The Progressive Wing

Fire away…

humphrey

You might want to check the title of this post.🤔

Tomorrow starts today! 🙂

we can always use a diary ready-to-go in the morning! lol speaking of, i must. get. other. things. done!

Just noticed the new avatar Benny very Nice!!!!

Don midwest

Journalists in corporate outlets fully know that faith in their honesty has collapsed. They know they only talk to one Party.
Rather than examine what blame they bear for any of this, they instead:
1) Blame their critics.
2) Demand all competing/dissenting voices be censored.
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) January 21, 2021

Glenn has many times pointed out that Fox is for republicans, MSNBC is for dems they play the “each side” card

I would like to see some real reporting from MSNBC and CNN. It’s not like they don’t have the $$.

magsview

Sometimes, when checking news on tv, we will switch from say MSNBC to BBC and the difference is quite incredible. For the most part, the BBC reporters calmly state news events in a neutral tone. No snide comments, no dramatic emphasis, no eye-rolling, all part of the show over at MSNBC. MSNBC is the Dem version of FOX and I strongly believe that both channels are doing real harm. But I guess they make money doing it.

From what I’ve seen today the FCC should consider designating MSNBC a soft-pornography channel for the next four years
— Aaron Maté (@aaronjmate) January 21, 2021

https://t.co/kSq1vrWkoa?amp=1

What does that make Faux news then?

Aint Supposed to Die A Natural Death

Hard porn.

Don midwest

Glenn on Tucker Carleson on dangers of attack on dissent

5 min video

could Glenn say this on MSM?

Army falsely denied Flynn’s brother was involved in key part of military response to Capitol riot

worth a listen.

they are using this just like 9/11. tbh, i wonder if the Repubs (+?) knew this and it was part of the hands off the “insurgents.” here’s the surveillance part of the neolib agenda, right on time. hope we can stop it, but i’m less inclined to even use the word hope anymore.

Don midwest

well, well

It makes sense that Flynn, as the Army’s deputy chief of staff for operations, plans and training, would have been involved in the Pentagon response. The D.C. Guard answers to the president, but the president delegates control over the force to the defense secretary and the Army secretary, essentially leaving it to top Army officials to make critical decisions regarding the District’s military force. Flynn, however, is not in the chain of command.
The Army’s initial denial of Flynn’s participation in the critical Jan. 6 meeting, despite multiple inquiries on the matter, comes as lawmakers demand transparency from the Defense Department in the aftermath of one of Washington’s gravest national security failures, which left one police officer and four rioters dead, the Capitol desecrated and the lives of Vice President Mike Pence and members of Congress endangered.
The episode highlights the challenge for the Army in having an influential senior officer whose brother has become a central figure in QAnon, the extreme ideology that alleges Trump was waging a battle with Satan-worshiping Democrats who traffic children. Michael Flynn, who previously ran the Defense Intelligence Agency and left the Army as a three-star general, has espoused QAnon messages, and QAnon adherents are among those who have been charged in connection with the attempted insurrection. In November, Trump announced he had pardoned Flynn, who had pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI.
The night before the Capitol siege, Michael Flynn addressed a crowd of Trump supporters at Freedom Plaza near the White House, saying: “This country is awake tomorrow. . . . The members, the members of Congress, the members of the House of Representatives, the members of the United States Senate, those of you who are feeling weak tonight . . . we the people are going to be here, and we want you to know that we will not stand for a lie.”

***

Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund, who has since resigned in the wake of the security failure, and acting D.C. police chief Robert J. Contee III were flabbergasted by the Army’s reaction, according to four people on the call. Sund had stressed that the Capitol had been breached by protesters and told those on the call that he had reports of shots being fired on the scene.

Army officials declined to answer several questions about Flynn’s statement, including how long he was in the room during the call, whether he said anything, and if he was the one who described the crowd at the Capitol as mostly peaceful.
The Army also declined to answer why it falsely said for days that Flynn, who already has been confirmed by the Senate for a promotion to four-star general, was not involved.
“Thank you for the opportunity to comment, however we have nothing further to add,” the Army said in response to questions posed by The Post through email.

