When the “Blue Wave” Is a “Blue Crackdown”

California, brace yourselves and head to higher ground. There is a Blue Wave coming that conceals a Blue Crackdown.

In New Jersey [right], all the liberals, progressives, and labor “officials” lined up behind a new Democrat governor to stop MAGA; instead, Mikie Sherrill stood with MAGA’s most notorious shock troops: private prisons, ICE, and cops against striking prison workers and their supporters rebelling against the new slavery.

In Virginia, new governor “CIA” Abigail Spanberger did the same, vetoing laws that might have placed small obstacles in Red MAGA’s path.

The California crackdown was already foretold when the Democrats kicked the Green Party’s Butch Ware off the ballot, and the progressives, labor “leaders,” radicals, and so-called socialists had nothing to say about it (except the DSA, which piled on).

Behind every Red MAGA chanting “America First,” stands a Blue MAGA repeating “lesser evil” as if a wedding vow. Instead of marriage to the machine, let’s all strive to tear it asunder.

– Richard Moser
via social media
June 2, 2026

Related Off-site Links:
The Democratic Party: Architects of Cowardice, Accomplices to Fascism – Henry A. Giroux (CounterPunch, September 8, 2025).
Liberals Can’t Confront Authoritarianism – Cyrus Gazdar (The Medium, November 17, 2025).
Why the Democratic Party Can’t Save Us From Trump’s Authoritarianism – Henry A. Giroux (Truthout, August 21, 2017).
The Iron Ceiling: Would the Oligarchy Steal an Election From the Green Party? – Dorothy Lennon (Dorothy Lennon Revolutionary, May 28, 2026).
Unions Decry Spanberger Veto of Collective Bargaining Bill as “Betrayal to Virginia’s Workers” – Stephen Prager (Common Dreams, May 15, 2026).
“Subversion of Law and Order”: ICE Violence Escalates at Newark’s GEO-Run Jail, Delaney Hall – Democracy Now! (May 29, 2026).
New Jersey State Police Join Crackdown Against Supporters of Hunger-Striking Immigrants at Delaney Hall – Democracy Now! (June 1, 2026).
Democrats Panic Over Green Party Candidate: An Interview with Dr. Butch Ware – Bad Faith (March 30, 2026).
Green Party Candidate for California Governor Butch Ware Kicked Off the Ballot – The Spiritual and Political Podcast (March 27, 2026).
Inside Butch Ware’s Vision For California: Healthcare, Housing, and a Political Shake-Up – Matthew Levitt (Fathom, March 2026).
Why Status-Quo Dems Should Heed the Progressive Earthquake in New Jersey – Martin Burns (Common Dreams, February 13, 2026).


See also the previous Wild Reed posts:

THE FAILURES OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY
• Authoritarianism With a Blue Sticker
• The Time for Illusions Is Over: Henry Giroux on the Democratic Party
• David Norton: “The Democratic Party Serves Capital, Not You”
• Mike Figueredo: “Elected Democrats Have No Real Interest in Doing What the Base Wants”
• Tony Pentimalli on the Fallacy of the “Safe Political Center”
• Genny Harrison on Brian Tyler Cohen’s Interview with Obama
• Progressives and Obama
• Jeff Cohen on How Obama’s “Corporate Liberalism” Led to the Rise of Trump
• Progressive Perspectives on Kamala Harris’s Book, 107 Days
• Adam Bates on the Team Blue / Kamala “I Told Ya So” Smugness Tour
• The Lamentable Legacy of the Biden/Harris Administration
• Progressive Perspectives on Where Democrats Went Wrong in 2024
• Why the Democratic Party Is Not Going to Save Us From Fascism
• David Sirota: Quote of the Day – January 26, 2021
• Progressive Perspectives On an American Coronation
• Marianne Williamson: “‘Vote Blue No Matter Who’ Is Not Enough to Win”
• Nick Cruse: “‘Vote Blue No Matter Who’ Is the Privileged Position”
• Centrist/Corporatist Democrats Have Just Launched “Left Punching” Season


