Why the American Political Establishment Is Panicking

The Montana Department of Propaganda is a Facebook group dedicated to satire and parody, a place “where trolls go to die.” Like all good satirical endeavors, the group imparts deep truths about the times and events we’re living through. Following is an example from earlier today.

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The American political establishment isn’t panicking because the DSA [Democratic Socialists of America] has conquered the country. It hasn’t. They’re panicking because socialists have started proving that corporate money, incumbency and the blessing of professional political parasites do not make anyone invincible.

Zohran Mamdani won New York City. Chris Rabb won in Philadelphia. Claire Valdez won in New York. Donavan McKinney knocked a sitting congressman out of office in Detroit. Across the country, DSA candidates are beating people the party establishment had already selected for power.

Then Abdul El-Sayed defeated the establishment’s chosen candidate for Michigan’s Senate nomination despite being massively outspent. He isn’t a DSA member, but he ran on the same material politics: Medicare for All, free childcare, taxing billionaires and rejecting corporate control. This wasn’t some tiny socialist enclave hidden behind a Brooklyn coffee shop. It was a statewide primary in Michigan.

The right immediately began screeching about “Islamo-communism,” because apparently universal healthcare plus a Muslim candidate equals the Bolshevik caliphate now. Marx is coming for your riding mower and he brought hummus. These people have one terrified little Mad Lib and they just keep changing the nouns.

The Democratic establishment has spent decades telling working people that affordable housing, universal healthcare and taxing billionaires are wonderful ideas that must never actually happen. There’s always some consultant, donor or procedural excuse standing between the public and the policies the public wants.

Then socialists show up with volunteers, knock on thousands of doors and beat candidates with enormous campaign accounts and endorsements from every professional ass warmer in Washington. Suddenly, the machine looks less like an unstoppable force and more like three lobbyists stacked inside a trench coat.

The ruling class understands something it desperately hopes working people never learn: political power comes from organization. Wealth dominates because wealth is organized. Corporations dominate because capital is organized. Workers remain weak when they are isolated, exhausted and convinced nothing can change.

That is the DSA’s real threat. Not one candidate, but the possibility that working people might organize around their shared material interests instead of letting billionaires divide them over bathrooms, immigrants and whatever beer can made conservatives piss their pants this week.

Democrats fear losing control of their primaries. Republicans fear losing socialism as their favorite boogeyman. The donor class fears both.

Different panic. Same underlying terror.

The political establishment just discovered it can bleed.

– Montana Department of Propaganda
via Facebook
August 6, 2026

Related Off-site Links:
Michigan Primary Shows Continued Shift to the Left in U.S. – Patrick Martin (World Socialist Web Site, August 6, 2026).
The Meaning of El-Sayed’s Victory – Nathan J. Robinson (Current Affairs, August 5, 2026).
Yes, the Left Won Big Last Night – Branko Marcetic (Jacobin, August 5, 2026).


See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• “Tonight Michigan Decides”
• Abdul El-Sayed: The Disruptor Michigan (and the Country) Needs
• “Our Country Right Now Is At a Crossroads”
• Jeff Waldorf: Quote of the Day – July 3, 2026
• Matthew Cooke on the Fallacy That Socialism “Doesn't Work”
• Jeff Cohen on How Obama’s “Corporate Liberalism” Led to the Rise of Trump
• A Deeper Perspective on What’s Really Attacking American Democracy
• Marianne Williamson: Quote of the Day – July 26, 2025
• Democrat Talk on the Eve of Trump’s Return
• And So Here We Are

“Tonight Michigan Decides”

Today Michigan answers the biggest question facing the Democratic Party.

Does it want a progressive firebrand – or an establishment “centrist”?

Abdul El-Sayed – physician, former Michigan gubernatorial candidate, backed by Bernie Sanders, AOC, the UAW and 200+ endorsements – is facing Rep. Haley Stevens, backed by Chuck Schumer, Gretchen Whitmer and nearly $50 million in AIPAC spending.

This is the most consequential Democratic primary of the 2026 cycle.

Here’s why it matters beyond Michigan:

This seat is genuinely winnable in November. Michigan is a battleground state Trump won by less than a point in 2024. The Republican nominee is Mike Rogers – endorsed by Trump.

If El-Sayed wins: the progressive movement will have proven it can compete in a state Trump won – against $50 million in establishment money.

If Stevens wins: the establishment will claim the center holds – and the progressive movement’s winning streak ends here.

Three democratic socialists swept New York in a single night.

Troy Jackson clinched Maine.

James Talarico leads Ken Paxton in Texas – in three consecutive polls.

Cori Bush is fighting to take back her Missouri seat tonight too.

Tonight Michigan decides.

