The Progressive Wing

I wish we could hire Australia's Rod Sims – the "most hated regulator in Australia" by big business – to run the Antitrust Division at the Department of Justice. https://t.co/NgdbukdHdH
— Matt Stoller (@matthewstoller) February 21, 2021

‘A time of crisis’
Back in the physical world, the ACCC’s authorisations of anti-competitive behaviour that have allowed supermarkets to collaborate on supply chains and safety, and banks to agree a common set of hardship standards, are not likely to go away soon.
“Yes, things have improved massively, but where will we be in another month?” he asks.
“I guess we feel it’s premature to turn them off now … we’ll probably want a longer time to elapse of having Covid under control before doing that.”
The authorisations have been “very successful”, he says.
“Normally you want competition to prevail but in a time of crisis we acknowledge that sometimes you can get better results with a bit of coordination – providing people aren’t coordinating on prices.”
Sims says federal and state governments have so far “done a very good job” of supporting demand for goods and services by spending tens of billions of dollars on programs such as jobkeeper.
“Certainly a number of businesses I’m aware of have only survived because of jobkeeper,” he says.
He is optimistic about the economy once cities are allowed to reopen, but concerned about how many businesses could survive until then in Victoria.
But he says it is vital to get the health crisis under control first.
“There’s no point opening a restaurant if nobody wants to go because they’re all scared,” he says.

makes me think
https://twitter.com/Savion/status/1363517255061938188?s=20

IF the PTB have no one to use as a threat, where does that leave us? Peace?

Paul ADK

It leaves them less necessary. Can’t have that, now.

https://twitter.com/AGirlJustKnows/status/1363252012603764737?s=20

US: blocks birth control from entering Venezuela through sanctions
Venezuelans: …don't have birth control
US: look what SOCIALISM has donehttps://t.co/APg0vdzrAV
— 🚩ProletariatRising🚩 (@ProletariatRis1) February 20, 2021

How come politicians like Joe pretend they can’t pass laws that benefit 99% of people b/c some 1%ers may benefit too yet they pass laws that benefit only the top 0.1% all the time⁉️
— Dr. Victoria Dooley (@DrDooleyMD) February 21, 2021

Yup pic.twitter.com/oL1GuwxmIP
— James Scott #ProChoice (@Jscott1145) February 21, 2021

Benny

Tip jar for wi62…

Benny

Third Way Wall Street "Democrats" supported:
Cutting Social Security & Medicare
Deregulating Wall Street
Job killing trade deals
The Wall Street bailout
& opposed:
A $15 minimum wage
Canceling student debt
Tuition free college
Medicare price negotiation
=a recipe for disaster
— Warren Gunnels (@GunnelsWarren) February 21, 2021

They should just join cult -45s new party and be done with it!!

Why is it that every time that a law or policy is proposed that threatens the oligarchs gravy train in the slightest they go running to their congresscritters and craprate media screaming Thats socialism and its a threat that has to be stopped. I just SMDH at the ignorance of a lot of people in this country as they buy into it…..

Manchin: *opposes M4A*
Libs: hey, WV, dude, it's politics *shrug*
Manchin: *opposes Free College*
Libs: hey, WV, dude, it's politics *shrug*
Manchin: *opposes corona stimmy*
Libs: hey, WV, dude it's politics *shrug*
Manchin: *opposes neera tanden*
Libs: what the FUCK!!!!
— Gallifreyan Jedi (@JediofGallifrey) February 20, 2021

NYCVG

Why This Matters:

Corey Johnson is the current termed-out Speaker of the NYC Council. Corey was widely expected to run for and Win the NYC Mayoral Election. He is a true Progressive and street warrior activist, much like Jumaane Williams—only white and gay. New Yorkers Love Corey.

But Corey had some sufficient emotional issues which caused him to leave the Mayoral race. (A chance street encounter with Corey soon afterward allowed me to express my regrets that he was leaving Public Service.)

Now, it appears Corey May return and run for NYC Comptroller!

Here’s how Andrew Yang’s Campaign Manager Chris Coffey feels about that—- https://twitter.com/AndrewYang/status/1363474008394629121

Chris Coffey

“Needless to say, I love this.” Then he quoted Tweet of
Emma G. Fitzsimmons

·
“*NEW* Corey Johnson is considering a run for city comptroller after dropping out of the mayor’s race.”

