2/5 News Roundup and OT – The Progressive Wing

Senate vote paves way for passage of Biden’s economic relief plan

The Senate approved a budget bill early Friday that paves the way for passage of President Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package, with Vice President Harris casting the tiebreaking vote on the measure that will be key to enacting Biden’s first major legislative initiative.
Passage of the budget bill by a 51-to-50 vote came just after 5:30 a.m. Friday, after an all-night Senate session during which senators plowed through dozens of amendments in a chaotic process known as a “vote-a-rama.” Democrats cheered on progress to address the pandemic, while Republicans complained of partisanship and excessive spending.
The House, which approved its own budget bill on Wednesday, is expected to act on on the Senate’s version within a day.
With the budget resolution nearly complete, Congress can turn in earnest to writing Biden’s expansive pandemic relief proposal into law — and push it through the Senate, without Republican votes if necessary, under the special rules unlocked by the budget legislation. That process will take weeks, with Democrats eyeing mid-March as the deadline for final passage of the relief legislation because that is when enhanced unemployment benefits will expire if Congress doesn’t act first.
“With the passage of this resolution we have the opportunity not only to address the pandemic, to address the economic collapse, to address the reality that millions of kids have seen their education disrupted,” said Senate Budget Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). “We have the opportunity to give hope to the American people and restore faith in our government to fight for them.”
Despite Biden’s campaign promises of unity and bipartisanship, now that Democrats control both chambers of Congress and the White House they appeared ready to leave Republicans behind. Republican senators accused Democrats of hypocrisy and argued that, after already devoting $4 trillion to fighting the pandemic, including $900 billion in December, there was no need to spend another $2 trillion on what they termed a wish-list of liberal priorities.
“This is not the time for trillions more dollars to make perpetual lockdowns and economic decline a little more palatable,” said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). “Notwithstanding the actual needs, notwithstanding all the talk about bipartisan unity, Democrats in Congress are plowing ahead. They’re using this phony budget to set the table to ram through their $1.9 trillion rough draft.”
The House passed the budget legislation on Wednesday, with all Republicans opposed.

The agenda of the budget resolution passed today is not the agenda of wealthy campaign contributors. It is not the agenda of the billionaire class. It is the agenda of the working people of America and with its passage we are closer to restoring their faith in our government.
— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) February 5, 2021

More news, videos, etc in the comments section. TGIF!

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Benny

Fire away..

Benny

Bernie is like omg I’m in a meta meme nightmare. 😂😂pic.twitter.com/Gqmh13sw6k
— The Bern Identity (@bern_identity) February 5, 2021

I was pleased to get my Bernie mitten t-shirt yesterday.

Benny

@magsview Vibing cat is like ceiling cat. Keeps popping up everywhere.

polarbear4

during the latter part, the coup starts happening in Myanmar. a few days ago. just in case someone missed it.

love that cat.

Benny

Senate Moves Forward With Biden’s $1.9 Trillion Covid-19 Relief Plan

Another GOP amendment aims to prevent Congress from raising the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour during a pandemic; Mr. Biden’s relief plan calls for gradually raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour. His proposal would also bolster federal unemployment assistance, send $1,400 direct checks to many Americans, provide funds for vaccine distribution and offer aid to schools.
The Senate approved the amendment on a voice vote after Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.), a leading proponent for raising the minimum wage, said Democrats want to raise it over several years.
“I will do everything that I can to make sure a $15 an hour minimum wage is included in this reconciliation bill, but there appears to be some misunderstanding,” Mr. Sanders said. “It was never my intention to raise the minimum wage immediately and during the pandemic.”

jcitybone

We don't want to hear another Republican whine about lack of bipartisanship.
Time to do what the American people demand. https://t.co/yL1FjKaUIb
— People for Bernie (@People4Bernie) February 5, 2021

jcitybone

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/04/us/politics/biden-approval-rating-republicans.html

This intraparty division gives Mr. Biden the “upper hand” as he pushes his legislative agenda forward, said Doug Schwartz, the director of polling at Quinnipiac University, which released a nationwide poll on Wednesday. “He’s advocating policies that have solid support in the public, so Republicans are in more of a defensive posture, as they’re opposing popular policies,” Mr. Schwartz said.
The public’s dissatisfaction with the state of affairs in the United States remains high: Roughly seven in 10 said they were unhappy with the way things were going, according to the Quinnipiac poll. But optimism is on the rise, and many are attaching their hopes to the new president. When asked about the coming four years under Mr. Biden, 61 percent of Americans described themselves as optimistic.
The Quinnipiac survey found that more than two-thirds of Americans supported Mr. Biden’s coronavirus relief package, with wide majorities also backing certain key elements — including a permanent increase to a $15 minimum wage and a round of $1,400 stimulus checks to individuals. On the question of the stimulus payments, even 64 percent of Republicans supported them.
On a range of other Biden policies, the poll found widespread support: rejoining the Paris climate accord, opening a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants and ending Mr. Trump’s ban on travel from some predominantly Muslim countries.

polarbear4

64% of Republicans. so instead of going full steam ahead, we’re going to niggle away what is actually pennies in the larger scheme and lose some of those Republicans.

