He endorsed Bush at the 2009 GOP Convention, locked up tens of thousands of men of color, gentrified NYC and devastated neighborhoods of color, and now wants to be our Dem. nominee. DNC seems hellbent on helping. Really?
One Last Action for the Roundhouse ASAP: Call Speaker Egolf at 505 986-4782 and email him at brian.egolf@nmlegis.gov to ask that he call SB 182 Behavioral Health Community Integration Act for a vote this morning. He will likely only be able to put one or two bills up for a vote due to GOP debate stalling. But it is worth a shot. Please do it NOW. He will be on the floor at 8:30am, although he may look at email on his phone during the session.
Roundhouse Roundup: Wow. There is nothing quite like the last couple days of a session. Non-stop one-on-one discussions with legislators in the halls, rumors flying, tempers flaring in committees and on the floor, and everyone competing with the same opponent: time. Two very important bills that died in Senate Finance were HB 148 Working Families Tax Credit and HJR 1 Permanent Funds for Early Childhood. But their stalling was more due to a lack of political will than a lack of time. We will have a fuller discussion of the time issue in a future post and in the 2020 Report Card to come.
Yesterday, thanks to furious lobbying and leadership from Sierra Club, Conservation Voters New Mexico, Sanders Moore and other environmentalists, plus tons of volunteer lobbyists, HB 219 Electric Vehicle Income Tax Credit and SB 29 Solar Market Development Tax Credit passed in the closing hours of the session. Also, passing on the last full day was another Retake Priority Bill, SB 57 Pet Food Fee for Neutering and Sheltering.
We will have more complete analysis of the Roundhouse session next week and also our 2020 Report Card in about a month. It will feel good to sleep in tomorrow. For more on the session, see below.
Saturday, February 22, 8:30 am – 9 am on KSFR, 101.1 FM. Our Annual Roundhouse Roundup with Roxanne and Paul. It will be an hour of discussion on the podcast available Monday and 30 minutes on Saturday morning. The following week we will interview Tabatha Hirsch, Santa Fe Prep student who was among the students who developed and presented HB 173 Gas Taxes, New Funds and Distributions, a tremendous environmental bill that died in House Appropriations. Joining her will be Marc Reynolds, the teacher who worked with the students. And our first show in March will be with Land Commissioner Stephanie Garcia Richard.
The Least Electable Candidate Possible
I keep hearing Democrats talking about how Michael Bloomberg is the most electable candidate for President. I’ve written about a critique of the concept of “electability” that also used a variety of polling data on candidates and issues, to suggest that the DNC and media’s idea of who is and who is not “electable” may be based more upon which candidate most benefits the media, Wall St, and other DNC benefactors.
The DNC seems hellbent to reinforce this message and adjust clearly established Party rules to enable Bloomberg to debate, even though he does not meet the criteria the DNC had established, criteria that had been used to exclude many legitimate Democrat candidates. But the DNC made a serious mistake. I wrote this Wednesday afternoon before the debate, but I suspect that the debate will be the beginning of the bloom coming off of the Bloomberg rose.
I am going out on a limb and predicting that Sanders, Warren, Buttigieg, Klobuchar and even Biden will have a field day making sure that the American people understand much more clearly precisely who Michael Bloomberg is. It is one thing to hire the best PR staff in the world and present a highly manicured picture of who you are, but it is quite another thing to defend your record on live television. This could be ugly. There are just too many skilled debaters with too many easy targets:
- Scores of claims of sexual harassment or sexual discrimination,
- His policies that displaced thousands of low-income New Yorkers by accelerating gentrification exponentially in NYC;
- His defense of redlining, a racist policy that excluded communities of color from accessing legitimate mortgage loans;
- His support for the Iraq war;
- His racist “stop and frisk” policies and his recent embarrassing defense of those policies;
- His historic opposition to any and all regulation of Wall St; and
- His essentially purchasing his way into the primary, spending over $350M to broadcast ads that gloss over all of the above and present him as a benevolent billionaire.
The values, policies, and behaviors described above are entirely inconsistent with Democrat values, and I suspect that will be clearly evident in the debate last night. I will have more to say about Bloomberg on Saturday, as I did a very deep dive into his positions on redlining, stop & frisk, Wall St. regulation, his support for the Iraq war, and complaints of sexual harassment and discrimination at his company. In doing the deep dive, I must have read ten articles about Bloomberg, maybe more. The one that most concisely outlines my concerns is from Vox, click here to read the full article.
UPDATE AFTER WATCHING THE DEBATE. Well, it wasn’t some kind of difficult prediction, but the debate last night could be viewed only as a total disaster for Bloomberg. He was attacked on all sides and had no good rebuttal for most of it. Warren was particularly good at skewering him for his workplace sexual harassment, and Biden clearly laid out how Non-Disclosure Agreements are coerced. It was a terrible night for Bloomberg, perhaps terminal, as his wooden responses could not inspire anyone.
I sure hope the moderators and the candidates can figure out a way to divvy up time without it being determined by the urgent waving of hands. The debate seemed like a bunch of middle school students who thought they had the right answers in class and were bursting to share. Interruptions and refusal to close comments were rampant, and it isn’t a very dignified look. I worry that Trump was the big winner last night. More soon. Stay tuned.
In solidarity,
Paul & Roxanne
Categories: Uncategorized
Thank you Roxanne and Paul. The information you assembled for us to make participation in this legislative session easier has been spectacular.
Since I am still working, I read the reports and recommendations over coffee, then sent off my emails daily.
Sincerely
Sunflower Fields
rumpfk cannot debate, or reason. It can only insult, name call and disparage. The fat big mouth on the playground at recess.
