The Progressive Wing

https://inthesetimes.com/article/teamsters-amazon-alabama-union-labor-rwdsu

Fire Away…

We paid an impromptu visit to the Bessemer Amazon facility earlier, and something caught my eye through one of the windows. I hopped on a table outside to get a closer look, and spotted this anti-union banner hanging in the employee locker room. Shameful. pic.twitter.com/VsIwDIPjml
— Kim Kelly (@GrimKim) March 18, 2021

la58

As the drive to unionize Amazon warehouse workers in Bessemer, Alabama draws international attention to the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU) that is leading the effort, other unions are planning their own strategies to organize parts of Amazon’s sprawling operations as well. The Teamsters, who see Amazon as a direct threat to their historic work organizing the trucking industry, are engaged in a concerted project targeting Amazon — and though they’re tight-lipped about the details, they appear committed to a long-term, nationwide effort that could make them one of the company’s most formidable union foes.
The 1.4 million-member Teamsters are more than ten times bigger than the RWDSU. They see Amazon’s vast pool of non-union delivery employees as an existential threat to not only their own members, but to the ability of the trucking industry to provide living wage jobs. Randy Korgan, a goateed organizing veteran whose current title is Teamsters National Director for Amazon, frames the standoff with Jeff Bezos’ company as just the latest incarnation of a struggle that the union has been waging for more than a century.

Trump's EPA actively encouraged chemical companies to fudge their books. This is a massive scandal exposed by @fastlerner https://t.co/ihywYBeGsR
— Ryan Grim (@ryangrim) March 18, 2021

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/03/17/lawmakers-urge-biden-block-massive-petrochemical-complex-cancer-alley

A pair of lawmakers known for fighting for environmental justice in Congress sent a letter to the White House on Wednesday urging President Joe Biden to deliver on his campaign promises to curb pollution in frontline communities by permanently blocking a large petrochemical complex in an area of Louisiana called “Cancer Alley.”
Residents of St. James Parish, Louisiana and environmental justice advocates nationwide have come out against the Taiwan-based Formosa Plastics Group’s plans for a $9.4 billion complex that would release cancer-causing chemicals and, according to one watchdog’s estimate, produce 13.6 million tons of planet-heating emissions per year.
As Reps. Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) and Donald McEachin (D-Va.)—authors of the Environmental Justice for All Act—asserted in their letter (pdf) to the president, “This disastrous project is an affront to environmental justice and contrary to your goals to reduce pollution in frontline communities.”
“Along the 85-mile stretch between Baton Rouge and New Orleans, communities of color are already overburdened with the cumulative impacts of more than 150 petrochemical facilities,” the congressmen noted, detailing the complex’s anticipated impacts on public health, the local environment, and the climate.
“The residents of St. James Parish—and in fact, all Louisianians—deserve to breathe clean air, drink clean water, and live in community free [of] toxic pollution,” said McEachin. “It is imperative that we protect people’s health over polluters’ profit, and revoke the Army Corps’ permit for the proposed Formosa Plastics petrochemical complex.”

This is one he could do, i imagine. Great pr. Wonder who owns it or has a ton of stock in it.

I have a feeling that this is the tip of the proverbial iceberg of what Cult -45 let craprate America get away over his 4 year reign

Last summer, a bizarre war broke out over the NYPD's disciplinary records, long shielded from public scrutiny. The state legislature ordered these records published, the NYPD got a judge to block the order, but not before @propublica got a copy.https://t.co/XIxoVSk9n0
1/ pic.twitter.com/5tKPwiHhqD
— Cory Doctorow (@doctorow) March 18, 2021

Always listen to Odd Lots, but this episode requires also special endorsement – me just out from a Fiscal Council meeting where I was recommending it, must do it here as well: ⁦@StephanieKelton⁩ talking2 ⁦@tracyalloway⁩ + ⁦@TheStalwart⁩ https://t.co/Fpdw3JkULl
— Asgeir B. Torfason (@asgeirbt) March 18, 2021

