“They are beholden to their corporate donors” is such an oft-repeated phrase we tend to ignore it, but watching Manchin’s behavior tells you pretty clearly what corporate donors want. On the reconciliation bill, they want the Senate to go slow so they can review and pick apart the reconciliation bills to make sure that everything they don’t like gets deleted. Going slow also increases the possibility that nothing will happen, and the status quo is pretty good to corporations right now. On the debt ceiling, they don’t want default, but minority rule via the filibuster has been good to corporate donors, so they don’t want that changed. Instead, we’ll have a really ugly game of chicken and a compromise that will make Democrats want to puke.
Similarly, it’s all but forgotten by the media that the Republicans are the cause of all the debt ceiling anguish and they’re constantly willing to ransom the government, not to mention the health of the nation, to win, or at least make Democrats lose. The both-sides media coverage of the debt ceiling fight is a huge enabler of Republican behavior, and the media is apparently institutionally unable to change rapidly enough (or, in some cases, at all) to keep up with the Republican tactics. So, the Republicans will keep doing it.
So, while I’m all for applying pressure to Democrats to have them make an exception to a stupid rule of the Senate so they can lift or invalidate the debt ceiling, it probably won’t happen, and even if it did, the media would still shit all over Democrats for doing it. That goes double for minting a coin or any other novel solution, because if the status-quo-worshipping DC media hates anything more than something new dreamed up by Democrats, I don’t know what it is.
I don’t think any of the above is new, shocking or even controversial, but maybe you disagree.
matt the somewhat reasonable
The only thing I object to is the conceit that the media wants to change but ‘can’t change fast enough’. I don’t think they want to change at all, except for the worse.
lowtechcyclist
Isn’t minting the platinum coin totally an Executive Branch decision? And Biden is clearly willing to do things (like exiting Afghanistan) that give the media a shit fit.
ETA: Ah, the coveted second spot. :-)
Elizabelle
I could care less about minting the coin, but ending the filibuster is another issue altogether.
It’s time.
narya
Unrelated: a couple of weeks (?) ago, someone on this site was looking for a way to have someone farm his land, I think? Anyone remember who that was? I found a site that might be useful for them.
lowtechcyclist
@matt the somewhat reasonable:
Given the progression from regular media to Politico to Axios to Punchbowl, I’d say the evidence is on your side.
Betty Cracker
Is the sticking point for using reconciliation for the debt ceiling that it can only be used once, and thus if it’s used to neutralize McConnell’s economic suicide bomb, it can’t be used to pass whatever portion of the remaining Biden agenda Manchina deem acceptable to No Labels? I can’t keep all the stupid rules and bad-faith players straight.
The Thin Black Duke
We’re doomed. Sigh.
Elizabelle
@The Thin Black Duke: Cheer yourself up by listening to Biden’s press conference right now.
He is so good at this. Humane
ETA: it just ended. Some male was screaming about “The Border.”
David Fud
This hasn’t been said enough. The clap louder crew isn’t going to ever get what they want and they circle the troops for a self-slaughter when they don’t. We aren’t going to get everything up front, and have to chisel away at this for our entire lives. It isn’t going to be a Hail-Mary touchdown and then we get to all stop focusing on it. It is like self-work: a continuous, careful slog of work that never. freaking. ends.
azlib
What is particularly bizarre is corporations do better under Dem rule even with higher taxes and more regulations.
bbleh
@Betty Cracker: No. There can be up to three (I think) reconciliation bills this year alone, because there are at least three (I think) different measures that are subject to reconciliation rules and that need to be (or can be) passed this year, including the budget for last year that technically never was passed (there were only continuing resolutions). The problem is getting the votes for even one of them.
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
I say we just keep servicing our debt without any coin or other gimmick if they decide to not raise the ceiling and let whoever has standing sue…would anyone actually do that? Because whose going to stop us from paying our debts whether or not we exceed this imaginary ceiling that’s used as a political football? And once we’ve proved that ceiling doesn’t really exist, well, why worry about it ever again? If the hostage is imaginary it’s not much of a hostage. So just prove it’s imaginary.
sab
@azlib: The Masters if Industry aren’t necessarily brighter than us, just much, much richer.
