Developers are Crabgrass

Sunday, February 28, 2021

Like a stand-up comic with bad timing doing his imitation of John Belushi imitating Joe McCarthy.

As "Presidential" as a fart. The awkward pauses when nobody laughs at supposed punch lines. Keeps on. Keeps on. This a a United States Senator. Not some street performer with a hat down for spare change. And Beto was the other choice!

Sad.

Saturday, February 27, 2021

The fifteen buck minimum wage, question - a proposal pending since it was first timely back in 2015 when the phrase was, "Fifteen in '15." Seattle being where the slogan was born, yes/no?

Fifteen in '21 - it is shameful people have waited that long - 2015-2021 - while continuously denied such a rock bottom labor wage an employer would be forced to pay. Howie Klein:

Regardless of Biden's bullshit about a stand-alone minimum wage bill, it is impossible to find a pathway to overcome the GOP filibuster of this approach to the minimum wage increase, especially with conservative Democrats-- Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema-- making common cause with the Republicans against it. You need 60 votes to bust the filibuster in order to get to the underlying issue and vote on that. 48 Democrats might be joined by 4 or 5 Republicans-- 6 tops-- and that doesn't do it. The enemies of the working class-- and that includes Biden-- are getting their way on this. Abolishing the legislative filibuster would be much easier-- 50 votes would do it. But, again... Manchin and Sinema. And Biden. Jacobin writer Branko Marcetic doesn't beat around the bush when it comes to the way Biden wants to be seen as an ally of working families-- "we included the $15 minimum wage"-- while stabbing them in the back behind the scenes. At best, you could say that Biden sure isn't fighting as hard for the minimum wage as he is to confirm reactionary OMB nominee Neera Tanden.
"A longtime priority of the labor movement and the broad Left," wrote Marcetic of the $15 minimum wage, "the measure was one of the few big-ticket items Joe Biden had agreed to adopt from Bernie Sanders’s platform after vanquishing him in the Democratic primary. Though its impact would be seriously eroded by inflation compared to when it was first proposed, getting it passed would have still been transformational and life-changing for many, given that it would raise wages for 32 million workers, narrow the racial pay gap, and boost incomes for single-income parents, disproportionately mothers.

If Biden had it in him, he'd keep the campaign promise. The opera ain't over.

The latest U.S. military strike in Syria. First on Biden's watch. Biden features on whitehouse.gov his rationaile behind the strike.

[deleted item]

~~Well. Wrong image.~~ Use the link ~~instead~~.

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/02/27/a-letter-to-the-speaker-of-the-house-and-president-pro-tempore-of-the-senate-consistent-with-the-war-powers-resolution/

_____________UPDATE_____________

Try as I might, with some effort, I could not locate Executive Orders on the whitehouse.gov website. Are they unposted? Trump transparency, a/k/a continuity?

https://www.nationofchange.org/2021/02/22/2021-update-half-of-america-in-or-near-poverty/

As a link, the headline: https://www.nationofchange.org/2021/02/22/2021-update-half-of-america-in-or-near-poverty/

Is there a done deal in view; or is a pressure tactic only being escalated with uncertainty; or will the filibuster be prime target, with the wage decency issue the driving wedge?

Breitbart quoting Clyburn, a short article substantially as quoted:

On Friday’s “MSNBC Live,” House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-SC) reacted to the Senate parliamentarian ruling that a minimum wage increase cannot be passed under reconciliation by stating that “We are not going to see the filibuster being used to deny economic security.” And “I’m not too sure President Biden is going to allow a filibuster to stop this pay increase.”

Clyburn said, “Now, there are several ways around the parliamentarian’s rulings. I don’t think that President Biden will want his vice president to overrule the parliamentarian, but I’m not too sure President Biden is going to allow a filibuster to stop this pay increase. The filibuster is anathema to so many in the communities that I represent. The filibuster was used to deny voting rights. The filibuster was used to deny fair judges. The filibuster was used to deny civil rights. We are not going to see the filibuster being used to deny economic security. So, I suspect that we’ll find a way around what the parliamentarian’s ruling was. I certainly hope so.”

Strong wording used whether for pressure or as an assurance of solidarity sufficient to get a done deal done, Clyburn has been a Biden campaign barometer, and into the Biden term, Harris is installed. There is inherent charm to the Ilhan Omar suggestion, "Fire the parliamentarian." It mirrors Trump's Session/Whitaker/Barr degradation and tarnish of the integrity sometimes accorded the Justice Department (would Diogenes succeed if looking for justice there).