Saturday, February 22, 2025

Robert Reich’s Ten Reasons for “Modest Optimism” During the Trump-Vance-Musk Regime

Yesterday author, lawyer, and political commentator Robert Reich shared a piece on his substack that offers “10 reasons for modest optimism” to those “experiencing rage and despair” in response to the actions of President Trump and his “advisor” Elon Musk.

______________

Friends,

If you are experiencing rage and despair about what is happening in America and the world right now because of the Trump-Vance-Musk regime, you are hardly alone. A groundswell of opposition is growing – not as loud and boisterous as the resistance to Trump 1.0, but just as, if not more, committed to ending the scourge.

Here’s a partial summary – 10 reasons for modest optimism.


1. Boycotts are taking hold

Americans are changing shopping habits in a backlash against corporations that have shifted their public policies to align with Trump.

Millions are pledging to halt discretionary spending for 24 hours on February 28 in protest against major retailers – chiefly Amazon, Walmart, and Best Buy – for scaling back diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives in response to Trump.

Four out of 10 Americans have already shifted their spending over the last few months to be more consistent with their moral views, according to the Harris poll. (Far more Democrats – 50 percent – are changing their spending habits compared with Republicans – 41 percent.)

Calls to boycott Tesla apparently are having an effect. After a disappointing 2024, Tesla sales declined further in January. In California, a key market for Tesla, nearly 12 percent fewer Teslas were registered in January 2025 than in January 2024. An analysis by Electrek points to even more trouble for Tesla in Europe, where Tesla sales have dropped in every market.

X users are shifting over to Bluesky at a rapid rate, even as Musk adds more advertisers to his ongoing lawsuit against those that have justifiably boycotted X after he turned it into a cesspool of lies and hate (this week, he added Lego, Nestle, Tyson Foods, and Shell).


2. International resistance is rising

Canada has helped lead the way: A grassroots boycott of American products and tourism is underway there. Prime Minister Trudeau has in effect become a “wartime prime minister” as he stands up to Trump’s bullying.

Jean Chrétien, who served as prime minister of Canada from 1993 to 2003, is urging Canada to join with leaders in Denmark, Panama, and Mexico, as well as with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, to fight back against Trump’s threats.

Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum is standing up to Trump. She has defended not just Mexico but also the sovereignty of Latin American countries Trump has threatened and insulted.

In the wake of JD Vance’s offensive speech at the Munich security conference last week, European democracies are standing together – condemning his speech and making it clear they will support Ukraine and never capitulate to Putin, as Trump has done.


3. Independent and alternative media are growing

Trump and Musk’s “shock and awe” strategy was premised on their control of all major information outlets – not just Fox News and its right-wing imitators but the mainstream corporate media as well.

It hasn’t worked. The New York Times has done sharp and accurate reporting on what’s happening. Even the non-editorial side of The Wall Street Journal has shown some gumption.

The biggest news, though, is the increasing role now being played by independent and alternative media. Subscriptions have surged at Democracy Now, The American Prospect, Americans for Tax Fairness, Economic Policy Institute, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, The Guardian, ProPublica, Labor Notes, The Lever, Popular Information, Heather Cox Richardson’s Letters from an American, and, of course, this and other Substacks.

As a result, although Trump and Musk continue to flood the zone with lies, Americans aren’t as readily falling for their scams.


4. Musk’s popularity is plunging

Elon Musk is underwater in public opinion, according to polls published Wednesday. Surveys by Quinnipiac University and Pew Research Center – coming just after Trump and Musk were interviewed together by Fox News’ Sean Hannity, with Trump calling Musk a “great guy” who “really cares for the country” – show a growing majority of Americans holding an unfavorable view of Musk.

In Pew’s findings, 54 percent report disliking Musk compared to 42 percent with a positive view; 36 percent report a very unfavorable view of Musk. Quinnipiac’s results show 55 percent believe Musk has too big a role in the government.


5. Musk’s Doge is losing credibility

On Monday, DOGE listed government contracts it has canceled, claiming that they amount to some $16 billion in savings – itemized on a new “wall of receipts” on its website. Almost half were attributed to a single $8 billion contract for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency – but that contract was for $8 million, not $8 billion. A larger total savings number published on the site, $55 billion, lacked specific documentation.

In addition, Musk and Trump say tens of millions of “dead people” may be receiving fraudulent Social Security payments from the government. The table Musk shared on social media over the weekend showed about 20 million people in the Social Security Administration’s database over the age of 100 and with no known death.

But as the agency’s inspector general found in 2023, “almost none” of them were receiving payments; most had died before the advent of electronic records. These kinds of rudimentary errors are destroying DOGE’s credibility and causing even more to question allowing Musk’s muskrats unfettered access to personal data on Americans.


6. The federal courts are hitting back

So far, at least 74 lawsuits have been filed by state attorneys general, nonprofits, and unions against the Trump regime. And at least 17 judges – including several appointed by Republicans – already have issued orders blocking or temporarily halting actions by the Trump regime.

