Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Republicans do not pay their debts.

In short, I come down firmly on all sides of the issue.

Innocent people don’t delay justice.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires

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

You cannot shame the shameless.

Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

Optimism opens the door to great things.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

Putin dreamed of ending NATO, and now it’s Finnish-ed.

Do not shrug your shoulders and accept the normalization of untruths.

They’re not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

People are complicated. Love is not.

How can republicans represent us when they don’t trust women?

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

Happy indictment week to all who celebrate!

“I never thought they’d lock HIM up,” sobbed a distraught member of the Lock Her Up Party.

You are here: Home / Politics / Biden Administration in Action / Thursday Morning Open Thread: Step by Step

Thursday Morning Open Thread: Step by Step

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  2. 2.

    Baud

    I don’t mind advocates complaining beforehand to try to push for their agenda.  I will take note of who opposes us after the fact.

    That said, there’s no more lame, vapid critique than so and so didn’t “fight hard enough.”

  9. 9.

    germy

    Let’s have an honest accounting of what is really happening with these ever evolving negotiations. First, instead of centering the needs of the American people, corporate Democrats have purely been about lining the pockets and serving the interests of the donor class.

    If you really want to know why a provision is being killed, all you have to do is follow the money….

    The US Chamber of Congress—the face of corporate greed—is working over time to kill the bill, and already spent $30 million this year on lobbyists, along with a six figure ad campaign.

    Big Pharma—desperate to keep drug prices as high as possible—has spent $15 million.

    The oil and gas industry has spent over $55 million.

    A shadowy group called “Center Forward” is running ads everywhere to reward politicians trying to slash the bill. Shocker! They receive $1.5 million a year from Big Pharma.

    So how has that played out in negotiations? Let’s start with climate. The oil and gas industry all but killed cornerstone climate portions of the bill because it hurt coal, oil, and gas corporations.

    How about free community college, a key promise Democrats have run on since President Obama ran? Dead, thanks to the largest recipient of cash from for-profit colleges in Congress.

    How about lowering prescription drugs, one of the most popular policies in the world? Slashed after a multimillion dollar lobbying blitz by drug corporations.

    How about lowering prescription drugs, one of the most popular policies in the world? Slashed after a multimillion dollar lobbying blitz by drug corporations.

    Paid leave is just the latest axe that might fall—not because of popular opposition—but because it goes against the interests of corporations and the Members of Congress who do their bidding.

    To be clear, President Joe Biden *ran* and won on these values. These are the values of the Democratic Party. It is corporate greed, and the lawmakers who serve them, who are betraying the values of our party and the American people.

    We did not come to Congress to watch our entire agenda get torpedoed by corporate lobbyists, billionaires, and coal company owners hellbent on screwing over the American people. It’s time to bring to the floor a bill that prioritizes people over corporations.

    (Ilhan Omar)

  17. 17.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    Since this an open thread. Friend of mine was making and interesting argument that Facebook’s game is less about pushing some political opinion and more about deliberately manipulating it’s users into flame wars.  They were showing some Room For Rent Facebook group, so pretty non-political stuff, were the all the replies recommended by the Facebook algorithm were clearly troll posts.  Sure sounds like something a soulless husk of  Tech  Bro like Zuckerberg would come with.

  23. 23.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques: Pod Save the World was talking about FB this week, and they said more or less the same thing. Every minute of engagement is ad dollars earned, and flame wars generate engagement. Because they’re Worldos, they’re interested in FB in the rest of the world, where it’s much more dominant than in the US. I notice my UK acquaintances treat FB as acceptable, while most of my US friends have dumped it.

  25. 25.

    Anne Laurie

    @debbie: How long until someone wears flag pants?!?

    … with pre-stuffed ‘Blue Lives Matter’ codpieces, of course.

    I’m thinking the first promoter will send Josh Hawley a pair, gratis.

  31. 31.

    Betty Cracker

    @germy: She’s 100% correct. So are Bunch and Copelovitch in the OP. I think we have to take what we can get (pared down BBB and “bipartisan” infrastructure bill), and I think Omar will vote for it. The hill she and the other House progressives were ready to die on was the infrastructure bill as a standalone with no agreement on BBB. They were right to draw that line, IMO.

  33. 33.

    MomSense

    @Baud:

    I don’t think that some of the complainers realize Sanders has been at the center of negotiations.  I also find it interesting that he has decided not to be more public about his role.

  34. 34.

    Kay

    Adam Laats
    @AdamLaats
    · 22h
    In 1986, with support from Reagan, TN parents sued to keep their kids from learning traumatic info….about the UN.
    “Plaintiffs object to concept of ‘All men are brothers.’”

