Showing posts with label corporate Democrats. Show all posts
Showing posts with label corporate Democrats. Show all posts

Thursday, December 1, 2022

Dems History on railway strikes, Democrats Dithering on Railworkers’ Rights. The Left Just Forced Their Hand - Or Did They?

(nationalize the rails!) - DSA. I'd add nationalize health insurance while we're at it.

Republicans who voted to deny sick leave to rail workers have unlimited sick days themselves. See Newsweek, Republicans With Unlimited Sick Days Vote Against Time Off for Rail Workers.

Railworkers have understandably savaged Biden, while big business groups have sung his praises... Outgoing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi put out a similarly tone-deaf statement, patting Biden and his labor secretary on the back as “proudly pro-union” while hailing the contract they were forcing on railworkers as having “secured important advances for workers.” Pelosi lamely added some condemnation of railroad companies’ “obscene profits” for good measure, even as she made clear she was intervening firmly on the side of helping the carriers maintain those profits....Jacobin

I really believe the people in control of the Dem party may have just cost them any real chance of winning in 2024, leaving a pseudo pro labor policy open to Republicans on the right.

The request for Congress to impose contract terms that several unions had rejected rankled rank-and-file members who had rallied behind the president.... While some rail workers have weighed in on social media with calls for illegal wildcat strikes should Congress impose the agreement, local union officials said that such strikes are unlikely, and they were not aware of any meaningful effort to organize them. Much more likely, they said, is an accelerated flow of workers out of an industry that, according to federal regulators, has lost nearly 30 percent of its employees over the past six years.

Mr. Kindlon, the electrician in New York, said he had already accepted a job in another industry after more than 17 years of railroad work. “I’m telling you now, as soon as Congress decides to jam this contract down the BMWED and BLET and SMART guys’ throats, you will see a mass exodus like no mass exodus from any industry ever,” he said, alluding to some of the unions involved. “It’s going to be like having a strike without having a strike.”

Truman orders army to seize control of railroads - Aug 25, 1950

On August 25, 1950, in anticipation of a crippling strike by railroad workers, President Harry S. Truman issues an executive order putting America’s railroads under the control of the U.S. Army, as of August 27, at 4:00 pm. Truman had already intervened in another railway dispute when union employees of the Chicago, North Shore and Milwaukee Railway Company threatened to strike in 1948. 

Truman did veto the Taft-Hartley Act, a 1947 U.S. federal law that extended and modified the 1935 Wagner Act. It prohibits certain union practices and requires disclosure of certain financial and political activities by unions. The Wagner Act of 1935 gaveth and TH of 47 tooketh away.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taft%E2%80%93Hartley_Act - 

The Labor Management Relations Act of 1947, better known as the Taft–Hartley Act, is a United States federal law that restricts the activities and power of labor unions. It was enacted by the 80th United States Congress over the veto of President Harry S. Truman, becoming law on June 23, 1947.

Taft–Hartley was introduced in the aftermath of a major strike wave in 1945 and 1946. Though it was enacted by the Republican-controlled 80th Congress, the law received significant support from congressional Democrats, many of whom joined with their Republican colleagues in voting to override Truman's veto. The act continued to generate opposition after Truman left office, but it remains in effect.

The Taft–Hartley Act amended the 1935 National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), prohibiting unions from engaging in several unfair labor practices. Among the practices prohibited by the Taft–Hartley act are jurisdictional strikes, wildcat strikes, solidarity or political strikes, secondary boycotts, secondary and mass picketing, closed shops, and monetary donations by unions to federal political campaigns. The amendments also allowed states to enact right-to-work laws banning union shops. Enacted during the early stages of the Cold War, the law required union officers to sign non-communist affidavits with the government.

The Dem Left speaks:
Ro Khanna: Am I missing something here? Why wouldn’t the rail companies just allow workers to have paid sick days? The new agreement only gives them 1. That’s absurd. We need to stand with workers. This is not complicated.
Bernie more on message:
The corporate greed never ends. Last year, the rail industry made a record-breaking $20 billion in profits after cutting their workforce by 30% over the last 6 years. Meanwhile, rail workers have ZERO guaranteed paid sick days. Congress must stand with rail workers.
Here at Ed Notes, we've explored the Dem Party connections to center/right policies despite a more active left flank over the past few years - a left flank that has not often used its potential power. I always note that our  own UFT leadership is and has been lined up with the right center of the party. Witness the regenerative pro-corporate Mulgrewcare MedAdv. Dems tail the public - Mulgrew undermines Medicare the public option - which the public supports - right in line with Dem Party.
 
Biden talked about how a strike would cripple the economy but said nothing about how the workers are often crippled by the industry where profits, stock buybacks, cuts to working staff etc are operative. Has the UFT made a statement in support of sick pay for the workers yet?

