Sympathy for the Devils...

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Re: Sympathy for the Devils...

Post by blindpig » Thu Mar 18, 2021 2:36 pm

Democrats Are Blowing Their Opportunity to Rapidly Repeal Some of Trump’s Worst Policies
BY MARK JOSEPH STERN

MARCH 17, 20213:23 PM

Democrats currently have an opportunity to swiftly erase much of the damage that Donald Trump’s administration inflicted on workers, consumers, immigrants, the environment, and pretty much every vulnerable group in the country. But this opportunity will not last forever; in fact, the window is closing quickly, and will slam shut by early April. Yet Democrats have shown virtually no interest in seizing the moment. They are, in short, refusing to use one of the most powerful tools they received upon winning control of Congress.

That tool, the Congressional Review Act (or CRA), is a powerful yet obscure law passed in 1996. It allows a new Congress to roll back the clock on the previous president’s regulatory agenda. Every administration issues new rules on a vast variety of issues—the Department of Labor sets overtime standards, the Environmental Protection Agency restricts toxic chemicals, and so on. By favoring large corporations and industries, Trump’s regulations consistently authorized more pollution, labor abuse, consumer fraud, and housing discrimination. The CRA allows lawmakers to fast-track repeals of Trump regulations that were finalized in the last months of the administration. It requires a simple majority vote in Congress plus the president’s signature. And, crucially, it is not subject to the filibuster in the Senate.

Under the CRA, Congress can repeal every Trump policy finalized after Aug. 21, 2020. The last administration rushed out a huge number of last-minute rules that fall within this window, including regulations that imperil endangered species, let factories spew toxic emissions, permit banks to scam customers with exorbitant interest rates, keep asylum-seekers out of the country, undermine employment discrimination lawsuits, and allow LGBTQ discrimination in government grants. If Congress does not repeal these policies through the CRA, the Biden administration will have to spend years—as well as precious time and resources—to wipe them off the books; federal agencies will have to undergo the onerous process of formal rulemaking, which is susceptible to legal challenges.

The clock is ticking. If Democrats do not introduce a resolution to undo a regulation by April 4, they will lose their opportunity to kill it through the CRA. If the Senate does not approve that resolution by May 10 to May 21, it will lose the power to repeal the regulation under the law. (The statute uses a complex formula to determine the window for repeal that depends on how many days Congress is in session.)

In 2017, Republicans used the CRA a whopping 16 times to repeal the Obama administration’s regulations. Before that point, it had been used just once, in 2001. Many progressives speculated that Democrats would use the same strategy in 2021 to efficiently erase regulations that Trump appointees finalized on their way out the door. But so far, Democrats have introduced zero CRA resolutions.

Why? On March 15, Politico reported that Democrats say they’re afraid of unintended consequences. They point to a provision of the law that prohibits federal agencies from implementing regulations that are “substantially the same” as a previous rule repealed through the CRA. Some Democrats fear that this clause would prevent the Biden administration from issuing any rule that covers the same topic as a Trump policy repealed through the CRA—even if Biden wants to bolster regulations where Trump weakened them. Sen. Tim Kaine fretted the statute is such a “blunt instrument” that those who use it can “put a bar in your own way.” Similarly, Sen. Brian Schatz told Politico that CRA repeals “may constrain the executive branch from making good policies” in the future.

At this stage, no one expects Democrats to use the CRA as aggressively as Republicans did in 2017.
As David Dayen has explained in the American Prospect, this trepidation is misplaced. The Congressional Research Service noted in a recent report that the CRA explicitly forbids judicial review. That means courts cannot stop an agency from issuing a new rule that is “substantially the same” as an old rule repealed through the CRA. The Trump administration confirmed this reading of the law when it reissued two rules that Congress repealed through the CRA in 2017. One rule had let states drug-test some people receiving unemployment benefits; Congress repealed the policy because it didn’t think it went far enough. Trump’s Department of Labor then reissued the rule—this time letting states drug-test even more people. The administration asserted that, thanks to its tweaks, the new rule was not “substantially the same” as the old ones. No one challenged this conclusio

There are a few other possible reasons why Democrats are hesitant to use the CRA. Perhaps moderates like Senators Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin are hesitant to deploy the law, viewing it as an unacceptable shortcut around the filibuster. Yet both voted in favor of four CRA resolutions in 2017 that repealed the Obama administration’s regulations.

Alternatively, Democrats may think that Joe Biden has enough other tools at his disposal to roll back eleventh-hour Trump regulations. In its haste to finalize these policies before Jan. 20, the Trump administration cut corners at every turn, and many rules were not actually finalized by the time Trump left office. The progressive think tank Public Citizen has uncovered dozens of these unfinished rules, including several that target LGBTQ people, endangered species, asylum-seekers, consumers, and family farms. During his first hours in the White House, Biden issued a regulatory “freeze” that kept these rules on ice indefinitely; because they were never officially put on the books, they will be much easier for the administration to repeal.