Don midwest

How Capitalism’s Dogged Defenders and Propagandists Shield It From Criticism

Torabs

Kind of bizarre to see Yves criticize the article by taking the exact positions criticized by the article (saying it’s only a particular form of capitalism that’s bad, implicitly assuming the employer-employee model is ok, etc.).

Under Biden, it’s time for Democrats to let go of Medicare for All

The title was a complete no-go. But I’m posting the article in its entirety because the author raises some points for debate.

With twin victories in the Georgia Senate run-offs, Democrats are poised to take control of the presidency and both houses of Congress. Their margin in the Senate is narrow—it’s a 50-50 tie with Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris casting the deciding vote. Nonetheless, a unified Democratic government has given the left renewed hope. It also gives the opportunity to push Biden and Congress to enact a progressive agenda.
Over the past four years, the focus of a progressive agenda has been Medicare For All (M4A). Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders ran on the platform of free healthcare for everyone in the Democratic primary. He ran twice, in 2016 and 2020, and lost both times. President-elect Joe Biden, who won, explicitly rejected M4A.
Given Sanders’ losses, and Biden’s opposition, it may be time for progressives and others on the left to consider uniting around other goals. This is especially the case because, despite its importance, Medicare For All, even if passed, is unlikely to radically transform our politics. But other progressive legislation might.
Sanders, and other proponents of M4A, hoped that the legislation could change the political landscape. Their logic was reasonable. M4A would simplify our Byzantine, cruel healthcare system. It would offer relief to tens of millions of people who can’t get adequate care. Helping people in this way, Sanders believed, would be a massive vote getter, and it would supercharge participation by working-class people of all races.
It was a good idea. But it hasn’t worked.
Health care reform is complicated and technical. And while progressives took up M4A as a battle cry, other constituencies were less swayed. Sanders lost his primaries soundly twice. His two losses mean that the Democratic party has seen M4A rejected by voters repeatedly over the last four years. If M4A was going to energize a new, overwhelming voting constituency, we would have seen some evidence of it by now.
So what could progressives push that Biden might be more willing to pass? What might make further progressive gains easier? There are two important possibilities: voting rights and labor rights.
Voting rights have been rising in importance and visibility over the Trump years. Trump and the Republicans have attacked democracy more and more openly, culminating in Trump’s extended, baseless assault on the legitimacy of Biden’s presidential victory.
Democrats in the House passed HR1 in 2019, a bill that provides for Automatic Voter Registration and limits gerrymandering. It also restores the Voting Rights Act gutted by the Supreme Court. The John Lewis Voting Rights Act of 2020 prevents key states from passing laws to disenfranchise Black people without federal oversight. House Democrats also passed a bill giving statehood, and Senate and House representation, to DC.
All these bills were blocked in the Senate. But now that control of that chamber has flipped, they might have new life. The filibuster makes passage difficult. But the bills are worth fighting for and expanding. Progressives can push for lowering the voting age; for votes for all those in prison; for votes for immigrants; and to eliminate the electoral college.
These reforms would make it easier for Democrats to get into office by empowering Black and poor constituencies that support them. But they would also move the party left. For example, Senators from reliably Democratic Washington DC are likely to be significantly more progressive than Democratic reps from purple states like Arizona or Colorado. More, embracing voting rights as a central, signature left issue might help progressive candidates with Black voters inrepre the South—a key group that voted against Sanders in both 2016 and 2020..
Progressives could also try to elevate an issue that has gotten less news coverage: labor rights.
The left has been badly hurt by the erosion of union membership and union power over the last fifty years. Unions represented 1 out of 5 workers in 1983; now it’s only 1 in 10.
Part of this decline is because of structural factors, like deindustrialization and globalization. But it’s also because the US Congress has put a stranglehold on unions for decades. The Taft-Hartley Act in 1947 paved the way for right-to-work laws, which prevents unions from requiring dues or membership from anyone who doesn’t want to join, even if the workforce votes a union in. This has made it extremely difficult for unions to raise funds or challenge employers.
Corporate interests and billionaires have spent millions pushing right-to-work laws in the South, Southwest, and most recently in the Midwest. Their successes have crushed union organizing,and are part of the reason for the wage stagnation of the last 40 years.
Joe Biden has come out in favor of abolishing right-to-work laws. But it’s not a part of his agenda that has gotten much media attention or scrutiny. Without a popular push, he’s unlikely to feel much pressure to prioritize it. If progressives centered right-to-work laws the way they’ve centered M4A, they might be able to get a vote on a bill. And while they might not repeal right-to-work laws in this Congress, since the filibuster is still in place, the fight itself could energize unions, and perhaps pave the way for advances in the future.
Progressives already support sweeping labor reforms, of course. Sanders’ also promised to eliminate right-to-work laws in his presidential campaign, and proposed a suite of other policies to strengthen unions. Progressives have also pushed for voting rights. But neither issue has been at the center of progressive organizing or demands the way that M4A has been.
The left should not abandon M4A. It’s a central human rights demand and an issue of life or death for huge numbers of people. But we need to be strategic about how we get there. It seems clear that, for the moment, given the current makeup of American democracy, we don’t have the support we need to pass this legislation. So we need to change the makeup of American democracy. Concentrating on voting rights and labor rights could do that.

