US Politics

Drifter

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Infrastructure Road Trip: Roads, Bridges, and Clean Water


But yet they vote for McConnell and against their interests every time.
 

berbatrick

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the graph is much better than the tweet, lots of interesting stuff there

 

WPMUFC

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Any US teachers on the forums that could give some context to this seemingly wildly revisionist textbook?

Are textbooks this bad overall?
 

berbatrick

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Most of the things you and I would consider unfair, like paying kickbacks to someone to stop them from selling rival products, or selling below cost to drive your competitors out of business, or intentionally making your products incompatible to undermine smaller rivals, judges tend to see as ‘pro-competitive,’ which is to say, good and efficient. I’m not kidding. . Yesterday, Obama-appointed judge Daniel Crabtree dismissed an antitrust case against Epipen maker Mylan, which was paying bribes to stop their competitor’s product from being available to consumers. To Crabtree, such bribes weren’t corrupt, they were efficient!
article is about antitrust as a whole, but this line was amazing. btw, CEO of Mylan is joe manchin's daughter.

https://mattstoller.substack.com/p/why-did-congress-just-vote-to-break
 

Carolina Red

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https://www.businessinsider.com/gop...x-spies-infiltrated-liberal-groups-nyt-2021-6

Undercover GOP operatives trained by former spies infiltrated liberal groups to try and compromise them from the inside, report says


An ultrawealthy Republican donor and a former British spy spearheaded an effort to train GOP operatives to go undercover and infiltrate liberal organizations, The New York Times reported Friday.

The donor, Erik Prince, is a hardline Trump supporter who founded the private military contractor Blackwater, now known as Academi. Prince worked with a former British spy, Richard Seddon, on a conservative operation to "infiltrate progressive groups, political campaigns and the offices of Democratic as well as moderate Republican elected officials during the 2020 election cycle," The Times reported, citing extensive interviews and documents.

The outlet reported that Prince first recruited Seddon at the beginning of the Trump administration and asked him to hire ex-spies to train Republican operatives in the art of political sabotage on his Wyoming ranch, adding a new layer to the term "ratf---ing."
 

Jericholyte2

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https://www.businessinsider.com/gop...x-spies-infiltrated-liberal-groups-nyt-2021-6

Undercover GOP operatives trained by former spies infiltrated liberal groups to try and compromise them from the inside, report says


An ultrawealthy Republican donor and a former British spy spearheaded an effort to train GOP operatives to go undercover and infiltrate liberal organizations, The New York Times reported Friday.

The donor, Erik Prince, is a hardline Trump supporter who founded the private military contractor Blackwater, now known as Academi. Prince worked with a former British spy, Richard Seddon, on a conservative operation to "infiltrate progressive groups, political campaigns and the offices of Democratic as well as moderate Republican elected officials during the 2020 election cycle," The Times reported, citing extensive interviews and documents.

The outlet reported that Prince first recruited Seddon at the beginning of the Trump administration and asked him to hire ex-spies to train Republican operatives in the art of political sabotage on his Wyoming ranch, adding a new layer to the term "ratf---ing."
So whilst all the GOP claim any right-wing attack or, you know, attempted coup, is actually a false flag done by Antifa, the evidence, again, is that the opposite quite regularly happens...

I for one am shocked!
 

tombombadil

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This is the reason why I am losing faith in humanity and democracy. People are too misinformed and too stupid for their own good.

Even after he screwed them over with the capitol insurrection. Wow. Hopeless.

Donald Trump held his first big campaign-style rally since leaving the White House, giving a vintage, rambling speech Saturday to an adoring audience as he launched a series of appearances ahead of next year's midterm elections.

The former president, who has been booted from social media platforms and faces multiple legal woes, has flirted with his own potential candidacy in 2024, but in the 90-minute address at a fair grounds in Ohio he made no clear mention of his political future, even when the crowd chanted "four more years! four more years!"

Trump did tease them at one point by alluding to the possibility of another stab at the White House.

"We may have to win it a third time. It is possible," he said, showing yet again he thinks he won in November. The crowd cheered wildly.
https://sg.finance.yahoo.com/news/ohio-rally-trump-kicks-off-222212800.html
 

tombombadil

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https://www.businessinsider.com/gop...x-spies-infiltrated-liberal-groups-nyt-2021-6

Undercover GOP operatives trained by former spies infiltrated liberal groups to try and compromise them from the inside, report says


An ultrawealthy Republican donor and a former British spy spearheaded an effort to train GOP operatives to go undercover and infiltrate liberal organizations, The New York Times reported Friday.

