listen to more women than men. So why are we getting these recommended "Playlists Just For You"?
HANDPICKED with James Taylor
Classic Standards
Best of Frank Sinatra
REDISCOVER Louis Armstrong
Best of Louis Armstrong
Side by Side with Michael Buble
Best of Dean Martin
That's all on the top row of the TV screen. If we click the continue button we finally find one woman on the long list "Best of Amy Winehouse." Over 30 suggestions -- over 30 ridiculous suggestions -- including "Chris Pratt's Workout Playlist" -- and only one woman's on it?
This isn't about what we listen to. And shame on AMAZON for the sexism.
Who the hell do they think they are? NPR.
We were bored Friday between online speaking events so we took a minute to stream NPR's new music segment. It's a thirty minute listen, the site notes, but we only needed about one minute. One minute was all we could stomach.
NPR decided the best way to discuss new music was to provide six correspondents: Robin Hilton, John Morrison, Tarik Moody, Stephen Thompson, Ann Powers and Nate Chinen.
Anybody see the problem we had?
Six people are invited by NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO -- which does get US tax dollars, despite their claims otherwise -- to discuss music.
Five men.
One woman.
That's diversity in 2020.
One woman?
And anyone who knows Ann's work over the last years knows she long ago became one of the boys.
The legendary PJ Harvey has a new album out, DRY DEMOS. Maybe if women were represented on the panel, PJ's new album would have been discussed?
We were reminded of Kat's July 3rd post about NPR coming up with their dream concert by using tracks from various live albums. For this dream concert, they picked forty-six tracks from various live albums released over the years.
You know how many were by women? Three. Two were by Aretha Franklin and one was by Joni Mitchell.
That's disgusting. And when NPR's doing that and when they're serving up panels on music where there are six panelists and only one is a woman, maybe they don't need to be offering the public "Battle Tactics For Your Sexist Workplace," maybe they need to instead be offering that to their employees?
Patrons? We always recommend libraries and Brad e-mailed to note a problem with that, "I never would have used KANOPY if you hadn't mentioned it. But after you wrote about it, I went to my local library and got a card -- the first library card I'd probably had in a decade. The kids used it to watch ten movies a month. On Friday, they went to watch and couldn't. They called me to the TV and I was expecting to see that they'd already watched the ten for the month that they're allowed. No. There's some problem with the card and I need to call my local library. Which I do but it's already closed due to COVID hours. I go online and look up the hours, the new hours. They're open Saturday. So I called today and, no, they aren't open. Their COVID schedule has been changed again. I try to get an e-card so the kids can watch but when I fill out things online, I'm told that no one with our last name lives at the address. Now when I got the physical card, that happened as well. I showed my driver's license and explained we lived there and had for 11 years. I have no idea why the card was cut off but I don't know how, during a pandemic, the library can justify that."
We don't know how either. That honestly seems outrageous to us, that a library is cancelling someone's library card -- and apparently because their f**ked up computer system tells them that the patron doesn't live there. They really should be ashamed.
Brad's staying with NETFLIX ("the only streamer we pay for") and the free ones like CRACKLE, PLUTO, TUBI and ROKU. We understand that.
We can even praise NETFLIX for having one of the better menus on your TV. And we should probably note that DISNEY+ has finally improved their menu display. Which really just leaves us with AMAZON PRIME. We'd like to see "MY STUFF" at the top of the screen over in the left hand corner. That used to be called "My Library." It's where the TV and movies you've purchased -- not rented -- are stored. And we'd love it if AMAZON would give us some control over the order of that catalogue. Alphabetical order, even, would be great. Instead, the order is, as it has always been, purchase date -- from newest to oldest. And that was okay when you only had 10 or so films in your library, but now that we've got over 100 in each of our libraries, that's a lot to flip through.
We will praise them on their "Because you watched" recommendations and their "Movies we think you'll like" recommendations. They actually are helpful -- unlike AMAZON MUSIC. And, if you use the buttons at the top of the screen, we can also praise them for having the best menu because you can quickly find what you want and screen out things that you don't.
It's a shame we can't say that about all the streaming services. This is 2020, right?
It shouldn't be difficult at all. In most cases, you're paying for the streaming so it especially shouldn't be difficult. But it is.
Take PEACOCK, the new streamer. We hadn't noticed the problem until Ty read us the e-mails (25) from readers complaining that they were paying for PEACOCK and had trouble streaming it -- not on ROKU, mind you, where it's not available, but on their iPhones. So we tried as well.
It takes forever to load. When it does load, two out of three times, it tends to either freeze or crash.
This is how you run a streaming service?
Ourselves, we agreed with Hannah who e-mailed to note a different problem. This has to do with HULU. First an update for those not using, it's strictly a pay site now. We weren't aware of that until we saw the articles about PEACOCK before it debuted. PEACOCK, for all content, is a for-pay site. You can sample about half the content by just streaming -- the way HULU used to allow you to do.
We're HULU payers and have been for awhile. As soon as the pay service HULU-PLUS was offered, we signed up. We loved what HULU had to offer -- except in the summers when, as we would note back in the day, they had USA programs and that was often about all they had. Things have since changed and HULU has original programming -- some of it even worth watching, imagine that. But it also has new levels. We're HULU LIVE PLUS now, or whatever it's called when you can watch live TV. We are not commercial free -- sometimes, we get ideas for pieces based on commercials, we're not joking. We do get all our premium cable stations through HULU -- HBO, SHOWTIME and STARZ.
We pay and, like Hannah, we're peeved.
We know what we want to watch in most cases. So when we go to HULU, we shouldn't have to flip through everything. As Hannah notes," Where's 'My Channels'? That's all I want when I pull up on my TV -- 'My Channels.' I click all the way down to 'More Channels' at the bottom and then go through the live guide. I don't want 'Live Now' which only lists some of the live programs, I want 'My Channels.'"
We hear you.
