GOP lawmakers are escalating their war on “woke” capitalism this week, with House and Senate votes to repeal a Biden administration policy that enables investment managers to factor climate change and social goals into retirement savings decisions.
Republicans, with help from at least one moderate Democrat, Joe Manchin of West Virginia, may succeed in passing the rollback and sending it to President Joe Biden’s desk, thanks to a law that allows Congress to nullify new regulations on an expedited basis without succumbing to a Senate filibuster.
[…]
The votes this week are the latest milestone in the GOP’s populist turn when it comes to corporate America. Rather than defending the rights of asset managers to offer investment products as they choose, Republicans at the state and federal levels are using tools of government to beat up on Wall Street for its embrace of decision-making tied to environmental and social goals. It has forced major corporations to play defense in Washington and state capitals across the country, scrambling the traditionally friendly dynamic between big business and the Republican party.
The Labor Department rule Republicans are targeting this week was an attempt by the Biden administration late last year to clarify that retirement plan managers can consider environmental, social and governance factors when selecting investments. The rule was intended to reverse Trump-era policy that tried to discourage ESG investments.
While the rule doesn’t require that climate and social issues factor into retirement planning, Republican critics argue that it opens the door to the politicization of investing at the expense of returns. It’s a critique that’s become widely embraced by GOP politicians and conservative groups.
[…]
The Biden administration and most Democrats in Congress are fighting back. The giant labor organization AFL-CIO is among the dozens of outside groups lobbying Congress to vote against the Republican resolution, arguing that incorporating ESG factors in investments “helps protect the hard-earned retirement savings of working people.”
The White House said in a statement Monday that reverting to more restrictive, Trump-era policy would “unnecessarily limit the options available to retirement plan participants and investors.”
[continues]
BTW, wiki has a pretty thorough history on the word “woke” and its variation “stay woke.”
Woke is an adjective derived from African-American Vernacular English (AAVE) meaning “alert to racial prejudice and discrimination”. Beginning in the 2010s, it came to encompass a broader awareness of social inequalities such as sexism, and has also been used as shorthand for American Left ideas involving identity politics and social justice, such as the notion of white privilege and slavery reparations for African Americans.
The phrase stay woke had emerged in AAVE by the 1930s, in some contexts referring to an awareness of the social and political issues affecting African Americans. The phrase was uttered in a recording by Lead Belly and later by Erykah Badu.
[continues]
click here for what has been described as “the woke song”
Anyone who is up in arms over the word “woke” and/or its meaning is just totally out of real things to worry about.
You gotta really work at it to develop that level of stupidity in this current age of information.
well, i was wrong. tho’t sure there would be at least one hold-out just based on the motive mystery.
omen for former guy: if a jury found years of lying which resulted in the death of 2 people justified conviction maybe it portends another jury finding guilt in the case of another liar whose lies resulted/caused/led to the deaths of an estimated 200,000 americans.
Jurors deliberated for about three hours before convicting him on two counts of murder and two counts of using a weapon during the commission of a violent crime. Murdaugh showed little emotion as the verdicts were read.
Sentencing is set for 9:30 a.m. ET on Friday.
The 54-year-old took the stand in his own defense. He was found guilty of using a rifle to kill his wife, Maggie Murdaugh, 52, and a shotgun to kill his son Paul, 22. They died on the night of June 7, 2021, at the family’s sprawling Moselle hunting estate in South Carolina’s Lowcountry region.
Before he was disbarred, Murdaugh was an influential attorney in South Carolina and belongs to one of the most prominent families in the state.
He faces a sentence of 30 years to life in prison for each murder conviction. Prosecutors did not seek the death penalty.
“Justice was done today,” prosecutor Creighton Waters said after the verdict. “It doesn’t matter who your family is. It doesn’t matter how much money you have or people think you have. It doesn’t matter what you think how prominent you are. If you do wrong, if you break the law, if you murder, then justice will be done in South Carolina.”
TAMPA, Fla. WFLA) – A Florida resident died after being infected by a rare amoeba last week, health officials say.
