Roundtable

Jim: Roundtable time again. .  Remember our e-mail address is thethirdestatesundayreview@yahoo.com but you can also use common_ills@yahoo.com and, in fact, should this week Participating in our roundtable are  The Third Estate Sunday Review's Dona, Ty, Jess, Ava, and me, Jim; 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); Cedric of Cedric's Big Mix; Mike of Mikey Likes It!; Elaine of Like Maria Said Paz); Ruth of Ruth's Report; Trina of Trina's Kitchen; Wally of The Daily Jot; Marcia of SICKOFITRDLZ; Stan of Oh Boy It Never Ends; Isaiah of The World Today Just Nuts and Ann of Ann's Mega Dub. Betty's kids did the illustration. You are reading a rush transcript.







Jim (Con't): What do we think of Ukraine?

Kat: Love the people, hate the government.

Cedric: Right. As a Black man, I especially won't be praising that government or, in fact, the people. Ann noted that at her site "Isaiah, Charmed, Sabby Sabs" and I agree with her and I'm glad Sabby Sabs reported on it.

Dona: We'll put Sabby's video in here but, Ann and Cedric, tell us about that.

Ann: My husband's pointing to me. The Peace Corps is warning their volunteers that there may be problems in Ukraine due to racism. The N-word may be used, for example, relics of racism here in the States may still be popular -- think something like Sambo dolls. You, if you're a person of color, will be under a microscope, etc. It is just not a fun place and not at all what the US media and the White House has been insisting it is.

Cedric: I don't know why my tax dollars are being used to fund a racist country where, in 2002, it is acceptable -- socially acceptable -- to call African-Americans the N-word. I find that appalling. They're neo Nazis. And we're giving them our money.

Trina: And doing so at a time when Joe Biden, the president, is telling Americans to prepare for food shortages.

Elaine: How is that not bigger news!

Trina: Exactly. I know C.I. worked it into a snapshot but is everyone else just like, "Oh, food shortages, sure, that's normal." Because it isn't.

Jess; But we're supposed to be prepared for them. If they happen, that's a failure of leadership and will reflect directly on Joe Biden. I cannot believe that the Green Party is not addressing this, issuing statements, etc.

Ann: I'll be silent to let others speak but can we please come back to me when we're done with this topic?

Jim: We will do that. Ty, any thoughts?

Ty: On Ukraine? We, the US government, have been agitating there since 2014. We had Victoria Nuland's infamous phone call that everyone seems to have forgotten. We interfered to destabilize the government in power. We created the chaos. We set the stage. And now it's, "Evil Russia!!!" No. Our hands are just as bloody.

Wally: So when Joe Biden screams "War Criminal!" he better be sure to look in the mirror.

Betty: We did not need to get involved in another war. The pandemic continues. The American people are tired and stressed. We do not have the money to waste on weapons for Ukraine. We need to be focused on helping our country. Joe Biden is a bit like a man who's too busy picking up the check for the table to impress others while at home his kids are eating spam sandwiches because Dad keeps blowing the budget.

Jim: I'd say that's a perfect description of Joe Biden.

Rebecca: Like Jude Law in that film THE NEST. We'll all be left homeless in the US because Joe Biden's wasting our money.

Elaine: I want to point out something here. Joe is using Ukraine as his justification for everything including inflation -- which had already soared before Ukraine took up all the media attention. What I want to point out is that if we have food shortages and he tries to justify it by pointing out what's going on in Ukraine, that's still his failure. No one forced him to get involved -- covertly or overtly -- he was always involved covertly. But if his skills are so poor that he could not see the trouble he was creating, that goes to him not being fit for the job.

Mike: Absolutely, hold him accountable.

Jim: On that note, I want to go somewhere else for a moment. Ann, I'm not forgetting you, I promise. Okay, Julian Assange and that's something Marcia asked that we talk about, so Marcia.