We pulled HULU up on the TV and here's what we get right now -- and in this order:
Keep Watching
Live Now
TV for You
Movies for You
Unwatched in My Stuff
Hulu Picks
Adult Animation
Comic Book Heroes
Full Series Comedies
HBO Max
Hulu Originals
FX on Hulu
STARZ
Showtime
Newly Added TV
Newly Added Movies
Crime & Courtroom TV
Action Comedies
Sitcoms
Family TV
Comfort TV
Easy-to-Watch TV
Funny Families
Action-Adventure Movies
Sports for You
News for You
Kids
Premium Add-Ons
Like Hannah, we believe 'My Channels' is a necessity and that it should be the first option. When it has shown up lately, it's been well after 'Hulu Picks.'
We're paying for this service -- stop burying us with the crap you want us to watch and give us 'My Channels' right up front.
Stuff you want us to watch? 'Sports for You.' We don't watch sports, get that crap off our screen. We're paying for this and we should be able to customize what we see but we can't. And every month, HULU's adding more useless recommendations for us about things we are never going to watch.
Here is a work around when HULU doesn't provide 'My Channels' or buries it. At the top of the TV screen when you're on HULU you have six buttons. The first one is HOME, then LIVE TV, then MY STUFF, then BROWSE, then SEARCH and finally your name. Go to "BROWSE." Then choose "Networks." What pulls up is the same display you get with My Channels.
Like Hannah, we click through "Live" to first see if we're missing anything we want to catch. Using "Live" is the only way you can view the content on, for example, all the HBO channels and not just the main HBO channel. After we've clicked through that and found nothing, we'll usually go to "Entertainment" and click on whatever network to see if they've had any recent programming we want to watch.
All of this is under My Channels when My Channels shows up.
When it shows up.
The only thing more irritating than that?
We pay for AMAZON MUSIC which allows us to stream music. Most of the time, that's not a problem. Most of the time. Lately, we've noticed they've begun reducing the number of albums offered -- for example, Diana Ross' discography was greatly reduced two weeks ago. This week, albums like LAST TIME I SAW HIM, BABY IT'S ME, EVERYTHING IS EVERYTHING, TO LOVE AGAIN, AN EVENING WITH DIANA ROSS, SURRENDER and 1978's ROSS (not to be confused with 1983's ROSS) are back up. When albums disappear, there should be some sort of a notice about that. Even a "this album will be removed starting July 30, 2020."
Another irritation is suggestions.
We know what we want to listen to.
Nothing is more irritating for us then pulling up AMAZON MUSIC on the TV and seeing in the first square under "Playlists Just for You" the ugly mug of James Tayler and "HANDPICKED with James Taylor."
We don't listen to James Taylor. That's not an oversight, it's an active choice.
He's a woman hater supreme. He broke up with Joni Mitchell in a rude manner and then ignored her and treated her as though she was dead. Carly Simon overheard a phone conversation where James told Joni she was dead to him. Which is why Carly shouldn't be all that surprised at the way James has repeatedly treated her since their divorce. His refusal to speak about her in interviews, his refusal to credit her gifts and give her the artistic praise she deserves is appalling. They weren't just married and they aren't just the parents of two children, they also worked together. They wrote songs together. They recorded songs together.
There are more reasons we don't listen to him. James is the worst singer -- he has a horrible intonation issue.. (Listen to the chorus of "Shower The People.") Is it cold in the studios he poses for photos in? Is that why he wears the hats? Or is because he's bald. (It's because he's bald.) He's a bald man who still writes likes he's a fresh-faced 18-year-old falling in love for the first time. Of all the many things James Taylor's music misses, perspective is the most obvious absent quality. He's not a very good songwriter to begin with.
There are those and many other reasons we don't -- and won't -- listen to James Taylor.
So why does try to pimp him to us?
And here's another issue -- we listen to Diana, we listen to Carly Simon, to Melanie, to Aretha, to Cher, to Tori Amos, to Fiona Apple, to Erykah Badu, to Joni Mitchell, to Laura Nyro, to Sade, to the Rolling Stones . . .
Did you notice something there?
We listen to more women than men. So why are we getting these recommended "Playlists Just For You"?
HANDPICKED with James Taylor
Classic Standards
Best of Frank Sinatra
REDISCOVER Louis Armstrong
Best of Louis Armstrong
Side by Side with Michael Buble
Best of Dean Martin
That's all on the top row of the TV screen. If we click the continue button we finally find one woman on the long list "Best of Amy Winehouse." Over 30 suggestions -- over 30 ridiculous suggestions -- including "Chris Pratt's Workout Playlist" -- and only one woman's on it?
This isn't about what we listen to. And shame on AMAZON for the sexism.
Who the hell do they think they are? NPR.
We were bored Friday between online speaking events so we took a minute to stream NPR's new music segment. It's a thirty minute listen, the site notes, but we only needed about one minute. One minute was all we could stomach.
NPR decided the best way to discuss new music was to provide six correspondents: Robin Hilton, John Morrison, Tarik Moody, Stephen Thompson, Ann Powers and Nate Chinen.
Anybody see the problem we had?
Six people are invited by NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO -- which does get US tax dollars, despite their claims otherwise -- to discuss music.
Five men.
One woman.
That's diversity in 2020.
One woman?
And anyone who knows Ann's work over the last years knows she long ago became one of the boys.
The legendary PJ Harvey has a new album out, DRY DEMOS. Maybe if women were represented on the panel, PJ's new album would have been discussed?
We were reminded of Kat's July 3rd post about NPR coming up with their dream concert by using tracks from various live albums. For this dream concert, they picked forty-six tracks from various live albums released over the years.
You know how many were by women? Three. Two were by Aretha Franklin and one was by Joni Mitchell.
That's disgusting. And when NPR's doing that and when they're serving up panels on music where there are six panelists and only one is a woman, maybe they don't need to be offering the public "Battle Tactics For Your Sexist Workplace," maybe they need to instead be offering that to their employees?
