Beware the Ides of March -- U.S. Politics March 2021

xposts Wow, can't believe Powell is actually trying the 'I was jokiiiing-uh!!! Gawww!!!' defense in court.

yeah, who would have thought?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dbm8ZxIy98I

i did it as a goof!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cz0LY0I5bLA

Hey! guy. as a GOOF, guy, as a goof!

Believe it when I see it but the fact that she mentioned 2024 says she realises this is a policy that wins votes

Dems say minimum wage meeting went ... surprisingly well!

Manchin seemed steadfast about $11 an hour, per attendee, but Sinema suggested that if the wage was raised to $11 now and aggressively indexed, wouldn't be far off $15 by 2024@marianne_levinehttps://t.co/C81q9iIkVn

— Burgess Everett (@burgessev) March 23, 2021

It's really cool that a bunch of millionaires get to decide whether the peasants can survive or not.

Feeling deep Mr. Choppy vibes today, sorry y'all.

no that's infuriating, Manchin at his worst there

$2 per year (or almost) indexing seems completely unrealistic... and is functionally the $15 deal Manchin is refusing.

I respectfully ask US Customs and Border Protection to stop blocking media access to their border operations. I have photographed CBP under Bush, Obama and Trump but now - zero access is granted to media. These long lens images taken from the Mexican side. @CBP #gettyimagesnews pic.twitter.com/cWa90TlfeS

— John Moore (@jbmoorephoto) March 19, 2021

This is AXIOS, of course. However:

People close to Biden tell us he’s feeling bullish on what he can accomplish, and is fully prepared to support the dashing of the Senate’s filibuster rule to allow Democrats to pass voting rights and other trophy legislation for his party.

He loves the growing narrative that he’s bolder and bigger-thinking than President Obama.

This temptation to go even bigger, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell insists, will create such a fissure between the parties that he compared it this week to "nuclear winter."
But we're told Biden won’t hesitate. Just as he passed the $1.9 trillion COVID rescue package with zero Republican votes and zero regrets, his team sees little chance he's going to be able to rewire the government in his image if he plays by the rules of bringing in at least 10 Republicans.

He won't rub their noses in it, we're told. That'll be the Biden touch to rolling the opposition — and getting that much closer to the status of latter-day FDR.
Biden's list includes: rural broadband expansion, which would be transformative for those communities ... make child tax credit permanent ... landmark legislation on climate, guns, voting.

He loves the growing narrative that he’s bolder and bigger-thinking than President Obama

OK, white dude

the same FDR that said "i invite their hatred"? i hope so

I like to play it when politics has me beat:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X41jRLpG-mM

I don't know how much they'll actually get done, but I'm glad the Democrats are thinking like that. It's basically taking the same tack McConnell has whenever he gets a chance, understanding that power is only ever provisional and you have to maximize your opportunities. There's a very good chance this is the only time this decade the Democrats will control the White House and Congress together.

For sure. Waiting for people to come around to your position is a fool's errand. Biden is the President. Pretty much this is the closest he will ever come to a mandate, almost by definition. I mean, if you're the President, and that's that still not good or reason enough to push your policies, then why even bother being President?

Fun fact

Since the 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut killed 20 first-grade students and six adults, 13 states, all controlled by Democrats, have enacted or expanded background checks for new gun purchases. Meanwhile, 14 states, all controlled by Republicans, have passed laws allowing their citizens to carry guns with no permit process at all, as the Iowa legislation would do.

once climate change really gets rolling the Democrats will never get elected again, Republican voters are a total lost cause on the subject and half the Democrats will tack hard to the right if you threaten their lifestyles.

I don't know how much they'll actually get done, but I'm glad the Democrats are thinking like that. It's basically taking the same tack McConnell has whenever he gets a chance, understanding that power is only ever provisional and you have to maximize your opportunities. There's a very good chance this is the only time this decade the Democrats will control the White House and Congress together.

it's such a no-brainer too. nearly everything the Dems want to do is broadly popular. nothing the Republicans want to do is. this recent stimulus was approved of by what...70% of Americans? and not a single Republican voted for it (not that this stopped them from taking credit for it). they've signaled time and time again that they will oppose everything Democrats do out of principle. there is no reason to even pretend to give a shit about bipartisanship at this point. pass as much as you can and let Rs take the hit for it when they try to repeal it. there's nothing to ponder over here.

