It seems Joe Manchin does not know where he belongs. Progressives know well what Manchin’s values represent. Joe Manchin should know Watch Politics Done Right TV here. The moderator at The Economic Club asked Joe Manchin if it would be easier being a Republican or if he has been approached...
Values
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...
Rising seas that inundate coastal properties cause billions of dollars in damage and essentially have bankrupted FEMA. You and I ( the country's taxpayers) fund the National Flood Insurance Program, and the program heavily subsidizes waterfront homeowner's flood insurance most of whom are extremely wealthy. But starting October 1 of this year, those subsidies...
It begins…more likely prosecution of Trump corporate tax fraud coming first because it’ll always be about strong cases. Trump Organization facing possible criminal charges, sources say https://t.co/yfzrKV0jGu — Morning Joe (@Morning_Joe) June 28, 2021 The Trump Organization is expected to be hit with criminal charges as soon as next week...
The Republican Party is outraged, outraged—I say—that Rep. Ilhan Omar issued a thoughtful albeit controversial statement. “We have seen unthinkable atrocities committed by the U.S., Hamas, Israel, Afghanistan, and the Taliban,” said Omar, “We must have the same level of accountability and justice for all victims of crimes against humanity”...
Repost: Fordham Political Review. No one issue in politics today causes greater polarization than the issue of abortion. I remember sitting down with my mother in high school, nerves fluttering in my stomach as I asked her, “What do you think about abortion?” I was thinking about the fact that...
In a Wall Street Journal op-ed, Ted Cruz admits he’s a corporate shill but like Matt Gaetz’s procurer, Joel Greenberg, prior crimes don’t count if you can get a pardon, even from the press. But hey Ted, confession is good for the soul because you don’t have to rely on the...
A new book suggests now the necessity of reexamining the historical materialist project of Walter Benjamin recognizing those moments of historical contact as acts of recognizing the constructed historical object. “Historicism tends to be hermeneutic because it values cautious, rigorous, and contextualized interpretation of information; or relativist, because it rejects notions of universal, fundamental...
Received this e-mail from former Presidential candidate and current U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D. MA) in support of appointed U.S. Senator Alex Padilla’s (D. CA) re-election campaign Sen. Alex Padilla (D. CA) Hi — it’s Elizabeth Warren. I’ll just be blunt: I’m about to ask if you can pitch in...
Fifteen years ago, black suspect, Neal Mack gasped for breath, using the all too familiar words “I can’t breathe.” Mr. Mack was handcuffed and having his life drained from his body by a chokehold applied by officer Greg Kwiatkowski before being pulled away. Mr. Mack’s life was saved by black...
One of the more despicable senators in the US Senate now acknowledges that climate change is real after four years of kissing Trump’s ass as the know-nothing did all he could do to derail the fight against climate change and kill life on the planet. Better late than never, but words...
Just as the COVID-19 pandemic transformed the country and Donald Trump transformed his body into a Carl’s Jr. grease trap, Trump himself has all but Brundlefly’d the Republican Party—to the point where I don’t know what the fuck it is anymore. What are the GOP’s principles? Well, four years of Trump...
I know investigations take a long time but this man has caused so much damage with his enablers, I want to see some depositions, some results, and some accountability. With all the damage he has caused, I think this is long overdue. The Mueller report was squashed and now that...
You’d think that a scholar in psychology, however flawed, would understand projection, and that fascism is more than making trains run on time, even when they didn’t. Hail Hydra, because parody is meta-criticism and perhaps we’ll see some plagiarism lawfare over self-help brand infringement. Apparently Jordan Peterson got offended that...
Because Taylor Greene is all about the family values, the usual trolls made noise about FLOTUS sporting patterned stockings when you can google “Melania Trump nudes”. FLOTUS wore fishnets. Matt Gaetz preyed on underage girls. Guess which one infuriates the GOP and MAGA cult? — Patty ♀️🇺🇦🇵🇷🇺🇸 (@PB_Sun_Tan) April 4, 2021...
Previous guy and the GQP continue to be weird and entirely predictable. Weird and even entirely predictable — Kim Mangone (@KimMangone) April 4, 2021 Mike Huckabee doubled down on the usual RW hate, timing it for his evangelical Easter program shown on some shopping channels, because there’s no such thing...
We remain weary about the callow stupidity of the GOP/GQP but we must not patronize or condescend about how superfluous their grievances have been and continue to be. Now that we know more about Trump’s sexual practices, fascist fantasizing seems altogether rote and boring, but certainly redolent of a banality...
Tennessee is at it again. State Rep. Jerry Sexton is trying for the third time to get the legislature to say that: BE IT RESOLVED BY THE SENATE OF THE ONE HUNDRED TWELFTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF TENNESSEE, THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES CONCURRING, that we hereby designate the...