NYCVG

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXIJ2-RSIGn53HA-x9RDevA

NYCVG

For Bernie.

Enjoy the moment. As best you can.

polarbear4

MJ
@Ms_MaryJo

Replying to
@People4Bernie
Why are dems voting for republicans amendments when repubs don’t support the final bill. No that’s not bipartisanship that’s called colluding.

jcitybone

“This isn’t Bernie’s first rodeo”

https://www.businessinsider.com/the-senate-rejects-raising-15-minimum-wage-during-pandemic-2021-2?amp&utm_source=reddit.com

The Senate unanimously passed a Republican amendment Thursday that seeks to prevent Democrats from doing something they never wanted to do: double the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour during the coronavirus pandemic.
In effect, Democrats, as well as the independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, joined with Republicans to drive the fact home during a so-called vote-a-rama.
Rather than double the minimum wage before the pandemic ends, President Joe Biden and congressional Democrats are proposing to raise it gradually to $15 an hour by 2025 as part of their $1.9 trillion stimulus package.
The amendment from Sen. Joni Ernst, an Iowa Republican, seemed intended to miscast Democrats’ position — to enact a $15 minimum wage “during a global pandemic” — and put centrist Democrats on the spot to highlight divides within the party on the wage-hike plan.
Specifically, the amendment would grant the chair of the Senate Budget Committee the right to nix a wage increase as part of the reconciliation process — a legislative maneuver that allows the Democratic-controlled Senate to pass bills in the upper chamber with a simple majority instead of the 60 votes usually required.
Sanders, who is chair of the Senate Budget Committee, said during the floor debate that he would do “everything I can to make sure that a $15 minimum wage is included in this reconciliation bill.” He rejected Republican framing that Democrats were seeking to double the wage during the pandemic.
“It was never my intent to increase the minimum wage to $15 an hour immediately during the pandemic,” Sanders said. “My legislation gradually increases the minimum wage to $15 an hour over a five-year period, and that is what I believe we ought to do.”
Sanders put the amendment on a non-recorded voice vote in a move that most likely deflected criticism of his drive to increase the minimum wage. The measure is nonbinding.
“We need to end the crisis of starvation wages in Iowa and across the United States,” he added.
A senior Democratic aide, granted anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly, argued that Republicans had bungled the effort to force moderate Democrats to take a politically difficult vote.
“This isn’t Bernie’s first rodeo,” the aide said. “No one has to take a tough vote on a messaging amendment, and we can still try to pass minimum wage through the reconciliation bill.”

jcitybone

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/02/there-was-some-late-night-maneuvering-on-the-minimum-wage.html

The ultimate fate of minimum-wage language in the reconciliation process depends not just on politics but on numbers: Democrats are awaiting a fresh estimate by the Congressional Budget Office of the spending and revenue impact of a big minimum-wage hike. And that, in turn, may inform the Senate parliamentarian’s ruling on whether such language would violate the Byrd Rule against non-budget-germane provisions in budget-reconciliation bills. You can be sure Sanders will be right in the middle of every discussion.

polarbear4

i understand that small business owners would be freaked out. so maybe a ubi would be better right now. phasing it in makes no sense, bc it is already way below where it should be.

Torabs

Exactly. Weak sauce of Bernie to settle for 5-years phased-in.

jcitybone

https://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/warren-the-no-1-thing-biden-can-do-for-economy-is-cancel-student-loan-debt-100555333987

“The number one thing that President Biden can do right now for this economy: cancel $50,000 worth of student loan debt. The number one thing he can do for young people: cancel student loan debt. The number one thing he can do to help close the Black/white wealth gap is cancel $50,000 worth of student loan debt,” says Sen. Warren.

Torabs

Don’t know how I feel about this. 50k is better than the zero that Biden wants to do, but we’re asking for all student loan debt to be canceled, Liz.

Benny

It will get whittled down to about 10K, is my guess. 10K only covers one year of college (at best).

Benny

More than 200 officials from the Obama administration sign a letter urging Congress to go big on the stimulus.

