He’d rather be the most powerful — or at least, the most visible — Democratic Senator than the least powerful Republican one. His current term doesn’t end until 2025, he’s worth an estimated five million dollars, and if he wants to spend his days fighting to keep his constituents poor, stupid, and desperate, well…
… At the start of the 116th Congress, Manchin was the ranking member of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, and a member of the Senate committees on Armed Services, Appropriations, Veterans’ Affairs, and the Joint Select Committee on Solvency of Multiemployer Pension Plans…
Sure, it would be easier (for some values of ‘easy’) if President Biden could just have the Secret Service drag Manchin into the back room, show him a photo of his wife / grandkids / dog with a laser target superimposed, and dictate an I have suddenly changed my mind about BBB, which is the kindest, warmest, most generous bill I have ever met statement for him to sign. But we don’t do stuff like that, because we’re Democrats. Let us not forget that a refusal to resort to action-movie authoritarian tactics is *why* we’re Democrats.
I want to ask all these ppl saying Biden should prosecute Manchin's daughter, do you REALLY think Manchin would then say, "ok, now you locked up my daughter I see the error of my ways, I'll vote for the full child tax credit, and abolish the filibuster while we're at it"? https://t.co/PFTXIQXdGx
— Matthew Chapman (@fawfulfan) December 21, 2021
Trump ruined his presidency with behavior like this. He may have not gone to prison for it, but he had to spend like 50% of his energy taking people investigating him to court.
I can't understand why ANY liberal would want Biden to spend the rest of his presidency like that too.
— Matthew Chapman (@fawfulfan) December 21, 2021
And then there’s the GOP Death Cult alternative to Manchin:
"Give me a reason to vote for Democrats."
This is the 2nd best Republican.
That's your reason. https://t.co/4g3cJKpkpZ
— Magdi Semrau (@magi_jay) December 21, 2021
challenge yourself to spend less time bitching about Manchin and more time working to increase the Dem majority in the Senate.
— Where Y'at? (@YatPundit) December 21, 2021
Not as immediately satisfying as painting my face and hoisting the Jolly Roger, but I’ll settle.
Comrade Colette
Por qué no los dos?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I’m also curious as to what the obvious criminal act– as opposed to “there oughta be law!” greed-head scum-baggery– Ms Manchin committed was? the one that so many people know about and there is so much evidence that her speedy conviction by a jury (remember them?) is inevitable? but that can only be prosecuted by the direct order of the Attorney General (as opposed to the US Atty in the appropriate jurisidcition)? and when? why didn’t trump and Barr use this lead-pipe-cinch threat to get Manchin to say, vote to acquit trump in the first impeachment? or to vote with Republicans in the attempted ObamaCare repeal?
HumboldtBlue
I notice the assholes who repeatedly beat this drum never point out the four dozen voter suppression bills in the works to literally keep Democratic voters from casting a ballot.
The Supreme Court is no protection as Roberts has proven, so the idea that by doing the same thing — but harder! — is somehow to going to overcome the onslaught against basic civil rights like voting seems moot. Unless you pass the Lewis voting bill, you’re not gonna get any Democrats elected if the GOP has its way.
artem1s
since we’re done with Manchin can we be done with talking about him? There is still a lot being done by this administration. The idea of a child tax credit isn’t going away anymore than RMoneyCare/ObamaCare/ACA is going away. There is still a lot of life left in this administration no matter what death sentence anyone thinks democracy is burdened with. The future of the GOP is far more uncertain than the Democratic Party. McConnell could die, Alito could die, and any number of key GOPers could end up in a sex or insurrection scandal. Abrams is changing the face of the deep south. The GOPer’s bench just isn’t that deep. Despite all the gloom and doom, the horse could still learn to talk.
different-church-lady
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
“Banksters!”
Ksmiami
There are nearly 88 bills across states to reduce and restrict voting. Vote more isn’t helpful but taking a flamethrower to the GOP is. Strong action and messaging is how we can avoid autocracy. Manchin hurt us. He needs to walk it back ASAP.
