And here is a little hate-list of the Democratic Senators who voted against Sanders’s ammendment to put $15.00 Federal minimum wage back in the Covid Relief Bill.
At the very least, they should be primaried for their next election. And if they win their primaries, they should at least be not-voted-for by people who consider their rejection of the Sanders ammendment to be unacceptable.
The lies and atrocious reporting around “$15 an Hour” have been lethal, and for that I blame Bernie and AOC as well as the cadres of Establishment Dem consultants and the gormless (but not really) economic press that likes to pretend the world will end if anything happens to improve the lot of the “losers.”
First, it’s not “$15 an Hour” the minute the measure passes “in the middle of a pandemic.” It may not even wind up $15 an Hour” at all. It’s $9.50 an hour next year and then gradual steps up to $15 in 2025. What’s so earth-shattering about that? Nothing. It barely registers on the minimum wage raise meter. I’m so old, I remember when $15 minimum wage was being advocated a decade ago. Then it was considered kinda-sorta radical, now it is considered apocalyptic. Why?
And guess what? The federal minimum wage is still $7.25, and it doesn’t cover whole categories of employment. In other words, there’s been no progress at all, and there’s not going to be during this Congress, either. Yet another opportunity wasted.
Second, all the self-owns and letting the Rs have this one are collectively acting to enforce even greater levels of poverty and economic inequality for many Americans than was the case before the pandemic. Obviously, that is the plan, was the plan all along.
Bernie’s proposal was too modest by half. And without a coordinated political effort to make even that happen, we won’t see increased federal minimum wage in my lifetime. Good job, folx.
In some ways, the R alternatives (either $10 or $11) might have been better if they meant the increase would happen this year and further increases were tied to inflation but not limited by it.
apparently it is that hard, but state and municipal minimums have been rising.
the argument that price levels vary radically across the country is not without merit, though even $15 / hr is inadequate in places like my own state where that is already the state minimum.
The corruption of the Congressional Republicans works as follows: they vote as a block and as long as they continue to do so they will benefit from the legal bribery in our political system but they won’t have anyone crawling up their ass to try to find grounds to blackmail them unless they’re a Senate or House leader like McConnell who gives directions to the Republican block.
The corruption of the Congressional Democrats works like this: they are balkanized against acting in the interests of the U.S. working class and poor because they had the bribery and blackmail brothers, and Centerview business partners, Rahm Emanuel and Robert Rubin working their carrot-and-stick dark magic within the party. Emanuel worked in Congress and the executive office and probably used private Israeli intelligence companies and the Mossad to dig up and use dirt against democratic politicians and troublesome federal staff to blackmail them while Robber Rubin worked the kinder bribery side of their operations with all his Wall Street contacts (see Clinton, Bill). The Fed and financial markets are dominated by forces that ally themselves with Rubin and Emanuel.
Put the dynamics of the two parties together and there is absolutely nothing pro-worker of any significance that will ever pass through Congress that will benefit the vast majority of U.S. citizens and remove the heavy boot of capital and debt off of our necks. At least not before the country falls apart due to infrastructure breakdown and global warming.
That’s why Hawley is Enemy Number One of the group that Rubin and Emanuel represents and why they and their useful idiots call for Hawley to resign for the treason … ha ha ha, that’s an hilarious term coming from this group who doesn’t give one f*ck about this country … of giving an air-fist bump to the January 6th crowd before they broke into the Capitol Building. Mind you also that the air-fist bump was very likely done simply in acknowledgement to the crowd calling his name and that the media narrative about an armed insurrection busting into the Capitol Building with anything close to a cohesive plan to overthrow the government has been either totally squashed or walked back. None of it has been corroborated as far as I know. No one from the crowd was caught with weapons in the building. The zip tie guys actually found the zip ties in the Capitol Building. There has been no evidence that the cop who died was beaten or directly and purposefully murdered by anyone involved in the cosplay insurrection. Unfortunately for the crowd though their clown hero Trump, true to form, acted like a selfish coward and didn’t pardon them for taking part in a patriotic riot that he himself incited as president.
The only political way out of this vice grip is electing someone like Hawley as president, as flawed as he may seem. At least he has some romantic notion about the U.S. family and cares about the country in those terms while scumbags like Rubin and Emanuel don’t give one damn about this country at all. The U.S. worker and their family are just cattle to them and a commodity to be exploited to further their aims.
Therefore, our rulers primary political concern is that Hawley might become president and actually use the executive powers to benefit the U.S. family and go after Big Tech and, most importantly, our financial market overlords while there is absolutely no chance that a democratic presidential candidate will make it through the campaign financing structure and vetting process that Rubin and Emanuel have designed and installed within the democratic party. Hawley can bypass the “donor class” and appeal to the U.S. worker directly and that’s why they fear him the most and we get these ridiculous media campaigns to bury Hawley for the January 6th cosplay insurrection for the “treason” of giving the crowd an air-fist bump on his way into the building to do Congressional business.
Grim conclusion: There are no political solutions available to the abused U.S. working class and poor for the next four years unless they unite in a General Strike and force Biden/Harris to do something to mitigate it. In 2024 the only political solution presently fathomable is if Hawley gets elected as president.
In my opinion, there are no rational concerns that $15/hour may be too much to pay U.S. workers in some places because of variations in the costs of loving in the U.S. since $15/hour is really too low for someone to make a living working 40 hours a week in even the cheapest places to live in the U.S..
Adam Curtis has a new limited series documentary out that addresses some of the issues that keep cropping up in comment threads here. I’m a Curtis fan, periodically recommending The Century of the Self. The new one is Can’t Get You Out of My Head: An Emotional History of the Modern World, on YouTube. It’s about the failure of ideology and the decline of empires (American, Chinese, and Russian). And lots of other issues, too.
the argument that price levels vary radically across the country is not without merit
What costs, exactly, vary radically across the country?
The only one I’ve noticed varying radically is the cost of housing. Most other costs vary around 10% pretty much no matter where you are. (Hawaii and Alaska being exceptions).
If he was going to have a five year timeline, Bernie should have pressed for a $25 or even $30 minimum wage and compromised from that. But no.
$15 an hour is around $30,000 a year for full-time work. That’s almost enough to live modestly but decently in some places in the country, but certainly not enough to support a family, and in 2025 it will be worth approximately 10% less than $15 an hour now given targeted inflation.
We’ve heard the same sort of whining about any minimum wage or minimum wage increase since the first one in 1937. It will kill jobs, it’s a burden on small employers, it’s too much to pay young people, it’s too little to pay skilled workers, it interferes with Freedom!! and Markets!!! The dire predictions of calamity due to minimum wage or minimum wage increases have never come true. Whole categories of workers have been exempted from the beginning, and states have a lot of freedom to adjust minimum wages to suit their locality.
From a political standpoint, the failure to budge the federal minimum wage is a minor but telling disaster. From an economic standpoint, the failure is somewhat less important because of other means and methods of enhancing purchasing power though none are really adequate. But ultimately, the continuing failure to address the issue positively at the national level is yet another statement of policy that the “losers” making minimum wage don’t matter a bit.
>the argument that price levels vary radically across the country is not without merit
Meh. Prices vary slightly with the sole exception of housing, which outside of a handful of stupid areas really still barely varies at all. Gas prices are different, too, but again not “radically.”
