Skip to toolbar
  • About WordPress
    • WordPress.org
    • Documentation
    • Support
    • Feedback
  • Log In
  • Register
↓
 

The Progressive Wing

You Are The Revolution

The Progressive Wing
  • Home
    • About Us
      • Contact Us
      • FAQ
    • Members
  • Candidates
  • Organizations
  • Media
Home→Author Benny

Author Archives: Benny

Post navigation

← Older posts

1/21 News Roundup & OT

The Progressive Wing Posted on January 21, 2021 by BennyJanuary 21, 2021

Morning Birdies,

Team Biden is rolling out a broad plan regarding COVID:

The “National Strategy for the Covid-19 Response and Pandemic Preparedness,” previewed in a 21-page summary on Wednesday evening by Mr. Biden’s advisers, outlines the kind of muscular and highly coordinated federal response that Democrats have long demanded and President Donald J. Trump refused. Instead, Mr. Trump insisted that state governments take the lead.

David Dayen:

Biden's use of the Defense Production Act today is for vaccine supplies but seemingly not vaccines or vaccine ingredients. Some of that was already done under Trump but it means no real bump in actual vaccine production, unless another vaccine is approved.

— David Dayen (@ddayen) January 21, 2021

Important to have vessels but no more production of the vaccine?

Now we really are back to brunch. Check out the Senate Calendar here. Days marked with a Square around them are days the senators are not in session.

More news, tweets, videos in the comments. Sure Happy It’s Thursday!

Posted in News, Open Thread | Tagged COVID Relief | 132 Replies

1/20 Joe Biden is POTUS; News Roundup & Open Thread

The Progressive Wing Posted on January 20, 2021 by BennyJanuary 20, 2021

Greetings Birdies,

I’m starting a new thread as a symbol of moving forward.

Bernie is America’s grandpa. He is so proud of everyone right now. pic.twitter.com/4Uw1aVNBQn

— melissa “cancel student debt” byrne (@mcbyrne) January 20, 2021

https://t.co/e1iDEA3yKW

— Jane O'Meara Sanders (@janeosanders) January 20, 2021

and we welcome new senators:

Warnock, Padilla, and Ossoff pic.twitter.com/AzEixt3ZM3

— Igor Bobic (@igorbobic) January 20, 2021

More news,tweets, videos, etc in the comments.

Posted in Bernie Sanders, Open Thread | 80 Replies

1/20 Trump Has Left the WH; Biden’s Inaugural;Bernie is Chairman of Budget;& OT

The Progressive Wing Posted on January 20, 2021 by BennyJanuary 20, 2021

(image courtesy via TOP)

Farewell to a Monster

Vast numbers of Americans have, at the most intimate level, suffered far more than I during these bastard-years: people who have been separated from parents or siblings or children or spouses or lovers by ICE agents and by capricious executive orders designed to lock down this country against immigrants. Individuals who have had online—and, more recently, in-person—goons unleashed against them by the president. Civil servants whose careers have been destroyed for speaking truth to power. Workers whose rights have been trampled. Members of the LGBTQ+ community who have had their legal protections undermined. Victims of hurricanes and forest fires who have seen federal emergency assistance turned into a political football. Pandemic victims ignored by a president who seemed to think he could make Covid-19 vanish simply by refusing to speak to the nation with urgency, compassion, or scientific understanding about this horrific disease.

These last years have been a collective stress test. How do we cope with unyielding irrationality and unrelenting cruelty doled out from on high? How do we navigate a landscape poisoned by Twitter trolls and mobs? How do we deal with the streams of undiluted venom, death threats, and other nonsense the Trumpists have showered on those with whom they disagree politically? How do we provide context for such a vertiginous slide from rationality and toward cultism?

At noon on January 20, Trump will become a private citizen again. Perhaps the viciousness of his presidency will fade and the sense of omnipresent chaos will dissipate. Perhaps, in the months and years ahead, America’s shredded moral fabric will be repaired. Perhaps social media really will continue to mute Trump, leaving him no choice but to crawl back under the rock from which he emerged. Perhaps the systems Trump tried so hard to break really will have the last laugh, outlasting a president and his inner circle who expressed nothing but contempt for the idea of rational, knowledge-based leadership.

Perhaps… but don’t expect any grace or decency or humility from Trump. In retirement, the ex-president will likely be at least as obnoxious as he has been in office. He will continue to love the sound of his own voice and will likely continue to rile up his mob. It will take a long time for us to heal from Trump’s dismal presidency. But his ignominious departure from Washington, following his drubbing at the hands of voters and the collapse of his attempt to orchestrate a judicial and then a mob-fomented coup, is at least a start.