The donor, Erik Prince, is a hardline Trump supporter who founded the private military contractor Blackwater, now known as Academi. Prince worked with a former British spy, Richard Seddon, on a conservative operation to "infiltrate progressive groups, political campaigns and the offices of Democratic as well as moderate Republican elected officials during the 2020 election cycle," The Times reported, citing extensive interviews and documents.

The outlet reported that Prince first recruited Seddon at the beginning of the Trump administration and asked him to hire ex-spies to train Republican operatives in the art of political sabotage on his Wyoming ranch, adding a new layer to the term "ratf---ing."
They all literally behave like comic book villains and go out of their way to commit villainy. It beggars belief.
 

Fergies Gum

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RIP. We lost a real one today.

One of the few politicians who actually had a backbone.

 

nimic

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And I'm all out of bubblegum.
Madness. Stumbled onto this depressing read within the thread above.

Edit: Keeps linking to the tweet above. Direct link with break to avoid problem.
https:// twitter.com/walls_inside/status/1408991274645000198
I don't know where you wanted to take us, but that link goes to the tweet:

 

oneniltothearsenal

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The GOP’s ‘Critical Race Theory’ Obsession
How conservative politicians and pundits became fixated on an academic approach


"Crenshaw and her classmates asked 12 scholars of color to come to campus and lead discussions about Bell’s book Race, Racism, and American Law. With that, critical race theory began in earnest. The approach “is often disruptive because its commitment to anti-racism goes well beyond civil rights, integration, affirmative action, and other liberal measures,” Bell explained in 1995. The theory’s proponents argue that the nation’s sordid history of slavery, segregation, and discrimination is embedded in our laws, and continues to play a central role in preventing Black Americans and other marginalized groups from living lives untouched by racism.

For some, the theory was a revelatory way to understand inequality. Take housing, for example. Researchers have now accumulated ample evidence that racial covenants in property deeds and redlining by the Federal Housing Authority—banned more than 60 years ago—remain a major contributor to the gulf in homeownership, and thus wealth, between Black and white people. Others, perhaps most prominently Randall Kennedy, who joined the Harvard Law faculty a few years after Bell left, questioned how widely the theory could be applied. In a paper titled “Racial Critiques of Legal Academia,” Kennedy argued that white racism was not the only reason so few “minority scholars” were members of law-school faculties. Conservative scholars argued that critical race theory is reductive—that it treats race as the only factor in social identity."

https://www.theatlantic.com/politic...itical-race-theory-fixation-explained/618828/
 

Drifter

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House Dems Launch PAC to Fight Progressive Primary Challengers
Its founders are among the top fundraisers from corporate PACs in the House Democratic caucus.


Progressive Democrats notched a couple more primary wins last cycle in U.S. House contests, with Representatives Jamaal Bowman of New York and Cori Bush of Missouri defeating longtime incumbents.

Now, three of the most corporation-friendly House Democrats have launched Team Blue PAC to defend incumbents from progressive primary challengers including two candidates who have been endorsed by Justice Democrats, according to a report today from NBC News. The PAC was officially formed on May 21.

The three representatives behind the new PAC are Hakeem Jeffries of New York, Chairman of the House Democratic Caucus; Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey, co-chair of the centrist Problem Solvers Caucus; and Terri Sewell of Alabama, former vice chair of the moderate New Democrat Coalition and a member of the Congressional Black Caucus. The PAC’s goal is to bolster protection efforts for incumbents in safe Democratic districts by raising and spending money on their behalf, stepping in for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which formally and informally engages in primaries, but mostly spends on races in competitive districts.

“This is another way for Wall Street and corporations to funnel hundreds of thousands of dollars to incumbents just to stop the emergence of a new generation of progressive, working class leadership in the Democratic Party,” said Waleed Shahid, a spokesperson for Justice Democrats. “But we’ve overcome being outspent in nearly every primary before through small dollar donors and grassroots organizing.”

Team Blue PAC’s three founders were in the top 13 corporate PAC money recipients among all House Democrats in the 2020 election cycle, according to OpenSecrets. Sewell’s more than $1.6 million raised from corporate PACs places her seventh among House Democrats, while Gottheimer’s over $1.3 million puts him eleventh and Jeffries with nearly the same amount comes in at thirteenth.

