Tendo City

As we embark upon a new era of politics in America, where everything is great and nothing bad will ever happen again, it has been stated that the time for a new political thread on Tendo City is required. As such, I have seen to this pressing national security issue.

A new political reality.  One, it is clearer than it has ever been that the specific things that Trump cultists want are entirely morally impossible to compromise on.  We can't give them "half racism".  We can't give them half of anything they want.  What we CAN do is do our best to pursue what we actually want and try to convince these lost people to join our side.

The thread title is a good pun, but I can't say I'm a fan of having to look at Donald Trump's name every time I'm here...

I'm not in the business of hot takes that come to fruition after almost five entire years, I might change it as the whim strikes.

Besides, I'm not convinced we've seen the last of ol' pumpkin blumpkin. He still holds the GOP's balls in his tiny hands.

Also, at this point the left wing is going to need to flap alone somehow and some way.

Anyway, here's the final episode of the muppet based sitcom Dinosaurs.

Wow... both bleak and prescient.

Captain Planet told us "the power is your's", but every time we try to take that power, the generation before us says "no, you'll make us less rich".  Thanks a lot Ted Turner.

It took it to mean he litterly screwed a pooch somewhere. 

(31st January 2021, 8:34 PM)Weltall Wrote: [ -> ]I'm not in the business of hot takes that come to fruition after almost five entire years, I might change it as the whim strikes.

Besides, I'm not convinced we've seen the last of ol' pumpkin blumpkin. He still holds the GOP's balls in his tiny hands.

That's a mean thing to say about Melania.

(2nd February 2021, 3:14 PM)Weltall Wrote: [ -> ]That's a mean thing to say about Melania.

hehe

It's time for the nightly stonk.

this explains everything  Wrote:this explains everything 

I know I've said it before, but it bears repeating -- it really is kind of amazing how much better the world feels with Donald Trump banned from twitter.

They lurk in shadow now ABF.  They're all still there.  All of them, and they want to overthrow the government and plant their leader even now.

They may still be there, but it feels pretty seriously different.  They're getting banned from social media, if they were involved with the capitol riot/coup attempt they're getting arrested, the orange one is gone from twitter and is mostly being quiet, etc.  Things are seemingly returning to normal, except a "normal" where a huge percentage of the population believes more in Donald Trump than they do democracy and will continue to support candidates saying the most extreme things they can think of.  So yeah, things are definitely not normal.

For instance, if this was still 50 years ago, Trump would be about to be convicted in the currently ongoing second impeachment trial of former President Trump.  But it is 2020, so he's most likely about to be let off because the Republicans are much more interested in appeasing their insane conspiracy theory-loving base than they are in defending democracy.  So despite the extremely strong case the House managers (prosecution) have made, I can't possibly see the Senate Republicans removing Trump, even though he literally tried to have them killed by sending an armed mob to attack them and then refusing to allow any support be sent to stop the mob, after which they broke into the Senate chamber.

So, I don't think it will matter very much how lame and half-baked the no-god lawyers defending Trump are, they have this won and know it.  Our democracy is now run by partisanship more so than it is belief in democratic values. 

Still, that we did win, that the Democrats have a rare trifecta -- only the third of my life, and the other two only lasted two years each -- and that we replaced our worst, most destructive president ever with the president with the most knowledge about the operation of government of anyone who has ever held the office means that, for now, there is hope.  The Dems had better pass good things.  Biden is doing a fantastic job with executive orders, but some things need legislation...

But to return to the first subject, if this new tone on social media that has cracked down on the kind of free spread of lies and misinformation continues then that would be great for this nation.  I hope it does.  Deplatforming works.

Quote:But it is 2020, so he's most likely about to be let off because the Republicans are much more interested in appeasing their insane conspiracy theory-loving base than they are in defending democracy.

