The Meanness Surrounding Us*

He Didn’t Have the Decency

He Didn’t Have the Decency Trump didn’t have the decency to wait until Memorial Day was over before resuming attacks against Iran, with which the US was supposed to be negotiating a peace deal. According to one report I’ve heard, the hawks in his administration, and perhaps in Congress, “got” to Trump and began another escalation in this war of aggression. Who knows at this juncture, as those of us who are concerned about issues of war and peace are left mostly out of breath these days. Was it the issue of nuclear fuel enrichment? Was it the opening of the Strait of Hormuz? Who knows? Was it the demand of Netanyahu to keep the war, one of his many wars, rolling? Were Trump’s big donors upset with him because he had deviated somewhat from their edicts? Oil prices are already on the rise once again. It’s as if the lunatics have been given free rein to not only run the asylum, but also take up key posts in the government in Washington, DC. Here’s a guy with his hand within reach of the so-called nuclear codes whose behavior and policies are frighteningly chaotic! Thank you for subscribing. Share this episode [https://howielisnoff2024.substack.com/p/he-didnt-have-the-decency?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=podcast&utm_content=share&action=share&token=eyJ1c2VyX2lkIjoxNDkyMTQyMTEsInBvc3RfaWQiOjE5OTMxODUwOSwiaWF0IjoxNzgxMTMwMzYzLCJleHAiOjE3ODM3MjIzNjMsImlzcyI6InB1Yi0yMzcyNzQ1Iiwic3ViIjoicG9zdC1yZWFjdGlvbiJ9.hXFxF8wnZ902MXQBA1vyFwc9xZF-FAvbZEBgLdnQwPc&utm_campaign=CTA_3].

Democratic Party’s Autopsy 2024

Democratic Party’s Autopsy 2024 The leadership of the Democratic Party has finally released its so-called autopsy of the 2024 presidential election. They didn’t want to release this devastating loss to you-know-who, who has done you-know-what to this nation, its people, and the world. So, how did this debacle take place? The Democratic Party, much like the Republican Party, has long since lost its interest in supporting its people, the people of the US. You and me, to differing degrees. They, the Democrats, once the champions of the New Deal and the Great Society, became the party doing the bidding of the corporate elite and the military-industrial-investment complex. The Democrats would present a prettier face to the public every four years, but wars, corporate bailouts, weak environmentalism, and support for the very wealthy. The results of deindustrialization are obvious with masses of former manufacturing sites in the US abandoned to low-wage countries. All of this happened while hegemony over the globe increased, usually through trade agreements and a military presence in the form of US military bases. Then came the 2024 presidential election. Joe Biden was a Republican president in most ways. He claimed to be a Zionist, which meant expensive and destructive support for Israel. He was a preeminent supporter of tough crime bills that put masses of people in jail. Income inequality was as apparent during Biden’s term as it was before him. Then came Kamala Harris, a weak candidate. Whether or not presidents generally select weak running mates is beside the point. In a society that is biased against women at the presidential level, Harris, who seemed not to be able to articulate a coherent agenda against Trump, was at an immediate disadvantage following Biden’s rejection by Democratic donors and Democratic leaders. The Trump administration cornered Harris on her position on transgender issues and used that strategy to the hilt. It was sort of like George H.W. Bush’s attack against Michael Dukakis on crime. Much of the electorate in the US is not sophisticated in terms of manipulation, and the Republicans have been playing that card for years and then stiffing a segment of their supporters. Look at the cost of fossil fuels, housing, and food today, and people have to wonder. Look at these costly and destructive wars with $1.5 trillion, in addition to billions spent on the Iran war, which is hurting us all and is illegal as a war of aggression. I watched an interview with Kamala Harris sometime late in the summer of 2024, and when asked how she was different from Joe Biden, she gave a foolish response that she was obviously not Joe Biden. What else is new? This is the New York Times’ summary of major points in the Democrats so-called presidential campaign autopsy. [https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/21/us/politics/dnc-election-autopsy-report-takeaways.html?campaign_id=190&emc=edit_ufn_20260521&instance_id=175983&nl=from-the-times®i_id=56683561&segment_id=220278&user_id=2f8afc17affeb65af74cb1508d8eb7ae] Read it and weep, but don’t be surprised, as this has been going on for decades! Thank you for subscribing. Share this episode [https://howielisnoff2024.substack.com/p/democratic-partys-autopsy-2024?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=podcast&utm_content=share&action=share&token=eyJ1c2VyX2lkIjoxNDkyMTQyMTEsInBvc3RfaWQiOjE5ODc4NzE4NCwiaWF0IjoxNzgxMTMwMzYzLCJleHAiOjE3ODM3MjIzNjMsImlzcyI6InB1Yi0yMzcyNzQ1Iiwic3ViIjoicG9zdC1yZWFjdGlvbiJ9.jY0pJqQc_LNdVM8zPib7lo5Un5SH_ctL9lnoHG8s3_4&utm_campaign=CTA_3].

