GlacialTurtle

joined 7 months ago
 

The video is yet another case of Democrats resenting their base for expecting them to stand up for anything.

In a leaked recording, State Senator Elena Parent (D-42) said she’d vote for Republican transgender healthcare bans because trans rights are too “unpopular."

"You can go right to heck. I don’t think I will lose re-election based on you screaming at me"

The insane flipping back and forth in the video of declaring yourself pro-lgbt whilst signalling you'll vote for anti-trans legislation, to then attack the person asking them obvious questions by declaring that the question implies because Republicans are in charge that they should adopt opposite positions and they're not going to vote for things that are "unpopular".

The democratic politician distilled: You need to vote for me because I support you and I'm not as bad as Republicans, but when it comes down to it I will throw you under the bus and get mad at you for asking me about it and implying I might not be a good person.

But swearing is a no-no so I'll say Heck as I support you being oppressed by the state.

 

This is at the same time as Israel has been stopping entry of all goods and supplies into Gaza. The deputy speaker of Israeli parliament is also calling for the bombing of food stocks in Gaza by the way.

The EU condemns the refusal of Hamas to accept the extension of the first phase of the ceasefire agreement in Gaza. Israel's subsequent decision to block the entry of all humanitarian aid into Gaza could potentially result in humanitarian consequences.

The EU calls for a rapid resumption of negotiations on the second phase of the ceasefire, and expresses its strong support to the mediators.

A permanent ceasefire would contribute to the release of all remaining Israeli hostages while ensuring the necessary conditions for recovery and reconstruction in Gaza to begin. All parties have a political responsibility to make this a reality.

The EU reiterates its calls for full, rapid, safe and unhindered access to humanitarian aid at scale for Palestinians in need and for allowing and facilitating humanitarian workers and international organisations to operate effectively and safely inside Gaza.

The EU civilian Border Assistance Mission for the Rafah Crossing Point (EUBAM Rafah) is ready to continue its work if requested by the parties. Thanks to its presence, nearly 3,000 people have so far crossed the border into Egypt since 1 February.

Meanwhile:

The deputy speaker of Israel’s parliament and a leading member of Netanyahu’s party calling for the bombing of food stocks in Gaza just a few hours ago.

You won’t see this mentioned by any European or American leaders, or by most western media.

https://bsky.app/profile/mehdirhasan.bsky.social/post/3ljfehifmrc2e

Israel claims it's a US plan but has not confirmed it.

Matt Duss, of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, told Al Jazeera that he had “very good reason to disbelieve” what Netanyahu had said about US support for Israel’s unilateral decision to not proceed to the second phase of the Gaza ceasefire deal.

Netanyahu had called the proposal for the extension of the first phase of the deal the “Witkoff plan”, in reference to the US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, but Duss said that “as far as I’ve been able to tell, this is in fact the Netanyahu plan”.

Duss said that it was uncertain how much support Netanyahu had from Trump, but that if the US administration was backing Israel in reneging on the terms of the ceasefire deal, it would be a continuation of US policy under Trump’s predecessor President Joe Biden, where US officials would insist that Hamas was the party not agreeing to a ceasefire, even when the opposite was true.

“I very much hope that Netanyahu is not telling the truth, because the terms of the deal are that phase one would continue as negotiations for phase two are worked out,” Duss said, before adding that Witkoff’s next moves would shed more light on the US position.

https://aje.io/86m0jg?update=3549731

Outrage as Israel cuts off Gaza aid to pressure Hamas to accept new ceasefire proposal

Also I had to log on to reddit and see a photo op of Euro leaders on the front page with the caption "leaders of the free world" and people glazing Keir Starmer I guess because Ukraine.

 

Yet more Democrats doubling down on "we have to be more racist", "we need to have less principles", "it's actually the lefts fault somehow".

Reminder that here in reality, Democrats ran republican campaign messaging during the election whilst Kamala failed to distance herself from literal fucking genocide in response to the bases concerns nor did they provide any meaningful economic policies as answers.

When several dozen Democratic political operatives and elected officials gathered at a tony resort off the Potomac River last month, frustration boiled over at the left wing of their party.

Democrats had become too obsessed with “ideological purity tests” and should push back “against far-left staffers and groups that exert a disproportionate influence on policy and messaging,” according to a document of takeaways from the gathering produced by the center-left group Third Way and obtained by POLITICO.

The group of moderate Democratic consultants, campaign staffers, elected officials and party leaders who gathered in Loudoun County, Virginia for a day-and-a-half retreat, where they plotted their party’s comeback, searched for why the party lost in November — and what to do about it. Much of what they focused their ire on centered on the kind of identity politics that they believed lost them races up and down the ballot.

