This is an article but one I wanted to share as I will soon be posting on what is a corporate democrat. The Democratic Party went to the right under Pelosi’s management / guidance. She pushed that for two reasons, one to chase the mythical center voters that as the republicans went ever harder right the center moved and the Democratic Party rather than staying where they were moved right to keep the “center voters”. Also Pelosi and the older elected members of congress felt they needed corporate money so they had to stop fighting businesses so hard to help the workers and the poor to instead play nice with the upper incomes. Hugs
Ever since Donald Trump won the election last month, bringing the GOP not just the White House but the House, the Senate, and the popular vote for the first time in 20 years, Democratic pundits, consultants, elected officials, and influencers have written think pieces, taken to social media, and sat down on podcasts to theorize why Democrats lost in the spectacular fashion they did. They blame this constituency group or that constituency group, this policy tweak or that policy tweak, this campaign decision or that campaign decision, but the truth is very simple:The Democratic Party is trying to serve two masters—the people and the corporate donors. And until it picks the people over its corporate masters, the Democratic Party will keep losing.
For as long as I can remember, the Democratic Party has marketed itself as the party of working class people, while the Republican Party has been painted as the out-of-touch, elitist, uncool party. When you’ve marketed yourself as the party of the working class, you cannot spend years in power and say the economy is booming while people struggle to afford rent and groceries. It was out of touch, and Democrats lost credibility by claiming “Bidenomics” was successful.
While some will point to the fact that the U.S. economy fared better than others during the pandemic in terms of inflation, that does not mean the economy is “good.” Working-class Americans from all backgrounds have been hurting. I cannot go to someone’s doorstep in my hometown of Cleveland, Ohio, one of the poorest big cities in America where one out of every two children lives in poverty, and tell them that the economic pain they are feeling is not bad because other countries have it worse.
US President Joe Biden speaks to the press during his visit to the National Slavery Museum in Morro da Cruz, near Luanda, on December 3, 2024. ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images
Democrats should have spent the past four years tackling corporate greed aggressively, fighting for those communities hit hardest by this greed. They should have championed bold policies like Medicare for All and tuition-free college, things that would ease economic burdens on working class Americans.
“You should not go into debt if you get sick or pursue an education” would be one hell of a rallying cry for the Democratic Party. Currently, the Democratic Party cannot stand for policies that get at the root causes of corporate greed.
Why? Because the corporate donor class, those who write the checks, have ensured that those who hold titles in the Democratic Party do not champion policies that might hurt their profits.
When I hear from Democratic voters as I travel this country, I notice that most believe that Democrats broadly support things like universal healthcare and raising the minimum wage, but the Republican Party is standing in the way. While the Republican party does stand in the way of those policies, so too does the Democratic Party establishment. For instance, when Democrats held power in the Senate in 2021, the unelected Senate Parliamentarian, the official advisor to the United States Senate on the interpretation of Standing Rules of the United States Senate and parliamentary procedure, would not allow the Senate to vote on raising the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour. However, the Senate Parliamentarian can be overruled by the Vice President. The Biden-Harris administration decided against overruling the decision and allowing the Democratic-controlled Senate to vote on raising the minimum wage.
Decisions like these are made with donors in mind. I always say that inaction is bought. Eventually in politics, inaction catches up to you. On November 5, inaction caught up to the Democratic Party.
Everyday Americans do not live the same lives as the ultra-wealthy donor class. Everyday Americans sit at tables and make tough budget cuts for things they may need because bills start piling up. Sixty percent of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck. If Democrats continue to prioritize policies that benefit their ultra-wealthy donors over policies that help the working class, they can expect to see Republicans harness the anger of those feeling left behind.
On February 1, the Democratic National Committee will meet in Maryland to elect a new party Chair. Currently, the DNC Chairman is Jaime Harrison, formerly a lobbyist for tobacco companies, coal producers, and big banks. These are industries that have repeatedly hurt the working class.
If Democrats want to win back the trust of the people, they must champion bold policies that help people. To do that, they cannot take money from the very corporations that stand in the way of those bold policies.
When the Democratic National Committee votes on a new chair, it must be someone who commits to getting corporate money out of the party. Otherwise, Democrats will be stuck in the same position: fighting for corporate interests while trying to convince the people the party is on the side of the working class.
