Tag Archives: Open Thread

12/3 OT

The Progressive Wing Posted on by

Just thought i’d kick off a Friday night OT. Not good news from Fla even if its just a proposal from Death Sentence;

Ron DeSantis plans Florida paramilitary force outside federal control

Ron DeSantis, the Florida governor, has proposed an extraordinary plan to create a state paramilitary unit that he, rather than the federal government, would control.

DeSantis, a Republican, has asked state lawmakers to fund the establishment of what he is calling the Florida state guard to assist with “state-specific emergencies”.

This force of 200 selected volunteers would “not be encumbered by the federal government”, the governor said.

If the $3.5m plan goes ahead, Florida would gain a state-run force alongside its national guard, which is jointly funded by the federal government and the state.

Florida has previously created a state guard in 1941 to fill in for national guard members who were fighting in the second world war, but the unit was disbanded in 1947.

Related: Ron DeSantis wants to pay anti-vaccine police $5,000 to relocate to Florida

“Re-establishing the Florida state guard will allow civilians from all over the state to be trained in the best emergency response techniques and have the ability to mobilize very, very quickly,” DeSantis said on Thursday.

Florida would become the 23rd state with a state guard, according to the governor’s office.

The proposal has been sharply criticized by Democrats, who accused DeSantis of authoritarian motives.

“No governor should have his own handpicked secret police,” tweeted Charlie Crist, a Democrat who is running for Florida governor in elections held next year, having previously served as governor as a Republican.

DeSantis said the state guard would be deployed to deal with the aftermath of natural disasters, such as the hurricanes that routinely hit Florida, although these troops could be put to other tasks.

WI– Like the protests against RvW when the USSC overturns it. I doubt the training will be like the armed forces has, I remember Honer’e telling the troops to keep thier weapons down and not in an ready to use position as these are American citizens. It will be like a private Army subject to death sentences whims for deployment. He’ll welcome anti vaxxers to serve which will be just great for the general public.

This serves as an open thread! Come join in!

11/20-21 Weekend Open Thread

The Progressive Wing Posted on by

From the Wisconsin State Journal

This wasn’t the message Wisconsin or our nation needed to hear, even if the jury correctly followed the law.

Teenager Kyle Rittenhouse was acquitted on all charges Friday in the fatal shootings of two people — Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, and Anthony Huber, 26 — and the wounding of Gaige Grosskreutz, now 28, during a chaotic night in Kenosha on Aug. 25, 2020. The deadly violence followed protests, rioting and arson in response to the police shooting of a Black man, Jacob Blake, by a white officer.

The disappointing verdict is sure to embolden militant people who seek to take the law into their own hands. It also could increase and complicate self-defense claims if more people carry — and use — firearms in the streets. That’s a scary prospect.

But further violence in response to the verdict won’t help anyone. Our civil society must remain calm — in Kenosha, in Madison and across the country.

Rittenhouse is no hero, as some of his defenders pretend. He behaved like a vigilante and didn’t deserve to walk free, given his recklessness. Yet the law, unfortunately, skews in favor of shooters who claim self-defense. That needs to change.

Rittenhouse, then 17, wasn’t making anyone safer by parading through crowds of angry people with a semiautomatic rifle strapped to his chest and, according to prosecutors, pointing it at people before the conflict escalated.

What Rittenhouse and other gun-toting, self-appointed “protectors” of Kenosha needed to hear from our court system is that they are not the judge and jury when things go awry. The answer to unrest, including the torching of homes and vehicles, is a well-trained police force and the National Guard.

Rittenhouse, of Antioch, Illinois, only complicated the difficult job of law enforcement by showing up armed in Kenosha, where some of his relatives lived.

One of the men Rittenhouse killed (Rosenbaum) was acting odd and aggressive when Rittenhouse shot him. Another victim swung and hit Rittenhouse with a skateboard after Rosenbaum was shot. The third victim had a gun.

But Rittenhouse wasn’t an innocent bystander, and some of his victims assumed he was an active shooter who needed to be stopped, prosecutors said. Rittenhouse was engaging passersby with his abrupt and threatening behavior. Much of the case hinged on whether Rittenhouse had provoked the others. If carrying an AR-15 down a crowded street isn’t provocative, what is?

Rittenhouse even got off on a gun charge despite getting his weapon from a friend because he couldn’t legally purchase it. Blame the state Legislature, not the judge who dismissed the charge, for that.