Not too many people are saying this, but I have the feeling that it's not altogether out of a sense of loyalty or even of political calculation that some of these Republicans are going to acquit. They were all there on Jan. 6, and they all heard the slavering hordes yelling HANG MIKE PENCE. Quite likely, some portion of those conservative legislatures are afraid that they, or their families, may be targeted themselves. You don't need a mob at the Capital to do it, either.

I've been very frustrated with Biden the past week.  Granted, we all knew a lot of it was coming.  He ran on a lot of conservative positions after all.  It's still... frustrating.

But as for putting the latest crop of teens in cages, again?  That's just bad optics, and there are better ways!  Yes, the kids need to be taken care of.  Why do you need to lock them in place though?  They aren't a flight risk, they aren't even being accused of anything.  They showed up, that's it!



Yes, Biden's reasoning for locking them up is far FAR better than what Trump's was, and they are no longer separating families.  These are improvements, to be sure, but it could be a LOT better.

Anyway, on the other side of the aisle, you have a lot of people complaining about Biden providing a path to citizenship.  That kinda puts the lie to the notion that they "only care about them doing it legally" doesn't it?  Literally the only reason they could object to making it easier for refugees to become legal citizens is racism.  That's the only one.

While they have certainly done worse, the Republican Party has amassed a long list of the awful things that they have said and voted for over the past few decades, but opposing Biden's 1.9 trillion aid package -- UNANIMOUSLY opposing it it seems! -- definitely should make that list.  It's just irrideemably disgusting and I very much wish that it hurts them next election...

Eight dems voted against the minimum wage increase. Hold on, I need to sit down and collect myself from the total lack of surprise that this stupid party has learned jack shit and is squandering their majority.

I'm still allowed to be angry right?  They can get this passed any time, they can just ignore that "recommendation" fellow, but they aren't.  Those 8 absolutely need to be primaried.  They are not useful for passing policy, and thus there is zero point in keeping them in power.  None at all.  Oh, you want to "keep the majority"? To what end, if you're not actually going to use it?

This is why I hate democrats.  This is the perfect example of them being their own worst enemy.  More detailed, the progressive wing is still not the majority of the party, and the Joe Manchins there don't actually believe the things they claim to.  They're republicans in sheep's clothing.  Get rid of them.

Joe Manchin is occasionally annoying, but he is most certainly not in any way, shape, or form a Republican, and he proved that without any doubt yesterday.  Seriously, how is THAT your takeaway?

When Republicans pass a major bill -- their supporters celebrate.

When Democrats pass a major bill -- their supporters yell and scream at Democratic leadership, angry that they only got 99% of what they wanted and not 100%.

Seriously, I'm as much of a pessimist as anyone but it gets really old.


But anyway, it went as I said -- every single Republican voted against the bill.  ALL of them.  And yet, the bill passed because all Democrats voted for it.  Biden did the work and got all of our caucus in line for what he wanted, a 1.9 trillion dollar economic recovery package that should cause a pretty dramatic economic boost.  Almost two trillion dollars is such a crazy amount of money, but due to COVID I'm sure it is needed.

And here we return to the start.  Am I annoyed that the minimum wage wasn't in the final bill?  Of course I am!  A minimum wage increase is badly needed.  And even more importantly, it is critically important to tie the minimum wage to inflation going forward so it never falls as far behind again as it has now.  Biden needs to keep pushing on this issue, this isn't our last chance to get it passed.  I am definitely disappointed that eight Democrats refused to overrule the parliamentarian; we should have had all Dems voting for this, it's an easy and obvious vote.  Back in the early '00s, the Republicans fired a parliamentarian who ruled against them on one of Bush's tax bills.  We should have done something similar, but instead are letting some random person who isn't a legislator or judge decide on what can go into bills, which makes little sense.  I mean, if a minimum wage increase was passed, even Joe Manchin's $11 minimum wage idea, while not enough, would be a dramatic improvement over what we have now, particularly if it was attached to inflation going forward!  We need to keep trying to pass something for the minimum wage, it's certainly important.