Trump has already left town.

Update: After trying for 3 decades, Joe Biden is #46. For our democracy, “Rise”.

More news, tweets, videos, etc in the comments. We’ll see you there!

Posted in Bernie Sanders, News, Open Thread | Tagged Bernie Sanders Joe Biden, DJT, Rise | 74 Replies

1/15 TGIF News Roundup & OT

The Progressive Wing Posted on January 15, 2021 by BennyJanuary 15, 2021

We’ll start with Stephen Colbert’s interview with Bernie Sanders last night on The Late Show. There are 2-3 segments, in which Bernie got about 20 minutes altogether. Among the topics: the experience of the riot in the Capitol building, Biden’s America Rescue being introduced, and how to reach Trumpers.

Here’s the first one. Bernie’s introduced at the 2:30 mark.

Second segment, in which at the 7:00 mark, they discuss America Resue:

And the last one:

More tweets, news, videos in the comments. TGIF – we’ll have a happy hour later if there is interest.

Posted in Bernie Sanders, grassroots, News, Open Thread, Video | Tagged Stephen Colbert, The Late Show | 231 Replies

1/13 Can’t You Hear Steam Starting to Play…and Open Thread

The Progressive Wing Posted on January 13, 2021 by BennyJanuary 13, 2021

The House of Representatives has done its job and impeached Donald Trump on a bipartisan basis.

The Senate must now carry out its constitutional duty and convict Trump to ensure that neither he, nor any other president, can subvert our democracy again.

— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) January 13, 2021

10 not as terrible idiots who realize they have to work with “these” people crossed over the Potomac to impeach the worst POTUS in this century.

They recognize they have to get re-elected. And also they have to work with others, especially these representatives, the most diverse group of Dems.

Especially these guys:

Benny’s B & D is open. Have one on the house and contribute your tweet, news, video. Jukebox is welcome too, this is an open thread.

Posted in Bernie Sanders, grassroots, News, Open Thread, Video | 72 Replies

1/10 Sunday News Roundup & OT

The Progressive Wing Posted on January 10, 2021 by BennyJanuary 10, 2021

Good day birdies!

I’ll start today’s thread with an op-ed in WaPo by Congresswoman Cori Bush.

This is the America that Black people know

My skin burned for 22 hours after I was pepper-sprayed. The memory of that burn stung with a new kind of pain on Wednesday as I, now a newly sworn-in member of Congress, watched in horror and disbelief as an insurrectionist mob overran the Capitol.

Back in July, we had been protesting at the police station in Florissant, Mo., where a police officer had recently run over a Black man with his car. The police had been beating protesters for weeks. They tear-gassed us to the point of suffocation for painting “Black Lives Matter” on a road, arrested us for putting our fists in the air and beat those who they’d taken into custody.

That night was no different from any other night. The officers rushed out of the station in riot gear, slapping their batons against their shields, holding shotguns loaded with rubber bullets and chanting commands. They chased us into the middle of the street, forcing us to backpedal blindly in the dark. The police were pushing with such force that people began falling to the ground all around me, finding themselves swarmed by officers who began hitting them with batons. I reached in to try to pull a woman away to safety.

They sprayed us with mace. It wasn’t your average mace, either. I used every trick in the book to try to make the pain stop — milk, water, dish detergent. But my skin did not stop burning for 22 hours.

On Wednesday, as I sat in the House gallery listening to my colleagues debate the certification of the electoral college votes, something prompted me to get up and leave. I left the chamber and quickly went to check on what was happening outside. The doors were locked, but as I stood on the second floor of the Capitol and looked out through windows in the doors, I could see Trump flags and Confederate flags gradually moving closer. I froze in disbelief. The next minute, my staffer was rushing me back to my office.

Once I was in my office and we secured the door, I felt a different kind of burn — this time inside. Watching on TV, we saw white supremacists stroll past Capitol Police, untouched and unscathed. Just minutes after we had locked our door, the mob entered the House Rotunda. The rioters broke windows, sat in the House speaker’s office and invaded the Senate floor.

There was no way to avoid the comparison or to duck the obvious answer: Would this have happened if the rioters were there to fight for Black lives rather than white supremacy? We’ve been tear-gassed for much less, beaten for much less and shot at for much less. We’ve been assaulted by law enforcement for much less.