    Public education historian. Conservative panics about what is being taught in public schools go all the way back to the 1920s. Prior to that there wasn’t enough of a “universal public education infrastructure” for them to object to.

  36. 36.

    Kay

    I’ll be bitter about paid family leave. I just can’t help but notice that anything that primarily benefits women in this country is a non-starter. I think there’s a reason for that and it’s not the deficit. I know men benefit from paid leave too, so no one has to tell me but women will be the biggest losers if it fails.

    I knew child care was DOA and would never pass, too beneficial to (mostly) women, but one would think we could 4 weeks paid to care for infants. No featherbedding! Tick tock!

  38. 38.

    Barbara

    @Baud: ​I wonder how they would feel if we turned it around and said, “well obviously, if xyz was dropped it’s because its supporters didn’t fight hard enough to keep it.” Doing the best you can may be a necessary condition (well, for most people) but it has never been a guarantee of success. Any rational person of good will knows this.

  41. 41.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    What’s amazing about public schools is how resilient they are. They’re one of the very few universal public program in the United States so a really big target and yet they consistently garner enough public support to survive repeated attempts to banish them.

  43. 43.

    zhena gogolia

    @Baud: There were people bitching that Merrick Garland didn’t “fight” against the rude and evil senators who were berating him at the hearing. I don’t want an AG who acts just like those assholes.

  44. 44.

    Baud

    @Kay:

    People don’t like to give up what they have.  To be honest, I’ve always been more of a fan of doing a lot of smaller things than one big comprehensive thing, politically speaking.  But the filibuster rules and coalition politics don’t permit that.

  45. 45.

    narya

    Okay, even though it is not 100% where I am, I’ll take a stab at it. Putting forth that really ambitious bill–and TALKING about it, as well as insisting it be passed before the infrastructure bill–have put a lot of ideas into the public arena. Will all of them pass? No, of course not, but it can be framed that (a) the Democrats have had to go it alone, (b) it’s a big tent, so of course not all Democrats agree on everything, (c) pressure your reps for the things we didn’t get, and (d) did we mention that Democrats had to go it alone, because Republicans don’t want you to have ANY of this? None of it. And what passes will genuinely help people.

  46. 46.

    Baud

    @zhena gogolia:

    I didn’t watch, but yeah, generally I’m opposed to those who portray GOP awfulness as a strength we should emulate.  I don’t believe we succeed playing their game.

  47. 47.

    Baud

    @narya:

    Sure.  But people have to accept that framing. If they accept the framing that this was our only shot and focus on what Dems didn’t get this time around, then advantage GOP. See Obama 2009-10.

    And you know which framing the powers that be will be pushing.

  48. 48.

    Soprano2

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques: Facebook’s game is less about pushing some political opinion and more about deliberately manipulating it’s users into flame wars.

    So, they’re using human nature to make money. That’s not surprising.

  50. 50.

    hueyplong

    One or two of those senators might get a “response” from Garland’s DOJ down the road.

  52. 52.

    Soprano2

    Meanwhile, this happened in the MO Senate race:

     Missouri Republican Mark McCloskey, who is running for the U.S. Senate, said he does not support allowing abortions for young girls who become pregnant through rape or incest.

    IMHO this guy is a joke candidate anyway, but I hope this prompts the press to ask all the other candidates about this, so we can get it on the record how many Republican candidates are up for forcing a 12-year-old to bear her incestous rapist’s baby.

  53. 53.

    narya

    @Baud: Good point–maybe frame it as our FIRST shot, rather than our only shot? There are technical reasons why it’s our only shot right now (reconciliation), of course. Regardless, I’m actually pretty impressed. I’m bummed about all that’s missing, especially paid leave, but I really didn’t think we’d get this far. Jayapal has really been a leader on a lot of it.

  54. 54.

    Dagaetch

    Apologies if this was posted already in one of the overnight threads, but the RSS feed for the site isn’t working. Last post received was the Supreme Court post at 5:18pm yesterday.

  55. 55.

    Betty Cracker

    Interesting weather day where I live. It’s dark and drizzling. Small craft advisories are already in effect, and there’s a gale warning for the evening. I hope we don’t lose power.

  56. 56.

    Soprano2

    @zhena gogolia: There were people bitching that Merrick Garland didn’t “fight” against the rude and evil senators who were berating him at the hearing. I don’t want an AG who acts just like those assholes.

    I don’t either. I think he makes them look like the fools that they are.

  57. 57.

    SFAW

    It would be nice if Copelovitch’s “news” were picked up and shouted from the rooftops by CNN et al.

