Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

“But what about the lurkers?”

If you voted for Trump, you don’t get to speak about ethics, morals, or rule of law.

“The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits.”

Many life forms that would benefit from greater intelligence, sadly, do not have it.

Meanwhile over at truth Social, the former president is busy confessing to crimes.

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

“Loving your country does not mean lying about it’s history.”

Fight them, without becoming them!

Everything is totally normal and fine!!!

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

A norm that restrains only one side really is not a norm – it’s a trap.

We won’t go back.

One lie, alone, tears the fabric of reality.

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

The media handbook says “controversial” is the most negative description that can be used for a Republican.

This really is a full service blog.

Following reporting rules is only for the little people, apparently.

Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.

Republicans: slavery is when you own me. freedom is when I own you.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

He wakes up lying, and he lies all day.

Dead end MAGA boomers crying about Talyor Swift being a Dem is my kind of music. Turn it up.

You are here: Home / Civil Rights / Women's Rights / A Woman's Place Is In The House / Proud to Be A Democrat Open Thread: Deb Haaland for Interior Secretary

Proud to Be A Democrat Open Thread: Deb Haaland for Interior Secretary

by | 89 Comments

This post is in: , ,

Joe Manchin has announced that he’ll vote in favor of Haaland’s confirmation, which is perceived as a good omen, after the GOP Death Cultists attacked her:

… In her opening statement, Haaland attempted to strike a delicate balance on energy and environmental policy, saying, “There’s no question that fossil energy does and will continue to play a major role in America for years to come.” But, she added, “Our climate challenge must be addressed,” and she contended that “the Department has a role in harnessing the clean energy potential of our public lands to create jobs and new economic opportunities.”

Barrasso [R-WY] said Tuesday that he feels “troubled” by some of Haaland’s positions on climate and energy issues, while Daines said he is “concerned” about proceeding with the nomination.

In one contentious exchange Tuesday, Barrasso asked Haaland to answer for a tweet from October 2020 in which she said that Republicans don’t believe in science. The GOP senator pointed out that he and several other Republican members of the committee are medical doctors and called the remark “concerning.”

“Senator, yes, if you’re a doctor, I would assume that you believe in science,” Haaland replied…

Mr. Charles P. Pierce, at Esquire:

… Surely, I don’t have to run down the long recent history of wingnut physicians who get elected and then forget everything they ever learned anywhere except at Vacation Bible School. Republican politicians have accepted lucrative ignorance as the cost of maintaining their partisan viability, and they’ve done so for decades. (The tweet that Barrasso is pretending bothered him so was Haaland’s noting that an RNC document had dropped the word “science” entirely.) Haaland was composed enough not to call out Barrasso for the disingenuous charlatan that he was being at the moment. She played her answer down the middle, promising to remember not only the land and water, but also the families that depend on the extraction industries that the previous administration* allowed to run amuck. Remember, their first Interior Secretary was Ryan Zinke, who lasted two years before being forced to resign over his connection to energy corporations back in Montana. Joe Manchin had no problem deciding to vote for him.


Haaland’s (very strong) opening statement here:

Per the Bozeman [Montana] Daily Chronicle:

For Native Americans, Deb Haaland is more than an elected official on track to become the first Indigenous secretary of the Interior Department. She is a sister, an auntie and a fierce pueblo woman whose political stances have been molded by her upbringing.

News of her historic nomination electrified Indian Country. Tribal leaders and organizations for weeks have urged people to write and call U.S. senators who will decide if she’ll lead the agency that has broad oversight over Native American affairs and energy development…

To mark the event, supporters projected a picture of the New Mexico congresswoman on the side of the Interior building with text that read “Our Ancestors’ Dreams Come True.” A mobile billboard with Haaland’s image also made its way around Washington, D.C.

Many Native Americans see Haaland as a reflection of themselves, someone who will elevate their voices and protect the environment and tribes’ rights. Here are stories of her impact…

Reader Interactions

89Comments

  2. 2.

    Roger Moore

    I really like the comparison of jobs from outdoor recreation to the number of jobs from oil and gas.  I guess the number would go up a little if you included other forms of resource extraction, but not by a lot.  What it really boils down to is that resource extraction has a few big players who can lobby effectively, which outdoor recreation is mostly small players.​
     
    ETA: Second!

  7. 7.

    dmsilev

    @Roger Moore: There’s a similar argument about wind and solar. By the time you total up everyone involved, including an army of residential rooftop installers, it’s a lot of people, but also a lot of small and mid sized companies. Sure, GE makes (huge) wind turbines, but they’re an outlier.