Radicals Then: Professionals Now

What the fuck, Howie? You’re talking, writing about something about which you do not know. If you haven’t read Dangerous, Dirty, Violent, and Young: A Fugitive Family in the Revolutionary Underground by Zayd Ayers Dohrn [https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/19/books/review/dangerous-dirty-violent-and-young-zayd-ayers-dohrn.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share], then why the hell are you talking about it? Well, it’s careerism that I want to address arising from the revolutionary movements of the late 1960s and early 1970s. That the author’s parents went on to become professionals at what is regarded in US society as the highest pinnacle of success, low-level gatekeepers in this nation, is of interest to me. True, they risked jail sentences that could have put them away for life, or close to life sentences, but like others in the radical movement of that era, they went on to rise to high levels of professional life. Only because of prosecutorial incompetence did some on the political, economic, and social left miss being thrown into the dungeons of the prison system of the US that seems to have a penchant for locking up lots of people of color. Indeed, life is good here: radical in one epoch: professionals in another. None became the so-called experts that some love to adore. One of those so-called experts became a pal of sorts with Jeffrey Epstein. Interesting! Some did not fare as well, but notice that those folks either became silent, or near silent, or just faded away. I often wonder what it was like to be at the top of an era of protest and to sink into relative oblivion later in life? Recently, I completed a search of what former radicals had to say about the Israeli-US war in Iran, a war of aggression no matter what is thought about the radical fundamentalist regime in Iran. They are in a sovereign nation, so to speak, and I could hardly find a serious word about the war. There were a few statements, but how do those who spoke out and acted against the Vietnam War, and the expanded war in Southeast Asia, fall silent? Perhaps the media as it exists now doesn’t give a shit anymore about what old radicals have to say? In July 1971, I drove from Connecticut to Ontario, Canada, with a group of friends to visit an expat, a family friend, who was in the process of building a house there. Of the four friends, two, including my best friend at the time, went on to become careerists, one other friend became a mental health worker, and I worked in public education for most of my working life. I never wanted to become any kind of gatekeeper, but rather, only support myself and my family. I was able to speak out and remain a critic of this society, as is witnessed in the series of my published writings that I am now gathering into a series of books: Writing on the Left for a Better World. Thank you for subscribing. Share this episode [https://howielisnoff2024.substack.com/p/radicals-then-professionals-now?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=podcast&utm_content=share&action=share&token=eyJ1c2VyX2lkIjoxNDkyMTQyMTEsInBvc3RfaWQiOjE5ODY4MjMzNCwiaWF0IjoxNzgxMDczNDEzLCJleHAiOjE3ODM2NjU0MTMsImlzcyI6InB1Yi0yMzcyNzQ1Iiwic3ViIjoicG9zdC1yZWFjdGlvbiJ9.ChQKaDgU3Nnu1FPtjP46G-6G1boRofTzPSye0eBrL74&utm_campaign=CTA_3].

Democracy Is Not Coming to the USA

Democracy Is Not Coming to the USA Despite Leonard Cohen’s optimistic pronouncement in song, to anyone paying attention, the founding that was a republican form of democracy in the US is just about gone. For the power elite and their subservient sycophants, democracy never mattered. In the past quarter century, there was a somewhat weakly held premise that the elite wanted a less vicious face at the head of government than we have today. But the elite really never cared about the riffraff among us, and the working class and segments of the middle class were jettisoned to the gods of income inequality, bald-face hate, war, and a general decline in the so-called quality of life in which issues like the environment mattered. Now, we’re up to our necks in the gathering flood and prospects of getting out of this are similar to those faced in the early morning hours of April 15, 1912 on the Titanic. There will be no one to save most who are left on board. Since the Trump presidency, and especially during his second disastrous term in office, the Supreme Court has acted to nullify the remaining access to the ballot for many. They allow for the gerrymandering of states while gutting the 1965 voting rights law. The Congress means nothing at all. War powers? They, the Congress, could care less! While Trump issues executive order after executive order, immigrants are rounded up by ICE, many who are legal immigrants, in a nod to the hate that occupies his base. Others who can still speak out are marginalized, while both genocide and wars rage. Now, he’s on his way to destroying the sovereignty of Cuba, as he did in Venezuela. Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, Syria, and Iran are all marked nations. The response to the September 11, 2001 terror attacks turned into endless wars. The supremacy that flourishes in Israel is a reflection of the supremacy that existed in the US during the worst epoch of segregation and slavery. The 2026 Congressional election is being fixed, just as some sports events once were. The ruling class is ready to bring the curtain down in the US. Thank you for subscribing. Share this episode [https://howielisnoff2024.substack.com/p/democracy-is-not-coming-to-the-usa?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=podcast&utm_content=share&action=share&token=eyJ1c2VyX2lkIjoxNDkyMTQyMTEsInBvc3RfaWQiOjE5ODQxMTkwNSwiaWF0IjoxNzgxMTAyOTU1LCJleHAiOjE3ODM2OTQ5NTUsImlzcyI6InB1Yi0yMzcyNzQ1Iiwic3ViIjoicG9zdC1yZWFjdGlvbiJ9.XNU5Ra_YhTm7HC1Pw2Ui--Ru4p99MvNsBfumkEZCHv0&utm_campaign=CTA_3].

