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Open thread Sept. 17, 2021

Dan Crawford | September 17, 2021 6:01 am

Tags: open thread Comments (23) | Digg Facebook Twitter |
23 Comments
  • rjs says:
    September 18, 2021 at 4:37 am

    anyone want to explain what this means?

    COVID in Israel: Nearly half of deaths over past month are among unvaccinated – Israel News – Haaretz.com

  • J.P. McJefferson says:
    September 18, 2021 at 8:36 am

    Democrats Wake Up & Save Our Democracy 

    (1) ​Dems: Save the bipartisan hard infrastructure & Voting Rights bills by linking them & dropping the $3.5T reconciliation bill until after the Midterms. Dems & Biden need a big boost or they are likely to lose Congressional control in the Midterm elections.  

    (2) Democrats, you must accept the fact that the $3.5T soft infrastructure reconciliation  proposal is not going to pass this fall. Drastic cuts will only weaken the programs. It needs much more development, discussion and public education. You can’t expect the public to accept such a diverse & complex bill which has not even been fully drafted or released yet. Further pursuit now is only going to delay or deny the hard infrastructure and voting rights legislation which will doom Midterm success. The future of democracy and critical legislation depends on Democrats keeping and expanding Congressional control. 

    (3) In the HOUSE, Speaker Pelosi must call for the preparation of a substitute for H.R.4, (John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act of 2021, passed 8/24/21)) to include the new the Freedom to Vote Act. [see below]. These are reportedly acceptable to ALL Democrats including Senator Manchin & other Democratic moderates. Ideally, amendments to clarify the Electoral Count Act should also be added. This is the law which precipitated the January 6th insurrection. The Substitute Voting Rights bill should be linked to the bipartisan $1.2T “Hard Infrastructure” bill that passed the Senate with 19 Republican votes. The House should pass the linked bills and send them to the Senate.

    (4) In the SENATE; Senate Majority Leader Schumer should bring the linked Infrastructure & Voting Rights bills up for a vote. There should be an incentive for at least some of the 19 Republicans to support the combined package & all Democratic Senators should be supportive because the bills include their previously approved Infrastructure votes & their recommendations for Voting Rights legislation. Only 10 Republicans are needed.  Democrats should give the Senate GOP a chance to vote for the whole package. Nineteen (19) of them voted previously for the “Hard” Infrastructure package. If they refuse to find a minimum of 10 Republican Senators to support the package; Democrats should immediately pass the Hard Infrastructure package via reconciliation & the Voting Rights package by a Filibuster Carve Out exception.
     

    Senate Democratic Moderates should support the “carve out” because Republicans will have been given an opportunity to support the infrastructure package which they previously approved and a very basic Voting Rights package to preserve the rights and freedoms for Americans to vote.

    If there are not 10 Republicans, Democrats must make it clear to the public that they tried to gain Republican support for the critical Infrastructure needs and Voting Rights for ALL voters. This message must be taken to the voters in the 2022 Midterm. Voters must be reminded that Republicans were willing to deny the public critically needed infrastructure and basic voting rights for pure political “party over country” power. At the same time voters must know that Democrats compromised by dropping their insistence to link the hard infrastructure package to their $3.5 trillion “soft/social” infrastructure package.  While the $3.5T package contains many important and beneficial programs it has barely been drafted and contains many diverse programs and complex details. The public and decision makers need to have more time to develop, discuss & understand this important legislation. Work on  social” infrastructure package  can begin immediately following the passage of hard infrastructure and voting rights legislation which is essential in advance of the 2022 Midterms.  It is actually irresponsible for Democrats to attempt to force a vote now on such a complex package before it has even been given a chance to be reviewed by the public and decision makers.

    Note: On September 14, 2021, Senate Democrats introduced the Freedom to Vote Act. Here is Senator Klobuchar’s summary Here is the full text:  Election1

    • EMichael says:
      September 19, 2021 at 10:27 am

      There is not a single GOP Senator who would vote for the voting rights bill regardless of what it was linked to.

      • J.P. McJefferson says:
        September 19, 2021 at 11:23 am

        That’s just fine. As I said, “If there are not 10 Republicans, Democrats must make it clear to the public that they tried to gain Republican support for the critical Infrastructure needs and Voting Rights for ALL voters. This message must be taken to the voters in the 2022 Midterm. Voters must be reminded that Republicans were willing to deny the public critically needed infrastructure and basic voting rights for pure political “party over country” power. At the same time voters must know that Democrats compromised by dropping their insistence to link the hard infrastructure package to their $3.5 trillion “soft/social” infrastructure package.”