– Progressives for a Democratic Republic
via social media
August 4, 2026

8/5/2026 UPDATE

Abdul El-Sayed Wins Michigan Senate Primary in
Major Victory for Democrats’ Progressive Wing
– Associated Press
August 5, 2026

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Abdul El-Sayed: The Disruptor Michigan (and the Country) Needs
• “Our Country Right Now Is At a Crossroads”
• Jeff Waldorf: Quote of the Day – July 3, 2026
• Matthew Cooke on the Fallacy That Socialism “Doesn't Work”
• The Longstanding Fault Lines Within the Democratic Party Have Surfaced Again in Minnesota
• Jeff Cohen on How Obama’s “Corporate Liberalism” Led to the Rise of Trump
• A Deeper Perspective on What’s Really Attacking American Democracy
• Marianne Williamson: Quote of the Day – July 26, 2025
• Democrat Talk on the Eve of Trump’s Return
• And So Here We Are

Abdul El-Sayed: The Disruptor Michigan (and the Country) Needs

I’m going to write something here that we all know is true but few are willing to just say out loud: There is a non-zero chance that the national Democratic Party, its donors and its media will decide to abandon/sabotage populist anti-establishment Democratic nominees in the upcoming general election.

Many in this corporate faction would rather such nominees lose – even if that means Democrats losing the Senate and governorships – than see these candidates win.

Why? Because if these candidates win, they threaten to change the Democratic Party and make the corporate faction irrelevant.

– David Sirota
via social media
August 2, 2026

The outcome of Michigan’s Senate race will have major implications for the balance of power in Washington, DC, and for the future of the Democratic Party. With primaries taking place tomorrow, August 4, many are paying close attention to the contest between progressive candidate Dr. Abdul El-Sayed and establishment candidate (and AIPAC darling) Haley Stephens to see who will represent Democrats in November’s general election.

The Michagan race is at the heart of what’s being described as a “civil war” within the Democratic Party. Here’s how Astead Herndon of Vox outlines this longstanding intra-party conflict and explains why Abdul El-Sayed is the current central figure in it.





I’m supporting Abdul, as he’s the type of “threatening” politician we need. He threatens the corporate capture of our politics, and of the Democratic Party in particular. It’s a capture that has had a corrosive, corrupting influence on our politics for the past 40+ years.

Former Democratic presidential candidate Marianne Williamson once said we need to “disrupt the corrupt” in order to return the U.S. to the democratic and humanitarian ideals of its founding.

I agree 100%; which is why I supported Williamson’s 2020 and 2024 presidential campaigns, and why I’m currently supporting non-establishment Democrats Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan, Cori Bush in Missouri, Elijah Manley in Florida, and Francesca Hong in Wisconsin. In addition, I’m also supporting independent socialist Kshama Sawant in Washington state as well as a number of Green Party candidates around the country, including Justin Flip in Oregon, Tony Dastra in Pennsylvania, Anthony Aguiler in North Carolina, Griselda Romero in Illinois, Andy Ellis in Maryland, Greg Stoker in Texas, and Steve Young, Jane Kirby, Seth Kuhl-Stennes, and Ngone Niang right here in Minnesota.

In introducing the following interview with Abdul El-Sayed on its YouTube page, The Lever notes the following.

Why have Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Sens. Chuck Schumer and Gary Peters endorsed Haley Stevens in Michigan’s Democratic Senate primary?

At a rally in Grand Rapids, The Lever’s David Sirota put that question to progressive Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed. El-Sayed argues that party leaders aren’t worried he’s unelectable – they’re worried he’ll win and challenge a political system fueled by corporate money.

El-Sayed says AIPAC, Big Tech, Big Pharma, DTE, Blue Cross Blue Shield, and other powerful interests have helped drive nearly $70 million in spending against him.

“I’m not going there to make friends,” El-Sayed told Sirota. “I’m going there to get stuff done.”

8/5/2026 UPDATE

Abdul El-Sayed Wins Michigan Senate Primary in
Major Victory for Democrats’ Progressive Wing
– Associated Press
August 5, 2026