The bolding is mine as I disagree with the thought in that one. Most of the American people believe MFA is called for, especially in the pandemic. What they didn’t believe was that Bernie could win or get it through.

No mention of environmental issues? That is at least as important as health care.

Agree with your thoughts on the bolding. There’s no reason progressives can’t keep pushing for M4A and push for the stuff mentioned. Yeah M4A is not going to pass this Congress and this Administration, but pushing for it ensures that whatever can get passed will be the best possible. And it sets M4A up better for the future as more people get exposed to what it would mean for everyone.

i’m not sure they didn’t believe Bernie could win and if the MSM hadn’t blacked him out, smeared him, fixed polls, slyly left people with a bad taste in their mouth after covering him–

if they had covered his yuge rallies and his more intimate ones, especially the intimate ones, perhaps, he would have won in a landslide, even with the rotten machines.

I’m not even sure they didn’t use the machines and the polling places to give Joe some key wins.

So the whole premise fails, for me.

I can’t tell if this is a liberal being sincere or a neoliberal shoveling the usual. he is the author of “Wonder Woman: Bondage and Feminism in.” writes for the Atlantic.

Plus, once people get better care then they get now. for a huge swath, with single payer, they’ll never go back.

Biden is apparently going with the insurers rather than even Jayapal’s mild progress towards it, so frack me anyway.

T and R, Ms. Benny!! ☮️😊👍 Excuse me for being profane, but this article is a bunch of craporate RWing BS. M4A has to do with affording basic survival. In the last elections, a lot of House reps won who backed it. If you aren’t able to live, you won’t be able to think, vote or unionize. Same with being able to afford food and a roof over your head. That’s the reason people get so angry and fed up, they form unions. I’m coming to the belief that excessive human greed is the fatal flaw that will doom the species. It’s a real bugaboo cos I was born an optimist.😡

Torabs

It is a clear case of the latter. Failing to even consider the misinformed swath of primary voters who thought Biden supported M4A (when he actually promised to veto it) tells me this author is not serious.

Aint Supposed to Die A Natural Death

I didn’t read the whole article yet but just looking at the part that is highlighted, it tells me that the author is dishonest or just plain dumb. THE VOTERS DID NOT REJECT SANDERS. Senator Sanders was rejected by the dem establishment and the mainstream media at the behest of the Medical Industrial Complex. Is this author aware that Biden didn’t win 1 primary until after they took Bernie down? The voters were rejecting Biden.

humphrey

+27 👏👏👌👍.

I fully agree. The American people were bamboozled by the PTB as they wanted no part of Bernie’s agenda.

+27, here, too. I worked Bernie’s campaigns as a volunteer. This rag is called the “Independent”? Bull hockey!💩💩

NYCVG

Good morning Benny and all of us who gather there.

I was glad to see that Benny opened with Covid. Here’s my reporting on an item in yesterday’s NY Daily News.

I’m calling it, Where Have All The Vaccines Gone?

