Tikkun (https://www.tikkun.org/category/politics__society/us_politics/page/13/)
Editor’s note: As a 501-c-3 we do not endorse or oppose any candidate for office or any political party. We do try to present views that are not normally heard in the mainstream media, but we often present ideas with which we disagree if they present perspectives that challenge our thinking or what we perceive to be the dominant thinking in the liberal and progressive world.
Trumped
Written by davidswanson
Why would it be that 8 years ago you couldn’t win a Democratic presidential primary if you’d voted for a war on Iraq after pushing all the Bush White House lies about it, and yet now you can? Back then the war looked closer to ending, the death count was lower, and ISIS was only in the planning stages. Reports on the fraud, criminality, and knowingly self-destructive nature of the war launch — reports like the Chilcot report — hadn’t yet been produced. How can you drag this albatross across the finish line at this late date in 2016? Well, you can’t, in fact.
Editor’s Note: Now don’t go jumping to the conclusion that I agree with Jeff St. Clair’s perspective just because I’ve posted it here. As I repeatedly say, we want a variety of perspectives on the elections on our website, and welcome yours if it’s original, lively, says something most of our readers will not have likely heard in the mainstream media, and is smart. That is not the same thing as true or accurate Asi turns out, he has written columns in which he denounces me personally as an apologist for Zionism (I wish he’d send those charges to the American Jewish leaders who repeatedly attack me for being an anti-Israel self-hating Jew!) So you have to judge for yourself if his perceptions match yours on what was happening at the convention. But we thought there were some points here worth considering, though that doesn’t mean we agree with them.
THE WASHINGTON POST VIA GETTY IMAGES
Senator Bernie Sanders had two good reasons for endorsing Hillary: 1. His firm belief that the country would be considerably worse off were Donald Trump to win the presidency; 2. If his movement to push the Democratic Party in a progressive direction would had been perceived as having failed to support Hillary Clinton, it would have been blamed if Hillary were to lose in November. If that happened, it would have given progressives the kind of bad reputation consumer advocate Ralph Nader got when he failed to tell his supporters in the 2000 presidential election to not vote for him but vote for Democratic presidential candidate Al Gore in those few states where the polls indicated that the outcome might well depend on Gore getting the Nader voters. The burden of that would have crippled his movement for many years to come.
Editor’s Note: Tikkun magazine doesn’t endorse any candidate or political party–we are barred from doing so as a non-profit. But we can print articles from our readers and other sources that provide their analyses and their views on the candidates and parties. Michael Moore’s analysis of the election is worthy of serious attention. As we say repeatedly, out choice of articles to print, put on our website and in our Tikkun Daily Blog do not necessarily reflect our own views–which are expressed only in our editorials in the print magazine–but rather reflect our desire to encourage public debate about important ideas (so, yes, we would welcome publication of very different views from those expressed by Moore or anyone else who seems to be backing or critiquing political candidates or political parties–see for example in our Tikkun Daily Blog an article about the Libertarian candidate, and we’ll be doing an interview with Jill Stein and we’ve requested interviews with Trump and Clinton and Sanders). In our Fall 2016 issue of Tikkun magazine we present our analysis of the reasons why many Americans are attracted to rightwing extremist movements and why they are likely to play an important role in American politics no matter who wins the 2016 presidential election.