T and R, Ms. Benny!! ☮️😊👍

IMPORTANT ENDORSEMENT
Senator @BernieSanders is confirmed as one of the co-sponsors of the #PuertoRico Self-Determination Act of 2021, which will be presented tomorrow by @NydiaVelazquez and @AOC in the House and @SenatorMenendez in the Senate. Thank you @SenSanders! 🇵🇷💚🙌🏾 pic.twitter.com/Rh1loFaPtq
— Boricuas Unidos en la Diáspora – BUDPR (@BUnidosDPR) March 17, 2021

Covid-19: West Bank hospitals inundated while Israel tosses surplus vaccineshttps://t.co/Uf2Jd9clOh pic.twitter.com/T1BptdNVrr
— Middle East Eye (@MiddleEastEye) March 18, 2021

pic.twitter.com/tKhyGOpHNL
— Katalin Pota🌹 (@katalin_pota) March 18, 2021

Estimates are that the super rich have about 30-35 trillion on off shore tax free accounts, so i would speculate that that owners of the MIC account for a nice chunk of that thru thier various scheme’s

So Bernie Sanders who neoliberal Dems spent the last 4 years constantly reminding us 'that "Bernie's not a Dem" is raising money for the NV Democratic Party and the Democratic Party itself is not?
What's up with that? 🤨 https://t.co/XNVvGWl43R
— EricNC (@nc_boomer) March 18, 2021

To recap: Democratic socialists won full control over the NV State Dem Party. Establishment Dems responded by quitting en masse—after siphoning $450k from the party's coffers and giving themselves generous golden parachutes. Then Bernie Sanders sent a fundraising email. Voila: https://t.co/y9NvNSOOSG
— Colin Kalmbacher (@colinkalmbacher) March 18, 2021

From here, and no it's not any better in its full context https://t.co/kfOk1nuCGY
— Ryan Grim (@ryangrim) March 18, 2021

Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid vaccine is "safe and effective", review by European Union's medicines regulator concludes https://t.co/2Ud0NqUQjw
— BBC Breaking News (@BBCBreaking) March 18, 2021

i’d rather not take my chances with a blod clot, tho.

Got both my shots of Moderna with no side effects ‘cept initial soreness in the injection area. 😊

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/17/opinion/republican-voter-suppression.html

You just can’t be racist the way you used to.
Monumental legal cases invoking the 14th Amendment, the “equal justice” amendment, have made it unconstitutional to use blunt, explicit racism to suppress and victimize Black people while elevating and advantaging white ones.
To achieve those nefarious ends today, politicians must use a sneakier, less direct mechanism. And very often, that mechanism is to place burdens on the poorest citizens, knowing that poverty heavily afflicts — and can serve as a proxy for — Black people.
That is exactly what is happening now as Republicans, still fuming about the loss of the White House and the Senate, rush to make it harder for people to vote — many of them Black and brown people.
There are two ways to win an election: convince enough voters that you are best suited for the job, or rid the electorate of as many people who would vote against you as possible.
Republicans seem to think that it is easier to devise an electorate to their liking than to make themselves likable to the broader electorate.
And to disguise the racism of their voter suppression strategy, they make voting inconvenient or too costly for the poorest citizens.

https://www.theverge.com/2021/3/17/22334634/schumer-electric-vehicle-swap-discount-infrastructure-interview