More than 200 members of the Obama administration urged Congress on Friday not to shrink its stimulus bill in response to Republicans’ criticism about deficit spending, warning that Democrats risked repeating the same mistake they made 12 years ago, amid the last economic crisis.
The signers of the open letter argue that the decision by the Democratic-led Congress in 2009 to pass a stimulus of $787 billion, less than what some economists at the time said was needed, unnecessarily prolonged the Great Recession.
“The resistance we faced from deficit fearmongers seeking to water it down ate up valuable time and diluted the amount of aid that reached struggling families and small businesses,” the letter says of the 2009 stimulus package. “We know from history that they are wrong and sabotaging the ability of our nation to fully and equitably recover.”
The signers include several members of Mr. Obama’s cabinet, among them Tom Perez, who was labor secretary and later led the Democratic National Committee; Julián Castro, who was secretary of housing and urban development and ran for president last year; and Kathleen Sebelius, who was secretary of health and human services. High-ranking advisers such as Valerie Jarrett, Dan Pfeiffer and John Podesta also signed.
“The lesson that we need to learn from the past is if we have the power to meet the needs of Americans, then we need to do that immediately, whether congressional Republicans agree with it or not,” Mr. Castro said in an interview.
President Biden has proposed a $1.9 trillion package that includes $1,400 stimulus checks for Americans making up to $75,000 a year, a $400-a-week supplement to unemployment benefits through September, aid for state and local governments, and other provisions. Congressional Democrats are advancing it through the budget reconciliation process. With that approach, the bill would be shielded from a filibuster in the Senate and could pass the chamber with only Democratic votes, as a blueprint did early Friday.
Mr. Biden met with Republican senators at the White House this week but described their counterproposal, which would reduce stimulus checks to $1,000 and the total cost of the package to $600 billion, as a nonstarter. He has expressed openness to tightening the income limit to receive a check.
Many Democrats have expressed concern about repeating what they see as the mistakes of 2009, when the party scaled back its stimulus package in an ultimately fruitless pursuit of bipartisan support. Only three Republicans voted for the bill, and the former Obama officials who signed the open letter argue that the economy would have fared better if Democrats had ignored Republicans and passed a larger package on their own.
“Quite frankly, we all had to live the consequences of the Republican intransigence,” Mr. Perez said. “The economic numbers here are dire. They make the Great Recession look like it was a mild recession, which it wasn’t. We can’t afford not to do what the president is proposing.”

jcitybone

Over 5.5m have seen @AOC's video about her experience of the Capitol attack.
MAGA media, both professional & social, have fixated on discrediting it, because they know the power of emotion in politics, and they'd rather sweep this event under the rug.
Me:https://t.co/vaBCUZZ4hJ
— Nicholas Grossman (@NGrossman81) February 4, 2021

Not only did I never make this claim, but I would never, ever do this.
What Greene is doing pumping this lie to her insurrectionist base is making them feel justified in further violence.
The prospect of stripping her committees clearly isn’t quelling her. She must be expelled. https://t.co/8WvvCgsMQt
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) February 4, 2021

jcitybone

https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/jamie-raskin-trump-testify/

Donald Trump has spent a lifetime avoiding accountability for his shady business dealings, financial misdeeds, and abuses of power. But Representative Jamie Raskin is not about to let the defeated former president get away with the high crime of provoking the deadly January 6 attack on the US Capitol.
Raskin, the former constitutional law professor whom House Speaker Nancy Pelosi wisely tapped as the lead manager of Trump’s second impeachment tribunal, raised the stakes Thursday, when he asked Trump to testify before or during the trial that is set to begin next week. And when he pointedly signaled that refusal to testify would likely be used against the defendant.
After the Maryland Democrat and his colleagues outlined the charges against the former president, which were endorsed by a bipartisan majority in the House, Trump’s lawyers delivered a legal brief that denied irrefutable facts about their client’s incitement of insurrection. Raskin did not blink.
As a constitutional scholar and a savvy legislative strategist, Raskin understands that the impeachment managers cannot let Trump get away with his old tricks. So the lead impeachment manager has flipped the script. Instead of letting the former president game the trial, by making false claims and seeking to impugn the process, Raskin has called Trump’s bluff.
Harvard Law professor Laurence Tribe, who describes Raskin as “the best constitutional lawyer in all of Congress,” recognized the genius in this move immediately. “If Mr. Trump declines the chance to clear his name by showing up and explaining under oath why his conduct on January 6 didn’t make him responsible for the lethal insurrection that day, it’ll be on him,” observed Tribe, shortly after the representative sent his letter. “He can’t have it both ways.”
Trump’s team was just as cognizant of the peril. “The President will not testify in an unconstitutional proceeding,” Trump senior adviser Jason Miller told Fox News. But, as Tribe noted, “This is a transparent copout. Trump could easily testify or agree to a deposition without sacrificing his claim that the Senate has no jurisdiction to try him. His cowardice is obvious.”

jcitybone

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/02/05/fiery-floor-speech-cori-bush-demands-accountability-every-republican-who-incited