_He loves the growing narrative that he’s bolder and bigger-thinking than President Obama_

OK, white dude

All that's true.

It doesn't mitigate the weirdness of that sentence.

i guess with axios, it's a toss-up where the "growing narrative" came from. you have to wonder if that came from the writer, the source, or joe biden.

Well, I can tell you my narrative grew upon reading that excerpt.

*whispers into walkie talky on shoulder*

"the narrative is still growing, confirmed*

nearly everything the Dems want to do is broadly popular.

He loves the growing narrative

tbh, I don't care if they give him a lollipop and a unicorn sticker, too. whatever works.

Ok but is it not true that there is some truth to the perception that Obama squandered his opportunities and was generally seen as more cautious than what seems to be happening now?

His approach was the result of habits developed over a couple decades of being a Black man in a majority-white political environment, and "squandered his opportunities" probably isn't the best way to summarize the "truth" of his presidency? Obama and Biden are gonna be held to different standards for "boldness". As for "bigger-thinking" well... we judge others by their actions and ourselves by our intentions, don't we. So when I see that vague phrase, I ask myself who "ourselves" and "others" are in this context.

in the USA political narratives about Black political figures will always be screwed up

the gun control stuff isn't nearly as broadly popular as it seems. people seem to like background checks, in the abstract. in a poll that phrases the question in a neutral way. but as soon as you remind them of what they're supposed to believe in (with messaging, or peer pressure, or ads, or the american inertia of never, ever changing your mind, about anything) people get back in their circles.

it is kind of hard to compare the two when they both came into office needing to fix totally different combinations of concurrent disasters caused by the previous administration. the $1.9t stimulus is targeted in a progressive way that probably wouldn't have happened in 2008, but if Obama was president now I'm sure he would've gotten behind it

Universal background checks are an issue that even with public division, you should be able to leverage economics - it’s free money for gun dealers who run the background checks (plus encourages people to come into a shop - dealers already play this role transferring guns for online shoppers) and anything that removes a reason to buy used (no paperwork) is at least marginally a good thing for gun dealers/manufacturers.

They might have to put on an angry face at first but it would be quickly forgotten and become a non-issue.

it's not practicalities that's the problem, though, at least not with background checks, right?

Angus King, a prior filibuster holdout, signaling pretty clearly he's going to ditch it if need be https://t.co/tzTcrmJYFL

— Benjy Sarlin (@BenjySarlin) March 24, 2021

why we can't control gun control

Today, after two major mass shootings in a week in Atlanta and Boulder, Colo. — and after many previous suggestions that now might be the time — Republicans and Congress as a whole have apparently given up even trying to pretend they will do anything big. The relatively rapid devolution in the debate reflects both the readily apparent realities of it and the increasing defeatism and partisanship in Washington.

And an exchange Tuesday involving Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) drove that home.

A day after the shooting in Boulder, Cruz bristled at gun restrictions proposed by Democrats and their criticisms that the “thoughts and prayers” offered by his fellow Republicans and him were insufficient.

“Every time there’s a shooting, we play this ridiculous theater where this committee gets together and proposes a bunch of laws that would do nothing to stop these murders,” Cruz said. He added: “What happens in this committee after every mass shooting is Democrats propose taking away guns from law-abiding citizens, because that’s their political agenda.”

Sen. Cynthia M. Lummis (R-Wyo.) said she has become convinced that Democrats were merely using the tragedies as an excuse to “abolish our rights.” Other Republicans quickly said expanding background checks in any way was a total nonstarter. And the No. 2 Senate Republican, John Thune (S.D.), acknowledged that there was “not big appetite among our members to do things that would appear to be addressing it but don’t actually do anything to fix the problem.” Fox News’s prime-time hosts, too, rather quickly framed the debate as an attempt at gun-grabbing.

