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Poor Judgment Or Good Instincts?
Kristi Noem really loved that puppy murdering story
Kristi and Kristi
Kristi Noem’s story about killing her dog made headlines across America. But it wasn’t news to people who worked on her first book, where the tale made it into a draft of the memoir before the publishing team nixed it.
Then, as now, Noem wanted the story in because it showed a decisive person who was unwilling to be bound by namby-pamby niceties, while others on the team — which included agents, editors and publicists at Hachette Book Group’s prestige Twelve imprint, and a ghostwriter — saw it as a bad-taste anecdote that would hurt her brand. The tale was ultimately cut, according to two people involved with the project…
It’s been a busy week for that communications team, and not just for Cricket-related reasons. The book’s fact-checking has also been called into question: Last week, the Dakota Scout reported on a passage of the book in which Noem claims to have met the dictator of North Korea while she was serving as a backbencher in Congress. The improbable meeting never happened.
That first book did very well, setting her up as a national figure. Now she has a different team and a new right wing imprint. Apparently, they agreed with her assessment that dog-killing is an awesome way to demonstrate blood-thirsty Trumpism — and Trumpian lies — and they let her freak flag fly.
She has said that there will be corrections, implying that she knew nothing about this, but has no explanation as to why she read the book aloud for he audio book and didn’t correct it then.
The author of this piece is a political editor at Politico and he goes in depth into the world of campaign books and it’s pretty gross. You should read it all.
Noem’s new book — which doesn’t officially publish until May 7 — meets that standard: Whatever you think of putting down a dog for attacking a neighbor’s chickens, the decision to keep the story in the book also seems to show a political culture so devoted to shocking establishment nostrums that it fails to recognize how loving dogs is a pretty mainstream piece of American culture. (I wrote an entire book about the lengths Americans will go to for their pets, and found it’s the rare factor in our national life that knows no party.)
And beyond the Cricket story, possibly making up an easily disprovable memory about meeting Kim Jong Un — or else confusing one of the world’s most recognizable tyrants with some random other person — is a quality-control problem altogether different from the usual one in which pols fill books with lame cliches. Newspapers and magazines stand behind the things they put out, but in book-publishing, the veracity of a work is entirely on the writer.
[…]
If I were editing a memoir by some public figure in or out of politics, and it included a story about intentionally killing their dog, I would absolutely include it — it’s a fascinatingly unusual tale, so different from the typical self-aggrandizing autobiographer, one that raises huge questions and reveals something about character. I bet audiences would agree.Of course, thinking of the audience in terms of readers rather than voters is why I’m a writer, not a PR ace.
It remains to be seen if this brouhaha turns the book into a best seller and if it does you can bet the publisher will be happy about it. I assumed that Noem’s political career has been grievously harmed by this and not just because of the book but because of her bizarre media appearances trying to defend it. However, I must admit that I’m not entirely sure about it now. Trump effusively praised her over the weekend and Fox didn’t seem overly concerned. This may just make her more beloved than ever among the MAGA cultists because she’s seen as really sticking it to the libs, especially when she said Biden’s dog should be shot as well. Of course, a lot of MAGAs also love their dogs so who knows?
And there’s also the fact that she’s a woman and GOP women are always trying to walk that line between being hard and remaining feminine. Her Real Housewife of Mar-a-Lago makeover was designed to give her cover for the latter but puppy killing may have veered too far into the “hard” category.
In a normal world, this wouldn’t be a question and my instinct has been to say that she’s toast. But now I’m wondering. Could it make her more popular than ever? It’s actually possible.
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Chilling
Can you see it?
The joke is that Trump’s family finally showed up to support him. Lol.
It’s actually viral marketing for this movie. I think it’s pretty clever.
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RNC Burn Rate
When Trump took over the RNC and purged all the suspected disloyal employees they hire two new lawyers to oversee “election integrity.” That hasn’t worked out so well. Benen writes:
One of the attorneys hired at the RNC was Christina Bobb, who was tapped to serve as the party’s senior counsel for election integrity. It wasn’t long, however, before an unfortunate problem emerged: Bobb was recently indicted for alleged election-related crimes.