Charlotte County health officials said the unidentified male patient likely contracted Nagleria fowleri after rinsing out his sinuses with tap water, local Florida news outlet WFTX reported. Eric Milbrandt, director of the marine laboratory at the Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation, said the organism can only enter the body through the nose.
“It’s found in hot springs, it’s found in warm water, lakes, and it can also be found in hot water tanks and, in some very rare cases, in tap water,” Milbrandt told WFTX.
The CDC said Nagleria fowleri infections are rare. Between zero and five cases were diagnosed each year in the U.S. from 2012 to 2021.
“This is the first reported case of Naegleria fowleri infection in the United States this year, and the first ever reported in winter months in the United States,” the CDC told WFTX.
Nagleria fowleri causes primary amebic meningoencephalitis (PAM), which is a condition that destroys brain tissue and causes swelling. The death rate is high — only four people have survived out of 154 cases between 1962 and 2021.
[continues]
warning: brace yourself for the inevitable dark humor and insensitive brainless Flori-duh man jokes to follow.
“It doesn’t matter who your family is. It doesn’t matter how much money you have or people think you have. It doesn’t matter what you think how prominent you are. If you do wrong, if you break the law, if you murder, then justice will be done in South Carolina.”
Mr Waters is mistaken. Delusional even, if he’d ask anyone to believe such a thing.
One french fry don’t make a happy meal.
speaking of humor, dark or light
The President and First Lady committed an unforgivable culinary sin by ordering the same dish at a restaurant, Fox News has a soft ban on the former president, and another hypocritical Republican legislator is seeking to ban drag performances while defending his own experience dressing as a woman.
I thought he was guilty, but didn’t think they proved it. Still, I would have caved in the jury room if I was the only holdout.
I hardly saw any of it but what I did see i never heard the “why” of it. Why he do that? (Assuming he did)
Also it’s the first I’ve ever heard of not having to prove Motive. I’d thought that motive was always necessary to prove.
Tucker Carlson announced that plans to air surveillance footage from January 6th, 2020 early next week. He also revealed his mission in doing so, and that is to show how “they are lying” to his viewers.
“The defenders of democracy are defending democracy again,” the Fox News host said Thursday night. “They’re telling you it’s really, really dangerous. And anyone would get to see the thousands of hours of surveillance footage from January 6th, which has been hidden from the public for two years as a tiny group of people gets to make up stories about what happened that day and change the country on the basis of those stories. ”
“How does that work exactly?” he asked with mock ignorance. “Well, it’s not democracy, of course. It’s building a bulwark against your lies being revealed. And they are lying. And we know that because we’ve been looking at the tape.”
Carlson concluded by saying “we’re going to bring you information on the tape and some of it next week. And we think it’s going to be really, really interesting.”
[continues]
For $30,000, all of your food and housing is paid for the year, but this sounds like Lord of the Flies in the high seas. I mean, they do psych evaluations before they send someone to the space station. And then there’s the floating Petri dish factor. If 1,074 embark, how many will survive?
Sturg, motive is not an element of criminal charges, prosecutors don’t have to prove it. However, we all know jurors want to hear it, so prosecutors try to provide it anyway.
“…Hershey’s Canada unveiled this year’s “HER for SHE” campaign, an International Women’s Day-inspired promotion that celebrates “the women changing the future in your community,”…
“Some people on Twitter have called for a boycott of Hershey’s due to the appearance of a trans woman on its “HER for SHE” chocolate bar wrappers in Canada. The woman, trans activist and speaker Fae Johnstone, is one of five women to be featured in the campaign.”
“Some users went so far as to label the wrapper “a slap in the face to women” and that it was “erasing women.”
The fake outrage of Comrade Carlson over his so-called “woke” M&Ms, diminishes life-harming and life-threatening issue.
Being “woke” aka awareness and kindness toward others is a Christian value, which is why Republicans have a problem with it. They can not walk the walk because they are not true believers.
My seventh great grandchild arrived on Wednesday afternoon.
Turning off the TV. This is not worthy of being breaking news, at least not nationally. So many other things which have a big, social impact could be given air time.
Jamie… congrats!
BiD… I’m with you. It’s all click bait, IMO.
today’s meme…
This case has been like a Grisham novel, a Southern Gothic! And two more murders left to solve.
