Sympathy for the Devils...

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Re: Sympathy for the Devils...

Post by blindpig » Thu Dec 02, 2021 3:11 pm

As Build Back Better Is Gutted, Defense Act Is Deemed a “Must-Pass” Bill
by Will Pitt

The drinking water in Flint, Michigan. The ashes of Paradise, California. A tub of petroleum that once was the Gulf of Mexico. Rising seas, and storms that eat cities. Black people murdered by cops, protesters gunned down by teenagers with war weapons, and children shot by children in the ersatz safety of their own homes and schools. A lethal pandemic close to completing its second year, fueled by a vapid anti-science movement with the vocal blessing of a disgraced former president.

Ponder all of this, and so much more besides, and I’ll bet my left shoe your absolute last thought would be, “You know what? This country really needs 91 new F-35 Joint Strike Fighters and a pair of new Virginia-class nuclear submarines.” What the hell, it’s only $9.3 billion we’re talking about. Never mind the fact that the F-35 keeps falling out of the sky, and the subs would be of better use studying North Atlantic right whale depopulation off the coast of Cape Cod.

Here we are, though, on the verge of authorizing the spending of $740 billion for items just like that. The annual National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) of 2022, which authorizes the military budget and establishes defense policy, runs close to 70 fine-printed pages, and reads like a Christmas list compiled by the most terrifying child who ever lived. This is only the stuff we’re selling to ourselves, mind you; our list of global arms sales would fell a forest for the paper.

On top of the F-35s and the submarines, there are two Arleigh Burke class destroyers ($3.7 billion), 11 CH-53K King Stallion helicopters ($1.5 billion), 17 F-15EX fighters ($1.8 billion), 92 M1 Abrams tank upgrades ($1.4 billion), $4.8 billion for the Columbia class submarine program, and a nifty $4.9 billion for Space Force “system development and demonstration” and “advanced component and development prototype R and D funding for technologies including space situational awareness, domain control, advanced communications, and related technologies and systems.” SPACE FORCE!!

<snip>

At present, Congress is debating the 2022 NDAA along with President Biden’s signature Build Back Better Act, debt limit legislation, and funding to keep the federal government operating. The deadlines are piling up, and the pressure on Democratic lawmakers is intense. It is worth noting, however, that between the BBB Act and the NDAA, only the NDAA gets labeled as “must-pass” by the corporate news media.

(more...)

https://truthout.org/articles/as-build- ... pass-bill/

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'Surreal': Biden Invites Venezuelan Coup Leader Juan Guaidó to US 'Summit for Democracy'

<snip>

U.S. President Joe Biden was nearly the victim of a right-wing coup on January 6, but that didn't stop him from inviting Venezuela's right-wing coup leader Juan Guaidó to the United States' so-called "Summit for Democracy"—a development that critics say illustrates the "cynical, hypocritical, and completely counter-productive" nature of the upcoming meeting.

<snip>

"Surreal," is how Adler responded after news broke that Biden had asked Guaidó—an unelected and unpopular opposition figure who participated in a failed coup attempt—to represent Venezuela at an ostensibly pro-democracy gathering, just weeks after Venezuelans reelected Maduro in a contest that U.S. legal observers called fair.

Notably, in the wake of the deadly January 6 insurrection, Maduro's government issued a public statement that condemned then-U.S. President Donald Trump's brazen attempt to hold onto power, expressed sympathy for victims of the assault, and criticized Washington for routinely supporting efforts to subvert democracy abroad.

U.S. lawmakers from both major parties, by contrast, gave Guaidó a standing ovation when Trump, during his 2020 State of the Union Address, erroneously described the self-anointed leader as the "true and legitimate president of Venezuela."

<snip>

"The Biden administration continues to put the U.S. on the wrong side" of what Blinken has called a "democratic reckoning" in the Americas, the pair wrote in The Guardian.

For example, the pair noted, Blinken recently "lavished praise" on the right-wing presidents of Ecuador and Colombia, who have engaged in anti-democratic repression. Moreover, the U.S. remains a "leading member" of the Organization of American States, which has facilitated multiple anti-democratic interventions in Haiti and played a decisive role in the far-right coup in Bolivia in 2019.

On top of those foreign policy failures, Adler said Tuesday that Biden's "betrayed campaign promises" at home exemplify the absence of substantive democracy in the U.S.

Many voters cast ballots for the president based on his pledge to ban the sale of new fossil fuel leases on public lands and waters, Adler pointed out, and yet his administration has approved drilling permits at a faster rate than its two immediate predecessors and last month held the largest offshore oil and gas lease sale in U.S. history, just days after Biden vowed at COP26 that he would address the climate crisis.

In light of the current barrage of voter suppression laws being enacted and gerrymandered maps being drawn by state-level Republicans nationwide, an annual study published last week for the first time characterized the U.S. as a "backsliding" democracy.

Although Biden has acknowledged that U.S. democracy is under threat, he has yet to make a strong public push for repealing or reforming the Senate's 60-vote filibuster rule, a prerequisite to passing voting rights legislation.

(more...)

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/ ... -democracy

Will Pitt, Common Dreams, tepid critics of the Democratic Party, that is until next year when the election cycle cranks up again. Sure, they speak some truth, softball, good for credibility, which is useful when it's time for full-throated support for the Dems despite serial failure and betrayal. Then all will be forgotten, because Trump, ya know? It's the same goddamn game they've been at for decades and it seems their audience doesn't notice. Just like the party they support they pose as righteous progressive critics of the status quo, until push comes to shove when they inevitably support one wing of the capitalist turkey. If it ain't Trump it will be some other culture war set piece(in truth that's all Trump is too). Issues of the class war being waged upon us, of war and peace, of planetary survival, are glossed over for partisan necessity and the status quo.

For what they do they are as bad as the Dems, as bad as the Republicans, preventing progress in the name of faux progress Run them outta town on a rail, I say.

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"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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Re: Sympathy for the Devils...

Post by blindpig » Sat Dec 04, 2021 3:38 pm

Due to court order, 'Remain in Mexico' rules for migrants are likely to restart Monday
By Geneva Sands, CNN

Updated 6:55 PM ET, Thu December 2, 2021

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Migrants in the &quot;Remain in Mexico&quot; program queue at the Paso del Norte border bridge to reschedule their immigration hearings amid the coronavirus outbreak, in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico April 21, 2020.

Migrants in the "Remain in Mexico" program queue at the Paso del Norte border bridge to reschedule their immigration hearings amid the coronavirus outbreak, in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico April 21, 2020.
(CNN)The Biden administration plans to relaunch the Trump-era border program known as "Remain in Mexico" on Monday due to a court order, meaning the US will again send migrants to Mexico to await their immigration court hearings, administration officials announced Thursday.

Mexico on Thursday agreed to the terms of the revamped program and said it would begin accepting migrants.
The program, which forces non-Mexican migrants to stay in Mexico until their immigration court dates in the US, was suspended at the beginning of President Joe Biden's term and formally terminated months later.
But in August, a federal judge in Texas said the Biden administration had violated federal law in how it had gone about unwinding the program and required that it be restored.
Administration officials on Thursday stressed that they were only reimplementing the program, formally called "Migrant Protection Protocols," because of the court order.
Immigration advocates swiftly condemned the announcement and some Democratic lawmakers criticized the move.
Sen. Bob Menendez said in a statement that he was "deeply concerned" that the Biden administration is "overseeing an expansion of this inhumane policy and implementing the court's order before critical safeguards are in place."

(more...)

https://www.cnn.com/2021/12/02/politics ... index.html

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Manchin tells senators he's skeptical Build Back Better can pass this year, as doubts grow it will get done by Christmas
By Manu Raju, Chief Congressional Correspondent

Updated 11:49 PM ET, Thu December 2, 2021

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(CNN)Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin is casting skepticism in conversations with senators that the Build Back Better bill can pass the Senate this year, potentially delivering a blow to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer's push to get the bill approved by Christmas, according to two sources familiar with the West Virginia senator's remarks.

Manchin still has a number of concerns, namely that budget gimmicks hide the true cost of the bill, and he's pushing to ensure it costs no more than $1.75 trillion. But he also is seeking to pare down the bill, which passed the House last month, in a number of other areas -- including paid family leave, a methane fee on emissions from energy producers and a Medicare expansion to cover hearing costs. And he's seeking changes to some of the provisions in the tax title of the bill, one of the sources said.
All of that means major changes would need to be made to the bill, followed by a full cost analysis by the Congressional Budget Office, and a review by the Senate parliamentarian, which is raising doubts that could all be accomplished in time for passage by the Christmas, as Schumer hopes.
One Democratic source pegged the likelihood that the bill can pass this year at "20-25%."
"He has a lot of concerns," the source said.
Asked about his private comments to senators, Manchin told CNN on Thursday night that the timing of the vote depends on when the Senate parliamentarian rules on what parts of the bill comply with the chamber's strict rules.
"Debt and inflation are a big concern for me," the West Virginia Democrat said. "Basically we should pay for what we're doing."
Manchin said on Thursday that if Schumer tries to force him to make a decision by putting a bill on the floor, "I wouldn't have any idea how I'm going to vote until I walk in."
If he voted no, as Republicans hope, it would sink the bill in the 50-50 Senate.
Another influential moderate Democrat, Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, did not commit to voting for the President's sweeping social safety net legislation in an interview with CNN on Thursday.
Following the passage of the economic bill in the House, Schumer said Senate Democrats would try to negotiate with Manchin and Sinema to address their disagreements on the size and scope of the package.
"The House did a very strong bill. Everyone knows that Manchin and Sinema have their concerns, but we're going to try to negotiate with them and get a very strong, bold bill out of the Senate, which will then go back to the House and pass," Schumer, a New York Democrat, said during a news briefing in late November.

https://us.cnn.com/2021/12/02/politics/ ... index.html

They are running out of reversals, defeats, disappointments and betrayals. Is there anything left for the Dems to fuck up?

