11/10 News Roundup and Open Thread
Can Joe Biden avoid Obama’s mistakes? He must – for the future of the party
Recall that back in 2008, Barack Obama won the White House on a wave of anger at the incumbent president, and he took office under similar crisis conditions. And yet, despite Democrats winning large congressional majorities, Obama’s administration used its power to merely tweak the economic status quo, but not really change it.
From the get-go, the new White House brushed off progressives and championed a stimulus package that many economists said was far too small to quickly right the economy.
While Obama’s Affordable Care Act created some long-overdue consumer protections, it ultimately strengthened the power of private insurers. Despite Obama campaigning for a public insurance option, his administration dropped it, Democratic senators helped Republicans initially vote it down and then refused to ever bring it back up to force the issue, even though there was a good chance it would pass. The result: Millions have lost their health insurance and millions more are paying ever-higher premiums, while insurance companies have booked huge profits – and now support for the ACA is soft.
Similarly, Obama backed off his promise to pass new union protections for workers, and he reversed his promise to reform bad trade deals, instead pressing even more of those pacts that have become a symbol of a corrupt Washington more interested in enriching CEOs than helping workers.
Obama’s administration also refused to prosecute bankers and its Wall Street reform package was pathetically weak. Its Treasury Department helped kill an initiative to break up the banks, while it approved and defended big bonuses for Wall Street executives who engineered the crisis. The moves were a boon to a financial industry that bankrolled Obama’s campaign, but political poison.
More news, tweets, videos in the comments section. Sure Happy It’s Tuesday.
Tip jar for the usual suspects and lurkers…
an extra T and a Y!
ty, ld. stole 580k+ votes from Bernie, that they know of.
Palast is great, but the host of that show is really hard to listen to. First time I’ve seen that one. I guess my fave is David Doel followed by Mike Figueredo.
“Trump’s Defeat Weakens Boris Johnson in Urgent Brexit Talks.
As the European Union knows, the British prime minister can ill afford to threaten peace in Ireland, an issue close to the President-elect Biden’s heart.”
This is from the NY Times.
Here’s why this matters to me:
A few months ago I was writing about Bibi, Bojo & Donnie as a triple threat to the world. Their 3-way admiration society boded ill for all the rest of us.
Now the alliance is shattered and improvement on a global scale seems a bit closer.
For one thing—and it’s a Big Thing—all talk of the USA buying bits of the UK’s NHS and privatizing it, is dead in the water. The idea was that there would be “special trade deals” between the UK and the USA if the USA got some things they want. None of those things would have been good for the working classes in either country.
Similarly, Bibi has lost his big supporter and a less racist ugly leader may yet win election in Israel.
The end of our Tyrant won’t solve all our problems. And soon enough, I will get back to kvetching about Joe.
For right now, however, I can see reasons to be cheerful.
Difficult Lessons of Democrats’ Victory in 2020
I submit that Dems have guts and they use them all the time to stay in the club.
T and R, Ms. Benny!! 🙂
Hello my fellow nesters, I’m happy to say surprisingly i beat the virus. im considering my pre existing conditions when I say this as I’ve read of people that died younger and in better shape than I. I get to go back to work Wed as well :(. It was no picnic dealing with covid and wish everyone whom has had it well as some symptoms dont go away right away, for me a nagging cough. This virus certainly effects everybody differently. I want to thank my fellow nesters for your kind words while i was dealing with this virus.
Glad you are better, wi62. A COVID club member who survived it!
This makes us so happy, wi62! You must be in good shape, even with the preexisting! Hope the cough fades away and do take it easy! I’m a little miffed that they are asking you to work when you just escaped the jaws of death! lol
Yay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
So glad you’re feeling better!
Good on ya! Now don’t be like me and end up with longhaul syndrome. Last night I thought I was getting sick all over again, but feel somewhat better today.
For me, I never had a lot of fever, but, then, normal for me is a degree lower than everyone else. I got up to 99, but that would be 100 for most people. It didn’t last long. I didn’t cough a lot, but was short of breath. I felt like someone took sandpaper to my trachea, and then sat on my sternum. And the aches and fatigue were crushing. But not bad headaches, and no loss of taste. It DOES affect everyone differently.
👍👍Terrific news, fellow Futurist!👍👍
One in five COVID-19 patients develop mental illness within 90 days – study
They better check the Guy in the WH real quick, he has problems dealing with realty.
He had those before he contracted COVID.
