[Peace-discuss] J. B. Nicholson: "TAXING THE RICH": Counterpunch Sep. 17, 2021

[Mildred O'brien]

Jeffery St. Clair:  Taxing the Rich:  The Glitterati left--AOC on the catwalk at the Met Gala (Vogue)  
(Sorry, I don't know how  to cut & paste to save so I can forward email with MSM Windows 10.  It used to be so easy on Windows 7).
  Midge 


-----Original Message-----
From: J.B. Nicholson via Peace-discuss <peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net>
To: peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net
Sent: Tue, Sep 21, 2021 6:45 pm
Subject: Re: [Peace-discuss] "TAX THE RICH"

Mildred O'brien via Peace-discuss wrote:
> AND WHAT ABOUT AOC'S "STYLE SHOW" ENTRY:  "TAX THE RICH"  (SEE COUNTERPUNCH COMMENTARY)
> mO'B

I'm not sure which CP commentary you're referring to.

https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/05/06/bold-calls-to-tax-the-rich-but-not-enough-talk-of-enforcement/print/
https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/01/09/tax-the-rich-history-proves-alexandria-ocasio-cortez-may-be-correct/print/

are both from 2019. The first points out that her argument seems more worthwhile than 
it is, the latter tries to make her argument seem better.

https://www.counterpunch.org/2021/02/08/its-easy-to-fix-inequality-tax-the-rich/print/ is 
from 2021 and covers the concept but doesn't get into how long we've known these 
things and how nobody in power actually uses their leverage to achieve them. No 
corporate donor to a politician judges their leverage by how well a politician 
'tweets'. It's votes on policy and other people in power (what Obama might call a 
"purity test") that count. We ought to do the same.

Perhaps none of these are the article you're referring to?

Lee Camp's response to AOC in https://youtube.com/watch?v=SryNJSASHdg brings up what 
a distraction "Tax the Rich" really is -- that phrase and the idea behind it settle 
for something as a starting position one shouldn't start with in the first place by 
purposefully doing nothing to challenge capitalism.

Unfortunately CounterPunch's commentary above are in the wrong format for a video 
show (such as playing on UPTV during News from Neptune, AWARE on the Air, or Labor's 
World View TV timeslots).



Getting back to AOC's choices: No matter how correct AOC's language may be, 
ultimately it's just more of what we've seen plenty of from AOC -- (at best) 
progressive talk with vanishingly little progressive action behind it despite having 
the power to do way better than she does. Sometimes she takes action directly opposed 
to progressive policy (not using her leverage to force a vote for Medicare for All 
stands out now since we're in the midst of a pandemic, and lying about holding her 
M4A support so she could fight for a $15 minimum wage which she then went on to not 
support, to name a couple recent examples). Sometimes she filibusters questions away 
to hide pertinent details like her recent ill-attended theatrics ostensibly 
"protesting" the federal rent/mortgage moratorium (which included hand-waving 
dismissal and use of loud music to drown out challenging questions), or not clearly 
and plainly discussing her voice vote on the CARES Act (which is objectionable on 
both not challenging Pelosi on a voice vote for the CARES Act and in almost certainly 
voting for the CARES Act, according to the audio of that voice vote in which we hear 
1 or 2 distinctly male voices vote against the CARES Act). The "progressive" media 
joins her in the latter case: Democracy Now didn't ask follow-up questions that would 
have highlighted AOC's dodging answering precisely how she voted, nor did DN ask 
about challenging Pelosi to require an on-the-record vote. And she's familiar with 
forcing a vote as her pre-election rhetoric shows and her voting in coordination 
shows (Jimmy Dore has made multiple episodes about these things).

AOC poses as a progressive but is just another establishment shill. She is fully 
compatible with the Democratic Party which works in collaboration with the 
Republicans as a metaphorical one-way ratchet to advance policies that move money 
from the poor to the wealthy and give us more war.
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