https://www.peoplesworld.org/article/senate-splits-50-50-on-hiking-minimum-wage/

It was 50/50, meaning all it took was Harris to break the tie, allowing all Dems on board, signaling that they cared. But Harris refused to overrule the parliamentarian which she has the authority to do.

So then daddy B, finds another way to force it elsewhere... And that's when Dems started to defect and we got Sinema, the campaigning progressive who had minimum wage in her plank, do a curtsey thumbs down.

It's all performative. They'll always find a way to kill their own popular campaign issues.

Coming up, they'll do the same. It'll be big promises, then once confronted with actually doing something meaningful, it goes one of two ways... Either some rogue, 1 vote short, defector kills the whole thing. Dems will briefly say how sad they are, blame one person, insist they can't control them, then completely do nothing about it. No political capital, no punishment, no actual attempt to get people into line. Just a "Oh darnit! That rogue dem ruined it! Anyways, let's change subject and never talk about this again!" OR, they water it down to meaningless, effectively doing nothing fundamentally useful at all (just tinkering around the edges), often using debt to fund their pretend solution that doesn't actually solve the problem.

I really wish dumbfuck libs would be able to see this. So many of them act like this isn't a thing, and not just a giant performance. It always blows me away. The pattern is so fucking strong at this point, as it's literally their playbook for DECADES... Yet, you got to get out there and vote hard, with all your power... Because we need a super majority to do anything (darn republicans!)... And if we get a super majority, we need a super duper majority (darn blue dogs!)

EDIT: Fixed bad wording.

This article is basically a thinly veiled ad for Himedi, a company promoting South Korea as a destination for comprehensive diagnostic screening.

It could have been a useful article about the cost and dysfunction of US healthcare, problems that affect most Americans. Instead, the Guardian turns it into an idpol story claiming that Black women are using this service specifically because of racism in the US medical system.

The evidence is just a few anecdotes. There are no meaningful numbers, no comparison with other medical tourists, and no real attempt to show that racism, rather than cost, convenience and better-organized care is driving the trend.

The racial framing becomes even more absurd when the supposed solution to racism is leaving one of the most multicultural countries in the world to receive care in one of the most ethnically homogeneous.

Maybe not thematic but it ruins the experience here too. If it’s because you wanna don’t wanna be doxxed do it through the other way more effective methods.

Online Discourse doesn’t function without the ability to recognize content generated by chatbots, trolls, smooth brains and more and more often here, psyop astroturfing.

RIP ☭

So I'm a hard line Socialist, my views are extreme to the point I'd eat a ban on Reddit if I gave a sincere statement on a broad variety of subjects. My girlfriend initially thought I was being edgy and I've gotten worse over the last 16 years roughly. I'm pretty much what poppers on about with the paradox of tolerance despite libshits misuse for rationalizing censoring the 'Chuds' when they call someone retarded. With this in mind I've been comfortable with the description of myself as a Tankie but I've always made a point of trying to reasonable and explain my mindset i also can have normal people conversations about stuff and have an decent understanding of realpolitik so I presumed it's just I'm quite understated on my outlooks since i work in the public sector and you need to push me to know.

I recently stated my disdain for Stalin for a number of reasons because ultimately I think he was a bad leader who betrayed the revolution and commented I thought Trotsky might have been a better option (might) on some random bullshit page. A surprising number of 'comrades' came my way with some brilliant takes

-Stalin being a bad leader is the same view as America and America bad

-I'm espousing imperial core chauvinist views by thinking he was crap

-I'm a liberal

-The FBI was created to fight communism which is somehow relevant.

-a lot of left wing buzzwords.

-people say he co-operated (to a degree) with Hitler in the early stages of ww2 are liars (not relevant)

-the only reason Stalin was bad was because he didnt like gays

-I'm a fed

-A lot of supplementary assumptions about what else I believe based on me not liking Stalin.

My first thought was "holy shit these people are either bots or retarded, this isnt even a good defense of Stalin (I could probably do better)." Something I noticed is they're just throwing around buzzwords linked with communist thought uncritically and it got me wondering If when people use people are just talking about people who happen to be communist but are fucking dumb? I've always been aware I can agree with someone ideologically and think they're a cunt or stupid but I'm trying to think someone I've seen labelled a Tankie who I like or respect. Is a tankie just a potatoe throwing around shibboleths as slogans because they don't get the meaning?

Thoughts?

Before I heard anyone who was critical of Lupita Nyongo playing Helen, I saw the woke defenders decrying the racists who can’t stand to see black women in movies. And then the posts about how it’s a myth and it doesn’t need to be accurate. And then actually, it’s more accurate to have a black queen.

Sure, some people posted racist tweets about it. But the movie made $200 million in the opening weekend, so clearly they don’t hold much power.

On the other hand, the same crowd of woke NPC’s who would’ve hated this movie and have always complained that Nolan is sexist- they now love him. Woke feminists are gushing about him!

Why? Because he cast a black woman for 5 him in his 3 hour movie. The commodification of outrage is complete. The woke mob showed up and supported Nolan uncritically, turning their outrage into advertising for a Hollywood film.

The formula is simple. Make a drastic casting decision, usually making a random character BLACk and PROUD without any backstory or explanation. A few right wing people complain, and then the wave of libs crawl out to buy Funko pops and $15 popcorn buckets in the name of PROGRESS

I can offer no commentary. Read it.