Editor’s Note: Tikkun Magazine does not endorse any candidate for public office or any political party. But we do encourage our readers to send us their thoughts about the various candidates if they have something new to say that has not already been said in one of the articles on our website or in Tikkun Daily blog. We’ve had nothing about The Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson, so when a reader sent us this information we wanted to put it up so you’d know about this candidate as well as the ones more fully covered in the lamestream media.–Rabbi Michael Lerner
On January 6, 2016, Johnson declared that he would seek the Libertarian nomination for the presidency.[5] On May 18, Johnson named former Massachusetts Governor William Weld as his running mate.[108]
On May 29, 2016, Johnson received the Libertarian nomination on the second ballot.[6]
Political positions[edit]
Main article: Political positions of Gary Johnson
Johnson’s views have been described as fiscally conservative and socially liberal[109] with a philosophy of limited government[110] and military non-interventionism.[111][112] He has identified as a classical liberal.[113] Johnson has said he favors simplifying and reducing taxes.[114] During his governorship, Johnson cut taxes fourteen times and never increased them.[115] Due to his stance on taxes, political pundit David Weigel described him as “the original Tea Party candidate.”[116] Johnson has advocated for the FairTax, a proposal which would abolish all federal income, corporate and capital gains taxes, and replace them with a 23% tax on consumption of all non-essential goods, while providing a regressive rebate to households according to income level. He has argued that this would assure transparency in the tax system and incentivize the private sector to create “tens of millions of jobs.”[117] In June 2016, Johnson said that he supported the Trans-Pacific Partnership.[118]
Johnson has said that he supports balancing the federal budget immediately.[119] He has stated he supports “slashing government spending”, includingMedicare, Medicaid, and Social Security,[114] which would involve cutting Medicare and Medicaid by 43 percent and turning them into block grant programs, with control of spending in the hands of the states to create, in his words, “fifty laboratories of innovation.”[119] He has advocated passing a law allowing forstate bankruptcy and expressly ruling out a federal bailout of any states.[110] Johnson has expressed opposition to the Federal Reserve System, which he has cited as massively devaluing the strength of the U.S. dollar, and would sign legislation to eliminate it. He has also supported an audit of the central bank, and urged Members of Congress in July 2012 to vote in favor of Ron Paul’s Federal Reserve Transparency Act.[120]
In his campaign for the Libertarian Party nomination, he stated he opposed foreign wars and pledged to cut the military budget by 43 percent in his first term as president.[112] He would cut the military’s overseas bases, uniformed and civilian personnel, research and development, intelligence, and nuclear weapons programs.[121][122] He has stated his opposition to US involvement in the War in Afghanistan and opposed the US involvement in the Libyan Civil War.[123] He has stated that he does not believe Iran is a military threat, would use his presidential power to prevent Israel from attacking Iran, and would not follow Israel, or any other ally, into a war that it had initiated.[124]
Johnson is a strong supporter of civil liberties and received the highest score of any candidate from the American Civil Liberties Union for supporting drug decriminalization while opposing censorship and regulation of the Internet, the Patriot Act, enhanced airport screenings, and the indefinite detention of prisoners.[125] He has spoken in favor of the separation of church and state, and has said that he does not “seek the counsel of God” when determining his political agenda.[126] Johnson endorsed same-sex marriage in 2011;[127] he has since called for a constitutional amendment protecting equal marriage rights,[127] and criticized Obama’s position on the issue as having “thrown this question back to the states.”[128] On the other hand, Johnson opposes Roe v. Wade, believing states should decide the matter.
Editor’s note: Tikkun magazine does not endorse or oppose any candidate or political party. But we do encourage our readers to send us articles representing their perspectives. We again request that those of our readers who support or oppose any of the major candidates for President of the U.S. in the Democratic, Republican, Libertarian or Green parties to submit articles reflecting their perspectives. –Rabbi Michael Lerner
Could Hillary Be Any Worse? Sure, Add Tim Kaine to the Ticket
By David Swanson
http://davidswanson.org/node/5225
Tim Kaine has been consistently ranked as one of the least progressive Democrats in the U.S. Senate.
MAKING THE CASE FOR A “MUHAMMAD ALI DAY”
by Abdul Cader Asmal MD PhD
Muhammad Ali’s legacy can perhaps best be remembered through the words of his wife Lonni who stated, ‘Muhammad wanted to use his life and his death as a teaching moment for young people, for his country and the world. He wanted us to remind people who are suffering that he had seen the face of injustice. But he never embittered enough to quit or engage in violence.’
Though initially treated with hostility for his attitude beliefs and actions, his steadfastness, courage and conviction eventually touched the hearts of millions around the globe so that in his passing there was a reverential awe that celebrated his unparalleled accomplishments with torrents of accolades. These achievements can be best recounted in his own words:
1. As a humanitarian role model, ‘I’ve made my share of mistakes along the way, but if I have changed even one life for the better, I haven’t lived in vain’; ‘Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on earth.’
2. As an American patriot and civil rights activist: ‘America is the greatest country in the world’; ‘Hating people because of their color is wrong. And it doesn’t matter which color does the hating.
