Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

If you thought you’d already seen people saying the stupidest things possible on the internet, prepare yourselves.

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

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

the 10% who apparently lack object permanence

The words do not have to be perfect.

We will not go quietly into the night; we will not vanish without a fight.

Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

America is going up in flames. The NYTimes fawns over MAGA celebrities. No longer a real newspaper.

With all due respect and assumptions of good faith, please fuck off into the sun.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

The low info voters probably won’t even notice or remember by their next lap around the goldfish bowl.

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

Jesus watching the most hateful people claiming to be his followers

One of our two political parties is a cult whose leader admires Vladimir Putin.

Wake up. Grow up. Get in the fight.

Conservatism: there are people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

If you are still in the gop, you are either an extremist yourself, or in bed with those who are.

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

You are here: Home / Politics / Biden Administration in Action / Wednesday Morning Open Thread: Still Fighting the Good Fight(s)

Wednesday Morning Open Thread: Still Fighting the Good Fight(s)

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  1. 1.

    Baud

    MJ had a clip of Jayapal speaking positively about the BBB negotiations.  Gives me optimism that progressive leaders in Congress will promote the final product rather than pander to critics who will obsess about what had to be cut to get 50 votes in the Senate.

  3. 3.

    Baud

    That Kraushaar tweet is exactly the type of thing we will face — attempts to turn victory into failure using hypothetical alternative universes to fuel people’s cynicism.

  6. 6.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: I do believe it depends on how partisan it is. If all she says is, “Get out and vote.” it’s legal to play in a church. If she says, “Get out and vote for McCauliff.” it’s not legal to play in church.

    Keep in mind that these are the rules for black DEMs. For white GOPs everything is legal.

  7. 7.

    lowtechcyclist

    LBJ had a 68-32 majority in the Senate, come on.

    This. Meanwhile, we’ve got 50+VP, and a whopping 3-vote cushion in the House.

    And with zero votes to give away, we’ve got to tackle Covid, voting rights, and climate change.

    All I can say is, thank you, Georgia Dems, for getting us to 50.  As painful as it is to watch the intra-Dem stuff going on in the Senate right now, at least there IS a reconciliation bill, and we don’t need any GOP votes for it.

  17. 17.

    Kay

    If Biden gets infratsructure and BBB, on top of the huge covid deal he already got with a 50/50 senate he will have had a genuinely very successful and productive first year, really first term, because that’s a successful legislative record even over four years.

    Just a fact, and if media deny him the recognition they’re being dishonest. In terms of accomplishments he will have succeeded.

  18. 18.

    Baud

    @JPL:

    Oh, it’s a perpetual endeavor.  It just has greater salience right after the Dems accomplish something positive.

  19. 19.

    Soprano2

    @lowtechcyclist: And judges, which Biden is making progress on. Without the Senate majority, we’d be placing zero judges on the federal bench. Some people are short-sighted, thinking that if they can’t have everything they want immediately we might as well not get anything! As we’ve seen, the courts are extremely important. Biden is trying to rebalance them after all the terrible judges Trump put on there.

  20. 20.

    sdhays

    As annoying as Manema is, it’s remarkable to me how united the rest of the party is. I’m sure I’ve never seen the Democratic Congressional Caucus this much on the same page in my lifetime. If we had 2 more normal Democrats in the Senate, this all would have passed months ago. And these guys thought they could triangulate against the progressives, only to find out that they’re isolated.

  21. 21.

    L85NJGT

    Oh no, not political compromise…. 

    I’m holding out for a Sanders vs. Manchin pool noodle duel.

  23. 23.

    Another Scott

    TheHill:

    There was some better news for progressives, though. According to Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), who participated in the Oval Office meeting, a Medicare expansion to include dental, vision and hearing benefits will remain in the bill, representing an expansion of ObamaCare benefits. Also in the bill is funding in some form for childcare, universal preschool, paid family leave and eldercare.

    The bill won’t have everything, but it will be tremendous progress.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  25. 25.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    He’s a Right wing hack though, Baud. You can’t portray that as anything other than campaigning for conservatives. They’re going to do that. It’s inevitable. Democrats aren’t helpless in the face of it. They’re political professionals. It’s part of the job. If “Hotline Josh” reaches Democratic voters more effectively than the Democratic Party apparatus and huge (and hugely expensive) marketing and communications team do they need to find different work. Connect with their voters. That’s the job.

