11/16 News Roundup and Open Thread
Washington Lobbyists Know Biden Well—as Their Former Boss
Scores of Mr. Biden’s former aides now on K Street represent hundreds of companies, trade groups and foreign companies. One person in the mix for a top White House role is Mr. Biden’s campaign chairman Steve Ricchetti, who co-owned a lobbying firm for more than a decade with his brother Jeffrey Ricchetti.
Mr. Biden, unlike the four most recent presidents, has deep ties to the Washington establishment from his 44 years in the Senate and as vice president. He named at least 40 current and former registered lobbyists to his transition team.
For much of his career, Mr. Biden has advocated for policies that he said would reduce the influence of lobbyists and special interests, including pushing for expanded government financing of political campaigns.
His campaign platform included seeking legislation that would require lawmakers to publicly disclose meetings and communications with any lobbyist or special interest trying to influence the passage or defeat of a specific bill.
“He will always place the public interest at the center of his decisions, because he is accountable to every American he serves as president,” said T.J. Ducklo, a spokesman for Mr. Biden.
It is common practice for aides to both Democratic and Republican elected officials to leave their positions in government for higher-paying jobs as corporate lobbyists. But the “revolving door” can pose a tricky balance for Democrats.
There are other folks on the transition team, such as Elizabeth Warren’s Chief of Staff, Anne Reid, who is now with a lobbying firm called Co-Equal, which is to beef up interests in Congress.
More news, tweets, videos, and jibber-jabber in the comments. See you there!
Monday Monday…
🎼👍
Duh, ya think BO?
I was subjected to some John Podesta on tv earlier today and everything out of his stumbling mouth (he’s such a bad speaker) was Captain Obvious. What a waste of my life to have to hear it!
Thank you for watching John Podesta so that we don’t have to!
Dear Joe Biden: Don’t Put Rahm Emanuel in Your Administration
scumbags of the world unite!
💩Amen! 💩
What Bernie Sanders Could Do as Secretary of Labor
More from that article:
I don’t know if Sara Nelson would be interested in the job, but she’s one lobbyist I think could turn things around and ensure workers got good bits of the government working for them. Trump was a disaster, but Labor always suffers under a GOP admin.
We won’t know who will be Senate Majority Leader until the results of the January 5 GA election are known.
Until that time I will remain uncommitted to having an opinion on Bernie’s best path .
If the (D) win the Senate Bernie will most likely be the Budget Committee Chairman, as he is now the minority head, or Chairman of other committees he serves on. Health, for example. Committee Chairman of the ruling senatorial party is a powerful position and it is a safe one.
A Cabinet position, on the other hand, as we have seen, can be a short-lived moment of glory. As in the revolving door of Trump’s cabinet. Shaky .
If I were Bernie I’d field all the inquiries coming at me as he has done. Maybe yes maybe no. happy to serve as best I can and so forth.
As much as i liked the ides of a cabinet position for Bernie, i doubt he would get one. The Neolibs and Pelousy heads would explode!! How dare Byedone put a progressive in his cabinet.
For several reasons, I don’t think Bernie will be chosen, but hopefully his public interest in the job will push Biden to choose someone for Labor more to Bernie’s liking. Nelson would be great. However, I’m thinking that all or most of Biden’s cabinet picks are going to be carefully chosen compromises between progressives and moderates.
I agree with the first sentence. But the decisions will be made by his campaign donors leaving progressives not in the picture.
I agree with that statement.
agree. https://thegrayzone.com/2020/11/14/bidens-transition-team-war-profiteers-chickenhawks-corporate-consultants/
a tidbit:
https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/526106-perdue-declines-to-participate-in-debate-with-ossoff-ahead-of-georgia-senate-runoff
Last debate didn’t go so well for Purdue, so I guess he decided it was better to hammer it out on ads. I’m sure conservaDems will pitch in.
Well I guess our candidate, Ossoff, will have to debate himself against these progressive issues.
Sadly, I will be voting for this dude.
Oh, you poor thing! 🙁 Look at that self-satisfied smirk, he’s so unlikeable!!
But I would too, vote for him, I’d do it for Bernie.
A reason to hope that Warnock and Ossoff win
https://theintercept.com/2020/11/16/david-perdue-dollar-general-minimum-wage/
Wow!!! “he created thousands of quality jobs and helped working families make it from payday to payday.” That’s all working peons need – to make it from payday to payday. What a pos.
