..another unforced error by a prominent Democrat.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday said lawmakers should not be barred from trading stock….
“We are a free-market economy. They should be able to participate in that,” Pelosi, whose venture-capitalist husband holds tens of millions of dollars’ worth of stocks and options, told reporters Wednesday.
Pelosi has long said she has no involvement in or prior knowledge of her husband’s trading decisions and does not own any stock herself.
As we recall the headlines of not too long ago:
Sen. Kelly Loeffler sold at least $18 million more in stocks before the coronavirus crash than previously reported Loeffler is one of many lawmakers under fire for suspicious stock-trading activity following a coronavirus intel briefing.
Yes, Madam Speaker, I would certainly love to “participate in that free market economy”. The only glitch is that I don’t have $18 Million to play around with and I am not privy to House and Senate briefings. Sure, Madam Speaker, I’m sure that not once have you and your husband ever had a light conversation as to how things looked in DC and how he might move around his roughly $120 Million in the markets. Anyone who has been married knows that we never, ever talk about work problems, shop talk, and of course, we never invite co-workers over for a cookout or dinner party.
At least you’re not claiming that you can’t comment because “I’m being audited”.
This stinks. This is what makes it harder, once again, to convince working class Americans to vote for Democrats.
Amen. This was a COLOSSAL blunder.
I’m really not sure what our next steps should be. The BBB plan is dead. It isn’t clear that we can do anything about voting rights, and that means that representative democracy dies with the 2022 election.
The insurrection is succeeding — in no small part because Democrats like Nancy Pelosi refuse to even admit that it is happening.
I’ve learned long ago not to second-guess Pelosi. Dems lose because we eat our own as so aptly demonstrated by both this diary and the one other comment currently attached hereto. Between griping about Biden’s choice of vacation hosts and stocks owned by Pelosi’s husband – ENOUGH ALREADY. Stick to the issues, preferably without prematurely and pessimistically declaring them dead.
Yeah, Chris, why prosecute or investigate insider trading when there are people vandalizing stuff out there?
She didn’t defend insider trading and neither do I. She just said that she thought it OK for elected officials to own stock. Personally, I think there’s something to be said for just banning that so there are no questions, but I reacted to yet another diary on BLUE Mass Group slapping around a leader of the Democratic Party.
Millions of Jews quietly boarded trains to the death camps because they couldn’t believe that the legitimate government of Germany would actually do the awful things that were being reported.
I’m sorry, but you are simply not paying attention — and neither is Nancy Pelosi.
Democrats are losing at the moment because an organized conspiracy of lies and sedition has taken over one of the two major political parties and the single network that more than half of America relies on to get their information.
This week, Joe Biden’s bid to sway Joe Manchin failed. The BBB bill, if it happens at all, will happen next year.
Meanwhile, the Democrats — “led” by Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, and Joe Biden, have done ZERO to address the hijacking of state election boards by the seditionists.
I have so far heard only one Representative explicitly state that the Select Committee is investigating potential criminal activity on the part of Donald Trump — Ms. Cheney, a Republican (and the daughter of an unprosecuted war criminal).
We Democrats are doing NOTHING while the foundations of this nation are being bulldozed.
There are not even rumors of DoJ prosecutions of anybody in the GOP. We now know that Jim Jordan was sending texts to Mark Meadows proposing ways to subvert the peaceful and legal transfer of power.
Which “issues” do you suggest we “stick with”?
Do you care that the GOP has ALREADY changed the laws in the six key swing states to allow the GOP legislature (or Governor, as the case may be) to discard election results at their discretion and send hand-picked political appointees to vote in the electoral college. That’s already DONE.
The inability of the Democrats to enforce vaccine mandates and even mask mandates has caused the supply chain to collapse and the pandemic to explode. Have you looked at the case counts in MA lately?
Are you paying attention to the second week of “unprecedented” severe weather destroying the heartland? Please show me any substantive progress we Democrats have made in addressing climate change.
At this point, the burden of proof is on you to show us some evidence — ANY evidence — that this Democratic House, Senate and White House can do anything about the multiple catastrophes that face us.
I don’t worship any god and I do not kneel before St. Pelosi.
I want to see action, and so far I see only talk.
