I'll be clear: to protect our democracy, I support changing the Senate rules to prevent a minority of senators from blocking action on voting rights.
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) January 12, 2022
This confirms that Biden gave a very, very good speech https://t.co/ZQ41h2XneP
— Joyce Alene (@JoyceWhiteVance) January 12, 2022
BREAKING: Chuck Schumer has found a mechanism to enable Democratic leaders in the Senate to bypass an initial Republican filibuster and debate the party's sweeping election reform bills. https://t.co/vWkHybQhF3
— Jon Cooper ???? (@joncoopertweets) January 13, 2022
Sounds like a version of LBJ’s Make ’em deny it tactic…
Democratic leaders have found a mechanism to enable them to bypass an initial Republican filibuster and debate the party’s sweeping election reform bills, according to a new leadership memo obtained by Axios…
Driving the news: The House is expected to take up an amendment in the coming days related to NASA leasing “underutilized” property to private groups. Democratic leaders are referring to this as the “shell bill.”
– It will then strip that legislation of its existing language and replace it with the text for the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act.
– The House would then pass the updated bill and send it to the Senate as a “message.” Then, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) will file a motion to concur with the House amendment.
Between the lines: This would allow the Senate — for the first time — to quickly take up the bill and debate it on the floor…
… the problem being that #MoscowMitch *delights* in being known as a pig fornicator racist traitor. But maybe it can peel off a few Repubs from purplish states?
Last time I checked, there’s nothing in the Constitution that says Republicans can’t vote for voting rights.
— Dan Rather (@DanRather) January 12, 2022
It makes absolutely no sense why Mitch McConnell can confirm 3 Supreme Court justices for Trump with 51 votes to take away voting rights but it requires 60 votes for US Senate to protect voting rights
— Ari Berman (@AriBerman) January 12, 2022
https://t.co/rFwr0QVXCb pic.twitter.com/gvvL6pwaek
— zeddy (@Zeddary) January 13, 2022
Why the two elections bills are important.https://t.co/U4QnWZOpmW
— Cheryl Rofer (@CherylRofer) January 12, 2022
Alison Rose
I hate you, Mitch.
dmsilev
@Alison Rose: Sadly, he doesn’t care what we think of him.
NotMax
Grim Reaper suing McConnell for trademark infringement.
Film at 11.
//
Citizen Alan
Until I had to move to NYC, I kept a bottle of champagne chilling in my fridge for over 2 years to celebrate when that SOB kicked it.
Old School
@Citizen Alan: Did you drink it? Or where is it now?
germy
Republicans when they’re contacted by the Jan. 6 commission:
RaflW
Sinema has seen how much of a media darling Manchin is, and has the brainstorm to maybe go nuclear.
Seems more than ‘doubling’ here. I hate the dems in disarray, but for fuck’s sake. She’s just relishing shoving a shiv in Joe.
MisterForkbeard
@RaflW: I really hate the gendered framing, but Sinema is such a drama queen.
She needs to make everything about herself, and be loud and obnoxious about it. Hasn’t been getting enough attention – time to stab a democrat in the back while being noisily self righteous.
Sure Lurkalot
I’m happily going to a nature reserve in a bit so I will miss the drama in real time. If there’s a curtsy with a thumbs down, just shoot me when I get home.
Kay
@RaflW:
I don’t know what Biden does in this situation- I’ve never seen anything like it. There are two Democratic Senators who are actively working to tank his Presidency. I actually thought they’d get on board for voting rights with at least a POLITICAL recognition that delivering on voting rights is essential for a crucial group of voters that Democratics absolutely need once they successfully tanked BBB, but they’re not stopping. BBB wasn’t enough. They must knife him on voting rights too.
Betty Cracker
@RaflW: If true, what a gigantic egotistical asshole.
Betty
@RaflW: It is especially frustrating that she and Joe continue to misrepresent the history of the filibuster. They have been told its initial use was to diminish civil rights as it is being used now. Yet they insist that changing it is harmful to democracy.
pat
I too am off to the local state park to look for the trumpeter swans that were there a few days ago.
Have to get away from the news…..
Betty Cracker
@Kay: My political instincts suck, but at this point, those preening clowns are not just tanking the Biden presidency and damaging the party, they’re helping Republicans shiv democracy. And for what? Neither can articulate a coherent argument, so I’ll have to go with the “corruption” explanation, for which there is copious circumstantial evidence.
I realize the Senate is on a knife’s edge, or we wouldn’t be here. Biden has made some progress against the massive damage Trump did to the judiciary, and that’s important. But that has to be weighed against the destruction these two have wrought. Not sure what the answer is, but “oh well, what can you do except elect more Democrats in a GOP-rigged race” is insufficient.
Gin & Tonic
Talk about a shiv…
rikyrah
This is more a COVID related item.
AL,
In one of your posts, you had a tweet link to a mask clearinghouse. Went and ordered my KN-95’s through them.
Good price. Box came yesterday. They seem to be excellent quality.
Thanks so much for all the education you have given us on your COVID beat.
Betty Cracker
@MisterForkbeard: It fits with that ninny, and I don’t find the framing offensive. But “drama llama” works too if you’re looking for a non-gendered expression.
Soprano2
I can’t get over the nerve of anyone who supported TFG saying Biden’s speech was “unpresidential”. Every time TFG opened his mouth, “unpresidential” things came out, and they never said a word about it other than that they wished he wouldn’t talk so much.
rikyrah
@RaflW:
She’s a trifling trick
Chief Oshkosh
@Kay: I assume the dark money is telling them to remain in the Democratic Party for now as they’ve calculated that that is doing more harm than if they left.
rikyrah
@Alison Rose:
Come sit by me
Miss Bianca
@Betty Cracker: The theater geek in me can’t resist noting that the original term was “Tragedy Queen”, and it actually referred to characters like Phaedra, Clytemnestra, Medea, Mary Queen of Scots et al – *actual* queens, or at least actual queen characters, who were stars of their own tragedies and given to long, emotional speeches as a result.
Eolirin
@Chief Oshkosh: They only have leverage, and honestly media attention too, as long as they’re in the party. They won’t leave until they’re ready to give that up or we no longer need them.
Kay
@Betty Cracker:
Every single month the Manchin and Sinema show has been playing both Biden and Democrats have dropped in the polls. This can’t even be justified as some kind of effective play to “centrists”- they’re bleeding “centrists” like they’re bleeding everywhere else. I don’t “blame” Biden at all- I have no earthly idea what he does other than just retreat completely and go to EOs and administrative orders, but the perception of “weakness” in that will also be damaging politically.
It’s just much more damaging when the opponents are in your own Party. We can say “it’s Republicans!” (and they will because they don’t have any choice) but anyone watching this sees two Democrats front and center effectively blocking the whole Democratic agenda.
catclub
Mike Rounds is taking on the McCain maverick role by saying (heresy) “that the election of 2020 was not stolen from Trump” but still, “letting the states mangle voting rights any way they like is better than allowing the federal government to impose standards on voting.”
The Moar You Know
@Betty Cracker: And yet it is the only answer. The Senate was designed to work this way, on purpose. To resist change. To be a bulwark against the “hysteria of the moment”. The first 100 or so pages of Robert Caro’s “Master of The Senate” – which I think is his fourth book on LBJ, not sure – should be issued on its own as a textbook on the United States Senate and taught in every school in the land. It’s not pretty, but you understand a lot more about how and why that body works the way it does when you’re done with it.
Soprano2
@Kay: I disagreed with their reasons for opposing BBB, but I understood them. I don’t understand their reasons for opposing getting rid of the filibuster for voting rights at all. Why don’t they want the voting rights bills to pass? It’s a mystery to me.
Chief Oshkosh
@Eolirin: But leverage for what? I get the media attention, though it’s almost uniformly bad, but what end goal are they using this leverage for
ETA: I don’t think either of them has a real goal here. That’s why I agree with others (Kay or Betty or someone) who said it’s the corruption.
NotMax
@Betty Cracker
The thing about limelights is they tend to burn out fast.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Betty Cracker:
It’s also the only way out.
CliosFanBoy
@rikyrah: please give us the link. thanks
Eolirin
@Chief Oshkosh: Manchin gets his wife a cushy appointment they both get leverage over what goes into the bills that do pass like the infrastructure package, whatever budget and defense bills pass, etc
And yes, of course it’s corruption. But they don’t have the ability to be as effectively corrupt if they’re not dems because they can’t influence anything anymore.
p.a.