  8. 8.

    MazeDancer

    Only 400 years later, a Native takes control of the Land.

    Pretty much everyday, I sigh that I can no longer live in Santa Fe. But celebrating Secretary Haaland, while not in NM, will be especially wistful.

    OTOH, couldn’t get together with anyone anyway. Still, there is bound to be some kind of outdoor event.

    This is such wonderful, remarkable news.

  9. 9.

    Roger Moore

    @dmsilev: ​
     
    And solar has a few big players, like Tesla and the companies that are financing rooftop solar. But yes, the basic point is that political power comes based not just on how big an industry is but on how concentrated power is within that industry. It’s also part of the reason the big defense contractors are so keen to consolidate.

  10. 10.

    Mary G

    I spent four years looking at pictures of That Last Fellow and his occupying hordes of pudgy older whiter men, and this feels like coming home from a foreign country.

  13. 13.

    Cameron

    So Embarrasso is a doctor?  So is the guy who was Trump’s main man on COVID, Steve Atlas or Charles Atlas or WTF his name is.  So is Dr. Oz.

  14. 14.

    Mike in NC

    One of Trump’s Interior Secretaries was a retired Navy SEAL from Montana who loved big game hunting. Stellar qualifications.

  16. 16.

    dmsilev

    @Cameron: A different GOP Senatorial Jackass, Bill Cassidy, told Xavier Beccerra that he wasn’t qualified to run HHS because he wasn’t a doctor. Cassidy, as I’m pretty sure we can all guess, happily voted to confirm noted non-doctor Alex Azar to the same position.

  17. 17.

    danielx

    @dmsilev: ​
     
    I remember that – Frist was the guy who diagnosed Karen Ann Quinlan as a sentient and aware human being on the basis of seeing a video, right?

  20. 20.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Baud: Charlie Pierce has what he calls the Paul Family rule, if Ron or Rand ever sound like they’re making sense, give em five minutes to turn looney. I’d give Bernie seven minutes, but that’s probably longer than his segment will be.

  26. 26.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @dmsilev: Mike Leavitt (BA, Southern Utah U) ran his father’s insurance agency before going into politics. If Tommy Thompson had any private sector, much less medical, experience between law school and full time political office, his wiki page doesn’t mention it.

  28. 28.

    Ronno2018

    I just hope Native Americans/First Peoples can continue to support things like https://www.half-earthproject.org/ .  I know people need incomes and extractive industries do that, but as others above mentioned hiking, camping, nature tourism does work to create jobs!!!

  30. 30.

    trollhattan

    Kid’s flying home from Vegas after her team’s XC meet and the high point of their three days there was seeing the “Pawn Stars” store. First visit and all.

  32. 32.

    trollhattan

    @Mike in NC:

    Zinke? He was comically bad-evil, while his replacement, Bernhardt, is the head lobbyist for Westlands Water District and extremely well connected. Once they begin to unravel his many dealings and misdeeds, folks are going to be gobsmacked at the breadth of the giveaways.

  37. 37.

    aliasofwestgate

    my roomie’s mom got her shot today!  Her younger bro the grocery worker is going to get his in the next week or so too here in WI. So yeah. One step closer for the next group to be opened, and eventually opening it to everyone.

    I love having actual organization and working behind the scenes going on. It makes such a huge difference.

  38. 38.

    trollhattan

    @dmsilev:

    Becerra had the temerity to sue the Trump Admin more than a hundred times so is persona non grata to Republicans, and they Do Not Want. I’m going short on his confirmation.

    Was kind of hoping he’d get the senate seat, we’ll see how this all plays out.

  47. 47.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @trollhattan:

    They are both such good people. Jimmy’s post-presidential work is well-known — guinea worm eradication, Habitat for Humanity, election monitoring, and so much more — but Rosalynn’s mental health advocacy and initiatives are less reported on. She has put boundless energy into a fellowship program for journalists covering mental health issues.

  51. 51.

    trollhattan

    @Baud:

    Honestly believe that having Tom Cotton as a vocal critic can only help. He’s bordering on “special needs.”

  53. 53.

    randy khan

    I would rather not trade Haaland for Tanden, so to speak, but if I had to pick one, I’d pick Haaland.

  56. 56.