Manchin is truly a piece of work from the Old School. Like the segregationists of not so long ago he dresses up his argument in fiscal and constitutional 'concerns' when anybody with a IQ greater than their age knows he's out to gut every bit environmental mitigation from the bill.(This despite the fact that said provisions are fluffy and grotesquely inadequate. Slippery slopes, ya know?) Likewise Ms Sinema is adamant that the wealthy and their corporations ain't gonna pay a dime more than the current pittance.

With a party like this who needs Republicans? It is only for the necessity of presenting 'democratic choice' that the farce continues, and one of these days....
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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Re: Sympathy for the Devils...

Post by blindpig » Wed Dec 08, 2021 3:50 pm

The United States pushes Russia to the brink of war, then cries “wolf”
Posted Dec 08, 2021 by Gilbert Doctorow

Originally published: Gilbert Doctorow Blog (December 5, 2021 )

<snip>

First, to the extent that Washington can keep the “guard rails” in place and not touch off an all-out war with Russia, it seeks to do precisely what that gal on the BBC was attributing to Mr. Putin: to create a diversion from its own political travails at home. Going back 70 years to the start of the first Cold War, domestic U.S. politics have always been a major factor in the ratcheting up or down of the conflict with Russia over global “leadership.”

At this moment, though Biden has won a partial victory on his domestic infrastructure legislation, he is widely seen in the U.S. establishment as a weak president in defending U.S. interests abroad because of the catastrophic withdrawal from Afghanistan. Political pundits see a likely loss of Democratic control in the House and Senate in the mid-term elections that are less than a year away. And if muscle-flexing on the world stage might help the image of the man and his Administration, how much safer it is to do that precisely with Russia, which has a long record of cautious, reactive behavior when under threat rather than to try new provocations against Beijing, who otherwise are Washington’s number one adversary today. The Chinese, under President Xi, are both very assertive and unpredictable. As we approach the anniversary of “Pearl Harbor” there is no doubt the U.S. is more wary of China’s readiness to defend its neighborhood proactively than it is of Russia doing the same.

As seen from Washington, its present encouragement to the Ukrainians to be irresponsible and try to reassert control over their rebel provinces by military force , its threats to Russia to keep its forces out of the way, all appear to be a ‘heads I win, tails you lose’ bet. If the Ukrainians should, against all expectations, resist any Russian onslaught thanks to NATO training and war materiel, and retake the Donbas, then Moscow has a bloody nose and becomes a less serious threat to American interests globally. If Kiev is smashed, then so what: the U.S. still wins, because the European allies will be compelled to go along with imposition of draconian sanctions on the “aggressor” that do great damage to the Russian economy, to its military capability, and to its global standing. And Biden will have won laurels that serve him well next November. Republicans who are clamoring for his scalp today will just have to shut up.

(more...)

https://mronline.org/2021/12/08/the-uni ... ries-wolf/

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Ukraine played a role of a bargaining chip in Biden's negotiations with Putin: political scientist

All statements of recent days that Russia is supposedly going to attack Ukraine turned out to be speculation, political analyst Konstantin Bondarenko believes. The topic of Ukraine was intended to hide the real agenda of the talks between the presidents of the United States and Russia.

Commenting on the talks between the presidents of Russia and the United States, Vladimir Putin and Joseph Biden , he told Ukraina.ru that the "Square" played the role of "bargaining chip" in the political games of these states.

He explained that under this "noise" the Biden administration gave its permission to launch Nord Stream 2, but it is not yet clear on what terms.

“In order to somehow lift possible sanctions that were considered in Congress, this play was staged -“ Russia attacks Ukraine, ”Bondarenko explained.

Now the American president can "with a clear conscience" declare that they agreed to SP-2 to save Ukraine. Under no circumstances will the United States leave here now, the expert said.

"The United States is unlikely to leave such a platform, especially since Ukraine is much cheaper for them than Afghanistan," the political scientist said.

He stressed that this is "a very profitable reusable springboard for bullying Russia" and a "platform" for influencing the European Union.

And Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will either continue to play the role of a "loser" who is being manipulated, or he will choose the role of a "winner" who "defeated" Putin and his huge army. It all depends on what kind of information campaign he can "ride", Bondarenko added.

https://novorosinform.org/ukraina-sygra ... 84815.html

Google Translator

'Speculation, of the bootless sort. Biden plays tough guy, because any Dem's greatest fear is to be perceived 'soft on defense'.It might resemble Cold War 'brinkmanship', which implies that the other side might hurt you as bad as you can hurt him. But the only threats here are from Ukraine(to invade Donbass) and NATO deploying adjacent to the heart of European Russia. Russia has no interest in attacking Ukraine, more trouble than it's worth at this point though it will defend the Donbass republics as a matter of internal politics. If Putin allowed Nazis to overrun ethnic Russians his popularity would sink below the basement.

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Biden actually recognized Russia's right to a zone of influence - Pogrebinsky

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Mikhail Pogrebinsky, director of the Kiev Center for Political Research and Conflictology, told Ukraina.ru that the United States continues to think about how to calm Moscow down, and this can only be done by not expanding NATO.

He also commented on the words of the adviser to the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Mikhail Podolyak, who said that the talks between the leaders of Russia and the United States, Vladimir Putin and Joseph Biden, did not become sensational. Pogrebinsky called this statement "a good face for a bad game."

"They continue to carry nonsense about the principle of" not negotiating Ukraine without Ukraine, "and that the United States constantly consults with them," the political scientist said.

He also added that during the negotiations, Biden actually recognized Russia's right to its zone of influence, meaning Ukraine.

“If this idiot Podolyak says that there was nothing new there, then, apparently, he does not want to notice it. And the fundamentally new thing is that when Putin demanded that Russia's security interests be taken into account, Biden replied that he would lead on this issue negotiations with his allies and instruct his people to do this. This is an unprecedented business, "Pogrebinsky said.

He also expressed the opinion that Washington does not believe that Russia is going to attack Ukraine in the near future.

“The position is clearly articulated that Biden does not believe that Putin will attack tomorrow. He simply says that if you attack, you will feel bad. you will feel bad. There is nothing new, "said the expert.

https://novorosinform.org/bajden-faktic ... 84814.html

Google Translator

******************************************

Washington has no plans to send its soldiers to Ukraine - Smith

According to the head of the US House of Representatives Armed Services Committee, Adam Smith, this is not their position.

The American congressman noted in an interview with CNN that the United States will not send its military to Ukraine for a war with the Russian Federation.

“We didn’t say that we wanted to send a couple of thousand soldiers to Ukraine to fight with Russia. This is not our position,” Smith said.

He added that the Americans are more inclined to introduce new economic restrictions and provide military assistance to Ukraine in training and supplying troops.

Smith stressed that so far they do not see the need for the evacuation of their citizens from the territory of the "square" because of the possible escalation of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. And he wished it to be so in the future.

Earlier, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said that Russia's attempts to change the territorial borders of Ukraine are an international threat .

https://novorosinform.org/vashington-ne ... 84792.html

Google Translator

On one level, 'much ado about nothing'. The only threat exist if the US wills it. Politically it's win-win for Biden, a cakewalk to be honest. There will be no war, and Biden will declare victory anyway, which he sorely needs as his popularity is tanking. If the Ukes try to force the issue by attacking Donbass the various measures threatened by Biden won't help them one bit when their army is smashed to pieces with no succor from NATO cause US forces in Europe are just a notch above 'token' and the Europeans ain't gonna attack Russia again. In Winter. No Way In Hell.
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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Re: Sympathy for the Devils...

Post by blindpig » Fri Dec 10, 2021 3:57 pm

Democratic Party Betrayal, Abortion, and the Supreme Court
Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist 08 Dec 2021

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Jackson, Mississippi abortion protest - Photo Credit: Vickie D. King/Mississippi Today

Democrats have been fooled into thinking that only the courts can protect abortion rights. In fact, legislation could protect abortion permanently, but their party has refused to do that. Now that SCOTUS control is lost because of their corruption and betrayals, they continue to spin lies that bamboozle the party faithful.