Congresswoman Cori Bush of Missouri delivered an emotional speech on the House floor Thursday night detailing her experience of the January 6 mob invasion of the U.S. Capitol Building—which she called a “blatant, heinous, vile white supremacist attack”—and demanding that lawmakers take the basic step of holding to account those who abetted and incited the deadly violence.
“If we cannot stand up to white supremacy in this moment, as representatives, then why did you run for office in the first place?” Bush asked. “We can’t build a better society if members are too scared to stand up and act to reject the white supremacist attack that happened right before our eyes. How can we trust that you will address the suffering that white supremacy causes on a day to day basis in the shadows if you can’t even address the white supremacy that happens right in front of you in your house? Does your silence speak to your agreement is the question.”
“On January 3, we stood together to swear an oath to office to the Constitution,” Bush continued. “We swore to defend it against all enemies, foreign and domestic. Well, it was attacked by a domestic enemy called white supremacy and we must stand together now, today, to uphold that oath and hold every single person who helped incite it accountable.”

Text of @CoriBush' speech tonight pic.twitter.com/zXzSd1g2By
— People for Bernie (@People4Bernie) February 5, 2021

jcitybone

After they incited the attempted overthrow of the federal government, it’s so deeply offensive to watch my Republican colleagues on the Judiciary Committee lecture Democrats on the importance of saying the pledge of allegiance.
Their pledge clearly meant nothing on January 6th.
— Rep. Mondaire Jones (@RepMondaire) February 4, 2021

These fuckers attacked the capitol which killed 5 people including a police officer and now they are upset about Democrats not wanting to say the Pledge of Allegiance every fucking 5 minutes.
Republicans can go fuck themselves.
— Alex Cole (@acnewsitics) February 5, 2021

You hypocritical #GOPCowards don't care that trump and Marjorie Taylor Greene incited the riot during which a cop was beaten with that same flag you claim to stand for.
You didn't stand for those boys who were molested either, Gym.
— BrooklynDad_Defiant! (@mmpadellan) February 5, 2021

jcitybone

Lauren Boebert's town hall is happening now.
Caller: “When you are tried for treason, which prison do you want to do your time in?”
Boebert: "Next question."#copolitics
— Jesse Aaron Paul ☀ (@JesseAPaul) February 5, 2021

jcitybone

https://thehill.com/homenews/house/537507-cori-bush-marjorie-taylor-greene-didnt-take-back-what-she-said-about-me

Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.) on Thursday acknowledged that while Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) apologized to congressional colleagues this week over her past controversial statements, Greene “didn’t take that back” or “regret” claims directed at Bush.
During an interview that aired Thursday evening on “The Daily Show with Trevor Noah,” Bush said she has committed to “call out,” Greene for past remarks that have surfaced in recent days, suggesting that Greene “needs to be exposed” in order for the GOP congresswoman to “evolve or be reformed.”

polarbear4

“there’s a whole other side to this thing. it’s called loving humanity.
go cori.

Torabs

Really appreciate how Bush has risen to spearhead the refusal to let this issue go silently. She gets that the stakes are normalizing white terrorist attacks, and the absolute necessity to hold as many accountable as possible.

jcitybone

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/we-must-do-better-tlaib-in-tears-urges-colleagues-to-reckon-with-capitol-insurrection

Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) on Thursday night made an emotional plea to her fellow lawmakers to take the deadly Capitol insurrection that ex-President Donald Trump incited on January 6 seriously, recounting the hate she’s had to face as one of the first Muslims to be elected to Congress.
“This is so personal. This is so hard because as many of my colleagues know, my closet colleagues know, on my very first day of orientation, I got my first death threat,” Tlaib said while in tears on the House floor. “It was a serious one. They took me aside, the FBI.”
“I didn’t even get sworn in yet and someone wanted me dead for just existing,” she continued. “More came later. Uglier, more violent.”
Tlaib recalled threats that mentioned her son by name and celebrated the New Zealand mosque massacre that was carried out by a white supremacist in 2019.
“Each one paralyzed me each time,” the congresswoman said. “So what happened on January 6, all I could do is thank Allah I wasn’t here. I felt overwhelming relief.”
Tlaib described how she worries “every day” for her diverse staff and that she “never thought that they would feel unsafe here.”
“And so I urge my colleagues to please, please take what happened on January 6 seriously,” she said. “It will lead to more death and we can do better. We must do better.”

jcitybone

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/refugees-125k-allocation-biden-executive-order/

President Biden issued an executive order on Thursday to increase refugee admissions and allow the U.S. to set a goal of providing safe haven to 125,000 people around the world fleeing violence, conflict and persecution during his first full fiscal year in office.
In the order, Mr. Biden called for an expansion of the decades-old U.S. refugee program, which was gutted by former President Trump, who frequently portrayed refugees as economic and security risks. After former President Obama set a 110,000-person ceiling before leaving office, Mr. Trump slashed it every fiscal year, allocating a historically low 15,000 spots in 2020.