And yes, shame on my Senator Angus King for being one of those who refused to overrule the parliamentarian.  It's unfortunate.

However, don't let that failure, or that they slightly narrowed eligibility for the $1400 check so people who make over $80,000 won't get it, cause you to miss the forest for the trees!  This is a massive bill full of a huge number of very good things and we should be absolutely thrilled that it passed.  There's so, so much in this bill, the $1400 checks are only the beginning... it'll fix a massive Obamacare price cliff for people 60 years old or older, for instance, among many other things.  This is Joe Biden fulfilling one of his most important campaign promises.

And why did we get this bill, and not nothing?  We got it because Joe Manchin is NOT a Republican.  He likes to be annoying and get attention, but is a Democrat and voted with his party in the end.  If he was a Republican, the bill would have been defeated and we'd be getting nothing.  But because we managed to get 50 Senate seats between this past election and the January runoffs in Georgia (thank you, Donald Trump, for helping to convince some of your voters to not bother voting in the runoff, helping us to win!) the Democrats have now passed what is, currently, the most generous, largest COVID recession financial rescue package in the world.

I didn't miss the forest for the trees.  You did.

My uncle was homeless for the past 6 months.  He lost his job because of Covid.  I didn't even find out he was homeless until TODAY, because of how ashamed he was.  Numerous senate members voted AGAINST the relief bill.  Manchin is one of them.  They can all go to hell.  Screw your excuses and screw you.  We need results.

We didn't even get close to 99% and too many dems brokde rank out of obligation to corporate donors.  Stop lying, and stop bringing up how terrible the repiblicans are as if that is even a point of contention, or as if it even applies to criticizing the dem's failures.



My family is desperate.  The dems need to put up or shut up while they actually have the power to act.

Quote:Numerous senate members voted AGAINST the relief bill. 

I have no idea what you mean by this but it's entirely untrue.  Manchin voted for the bill, that's why it passed.  It passed 50-50, with all Democrats voting for and all Republicans against, with VP Harris deciding the tie.  Joe Manchin doesn't vote against the Democrats when his vote actually decides something important to our party.

Manchin and seven other Democrats did vote against including the $15 an hour minimum wage in the bill and that's unfortunate, if that's what you are referring to, but the rest of the bill passed and it's the largest financial assistance bill America has ever passed and is larger than anything any other country has passed to deal with COVID economic problems either.  It does so many great things that it's kind of insane.

(The only other significant change is that people making over $80,000 won't get the $1400 stimulus check, and I certainly think they shouldn't have put that in, but most people who really need the money make less than that anyway so it shouldn't be too big of an issue overall... frustrating for people who earn over that and really need money, I understand, but most people in this nation make less than that and those are the people who need it.)

This bill is a significant change in American priorities versus our past.  This is the opposite of Trump's tax cut bill that mostly helped the very rich; instead, this bill mostly helps the middle class and poor.   It's very heavily loaded towards helping the people who really need the help.   It's more than double the dollar value of the 2009 rescue bill Obama got passed, and inflation hasn't been anywhere near double since then.  It's a massive bill loaded with good things.  For instance, if student loan forgiveness happens, at least some of it will now be tax free.  It may cut child poverty in half.  Etc, etc.  The complaints are incredibly minor compared to the accomplishment.

And so much more should happen in the next few years, too!  The talk about changing the filibuster to a talking filibuster is extremely encouraging, I hope that happens.  Once that finally gets done the logjam will blow open and we'll get the rest of Biden's agenda through.  But even before that we should get more -- DC statehood is very possible, there will be a massive infrastructure bill (that hopefully will be climate change focused), and more...

Quote:My family is desperate.  The dems need to put up or shut up while they actually have the power to act.

