The Democratic Party's Last Walz

"Joyful warriors" Kamala and Tim laugh and play pretend while our bombs massacre hundreds of children in Gaza and World War III looms. Their shocking lack of conscience suggests the party's over.

Put on a happy face. “Joy” all around as Wall Street, the war profiteers, the for-profit prison industry and the health care conglomerates pour hundreds of millions into the Harris/Walz ticket. Victory is certain for the same donors who ushered in the era of Trump.

For some reason the announcement of Tim Walz being chosen for Kamala Harris’s running mate didn’t have me running to social media to tell everyone what a nice down-to-earth daddy he is. While VP’s can make a difference when their president is rudderless as Dick Cheney did with George W Bush, they can only hold disproportionate influence when their objective is war, but peace is another matter entirely. Even if Walz were the most notorious peacenik this side of John F Kennedy, which he most certainly is not, there is little hope that he could have any influence on those who are running the country. As Walz waltzes around the country making claims that he carried weapons of war “in war” (he never saw combat), the controversy becomes not about the fact that the military adventurism of the Democratic Party is crippling civil society here and abroad but the partisan semantics of Walz’s actual service. Liberal media accuses Republican vice-presidential candidate JD Vance of “swift-boating” Walz, while conservative media accuses Walz of “stolen valor,” with the truth being somewhere inbetween. The Harris campaign eventually released a statement admitting that Walz “misspoke” regarding his military service, the one certainty being that he never was in Iraq or Afghanistan or in any combat theatre that would see him carrying a weapon “in war.” Walz faced similar claims in 2006 regarding the embellishment of his service record, so this “joyous hunk of pure midwestern dad” turns out to be another shifty political expedient, although he’s still “our” political expedient.

While Republican accusations of “stolen valor” might be a bit dramatic, the reality is that Tim Walz intentionally misrepresented his military service. Just like any other not as cuddly establishment politician.

With all of the focus on the military, and the increasing certainty that Harris is indeed another Biden or Hillary Clinton or worse, doesn’t anybody wonder who is in command of current military operations and strategy? In light of escalating tensions between Iran and Israel, and a perpetual proxy war with Russia, we are directly involved in multiple wars and genocides that could escalate into World War III and/or nuclear confrontation at a moment’s notice. Biden is currently unfit to serve, much less make strategic decisions regarding the fate of humanity. Yet it has been reported that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has ordered more missile defense warships and aircraft carriers to the Middle East. On August 3rd, Austin deployed a fighter squadron to the region. Considering that Secretary Austin is fresh off his stint as a million-dollar board member of the war profiteer Raytheon, and that he marketed the Ukraine-Russia conflict as a “long, drawn-out war,” he is the last person I want making decisions regarding war and peace. We are presently sending $125 million more in military aid, much of it going to domestic war profiteers, to continue the destruction of Ukraine in order to weaken Putin. The “Biden administration” approved $20 billion of additional arms sales to Israel after it just killed hundreds more children. Who actually proposed and signed off on this spending, and why would anyone do so at this point? Liberals evidently could care less who is leading the country and overseeing the killing as long as it’s not Trump

In the interest of the stated US goal of de-escalation in the Middle East we are sending fighter squadrons and aircraft carriers to the Middle East. Democrats can’t possibly think Biden is capable of making decisions regarding escalation towards World War III in the region, or perhaps as long as it’s not Trump they don’t really care.

Even if we accept the grim reality that Biden mistakes war and genocide for foreign policy and diplomacy, in this democratic republic of ours there is supposed to be someone outside of the military mitigating their decision-making process. We have seen precious little of Biden since he was forced out of the presidential race apart from generic staff authored partisan social media statements heaping praise upon Harris and Walz and one disastrous interview. Harris is too obsessed with her own rise to power to have any interest in the prospect of World War III, and judging from her history of siding with the establishment and her faux progressivism, we’re likely all the better for it.

<Look at the contempt on Harris’s face as she scolds peace protestors. That day 20 children were killed by Israeli forces. Two days later, nearly100 more were killed in an airstrike on a school. Harris’s statement on those bombings was “too many civilians are being killed.” What a “joyful warrior” she is.>

Of course, Harris has no moral compass and has said nothing substantive about policy, so her choice of Walz for VP has the faux left giddy that he will push Harris towards some vague form of progressivism. But when interrupted by peace protestors at a Detroit Rally, Harris exclaimed with a dour face and disdainful tone "You know what? If you want Donald Trump to win, then say that. Otherwise, I'm speaking" to the rabid cheers and jeers of her MAGA lite supporters. Here is your candidate who is “historic” because she is a black woman shaking her finger at Palestinian women standing up for their right not to be massacred by her administration. If she was any type of warrior for black women she would have taken action as soon at it was apparent that Israel was murdering civilians in cold blood and that women were unable to access health care due to Israel’s purposeful destruction of hospitals in Gaza. But instead she chooses to turn her base against the peace activists who are defending Palestinian women. It doesn’t matter to her base because to them Gaza and the the activists protecting women and children from our weapons of war are just obstacles to beating Trump, nothing more. And it doesn’t matter what Walz’s views are on the subject because he’s just such a cuddly good ol’ boy.