Wisconsin law allows teenagers to carry firearms for hunting. But the statute is so convoluted that Rittenhouse’s lawyers were able to convince the judge that Rittenhouse could legally carry his long rifle in an urban setting where hunting isn’t allowed.

The Legislature must fix that law so immature people don’t cause more bloodshed. An untrained teenager with a semiautomatic weapon puts everyone — including police — at greater risk of conflict and harm.

The Legislature also should narrow the law that allows people to openly carry firearms. If Rittenhouse had not been flaunting his rifle, he wouldn’t have attracted so much attention, and this tragedy could have been avoided. It’s not like he was defending his home or property.

If Rittenhouse was justified in his actions, how does that apply if two people openly carry guns and point them at each other? Whose self-defense claim takes priority?

Our state should be discouraging standoffs with guns, rather than encouraging more people to arm themselves out of fear or revenge.

Policymakers, more than any jury, are in a position to set clear and reasonable rules.

The jury was under enormous pressure to decide a complicated case after hearing more than 30 witnesses over eight days of testimony. They had to follow the law as written and the instructions of the judge.

Did Rittenhouse face an unlawful threat that night in Kenosha, and was his use of force reasonable and necessary? The jury ultimately answered “yes,” and we respect their decision — even though we don’t like it.

Responsible citizens who want to discourage similar tragedies should pressure their elected leaders for smarter gun laws. We the people, through our democracy, must demand that this troubling saga never happens again.

This is a weekend open thread. See you in the comments.

11/18-19 News Roundup & Open Thread

The Progressive Wing Posted on by

Greetings birdies!

While Democrats gave away all leverage to pass a good BBB bill, one spark of good news on the labor front.

John Deere Workers Approve New Contract, End Strike

The picketers won significant concessions since their strike began in mid-October.

The first contract agreement reached between Deere and UAW negotiators, on Oct. 1, offered immediate raises of 5 to 6 percent, depending on the job, and an additional 3 percent in 2023 and 2025. It also proposed eliminating pensions for new hires. Workers rejected the offer by a wide margin.

The second agreement offered an immediate 10 percent raise and an $8,500 ratification bonus, plus 5 percent raises in 2023 and 2025. Deere workers rejected that one, too, but the vote was closer — 55 percent to 45 percent.

The latest contract made “modest modifications” to the second offer, the UAW said. Workers said those included tweaks to how Deere calculates bonuses for workers who meet production targets.

Kristin Jordan, a 19-year veteran at a Deere combine factory in East Moline, Ill., said she was relieved to see the vote pass.

“I’m exhausted and nervous, but I’m proud of what was accomplished,” she said Wednesday night.

Picketers at other companies have also recently won concessions: striking Nabisco and Frito-Lay employees returned to work after negotiating better terms for pay and working hours.

More news, tweets, and of course, your comments below. This also serves as an open thread. Sure Happy It’s Thursday!

Limited Post Office Bank Services and OT 10/5 & 10/6

The Progressive Wing Posted on by

Top Democrat Says Postal Banking Pilot Is ‘Welcome,’ But DeJoy Must Still Be Fired

News Monday that the U.S. Postal Service recently rolled out a pilot program in four cities allowing limited payroll and business check-cashing services was welcomed by a top Democrat who called it a “welcome start” to fuller postal banking services but stressed that Postmaster General Louis DeJoy must still be fired.

The remarks from Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-N.J.), posted online by The American Prospect’s David Dayen, reference the “predatory” practices by payday lenders often faced by unbanked Americans as well as the lawmaker’s hope for “a new postal board and post master general.”

“The future of USPS depends on implementing postal banking. Postal banking will unite rural and urban communities and crush predatory payday lenders,” Pascrell said in a thread.

“One more thing,” Pascrell added. “Today would be a great day to fire the Trump appointees on the postal board of governors and then fire Louis Dejoy. They all need to be fired.”

Pascrell’s demand—which came amid widespread sustained calls for DeJoy’s ouster over conflicts of interest and a plan Democrats warned would cause a “death spiral” of the Postal Service—followed reporting Monday by the Prospect and other outlets that, starting on September 13, in USPS locations in Washington, D.C. Baltimore, Falls Church, Va., and the Bronx, customers have been able to cash checks up to $500 in exchange for a gift card. The program represents a collaboration of the American Postal Workers Union (APWU) and the Postal Service.