“What about the Supreme Court?” Those words are used to thwart any discussion which questions support for the Democratic Party. The democrats maintain their hold on voters who would otherwise be rid of them by dredging up the fear of the federal judiciary falling under Republican Party control. The legal right to abortion is one of the issues used to keep millions of people from leaving the democrats once and for all.

After decades of democrats’ corruption, inaction, and lies, the right to abortion is indeed at risk. The majority of Supreme Court justices are republican appointees. They may uphold a Mississippi law which severely restricts abortion access or even overturn the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision which declared a constitutional right to abortion. The boogeyman of right wing judicial control is now real and the democrats have only themselves to blame. Unfortunately, most of their voters still go along with their faux outrage when they should be questioning the whole rotten apparatus.

The democratic party is called a “big tent” which includes corporate interests, wealthy funders, well funded think tanks, elite academia, and left leaning voters. Black people are the constituency they depend upon the most, although one would never know that by looking at the policies the democrats hold near and dear.

Black voters in particular are caught in a trap, seeing themselves as powerless to do anything except keep republicans out of office. The openly white supremacist nature of the republicans is not met with any opposition by the party that fails to fight for them. Instead fear mongering and betrayal of their most loyal voters are their favorite means of getting support. The political duopoly are like fake heroes and fake villains in professional wrestling. The differences are all for show.

The bloom was off the rose in 2016 after the hope and change promised by Barack Obama was revealed to be nothing more than neo-liberal business as usual. Many democrats were disgusted when the primaries were rigged against Bernie Sanders. Hillary Clinton’s “pied piper strategy” amplified Donald Trump, and the combination of miscalculation and hubris gave him the electoral college votes needed to win and to make lifetime judicial appointments.

Hillary Clinton was so sure she would defeat Trump that she chose senator Tim Kaine as her running mate. Kaine is one who straddles the fence claiming he is personally opposed to abortion because he is a Catholic while claiming he would defend Roe v. Wade. Clinton herself foolishly sought to portray herself as being ambivalent about abortion, thinking she would get support from some conservative voters. Of course real conservatives were in love with Donald Trump. So-called moderate republicans voted for him too. Hillary’s efforts to be as slick as Bill Clinton were laughable and her sad attempt at Clintonian triangulation led to Trump’s victory.

Democrats don’t like to mention that Ruth Bader Ginsburg should have stepped down when Barack Obama asked her. He also didn’t fight for his nominee Merrick Garland because he assumed that a president Hillary Clinton would have her choices. The miscalculations are guarded like a shameful family secret lest left leaning democrats question the cult leadership and head for the exits.

Of course the constant demand that leftists stick with the democrats over the issue of abortion falls apart upon even cursory examination. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was taken to task in 2017 for saying that abortion was “fading” as an issue of concern to her party’s members. In 2018 when democratic voters were urged to give control of the House to democrats and diminish Donald Trump’s power she said abortion was not a litmus test issue. While voters are harangued to stay with the democrats as if they are a political lifeboat, the leadership make clear that they don’t care what their constituents want and only raise issues at opportune moments to raise money and keep the rank and file in line.

Democrats are only serious about neo-liberal austerity, protection of corporate interests, and carrying out imperialism abroad. Everything else is propaganda meant to convince the gullible to stay in their camp. Liberals think themselves superior and sneer at white republicans for voting against their interests. They are no better, allowing themselves to be fooled again and again by SCOTUS fear mongering when their party could protect abortion rights with legislation if they really wanted to do so.

The joke is on liberals who want to relitigate the 2016 debacle by blaming everyone but the people who should have won the election they said was so important. The barbarians are not just at the gate, they have breached the walls and the democrats are responsible. But even as they fail in the electoral arena,
their propaganda knows no bounds. They never discuss legislating abortion rights and their constituents never take them to task.

MAGA hat wearing Trump supporters are no more indoctrinated than the average democrat voter. The discredited leadership exemplified by the likes of Nancy Pelosi have a strong hold on their members despite failing them time and again. The only sure prediction of the 2024 presidential campaign is that the need to control the federal judiciary will again be trotted out to end any questions or hesitation to support the party that fails its people so often.

Democrats have been fooled into thinking that only the courts can protect abortion rights. In fact, legislation could protect abortion permanently, but their party has refused to do that. Now that SCOTUS control is lost because of their corruption and betrayals, they continue to spin lies that bamboozle the party faithful.

https://www.blackagendareport.com/democ ... reme-court

Not to worry, we just gotta elect a super-duper majority of Dems to both houses of Congress, pack the Supremes and elect Willie Nelson for prez. Look for that to happen about the same time the Dems repeal Taft-Hartley...

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January 6 committee touts cooperation among witnesses as key Trump allies stonewall panel
By Annie Grayer, Ryan Nobles and Zachary Cohen, CNN

Updated 6:06 AM ET, Fri December 10, 2021

(CNN)Two parallel realities are emerging as the House select committee investigating the January 6 attack on the US Capitol continues to build its investigation. While a growing list of individuals are cooperating, a small but key group of former President Donald Trump's allies continue to stonewall the panel. Information serves as the committee's most valuable currency on both fronts, while the clock is becoming its worst enemy.

In a public show of the reach of the House probe, four top subpoena targets were brought in for depositions Thursday on Capitol Hill, where TV cameras captured at least two of them going behind closed doors. And on a busy deposition day, committee members have begun touting that the number of witnesses interviewed has reached 300.
Kash Patel, a former chief of staff to then-acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller, "Stop the Steal" rally organizer Ali Alexander, conservative lawyer John Eastman and Chris Krebs, the former director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, all met with the committee on Thursday.

"The investigation is firing on all cylinders," GOP Rep. Liz Cheney, the committee vice chair, tweeted. The Wyoming Republican ticked off the committee's accomplishments, including receiving "exceptionally interesting and important documents" from witnesses like Mark Meadows, Trump's former chief of staff who is no longer cooperating with the committee.
"Do not be misled: President Trump is trying to hide what happened on January 6th and to delay and obstruct. We will not let that happen," Cheney added.
And yet, the panel is also navigating a series of new challenges as a growing number of top Trump allies refuse to cooperate and the Justice system continues to move at a pace that does not align with the panel's investigative timeline. It's widely assumed that Republicans, should they win the House majority next fall, will shut down the probe.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/12/10/politics ... index.html

Whadda plan, for it to work all it needs is for the opposition to do exactly what the Dems want..the sort of plan you would expect from idiots or a child or mebbe someone who didn't really want the plan to work. Because the threat of Trump must be alive and menacing for the elections coming up, it's all the Dems got.

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Super Serious News Reporting: Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix

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Listen to a reading of this article:
https://soundcloud.com/going_rogue/supe ... -reporting


Hi I’m a very serious news reporter. The Russians are controlling our thoughts with Facebook memes and scrambling our brains with invisible ray gun attacks. In other news, capitalism is working fine and our wars defend freedom and democracy. The government never lies. Here’s Bob with the weather.



It’s hilarious that people still think the Democratic Party cares about winning elections. That’s not its job, children. That’s not why the Democratic Party exists. The Democratic Party exists to kill leftward progress in the world’s most powerful nation. That’s all it cares about doing.

The Democratic Party doesn’t care about winning elections. The Democratic Party doesn’t care about promoting popular policies. The Democratic Party doesn’t care about passing legislation. The Democratic Party only cares about doing things like this:
CNN
@CNN
Democrats' $1.75 trillion economic and climate bill could end up delivering a tax cut for the richest 5% of Americans, a new analysis finds.
Image
Tax the rich? Maybe not. Democrats' spending plan could be a tax cut for the rich, budget watchdog...
Democrats' $1.75 trillion economic and climate bill could end up delivering a tax cut for the richest 5% of Americans, a new analysis finds.
cnn.com
5:01 PM · Nov 1, 2021
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They were always going to blame Biden’s failures on the left.
Blake Hounshell
@blakehounshell
Some in Biden-land are already asking themselves if the president has allowed himself to be tugged too far to the left while in office, and those voices are likely to get louder now.
9:16 PM · Nov 2, 2021
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“The political spectrum has moved too far to the left. I believe this because I was told to by a millionaire with a vested interest in stifling support for socialism. Also I think ‘left’ means having pink hair and using words like ‘polycule’ in casual conversation.”



So mad at American leftists for forcing the Democratic Party to be a right wing imperialist oligarch front who nobody wants to vote for.



US troops are four times more likely to die by their own hand than in combat. They’ve figured out how to protect US military personnel from enemy fire, but not from the psychological consequences of working for the US military.



Imagine if you learned you had a serious form of cancer, and then not only did you not pursue any kind of treatment, but you also barely ever talked about it or thought about it. That’s how weird humanity’s response has been to the myriad imminent existential threats it faces.




The world is dominated by opaque and unaccountable government agencies. The Pentagon killed ten civilians, none of whom were combatants and seven of whom were kids, lied about it, got caught, investigated itself and found its staff weren’t even guilty of so much as negligence, then classified the report.