The ‘debate’ was not. These are not debates, only brief and confused chances to condense difficult issues into memes that are short on form and totally absent on substance.
But some came through quite clearly. Sanders and Pete talked mostly about problematic issues, albeit in brief and general terms, and Warren was her usual targeted self, not afraid of anything or anybody.
The huge failure was the NBC joke of moderators, excluding the Telemundo journalist and the Nevada editorialist, who only got one question all night.
CBS assisted the rumpfk election, and NBC will do what Fox cannot to keep the cash cow on life support.
The flowering village billionaire is a very, very bad imitation of Tom Steyer, who at least has intelligence enough to discuss complex topics in enlightened ways.
If Bloomberg is the candidate, I will write in Ralph Nader.
So happy SB 57 Spay neuter passed, It has taken 20 years to end cock-fighting, horse-tripping and coyote killing. Onward to banning trapping- hope I live long enough to see this one through. We have had two dogs trapped and a million coyotes and thousands of other innocent animals trapped and maimed.
So sorry HJR1 couldn’t get out of John Author’s court. We are not last without trying harder. Save .5% of a penny, spoil the child. “New Mexico education- good and getting more better.”
I could not even watch the debate, I will wait for the choice moments played afterwards. The whole thing is too annoying. Bloomberg went down in flames, after they all turned on him, it is too excruciating to watch. Having spent time in Manhattan, when Bloomberg was Mayor, his impact was clear to see. They sanitized Manhattan, turning it into a corporate advertising zone. The Wall Street area was really creepy, all kinds of security measures, to protect the Wall Street corporate elite.
This explains so much, https://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/local_news/webber-endorses-billionaire-bloomberg-for-president/article_d59ae9c4-5338-11ea-a645-9734e9e07505.html This might be why there are homeless everywhere, and the city of Santa Fe, is so bleak and depressing. We certainly have not seen any “innovation,” they all talk about it but no evidence anywhere. All I see is creeping Fascism, economic despair, and desperation, and a kind of obliviousness, an alternate reality for the rich. A microcosm of what is going on in DC. The only thing that matters to these people in money, anyone else is a subhuman.
They are coming up with some ingenious tactics, to undermine Medicare for All. https://calendar.sfreporter.com/cal/1945679
“Local physician Dr. Larry Lazarus discusses how to obtain quality care and substantially reduce costs (If only there were a frontrunning Democratic candidate for president who had solutions to these problems…)”. This looks like a slam on Bernie, the only candidate that has a plan.
The good doctor is peddling his book, and in a town like this, anything will get some free advertising. it amazes me that anyone who has appeared to study healthcare, would come up with this kind of nonsensical do it yourself approach. As a psychiatrist he is using his background, to market this nonsense. He has not observed how the system actually works. He works at St Victims, so he must be really out of touch with what is going on around here.
https://qualityaffordablehealthcare.net/health-care/ways-to-reduce-your-cost-for-medication-february-2020-healthcare-forum/
At least he includes a disclaimer, Reminder: Always check with your doctor or P.C.P. before following any suggestions on our website. Our advice provides general ideas of navigating our complex healthcare system but does not give specific recommendations for your medical care.
The good doctors recommends generics, when the physicians at St Vincent’s have neither the time nor the inclination to check the nebulous pricing system. He is unaware that the generics are manufactured in dirty factories in China, and have been found to be non equivalent to the brand name drugs.
These are the tactics the industry peddled 10 years ago, the same ones that the AARP presents to give the appearance of choice. Perhaps the good doctor Lazarus, should pick up one of the formularies, and imagine an 85 year old with bad eyesight trying to figure that out.
What we have here is a psychiatrist gaslighting the public. He should have studied the effects of trying to navigate the broken and corrupt system. There would have been plenty of examples at our local hospital. Cashing in on the current confusion and misinformation sounds ghoulish.
Democracy is under attack and Americans die every year, because of the broken system. The insurance companies change things on a whim, and mislead the people forced to buy these plans. Physicians can’t even figure it out. Once again it is the individuals problem, to navigate the corrupt system.
We can clearly see who the corporate media is rooting for!
https://www.mediamatters.org/broadcast-networks/mentions-democratic-candidates-network-morning-shows-after-las-vegas-debate
This is from https://twitter.com/MattGertz/status/1230561275823812614
“The Republican lobbyist who now runs Facebook’s DC office argued against removing fake news pages on the grounds that that would “disproportionately affect conservatives” who “don’t believe it to be fake news”
https://www.vox.com/2018/4/20/17254312/facebook-shadow-profiles-data-collection-non-users-mark-zuckerberg
If ya wanna know why they vandalizing the artworks on Old Santa Fe Trail, “Facebook Partners with Saudi-Funded Think Tank to Censor Posts That Threaten “Democracy””
https://theantimedia.com/facebook-atlantic-council-democracy/amp/
“(CD) In a new project Facebook insists is a completely objective and nonpartisan effort to root out what it deems “disinformation,” the social media giant announced on Thursday that it is partnering with the Atlantic Council — a prominent Washington-based think-tank funded by Saudi Arabia, major oil companies, defense contractors, and Charles Koch — to prevent its platform from “being abused during elections.””
When are people going to say enough?
I write-in vote or a vote for a third party candidate is in fact a vote for Trump.
No, Linda, it is not. It is a vote for a third party candidate. Only a vote for Trump is a vote for Trump.
It is entirely understandable how Linda could feel that not voting blue is indeed a vote for Trump and it is also easy to understand how Rick could be disgusted with DNC/DINO efforts to force a corporatist candidate on us at precisely the time we need vision and dramatic action. Today’s (Monday, Feb 24) post offered the solution to both these concerns.