Now the Dems put forth a bill to stop the strike but instead of including the sick days they put forth a separate bill - so forcing them back to work will pass but the other one is in doubt despite some support from the tiny Republican so-called pro worker Rubio and Hawley. I think they are full of bullshit in trying to take advantage of the fact Dems have been hemorrhaging union rank and file support:

Marco Rubio slams Biden's shutting down a rail strike for workers who want more paid sick leave: 'I will not vote to impose a deal that doesn't have the support of the rail workers'...

His tweet is informative - The railways & workers should go back & negotiate a deal that the workers,not just the union bosses,will accept But if Congress is forced to do it,I will not vote to impose a deal that doesn’t have the support of the rail workers.

"As a proud pro-labor President, I am reluctant to override the ratification procedures and the views of those who voted against the agreement," Biden said. "But in this case – where the economic impact of a shutdown would hurt millions of other working people and families – I believe Congress must use its powers to adopt this deal." Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg echoed Biden's sentiment. The pro-business US Chamber of Commerce has estimated that a strike could cost the economy $2 billion a day and bring a slew of services to a standstill.

Pete just fucked himself for a presidential run. And Biden cannot be pro-labor. All virtue signalling. Midterms are over so screw them.
 
Biden and Dems in essence back industry and Rubio and Bernie back workers? WTF.

Michael Paul Lindsey, a locomotive engineer in Idaho and steering committee member for Railroad Workers United, told Insider it was a "blatant betrayal" but he wasn't surprised.

"I thought it was kind of laughable that anyone would think that either the Democrats or the Republicans actually cared. Bottom line, they care about money," he said.

Even so, he added, "there was always that hope in the back of my mind that maybe someone would do something that was actually right for the American worker for once — instead of just what's right for corporate America."

 I just saw on twitter:
 
Dems tail public
Americans say the rights of rail workers should be prioritized above economic growth in the handling of the rail strike, 39% to 33%, even when told a strike would harm the U.S. economy, per YouGov.
 
Image
 

Robert Reich: The one thing you need to know about the railroads -It's not that a rail strike would be bad for the economy --
- legislation effectively prohibiting a strike would impose unfair working conditions on employees in one of the most profitable industries in America — further tilting the nation’s economic imbalance toward large corporations and Wall Street, and against working people. Here, a concentrated industry has gained record profits by understaffing — squeezing its workers to the breaking point. Prodded by Wall Street, the big rail companies have intentionally gutted their own spare capacity. Union Pacific, the largest publicly traded US railroad, paid its investors more than $41 billion in dividends and share buybacks over five years through 2021. In the first six months of 2022, it heaped an additional $5 billion on them. Why are railroads so profitable? Largely because they’re spending so little on labor.

The Jacobin article below has some hope. I'd bet they are forced back with no more sick days -- you can't part corps from their money without a crowbar.

Branko Marcetic

Jacobin
 
Democrats were ready to throw railworkers to the wolves, letting even Republicans outflank them on labor rights. But thanks to a last-minute legislative push by Bernie Sanders and his allies today, railworkers may be getting the sick leave they’re demanding.
 

With the baby steps the Democratic Party’s taken toward a more economically progressive, pro-working-class politics over the last two years, it shouldn’t be forgotten that this is still a corrupt, out-of-touch party divorced from any such tradition. And with his loss in the 2020 Democratic primary, it’s easy to forget the value of Bernie Sanders’s continuing presence in American political life, especially the US Senate.

Yet the events of the past twenty-four hours should serve as reminders of both.

For the past week or so, Congress has been consumed by the prospect of a looming and potentially monumentally disruptive strike by railworkers, who have spent three years negotiating with rail carriers for a better contract, centered on their lack of rights to take paid time off work if they fall ill. After four unions representing more than half of the unionized rail workforce rejected a deal put together by President Joe Biden’s White House and a panel of experts that didn’t do enough to fix these grievances, labor secretary Marty Walsh and, eventually, congressional leaders themselves pushed for congressional intervention to end the stalemate, effectively by forcing railworkers to accept the deal anyway ― in the process, stripping the workers of leverage in negotiations. The whole episode came to a head yesterday.

In a statement on Monday calling for Congress to end the impasse, Biden ― the self-proclaimed “most pro-union president leading the most pro-union administration in American history” ― misleadingly hailed the White House–brokered deal that cut the legs out from under railworkers as a grand victory agreed to “by both sides.”

Casting himself as a “proud pro-labor president,” he stressed the potential economic downsides of a rail strike to explain why he was reluctantly overriding “the views of those who voted against the agreement” ― meaning, striking railworkers ― and rejected letting Congress modify the deal for workers’ sake, claiming “any changes would risk delay and a debilitating shutdown,” even though unions set the strike deadline for December 9, nearly two weeks after he put out the statement. Ironically, the president has ended up to the right of where he was in the 1990s, when the then senator Biden was arguably at the terrible peak of his neoliberal transformation yet nonetheless voted against letting Congress end a major rail strike. Railworkers have understandably savaged Biden, while big business groups have sung his praises.