But other Trump policies will not be so easy to undo. Biden’s “freeze” does not cover independent or semi-independent agencies that are still under Republican control. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, for instance, is still dominated by a 3–2 GOP majority. Its Republican commissioners recently issued a rule over the dissent of both Democratic commissioners, which will give employers much more power to avoid workplace discrimination lawsuits by forcing premature settlements, cheating victims out of their day in court. Unless Biden fires a GOP commissioner, the EEOC will stay in Republicans’ hands until July of 2022. If Congress does not repeal this rule through the CRA, then, it will likely remain in effect until 2023, if not later.

At this stage, no one expects Democrats to use the CRA as aggressively as Republicans did in 2017; there just isn’t enough time. But the party still has a few weeks to take down a handful of Trump policies that will inflict immense damage, and it is puzzling to see how few lawmakers appear to care. Many Democrats have complained that the filibuster has stymied their agenda—yet they now have a brief opportunity to slash away at Trump’s legacy with a simple majority, and they are blowing it. If they let the clock run down, they will essentially concede that the CRA is just one more legislative maneuver that only Republicans are allowed to exploit.

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

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These damn liberals/progressives never learn....
The Democratic Party is the piss that sets the Republican dye in the political fabric.
'Bipartisanship' by omission.See what's left standing after the dust clears, that's what the Bosses really want.
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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Re: Sympathy for the Devils...

Post by blindpig » Tue Mar 23, 2021 1:38 pm

BIDEN REMOVED HIS MASK IN RECORD TIME
Sergio Rodriguez Gelfenstein

22 Mar 2021 , 10:46 am .

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The President of the United States, Joe Biden, from his home (Photo: ABC News)

Within two months of Joe Biden's inauguration as president of the United States, a consensus has emerged that the notorious Washington bureaucrat who occupies the White House today is more of the same. Although there are still credulous or innocent (whatever you want to call them) who think that the new government "is adjusting before making decisions", the truth is that Biden already showed his imperialist, aggressive and murderous disposition ... one more among a long "plethora" of Democratic and Republican presidents, none of whom has been able to exhibit any condition that characterizes them as civilized people concerned with the destiny of humanity.

As Biden himself and his officials have been in charge of affirming in these first 50 days, the only thing that matters to him is making the world work under the aegis of American values ​​that mean imposition, pain and death. His own people have been able to verify this through the government's handling of the pandemic, which has caused more than half a million deaths, evidence that the health of citizens is of very little importance and their sacrifice is understood as a consequence. of the actions of China and the WHO.

It is already known that Biden ordered the bombing of Syria on February 25 to allegedly attack the popular militias that face the illegal presence of the United States in the country, thus equating himself - very quickly - with his predecessor from whom he said he differentiated.

Regarding China, he said that it is the strategic enemy with which an "extreme competition" will be established. Speaking of President Xi Jinping, he considered that: "He does not have a single democratic bone in his body and I do not mean it as a criticism, but it is a reality."

In spite of everything, if any possibility of rapprochement and / or understanding could be expected in the relationship between the two powers, it was totally ruled out after the high-level talks held in Anchorage, Alaska, on March 18 and 19. The brutally aggressive speech and remote from any diplomatic practice of Secretary of State Antony Blinken claiming the Chinese government for its actions in Xinjiang, Hong Kong and Taiwan, which are the absolute responsibility of Beijing, cleared the idea of ​​a policy change from the panorama regarding the Trump Administration. In some respects, the new secretary of state was even more provocative and bellicose than his predecessor Mike Pompeo, which is saying a lot.

DON'T BE FOOLED BY SIMPLE TINTERILLOS OR BOMBASTIC SPOKESPERSONS

Regarding Russia, Biden created a "smokescreen" by saying that his country will no longer submit to his aggressive actions as if it were Russia that is applying a fierce policy of "sanctions" to the United States and not the other way around. He continued the tirade stating that his administration was committed to countering the "authoritarianism" of both Beijing and Moscow, insisting on his desire to distance himself from Trump, which is still laughable. In a wartime harangue, he assured that the United States must "stand there in the face of the advance of authoritarianism, in particular China's growing ambitions and Russia's desire to weaken our democracy."

Emboldened, he asserted that he had made it clear to President Putin that "in a very different way from my predecessor, the time when the United States submitted to the aggressive acts of Russia is over." More recently, he concluded his "assessment" of Russia by saying that he believed that President Vladimir Putin was a murderer. This opinion does not deserve further comment, it can only be explained by observing that Biden fell three times on the ladder that took him to the presidential plane.

Commenting on Iran, he said he will not lift "economic sanctions" against it unless Tehran first reduces its uranium enrichment to the level it agreed to in the 2015 international treaty aimed at restricting the development of nuclear weapons. It was the United States that withdrew from that treaty imposing strong "sanctions" and threats to the Persian nation, also assassinating one of its main military leaders in total violation of international law. When Biden was asked directly in an interview whether the United States would lift the "sanctions" first, to bring Iran back into negotiations, Biden replied simply, "No."

A to refer to Cuba, the spokeswoman for the White House Jen Psaki said u n change the policies of his country to the West Indian island is not among the priorities of the government of Joe Biden, away from their own statements in which he said it would review Trump's measures to counteract those that President Obama had generated.

In relation to Venezuela, State Department spokesman Ned Price said that they did not expect any contact with the government of President Nicolás Maduro and that they would continue with Trump's failed and defeated policy of recognizing the failed Juan Guaidó as interim president of Venezuela. .

