Plouffe
<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">sellout/ 3rd way corp dem</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">often on DN? trms?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">...</font></div><div><p style="margin: 30px 0px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; letter-spacing: -0.2px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>And Veena Dubal joins us, professor of law at University of California, Hastings, who writes extensively about the gig economy and says, during the campaign for Prop 22, she was one of many critics subjected to online and offline attacks, including a massive Public Records Act request for her emails and text messages from one of the campaign’s PR firms.</b></font></p><p style="margin: 30px 0px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; letter-spacing: -0.2px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">We welcome you both to <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Democracy Now!</em> Cherri Murphy, let’s begin with you. You’re a Lyft driver for a few years. This was billed as a way to bring financial security to people like you. Is it financial security that you’re in fact getting, or do you feel that this is subverting your ability to make a living and be secure?</font></p><p style="margin: 30px 0px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; letter-spacing: -0.2px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="caps" style="box-sizing: border-box;">CHERRI</span> <span class="caps" style="box-sizing: border-box;">MURPHY</span>:</strong> Amy, thanks for having me.</font></p><p style="margin: 30px 0px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; letter-spacing: -0.2px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As you mentioned, along with Lyft, Instacart, DoorDash and Postmates, these app companies spent more than over $200 million, some say $220 million — the most spent in any ballot campaign in U.S. history — to purchase Proposition 22 in California. And with its passage, the law will now exempt drivers like me from basic wage and labor protections afforded to most workers in the state, in the middle of a pandemic and recession. And because of that, we will be afforded no paid sick leave, no family leave, no workmen’s compensation, no unemployment insurance, no overtime, and no protective equipment in the middle of a pandemic. Most of the drivers are communities of color. Fifty-six percent of them are immigrants. No protection from discrimination based on immigration status or historical traits to race.</font></p><p style="margin: 30px 0px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; letter-spacing: -0.2px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="caps" style="box-sizing: border-box;">JUAN</span> GONZÁLEZ:</strong> And, Cherri Murphy, what’s your response to what these companies are constantly promoting in their advertisements, that these kinds of jobs offer a freedom and flexibility that normal workers would not be able to have, a way to realize your economic dreams?</font></p><p style="margin: 30px 0px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; letter-spacing: -0.2px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="caps" style="box-sizing: border-box;">CHERRI</span> <span class="caps" style="box-sizing: border-box;">MURPHY</span>:</strong> So, these billion-dollar corporations can afford to provide workers flexibility and benefits, like I mentioned, unemployment insurance. And there is nothing in the law that is taking away the drivers’ flexibility. But during the campaign, it was a major threat from these companies, because they know that it scared drivers. We had a UC Berkeley economics professor, in fact, say that these companies would still need the type of flexibility considering. And there’s nothing flexible about cutting wages and healthcares for workers or weakening safety regulations or chipping away workers’ rights, or even putting drivers and riders at risk. These companies fought hard and ruthlessly to get here.</font></p><p style="margin: 30px 0px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; letter-spacing: -0.2px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In your show, you mentioned that in the wake of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, these companies included various platitudes about their commitment to racial justice in the Black community. And many of us know that their lip service was in support of Black lives, and complete of hollow words by well-paid public relations teams and absent of any real change. And we rejected these attempts, because we know that racial justice is economic justice, and we saw this as an attempt to dodge their responsibility for the exploitation of Black and Brown workers every day. Many of us know that this fight is not only about police killings and terror, but it’s about every institution that exploits and abuses Black and Brown people. And when it comes to Lyft and Uber and their corporate cronies, they’re experts.</font></p><p style="margin: 30px 0px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; letter-spacing: -0.2px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="caps" style="box-sizing: border-box;">JUAN</span> GONZÁLEZ:</strong> I’d like to, if possible, bring in Veena Dubal, the professor of law at the University of California, Hastings. I wanted to ask you about the role of these corporate Democrats with some of these key gig economy firms. I think of, for instance,<b> David Plouffe, who used to be one of Obama’s closest friends and aides, who first went to work for Uber, then eventually left Uber and went to work for Mark Zuckerberg’s charity.