Category Archives: Democrats

11/16 News Roundup and Open Thread

The Progressive Wing Posted on by

Washington Lobbyists Know Biden Well—as Their Former Boss

Scores of Mr. Biden’s former aides now on K Street represent hundreds of companies, trade groups and foreign companies. One person in the mix for a top White House role is Mr. Biden’s campaign chairman Steve Ricchetti, who co-owned a lobbying firm for more than a decade with his brother Jeffrey Ricchetti.

Mr. Biden, unlike the four most recent presidents, has deep ties to the Washington establishment from his 44 years in the Senate and as vice president. He named at least 40 current and former registered lobbyists to his transition team.

For much of his career, Mr. Biden has advocated for policies that he said would reduce the influence of lobbyists and special interests, including pushing for expanded government financing of political campaigns.

His campaign platform included seeking legislation that would require lawmakers to publicly disclose meetings and communications with any lobbyist or special interest trying to influence the passage or defeat of a specific bill.

“He will always place the public interest at the center of his decisions, because he is accountable to every American he serves as president,” said T.J. Ducklo, a spokesman for Mr. Biden.

It is common practice for aides to both Democratic and Republican elected officials to leave their positions in government for higher-paying jobs as corporate lobbyists. But the “revolving door” can pose a tricky balance for Democrats.

There are other folks on the transition team, such as Elizabeth Warren’s Chief of Staff, Anne Reid, who is now with a lobbying firm called Co-Equal, which is to beef up interests in Congress.

More news, tweets, videos, and jibber-jabber in the comments. See you there!

11/13 TGIF – Every Picture Tells a Story – Open Thread

The Progressive Wing Posted on by

TGIF from Benny’s Bar…Theme for Tonight: Songs and Images that Tell Us a Quick Moment or Story

Mocktail 2020-09-08 213703.jpg

Mocktail 2020-09-08 213703.jpg

WI Old Fashioned Brandy 2020-10-07 212822.jpg

WI Old Fashioned Brandy 2020-10-07 212822.jpg


(2nd drink is for @wi62, whom we celebrate in getting out of the COVID club this week)

Here’s a picture that has started a story…and with our help and words, craft more of our stories to bring to Capitol Hill, for economic, racial, and environmental justice.

I say to you quite frankly that the time for racial discrimination is over … No poor, rural, weak, or black person should ever have to bear the additional burden of being deprived of the opportunity of an education, a job or simple justice.

—James Earl Carter, new governor of GA in 1970.

I sent the organization a snack. Well done!

Another image, courtesy of the Atlanta Constitution-Journal:

Biden cleared the 300 EV mark. Congrats to his campaign. (I won’t congratulate the DNC though.)

And the chanson? Rod Stewart on the Video Jukebox:

Post your fav images, photos, videos appropriate for our place! News, tweets — keep them coming. Drinks are on the Nest! This serves as an evening open thread.

11/10 News Roundup and Open Thread

The Progressive Wing Posted on by

Can Joe Biden avoid Obama’s mistakes? He must – for the future of the party

Recall that back in 2008, Barack Obama won the White House on a wave of anger at the incumbent president, and he took office under similar crisis conditions. And yet, despite Democrats winning large congressional majorities, Obama’s administration used its power to merely tweak the economic status quo, but not really change it.

From the get-go, the new White House brushed off progressives and championed a stimulus package that many economists said was far too small to quickly right the economy.

While Obama’s Affordable Care Act created some long-overdue consumer protections, it ultimately strengthened the power of private insurers. Despite Obama campaigning for a public insurance option, his administration dropped it, Democratic senators helped Republicans initially vote it down and then refused to ever bring it back up to force the issue, even though there was a good chance it would pass. The result: Millions have lost their health insurance and millions more are paying ever-higher premiums, while insurance companies have booked huge profits – and now support for the ACA is soft.

Similarly, Obama backed off his promise to pass new union protections for workers, and he reversed his promise to reform bad trade deals, instead pressing even more of those pacts that have become a symbol of a corrupt Washington more interested in enriching CEOs than helping workers.

Obama’s administration also refused to prosecute bankers and its Wall Street reform package was pathetically weak. Its Treasury Department helped kill an initiative to break up the banks, while it approved and defended big bonuses for Wall Street executives who engineered the crisis. The moves were a boon to a financial industry that bankrolled Obama’s campaign, but political poison.