IF this happens and they run together—-remember that the Third Person governing NYC is Jumaane Williams—this trio will be unbeatable and the scourge of Andrew Cuomo will be held in deep check for as long as the Disgraced King Cuomo II can stand it.

Who knows…Maybe he won’t run again in 2022. Or even—catch my breath—-resign sooner than that.

https://theweek.com/cartoons/967859/political-cartoon-cuomo-nursing-home-deaths-covid

https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/539763-psaki-sidesteps-questions-on-cuomos-leadership-amid-nursing-home

Psaki sidesteps questions on Cuomo’s leadership during
White House press secretary Jen Psaki avoided answering questions on Sunday on whether President Biden still believes New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) represents the “gold standard” when it comes to leadership during the coronavirus pandemic.
On ABC’s “This Week,” host Jonathan Karl played a tape from last April of Biden saying Cuomo was “sort of the gold standard” as New York battled with skyrocketing cases in the early months of the pandemic, adding that the governor “has done one hell of a job.” Cuomo’s office’s handling of coronavirus outbreaks in the state’s nursing homes is now the subject of a federal investigation by the FBI and the U.S attorney in Brooklyn, who is probing unidentified members of Cuomo’s administration.
When asked if Biden still believes Cuomo represents the “gold standard,” Psaki insisted that Biden would continue to work with Cuomo, as he would with all governors.

The ads will right themselves if he runs for reelection, I would like to think that the D’s would ask him to resign or at least not run, like usual with both sides for some it all about the letter not the malfeasance in office committed

NYCVG

Hi. I’m re-posting this because the turmoil in nyc might be of interest to some who missed it on an earlier thread.

https://thehill.com/homenews/sunday-talk-shows/539770-progressive-caucus-chair-income-thresholds-for-direct-payments

i was hoping you would. :o)

jcitybone

The chair of the House Progressive Caucus, Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), is urging Democrats to resist calls to reduce the number of Americans who will receive direct payments under an upcoming COVID-19 relief plan by lowering the income cutoff in the package.
Speaking on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Jayapal explained that under a proposal floated by Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.V.) and some others, millions of Americans who received relief checks under a plan passed in December would be left out of the newest round of payments.
“That doesn’t make any political sense to me, but more than that we know that millions of Americans lost their jobs in 2020,” Jayapal told CNN.
She added that if Democrats truly wished to target direct payments to those who need relief the most, the party would unlink the payments from 2019 income levels, based on the massive job losses across the U.S. economy last year,
“These income thresholds need to stay the same,” Jayapal added.

Cruz family’s Cancun trip rattles their private school

I don’t know why the R’s worried on whom gets it, If its 250k or under people will use it in several ways, for those hit hard more than likely food/rent others that are working and not effected so much pay down debt which helps them in the long run frees up money for other things. The the closer you get to the 250 k in most cases they may save it or invest it, no matter how its spent some type of business will benefit by it. Bottom line i rather have our citizens spending the money instead of more tax cuts for the rich that they stash offshore and does nothing for the economy

NYCVG

On a very light note, I am going to gush a bit. Very inappropriate for a grandmother of my advanced age, but here it is:

Usually I watch SNL until I fall asleep numbed by boredom.

Last night I was wide-eyed until the very last second. The Host was Rene Jean Page from Bridgerton.

Rene Jean was in every skit. Singing, dancing, doing comedy bits. As far as I can remember, NO Host has ever done that.

This guy is breathtakingly charismatic. And handsome. I doubt that is only my opinion. If you haven’t heard of him, you will soon. No doubt about that at all.

Aint Supposed to Die A Natural Death

I don’t watch SNL, or any tv at all, and seldom watch NFLX. But I can say, NYCVG, as a grandmother/great grandmother > or = your age, I agree with you. I binge watched Bridgertons a few weeks ago and that dude had me mesmerized. Lol. Even my family can’t believe that I watched and enjoyed it.

