8/14-15 OPEN THREAD – The Progressive Wing

Hello nesters its been awhile since i kicked off a OT so here goes. The following toon show how little has changed in 90 years. The funny point is one of the anti vaxers in the 2021 side carries a sign saying “my body-my choice” but not when it comes down to abortion rights. In cult 45 GQP land they must be crushed that their brave leader didn’t take office yesterday as they predicted. I’m sure that they’ll make up a new date. Anyway the weather is great today upper 70s and 50s dew points so i’m outside for most of the day!!!! Have at it nesters and have a great day!!!!!

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wi65

Tip jar for LD and those who keep the nest going day to day😀😀

polarbear4

and for you!

orlbucfan

T and R, wi63!! 🙂

polarbear4

US Geological Survey is estimating "high casualties" and widespread disaster after a 7.2-magnitude earthquake strikes near Haiti. Follow live updates.https://t.co/u0cn1eLfaX pic.twitter.com/EB5x9EXouZ
— CNN International (@cnni) August 14, 2021

Benny

Haiti can’t seem to catch a break.

polarbear4

Always curious about how she is doing and worried that she's alright. I don't even know her name. pic.twitter.com/OJQdDKt879
— CookieCutter_ (@CallMeCookie) August 14, 2021

polarbear4

Here’s the full shot so you can read it.

Aint Supposed to Die A Natural Death

😢😢😭

eve

Thanks for the full caption, polarbear4 – so tragic….it’s taken me 7 decades (the early ones though I wasn’t thinking about it….so it’s taken me way too long o get WHY these catastrophic horrors happen…none of the excuses carry water- no one’s safer; the vast majority of people here at home and around the world are worse off, the climate is a mess, the environment too.

It’s simply, as you also may have concluded ages ago perhaps, – it’s the money for the oligarchs the uber wealthy the powerful….death for money….our soldiers and millions of killed and dislocated….all for some extra yachts and estates and power and control….
and we who pay for it here at home and are fed lies about our security and “national interest” (which is never defined by the politicians who spout those lying words to get people to accept what’s done in our name) …we are considered idiots to be manipulated by the propaganda…
while the courageous whistleblowers risk everything to bring us the truth.
And courageous Julian Assange and Chelsea Manning get tortured in present day dungeons.

polarbear4

!!!!

magsview

I grabbed the attached screenshot from a CNN story yesterday in which a journalist was permitted to tour conquered bases in Afghanistan. The one in the pic had been abandoned a few weeks ago by the official Afghan forces, leaving behind humvees, ammunition and more.
(U.S. soldiers had vacated a couple of years ago)

After walking around the debris, she looked at the camera and said:

“Walking through what’s left of these American bases, you have to ask yourself, what was it all for?”

https://www.cnn.com/videos/world/2021/08/13/taliban-former-us-military-base-afghanistan-ghazni-province-ward-dnt-lead-vpx.cnn

polarbear4

Aint Supposed to Die A Natural Death

It was to fill the coffers of the American military arms manufacturers and the politicians they pay to keep them in business. Now they can move on to China, Iran and Cuba.

polarbear4

exactly. tbh, I still don’t understand why more people aren’t catching on. Too busy making a living I guess

eve

not just those two groups, Aint Supposed to Die A Natural Death,….more profiteers than just that sleazy group, I think….
After Wikileaks release of the transcript from one of Villary’s speeches to Goldman Sachs and reading their CEO (at the time Lloyd Blankfein) tell her he wanted us to intervene in some ME country, I was shocked at the widespread influence of oligarchs in our meddling and wars, including too big to fail banks feeling their financial interest on foreign policy would be addressed by their political apparatchiks.
I haven’t yet read Dennis Kucinich’s new book “Division of Power and Light” but a review on Amazon by Paul Kinzelman includes:
” The book is very detailed, well documented with an index and references, of his experience as mayor of Cleveland in the late 1970’s. He couldn’t be bought and took on the corporate and banking control of the city, which cost him and his circle of confidants dearly, including 3 attempts on Dennis’s life. The mafia even had contracted a hitman to kill Dennis because he would not succumb to pressure that all the other politicians had not withstood……….Dennis was proven right to stand up to the banks and prevent the sale of the municipal power generation facility to the private energy company. This shows how necessary public control of utilities is and how devastating the results will be if the oligarchs succeed in privatizing everything.”

We all know that we have very little say in what’s done with out tax dollars….but we allow ourselves to get distracted by the red herring “wedge issues” that create an artificial divide between so called left and right…
when, as Bernie knew and proved, ordinary people across the political spectrum have a lot in common, as you may agree. Dems and Reps both use that red herring to stay in power.

e.g. years ago a Harvard social scientists pointed out that the country with the most liberal abortion laws, Sweden, had the fewest abortions because they offered pregnant women free healthcare, childcare, a job and 6 months or more paid leave so that a woman was not compelled by financial desperation to abort the child….
that truth, if known and practiced here might have ended the political war on abortion that’s still going on.