Related Off-site Links:
El-Sayed and Stevens Close Michigan Senate Primary Is Offering Different Visions for Democrats – Joey Cappelletti and Jacqueline Ganun (AP News, August 3, 2026).
Contentious Michigan Senate Primary Divides Democrats Over Direction of Party – Lisa Desjardins and Sam Weber (PBS Newshour, August 3, 2026)
Two Big Races: Leaked GOP Memo Admits Leftwing Candidates Frighten Them – David Doel (The Rationale National, August 3, 2026).
Abdul El-Sayed vs AIPAC: Michigan’s Real Primary – Al Jazeera (August 2, 2026).
Democratic Establishment Intensifies Attacks on El-Sayed as New Poll Shows Him Leading by Double Digits – Julia Conley (Common Dreams, July 30, 2026)
Why Is AIPAC Spending $30 million on the Michigan Senate Primary? – Michael Arria (Mondoweiss, July 30, 2026).
Sen. Ed Markey Backs “Bold Progressive Leader” El-Sayed as Pivotal Michigan Primary Nears – Stephen Prager (Common Dreams, July 29, 2026).
Why Billionaires Fear This Candidate the Most – More Perfect Union (July 29, 2026).
Can Abdul El-Sayed Reshape the Democratic Party? – The Real News Network (July 28, 2026).
Democrats Need Michigan. They Can Win with Abdul El-Sayed – Sara Pequeño (USA Today, July 28, 2026).
El-Sayed and Stevens Clash Over AIPAC Funding in Final Debate Before Michigan Senate Primary – Democracy Now! (July 28, 2026).
$60 Million “Crutch” From Super PACs Is Proof That Stevens Isn’t Actually “Electable,” Says El-Sayed – Stephen Prager (Common Dreams, July 28, 2026).
We’re the Ones We’ve Been Waiting For – Jill Stein (Green Party Videos, July 27, 2026).
Establishment Democrats Threaten to Abandon Abdul El-Sayed in General Election – Status Coup News (July 24, 2026).
“Underhanded” Stevens Sends Out Fake El-Sayed Press Release Claiming He’s Endorsed by Their GOP Opponent – Stephen Prager (Common Dreams, July 23, 2026)
“The Fighter Michigan Needs”: Sen. Elizabeth Warren Endorses El-Sayed as AIPAC Spends $30 Million Against Him – Stephen Prager (Common Dreams, July 20, 2026)
Rallying in Michigan, Sen. Bernie Sanders Says Primary Race Is Between Abdul El-Sayed “and the Billionaire Class” – Julia Conley (Common Dreams, July 19, 2026)
Progressive Abdul El-Sayed Faces Centrist Haley Stevens as Challenger Exits Michigan Senate Race – Democracy Now! (July 7, 2026).
Political Fault Line Over Israel Comes Into Full View During Michigan Democrats’ Convention – Andrew Roth (Michigan Advance, April 20, 2026)>
Socialist Kshama Sawant Says AOC’s and Progressives’ Strategy Isn’t Working – Jason Lemon (Newsweek, August 3, 2026).

UPDATES: What to Watch in the August 4 Primaries: Michigan Senate Race Tests Democrats’ Path Forward – Mike Catalini and Nicholas Riccardi (AP News, August 4, 2026).
Dr. Abdul El-Sayed Faces Off Against Haley Stevens in Michigan’s Democratic Senate Primary – Democracy Now! (August 4, 2026).
Michigan Democrats Pick Between Moderate and Progressive in High-Profile Senate Primary – Joey Cappelletti (AP News, August 4, 2026).
AIPAC’s 2026 Spending Tops $100 Million – Including $30 Million Against El-Sayed in Michigan – Jake Johnson (Common Dreams, August 4, 2026).
Michigan Democratic Senate Primary Is the Latest Test Between Progressives and the Establishment – Curtis Yee (AP News, August 4, 2026).
Progressives Aim to Defeat Both AIPAC Cash and Democratic Establishment in Michigan and Missouri Primaries – Julia Conley (Common Dreams, August 4, 2026).


See also the previous Wild Reed posts:

THE STATE OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY
• “Our Country Right Now Is At a Crossroads”
• Scotty T. Reid on James Clyburn as a “Defender of the Political Establishment and Its Policies of Oppression”
• Jeff Waldorf: Quote of the Day – July 3, 2026
• Mike Figueredo on the “Political Malpractice” of the Democratic Party
• 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”
• Ted Rall: Democrats Are Not “the Left”
• Exposing the Dark Money Network Secretly Funding Establishment Democratic Influencers
• Why the Democratic Party Is Not Going to Save Us From Fascism
• Howie Hawkins: “The Democrats Are Not the Answer to the Trump/Fascism Problem”
• The Longstanding Fault Lines Within the Democratic Party Have Surfaced Again in Minnesota
• Jeff Cohen on How Obama’s “Corporate Liberalism” Led to the Rise of Trump
• Progressive Perspectives on Bernie Sanders’ “Fighting Oligarchy” Tour
• Eric Fernández: Quote of the Day – May 14, 2025
• Marianne Williamson: Quote of the Day – July 26, 2025
• Democrat Talk on the Eve of Trump’s Return
• When Democrats Undermine Democracy
• A Deeper Perspective on What’s Really Attacking American Democracy
• “We Must Challenge the Entire System”
• Marianne Williamson: “‘Vote Blue No Matter Who’ Is Not Enough to Win”
• Nick Cruse: “‘Vote Blue No Matter Who’ Is the Privileged Position”
• Oliver Kornetzke’s Epic Takedown of the Liberal Tactic of Blaming and Shaming Leftists
• Damned If You Do, Damned If You Don’t


THE GREEN PARTY
• Campaigning With the Green Party
• With the Green Party at Twin Cities Pride
• Butch Ware on Why Third Parties Are Crucial
• Meet Some of the “People-Powered” Green Party Candidates for 2026
• “Green Wave 2026 is Global”
• “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


