Sympathy for the Devils...

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Re: Sympathy for the Devils...

Post by blindpig » Wed Jun 30, 2021 1:36 pm

The Filibuster Functions as a General Block on All Legislation’

CounterSpin interview with Andrew Perez on the filibuster

(select quotes, bp)

...The issue is more that Republicans just are never going to agree to pass any kind of priority agenda items from Democrats, even if it was a watered-down version.

And I think we’ve seen that a lot. A pretty classic example of it is the Affordable Care Act debate under President Obama: Democrats proposed legislation that is actually fairly conservative. The Affordable Care Act was basically an outgrowth of a Heritage Foundation idea years ago. Mitt Romney had passed legislation as the governor of Massachusetts, enacting the first test case for that type of legislation.

And there were zero Republican votes for it at all, no matter how watered down the bill got. Democrats didn’t include ideas like a public health insurance option or Medicare expansion—stuff we’re still talking about today.


***

So, yeah, Democrats can nuke the filibuster if they find 50 votes plus the vote from Kamala Harris as vice president. They can nuke the filibuster whenever they want. They could attempt to do that on the Senate floor.

And, yeah, there’s very good reasons to do it now, which is that Democrats right now—even though they have a very small Senate majority—they control both houses of Congress and the presidency, which means that they can actually enact whatever they want, in that case, without Republican input.


***

So it was big news a couple of weeks ago when Joe Manchin endorsed the PRO Act, the Protecting the Right to Organize Act, which is a pretty sweeping package of labor reforms, and would be a really, really beneficial thing for this country; it would give people potentially a lot more power in the workplace, in a way that we haven’t seen in years. And the thing about it is, he might have co-signed the legislation, but it is not going to happen right now unless he is willing to end the filibuster. It’s just…. Talking about it is insulting to workers.

And it’s the same issue with new gun laws, with new gun rules. It’s just not going to happen right now in this Senate. So that, after every mass shooting, to be like, “Well, we need new gun laws.” That’s true, yes, but you guys are also the same people functionally blocking it, because you’re insisting on a threshold that you know you can’t meet.


***

There’s a fundamental disconnect between what the party says, and then how it actually governs in power. And it’s not a new issue, but it’s one that I think is just really, really hard to get around.

https://fair.org/home/the-filibuster-fu ... gislation/

It's a self-fulfilling prophecy: the Dems won't go for the filibuster because they know they are going to lose the Senate(and proly the House too) next year because they refuse to nuke the filibuster to accomplish the sorts of thing that would likely ensure them not only keeping but enlarging their majorities.
The Democratic Party has got to be the worst political party in human history.
Anaxarchos


Of course, the basic 'disconnect' is the Dem's supposedly being 'the party of the people' when in truth they are just the other party of the rich, in sheep's clothing.

(edit for clarity)
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Re: Sympathy for the Devils...

Post by blindpig » Sat Jul 03, 2021 2:17 pm

John Roberts takes aim at the Voting Rights Act and political money disclosures, again
By Joan Biskupic, CNN legal analyst & Supreme Court biographer

Updated 7:10 AM ET, Fri July 2, 2021

(CNN)The Supreme Court under Chief Justice John Roberts has hollowed out the historic Voting Rights Act, curtailed regulation of big political donors and limited challenges to partisan gerrymandering.

The final two decisions of the court session on Thursday continued this trend of Roberts' stewardship that cuts to the heart of democracy and generally benefits conservatives over liberals, Republican voters over Democratic voters.
The pattern on voting rights traces to Roberts' early years serving in the Ronald Reagan administration when the young GOP lawyer opposed racial remedies and argued for a constricted interpretation of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

That emphasis reemerged again Thursday, just as Attorney General Merrick Garland has pointed to a "dramatic rise in state legislative actions that will make it harder for millions of citizens to cast a vote that counts." Dissenting liberal justices on Thursday observed that "efforts to suppress the minority vote continue" yet "no one would know this from reading the majority opinion."

<snip>

The Roberts Court has also sought over the years to restrain government regulation of money in politics, most notably in the 2010 Citizens United decision. And two years ago, a Roberts-led majority prevented federal courts from ever hearing challenges to extreme partisan gerrymanders, drawn by state legislators to entrench the party in power.
In the final decision of the 2020-21 term, as Roberts tossed out the California mandate that nonprofits turn over the names of major donors, the chief rejected the state's arguments regarding anti-fraud and other law enforcement purposes.

(more)
https://us.cnn.com/2021/07/02/politics/ ... index.html

Quite the son-of-a-bitch, ain't he? But let us recall how Roberts became one of the 'Supremes'. I recall well, as I was on the Democratic Underground message board at the time. There was great sentiment to trash the bastard among the rank and file and some back-benchers too as the guy was a long certified corporate whore. However, Party Central had other ideas, to whit, to let the bastard pass. Cause ya see the nuke option should be saved for even more dire circumstances. What those circumstances might be was never explained but the faithful were exhorted to 'keep their powder dry'. Yep, those were the watchwords. And guess what, that powder is still not only dry but deteriorated unto uselessness. So now we are treated to the wailing and gnashing of teeth because of a self-inflicted wound. Is there a pattern here? This is how it's done and whether it's stupidity or complicity does it really matter? Perhaps a little of both but mostly it's built into the mechanism of governance. Those founding fuckheads whose crimes will be celebrated tomorrow weren't no dummies and meant for their class to rule forever.
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Re: Sympathy for the Devils...

Post by blindpig » Tue Jul 06, 2021 2:40 pm

WHITHER THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY?
Posted by Greg Godels | Jul 5, 2021

Image

<snip>

The transformation of the Democratic Party was consummated with the election of Barack Obama. Consequently, the Democratic Leadership Council dissolved.

The realigned Democratic Party pays lip service to a shrinking trade union movement that has lost its political weight in retail politics, granting celebrity access to the leadership and spinning Labor Day homilies.

The realigned Democratic Party recognizes the growing importance of Black and Latina and Latino votes, along with the recognition of an ever-growing list of self-styled, non-traditional identities, emphatically patronizing, placating, and pacifying groups with tokenism and sanctimony.

