Kamala Harris is not a progressive

Kamala Harris is not a progressive. She just plays one on TV, folks.

Why would the President & CEO of Blue Shield of California contribute the maximum legal limit to Kamala Harris' in 2016?

Do you think, if elected president, she's going to fight for Medicare for all?

https://twitter.com/philosophrob/status/1089917503894159363?s=21

Oh, good lord.

Oh, good lord. I just had somebody fling an accusation of racism and sexism in my direction because I’m less than enthused with Kamala Harris as the likely Democratic front-runner. Several things to consider:

• I won’t be voting in the Democratic Party primary, as I’m not a Democrat. (I am also not a Republican, before you set your hairs on the fire.) So, no, this isn’t about preferring an old white dude (Bernie, I suppose), over a woman of color. My objections to Harris are entirely about her really troubling record as a prosecutor, and the fact that she’s largely Hillary 2.0: a corporatist war hawk that I don’t want in the Oval. But, again, I won’t be voting in the Democratic primary, so I can’t swing your primary one way or the other.

• Since 1996, I have voted for:
  
  
  
  • Ralph Nader and Winona LaDuke twice, in 1996 and 2000.
  
  
  • David Cobb and Pat LaMarche in 2004. 
  
  
  • Cynthia McKinney and Rosa Clemente in 2008. 
  
  
  • Jill Stein and Cheri Honkala in 2012. 
  
  
  • Jill Stein and Ajamu Baraka in 2016.
  
  
  
  

...if I had a problem with women or people of color in the Executive, I wouldn’t have voted for them in every single election over the last twenty-odd years, don’t you think?

I have zero problems with the fact that Kamala Harris is black (yes, I’m aware of her parentage, don’t play the “buuuut her mom is Indian” thing, people - she’s more than black enough for it to matter to racists, and you know it), or with the fact that she’s a woman.

Neither of those things are why I won’t be voting for her for President unless the polling in NJ is close enough that I’ll have to. (Just like last time, and the time before that, and the time before that, etc etc).

Sigh.

Democrats, look: if you honestly think Harris is the best qualified candidate to lead the country, go with your chosen god. I’m not here to tell you who to vote for. I’m well aware that my politics and my priorities are waaaay to the left of nearly all of you.

But if you’re going to give the left shiz over its voting priorities, can that criticism be based on why we’re actually voting, and not the fantasy critique that lives in your head?

Please?

It’s gonna be a long campaign season.

If they really wanted to help...

This is why I voted for Jill Stein for President.

Via Twitter:

Most of the politicians now calling for humanitarian aid to the people of Venezuela have voted for crippling sanctions on Venezuela, knowing full well they'd make people suffer by depriving them of food & medicine. If they really wanted to help, they'd start by lifting sanctions.

Want to help the people of Venezuela?

Jill Stein (via Twitter):

Want to help the people of Venezuela? Support Mexico & Uruguay's proposal to de-escalate crisis in #Venezuela: a "new process of inclusive and credible negotiations with full respect for the rule of law and human rights" to resolve the dispute peacefully.

http://www.batimes.com.ar/news/latin-america/uruguay-diverges-from-mercosur-aligns-with-mexico-on-venezuela-conflict.phtml

Trump's Venezuela point man Elliott Abrams

Jill Stein (via Twitter):

Trump's Venezuela point man Elliott Abrams:

-Backed death squads in Latin America that murdered 1000s for right-wing dictators
-Lied to Congress to cover up treasonous Iran-Contra affair
-Led 2002 US coup attempt in Venezuela

Still think this is about democracy & human rights?

Socialism has “never” worked…

But... but... buuuuut... socialism has never worked aaaaanywhere... evaaaaaar.... whine whine whiiiiiiiiine....

Amazing news from Sweden! The Swedish Greens Miljöpartiet de gröna have just formed a government with the Social Democrats, blocking right-wing extremists from power! ?

Via Facebook

#HandsOffVenezuela

#HandsOffVenezuela

They lied about #Iran
They lied about #Vietnam
They lied about #Chile
They lied about #Iraq
They lied about #Afghanistan
They lied about #Iraq. Again.
They lied about #Libya.
They lied about #Syria.