Opening image: Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Michigan Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, and Sen. Bernie Sanders at a campaign rally on July 18, 2026, in Detroit. (Photo: AP Photo/Jose Juarez)

July Vignettes

See also the previous Wild Reed July 2026 posts:
• Tad Stoermer: Disillusioned With America? That’s Actually a Good Thing
• Matthew Remski on Historian Heather Cox Richardson’s “Really Superficial” Understanding of How to Fight Fascism
• Jeff Waldorf: Quote of the Day – July 3, 2026
• On July 4th, Two Very Different Marches
• Tommy J. Housman on Reactions to the “Defining Image” of Trump’s America
Stacey Patton: Quote of the Day – July 7, 2026
• I Am One With the Beloved
• “The World Is Watching”: Salazar Felicita on the Killing of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo
• Mark Greene on How ICE Is a Weapon of the Epstein Class
• “Hazardous for Everyone”
• Remembering the Romanovs
• The Serpent: Not the Enemy of Ascension But Its Guardian
• Chase T. M. Anderson: “‘Queer’ Has Become One of the Most Elegant and Powerful Words I Use to Describe Myself”
• Inayat Khan and the Sufi Message
• A Precise Metaphysical Claim
• “Our Country Right Now Is At a Crossroads”
• A Classic Duet Turns 50
• Mariana Hernandez Debunks Mike Johnson’s Fear-Mongering Graphic
• Living From the Heart
• Awakenings

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• July Vignettes (2025)
• July Vignettes (2024)
July Vignettes (2023)
• The Summer of My Wildebeest-of-a-Bike
• A Summer Sunset Psalm
• The Dance of a Summer Day
• Summer Vignettes (2022)
• On This Summer Solstice, A Proclamation of the Power of Fire
• Celebrating the Summer Solstice
• O Breath of Summer
• Summer Blooms
• Eternal Summer

Images: Michael J. Bayly.

Awakenings

If you want to awaken all of humanity, then awaken all of yourself. If you want to eliminate the suffering in the world, then eliminate all that is illusionary and negative in yourself. Truly, the greatest gift you have to give is that of your own self-transformation.

– Laozi

Notice as human beings eliminate the need for illusions within themselves, forces of illusion are neutralized throughout the world. This occurs as consciousness expands. Our personal renunciation of fear, doubt, negative thoughts, words and harmful acts is reflected in the perception and experience of greater harmony everywhere.

– Liara Covert

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Sufism: A Call to Awaken
• Don’t Go Back to Sleep
• In the Garden of Spirituality – Peng Roden Her
• Awakening
• An Extraordinary, Precious Opportunity
• The Task at Hand
• The Beauty and Challenge of Being Present in the Moment
• Shining On . . . Into the New Year
• Awakening the Wild Soul
• Awakening and Turning

Image: Tyrel Dulvarie in Bangarra Dance Theatre’s production of Dark Emu.

Living From the Heart

My exploration of – and walking on – the mystical path known as the Sufi Way continues this evening with my sharing of Living from the Heart: Universalist Sufism in America (2020), a 46-minute documentary film by Chuck Davis and Netanel Miles-Yépez.

In introducing this film on its YouTube page, the Inayati-Maimuni Order notes the following.

Living from the Heart offers an introduction to the mystical path of Sufism as expressed in the universalist Sufi teachings of Hazrat Inayat Khan by contemporary Sufi teachers in America. [Note: “Hazrat” is an Arabic and Turkish honorific title used to show respect to a righteous person, prophet, and/or teacher. It is commonly used in India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Iran, and Afghanistan. The word literally translates to “presence, appearance.”]

The film contextualizes Sufism as a spiritual path of the heart, addressing the distinction between Islamic Sufism and Universalist Sufism, and introduces viewers to Sufi teachings on Love, Beauty, Music, God, and the Sufi practices of Zikr (remembrance) and Pilgrimage.

Locations in the film include: The Abode of the Message, New Lebanon, New York; The Boulder Dushanbe Tea House, Boulder, Colorado; Lama Foundation, Questa, New Mexico; Lewis and Clark College, Portland, Oregon; Naropa University, Boulder, Colorado; The Palace of Fine Arts, San Francisco, California; and Precita Park, San Francisco, California.

Living from the Heart features interviews with: Taj Inayat, Senior Teacher, Inayati Order; Shabda Kahn, Pir of the Sufi Ruhaniat Order; Satya Inayat Khan, Inayati Order; Zia Inayat-Khan, Pir of the Inayati Order; Netanel Miles-Yépez, Pir of the Inayati-Maimuni Order; Deepa Gulrukh Patel, Teacher, Inayati Order; and Jennifer Alia Wittman, Executive Director, Inayati Order. Also featured are: Sukhawat Ali Khan, Traditional Qawwali Singer; Amir Peter O’Laughlin, Sufi Musician; Lucas Kestrel Sego, Coordinator, Lama Foundation; and Aziz Isaiah Abbatiello, Traditional Mevlevi Whirler.