@Betty Cracker: To me the absolute knife twist by these two is the fact that thanks to the ‘everything tRump touches turns to shit’ effect in GA we won both seats, a real long shot (I know in fair elections it’s turning purple). We are soooo close!?
Quinerly
@rikyrah: which place did you use? Linky? I am collecting info for an older couple and ordering for them after they make a decision which ones. Person, I’m set for awhile but also good to have other sources, l guess. Sometimes l feel overwhelmed with info and then come up with wrong choices.
Cameron
@Betty Cracker: How about “moron?” That’s gender-free, isn’t it?
Kay
@Soprano2:
Beats me, but they’re fucking killing him. I suppose there’s a method to this madness but other than “wound Biden and tank Democrats for the midterms” I’m not seeing it. They haven’t picked up any “centrists” – this shit show lost centrists 3 months ago- now they’re cutting into the meat of the base.
They got their infrastructure bill, they successfully tanked BBB and that hasn’t mollified them at all- they’re competing with each other to drive him down to 25% approval? Is that the goal? Having lost the whole mushy middle they won’t rest until the entire base walks away disgusted?
Eolirin
@RaflW: I have a suspicion that if we get Manchin she will immediately flip flop on this regardless of how intense her stated opposition is, rather than be the sole no vote though.
I don’t think Manchin will flip just because Sinema does though. He’s the bigger obstacle imo.
Chief Oshkosh
@Eolirin: Yeah, but if they defected into being “Independents,” they’d have all that and Snoopy, too.
But I sure hope you’re right, because that means they’d stay in the party and we’d keep getting to fill judgeships and do other things that simply wouldn’t happen otherwise.
topclimber
I am sure that the boycott of Biden’s visit by some Georgia voting rights activists is what is pushing her into her latest shivving/s.
This has probably been mentioned already, but:
“The fight for voting rights takes persistence. As MLK exhorted, “The clock of destiny is ticking out. We must act now before it is too late.” Thank you, @POTUS , for refusing to relent until the work is finished. Welcome back to Georgia where we get good done”–Stacey Abrams 1/10/22.
Many on BJ disparage Daily Kos, but this article actually explains why some activists were pissed at Joe, and it isn’t all of the Green Lantern variety. I like the idea of Joe doing a speech in Arizona, with or without Lady Dada. He could add a few paragraphs about voter suppression as it relates to Latines and Indians in that state.
RaflW
@Betty: I end up concluding that they in effect support the racist origins and impacts of the filibuster.
I understand that makes me a nasty mouthed left winger. But being called names by some ‘moderates’ out there just means they can’t refute the substance of the critique.
Kay
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
It’s not a way out if it doesn’t work, and it isn’t going to work. It didn’t work in 2010 and that was a situation where they were just watering down Obama’s legislation and agenda and dragging it out and making it shittier substantively and unpopular. This is a situation where two members of the Party are effectively blocking the whole thing. They argue AGAINST it.
VeniceRiley
The fate of our democracy rests on a Buzzfeed “This one weird trick!”
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Kay:
Okay let’s all kill ourselves
Eolirin
@Kay: If we fail on this push I suspect the party will start distancing themselves from the two of them very intensely even if it means having to lose appointments. Biden will probably go nuclear on them as well. That has the potential of changing the shape of the fallout.
But I’m going to also caution reading too much into opinion polling, there’s a lot of other factors, including price increases in places that people feel more like gas and food even if people are currently in better economic places. There’s a ton of very strong emotions around gas prices in particular that can completely swamp other economic improvements. It’s more top of mind to people and people are very bad at processing economic information rationally. (When we get the car industry shifted over to EV and get electricity off of commodity pricing and into more stable green energy, it’s going to help so much with that stuff, so it’s really frustrating that BBB didn’t get through)
Betty Cracker
@The Moar You Know: Do you even hear yourself? JFC.
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Right, but my point is, that can’t be the only response. Or else we’re screwed. We may be screwed anyway! But we definitely are if “oh well, we’ll just have to out-organize them and elect more Democrats” is the takeaway.
Kay
I like Biden a lot and I am pulling for him but he’s bleeding and members of his own Party are still cutting him over and over, not “activists” and not on Twitter but on the senate floor, where it matters. I don’t know what he does with that.
RaflW
@Kay: Yep. The damage is broad. (I see folks like Bree Newsome Bass just going off on Dems. The frustration is real, but the root causes aren’t as clearcut as folks like her may believe.)
Also, since you’re often up on Democratic details, Kay: I’ve seen it mentioned with some regularity across months now, that S&M are the two visible lightning rods but that 3-5 other D senators agree with them but need to cloaking.
Any ideas who those might be? (Open question to the BJ-tariat, of course)
Eolirin
@Betty Cracker: Of course it’s not going to be the only response. Everything that can be done will be done. That’s pretty clear at this point.
But at the end of the day, more members in the senate that aren’t assholes is the only clear path forward for not having to deal with those two. We have winnable Senate races and can get there. We just need to hold Warnock’s seat and grab PA (easiest lift) and one other state.
Holding the house is a bigger problem. But honestly, at the end of the day, having a house that can’t pass legislation or a senate that won’t is a bit of a wash. As long as we can prevent a coup in 2024 we still have a chance to do what we need to start moving things back.
Kay
@RaflW:
I think that’s likely for BBB, which is a progressive bill that the center Right and the Right of the Party do not want to pass, but voting rights? It’s just a promise they can’t break.
Voting rights doesn’t overturn the Trump tax cuts. It doesn’t add regulation to monied interests or protect some legacy industry or cost anyone any money. It’s just “we’re taking him down because we can”
RaflW
It’s on.
Soprano2
@RaflW: Plus, Omicron is rampant right now and I think that’s hurting Biden too, even though he didn’t have anything to do with it. Lots of people thought that by now we’d have most of Covid in the rearview mirror, and instead cases are higher than ever. Most people don’t understand the detail that cases may be way up but hospitalizations and deaths aren’t as bad with omicron; all they know is that it’s still fucking up their workplace and their kid’s school and what they can buy in the stores, and now they’re being told that the masks that were absolutely essential for the past almost 2 years are now considered mostly useless, and they’re over it.
WaterGirl
@germy: I have seen that awesome video before and loved it.
Great idea to tie something so fun and watchable to the meme that the republicans are running away from the Jan 6 committee.
Eolirin
@Soprano2: Unfortunately, especially in areas with lower vaccination, hospitalizations are getting higher than the previous peak despite being a lower percentage of cases. So it’s just worse all around. Deaths are a lagging indicator so it’s not clear if those will also spike above the previous high, but I wouldn’t bet against it.
This thing is so much more contagious that it being milder statistically is pretty much irrelevant unless vaccination rates are very high
Edit: Though anyone saying masks are useless is full of shit. N95s are essential right now. Just not sufficient by themselves.
Kay
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
The only way out is to tell the truth to the base. Tell them two Democratic Senators blocked the Biden agenda and name them. Tell them to come out and support the actual Democrat incumbents and candidates and name them. Run against Manchin and Sinema and Republicans. Bring base voters in – this is the problem and it’s OUR problem. That might allow them to at least hold onto their base and the midterms were always going to be a base election anyway.
But do not give them “elect more and better Democrats” again. They won’t buy it anyway and then you’ve just lost credibility. Trust them enough to bring them in.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Soprano2:
Yes. And I remember you and I were two of the lonely voices here pointing out that gas prices affect politics, too. And the hand-wavey responses of so many here was an interesting insight into the demographics of this blog
Most peoples’ political thoughts don’t go much beyond
Eolirin
@Kay: We can only do that after they’ve actually blocked it. Until that vote fails we need to try to win it.
WaterGirl
@Kay:
The future isn’t written yet.
Geminid
@RaflW: My question is: do Bree Newsome Bass and Latosha Brown actually represent the voters they claim to speak for? I see a lot of Black Democrats who dispute this, and argue that Newsome and Bass are just building their brands.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Betty Cracker:
Maybe it’s my temperament, but I think a hard ugly truth is better than “inspiring” messages that convince the young and naive– and the would-be young who choose to be naive, looking at you, Ms Sarandon (among others)– that there are magic solutions.
I have nothing to offer but blood and toil, tears and sweat.
The slow and hard (and boring) boring of hard boards.
germy
@WaterGirl:
The one cat who stays on the revolving door without jumping off is the only one who’ll testify under oath.
Suzanne
@Citizen Alan: If that happens in my lifetime, let’s have a BJ Zoom happy hour to celebrate that occasion. I’ll wear a fancy dress and makeup and stuff.