Do you have any idea how depressing it is to read your constant harping about how we have already lost? Would you rather have Republican control with them pushing THEIR issues through? I suggest we stick to promoting BBB rather than giving up. I suggest we stick to promoting a Green New Deal rather than giving up. While I don’t want to become a mirror image of the Trump cult, I suggest we be publicly a bit more supportive of the agenda Biden, Pelosi, and Schumer are doing their best with the hand they have been dealt. The issue-based frustrations you mention are precisely because certain Dems don’t follow their leadership. I suggest we stop giving our opponents ideas to use against us by wringing our hands over every “unforced error”. BTW, I recently read a piece showing that small percentages of the population pay attention to 24-hour cable news of any stripe. The evening network news beats them by miles in terms of ratings. The things the Republicans (I no longer say GOP because they certainly aren’t “grand”.) are trying only work if voters let it. Yes, we need to elect the right people in 22 and 24, but these folks aren’t being coy. If these are the people the voters want then Trump will be legitimately re-elected if he runs with no coup necessary. It was a little over two years between the break-in at the Watergate and Nixon resigning in the face of certain impeachment. I continue to have every faith in the resilience of the last, best hope which is the United States of America, and I certainly do not see any Jews boarding trains. I categorically reject that Dems are doing nothing just because you don’t see bombshells on the news every night. If anything events this week point to things getting real, fast. If you thought we would see a whole bunch of Congressmen perp walked by now I think your expectations were misplaced. PLEASE refrain from doom-scrolling and sharing that here – it’s bad for both of our mental healths!
There are three related issues that matter right now:
Anything that distracts from these issues is a distraction. If these aren’t solved, than nothing else will come to fruition no matter how grandiose it sounds.
Are you familiar with the abuse that Ruby Freeman and her daughter have suffered since the November election? Ms. Freeman has dutifully reported these relentless attacks and threats for more than year, and Georgia authorities have done nothing. Federal authorities have done nothing. The video published last week was taken by a police officer in a police station because Ms. Freedom wanted to be in a safe place — and STILL nothing has been done.
When you know that these attacks are taking place and know that authorities are aware of them and doing NOTHING — and then continue to pretend that everything is fine, you ARE one of those Jews boarding a train. The train is leaving the station and we’re both on it.
You have deep connections in the state party. You are one of a handful of people (relatively speaking) who has the ability to directly influence elected officials. America needs you to be calling your colleagues to action rather than chastising those of us see what you insist on closing your eyes to.
When was the last time you sampled a broadcast of the evening network news on our local Fox affiliates? Those are the broadcasts I’m talking about. The toxin and corruption starts at the top and goes all the way to reporters on the street.
Fox News dominates the national audience in both daytime, evening news, and primetime ratings and market share. Their relentless flood of lies, distortions, and half-truths is not limited to their primetime shows.
Our 250 year old national building has been firebombed by a mob of vandals. That mob has surrounded the building and is shooting at firefighters trying to extinguish the blaze. The dominant “news” source for most Americans blames those firefighters for failing to extinguish the blaze, even as half their peers are busy cutting the hoses in half as fast they can.
I get that it’s depressing and therefore not something you want to hear. That doesn’t make it any less real.
This is an emergency. It’s time Democrats started paying attention to it.
I’m not saying that eternal vigilance is not the price of liberty, or that there isn’t anything more that can or should be done, but I have not given up and will not do so. I’m not entirely sure what more you expect that is realistic and legal from Dems. You refer to my state party role, but I’m pretty sure our own federal delegation (the largest single-party delegation of any state) is on board with the agenda of our leadership. I wasn’t aware that Fox did an evening newscast on its local broadcast channels, but I’m pretty sure the article I read was comparing news consumption of the cable networks vs. the big three evening newscasts at 6:30. If you want to watch MSNBC primetime, I suggest focusing on Rachel Maddow rather than Chris Hayes. The former tends to emphasize progress that is being made resisting the concerns you have while the latter seems to harp on how terrible Trump people are, which I already know and don’t need a nightly reminder – I’ve started to refer to that genre as “Trump porn”. It just so happens today I read two articles which can explain where we are better than I can, but they aren’t very linkable so please forgive the mega copy and paste job:
From Politico Nightly (about investigation progress):
From Electoral-Vote.com (about legislative progress)
I understand much of this can be upsetting, but remember that it is Republicans who are aiding and abetting an insurrection, and Republicans who aren’t lifting a finger to provide enough votes to pass our agenda. Don’t you think our righteous anger should be directed at them rather than our own leadership?
Yes indeed. That means that only Democrats can put it down.
