OlivierK wrote:

Thommo wrote:

Seabass wrote:When that motherfucker croaks, I will throw a fucking block party.

I get that. He'd be third on my list of "people whose deaths will make the world a better place", after Putin and Murdoch.

During a campaign bus trip to San Jose last year, a reporter asked Newsom if he planned to take San Francisco’s ranked-choice experience statewide.

Newsom just rolled his eyes.

Thommo wrote:That's pettifoggery. It implies no such misunderstanding and is not why I did not address it. She is perfectly entitled to wish him not dead and express that. She is perfectly reasonable when using standard idiom that is never* used literally.

As I said, I didn't respond to what I saw as vapid criticism for the simple reason I found it vapid. I expanded on my own view because it was challenged. If you treat my view as a direct response to a post when it wasn't that's the culprit of any misunderstanding that may have occurred.

If you are again demanding specific responses, then this:
"I don't think one needs to know what she's like "as a person"
is directly at odds with this:
"I'd wager it's a pantomime of "common decency" " and this "The idea of her bread-ticket dying spooked her", which are explicitly about her underlying beliefs and motives, i.e. what she's like as a person.

*In itself idiomatic.

Thommo wrote:Sure, and if that's what she thinks (and I see no reason to contradict her regarding what she thinks), I can't see how she's not entitled to say it. If she is saying and meaning it, regardless of the fact I really dislike watching her TV programme, she's being compassionate and empathetic, which are qualities I admire. Though as I said, in all candour I can't quite manage to live up to those values in this instance (or quite overlook the conspicuous display of religiosity). I wish I could. .

Bernie Sanders: Corporate Democrats are attacking so-called far-left policies


I am very proud of the hard work that the progressive community put into electing Joe Biden as our next president.

And let’s be clear: This election was not just a normal election between two candidates. It was much more important than that. It was an election about retaining our democracy, preserving the rule of law, believing in science and ending pathological lying in the White House. And with a record-breaking turnout, the American people voted to reject President Donald Trump’s racism, sexism, homophobia, xenophobia, religious bigotry and authoritarianism. That is very good news.

Even so, truth be told, the election results in the House and Senate were disappointing. Despite Joe Biden winning the popular vote by more than 5 million votes, the Democrats lost seats in the House and, so far, have only picked up one seat in the Senate.

Now, with the blame game erupting, corporate Democrats are attacking so-called far-left policies like Medicare for All and the Green New Deal for election defeats in the House and the Senate. They are dead wrong.

Here are the facts:

►112 co-sponsors of Medicare for All were on the ballot in November. All 112 of them won their races.

►98 co-sponsors of the Green New Deal were on the ballot in November. Only one of them have lost an election.

It turns out that supporting universal health care during a pandemic and enacting major investments in renewable energy as we face the existential threat to our planet from climate change is not just good public policy. It also is good politics. According to an exit poll from Fox News, no bastion of socialism, 72% of voters favored the change “to a government-run health care plan” and 70% of voters supported “increasing government spending on green and renewable energy.”

The lesson is not to abandon popular policies like Medicare for All, a Green New Deal, living wage jobs, criminal justice reform and universal child care, but to enact an agenda that speaks to the economic desperation being felt by the working class — Black, white, Latino, Asian American and Native American. People are hurting, and they are crying out for help. We must respond.

All over America, voters approved progressive policies to improve the lives of millions of people:

►Florida voters passed an initiative to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour.

►Colorado voted to provide 12 weeks of paid family leave.

►Arizona voted to increase taxes on those making over $250,000 to increase funding for public education.

►Voters in Arizona, Montana, New Jersey and South Dakota voted to move away from the “war on drugs” and approved legalizing marijuana.

The American people are sick and tired of seeing billionaires and Wall Street become much richer, while veterans sleep out on the streets, our infrastructure crumbles and young people leave school deeply in debt.

They want a government that works for all, not just the few. That’s the right thing to do, that’s the moral thing to do and, for the Democratic Party, that is the way to win elections.

arugula2 wrote:Georgia might be the most interesting in the Senate races. There are 2, and Dems are either tied or ahead in both.

arugula2 wrote:“Corporate democrats” in his own words. He’s doing the lord’s work, bless.

