Four Political Commentaries Worth Viewing

I share this evening four recent video commentaries that caught my attention. All four come from independent media sources.

In the first of these, Mike Figueredo of The Humanist Report discusses a New York Times story that’s been getting a lot of attention. This is because it highlights a private meeting between House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner in which “common ground” on various issues was reportedly sought. (The image above is itself a commentary on this meeting.) Figuerdo also explains why this meeting should disqualify Jeffries from being the next Speaker of the House.






In introducing this evening’s second video, I’ll just say that I really appreciate Keith Edwards’ 13-minute response (below) to Abdul El-Sayed’s viral appearance on fascist blowhard Jesse Watters’ FOX News show.






Video commentary number three tonight is the Why I Hate Politics podcast’s response to Rashad Richey’s “epic takedown” of Hakeem Jeffries. This 23-minute video also spotlights recent comments by Ta-Nehisi Coates (comments which were highlighted in this previous Wild Reed post).






I conclude by coming full circle with another commentary by Mike Figueredo. Posted earlier today, this 18-minute video is introduced by Figuerdo as follows.

AIPAC-backed Democrats are attacking Hasan Piker again in another coordinated campaign, but this latest manufactured controversy may take the cake for being the most laughably performative act of political theater of all time. The Democrats in question (who support genocide) are accusing Hasan (who opposes genocide) of inciting hate during a stream where he was talking about how inciting hatred is bad. Yes, you read that correctly. They’re cynically twisting his words to pretend like he’s saying the exact opposite of what he’s actually saying. They could be criticizing Trump, but instead, they’re obsessing about a Twitch streamer to signal to their base that opposition to Israel’s genocide won’t be tolerated. In this video we’ll talk about this outrageous defamation campaign and how gross it is that these genocide-supporting clowns are co-opting social justice language to defend atrocities.

Related Off-site Links:
“Pathetic Stuff”: Jeffries Rebuked Over Secret Meeting With Kushner – Jon Queally (Common Dreams, August 23, 2026).
What’s the Rationale for Jeffries to Talk Secretly With Kushner? – Martin Burns (Common Dreams, August 24, 2026).
“I Hate Democrats, But I Love Abdul”: Voters Who Left Over Gaza Return for Progressive Push – Minnah Arshad (The Guardian, August 23, 2026).
Fox Host Ends Show After Getting Cooked – The Adam Mockler Show (August 25, 2026).
Hunter Biden Tells Dems To Stop Smearing Hasan Piker – The Majority Report (August 26, 2026).
Hakeem Jeffries Proves Ta-Nehisi Coates’ Major Point About Dems – Indisputable with Dr. Rashad Richey (August 18, 2026).


See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Ashley Stevens: Quote of the Day – August 18, 2026
• “Our Country Right Now Is At a Crossroads”
• Abdul El-Sayed: The Disruptor Michigan (and the Country) Needs
• Mapping Ta-Nehisi Coates’ Defection from the “Obama Hypnosis”
• 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”
• Why the Democratic Party Is Not Going to Save Us From Fascism
• 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

“Woke 1.0” as Revisionist History

In my view the 32-minute BreakThrough News segment below is a must-see as it explains a lot about what we’re currently witnessing in U.S. politics and society.

Here’s how this segment is introduced on the independent news outlet’s Facebook page.

[The year] 2020 wasn’t a joke – but is “Woke 1.0” proof of a calculated pivot to the right? Both Alexandia Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) and Zohran Mamdani dismissed the George Floyd uprising against police violence as "crazy," but as Rania Khalek and Zoe Alexandra argue this isn’t just careless language: it’s a warning sign of how the Democratic Party disciplines “progressives” to protect the ruling class from socialism’s growing popularity.

Rania and Zoe break down Mamdani’s shift – from explicitly linking NYPD militarization to Israel in 2023, to stating las Wednesday that “defund the police” was a mistake – and argue this isn't an organic evolution, it’s a bet that toeing the party line is the only way to survive in a corporate, genocide-funding party built to crush movements, not represent them.

It’s a growing pattern of capitulation: Mamdani, AOC, and Brad Lander all backing Hakeem Jeffries for House Speaker despite his defense of Israeli apartheid and genocide; Michigan’s William Lawrence disavowing Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) membership within a month of winning his primary on DSA organizing; and Abdul El-Sayed enthusiastically embracing Kamala Harris’s endorsement despite her role enabling the annihilation of Gaza.

