‘Hard Lens Media’ Is Now ‘HLM’

An excellent, progressive source—and listed in “Recommendations”—had been Hard Lens Media.

On June 30, 2020, Hard Lens Media announced it would launch a new channel, HLM. (This has already happened. But, I had other blog topics that delayed my having posted this as a topic.)

Turns out—and this will likely not surprise Progressives Chat readers—YouTube was discrediting Hard Lens Media, as it has other progressive channels, with use of its algorithm.

Since Google owns YouTube, and it owns Blogger, which is what I use for this blog site (and I do question whether I should move Progressives Chat), there is a big problem with censorship coming from this corporation.

I will include recent videos from Hard Lens Media-turned-HLM.

I have also updated the “Recommendations” list to include both Hard Lens Media and HLM.

Hard Lens Media was co-founded by Daniel Luepker and Kit Cabello, both from Chicago, Illinois. Luepker was a member of Wolf–PAC Illinois. He is CEO and COO. Cabello, who served two tours as a marine in Iraq, during Operation Iraqi Freedom, later graduated cum laude at Northeastern Illinois University. He is Communications Director.

Happy 55th Birthday, Jimmy Dore!

The comedian and political commentator Jimmy Dore turns 55 on July 26, 2020.

Here are some videos with the past few years of The Jimmy Dore Show:

I Will Not Vote for the 2020 Green Party

In 2016, I voted for Green Party nominee Jill Stein in the United States presidential election.

Here in 2020, and with the presumptive nomination for Howie Hawkins, a co-founder of his political party, I will not vote in the general election for the Green Party.

(The Green Party’s 2020 convention was originally scheduled for July 9–12, at Wayne State University, in Detroit, Michigan. Due to COVID–19, it was changed to an online convention.)

It came to my attention, earlier this year, that Hawkins has engaged in Russiagate. That is unacceptable just on that count. I have since come across more information, with regard for catapulting Howie Hawkins to nomination, which leads me to conclude I should not give my vote to Hawkins and the Green Party.

This is not a good feeling. I would like to vote for this party beyond 2016. Its nominees, since 1996, were: Ralph Nader, of Connecticut, in 1996 and 2000; David Cobb, of Texas, in 2004; Cynthia McKinney, of Georgia, in 2008; and Jill Stein, of Massachusetts, in 2012 and 2016. But, this likely 2020 nomination for Howie Hawkins, of New York, does not feel good.

I will include some videos which helped inform my decision. (MCSC Network’s videos of Niko House was published to YouTube on April 15 and June 3. Primo Nutmeg’s separate video interviews with Leader of the Workers Party of Britain George Galloway, Jimmy Dore, and Ben Norton were published to YouTube on July 5, 10, and 11.)

John Lewis (1940–2020)

Civil rights leader John Lewis died Friday, July 17, 2020, at age 80.

The Democratic congressman, from Georgia’s 5th Congressional District, which includes Atlanta, was suffering from Stage 4 cancer.

An outpouring of salutes and appreciations came in for Lewis. Understandably so. And I have nothing negative to say about the work he did in fighting for civil rights, his marching with the reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968).

I will not put John Lewis on a pedestal.

It comes from Lewis having collaborated with the corporate Democratic Congressional Black Caucus PAC for a press conference on February 11, 2016.

This was two days after Bernie Sanders defeated Hillary Clinton, by +22 percentage points, with winning the 2016 New Hampshire Democratic presidential primary.

John Lewis cast aspersions on Sanders, who also marched with Dr. King, by saying “I never saw him[Sanders].” Lewis then said he saw Bill and Hillary Clinton.

This was a lie.

And I knew, with that egregious example, Lewis had definitely sold out.

John Lewis not only propped up but also endorsed nomination for Hillary Clinton.

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was signed by 36th president of the United States Lyndon Johnson on July 2, 1964. While that was going on, Hillary Clinton, born in 1947, was for Barry Goldwater, the losing Republican challenger in the 1964 United States presidential election. Goldwater, at which time a U.S. senator from Arizona, opposed the Civil Rights Act. He voted against it. Goldwater, who eventually become more favorable to equal rights by championing the 1981 nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court for Sandra Day O’Connor, lost that 1964 election in a massive landslide. Goldwater carried only six states: Arizona and southern states Alabama Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, and South Carolina. Goldwater lost so badly that 25 of the 26 states that backed 1960 Republican losing nominee Richard Nixon switched to the 1964 Democratic side to elect Johnson to a full term. (This includes Bernie Sanders’s home state Vermont. From the Republicans’ first presidential nominee in 1856 through 1988, Vermont carried Republican in all elections except with saying no to Barry Goldwater and yes to Democratic incumbent Lyndon Johnson in 1964.)

Lewis became an absolute politician. He was first elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1986. He succeeded Wyche Fowler, who was elected in that year’s midterm elections to the U.S. Senate.

Being an absolute politician—and a corrupt one at that—is what John Lewis was doing when he backed Hillary Clinton over Bernie Sanders in 2016. By doing that, he was screwing over especially his black constituents knowing that Hillary’s husband Bill, while he was in office as the nation’s 42nd president, created and delivered policies harmful to black citizens.