Big tech companies are hiding trillions of dollars in debt off their balance sheets. What could possibly go wrong?

Opposition continues to grow among autoworkers to the death threat issued by a high-ranking United Auto Workers official against Will Lehman, the Mack Trucks worker and socialist candidate for UAW president. On Tuesday, Lehman’s campaign released a powerful statement by Lehman on the threat and urging workers to oppose it. The campaign also posted a second video containing statements from workers at the Bridgewater Interiors plant and the Stellantis Warren Truck Assembly Plant in suburban Detroit defending the candidate.

In his video statement, Lehman explained that on July 16, Raymond L. Jensen Jr., until recently assistant director of UAW Region 9 and still holding what Lehman called a “cushy seat” as a UAW International staffer, posted a threat on Lehman’s public Facebook page. Under Lehman’s statement on the federal criminal investigation into UAW President Shawn Fain, Jensen posted an AI-generated image of Lehman bound, gagged and bleeding, with a masked man aiming a rifle at his back.

Lehman said Jensen, who collected over $200,000 last year, according to the union’s LM-2 filing—five times the average earnings of the workers whose dues he collects—displayed an “I Support Shawn Fain” badge on his Facebook page.

“This is a federal crime, specifically threatening a union member for speaking out on candidates and union affairs,” Lehman said, adding that his attorney Eric Lee has demanded the court-appointed Monitor suspend Jensen without pay and refer the matter to federal law enforcement, writing that “the message transmitted to the UAW membership is unmistakable. Extreme violence against Will Lehman is encouraged and enjoys the sanction of the union leadership.”

Lehman noted the Monitor’s own office found that Fain created a “climate of retribution” and threatened to “slit the throats” of his opponents.

Jensen’s threat, Lehman said, “is no different from Donald Trump threatening the opponents he brands as the radical left. Both fear any action from below.”

...

Far from retreating, Lehman’s campaign has expanded in the days since the threat was posted. Campaign teams have distributed his statement and leaflets at the Kentucky Truck Plant in Louisville, the Detroit Assembly Complex-Jefferson plant, the Bridgewater Interiors and Dana plants in Warren, Michigan, the Stellantis Warren Truck Assembly, Sterling Heights Assembly and Sterling Stamping plants, and the Nexteer Automotive plant in Saginaw, Michigan. The campaign team has been joined by auto parts workers and workers from Stellantis Jefferson and GM Flint Assembly.

The second video contains statements from workers who rallied to Lehman’s defense when he campaigned Monday at Bridgewater Interiors and the Warren Truck Assembly Plant. “They’re trying to shut you up,” a young Bridgewater worker told Lehman. “And they usually only do that when somebody’s telling the truth.”

...

Support for Lehman has also come from the Dana Driveline plant in Toledo, Ohio, where workers rejected two contracts backed by the UAW bureaucracy. Tommy, a worker at the plant, told the WSWS, “Ray Jensen’s threat against Will Lehman is deplorable, disgusting, and furthermore a perfect example of the negligent abuse of AI. Jensen’s post implies a gross desire for violence against Mr. Lehman, simply for not only criticizing the corrupt UAW leadership, but for openly challenging it. Everyone at the top knows they’re losing support as time goes on, and they know more of their dues-paying members are aligning themselves with Mr. Lehman.

“I call on all UAW members, whether they support Mr. Lehman’s campaign or not, to call out Ray Jensen and the rest of the arrogantly complacent UAW leadership for the threat against Will’s life. Demand the UAW sever all ties with Jensen, and aid in the investigation against him, so that he may face the just consequences of his grotesque actions.”

Rochelle, a Michigan teacher added her voice, telling the WSWS, “Raymond Jensen’s threat to Will Lehman is totally inappropriate and inexcusable. It is particularly egregious coming from an individual that is in a leadership position within the organization, of which Will is a member, and he should have been fired immediately. The UAW’s lack of discipline regarding this matter is certainly troubling and telling. Thus if any rank-and-file member is unhappy with the way things have been handled, one must vote for Will Lehman as he is obviously a threat to the current apparatus.”

The threat has also been denounced by Greg Mooney, recording secretary of UAW Local 2147 at General Dynamics Land Systems in Lima, Ohio and another candidate for UAW president.

In a video statement, Mooney said, “One of the international reps out of Region 9, an organizer by the name of Raymond Jensen Jr., retaliated against one of the candidates running for president and made a death threat. That is totally unacceptable, and it’s gone too far. This has been going on for quite a while, where these International reps, a handful of them, have been going out and attacking the candidates running against Shawn Fain and his slate. I can’t say that Shawn Fain has been encouraging this behavior to happen, but it wouldn’t surprise me if it did. Nonetheless, the people running for international office should not have death threats made against them by international staff.”

Mooney said Jensen had “harassed me and several other candidates” and “has been referred before the IEB a couple times, but that behavior was never addressed.” He added, “We shouldn’t have to be paying these people’s salaries to turn around and attack the membership.”

Nearly a week after the threat was posted, neither Fain nor any officer of the UAW International Executive Board (IEB) has repudiated it, and Jensen remains on the union’s payroll.

But the growing response at the factory gates and the statements of opposition confirms that the threat, far from intimidating workers, has become a catalyst for the very rank-and-file rebellion the apparatus fears. As Lehman stated, “The apparatus resorts to intimidation because it fears you. The answer is not to retreat but to organize.”