We spent the four years before President Joe Biden took office in a drama-laden dystopia authored by an incompetent, irresponsible president. America’s press became so addicted to the reality show aspect of a man who had more lies than answers that real stories gave way to Kabuki theatre. Chasing the inflation...
Here’s the latest news out of Pennsylvania: The TV ad is no-holds-barred. It bluntly attacks a decision of the Democratic candidate for Pennsylvania Supreme Court. And on Saturday, the state Bar Association said the spot went too far. The ad says the Democratic contender, Superior Court Judge Maria McLaughlin, “chose...
This is the sixth set of notes for a reading group on Marx’s Capital, and includes a Volume I refresher for further reading of Volume II. There are links to earlier posts and texts that may be useful. Marx is probably too taken with a kind of scientism by proposing...
Layaway, on-time, and paying-something-down-on-it have been very familiar phrases in black, brown, and poor neighborhoods for generations; credit was for the people who did not need it. Financial freedom because of race, religion, and status was prohibitive for countless numbers of Americans and immigrants. The constant pressure of having to...
What is the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the words, terrorism? 9/11? ISIS? The Taliban? While these examples are certainly just, they don’t always represent terrorism in its entirety. Dan Brown said, “History is always written by the winners”. Stereotypes and generalizations often cause the public...
Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy represents one of the poorest districts in California, yet he opposes relief for his constituents. We must rid the House of Kevin McCarthy See full episodes here. There was a striking article titled “Biden’s aid programs help buttress McCarthy’s district despite GOP leader’s complaints about ‘socialist’ spending” in...
Received this e-mail today from Democracy for America: On March 9th the United States House of Representatives passed H.R.842, Protecting the Right to Organize Act of 2021, known as the PRO Act. The PRO Act vastly expands labor protections related to employees' rights to organize and collectively bargain in the workplace....
MSNBC Host Stephanie Ruhle did not mince her words. She pointed out that businesses should pay more if they want more workers. Full stop. Stephanie Ruhle makes a lot of sense. See full episodes here. Today’s jobs report is out and it is not what was expected. Many thought that over one million...
Joe Biden did not allow the GOP to drive a narrative blaming the rescue plan and lazy workers. He came out swinging. Biden gets ahead of the false employment narrative x x YouTube Video See full episodes here. So far, President Joe Biden are making mostly the right moves. Today’s jobs...
Yesterday was a very busy day for me so I’m playing catch up today. Received this e-mail yesterday from former Air Force Pilot and U.S. Senate candidate, Amy McGrath (D. KY) on behalf of her new organization, Democratic Majority Action PAC: RoJo The Traitor Since I told you about my...
The Tin Lizzie was a Ford Model T car that ushered in prefabricated manufacturing, thereby featuring profits over craftsmanship. Although for the first time, the middle-class had real dreams of affording an automobile, the Tin eventually went bye-bye because it bowed to modernization. The current Tin Lizzie, Republican House member...
Received this e-mail today from Marine Veteran Lucas Kunce’s (D. MO) U.S. Senate campaign: President Biden, labor activists, and everyday workers across the country are all calling on the U.S. Senate to pass the PRO (Protecting the Right to Organize) Act. They’re absolutely right, we need this bill to get...
A little over a year ago, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham postured that helping out hungry Americans would make them lazy. “Very few people would choose work over unemployment benefits that provided moderately more money,” said Graham. Not only was this an attack on those in need but their work ethic...
Received this e-mail from Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley’s (D. OH) gubernatorial campaign: x We don't need some hedge fund millionaire like @JDVance1 claiming to speak for working families who are struggling to get by. In Dayton, we passed universal pre-k and the results have been incredible both for kids and...
Whether it’s soccer teams or sandwich shops, financialization was there before the pandemic, only making some of its supply-chain hijacking yet another example of an impending capitalist disaster. Re-regulation must remain important as crises loom in the post-pandemic recovery. A 2017 interview with UMass’s Gerald Epstein points to the need to...
The Black Codes of the late 1800s are making a comeback in America. These ordinances were meant to control the free movement of people of color using minor infractions as the reasoning, which was a literal attempt to keep black people in their place. The beginnings of policing in America...
“As in the Times Op-Ed from which the book originated, the title refers to the results of studies conducted in Germany from the mid-nineteen-eighties onward, which reported, among other intriguing findings, that eighty per cent of East German women always experienced orgasm during sex, compared to sixty-three per cent of...