I got a note from Bernie’s fundraisers that he is soliciting donations to be split with Rev Warnock. However, Ossoff’s name is omitted from the text.
i hope Ossof is hammering on this.
this is good, i guess, although anyone who still believes isn’t going to stop over something like this, and it makes us all ok with twitter and FB telling us what is true.
i can’t stand all the FB and twitter notices that you cannot avoid, saying no fraud in our voting system. everyone please go back to sleep now, nothing to see here.
wonderful!! we do have a 2 party system!!!
time to bridge the gap!!!
Go For It JOE!!!
“People are just the flesh the party uses to vote.”
Zero sum game i guess, Millions of us are still screwed
Anyone care to explain this election result?
Sad, sad, sad. Blame it on the progressives. Blame it on defund the police. Blame it on Green New Deal. Blame it on Medicare for All. Blame it on Black lives Matter.
One of my moderate buds also tried to blame progressives today, especially in the south. I had to point out the DNC poisoned the well for Bernie, not to mention that Bernie would have had some issues winning in the south because his religious (or in his case, not religious) affiliations. Many PoC have issues with Jews or those who don’t crack open the Good Book frequently.
Biden’s biggest gains were in the suburbs, the cities were flat, losses in the rurals
https://www.ft.com/content/31a0273a-d745-4ed5-b497-c7c61c26e32d
Sad.
I find it hard to believe that Biden didn’t inspire the masses.😜🤦♀️
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https://i.insider.com/5fa076e891178a0019b3dc96?width=1100&format=jpeg&auto=webp

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/nov/11/joe-biden-voters-republicans-trump
shared. bernin, do you have a twitter handle you would like me to credit?
nope, i’m not on twitter. so fire away! 🙂
I’ll fire one — Thank you!!!
Reading way too much into things to say “Republicans have a real foothold among working-class voters.” Laughable in view that, in the same article, they acknowledge how popular Sanders was with that group.
The message should be: bet on the fickle suburbs at your own risk, Democrats.
my hypothesis: the coup will continue as the factions continue their games
capitalism continues in power
but without the person who stood for capitalism, but was a jerk, Trump
the others do a wonderful job to hide their true priorities under the ongoing controversies that make the main stream news
why can’t I like everyone else day it is all the fault of the media?
I am happy with my general statements that are free of details….
Just another reminder that $$$ talks and bs walks.
Biden got lucky. He reeks of grift.
T and R, Ms. Benny!! 😊☮️👍
my mechanic friend said that Covid would be over after the election
what happened?
lol
I’ve asked the same question to the trumpers in my circle, They fallen back to the Fake news BS.
Just horrifying.
Tell me again about the land of the free and the home of the brave…..complete bs.
Yes, instead of standing in line at soup kitchens, we use cars in the era of COVID.
good one.
the plurality of world views were squashed as the west conquered native peoples
the wooden ship were burned on arrival so there would be no way back
forward progress!!
colonize the heathens!!
modernity colonizes the earth with general concepts and maps
the details of say, Native American lifeworld are wiped out, ignored, jailed. Until 1924, Native Americans had to move off the reservation and denounce their tribal sovereignty to be able to vote (Meteor Blades at DK pointed this out.)
wait a minute. Destruction of a culture is a culture issue. Land grab is a geography issue. Destroying tribal structure is a social issue. How can I understand that last sentence that is quoted?
what gobbledygook. Throw in a big word, epistemology, theory of knowledge. But a more street definition of epistemology “how to you make sense of what goes on around here?” And for sure there is nothing in native american spirituality that would be of interest to the modern world because it lacks a basis in our rationality.
what? is he asking us to slow down and look at details. I am too busy chasing progress.
do you mean like culture, geography, etc?
so this is how we get progress! simplicity of the global that is reductive of the local. In other words, reduce the local to unimportant, throw it out
my god, this guy is really radical. where did he get the idea that our categories to understand the world are, as he says, “benign categories” Well, fuck him. I cannot get by without them. (humorous note: I made a typing mistake and typed “buy” instead of “by” — according to Latour Capitalism has become the second nature and just as the first Nature was used as a backdrop {can’t deny laws of nature} in our politics today, can’t be against capitalism — so cannot get buy without them …
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This is another strange comment.
In talking about politics, we operate in the realm of the concepts like nature, culture, science based on laws of nature, etc. We don’t notice the unconscious frame used to understand what is going on
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the first 2 paragraphs from an article on Latour’s modernity
We Have Always Never Been Modern
Thanks, Don, for bringing us Latour in your words. :O)