But yeah, sure, THIS TIME it's for a good cause. #Venezuela

https://twitter.com/bhpanimalwatch/status/1089305083412660224?s=21

Guardian: Immediate fossil fuel phaseout could arrest climate change

The Guardian:

Climate change could be kept in check if a phaseout of all fossil fuel infrastructure were to begin immediately, according to research.

It shows that meeting the internationally agreed aspiration of keeping global warming to less than 1.5C above pre-industrial levels is still possible. The scientists say it is therefore the choices being made by global society, not physics, which is the obstacle to meeting the goal.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jan/15/immediate-fossil-fuel-phaseout-could-arrest-climate-change-study

The study says we’ve got a 64% shot at keeping the global climate at a sustainable level to avoid mass extinction and desertification if we replace everything in the “fossil fuel infrastructure” - things like cars, airplanes, power plants, and factories - with “sustainable alternatives” at the end of their useful lifespans as we replace them.

But are we really, seriously going to do that? Doubtful.

Oh, look, Tomi Lahren said something stupid...

I'm not linking directly to her tweet ("raising a child genderless is child abuse") because I'm not about to give her the traffic, but it is totally surprising how every single time there's a new indictment, Lahren manages to say something new and stupid.

https://twitter.com/DGComedy/status/1088888428958146560?fbclid=IwAR31LMJUnY5go6swXjO-OPHrCaCZqwBzIEwwrwODFfWhGfmyERvtobgUitc

The biggest buyers of Venezuelan oil

So, tell me again how supporting a coup against Maduro is for the sake of the Venezuelan people? This, right here, is bald-faced US imperialism. Dude's not even trying to pretend otherwise. (What a total and utter surprise.)

https://twitter.com/marcorubio/status/1088414772163461120

I'm so not awake this morning

So, naturally, I need some Basement Jaxx in my earholes. So do you.

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5muTdK9vRfI[/embed]

Forget about the sugar, have a spoonful of me

Forget about the sugar, have a spoonful of me...

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOEHefkds2w[/embed]

This time it's different?

US has backed right-wing coups up and down Latin America for 100+ years. Not one was about democracy. All have been to enrich the global elite. But we’re supposed to believe this time in Venezuela - which has the world’s largest oil reserves - is different?

https://twitter.com/drjillstein/status/1088253786102091776?s=21&fbclid=IwAR2NVqXoID-C2V3lcQmgCM-n436GdfOHKFq4oeDEhSSDjUiC7yLOsOoBQ88

The signs could not be clearer...

It's looking more and more like we're headed toward a proxy war in Venezuela - or a ground war, if the neocons have their way.

This should be deeply disturbing to any American Leftist.
The signs could not be clearer.
Are @SenSanders and @AOC going to use their position to say/do something about it?

https://twitter.com/BlackSocialists/status/108895811934090035

See this report, over at Politico, on Abrams appointment as special envoy for Venezuela:

Elliott Abrams, a controversial neoconservative figure who was entangled in the Iran-Contra affair, has been named as a Trump administration special envoy overseeing policy toward Venezuela, which has been rocked by a leadership crisis.
Abrams’ appointment, announced Friday by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, is something of a surprise — President Donald Trump nixed his 2017 bid to be deputy secretary of State after learning that Abrams had criticized him.

https://www.politico.com/story/2019/01/25/elliott-abrams-envoy-venezuela-1128562?fbclid=IwAR3ihpfpl1AwuL5Yp-NPOAEDY8eD_hghIWwFbv8wp5BnblxCjg79h_k9VNc

Reopening the Federal Government

While I'm glad we're finally seeing an end to some of this idiocy, and of course I'm glad that federal employees who've gone without pay for more than a month may finally be getting some relief, a couple of things:

• A three-week continuing resolution isn't very long - and I'm sure we'll be back to the same tantrum from Cheetolini as soon as it expires. (I doubt very seriously that anyone will ever get through to the President that what he's doing is hurting people. He doesn't care.)