Nina Turner is a former Ohio state senator, a senior fellow at the Institute on Race, Power and Political Economy at the New School, and the founder of We Are Somebody.
The views expressed in this article are the writer’s own.
More racism. Plus what does this say about how the Republican Party which is the party that touts themselves as pro business yet in the name of racism they feel free to trash people’s places of business. Notice everyone they detained was working. Working. These are not criminals they are productive members of their community. Their real crime in the current US under Stephen Miller is not being white. Yes undocumented but how soon will it be before they come for US citizen brown people in their quest for a white ethnostate. We must stop them now. Hugs
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In a social media post, the business said immigration agents left behind a burned kitchen, torn ceiling tiles, broken doors and trashed food.
A local Mexican restaurant chain in Pennsylvania is trying to forge ahead a week after a worksite immigration raid left property damage at two of its storefronts and a workforce afraid to show up to their jobs, according to two employees and a witness who spoke with NBC News.
It all started Aug. 7 when immigration authorities showed up at two Emiliano’s Mexican Restaurant & Bar locations in the Pittsburgh area. As many as 16 workers were detained — nine worked at a location in Gibsonia, a suburb north of Pittsburgh, and seven others worked at another location in the nearby township of Cranberry.
In a social media post that same afternoon, which included a video taken by a worker, the business accused agents of storming into its restaurants and leaving “a trail of fear, confusion, and destruction” that included a burned kitchen, torn ceiling tiles, broken doors, a safe cut open by an agent and trashed food. The incident raises questions over the tactics used by authorities at this particular raid.
Immigration authorities conducted a workplace raid on two Emiliano’s Mexican Restaurant & Bar locations on Aug. 7. Courtesy Jaime Martinez
This week, gas plumbers fixed a stove that was damaged during the raid, according to two people working at the restaurant chain. Staffing was also thin at the locations targeted by immigration authorities as employees who witnessed the raid, including those who are U.S. citizens, remain “in shock,” they added. “No one wants to go back, everyone is scared.”
Both workers who spoke with NBC News requested to not be named to protect their family’s privacy because of an ongoing federal investigation in connection with last week’s events.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Pennsylvania declined to clarify what the investigation it is leading is about.
As the immigration arrests were happening last week, someone alerted an emergency response immigration hotline run by Casa San Jose, a local nonprofit that advocates for Latino and immigrant communities.
The organization quickly dispatched about 20 volunteers to both locations to act as legal observers, collect testimonies and provide support to the workers and families affected, according to Jaime Martinez, a community defense organizer at Casa San Jose.
At the Gibsonia location, “the raid actually caused a kitchen fire that agents were unable to extinguish at the beginning, which put people in danger,” Martinez told NBC News on Tuesday.
Employees who spoke to Martinez and his volunteers said the stove was on when agents entered the kitchen because workers were cooking food as they prepared to open the restaurant Thursday morning. The restaurant’s manager warned agents that the open burners were on, but witnesses alleged that agents didn’t do anything until a fire sparked, he said.
The detained employees, who had their arms and ankles shackled, were the ones who directed the agents to find the fire extinguisher and instructed them on how to use it after initially failing to operate it, according to employees who spoke to Martinez and his volunteers.
“By the time the fire department got there, the fire had already been put out with a dry chemical extinguisher, but only after this delay,” Martinez said.
As many as 16 workers were detained at two locations in the Pittsburgh region.Courtesy Jaime Martinez
A spokesperson with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement told NBC News in an email Thursday that the “damage to the restaurant, including the small fire, was created by the illegal aliens themselves while they were trying to escape or hide from law enforcement officers.”
According to ICE, the agents showed up at the locations in Gibsonia and Cranberry to execute federal search warrants based on information it got alleging that the restaurants were employing undocumented workers, WPXI, NBC’s affiliate in Pittsburgh, reported. The agency added that the 16 people detained lack legal status and are now in ICE custody, undergoing immigration proceedings.
“But in the process of coming in with that warrant, they also terrorized the community, pointed guns at people and destroyed a local business,” Martinez said.
In response to this, the ICE spokesperson told NBC News, “All agents and officers followed established legal procedures while executing the warrants.”
At the Cranberry location, Casa San Jose volunteers interviewed a worker who described seeing officers come into the restaurant, shouting “police” and pointing their long guns at the employees. One female employee who was in the kitchen said an agent “pointed the gun at her head” while telling her to stop cooking, according to Martinez.