    It’s probably easier and more effective to fix their marketing and communication (if indeed it needs fixing) than it is to fix  hundreds of millions of voters. Demanding voters be better probably isn’t going to work.

  28. 28.

    Baud

    @Kay:

    He’s a Right wing hack though, Baud. You can’t portray that as anything other than campaigning for conservatives.

    Ok, thanks.  I don’t know who these people are.  Right-wingers, for course, have been known to sound like lefty cynics to dampen progressive enthusiasm. It’s not like we’ve never heard actual lefties disfavorably compare current Dems to Dems past. Whoever the particular messenger is, it’s the message that we need to fight.

  30. 30.

    Soprano2

    @Kay: What I hate is that it may not be the press that denies Biden had a victory, but people on our own side griping about what didn’t make it into the bill instead of touting what we were able to pass. Sometimes you have to accept incremental progress. If we’re able to get the child tax credit extended, even if it comes with some crappy stuff, it’s something that can be built on in the future. Same way with other things – if you can get something for childcare, it can be expanded later! Once you get something established, you can build on it.  Republicans know this – it’s why they’re so resistant to even starting what they know will be popular programs. Too many people are acting like this is our one chance forever to do anything at all! I understand the urgency with climate, but these other things are not all lost if they don’t make it into these particular bills.

  31. 31.

    Betty Cracker

    @sdhays: Exactly right. If the caucus pulls this off (which is looking increasingly likely), I hope everyone remembers who the team players were.

    Yesterday Senator Markey talked about what POTUS can do with executive action on climate change, so it looks like that’s what will bear the brunt of the cuts to appease Pawpaw Black Lung. I also read that Senator Menendez, who is a crook, has joined Senator Sinema in nixing the proposal to let Medicare negotiate drug prices. We’ll need at least three more seats to govern as Democrats.

    Does anyone know if Biden or agencies under the executive branch have any power on the pharma negotiations front? It’s revolting that the so-called “moderates” who are stiff-arming a money-saving provision will collect accolades for being “fiscally responsible.”

  33. 33.

    Joe Falco

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Keep in mind that these are the rules for black DEMs. For white GOPs everything is legal.

    Tell me about it. Before he was a congressman, Jody Hice *spit* was a pastor who used his church pulpit to tell his congregation to vote for Republicans one Sunday (can’t remember if he specifically said which Republicans). He made a big deal about this sermon he was going to do, and he did it,, daring the IRS to go after him and the church. This was back during the Obama years while Jody was still trying to build up enough cred as a bullshit artist conservative warrior to run for office later.

    And neither he nor the church were punished for it.

    Jody was able to smugly crow he took on Obama and the IRS and won. And it was only a few years later, he finally won a Republican primary in a Georgia district and went on to easily win in the general election.

    I’m not sure if things would have turned out differently if Jody and the church had been punished for breaking the law, but just once, I’d like to see people like Jody actually receive the consequences their actions deserve. Maybe it would prevent similar bloodsuckers from later gaining office.

  34. 34.

    Denali

    I do not agree with airing political videos during church services. It is a direct violation of the Constitution.

  38. 38.

    evodevo

    @OzarkHillbilly:  Yep…all those talibangelical preachers yelling at their congregations to vote for such and such a candidate have rarely if ever been called out by the IRS…and certainly not over the last 5 years

  39. 39.

    hueyplong

    @Soprano2: The number of people on our side who make noises loud enough to be heard by the general public is small.  If this bill gets through in one form or another, the focus won’t be on what we didn’t get, at least for a while.

    It will be later, in a deja vu play of “if only Obama hadn’t settled for half a loaf.”

    In the immediate aftermath, the “noises” will all be made by the FoxNews types, and their complaints won’t be that the bill didn’t have enough in it.  The “half a loaf” will be the full-bore imposition of the dreaded Socialism on a formerly freedom-loving America.

  40. 40.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Baud:

    MJ had a clip of Jayapal speaking positively about the BBB negotiations.  Gives me optimism that progressive leaders in Congress will promote the final product rather than

    Jayapal has mostly been impressive, setting her caucus up as the allies of Biden and his agenda, instead of promoting the idea that they’re forcing him to do the right thing.

  41. 41.

    Baud

    The tweet says the video won’t start airing until Sunday, so if there is a problem, hopefully it’ll get straightened out in the next couple of days.

  42. 42.

    debbie

    Bastards never change their stripes. There is an issue on the ballot for Columbus, OH, which would take $87 million out of the general fund and split it between four energy groups. Of it, $67 million will go to two groups who will have ZERO accountability about how it’s spent. Hello, First Energy?