The other attorney was longtime Republican lawyer Charlie Spies, who was hired to serve as the RNC’s chief counsel. At least, that was the idea two months ago. NBC News reported over the weekend:
Republican National Committee chief counsel Charlie Spies is parting ways with the party apparatus just months after stepping into the role. He was “pushed out,” according to a source familiar with the move.
After the news was made official, Trump turned to his social media platform to celebrate the developments. “Great news for the Republican Party. RINO lawyer Charlie Spies is out as Chief Counsel of the RNC,” the former president wrote, denouncing the experienced Republican lawyer who’d been hired by his own RNC team.
What did this highly experienced GOP lawyer do to deserve such a scathing put down?
NBC News’ report added, for example, that in 2021, Spies publicly contradicted false claims about voting machines switching votes. When asked during a Conservative Political Action Conference panel what he’d do about voting machines switching votes, he pushed back against the false conspiracy theory that has been backed by Trump allies.
“I may get booed off the stage for this, but I have to say that’s simply not true. There is just zero evidence that’s true,” Spies said at the time.
Indeed, a Washington Post report over the weekend noted that the lawyer’s RNC career was cut short, at least in part, because Trump “grew angry about his criticism of the former president’s false claims that the 2020 election was stolen.”
That sort of reality-based commentary is simply not allowed in Trump’s orbit. He said so in his TIME Magazine interview and his VP wannabes have all demonstrated that they must twist themselves into a pretzels on this subject if they want to be considered.
I fully expect Spies to endorse Trump and encourage people to vote for him anyway. These people have no pride.
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A Model For Any Republican Of Character
Republican Former Lt. Governor: I am voting for Joe Biden. He is a decent person. I’m voting for Joe Biden over Donald Trump, who has no moral compass. Does anybody think anything's gonna get done if Donald Trump is the president? I mean, all he's going to do is go on this… pic.twitter.com/2E0QbVvL7q
— Biden-Harris HQ (@BidenHQ) May 7, 2024
Former Georgia Republican Lt. Gov. Geoffrey Duncan endorsed Joe Biden in an op-ed yesterday. An excerpt follows:
It’s disappointing to watch an increasing number of Republicans fall in line behind former president Donald Trump. This includes some of his fiercest detractors, such as U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu and former U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr, who raised eyebrows during a recent interview by vowing to support the “Republican ticket.”
This mentality is dead wrong.
Yes, elections are a binary choice. Yes, serious questions linger about President Biden’s ability to serve until the age of 86. His progressive policies aren’t to conservatives’ liking.
But the GOP will never rebuild until we move on from the Trump era, leaving conservative (but not angry) Republicans like me no choice but to pull the lever for Biden. At the same time, we should work to elect GOP congressional majorities to block his second-term legislative agenda and provide a check and balance.ExploreGeorgia Voter Guide: May 2024
The alternative is another term of Trump, a man who has disqualified himself through his conduct and his character. The headlines are ablaze with his hush-money trial over allegations of improper record-keeping for payments to conceal an affair with an adult-film star.
Most important, Trump fanned the flames of unfounded conspiracy theories that led to the horrific events of Jan. 6, 2021. He refuses to admit he lost the last election and has hinted he might do so again after the next one.
Those holding their nose and falling behind Trump tend to rely on similar arguments. Sometimes it involves, as Barr stated in his CNN interview, the, “duty to pick the person who I think would do the least damage to the country.”
Ironically, having served as his attorney general until December 2020, Barr saw firsthand Trump’s ability to cause damage. Barr’s declaration that the U.S. Justice Department uncovered no evidence of widespread voter fraud that could change the outcome of the 2020 election infuriated his boss and set off a chain of events that ended with Jan. 6.
He notes all the Big Lie conspiracies and arguments against Biden policies. But then he tells a truth that no Republicans seem willing to admit:
I get it. No one likes paying higher taxes, and these protests are unsettling. But the last year of the Trump presidency was hardly a time of tranquillity. His handling of the pandemic was erratic, including at one point musing about consuming disinfectants. His reliance on incendiary phrases such as “when the looting starts, the shooting starts” fueled racial unrest. His infamous march to St. John’s Episcopal Church across the street from the White House, flanked by top aides (including Barr) and brandishing a Bible, further set the nation ablaze.