Corporations are legally required to act like sociopaths; they’re required to maximize shareholder profits even if it means ruining lives, destroying the ecosystem, etc. Companies controlled by workers instead of blind profit motive would have human interests as a driving factor. They wouldn’t have blind sociopathic pursuit of profit at all cost as their driving motive, they’d have their own sets of priorities. These would include making money, sure, but they would also include moral interests, having a healthy planet for their kids, etc.





Anarcho-capitalism wouldn’t end war, it would just privatize it. Capitalism minus states would just be corporate mercenaries doing what government goon squads do now. To picture what would happen if ancaps got their way, imagine the plot of the movie Avatar, except instead of unobtainium it’s normal terrestrial resources, and instead of an alien planet it’s the Global South.



Capitalism is so bad at providing for people that its commanders must wage constant aggression against the Global South to steal enough to prevent bread riots in the Global North.



Few people understand how fucked things really are. It’s not just that we’re facing global disaster on multiple fronts and our electoral systems are rigged to prevent us from doing anything about it, it’s that the public is being propagandized away from even wanting to do anything about it.

Our abusive systems are so deeply locked in on so many levels that even people who see things kind of clearly can’t really grasp how bad it is. They’re still like oh okay then we need a new political party or a new voting strategy or whatever, and it just misses the reality of our situation. We’re so very, very sick and so very, very, very far from any kind of shift toward health, and you look at what even the most awake people are talking about and it’s often vapid sectarian bickering about nonsense that’s light years from having any relevance to our current plight.

That’s why I use the word “miracle” sometimes. Because if you really grasp how fucked things are and still hold out hope that we can change things in time to save the world, you’re basically holding out hope for a miracle. You might not use that word, but you’re hoping for something to happen that on paper is impossible.

So what do we do? The only thing we can do in such a situation: work tirelessly to spread awareness. To spread awareness to other people, and to spread awareness within ourselves. To facilitate awakening, collectively and as an individual. It’s the only thing that ever leads to healthy change.

Do that with everything we’ve got, and do it for its own sake with the full allowance that it could easily not be enough, and who knows. We just might get our miracle.

https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2021/11/05 ... ve-matrix/
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Re: Sympathy for the Devils...

Post by blindpig » Mon Dec 13, 2021 3:41 pm

The disconnect that could take Democrats down
Opinion by Julian Zelizer, CNN Political Analyst

Updated 7:56 PM ET, Thu December 9, 2021

Editor's Note:Julian Zelizer, a CNN political analyst, is a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University and author of the book "Abraham Joshua Heschel: A life of Radical Amazement." Follow him on Twitter @julianzelizer. The views expressed in this commentary are his own.

(CNN)President Joe Biden must work harder to spread some holiday cheer now that we have a great deal of positive economic news to celebrate.

The United States had the lowest weekly jobless claims in more than 52 years and wages are rising. Although inflation remains a real problem in certain sectors, gas prices have started to drop, shipping is getting cheaper and bottlenecks in the supply chain are easing up. Though the stock market has gone through several swings in recent weeks, overall, the trend has been positive and investors are reaping historic profits.
To be sure, the Omicron variant of Covid-19 continues to pose global risks, nearly two years into the pandemic. But the state of the US economy is pretty good given the circumstances.

Yet voters don't seem happy. Polls show that Americans are not pleased with the economy and President Biden's leadership on that front. According to a recent Wall Street Journal poll, Americans are going into the midterm season feeling pessimistic about the future. The Republicans, many feel, are better positioned to handle several economic challenges including inflation.
In other words, there is a huge disconnect between the economic data and the way voters are feeling. This is a big problem for Democrats. If political strategist James Carville was right when he famously coined the phrase, "It's the economy, stupid," then the President and his party need to make sure voters have a better grasp of the US' economic recovery.
Biden, of course, faces a number of obstacles that will be difficult to overcome. In our age of intense political polarization, large parts of the electorate are unlikely to change their minds about Biden -- regardless of what happens. It will be virtually impossible for the President to persuade some voters -- especially those who consume information from media outlets like Fox News -- that any of the economic data should be greeted with applause. To paraphrase the words of comedian Groucho Marx, whatever it is, they're against it.
What&#39;s missing from Biden&#39;s democracy summit
What's missing from Biden's democracy summit
It's important to note that the good news doesn't necessarily drown out the real difficulties Americans face. The effect of inflation on key goods, including food, will impact how families feel about the direction of the economy. And due to chronic economic inequality, there are many families in lower income brackets who struggle to make ends meet, in good times and bad. The ongoing pandemic, moreover, continues to create a level of deep uncertainty. Until Covid-19 is under control and the horrors of the last two years fade from memory, reports of new variants will continue to shake the economic confidence of the electorate.
That doesn't mean Biden and the Democrats should simply throw their hands in the air and sit by, waiting for Republicans to triumph in the 2022 midterms. Even with the challenges of a fragmented media and intense political polarization, presidents still have a huge platform at their command and Biden should take advantage of it.
The President needs to remind Americans just how far we've come since the dark days of March 2020, and hammer home the supporting evidence to show the economy is strong. He needs to promote an overall economic picture that doesn't allow the conversation to revolve solely around inflation -- even as he takes these problems seriously and works to drive up the supply of goods and ease inflation. It's a tough balancing act but one that will be essential to protecting his party.
As President, Biden has the chance to help shift the narrative so Americans get the sense that it's "Morning in America Again" -- as a 1984 ad for Ronald Reagan's reelection put it -- instead of a repeat of the economic malaise that plagued the 1970s. In our current state of politics, the President can't just assume that the facts will speak for themselves. Through his public appearances, he must work harder to help the nation understand that there is a more nuanced and sophisticated understanding of how we are doing.

If the President can't pull this off, Republicans will inevitably do the work of controlling the narrative for him. Good economic news will be pushed aside. More jobs and higher wages will receive far less attention than rising prices. And if Carville is correct -- and there is good reason to believe that he is -- Democrats will have a difficult road ahead.

https://us.cnn.com/2021/12/09/opinions/ ... index.html
So ya see boys & girls, Biden and the Dems main problem is that their propaganda sucks. And like Mr Bernays sez,"The answer to propaganda is more propaganda." cause actually accomplishing what you promised on the campaign trail ain't got nothin to do with it...who believes that shit?

This bears repeating, over and over:
...the story of every Dem election win is they promise lefty stuff, fail to deliver, then they lose subsequent elections and then tell themselves that doing all the lefty stuff they didn't do was the cause. They lose power, eventually go back to running on lefty stuff, win, and then again fail to deliver.

https://www.eschatonblog.com/2021/11/no ... trist.html
Shitting on immigrants, shitting on the environment, shitting on any nation which dare defy it, this Team Biden of the Dems can do, it's in their DNA. But actually coming through on improvements in people's lives, get serious, only commies do that.

But Trump is coming to crap all over yer middle class sensibilities so ya better get with the Program
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Re: Sympathy for the Devils...

Post by blindpig » Fri Dec 17, 2021 4:10 pm

I told ya so...
It’s Time for Democrats to Buck Up and Give Joe Manchin What He Wants
BY JORDAN WEISSMANN
DEC 16, 20213:34 PM

Image
Sen. Joe Manchin in the basement of the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday. Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

Any hope that Democrats might pass the Build Back Better Act before Christmas appeared to disintegrate on Wednesday after talks between West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin and President Joe Biden ended with the two sides still at odds on both the size and basic shape of the climate and social spending package.

Manchin and the rest of his party have yet to agree on a basic top-line number for the bill. The version passed by the House last month includes about $2.1 trillion in new spending over 10 years. Manchin wants to cap it at $1.75 trillion. But perhaps more importantly, Manchin also disagrees with his colleagues on the very structure of the bill—something that should have been evident for months now to anybody paying a semblance of attention.

<snip>

In early November, he publicly accused his colleagues of playing budget “shell games” by making programs expire early, and did it again this month onstage at an event held by the Wall Street Journal. “Do they not intend for these programs to last the full 10 years?” he said. “Well, if they intend for that to happen, then what’s the real cost?” It’s hard to imagine how Manchin could have stated his position more explicitly, yet only now do Democrats seem to have taken off their earmuffs and started listening. From a negotiating perspective, it’s all frankly a bit bizarre. It would be one thing if there was any evidence that he might crumple on these demands, but Manchin has made it clear all along that he is comfortable allowing these negotiations to fail if the final product isn’t to his liking. He can make that threat credibly, because his entire brand back home in West Virginia depends on his willingness to buck his own party.

<snip>

But if you accept Manchin’s demand to keep the bill’s total around $2 trillion—and at this point, Democrats have—then it also makes sense to design the legislation his way, with fewer programs set to last long-term. Caving to Manchin’s demands will require Democrats to sacrifice some worthy parts of their agenda. But it’s time for them to buck up and do it, lest they end up with nothing at all.

https://slate.com/business/2021/12/manc ... nding.html
Where to begin? Manchin's stated opposition is dubious at the least, Bailing out the banks didn't bother him, he didn't filibuster the obscene Trump tax cuts, did he? As for his 'brand',given his personal profiting from pollution and the huge gobs of money that have come his way from his buds in the fossil fuel bund, well, I suspect 'branding' is a tertiary concern at best. I have a suspicion that even should the party 'pretend surrender'(cause this is the preferred result all along) that he will 'move the goalpost. The Dems knew where this guy was coming from all along. In fact, they depended upon it. It's class war and the Dems are the worker's enemy.