One of the key ways to win back the trust of the working class, some gathered there argued, was to “reduce far-left influence and infrastructure” on the party, according to the takeaways document. That included building a more moderate campaign infrastructure and talent pipeline, pushing “back against far-left staffers and groups that exert a disproportionate influence on policy and messaging,” and refusing to participate in “far-left candidate questionnaires” and “forums that create ideological purity tests.”

The gathering resulted in five pages of takeaways, a document POLITICO obtained from one of the participants. (Not all attendees endorsed each point, and the document — and Third Way — kept the identities of participants private.)

[...]

Those gathered then laid out 20 solutions for how Democrats can regain working-class trust and reconnect with them culturally.

Among their takeaways:

  • The party should “embrace patriotism, community, and traditional American imagery.”

  • Candidates should “get out of elite circles and into real communities (e.g., tailgates, gun shows, local restaurants, churches).”

  • The party needs to “own the failures of Democratic governance in large cities and commit to improving local government.”

The party, many of those gathered also argued, needs to “develop a stronger, more relatable Democratic media presence (podcasts, social media, sports broadcasting).”

Bennett said that, with the meeting coming just three months after the election, “we didn’t expect to have a lot of answers about exactly what the Democratic offer to the working class on the economy ought to be going forward. We were still kind of picking through the rubble here.”

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

In a perfect world, people would stop feeling the need to redirect every criticism of Democrats into pointing out how someone else must be worse, and maybe realise Democrats as they exist and as the party is structured is an almost useless vehicle for any meaningful change or opposition.

In a perfect world, liberals would stop idealising Democrats in the way they did in the post I was responding to, where they implied the Democratic alternative would save lives, after that party literally full throatedly endorsed genocide right up until they lost the election (and still do).

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago (3 children)

The thread is talking about how it ought to be acceptable to criticise the Democratic party, and the reality of what you're doing is needlessly deflecting back to Republicans in a context in which it's irrelevant.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 3 months ago (5 children)

What the fuck are you on about? What do you think you're responding to?

[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 months ago (7 children)

Democrats were saving lives by bombing children in Gaza.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

New Left Review

Monthly Review

Brooklyn Rail, mainly an arts magazine but they have a great politics section, Field Notes, from which books like Hinterland by Phil A. Neel have been published.

Current Affairs - Useful for keeping up with Doctor Who and his amazing adventures.

 

A remarkable set of declarations from current and former employees of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau detail Acting Director Russ Vought’s scheme to illegally eliminate the agency, and the consequences for thousands of CFPB employees and millions of consumers left vulnerable to predatory financial scams.

The fourteen declarations, filed on Thursday in National Treasury Employees Union v. Vought, provide an unusually direct window into how the Trump administration sought to cripple an agency that has returned more than $21 billion to consumers over its lifespan. And the employees call out CFPB’s current chief operating officer, Adam Martinez, for lying in his declaration to the court that the agency is just going through a normal transition process in the transfer of political power.

CFPB has been under a “stop work” order since Vought took over the agency on an acting basis. No work has been performed and employees are on paid leave; the order was characterized as a work stoppage to get around federal employment laws limiting administrative leave to ten days in a calendar year. Seven outstanding enforcement cases were dismissed in the past week; the latest was a case against Trans Union.

One employee, who used the pseudonym “Alex Doe” for fear of retaliation, recounted personal experience of a February 13 meeting between CFPB leadership and the Office of Personnel Management, where a three-step process was discussed. First, all probationary and “term employees” (which have a fixed term of employment) would be fired, which occurred that day. Then, entire offices, divisions, and units would be let go, a culling of roughly 1,200 employees, which was supposed to happen the next day, on Valentine’s Day. Finally, the bureau would “reduce altogether” 60 to 90 days later.

According to another declaration, the intention was to fire everyone but five statutory positions named specifically in the Dodd-Frank Act, which established the agency. “One Senior Executive said that CFPB will become a ‘room at Treasury, White House, or Federal Reserve with five men and a phone in it,’ the declaration reads.

A second pseudonymous employee who attended the February 13 meeting declared that Martinez described the CFPB as in “wind down mode,” and that all “statutorily-required functions would be transferred to other agencies.” This is illegal without an act of Congress. That employee also described an email dated February 11, where the chief financial officer of CFPB, Jafnar Gueye, was described as discussing with the Federal Reserve how to return CFPB’s funds back to the central bank. (CFPB is funded entirely through the Federal Reserve.)

