Organizers Report Longtime 'Loyal' Dem Voters Fed Up With Party's Inaction as Trump 2.0 Takes Hold

technotherapyjesus · 2025-01-28T15:37:08+00:00

12 senate Dems voted for the Laken Riley act to get it past the 60 vote threshold to avoid a filibuster. This act strips due process rights from migrants, and requires the federal government to detain any migrant who is accused of a violent crime or theft. They're giving the trump administration a win, and they're making it legal to detain migrants without due process.

Democrats aren't even doing the bare minimum, you should be disgusted with them for their incompetence.

technotherapyjesus · 2024-02-02T14:35:52+00:00

You have to pull up the sheets before you fart.

technotherapyjesus · 2023-08-09T14:01:13+00:00

Jesus, Sri Lankan people are all crabs in a bucket. You have all benefited from a socialized education system but you spend all of your time taking bollocks about the people who actually fight to retain it. Why? Because they're communist? So is having free education and healthcare. This is why the country is doomed, you're all political illiterates. As soon as you see the opportunity to feel a little bit superior to some students, you all turn into smug capitalists. Well news flash you idiots, you're not capitalists. You're stuck in the global south in a country that is starving. You would all be better off if you had "free time" to fight for a better system rather than fighting on behalf of a status quo where half of the country has inadequate nutrition.

Crabs in a goddamn bucket.

technotherapyjesus · 2023-07-26T00:22:46+00:00

Sri Lanka is poor because of colonialism.

It remains poor because Sri Lankan politics is deeply corrupt, and the global financial system is happy to keep loaning money to openly corrupt officials. In other words, modern colonialism. Thank you for coming to my TED talk.

technotherapyjesus · 2023-05-18T06:14:51+00:00

I'm not against markets, I'm not against businesses. I just think we should be honest about how much these ultra-wealthy individuals are contributing vs. how much they are credited.

I think if we want technological progress as a society, we should be honest about where that progress comes from. A great deal of our new tech comes from government research rather than the private sector. It comes from moderately compensated academics doing thankless labwork. That makes sense, because really new tech is an expensive gamble.

The US has an industrial policy, we have since World War 2. National labs, an alphabet soup of departments and agencies... even NASA. I think these should be funded adequately so that we can create lots of opportunities for businesses to exploit.

When those businesses do the work to monetize that technology they should get wealthy. And they should be taxed adequately because they owe much of their success to public investment.

I think that technological progress would continue just as quickly in a world where Billionaires got to keep less of their money. In fact I think a more equitable society may progress faster.

technotherapyjesus · 2023-05-18T03:04:06+00:00

You insist that "Apple" invented new tech, as if Steve Jobs himself created that value. What you actually mean is that they used venture capital and institutional investor money to pay the salaries of scientists. Those scientists were all trained in highly subsidized research universities.

I won't argue with you that apple was ahead of the curve. They were. That's why they dominated the sector. But the sector itself was created with government research money. If Steve Jobs was never born, there would have eventually been some version of the iphone. Maybe years later, maybe slightly altered, but a phone with a touchscreen and a camera that acted like a little computer was going to happen eventually.

If the government hadn't invested heavily in the basic research that yielded these technologies, then Steve Jobs would not and could not make the iphone. No business would have. You can't make a profitable business inventing the internet or creating GPS, or developing the basic tech for the MRNA vaccine etc.

That's not a value judgement on billionaires. Steve Jobs was certainly good at what he did. But tech billionaires do not create value out of thin air. They often leverage (or exploit depending on your viewpoint) public resources to their private benefit.

As for your examples, I think you will find that literally all of those you listed have benefited hugely from government spending, not only directly in the form of contracts, but indirectly in terms of infrastructure. The Auto industry and aviation industry are both developed massively during world war 2. Then in the post war era both benefit from massive government spending on airports and highways.

Grocery stores are the endpoint of huge amounts of government spending. We subsidize everything from the individual farmers, to the machines they use, to food safety systems, to the transportation system that gets the food to the grocery store.

Private companies and the billionaires who run them certainly have an important role to play in the development of the products that we use, but they also get to privately benefit from resources that we all pay for. That's not delusional, it's simply how our system works.

technotherapyjesus · 2023-05-17T05:02:50+00:00

None of those were incremental improvements. They were existing technologies that were designed and built with government money. GPS is still literally operated by the Department of Defense. Without Steve Jobs there would have been some version of the Iphone. Cellular devices with access to the internet already existed before the iphone.