jcitybone

https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2021/02/biden-climate-change-actions-anger-big-oil/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=r%2F_bicc-02%2F05%2F20

President Joe Biden signed executive actions last week prioritizing solutions to the “existential threat” of climate change, drawing the ire of many key players in the politically powerful oil and gas industry.
Biden’s actions pressed pause on the leasing of federal lands and waters for oil drilling, set a goal of keeping 30 percent of federal lands for conservation purposes and announced the electrification of the federal government’s fleet of vehicles. The move comes a week after Biden revoked the permits for the controversial Keystone XL pipeline just hours after his inauguration, following through on a campaign-trail promise.
Leading up to the 2020 election, the oil and gas industry contributed around $1.6 million more to former President Donald Trump than to Biden. Trump painted himself as an ally to the industry on the stump and throughout his presidency — though industry insiders told Politico in 2020 that the Trump administration was “a mixed bag” and “more like ‘meh’” than the windfall they had hoped for in 2016.
The oil industry spent millions in 2020 to try to keep a GOP majority in the Senate. Valero, Chevron and ConocoPhillips, among the few corporations that give to super PACs, gave at least $1 million each this election cycle to the Senate Leadership Fund, a conservative super PAC that spent $271 million to campaign against Democrats vying for the Senate.
Biden’s decision to halt future leases of federal land, pending a comprehensive review of the climate impact, caused an uproar among oil and gas companies and trade associations. Just hours after Biden formalized the order, the Western Energy Alliance announced it would sue the Biden administration, alleging the move violates existing law.

Oil corporations emphasize that gap. The Global Energy Institute, a subsidiary of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, came out against some of Biden’s climate actions, claiming it would lead to widespread unemployment.
“Without the prospect of future leases, investment and planning will begin to dry up immediately, thwarting job creation and the economic growth at the worst possible time,” the Institute’s President Marty Durbin said in a statement.
The Chamber of Commerce perennially favors Republicans and dropped $5.7 million in outside spending in 2020.
The Chamber of Commerce also condemned Biden’s action to cancel the Keystone XL pipeline, a project widely opposed by environmental advocates, indigenous communities and scientists.
“This is a politically motivated decision that is not grounded in science. It will harm consumers and put thousands of Americans in the building trades out of work,” Durbin said.

That pipeline is owned by Energy Transfer Partners, an oil and gas conglomerate that gave more in campaign contributions than any other company in the industry. Ninety-nine percent of its donations went to Republican candidates and committees. In 2020, the company’s co-founder and board chair, Kelcy Warren, donated a whopping $10 million to America First Action, a Trump-affiliated super PAC.
Biden’s climate actions are also drawing criticism from Republican lawmakers from oil-rich states who have benefited from industry contributions. Sens. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), Steve Daines (R-Mont.), Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), Jim Risch (R-Idaho), John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) and John Hoeven (R-N.D.) announced Jan. 22 that they would introduce legislation to overturn Biden’s executive action and re-issue permits to the Keystone XL Pipeline, which was slated to pass through Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota and Nebraska before connecting to an existing pipeline in Kansas.
“We came so far during the last administration – from prioritizing American energy development to ending the far-left’s war on fossil fuels,” said Inhofe in a statement announcing the legislation.
Throughout his career, Inhofe has received in excess of $2.2 million in campaign contributions from oil and gas companies. Daines and Barrasso have each received $1.2 million from the industry.

jcitybone

For PB

https://www.propublica.org/article/we-have-counties-in-deep-trouble-oregon-lawmakers-seek-to-reverse-timber-tax-cuts-that-cost-communities-billions

Oregon lawmakers have filed a spate of bills aiming to reverse decades-old timber tax cuts that deprived counties of billions of dollars and to eliminate a quasi-governmental state agency that has acted as a lobbying arm for the industry.
The measures follow an investigation published last year by Oregon Public Broadcasting, The Oregonian/OregonLive and ProPublica. The newsrooms found that timber companies, increasingly dominated by Wall Street real estate trusts and investment funds, have benefited from tax cuts that cost counties at least $3 billion over the past three decades. Half of the 18 counties in Oregon’s timber-dominant region lost more money from tax cuts on private forests than from the oft-blamed reduction of logging on federal lands stemming from environmental protections for the northern spotted owl.
The investigation also documented how the state-funded Oregon Forest Resources Institute, which has an annual budget of $4 million, worked to discredit climate research deemed harmful to the timber industry and appeared to skirt legal constraints against lobbying. By law, the organization is prohibited from attempting to influence policy. Its role is to educate residents about forestry.

polarbear4

ty, jcb!

