Democratic (Party) Direction

^^ this, i think, is legit the move

that would be so sweet

is Schumer up for re-election in 2020?

cuz if so I can almost kinda see it happening. although it seems there are always more conservative/biz-oriented capitalist assholes in NY state than one would think

He is not: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_United_States_Senate_elections#New_York

My rep, Schrader (D-Or), was one of the blue dog fools who signed that open letter opposing Pelosi. I had considered phoning his three offices to heap scorn on him, but my wife beat me to it. So, I just snail-mailed his local office an earnest old-person letter, written longhand on lined legal pad paper, in which I scolded him severely in earnest old person language.

I composed it on the computer, but I thought that longhand would attract more attention and worry them more.

and worry them more.

but was it stained with bodily fluids?

No blood, sweat, or tears were shed in the making of that letter and I'll be damned if I would ever jack off for Kurt Effing Schrader. Mucus is the only bodily fluid yet unnamed and nope, I withheld.

puss? earwax?

I've been bottling my lymph and sending it to my representatives for years

I'm pretty much ALWAYS suspicious of UBI guys. If you can push for any formulation of universal income, you might as well push instead for its vastly superior cousin, universal services.

― resident hack (Simon H.),

what are universal services? I dont have a horse in the UBI race, but w something like this is maybe pushing for the lesser rather than the superior a start?

I think he's got a lot of borrowed good ideas (Medicare for All! Let's modernize uh timebanking fuck it why not) to sit alongside his main UBI hobbyhorse, but he's also totally got the flavor of a Silicon Valley Democrat. A lot of focus on ""innovating"" our way out of a variety of complex problems (free, uh, marriage counseling for everyone! find. . . new uses for shut down malls? we're gonna geoengineer the shit out of climate change) and that always gives me pause because it allows space for shitty ideas in the name of eclecticism.

― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, T

Which likely candidates do you prefer at this stage? not in terms of electability, just seeing where someone like this might sit with you

Universal services means everybody gets access. You don’t do means-testing or try to divide people into who is more deserving and who ain’t.

would also like to read the definitive UBI takedown if one exists

As HOOS talks about upthread, I don't think there's a definitive takedown possible, as there are a lot of different formulations of UBI.

re: UBS, they got a whole website: https://universalbasicservices.org

give 'em hell, nancy

https://www.democraticleader.gov/newsroom/112918-3/

Great thread on the Green New Deal / Climate Marshal Plan framing:

So many people I've talked to in DC over the last week have said some version of this: "The 10 year timeline to reverse climate change and create millions of jobs seems like a great organizing tactic. But let's talk about what's actually possible." Let's talk about that.

— Saikat Chakrabarti (@saikatc) November 30, 2018

nice

In my on-boarding to Congress, I get to pick my insurance plan.

As a waitress, I had to pay more than TWICE what I’d pay as a member of Congress.

It’s frustrating that Congressmembers would deny other people affordability that they themselves enjoy. Time for #MedicareForAll.

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@Ocasio2018) December 1, 2018

she's running

not if she keeps using "on-boarding" in casual conversation

this is why we lost, alfred

Jayapal is so consistently active and effective it blows my mind.

I was able to successfully assist 5 asylum seekers - 2 unaccompanied minors, a mother and her 9 year old child, and a young man with a serious medical condition - into the United States.

— Rep. Pramila Jayapal (@RepJayapal) December 2, 2018

We have some questions about Donald Trump's cozy relationship with Russia. https://t.co/N6ySNILYMx

— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) August 15, 2016

Alfred what is the proper thing to say other than “on-boarding”

I mean "bringing on" or something like that is less corporatespeaky but she's not campaigning so WGAF how she says it, is my feeling

i think that's what all HR type people say now so it's probably impossible to start a job without people telling you they're onboarding you all the time

always used to be 'orientation'

never heard "onboarding" til my latest permatemp gig

(where the pay sucks)

Tbf it's more than orientation. orientation is telling you what you need to know. Onboarding (ugh) is also getting benefits set up, badging, tax forms, etc.

a spicy take from Jacobin: Beto shouldn't run.. (The basic thesis: Beto represents for liberals a chance to reset to the pre-Trump era; Marcetic argues this is neither possible nor desirable.) It goes into his actual voting record more than any other piece I've seen.

O’Rourke has a decent record, but it’s not exactly spotless. He failed to get the AFL-CIO’s endorsement in his race against Cruz because of his vote to give Obama the power to fast-track the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement, lamely arguing that Obama would negotiate a more progressive deal than a Republican (he of course didn’t). This technically puts him to the right of both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump on the issue. (He’s since voiced support for Trump’s NAFTA renegotiation.)