“2020 wasn’t some mass psychotic break. It was the largest uprising in modern American history, because tens of millions of people watched a police officer kneel on George Floyd’s neck for over nine minutes until he died – suffocated to death, on camera, in broad daylight,” says Rania Khalek.

If the movement lets these betrayals go unanswered, what stops Abolish ICE, Medicare for All, and Free Palestine from being next on the chopping block?

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:

THE STATE OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY
• Ashley Stevens: Quote of the Day – August 18, 2026
• “Our Country Right Now Is At a Crossroads”
• Abdul El-Sayed: The Disruptor Michigan (and the Country) Needs
• 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”
• Adam Bates on the Team Blue / Kamala “I Told Ya So” Smugness Tour
• When the “Blue Wave” Is a “Blue Crackdown”
• 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


ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ
• When Democrats Undermine Democracy
• AOC Falls in Line
• Progressive Perspectives on Bernie Sanders and AOC’s “Fighting Oligarchy” Tour
• Eric Fernández: Quote of the Day – May 14, 2025
• Dorothy Lennon: Quote of the Day – June 25, 2025


THE RISE OF FASCISM IN THE U.S.
• George Conway: The Trump Administration Is a “Criminal Organization”
• Mark Greene on How ICE Is a Weapon of the Epstein Class
• Tommy J. Housman on Reactions to the “Defining Image” of Trump’s America
• James Greenberg: “I Am in Mourning for America”
• An Incident That Feels “Ripped from a Dystopian Novel”
• The “Creeping Fascism of Trump’s America”: A View from Australia
• Will Potter on Trump’s War on Dissent: “This Is What Fascists Do”
• Derek Johnson on the “Courage to Call Fascism by Its Name”
• Jason Duchin: Quote of the Day – September 24, 2025
• Staying Strong in Trump’s Fascist America
• James Greenberg on the Identity Politics of MAGA
• “This Is What Fascism Looks Like in Practice”
• Garrett Graff: “America Tips Into Fascism”
• Marianne Williamson: “We’re Moving Into Totalitarianism”
• “It’s Here, and We Are Sleepwalking Through It”
• Khalil Gibran Muhammad on Donald Trump’s Militarization of Law Enforcement
• Marianne Williamson: Quote of the Day – June 20, 2025


THE GREEN PARTY
• Butch Ware on Why Third Parties Are Crucial
• Campaigning With the Green Party
• With the Green Party at Twin Cities Pride
• 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

Mapping Ta-Nehisi Coates’ Defection from the “Obama Hypnosis”

Earlier today the Due Dissidence podcast posted the following a 30-minute video in which hosts Russ Dobular and Keaton Weiss explore the evolution of Ta-Nehisi Coates – from “the Obama administratuon’s favorite essayist” to an outspoken critic of both the Obama legacy and the Biden/Harris complicity in the Israeli regime’s genocide of the Palestinian people in Gaza. As one commemator notes on YouTube, “It took Coates long enough, but at least he got there. If only others can defect from the Obama hypnosis.”

Coates is a writer and social commemtator I’ve come to greatly appreciate and respect, and I’m currently reading his 2024 book, The Message.





See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Ta-Nehisi Coates: Quote of the Day – November 2, 2023
• Progressives and Obama
• The Lamentable Legacy of the Biden Administration

Related Off-site Links:
Ta-Nehisi Coates on Obama’s Legacy in a Trump World – Tim Miller (The Balwark, June 19, 2026).
Reckoning With Harris’ Silence On Gaza: An Interview with Ta-Nehisi Coates – The Majority Report (June 28, 2026).
Did Kamala Harris’s Silence on Gaza Cost Her the White House? – Ta-Nehisi Coates (Vanity Fair, June 15, 2026).
“I Don’t Get It!” Ta-Nehisi Coates Stunned by Centrist Democrats’ Opposition to Progressive Candidates – MS Now (June 27, 2026).
The Blood-and-Soil Nationalism That Killed Alex Pretti and Renee Good – Ta-Nehisi Coates (Vanity Fair, January 26, 2026).
Ta-Nehisi Coates Rips Ezra Klein’s Kirk Praise to Shreds – The Majority Report (September 17, 2025).
Is America More Racist Than Britain? An Interview with Ta-Nehisi Coates – Ash Sarkar (Novara Media, April 6, 2025).
Have We Missed The Message? An Interview with Ta-Nehisi Coates – Trevor Noan (What Now?, October 10, 2024).

