cross-posted from: https://lemmy.librarysocialism.social/post/61306
The US Senate on Monday voted in bipartisan fashion to advance a fossil fuel industry-backed permitting reform bill that would weaken the Clean Water Act and other key environmental protections to make it easier for the federal government to streamline energy projects—including climate-wrecking gas pipelines.
Ratchet goes clink
I’m flabbergasted! I have been blindsided!
What next? No universal healthcare? Seven bucks and change minimum wage in 2026? No term limits? Openly senile senators and Presidents? Madness.
We live in strange times. It’s almost as if they’re openly colluding without even bothering to hide it. Everybody on Lemmy knows “bOtH sIdEs” is Russian propaganda, this must be fake news.
That fucking sucks.
If you read about the legislation, there was a lot of phrasing in it to make it sound like they were giving concessions to climate goals, but in practice it’s really just a palatable wrapper to cut red tape for fossil fuel companies.
It had a couple riders though such as lukewarm regulations for data centers, so I wonder how many of these Dems got caught up in that, or how many neglected to read it for its substance.
I have no doubt that some of them at least voted for it because it’s a boon to the fossil fuel industry though.
We might be able to use some parts of it to further the development of renewable energy infrastructure, but overall that’s a consolation prize at best, and this should have been rejected in favor of crafting better legislation next session.
Ossoff WTF are you doing!?
The man is a Democrat, but only barely.
He is less insane than his Republican opponent by far, but not a great candidate in his own right. I’m glad we won the general election but I wish he had lost the primary to someone more progressive.
It’s not like he ran as a progressive. He’s pretty center left.
for some reason I read this as a “step-bro” joke
Step-voter, what are you doing?
from the article: The 22 members of the Senate Democratic Caucus who voted with Republicans for passage were:
Heinrich (D-NM)
Hickenlooper (D-CO)
Kim (D-NJ)
King (I-ME)
Klobuchar (D-MN)
Ossoff (D-GA)
Peters (D-MI)
Reed (D-RI)
Rosen (D-NV)
Schatz (D-HI)
Schumer (D-NY)
Shaheen (D-NH)
Slotkin (D-MI)
Warner (D-VA)
Warnock (D-GA)
Whitehouse (D-RI)
Damn I really thought better of Whitehouse, at least on climate issues. :(
The bill hasn’t been enacted into law yet, still time to contact representatives while it’s in the amendment process: https://5calls.org/issue/bipartisan-affordability-and-jobs-act/
Ossoff (D-GA)
Warnock (D-GA)Well that’s a fucking disappointment.
The new election was such a mixed bag for me. On one hand we now have Peggy in the Senate. On the other hand we have fucking Amy traitor Klobuchar as the fucking governor of Minnesota to try and fill the shoes of Walz. God I hate her so much
Hickenlooper is up for reelection next cycle - hope Colorado sends his ass packing. Imagine voting with Republicans just a week after the country clearly signaled the far left is what they want. Can’t wait to vote against this old neocon.
Also - schumer lol. Of course
Why the fuck is a single Democrat voting for ANY MAGA legislation?
Owned opposition
DSA needs a “Primary Targets” list on its website, backed up with voting records like this.
Primary seems too lenient for the ecological damage and deaths they orchestrated.
It’s a start.
Vote em out:
Blumenthal (D-CT) Coons (D-DE) Cortez Masto (D-NV) Fetterman (D-PA) Gallego (D-AZ) Gillibrand (D-NY) Heinrich (D-NM) Hickenlooper (D-CO) Kim (D-NJ) King (I-ME) Klobuchar (D-MN) Ossoff (D-GA) Peters (D-MI) Reed (D-RI) Rosen (D-NV) Schatz (D-HI) Schumer (D-NY) Shaheen (D-NH) Slotkin (D-MI) Warner (D-VA) Warnock (D-GA) Whitehouse (D-RI)
But don’t lump shitty neoliberals in with “democrats” like others agree with them
Goddammit, Ossoff.
(by the way if you put a backslash at the end of your lines they will do a line break without a double space.
Like this\I’ll show you
See?)The least we can do is force them to compete in a primary, and they can always choose to run independent if they don’t like it.
Klobuchar (D-MN)
I was intrigued the other day after the midterms by a comment that pointed out that the Minnesota democrats are actually a different party than the national Democratic party. (Yikes, capitalization feels very important in that sentence!)