Just for laughs. A happy meeting with Benjamin Netanyahu during Harris’s 2019 presidential run.

Both Harris and Walz share Democratic leadership’s imperialist fantasies when it comes to foreign policy, particularly as they pertains to loyalty to the right-wing theocracy of Israel and autocracies around the globe. In 2017 when Obama abstained from voting against a UN resolution condemning Israeli settlements as illegal, it was Kamala Harris’s first act to co-sponsor a resolution condemning Obama’s failure to vote against the resolution and protect Israel. Walz was in Congress at the time and voted in favor of Harris’s resolution. The Consul General of Israel to the Midwest, Yinam Cohen, met with Walz two years ago, boasting "It was an honor to work with Governor Walz on deepening the Israel-Minnesota partnership. Thank you Governor Walz for standing with the people of Israel in our darkest hour on October 7. The strategic alliance between the U.S. and Israel is strong and ongoing." On October 7th, Walz rushed to a synagogue to make certain to condemn the Hamas violence, saying in his photo op appearance "If you didn't find moral clarity on Saturday morning, you need to reevaluate where you are. What was clear on Saturday morning is the complete lack of humanity, terror and barbarism. This is not a geopolitical discussion. It's murder." Walz has heaped praise upon Netanyahu in the past and introduced a motion to include emphasis on the “importance of Israel” to the Minnesota public school system.

The sounds of silence. Tim Walz has repeatedly spoken of “moral clarity” as it pertains to the Hamas attack of October 7th, yet does not mention the hundreds of schoolchildren killed by US bombs demolishing the few schools still left standing in Gaza over the past two weeks alone.

Apparently that moral clarity Walz thinks we all should have discovered on October 7th only pertains to Israelis, as both Harris and Walz have had precious little to say about Israel’s genocide at all apart from obligatory and isolated statements of feigned concern. During the first 10 days of their campaign tour over 200 children have been murdered by Israel in attacks on school buildings. Not even crocodile tears from Harris or Walz—just Harris reciting the company line “Yet again, far too many civilians have been killed.” As if she or Biden couldn’t stop the massacre in a minute by withdrawing military and political support. Recent reports of systematic torture, rape and murder in Israeli prisons have not been met with any condemnation much less any response at all from either Harris or Walz (or the Democratic Party as a whole). While other Western nations have expressed outrage at Israel’s Finance Minister Bezazel Smotrich’s wistful lament “no one will allow us to starve 2 million people, even though that might be just and moral until they return the hostages,” Harris instead turned her outrage at those speaking out in defense of the dehumanized Palestinian people. While Biden liberals are saturating social media with warm and fuzzy images of Walz with dogs and cutesy grandchildren, he abruptly cancelled a scheduled meeting with the Palestinian families who lost loved ones in Gaza when he learned their agenda included Minnesota’s divestment from Israel. Walz might just be another racist and dehumanizing political expedient, but he’s our cuddly daddy dehumanizing political expedient.

Tim Walz sided with the health care conglomerates when he blocked a bill backed by the Minnesota Nurses Association. President of that association Mary Turner blasted Walz for “his abdication of good government and acquiescence to anti-democratic and antilabor corporate bullies.”

Even if a cease-fire were called tomorrow, the damage is done. When their campaigns started, Harris and Walz would either come out firing against US-sponsored genocide or play politics with it. They chose the latter which serves as a powerful indicator as to their moral and spiritual bankruptcy. And before you raise an eyebrow to that statement, don’t forget that since the day that Harris started campaigning hundreds children have been killed as she has been putting on the Pepsi smile in unison with Walz on their “joyful warriors” 2024 tour. Walz is at his best performing stand-up comedy catering to Trumpaphobes, making headlines for his one-liners and putdowns which serve as the optimal distraction from any accountability or moral imperative for the Democratic Party. The sole concern of liberal sycophants like Harris and Walz regarding the plight of the Palestinian people is the political fallout, but with such a compliant base that demands nothing but beating Trump there is no need for honesty, integrity or any sense of humanity. A Don Rickles routine aimed at Republicans and the occasional berating of peace protestors (particularly if they are Jewish) is all the ill-informed base requires, along with the symbology of progressivism folded in rhetoric regarding abortion and LGBTQ rights. Even if Democrats on the federal level do little to nothing to protect these rights, or even if they promise to do so and then when they have the chance to do so don’t, the liberal base remains as allegiant as the pod people in Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956). They take their orders from on high and dutifully spread propaganda for their leaders without any regard for who they are or what they actually represent.