“Responsible” leaders are showered with position and respect, while the masses are ignored, their social and economic plight frozen in the grip of market forces and the false hope of moral uplift from “rising tides lifting all boats.”
The realigned Democratic Party fully recognizes the economic and political power of the upper-middle and upper strata– the petty bourgeoisie. Democratic Party leaders vie for their votes by guaranteeing economic and social stability, personal safety, and the sanctity of property rights.

Where welfarism, poverty amelioration, and modest wealth-and-income leveling characterized the long-gone New Deal coalition, today’s Democratic Party coalition rallies around the interests of urban and suburban elites, what witty leftish liberals call the PMC (the professional managerial class).

<snip>

The Democratic Party is not a progressive, liberal, people’s party that has drifted away from its moorings, as some would have it. It is not a political party that has been momentarily hijacked or diverted, as others see it. It is not a vessel ready to return to course under a new captaincy.

More than fifty years of devolution toward a party dominated by the bourgeoisie and the petty bourgeoisie does not suggest a reversible trend.

Instead, the Democratic Party has been transformed by the contradictions inherent in its construction into something entirely new. Within the context of the evolution of US capitalism, it has undergone a profound rebuild no longer capable of serving the interests of those who formerly found hope in its success.

more...

https://mltoday.com/whither-the-democratic-party/

As Greg points out, income is not the determining factor of class. This income based 'Upper Middle Class' must include much if not all of the 'aristocrats of labor', who with dog-like loyalty identify with their masters for a chew toy. But 29%? Who does the work?

Whatever the percentage the fact is that the well-off vote in higher numbers than any other group. Because they know they got a dog in this fight. Whereas the 'traditional Democratic base'(post Nixon) is left with the clear and unappetizing choice of the lesser of two evils. Gestures of appeasement get flimsier and of shorter duration as the years march, Biden's treatment of these people is just short of contempt(look to action not words or symbolic gestures). I should like to see Bernie and Jim Clyburn kiss Biden's ass on the tube, that would be real 'Reality TV.

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

LIBERALS AND CONGRESS RETREAT RATHER THAN FIGHT FOR NATIONAL SINGLE-PAYER MEDICARE FOR ALL
Posted by Ed Grystar | Jul 5, 2021

Image

<snip>

....Medicare for All seems off the table. Where is the political will?

Public support remains high, millions are without coverage or underinsured yet there’s no effort to make single payer a national issue by Congressional Democrats. Much has to do with the influence of the health industry within the Democratic party. Insurance companies, PHARMA, and hospitals gave more to the Democrats ($286.5 million) than to Republicans ($165 million). Then-candidate Biden collected $60.8 million compared to Trump’s $30.4 million.

Pramilia Jayapal, the primary Congressional sponsor of the Medicare for All Act of 2021, gives President Biden an “A” on his first 100 days in office even as he continues his opposition to Medicare for All, pushes $35 billion of temporary taxpayer COBRA subsidies, and celebrates the ACA anniversary while tens of millions are un or underinsured. There seems to be no need to push Biden left since Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez says he’s “exceeded expectations.” And rather than forcing a Congressional vote to help publicize and gain public support, Congresswoman Jayapal says such a move would “end our movement.”

<snip>

The legislative roadblocks to passing Medicare for All lie both in the lack of support among Republicans in Congress and the lack of leadership from those in Congress who claim to support it. Who are the champions for National Single Payer Medicare for All when its “leaders” have been compromised by their embrace of state-based plans and ties to the Democratic establishment at a time when the failures of our healthcare system are so obvious? Insider political horse trading and lobbying can not win. A mass national movement is necessary and possible: one that focuses the organizing energy towards mobilizing the strong public support for Medicare for All and uses this energy as the foundation for future organizing. A principled independent movement that will unite supporters, elected officials at all levels, supportive labor groups and allies into a powerful force is the only one strong enough to change the political dynamic and win.

https://mltoday.com/liberals-and-congre ... e-for-all/

Well and good, but where do you find an elected official, other than some big city municipal councils that would take and hold that stance under pressure from their own party? I know of none.

A national mass movement is absolutely necessary but it is equally necessary that it be completely divorced from the bourgeois Democratic Party else it is doomed to betrayal and failure.
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Re: Sympathy for the Devils...

Post by blindpig » Wed Jul 07, 2021 3:25 pm

Manchin and Sinema Won’t Change Their Minds
We’re not in a conversion story. We’re in a horror film.

BY LILI LOOFBOUROW
JULY 06, 20215:45 AM

Image
President Joe Biden speaks outside the White House with a bipartisan group of senators, including Kyrsten Sinema (center bottom) and Joe Manchin (center top), after meeting on an infrastructure deal on June 24. Win McNamee/Getty Images

<snip>

There’s no mystery here. No suspense. It is clear what will happen if the filibuster isn’t abolished: Voting rights legislation will not be passed. Republicans have not been subtle about their opposition—instead, they’ve introduced more than 300 bills to make it hard or even impossible for the Americans they do not believe deserve representation to vote. A certain kind of Democrat likes to respond to this kind of threat by saying constituents just need to turn out. But if we learned anything in this last election, it’s that mustering ever greater numbers won’t be enough: Joe Biden won by an unprecedented 7 million votes, and many Republicans still refuse to admit he won the presidential election.

It’s this last bit—Republicans still indulging election conspiracy theories as possibly legitimate and then some—that should really be the dead giveaway that there isn’t a whisper of bipartisan possibility here. Republican politicians, and I give them credit for this, could not have been clearer. They’ve switched on every light in the old basement and painted signs that say, “Here is what we plan to do to you, hello!” They’re playing the trumpet in hi-vis vests at the bottom of the stairs. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema are marching down that staircase anyway. And we’re not just watching; they’re dragging us down there with them.

<snip>

....You can’t go “back to normal” after Trump revealed what Republicans would go along with. Pretending it didn’t happen—or that it’s better now that Trump is gone—might feel reasonable precisely because it isn’t. This is how a state bleeds out. The damage is not in the past. Republicans are not stopping. But neither, curiously, is the mentality that insists, despite ample evidence to the contrary, that Republicans will suddenly snap out of it and become responsible political partners. Respect for the opposition seems to be operating more like a core value than an empirical analysis. Michael Hobbes suggested on Twitter that the problem is that pretending Republicans can be reasoned with is key to a certain kind of Democrat’s sense of self; they “understand on an intellectual level that Republicans will never compromise and Democrats simply have to win elections—but they don’t want to believe it. It changes how they see themselves. So they act like it’s not true.”