    I don’t know how this fucking thing even got on the ballot. I don’t actually vote in Columbus (it surrounds my town), but this will affect me and my neighbors just as much as anyone else.

    Also, a judge just ruled against a third PUCO judgment. PUCO is nothing more than a puppet for the energy industry. This has to stop!

  43. 43.

    topclimber

    I know carbon sequestering is usually considered a joke, but maybe $10 billion for studies would entice Manchin to relent on the big picture. Consider how  natural gas–whose methane has much more warming effect than CO2 for up to 20 years–is going to be with us as a heating source for a long while yet, maybe the tradeoff with dirty coal is worth a look.

    China has coal. India has coal. If there is any plausible route to sequestering, I say give it a shot. Because they are going to burn that coal.

  46. 46.

    p.a.

    Trying to link to my home wifi, my samsung s8, daily, has been resetting the time/date to 2007. I just… ¯\_(ツ)_/¯…

  47. 47.

    Cameron

    @Betty Cracker: I think it’s Dean Baker who suggests that if the Feds fund the research, they should own the patent on the product and just pay companies to produce the drugs.

  49. 49.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Soprano2:

    @lowtechcyclist: And judges, which Biden is making progress on. Without the Senate majority, we’d be placing zero judges on the federal bench. Some people are short-sighted, thinking that if they can’t have everything they want immediately we might as well not get anything! As we’ve seen, the courts are extremely important. Biden is trying to rebalance them after all the terrible judges Trump put on there.

    This.  This is really quite big, and even Manchin and Sinema are (obviously) voting the right way on the judges, otherwise we wouldn’t have 50.  Thanks again, GA Dems.

    Biden’s also gone out of his way to put several judges on the Circuit Courts of Appeals who used to be public defenders, which is way more than I would have expected from him.

    @sdhays:

    As annoying as Manema is, it’s remarkable to me how united the rest of the party is. I’m sure I’ve never seen the Democratic Congressional Caucus this much on the same page in my lifetime. If we had 2 more normal Democrats in the Senate, this all would have passed months ago. And these guys thought they could triangulate against the progressives, only to find out that they’re isolated.

    This too.  Excepting Manchinema and eight or nine Representatives, the entire caucus is on the same page.  Like you, I’ve never seen this in my lifetime.

    Brian Schatz (D-HI) says things are going in the right direction, but keep the pressure on.  So keep calling your Congresspersons, y’all!

  50. 50.

    sab

    @debbie: Nothing like taking advantage of an off year election. We have absolutely nothing on the ballot here except school board.

    Do you think it will pass?

  53. 53.

    sdhays

    @Joe Falco: The religious exemption makes it really, really difficult to enforce infractions without it seeming politically motivated. Of course, Republicans don’t really give a shit about those kind of norms, but it just makes the rule toothless – it’s mostly unenforceable.

    There was an issue with certain PACs, I think, during the Obama Administration. I’m blanking on exactly what it was, but the IRS was tasked with enforcing a rule and Republicans cried foul when some of their PACs got caught in violation. So the IRS just gave up.

  56. 56.

    zhena gogolia

    @Baud: I guess the loophole is that she is not the minister. Anyone can get up in church and say whatever they want, but if it’s the minister, then it represents the church.

  57. 57.

    O. Felix Culpa

    Reposting from the COVID thread: White House unveils vaccination plan for children ages 5-11 (WaPo)

    This is pending FDA approval, which should happen in the next few weeks.

    White House officials said they have secured enough doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for the country’s 28 million children in that age group.

    “Today the Biden Administration is announcing a plan to ensure that, if a vaccine is authorized for children ages 5-11, it is quickly distributed and made conveniently and equitably available to families across the country,” the White House said in a statement.

  62. 62.

    Geminid

    @Joe Falco:  Jody Hice is challenging Georgia Secretary of State Raffensperger in next year’s Republican primary. Unlike Georgia’s Lieutenant Governor, who is retiring from the office, Raffensperger will fight it out in a campaign.

  63. 63.

    Another Scott

    @lowtechcyclist: +1

    IIRC, it was during Johnson’s time that the filibuster/cloture number went from 66 to 60.  (Nope – it was 1975. There were 61 Democratic senators in 1975.) It’s almost as if the majority recognized that sometimes the majority has to go it alone to get things done.