 

This essay by Evald Vasilyevich Ilyenkov (1924–79), “On the Coincidence of Logic with Dialectics and the Theory of Knowledge of Materialism,” was published in his most widely known work, Dialectical Logic: Essays on Its History and Theory (first edition in Russian, 1974). The English translation by H. Campbell Creighton is from the edition published by Progress Publishers, Moscow 1977. In this adapted essay, Ilyenkov discusses the idea of the coincidence of dialectics, logics, and theory of knowledge, which was one of the hallmarks of the Ilyenkovian current in post-Stalin Soviet philosophy. Originally, the idea was jotted down by V. I. Lenin in his Philosophical Notebooks when he was reading G. W. F. Hegel in 1914 and 1915, as a critique against the separation of the theory of knowledge from other fields of philosophy.

Ilyenkov was one of the most important and controversial Soviet Marxist philosophers. He contributed substantially to the Marx Renaissance that emerged in the so-called Thaw Period and aimed at the reconstruction of Marx’s original methodology. In 1960, his first book, The Dialectics of the Abstract and the Concrete in Marx’s “Capital,” was published, to be followed by important articles and studies on the concept of the ideal and on problems of dialectical logic. Ilyenkov was known as an ardent critic of technocratic tendencies in the Soviet Union. He stressed that socialist society should express humanist values and not merely be an engineering project. Although Ilyenkov had constant problems with the Soviet philosophical establishment, which viewed his innovatory ideas with suspicion, he did not regard himself as a dissident and remained a member of the Party. He died by his own hands on March 21, 1979.

 

Certain Democrats remain inexplicably in denial about Biden and his brain leaking out of his ears during a live debate and even internal polling showing repeatedly he was almost certainly going to lose badly.

Former White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre lambasted Democratic leadership for attacking Joe Biden like a “firing squad” at a Harvard Kennedy School Institute of Politics forum Wednesday, saying the party should have united behind the former president.

“I have never seen anything like that,” she said. “It was truly, truly unfortunate. And I think it hurt us more than folks realized to have done that.”

Jean-Pierre attended a discussion with spring IOP fellow Brittany Shepherd and Anoushka Chander ’25 — her first public event since leaving the White House in January.

Jean-Pierre stood by Biden’s achievements, his cognitive fitness, and his decision to run for re-election during the talk. She echoed statements from Michael C. Donilon — a senior advisor to Biden and a current IOP fellow — who defended the former president on the same stage just two weeks ago.

“I believe in what we were trying to get done,” Jean-Pierre said. “I would not have come back into the administration, I don’t think, for anybody else.”

And from Donilon's talk:

Michael C. Donilon, the chief strategist behind Joe Biden’s 2024 campaign, said Democratic leadership “lost its mind” when they ousted Biden from the party’s ticket, arguing he was their best chance at keeping the White House.

“The Democratic primary voters chose Joe Biden to be the nominee of the Democratic Party,” said Donilon, a spring fellow at the Institute of Politics. “The Democratic party leadership, and the biggest funders in America, didn’t.”

In a wide-ranging post mortem at the IOP Thursday evening, Donilon remained adamant that the former president would “still be the best” for the job – despite his poor performance in a June debate.

“Lots of people have terrible debates,” he said. “Usually, the party doesn’t lose its mind. But that’s what happened — it just melted down.”

Donilon, a member of Biden’s inner circle for over 40 years, denounced claims that the president’s acuity and judgment declined as an “impression” perpetuated by the media.

“It was getting written as this fact, ‘Oh, Biden was mentally impaired,’” Donilon said. “I don’t know how much time any of those people spent with him — I know how much time I spent with him. I know what I saw.”

Reminder the White House spent his second term limiting access to Biden, not showing him negative polling and negative stories, and denying there were any problems until he turned a question on abortion into incoherent mumbling about immigrants murdering women.

 

An interesting article describing the experience of YDSA organisers running an introductory course into socialism and Marxism.

Excerpt:

At the start of this class I was confused about socialism. As most of American society is. I was conflicted between what I had learned about Marx and Marxism in my past classes and all of the times I had been told it failed. I was not aware that in actuality the examples we’ve been told about the cautionary tales of socialism were not examples of true or pure socialism. I’d been told that Cuba was a poor, struggling, tyrannical state where the people were suffering. I had no idea that none of this was true and Cuba was strides beyond American society in many ways. I didn’t understand what unions did or their cultural and historic significance, and I was unaware of the capitalist greed going on within our campus affecting my own teachers. In my position statement I don’t think I was fully aware that so many of the causes I’m passionate about are tied to socialism, universal education, universal healthcare, equality, climate justice, etc. Embarrassingly I did not even understand the concept of private property and what it would mean if the government banned it. I had pictured a dystopian image of a neighborhood with every house identical to the next. All of these mental images that I was indoctrinated to believe around socialism were hard to shake, it took me a while to ditch that mindset and see it for what it is.