Patrons? We always recommend libraries and Brad e-mailed to note a problem with that, "I never would have used KANOPY if you hadn't mentioned it. But after you wrote about it, I went to my local library and got a card -- the first library card I'd probably had in a decade. The kids used it to watch ten movies a month. On Friday, they went to watch and couldn't. They called me to the TV and I was expecting to see that they'd already watched the ten for the month that they're allowed. No. There's some problem with the card and I need to call my local library. Which I do but it's already closed due to COVID hours. I go online and look up the hours, the new hours. They're open Saturday. So I called today and, no, they aren't open. Their COVID schedule has been changed again. I try to get an e-card so the kids can watch but when I fill out things online, I'm told that no one with our last name lives at the address. Now when I got the physical card, that happened as well. I showed my driver's license and explained we lived there and had for 11 years. I have no idea why the card was cut off but I don't know how, during a pandemic, the library can justify that."
We don't know how either. That honestly seems outrageous to us, that a library is cancelling someone's library card -- and apparently because their f**ked up computer system tells them that the patron doesn't live there. They really should be ashamed.
Brad's staying with NETFLIX ("the only streamer we pay for") and the free ones like CRACKLE, PLUTO, TUBI and ROKU. We understand that.
We can even praise NETFLIX for having one of the better menus on your TV. And we should probably note that DISNEY+ has finally improved their menu display. Which really just leaves us with AMAZON PRIME. We'd like to see "MY STUFF" at the top of the screen over in the left hand corner. That used to be called "My Library." It's where the TV and movies you've purchased -- not rented -- are stored. And we'd love it if AMAZON would give us some control over the order of that catalogue. Alphabetical order, even, would be great. Instead, the order is, as it has always been, purchase date -- from newest to oldest. And that was okay when you only had 10 or so films in your library, but now that we've got over 100 in each of our libraries, that's a lot to flip through.
We will praise them on their "Because you watched" recommendations and their "Movies we think you'll like" recommendations. They actually are helpful -- unlike AMAZON MUSIC. And, if you use the buttons at the top of the screen, we can also praise them for having the best menu because you can quickly find what you want and screen out things that you don't.
It's a shame we can't say that about all the streaming services. This is 2020, right?
Dario Hunter destroyed his own campaign and Cindy Sheehan needs to stop promoting conspiracies
Various podcasters are putting on Dario Hunter lately -- including Cindy Sheehan who should have known better. Dario comes on and launches into his nutty conspiracy about how the Green Party worked to steal the presidential nomination from him and for Howie Hawkins.
No, Dario, they didn't.
They didn't have to steal it because you surrendered it.
We could chart that just by referencing what went up here at this site -- Jess is a Green and has commented and written on it here -- but let's use Ann's site because she's covered it at length and she (rightly) called out Cindy Sheehan for Cindy's nonsense in "Was Casey Sheehan a War Criminal?" -- we agree 100% with what Ann wrote.
Cindy is not a Green (but she is an air head). Ann is actually a Green.
Ann first noted Dario Hunter at her site on March 15, 2019:
Greens were trashed in 2000 and in 2016. I'm tired of it. We need to stop trying to be liked and instead focus on building our party.
And maybe if we conduct ourselves that way, Democrats will stop acting as if they own our votes.
Related news:
I had not heard of Dario Hunter, sorry.
That's when Ann first learned of Dario. April 9, 2019, she noted Tweets about Dario Hunter. May 20, 2019, she again noted Tweets about Dario Hunter. June 19, 2019, she again noted Tweets about Dario Hunter. July 11, 2019, Ann noted Tweets about Dario. July 29, 2019, she offered Tweets about Dario Hunter. August 5, 2019, she offered Tweets about Dario. Why wasn't she noting his Tweets during this time, his own Tweets? Because his last Tweet for the winter of 2019 was February 18, 2019 and he didn't bother to Tweet again until August 11, 2019 -- despite already announcing he was was seeking the Green Party's presidential nomination. Six months without Tweeting. And he considered himself a real candidate? August 16th, Ann noted his August 11th Tweet and how the press needed to cover him. But grasp that February 18, 2019 is when he filed his papers for his run. He Tweets to announce that with one Tweet. And then, after announcing his run, never Tweets again until August 11th. That's not a real campaign.
The press wasn't covering him much at all. June 29, 2019, when he had visited Illinois, Ann was able to gather a post with a bit of press coverage on Dario. But grasp that he visited the state of Illinois to campaign for the Green Party's presidential nomination and never Tweeted about that -- not ahead of the event to drum up attendees to any event, not after the event to highlight the little bit of coverage he got for it.
Related, July 15, 2019, Ann noted Tweets about Dario -- about his visit to Miami to campaign. Again, Dario never Tweeted about it -- not ahead of time, not during, not after the fact. July 16th, Ann offered Tweets about Dario -- about his campaigning in Virginia. Dario never Tweeted about it.
August 24, 2019, Ann noted some Tweets by Dario. By August 26th, Dario was silent again so Ann had to go back to noting Tweets about him. He would return to Tweeting September 7th. August 26th, he went silent. Why is that significant? That's the day the Green Party officially recognized his campaign for their presidential nomination. You might think that would warrant some form of social media post by Dario but it did not.
August 29th, Ann noted that there was Green coverage at the latest edition of this site (THIRD) but we didn't include Dario. Ann explained:
Repeating, that was August 29, 2019. The problem was already well known.
September 4, 2019, Ann noted a little bit of press coverage Dario had gotten and several Tweets about him. September 5, 2019, she posted, "I've noted Dario Hunter many times here (and plan to continue) but Howie Hawkins is also running for the Green Party's presidential nomination. Here are some Tweets from him:"
Ann told us for this article, "That post was done for several reasons. First, I hoped noting all the Tweets Howie was doing would motivate Dario to get his off his ass and start Tweeting since he was the candidate I favored. Second, the Green Party needs attention and Howie was a candidate. So I felt I needed to note his Tweets for that reason as well. As the sole Green site in the community, I felt I needed to note the Green race. C.I. was noting the Greens and the Democrats and the Liberatarians, the SEP and the Party for Socialism and Liberation. But the other sites were focused on the race for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination. Since I was the only Green Party member with a site of my own -- Jess is a Green and he's part of THIRD but he's part of the website, not solely responsible -- I felt I had a duty."
