That’s cute. In the meantime Democrats better get their shit together and pick a winning candidate. Trump’s SOTU speech had an 83% approval among Independents (CBS). Economy keeps humming he’s going to be tough to beat.
Listening to public radio earlier this afternoon (program was called A1) they had polls showing Trump in trouble in WI, MI, and the other one Hillary was expected to win ( not Fla, or Ohio). I believe it included independents.
Yes, i am worried about voter suppression, the extreme gerrymandering, and furthet Russian meddling. I think all is not lost.
I would hope that most people would feel that what is of utmost importance is getting that abomination out of the WH as soon as possible/practicable. But I'm not this confident in Biden necessarily pulling it off. My concern is mostly around whether he mobilizes people to the polls. Once you give up on the 30% of the electorate that's basically deplorable, it comes down to driving massive turnout. When turnout is high, Democrats win. People like Joe Biden on an "aw shucks" way but is he really going to electrify crowds and get people to stand for hours and canvass like they did for Obama? I have my doubts.
As much as we talk about getting Trump out, if there is any chance at taking back the Senate, it would be a dream come true. It's actually more important in the grand scheme of things.
Wait, to have Trump still in office while Dems keep the House, and get the Senate back?!!
i dunno about that...
unless u r thinking if trump is still office then the House can impeach, and the Senate convict? He's such a loose cannon i sure hope he's gone (along e pence) befote then. Tho, i'm not holding my breath!
There may be no better example of how inept the Democrats are at playing politics than the collective handling of this Ilhan Omar "controversy."
1. Omar correctly points out that Israel's absurd "untouchable" status in modern American politics is in no small part due to heavy influence from lobbyists.
2. Republicans flip out and make bad faith arguments that her points included "anti-Semetic rhetoric," which is not the case. They also frame the issue as requiring the Democrats to respond.
3. Democrats oblige, and unify to label Omar's comments anti-Semetic to placate the right.
4. Omar is forced to apologize despite having done nothing wrong.
5. Instead of being satisfied with the placation, as the Democrats seemed to think they would be, the Republicans take advantage of all this to demand her removal from her committees, and now the president calls for her resignation.
6. The Democrats now stumble around saying "Hey, wait a second..." once again.
You couldn't draw up a better summary of how bad the Democrats are at this. The Democrats are once again Charlie Brown, and once again the Republicans have pulled the football away. Even Ocasio-Cortez and Sanders have fallen for the nonsense, which has been incredibly disappointing.
I haven't heard all the fallout yet so i can 't day going sure.
And Democrats need to make certain all their voices are heard, and not just one congressperson from Queens. If it becomes a choice between Trump and AOC, guess who’s going to win?
His approval ratings have ticked up. Some of it is from the SOTU, and some of it has been the clarifying of the two things he’s going to run against: “socialism” and “infanticide.”
I could see these two issues being major in his campaign.
I can think of two things that are much more of a national emergency than this dipshit racist “wall”:
1. Gun violence
2. Climate change
Future president Harris/Booker/Klobuchar take note.
One would think so, along income inequality, and anti the "isms" trump & co have dog whistled and out right stated.
That Israel is not an apartheid state perpetually violating the rights of Palestinians, and that all criticism of Israel amounts to anti-Semitism. Just look at how many Democrats give credence to the ban on BDS. Support of Israel simultaneously allows the right to appear as though they are not anti-Semetic while being a cudgel in their continual war against all things Muslim. And the Democrats have been all too happy to stand together with the GOP on most issues related to Israel and Palestine.
Israel has created a de facto apartheid state in the West Bank for sure. And given that demographics are destiny, this is going to be really akin to Palestinians living in Bantustans really soon. Also given the blatant land grab, the two state solution is almost dead in the water, and Israel has done this to itself. The longer this goes on, the practical solution will look more and more like a one state which necessarily cannot exist as a Jewish one in principle.
I am not particularly religious and therefore not swayed by some loony claims for whose holy land any piece of dirt in the Middle East belongs to. What's more the rest of the world has been held hostage by everyone in that region when it comes to geopolitics for decades to the detriment of us all.
Establishment Democrats are mostly completely one-sided on this issue.
IF I remember correctly APAC is mostly supported by right-wing Jews, or has become so. I'm an ex-Catholic, non-Christian who grew up in a majority Jewish neighborhood in the 60's who absorbed a "Israel can do no wrong " attitude.
By the 80's onward i learned a lot more. I deeply believe in their right to rxist, and deeply criticize their right-wing government and a lot of the mistreatment of the Palestinians (tho their terrorists [not frustrated rock - throwing kids and teens] are complicit, too). There are Jews, Arabs and Palestinians in Israel
still fighting for a 2 State solution, and who work on other projects together thete. You just don't hear much about it in general news media.
Oh, and Progressive Jews in the US are begining to flex their muscles more with their "J Street" lobbying group in DC.
Thanks for costing my old neighborhood 25k and a billion in tax revenue a year, AOC.
you'd think choosing to make your speech outdoors on an unseasonable 64 degree February day just before a weekend snow storm would be the perfect setting for declaring a legitimate national emergency, but here we are.
Heh.
25,000 jobs at $150k+. All of those 25k employees would pay city and state tax
Having Amazon there would also bring in other businesses. It would also have been a boom for the restaurants in the neighborhood. Hotels would have seen a huge boost from this - and there are a ton of hotels going up in the Court square section of LIC. That's a shit ton of tax revenue.
The promised 25k were also just tech jobs. That doesn't include the truck drivers, maintenance, clerical, etc. That's tax revenue.
There are the construction companies, the union workers, who now won't be building this massive complex. That's tax revenue.
New high rise residential buildings were being planned. That's now on hold. That's tax revenue.
There was also an intermediate School that Amazon was going to fund... That was my neighborhood. There's a major lack or schools there. It's one of the main reasons why we moved. This deal was going to help that. Now it's gone.
It's also coming at a time where NYC is seeing some companies begin to look elsewhere. But sure, let's turn companies away. Things have always gone well in NYC when the companies look to move. Actually wait, the opposite has happened.
The deal also had high approval marks across every demographic you could think of. You almost never see the city and state agree on anything. They agreed on this.
The biggest argument against it that was used locally - transportation and the bad shape of the subway sysyem - is a bullshit argument. The MTA is in the shit not because of a lack of tax money coming from NYC, but because it's run by the state and not the city - and upstate politicians steal money from the city's giant tax base to fund pet projects upstate. Amazon wasn't changing this one way or another. The only thing that can fix this is for the state to hand over control to the city.
But even with that said - Amazon agreed to help fund infrastructure improvements in the neighborhood. That's gone now.
This 3 billion wasn't some lump sum that was being taken away from something else. It was a discount on money that didn't exist yet. Nobody is getting the 3 billion dollars back now to spend on schools and housing. This is what is being sold, and it's a pile of crap. The 3 billion over 25 years was decreasing new tax payments. Those tax payments now will never happen. Zero dollars will come in now.
And AOC? This isn't her district. It's Carolyn Maloney's district, and she was in favor of the deal. So she came in to help torpedo a deal that wasn't even in her district.
to Amazon in a min.
Ok...
Mixed feelings on this. HAIS you will be glad to hear they are keeping some of the educational stuff for the schools in the area anyway.
My biggest problem with them being here if i have it correct is theyare anti -union. I did not know that! I'm very strongly pro-union.
Something i heard in today's discussion w as how if nyc 'rs demanded a unionization option for employees here it would spread to other Amazon sites. So that was a main reason they left.
We want business but we don 't want businesses with bad practices!