Taking this course opened my eyes to the reality of socialism and made me question why it had been censored so much. Although I knew that news was manipulative and every side has their own agenda, I don’t think I fully understood that sources I considered reputable, like the New York Times for example, to be untrustworthy. I didn’t realize this until I used a New York Times article in my first essay that was misrepresenting socialism. Being raised in a liberal place I always associated Fox News, and other conservative sources with manipulation and untrustworthiness. I didn’t really consider the fact that liberal sources also were guilty of this. So many of the changes I want to see in the world are inherently socialist.[1]

Above is the first section of a final reflection letter written by one of the students who took the course “The Rhetoric & Writing of Socialism” at the University of Colorado Boulder in Fall 2023. This was written by a student with no previous experience with activism, social movements, or socialist organizations. Apart from several YDSA comrades who also took the class, most of the students in the course were similarly bereft of these experiences. But, this student’s response was by no means unique. In fact, this response was standard from several of the students in the class: a turn from vitriolic mainstream liberal or conservative positions on socialism to positive associations if not outright affinity for our ideological commitments. Clearly, something positive took place in this course and it's worth exploring why and how it happened.

[....]

One of the major concerns I expressed in my last article for Cosmonaut was that overt propagandizing could potentially alienate students; or worse, have them actively work against me or the YDSA comrades in the class. Instead, multiple students wrote positively about the course content and classroom environment. To quote one student directly, our class provided “a classroom environment where every student felt comfortable to share their thoughts and opinions.”[2] Reading through these qualitative comments, which were submitted by 16 of the 19 students in the class, it quickly becomes apparent that perception of the course was overwhelmingly positive.

Thus, it appears that overt propagandizing does not bother students, and the qualitative comments offer another reason for why this was. First is the importance of creating a positive, laid back classroom environment. This kind of environment was necessary given the contentious topics we covered. In a class where I took seriously the now dated but still applicable call from Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) in 1962 to create a culture of “controversy” and lean into difficult political conversations, we were no strangers to sensitive topics.[3] As can be clearly seen in the syllabus, we covered anarchism, the history of socialism in the United States, the efficacy of electoralism, the intersection of feminism and the civil rights movement with socialism, as well as other related topics.[4] Students were asked to write a manifesto where they clearly articulated what they thought about the controversial topics we covered in class. I even had an anarchist organizer come to class who talked openly about their confrontations with the police.

However, despite all this controversy, students took everything in stride because we treated one another like human beings. We joked around. We goofed off. I did everything I could to counter the idea of the “professional” college professor who must be detached from their students. Instead, I showed them pictures and videos of my daughter. We took a day to toss a frisbee back-and-forth. We talked about our lives outside the classroom. This created buy-in for the students who weren’t already socialists.

 

Excerpt:

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has ordered the digital and physical destruction of 18 publications on workplace safety practices, according to an internal February 7 email obtained by Popular Information. The email says the publications have been removed from the OSHA website and tells staff that any physical copies should be "disposed of or recycled."

The purge appears to be part of the Trump administration's effort to terminate any activities associated with "diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility," or DEIA. The email advises OSHA staff that "[i]f you have wallet cards that include language, or can be interpreted, on DEIA or gender ideology, please dispose of them as well."

Popular Information has obtained archived versions of most of the deleted publications. Almost all of them are not associated with DEIA topics but appear to have been targeted because they include a DEIA-related keyword used in a completely different context.

For example, one of the purged publications is "OSHA Best Practices for Protecting EMS Responders During Treatment and Transport of Victims of Hazardous Substance Releases." Popular Information was able to obtain an archived version of the publication through the Internet Archive. The 104-page document — a collaboration between dozens of government agencies and NGOs — was published in 2009 to detail the steps "employers need to take to protect their EMS responders from becoming additional victims while on the front line of medical response." DEIA issues are not discussed.

On page 94 of the publication, however, the words "diversity" and "diverse" are used in a context that has nothing to do with race or gender. The publication notes there is a "diversity of state-specific certification, training, and regulatory requirements" for "EMS agencies" and "diverse conditions under which EMS responders could work." Similarly, on page 96, the publication notes, "EMS responders are a diverse group" and "risks vary with their primary and secondary roles."

"Guidelines for Nursing Homes: Ergonomics for the Prevention of Musculoskeletal Disorders," is a 44-page publication released in 2009. It provides "recommendations for nursing home employers to help reduce the number and severity of work-related musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) in their facilities." It has nothing to do with DEIA. On page 10, however, it notes that "development of MSDs may be related to genetic causes, gender, age, and other factors." The single use of the word "gender" appears to have flagged the publication for deletion and destruction.

