Welcome to The Now

Good new for Joe Biden! Two rich guys who once backed Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, and until recently was in Kamala Harris' corner, have decided to put their support behind a candidate who challenges voters to push-ups when they dare to question him about his son . Marc Lasry and Blair Effron, both billionaries, have deep ties to the Democratic Party. Chelsea Clinton worked for Lasry's company, Avenue Capital Group . In turn, Lasry's children have worked for Rahm Emmanuel and Valerie Jarrett . Effron, a financier has hosted fundraisers for both Obama and Hillary Clinton. Outside the usual nepotism, Lasry in particular has found himself on the wrong side of a scandal ... more than once . That being said, this story isn't something to brag about. Remember, Clinton out-raised Donald Trump and she currently isn't president. And more to the point, what the base of the Democratic Party (not to mention a vast amount of independent voters) want is a populist with a

The Afghanistan Papers story should be the Story of the Year . Yes, it should be a bigger story than impeachment.

We're in a time where we have two very solid candidates (Bernie Sanders and Tulsi Gabbard) running in the Democratic Primary. They have the appeal of the (true) base, young Democrats, independent voters even some Republicans. The are running on concrete and popular policies. In other words, they have what overpaid pundits would call, "elect-ability." Nevertheless, candidates like Joe Biden, Pete Buttigieg and Elizabeth Warren are polling better than them in a number of polls. Why? One reason is because the establishment Democrats portray Sanders and Tulsi as outsiders despite Sanders running on a modern-day FDR platform and Gabbard being a Congresswoman in the Democratic Party. Why the portrayal? Because neither Sanders nor Gabbard follow the establishment mantra. They challenge Democratic donors. They speak against the Military Industrial Complex. They are not "team players." Progressives advocate (to varying degrees) progressive candidates taking

Way to go! Jeff Van Drew flips and is now an enemy of the Democratic Party. Notice that the Democrats only really go for the jugular after Drew leaves the party. Compare their rhetoric in the Hill article to how the Democrats deal with Joe Manchin , who's been backing Donald Trump from the jump.  As long as you wear the "D," your policies will be accepted. The Democratic Party is full of hypocrites and fake resisters who need to be flushed out.

Social Media Snark does not translate into votes. This Twitter exchange is not converting undecided voters. This response does not address why Joe Biden's son received a job that he was not qualified for. Attacking Donald Trump will not change how the electoral college works. There is no policy here. Nothing about health care. Nothing about paying a living wage. Nothing about election integrity. Nothing about a jobs program. Nothing about Net Neutrality. Nothing about ending wars. Applauding this, supporting this, exalting this...is an example of what is wrong with the American politics.

For some very good takes, visit Jimmy Dore , Secular Talk , Niko House and Status Coup (Chariton talks about it for the first 20+ minutes or so). Please note that of these four, House is the only one who has not had a "working with TYT relationship" with Uygur. The ordeal does tell me two things: The Establishment is scared to death of anyone left of center politically. They will never bring up that Uygur was in his Rush Limbaugh Republican Lite days (let's not forget that Ed Schultz was of the same mold before he realized that the GOP were not champions of the working class; so people can change). They won't because the goal was to discredit the policies he advocates, not necessarily his character. And as House points out, there is plenty to critique Uygur on ( like the Jeffrey Katzenberg ). The attacks on Bernie Sanders and Tulsi Gabbard are well known in left/progressive circles. Dore, Kyle Kulinski, House and Chariton are always talking about how everyone

The black teenager who was beaten and tasered by police who mistakenly identified him as a suspect, sued and was award $18 . The black teenager who was found hung after getting into a argument with another teen; it was declared a suicide and his body was cremated without an autopsy. Buttigieg's contradiction regarding body cameras , after the first two incidents and the recent shooting.  Some of the article from #1:  The family of a black teenager who was punched and handcuffed by three South Bend police officers then subdued with a stun gun in a case of mistaken identity is questioning why jurors awarded them just $18 in a lawsuit accusing the officers of violating his constitutional rights. "We're black, so we automatically lose," the young man's father, Dan Franklin, told the South Bend Tribune. "The boy should've got something  —  they punched him, shot him in the side with a Taser gun — but we had nobody on our side." In its Au