September 10, 2019, Ann was finally able to note a series of Tweets Dario had posted. September 13, 2019, Ann wrote, "I'm a Green. I'm a Green for many reasons including that I am anti-war. I'm pulling for Dario Hunter in the race for the Green Party's presidential nomination. Here are some of his Tweets from this week." September 17, 2019, with nothing new to offer on Dario, Ann focused on Howie but included this, "I'm pulling for Dario Hunter but I will note Howie as well." October 30, 2019, Ann wrote about supporting Dario and included his one recent Tweet. November 12, 2019 found Ann thankful that Dario had actually Tweeted that day so that she could note his Tweets. November 13, 2019, she noted his one Tweet -- burning Hillary Clinton. November 25, she included all of his Tweets from November 21st to November 25th. November 26, 2019, Dario was silent again so she was back to including Howie's Tweets while noting that she was supporting Dario. December 5, 2019, with nothing from Dario to note, Ann was highlighting Howie's Green Plan.
"It got to be dispiriting to check Dario's feed," Ann explained to us. "I'd go there every day and most days there was nothing. Soon I just started checking once a week and noting anything that was up then."
January 10, 2020, she noted several Dario Tweets. January 14, she noted those Tweets again -- as well as every Tweet starting with the December 31, 2019 Tweet -- all seven Tweets he had done from December 31st to January 12th. That's a real candidate for a presidential nomination? That's a candidate who is less than two months away from the scheduled Green Party presidential debate in Illinois (March 4, 2020)?
January 22, 2020, Ann observes, " I'm supporting Dario Hunter in the race for the party's presidential nomination. Howie Hawkins is also running. Unlike Dario, Howie's highly active on Twitter. Here are some Tweets from Howie." January 23rd, Ann writes, "Dario Hunter is running for the Green Party's presidential nomination. I noted that he doesn't Tweet very often." And she goes on, in that entry, to share Tweets about Dario. January 29th, she types, "I'm supporting Dario Hunter for the Green Party's presidential nomination. But Howie Hawkins is a strong candidate as well. Here are some of Howie's Tweets." Where is Dario? It's January 29th and February 25th are when Minnesota and Ohio are set to pick their Green Party nominee. Where's Dario?
February 11, 2020, Ann notes all of Dario's Tweets from that date back through January 30th -- yes, she notes all three Tweets. Three. Twelve days, three Tweets. And that's a campaign?
February 18, 2020, Ann notes a series of Dario Tweets -- most of which she already noted in her February 11th post. But seven days later, Dario has Tweeted two more times so she includes those -- the February18th Tweet and the February 12th Tweet -- as well. It is seven days away from the first two states weighing in on who they want to represent the party and that's Dario Hunter's way of running a campaign and getting his name out there?
February 20, 2020, five days before the first two states make their choice, Ann writes:
I'm supporting Dario Hunter in the race for the Green Party's presidential nomination. He doesn't Tweet very often -- or enough for someone running for a presidential nomination.
Howie Hawkins is also running for the nomination. I'm not anti-Howie but I do prefer Dario.
One of the things that Howie has going for him is that he Tweets regularly and knows how to use social media. Here are some of his Tweets.
March 2, 2020, Ann notes Dario's Tweets from February 21st through March 2nd -- nine Tweets, 11 days. This should have had a lot more Tweets because while he lost Ohio to Howie during this time period, he won Minnesota.
March 5, 2020, Ann calls out an idiot at THE DAILY BEAST who -- citing the idiots Norman Solomon and Noam Chomsky -- argues that the Greens should not run a candidate and then trashes their "top nominee" Howie Hawkins.. Ann points out:
He's so stupid he's saying Howie's our top nominee. Uh, no. I'm supporting Dario Hunter. I will support Howie if he gets the nomination but Dario is my choice for now. There are 402 delegates. Howie currently is projected to have 22 and Dario has 11. We're not even at the half way mark so stop playing horse racing with my party, Casey Idiot Michel.
During this, while Ann was defending Dario and the Green Party, Cindy was ignoring it, by the way. She wants to invite Dario on her show last week to tell the world that the primary was fixed against him but when the Green Party was actually under attack, Cindy was offering posts like "Blue Skies (Day 6 of A Sheltered Life)." Maybe if she'd spent more time paying attention and less time sheltering, she would have been aware of the lousy campaign Dario Hunter ran?
March 9, 2020, Ann wrote, "I'm supporting Dario Hunter in the Green Party's presidential primary. He doesn't have any new Tweets since the last time I noted him, so let me note his challenger Howie Hawkins." March 15th, she notes his Tweets and his Green Path Forward plan. March, please note, was the month he skipped out on the Free & Fair Elections Debate held in Illinois. These are the candidates who showed up for that debate:
Dario skipped it. He chose to campaign in Missouri that day instead. Six days later, Howie would win in Missouri.
March 17th, Ann offered "Dario is the candidate we need." It was the last hurrah for Dario from Ann. Ann's married to Cedric, a Democrat, so she's aware of what goes on in the Democratic race. March 24th, she noted Dario hadn't Tweeted since March 21st and:
I'm a Green. I watch Hidin' With Biden and laugh at his incompetence and inability to lead. I can't do that and continue to ignore that Dario has failed as a candidate. I agree with all he stands for. But he's not getting his message out there. He's not working his Twitter feed or his Facebook page, he's really not doing anything. He's the Joe Biden of the Green Party.
Ann was a clear supporter of Dario Hunter's, she was rooting for him for months and months and months. She covered him at her website. By the end of March, she was done with him. He was not a real candidate. He was not using social media. Greens have to promote themselves because the media's not going to -- not just the corporate media, as C.I. has noted, Amy Goodman has yet to announce, all these weeks later, that the Green Party had their convention or that they declared Howie Hawkins their nominee.
Now Ann didn't just drop Dario and never mention him again.
March 25th, she wrote:
Some are mad that I've decided to support Howie Hawkins and not Dario Hunter. I'm okay with that. My issue is Joe Biden is lazy and inept and I can't call him out and look the other way while the much younger Dario is unable to even create a media presence.
Howie's working his butt off to get the word out on his campaign. Dario's not even trying.
I don't have time for nonsense.
March 28th, she participated in a roundtable that included this:
C.I.: Ann and Jess are both Greens. Did either or both of you want to weigh in on any Green issues?