Jay
I thought that like many, with masks, Covid, staying home, you had given up on “painting your face”?
different-church-lady
Kalakal
It comes down to basic arithmatic. Much as I detest Manchin, we are stuck with him ( and Sinema ) and have to live with that unappealing fact. Biden has no direct power over either of them. Until the balance of the Senate changes in favour of the Dems no legislation can pass without every Dem voting for it. As Harold Wilson (Uk pm in the 70s) put it “Politics is the art of the possible”. For now the task of the Dems is to achieve what can be done by federal agencies, executive orders and emphasise and get out the message of Biden’s successes so far ( and they are considerable) rather than allow the Gqp and the village to keep the messaging focused on what Biden hasn’t managed to achieve. Right now the priority is voting rights
different-church-lady
@Kalakal: People like you are always trying to take away all the magic ponies.
Kalakal
@different-church-lady: Mwhahaha. :)
Sadly based on bitter experience of prolier than thou types in the UK in years past.
J R in WV
I agree, a solid, air tight voting rights bill that protects the voting system, the count process, and makes the actual voter totals unassailable is extremely important to our democracy!
On a completely different note, deer hunting is still on here, bow only now after the gun season over Thanksgiving week. A younger man who grew up in our holler, next door farm actually — called weeks ago, asked to hunt with a bow in our hollow, which was fine, we have way too many deer as it is.
So today John called to say he shot one, and asked if he could come around where he thought the dead or dying deer was in a hide… anyway, there was what we call Bambi bits free for the dogs to take.!!
When it comes bedtime, knowing the fitted sheet is torn, I start stripping the bed, and I find a chunk of Bambi about the Size of a 16oz can of beer. Raw deer meat… right between wife’s pillows and mine!
We needed to get clear sheets any way, the bloody gob of John’s deer was just a bedtime surprise I didn’t need after fixing a nice dinner!!
It’s better than finding an eyeless head on the back deck outside the bedroom!
rikyrah
Make him irrelevant come November 2022
Steeplejack (phone)
@J R in WV:
Country life!
Leto
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: if Martin Shrekli can be brought in before Congress to explain why he raised Daraprim by a factor of 56, Heather can do the same for her role in raising EpiPens by a similar amount. She’s the CEO of the company. Only reason she’s not is because of her dad. But President
TrumpovManchin has already declared that any investigation of his adult children is off limits. We’re all for ethics as long as it doesn’t involve our own family, or ability to trade stocks.Felanius Kootea
@HumboldtBlue: Whatever happened to Joe Manchin’s compromise version of the voting rights bill? The one Stacey Abrams said she could get behind and then Republicans decided it was the Senator Stacey Abrams bill? Can we at least get him to work on that, since we’re stuck with him?
Bobby Thomson
Electing more Democrats will be impossible without restoring the Voting Rights Act. They stole at least three Senate seats last time.
Felanius Kootea
@Leto:
Didn’t she retire in 2020 after Mylan merged with Pfizer’s Upjohn to form Viatris? I would love to haul her before congress, but she’s no longer CEO and her company no longer exists. They did end up paying $465 million for defrauding Medicaid. Maybe someone can ask Joe Manchin what he thinks about that, since he’s so concerned about poor people spending child tax credit money on God-knows-what.
Kalakal
@Leto: As someone who needs to have an epinephrine autoinjector available at all times I loathe Heather Manchin more than I can say. The most despicable part to me was that Mylan under pressure did produce a cheaper generic version but somehow this was never actually available ( at least not in the pharmacies near us ). Insurance would cover the cheaper (non available) ones but not the regular (available) $700 ones. I am eternally grateful to the pharmacy near us who sold my wife their “demo” epipens to my wife for $10 while I was being discharged from the ER. Fortunately in the last few years there are much cheaper (and covered) generics available. My Auvi-Qs have an insane list price but cost me more or less nothing.
Sadly while what she did stank it was legal.
Fun fact epinephrine was first synthesised in 1906, I guess Mylan had to pay off their R&D costs somehow
Fake Irishman
@Felanius Kootea:
it’s a version of the John Lewis voting rights bill. Murkowski has signed on to it.