Friend who reads these lines, as lawyers say: "I refer to the evidence." Don't be fooled by simple tinterillos, bombastic spokespersons, mediocre analysts, mercenary journalists and cheap politicians who have sold you that the Democrats are salvation.

That, in addition to being false, leads to demoralization because it will never happen, but what is worse, it leads to demobilization and lowering our guard. We have to know that whoever rules the United States, imperialism does not change its status as a quarrelsome world superiority one iota. We must be vigilant and trust in our own strength and in the intelligence and infinite capabilities of the people.

https://misionverdad.com/opinion/biden- ... mpo-record

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No more of that incompetent, ego-driven foreign policy, oh no, "America is back", back to 'normal' imperialism. It was Trump's incompetence in foreign policy and trade which led to his peers throwing their weight definitively against him.
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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Re: Sympathy for the Devils...

Post by blindpig » Thu Apr 08, 2021 6:25 pm

Joe Manchin just crushed liberals' dream for Joe Biden's first term

Analysis by Chris Cillizza, CNN Editor-at-large

Updated 10:36 AM ET, Thu April 8, 2021

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(CNN)With just 15 words, Joe Manchin ended the possibility that Joe Biden's first term would live up to the hopes that liberals had for it on everything from gun control to voting rights to even, possibly, the size and scope of the President's $2 trillion infrastructure bill.

"There is no circumstance in which I will vote to eliminate or weaken the filibuster," wrote the West Virginia Democratic senator in a Washington Post op-ed published Wednesday night.

<snip>

But, it's more than that too. While the big headline of the Manchin op-ed is his opposition to ending the filibuster, he also makes clear that he disapproves of using "reconciliation" -- a budget tool that allows bills to be passed with a simple majority -- for things not directly tied to the budget, which very much includes Biden's infrastructure bill.

<snip>

"You have Republicans in the Congress who are moving very far to the right, who are not only ignoring what the American people want to see done," Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders told CNN's Jake Tapper on Sunday. "They are ignoring what people in their own party want to be done."

https://us.cnn.com/2021/04/08/politics/ ... index.html
Say it ain't so, Bernie! As though he hasn't seen this movie numerous times. Louis Renault would be proud of ya, Bern.

This is how the Dems do, promise the world but are 'sabotaged' by a roadblock that a blind pig could see coming. Every goddamn time. So we gotta try harder, elect more better Dems and our wishes will come through. "So follow your sheepdog, just keep those contributions coming....And remember, we're not the Republicans so you got no choice."

Ya don't need 'conspiracy' when ya got class interest.

But Munchkin may have a point, if the Dems lose control of Congress they'd come to regret axing the filibuster as they proly will lose after serving up some half-assed 'compromise'(something the boss consensus approves). If they 'went big' they could easily have a winning streak like the FDR days. But the party ain't made like that and would rather take a beating than defy their masters. Who needs conspiracy?
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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Re: Sympathy for the Devils...

Post by blindpig » Fri Apr 16, 2021 1:55 pm

Joe Biden stands down at a critical juncture for police reform

<snip>

At this pivotal moment when the nation is once again focused on the need to end these all-too-common occurrences, Biden seems uniquely positioned to take a leading role in brokering a compromise with Congress after his lifetime of work on crime and justice legislation.
But instead, Biden exhibited caution this week when addressing the death of another Black man and backed away from his campaign promise to create a police reform commission, convinced by advocates -- according to White House officials -- that a commission would be counterproductive to the passage of the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act.

Biden's decision to stand down was a puzzling development given that there is no indication whatsoever that the Democratic legislation -- which would create a national registry of police misconduct, ban chokeholds and no-knock warrants, and overhaul qualified immunity protections for police officers -- has any chance in the 50-50 Senate after it passed the House in March without GOP support.

<snip>

During the 2020 elections, Republican hammered their Democratic opponents over radical calls to "defund the police" -- attempting to portray all Democrats as sympathetic to a view that is held by a small minority. The attack, even on Democrats who have repeatedly spoken out against "defund the police" -- is already resurfacing as a potent theme for the 2022 midterms as Republicans look to take control of Congress.
It's a major reason why congressional leaders like House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn, the No. 3 Democrat in the chamber, were quick to refute Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib's argument that there should be "no more policing," because, in her view, it cannot be reformed. "We've got to have police," Clyburn said in an interview this week with CNN's Don Lemon.

<snip>

Biden's cautious posture on policing issues since he has become President reflects the arms-length distance that he has maintained from the progressive left on a number of politically-fraught issues, including calls from some Democrats to expand the size of the Supreme Court, the suggestion that he should be doing more on gun control following a recent spate of mass shootings, and fulfilling his own promise to raise the cap set on refugee admissions.

<snip>

"I want to make it clear again: There is absolutely no justification -- none -- for looting, no justification for violence. Peaceful protest, understandable," Biden said Monday. "We do know that the anger, pain, and trauma that exists in the Black community in that environment is real -- it's serious, and it's consequential. But it will not justify violence and/or looting."

