Counterpunch is newly added to “Recommendations” as this thoughtful piece is the topic for this week.
It is good timing. The March for Medicare for All, in many populous U.S. cities, is scheduled for this Saturday [July 24, 2021].
Here is the link:
The Left’s Curious Silence About the Medicare For All Demonstrations
Here is the link to the March for Medicare for All:
The special election of Ohio’s 11th Congressional District has a scheduled primary in August.
On the Democratic side, former state senator Nina Turner is trying to win nomination for the seat formerly held by Marcia Fudge, who is now in Joe Biden’s presidential administration serving as United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development.
Due to Turner having been connected to Bernie Sanders, predictably the corrupt, corporate, party-establishment figures—including the likes of Hillary Clinton and Jim Clyburn—are trying to make sure nomination for Turner does not happen. So, their approved candidate is Shontel Brown, chairwoman of Cuyahoga County Democratic Party.
Now, if this was 2016, 2018, or even 2020, I might be inclined to kick in a donation to possibly help Turner. That I would be really, really, really wanting to do that. But, we are past that point.
The problem is the…Party.
I see the Democratic Party as a sham. And, from those who remember my April 26, 2021 blog topic [The Three G’s], they are: Gaslighters, Gatekeepers, and Grifters.
That is what what the Ds have to offer: Gaslighting, Gatekeeping, and Grifting.
The Ds don’t move me to want to support and vote for them.
The Ds repel me.
The Ds move me to make a point to not support and vote for them [especially in general elections].
So, I am saying “No” to the Democratic Party, in its entirety, and this means the same to Nina Turner.
I am also saying “No” to Jamarl Thomas.
Last week, I made changes to the “Recommendations” list. So, count this Update as Week #02.
Gone is Jamarl Thomas.
What moved me to this decision was after he welcomed last week a particular guest, activist Lauren Steiner, on Sputnik’s Fault Lines. (I posted video of this in last week’s comments section.)
The co-host and guest talked about fighting amongst the left in a way which made [Thomas and Steiner] sound like they were not sufficiently briefed—or they were, possibly willfully, out of touch. What went down—The Young Turks’s Ana Kasparian’s and Cenk Uygur’s McCarthyite-like smears against journalist Aaron Maté and fellow content creator and comedian Jimmy Dore (and Kasparian having blackmailed Dore with a lie that he sexually harassed her more than seven years prior)—is serious. I wasn’t at all pleased, and certainly not appreciative, of that Thomas–Steiner discussion.
This compelled me to look over Thomas’s Videos page on YouTube. It now lists numerous simulcasts of his talk-radio program Fault Lines (which he co-hosts with Shane Stranahan). One can find those same installments on the YouTube Videos page of Fault Lines. The program is on weekdays. Each runs three hours. Independent of his day job, Thomas’s other Videos content isn’t particularly strong enough for me to keep him recommended.
One positive thing about Jamarl Thomas is this: My de-listing him is, at this point, not for comparably egregious reasons for which I made the same decision with Secular Talk’s Kyle Kulinski.
Replacing Jamarl Thomas on “Recommendations” is Primo Radical.
Since Primo Radical established its YouTube channel in 2015, and its content has been posted in the comments section by Progressives Chat regulars, I sense this will be a good choice.
Writer, journalist, and political analyst Caleb Maupin is the guest on Franc Analysis.
Maupin is seen with one of his books, BreadTube Serves Imperialism: Examining The New Brand of Internet Pseudo-Socialism.
It is a very interesting discussion, which was published to YouTube last Thursday [July 1, 2021], which gives insight to economic systems—capitalism, communism, socialism—with other countries and here.
☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
Changes have been made to Progressives Chat’s listing of “Recommendations.”
No longer recommended are Secular Talk, with Kyle Kulinski, and Breaking Points, with Krystal Ball and Saagar Enjeti.
My decision was an easy one with Kulinski. One may refer to his June 30, 2021 video, Kyle Addresses Jimmy Dore & Aaron Mate vs TYT, which was a dishonest response to Jimmy Dore regarding especially Aaron Maté on the receiving end of McCarthyism-type attacks by The Young Turks’s Cenk Uygur and Ana Kasparian. (Kulinski, whose Secular Talk is part of TYT Networks, was dismissive of the attacks—describing it as “drama”—and he deceitfully propped up Kasparian by not mentioning her Twitter DM attempt to blackmail Dore.) Since Dore responded, in a July 1, 2021 livestream [Kyle Kulinski Omits Ana Kasparian's Blackmail Of Jimmy Dore From Video], what was also revealed is that Ball—who co-hosts with Kulinski Krystal Kyle & Friends—is also dishonest. After I viewed what Kulinski was really saying in his video, it should be renamed: I Will Now Remove My Mask.
Replacing them are three from Niko House’s MCSC Network: Fiorella Isabel’s and Craig “Pasta” Jardula’s The Convo Couch, Jesse Zurawell’s and Misty Winston’s Facts on the Ground, and Franco’s Franc Anaylsis. (Kudos to Franco for his warnings about Kulinski! I urgently recommend viewing the first of the following June 2021 videos, Krystal Ball and Kyle Kulinski Normalize Vaush and Kyle Gives Horrible Defense to Criticisms, which I will link below, and Jimmy Dore vs Secular Talk? Is Kyle Kulinski About to be Unmasked?)
Also joining “Recommendations” among video content are Fred Hampton Leftists (https://www.fredhamptonleftists.com/about/) and Sabby Sabs (with FHL’s Sabrina Salvati).
I also added one non-video entry. For a while, Caitlin Johnstone was on Medium. But, she now has her own website. I am pleased to now include her among “Recommendations.”
In addition to these “Recommendations,” I reorganized the list. While I respect Jamarl Thomas, I don’t frequent his videos so much nowadays because most of his time is spent as co-host of Sputnik’s Fault Lines with Shane Stanahan. (Shane’s father, Lee, used to co-host the program with Garland Nixon. It runs three hours during weekday mornings.) So, prioritizing Thomas at No. 2 is no longer applicable to the needs of “Recommendations.” I went ahead and moved up Jimmy Dore Show regular guests Ron Placone and Graham Elwood, with their own respective channels, to follow Dore. Since Kim Iversen has some similar themes in her content as Elwood, she is now in the fourth slot. This isn’t totally based on a numbered order of importance. (I personally watch Hard Lens Media second to The Jimmy Dore Show.) It is for purpose of being logical enough. For example: The Grayzone—with Max Blumenthal, Ben Norton, Aaron Maté, and Blumenthal’s wife Arya Parampil—is available in both video and non-video form. So, The Grayzone appears further down the list to the point in which it segues from video to non-video with both its YouTube channel and its website. This may not be difficult to follow.
There is more for me to mention.
The motivation for Kyle Kulinski, I figure, although it is not of particular importance to me to be accurate, is based on his career and money. Kulinski is now with Krystal Ball, a multimillionaire, past congressional nominee, and former MSNBC anchor, with their program. So, his Secular Talk may as well be considered a video diary. Produced and published however often. No real credible—certainly not a compelling—reason why it should continue to exist.
Due to my personal loss, a few months ago, I wasn’t paying much attention during the first half of 2021 to Kulinski. I did come across, wherever else it was exactly, numerous comments by people who mentioned they unsubscribed within the last six months or a year or two years from Secular Talk. (This reminded me of my exit from The Young Turks, after 2016, well before their very recent, undeniable unmasking.)
I owe a thank-you to Franco of Franc Anaylsis. He alerted me in a way that moved me necessarily. In his [below] video about Kulinski and Ball recently hosting an unsavory guest, one who is generally unfamiliar to me and who goes by the name Vaush, Franco—who has other recommendations of worthy content creators—summed up what has become of Secular Talk: “…Kyle Kulinski’s entire channel is just confirmation-bias porn. Like, I get just as much information reading Kyle Kulinski’s thumbnails as I do if I watch his videos. It’s a huge waste of time for me.…”
I will conclude with the following: If anyone comes across and wants to post videos from those who are no longer recommended, I will not object. I do not want to run Progressives Chat in a way which would suggest to readers I am telling anyone what he or she may or may not post in the comments. I will, of course, maintain control of “Recommendations.”
Former Alaska U.S. senator and presidential candidate Mike Gravel died last Saturday, June 26, 2021.
He was 91.
Gravel, the last Democratic U.S. senator elected beyond one term from Alaska—with elections in 1968 and 1974—was a gutsy politician.
This month marks the 50th anniversary of Daniel Ellsberg’s The Pentagon Papers. Gravel had the courage to read them into the public record on June 29, 1971.
Gravel was a 2008 Democratic candidate for U.S. President. He seeked the nomination again, for 2020, as he was nearing age 90, in 2019.
Below are April and June 2019 videos of the host of The Jimmy Dore Show interviewing Mike Gravel.
May he…Rest In Peace.
Last week was dominated by reaction to The Young Turks’s smears against The Grayzone journalist Aaron Maté.
No one gave a better video response to TYT—to Cenk Uygur and Ana Kasparian—than Jimmy Dore. And I know Progressives Chat readers are informed.