Another purged publication, "Small Entity Compliance Guide for the Respiratory Protection Standard," contains the sentence, "[t]he new computer software reflects the concept of government leadership through collaboration with diverse technical organizations." It has nothing to do with DEIA.

 

Remember when Labour claimed "This isn’t factional. We just aren’t insulting voters with piss poor candidates anymore."

WhatsApp group chat has been exposed with Labour MP's and Councillors often posting abusive, ableist, sexist and derogatory comments.

Several MP's, including Health Minister Andrew Gwynne, whose office caseworker had setup the chat, have now been suspended.

Unsurprisingly, the group chat contains lots of ire for the left wing of party (what's left of it anyway...), including the usual thing of naming everyone even marginally to the left of them as "trots" ( short for Trotskyists). Although this is just inline with what was already exposed in the leaked report intended to investigate the handling of antisemitism complaints, before also finding internal emails and WhatsApp group chats that exposed the same sort of racist, sexist, and highly factional abuse from the right wing of the labour party. A literal conspiracy within Labour to deliberately undermine the complaints process, to then use against Corbyn in the media, which included people who had presented themselves as "whistleblowers" against Labours supposed antisemitism.

Gwynne, 50, had managed to dodge most controversies during his near 20-year stint in parliament, although rose to brief fame for calling Boris Johnson a “pillock” on live television in 2017.

The real political danger, it seems, came not from Westminster but from his constituency 200 miles away on the edge of Manchester, where long-simmering Labour party divisions have now burst into the open.

The WhatsApp group where Labour figures posted racist, sexist and homophobic comments was centred on Gwynne’s power base in the town of Denton in Tameside, where he was elected as a local councillor almost 30 years ago at the age of 21.

Labour insiders said the local party’s “toxic” fallouts were well known in the region. They were not surprised that Gwynne’s inner circle was the subject of the highly damaging leaks, which first emerged in the Mail on Sunday.

“You would turn up at an event and they would be slagging off the other side,” said one senior Labour figure in Greater Manchester. “Any time we were in a party setting with Andrew Gwynne and some of those people, they would just be slagging off the people they didn’t like.

“You get a bit of that in politics but they were probably the worst at it in terms of the Greater Manchester scene.”

The Guardian has seen more than 1,000 pages of WhatsApp messages, spanning 2019 to 2022, in which the sacked minister joked about the death of an elderly voter and a cycling campaigner, who he hoped would be “mown down” by a lorry.

He also said someone “sounds too Jewish” and “too militaristic”, apparently from their name alone.

In newly disclosed messages, Gwynne described a constituent as “an illiterate removed” and a fellow councillor as a “fat middle-aged useless thicket”. He called neighbouring MP Navendu Mishra, a “splitter” for forming a group of leftwing Labour MPs in 2022.

The group, named Trigger Me Timbers, was set up by Gwynne’s office caseworker Claire Reid in January 2019. At its height it had 44 members, most of whom were local councillors and activists.

The forum was initially set up to discuss routine party business, such as local events and campaign literature. But it soon turned “nasty”, according to one Labour figure.

The group’s ire was reserved for leftwing Labour activists, whom they refer to more than 100 times as “trots”.

When Christian Wakeford defected from the Conservatives to Labour in January 2022, Ryan – then a local councillor – joked about “all the trots exploding on socials”.

Gwynne said “the nutty wing” of a local party “is going bonkers that we’ve let a Tory have the Labour whip and not Jezza” – a reference to Jeremy Corbyn, who was suspended by the party.

Reid, now a senior official on Labour’s national policy forum, said of the party’s leftwing membership: “Aside from anything else today it’s very good for the internal Party! Hopefully they’ll all leave”, to which Gwynne replied: “Yep.”

While Gwynne and Ryan are the most high profile to be suspended by Labour, Reid and two other senior councillors – George Newton and Jack Naylor – have stepped down from their cabinet positions on Tameside council amid an investigation by party HQ.

Gwynne’s wife, Allison Gwynne, who posted in the group about local children who have “always enjoyed swimming in street rubbish/raw sewage”, is understood to remain in her role as chair of the council’s overview panel – a position she is believed to have been awarded by Labour HQ.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/feb/10/vile-labourwhatsapp-group-exposes-toxic-divisions-in-andrew-gwynnes-power-base

As first revealed by the Mail On Sunday, Gwynne was accused of posting messages containing racist and sexist comments. The cache of thousands of messages spans a period from 2019 to 2022.