Later this week, White House press secretary Jen Psaki refused to say whether Biden believed Potter should face charges in Wright's death.

<snip>

In an interview with CBS News after the November 2020 election, when Democrats fell short of expectations in congressional contests, Clyburn bluntly said the "defund the police" slogan was "killing our party and we've got to stop it."
Democrats' sensitivity to those attacks was magnified this week by the swift response to Tlaib, a liberal Democrat, when she tweeted Monday that Wright's death was not accident and "policing in our country is inherently & intentionally racist."
"Daunte Wright was met with aggression & violence," Tlaib tweeted. "I am done with those who condone government funded murder. No more policing, incarceration, and militarization. It can't be reformed."
Clyburn, a Democrat from South Carolina who helped Biden clinch the Democratic nomination last year, and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who ran as a progressive to Biden's left when he sought the White House in 2020, quickly brushed aside her argument.
"This is not about policing. This is not about training. This is about recruiting. Who are we recruiting to be police officers? That to me is where the focus has got to go. We've got to have police officers," Clyburn told Lemon on "CNN Tonight."
Sanders told CNN's Wolf Blitzer that he also did not agree with Tlaib's calls to end policing: "What we need to do is to understand that there needs to be major, major police reform all across this country," the Vermont independent said this week on "The Situation Room." ....

https://us.cnn.com/2021/04/16/politics/ ... index.html

There ya go: Clyburn, eminence grise of the Black Congressional Caucus. Sanders, eminence grise of the Dem progressives. About Joe Biden nothing need be said, his record speaks for itself. So tell me again how the Dems are in any way, shape or form the vehicle for advancing the human agenda...

Cowardliness, laziness, class interests, these are things which keep the Democratic Party in the game because even a blind pig can see that despite their occasional rhetoric their actions, or lack thereof, get us no nearer that goal.

As for Joe's proposed withdrawal from Afghanistan, why postpone it from Trump's original date? Mebbe just politics but mebbe give more time for an excuse to crop up to double down.

There will be no progress in this country until the Democratic Party is utterly rejected by the working class.
Pass it on.
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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Re: Sympathy for the Devils...

Post by blindpig » Tue Apr 20, 2021 2:44 pm

<snip>
"I hope we get a verdict that says guilty, guilty, guilty," she said in response to reporters' questions. "And if we don't, we cannot go away. We've got to stay on the street. We get more active, we've got to get more confrontational. We've got to make sure that they know that we mean business."
(more....)
https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/19/politics ... index.html
What is Waters up to? The offending statement, absolutely correct, has gotten her grief from Ds, Rs and media alike. Musta hit a nerve, huh? Is she grandstanding, a 'one off' to be forgotten until pandering for votes? Is she trying to 'get out in front' of a substantial and growing social factor? She has been accused of making 'incendiary' statements in the past but could be literal this time.

It is a statement of the obvious which those offended by it would prefer to ignore and the jury in the Floyd George murder shouldn't ignore. Like it or not they are enmeshed in greater affairs than one murder trial. It is delusional and irresponsible to act otherwise, but they might, it only takes one juror to refuse to believe his lying eyes.

But I really want to know, "What was she thinking?" And where does she get off with this 'we' business anyhow? Since when? My guess is that she's upping the ante on 'sheepdogging', building cred before she nips the herd back to the corral.
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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Re: Sympathy for the Devils...

Post by blindpig » Thu May 06, 2021 1:32 pm

Freedom Rider: Progressives Capitulate to Biden
Margaret Kimberley, BAR senior columnist 06 May 2021

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Freedom Rider: Progressives Capitulate to Biden

There can be no more excuses made for Democratic “progressives,” who steadfastly refuse to fight for what they know to be right.

“There is no lesser evil, no one who will save us.”

No one is holding Joe Biden’s “feet to the fire” or pushing him left or taking any of the other make believe actions which were meant to silence the Democratic Party’s left wing. There is no longer any need to say that such claims are phony when proof comes straight from the horses’ mouths.

The Justice Democrats, Progressive Caucus and Congressional Black Caucus all sing Biden’s praises despite the fact that he lied to them and to their constituents during the 2020 campaign. All of the policies that rank and file Democrats want to see realized are again left behind though their party has the power to enact them. Only fools believe that a Senate parliamentarian prevented inclusion of a minimum wage increase in the stimulus plan. There is no $2,000 stimulus payment, no plan to lower prescription drug prices or add a public option to the Affordable Care Act.

The best that can be said is that Biden’s temporary tax provisions and unemployment payments will help many people cope in a time of economic distress. But his proposals are a far cry from groundbreaking legislation such as the Social Security Act, Medicare or Medicaid. Of course, it must be pointed out that Franklin Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson were responding to popular pressure. They did not act solely out of conviction even as their legislative successes benefited millions of people for decades to come.

“Only fools believe that a Senate parliamentarian prevented inclusion of a minimum wage increase in the stimulus plan.”

Biden’s friends in corporate media call him “transformational” and the living embodiment of FDR. It is ironic that Democrats must go so far back in history to find a name with such universal appeal. Such is the case after decades of neo-liberal Democratic policies that the party knows it can’t defend when it needs fodder for a propaganda campaign.