Anyway, let’s see how long this corporatist grift lasts. Every progressive incumbent with maybe one halfway-exception retained their seat, including in swing districts. Gains were progressive gains. Just about every loss was a mediocre “moderate” who stood for absolutely nothing, and actively mocked the idea of universal healthcare & living wages (looking at you Shalala). The state legislatures failed to shift from GOP, thanks to almost complete apathy in the Dem leadership... but there’s a whole lotta progressives suddenly in power there as well, particularly in New York State & Rhode Island.

Oh and, small factoid: organizing by labor unions in the southwest & in Philly probably handed Trump the defeat. Corporatist Dems need to go extinct, and quick.

In places like Yemen and Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq, the lives of millions of young men...had been warped and stunted by desperation, ignorance, dreams of religious glory, the violence of their surroundings, or the schemes of older men. They were dangerous, these young men, often deliberately and casually cruel. Still, in the aggregate, at least, I wanted somehow to save them — send them to school, give them a trade, drain them of the hate that had been filling their heads...

And yet the world they were a part of, and the machinery I commanded, more often had me killing them instead.

arugula2 wrote:
In his endless self-promotion, this soulless child-killer

Companies part of group founded by CA governor collectively get nearly $3 million in PPP loans, data shows


SAN FRANCISCO -- At least eight companies partially owned by Gov. Gavin Newsom collectively received millions of dollars from the Paycheck Protection Program, according to an ABC7 analysis.

While data released by the Small Business Administration earlier this year showed the PlumpJack Group received up to $350,000 worth of PPP loans, newly-released data by the SBA indicated PlumpJack businesses - including wineries, bars, and restaurants - received more than eight times that amount at nearly $3 million altogether.

In 2018, Gov. Newsom placed his ownership interests in the PlumpJack Group into a blind trust. This means he would have no knowledge or role in the company's business decisions made during his time in office.

The ABC7 I-Team discovered discrepancies between that company's SBA data and publicly available records that appear to raise questions about how much money some companies received under the program.

ABC7's analysis found at least nine companies affiliated with the PlumpJack Group received PPP loans.

One of the companies on the list is Villa Encinal Partners Limited Partnership. State records indicate the name is traced back to the PlumpJack winery in Napa. San Francisco billionaire Gordon Getty is an investor.

According to SBA data, the company received a loan for $918,720 on April 14, 2020.

In order for the loan to be forgiven, the SBA requires at least 60 percent be used to cover their wages. Based on SBA's data, Villa Encinal Partners LP retained 14 employees. Hypothetically, if divided equally, each of them would've received around $40,000 to cover their payroll over a period of three months - that would amount to an annual salary of around $160,000 per employee.

"It's unexpected for a 14 employee organization to get nearly $1 million," said Sean Moulton, a senior policy analyst with Project on Government Oversight (POGO). He specializes in tracking PPP funds. "The purpose behind this program was to save entry-level jobs, people going in and working on that paycheck. That was what we put this out there for, to stop unemployment."

The average small business loan for California companies retaining 14 employees was roughly $128,000. Yet, the PlumpJack entity Villa Encinal Partners LP - that according to SBA data also retained 14 employees - received more than seven times that amount at $918,720.

ABC7's analysis found the only other California winery that received close to the same loan amount as Villa Encinal Partners LP is Oak Knoll Farming Corp, which retained 79 employees - more than five times as many as Villa.

The average number of employees retained for every California winery that received more than $900,000 worth of PPP funding is 148.

The Millbrae Pancake House received a $431,400 loan and retained 53 employees. As a comparison, that's less than half of what Villa received and Burke retained nearly four times as many employees.

"That seems unfair because there are small family businesses like ours that need that money," owner of the restaurant Erin Burke said.

After 60 years of operating, Burke was forced to shut down her family-owned business on Nov. 29.

"We're just trying to do the best that we can and survive," she said. "That money wasn't enough."

The San Francisco Chamber of Commerce reports a majority of small businesses that struggled to get PPP loans say the loan size wasn't enough or the owner misunderstood the application.

"I think it's heartbreaking," said Jay Cheng, the organization's public policy director. "We see huge discrepancies between small business and the kind of loans they got and their ability to get loans and larger companies that are well-resourced and well-staffed and had strong relationships with their banks."

Another company affiliated with the PlumpJack Group is Balboa Cafe Partners LP that received a $506,799 loan on April 29, 2020. A commercial data firm estimated in June 2020 that Balboa Café Partners employed seven individuals, but SBA data associated with their loan application states they retained 55 employees.