Kropacetic
Abuse power much?
Fake Irishman
@Bobby Thomson:
I agree the voting rights act is really important, but the only Senate seat that you could argue was “stolen” in the last two cycles if you squint hard enough was Rick Scott beating Bill Nelson by less than 10,000 votes in 2018 in Florida. Even that is a biiiig stretch. There simply haven’t been any “ landslide Lyndon “ scenarios at the Senate level.
HumboldtBlue
@Felanius Kootea:
I have no idea, but I’m in no way confident Manchin or Sinema — who are providing cover for other conservative Dems — will do the right thing. I mean. “we still have to work with them” is obvious, but why should we have any confidence they will back a Democratic agenda?
If the voting rights bill is passed and enacted, then we may avoid what increasingly looks like a catastrophe for voting rights — and the subsequent political fallout — in this country.
gene108
@Leto:
Heather Bresch did testify before Congress as to why Mylan raised the price of EpiPens.
https://www.businessinsider.com/mylan-ceo-heather-bresch-house-oversight-committee-hearing-epipen-2016-9?amp
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@HumboldtBlue:
I would think that if voting rights isn’t passed, and shit really hits the fan, then Manchin and Sinema, simply by virtue of being Dems could have their lives/freedom threatened by a GOP autocracy. After all, it doesn’t matter how wealthy you are in say, Russia, if you piss off Putin
gene108
Unfortunately, conservatives are painting their faces and hoisting the Jolly Roger.
The threat of violence against school board members, doctors, nurses, etc. is real.
They’ve been trying to freeze non-gun nuts out of public places by open carrying everywhere.
Conservatives are openly counting on stochastic terrorism to tamp down on any counter protests to Q bullshit, anti-vax bullshit, CRT panic bullshit, etc., and it’s mostly working. They’ve taken over many public spaces, where they drown out less fanatical views.
Against this tide of ultra-conservative radicalism that is fully backed by the Republican Party, we’ve seen over the past five years that our institutions are not equipped to deal with this.
When Republicans are launching a literal revolution against the democratic gains of the last 100 years, the response needs to be very aggressive, which our institutions are not set up to be and thus the people running those institutions are failing us by not being bolder to meet the threat.
Wether it’s Congress passing voting rights bills, abortion rights bills, etc. or the DOJ, SEC, FTC, etc. taking some sort of action, something bold needs to be done now, before it’s too late.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@gene108:
Evidence?
ian
@Leto: I’m confused. Are we dragging her before congress in order to pass/facilitate legislation on epi-pens, or are we doing it to cow Manchin? Epi-pens don’t get used for insulin, which was the drug price cap limit proposal in BBB. Epi-pens are for allergic reactions, which afaik, don’t have a connection to BBB. So having her testify about epi-pen gouging would be relevant if we were doing that (epi-pens or price gouging), having her before congress because we are pissed at Manchin would be tit-for-tat political harassment.
I’m pissed at Manchin too, but dragging his kids into testify for no reason other than retaliating at Machin is counterproductive and quite frankly authoritarian.
Chetan Murthy
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Goku, surely you’re aware that the Rittenhouse verdict paints a target on every demonstrator, yes? And numerous times, Proud Boys and other nuts have attacked demonstrators — unarmed demonstrators, too. Do you really think that that’s not going to put a chill on unarmed folks coming out to demonstrate?
I mean, concretely, you think I’m gonna go to a demo? Hell no. That’s part of why I’m emigrating as soon as I can travel and find a place.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Chetan Murthy:
No, frankly, I don’t.
I don’t know where you’re gonna go. Pretty much anywhere that’s worth going to these days is experiencing many of the same authoritarian tendencies we are, including the same urban-rural divide
ETA: and I might add, if really fanatical right-wingers ever end up in the WH, you won’t be safe anywhere because of the US nuclear arsenal
Chetan Murthy
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
You think that the pissed-off grannies who make up a large part of the organizing force of the Democratic Party, are going to come out to demonstrate, if they know that Proud Boys might attack them ? I mean …. c’mon, dude.
