Democrats on Tuesday night officially approved a new party platform, outlining a sweeping set of policies on key issues including health care, climate change, and the economy, but the platform also reinforced divisions among the party’s moderates and its liberal wing, which has expressed disappointment that the official Democratic agenda does not support “Medicare for All,” the universal, single-payer health care proposal championed by Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont that has become a pillar of the progressive movement. Some refused to vote for the platform as a form of protest.
That's odd because the front page of the Globe presented me with an illusion, 'er, image that it was the exact opposite.
A largely symbolic document, the party platform does not contain specific legislation or binding commitments. Taken as a whole, however, it provides a broad look at the party’s agenda and the principles and values that Democrats, including former Vice President Joe Biden, embrace.
The platform was written by a drafting committee that included members from the party’s progressive and more moderate wings. The Democratic National Committee’s platform committee then voted on the platform before sending it to all delegates, who voted remotely on whether to approve it.
Last month in a parallel process, six Biden-Sanders “unity” task forces gave their own broad policy recommendations to the platform committee. The recommendations amounted to a collection of broadly accepted liberal policy proposals — much like the new platform.
The Coronavirus Pandemic
The coronavirus pandemic remains front of mind for many Americans, and Democrats signaled in their platform that responding to the crisis is a top concern. It is the first full policy section of the platform.
Many of the proposals are broadly consistent with what Democrats have so far supported, including increasing funding for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and providing more aid to state and local governments for initiatives specific to COVID-19, such as contact tracing.
Democrats also support free coronavirus testing and treatment for everyone as well as free vaccines when they become available, and they want to expand paid sick leave and unemployment insurance to help workers affected by the health crisis.
(Whatever workers are left, and do you want them tracking your kids?)
Health Care
The section on health care is something of a catchall that broadly outlines Democrats’ desire to bring down the cost of prescription drugs, reduce health care costs, and improve the quality of care. While it nods to Medicare for All, it stops far short of backing it, but perhaps the most interesting part of the party’s stance on health care is how exactly it plans to expand coverage. Borrowing language from Sanders, the platform asserts that “health care is a right for all,” but it seeks to secure universal health care through a public option, not Medicare for All.
“Democrats believe we need to protect, strengthen and build upon our bedrock health care programs, including the Affordable Care Act,” the platform reads. “Private insurers need real competition to ensure they have incentive to provide affordable, quality coverage to every American.”
(That's the point. The ACA has failed and we get the same sickening bromides as last time.)
The Economy
The section of the platform that is devoted to the economy blends and borrows ideas from across the Democratic Party’s ideological spectrum. There are echoes of Sanders (“The US economy is rigged against the American people”) and wonky subsections that address “Curbing Wall Street Abuses” and “Tackling Runaway Corporate Concentration” — issues highlighted repeatedly by Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts.
(They had 8 years to tackle that under Obama and the concentration only grew, not one executive or bank was ever criminally prosecuted because there was not a jail big enough to Holder them.)
Overall, there are few surprises here. Democrats, for instance, support raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2026, a policy already widely backed across the party. They want to invest in infrastructure, including high-speed rail.
Democrats also support aggressive steps to encourage homeownership by increasing affordable housing and by giving a $15,000 tax credit to first-time homebuyers, among other initiatives. Perhaps most notably, the platform promises to “reject every effort to cut, privatize or weaken Social Security.” The pledge is particularly relevant following President Trump’s push to cut payroll taxes, which Democrats said could jeopardize the funding stream for the popular government program.
Climate Change
The party’s platform sets aggressive goals of eliminating carbon pollution from power plants by 2035 and achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions for all new buildings by 2030, with the goal of achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, but the platform makes no mention of the “Green New Deal,” a sweeping congressional resolution to combat climate change that is widely supported by the party’s progressive wing. It also does not call for an end to fossil fuel subsidies — an omission that has frustrated activists — although Biden’s plan does.
(The Communi$ts, 'er, Democrats are all in on the Green, 'er, Great Re$et as proposed by the WEF and it's elite cla$$.)