</b> You also had Anthony Foxx, the former Obama secretary of transportation, who became a top official at Lyft. There’s Matthew Wing, who was a spokesman for Andrew Cuomo, who also became the spokesman for Uber. All of these corporate Democrats’ top aides going to work for these firms in the gig economy....</font></p></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/10/mainstream-media-is-turning-on-elizabeth-warren/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2019/10/mainstream-media-is-turning-on-elizabeth-warren/</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Mainstream media is turning on Elizabeth Warren</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Written by Julie Hollar / FAIR October 10, 2019</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Just two weeks ago, our survey of media coverage of Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s presidential campaign found a fairly — though not exclusively — positive tenor, with stories often contrasting her favorably to Sen. Bernie Sanders and highlighting her outspoken commitment to capitalism. But with erstwhile frontrunner Joe Biden under fierce attack from Donald Trump and Sanders recovering from a heart attack, establishment Democrats and their big donors are suddenly looking at Warren’s rising poll numbers as a sign that her candidacy has very real potential — and is a very real threat to their power.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As centrist Democratic sources go, so go the media.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Among the “events of the past two weeks [that] have created huge uncertainty for the candidates who have dominated the Democratic nomination race,” the Washington Post (10/6/19) lists “<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">persistent doubts among some party leaders” about Elizabeth Warren</span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>
</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Under the headline, “Uncertainty Takes Over the Lead in the Democratic Presidential Race,</b>” the Washington Post’s Michael Scherer and Matt Viser (10/6/19) report that recent events “have created huge uncertainty for the candidates who have dominated the Democratic nomination race.” Those recent events? For Sanders, a heart attack; for Biden, an uncomfortable role in the impeachment inquiry; and for Warren, the curiously un-event-like “persistent doubts among some party leaders that she is too liberal to win the general election.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Democratic Party has many leaders from both its left and right wings; for the Post, the adjective “some” serves to obscure the fact that its sources expressing those doubts are almost exclusively from the right.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">People like former Sen. Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, who lost her 2018 re-election campaign (in which she emphasized how often she voted with Trump) by more than 10 percentage points — who better to turn to for an opinion about how to win an election?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Or there’s consultant Donna Bojarsky, who has donated to Sens. Kamala Harris, Amy Klobuchar and Cory Booker — all representatives of the corporate wing of the party</b>. How about <b>former Obama adviser<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);"> David Plouffe, who went on to flack for Uber</span></b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);"> a</span>fter his Obama years, and now runs policy for Mark Zuckerberg’s philanthropy company? Then you have self-described “radical centrist” Mitch Landrieu, who told the Post:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">[Warren] says she can do all these things. There’s a thing called political reality…. Aspiration is wonderful, but you can’t eat aspiration for lunch and send your kids to college on it. That’s a fundamental decision that Democratic primary voters need to make a decision on.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The best bits come from anonymous donors, though, who are given cover to sow fear about a candidate whose policy proposals (like a wealth tax and a lobbying tax) would directly impact their own finances and political influence:</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As Warren has steadily marched upward in the polls, the reality that she could become the nominee has unsettled some of the party’s top donors, who worry that she would hand the race to Trump. If it starts to look like Warren will win the party’s nomination, a longtime Democratic bundler said, “there will be efforts to stop that.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Another anonymous donor, who the paper tells us is “seeking a moderate as a nominee,” expressed worries that if Warren is the nominee, her presence would ruin any Democratic chances to win the Senate, because voters would perceive having a Republican majority as “the only way to keep her in check” as president.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">To end the hit parade, the Post reminds us that even if Biden falters, we still have centrist choices — calling up Sen. Michael Bennet and Rep. Tim Ryan, candidates currently polling below 1 percent, for some closing thoughts.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">There’s obviously a lot of uncertainty at the moment; it’s just that the Washington Post, relying on its corporate centrist cast of characters, can’t give anything like an honest accounting of it.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Julie Hollar is senior analyst for FAIR’s Election Focus 2020 project. She was Extra!’s managing editor from 2008 to 2014.</font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">==
