progressives vs reactionaries

Yesterday, New York Magazine published an excellent essay by Eric Levitz, Here Are 7 ‘Left Wing’ Ideas (Almost) All Americans Can Get Behind.

The roots of my political beliefs come from my grandfather, who arrived in New York as a young teenage refugee from virulently anti-Semitic Czarist Russian. He didn't have any money but he brought his work ethic, his admiration for education and his socialism with him.

If the budget is a statement of values, the Democrats' presumed inability to unite behind one, speaks volumes about a party whose tent is too big to be functional. Trump's DOA budget will never get a vote but his intention of a high increase for the Pentagon and paying for his vanity wall by cutting Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid is all anyone needs to know about his values and his party's values.

Last week David Atkins, writing for the Washington Monthly pushed back on some of the lame ideas ritually asserted by the Republican wing of the Democratic Party upon which they claim their right to dominate a party they are so obviously out of touch with.

Sunday the NY Times published Robert Pear's extensive piece on how the health care and insurance industries are mobilizing to kill Medicare-For-All.

Almost every time I watch a Bernie Sanders speech or video, like the one above, I think, oh, that could be part of his 2020 announcement. Well... we won't have to wait much longer. I don't think anyone will be surprised to know that Bernie is getting close to announcing. And Saturday, Politico reported that his announcement video has been recorded.

Bloomberg hates Trump. Very nice. Congratulations. He spends money expressing that hatred and plans to spend a lot more. Wonderful. If you run into him, you might say, "your country is grateful, Mr.

-by Valley Girl"Politics is the Art of the Possible."Hearing that phrase always makes me grind my teeth. One person on a college email list I am on (all Democrats) likes to repeat this phrase. Sanctimonious Bullshit I say.On his twitter stream, Howie posted a link to a Jacobin article, which I read with great interest.

No, not just another pretty faceDemocrats from the Democratic wing of the party-- people in the tradition of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt rather than Joe Lieberman and Blanche Lincoln-- had some nice strong wins Tuesday.

Conservatives want members of Congress to look like the mug on the right, never like the young woman on the leftConnecticut Democratic primary voters basically kicked Joe Lieberman out of the party by denying him the 2006 Democratic nomination for the Senate seat he had held since 1994. He ran on the Connecticut for Lieberman Party that year.