The vast majority of Sewell’s funding raised last cycle, almost 81.6%, came from PAC contributions, according to OpenSecrets, making her the most PAC-reliant House candidate. Ninety-four percent of Sewell’s 2020 PAC haul came from those affiliated with corporations. Jeffries brought in the fourth-most in donations overall among House Democrats in 2020.

Two members the new PAC plans to defend, according to NBC News, are Rep. Danny Davis of Illinois and Rep. Carolyn Maloney of New York, who are each facing a primary challenge from a candidate backed by Justice Democrats: gun violence prevention and Medicare for All advocate Kina Collins is challenging Davis, and nonprofit leader Rana Abdelhamid is challenging Maloney.

In the upcoming contest in Illinois’ Seventh Congressional District, including parts of the West Side of Chicago, challenger Collins pointed earlier this month to Davis’ reliance on corporate PACs—which gave him almost 74% of his PAC contributions last cycle, compared to about 20% from labor. Davis’ top donor industry in the 2020 cycle was insurance, according to OpenSecrets, at over $51,000 given, with $22,500 coming in from pharmaceutical industry PACs. The health sector contributed over 11% of his campaign’s over $546,000 in PAC funding last cycle, when he defeated Collins with 60% of the primary vote to her nearly 14% received.

In the race in New York’s Twelfth Congressional District, including parts of New York City like the East Side of Manhattan, human rights activist and challenger Rana Abdelhamid introduced her bid in April with a video on economic inequality. Last cycle, Maloney’s top donor industry to her campaign and leadership PAC was securities and investment, with $325,000 contributed by PACs and employees, followed by real estate with $295,000, and insurance with nearly $223,000. PACs in the finance, insurance, and real estate sector accounted for just shy of half of Maloney’s total PAC funding raised in the 2020 cycle, and corporate PACs made up over 72% of her PAC contributions last cycle, compared to almost 18% from labor. Maloney, who is a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, defeated primary challenger Suraj Patel last year by around 3,250 votes, a few percentage points of the over 94,000 votes cast.

Rep. Sewell is the vice chair for outreach of the New Democrat Coalition, which counts 95 pro-business House Democrats who seek to shift the party away from progressive economic policies. The coalition has a PAC that raises millions of dollars in contributions each cycle from hundreds of major Hill donors including the PACs of JPMorgan Chase, ExxonMobil, Goldman Sachs, and Pfizer. Last cycle, the New Democrat Coalition’s PAC raised over $3.2 million and spent nearly $2.8 million, with some $762,300 of that sent to House Democratic candidates.

Gottheimer, as a co-chair of the Problem Solvers Caucus, recently joined two other House Democrats in threatening to block the Biden administration’s infrastructure plan unless a tax break that overwhelmingly benefits the top 5% of income earners was added to the package. Sludge found that the Problem Solvers Caucus set up four joint fundraising committees last cycle that took a total of more than $3.6 million in contributions from corporate executives and their spouses.

House lawmakers routinely pay their parties “dues” in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, much of it raised from business PACs and trade associations, to earn influence over legislative decision-making. Davis’ position as chair of the Worker and Family Support Subcommittee of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee meant that his dues to the party reached $300,000 last cycle, according to an internal party document published by The Intercept. Rep. Jeffries, in House leadership, was pegged to kick in $575,000 in party taxes; Gottheimer was tasked with bringing in $250,000 for the party.

According to the group’s formation filing with the FEC, its treasurer is Chris Koob, a Democratic accountant and compliance professional who was formerly treasurer of Persist PAC, a super PAC that supported Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s presidential campaign.

Correction: Rep. Sewell was the New Dems’ vice chair for outreach in the previous 116th U.S. Congress, and remains a member of the coalition in the 117th Congress.
 

WI_Red

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So what's the story with all this rigged allegations of the NYC mayoral race?
Based on everything I have read there is nothing to it. Basically it's down to the shit factory that is NYC's Board of Elections (they make Woodward's transfer dealings look masterful) fecking up the vote counting in yet another election. Add to that Adams who stated before the election (sound familiar) that the only way he could lose was fraud and you get the picture. I could be wrong, but this is what I have seen discussed.
 

Sir Matt

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One of the most vile, evil men of the past half century, not to mention incompetent. Good riddance.
 
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ha_rooney

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Doubt history will remember him like that tweet claims.
 

HTG

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It's important to remember people for who they really were.