Inconvenient truths about the New Democrats, the Third Way, Democratic Leadership Council, etc

[bobthedrummer]

This GD thread was originally posted March 7, 2008-it is worth a reread today, some things have changed, some haven't. Let's talk about it today.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x2973191

[1StrongBlackMan]

1. posted to for later.

[hifiguy]

3. K and R

[TBF]

4. I think the most basic way to look at it

is that someone is funding the third way (or whatever they are calling themselves presently). I can assure you I haven't sent them any donations. Following the trail of funding would likely tell us exactly what we need to know about the group and it's true intent.

[Doctor_J]

5. The party is almost dead, due entirely to them

Their minions and paid operatives here at du have been a huge success at taking our momentum and advantage of 2008 (garnered by Obama's campaign of lies) and completely squandering it. It would be fascinating to know which Turd Way'ers at du are dupes, and which are moles

[Scuba]

10. +1

[hobbit709]

11. + another 1

[Broward]

24. In many ways, they're as much a part of the problem as the Republicans.

[cantbeserious]

26. ^^^ THIS ^^^

eom

[HFRN]

6. all neo-liberalism nt

[daleanime]

7. K&R.....

[mrdmk]

8. Dear Bob, good to see you

The policies of the third way just confuse the voters to point that you do who is doing what or what they actually stand for.

Big K & R

[mrdmk]

9. BTW, the whole thread from 3/7/2008 is worth a read

[Scuba]

12. It's pretty obvious that the right wing has simply purchased the leadership positions of the ...

... Democratic party at a national level, and in some states as well.

Their candidates differ from Republican candidates almost wholly on social issues like gay marriage and abortion rights. From economic and foreign policy perspectives there is few differences.


It's time to take our party back.

Thanks Bob, for your 2008 post and for reviving it.

[HFRN]

15. the powers that be couldnt care less about social issues

other than use them to divide those who might unite on economic issues

The Koch brothers have almost no concern about social issues whatsoever, they're libertarian - their issues are purely economic

[Exilednight]

18. Those are the most truthful words spoken.

They really don't care if gay marriage exists or not. If it were to exist, then it doesn't hurt them economically.

[HFRN]

19. I think the Koch brothers are actually a threat to the Christian Right

not by any intention on their part (as I think they're indifferent, rather than hostile to the Christian right) , but as a side effect of their political algebra making the Christian right irrelevant

the greatest threat to any 'force to be reckoned with', is a 'greater force to be reckoned with', even if the greater force is not in direct opposition to the lessor

[pampango]

13. Most of the policies that supported that advancement had been the work of Democrats like FDR, Truman

JFK, RFK, Eugene McCarthy, George McGovern and many other Democrats nationally and regionally.

Well said, bobthedrummer. And those policies still work in countries that use them. The severe economic inequality in the US compared to other developed countries is a good indication of how far we have gotten away from those policies.

[Octafish]

14. Knowledge is Power and Power is Everybody's Business in a Democracy.

Pete Peterson and Penny Pritzker are no Theoretical Constructs.

Thank you, bobthedrummer!

[HFRN]

16. In the corporate world, if they cant beat the competition, they buy it

important lesson there

[raouldukelives]

17. K&R nt

[bobthedrummer]

20. Thanks to all of you that have posted so far-all of you! Another kick for the weekend n/t

[daredtowork]

21. Red-mapping Cities via Upzoning

This is a discussion I haven't seen yet, but it needs to be had.

A lot of big developers have tried to push through luxury housing - intended for investors - on the trickle down theory that building "housing" will ultimately increase supply and benefit everyone. However, this won't really help in highly inelastic markets like the San Francisco Bay Area where these luxury units will just contribute to inflating the "market rate" all around: this will just create a lot of very expensive empty housing while lowering the amount of available affordable housing - thus intensifying the housing crisis.

What does this have to do with the housing crisis? I've read in City-procured urban planning documents that one benefit of high-density development is that it will *replace the voters* with people who are in favor of such development.