I’m sure you’re aware of all this – I’m just spouting off because of the frustration at our current political corruption…

Aint Supposed to Die A Natural Death

I hear you, eve. And I agree. Its a massive international cabal of thieves and liars parading as businessmen, politicians and philanthropists. I’m sick to my stomach. I have to get Kucinich’s book.

eve

sorry, ain’t supposed, I really didn’t mean to suggest that you are not already well aware of this…we’ve been twisted and turned so much by the constant drum beat of the MICIMATT (Ray McGovern’s update of Eisenhower’s MIC to include Military-Industrial-Congressional-Intelligence-Media-Academia Thinktank complex) that I’m trying in my own mind to find a way that we can frame this very simple truth…
distill it down to a phrase that clarifies what we’re up against and how simple the explanation is of why so much has gone wrong 🙂 – who it serves…

eve

it’s just about the money, the profits – there’s nothing else there…..

orlbucfan

It’s the usual human garbage, stupid and ruthless, that seems to always rise to the top. I’m beginning to think it’s a very bad flaw in our species. 💩

Aint Supposed to Die A Natural Death

No offense taken 😊, eve. When I was writing my reply above I was trying to think of the title/author of the book I read years ago describing the wto/imf as the international crime syndicate. Just remembered- Confessions of an economic hit man by John Perkins.

eve

Kucinich confuses me.
e.g. in 2004 even though his war policy was opposite Edward’s, they agreed that if one of them did not reach the 15% threshold in the IOWA caucuses they’d direct their delegates to vote for the other….although given the polls it was far likelier that Edwards would benefit, not Kucinich…
even so, I guess his book might shed some light on how powerful business impacts public policies in their favor by manipulating corrupt politicians.
I read an excerpt on Amazon’s web site and I’m hoping it will be available via my library electronically at some point…to skip through it since I’m not a good reader and I’d rather pick and choose…

Sometimes I find it easier to read a non fiction book starting with the last chapter and then skipping back to previous chapters….not sure why, lol…

yeah John Perkins helped shed light on the callousness of American policy wrt Latin America…

we’re living in tough times for those people who are on the receiving end of our foreign policy and our trade policy, etc etc.

polarbear4

well said. And we don’t hear about the oligarchs influence in starting wars for profit nearly as much as we should or could.

polarbear4

We’d all be a lot better off if the government took more action on climate quarterly reports than the financial quarterly reports of their Wall Street donors.
Over 1,000 people died in the PNW heat dome. The worst is here. https://t.co/W793ldEDx8
— Rebecca Parson (@rebeccaeparson) August 14, 2021

polarbear4

How many voters does gerrymandering disenfranchise?
More than 100 million. 🤯
But we do have a way to stop it: https://t.co/I49VbnV8IO pic.twitter.com/RxSHysdhb1
— Noah Pransky (@noahpransky) August 13, 2021

While Republicans stand to gain more than Democrats in 2022 from gerrymandering – they control more of the state legislatures that draw each state’s legislative lines – voters from both parties suffer when the majority is allowed to draw the minority out of elections.
Gerrymandering helped Democrats win 10 out of New Jersey’s 12 congressional seats in 2020, even though 41% of the state voted for former President Trump last November. It also helped Republicans win 12 out of Ohio’s 16 congressional seats in 2020, even though 45% of the state voted for President Biden.
”When members are not beholden to the American electorate, they’re no longer feel the need to work on behalf of the American electorate,” Effingham said. “Instead, they can just stick to their ideological base and face no repercussions from intransigence.”
A blueprint to end gerrymandering
Democrats have included a ban on gerrymandered congressional districts in their massive elections overhaul bill, the “For the People Act.” But Republicans have pushed back hard against the bill, calling some of its measures too radical, while some Senate Democrats have also expressed reservations about the package.
However, gerrymandering and partisan-mapmaking are fairly unpopular among voters of all parties, and a stand-alone bill to ban gerrymandering – before the districts are locked in for the next 10 years – might still be popular in 2021.
Several states have ended gerrymandering on their own by handing the map-making responsibilities over from the legislature to independent redistricting commissions. Studies have shown districts drawn by these commissions tend to be more fair and more competitive.
But in a landscape where politicians feel the need to capture every slight political advantage possible, legislative majorities have little incentive to give up a redistricting advantage when so many other states are still leaning into theirs.
Finally, open primaries – where voters of any party can vote – can greatly reduce the impacts of gerrymandering, even in a poorly-drawn district.
Time is, however, running out before redistricting decisions get finalized.
“If we don’t institute prohibitions on political gerrymandering now, we are stuck with these to the terrible politics…and these terrible unresponsive lines for at least a decade,” Effingham said.