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)
Centrists Are Not More “Electable” – Nathan J. Robinson (Current Affairs, 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)

“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”

Chris Smalls: The Working-Class Revolution Is Coming

An American hero of mine, Chris Smalls, was recently a guest on The Real News Network. Here’s how his conversation with host Maximillian Alvarez is described on the podcast’s Facebook page:

We sit down with Chris Smalls, co-founder and former president of the Amazon Labor Union, to discuss Smalls’ new book, When the Revolution Comes: A Fight for the Future of the Working Class, the incredible story of the formation of the Amazon Labor Union and the unionization of the first Amazon warehouse in the U.S., and Smalls’ journey from warehouse worker and labor organizer to internationally recognized public figure and human rights activist who has sailed with humanitarian flotilla missions to Gaza and Cuba.

Following is The Real News Network’s full 45-minute interview with Chris Smalls.





Related Off-site Links:
Why Are White Leftists Silent About This? – Sabrina Salvati (Sabby Sabs, June 10, 2026).
Jacobin Smears Chris Smalls for Defying AOC in Cringe Article – Due Dissidence (June 9, 2026).
Chris Smalls Is Still Fighting the Bosses – Alex Skopic (Current Affairs, June 2, 2026).
“Amazon Is the New Slavery”: Chris Smalls on the Labor Fight of a Lifetime – Sara Franklin (The Nation, June 2, 2026).
A Better World: An Interview with Chris Smalls – Annika Bratton (Publishers Weekly, April 3, 2026).
My Interview with Chris Smalls – Marianne Williamson (Transform, July 31, 2022).


See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Chris Smalls’ “Unforgivable Sin”: Connecting the Warehouse to the Empire
• Kshama Sawant on the Real Reason for Jacobin Magazine’s “Hatchet Job” on Chris Smalls
• Steven Donziger’s Shout-Out to Chris Smalls
• Chris Smalls: We Need to Escape the “Two-Party Plantation”
• Carlos LeMar Dixon: Without Revolutionary Action, We’re Just “Entertaining the Kings”
• Quote of the Day – August 5, 2025
• U.S. Labor Leader Chris Smalls Joins the Crew of the Handala

Butch Ware on Why Third Parties Are Crucial

Earlier today Butch Ware, Green Party candidate for California Governor, was a guest on Cam James’s podcast The Fact Check with Cam James.

In this hour-long interview, Butch talks about the difference between liberals and leftists, and why independent people-powered parties (often referred to as “third parties”) are crucial to the health and survival of U.S. democracy. He also shares his percepctive on his removal from the ballot by the Democratic establishment in California, and the differences and similarities between the two major corporatist/oligarchic parties – “Team Blue Genocide and Team Red Fascism,” as Ware calls them.

Says Ware:

A majority of registered voters [63%] say that both parties do such a “poor job” that a “third major party” is needed. . . . The two-party system is a fabrication [and] the “lesser of two evils” argument was actually formulated by the CIA in the 1960s to try to prevent the emergence of genuine leftist politics, and especially of genuine Black leftist politics. It’s a psyop [psychological operation], and we’re living under it. The people who live outside of this constant mental conditioning see through it. . . . What we perceive from the inside as a battle between Democrats and Republicans is actually a factional dispute inside a single capitalist, imperialist, white supremacist party. They alternate power back and forth, and that’s it. What they never do is create space for you to express your political dissent from the capitalist, imperialist, white supremacist framework in its totality. . . . The system is so fragile right now. We can break the duopoly control. A majority of people do not identify with this political system at all. The time is ripe for a third party. And you know who knows it? The Democrats. That’s the reason why they’ve sued to knock me off the ballot in California [and] the reason they spent 20 million dollars trying to knock Dr. Jill Stein and myself off the ballot in 2024.

Following is more of what Dr. Ware says in the above interview.

The relationship between Team Blue Genocide and Team Red Fascism is that one steals while the other holds the bag. So while one can argue that Republicans were responsible for overturning Roe v. Wade, when the Democrats had control over the House, the Senate, and the White House, did they protect Roe v. Wade? Did they enshine and codify it into law?

Just ask yourself a set of questions about what function the Democrats are actually playing. . . . They have preferred to weaponize issues and rights [a woman’s right to choose, the Voting Rights Act, affirmative action, and DEI) as ways to activate their voter base in “lesser of two evils” arguments rather than just securing and protecting [all of these rights] because their job is actually to weaponize your fear of Team Red in order for them to undertake identical policies.