Jess: I'll go first! Ann wrote "I don't support Joe and I don't support Dario" this week noting she was switching from support of Dario Hunter to Howie Hawkins for the Green Party's presidential nomination. She noted that Dario is doing nothing. I like his views too but if he's not trying to campaign, he's useless. If he got the nomination, then what? Howie is going to campaign. I understand her switch and I want to note that I'm now for Howie as well.
Ann: I'm not able to be a hypocrite. I don't see how others are. Kat and Betty were talking about the addiction some people have to a politician -- be it Barack or Donald -- and I'm not that way. You're there to serve me, if you're not, you don't have my support. Howie is busting his butt to get the word out on his campaign. Dario doesn't really care. He's made that obvious. I've called Hidin' Biden out for his failure to show leadership during this pandemic, I have to call Dario out as well. Otherwise? I'm a hypocrite. I kept waiting for him to get serious and he didn't. So I'm done with Dario.
Jess: And I agree because all he's got to campaign on right now is social media and he has no presence on social media. His campaign is too inept to even manage one daily Tweet.
Ann: Not even one daily Tweet Monday through Friday. It' pathetic.
March 31st, Ann repeated:
As I've noted, I've decided to support Howie Hawkins for the Green Party's presidential nomination. I like Dario Hunter and I like his positions. But Green Party members know the media does not cover our runs. We have to get the word out on our candidates. Howie has an online presence and Tweets constantly. Dario goes whole days (plural) without even Tweeting. If he can't get the word out, how does he expect to run a presidential campaign? That's why I've switched to Howie. And I always said Howie was a candidate I could support if he got the nomination. And I can, he stands for most of what I stand for. I liked Dario's passion and we most closely aligned on positions.
We spoke with Ann about this and she explained, "By March 31st, most Greens e-mailing me got my point. They understood. Some were staying with Dario and that's fine but most were moving over to Howie for the same reason I had. I wanted to be very clear that my problems with Dario were never ideological. I supported his positions and I agreed with him. But I just wasn't seeing someone who would work for the nomination and if he wasn't working for the nomination what happens if he gets it? Too often, look at our hideous 2004 ticket, for example, the Greens in the general race throw in the towel and act like handmaidens to the Democratic Party. If Dario couldn't campaign as a nominee, how was I to trust that in the general he would run a real campaign?"
From February to June 2nd, Howie won the Greens in the following states: Ohio, California, North Carolina (Dario wasn't on the ballot and disputes that he did not submit his paperwork properly), Missouri, Illinois, Colorado, Texas, Wisconsin (Howie wins popular vote but ties with Dario in delegates), New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Utah, South Carolina, Arkansas, Tennessee, West Virginia, New York, Kansas, Florida, Maryland, Mississippi and the District of Columbia. Through that same period up through June 2nd, Dario wins Massachusetts, he loses Wisconsin to Howie but ties him in delegates for that state, Hawaii and Idaho.
So by the end of the day June 2nd, Howie has won 19 states and the District of Columbia, the two share bragging rights on Wisconsin and Hunter has won three states.
In other words, by June 2nd, it's not even close.
Why is that significant? As Ann notes that day is the day Dario starts accusing the party of rigging the election. After he's lost not one but 19 states to Howie. After there's no way in the world that Dario can become the nominee, that's when he starts accusing the Green Party of rigging the primaries. June 3rd, his surrogate makes the charge. As Ann points out, there's no proof offered, no back up offered, just float the charge that somehow, someway, there was rigging.
Let's be clear that having Dario on the show wasn't Cindy's problem. Her problem was in what he said and that she never questioned it. Never once did she say, "Now, Dario, looking back at the way you ran your campaign, is there anything you could have done differently?" That's basic in journalism. But what's worse than her failing to do that was she jumped on board with him to support his nutty theory. She doesn't like Howie Hawkins and suddenly he's Bully Boy Bush.
She wants you to know he put her name on as an endorsee and she didn't endorse him and he's a War Criminal because he served in Vietnam and . . .
She sounded tired, old and bitter.
Cindy flirts with conspiracy theories all the time. Nothing is ever too nutty for her to grab onto. And most of the time, we just ignore that. We like Cindy -- even now, we like Cindy.
But Dario Hunter failed his supporters. He doesn't deserve to lie his way out of that fact. People like Ann and Jess supported him and worked to promote his campaign. They deserved a real candidate. He was not one. And to allow him to get away -- as Cindy did -- with pinning the blame on others is outrageous.
Dario lost the nomination because he ran a s**t poor campaign. Ann and Jess were his supporters, he ran them off by not running a real campaign. That's on him, no one else.
Shame on Cindy for letting a do-nothing politician come on her show and blame others for his own failure.
No, Dario, they didn't.
They didn't have to steal it because you surrendered it.
We could chart that just by referencing what went up here at this site -- Jess is a Green and has commented and written on it here -- but let's use Ann's site because she's covered it at length and she (rightly) called out Cindy Sheehan for Cindy's nonsense in "Was Casey Sheehan a War Criminal?" -- we agree 100% with what Ann wrote.
Cindy is not a Green (but she is an air head). Ann is actually a Green.
Ann first noted Dario Hunter at her site on March 15, 2019:
Greens were trashed in 2000 and in 2016. I'm tired of it. We need to stop trying to be liked and instead focus on building our party.
And maybe if we conduct ourselves that way, Democrats will stop acting as if they own our votes.
Related news:
Green Party presidential candidate Dario Hunter of Youngstown
stated Wednesday that he has been fired from his job as a rabbi --
either, as he claims, because of comments he made criticizing Israel, or
because of fears his presidential campaign would distract
from his rabbinical duties, as a temple leader has said.
In a news release, Hunter said that board members
of Congregation Ohev Tzedek-Shaarei Torah in Boardman notified him of
his job termination in writing on Wednesday morning.
Hunter asserted the reason was because of his statements
in a Feb. 19 cleveland.com story that the United States should stop
providing any aid to Israel because of that country’s “horribly
atrocious” treatment of Palestinians.
“I do not believe the United States should be
providing any form of aid to Israel or any human-rights abusers,” Hunter
said at the time.