“The well-being of the Postal Service—that the people in the country so overwhelmingly support—in the future is partly going to rest on these kind of expanded services,” APWU president Mark Dimondstein told the Washington Post.

“New services will not just have the post office doing well by the people,” he said, “but will bring in needed revenue.”

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.)—who, like Pascrell and other lawmakers including Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.)—has called for a pilot postal banking program, tweeted Monday that the new development “is a great first step towards creating a full postal bank.”

“Families who don’t have access to a bank will be able to cash paychecks without paying predatory fees,” she said, “and it would generate billions to help the USPS survive and thrive.”

According to Causten Rodriguez-Wollerman, deputy director at the ACLU, however, “This program is the bare minimum.” The postal board, he said, must “do much more.”

He noted for example that “in the United States, 59% of zip codes don’t have a bank but 100% of zip codes have at least one post office.”

“The USPS must launch postal banking pilots in thousands of post offices across the country to provide affordable financial solutions for all,” said Rodriguez-Wollerman.

The café is open.

“A Deal’s A Deal” and Monday 9/27 & 9/28 OT

The Progressive Wing Posted on by

‘A Deal’s a Deal’: Progressive Leader Holds Strong on $3.5 Trillion Social Investment Plan

“A deal’s a deal.”

“Instead of undercutting the president ahead of an election year, progressives are the ones keeping the full Biden agenda on track.”

That’s the message from Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC), following word from Speaker Nancy Pelosi over the weekend that a vote on a bipartisan infrastructure bill, slated for Monday, would be pushed back until later in the week.

While Pelosi said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week” she would not bring a package “to the floor that doesn’t have the votes,” Jayapal has indicated strongly that progressives are largely united in their position that the larger investment package, known as Build Back Better, must come before the smaller bipartisan deal negotiated in the Senate and passed by the upper chamber earlier this year.

“We don’t pass the infrastructure bill without passing the Build Back Better Act,” said Jayapal, “investing in child care, climate action, paid leave, housing, health care, education, and a roadmap to citizenship. Let’s get this done and deliver for the people.”

In an interview with the Washington Post published Sunday night, Jayapal said she and her fellow CPC members are not bluffing and that support for their stance is only gaining strength as the tensions over the legislative calendar come to a head.

“It’s actually increasing, and it’s increasing from members who aren’t just within the Progressive Caucus,” Jayapal told the Post in terms of those willing to tank the bipartisan deal unless passage of the broader $3.5 trillion reconciliation deal is not secured first. Out of the 95-member caucus itself, along with some outside Democrats, she said she thought the number of Democrats on board is “probably somewhere around 60.”

In a “Dear Colleague” letter Sunday evening, Pelosi said that while debate would begin Monday on the bipartisan package, known officially as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Framework (BIF), a vote would not be held until Thursday.

As Common Dreams has reported for many weeks, progressives in the House—along with progressive members of the Senate, including Budget Committee Chairman Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)—have been consistent in their negotiating strategy and the demand that the more sweeping social investment bill, opposed by corporate lobbyists and smeared for its efforts to increase taxes on the rich, must come first.

“Progressives in Congress have been flexible and constructive throughout this negotiation and continue to work to land a reconciliation deal,” stated a coalition of outside progressive advocacy groups in a letter last week, “but they have also been clear: they will oppose passage of just the smaller bill by itself—because it doesn’t contain the climate solutions and care, education, and economic investments we need. Passing just that small bill alone wouldn’t be a compromise; it would be a capitulation.”

According to Jayapal, those willing to vote in unison are “members of the [Congressional] Black Caucus, the [Congressional] Hispanic Caucus, the [Congressional] Asian [Pacific American] Caucus, some of whom are not members of the Progressive Caucus, who feel very strongly that this is really the only shot we have to deliver on the agenda that the president ran on.”

more at the link.

The café is open on this wonderfully rainy day.

9/16-17 News Roundup & Open Thread at Benny’s Bar

The Progressive Wing Posted on by

Hello Birdies!

We’ll start with a Common Dreams piece about Sanders and others reaction to three center-right House Dems voting against Medicare having negotiating authority for prescription prices.

After three House Democrats voted against a key plank of their party’s plan to lower prescription drug prices, Sen. Bernie Sanders said Wednesday that Congress must ensure the provision is included in the final budget reconciliation package despite objections from conservative lawmakers.