Cacti
The Constitution vests the Veto power in the Executive.
If the founders had wanted 41% of the Senate to have that too, don’t you think they might have mentioned it?
Kay
@WaterGirl:
Of course the future isn’t written yet. But it’s going in the wrong direction and hoping it starts going in the right direction is just not how I operate. Biden is not just bleeding sporadic voters. He is bleeding his base. Yelling at them that they’re somehow “bad voters” is just not a political tactic or approach that I think is productive. Has it ever worked anywhere? Which Democratic candidate has ever won with this “what we need are better quality VOTERS” message? Who is that even designed to reach?
Brachiator
@Soprano2:
The only people saying this is Fox News.
Some people are looking for an excuse to “go back to normal.” But we are still playing by the virus’ rules.
The noise from Covid deniers and malicious actors is getting in the way of efforts that might make future Covid-related recommendations easier to follow and easier to live with.
Eolirin
@Cacti: The senate was designed to allow a minority of the population to protect slavery regardless of how unpopular it got with the population as a whole. Slow isn’t exactly the point. Undemocratic is baked in though.
Filibuster rules aren’t the most relevant part of that even. We wouldn’t need be having this conversation if we had a proportional amount of Democratic senators to voters.
Eolirin
@Kay: I’m fairly confident that Biden will start aggressively attacking Manchin and Sinema if they block voting rights. What else are you looking for?
gene108
@Kay:
I think Manchin and Sinema want Democrats to be in the minority. They know there will be nothing done in the Senate, if Republicans are in charge. No judges to confirm, no legislation to vote, and so forth, so they can spend all their time
griftingfundraising.Basically, it’s corruption at this point.
Betty Cracker
@Eolirin:
I’m pretty confident the admin will do whatever it can via EO and DOJ to push back on voter suppression and election subversion, but it’s not clear to me how they’ll address the sabotage by our own senators.
Cacti
This is the issue on which the future of the Republic rests.
If a bill protecting voting rights isn’t passed, with Dems in Control of the WH and Congress, fair national elections are over, and the fascists have won.
Ohio Mom
@Suzanne: I like this idea!! I already have an outfit in mind.
patroclus
Sinema is killing the Voting Rights Bills right now on the Senate Floor.
Brantl
@The Moar You Know: Why does anybody think that something dreamed up more than 200 years ago is still exactly the right Swiss Army knife-style tool in the current moment? They had no idea what we would face and how much more efficient government would have to be, just to keep up. I am so sick of: “It was designed this way, on purpose…”; in hushed golf-revering tones. They got it fucking wrong. If that was all they got WRONG, it was a good run.
Soprano2
@Brachiator: No, I’m hearing the “your cloth mask is useless, now you need an N95 or KN95 or KN94 mask in order to be protected” message all over the press, not just from Fox News, including on this very site!! And yes, I know that the virus is still out there and isn’t done with us; I’m talking about people’s attitudes, and why Biden’s approval rating is so low right now. Fucking Covid is a part of that. That you believe it’s only “Covid deniers” who feel this way tells me you haven’t talked to many people who aren’t like you lately.
Kay
@WaterGirl:
I agree that conditions could change- covid could dissipate or become less pressing, the economy could continue cooking and inflation could level out, but that’s “conditions”, it’s not “politics”. These Democratic incumbents do politics. They’re going to want to do something. So my suggestion for what they could do is truly level with the most engaged part of their base and name the problem and bring them in – they have two sets of opponents- they have these two Senators and (of course) the other Party.
It’s an extraordinary situation. Tell them that.
Eolirin
@Betty Cracker: They can’t, other than shaming them for it to the public. Schumer can do some stuff to make their lives more difficult too. But that only goes so far. And they can’t start doing that until they’ve exhausted all possibilities for actually passing this in time to make a difference.
The rest is up to voters to do. That’s unfortunately how the system works. We’re in this place because we have a shitty electorate more than because of shitty politicians
Edit: The only other leverage point on Sinema and Manchin are their constituents, though they’ve shown they only care so much about those too.
SiubhanDuinne
Note to Senator Sinema: Any time you give a speech that is basically “I believe in voting rights, but” … you make it abundantly clear that you don’t believe in voting rights.
WaterGirl
@germy: Yes!
WaterGirl
@Suzanne: Great idea!
Ever hopeful… I’ll schedule that zoom now and we can change the date if he makes it past the random date I’ll choose.
WaterGirl
@Kay: I agree with you. I just don’t understand why people say things like
which are defeatist – we don’t actually know that.
Kay
@patroclus:
Well despite what the President said and despite his efforts and (good) speech, it couldn’t be TOO important because two members of his own Party don’t even care about it. She’s setting up a direct hit to his credibility in a way a Republican could never do.
I hope she gets paid by the people she works for when she’s done with her political career. She earned it. I suspect she will. Her work blocking his agenda is worth billions in the tax cuts she protected alone. The best fucking investment they ever made was buying her. Fractions of a penny on the dollar.
WaterGirl
@Kay: I agree with every word of this.
mrmoshpotato
@Cameron:
How about “fucking brat?”
gene108
@topclimber:
It’s mostly from the Green Lantern school of politics. I honestly don’t know what to do with Manchin and Sinema. Holding a rally in AZ might work to pressure Sinema or it’d just piss her off more.
An example ?
topclimber
@Cacti:
Yes, you find that the Constitution provides for the filibuster in section…oh, nowhere.
Old School
@Soprano2:
Here’s a mask ranking from July 2020. The consensus always was that cloth masks are better than nothing, but there are better options.
Baud
@Soprano2:
Cloth masks are less effective because Omicron is more contagious than prior variants.
RaflW
@Eolirin: “This thing is so much more contagious that it being milder statistically is pretty much irrelevant unless vaccination rates are very high”
Apparently idiot shit-stirrer Glenn Beck is on the FAFO trajectory. He says he’s unvax’d. And has now come down with a second round of Covid and it’s in his lungs and kinda bad. That’s the ‘statistically mild’ that many people don’t really understand, alas. Glenn — assuming he pulls thru — won’t learn jack from this either, I’ll wager.
Soprano2
@Old School: Yes, I know that, but what I mostly see are cloth masks when people do wear them, because they were cheap and easy to get everywhere as opposed to the N95 type, which weren’t even available to a lot of people for most of the pandemic, and still aren’t that easy to get. I can’t easily walk into the local Wal-Mart and buy good KN95 or KN94 masks, I have to look for them online and figure out which ones are actually good and which are fakes, and lots of people don’t really have time to do that.
Kay
@WaterGirl:
If something isn’t going to work saying it isn’t going to work isn’t “defeatist”. It’s a recognition of reality. What it is supposed to do is to lead to another approach. I suggest leveling with our base, describing the scope of the problem, and for God’s sake ADMIT it’s bad politically! They know it’s bad! Glossing over it doesn’t do anything other than make them not trust us.
Soprano2
@Baud: Oh good grief I know that, it’s not my point AT ALL!!!!! It’s amazing to me that so many people cannot even acknowledge that perhaps the average person who can’t work at home and has kids in school is at this point extremely frustrated with the Covid situation, and is prone to just throw up their hands and say “fuck it I’m over this whole thing, who cares anymore” when it seems that the guidance changes DAILY and a government official is telling us that “everyone is going to get Covid anyway”.
Baud
@Soprano2:
People are frustrated, but we shouldn’t pretend that they are just changing the recommendations willy nilly.
Anyway, for a brief moment it seemed like people would united against the antivaxxers, but blaming a Dem president looks to be too addictive.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@gene108:
apparently “detailed plan” is the new “One Weird Trick” people just know is out there somewhere.
What is it? Where is it?
Fuck you, that’s on Biden to figure out.
topclimber
@gene108: Someone in the White House failed to realize that local activists were pissed–that’s how I read it. Either they did not reach out earlier to them to build their trust, or they didn’t reach out at all.
It sucks but it is true: people who feel they are taken for granted will resent it and eventually show that.
Matt McIrvin
He didn’t call his daughter a nice piece of ass ONCE.
Baud
@Matt McIrvin:
?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Has Biden even tried telling Sinema to look out the window?