The blocking orders include Trump initiatives to restrict birthright citizenship, suspend or cut off domestic and foreign U.S. spending, shrink the federal workforce, oust independent agency heads, and roll back legal protections and medical care for transgender adults and youths. In other cases, the Trump regime has agreed to a pause to give judges time to rule, another way that legal fights are forcing a slowdown.


7. Demonstrations are on the rise

We haven’t seen anything like the January 2017 Women’s March, the day after Trump 1.0 began, but over the past weeks, demonstrations have been increasing across the country. Last Monday, on Presidents Day, demonstrators descended upon state capitol buildings.

In Washington, D.C., thousands gathered at the Capitol Reflecting Pool, chanting “Where is Congress?” and urging members of Congress to “Do your job!” despite nearly 40-degree temperatures and 20-mile-per-hour wind gusts.

The nationwide protests are part of the 50501 Movement, which stands for “50 protests. 50 states. 1 movement.” One of its leaders urged the crowd of protesters in Washington to stand united in order to “uphold the Constitution”:

To oppose tyranny is to stand behind democracy and remind our elected officials that we, the people, are who they’re elected to serve, not themselves. The events over the past month have been built to exhaust us, to break our wills. But we are the American people. We will not break.


I expect that in the coming weeks and months protests will grow larger and louder.

Acts of civil disobedience are also on the rise, as are resignations in protest against the regime. This week, former NFL punter Chris Kluwe was hauled out of a Huntington Beach City Council meeting after speaking out against Trump during public comments against plans to include a MAGA reference in the design of a library plaque.

As cheers erupted from the audience, Kluwe told the council, in words that should be repeated across the land:

MAGA stands for trying to erase trans people from existence. MAGA stands for resegregation and racism. MAGA stands for censorship and book bans. MAGA stands for firing air traffic controllers while planes are crashing. MAGA stands for firing the people overseeing our nuclear arsenal. MAGA stands for firing military veterans and those serving them at the VA, including canceling research on veteran suicide. MAGA stands for cutting funds to education, including for disabled children. MAGA is profoundly corrupt, unmistakably anti-democracy and most importantly, MAGA is explicitly a Nazi movement. You may have replaced a swastika with a red hat, but that is what it is.


When he was done speaking, Kluwe said he would “engage in the time-honored American tradition of peaceful civil disobedience.”


8. Stock and bond markets are trembling

Trump has not lowered prices; in fact, inflation is rising under his control. Trump’s wild talk of 25 percent tariffs is spooking the market. Yesterday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which measures the performance of 30 large-cap U.S. stocks, dropped by more than 1.40 percent. Treasury bonds also dropped after a report showed more U.S. workers applied for unemployment benefits last week than economists expected – an indication the pace of layoffs could be worsening.

The latest University of Michigan survey finds that consumer sentiment plummeted 10 percent in February, largely due to concerns about Trump’s tariffs. Farmers who voted for Trump are nervous about the impact on their livelihoods.

The Fed won’t lower interest rates. Transcripts of the last Fed meeting showed that officials discussed how Trump's proposed tariffs and mass deportations of migrants, as well as strong consumer spending, could push inflation higher this year.

Economic storm clouds like these should be troubling for everyone but especially for a regime that measures its success by stock and bond markets.


9. Trump is overreaching – pretending to be “king” and abandoning Ukraine for Putin

Trump’s threats of annexation, conquest, and “unleashing hell” have been exposed as farcical bluffs – and his displays this week of being “king” and siding with Putin have unleashed a new level of public ridicule.

On Wednesday, following his attempt to kill a new congestion pricing program for Manhattan, Trump wrote on Truth Social: “CONGESTION PRICING IS DEAD. Manhattan, and all of New York, is SAVED. LONG LIVE THE KING!” The White House shared the quote accompanied by a computer-generated image of Trump grinning on a fake Time magazine cover while donning a golden crown.

Negative reaction was swift and overwhelming. Social media has exploded with derision. New York Governor Kathy Hochul said, “We are a nation of laws, not ruled by a king.” Illinois’s Democratic governor, JB Pritzker, said, “My oath is to the Constitution of our state and our nation. We don’t have kings in America, and I won’t bend the knee to one.”

The reaction to Trump’s abandoning Ukraine and siding with Putin has been more devastating, putting congressional Republicans on the defensive. Prominent Republican senators Roger Wicker of Mississippi and John Kennedy of Louisiana criticized Putin. Bill Kristol, a former official in the Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations, noted that “Nato and the U.S. commitment to Europe has kept the European peace for 80 years. It’s foolish and reckless to put that at risk. And for what? To get along with Putin?”


10. The Trump-Vance-Musk “shock and awe” plan is faltering

In all these ways and for all of these reasons, the regime’s efforts to overwhelm us are failing.