    The notable side effect of this change was that by no longer bringing Senate business to a complete halt, filibusters on particular motions became politically easier for the minority to sustain.[34][35][36][37] As a result, the number of filibusters began increasing rapidly, eventually leading to the modern era in which an effective supermajority requirement exists to pass legislation, with no practical requirement that the minority party actually hold the floor or extend debate.

    In 1975, the Senate revised its cloture rule so that three-fifths of sworn senators (60 votes out of 100) could limit debate, except for changing Senate rules which still requires a two-thirds majority of those present and voting to invoke cloture.[38][39] However, by returning to an absolute number of all Senators (60) rather than a proportion of those present and voting, the change also made any filibusters easier to sustain on the floor by a small number of senators from the minority party without requiring the presence of their minority colleagues. This further reduced the majority’s leverage to force an issue through extended debate.

    The Senate also experimented[clarification needed] with a rule that removed the need to speak on the floor in order to filibuster (a “talking filibuster”), thus allowing for “virtual filibusters”.[40] Another tactic, the post-cloture filibuster—which used points of order to delay legislation because they were not counted as part of the limited time allowed for debate—was rendered ineffective by a rule change in 1979.[41][42][43]

    As the filibuster has evolved from a rare practice that required holding the floor for extended periods into a routine 60-vote supermajority requirement, Senate leaders have increasingly used cloture motions as a regular tool to manage the flow of business, often even in the absence of a threatened filibuster. Thus, the presence or absence of cloture attempts is not necessarily a reliable indicator of the presence or absence of a threatened filibuster. Because filibustering does not depend on the use of any specific rules, whether a filibuster is present is always a matter of judgment.[44]

    The existing Senate rules are broken and have been abused far too long. It’s well past time to drop the filibuster/cloture number for all business to 50 (or a majority present and voting).  (That seems easier than requiring an affirmative 40 to keep blocking.) The Senate’s purpose is to consider legislation, nominations, treaties, etc. It doesn’t exist to block the workings of the government.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  64. 64.

    MomSense

    @lowtechcyclist: 
    My perspective is that the Democratic Party now encompasses the traditional political spectrum of opinion and interest groups. Because the Republican Party is now a bunch of death cultists, religious extremists, conspiracy theorists, and corrupt bidders for the oligarchs- all of the negotiation is happening on the Democratic side.
    All of the Republicans are opposed to the investments in human beings, climate crisis mitigation, and expansion of the social safety net. We are having this debate with ourselves because we are the only rational players in this game.

  65. 65.

    Kay

    @Soprano2:

    but people on our own side griping about what didn’t make it into the bill instead of touting what we were able to pass

    I’ve been hearing this for decades in the Democratic Party and I believe it’s true (to a certain extent- normies aren’t on Twitter all day).
    My thing is what to do about it. It just seems like it would be more effective for the Democratic Party to work on selling it rather than trying to change Democratic voters. I don’t even lay this on Biden. He’s in a big national political Party – one that is swimming in money. It’s not all up to him and that’s a dumb allocation of work, to put it on one person. Sell your accomplishments. Let go of the outcome – whether it will “work” or not- and just sell them. It takes a certain kind of propensity to brag and cheerful obliviousness to be good at sales- find those people and hire them. It’s a specific skill and not everyone has it.

  66. 66.

    Another Scott

    @Baud: People find ways to finesse it. IRS.gov:

    Currently, the law prohibits political campaign activity by charities and churches by defining a 501(c)(3) organization as one “which does not participate in, or intervene in (including the publishing or distributing of statements), any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for public office.”

    The IRS has published Revenue Ruling 2007-41 PDF, which outlines how churches, and all 501(c)(3) organizations, can stay within the law regarding the ban on political activity. Also, the ban by Congress is on political campaign activity regarding a candidate; churches and other 501(c)(3) organizations can engage in a limited amount of lobbying (including ballot measures) and advocate for or against issues that are in the political arena. The IRS also has provided guidance regarding the difference between advocating for a candidate and advocating for legislation. See political and lobbying activities.

    Each election cycle, the IRS reminds 501(c)(3) exempt organizations to be aware of the ban on political campaign activity. The IRS published its most recent reminder in a public news release which you can read here.

    The division within the IRS responsible for overseeing churches and charities is the Tax Exempt and Government Entitities Division. TEGE has created a Web page entitled Charities, Churches, and Educational Organizations – Political Campaign Intervention. It is dedicated to the IRS most recent activities related to 501(c)(3) and political activity.