Marcia: Accountability. We need to hold Joe Biden accountable for the persecution of Julian Assange. C.I. made that point some time ago as people were being wishy-washy in their defense of Julian. They would say the US government or they'd complain about someone lower level. No, this is Joe Biden. Joe could end it at any moment. And maybe he would if he started getting just how many people are going to hold him accountable and if he gets how his continued persecution of Julian will shape Joe Biden's legacy.

Ruth: I agree with Marcia on this and we have spoken of it many times. We need to make it the anchor around Mr. Biden's neck and if he is willing to still do it, then he can sink as a result of his actions.

Kat: And I don't imagine anyone in the world doesn't know who Julian is but just in case, Julian is an Australian citizen. He is the publisher of WIKILEAKS. Joe is angry with WIKILEAKS because they exposed War Crimes, most infamously, they exposed War Crimes in Iraq. This is reporting, this is the sunlight that democracy needs. But Joe doesn't like sunlight -- look at how he covers for his crooked son, so he wants to bring Julian to the US where he can be tortured the way our government has tortured at Guantanamo. And please remember Joe Biden was in the US government when the bulk of that torture took place and unlike, for example Senator Dick Durbin, Joe never shed any tears for these victims of torture.

Wally: He's rather a cold hearted person.

Stan: I'd agree with that His jovial nature always felt forced to me. And now he just comes across like yuor angry and confused great grandfather. It's hard to watch. He's so clearly not up to the job. It seems like even he realizes that and it makes him more angry and a lot meaner.

Jim: Can we just, for a moment, entertain what it would be like if Bernie Sanders had gotten the nomination?

Mike: We would be so much better off. I know what you're saying JUim, Bernie's not a youngster either. But he's got a better heart and cares about people. He wouldn't have been perfect but he would have been better than Joe, much, much better than Joe. And that's not me saying Bernie should run again. He fake assed in the primary at the end. I don't have any use for you once you fake ass.

Rebecca: I think Bernie as president would have raised real issues. I think we would have raised issues about addressing climate change, for example, and addressing Medicare For All. And I think the corporations who were opposed to him grasped that he wasn't Joe Biden. Joe Biden couldn't get a group of ten people to rally -- even if he was giving out front row tickets to a Jay-Z concert.

Betty: I remember those rallies Joe had and how sparsely they were attended.

Rebecca: Exactly. But if Bernie had the nomination, he would have won and this is what scared the corporations, he would have been able to rally people. All the bought off members of Congress want to forget how they gave lip service to Medicare For All? Bernie gives a speech -- State of th Union -- and tells everyone to call their representatives and demand Medicare For All and you better believe that they would have done it and lit a fire forcing reps to support it or be voted out of office.

Elaine: Which was C.I.'s whole point in 2019 that Bernie wasn't the power, it was the people who were backing him.

Mike: Good points. Joe Biden inspires no one and speaks to no one.

Dona: That really is the case. He's a dull, boring, run of the mill and corrupt politician. I look back at the people who used their own image to try to sell him --

Kat: Cher!

Dona: Yeah, people like Cher and I have to wonder -- what's the song --

C.I.: Pretenders, "How Much Did You Get For Your Soul?"

Dona: That's it! I love Ava and C.I.'s saying that they've had for years now, rejecting this need to worship a politician, where they say -- Ava, you haven't talked this roundtable so say it.

Ava: We don't fall in love with politicians, we're not that pathetic.

Cedric: And it really is pathetic. To the young people out there, I'm not referring to you. If this is your first or second election, enjoy. But if you've seen a few elections already? Stop lying to yourself and others. I am so tired of these run of the mill politicians being hyped to the heavens with claims of how great they are and how they truly represent us on the left when they really don't.

Betty: Cedric, let's not leave it at politicians. Ketanji Brown Jackson does not represent me. Not politically. She's way to the right of me. But Hip Hop Nation -- which also doesn't represent me -- can't stop hyping her and trying to make it the most pressing left issue in the world. She's honestly not all that important. She's another corporatist who will vote center-left and we'll wonder, as Elaine's pointed out, why our Court tilts right. Because Dems no longer nominate leftists for the Supreme Court.