From the News,”Israel has struck a deal with Pfizer, promising to share vast troves of medical data with the drug giant in exchange for the continued flow of its hard-to-get vaccine.”

Bibi said, “Israel will be a global model state. Israel will share with Pfizer and the entire world the statistical data that will help develop strategies for defeating the coronavirus.”

(As you may have heard, this effort will not include Palestinians.)

The exact quid pro quo is unclear. We don’t know how much Israel is paying for the vaccine.

What we do know is that NYC with a population of 8.9 million, similar to Israel’s 9.3 million will be out of vaccine either today or tomorrow.

More about it from Dayen:

The first bill that President Biden introduced, even before taking office, was a $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, which really picks up most of the leftover elements on pandemic relief that Democrats were unable to advance in the CARES Act and the December COVID relief bill. Two things stood out in the bill: the topping up of $600 checks in December to $2,000 and funding to get the vaccine produced and distributed.
Those two pieces both probably have enough bipartisan support to pass, even in the Senate with 60 votes. The checks are incredibly popular and Republicans would be playing with fire to hold them up, especially if they know they can be dumped into a majority-vote budget reconciliation bill anyway (in other words, they’d have taken a bad vote for nothing). And there’s literally no amount of vaccine money that would not pay itself back and then some, by leading to reopening the country in full faster.
So there’s an argument being made, within the House especially, to just pass those two elements—what I’m calling “checks and shots”—under regular order, and deal with the rest of the American Rescue Plan later. This has a couple different benefits. First, Biden would get an early, bipartisan legislative win, creating momentum for his presidency. That’s probably the most minor benefit, since “momentum” really isn’t a thing.
More important, a bill under regular order would get checks and shots out quick. Reconciliation takes time, and apparently the House is staying out of session next week. A full bill through reconciliation will run up against the extended unemployment deadline in March. By contrast you could put a checks and shots bill on the floor almost immediately.
Checks will circulate through the economy: the current $600 iteration is already boosting restaurants. With unemployment still high, any amount that can help people needs to get there right away. And vaccine money is vital. I know the private sector—God help us—wants to take over the rollout, but keep in mind that the most failed part of distribution right now is the Walgreens/CVS effort to vaccinate nursing homes. Who distributes the vaccine is less important than if they are funded for the effort in a coordinated way, with a Public Health Jobs Corps of 100,000 strong and a central government standing up mobile clinics and all the rest. And since we’re in a race with the more transmissible variant, time is of the essence.
Third, as I’ve stressed, this is a trust-building exercise. Democrats ran and won in Georgia on checks. The Biden presidency is going to rise or fall on the vaccine rollout. Getting those priorities covered will show the public that promises can be kept. I know there’s a lot of Twitter grousing about $2,000 checks versus $1,400. I think Congress is likely to go with $1,400 but a standalone bill that isn’t risking the rest of the package is also more fertile ground to advocate for bigger checks.
Support Independent, Fact-Checked Journalism
Punchbowl, which has reported a little on this, describes this as a “nibble” or a “big bite.” But checks and shots are actually a significant portion of the American Rescue Plan. The estimate for $1,400 checks, especially ones that include adult dependents as the Biden bill does, is anywhere between $435 and $465 billion. Add $600 to that and it’s another $200 billion. And “shots,” defined as a national vaccination program, is $160 billion. If you include the Public Health Jobs Corps and scaled-up testing to open schools and investing in COVID treatments, you’re scraping $400 billion, which is what the Biden fact sheet puts toward “critical measures for addressing COVID-19.” So this “skinny” bill is anywhere between $595 billion and $1.07 trillion. Not very skinny! You could see it becoming comparable to the $900 billion relief bill passed a month ago.
My sources in the Senate describe checks and shots as an option but also a gamble. There’s the idea that the popular items can drive Congress to pass a bigger deal, and without them, a bigger deal might get stranded. But this assumes that there’s any Republican support for a bigger deal, which there isn’t. What passes for moderates, like Lisa Murkowski and Mitt Romney, are already rejecting it. If you’re going to pass the big bill, it’s going to be with 50 votes. And at least for Joe Manchin, taking checks out of that big bill helps its passage, by making it more targeted.
If you can get checks and shots, put points on the board, and still leave a reconciliation bill available for a broader relief package, you do it. Bottom line.