Chetan Murthy
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
If I thought the Fascist Restoration would leave California alone, I’d just stick it out here. B/c *inside California* I don’t have those fears.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Chetan Murthy:
The Proud Boys and others like them are a spent, disorganized force, prone to infighting, who are going to be bankrupted into oblivion by several civil lawsuits
Besides, I don’t think the police are going to just stand by and let old women get attacked
Chetan Murthy
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): You mean like they did in Charlottesville? Clergy were getting attacked, dude. Women were getting attacked. The po-po did *shit*.
Professor Bigfoot
@Chetan Murthy: truth is, there ain’t a lot of daylight between the FOP and the Proud Boys.
FOP being among Trump’s first endorsers, after all.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Chetan Murthy:
And yet, there will still many demonstrations after Charlottesville, were there not?
Chetan Murthy
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): These things aren’t *binary*. The argument is that things are getting worse, progressively. That more and more, esp. in Red parts of the country, the gun-nuts, Branch covidians, and MAGAts (oh, but repeated myself *twice*) are pushing liberals/progressives out of the public square — scaring them out.
Look at the school board meeings, where the people *present* are all Branch Covidians and CRT freaks, but the emails from parents go entirely the other way. That’s not healthy. [and then there’s the death threats causing school board members and other very-low-level officials to resign]
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Chetan Murthy:
I understand what you’re saying. And I get why you’re scared and that’s totally fair. But the only way out is through. What happened in my community WRT to anti-maskers showing up at school board meetings is people organized and showed up to support the school board. The anti-mask morons were drowned out and the mask mandate remained in place. The anti-mask, anti-vax candidate was soundly defeated, despite the support of the county GOP and his attempts to sound “moderate”.
And this was in a blue, but increasingly purple county to boot. I don’t know what the answer is, but I do know these people have to be opposed and stood up to
sab
@Chetan Murthy: A couple of our school board members decided not to run for reelection, but frankly the new candidates are better and tougher, and more committed to diversity and a safe environment (masks and vax.) And they won their election.
As an angry grannie myself, yes I do still go to protests.
Chetan Murthy
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): People always argue that Black Americans persevered, struggled against odds, and so we should also. But there’s a massive mistake there: Black Americans didn’t have any other choice: they started off slaved, then sharecroppers, and stayed poor for a long time. They had no other choices.
I’m an immigrant, and we have choices. Why would we stick around for this sort of madness, knowing that the prospects for our children will be worse than for us, and worse because of the direct actions of other Americans? And I don’t mean economic prospects, I mean “breathing while brown/black” prospects.
Do you know The Rude Pundit? Read this ( The Bad Guys Are Winning and I’ve Lost Hope That They Can Be Stopped ) and tell me why he’s wrong.
I’ll return to civil disobedience again: I read somewhere a trenchant column that argued that the essence of civil disobedience (as practiced by the Civil Rights campaigners for instance) was to very visibly and publicly offer one’s bodies to violence (without defending), as a way of persuading morally. But 1. there’s nobody to persuade (The Big Sort did that) and 2. why would I want to *persuade* anybody to allow me my *rights* ? I’m just as much of an American as those bastards are.
So yeah, I’ll take my savings, take my skills, and find someplace else to live.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Chetan Murthy:
There isn’t anyplace else to live. If the US falls to the fascists, there won’t be any place safe left on Earth. I don’t trust these people with nuclear weapons, for one. And, again, most of the places worth emigrating from the US to are experiencing the same authoritarian tendencies you’re trying to run away from
And people like schrodinger’s cat aren’t so willing to just throw in the towel
Chetan Murthy
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
Chetan Murthy
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
“authoritarian tendencies” != “literal Fascist Restoration”.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Chetan Murthy:
@Chetan Murthy:
I refuse to believe that all is lost
Chetan Murthy
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): did you read that rude pundit column ?