More news, tweets, videos in the comments section. Sure Happy It’s Tuesday.

10/20 Down Ballot News Roundup and Open Thread

The Progressive Wing Posted on by

Let’s check on our list of progressives and see how things are going for them, starting with Paula Jean Swearengin. The link in the tweet leads you to video clips from In West Virginia Politics.

More news, tweets, video, and good jibber-jabber in the comments. Sure Happy It’s Tuesday.

10/5 Open Thread and an alternate reality

The Progressive Wing Posted on by

Morning nesters; On stay-cation this week as i have to use it or loose it by 12/31 so decided to kick off an OT

The optimistic view: what could happen if Biden wins big

Dick Meyer, Opinion contributor
Mon, October 5, 2020, 6:01 AM CDT

Since Joe Biden captured the Democratic nomination, he has maintained a remarkably steady lead over Donald Trump. Biden has never trailed Trump and, since the middle of June, his lead has never been less than 6.6 points in the FiveThirtyEight average of polls, and he has rarely fallen below 50%. It is the most consistent lead in the history of presidential polling.

Yet Democrats and anti-Trumpers of all stripes are in a state of depressed panic, almost unable to entertain daydreams of victory in our political Land of Oz. That is totally understandable, and I feel the same way much of the time. The polls are no comfort. Concerns and predictions that Trump will not leave office peacefully or willingly are now rampant — and reasonable even as the president fights coronavirus.
Radical optimism in Biden’s ability to win

Entering the fourth quarter in a cloud of gloom, however, is a lousy way to win a game. So, to boost morale, let me spin out a radically optimistic scenario that is consistent with the polls, the handicappers’ picks, and history and actually more likely than the “Doomsday Scenarios.”

Biden’s national lead in the 538 average, as of Sep. 24, was 50.3% to 43%. More important, since the spring, he has never trailed in the average of polls in the swing states of Arizona, Colorado, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Ohio, and Texas look like true toss-ups right now.

Now, suppose that sometime after all the polls have closed on Election Day, sometime after midnight, the returns from solid blue and red states came in as expected. Most of the votes have been counted in the eight “never trailed” states listed above (remember, most states count mail-in and absentee ballots before election day), the results are consistent with exit polls and other data, and the networks “call” them for Biden.

Around 2 a.m. on Nov. 4, Biden declares victory despite Trump’s steady stream of incendiary tweets claiming fraud, sedition and treason. Mitch McConnell and Kevin McCarthy, already in post-car crash triage mode, issue a joint statement urging Trump to concede given the results in hand. The GOP has effectively conceded for Trump. George W. Bush and other Republicans send congratulations to Biden along with heads of state around the world.

Trump’s bluff has been called. There is no appetite in the GOP to prolong the agony. The process of certifying the electoral votes proceeds in the normal manner, despite the lack of a concession from the lame duck president. Biden and Harris are inaugurated in an orderly manner.

What could happen under Biden’s presidency

With control of the White House, Senate and House, the Democrats enact major economic stimulus legislation and extraordinary COVID-19 spending in Biden’s first week.

By the Fourth of July recess, Biden has also shepherded through a historic government reform bill that enlarges the Supreme Court to 13, puts 15-year term limits on the Justices, adds 45 seats to the House of Representatives, gives statehood to D.C. and Puerto Rico, and abolishes the Electoral College. The disproportionate power of rural (white) voters that has ruled American history will be diminished, the winner of the popular vote will always be elected president and the Supreme Court will be less susceptible to extended one-party dominance.

By the fall of 2021, COVID-19 vaccines have been deployed widely enough so that the school year begins in nearly routine fashion and the working world continues to normalize. With marginal help from some dissident Republicans, Democrats pass significant expansion and protection of Obamacare, criminal justice reform and start reversing Trump’s climate change setbacks.

At that point Biden would have 290 electoral votes, 20 more than needed to win. Now suppose that Biden also has clear leads in two of the toss-up states, say Iowa and North Carolina. Biden’s electoral vote would go up to 311 , a margin that could withstand hypothetical reversals in two or even three states.

Imagine that by this late hour, Republican Senate candidates have conceded in Maine, Colorado, North Carolina, Arizona and Iowa. Democrats will have secured the Senate despite losing Doug Jones’ Alabama seat. The Democrats also will have slightly expanded their House majority.