I read “Biden Can Go Bigger and Not ‘Pay for It’ the Old Way” by Economics Professor and MMT advocate Stephanie Kelton. It is an important read that we need to understand. Stephanie Kelton hits the nail on the head. See full episodes here. Ironically Professor Kelton shared some concerns with former...
Change as a rising tide seems to be falling short as history’s stream is not as mighty. Apparently slavery is still “ordained by God for ultimate good” at Baylor University, as a RW campus group wants to accuse the University of canceling its “Christian identity”. No mention of its athletic team’s...
Like Martin Luther objecting to Pope Leo X selling indulgences to raise money for a variety of excesses, the environmental costs of carbon markets far exceed the benefits. Austerity would have denied us Renaissance art which is less at risk in an age of non-fungible tokens. Today the consequences for the planet...
The stuck ship does tell us something about the fragility of global trade and the flow of capital. Fungible Space Logistics, that concept popularized by United Parcel Service is also about the spatial problems of concrete versus abstract global networks. x Everyone is talking about the big ship getting stuck...
So much dodging bullets these past months, but so many tradeoffs. What remains is that we now have a POTUS who can actually talk about “modern Jim Crow” rather than the previous guy making a mockery of the office. “A new study by an UCLA economist estimates that 400,000 people...
Apparently John (no relation) Kennedy (R-LA) may endorse those sober drivers who run over demonstrators in Oklahoma, because a guy who “went to Oxford” should know something about logical fallacies. x Hours after America's second mass shooting in a week, Sen. John Kennedy downplays the gun problem by noting that...
Twitter is dragging Jonathan Turley because of attributing a Rousseau quote to the Reign of Terror, but more likely because they mistook him for Jeffrey Toobin. That’s the nature of conservative culture war, making class warfare a struggle more transcendent and less applicable in times of right-wing insurrection. x Since philosopher Jean...
Oprah Winfrey’s query of the exiled Royals was a superfluous gesture to most black Americans. That was until she brought up the subject of the baby royal, Archie. By exposing what most black men and women around the world know, that racism exists from the commoners to literal Kings and...
In case you missed this: Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) erupted Tuesday on the House floor, imploring his Republican colleagues to stop their obsession with stoking culture wars and shift focus to helping Democrats pass legislation to aid Americans struggling through the coronavirus pandemic. “Stop talking about Dr. Seuss and start...
It’s been a long and very busy week for me, hence why I haven’t been posting a lot of diaries. But I just wanted to pass this along: 'No idea what he's doing': Manchin perplexes with Covid aid power play In the end, it took a direct call from President...
A worthwhile article in the NYT Some highlights: Amazon has embarked on an advertising blitz this winter, urging Congress to follow the company’s lead and raise the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour. American workers “simply can’t wait” for higher pay, the company said in a recent blog post....
Darn those class commitments, aligning us to our political choices in a democracy, made worse by all those folks who knew they were in that Gilded Age. “If the future of the Democratic Party is in the rich suburbs, the future of American politics is another long Gilded Age.” Matt...
We point out the lack of leadership in Texas, run by Republicans. Evette Avery updates us on her labor work even as Delta firing sustained. Republicans in leadership decimated Texas Politics Done Right Live weekdays @ 3:00 PM Central Video Zoom: LINK — Live Calls: (346)248-7799 ID:254 0 9091 Topics: Dana...
Recovering memory and historical revisionism in sex work might be the sad product of many repressive regimes. What becomes worse is the complicity of academic institutions in white-washing crimes against humanity. Harvard is no stranger to items like Alan (buddy of Jeff Epstein) Dershowitz’s attempt to move the statutory rape...
Texas is the coalmine canary of failures in the GQP’s industrial policy. The “clusterfuzzle” appears to be only in Texas: perhaps they skimmed on costs and failed in winterizing their plants. The structural failure comes from the anti-federal, deregulatory policy of the Texas grid which reveals itself in the disinformation...
Forty-four of the sitting fifty Republicans in the Senate put on their tinfoil hats, held up Q’s, ignored the Constitution, and voted against having a trial for the twice impeached former president. Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA), who previously voted against having a Senate trial, was so unimpressed with Mr. Trump’s...
Let real wages (of $15+/hour) grow faster than labor productivity for some years, undoing the wage repression of the last decades. We have been misled by neoliberal economics for now many decades, it’s time to turn many things around in what is becoming a second-rated US economy, recently crippled by the...
Big news today out of Pennsylvania: x YouTube Video Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman formally announced Monday what has been evident since his unsuccessful first campaign for U.S. Senate: He’s taking another shot at it. Fetterman, who launched his campaign with a video for supporters, is the first officially declared...
