Category Archives: Open Thread

11/18 News Roundup & Open Thread

The Progressive Wing Posted on by

Greetings birdies! A bit of news you won’t see in the NYT today.

Airport Workers Rally for “Healthy Terminals”

Give Thanks, give health care” – that’s the message airport workers will deliver to Gov. Andrew Cuomo at a rally today at noon at LaGuardia Airport.

In July, New York lawmakers passed the Healthy Terminals Act, a bill supporters say would provide some 25,000 terminal cleaners, baggage handlers, security officers and other service workers at New York airports access to quality, affordable health insurance. But the governor still hasn’t signed the bill.

And according to Rob Hill, vice president of SEIU local 32BJ, despite being urged to stay home to slow the spread of the coronavirus, many people will travel for the holidays.

“We know that travel is going to pick up at the same time the pandemic is picking up again,” Hill said. “And these workers are still being asked to work in close quarters inside without health care. And that’s got to get fixed.”

Opponents of the bill say it actually could eliminate jobs by raising costs for airlines already facing huge economic losses due to the pandemic.

But Hill pointed out the airlines got $50 billion in federal relief through the CARES Act and could get more in a second relief package. And without the Healthy Terminals Act, he said, many frontline airport workers won’t have access to health care.

“To the extent employers offer some health care, it’s usually something that has a copay or it’s out of reach for what these workers can afford, and so they generally don’t have it,” he said.

The bill would require airline subcontractors to pay a benefits supplement of $4.54-an-hour so workers can acquire quality health insurance.

Hill noted workers at other airports get similar benefits. And he contends that, if it is left up to employers, the problem of inadequate health care will not be addressed.

“The bottom line is, the only way they’re going to have decent health care is if it gets mandated,” he said. “And there are other cases – LAX airport and San Francisco airport – where they mandate this same kind of thing. So, it’s something that’s been done before that should be done here in New York City.”

Cheap-ass Cuomo. Just in time for the busiest air travel.

More news, tweets, videos, etc in the comments. See you there!

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!

11/15 News Roundup & Open Thread

The Progressive Wing Posted on by

Bernie Sanders was on SOTU this morning. Here’s one clip, via Twitter;

More news, tweets, videos in the comments. Join us in the conversations!

11/14 News & Open Thread

The Progressive Wing Posted on by

Happy Saturday birdie friends!

I found some good news:

Michigan Gov. Moves to Shut Down Line 5 Pipeline to Protect Great Lakes

Environmental and Indigenous activists celebrated Friday after Democratic Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer took action to shut down the decades-old Enbridge Line 5 oil and natural gas pipelines that run under the Straits of Mackinac, narrow waterways that connect Lake Huron and Lake Michigan—two of the Great Lakes.

Citing the threat to the Great Lakes as well as “persistent and incurable violations” by Enbridge, Whitmer and Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Director Dan Eichinger informed the Canadian fossil fuel giant that a 1953 easement allowing it to operate the pipelines is being revoked and terminated.

The move, which Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel asked the Ingham County Circuit Court to validate, gives Enbridge until May 2021 to stop operating the twin pipelines, “allowing for an orderly transition that protects Michigan’s energy needs over the coming months,” according to a statement from the governor’s office.

Please add your news below and I hope you all have a great day!!

 

 

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.

11/9 News Roundup & Open Thread

The Progressive Wing Posted on by

A Memo to the GOP, Wall Street, Joe Biden, and All Democrats: ‘No, Mitch McConnell Is Not the 46th President’

On Sunday, the Associated Press reported that Biden will seek “to move quickly and build out his administration,” with an initial focus on developing a coronavirus task force as a key part of the transition and then establish other agency efforts as well. But Max Moran, a research assistant for the Revolving Door Project, explained in The American Prospect that it’s important for Democrats to understand that they don’t “have to live in Mitch McConnell’s world” any longer:

Biden himself may be an institutionalist, but he is first and foremost the future president and current leader of the Democratic Party. His duty as president is to shepherd the country though a deadly pandemic and an economic calamity comparable only to the Great Depression. His duty as Democratic leader is to keep his party from losing power in 2022, and keep himself or his successor from losing the presidency in 2024.

There is no way to accomplish either of these tasks while kowtowing to Mitch McConnell. It is an apocalyptic delusion to think McConnell will be reasonable if only Biden nominates centrist corporatists to his Cabinet—that was the same logic behind nominating Merrick Garland, and his name is now a verb[…] If Biden worries about passing nominees through the Senate, God help us for any hope of passing legislation, no matter how moderate and feeble. If, by 2024, the Democratic Party’s only argument for re-election is “well, we tried to make a few tweaks to Obamacare, but darn it, McConnell behaved in exactly the way everyone already knew he would,” this country is doomed to fascism.

More news, tweets, videos in the comments section. See you there!

11/7 The Day the Music Didn’t Die: Biden Crosses 270 EV Threshold; Sanders on AC360 &Open Thread

The Progressive Wing Posted on by

Bernie Sanders was on AC360. Here’s the homemade video I created:

CNN is reporting the bells are being heard in Paris.

The orange shitzgibbon, of course, can’t accept his fait accompli, yet he faces a parade that truly is focused on him:

More jibber-jabber, tweets, videos, etc in the comments. And good music! Please put your quarters in the jukebox and play something!

Biden is giving his victory speech @ 7 CT. I’m certain you can find it for free on just about any platform, except maybe Parlor, a red-meat CT place.