Yes again. We have a majority in the House and Senate, we should not need any Republican votes in either.
When the Republicans are in the majority, they ram through anything and everything they choose, largely because Democrats don’t like to be nasty and don’t want to be viewed as “obstructionist”.
During the long years while Republicans held both houses, Democrats used their minority status as an excuse for inaction. I lived in Brookline during the 2006 campaign season when Barney Frank was running for re-election. I attended a campaign appearance, and when I had an opportunity to speak with him I asked him point-blank why the Democrats were doing nothing about the well-documented war crimes of the George W. Bush administration. His answer was “As the minority party, we can’t even schedule hearings. Help me get a Democratic majority and I promise you that those hearings will be the first order of business of the new congress.”
The incoming congress that January did have a Democratic majority. No hearings were ever scheduled. Barney Frank’s public statements were “We have more important matters to attend to”.
The George W. Bush administration normalized war crimes. That administration showed that the invasion of a sovereign nation under false pretenses had no consequences. They taught a new generation of public officials that formal written policies of kidnapping, abuse and torture emanating from the Oval Office and carried out by members of the US military — war crimes — had no consequences. No legal consequences and no political consequences. Causing people to lose money — now THAT is unforgivable. War crimes are just fine.
If we are to be a nation under the rule of law then we must insist on applying the rule of law to even the most powerful and doing so even when it isn’t politically convenient.
I most certainly am angry at the Republican tyrants. They are behaving the way they have behaved my entire life. The GOP has ALWAYS been the party of racism, hypocrisy, hate, misogyny, and astonishingly flagrant and transparent venal greed. ALWAYS.
If anything, the reprehensible immorality of the GOP puts an even heavier burden on we Democrats to do the right thing.
Protecting representative democracy in America is FAR more important than any aspect of “Build Back Better”. Ensuring that the GOP leaders of the ongoing insurrection are prosecuted, convicted, incarcerated, and fined is FAR more important than any aspect of Build Back Better.
How much has our party done about either of those while being in power? It is more than a year after the “stop the steal” movement began, and there are ZERO reports of federal grand juries. ZERO reports of any investigations. Merrick Garland is doing absolutely NOTHING about any prosecutions of the high-level Republican officials who have been orchestrating this insurrection.
Yes, the Republicans are awful. That means we Democrats have to actually DO all the work. Being angry at Republicans is not going to change the behavior of any Democrat even a little bit. Being angry at Republicans is not going light a fire under Merrick Garland or get a special prosecutor in place to aggressively pursue the necessary criminal indictments.
It is the DEMOCRATS who ought to change their behavior.
Reminds me of a time when I complained to a state official, an elected Democrat, about a piece of legislation they supported and voted for that had a negative effect on me. Their reply, “Well, the Republicans wanted to hurt you even more!” Oh, I guess I should find comfort in that.
Democrats aren’t perfect but the Repukelicans, Cristofascist conservacuckTrumpniks led by Hair Gropenfuhrer ????
They’re dirty, rotten, f…ing traitorous, corrupt cowards bought and paid for by greedy corporatists and fascist propaganda interests.
And you can quote me verbatim on that!
And while we’re at it. Putin’s Whore, Lord of the Coup, Orange Anus, that failing, criminal pervert, rapist wannabe tycoon, is mentally ill, impotent and increasingly politically irrelevant.
And these are the nicest things I can say about the LOOOOOOOSER !
Well, then we need to elect more progressive Dems. There are DINOs, RINOs, and even PINOs (progressive in name only) and I will add to that list MINO (majority in name only). Do you have the magic solution to getting Sen. Manchin on board? Do you think a primary from his left will work in WV? I thought we were going to elect Dem Senators in ME, NC and in my wilder dreams possibly SC, IA, TX, and KY, but alas we did not. You should have seen the interview with a couple of former US attorneys on The Last Word last night who pointed out a lot is probably going on we don’t know about. You should make a habit of checking the Electoral-Vote website I used above. Saturday is Q&A day and today they had a question which easily could have come from you. All of these come down to same message as mine – PATIENCE!
I agree with pretty much all of this.
Not magic — did you read my recent post about changing congress (https://bluemassgroup.com/2021/12/changing-congress-one-official-at-a-time/)?
