Ralph Nader pretends he has a choice

I think Sabrina Salvati has a good take on this one

Here's the key passage from Nader's statement. I'm not into the Bezos Post, so I'll quote from The Hill:

“I know the difference between fascism and autocracy, and I’ll take autocracy any time,” Nader said in a telephone interview with the Post. “Fascism is what the GOP is the architecture of, and autocracy is what the Democrats are practitioners of. But autocracy leaves an opening. They don’t suppress votes. They don’t suppress free speech.”

Here one thinks that Nader is starting to make claims that he can't back up. Fascism was something Donald Trump would like to imitate but is too lazy to do much of anything to create. January 6, 2021 was a sick joke: a real fascist coup looks like September 11, 1973.

Joe Biden is a transformative President. He has transformed the business world into an entity which distrusts the United States and the European Union. He's made the "Left" of the United States and the European Union into a new version of the global Right. All the nice liberals love them some Caspar Weinberger-style neoconservative politics now. His proxy war against Russia has led to the deaths of at least 310,000 Ukrainians for no significant reason, and may eventually grant us World War III. The Team Biden-inspired wars on Russia and China have strengthened both nations while weakening Europe, though if you dare to criticize such wars you will be called a "Putin puppet."

I might add that poverty went up 60% from 2021 to 2022, a statistic that puts the lie to all of the "the economy's doing fine under Biden" talk. Watch as Team Biden runs on "the economy."

Eventually, the Joe Biden transformation will give us a world ruled by BRICS in which the US has become a frustrated resident of the semi-periphery and in which much of Europe sinks into the Third World. It will be an authoritarian world, with a lot of closed societies. Thanks, Joe.

Contrary to what Ralph Nader says, Joe Biden loves censorship; in fact, his team is likely to do more in that regard than any Trump team would do simply because Trump is really lazy. Also contrary to what Ralph Nader says, autocracy does not leave you an opening. Oh and he's going to "help Biden" -- yeah, that'll work. Supporting Joe is -- as far as I can tell -- the best way to help Donald Trump, 'cause let's all develop Trump Derangement Syndrome and pledge allegiance to a guy who can't campaign effectively, who is significantly behind in the polls, and who has nothing to promise anyone. But, really, it's beginning to look like Ralph Nader has become another example of the complete atrophy of political imagination of which Cornelius Castoriadis complained.

On a cheerier note, here's Norman Finkelstein:

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snoopydawg's picture

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Just what does he think censorship is? Or all the other ways that Biden has taken to deny us our rights like when he wrote the patriot act and is going after Americans that don’t agree with what the government is doing? Calling everyone who questions the election or the response to the Rona epidemic a domestic terrorist.

Trump didn’t create a ministry of truth. Biden did. I really want to know exactly what Trump did that was fascist. And don’t say that he tried to overthrow the government. I’d think that would be hard to do without the help from the military which he didn’t use. In fact he offered the military to protect the capital on 1/6, but Pelosi turned him down. Just so fcking tired of people thinking that Trump was something he wasn’t.

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“When out of fear you twist the lesser evil into the lie that it is something good, you eventually rob people of the capacity to distinguish between good and evil.”
~ Hannah Arendt

Cassiodorus's picture

@snoopydawg That's the main theme of Molly Jong-Fast's piece in Vanity Fair, "Let's not sleepwalk into another Trump presidency." Key sentence:

After so many years of Trump’s outrageous comments, lies, grievances, and threats, it’s hard to be shocked anymore.

So, you see, it's what he says that incites Trump Derangement Syndrome. His Supreme Court appointments, his tax cut for the rich, Louis DeJoy, and the CARES Act sucked, to be sure, but these acts pale in comparison with what comes out of his mouth.

As for Molly Jong-Fast, here is her conclusion:

our country is once again sleepwalking into disaster

Team Biden would like to have it both ways, you see. The country is doing great under their rule, according to them, but at the same time we're sleepwalking into disaster.

Now, if you really want to see panic, I would recommend reading the millionaire pundit Cenk Uygur. I await Uygur's change of tune if and when Trump is convicted and becomes incapable of campaigning behind bars.

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"The expansion of Israel and its proxies is an absolute fundamental necessity for the United States." - Tim Walz

janis b's picture

was that Nader either feels like he has to redeem himself before it’s too late by rewriting history, or he’s also deranged.

Norman Finkelstein makes a good argument for being opportunistic.