Netanyaboob ain’t in jail yet?

If the universe adjoined just right yaboob and trumpcorp would be sharing a cell somewhere

I was hoping he would begin to bring back production to the USA. That may be why–we’ve outsourced so much drug manufacturing. I would LOVE to see us ramp that up again. The kind of job that is a win win for everyone. I know Big Pharma is a danger, but at least it’s not drones and it puts people to work. Drug prices would go up some, most likely. But if we regulated pharma and had more govt. funding for meds, it would be fine.

i can dream.

This is the best one I’ve seen so far fwiw pic.twitter.com/kd3fOgyyCb
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) January 21, 2021

These Bernie memes are getting more attn than the craprate media ever gave him !!!

Torabs

Exactly, which is why I have a hard time finding them funny. He was supposed to be the people’s champion, not a punchline.

it’s pretty cool tho that people would rather love on Bernie, in a way, than keep talking about Biden.

Torabs

Not to keep raining on people’s parade, but the people sharing Bernie memes now are generally the same liberal stooges celebrating Biden-Kamala. The same ones who say they agree with Bernie, but vote against him and our other allies every single time.

LieparDestin

'No more broken treaties': indigenous leaders urge Biden to shut down Dakota Access pipeline | US news | The Guardian https://t.co/5Rp43Zjqq4
— Progressive Push (@progressivepush) January 21, 2021

https://www.vox.com/2021/1/20/22241280/bernie-sanders-inauguration-day-memes-coat

The inauguration came just two weeks after the surreal, terrifying January 6 insurrection at the Capitol, and the memes seemed to project that Sanders wasn’t there to celebrate in a difficult moment, but to get the ritual over with and get back to work.
Just as they did throughout 2020, Bernie memes provided an Inauguration Day entry point for many Americans into a fraught political moment. There may be an extraordinary amount of uncertainty and anxiety around the near future, but Bernie and his reliable overcoat offer some much-needed familiarity, reassurance, and warmth (pun intended).

bern pic.twitter.com/XiAKRKLZT3
— Oscar Vega (@raspbearyart) January 20, 2021

Stolen! check out my new avatar.

As the kids used to say: way cool! 😊👍

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jan/20/oval-office-joe-biden-busts-paintings-mlk-fdr-franklin

As Joe Biden sat down in the Oval Office on Wednesday, just hours after being sworn in as the 46th president of the United States, it was clear more had changed in the room than the administration.
Biden revealed some new decor as he invited reporters into his new office to watch him sign a stack of executive orders.
Donald Trump’s portrait of Andrew Jackson – the censured and fellow populist 19th-century president – was replaced with Benjamin Franklin, meant to signal Biden’s interest in science, according to the Washington Post. Other intentional changes include a portrait of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and paired paintings of Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton – representing two people with vastly differing ideologies who worked together.
Placed on the mantle and other shelving are now busts of Martin Luther King Jr, Rosa Parks, and Robert Kennedy. Also notable are a bust of César Chávez, the American labor leader and Latin American activist, and a sculpture of the Chiricahua Apache Tribe, which belonged to the late senator Daniel K Inouye, the first Japanese American elected to both houses of Congress.

that last pararaph actually makes me very mad, seeing as how he with the corporate imperialists, so far. defunding Yemen is great, but recognizing Guaido? was he for what happened in Bolivia?

and as far as helping the marginalized, ignoring Jayapal and turning to his buddies in the insurance industry, no canceling of debt, new surveillance, and god knows what is to come, MLK would be marching against him, as would Robert and probably Rosa. Apaches were not know for their “unity,” either.

but kente cloth is dems.