    For example, some variation of “The Republican Party claims to support ‘real Americans,’ yet time and again, they vote to harm them. It is statistically and (more-or-less) physically impossible for ALL of their elected Reps and Senators to vote against all the proposed programs in the BBB bill, unless their goal was NOT to help Americans, but to harm President Biden and the Democrats.”

  58. 58.

    Baud

    @narya:

    maybe frame it as our FIRST shot, rather than our only shot

     
    Right. But it hasn’t overcome the cynics in the past. Remember they only need to peel off a few percentages to give the plutocrats complete control again. IMHO we need to treat the negative Nellies as the antivaxxers of politics (assuming this thing gets passed).

  59. 59.

    Soprano2

    @Baud: Yeah, all you have to do is look at the behavior of people on this board (people who mostly agree and mostly get along with each other) to know that “flame wars” draw a lot more engagement than anything else. LOL It’s been the same way with any forum I’ve ever been a part of.

  60. 60.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Kay:

    I knew child care was DOA and would never pass, too beneficial to (mostly) women, but one would think we could 4 weeks paid to care for infants. No featherbedding! Tick tock!

    How about guaranteed paid leave, period – like 2 weeks’ paid vacation, paid sick leave, stuff like that?

    Here’s my idea: for every 40 hours someone works, it should be mandatory that they earn a minimum of 2 hours of paid time off, and 1 hour of paid sick leave.  (Feel free to adjust the numbers to your liking.)  And require employers to allow you to accumulate up to 6 weeks of each.

    Then if you’ve been working somewhere a few years, and you’ve been parsimonious with your leave, you can take 4 weeks of paid leave, you’ve already got it.

    It just seems bizarre that we’re talking about this in a nation where an employer isn’t required to give you any paid vacation or paid sick leave.  I think we’re the only economically advanced nation where this is the case.

  61. 61.

    SFAW

    @Baud:

    I don’t believe we succeed playing their game.

    Not their entire game, but certainly parts of it. For example, screaming about right-wing bias in the MSM. It will take time to show results — hopefully less time than it took the RWMFs to work the refs successfully — but gotta start somewhere.

  62. 62.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Soprano2: so we can get it on the record how many Republican candidates are up for forcing a 12-year-old to bear her incestous rapist’s baby.

    We already know the answer is “d) all of them” but yeah, getting it on record might be helpful. It will only work tho if they are forced to answer now, when they are competing for the batshit crazy vote in the primary. Not after when they will weasel out of a straight answer.

  63. 63.

    narya

    @Baud: That works for me! I really think that, if/when these bills get passed, there should be real celebration, in spite of the things that won’t be in it. Here’s another framing: Democrats worked hard to get this, and it will help everyone (list of who/how it will help); the Republicans focused on tax cuts for the wealthy.

  64. 64.

    Barbara

    @Kay: ​No matter how hard they try, conservatives bump up against the reality that 90% of students go to public schools and huge swaths of voters really care about maintaining those schools. Unlike “partial birth” abortion, for instance, the opportunity for sowing hysteria over public schools falters over the fact that most people have direct experience with those schools and have a better idea when the fear mongering narrative is mostly false. People who are most likely to fall for that narrative are retirees and older people who haven’t been near a school in a long time.

  66. 66.

    SFAW

    @Soprano2:

    It’s been the same way with any forum I’ve ever been a part of.

    I think you’re full of shit. WTF do YOU know?

    [Yes, I’m 100 percent kidding, just trying to prove your point. Or something.]

  67. 67.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    it is amazing to me that the worst case scenario for the reconciliation bill is roughly twice the size of the 2009 stimulus package

  69. 69.

    James E Powell

    The news is that 0% of 262 GOP in Congress are supporting any of these hugely popular policies, not that only 99.3% of the 270 Democrats are, yes? B/c it sure seems like the <narrative> is “Dems in disarray” & not “far right authoritarian party unanimously opposes everything.”

    For many years now, at least since the Bush/Cheney Junta, the press/media regard Republican obstruction to anything good or decent to be normal, even admirable.

  70. 70.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    and speaking of the ARRA….. Michael Grunwald doesn’t tweet much these days, but his book on the Stimulus should’ve gotten much wider coverage. The only time I saw him on MSNBC was half a segment with Ed Schultz, who had clearly not read it and seemed to be doing paperwork while Grunwald talked

    also…

    Michael Grunwald @MikeGrunwald
    Mitt Romney complained in a debate that Obama gave stimulus loans to “losers” like Tesla, which is now worth a trillion dollars. I remember at the time it was seen as a very powerful attack. Maybe it was. I wish there was some kind of cost to being superwrong in politics.

  72. 72.

