These Folks Are Never Going Away, They Just Change Their Name

I am referring to the now-shuttered Democratic Leadership Council, which declared war on the poor and allied itself with Wall Street and the Koch Brothers.

The DLC still exists, of course, it's just renamed itself the "Third Way" while promulgating the same cruel and parsimonious policies:

Stringer Bell had a problem. On HBO's show "The Wire," the rather learned kingpin was concerned that the drugs his gang sold on the streets of West Baltimore were too weak, which jeopardized their control of the streets. So, in a memorable scene, Bell, who was taking economics courses at a community college, asked his instructor, "What are the options if you have an inferior product in an aggressive marketplace?" The instructor offered him some prescient advice, mentioning how WorldCom (now MCI Inc.) once faced a similar problem.

"The company was linked to one of the largest fraud cases in history," he said. "So, they decided to change the name."

………

The world of politics and ideas is an especially aggressive marketplace. Here, so-called centrist "New Democrats" adopted a very similar approach. For many years, Democrats proudly associated themselves with the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC), a powerful group founded in the 1980s that sought to build a Democratic Party "liberated"­ from labor and grounded in "support for free market and free trade economics ... an end to the politics of 'entitlement' [and] a rejection of affirmative action."

At the height of its power the DLC was the dominant force in the party, boasting President Bill Clinton and UK Prime Minister Tony Blair as its acolytes. But like Bell's weak narcotics, the DLC, which supported the Iraq War and received money from the likes of the Koch Brothers, soon became a tainted brand. Long before 2011, when the organization dissolved, the DLC label hung around politicians like a scarlet letter. Even President Obama publicly distanced himself from the organization in 2004 as he ascended as a national figure.
So, eager to maintain power and influence, New Democrats did what Stringer Bell ended up doing. They changed the name.So, eager to maintain power and influence, New Democrats did what Stringer Bell ended up doing. They changed the name.

………

Now, as Democrats face an existential crisis in the aftermath of the election of Donald Trump, these fundamentally conservative organizations, armed with millions in corporate donations, are working with a renewed aggressiveness in the public sphere. They are attempting to convince the party to shun its base and further embrace the so-called "vital center," and the corporatism that has long defined these groups.

If Third Way succeeds, the Democrats will leave an opening for right-wing "populism" to thrive long after the Trump presidency. If this happens, Americans will increasingly (and correctly) see Democrats as a party run by the establishment, and serving the interests of its donors, rather than the working class. This is why progressive activists are fighting hard to rid the party of Democrats who embrace this agenda.

These are folks are saying that "Now is the time for unity," and that no meaningful changes need to be made to both the structure and the policy of the Democratic Party.

Labor and the working man need to get more than lip-service, Wall Street needs to be kicked to the curb, and the corrupt and incompetent political consultants need to find new work.

Good Point

Marcie "Emptywheel" Wheeler gives us a bright side to the Trump administration:

I have a confession.

There’s something I like about the Trump Administration.

It’s the way that his unpopularity taints long-standing policies or practices or beliefs, making people aware of and opposed to them in a way they weren’t when the same policies or beliefs were widely held under George Bush or Barack Obama. Many, though not all, of these policies or beliefs were embraced unquestioningly by centrists or even avowed leftists.

I’ve been keeping a running list in my mind, which I’ll begin to lay out here (I guess I’ll update it as I remember more).

• Expansive surveillance
• The presumption of regularity, by which courts and the public assume the Executive Branch operates in good faith and from evidence
• Denigration of immigrants
• Denigration of Muslims
• Denigration health insurance

As an example, Obama deported a huge number of people. But now that Trump has expanded that same practice, it has been made visible and delegitimized.

In short, Trump has made things that should always have been criticized are now being far more widely so.

It's true.  Obama's war on whistle-blowers is unprecedented, he was the deportation president, he terrorized half a dozen with drone strikes, and he expanded surveillance beyond Dick Cheney's wildest dreams.

The so-called left never had an objection to what Obama was doing, but now, even the far right is wondering about things like the surveillance state.

Obama normalized a lot of bad things, and now Trump is abnormalizing those same excesses.

