Jill Stein got a relatively few votes in the 2016 — 1.1% of the total — but she got more than Trump’s margin of victory in the closely fought “Blue Wall” states of Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, which handed Trump the presidency and allowed him to name three Supreme Court justices to solidify right-wing control. Stein and the Green Party are responsible for enabling Republicans to replace the Roe v. Wade abortion standard with the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision, which lets states eliminate women’s right to choose an abortion, even when the mother’s life is at stake. And Stein and the Greens are back to help Trump once again.
“We need to teach Democrats a lesson. They’re trying to mess with us and mess with democracy,” Pete Karas, the Wisconsin Green Party election committee chairman told Politico in October. But Stein and the Greens have learned nothing from the 2016 results. They are back on the ballot in 38 states, including every battleground state except Nevada. Stein is working to attract leftists and Palestinian advocates who are upset with President Joe Biden’s (and Kamala Harris’s) support for Israel in its war in Gaza.
Rep. Alexandria Cortez-Masto (D-NY) is not impressed. “Nobody needs talking points to know Jill Stein hasn’t won so much as a bingo game in the last decade and if you actually give a damn about people, you organize, build power and infrastructure, and win,” Ocasio-Cortez said on X.
As of July 2024, 143 officeholders in the United States were affiliated with the Green Party, the party reported. The party has not had any representation in federal or statewide offices. But they can help Trump get back in the White House.
“If you want power in a third party, start teaching the Green Party or whoever to run for school board and village board, and stop running for president and governor,” Dane County, Wis., Democratic Party Chairwoman Alexia Sabor told Politico.
KATHLEEN CALAVERAS, Houston, Texas
“You have the watches. We have the time.” — captured Taliban fighter (2012)
“Stop fighting unwinnable Asian wars.”—candidate Donald Trump (2016)
The current Biden-Trump flak over blame for the hasty 2021 Afghan withdrawal has roots far deeper than their presidencies. In hindsight, neither was responsible. Both were dealt a bad hand by the Cheney-Bushwackers—and history.
Conquering armies going back to Alexander the Great and Genghis Khan ravaged the country in ancient times. With time on their side, the Afghans waited for the eventual collapse of the invading infidels, then reverted back to their primitive lifestyle.
In modern times, three 19th Century Afghan Wars were waged by the UK to protect the northern flank of India, their “Gem Of The Empire.” The British also exited like the ancient temporary conquerors.
Ignorant of this history, the USSR invaded in 1979 to quell insurgencies affecting their Muslim satellites (ending in “—stan”). The US sent proxy aid to the Northern Alliance, forerunner of the Taliban. After 10 years and over 15,000 Red Army deaths, the Soviets withdrew and the USSR soon collapsed, giving the US temporary bragging rights and victory in the Cold War.
After 9/11, the Bush #43-Cheney wrecking crew, also oblivious to history and relying on dubious intel, temporarily drove out the Taliban and attempted to drag Afghanistan from Old Testament times into the 21st Century. The U.S. spent trillions to pursue a wider war to depose the despot Saddam Hussein, who had no direct role in 9/11, with Operation Iraqi Freedom. This failed modern Crusade resulted in Afghanistan today back under the Taliban Islamic extremists. Was all this worth the cost in money and lives?
“No more Vietnams” was the mantra after the U.S. bid a hasty retreat from another primitive, tribal society in 1975. But with the passage of time people forget, thus the Bush #43-Cheney war propaganda swayed Americans seeking revenge for 9/11 with a Pearl Harbor mentality to kill Muslims, any Muslims, in retribution, the truth be damned.
For a good read on Afghanistan, get “Caravans” by James Michener. This 1963 novel predicts how in the future either the Soviets or Americans will try to modernize Afghanistan. Even a brilliant writer like Michener couldn’t envision that both would try and fail “in what Palestine was like at the time of Jesus.”
Palestine—our next unwinnable Asian war?
ED EINGLER, Sebring, Fla.
Some admire Trump, thinking he’s a “tough-guy” who can control the world’s dictators. How is a tough-guy different from a bully? A bully intimidates timid weaklings, like Kevin McCarthy and Mike Johnson, but easily folds when confronted by real tough-guys. Trump yielded to Putin, publicly, saying he believed Putin over our national security agencies, in Helsinki, July 2018.
