USA News and Discussions

[caltrek]

Some people keep saying that there is no difference between Democrats and Republicans, at least not between their respective elected legislators. Perhaps they can then explain this news article:

Despite Trump Abuses, 208 House Republicans Vote Against Bill to Ensure 'No President Is Above the Law'
by Brett Wilkens
December 9, 2021

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/ ... -president

Introduction:

(Common Dreams) As the Democrat-led U.S. House of Representatives voted Thursday almost entirely along party lines in favor of proposed legislation to curb executive power and bolster transparency, proponents of the bill urged the Senate to pass the measure to help "restore the balance of powers and fix our democracy."

House lawmakers voted 220-208 in favor of H.R. 5314*, the Protecting Our Democracy Act, with just one Republican, Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, joining every Democrat except two who did not vote in approving the measure (the full roll call is here: https://clerk.house.gov/Votes/2021440).

The proposed legislation, which was introduced by House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), would require presidents and vice presidents, as well as major-party presidential and vice-presidential candidates, to disclose their income tax returns. It would also increase penalties for violations of the Hatch Act, ban presidential self-pardons, and strengthen Justice Department and congressional subpoena powers, among other reforms.

*https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-con ... /5314/text

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caltrek's comment: The only thing wrong with the cartoon is that it should be Senator Manchin that should be the one pictured "having the nice bi-partisan dream."

[caltrek]

It often seems to me that this forum is more or less dominated by atheists. I actually consider myself to be a non-believer. At least in the sense of not subscribing to a belief in the divinity of Christ, the existence of a God that is conscious of its own existence, etc. Yet, I do think that it is important to understand that there are liberals, even radicals, who still consider themselves Christian (or Jews, Hindus, Muslims, etc.). While I think there are many problems with religion as practiced in the U.S., I think it is important to realize that a basis of dialogue and a finding of common ground are still possible with the more progressive minded believers.

All of this is by way of introduction to the following article:

In a World of Haves and Have-nots, America’s Churches Should Capitalize on Their Strengths
by Jeff Brumley
December 10, 2021

https://baptistnews.com/article/in-a-wo ... arch-says/

Introduction:

(Baptist News Global) Small and medium-size churches can navigate the challenges of postmodern culture and the COVID-19 pandemic by capitalizing on inherent strengths, embracing the neighborhoods that surround them and by adopting scaled-down practices from megachurches, one of the nation’s leading religion researchers said during a Dec. 9 webinar hosted by Baptist News Global.

And American congregations, big or small, must be open to new ways of cultivating leadership and of welcoming the ethnic, racial and sexual diversity long accepted by younger generations, said Scott Thumma, director of the Hartford Institute for Religion Research at Hartford International University. He was the guest on BNG’s Dec. 9 webinar with Executive Director Mark Wingfield.

“Diversity is increasing, and if congregations put their heads in the sand and turn a blind eye to this, they are going to remain the most segregated places on Sunday mornings,” Thumma said.

Thumma is a sociologist of religion and a veteran in the field of religion research with expertise in the megachurch movement, evangelicalism, LGBTQ faith and changes in American religious life, among others. He is a leader in the Faith Communities Today national research project and is the co-author of The Other 80 Percent, Beyond Megachurch Myths and Gay Religion.

During the hour-long Zoom and livestreamed session, Thumma also addressed questions about the pandemic’s lasting impact on congregational attendance and finances, how clergy have been challenged by major shifts in society and church, and the struggles of denominations to serve both the small and megachurches in their jurisdictions.

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Florida Governo DeSantis Raises Millions from Finance Industry, but Does He Care About the Working-Class?
by Thomas Kennedy

https://www.latinorebels.com/2021/12/10 ... issellout/

Introduction:

(Latino Rebels) MIAMI — Wall Street and finance industry donors have already chosen their candidate for president in 2024, and it’s not Donald Trump. It’s Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

It’s easy to see why they would choose DeSantis, as he has turned the Sunshine State into a piggy bank for corporations and the wealthy. The Republican-led legislature regularly uses Floridians’ tax dollars to effectively steal from the poor to benefit their wealthy corporate donors.