It is always the lesser of two evils. On the Covid stimulus or $15/an hour, the Democrats want to give you half a loaf and the Republicans, the joke new working class party, won’t even give you the crumbs. And “give” is the wrong word here because these are things you have worked for or are entitled to as a citizen of this country.
With the Republicans, we have a return to McConnellism, the just say no to everything. With the Democrats, it’s some incomprehensible mishmash of $4oo/week to a family of four making under $80,000 a year until July, or possibly October.
The Democrats could and should be asking Americans, “Why do the Republicans hate you?” But then while the Democrats may not hate us, it’s clear they can’t even act like they care about us, let alone like us.
Benjamin Studebaker writes thoughtfully with an eye toward history, here, he turns on the WABAC and gives today’s “woke” Peabody & Sherman’s a lesson.
_______________________________
Are Declassed Professionals in the United States like Surplus Song Dynasty Civil Servants?
He famously quoted: “I didn’t leave the Democratic party, the Democratic Party left me.” Everybody here will say that this is their sentiment as well. But it’s 2021 and Reagan switched parties in 1962, well before any neoliberalism, peaceniks, “losing the South”, culture wars, or any of that. I’ve read a few opinion pieces claiming (or rationalizing) that the Republican party has actually left Reagan. But it doesn’t explain that his economics were clearly libertarian, while FDR was no libertarian.
Does anybody know what the hell Reagan was talking about?
Hugh, I read a few conservative blogs. They hate us for our demonic possession. And our Dunning -Kruger insanities which are so obvious they need no detailed explanations. And our love of Marxism. And our racism which favors criminal blacks over hardworking whites. And our desire to open the borders. And our need to be in cahoots with Communist China and Venezuela.
Oh wait. You meant progressives. I was talking about “liberals” and the DNC establishment. Progressives are far worse, called “pro-regressives”, whatever the hell that means.
I’m pissed off that the democrats have f*cked over the working class again but that being said I’m also glad that the political theatrics included the antics of Sinema who … probably peaking from the dopamine rush on the back end of her twice daily Adderall dose … produced a meme by performing an end-zone dance against the $15/hour minimum wage when she voted it down. Although, I am slightly disappointed that it didn’t include a twerk or two for her sponsors.
Sinema’s celebratory thumbs down on the $15/hour minimum wage can only further enrage young working U.S. citizens and they’re the ones who are most likely to revolt in some manner against the federal government that currently occupies the U.S. and is actively working to shorten their lifespans.
This planet’s youth simultaneously have the most to lose and the least to lose by fighting back and if our rulers weren’t on a greed-induced death march to exterminate all life on earth they’d might be wary of the danger in that dynamic.
Hugh is right that the Dems promise a half loaf, but fails to note they fail to deliver. The Reps oppose, the Dems favor ineffectually. And, the Reps are the ones in trouble with their electorate and donors, not the Dems. What is wrong with this picture is Hugh. He is all about holding the Dems to account “next time” never this time let alone for 30 years of betrayal and predation. No, Hugh was sure electing an authoritarian war mongering friend to credit cards, banksters and billionaires was the change we needed.
well, yes, Ché Pasa, rent varies — exactly right. and, as rent varies, it skews the whole matrix of consumer (final) prices, including the price matrix of labor services (wages), with implications for the purchasing power of any nominal wage rate, aka the “real wage”.
and, yes, the endless political struggle over whether there should be a minimum wage or what the nominal value of that wage should be involves an also endless discourse/dialogue with all kinds of predictable gambits: exemptions, exceptions, et cetera.
the framework of rhetorical conjecture for the effects and consequences of a minimum wage policy in use in the U.S. is neoclassical economics: wages and prices in this framework of reasoning are “market-determined”, determined in the first instance by imaginary conditions of competitive supply and demand, arising from an emergent background of primordial entrepreneurial energy and mysterious technology and consumer demand/needs/preferences (aka consumer sovereignty). this theory is the substrate for a political rhetoric of “free markets” given emotional frisson during the Cold War against the Communist Menace, in a time mostly forgotten. It was fused into the politics of neoliberalism, when “the left” as played by on the U.S. stage by liberal, credentialled professionals and professional managers, gave up their alliance with the working classes in the late 1970s, and embraced a neoliberal rhetoric of “market-solutions” and public-private partnership and Washington Consensus, while shipping jobs to China for fun and profit and running down the commonwealth of public goods (well-regulated financial sector, well-regulated pharma, well-regulated energy sector), public education, infrastructure.
i credit Sanders circa 2016 with choosing to campaign on the promise of a few simple policy goals, with the hope that he might re-awaken a consciousness of the possibilities of political power in the hands of a popular movement to achieve a more favorable distribution of income. $15/hr is getting old — its total inadequacy as a means of addressing the problems of an economy hollowed out by looting and dominated by giant monopolies cannot be exaggerated.
the hard-right of billionaire reactionaries funding a political infrastructure of academics, political operatives, lobbyists, politicians, media publishers and pundits won the long war for hearts and minds. destroying a great many minds in the process, I’d say. it is hard to imagine any popular movement today that was not idiocracy in motion.
the monopoly of thought established by the fusion of neoclassical economics and neoliberal politics remains a formidable obstacle. $15/hr is a case in point: it is popular but its proponents are frequently dumb-founded in devising arguments in its favor. We have not had a “market economy” for over a century, but no one on the left can talk a talk that references the structures of the economy we do have. the opponents have the law of demand (price goes up, demand goes down) they learned in high school or college, but the left has no mechanism in refutation, just a flat denial that that is the case. no mechanism makes it hard to argue out how the policy benefits all those it benefits.
the Dems failure to enact any promise of economic benefit to the lower orders is not surprising to anyone paying attention, but may be clarifying for any one entering the theatre late, i guess. still, a more elaborate policy program is needed and that would require a much more robust economics of the left and I do not see where that could come from. i used to think MMT had promise, but it seems increasingly like a bagman setup for the effects of the end of dollar dominance and ten years of asset inflation amidst financial deregulation.
Dem poseurs, beware Jimmy Dore! His verbal takedown of AOC over her failure to #forcethevote, wrt medicare for all, was one of the most devastating political commentaries I’ve ever heard. I recently heard him do similarly to Cenk Uygur, over his failure to twist arms in support of a minimum wage hike. He doesn’t hesitate to call Uygur a liar. Dore’s live youtube audience is larger than the Young Turks, even though they have 5 million subscribers. Dore also says you shouldn’t send Justice Democrats any money, though he helped them get started, with public exposure.
I wish there was somebody similarly entertaining, yet incisive, attacking the MAGA poseurs, especially Trump, from the right. Right now, Robert Barnes probably provides the most accurate criticism, but he’s not an entertainer. He also doesn’t facilitate activism, except through the legal system. I respect that, and it certainly aligns with his expertise, but we need to get the D and R jerks out of out of elected offices.
Tucker Carlson has called for primarying some Republicans, on at least a couple of occasions, but that falls far short a real, prolonged push to get disruptors elected.
Steve Bannon is probably the #1 media facilitator for getting Republican disruptors elected. He’s not funny, like Dore, and doesn’t have Dore’s gift for biting satire. He also kowtows excessively to Trump.
@Willy, Well, I would assume Reagan was talking about racism, since it was in the 60s that the Solid South switched teams. But history has never been my strong suit.