Make no mistake: Trump, Vance, and Musk continue to be an indiscriminate wrecking ball that has already caused major destruction and will continue to weaken and isolate America. But their takeover has been slowed.

Their plan was based on doing so much, so fast that the rest of us would give in to negativity and despair. They want a dictatorship built on hopelessness and fear.

That may have been the case initially, but we can take courage from the green shoots of rebellion now appearing across America and the world. As several of you have pointed out, successful resistance movements maintain hope and a positive vision of the future, no matter how dark the present.

More than 55 years ago, I participated in the resistance to the Vietnam War – a resistance that ultimately ended the war and caused a once powerful president to resign. That resistance gave us courage we didn’t even know we had. It changed American culture, inspiring songs such as “The Times They Are A Changing,” and “Blowin’ In The Wind.”

No one person led that anti-war movement. It was an amalgam of groups and leaders spanning more than six years of mobilization and organization, at all levels of society.

The Civil Rights Movement that culminated in the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 required over 18 years of organizing, demonstrating, and mobilizing.

The current coup is less than five weeks old, and resistance has only begun. The Trump-Vance-Musk regime will fail. Even so, the Democracy Movement now emerging will require at least a decade, if not a generation, to rebuild and strengthen what has been destroyed, and to fix the raging inequalities, injustices, and corruption that led so many to vote for Trump for a second time.

Those of you who want the leaders of the Democratic Party to step up and be heard are right, of course. But political parties do not lead. The anti-war movement and the Civil Rights Movement didn’t depend on the Democratic Party for their successes. They depended on a mass mobilization of all of us who accepted the responsibilities of being American.

We will prevail because we are relearning the basic truth — that we are the leaders we’ve been waiting for.

Robert Reich
Ten Reasons for Modest Optimism
RobertReich.substack.com
February 21, 2025


Related Off-site Links:
“Never Meant to Be Ruled by a Dictator or a King”: The DOGE Backlash Hits Trump Districts – Heather Digby Parton (Salon, February 21, 2025).
“Gum Up the Works”: David Sirota’s Advice to Democrats on Reversing Trump’s Power GrabDemocracy Now! (February 21, 2025).
Why Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Message Still Matters in the Second Trump Era – John Hope Bryant (TIME, January 23, 2025).
I Know What Trump Means for Our Planet. I Still Choose Hope – Aaron Regunberg (The New Republic, January 22, 2025).
How to Not Lose It Completely During Trump’s Second Presidency – Rebecca Gordon (The Nation, January 9, 2025).
Hope in the Era of Trump – Douglas Roche (Global Security Institute, December 6, 2024).

UPDATES: We Will Not Accept a Dictatorship or Monarchy: Why Trump’s Support Is Melting – Robert Reich (RobertReich.substack.com, February 23, 2025).
How the Stupid Coup Is Going: Week Five – Rebecca Solnit (Meditations in an Emergency, February 23, 2025).
The Heart’s Response to This Worrisome Hour: Sometimes Love Says No – Marianne Williamson (Transform, February 23, 2025).
Democrats Are MIA – Just When the Country Needs Them to Counter the Trump-Musk Blitzkrieg – David Corn (Mother Jones, February 24, 2025).
If You’re a Democrat Annoyed by Outraged Voters, You Are Doing It Wrong – Norman Solomon (Common Dreams, February 24, 2025).
People Get Ready: Trump’s Reichstag Fire Is Coming – Thom Hartmann (Common Dreams, February 24, 2025).

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
Venice Williams on How We Get Through the Next Four Years
Marisa Kabas: “We’re Witnessing a Coup By an Unelected Billionaire Propped Up By a Felonious President”
Timothy Snyder on Resisting the Oligarchs’ “Logic of Destruction”
“This Is Essentially Viktor Orbán’s Playbook”
“An Extremely Clever Ruse” by and for the Rich: Owen Jones on Elon Musk’s Coup
Quote of the Day – February 21, 2025
Inauguration Day Thoughts
Democrat Talk on the Eve of Trump’s Return
Signs of the Times: The 2025 People’s March
How Empires Are Built and Rebellions Are Born
Neoliberalism vs Neofascism: Cornel West on the State of U.S. Politics
Progressive Perspectives on Where Democrats Went Wrong in the 2024 Election
What the Republican Party Now Stands For
Progressive Perspectives on Kamala Harris’ Faltering Presidential Campaign
Marianne Williamson: “We’re Living in Very Serious Times and We Need to Be Very Serious People”
Chris Hedges on the End of the American Empire
History Matters
Progressive Perspectives on the Crisis in U.S. Electoral Politics
Will We Let Fascism Come to America?


Fighting the Rich and Their Two Parties

Following is the livestream of today’s “Fight the Rich and Their Two Parties” conference in Seattle.

Organized by Workers Strike Back, this “organizing conference” features Kshama Sawant, Jill Stein, Chris Hedges and others.