Progressives have come to Biden’s rescue with even greater gusto than doubters like this columnist predicted. Congressional Democrats known as progressives have prostrated themselves without a hint of unhappiness and in the process make a mockery of themselves and the people who support them.

Congressional Black Caucus member Cori Bush was asked if she and other progressives known as “the squad” would be willing to use their leverage as much as those Democrats who own up to being conservative. She said this about herself and her colleagues, “...you vote alone, and you're voting for your districts.” Bush therefore admitted that there will be no action on behalf of what the people want. She defeated William Lacy Clay, known as an establishment Democrat, but like other progressives she is no more willing to buck the system than the person she replaced.

“Congressional Democrats known as progressives have prostrated themselves without a hint of unhappiness and in the process make a mockery of themselves.”

Bush is following in the footsteps of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who entered Congress with great fanfare, also after defeating an incumbent in a primary. After being beaten down by Biden and the leadership she proclaimed that he “exceeded expectations that progressives had.” Pramila Jayapal joined in the capitulation by pronouncing that she gives Biden an A grade. No minimum wage hike, no public option, no prescription drug cost reduction and nothing else that these members said they wanted is taking place. In fact Ocasio-Cortez demurred from forcing a vote on Medicare for all in favor of using leverage to push for a minimum wage increase. Biden dismissed her fake strategy with a cynical ploy about a parliamentarian and she is left with egg on her face.

There can be no more excuses made for these people. Regardless of what they may want, they steadfastly refuse to fight for what they know to be right. None of them are revolutionaries, which is what they would have to be in order to fight a corrupt system. Biden is in no mood for compromise and he doesn’t have to when no one will fight back. The leadership do what their donors want and by definition that means the people don’t get what they want and need.

“Pramila Jayapal joined in the capitulation by pronouncing that she gives Biden an A grade.”

What passes for a left in the Democratic Party doesn’t even pretend to fight. They smile and give praise even as they are kicked while they are down. The degree of genuflection required by Democratic Party leadership is unprecedented. In the past some token opposition was allowed to be expressed. No longer. All the Democrats take a dive and the people are asked to join in the disgrace.

There is no lesser evil, no one who will save us. The very least we can do is name and shame the scoundrels who brought us to such a low point. They betrayed the people who voted with an expectation of getting at least some of what they wanted. Biden was honest about one thing. Nothing has fundamentally changed.

https://www.blackagendareport.com/freed ... late-biden

And this ain't no dog&pony show' put on for the benefit of the rubes, it is a 'real' reality show in which naked self interest, treachery and class play out in full view. The only conspiracy is acceptance of the ruling class ideology, everything else proceeds from that.
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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Re: Sympathy for the Devils...

Post by blindpig » Fri May 07, 2021 12:59 pm

FROZEN WARMTH
Carola Chavez

May 6 , 2021 , 8:34 am .

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"Political lukewarmness, cowardice disguised as strategy": Carola Chávez (Photo: Juan Díaz / Mission Truth)

The fight is fighting. I learned that with Chávez. That way of doing politics of a certain left, that they are asking for forgiveness, a piece of ham, that walks taking care not to step on certain powerful calluses, so that they do not step on you, that they do not crush you, so that they forgive your daring to contradict them a little , not much, sir, don't hit me ...

That speech that arose from the protest, from the purest illusion, from the possible dream, extinguished at the point of media slaps, by a harassment that does not yield, but increases if you qualify. The right does not understand nuances, it does not interest him. Every nuance smells of weakness and fear. The more you nuance, the more they bite you, the more they destroy you. You cannot seek compassion where it never has been.

That dilution of the idea into a thousand peripheral causes, each one with its flag, its look, its logo, its demands, all of which can be stopped under a single idea of ​​social justice, progressively fragmented by small groups, each one pulling to his own side, all believing that they pull to the left.

The squeezed, evicted working class finds no flags to wave in this all-progressive and all-pretty struggle, which invites them to eat healthy, vegan, green, green, when the terrible drama they experience every day is that they have nothing to eat. The poor are looking for what part of the discourse touches them and, even more, what part touches the banks, the interests of the owners who are suffocating them with criminal inclement, where they are going to stop, but they see nothing a lot of scattered flags cover the whole panorama ...

POLITICAL LUKEWARMNESS, COWARDICE DISGUISED AS STRATEGY, WHICH ONLY LEADS TO COOLING THE STRUGGLE

And they are "negotiating" the way - they believe - and they negotiate everything except the non-negotiable, which is nothing but harmless. They deny what they are - or perhaps they never were - and join the chorus of demonization against anyone who has the courage that they have never had, and obediently throw at those who do not negotiate, those who go forward, without dissimulation against our enemy, who they say is theirs, but not so much ...

Political lukewarmness, cowardice disguised as strategy, which only leads to cooling the struggle. Warmth that bleaches the enemy dancing to the sound that the enemy touches. Slimy warmth that hits the partner to avoid being hit. Bland, flabby, glasses progressive warmth, with a lot of little book and little street; who does not understand the people, but comes to explain. Self-destructive lukewarmness that ends up pulverized at the time of the votes that they squandered at the point of insipid lukewarmness that said nothing to the people.