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/202 ... -film.html

Well, Trump did not reveal Republican intransigence, that would have been Mitch 'Turtle Head' McConnell, with his refusal to even consider Obama's nomination for the Supremes over a year before the election. There was no breaking of law, but tradition can be just as important for institutions. And Mitch's post-election promise to block every Dem initiative weren't no secret either. The pop-psychology explanation is so thin and flimsy that there is proly a little truth in it, coming from such shallow people.

In a nut, the Big Tent lacks an ideology, at least on the face of it, a necessary expedient of bigness and a historical anachronism of the New Deal long bereft of any benefit to workers.

But make no mistake, the Machins and Sinemas of the Democratic Party are integral to the function of bourgeois democracy, if not them then others like them. The necessity of the Big Tent requires roadblocks and saboteurs in the putative "party of the people' to ensure that government does not deviate much from ruling class expectations. That will not change. The Democratic Party will not change in all but the most cosmetic ways. They would rather lose multiple elections than lose their share of ruling class support.

Let's get serious. What are we waiting for? Look out the window, look at the thermometer, times a'wastin'.
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Re: Sympathy for the Devils...

Post by blindpig » Fri Jul 16, 2021 2:32 pm

BIDEN INC .: THE PRESIDENTIAL FAMILY ROUND-UP
15 Jul 2021 , 4:01 pm .

Image
The Hunter-Joe duo has used the Executive to consolidate personal businesses (photo: Getty images)

Without a doubt, the year 2020 was one of the most turbulent for the United States, marked by the disastrous handling of the pandemic, anti-racist protests and an intense electoral campaign for the presidency. The commotion was so great that to avoid the reelection of Donald Trump it was decided to choose a lesser evil.

And it is that the campaign was marked by a supposed national unity that sought to rescue an American spirit that had been blurred during the last White House administration. That the Joe Biden-Kamala Harris formula symbolically embodies the confluence of "all" sectors of society made the criminal records of the Democratic candidates be ignored, these did not seem relevant because the objective was to remove Trump from the political scene and " back to normal".

However, once the fizz has passed, the records missed during the campaign are exposed. One of the forgotten files was that of corruption involving the current president and his family.

The allies in Congress, power groups and, above all, the media participated in that wash of Biden's face. One of the many other news that has been buried, according to Charles Lipson in an article published in Real Clear Politics , " has to do with some photographs taken in Joe Biden's office in 2014. In them appear the then vice president, his son Hunter and Carlos Slim, the richest man in Mexico (and in his day the richest in the world), as well as some of Slim's partners. "

But what went unnoticed was not the meeting itself between US officials and wealthy Mexican businessmen, but rather that the vice president brought his son to the meeting at the same time he was working on lucrative business deals with the same people. Although Biden denied being aware of his son's business, it was evidently a family business run by the Executive.

"Hunter had other meetings with Carlos Slim and associates in Mexico. These came after he flew there with his father on Air Force Two, just as he had flown to similar business meetings in China. When you arrive on Air Force Two When your father is the second most important official in the United States government, and when you bring your business partners to meet him, you send a clear signal to potential partners around the world "that you are connected to power. central, refers the expert in international relations and political economy.

What is remarkable about all this is that the press let the obvious nepotism of the Democrat pass during the 2020 elections and concentrated on pointing out any details about Trump, which were also worth mentioning, which shows the consensus of the corporate media.

BIDEN, THE "BIG GUY" FOR BUSINESS

The truth is that Hunter, recognized for having "no other marketable skills", was opened many doors in the world by traveling with his father. Some of these meetings were also organized on the White House grounds.

Everything seems to indicate that, beyond Hunter's use of his father's influence to seek benefits, Biden himself was already known as the "Great Guy", as his son describes him in secret notes, for his ability to do business . "That note set out how the profit of another business would be divided, with the 'Big Guy' as a silent partner. A partner in that business, Tony Bobulinski, has publicly stated that all the partners knew that the 'Big Guy' (or BG) it was Joe Biden, ”says Lipson.

It is worth noting that it was not just Hunter leveraging, but a family business where Joe Biden was at the helm and also made big profits.

The also professor of political science at the University of Chicago argues that, apart from the indecorous shenanigans and the dubious denials of the White House that Joe Biden had the slightest idea of ​​these businesses, there are inescapable details that show the family plot:

"The first problem, which should be obvious by now, is that the Biden family has been enriched by all these political connections. In reality, they only have one connection: Joe Biden. Their prodigal son has no appreciable ability and raises more flags. red than a parade in Beijing. His only job is to monetize the power and influence of his father, "he details.

But it is not just about a son. Joe's two brothers, Jim and Frank, have been credibly accused of doing the same. This family business was dubbed "Biden Inc.," of which sordid connections were exposed in an extensive 2019 investigation.

"Throughout his decades in office, Real Clear Politics reports from Politico newspaper , Joe's middle-class family fortune has closely followed his political career."

The rise of Joe Biden's political career and, at the same time, the growth of his estate has been noted on several occasions.

Chain CNBC published in July 2019 a work entitled "How Joe Biden, who called himself 'the man poorest in Congress', became a billionaire." In it they affirm that by that time it was already impossible to allege poverty.

Since Biden left the vice presidency in 2017 - the journalistic note refers - his portfolio has grown fat. "He and his wife, Jill, made more than $ 15 million combined in 2017 and 2018," leading-edge inquiries into how the candidates amassed their wealth.

"Biden's riches come mostly from book deals and conference engagements. His sudden explosion of wealth could go against the 'humble man fighter for workers' image that he has offered voters for years."

In another article titled " How Joe Biden went from being a middle class to a millionaire " last May, they "take a look" at the president's financial documents.

Caroline Hallemann, its author, alleges that Biden is popularly known as middle class, but is actually a millionaire. Based on the public information forms - 2016, 2017 and 2018 state and federal tax returns and returns - Forbes estimated that he had a net worth of $ 9 million.

"Throughout his term, his salary went from $ 42,500 a year to $ 174,000 a year, according to historical Senate records. When he was elected Vice President, he got another raise, earning approximately $ 230,000 a year," he says Town & Country's director of digital news.