It's kind of like watching your mother-in-law going over a cliff in your brand new car.

Snark of the Day

POLL: Did Vice President Pence deserve the ‘Working for Women’ award?” Salon.

Judy B: “No more than Obama deserved the Nobel Peace Prize.”

—Naked Capitalism

Not Enough Bullets………

I don't mean the fictitious family^* profiled, I am reserving my opprobrium for the reporter who has asked us to feel the pain and deprivation of a family getting by on just $½ million a year.

You see, they only have about 7½ grand a year free and clear after:

• Putting $36,000 a year in their 401(K) plans.
• Contributing $18,000 a year to charity.
• Spending $5000/month on a mortgage in the City.
• Spending $18,000/year on 3 vacations.
• Spending $42,000/year on childcare.
• Spending $9,500/year on two cars ……… In New York City.
• Spending $23,000/year on food, including regular jaunts to New York restaurants.
• $10,000/year for "stuff that comes up".

Let's also note that the reporter ignores The deductiblity of:

• Charitable donations.
• Mortgage interest
• Child care

Which would lower their tax burden by something on the order of $40K/year.

Also, their biggest expense, the mortgage would likely be half that if we stopped letting mobsters and corrupt politicians launder their money through real estate deals, which inflates real estate prices.

Still, even after all that fiscal incompetence, this fictional family has $140 a week mad money.

Not so bad.

To quote Marie Antoinette's last words, "I'm sorry operator, I've been cut off."

^*We need to have sympathy for this family, because they are fictitious, a condition effecting thousands of families around the world.^†
†Please give generously to the Fictitious Family Relief Fund. They are funding research on making the sufferers of this condition real.^‡
‡At this point, they can only exist in virtual reality.

Linkage

• Siberia permafrost: Over 7,000 methane-filled bubbles 'ready to explode' discovered in Arctic (International Business Times) This is getting very ugly very fast.
• New WikiLeaks dump: The CIA built Thunderbolt exploit, implants to target Macs (Ars Technica) But of course, they will never use it on US citizens.
• On Mocking Dying Working Class White People (Medium) Matt Stoller makes the obvious point: People are dying, and in pain, and some so-called liberals are having a remarkably petty hissy fit.
• ‘Bro, I’m Going Rogue’: The Wall Street Informant Who Double-Crossed the FBI (Bloomberg) Threat of imprisonment made him an informant, who recorded his conversations with his targets. He also recorded his conversations with his FBI handlers.
• Inside Alabama’s Auto Jobs Boom: Cheap Wages, Little Training, Crushed Limbs (Bloomberg) Maybe if Democrats didn't f%$# unions when they were in power, you would not have right-to-work states turning factories into charnel houses.
• Why Did Greenland's Vikings Vanish? (Smithsonian) It turns out that they left, driven by a collapse in demand for walrus ivory driven by the Black Death and the arrival of elephant ivory.
• We Talked to a Guy Who Went to the Inauguration on Acid (VICE) Bad Trip, Man.  Bad Trip

JFK on Education at Vanderbilt University, 1963.

It seems particularly apropos:


H/t CZ @ SP

Charlie is at the AIPAC Conference

My son was one of two teens at our synagogue who were given to the opportunity to go the AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee) conference.

We dropped him off at the bus at 7:00am this morning

We've had some text  message exchanges, and they have been a complete hoot.  (We share our pinko proclivities)

I would appreciate hints on how to best extract an archive of Android text messages to a usable format, please respond.

15 Minutes of Fame ……… Expired

Conservative firebrand, and spokes blond Tomi Lahren has been fired from right wing web site The Blaze:

Tomi Lahren won’t be appearing on Glenn Beck’s multiplatform network, TheBlaze, anymore.

Sources say Lahren — who was suspended last week after flip-flopping on abortion and declaring herself pro-choice — has been banned permanently.

“Glenn is reminding the world of his conservative principles by sidelining Tomi after she insulted conservatives by calling them hypocrites,” one Beck insider told me.

Gone before even her first wrinkle. (She's 24)

That's gotta hurt.