US Politics - The Liar in Winter

[Centrist Simon Steele]

I really want to give Biden a chance--but damn, he's not even attempting to pretend he's going to have a progressive platform. Schumer said Biden can cancel 50,000 in all student debt in the first 90 days. NPR reports:

"Biden repeated his support for a provision passed as part of the HEROES Act, which the Democratic-controlled House updated on Oct. 1. The provision calls for the federal government to pay off up to $10,000 in private, nonfederal student loans for "economically distressed" borrowers. Biden specifically highlighted "people ... having to make choices between paying their student loan and paying the rent," and said the debt relief "should be done immediately." 

I mean, this is classic Democrat playbook 101: if you know you're going to face resistance, start negotiating based off what you think the other side wants. That way...they can whittle you down even more? Plus, he doesn't need Congress to do this.

Then there are his confirmed staff members. From Politico: Steve Ricchetti, Jen O'Malley, Dana Remus, Cedric Richmond, Julie Chavez Rodriguez, Julie Annie Tomasini, and Julissa Reynoso Pantelon. 

Richetti--a former lobbyist who violated Obama admin's ethics rules. Oh, and he lobbied for big Pharma. A nod toward the public option, I'm sure. I think Biden's "slip ups" in the debates about what the public option is going be were actually what his vision of the public option is going to be--some Medicaid expansion in red states.

 Cedric Richmond: gets more money from Big Oil than any(?) other Democrat. Green New Deal here we com...oh, right. 

Jen O'Malley--I saw a Tweet that she's worked and represented Big Pharma. Haven't confirmed this independently yet, but when I have more time later, I will look more into this. 

And plenty of Wall Street cronies. Nothing will fundamentally change, as he told the capitalists to kick off his campaign.

It's too bad. I was listening to someone from the Patriotic Millionaires group the other day, and he said Biden could absolutely keep this promise even if he levied a heavy tax on the millionaire (billionaire) class. Their lives would fundamentally not change but the lives of others would change for the better. 

All of this coupled with the "leaks" from Democratic leadership that progressives need to be reigned is beginning to confirm what so many of us were worried about with the "safe pick." I can't for the life of me remember a Democrat who campaigned on Defund the Police. That's a voter movement and message. I don't know a Democrat outside of progressive members who campaigned on Medicare for All--that was never the official position of the party. 

Still, he hasn't had a single day as President, but damn, I wish he would give some indicator of this most progressive campaign platform ever.

ETA: If anyone is interested in the Patriotic Millionaires, here is a link to their website (https://patrioticmillionaires.org/).

They want the US government to tax them according to their income (in the opposite direction to be clear). They believe being a good member of this society means they have to invest in the people who helped them get rich. It's a growing movement, and at this point, about the only hope we have to circumvent the wealth income inequality in the US.

 

[Maithanet]

1 minute ago, Fragile Bird said:

Since the election Trump has had “no scheduled events” on his calendar except for showing up at the Remembrance Day ceremony at the cemetery (and he was late! Because screw the 11th hour! Let everybody wait in the rain!) and his vaccination press conference.  He’s been playing golf, tweeting, and brooding. And, apparently, plotting on how to stay in the WH.

Months ago I was worried he would do something stupid if he didn’t win, and then for a long time I assured myself he couldn’t because there was going to be a blue wave. Now I’m seriously worried again.

I actually feel like the "absentee brooding Trump" is more or less the best we could have hoped for given how election night went.  His lawsuits are a disgrace, but they're also laughably ineffective.  If Trump was going to attempt a coup, waiting two weeks for no apparent reason is a very bad start.  Likewise brooding and golfing is hardly the image of a "President sweeping towards reelection" you want to project. 

I dunno, I don't see any grand plan here.  I see Trump being a callous jerk, shirking his responsibilities and whining about not getting what he wants.  Standard Trump fare. 

[Lollygag]

A few minefields to watch out for with Pompeo setting stuff up in Israel.

 

https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/526656-pompeo-becomes-first-top-us-diplomat-to-visit-israeli-settlement

https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/526658-state-department-bans-funds-for-groups-it-says-are-anti-semitic

https://thehill.com/policy/international/526662-us-to-label-goods-from-israeli-settlements-in-west-bank-as-made-in

Pompeo aspires to be pres. The set up is that any stance against anything Israel does will be screamed at and highly  publicized as anti-Semitic. Muddies the field and creates a whataboutism response to Republicans' involvement with wacko anti-Semitic white nationalist groups. They'll no doubt try to stir up the far left on the Palestine/Israel thing and Dems will walk right into it with accusations of being in league with the Antichrist.