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• The Sufi Way
• Sufism: Way of Love, Tradition of Enlightenment, and Antidote to Fanaticism
• Sufism: A Call to Awaken
• Sufism: A Living Twenty-First Century Tradition
• Doris Lessing on the Sufi Way
• In the Garden of Spirituality – Doris Lessing
• In the Garden of Spirituality – Kabir Helminski
• In the Garden of Spirituality – Inayat Khan
• Inayat Khan and the Heart of Sufism
• Inayat Khan and the Sufi Message
• Inayat Khan on the Art of Selflessness
• Inayat Khan: “There Must Be Balance”
• Inayat Khan on Mysticism
• Inayat Khan and the Fountain of Happiness Within
• Inayat Khan and the Alchemy of Happiness
• A Light That Will Always Shine
• A Living Light
• A Perpetual Fire Within
• One Wisdom
• Awakening and Turning
• As the Last Walls Dissolve . . . Everything is Possible
• Clarity, Hope, and Courage
• “Joined at the Heart”: Robert Thompson on Christianity and Sufism
• The Mystic Jesus: “A Name for the Unalterable Love That All of Us Share”
• The Soul’s Beloved
• The Gorgeous One
• Resting in the Presence of the Beloved
• You Are My Goal, Beloved One
• Be In My Mind, Beloved One
• Finding Balance in the Presence of the Beloved
• Your Peace Is With Me, Beloved One
• I Need Do Nothing . . . I Am Open to the Living Light
• New Horizons
• Saaxiib Qurux Badan and the Winged Heart
• Held in the Presence of God
• The Act of Surrender
• The Journey Home

Mariana Hernandez Debunks Mike Johnson’s Fear-Mongering Graphic

[Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives] Mike Johnson made a scary graphic so let me translate it for you, because fear only works when you don’t know what you’re looking at.

❌ ABOLISH THE SENATE – What people are actually talking about is reforming a body where a senator from Wyoming represents about 295,000 people with the same vote as one from California representing 19.5 million. Equal state representation was a compromise between large and small states at the founding. It made sense when the biggest state was 12 times the smallest. Today California is 68 times the size of Wyoming and they still get the same number of senators.

❌ REPLACE THE PRESIDENCY AND SUPREME COURT – Johnson’s graphic says “replace” but most of the actual proposals on the table are term limits and court expansion. Germany’s constitutional court judges serve 12-year terms. France’s serve 9. In the U.S. a president who wins by slim margins appoints judges who shape law for 40+ years with zero accountability. Clarence Thomas has been on the bench since 1991. The country has changed entirely. His seat hasn’t. Most functioning democracies put limits on this kind of power. The U.S. doesn’t.

❌ DEFUND THE POLICE – One of the most deliberately misrepresented phrases in modern politics. For most people using it, it means redirect some funding to mental health response and crisis intervention. Some activists did push for more sweeping cuts – but the mainstream policy conversation is about why armed police respond to mental health crises, homeless calls, and noise complaints. Finland requires police to train for three years and pairs them with social workers. Norway does the same. The U.S. had over 1,200 fatal police shootings in 2023. There’s room to ask whether the current model is the only option.

❌ OPEN BORDERS – There is no bill proposing this. There is no candidate running on this. The E.U. has open internal borders between 27 countries – a French citizen can drive to Germany without a passport and civilization holds. What people are actually proposing is a functional immigration system instead of one that costs billions, separates families, and still doesn’t work.

❌ AMNESTY FOR ILLEGAL ALIENS – Reagan signed the Immigration Reform and Control Act in 1986. Gave legal status to roughly three million undocumented immigrants. Republican president. Republican policy. The word “amnesty” only became a political weapon when it stopped being useful to the party that created it.

❌ DEFUND THE PENTAGON – The U.S. military budget for 2024 was $886 billion. More than China, Russia, India, Saudi Arabia, the U.K., Germany, France, Japan, South Korea, and Australia combined. The Pentagon has failed to pass a full audit every single year since audits became mandatory in 2018. That doesn’t mean the money disappeared – it means the largest military in the world cannot fully account for how it spends almost a trillion dollars a year. Asking questions about that isn’t anti-military. It’s basic oversight.

❌ ABOLISH ICE – ICE was created in 2003 under the Homeland Security Act after 9/11. Before that, immigration enforcement existed under the INS since 1933. America handled immigration for 227 years without ICE. Since its creation the agency has been at the center of family separations, child detention controversies, and documented abuses in detention facilities – sometimes in coordination with other agencies. Questioning a 23-year-old agency is not the same as wanting to eliminate borders.