[For instance] I push back strongly against the idea that the Republicans are [solely] responsible for ICE. The Democrats massively funded and escalated ICE. The Democrats were the ones responsible for starting the policies of family separations, for pioneering putting kids in cages. Trump, despite the theatrics of the [recent] escalation, and the visibility and the fascist violence we see in the streets, is still chasing Obama’s deportation record. He can’t catch the “Deporter in Chief.” . . . The problem is when Rebuplicans do it, liberals resist; and when the Democrats do it, liberals applaud.

. . . Voters are constantly fear-mongered about the other side being worse. . . . It’s a toxic relationship. The Republicans do the same thing with Democrats that Democrats do with Republicans. It is a game of mutual recrimination and fear that is built on stoking a fake culture war that does not affect the money flow of the corporations and the billionaires that are at the top of the system. They want you identifying with those parties because they know that those parties serve their interests one way or the other.

[A major study from 2014 showed] that there is “little or no” correlation between what either the Democratic voting base or the Republican voting base want and what our elected officials do. But there is a 100% correlation between what the donor class wants and what the political parties do. And the reason is simple: who funds you runs you.

. . . My colleague at UC-Riverside, Dylan Rodriguez, says that "the Democrat Party is the most effective counter-insurgency organization ever to come into existence in human history." They are where real possibilities for change go to die.

If you remove the Democrats from the equation, American fascism becomes virtually impossible because that hard white supremacist core that is driving the extreme right is actually a small fraction of people. But people are so disaffected with the Democrats and do not see any possibility of any emancipation coming through their corrupt capitalist imperialist practices, that they disengage. If we had an actual opposition party rather than just two factions of a single white supremacist party, coalitions which are possible would [form and] drown out this small hard core kernal of white supremacy. [That core] would become vastly outnumbered once the Democrats are out of the way.

But the Democrats are in the way of a real opposition party emerging, and they have to continuously weaponize identity politics in order to keep that position of material privilege where they control the access to resources. As long as they are there, no liberation is possible.

– Butch Ware
May 31, 2026

NEXT: Dorothy Lennon:
Quote of the Day – June 1, 2026

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 the Democrats’ “Lawfare” to Keep Greens Off the Ballot
• 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
• Oliver Kornetzke’s Epic Takedown of the Liberal Tactic of Blaming and Shaming Leftists

Campaigning With the Green Party of Minnesota

Here in Minnesota, four of the state’s Green Party endorsed candidates require a certain number of signatures from the public in order to be on the ballot in November.

Accordingly, over the past two weeks I’ve joined with other local Greens in collecting signatures for Steve Young and Jane Kirby, Green Party candidates for Governor and Lieutenant Governor; Seth Kuhl-Stennes, Green Party candidate for Secretary of State; and Ngone Niang, Green Party candidate for State Senate District 39.

In the image above, for instance, I’m with fellow members of the Lavender Caucus of the Green Party of Minnesota at The 19 Bar, the oldest gay bar in Minneapolis and among the oldest in the United States ~ Thursday, May 28, 2026.

Above and below: Gathering signatures at a speaking event in New Brighton featuring Norman Finkelstein ~ Saturday, May 23, 2026. Pictured fourth from left is Ngone Niang, Green Party candidate for State Senate District 39.

Above: With my friend Rachel Braaten. We’re at Shish Mediterranean Kitchen, taking a break from collecting signatures on Grand Avenue in St. Paul ~ Sunday, May 24, 2026. Rachel is the Green Party candidate for Three Rivers Park Board District 3.

Above: My friend Jane Kirby, Green Party candidate for MN Lieutenant Governor ~ Sunday, May 24, 2026.

Above: Steve Young and Jane Kirby, Green Party candidates for Governor and Lieutenant Governor.

___________________

6/7/26 UPDATE

After submitting above and beyond the necessary number of signatures, the Minnesota Secretary of State’s office has verified that all four Green Party MN candidates requiring of signatures are officially on the ballot for November 2026.

Congratulations Steve, Jane,
Seth and Ngone!
Following is Socialist News and Views’ June 1 interview with Steve Young and Jane Kirby, Green Party candidates for MN Governor and Lieutenant Governor.






NEXT: Steve Young: “The Fascist Fist
Is Tightening Because It Knows That
It Is Losing Its Grasp on Us”

Related Off-site Links:
Green Party of Minnesota Endorses Four Candidates for 2026 Election – Cam Gordon (Finding a Green Way to Govern, April 24, 2026).
An Interview with MN Green Party Gubernatorial Candidates Steven Young and Jane Kirby – The Truth Expedition (June 3, 2026).


See also the related Wild Reed posts:
• Butch Ware on Why Third Parties Are Crucial
• “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

Images: Michael J. Bayly and friends.