I was pulled away from the computer for a couple of days, but now I’m back.
I see you all were busy trying to grasp what happened with the elections. So are the pundits. And the “moderates” are still working hard to sabotage the President’s agenda. This is from WaPo:
But a handful of moderates soon balked, as they raised questions about the fiscal implications of the second initiative, which is a tax and spending bill that has changed numerous times in recent weeks. The centrists demanded to see more data about its budgetary effects before they would supply their much-needed support.
Some of the “moderates” say they won’t vote on anything until they see a CBO cost estimate, and since the bill keeps getting reworked (often to placate the “moderates”) I’m not sure when that’s going to happen.
And I personally think that the squabbling, the lack of action, and the failure to deliver anything since the covid relief package is hurting Democrats more than anything else. But I’m not a pundit, or a pollster. So what do I know?
Greg Sargent writes that the “moderates” are spreading the talking point that Democrats’ problems all stem from those awful progresssives.
Did Democrats take a big drubbing on Tuesday because they are trying to accomplish too much on behalf of our country?
To some centrist Democrats and opinionmakers, the answer is yes.
Is this a joke? Afraid not.
If this idea gains traction, it could spook centrist lawmakers into making more demands to downsize President Biden’s agenda, fueling ideological conflict and causing important programs to be jettisoned.
Like they need more excuses to do nothing.
“The president ran as a competent bipartisan centrist,” is how one Democratic strategist interprets those results. “He has not governed that way.”
And a New York Times editorial makes this argument at length. Declaring that “Democrats deny political reality at their own peril,” it claims a need to “return to the moderate policies and values” that fueled 2018 and 2020 Democratic victories.
It insists the party is prioritizing “progressive policies at the expense of bipartisan ideas” and that many voters are “leery of a sharp leftward push in the party.” This requires reconsideration of centrist “concerns” about spending and BBB’s “price tag.”
The basic claim here is that Tuesday’s losses were at least partly due to the ambition of the BBB agenda — and that this agenda alienated voters because it supposedly went much farther than Biden’s campaign platform.
Here’s the problem — I’ve seen one analysis after another saying that voters really don’t know what’s in the BBB bill; they just keep hearing about the price tag. I’ve seen one analysis after another saying that when presented with the individual pieces of the bill, voters overwhelmingly approve.
The bleeping “moderates” are still bleeting about “bipartisan ideas,” for pity’s sake. What planet do these people live on?
And, frankly, I think the notion that American voters across the spectrum are eager to go back to exactly how things were in 2016 is absurd, even assuming we could do it.
The one thing Paul Walden doesn’t say is why these “moderates” are so bleeping oblivious to reality. Personally, I think they’re all on the take. Who benefits from sabotaging progressive policies? The wealthy, the corporations, that’s who. There’s a payoff going on, somewhere.
Some reporters at Newsweek tell us what happens to “moderate” politicians who gut progressive legislation.
All of the former Democratic senators who publicly opposed a public health insurance option during the Obama administration, for example, ended up joining the influence industry. They became lobbyists or corporate consultants, or found work at a corporate-funded think tank, according to a Daily Poster review of publicly available records.
Today, with Democrats in control of Washington, corporate America has been relying on some of these former Democratic senators-turned-influence peddlers to help limit President Joe Biden‘s “Build Back Better” agenda bill and make sure lawmakers don’t pass anything that could threaten anyone’s profits.
Right on cue, Politico reports that Kyrten Sinema is taking money from multilevel marketing businesses to kill legislation favored by labor unions. These include the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act, which would make it more difficult to classify workers as independent contractors. The business model of so-called MLMs requires armies of independent contractors, many of whom will make nothing.
The political action committee associated with Alticor, the parent entity of the health, home and beauty company Amway, gave $2,500 to the Arizona Democrat in late June, as did the PAC for Isagenix, an Arizona-based business that sells nutrition, wellness and personal care products. Nu Skin Enterprises, another personal care and beauty company, gave $2,500 that month, as did USANA Health Sciences, which sells similar products. In April, Richard Raymond Rogers, the executive chair of Mary Kay, a Texas-based cosmetics company, gave $2,500 to Sinema. Herbalife, which also sells nutritional supplements, gave $2,500 in July. All are affiliated with the Direct Selling Association, a trade group that promotes multilevel marketing.
Sinema might as well publicly advertise her vote is for sale. She’s too obvious.
https://readsludge.com/
It ain't just that many democrats are for sale like almost all repuknicans; it is depressing how cheaply they can be bought.
No not corruption but the Scam-way. We must credit Charles Ponzi with the nefarious notion, and the evil Bernie, Bernie Madoff for one of it's great illegal mutations. You have to like the cosmetic multilevel marketing scheme with the pink caddy for those who exploit the most ultra duped of the needy greedy.
I relished the financial guru on CNBC the other day who labeled bitcoin as a religion not a currency. Some get a pink caddy but most just sell tickets to financial heaven that have the value of the old Catholic trick of marketing indulgences. When you have scammed people all your life and are faced with judgement day and the grim reaper, a little get out of purgatory quick card might just make an addled old person think this has to be a good buy.
More lives than a cat and more mutations than the COVID. It is a parasite that comes with capitalism. Those who think capitalism is a religions tenet, like those who purvey the gospel of greed which is not in any properly interpreted Christian Bible, The Book of Mormon, and especially not the Koran, prohibit it's preaching as apocryphal material with the status of the Bible of Judas.