And not the "ha-ha variety either . "He's a dangerous maniac who abuses his power and gets laughed at by world leaders! Let's give his military budget more money and make it easier for him to negotiate trade deals." This is why no one outside of DC and the Team Party bubbles care about the impeachment trial. This is why "Trump is the #1 threat" candidates like Kamala Harris lose steam while candidates who talk about substantive issues (like Bernie Sanders and Tulsi Gabbard) are beating the odds (despite next-to-know coverage). If they really wanted to stop him, they would fight him on everything. The only reason they don't like him is because he doesn't behave the way they want him to. It's not about his policies.

Let me start by putting it like this: if you're going to call a group out, make sure you are consistent. Because if one of your cousins or ex-coworkers is making the same claims as some jerk you're attacking, you're not serving your cause that well. Jimmy Dore went after some " Democratic Strategist " and Joy-Ann Reid for smearing Tulsi Gabbard. Kyle Kulinski gave his take as well .  Both Dore and Kulinski were right in addressing these smears.  Gabbard is sitting congresswoman, she has an impressive military record, and she sits on a number of important committees. If she was really part of some Russian plot she'd be bagging groceries in Hawaii by now. The "pro-Democratic Party" media is at best The Shaft ; they want the political affiliations to be different but not the policies. Gabbard's campaign (and yes Bernie Sanders and Andrew Yang could also be plugged in here) are the antithesis of the status quo and the people who sign Reid's

Doctoral student who called cops on sleeping graduate student gets upset when said cops start acting "hostile" by asking her questions (like, "Why did you call us for this crap?" I guess) and after being mocked for abusing her privilege, has taken to social media to swear revenge on the world.

Thanks to some very awesome Youtubers , I was able to view last night's debate through a non-corporate lens. I won't do the "Winner/Losers" thing, but I will give my impression on their overall effectiveness: Joe Biden : He's pretty much riding off name recognition at this point. Combined with the fact that (1) his polls are based on landline calls and (2) most of his supporters don't watch news stories related to him, he's fairly insulated from just having a massive drop. In other words: as long as older voters (and the media) keep propping him up, Biden's not going anywhere. Which is said, because you have to sift through his word salad to find any real points, and most of the time those points are either common-sense or too wonky for the average voter to care about. In short, he's not beating President Trump on a debate stage, and he's not going to convince many former-Obama-voters-turned-Trump-voters to switch back.  Kamala Harris : It

So the Democrats had yet another debate , and with 10 people all vying for time and a media outlet more concerned with ratings and protecting the status quo then keeping the electorate informed, incoherent-like messages became the flavor of the day. No candidate best exemplifies this more than former Vice President Joe Biden. Below is how he responded to Senator Elizabeth Warren's response about dealing with income inequality: BURNETT:  Vice President Biden, you have warned against demonizing rich people. Do you believe that Senator Sanders and Senator Warren's wealth tax plans do that? BIDEN: No, look, demonizing wealth -- what I talked about is how you get things done. And the way to get things done is take a look at the tax code right now. The idea -- we have to start rewarding work, not just wealth. I would eliminate the capital gains tax -- I would raise the capital gains tax to the highest rate, of 39.5 percent. I would double it, because guess what? Why in

“You feel like you’ve known someone...and then all of a sudden a door opens up and there’s a part of them you didn’t know...they’re not allegations of an affair. They’re allegations of a crime.” -- Hoda Kotb, referencing Matt Lauer's latest rape accusations . Going by the stories of that automatic lock Lauer could control from his desk, I think the problem was that there wasn't enough open doors.