    PsiFighter37

    If Manchin is voting for her, she will get in. I don’t think Sinema or Kelly (really the only two who would have something to gain by being seen as ‘bipartisan’ by whatever warped definition it goes by these days) will vote against her if Manchin does.

    Tanden, however, I think is in deep trouble. If Manchin had not said anything, she probably makes it through by a bare majority. But Manchin coming out gives the GOP cover to vote against her en masse, and it seems like there are others (e.g. Wilmer) who wouldn’t mind voting against her either. She’s dead in the water, and I would not be surprised if Biden plays the Donnie card – gets the deputy confirmed, then simply elevates her to be acting director until they can backfill all the other spots to submit the deputy for formal confirmation as head.

  58. 58.

    trollhattan

    Instant Murphy fan if she does this. Is she tall?

    “Rep. Stephanie Murphy (D-FL) is seriously considering a bid to unseat Sen. Marco Rubio’s (R-FL) 2022 reelection, announcing Wednesday that she’s launching a statewide listening tour and has hired a top Democratic operative to manage the effort,” Politico reports.

    “Murphy, 42, has been elected three times to one of Florida’s most competitive congressional districts in Orlando, and first won the seat by knocking out 12-term incumbent GOP Rep. John Mica when few thought she could. It was a giant-killer act that Democrats hope she can repeat if she takes on Rubio, widely seen as a hard-to-beat incumbent.”
    https://politicalwire.com/2021/02/24/stephanie-murphy-weighs-challenge-to-rubio/

  59. 59.

    trollhattan

    @David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch: ​
    Recording it for later. Two Mewii are too much for any defense, and one is frequently all it takes!

    I so hope we have the Olympics. Vlatko has a damn hard task ahead, picking his 18. Hard to believe we have more talent than ever before, but that’s how I see it.

  62. 62.

    Jeffro

    This article is a good start…can you tell what two words are missing from the headline?

    Many of Biden’s nominees of color run into turbulence in the Senate

    (try it this way, snooze media:

    “Many of Biden’s nominees of color run into turbulence with Republicans in the Senate.”

    There you go!  Yes, yes, Manchin and Sinema, I know.  They’re 5% of the problem at most.)

    Still, I’m glad that the snoozers are at least pointing out the racism (and/or, at least in some cases, the double standards re: experience, job fitness, etc)

  64. 64.

    Dan B

    @Gin & Tonic:Congrats!  Now be evasive for a couple weeks.

    I’m set for ten days from today, at last.  I’m in 1B tier 1 and couldn’t get an earlier appointment when I signed up five weeks ago.  WA state Health Dept figured that implementation didn’t need planning since they’d just get it to people who give vaccinations, like overwhelmed healthcare providers and pharmacies that do flu shots but not prioritizing at risk groups or having capacity to deal with a CDC headed by people who hate the feds and loathe the weak and the poor.

    Heads should roll, but apparently Inslee is too “nice”.  The public is angry and there are no consequences – bad combo.

    My partner and a friend, both 1B tier 2 (!) have already had their second jabs..

    d the time I get my second the California, UK, and South African variants will be well established here and it will be time to wait for the booster.  I understand why Fauci says masks through 2022.

    I did score some great KN95 from Well❤Before.  And behind head gadgets to tighten them.

  65. 65.

    Winston

    I got my second Moderna shot yesterday.Today I had a Doc appointment I really didn’t want to go to; I just wanted to sleep all day. Arm hurts, joints hurt and mind is fuzzy. I get home and read where Moderna is testing a new vax to compensate for the new strains of Covid. Wasn’t that what happened with the flu vaccine and why it took years to develop?

    Doc asked me if I felt depressed. I said I feel like I’ve been in jail for a year for a crime I didn’t commit. She said my cholesterol is too high. I said, wasn’t it great news that the cardiologist you sent me to said everything was okay? She said she’s going to prescribe a drug to lower my cholesterol.

    I was feeling good when I got there about getting my second vax and it’s two weeks to getting out of jail, but when I left, I was depressed.

    Watched a couple good movies on netflix the last few days; I CARE A LOT and TRIBES OF EUROPA. Tribes ends with a major cliff hangers so there may be more to it. It’s six episodes. I CARE is about the guardian scam and stars Peter Dinklage. Has a twist ending I kinda enjoyed.

    Dana Milbank has a great post on Wapo

  66. 66.

    topclimber

    @PsiFighter37: I don’t see two Dem Senators from Arizona pissing off the tribes. Back when Hillary and I were stumping for Goldwater, I remember him crediting the Indian vote for helping him win his Senate races.