Soprano2
@Baud: I know they aren’t just changing the recommendations “willy nilly”, but I guarantee you that it appears that way to the average person who doesn’t pay that much attention to things. “What do you mean that mask you told me was absolutely essential to protect me and others is now useless, and I have to spend a bunch of time finding new masks because there are a lot of fakes out there and besides, aren’t we all just going to get it eventually anyway? You don’t seem to know what you’re talking about at all!” At this point that’s the way a lot of average people are thinking – not anti-maskers or crazy anti-vaxxers, just normal people who did the right thing and now feel incredibly frustrated with the whole situation.
Kay
@WaterGirl:
But to tell them that, to really level with them, Democrats have to break ranks because the two opponents are Democrats. I get that this is counterintuitive in terms of Party unity but these two are fucking unprecedented so I would suggest we rethink what “Party unity” means when we have two people who are actively working to bring down the Biden Presidency. They shot first. THEY don’t have any loyalty to this Party. Our base is much, much more loyal than these corrupt assholes. Choose the base over them.
Betty Cracker
@Eolirin: As I see it, the problem is Democrats will be collectively blamed for failing to protect voting rights — after sounding the alarm about the danger in apocalyptic terms. To the extent they can communicate to the public more precisely who is on Bull Connor’s side, i.e., all Republicans and two saboteurs within the Democratic Party, maybe they should do that. Scorch the fucking earth. Either that, or the implicit message will be that the big stink Dems have raised about voting rights isn’t serious after all.
Baud
@Soprano2:
Oh I agree. I’m just saying the average person is conditioned to blame Dems over other causes. So many aspects of American culture tells them it’s ok to do. Hell, half of Democrats probably are on board with that approach. It is what it is.
mrmoshpotato
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Trying to make Sinema, McAsshole and Paul Ryan shit their pants, eh?
Matt McIrvin
@Baud: The lack of understanding of cause and effect drives me nuts–the way that it’s possible to prevent someone from doing the things he said he would try to do, then call him a liar or a coward for not doing them, and have that actually work. It just breaks democracy.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Baud: I know several meatspace people who are just worn out, starting to take more chances. They’re all vaxxed, they all wear masks, but they’re socializing more, travelled over the holidays. “We’re all gonna get it, we’ve done and are doing all we can.” None of them are blaming Biden or Democrats, but they’re resigned to living with Covid for a while, maybe forever.
Felanius Kootea
@Kay: I agree. Would Manchin and Sinema stop voting to confirm judges, etc., if this happens though? What leverage does the party have over them? I’ve asked this before but can we find out how much they’re getting to obstruct and essentially “bribe” them to be on the side of protecting every voter’s right to vote? Amazing that this is a question but here we are.
Baud
@Matt McIrvin:
Agree. And a lot of us are doing to ourselves, with GOP help.
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I think that makes sense. For people who are vaxxed and boosted, the risks are incredibly low. I for one have transitioned from social distancing back to antisocial distancing. I’m much happier now.
Cacti
There is no middle ground with fascists. But Sinema is being paid to tell us that unity consists of everyone coming together to do what the fascists want.
RaflW
@patroclus: And our completely vacuous press is reporting it as “Sinema says she still supports VR but at 60 vote threshold.”
As if.
Kirsten knows damn well there’s no 60-vote bill on the table. And that she and Joe M have done absolutely nothing to bring even one R around (even Mormon Mitt is opposed to the full franchise!).
But the words from her mouth hole are “I support this” so they dutifully scribe it, even as it is a mathematical and political impossibility. She may as well announce she ‘supports’ a warp drive exploration of Alpha Centuri.
Felanius Kootea
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I understand. It’s a mental health thing for many at this point. Most people weren’t designed to be permanent hermits.
MisterDancer
@topclimber: It’s funny, really.
I talked about all that, as you did, just yesterday. And somehow, people who are doing a lot more on-the-ground work — work that honestly paid off — are being told to be Good Soldiers.
There is unfair, and unwarranted, criticism of Biden and his moves, yes. I wasn’t happy with one of the terms used yesterday in the comments on this, as well. Yet it’s usage points to a thing, here, that I beg y’all to consider.
Black and Brown folx have shored up this damn coalition. They sure as hell ain’t the ones who just gave a speech shrugging their shoulders over ensuing everyone who wants to vote, has a chance to. They are, Green Latern-ing or not, the ones who will be most gravely affected by these voting restrictions, and they deserve a damned hearing.
People on this blog usually — usually — have the resources and support to overcome current and future restrictions. That makes it easy — and I include myself in this, as someone with a goodly set of resources — to present myself in a “big picture” mode, where I think of things from an overview, aka disconnected from “tactical” issues on the ground, mode.
The people these activists support? Do Not have that luxury. Being boots on the ground, supporting communities with few resources for supporting getting to and thru a voting booth, is in fact, a huge amount of the work they do, work we should be supporting, not cutting out because they said something “unpolitical” after, in some cases, years of being ignored save when the Party needed them.
This desire to attack these people — given the very obvious to you and I interpretation of events — just seems…off-putting. I’ve not yet seen any reaction that separates them from the Twitter jamokes who we all agree are pretty useless, save to churn up crap.
Baud
The one thing that’s become clear is that, when people say “they don’t care if Dems win or lose, they just want Dems to fight!,” they are lying.
gene108
@topclimber:
Everybody’s pissed off. That’s the problem.
Whether it’s over COVID, gas and food prices, Democratic failure to advance legislation, or some combination of all these and more, no one is happy with the way things are going.
I don’t know what to do about it.
I’m more of a let’s all back down and find ways to compromise sort of guy, but that approach doesn’t suit most people trying to influence things.
topclimber
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: No. Because no one has organized such a group. Certainly not the DNC.
After the crowds actually show up and nothing changes, then your perennial Bernie bashing will be totally vindicated. So start building the crowd! Unless you are afraid you might prove him right.
GoBlueInOak
@Kay: Exactly. As you said, when has blaming voters or yelling at voters for being “bad voters” EVER effing worked? “Vote more & harder and we promise this time it will be different!”
The only people that persuades are people who already drank the Kool-Aid. Sinema is making it pretty clear that 2020-2022 of the Biden admin is going to be mostly a highway bill & some judicial appointments. BBB in any meaningful form is dead. AT BEST, it will be a much smaller, narrow bill that won’t be very meaningful (and yet the Kool-Aid partisans will crow about it being the greatest thing since the New Deal)
Voting rights will have a kabuki theater moment for next few weeks before its dead. Writing has been on the wall since the BIF was decoupled from the BBB and Biden wasted an entire year on it.
State primary elections start THIS May/June. The US govt is working under a Federal budget that runs out in February absent a CR (which is probably where it will wind up – a kick the can CR that will extend to December).
Clock is about the run out. “Vote more and harder” is just straight up B.S.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
there’s a governor’s mansion, a Senate seat and a statehouse at play in Arizona in 2022. Those results will tell us, and Kyrsten Sinema, if she’s playing this right or not. What if all the people saying “Joe Biden needs to give a speech in Arizona” started donating and texting on behalf of AZ Democrats?
Martin
Local bit of good news. A decade ago Hoag Presbyterian hospital merged with St Joseph (Catholic) which as you might expect led to the latter insisting on the end of reproductive health services, certain end of life treatments, and so on. Then the fairly unknown CA AG (now Madam VP) put a series of requirements in place for that merger that forced Hoag/St Joes to continue to provide those services for an extended period of time (they’re still under that agreement and would have been for another decade).
News today is that Hoag has now separated from St Joe and has agreed to expand reproductive services as part of that separation. So, one health care consolidation undone, and a willful return to some pretty beneficial women health services.
Some backstory, just prior to the merger, Hoag had completed a massive women’s hospital. It has a large breast cancer center but is also a big labor and delivery facility, and being close to John Wayne airport, turned into something of a pregnancy tourism destination for wealthy asian couples. Fly in, get pampered a bit, have your kid in the US granting them citizenship, and fly home. What’s more, they pay cash. Almost as though Hoag had planned it that way. Fast forward to now, that business is struggling – not many people flying in from nearly covid-free PRC to the US. But a new business is potentially opening up thanks to Texas – abortion tourism. And Hoag is very well positioned on that front, provided they can lean into it. The consent degree put in place by AG Harris required they provide those services but they certainly weren’t going to be advertising them. Now they can.
Policy is great, but eventually economics wins out.
lowtechcyclist
Yeah, but in the wrong crowd, you’d be accused of being ‘ableist.’ I think you’re safe here, fortunately.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
ah, “the DNC”. The tell for people who think politics started in 2015.
TheTruffle
@Kay: What is the alternative? I say let the vote go through and make the GQP own it.