“The good news is that the full Congress must and will do far better,” Sanders added. “At a time when the drug companies are charging us by far the highest prices in the world, Congress must demand that Medicare negotiate prices with this extremely greedy and powerful industry.”

The Vermont senator’s statement came after a popular proposal to let Medicare directly negotiate prescription drug prices with pharmaceutical companies failed to pass the House Energy and Commerce Committee in a 29-29 vote. Reps. Scott Peters (D-Calif.), Kathleen Rice (D-N.Y.), and Kurt Schrader (D-Ore.) joined their GOP colleagues in voting against the provision, which is backed by the White House and the Democratic leadership.

Medicare, the largest buyer of prescription medicines in the U.S., is currently barred by federal law from negotiating prices with drug manufacturers thanks to a “non-interference clause” that progressives have long sought to repeal. Democrats’ current proposal would amend the clause to allow the secretary of Health and Human Services to negotiate drug prices on behalf of Medicare—a plan that could dramatically cut costs for patients and produce hundreds of billions of dollars in federal savings over the next decade.

A version of the plan was included in legislation (H.R. 3) that the House passed in late 2019 with the support of Peters, Rice, and Schrader. But the conservative Democrats are balking now that the proposal—once a mere messaging and campaign tool—actually has a chance of becoming law.

The pharmaceutical industry is fervently opposed to allowing the federal government to negotiate drug costs, which would threaten companies’ ability to set sky-high prices. The Government Accountability Office estimated earlier this year that in 2017, Medicare Part D paid twice as much for the same prescription medicines as the Department of Veterans Affairs, which is allowed to directly negotiate prices.

According to a study published last week by Gallup and West Health, more than 15 million U.S. adults under the age of 65 and 2.3 million seniors were unable to afford at least one doctor-prescribed medication this year.

“The pharmaceutical industry has spent over $4.5 billion on lobbying and campaign contributions over the past 20 years and has hired some 1,200 lobbyists to get Congress to do its bidding. They are the most powerful industry on Capitol Hill,” Sanders said Wednesday. “Nonetheless, the American people are demanding that Congress stand up to them and finally lower the outrageous price of prescription drugs by requiring Medicare to negotiate with the pharmaceutical industry.”

“Now is the time for Congress to show courage and stand up to the greed of the pharmaceutical industry,” the Vermont senator added. “The American people will not accept surrender.”

Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), the industry’s top lobbying organization, applauded Peters, Rice, and Schrader for stopping the Medicare negotiation plan from passing out of the Energy and Commerce Committee. Peters and Schrader are both major recipients of pharma donations.

“This should be a strong signal to the House leadership that there is broad support for lowering costs for patients without sacrificing access to new cures and treatments,” the group said, deploying its favorite—and highly misleading—talking point against the proposal.

Aija Nemer-Aanerud, the Healthcare for All organizer at People’s Action, said Wednesday that the three Democrats’ votes were “a bald-faced display of corporate allegiance.”

“We’re living through a once-in-a-generation opportunity to win big for poor and working people,” said Nemer-Aanerud. “Today’s actions prove they want nothing to do with this vision.”

Despite the provision’s failure in the Energy and Commerce Committee, Sanders and other top lawmakers in the Democratic caucus voiced confidence that Medicare price negotiation will ultimately be included in the final reconciliation package. Nemer-Aanerud noted that the House Rules Committee has the ability to insert the Medicare negotiation language ahead of floor debate on the reconciliation bill.

Soon after the plan was rejected by Energy and Commerce, the House Ways and Means Committee—which also has jurisdiction over health policy—approved it, with Rep. Stephanie Murphy (D-Fla.) voting no. House Democrats can only afford three no votes on the final reconciliation package, which lawmakers hope to complete by the end of the month.

David Mitchell, a cancer patient and founder of Patients For Affordable Drugs Now, applauded the Ways and Means panel’s vote and said Democrats must “fulfill their promise to pass strong Medicare negotiation to lower drug prices on behalf of Americans.”

“The U.S. House Ways and Means Committee stood strong with patients today by voting to advance H.R. 3 in the reconciliation package,” said Mitchell. “The inclusion of this strong Medicare negotiation legislation fuels momentum towards comprehensive, meaningful reform to provide relief to millions of Americans facing high drug prices in this country.”

More news, tweets, and perspectives along with your comments below. This also serves an open thread. Benny’s Bar will be open for beverages and maybe a video jukebox!

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