Five years ago, October 2019, Trump surrendered to Turkey’s strongman, Erdogan, pulling our troops that were guarding our Kurd allies, who successfully defeated ISIS, from Northern Syria. That left a vacuum for Turkey to ransack the Kurds, and for Russia to move into Syria.
Trump ain’t no tough-guy. He’s a cowardly bully who flatters dictators almost as much as he flatters himself. As President, Kamala Harris will stand up to dictators and bullies with calm, strong stability that restrains our enemies and strengthens confidence in our allies, to maintain world order.
BRUCE JOFFE, Piedmont, Calif.
Raging oceans, apocalyptic hurricanes, blazing forests and collapsing mountains are Her voice. nnWe have a choice.
Shall we continue pumping out Her black blood to use as fossil fuel?
Destroy Her ancient hydraulic system and turn clean water into sewage?
Replace animal husbandry and family farms with factory concentration camps, a.k.a. CAFOs?
Dump toxic waste into the sky, the fragile six-mile cocoon of air surrounding our planet?
Take away a woman’s ownership of her own body?
Take from the poor and give to the rich?
We have a choice.
Dr. KATHLEEN TIGERMAN, Steuben, Wis.
I just saw that another hurricane is heading for Florida. That’s got to be a record number for one year. And they are still digging out from the damage done by Helene. That one hit areas that had never had hurricane damage before, or had much more serious damage than most thought was possible to happen. They were probably better prepared for Helene than ever before, but I’ve seen things Third World countries recover faster from a hurricane. And I don’t think I’ve ever seen hurricanes become so bad, so fast before. But that describes the storms we get now — develop faster, cover more area, and do more damage. I don’t think I need to mention rebuilding cost.
Another thing I see happening now is that these storms are mainly hitting the southern and southeastern states — you know, prime MAGAland territories — the areas where Claimte change is “fake news” because it isn’t happening. To be fair, it was supposed to be more years before these bad storms and more extreme weather conditions were predicted to happen. So their skepticism is understandable, but not justified.
This brings up two interesting questions. Do the people who are now having to deal with the great destruction I see on the broadcasts now still think Climate Change is fake news? And is it just a coincidence that the worst of these weather-caused disasters are mainly taking place in MAGAland states? Think about it.
JOHN G. RUFF, Logan, Kansas
Editor Notes: Remember, extreme weather hits the climate aware as well as climate deniers.
I have a physical impairment for which I use a walker. Recently a friend drove me to a USPS post office. Both of us nearly tripped over an old torn floor mat in the post office. A postal patron who overheard me said he was glad I spoke out, since he had sustained injuries when he tripped over the same old torn floor mat for which he had filed a lawsuit against the Postal Service. The next day, I nearly tripped over an old floor mat in a post office in an adjacent community.
The retention of old and/or torn floor mats in someof the nation’s more than 2,000 post offices may result in substantial costs to taxpayers and the federal government for claims against the federal government that might be avoided by replacing old and/or torn floor mats with appropriate safer floor mats.
EDWARD L. KOVEN, Highland Park, Ill.
In our modernized technological world, with algorithms, nano-second “weaponized instruments” from computers to cell phones and multiple other instruments of facilitation, there is little if any direct connection/awareness in order to identify its utility/users. We are all aware of the multiplicity of products, services and areas of licensing and certification or other identifiers (ex. guns/auto) that have the potential to bring all sorts of harm to people’s lives, including death itself, but none with today’s facilitation of harm. We have failed terribly from the very inception of today’s nano-second technologies and we continue with little deterrence or punitive actions for all its abusers in countless ways.
Absent an immediate and expeditious determination beginning with our politicians to classify the multiple areas of harm to entity or individual and the accompanied punitive measures, financial, incarceration, public exposure/public service for recompense. Without the element of “fear to one’s pocket or reputation” absolutely nothing shall change, nor begin to thwart the deviousness in the utility of this technology, and shall assuredly fulfill its AI creator’s purported demise of civilization. Misinformation is now threatening the status of what actual weapons (guns/violence) now do overwhelmingly.
Disgusted nonagenarian (2024).
FRANK ROHRIG, Milford, Conn.
From The Progressive Populist, November 15, 2024
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