In May 2020, as Florida’s economy tumbled due to COVID-19 and millions of Floridians were struggling with a broken state unemployment system, DeSantis and his Republican cronies went ahead with a $543 million tax refund for corporations and are on track to give away another $624 million to a secret list of some of the most profitable businesses in the state. In 2021, he approved a $1 billion in new tax collections from consumers, while leaving corporate tax evasion tactics untouched.

In addition to subsidizing the rich through the tax dollars of working families, it is everyday Floridians who overwhelmingly carry the tax burden in Florida. The Florida Policy Institute has determined that the lowest-income Floridians pay five and a half times as much in taxes as a share of their household income than the state’s wealthiest residents. A 2018 research study by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP), showed Florida’s tax system is among the “Terrible Ten” most inequitable in the nation, ranking it an abysmal 48th among all states due to its heavy reliance on sales and other consumption taxes that account for more than half of all revenue and impact lower income families who spend a greater share of their income purchasing goods they need.

It’s worth noting that Floridians actually passed a corporate income tax via the ballot in the early 1970s. It was a campaign promise of Democratic Gov. Reubin Askew who stood up against organized opposition from the business lobby. Unfortunately, two decades of corrupt Republican control of state government has resulted in Florida becoming one of the easiest states in which to avoid corporate income taxes in the nation, with 99 percent of companies paying no corporate income tax due to loopholes that are easily exploited. And even with barely any of them paying it, the largest corporations in the state are lobbying to permanently cut Florida’s corporate income tax rate.

[weatheriscool]

Biden Aims to Slash 'Time Tax' for Social Security, Storm Aid
Source: Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) -- President Joe Biden signed an executive order Monday that seeks to reduce bureaucratic hurdles for Americans seeking government benefits such as Social Security, student loan relief and disaster aid.

The order –- targeting 36 federal services across multiple agencies and department -– also calls for passport renewals to be digitized and for the Internal Revenue Service to call back taxpayers instead of keeping them on hold.

The measure will “ensure that the federal government puts you, the American people, at the front of the line and are first in anything we do,” Biden told reporters before signing it.

Some of the biggest impacts of the executive order will be seen by Americans over 65. In addition to a new online tool designed to make claiming Social Security benefits easier, the government will also develop a portal for Medicare recipients to identify ways to save money on drugs and health care.

Read more: https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/other/b ... ar-AARLLtz

I agree with this!

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Texans Can Sue Abortion Providers? Californians Will Sue Gun Makers, Governor Says
by Dan Friedman
December 12, 2021

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/20 ... -lawsuits/

Introduction:

(Mother Jones) Texas lawmakers used an audacious strategy to get their controversial abortion law past the Supreme Court: empowering private citizens to sue abortion providers and anyone who “aids and abets” patients trying to obtain the procedure in the state after six weeks. But the lawmakers may not have anticipated what their law could inspire. Now, California Governor Gavin Newsom says that he plans to borrow the tactic to advance his own measure that would allow private citizens to sue gun manufacturers or people who sell assault weapons or so-called ghost guns.

In a statement on Saturday, Newsom’s office said his staff would work with the state’s attorney general and Democrats who control the state legislature to write a bill that allows state citizens to sue anyone who “manufactures, distributes, or sells an assault weapon or ghost gun kit or parts” in California. Newsom suggested damages of at least $10,000 per violation.

[caltrek]

Having briefly lived in Virgina (circa 2018) I can really appreciate this article (see below). The local newspaper of a fairly rural and remote town, while not bad for what it did contain, was very pithy in its coverage of local events. The Washington Post served as a regional newspaper, but I sometimes had the feeling that those of us who read that paper were suspected of being Communists. Maybe just my paranoid imagination, maybe not.

Virginia Should Put Civil Court Records Online

December 13, 2021

https://www.courthousenews.com/virginia ... ds-online/

Introduction:

(Courthouse News) Throughout the United States, most federal courts and many state courts offer remote electronic access to civil court records. Virginia does not.

If you have a vested interest in a civil suit in our state, you have to go to whatever court (there are 120 in the state circuit court system) is appropriate and research it the old-fashioned way.

