Thanks Coons!

The reactionary hacks Republicans have nominated to lower federal courts have been overrunning Biden administration policy with no serious legal basis. One obvious reason they’re doing this is that they know the Court that is theoretically in charge of enforcing its own precedents isn’t going to do anything about it:

This one (longish) sentence sums up how utterly fucked we are.

The jig is up. Late stage capitalism simply does not work for workers. A very large number of younger workers have lost all faith in the notion that capitalism exists to benefit them in some way. To that I say, FUCK YEAH.

Demand for workers in the U.S. remained historically elevated in November, with job openings holding near an all-time high and the number of individuals quitting their jobs reaching a record amid the ongoing pandemic.

Pictured: A super-capitalist exploiter looking like a slapped ass.

It is tough to imagine that he was influenced by anything rational. But there you have it.

On Tuesday, former President Donald Trump announced that he canceled a press conference at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida that was scheduled for January 6, 2022, the one-year anniversary of the Capitol insurrection.

Trump said in his statement that he will address his grievances “at my rally on Saturday, January 15th, in Arizona — It will be a big crowd!”

The structural advantages that conservatives enjoy in our electoral system are well known. (The Electoral College giving the losing candidate two victories, the Senate not representing a majority of Americans, the supermajority requirement imposed by the Senate filibuster, etc).  Writing for the New York Times,  Osita Nwanevu looks  beyond those advantages to point the finger of blame for Jan 6th at our shitty media.

He makes a very convincing case that our  shitty media has amplified the conservative minorities own sense of its size and power to the point where conservatives honestly think that Trump won the election.

The tendency of journalists to measure the wisdom of policies and rhetoric based on their distance from the preferences of conservative voters only reinforces the idea that it’s fair for politicians, activists and voters on the left to take the reddest parts of the country into account without the right taking a reciprocal interest in what most Americans want.

That premise still dominates and constrains strategic thinking within the Democratic Party. A year after the Capitol attack and all the rent garments and tears about the right’s radicalism and the democratic process, the party has failed to deliver promised political reforms, thanks to opposition from pivotal members of its own Senate caucus — Democrats who argue that significantly changing our system would alienate Republicans.

The report released by RootsAction.org, titled “Meet The PINOs: “Progressive In Name Only,” targets Democratic Reps. Madeleine Dean (Pa.), Donald Norcross (N.J.), Jimmy Panetta (Calif.), Joseph Morelle (N.Y.), Lisa Blunt Rochester (Del.) and Brenda Lawrence (Mich.).

(snip)

The group accused the six lawmakers named in the report of often acting “more like corporate centrists” on issues like “Medicare for All and the Green New Deal, cutting military spending, [and] robust civil liberties.”

“Our research shows that many caucus members don’t actually legislate like progressives,” said Christopher Cook, the report’s author.

The report comes less than a year before the 2022 midterm elections, when progressives are expected to participate in a number of Democratic primaries. The report calls on progressives to primary the lawmakers in question.

“How can we achieve these critical reforms when some so-called ‘progressives’ refuse to challenge the status quo? Some of these folks in strongly Democratic districts seem ripe for a serious progressive primary challenge, if not this coming year then certainly in 2024,” Cook wrote.

Just when I say I’m maintaining my media black out Middletown gets hit with a snowstorm trapping me in my house in front of my computer.   FWIW – these are the “news” things I noticed.

BREAKING: NY Attorney General Letitia James has subpoenaed Ivanka Trump and Don Jr for testimony and documents in the civil investigation into property valuations.

Also BREAKING – It doesn’t fucking matter. The Trumps just run out the clock and everyone forgets that they were ever subpoenaed. In fact they’ve already acknowledged that is going to be the strategy.

Speaking of things that don’t really matter.

