It has been a while but we have a woman nominee for a major political party

I've been busy this summer, but upon getting back from Arizona (and watching the RNC while crossing my fingers Cleveland would exist after it), I wanted to post something this week. So I'm posting this video of a 102 year old woman who got to cast AZ's delegates for Hillary.



But I wanted to follow it up with this image:

Wednesday's front page with coverage of Hillary Clinton's historic night at #DemConvention pic.twitter.com/PhAySTk5JU

— Chicago Tribune (@chicagotribune) July 27, 2016

We come so far and got absolutely no where. Well done guys. Well done. Regardless of your feelings on Hillary last night was incredible.

This is probably going to end badly

It is almost like Republicans forgot the ass kicking Kasich’s anti-labor policies got. Look, I know there are Republicans in Ohio, hell there might be one in Cleveland proper…though I doubt it. We’re hemorrhaging residents and are 2 to 1 black. Our median household income according to the 2010 Census is $26,556 with a poverty rate of 34.2%. But don’t worry, Cleveland promised to raise money to host the convention. I’m not 100% where they are going to get it because they are already taxing us like a mother fucker for private sports teams.

Don’t get me wrong: I LOVE CLEVELAND. If I didn’t already have the name of my memoir picked out (The Art of the Slow Clap) Believeland would be a contender. I have no love for conventions let alone the Republican National Convention. Let me explain a bit about how this came about, and why even if the Democratic National Committee wanted to have their Convention in Cleveland I wouldn’t be dancing on the ceiling.

The Republican National Committee panel announced they are recommending Cleveland as the host city. See one of the major concerns about the convention is paying for it. RNC Chairman Reince Priebus insisted that the Republican Party wouldn’t be the one to foot the bill. The Convention is expected to cost about $60 million. According to AP, “In proposals and presentations to the party, Cleveland pledged to raise the tens of millions of dollars required to pay for the weeklong rally for the party faithful.”

Yes, I know this will also bring funds into Cleveland. After all people who come for a convention will spend dollars on getting there, staying there, food, etc. Maybe I shouldn’t be coy? This convention will bring money into corporations that have little to do with the residents of Cleveland. So unless, all the hotels are going to unionize and pay a living wage I have zero fucks to give. AP notes that Florida saw a $214 million direct economic impact from the 2012 Convention. I would like to see this number broken down again. How much of this went into the pockets of residents? And how much went to the corporations exploiting the labor in Tampa?

So we all know the importance of Ohio in the presidential campaigns, which is more than likely what this is. Republicans see hosting in Cleveland as a two-fold victory: Cleveland footing the bill, and Ohio. Cleveland is in the running for the Democrats too, as is Columbus.

Let’s come back to Cleveland and its problems for a moment. Cleveland has awful infrastructure. Poverty is a way of life, and I want to know how Cleveland plans on paying for this. Look if they have a reserve somewhere I don’t know about I could get on board. What this feels like to me is stealing from poor people to facilitate a party for rich people which will generate profits for corporations (which according to the Supreme Court are people).

DNC Platform the Abridged Version

The DNC released the platform that will be approved during the convention. Like the RNC's most of it is pretty predictable. There are a few promising notes and some very disappointing omissions. There are some points like support for Planned Parenthood and unwavering support to uphold Roe. I abbreviated from The Nation and added some extra commentary. 

Positive:

A constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United. The White House is endorsing massive grassroots movements as a way to undo the Supreme Court decision. The platform reads: "We campaign finance reform, by constitutional amendment if necessary."

Exempting the safety net from deficit reduction. They are not including Medicare and Social Security in the deficit reduction talks. The Democrats were once ready to cut these programs so it is good news that these are no longer up for grabs. 

Gay marriage. Still brushing our shoulders off on this one. It reads: "We support the right of all families to have equal respect, responsibilities, and protections under the law. We support marriage equality and support the movement to secure equal treatment under law for same-sex couples."

Voting rights. The Democrats are angling to be the party fighting for the right to vote: "We believe the right to vote and to have your vote counted is an essential American freedom, and we oppose laws that place unnecessary restrictions on those seeking to exercise that freedom...Democrats know that voter identification laws can disproportionately burden young voters, people of color, low-income families, people with disabilities, and the elderly, and we refuse to allow the use of political pretexts to disenfranchise American citizens."

Omits support for Jerusalem as capital of Israel. This doesn't really mean anything except drawing attention to Mittens' platform being the Democratic one from 2008. 

Minimum wage. There are recent efforts to raise the minimum wage, which I discussed earlier. The platform endorses recent efforts without being specific: "We will raise the minimum wage, and index it to inflation. 

Assault weapons ban. About damn time. With all the gun violence in the last year, it is about time someone said something about weapon bans. The platform reads: "We understand the terrible consequences of gun violence. We can focus on effective enforcement of existing laws, especially strengthening out background check system, and we can work together to enact commonsense improvements-like reinstating the assault weapons ban and closing the gun show loophole-so that guns do not fall into the hands of those irresponsible, law-break few." We've hears this before, in 2008. But Obama didn't do much on this. 