❌ MEDICARE FOR ALL – Canada has universal healthcare. So do the U.K., Germany, France, Japan, South Korea, Australia, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Spain, Italy, Portugal, and Taiwan. The U.S. spends roughly $12,500 per person per year on healthcare – the highest in the world – and consistently ranks behind peer nations on outcomes like life expectancy and infant mortality. Americans die rationing insulin. They set up GoFundMes for chemo. They avoid ambulances because a ride costs over a thousand dollars. Every other developed nation figured this out.

❌ GREEN NEW DEAL – Climate infrastructure and jobs. The E.U. launched its Green Deal in 2019 targeting climate neutrality by 2050 with hundreds of billions in investment. China produces more solar panels than the rest of the world combined and leads in EV manufacturing. Germany gets roughly half its electricity from renewables. The U.S. is still debating whether climate change is real while its own cities flood, burn, and run out of water.

❌ GOVERNMENT OWNERSHIP OF CORPORATIONS – We bailed out the banks in 2008 with $700 billion in taxpayer money. Bailed out GM and Chrysler. Bailed out the airlines during COVID. Government picks up the tab every time a corporation fails but when anyone suggests the public should see a return on that investment, suddenly it’s communism. Meanwhile countries like Norway built a $1.7 trillion sovereign wealth fund from their natural resources and their citizens get world-class public services. Different model, same question: who benefits when public money is on the table?

Mike Johnson is counting on you not knowing any of this. Now you do.

– Mariana Hernandez
via social media
July 30, 2026

Related Off-site Link:
Yes, We Really Should Abolish the Senate – Ben Burgis (Jacobin, July 24, 2026)>

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• “Our Country Right Now Is At a Crossroads”
• Mark Greene on How ICE Is a Weapon of the Epstein Class
• “An Abolitionist Demand”: Progressive Perspectives on Transforming Policing in the U.S.
• What It Will Take to Abolish the Police
• Something to Think About – July 21, 2020
• Remembering Philando Castile and Demanding Abolition of the System That Targets and Kills People of Color
• Matthew Cooke on the Fallacy That Socialism “Doesn’t Work”

A Classic Duet Turns 50

One of my all-time favorite female vocalists has been in the news recently due to the 50th anniversary of her most well-known recording. The following explains what I mean.

On July 24, 1976, Elton John finally scored his first overseas No. 1 single with “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart” alongside Kiki Dee. It was his sixth chart-topping hit on the Billboard Hot 100, and the first to reach No. 1 in the United Kingdom.

Although John had already cemented himself as an international rock legend by this point in his career, for some reason, his singles struggled to find as much success in his home country as they did in the United States. Records such as Goodbye Yellow Brick Road and Caribou had managed to top the albums chart, but his singles always suffered from a lack of momentum.

John’s best-performing single in the U.K. before “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart” was “Rocket Man”, which shot to No. 2 and helped push its corresponding album, Honky Chateau, to No. 2 as well.

Ultimately, the combined star power of Elton John and Kiki Dee was too much for the charts to ignore, and “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart” overcame whatever hurdles had previously held the artist back from commercial domination. The song was a massive radio hit in both the United States and the United Kingdom.

And the song’s success couldn’t have come a moment too soon. John co-wrote the track alongside his long-time writing partner Bernie Taupin with the intention of getting a huge international star to perform the female part, hoping it would speak to fans of classic Motown duets between artists like Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell.

Although the single wasn’t originally released on an album (where John had typically found most success), it quickly became his most popular song and broke records for physical sales in the United States. Even today, it’s still fondly remembered as one of John’s greatest early hits, and among the most iconic duets ever recorded.

– Jack Walters
Excerpted from "50 Years Ago:
A Beloved Rock Star Scored His Sixth No. 1
With an Unexpected Duet"
Men’s Journal
July 24, 2026

For all the massive fame he had achieved by 1976, Elton John had yet to place a song at the top of the charts in his native Great Britain. That changed when he teamed up with Kiki Dee for “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart.”

Although Dee, born Pauline Matthews in 1947, had broken through a few years earlier, she already had more than a decade of recording experience under her belt. She’d began working with Fontana Records in 1963 when she was in her mid-teens, signing with the same label that gave John’s early band Bluesology a shot. Her five-year tenure resulted in a handful of singles and a 1968 album, I’m Kiki Dee, none of which charted. But she gained a name for herself as a backup singer (appearing on Dusty Springfield’s “Some of Your Lovin’” and “Little by Little”) and a featured performer on radio and television.

That led to Dee becoming the first white British artist signed to Motown and while 1970’s Great Expectations didn’t match that lofty title, it proved fortuitous in another way.

The music manager for Motown in the U.K. was John Reid, who was also managing Elton John. He convinced Dee to sign with the label they were forming, Rocket Records, and Loving and Free arrived in 1973 with her first U.K. Top 20, “Amoureuse.” A year later, Dee had a hit on both sides of the Atlantic with “I’ve Got the Music in Me.”