Really not seeing what the last paragraph has to do with Venezuela. Agreed that Biden’s foreign policy will leave a lot to be desired, as well as other aspects of his domestic policies, but he will be a lot better for race relations (MLK and Parks) and labor (Chavez) than fascist, white supremacist, insurrectionist Trump and his Republican cronies. Do you really think that if Trump had won with a Republican Congress that things would be just the same? Any chance for Covid or economic aid? Why do you think Bernie and our progressive elected politicians all strongly supported Biden. Now that he’s elected that strong support will depend on Biden’s actions. The more we push, the more we will get. But we will not get everything we want. Biden needs to listen to progressives if he doesn’t want to the Dems to be swamped in the midterms.

relating the last paragraph, Chavez, probably MLK, and others would be horrified at his recognizing Guaido.

As for the rest, i agree we need to push him, i disagree as to how much good it will do.

They supported him bc Trump, who is now gone.

if having that decor truly inspires him to do great things, great, i’ll eat crow until i die. if it’s used as performance to virtue signal to the millions who eat this up, that angers me bc it’s how we keep getting what we got for at least the next four years.

I recognize that this anger seems especially hot today, and will try to not comment so much. y’all know where i’m at, i don’t have to keep inserting it when you are being hopeful. lol

Torabs

I don’t mind some well-earned skepticism. If I only wanted to see cheerleading for this shit-show, I’d hop back on Twitter.

Torabs

Has defunding the war on Yemen been made official? I hadn’t seen that.

maybe not. it’s been talked about by some pretty high up people on his team. how the Houthis are bad too, but it’s bad….

and it is a high profile thing that is very important and i will genuinely thank them for that when (if) they do it.

Torabs

Very much on the “if” side of the scale, the new regime is very fond of their militarism.

I’m similarly very skeptical about rejoining the Iran nuclear deal, for the same reasons.

Biden replaces Andrew Jackson portrait in Oval Office, adds Cesar Chavez bust https://t.co/J2DY1ptdFP pic.twitter.com/dCGCN4nU91
— The Hill (@thehill) January 21, 2021

RFK had a checkered past. Maybe he actually repented before he ran for Prez, and maybe not. I read all the hero worship about him with a slightly raised eyebrow. I was already a political junkie back when he was alive.

I think RFK did evolve. His brother, OTH, while staring down the Soviets in Cuba, also was unwise when it came to the Bay of Pigs. He had to be pushed to get the national guard out too. He also cut taxes, something the R’s actually did not wish to do.

JFK would not be elected today, or if he could be, it would be more by R’s than D’s. Bobby was more of a centrist, and I think he would have gotten us out of the war a little sooner.

Disagree with you, Ms. Benny. Both JFK and RFK came from the MA crew of biz powers that stretched back to the old bootlegger days in NE and other areas.. They were born into entrenched wealth. Kennedy is an Irish name so there’s your liquor connection. Joseph Kennedy ( dad) was into more than that, biz wise. He was all too familiar with steel, Wall St., and other big biz areas. Read the family biographies as they are fascinating. One major aspect he (Joe) shared with a few monied clans was the belief of noblesse oblige.. They owed their wealth to the common good. FDR’s family believed in it. Call it an old fashion idea of karma or whatever. They ran with the wealthiest gangs cos they were part of them. They also were aware of the destruction the haves over the have nots caused, and continues today. RFK was a fan of J. Edgar Hoover and the McCarthy RW crowd when he first came to DC with his older brother. Truth. It is a fascinating part of American Political History. 😊🇺🇸

yeah. they were pretty darn progressive compared to the dems now. they wouldn’t have been murdered if they hadn’t been.

Again, JFK made another major mistake: deciding to stay in Vietnam. LBJ escalated it. Bobby saw the mistake and wanted to rectify it.

i read that JFK was going to pull out and got killed.

https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/535197-democrats-shoot-down-mcconnells-filibuster-gambit?amp&__twitter_impression=true

Democrats are shooting down an effort by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to include protections for the legislative filibuster as part of a Senate power-sharing deal.
“We’re not going to give him what he wishes. If you did that then there would be just unbridled use of it. I mean nothing holding him back,” said Sen. Dick Durbin (Ill.), the No. 2 Senate Democrat, on Thursday.

Lets see if the D’s found thier spine to shoot down the🐢? After seeing that senate sked 2 years is like 6 months

Well, well, well, so the Dems are showing cajones?