         

        Senate Democrats including Manchin and other Moderates, as well as POTUS should feel totally justified in supporting a filibuster “carve out” because Republicans will have been given an opportunity to support the infrastructure package which they previously approved and a very basic Voting Rights package to preserve the rights and freedoms for Americans to vote.

         

        Democrats can then immediately pass the Hard Infrastructure package via reconciliation & the Voting Rights package by the Filibuster Carve Out exception.

         

        If Democrats continue to insist on linking the $3.5T package to “hard” infrastructure they may lose everything — hard infrastructure; voting rights; and the democracy itself.

        • EMichael says:
          September 19, 2021 at 11:42 am

          Very doubtful there are 50 votes for a filibuster carve out. And I don’t think it is 1 or 2 short. If the carve out fails to work, then the Dems would need to merge the two infrastructure bills together and pass them through reconciliation. Anything else would be a failed first year. Course, then we come out with needing 50 votes, which could be a problem.

          Without the voting rights bill, the odds of the Dems holding the Senate in 2022 is very low. Warnock will not get a correct count of the votes and Kelly will lose due to low turnout by Hispanics and Native Americans caused by those states’ suppression efforts.

  • J.P. McJefferson says:
    September 18, 2021 at 8:38 am

    Sorry, the posting did not accept the hard returns for paragraph breaks.

    • run75441 says:
      September 18, 2021 at 10:11 am

      Mostly fixed

      • J.P. McJefferson says:
        September 19, 2021 at 5:32 am

        Thanks!

  • Fred C. Dobbs says:
    September 18, 2021 at 9:16 am

    As Populists Decline, the Center-Left Sees Hints of a Comeback

    A long-struggling political faction has seen surprising gains this year, in part because of changes wrought by the pandemic. Can it hold on to them?

    A style of politics long considered in decline is experiencing something of a reprieve, even seeing glimmers of a possible return.

    The gray-suited technocrats of the center-left are once more a serious force, at the expense of both the establishment conservatism that prevailed among Western democracies for much of the 21st century, and the right-wing populism that arose in backlash to the status quo.

    This month alone, center-left parties have taken power in Norway and appear on the verge of doing the same in Germany. They hold the White House, share power in Italy and lead a newly credible opposition movement in authoritarian-leaning Hungary.

    Calling it a comeback would be premature, analysts warn. Center-left gains are uneven and fragile. And they may be due less to any groundswell of enthusiasm than to short-term political tailwinds, largely a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

    Canada, where the center-left has faced a battle to hold onto power in Monday’s election, may best encapsulate the trend. The forces boosting center-lefts globally have nudged the Liberals’ poll numbers there from poor to middling — a fitting metaphor for the movement’s prospects.

    Still, even modest gains among Western democracies could give a long-struggling political wing the chance to redeem itself with voters.

    And it would counteract a dominant trend of the past decade: the rise in ethno-nationalism and strongman politics of the new populist right. …

  • Fred C. Dobbs says:
    September 18, 2021 at 9:35 am

    As Populists Decline, the Center-Left Sees Hints of a Comeback

    A long-struggling political faction has seen surprising gains this year, in part because of changes wrought by the pandemic. Can it hold on to them? …

    NY Times – Sep 17

    • Fred C. Dobbs says:
      September 18, 2021 at 9:39 am

      A style of politics long considered in decline is experiencing something of a reprieve, even seeing glimmers of a possible return.

      The gray-suited technocrats of the center-left are once more a serious force, at the expense of both the establishment conservatism that prevailed among Western democracies for much of the 21st century, and the right-wing populism that arose in backlash to the status quo.

      This month alone, center-left parties have taken power in Norway and appear on the verge of doing the same in Germany. They hold the White House, share power in Italy and lead a newly credible opposition movement in authoritarian-leaning Hungary.

      Calling it a comeback would be premature, analysts warn. Center-left gains are uneven and fragile. And they may be due less to any groundswell of enthusiasm than to short-term political tailwinds, largely a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

       

      Canada, where the center-left has faced a battle to hold onto power in Monday’s election, may best encapsulate the trend. The forces boosting center-lefts globally have nudged the Liberals’ poll numbers there from poor to middling — a fitting metaphor for the movement’s prospects.

      Still, even modest gains among Western democracies could give a long-struggling political wing the chance to redeem itself with voters.