Trump has shown us who he is. We should believe him. To think he is going to change at the age of 77 is beyond improbable.
He doesn’t mention the utter chaos of the first three years with legal problems, norm busting and corruption and his bizarre foreign policy horrors.
He notes that the election is close and that Trump could win and then addresses the GOP itself:
The healing of the Republican Party cannot begin with Trump as president (and that’s aside from the untold damage that potentially awaits our country). A forthcoming Time magazine cover story lays out in stark terms “the outlines of an imperial presidency that would reshape America and its role in the world.”
Unlike Trump, I’ve belonged to the GOP my entire life. This November, I am voting for a decent person I disagree with on policy over a criminal defendant without a moral compass.
He sees reality. If only more of his fellow Republicans would allow themselves to do the same.
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History’s echoes
This newsletter by Robert Reich spoke to me. I hope he doesn’t mind if I share it with you:
Friends,
My students are graduating at a tremulous time.
The largest campus protest movement of the 21st century. The first criminal trial of a former U.S. president. The most restrictive abortion laws in the nation. Two horrific wars.
All of this coming after a pandemic that claimed the lives of a million Americans. And after the first attack on the U.S. Capitol in history, provoked by the first president who refused to accept electoral defeat.
Perhaps most troubling, the nation is bitterly split. Americans are demonizing those on the other side whom they disagree with. (For two weeks in April, “Civil War,” a dystopian film about a bloody alternative reality where America is at war with itself, topped box office charts, grossing more than $50 million.)
My graduating students are exhausted and anxious.
They are repulsed by the slaughter in Gaza, and angry by the responses of university administrators around the country to the student protesters.
They’re cynical about politics.
They tell me they don’t want to have children and bring them into a world imperiled by conflict and climate change and authoritarianism.
They have lived through mass shootings and culture wars.
They recall a Trump administration spewing hate and bigotry and giving tax cuts to the wealthy, and fear another President Trump who’s even less constrained.
I tell them that the year I graduated from college, in 1968, America also felt tremulous and chaotic. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Bobby Kennedy were assassinated. American cities were burning.
And the Vietnam War was claiming the lives of tens of thousands of young Americans and hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese.
I was appalled at the unnecessary carnage in Vietnam. I was incensed that the first world, white and rich, was randomly killing people in the third world, mostly non-white and poor. As an American, I felt morally complicit.
I was angry at college administrators who summoned police to clear protesters – using teargas, stun guns and mass arrests. The response only added fuel to the flames.
America was deeply split. My graduation speaker urged us to resist the draft and seek refuge in Canada. His words caused parents in the crowd to boo. I saw several engage in fistfights.
The anti-Vietnam war movement became fodder for rightwing politicians like Richard Nixon, demanding “law and order.” The spectacle also appalled many non-college, working-class people who viewed the students as pampered, selfish, anti-American, unpatriotic.
I vividly recall the anti war demonstrations at the 1968 Democratic convention in Chicago, and the brutality of the Chicago police and Illinois national guard – later described by the National Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence as a “police riot”.
As the anti-war protesters chanted “The whole world is watching,” network television conveyed the riotous scene to what seemed like the whole world.
I had spent months working for the anti-war presidential candidate Eugene McCarthy. The convention nominated Hubert Humphrey. That November, America elected Richard Nixon as president.
I wondered whether the nation could sink any lower. How could we survive?
I ask my students to hold on. To use their lives and careers to make America better. To try to heal the world.
History, as it is said, doesn’t repeat itself. It only rhymes.
The mistakes made at one point in time have an eerie way of re-emerging two generations later, as memories fade.
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I’ve noticed that a lot of people get irritated when older folks evoke the Vietnam protests when discussing our current situation. I get it. But there are certain parallels even if we aren’t currently dealing with horrific political assassinations and experiencing 2200 American deaths and almost 12,000 injuries as we did during the the month of May, 1968. Or Kent State — at least not yet.
Reich is right. Each new generation has to do what it can to heal the world. And that’s what they’re trying to do right now.