I see that Bruce Rauner had to make a $250,000 campaign contribution in order to get the Covid vaccine in Florida. I like how we have totally given up the pretense that we are a democracy and are now a full-blown banana republic.
Reagan’s career from the fifties on was being a spokesman for business. Before that, he had been a union man. He changed parties when the bucks were to be made with Republican business rather than Democratic unions. He believed what it was convenient and lucrative to believe.
Dore and his behind-the-scenes cohorts are brilliant at breaking down political and media lies. Some of the work he does could be used in a classroom, obviously without the over-the-top language and his insatiable celebrity ego. I enjoy Jimmy to a point and then it becomes too much for me, even allowing going in that it’s entertainment.
We know you’re the only one doing this now, Jimmy. You only need say it once or twice and then move on. But it’s me, me, me, me, me with Jimmy all the time.
Back to Jimmy!
Had enough off Jimmy yet?
That said, I’m glad he’s doing what he’s doing and I’ve learned a hell of a lot watching him. I’d like to see something similar done without all the celebrity nonsense. I realize ours is a celebrity culture and that sells, but there is a desperate need for straightforward analysis of the type Jimmy does, but in a non-entertainment manner. It needn’t be overly scholarly or academic, but it does need to be much less ego-based and less entertainment focused.*
*Although I do believe that in many cases ridicule is the only way to deal with the elite and their minions at this point. Constant ridicule and appeals to conscience, as one commenter over at ICH said years ago. But again, not so over-the-top.
bruce is at least consistent. He spends all his time attacking Democrats whether they are in power or not. And with his usual false equivalency, his once in a blue moon passing reference to Trump or the Republicans makes it all balance out.
@_S Brennan Studebaker’s brief essay is good! The snobbery involved makes an unremarked connection with Michael Lind’s critique of “woke” as snobbery. I am sure Studebaker would have little affection for Lind, but it is an interesting commonality of observation. Now if we can find alignment with Adam Curtis? . . . hmmm.
@ Reagan. Seems about right. Most people believe in what works for them, emotionally. Everybody else is just too dumb or inexperienced to have not figured it out. Happens to the best of us, myself included. But I’m still open to the possibility that a large pod was placed next to his bed as he slept, by libertarian operatives. It looked like Ron, it spoke like Ron… but it wasn’t Ron anymore.
Speaking of declassed professionals, Studebaker might as well have also been talking about blue collar workers or evangelicals who’ve turned Republican. The GOP is after all, the moral majority, family values, patriotic Christian party which only wants to make the Founders proud, before sending you to heaven while Democrats gnash their teeth in the other place.
I was thinking about bots and Russian trolls. So prevalent and so dangerous. How many times have you been playing devil’s advocate, or disagreeing with somebody, or just plain in a bad mood, and the other called you “a bot”? Not in exasperation, but as if they honestly believed that’s what you were? I mean seriously, have you ever seen a bot which could debate current politics, let alone just debate? I’ve seen recent videos about robots. Their verbal skills suck.
Even the most advanced AI isn’t that much better than Alexa on a good day. And Russian trolls and Russian troll farms. Who the hell came up with that shit? Maybe underemployed Russians really are that smart, but what’s in it for them? So they invest heavily in disrupting American politics. What’s the payoff motive? Do they sell more AK-whatevers to paranoid believers in an upcoming US civil war? Maybe they did accept Trumps money to help swing things in his favor. But beyond taking his money, what’s in it for them?
I’m gonna go ahead and put on my metamars conspiracy hat, and propose that “bots and Russian troll farms” are just a ruse, attempting to hide far more serious PTB Deep State machinations.
Hugh – – “[Bruce Wilder] spends all his time attacking Democrats”
The reason “Hugh” has this impression is that he is either at sub 1st-grade reading comprhension or…a man dedicated to being studiously ignorant as U Sinclair once pointed out “It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it”. The latter being far more likely, though, in fairness, Hugh has shown himself to be utterly lacking in comprehension even when it would advance his “blue no matter who” cause…
Nevertheless, Hugh, like R McNamara before him does a great job of wringing his hands over the outcome..without the slightest admission of guilt. Change that, McNamara at least admitted to being morally wrong..yes..yes..thirty years after it mattered…but surely superior to Hugh’s moral “character”..anyway…whose counting.
SB, isn’t there a riot of Trump fascists you’d rather be at? Some place where you can bemoan the inherent fraud in letting black and brown people vote?
”Trump “flipped” the balance of several appeals courts from a majority of Democratic appointees to a majority of Republican appointees.”
His picks were the whitest, most male, most conservative, most citizens united appointees we’ve seen in a long time. His three supreme court justices were the most by any one-term president since Herbert Hoover (though sad they didn’t help him stay president). Were they just as progressive as Herberts? You be the judge.
Donald Trump. Still the most progressive president since Gerald Ford, no matter what the Dems say.
Sure is unfortunate that so many people who “see through” the Dem’s bad acting end up following Reagan or Trump type politicians. That’s the real “horseshoe theory”. But it doesn’t matter anymore. The ratchet cycle downward is too hard to break within the US political and media system. And the belief in the american myth too ingrained. The founders consciously molded the nation with the model of the Roman late republic oligarchy; it slipped into empire and now late empire without anyone noticing (at least anyone who gets listened to). The climax of the story already passed. It’s just a matter of details in the final chapter(s).
Competitive Pole Dancing has been elevated/sublimated to an art form that not terribly sexual (ignoring the shoes, I guess). The videos I’ve seen on youtube show a level of grace and flexibility you’d expect of a professional dancer, with the strength of a gymnast.
Our rulers are already beginning their proliferation of propaganda about the dire need to balance the budget again and they’ve commissioned their bribed and blackmailed politicians and mainstream media mouthpieces to spread the word. We ought to know by now what’s coming next …
Uh-oh, and Fourteen Hundred Dollar and Zero Sense Joe’s sly smile is beginning to crease his refurbished face. He’s spitting into his palm …
And there goes Let Them Eat Shit Mitch! He’s leaning back now. A grin is reverberating down his five chins. He’s fumbling with his fly …
Oh, and here’s Jill. She’s turning away to her left and beginning an awkward conversation with a random stranger …
Uh-oh, and now there’s Elaine’s looking in her purse, pretending to search for her cellphone while she deftly deposits a handkerchief on Mitch’s knee …
And there goes Joe! He’s reaching across the aisle …
“Trump “flipped” the balance of several appeals courts from a majority of Democratic appointees to a majority of Republican appointees.”
Above, Willey assets that a court is “balanced” when his party is in charge. Hmmm…so I look up the word “balanced” to see if it has as a second/third definition that could fit the sentence above and sure enough, balanced can be interpreted to mean “to ones liking”:
_________________
balanced adjective
/ˈbælənst/
[usually before noun] (approving)
keeping or showing a balance so that different things or different parts of something exist in equal or correct amounts
_________________
So let’s try that sentence the way Willey [and author intended]:
“Trump “flipped” the correct proportion of appeals courts from a majority of Democratic appointees to a majority of Republican appointees.”
There, now what Willey and author are saying is clear, “fuck the US Constitution”. BTW, for our foreign or the uneducated readers, the US Constitution fails to mention a party preference or, for that matter, any political party, but that doesn’t stop Willey from asserting that dominion, that imperial right, the rule that the modern day neoD party must be the only party in power.