Related Off-site Links:
Fight the Rich – Kshama Sawant (CounterPunch, January 27, 2025).
Jill Stein and Kshama Sawant on the Fight the Rich Movement – Sabrina Salvati (Sabby Sabs, January 26, 2025).
Bernie Sanders Launches Copycat Tour to Stall Third Parties – Sabrina Salvati (Sabby Sabs, February 15, 2025).
One Month of the Trump Administration: The Oligarchy vs. the Working Class – Statement of the Socialist Equality Party (February 20, 2025).
“Democrats Are Never Coming Back After Genocide Support”: An Interview with Butch Ware – Briahna Joy Gray (Bad Faith, February 4, 2025).
Trump Is Unpopular – and So Are the Do-Nothing Democrats – Jeet Heer (The Nation, February 18, 2025).
Defeating the Democratic Party Elites Is Just the First Step – Joseph Geevarghese (The Nation, February 4, 2025).
Why Are the Democrats So Spineless? – Moira Donegan (The Guardian, February 3, 2025).
“Working People Feel Betrayed by Democratic Elites”: An Interview with Marianne Williamson – Rising (January 15, 2025).
Marianne Williamson on Why Americans are Rejecting the Status QuoNewsNation (December 28, 2024).

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
“The Moment Is Ripe”: Butch Ware on Building a “True Oppositional Alternative” to the Duopoly
“It Is Our Responsibility to Make a Third Party Viable”
Democrat Talk on the Eve of Trump’s Return
The Green Party’s Jill Stein and Butch Ware Give Their First Post-Election Interview
Progressive Perspectives on Where Democrats Went Wrong in the 2024 Election
What the Republican Party Now Stands For
The Lamentable Legacy of the Biden Administration
Jill Stein: “We Give Reasons for People to Come Out and Vote”
We’re Witnessing a Liberal Meltdown Over Jill Stein
Butch Ware: “You Can Actually Vote Your Conscience”
Peter Bloom on the Unmasking of the “Democratic Charade”
The “Green Smoothie” Option
Green Party Vice Presidential Candidate Butch Ware in Minneapolis
When Democrats Undermine Democracy
History Matters
Elise Labott on How Third Parties Can Revitalize Democracy
Something to Think About – August 15, 2024
Centrist/Corporatist Democrats Have Just Launched “Left Punching” Season
“Americans Deserve Choices”: Jill Stein on Breaking Points – 4/30/24
AOC Falls in Line
The Cassandra of U.S. Politics on the “True State of the Union”
Will Democrats Never Learn?
“The Next Step Is a Green Step”: Cornel West Endorses Jill Stein (2016)
Hope Over Fear: Voting Green


Friday, February 21, 2025

Quote of the Day

These two buffoons [Donald Trump and JD Vance] love to cosplay as warriors, champions of testosterone in a world gone soft. But let’s take a look at what they’re actually doing. Trump, a man who dodged the draft because of imaginary bone spurs, is threatening to withhold federal funding from Maine because its governor won’t bow to his demands. And JD Vance, a man who once wrote an entire book about the dangers of sucking up to elites, is now licking Trump’s boots so hard you’d think they were made of chocolate.

Masculinity, real masculinity, is about strength, courage, and integrity. It’s about standing up for what’s right, even when it’s hard. It’s about protecting the vulnerable, not attacking them for political gain. It’s about facing adversity head-on, not throwing a fit when someone tells you “no.”

By that measure, Trump and JD Vance are about as masculine as a wet paper towel.

Trump can puff out his chest and scream at governors all he wants, but at the end of the day, he’s just a blustering coward who folds under the slightest pressure. JD can cry about the decline of masculinity, but no real man spends his days groveling at the feet of a guy who wouldn’t piss on him if he were on fire.

The irony is that the people they’re attacking – women who stand their ground, LGBTQ people fighting for equality – are showing more guts, more resilience, more true strength than either of these pathetic frauds could ever muster.

Trump and JD don’t represent masculinity. They represent the weak, whimpering, flailing desperation of men who know, deep down, that they are frauds. And nothing is more pathetic than a man who has to constantly remind you how strong he is.

Closer to the Edge
Excerpted from “The Bully and the Bootlicker:
Trump, JD Vance, and the Cowardice of Fake Masculinity

February 21, 2025



NEXT:
Robert Reich’s 10 Reasons for “Modest Optimism”
During the Trump-Vance-Musk Regime


See also the related Wild Reed posts:
A Warrior’s Heart
Vulnerability Is Power
A Fresh Take on Masculinity
Manly Love
Rockin’ With Maxwell
Reclaiming the Power of Male Touch
Beloved and Antlered

See also The Wild Reed’s “What a Man!” series:
Ben Cohen | Sean Avery | Hudson Taylor | John Kriesel | Nick Youngquest | Chris Kluwe | Brendon Ayanbadejo | Nick Symmonds | Andrew Ference | Connor Beaton

Related Off-site Link:
The Divine Masculine PrincipleThe Leveret (September 15, 2018).

