Progressive Caucus Chair Jayapal Has COVID-19 After Lockdown with Mask-Refusing Republicans

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Monday January 11, 2021 · 10:44 PM PST

2021/01/11 · 22:44

I just received a positive COVID-19 test result after being locked down in a secured room at the Capitol where several Republicans not only cruelly refused to wear a mask but recklessly mocked colleagues and staff who offered them one.https://t.co/wVmgroKsdf
— Rep. Pramila Jayapal (@RepJayapal) January 12, 2021

Apparently Republican congressmembers are as stupid and selfish in private as in public.

Their covidiocy managed to infect the chair of the Progressive Caucus, Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D) (WA-7).

Suggested topic for comments: getting justice for her. Or getting even. Your call.

Community Bail Funds: $185 Challenge

social democrat

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Monday June 01, 2020 · 8:27 AM PDT

2020/06/01 · 08:27

ActBlue has put together a single page from which you can donate to 38 community bail funds for George Floyd protestors: Click here!

I contributed $185, which sent $5 to each fund (the math seems wrong here, but work with me).

My challenge: match me! Or make any other contribution.

Note your contribution in the comments if you like!

The Crisis, and the Crisis to Come

social democrat

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Sunday May 31, 2020 · 5:31 AM PDT

2020/05/31 · 05:31

684bfc15-e9b6-41a7-9ab8-449d49b7ee43.jfif

The Crisis

The crisis is the police.

Police started this crisis by murdering George Floyd.

Police escalated the crisis at every protest in the country:

The ongoing protests following the killing of George Floyd were caught up in violence again on Saturday, as police all over the country teargassed protestors, drove vehicles through crowds, opened fire with non-lethal rounds on journalists or people on their own property, and in at least one instance, pushed over an elderly man who was walking away with a cane.

The crisis is a crashing wave of police riots overtaking the country.

The Crisis to Come

Police politics are white supremacist politics; police politics are Trump's politics.

The fundamental political question of the year is whether Trump can be made to relinquish power upon his election defeat.

Forcing Trump from power will require an unprecedented wave of protest.

To preserve our democracy, we will have to make it clear that the country cannot be governed as a Trump dictatorship.

It's now clear we will have to do so in the face of violent police repression everywhere.

This is a dress rehearsal; whether it is a dress rehearsal for tragedy depends on what we do now.

Prepare. Support Black people. Develop the connections, community, trust, strategy, and tactics that will be necessary for the crisis to come.

US JOBLESS CLAIMS SURGE BY 3 MILLION

social democrat

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Thursday March 26, 2020 · 5:41 AM PDT

2020/03/26 · 05:41

From the Guardian:

NEWSFLASH: More than three million Americans signed on for jobless benefit last week, as the Covid-19 outbreak hit the US economy hard.

The initial jobless claims figure, just out, and shows that 3.283m people filed for unemployment support a week ago. An absolutely huge, historically bad, figure.

That absolutely shatters the previous record of nearly 700,000 back in 1982, and is a clear sign that the US economy is being battered by the coronavirus outbreak.

It’s much worse than most economists expected, and means millions of households across America are feeling severe financial.

This is four-and-a-half times the previous record.

UPDATE: Full Guardian article now posted at www.theguardian.com/…

Money Supply, Borrowing, Inflation, Recession

social democrat

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Friday March 20, 2020 · 7:06 PM PDT

2020/03/20 · 19:06

I had a really great discussion with someone in Meteor Blades’ diary on the current recession about the relationship of money supply, borrowing, recession, and inflation.

The poster asked about where all this money for stimulus was actually going to come from:

Seriously though where is that money going to come FROM. They pissed away a HUGE chunk with lowering the taxes for businesses who used all that “largesse” to do stock buybacks and give themselves raises and bonuses and now they’re coming back crying for more because “they’re poor” BECAUSE THEY MISMANAGED.

How fucked up is that and back to my question. WHERE is all of this going to come from -the mythical money tree?

I attempted this answer:

We’re going to borrow from the future, which will be richer than the present, because of productivity gains.

Unless, of course, we implement austerity and suffer permanent losses to productivity due to our failure in the present to create productive capital. In that case, the future will be poorer than the present.

Apparently this was not convincing!