So now that we know that ‘blue no matter who” D’s are calling for a one party state, let’s proceed to Willey’s next editorial point:
“Trumps picks were the whitest, most male, most conservative, most citizens united appointees we’ve seen in a long time.”
On the Supreme court, Trump’s picks were 33% female, Obama 100%, Bush 0%, Clinton 0% so, what Willey meant by “a long time” was only one presidency…lie, deceit, dissemble…whatever, it’s Willey’s stick…along with a heaping spoonful of daily self-pity. When you are dealing with with Willey you gotta keep the kleenex handy, he’s still hurting from the time somebody at work didn’t treat him as nicely as he felt the man should. A daily occurrence for most of us but..for Willey it could lead to a break-down at any moment from his onetime brush with job-site disdain..oh the humanity of it! Anyway, the article does go on to say that Trump “appoint[ed] more women to the federal judiciary than any other GOP president”.
“Most conservative” yeah sure Willey, Brett Kavanaugh wrote the winning decision that gave the most discriminated group in the USA full civil rights. Brett Kavanaugh’s argument, which, outside of other justices received neither neoD-party nor media support was a stunning interpretation of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. I’ve written about the remarkable case here on at least three different occasions but, our NC’d commentariat, being largely privileged straight white men couldn’t care less..unless..the decision helped the “blue no matter who” cause and it most certainly didn’t. Besides, the gay white males in the neoD party have long advocated for the discrimination of transgenders, one has only to look at Barny Frank’s despicable record on the issue to show you that Brett Kavanaugh was far more progressive than the neoD base on the issue. But that doesn’t count because, what’s “fair” to neoD’s can be interpreted to mean “to ones liking”…see “balanced”.
And yeah, in trying to catch-up with Brett Kavanaugh’s position we have the odd situation of Biden calling for males who have gone through male puberty to be able to compete with women under Title IX. It’s hard to tell if this is cynical* move to undo the progress made under the Kavanaugh decision or…just gross stupidity…and I suspect the former as Biden has been the most socially conservative neoD party member for decades..indeed, his right-wing bonafides predate the hostile take-over of the then Democratic Party by the right-wing neocolonial, gilded-age-[sans-mercantilism]-economists.
*Poll after poll shows that, transgender civil rights has a 15-20% point spread women to men, Biden’s move is sure to fray that association.
So what was the name of Kavanaugh’s epic court case? The only recent one I know of was Bostock which barred sex discrimination in hiring against LGBTQ people. It was written by Gorsuch. The decision was 6-3 and Kavanaugh was one of the three no votes.
“Russian troll farms and bots” is a FUD ruse. This is how corporate-sponsored conservative agitprop works. But it’s hard to always try and not quack like a duck.
Unlike others here, who are always right, even when they plainly wrong, I stand corrected.
It was Gorsuch that Chief Justice John Roberts assigned to the task of writing the opinion based on the Civil Rights Act of 1964 not Kavanaugh.
Kavanaugh was on the wrong side of the argument, though he has been praised by none other than Ruth Bader-Ginsburg for hiring the greatest number of female clerks of any justice.
So this paragraph should have read:
_________________________
“Most conservative” yeah sure Willey, Neil Gorsuch wrote the majority opinion that gave the most discriminated group in the USA full civil rights. Neil Gorsuch’s argument, which, outside of other justices received neither neoD-party nor media support was a stunning interpretation of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. I’ve written about the remarkable case here on at least three different occasions but, our NC’d commentariat, being largely privileged straight white men couldn’t care less..unless..the decision helped the “blue no matter who” cause and it most certainly didn’t. Besides, the gay white males in the neoD party have long advocated for the discrimination of transgenders, one has only to look at Barny Frank’s despicable record on the issue to show you that Neil Gorsuch was far more progressive than the neoD base on the issue. But that doesn’t count because, what’s “fair” to neoD’s can be interpreted to mean “to ones liking”…see “balanced”.
_______________________
Now with that single name correction made, my point stands in it’s entirety.
Fourteen Hundred Dollar and Zero Sense Joe still fervently supports the filibuster.
In response to those skeptics who say he won’t be able to pass much of his purported agenda with the filibuster still in place, he’s proudly pointing to strong bipartisan support in the Senate and House for a taxpayer funded moat around the White House and Capitol Hill.
And while we are the subject of that most important case in June of 2020, it worth noting Kavanaugh’s separate dissenting summation:
“Millions of LGBT Americans have worked hard for many decades to achieve equal treatment in fact and law. … They have advanced powerful policy arguments and can take pride in today’s result.”
Hardly the opinion of a Justice who Willey described as, “the most conservative we’ve seen”. Kavanaugh’s separate dissent was only based on the line that separates the branches of government and while I feel he was wrong textually, his point that the ruling was effectively legislating from the bench is not meritless conservative gibberish as it could set a precedent that might well be abused by future courts.
Conservative icon Scalia and liberal rock star RBG were quite close. They even went hunting together. Isn’t that cute?
RBG wrote the majority opinion in the 2007 ruling that severely curtailed state control over national banks. This was another hideous decision in terms of its effects on everyday people.
The attorneys general and bank regulators of all 50 states had urged the justices to find the regulation out of bounds, either as a misinterpretation of the National Bank Act or as a matter of constitutional federalism.
The interests of “the people” here are, in theory anyway, more closely represented by the state representatives. In this case, that there was a majority on both sides -albeit for their own respective reasons – nevertheless it clearly indicates the court overruling the will of the majority of the citizens in the interest of big finance. Another one in the win column for the owners’ debt servitude project.
Scalia dissented in this case. But he has his share in the win column too. Anyway, it looks good being on the other side sometimes. Shows thoughtfulness and a serious intent to interpret those laws as vigorously as one can. The utter lack of principles then goes largely unnoticed in the esteemed air of constitutional wisdomkeepers. What a crock of shit. The whole lot of them, I mean.
I will say that Stevens’ dissent is worth reading. But it doesn’t really matter, does it?
different clue
Here’s a political meme-thing from off of reddit.
https://www.reddit.com/r/WayOfTheBern/comments/lyc7ul/where_is_the_lie_also_where_are_the_2000_stimulus/
How many people need to be left feeling this way in 2024 in order to default-give Trump another election victory in 2024?
different clue
And here is a little hate-list of the Democratic Senators who voted against Sanders’s ammendment to put $15.00 Federal minimum wage back in the Covid Relief Bill.
https://www.reddit.com/r/WayOfTheBern/comments/lyc7ul/where_is_the_lie_also_where_are_the_2000_stimulus/
At the very least, they should be primaried for their next election. And if they win their primaries, they should at least be not-voted-for by people who consider their rejection of the Sanders ammendment to be unacceptable.
bruce wilder
oh, but “what is the alternative?”(tm)
Ché Pasa
The lies and atrocious reporting around “$15 an Hour” have been lethal, and for that I blame Bernie and AOC as well as the cadres of Establishment Dem consultants and the gormless (but not really) economic press that likes to pretend the world will end if anything happens to improve the lot of the “losers.”
First, it’s not “$15 an Hour” the minute the measure passes “in the middle of a pandemic.” It may not even wind up $15 an Hour” at all. It’s $9.50 an hour next year and then gradual steps up to $15 in 2025. What’s so earth-shattering about that? Nothing. It barely registers on the minimum wage raise meter. I’m so old, I remember when $15 minimum wage was being advocated a decade ago. Then it was considered kinda-sorta radical, now it is considered apocalyptic. Why?