Reiterates support for cap-and-trade. Democrats have quit on cap-and-trade in the last few years, but apparently that is coming back too: "Democrats will continue pursuing efforts to combat climate change at home as well, because reducing our emissions domestically-through regulation and market solutions-is necessary to continue being an international leader on this issue. We understand that global climate change may disproportionately affect the poor, and we are committed to environmental justice."

Cons:

Lowering the corporate tax rate. Platform reads: "We are also committed to reforming the corporate tax code to lower tax rates for companies in the United States." No one is excited about this approach. It closes the loopholes. This approach aims to take the money gained from closing massive loopholes that allow corporations to pay little or no taxes, and dump the revenue gained into lowering the overall tax rate for corporations. This could be an opportunity to raise money for public investments, social safety nets, or deficit reduction, but it isn't. Additionally, Obama's plan only articulates one-quarter of the loopholes and exemptions and is vague on the rest. It is possible that this plan could lower the corporate tax rate without ending enough exemptions to pay for it. 

Housing section. This section is bad. Very bad. The platform says nothing on principal reduction, a policy that the White House claimed to support. Additionally, the platform claims: "President Obama took swift action to stabilize a housing market in crisis, helping five million families restructure their loans to help them stay in their homes, making it easier for families to refinance their mortgage and save hundreds of dollars a month."This is pretty misleading; we're not sure who they have helped, if anyone.  To close, it claims the administration has "cracked down on fraudulent mortgage lenders and other abuses." There is no proof of this, which makes me think the DNC saw how Ryan lies and thought this guy might be onto something. 

Civil liberties. Gitmo anyone? 

No support for card-check. There is not pledge to fight for the Employee Free Choice Act. Labor present? Not in Charlotte. 

Doesn't pledge not to cut Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. The platform doesn't say the safety net should be part of the deficit reduction, but it doesn't say they won't either. They could change the retirement age or any number of changes that could be rough on recipients. 

Affirms support for the death penalty. We're still ok with executing people...

Signals support for the Keystone XL pipeline...maybe...The language here leaves room for negotiation on the subject. 

And with that and watching Michelle Obama do the verbal equivalent of kicking ass and taking names I'm done.

Bonus Update: The DNC added God and Jerusalem back to the platform. Progressives everywhere groan.

Unions Boycot DNC

So while simultaneously throwing 400,000 members behind the democrats, the union bosses are pretty pissed that the DNC is holding the convention in North Carolina (a right to work state).

Last year, the DNC announced the convention would be in Charlotte, North Carolina. NC is pretty anti-labor, though this is anecdotal for me; my mother's factory was moved from Cleveland, Ohio to North Carolina the year after the factory unionized. In addition to this, the stadium, Bank of America Stadium, was not built by union labor. I'm pretty sure the RNC held their's in a union built facility.

Several unions claimed to be boycotting the convention. According to USA Today, the boycott is deterring the DNC's fundraising efforts. Jim Spellane, a spokesman for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, said via email, "We feel that a better use of our member's money would be spent on grassroots mobilization efforts this election cycle." In 2006, they donated more than $1 million to assist in staging the Denver convention. AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said the union would not make any "major monetary" contributions to the convention.

Apparently, the unions held a shadow convention in Philadelphia, but they are also planning a protest in Charlotte. A group of unionized Charlotte city workers picketed city hall as they plan to do every Monday this month.

While boycotting and protesting, Trumka has promised to send 400,000 union volunteers door-to-door to union and non-union homes for President Obama. The AFL-CIO volunteers started going door-to-door on August 25th.

I'm torn on this. The anti-labor sentiment in this country right now is very disturbing, and for the DNC to pick a state that is anti-labor, feels like a slap in the face to labor. Of course North Carolina is a swing state and an important one. Of course, so is Ohio (a little bit of a shameless plug), but at the time the DNC decided the location of the convention, Ohio hadn't rejected SB5/Issue 2. But what kind of message would have been sent if the DNC opted to hold their convention in Wisconsin and push a pro-labor/worker platform. Instead, Charlotte in a non-union built stadium.

Convention fail, DNC.

DNC has a New Chair

And she's a woman! And a former H-Rod supporter.

Debbie Wasserman Schultz is the representative from Florida's 20th District. She a win, win, win for the Dems. Wasserman Schultz has power in her swing state of Florida, is a serious fundraiser, and has a decent television presence, which of course is important for the Dems. given their inability to present themselves in public as anything but stupid.

Wasserman Schultz is the third female Chair of the DNC and the first in fifteen years. About damn time, but don't be fooled, having a woman out front doesn't mean their give a damn about women. The Dems. will most likely continue rolling over on women's issues.

I like Wasserman Schults, but it was between her and Strickland, and of course Strickland is from Ohio and amazing.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0411/52605.html