Then the culprit, because someone has to be, because it cannot be that in the face of the barbarism of the most heartless capitalism, people would vote for the very thing that crushes them. Then the reproach to the "brute people" who could not understand. So the resignation that tastes more of pride than of anything else. Then go see what they do. And the cause of the trampled towns ... and the owners, whom you disturbed one day, those who attacked you with poisonous fury because they believed you could have achieved something, celebrate by savoring future looting, drinking brandy and smoking a cigar.

And the lukewarm ones are falling one by one, and their peoples paying for the broken dishes. And meanwhile, the one who faced and faces the enemy without dissimulation or lukewarmness, the one the lukewarm called crazy, the one they called brute, the one they called whatever the enemy said they should call him, is still standing there, with the blaze of the fight burning, with a people fighting alongside him, defending what is truly non-negotiable: justice, freedom, sovereignty and dignity, because the fight is fighting and we will win.

https://misionverdad.com/opinion/tibieza-congelada

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If the shoe fits, wear it.
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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Re: Sympathy for the Devils...

Post by blindpig » Wed May 12, 2021 2:00 pm

Democrats Give an “A” Grade to Joe Biden’s Brand of Corporate Rule. Should the Left?
Danny Haiphong, BAR Contributing Editor 12 May 2021

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Democrats Give an “A” Grade to Joe Biden’s Brand of Corporate Rule. Should the Left?

Biden’s policies thus far represent the bare minimum response of a social order mired in total decay.

“Biden is nothing more than a placeholder presidency for the ruling class.”

Democrats have treated the Biden presidency’s first 100 days as the calm after the Trumpian storm. Yet the real storm of U.S. corporate rule continues, this time without the partisan opposition that existed under Donald J. Trump. So-called progressive Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez asserted that Biden has exceeded her expectations while Pramila Jayapal gave Biden an “A” grade for his performance thus far. Long before these overtures, The Washington Post declared Biden’s bid to "tame” the left a smashing success.

No actual definition of “left” politics would include the Democratic Party as it exists today. True leftists oppose endless war, racism, austerity, and environmental destruction. They build organizations and movements that enhance the capacity of workers and oppressed people to challenge the rule of the exploiter class. In the United States, this class primarily refers to the capitalist owners of giant corporations and their servants who administer the state.

The Democratic Party does not meet any of the most basic criteria of left politics. This poses the following questions: how has Biden’s presidency helped facilitate a more peaceful world, a cleaner environment, and a more egalitarian economic order? Does Biden’s rule offered more political space for mass movements to increase their power over society?

“How has Biden’s presidency helped facilitate a more peaceful world, a cleaner environment, and a more egalitarian economic order?”

The answer to each of these questions is simply, no. Coming to this conclusion, however, is a difficult task for those who remain loyal to the notion that the Democratic Party can be pushed to the “left.” Complicating the picture is that Joe Biden was confronted with the unprecedented circumstances of entering the Oval Office amid an economic crisis and a global pandemic. Just as moments of crisis and trauma lead to forgetfulness among individuals, so too have they proven to facilitate historical memory loss on a mass scale.

The enormity of the global health and economic crisis places the first few months of Biden’s presidency in proper context. Biden’s policies thus far represent the bare minimum response of a social order mired in total decay. More than a half million people have died of COVID-19 and tens of millions of people have experienced unemployment or underemployment in the United States since the economic collapse began in March of 2020. These numbers do not take into account that the U.S. capitalist economy had still not recovered from the 2007-08 economic crisis .

Biden’s immediate COVID-19 relief plan provided one-time $1400 checks (down from the promised $2000), an extension of unemployment benefits at a lower amount than Trump’s CARES Act, and tax credits in the form of monthly checks to families with children. His “American Families Plan” places several trillion dollars aside for infrastructure repair and development to be paid for through increased taxes on the wealthy. On paper, this would be the largest federal-driven public spending plan since the 1960s.

“More than a half million people have died of COVID-19 and tens of millions of people have experienced unemployment or underemployment.”

But this is 2021, and Biden’s policies fall well short of deserving celebration. Biden’s investments in electric vehicles, for example , won’t make this form of transportation a mainstream option for majorities of people. Lofty hopes that the U.S. will reduce carbon emissions by fifty percent in the next decade are met with the reality that Biden has already shown himself to be more than happy to allow environmentally destructive oil and gas drilling so long as it isn’t on federal lands.

Perhaps most important to Biden’s presidential legacy thus far is what his administration hasn’t done to mitigate the suffering of the working class. Biden remains firmly opposed to Medicare for All even though one in four Americans avoid necessary medical care due to cost. He has already provided nearly three times more in military weaponry to police departments in the first quarter of his presidency than Donald Trump’s last quarter in office and has rejected use of the DOJ or executive powers to investigate the murders of Black Americans by police. Biden has no plans on fighting his own party’s opposition to a $15 per hour minimum wage even though the policy is supported by broad majorities of the U.S. population. Far from reversing Trump’s immigration policies, Biden has deported more people in one quarter than Donald Trump’s administration deported in four years.