And guess what? The federal minimum wage is still $7.25, and it doesn’t cover whole categories of employment. In other words, there’s been no progress at all, and there’s not going to be during this Congress, either. Yet another opportunity wasted.
Second, all the self-owns and letting the Rs have this one are collectively acting to enforce even greater levels of poverty and economic inequality for many Americans than was the case before the pandemic. Obviously, that is the plan, was the plan all along.
Bernie’s proposal was too modest by half. And without a coordinated political effort to make even that happen, we won’t see increased federal minimum wage in my lifetime. Good job, folx.
In some ways, the R alternatives (either $10 or $11) might have been better if they meant the increase would happen this year and further increases were tied to inflation but not limited by it.
Sheesh. It isn’t that hard… is it?
Plague Species
https://furry.substack.com/p/scumbag-of-the-week
bruce wilder
apparently it is that hard, but state and municipal minimums have been rising.
the argument that price levels vary radically across the country is not without merit, though even $15 / hr is inadequate in places like my own state where that is already the state minimum.
edmondo
But the Democrats told me “Any Blue Will Do” when I was voting in the primary last year. Did they lie to me?
I think the Dems lose 100 seats in the House next year. Looking forward to the impeachment proceedings to begin in January 2023.
Z
The corruption of the Congressional Republicans works as follows: they vote as a block and as long as they continue to do so they will benefit from the legal bribery in our political system but they won’t have anyone crawling up their ass to try to find grounds to blackmail them unless they’re a Senate or House leader like McConnell who gives directions to the Republican block.
The corruption of the Congressional Democrats works like this: they are balkanized against acting in the interests of the U.S. working class and poor because they had the bribery and blackmail brothers, and Centerview business partners, Rahm Emanuel and Robert Rubin working their carrot-and-stick dark magic within the party. Emanuel worked in Congress and the executive office and probably used private Israeli intelligence companies and the Mossad to dig up and use dirt against democratic politicians and troublesome federal staff to blackmail them while Robber Rubin worked the kinder bribery side of their operations with all his Wall Street contacts (see Clinton, Bill). The Fed and financial markets are dominated by forces that ally themselves with Rubin and Emanuel.
Put the dynamics of the two parties together and there is absolutely nothing pro-worker of any significance that will ever pass through Congress that will benefit the vast majority of U.S. citizens and remove the heavy boot of capital and debt off of our necks. At least not before the country falls apart due to infrastructure breakdown and global warming.
That’s why Hawley is Enemy Number One of the group that Rubin and Emanuel represents and why they and their useful idiots call for Hawley to resign for the treason … ha ha ha, that’s an hilarious term coming from this group who doesn’t give one f*ck about this country … of giving an air-fist bump to the January 6th crowd before they broke into the Capitol Building. Mind you also that the air-fist bump was very likely done simply in acknowledgement to the crowd calling his name and that the media narrative about an armed insurrection busting into the Capitol Building with anything close to a cohesive plan to overthrow the government has been either totally squashed or walked back. None of it has been corroborated as far as I know. No one from the crowd was caught with weapons in the building. The zip tie guys actually found the zip ties in the Capitol Building. There has been no evidence that the cop who died was beaten or directly and purposefully murdered by anyone involved in the cosplay insurrection. Unfortunately for the crowd though their clown hero Trump, true to form, acted like a selfish coward and didn’t pardon them for taking part in a patriotic riot that he himself incited as president.
The only political way out of this vice grip is electing someone like Hawley as president, as flawed as he may seem. At least he has some romantic notion about the U.S. family and cares about the country in those terms while scumbags like Rubin and Emanuel don’t give one damn about this country at all. The U.S. worker and their family are just cattle to them and a commodity to be exploited to further their aims.
Therefore, our rulers primary political concern is that Hawley might become president and actually use the executive powers to benefit the U.S. family and go after Big Tech and, most importantly, our financial market overlords while there is absolutely no chance that a democratic presidential candidate will make it through the campaign financing structure and vetting process that Rubin and Emanuel have designed and installed within the democratic party. Hawley can bypass the “donor class” and appeal to the U.S. worker directly and that’s why they fear him the most and we get these ridiculous media campaigns to bury Hawley for the January 6th cosplay insurrection for the “treason” of giving the crowd an air-fist bump on his way into the building to do Congressional business.
Grim conclusion: There are no political solutions available to the abused U.S. working class and poor for the next four years unless they unite in a General Strike and force Biden/Harris to do something to mitigate it. In 2024 the only political solution presently fathomable is if Hawley gets elected as president.
Z
Z
In my opinion, there are no rational concerns that $15/hour may be too much to pay U.S. workers in some places because of variations in the costs of loving in the U.S. since $15/hour is really too low for someone to make a living working 40 hours a week in even the cheapest places to live in the U.S..
Z
nihil obstet
Adam Curtis has a new limited series documentary out that addresses some of the issues that keep cropping up in comment threads here. I’m a Curtis fan, periodically recommending The Century of the Self. The new one is Can’t Get You Out of My Head: An Emotional History of the Modern World, on YouTube. It’s about the failure of ideology and the decline of empires (American, Chinese, and Russian). And lots of other issues, too.
Ché Pasa
the argument that price levels vary radically across the country is not without merit
What costs, exactly, vary radically across the country?
The only one I’ve noticed varying radically is the cost of housing. Most other costs vary around 10% pretty much no matter where you are. (Hawaii and Alaska being exceptions).
If he was going to have a five year timeline, Bernie should have pressed for a $25 or even $30 minimum wage and compromised from that. But no.
$15 an hour is around $30,000 a year for full-time work. That’s almost enough to live modestly but decently in some places in the country, but certainly not enough to support a family, and in 2025 it will be worth approximately 10% less than $15 an hour now given targeted inflation.
We’ve heard the same sort of whining about any minimum wage or minimum wage increase since the first one in 1937. It will kill jobs, it’s a burden on small employers, it’s too much to pay young people, it’s too little to pay skilled workers, it interferes with Freedom!! and Markets!!! The dire predictions of calamity due to minimum wage or minimum wage increases have never come true. Whole categories of workers have been exempted from the beginning, and states have a lot of freedom to adjust minimum wages to suit their locality.
From a political standpoint, the failure to budge the federal minimum wage is a minor but telling disaster. From an economic standpoint, the failure is somewhat less important because of other means and methods of enhancing purchasing power though none are really adequate. But ultimately, the continuing failure to address the issue positively at the national level is yet another statement of policy that the “losers” making minimum wage don’t matter a bit.
Chicago Clubs
>the argument that price levels vary radically across the country is not without merit
Meh. Prices vary slightly with the sole exception of housing, which outside of a handful of stupid areas really still barely varies at all. Gas prices are different, too, but again not “radically.”
Hugh
It is always the lesser of two evils. On the Covid stimulus or $15/an hour, the Democrats want to give you half a loaf and the Republicans, the joke new working class party, won’t even give you the crumbs. And “give” is the wrong word here because these are things you have worked for or are entitled to as a citizen of this country.
With the Republicans, we have a return to McConnellism, the just say no to everything. With the Democrats, it’s some incomprehensible mishmash of $4oo/week to a family of four making under $80,000 a year until July, or possibly October.