I have been very lucky and have been healthy and haven't lost any income (though my anxiety as bad or worse than ever, which is saying a lot...), but a lot of people are struggling, that is true.  And that's why this bill was passed, and I'm sure that its effects will be very noticeable once the money starts being distributed.  Biden's work at getting vaccines out there quickly is also a crucial part of it, of course; he got in in a situation where there was absolutely no plan because Trump didn't care if people kept dying, and managed to right the ship, buy tens of millions of doses, and get vaccines out there for people at a quite impressive pace.  He's blown away his "100 million doses in 100 days" goal, and hit 100 million doses in like fifty days!


As for Cody's video, sure I agree that it's shameful that any Dems voted against the minimum wage hike.  That's an essential thing which we must pass somehow during the next two years.  Otherwise, the video is noteable in how little there actually is to criticize Biden for!  And that's how you can tell how good a job he's doing so far, the criticisms are mostly minor.  There's just not much there to actually criticize him for and you see that in that video.  The right wing is having that same problem, they just aren't able to get people as angry at Biden as they were at the Clintons or Obamas.  Biden is a boringly average person doing significant good things and that's great for America.

Other than the minimum wage the only other major issue he brings up is a pretty complex one, the issue of the bombing in Syria where Biden bombed an anti-American terrorist group with Iranian connections. I am very much antiwar, but I'm not an isolationist.  America should not have to use force, but retreating, saying "I don't care about what happens in the rest of the world so long as my country is safe", not using our ability to do good and make the world a better place... no, I'm not onboard with that.  We certainly need to be extremely careful in the Middle East since most things we do there end up going badly, and I am obviously very strongly opposed to war with Iran -- I really hope Biden can make a new nuclear deal with the Iranians for example, that'd be fantastic! -- but this?  Leftists griping about this attack only help America's enemies.  Biden was extremely careful and even blocked a second attack because of intel that civilians might be present.  He isn't doing the drone bombing campaigns that both Obama and Trump engaged in.  He's being very careful and trying to do the right thing, but the Syrian war is a horrible mess and just going hands off and letting Russia and co. do whatever they want there wouldn't be right, letting Vladimir Putin rule the world would not make things better, it wuold make them worse.  So far Biden seems to be balancing things pretty well there, with very limited use of force but not total disengagement, but we'll see how things go over time.  I have no idea what the solution to the war in Syria is and I doubt anyone else does either and we certainly shouldn't get involved there more, but we need to at least TRY to protect our allies in the region (in Kurdish territories mostly), if nothing else... so yeah I agree with Cody that we shouldn't start a war with Iran, but this action won't do that.

That's kind of the biggest problem with the far left foreign policy-wise -- I mean, if America retreated from the world and became more isolationist, as the far left and far right both want, how in the WORLD does that help liberalism or democracy or freedom internationally?  It would do the exact opposite, it'd mostly help autocrats like Xi and Putin!  The right and authoritarianism would benefit far more than the left would, sadly.  War must be avoided, but international engagement can't be, America can do and has done good in this world and is, I think, while certainly deeply flawed in many ways, overall leads to better things that would happen if we let China and Russia do whatever they want internationally.  I do not support war but sanctions and such can be good tools...

Joe Manchin has to go.

He's poison right to the core, a Republican effectively, and while Biden's plans aren't going as far as I would like, especially the more recent ones are actually pretty good, yet this one man stands in the way for NO good political reason.  Most of his own state are in support of these measures.  Most republican VOTERS are.  It's his DONARS that are against them, and that's why he's voting against it.  He is literally no better than a republican if he's going to vote with their party every time.  I've come to the conclusion that unless the democracts can actively whip this guy back into line, what we have isn't a 50/50 with a tie breaker, but a 49/51 with a traitor.  The D next to his name is meaningless.