Outgoing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi put out a similarly tone-deaf statement, patting Biden and his labor secretary on the back as “proudly pro-union” while hailing the contract they were forcing on railworkers as having “secured important advances for workers.” Pelosi lamely added some condemnation of railroad companies’ “obscene profits” for good measure, even as she made clear she was intervening firmly on the side of helping the carriers maintain those profits.

This was more or less the position of other prominent Democrats: expressions of regret and even condemnations of corporate greed meant to mask the fact that they were intervening on the side of the corporate profiteers. The House’s number two Democrat, Steny Hoyer, insisted he was “sympathetic to the issue of sick leave” and thought “the labor unions make a very valid case” as he lined up behind the White House. Even otherwise pro-worker Democrats like Elizabeth Warren, Sherrod Brown, and Kirsten Gillibrand ― who had rebranded herself as a progressive in order to run for president in 2020 ― borrowed from this playbook as they made clear they would go along with Biden’s plan. Transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg, meanwhile, didn’t even bother with this formality, simply saying it was “vitally important” for the thing to pass due to the “devastating impacts on our economy.”

A more common response was to do as the number three House Democrat, Representative Jim Clyburn, did and simply ignore the matter entirely. By yesterday late afternoon, prominent Democrats like Cory Booker, Ed Markey, and ex–presidential candidate Amy Klobuchar ― who had seen fit to tweet that afternoon about the United States winning its soccer World Cup match and an elderly retiree hiking the Appalachian trail ― hadn’t said a single thing either way. The ranks of Democrats staying silent on the situation unfortunately included a number of high-profile progressives, including “Squad” members Ilhan Omar and Ayanna Pressley, and Illinois progressive Chuy García.

The political malpractice on display here became clear when several Republicans used it as an opening to posture as pro-worker. Ted Cruz called railworker demands for sick leave “quite reasonable,” while, more significant, Marco Rubio put out a subtly union-bashing statement calling for both sides to “go back and negotiate a deal that the workers, not just the union bosses, will accept” and affirming he would “not vote to impose a deal that doesn’t have the support of the rail workers.”

Likewise, Josh Hawley, who has moved to brand himself as a pro-worker populist in advance of a planned 2024 run, stated that workers “said no and then Congress is gonna force it down their throats at the behest of this administration.” Even Colorado Democrat John Hickenlooper, hardly a progressive firebrand, saw which way the wind was blowing and affirmed that “any bill should include the SEVEN days of sick leave rail workers have asked for.”

In other words, several Republicans and a guy who drank fracking fluid were to the left of the “most pro-union president” in history.

Left-Wing Pushback

This abysmal state of affairs was injected with a modicum of hope thanks to the small but significant presence of left-wing lawmakers in Congress, whose pushback against the Democratic leadership’s move was led by Sanders in the Senate.

Sanders had made clear for months he would back whatever decision railworkers made and had criticized billionaire Warren Buffet ― who owns the parent company of BNSF Railway ― earlier this week, pointing out that “in one day, Mr. Buffett made twice as much money as it would cost to guarantee fifteen paid sick days a year to every rail worker in America.” More important, while Democrats got in line behind the president and party leadership, Sanders ― who had withheld his support for the president’s agreement for months and blocked Republicans’ earlier attempts to ram the inadequate deal through ― criticized the plans and made clear he’d block any such legislation until seven paid sick days for railworkers were included.

He was joined by a number of other left-wing lawmakers, like “Squad” member Jamaal Bowman, who called it “an inhumane deal being pushed onto workers even after a majority voted it down.” Fellow “Squad” members Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (“If Congress intervenes, it should be to have workers’ backs and secure their demands in legislation”), Rashida Tlaib (“I stand with rail workers”), and Cori Bush (“I will not support a deal that does not provide our rail workers with the paid sick leave they need and deserve”) also took the side of workers.

Before long, Sanders made plans to introduce an amendment in the Senate to the legislation mandating seven days’ worth of sick leave for the railworkers, joined by Bowman doing the same in the House, daring Republicans to vote against it. “Look, you have a number of Republicans who claim — claim — to be supporters of the working class,” Sanders told Chris Hayes last night. “Well, if you are a supporter of the working class, how are you going to vote against the proposal which provides guaranteed paid sick leave to workers who have none right now?”

These efforts rapidly rearranged the political terrain, with Pelosi suddenly and subtly shifting her position late in the day and announcing plans to allow lawmakers to vote today to add the seven days of paid sick leave to the agreement. Previously silent lawmakers like García expressed support for the move. It all culminated in the House passing the seven-day sick leave amendment just now by a vote of 221-207, with all Democrats and only three Republicans voting in favor.