jcitybone

Nonbinding vote but it does show who the two most anti-environmental Dems will be

https://www.newsweek.com/senate-backs-keystone-xl-pipeline-democrats-snub-biden-1567048

The Senate backed the Keystone XL pipeline in a Thursday night marathon vote, as two Democratic lawmakers broke with President Joe Biden to vote for a GOP amendment supporting the energy project.
As senators were forced to vote on hundreds of amendments to the budget resolution that would launch the reconciliation process, Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT) put forward an amendment backing the Keystone XL pipeline.
The Republican’s amendment called for a fund to be established to improve U.S.-Canada relations over the Keystone XL pipeline, weeks after President Biden revoked the project’s federal permit and put thousands of jobs at risk.
Senators backed the symbolic amendment in a 52-48 vote, with Sens. Joe Manchin (D-WV), the chairman of the energy committee, and Jon Tester (D-MT) voting with GOP lawmakers to back construction of the pipeline.

polarbear4

we must come to a point where we say murdering people with the MIC and with fossil fuel production and use is no longer an acceptable excuse for “jobs.”

Torabs

Exactly. We’ve normalized waging death and destruction as part of the Main Street economy in far too many states. This must be decoupled for there to be any hope of America becoming a just society.

NYCVG

Love it 👍 https://t.co/2nA4MNOxHe
— Andrew Yang🧢🗽🇺🇸 (@AndrewYang) February 4, 2021

Love it Thumbs up

Mitt Romney proposes giving American families an extra $3,000 a year
Senator Mitt Romney (R-Utah) unveiled a plan Thursday that would provide American families with an extra $250 a month for school-aged children.

What?
It seems we are entering the anything is possible state.

polarbear4

i heard he is pairing it with something to do with harming social security. i’ll look for it.

jcitybone

He partly pays for it by completely eliminating the SALT tax deduction, which just adds to the $ that high tax blue states send to low tax red states. That will be a no go for blue state Dems. How about paying it by raising taxes on all high income earners throughout the US.

Torabs

Joining forces with a Republican looking to slash the security net behind everyone’s back? Sounds like Yang alright.

polarbear4

i’m not sure there’s anything in this bill in particular. but yes, iirc, Mitt is not a friend of our retirement money unless it comes from Wall St.

but i have to admit, yang looks decent, at least. nycvg likes him, and she/he lives there…

Torabs

We know what Yang is about by now though, PB. As an also-ran candidate in the presidential primary, with little to lose, he flip-flopped on M4A when he thought he could profit from it. And then there was his anti-Palestinian, pro-Zionist apartheid statements from a week or so ago. Anyone fooled by his sham act will only find themselves to blame when he sells them out, if elected.

jcitybone

It's official. John Fetterman has filed papers to run for U.S. Senate in 2022. PA seat is rated as toss-up by political prognosticators, which is currently Dems best chance at flipping a seat. Here's our story from when Fetterman announced exploring a run https://t.co/KxRxTZImib
— Ryan Deto (@RyanDeto) February 5, 2021

wi62

From his web site;

A Pennsylvania native, John was born to teenage parents just starting out on their own. At the time, his father worked nights to put himself through college. John grew up in York, PA, and followed in his father’s footsteps to Albright College, where he played offensive tackle for the Lions.
At 23, John joined up with Big Brothers/Big Sisters, and his life has never been the same.
John threw himself into the program, mentoring his ‘little’ – an 8-year-old boy who had recently lost his father to AIDS and whose mother was also battling the disease. Before she passed away, John promised that he would continue to look out for her son and make sure that he graduated college. Fifteen years later, John and his ‘little’ had both held up their ends of the bargain, with his little’s graduation from Washington and Jefferson College in Washington, PA.
But John wanted to do more. He joined AmeriCorps and served in Pittsburgh’s historic Hill District, where he helped set up the first computer labs in the neighborhood and taught GED classes to young mothers and fathers.
He went on to earn a Masters in Public Policy from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government.
John returned to Pennsylvania to start a GED program in the town of Braddock, one of the poorest and most troubled communities in the commonwealth. In 2005, encouraged by his students, John ran for mayor. He managed to win the crowded primary by a single vote. In his 13 years as mayor, John worked to rebuild his community, creating jobs, getting youth engaged, and bringing creative urban policy solutions to Braddock. The town now has a community center, urban gardens, and a free store run by John’s wife, Gisele.
Together, John and Gisele have fought for causes they believe in, from immigration reform to LGBTQ+ rights. When Pennsylvania lawmakers continued to push outdated discriminatory policies banning marriage equality, John stood up and officiated one of the first same-sex marriages in the commonwealth.
In 2016, John decided to run for U.S. Senate to confront the inequality crisis at the highest level of government. Although he lost the Democratic primary, John confounded expectations, earning 20 percent of the vote as a relatively unknown candidate in a four-way race.
Two years later, in 2018, John ran to be Pennsylvania’s Lieutenant Governor, and this time dominated across the commonwealth, winning a five-way Democratic primary and a commanding victory in the general election.
As Lt. Governor, John has transformed the position and made a bully pulpit of the office, advocating for economic justice and criminal justice reform.
Weeks after taking office, John embarked on a listening tour of all 67 counties, something no sitting Lt. Governor has ever done, to engage with Pennsylvanians about legalizing marijuana. In three months, the historic tour saw over 10,000 people turn out in person and tens of thousands more engage online. Following John’s final report and recommendations, the Governor announced his support for legalization for the first time.
As the chair of Pennsylvania’s Board of Pardons, John has led the fight to give second chances to non-violent longtime inmates and free those who have been wrongfully convicted.
He has taken numerous steps to overhaul the clemency process in Pennsylvania, including eliminating all fees associated with applying for a pardon, making the pardons application more user-friendly, and working to move the application process online. Under John’s tenure, the Board has recommended more applicants for commutation than under any lieutenant governor in decades.
John and Gisele have chosen not to settle in the Lt. Governor’s Mansion, instead opening up the pool in the official residence to children who typically wouldn’t have access to one. They live with their three children Karl, 11, Gracie, 9, and August, 6, in a restored car dealership in Braddock with the family dog, Levi.
He is a gun owner so that alone will confuse the hell out of the average R voter

