Politics The Donkey in the room...the Democrats today

Not a great day for the Dems or the Biden Administration. I come back to trying to think through a simultaneous frustration with the inability of the Democratic Party to push solidly for the progressive politics I believe in and they feature in their talking points at the same time as the reality that the Big Tent they pragmatically have endorsed to have power does include moderates like Manchin, and he has consistently told them he wouldn't endorse the spending levels in this bill.

I know that there have been a ton of actual accomplishments, very few of which are heralded very well or explained sufficiently. There is a malaise about the accomplishments and party, as it is split between pragmatic corporate power politics necessary to play and the progressive ideals that are endorsed.

The good thing about the GOP is they can be openly coaligned in their blatant endorsement of raw economic and political power structures, because it is consistent with their bullshit Trickle Down Corporate Capitalist philosophy. The Democrats are hamstrung by their need to talk about and slowly push for liberal challenge policies while they have to endorse a financial and political GOP-Lite platform to be in power.

 

All of the above are legitimate complaints, and concerns.
They also beg the question: How to improve in those areas?

Rushing drugs through the approval process sounds great in theory, but is a really bad idea in practice.

An expression comes to mind: You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink. I see a lot of Covid PSAs on TV and the internet.

 

View: https://twitter.com/meidastouch/status/1481305910458798080


The House will be voting on an updated version of the 'Freedom to Vote Act" today.

It is unlikely to get even one Republican vote.

As to why Republicans are "so terrified" of this bill, the answer is simple.

This bill promotes making voting more accessible to all eligible voters, provide greater security (both physical and cyber) for elections and holds states accountable for efforts to make it harder for some citizens to vote.

And that flies in the face of Republican efforts to politicize the electoral process and impose new restrictions on voting based on the claim of preventing voter fraud despite no evidence of widespread voter fraud in any federal election (congressional and presidential) in any election in our lifetime.

For more on Republican priorities, a new report from the 'States United Democracy Center' highlights the Republican goal of instituting one party control of elections to undermine the very foundation of the electoral process...

As one of the most challenging years in modern American history draws to a close, the emerging threat posed by efforts to subvert free and fair election administration has come into sharper focus. To put it simply, the future of fair, professional, and nonpartisan elections is on the line and the erosion of public trust in our democracy is deeply concerning.

In our first report, A Democracy Crisis in the Making: How State Legislatures are Politicizing, Criminalizing, and Interfering with Election Administration, released in April of this year, we identified 148 bills of concern in 36 states. At that time, when the full scope of the trend was still unknown, only three had been enacted into law in three states. As of December 15, 2021, there have been at least 262 bills introduced in 41 states that would interfere with election administration — and 32 of these bills have become law across 17 states.[1]...(more)​

Full Report: Democracy Crisis in the Making Report Update: 2021 Year-End Numbers

More on today's vote in the House:
House to vote on consolidated election bill Thursday, Pelosi says

 

Eliminate gerrymandering?

That's all you needed to say to explain Republican opposition.

 

View: https://twitter.com/therecount/status/1556360419211714561


It took overcoming over 18 non-stop hours of Republican obstructionism, but Senate Democrats just passed the Inflation Reduction Act.

The bill will lower health-care costs for millions of Americans through saving in Medicare prescription drugs for seniors and lower premiums on Affordable Care Act insurance premiums for working families AND it will be the biggest investment ever, $369+ billion, in programs to address climate change.

It also includes a minimum 15% corporate income tax for the largest corporations so that companies like Amazon and ExxonMobile pay their fair share of taxes AND it makes a small reduction in the federal budget deficit.

The House will vote on the bill later this week.

The bill not likely reduce inflation (a terrible name for this bill) but this is a significant achievement for Biden and Congressional Democrats, following bills like the American Recovery Act, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the CHIPS and Science Act (investment in American manufacturing of semiconductors). the PACT Act (to expand health coverage for veterans who suffered serious illness and death from toxic chemical and radiation burn pits) and the Safer Communities Act (the first major gun safety legislation in more than 25 years)

Now if only Biden and Congressional Democrats can learn how to promote these accomplishments!

 

We need programs to help everybody in general, and yes, the Democrats need to emphasize that point clearly and often.

.......
Does Manchin believe what he says, and/or does he enjoy the attention he receives as the swing voter? I can't tell from the interviews I've seen. He strikes me as not being dense but not particularly bright, and quite stubborn.

 

This new debt relief for students is going to be a pretty big deal. I don't have any debt from my master's, but my wife still has debt from her master's and her time working on her physician's assistant degree. Though she makes a lot more than me. We have been paying it down to the tune of $500 a month, but we stl had years at that rate. With this help, we may just decide to pull from savings and pay it off at the end of the year. Having 500 extra a month would really help. Hell, that's a decent car payment.

 

The Dems (Dims?) have to be careful going after NPD Trump; his base is relatively small, but its reach isn't.

Obama played the game like a gentleman...even after NPD Trump trashed him at every opportunity. I would like to see Obama more active is helping the Dems now.