Cedric: You're right, Betty, you are exactly right.

Ann: And Elaine was right when she made that point.

Mike: Yep.

Marcia: I will give Joe Biden credit for one thing on Judge Jackson. He promised to nominate a Black woman and he did. He didn't go for biracial and try to pass her off as Black. There's nothing wrong with being biracial or multiracial or mixed whatever you want to call it. But don't pretend it's the same thing. There is a whole body of work on how the lighter your skin was, the easier you had it as a person of color in the US. Before he named his nominee, I wrote that he said Black and she better be Black. He kept his word on that. I'm not blown away by the nominee and I did not expect to be -- I said that before he named the nominee.

Betty: And that's a good point to make. As a very dark skinned person, I do agree with you 100%. I think passing has gone the other way in the 21st century.

Marcia: Oh, Betty, that is such a good point. It really has. I'm probably going to use that at my site at some point.

Betty: By all means.

Jim: Okay, dropping back to Julian Assange, what needs to be done with him?

Mike: He's a journalist. He needs to be released immediately.

Stan: I agree but am I the only one who pictures the US kidnapping him the minute's he's released.

Trina: I agree that's a possibility And that's all the more reason to call Joe Biden out now, to make sure he knows the world is watching him. Because the UK court could do the right thing, it could release him. And we need to make sure that Joe knows the world is watching him when it comes to the treatment of Julian.

Jim: We need to wrap up shortly. We never get to cover everything we want to or plan to but I did promise Ann we'd come back to her. Ann, the floor is yours.

Ann: Thank you. Jess is a Green and so I am I. Betty is Green statewide and may be one nationally.

Betty: I've voted Green in every presidential election since Cynthia McKinney ran in 2008.

Ann: So we've got a few Greens and I think that collectively we are a Green friendly community. I am getting so tired of the attacks on Howie Hawkins. He's not this, he's not that. Wah! Wah! Jesse Ventura, a conservative, could have been the Green Party's nominee. Could have been? He chose not to run for the office. He said he'd accept it f he was gifted with the nomination. That's not democracy. I have watched every one of my party's presidential nominees leave the campaign and either go on to something else or just fade -- but they retreated. Now they gave a lot of themselves and I certainly have tremendous respect for Cynthia -- I believe she went on to get her doctorate but I could be wrong on that. My point is Howie was the 2020 Green Party presidential nominee. That ended in November of 2020. Where has he been? Every week, he does a minimum of one YOUTUBE video discussing Green issues. We are never going to be a serious party until we learn to stay active every year and not just during the presidential election year. He was not my first choice for the nomination. He became my choice during the primaries because he was working for the nomination. My choice, was Dario Hunter. He and I aligned perfectly on every position. I switched to Howie because Dario wasn't doing a thing. He wasn't creating videos, he wasn't Tweeting at least once a day. I remember getting called out by readers and having to explain in posts, people, I'm noting him every time he Tweets, he's not Tweeting. As Greens, we cannot depend upon the corporate media to get the word out on us so we have to get it out on ourselves. Howie did that in the race for the nomination. I'm getting tired of Sabby Sabs and other non-Green slamming Howie when they have no idea what they're talking about. I'm getting tired of her and Jimmy Dore trying to argue that Jesse Ventura should be gifted with the Green Party nomination when there are people running for that nomination. I thought we were all appalled in 2016 when the Democratic Party worked to gift Hillary Clinton the nomination while blocking Bernie. All I'm asking -- asking Jimmy, Sabby and everyone else -- is that you apply the same standard. Don't have one when you're unhappy that a political party forced a nominee on the people and then turn around and be mad that a political party didn't force a nominee on the people.

Jim: Thank you, Ann. I don't think anyone here can disagree with that. You said that very well and I believe most of our readers will agree with you also. It's about maintaining your ethics. Agreed. On that note, we're going to wind down. This is a rush transcript. I've got some personal issues -- health -- to take care of this week so please just e-mail us at common_ills@yahoo.com if you have something to say.