Anyway, Biden gave a decent speech.  You know how I feel about fluff and feel good stuff, but when he got to the actual plans, well, that was some good stuff.  I will criticize one thing.  When he said that "democracts and republicans" voted for the stimulus to pass, that was literally untrue.  ONLY dems voted for it.  Every single republican, every last one, voted against it.  Stop pretending that bipartisanship still exists Biden!  It doesn't.  State it outright.  Say it proud.  "The democracts came together and voted on this".  Leave the republicans out of your praise, because they don't deserve any.  That'll send the message to voters, republican ones, that hey, that money in their account came from democrats and democrats alone.  It is IMPORTANT for voters to know who's actually doing things for them.  Pretending they did things is actually going to hurt you in the mid terms, so stop doing it!

Joe Manchin and Kristin Sinema are both being incredibly frustrating, I entirely agree.  But between the two of them I'd be more unhappy with Sinema, because she has no excuse -- she's from a state moving to the left, where we can reasonably expect to be very competitive in the future.  But Manchin is from a state that has zoomed to the right, and is maybe the last Democrat West Virginia will elect in a statewide election for a very long time.  Just compare his votes to WV's other Senator, a Republican.  He votes with us dramatically more often. So why are the two of them pretty much in lockstep policy-wise?  Sinema has no excuse, Mark Kelly (Arizona's other new Democratic Senator) isn't pulling this nonsense!

But Manchin?  Yeah, it's frustrating and disappointing, but I get it, he's representing a state that is now pretty far right.  He's the best we could possibly hope for from West Virgina.  I VERY badly hope that we can somehow convince him to support DC statehood, I know he's probably a no at the moment but... I'm hoping.

Oh, and Manchin may be a bit like a Republican like 30 or 40 years ago in some ways, but he is in no ways a 2020 Republican!  He voted for the giant COVID bailout package, after all.  A Republican would not have done that.  And he'll vote for more things in the future that Republicans would not support.  He just will do so after taking some things out of the bills that we really wish he wouldn't.  But we'll get at least SOME good legislation out of him, which is far more than we can say about any Republican, even if it's not all the things that we need.

On that last point though, the worst thing about that fact is that Republicans wouldn't hesitate like we are, they'd immediately blow up the rules and pass everything they wanted!  But no, Democrats always have to be a pain to deal with.  Ah well, I just hope Biden can manage to get some more good legislation through this congress, we need more than just the COVID bill out of this Congress.  We do NOT get many changes with full control of congress and the White House and Manchin and Sinema killing or delaying so much stuff that is badly needed is really unfortunate. 

I'm definitely not giving up yet, we will get at least some kind of infrastructure bill(s) and maybe Manchin and Sinema will actually allow some other good legislation through,  but yeah Biden and Schumer definitely need to work on them.  Biden knows the Senate better than anyone and I hope he can continue to take advantage of that to get stuff out of congress that other Presidents wouldn't.

Let's take a nice long look at what has changed since the last time I complained about Biden.  He's shifted left on a lot of things.  He's offering some amazing things like a guarantee to paid vacation time and sick days and is even considering the obvious thing, waving IP rights to the Covid vaccine.  I've been very impressed at him being the most left president we've had since Lindon B. Johnson.

What I've learned is I need to keep complaining about the stuff he isn't doing.  It's working!  Also, I thought it was pretty adorable to see how giddy Bernie was listening to Biden recycle some of his talking points.

Since he apparently isn't doing it right now for some reason, Joe Biden needs to legalize cannabis via executive order about two weeks before midterms in 2022 and Democrats will reap many benefits.

I can vouch for that.  My state voted FOR legalizing the hempy hemp.  In fact, most republican voters are in favor of a lot of left wing policies, obviously not all.  However, point is when that bill was put up for a vote a couple years back, they did it in confidence they could use what they felt was an inevitable "no" on it to prove "Oklahomans don't want it here".  Then the vote came back "yes".  In desperation the republican state legislature immediately passed some desperate measures to restrict what just became legal, thinks like not having stores within x miles of a church and the like.  It didn't matter.  Within a WEEK dope shops sprouted up like weed with silly names like "Dr. Green's".

Biden should do a lot of things through executive order while he still has the ability to do so.  Do things for the public, you might actually win that historically doomed midterm election democrats.   That said- at least when it comes to hemps it looks like that future's happening already state by state.