It was egregious enough to find out that replacing the voters was actually a conspiracy of the State. However, I've started to see this kind of comment cropping up in discussions associated with newspaper articles related to development and affordable housing: "thousands of more residents in expensive apartments" would have resulted in Sit/Lie laws, greater restrictions on voting, and other "conservative" policies meant to "flip" the politics of our city.

Over the past decade financing sources for genuine affordable housing were strangled at both the State and Federal level while privateers were allowed to raid HUD in the name of "the market does it better". With quantitative easing driving the economy with cheap loans for large-scale projects, it is almost too easy for speculators to manipulate housing crises these days. IMHO it's naive to not believe that some SuperPAC analyst out there has not already analyzed how changing the housing footprint of "liberal" cities could effectively "red map" them. Democrats shouldn't wait until it's too late to evaluate this threat.

[Octafish]

22. The Advanced Nuclear Industry

by Samuel Brinton
ThirdWay.org, June 15, 2015

Introduction

The American energy sector has experienced enormous technological innovation over the past decade in everything from renewables (solar and wind power), to extraction (hydraulic fracturing), to storage (advanced batteries), to consumer efficiency (advanced thermostats).

What has gone largely unnoticed is that nuclear power is poised to join the innovation list.

A new generation of engineers, entrepreneurs and investors are working to commercialize innovative and advanced nuclear reactors.

This is being driven by a sobering reality—the need to add enough electricity to get power to the 1.3 billion people around the world who don’t have it while making deep cuts in carbon emissions to effectively combat climate change.

Third Way has found that there are nearly 50 companies, backed by more than $1.3 billion in private capital, developing plans for new nuclear plants in the U.S. and Canada. The mix includes startups and big-name investors like Bill Gates, all placing bets on a nuclear comeback, hoping to get the technology in position to win in an increasingly carbon-constrained world.

This report introduces you to the advanced nuclear industry in North America. It includes the most comprehensive set of details about who’s working on these reactor designs and where. We describe the money and momentum building behind advanced nuclear, and how the technology has evolved since the Golden Age of Nuclear.

To be clear, this is not your grandfather’s nuclear technology. While developers in some cases are working off of technology designs conceived in our national laboratories during the 1950s and 1960s, the advanced reactor technologies being developed are safer, more efficient and need a fraction of the footprint compared to the nearly 100 light water reactors (LWRs) that provide almost 20% of the U.S.’s electricity today (and 65% of its carbon-free power). New plants could be powered entirely with spent nuclear fuel sitting at plant sites across the country, built at a lower cost than LWRs and shut down more easily in an emergency.

The need for nuclear power has never been clearer. To stem climate change, the world needs 40% of electricity to come from zero-emissions sources, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). While we can and must grow renewable energy generation, it alone will leave us far short of meeting that demand, the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have said. This is why the IPCC in November issued an urgent call for more non-emitting power, including the construction of more than 400 nuclear plants in the next 20 years. That would represent a near doubling of the 435 plants operating globally today.

Nuclear power is on the cusp of a comeback. The technology may be the best opportunity we have to address climate change and meet the world’s growing energy needs.

CONTINUED THIRD WAY...

http://www.thirdway.org/report/the-advanced-nuclear-industry

PS: Third Way isn't kidding. Fukushima and the nuclear contamination of the planet is nothing compared to all the good stuff nuclear can do, specifically, make money for the connected.

[bobthedrummer]

25. Reminds me of some of the Fun with Atoms Cold War propaganda

Atomic Muscles for Electric Power ad



Except it's 2015....

[Octafish]

23. Third Way: Student Debt may be good for you.

Especially good for you if you're the Lending Bank.

[cantbeserious]

27. Thank You For Sharing

eom

[AuntPatsy]

28. Bookmarking food for thought, a lot to take in

[Warpy]

29. The original funders of the DLC are a Who's Who of regressive interests

From Sourcewatch, "An August, 2000 Newsweek story on Joe Liebermn, The Soul And The Steel[1] reveals that some of the early funding came from ARCO, Chevron, Merck, Du Pont, Microsoft, Philip Morris and Koch Industries:"

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Democratic_Leadership_Council

These companies are not our friends.

[slipslidingaway]

30. knr n/t