Chetan Murthy
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
A different answer: me and my siblings grew up in Texas. Now, my entire sibling group lives in SF. And we all fled Texas pretty much as soon as we could. I know a gay man who I went to high school with: he lives some blocks away. My college roommate came out basically the week he got out of Texas, and moved out to SF in the late 80s. You could say of all of us: “why did you leave Texas? You should have stayed and fought!”
We left Texas, and good riddance.
sab
Deleted since question already answered.
Chetan Murthy
ditto
sab
Goku
If you are still up and online : Curious about your thoughts on the Congressional redistricting in Ohio. Process as actually done (not per statute) sucks, but how were the results where you are?
We will not have the same Congressperson any more. Hopefully he will be our next Senator. He has improved a lot over the last twenty years. Experience and a wife who teaches in public schools helps a lot.
bjacques
@Chetan Murthy: there’s the possibility that enough Republicans may off themselves from COVID that even gerrymandering might not help them. I read Rude Pundit’s piece, but it could have been written several times in American history, even the 58 years of it I’ve lived.
As for living elsewhere, you’d be welcome here in NL, which is also between the Scylla and Charybdis of a chronic shortage of STEM professionals and the Great Resignation (which I may join, depending on the size of my severance package). Awhile back, I moved here from Texas, with a couple of years in DC in between to lessen the culture shock. The angry white vote has stabilized at about 20%, represented by giant troll doll Geert Wilders, and the new generation of neo-fash, led by dandy Thierry Baudet, seem to have peaked, as his sort are useless in a real crisis like this one. If you like hills, though, you’ll have to pick Arnhem or Maastricht, which aren’t as cosmopolitan as Amsterdam or Rotterdam.
But Europe’s battles against resurgent fascism and complaisance with Chinese and Russian authoritarianism depend a lot on the US showing up at least to provide encouragement, which Trump didn’t but Biden has. If American democracy goes down the toilet, its nukes won’t be the problem—other countries in the EU might pack it in too, the east falling back into Russia’s sphere of influence and the west lurching to the right. None would be especially welcoming then. For now, though, we have 3 to 7 more years of Biden showing up.
At least wait to see how the Joe/Jen good cop / bad cop game with Manchin plays out. The economy is doing well over all, and that has to be working in your favor.
P.S. We went to the same Uni. Death From Above!
sab
@Chetan Murthy: Indian Americans in my town seem to be mostly okay, but all my nephews (half old line WASP half Chinese immigrant) got the hell out of Ohio and off to California as soon as they could. But one went by way of Ontario, and the Canadian wife was anxious to get into the US. Skeptical about us, but the economic opportunities seemed better.
But California is so so expensive. My RWNJ brother has a tiny house in Marin worth ten times what my tiny house in NE Ohio is worth. Both houses are tiny, but a normal person could still buy mine. His is worth probably a million. But it is tiny.
Chetan Murthy
@bjacques: Oh, you were Sid Rich also? I graduated in ’86. I’d love to move to Europe (learning more European languages would be a *treat* — which one to pick first? which one?) but ….. the rest of my family is all monolingual, and I doubt they’d go anyplace that wasn’t English-first. And even though the Dutch speak *every* language, that wouldn’t really do, I fear.
I don’t intend to do anything hasty: if for no other reason, than I can’t actually travel until we get oral antivirals, and then it takes time to pick a target, find a place to live, get a move all set up, etc. And get buy-in from my siblings/mom that they’re OK with the country. So we’re talking 1-2 years anyway.
Maybe you’re right. It’s just …. I feel like TFG’s reign and especially the pandemic has been …. *revealing* of America’s character. And I don’t like what I see. It’s very much not what I ever believed my country was about. The coarseness and devil-take-the-hindmost that I see is ….. nauseating.
Ah, well.
sab
@Chetan Murthy: My nephew with the Canadian wife. Her family is exceptional. A bunch of really bright biology medical professionals. And she and most of her siblings are now in the US because of opportunity, although aspects of our culture and politics shock them.
As she said, the Canadian medical system is excellent on the Ontario peninsula, but it seriously sucks in northern Quebec as bad as anything we have here.