I'm hearing the rhetoric "We need a strong republican party" a lot lately.  Don't believe it.  Yes, we DO need more than one party.  That competing party doesn't have to be the republicans.  We don't need any specific party, we just need one that represents our interests.  That's it.  The name or the "prestige" of a party is irrelevent.  Let the republican party die.  Another can and should take it's place.

With how the Republicans have gone all-in on the "big lie" that Trump won the election and are moving towards kicking their most prominent member who is willing to speak out against that lie, Liz Cheney, out of her leadership position, yeah, their party is pretty much gone, they are now opposed to democracy pretty openly so long as Donald Trump is around; they prefer Trump's good graces to democracy.  I don't have anything ELSE good to say about Liz Cheney, but that one thing is worth mentioning.

I don't think the Republican Party is going anywhere, but yeah if their party collapses and gets replaced with some other party yes, that would be fine.  You just need two major, successful parties to have a functioning system.

(7th May 2021, 6:13 PM)A Black Falcon Wrote: [ -> ]With how the Republicans have gone all-in on the "big lie" that Trump won the election and are moving towards kicking their most prominent member who is willing to speak out against that lie, Liz Cheney, out of her leadership position, yeah, their party is pretty much gone, they are now opposed to democracy pretty openly so long as Donald Trump is around; they prefer Trump's good graces to democracy.  I don't have anything ELSE good to say about Liz Cheney, but that one thing is worth mentioning.

I don't think the Republican Party is going anywhere, but yeah if their party collapses and gets replaced with some other party yes, that would be fine.  You just need two major, successful parties to have a functioning system.

If there's one thing I've learned in the past 12 years, it's that two parties may be enough for the system to work... for the parties, but it is NOT enough for the system to work for the people, not close to it.  We would be vastly better off if we could realistically see parties rise and fall decade by decade.  I don't care if the democrats as a party survive so long as progressive values and those willing to push them do.  Heck, if the republicans had some kind of internal freakout and suddenly veered left in a desperate attempt to win over people like me, well, assuming they could somehow prove they meant it and were going to vote for progressive things, I'd go republican in a snap.  We need variety not for it's own sake, but to assure that parties don't become complacent and stagnate pushing for corporate greed over the people's interests.  Your Joe Machines and Kirstin Cinammons are not the exclusive sources of this kind of self centered greed in the democratic party.  It's only through pressure from a growing progressive wing within the party that we're seeing this frankly surprising leftward growth of Biden, and I am happy to see it.  Here's hoping that as time goes on we may even see him flip on medicare for all and announce he supports it, but heck what we've got already is still far more than I ever expected.  And I had reason to.  I lived through Obama's disappointment of a presidency (relative to what's needed I mean, of course he's a paragon compared to Bush and definitely compared to Trump), and frankly, that's what happens in a two party system.  They stop competing on ideals their voterbase wants and just compete on what amounts to a captive audience.  Why else would the republican party leadership be so dead set against what their OWN voterbase supports?  That makes ZERO sense in a true democracy, but it makes perfect sense if they know their base only has two options period.

Kamala Harris has utterly lost my support.

Telling asylum seekers they are breaking the law by coming here is a violation of international law.  We are beholden to international law.  The US constitution establishes that we are legally bound to all treaties we enter, and one of those treaties we've entered regards treatment of refugees.

Why is she doing this?

(6th May 2021, 5:32 PM)Dark Jaguar Wrote: [ -> ]I can vouch for that.  My state voted FOR legalizing the hempy hemp.  In fact, most republican voters are in favor of a lot of left wing policies, obviously not all.  However, point is when that bill was put up for a vote a couple years back, they did it in confidence they could use what they felt was an inevitable "no" on it to prove "Oklahomans don't want it here".  Then the vote came back "yes".  In desperation the republican state legislature immediately passed some desperate measures to restrict what just became legal, thinks like not having stores within x miles of a church and the like.  It didn't matter.  Within a WEEK dope shops sprouted up like weed with silly names like "Dr. Green's".