Despite the dearth of House GOP support for the measure, Republican senator John Cornyn had earlier predicted it could get the required GOP support needed to reach sixty votes in the Senate, because “there will be a lot of sympathy for providing sick leave for workers.” In many ways, this is something of a repeat of events at the close of 2020, when Sanders and other progressives in Congress, with the belated aid of Hawley, forced the foot-dragging then-president Donald Trump, president-elect Biden, and Democratic leadership to all reluctantly back another round of stimulus checks. But whether progressives will succeed here is an open question and one that’ll largely depend on how many Republicans see it in their political interest, as they did when they just voted to legalize marriage equality, to move to the center, away from their long-standing hostility to workers’ rights.

Whatever happens, this has been another sign of the modest but significant political shift that’s taken place in US political life thanks to both the larger prominence of Sanders and his progressive allies in Congress, and the resurgence of labor militancy and an organized socialist movement in recent years. Forty years ago, a Republican president dealt a terrible blow to the union movement by breaking an air traffic controllers’ strike. Decades later, Republicans may force a Democratic administration into a more pro-worker position by following the lead of an openly socialist senator.

Branko Marcetic is a Jacobin staff writer and the author of Yesterday's Man: The Case Against Joe Biden. He lives in Chicago, Illinois.

Open letter from railroad workers united:

https://www.dsausa.org/statements/dsa-stands-in-solidarity-with-rail-workers/?fbclid=IwAR2wqgCR7GDJeymZEy6PBE2uOP4ddn6GOSrYtOX_flRI9GILKqbt1ij0LXA

DSA Stands in Solidarity with Rail Workers

The Democratic Socialists of America call on Biden and members of Congress to force the billionaire railroad bosses to accept workers’ demands. Short of that, railroad workers must not be denied the right to strike. The Tentative Agreement has been rejected by members of the Maintenance of Way Union (BMWE), Sheet Metal and Rail Union (SMART-TD), Signalmen (BRS), and Boilermakers union (IBB), and though some union ratification votes supported it, the approval margins were narrow. All rail unions have pledged to honor the picket line in the event of a strike.

The billionaire bosses of the five largest railroads have paid themselves $200 million over the last few years. This profit has been made off the backs of workers, who are not even guaranteed a single paid sick day in their contract, risk being fired for unscheduled absences, and are forced to work long hours with short notice. Workers should control the conditions of their workplace! They should be able to work with dignity and at a pace that does not mandate exhaustion or sacrifice their health. The power of this unionized workforce comes in their ability to strike if their demands are not met, and yet President Biden is asking Congress to preemptively deny them the right to legally strike. It is exceedingly rare for a president to intervene to prevent a strike against private companies, and it is not the workers but the bosses of these private rail carriers who are threatening our national economy. Rail carriers have formed an oligarchical cartel that controls the supply chain. 

Exhausting conditions overburden rail workers and staffing rates continue to decline. Longer, more dangerous trains risk derailments that threaten workers’ lives and the safety of our communities. Price-gouging shippers causes costs to be passed to working-class consumers already suffering from rising cost of living. These oligarchs are counting on Congress to force a deal that will only exacerbate existing supply chain issues and cause further economic distress for the entire working class, all so billionaires can continue to rake in profits. 

Any member of Congress who votes yes on the tentative agreement is siding with billionaires and forcing a contract on rail workers that does not address their most pressing demand of paid sick days. Democrats claim to want to save democracy. There’s nothing more democratic than workers having a say over their own lives. By refusing to side with workers and respect their vote to reject a bad deal, the Democrats will create an opportunity for the Right to fill that void with false promises and further drive working people from politics during particularly crucial moments. 

We know no matter what party is in office, true power comes from organizing workers. Our focus should not be on the disruptions to business as usual but rather on the injustice that these workers have faced for years. As socialists, we know the resolve of these workers will be the only way forward to saving this country’s infrastructure (nationalize the rails!) and most importantly, securing dignity at the workplace in an industry that keeps the rest of the country afloat. The Democratic Socialists of America stands in solidarity with the 125,000 railroad workers fighting for a better quality of life: a fair contract or a strike! 

 

Tuesday, November 8, 2022

What's Wrong with the Democrats as Disaster Looms for Climate, democracy, the economy, and yes, crime

I took a short drive to the hardware store yesterday. A few blocks into my trip there was a man and a woman on each corner waving big Zeldin and other local Republican banners at the cars going by. My neighborhood is flooded with Republican signs. i saw one Dem sign. This is still NYC. I see big Republican enthusiasm and none for Dems. The Iceberg is looming - deck chairs, anyone?