O’Rourke has also been curiously active in trying to chip away at the Dodd-Frank financial reform law. He voted to weaken the law in 2015, changed his mind when a delay on the Volcker Rule was inserted into the bill he voted for, then voted to weaken that same rule three years later anyway. He also voted to exempt certain non-bank financial institutions, such as mutual funds, from stress tests required under the law, a step supported by the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA), a trade group for banks, securities firms, and asset management firms.

This bill was just one of a series of fifteen bills put forward this year by the Republican-controlled House Financial Services Committee as part of a stealth attempt to pass last year’s failed Dodd-Frank-gutting bill, the Financial CHOICE Act (which O’Rourke had voted against), by breaking it up into smaller pieces. He did vote against three others brought to the floor.

SIFMA and the American Bankers Association likewise supported the Financial Institutions Examination Fairness and Reform Act, another bill O’Rourke voted for, this one making it easier for financial institutions to appeal regulators’ decisions. He’s also voted to triple the size of institutions eligible to be considered small bank holding companies, and so qualify to hold higher levels of risky debt; and he voted to create an unelected oversight board with broad powers to restructure Puerto Rico’s debt, which cut pension benefits for the island’s residents last year, cut the minimum wage, and wants to slash its budget by a third. It’s votes like these that have given him one of the better US Chamber of Commerce voting scores among Democrats.

Pramilaaaaaa

https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2018/12/03/a-new-moral-imagination-on-immigration/

^^saw that, good shit.

Alfred what is the proper thing to say other than “on-boarding”

― crüt,

"brainwashing"

"attending to the administrative matters pursuant to starting a new job"

a lot of talk about the positive economic impacts of immigration, and the need to fight against the perception that leftists want 'open borders', for a piece about 'a new moral imagination on immigration'.
ctrl-f climate: 0 results

I do want open borders though

(also want to take away everybody's guns fwiw, and have sky-high taxes and universal healthcare)

same but this is one policy position where I am not going to be all that disgruntled that my rep doesn't share (or at least doesn't advocate) my position.

Maybe I'll write her though.

Shakey otm

Remember TPP?

I do want open borders though

― Οὖτις, Monday, December 3, 2018

we need to onboard those migrants imo

"...Don't ya'll have jobs to do?" AOC is sooooo good.

This thread (only 2 tweets long, don't worry) is really good, and an interesting revelation:

This week I went to dive spot in DC for some late night food. I chatted up the staff.

SEVERAL bartenders, managers, & servers *currently worked in Senate + House offices.*

This is a disgrace. Congress of ALL places should raise MRAs so we can pay staff an actual DC living wage.

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@Ocasio2018) December 3, 2018

hoo boy

Joe Biden: "I think I am the most qualified person in the country to be president" https://t.co/TZdhneEqeX pic.twitter.com/oYWS2HGYZI

— The Hill (@thehill) December 4, 2018

yknow i'd be interested in and open to the idea of a biden critically reconsidering his own self-presentation to tweak & atone for things like his mistakes around anita hill and clear lack of grasp of structural forces at play in our low intensity generational warfare but i will not hold my breath

If one's resume can be said to fully describe one's qualifications, then Biden has the right kind of resume to back up his claim. But the idea that qualifications begin and end with one's resume is a stupid conceit.

atone for things like his mistakes around anita hill

i agree, but he just missed the most obvious opportunity to do that, re: kavanaugh. during those hearings, he called for a delay and gave a pretty boilerplate statement through his spokesperson. he could have used that opportunity to say "i was wrong about anita hill and i deeply regret it. it's time to do the right thing", etc etc.

then there's the non-apology apology he gave to teen vogue (RIP) in dec 2017:

"I believed Anita Hill," Biden told Teen Vogue. "And my one regret is that I wasn't able to tone down the attacks on her by some of my Republican friends. I mean, they really went after her. As much as I tried to intervene, I did not have the power to gavel them out of order."
"I wish I had been able to do more for Anita Hill," he added. "I owe her an apology."
In a PBS interview in January, Biden said he had not contacted Hill about an apology. His team acknowledged Monday that he and Hill have not spoken.

yeah, ok. one of these days, he's going to get around to talking to anita hill, but he's very busy right now.

nobody's perfect and there's quite a lot that i like about biden, but anyone else please

yupp

Biden is not gonna drive the minority and youth turnout that the Dems are going to need

to say nothing of all the shit I actually disagree w him on + his shitty past positions

Last time I heard, being unable to gather enough votes to win disqualifies a person to be president.