'No Love Lost' Between Greens, WFP

A source with knowledge of the situation does not believe that the Working Families' Party will cross-endorse Howie Hawkins, the Green Party nominee for governor this year.

The source states that there is "no love lost" between the two parties.

Many on the left in New York, including the Greens, view the Working Families' Party as having 'sold out' progressives in years past for having endorsed Democratic Party candidates. The WFP ran Andrew Cuomo on their line for governor in 2010.

The source does say, however, that Hawkins himself, who was nominated in Troy on Saturday, expressed no "ill will" for the Working Families' Party.

Speculation has raged as to who the WFP would nominate since last month. In April, a Siena College poll showed an unnamed Working Families' Party candidate drawing 24% in a three-way race featuring Cuomo and Republican Party nominee Rob Astorino. Astorino also drew 24%, while Cuomo led with 39%. In addition to putting pressure on Cuomo from the left this year, the WFP has hopes of gaining 'Row B' on the ballot for future elections. This more prominent position could come if the WFP placed second in the election for governor.

Despite this apparent cause for optimism, the Working Families' Party is actually in a rather difficult predicament. Running their own candidate would likely split the vote on the left between the WFP and the Green Party. In addition, some unions have already stated that they may unilaterally endorse Cuomo even if the WFP (a labor-backed party) does not. An endorsement of Cuomo by the WFP would most definitely draw further ire from the left.

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Dystopia in the the Present Tense

A state of perpetual warfare. Armed forces occupying foreign territory for over seventy years. Active combat ongoing for more than thirteen.

An ubiquitous surveillance state. Continuous monitoring of communications using advanced technology. Exposers of the truth persistently pursued and prosecuted.

A police state. Local units equipped with military hardware. Prisons overwhelmed with disproptionately minority populations. Inmates regularly murdered, with applause from the public.

An oligarchic state. Corporate elites manipulate "elected" government officials for their own profit. Massive inequality in the distribution of wealth.

An impoverished state. Millions of citizens struggling to scrape by from day to day. Crime and drug use rampant in major metropolitan areas.

A fundamentalist state. Fanatical religious doctrine permeates through systems of healthcare and education.

An anti-intellectual state. Scientific findings and medical breakthroughs routinely rejected by vast swaths of society.

A propaganda state. Mass media breathessly conveys "news" passed down from the elite masters, filling the remainder of their programming with "infotainment".

A rapidly degrading state. Prolonged pollution of the atmosphere by corporate elites produces climate threat to future existence of human race.

This is not a scene from a George Orwell novel. This is a description of the United States in 2014.

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Political Trends and Party Polarization in the United States

The following is a brief exploration of the major political trends in the United States from the 1960s to the present day. This commentary will explore the changing political coalitions within American society. It will also explore the role this process has had in the “re-polarization” of the American political process.

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People of Albany United for Safe Energy

PAUSE is a grassroots group of individuals who have come together to promote safe, sustainable energy and fight for environmental justice. We engage the greater public to stop the fossil fuel industry’s assault on the people of Albany and our environment.  Our work reaches out to people and groups around the globe who strive for an end to the ruinous fossil fuel economy and to replace it with a just, sustainable, and distributed system of work that meets people’s real needs and does not destroy the Earth’s climate.

www.pausenergy.org

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