That's easy:

Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI)

Ro Khanna (D-CA)

Robert Reich

or

THOM HARTMANN. (spice up your character a bit, people love controversy & charisma)

all good viable contenders against Trump.

Rick Loll - you advocate for free food, housing, water, clothing, utilities, etc., and you call someone else a troll? There is no free stuff. Even Obama and the communists figured that out. Why can't you?

I have read many comments, particuarly on the various versions of the Hartmann forums, about how progressives/democrats/liberals are the party of science. You know...the party of Neil Tyson and Bill Nye. We've all heard this many times...climate change is a fact because the science says so. Evolution is a fact because the science says so. You can't deny the science.

Then how come transgenders can deny science, and have progressives support them? How can the same people who scream about climate change deniers turn around and deny the science as to gender? There are only two genders. Science and mother nature figured that out already for us humans. If you have a penis, you are a male. If you don't then you're a female. Pretty simple and very effective for all of millenia.

So why do progessives hate science and mother nature?

Rick Loll,

Nothing happens unless you vote -- even in a democracy as sick as ours. Unfortunately, one must begin with how the world is, not how it's wished to be.

Nevertheless, as spiritual beings, humans must also recognize their inner potential to create "a more perfect union." A society in decline very much needs visionaries like you to remind us of that potential, as much as it needs cold-eyed pragmatists to point out the hard realities of our selfish, petty, greedy, violent nature, which is quite literally destroying the very civilization and environment upon which we all depend.

Bending our elected representatives -- who are not our "leaders" -- to our will is of utmost importance. When we -- as a people -- don't fight back at the ballot box and only argue futilely among ourselves, then the billionaire class inevitably will slip into the vacuum and destroy what little is left of our People's government. History is quite clear about that inevitability.

Rather than less people voting, this democracy needs more people taking responsibility for the course of our government and constitution.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_fXuDjOHOM

Thom, My fundamental question that nobody is letting us hear, why should I vote or contribute to a system I hate, namely the US Constitution and government, no matter who wins? I want the 7C Constitution, because it's 100 times better, and gives me what I want, real rights, instead of the near useless issues any party gives.
I'm not trolling, but you've lost us because you have no real system that works for the people. The US Givernment to the rich is a F***ed up dead system.
Do you know what makes the parties the same? Because both love punishment, torture, and capitalism, and hate Guild Socialism. We need to make everything free and based on love. Free food, housing, water, clothes, utilities, medical, etc. It's all in 7C. That person in comment #1 sounds like a Russian troll, because nobody from America can think in the upside down twisted logic like that, just to anger progressives, who never get angry. We love all people.

DS,

LEFT BIAS

These media sources are moderately to strongly biased toward liberal causes through story selection and/or political affiliation. They may utilize strong loaded words (wording that attempts to influence an audience by using appeal to emotion or stereotypes), publish misleading reports and omit reporting of information that may damage liberal causes. Some sources in this category may be untrustworthy. See all Left Bias sources.

Factual Reporting: MIXED

Notes: AlterNet is a liberal activist news service and a project of the non-profit Independent Media Institute that Launched in 1998. AlterNet has very strong left wing bias through report choices and strongly worded headlines such as: The F Word: The Craven Right Wing Is Now Smearing Teenage School Shooting Survivors. Some articles are sourced to other mixed factual sources and may need to be fact checked. AlterNet is listed on the Fort Liberty hoax website list. We wouldn’t go so far as to call this a hoax website, but some articles are certainly questionable. Overall, we rate Alternet far left biased and mixed for factual reporting. (5/13/2016) Updated (3/1/2018)

https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/alternet/

And you complain about my sources???

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...continued:

"9 Ways Trump's Authoritarianism Taking Hold" by Thom Hartmann

7. Co-opt and Make Institutions of Military and Police Power into Loyal Sycophants.

Without the police and the military on their side, a tyrant’s days in office are inevitably numbered.

That’s why one of the hallmark behaviors of authoritarian leadership and its media supporters is to praise and empower, to the point of fetishizing, the police and the military. They then amplify this with elaborate displays of symbolic patriotism like singing the national song and hyper-displaying the flag.

From attacking NFL players for protesting police violence against unarmed Black people to telling a crowd of police officers to not be professional or respectful when arresting people, to chest-thumping about our military as “the most powerful ever,” Trump doesn't even try to be subtle about his threats. The next step, if he follows the well-worn authoritarian path, is to put on Saddam Hussein-style military parades.

Meanwhile, the process that Ronald Reagan began, and Newt Gingrich sped up with his 1033 program, of redirecting billions of dollars of military funds, hardware and training to police departments, begins the process of turning ordinary police agencies into praetorian guards to solidify the power of the now-captured state.

Exempting police unions from crackdowns on other government employee union activities, like Scott Walker did in Wisconsin, hastens the process by ensuring the loyalty of the one legally armed, duty-sworn agency of government.

Read more:

https://www.alternet.org/right-wing/9-ways-trumps-authoritarianism-taking-hold

...continued:

"9 Ways Trump's Authoritarianism Taking Hold" by Thom Hartmann

6. Elevate One Religion That You Can Control (and Reward) While Trashing Others.

After World War II, one of the most interesting and conspicuous of the suicides in Germany was that of the Reich’s Bishop, Ludwig Müller. Elevated to the head of the German evangelical movement by Hitler himself, Müller became the most wealthy and powerful member of Germany’s clergy during the Reich. At first skeptical of the Fuhrer, he later told his colleagues that the “great goods” that Hitler would bring the church far outweighed his failings as either a person or a leader.

Müller was neither the first nor the last religious leader to both exploit and be exploited by an authoritarian regime.