James E Powell
They don’t worship the status quo; they worship Republican authority figures. They swoon for every “bold” Republican who trashes norms & expectations. They cover for their corruption, hypocrisy, and lying. TFG & Co planned a coup, wrote a memo, and even took notes on a criminal fucking conspiracy. The American press/media pretty much ignored it. About 1/10 the coverage of Podesta’s risotto recipe.
And you’re right, the Democrats in congress as currently constituted are not going to do anything but drag it out and make Biden’s agenda worse than it could be because a handful of them are complete & total assholes who don’t give a shit about their people or their party.
The only thing we, the people, can do is elect more & better Democrats. We are on the brink of another election year and we most certainly need to win it. I don’t agree that we are doomed, but if we lose the house & senate, that view will change.
The Moar You Know
“Probably”? C’mon, neither one of those things is going to happen. Ever. Not will expanding the Supreme Court. We gotta work with what we have, and get more Dems into office by any means, fair or foul. That’s the only way we’re going to get out of this fucked-up mess that is America in the 21st century.
Steeplejack (phone)
TFG with his finger on the pulse of current events!
azlib
@sab:
Agreed.
bbleh
@David Fud: The Moar You Know: Yes. And the fact is, the Republicans have been busily beavering away for decades, building organizations, winning local and state elections, nominating and confirming judges, passing rules and legislation they like, and chiseling away at rules and legislation they don’t. They have, like it or not, done the hard work of politics, and they have reaped the fruits thereof.
One can certainly question their motivations and their methods, especially those of the narrow stratum of sociopaths who set most of the agenda and manipulate the large mass of rubes, but one can’t, unfortunately, deny their achievements.
It’s a long road ahead for Dems. But it’s do-able — see Georgia — and we have the numbers.
lowtechcyclist
@David Fud:
The problem is, with climate change, we don’t have our entire lives. Already a certain degree of global warming is, ahem, baked in, and this decade will decide whether we will at least somewhat limit it, or whether we’ll have runaway global warming.
I don’t know who this week’s ‘clap louder crew’ is, but ISTM that this is what the progressive wing in Congress regards as non-negotiable: strongly addressing global warming.
Are they wrong to take that stance? No. Just no.
Barbara
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?: Yep.
Mike in NC
Moscow Mitch can be trusted only as far as his Confederate ass can be thrown.
Betty Cracker
@lowtechcyclist: I agree with you. I’m usually a “half loaf is better than none” person, but as you said, action on climate can’t be kicked down the road.
rikyrah
WE MUST increase our number of Senators to make the muthaphuckas from West Virginia and Arizona irrelevant.
sab
@The Thin Black Duke: Most of my dad’s whole assisted living floor caught Covid last week, because they let family in (mostly lying Republicans.) All the vaxxed residents survived. All the vaxed healthcare workers survived. Things back to normal sort of except we all have to wear goggles or faceshields in addition to masks. I am game for that.
Out in the world it is disturbing how unseriously people take this. (I won the bitterly fought mask battle at home when grand-daughter caught a normal childhood disease with a fever. Now we have masks. Grand-daughter didn’t even care masks are part of her world. Grandpa felt otherwise. I felt gaslighted. It will take years if ever for him to mend that fence he doesn’t even know is broken.)
Four Seasons Total Landscaping mistermix
@David Fud:
I don’t know who you’re talking about, but there’s nothing wrong with advocating change to the filibuster or finding some novel solution. Just because it probably won’t happen doesn’t mean that trying is wrong.
Brendan in NC
@rikyrah: It’s not just Manchin and Sinema; there are at least 6 more standing behind them. Like Durbin. It does show that Schumer needs to be replaced as leader; and that he’s probably one of the ones behind Manchin. Schumer, or, preferably, his replacement, needs to set a drop dead date for negotiation on every bill. And stick with it.
pajaro
I agree with everything you have said.
My antidote for despair is to remember where we were the week after the election, with Biden on his way to a very narrow victory, with Republicans holding a 50-48 edge in the Senate, and with Perdue and Loeffler odds on favorites to win the runoff.