The Democrats could and should be asking Americans, “Why do the Republicans hate you?” But then while the Democrats may not hate us, it’s clear they can’t even act like they care about us, let alone like us.
Z
Sinema’s next primary opponent’s winning slogan: “I’ll give the thumbs up to the U.S. working class”.
Z
S Brennan
Benjamin Studebaker writes thoughtfully with an eye toward history, here, he turns on the WABAC and gives today’s “woke” Peabody & Sherman’s a lesson.
_______________________________
Are Declassed Professionals in the United States like Surplus Song Dynasty Civil Servants?
https://benjaminstudebaker.com/2021/03/01/are-declassed-professionals-in-the-united-states-like-surplus-song-dynasty-civil-servants/
Willy
Speaking of turning evil, Reagan idolized FDR.
He famously quoted: “I didn’t leave the Democratic party, the Democratic Party left me.” Everybody here will say that this is their sentiment as well. But it’s 2021 and Reagan switched parties in 1962, well before any neoliberalism, peaceniks, “losing the South”, culture wars, or any of that. I’ve read a few opinion pieces claiming (or rationalizing) that the Republican party has actually left Reagan. But it doesn’t explain that his economics were clearly libertarian, while FDR was no libertarian.
Does anybody know what the hell Reagan was talking about?
Willy
Hugh, I read a few conservative blogs. They hate us for our demonic possession. And our Dunning -Kruger insanities which are so obvious they need no detailed explanations. And our love of Marxism. And our racism which favors criminal blacks over hardworking whites. And our desire to open the borders. And our need to be in cahoots with Communist China and Venezuela.
Oh wait. You meant progressives. I was talking about “liberals” and the DNC establishment. Progressives are far worse, called “pro-regressives”, whatever the hell that means.
Z
I’m pissed off that the democrats have f*cked over the working class again but that being said I’m also glad that the political theatrics included the antics of Sinema who … probably peaking from the dopamine rush on the back end of her twice daily Adderall dose … produced a meme by performing an end-zone dance against the $15/hour minimum wage when she voted it down. Although, I am slightly disappointed that it didn’t include a twerk or two for her sponsors.
Sinema’s celebratory thumbs down on the $15/hour minimum wage can only further enrage young working U.S. citizens and they’re the ones who are most likely to revolt in some manner against the federal government that currently occupies the U.S. and is actively working to shorten their lifespans.
This planet’s youth simultaneously have the most to lose and the least to lose by fighting back and if our rulers weren’t on a greed-induced death march to exterminate all life on earth they’d might be wary of the danger in that dynamic.
Z
bruce wilder
Hugh is right that the Dems promise a half loaf, but fails to note they fail to deliver. The Reps oppose, the Dems favor ineffectually. And, the Reps are the ones in trouble with their electorate and donors, not the Dems. What is wrong with this picture is Hugh. He is all about holding the Dems to account “next time” never this time let alone for 30 years of betrayal and predation. No, Hugh was sure electing an authoritarian war mongering friend to credit cards, banksters and billionaires was the change we needed.
bruce wilder
well, yes, Ché Pasa, rent varies — exactly right. and, as rent varies, it skews the whole matrix of consumer (final) prices, including the price matrix of labor services (wages), with implications for the purchasing power of any nominal wage rate, aka the “real wage”.
and, yes, the endless political struggle over whether there should be a minimum wage or what the nominal value of that wage should be involves an also endless discourse/dialogue with all kinds of predictable gambits: exemptions, exceptions, et cetera.
the framework of rhetorical conjecture for the effects and consequences of a minimum wage policy in use in the U.S. is neoclassical economics: wages and prices in this framework of reasoning are “market-determined”, determined in the first instance by imaginary conditions of competitive supply and demand, arising from an emergent background of primordial entrepreneurial energy and mysterious technology and consumer demand/needs/preferences (aka consumer sovereignty). this theory is the substrate for a political rhetoric of “free markets” given emotional frisson during the Cold War against the Communist Menace, in a time mostly forgotten. It was fused into the politics of neoliberalism, when “the left” as played by on the U.S. stage by liberal, credentialled professionals and professional managers, gave up their alliance with the working classes in the late 1970s, and embraced a neoliberal rhetoric of “market-solutions” and public-private partnership and Washington Consensus, while shipping jobs to China for fun and profit and running down the commonwealth of public goods (well-regulated financial sector, well-regulated pharma, well-regulated energy sector), public education, infrastructure.
i credit Sanders circa 2016 with choosing to campaign on the promise of a few simple policy goals, with the hope that he might re-awaken a consciousness of the possibilities of political power in the hands of a popular movement to achieve a more favorable distribution of income. $15/hr is getting old — its total inadequacy as a means of addressing the problems of an economy hollowed out by looting and dominated by giant monopolies cannot be exaggerated.
the hard-right of billionaire reactionaries funding a political infrastructure of academics, political operatives, lobbyists, politicians, media publishers and pundits won the long war for hearts and minds. destroying a great many minds in the process, I’d say. it is hard to imagine any popular movement today that was not idiocracy in motion.
the monopoly of thought established by the fusion of neoclassical economics and neoliberal politics remains a formidable obstacle. $15/hr is a case in point: it is popular but its proponents are frequently dumb-founded in devising arguments in its favor. We have not had a “market economy” for over a century, but no one on the left can talk a talk that references the structures of the economy we do have. the opponents have the law of demand (price goes up, demand goes down) they learned in high school or college, but the left has no mechanism in refutation, just a flat denial that that is the case. no mechanism makes it hard to argue out how the policy benefits all those it benefits.
the Dems failure to enact any promise of economic benefit to the lower orders is not surprising to anyone paying attention, but may be clarifying for any one entering the theatre late, i guess. still, a more elaborate policy program is needed and that would require a much more robust economics of the left and I do not see where that could come from. i used to think MMT had promise, but it seems increasingly like a bagman setup for the effects of the end of dollar dominance and ten years of asset inflation amidst financial deregulation.
metamars
Dem poseurs, beware Jimmy Dore! His verbal takedown of AOC over her failure to #forcethevote, wrt medicare for all, was one of the most devastating political commentaries I’ve ever heard. I recently heard him do similarly to Cenk Uygur, over his failure to twist arms in support of a minimum wage hike. He doesn’t hesitate to call Uygur a liar. Dore’s live youtube audience is larger than the Young Turks, even though they have 5 million subscribers. Dore also says you shouldn’t send Justice Democrats any money, though he helped them get started, with public exposure.
I wish there was somebody similarly entertaining, yet incisive, attacking the MAGA poseurs, especially Trump, from the right. Right now, Robert Barnes probably provides the most accurate criticism, but he’s not an entertainer. He also doesn’t facilitate activism, except through the legal system. I respect that, and it certainly aligns with his expertise, but we need to get the D and R jerks out of out of elected offices.
Tucker Carlson has called for primarying some Republicans, on at least a couple of occasions, but that falls far short a real, prolonged push to get disruptors elected.
Steve Bannon is probably the #1 media facilitator for getting Republican disruptors elected. He’s not funny, like Dore, and doesn’t have Dore’s gift for biting satire. He also kowtows excessively to Trump.
Chipper
@Willy, Well, I would assume Reagan was talking about racism, since it was in the 60s that the Solid South switched teams. But history has never been my strong suit.
edmondo
I see that Bruce Rauner had to make a $250,000 campaign contribution in order to get the Covid vaccine in Florida. I like how we have totally given up the pretense that we are a democracy and are now a full-blown banana republic.