Whistleblowers can't " go through proper channels " all the time because those channels tend to either be corrupt themselves or the reason that the whistle needs to be blown .

You would think that, considering the way Donald Trump went after Barack Obama for a "long-form birth certificate" after Obama provided more proof then he should have, Trump would know the difference between a transcript and a memo .  Impeachment will not remove Trump from the White House, you'd need the (GOP-controlled) Senate for that. Once Trump realizes that impeachment won't force him out, he will go hard into "Witch Hunt" mode. That being said, the only benefit of the proceedings to to test Trump's ability to fight political battles on two fronts: the House Democrats looking to impeach and one front, and the Democratic nominee on the other.  This spectacle is yet another distraction for the Democrats, who still refuse to examine why/how they lost in 2016. This spectacle does not mean that the Bidens are innocent; a corrupted politician trying to get dirt on a corrupted politician in a corrupt manner does not exonerate the target.  Status Cou

Andrew Yang is being screwed in the debates by the corporate media . Andrew Yang's UBI proposal has flaws .  Just because someone has a questionable policy (and we're not talking about something that degrades another group like say, Jim Crow) doesn't not mean that the media should determine that they should filter that person out. 

Anyone on the Left who gives Carlson props just because he sometimes comes across as anti-war needs to understand that he's not an ally of the Left. It's not like dealing with a voter who's been fed Fox News misinformation; Carlson is someone who is never going to be advocating for progressive policies. Why would I say this about Carlson? He said that John Bolton was fired because Bolton was too progressive . Don't fall for his phony faux-populism; its a cover for his more nationalistic beliefs.

Senator Kamala Harris is one Joe Biden and one Elizabeth Warren away from being the Democratic Presidential nominee right now. Kamala Harris has the political wit of Barack Obama and the political maturity of Hillary Clinton. Kamala Harris has been able to joke about smoking weed during her time in Howard, but also make former Attorney General Jeff Sessions quake in his boots. Kamala Harris is not someone to mess with, especially if you haven't done your homework. Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard does her homework. Last night in the the presences of God, Detroit, and the Multiverse, Gabbard laid Harris' record as California's District Attorney out like your grandma was setting up Sunday Dinner. Gabbard assembled the Infinity Stones of Indifference, Arrogance, Corruption, and Corporatism then snapped Harris' true self into the consciousness of everyone in earshot. Gabbard put Harris in a figure-four leg-lock and dared her to get out. She opened up the Matrix of Lead

Nancy Pelosi has benefited from social media. It's safe to say that site like Daily Kos was a factor in her becoming Speaker of the House during the Bush Administration; in fact, the two entities are very simpatico. Well, Pelosi is once again Speaker, but the political landscape has changed. The anti-war (in Iraq and Afghanistan, specifically) crowd has evolved to a non-interventionist movement. Black people who saw Bush's indifference to Hurricane Katrina started talking about police brutality. Those struggling to makes ends meet have watched in astonishment as Democrats and Republicans in Congress joined Bush to bail out the banks, or shuddered as President Obama not only gave some of the Wall Street watchdogs promotions while Occupy Wall Street protesters where being pepper-sprayed and have now begun to embrace universal healthcare, a $15.00 minimum wage and student loan forgiveness.  The Real Base of the Democratic Party has moved left since Pelosi's first stint as

Democratic Senator and presidential primary candidate Kamala Harris (who has recently rediscovered her roots just in time to banish Joe Biden into the Shadow Realm ) has recently offered a proposal designed to help potential black homeowners . But one piece to this puzzle has started to get some light shone on it: specifically the part where Harris says that credit scores should include rent, cell phone and utilities : There are an estimated 26 million people who are “credit invisible” and another 19 million who are said to have “unscorable” files, according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. These people don’t have enough bank or credit-union accounts to have a credit score by today’s standards. While the traditional FICO score, named after the Fair Isaac Corporation FICO, +0.31% mainly considers payments on debt such as credit cards, mortgages and auto loans, the credit scores have always been designed to consider telecommunications and utilities payments since the