But what do I know? I just need a reason to be optimistic for this country’s future. Some days I’m just not
@GoBlueInOak:
Right now, alas, there are other issues concerning voters as well. Among them: COVID and the economy. I am not crazy about that either, but…
GoBlueInOak
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: That is the general sense I get from most people I know. And I live in one of the most responsible, Bluest parts of the country when it comes to vaxx rates, shelter in place, masking/social distancing compliance, etc. – the San Francisco Bay Area. We’re vaxxed here, we’re boosted here, we wear masks, etc.
But folks here are just done with it. They’re exhausted with heading into possibly a third year of this with no real clear sense of direction to a conclusion. They’re tired of watching more than half the country not give a rat’s ass while they’ve spent 2 years complying. They’re tired of local school districts throwing up their hands and expecting working adults to just quit their jobs and become homeschooling teachers. They’re angry they have to keep delaying medical procedures or just getting to see their doctor because nobody will kick the unvaxxed to the curb. They’re DONE and ready to get on with their lives.
Almost Retired
Ugh, Kyrsten Sinema. Just resign already and move into one of those influencer houses in Los Angeles where they broadcast your drama around the clock. That’s what she really wants. Maybe “The Real Ex-Senators of Scottsdale” franchise or something. Manchin and Romney can drop in for special guest hijinks.
MisterForkbeard
@RaflW: Right. The “I support this at a 60 vote threshold” is entirely equivalent to “I don’t support this passing”. Because the 60 vote threshold is impossible.
It’s like saying “I support civil rights, but it’s only appropriate to pass laws about if Slavery is explicitly brought back”. Because then no, you don’t support civil rights legislation.
RaflW
@gene108: To the Kendra Cotton point: Yeah, I think the Biden Admin is seriously overwhelmed and missing their marks at times. What admin wouldn’t be, given the shitshow of issues, problems and a totally oppositional party of chaos holding more power than is good for them or us.
I sincerely want the Biden Admin to be successful. If they are, then I believe that I and my communities will do better. But it seems like they’re having a very hard time of it ATM.
It is easy for me to armchair criticize. And I admit I have no real clue how they get back out in front of things rather than just reacting and reacting. I think my best bet is to turn some focus to state politics for now. This next legislative session in MN is going to be awful. The GOP here has become very McConnell-obstructionist and wants to cement their state senate control for another 4 years. Gah.
topclimber
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: See #109.
Betty Cracker
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: One Arizona Democrat just chose the Bull Connor side. It’s a branding problem.
TheTruffle
@RaflW: I’m fine with the Biden administration on a lot of things, but I recognize they are not perfect. And it is hard to govern when one portion of the country hates you and doesn’t see you as a fellow citizen. Not sure what the way out is.
The GQP, however, is killing their base with the COVID misinformation. And a lot can change between now and November.
And please. Biden’s presidency has had good things come out of it, like the infrastructure bill. It hasn’t been a loss, IMO.
taumaturgo
Joe Biden has finally issued a full-throated, unreserved endorsement of ending the filibuster in order to pass voting rights legislation. But it came in the last days of the battle — less than a week before Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Senate majority leader, plans to hold a vote on the legislation — and only after Biden’s other, superseding priority, the Build Back Better plan, flamed out.
For a year, activists have been screaming and pleading and begging and getting arrested, trying to get the White House to put the full weight of the presidency behind protecting voting rights, only to be met by silence or soft-pedaling. (Mr. Blow, NYT)
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Betty Cracker: and if Katie Hobbs and Mark Kelly win with a large turn-out among people who agree with your framing, if Ruben Gallego is as good a surrogate and advocate as I think he might be (former Phoenician Suzanne is skeptical) she may come to regret that.
Martin
@Soprano2: Yep.
This isn’t a Biden failure. This is a US societal failure. The Biden admin knows what needs to be done – they’ve hinted toward it multiple times. But they also know the public won’t tolerate it. Maybe in April 2000 we would have, but we spent a year holding our dick and that window closed. Its infuriating.
That said, I agree we’re all going to get it. BUT, getting it now is a lot different than getting it 6 months or a year from now. Boosters will improve over that time, treatment will improve over that time, and right now the healthcare system simply can’t absorb any more sick people.
My guess is that we’ve got at least two more variant waves to go through. Vaccines will hopefully further minimize effects and transmission. My guess is that by next year those of us keeping up with our boosters will be fine getting covid. The holdup is the unvaccinated people breaking the hospitals. I don’t know how we handle that. It’s untenable. We’ll either allow hospitals to reject unvaccinated patients that don’t have a medical reason to be unvaccinated – send them home to die in their bed, or we’ll break the hospitals. I’m guessing the latter.
Eolirin
@Betty Cracker: Vote has to fail first. Then we can go scorched earth.
topclimber
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
As someone for whom politics started in the late 60’s, I should have said the Democratic establishment. That includes the Administration and Congressional leadership on this tactical issue.
Every comment from you is Bernie bashing, even when the person you respond to never wanted him as President. Get some new material.
Omicron has made mass demonstrations impossible, so we won’t know if it would work in the immediate future. Too bad for America, but also too bad because we won’t find out if they work.
debbie
Hey, Kristin, how about supporting at least a return to the talking filibuster. The filibuster as it now stands is really only a way to stop a working democracy. Also, your friend Joe insists the filibuster is what keeps the Senate a deliberative body. Ask HIM what the definition of a deliberative body is, because A COMPLETE HALT to the legislative process sure as hell isn’t.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Eolirin:
What does that mean? What does that look like?
Matt McIrvin
@RaflW: I admire Bree Newsome Bass so much and I had to just stop following her on Twitter, for the sake of my mental health–I understand the reasoning behind the position “anything short of total revolution is a betrayal” but I don’t see how bashing every politician who is trying to do the right thing on those grounds is useful.
Matt McIrvin
@topclimber: We HAD mass demonstrations in 2020. They actually did work to some degree. You can tell by all the people bellyaching about how they proved we were hypocritical about COVID, and the push to legalize squashing protesters with your car. If there wasn’t some sting there they wouldn’t even have paid attention.
lowtechcyclist
Madison and Hamilton both mention supermajority requirements in the Federalist Papers, and both are clear that it works exactly backwards from encouraging a broader consensus, but rather lets a determined minority call the tune.
A day or two ago, somebody tweeted four different passages from the Federalist Papers where these guys had said that. Schumer ought to have enlarged copies printed of them all, and have them framed and hung on the wall directly opposite Manchin’s office door.
Felanius Kootea
@Almost Retired: No one would watch. I think she knows this. Here, we’re forced to watch – she has a captive audience.
GoBlueInOak
@RaflW: Substantially bringing down the median age of a Democratic Congresscritter would be a good start. We need people who have the energy to revitalize the Party – and a leadership coterie composed of mostly 70+ aged politicians doesn’t cut the mustard.
Eolirin
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: It means Biden and the democratic leadership tying all of the failures of BBB and Voting rights to Manchin and Sinema publically and aggressively and actively campaigning against them alongside the GOP in the midterms. It means no more statements about them acting in good faith, and instead trying to shift the narrative to Manchin and Sinema are traitors to the party and the country instead of dems failed to get legislation passed.
It means they’ll never work with the senate democrats on anything else, or even leave the party and caucus with McConnell, so it’s a high risk play, but not doing it runs risks for the midterms too. We have senate seats seats we can win that will make them irrelevant, so we should focus on that.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Ah, so you’re frozen in the tie-dye you made when you were 19. Okay. That actually makes sense. You once said that it was true that Bernie hurt Hillary Clinton, but that was okay since no one talked about income inequality before Bernie. So I assumed you were a hatchling. That you’re actually old enough to have bought Michael Harrington books in hardcover does not increase my respect for your contributions.
One of the arguments trump and his mouth-breathers make is that Biden couldn’t have won because he was “hiding in his basement” and trump had huge rallies! One of the arguments that Bernie and his dead-enders make for 2016 having been “rigged” is that he had huge rallies! I think a similar delusion of crowds is what took down another prominent early Dem front-runner in 2020.
Rallies aren’t votes. Votes are what matter.
Almost Retired
@Felanius Kootea: Excellent point.
RaflW
@Matt McIrvin: I get it. I think her critical analysis of late-stage capitalism is quite solid. I think she gets at some of what @MisterDancer says too.
For now I’m continuing to follow her because her raw anger is, I think real rather than performative.
MisterDancer’s piece got me to think about my own decades of being a loyal foot soldier (precinct caucuses, county conventions, donating, blah blah…) while also hearing “too soon!” and “do you guys have to be so gay about all this”?