Biden should do a lot of things through executive order while he still has the ability to do so.  Do things for the public, you might actually win that historically doomed midterm election democrats.   That said- at least when it comes to hemps it looks like that future's happening already state by state.

It really burns me that there are so many deep red states that have gotten on board with legalization, but my deep red state doesn't even whisper about doing so. It would be great to visit Dr. Greens or Hemperor Palpatine's instead of having to buy from some skinny penis who won't return your texts and takes three days to get it to you. 

I don't own tie dye anything, I don't sit around couch locked. I don't ever listen to Phish or the Dead. It helps me feel less anxious. I function much better in general, I feel a lot more motivated and less prone to procrastinate. I become more comfortable in social environments. I'm never irresponsible with it, and no one ever knows I've smoked it unless I tell them. It has 200% changed my existence for the better, and it's just so goddamn frustrating that I can't just go to a store and get it when I need it. No one around here even seems to be negative towards it, which really just makes it worse, because it just seems like there's no impetus to make this change.

I think there's SOME dead we should be able to speak ill of.  Hitler, for example.  Oh right I can't speak ill of the dead.... something good about Hitler....  Um, Hitler... killed Hitler.  There.

Youtube Wrote:VIDEO UNAVAILABLE
This video is private.

*sad trombone*

(8th July 2021, 2:03 AM)Sacred Jellybean Wrote: [ -> ]

Youtube Wrote:VIDEO UNAVAILABLE
This video is private.

*sad trombone*

Sad trombone indeed.  Apparently there was an image from a questionable source in the original video which has been edited and replaced with a more reliable source.  The video link above has been updated to reflect that.

I know something will almost certainly eventually pass, but the amount of time they are taking on these infrastructure bills is ... a bit much.  I mean, I know it's worth the time because it's one of the few major bills certain to actually pass (unless Manchin and Sinema's refusal to actually act against the filibuster can be cracked, and sadly so far it has not been) and we can get some good stuff in the reconciliation bill, but still...

Those two get donations from rich donors representing giant corporations.  THIS is what happens when that's allowed.  It's called corruption.  He's "owned".

There is only one solution.  The two need to be whipped, political whipping of course.  Get those meetings going and start making political threats with real results if they don't fall in line.  Biden needs to PERSONALLY call them out on the air and blame them, especially Manchin, for their failings.  The democrats need to unify in the way Republicans have (and I think you know what they need to unify for- progressive policy).

Manchin just said that he supports one voting rights bill, and that everyone in both parties should support it.  I think we can still hold out a little hope that, once the Republicans filibuster said bill, maybe he'll finally be like 'we tried really hard but need to change the filibuster [perhaps to a talking one'.  I know he's repeatedly said how he doesn't want to change the filibuster, but we still haven't had that big, major filibuster of a no-question critical bill yet.  It's once we get to THAT that we'll see if he changes... and he well may, he's clearly good at politics even if his political positions are often very frustrating (and, certainly, favorable to his state's corporations and industries).

Sinema, though?  She's just being extremely obnoxious.  Who knows what she'll do.

But yeah, political whipping?  Good idea.  I think Biden is doing that, too -- he talked at length at the Senate Dems lunch or something recently.  We need these two (or one, if they end up merged) big-moneybills to pass, they are Biden's most critical bills right now and contain a whole lot of really good things.

Quote: The democrats need to unify in the way Republicans have (and I think you know what they need to unify for- progressive policy).

Republicans unify too much -- I mean, they'll fall in line behind Trump! -- but yeah, if only we could do even half of this we'd get so, SO much more done... :bummed:

Manchin said he supported a lot of things in the past year.  He changed his mind the very instant he had a private doner's meeting.  He's bought and paid for.  He doesn't actually believe in anything.  His words are wind.

