Climate activist Bill McKibben took to the New Yorker recently to advise me and the Green Party to stand down our presidential campaign and instead work for ranked-choice voting (RCV) so we don’t “spoil” the election for Joe Biden (“Instead of Challenging Joe Biden, Maybe the Green Party Could Help Change Our Democracy,” April 15).
The problem with McKibben’s advice is that the Green Party’s demand for replacing the Electoral College with a ranked-choice national popular vote for president will not even be raised in the presidential campaign if the Greens are not in the race.
If McKibben wants RCV to be an issue in the 2020 presidential election, he should support the Green Party. As a climate activist, he should support the Green Party because we are the only option on the ballot for a full-strength Green New Deal to zero out carbon emissions with 100% clean energy by 2030. RCV is not anywhere on Joe Biden’s agenda. Biden’s “all-of-the-above” energy policy is what McKibben has devoted his life to opposing. If we don’t vote for what we want, how are we ever going to get it?
The Democratic Party has been complaining about the Green Party and trying to keep us off ballots since Ralph Nader ran for president in 2000. Both Republican presidents in the 21st century lost the popular vote when they were first elected. It is the Electoral College, not the Green Party, that installed losers like Donald Trump and George W. Bush in the White House.
The Greens have been offering RCV as a proven nonpartisan solution to the spoiler problem for 20 years. One would think that by now the Democrats would have embraced that reform in order to address the institutional reason why they have lost presidential elections despite winning the popular vote.
Bill McKibben is a fraud. He pretends to care -- about voting, about the environment -- but he's always just distracting you and never offering real solutions. He's a fake ass.
Here's a video of Howie Hawkins taking questions.
Howie is an outstanding choice for president. And, unlike Joe Biden, he's not accused of raping anyone. Sarah Jones (The Intelligencer) reports:
Two women told Business Insider that Tara Reade, a former Senate staffer who has accused Joe Biden of sexual assault,
mentioned the alleged incident to them in the mid-1990s, around the
time she says it occurred. Lynda LaCasse, who once lived next to Reade,
and Lorraine Sanchez, who worked with Reade in the California
legislature, both say that Reade told them she had been fired from a job
for reporting sexual harassment. Though Sanchez didn’t recall Reade
telling her that Biden was the perpetrator, or that the misconduct in
question was a sexual assault, the story LaCasse heard lines up closely with the one Reade has taken to the press.
“I
remember her saying, here was this person that she was working for and
she idolized him,” LaCasse told Business Insider. “And he kind of put
her up against a wall. And he put his hand up her skirt and he put his
fingers inside her. She felt like she was assaulted, and she really
didn’t feel there was anything she could do.” Reade was in tears as she
told the story, LaCasse added.
Reade
has told reporters that in 1993, Biden pushed her up against a wall in
the Senate complex, put one hand under her shirt and another her skirt,
and penetrated her with his fingers. By the time of the alleged assault,
she had already complained of a sexist atmosphere in Biden’s office and
of sexual harassment. Reade also says that her superiors removed some
of her key professional responsibilities after the assault; a former
Biden intern has previously confirmed to the Washington Post
that Reade was indeed abruptly removed as their supervisor, though they
could not confirm the assault or that sexual harassment occurred in the
office.
On Friday, the Intercept confirmed that a woman matching the description of Reade’s mother called into the Larry King Show
to ask advice for her daughter, who had experienced “problems” in the
office of a “prominent senator.” After the right-wing Media Research
Center published a clip of the episode in question, Reade confirmed to Holly Otterbein of Politico
that the woman sounded like her mother. The Business Insider report
provides further, and arguably even more significant, corroboration of
Reade’s story. Reade has said consistently that she informed her mother,
brother, and a friend of the assault at the time. Previous reporting by
the New York Times and the Post confirmed that Reade did disclose the story to her brother.This is C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"
Tuesday, April 28, 2020. ISIS grows more active in Iraq while we all
need to ponder how a man accused of rape can claim he's 'eletable'?
March 24th, Ryan Grim (INTERCEPT) reported on Tara Reade going to Times Up to get assistance as she came forward to accuse Joe Biden of assaulting her. One month and four days later and Joe Biden has still not made a public statement to any news outlet. Instead, he's hid behind a series of women including the nut job who should have been disqualified by a working press. (I noted her conflicts in the "Tara Reade and coronavirus roundtable" we did.) The media has assisted Joe by refusing to ask him when they interview him. There is nothing else newsworthy about Joe's campaign currently but people like Anderson Cooper ignore the topic over and over. In fact, Anderson has interviewed Joe twice since the allegation surfaced and both times refused to ask a question about it.