2 Issues:

1) How do you borrow from the future when there is no one to lend now? ALL of the "lenders" are in the same -or worse- shape as the US. And printing money runs the risk of serious inflation issues.

2 )Even if #1 is/becomes possible, unless those productivity gains are allocated/structured a whole lot differently then they have been the last 40-50 years the future goes from possible to a much deeper hole then we are currently in.

So I tried again:

But we are always borrowing against the future. The whole money creation process originates with loans from the government that are to be repaid in the future. The loaned money is then redeposited in bank accounts throughout the economy, creating a multiplier effect. Using that money we build a more productive economy that is capable of repaying the original loans via taxation. That’s how money works in the current system, the virus hasn’t changed that.

I don’t argue with you about the need to allocate both consumption and the rewards of production and investment very differently than they are now. I disagree that our current economy is so structured that borrowing to stave off a recession is a wasted effort that will make us worse off in the long run. The same argument was made against the Obama stimulus, and it was as wrong then as it is now.

I followed up with:

It’s an interesting question whether even hyperinflation is as big a problem as economic depression. Under hyperinflation production continues because there are dollars to be chased; there are just a ton of additional costs throughout the economy as people try to keep caught up with new denomination and the rapid pace of change.

But contrast, in a market economy in depression, production simply does not take place as there is not money to chase and profit is impossible. That leaves productive resources idle, causes a collapse in production, and leaves real needs unmet — think starvation — rather than simply rather severe inefficiency and inconvenience.

The reason people favor depression over inflation is that rich people favor depression over inflation. Under depression and a contracting money supply, the rich get relatively richer, and their consumption doesn’t decrease as they outbid the poor for resources, while the poor go to the wall. Under inflation, the assets of the rich become less valuable, and they hate that. They’d rather we starve.

I thought these were bot good questions and good answers (if I say so myself) so I decided to diary it.

Poll

22 votes Show Results

What is worse?

22 votes Vote Now!

What is worse?

Depression/Deflation

15 votes

Hyperinflation

6 votes

Moderate inflation with reasonable growth (too boring)

1 vote

Unemployment Increase Worst on Record

social democrat

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Friday March 20, 2020 · 4:20 AM PDT

2020/03/20 · 04:20

Goldman Sachs warns data point to a historic and frankly apocalyptic surge in unemployment insurance claims, from current 281,000 to 2,250,000 in next weekÃ¢ÂÂs report. Yes you read that right. pic.twitter.com/KX7oDfu8fe
— Michael S. Derby (@michaelsderby) March 20, 2020

Repeating for emphasis:

“[I]nitial [unemployment] claims rose to roughly 2 ¼ million, the largest increase in initial jobless claims and the highest level on record.”

Unemployment has gotten worse faster than it ever has in history. Our political leadership needs to act with a boldness it has never before shown.

A word of sympathy

social democrat

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Thursday March 05, 2020 · 12:24 PM PST

2020/03/05 · 12:24

Hello all:

Infrequent diary writer, but I thought this might help.

I am a Sanders supporter feeling sorry for myself that the whole process seems to be moving toward Biden and so my candidate isn’t going to be the nominee.

I considered writing a diary bemoaning how awful it was to not have someone to vote for who matches your preferences. The left of the party is pretty long-suffering in this regard.

It was going to be a plea for sympathy and understanding.

Just now I thought to myself: wait a second. There’s a lot of people on DailyKos who are feeling this pain, not just Bernie supporters.

If you supported Warren, you probably are feeling or have felt serious disappointment today.

If you supported Klobuchar, you felt it a week ago. (A special shout-out here for people wanting to support a woman candidate.)

If you supported Buttigieg, you felt it a day before that. (A special shout-out here to my queer brothers and sisters wanting to support one of their own.)

If you supported Harris or Booker, you felt it last year. (A special shout out here to my African-American brothers and sisters wanting to support one of their own.)

If you supported Castro, it is the same. (A special shout out here to my Latinx brothers and sisters wanting to support one of their own.)

I could go on further in this vein, but you get the idea. It sucks when your candidate drops out and you have to choose you next-least-worst alternative.

Most of us have to do that.

Today, from a Bernie supporter, I sympathize — and emphathize — with your grief.