Likewise, he argues, life after the vice presidency has been quite lucrative for President Obama's former number two, since in November 2009 Joe Biden's net worth was less than $ 30,000, according to CBS.

"Former Vice President Joe Biden's financial transparency, or lack thereof, has become a hot topic in the final days of the 2020 campaign. While Eric Trump used a false claim about Biden's home ownership to raise questions About the candidate's finances, other critics are digging into Biden's tax returns, " USA Today reported in October last year.

It is hardly credible that the fortune of the current president of the United States has grown vertiginously since he left the vice presidency only with the sale of books and conferences.

WHY THE MEDIA SILENCE ABOUT THE HUNTER-SLIM MEETING?

Such silence about the meeting between the Mexican magnate and Hunter could be explained by the fact that Carlos Slim is the largest investor in the New York Times . "What is the Washington Post's excuse ?" Asks Lipson.

"The story about Hunter's business in Mexico, like the previous ones about the corruption of the Biden family, does not appear on their news pages. To paraphrase their self-indulgent slogans: history dies in the dark, unfit to print. To read it, you will have to consult the New York Post and the Daily Mail of Great Britain. This suppression of legitimate news is a scandal in itself, "he later sentenced.

It also argues that "monetizing political connections is common practice in Washington, where politicians and senior bureaucrats seamlessly pass their government posts onto K Street lobbyists. Gone are the days when retired members of Congress or presidential advisers would return home after their stint in government. "

It suggests that there is too much money to be tapped and both Republicans and Democrats have their "internal" wings of pressure groups, lawyers and think tanks, much to the chagrin of populists on both the left and the right. In that sense, Lipson reflects, the Bidens 'influence peddling is common practice, but obviously on a much smaller scale than the Clintons' industrial force operation.

The political scientist says the photos of Joe and Hunter with Carlos Slim demolish the myth that President Biden "knows absolutely" nothing about his son's business. "The more often Joe is seen meeting Hunter's business contacts, the less credible the president's 'I don't know anything' story sounds."

Daily Mail published exclusively: Joe Biden entertained Hunter's billionaire Mexican associates in the vice president's office in 2014 and even flew his son to Mexico City on Air Force 2 so Hunter could attend meetings on a deal. " gigantic".

With all this evidence it is difficult to deny, unless he alleges insanity, that the current president is not involved in his son's business. That is why the conclusions of the medium are obvious when it says:

"The revelations, exposed in photos and emails on Hunter's abandoned laptop, suggest that Joe's claim that he never discussed business with Hunter was false."

So far Biden's aides at the White House have yet to explain these photos and emails. We also know why the press has not pushed for answers. But this apathy is not only due to the tycoon's relationship with the press, it is also related to the consensus of the media corporations that carried the Democrat on their backs to the presidential chair in the Oval Room.

For example, during the 2020 campaign, Biden was rarely questioned about his family's businesses in Ukraine and China. And when the New York Post did, the social media giants blocked the story.


"Although Joe denied 'seeing no evil', he took Hunter with him on multiple official trips and continued to meet with his son's business associates at his request. Not once or twice, but repeatedly. These business meetings They gave Hunter huge benefits, including a huge investment from a Chinese state bank that Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan couldn't get. However, Hunter Biden got it, despite having no investment experience. "


Hunter's business effectiveness is not due to his cunning, the multimillion-dollar profits are related to the Executive's airplane travel and the direct involvement of his father. These details will never be revealed by the complacent press, which will also not ask probing questions that cause President Biden to go off script.

"Hunter's private correspondence tells a very different story than the White House version. Those emails describe the crucial importance of his family to his influence peddling," says Lipson, who also picks up from Yahoo News' Mairead McArdle, criticism for "signing a consulting contract with China's largest private energy company, which initially earned Hunter Biden $ 10 million a year 'just from introductions,' according to leaked emails."

In other cases, attempts have been made to disassociate Joe Biden from the businesses in which he has participated with his son by trivializing the matter, even referring to Hunter as the "controversial son" who gets into trouble and whose performance "does not it must tarnish the figure of his father. " Some networks refer only to addiction history and other domestic issues.

With this, it is clear the role that the media had in hiding Joe Biden's criminal record in the face of the elections where he was elected. Also, the fact that the White House is a stepping stone for business, corporate rights that can only be accessed if you belong to the Washington DC establishment.

https://misionverdad.com/globalistan/bi ... esidencial

Google Translator

Hunter Biden's machinations in Ukraine were well known to anyone closely following events in Donbass. That 'The Big Guy' was a hustler was equally well known from his association with the credit industry. It was highly amusing as the 2020 campaign that Trump would resurrect the story already buried by the MSM given that that sort of 'influence' is SOP for Trump and his class in general. "Why is this a crime if 'everybody' is doing it?" Of course we would like to qualify who 'everybody' is...

It's only corruption when the other guy does it just as it's only 'tyranny' when the established ruling class(of whatever era) loses political power. And while residence in the White House is certainly a business opportunity what cost Trump the election because he prioritized such opportunism without properly attending to the affairs of imperialism, losing any tolerance his peers had for him. That's a mistake that Biden would never make. Like the shifty servant that he is he will only take with one hand. I don't think the MSM would have highlighted Trump's racist demagoguery if the purpose hadn't been to incentive the democratic base. Cause when you're the 'Lesser of Two Evils' you need all the help you can get.
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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Re: Sympathy for the Devils...

Post by blindpig » Tue Jul 20, 2021 2:46 pm

Biden Just Explained Why His Version of Capitalism Is Better Than the GOP’s
It’s more popular, too.
BY WILLIAM SALETAN
JULY 19, 20219:26 PM

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US President Joe Biden speaks about the economy at the White House on Monday. Saul Loeb/Getty Images

Republicans love to accuse Democrats of socialism. That’s how Republican senators, House leaders, and Fox News hosts talk about President Joe Biden: They call him a socialist, a front man for socialists, a Marxist, or a communist sympathizer. This makes sense as a political strategy, since Americans oppose socialism and prefer capitalism. But the accusation is false. Biden is a capitalist, and his version of capitalism is stronger, fairer, and more popular than the Republican one.