We are certainly exceptional.
Z
Reagan probably became disillusioned with the Democratic Party when they pushed aside his political idol Henry Wallace and put in Truman.
Z
nihil obstet
Reagan’s career from the fifties on was being a spokesman for business. Before that, he had been a union man. He changed parties when the bucks were to be made with Republican business rather than Democratic unions. He believed what it was convenient and lucrative to believe.
Jason
Dore and his behind-the-scenes cohorts are brilliant at breaking down political and media lies. Some of the work he does could be used in a classroom, obviously without the over-the-top language and his insatiable celebrity ego. I enjoy Jimmy to a point and then it becomes too much for me, even allowing going in that it’s entertainment.
We know you’re the only one doing this now, Jimmy. You only need say it once or twice and then move on. But it’s me, me, me, me, me with Jimmy all the time.
Back to Jimmy!
Had enough off Jimmy yet?
That said, I’m glad he’s doing what he’s doing and I’ve learned a hell of a lot watching him. I’d like to see something similar done without all the celebrity nonsense. I realize ours is a celebrity culture and that sells, but there is a desperate need for straightforward analysis of the type Jimmy does, but in a non-entertainment manner. It needn’t be overly scholarly or academic, but it does need to be much less ego-based and less entertainment focused.*
*Although I do believe that in many cases ridicule is the only way to deal with the elite and their minions at this point. Constant ridicule and appeals to conscience, as one commenter over at ICH said years ago. But again, not so over-the-top.
Hugh
bruce is at least consistent. He spends all his time attacking Democrats whether they are in power or not. And with his usual false equivalency, his once in a blue moon passing reference to Trump or the Republicans makes it all balance out.
Jason
We always did feel the same
We just saw it from a different point of view
bruce wilder
@_S Brennan Studebaker’s brief essay is good! The snobbery involved makes an unremarked connection with Michael Lind’s critique of “woke” as snobbery. I am sure Studebaker would have little affection for Lind, but it is an interesting commonality of observation. Now if we can find alignment with Adam Curtis? . . . hmmm.
Willy
@ Reagan. Seems about right. Most people believe in what works for them, emotionally. Everybody else is just too dumb or inexperienced to have not figured it out. Happens to the best of us, myself included. But I’m still open to the possibility that a large pod was placed next to his bed as he slept, by libertarian operatives. It looked like Ron, it spoke like Ron… but it wasn’t Ron anymore.
Speaking of declassed professionals, Studebaker might as well have also been talking about blue collar workers or evangelicals who’ve turned Republican. The GOP is after all, the moral majority, family values, patriotic Christian party which only wants to make the Founders proud, before sending you to heaven while Democrats gnash their teeth in the other place.
I was thinking about bots and Russian trolls. So prevalent and so dangerous. How many times have you been playing devil’s advocate, or disagreeing with somebody, or just plain in a bad mood, and the other called you “a bot”? Not in exasperation, but as if they honestly believed that’s what you were? I mean seriously, have you ever seen a bot which could debate current politics, let alone just debate? I’ve seen recent videos about robots. Their verbal skills suck.
Even the most advanced AI isn’t that much better than Alexa on a good day. And Russian trolls and Russian troll farms. Who the hell came up with that shit? Maybe underemployed Russians really are that smart, but what’s in it for them? So they invest heavily in disrupting American politics. What’s the payoff motive? Do they sell more AK-whatevers to paranoid believers in an upcoming US civil war? Maybe they did accept Trumps money to help swing things in his favor. But beyond taking his money, what’s in it for them?
I’m gonna go ahead and put on my metamars conspiracy hat, and propose that “bots and Russian troll farms” are just a ruse, attempting to hide far more serious PTB Deep State machinations.
S Brennan
Hugh – – “[Bruce Wilder] spends all his time attacking Democrats”
The reason “Hugh” has this impression is that he is either at sub 1st-grade reading comprhension or…a man dedicated to being studiously ignorant as U Sinclair once pointed out “It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it”. The latter being far more likely, though, in fairness, Hugh has shown himself to be utterly lacking in comprehension even when it would advance his “blue no matter who” cause…
Nevertheless, Hugh, like R McNamara before him does a great job of wringing his hands over the outcome..without the slightest admission of guilt. Change that, McNamara at least admitted to being morally wrong..yes..yes..thirty years after it mattered…but surely superior to Hugh’s moral “character”..anyway…whose counting.
And so it goes…
Hugh
SB, isn’t there a riot of Trump fascists you’d rather be at? Some place where you can bemoan the inherent fraud in letting black and brown people vote?
Willy
I happened upon this:
https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021/01/13/how-trump-compares-with-other-recent-presidents-in-appointing-federal-judges/
”Trump “flipped” the balance of several appeals courts from a majority of Democratic appointees to a majority of Republican appointees.”
His picks were the whitest, most male, most conservative, most citizens united appointees we’ve seen in a long time. His three supreme court justices were the most by any one-term president since Herbert Hoover (though sad they didn’t help him stay president). Were they just as progressive as Herberts? You be the judge.
Donald Trump. Still the most progressive president since Gerald Ford, no matter what the Dems say.
Lex
Sure is unfortunate that so many people who “see through” the Dem’s bad acting end up following Reagan or Trump type politicians. That’s the real “horseshoe theory”. But it doesn’t matter anymore. The ratchet cycle downward is too hard to break within the US political and media system. And the belief in the american myth too ingrained. The founders consciously molded the nation with the model of the Roman late republic oligarchy; it slipped into empire and now late empire without anyone noticing (at least anyone who gets listened to). The climax of the story already passed. It’s just a matter of details in the final chapter(s).
metamars
Competitive Pole Dancing has been elevated/sublimated to an art form that not terribly sexual (ignoring the shoes, I guess). The videos I’ve seen on youtube show a level of grace and flexibility you’d expect of a professional dancer, with the strength of a gymnast.
I you enjoy watching female gymnast floor exercizes, you will probably enjoy artsy pole dancing competitions. E.g.: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ArPgWgDvm8E
Z
Our rulers are already beginning their proliferation of propaganda about the dire need to balance the budget again and they’ve commissioned their bribed and blackmailed politicians and mainstream media mouthpieces to spread the word. We ought to know by now what’s coming next …
Uh-oh, and Fourteen Hundred Dollar and Zero Sense Joe’s sly smile is beginning to crease his refurbished face. He’s spitting into his palm …
And there goes Let Them Eat Shit Mitch! He’s leaning back now. A grin is reverberating down his five chins. He’s fumbling with his fly …
Oh, and here’s Jill. She’s turning away to her left and beginning an awkward conversation with a random stranger …
Uh-oh, and now there’s Elaine’s looking in her purse, pretending to search for her cellphone while she deftly deposits a handkerchief on Mitch’s knee …
And there goes Joe! He’s reaching across the aisle …
Z
S Brennan
Let’s parse Willey’s self-delusional post:
“Trump “flipped” the balance of several appeals courts from a majority of Democratic appointees to a majority of Republican appointees.”