Image: Kristen Solberg.


Thursday, February 20, 2025

Happy Birthday, Buffy!

Image: Julie Jocsak (2017)


Trail-blazing and influential singer-songwriter Buffy Sainte-Marie turns 84 today.

Happy Birthday, Buffy!

As regulars readers will know, I’ve long admired Buffy Sainte-Marie and enjoyed her music. Indeed, I find her to be a very inspiring figure. (I even chose her song “It’s My Way” as my theme song when I turned 50 in 2015!)


Left: With Buffy after her August 26, 2016 performance at The Dakota in Minneapolis.


I especially appreciate and am inspired by Buffy’s passion and purposefulness – and by the way she blends her art and social activism.

I’ve seen her four times in concert, and had the privilege of meeting her on three of these occasions. She’s creative, articulate, warm, and funny – a very human human being.


Buffy’s most recent album is the award-winning Medicine Songs (2017), about which Buffy says the following.

[Medicine Songs] is a collection of front line songs about unity and resistance – some brand new and some classics – and I want to put them to work. These are songs I’ve been writing for over fifty years, and what troubles people today are still the same damn issues from 30-40-50 years ago: war, oppression, inequity, violence, rankism of all kinds, the pecking order, bullying, racketeering and systemic greed. Some of these songs come from the other side of that: positivity, common sense, romance, equity and enthusiasm for life.

I really want this collection of songs to be like medicine, to be of some help or encouragement, to maybe do some good. Songs can motivate you and advance your own ideas, encourage and support collaborations and be part of making change globally and at home. They do that for me and I hope this album can be positive and provide thoughts and remedies that rock your world and inspire new ideas of your own.



Above: Buffy and guitarist Anthony King performing at the Big Top Chautauqua, Bayfield, WI on Saturday, August 27, 2016. (Photo: Michael J. Bayly)


Buffy was in the news recently after the Canadian government rescinded its appointment of Buffy to the Order of Canada, the country’s most prestigious civilian accolade. Although no specific reason was given for the termination, it seems to be the result of the October 2023 CBC documentary that challenged Buffy’s long-standing claims of Indigenous ancestry. Today’s post isn’t about any of this, in large part because I’ve addressed the fall-out from this documentary previously at The Wild Reed (see, for example, here, here, here, and here). Instead, I celebrate Buffy’s life and work in their totality today, her 84th birthday.

I start this celebration Buffy by sharing the haunting ballad “Must I Go Bound,” the opening track of Buffy’s second album Many a Mile, released in the year of my birth – 1965. It’s followed by excerpts from Andrea Warner’s Buffy Sainte-Marie: the Authorized Biography, published in 2018.







[Buffy] confronted colonialism in her activism and with her music. On her 1965 album, Many a Mile, she covered several British traditional folk songs [including “Must I Go Bound”], but her originals were deeply rooted in her activism and core beliefs, including “Welcome Emigrante” and “The Piney Wood Hills.” She didn’t always get the credit she deserved as a songwriter, but Sainte-Marie was accummulating professional power. She continued to use the spotlight to talk about Indigenous issues and alternative conflict resolution, but she also began to push her sound away from coffee-house acoustic.

. . . [Many a Mile also includes] two glorious covers – Bukka White’s “Fixin’ to Die” and Patrick Sky’s “Many a Mile.” [Buffy] also recorded what would be her own most covered song of all time: “Until It’s Time for You to Go.” It quickly became a pop standard, and was a hit for everyone from the Four Pennies to Neil Diamond to Elvis Presley.