Gwynne is also alleged to have sent messages suggesting a local cycling campaigner should be “mown down” by a lorry, and hoping a pensioner who didn’t vote Labour “croaks it” before an election.

[...]

One senior member of the Tameside Labour group said the party was “in chaos” and some were “fuming” at being suspended.

“I know from talking to councillors some of them are fuming because they’re being associated with those vile posts. Just by their suspension it looks like they’ve been involved but they’ve never posted anything on that group,” they said.

“Tameside Labour is in chaos now. We’ve got to consider the position of the leader because she appointed those people [Gwynne’s allies] to cabinet positions just a few months ago, with the blessing of the national party. This is completely untenable.”

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/feb/11/labour-suspends-12-members-who-joined-offensive-whatsapp-group

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I've changed it, but Nitter sites have often been incredibly unreliable in my experience. Not much use in a url if it breaks randomly, so I also put the original link in the main post just in case.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

Literally in the post you're responding on:

I also remind dipshit Democrat defenders to hold Democrats to account. They ran a failed election campaign. They decided adhering to genocide was more important than winning. This is how they respond to their base expecting literally anything of them, is to resent them and tell them to shut the fuck up and plead there isn’t anything they can do so they just have to roll over.

What is it with you fucking morons who incessantly turn every criticism of the Demcoratic party into some insane notion that purely by virtue of existing they are owed votes? That's not how politics works. That's not how election campaigns work. Also, do do you think the organisations doing this didn't campaign for Democrats? Do you have any reading comprehension?

You did nothing. Now, this is what you get.

Liberals and wishing harm on others when they fail.

"You did nothing" Did you phonebank? Did you go canvassing at all? Did you deliver or distribute campaign material? Did you incessantly post online enough about how it's your duty to vote Democrat, the most significant and important contribution to every election campaign?

No? Oh, you're just still whining months after the fact that because you saw liberal orgs that actually did campaign for Democrats are not satisfied with how Democrats are responding to Republicans and the excuses they keep making?

Well, this is what you get. Clearly you just didn't want it enough.

 

Direct link to letter/press release:

https://democraticleader.house.gov/media/press-releases/dear-colleague-rapid-response-task-force-and-litigation-working-group

Original Twitter/X link in case nitter instance fails/goes down:

https://x.com/kenklippenstein/status/1889692684178108688

Dear Colleague:

I write with respect to our ongoing effort to push back against the far-right extremism that is being relentlessly unleashed on the American people.

We are engaged in a multifaceted struggle to protect and defend everyday Americans from the harm being inflicted by this administration. As outlined last week, it’s an all hands on deck effort simultaneously underway in Congress, the Courts and the Community.

In connection with this effort, House Democrats have formally established a Rapid Response Task Force and Litigation Working Group. I have asked Assistant Leader Joe Neguse to chair the Task Force, which will be co-chaired by Reps. Rosa DeLauro, Gerry Connolly and Jamie Raskin. If you are interested in participating, please contact Rep. Neguse or one of the co-Chairs this week.

House Democrats are committed to driving down the high cost of living for everyday Americans. We recognize that there are far too many people in this country struggling to live paycheck to paycheck. That’s not acceptable in the wealthiest country in the history of the world. In this regard, we will continue to solve problems for hardworking American taxpayers in order to improve their quality of life.

Last year, Republicans repeatedly promised to make life more affordable for everyday Americans. Apparently, they didn’t mean it. House Republicans and the administration have done nothing to lower the high cost of living. The cost of groceries is skyrocketing. Meanwhile, Republicans continue to launch far-right attacks on Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, public safety and the education of our children. The American people are counting on us to stop them.

Thank you for your continued leadership during this perilous moment. Together, we press on for the people.

Sincerely,

Hakeem Jeffries Democratic Leader

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Liberals turning into "fake news!!" idiots when faced with direct quotes of Democrats literally telling their base to fuck off and stop expecting anything of them.

The article directly cites at least 2 liberal orgs directing people to call Democratic politicians to do as much as they can to oppose Republicans, and directly quotes multiple Democrats directly relating to this and trying to insist there's nothing they can do. I don't know what more you want.

 

Democrats are mad that their base are demanding and expecting them to at least try to do something.

For some reason Axios posted like at least 3 variations of the same story:

https://www.axios.com/2025/02/06/democrats-congress-trump-musk-doge-calls

https://www.axios.com/2025/02/12/democrats-grassroots-groups-moveon-indivisible

Why it matters: Members of the Steering and Policy Committee — with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) in the room — on Monday complained activist groups like MoveOn and Indivisible have facilitated thousands of phone calls to members' offices.