Stuck pigs do squeal
Many, including real experts, have pronounced the orange idiot to have some type(s) of brain damage. Politico has an article up that SFB is going to have special cities that have flying cars, and more. When you read this first time, anyone who grew up before 1970, will think ‘that sounds familiar’, because that was the base theme of The Jetsons. The lunatic mixes his current version of reality (not a real place) with television cartoons of the Sixties. Yeah. I cannot wait for the great cult to deflate when he strokes out. They will be like that thing of JFK Jr. returning to do some damned thing.
“Russia could find itself with no money as soon as next year and needs foreign investment, outspoken Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska has said. “There will be no money already next year, we need foreign investors,”…
“But China has thrown the Kremlin an economic lifeline by buying Russian energy, replacing Western suppliers of machinery and base metals among other products, and providing an alternative to the US dollar.”
China is playing the long game to obtain global superiority if not outright domination. The longer they prop up Putin, the longer his war in Ukraine can go on, and the more the US and our allies spend money supporting Ukraine. China will own Russia, and they may gain dominance over the US and the rest of the world.
BiD – the Murdaugh mini series script is being written now. The only question is HBO or Showtime?
Sturg, yep, too much Columbo., or maybe Law and Order. Motive isn’t an element necessary for a murder conviction. There’s a common confusion between intent – an element of most state murder statutes – and motive, which prosecutors often try to prove to establish that element. Defense attorneys try to keep evidence of motive out – it tends to make jurors think that with the right reasons, anyone can commit murder, and will if the reasons seem particularly compelling. Reasoning goes something like “If I can show he had a motive to commit murder and can prove the elements of murder I can convince a jury that the perp had to have intended to kill the stiff.” The element of intent is about the same as malice aforethought – archaic English Common Law term but still an element of murder as part of some state criminal statutes (stated as intent in others). Motive can be considered in the sentencing phase of a murder trial to enhance or lessen the sentence once the conviction has been gotten.
Congratulations Jamie on your new “edition!!”
Great Grands…….that’s REALLY great….and muy grande.
The pandemic has faded, but one of the least understood effects of the virus still eludes treatment: There is no known cure for long covidiocy.
House Republicans presented with a textbook case of the ailment this week. The newly formed select subcommittee on the coronavirus pandemic met for the first time for what its chairman, Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio), said would be some “Monday-morning quarterbacking.” It instead became a Tuesday afternoon of false starts and illegal blocks.
Republicans on the panel, some of them medical doctors and others just playing one on TV, offered their predictable assessments. Rep. Debbie Lesko (R-Ariz.) kicked off with the unsupported allegation that “covid was intentionally released” from a Chinese lab because “it would be impossible for the virus to be accidentally leaked.”
Rep. Richard McCormick (R-Ga.) advanced the ball by informing the panel that coronavirus booster shots “do more harm than good.”
And then Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) scored with this extraordinary medical discovery: “Researchers found that the vaccinated are at least twice as likely to be infected with covid as the unvaccinated and those with natural immunity.”
Vaccines make you more likely to get covid! Thank you, Dr. Jewish Space Lasers. [God I wish I’d written that. I’m stealing it.]
But the panel’s greatest contribution to the science of misdirection was to feature as witnesses three scientists who arguably did more than all others to champion a herd-immunity approach to covid. Two of them were co-authors of the “Great Barrington Declaration,” put out by a Koch-backed group, which argued in 2020 for letting the virus run wild through the population while somehow segregating the old and vulnerable.
[And it continues in this vein]
There’s stupidity, and then there’s republicans on panels.
For every one of those dunderheads there’s an army of dunderheads voting for them.
It’s a pure dunderheadocracy out there.
Jon Stewart doing a brilliant interview with a Republican gun nut.
Thanks for all the good wishes.
As to the trial, I tweeted both CNN & MSNBC that showing the trial was a total waste of airtime. Since I’m currently reading two great books, it was easy to avoid.
It was impossible to avoid completely, but I used the mute button on the TV, or powered down completely, if I was in the same room. What we need are more Jon Stewart-type shows and less cheap-to-produce fodder like Dateline. I even mute the ads.