• While it's good that a fast-tracked bill to ensure back pay is part of the package, don't forget that seven Republicans voted against the original legislation that first passed the House on the eleventh. (See: https://thehill.com/homenews/house/424942-the-7-republicans-who-voted-against-back-pay-for-furloughed-government-workers)

And the debt ceiling and the next budget will have to pass Congress, and get signed by the President soon enough. He still has plenty of opportunities to do this all again.

I genuinely fear that this is all far from over.

A Democratic Senate aide said the Congressional Research Office told Collins' office the agencies should be able to process paychecks within a few days after the continuing resolution is signed. That will include backpay.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-agreed-to-reopen-the-government-for-3-weeks-heres-what-comes-next/

New Jaytech! The Game

I'm seriously in love with this new Jaytech...

[embed width=600]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7m3d5GFG-9A[/embed]

Come My Way

I mean, I can't even... "Ooooh boy, I see you... Come my, come my waaaaaay..."

[embed width="600"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7x4uOhtcTw[/embed]

Dream Act NY

While the White House drags us into the past by holding people hostage for a wall, New York is showing what a different future looks like by passing a statewide DREAM Act for NY families

https://mobile.twitter.com/AOC/status/1088573173451419648

That’s what we are...

...at 22:15: “That’s what we are, we all want a love bizarre”

[embed]https://m.mixcloud.com/graemepark/this-is-graeme-park-spiegeltent-the-piece-hall-halifax-29dec18-live-dj-set/[/embed]

Dancing Queen

I ❤️ this woman so freakin’ hard.

Huge Chavista rally in Caracas underway now

Huge Chavista rally in Caracas underway now in rejection of US intervention and in support of the elected government #23Ene

https://twitter.com/telesurenglish/status/1088144777336504324?s=21

It's class warfare!

When I want a primer on what constitutes "class warfare," I'll be sure and turn to Chaffetz, who advised that instead of spending "a few hundred dollars" on an iPhone, that all I needed to do to ensure that I had health coverage was to spend my iPhone budget on healthcare instead.

(Says the dude with a net worth in excess of $300,000 who hasn't had a single solitary clue what things cost in decades.)

For the original quote, see: Jason Chaffetz: Poor People Shouldn’t Buy iPhones If They Need Money For Health Care

As a reminder, Jason Chaffetz is the guy who thought your healthcare costs the same as a T Mobile bill, so I wouldn’t exactly call him the foremost expert on the financial stressors of everyday Americans.

https://twitter.com/AOC/status/1087741467274235910

The US has never fought a war anywhere for human rights or democracy

The US has never fought a war anywhere for human rights or democracy. The reasons they say at press conferences are never the reasons they talk about behind closed doors. In reality all of these wars are about expanding US control.

[embed width="800"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQ3aatCJK0w[/embed]

Empire Files: Trump is Expanding the US Empire

In the first installment of this multi-part series, Trump Expanding the Empire, Abby Martin debunks the notion that Trump is an anti-interventionist president, outlining his first two years of aggressive foreign policy that has expanded US wars and occupations.

[embed width="800"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAmpD5MvDw8[/embed]

"That's financially negligent."

Today in the absolutely clueless and proud of it department:

 

https://twitter.com/carolusrex0/status/1087410234908393473

 

Let's see dude live on $25k, up to maybe 37-38k to start - starting salaries for Transportation Security Agency personell - in Philadelphia, while paying for healthcare (he apparently lives in a country with a national health system), food, housing, transportation, potentially school loans, oh, and kids, and let's see how "financially negligent" he ends up.

 

I really, truly, honestly can't stand people, sometimes.

 

TSA salaries are here: https://www.federallawenforcement.org/tsa/

There must be a better distribution of wealth...

In the last campaign before his assassination, King campaigned for a democratic socialist agenda. Called the Poor People’s Campaign, demands included a guaranteed job, [redistribution] of land and capital, and more inclusion of the poor in state decision-making.

Yes, taking land and money from rich people and giving it to poor people was part of King’s dream.