I also see Manchin and Sinema as centrist independents who caucus with the Senate Democrats rather than real Democrats. There is really nothing we (the real Democrats) to force them to do what is right, and thinking of them as independents keeps me from blaming “The Democrats” for things that the real Democrats in the Senate are unable to accomplish. The only remedy is to elect Democrats in places like Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, North Carolina and Florida.
As for the media, like the Republicans, they are worse than imaginable. The Republicans are threatening to refuse to honor debts that Congress, of which they are a part, has incurred. The failure on the part of the media to even explain what they are threatening to do is just epic.
Feckless
blaming the media won’t save democracy.
Maybe instead of cursing the “media” as our democracy is dissembled the Democrats could come up with a plan. It’s apparent they have no desire to establish a media narrative. They spend time passing go nowhere bills and naming post offices.
Or they can pretend that it’s 1980 in tip O’Neil and Ronnie can cheerfully disassemble my safety net and call it cooperation the dinosaurs at the Democratic party really need to resign and get somebody in with media savvy that’s newer than betamax.
Nancy’s solution is that I should vote more. While the GQP makes it impossible for Dems to win a vote. Fuck her and Schumer.
ETtheLibrarian
The problem isn’t that press don’t know the GOP members of Congress are why we have this debt ceiling game of chicken, the problem is that they won’t say so explicitly in plain none-bothersideserism way when they write their article and create their headlines. And that is because they have ingested the GOP’s libural media bias criticism to such a degree that they have no idea how much of a part it consciously and unconsciously plays, in their choices (see the NYTimes political coverage for the textbook case). This is what is really behind all the bleating about being impartial and balanced is really about. They can be truthful and balanced/impartial, but they don’t really know how because they won’t change or in some cases recognize (much less adjust), that that many of journalism conventions they hold dear get used against them. They have acquiesced to the GOP and they will continue to get punked or used over and over – and they are doing it to themselves.
Elizabelle
@Feckless: Are you somebody’s sock puppet?
Elizabelle
It’s a beautiful day. Not up for this doom and gloom post. Catch you guys later.
pajaro
@Feckless:
I can’t imagine why you think that individuals subject to an armed attack, which some of their colleagues either abetted or tolerated, believe that this is 1980. They don’t.
If you have suggestions for what Peolsi should do that she is not doing, have at it.
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
Maybe the ability of the MSM to affect voter behavior in the 21st century isn’t what it was in the 70s-90s.
(Already pretty diminished by the 90s – they couldn’t take down Bill Clinton, despite desperately trying.)
Gerrymandering may fuck us over in 2022, but the “politics of the day” and media coverage won’t matter until maybe next September. Time to take a news break.
Josie
@pajaro:
I would like to see the Democratic Election Apparatus put out some videos explaining this whole economic mess facing congress. I am somewhat confused about the arguments and choices involved, and I am not a stupid person. We need to be educated as to what is at stake, and the media is not up to the job.
jeffreyw
Just got my booster jab at Kroger’s. Yay!
Bill Arnold
@bbleh:
Sigh yeah. But we do need to consider getting a more friendly parliamentarian, who is willing to be angry about the constant malevolent Republican gaming of the Senate rules.
lowtechcyclist
@Betty Cracker:
Ditto. I’m willing to accept incremental change on a host of issues, but on this one, we’re running out of time. Global warming not an abstraction any more: it’s happening all around us. It wasn’t supposed to be this far along this soon, but it is.
zhena gogolia
How do you change fonts and darkness of print on BJ (Chrome)? Today it’s virtually unreadable. I didn’t do anything, so I’m wondering why
ETA: It didn’t change on Firefox. But I hate Firefox.
germy
We’re watching this live. Two hosts were just told to leave.
Two hosts left, taking random audience questions. They’re winging it until Harris arrives.
Baud
@Formerly disgruntled in Oregon:
Welcome to my world, fellow normies. The news is intended to discourage us.
Edmund Dantes
What rule is their that debt ceiling elimination has to be its own separate reconciliation bill? Just put in a line repealing the fucking stupid 1917 (or whatever ducking year it was since this is off the top of my head) law that created it and be done with it.
