Category Archives: Video

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.

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.

11/3 Benny’s Bar 1600 Pennsylvania is Open for Election 2020 Night Part 1

The Progressive Wing Posted on by

Polls are just about closed in western IN and KY; eastern parts of those states closed at 6pm.

(image attribution: NYT)

Music videos are encouraged, along with tweets, news, jibber-jabber.

Budtenders are available as well!

Bar Wait Person with Mask 2020-07-24 170727.png

Bar Wait Person with Mask 2020-07-24 170727.png

Sunday, November 1,2020 TWO days to go! Open Thread

The Progressive Wing Posted on by

Good morning all.  I hope you are all feeling considerably better than I am.  The waiting for an answer is taking its toll.  I am worried.  Let’s hope  all of our concerns are unwarranted

An interesting new statistic caught my attention this morning.  30,000 Covid cases have been attributed to the President because they are outbreaks that occur a week or two later in localities where he’s held his rallies.  Disgraceful.  President Super Spreader.

Early Voting numbers have exceeded 92 million votes.  Wow.

100,233 new Covid cases yesterday are reported by Drudge, but the NY Times doesn’t have yesterday’s numbers up yet.  I’ll revise this if necessary.

9 Million Covid cases in the USA.

New York City almost hits 1 million EV with one day, today, to go.

Manhattan 212,299    Bronx 133,040    Brooklyn 326,141    Queens 214,989    Staten Island 91,294

Total Cumulative Check-Ins 977,763

10/21 News Roundup, Numbers, and Open Thread

The Progressive Wing Posted on by

Here’s something cheerful to start the day:

Make America Green Again

In fact, the U.S. is currently on a path away from that green dream. Bigly. The Trump Administration is in the process of finalizing the country’s withdrawal from the Paris Agreement. (It will shortly become the only one in the world that contributes more than 2 percent of global emissions without being a member of the landmark climate pact). Emissions have been on the rise again after years of incremental dips — slowed this year only because of a deadly pandemic. And the nation’s most vulnerable communities are routinely forced to reckon with environmental contaminants, extreme weather, and industrial pollution.

Climate change could tip the scales in these 6 toss-up House races
The issue — and, frankly, the world — is hotter than in any previous election cycle.
If a couple of intrepid aliens dropped by to observe a Congressional hearing on climate change, knowing that humanity’s survival hinged on finding a solution to rising temperatures, they would hurry back to their home planet under the impression that Earth was doomed.

It doesn’t have to be this way. That green dream could be a reality — and for the most part, we know what we need to do to bring it to life.

Below, you’ll learn about eight tools lawmakers could leverage to make America great on climate change. These are interventions that already exist, and concern everything from your home to your local transportation system.

All we need to do is reach out and grab them.

More news, tweets, videos in the comments section. 13 days until Election Day.

10/19 News Roundup & Open Thread

The Progressive Wing Posted on by

‘Democracy Has Won’: Year After Right-Wing Coup Against Evo Morales, Socialist Luis Arce Declares Victory in Bolivia Election

Twice postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic, Sunday’s election was a do-over of last year’s presidential contest, which was thrown into chaos after the U.S.-dominated Organization of American States (OAS) leveled baseless allegations of “fraud” by Morales, who was eventually forced to resign and flee the country under threat by Bolivia’s military.

The coup against Morales sparked a wave of Indigenous-led protests that were violently repressed by the Bolivian military and police forces, which were granted sweeping immunity from prosecution by the anti-Indigenous Añez government.

“The OAS allegations were indeed the main political foundation of the coup that followed the October 20 election three weeks later,” Mark Weisbrot, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, wrote last month. “But they provided no evidence to support these allegations—because there wasn’t any. This has since been established repeatedly by a slew of expert statistical studies.”

From exile in Argentina, Morales on Monday celebrated Arce’s apparent victory as a “great triumph of the people.”

“Brothers and sisters: the will of the people has been asserted,” Morales tweeted. “This is an overwhelming victory… We are going to give dignity and liberty back to the people.”

More news, tweets, and good jibber-jabber in the comments.

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.