But it’s clear to me that top law enforcement leaders on Capitol Hill had little interest in preventing this attempted insurrection. Videos have emerged of police taking selfies with protesters, walking them down the stairs and even opening gates for them. The front line of officers were not in riot gear, they were not wearing gas masks, they were not holding guns loaded with rubber bullets. And, above all else, there were no police dogs.

We faced police dogs when we fought for justice for Mike Brown in Ferguson in 2014. There were police dogs at protests for Black lives this year, from the East Coast to the West. The president himself tweeted in May that the “most vicious dogs” awaited protesters standing up for Black lives at the White House.

But there were no police dogs awaiting the white supremacists who gathered outside the Capitol. It was no coincidence that this tool of racial control was absent Wednesday, as rioters carried the flag of the slave-catcher’s Confederacy — and its modern manifestation, the Trump flag — through the House Rotunda.

Many have said that what transpired on Wednesday was not America. They are wrong. This is the America that Black people know. To declare that this is not America is to deny the reality that Republican members of the U.S. House and Senate incited this coup by treasonously working to overturn the results of the presidential election. It’s to deny the fact that one of my senators, Josh Hawley, went out of his way to salute the white supremacists before their attempted coup. It’s to deny that he appropriated the sign of Black power, the raised fist, into a white-supremacist salute — a fist he has never raised at a march for Black lives because he has never shown up to one. It’s to deny that what my Republican colleagues call “fraud” actually refers to the valid votes of Black, brown and Indigenous voters across this country who, in the midst of a pandemic that disproportionately kills us, overcame voter suppression in all of its forms to deliver an election victory for Joe Biden and Kamala D. Harris.

This is America, and it will continue to be America, until white supremacy is dismantled. Justice starts at removing each and every representative who incited this insurrection. I’ve unveiled my first piece of legislation that would do just that. We cannot denounce white supremacy and allow its endorsers to continue serving in our government.

image courtesy of Tulsa World

More news, tweets, videos in the comments. This also serves as an open thread.

Posted in Activism, grassroots, News, Open Thread | Tagged BLM, Congress, Cori Bush, Trump riots | 156 Replies

1/8 Evening OT & Hang Out at Benny’s Bar

The Progressive Wing Posted on January 8, 2021 by BennyJanuary 8, 2021

After close review of recent Tweets from the @realDonaldTrump account and the context around them we have permanently suspended the account due to the risk of further incitement of violence.https://t.co/CBpE1I6j8Y

— Twitter Safety (@TwitterSafety) January 8, 2021

Too bad they didn’t do this on January 22, 2017 when he had the Muslim ban and nasty comments ensued, close to inciting riots, thus violating their terms of service. what the hell, only a few days left in his term. Maybe impeachment will happen.

Benny’s Bar & Buds is open for hangout. This serves as an open thread.

Mocktail 2020-08-26 210558.jpg

Mocktail 2020-08-26 210558.jpg

Posted in Open Thread | Tagged Donald Trump, social media, Twitter | 86 Replies

1/8 News Roundup & OT

The Progressive Wing Posted on January 8, 2021 by BennyJanuary 8, 2021

Sanders Says ‘First Order of Business’ for Biden, New Democratic Congress Must Be Covid Bill With $2,000 Checks

Sen. Bernie Sanders late Thursday implored President-elect Joe Biden and the incoming Democrat-controlled Congress to make a robust coronavirus relief bill containing $2,000 direct payments the “first order of business” upon taking power, warning that failure to quickly deliver real material aid in the midst of devastating crises could lead to electoral backlash on the scale of the 2010 midterms.

“Remember what happened in 2010? Democrats got wiped out,” Sanders (I-Vt.), the incoming chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, said in an appearance on CNN Thursday evening. “They had the power, but they did not deliver for the American people.”

To avoid a repeat of 2010—when Republicans won control of the House and gained seats in the Senate, ending a brief period of unified Democratic control during the Obama presidency—Sanders said the new Congress must urgently pursue “an aggressive agenda that says we understand that millions of people… are lining up in their cars in order to get emergency food, people can’t pay their medical bills, people are going deeper and deeper into debt, people are facing eviction.”

“We have to act and act now,” Sanders said, arguing that Democrats must be “bold in a way that we have not seen since FDR in the 1930s.”

“The first order of business, by the way,” the Vermont senator continued, “is to pass an emergency Covid-19 bill which, among many other things, says to working-class Americans, ‘We know you’re in pain, and we’re gonna get you a $2,000 check… We are on your side.'”