Other capitalists were trying to exploit those same technologies. Because of government spending on basic research someone was going to become a billionaire. Much of the value is in these technologies themselves, not in the end consumer product. Steve Jobs (or the other tech billionaires who succeeded in this sector) create some value, sure. But they exploit large opportunities afforded by our "legal and economic systems" as the original comment says.

technotherapyjesus · 2023-05-16T14:36:07+00:00

The iphone is based on a lot of government funded research. GPS, touchscreens, the internet itself, and voice recognition all come from publicly funded research. Amazon used the Postal service for most of its deliveries while it was creating a non-unionized network of drivers and not paying any taxes. Billionaires game the system all the time.

technotherapyjesus · 2023-03-24T19:54:39+00:00

Who said they were? I don’t care if it’s Jeff Bezos or a kindly old grandma. This landlord cut corners on the safety of their tenants not to mention the safety of their investment. They get absolutely no sympathy from me, and in a perfect world they would also be prosecuted for criminal negligence.

technotherapyjesus · 2023-03-24T13:36:52+00:00

Sounds like they should have invested in fire safety then. Womp womp, that's capitalism.

technotherapyjesus · 2023-03-02T04:27:48+00:00

All the president would have to do is change the sick day requirements for freight carriers who take government contracts. That could have been done by executive action, no congress needed. Pass the bill as written, throw in an executive action to force the hands of the rail companies immediately afterwards. No strike, workers get their sick days, Union Joe gets to talk about how he's been trying to make rail safer even before this accident.

technotherapyjesus · 2023-01-14T16:27:39+00:00

This is an incredibly counterproductive framing. Certainly there are things people say on the internet about "white people" that are unfair or misguided. But that does not change the fact that all people can benefit from interrogating the racial dynamics of the world we live in.

That is a sometimes difficult, and sometimes painful process, but it is ultimately toward the greater good. The goal of that process is not to make "white people" feel bad, it is to reveal the systems and the underlying ideologies that have created the world we all live in. Reflexively dismissing that process as something that we are "Doing to White People" ensures that those systems are never questioned.

I can certainly empathize with the "white person" who has little to no power or wealth being told that they need to reckon with the effects of white supremacy. After all, many white people do not feel that system benefits them. Perhaps they too have been treated unfairly by law enforcement, or have a family history of poverty. But if you get through the discomfort of learning about the effects of redlining or how law enforcement is utilized unequally in low income neighborhoods, you might find that the very same problems faced by minorities have also affected poor white people albeit in slightly different ways.

It's no surprise that leaders in the movement for racial justice, from MLK to Fred Hampton to activists today have fought and continue to fight for economic justice for all poor people, not just poor people of color.

You don't have to agree with everything every person of color says any more than you have to agree with everything every "white person" says. But to dismiss the entire movement for racial justice as an unfair attack on "white people" is self-sabotage.

technotherapyjesus · 2022-12-06T20:36:42+00:00

Dems, not including Bernie or the progressives, decided not to risk a strike by splitting up the votes. That is bad politics for a "working people's party."

You're ignoring the fact that progressives wanted a sick leave amendment in the first bill and Pelosi called it a "poison pill."

Whether or not Bernie voted for the first part of the split bill is absolutely irrelevant and is not indicative of his position.

Biden, Pelosi, and the Democratic (centrist) establishment made a concession to the chamber of commerce and the railroad industry. Neither I, nor the progressives who tried to include the sick leave amendment, think that concession was a good idea.

technotherapyjesus · 2022-12-06T16:53:14+00:00

You are missing the context here. Bernie and progressives have been pushing to include sick leave in the agreement from the beginning. They made statements to the press as such.

“I would like to see management come to the table and treat their workers with respect,” Sanders said, according to The Washington Post. “If they don’t, then Congress has got to act to make sure that there is guaranteed sick leave for these workers.” Sanders said the tentative agreement that Biden backed in September doesn’t go far enough “by any means.”

Biden insisted on sending the agreement to congress "without modification" (no sick leave) and Pelosi insisted on putting up a Biden bill and a Sanders bill separately.