Good Chuck

With the $1.9 trillion COVID relief bill signed into law, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) is ready to tackle the next major challenge: President Joe Biden’s call for a massive infrastructure bill. As part of that package, Schumer said he plans to include his ambitious proposal to get every American to swap their gas-guzzling car for an electric one.
“It’s a bold new plan designed to accelerate America’s transition to all electric vehicles on the road, to developing a charging infrastructure, and to grow American jobs through clean manufacturing,” Schumer told The Verge in a brief interview this week. “And the ultimate goal is to have every car manufactured in America be electric by 2030, and every car on the road be clean by 2040.”
The top-line details of the “cash for clunkers’’-style plan haven’t changed much since Schumer first proposed it in an op-ed in The New York Times in late 2019. But the political landscape has certainly shifted in favor of the Democrats, breathing new life into the idea. Under the proposal, anyone who trades in their gas car for an electric one would get a “substantial” point-of-sale discount, Schumer says. He wouldn’t say how much of a discount, only that it would be “deep.” A spokesperson later confirmed they are eyeing rebates that are “more generous” than the current $7,500 federal EV tax credit.
He also wants to provide direct incentives to auto manufacturers to phase out their production of internal combustion engine vehicles and tax breaks for property owners to install EV chargers at their homes or apartment buildings. Lastly, he proposes to send direct subsidies to local governments to improve and expand the nation’s network of EV charging stations. Schumer would deploy $45 billion in grants to upgrade the nation’s charging infrastructure and $17 billion to encourage manufacturers to retrofit their facilities for EV production.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/18/climate/chuck-schumer-fema-flood-insurance.html?

Bad Chuck

One of the federal government’s main efforts to push Americans to prepare for climate threats is in question after the Senate majority leader’s office objected to a plan to adjust flood insurance rates.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency was preparing to announce new rates for federal flood insurance on April 1, so that the prices people pay would more accurately reflect the risks they face. The change would very likely help reduce Americans’ vulnerability to floods and hurricanes by discouraging construction in high-risk areas. But it would also increase insurance costs for some households, making it a tough sell politically.
Last week, the office of Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic majority leader, pushed back on the changes, according to several people familiar with the discussion. That pushback has caused FEMA to pause the rollout of the new rates.
Senator Schumer objected to the flood-insurance overhaul when it was first announced in 2019, citing its potential to raise costs for people on Long Island. The new system would mean steeper rates for some high-value homes, and the southern shore of Long Island includes the Hamptons, which have some of the most expensive real estate in the country.

Nature could care less about the wealthy yahoos in the Hamptons. The sea levels will continue to rise and the storms will intensify.

gonna need a lot of subsidies if he really expect us all to get new cars. or nationalize production and sale. gonna be a tough sell for the individualists, too.

considering how many maskholes there were and are. Having them give up thier 4 wheel trucks will be a major challenge, might be able to tax them into submission, the rich are another story

but i’d be thrilled.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/03/18/430-groups-6-continents-demand-biden-end-all-us-subsidies-global-fossil-fuel

A coalition of more than 430 environmental organizations spanning 53 countries Thursday called on the Biden administration to quickly cut off all U.S. public financing for fossil fuel projects overseas and work with governments around the world to bring about an end to taxpayer subsidies for the dirty energy sources driving the global climate emergency.
“We urge the Biden administration to act swiftly to end new financing for all parts of the fossil fuel supply chain (including for gas), stop new U.S. fossil fuel support within 90 days across all government institutions, and work with other nations to end fossil fuel financing,” reads a letter (pdf) sent to top Biden administration officials, including Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, and Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm.
Signed by 432 groups from six continents—including Africa, Asia, and South America—comes weeks after U.S. President Joe Biden delivered a speech at the White House condemning “handouts to Big Oil” and vowing to work with Congress to eliminate subsidies to the fossil fuel industry in the U.S.
“Governments can’t claim to be serious about climate change if they pump billions of dollars into the most polluting industries every year,” said Alex Doukas of Oil Change International, one of the signatories. “If President Biden is serious about zeroing out emissions by mid-century or earlier, the U.S. must end its billions of dollars in support for oil, gas, and coal projects around the world.”

https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2021/03/lindsey-graham-threatens-talk-fell-stop-lgbtq-civil-rights-bill-passing/

Maybe he would fall over and not get up

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said that he will filibuster “till I fall over” to prevent the Equality Act from becoming law on Sean Hannity’s Fox News show last night.
“I would talk until I fell over to make sure that the Equality Act doesn’t become law, destroying the difference between men and women,” Graham said with a look of determination.

then do it, Lindsey. over and over for each new bill you hate. won’t happen.

I’d spike his food with exlax and even with a adult depend diaper on he wont last long 🙂

😂Good riddance!