Honestly I think it was the courts moving on same sex marriage that finally got us some breathing room in the Dem coalition. The situation still lags significantly for trans, nonbinary and gendefluid folx. But I still remember Obama’s ‘go slow’ on full gay and lesbian equality pre-Obergefell. It stung. Bad.
I don’t pretend that the experience for gay Dems is the same as for Black voters (and unable-to-voters!) in this country. But it helps me feel some smidge of the energy there.
PJ
@GoBlueInOak: Kyrsten Sinema is 45. Younger by no means means better. And term limits just give more power to lobbyists by eliminating institutional memory and ability.
Brachiator
@Soprano2:
Ah. You originally wrote “masks are useless.” The recommendation has been revised based on new information. This seems reasonable to me.
I don’t pay attention to approval ratings.
I talk to a lot of people. But my decisions are not based on their frustration and anger. Nor should fear, frustration and anger determine government policy. Or fairy tales about loss of freedom if people have to wear a mask.
lowtechcyclist
No, the problem is that cloth masks rely on a social consensus. My cloth mask protects you from me, but it doesn’t provide much protection for me from you. They work if pretty much everyone’s wearing them.
That social consensus bit the dust months ago. So now you need masks that protect you from the plague rats who aren’t wearing masks. Those would be N-95s, KN-95s. etc.
It makes sense, but I can understand why some people are throwing up their hands in confusion.
Felanius Kootea
@Eolirin: Could the anti-democratic voting laws some state legislatures are passing prevent us from picking up more senate seats this year? If yes, how do we get around that without the voting rights bill?
Matt McIrvin
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I also think the situation of Omicron making mass demonstrations impossible is short-lived. That will not be the case a couple of months from now.
There will be times after that when some hyper-contagious COVID variant shuts everything down but I don’t think they will last very long.
Baud
@lowtechcyclist:
Do you have a link to that explanation being the reason for the recommendation switch, as opposed to Omicron?
Eolirin
@lowtechcyclist: That’s only partially true; Omicron sheds a ton more virus, and cloth masks block less of it so enough of it still ends up in the air. N95s block substantially more so it makes a bigger difference.
Quinerly
Unvaccinated Glenn Beck has Covid for the second time. “it’s in my lungs.” Says he’s taking Ivermectin.
RaflW
@Martin: I generally agree. But the other component that is needed is a much, much stronger global push for vaccination.
It’s both damn complicated and yet straightforward. The first world taking care of itself but leaving 2Bn people behind is not gonna work.
trollhattan
Voting rights schmoting rights. Nullification, it’s what’s for dinner.
trollhattan
@Quinerly: Three good pieces of news rolled into one. I hope this time he gets rid of those pesky horse parasites–I hate it when he whinnies.
Eolirin
@Felanius Kootea: It’s not clear to me that they do actually. WI, OH and PA are our best pick up options, and seem more on the excessive gerrymandering side rather than extreme new restrictions to the vote. PA and WI have democratic governors, and PA has a democratic sec of state.
GA is an open question.
The biggest danger of most of these laws are to state legislatures and the house, not necessarily statewide races. Which is why it’s so important to the Republicans that the filibuster stays in place. They can cheat the house, but while they have some structural advantages in the senate it’s harder to cheat outright control of it. They’re never gonna drop below 40 though.
If these laws don’t pass we definitely lose the house though. And that could lead to the GOP overturning the 2024 election results. And it also stops states like NC and Georgia that are on the cusp of turning blue from ever making gains in the state legislature even as they start turning more and more statewide races blue.
But if we can’t pass it we can’t pass it. Maximizing our senate gains then takes priority.
trollhattan
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Correction: those were yuge rallies!
debbie
@Quinerly:
?
Brachiator
@Quinerly:
Wow. A strong commitment to stupidity.
Baud
@Quinerly:
Usually, people like Beck who have achieved a certain level of notoriety are the manipulators rather than the manipulatees.
Of course, Beck could be lying.
germy
@Brachiator:
I bet he’s fully vaccinated and boosted, and just looking for attention.
He strikes me as one of those Hannity/Carlson types.
Jeffro
I’ve had it with Manchin, Sinema, and allll the Republicans. I hope Joe rails against them all as part of the same problem: too much corruption, too much dark money, too many things standing in the way of what large majorities of Americans want.
Take them ALL out, Joe. List their donors and corporate junkets and coal money and net worth constantly. All of it. Speculate aloud about what’s motivating Sinema and Manchin. Lay out the utter corruption and endless double standards of the modern GQP.
And while you’re at it, start reminding the country (belatedly, but still) that the GOP’s main priority has been and continues to be to spread Covid-19 in this country just as widely and for as long as possible.
Go for it. We have nothing left to lose here.
Eolirin
@Baud: I could see Beck being a true believer. Dude has never seemed all there mentally.
RaflW
@PJ: For years now, I’ve heard it said that when we elect more women, our politics will improve.
And then I think about Margaret Thatcher. And Michele Bachmann. And even Susan (ptuh ptuh, feh) Collins. Or, similarly but it’s an appointed job, Amy Covid Barrett.
And yet. And yet! I still believe that electing more women will, in aggregate, lead to better politics. But that better politics only really emerges when women and men are proportionally represented in legislative bodies — and indeed some more trans and GNC politicians are included. And I mean this up and down the systems. County boards. State legislatures. Congress, of course.
Same with age! We’ve just built systems in the country that really, really encourage parking on the job for decades. I don’t support term limits, that blunt instrument has bad side effects. But age diversity is, IMO, one of the essentials.
MisterDancer
I actually think about the DADT situation a lot. I got Obama’s goal there — to get a legislative win that avoided exactly what happened to Trans folx in the military w/Trump.
I also “get” that Obama felt saying that in a way that made it clear to LBGTQIA+ activities risked derailing that effort. I’m all about saying that a lot of what’s said by politicians is misdirection, and we peons don’t see, for better or worse, what’s really happening — which contributes to the churn on her, on Twitter, and elsewhere.
That does not equal to it being right for the many folx essentially — if inadventally(sp) — left hanging in the wind for years, waiting for change. I remember on this very blog reading furious anger over Obama not just evacuating DADT via EO. And that was one of my 1st direct “in your face!” lessons about how morally-righteous anger — anger being expressed from real pain and suffering — has to be managed against political reality.
That there is, in other words, a key difference between a David Sirota and a Bree Newsom (who I also had to mute on Twitter). And that our Party would do well to ensure they manage and communicate around the latter, and ignore the former. I think if they put energy into that, into engaging key activists and trying to set up long-term communications for those folx/orgs, it would greatly assist in our power as a Party.
J R in WV
@Soprano2:
I don’t know about the drama queen from AZ, but Manchin is a stone racist from the soles of his feet all the way up. And that’s why he’s against any legislation than aims to protect people of color. He is a little more well spoken and subtle than Strom Thrumond was, less obvious in his hate, but otherwise just another white supremacist hater.
Quinerly
@trollhattan: ?
Soprano2
No, this is human nature, period. Find me a society anywhere in the world that isn’t a dictatorship that isn’t having the same problems we are. Look, even China, with their draconian “zero Covid” policy that is only possible because they are a dictatorship, is finding that they can’t maintain it forever. As others here have said, even people in extremely blue areas who have been doing everything right are just done with the whole thing. It was inevitable that the longer this went on the more measures to prevent the spread of Covid would break down, because for most of us they aren’t natural. Last week Colbert told his audience that he is NEVER going back to the closet in his office, that he will do his show in the Ed Sullivan theater even without an audience if he has to. The human mind can only tolerate so much of this stuff before it snaps in some way.
trollhattan
@J R in WV:
Also a yacht-owning fully owned subsidiary of Big Ol’ Coal.
taumaturgo
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Vote for more centrist DINOs, this time will get it right!
Eolirin
@Soprano2: New Zealand.
Quinerly
@Baud: l had wondered. I guess he was on Mark Levin’s show. Sounds like he is about 2 weeks into his second round of Covid, if he is telling the truth. Maybe he will die… And we will know he wasn’t lying
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/glenn-beck-covid-ivermectin-mark-levin-b1992427.html
trollhattan
@Soprano2: China really seem to be teeing themselves up for an egg-on-face winter games. They could have spent the last year and a half inoculating everybody instead of these intermittent citywide lockdowns, but their plans did not include omicron with its off-the-charts transmissivity. Oopsie.