    Kay

    @Barbara:

    Agree. I think the most important part of that might be the hundreds of millions of public school graduates. When you’re listening to the Ohio GOP Senate candidates and they declare all public schools as failing and all public school graduates as unprepared for the workforce there are millions of people thinking – “yet….I’m one of them. I did okay”.

    I also think it’s a basic misunderstanding of how public schools work – what they ARE- to claim they’re packed with liberals. They’re liberal in liberal areas and conservative in conservative areas. They reflect the communities they’re in. I know the conservative pundit bashing public schools as ‘liberal” either grew up and resides in a liberal part of the country or didn’t attend public schools. Public schools have a jurisdiction- geographic and population bounds. They’re not national. They’re closer to a congressional district. Even with “open enrollment” (which Ohio has) there is only so far you can travel to get to a school. If you’re not in your district you’re in a neighboring district.

  76. 76.

    Geminid

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: And that is on top of the $1.9 trillion Covid relief bill and the ~$1 trillion physical infrastructure bill. People may finally get to see how much better trickle-up economics work than trickle-down.

  77. 77.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques:

    Since this an open thread. Friend of mine was making and interesting argument that Facebook’s game is less about pushing some political opinion and more about deliberately manipulating it’s users into flame wars.  They were showing some Room For Rent Facebook group, so pretty non-political stuff, were the all the replies recommended by the Facebook algorithm were clearly troll posts.

    I think it’s both – FB promotes flame wars and trolling whether it’s political or not, AND they promote right-wing tropes.

    But it explains to me why I’ve felt FB was toxic, and left it behind on that account.  There are plenty of places online where I can get into interesting debates about everything from politics to music, but what I wanted out of FB was relaxed socializing with friends.  Instead, FB promoted replies from FB ‘friends’, casual acquaintances really, that got contentious.  I got sick of that, and stopped posting to FB years ago.

  78. 78.

    Kay

    @Barbara:

    My oldest son was one of two liberals in his honors government class. Out of 30. My daughter once had to go stand in the hall because she wouldn’t stop arguing with her classmates about evolution. All her classmates, save one other science enthusiast. I could have started screeching about Right wing dominance but I am aware that this place is majority Right wing. I know my two kids are a political minority. They attended a Right leaning public school.

  80. 80.

    Soprano2

    @SFAW: LOL, I was on a sci-fi board once where they got a “Who Would Win?” thread to over 10,000 posts! People loved to fight over things like would the Enterprise defeat a star destroyer from Star Wars?

  81. 81.

    topclimber

    @Baud: ​

    Too many Dem-friendly types fall for the media “one shot” framing. Either we have plenty of time because Dems control the federal government during the next decade and beyond, or the Dems don’t control the federal government during the next decade and we are fracked for a long time to come.

    In other words, we need to concentrate on a decades-long strategy based on the notion that we can’t afford to fail. But we don’t have to win every battle right now.

  82. 82.

    WaterGirl

    @Dagaetch: I just checked, and the RSS feed is working for me.  Before I pursue anything, can you let me know whether it is or is not working for you now?

    edit: Someone just sent me an email saying they are having this problem, too.

  83. 83.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Leto:

    The United States, Suriname, Papua New Guinea, and a few island countries in the Pacific Ocean are the only countries in the United Nations that do not require employers to provide paid time off for new parents.

    Not arguing with you there, but are there more countries than those that don’t require employers to give some sort of annual paid vacation, or don’t require employers to give at least some paid sick leave, whether you’re a new parent or not?

    It just seems to me that this is even more basic than paid parental leave, and so far as I can tell, the Dems haven’t tried to push this anytime in the last 25 years at least.

    And it’s something that wouldn’t be seen as helping just women – which as Kay points out, results in lower support even though it’s not true.

  84. 84.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Baud:

    I didn’t watch, but yeah, generally I’m opposed to those who portray GOP awfulness as a strength we should emulate.  I don’t believe we succeed playing their game.

    The goading for us to drop into lies, violence and trolling is emotionally very hard to resist. I feel it all the time.

  85. 85.

    Dagaetch

    @WaterGirl: Ahhah, somehow I was still using a Feedburner link. Updated to the new one from the footer and it refreshed correctly. But…does every post start with a picture of Tunch now? lol

  86. 86.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Soprano2: Think how the You Tube algorithm accidently created the Flat Earther movement; Facebook turned a lot people into rage addicts who can’t think rationally anymore in some kind of click bait stunt.

    Also,  You Tube got off it’s ass and fix it’s algorithm when there was push back and Flat Earthers faded away. This might be a problem that can easily be fixed.

  88. 88.