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Trump’s VP Pageant
Donald Trump whines constantly about not being able to campaign around the country because he’s stuck in a New York courtroom facing trial on felony charges. Court is only convened four days a week and he has his own plane so he could certainly be out every weekend if he chose to. He did hold a couple of rallies last week in Wisconsin and Michigan since court was only in session for three days but on his days off he’s usually playing golf at and angrily tweeting rather than glad-handing the MAGA crowd out on the stump. And he’s holding a lot of fundraisers at his Mar-a-Lago beach club.
This past weekend, rather than heading out to Arizona or even next door to Pennsylvania, Trump was back in Florida regaling 400 wealthy donors at a $40,000 a ticket with an extended whine about his legal problems and the stolen election of 2020, among other MAGA greatest hits. He also said that the Biden administration is “the Gestapo” and called Special Prosecutor Jack Smith a fucking asshole. He was obviously enjoying himself.
The event was wrapped around an annual Republican retreat conveniently held in Palm Beach (the center of the GOP universe now) where his campaign managers and pollsters gave a presentation to the wealthy supporters explaining why Trump is a shoo-in in November. According to the NY Times, the presenters reported that there are really only three swing states, Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, with the others that everyone else usually puts on that list — Arizona, Nevada, Georgia and North Carolina — already in the bag for Trump. They even went so far as to add Minnesota and Virginia as pickups. None of this comports with any known reality in the public polling which currently shows an extremely tight race in the six most important swing states. But this was really a pitch for money so they have to sound optimistic.
Trump’s team also reported that they raised $76 million in April but we’ll have to wait for the FEC reports later to see if that’s correct. Since that would presumably include the $50 million he allegedly raised in one night, it would mean the rest of his fundraising is still pretty anemic. So these big money fundraisers are more important than ever. It’s possible they really have bled their base dry with eight years of constant haranguing for money. (This week they even begged for donations for the $9,000 fines imposed by the judge in his NY criminal trial for breaking the gag order.)
The big event of the weekend was the big money Mar-a-Lago luncheon which brought in a long list of Vice Presidential contenders who Trump paraded before the assembled donors as if it was his Miss Universe pageant. Luckily they were all spared a swimsuit competition but I’m quite sure the group would have been happy to oblige if Trump had demanded it. It seems there is no limit to what they will do to curry favor with their Dear Leader.
Axios reported that Trump called each of them up on the stage one by one:
That comment about Byron Donald and “diversité” is something else.
He also gave a big shout-out to Speaker of the House Mike Johnson who was in attendance, which must have Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene fuming. One wonders if she’s really going to go through with her threat to call for the motion to depose Johnson this week as promised since her leader has praised him so fulsomely. If she had any hope to be on the VP list, her hopes were dashed this weekend. It appears she wasn’t invited.
Five of the hopefuls went on Sunday shows to display their sycophancy skills for the Big Man and we all know how important that is to him. The most stunning performance came from Kristi Noem, Gov of S. Dakota, who had left the luncheon early and didn’t make it up on stage with the others. Still trying to spin her way out of the mess she made with her new book’s tale about shooting her puppy and a blatant lie about meeting North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un it was a disaster.
She later posted that it was all fake news. You can see for yourself it was not.
Meanwhile, S. Carolina Sen. Tim Scott repeatedly refused to say if he would accept the results of the election if Trump lost, insisting that Trump was going to win (one way or another.)
WELKER: Will you commit to accepting the 2024 election results?
TIM SCOTT: At the end of the day, the 47th president will be Donald Trump
WELKER: Wait — yes or no, will you accept the results?
TIM SCOTT: That is my statement pic.twitter.com/3a2OI6wmfV— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) May 5, 2024
The billionaire N. Dakota Gov. Doug Burgham continued to practice his Mike Pence imitation but ended up sounding like Mitt Romney when he took umbrage at the term “wealthy donors”
BURGUM: In 2016, this network and many other challenged the results of the election
TAPPER: We never challenged the results of the election. pic.twitter.com/hLmMGZXXPV— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) May 5, 2024
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio continued his self-abasement crusade by piggy-backing on Trump’s outrageous comments about Democrats wanting to “abort” babies after they’re born and demanding that non-citizens who protest in America be deported.
Marco Rubio on Fox News Sunday invokes Trump's grotesquely misogynist lie about moms in blue states murdering their babies pic.twitter.com/PA1d1JicJy
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) May 5, 2024
Elise Stefanik stridently defended Donald Trump. Of all the groveling wannabes on the Sunday Trump suck-up tour, her defense was probably the most aggressive and he does like that.