I am not a member of any organized political party. I am a Democrat....Will Rogers
Zeldin is poised to perform better than any New York Republican in decades. His lawn signs are everywhere and Hochul’s are nowhere. The first presidential campaign I ever covered was 2016, and there are unsettling parallels between this race and Trump v. Clinton, how one base was clearly more enthused than the other, how airy and detached Democrats sometimes seemed from all of it.  .. Ross Barkan
Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2022 - Day of the Dead
The Mood of Democrats today

With a tornado about to hit Dems expect even more disorganization. As leftie Dem I have a lot of issues, contrary to Republican screams about socialism, the center right very anti-left forces that control the party. Dems pine for the old Republican Party they worked so well with because fundamentally, most elected Dems come from the same place politically as the old Rockefeller Republicans. Dems may suck in many ways but Rep triple suck. Name one solution Rep have for any of the problems.

On the other hand, Dems and Reps solution to inflation is the Fed raising rates and driving people out of work and thus lowering wage demand -- yes, make the workers pay but left corps off the hook.

Corp Dem Mulgrew tries to be Joe Namath and sell us on Medicare Avantage - UFT should have hired Namath
Let me point out right up front that as a left critic of our own center right Dems who control the UFT, nothing strikes me as more Republican/Right center Dem than Mulgrew's attempt to force us out of the public option known as Medicare and into a privately managed system of Medicare Advantage. Think of the mentality of national Dems and Unity Caucus just in regards to the healthcare issue. Mulgrew accepts that costs will rise drastically even if due to profit making, high exec salaries, high advertising costs - Joe Namath ads, etc. Mulgrew, instead of standing up for us and calling out this profit making, does a selling job for them - he's the Joe Namath of the MLC.
  • Unity Caucus is the epitome of Dem Party Central an echo on policy which is why they talk Medicare for All but never act on it
Diane Ravitch has post after post pointing out why we must vote Dem - I agree - she also has this: Connecticut: The Biggest Charter Scandal Of All Time. Connecticut is a Dem state. For many of us on the left Dems are the only option but we don't vote with the enthusiasm shown by the right. That suppresses voter turnout. There are Zeldin lawn signs all over my Rockaway neighborhood - along with the other Republican local slugs running. Same on Long Island. One brave soul on my block put up a Greg Meeks lawn sign. Dems don't seem to believe in lawn signs.

I heard a story of a teacher who is left wing but worried about election and was making calls for Hochul -- she said the entire operation was disorganized as per Will Rogers. Dems are massively disorganized, especially on message but also at the state levels. Florida Dem party is a disaster, turning a swing state red. Fuckn Charlie Christ?

Sean Patrick Maloney has been endemic to Dem ineptitude and I have been thinking evil thoughts about some joy in him losing. But when I heard one of my go to people - Sam Seder, Majority Report, say if the Dems had to lose the House he wouldn't mind seeing Maloney lose -- my thoughts exactly.

Republicans and the right are seriously organized with an immediate on message attack mechanism that threatens democracy, the economy (Republicans have no answers), the climate disaster, a willingness to wreck the world economy because the evangelical base is looking forward to Armageddon. The right is fighting at the school board level. Dems have no response.

I've even entertained more evil thoughts that if the Dems lost real big it would prove the Republicans have no solutions other than mayhem and maybe wake Dems up -- but nahhh, they will seek to blame the left. Or Russians. Hillary, you know, made no mistakes.

But I don't need mayhem at this point in my life --- crashing the global economy and wiping out our pensions will not be fun. Would a massive loss lead to a reawakening of Dems -like It's the economy, stupid? Yes, they will find a way to blame Bernie Sanders and the left -- which has been quiet like mice.


Some major trends over the past 60 years that have put the Democratic Party, facing a red wave in the mid-terms, in a box. And never forget that our own beloved Unity Caucus machine and its NYSUT and AFT counterparts are attached to Dem Party central.

Naturally the race issue lost the Dems the south since LBJ's Civil Rights Acts. And race has continued to play a role. But what to make of the fact that the Dems are even beginning to lose people of color - Hispanic, Asian and even black working class - and to some extent the black business class. 

But I also blame the neo-liberalism in the Dem party that took hold after Reagan won and has lasted 40 years. The idea that led Dems to be willing to support MedAdv over Medicare and charters over public schools and a free market that allowed millions of jobs to go abroad in the interests if cheap goods but at the cost of social infrastructure that has led to the rise of Trump. Clinton and Obama were endemic. Now they race around trying to save the party from the massive defeat they helped set the stage for.

Neo-liberalism mentality has undermined the message of the Democratic Party as they - and not just white working class.

The lack of focus from Democrats on the economy and inflation comes as recent polls from the Washington Post and Monmouth University found that the top two most important issues among voters are the economy and inflation — far outpacing abortion... The Lever

The only explanation for [Democrats] political malpractice [in not holding Republicans accountable for anti-worker policies] is fear of making promises they might have to keep.... Krystal Ball
Disaster on horizon with safety net, climate, democracy on the block when Rep win
 
Republicans have been trying to get rid of the FDR socialist program known as social security since 1936 and the LBJ socialist Medicare (for seniors who reach 65) and Medicaid for the poor since implemented in the mid-60s. Getting rid of them means some form of privatization. The problem for Democrats is that at times they have been willing to go along with aspects of the program. Remember how Biden and Obama were ready to deal on entitlements?
 