The media has practiced a double standard and wallowed in hypocrisy. Of THE NEW YORK TIMES smear job on Tara, April 12th, Naomi Wolf Tweeted:
As a feminist I just note that the wording around this accusation in
The hypocrisy was noted on FOX NEWS.
Lara Logan: Well, to me, Sean, it says something very disappointing: That people who claim the moral high ground, claim to have some degree of moral authority, don't really care about the principles at all because the principles should survive politics, they should survive ideology, they should survive everything. And I know, in my own case, it's hard, in a way, even listening to it. Not because I haven't come to terms with it but because I know as someone who was raped, I know all the people, men and women, over the years, who've come to me with their own stories of what they've been through. And the one thing I was concerned about through the entire MeToo movement and Kavanaugh and everything else is that the voices of the real victims would be lost as everybody was rushing in the frenzy to use this moment for their own gain.
Yesterday, Rich McHugh (BUSINESS INSIDER) reported:
In March, when a former aide to Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden accused the candidate of sexually assaulting her in 1993, two people came forward to say that the woman, Tara Reade, had told them of the incident shortly after it allegedly occurred — her brother, Collin Moulton, and a friend who asked to remain anonymous for fear of retribution.
Now two more sources have come forward to corroborate certain details about Reade's claims. One of them — a former neighbor of Reade's — has told Insider for the first time, on the record, that Reade disclosed details about the alleged assault to her in the mid-1990s.
"This happened, and I know it did because I remember talking about it," Lynda LaCasse, who lived next door to Reade in the mid-'90s, told Insider.
The other source, Lorraine Sanchez, who worked with Reade in the office of a California state senator in the mid-'90s, told Insider that she recalls Reade complaining at the time that her former boss in Washington, DC, had sexually harassed her, and that she had been fired after raising concerns.
Each day, Tara's case gets stronger and yet no one wants to ask Joe Biden the question they need to. Is that a ground rule?
Are they getting access by guaranteeing not to ask Joe about the rape allegation?
The media watchdogs are largely napping. The right-wing NEWSBUSTERS has followed this story. The left-wing CJR has. But FAIR, COUNTERSPIN? They won't say a word.
Joe won't say a word. We know why. He fears litigation. He's pulling the Bill Clinton strategy. Juanita Broadrrick accused Bill of rape (I believe her). Bill hid behind a spokesperson and never himself spoke to the allegation. That's what Joe's doing now.
With Bill, he was a lame duck president. It was 1999. He could ride it out and did. Joe's asking people to vote for him. This isn't something he can ride out.
Tara's case gets stronger with every day.
The calls for Joe to drop out mount.
This is not a strong candidate for November. Joe needs to go. He was never more than an empty suit and now he's facing credible charges of assault. He's been unable to defend himself for over a month. How does this argue for him doing well in November?
He's offering nothing but tired plans from the past which failed. His only argument has been that he's 'electable.' He's now accused of rape and does not look like a sure thing at all.
Turning to Iraq, Qassim Abdul-Zahra (AP) reports, "A militant wearing a suicide vest struck an intelligence bureau in northern Iraq on Tuesday, wounding at least three members of the security personnel, Iraqi officials said, blaming the attack on the Islamic State group." Margaret Griffis (ANTIWAR.COM) adds, "ISIS attacked the Rutba home of a district councilman. Talal Al-Absi was killed, and his son was abducted."
As ISIS grows more active, Iraq has no real prime minister. The 'acting' prime minister resigned last year. Adil Abdul Mahdi was inept and resigned at the end of November. All these months later, Iraq still does not have a prime minister.
And let's be clear, the post is supposed to be filled long enough for elections to be called. No one is saying that the new prime minister needs to serve a lengthy term.
Struan Stevenson (UPI) offers:
Iraq's prime ministerial merry-go-round continues to spin apace. Spy chief Mustafa al-Kadhimi, director of the country's National Intelligence Service, is the third prime minister designate this year, following the withdrawal of Adnan al-Zurfi, the previous prospective candidate, after he failed to secure enough support to form a government.
Al-Zurfi had tried to step into the shoes of Mohammed Tawfiq Allawi, who suffered a similar fate, leaving Iraq under the tremulous caretaker control of Adil Abdul-Mahdi, the crooked former prime minister and puppet of the Iranian mullahs, who was forced to resign last November amidst widespread protests.