Very Interesting . First of all, there's the theory that Warren's main role is so siphon votes away from Sanders, which would hard to do (a) if they are on stage where people can compare them and (b) in light of Sander's awesome speech the other day . Of course, pitting Biden with Sanders could hurt Biden's chance of getting the True Base to even give him a decent look. And putting Biden and Warren together only to let Sanders be the star of the other night would be disastrous for every establishment Democrat out there. So the choice to pit Biden against Sanders makes me think the Shaft of the Democratic Party believes that Biden's lead is genuine ( Ha !) and enough to weather a Bernie Storm. Next, we have Tulsi Gabbard ( a person who makes Fox News shake in their boots ) in a group that are pushing sad Military Industrial Complex -friendly ideas . Gabbard is to foreign policy what Sanders is to economic policy, so unless the questions are all on the

Sen. Sanders talked about the history of Democratic Socialism in America, and why embracing it may be the best option for the country going forward .

h/t Secular Talk

So Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards signed a fetal heartbeat ( six weeks , BTW) bill into law. Normally, left-leaning Americans would go after Governor Edwards hard for this, as a majority of those who vote Democrat range from being pro-choice to supporting abortion under specific circumstances (rape, incest, health of the mother, etc.). But we live in the Age of Team Politics , where you can be as conservative as you want even if you're a Democrat, and other Democratic voters/supporters will bend over backwards to justify deviations from traditional positions. Websites that have been referenced here in the past are a good example of how Team Politics has shrouded ideological perspectives. The reactions/comments on  Daily Kos and Democratic Underground , for example, has mostly ranged from   this is the price we pay for being a big tent    and better a Democrat than a Republican (although DU has, to be fair, more willing to challenge the status quo ). Compare this to

There was a time when those left-of-center considered compartmentalization, incrementalism and pragmatic politics of the Democratic Party to be an acceptable alternative to the staunch conservatism of the Republican Party (who decided, with each election cycle, that appealing to voters who where either misogynistic, racist, Islamophobic or a combination was a necessary evil). [Before I delve to deep in the rabbit hole here, let me say that the Republican Party is not 100% full or bigots, racists and misogynists. If anything, the GOP is the Party of Old Money and Oil Money. But they learned long ago that playing into a person's biases can help generate a pretty good voter turnout. In the same vein, the Democratic Party is not a bastion for racial minorities, women, LGBTQ, non-Christians, etc. If anything, The Democratic Party is the Party of New Money and Tech Money. They are more cordial to the non-WASP voter because, why let those votes go to a third party? Also, both parties ar

From a little over two years ago :

As Secular Talk explains.

After his co-worker Jamal Khashoggi was murdered and chopped up and after Julian Assange was arrested , stalwart journalist Dana Milbank is woke...oh wait, no; it's because his White House credentials was revoked .

In 2019, this should be a disqualifying move .

It's way past time America acknowledges this .

Via The Root: " Black Mississippi High School Grad Charges Her Salutatorian Honor Was Given to Less Qualified White Student to Appease Racist Townspeople ."

Story here .

It's a good thing for them that Bernie Sanders does.

And they're willing to circumvent democracy to make sure that he never becomes president.

But what they revealed ticked off so many different factions, consent had to be manufactured. 

Julian Assange has been arrested . Make no doubt that unless there's in intervention, he will be tortured and he will die. Niko House is correct: those with power, influence and an audience need to speak up, speak out and make some power moves now. Remember this movie ? Assange and Wikileaks were doing the same thing, only in modern times. Sadly, in modern times warmongering is way too profitable to let whistle-blowers screw them over. UPDATE: Status Coup also covered the story .

H/t . He lies about things that he doesn't even need to lie about, just for the sake of getting applause. Sad.

So True.