polarbear4

If you're an active member of your DSA chapter & would be willing to be interviewed for some CA writing & academic research I am doing on how socialists organize, please email nathan@currentaffairs.org. Particularly interested in New Orleans & Chicago but welcome all respondents.
— Nathan J Robinson (@NathanJRobinson) August 14, 2021

@magsview

and anyone else who is active.

polarbear4

This woman's dad never liked cats — watch what happens when she moved back home with him last year and brought 7 cats with her 💕 pic.twitter.com/cGd6q0wEFl
— The Dodo (@dodo) August 14, 2021

polarbear4

🔥 Pink Cockatoo pic.twitter.com/kdLNXlZzLu
— Nature is Lit (@Nature_Is_Lit) August 14, 2021

polarbear4

took a stand and RT’d this one.

To my fellow Democrats who aren’t Newsom fans… pic.twitter.com/PpmXOLWkXt
— PoliticsGirl (@IAmPoliticsGirl) August 14, 2021

Aint Supposed to Die A Natural Death

Sadly we always have to vote for the 1/2 bowl of shit.

polarbear4

yeah. at least, like she says, we can run someone in the regular. i’ll probably lose a few follows. I never pay attention to that stuff, anyway. Twitter saps enough energy without worrying about followers.

charliehorse

Don’t you just love hearing these recycled liberal lines scolding us to vote blue no matter who? She lists a half dozen problems with our state (housing, education, environment, etc) which have generally gotten worse since Gav took office. He increased fracking permits for heaven’s sake.. a democrat!?

Coming from a family of teachers, I particularly disliked how he exacerbated the rift between parents and teachers to open the schools back up for in person learning asap. I get that parents were out of their minds after a year of homeschooling but he didn’t need to take a side during the first few months of this year. It only made things nastier. My cousins are still pretty pissed with how it all played out.

I’m not advocating to recall him or anything (although its tempting) but Gav hasn’t been doing that well these past couple of years. I liked him better when he was our bold, sleazebag mayor in SF. He’s lost the boldness when he moved to state level politics.

polarbear4

agree. wonder who is challenging him in the regular election?

Benny

RIP Nanci Griffith. Only 68 years old.

Benny

Rest in peace, a space you wished for many via your artistry. I so enjoyed your music. https://t.co/PNtgSdN4gu @Iddybud https://t.co/1v035reFF6
— Benny🌹 (@Benny06) August 14, 2021

Benny

magsview

Really hurts to see all the devastation that’s going on in Haiti, and I feel like we really can’t catch a break. I’m about to play a tournament this week and I’ll give all the prize money to relief efforts for Haiti. I know our ancestors blood is strong we’ll keep rising 🇭🇹❤️🙏🏾
— NaomiOsaka大坂なおみ (@naomiosaka) August 14, 2021

polarbear4

The ultimate NATO defeat in Afghanistan won’t be the ANA’s military collapse, but if Taliban 2.0 governance ends up being objectively better, more stable and more widely perceived as legitimate than what came before.
— Aris Roussinos (@arisroussinos) August 13, 2021

polarbear4

leap of faith inspiration 💜🌝💜

🔥 A mountain goat jumps between two mountains pic.twitter.com/UYVuaK91hv
— Nature is Lit (@Nature_Is_Lit) August 14, 2021

wi65

As the USA joins the “Graveyard of Empires” all isn’t lost. The corporations that comprise the MIC made billions in profit which is the goal of the MIC. They MIC knew that the US wouldn’t “win” in Afghanistan as the tribal war lords that control vast areas of Afghanistan want noting to do with western style democracy they just want to control thier area and let corruption reign as long as they stay in power. Even the govt the US propped is corrupt as hell. If the Taliban is smart they dont mess with the US evacuation in Kabul let them get everyone out. I do feel for the women and children their as sharia law will take its toll. The US did spent billions on training the Afgan army and they folded like a cheap suit thus suppling the Taliban with tons of weapons. What’s next for Afghanistan? Who knows, i’m sure the media will be full of news on the atrocities on the afgan people by the Taliban and the talking heads will lobby for intervention. 20 years is more than enough, what are we supposed to do stay 10 more 20 more wasting trillions more propping up a country that has no interest in fighting for its freedom. Once the people of Afghanistan tire of the Taliban and start an insurrection style rebellion only then will they be free. But Thats a long way off. Next up China, some reports say they are negotiating mineral rights with the Taliban.