 

Pompeo's moves in Israel is part of his religious-right apocalypse-obsessed beliefs that by manipulating events in Israel and the Middle East, he can bring about the end times.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/01/28/apocalyptic-ideas-influencing-pence-pompeo-could-also-power-left/

Quote

Are doomsday prophesies influencing decisions in the Trump administration — or at least how they get explained?

The answer seems to be a clear yes. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, a longtime evangelical, drew upon the Book of Revelations to defend the Trump administration’s drone-strike assassination of Iranian Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani, and he has regularly referenced the “rapture” to defend American support of Israel, among other positions. He is just one of the top White House officials, along with Vice President Pence, to attend an End Times Bible study group, which informs the domestic and foreign policy thinking of attendees.

 

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/donald-trump-christians-fundamentalists-end-times-rapture-1083131/

Quote

It would be hard to decisively connect the dots here if you weren’t raised, as I was, to believe in a very specific idea of Armageddon. Well before I learned the history of all of America’s actual wars, my conservative Presbyterian church taught me about the battle that would bring about the end times. I was taught that the 38th chapter of the Book of Ezekiel prophesized that one day — any day now, really — a “place in the far north” (interpreted, naturally, to be Russia) would team up with “many nations” (certainly including Iraq and Iran) to attack a “peaceful and unsuspecting” Israel. This would lead to a cosmic battle in which God would come to Israel’s defense, true Christians would be “raptured,” or spirited away to heaven, and the wicked of the Earth would be left to suffer the trials and tribulations of God’s wrath during a horrific seven-year period when the Antichrist would reign supreme and a totalitarian world government called the New World Order would be established. Finally, Jesus and his raptured church would return, vanquishing the Antichrist and ushering in a thousand-year golden age, at the end of which Satan would be permanently defeated and all Christians would live in glory in a newly created heaven and Earth. “The generation that saw Israel become a state will witness Jesus’ return,” I was repeatedly told by those who saw, in the tea leaves of recent history, the end times drawing near. Sometimes, if my house was especially quiet, I’d momentarily panic that everyone had been raptured up without me.

These ideas have been called heretical by Catholics and mainline Protestants (of which, it should be said, I am now one). But to the roughly 80 million evangelicals in the U.S., they have become a dominant — one might even say the dominant — strain of the faith. According to the Pew Research Center, 41 percent of Americans think that Jesus will definitely (23 percent) or probably (18 percent) return to Earth by the year 2050. A full 58 percent of white evangelicals hold this view. The Left Behind series, a collection of novels by Jerry B. Jenkins and the late fundamentalist minister Tim LaHaye that dramatizes this theology, has sold more than 80 million copies (as of 2016) and has been made into multiple feature-length films. “When I first started researching, I had this idea that I would be studying a subculture,” says Amy Frykholm, senior editor at The Christian Century and author of Rapture Culture. “And then Left Behind happened, and I was like, ‘I don’t think this is a subculture. This may be the dominant American culture, and the rest of us are subcultures.’ I mean, this is mainstream.”

...

In lending such unprecedented credence to a fundamentalist strain of evangelicalism, Trump has not just sanctioned its worldview in the halls of government, but he’s allowed it to become further politicized. “George W. Bush’s attorney general, John Ashcroft, was a minister’s [son], but he didn’t overtly bring that to bear on how he doled out justice,” says John Fea, a scholar of Christian nationalism and author of Believe Me: The Evangelical Road to Donald Trump. Indeed, Ashcroft maintained that “it is against my religion to impose my religion” on people. One does not get the same separation-of-church-and-state vibe from Trump’s end-times acolytes. “Here, we have Mike Pompeo and Mike Pence literally making appearances in front of the home crowd, on the Christian Broadcasting Network, the Salem radio shows, Liberty University,” says Fea. “It’s not even a wink, wink. It’s an overt appeal to this kind of evangelicalism.”

 

Now just for funnzies, stir in QAnon's Democrats as Satanic baby-eaters and the Messianic treatment of Trump...

 

[Martell Spy]

2 minutes ago, Simon Steele said:

I really want to give Biden a chance--but damn, he's not even attempting to pretend he's going to have a progressive platform. Schumer said Biden can cancel 50,000 in all student debt in the first 90 days. NPR reports:

"Biden repeated his support for a provision passed as part of the HEROES Act, which the Democratic-controlled House updated on Oct. 1. The provision calls for the federal government to pay off up to $10,000 in private, nonfederal student loans for "economically distressed" borrowers. Biden specifically highlighted "people ... having to make choices between paying their student loan and paying the rent," and said the debt relief "should be done immediately." 