Other Highlights
The Democratic Party platform is filled with promises, many of them grand and somewhat vague, but the lengthy document does contain several specific endorsements, such as supporting statehood for Washington, D.C., and a path to citizenship for immigrants living in the country without legal permission.
(Isn't the job market under enough stress, or will a bunch of us not be around after?)
Interestingly, Democrats want to “fast-track this process for those workers who have been essential to the pandemic response and recovery efforts.” The party also wants to end for-profit detention centers and instead “prioritize investments in more effective and cost-efficient community-based alternatives to detention.”
(See Democrat-run big cities for the result, something for which the Globe had a blind spot this day)
Criminal Justice and Racial Justice
Democrats want to “overhaul the criminal justice system from top to bottom,” but notably, the platform does not include support for defunding the police, which has become a rallying cry for some activists amid the nationwide reckoning over racial justice and police brutality. Instead, Democrats support “national standards governing the use of force,” such as banning chokeholds. The party also wants to eliminate cash bail.
(Defunding the police proved to be a focus poll loser, but they persist with the ca$h bail non$en$e that allows rapists and murderers to room free while law-abiding, taxpaying citizens are in lockdown.)
Democrats support decriminalizing marijuana and legalizing its medical use, but the platform advocates for leaving it up to the states to determine whether to legalize marijuana for recreational use — a position that disappoints many progressives.
(Somehow they are allowed to expand while bars are shut)
Education
Democrats support making public colleges and universities tuition-free for students whose families earn less than $125,000. The proposal does not go as far as the plan proposed by Sanders, which stipulates tuition-free public colleges and universities for everyone. The platform, however, does support making community colleges and trade schools tuition-free for all students.
Democrats also want to “ban for-profit private charter schools from receiving federal funding.”
(That's because teacher unions are big campaign contributors, and where is all the money for the free college and health care going to come from after the economy has been destroyed?)
Foreign Policy
Democrats support a two-state solution that would establish an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel. Democrats also believe that Jerusalem should remain the capital of Israel. Some activists have expressed disappointment with the platform because it does not criticize Israel’s “occupation” of Palestine.
Look at that! Foreign policy is last on the list and a three-sentence afterthought, and is apparently whatever serves the Israeli interest and that of the big machers.
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I'm surprised they never mentioned Obama.
Now back to the front page. The above-the-fold, full banner says History within grasp, Democrats unite. It then pairs Kamala Harris making history in accepting the nomination for vice president on the left with Elizabeth Warren touting Biden’s plan to animate progressives for November on the right, and as with everything, the Globe gets it all backwards!
Shouldn't Harris be on the right and in the lead and Warren to the left?
One could almost see racism at work in the Bo$ton Globe's editorial process, favoring the white home state woman over the far more powerful and momentous VP pick.
I'm stunned, and even more stunned turning to the op-ed page and finding that yes, indeed, U.S. foreign policy is all about Israel, what with the fall of Europe’s last dictator and the slowing down of German moves into the Middle East and Africa.
Not only that, but there is an internecine war amongst Democrats here in Ma$$achu$etts. They are united only in their opposition to Trump and in favor of the Great Re$et because it’s a moral question and masks are a social contract that must be made mandatory, and those who object must prove their medical exemption because we all have to follow public health laws.
The medical tyranny and evisceration of freedom and liberty is of no concern to them. Instead, they are freaking out over their ability to commit mass election fraud this fall as Bill Keating, a US representative from Massachusetts’ Ninth District, claims Trump has not delivered when the Postal Service has always has. I mean, you would have to be crazy to want to defund the post office, and abortion procedures as well as the war machine, while defunding police and making life less secure.
It's also their lead Nation concern, and I hate to say it but the president is correct on this one: “IF YOU CAN PROTEST IN PERSON, YOU CAN VOTE IN PERSON!”