Chetan Murthy
@sab:
Is America now the place you come to with skills and knowledge, to make your money, save it up, and then retire someplace decent? I wonder.
sab
@Chetan Murthy: Well I have been really struck by how much her family did not feel they had opportunity in Canada. And they are exceptionally bright people. This should be seen as a problem in Canada that these folks leave.
sab
@Chetan Murthy: Where is decent? That is the problem. The authoritarians are everywhere. Easier to fight them in a culture you know and umderstand. Otherwise you move somewhere you don’t understand and then you get blindsided.
sab
@sab: And she was desperate to get her kid enrolled as a Canadian citizen.
Chetan Murthy
@sab: I’m not sure what you mean by “opportunity”. I know that well-trained STEM folks in some fields can make a mint in the US. I know that for example the difference in the pay for software folks is 3-4x better in the US, than in France. But there’s a price to be paid for social cohesion, and lower salaries for the best-paid, is part of that price. I certainly would like that in America: that software engineers got paid like nurses.
But maybe you have some other meaning of “opportunity” in mind.
bjacques
@Chetan Murthy: ‘85, and my immediate family are all in Texas Goddam (suburban Houston, anyway). I have to give my mom similar pep talks. At least now she’s hooked up with the local Democrats to do something constructive and not feel isolated (her neighbors both sides are Republican, but they get along). Maybe we can meet over a beer one of these years. Dutch beer isn’t as amazing as Belgian, but it’s pretty good.
Chetan Murthy
@sab: It’s less about “where is decent” than “it’s looking like 1933 in Weimar America”. And I’m not going to make the mistake some Jewish Germans made.
sab
@Chetan Murthy: Let us know how it goes. My Chinese inlaws are happy not to be arrested for getting sideways with the wrong official. That is why they are now American
ETA Growing up in America I think you are a tad naive about the rest of the world.
Chetan Murthy
@sab:
One of the reasons I don’t want to be here for the Fascist Restoration, is precisely this. i don’t trust these Fascists to be able to tell that I’m “one of the good ones” in their haste to “put the stick about among the brown/black ones.” And the idea of going thru life worried about that …. well, it’s why I haven’t visited Texas except for family medical emergencies in a long, long time.
206inKY
Agree with every single word of this post, 100%. Fact of the matter is that Manchin has voted for trillions more in spending over the last year than a 60-vote Dem caucus could muster for Obama to fight the Great Recession. Biden has placed twice as many federal judges than Trump at this point in 2017.
I think expressing outrage over Manchin is a win-win. Tells the country where the party stands. But the gnashing of Democratic teeth makes it vastly more likely that Manchin can hold the seat, since his constituents are majority-troll.
Democrats can win on tough terrain. Beshear’s victory was a grueling knife fight of door-knocking in an off-year election. Everything from the pandemic response to the tornado would have been very different with Bevin in charge. They just need the right ingredients. Beshear was a dream candidate. In a weird way, so is Manchin and especially Tester. Ditto with McCaskell and Heitkamp before they were toppled. And Beto came excruciatingly close in Texas.
We can do it. And we can rip Manchin as much as we want. But following the Trumpist philosophy of punishing Manchin’s daughter is the surest road to a Republican sweep.
sab
@Chetan Murthy: Good luck finding an elswhere to go to.
I want you to know that I don’t think you are an idiot, We disagree about the severity of the risk, but not by much,
Chetan Murthy
@sab: I spent 3yr working for the French government in the 90s. Sure, there was racial tension in France: there was Le Pen then, and there is Len Pen/Zemmour today. There’s shit everywhere. But there was opportunity in France that we simply don’t have here (college is free and the best schools have a first-past-the-post exam) and the lowest decile there live better than the lowest decile in the US, last I checked.
Jay
@sab:
it’s been known for years, especially in certain medical fields. In Canada, as a specialist in certain medical fields, because of “socialized” medicine, you can make $250k to $500k (Canadian) a year. In the US you can make $2.5 million to $25 million.
to make things worse, the various “medical associations”, ( Doctors Unions), control the limitation of Med Students and Doctor Graduates, so for the last 30 years, we have been “importing” Medical Professionals from abroad.