On Monday, the president spoke about the economic recovery and the threat of inflation. He poked fun at the GOP’s warnings “that if I got elected, I’d bring the end to capitalism.” “Six months into my administration, the U.S. economy has experienced the highest economic growth rate in nearly 40 years,” he observed. “It turns out capitalism is alive and very well. We’re making serious progress to ensure that it works the way it’s supposed to work: for the good of the American people.”

That last line is central to Biden’s worldview. Capitalism is a means, not an end. It excels at producing wealth, not distributing it.
An old adage has it that "Possession is 9/10s of the law", thereby those who possess the bear's share have the law. Which Biden chooses to ignore in this or any other oratory, as do all of capital's servants. Or maybe he just forgot... And "...the highest economic growth rate in nearly 40 years,” is nothing but an artifact of the pandemic, cause when yer down the only way to go is up. Truly sophistry worthy of his predecessor.

Some choice boilerplate:
" In Biden’s version of capitalism, workers don’t just compete with one another for jobs; employers have to compete with other employers for workers."

"The point of the executive order, he explained on Monday, was to promote “fair and open competition … the cornerstone of American capitalism”

"Sometimes, progressive government intervenes too much in the economy. It overspends, overtaxes, or overregulates, and those mistakes can hurt people. "
The prez's version of capitalism, his rhetoric thereof, is libertarian without reference to said 'possession'. In a word, idealistic. Which tends to work in a society untethered to it's real history or current reality.
But in the long run, Biden isn’t trying to vindicate the Democratic Party. He’s trying to vindicate democracy. From the day he took office, he has called on Democrats and Republicans to unite against the global and domestic threat of authoritarianism. To win that fight, he must prove that democracies can improve their citizens’ lives. The danger of unregulated capitalism isn’t just that ordinary people will suffer. It’s that their suffering will drive them to turn, in exasperation, to authoritarianism.

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/202 ... t-gop.html
He's trying to vindicate capitalism in a way that's supposed to be palatable to the masses, or at least enough of them to keep things from boiling over. The difference with the Republicans is that they stand on the principle that "possession is 9/10's of the law" unapologetically. The Dems would obscure this hard fact with sophistry and a couple scraps. But having observed capitalist politics for near 40 years it's a guaranteed fact: the chamber of commerce always wins.
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Re: Sympathy for the Devils...

Post by blindpig » Wed Jul 28, 2021 1:58 pm

Manchin’s Coal Conflict of Interest Not of Interest to Corporate News
JULIE HOLLAR
New York Times depiction of Sen. Joe Manchin
Image
Joe Manchin shooting a bullet through a cap-and-trade bill in a 2010 campaign ad.
The Biden administration vowed to at least begin to address the climate crisis this year as part of its infrastructure plan. Whether it will do so depends largely on West Virginia’s Sen. Joe Manchin.

Manchin, who famously shot a bullet through a copy of Barack Obama’s cap-and-trade climate proposal in a 2010 campaign ad, is now the chair of the Senate’s Energy and Natural Resources Committee. He has starred in countless news stories about the infrastructure bills: as the key vacillating vote needed to slip Biden’s $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill—which mandates the phasing out of fossil fuels—past a Republican filibuster, and as a leading broker of the parallel bipartisan bill that stripped out climate provisions entirely.

As Vox (4/1/21) reported back when the infrastructure package was first shaping up:

Figuring out whether Biden will be able to make good on promises to decarbonize the economy necessarily involves an inquiry into the beliefs, motivations and intentions of one man: Manchin.

The problem is, corporate reporters don’t seem so interested in Manchin’s “motivations.” If they were, they’d have to tell their audience that Manchin has a giant conflict of interest in the matter of fossil fuels.
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Sludge (7/1/21): “Manchin earns hundreds of thousands of dollars each year through coal sales to power plants.”

As Sludge‘s David Moore (7/1/21) pointed out, Manchin in 1998 founded a coal brokerage firm, Enersystems, that sells coal to local power plants. He has since passed it on to his son, but it continues to be a lucrative gig for the senator: His latest financial disclosure reported $492,000 of income from Enersystems stock for 2020. Since he took office in 2010, he’s made more than $4.5 million off coal.

Every single news article about Manchin and the climate bill should name this conflict. Every reporter asking Manchin how he feels about the climate provisions should also be asking about his private interests in the bill. But in the past four months, we found exactly two US news stories in the entire Nexis news database of newspapers, magazines and TV news shows that even mentioned Enersystems.

Both mentions implied that Manchin’s relationship with the company was over. Neither questioned Manchin’s conflict.

The first came in a lengthy New Yorker profile of Manchin (6/28/21). Out of over 8,000 words, two sentences were devoted to Enersystems:

Out of government, he had become a successful coal broker, running a firm called Enersystems. (In his most recent Senate disclosures, he and [his wife] Gayle reported a net worth of between $4 million and $13 million.)

By referring only to worth, not earnings, the parenthetical suggests that while Manchin and his wife built a fortune through coal, he no longer profits directly from it.
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NYT: Can Biden Get a Coal-State Democrat on Board With His Climate Agenda?
New York Times (6/28/21): Manchin’s “history as an ally of the coal industry…help[s] to explain why Mr. Manchin has insisted on bipartisanship.”

The other came from the New York Times in a web-only article (6/28/21): “Can Biden Get a Coal-State Democrat on Board With His Climate Agenda?” Reporter Giovanni Russonello inched close to the conflict, writing that Manchin “himself has close ties to” the energy industry, but mentioned Manchin’s relationship to Enersystems as if it were past tense:

By [the time he arrived in the Senate] Mr. Manchin had already made millions from his involvement with the coal brokerage firm Enersystems, which he had helped run before entering politics, and which continued to pay him dividends thereafter.

Russonello wrote that West Virginia’s deep red politics, “as well as his history as an ally of the coal industry and other business interests, help to explain why Mr. Manchin has insisted on bipartisanship.” The piece only quoted observers who professed to believe that Manchin votes strictly with the interests of his constituents in mind.

With Manchin’s massive financial stake in the coal industry neatly obfuscated, why would anyone doubt such pronouncements?

Perhaps the Times feels it’s done its work on Manchin’s conflict, since it did report on it at length—in 2011. Damningly, Russonello’s piece links to that 2011 article, which detailed Manchin’s ongoing “lucrative ties” to coal. But neither Russonello or his editors apparently cared enough about the conflict of interest to report on their persistence or relevance today.