Actually, you can have remote access to civil court records, but you have to go to law school first. Attorneys can get them electronically. We civilians can’t. That doesn’t seem fair, and a news service dealing with legal issues, Courthouse News Service, is trying to open electronic access to everyone. It is suing two Virginia court officials to try to make that happen.

The attorney general’s office wants to have the suit dismissed. Ninety-three of the state courts now use digital systems, and the AG’s office says it is worried about records being exploited.

The AG’s office concedes that there is indeed a First Amendment, and that it does grant a right to access, but that this freedom does not mandate remote access “to avoid a trip to the courthouse.”

The article goes on to point out that a round-trip to a circuit courthouse can be about seven hours.

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Study Confirms How Citizens United Made 'Mockery' of Campaign Finance Rules
by Brett Wilkins
December 15, 2021

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/ ... ance-rules

Introduction:

(Common Dreams) As a report published Wednesday revealed that political consulting firms raked in $1.4 billion while simultaneously working for campaign committees and purportedly independent groups during the 2018 and 2020 election cycles, progressives renewed calls for Congress to pass the Freedom to Vote Act to protect and strengthen democracy.

The report—entitled Dual Agents—was published by Public Citizen and further discredits Citizens United v. Federal Elections Commission, the highly controversial 2010 U.S. Supreme Court ruling which affirmed that corporations are legal persons and that they, labor unions, and other outside groups could spend unlimited amounts of money to influence the outcome of American elections—as long as they don't coordinate with candidates or campaigns.

"Political consulting firms are perfectly positioned to harmonize the message and strategies of campaigns and super PACs," said study author Taylor Lincoln, referring to the ostensibly independent political action committees that are allowed to raise unlimited amounts of money, then spend it on advocating for or against candidates.

Lincoln added, "The findings in this study add to the overwhelming evidence that campaign committees and outside groups frequently are not truly independent of one another."

Among the report's key findings:

• Political consulting firms that worked for a candidate or political party and also for an unregulated super PAC or other purportedly independent entity in the same elections received $1.4 billion for work in those contests during the past two election cycles…

[caltrek]

Warren Says Expand Supreme Court to Counter 'Powerful Threat to Our Democracy'
by Andrea Germanos
December 15, 2021

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/ ... -democracy

Introduction:

(Common Dreams) Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts announced Wednesday her support for expanding the number of justices on the U.S. Supreme Court, warning that without such reform the court's right-wing majority would "continue to threaten basic liberties for decades to come."

"When a court consistently shows that it no longer is bound by the rule of law, Congress must exercise its constitutional authority to fix that court," the Massachusetts Democrat wrote in a Wednesday op-ed in the Boston Globe.

"The movement to expand the court is growing and we are going to win."
Making her case for why Congress should exercise its constitutional authority to change the size of the court, Warren said Sen. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) "hijacked" the court, referring to his 2016 "theft" of the seat President Barack Obama sought to fill with Merrick Garland and his 2020 move "breaking his own 'rule' barring votes on justices in an election year" when he rammed through right-wing Justice Amy Coney Barrett's confirmation.

"This Republican court-packing has undermined the legitimacy of every action the current court takes," she said, and the court itself "leans into extremism and partisanship."

Warren backed up her assertion with a handful of recent cases:

• This radical court has reversed century-old campaign-finance restrictions, opening the floodgates for corporations to spend unlimited sums of money to buy our elections. It has reversed well-settled law that once required employers to permit union organizers to meet with workers. It has trampled on the Constitution’s guarantee of equal protection by upholding a racist Muslim ban. It has twisted the law to deny Americans their right to a day in court, despite the clear intent of Congress. And it has gutted one of the most important civil rights laws of our time, the Voting Rights Act, not once but twice.

caltrek's comment: I think right now Warren's comment will be dismissed as "too strident." I fear that after the 2024 election the conclusion will be that she was not strident enough.