Eolirin
@trollhattan: They were inoculating everyone? They’ve administered a massive amount of vaccine. But yeah Omicron has even more vaccine breakthrough against the vaccines they were using than the mRNA ones so it’s not holding as well.
RaflW
@MisterDancer: I don’t grant the ‘inadvertently’ that you do. Especially during the decade that I was a Texas Democrat. We were expected to vote D, but ask for anything and it was all panic and red faced shame while saying ‘nope’.
I still voted D. And showed up for party work. And kept my anger in check. But even as I accepted the strategy, it took a personal and community toll.
Soprano2
I suppose that’s fine, but history tells us that if Biden’s approval ratings continue to be in the toilet this year than we are toast in the midterm elections, and that can have bad long-term ramifications.
And sorry, I originally meant to say “cloth masks”, I guess I didn’t read closely enough. In my state the state government is threatening to sue any municipality or school district that tries to enact ANY Covid prevention protocols, including mask mandates of any kind or requiring people who were exposed to Covid to quarantine; they are even against contact tracing or informing parents of a possible Covid exposure in schools! I’m not sure what kind of action you think the federal government could take that would do anything at all in my state, and other states like it.
dopey-o
Why are none of the 16 GOP senators who previously voted for the VRA not on board in 2022? Does Moscow Mitch have them all by the cojones?
How could Murkowski / Romney / Collins be recruited, thereby making Manchin & Sinema irrelevant? Or are we just jerking off in the night, as Howard Johnson stated so eloquently in Brazing Saddles….
ETA who has the link to the N95 KN95 masks previously reviewed? Rikyra?
lowtechcyclist
No, I confess that I’m one of those who’s given up trying to follow what the CDC is recommending this week.
But it’s pretty obvious that cloth masks needed that social consensus to work, for the reasons I gave. And it’s equally obvious that the social consensus for wearing masks died several months ago. So cloth masks ceased being much use well before we’d ever heard of Omicron.
Now apparently due to Omicron, they’d still be useless even if we got the social consensus back. I don’t see why that matters, since it ain’t gonna happen. If the house has already burned down, I don’t need flood insurance.
Eolirin
@dopey-o: Manchin negotiated a compromise bill to try to get some republican votes and it went down 50/50 if I recall correctly. There are no votes to be had.
matt
Poor Mitch – he’s been in the Senate so long surrounded by ass kissers he’s forgotten what criticism sounds like.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
OT :
IANAL, but seditious conspiracy seems like a whole new ball game to me, the big gun I’ve been wondering if they’d bring out. At the very least, that may inspire some plea bargains.
That dumb coward Merrick Garland might actually be a careful lawyer who understands he’s in mostly unchartered waters, and so is working his way up the chain. Who woulda thunk?
matt
@Soprano2: I thought New Zealand also had a draconian ‘zero covid’ policy.
Soprano2
@Eolirin: True, but they are an island, which makes it a heck of a lot easier, and I bet even they have problems with sustaining it in the face of omicron eventually.
Soprano2
@trollhattan: Yep, I think it was a stupid strategy that was doomed to failure; instead, they could have ordered everyone to get vaccinated!!
MisterDancer
@RaflW: That word was not laid there to dispute your righteous anger at how you and others were engaged and treated. That’s why I wrote at some length on that anger. If I chose the wrong word, I apologize.
It’s there to say that — much like my other comment here today — it’s all too easy to lay out a strategy, and miss the harm that strategy generates in the very groups you’re trying to help. It’s why I’m saying reaching out to those groups, those communities, is key. And in trying to say this — which I hope meets with a clarity my initial wording did not — I hope this makes more sense, and isn’t sounding as dismissive of the pain you and too many others underwent?
Soprano2
@lowtechcyclist: What really gets me now is that I see people in stores here voluntarily wearing masks – but incorrectly, with them under their nose or on their chin! I understand the ones who are being forced to wear them doing that as a way of acting out, but if you’re wearing it because you want to by now you know the correct way to wear a face mask!
Sebastian
I don’t know if it helps or hurts but I have started to make it a habit of calling GOP politicians “Confederate” on social media.
Such as Confederate Senator Mitch McConnell.
I am not getting pushback but I don’t know if the silence is because online wingnuts ignore me thinking I’m a troll or if they have no comeback.
I love it because a) the shoe fits, b) it denies them the in-group, c) identifies them as enemies of the Republic, and the most worrying for them, d) it gives permission to treat them a combatants and traitors. In other words, they will be neutralized and eventually significant effort will be spent to do so.
The last part is radical, I know.
Geminid
Oathkeepers founder Stewart Rhodes was arrested today and charged with seditious conspiracy:
Soprano2
@matt: They do, but they can’t enforce it like a dictatorship can. I think China’s would be a lot more successful if they were an island nation like New Zealand or even Australia. It’s so much easier to limit travelers on an island.
dopey-o
i have heard that everyone has a price. there are 52 Republicans in the senate, surely 2 or 3 are corruptable….
TheTruffle
@Jeffro: Agreed. Joe is no shrinking violet. Name and shame.
Eolirin
@Soprano2: Probably, Australia certainly is. But they did everything “right” without having to resort to draconian authoritarianism to do it. They ended up having a lot more freedoms and less disruption for having done it too. Schools and local economy had to deal with fewer lockdowns and closures. More foreign travel restrictions certainly though.
It isn’t impossible. It just requires taking it seriously soon enough. You only get the one chance to avoid things going south. If everyone had acted like NZ at the very beginning we would have crushed the virus in the first few months and there wouldn’t be an omicron.
Eolirin
@dopey-o: We’d have to be able to outbid the other side. I don’t think we can.
Matt McIrvin
@MisterDancer:
That distinction is an excellent point. One is basically a troll, the other has difficult demands for justice.
Starfish
@germy: They way you merged the political blogging and the pet blogging with that one is a thing of beauty.
scav
And Prince Andrew’s been stripped of his military roles, royal patronage and HRH. Mayhaps the Queen is just a wee bit more sprightly and plugged into the public mood by getting ahead of the Tories in giving the appearance that there are consequences even for the elites.
Geminid
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: If Trump is level 1 of the conspiracy to overturn the election, Roger Stone would be level 2, and Rhodes would be level 3. So far most of those charged are levels 4 or 5.
Rhodes may not flip, but if he does Roger Stone might be next. If Rhodes doesn’t flip prosecutors may still be able to work around him to get at Stone, maybe Trump as well.
TheTruffle
Who wants to bet Biden saw Manchinema’s blather coming?
Matt McIrvin
@Soprano2: I figure that if someone is wearing a mask on their chin in a situation where it should be covering their face, that’s a deliberate “fuck you”–there’s no other way to interpret it.
Though I do see people who wear the mask correctly except that they take it off whenever they talk (or cough or sneeze!), which is more “missing the point”. Maybe make an exception for public speaking.
Quinerly
@Soprano2: l snapped at 2 employees in Lowe’s over their masks pulled down. One was a 60 plus, fat White man who first copped an attitude with me about helping me find something. I told him to pull his damn mask up. I even said supposed l was from corporate….a secret shopper. That he needed to change his attitude with me. Then 15 minutes later, very young check out girl had hers pulled down, too. I told her to pull up her mask. She was stuttering and stammering about she just got to St. Louis and her boyfriend wouldn’t let her get vaccinated. I was on such a short fuse that I told her that her boyfriend obviously didn’t love her and l think unvaccinated people should be fired from their jobs. She was crying when l left. I’m so done with this shit. Out of fucks to give. (my friend who works at Lowe’s texted me today, said she heard about all this when she went in today and had wondered if l had been thru Lowe’s yesterday… She knows me pretty well. The crying check out girl had just started Mon)
lowtechcyclist
First, I’m really not trying to pick on you. You just happen to be saying stuff that’s a starting point for things that were on my mind anyway.
I used to say that, because it made sense to say it. Fighting for your principles may lose you an election or two, but if you stay with them, people who already agreed with your principles will realize you mean it, and over time you may convince enough others to win. Particularly if you feel history is moving your way, it’s the way to go.
Too often, I feel, Dems have taken the positions they felt were the right ones to win this year, and sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn’t, but that detracts from any long-term consistency, and fewer people have reason to believe that you’re on their side through thick and thin.
Now…well, now we’re up against the wall. We can’t give away the next few cycles in order to build a more permanent majority down the road. If we lose the next two, elections are likely to be kabuki from then on. (And even losing this year could make 2024 a fait accompli for the GOP.) And of course if we don’t deal with climate change this decade, we’re kinda screwed long-term. So we’ve got to do the best we can, this year.