Benny

He may appeal to libertarians.

jcitybone

Thankfully they aren’t listening to this joker

Why would we listen to the economist who admits he went too small last time if he’s warning us to go small again? I swear this town is nuts. It’s like people can only remember thirty names and so they just keep going back to the same people.
— Brian Schatz (@brianschatz) February 5, 2021

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/02/04/larry-summers-biden-covid-stimulus/

Opinion: The Biden stimulus is admirably ambitious. But it brings some big risks, too.

Benny

Summers is a prick.

orlbucfan

T and R, Ms. Benny!! 🙂 Summers is a yahoo cretin. Speaking of neoliberals where’s PBO?

Benny

Bernie Sanders is Right, Larry Summers is Wrong

n November 12, 1999 Treasury Secretary Larry Summers joined President Bill Clinton to proclaim a bright new future for the American economy. The occasion was the signing ceremony for the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, best known for its partial repeal of 1933’s Glass-Steagall legislation — until then a critical firewall separating commercial and investment banking. Gramm-Leach-Bliley having passed with strong bipartisan support, Summers was in an effusive mood:
Let me welcome you all here today for the signing of this historic legislation. With this bill, the American financial system takes a major step forward towards the 21st century, one that will benefit American consumers, business, and the national economy for many years to come…. I believe we have all found the right framework for America’s future financial system.
Despite the general atmosphere of consensus, Gramm-Leach-Bliley passed the House 362-57-15 — not everyone was convinced of the bill’s merits. One independent Congressman from Vermont had demurred rather forcefully during the House debate preceding its passage:
I believe this legislation, in its current form, will do more harm than good. It will lead to fewer banks and financial service providers; increased charges and fees for individual consumers and small businesses; diminished credit for rural America; and taxpayer exposure to potential losses should a financial conglomerate fail. It will lead to more mega-mergers; a small number of corporations dominating the financial service industry; and further concentration of economic power in our country
.
As progressive bloggers Pam Martens and Russ Martens rightly point out, much of what Bernie Sanders had argued would soon be proven correct. Barely a decade later, consolidation among big banks and financial institutions would remain in overdrive and the bright new economic future predicted by Summers and Clinton would come crashing down as the American public was called upon to bail out failing financial institutions. The chain of events spanning the repeal of Glass-Steagall to the 2009 crash prompted no less than the New York Times editorial board to admit it had been wrong to endorse the zeitgeist of deregulation.
Being wrong, even catastrophically so, has of course never been much of an impediment in American politics provided that the mistakes benefit the right people. Summers would soon find himself back at the commanding heights of government courtesy of Barack Obama (ironically enough during the meltdown of the very consensus he had helped to inaugurate). He also reportedly served in an advisory capacity for President-elect Joe Biden (who, incidentally, voted for Gramm-Leach-Bliley back in 1999) as recently as last May.
With Congress debating the prospect of $2,000 direct payments to Americans, and Sanders now threatening to halt a major defense bill until the Senate votes on the relief checks, the former Treasury Secretary has thus, predictably, emerged as a leading critic. “I don’t think the $2,000 checks make much sense,” Summers told Bloomberg News on Christmas Eve, adding:
In a way that’s quite unprecedented, we have stimulus already, much more than filling out the hole. And given that lots of the hole is from the fact not that people don’t want to spend but that they can’t spend — they can’t take a flight or go to a restaurant — I don’t necessarily think that the priority should be on promoting consumer spending beyond where we are now. So I’m not even sure that I’m so enthusiastic about the $600 checks and I think taking them to $2,000 would actually be a pretty serious mistake that would risk a temporary overheat.
True to form, Summers couldn’t resist topping off his observations with a partisan snipe: “I have to say that when you see the two extremes agreeing, you can almost be certain that something crazy is in the air.”
The former Treasury Secretary is right, of course, that many Americans can’t spend. But for an unthinkable number the cause of the restraint has less to do with travel moratoriums or restaurant closures than it does with having no money. Most haven’t received direct cash aid from the federal government since a round of $1,200 checks went out last spring, and according to one recent analysis, as many as twenty-six million adults are now so low on cash and behind on their rent that they’re quite literally beginning to starve. This is to say nothing of a probable eviction wave, the possibility of widespread utility shutoffs, or the positively paltry benefits currently going to the unemployed.
No analysis of the present situation which takes a pass on these realities is worth a damn and (again true to form) Summers made a series of cold and technocratic arguments instead. Met with justified backlash, he took to the op-ed pages this weekend and, in a moment of accidental lucidity, managed to pepper his observations with some pretty fair questions:
Some argue that while $2,000 checks may not be optimal support for the post-Covid economy, taking stimulus from $600 to $2,000 is better than nothing. They need to ask themselves whether they would favor $5,000, or $10,000 — or more. There must be a limiting principle…. Perhaps bringing them somewhat above benchmark levels makes sense. But further adding to earnings when losses are being replaced seven times over seems hard to justify — especially at a time when pent-up savings totals $1.6 trillion and is rising. If writing universal checks is a good idea, why not do it after household incomes have reverted to normal?
Putting aside Summers’s baffling implication that there is already too much economic relief going out to households, some of these are good questions. $2,000 definitely won’t be enough money for millions of Americans and there are plenty of worse ideas than the federal government topping up incomes that have been stagnant for decades once the pandemic is over.
Nonetheless, these are not the issues at hand or the dynamics currently on the table. As New York Magazine’s Eric Levitz quite succinctly put it: “Donald Trump is not about to force Republican senators to support federalizing unemployment insurance. It’s $2,000 checks for almost all, or inadequate aid to the poor.” This is the choice at hand — which means that, as has been the case in almost every economic policy debate for the past thirty years, Bernie Sanders is right and Larry Summers is wrong.