      And it would counteract a dominant trend of the past decade: the rise in ethno-nationalism and strongman politics of the new populist right. …

  • Fred C. Dobbs says:
    September 18, 2021 at 9:56 am

    A style of politics long considered in decline is experiencing something of a reprieve, even seeing glimmers of a possible return.

    The gray-suited technocrats of the center-left are once more a serious force, at the expense of both the establishment conservatism that prevailed among Western democracies for much of the 21st century, and the right-wing populism that arose in backlash to the status quo.

    This month alone, center-left parties have taken power in Norway and appear on the verge of doing the same in Germany. They hold the White House, share power in Italy and lead a newly credible opposition movement in authoritarian-leaning Hungary.

    Calling it a comeback would be premature, analysts warn. Center-left gains are uneven and fragile. And they may be due less to any groundswell of enthusiasm than to short-term political tailwinds, largely a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

     

    Canada, where the center-left has faced a battle to hold onto power in Monday’s election, may best encapsulate the trend. The forces boosting center-lefts globally have nudged the Liberals’ poll numbers there from poor to middling — a fitting metaphor for the movement’s prospects.

    Still, even modest gains among Western democracies could give a long-struggling political wing the chance to redeem itself with voters.

    And it would counteract a dominant trend of the past decade: the rise in ethno-nationalism and strongman politics of the new populist right. …

  • Fred C. Dobbs says:
    September 18, 2021 at 10:45 am

    Excuse multiple postings. Frustration from posting-lag.

    It will happen again, alas.

    • Dan Crawford says:
      September 18, 2021 at 10:55 am

      Fred,
      Mostly fixed…

  • Fred C. Dobbs says:
    September 18, 2021 at 11:04 am

    Behind the US Defense Deal that France Called a ‘Betrayal’

    The United States and Australia went to extraordinary lengths to keep Paris in the dark as they secretly negotiated a plan to build nuclear submarines, scuttling France’s largest defense contract and so enraging President Emmanuel Macron that on Friday he ordered the withdrawal of France’s ambassadors to both nations. …

    France was going to sell conventional submarines to Australia. Probably China

    was ok with that. The US (& Britain?) probably suggested that much stealthier

    nuclear subs would be preferable, and we have some to sell. So does France,

    it seems. France wants to remain on good terms with China however.

    • Fred C. Dobbs says:
      September 18, 2021 at 11:08 am

      a nuclear attack submarine, designed by the French shipbuilder Naval Group

       

  • rjs says:
    September 18, 2021 at 4:47 pm

    have we been testing our cardboard boxes for traces of coronavirus ?

    Coronavirus concerns see China halt Vietnam’s US$1 billion dragon fruit trade – China is the top destination for Vietnamese dragon fruit – representing over 80 per cent of total shipments and amounting to US$1 billion a year  Authorities in the Guangxi region, bordering Vietnam, found traces of coronavirus on packaging and cardboard boxes shipped from Quang Ninh province.

  • Fred C. Dobbs says:
    September 19, 2021 at 9:55 am

    (This is presumably going on all around the US, not just in Boston.)

    a working class being forced further down the economic ladder

    … scores of employees, many of them immigrants, forced out after working at the city’s second largest hotel for years — decades, in some cases — making upward of $20 an hour, enough for some of them to buy houses, send children to college, and support family members back home. Nearly a year later, many have found new jobs, but often at reduced wages, without the steady hours and retirement benefits they had before. …

    From the outset, the pandemic has wreaked havoc on the country’s lower-wage workforce, particularly those in the service industry. And as the dust settles, it’s becoming clear that many corporations seeking to recover losses are doing so on the backs of their workers, pushing them out, and down the economic ladder, as they look to cut labor costs permanently. …

  • Fred C. Dobbs says:
    September 20, 2021 at 8:46 am

    Joe Manchin Will Craft the US Climate Plan

    Joe Manchin, the powerful West Virginia Democrat who chairs the Senate energy panel and earned half a million dollars last year from coal production, is preparing to remake President Biden’s climate legislation in a way that tosses a lifeline to the fossil fuel industry — despite urgent calls from scientists that countries need to quickly pivot away from coal, gas and oil to avoid a climate catastrophe. …

    As chairman of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, Mr. Manchin holds the pen and the gavel of the congressional panel, with the authority to shape Mr. Biden’s ambitions.

    But Mr. Manchin is also closely associated with the fossil fuel industry. His beloved West Virginia is second in coal and seventh in natural gas production among the 50 states. In the current election cycle, Mr. Manchin has received more campaign donations from the oil, coal and gas industries than any other senator, according to data compiled by OpenSecrets, a research organization that tracks political spending. …

    • EMichael says:
      September 20, 2021 at 9:08 am

      Frig.

