US Politics February 2019: This is one of the great losers of all time.

Def. a good open, but I think I posted several weeks back an interview with Sean Casten, who as of that interview was not a supporter of the GND, despite being a climate scientist elected more or less on an environmentalist platform. I think his argument was that as someone who spent his entire career dealing with this stuff it's better to aim lower and get more than aim high and get nothing? Something like that. Anyway, broad GND a good start, a placeholder until the Dems take back the WH and/or Senate.

Casten said those goals, while well-intentioned, don't align with the political realities of a Washington in which Republicans still control the Senate and White House.

"I don't want to spend two years talking about pie-in-the-sky things that would be great if we ever got the authority to do them," said Casten, who won his suburban Chicago seat by defeating six-term Rep. Peter Roskam (R-Ill.).

"Would I love 100 percent renewable energy? You betcha. Would I love a world that has a lot of green jobs? You betcha," Casten added.

But he said there are steps Congress could take in the interim. "You can't just start charging people off a cliff," he said.

As an example, Casten talked about amending the Clean Air Act to encourage power plants to increase their efficiency — a proposal he floated during the 2018 campaign.

Casten, who made a career of cutting carbon emissions by helping companies make use of wasted energy, also floated the possibility of finding ways to encourage the federal government to buy more clean energy.

"Some of the barriers to lowering CO2 emissions are tax barriers," he said. "Some of the barriers to lowering CO2 emissions are actually in the Clean Air Act itself. Some of the barriers to lowering CO2 emissions have to do with the way that capital is allocated by the private sector."

Notably, Casten said he would be more interested in serving on the Energy and Commerce Committee than on the Select Committee on the Climate Crisis.

"It's where the expertise is," he said.

love that classic negotiation tactic "aim low"

yeah fuck that

IMO the big thing is just elevating the issue. I know Obama was big on climate action but it always seemed like it was just another thing on his list rather than the generation-defining existential crisis it actually is. if she can get the public to move on this issue then Dems will follow suit.

sean casten is not a climate scientist

ah yes. “pragmatism” — that time-tested strategy that keeps paying off for Democrats

Woah @SpeakerPelosi openly mocks in Politico interview the Green New Deal plan now supported by 5 of the Dems' leading presidential candidates:

“The green dream or whatever they call it, nobody knows what it is, but they’re for it right?”https://t.co/2otcMWio63

— Jeff Stein (@JStein_WaPo) February 7, 2019

ha -- I didn't post it, Simon, cuz I knew you would.

awesome

onward into the future over her bones

lmao this pic is amazing

2019 mood.#SOTU@RashidaTlaib pic.twitter.com/LJwKz4RGXS

— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) February 6, 2019

Pelosi's reticence is because she got burnt by Obama + the Senate after pushing hard for the cap-and-trade bill. If the caucus gets behind a Green New Deal and the details are hammered out, I have no doubt she'll bring it to the floor and whip the votes.

as noted just a couple sentences later in that article:

In the past decade, she has already seen Democrats try and fail to pass a sweeping cap-and-trade climate law. The next attempt, she said, will need broader support. “This time it has to be Congresswide,” Pelosi said.

so she's going to want buy-in from a Dem majority in the Senate and a Democrat in the WH, it what she's signalling

national prayer breakfast has got to be one the stupidest fucing things btw

There's reticence and then there's disrespect.

I got invited to the national prayer breakfast once, didn't go because I still don't really know what it is aside from people praying over pancakes (and I wasn't sure if they were offering to pay for my trip and I didn't feel like clarifying that). probably would have had good schmoozing.

old ppl in being dismissive of young ppl's enthusiasm shockah

xp

are there mimosas?

christ she’s an asshole.

if they serve mimosas, then it's no wonder I don't attend.

christ she’s an asshole.

― A-B-C. A-Always, B-Be, C-Chooglin (will),

she has to be -- she's Speaker.

also, from Baltimore

I did not clarify what the menu was, it might have tempted me! xp

Casten talked about amending the Clean Air Act to encourage power plants to increase their efficiency

lol I don't want to encourage power plants to do shit, I want to force them

otm

if they serve mimosas, then it's no wonder I don't attend.

― Your sweetie-pie-coo-coo I love ya (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn)

this is a policy i can get behind - #noOJinmychampagne2020

the funny part is that so many think the GND goes too far / asks for too much when really it's not aggressive/ambitious enough

Mimosas are a palliative for people who assume a martini at 11 a.m. is the height of audacity yet don't mind filling their systems with sugar.

#banmimosas

the funny part is that so many think drinking mimosas goes too far / asks for too much when really it's not aggressive/ambitious enough

Where are we in bloody marys?

*on

not enough votes in the Senate

I dislike drinking salad.

I have never had a mimosa but you're kinda making me want to try one

love a good bloody mary

Yeh see I don’t think shitting on the enthusiasm and a broadly popular dem policy agenda makes you an effective Speaker.

xposts

i think everyone recognizes that pelosi is a generational legislative talent, she has done many more good things than bad in her career. but she doesn't have to be defended every single time she fucks up. dismissively calling it the "green dream or whatever they call it" is fucking up. yes, she's been burned before, yes, if the caucus gets behind it she will get the votes. but it's still fucking up. there are many ways to register general disapproval of a plan. then there's calling it the "green dream or whatever they call it". she's a big girl, we can say that we totally disagree with her without attacking her legacy and her ability to get things done

effective as she may be (compared to dopes like Boehner or Ryan), at some point everyone Yasss Kweening is just going to have to come to grips with the fact that she just personally doesn’t support effective climate change legislation or a M4A

clapping sarcastically at Trump doesn’t really improve anyone’s life

fyi, Rush Lumbago pronounces "Ocasio-Cortez" with a Zorro-style lisp, and says the Green New Deal would phase out air travel in ten years

she has said the clapping was not sarcastic fwiw

just imagine a Republican in a leadership position who doesn’t (at least in the press) support “life at conception” and cutting taxes

and from the safest of the safe red states no less

she has said the clapping was not sarcastic fwiw

― bhad bundy (Simon H.), Thursday, February 7, 2019

goddammit this is the last straw

maybe she was being sarcastic when she said the clapping wasn't sarcastic?

xxp Not sure what you mean, Will, you should read the (very brief) article. she says in the interview that climate change is her “flagpole priority” and she’s right that GND is more a slogan not ready to go legislation. the dream remark is given without broader context, sounds dumb but...

(ftr I don't care about the clapping but it is funny given the mass-meme-production)

Liberals who believe this was a gesture of defiance give you some clue how liberals view political defiance. pic.twitter.com/NcSSWA3gVC

— Dennis Perrin (@DennisThePerrin) February 6, 2019

see also: Jose Altuve looking slightly serious while Donald Trump spoke at the Astros' post-World Series White House visit and everyone crowing that he was owning Donald Trump or w/e

just personally doesn’t support effective climate change legislation or a M4A

cool, so now we've gone from criticizing an off-hand (but yes, ultimately unhelpful) comment to baldfaced misrepresentation.