Furthermore, anyone who grades Joe Biden glowingly is explicitly endorsing U.S. militarism and imperialism. Biden has delayed U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan by four months, bombed Syria, supported Haiti’s neocolonial dictatorship, maintained starvation sanctions on dozens of countries, and intensified the U.S.-led New Cold War against Russia and China. To fund these and other imperial ventures, Biden has proposed an even larger military budget than his predecessor . The U.S. military is one of the largest polluters in the world and its treasure trove of funds render any kind of real public investment in human need both domestically and abroad impossible.

“Anyone who grades Joe Biden glowingly is explicitly endorsing U.S. militarism and imperialism.”

Biden’s job is not to improve the lives of “American Families.” His job is to stabilize the U.S. imperialist system. The promises Biden has made in his “American Families Plan” mirror those made during the first three months of Barack Obama’s administration. Many of these promises were broken, and there is nothing to indicate that Biden will not follow the same path. How quickly it is forgotten that Obama ostracized the movement for single-payer healthcare, abandoned the Employee Free Choice Act, and worked to strike a Grand Bargainwith Republicans on endless austerity and war.

Joe Biden doesn’t deserve an “A” grade from the Left. In fact, the very act of grading Biden sends a clear message that much of what calls itself the left still lacks a clear vision and roadmap for victory. Corporate Democrats remain the gauge of “progress” rather than its anti-thesis. Entirely negated is the fact that Biden is nothing more than a placeholder presidency for the ruling class. His administration’s primary purpose is to get the United States back to the normal operations of capitalist exploitation, racism, and imperialism.

Yet the normal operations of the United States only lead to the very crises that gave us Donald Trump in 2016. Optimism over Joe Biden inevitably fails to consider the reality facing the United States’ social system. This system, imperialism, has little left to offer but destructive wars and a world mired in poverty and climate disaster. Biden’s attempts to pander to the Democratic Party base does nothing to change the overall trajectory of the United States, but it does cement the Democratic Party’s status as the most effective evil in the arsenal of the ruling class.

https://www.blackagendareport.com/democ ... hould-left

I agree with Danny's assessment of relative evils but that is still not the popular perception of many who see themselves on the 'left': the Dems remain the 'lesser evil' in the minds of many, and that is the main stumbling block for the creation of a true worker's movement/party.

This perception is a major component in the Republican's across the board effort to diminish votes for the Democratic Party. Some of these measures, such as curtailing the Sunday church vote, are clearly aimed at black folks. But others are more general and some weigh most heavily upon older people, generally considered a Republican demographic. Why would they do that?

The Republicans are betting(and it's a good bet) that their base has more enthusiasm than the Dem's. While the reasons for this superior enthusiasm are stupid and ugly nonetheless it is pretty obvious. These dingbats will make the extra effort to support Good over Evil, God, or just plain personal aggrandizement(as they misunderstand it).

Whereas many Dem voters trudge to the polls and hold their nose to vote for The Lesser Of Two Evils. Where's the enthusiasm for that? Why make the extra effort? We've seen this movie, over and over. So making voting as effortless as possible is of paramount importance for the perceived Lesser Of Two Evils.

A solid worker's party, unattached to the ruling class, wouldn't have that problem, quite the opposite.
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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Re: Sympathy for the Devils...

Post by blindpig » Fri May 14, 2021 2:24 pm

Biden Administration to Restart Building US-Mexico Border Wall

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What happened to “The wall is racist?" Biden administration to resume construction on 13.4 ml of border wall in the Rio Grande Valley after pressure from local residents & politicians... | Photo: Twitter @VeBo1991

Published 13 May 2021 (15 hours 40 minutes ago)

President Biden had earlier decreed that work on the Congress-funded wall should cease as part of his flurry of executive orders after taking office on 20 January. This order included ending Trump's agreement with Mexico to accommodate asylum-seekers south of the border until their scheduled hearings came up.


U.S. President Joe Biden's administration will restart the construction of his predecessor Donald Trump's border wall. A report by Fox News on Thursday revealed that the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) would resume building a 13.4-mile stretch of the levee in the Rio Grande Valley in Hidalgo County, Texas. This announcement comes after pressure from residents and politicians demanding the flood of illegal immigrants crossing the border be stopped.

​The USACE stressed that the construction was on the river levee, not the wall itself — but conceded the work was being done to "support" the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency's infrastructure program.

​"Wall construction remains paused to the extent permitted by law. Per DHS, we’ve started critical work to repair the Rio Grande Valley’s flood levee, which was excavated to make way for the border wall. This remediation work will not involve expanding border barrier", the corps claimed.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said the work was intended to "protect border communities from physical dangers resulting from the previous administration’s approach to border wall construction", which it said threatened the area with "catastrophic flooding".

But just a month earlier, investigative journalists with Project Veritas exposed how dozens of illegal immigrants, including many children, were being kept in open-air, dirt-floored pens under a road bridge outside McAllen, Hidalgo County's largest city.

Early after taking office on January 20, Biden decreed that work on the Congress-funded wall should cease as part of his flurry of executive orders, which included ending Trump's agreement with Mexico to accommodate asylum-seekers south of the border until their scheduled hearings came up.