In the past three months, there was a single mention of Manchin’s coal earnings that actually presented them as a conflict—a column by Alex Kotch in the British Guardian (7/20/21), who also pointed out that Manchin is trying to strip conflict of interest rules from the For the People Act. (Any reporters want to inquire into Manchin’s motivations there?)

When asked about the Democratic infrastructure bill last week, Manchin told CNN (7/14/21):

I’m finding out there’s a lot of language in places they’re eliminating fossils, which is very, very disturbing, because if you’re sticking your head in the sand, and saying that fossil [fuel] has to be eliminated in America, and they want to get rid of it, and thinking that’s going to clean up the global climate, it won’t clean it up all. If anything, it would be worse.

The quote reverberated around the US news ecosystem. Some pointed out how wildly unfactual the statement is. None pointed out the conflict of interest.

https://fair.org/home/manchins-coal-con ... rate-news/
With friends like these...but Joe Biden needs Machin a whole lot more than vice versa. Machin could jump to the Rs at anytime and get re-elected. The Dems NEED Machin and every so-called 'moderate' to hold their delusion of a party together. Cause they cannot imagine or allow it to be any other way. The 'big-tent' is the biggest scam there ever was, an institutional roadblock to the people's will, to life's necessity. The Democratic Party is not only the worst party there ever was from the standpoint of party performance, it is the worst party there ever was from the view of civilizational survival, guaranteeing that all the work of people of good will goes down the drain in futility in deference to 'the big tent'.
Whadda racket.
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Re: Sympathy for the Devils...

Post by blindpig » Sat Jul 31, 2021 1:39 pm

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“Let Cuba Live” campaign. See Pedro de la Hoz, “Biden must listen (+ Video),” Granma, July 23, 2021. http://www.granma.cu/pensar-en-qr/2021- ... 1-21-07-32

Let Cuba Live—The movement standing up to Biden’s maximum pressure campaign
Posted Jul 29, 2021 by Manolo De Los Santos, Vijay Prashad

This article was produced by Globetrotter.

On July 22, U.S. President Joe Biden and his Vice President Kamala Harris released a “fact sheet” on U.S. “measures” against Cuba. The release from the White House said that Cuba was a “top priority for the Biden-Harris administration.” On March 9, Biden’s Press Secretary Jen Psaki said, “A Cuba policy shift is not currently among President Biden’s top priorities.” On July 12, NBC News reporter Kelly O’Donnell asked Psaki if Biden had reassessed his priorities regarding Cuba after the protests on the island the previous day. “In terms of where it ranks in a priority order,” Psaki replied, “I’m not in a position to offer that, but I can tell you that we will be closely engaged.”

Not a priority, closely engaged, top priority: matters have moved rapidly from March 9 to July 22. What moved the Biden-Harris administration to focus so quickly on Cuba? On the morning of July 11, some people in Cuba—notably in the town of San Antonio de los Baños—took to the streets to express their dissatisfaction with the social and economic problems created by the U.S.-imposed blockade and by the global pandemic. The reaction to these events in Havana and in Washington, D.C., is instructive: Cuba’s President Miguel Díaz-Canel heard the news of the protests, got into a car, and drove the 40 miles to San Antonio de los Baños, where he met with the people; while in Washington, Biden used the protest to call for the overthrow of the Cuban government. U.S. government-funded nongovernmental organizations and Cuban American groups hastened to take advantage of the frenzy, excited by the possibility of regime change in Cuba.

On the evening of July 11, tens of thousands of Cubans rallied across Cuba to defend their revolutionary process. Since that Sunday evening, Cuba has been calm.

Maximum Pressure
Eleven days after those events, the Biden administration announced its “measures” for the island. There are two kinds of pressure engineered by the United States government: tightening the blockade and lies.

The Biden administration deepened the U.S. blockade that has been in place since 1960. Elements of this deepening include the continued ban on the freedom of people in the United States to make remittance payments to relatives and friends on the island. In October 2020, the United States forced the closure of 400 Western Union offices in Cuba. By this act, the United States denied Cuba between $2 billion and $3 billion in annual remittance payments (Cuba is not among the top 10 Latin American countries that rely on such income).

In December 1950, the U.S. government created the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), which manages the sanctions programs. Sanctions are a key element in the U.S. government’s “maximum pressure” campaign against its adversaries. Cuban banks and Cuban businesses as well as Cuban government officials populate the OFAC list alongside businesses and officials from about 30 other countries. In the “fact sheet,” the U.S. government mentioned the addition of “one Cuban individual,” namely Cuba’s minister of defense. He is accused of “facilitating the repression of peaceful, pro-democratic protests in Cuba.” The term “repression” is used loosely. In 2020, police officers in the United States killed 1,021 people, almost three people per day. There is no state violence at this scale anywhere in the world, let alone in Cuba.

Who Is Álvaro López Miera?

Cuba’s minister of defense is Álvaro López Miera, who took this post in April 2021. In 1957, at the age of 14, López Miera went up to the Sierra Maestra to join the rebels against the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista. He was motivated by his parents, who had been partisans in the Spanish Civil War, and who fled to Santiago de Cuba when the Spanish Republic was defeated by the fascists in 1939. López Miera was allowed to participate in the Second Front led by Raúl Castro, but only in the education department. He spent the next two years teaching peasants in the Sierra how to read and write.

Subsequently, López Miera worked in the Cuban military, volunteering to be part of the anti-colonial Operation Carlota in Angola in 1975 (where he returned in 1987) and to be part of the defense of Ethiopia against Somalia in the Ogaden War in 1977-78. He is now sanctioned by the U.S. government.

Diplomacy of Lies

The “fact sheet” casually repeats several accusations against Cuba that are simply not true. For one, the U.S. government accuses Cuba of the “intentional blocking of access to the Internet.” Countless reports make this accusation, but their evidence is scant (for instance, the Open Observatory of Network Interference found that as of July 23, the Cuban government had blocked 86 websites, many of them U.S. government-funded regime change sites, while the United States had blocked 2,661 sites); in fact, many U.S. internet corporations—such as Zoom—prevent Cubans from using their technology. Secondly, Biden’s administration repeats the fantasy of a 2017 “sonic attack” on the U.S. diplomatic officials in Havana.