. . . Released as a stand-alone single in June 1976, “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart” went to No. 1 in both the U.S. (four weeks) and the U.K. (six weeks). That ranked as his sixth song to top the Billboard Hot 100 in four years, it was also Elton John’s last until 1986, when he sang on Dionne Warwick’s charity single “That’s What Friends Are For.” One of John’s own compositions wouldn’t reach No. 1 until another duet, George Michael’s live remake of “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me” did so in February 1992.

In honor of their success on “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart,” John gave Dee a gold heart necklace with the song’s title engraved on it; as of 2011, she said she still had it. And even though he’s revisited “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart” on several occasions, including singing it in high-profile situations with Miss Piggy on The Muppet Show, the Spice Girls, Minnie Mouse, RuPaul and actor/comedian Steve Coogan, John has never forgotten his original duet partner. They recorded a cover of the Four Tops’ “Loving You Is Sweeter Than Ever” for her 1981 album Perfect Timing, she joined him onstage at Live Aid for “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart” and they interpreted Cole Porter’s “True Love” for his 1993 Duets album.

“I love working with him because as well as being hugely talented he’s such a hoot,” Dee said in 2013. “He’s a fascinating person, incredibly loyal and one of the funniest, most quick-witted people I’ve ever met. As we were born just three weeks apart; we always do birthdays. He sends me an orchid and two bottles of champagne every year.”

– Dave Lifton
Excerpted from “The Story of Elton John’s
First U.K. No. 1, ‘Don’t Go Breaking My Heart’”
Classic Rock and Culture
May 18, 2019

A rare concert performance of Elton John and Kiki Dee singing “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart” has been released online. The archival footage captures the pair performing the hit at London’s Empire Pool, Wembley, in November 1977.

The release marks the song’s 50th anniversary as a major chart success. In July 1976, the upbeat duet became John’s first number-one single in the United Kingdom and remained at the top for six weeks. It also reached number one in the United States, becoming one of the most recognizable pop collaborations of the decade.

Written by John and Bernie Taupin under the names Ann Orson and Carte Blanche, the song drew inspiration from classic Motown duets. Its playful exchange between the two singers helped it stand apart from John’s solo recordings.

Over the years, John has performed the track with several guest vocalists, but his original recording and live appearances with Dee remain closely associated with the song. The newly shared footage offers fans another look at the chemistry that helped turn the duet into a lasting favorite.

– SuperHits106.com
via social media
July 26, 2026

Above: Earlier this month Kiki Dee (along no doubt with Elton John) recieved a special award from Spotify for one billion streams of “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart.” When this achievement was first announced in February, Kiki was interviewed about it by BBC Breakfast. It’s a great (though short) interview, and one that can be viewed in its entirety below.





For more of Kiki Dee at The Wild Reed, see:
• Elton and Kiki: Together Again
• Music Legend Kiki Dee: “I’m a Down-to-Earth Person”
• Celebrating Kiki
• Kiki Dee and Carmelo Luggeri
• “A Classy Duo”
• Celebrating the Proverbial “Soulman”
• Classic Kiki
• Deeper Understandings
• The End Is Not the End
• Amoureuse
• Honoring the Darkness While Remembering the Light
• The Light of This New Year’s Day

Related Off-site Link:
Kiki Dee’s Forward Motion – The Strange Brew (August 2023).

“Our Country Right Now Is At a Crossroads”

Mike Figueredo begins his latest Humanist Report segment with a compilation of both fascist and liberal talking heads losing their shit over the exact same thing: the rise in popularity and electoral wins of candidates who identify as democratic socialists.

It’s a compilation, says Figueredo, that “showcases the [Blue-Brown] class solidarity between wealthy liberals [the ‘vote (corporatist) Blue no matter who’ crowd] and wealthy fascists [the ‘Brown’ in the Blue-Brown coalition, a reference to the Brownshirts of Nazi Germany] who both feel threatened by the rise of socialism.”

Contines Figueredo:

If it feels like they’re more hysterical than ever before, that’s because they are. They’re trying to whip people into a frenzy before Tuesday’s primaries where multiple socialists and socialist adjacent candidates are going to face-off against their establishment opponents.

. . . Our country right now is at a crossroads. Our political establishment has thoroughly failed us. And they’ve failed so badly that the only viable form of politics right now is populism. . . . The question is: Given the choice between psuedo populism in the form of fascist demagoguery and left-wing economic populism in the form of class warfare and socialism, which side are we going to choose?

Figueredo’s timely and insightful 25-minute video commentary can be viewed in its entirety below.