NYCVG

Larry Summers O_U_T.

Jared Bernstein I-N.

That’s the way, I like it…

Benny

reminder of the warm loveliness that is christopher plummer’s 2011 best supporting actor oscar speech pic.twitter.com/6cS30jTKyr
— grace barber-plentie (@gracesimone) February 5, 2021

RIP Christopher Plummer, who passed away at the age of 91. I’m going to reclaim a good song that was made sinister by the series The Man in the High Castle.

The Sound of Music is my favorite musical.

jcitybone

Here’s a version with Plummer’s own voice. He was a pretty good singer. In the movie, the song was dubbed by the singer Bill Lee of the group, the Mellomen. He dubbed lots of parts over the years.

NYCVG

tears for every German, Jew, Austrian, gypsy,Pole, disabled person and homosexual whose life was lost, damaged and destroyed by the Nazi regime.

what a gorgeous rendition by the late great CP.

Benny

That’s some interesting trivia. That version speaks to me even more because of the natural vibrato in Plummer’s voice and seemed more appropriate for the Von Trapp Family Singers as being plausible folk singers.

NYCVG

NEW: Charlamagne Tha God Endorses Andrew Yang for Mayor of New York City
WATCH: https://t.co/w9YmedTVKa pic.twitter.com/9YcEcFLu8A
— The Matt Skidmore Show (@ZachandMattShow) February 5, 2021

big endorsement for Andrew Yang

Benny

TODAY: Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden and Sen. Cory Booker met with cannabis advocates to begin forming a federal legalization plan for 2021.
Marijuana Moment spoke to five people who were there.
DETAILS:https://t.co/TSJuX71t5b pic.twitter.com/IRKVLZzevy
— Tom Angell 🌳📰ⓥ (@tomangell) February 5, 2021

Benny

BREAKING: The Virginia House of Delegates just voted for final passage of its marijuana legalization bill.
Senate is expected to vote on its own measure later today.
Lawmakers will then work to form a final proposal to send to supportive Gov. Northam.https://t.co/CgrCik67dJ pic.twitter.com/rQ72KeGFcw
— Tom Angell 🌳📰ⓥ (@tomangell) February 5, 2021

Benny

The VA senate also passed it. Now they are crafting the language to send to Northam’s office.

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