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DeSantis Invokes MLK While Introducing Proposed Bill That Would Allow Parents to Sue Schools Teaching Critical Race Theory
by Meaghan Ellis
December 16, 2021

https://www.alternet.org/2021/12/desantis-crt/

Introduction:

(Alternet) Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) on Wednesday announced a proposed piece of legislation that open a door for parents to sue schools including the study of Critical Race Theory (CRT) in its curriculum.

Per a press release from DeSantis' office, the Stop WOKE Act, meaning Stop the Wrongs to Our Kids and Employees Act, "will be the strongest legislation of its kind in the nation and will take on both corporate wokeness and Critical Race Theory."

In the release, DeSantis also included a statement describing CRT as "state-sanctioned racism" as he further explained the purpose of the bill.
“In Florida, we are taking a stand against the state-sanctioned racism that is critical race theory,” DeSantis said in the statement. “We won’t allow Florida tax dollars to be spent teaching kids to hate our country or to hate each other. We also have a responsibility to ensure that parents have the means to vindicate their rights when it comes to enforcing state standards. Finally, we must protect Florida workers against the hostile work environment that is created when large corporations force their employees to endure CRT-inspired ‘training’ and indoctrination.”

The bill would give school faculty members, parents, and students a "private right of action" to push back against schools teaching CRT and work spaces that may have a "hostile work environment due to critical race theory training."

caltrek: Invoking MLK to allow schools to be sued for teaching Critical Race Theory is like invoking Jesus Christ to allow for the abolishment of the practice of Christianity. It is no small wonder that DeSantis seems to have displaced Trump as the darling of the right by actually positioning himself to the right of Trump. Not an easy thing to do.

[caltrek]

How Mark Meadows Ended Up in the Middle of the Fight Over January 6
by Michael C. Bender and Siobhan Hughes
December 16, 2021

https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-mark-m ... 1639672775

Introduction:

(Wall Street Journal) WASHINGTON— Mark Meadows emerged as a central figure in a congressional probe into the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol after he turned over texts and emails that contained details on then-President Trump’s effort to overturn the election result—and that showed Mr. Meadows was on the receiving end of a barrage of messages and calls from allies trying to halt the pro-Trump riot.

The House this week voted to hold Mr. Meadows in contempt of Congress after he declined to comply with a subpoena to testify in front of the panel investigating the riot. Now, the Justice Department must decide whether it will bring charges against him.

Mr. Meadows had earlier cooperated with the committee, submitting thousands of documents, including texts and material from a private email account. The records he turned over have opened up a window into a network of Republican objectors and their strategies for trying to overturn the election result, and this week’s public disclosure of some of his texts on the day of the attack drew new attention to the Jan. 6 probe.

“These text messages leave no doubt that the White House knew exactly what was happening here at the Capitol,” said Rep. Liz Cheney (R., Wyo.), the vice chair of the Jan. 6 committee.

The heightened interest from congressional investigators comes as Mr. Meadows’s once-close relationship with Mr. Trump faces strains. Mr. Meadows, 62 years old, who was Mr. Trump’s fourth and final White House chief of staff, was initially a key adviser in the former president’s post-Washington political strategy. He was largely responsible, for example, for orchestrating Mr. Trump’s surprise endorsement in April for North Carolina Senate candidate Ted Budd, a U.S. House lawmaker, according to people familiar with that decision

caltrek's comment (an imagined dialogue):

Mark Meadows: Pssst...publisher. Would you be interested in publishing my kiss and tell book about my time in the Trump White House?

Publisher: Sure, for our cut of the profit.

Mark Meadows: Agreed

Congressional Committee: In the interests of self-defense and for the preservation of our democratic institutions, please once again appear before us and supply relevant records.

Mark Meadows: I'm sorry, that would be a violation of Executive Privilege.

[caltrek]

Joe Manchin Officially Torpedoes Build Back Better
by Stephanie Mencimer
December 19, 2021

https://www.motherjones.com/author/stephanie-mencimer/

Introduction:

(Mother Jones) It’s official. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) said this morning on Fox News that he won’t support the Build Back Better bill, effectively killing the Democratic Party’s $2 trillion sweeping domestic policy proposal. “I tried everything humanly possible. I can’t do it,” he said. “This is a no on this legislation. I have tried everything I know to do.”