Under the Iraqi constitution, a prime minister designate has 30 days to secure the backing of parliament for his new government. This has been the stumbling block for each of Abdul-Mahdi's chosen successors so far, as they have attempted to gain the approval of the wide range of deeply divided and sectarian factions that make up Iraq's Majilis.
Recently, former prime minister and forever thug Nouri al-Maliki hosted a 'party' at his house where various Shi'ite politicians plotted how to defeat Allawi.
Khaled Yacoub Oweis (THE NATIONAL) reports:
A parliamentary supporter of Iraq’s latest Prime Minister-designate Mustafa Al Kadhimi cast doubt on whether he could form a Cabinet, in the first acknowledgement from the allied camp of the secular nominee that he is in political trouble.
Shirwan Mirza of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) told Iraq’s official news agency late on Sunday that Mr Al Kadhimi, an intelligence chief supported by Washington, could fail like his two predecessors.
Mr Mirza said Mr Al Kadhimi was hoping to be approved by parliament before the month of Ramadan.
“The Cabinet talks are ongoing but have not reached a result so far,” Mr Mirza said. “Al Kadhimi was supposed to present his cabinet before Ramadan but some political groups withdrew their support for him.”
The Kurdish parliamentarian was referring to pro-Iranian Shiite players linked with militia powers who dominate the legislature and who had initially indicated that they would let Mr Al Kadhimi form his Cabinet.
Mr Mirza said if Mr Al Kadhimi does not suffer “the same fate” as his predecessors”, parliament could convene a physical vote-of-confidence session despite the coronavirus.
The following sites updated:
March 24th, Ryan Grim (INTERCEPT) reported on Tara Reade going to Times Up to get assistance as she came forward to accuse Joe Biden of assaulting her. One month and four days later and Joe Biden has still not made a public statement to any news outlet. Instead, he's hid behind a series of women including the nut job who should have been disqualified by a working press. (I noted her conflicts in the "Tara Reade and coronavirus roundtable" we did.) The media has assisted Joe by refusing to ask him when they interview him. There is nothing else newsworthy about Joe's campaign currently but people like Anderson Cooper ignore the topic over and over. In fact, Anderson has interviewed Joe twice since the allegation surfaced and both times refused to ask a question about it.
The media has practiced a double standard and wallowed in hypocrisy. Of THE NEW YORK TIMES smear job on Tara, April 12th, Naomi Wolf Tweeted:
As a feminist I just note that the wording around this accusation in
@nytimes
is more skeptical and guarded than in the same paper’s reporting on women accusing Trump. Should be a nonpartisan single standard for reporting allleged sexual abuse.The hypocrisy was noted on FOX NEWS.
Lara Logan: Well, to me, Sean, it says something very disappointing: That people who claim the moral high ground, claim to have some degree of moral authority, don't really care about the principles at all because the principles should survive politics, they should survive ideology, they should survive everything. And I know, in my own case, it's hard, in a way, even listening to it. Not because I haven't come to terms with it but because I know as someone who was raped, I know all the people, men and women, over the years, who've come to me with their own stories of what they've been through. And the one thing I was concerned about through the entire MeToo movement and Kavanaugh and everything else is that the voices of the real victims would be lost as everybody was rushing in the frenzy to use this moment for their own gain.
Yesterday, Rich McHugh (BUSINESS INSIDER) reported:
In March, when a former aide to Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden accused the candidate of sexually assaulting her in 1993, two people came forward to say that the woman, Tara Reade, had told them of the incident shortly after it allegedly occurred — her brother, Collin Moulton, and a friend who asked to remain anonymous for fear of retribution.
Now two more sources have come forward to corroborate certain details about Reade's claims. One of them — a former neighbor of Reade's — has told Insider for the first time, on the record, that Reade disclosed details about the alleged assault to her in the mid-1990s.
"This happened, and I know it did because I remember talking about it," Lynda LaCasse, who lived next door to Reade in the mid-'90s, told Insider.
The other source, Lorraine Sanchez, who worked with Reade in the office of a California state senator in the mid-'90s, told Insider that she recalls Reade complaining at the time that her former boss in Washington, DC, had sexually harassed her, and that she had been fired after raising concerns.
Each day, Tara's case gets stronger and yet no one wants to ask Joe Biden the question they need to. Is that a ground rule?
Are they getting access by guaranteeing not to ask Joe about the rape allegation?