IRV Straw Poll

social democrat

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Saturday March 23, 2019 · 2:01 AM PDT

2019/03/23 · 02:01

Here’s an experiment I cooked up here in the lab in the dead of night: a 2020 Democratic Presidential Primary straw poll using Instant Runoff Voting.

I’ll emphasize that this is experimental, so let’s try it out here in the middle of the night while traffic is low.

Here’s how it will work:

To register to vote, recommend the tip jar.

Every five minutes or so, I will upload registered voters into the poll. Then I’ll update the diary with the list of registered voters.

The registered voter list will consist of (fake) email addresses, e.g. social_democrat@dailykos.com.

When you see the email address corresponding to your user name in the registered voters list in the diary, you can use that email address to VOTE HERE.

This mechanism will limit polling to Daily Kos members and prevent duplicate ballots.

So let’s try this out for a couple of hours to see how it goes.

—

REGISTERED VOTERS LIST

Arcparser@dailykos.com
badlands@dailykos.com
BubbaSan@dailykos.com
buckets@dailykos.com
champaigncarl@dailykos.com
CharliePDX@dailykos.com
chicago_minx@dailykos.com
conniptionfit@dailykos.com
costello7@dailykos.com
dangoch@dailykos.com
Deadheadatvs@dailykos.com
DenisL@dailykos.com
Drocedus@dailykos.com
ET3117@dailykos.com
foxtrotsky@dailykos.com
georgelshea@dailykos.com
guinessboy@dailykos.com
Hohenzollern@dailykos.com
Ian_S@dailykos.com
jamesalance@dailykos.com
jazzed@dailykos.com
Jdid@dailykos.com
JeffinQC@dailykos.com
koNko@dailykos.com
macamma@dailykos.com
megcrane@dailykos.com
Miss_Blue@dailykos.com
MJ_via_Chicago@dailykos.com
mkor7@dailykos.com
neznamo@dailykos.com
Pale_Jenova@dailykos.com
PaloAltoPixie@dailykos.com
Pickly@dailykos.com
pixxer@dailykos.com
Railfan@dailykos.com
RaleighDem5@dailykos.com
Reader_Ray@dailykos.com
RIJim@dailykos.com
RustyPatti@dailykos.com
tinaalsgirl@dailykos.com
tomephil@dailykos.com
tonyahky@dailykos.com
TulsaGal@dailykos.com
Unduna@dailykos.com
upper_midwest@dailykos.com

Saturday, Mar 23, 2019 · 10:59:14 AM +00:00 · social democrat

If you’ve registered, but your registration doesn’t yet appear in the list, you may need to refresh the page in your browser.

Saturday, Mar 23, 2019 · 5:02:33 PM +00:00 · social democrat

Sorry, fell asleep for a couple of hours! Just woke up and updated the registered voters list. Apologies to CharliePDX@dailykos.com, chicago_minx@dailykos.com, megcrane@dailykos.com, and Pale_Jenova@dailykos.com, who had to wait so long for their registrations to come through.

I think the experiment was a measured success — I’m willing to try this at a more-trafficked time of day to see if we can get more votes.

In terms of results: with 17 votes in, and understanding both that we don’t have enough votes and that a few more might trickle in:

Harris had the most first-ballot votes, but Warren benefitted one more vote from transfers as other candidates were eliminated, which let her tie and then overtake Harris on round 5.

Saturday, Mar 23, 2019 · 5:38:12 PM +00:00 · social democrat

With a couple more votes in, the voting dynamics changed a bit in interesting ways:

Here, Buttigieg looked strong in the first round, but Warren pulled ahead of him when Booker was eliminated. That enabled her to tie Harris, and pull ahead when Sanders was eliminated. She just held on as Buttigieg’s votes splitting 3-2 for Harris left Harris one vote short in the final round.

British PM Theresa May to Face Vote of No Confidence Today

social democrat

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Wednesday December 12, 2018 · 12:46 AM PST

2018/12/12 · 00:46

British Prime Minister Theresa May is to face a vote of no confidence Wednesday. Voting among Conservative members of British Parliament will take place over two hours starting at 6 p.m. GMT (1 p.m. EST).

May will need the votes of 158 MPs to retain leadership of the party and the Prime Ministership.