BUTCH WARE
• Introducing California’s Gubernatorial Candidate Butch Ware
• “The Moment Is Ripe”: Butch Ware on Building a “True Oppositional Alternative” to the Duopoly
• Butch Ware on His Run for California Governor and the Wider Goal of Disrupting the Duopoly
• Butch Ware: Quote of the Day – January 30, 2025
• Butch Ware on Efforts by the Democratic Party to Block His Green Party Run for California Governor
• Butch Ware: Quote of the Day – June 5, 2025
• Butch Ware: Quote of the Day – November 26, 2025
• Butch Ware on “Red & Blue vs Green Politics”
• “We Have the Power to Stop the Flow of Money and the False Legitimacy Upon Which Empire Depends”
• “People Really Want New Options in Politics”
• Butch Ware on the Hard Knock Radio Show
• Photo of the Day – March 3, 2026
• Butch Ware and the Gatekeepers Within the Democratic Party
• Butch Ware: “I’m Trying to Take Care of People”
• Hey, Liberals! We Need to Talk
• Butch Ware on the Democrats’ “Lawfare” to Keep Greens Off the Ballot
• Dorothy Lennon: Quote of the Day – June 1, 2026

Image: Anti-ICE protesters stand in opposition to a line of New Jersey State Police. (Photo: Julian Leshay Guadalupe / USA Today Network)

Quote of the Day

Tomorrow, California will vote for governor in its jungle primary. One candidate I would love to see triumph has been kicked off the ballot: Butch Ware. The Green Party nominee has resorted to a write-in campaign. Sadly, even with this campaign, there will be ways to cheat Ware.

Many election officials are sticklers when it comes to write-in candidates. If you spell part of the name wrong, if you check the wrong box to signal a write-in, your vote will be thrown out.

If it looks like Ware could advance, I believe the Democratic Party machine will find a way to cheat him out of victory. They rigged it against Cheri Honkala, another Green Party nominee for vice president, when she ran for a state seat in Pennsylvania. You can read about it in my Substack article.

Does this mean you shouldn’t vote or stay home if you live in California? No. Write-in Ware. We just need to be aware of the hurdles anti-oligarchic parties face.

– Dorothy Lennon
via social media
June 1, 2026

Related Off-site Links:
The Iron Ceiling: Would the Oligarchy Steal an Election From the Green Party? – Dorothy Lennon (Dorothy Lennon Revolutionary, May 28, 2026).
The Green Party’s Butch Ware: “I Love a Good Fight” – Nathan J. Robinson (Current Affairs, April 22, 2026).
Butch Ware: The Green Candidate – The Latino Newsletter (April 6, 2026).
Democrats Panic Over Green Party Candidate: An Interview with Dr. Butch Ware – Bad Faith (March 30, 2026).
Judge Rejects Green Party Candidate Butch Ware’s Bid to Appear on California Governor Ballots – Yue Stella Yu (CalMatters.org, March 26, 2026).
Green Party Candidate for California Governor Butch Ware Kicked Off the Ballot – The Spiritual and Political Podcast (March 27, 2026).
Inside Butch Ware’s Vision For California: Healthcare, Housing, and a Political Shake-Up – Matthew Levitt (Fathom, March 2026).


See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Introducing California’s Gubernatorial Candidate Butch Ware
• “The Moment Is Ripe”: Butch Ware on Building a “True Oppositional Alternative” to the Duopoly
• Butch Ware on His Run for California Governor and the Wider Goal of Disrupting the Duopoly
• Butch Ware: Quote of the Day – January 30, 2025
• Butch Ware on Efforts by the Democratic Party to Block His Green Party Run for California Governor
• Butch Ware: Quote of the Day – June 5, 2025
• Butch Ware: Quote of the Day – November 26, 2025
• Butch Ware on “Red & Blue vs Green Politics”
• “We Have the Power to Stop the Flow of Money and the False Legitimacy Upon Which Empire Depends”
• “People Really Want New Options in Politics”
• Butch Ware on the Hard Knock Radio Show
• Photo of the Day – March 3, 2026
• Butch Ware and the Gatekeepers Within the Democratic Party
• Butch Ware: “I’m Trying to Take Care of People”
• Hey, Liberals! We Need to Talk
• Butch Ware on the Democrats’ “Lawfare” to Keep Greens Off the Ballot