Presidential debate: Biden can beat (and infuriate) Trump by being the adult on the presidential debate stage

What could happen under Biden’s presidency

With control of the White House, Senate and House, the Democrats enact major economic stimulus legislation and extraordinary COVID-19 spending in Biden’s first week.

By the Fourth of July recess, Biden has also shepherded through a historic government reform bill that enlarges the Supreme Court to 13, puts 15-year term limits on the Justices, adds 45 seats to the House of Representatives, gives statehood to D.C. and Puerto Rico, and abolishes the Electoral College. The disproportionate power of rural (white) voters that has ruled American history will be diminished, the winner of the popular vote will always be elected president and the Supreme Court will be less susceptible to extended one-party dominance.

By the fall of 2021, COVID-19 vaccines have been deployed widely enough so that the school year begins in nearly routine fashion and the working world continues to normalize. With marginal help from some dissident Republicans, Democrats pass significant expansion and protection of Obamacare, criminal justice reform and start reversing Trump’s climate change setbacks.

Discouraged by party infighting and the loss of power, GOP Senators from the blue or purple states of North Carolina, Wisconsin, Ohio, and Pennsylvania resign. With the new seats from D.C. and Puerto Rico, Democratic control of the Senate is all but guaranteed for the next two or three cycles. The added seats assure the Democrats will have a majority in the House for several more years at least.

More importantly, the demography of America will be more accurately represented than ever before.

All the election results in this daydream are what today’s polls would predict.

The legislation is all realistic, even probable, except, perhaps, for D.C. and Puerto Rico statehood. The whole picture is more likely than the “Doomsday Scenario” of Trump calling in the tanks to protect him in the White House.

So, as we enter the final phase, Democrats and Trump’s other opponents should be motivated by hope as much as fear ­— motivated to vote, volunteer, donate, argue and cajole.

In the words of Dorothy Gale, “The dreams that you dare to dream really do come true.” With effort.

Dick Meyer is the author of “Why We Hate Us: American Discontent in the New Millennium.”

https://www.yahoo.com/news/optimistic-view-could-happen-biden-110106427.html

WI 62 If the Dems would indeed control all i dont believe they have the guts to inact even half of this, as the author said one can dream.

9/23 One Louisville Ex- Police Officer Indicted for Wanton Shooting at Breonna Taylor’s Apt; News Roundup & OT

The Progressive Wing Posted on by

A grand jury indicted Brett Hankison on charges of wanton endangerment for his actions on the night of the shooting that killed Breonna Taylor. No other charges were announced.

A grand jury indicted a former Louisville police officer on Wednesday for wanton endangerment during a botched drug raid that led to the death of Breonna Taylor in March. No charges were announced against the other two officers who fired shots, and no one was charged for causing her death.

The three-count indictment concerns Brett Hankison, a detective at the time, who fired into the sliding glass patio door and window of Ms. Taylor’s apartment building, both of which were covered with blinds, in violation of a department policy that requires officers to have a line of sight.

He is the only one of the three officers who was dismissed from the force, with a termination letter stating that he showed “an extreme indifference to the value of human life.”

In a news conference following the announcement of the grand jury’s decision, Kentucky’s attorney general, Daniel Cameron, said, “The decision before my office is not to decide if the loss of Breonna Taylor’s life was a tragedy — the answer to that question is unequivocally yes,” he said.

USA Today points out some other key developments related to the case:

Attorney General Daniel Cameron said his investigation determined that Jonathan Mattingly and Myles Cosgrove were justified in their actions and that they did announce themselves as police officers before the shooting.

The mayor of Louisville imposed a 72-hour curfew on Wednesday a day after declaring a state of emergency. Police have cut off access to downtown Louisville and set up barricades and fences around buildings.

Six Louisville police officers – including the three who fired their weapons into Breonna Taylor’s apartment – are under internal investigation into whether officers broke department policies. The review is separate from the one the department sent to the Kentucky attorney general to determine whether criminal charges should be filed.

Last week, the city of Louisville announced a $12 million settlement with Breonna Taylor’s family, which included a host of police reforms. The police union said it felt betrayed by the mayor, while activists said arresting the officers involved is the only way to get justice.
Also last week, the Louisville metro council declared a no confidence vote in the mayor over his handling of the Taylor case.