– Andrea Warner
Excerpted from Buffy Sainte-Marie:
The Authorized Biography

Greystone Books Ltd, 2018
p. 92 and p. 278



Related Off-site Links:
Singer-Activist Buffy Sainte-Marie Stripped of Order of Canada, the Country’s Most Prestigious Civilian Honor – Karen Bliss (Variety, February 8, 2025).
Junos Head Says Organization Faces “Complicated” Questions Around Buffy Sainte-Marie’s Awards – David Friend (The Canadian Press via Rocky Mountain Outlook, February 11, 2025).
Longing and Belonging: Birth Certificate of Buffy Sainte-Marie’s Aunt Indicates “Non-White” Ancestry – Brian Halpin (Before We Were White, March 20, 2024).
Buffy Saint-Marie Documentary, Carry It On, Wins International Emmy AwardCBC News (November 20, 2023).
Buffy Sainte-Marie Says CBC Investigation Into Ancestry Includes Fabricated Evidence: “These Allegations Do Not Shake Me” – Christy Piña (The Hollywood Reporter, November 23, 2023).
Buffy Sainte-Marie Pushes Back Against CBC Investigation Contradicting Claims to Indigenous Ancestry – Kelly Geraldine Malone (The Canadian Press, November 23, 2023).
Buffy Sainte-Marie Says CBC Investigation Into Ancestry Includes Fabrications
– Jessica Wang (Entertainment Weekly, November 23, 2023).
“I Have Never Lied”: Buffy Sainte-Marie Pushes Back On Probe Into Indigenous Ancestry – Kelby Vera (The Huffington Post, November 25, 2023).
What’s the Point of “Pretendian” Investigations? – Michelle Cyca (The Walrus, November 20, 2023).
The Problem With Labelling People “Pretendians” – Drew Lafond (The Globe and Mail, May 28, 2022).
Buffy Sainte-Marie May Not Be Native But She Could Be Jewish – Barbara Aiello (The Times of Israel, November 20, 2023).
Discovering Buffy – David Rovics (This Week With David Rovics, November 6, 2023).
Buffy Sainte-Marie’s Adoption by Indigenous People Vital – Doug Cuthand (The Star Pheonix, November 4, 2023).
“Be Gentle With Yourself': Indigenous Northerners Wrestle With Legacy of Buffy Sainte-MarieCBC News (November 1, 2023).
Anishinaabe Singer Says Contested Ancestry of Buffy Sainte-Marie “Doesn’t Take Away the Inspiration”CBC News (October 31, 2023).
Two Indigenous Artists React to the Questions Raised About Buffy Sainte-Marie’s AncestryCBC Arts (October 30, 2023).
Revelations About Buffy Sainte-Marie’s Ancestry Are Having a Devastating Impact on Indigenous Communities Across Canada – Lori Campbell (The Conversation, October 29, 2023).
“We Claim Her, End of Story”: Buffy Sainte-Marie’s Piapot Family Hurt by Allegations – Haley Lewis and Melissa Ridgen (Global News, October 27, 2023).



For The Wild Reed’s special series of posts leading-up to the November 10, 2017 release of Buffy Sainte-Marie’s Medicine Songs, see:
For Acclaimed Songwriter, Activist and Humanitarian Buffy Sainte-Marie, the World is Always Ripening
Buffy Sainte-Marie: “I’m Creative Anywhere”
Buffy Sainte-Marie Headlines SummerStage Festival in NYC’s Central Park
Buffy Sainte-Marie, “One of the Best Performers Out Touring Today”
The Music of Buffy Sainte-Marie: “Uprooting the Sources of Disenfranchisement”
Buffy Sainte-Marie: “Things Do Change and Things Do Get Better”
Buffy Sainte-Marie’s Medicine Songs



For The Wild Reed’s special series of posts leading-up to the May 12, 2015 release of Buffy’s award-winning album, Power in the Blood, see:
Buffy Sainte-Marie and That “Human-Being Magic”
Buffy Sainte-Marie’s Lesson from the Cutting Edge: “Go Where You Must to Grow”
Buffy Sainte-Marie: “Sometimes You Have to Be Content to Plant Good Seeds and Be Patient”
Buffy Sainte-Marie’s Power in the Blood


For more of Buffy Sainte-Marie at The Wild Reed, see:
“The Real Deal”: Maurice Switzer on the Legacy of Buffy Sainte-Marie
Kyle Irving: Quote of the Day – February 26, 2024
Buffy Sainte-Marie: “It Is Time for Me to Shine a Light on the Truth, My Truth”
David Rovics: The “Big Picture” of the Buffy Sainte-Marie Controversy “Necessitates Holding Contradictory Things to Be True at the Same Time”
A Music Legend Visits the North Country: Buffy Sainte-Marie in Minnesota and Wisconsin – August 2016
Buffy Sainte-Marie on Indigenous Peoples’ Day: “There’s an Awful Lot of Work Yet to Be Done”
Buffy Sainte-Marie: The Pope’s Apology Is “Just the Beginning”
Sweet America
Carrying It On . . . Into the New Year
Buffy Sainte-Marie’s “America the Beautiful”
Two Exceptional Singers Take a Chance on the “Spirit of the Wind”
Photo of the Day – January 21, 2017
Buffy Sainte-Marie Wins 2015 Polaris Music Prize
Congratulations, Buffy
Happy Birthday, Buffy! – 2016 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2023
Actually, There’s No Question About It
For Buffy Sainte-Marie, a Well-Deserved Honor
Buffy Sainte-Marie: Singing It and Praying It; Living It and Saying It
Buffy Sainte-Marie: Still Singing with Spirit, Joy, and Passion
Something Special for Indigenous Peoples Day
Buffy Sainte-Marie: “The Big Ones Get Away”

Opening image: Buffy Sainte-Marie in concert in 2017. (Photo: Julie Jocsak)


Thursday, February 13, 2025

“It Is Our Responsibility to Make a Third Party Viable”


Briahna Joy Gray’s words that comprise the title of this post remind me of how I’ve long been conflicted between supporting progressive Democrats determined to transform the Democratic Party from within (folks like Bernie Sanders, Marianne Williamson, and Nina Turner) and supporting alternative parties and candidates such as Jill Stein and Butch Ware of the Green Party; folks who make the compelling case that the Democratic Party is irredeemably corrupt.