A true party man, John Lewis also became a Russiagater. After the United States presidential election of 2016, Lewis said of Republican presidential pickup winner Donald Trump, “I don’t see this President-Elect as a legitimate president. I think Russians participated in helping this man get elected. And they helped destroy the candidacy of Hillary Clinton.”

Black Agenda Report labels sold-out, much-trusted members of the Congressional Black Caucus—that faction as well as the Congressional Black Caucus PAC—as The Black Misleadership Class.

Black Agenda Report is a publication which has done—and continues to do—its research, to go along with its observations, and it regularly comes through with enlightening analyses and criticisms. Here are two recommended pieces over the last decade: The Black Misleadership Class Needs Unmasking and The Indecency of the Black Misleadership Class.

Black Agenda Report is not allowing the image—what has been made of it—of noble warriors-turned-corporate politicians’ pretty and heroic packaging to distract from reality. Neither will I.

John Lewis deserves respect for his involvement in civil rights.

No denial.

Respect, for that reason, is granted.

John Lewis, however, should not be excused for having sold out.

I do not, and I will not, mourn his death.


(Note: The next blog topic will publish Thursday, July 23, 2020, at 06:00 a.m. ET.)

Glen Ford: ‘Don’t Let the Democratic Party Bury the Movement’ … ‘Democrats Will Never Choose Transformative Change…’

While “On Break,” this excellent piece, by Glen Ford, was published to Black Agenda Report.

Don’t Let the Democratic Party Bury the Movement

This piece, also by Black Agenda Report’s Glen Ford, was published Thursday [July 16].

Democrats Will Never Choose Transformative Change—So Give Them No Choice

More Excellence from ‘Unapologetic’

The blog topic from this past Sunday [July 12] included four videos published recently to YouTube by Unapologetic.

Well, since that blog topic, there have been more excellent video commentaries just this week by Unapologetic.

I highly recommend them—and Unapologetic.

‘Unapologetic’ with ‘Skepticism’ for ‘Good Progressives’

Two wonderful videos were published to YouTube, on June 25 and July 1, 2020, by Unapologetic.

They appear above.

This general-election period—well, for those people following politics who have their minds in that mode—is one in which I anticipate plenty of Good Progressives will remind us who they truly are.

I am referring to celebrity and/or professional Good Progressives who talk a great game, outside the period of a general election, about how we need change—and how we need better representation particularly from the Democratic Party. But, after the Democratic Party Establishment screws actual progressives, as they routinely do, most especially in primaries, some of these Good Progressives still get in line—and some of them urge their listeners to follow.

To write I feel “Skepticism”—as part of this blog topic’s title—is putting it mildly. I used that word because I consider however many of those to whom I have been exposed over the last several years. Some of them are genuine. But, some of them—especially when Election Time is around the corner or has arrived—tell me who they truly are: frauds.

As we move further along, here in 2020, and we are now in the second half of the year, I anticipate an even greater number of Good Progressives talking up how it is important to prevent Republican incumbent U.S. president Donald Trump from winning a second term. (Just as they talked that up, prior to his winning a first term, in 2016.)

The thing with me is: I have never lost sleep over Trump being president. (Part of the reason: the White House party switches, more often times with every eight years, as does the Congress in one or both midterm elections following a Republican or Democratic presidential pickup year.) And possibly unseating Trump, here in 2020, is not a priority for me. It’s not a priority with me, especially with the surrender-your-mind message “Vote Blue No Matter Who,” and not with the previous U.S. vice president who is typical party-line corporatist Joe Biden.

There is good reason for this. 

I have come to recognize—and I have noted it here, yes, but also observed it even before this blog site launched in 2017—that the following is true. 

“The No. 1 enemy of true progressives are not conservatives and/or the Republican Party. The No. 1 enemy of true progressives are the corrupt, corporate, Democratic Party Establishment.”

The “Good Progressives”—who spoke during primary season about how awful is Joe Biden; and now that he is the 2020 presumptive Democratic presidential nominee; and that the general-election period will continue to gain steam as the calendar keeps moving—will once again reveal themselves.

A good example of who is further revealing himself is David Pakman. After the above two videos, Unapologetic published to YouTube, on July 8 and July 9, more content turning focus to Pakman. It’s interesting. And this is where I will conclude this blog topic. (The next one will be published Wednesday, July 15 followed by a third on Friday, July 17. Both at 06:00 a.m. ET. Yes—there will be three, not two, blog topics for this week.)

On Break: Week #02

On Wednesday, July 1, 2020, I changed this blog site’s description.

It reads:

“Progressives are not Democrats.”

This is a quote, from perhaps one or two years ago, by Jamarl Thomas.

He was making a good point.

I am, at this point, past that progressive specifically named Bernie Sanders. And I don’t feel, here in July 2020, with his sheepherding progressives into voting in the general election for presumed nominee and corrupt corporatist Joe Biden, and overall for the Democratic Party, that the former description should continue.

Progressives Chat is for people who are actual progressives.

Not Democrats.

Not Team Blue.

Not “Vote Blue No Matter Who.”

Progressives.

✭ ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭

I will return with a new blog topic on Sunday, July 12, 2020.

It will get published at 06:00 a.m. ET.

With that return, Progressives Chat will return to twice-a-week blog topics.

In the meantime, feel free to post comments.