I had not heard of Dario Hunter, sorry.
That's when Ann first learned of Dario. April 9, 2019, she noted Tweets about Dario Hunter. May 20, 2019, she again noted Tweets about Dario Hunter. June 19, 2019, she again noted Tweets about Dario Hunter. July 11, 2019, Ann noted Tweets about Dario. July 29, 2019, she offered Tweets about Dario Hunter. August 5, 2019, she offered Tweets about Dario. Why wasn't she noting his Tweets during this time, his own Tweets? Because his last Tweet for the winter of 2019 was February 18, 2019 and he didn't bother to Tweet again until August 11, 2019 -- despite already announcing he was was seeking the Green Party's presidential nomination. Six months without Tweeting. And he considered himself a real candidate? August 16th, Ann noted his August 11th Tweet and how the press needed to cover him. But grasp that February 18, 2019 is when he filed his papers for his run. He Tweets to announce that with one Tweet. And then, after announcing his run, never Tweets again until August 11th. That's not a real campaign.
The press wasn't covering him much at all. June 29, 2019, when he had visited Illinois, Ann was able to gather a post with a bit of press coverage on Dario. But grasp that he visited the state of Illinois to campaign for the Green Party's presidential nomination and never Tweeted about that -- not ahead of the event to drum up attendees to any event, not after the event to highlight the little bit of coverage he got for it.
Related, July 15, 2019, Ann noted Tweets about Dario -- about his visit to Miami to campaign. Again, Dario never Tweeted about it -- not ahead of time, not during, not after the fact. July 16th, Ann offered Tweets about Dario -- about his campaigning in Virginia. Dario never Tweeted about it.
August 24, 2019, Ann noted some Tweets by Dario. By August 26th, Dario was silent again so Ann had to go back to noting Tweets about him. He would return to Tweeting September 7th. August 26th, he went silent. Why is that significant? That's the day the Green Party officially recognized his campaign for their presidential nomination. You might think that would warrant some form of social media post by Dario but it did not.
August 29th, Ann noted that there was Green coverage at the latest edition of this site (THIRD) but we didn't include Dario. Ann explained:
Second, there's nothing on Dario Hunter.
As it stands currently, I would vote Dario over Howie Hawkins to be the Green Party's presidential candidate next year.
But Howie's Tweets get noted. Why not Darios?
Dario doesn't have any.
Dona is committed to Third including the Green Party in some way every edition.
If Dario's not using Twitter regularly or posting to Facebook regularly, that's on him.
Howie Hawkins has a social media presence. He shouldn't be ignored just because Dario doesn't.
Again, I prefer Dario to Howie but if Dario's not putting anything out and Howie is, that's on him.
Repeating, that was August 29, 2019. The problem was already well known.
September 4, 2019, Ann noted a little bit of press coverage Dario had gotten and several Tweets about him. September 5, 2019, she posted, "I've noted Dario Hunter many times here (and plan to continue) but Howie Hawkins is also running for the Green Party's presidential nomination. Here are some Tweets from him:"
Ann told us for this article, "That post was done for several reasons. First, I hoped noting all the Tweets Howie was doing would motivate Dario to get his off his ass and start Tweeting since he was the candidate I favored. Second, the Green Party needs attention and Howie was a candidate. So I felt I needed to note his Tweets for that reason as well. As the sole Green site in the community, I felt I needed to note the Green race. C.I. was noting the Greens and the Democrats and the Liberatarians, the SEP and the Party for Socialism and Liberation. But the other sites were focused on the race for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination. Since I was the only Green Party member with a site of my own -- Jess is a Green and he's part of THIRD but he's part of the website, not solely responsible -- I felt I had a duty."
September 10, 2019, Ann was finally able to note a series of Tweets Dario had posted. September 13, 2019, Ann wrote, "I'm a Green. I'm a Green for many reasons including that I am anti-war. I'm pulling for Dario Hunter in the race for the Green Party's presidential nomination. Here are some of his Tweets from this week." September 17, 2019, with nothing new to offer on Dario, Ann focused on Howie but included this, "I'm pulling for Dario Hunter but I will note Howie as well." October 30, 2019, Ann wrote about supporting Dario and included his one recent Tweet. November 12, 2019 found Ann thankful that Dario had actually Tweeted that day so that she could note his Tweets. November 13, 2019, she noted his one Tweet -- burning Hillary Clinton. November 25, she included all of his Tweets from November 21st to November 25th. November 26, 2019, Dario was silent again so she was back to including Howie's Tweets while noting that she was supporting Dario. December 5, 2019, with nothing from Dario to note, Ann was highlighting Howie's Green Plan.
"It got to be dispiriting to check Dario's feed," Ann explained to us. "I'd go there every day and most days there was nothing. Soon I just started checking once a week and noting anything that was up then."
January 10, 2020, she noted several Dario Tweets. January 14, she noted those Tweets again -- as well as every Tweet starting with the December 31, 2019 Tweet -- all seven Tweets he had done from December 31st to January 12th. That's a real candidate for a presidential nomination? That's a candidate who is less than two months away from the scheduled Green Party presidential debate in Illinois (March 4, 2020)?
January 22, 2020, Ann observes, " I'm supporting Dario Hunter in the race for the party's presidential nomination. Howie Hawkins is also running. Unlike Dario, Howie's highly active on Twitter. Here are some Tweets from Howie." January 23rd, Ann writes, "Dario Hunter is running for the Green Party's presidential nomination. I noted that he doesn't Tweet very often." And she goes on, in that entry, to share Tweets about Dario. January 29th, she types, "I'm supporting Dario Hunter for the Green Party's presidential nomination. But Howie Hawkins is a strong candidate as well. Here are some of Howie's Tweets." Where is Dario? It's January 29th and February 25th are when Minnesota and Ohio are set to pick their Green Party nominee. Where's Dario?
February 11, 2020, Ann notes all of Dario's Tweets from that date back through January 30th -- yes, she notes all three Tweets. Three. Twelve days, three Tweets. And that's a campaign?