May Vignettes

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• May Vignettes (2025)
• Gifts of Abundance
• Dandelion: A Celebration
• May Vignettes (2023)
• Spring . . . Within and Beyond (2022)
• Spring . . . Within and Beyond (2021)
• Spring Awakens! (2020)

Images: Michael J. Bayly.

Butch Ware on the Democrats’ “Lawfare” to Keep Greens Off the Ballot

Earlier today Butch Ware, Green Party candidate for California Governor, was a guest on the Due Dissidence podcast.

In this 15-minute interview, Butch talks about his removal from the ballot in March by the Democratic establishment in California, and this establishment’s ongoing campaign to keep him off the ballot for the November election.

“[Democrats] spend more in [suing] to keep Greens off of the ballot than Greens usually spend to run,” Butch says. He calls such efforts on the part of the Democratic establishment, “lawfare.”





Related Off-site Links:
The Green Party’s Butch Ware: “I Love a Good Fight” – Nathan J. Robinson (Current Affairs, April 22, 2026).
Butch Ware: The Green Candidate – The Latino Newsletter (April 6, 2026).
Democrats Panic Over Green Party Candidate: An Interview with Dr. Butch Ware – Bad Faith (March 30, 2026).
Judge Rejects Green Party Candidate Butch Ware’s Bid to Appear on California Governor Ballots – Yue Stella Yu (CalMatters.org, March 26, 2026).
Green Party Candidate for California Governor Butch Ware Kicked Off the Ballot – The Spiritual and Political Podcast (March 27, 2026).
Inside Butch Ware’s Vision for California: Healthcare, Housing, and a Political Shake-Up – Matthew Levitt (Fathom, March 2026).


See also the previous Wild Reed posts:

BUTCH WARE
• Introducing California’s Gubernatorial Candidate Butch Ware
• Butch Ware on Efforts by the Democratic Party to Block His Green Party Run for California Governor
• Hey, Liberals! We Need to Talk
• Butch Ware: “I’m Trying to Take Care of People”
• “People Really Want New Options in Politics”
• Butch Ware on “Red & Blue vs Green Politics”
• “We Have the Power to Stop the Flow of Money and the False Legitimacy Upon Which Empire Depends”
• Butch Ware on the Hard Knock Radio Show
• Butch Ware and the Gatekeepers Within the Democratic Party
• Photo of the Day – March 3, 2026
• Butch Ware: Quote of the Day – November 26, 2025
• Butch Ware: Quote of the Day – June 5, 2025
• Butch Ware on His Run for California Governor and the Wider Goal of Disrupting the Duopoly
• “The Moment Is Ripe”: Butch Ware on Building a “True Oppositional Alternative” to the Duopoly
• Butch Ware: Quote of the Day – January 30, 2025
• The Green Party’s Jill Stein and Butch Ware Give Their First Post-Election Interview
• “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 (2024)
• Butch Ware: “You Can Actually Vote Your Conscience”