Benny

Three weeks before Sen. Ted Cruz embarked on his ill-fated Cancun trip to escape the aftermath of Texas’s devastating winter storm, the elite K-12 Houston private school attended by his two daughters emailed a Covid warning to parents about international travel.
The bottom line: St. John’s School students who travel internationally must quarantine for 7 to 10 days upon their return. And they won’t be able to even learn online while in isolation.
The rules, pegged to CDC guidelines, were sent Jan. 30 in reaction to a controversy that gripped the school after its winter break, when the 11th and 12th grade classes had to promptly quarantine because students attended holiday parties that led to multiple Covid-positive infections.
A divide had formed between the parents and students who followed the safety guidelines and those who flouted them — a microcosm of the broader societal conflict that plays out daily across the nation.
Cruz’s trip this week wrenched that divide wide open. As newly released text messages and Cruz-mocking memes exploded on social media, St. John’s parents demanded the school enforce the safety rules that will keep his kids out of class, taking the scandal out of the political realm and into his home.
Demonstrators stand in front of U.S. Senator Ted Cruz's home demanding his resignation, Thursday, Feb. 18, 2021, in Houston. Cruz has acknowledged that his family vacation to Mexico was “obviously a mistake” as he returned stateside following an uproar over his disappearance during a deadly winter storm.
Demonstrators stand in front of U.S. Senator Ted Cruz’s home demanding his resignation, Thursday, Feb. 18, 2021, in Houston. Cruz has acknowledged that his family vacation to Mexico was “obviously a mistake” as he returned stateside following an uproar over his disappearance during a deadly winter storm.
“At the end of the day, he’s taking this heat for using his children as an excuse for taking a vacation. And that’s a mistake,” said Lara Hollingsworth, a parent of three kids at the school. “From a parent standpoint, all I’m asking is the school follow the CDC guidelines, and I need to say I have no reason to believe they won’t.”
Cruz has long held a reputation as a polarizing politician people love to hate, and Hollingsworth said some of his critics at the school believe he displayed “hypocritical behavior.”
“You’ve got someone out here saying, ‘I did this to be a good dad.’ No one is trying to dispute that,” she said. “The question is are you fully aware of the consequences of what you did? Does it make you a bad parent? No. Does it make you a bad senator? Maybe.”
he topic of the Cruz family’s travel became so hot that administrators of the St. John’s School Parents Facebook page closed down comments Friday on a post that referred “to this recent communication from the school regarding … advisories (including CDC requirements links) for international travel.”
Under the guidance, any international traveler who returns to the United States must quarantine or isolate for 7 to 10 days after returning to in-person instruction.
A Cruz spokesman said the senator’s “daughters plan to follow the St. John’s policy.”
St. John’s administrators could not be reached for comment.
When Cruz arrived back in Texas after a day in Mexico, the senator acknowledged Thursday to the press that the trip “was obviously a mistake and in hindsight I wouldn’t have done it.” He also has expressed regrets for criticizing California in the past for its power problems, as old statements of him railing against vacationing politicians have been flung back in his face.
“Let’s be honest, you’re in Cancun … you’re at the beach drinking daiquiris,” Cruz joked in a 2015 interview with a conservative commentator while mocking a climate change summit.
The video clip was unearthed by the liberal group American Bridge, which also obtained the text messages his wife sent to neighbors ahead of the trip. The messages were first reported by the New York Times.
“The question isn’t who leaked the text messages. It’s who didn’t leak them? It’s an example of how universally reviled Ted Cruz is in public and private life, and even in his own neighborhood,” said Max Steele, a communications advisor for American Bridge, who recalled Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham’s quip in 2016 about his colleague: “If you killed Ted Cruz on the floor of the Senate, and the trial was in the Senate, nobody would convict you.”
Against that backdrop, Cruz has been forced to go on a mea culpa media tour to undo some of the damage as he positions himself for a second presidential bid in 2024.
Not everyone is willing to forgive so soon.
“I don’t feel badly for him,” said Victoria Konar, a parent of a senior at St. John’s School.
“You start with the fact that there are people ticked off by those who think they’re the VIPs at this school who don’t want to be bothered to follow the rules because it infringes on their social life. Then you’ve got people on top of that who don’t like Ted Cruz,” she said. “And then you have everyone irritated because they’re freezing to death and can’t bathe and can’t eat and he’s going off to the Ritz Carlton in Cancun and lying about it.”
Konar, Hollingsworth and a third parent who spoke on condition of anonymity with POLITICO praised the school for its Covid safety measures.
“It’s enraging to see this politician go out of the country like this and there’s a concern that he would be putting the school at risk if he was trying to sneak out,” the parent said. “There are just a huge number of people who are very angry at Ted Cruz, like most people in the United States.”

magsview

American Bridge…