       

      If Manchin refuses to carve out the filibuster for voting rights and continues his destructive actions which may well cause the Dems to lose the Senate, he must be punished. If the GOP takes the Senate he needs to be stripped of all committee assignments and kicked out of the caucus. Along with any other Dems who do not vote for the carve out.

      Not like he has any chance to win re-election in 2024 anyway. His two votes to impeach make him a dead man walking.

    • Fred C. Dobbs says:
      September 20, 2021 at 9:31 am

       

      Elsewhere…

       

      (CNN) After decades of inaction from the United States on climate, President Joe Biden and congressional Democrats face a reckoning.

      Biden has big climate ambitions, vowing in April to cut greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030. The world is watching closely to see whether the US will deliver on that promise, as the President’s climate envoy, John Kerry, prepares to meet with global leaders in November for the United Nations climate summit.
      Jonathan Pershing, one of Kerry’s senior advisers, recently told lawmakers the US needs to “walk the talk” to regain its climate credibility on the world stage. What’s not clear is whether the President has the votes in Congress — even within his own party — to get it done.
      As the drought and extreme weather intensify, Democrats view the massive budget bill and its significant climate provisions as their last, best hope to achieve something meaningful on climate as the crisis worsens. In August, global scientists reported the planet is quickly approaching the critical warming threshold of 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, below which they say the planet must stay in order to avoid the worst consequences. …

  • J.P. McJefferson says:
    September 20, 2021 at 10:29 am

    Simplified Climate Change law: GHG tax with revenues used for mitigation & damage rehab + Tax credits for energy efficiency. 

  • Fred C. Dobbs says:
    September 20, 2021 at 6:39 pm

    Wall Street Suffers Worst Drop Since May as Global Markets Swoon

    Stocks swooned on Monday as investors fretted that the governments of the world’s two largest economies — China and the United States — could act in ways that would undercut the nascent global economic recovery.

    The sell-off started in Asia and spread to Europe before landing in the United States, where the S&P 500 fell 1.7 percent, the worst one-day slide since mid-May. It would have been worse were it not for a late rally; the index was down as much a 2.8 percent in the afternoon. …

    Before this month, Wall Street were enjoying a seven-month run that had lifted stocks more than 20 percent, as investors seemed to shrug off any bad news. But there has been a clear shift in the market’s tone since the high on Sept. 2, and it worsened on Monday because of the spiraling debt woes of Evergrande, a vast Chinese real estate business that has struggled to meet its obligations, worrying investors there and around the globe. …

    The Dobbs Index reached an all-time high in early September,

    only to drop back 2.3% but is still up 9% for the year.

    ADVERTISEMENT

    Continue reading the main story 

    Evergrande’s struggles are an important consideration for Chinese financial markets: The company owes more than $300 billion to a range of lenders, and a default on its debts would have ripple effects on China’s economy. Investors were left to wonder about which other real estate companies were likely to stiff creditors, and whether banks and insurers that lend to them could also be hamstrung.

     Daily business updates  The latest coverage of business, markets and the economy, sent by email each weekday. Get it sent to your inbox.

     

    “We have been asked repeatedly in recent weeks if ‘this’ — a likely Evergrande default — is China’s Lehman moment,” wrote analysts at Barclays in a client note on Monday, referencing the collapse of Lehman Brothers, the investment banks whose 2008 collapse was a seminal moment in the last financial crisis.

    Evergrande’s fortunes may have been less of a consideration for investors were it not for lingering unease over the state of the global pandemic recovery. The Delta variant of the coronavirus continues to be a threat to stability in many parts of the world, and investors are also nervous about a range of policy matters, from the infrastructure spending and tax plans in the United States to what, exactly, China would do if Evergrande were to fail.

    Senate Democrats are coalescing around imposing a new tax on corporations that repurchase their shares, something that could potentially weaken a key source of demand for stocks. Democrats are also set this week to turn their focus to raising the federal borrowing limit. Analysts say that until the ceiling is raised, investor exuberance could be hard to find.

    But foremost in investors’ minds is the Federal Reserve, which is expected on Wednesday to discuss a timeline for slowing bond purchases that are aimed at shoring up the U.S. economy. Some economists expect the Fed to signal that it will start winding down the bond purchases later this year. The central bank could then begin to raise interest rates in 2022.

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