There was an unmistakable toughness beneath Joe Biden's warm evocations of our common citizenship. https://t.co/zv1J46hgxg
— Charles P. Pierce (@CharlesPPierce) January 20, 2021

is a function of the administration* now departed that any discussion of democracy, decency, and truth would resonate as a rebuke, but it’s hard to believe that so much of that speech wasn’t aimed at the previous president* and, more important, at the country that elected him, and came so very close to electing him again. There was an unmistakable toughness beneath the warm evocations of our common citizenship.
We face an attack on our democracy and on truth. A raging virus, growing inequity, the sting of systemic racism, a climate in crisis. America’s role in the world. Any one of these would be enough to challenge us in profound ways. But the fact is, we face them all at once. Presenting this nation with one of the gravest responsibilities we’ve had. Now we’re going to be tested.
There are barbs in that first sentence, so that it will strike deep and hold fast in the targets at which it is aimed. I have no idea how, say, Ted Cruz didn’t start bleeding from every orifice sitting there listening to it. He was being told, in the language of unity, that he and the president* to whom he paid unflinching fealty remain threats to the republic on a par with an uncontrolled medical emergency, an existential global emergency, and the country’s original sin for which it has not yet atoned.
And here we stand, just days after a riotous mob thought they could use violence to silence the will of the people, to stop the work of our democracy, to drive us from this sacred ground. It did not happen. It will never happen. Not today. Not tomorrow. Not ever.

https://www.newsweek.com/rand-paul-joe-biden-liars-racists-fox-news-1563331

Well if the shoe fits Rand

Republican Senator Rand Paul has said that President Joe Biden’s call for an end to lies in public discourse was a veiled accusation of racism towards people like him who held different political views.
During Wednesday’s inauguration ceremony in front of the U.S. Capitol, Biden described how there were “lies told for power and for profit,” and that everyone had a duty “to defend the truth and defeat the lies.”
This was an apparent reference to debunked claims his election victory had been marred by voter fraud, which spurred supporters of former President Donald Trump to gather outside the Capitol on January 6. Trump has been impeached on an article that says he incited the supporters to storm the building.
“We must reject the culture in which facts themselves are manipulated and even manufactured,” Biden said.
But Paul took exception to Biden’s speech, telling Fox News: “Much of it is thinly veiled innuendo calling us white supremacists, calling us racists, calling us every name in the book, calling us people who don’t tell the truth.”

Aint Supposed to Die A Natural Death

Glad Rand got the message. Lol.

How about we see garbage like him, Sick Rott, Beijing/Taiwan Mitch, Tom Cotton, etc., etc. ad. nauseum get kicked out of office?? When and how will that go down??!

Spare me the sanctimonious Byedone here. Only reason I give him any cred is cos of Lady Gaga’s singing of the 🇺🇸 Anthem.

https://theintercept.com/2021/01/21/joe-manchin-stimulus-checks/

Again 2021 is very different than 2009.

In 2009, progressive organizations were warned by the White House not to pressure conservative Democrats. Biden doesn’t have that control this time.

It may be no coincidence that not long after Manchin’s initial comments to the Washington Post, he was getting pounded at home by a brutal radio ad. “Joe Manchin thinks he knows better than both our president and the Democrats,” says the ad. “I guess Joe just don’t know what it’s been like to live through the pandemic. We should call his office and let him know.”
The spot was narrated by Corbin Trent, the former spokesperson for New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Trent, Justice Democrats co-founder Zack Exley, and former Ocasio-Cortez chief of staff Saikat Chakrabarti had put together a new political action committee — the No Excuses PAC — to pressure Manchin to back the $2,000 checks. The ad reached an estimated quarter million people each time it aired, according to Trent. It was precisely the kind of targeted ad that White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel in 2009 told progressive groups was “fucking retarded” and needed to come off the air. The progressive groups complied.
Now, with an evenly divided Senate, Democrats like Manchin and Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema are uniquely positioned to hold leverage over their party and block desperately needed relief. House Democrats also have little room for error in steering the nation out of a crisis, given their razor-thin margin. No Excuses PAC intends to push back against any Democratic lawmakers who try to hamper ambitious policy with similar rapid-response ad campaigns in the future, Trent told The Intercept.
“The only way we won’t do this is if Democrats just push through everything that needs to be done, keep all their promises, and do what’s right for the people who just gave them the House, the Senate, the White House,” Trent said. “But my guess is — not to be a jaded, cynical bastard — my guess is they’re going to need a little bit of encouragement, a little bit of cajoling from time to time.”