<Kamala Harris has no intuitive sense regarding public policy apart from mass incarceration and standing with Israel. Which is why all of her appearances have been prefabbed teleprompter performances.>

To those of us whose minds have not yet been infiltrated by the propaganda that trickles down from the billionaires to the millionaires to their partisan throngs, the spectacle is straight out of the 1950s science-fiction writings of Aldous Huxley, George Orwell and Rod Serling. All of these prophetic authors repeatedly cautioned about the insidious nature of authoritarianism, scenarios in which the threat of the ascent or return of one amoral leader results in a population accepting another leader who is just as amoral. The feverish and extended ovation that Harris’s rebuke of anti-war protestors garnered from the visibly deranged audience, along with the indiscriminate and immediate infatuation over a vice-presidential candidate who the vast majority of Americans are completely unfamiliar with, serve as more evidence of a liberal base that has been indoctrinated into an authoritarian fundamentalism. The threat of the return of boogeyman Trump preempts all other considerations including free speech, history or humanity itself.

Women’s Rights=Human Rights indeed. Micheal Moore’s latest Subsack post “I Asked. You Delivered. Here Are Your Kamala Yard Signs!” reads like state-run propaganda—”What better way to build your local Blue Community than with your fellow Left-leaning, Liberally-minded, Trump-averse cohorts, confidants, and comrades that will inspire others to join with us to help us create the reality of a White House we have never seen throughout our history.”

Those who postured as being horrified by Biden’s complicity in Netanyahu’s genocidal fervor against the Palestinians now act as if it never happened. Michael Moore, who ran several stories about the moral compromise involved in supporting genocide, has turned to uncritical headlines like “Kamala and Coach” and “Now we Crush Trump: 100 Days to a Better World.” As if hundreds of children are still not being massacred in Gaza and the West Bank to this very day. And self-proclaimed progressives who have virtually ignored Gaza parrot grotesque caricatures of Democratic Party talking points. The world’s most popular “progressive” talker Thom Hartmann offers probing insights like “Tim Walz is Everybody’s Dad and Grandpa—a Welcome Dose of Sanity” and “Trump chickens out on debating Kamala, proving once and for all that even roosters have their limits.” The New Republic, one of those “liberal” publications that has largely avoided mentioning Gaza, masters the art of the manufactured consent form of propaganda with “The Crucial Week is Here. Can Kamala Keep this Crazy Enthusiasm Going?” and “Tim Walz is the Perfect Antidote to the Brainwashed Fox News Dads.” More division, more insults, and more distraction from the political expediency and inhumanity of candidates like Harris and Walz. Keep quiet about anything real if you want to beat Trump. As Hartmann said in 2020 when he forbade callers from saying anything remotely critical of joe Biden, we don’t want to “circle the wagons.” Which begs an obvious question—if one is not allowed to speak openly and honestly about their representatives, and the media is the arbiter of a “truth” that they amend in order to favor a particular political party, what brand of “democracy” are we actually saving?

Tim Walz is no progressive when it comes to foreign policy. He’s a dyed-in-the-wool right-center AIPAC loyalist, pictured here with Consul General of Israel to the Midwest,Yinam Cohen in 2022 who thanked him for preferentially standing with the Jewish community after October 7th.

Unfortunately, the wagons are circling us. As if more evidence is needed to show that the Democrats are morphing into the right-wing fanatics they hold in such contempt, their latest strategy takes Walz’s moronic strategy of calling Trump and the Republicans “weird” one step further to the plebeian by using four letter words at rallies. This is apparently what “joyful warriors” like Harris and Walz do—say sh-t and b-tch and bada-s. Democratic Party consultants assert that using profanity creates a sense of intimacy between Harris and her audience. Such desperate measures are no doubt necessary in the absence of the sincerity and integrity that would naturally accomplish such solidarity. Shock and appeal to the basest emotions, particularly fear, are what both political parties employ to assure that their respective bases join them in their vacuous campaigning predicated upon a void of conscience.

The combination of name-calling, profanity and the mocking of protest all indicate a fascistic whipping up of uncivil behavior aimed at stifling free speech and covering up the neoconservatism of the Democratic Party. Attention is diverted by the partisan culture wars, fomenting divisions over abortion, gun control and LGBTQ issues while doing the same or worse than Republicans when it comes to mass incarceration, policing, perpetual war, regime change, freedom of speech, immigration, scapegoating of protestors, siding with transnational corporations, doing the bidding of billionaires and now genocide. At least domestically the Democratic Party’s brand of fascism is softer than that of the Republicans. But combine the merging of “liberal” media with the Democratic Party, both of which are subservient to AIPAC, the war profiteers and the military/intelligence complex, with an increasingly uncivil and uncritical base and the seed has been planted. That cuddly down-to-earth dad from Minnesota is just another cog in the wheel of oligarchal imperialism who will ride the gravy train of celebrity politics and power until the Democratic Party dances its last waltz. And from every indication, they are just one letter away.