Manchin has been hinting for months that he wouldn’t support the centerpiece of President Joe Biden’s agenda, raising opposition to its overall price tag as well as measures that would have extended a poverty-busting child tax credit and paid family leave, imposed a methane fee on emissions from fossil fuel producers, and expanded Medicare to cover hearing aids for the elderly.

Democrats responded on Sunday with outrage and despair. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) told CNN’s Jake Tapper that Manchin “will have a lot of explaining to do to the people of West Virginia, to tell him why he doesn’t have the guts to take on the drug companies, to lower the cost of prescription drugs, why he is not prepared to expand home healthcare.” Sanders suggested that Democrats bring the bill to the Senate floor for a vote to force Manchin to put his “no” vote on the record. “Let Mr. Manchin explain to the people of West Virginia why he doesn’t have the guts to stand up to powerful special interests,” he told Tapper. “If he doesn’t have the courage to do the right thing for the working families of West Virginia and America, let him vote no in front of the whole world.”

The bill is loaded with extremely popular provisions designed to shore up the “care economy” to support families from birth to death, with expanded child care assistance, universal preschool and help for people caring for aging family members. The bill set aside money for pandemic prevention and would also devote $550 billion to combatting climate change. Most of it would be paid for with higher taxes on the ultra-wealthy.

[caltrek]

Manchin Can’t Support Democrat's $2 Trillion Bill, Potentially Dooming It
December 19, 2021

https://www.courthousenews.com/manchin- ... ooming-it/

Extract:

(Associated Press via Courthouse News) Manchin's choice of words seemed to crack the door open to continued talks with Biden and top congressional Democrats over reshaping the legislation. But the West Virginia senator all but said the bill would die unless it met his demands for a smaller, less sweeping package — something that would be hard for many Democrats in the narrowly divided Congress to accept.

The bill would provide hundreds of billions of dollars to help millions of families with children by extending a more generous child tax credit, creating free preschool and bolstering child care aid. There is more than $500 billion for tax breaks and spending aimed at curbing carbon emissions, which experts consider the largest federal expenditure ever to combat climate change.

Other provisions would limit prescription drug price increases, create hearing benefits for Medicare recipients and bolster aid for the elderly, housing and job training. Nearly all of it would be paid for with higher taxes on the wealthy and large corporations.

In an unusually hardball response to a lawmaker whose vote is crucial in the 50-50 Senate, White House press secretary Jen Psaki called Manchin's announcement "a sudden and inexplicable reversal in his position" and "a breach of his commitments" to Biden and congressional Democrats. She pointedly said that Manchin, whose state is among the nation's poorest, "will have to explain" why many families will have to cope with higher health and child care costs the bill is intended to address.

Psaki said in a statement that Manchin had "in person" given Biden a written proposal last Tuesday that was "the same size and scope" of a framework for the bill that Democrats rallied behind in October. That outline had a 10-year cost of $1.85 trillion.

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Senate Powers Through Nomination Votes in Marathon Session
by Rose Wagner
December 17, 2021

https://www.courthousenews.com/senate-p ... n-session/

Introduction:

WASHINGTON (Courthouse News) — The Senate burned the midnight oil Friday as Democrats pushed for a slew of nominees to executive and judicial positions to be confirmed, but pushback from Republicans and the lack of a bipartisan deal led to gruelingly long votes and a handful of confirmations before midnight.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer had lobbied throughout the week for Republican leaders to cut a deal with his party and quickly confirm around 20 of President Joe Biden's nominees, or face late-night votes and a congressional agenda that could bleed into many senators' planned vacations.

Republican Senator Ted Cruz of Texas had indicated early in the week that he would be open to allowing the confirmation of more than a dozen of nominees to ambassadorships if Democrats would agree to a vote to sanction Russia's Nord Stream 2 oil pipeline, a policy he's been pushing for and had originally attempted to tack on to Congress' annual defense spending bill.

But hours of drawn-out votes came and went Friday without a formal bipartisan deal to expedite the process and the number of voting senators dwindled from nearly 80 lawmakers early in the day, to 70 by midnight.