I suggest that the Democrats should agree to whatever Mr. Manchin demands in order get BBB done. I think it would be FAR better to PASS a stripped-down version of this bill and then take up the parts that were removed in separate legislation. The progressive wing of our party paralyzed the entire government and risks having nothing to show for it at all.
Absolutely not. It is a miracle that Mr. Manchin is in the Senate as a Democrat.
I have argued, for months, that the Democrats should be flooding West Virginia with messaging about the immediate benefits the Democratic agenda brings to West Virginia.
It does no good to elect progressive Democrats if states simply reverse those elections.
The insurrection MUST be stopped. The most important aspect of the Voting Rights bill is to re-impose pre-clearance by the DoJ. All the other aspects are important — and they can all wait.
We are at war, and we must make the tough decisions that being at war demands. Our Progressive Democrats — “The Squad” in particular — are making matters worse rather than better.
Could not agree more on this one. Yes, the war chests should be on full spend in West Virginia telling them all the benefits they will receive and the better America we will leave for our children and grand children with our Build Back Better.
My thoughts exactly – 6 6s! Let’s just keep up with this rather than giving oxygen to any “unforced errors” from our side.
EDIT: Three in four voters support banning lawmakers from trading stocks.
When the Speaker of the House, a prominent Democrat who, along with her husband makes tens of millions of dollars trading stocks comes out against a ban that 75% of Americans support, it only increases the odds that the Democrats will lose the House and Senate in 2022.
If Speaker Pelosi stopped trading today, she and her husband would still have $46 Million Dollars
Is that not enough?
Nancy Pelosi has already dropped strong hints that she will step down as Speaker whatever happens in the 2022 elections.
I do not share your opinion that Ms. Pelosi’s opposition to a ban on legislators has any significant role in the upcoming election.
The widespread and growing perception that the Democrats have done nothing at all about the most pressing issues facing us at the moment strikes me as far more important.
Sitting members of Congress give a middle-finger salute to the committee investigating the insurrection — and nothing happens.
The leaders of the GOP have already blatantly and flagrantly committed crimes that would cause you or me to be immediately jailed if we did the same — and nothing happens.
I don’t see the point of bothering to even pay attention to all this — never mind vote — if Democratic control over each branch of government still leaves the GOP in power.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said yesterday that if elected Speaker, he will strip Democrats of their committee positions in retaliation for disciplinary actions taken against outright GOP thugs and terrorists in the House. Does anyone doubt this?
We are already in a civil war, Democrats claim to be aware of it — and nothing happens.
The cynic in me will say that they are doing nothing at all because they are all the same, all grifters. Nancy’s actions point in that direction.
Nailed it, John. This Venn Diagram sums up our duopoly pretty well.
Anybody paying the slightest bit of attention knows that the parties have never been more different. Every single Dems’ voting record in Congress is to the left overall of every Republican. Yes, Manchin is even to the left of Susan Collins. For crying out loud the only Dems who didn’t vote for the infrastructure bill were the virtue-signaling Squad and only a handful of Republicans did vote for it. BBB is not getting any help from Republicans either and they don’t even want to discuss voting rights. The above diagram represents nothing but inaccurate, ignorant, and unhelpful cynicism. If the two parties were really the same we would have a superproductive Congress passing everything with overwhelming bipartisan majorities.
If the majority party wanted to pass the BBB they would pass it, especially if the majority party were led by a Senate insider with a reputation of being able to get things done by working with members across the aisle.
This is the first time I’ve seen Christopher claim to be speaking on behalf of “anyone paying the slightest attention”. That’s quite a transformation.
What majority party? A party that has a “majority” only by the constitutional quirk of counting the VP really isn’t one. Plus, in case you had not noticed, not every member of the “majority” agrees on BBB. That does not mean that it isn’t generally true that Dems favor it and Republicans don’t. What is your magic trick that you don’t think either Schumer or Biden has thought of to get Manchin to agree to it (assuming Republicans are hopeless)?
Anyone who has been paying the slightest attention knows what I have been advocating. Try to reach individual Senators on the other side. There are 50 of them, each with their own pressure points, positive and negative. Raise the possibility to Machin and Sinema that BBB (or voting rights, or filibuster reform) might get done without them, And that if that happens the Democratic leadership won’t owe Manchin or Sinema anything, so whatever it is that these two have been asking for had better be more reasonable than the best deal any two Republicans might offer.
Assuming that all 50 Republicans are hopeless is the worst, most self-defeating kind of purism.
Really? It strikes me as realism.