The Moar You Know
@Betty Cracker: huh, everyone missed my point. That’s on me.
Not saying the way the Senate is set up is desirable. It isn’t. But then again, I’ll make that argument for the entire structure of the US.
Just saying that there are reasons the Senate is the way it is, and it’s good to know what they are. Because, as the rest of the LBJ books show, unless you know how it works you cannot make it do what you want, and most United States Senators have no fucking idea how the body they are a member of works.
You know who does, of course. Mitch McConnell.
Old School
@dopey-o:
I’d say they are more scared of Trump than McConnell.
Soprano2
@Matt McIrvin: Yeah, but there is no mask requirement anywhere here, so if I see customers in a store wearing them incorrectly I go “huh?”. I’m not talking about kids doing it because their parents said so, I’m talking about adults who are by themselves. *shrug
RaflW
@MisterDancer: That dismissal of inadvertent wasn’t about you, and yes you did acknowledge the anger.
It was that in my experience the Dem movers in the field weren’t making unthinking mistakes. They were making cold calculations.
And: Politics is like that. But people get hurt and some of them stop voting because of it. I think we’re very close to that edge for a lot of margnialized voters who worked hard in 2018 and 2020. I hope I’m wrong.
scav
@Quinerly: No worries, the check out girl was lying — there was no boyfriend there enforcing poor mask behavior. She was either lazy and inventing the excuse or trying to be cool with both sides, flashing the I’m with you batsignal to the anti-vaxxers and playing the abused ingenue card to the vaxxed (possibly even crying to make you feel bad).
Soprano2
@Quinerly: I would have talked to the girl about how she could get vaccinated as a walk-in and wouldn’t have to tell her boyfriend about it if she really wanted to. I have a friend who got vaccinated and didn’t tell her husband, although that was easier because he was in New Mexico a lot for a job and she was here (she’s moved out there since then).
WaterGirl
@Baud: That was exactly my thought. SAY you re taking ivermectin, maybe even get a prescription but just don’t use it, and also take the real drugs that can actually help.
They HATE their followers, which is just mind-boggling to me.
lowtechcyclist
@Matt McIrvin:
These days, I only see it when traveling, because most people around here don’t feel they have to wear a mask at all. Those who wear them are doing it to protect themselves.
I can understand that, because who wants to wear a mask with snot and phlegm from sneezing and coughing on the inside of it? It’s more a choice between taking it off while you’re coughing or sneezing and then putting it back on, or taking it off afterwards and keeping it off.
When I’m traveling, I have spare masks in my carry-on, which solves the problem. But if I’m just in a store, I rarely have a spare in my pocket.
RaflW
@Old School: I think probably half of them are just shitty hacks and want to keep their ultra cushy jobs & the trappings of (if not execution of) power, screw the consequences for democracy writ large.
Quinerly
@scav: could be but l kinda doubt it. She looked barely 15. Probably not too bright to begin with. When l told her that her boyfriend didn’t love her, l could have pushed her over with a feather. And, understand, l have been overly kind and patient with everyone during this or if l wake up pissed, l stay home. White Fat Man tripped my trigger when l was looking for a squeeze bottle of blue chalk.
TheTruffle
@Old School: If so, that is pathetic.
Quinerly
@Soprano2: you are a nicer person than l am. ?
catclub
@Sebastian:
don’t be so sure everyone else sees them that way. I just saw a rebel flag sticker on a car with ‘fighting terrorists since 1861’ on it. These people are more confused than you might imagine.
Brachiator
@Soprano2:
RE: I don’t pay attention to approval ratings.
History does not always determine the future. Polls are not votes.
What would you like to see Biden do that would make people happy? Especially when the GOP and deniers are making it harder to deal with the pandemic?
Your state, like some others, essentially want to let the pandemic burn out on its own. People will die needlessly.
If Omicron and any future variant is mild, it will be easier for people to convince themselves that everything is fine and we can go back to “normal.” The vulnerable will still die.
Here in California, there was a ton of anger and resentment at the governor and public health agencies. In the recall election, GOP candidates promised to put the economy first and were soundly defeated, despite polls registering anger.
Bottom line. Many conservatives appear to be happy to die for the cause of their “freedoms.” So far, Democrats have not embraced the Death Cult.
I am hoping that Democrats stay sane and will fight and contribute where I can to help.
I have a cousin who was in the hospital with Covid, but who insists that it was something else. We asked him why he stayed in the hospital and accepted medication if he believed that the doctors and nurses were lying to him about what illness he had. He could not answer the question, but still insists that he did not have Covid.
We have been through this before. If people reject facts and science, more will get sick. More will die.
We can only do the best we can to try to save people who are doing the best they can to kill themselves.
Soprano2
@Quinerly: I would want her to get vaccinated! Being that young, she probably thinks her BF knows more than she does, incorrectly. I would have at least tried to talk her into it.
Soprano2
FIX TESTING. This is the one place where I feel the Biden administration has fallen down badly. What I had to go through to get a test after a known Covid exposure was insane – my boss had to have me call her contact at the Health Department for it! If test were cheap or free and readily available, I would test myself at least once or twice a week, and I think a lot of people would use them in this way. There is no way the administration can have anything like a national mask mandate. Geez, I just saw that the Supreme Court put the kibosh on the government contractor mandate for the time being. But testing is an area where the administration could take some action. I also wish they would offer better masks – not mail them to everyone because that is wasteful, but have a web site where you could request a certain amount for each member of your family and have them mailed to you. They could have done this months ago! Then people wouldn’t have to spend hours on the internet trying to figure out which are the actual good masks they can order, and which are the fakes.
StringOnAStick
@Soprano2: Fixing testing might right now be running into the brick wall of not enough people to man the testing sites due to illness. After all, these are the people who are spending their entire work day interacting with people who might be sick with Covid.
I read today that we have a current huge problem with not enough blood in the national blood supply, because of blood drives being cancelled because of Covid but mostly because there are not enough available phlebotomists to do the blood draws. I’m sure there are laboratory testing constraints as well, because all blood has to be tested before it can enter the national blood supply.
“Fixing testing” is running into the same problem as “fixing supply chains”: increasing numbers of people sick from Covid and unable to work.
scav
@Quinerly: You’re kinder than I am. I don’t quite believe in 15 year old ingenues — girls have tricky and manipulative down long before middle school (boys tend to go more brazen, but there are exceptions). What possibly does vaccination status have to do with poor wearing of a mask in a work environment? She played the authoritarian boyfriend card for a reason — oh look, she’s not responsible for her own actions with a stereotypical villain.
Quinerly
@Soprano2: it was the kind of day that l got enormous pleasure out of making her cry. She did pull up her mask, though. A line was forming behind me. So not a lot of time to play mother hen. I usually stay home because l don’t want to get Omicron in the middle of this move or l stay home because it isn’t pretty when l do tangle with these morons. I’m on a short fuse.
Brachiator
@Soprano2:
The Biden administration is working to make more tests available. And crazy state governors will ban testing.
People should still wear masks, where appropriate. But I guess that some people want to do anything to avoid masks. This seems strange to me, but whatever.
State and local governments could do this if they wanted with federal monies. In Southern California you can get a free surgical mask on a bus, and at many other places. But making this more uniform sounds good to me.
Brachiator
@scav:
Her Majesty the Queen has been conspicuously obeying the lock down rules that Boris Johnson has been flouting. Queenie ain’t no fool.
But in the strange world of the Royals, Andrew has been slapped down hard.
topclimber
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: There is what you claim I said, whatever I did say, and this: whatever harm Bernie caused Clinton was overshadowed by Comey, a media that preferred shots of Trump’s empty podium to Hillary’s campaign, and a Clinton team that didn’t wake up to what was happening in swing states until too late. Educating more people about income inequality is something Bernie deserves credit for.
I guess feeble mockery aimed at my age (rather than my youth, as you apparently thought earlier–thanks I guess) is your idea of new material.
Still waiting for the real thing.
ETA: Rallies aren’t votes. Neither are door-to-door canvassing, postcards to voters, email and text campaigns. But they can create votes.
A Good Woman
@Eolirin:
It went down 50-49, if it had been 50-50 Harris could have broken the tie.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@topclimber: do you still have your “Bore = Gush” tee shirt?
Soprano2
@StringOnAStick: Well, it should already be fixed! There were things they could have done but didn’t.