Bill Arnold
@lowtechcyclist:
This. Yes. And anyone in the progressive wing who is distracted from this by some other shiny outrage is ignoring looming gigacide, and that’s probably multiple Gs on our current emissions trajectory. (A billion human deaths is the same level of death as 100 Holocausts. Less targeted to be clear, though most of the deaths will be people with dark skin who live close-ish to the equator.)
Omnes Omnibus
I don’t know about any of the rest of you, but I am planning on going to the march in Madison tomorrow and then doing some anti-Johnson volunteering. I’ll make some calls today too. I’ll even call Johnson’s office because fuck him and his staffers they need to hear what kind of people they are and know that we are gunning* for them. And, until Manchin and Sinema actually vote no, we are still in sausage making mode and they can become yeses. How’s that for clapping louder?
*Metaphorically speaking.
germy
The View director just announced to the two remaining hosts that the interview will be conducted remotely with VP Harris, even though she has arrived on set.
They’re being very careful. Good.
Urza
But not the loud ones that tend to donate the most money to get their way.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
I really can’t see how you say a coin will never be minted, mistermix. That’s an action that the executive branch can take unilaterally without Congress. And despite what the Treasury has said, I’d think they’d rather do that then default
RaflW
The video clip from 2019 of McConnell saying “of course we’ll raise the debt limit, to not do so would crash the economy” should be on hourly repeat on the cable nets (yeah, I know, not Fux of course). I know noticing hypocrisy bores the pants of the Beltway press, but the correct storyline is: McConnell poised to tank economy, and he knows it. Here’s proof.
kindness
I’m pretty much expecting a government shut down. Republicans are doing everything they can to get Democrats to use their one reconciliation card and Democrats (to most of their credit) see exactly what is at play and are saying Naa. Now when the shut down happens will the media blame the Republicans or Both Sides. I figure a bit of both, just like the last time. And I figure it’ll go just like the last time. Eventually the business community will be screaming bloody murder and then and only then Republicans will capitulate. Call me Kreskin.
JanieM
@narya: Maybe this?
Baud
Maybe we can sell Kentucky to China to raise funds.
Baud
@Omnes Omnibus: ?
Betty Cracker
@pajaro:
This is an important point, and I wish there was a way to amplify it at scale because one of our problems (IMO) is that loosely affiliated voters who lean Dem DO blame “The Democrats” for inaction on campaign promises.
It isn’t fair because the overwhelming majority of Dems are onboard with needed changes, but the party brand takes a hit due to the handful of obstructionists, and it makes it harder to get to the remedy as you outlined it, which is to “elect Democrats in places like Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, North Carolina and Florida.”
The Thin Black Duke
@Elizabelle: Of course he is. Let’s not vote. Oh, really?
waspuppet
@Baud: Pretty sure Russia owns them already. Certainly watching their two “senators” at “work” is clear evidence.
Also: I still haven’t seen one Democratic senator, even the good ones, say “Well, if the filibuster is so great, why do we have reconciliation? We have the filibuster, but not for the really important stuff? That doesn’t make any sense.”
Alce_e_ardillo
@David Fud: As the German sociologist Max Weber said ” politics is the slow boring through hard wood”
Another Scott
@kindness: Democrats don’t do shut-downs. A CR will happen.
Figuring out how the debt limit will be suspended/raised is different. But the House passed a CR with the debt limit suspended until 12/2022. Whatever passes the Senate will be what we end up with. Chuck and Nancy don’t want to put the debt limit in a reconciliation bill, for some good reasons (but those reasons don’t seem overwhelming to me). If that’s the only way, they’ll do it…
There’s still a few weeks before crunch time on the debt limit, so don’t expect motion on it until the last minute.
Cheers,
Scott.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@matt the somewhat reasonable: The media comes across like the rest of society, the “youngs” who get it’s broken, want it fixed but there is a hard core of ossified Olds who are in charge that just want eternal, unchanging statis tell the heat death of universe and not because they like the status quo, they just can’t deal with anything different. Different means tan suits and other unspeakable horrors to them.
Cermet
I hope the dems refuse all and every compromise and let the thugs force a default. Once those tRump humping rightwingers don’t get their checks they will howl like the stuck pigs they are. If crashing that debt is what it takes to end this utter bullshit issue then I’m all for it. It won’t take long for people to blame the thug party once the shit hits the fan and those old farts start seeing why voting for those AO’s is stupid.