Here’s the thing: In the 2024 election cycle (and at times previously) I found myself supporting both groups at different times.

In a recent segment of her Sabby Sabs podcast, Sabrina Salvati shared her thoughts on a recent conversation involving Briahna Joy Gray, Marianne Williamson and Joseph Geevarghese. This conversation focused on the question: Do we continue supporting and attempting to reform the Democratic Party or do we work to form a genuine left party free of corporate control?

I found both the original conversation and Salvati’s 35-minute commentary on it (below) to be both insightful and compelling. Perhaps you will too.





Related Off-site Links:
“Democrats Are Never Coming Back After Genocide Support”: An Interview with Butch Ware – Briahna Joy Gray (Bad Faith, February 4, 2025).
Defeating the Democratic Party Elites Is Just the First Step – Joseph Geevarghese (The Nation, February 4, 2025).
Why Are the Democrats So Spineless? – Moira Donegan (The Guardian, February 3, 2025).
What to Do – Marianne Williamson (Transform, February 3, 2025).
Democrats Elect Ken Martin, the Party Leader in Minnesota, as Their National Chair – Steve Peoples (AP News, February 1, 2025).
Jill Stein and Kshama Sawant on the Fight the Rich MovementSabby Sabs (January 26, 2025).
My Plan for the DNC – Marianne Williamson (Transform, January 14, 2025).
“Working People Feel Betrayed by Democratic Elites”: An Interview with Marianne Williamson – Rising (January 15, 2025).
Marianne Williamson: Democrats Need a “Radical Transformation”Sky News (December 29, 2024).
Marianne Williamson on Why Americans are Rejecting the Status QuoNewsNation (December 28, 2024).


UPDATES: Why Democrats Won’t Throw a Real Punch – Dave Zirin (The Nation, February 18, 2025).
Trump Is Unpopular – and So Are the Do-Nothing Democrats – Jeet Heer (The Nation, February 18, 2025).
Liberal Pod Save America Triggered by Stephen A. Smith’s Truth Bombs – Sabrina Salvati (Sabby Sabs, February 21, 2025).
If You’re a Democrat Annoyed by Outraged Voters, You Are Doing It Wrong – Norman Solomon (Common Dreams, February 24, 2025).
Democrats Are MIA – Just When the Country Needs Them to Counter the Trump-Musk Blitzkrieg – David Corn (Mother Jones, February 24, 2025).


See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
“The Moment Is Ripe”: Butch Ware on Building a “True Oppositional Alternative” to the Duopoly
Democrat Talk on the Eve of Trump’s Return
Breaking the Mold: Why Progressives Should Push for Marianne Williamson to Lead the DNC
Inauguration Day Thoughts
The Green Party’s Jill Stein and Butch Ware Give Their First Post-Election Interview
Progressive Perspectives on Where Democrats Went Wrong in the 2024 Election
“A New Chapter of the Democratic Party Needs to Begin”
What the Republican Party Now Stands For
The Lamentable Legacy of the Biden Administration
Jill Stein: “We Give Reasons for People to Come Out and Vote”
We’re Witnessing a Liberal Meltdown Over Jill Stein
Butch Ware: “You Can Actually Vote Your Conscience”
Peter Bloom on the Unmasking of the “Democratic Charade”
The “Green Smoothie” Option
Green Party Vice Presidential Candidate Butch Ware in Minneapolis
When Democrats Undermine Democracy
Elise Labott on How Third Parties Can Revitalize Democracy
Something to Think About – August 15, 2024
Centrist/Corporatist Democrats Have Just Launched “Left Punching” Season
“Americans Deserve Choices”: Jill Stein on Breaking Points – 4/30/24
AOC Falls in Line
The Cassandra of U.S. Politics on the “True State of the Union”
Will Democrats Never Learn?
“The Next Step Is a Green Step”: Cornel West Endorses Jill Stein (2016)
Hope Over Fear: Voting Green


Wednesday, February 12, 2025

Time to Grow Up . . .

It seems to me that it is a minority that ever gets the true and full Gospel – in any denomination. Most of us just keep worshiping Jesus and arguing over the right way to do it. The amazing thing is that Jesus never once says, “Worship me!” whereas he frequently says, “Follow me” (see, for example, Matthew 4:19).

Christianity is a lifestyle – a way of being in the world that is simple, nonviolent, shared, and loving. However, we made it into an established religion (and all that goes with that) and avoided the lifestyle change itself. One could be warlike, greedy, racist, selfish, and vain throughout most of Christian history, and still believe that Jesus is one’s personal Lord and Savior or continue to receive the sacraments in good standing. The world has no time for such silliness anymore. The suffering on earth is too great.