Watch:

"Let me just be very clear as the incoming chairman of the Senate Budget Committee: Remember what happened in 2010. Democrats got wiped out. They had the power, but they did not deliver for the American people. We must have an aggressive agenda." @BernieSanders #ChairmanSanders pic.twitter.com/QOB7rWwPrS

— People for Bernie (@People4Bernie) January 8, 2021

Sanders’ remarks came days after Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff won their runoff races in Georgia, positioning Democrats to take control of the U.S. Senate by the narrowest possible margin.

The Democratic victories in Georgia were credited in part to a last-minute push for $2,000 direct payments in the days leading up to the pivotal runoffs, an effort led by Sanders and members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.

While Senate Republicans ultimately blocked Sanders’ attempt to force a vote on a House-passed bill that would have provided one-time $2,000 payments to most Americans, Warnock and Ossoff both embraced the checks on the campaign trail and slammed their GOP opponents for standing in the way of desperately needed relief. President-elect Joe Biden also backed the demand, promising that the election of Warnock and Ossoff would “put an end to the block in Washington on that $2,000 stimulus check.”

Following the Democrats’ victories, soon-to-be Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) told reporters Wednesday that “one of the first things that I want to do when our new senators are seated is deliver the $2,000 checks to the American families.”

The Washington Post reported Wednesday that “it’s unclear how quickly Congress could actually vote on the checks. That depends on when the elections in Georgia are certified, which could be delayed by GOP challenges, making the timing uncertain.”

The certification deadline for Georgia counties is January 15, and the state deadline is January 22—two days after Biden’s inauguration.

“Additionally, it’s not clear whether the House and Senate would vote on the checks as stand-alone legislation, or as part of a larger package that could also include items like state and local aid and an extension of unemployment benefits,” the Post noted. “Congressional aides cautioned that discussions with the Biden team over how to proceed were in early stages.”

More news, tweets, videos in the comments. TGIF!

Posted in Bernie Sanders, News, Open Thread, Video | 185 Replies

Post navigation

← Older posts

Register

Recent Posts

1/21 News Roundup & OT

January 21, 2021 8:27 am | By Benny | 132 comments

1/20 Joe Biden is POTUS; News Roundup & Open Thread

January 20, 2021 12:45 pm | By Benny | 80 comments

1/20 Trump Has Left the WH; Biden’s Inaugural;Bernie is Chairman of Budget;& OT

January 20, 2021 8:45 am | By Benny | 74 comments

1.19 Open Thread

January 19, 2021 10:38 am | By orlbucfan | 112 comments

Martin Luther King, Union Man and OT Jan. 18

January 18, 2021 9:43 am | By polarbear4 | 152 comments

1/17 News Roundup and Open Thread

January 17, 2021 9:10 am | By jcitybone | 84 comments

1/16 Labor News and Open Thread

January 16, 2021 9:32 am | By la58 | 123 comments

1/15 TGIF News Roundup & OT

January 15, 2021 9:10 am | By Benny | 231 comments

1/14 News Roundup and Open Thread

January 14, 2021 7:46 am | By jcitybone | 138 comments

1/13 Can’t You Hear Steam Starting to Play…and Open Thread

January 13, 2021 4:54 pm | By Benny | 72 comments

Recent Comments

  • Benny on 1/21 News Roundup & OT
  • polarbear4 on 1/21 News Roundup & OT
  • Benny on 1/21 News Roundup & OT
  • Benny on 1/21 News Roundup & OT
  • polarbear4 on 1/21 News Roundup & OT
  • wi62 on 1/21 News Roundup & OT
  • wi62 on 1/21 News Roundup & OT
  • polarbear4 on 1/21 News Roundup & OT

2020-2021 Progressive Candidates

The Squad

  • Jamaal Bowman (NY-16) – WON – Profile
  • Cori Bush (MO-01) – WON – Profile
  • Mondaire Jones (NY-17) – WON – Profile
  • Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY-14) – WON – Profile
  • Ilhan Omar (MN-05) – WON
  • Ayanna Pressley (MA-07) – WON
  • Rashida Tlaib (MI-13) – WON – Profile

House

  • Jesús “Chuy” García (IL-04) – WON
  • Pramila Jayapal (WA-07) – WON
  • Ro Khanna (CA-17) – WON
  • Mark Pocan (WI-02) – WON
  • Nina Turner (OH-11) – May 4, 2021

Senate

  • Ed Markey (MA) – WON
  • Raphael Warnock (GA) – WON

 

State & Local Races

  • Lee Carter (VA-GOV) – June 8, 2021
  • Anna Eskamani (FL-HD-47) – WON

Search TPW

Archives

©2021 - The Progressive Wing
↑