yayyyy. i would contribute to something like that.

https://www.politico.com/newsletters/transition-playbook/2021/01/12/progressives-to-biden-dont-forget-supreme-court-reform-792734

When President-elect JOE BIDEN first floated the idea of creating a bipartisan commission to advise on how to reform the Supreme Court, progressives knocked it as yet another panel that would stymie actual change.
Now, progressive activists are pushing the president-elect to get moving on it as they seek to put the issue of court reform back on the agenda following Democrats’ Senate victories in Georgia.
In a letter to Biden’s transition team obtained exclusively by Holly, Demand Justice, Indivisible, Demos, Take Back the Court and other groups called on such a commission to start work immediately because “the threat is urgent” and “there is no time to waste.”
The organizations also urged Biden to only appoint people to the commission who back serious change to the Supreme Court. During the campaign, Biden said that the commission would include Democrats and Republicans. Progressives fear that would give an opening to the GOP to pressure Biden to include supporters of the status quo.
“Just as a climate change commission would never include a climate denier or a criminal justice reform commission would never include a skeptic of systemic racism, the prerequisite for each commissioner here must be the recognition that our Supreme Court needs to be reformed,” the organizations wrote.
Biden proposed forming a commission in the final weeks of the presidential campaign in October, after President DONALD TRUMP nominated AMY CONEY BARRETT to fill the late RUTH BADER GINSBURG’s Supreme Court seat. But he ducked calls by many liberals to endorse an expansion of the court.
At the time, Demand Justice said the commission “runs the risk of stalling momentum for serious reform.” Democracy for America, another liberal group, said, “We don’t need to be promised a nice report about reform delivered to the White House, we need Vice President Biden to assure Americans that he will take bold action to ensure our courts don’t remain dominated by a right-wing fringe.”
What changed? Take Back the Court director AARON BELKIN explained the shift this way: “Biden effectively has no time on the clock to restore democracy.”

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2021/jan/21/cancel-student-loans-joe-biden

Thousands of student debtors have launched a campaign urging Joe Biden to enact full student loan cancellation within the first 100 days of his presidency.
The Debt Collective, which has more than 9,300 members, has tapped 100 debtors to be a part of the “the Biden Jubilee 100” – 100 people going on a debt strike, one representing each day during Biden’s first 100 days. Many have over $100,000 of student debt.
“It’s the right thing to do as the first step to ensuring a fairer higher education system,” said the collective in a petition to Biden. “Even before Covid-19, one million new student debtors were defaulting on their student loans every year. Student loans defaults are hitting women, Black, Indigenous and brown borrowers the hardest.”

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/01/21/now-lets-cancel-them-demands-aoc-biden-extends-pause-student-loan-payments

Democratic Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez late Wednesday called on President Joe Biden to use his executive authority to immediately cancel student loan payments after the president signed an order extending an existing pause through at least the end of September.
“OK now let’s cancel them,” the New York Democrat tweeted in response to Biden’s order, which directs the Education Department to freeze “federal student loan payments and collections and keep the interest rate at 0%.”
“Too many Americans are struggling to pay for basic necessities and to provide for their families,” the White House said in a statement. “They should not be forced to choose between paying their student loans and putting food on the table.”
While the extension of the payment freeze was a welcome day-one action by Biden, progressives have long argued that the president has the legal authority—and a moral obligation—to unilaterally cancel the student loan debt that is saddling tens of millions of Americans.

I continue to worry about her. She has mentioned this being her last term in office. AOC has taken a beating from the craporate political media that we in the Nest can only barely comprehend.

Aint Supposed to Die A Natural Death

Beautiful. I got to send a lil somethin somethin to the No Excuses Pac.