We (Almost) Have A Progressive General Assembly! Passage of the $15 minimum wage bill is a BFD. The Senate has become a progressive legislative body run by progressive leaders. There hasn’t been a single piece of progressive legislation that has been deep-sixed there, and a whole lot of progressive initiatives have started there. The combination of progressive legislators, legislative supporters of organized labor, and strong public lobbying compelled the reluctant crew of Chamber lackeys in the House to support SB 15, and to defeat every amendment designed to weaken it. Perhaps overshadowed yesterday was the passage of bills like HB 115, HB 163 (Suxco’s Collins was the only no), and HB 195, among others. Check ’em out. Good things are happening. Get a couple more progressives in the House, and elect a progressive governor in 2024. Hard work, but doable.
How Amazon Burns Through Warehouse Workers. Doesn’t stop Delaware from gifting them $$’s to open new sweatshops here. Break up Amazon! And don’t give them any more ‘economic development’ money. They sure as fuck don’t need it. Oh, and regulate the fuck out of ’em. That means you, DOL.
Portland Criminals Crowd Control Cops Resign En Masse. My daughter lives in Portland. The so-called crowd control police live for the chance to beat up protestors. Their heads are in the ’60’s, and everyone with long hair or a different skin color are the enemies. One of the worst of the worst was indicted for pounding a protestor with a baton. So, the entire unit resigned. From the crowd control unit. They’ll still be rousting progressive protestors in one form or another. This is a rogue police force.
Speaking Of Rogue Cops…: “The Justice Department on Thursday released horrifying new police body camera footage from the January 6 assault on the US Capitol, after CNN and other outlets requested the tapes.The footage was used in the case against Thomas Webster, a former Marine and retired police officer from the New York City Police Department accused of participating in the Capitol attack.” And beating up an on-duty cop trying to protect the Capitol.
Here’s The Worst Supreme Court Justice. It’s probably a good thing. He seems skilled at alienating his conservative colleagues. The enemy of my enemy…
Juneteenth Becomes National Holiday Before Juneteenth. It’s real, and it’s spectacular. The story of slavery and the emancipation are now officially part of the American story.
Company Cut 2000 Jobs, Reaped Largest Tax Benefits During Pandemic. Marathon Oil. Uh, that’s not the way it’s supposed to happen. Make ’em pay it back:
BailoutWatch found that the fossil fuel industry was more likely than other sectors to benefit from the tax changes in the Cares Act because of their financial losses in 2019 and 2018, when refining margins were already in decline during those less profitable years. The watchdog group also found that fossil fuel companies lobbied heavily for these changes during the drafting of the legislation. Marathon spent $2.6m on lobbying in Washington in 2020, including to increase Cares Act tax deductions.
In all, the report found that 77 oil and gas companies received $8.24bn from the Cares Act tax refunds while laying off nearly 60,000 employees. Marathon’s federal tax breaks are in addition to state and local tax incentives that the company receives in Louisiana.
Take Manchin’s Voter ID Deal? This writer makes a persuasive case for it:
That’s exactly why Manchin’s proposal is, as a matter of both policy and politics, quite elegant. The currently available evidence suggests that, as improbable as it may seem, expanding voter-ID requirements to all 50 states would do little to reduce turnout. But Manchin’s not just trying to require identification nationwide. He would also expand the types of government ID that can be used in elections, for example by allowing voters to cast ballots if they display a utility bill. This version of a voter-ID law would require voters to prove their identity without disenfranchising a large number of voters—in other words, it’s the exact type of voter-ID law most Americans already support.
And consider what Democrats, and democracy, will get in return for this concession. Automatic voter registration. An end to partisan gerrymandering. Mandatory early voting nationwide. Joe Manchin’s offer will leave some voters out. That’s bad. But the number of voters who will be enfranchised by this proposal outnumbers—by orders of magnitude—the number who will be left disenfranchised. That’s not just a step in the right direction. It is, potentially, the difference between preserving our democratic system of government and not.
Stacey Abrams has embraced it. I think that’s good enough for me.
What do you want to talk about?