I mean, this is classic Democrat playbook 101: if you know you're going to face resistance, start negotiating based off what you think the other side wants. That way...they can whittle you down even more? Plus, he doesn't need Congress to do this.

Then there are his confirmed staff members. From Politico: Steve Ricchetti, Jen O'Malley, Dana Remus, Cedric Richmond, Julie Chavez Rodriguez, Julie Annie Tomasini, and Julissa Reynoso Pantelon. 

Richetti--a former lobbyist who violated Obama admin's ethics rules. Oh, and he lobbied for big Pharma. A nod toward the public option, I'm sure. I think Biden's "slip ups" in the debates about what the public option is going be were actually what his vision of the public option is going to be--some Medicaid expansion in red states.

 Cedric Richmond: gets more money from Big Oil than any(?) other Democrat. Green New Deal here we com...oh, right. 

Jen O'Malley--I saw a Tweet that she's worked and represented Big Pharma. Haven't confirmed this independently yet, but when I have more time later, I will look more into this. 

And plenty of Wall Street cronies. Nothing will fundamentally change, as he told the capitalists to kick off his campaign.

It's too bad. I was listening to someone from the Patriotic Millionaires group the other day, and he said Biden could absolutely keep this promise even if he levied a heavy tax on the millionaire (billionaire) class. Their lives would fundamentally not change but the lives of others would change for the better. 

All of this coupled with the "leaks" from Democratic leadership that progressives need to be reigned is beginning to confirm what so many of us were worried about with the "safe pick." I can't for the life of me remember a Democrat who campaigned on Defund the Police. That's a voter movement and message. I don't know a Democrat outside of progressive members who campaigned on Medicare for All--that was never the official position of the party. 

Still, he hasn't had a single day as President, but damn, I wish he would give some indicator of this most progressive campaign platform ever.

That is hardly a surprise. What's interesting there is Schumer was pushing this. He was also behind the unemployment on steroids. It sounds like he is not afraid of being branded a radical socialist.

[Lollygag]

People should start going into the anti-masker hold-out businesses naked and say it's their right because it's a free country.

[GrimTuesday]

32 minutes ago, Martell Spy said:

That is hardly a surprise. What's interesting there is Schumer was pushing this. He was also behind the unemployment on steroids. It sounds like he is not afraid of being branded a radical socialist.

Nah, I think he hears the sounds of a potential primary challenge and is trying to get out ahead of it.

[Fez]

Things in Michigan have gotten really bad:

I really think they're going to try appointing a competing slate of electors over this Wayne county certification nonsense.

[Lollygag]

11 minutes ago, Fez said:

Things in Michigan have gotten really bad:

I really think they're going to try appointing a competing slate of electors over this Wayne county certification nonsense.

Bright side is that it's splitting the Republican party in half as we watch as these actions are exposing too many Republicans as not delusional/fascist enough.

https://www.rawstory.com/2020/11/newsmax-host-calls-on-trump-supporters-to-overthrow-gop-and-form-maga-party/

---------------------------

Hard line for Republicans is that technically Trump can still be impeached at any time. No more voters' will excuses anymore.

 

[Guy Kilmore]

18 minutes ago, Fez said:

Things in Michigan have gotten really bad:

I really think they're going to try appointing a competing slate of electors over this Wayne county certification nonsense.

Here is more on it if people are curious.

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

4 minutes ago, Guy Kilmore said:

Here is more on it if people are curious.

How large is the Michigan Republican Majority?  How disciplined is the Michigan Republican Caucus?  Is it likely to split over this issue denying them the ability to send an alternative slate of electors?

[Guy Kilmore]

1 minute ago, Ser Scot A Ellison said:

How large is the Michigan Republican Majority?  How disciplined is the Michigan Republican Caucus?  Is it likely to split over this issue denying them the ability to send an alternative slate of electors?

Those are all very good questions.  I don't know Michigan politics, so I can't say.

[IheartIheartTesla]

Michigan law prohibits faithless electors

[Altherion]

1 hour ago, Simon Steele said:

I really want to give Biden a chance--but damn, he's not even attempting to pretend he's going to have a progressive platform. Schumer said Biden can cancel 50,000 in all student debt in the first 90 days. NPR reports:

"Biden repeated his support for a provision passed as part of the HEROES Act, which the Democratic-controlled House updated on Oct. 1. The provision calls for the federal government to pay off up to $10,000 in private, nonfederal student loans for "economically distressed" borrowers. Biden specifically highlighted "people ... having to make choices between paying their student loan and paying the rent," and said the debt relief "should be done immediately." 