AN 1/1
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</font><div class="coverage_header_bar coverage_header_bar_news-politics" style="text-transform: uppercase; color: rgb(241, 96, 44); font-size: 1.2em; font-weight: bold; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 32px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span>NEWS & POLITICS</span></font></div><div class="region region-content" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 18px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 32px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px;"><div id="block-system-main" class="block block-system first last odd count-1" style="position: relative;"><div class="content"><div id="node-1048172" class="node node-story view-mode-full clearfix" style="position: relative;"><div class="headline"><h1 class="node-title" style="font-size: 40px; line-height: 52px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px 0px 10px; color: rgb(26, 47, 90); clear: both;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">5 of the Most Cynical Libertarian Stealth Campaigns of 2015</font></h1></div><div class="teaser" style="font-size: 22px; display: block; font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; margin-bottom: 15px;"><div class="field field-name-field-teaser field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Read the fine print and there's someone trying to make a buck.
...
</font><p dir="ltr" style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px ! important; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 18px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong>Using Black Lives Matter to push Uber in New York City</strong></font></p><p dir="ltr" style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px ! important; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 18px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Back in July, the head of the <a href="http://www.newrepublic.com/article/117837/airbnb-uber-wage-war-regulators-army-customers" style="color: rgb(241, 96, 44); text-decoration: none;">decidedly libertarian</a> Silicon Valley goliath Uber, <a href="http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/city-hall/2015/07/8572061/shifting-tactics-uber-hits-city-race-issues" style="color: rgb(241, 96, 44); text-decoration: none;">trotted out several members of New York’s black clergy class</a>,
including a member of Reverend Al Sharpton’s National Action Network,
to sell the anti-regulation car service as good for black communities.
The effort, headed up by Uber PR frontman and former Obama speechwriter
David Plouffe was a fairly crass exercise in libertarian piggybacking
off Black Lives Matter:</font></p><blockquote style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 18px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 25px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p dir="ltr" style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">There’s
a lot of discussion in this city by some leaders about progressive
politics, economic equality and economic opportunity,” David Plouffe,
Uber’s chief adviser, said. “What they’re doing is killing over 10,000
jobs.”</font></p><p dir="ltr" style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The
press conference, which included one member of the Rev. Al Sharpton’s
National Action Network, came one day after Plouffe met with Sharpton,
reportedly to enlist Sharpton to oppose the growth cap. Sharpton, a
friend and occasional political ally of Mayor Bill de Blasio, "has
questions" about the bill’s impact on the city’s minorities, Crain’s
reports.</font></p></blockquote><p dir="ltr" style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px ! important; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 18px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Things
took a turn for the worse when Brooklyn-based bishop Gerald Seabrooks,
presumably reading off of Uber’s PR script, made the rather vulgar claim
that police killings of black men were somehow a result of “lack of
jobs”, jobs that Uber could in theory provide. “<strong>If [Eric] Garner had a job, today he would be alive</strong>,” Seabrooks said. “We’re talking economics here. We’re talking jobs.”</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px ! important; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 18px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The
article reads like a perfect parody of what happens when
#BlackLivesMatter becomes #BlackLivesMatter™. The amount of cynicism it
takes to parlay Eric Garner’s death into a commercial for a car service
with a <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-02-18/uber-increases-fundraising-to-1-billion-amid-investor-appetite" style="color: rgb(241, 96, 44); text-decoration: none;">$50 billion</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>market
cap is truly a masterclass in marketing pap. The reality is, job status
had nothing to do with Garner or any other African-Americans death at
the hands of cops.</font></p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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