February 18, 2020, Ann notes a series of Dario Tweets -- most of which she already noted in her February 11th post. But seven days later, Dario has Tweeted two more times so she includes those -- the February18th Tweet and the February 12th Tweet -- as well. It is seven days away from the first two states weighing in on who they want to represent the party and that's Dario Hunter's way of running a campaign and getting his name out there?
February 20, 2020, five days before the first two states make their choice, Ann writes:
I'm supporting Dario Hunter in the race for the Green Party's presidential nomination. He doesn't Tweet very often -- or enough for someone running for a presidential nomination.
Howie Hawkins is also running for the nomination. I'm not anti-Howie but I do prefer Dario.
One of the things that Howie has going for him is that he Tweets regularly and knows how to use social media. Here are some of his Tweets.
March 2, 2020, Ann notes Dario's Tweets from February 21st through March 2nd -- nine Tweets, 11 days. This should have had a lot more Tweets because while he lost Ohio to Howie during this time period, he won Minnesota.
March 5, 2020, Ann calls out an idiot at THE DAILY BEAST who -- citing the idiots Norman Solomon and Noam Chomsky -- argues that the Greens should not run a candidate and then trashes their "top nominee" Howie Hawkins.. Ann points out:
He's so stupid he's saying Howie's our top nominee. Uh, no. I'm supporting Dario Hunter. I will support Howie if he gets the nomination but Dario is my choice for now. There are 402 delegates. Howie currently is projected to have 22 and Dario has 11. We're not even at the half way mark so stop playing horse racing with my party, Casey Idiot Michel.
During this, while Ann was defending Dario and the Green Party, Cindy was ignoring it, by the way. She wants to invite Dario on her show last week to tell the world that the primary was fixed against him but when the Green Party was actually under attack, Cindy was offering posts like "Blue Skies (Day 6 of A Sheltered Life)." Maybe if she'd spent more time paying attention and less time sheltering, she would have been aware of the lousy campaign Dario Hunter ran?
March 9, 2020, Ann wrote, "I'm supporting Dario Hunter in the Green Party's presidential primary. He doesn't have any new Tweets since the last time I noted him, so let me note his challenger Howie Hawkins." March 15th, she notes his Tweets and his Green Path Forward plan. March, please note, was the month he skipped out on the Free & Fair Elections Debate held in Illinois. These are the candidates who showed up for that debate:
Dan Behrman, Libertarian Party
Brian Carroll, American Solidarity Party
Erik Gerhardt, Libertarian Party
Charles Kraut, Constitution Party
J.R. Myers, Life and Liberty Party
Sedinam Moyowasifza-Curry, Green Party
Mark Stewart, Democratic Party
Arvin Vohra, Libertarian Party
Ben Zion, Transhumanist Party
Ken Armstrong, Libertarian Party
Mosie Boyd, Democratic Party
Mark Charles, Independent
Howie Hawkins, Green Party
Zoltan Istvan, Republican Party
Jo Jorgensen, Libertarian Party
Adam Kokesh, Libertarian Party
Gloria La Riva, Party for Socialism and Liberation
Vermin Supreme, Libertarian Party
Dario skipped it. He chose to campaign in Missouri that day instead. Six days later, Howie would win in Missouri.
March 17th, Ann offered "Dario is the candidate we need." It was the last hurrah for Dario from Ann. Ann's married to Cedric, a Democrat, so she's aware of what goes on in the Democratic race. March 24th, she noted Dario hadn't Tweeted since March 21st and:
I'm a Green. I watch Hidin' With Biden and laugh at his incompetence and inability to lead. I can't do that and continue to ignore that Dario has failed as a candidate. I agree with all he stands for. But he's not getting his message out there. He's not working his Twitter feed or his Facebook page, he's really not doing anything. He's the Joe Biden of the Green Party.
Ann was a clear supporter of Dario Hunter's, she was rooting for him for months and months and months. She covered him at her website. By the end of March, she was done with him. He was not a real candidate. He was not using social media. Greens have to promote themselves because the media's not going to -- not just the corporate media, as C.I. has noted, Amy Goodman has yet to announce, all these weeks later, that the Green Party had their convention or that they declared Howie Hawkins their nominee.
Now Ann didn't just drop Dario and never mention him again.
March 25th, she wrote:
Some are mad that I've decided to support Howie Hawkins and not Dario Hunter. I'm okay with that. My issue is Joe Biden is lazy and inept and I can't call him out and look the other way while the much younger Dario is unable to even create a media presence.
Howie's working his butt off to get the word out on his campaign. Dario's not even trying.
I don't have time for nonsense.
March 28th, she participated in a roundtable that included this:
C.I.: Ann and Jess are both Greens. Did either or both of you want to weigh in on any Green issues?
Jess: I'll go first! Ann wrote "I don't support Joe and I don't support Dario" this week noting she was switching from support of Dario Hunter to Howie Hawkins for the Green Party's presidential nomination. She noted that Dario is doing nothing. I like his views too but if he's not trying to campaign, he's useless. If he got the nomination, then what? Howie is going to campaign. I understand her switch and I want to note that I'm now for Howie as well.
Ann: I'm not able to be a hypocrite. I don't see how others are. Kat and Betty were talking about the addiction some people have to a politician -- be it Barack or Donald -- and I'm not that way. You're there to serve me, if you're not, you don't have my support. Howie is busting his butt to get the word out on his campaign. Dario doesn't really care. He's made that obvious. I've called Hidin' Biden out for his failure to show leadership during this pandemic, I have to call Dario out as well. Otherwise? I'm a hypocrite. I kept waiting for him to get serious and he didn't. So I'm done with Dario.
Jess: And I agree because all he's got to campaign on right now is social media and he has no presence on social media. His campaign is too inept to even manage one daily Tweet.
Ann: Not even one daily Tweet Monday through Friday. It' pathetic.
March 31st, Ann repeated:
As I've noted, I've decided to support Howie Hawkins for the Green Party's presidential nomination. I like Dario Hunter and I like his positions. But Green Party members know the media does not cover our runs. We have to get the word out on our candidates. Howie has an online presence and Tweets constantly. Dario goes whole days (plural) without even Tweeting. If he can't get the word out, how does he expect to run a presidential campaign? That's why I've switched to Howie. And I always said Howie was a candidate I could support if he got the nomination. And I can, he stands for most of what I stand for. I liked Dario's passion and we most closely aligned on positions.