After the July 11 events, the U.S. government circulated a one-page “Joint Statement on Cuba” among members of the Organization of American States (OAS) to get them to condemn Cuba. On July 21, Cuba’s Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla, who released the leaked draft on Twitter, strongly criticized the “interventionist maneuvers” of the United States “to intensify the blockade” against Cuba.

On July 24, after Biden’s “fact sheet” and “joint statement” made the rounds, Mexico’s President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said that the Washington-dominated OAS needed to be replaced by an organization that is not “a lackey of anyone.” These comments were made on the birthday of Simón Bolívar, known in Latin America as the Liberator. From the port of Veracruz, Mexico, two ships—Liberator and Papaloapan—left laden with food, medicines and other goods for Cuba. Russia sent 88 metric tons of supplies on two aircraft.

Let Cuba Live

On July 23, a full-page statement appeared on page 5 of the New York Times under the headline, “Let Cuba Live.” The advertisement, paid for by the Peoples Forum, was signed by more than 400 prominent people including Susan Sarandon, Emma Thompson, Noam Chomsky, Mark Ruffalo, Jane Fonda, and Danny Glover. It was an open letter to Biden asking him to end Trump’s “coercive measures” and “begin the process of ending the embargo.”

Most of the 193 member states of the United Nations made public statements to defend Cuba against the “maximum pressure” campaign. In a statement, the 120 members of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) “strongly condemn[ed] the international campaign organized… with the purpose of destabilizing the Republic of Cuba.” The NAM called for an end to the U.S. blockade.

The White House has so far responded neither to the open letter nor to the NAM statement.

https://mronline.org/2021/07/29/let-cub ... -campaign/

Starting to feel a little 'buyer's remorse', progressives?

This is how it works, how imperialism intersects with domestic politics to produce the desired results. Though nobody in 1960 foresaw a gusano bund in Miami controlling politics in one of the most populated states in the union 60 years later.(because they thought the Cuban Revolution would be a pushover) It certain developed that way, not accidentally, under Democrats and Republicans. The respite under Obama was just an adjustment of tactics, a switch to more 'soft power', the results of which are in part the corruption a handful of Cuban artists and intellectuals, facilitated by Yankee dollars and a major bot campaign orchestrated by a right-winger in Argentina(He's done this before, most recently the Bolivian election)

Trump reversed that and then some and now we got Biden doubling down on Trumpism, because the Democratic Party is a capitalist party despite the fervent wishes of the naive and lazy. And because 'he must', ya know, because that's politics...

Ya'll need to get real and find a real people's party because the bourgeoisie will never allow one of it's primary assets to threaten or even inconvenience themselves.
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Re: Sympathy for the Devils...

Post by blindpig » Mon Aug 02, 2021 1:44 pm

Farce in the White House (+ Video)

There is a reality that does not allow differences: be it Democrat or Republican, both Biden and Trump respond to a similar policy and, if there is something different, it is either some cosmetic change or simply a way of "looking good" with one or another group of voters.

Author: Elson Concepción Pérez | internet@granma.cu

August 1, 2021 9:08:51 PM

They affirm from the United States that there is insecurity in the White House

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Photo: Prensa Latina

I thought that perhaps at this point in Joe Biden's tenure as US President - a little over six months - the Democrat who made so many promises to reverse his predecessor's hostile policy against Cuba would already have, at least , eliminated all or most of the 243 additional measures to the criminal blockade, imposed by Trump.

But there is a reality that does not allow differences: whether Democrat or Republican, both Biden and Trump respond to a similar policy and, if there is something different, it is either some cosmetic change or simply a way to "look good" with one or another group of people. voters.

What happened last Friday at the White House was described by Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla as "a farce."

In addition, the US president does not give himself to respect when he attends a meeting where annexationists, counterrevolutionaries and self-confessed promoters of hatred and confrontation with Cuba are present, which, in many cases, saw them born.

Some press media described the guests as "Cuban-American leaders," disrespecting the concept of leader with their qualifications. But it is also part of the show that tries to fabricate a matrix of lies regarding what is happening in Cuba.

"I'm here to listen," the president told his guests, and lamented that the Cuban people have "suffered decades under a failed communist regime."

Little tact and complete irreverence of a president who has done nothing of what he promised to his electors, so that the relations between his country and ours go through other channels than confrontation and hatred.

Using the Cuban issue as a bargaining chip in his electoral aspirations to win the Florida vote, and together with it, apply new sanctions to the people of the Island, is to give continuity to what he criticized so much about his predecessor Donald Trump.

In the aforementioned treat, that kind of prefabricated star of the counterrevolution could not be absent: the musician Yotuel Romero.

In the face of these annexationists, President Biden said that more sanctions would come, unless there are "drastic changes" in Cuba. He also stated that the United States was expanding assistance to political prisoners and dissidents, and that it asked the State Department and the Treasury Department to provide, within a month, recommendations on "how to maximize the flow of remittances to the Cuban people without Cuban military receive a share ».

Any citizen of this world who heard, saw or read Biden's speeches during his election campaign to defeat Trump, may think that the one who now speaks and acts is someone else; but no, it is the same one that, once in the White House, has changed from "palo pa'rumba", while Cuba continues to suffer the genocidal effects of the blockade, the new sanctions and the political game of Republicans and Democrats.

Biden also included in his agenda these days to receive in the White House the opposition of the Republic of Belarus, Svetlana Tijanóvskaya, who called for more pressure and new sanctions against the president of his country, Aleksandr Lukashenko.

After the meeting, Biden gave some cookies to the former candidate for the presidency of Belarus, who was defeated at the polls and became a fierce critic of the process that was adverse to her.

The dispatches of the big agencies do not say if there were cookies given away for the Cuban-American annexationists summoned for the media show with President Biden.



http://www.granma.cu/mundo/2021-08-01/f ... 1-21-08-51

Google Translator

Another person? No, he's the same Senator from Mastercard who happily threw multitudes of black folks into the slammer for political gain. A Cold Warrior that JFK and Hube Humphrey would be proud of. " But, but, he's better than Trump!" Well, so is a rabid raccoon, would you vote for that too? Whadda pathetic lot, these wanna-be leftists who tail the insidious, treacherous Democratic Party!