And so is the mainstream media, as seen above. The demand to 'do something', seldom what it seems, will rise to a crescendo and eventually the dirty deed will be done. Then the prez, as with his fake 'Ukraine crisis', will declare victory thereby burnishing his sorry record for the upcoming electoral massacre.

The Dems like to be perceived as the 'nice guys' but their niceness only extends across the aisle and is given regardless of the hardball the Republicans play. And there's the big clue, if they represented the working class they would fight like hell instead of serial surrenders. But they don't, and it's past time people realized this.
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Re: Sympathy for the Devils...

Post by blindpig » Tue Dec 21, 2021 3:30 pm

The shit rain continues...
'Democrats are in a lot of trouble': Harry Enten on 2022 midterms
The Lead

CNN's Harry Enten looks into historical data ahead of the 2022 midterm elections and why he thinks the Democratic Party faces a tough road to keep the House majorit

(video at link)
https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/202 ... ad-vpx.cnn

****************************************************

The Democratic retirement floodgates just burst open
Analysis by Chris Cillizza, CNN Editor-at-large

Updated 9:23 PM ET, Mon December 20, 2021

<snip>

All together, there are now 22 Democrats retiring or running for other offices this election cycle as opposed to just 11 Republicans doing the same.
Two years ago, just nine Democrats had announced their retirement plans at this point of the election while 24 Republicans had done the same, according to CNN's political unit.

(more...)

https://us.cnn.com/2021/12/20/politics/ ... index.html

***********************************************

Why Manchin torpedoed Biden's big bill
Opinion by Charlie Dent

Updated 11:51 PM ET, Mon December 20, 2021

<snip>

Well, well. Let me help explain the inexplicable. The truth is progressives, like Sanders and Pressley, have overreached and have completely misread the Biden mandate. Manchin has been forthright and transparent throughout these many months. He even sent a letter over the summer, which Senator Majority Leader Chuck Schumer signed, which outlined his principles, position and redlines.

<snip>

Manchin is the one dealing in reality; many of his critics are not. The far left wants it all and they want it now. Further, Manchin's critics would like him to commit political suicide in West Virginia for an agenda that almost certainly does not speak to the deeply red voters of his home state.

<snip>

Manchin himself stated on Sept. 30, after repeated pressure from progressives, "I've never been a liberal in any way, shape or [form]," so if progressives want a bigger reconciliation bill, "elect more liberals."

Manchin has been saying no to BBB for months -- progressives just didn't want to hear it. But they'd better hear this: Congressional Democrats need Manchin far more than he needs them, and they should think twice about recriminations against him if they hope to keep their very fragile Senate majority.

<snip>

Like McCain, Manchin is owed a debt of gratitude. Someone should pin a medal on his chest.

(more...)

https://us.cnn.com/2021/12/20/opinions/ ... index.html

*******************************************

This is the absolute worst case scenario for Democrats on Build Back Better

Analysis by Chris Cillizza, CNN Editor-at-large

Updated 1:21 PM ET, Mon December 20, 2021

<snip>

"I cannot vote to continue with this piece of legislation," he said during an appearance on "Fox News Sunday." "I just can't. I've tried everything humanly possible. I can't get there. This is a no on this legislation. I have tried everything I know to do."

It was an abrupt and disastrous end for a bill that, in no small measure, contained the bulk of the Biden agenda for his first term in office.

Not only do Democrats have zero to show for what has dominated debate -- in Congress and nationally -- for months on end, but they have also either created or exasperated several major political problems in the process:

1) Every House Democrat -- save Rep. Jared Golden of Maine -- voted for the Build Back Better bill. That includes plenty of moderates and other members in swing seats who now have to a) own any and all negative aspects of the bill without b) reaping the political benefits of the more popular elements of the legislation. That walk-the-plank vote is just the sort of thing that leadership tries to avoid. If a vulnerable member is going to cast a tough vote, then you want to ensure that it's not going to just wither on the vine in the Senate -- leaving those members hanging out to dry.

2) Distrust between Democrats in the House and Senate, liberals and moderates and the White House and Manchin is now at all-time highs

<snip>

3) Biden looks weak. Remember that so much of liberals agreeing to vote for the infrastructure bill without the social safety net legislation having already passed was dependent on their trust in Biden -- and that he could find a way to make a deal with Manchin as well as Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema.

(more....)

https://us.cnn.com/2021/12/20/politics/ ... index.html
And there ya go, now ya don't have to look at Democratic Underground. All of that on the front page of CNN today. It's all there:incompetence, treachery and a tendency to run 'right' at the least disturbance. But mostly it's just the Democratic Party, a Big Tent with no center pole of shared ideology. Not accidental, rather a primary attribute, a nebulous congregation for bundling votes without offending any members. A guarantee of paralysis, the fate of trying to serve two masters, one for real, the other a sham. They have gamed the working class since the end of WWII with the Legend of the New Deal, their unwillingness to address the declining fortunes of workers for 50 years a very large component of the divide in the working class and a joy to the owners.

Meanwhile...
Massive war budget increase sails through Congress as social programs stall
Katie MiernickiDecember 20, 2021 99 2 minutes read
Download PDF flyer https://flyer-generator.herokuapp.com/? ... sts/100560

Joe Biden is expected to imminently sign into law a staggering $770 billion military budget framework for the 2022 fiscal year after the Senate voted overwhelmingly last week in favor of this year’s “National Defense Authorization Act”. The bill authorizes a roughly 5 percent increase in military spending from last year’s budget and $25 billion more than the Biden administration requested. It passed 89-10 in the Senate and 363-70 in the House of Representatives.

The NDAA allocates massive sums of money to the Pentagon to wage wars of aggression around the world and prepare for even more devastating conflicts. Nearly $7.1 billion, for example, is set aside for military initiatives targeting China as part of the “Pacific Deterrence Initiative” provision of the bill. The U.S. military budget is at least three times the size of China’s and U.S. military bases encircle China’s territory – in reality the Pentagon’s initiatives have nothing to do with “deterrence”.

Ironically, this legislation passed with ease and overwhelming bipartisan support during the same week that Biden announced the Build Back Better bill was unlikely to make it out of Congress before 2022. A few days later, right wing Democratic Senator Joe Manchin pulled the plug on negotiations altogether. The Senate appears unable to allocate the $1.75 trillion called for in the already-diluted social spending bill on the false pretext that doing so would be “fiscally irresponsible”. The cost for many of the “Build Back Better” provisions are calculated on a 10-year basis – if that standard was applied to the NDAA that would make the war budget more than four times as expensive as the social program budget.

As we enter the third year of the pandemic, working people are clamoring for stimulus checks, rent relief, action to save the climate and more. The ongoing threat of COVID-19 — coupled with a housing crisis, widespread financial insecurity, and the ever-worsening climate crisis — has left the working class in deeply precarious situations. It is clear that the working class is more concerned with survival than new Navy ships, the latest missiles or the deadliest bombs. The people are still demanding the help that the Biden administration promised would come swiftly after inauguration, but has yet to be felt.

The millionaires running Congress prefer to point fingers at China and inflate their military power than hold themselves accountable to meeting the needs of the people. When discussing the military, the question of “how will we pay for this?” which so often accompanies demands for social spending flies out the window. The money for violence and war always materializes in U.S. capitalism, plus $25 billion more.

https://www.liberationnews.org/massive- ... ams-stall/
Funny, didn't see that on CNN....

The worst political party in history on the surface and not the lesser but the greater evil for the working class.
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Re: Sympathy for the Devils...

Post by blindpig » Fri Dec 24, 2021 3:52 pm

Biden’s appeasement strategy in social program talks nears total failure
Nicholas StenderDecember 22, 2021 56 3 minutes read

Download PDF flyer https://flyer-generator.herokuapp.com/? ... sts/100619

The effort to pass the Build Back Better plan — the package of social and environmental measures most crucial to the political fortunes of the Biden administration — has been completely upended due to both the anti-worker intransigence of the Democratic Party’s right wing and the blundering weakness of its leadership. West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin announced late last week on Fox News that he would not vote in favor of the Biden administration’s signature domestic policy programs. This put a humiliating end to months of personal negotiations between himself and Joe Biden, and according to the administration was a betrayal of a verbal agreement made between Manchin and the president on Dec. 14.

The Biden administration has several domestic policy areas that they have been focusing on. For one, they have tried to get an infrastructure deal done with the Republican party to fix some of the country’s crumbling roads, bridges, water pipes, aquifers and more. After concession upon concession, the final infrastructure deal comes with substantial handouts to the wealthy in the form of “public-private partnerships”. These schemes privatize profits and socialize risk. The $579 billion infrastructure bill is a joke considering the decrepit state of U.S. infrastructure.