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Bid ... -0024.html

And there we go, 'the Joe we know'...In hindsight this will be recognized as part of a pattern: lull them asleep with deceptive rhetoric and proceed with 'business as usual'. The progressives in the Democratic Party will shuffle about, looking at their feet, mumbling, "Well, he ain't Trump". 'Lesser Evilism' is for the dumb, the complicit, the cowardly.
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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Re: Sympathy for the Devils...

Post by blindpig » Tue May 18, 2021 1:45 pm

Published on
Tuesday, May 11, 2021
byCommon Dreams
Biden Budget Would Send $1.3 Billion More to Israeli Military Than to Global Climate Programs: Analysis
A group of anti-war veterans said President Joe Biden's spending priorities indicate that he thinks "preserving apartheid is more important than fighting climate change."

byKenny Stancil, staff writer

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The body of a Palestinian man named Ahmed Al-Shenbari, who was killed during an Israeli raid on Beit Hanoun City, is taken to a mortuary on May 11, 2021 in Gaza. (Photo: Fatima Shbair via Getty Images)

As Israel continues its deadly assault on Palestinians throughout the occupied territories, a new analysis released Monday night shows that if congressional lawmakers in the U.S. approve the federal budget unveiled last month by President Joe Biden, the nation would give $1.3 billion more to the Israeli military than to the global climate response.

Although Biden has yet to release his official budget request for FY2022, he shared a preview, which was heavily criticized by progressives.

In his analysis, Stephen Semler, co-founder of the Security Policy Reform Institute, cited two excerpts from the White House's spending proposal (pdf):

"The discretionary request meets the climate emergency head-on, providing $2.5 billion for international climate programs." (p. 25)
"The discretionary request fully funds U.S. commitments to key allies in the Middle East, including Israel." (p. 26)
As Semler explained: "'Fully funds U.S. commitments to... Israel' includes giving the apartheid state $3.8 billion in annual military aid—$3.3 billion in 'base' bilateral security assistance plus another $500 million for missile defense systems—as outlined [in] the 10-year MOU the Obama-Biden administration reached with Israel in 2016."

In response to the analysis, Left Flank Veterans, a group of anti-war veterans, said Biden's spending priorities indicate that the president thinks "preserving apartheid is more important than fighting climate change."

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Semler wrote that "per the Paris accord (and science), U.S. financial contributions to the global climate response should be orders of magnitude higher."

Basav Sen, Climate Justice Project director at the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS), recently told Common Dreams that Biden's pledge to cut U.S. greenhouse gas emissions in half by the end of this decade "is far from enough," and encouraged the administration to "commit to paying our fair share for climate mitigation and adaptation in the Global South," calling current commitments "woefully insufficient."

"This isn't charity, this is responsibility," he explained. "As the world's largest cumulative greenhouse gas polluter, we owe this to Global South countries who are facing serious consequences of climate change even though they've contributed so little to its causes."

According to a recent analysis of "fair share" climate policies conducted by Friends of the Earth, ActionAid, and the Sunrise Movement, the U.S. should reduce its carbon pollution by 70% compared to 2005 levels by 2030, contribute at least $8 billion to the United Nations Green Climate Fund, and provide up to $3 trillion for green economic recovery and no-strings-attached debt relief in impoverished countries.

"Per international human rights law," Semler continued, "U.S. military aid to Israel should be zero."

Two weeks ago, Human Rights Watch released a report, based on over two years of research and documentation, that says the Israeli government's systematic oppression of Palestinians across Israel and the occupied territories amounts to crimes of apartheid and persecution.

Progressives in recent days have denounced the Biden administration for refusing to condemn Israel's deadly airstrikes on Gaza and for failing to hold Israel accountable after its security forces invaded the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound to attack peaceful worshipers, which was part of a broader assault on Palestinians who are protesting settlers' attempts to expel Palestinians from the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in occupied East Jerusalem.

"That Biden is prepared to fail so spectacularly on both [mitigating the climate emergency and opposing potential war crimes] warrants a unified response from the Congressional Progressive Caucus about what they plan to do once Biden drops his official budget request," Semler added.

Lindsay Koshgarian, the program director of the National Priorities Project at IPS, told Common Dreams on Tuesday that "the sum of $2.5 billion in international climate aid, compared to more than $3 billion in military aid to a single country, would be laughable if it weren't so dangerous."

"These are the budget priorities of the past," Koshgarian added. "There's an opportunity right now for the U.S. to put its money where its mouth is. Can we invest more to save the world than we invest in arming it? Can we value human rights enough that we restrict our dollars from subsidizing human rights abuses like the system of apartheid and forced evictions happening today in Israel?"

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/ ... e-programs

Whodda thunk, huh? The Joe we know, laughing up his sleeve while the progressives bleat like sheep.
An old woman was walking down the road whan she saw a gang of thugs beating a poisonous snake. She rescued the snake and carried it back to her home, where she nursed it back to health. They became friends and lived together for many months. One day they were going into town and the old woman picked him up and the snake bit her. Repeatedly. "O God," she screamed, "I am dying! Why? I was your friend. I saved your life! I trusted you! Why did you bite me?"

The snake looked up at her and said, "Lady, you knew I was a snake when you first picked me up."
Lesser evilism bites again.
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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