I'm not sure any comments from Obama would've stopped NPD Trump from winning in 2016. The mostly negative -- and accurate -- news coverage didn't quell the 2016 Perfect Storm of Discontent.

 

I don't really blame Obama over this.
I blame a bigger thing, general erosion of education and bending economies and society away from abilities of critical, logical thinking.
By the cost of higher ed turning many away from that to simpler vocational ed funneling folks away from education that teaches history and just the basics of critical thinking to the learning of a trade, 2 years or less get you ready for a job as a tech at a dealership or a range of construction related jobs.
I've read many posts where folks laugh at higher ed debt for degrees that don't exactly translate to your paycheck numbers. I know my college didn't rev up my income numbers, I learned all that though working in actual jobs and personal curiosity.
So we end up with a lot of ppl who can diagnose and repair cars and wire houses but can't understand the way vaccines work and that science changes because we learn and change our thinking all the time, not because science is an evil entity working with big tech to enslave us with chips in vax shots.

By the time Obama was president we were (are) way down the road to intellectual poverty but when your making 75k a year at a trade you don't care or think your incapable of critical thinking on the larger issues of how a society works. How private prisons foster an economic demand for prisoners rather than a society that intrinsically has less crime.
How the economy of a society/city/state is not the same as kitchen table checkbook balancing.
How a new family immigrating to your neighborhood dosn't 'replace' you but adds to the neighborhood by bringing in more knowledge from their culture, like foods and traditions, art and music styles, literature and all that.
Knowledge of wiring a house dosn't teach me that my Christmas isn't threatened by someone else's seasonal celebration. My sexual identity isn't threatened by someone else's...etc.

Anyway, I think if Obama's thoughts were more publicized, those that were already intellectually hobbled would still dismiss all of that because of the above thoughts and, not to mention the power of the press in the hands of people like Murdock, Ales, etc. deliberately lying and pushing/feeding the fears of these folks.
Unless your actually stabbing, shooting or stealing, with blood pooling on the floor or street, do you look like a criminal ?
If your mind bogglingly wealthy like Murdock how can you be a criminal ? Your just writing words, and often just opinions on things, how can that be a crime ?
That's a lot harder to think out and explain to a class of folks who don't understand psychology or haven't read history or even allegorical story's, plays and novels inside an educational setting.

My boss is a real smart guy. He can fabricate metal really well and pretty quick, our shop makes a lot of money, but he still doesn't think the way I do in a lot of ways...the news to him is all lies, Will Smith's slapping of Chris rock was a total staged lie/theater event, the pandemic was a total fear campaign and he's not vaxed, he thinks it's possible that a furniture catalog is a proxy for child trafficking to elite adrenochrome addicts, although he's not really a Q supporter either, he dismisses the overall news as BS and dosn't pay attention.
He's not able to see the value or importance of understanding the larger world events or national politics because he's got lots of money, the business is doing well and he's paying all of his crew better than most shops I know of. He learned business from drug economy as a delinquent young guy in highschool.

So, on balance I see Obama thinking that, if he shouted his thoughts out more, he'd just accelerate a higher level of racism, heel digging and push back from the J6 styled nut jobs and maybe just wasn't sure how to play this all out enough to take more action. Triggering more Tony McVey's is a real thing and I expect that's in our future if we see some real action and consequences for trump. If he actually sees some prison time, I think things will happen and people will die in probably more than one violent event. Trump won't care one iota beyond using spin to amp up rage and profit from it, like Alex Jones, Roger Stone and on down the line of those folks who's economy is based on manipulation of those who can be manipulated for power and profit.

I was driving home behind a truck covered in stickers about...hate the police ?? call a crackhead ! Trump Won ! Let's go Brandon! etc. There was a LOT of stickers...
A day or two later a commentator on a show said in rebut to a right wing opponent/commentator...Dems don't kill cops.
So, there you go... simplified but (In my mind)
it rings true.
Another guy just now... reallocation of police funds is code for defunding.
No, it's not. Flat out, it's not. I've talked to cops face to face that agree with me.

I just think Obama knows that to understand what he was thinking these folks need about 2 years of higher ed and deprogramming work, and the talking heads that would be pushing back are way too invested in their income stream based on the disinformation pipeline.

I remember a woman taking about how she didn't see the whole trump, Republican and q thing as false because her whole family upbringing was about do what your told by family and the church and she never thought about the freedoms republicans scream about include freedom of learning and thinking for yourself and her roll was to remain in the intellectual prison of whatever authority she was under the thumb of. But she was just seeing for the first time that her family was bound in false reality and she was too. The storm didn't happen, the pedophiles didn't do a perp walk, on and on...

 

Why the US has taken so long to start moving away from fossil fuels amazes me. Just think where we might be with solar energy today if we had started back in the late '70s (our first major postwar fuel "shortage.")

BTW, since I had to look it up -- MBS are the initials (yes & no, sort of) for the crown prince of Saudi Arabia.