Sure Lurkalot
@sab: Gramps would make me angry too. Consistent positive messages and examples of mask wearing seems to have a good effect on children. At the zoo this week, many young kids had on masks if their parents did and the opposite. I make masks and have had young children (ok, girls) come up to tell me they like my mask. I made Halloween themed masks for kiddos last year…it was a wasted effort for 2 of my great nieces and 1 great nephew, because like Gramps, they set no example and thereby discourage the use.
Ksmiami
@Betty Cracker: let them go independent- no support from the institutional Democratic Party unless they caucus the Rt way. Like Kay said, what are we losing by trying so hard to appeal to Manchin and Sinema?
Rand Careaga
I forget where I first read this during the Obama years, but someone was lamenting the Democrats’ persistent inability to recognize that the Republicans were spurning obvious win-win outcomes because they were engaged in a game called “You Must Lose.” Under these rules, the desired outcome for the GOP is win-lose, but second-best is lose-lose. Any win for the opposition is out of the question. It has, of course, only got worse since then.
Fair Economist
If we are really facing default, there will be a solution. The wealthy who have so much influence will lose far too much from a default debacle.
What people misunderstand about the platinum coin is that it’s not really about having a ginormous coin in circulation. It’s a technicality to allow the government to print money, electronic money in this case. That is constitutionally granted to the Treasury, and the 1913 Federal Reserve law that surrendered that power to the Federal Reserve is very dubious constitutionally.
IMO the simple solution is to mint a bunch of million dollar platinum coins. The treasury has printed ultra large denominations for bank use before – it’s no big deal. The whole focus on the trillion dollar coin is to try to disparage the simple and straightforward solution of the Treasury reclaiming its authority over money.
Cermet
@Urza: Not true for the banks or investment whores … I mean houses. These are THE real power brokers in congress.
Omnes Omnibus
@Cermet: This is remarkably bad political and governing advice.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@sab: This is the human condition, to put it bleakly. I just got done reading Whirlwind, which covers the WW2 US bombing campaign against Japan and it points out the Japanese government knew their cities were exceptionally vulnerable to fire since the ’20s because of the Great Kyoto Quake, knew the US would certainly stage fire attacks against Japan when war came and did nothing in the way to prepare for it until the B-29s had burned 1/5 of Tokyo in just one night. After the war the US military interviewed the Japanese civil defense leaders and ask them why and “We didn’t want to upset anyone” was the reply.
Like someone else says it takes a slog of constantly hammering and even then a disaster to get people deal with these things.
Cermet
@Fair Economist: Only a million dollar coin? That would require a hell of a lot of coins and drive the price of platinum through the roof. More like a ten billion dollar coin so as not to impact the price of a critically essential metal like platinum
Betty Cracker
@Ksmiami: Well, we’ll have to see how it ultimately shakes out, but I agree with what Kay said about the value of those two seats changing if they’re dragging the entire party down. And we’ve got to keep in mind that one thing the Biden admin has been able to do with this congress is get a shit-load of judges confirmed, which is important. We need those votes for that. Just something to factor in.
gene108
I know there’s a liberal pile on for Manchin and Sinema being beholden to corporate interests, but no one points out ALL 50 REPUBLICAN SENATORS ARE SOCK PUPPETS FOR CORPORATE DONORS AND BILLIONAIRE FANATICS!!!
I know their core voters don’t care, but it might help swing some independent voters.
If as much effort was made to hammer how any Republican Senator is up to his or her eyeballs in corporate donations, as has been spent on the gnashing of teeth and rending of garments in frustration over Manchin and Sinema, it might help in Senate races that could be close like PA, WI, FL, and maybe OH.
I wish we’d pile onto Republicans for doing the wrong thing, instead of reflexively attacking those on our own side who are not onboard with as liberal an agenda as we want.
Cermet
@Omnes Omnibus: Not really when you consider that if the thugs win this round, its likely they win the midterms and then our democracy is doomed when the rump is installed by the congress they will control. This isn’t a question of good politics or economics but survival of our government as we know it. This is literally a war for our system. They need to be shown for the fascist they really are and their voters hit hard by their stupidity in electing these brown shirts.