Once qualified, and with citizenship, many go south.
When I was in Milwaukee, working as a Master Production Scheduler, seconded from Vancouver and commuting 3 weeks a month, after many failed attempts to hire in the US, the Fortune 100 offered me the job, full time, for 4x the pay I was getting, ( closer to 5x given the dollar ratio), a crapload of perks and benefits,
I passed because the girl I was dating already had the lived experience of being a “trophy wife” in the US, and it was Milwaukee.
sab
@Chetan Murthy: I think a lot of the French riots were because Sarkozy the immigrant refused to accept other immigrants as French, and those French ( immigrant) kids who were French were seriously outraged.
Chetan Murthy
@Jay:
Same here: my family came to the US in 1969 as part of a program to import foreign medical graduates. That continues to this day: the doctor in TX who operated on my mom recently got his degree in Bangalore (where I was born in ’65).
sab
@Jay: I am still angry that my mom didn’t let us move to BC in 1965. And her family, not my dad’s, was Canadian.
I don’t think my nephew’s in-laws are coming for vast wealth. They just want jobs. And talented and educated as they are, Canada isn’t offering them.
Jeez. The brightest guy went to Alabama. That isn’t our failure. That is Canada’s.
lowtechcyclist
@Kalakal:
That’s right. Congress has passed quite a number of laws over time, giving the Executive Branch a great deal of authority to make changes without going back to Congress, since Congress has already passed those laws.
Biden should use that authority to the hilt.
Geminid
Glad to see that Magdi Semrau, aka @Mangy Jay, is getting more exposure in places like this post. I learn a lot from her.
sab
Slightly scorched my hand a couple of days ago. Right paw is slightly inflamed. Bright red but doesn’t hurt at all. My husband is freaking out. Urgent care? Regular doctor? Emergency room? Please calm down and go to bed.
Just chop it off and then you can do all the cooking and housework. Calm down guy. It is just a mild normal household injury.
Geminid
@sab: Aloe?
sab
@Geminid: Oddly enough, I am allergic to aloe. But I don’t think I need it, so that’s good.
The Thin Black Duke
Y’know, I wish the people who talk about leaving the United States would keep it to themselves. Some of us don’t have that option. It’s as rude as chomping down on a big Mac in front of a homeless person.
Betty Cracker
I won’t even leave Florida, much less the U.S. I wouldn’t blame my kiddo for skedaddling though, not that the effects of full-blown U.S. fascism and climate change denial are escapable anyway, except perhaps by rocket ship some day. My optimism about the future is mainly confined to this: I’ll probably be dead by the time the worst happens.
But in the meantime, I have a family to love, a puppy to train, holiday dinners to plan, good books to read, art to appreciate, humor to enjoy, courage and kindness to admire, birds and wildlife to spy on and a thousand other moments of mind-blowing beauty in the world to experience, every single day. When the enormous implications of the political situation overwhelm me, that’s what I focus on.
The Thin Black Duke
@Betty Cracker: Well said. As Annie Dillard wrote, “How we spend our days, is how we spend the rest of our lives.”
bjacques
MagdaInBlack
@Betty Cracker: Right there with ya, Betty.
The Thin Black Duke
@bjacques: I understand where you’re coming from, but as I said, some of us don’t have that option. I’m not saying it to make people feel bad, because I think it’s entirely reasonable for somebody drowning to grab a lifeboat. However, leaving the United States just isn’t a realistic option for working class people. Knowing this, although I feel despair more often than I like, I’ll keep on doing what I can do, no mater how small, because I won’t make it easy for the bastards.
raven
@The Thin Black Duke: It’s all bullshit. People talk all kinds of shit they’ll never do.
The Thin Black Duke
@raven: I feel you, brother.
Geminid
@The Thin Black Duke: When a pack of mangy coyotes try to start a stampede, Democrats have to decide whether they are sheep, or donkeys.
Baud
@Geminid:
https://youtu.be/KMWBO3dQQDQ
ETA:
https://firsttimefarming.com/do-donkeys-keep-coyotes-away/
raven
@Geminid:
Bad boys, whatcha want
Watcha want, whatcha gonna do?