  • "People are pissed," a senior House Democrat who was at the meeting said of lawmakers' reaction to the calls.
  • The Democrat said Jeffries himself is "very frustrated" at the groups, who are trying to stir up a more confrontational opposition to Trump.
  • A Jeffries spokesperson disputed that characterization and noted to Axios that their office regularly engages with dozens of stakeholder groups, including MoveOn and Indivisible, including as recently as Monday

Zoom in: "There were a lot of people who were like, 'We've got to stop the groups from doing this.' ... People are concerned that they're saying we're not doing enough, but we're not in the majority," said one member.

  • Some Democrats see the callers as barking up the wrong tree given their limited power as the minority party in Congress: "It's been a constant theme of us saying, 'Please call the Republicans,'" said Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.).
  • "I reject and resent the implication that congressional Democrats are simply standing by passively," said Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.).

The other side: "People are angry, scared, and they want to see more from their lawmakers right now than floor speeches about Elon Musk," Indivisible co-founder Leah Greenberg told Axios.

  • "Indivisible is urging people who are scared to call their member of Congress, whether they have a Democrat or Republican, and make specific procedural asks," Greenberg said.
  • "Our supporters are asking Democrats to demand specific red lines are met before they offer their vote to House Republicans on the budget, when Republicans inevitably fail to pass a bill on their own."

Reminder that Richie "I reject and resent the implication" Torres spent the election trying to get the political streamer Hasan Piker banned for antisemitism (read: criticising Israel).

I also remind dipshit Democrat defenders to hold Democrats to account. They ran a failed election campaign. They decided adhering to genocide was more important than winning. This is how they respond to their base expecting literally anything of them, is to resent them and tell them to shut the fuck up and plead there isn't anything they can do so they just have to roll over.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 4 months ago (5 children)

They won't because they're the ones making money from it. The only reason they care about this is likely because they don't get money from ads as they don't have any related advertising business like Google and Apple does.

It's the same as when they kicked EA off of steam. EA allowed buying DLC without going through Steam. If they're not getting a cut, but you are being hosted/distributed by them, they don't want it.

 

The Democrats are gonna try a brand new strategy they've never done before: cosying up to oligarchs and moving to the """centre""" (read: becoming more right wing than they were already getting)

Excerpts:

In Northern California, Jeffries and Rep. Sam Liccardo, the freshman Democrat who represents part of Silicon Valley, were working to stem further defections and to rally Democratic-leaning donors to their side. To the crowd, which included several major Democratic bundlers, as well as California Reps. Jimmy Panetta, Mike Levin and George Whitesides, Jeffries described his party’s efforts to push back on Trump and outlined their campaign to retake the House in 2026, according to four people who attended the event and were granted anonymity to describe a private meeting.

“The singular focus was — how do we ensure Silicon Valley remains with Democrats,” said one of the people who participated, “because, right now, Silicon Valley is feeling very purple.”

Jeffries’ appearance was the Democratic leader’s first Silicon Valley swing after the 2024 election and in the run-up to the midterm elections — an early overture at a meeting where no donation was required to attend. And it was no accident he trekked to the nation’s tech capital. In Washington, Democrats in recent days have been lacing into Musk as he wreaks havoc on the federal government, viewing him as a more polarizing — and less popular — foil than Trump. But the moneyed tech world that Musk hails from is critical to Democrats’ fortunes in 2026.

There is a significant fear that these tech folks, who have been with us for a long time, will say, ‘fuck it, we’re going with the other guys,’” said Alex Hoffman, a Democratic donor adviser who works with donors across the country but did not attend the event. “These donors are also pissed, watching former and current colleagues have unlimited, unchecked power, and getting richer off of this and they’re not.”

Democrats are “trying to mend fences and they’re also trying to keep them in the tent,” Hoffman added.

[...]

High-dollar donor frustration — and the problem it presents for Democrats — isn’t limited to California. Across the country, “the mood is tense” among Democratic donors, said another top Democratic fundraiser, granted anonymity to discuss the issue candidly.

Democrats are on their heels as Trump steamrolls the government, seemingly unchecked. “Everyone wants to know: What can you do about what I just saw Trump do on TV, and why did we end up here?” the fundraiser said.

In Silicon Valley, Jeffries did not independently raise tech issues, despite facing a room anxious to hear how Democrats might approach AI and crypto policies in the next Congress, several people who attended said. A second person who attended the event said they were frustrated that much of Jeffries’ comments focused on Trump.

“When will we move off this posture of complaining and moaning about Trump,” the person said. “What positive ideas will Democrats offer to people to bring people back in?”