  72. 72.

    Roger Moore

    @stinger:

    Surely Charlie Pierce knows how to spell “amok”.

    Both “amok” and “amuck” are acceptable spellings.  This kind of thing happens when you transliterate a word from a different language, in this case Malay.  Perhaps Amir could provide some useful information on the term.

  73. 73.

    PsiFighter37

    @topclimber: This is a very good point. So with Manchin on board, she will definitely be confirmed then. I only made the point because, surprisingly, I feel like our AZ senators will be much more inclined to tend towards the middle, whereas our GA senators (Warnock and Ossoff) will almost certainly vote with the base. It’s a great strategy to have when winning statewide elections means you win when you get your base out. GA still needs to prove itself, but if Stacey Abrams can dummy-proof GA against voter suppression the same way that Harry Reid forged Nevada into a consistently Democratic state (despite the margin for error being low), then Warnock and Ossoff will be in good shape. The fact that Perdue Chicken passed on running in 2022 suggests that the big names of the Georgia GOP (which, let’s face it – their bench may be deep, but it’s not noteworthy) may pass. My bigger worry there would be if Raffensperger decides to pull a Brian Kemp and run against Warnock, but Trump hates him so much that he will almost certainly be torpedoed next year in a primary, no matter what he runs for.

  77. 77.

    NotMax

    Barasso? Staunch fluffer to the bitter end of that paragon* of science and ethics Scott Pruitt at EPA?

    *paragon, that is, as defined on Bizarro world

    P.S.: Manchin was one of only two Democrats to vote yes on Pruitt’s nomination, also too.

  78. 78.

    Anne Laurie

    @PsiFighter37: Tanden, however, I think is in deep trouble. If Manchin had not said anything, she probably makes it through by a bare majority. But Manchin coming out gives the GOP cover to vote against her en masse, and it seems like there are others (e.g. Wilmer) who wouldn’t mind voting against her either.

    Yeah, Wilmer’s a Spite Monster, but let’s not overlook the fact that among Tanden’s unforgivably mean tweets was one pointing out that Manchin’s daughter got a salary bump from $2million to $19million when her company raised the price of EpiPens by some 500 percent.

    So he’s the best we can do in West Virginia.  Not an advertisement for the state, regardless of our beloved Blogmeister…

  80. 80.

    raven

    My friend the doc and instructor at the med school did this today

     

    Athens Community Council on Aging

    5h  ·

     

    Today was a VERY special day at ACCA! With help from the
    Northeast Health District (Georgia Public Health District 10)
    , Dr. Lester and the medical students from the
    AU UGA Medical Partnership
    , some of ACCA’s direct-service clients received their first vaccine shot!

    The Department of Public Health mobile vaccination clinic has been vaccinating the most vulnerable of those we serve, those who face challenges with access to technology to register for vaccines and transportation to vaccination appointments. By eliminating these barriers, we are helping to protect our most vulnerable from COVID-19.

    It has been almost a year since many of these clients have been on ACCA’s campus. With each vaccination given, it gives us HPE that one day soon we can be together again.

  81. 81.

    CarolPW

    @Dan B: I got my second injection today (Eastern WA). It was delayed for 4 days because of shipping problems but today was flawless. The Guard are doing the vaccinations at the fair grounds, with fire department EMTs standing by for vaccine reactions and police doing traffic management. No pharmacy or regular medical people involved.ETA: the county health department is running it. Variations between counties is obviously a possibility.​​​​

  82. 82.

    Winston

    @Benw: Welp, the second shot is almost exactly like the first, except that I didn’t have to go out the next day after the first shot and have my doc bum me out. Oh, she also said, have you had a colonoscopy lately? Asshole pucker.

  86. 86.

    S. Cerevisiae

    This Ojibwe is definitely hoping she is confirmed, and everyone I know on the Rez is as well. We have been waiting a long time.

    also got the second Moderna shot today, so far so good…

  87. 87.

    Doc Sardonic

    @Winston: Try getting your doc to do one of the box tests like cologuard first, if you have no family history of colon cancer. Mine bit on that and I have had cancer twice, but no family history of colon cancer.

  88. 88.

    Winston

    @Doc Sardonic: That’s what I said. She has me dig around in my shit every 2 months and put a specimen in a kit. If that comes around with some concern, then they can stick that camera up my ass.

Comments are closed.