Another domestic focus of the Biden administration has been the Build Back Better Act. Initially rolled out as a series of much-needed social programs totaling $3.5 trillion dollars over 10 years, the Build Back Better Act was whittled down until it was worth less than $2 trillion dollars. Joe Manchin led the charge in the Senate against expanding public education, childcare programs, financial assistance to parents, initiatives to combat climate change, and other important measures initially included in the bill.

Despite citing a bogus concern for the impact that such a bill would have on the budget and inflation, Manchin’s opposition to the bill is really due to the fact that he is in principle against any measures that would make the lives of the working class better. On Monday, Manchin noted how he and progressive Democrats are “far apart philosophically” on the need for social spending to support a struggling working class.

Only a movement can win

The growth of social movements over the past decade like Occupy Wall Street, the movement for Black lives, Fight for $15, a resurgent labor movement, the struggle against climate change, and the Bernie Sanders campaign have opened peoples’ eyes to the need for a new program to address the multiple crises facing the working class. The fact that Biden, a loyal servant of capitalism, would be forced to stake his presidency on a social welfare bill speaks to the power of people’s movements.

The Democratic Party has not lifted a finger to activate the huge number of people who support this program. “Good faith” discussions with Manchin are as effective as speaking to a wall. The Biden administration wasted valuable time conducting secret, backroom negotiations with Manchin when conditions called for organizing a movement to force the passage of the bill. Patience with avowed enemies of poor and working people like Manchin has gone nowhere.

Democratic Party humiliated

Over the months, Democrats have categorically refused to discipline the recalcitrant members of their party. Manchin could be made to face a primary challenge, zero campaign money from the Democratic National Committee, “no” votes on any of his sponsored legislation, and expulsion from committee assignments. Instead he was treated with praise and genuflection from Biden, who frequently assured the public that he and Manchin were good friends.

The inability or unwillingness to discipline Manchin shows that the Democratic Party does not see the lives of its constituents as important enough to break the rules of decorum in their elite club, where disagreements are handled behind closed doors. The Democratic party has shown itself to be led by weak-willed cowards with an utter lack of strategic vision. This debacle reveals how nobody is really in charge.

Unless the necessary public pressure on Manchin materializes, the breakdown in social program negotiations deals a major blow to Democrats’ chances in the midterm elections. Biden’s approval rating is at 42%, especially low considering that Biden is still in his first year in office. Repeated broken promises and betrayals of working class voters’ interests will not drive people to the polls in 2022, no matter how odious the Republican Party might be.

Time is quickly running out to revive the possibility that working people will see any relief at all in the form of new federal social programs, or that any type of meaningful action will be taken to mitigate the ravages of climate change. Only the intervention of huge numbers of people can succeed where elite politicians have so woefully failed.

https://www.liberationnews.org/bidens-a ... rationnews

******************************************

NINE INTO TWO: THE FAILURE OF THE US TWO-PARTY SYSTEM
Posted by Greg Godels | Dec 21, 2021 | Featured Stories | 1

Image

BY GREG GODELS
December 8, 2021

When the so-called “Founding Fathers”– the elites who constructed the US republic — unfolded their unique vision of republicanism and political decision-making, they went long on stability and continuity and short on broad participation and social change.

Accordingly, most of them opposed political factions or parties, but very soon after the new government came into existence, major differences arose, leading to factions and swiftly into parties.

Predictably, the break in unanimity came with the formation of two parties, in the US, a Federalist and an anti-Federalist party.

But what is truly remarkable is that subsequent political differences in the US have been contained by only two parties for over two centuries. In most countries that embrace a parliamentary system, political parties emerge with the development of social classes and distinctive social strata.

Further, as social classes generate internal differences, they too spawn new parties. In addition, religious, regional, and economic differences have generated distinctive political parties.

This is the pattern that exists throughout the advanced capitalist countries, creating multi-party parliaments as a commonplace. But not in the US.

Where there have been emergent third or fourth parties, the two parties have either placed insurmountable obstacles in their way or absorbed their political identity.

Stunted class consciousness, illusions of social mobility, perceived opportunities afforded by an expanding frontier, and entrenched loyalties are among the many factors securing a two-party system. The distractions of wars and conflicts, demanding unity and stability, have also played a role in preserving the two-party system.

In truth, the US ruling class has won a remarkable achievement in maintaining an electoral vessel filled to overflowing with diverse, incompatible interests. When will that vessel fracture?

A Pew Research Center study enlisting over 10,000 respondents in a political typology study, the most robust of those conducted by Pew since 1987 suggests a possible answer. What they found bears directly upon the validity and viability of the-two party system. In the words of the study, “…the gulf that separates Republicans and Democrats sometimes obscures the divisions and diversity of views that exist within both partisan coalitions – and the fact that many Americans do not fit easily into either one.”

Researchers found clusters of political attitudes that define independent voter perspectives that are hard to coexist comfortably in the two existing parties. They identify the following clusters and their respective percentages of the population:

Image

It should be noted that these clusters are constructed from answers to questions that were posed to those participating in the survey. Thus, they are biased by the researchers’ preconceived notions of the issues that they believe divide the US. Nonetheless,they do identify potential factions that coexist uneasily in both parties.

So we find that Pew identifies eight significant factions– four that tend to vote Democratic and four that vote Republican (with stressed sideliners representing disinterested, disgusted, less frequent voters)– funneling their votes into two electoral vehicles that cannot possibly represent them all adequately!

Moreover, the conventional illusion that each of the two parties represent a consistent, shared ideology obscures the many possibilities of creating useful coalitions or alliances in moving politics out of the stagnation and ineffectiveness of the US system.

Just to mention one of the insights to be drawn from the Pew study: [Members of the] “…Populist Right hold highly restrictive views about immigration policy and are very critical of government. But, in contrast to other parts of the GOP coalition, their criticism extends well beyond government to views of big business and to the economic system as a whole: 82% say that large corporations are having a negative impact on the way things are going in the country, and nearly half support higher taxes on the wealthy and on large corporations.” In addition, more than any other group, they believe that they have been left behind. They also share with the left, the view that profits are too high.

While they share many left views that might be the basis for a tentative or calculated alliance with left forces, any such approach has been hysterically denounced by the liberal media, political purists, and smug elitists as consorting with evil, those who Hilary Clinton famously called “the deplorables.”

If we were to burrow even deeper than the Pew topology and examine class differences– and even more tellingly, various class ideologies– it would become apparent that the two-party framework would fail abysmally in giving voice to the broad spectrum of political opinion characteristic of a modern, advanced capitalist state. In that regard, the two-party framework is a hindrance to democracy and neither a vehicle for nor exemplar of democratic decision-making.

Apart from its failure to capture ideological diversity, the two-party system encourages conformity on issues that are easily susceptible to patriotic or nationalistic zealotry– foreign policy, the military, loyalty, etc. Politicians in a two-party system dare not allow the other party to challenge them on these matters.

Consequently, we have two-party conformity on the “evils” of such diverse nations as Russia, PRC, Iran, DPRK, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Syria, and others, who share only one common feature– they are made a target by our two-party dominated government.

Nor do politicians of each party dare to question the glory or budgets of the military, the FBI, the CIA, etc. for fear that they will be called out by zealots in the other party– again, a demonstration of the surfeit of democratic debate in a two-party parliamentary system.

Pepsi or Coke, Yankees or Blue Jays, ketchup or mustard are frivolous, but harmless choices. Democrat or Republican — in the crises before us– too often becomes frivolous as well, but increasingly harmful.

Unfortunately, too many people have invested heavily in their respective parties, succumbing again to empty, cynical promises like Obama’s risible “hope and change” slogan in our day. No amount of disappointment can seemingly separate the act of faith that cements voters to the two parties. The prior investment in the Democratic and Republican parties generates what economists call the “sunk cost fallacy”, the idea that too much has been expended on the respective parties to jettison them now.

But it is a fallacy and until we learn to break away from the irrationality of the two-party charade, the Democratic Party will be an obstacle to the kind of changes that we desperately need to make.

https://mltoday.com/nine-into-two-the-f ... ty-system/

Dunno if you can call it a failure: part historical contingency with a healthy heap of class interest along with a dash of cunning might be a better characterization. It might be called a failure had the working class initiated it but we have never really had much to do with design but sure as hell feel the effect.

The Bourgeois like to think current society as the crowning expression of 'human nature' but in truth it is the carnage of a class society.

All that said both of these parties are approaching their political doom, despite the prognostication of Mr Bernays you cannot fool all of the people all of the time.
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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Re: Sympathy for the Devils...