That's not the view of the governor of Louisiana:
"Louisiana lawmakers are plowing ahead with a contested emergency plan to run the state’s fall elections during the pandemic, despite Governor John Bel Edwards’s intention to jettison the plan if it reaches his desk. Republicans on the House and Governmental Affairs Committee voted in a near-bloc Wednesday to advance the emergency plan offered by GOP Secretary of State Kyle Ardoin to the full House for consideration. It eliminates most of the coronavirus-related reasons for a person to request an absentee ballot, requiring most people to vote in person, despite the virus outbreak, unless they have recently tested positive for COVID-19. The rules have little chance of being used for the Nov. 3 presidential election or a Dec. 5 state election because Edwards, a Democrat, intends to block it. The impasse likely will leave a federal judge to determine how Louisiana runs its fall elections....."
Who appointed him, and it may not even matter if the mood of the country is any indication:
"Laura Loomer, a right-wing activist known for headline-grabbing stunts after getting kicked off social media platforms, won a Florida GOP primary on Tuesday — and then was quickly congratulated by her district’s most famous official resident. President Trump’s public support for a candidate who once called herself a #ProudIslamophobe, has called Muslims ‘‘savages,’’ and contributed to conspiracy site Infowars drew quick backlash from some critics, a New York Times opinion contributor and the Washington Post’s Rachael Bade and Isaac Stanley-Becker reported, the GOP is struggling to navigate Trump’s embrace of fringe candidates who have made statements denigrating Americans’ religions and ethnicities. Last week, the president backed Marjorie Taylor Green, a Georgia GOP candidate who backs the QAnon conspiracy theory....."
That must have Democrats fearing expo$ure!
Better get Facebook to crack down on them:
"Facebook says it will restrict the right-wing conspiracy movement QAnon and will no longer recommend that users join groups supporting it, although the company isn’t banning it outright. Facebook said Wednesday it is banning groups and accounts associated with QAnon and a variety of US-based militia and anarchist groups that support violence, but the company will continue to allow people to post material that supports these groups — so long as they do not otherwise violate policies against hate speech, abuse, and other provocations. The QAnon conspiracy theory is centered on the baseless belief that President Trump is waging a secret campaign against enemies in the “deep state” and a child sex trafficking ring run by satanic pedophiles and cannibals. For more than two years, followers have pored over tangled clues purportedly posted online by a high-ranking government official known only as “Q.” The conspiracy theory emerged in a dark corner of the Internet but has recently crept into mainstream politics. Trump has retweeted QAnon-promoting accounts and its followers flock to his rallies wearing clothes and hats with QAnon symbols and slogans. Last week, Marjorie Tyler Greene, a House candidate who openly supports QAnon, won her Republican primary in Georgia."
It depends on what you post and what they are trying to hide, and it took me a long time to realize the abominable evil that pervades the ruling cla$$.
"President Trump urged his supporters Wednesday not to buy tires produced by Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., claiming that the US-based company had announced a ban on his campaign hats. His call to ban products from the company — with headquarters in Ohio, a presidential battleground state — follows a report on the website of an NBC affiliate in Wisconsin about a purported Goodyear diversity training presentation in Ohio on appropriate attire. A photo by a Goodyear employee that circulated on social media included ‘‘MAGA Attire’’ and other political attire, as well as Blue Lives Matter, on an ‘‘unacceptable’’ list. ‘‘Black Lives Matter’’ and ‘‘Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Pride,’’ among others, were listed as ‘‘acceptable.’’ The company said it is committed to an ‘‘inclusive, respectful workplace’’ and, therefore, asks associates ‘‘not to engage in political campaigning of any kind in the workplace — for any candidate, party or political organization.’’
They really peel out with the lies, and if the rubber hits the road and he prevails he may just be a memory.
Related:
Trump cancels China trade talks
He said he “[doesn’t] want to talk to China right now,” and here is why:
"Local officials in China hid coronavirus dangers from Beijing, US agencies find" by Edward Wongand Julian E. Barnes New York Times, August 19, 2020
WASHINGTON — Trump administration officials have tried taking a political sledgehammer to China over the coronavirus pandemic, asserting that the Chinese Communist Party covered up the initial outbreak and allowed the virus to spread around the globe, but within the US government, intelligence officials have arrived at a more nuanced and complex finding of what Chinese officials did wrong in January.