GREEN PARTY
• “Green Wave 2026 is Global”
• Meet Some of the “People-Powered” Green Party Candidates for 2026
• An Opportunity for Organizing Against Duopoly
• “It Is Our Responsibility to Make a Third Party Viable”
• Something to Think About – December 8, 2024
• The Green Party’s Jill Stein and Butch Ware Give Their First Post-Election Interview
• “We Give Reasons for People to Come Out and Vote”
• We’re Witnessing a Liberal Meltdown Over Jill Stein
• The “Green Smoothie” Option
• Green Party Vice Presidential Candidate Butch Ware in Minneapolis
• Butch Ware: “I’m Not Here as a Spoiler”
• Jill Stein: “Americans Deserve Choices”
• Elise Labott on How Third Parties Can Revitalize Democracy
• Third Parties and the Historical Record
• Something to Think About – August 15, 2024
• Howie Hawkins: “The Democrats Are Not the Answer to the Trump/Fascism Problem”
• Demolishing the False Narrative About Jill Stein and the 2016 Election
• Cornel West: “The Next Step Is a Green Step, a Progressive Step”
• Bernie Sanders and Jill Stein: Is a “Historic Collaboration” in the Making? (2016)
• Voting Green: Hope Over Fear


THE FAILURES OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY
• Authoritarianism With a Blue Sticker
• The Time for Illusions Is Over: Henry Giroux on the Democratic Party
• David Norton: “The Democratic Party Serves Capital, Not You”
• Mike Figueredo: “Elected Democrats Have No Real Interest in Doing What the Base Wants”
• Tony Pentimalli on the Fallacy of the “Safe Political Center”
• Genny Harrison on Brian Tyler Cohen’s Interview with Obama
• Progressives and Obama
• Jeff Cohen on How Obama’s “Corporate Liberalism” Led to the Rise of Trump
• Progressive Perspectives on Kamala Harris’s Book, 107 Days
• Adam Bates on the Team Blue / Kamala “I Told Ya So” Smugness Tour
• The Lamentable Legacy of the Biden/Harris Administration
• Progressive Perspectives on Where Democrats Went Wrong in 2024
• Why the Democratic Party Is Not Going to Save Us From Fascism
• David Sirota: Quote of the Day – January 26, 2021
• Progressive Perspectives On an American Coronation
• Marianne Williamson: “‘Vote Blue No Matter Who’ Is Not Enough to Win”
• Nick Cruse: “‘Vote Blue No Matter Who’ Is the Privileged Position”
• Centrist/Corporatist Democrats Have Just Launched “Left Punching” Season

Australian Sojourn – April-May 2026

Part 6: Gulmarrad, Maclean, and Brooms Head

I’ve spent the last three days in Gulmarrad with my dear friends Mike and Bernie. Two of their adult children – Iggy and Mim – traveled from the Gold Coast and Sydney respectively to see me. How wonderful was that!?

Following are images of my time in Gulmarrad and two nearby places – Maclean and Brooms Head.

The hoodie I’m wearing in a number of these images is in support of Butch Ware’s Green Party candidacy for California Governor. (For more on this, click here, here, and here).

Above: With Bernie, Iggy, and, Mike – Saturday, April 25, 2026.

Above and below: ANZAC Day in Maclean – Saturday, April 25, 2026.

Above and below: Maclean vignettes – April 2026.

Above and below: With Bernie and Iggy at Brooms Head – Sunday, April 26, 2026.

Above: With Mim, Mike, and Bernie – Monday, April 27, 2026.





Right: Wearing the colourful necklace that Mim bought for me in a Maclean op-shop. I just love it! . . . And the backdrop perfectly compliments it!





NEXT: Brisbane, Montville,
and the Sunshine Coast

For the previous posts in the Australian Sojourn – April-May 2026 series, see:
• Sydney and Newcastle
• Gulmarrad
• Guruk
• Gunnedah
• Armidale

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Journey to Gulmarrad (2025)
• Happy Birthday, Bernie! (2024)
• Last Days in Australia (2024)
• Mooloolaba (2023)
• In Northern Rivers Country (2019)
• Townsville (2016)
• A Journey to Northern Rivers Country (2015)
• A Bushland Wedding (2011)
• The Australian Floods of 2011
• Rising Waters
• “Flooded-In But Loving Life”
• In Maclean, an End to the “Siege”
• Yaegl Country (2011)

Images: Michael J. Bayly and friends.