Tag: Jack Reed

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

Evidence Grows that Crypto and Federally-Insured Banks Are a Combustible Mixture

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

The fallout from the collapse of the crypto exchange FTX and its missing billions of dollars of customer funds has, finally, galvanized some members of Congress to push back against the swarms of crypto lobbyists whose activities are clearly impacting the safety and soundness of U.S. banks.

Evidence Grows that Crypto and Federally-Insured Banks Are a Combustible Mixture

The China threat is being inflated to justify more spending

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

The China threat is being inflated to justify more spending

China possesses a decided advantage on its own turf, as Pentagon leaders have seen repeatedly during simulations in which our ships are sunk and air bases obliterated from a distance. With its integrated air defense network, anti-ship missiles and vast number of soldiers, any attempt to attack China within its security perimeter would be a self-inflicted disaster.

But the Chinese military advantage evaporates as you move beyond its shores. The Chinese defenses are almost all based on land and meant to keep invaders at a safe distance rather than project its own military power forward.

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin: A Certain Kind of Diversity

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin: A Certain Kind of Diversity

That’s no small thing to my old tribe. While there’ve been real militarists, monsters, and just plain jerks to come out of West Point’s academic departments – Petraeus and Trump’s national security adviser H.R. McMaster come to mind – in my assessment, most TAC-types were less intellectually curious or inclined to challenge prevailing assumptions (with some exceptions). Don’t take just my word for it. “He just doesn’t knock your socks off,” a former defense official close to the Biden transition team told Politico – “I just don’t see him as an independent thinker.”

None of that bodes well in crisis times – think pandemic, climate catastrophe, and reprised Cold War nuclear madness – that demand system-shaking visionaries, not company men. Unfortunately, the company man’s president may have just nominated the first black one.

Senator Sherrod Brown Calls for Breaking Up the Wall Street Banks; Elizabeth Warren Tells Fed: “I Don’t Believe You’re Doing Your Job”

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Senator Sherrod Brown Calls for Breaking Up the Wall Street Banks; Elizabeth Warren Tells Fed: “I Don’t Believe You’re Doing Your Job”

Senator Jon Tester of Montana got into a heated debate with Randal Quarles, the Vice Chairman for Supervision at the Federal Reserve. Although both the Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell, as well as Quarles, have previously stated that another round of fiscal stimulus is needed from Congress, Quarles now seems to have been intimidated by some Republicans in Congress who don’t want another stimulus package. Quarles, during the hearing, refused to endorse another stimulus package.