It's the Deep $tate group that supports Biden and Chinese interference in the election, although Pelosi downplayed that.
Officials in Beijing were kept in the dark for weeks about the potential devastation of the virus by local officials in central China, American officials familiar with a new internal report by US intelligence agencies say.
The report concluded that officials in the city of Wuhan and in Hubei province, where the outbreak began late last year, tried to hide information from China’s central leadership. The finding is consistent with reporting by news organizations and with assessments by China specialists of the country’s opaque governance system.
Local officials often withhold information from Beijing for fear of reprisal, current and former American officials say.
The new assessment does not contradict the Trump administration’s criticism of China but adds perspective and context to actions — and inactions — that created the global crisis.
President Trump said in a July 4 speech at the White House that “China’s secrecy, deceptions, and coverup” enabled the pandemic. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo insisted the administration was “telling the truth every day” about “the Communist coverup of that virus.” Peter Navarro, a White House trade adviser, said on Saturday the pandemic was “perpetrated on America” by the Chinese Communist Party.
My feeling at this point is COVID is simply seasonal flu and has been used by governments to seize tyrannical control of their citizenry, in conjunction with criminal globalists and organizations like the U.N. and WHO
The accusations dovetail with advice from Trump campaign strategists to look tough on China to try to shift the spotlight from the president’s failures on the pandemic and the US economy, and to paper over his constant praise of Xi Jinping, China’s authoritarian leader, but the broad political messaging leaves an impression that Xi and other top officials knew of the dangers of the new coronavirus in the early days and went to great lengths to hide them.
Where is Steve Bannon when you need him?
The report, originally circulated in June, has classified and unclassified sections, and it represents the consensus of the CIA and other intelligence agencies. It still supports the overall notion that Communist Party officials hid important information from the world, US officials said, but the report adds to a body of evidence that shows how the malfeasance of local officials appeared to be a decisive factor in the spread of the virus within Wuhan and beyond.
So what does QAnon have to say about it, and that gets Cuomo and Baker off the hook, right?
An internal US government assessment of the differences in fault between Chinese leaders and local officials potentially has significant policy implications.
“It makes a huge difference if it was Wuhan or Beijing,” said Michael Pillsbury, a China scholar at the Hudson Institute who informally advises Trump.
If Xi was not the main person at fault, he said, then that meant that top Chinese officials had not engaged in total deceit on the coronavirus, and American officials had some basis for still trying to engage in good-faith negotiations with Beijing on issues of mutual interest.
When Biden is president, of course.
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Related:
GM targets electric car market in China
That will be after the make-up and end of the political circus.
{@@##$$%%^^&&}
NEXT DAY UPDATES:
"Estee Lauder Cos. is cutting jobs and closing stores as part of a multiyear restructuring plan after the coronavirus pandemic threw the cosmetics industry into disarray. The beauty giant plans to reduce its workforce by 1,500 to 2,000 jobs worldwide, or about 3 percent of total staff, and boost its digital operations after pandemic lockdowns hit demand for makeup. Most of the cuts will be store employees and support workers, the company said Thursday. As part of the two-year initiative, management will close 10 percent to 15 percent of Estee Lauder’s free-standing stores and eliminate some department-store beauty counters as consumers shift to more online purchases."
Who needs make-up when a) you can't go anywhere, and b) you have to wear a mask wherever you go?
Of course, it's masks off on the front page of today's Globe:
Biden accepts nomination, vows to lead nation out of ‘season of darkness'
Look at those masked fools in the still shot of the video!
They just lost the election!
Might as well wave goodbye and put the campaign out of its misery!