Media Matters’ recommends that news organizations NOT air Trump’s lies about January 6th live.  Media Matters recommendations echo those of New York University professor and author of PressThink Jay Rosen, who in responding to a prompt from a Columbia Business School adjunct professor on Twitter, offered recommendations for news outlets:

• No build up, no count down,
• no empty podium awaiting his arrival
• Don’t carry it live; disinformation risk too high
• After it’s over, sift for any genuine news and report it
• Do not amplify familiar lies and distortions; they’ve all been fact-checked already

They’ll amplify all the lies and bullshit – you know why? There is money in it. US media is FOR PROFIT.

Which reminds me – I had this exchange with a conservative family member over the holidays:

First of all I’m not racist, but…

Hold up. When someone leads with that, you know you are about to hear some racist shit.

First of all I’m not racist, but…why does EVERY commercial have to feature a mixed race couple? It’s like EVERY commercial now.

My response was –  ‘EVERY” commercial?   If you notice a lot of mixed race couples in commercials it is because there is money in it. If there was more money in showing couples comprised of Men with goats, that’s what you’d see.”

Coo-coo Capitalist Elizabeth Holmes is guilty on four counts at least, which given the realities of trying to convict prominent white collar criminals is probably as good as could be hoped for:

Elizabeth Holmes, the founder of the failed blood testing start-up Theranos, was found guilty of four of 11 charges of fraud on Monday, in a case that came to symbolize the pitfalls of Silicon Valley’s culture of hustle, hype and greed.

Happy snow day!  This is being typed on Jan 3rd at 00:05 so I’m just going to assume that majestic, powdery dunes of snow have piled up outside of our doors whilst we snoozed.  Right?  No?  Dang.

Well, let’s see.  What’s new?  First of all – my 2021 media blackout is now my 2022 media blackout.  I know El Som’s knees are beginning to give out from carrying me, but I don’t have the heart to watch Biden’s floundering as his fellow corporatist Democrats bury knife after knife in his back.  At least by undermining Biden they aren’t setting the table for a full scale GOP takeover of congress.   Wait… yes they are.  Never mind.

Anyway, It is hard to be interested in the fortunes of a political party (or a country for that matter) that demonstrates so little interest in continuing as a going concern.

And yet, I have a brain and a conscience and they urge me to action.  So I guess I’ll get involved with the Working Families Party.   What the heck.  The Empire State has a decent liberal party and it makes their Democratic Party a better party.  (Chuck Schumer not withstanding.)

I’ll also continue to get most of my news from El Som’s posts, from the Delaware Call and from REV’s excellent Podcast series – The Highlands Bunker.

If you are an incorrigible lefty haven’t listened to the most recent episode, just do it.

A Tampa Bay player quit during a game. That’s not a crime,  but look at this NJ State Trooper trying to figure out a way to shoot him.

Here is the clip. Notice the cop.

I can’t wait for Chris Coons to tell me to clap louder for our gloriously middle-of-the-road Democratic candidates and the inevitable victory of glorious bipartisanship. As usual Eschaton said it best:

Hey It’s An Election Year

Cheers to the “Occupy Biden” Peeps. Biden is a corporate lackey, so there is no way he is going to declare a climate emergency. Nevertheless, you guys are doing import work.

The movement’s primary goal is to urge President Biden to issue an executive order declaring a climate emergency and mandating that all federal government agencies oppose any new fossil fuel projects.

“You can’t look away from the climate crisis at this point. We saw it right here with Hurricane Ida,” said Karen Igou, with Extinction Rebellion DE. “This is all happening before our eyes, and why our government cannot address it and really combat it is absurd, so we are angry.”

Convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s own private Delaware (but for underage girls) has been found guilty.

I am still in vacation mode having enjoyed the first Christmas in four years without Trump as President.   I should have turned over the open thread to El Som, but didn’t.

So I scanned the headline and it was the usual collection of Covid variant stories.  (Not much news worthy there. Omincron is bad, but only really bad if you are still a anti-vax/pro-disease partisan.)

Desmond Tutu died.  He seemed like a good man who helped his country out a lot when it needed a lot of help.

And yesterday was the one year anniversary the Trump tweet-storm that kicked off his plans to mount a coup on Jan 6th of 2020.  Read all the smoking gun tweets and marvel at the fact that Trump is still walking around a free man.