Related Off-site Links:
David Pakman Leads Rich Cringe Dem Revolt Against DSA – Due Dissidence (July 28, 2025).
Corporate Media Losing Its Mind Over Dem Socialist Surge – Status Coup News (July 29, 2025).
Centrists in Shambles As Socialist Francesca Hong Surges to Wisconsin Governor Lead – Breaking Points (July 28, 2026).
The Atlantic Magazine Is Terrified of Democratic Socialism – Jacobin (July 27, 2026).
Kshama Sawant: My Independent Socialist Campaign Will Defeat Adam Smith – Breaking Points (July 27, 2026).
Centrists Are Not More “Electable” – Nathan J. Robinson (Current Affairs, July 27, 2026).
James Carville’s War on the Democratic Left Is Funded by Centrist Billionaires – David Moore (Sludge, July 25, 2026).
Here Comes the Inevitable Backlash to DSA’s Rise – Ross Barkan (The Nation, July 24, 2026).
Our Favorite Progressive Candidate in 2026 – Brendan Trachsel, Green Party Candidate for Arizona House of Representatives District 6 – JeJune Magazine (July 23, 2026).
Kshama Sawant on Confronting Bad Politicians in Both Parties – Nathan J. Robinson (Current Affairs, July 17, 2026).
Revolutionary Optimism Takes Practice – Caitlin Johnstone (Caitlin’s Newsletter, July 20, 2026).
Why the Democratic Party Is Not Going to Save Us From Fascism – The Humanist Report (March 6, 2025).
Dems Reportedly Angry That Progressives Are Pushing Them to Act Like an Opposition Party – Jake Johnson (Common Dreams, February 12, 2025).


See also the previous Wild Reed posts:

SOCIALISM
• Jeff Waldorf: Quote of the Day – July 3, 2026
• Marx and Class Struggle – Then and Now
• A Socialist Agenda for 2026
• Memes of the Times – November 23, 2025
• Matthew Cooke on the Fallacy That Socialism “Doesn't Work”
• No, Hitler and the Nazis Weren’t Socialists
• Socialist Equality Party: Quote of the Day – October 19, 2025
• “Hopeful and Grounded”: Omar Fateh’s Vision of Democratic Socialism
• Mark Harris: Quote of the Day – August 10, 2023
• Heather Cox Richardson on the Origin of the American Obsession with “Socialism”
• Martin Luther King, Jr. and Democratic Socialism
• “We Must Challenge the Entire System”
• The Biblical Roots of “From Each According to Ability; To Each According to Need”


THE FAILURES OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY
• Tony Pentimalli on the Fallacy of the “Safe Political Center”
• Kshama Sawant on the Democrats’ Shutdown Cave
• David Norton: “The Democratic Party Serves Capital, Not You”
• Robert Reich on the “Big Ugly Cave” by Senate Democrats
• Mike Figueredo on the “Political Malpractice” of the Democratic Party
• Ted Rall: Democrats Are Not “the Left”
• Exposing the Dark Money Network Secretly Funding Establishment Democratic Influencers
• Why the Democratic Party Is Not Going to Save Us From Fascism
• Howie Hawkins: “The Democrats Are Not the Answer to the Trump/Fascism Problem”
• The Longstanding Fault Lines Within the Democratic Party Have Surfaced Again in Minnesota
• Jeff Cohen on How Obama’s “Corporate Liberalism” Led to the Rise of Trump
• Progressive Perspectives on Bernie Sanders’ “Fighting Oligarchy” Tour
• Eric Fernández: Quote of the Day – May 14, 2025
• Marianne Williamson: Quote of the Day – July 26, 2025
• Democrat Talk on the Eve of Trump’s Return
• When Democrats Undermine Democracy
• Damned If You Do, Damned If You Don’t


MIKE FIGUEREDO
• “Trump Is Scared Shitless”
• Mike Figueredo on Why Trump Might Be Pushing the U.S. to the Brink of Collapse
• Mike Figueredo: “Elected Democrats Have No Real Interest in Doing What the Base Wants”
• Mike Figueredo on the “Political Malpractice” of the Democratic Party
• How Democrats Can Start Winning Again
• Why the Democratic Party Is Not Going to Save Us From Fascism
• Progressive Perspectives on Marianne Williamson’s 2024 Presidential Run: “There’s No Downside to Her Doing This”


SIGNS OF HOPE
• “The Answer, Actually, Is Hope”
• Eddie Glaude: A “Radical Refusal” Is Happening
• Butch Ware on “Red & Blue vs Green Politics”
• Progressive Perspectives on Zohran Mamdani’s Win in New York City
• “No Kings”? Absolutely. But Also “No Oligarchy”
• Chris Smalls: We Need to Escape the “Two-Party Plantation”
• Kshama Sawant: Independent Working-class Campaigns Can Succeed
• The Rational National’s Take on Zohran Mamdani
• Omar Fateh: “We Need to Meet the Needs of Working People”
• Something to Think About – July 25, 2025
• In His Efforts to “Build a City That Works for All,” Omar Fateh Secures a Key Endorsement
• Butch Ware on His Run for California Governor and the Wider Goal of Disrupting the Duopoly
• Marianne Williamson on the Need for “Radical Love” in Responding to Trump’s Dismantling of Democracy
• “Protesting Is What Patriotism Looks Like in Public”