Category Archives: Blogging

24 Years of Seeing the Forest

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Seeing the Forest’s first post was on July 16, 2002.

That was the “Welcome” post. The next post was a real post.

Ralph Nader is a Scab
Posted on July 16, 2002 by Dave Johnson
In the union movement we learned the hard way that the only way to fight the moneyed interests is to stick together. It’s called SOLIDARITY. It’s what “union” MEANS.

When unions are in a fight the members stick together, and those crossing the lines are called “scabs”.

In the 2000 election it was the usual fragile Democratic coalition fighting the usual moneyed interests. Ralph Nader broke the solidarity, divided the coalition, and lost us the election. Ralph Nader is a scab.

The right always uses divide-and-conqueer to win. Sun Tzu wrote about it around 2500 years ago. “If his forces are united, separate them.” “If sovereign and subject are in accord, put division between them.” etc.

Imagine if Nader hadn’t divided the forces we now understand as anti-fascist. Gore would have won Florida and a few other states. The Iraq war would not have happened. The country would have started to fight the climate crisis. The Supreme Court (and everything else) would not be far right and corrupt…

Campfire Politics

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I encourage people to visit Campfire Politics, a new site for progressives to visit.

Campfire Politics is a curated progressive political digest – the best thinking from across the left, delivered with a wry eye and zero patience for bullshit. Think of it as The Week, but with a backbone.

Check out the About page.

Twenty-Third Blog Birthday

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This is the 23rd birthday of Seeing the Forest’s first post.

On July 17, 2002 the post Seeing the Forest explained,

Recent polls show that the public is blaming Clinton for the business scandals, and Bush’s popularity remains astronomical. That’s a tree.

Let’s see if we can see the forest. Look back to the 2000 election. Step back and look at the candidates.

The Democrat’s candidate was a well respected, well liked, extremely experienced, Vietnam vet, former seminary student, character beyond reproach, faithfully married family man, foreign policy expert, with many accomplishments including being the person in the Congress most responsible for advancing the Internet… The Republicans ran a foul-mouthed thoroughly inexperienced scandal-ridden (Harken oil, Rangers stadium, recipient of bribes directed at his father) failed businessman, continuously bailed out of jams by his father’s connections, draft-dodger (worse, he got into the Nat. Guard through connections and then played hooky!), former drunk, probable drug-user, kids constantly in trouble, with a campaign entirely financed by large corporations obviously looking for favors.

But by election time the only issue was “character”, and the character in question was the Democratic candidate’s! That’s the forest.

Issues like the “Love Canal story” and “I invented the Internet” were trees. The forest was how they pulled it off – the smears, the propaganda blitz, the way they spread their message and the way people hear messages these days.

With this weblog I’ll be writing about this issue, seeing the forest for the trees.

From 2005, “THEY MEAN IT”

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I feel like I spent my “blogging” career trying to warn America what they were letting happen. I mostly stopped writing when all I could think to say was, “I told you so.” (For more click here.)

From 2005, They Mean It:
—

These people mean it. America is an experiment. Democracy is an experiment. American democracy has not been around very long, and we have never been so perilously close to losing it. All the checks and balances have been removed by allies of these people. They mean it. The leader of the Senate is saying that Democrats hate “people of faith.” They mean it. Time magazine puts on their cover a person who calls for murdering us.

They mean it. A Supreme Court Justice declares that rulers should be chosen by God, not the people. They mean it. The Vice President is the keynote speaker at a conference where other speakers called for “a new McCarthyism” to bring “terror” to intellectuals, saying “let’s oppress them [liberals],” and that “the entire Harvard faculty” are “traitors.” They mean it. They mean it.

Watch your backs. I mean it.

July 16 Marks 20 Years Of Seeing the Forest

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What a long, strange trip it’s been.

First post, July 16, 2002, Ralph Nader is a Scab:

In the union movement we learned the hard way that the only way to fight the moneyed interests is to stick together. It’s called SOLIDARITY. It’s what “union” MEANS.

When unions are in a fight the members stick together, and those crossing the lines are called “scabs”.

In the 2000 election it was the usual fragile Democratic coalition fighting the usual moneyed interests. Ralph Nader broke the solidarity, divided the coalition, and lost us the election. Ralph Nader is a scab.

No one was “taught a lesson” by people voting for a 3rd party to “teach the Democrats a lesson.” We got Bush and death and corruption and destruction. OBVIOUSLY “the Democrats” did not learn the lesson.

Vote for the right person in primaries! Get the bad Democrats out. Then show up and vote for the Democrat in the general. No matter what. Otherwise the fascists win.

Blog Hero Award — Atrios

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I used to give a Blog Hero Award. Now “Atrios” has written one of the best blog posts ever so I’m reviving the award.

Atrios is hereby awarded a coveted (and rare) Blog Hero Award for his post, The Sensibles:

Start with a proposal that does 80% of the job, whittle it down to 60% to make it cheaper just because, cut that in half to please Republicans who won’t vote for it anyway, throw in some additional complication and means testing to please random “moderate” Democrats, and you’re left with something that is complicated and confusing that you’re unable (or justifiably unwilling) to take credit for. Then spend another 3 months “debating” it just to give time for people all over the spectrum to point out why it’s shit.

This is what the supposedly sensible, moderate, grown up politicians do. Then they can blame The Left because twitter user TrotskyChavez420 tweeted, “fuck the pigs.”

On “Speaking Fees,” Biden and Yellen

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In the 90s there was a scandal about “buckraking,” where journalists were reporting positively about certain moneyed interests while raking in huge “speaking fees” from them. (A good example was 1996’s Money Talks by Howard Kurtz, Part 1, Part 2.)

While Congress has since banned honoraria for its members, the market for reporters and pundits who speak to business audiences has never been hotter. Some big-name media people routinely receive $15,000, $30,000, even $50,000 for a single speech. And the bulk of that money comes from corporations and lobbying organizations with more than a passing interest in the issues the journalists write about and yak about for a living.

Continue reading →

I Told You So

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I hate being a dirty hippie blogger with nothing left to say except, “I told you so,”

I started “telling you so” in 2004,

Jeeze. These stupid, incompetent, ideologically insane, hateful, arrogant, cultish, corrupt, right-wing, ignorant CLUCKS got duped, sold us out, made fools of us, betrayed us, destroyed our honor, besmirched our good name, bankrupted us, sold us up the river, destroyed our reputation, undermined our integrity, and killed thousands.

Then there was the Housing Bubble… I wrote lots and lots of posts warning about what would happen, starting in 2005.

So MANY warnings, and I told you so…

2013, Filibuster: Hate To Say It But We Told You So,

One side is being nice, always caving, compromising and conceding. The other side uses every smidgen of its power — and more — to advance the interests of its constituency.

The result is always the same: more for the billionaires; We, the People lose out.

Anyway, the bloggers were right. We told you so.

Holiday Card From The Johnsons

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Happy Holidays from the Johnsons:

That’s our dog Paddington. Scrooge, the ghost of Christmas present…

The back of the card:
Published by Sudeep Johnson
Doggie Paw Cards, Inc.
www.doggiepawcards.com
Many thanks to Paddington the little white dog, without whom this card would not have been possible.

Here is last year’s: Holiday Card From The Johnsons. (That card has a link to the previous year’s, which has a link to the previous year’s, etc…)

I’m Not Dead

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I’m just in a period of reflection.

In this time of Trump the only thing I seem to be able to write would be, “I told you so” and no one wants to hear that. The bloggers were right…

In the meantime I am starting a site (in progress) at http://democracyandcommunity.org/, “Imagine Democracy.”

When I’m dead I’ll post about it here.