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The Liberal Moonbat's picture

I am so freaking disappointed.

I am at a loss.

This does not make any sense short of them literally sticking some some kind of sci-fi body-horror-type macguffin in his ear.

Why bother speculating how?

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In the Land of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man is declared mentally ill for describing colors.

Yes Virginia, there is a Global Banking Conspiracy!

for the love of money, there would be no love at all.

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QMS's picture

@kelly

some decisions are made to maintain the political beast

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truth is considered foreign influence, world peace is a threat to national security

Oh well...the dems needed some sheepdogs this election as that role last time was done by Chomsky of all people.

Prominent left veterans say vote Biden-Harris, then keep organizing

Angela Davis, Noam Chomsky, Cornell West, and Frances Fox Piven are among many prominent left-wing voices who are encouraging a vote for the Biden-Harris ticket, despite the shortcomings of the candidates, in order to block the greater danger posed by Trump's continued occupancy of the White House.

And will they come forward again and endorse Biden over Trump?? My latest speculation is that Biden will not run and the DNC power centers will anoint Hillary Clinton over Harris. Saw some speculation that Michele Obama might be the preferred candidate if Biden cannot run.

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Pricknick's picture

@MrWebster

Michele Obama might be the preferred candidate if Biden cannot run.

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Regardless of the path in life I chose, I realize it's always forward, never straight.

@Pricknick

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Pluto's Republic's picture

Democracy lost its meaning in the US.

The obsolete Constitution made it all possible.

The only choice in Federal elections will always be the lesser of two evils.

No matter how you vote, the country is taking you somewhere that you don't want to go.

The most incarcerated people in the world were given the vote and told that they were free.

A.I. is designing and coding the robots that it will inhabit in service to the ideal of automation.

People cannot speak freely and organize themselves; their guns will be used to kill each other.

Domestic politics is a dangerous distraction that absorbs the people's energy and returns noise and confusion.

The People's destiny will be decided by the wealthy elite who intend to rule the world; they have no use for so many.

Only China that is working to empower people worldwide can stop them. This is the reason a big war is coming.

That's one possibility.

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Populations don’t like wars. They have to be lied into it.
That means we can be “truthed” into peace. — Julian Assange
QMS's picture

@Pluto's Republic

"and told that they were free"

serious stuff there Pluto

thanks

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truth is considered foreign influence, world peace is a threat to national security

Cassiodorus's picture

that Cenk Uygur appears ready to take his complaint about Biden to the next level:

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"The expansion of Israel and its proxies is an absolute fundamental necessity for the United States." - Tim Walz

Pricknick's picture

@Cassiodorus
is lower than a snakes belly. Funny how some are sucking up to him again. Maybe markos has found a new crash test dummy.

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Regardless of the path in life I chose, I realize it's always forward, never straight.

Cassiodorus's picture

@Pricknick -- that Cenk Uygur is panicking, that for some reason he has lost faith in Team Biden, that maybe he's in real life (or at least in acting career) not okay with Team Biden's losing to "Donald Trump" or (really) whomever the actual nominee happens to be. All the other obedient Democrats seem pretty bland about it, and then you have backhanded Nader's "we're stuck with Biden". Maybe he thinks he ought to act up the role, that if he's really committed to Trump Derangement Syndrome he ought to put up a show of actual derangement or something like that. Right now I'd love to be as awash in money as that crowd is.

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"The expansion of Israel and its proxies is an absolute fundamental necessity for the United States." - Tim Walz

@Cassiodorus full of himself if he thinks he'll get more than 1.2% of the vote, at best. He's run once for office, house seat in the LA Valley area, and came in a distant 4th with an embarrassingly low total. And most bully-type guys will be voting for their favorite bully Trump, so Cenk has no natural constituency.

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Cassiodorus's picture

@Cassiodorus .

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"The expansion of Israel and its proxies is an absolute fundamental necessity for the United States." - Tim Walz

almost the same argument about the difference between fascist Trump and mere authoritarian Biden and he has only nice things to say about Cornel's GP candidacy. Like the GP, Nader only seemed to show up every 4 yrs during the presidential election cycle. He should logically endorse CW, but instead interposes some bureaucratic objection about the GP not being organized, which of course is true but shouldn't be a sufficient reason to withhold an endorsement.

Nader was always an odd duck, maybe he was 100% organic, maybe not. It's something writer David Halberstam (from the same smallish CT town) noticed very early on in Nader's career.

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