That person said Jeffries has time to assuage Democratic-leaning tech leaders and “reestablish strong ties with the tech community.” However, the attendee said, “there’s work that needs to be done, and that begins with an acknowledgement that this last campaign was not their best work.”

[...]

The group included several top tech executives, including DocuSign CEO Allan Thygesen, Box CEO Aaron Levie, Bloom Energy CEO K.R. Sridhar and Cooper Teboe, a major Democratic donor adviser in Silicon Valley. Robert Klein and Danielle Guttman Klein, major Democratic donors, hosted it at their home in Los Altos Hills.

In his remarks, Jeffries concentrated on how Democrats planned to retake the House in 2026. He said Democrats were reaching toward the center, while Trump will swing harder right, according to the first attendee, who took notes on the presentation. Jeffries also highlighted how California Democrats helped the party net two more House seats in 2024, as well as the role the state will play in their efforts to flip the House, according to the fourth person who was in the room.

He also told the crowd that Democrats needed to pick their fights. It’s a mantra Jeffries has invoked before, comparing the party’s strategy to the New York Yankees’ Aaron Judge, who is “not going to swing at every pitch,” the Democratic leader said.

Also notable that even rich donors have more willingness to suggest Democrats ran a bad campaign than your average r/politics or .world user.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

There was absolutely zero chance that any politician with a chance of winning was going to side will Palestine. Full stop. The Harris campaign was the best option anyone had for any semblance of a peaceful resolution to this.

So there it is. You just get to declare genocide as inevitable to suggest other people shouldn't or can't care. It's always the same fucking bullshit - you're the noble Palestinian defender with their best interests at heart, whilst declaring them an acceptable target we should just not have to really care about or show any interest in. The typical Democrat approach of "I care about minorities only as far as I can throw them".

Trump wants to speed run the genocide so he can build a resort.

And according to yourself, Democrats were going to genocide them anyway. So what's with the faux concern? It was inevitable regardless. Anybody who cared just needed to suck it up and accept mass murder and expulsion of a people. Actually the Democrats lost because you cared too much.

As always, there's a scapegoat to show the Democrats can never fail. They can only be failed. It was Bernie bros in 2016 that singularly caused the Democrats to lose. Now in 2024 it's anybody who cared about Palestinians.

If Palestine was your single issue that caused you not to vote against fascism, you’re a moron and are complicit in the upcoming genocide in the US. Full stop.

Again, wild that dipshits like yourself don't hold Democrats in power to account. Are the Democrats not morons for refusing to budge on genociding Palestinians? Are Democrats not complicit in their actions and their campaigning? Democrats signed on to the Laken Riley act. Fetterman spent months taunting people who cared about Palestinians and calling everyone who criticised Israel terrorist supporters and Hamas. Democrats ran ads saying they're against trans people whilst also claiming to be defending and speaking for them. They ran anti-immigrant ads talking about immigrants stealing welfare. Kamala when asked about anti-trans laws answered "they should follow the law".

Because look what happened. Did sticking it to the Harris campaign change anything for the better at all?

Did Democratic leadership sticking it to their base and their voters change anything for the better at all? Look what happened. They still lost even after caping for genocide!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

People aren’t controlled by political leaders. Choosing not to support the only legitimate option that wasn’t fascism is a stupid way to stick it to the leaders.

Who said they were?

Yes, the democrats ran a bad campaign, but that’s a shit excuse to not fight against fascism.

And the democrats had the most means to do so, including as part of an election campaign they fucked.

People like you lack any concept of prioritization. If someone throws a molotov cocktail through your window, you don’t try to fix the window before putting out the fire. If you let the house burn down you can never fix the window.

People like you lack any concept of power and responsibility, or systems and systemic thinking. You're right dude, it's me, the only person in the world who could have stopped fascism in the US by voting for Democrats, despite the actual voting numbers severely outnumbering me, and despite the fact that the campaign wasn't even (singularly) decided by people voting with regards to Palestine, and also despite me literally being in the UK and not having the legal or practical ability to vote in US elections, fucking numbnuts.

The only concept, and the only thing you seem to have the brain power for, is thinking exclusively in terms of individuals who you encounter online that you can shout at for criticising Democrats by suggesting it was their fault Democrats lost. Liberals right now are like someone who sees news of a horrific accident involving a lorry's brakes malfunctioning, crashing into oncoming traffic, who then go about roaming the streets lashing out at random lorry drivers shouting "YOU DID THIS!!!" as the appropriate response. And if anyone says "people who are in charge of the vehicles should bear some responsibility for the functioning of the lorries" you lash out at the person who says that and claim it's actually their fault now.

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