Post by blindpig » Mon Dec 27, 2021 4:09 pm

Up in Smoke
The death of the Build Back Better Act would truly be a disaster for the environment.
BY JORDAN WEISSMANN

DEC 23, 20215:56 AM

Image
PacifiCorp’s 1,000-megawatt coal-fired power plant outside Huntington, Utah, in 2017. George Frey/Getty Images

The Build Back Better Act might be dead. Or maybe it’s just on life support. Nobody but Joe Manchin can say for sure. The West Virginia senator ambushed his party on Sunday by announcing he was a hard no on the bill, imperiling the core of the Biden administration’s domestic agenda. After the initial furious reaction, both the White House and Democrats in Congress have begun trying to rescue negotiations, but their chance of success is unclear.

One thing is quite certain, though: If the defibrillators fail and President Joe Biden can’t resuscitate a deal, it will be an absolute catastrophe for America’s attempts to combat global warming. The bill that House Democrats passed in November was not everything clean energy and environmental activists had hoped, since some of its most aggressive proposals to limit greenhouse gases were stripped to appease Manchin. But by providing hundreds of billions of dollars to speed up the country’s green transition, it would have been an absolutely crucial and historic step toward meeting the climate goals Biden announced when the U.S. rejoined the Paris accords earlier this year. Without it, the country is unlikely to come anywhere near those targets, even if in an abstract, technical sense they’d still be within reach.

“Let me put it this way. The U.S. can still achieve its [Paris commitments] through pathways that don’t require Build Back Better, which lean heavily on federal regulation and state action,” Anand Gopal, executive director of strategy and policy at the climate think tank Energy Innovation, told me. “But it will be damn hard.”

Here’s a simple way to think about the blow U.S. climate policy is facing. The Biden administration has pledged to reduce U.S. emissions 50 percent from 2005 levels by 2030. Under the House legislation, the United States would cut its carbon footprint by 44 percent, according to an analysis by the REPEAT Project at Princeton’s Zero Lab. But under current law, the U.S. would only cut emissions by 27 percent—not even in the ballpark.

It is possible that the Princeton analysis is overly optimistic about the impact Build Back Better would have. For instance, it factors in reductions from a fee on methane included in the House bill, which looked like it would be pared back in any final version. But almost every analysis of the bill’s key pieces has found that it would have a dramatic impact and potentially put our Paris targets within reach, thanks to roughly $325 billion of green energy, electric vehicle, and other tax credits that anchor its climate section (the bill’s total spending on climate amounts to $555 billion). Those subsidies would bring down the cost of a new solar or wind plant by 30 percent and shave thousands from the price of an EV, making clean tech even more competitive than it already is.

Without Build Back Better, the Biden administration will be left to rely almost exclusively on its regulatory powers to curb emissions. This is the strategy that some progressives already seem to be preparing for. “Biden needs to lean on his executive authority now,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tweeted earlier this week. “He has been delaying and underutilizing it so far. There is an enormous amount he can do on climate, student debt, immigration, cannabis, health care, and more.”

There are certainly important ways Biden can flex his executive authority on climate. His administration has already announced a strict new rule on methane leaks and tougher fuel economy standards that it could ratchet up again in the future. States could also contribute significantly if, for instance, California follows through on its promise to ban the sale of new gas-powered cars by 2035.

But there are legal and political limits to what Biden can accomplish through regulation alone. The Environmental Protection Agency is often required by statute to weigh the cost to consumers and industry when crafting new rules. And the administration may blanch at pursuing aggressive new regulations on power plants that might increase electricity prices at a moment voters are worried about inflation (and are as sensitive to gas prices as ever).

The tax credits in Build Back Better were meant to lower both of these hurdles by making green technology less expensive. Without them, Biden has less room to be bold. “All of these regulatory actions and state actions are more politically feasible and easier when there’s half a trillion dollars in subsidies to smooth the way,” John Larsen, head of energy systems research at the Rhodium Group, told me. “Without those subsidies, maybe executive actions could make up some of the tons [of CO2 reductions] you don’t get from Build Back Better. But it’s a very big ask from the executive branch to deliver all of the tons without the financial support.” Congress’ failure to legislate will also make it harder for Biden to regulate.

And that’s before you factor in the Supreme Court. In 2016, the justices stayed President Barack Obama’s Clean Power Plan, suggesting they were ready to hem in the administration on climate. Since then, the court has moved further to right with a 6-to-3 conservative majority, and its members have shown an interest in rolling back the power of federal regulators across the government. At the moment, the justices are preparing to hear a case, West Virginia v. EPA, in which they may decide the administration does not have the authority to limit emissions from power plants. In an absolute worst-case scenario, they could revive a version of the nondelegation doctrine, a pre–New Deal idea that would essentially hobble the entire structure of modern administrative government by holding that Congress simply can’t hand certain decision-making powers to executive agencies, which would kneecap the EPA’s authority on climate and other issues.

We might not get to that point. But it’s not unthinkable. “Everyone from me to my first-year law students is guessing what this court is going to do,” Nathan Richardson, a University of South Carolina law professor specializing in climate policy, told me. “It seems inclined to constrain the administrative state more broadly, and the sharp end of that spear is climate.”

Given that Biden’s ability to regulate carbon is limited and vulnerable to being struck down by an activist court, passing Build Back Better may be our last shot at serious climate policy for the next decade. One of the questions hanging over the negotiations is whether Manchin is actually open to a serious green energy plan or has simply pretended to be in order to run out the clock on negotiations. Before talks exploded, he reportedly made a counteroffer to the White House that included $500 billion in climate spending. But the specifics of what the money was for are unknown. Manchin is also tightly connected to the coal companies that dominate his state, still has a financial interest in the family coal brokerage on which he made his personal fortune, and has lately adopted the industry’s talking points criticizing Build Back Better’s energy section. It’s possible he simply doesn’t want a deal, in the end.

If Manchin is still open to something that looks roughly like Build Back Better’s climate plan, though, Democrats should be willing to give up a lot to get the deal. Because when it comes to the future of the planet, our plan B doesn’t look so promising.

https://slate.com/business/2021/12/manc ... biden.html

It should be clear that Manchin's purpose, besides buttering his own toast, is to render the environmental provisions toothless. It should also be clear that the purpose of articles like this, which I expect will multiply like omicron infections, is to impel the Dems to sit down, shut up, and take what is given, no matter how paltry and actually counterproductive. 'Counterproductive' in that whatever is agreed upon will be declared victory and therefor not requiring re-visitation in the near future. And that, I suspect, is a result the Dem leadership could not only live with but is looking for.

In truth even were the provisions enacted as originally written they would still be inadequate to our necessity. The capitalists insist that any measures be 'market driven' or they want no part of it and rather than aid us such bullshit as 'carbon trading' and 'environmental mitigation' still leads us into the Rathole of Doom, if by a more circuitous route. Nothing short of a society whose purpose is meeting human need and survival will ever address the environmental issues we face.To leave our fate in the hands of the profiteers is a hideous disregard for the world which nurtures us and downright suicidal.
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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Re: Sympathy for the Devils...

Post by blindpig » Fri Dec 31, 2021 4:42 pm

The Biden/Democratic 'Leave No Promise Unbroken' tour continues...

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Biden’s new COVID rules protect profits, endanger workers
Joyce ChediacDecember 30, 2021 199 4 minutes read
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The number of COVID-19 cases has reached new records, fueled by the highly contagious Delta and Omicron variants. More and better safety measures are clearly needed to stop the spread. The Biden Administration, however, is doing the opposite. Caving in to corporate demands, on Dec. 27 the Committees for Disease Control and Prevention cut in half the recommended isolation time for people with COVID-19 from 10 to- five days. On Dec. 28 the Occupational Safety and Health Administration cancelled regulations which gave mandatory protection to health care workers.

Unions and nurses are outraged, charging the government with protecting profits and endangering workers.

Businesses hails CDC safety cuts

The CDC’s slashing of isolation guidelines to five days for those infected and for unvaccinated people exposed to COVID-19 caves in to businesses wanting workers back on the clock fast, regardless of safety, to maximize profits. The CDC change came a week after Delta Air Lines urged it to reduce isolation time. The new recommendations were immediately hailed by the Food Industry Association, the National Retail Federation and Airlines for America, the trade groups of the respective industries. Their biggest concerns are net losses, as airlines have cancelled thousands of flights and many restaurants and retail stores have had to shut down because so many of their employees were sick.

Especially appealing to big business is the following part of the CDC guidelines : “Alternatively, if a 5-day quarantine is not feasible, it is imperative that an exposed person wear a well-fitting mask at all times when around others for 10 days after exposure.” This “alternative” leave the door open for corporations, not scientists, to determine whether a five day quarantine “is feasible,” and to force workers to come in when they are sick.

Airline staff already pressured to work sick

This is exactly what airline workers fear. The Association of Flight Attendants responded to the guideline changes by emphasizing that employees should not be expected to return to work unless they have no symptoms and test negative.

Sara Nelson, the international president of the union points out that, “Already the lack of paid sick leave creates pressure on workers to come to work sick.” She added, “Corporations that fail to recognize this with paid sick leave, or pressure workers to come to work sick or face discipline, are failing their workers and their customers.” The AFA represents 50,000 flight crew workers at 17 airlines.