Above, Willey assets that a court is “balanced” when his party is in charge. Hmmm…so I look up the word “balanced” to see if it has as a second/third definition that could fit the sentence above and sure enough, balanced can be interpreted to mean “to ones liking”:
_________________
balanced adjective
/ˈbælənst/
[usually before noun] (approving)
keeping or showing a balance so that different things or different parts of something exist in equal or correct amounts
_________________
So let’s try that sentence the way Willey [and author intended]:
“Trump “flipped” the correct proportion of appeals courts from a majority of Democratic appointees to a majority of Republican appointees.”
There, now what Willey and author are saying is clear, “fuck the US Constitution”. BTW, for our foreign or the uneducated readers, the US Constitution fails to mention a party preference or, for that matter, any political party, but that doesn’t stop Willey from asserting that dominion, that imperial right, the rule that the modern day neoD party must be the only party in power.
So now that we know that ‘blue no matter who” D’s are calling for a one party state, let’s proceed to Willey’s next editorial point:
“Trumps picks were the whitest, most male, most conservative, most citizens united appointees we’ve seen in a long time.”
On the Supreme court, Trump’s picks were 33% female, Obama 100%, Bush 0%, Clinton 0% so, what Willey meant by “a long time” was only one presidency…lie, deceit, dissemble…whatever, it’s Willey’s stick…along with a heaping spoonful of daily self-pity. When you are dealing with with Willey you gotta keep the kleenex handy, he’s still hurting from the time somebody at work didn’t treat him as nicely as he felt the man should. A daily occurrence for most of us but..for Willey it could lead to a break-down at any moment from his onetime brush with job-site disdain..oh the humanity of it! Anyway, the article does go on to say that Trump “appoint[ed] more women to the federal judiciary than any other GOP president”.
“Most conservative” yeah sure Willey, Brett Kavanaugh wrote the winning decision that gave the most discriminated group in the USA full civil rights. Brett Kavanaugh’s argument, which, outside of other justices received neither neoD-party nor media support was a stunning interpretation of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. I’ve written about the remarkable case here on at least three different occasions but, our NC’d commentariat, being largely privileged straight white men couldn’t care less..unless..the decision helped the “blue no matter who” cause and it most certainly didn’t. Besides, the gay white males in the neoD party have long advocated for the discrimination of transgenders, one has only to look at Barny Frank’s despicable record on the issue to show you that Brett Kavanaugh was far more progressive than the neoD base on the issue. But that doesn’t count because, what’s “fair” to neoD’s can be interpreted to mean “to ones liking”…see “balanced”.
And yeah, in trying to catch-up with Brett Kavanaugh’s position we have the odd situation of Biden calling for males who have gone through male puberty to be able to compete with women under Title IX. It’s hard to tell if this is cynical* move to undo the progress made under the Kavanaugh decision or…just gross stupidity…and I suspect the former as Biden has been the most socially conservative neoD party member for decades..indeed, his right-wing bonafides predate the hostile take-over of the then Democratic Party by the right-wing neocolonial, gilded-age-[sans-mercantilism]-economists.
*Poll after poll shows that, transgender civil rights has a 15-20% point spread women to men, Biden’s move is sure to fray that association.
Willy
Far too many words desperately trying to defend conservative court picks, Brennan.
FDR my ass.
Hugh
Kavanaugh, the American Trotsky. LOL.
So what was the name of Kavanaugh’s epic court case? The only recent one I know of was Bostock which barred sex discrimination in hiring against LGBTQ people. It was written by Gorsuch. The decision was 6-3 and Kavanaugh was one of the three no votes.
Willy
“Russian troll farms and bots” is a FUD ruse. This is how corporate-sponsored conservative agitprop works. But it’s hard to always try and not quack like a duck.
S Brennan
Unlike others here, who are always right, even when they plainly wrong, I stand corrected.
It was Gorsuch that Chief Justice John Roberts assigned to the task of writing the opinion based on the Civil Rights Act of 1964 not Kavanaugh.
Kavanaugh was on the wrong side of the argument, though he has been praised by none other than Ruth Bader-Ginsburg for hiring the greatest number of female clerks of any justice.
So this paragraph should have read:
_________________________
“Most conservative” yeah sure Willey, Neil Gorsuch wrote the majority opinion that gave the most discriminated group in the USA full civil rights. Neil Gorsuch’s argument, which, outside of other justices received neither neoD-party nor media support was a stunning interpretation of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. I’ve written about the remarkable case here on at least three different occasions but, our NC’d commentariat, being largely privileged straight white men couldn’t care less..unless..the decision helped the “blue no matter who” cause and it most certainly didn’t. Besides, the gay white males in the neoD party have long advocated for the discrimination of transgenders, one has only to look at Barny Frank’s despicable record on the issue to show you that Neil Gorsuch was far more progressive than the neoD base on the issue. But that doesn’t count because, what’s “fair” to neoD’s can be interpreted to mean “to ones liking”…see “balanced”.
_______________________
Now with that single name correction made, my point stands in it’s entirety.
Z
Fourteen Hundred Dollar and Zero Sense Joe still fervently supports the filibuster.
In response to those skeptics who say he won’t be able to pass much of his purported agenda with the filibuster still in place, he’s proudly pointing to strong bipartisan support in the Senate and House for a taxpayer funded moat around the White House and Capitol Hill.
Z
S Brennan
And while we are the subject of that most important case in June of 2020, it worth noting Kavanaugh’s separate dissenting summation:
“Millions of LGBT Americans have worked hard for many decades to achieve equal treatment in fact and law. … They have advanced powerful policy arguments and can take pride in today’s result.”
Hardly the opinion of a Justice who Willey described as, “the most conservative we’ve seen”. Kavanaugh’s separate dissent was only based on the line that separates the branches of government and while I feel he was wrong textually, his point that the ruling was effectively legislating from the bench is not meritless conservative gibberish as it could set a precedent that might well be abused by future courts.
Jason
Conservative icon Scalia and liberal rock star RBG were quite close. They even went hunting together. Isn’t that cute?
RBG wrote the majority opinion in the 2007 ruling that severely curtailed state control over national banks. This was another hideous decision in terms of its effects on everyday people.
https://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/18/business/worldbusiness/18iht-banks.1.5329491.html
From the article:
The attorneys general and bank regulators of all 50 states had urged the justices to find the regulation out of bounds, either as a misinterpretation of the National Bank Act or as a matter of constitutional federalism.
The interests of “the people” here are, in theory anyway, more closely represented by the state representatives. In this case, that there was a majority on both sides -albeit for their own respective reasons – nevertheless it clearly indicates the court overruling the will of the majority of the citizens in the interest of big finance. Another one in the win column for the owners’ debt servitude project.
Scalia dissented in this case. But he has his share in the win column too. Anyway, it looks good being on the other side sometimes. Shows thoughtfulness and a serious intent to interpret those laws as vigorously as one can. The utter lack of principles then goes largely unnoticed in the esteemed air of constitutional wisdomkeepers. What a crock of shit. The whole lot of them, I mean.
I will say that Stevens’ dissent is worth reading. But it doesn’t really matter, does it?
Trinity
They are rightly getting nervous.
different clue
@Willy,
When the conservative sponsors of “Russian troll farms and bots” FUD are all Democrats, does that mean the Democrats are conservative?
Chuck Mire
I now understand more and more about America:
https://www.amazon.com/Life-Movie-Entertainment-Conquered-Reality/dp/0375706534
nihil obstet
Continuing my recommendation of Adam Curtis’s new series, here’s an interesting interview about what he is addressing.