Perhaps you might enumerate the Republican Senators that you think are more easily swayed than Mr. Manchin.
Mr. Romney, for example, has already said that he opposes any changes to the filibuster rule.
My suggestion is that Mr. Biden inform Ms. Sinema that he needs her to immediately accept a temporary emergency posting to Gambell, Alaska in order to address the rapidly evolving Ukranian crisis. Gambell is of course, isolated, and bitter cold. Ms. Sinema will no doubt be able to see Russia, just like Ms. Palin claimed.
Ms. Sinema would, of course, have to immediately give up her committee assignments during her absence, but could vote from her new position. She would therefore not have to give up her seat.
Mr. Biden can assure her that the crisis she is courageously addressing will be resolved within an hour or so of her changing her vote, so that she can return forthwith to her Senate duties once the filibuster rules are reformed.
I suspect that Mr. Machin might get the message.
Our current generation of Democrats do not understand the concept of “throwing a bit of stick about”.
The position you envision for Sinema sounds like it belongs in the executive branch and therefore she would have to resign. I can easily imagine McConnell trying to seize majority status the moment a Dem seat falls vacant.
In theory I agree with you. In practice how’s that been working out so far? Personally I’m ready to turn BBB over to Joe Manchin and just tell him to write his own bill with as much as he is willing to spend and that’s what we’ll pass for now.
Christopher, you just don’t get it.
Ms. Sinema has today said that she will not support any reform of the filibuster rules. Mr. Manchin has already said he opposes making changes.
That means that voting rights are dead. That means that GOP partisans will ignore the result of presidential elections in their state and appoint hand-picked electors of their choice instead.
Mr. McCarthy has already said that if he becomes Speaker next January, he will strip Democrats like Mr. Schiff and Mr. Salwell of their committee assignments in retaliation for the discipline against seditionists and insurrections in the House in 2021.
I’m paying more than slight attention.
The Venn diagram is irrelevant, this entire exchange is irrelevant.
It could be generations before America has another free and fair presidential election.
It is woefully incorrect to claim that the GOP and Democrats are the same, of course they are different.
It doesn’t matter. The political system has already failed.
It has already failed because:
I have no clue what 2023 will feel like.
I think it’s time to start asking our state officials how Massachusetts will be protected from the right-wing attacks that will surely be coming our way after the 2022 election.
We had five years — starting in 2016 — to address this problem. We wasted them.
So why are you upset with me when it seems like you ultimately agree with me about the point regarding the two parties? Yes, you pay more than slight attention. Yes, you note the parties are different. QED
Why do I have to keep pointing out the progress being made pursuant to January 6th? Yesterday’s big news was that DOJ is moving up the chain (the way prosecutions usually do) and has started to charge seditious conspiracy. It is completely unreasonable to have expected big name elected officials to be in jail over that by now.
The DoJ has been “moving up the chain” for another month. Still nothing.
No decision on Mark Meadow’s obvious contempt of congress.
No DoJ reaction to overwhelming evidence of criminality by Mr. Trump and today’s GOP.
No DoJ reaction to stealing classified documents, using private cellphones for official business, destroying presidential record, attempting to use military agencies and Homeland Security to confiscate voting machines, and on and on.
Lawrence Tribe is not some crazy lunatic who knows nothing about the law. He TAUGHT and mentored Merrick Garland at Harvard. Mr. Tribe has said on-air multiple times that Mr. Garland must act NOW.
Neal Katyal is a frequent guest on MSNBC. He is a Former Principal Deputy Solicitor General of the United States. He is even more strident than Mr. Tribe. He has argued dozens of cases before the Supreme Court.
These two — Mr. Tribe and Mr. Katyal — are saying the same things I’m writing here. Do you dismiss them as well?
I don’t demand that “big name elected officials be in jail … now”. I instead demand that Mr. Garland and the DoJ make it clear that aggressive DoJ investigations are underway.
We need a clear and direct statement from Merrick Garland that this criminal activity is being aggressively investigated and prosecuted by the DoJ.
That STILL hasn’t happened.
..and just like that, Nancy finally comes around. Pelosi buckles, pushes stock-trading ban. I wonder if the Speaker reads Blue Mass Group?
Meanwhile, Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville, who violated stock-trading rules 132 times last year, says it’s ‘ridiculous’ to ban lawmakers from trading stocks
Hello Democrats? Here is an issue you can run on and WIN!