Today on @SundayFutures with @MariaBartiromo, House GOP Conference Chair @EliseStefanik spoke about the New York trial of former President Trump.@FoxNews pic.twitter.com/E5pmBvYRFH
— SundayMorningFutures (@SundayFutures) May 5, 2024
I thought Noem was the likely choice until the doggie debacle. Now I think Scott is probably the front runner. He’s got the Penceian adoration act down pat and I think Trump would really enjoy having a Black Senator from South Carolina in that subservient position. Why Scott, an accomplished man and important elected official in his own right, would want to do that is truly mystifying.
Trump really let down his hair at this luncheon obviously feeling very comfortable with the wealthy donors who were there to give him lots of money. In fact, aside from his usual rants about how nobody knows the trouble he’s seen, he couldn’t stop talking about it
The Washington Post reported that in he complained about having to take selfies with donors and said he wouldn’t do it unless they give him more cash. He said that a wedding would get preference over the donors because they were paying more per person. He also “bragged about his golf game extensively, citing tournaments at his own clubs that he ostensibly won” and claimed that Mar-a-Lago is the center of the universe. You might think that these wealthy individuals would be a little bit put off by this inane braggadocio but apparently they love his narcissism and pathological lying as much as the MAGA faithful at his rallies.
Hobnobbing with rich people begging to give him large sums of money must have been a soothing balm to the once and possibly future president. But it couldn’t last. This morning he is back in that dingy, cold courtroom in New York facing criminal charges and he’s being treated like he’s just another citizen no better and no worse. On days like this it must feel as if Mar-a-Lago is a million miles away. Maybe that’s why he closes his eyes and drifts off to sleep during the testimony. He wants to retreat to his fantasy world where he’s more important that everyone in the room and nothing bad can touch him. The gritty reality of having to face accountability for his reckless criminality is just too much for him to bear.
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Contempt Is Trump’s Middle Name
“a direct attack on the rule of law”
Trump as he is.
At the Donald Trump trial in Manhattan, Judge Juan Merchan addresses Trump’s continued violations of the gag order, Harry Litman reports.
Judge addresses Trump directly for contempt motion
— Harry Litman (@harrylitman) May 6, 2024
Find you in contempt again for the 10th time. It appears that 2k fine not serving as a deterrent . therefore, going forward will need to consider a jail sanction
“last thing I want to do is put you in jail. you are the former Pres and possibly the next Pres as well. to put you in jail would disrupt these proceedings. also secret service and others. the magnitude of the decision not lost on me.”
“but at the end of the day I have a job to do. . . your continued violations threaten to disrupt processing and constitute a direct attack on the rule of law. so as much as I don’t want to impose a jail sentence, I want you to understand that I will if necessary and appropriate”
So there it is — next time –> jail. The final warning. It’s in Trump’s hands now.
Trump is in contempt again, Judge says “Going forward, this court will have to consider a jail sentence. The last thing I want to do is put you in jail.” https://t.co/73J7dWAD7B
— Joyce Alene (@JoyceWhiteVance) May 6, 2024
And we’re off.
DA calls Jeffrey McConney, Trump Org controller.
— Harry Litman (@harrylitman) May 6, 2024
Trump as he imagines himself.
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Trump-proofing The Insurrection Act
Good luck with that
My post on Sunday referenced Ross Douthat’s flop-sweaty warning that President Biden should stop campaigning as if he is ahead. But credit the Washington Post Editorial Board’s warning, at least to Democrats in Congress, that while hoping for the best they should plan for the worst.
“Though the emergency powers that the Insurrection Act confers are inherently susceptible to abuse, presidents’ respect for democratic values and constitutional norms has by and large prevented that,” the Board begins. There’s still time to make some tweaks to the Act before January 2025.
Golly jeepers, who might they be referencing between the lines? Just so we’re clear:
Having gone unused since 1992, the Insurrection Act is perhaps obscure to the public today. It deserves more attention, given that there could be a second term for former president Donald Trump, who not only lacks respect for democratic norms but also actively encouraged a mob to descend on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
The law grants a president the power to “take such measures as he considers necessary” to suppress “any insurrection, domestic violence, unlawful combination, or conspiracy.” It does not define those terms. Nor does it require the president to get permission from state leaders. While the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 generally restricts the use of the armed forces in domestic law enforcement, there’s an exception for other acts of Congress, which would cover the Insurrection Act.
