A Right Wing Cannot Flap Alone, or, Donald Trump Screwed the Putsch

[A Black Falcon]

It truly has been a stunning last few weeks, hasn't it.  Far from the unending string of failures and struggles of the past year, suddenly things are going well, or at least as well as you could possibly expect currently.  Biden and the Democrats have done a whole, whole lot.

So, let's look back.

- First, a month ago or more, Joe Manchin said that he was out on negotiations with the rest of the Democrats over the remains of the Build Back Better bill.  He gave up after a year of debate, and set off a wave of anger aimed at him from Democrats.

- Following this, breaking a Republican block on the bill because they didn't want to pass it without connecting the bill to permanent enforcement of Trump's immigration rules, the Senate and House passed the Chips Act to push back against Chinese control of the microchip-building industry and make more computer chips in the US again.

- Within hours of the CHIPS Act passing, Joe Manchin and Chuck Schumer trolled Republicans HARD by announcing that they had a deal on neo-BBB.  This cooincidentally timed announcement of course had absolutely nothing to do with the Chips act passing, oh no... heh.   Cutting the original $3.5 trillion bill to about $750 billion, this new bill has the two most important components of BBB in it, a huge amount of spending on climate change and health care.  The bill has now passed the House and Senate and will soon be signed by Biden, under the name chosen by Manchin, the Inflation Reduction Act... because yes it will also reduce inflation somewhat.

- Furious Republicans, realizing that they had been completely conned, decided to ... temporarily block the PACT Act, a bill for veterans' healthcare for those suffering from cancer and such from burn pits.  What truly wonderful political sensibilities the Republican Party have... ... yeah, that didn't last long before they gave up and let it pass.

- Then the Justice Department raided Trump's Mar-a-lago resort because he had illegally kept and hidden top secret documents in random places such as a storage room off the pool.  He was likely selling these secrets to foreign powers, perhaps the Saudis.  Republicans have reacted by circling the wagons and defending their despicably evil leader.  They are now opposed to the FBI and the rule of law.  Our democracy is still deeply in trouble.

- Meanwhile, inflation is going down as are gas prices.

- Also meanwhile, Democrats' poll numbers are going up, helped by the Republicans' ending Roe v. Wade.  As DJ pointed out the "we should not ban abortion" aside managed to win in Kansas, of all places!  And it wasn't even close, it was 58-41!  Those numbers show how badly Republicans messed up by ending abortion.  They will not have the red wave they wanted this November and while all of the bills Dems have passed are great, none of them are why.  The Presidents' party almost always loses mid-term elections in this country, and all polling was showing thing heading that way again this year... until Alito and co. ended Roe, and completely changed the political calculus.  Now Democrats are leading the congressional polling average, a stunning turnaround from a few months ago.

So yeah, things are going quite well politically at the moment!  It's just amazing, I could never have hoped it'd be this many wins this quickly.  May they continue to come; we've still got to pass the Electoral Count act, after all, and to try to get the gay marriage bill through the Senate if possible.