    A definitive court case on the issue of free speech and political expression is Branch Ministries Inc. versus Rossotti PDF. In that case, the court upheld the constitutionality of the ban on political activity. The court rejected the plaintiff church’s allegations that it was being selectively prosecuted because of its conservative views and that its First Amendment right to free speech was being infringed.

    The court wrote: “The government has a compelling interest in maintaining the integrity of the tax system and in not subsidizing partisan political activity, and Section 501(c)(3) is the least restrictive means of accomplishing that purpose.”

    I haven’t seen Harris’s speech – presumably it was checked to remain within the various constraints. We know that the Hatch Act does not apply to the POTUS and MVP.

    There’s also Warning – Politico – this (from 2018):

    The House voted Thursday to make it harder for the government to punish churches that get involved in politics.

    In a 217-199 vote, lawmakers approved legislation barring the IRS from revoking the tax-exempt status of churches that back political candidates, unless it is specifically approved by the commissioner of the agency.

    The provision, buried in a budget measure setting IRS funding for the upcoming year, amounts to a backdoor way around the so-called Johnson amendment, a half-century-old prohibition on nonprofits getting involved in political campaign activities.

    I haven’t checked to see if it’s the actual law now…

    FWIW.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  67. 67.

    narya

    Adding to the chorus in support of Jayapal. I saw her on Maddow or Hayes night before last, and she was very very positive. The host tried to push her on Manchema, and she wouldn’t bite; she started to answer and then backed up quickly, with another positive message. The other thing that I think has been very effective is all of the Dem Congresscritters basically saying, “we support our President’s agenda.” That’s effective framing, and it helps sidestep the stupid disarray portrayals. I’ve also seen a lot of folks–not just BJ commenters–saying, hey, this IS politics–this is how governing works. People work together on this stuff.

  68. 68.

    PAM Dirac

    @Cameron:

     

    I think it’s Dean Baker who suggests that if the Feds fund the research, they should own the patent on the product and just pay companies to produce the drugs.

    That would require a repeal of Bayh-Dole which lets the grantees own the patent and collect the royalties. The ones who would scream the loudest against this change wouldn’t be the drug companies, it would be the universities who look on tax funded grants as no strings attached venture capital. There seems to be a notion that drug companies don’t pay for these compounds that have been at least partially developed with tax funds. They usually pay for the clinical trials and a royalty fee, which can be quite large. For example, in 2005 Emory (the university with the COVID drug) made a deal for over half a billion dollars in cash in lieu of future royalty payments from an AIDS drug. The fact that the tax payer got none of that money is not due to the drug company, but due to Bayh-Dole.

  69. 69.

    zhena gogolia

    @Baud: I don’t think it’s a rule that’s written down anywhere, but it seems to be the practice. We have a time in the service when people can ask for prayers, and the congregation can get pretty political then (not naming any names). The minister just avoids chiming in.

  70. 70.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Quentin Tarantino says he wants to make a comedy

    Tarantino was speaking at the Rome film festival where he was given a lifetime achievement award, and in remarks reported by Variety, the director discussed future projects, which include a book of film criticism and a TV series and added: “First, I want to make a comedy.”

    He then went on to describe a scenario he was working on “but not like my next movie … something else that I’m thinking about doing”. Tarantino said it involved a “spaghetti western”. “It’s going to be really fun. Because I want to shoot it in the spaghetti western style where everybody’s speaking a different language … The Mexican bandido is an Italian; the hero is an American; the bad sheriff is a German; the Mexican saloon girl is Israeli. And everybody is speaking a different language. And you [the actors] just know: OK, when he’s finished talking then I can talk.”

    That would be his 10th and final (?) film.

  71. 71.

    Dee Lurker

    @zhena gogolia:

    Ministers violate that rule all the time. Especially mega-church pastors. If the GQP wants to make hay of it, let them. Let them scream as loud as possible and be as hypocritical as possible.

    We need voter turn-out. Full stop.

    The dems and progressives are held to a standard that the opposition ignores. They go low, we go high, and it never works. The GQP freely and routinely ignores any and every religious divide and seeks to implement a right-wing Franco style theofascism. The left should strike at the heart of that system and counter with both religious and secular morality that uplifts the poor over every other value. In churches, on the streets.

    The left in the US is in no danger of theocratic tendencies. The right is positively animated by it. Screw them. Push the envelope and use the altar.

  72. 72.