It isn't useful to debate policy with him.  The only thing that'll work is consequences from his own party if he doesn't get in line.  Make no mistake, there's plenty of corruption to go around in the Democratic party, but Manchin right now is the worst.  He's effectively a Republican right now and should be treated as such.  Our technical majority is a minority so long as that man is trying to "reach across the aile" and "compromise" away everything we're trying to accomplish.

Jim Clyburn, the man who won SC for Biden, has went and stabbed Biden in the back.  The negotiated down 3.5T is now "the ceiling", open to negotiate even lower.  Ridiculous.  This is how we lose the mid terms.

Yeah, the slow chipping away of the reconciliation bill is definitely not waht we need; Democratic trifects are incredibly rare and we have a massive list of things that deseprately need to happen, particularly on climate.  We MUST spend a lot on that, as soon as possible.

However, as bad as that is, that could still go either way, it's too early to tell as they continue working on the bill(s).   I'm more upset right now about the press and their war on the Biden administration.  The press seems to have decided that because Biden withdrew from Afghanistan it is now time to open up the floodgates against hi.  They clearly want the Republicans back in powe, either because they are Republicans or because Trump was far better for their ratings than Biden is and they don't care in the slightest about anything else.  Either way, it's disgusting and really sad and frustrating to see.  Sure, the withdrawl could have gone better, but it also could have gone far worse.  But their issue isn't really about the initially cahotic withdrawl, it's about that he did it at all. 

And as I said in the other thread I made, as much as I was conflicted about whether we should withdraw or not before it happened, now that we have I think it was clearly the right thing to do.  Biden has apparently questioned whether we should continue the war, despite that the Afghan government we supported was a corrupt bunch of criminals and that the war was unwinnable, since early in the Obama administration.  Back then Obama overruled him and kept the war going, but in retrospect Biden was clearly right.

This guy gets it.



If you make the argument that you can't argue for "wokeness" (or socialist plans, or environmental conservation), then you are useless.  I won't vote for you, because in the end it doesn't make any difference if you win or lose, the same result happens.  A D or an R winning is irrelevant.  What matters is policy, every single time.

Either you fight for what matters, or you are effectively a conservative and I will take that into consideration when voting season rolls around.  That is all.

I'm keeping this image.

We're so, so close, Democratic Party!  You can do it, Build Back Better is almost passed, just get it over the finish line already... I DO think it will pass, it's just taking way too long.  It passing the House and the bipartisan infrastructure bill fully passing were both quite great moments but this is the last step of getting Biden's economic agenda passed and ... yeah, I think it's going to happen.

Also, that Biden actually managed to get a BIPARTISAN infrastructure passed, now, with the extreme partisanship we now have, is honestly a pretty exceptional job of congressional work.  I honestly probably didn't think he would manage to do it!  I mean, some Republicans... actually supported it?  They didn't just stonewall it unilaterally like they always did to Obama?  And it passed with support from both parties?  And it's actually a really good bill that does a lot of good things, too?  It's kind of crazy, but it's all true!   Biden being white obviously helps a lot (for their racism), but still, it's kind of amazing it actually passed.  Biden being so skilled at understanding congress clearly is a massive advantage.  He has more practical knowledge of the Senate than almost anyone, and it shows.

I don't even care any more...  They've gutted it to such an extent that the bad (corporations legally owning public infrastructure) is starting to outweigh the good.

Passing bills requires compromise.  It's worth it for significant amounts of money being spent on climate change alone, and there's a lot more good stuff in both bills as well.  It's nowhere remotely near as much climate change spending as we NEED, things are going to get really bad, but anything we do now slightly reduces how bad it'll get in the future so it's quite essential to do.

There is no "compromise" with them, haven't you learned that?  This whole thing has been a joke and I'm convinced at this point that as a result of not getting anything done, the dems are going to end up losing the house and the senate next year.

And now it's looking like they are giving up on even this gutted version of the original bill.