With hospitals overflowing and ICUs stretched thin, the CDC also shortened the isolation period for nurses and other healthcare workers testing positive for COVID-19 from 10 to seven days. The government agency no longer requires exposed vaccinated and boosted health care workers to quarantine at all. This puts both health care workers and their patients at risk. “Let’s be clear, this is about what’s good for business, not what’s good for public health,” said Zenei Triunfo-Cortez, President of National Nurses United, which represents 175,000 nurses nationwide.

OSHA protections removed

On Dec. 27, OSHA discontinued an Emergency Temporary Standard adopted in June that made compulsory health care worker protections on infection control, with penalties for employers who violate the requirements. The temporary standards were adopted due to unrelenting campaign by union nurses, and over the extensive opposition from the hospital industry and other corporate interests. The temporary ETS, which expired Dec. 21, was not replaced with a permanent standard.

40 organizations back nurse safety

OSHA made this pro-boss decision even though more than 40 organizations, including unions, and more than 6,300 individuals signed a petition urging it to make its emergency temporary standard permanent for healthcare workplaces.

“It is unconscionable that OSHA would not make the Covid-19 health care ETS permanent,” said NNU Executive Director Bonnie Castillo, RN.

“Without a permanent standard, we will see more preventable transmission of the virus, more hospitalizations, and more deaths from Covid-19. It is absolutely essential that our frontline health care workers have these lifesaving protections to do their jobs safely so they can continue to care for patients, especially when we are now facing Delta and Omicron variants as well as flu season.”

Some 476 RNs have died of Covid-19, among 4,702 health care worker deaths overall, according to NNU, and more than 1 million U.S. health care workers have tested positive for Covid-19.

“Strengthening, not weakening protections, is the solution to the staffing crisis,” said Triunfo-Cortez. “The hospital industry manufactured the current staffing crisis by imposing unsafe working conditions on nurses. The Covid-19 pandemic exacerbated long standing staffing issues when hospitals failed to protect us and our patients.”

The nurses are backed by other unions. On Dec. 28, the AFL-CIO; the American Federation of Teachers; National Nurses United; AFSCME; the United Food and Commercial Workers; the United Steelworkers; the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union-UFCW; and SEIU issued a joint statement condemning OSHA’s removal of the ETS for health care workers.

“The ETS made clear to health care employers that proven prevention measures limiting airborne exposures to COVID-19 are absolutely necessary and would be fully enforced to keep workers from getting sick and being removed from work. These include improved ventilation, patient screening and respirators, and providing paid leave when workers are infected and must quarantine. … all proven protective measures must remain in place. …to protect workers now, we need to build on the emergency COVID-19 standard by making it permanent, not scrapping it altogether.”

This fight is far from over. The NNU and its backers have pledged to continue the fight for mandatory and enforceable science-driven safety standards that fully protect healthcare workers, patients and all workers. To draw attention to the failure of the federal government and employers to protect patients, nurses and other health care and frontline workers, NNU has called a national day of action on Jan. 13.

“Nurses across the country will be standing up for change on Jan. 13, and we call on our communities to stand with us,” said Triunfo-Cortez. “Nurses have fought every single day of this pandemic for strong protections, and we are not going to stand by while the federal government and our employers weaken those protections by the day. We are not going backward now.”

https://www.liberationnews.org/bidens-n ... rationnews

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Biden administration results in more of the same Trump immigration policies
By Priscilla Alvarez, CNN

Updated 9:17 AM ET, Thu December 30, 2021

(CNN)President Joe Biden kicked off his administration with lofty goals to revamp America's immigration system, but with the end of the year approaching, lawsuits and infighting have stalled policy changes, officials have fielded criticism from allies and critics over management of the US southern border, and efforts to pass immigration revisions seem farther away.

The administration's best-case scenario is a "totally mixed bag," said Jorge Loweree, policy director at the American Immigration Council. "And worst case is an effective continuation of what Trump wanted."
Immigration has been a politically perilous issue for Biden, whose approval rating has sagged. During an influx of unaccompanied migrant minors in the spring, Biden tapped Vice President Kamala Harris to address root causes of migration -- an intractable issue that's dogged previous administrations. While Harris has announced private-sector investments in Central America, she's largely kept the situation at the US-Mexico border at a distance.

Republicans have continued to seize on the record number of border arrests and have filed lawsuits challenging policy changes, hampering the administration in its attempt to execute some of its pledges.
Most notably, a federal judge in Texas blocked the termination of a Trump-era border policy forcing non-Mexican migrants to stay in Mexico until their US immigration court dates and required the administration to bring back the controversial program it opposes and still seeks to end.
Another Trump-era border policy that immigrant advocates and the United Nations have urged the Biden administration to ditch also remains in effect. A public health authority, invoked at the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, allows authorities to turn away migrants encountered at the US southern border, effectively barring them from claiming asylum.
When asked about the authority, known as Title 42, the Biden administration has referred to the Centers for Disease and Control Prevention, which, according to a White House spokesperson, deems it necessary given the Delta and Omicron variants.
There's also been frustration internally over immigration policy. "There's been disillusionment with immigration policy and lack of follow-through on principles espoused in executive orders issued earlier in the year," said one administration official said.

Immigrant advocates -- who expected significant changes after four years of curtailed immigration under then-President Donald Trump -- have welcomed the unwinding of some Trump-era policies but also have increasingly voiced concern and disappointment to officials over the administration's actions in numerous discussions.
"The Biden campaign promised to welcome people with dignity, and instead we have returned to Trump policies," said Karen Tumlin, attorney, founder and director of Justice Action Center, in a call with reporters. "This is not the change millions sought when Biden was elected."
The White House defended the administration's actions and reversal of Trump-era immigration policies.
"The President has made clear that restoring order, fairness, and humanity to our immigration system are priorities for this Administration. Our immigration system is outdated and in bad need of reform; But this Administration is committed to working day in and day out to provide relief to immigrants and bring our immigration system into the 21st century," a White House spokesperson said in a statement.
Treatment of migrants
Tumlin, among others, is suing the administration over the treatment of Haitian migrants who amassed at the US-Mexico border this fall.
In a December letter directed to Biden and Harris, dozens of immigrant advocacy groups urged the administration to ditch Trump-era border policies, calling them "harmful" and "illegal."
"Nearly eleven months since taking office, this administration continues to violate U.S. asylum law and evade U.S. treaty obligations by blocking and returning asylum seekers to places where their lives and safety are in peril," the letter reads.

The United Nations refugee agency has also repeatedly chimed in, lambasting the use of the public health order.
The continued use of the public health order is an example of the unique position the Biden administration finds itself in: tackling a pandemic and wrestling with a growing number of migrants at the US southern border, many of whom are fleeing conditions at home that were exacerbated by the pandemic.
Early on in Biden's presidency, officials grappled with a record number of unaccompanied minors arriving at the US-Mexico border that stretched thin resources and overwhelmed border facilities. While slightly fewer migrant children have arrived in recent months, other flows, like those stemming from South America, have presented new challenges.
"The volume and emergencies have had us in a defensive posture rather than reforms and a proactive agenda," an administration official told CNN.
Reuniting children separated during Trump years
Despite various setbacks, the Biden administration has made some inroads on its immigration agenda, including changing enforcement guidelines to prioritize certain undocumented immigrants for arrest and deportation, ending mass worksite enforcement, halting border wall construction and no longer applying controversial rules, like the Trump-era public charge regulation that made it more difficult for immigrants to obtain legal status if they used some public benefits.

Biden also established a task force to reunite families who had been separated at the US-Mexico border under the Trump administration. Last week, the task force -- led by the Department of Homeland Security -- reunited the 100th family separated under the Trump-era "zero tolerance" policy.
Even so, for parents who experienced their children being taken from them -- with no hint of where they were going -- it's been difficult to trust the federal government, regardless of who's president. And the recent fallout over settlement talks strained that already-fragile relationship.
Lawsuits have stemmed from the zero-tolerance policy and separation of families. For example, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a class-action lawsuit in 2019 seeking damages for the toll the separations took on families, and attorneys for families have filed separate claims.

After a steady drumbeat of criticism from Republicans about the ongoing settlement negotiations, the Justice Department this month broke off the talks with attorneys for separated families.
Next year is expected to bring more court hearings, including in the class-action lawsuit seeking damages, and additional immigration policy changes, like building out asylum capacity.
Democratic lawmakers, meanwhile, have pledged to continue to fight for immigration revisions -- an effort that's dogged Congress for decades. The Senate parliamentarian this year rejected multiple attempts to include immigration provisions in the massive spending bill, a setback to getting changes passed without Republican support.
Those efforts are likely to keep facing the same uphill battles in the coming year.
"They have to win on this because they're in such a bad place with advocates and immigration broadly," a source close to the White House told CNN, referring to immigration restructuring. "Not delivering on this issue will be terrible for them politically."

https://us.cnn.com/2021/12/30/politics/ ... index.html

And you ask me why the ruling class prefers their bourgeois democracy?

If voting changed anything they'd make it illegal."
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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