While she was not detained after showing proper documentation, “this lady is now going to have to live with the trauma of having law enforcement point a gun at her head while she was at work,” Martinez said.
Martinez and one of the workers who spoke with NBC News said agents lined up all of the cuffed employees and made them kneel while pointing their weapons at them.
“Agents and officers operated within established law enforcement standards in order to ensure the safety of law enforcement officers, the public and the illegal aliens themselves,” the ICE spokesperson said in response to this allegation.
An ICE spokesperson said agents were also present in June as part of the same investigation.Courtesy Jaime Martinez
Last week was not the first time immigration authorities attempted to detain employees from Emiliano’s Mexican Restaurant & Bar.The ICE spokesperson confirmed to NBC News that a June incident was part of “an investigation that ultimately led to the execution of the warrants” this month.
Martinez said that on a night in June, he got a call on the hotline, reporting unmarked vehicles surrounding a nearby apartment complex. When the volunteer who was dispatched arrived at the area, she noticed the vehicles were parked with their engines still running, in front and behind the restaurant.
According to Martinez, it looked like federal agents inside the vehicles were waiting for workers to come out of the restaurant as it was closing. The vehicles left once TV crews arrived on the scene, he said.
“There were nine people in that restaurant on lockdown,” Martinez said, adding his group doesn’t know the immigration status of those workers since it doesn’t ask people about that as part of its policy. “But you don’t have to be undocumented to be afraid of getting detained.”
Since launching the hotline in March, Casa San Jose has received more than 650 calls reporting more than 100 immigration detentions in the area and has dispatched volunteers in at least 70 instances, according to Martinez.
In the wake of the raids at Emiliano’s Mexican Restaurant and Bar locations, the community came together and collectively donated more than $133,000. The workers who spoke with NBC News said the business plans to use the funds to cover bond expenses, one month worth of salary for each employee detained and repair damage done to the restaurant.
Brendan Carr listens during a Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation committee hearing to examine the Federal Communications Commission on Capitol Hill in Washington, June 24, 2020. Jonathan Newton/The Washington Post via AP
Brendan Carr listens during a Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation committee hearing to examine the Federal Communications Commission on Capitol Hill in Washington, June 24, 2020. Jonathan Newton/The Washington Post via AP
On Thursday, the head of the Federal Communications Commission, Brendan Carr, approved the $8 billion merger between Skydance Media and Paramount, a deal that would allocate more than a billion dollars towards the latter company’s staggering debt.
But the agreement came with one major caveat: The media company must appoint a “bias monitor.”
According to reporting from The Wrap, an FCC “ombudsman” would work directly with New Paramount’s president, Jeff Shell, to review “any complaints of bias or other concerns” regarding CBS News, a subsidiary under Paramount.
Paramount also agreed to eliminate its diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, including scrapping all DEI messaging from its internal training programs and removing DEI objectives in its compensation plans.
This move comes after the company announced the cancellation of The Colbert Report only a few days after the eponymous host critiqued the network’s recent settlement with the president. Earlier this month, Paramount agreed to cough up $16 million to Trump after the president sued the network for allegedly unfairly editing an interview with Kamala Harris, an accusation that many legal experts have called “baseless.”
As my colleague, Inae Oh, has reported, Colbert’s cancellation marks a dark new chapter for our culture as a whole. Oh writes:
Though his second term has already produced a string of stunning capitulations by some of the most powerful forces in the country, one could argue that Trump’s attacks had yet to take down our actual culture. I’m talking about the literal content we consume—the television, art, movies, literature, music—no matter how much Trump complained. That it remained protected and free-willed, a rare area of control for a public that otherwise feels powerless to take action. Clearly, that was magical thinking. If this can happen to Colbert and a storied franchise, this can happen to anyone.
And when it comes to using his presidential power as a cudgel against the media that critiques him, Trump clearly shows no signs of stopping. This week alone, the president threw a tantrum over two TV shows that joked about him. On Wednesday, the White House issued a statement threatening the ladies of The View after host Joy Behar joked that Trump was jealous of former president Barack Obama’s “swag.”
A White House spokesperson told Entertainment Weekly, “Joy Behar is an irrelevant loser suffering from a severe case of Trump Derangement Syndrome.”