I mean, this is classic Democrat playbook 101: if you know you're going to face resistance, start negotiating based off what you think the other side wants. That way...they can whittle you down even more? Plus, he doesn't need Congress to do this.

It's not clear that he has this authority to unilaterally cancel student debt, but even if the courts let him do such a thing, it's almost guaranteed to do significant damage to the Democrats. Not only is it a handout to people who are already voting for Democrats without it, but it is a handout to people who are, for the most part, not actually that poor. Also, the cancelled debt would be government debt so no rich allies of the Democrats get a cut. There's nothing in that plan for Biden or most Democrats.

The way Biden and the House want to do it is much more in line with how legislation works. Most importantly, all of the money will ultimately go to private lenders which will make them more likely to support the Democrats. As an added bonus, much less money is required and the spending will be restricted to people who actually need it (hence that "economically distressed" requirement). Biden can claim that he helped people with student loans in either case, but this way, the Democrats get much more out of this with much less spending and less backlash.

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

12 minutes ago, IheartIheartTesla said:

Michigan law prohibits faithless electors

Are alternately appointed slates of electors with the authority of the Michigan Legislature behind them “faithless”?

[Zorral]

Top to bottom this country is insane, whether politically or medically -- which we in this country have made to be one and the same.  We will not give into reality no matter what because reality isn't what we want it to be so we keep killing ourselves and others.

Right now Giuliani is wasting court-tax payer money by re-enacting scenes from "My Cousin Vinny" with him as the 'hero,' coz he's got a cousin named Vinny too.

 

[Fez]

13 minutes ago, IheartIheartTesla said:

Michigan law prohibits faithless electors

That's not the issue. These wouldn't be faithless electors, they would be a completely different set of electors.

Now it may also be illegal for the state legislature to intervene in this way; but all it would take is one friendly judge (followed by SCOTUS not acting) to change that.

[Lollygag]

2 minutes ago, Zorral said:

Top to bottom this country is insane, whether politically or medically -- which we in this country have made to be one and the same.  We will not give into reality no matter what because reality isn't what we want it to be so we keep killing ourselves and others.

Right now Giuliani is wasting court-tax payer money by re-enacting scenes from "My Cousin Vinny" with him as the 'hero,' coz he's got a cousin named Vinny too.

 

It was on Brian Williams last night that Steve Bannon is the one driving Giuliani so it's much more serious than it looks.

[Kalbear]

Speaking of Giuliani:

 

14 minutes ago, Altherion said:

It's not clear that he has this authority to unilaterally cancel student debt, but even if the courts let him do such a thing, it's almost guaranteed to do significant damage to the Democrats. Not only is it a handout to people who are already voting for Democrats without it, but it is a handout to people who are, for the most part, not actually that poor. Also, the cancelled debt would be government debt so no rich allies of the Democrats get a cut. There's nothing in that plan for Biden or most Democrats. 

It's a handout to people who are burdened by debt, who will spend that money directly on the economy, and are almost certainly having problems with employment right now. 

I personally would use it like a weapon. "Either the senate gives more stimulus to the economy or I do it in whatever way I possibly can. I'd prefer a law with a more fair distribution, but if I can't get that I'll do what it takes to make the economy stronger". 

14 minutes ago, Altherion said:

The way Biden and the House want to do it is much more in line with how legislation works. Most importantly, all of the money will ultimately go to private lenders which will make them more likely to support the Democrats. As an added bonus, much less money is required and the spending will be restricted to people who actually need it (hence that "economically distressed" requirement). Biden can claim that he helped people with student loans in either case, but this way, the Democrats get much more out of this with much less spending and less backlash.

The only thing that matters is making the economy better, and the main way you can do that is by giving more people more money faster. Everything else - the backlash on it, the private lender bullshit - is immaterial. 

[IheartIheartTesla]

16 minutes ago, Ser Scot A Ellison said:

Are alternately appointed slates of electors with the authority of the Michigan Legislature behind them “faithless”?

Well, I am no lawyer, but the Supreme Court has ruled (unanimously, this year) that states can bind presidential electors to back their states’ popular vote winner in the EC. I'm not sure if this is actually the case in Michigan or not, but the precedent from the SC ruling makes me think they would throw out an alternate set of electors.

[Lollygag]

Student debt forgiveness needs to be paired with reform to make college/job training more affordable. Need to avoid the whole "we'll forgive the debt of the current lot, but for the rest of you in college now or in the future, you're just screwed."

Also talk about correcting predatory lending to college students who don't have the financial background to know what they're getting into and correcting that.