    Elizabelle

    @OzarkHillbilly:   I think QT may walk back that “I’m only making ten films” statement.  Who knows?  I hope he does.

    The man runs his mouth; while he says some extremely interesting stuff, one would not put money on every statement being a likely outcome.

  73. 73.

    Kay

    Dan Kennedy
    @dankennedy_nu
    · 50m
    Bret Stephens, a @NYTimes columnist, is listed as a board member of the school that just uninvited NYT journalist @nhannahjones.

    Anti-cancel culture eating its own tail is just fascinating to me. They started out – not that long ago!- promoting free expression and open debate and almost immediately we got to Texas anti-cancel culture activists banning books in public schools. They’re going thru the little book collections grade school teachers keep in their rooms, checking for “Marxism”.
    Are any of them ever going to comment on how this has played out? That it almost immediately became a way to silence liberal speech? Because it did.

  74. 74.

    Soprano2

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:  Jayapal has mostly been impressive

    I have to second this. I’ve heard her interviewed several times, and she’s always positive and upbeat about the bills and their chances no matter how much the interviewer tries to get her to be negative or shit on other Dems.

  75. 75.

    Kay

    Ida Bae Wells
    @nhannahjones
    ·Oct 18
    Some months ago, a dear friend asked me for a favor. Her former boarding school, Middlesex, wanted me to come speak as part of BHM. Speaking at this type of school is not something I typically do, but she’s my friend. I said yes. I just learned the Pres & board canceled my talk.

    It’s hysterical in a way. They were so upset over cancel culture they cancelled her.
    Raise your hand if you knew the right to be heard would only apply to certain people. Ya know, in practice.

  79. 79.

    lashonharangue

    @MomSense:

    My perspective is that the Democratic Party now encompasses the traditional political spectrum of opinion and interest groups.

    This is why I think we should welcome former moderate Republicans to run as Dems in +5-6% R districts. They are the ones likely to flip them and we might as well have them in the caucus to negotiate with.  They can credibly say they are not like the progressives who come from +40% D districts.

  81. 81.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Elizabelle: I’m pretty sure that after his 10th he’ll find he has an 11th and a 12th and a….

    Creativity is not a spigot one can just turn off, tho it can run out.

  82. 82.

    Ksmiami

    @sdhays: this. Sinema and Manchin discounted the unity of the caucus and the popularity of Our President and his agenda among the Democratic Party as a whole. Manchin and Sinema are like Wiley Coyote when he runs off the ledge and realizes prior to his plunge, that he’s over his skis so to speak

  83. 83.

    Soprano2

    @Kay: It just seems like it would be more effective for the Democratic Party to work on selling it rather than trying to change Democratic voters.

    ITA. I think that was a big failure of the 2009 stimulus – they failed to sell all the good things they did, and instead let the press and Republicans frame it all as negative. There is also the fact that the press is notorious for trying to get members of the same party to shit on each other, and unfortunately too many Democrats are all too happy to play along – maybe anonymously, but still they play along. That’s one reason I’ve been so impressed with Jayapal, because she resolutely refuses to go along with their negative framing or attempts to get her to say bad things about other Democrats, or about the finished product. She is amazingly upbeat and positive about what they are doing.

    It’s like what happened here in the early 2000’s when there was a mandated audit of both the city and our city-owned utility company. Lots of things about the city audit were misrepresented in the local newspaper to make them sound nefarious when they weren’t – for example, they tried to paint it as a scandal that the head of the IS department purchased over $300,000 worth of computer stuff when the truth was that it was her job to buy that stuff for all the different departments! They even obtained the name of a person who was involved in misuse of a cell phone, which is a no-no. (They once printed an allegation that we deliberately dumped raw sewage into the river. When I asked the section head why he didn’t write a letter correcting the record, he said “Why? They have barrels-full of ink”.) So what was the response of the city manager? He curled up in a little ball and begged the newspaper to quit hitting him! He barely defended any of us against any of their allegations. OTOH, when the newspaper tried the same thing against employees of the city-owned utility company, their general manager came out forcefully and loud in defending his employees, continually stressing that they didn’t do anything wrong and actually passed the audit with flying colors, that no laws were broken and all policies were followed correctly. The newspaper backed down pretty quickly and didn’t publish any more shit about them. The lesson is, get out there and sell yourselves and what you do – it works! Quit rolling up in a little ball and asking them to please play nice with you – that never works.

  86. 86.