A White House spokesperson toldEntertainment Weekly, “Joy Behar is an irrelevant loser suffering from a severe case of Trump Derangement Syndrome” who “should self-reflect on her own jealousy of President Trump’s historic popularity before her show is the next to be pulled off air.”
Behar’s joke was tame compared to the animated show, South Park‘s treatment of Trump, who was depicted naked in bed with Satan. In response, the White House claimed that the show hasn’t been relevant in “20 years” and said “no fourth-rate show can derail President Trump’s hot streak.”
How long will South Park, whose creators just signed a 50-episode deal with Paramount, last under Trump’s regime? Let’s hope the ombudsman finds the Trump jokes funny.
A U.S.-born citizen who was wrestled into the dirt, handcuffed and detained in a vehicle as part of an immigration raid had a REAL ID on him that was dismissed as fake, the man’s cousin said Friday.
Video of the arrest, aired by Noticias Telemundo, showed authorities grabbing Leonardo Garcia Venegas, 25, while at a job site in Foley, Alabama, on Wednesday and bending his arms behind him. Someone off-camera can be heard yelling, “He’s a citizen.”
Garcia told Noticias Telemundo that authorities took his ID from his wallet and told him it was fake before handcuffing him. REAL ID is the identification U.S. citizens are required by law to have in order to travel through airports and enter federal buildings. It is considered a higher security form of identification.
“Apparently a REAL ID is not valid anymore. He has a REAL ID,” his cousin Shelah Venegas said. “We all made sure we have the REAL ID and went through the protocols the administration is asking for. … He has his REAL ID and then they see him and I guess because his English isn’t fluent and/or because he’s brown it’s fake, it’s not real.”
Garcia had told Noticias Telemundo that “they grabbed me real bad” and the handcuffs were placed “very hard” on him.
Garcia said he was released from the vehicle where he was held after he gave the arresting officials his Social Security number, which showed he is a U.S. citizen.
The arrest has left Garcia, who was born in Florida, shaken, particularly because the officers also arrested and detained his brother, who is not in the country legally, Venegas said. She added that Garcia lived with his brother. Their parents are from Mexico.
Leonardo Garcia Venegas.Telemundo
“He was actually pretty sore when he got back,” Venegas said of Garcia. “He said his arms were hurting and his hands. His wrists, you could see where he had all the marks from the handcuffs. … The way they put him on the ground, his knees also were hurting.”
She said they have been trying to find a lawyer but local ones have told them that it is nearly impossible to sue a federal agent. It is not clear from the video whether the authorities were federal immigration agents or local law enforcement carrying out enforcement duties.
The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement to NBC News that Garcia interfered with an arrest during a targeted worksite operation.
“He physically got in between agents and the subject they were attempting to arrest and refused to comply with numerous verbal commands,” said Tricia McLaughlin, DHS assistant secretary. “Anyone who actively obstructs law enforcement in the performance of their sworn duties, including U.S. citizens, will of course face consequences which include arrest.”
The response did not address the dismissal of Garcia’s identification.
Garcia denied that he interrupted an arrest. He told NBC News that he was trying to take out his phone when an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent took it and threw it to the ground and then an agent began grabbing him.
Venegas said Garcia’s brother has signed deportation papers because the family didn’t want him detained “forever” as they’ve seen happen to another family member, who was held for months in a Louisiana detention center.
“It’s inhumane, what they are doing to our people. They are treating them as if they were murderers,” she said.
Venegas said the immigration arrests are creating repercussions among Hispanics, even among U.S. citizens.
“It’s about race now. It’s not about whether you are here legally or not,” she said.
Her family owns a fairly large contracting company, she said, “and a lot of the people that work with us are not working. … They are refusing to go to work. They said they are not going to go until this stuff calms down.”
Venegas added that the majority of her family is self-employed and “we do the same thing every other citizen does.”
“It’s just insane we can’t be different, the color that we are. We contribute to this country the same way every other citizen does with their taxes,” she said. “But we have to be the ones that every time we go to work, we are going to be scared that we’re going to get discriminated.”
“I think about my family,” she said. “Even though a lot of them are citizens, I think about how we all work in the same area in construction and they can’t sit out there because they could literally get harassed or attacked the way my cousin did.”
ICE wrestled Alabama worker to the ground & detain him for hours—he is a U.S. citizen.
Young man was begging & shouting, "I am a U.S. citizen"—but that didn't stop ICE agents from dragging him off to a detention center.
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