Cookies again! We used to talk of the booj rewarding their class-traitor minions with crumbs, apparently cookies are a cost of living adjustment...

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Re: Sympathy for the Devils...

Post by blindpig » Tue Aug 03, 2021 2:13 pm

How Democrats Screwed Up So Royally on Evictions
BY JIM NEWELL
AUG 02, 20216:01 PM

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Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, center, and Cori Bush, right, protest for an extension of the eviction moratorium on the steps to the House of Representatives. Samuel Corum/Getty Images

Last Thursday, as the House of Representatives was wrapping up lingering business before leaving town for the summer, the White House threw a grenade into Democratic leaders’ laps. You know that CDC eviction moratorium that was set to lapse at the end of July—as in, a few days later? The White House would need Congress to pass legislation extending that, immediately.

The July 31 deadline has come and gone, with neither Democrats in Congress nor the White House having extended it. This could leave millions without housing as landlords resume what they lovingly call “property operations.” And while congressional Democrats and the administration are still in conversations about what they can do, the main battle plan for each participant appears to be ensuring that the blame for the ensuing mess sticks to someone else.

This is unusual territory for House Democratic leaders, who have operated as a pretty well-oiled machine for most of the year. The team of Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, and Majority Whip James Clyburn has passed just about everything asked of it, despite the narrowest of majorities. Pelosi has not had to turn to Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy for votes on anything.

But the White House request last Thursday was too much. Leaders began whipping that night and could not find the votes, with too many moderates dead-set against another extension. Pelosi issued a letter to the Democratic caucus Thursday night pleading with them to come around, to no avail.

The efforts to find the votes continued through Friday. But in the end, Hoyer tried to pass an extension through unanimous consent, Republicans blocked it, and members started for the airport. When Democratic leaders came to brief the press and pin blame on Republicans, though, they were met with a scene that was not indicative of a party in array. Pelosi and Hoyer waited just feet from California Rep. Maxine Waters, chairwoman of the Financial Service Committee, until she finished explaining why she thought they “should’ve fought harder.”

Now, Democratic congressional leaders would never outright say that their dear friends in the Biden administration had thrown them under the bus at the last minute. But it’s not an accident that the first sentence of her letter to colleagues last Thursday pleading with them to pass an extension began, “In the last 24 hours, a challenge to the conscience of the Congress has descended upon us.” And in her remarks to reporters following the failed unanimous consent effort on Friday, Pelosi noted that, “we only learned of this yesterday,” and “there was not enough time to socialize it within our caucus as well as to build a consensus necessary.” New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez noted on CNN this weekend, too, that the White House had dithered on making its position known until the last minute.

“I sit on the Financial Services Committee, which has jurisdiction over housing,” Ocasio-Cortez said Sunday. “We had the housing secretary there, asking about the administration stance. We asked the Biden administration about their stance. And they were not being really forthright about that advocacy and that request until the day before the House adjourned. And so the House was put into, I believe, a needlessly difficult situation.”

Still, progressives were, and are, furious at their colleagues. Missouri Rep. Cori Bush slept on the Capitol steps to protest Congress leaving for seven weeks without getting this done. And while AOC placed some blame with the White House, she also questioned the leaders’ strategy, saying in that CNN interview that it’s not good enough to just let Republicans block a unanimous consent request and claim the wave of evictions is their fault.

“We have to really just call a spade a spade,” she said. “We cannot in good faith blame the Republican Party when House Democrats have a majority.” She, and others, are calling for the House to return to pass an extension.

If we’re calling spades spades, though, here’s what the House passing an extension either last week, or sometime in the future, would likely get renters who are on the precipice of eviction: nothing. It would take 60 votes to pass this in the Senate, which already has more than it can handle this week, and Senate Republicans are not interested. If House Democrats were able to pass an extension, it would allow them to shift blame to Senate Republican obstructionists. But that doesn’t pay the rent.

In her most recent updates to colleagues, Pelosi has noted that “the House passing the eviction moratorium without the Senate acting does not extend the moratorium.” Instead, Pelosi and House leaders have tried to throw the question back at the administration, and have repeatedly called on them in the last couple of days to have the CDC extend the moratorium.

If the administration were confident it could, though, it would. The issue is that it very likely cannot. Real estate interests had challenged the CDC-issued eviction moratorium in court, and it only survived until July 31 by the skin of its teeth. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, in a concurring opinion in late June, agreed with the challengers that the CDC had “exceeded its existing statutory authority by issuing a nationwide eviction moratorium,” but wouldn’t shoot it down because there were only a few weeks left. He added, though, “clear and specific congressional authorization (via new legislation) would be necessary for the CDC to extend the moratorium past July 31.” The White House has been clear that it does not believe the CDC has the authority to extend it any further, and doesn’t want to try and risk additional legal backlash.

And yet, everyone’s still trying. The White House issued a new statement Monday saying that while the CDC so far “has been unable to find legal authority for a new, targeted eviction moratorium,” the White House would be “redoubling efforts to identify all available legal authorities to provide necessary protections.” In the meantime, it will be taking steps encouraging everyone to be nice, such as “challenging every landlord to hold off on evictions for the next 30 days.”

The urgency with which these statements are being issued does at least suggest that Democrats in both the administration and Congress recognize they’re on the verge of a screw-up that won’t soon be forgotten. The eviction moratorium can’t last forever, but it sure could use a couple more months. Congress has authorized $46.5 billion in rental assistance in COVID relief packages, but only a tiny fraction of that has gone out the door as states and localities have struggled to get programs off the ground. An extension of the moratorium in some fashion, while the delta variant is surging, would allow the assistance to be disbursed, more renters to stay in their homes and more landlords to get paid. Instead, there could be a rush of evictions of those who were promised help from the federal government but never got it because of implementation issues. This is the sort of thing that can breed resentment for a long time, and it was worth preparing for more than two days before the deadline.

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/202 ... crats.html

Bolding added.

Damn, there they go again, "the worst political party in history". A story like this, I hardly have to add anything.

"It's the Administration's fault!" "It's the 'moderates' fault!" One thing that is for sure, it's the Democratic Party's fault. So they placate the rentiers and hand those of us on the precipice the shit end of the stick.

But doesn't AOC look like she can feel her credibility slipping as all the bullshit in the world cannot hide the treachery of the Democratic Party?
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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