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.

  • SabinStargem@lemmy.today
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    5 hours ago

    The Democratic party and GOP should both go the way of the Whigs. Neither are working for the American people. Or humanity.

      • TheStaffmaster@lemmy.world
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        2 hours ago

        There was a progressive/conservative switcheroo back in the 1920’s.

        Republicans used to be the progressive ones. The Whigs predated that. The other stuff is correct though. The Whigs were where corporate Democrats are today. Infact some of the more “bought” examples spun off and formed what became known as the “Do Nothing” party because they were so waffly on the issues and fond of status quo milquetoast non-positioning that their actual name is lost to history. They only lasted a few years before dying out and getting reabsorbed into one of the existing parties, or leaving politics entirely.

        • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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          1 hour ago

          There was a progressive/conservative switcheroo back in the 1920’s.

          Eh. There was a rapid decay of progressivism in the Whig-turned-Republican Party in the 1880s, culminating in several decades of fascism, oligarchy, and outright White Supremacy as the prevailing order of the federal and state governments. This peaked with Coolidge in the 1920s and have birth to a brief US flirtation with Communism as an active movement.

          Republicans used to be the progressive ones. The Whigs predated that.

          Plenty of Whigs were progressive. Conscience Whigs were a political force across New England long before Republicans existed as a party. And they were the first to defect en mass to the Republicans when they did manifest.

          Infact some of the more “bought” examples spun off and formed what became known as the “Do Nothing” party because they were so waffly on the issues and fond of status quo milquetoast non-positioning

          Do you mean the “Know Nothing” Party? Because that was a secret society which operated in direct conflict with Conscience Whigs, effectively splitting the organization in 1854 and giving Republicans an opportunity to emerge onto the national scene.

    • lennybird@lemmy.world
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      4 hours ago

      Depends. Is it Primaries season, or is it the General election?

      If the former, then vote progressives in.

      If the latter, show me in the races these Democrats were elected where the Republican wasn’t objectively worse on practically every issue.

    • Zink@programming.dev
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      3 hours ago

      I don’t think that is a gotcha once you consider the full context.

      Voting blue is not an assertion that the Democrats are good.

      The problem is that our culture is so rotten and voting system so broken that the other viable choice is nazi dictatorship on top of being even MORE capitalist and corrupt and destructive.

  • Denfa@lemmy.world
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    11 hours ago

    It’s been said the only true role fulfillment championed by dem leadership is to be the perennial opposition party. They are not paid to win and subsequently they do not motivate their lesser peers to behave like winners. Schumer and Jeffries were chosen to maintain a constant loser state of existence.

  • Mulligrubs@lemmy.world
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    18 hours ago

    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.

  • wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz
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    19 hours ago

    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.

    • ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world
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      6 hours ago

      or how many neglected to read it for its substance

      All of them neglected to read it. I think senators and congresscritters should have to take a test to prove they read a bill before being allowed to vote on it.

      • wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz
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        6 hours ago

        That would be so funny. We really have to micromanage them, don’t we?

        They forget that they work for us, not the other way around. After all, who pays their salary?

  • bluegreenpurplepink@lemmy.world
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    23 hours ago

    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)

  • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    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

    • schipelblorp@sh.itjust.works
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      1 day ago

      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.

    • anon6789@lemmy.world
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      24 hours ago

      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… 😖

      • peopleproblems@lemmy.world
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        23 hours ago

        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.

        • AlligatorBlizzard@sh.itjust.works
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          4 hours ago

          At least Minnesota has a chance to replace her senate position with someone more progressive.

          I hope so, but it’s far from a sure bet.

          I fully agree with you about her and think we can do better, and she’s had quite a bit of luck, but there’s more than that.

          Historically she’s been very popular in outstate MN for reasons I don’t fully understand but I’d be very curious about the percentage of business owners in rural MN (and people who think they’re business owners like victims of MLMs). In the polarized MAGA era that effect has declined significantly and she only outperformed down ballot Dems by a few percent. I’m not sure that matters anymore though.

          Sadly, she’s indicated she’ll be picking her own replacement. It’ll probably be Angie Craig (ugh) but the MPR article I pulled up to check mentions that she could totally pick a “big city mayor” and Klob has the chance to do the funniest thing ever - Mayor Frey gets to be a weasel on the national stage for a bit only to get primaried out of politics entirely while Minneapolis can get anyone else as mayor.

          • peopleproblems@lemmy.world
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            2 hours ago

            I guess whoever she picks is only temporary anyway, looks like theres a special election in 2027.

            Do better Minnesota.

        • anon6789@lemmy.world
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          23 hours ago

          Thanks for the quick run-down! Finding candidates anywhere to actually get excited for seems a sadly alien concept.

    • wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz
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      19 hours ago

      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?)

    • decolo@piefed.social
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      1 day ago

      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.

      • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        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

        • TranscendentalEmpire@lemmy.today
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          1 day ago

          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.

          • chaogomu@lemmy.world
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            20 hours ago

            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.

    • 0__0@lemmy.zip
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      1 day ago

      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.

      • Nola@piefed.zip
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        1 day ago

        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.

        • 0__0@lemmy.zip
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          24 hours ago

          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.

          • Nola@piefed.zip
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            23 hours ago

            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.

    • Mandarbmax@lemmy.world
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      17 hours ago

      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.

      • Tiger666@lemmy.ca
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        5 hours ago

        Left, hahahahahahahaha. that was funny. You guys wouldn’t recognize leftism if it kissed you and told you you are going to have sex with it.

        WHAT DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATE/LEGISLATOR ACTUALLY WANTS WORKERS TO CONTROL THE MEANS OF PRODUCTION? Just one name please. Bet you cant, because there are none.