Richard Rohr, O.F.M
Excerpted from Yes, and...: Daily Meditations
Franciscan Media (2017)


See also the related Wild Reed posts:
Marianne Williamson: “We’re Living in Very Serious Times and We Need to Be Very Serious People”
The King of Love My Shepherd Is
The Model of Leadership Offered by Jesus: “More Like the Gardener Than the Owner of the Garden”
Jesus Our Guide to Mystical Love – Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3
Revolution and Mysticism
Jesus: Path-Blazer of Radical Transformation
Adam Eriksen on the Subversive Politics of Palm Sunday
Palm Sunday: “A Planned Political Demonstration”
The Mystic Jesus: “A Name for the Unalterable Love That All of Us Share”
Why Jesus is My Man

Image: Artist unknown.


Tuesday, February 11, 2025

“The Moment Is Ripe”: Butch Ware on Building a “True Oppositional Alternative” to the Duopoly

“We are going to galvanize
all of those forces that are disaffected
with this corrupt corporate duopoly
that comes in blue or red flavors.”

Butch Ware
February 5, 2025


Butch Ware, who was Jill Stein’s vice presidential running mate on the 2024 Green Party presidential ticket, recently announced that he is running as a Green Party candidate for Governor of California.

Last Wednesday Butch was a guest on Sabrina Salvati’s podcast Sabby Sabs. Their 30-minute conversation is well worth checking out (below) as it includes Butch’s insightful analysis of the Democratic Party and why it cannot be relied upon to counter the authoritarianism of Donald Trump.

“The moment is ripe,” says Butch, “for a genuine populist progressive alternative . . . because we know that the corporate [Republican/Democrat] duopoly is not serving the people. So we’re going to have to build something that will.”

Continues Butch:

The Democrats are going the way of the Whig Party. . . . They are never going to get up from what they have done to themselves in this last election cycle and in the 30 years that preceeded that. The corporate sell-off of this party – from Bill Clinton to now Kamala Harris – has put the final nails in the coffin of this party. And if you look and zoom out objectively, you see a party that is in utter shambles. It has no capacity to reassemble the base that has departed it.

And so if we show strength and present a true oppositional alternative, you are going to watch people move to a new party. And that’s what I’m trying to facilitate.

. . . We are going to run to win in the state of California, yes. But we are also going to galvanize all of those forces that are disaffected with this corrupt corporate duopoly that comes in blue or red flavors. And we are going to build a [national] movement because you don’t have to be a resident of California to donate or to volunteer to help build this strength. And the more strength we show in this 2026 electoral cycle, the more damage we’re capable of inflicting [on the duopoly] in 2028 and 2032.

So instead of talking about it, be about it. Put your money where your mouth is and help us win in the state of California.






Above: With Butch Ware in Minneapolis – October 14, 2024.
For The Wild Reed’s coverage of Dr. Ware’s September 8, 2024
meet-and-greet event in Minneapolis, click here.


Related Off-site Links:
Butch Ware for Governor – Official campaign website.
Where the Ultra-Competitive 2026 California Gubernatorial Race Currently Stands – Evan Symon (California Globe, November 19, 2024).
Butch Ware, Former Green Party VP Nominee, Announces Next Run for Office – David Doonan (GP.org, November 12, 2024).
Democrats Have “No Hope” of Winning Election Warns Green Party VP Candidate Butch WareSystem Update with Glenn Greenwald (September 20, 2024).
Green Party VP Candidate Butch Ware Talks 2024 Race, 2026 Gubernatorial Bid, and More – Marc Lamont Hill (Night School, September 19, 2024).


UPDATE: Butch Ware: “Democrats Are Never Coming Back After Genocide Support” – Briahna Joy Gray (Bad Faith, February 13, 2025).


See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
Butch Ware: Quote of the Day – January 30, 2025
Something to Think About – December 8, 2024
The Lamentable Legacy of the Biden Administration
The Green Party’s Jill Stein and Butch Ware Give Their First Post-Election Interview
Progressive Perspectives on Where Democrats Went Wrong in the 2024 Election
The “Green Smoothie” Option
Jill Stein: “We Give Reasons for People to Come Out and Vote”
We’re Witnessing a Liberal Meltdown Over Jill Stein
Jill Stein in the Twin Cities
Anti-Genocide Presidential Candidate Jill Stein Reflects on the First Anniversary of Israel’s Genocide in Gaza
“This Is a Tragic, Heartbreaking Moment in the History of Humanity”: Butch Ware on the Gaza Genocide
Green Party Vice Presidential Candidate Butch Ware in Minneapolis
Butch Ware: “You Can Actually Vote Your Conscience”
Butch Ware: “I’m Not Here as a Spoiler . . . I am Called Into the Fight for the Struggle for Freedom in Our Time”
Peter Bloom on the Unmasking of the “Democratic Charade”
When Democrats Undermine Democracy
“Americans Deserve Choices”: Jill Stein on Breaking Points – 4/30/24
Progressive Perspectives on the Presidential Nomination of Kamala Harris
Progressive Perspectives On an American Coronation
Demolishing the False Narrative About Jill Stein and the 2016 Election