We spoke with Ann about this and she explained, "By March 31st, most Greens e-mailing me got my point. They understood. Some were staying with Dario and that's fine but most were moving over to Howie for the same reason I had. I wanted to be very clear that my problems with Dario were never ideological. I supported his positions and I agreed with him. But I just wasn't seeing someone who would work for the nomination and if he wasn't working for the nomination what happens if he gets it? Too often, look at our hideous 2004 ticket, for example, the Greens in the general race throw in the towel and act like handmaidens to the Democratic Party. If Dario couldn't campaign as a nominee, how was I to trust that in the general he would run a real campaign?"
From February to June 2nd, Howie won the Greens in the following states: Ohio, California, North Carolina (Dario wasn't on the ballot and disputes that he did not submit his paperwork properly), Missouri, Illinois, Colorado, Texas, Wisconsin (Howie wins popular vote but ties with Dario in delegates), New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Utah, South Carolina, Arkansas, Tennessee, West Virginia, New York, Kansas, Florida, Maryland, Mississippi and the District of Columbia. Through that same period up through June 2nd, Dario wins Massachusetts, he loses Wisconsin to Howie but ties him in delegates for that state, Hawaii and Idaho.
So by the end of the day June 2nd, Howie has won 19 states and the District of Columbia, the two share bragging rights on Wisconsin and Hunter has won three states.
In other words, by June 2nd, it's not even close.
Why is that significant? As Ann notes that day is the day Dario starts accusing the party of rigging the election. After he's lost not one but 19 states to Howie. After there's no way in the world that Dario can become the nominee, that's when he starts accusing the Green Party of rigging the primaries. June 3rd, his surrogate makes the charge. As Ann points out, there's no proof offered, no back up offered, just float the charge that somehow, someway, there was rigging.
Let's be clear that having Dario on the show wasn't Cindy's problem. Her problem was in what he said and that she never questioned it. Never once did she say, "Now, Dario, looking back at the way you ran your campaign, is there anything you could have done differently?" That's basic in journalism. But what's worse than her failing to do that was she jumped on board with him to support his nutty theory. She doesn't like Howie Hawkins and suddenly he's Bully Boy Bush.
She wants you to know he put her name on as an endorsee and she didn't endorse him and he's a War Criminal because he served in Vietnam and . . .
She sounded tired, old and bitter.
Cindy flirts with conspiracy theories all the time. Nothing is ever too nutty for her to grab onto. And most of the time, we just ignore that. We like Cindy -- even now, we like Cindy.
But Dario Hunter failed his supporters. He doesn't deserve to lie his way out of that fact. People like Ann and Jess supported him and worked to promote his campaign. They deserved a real candidate. He was not one. And to allow him to get away -- as Cindy did -- with pinning the blame on others is outrageous.
Dario lost the nomination because he ran a s**t poor campaign. Ann and Jess were his supporters, he ran them off by not running a real campaign. That's on him, no one else.
Shame on Cindy for letting a do-nothing politician come on her show and blame others for his own failure.
The joke that is Brett McGurk
As if Iraq hasn't suffered enough, Brett McGurk is back to 'helping.' Brett Blue Balls McGurk 'helped' Iraq under Bully Boy Bush. He 'helped' Iraq under Barack.
If you ask Sunnis or Kurds, they'll tell you exactly how unhelpful Brett McGurk truly was. But the United Nations, intent on proving that despite their claim, it is not your world, felt Brett was just the man they needed -- note the term "man" and that the UN never seems to find a woman -- in Iraq.
Brett is a joke to the Iraqi people.
We were reminded of that yet again when journalist Rasha al-Aqeedi Tweeted about "McGurking."
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Illustrations are Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "Ambassador to Swingtown" and "Standing Behind McGurk."
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From The TESR Test Kitchen
The candy companies keep trying to sell you the same candy bar you're already buying but with a new Twist.
Did someone say Twix?
Twix is convinced that you're going to love their traditional candy bar even more now that it comes in a new Cookies & Creme flavor. And isn't that what Americans really want -- "creme" and not "cream"? Who doesn't like a candy bar that reeks of self-importance?
Us.
This is an awful candy bar that has no real new taste after one chew. And that initial fleeting taste is thankfully weak because it's also repugnant.
We wouldn't recommend this crap to our worst enemy -- no, not even to Debra Messing.
But don't give up hope. Milky Way has introduced a new version of their candy bar and it's Salted Caramel. It's also very tasty -- one of the few attempts at making the same candy bar with a tiny variation that actually works.
We'd also recommend DAVID ALL NATURAL PUMPKIN SEEDS -- they've been around since 1925 and they're tasty and also good for you.
Tweet of the week
John Stauber Tweets:
It is pathetic to see #Bernie's #progressive Dem hacks pretend to rebel over #MedicareForAll when they have already have surrendered: '
will spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to persuade swing-state progressives to get behind Biden'.
It is pathetic to see #Bernie's #progressive Dem hacks pretend to rebel over #MedicareForAll when they have already have surrendered: '
will spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to persuade swing-state progressives to get behind Biden'.
Song to stream
The official audio for Maybe Love is in NYC by Pretenders. Taken from the new album Hate For Sale, out now: https://pretenders.lnk.to/hateforsaleID -- Follow The Pretenders: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pretenders Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thepretende... Twitter: https://twitter.com/thepretendershq #Pretenders #HateForSale
This edition's playlist
1) The Pretenders' HATE FOR SALE.
2) Diana Ross' SUPERTONIC MIXES.
3) Fiona Apple's FETCH THE BOLT CUTTERS.
4) Bob Dylan's ROUGH AND ROWDY WAYS.
5) Dionne Warwick's SHE'S BACK.
6) Ellie Goulding's BRIGHTEST BLUE.
7) Harry Style's FINE LINE.
8) Ricky Martin's PAUSA.
9) Hamilton Leithauser's THE LOVES OF YOUR LIFE .
10) Ronnie Spector's ENGLISH HEART.