“Democracy is not self-executing.” Trump manufactured numerous technicalities to make a long-shot work, and failed. He tried to fabricate a state of martial law via an inside job, as the Trump Defense Secretary disarmed DC National Guard prior to the 6 January insurrection. Fortunately the proto-fascists in the mob were far...
Kaaaaaaaa-BOOM! Nancy Pelosi (D-Not Fucking Around) just referred to GOP House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy as “Kevin McCarthy (Q-CA).” And that’s not all. Read: x Scathing news release from @SpeakerPelosi designating @GOPLeader as (Q-CA). pic.twitter.com/qgkiMaBx6p— Steve Herman (@W7VOA) February 3, 2021 < p class=”is-empty-p”> “After several conversations and literally running...
Received this e-mail today from U.S. Senator Jon Ossoff (D. GA) in support of U.S. Senator Maggie Hassan’s (D. NH) re-election campaign: Sen. Maggie Hassan (D. NH) 1,017 votes. That was the margin in Democrat Maggie Hassan's U.S. Senate election in New Hampshire in 2016. Well now Maggie is up...
I like this: Ohio Congressman Tim Ryan (D-13) is urging President Joe Biden to fire the entire United States Postal Service Board of Governors and nominate new leadership amid recent mail delays. In his letter to the president, Ryan explained how operational changes imposed by Postmaster General Louis DeJoy continue...
Marjorie Taylor Greene, the one-woman wrecking ball of the GOP (OK, she’s not the only one, but one of her is enough), has managed to wrangle a spot on the Education Committee, even though she has seriously claimed that various school shootings were hoaxes. (Maybe she thinks the students were...
As Climate Crisis returns to the new US administration agenda, negative emissions technologies (NETs) may find their implementation hindered by neoliberal financialization. An earlier ACM story showed how Steve Keen’s critique of Nordhaus’s use of discounting climate change demonstrates that orthodox economics is incapable of accelerating innovation especially in...
Many Progressives are excited about the upcoming prospective “Green New Deal” which is already taking shape, even before formal Green New Deal legislation. Multi-billion dollar manufacturing plants for electrical vehicle batteries, providing 2000 jobs per plant, are already rising in Michigan and Georgia. Fossil fuel pipelines, already partly built like...
Kitchen Table Kibitzing is a community series for those who wish to share a virtual kitchen table with other readers of Daily Kos who aren’t throwing pies at one another. Drop by to talk about music, your weather, your garden, or what you cooked for supper…. Newcomers may notice...
Received this e-mail today from newly appointed U.S. Senator Alex Padilla’s (D. CA) re-election campaign: Immigration reform is urgent and a matter of life or death for people fleeing violence or persecution. Immigrants needlessly suffered under Donald Trump. It's time to right those wrongs. That's why I stand with President...
While I didn’t plan on getting back to posting election diaries until after today, I figured it was important to post this: x This was tweeted by field director of @NRSC run by @SenRickScott. pic.twitter.com/ej5rTL82Qu— Daniel Uhlfelder (@DWUhlfelderLaw) January 20, 2021 So this is a preview of what we are...
No doubt there are Trump pardons, but the cluster falls close to the _____. Apparently Trump has been advised that the optics of guilt are greater exposure to his soon to be mounting legal woes. This includes even the Trumpian small insults, a hastily assembled 1776 position paper to prescribe...
This post in the Anticapitalist Chat supports a group reading of Karl Marx’s Capital Vol 1. #GoodMorningMarx #WeeklyMarx Reproduction and accumulation Capital is “self-valorising value”. But for capital to continue to generate new value and create surplus-value, this surplus-value must itself by reinvested back into production – that is, surplus-value must be...
Is this like conservatives abandoning Twitter for Parler? Actually, no. Sounds a bit more like people threatening to move to Canada if we pass “socialized” medicine. Because, uh, where the fuck are they gonna go for cheaper shit brought to you by workers who have been more cruelly exploited? Seems...
As with most faculty politics, there is a subtext to the story of a professor fired for specious reasons. Garrett Felber was fired for failing to “communicate face-to-face” with his department chair at University of MIssissippi, even as he was outspoken about a variety of university actions after the selection of...
This post in the Anticapitalist Chat supports a group reading of Karl Marx’s Capital Vol 1. #GoodMorningMarx #WeeklyMarx Summary: Chapter 16 of volume 1 of Capital is called “Absolute and Relative Surplus Value” and discusses the nature of labour, surplus value and surplus labour time. This chapter begins Part 5 of Capital (which...