Yep, what we have here is a 30 pieces of silver deed and fiscal elitism on steroids.
If Judas was running for public office these days he would be a shoe in for either party. I laugh when people contend that the United States is a Christian Nation. These people have not listened much to the other eleven apostles.
maha,
Ok. So you're not a punTWIT.
And you're not a pollster.
So what do you know, you ask?
Well, after reading you for over 15, close to 20, years, I can tell you, from where I sit in the peanut gallery, you're smarter than almost all punTWITS, and more accurate than a lot of pollsters!
Btw: What ever happened to polling?
Maybe I'm losing more brain cells (lord knows how many of them I've killed by recreational partying, and drinking), but during most of my life, I remember that the vast majority of polls were pretty close to what the results turned out to be.
The first time I noticed truly inaccurate polling, was in the 2004 election cycle.
That election seemed to have a lot of outliers. And then, all of a sudden, after that, polls seem like more and more of a crapshoot with every election.
PS: I was worried about you, maha. Glad things are ok! 🙂
Two thing I know for sure about Barbra, she represents the thinking of historical and religious wisdom, and she is not sold out. The second thing is that she knows suffering and has learned the skills to recover from it and has tremendous ability to communicate about those skills in writing.
Gulag, your work is cutting edge. You win the award for maiming the influence of spell checkers and poor teachers of the English language on writing skills. You just know how to message with gonzo writing skills and can get it done in NO TRUMP!!!!!!
Onward.
Corruption! Bulls-eye. This is the "money shot" – in the open.
"All of the former Democratic senators who publicly opposed a public health insurance option during the Obama administration, for example, ended up joining the influence industry. They became lobbyists or corporate consultants, or found work at a corporate-funded think tank, according to a Daily Poster review of publicly available records."
It's nice to have corporate support in your re-election but the candidate can't bank that money personally. Insider trading can be lucrative – about 20% of Congress doubles their net worth annually. Not the same 20% every year and some members abstain from the orgy of graft the insider trading is. (Biden had a net worth of under a million when he retired from the Senate.) The big money is in cashing in after you leave.
Maha is right – "Moderate" is just another word for corporate puppet. The only missing element here is the complicity of the media. Over 90% of the media is owned by just six corporations. The source of revenue is advertising – Madison Avenue (synonymous with advertising) is real close to Wall Street economically if not physically. The decay of mainstream journalism happened when the bean counters at the networks started tweaking news content to maximize profits.
Exactly a year after my flight, there was a massive demonstration in DC protesting big money in politics. On the first day, over 400 protesters were arrested. Zero mainstream coverage – no CNN, no ABC, no CBS, no MSNBC, no FOX – not even the Washington Post. No the second day, protesters were chanting in cadence, "Where is C-N-N?" By the end of the week over 1,400 had been arrested in non-violent civil disobedience. NO network coverage – token mentions when celebrities were arrested.
So on corruption, it's voters against every institution voters think they should trust in protecting democracy. Both party organizations, most members of Congress, the media, Wall Street…. damn near every group bigger than the Girl Scouts. The good news is that almost all voters, including Republicans, are opposed.
Oh scam and corruption is well linked to advertising and the media. The media can only go so far in exposing the problems of capitalism lest it bite the hand that feeds it.
Now we are up against the metaverse. Alex Williams, in an article entitled An Eight Year-old Explains the Metaverse in the NYT article that appeared recently. The following quote from that article exposes the depth of corruption there:
I guess it might better be named the metacon rather than the metaverse or the land of the meta perverse.
Progressives have been more of an ally to Biden in his efforts to get this legislation passed, compromising so much as to end up with a bill that is damn near unrecognizable vs the orginal, in cost and scope. Yet blaming them in the media for when the "centrists" throw up roadblocks has become a knee-jerk reaction. Whenever the centrists throw up roadblocks, its ignored. For example:
Democratic infighting had continued throughout Friday as moderates demanded Pelosi wait for a cost estimate on the larger bill from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office before moving forward.
That group, including Reps. Kathleen Rice, D-N.Y., Ed Case, D-Hawaii, Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J., Stephanie Murphy, D-Fla., and Kurt Schrader, D-Ore., released a statement late Friday saying they would support the "Build Back Better" vote if it's considered by Nov. 15 and the CBO scores remains consistent.
https://abcnews.go.com/Poli…
Notice that this latest dodge is not even original, first brought up by Manchin as another paymaster pleasing delaying tactic. Worked for their counterpart in the senate, so now they’re running with it.
The great thing about being a "moderate" in the democratic party is you never have to answer for what you do on behalf of your paymasters, including when it goes against the interests of the party. And they do so knowing the press will blame "progressives" as party leadership, dominated by "moderates" stand silently by. Birds of a feather, getting paid together.
The one good thing about all this is a light is finally being shone on what a moderate really is. Its not some high minded person with good intent trying to split the difference between differing viewpoints. Its a corrupt hack who's been paid off by wealth to prioritize their needs over that of the constituents they represent, and then, like pissing on 'em and calling it rain, make them think its a good thing. Look at the people on the list. These are the political brigands who oppose fixes to prescription drug pricing, Medicare, $15 minimum wage, federal help on student loans and anything that doesn't benefit their paymasters. And they don't offer any alternative other than no. Its all or nothing — all for the donors, nothing for the people.
There's nothing "moderate" about that.