Tag: Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee

“They’re going to call you socialists anyways”: Progressives slam 109 Dems for backing GOP stunt

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

“They’re going to call you socialists anyways”: Progressives slam 109 Dems for backing GOP stunt

Here’s what this is really about: More and more members on the other side of the aisle are calling for cuts to Social Security and Medicare, and many have referred to these programs as “socialism” throughout their existence. The other night in the Rules Committee they showed their cards. Republicans refused an amendment to declare that Social Security and Medicare is not socialism. This resolution is little about intelligent discourse and everything to do about laying the groundwork to cut Social Security and Medicare.

‘Socialism’ for me, but not for thee?!

Railroads Have Invested Heavily in Congress. They Need Their Payoff in the Senate.

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

A showdown over a looming railroad strike heads to the Senate floor this week, after a group of progressive Democrats, led by Rep. Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y., pushed to modify a tentative agreement to include seven days of sick leave. The expanded agreement passed the House 220-206 on Wednesday, and the fight now moves to the Senate, where it remains unclear if there is enough Republican support to overcome a filibuster and send the agreement to President Joe Biden’s desk.

Railroads Have Invested Heavily in Congress. They Need Their Payoff in the Senate.

Related:

Why America’s Railroads Refuse to Give Their Workers Paid Leave

The answer, in short, is “P.S.R.” — or precision-scheduled railroading

The Washington Quid Pro Quo and a Comment on Roe v. Wade

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

The Washington Quid Pro Quo and a Comment on Roe v. Wade

As to Neuburger’s on Roe v. Wade, the fact that many people are mighty unhappy about it being overturned is not germane unless they manage to pass new Federal legislation, which seems unlikely. Women’s advocacy groups collectively need to be taken out and shot. If you read the original ruling, it’s a handwave. It was always vulnerable to being reversed. And yet those with most to lose did nothing to protect their rights. The response to abortion doctors being shot and women going to abortion clinics being threatened didn’t elicit remotely the warranted level of outrage. This action should have been made domestic terrorism in the laws of the Democratic-leaning states and prosecuted as such. The defenders of abortion acting like a bunch of wimps helped pave the way to where we are.

Comment by Yves Smith

Progressive Red-Baiting is Still Red-Baiting

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Progressive Red-Baiting is Still Red-Baiting

Interesting stats:

It’s also worth noting that Kunce’s recurring implication that China is driving the buying up of small farms is entirely untrue. Missouri, like a dozen other states, banned foreign-owned corporations from buying farmland in 1978 but lifted the cap from 0% to 1% in 2013, which is what allowed Chinese-owned Smithfield Foods to buy up the pork land in question. China-based corporations are not even a top four foreign owner of Missouri farmland, with Germany, the Netherlands, Canada, and Italy taking the top spots, according to a 2019 federal report. Estimates vary, but the most highly cited number of Chinese farmland ownership in Missouri is 40,000 acres out of 350,000 foreign owned acres, or about 11 percent of all foreign owned land and 0.01% of total Missouri farmland.

China is a very small player in “foreign ownership” of U.S. farmland in general, yet mysteriously, almost exclusively who Kunce talks about when discussing the issue. According to the conservative think tank CSIS, “Canadian investors hold the largest share of [U.S. farmland], at 29 percent, with the Netherlands, Italy, Germany, and the United Kingdom collectively owning another 33 percent. The remaining 38 percent is held by entities from almost a hundred other countries. Although Congress has become increasingly concerned about Chinese land purchases, investors from China currently own only a small fraction of this land, at 191,652 acres (0.05 percent of the total).” Another 2019 federal report puts the number at less than 0.02 percent, less than Cayman Islands.