I think he’s worse, now. I chalked it up to the steroids and other drugs, but… who knows?
Insomnia. No kidding. It’s brutal. I also have some coordination issues from time to time, but not terrible. I play a lot of logic games on my phone and PC, and hope they stave off brain loss. Either from the virus or old age, LOL.
https://twitter.com/piper_winks/status/1326011196923932672?s=19
Those were not “mistakes” in the Obama era. They were the playbook and he executed it to the letter.
Doctorow has a thread on how we did in the past and continue to bankroll TPTB, enabling them to buy up everything we had and have. And now it’s on steroids. But Obama didn’t just make mistakes. He gave the banks a free pass (with a slap on the wrist here and there), so that even most fraudulent foreclosures stood. Stores closed.
So he set us up for what we have now.
Stock buybacks to keep the whole charade going.
Stores are closing all over. Word is that medical is going to speed up the wretched telehealth. I have less connection on zoom just hoping to help people going through a breakup. Imagine how screwed up it will be to hope to heal someone on zoom with the fracking insurance “scibe” in the background. Education, well, we know how that’s going. Kids are falling behind everywhere, as is natural.
TPTB are buying up every last thing standing and the people are losing any assets they had.
i should say that of course Republicans started this, too. I don’t know if I’ll ever forgive Obama, tho. He made it personal.
This may have been announced before.
WSJ has it, too.
That is a real ugly image. She needs to fasten the top part of her dress.
hey, she earned those wrinkles! lol i admit, in our society, it does look pretty bad. i don’t know why the low V is so popular anyway, tbh. we complain about objectification and then wear clothes that give peekaboos at our baby feeders. lol i mean it’s fine, just was never my cup of tea.
Sometimes V necks are better depending on your face shape. McCain’s face shape is not too different from mine, and I wear v necks occasionally, but not that low.
yeah, maybe when my guy rides up on his Paso Apso… lol
Meh. If ya still got it, flaunt it! The girls about all I got left, LOL.
https://twitter.com/davidsirota/status/1326215800403881985?s=20
including AG? after the George Floyd incident? they know they do not have to do a damn progressive thing.
heard about the stick in the mud?
Trump is doing it to block Biden transition
Biden and the dems are doing it by putting shitty sticks in the policy mud thus making it harder to bring about needed change
So, work across the isle with those out to destroy democracy, which means that you are part of the problem. But as long as there is money and status, who cares?
Maybe I’m looking at two different things?
So sad, am hoping for the best. Maybe waiting until after the election in Georgia
All of those black people who didn’t vote for Biden “ain’t really black.”
Okay, how about Barbara Underwood? Klob is a disaster… oh, wait. My bad. It’s Wall St. Joe we’re talking about.
the dems are not on the right path if they don’t act on this
Unsustainable Inequalities
Social Justice and the Environment
I added the bold to the last paragraph. I went ahead and ordered book. Found out from this tweet
I sure hope that it delivers on the last sentence “hope for solving seemingly intractable problems”
Thanks, Don! Look forward to your review–may have to get this one.
The problem will be getting TPTB to listen.
Thanks. It will be a while until I get through it.
Trump Administration Removes Scientist in Charge of Assessing Climate Change
Michael Kuperberg was told he would no longer oversee the National Climate Assessment. The job is expected to go to a climate-change skeptic, according to people familiar with the changes.
Go for it Trump –even after almost 4 years, still expertise to get rid of. Slow down transition to address climate change.
found in this tweet
the elephants trampling the planet
a continuing theme of Bruno Latour is that the divide is as great as living on different planets
this at the time when what we should be doing is “Down To Earth: Politics in the New Climatic Regime”
Well, Biden could hire him back, IF he ever gets to the WH. But, then, Biden won’t do anything to disrupt the money flow, including addressing climate change.
https://www.crainsdetroit.com/government/congressman-levin-has-union-support-be-bidens-labor-chief
Things we can thank Trump for showing what is going on
could the following also be part of understanding establishment dems?
What we owe to Donald J Trump
The author is ab economist at CUNY in the STONE Center on socio-economic inequality
His name has come up before, but I followed the above link to his article
Trump as the ultimate triumph of neo liberalism
He gives an excellent short summary of neo liberalism and how it burrows into democracy.
I added the bold. Hence, the dems are NOT the best student because they HIDE what they are doing!!!!
TY, Don. Hard to find thinkers and writers concerned in this way, and yet, idk why they all aren’t.