Mr. Trump’s associates have reportedly drafted plans to invoke the law on his first day in office, to allow him to deploy the military against civil demonstrations. A partnership of right-wing think tanks, dubbed Project 2025, has drawn up executive orders to do so. Jeffrey Clark, a former Justice Department official who is one of the unnamed co-conspirators in Mr. Trump’s indictment in the federal election interference case, is leading this work. Mr. Trump has openly expressed regret for not using the Insurrection Act during the rioting that followed Black Lives Matter protests in the summer of 2020, bowing to governors who asked him not to send federal troops. “The next time, I’m not waiting,” he said at a November rally.
If we were playing Clue, Jeffrey Clark … in The Heritage Foundation … with the Insurrection Act might be a winning guess. He and John Eastman helped Trump very nearly murder the government on Jan. 6.
A group of national security and legal specialists assembled by the American Law Institute proposed amendments to the Act over a year ago. Specifically (in addition to cleaning up outdated language), that the president cannot invoke the Act unless there is violence that “overwhelms the capacity of federal, state, and local authorities to protect public safety and security.” Troop deployments “would “should not exceed 30 days absent renewed congressional authorization,” but would receive fast-track renewal. The president would have to provide Congress with written justification for invoking the Act within 24 hours “along with a summary of consultations with state authorities.” Also, no provision for judicial review. The Supreme Court has already signaled it would grant the president “significant deference.” Habeas corpus would remain in place.
The Republican-controlled House is unlikely to take up a reform bill before the end of the year, but perhaps there’s an opening for bipartisanship. The best vehicle would be an amendment to the must-pass national defense reauthorization bill, as Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Rep. Jamie B. Raskin (D-Md.) have discussed. It would be wise to modernize this law even if there were no chance of Mr. Trump’s election. Since there is a chance, it seems essential.
Not that the Act should not be modernized, but count me skeptical. What damage might Dictator On Day One do in 30 days? Written justification within 24 hours? What could Congress do if the president simply flouts the requirement? The Board is urging Congress to pass a law to rein in a man who believes he’s untouchable by law and who has survived 70 decades largely unaccountable to it.
The Board believes amending the Insurrection Act is still worth the effort.
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US strategic petroleum policy : New insights from the Research Division
The FRED Blog has used data from the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) to discuss the income-adjusted weight of gasoline prices and the price elasticity of demand for gasoline. Today, we discuss a related topic: the strategic use of petroleum reserves by the US Congress to ease gasoline prices.
The FRED graph above shows data from the EIA about gasoline prices in each of the five “PADDs”—that is, Petroleum Administration for Defense Districts. These districts were drawn during World War II to help ration gasoline. Gasoline is no longer rationed, but the PADDs allow EIA data users to analyze patterns of crude oil and petroleum product movements throughout the nation.
Our graph allows FRED users to note the synchronized movement of gas prices across these districts and the noticeably higher gasoline prices recorded in the West Coast District, which includes Alaska and Hawaii.
A more contemporary element of strategic energy management is the US strategic petroleum reserve (SPR). This reserve is made up of a series of storage sites that hold up to 714 million barrels of oil. Releases from the SPR have been used to ease supply shortages due to natural disasters and disruptions to the global supply of oil. A recent essay by Christopher Neely at the St. Louis Fed briefly explains the history and traditional use of the SPR and explores alternative strategies for it.
For more about this and other research, visit the website of the Research Division of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, which offers an array of economic analysis and expertise provided by our staff.
How this graph wase created: Search FRED for and select “PADD I (East Coast District) All Grades All Formulations Gas Price.” From the “Edit Graph” panel, select the “Add Line” tab to search for the same data series with the following heading: “PADD II (Midwest District).” Repeat that last step for the remaining three data series: “PADD III (Gulf Coast District),” “PADD IV (Rocky Mountain District),” and “PADD V (West Coast District).”
Suggested by Diego Mendez-Carbajo.