“The student group Denver East Students Demand Action led a walkout from class Friday morning to call for legislative action on gun safety measures. It came after 16-year-old Luis Garcia was shot last month near East High School while in his car and died this week.”
“DeSantis appointee to new Disney oversight board suggested tap water could turn people gay.”
“There are any number of reasons, you know, that are given. Some would say the increase in estrogen in our societies. You know, there’s estrogen in the water from birth control pills. They can’t get it out,” Peri baselessly said in a January 2022 Zoom discussion, later put on YouTube.
seems woke’s not just limited anymore to awareness of racism. seems consciousness of climate change is also a no-no now in GOPerland.
Politico:
BTW, wiki has a pretty thorough history on the word “woke” and its variation “stay woke.”
click here for what has been described as “the woke song”
Anyone who is up in arms over the word “woke” and/or its meaning is just totally out of real things to worry about.
You gotta really work at it to develop that level of stupidity in this current age of information.
https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1119-countdown-with-keith-olbe-99705496/
well, i was wrong. tho’t sure there would be at least one hold-out just based on the motive mystery.
omen for former guy: if a jury found years of lying which resulted in the death of 2 people justified conviction maybe it portends another jury finding guilt in the case of another liar whose lies resulted/caused/led to the deaths of an estimated 200,000 americans.
Alex Murdaugh murder trial: The jury finds him guilty on all counts : NPR
Florida man dies from brain-eating amoeba after rinsing sinuses with tap water: report | The Hill
warning: brace yourself for the inevitable dark humor and insensitive brainless Flori-duh man jokes to follow.
“It doesn’t matter who your family is. It doesn’t matter how much money you have or people think you have. It doesn’t matter what you think how prominent you are. If you do wrong, if you break the law, if you murder, then justice will be done in South Carolina.”
Mr Waters is mistaken. Delusional even, if he’d ask anyone to believe such a thing.
One french fry don’t make a happy meal.
speaking of humor, dark or light
The President and First Lady committed an unforgivable culinary sin by ordering the same dish at a restaurant, Fox News has a soft ban on the former president, and another hypocritical Republican legislator is seeking to ban drag performances while defending his own experience dressing as a woman.
I thought he was guilty, but didn’t think they proved it. Still, I would have caved in the jury room if I was the only holdout.
I hardly saw any of it but what I did see i never heard the “why” of it. Why he do that? (Assuming he did)
Also it’s the first I’ve ever heard of not having to prove Motive. I’d thought that motive was always necessary to prove.
I mussa watch too much “Columbo”.
“they are lying” —pot-kettle-black speak
Tucker Carlson to Air Jan 6 Security Footage Next Week (mediaite.com)
https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/3-year-cruise-mv-gemini/index.html
For $30,000, all of your food and housing is paid for the year, but this sounds like Lord of the Flies in the high seas. I mean, they do psych evaluations before they send someone to the space station. And then there’s the floating Petri dish factor. If 1,074 embark, how many will survive?
Sturg, motive is not an element of criminal charges, prosecutors don’t have to prove it. However, we all know jurors want to hear it, so prosecutors try to provide it anyway.
Murdaugh juror says cellphone video sealed disgraced attorney’s fate: ABC News exclusive
https://www.delish.com/food-news/a43158415/hersheys-boycott-her-for-she-bars/
“…Hershey’s Canada unveiled this year’s “HER for SHE” campaign, an International Women’s Day-inspired promotion that celebrates “the women changing the future in your community,”…
“Some people on Twitter have called for a boycott of Hershey’s due to the appearance of a trans woman on its “HER for SHE” chocolate bar wrappers in Canada. The woman, trans activist and speaker Fae Johnstone, is one of five women to be featured in the campaign.”
“Some users went so far as to label the wrapper “a slap in the face to women” and that it was “erasing women.”
The fake outrage of Comrade Carlson over his so-called “woke” M&Ms, diminishes life-harming and life-threatening issue.
Being “woke” aka awareness and kindness toward others is a Christian value, which is why Republicans have a problem with it. They can not walk the walk because they are not true believers.
My seventh great grandchild arrived on Wednesday afternoon.
Turning off the TV. This is not worthy of being breaking news, at least not nationally. So many other things which have a big, social impact could be given air time.