Baud
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
I blame Democrats.
Omnes Omnibus
@Cermet: There is no reason for such coin to be made of any platinum at all except to be able to say it is a platinum coin. So, for the purposes needed, such a coin would need only enough that mentioning platinum would not be a lie.
Baud
@gene108:
As long as I can remember, there have been people who felt that we couldn’t criticize them as long as some people on our side are imperfect.
Soprano2
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): I wish they would mint that coin, just to listen to the howls of outrage from the press and Republicans as the Democrats completely avoid the obvious trap that has been set for them.
trollhattan
@rikyrah: “Pack the senate!”
You’re right of course, or “loot” the baby states of one senator each and give them to the big states. While I realize that would give Texas and Florida one more each (god help us) it would mean Alaska and Wyoming and North Dakota, et al would be trimmed of their present absurd over-representation.
Put another way: if you only qualify for one rep in the House, you sure as hell don’t get two senators.
jnfr
I love the idea of minting a big platinum coin and then declaring the debt crisis solved! Look! It was all an illusion anyway!
The fact that heads all over the Beltway would explode just makes the fantasy more enjoyable.
trollhattan
@Omnes Omnibus: Plutonium is worth more, at least if priced in and sold using bitcoins.
Soprano2
Listened to the 1A news roundup today. Not one mention of the 6-point plan penned by a Federalist Society lawyer who clerked for Clarence Thomas for how Trump could overturn a free and fair election and be installed as president. Not one mention of the “fraudit” results in Arizona. Plenty of talk about the “crisis at the border” and how confused everyone is about the Covid booster guidance that was just announced a couple of hours ago. It’s pretty dispiriting to hear what they think is important and what they don’t think is important.
Cameron
@Baud: No, no! Both sides do it!
Ksmiami
@gene108: we can do both- but the Democratic Party needs stronger messaging, needs to hire ad agencies and go for the fucking throat. The GOP wants you to get bankrupted and die while they kill off Democracy is a hell of a message and it’s the truth.
Omnes Omnibus
@Betty Cracker: We can’t afford to lose them right now. After the 2022 elections? We can reevaluate.
For now, we need to work with them no matter how frustrating it may be. The basic Democratic goals are still achievable. We still need to fight for them. The Germans haven’t even bombed Pearl Harbor yet.
Another Scott
@trollhattan: It has to be platinum to fit under the law that lets them mint commemorative coins of unlimited denomination (since the law doesn’t mention a limit). If we’re going that route, then $1T is too small. GDP is around $23T. Make it 1000x that, at least…
Cheers,
Scott.
Cameron
@Soprano2: They’d have to blame the first two on Republicans; they’re trying to blame the latter two on Democrats. Gee, I wonder whose side they’re on?
Baud
@Another Scott:
I’m tempted to rent a van with “Acme Platinum Company” on the side and drive it around the Treasury Department.
Ken
@trollhattan: Oooh, good. Use a government-generated bitcoin ledger instead of a platinum trillion dollar coin. See if anyone dares to say that bitcoins aren’t actually worth anything.
Low Key Swagger
@narya: It was me…and I’m glad you asked because I totally failed to bookmark your earlier suggested links. Whattaya got?
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: Why do you hate China?
Brantl
No they haven’t; they’ve done the hard work of conspiratorial corruption, and reaped the plunder. Little of what they have accomplished has been accomplished without lying, misinformation and fraud, not to mention the maliciousness of it all.
gvg
I want that debt ceiling law repealed. I have seen shutdowns and threats since the 90’s and I am just tired of it. There is no point. If we authorize the spending in the budget, IMO it’s authorized to fund. Budgets are always contentious and hard, why do the fight twice? Its like wallowing in a pig pen again when you don’t need to.
Brantl
@Mike in NC: I don’t think that’s true, because if I ever start throwing McConnel, I’ll keep it up for several blocks, just to be thorough.
rikyrah
The View just announced Sunny Hostin and Ana Navarro just tested positive for COVID-19! They had to leave the set. MVP Harris was to visit today.
Edmund Dantes
@Fair Economist: the debt limit is also on support shaky constitutional ground, but it’s treated like it is etched in adamantium.
