Cornel West

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“We live in interesting times when protesters act out the tantrum of a super-rich man who did not get his way despite all his money.” Dady Chery

Ignore Chris Matthews' aggressive pro-Clinton badgering. Focus on Turner's determination to keep her progressive powder dry ... for the moment.by Gaius PubliusI'm not saying this is a trend ... yet ... and I'm presenting this just as news, not as something I do or do not want to happen.Frankly, part of me is watching this drama with a novelist's fascination, or more accurately, with a novel reader's fascination.

John Laesch our old friend-- a union carpenter and the former Illinois congressional candidate who began the process of ending Denny Hastert's disgraceful career-- is still very much a Democratic Party activist in Illinois. When the House voted to grant President Obama fast track authority to ram the TPP through Congress with minimal fuss and bother, Illinois House delegation was split-- 9 for and 9 against... but then a few days before the vote one of the crooks in the delegation, pro-TPP Aaron Schock, was forced to resign in a corruption scandal that's still unfolding.

The Clinton team has bragged to their allies in the media that Hillary has nothing to worry about because she has a "Southern firewall" and she has more than 400 of the 700 so-called "super delegates," the anti-democratic vehicle the Democratic Party uses to make sure it's next to impossible for a non-insider to get anywhere at the convention.

Rosa Clemente, who ran for Vice President with Cynthia McKinney in 2008, reminds us that Cornel West and many other notable left activists and intellectuals who have given lip-service to the need for an independent left politics in the U.S., dutifully lined-up to give their support to Barack Obama.

Religion and left revolution may seem like opposite ends of an insurmountable spectrum.  After all, today’s media reminds us constantly of religion’s intolerance regarding the lives of women and its various justifications for war whether it’s waging holy war or justifying imperial ones.  Realistically, though, religion is not always reactionary.  Indeed, if one looks at history, it has often been used to justify liberation and social justice.

The Left Forum’s tenth annual conference was held this year at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, part of the City University of New York. Left Forum describes itself as “convening “the largest annual conference of a broad spectrum of left and progressive intellectuals, activists, academics, organizations and the interested public.”