In other news, Planet Is Burning, But First Presidential Debate Set to Ignore Humanity’s Most Pressing Issue: Climate

Even as devastating wildfires across the U.S. West Coast and rapidly shrinking Arctic sea ice offer alarming evidence of the reality and immediacy of the climate crisis, the planetary emergency was apparently deemed not worthy of inclusion on the list of official topics for next Tuesday’s presidential debate between President Donald Trump and Democratic nominee Joe Biden.

Unveiled Tuesday by the Commission on Presidential Debates, the featured topics of the 90-minute event—moderated by Chris Wallace of Fox News—are expected to be the coronavirus pandemic, the economy, the Supreme Court, the two candidates’ records, election integrity, and “race and violence in our cities.”

While the topics are subject to change, the initial exclusion of the greatest crisis facing humanity sparked backlash from environmentalists, who characterized the ongoing neglect of the climate emergency as yet another dereliction of duty by the corporate media.

“At a time when wildfires are burning down an entire coast, it’s absolutely unconscionable for the media to dismiss climate change as a topic in the first presidential debate,” Varshini Prakash, executive director of the youth-led Sunrise Movement, said in a statement late Tuesday. “Poll after poll shows the climate crisis looms large on the minds of voters across the country; an NPR survey released yesterday showed it was the single most important issue among Democrats. Young Republican voters also list climate as their top concern.”

Prakash said her organization is “committed to mobilizing our movement to protest at the presidential debates until Chris Wallace and other mainstream reporters address climate head on.”

“The American people are crying out for a real solution to the crises we find ourselves,” said Prakash continued. “We need to open up conversations around how we can mobilize our government to fight the climate crisis while also creating millions of good jobs in the process of recovering from an economic collapse and global pandemic. It’s an abdication of the media’s role to keep people informed for climate to be completely erased from the docket.”

Throughout his first term, Trump repeatedly dismissed or downplayed the climate emergency and contributed to it by gutting basic environmental protections and rushing to expand domestic fossil fuel production at a time when rapid planetary warming demands an urgent transition away from polluting energy sources.

Biden, for his part, put forth a $2 trillion green energy plan in July that climate groups said is a good first step but ultimately insufficient to deliver the needed transformational change.

Earlier this month, as Common Dreams reported, Biden slammed the president’s ongoing climate denial in the face of the catastrophic wildfires in California, Oregon, and Washington state and said that “in the years ahead, there will be no challenge more consequential to our future than meeting and defeating the onrushing climate crisis.”

“The science is clear, and deadly signs like these are unmistakable—climate change poses an imminent, existential threat to our way of life,” Biden said in a statement. “President Trump can try to deny that reality, but the facts are undeniable. We absolutely must act now to avoid a future defined by an unending barrage of tragedies like the one American families are enduring across the West today.”

Despite the marked contrasts between the two candidates on climate policy, it is unclear whether their differences will receive any attention or discussion at next Tuesday’s debate, which will come less than 40 days ahead of the November 3 election.

Evan Weber, co-founder and political director of the Sunrise Movement, tweeted Tuesday that if Wallace fails to mention the climate emergency in his questions, Biden must bring up the topic on his own.

“Polling shows it’s the biggest wedge he’s got” said Weber. “It’s just smart politics.”

More news, tweets, videos, and jibber-jabber in the comments. See you there!

8/4 AZ, KS, MO, & WA Election Night & OT

The Progressive Wing Posted on by

Good evening Birdies! I’m traveling west, but still in the Midwest at present.

Tonight there are primaries going on in Arizona, Kansas, Michigan, Missouri, and WA. We have several progressive candidates we’re watching this evening.

  • Rashida Tlaib (MI-13)
  • Cori Bush (MO-01)
  • Joshua Collins (WA-10)
  • Beth Doglio (WA-10)
  • Jon Hoadley (MI-06)
  • Pramila Jayapal (WA-07)
  • Rebecca Parson (WA-06)

If memory serves me, I think the WA-10 race is the first time at the Nest whereby we had 2 candidates we advocated for in a down ballot primary.

There are some other interesting initiatives being voted on, such as Medicaid Expansion in MO. And some GOP races are still going on.

Join me below to find out the results. This is also an Open Thread.

Update: