the attitude with arnie arnesen the thursday edition oct 16 noon to 1pm EST streaming live on wnhnfm.org

0 views
Skip to first unread message

Arnie Arnesen

unread,
Oct 15, 2025, 7:19:58 PMOct 15
to AttitudeArnieArnesen

The Attitude with Arnie Arnesen
opening thoughts:  on what it means to be a democratic socialist and  Larry C. Johnson – Trump’s Gaza Peace Plan… A Wedding Without a Bride and Groom
producers: Dave Scott and Stephanie Collins
Chloé LaCasse (the best of the attitude)
streaming live at wnhnfm.org noon&7pm EST on the dial-94.7FM Concord NH
opening thoughts:
opening part one Leo Casey fmr NYC school teacher ed of the Albert Shanker Institute


In recent days, I have seen fellow union members declare that they can't vote for Zohran Mamdani for mayor because he is a democratic socialist. As educators, we strive to be knowledgeable about the issues on which we pronounce. In this spirit, let me share my perspective on this question.If Mamdani is elected mayor, as it now looks he will be, he will not be the first democratic socialist elected as the mayor of New York City. New York City's first Black mayor, David Dinkins, was also a democratic socialist. Ruth Messinger, who was the Democratic candidate for mayor in 1997, was a democratic socialist. And New York City's greatest mayor, Fiorello LaGuardia, who was elected to Congress on the Socialist Party line before he was elected mayor, was a democratic socialist.That is only the beginning of the story. The founders and generations of leaders of our union, the United Federation of Teachers, were almost universally democratic socialists. Abe Lefkowitz, John Dewey,Al Shanker, and Sandy Feldman were all democratic socialists. Every right and every benefit you enjoy as a union member you have because these democratic socialists fought for them and built the UFT into a powerful union. The best friends our union ever had -- Bayard Rustin, A. Philip Randolph, and Martin Luther King -- were democratic socialists. "Call it democracy, or call it democratic socialism," King would tell the Negro American Labor Council in 1961, "but there must be a better distribution of wealth within this country for all God’s children.” The "Beloved Community" which King frequently espoused was based on the principles of democratic socialism.Like trade unionists, democratic socialists believe in the principle of solidarity -- all for one, and one for all -- and in promoting the common good. Democratic socialists extend the democratic principles we accept as foundational in government -- liberty, equality, justice -- to all spheres of society, especially the economy. A strong and robust public sphere -- public education, public health, public libraries, public transportation, public housing, public safety -- are especially important to democratic socialists, because they are the means by which our society provides economic opportunity and security for all. Public education is our society's primary vehicle for education into democratic citizenship. That is why teacher unionists always find democratic socialists at our side when we defend public education.What is more, the social welfare safety net programs we enjoy today -- Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, unemployment insurance, to name just the better known -- started out as ideas of democratic socialists, and then were taken up by the New Deal and the Great Society. Without democratic socialists, they may never have come into existence. If you think that socialism is an evil, then it is time to stop cashing your Social Security check and using Medicare as your health insurance.I call myself a democratic socialist as well as a teacher unionist, in the tradition of men and women who were both. ...There are attempts to smear Mamdani and authentic democratic socialists as authoritarian, as Communist. But we call ourselves DEMOCRATIC socialists for a reason: we believe in democracy as a means and an end, and see democratic socialism as the full flowering of democracy. We are the first to oppose authoritarian regimes which claim to be socialist. The history of democratic socialist parties around the world -- such as the Scandinavian social democratic parties in Norway, Denmark, Sweden, and Finland, UK's Labour, Canada's New Democrats, France's Socialists, Germany's Social Democrats, Greece's Syriza, Italy's Democratic Party, Brazil's Workers Party, and Mexico's Morena -- bear this out. There is certainly an authoritarian threat in our moment, but it comes from Washington DC, in the form of Trump and MAGA, and not from democratic socialists.Mamdani's program is in the tradition of democratic socialism, centered on making the City an affordable place for working people, including educators. It is remarkable to me how the quite modest and sensible proposals of Mamdani are being talked about in apocalyptic terms. New York City had had some form of rent regulation for over a century now, with rents for the entire city frozen during WW II. As recently as the Di Blasio administration, rents were frozen in three years -- 2015, 2016 and 2020. But Mamdani's proposal to freeze the rent in "rent stabilized" apartments -- about 4 in 10 NYC rentals -- is greeted as if it would be the economic end of times. Those who have had no problems with three decades of Staten Islanders riding for free on the Staten Island Ferry are suddenly in a complete and utter panic about extending that same privilege to working people riding NYC buses in the other four boroughs. (It is pretty hard to find an explanation for this other than it has something to do with whom will be riding for free.) Those who have an abundance of quality food choices in their community are shouting "horror, horror" at the idea that five public grocery stores, one in each borough, would be established in communities which are "food deserts," working class and poor neighborhoods with limited access to affordable, nutritious food like fresh produce, usually because there are no nearby grocery stores. The idea that government should intervene in the economy to address manifest market failures may be a staple in economics courses, but it is viewed as heresy among some Mamdani critics.    We are educators: we must be smarter than to fall for these attacks on democratic socialism.That's my two cents, folks.
part one:  James Baratta is a writing fellow at The American Prospect. He previously worked as a reporter at MandateWire from the Financial Times. His work has appeared in Truthout, Politico, and The Progressive. James is a graduate of Ithaca College and a lifelong member of the Alpha Kappa Delta International Sociology Honor Society. He is currently based in New York City. 
Democratic Senators Probe ‘Apparent Neglect’ of Detained Flotilla ActivistsIt took the State Department four days to assess the well-being of American citizens apprehended by Israel for participating in the Global Sumud Flotilla.  https://prospect.org/world/gaza-israel-war-global-sumud-flotilla

Takeaways: 
  • The State Department dragged its feet while American flotilla activists were detained at Ketziot, a remote maximum-security prison run by Itamar Ben-Gvir's Israel Prison Service, and was one of the last countries to receive them at the Allenby Bridge border crossing in Jordan. 
  • TAP has been covering the flotilla campaign, which has remained steadfast in its efforts to open a humanitarian maritime corridor to Gaza. Despite everything they've endured on the high seas and within the confines of Israeli prisons, the activists we've spoken with continue to shift the focus to the responsibility world leaders and the global community have to reconcile with the Palestinian struggle while ending complicity in Israel's violent oppression of Palestinians, both in Gaza and in the West Bank. 

part two:
Larry C. Johnson – Trump’s Gaza Peace Plan… A Wedding Without a Bride and Groom
Donald Trump garnered some major political optics today as he signed his Gaza Peace Plan, with a raft of European, Asian and Arab leaders sitting in the cheap seats watching the spectacle. But who has a signing of a peace agreement when neither of the two parties to the conflict are present? This is more than a bad joke… this is a scam. I can understand holding a funeral for the dearly departed even if the corpse ain’t present, but what took place today in Sharm El-Sheik was more like a royal wedding without a bride or groom present… Hell, neither chose to attend even via video conference.

Larry C. Johnson is an American blogger, political commentator and former analyst at the Central Intelligence Agency. He is the co-owner and CEO of Business Exposure Reduction Group Associates, LLC, and the co-founder of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity. 
a conversation with Jeet Heer is a national affairs correspondent for The Nation and host of the weekly Nation podcast, The Time of Monsters. He also pens the monthly column “Morbid Symptoms.” The author of In Love with Art: Francoise Mouly’s Adventures in Comics with Art Spiegelman (2013) and Sweet Lechery: Reviews, Essays and Profiles (2014), Heer has written for numerous publications, including The New Yorker, The Paris Review, Virginia Quarterly Review, The American Prospect, The Guardian, The New Republic, and The Boston Globe.

The Nobel Peace Prize Just Surrendered to Trump Trump is mad that he didn’t win. But by honoring María Corina Machado, the Nobel Committee has endorsed his war against Venezuela—and continued Europe’s MAGA groveling. 

How María Corina Machado’s Nobel Peace Prize Could Lead to War Machado’s record makes a mockery of the idea she is a committed champion of peace, promoter of democracy, or unifying figure. https://www.thenation.com/article/world/nobel-peace-prize-venezeuala-war/
--
KEEPING THE POT STIRRED SO SCUM DOESN'T RISE TO THE TOP -  Anonymous 

D. ARNIE ARNESEN
15 Rumford Street
Concord NH 03301
nha...@gmail.com
(C) 603-321-7654

Host of "The Attitude with Arnie Arnesen"
Award Winning Public Affairs Show (NHAB 2018)
airs noon to 1pm and 7pm EST M-F at 94.7FM (concord nh)
Home Station - wnhnfm.org
Part of the Pacifica Network
go to wnhnfm.org for streaming live 

Arnie on the Air
Boston, MA-WGBH Under the Radar/Sunday Nights
Keene, NH-WKBK Friday Morning with Dan Mitchell


Reply all
Reply to author
Forward
0 new messages