December 22, 2017

Yes, but the PLO lost.

And even after losing, Israel came to the table in good faith multiple times. I watched the 2000 Camp David events shepherded by Clinton on live TV, thinking "finally, there's a chance for peace." And then Arafat walked away from a deal that would have given the Palestinians 91% of the West Bank and the vast majority of East Jerusalem. That was a loser move if there ever was one, and a big waste of a Democratic President's time and efforts.

-app

December 7, 2017

I've seen this tragic Democratic Lifetime movie before...

Yes, this is my perspective on the railroading of Al Franken.

Having been a political junkie since the 1980's, I've watched an eerily-similar sort of group think before among Democrats: the Reagan tax cuts of the 1980's that ballooned the deficit and provided the rationale for the shredding of the social safety net, the 2nd-Amendment-violating and ineffective Assault Weapons Ban of 1994, the early 2000's Iraq War Resolution, then the Swiftboat nonsense against John Kerry, and then the meritless innuendo against ACORN (damn, the B*sh years sucked, didn't they?). With the election of Obama, the group-think became self-constructed weakness: Democrats had to push a Republican/Heritage Foundation private market health plan instead of a public option or Medicare for all. Democrats had to take the "high road" and honor Republican "blue slips" regarding judicial nominations... Are Republicans doing the same now?!? Nooooooo!

And now this Media Star Chamber trial of Franken. I don't know and won't debate whether he was perfect or not, but he is a damned good Senator: on women's issues, on economic issues, on many civil liberties, and on government accountability. Franken is why we have tenuous (and ever fainter) hope that Robert Mueller's investigation might bring us back from the brink of authoritarianism.

On every one of these issues, Democrats pre-emptively folded on the wrong side of the matter and then suffered entirely predictable and avoidable (had they employed a lick of common sense) consequences. As far as I am concerned, Democrats just surrendered 2018 and 2020. Why am I expected to slavishly support their continued incompetence as a condition of posting here?

-app

November 16, 2017

Actions on this tax theft need to shift into high gear.

I refuse to call the Repug tax proposals "tax reform" or "tax cuts." They are tax theft, pure and simple: a theft from the public infrastructure and working people, benefiting only billionaires. Passage of this theft will hamstring public programs for decades to come, while causing real suffering among working Americans.

This theft MUST be stopped.

k&r,

-app

November 13, 2017

Beware the halogens:

Fluorine, Chlorine, and Bromine are nothing but trouble, except of course that they offer a devil's bargain of useful chemistry: teflon, gore tex, solvents, plastics, fire suppression chemicals, all sorts of drugs and biocides, etc.

Decades ago, I joined (in a very minor way) GreenPeace's efforts to ban chlorine chemistry from manufacturing and industry. At the time, most sensible people viewed the campaign as a madman's quest. However mad the idea may be, getting halogens out of our industrial ecology may be necessary for the sake of our food web, groundwater, and health.

k&r,

-app

November 11, 2017

An AWB will alienate many independent and even Democratic voters.

"Thoughts and prayers" are merely empty and vapid, whereas an Assault Weapons Ban will step on a right that many voters hold dear.

DiFi is not helping to keep Americans safe with this bill, nor is she helping Democratic candidates' chances in 2018.

I'm disappointed to see the list of cosponsors. I anticipate that many of them eyeing the Presidency will regret this move in 2020. Also, do they plan to renounce all police protection by any officers carrying said "Assault Weapons?" I didn't think so.

-app

November 2, 2017

How quickly you forget the Nader-hatred.

"anybody else go run in a Third Party?!"

Welcome to a permanent Democratic minority then.

The Democratic Party needs the time, effort, volunteer hours, donations, and passion of committed progressives. Yet they steadfastly refuse progressives' ideas, hopes, commitment to justice, and initiatives.

When Nader ran in 2000 as an independent, everything was his fault, because clearly Gore/Loserman had ironclad title to every voter to the left of Genghis Khan.



-app

September 25, 2017

And loyal Italians appreciated Mussolini's strict railroad schedule management, I'm sure.

Security theater and unconstitutional bullshit is still security theater and unconstitutional bullshit.

Your willingness to leave a pocket knife at home and otherwise accommodate creeping fascism while lecturing all of us about how it's not a bother at all is touching & heartwarming though.



-app

July 7, 2017

The fights over Trade Agreements, etc. indicate otherwise.

I'd be happy to consign Penn to the dustbin, but his influence still leaves a mark. True closure on his influence would be shown by advocating for unions and environmental groups to have a seat at the table during the very beginning of future trade agreement negotiations, further protections we lost when Glass-Steagal was repealed, an end to all private prisons, a complete cessation of the War on (some) Drugs coupled with a comprehensive tackling of addiction as a public health crisis, robust citizen oversight of police departments, true public infrastructure projects, and single payer health care.

This is low-hanging fruit that the Democratic base wants and the national Party should seize. The influence of Penn and his ilk are the only logical reason why it is not happening yet.

-app

July 7, 2017

Charlie Pierce calls-out Mark Penn (& Clintonism)

http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/news/a56163/mark-penn-democrats/

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There's another recent addition to the list of Questions No Sensible Person Would Ask, thanks to the Thursday edition of The New York Times.

"What's Mark Penn Thinking About Things These Days?"

In his latest iteration of his life's creative work, tentatively entitled Searching for Sister Souljah, Penn demonstrates the timely grasp of the political zeitgeist that enabled him to lead Hillary Rodham Clinton to the presidency in 2008. No kidding. If this guy gets within 10 city blocks of your campaign headquarters, call the local hazardous waste unit immediately. Call the guys who pull pythons out of the plumbing in Florida. Call the River Monsters dude. Anything to keep this walking pile of terrible advice at a safe distance. Mark Penn's counsel should never be taken internally.

(snip - lots of quotes from Penn showing him to be Republican-lite at best, and batshit racist barking corporatist mad overall)

Finally, proof positive that Penn fell unconscious during 1993 and never woke up. He missed the battle over the stimulus plan in 2009, and that was at the tail end of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. He missed eight years of nearly unlimited obstruction. The "issue" has been hijacked by the president*, but the policy hasn't been. He has proposed nothing, and the budget proposed by both his administration and the Republican congress goes backwards on this issue.

Come to think of it, Barack Obama's presidency doesn't figure into Penn's calculations at all. That can't be an accident. There's more code in this column than you would have found in Los Alamos in 1945. All of the issues that Penn advises the Democrats avoid also happen to be issues of significant importance to the most reliable Democratic voters of all: African Americans-and other minorities, women, and all the combinations thereof.

Mark Penn had his Sister Souljah moment. He never got over it.

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Pierce does a good job of showing how the DINO-corporatist wing of the political consultant class intends to continue to take the Democratic base for granted, thus further eroding Democrats' chances of electoral gains and true policy progress. Penn & his ilk should crawl under a rock in shame.

-app