It always seemed absurd to me that hundreds of thousands of U.S. citizens have no effective representation in Congress. And I’m not just talking about Alabamans. But to hear some conservatives tell it, that’s as it should be because, you know, D.C. doesn’t have a car dealership. And they already make their...
Friendly reminder: retiring U.S. Senator Pat Toomey (R. PA) is still an asshole and will not be missed: Republican Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania on Thursday blocked a bill meant to bar private debt collectors from seizing checks issued as part of the recent stimulus bill. The law that Toomey...
Senator Ron Johnson said the blatant part out loud, that he fears black people and not white people. When confronted about his remarks, surprise, surprise, he accused his detractors of playing the “race card.” Mr. Johnson uttered one of the most overt racist statements in recent political history. Johnson recognized...
Weird how it’s possible to have presidential leadership that isn’t into gaslighting douchebaggery or mindless grifting off “cancelculture” Still getting reaccustomed to having a President of the United States who is modest, kind and respectful. — Michael Beschloss (@BeschlossDC) March 12, 2021 Cruz is also spending money to run Facebook...
Marjorie Taylor Green, unburdened by House committee work, should put a bit more time into her trolling banter. Sadly, this was no different than the previous guy’s issues with thinking the US Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico weren’t part of the US, and his minions’ interest in giving Alaska back to Russia....
The sparse number of actual carbon capture and sequestration projects plus weak carbon markets amplify the problems of the climate crisis yet to be revisited, post-Trump. Two heartland examples in North Dakota and Texas show how there are several interlocking problems addressing the climate crisis that must be included in future environmental policy. More specifically...
A Swiss Navy Knife. A new article in Forbes about the failure of the F-35 aircraft system in terms of building a Ferrari points us toward the problem of seeking nails for hammers. Another failed weapons system signifies how national security could remain intact without waste and still save the economy...
Received this e-mail today from the Pennsylvania Democratic Party: It used to be that experience, values, and knowledge were things both parties valued in leadership. Not these days. These days, the PA Republican Party only wants who's Trumpiest. In an upcoming special election, PA Republicans hand-picked a conspiracy theorist who...
Big news today out of Pennsylvania: x After 10 years in the State House, I’ve taken the lessons that my parents taught me & reinforced them in my work as a legislator: to take responsibility, commit to service, be courageous, & push for fairness. I’m ready to take these values...
Slowly we turn…. more Trump revelations ahead as his recorded talks with Putin are now available to Biden and Ukraine releases tapes of Giuliani hectoring them to investigate Biden. Then again there’s the distant hope that a vain Trump will be frustrated enough to testify before the Senate. Maybe a cat lawyer...
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...
“In all things of nature, there is something of the marvelous.” ~ Aristotle It is a fact that the biggest threat to our species is not climate change, though it will likely end much of what we experience today, but rather our war on bio-diversity. Bio-diversity is under attack from...
I’m reminded these days of the classic Monty Python “Election Night Special” sketch. In the sketch, three political parties — the Sensible Party, the Silly Party, and the Slightly Silly Party — vie (along with the independent “very silly” candidate) for various offices. There are a lot of great moments in...
The best explanation of short selling (as it applies to GameStop) that I've read pic.twitter.com/o9ZL5HqsKf — John M. Cunningham (@jmcunning) January 28, 2021 1/2Short selling means borrowing shares and immediately selling them. When the price goes down, they buy them back for cents and return them to the lender. This...
From The Los Angeles Times: But a Times investigation found that recall campaign leaders, seeking to capitalize on the darkening public mood, allied with radical and extreme elements early on to help collect signatures. Those included groups promoting distrust of government, science and medicine; peddlers of QAnon doomsday conspiracies; “patriots”...
This feels like your parents coming home after asking Hannibal Lecter to babysit and then leaving nothing for him in the fridge but fava beans and a nice Chianti. Where have you been, Joe and Kamala!? Don’t ever leave me alone with him again! Honestly, I almost wanted to cry after watching...
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...
The Trump crazies are now, metaphorically speaking, slitting their own throats as uncontrolled Covid infections rage through their communities. These simpletons have turned their very lives over to an incompetent, impotent, and illegitimate buffoon and his administration along with Fox News and the GOP. NPR’s All Things Considered radio show has...
Trump’s staff may have tricked him into thinking he has a line-item veto. Attention-seeking becomes purer for the desperate POTUS*. Trump dithered because he thinks that improves an “unpredictability” brand that shines the turd of incompetence. Trying to make indecisiveness a fashion statement only works when horseshoes are hand grenades. One...