There's a pretty good chance Hochul may lose and the Dem Party and the UFT will be in deep shit. All we hear from Hochul is abortion. I get a call an hour from the UFT telling me to vote Dem. I got one I answered and had a nice conversation with Jill, a retiree who hates the idea of Mulgrewcare but spends weeks calling people all over the country. I told her hearing Mulgrew leave us messages on how to vote probably costs the Dems votes. 

Dems spend 4x as much on abortion issue ads than on the economy, as I echoed Bernie Sanders in this Oct. 17 post:
It's the economy stupid - Bernie TRASHES Dems for ...
I linked to these articles:  Dems Barely Messaging On Economic Issues
 
Someone left this anon comment: Old white guys: abortion is not important. 
Well, this election will prove that it is not old white guys who think other things are important. I responded: If you want to win - it's the economy stupid. Look where abortion finishes in the polls. And there's nothing dems can do about it other than the state level. Fact is healthcare issue affects the most people. And want to know something else -- people don't care if there is our version of democracy where the politicians are owned by corporates. They will settle for dictatorship -- After this election it's over for Dems. Republicans will never let them win another election. And most Dems will sit on their hands and whine about it but as long as they are left a slice of the pie it is fine.
 
Note how the commenter makes it seem as if I said abortion is not important -- I said it's not the only thing. Reminds me of when I worked with people who always put race at the top -- I said it was important but not the only thing. I was called a racist.
 
Dem Party central and Unity Caucus will still be in business even after a Republican landslide. In some ways seeing the Dem Party go extinct - which it has in so many states and even in large swaths of blue states - may lead to something else. But what else?
 
I've grown to despise the consultant class that has such influence of the Democratic Party. Despite the Republican loony society branding Democrats as socialists the reality is the party is under the control of right of center Dems - what used to be the liberal wing of the Republican Party -- the neo-liberal philosophy of anti-labor unions (they restrict the beloved market forces), supporting the movement of American industrial jobs to China, Mexico, etc where workers are paid bupkus, and a list of transgressions too many to name. 
 
There is hysteria abounding before the probable end of democracy as we know it, not only due to anti-democratic moves by Republicans but because as they gain control I see a massive economic disaster coming as the cut budgets and taxes and take away the safety net - including social security and Medicare. Oh, am I talking about Michael Mulgrew? I accuse him and his Unity gang of fundamentally supporting Republican (and most Dem) attempts to move Medicare into private hands. 
 
Now those of us on the left who criticize Dems for being neo-liberals get attacked for helping Republicans win.  
 
A massive loss may kill Biden 2024 candidacy - but then who?
Pennsylvania Senate candidate John Fetterman has run an ad declaring that “our economy is a mess because of Washington — the rich, powerful, the insiders, and the lobbyists,” adding: “They set the rules, weakened our supply chain, and spiked inflation.”

Krystal and Sagaar went into of not Biden, who on Breaking Points yesterday -- they listed the usual suspects from last time - all a disaster. They didn't mention one - Tim Ryan - who I thought was a real attack dog on progressives last time. But if he's close in Ohio tonight, he becomes a 2024 candidate as many say he's run the best Dem campaign considering he's in a deep red state. I hated him then, but just to show how desparate we are, he would be my choice in 2024 - and if he wins by some miracle tonight -- may just be ambitious enough to primary Biden. After all, he once ran against Pilosi.

Wednesday, August 4, 2021

Nina Turner Loss, Cori Bush win on rent relief - Lessons for the left

I was so rooting for Nina Turner -Dem Party Goes After Nina Turner and Bernie Wing o... so it's a sad day. I wanted so bad to see her in Congress. But maybe in the real election next year. But then again Cori Bush activism was a winner.

Expect much gnashing of teeth from progressives over the Nina Turner loss but also much celebration over the Cori Bush win after her sleepout on the steps of the capitol forced the Bush admin to continue rent relief. The media won't connect the two and report mainly on the loss. MSNBC Morning Joe crew was positively glowing today while under reporting the Bush story.


Corporate media and Dems, following the celebration of the Eric Adams win in NYC, are overjoyed over the defeat of Nina Turner and the Bernie wing of the party in last night's primary.

NY Post: AOC-backed Sanders ally beaten in closely watched Ohio House primary

With 96.5 percent of precincts reporting, Brown led Turner by 4,380 votes out of more than 71,000 votes cast.