Starmer Smashed in Blackburn
The leadership of genocide enthusiast Keir Starmer – who is still supporting arms sales to Israel and the “Israeli right to self-defence”, who still refuses to acknowledge one single Israeli war crime – cost the Labour Party dear in Blackburn in the local elections.
The result means I am very likely to win the parliamentary seat.
The Blackburn Independent Councillors, who resigned from Labour over Gaza and invited me to stand as their parliamentary candidate, were re-elected and took new seats. They did not gain control of the council only because this was an election for just one third of Blackburn with Darwen’s council seats. The council has annual elections by thirds.
The parliamentary seat is no longer contiguous with the council area, with Darwen now excluded. The result inside my parliamentary seat was an even more convincing win for the Independents.
I put Muntazir Patel’s stunning result in Shear Brow and Corporation Park first, because this is where the cover photo of my book “Zionism is Bullshit” was shot.
When I stood against the war criminal Jack Straw in Blackburn in 2005, his Labour/BAE fixer Lord Ahmed Patel ensured I was excluded from the mosques and community events there, so I stood outside in the street on a Friday canvassing. That is the cover shot. Muntazir has now swept the area against Labour.
I am sure we can win. I am going to be very honest. When I accepted the joint offer from the Independent Councillors and the Workers Party of Great Britain to fight the seat, I did not then think we could really win. I accepted on the basis that, if we gave Labour a hard fight in Blackburn, they would be forced to divert resources they could otherwise concentrate on attacking George Galloway in nearby Rochdale.
So my strategy was to help George get re-elected by tying up Labour and by adding to the feeling of a real new working class movement across the North West and elsewhere in England.
I say this without shame.
Under the first past the post system, on average less than 100 seats change hands at a UK parliamentary election. That means in only at most 150 seats are there two candidates who might realistically win. In the other 500 seats there is normally only one candidate likely to win, and the six or so other candidates know they are fighting a losing battle.
So out of about 5,000 candidates in a British parliamentary election, only 800 normally are going to win or to come a close second. Others are standing to advance their arguments and to give voters a choice. Of course few candidates ever admit they do not expect to win.
I now do expect to win. We now know that the revolt against Starmer – accelerated by Gaza, but also by his leading the Labour Party so far to the right they are in all crucial policies indistinguishable from the Tories – is very real.
Starmer is the chosen one of the Establishment, and the media are bigging up his mild gains in the local council elections. But in fact Labour achieved only 35% of the vote nationally in England and Wales, which is one of their worst results and below the average result Labour obtained in national local government and general elections under Corbyn.
I shall be one of a number of candidates standing to give voters a genuine choice of more left wing policies at home and an end to perpetual war and support for Zionism abroad. Those candidates will include Jeremy Corbyn, George Galloway, Andrew Feinstein, Peter Ford, Monty Panesar and others. The informal alliance is growing and bonds are being knit. I hope by election day all voters in England will be offered a left wing, anti-war choice for their vote.
The media and political parties are doing their best to hide the desire for such a choice. But at the English local elections 37% of those who voted, did not vote either Labour or Tory. That is huge. The narrative being spun that those who did not bother to vote are actually enthusiastic Labour or Tory supporters and this will change in a general election with a higher turnout, does not stand up to ten seconds’ serious consideration.
I look forward to having the chance to tell a number of very hard truths in the House of Commons, and to help offer real opposition to the Blue and Red conservative parties. But I need now to take very seriously indeed the role of representing, supporting and improving the lives of all the people of Blackburn. I shall therefore shortly be moving to live full time in the constituency.
I have a lot to give, but also a very great deal to learn from Blackburn people. I approach that with determination and humility.
I judge that the public revulsion at the genocide in Gaza has now made it very difficult for the police to continue to hound me over my support for Palestine, and of course mad Suella Braverman is no longer Home Secretary. Two very brief test visits did not see me arrested again, so I shall now return from exile to run for Parliament. It is a risk I need to take.
When I stood in Blackburn in 2005 against Jack Straw, against the Iraq War and the excesses of the “War on Terror”, many scores of readers of this blog turned up in the town to campaign for me.
We will need you all again, now alongside solid and enthusiastic local support – and this time we are going to win!
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