King’s own views of capitalism are often sanitized in textbooks and mainstream media stories, but he could not have been for explicit:

“You can’t talk about solving the economic problem of the Negro without talking about billions of dollars. You can’t talk about ending the slums without first saying profit must be taken out of slums. You’re really tampering and getting on dangerous ground because you are messing with folk then,” King declared. “You are messing with captains of industry. Now this means that we are treading in difficult water, because it really means that we are saying that something is wrong with capitalism. There must be a better distribution of wealth, and maybe America must move toward a democratic socialism.”

https://shadowproof.com/2017/01/16/revolutionary-socialism-martin-luther-king-jr/?fbclid=IwAR0ShuMSdg3QwuG3jRJAAce7kY5Ahpwd3FGSzWECvowC6OYJF1OrgfRASeM

VIOS - Astral (Mauro Rodriguez Remix)

Oh, yes.

[embed width="700"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PFqpuM0NJM[/embed]

I can haz? Plz? Plzplzplz?

I can hazplzplzyesplz?
https://www.macosaudio.com/2018/12/arturia-presents-pigments-wavetable-synthesizer-plugin/

Tomi Chair - Rain For Struggle (Savvas Remix)

So, so good.

[embed width="941" height="529"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uchRSaiR2QA[/embed]

That's privilege.

This. This this this.

This is what people who #notallmen everything they can get their hands on are intentionally distracting you from when they do this.

Of course it isn't all men. It's never all of anything. Humans are complex and messy and complicated, and when people talk about privilege, if you've never acted like an ass in public, well.

Good for you.

But you don't get, nor do you need, special congratulations for that - which is, of course, what you're demanding when you do this.

You want to take any discussion of the larger issue and make it about you.

Well, muffin, that's not a good look on you.

If it ain't you, then don't make it about you. But we're never going to fix this crap if we have to make everything about you, all the time.

And I don't think that being white or a man means you behave in a certain way. But it does allow you to behave in a certain way, if you chose, generally without consequences. In public, in the classroom, throughout your life. That's privilege.

https://twitter.com/annehelen/status/1087153653469786112

So, this happened.

Archiving this from a Facebook post.

Okay, so.

I was really hesitant to even post about this because... oh, lordy. Reasons.

So I get done with my therapy session yesterday and I get a Lyft home.

The driver was nice enough, pretty personable... offered to help me into his car (he was driving a delivery van, of all things, so quite a step up for my gimp behind to work my way into. Anyway.) He's rather chatty, as a certain set of Lyft and Uber drivers tend to be, which is generally great. They're usually quite nice.

Except.

He was around my age (for some reason, he needed to tell me he was born in the late sixties), and really needed me to know he dated "a couple of cute girls" in my housing development, a few years back; that Terrestria is known for "great looking girls," and how he's been in several local heavy metal bands.

Something, just something, ticked a warning switch in the back of my head that said, "um. Straight dude, be careful."

Which, honestly, I haven't really felt - at least to that degree, that sense of "is this paranoia, or do I have a reason to actually feel unsafe?" - in a while.

Maybe there was something about being a hundred percent vulnerable. I'm in a complete stranger's car, and who knows what may happen if he decides he's not dealing with fags today... my best-case scenario is that he pulls over, kicks me out, and I get another car home.

Best case.

Worst case? I dunno what happens. I am a moderately disabled gay man who's been jumped before. Granted, it was years ago, but... that's not exactly an experience that you really get over. If he decided to get physical, there'd be very little I could do to actually defend myself. I'll fall over if you look at me sideways.

I decide - because I'm instantly 19 again and it's suddenly 1989 and I'm hanging out in the parking lot across from the Cellar (Bakersfield will relate) - that I'm just going to try and keep things light, but I'll scrupulously avoid disclosing a thing about me personally.

So, of course, his next question is, "do you have any kids?"

"Ooooohhh, no." (If he'd been gay and pushing 50, he'd easily have read between the lines, because he'd have been here before, himself.)

At least he didn't really push that particular line of questioning any further.

So, the tough bits:

• Yes, gay folks half my age, I'm totally stereotyping this guy, and no, under ideal conditions, that's not defensible.