    RobertB

    @Kay: It’s been seven or eight years since I saw this.  Most of the school districts in Franklin Co. OH will not accept student transfers.

  89. 89.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @zhena gogolia: I was quite impressed with the Garland’s self control to not openly mocking Ted Cruz on that “Big CRT”  nonsense.   Cruz was all butthurt that Garland blew him off on Twitter.

  90. 90.

    Eunicecycle

    @Leto: You should send this to Joe Manchin, who wants to research what other countries do for parental leave. Like that hasn’t already been done in the public media and has been known for years.

  93. 93.

    Matt McIrvin

    @topclimber: “One last shot” is a great election-campaign message. The problem with it is the question of what you do when you lose, because sometimes you’re going to lose.

    A democracy that can only survive if one side wins every election is already dead.

  94. 94.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Sure Lurkalot: I am so sure of that, both me and brother law tried last year to figure out the GOP’s real policy positions behind all the sloganing and couldn’t find anything, beyond, moar tax cuts. I am sure there are groups of Republicans who are hard core libertarians, but at the same time there are the Evangelicals who want a Christian Fundamentalist version of the Soviet Union.

  96. 96.

    WaterGirl

    @Sure Lurkalot:  This morning I found 3 identical posts from you caught in the SPAM filter. I sent you email about it.

    I marked them all NOT SPAM and then released your first one and deleted the other two.  No idea why it flagged that one as SPAM.

  100. 100.

    Betty Cracker

    @topclimber: Given the realities of red state overrepresentation in the Senate and the very real and daunting obstacles to fixing that, I listen to those who say we’re unlikely to see unified federal control for a long time if we lose it next year. And one battle we really can’t afford to lose is voting rights, and yet I don’t see how we win it in this term. (Not arguing with anything you said; just throwing in my $0.02.)

  101. 101.

    Leto

    @lowtechcyclist: Hakeem Jeffries was on Morning Blow talking about this. The Federal work force, and the military, have some paid parental leave. Think like 4 weeks? How long ago was that passed? He said it was a building block. We’ve been “building” on this for decades, it’s just run against every monied interest which seems to win out nearly 95% of the time.
    Paid Time Off Practices Around the World. Here’s a handy link to show you just how backwards this country is. Idk what to tell you wrt this.

  102. 102.

    Dee Lurker

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques:

    I think this argument should get some pushback. The Cambridge Analytica scandal revealed FB political calculations:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook%E2%80%93Cambridge_Analytica_data_scandal

    The data was harvested specifically to benefit right-wing populist movements like Brexit. The methodology was to present media that promoted apathy and mistrust in government.

    Yes, FB is certainly interested in profit uber alles. However, I argue that this profit motive is wrapped in a political motive that favors right wing libertarianism. The content FB consistently overlooks and hand-waves to the public is geared towards distrust of government. Not distrust in authority, but in democratic institutions that are dedicated to the public good. I think Zuck and Co. do not believe in the common good. This fits the right wing ancap ethos that is 2 parts Ayn Rand, 1 part Murray Rothbard with a soupcon of Jeremy Bentham.

    In general, I would look askance at “pure profit motive” arguments when it comes to any corporation. The problem with that argument is that corporations that are wildly successful like FB inevitably run into the wall of monopolization and therefore into lobbying to preserve and expand its profitability. This will always turn political and invariably involves presenting a public face with a private agenda. In FB’s case, this is true, along with its aiding and abetting of disnformation with a clear intent to destabilize representative government.

    FB is a clear and present danger to the US government. Full stop.

  104. 104.

    zhena gogolia

    @Baud: Their new savior is Sally Yates. I see nothing in Sally Yates’s profile that indicates she wouldn’t be just as much of a by-the-book legal eagle as Garland. She’s not going to get up and rip her shirt off and scream at Tom Cotton.

  106. 106.

    topclimber

    @Matt McIrvin: Not every election. Just the next four or five.

    From 1932 to 1968, the Dems dominated the government by a lot and even though some of “our” guys were Dixiecrats, Dems got good stuff done, including a Civil Rights bill. Then LBJ  get snared in Vietnam and it has been a battle ever since.

    Perhaps a decade from now, a sane alternative to Dems will have time to emerge. Til then, run the table because no other strategy works.

  107. 107.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Soprano2:  You all missing the point of this argument; Facebook is deliberately creating flame wars by continuously trolling it’s users with it’s recommends. Considering Facebook tells it’s users recommends are something you will like, not, something Facebook knows will just piss  you off, the  Government can step on Facebook for false advertising.

  108. 108.

    hueyplong

    @Leto: At first report, I assumed Manchin said what he did about needing to look up info about other countries merely in order to disengage from his fellow Dem senators and get away down the hall.