When sheriff John Brown come for you
Tell me whatcha wanna do, whatcha gonna do?
Lacuna Synecdoche
No new posts in 8 hours?
Where have all the front-pagers gone?
Baud
@Lacuna Synecdoche:
They’ve left the country.
raven
@Lacuna Synecdoche: The morning post is usually automatic.
debbie
@The Thin Black Duke:
It’s self-indulgent.
debbie
@sab:
Neosporin and a bandage.
Kay
The John Lewis Voting Rights Act is really very good- I (finally) read it. It addresses preclearance but updates and focuses on the voting processes where we (now) know Republicans will attack and where we have enough information to know which supression processes actually effect vote totals. It’s a better law than the original voting rights act. It also aligns with the Help America Vote Act, uses some of the definitions in that law, so the set of federal voting rights laws will operate coherently and can be used together.
Laws are supposed to be updated and modernized but Republican opposition has essentially frozen that process. In this instance, the new law would be better than the old one.
Baud
@Kay:
Good to hear it, Kay.
In all honesty, we Dems do a relatively poor job modernizing laws. I think it’s because people get apprehensive that someone will end up worse off.
Kay
@Baud:
The new preclearance triggers have a look back of 25 years, so if it passes we will be using the challenges to supression laws Republicans passed in the last ten years – the rulings in those cases- to put them into preclearance status. North Carolina would go back in immediately.
If they hadn’t have gone on a voter suppression binge post- Shelby they wouldn’t go back into preclearance :)
zhena gogolia
@The Thin Black Duke: Yeah.
Geminid
@Baud: From the firsttimefarming.com article:
Chief Oshkosh
Speak for yourself. I’m a Democrat ’cause it’s got a beat and chicks dig it.
Baud
@Kay: ?
@Geminid: ?
bjacques
@The Thin Black Duke: I know. And I would have had to refuse the opportunity had it come a few years earlier. I don’t kid myself otherwise, and that’s a big reason I keep supporting Democrats back home.
Chief Oshkosh
@Felanius Kootea:
My guess is that it’s in the same folder of the same drawer of the same file cabinet as Manchin’s NRA-approved gun purchase background check bill that he was going to proffer after Sandy Hook.
Woodrow/asim
This entire rant of reeking of fucking privilege and historical ignorance, to justify your choice to leave and (worse!) shame those who are choosing to stay and fight.
Because: Black folx built too. That’s how you got the Black Wall Street that was the point of the Tulsa Race Massacre, among many other points.
My ancestors didn’t “just happen” to fall into problems. People decided to abandon us to White Supremacy, to terrorism, from the Compromise of 1877, on.
So you might imagine that using Black History — a history of privileged folx abandoning vulnerable Black communities to avoid violent consequences for allying themselves — to justify your choice? Is not gonna sit well, with some.
Geminid
@Baud: I also liked the part about donkeys seizing coyotes by their necks and shaking them, causing serious harm or even death. In a metaphorical sense, of course.
O. Felix Culpa
@Woodrow/asim: My folx had the “privilege” of dying in gas ovens. There’s more than one history lesson to be learned.
ETA: That does not delegitimize your point at all, but neither does your perspective delegitimize the one I draw from my ancestors.
Woodrow/asim
And if the poster had talked in that frame, I’d have left it alone.
They did not. They used my history, my ancestry — not yours — to defend their decision-making, and (what really set me off) attack others.
I would ask the right to defend its (IMHO) misuse.
O. Felix Culpa
@Woodrow/asim: Point taken, and I believe my ETA supported your right to defend.
edited
J R in WV
@Chetan Murthy:
While my brother worked for Compaq in Houston as a public relations exec, I would never have spent much time in TX except my father was admitted to M D Anderson for treatment of his rare leukemia.
TX SUX!!!
J R in WV
@Chief Oshkosh:
I’m a democrat because…
Back in 1968-69 I became a hippy because hippy chicks were so cool… still are!!! ;~) 50 years later on!