• But, folks half my age, if you haven't had the shit beaten out of you by nazis (not even kidding, nazis), y'know... stfu, okay?


• I'm fully aware of how problematic my reaction was. It's entirely likely that I could have just come out to him when he first assumed I was straight and he was attempting his dudebro bonding exercise; I could have told him I have a husband, instead of the wife he assumed I was married to. I could have told him that I don't have any kids, don't want my own kids, but my husband has a grown daughter we both adore.

I could have done any number of things that weren't me - at this fucking age, having been out this long - intentionally closeting myself, or making shitty assumptions about this person.

Yeah, they weren't great. I know that. I accept that.

I was also scared shitless.

Please try to see that, too.

I dunno what the right choice should have been. I dunno that there even is one.

But I do know that I feel exhausted, that in 2019, that this shit is still happening.

I mean, at least they'd get in some cardio...

I love Republican trolls.

Red Lobster Drops Tucker Carlson

After getting publicly shamed on Twitter by Judd Legum, it looks like they're dropping advertising on Tucker Carlson. So much for Salli Setta's membership on the Women's Foodservice Forum; Tucker was and is an enthusiastic supporter of gender inequality, and this couldn't possibly have escaped Setta's attention. 

Corporations like @redlobster want to develop a reputation for being socially conscious. Its president is devoted to gender equality. Kudos. But the power of corporations comes from how they use their resources.

• Judd Legum's original Twitter post:
  https://mobile.twitter.com/JuddLegum/status/1082333646298718209 
  
  
• WFF Executive Committee:
  https://wff.org/Home/TeamDetails?TeamID=612054c6-b85a-4621-82ce-323725b9074a
  
  
• Red Lobster drops Tucker Carlson:
  https://www.businessinsider.com/red-lobster-cuts-advertising-on-tucker-carlsons-fox-news-show-2019-1

Thanks to Rashida Tlaib, Palestinians Finally Have a Voice in Washington

For decades, Palestinian-Americans have been demonized and targeted simply for who they are. Our heritage was a liability in public office—not something to celebrate. Policy is made about us without us, furthering our invisibility in American society. It’s surreal that one of our own is now a sitting member of Congress, sworn in wearing a thobe and unapologetically speaking up for Palestinian rights and equality.

https://www.thenation.com/article/rashida-tlaib-palestinian-thobe-washington/?fbclid=IwAR3MiRxOhU0fwcti3t5z0zrIq2gm2Far67rmZh4BJFPz97zlV8yX5k-GP-U

 

Stefan Molyneux struggled for a long time trying to be crypto

Stefan Molyneux struggled for a long time trying to be crypto, he seems more comfortable now that he is openly full Nazi 24/7.

https://mobile.twitter.com/rdsathene/status/1082756305566150656?fbclid=IwAR18KJxsT0b9lbo_NhdTfRDpupTlePFwPnrohjH-X5CNK-dL_Pr1WAqpwyM

 

Call or Email your Senators TODAY - Anti-BDS bill in the Senate

Anti-BDS legislation is both unconstitutional, and morally wrong in the first place, but the idea that the Senate is dithering with this while Trump's government shutdown drags on is unconscionable.

The Senate overview of the bill is here:

https://www.rpc.senate.gov/legislative-notices/s-1_strengthening-americas-security-in-the-middle-east

You can track progress on the bill at Congress.gov, here:

https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/senate-bill/1

The bill passed cloture last week, and will be voted on by the full senate TODAY, Tue Jan 8.

---

HAPPENING TODAY! Please take a few minutes and let your senators know that we all have the right to boycott and it is a cynical move to try and sneak in anti-BDS legislation while government funding is at a standstill and workers aren't getting paid.

https://twitter.com/jvplive/status/1082657628650725376
https://secure.everyaction.com/18feDKZHV0SNq81eNA3mTQ2

 Update (Jan 9): The bill failed a cloture vote in committee yesterday, but of course McConnell moved to reconsider the bill anyway, and it’s on the schedule to be presented to the full senate in the next few days. There’s another tracker on the bill at Govtrack, here: 

https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/116/s1#