    Then they tweeted what they did in order to make it awkward for him to be shown to have done nothing but blow them off.

    That’s probably all that happened.

    The difference between Manchin and Cinema is that he’s enough of a pro to know to leave it at that.  Cinema would have complained about being ambushed.

  109. 109.

    Sure Lurkalot

    @Eunicecycle: I read this morning that Romney the company dicer was floating family leave funded by your future Social Security benefits scam. Want time off to suckle and bond with your newborn? We’ll just tack the time on to your retirement age! Have a couple more kids for the pleasure of working until you croak!

    These are your Republican family values.

  110. 110.

    Betty Cracker

    @zhena gogolia: Eric Holder was pretty good at dealing with bad-faith, fulminating wingnut grandstanders. I think “Good luck with your asparagus” may actually be one of our rotating taglines! :)

  113. 113.

    taumaturgo

    Honest headline: Conservative democrats in siding with billionaires trashed Biden’s people agendas. “This is business as usual in Washington, isn’t it?” New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said Thursday. “Defend the rich and scrap from the poor. What we’re trying to do is figure out if we can generate the political will to protect working-class people as much as people want to protect billionaires.”

    “We bend over backwards for fracking and the pharmaceutical industry and the fossil fuel industry and billionaires. We bend over backwards for them but poor people, women, people of color, it’s always next year, next year, next year,” Representative Jamaal Bowman of New York said.

  116. 116.

    Ohio Mom

    To be fair, there are isolated pockets where new parent leave exists. Two examples come to my mind, schools, for obvious reasons, because most teachers are women, and more prestigious careers — I’m waiting right now for one of my doctors to finish her maternity leave. Last year I was waiting for my dentist.

    Maybe that is one of the reasons parental leave gets so little traction. So many people who could be in the lead, pushing for change, already have what they want. The mom who works two low-paid jobs is too overwhelmed and under equipped to take on the fight.

  117. 117.

    Matt McIrvin

    @topclimber:

    Not every election. Just the next four or five.

    I think that’s an impossible order. We can’t do that even under far better conditions. That requires 1932- or 1964-level landslides.

    We need some kind of backup strategy to either survive ~70 years of sadistic one-party autocracy, or to overthrow it.

  119. 119.

    Another Scott

    Horse’s mouth – WH.gov – Build Back Better Framework:

    Build Back Better Framework
    OCTOBER 28, 2021
    •
    STATEMENTS AND RELEASES

    The Build Back Better Act will create millions of good-paying jobs, enable more Americans to join and remain in the labor force, spur long-term growth, reduce price pressures and set the United States on course to meet its clean energy ambitions.

    Investments in Children, Families and Caregiving that Grow the Economy’s Capacity

    – Universal Preschool for all 3- and 4-year Olds: Expand access to free high-quality preschool for more than 6 million children. This is a long-term program, with funding for six years.

    – Affordable High Quality Child Care: Limit child care costs for families to no more than 7% of income, for families earning up to 250% of state median income. It enables states to expand access to about 20 million children. Parents must be working, seeking work, in training or taking care of a serious health issue. This is a long-term program, with funding for six years.

    – Affordable, High-Quality Care for Hundreds of Thousands of Older Americans and People with Disabilities in Their Homes and Communities: Strengthening an existing program through Medicaid and ending the existing backlog and improving working conditions for home care workers

    – Expanded Child Tax Credit: Extend for one year the current expanded Child Tax Credit for more than 35 million American households, with monthly payments for households earning up to $150,000 per year. Make refundability of the Child Tax Credit permanent.

    Investments in Clean Energy and Combatting Climate Change

    – Clean Energy Tax Credits ($320 billion): Ten-year expanded tax credits for utility-scale and residential clean energy, transmission and storage, clean passenger and commercial vehicles, and clean energy manufacturing.

    – Resilience Investments ($105 billion): Investments and incentives to address extreme weather (wildfires, droughts, and hurricanes, including in forestry, wetlands, and agriculture), legacy pollution in communities, and a Civilian Climate Corps.

    – Investments and Incentives for Clean Energy Technology, Manufacturing, and Supply Chains ($110 billion): Targeted incentives to spur new domestic supply chains and technologies, like solar, batteries, and advanced materials, while boosting the competitiveness of existing industries, like steel, cement, and aluminum.

    – Clean Energy procurement ($20 billion): Provide incentives for government to be purchaser of next gen technologies, including long-duration storage, small modular reactors, and clean construction materials.