Around 1 a.m., lawmakers settled on a deal to approve a package of nominees early Saturday and schedule a vote for mid-January to address the Nord Stream 2 pipeline.

[Yuli Ban]

[Yuli Ban]

People don’t understand how power works. Republicans are in the minority & are still managing to defeat Democrats because they’re ideologically driven & are engaged in a raw power struggle. Liberals keep talking about processes that will go out the window the instant GOP takes over.

The fact that Democratic policy is popular with millions more people & they also represent millions more people but still can’t manage to pass key legislation is a reflection of their failure & weakness over many years. Folks keep counting senators but missing the bigger issue.

If you can’t wrestle your policy thru in a time of crisis when you have backing of millions more people than your opponent, it’s because you either don’t really want it or you’re poorly organized. GOP managed to take “CRT” from obscurity to legislation nationwide in rapid speed.

That’s because Republicans have high levels of coordination between their top donors, their grassroots & their media universe. Because it’s all white. The white corporate Dem leadership is adversarial toward its own grassroots & keeps its base at arms length.

That’s why Dems wasted time & energy publicly criticizing “defund the police” instead of doing things like making sure media was flooded with images of working class West Virginia folks saying they need BBB. They don’t fight. But they’ve convinced so many of you to accept whatever they do.

We got wall to wall coverage of CRT. Liberals don’t even operate at that level of coordination & strategy. They allow Republicans to frame all the issues & then they position themselves as the compromise. The only time they suit up & go hard is to attack their own left flank.

And that’s bananas because in this case it was the left flank trying hardest to help Biden succeed on everything that was politically popular including lowering Rx drug prices. Centrist Dems are the ones who sank the agenda & possibly the future hopes of the entire party.
Democrats could’ve been poised to control govt for generations to come but they betrayed all the key constituencies they need for that to happen, including young people. The left flank didn’t do that, the centrists did. And Biden is making it worse by not using exec pen or podium.
Again, again again: make Manchin repeatedly take public votes against needed relief for suffering Americans and make him choke on it.

Announce no more negotiations. Take the bill up to $15 trillion and put it to a vote every day. Add a trillion to it every time it fails earmarked for West Virginia specifically. Address the nation every night telling them what Manchin and Sinema and Republicans are voting against.

This is exactly what he said about the last 5 amounts, which is how he got the "sweeping" bill down to 1.7 trillion bill in the first place. He has no credibility; stop pretending he does.

Remove his leverage. $15 trillion. No negotiations.

Just let's acknowledge that Joe Manchin is not supporting the bill until the thing that passes is no longer even recognizable—at which point Republicans will STILL call it socialist overspending and blame it for every problem that occurs every change they get.

Change the story.

Every day vote on it. Every day address the nation and explain another thing that's in it. Get high-quality producers to make engaging 15 minute video explainers about the issue and air them.

Then name everybody who voted against it, and how much they're being paid to do so.

Announce very clearly that Joe Manchin has proved himself untrustworthy as a negotiator, & therefore there will be no negotiations.

Don't make the story about procedural helplessness. Make the story about their unwillingness to do their fucking jobs.

Announce that every time the bill gets blockaded it gets bigger, and then do it. Every single day another explainer goes up about another problem and how the bill solves it. Get Tom Hanks to narrate them.

Explain that voting for Republicans in 2022 means none of this happens.
And every time—every time—read their fucking names. The Republicans blockading it, and Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema.

Explain that if any 2 of them decide to do their fucking jobs, then all these things can happen immediately.

And now it's a $20 trillion bill. No negotiations.

Call it the Do Your Fucking Jobs bill.

Keep addressing the nation. Keep making explainers, professionally produced, and air them. Flood the media with snippets that raise awareness.

Change the narrative. Tell the citizens:

Joe Manchin doesn't have power. You do.

Explain again and again exactly why Joe Manchin will not be involved in negotiations. Explain that he will be given no power to change what is in the bill. The only thing he can do to stop this daily cavalcade is to vote for it.

And now it's $21 trillion. No negotiations.

"In 2022 you can make all these things happen. Vote in overwhelming numbers for people who will do their fucking jobs and vote "yes" for the Do Your Fucking Job Bill."