Jamie… congrats!
BiD… I’m with you. It’s all click bait, IMO.
today’s meme…
This case has been like a Grisham novel, a Southern Gothic! And two more murders left to solve.
Stuck pigs do squeal
Many, including real experts, have pronounced the orange idiot to have some type(s) of brain damage. Politico has an article up that SFB is going to have special cities that have flying cars, and more. When you read this first time, anyone who grew up before 1970, will think ‘that sounds familiar’, because that was the base theme of The Jetsons. The lunatic mixes his current version of reality (not a real place) with television cartoons of the Sixties. Yeah. I cannot wait for the great cult to deflate when he strokes out. They will be like that thing of JFK Jr. returning to do some damned thing.
Jamie – congratulations.
https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/03/economy/russia-no-money-deripaska/index.html
“Russia could find itself with no money as soon as next year and needs foreign investment, outspoken Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska has said. “There will be no money already next year, we need foreign investors,”…
“But China has thrown the Kremlin an economic lifeline by buying Russian energy, replacing Western suppliers of machinery and base metals among other products, and providing an alternative to the US dollar.”
China is playing the long game to obtain global superiority if not outright domination. The longer they prop up Putin, the longer his war in Ukraine can go on, and the more the US and our allies spend money supporting Ukraine. China will own Russia, and they may gain dominance over the US and the rest of the world.
BiD – the Murdaugh mini series script is being written now. The only question is HBO or Showtime?
Sturg, yep, too much Columbo., or maybe Law and Order. Motive isn’t an element necessary for a murder conviction. There’s a common confusion between intent – an element of most state murder statutes – and motive, which prosecutors often try to prove to establish that element. Defense attorneys try to keep evidence of motive out – it tends to make jurors think that with the right reasons, anyone can commit murder, and will if the reasons seem particularly compelling. Reasoning goes something like “If I can show he had a motive to commit murder and can prove the elements of murder I can convince a jury that the perp had to have intended to kill the stiff.” The element of intent is about the same as malice aforethought – archaic English Common Law term but still an element of murder as part of some state criminal statutes (stated as intent in others). Motive can be considered in the sentencing phase of a murder trial to enhance or lessen the sentence once the conviction has been gotten.
Congratulations Jamie on your new “edition!!”
Great Grands…….that’s REALLY great….and muy grande.
Milbank shoots. Milbank SCORES!!!! WAPO
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/03/03/select-subcommittee-coronavirus-pandemic-covidiocy/
COVIDIOCY
There’s stupidity, and then there’s republicans on panels.
For every one of those dunderheads there’s an army of dunderheads voting for them.
It’s a pure dunderheadocracy out there.
https://youtu.be/pWsFTeKRRQk
The Problem a/Jon Stewart podcast/overview of the next season of the TV show.
Congrats to Jamie*
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tCuIxIJBfCY
Jon Stewart doing a brilliant interview with a Republican gun nut.
Thanks for all the good wishes.
As to the trial, I tweeted both CNN & MSNBC that showing the trial was a total waste of airtime. Since I’m currently reading two great books, it was easy to avoid.
It was impossible to avoid completely, but I used the mute button on the TV, or powered down completely, if I was in the same room. What we need are more Jon Stewart-type shows and less cheap-to-produce fodder like Dateline. I even mute the ads.
https://www.cbsnews.com/colorado/news/students-march-colorado-state-capitol-death-luis-garcia-denver-east-high-school-demand-action/
“The student group Denver East Students Demand Action led a walkout from class Friday morning to call for legislative action on gun safety measures. It came after 16-year-old Luis Garcia was shot last month near East High School while in his car and died this week.”
https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/03/politics/kfile-ron-desantis-disney-ron-peri-anti-lgbtq/index.html
Flori-dumber:
“DeSantis appointee to new Disney oversight board suggested tap water could turn people gay.”
“There are any number of reasons, you know, that are given. Some would say the increase in estrogen in our societies. You know, there’s estrogen in the water from birth control pills. They can’t get it out,” Peri baselessly said in a January 2022 Zoom discussion, later put on YouTube.
Some would say? No, dumb would say.
NEW THREAD