    Affordable Care for Millions of Hardworking Americans

    – Affordable Care Act Premium Tax Credits: Extend the expanded Affordable Care Act premium tax credits through 2025. Experts predict that more than 3 million people who would otherwise be uninsured will gain health insurance. Also make Affordable Care Act premium tax credits available through 2025 to 4 million uninsured people in uncovered states.

    – Allow Medicare to cover the cost of hearing. Establish a hearing benefit in Medicare, a crucial benefit to our seniors for a reasonable cost.

    Bringing Down Costs, Reducing Inflationary Pressures, and Strengthening the Middle Class

    – Housing: $150 billion investment in housing affordability and reducing price pressures, including in rural areas. Funds go towards building, preserving, and improving more than 1 million affordable rental and single-family homes, including public housing, plus rental and down payment assistance.

    – Education Beyond High School and Workforce Development: Reduce costs and expand access to education beyond high school by raising the maximum Pell grant, providing support to Historically Black Colleges & Universities (“HBCUs”), Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs), Minority Serving Institutions (“MSIs”), and Tribal Colleges and Universities (“TCUs”), and investing in workforce development, including community college workforce programs, sector-based training, and apprenticeships.

    – Earned Income Tax Credit for 17 Million Low-Wage Workers: Extend for one year the current expanded Earned Income Tax Credit for childless workers.

    – Equity and Other Investments: Other targeted investments including maternal health, community violence initiatives, Native communities, disadvantaged farmers, nutrition, pandemic preparedness, supply chain resilience, and other areas.

    Improve Our Immigration System Consistent with the Senate’s Reconciliation Rules.

    Good, good.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  123. 123.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Dee Lurker: It’s what came first, the chicken or the egg question with Facebook over the disinformation. But I think it’s a lot easier argument to pursue in the courts that Facebook is systematically lying to its’ customers every chance it gets and needs to be broken up rather than Facebook’s politics are unpopular.

  124. 124.

    Kay

    @RobertB:

    I knew some districts didn’t participate (all our rural districts do) – I think open enrollment was less popular than predicted. The vast majority of people stayed in their assigned school. My public school said there was a “honeymoon” period for students and parents when the student transferred but what they found is often the same problems would then just crop up at the new school.

  125. 125.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @Kay: Ugh, so sorry for you and your kids.  That has to be so hard.  I would’ve gotten suspended every other day on Evolution alone.

  127. 127.

    topclimber

    @Matt McIrvin: More like 1932 than 1968–we don’t have a Presidential martyr helping us.

    Enough Dems and non-partisans understand that the GOP is bad for the economy (two meltdowns in 12 years!) and in thrall to Trump. Sure, we need an honest election, but we have a shot to make 2022 the exception to the rule of the incumbent party losing ground. Gerrymanders don’t stop us from picking up open Senate seats in purple states.

    Let’s see if we win that one and then we discuss what sort of winning streak is plausible.

  128. 128.

    Kay

    @UncleEbeneezer:

    She’s the most determined person I know. Good luck shutting her up.

    They used to have school assemblies to harangue them about not having sex. I don’t know if you’re familiar with this- there’s a whole Right wing speaker circuit that is religious, but they JUST ride the line enough to get into public schools. Another grift. It’s like “values based education”. She has such a funny take on it now that she’s grown. She said they would “chant incantations” to prevent pregnancy.

  132. 132.

    Baud

    @Kay:

    They used to have school assemblies to harangue them about not having sex.

     

    “Why aren’t you damn kids having sex?”

  133. 133.

    topclimber

    @Kay: Probably where the kid’s friends go to school plays a role. Maybe less now that social media lets them hang out with anyone, anywhere. Maybe more for younger kids.

  134. 134.

    Ken

    @OzarkHillbilly: So instead of The Simpsons, Brave New World.  “Oh no, I don’t want to play with Delta children. And Epsilons are even worse. I’m so glad I’m a Beta….”

  135. 135.

    J R in WV

    @jonas:

    The angrier people get, the more they’re “engaged” = the more time they spend looking at Facebook’s ads = more $$.

    There are ads on Facebook??? What about Twitter? Ads there too? Whooo knew??  (sic)

  136. 136.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    One year we had the highest teen pregnancy rate in the state and it was just denial, followed by outrage, followed by explaining over and over what a “rate” is. They refused to believe it. “It has to be Cleveland!”

    Well, it’s NOT. Wrong answer.

  137. 137.

    Barbara

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques: ​I am not sure what the government can or should do, but the only time I spend on FB is trying to figure out the schedule for events for a group that I follow. When I expand my friends to include my cousins or some other group that should be normal or neutral, I find that of those, the most active posters relentlessly post or repost intentionally provocative content that adds zero positivity to my life. If I miss the occasional information on a reunion date, so be it. Even the people who post things I mostly agree with are tiresome in the volume and tone of what they post. And tbh, I don’t give a flying fuck about whether you had a good workout at your favorite gym today or any day. FB cultivates the shallow, boring and stupid in the people who live their lives around it. Turning it off is the only real way to keep it from being the equivalent of a swarm of mosquitos in your mental space.​

  140. 140.