So I was reading about the DFL and how they were supposed to be the more progressive wing of the people that form the collective of the Democratic Party. But then I saw that Klobuchar is their highest office holding member. I got very confused how she is the face of progressive Democrats. To be fair, all I’ve really seen or heard of her is what she said or was said about her when she was in the presidential primaries, but I wasn’t sold on her based on that.
Other than that, apologies once more from PA for Fetterman. Still better than Oz, but still the worst Democrat in the senate… 😖
She is a terrible face of it. She’s lucked out because of that last point you made - she flies under the radar.
2006 she succeeded Mark Dayton (yes, of Dayton’s. Interesting fellow).
In 2012 she won in a landslide, but I don’t remember her being particularly popular.
2018 people were pretty damn low morale, so she didn’t face a good primary challenge.
2024, the focus was all on Trump, she just stood against Trump with experience as a prosecutor, ez pz.
For this Governor run, it was pretty much name recognition after Walz pulled his name.
At least Minnesota has a chance to replace her senate position with someone more progressive.
Edit: and she has a history of supporting terrible legislation that had great sounding names (like this) but furthered an opposite agenda.
Thanks for the quick run-down! Finding candidates anywhere to actually get excited for seems a sadly alien concept.
Schumer. Another reason to toss his corrupt ass out.
peters is retiring and abdul has taken his seat, fyi
edit: not surprised by slotkin, tho. unfortunately we’re stuck with her for four more years.
Dude read a history book about Neville Chamberlain and said “This is who I aspire to be”.
Peters fucking sucks and I hope he lives in poverty for the rest of his life. That’s the nicest thing I have to say about him.
you’ll get no argument from me.
But don’t lump shitty neoliberals in with “democrats” like others agree with them
Schumer is literally the Senate Leader currently.
Because Jamie Harrison was the DNC chair during the last vote for Congressional leadership…
Neoliberals lost the DNC like a month after that. The VF they used as a club to get Schumer/Jeffries leadership is gone. That’s the entire reason people started criticizing them openly, they’re toothless
The VF moneywas given back to state parties that it was stolen from, and the reason there was a blue wave.
You don’t have to trust this DNC wont use the same club, because the fucking club doesn’t exist. They couldn’t influence the next leadership vote if they wanted to.
If Schumer and/or Jeffries get it again in January, than yeah, you got a point.
Until that vote spend your time reaching out to the incoming Congress and telling them to go with progressive leadership in 2027
Because Jamie Harrison was the DNC chair during the last vote for Congressional leadership…
The DNC chair does not choose who the Senate or House leader is. That is done by a simple majority vote by both chambers.
Neo libs definitely still have a ton of institutional power in the party. Just look at the amount of center right Dems currently sitting in an important committee chair. That’s really how power is doled out by the party leadership, and it’s strengthened by the fact that the full house or Senate votes to approve appointments put forward by the RNC or DNC leadership apparatus.
The massive war chest that Jefferies controlled did in fact give him the power to choose the House and Senate leaders on the Democrat side.
That war chest is gone.
Not until January, and there’s still a chance (call your congresspeople) not then either.
It sucks that a lot of them are on their way out, but somewhat expected because this is how democrats have helped pass bullshit in the past. Also dissapointed to see freshly elected democrats (like Ossof) vote for this, though I’m not familiar with most of their track record on this type of stuff.
Ossof is a conservative Democrat that is somewhat adept at co-opting a shaved down language of left wing economic populism(while functionally upholding the class interests of donors and the party status quo aligned with them). So he is good at tricking Dem party loyalists and pundit-brain rotted progressives into thinking he’s the next Obama.
Hence why he is also currently circulating as the new hot 2028 candidate from the Dem pundit and consultant mouthpieces in the media.
That is the smell I get from him as well. I have found myself liking some things he says but then i think of his support for the isreali genocide in gaza and it greatly shadows anything positive he might have a hand in.
My litmus test for support has come down to where they lean on the support for genocide. Given his stance on that, I’m not exactly surprised about him voting for the bill in the op or the other things you mention.
It’s not a bad litmus test under current US politics.
It is about the most powerful third rail in politics right now that exposes the contradictions within the Democratic Party and their voters
Someone that is an Israel First Democrat is basically a 1 for 1 for being corporate captured on other issues as well.