J R in WV
@Feckless:
Way to go blaming the wrong people for everything wrong in congress. Crazy to blame Democratic leadership for the errors of fascist McConnell, crooked Manchin, crazy Seneima!
Back inna pie safe, ass. Don’t need your misdirected rage around here at all. Gone!
taumaturgo
Incremental change is a rationalization accepted by the working-class voters when their needs and wishes are squashed by the obvious corruption exhibited by the elected offcials. The lamentations and regrets are common, “we need more X, we need less X, if only, next election, etc, etc.” The reality is that the most recent data shows both parties beholden to the plutocrats that run the country, and that power includes no incremental changes for them, but only for the lower and middle class. Until money is eradicated from politics and the issuing corruption, no incremental or radical change will take place in the doings of Congress, party affiliation notwithstanding.
Fair Economist
@Cermet: Platinum coinage of million dollar coins wouldn’t need that much platinum. If it weighed slightly less than a quarter, at 5 grams, you’d only need 11 pounds for a billion dollars.
Baud
@Fair Economist:
I don’t think the market value of the coin matters. It just needs to be made of platinum. But I admit I’ve never made money before.
Betty Cracker
@gene108: For the tiny minority of obstructionists at issue, it’s not that they’re “not onboard with as liberal an agenda as we want,” it’s that they don’t even have a counter-agenda! There’s no vision, only political positioning. See the shifting rationales for opposing what the overwhelming majority of the party wants, and it becomes clear.
Matt
@bbleh:
If one accepts this framing, there’s a logical followup question: why should the Democratic leaders who have specifically NOT “done the hard work” the last 30+ years retain their positions of authority?
If we want to win, the first step is to clear out the folks who think they’re managing the Washington Generals.
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
I agree. A real compromise would be less frustrating.
Baud
Via Reddit
narya
@JanieM: Yes! thank you. Now I know the nym for which to look.
WaterGirl
Call me crazy, but I think they might actually change the filibuster rule for this. At least a carve-out.
lollipopguild
@Baud: Time for the 6 member Supreme Court Junta to overturn Loving vs Virginia.
Baud
@WaterGirl:
That’s my hope, although I’m not basing it on anything.
Baud
@lollipopguild:
Thomas would have to divorce his wife, but it’s for the greater good.
narya
@Low Key Swagger: conservationfund.org/our-work/working-farms-fund
It was a link from an article in the FYNYT about a new generation of young farmers who can’t afford to buy land.
jnfr
@Betty Cracker:
Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo has had some very good posts about Sinema and what she might be up to, though they are probably paywalled.
But he believes her ‘plan’, such as it is, was to thrill independents and then run as an I not a D next election.
Instead, and predictably, her approval has cratered with Dems and also with Independents, and skyrocketed with Republicans, who will never vote for her but who love that she’s screwing up the Dems’ plans.
She needs to be primaried.
Fleeting Expletive
On a completely different subject, I had a dream last night about those giant trees that firefighters are sort of wrapping in heat-reflecting material, is it Mylar? Remote controlled, weight-lifting drones to lift plastic curtains, like those massive tarps that are dragged out to cover a soggy football field! Tree bags! My vision looked like a silver kitchen trash bag being pulled up and cinched at the top.
Those firefighter wraps looked to be too short to protect those massive trunks.
eclare
@Soprano2: What is 1A?
Another Scott
@eclare: NPR show out of American University in DC. (The name comes from the First Amendment.)
the1a.org/
Cheers,
Scott.
JoyceH
@jnfr:
And his latest, also paywalled, was describing his dissatisfaction that the media is scripting the issue as ‘moderates versus progressives’, when in fact it’s ‘Manchin and Sinema and half a dozen house members against everybody else and the president’s very popular agenda.’ And that the ‘moderates’ don’t have counterproposals, just posturing to enhance their image as moderate. Sigh.
eclare
@Another Scott: Thanks!
JoyceH
And BTW, while we’re talking about media takes and positioning, can we PLEASE start counting the results of the Maricopa ‘audit’ as a win for Merrick Garland? Does anyone think that the Cyber Ninjas would come out with a Biden Won result if Justice hadn’t sent out that letter in late July, warning the states and outside actors that the Justice Department was keeping an eye on all these extracurricular ‘recount’ activities? The head of Cyber Ninjas was a deep, deep, in the weeds, up to his eyeballs practitioner of the Big Lie – of COURSE he would have ‘found’ all sorts of evidence of fraud and shenanigans if he hadn’t started to worry about landing in jail for it.