(flip to below fold)
Pelosi throws support behind Kennedy
It is a surprise endorsement that roils party’s left wing, and it sure doesn't help Joe (maybe that's the point) and she may even have a new member in her minority:
"This is the newest chapter in Representative Seth Moulton’s political life. Six years after charging into Congress, Moulton is fending off his first primary fight in the Sixth Congressional District, a sleepy, three-way race that is opening the centrist Democrat’s record to perhaps its fullest public vetting since he first knocked off a nine-term incumbent. It’s laid bare burbling criticisms that he’s become detached from the district as his oftentimes maverick political star rose — a charge Moulton denies, and it’s pumped oxygen into questions of how far his political ambitions stretch beyond the North Shore towns and cities he represents after he spent a chunk of 2019 pursuing his long-shot, and short-lived, bid for the White House....."
He's a favorite son of neocon warmonger Bill Kristol, and I'm sure she will blame Russia if he loses. Then they will have Trump right where they want him. He will have to go on the offensive, of course, and tweet up a $hitstorm:
"For over a century, the fabricated text ‘‘The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion’’ has advanced a persistent anti-Semitic trope: that Jews are plotting to take over the world. From Hitler to Henry Ford, rabid anti-Semites have long shared the notorious text. On Wednesday, an FBI Twitter account did the same. An account called FBI Records Vault tweeted out a link to a PDF containing the anti-Semitic tome as well as FBI documents related to it, with no other context, leaving critics baffled and outraged. The FBI later apologized and clarified that the Twitter account is automated and sends links to records that have been made public via Freedom of Information Act requests. ‘‘Earlier today FOIA materials were posted to the FBI’s Vault and FOIA Twitter account via an automated process without further outlining the context of the documents,’’ the tweet said. ‘‘We regret that this release may have inadvertently caused distress among the communities we serve,’’ but outcry over the tweet continued after the mea culpa. In a statement, the Anti-Defamation League condemned the FBI for not noting that the documents are ‘‘virulently anti-Semitic. We have already received reports from many in the American Jewish community who are hurt by the irresponsible way this document was released,’’ the statement said. ‘‘We call on the FBI to correct this mistake now, and do better in the future.’’
We all know certain subjects are off limits in this country as they inform us who really rules, but for a work of fiction the damn thing has proven pretty damn prophetic, and its rather scary!
Also see:
NY lets voters get absentee ballots due to virus concerns
Biden steals New York then.
Senator Cassidy Tests Positive for COVID-19
Of course he did!
He is from Louisiana!
"Bayer agreed to pay $1.6 billion to resolve most of the US litigation over its now-withdrawn Essure contraceptive device, which some women said failed to prevent pregnancies and caused excessive bleeding and pelvic pain. The deal will resolve about 90 percent of the 39,000 lawsuits consolidated in courts in California and Pennsylvania, Bayer said Thursday in a statement. The proposed payout is considerably more than the $1.1 billion Bayer paid in 2013 to acquire Conceptus Inc., the company that developed the device. Bayer stopped selling Essure in 2018. The German company announced a $12.1 billion plan in June to settle lawsuits over Roundup weedkiller, a product it inherited with the $63 billion takeover of Monsanto Co."
I'm sure Democrats are investigating:
Senate Democrats investigating whether USPS changes held up prescription drug deliveries
The new inquiry is the work of Senators Elizabeth Warren and Robert Casey, who issued a battery of letters to CVS, Walgreens, and other top providers on Thursday to determine whether their customers had experienced delays in recent weeks, and the Globe claims the Democrats are bringing it all together as Joe Biden is getting by with a little help from his friends (including the ladies, who have all of a sudden forgotten all about #MeToo).
In a way, this update explains my lack of interest in AmeriKan politics at this point. Neither of these parties is talking about the Great Re$et or mass vaccination campaign, nor are their alleged new$ networks (including Fox). All we are getting these days is distraction and noise about the campaign, economy, and future of freedom when all that shit has already been lost and neither party appears interested in getting it back.
After it's all over, no matter who wins, the war machine rolls on, America will be taking a dark turn over the winter. Mass culling, mass extermination via COVID camps, and all the rest.
