THE DEMOCRATS, THE DSA, JIMMY CARTER AND GAUGUIN

Wednesday 2 September 2026

ARTICLE:

Popli, Nik ( ) “As Democratic socialists gain ground, Republicans rejoice.” Time Magazine.

· The membership of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) has surged past 120,000. Members have toppled establishment-backed candidates all over the country.

· “Bernie Sanders made democratic socialism legible to billions of Americans; AOC gave it a younger national face; Mandani demonstrated that a socialist could defeat the democratic establishment, govern a major city and then help elect more socialists behind him. But with the midterms looming, the question is how far the model travels.”

· Note: Francesca Hong lost the Democratic primary for governor to Milwaukee County executive David Crowley. Republicans used off the cuff statements like abolishing the police, to canceling tjanksgiving. And then, after Jaime Harrison the former Democratic national Committee Chairman dismissed the DSA with a statement I don’t exactly understand. “We aren’t seeing DSA win im places that are coree to winning the majority.” Then a week later, DSA ember Angie Nixon defeatrd establishment favorite Alex Vindman for the Democratic Senate primary in Florida, despite being outraised more than 16 to 1. Meanwhile, the Republicans are glowing with delight trying to paint the entire party as a left wing, Marxist group.

· According to a CN poll released July 30, a third of Democrats and Democratic-leaning voters now identify as Democratic socialists.

· As a group it advocates abolishing the Senate, eliminating police and prisons, dismantling ICE, closing oversea military bases, bringing large corporations under public ownership.

· Matt Bennett of the centrist Democratic think tank Third Way is preparing a $15 million effort to discredit democratic socialism ahead of 2028.

· It’s not a working class group.

· Arrive angry about “a landlord, a hospital bill, student debt, or a war overseas.” By attaching these to he rapid concentration of wealth and power, they gie a home for disparate complaint.

· Many are fed up with U.S. military aid to Israel.

· The national organization declined to renew its endorsement of her in 2024 after a disagreement about Israel.

· Disagreements about the fundamentals on the central documents. Whether to run as part of the Democratic Party – getting votes.

DAILY NEWS NOTES

· Attacks by U.S. on Iran and return attacks on Jourdan and other places.

BOOKS YOU SHOULD READ

Unger, Craig (2024) “Den of Spies: Reagan, Carter, and the Secret History o the Treason that Stole the White House.”

Less than two weeks after the Shah arrived in the United States to receive cancer treatment Jimmy Carter was (erroneously) told he couldn’t get anywhere else in the world, on November 4, 1979, hundreds of Iranians stormed the American embassy and took seventy hostages as they demanded the extradition of the Shah. (14)

ART

GAUGUIN

Hanson, Lawrence and Elizabeth (1954) “Noble Savage: The Life of Paul Gauguin.”

In 1855, when Gauguin’s paternal grandfather died Paul and his mother relocated to France. Suddenly, the benefits of being a member of a wealthy elite family vanished and Paul was just another fairly poor student who could hardly speak French. At 17 he decided he wanted to go to sea. His mother objected but there was little you could do with Paul.

When Paul first told Mette, she recognized the rolling gate that characterized him and not his business colleagues. Six years at sea has “…turned him from a weedy boy into a powerful man and confirmed his sense of superiority.” When he returned in 1871 his mother was dead and everything she owned destroyed by the Prussians. But, her last thought was of him and arranging a man to take care of him when he returned.

https://artsandculture.google.com/story/the-global-life-of-paul-gauguin/7wVBgBK4f2CjGg?hl=en

nLIFE AND NEWS NOTES FROM AN ELDERLY, CHILDLESS, OVEREDUCATED LADY WORKING AWAY IN ONE OF THE SUB-BASEMENTS OF THE MINISTRY OF SNARK.