    Elizabelle

    @Matt McIrvin:   Yes!  That’s a perfect analogy.  And grateful for every Miyazaki movie.  They are treasures.

    @OzarkHillbilly:   True.  And it is a sin to waste one’s talents.  Totally understand if he wants to slow down for family time.

  87. 87.

    Soprano2

    @Kay: Are any of them ever going to comment on how this has played out? That it almost immediately became a way to silence liberal speech? Because it did.

    No, because this was the whole point of the exercise. You notice that none of the alleged “free speech warriors” on the internet have spoken out about this massive effort all over the country to “cancel” the complete history of racism in this country. When you have a parent literally saying that a teacher shouldn’t be allowed to even comment on a famous Norman Rockwell painting because to do so might make some white students feel bad, and these same people come from the contingent of those telling black people they need to get over their bad feelings about Confederate monuments, you’d think the “free speech” and “anti-cancel culture” people would get involved, yet we get crickets from them, and the press treats these people as if they have serious objections rather than as the panicked racists they really are.

  88. 88.

    Ksmiami

    @lowtechcyclist: the funny thing about my contributions to campaigns is most of the time, I’m like well it’s a necessary but not really uplifting part of the election process in the USA, but I continue to give and be excited about helping Warnock, Ossoff and Kelly…

  89. 89.

    The Moar You Know

    Liz Cheney is a vicious fucker just like her daddy.  Looks like she took a page straight out of LBJ’s playbook (“call him a goat-fucker and make him deny it”) and has said that refusing to testify means Trump’s guilty of the insurrection.  I normally deplore this sort of thing but in this case it’s proving to be necessary.  Good on her.

  90. 90.

    Soprano2

    @Kay: They were so upset over cancel culture they cancelled her.

    These are the same people who think college students should just shut up and let Richard Spencer speak unchallenged at their university! So much for freedom of speech.

  91. 91.

    Ksmiami

    @Kay: they need to hire better agencies and do a full New Deal marketing campaign promoting the Goid governance by Dems…Shameless self promotion works

  93. 93.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    do the LBJ romantics know that his majority included Sam Ervin, Richard Russell and James Eastland? That his opposition included Everett Dirksen, Edward Brooke and Hugh Scott? Do you think those names mean anything to them?

  95. 95.

    geg6

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    I think that only goes for when it’s expressed from the pulpit.  Churches have always held political events, especially Black churches.  But not by the preacher or minister during the service.

  96. 96.

    Kay

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    They got me to read critical race theory, which is really interesting. It’s a different way to look at structural racism in the US. I think part of the reason it makes them crazy is it is a harder and harsher approach to civil rights than the really romanticized history I learned in school: “black people protested, white people saw the light, racism was fixed”.  The Justice Roberts version.

    It starts with the premise that racism will never go away. Wow. There’s no redemption story for white people in it. It centers on black people, not white people. I realized most of the civil rights history I was taught was about white people’s response to civil rights activism. That’s a story, but it’s not the story. Clearly FROM a certain perspective – grounded in one.

  97. 97.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Kay: They got me to read critical race theory,

    Same here, and it made perfect sense to me. I’d been saying for a while that intent was beside the point if a thing had a racist result.

    ETA crt had the effect of making me see how broad it all was.

  98. 98.

    Kay

    White House details plans to vaccinate 28M children age 5-11

    I just flat out admire them at this point for plugging away in the face of the screeching, insane opposition.
    Just grind it out.

  99. 99.

    Kay

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    I had trouble getting my head around it. It was brand new to me. I like political faction battles (obviously) so I was tempted to veer off and follow the disputes between the Thurgood Marshall wing and the CRT wing. Obviously the more traditional group prevailed.

  100. 100.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Kay:

    I just flat out admire them at this point for plugging away in the face of the screeching, insane opposition.
    Just grind it out.

    “We are out of fucks to give – for the children.”

  101. 101.

    sab

    @Kay: I remember when I read Taylor Branch’s “Parting the Waters” that as he worked on the book he began to realize what huge gaps there were in his knowledge of the Civil Rights movement’s history and people. And he was a born and raised southerner in sympathy with their cause.

    (I am wildly paraphrasing him.)

  102. 102.

    Kay

    @OzarkHillbilly: ‘

    I just think white people have to admit that part of what we love about the conventional “civil rights story” is it’s a redemption story, as to white people. What we love about it is the part about us.

  103. 103.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    I was surprised at this, relieved, even though I don’t know what the Court of Federal Claims is. I assume to some degree this is a move to increase his salary ask with private firms?