Yesterday began with a big celebration by the activist left over how Cori Bush and the Squad stood up Joe Biden and the Dem party central over it's disastrous handing of rent relief. Heather Cox Richardson reports:

...after pressure from progressive Democrats, especially Representative Cori Bush (D-MO), who led a sit-in at the Capitol to call for eviction relief, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that in counties experiencing high levels of community transmission of Covid-19, it is extending until October 3 the federal moratorium on evictions that ended this weekend. It is doing so as a public health measure, but it is also an economic one. It should help about 90% of renters—11 million adults—until the government helps to clear the backlog of payments missed during the pandemic by disbursing more of the $46 billion Congress allocated for that purpose.

One thing I've learned about many on the left -- celebrate and exaggerate the wins and blame the losses on corporate money - or the weather - or anything. Center/right/corp Dems push the idea that the majority of voters, particularly in the Black community, don't support the left. At least the older, more conservative church-going faction. But Cori Bush defeated one such black incumbent with a lot of support in the 2020 primary. But lessons learned by corp dems -- they didn't want yet another Cori Bush in Congress so they pulled out all the stops in Cleveland.

The Cleveland primary makes that point. There were many centrist black candidates and corp Dems used the Biden strategy against Bernie -- unite behind one. And it worked -- this time -- there is another election next year and Nina my be back and doing a lot of campaigning -- starting today. Turnout was terrible and that was what brought Nina down.

David Sirota faces facts in this tweet:

@NinaTurner ran a brave campaign. More Dem voters supported her corporate opponent not just because an overwhelming amount of super PAC money was spent to destroy Nina, but also because in general more Dem voters want a corporate government than something else. This is reality.
I follow left wing alt media, which is so anti-corp Dem. I was listening to live reports from The Young Turks - TYT - and there was more than a bit of hysteria over the Turner loss -- with a semi-attack on the voters -- the black voters - who chose corp Dems over Turner. When Bernie lost to Biden there was a lot ot crying on the left over how dare the corp dems unite -- Bernie could have won if they split the vote - as he did in early primaries with 30% -- but they ignore the reality that if you add up the non-Bernie vote it pretty much comes to about a third.

Some of this racial dynamic plays out in the UFT, where Unity Caucus attracts a significant portion of older Black UFTers. Younger Black teachers, if they are active, are also being recruited by Unity and if they are progressive, will go to MORE. Or do outside UFT activism if turned off by MORE/DSA left rhetoric. That will be an interesting dynamic.

I also follow corp media - Punchbowl covers Congress -- now watch how they report the Cori Bush story -- give her some credit but give Pelosi most of the credit -- as if she gave a shit until Bush embarrassed her.

[UPDATE NOTE 1- I complained about the coverage and received this from Jake Sherman - hi Norm -- We covered this extensively in our midday and PM editions. Only problem is those versions behind pay wall - so if a tree falls in a forest -- etc.

UPDATE NOTE 2: More from Puncbowl which did cover Cori Bush in its free morning update on Tuesday --Here is a follow-up with their full report - The Left wins one - Punchbowl - Rep. Cori Bush is winning]

]

Happy Wednesday. We wanted to bring you a little bit more on the backstory of how the White House completely reversed its position from “We can’t issue a new eviction moratorium” to “We’re going to issue a new eviction moratorium.”

There’s no doubt that Reps. Cori Bush (D-Mo.), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Mondaire Jones’ (D-N.Y.) public pressure campaign -- which included Bush camping out on the Capitol steps for five days -- was key to creating the political environment for Biden’s decision. With so much anger from the left, inaction wasn’t an option.

Yet behind the scenes, Speaker Nancy Pelosi played a pivotal role. She helped convince the Biden administration to issue a revised moratorium that lasts until Oct. 3, despite possible legal challenges from landlords. The previous moratorium expired on July 31, leaving millions of  families facing possible eviction and causing an uproar among progressives.

Over several days, Pelosi engaged in a frantic round of phone calls and lobbying, pressing President Joe Biden and senior White House officials to respond. Pelosi spoke directly with Biden three times over the weekend and into Tuesday, making a case that the White House found compelling. Pelosi was adamant the president needed to move unilaterally and insisted the Delta variant presented a new public health emergency.

Pelosi argued the White House didn’t need to issue a national moratorium but should rather focus on halting evictions in areas where the CDC was recommending masking. That way, the two public health emergencies overlapped for the agency, according to people familiar with the arguments Pelosi made to Biden, White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain and Steve Ricchetti, a counselor to Biden.

During one conversation with Pelosi, Biden said his legal advisers were warning him that he couldn’t extend the moratorium due to a June 29 Supreme Court ruling. The high court had let the moratorium stand in a 5-4 decision, but Justice Brett Kavanaugh said the CDC had “exceeded its existing statutory authority” and Congress must act to extend the ban. Biden asked Pelosi if she had any legal experts with a different take. Pelosi provided Biden with several names, including Laurence Tribe, the well-known Harvard Law professor. Tribe also has a long friendship with Klain, himself a Harvard Law grad. Tribe encouraged White House officials to move ahead with the revised moratorium. 