The media watchdogs are largely napping. The right-wing NEWSBUSTERS has followed this story. The left-wing CJR has. But FAIR, COUNTERSPIN? They won't say a word.
Joe won't say a word. We know why. He fears litigation. He's pulling the Bill Clinton strategy. Juanita Broadrrick accused Bill of rape (I believe her). Bill hid behind a spokesperson and never himself spoke to the allegation. That's what Joe's doing now.
With Bill, he was a lame duck president. It was 1999. He could ride it out and did. Joe's asking people to vote for him. This isn't something he can ride out.
Tara's case gets stronger with every day.
The calls for Joe to drop out mount.
This is not a strong candidate for November. Joe needs to go. He was never more than an empty suit and now he's facing credible charges of assault. He's been unable to defend himself for over a month. How does this argue for him doing well in November?
He's offering nothing but tired plans from the past which failed. His only argument has been that he's 'electable.' He's now accused of rape and does not look like a sure thing at all.
Turning to Iraq, Qassim Abdul-Zahra (AP) reports, "A militant wearing a suicide vest struck an intelligence bureau in northern Iraq on Tuesday, wounding at least three members of the security personnel, Iraqi officials said, blaming the attack on the Islamic State group." Margaret Griffis (ANTIWAR.COM) adds, "ISIS attacked the Rutba home of a district councilman. Talal Al-Absi was killed, and his son was abducted."
As ISIS grows more active, Iraq has no real prime minister. The 'acting' prime minister resigned last year. Adil Abdul Mahdi was inept and resigned at the end of November. All these months later, Iraq still does not have a prime minister.
And let's be clear, the post is supposed to be filled long enough for elections to be called. No one is saying that the new prime minister needs to serve a lengthy term.
Struan Stevenson (UPI) offers:
Iraq's prime ministerial merry-go-round continues to spin apace. Spy chief Mustafa al-Kadhimi, director of the country's National Intelligence Service, is the third prime minister designate this year, following the withdrawal of Adnan al-Zurfi, the previous prospective candidate, after he failed to secure enough support to form a government.
Al-Zurfi had tried to step into the shoes of Mohammed Tawfiq Allawi, who suffered a similar fate, leaving Iraq under the tremulous caretaker control of Adil Abdul-Mahdi, the crooked former prime minister and puppet of the Iranian mullahs, who was forced to resign last November amidst widespread protests.
Under the Iraqi constitution, a prime minister designate has 30 days to secure the backing of parliament for his new government. This has been the stumbling block for each of Abdul-Mahdi's chosen successors so far, as they have attempted to gain the approval of the wide range of deeply divided and sectarian factions that make up Iraq's Majilis.
Recently, former prime minister and forever thug Nouri al-Maliki hosted a 'party' at his house where various Shi'ite politicians plotted how to defeat Allawi.
Khaled Yacoub Oweis (THE NATIONAL) reports:
A parliamentary supporter of Iraq’s latest Prime Minister-designate Mustafa Al Kadhimi cast doubt on whether he could form a Cabinet, in the first acknowledgement from the allied camp of the secular nominee that he is in political trouble.
Shirwan Mirza of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) told Iraq’s official news agency late on Sunday that Mr Al Kadhimi, an intelligence chief supported by Washington, could fail like his two predecessors.
Mr Mirza said Mr Al Kadhimi was hoping to be approved by parliament before the month of Ramadan.
“The Cabinet talks are ongoing but have not reached a result so far,” Mr Mirza said. “Al Kadhimi was supposed to present his cabinet before Ramadan but some political groups withdrew their support for him.”
The Kurdish parliamentarian was referring to pro-Iranian Shiite players linked with militia powers who dominate the legislature and who had initially indicated that they would let Mr Al Kadhimi form his Cabinet.
Mr Mirza said if Mr Al Kadhimi does not suffer “the same fate” as his predecessors”, parliament could convene a physical vote-of-confidence session despite the coronavirus.
The following sites updated:
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Rodrigo y Gabriela: Tiny Desk (Home) Concert3 hours ago
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How much proof is enough?8 hours ago
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Who can't handle the truth?8 hours ago
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No one wants to vote for a rapist8 hours ago
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PHANTOM OF THE PARADISE9 hours ago
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The greed, the corruption9 hours ago
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Joe is a rapist9 hours ago
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Alyssa investigates -- with her tongue!10 hours ago
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THIS JUST IN! ALYSSA IS THAT STUPID!10 hours ago
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