The Meanness Surrounding Us*

The Meanness Surrounding Us *Please read this version of this commentary piece which includes additional comments about military spending not contained in the podcast. The Internet has long since become a focal point where vicious points of view are expressed with abandon. This was once not the case, and I don’t know if the atomizing of US society has contributed to this loss of regard, especially a regard for strangers. Not having to face someone a person is mean toward may be a factor in this loosening of social bonds? Two recent incidents have reinforced this belief. A few days ago, an Internet attack dog was victorious in being written into an office in the government of the town where I live. His sentiments, attacks, against others he cannot possibly know, were so virulent that the online administrator of a site that provided local information and discussion removed him from its membership. He’s a dyed-in-the-wool right-winger foaming at the mouth with petulance against others with whom he disagrees. Now he will occupy an official place on the town’s government. The latter is curious, as the town is made up of lots of those who have migrated here from the greater New York metropolitan area and hold, at least seemingly, liberal beliefs. There are a few people who will vote for the Green Party candidate in a given election, and masses who supported the legalization of recreational marijuana. In other words, there are those who push up against in different ways the gathering right-wing sentiments and actions of some. Unrelated, but interesting, are a group of posts on a Facebook site about a detour on a nearby road that has been the subject of two previous major closures. That road is highly traveled. The road is closed once again because of the crash of a tanker truck that spilled fuel onto neighboring land. I believe at least one person was killed in that crash. The online discourse included the expected mean posts with people castigating others for complaining about the detour that necessitated the cleanup of land near the crash site. Castigating remarks involved insults against people who dared to criticize the current road closure. I often travel that road, and it’s interesting that I’ve experienced a number of bumper hangers who want to push me to exceed the speed limit to reinforce their own need for speed and who knows what else. Infrequently, the bumper hangers become very aggressive. Most reading this are aware of road rage. We live in a highly fractured and atomized society that has been broken for many reasons. A global economy and the loss of the US manufacturing base began the shift. The makeup of the workforce accelerated these trends. The nation solidified its position as a world hegemonic power, although the government has lost war after war, beginning with the Vietnam War. Celebrating wars became cant to many. The Korean War can be viewed as a stalemate. Military spending has eclipsed spending on programs that nurtured many people. The environment, schools, and health care have all suffered. Taxpayers pay for bailouts of the power elite and their coterie, while many can’t afford an emergency bill of $400 or $500. This fiscal year’s military spending began at $1.5 trillion, with the Iran war costing multiples of billions of dollars more. The terror attacks of September 2001 accelerated military spending and tragically led to endless wars. Many see this issue and are moving away from unblinking support for militarism, but the sense of atomization and not being in this together increases. I grew up in a society with much different norms for interacting with others. I recall a time in the near-forgotten past when camaraderie, at least among some, solidarity if you will, was not all that exceptional a value. Now, it’s not just that I’m not my brother’s keeper anymore, it’s I’ll f$%k my brother if I can get away with it. Thank you for subscribing. Share this episode [https://howielisnoff2024.substack.com/p/the-meanness-surrounding-us?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=podcast&utm_content=share&action=share&token=eyJ1c2VyX2lkIjoxNDkyMTQyMTEsInBvc3RfaWQiOjE5NzY4MTI3NSwiaWF0IjoxNzgxMTAyOTU1LCJleHAiOjE3ODM2OTQ5NTUsImlzcyI6InB1Yi0yMzcyNzQ1Iiwic3ViIjoicG9zdC1yZWFjdGlvbiJ9.GRcG0A54XL7PGtzOxj-IDej-hobQKn5gpMKQl2RnRYg&utm_campaign=CTA_3].