Betty Cracker
@JoyceH: Yes! Exactly!
@Fleeting Expletive: I was thinking about those trees yesterday, having seen a photo of the General Sherman wrapped in silver material around the bottom. (How horrid and ironic if General Sherman were to perish in a fire; it must be prevented!)
I also wondered if the wrap extended high enough, but I guess they know what they’re doing? I still like your drone-tree bagging idea!
Another Scott
Meanwhile, … RollCall:
Good, good.
The bill is the Women’s Health Protection Act and it’s been pushed for many years by its author – Judy Chu. C-Span has more from the press conference.
Congress.gov has the text.
Yet again, this just goes to show that both parties are the same. And that everything is horrible and will never get better, so we might as well donate to Moscow Mitch’s PAC and get it over with. And … (groucho-roll-eyes.gif)
Cheers,
Scott.
JPL
@JoyceH: They are going to paint the count as a victory because it proves that the ninjas do an excellent job. Now they should move on to other states.
I’m just making up shit, but it wouldn’t surprise me at all. trump and the trumpettes will be performing in GA and I betcha trump calls for the ninjas.
cain
What status quo is that? Nothing has been normal for the past 6-8 years – precedent after precedent have been broken. Comity is all but a memory between the parties. If you mean the same old playbook by the media? Yeah – they seem to be just fine with reporting in this matter.But honestly, I’m sick of this double standard – this nation has survived thanks to the adults – eg the Democrats. It might be time to not fight so hard to save the govt and let things go haywire – it might serve as a reminder to everyone involved that this is serious business and can have an adverse effect on everyone – especially the media’s bottom line. Which is so important to them given the kind of programming they do to keep viewers to watch their ads.Also, it might also wake these highly paid DC press and personalities if their money train comes to an abrupt halt. They might keep bitching at Democrats, but as long as we tell people to piss off that get the other side to do some adulting – we’ll take the hit. It might back fire – but I think this nation’s 60-70% is sick of the status quo.
ETA – I’m also sick and fucking tired of being called an enemy by a 30% cult of personality when all of us are trying so hard to save their asses. Sick and tired of having the media coddle them, the anti-vaxxers, and the dead end 2nd amendment choots. Fuck them. Fuck their privilege.
Fleeting Expletive
Thanks, Betty Cracker! It’s not hard to imagine those drones lifting a protective sheet, so maybe they could pull up the top cable around a trunk, tie it off, or even weave around a trunk like a May-pole.
(many a phys-ed teacher tried to get my cohorts to dance around a maypole with streamers, but we were universally clumsy and out of sync.)
Steeplejack (phone)
Goddamn, what is it with Politico and DeSantis?! “DeSantis pulls ahead of 2024 GOP pack as Florida’s COVID cases fall.”
Baud
@Steeplejack (phone):
MM just put up a post.
Omnes Omnibus
@cain: Heightening the contradictions is always a shitty idea. Yeah, we are disadvantaged by the fact that we won’t intentionally hurt people, but we do have to live with ourselves.
cain
@Another Scott:
This is exactly what the GOP and the media counts on. It’s all fun and games watching Democrats squirm as they try to be the adult in the room.
Another Scott
@cain: Yup. But until we’ve got the votes to do otherwise, …
Cheers,
Scott.
cain
@Omnes Omnibus:
I’m sick of being called an enemy. These folks on the GOP use dangerous rhetoric make us all targets. It might be a shitty idea – but sometimes I marinate in dark thoughts. You are right though that I would not like to see anybody in this top 500 blogs site become destitute or worse.
Omnes Omnibus
@cain: The alternative is being like the GOP. Also, if we aren’t the grownups, where do you think the media will fix the blame?
taumaturgo
Fun fact: “Mitch McConnell, who vowed this week to force the US into default, has voted 32 times for a total of $20.7 trillion of debt limit increases, including all 11 times under George W Bush and Trump.” Counter Culture. 9/21