caucus99percent

free-range politics, organic community

Something/Someone Old

First: ‘Biden stimulus bill: What will it take to really ‘Rescue America?’, Jordan Woll, January 21, 2021, liberationnews.org  (CC w/ attribution)

“Joe Biden’s recently-announced pandemic relief package, the so-called American Rescue Plan, is the new administration’s top legislative priority. With the bar set tragically low by the Trump government, any action at all by the Biden administration may feel like a welcome improvement. But the severity of the pandemic in the country and the threat of emerging, highly-transmissible new strains of the virus requires radical solutions to address the urgent daily needs of working and poor people.

The Democrats control both houses of Congress and the executive branch. The filibuster that requires 60 Senators to vote in favor of closing debate on a measure is not a law, but an internal Senate rule that the Democratic majority can simply decide to do away with. But despite having the power to pass laws without any Republican support, the Biden administration has introduced another bill that fails to measure up to the scale of the crisis facing the working class.

You may have caught Liza Featherstone's piece, "If Joe Biden Moves Left, You Can Thank The Left," in Jacobin dated three days ago.

It Ain't Gonna Get No Better, Cuz

The twins' cousin would always respond to political or economic complaints with the response, "It ain't gonna get no better, Cuz". And sure enough, I don't think it will. Biden will fulfill another local saying IMO, "it's better than it was when it was so bad". Unfortunately it won't be good, just less bad (maybe). This piece lays the situation out well.

There is an intense effort in the Democratic Party-aligned media to present the inauguration of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris as a fundamental turning point in American politics.

No doubt there is immense relief among millions in the US and around the world to see the fascist Trump leave Washington, two weeks after he spurred on an insurrection aimed at stopping the congressional certification of Biden’s victory.

But with the transfer of the White House from the Republicans to the Democrats, it is necessary to counter illusions about what this government will or even can do. Its actions will be determined by the interests of the ruling class under conditions of an unprecedented social, economic and global crisis. However, efforts are underway to chloroform the public about the realities of the procapitalist, imperialist politics of the Biden administration and the catastrophic economic and social conditions under which it begins.

...and the empire keeps rolling along

I've been thinking about how demoralized most of us are. Frankly that is completely logical given current realities. I feel discouraged, powerless, frustrated, boxed in. I don't think the actual left in this country has disappeared, but we are scattered. I am exhausted by being outraged, finished with dwelling on that. I'm also finished with being cynical. Spending my time and energy that way feels a waste and a dead end road.

Welcome to all you visual artists.
Thought I would send out an appeal
to share your opticals and or
aural scapes.

Here's mine...
visited a solar farm under construction
near where I work. On Navy land. A good use
of taxpayers expense.