    The Vetting Room @VettingRoom
    Court of Federal Claims Judge Steven Schwartz is retiring on Nov. 1. Schwartz, who is only 38, was appointed by Trump to the court last year.

    I’d love to see a bunch of greedy, non-ideological fucks go back to the private sector and create more openings for Judge-Appointin’ Joe

  104. 104.

    Another Scott

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Error. That tweet has been deleted.

    Okay. Confirmed by a staffer at Judge Schwartz’s chambers: this was an error and he’s not stepping down. It took them a little while to figure out what was going on, but the person who answered the phone was kind enough to call me back (didn’t want to give their name though).

    — southpaw (@nycsouthpaw) October 20, 2021

    FWIW.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  105. 105.

    Kay

    @sab:

    I had a really sharp civil rights professor in law school and that’s where I learned anything I know.

    She gave us all jobs at the end of the class. She wanted me to be a warden, which people thought was bad and insulting but I got what she meant. She meant better people should take unglamorous hard jobs. I wasn’t insulted at all. I do think that’s a hard job. I’m not even sure anyone could do it “well”, like humanely. It’s a horrible system. Anyway. Did not go into “corrections” :)

  107. 107.

    laura

    @sab: How are you doing this morning? You’ve been in my thoughts and I’m hoping for the best for you and your woozle Ponyo.

  108. 108.

    Baud

    @Kay:

    I just think white people have to admit that part of what we love about the conventional “civil rights story” is it’s a redemption story, as to white people.

    I supposed it could have been, if it weren’t for Nixon’s Southern strategy and then all of Reagan, followed by Gingrich, Rush Limbaugh, Fox News, the freakout over Obama, and then Trump. People made choices over the years, and now they have to live with it.

  109. 109.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Kay: Yep, especially the part about how it’s all OK now, because that means we don’t have to do anymore.

  110. 110.

    Betty Cracker

    @Kay: I’m sure I haven’t read CRT as knowledgeably as you have given that it’s a legal framework and I’m not a lawyer. But one thing that struck me as unique about it is that, in a sense, it’s freeing for white people too because what’s in people’s “hearts” is irrelevant. CRT seems outcomes based.

    As you said, it doesn’t center whites. But it also doesn’t rely on individual white people to examine their privilege or whatever to make progress. At least that’s how I interpreted it.

    It doesn’t say people shouldn’t do that to become more aware about the society they live in or be a better person, etc. But white people’s moral progress is not the vehicle for change.

  111. 111.

    sab

    @laura: We still don’t quite what’s in store for Ponyo. The surgeon seemed optimistic. She gets the lump removed next week, then they send it to pathology. After that we find out about chemo.

    When they brought her back to the car they said “Ponyo you are such a sweet doggie” and Ponyo said “GRrrrrrrrr” back at them.

  112. 112.

    laura

    @sab: it’s been a tough year for you dog wise and I’m hoping that Ponyo has many Grrrs in the future. If there’s a vet bill bleg, you can count me in.

  113. 113.

    Miss Bianca

    @PAM Dirac: Completely o/t, but I am finally going to be in your neck of the woods at the end of October/beginning of November. Weather permitting, I would love to check out some of the wine/mead sampling possibilities you have mentioned!

  115. 115.

    Soprano2

    @Kay: I just think white people have to admit that part of what we love about the conventional “civil rights story” is it’s a redemption story, as to white people. What we love about it is the part about us.

    That’s why the Tennessee mom doesn’t want teachers to talk about the Norman Rockwell painting, because it shows the ugly, angry white people that she doesn’t want her child to know anything about. It’s all about how white people “gave” black people their civil rights! In the same way they erase the 75 years it took women to get the right to vote – women asked for it, and 75 years later men magically gave it to them! We learn very little about what came in-between those two events.

  116. 116.

    zhena gogolia

    @Kay: Have you read Nikole Hannah-Jones’s intro to the 1619 Project? It is so eye-opening, like discovering American history in a whole new way.

  117. 117.

    PAM Dirac

    @Miss Bianca:

     

    Watergirl should be able to give you my email. I’ll send her a note to make sure she knows it’s OK. I’ll be out of town until Oct 27, but then I should be around and I can always send suggestion for places via email. Just let me know.

  118. 118.

    patrick Il

    @Shakti: ​
     
    At least she is not threatening eternal hellfire if you vote the wrong way. A step up from what I hear in many conservative churches.

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