When Biden decided to make his announcement on Tuesday on the new moratorium, the first person he called was Pelosi, who’d just finished a caucus call with her members and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.

“Today is a day of extraordinary relief,” Pelosi said in a statement released by her office. “Thanks to the leadership of President Biden, the imminent fear of eviction and being put out on the street has been lifted for countless families across America. Help is Here!”

Cori gets one line. A joke.

And here's another celebratory anti-left article from the 

NYT: On Politics: Kyrsten Sinema vs. the Left

Wednesday, June 30, 2021

Clyburn/Big Pharma and Corporate Dems join Our union in Proxy War On Medicare For All - The Daily Poster

Let's refer to our UFT/AFT leadership as corporate Dems and question whether Big Pharma money has infiltrated the unions as an explanation for their opposition to

public healthcare management and support for the privatize for profit industry.

In mid-June, Democratic congressional candidate Nina Turner launched a television ad campaign promoting her support for Medicare for All. Less than two weeks later, the pharmaceutical industry’s lobbyists and its bankrolled lawmakers on Capitol Hill are trying to block her election to Congress through an opponent who has been publicly vilifying Medicare for All amid the pandemic....  
The Daily Poster- Dems Launch Proxy War On Medicare For All.... Click here to become a paid subscriber

Wednesday, June 30, 8:30 AM - by Norm Scott

Good morning Medicare for all supporters and friends --- 

I'm taking the 10:15 Rockaway ferry to join and film the big (I hope) rally, march (or slow walk) up Broadway to City Hall.

Let's keep in mind that the UFT/AFT/NYSUT leaderships are wholly owned subsidiaries of the corporate Democrats. Even most of the squad don't use that term enough but Jamaal Bowman used it on CNN recently. And AOC has flirted with it re: Joe Manchin. It's time to use corp dems for Randi, Mulgrew and the rest of the Unity slug machine. What a contrast between Jamaal and Clyburn.

Many on the left have been triggered by the attempts to gang up on Bernie pal Nina Turner who is running in the August primary for Congress in Cleveland and scares the hell out of corp dems --- I maintain they prefer Marjorie Taylor-Greene. The day Hillary endorsed Nina's opponent, she raised the most money. Let's see what happens now as big Pharm pours it in. I think corp Dems and industry pals have decided to swat the left wing knats.

See Nina go at them: https://youtu.be/FVJQSOZDTCc

As a follow-up to yesterday's post --Are Municipal Unions Selling Out Retirees? Hell YES - Sirota has a follow-up upon the news that James Clyburn, who gets away with a lot because of his race, has joined other corp dems like Hillary Clinton to go after Bernie fave Nina Turner in her race to join The Squad. 

I contributed to Nina's campaign - join me: Can you make a $5 contribution to our campaign before our end of month deadline comes to a close? As long as we stick together, we’ll hit our goal and be ready for anything that comes our way before Election Day.

Sirota/Rock article 

Clyburn has vacuumed in more than $1 million from donors in the pharmaceutical industry — and he previously made headlines vilifying Medicare for All during the 2020 presidential primary.

,

Dems Launch Proxy War On Medicare For All

Dems bankrolled by Big Pharma are suddenly targeting Nina Turner right after she aired an ad touting Medicare for All.

https://www.dailyposter.com/dems-launch-proxy-war-on-medicare-for-all/

 

Thursday, June 10, 2021

AOC Slams Manchin as Chris Hayes ducks, March on Manchin - Multi-racial fusion coalition - Rev. William Barber: Manchin ABANDONED West Virginia - Manchin tool of corporate interests

Corporate money has a very tight grip on both parties - AOC on Chris Hayes - who changes the subject to attack McConnell - Dems are off the table for criticism.

Thursday, June 10, 2021

AOC appeared on MSNBC, the bastion of corp Dems with Chris Hayes and slammed the corp Dems while Hayes looked on like a deer in the headlights -- he made no comment and changed the subject. She exposes Manchin on his bi-partisanship as bullshit -- he has voted for non-bipartisan bills in the past. He is using it as cover for his corporate sponsor. She points out Koch  and The Heritage Foundation from the right are cheering for him out loud. "They are doing a victory lap over Manchin's refusal to change on the filibuster."

https://youtu.be/lN-oH3-fONo


Rev. Barber gets it. You can't build coalitions by focusing only on race but you can on the intersection of race and class. He replies to a question about how to build such a coalition in the heaviest pro-Trump state. He is building a coalition of all races based on common interests in one of the poorest states. The corp Dems silently cheer Manchin for obstruction in the interests of the corporations. That goes a far way to explain why Dems are dirt in a state that they used to dominate. Dems have abandoned them.



 

https://youtu.be/UEAJ4YxAb2k