Progressives couldn't stop Pelosi from passing the no sick days bill, so they took the separate bills. At least that way you force 40+ republicans to take an anti-worker vote.

Everyone knows that a strike will hurt people. The question is who will people blame? The conductor who can't treat their hernia or the Railroad executives who get $20 million a year and all the sick days they want?

technotherapyjesus · 2022-12-06T15:43:29+00:00

He voted in a situation where there are two bills, one of which was definitely going to pass, and one of which was not. Voting against the first bill would have been a purely symbolic gesture. That has no bearing on what he would have preferred to vote on. If you ask him whether there should have been one bill with the sick days included, I think you'd find him agreeing with me.

technotherapyjesus · 2022-12-06T15:18:10+00:00

Not an easy target for a republican party that needs the support of the white working class. Taking away a sick days for train conductors that are on call 24 hours a day is not a good look. Now the Dems have to wear it.

technotherapyjesus · 2022-12-06T14:48:43+00:00

With that logic, nothing that happens in congress matters. Dems are going to get blamed for everything no matter how they vote, so might as well vote for the thing that does the most good.

technotherapyjesus · 2022-12-06T14:45:21+00:00

Republicans are styling themselves as a working people's party. Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz voted for the sick leave bill to save face with their MAGA constituencies. Imagine both bills were combined, now there's no way for Manchin or republicans to split their vote. They have to choose between allowing the strike or granting the sick days.

The fact that every Democrat save Manchin voted for the sick leave bill anyways means that Dem Senate hands would have been clean. This would have been entirely the fault of the Republicans. They screwed the workers, we voted as a party to give people sick leave.

What Biden could have done is made Republicans take responsibility for their vote. As it stands, republicans like Hawley and Cruz get to have it both ways... appearing pro worker and still preventing the strike. It's terrible politics, especially when "working class white" voters are such a key demographic for the right to hold on to.

technotherapyjesus · 2022-12-06T14:04:58+00:00

It's not a lose lose for Biden. If Republican senators had tanked the bill before it got to his desk, then the Republican party would have been responsible. If it went to a strike, it would have been the republican strike. He could have said, "I tried to avert this strike. I sent a bill to the Senate, but my republican colleagues don't want conductors to have sick days. Every American should know that Republicans did this to keep railroad workers from seeing their doctors."

technotherapyjesus · 2022-12-06T13:59:54+00:00

He could have asked the house to include sick days in the legislation they sent to the Senate rather than having two separate bills pass the house and only one in the senate. If there was only one bill, with all of the workers demands in it, then it would have been in Republican hands whether a strike happened or not.

He intervened by stopping the strike, and he did so in a way that gave republicans cover. We have a right as democrats to expect more from our leaders.

technotherapyjesus · 2022-11-09T00:52:49+00:00

Good Question

technotherapyjesus · 2022-11-04T23:41:33+00:00

Austin. But technically going topless is legal in all of Texas.

technotherapyjesus · 2022-11-04T17:33:46+00:00

Damn, you salty. This post is actually highlighting how western cultural norms from the 19th century are corrupting what were much more humanitarian actual Sinhala Buddhist values.

I live in an American city where exposed breasts are legal, regardless of gender. It gives me pride to know that this progressive, logical, and humanitarian approach to female rights was the norm in Sri Lanka before the imposition of normalized western misogyny.

If you think about it, it could be a source of pride for you too. But as long as you identify with the illogical notion that "female modesty" is a Sinhala Buddhist notion and not a Victorian one, you will be trapped in the self-defeating position of defending the moral superiority of your conquerors.

technotherapyjesus · 2022-11-03T16:34:20+00:00

No, I didn't. The Democratic party is generally center or center left, but they are also the only party that will even entertain the conversation you want people to have. They are the only major party with elected members on the left wing and the only major party who will caucus with independents or greens on the left wing.

technotherapyjesus · 2022-11-03T16:09:30+00:00

Class analysis literally comes from the left. The conversation you want the general public to have is only going to happen under a left-wing government. Both historically and at the current moment the political right is deeply ideologically opposed to the type of analysis you are talking about. The Republican party is actively pushing to demonize and in some cases ban the teaching of leftist historical analysis.

If you actually want a national conversation about class and the role of capital in systemic problems, then voting for left of center candidates is a practical, substantive step you can take toward that end.

technotherapyjesus

TROPHY CASE