This is my response.
I started watching The Young Turks circa 2007. And I followed, pretty much, for ten years. Or, I could say ten consecutive years. That changed in 2016.
In July 2016, WikiLeaks reported the DNC E-mails which revealed the corruption inside not only the Democratic National Committee—that they rigged that year’s presidential nomination for Hillary Clinton and against Bernie Sanders—but other details for how the Democratic Party is throughly corrupt.
I knew, from there, that I would reject the Democratic Party in the general election.
Circa August 2016, Cenk Uygur announced on a TYT livestream he would vote in the general election for Hillary Clinton.
I did not care about any of his reasons. I just figured, Here comes the typical bullshit about people who claim to be progressives—and who were adamant that the nomination should go to Bernie Sanders—who, bottom line, will vote for the Democrats anyway. (Even after the reveal of their corruption.)
When the nomination was rigged against Bernie Sanders, it was also rigged against every participating primary and caucus voter who voted that 2016 Democratic presidential nomination to Bernie Sanders.
This turned off from The Young Turks.
I did not tune in again, for any considerable period, until Election Night on November 8, 2016. But, I wasn’t tuned in only to coverage from TYT. I went back and forth between network and cable news programmers. Sometimes they don’t call a given state in unison. So, I would go back and forth. I did not have much focus on TYT. It was after Election Night that I was able to pick up, from what others uploaded to YouTube, how TYT handled Election Night.
I later learned that TYT went from Bernie Sanders to propping up Hillary Clinton—which meant shilling for the Democratic Party—after I had pretty much left. Election Night made my departure permanent.
In the last four consecutive years of 2017 to 2020, I was able to come across updates which informed me of what has become of TYT. So, what happened most recently—Ana Kasparian deliberately and falsely stating that Aaron Maté is paid by Syria—does not come as much to a surprise, or does it disgust me, as it has with others. For me, it served as full confirmation that TYT are Enemies of True Progressives. (Recommended reading: The Ideological Failure Of The Young Turks.)
This confirms, just in case there was doubt, that The Young Turks are frauds. Since 2016, the masks have been coming off the faces of people who pretend they are allies of those who are truly on the left and want policies such as Medicare for All and Free College Tuition (with Student Loan Forgiveness).
It became apparent to me, with bottom-line Democrats like Thom Hartmann and David Pakman (both of whom I tuned out after they smeared 2012 and 2016 Green Party presidential nominee Jill Stein), that they are not to be trusted. The Young Turks have, in recent times, been joined by the likes of The Rational National’s David Doel, The Humanist Report’s Mike Figueredo, TBTV’s Tim Black and—no surprise!— Majority Report’s Sam Seder (who I never liked and/or trusted) as well as Nomiki Konst (who appeared on Seder’s program to deliver a McCarthyite-like attack against Jimmy Dore).
“Force the Vote,” as offered last December by Jimmy Dore, and which came before from the Democratic Socialists of America, suggested the so-called progressives of the Democratic U.S. House—among them are New York’s Alexandria Ocasio–Cortez, Minnesota’s Ilhan Omar, Michigan’s Rashid Talib, Massachusetts’s Ayanna Pressley, Missouri’s Cori Bush, Washington’s Pramila Jayapal, California’s Ro Khanna, New York’s Jamal Bowman, and Wisconsin’s Mark Pocan—have leverage. The 2020 U.S. House Democrats retained their majority with 222 seats. 218 is outright majority. California’s Nancy Pelosi faced election for re-election as speaker of the House. Those nine members (and possibly more) could have used their leverage to inform Pelosi they will withhold their votes for re-electing her speaker if she does not, at the least, bring to the floor a vote on Medicare for All. Despite saying they want Medicare for All, they refused to use their leverage and easily voted for re-electing Pelosi. This is why they are the “Fraud Squad.”
The people who were blasting the approach of “Force the Vote” were taking off their masks. They were showing us, no matter how they attempt to explain away their so-called reasons, they oppose Medicare for All. They were telling us, from each of their positions, their true intention is to continue to string along people (and/or viewers) who trust and follow them. And, when it comes to the bottom line for them, they are focused on themselves for both their money and career. This was most telling with the source many thought were the leaders for actual progressives: The Young Turks.
I am pleased Cenk Uygur, Ana Kasparian, and The Young Turks have taken off their masks. That they exposed themselves as an operation for the Democratic Party. The corrupt, corporate Democratic Party Establishment. Uygur accepted $20 million from Hillary Clinton supporter Jeffrey Katzenberg in 2017. What is now seen on The Young Turks is what Cenk Uygur accepting that $20 million has manifest.