At least 15% of the parliamentary Conservative party, or 48 MPs, signed letters to the 1922 Committee of Tory backbenchers to trigger to the vote.

The vote comes after May postponed a parliamentary vote on her Brexit deal in the face of its certain defeat.

BBC: Theresa May to face vote of no confidence from Tory MPs

Guardian: Brexit in chaos as Tory MPs trigger vote of no confidence in Theresa May

Cohen to Plead Guilty; Talked with Mueller for 70 Hours

social democrat

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Thursday November 29, 2018 · 6:27 AM PST

2018/11/29 · 06:27

ABC reports that Michael Cohen, Trump’s former personal attorney, has reached a deal with Special Counsel Robert Mueller to plead guilty of lying to Congress in closed-door testimony last year.

The story notes that Cohen has sat for more than 70 hours of interviews with Mueller.

“The potential significance of Cohen’s cooperation is immense,” said Kendall Coffey, a former United States Attorney in Florida.

Jon Swaine on Twitter reports that Cohen is now at the federal courthouse in Manhattan:

Michael Cohen is at the federal courthouse in Manhattan, per my colleague @vicbekiempis
— Jon Swaine (@jonswaine) November 29, 2018

social democrat

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Wednesday December 27, 2017 · 6:56 PM PST

2017/12/27 · 18:56

800px-Richard_M._Nixon__ca._1935_-_1982_-_NARA_-_530679.jpg — Gah! It's an enormous Nixon!

On DailyKos we do a fair amount of calling Trump a traitor, and referring to his doings with Putin’s Russians as treasonous.

But DID YOU KNOW?!?

This would not be the first election that turned on Republican treason.

As a matter of fact, on the eve of the 1968 election, Johnson had a peace deal on the table that would certainly have put Hubert Humphrey in the White House.

Nixon scuttled it:

The story of Richard Nixon’s surreptitious contacts with the South Vietnamese government is quite well-known: fearful that a last-second peace deal would give Hubert Humphrey the election, Nixon agents—chiefly Anna Chennault—reached out to the South Vietnamese government of Nguyen van Thieu. The message: a peace settlement under a Nixon presidency would be more favorable to the South Vietnamese. The Paris peace talks may very well have collapsed without this Nixonian intervention, but South Vietnamese resistance ensured the doom of the negotiations. While it remains unclear whether Nixon personally directed the Chennault diplomacy, he clearly was aware of it by late October 1968, and seems to have done nothing to repudiate Chennault's toxic message.

Five years later, Nixon agreed to substantially same terms as were on the table in 1968. So Nixon effectively extended the Vietnam War for five years, at the cost of thousands of lives, for no other reason than to win the presidency.

This is a piece of history that every Democrat should be able to recall at any time. But for some reason, well-documented though it is, it seems like this history is not well known on the left.

So that’s why I wrote this diary. It’s not like they would never do it -- they’ve done it before.

Poll

131 votes Show Results

Had you heard this history of Nixon's collusion with the South Vietnamese in 1968 before?

131 votes Vote Now!

Had you heard this history of Nixon's collusion with the South Vietnamese in 1968 before?

Yes

107 votes

24 votes

Colorado: Jefferson-Jackson Dinner to be Renamed Obama Dinner

social democrat

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Thursday December 21, 2017 · 9:48 PM PST

2017/12/21 · 21:48

Newsweek reports that the Colorado Democratic Party has renamed its Jefferson-Jackson dinner as the Obama Dinner.

“The Colorado Democratic Party said the new name honors the ‘historic contributions’ of President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama.”

I just couldn’t be happier about this. Centuries from now, people will still rate Obama as one of the great Democratic presidents. This is the first of many such honors. I wager someday, Americans will spend coins bearing Obama’s likeness.

Also, in my view, the rename wisely orients the party in the direction of its most crucial constituency. Jefferson’s slaveholding mars his greatness, and it is fitting now to honor the first African-American president in his place.

This connects broadly to an interesting post at LGM entitled “Let’s Put Up New Monuments,” a celebration of the removal of the Jefferson Davis and Nathan Bedford Forrest statues in Memphis, which argues for honoring true heroes of the social justice movements in their place.

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