"Joe Manchin doesn't have power. You do."

I mean this is just beyond parody at this point.

Stop letting him do this. Just stop. Acknowledge the reality that what Manchin is doing is not negotiating, and stop negotiations.

Make his unwillingness to do his fucking job his problem.

My point isn't that Democrats are likely to do this.

My point is, it's a total canard to suggest there aren't things they could be doing.

Stop playing the same bad hand badly. Change strategy. Shift leverage. Get creative. Use what you have, and make a new story.

What the Democratic leadership is doing is teaching obstructionists and nullifiers that their tactics are effective.

What they need to do is teach them that their tactics will carry a heavy penalty.

You do that by imposing a heavy penalty for such tactics.

This seems obvious.
One penalty that would be effective for obstructionists and nullifiers is to acknowledge them for what they are, and as a result cut them out of the decision making process.

You don't intend to work with us? OK, we'll seek alternate routes. You're out. You can't get back in.

"We won't get the bill passed that way."

We're not getting it passed this way. If you're going to fail at least fail with a powerful offense, and better to risk failure than to ensure it.

Give them nothing. Punish their tactics. Make it hot for them until they do their jobs.
Can one liberal explain to me how Biden has so little power as the President he can't fulfill a single campaign promise without Joe Manchin's approval, but Trump had so much power as the President that we were inches away from dictatorship?

A lot of folks saying it's about how Trump had a few more Senators, they definitely don't seem to realize how much can be done without Congress.

And why do Dems & media liberals constantly message against their own agenda, parroting GOP talking points on the combined cost of all the policies over 10 years, to make it sound as expensive as possible, while rarely talking about what the policies would actually do for people?

It's hard not to feel like Dems were never committed to a policy agenda in the first place, and their only real agenda is to fundraise as much as possible and maybe get elected sometimes.

Also, reminder that the Democrats had 60 votes in the Senate not too long ago, and their signature accomplishment was a health care plan designed by a right-wing think tank that penalizes people for not buying private health insurance.

You really do have to behold the genius of how Obama, his media allies, and the right-wing fake outrage machine colluded to convince liberals AND conservatives that this right-wing pro-corporate health care reform was actually very progressive and basically socialized medicine.

I mean, if that perverse obfuscation is the high point of what we can even expect from a Dems supermajority, then it's hard not to think electoralism is doomed until we literally start over with a constitution written by people who believe in democracy instead of by slave owners.
I've had almost 100 people tell me to take a civics class or that I'm "living proof of our broken education system" yet most of these smug pricks don't even have the critical thinking skills required to imagine the official story from party leadership might not be the whole truth.

Or the intellectual curiosity to look into what the party leadership's real financial interests and incentives are, or the imagination to think we deserve a better system.

Or the awareness to see that a system which only listens to the needs of corporations and the rich isn't "democratic" just because it adheres better to some 250 year old norms (and a constitution designed by slavers) in 2021 than it did under Trump.

[Yuli Ban]

[BaobabScion]

(...)

Yuli, make sure to give credit when you quote something. It's like you just quoted a whole article, and I have no clue where or who it came from.

[Yuli Ban]

That's just it: it was in itself an unsourced quote
Basically I quoted a quoted quote

[caltrek]

I think the author of the quoted quote is on to something in differentiating between centrist Democrats and the more progressive minded wing of the party. This also goes back to an unwillingness on the part of the party establishment to take on Republican incumbents, particularly in rural states. This started to change in the last election, but it was a matter of too little too late. Yes, there is a basic problem in the structure of the current system that rural states with relatively fewer voters can block initiatives otherwise supported by a majority of the voting population. Instead of just bellyaching about that situation, more resources and a more sensitive policy orientation is needed to reach those rural voters and convince them that there is something in it for them. Political resources, especially in the form of money, needs to be mobilized in the urban areas and redeployed into the rural areas. Candidates need to be developed and supported to challenge the conservatives now in place. Critical to that will be passage of federal legislation that will ensure the right to vote and eliminate the more extreme voter suppression measures being promulgated in many red states.