It was a progression that typically happens over a much longer period. In the aftermath of such tragedies, Republicans will generally not weigh in at length or will express a broad desire to come together, in some form.

But in recent years, Democrats have pushed the envelope, becoming more aggressive in their quest for action, and Republicans have, in turn, become more aggressive in pushing back quickly.

Starting about five years ago, Democrats made a significant pivot from waiting to push for legislation. In 2016, then-President Barack Obama sought to flip Republicans’ allegations that Democrats were politicizing the shootings against them; he said that such shootings should be politicized, because the moment demanded action.

In the intervening years, Democrats and their allies have also increasingly pushed back on Republicans who have urged “thoughts and prayers” in the aftermath of such tragedies — the same objections that raised Cruz’s ire on Tuesday.

The result, as I wrote Tuesday, was an effective skipping forward when it comes to where this debate will eventually land.

One of the most telling aspects of the state of the debate might be the lack of talk about “red flag” laws, intended to prevent those with mental health issues from being able to have guns. This was something that even those most resistant to increased background checks have embraced in recent years, and they barely got a mention on Tuesday.

But perhaps the biggest hurdle is the resident of the White House. In 2019, there was a Republican president who some Republicans viewed as being malleable on gun restrictions. “I’m hoping in the next few days, early next week, we’ll have a breakthrough,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said at the time. Added Sen. Patrick J. Toomey (Pa.) the GOP architect of a failed 2013 effort to increase background checks: “He’s very interested. I think he’s learning about this issue.”

Donald Trump was arguably the one Republican who could have turned this debate into a bipartisan one by bringing large portions of the GOP base along with him. He even flirted with the idea that he could bring the NRA to heel. But the president who was ever concerned with his base perhaps predictably opted against supporting large-scale measures.

Today, there’s no force in the GOP who has that much authority when it comes to where we go from here. And when you combine that with the Democrats’ increasing exasperation with their GOP colleagues and push for quick action, the debate has much more rapidly gone to where it was always likely to end up.

(link: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/03/24/congress-isnt-really-pretending-it-might-pass-gun-laws-anymore/)
(sorry for WP links: i know there's a firewall for most)

The conversation is always allowed to stop with "a bunch of laws that would do nothing to stop these murders." I'd really like to see more people getting in GOP faces saying, "well then, what actions are YOU proposing?" Because they have nothing.

I know it's so ubiquitous that it almost doesn't bear mentioning, but the outright fetishization of guns and gun culture by the modern right is so weird, perverse and unsettling. The way all of them now go around talking about "2A," like it's a brand or an identity.

This temptation to go even bigger, McConnell insists, will create such a fissure between the parties...

Just as everyone was getting along so famously. Two words, bro: Merrick Garland.

Oh no they might hate us even more.

As new Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock (D) noted on the floor recently, “It is a contradiction to say we must protect minority rights in the Senate, while refusing to protect minority rights in the society.”

good line, reverend

Textbook example of one o them rhetorical devices, which one is that

everything was going fine in congress until the summer of those fucking coke parties. everyone started sleeping together and it was just fucked up by labor day

You mean... 1983?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1983_congressional_page_sex_scandal

if there's one thing COVID has done, it's made us regret the dissolution of coke parties.

"well then, what actions are YOU proposing?" Because they have nothing.

They have discovered they don't need to have any answer to mass murders so long as they can say they are protecting "law-abiding gun owners and their second amendment rights" from the horrors of gun confiscation. They never have to pay a political price for this position, but rather are lavishly rewarded. Shaming them on this issue is impossible.

makes sense because law-abiding citizens are always law-abiding forever with no possible chance for them to commit crimes in the future.

"I'd really like to see more people getting in GOP faces saying, "well then, what actions are YOU proposing?" Because they have nothing."

they'll start yelling that we should have prayer in schools.

and about the evil moral bankruptcy of the country abandoning Jesus

and lack of black fathers, and every other imaginable thing