    J R in WV

    Not having children, Wife still went to the assessor’s office not long after we bought our little “farm” (wooded hillsides) here in rural WV to get the property taxes raised. Was $11/year, and she shouted “No wonder the schools are among the worst in the whole state?”

    I was amused and supportive, but really the Oil and Gas companies that own all the mineral rights (ever since the courthouse burned down not long after the oil bidness made a lot of money — all the WV courthouses burned down once the mineral rights were worth something) are responsible for the low property tax rates.

    I only ever went to one school board meeting — I was invited with a neighbor who was also a pretty big guy to attend to bodyguard a friend and neighbor who was the science teacher who was sucker punched after complaining about a huge pay raise for the transportation manager and NOTHING for actual teaching the kids.

    The transportation manager beat him after the meeting ended. Obviously well qualified to work for the Board of Ed!

    Didn’t ever happen again, although no arrest happened in spite of the bloody photos on the front page of the weekly. Tommy and I stood for the whole meeting, right behind the seat Julian had. We stood with our arms crossed, motionless and silent. So glad nothing erupted, I’m pretty much a pacifist as far as fighting goes…  I’m a big guy, and Tommy had me by 5 inches and lots of pounds, a really big farmer!

    ETA: Was a Very Long time ago, like 40 years ago. Schools still suck, they just closed a big Pre-K–Middle school in our neighborhood, it was structurally unsafe. Dunno where we’ll vote now?

  141. 141.

    Soprano2

    @Kay: That’s what happens when there’s nothing for teenagers to do! The adults don’t believe it, though – they think going to church keeps teens from having sex.

  142. 142.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Leto:

    @lowtechcyclist: Hakeem Jeffries was on Morning Blow talking about this. The Federal work force, and the military, have some paid parental leave. Think like 4 weeks? How long ago was that passed? He said it was a building block.

    I think we’re talking past each other here.  You’re talking about paid parental leave, I’m talking about paid vacation. (And paid SL too.)  Since the late 1990s, I’ve been wondering about this – it just seems like a requirement for a minimum amount of paid vacation each year would be extremely popular, but I’ve never seen the Dems try to make an issue of it.

    Have I missed it? Am I wrong? Was there a time in the past quarter-century when the Dems made a sincere push for paid vacation?

  143. 143.

    EmbraceYourInnerCrone

    @Kay: Meanwhile in Virginia there are week-day religious classes were kids are taken out of school and to a local Christian church of one sort or another, to be taught about the Bible. In 2021, in fucking PUBLIC school systems…

    Here’s a quote from the article about a school district that want to start doing it, but it already goes on in at least 80 schools in Virginia “Bowers would like for the School Board to allow students in second grade to be released for an hour once a week for religious studies. Parents would have to approve of their child leaving for the class. Bowers said a bus would pick up students and take them to a nearby church or facility for the religious lessons and then bring them back to school.”

    Weekday Religious Education is offered in over 80 public schools in Virginia

    Nice way to also put a target on the backs of kids whose parents don’t want them attend religious classes during school.  I don’t think school boards are liberal for the most part…

  145. 145.

    Kim Walker

    @lowtechcyclist:

    Canada does not require employers to provide paid sick leave. A few provinces require some employers to provide a few days of sick leave (1-5 IIRC) and mostly unpaid. There is a requirement for some sort of paid statutory holiday/vacation, but I’ve never paid any attention to it. They do have decent maternity/parental paid leave through EI for those who are eligible.

  146. 146.

    Kim Walker

    Tony Blair ran the Labour Party for many years due mainly to the 4-week paid vacation for everyone scheme.

  147. 147.

    rikyrah

    @Kay: 

    What’s amazing about public schools is how resilient they are.

    Because people choose their homes based upon SCHOOL DISTRICTS, Kay.

    When you buy a house because of the schools, you wind up supporting the schools.

  148. 148.

    Gravenstone

    @oatler: Don’t want to be a target of the new “war on terror” in the US? Don’t be a fucking terrorist! This ain’t rocket surgery.

  150. 150.

    rikyrah

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques:

     I am sure there are groups of Republicans who are hard core libertarians, but at the same time there are the Evangelicals who want a Christian Fundamentalist version of the Soviet Union.

     

    The libertarians only want their tax cuts. They would go along with anything the Fundies wanted if they get those.

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