Authoritarian leaders almost always use members of minority religions as scapegoats. What’s less well realized is that they almost always (the one modern exception was communism) favor one particular religious group, and use the wealth and power of the state to shower favors on that group so long as that group helps keep them in power.

Along those lines, in 1988 the campaign of George H.W. Bush against Michael Dukakis brought onboard an outspoken fundamentalist evangelical Christian to lead their “religious outreach” efforts. Ex-alcoholic, saved-by-Jesus credentialed “black sheep of the family” George W. Bush worked hard through that campaign to bring religious leaders who were skeptical of the religious enthusiasm of George Senior into that 1988 campaign.

Bush Jr.’s efforts were largely successful and were repeated and amped up during his own presidency, as Jerry Falwell and his ilk became regular fixtures in the White House. In bright contrast to Republicans from Warren Harding to Dwight Eisenhower, that established the foundation for a clear quid pro quo relationship between white evangelical leaders and Republicans.

Now the religious right wants their payback.

Taking a cue from ALEC—that right-wing, billionaire-funded group that brings together state lawmakers and lobbyists to write “model” legislation on behalf of corporate interests in exchange for their funding GOP politicians—the new group is called Project Blitz. They’re working explicitly and publicly to change the legal landscape of America with regard to religion.

As Katherine Stewart wrote for the New York Times, “The idea behind Project Blitz is to overwhelm state legislatures with bills based on centrally manufactured legislation.” She quotes “Christian nationalist” David Barton as saying, “It’s kind of like whack-a-mole for the other side; it’ll drive ’em crazy that they’ll have to divide their resources out in opposing this.”

Americans United for Separation of Church and State has, so far, identified more than 70 pieces of state legislation derived from Project Blitz, with more to come. In Oklahoma, Stewart writes, it’s a bill that allows discrimination in adoptions; in Minnesota, it’s legislation unconstitutionally letting publicly paid-for schools to post “In God We Trust” in their classrooms.

Contrary to Barton’s revisionist history, this was not how the Founders saw things.

In the summer of 1786, Thomas Jefferson was the U.S. government’s official envoy, essentially an ambassador, to France. While there, he was horrified by the way the Catholic Church dictated terms to both people and government.

On August 13th, he wrote a long letter to his old friend, teacher, and mentor George Wythe, then a judge in Virginia. Jefferson started out by commenting on how his (he first demanded it, then wrote parts of it) First Amendment to the Constitution had been well received by the Parisian intelligentsia:

“Our act for freedom of religion is extremely applauded. The ambassadors and ministers of the several nations of Europe, resident at this Court, have asked of me copies of it, to send to their sovereigns, and it is inserted at full length in several books now in the press; among others, in the new Encyclopedie. I think it will produce considerable good even in these countries, where ignorance, superstition, poverty, and oppression of body and mind, in every form, are so firmly settled on the mass of the people, that their redemption from them can never be hoped. …

“If anybody thinks that kings, nobles, or priests are good conservators of the public happiness, send him here. It is the best school in the universe to cure him of that folly. He will see here, with his own eyes, that these descriptions of men are an abandoned confederacy against the happiness of the mass of the people.”

Noting that the people of France had been “loaded with misery” by “nobles and priests, and by them alone,” Jefferson ended his letter with a call for Wythe to join him in his crusade against religion burrowing into the newly formed government of the United States by using the power of Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution to build a free public school system:

“Preach, my dear Sir, a crusade against ignorance; establish and improve the law for educating the common people. Let our countrymen know, that the people alone can protect us against these evils, and that the tax which will be paid for this purpose, is not more than the thousandth part of what will be paid to kings, priests and nobles, who will rise up among us if we leave the people in ignorance. But it needs but half an eye to see, when among them, that the foundation is laid in their dispositions for the establishment of a despotism.”

The religious right has made a metaphorical “deal with the devil” in Trump and the GOP that would have horrified the Founders of this nation, but is found in the storyline of nearly every authoritarian government in history. And now these so-called “Christians” want to leverage that power into ever-greater control over our minds and ever-greater access to our bank accounts.

Read more:

https://www.alternet.org/right-wing/9-ways-trumps-authoritarianism-taking-hold

DS,

Many years ago I met 3 skinheads living in S.F. and my question to you and Thom is, does that mean S.F. is a Nazi, Fascist City or does it mean all of Ca. is fascist or the USA??

...continued:

"9 Ways Trump's Authoritarianism Taking Hold" by Thom Hartmann

5. Scapegoat Minority Groups to Rile Up a Mob Mentality.

Sadly, one of the psychological legacies we share with other predatory mammals is the ability to instinctually form “packs” and drop into pack-like behavior, particularly against those who are weak or wounded. Although we have an intellect that should protect us from such behavior, the instincts wired into our DNA will always beat our thought processes, at least over the short term.

Fascists and authoritarians use this core mammalian instinct, paraphrasing Sinclair Lewis, to “rouse up the rubes.”

While this was a common feature of American politics in the century following the Declaration of Independence when it was directed by white politicians and police authorities against Native Americans and slaves, and popped up in the 1880s against Chinese immigrants, the modern Trump Party has resurrected it to use against immigrant children, women, religious and racial minorities, and the LGBTQ community.

Not to mention provoking violence against “libtards” like Heather Heyer, whom Trump’s “very fine people” murdered last year in Charlottesville, Virginia. (I don’t want to include links in this article to neo-Nazi sites, but just google “libtard heather heyer” without the quotes; you’ll be shocked.)

Read more:

https://www.alternet.org/right-wing/9-ways-trumps-authoritarianism-taking-hold