And a willingness to call Israel a genocide, an apartheid, and support a full arms embargo(including defensive weapons) is also a good clue they won’t be speaking half measured on healthcare policy, housing, wealth taxes, universal childcare, fighting Trump, ending Citizens United, supporting unions, banning AI data centers, a living wage, and any other issue that faces internal contradictions with Establishment corporate Dems and their voters.
And sure enough, Ossoff is problematic on all those domains as well.
Ossoff surprises me a LITTLE bit. I didn’t think he was a progressive but it seemed like he was trying to ride the wave. same with Warnock.
Ossoff voted for the blatantly unconstitutional Lakin Riley Act right before the start of Trump’s current term. He is not one of the good guys.
Fortunately we’re already replacing Peters (MI) with my boy Abdul. Unfortunately we also have Slotkin.
The bill’s Democratic supporters—including Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, Martin Heinrich of New Mexico, and Chuck Schumer of New York—argue it is a necessary compromise to accelerate construction of clean energy projects.
Trump has been paying companies for canceling their green energy projects. This is like telling an abuse victim you’ll protect them after the boyfriend gets in a few more licks in.
Oh and obligatory “Fuck Chuck”
Chuck Schumer supports Nazis, pedophiles, and corporations that are killing the earth and future children and children alive today. Chuck Schumer must go m. Call your reps!
Fucking Whitehouse. So glad I don’t live in RI anymore.
RI could be energy independent if it wanted to…between existing solar/wind infrastructure, RIRRC generation, legacy generation…and then keep investing into wind/tidal/solar.
Oh and hydraulic. You know the Blackstone River used to be disgusting and incredibly productive (as opposed to just the former). Massive mill systems along its shores. Kicked off the US side of the industrial revolution. Allowed the north to even be abolitionist in the first place (aside from, ya know, the whole Newport slave trade…but fuck Newport, damn island is nothing but welfare recipients living in mansions pissing on welfare recipients living in overpriced
cottagestiny-homes, while all the shopkeepers live on the mainland, making bank off of the highly seasonal economy).But MuH OcEAnFroNt ViEWZzz!
Oh suck it. Wind turbines are fucking cool. I’d rather have a dozen in my view of them than some lame flat endless ocean. Assuming I could ever afford to live some place with a view.
I guess it’s kinda telling…the Industrial Revolution itself is whitewashed history. Last time around, it “ushered in the end of slavery” while giving capitalism big shot of steroids. Then machines in factories replaced laborers and craftsman, people were out of work, and the rich got exponentially richer as money concentrated at the top.
Fellas like Rockafellar and Ford and DuPont used their wealth and influence to get people to vote against their own interests. Not to mention the rise of
fake newsyellow journalism, and the Press Barons themselves.If they would even vote…lots of attempts to suppress woman and minority votes, even when they were legally allowed to.
Then we join a world war and come out on top because most of the rest of the “industrialized” world was bombed to hell, while we were building up interstates and railways to feed the military. We joined at the end of the fourth quarter, jerked off around the Mediterranean, had a couple good fights, took all the credit, and started a cold war with the actual heroes.
Eventually the rest of the
worldnorthern hemisphere rebuilt, they’re kicking our ass, and we are about to repeat the cycle.Last time it took the Dust Bowl to really kick our asses into complacency. I hope next year’s fertilizer shortages (and probably water shortages, at this rate, too) will compare?
I always like to consider every side of an argument but since this community has socialism in its name I want to ask you all a question- if you lived in a socialist country would you also oppose measures like this or would you want a more efficient process?
In my opinion, leftists in socialist countries are used to having projects completed relatively quickly, projects that meet the goals of the state and which further societal interest.
I do not support projects whose goal is to make money for corporations. I do not support projects that cause great harm to the environment for profit. I realize that in America we have for-profit systems that are motivated by greed. So the expedition of permitting processes will probably only help the corporations. But my question is about how you would feel about this type of efficiency if the projects benefited society as a whole.
or would you want a more efficient process?
Not sure what you’re asking - but a large part of the reason that I find capitalism such a bad idea - and particularly the neoliberal private/public version - is that on top of the cost of the capital, you also need to pay out the profit to the parasitic owners.
I’d be very happy with less red tape, of course, provided that it was actually giving effeciency. But most capitalist moves in that direction are actually just increasing externalities - putting the risk on the public to increase private profits.
A bill to facilitate data center builds. Fantastic. /s
Fuck you, Chucklefuck.