How Hillary Clinton Ignores Peace
July 2, 2016 by Robert Perry
[
In the 1980s, Robert Parry wrote the Iran-Contra news reports – exposing the Ronald Reagan / George H.W. Bush administration’s covert cocaine to money to weapons “triangle trade” / hostages for weapons operations – for The Associated Press (AP) and Newsweek. He received the George Polk Award for National Reporting [ http://www.liu.edu/polk/ ] in 1984 for his work on Iran-Contra at the AP. Robert Parry was awarded the 2015 I.F. Stone Medal for Journalistic Independence [ http://www.ifstone.org/medal.php ] }
Special Report: Despite neocon-instigated chaos and bloodshed across the Mideast (and now into Europe), Hillary Clinton continues to advocate more “regime change” wars with almost no fear from a marginalized anti-war movement, writes Robert Parry. By Robert Parry
In Campaign 2016, the American people have shown little stomach for more foreign wars. The Republican candidates who advocated neoconservative warmongering crashed and burned, losing to Donald Trump who sold himself to GOP voters as the anti-neocon, daring even to trash George W. Bush’s Iraq War to an aghast field of Republican rivals.
Editor’s Note: We’ve been trying for a long time to get articles on the current elections and there aftermath that are not just praises of Bernie Sanders (not because we disagree with those, or agree, but because we are a not for profit magazine prohibited by the IRS from being in support of any candidate or political party. So below we finally got one such article, which we print without endorsement in any way of its thesis.–Rabbi Michael Lerner
4 July, 2016
Political Revolution and Self-Deceit
A large segment of the American Left seems to remain trapped within the compulsions of rote ideology. Despite all the blazing brilliance of the minds of American leftists, (we could hardly have a higher degree of raw human intelligence at our disposal), our collective mind cannot properly apply itself, in a self-aware manner, to the nuances of our predicament. Self-aware strategic thought and behavior remain beyond our capacity. We cannot ‘act’.
Rabbi Lerner Invited to Speak at Muhammad Ali’s Memorial Service
It has been several decades since Rabbi Lerner worked with Muhammad Ali in the peace movement challenging the Vietnam War. The US government indicted both of them for their nonviolent actions against that war. But that was many decades ago. So imagine his surprise to receive a call on Sunday morning from Muhammad Ali’s family who invited him to be a speaker at the funeral/memorial ceremony this coming Friday in Louisville, Kentucky. Although Ali was famous as the boxing heavyweight champion of the world, he was most beloved and respected because he gave up that title and refused to serve in the war in Vietnam.
Please know that regardless of the concerns about Hillary’s Clinton’s foreign policy record I have expressed in my writings and I interviews, I recognize that the priority this fall for U.S. voters needs to be preventing Donald Trump from becoming president. And I also recognize the importance of rejecting the many false allegations against Hillary Clinton and categorically condemning any and all sexist attacks and misogynist language in reference to her or her candidacy.
As a non-profit, Tikkun magazine does NOT endorse any candidate or political party. Nor does Rabbi Lerner. This article is a response to distorted media coverage of Sanders’ appointment of prominent progressives to the Democratic Party’s Platform Committee whom the NY Times, the Jewish Forward and other media are describing as anti-Israel. Some of our readers support Bernie Sanders, some support Hillary Clinton, some support Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein, and there may be other candidates that some of our readers support. This article is not meant to enter into that debate, but only to challenge the media coverage of Sanders on Israel.
Rabbi Lerner is going to be speaking in Massachusetts the weekend of May 20-22nd, and wants to invite you to come hear him at one of these events!
Daniel Berrigan was one of the most inspiring figures of the anti-war and social justice movements of the past fifty years. He died on Saturday, April 30, 2016, and will be sorely missed by all of us who knew him. I was first introduced to him by my mentor Abraham Joshua Heschel in 1968 when he and Heschel and Martin Luther King had become prominent voices in the Clergy and Laity Against the War in Vietnam. He told me that he had been inspired by the civil disobedience and militant demonstrations that were sweeping the country in 1966-68, many of them led by Students for a Democratic Society (at the time I was chair of the University of California Berkeley chapter). Over the course of the ensuing 48 years I was inspired by his activism and grateful for his support for Tikkun magazine.