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

is it

#onethread, #onecountry

23 dems feels like...not a lot

.@RoKhanna + 22 House Dems call on White House to ignore the parliamentarian and allow a $15 wage in the Covid bill.

A Senate expert tells me @VP has the power do this—and it'd take 60 votes to overrule her—but that it's never been done on Byrd rule.

WH has rejected this call. pic.twitter.com/dbiFonV6cR

— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) March 1, 2021

Lol, here we go again.

we could talk about trump's cpac speech instead?

Who?

yeah let's not.

I was pleased a couple of the networks didn't cut to clips of his ramblings.

I like to pretend it was just a CPAP convention

I mean, I like to think that whatever the hell small t does at this point will only drive more people out of the republican party, directly or indirectly, but who knows. Beyond that I sure as hell don’t want to think about it or read any analysis of it, because any predictions will surely be wrong, and not just wrong but also just no fun to get into the mental gymnastics of.

can we talk about how the CPAC stage was designed like an Odal Rune which is clearly designed to start the whole "liberals see Nazi symbols in everything" conversation again

no

frogbs, it was mentioned in last month's thread, but I guess we aren't supposed to talk about the American Nazi party being openly Nazi any more.

I hate giving these people the clicks, but this is...good news?. Among John McCain's worst sins was hating earmarks/pork.

earmarks were the only thing holding this dumb country together, let's earmark our way to decarbonization

So is March 4 going to result in anything? My take: Not in DC but maybe some state capitals where legislators are sitting?

West Virginia exists thanks to earmarks, about the only thing Robert Byrd did well.

I thought West Virginia existed thanks to racism and geography but idk, my ancestors only lived there for 200 years

well, those white farmers had to get something, the poor dears

West Virginia exists mostly b/c of the Civil War I thought

the ones the next county over from us got cancer and had fucked up cows thanks to Dupont but ...

West Virginia exists mostly b/c of the Civil War I thought

― a (waterface), Monday, March 1, 2021 9:10 AM (one minute ago)

yes, racism + geography

"So is March 4 going to result in anything? My take: Not in DC but maybe some state capitals where legislators are sitting?" what's on March 4th (aside from apparently being the fictional date that Trump will be revealed to still be in charge according to Qnuts)

"So is March 4 going to result in anything? My take: Not in DC but maybe some state capitals where legislators are sitting?" what's on March 4th (aside from apparently being the fictional date that Trump will be revealed to still be in charge according to Qnuts)

Yeah all my Nazi friends are posting about it

They meant March 4, 2025

White hats must lay the groundwork for the Rebirthening.

I only respected two things about my former congressional rep, who was in office about 30 years thru 2018: He was one of the few Republicans to vote against the Iraq war, which he accurately assessed as poorly planned and expensive; and he was shameless about snagging any earmarks he could get. He always said if there was money available, he’d bring home whatever he could.

Nation's going to be over way before the ides innit.
Gorlumme

Aside from the possible merits of hitting the Iran-backed militia(s?) in Syria, and aside from whatever the merits of a given such op in the Middle East, somehow even such ostensible one-and gones on part of US tend to lead to rong and unforeseen effects (and by "MIddle East" I also mean Libya and Black Hawk Down-era Mogadishu)---even aside from all that, can't help noticing the proximity of this latest to news that: yeas, report reveals that KSM ordered the hit on Khashoggi duhhh and no not much will be done to him because our relationship w SA too big 3 fail---which further reminds me of Saudi connection to 9/11 so let's pivot to Irag by cracky.

Saudi Arabia shot down some (presumably Houthi) drones or rockets near the Formula E race over the weekend, too?

Take with as many grains of salt as you need

Punchbowl News: Speaker Pelosi and House Democrats are shifting gears: Election reform, police reform, guns, immigration, a pro-workers' rights bill and possibly the Violence Against Women Act and the Equal Rights Amendment. That's all in the next two weeks.

— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) March 1, 2021

Really worried that "pro-workers' rights" bill is gonna look more like Prop 22.

Really worried that "pro-workers' rights" bill is gonna look more like Prop 22.

Can we be a little clearer on West Virginia existing because of racism?

Yes but. West Virginia noped out of Confederate Virginia in 1861, to stay in the union and work toward abolition. Arguably they were the (relatively) good guys. Appalachian white poors didn't really benefit from slave labor (as their holdings were small and the pickings slim, so they didn't really identify with the elite patrician Virginian plantation elites.

Similarly in Maryland, there were a lot of Southern sympathizers in the east (Baltimore especially). But Confederates miscalculated when they thought Appalachian, montane, western Maryland would rise to the rebel banner. It mostly didn't, with significant consequences.

A lot has happened since then, flipping the dynamics a bunch, but can we maybe apply a little perspective? thxbye

I'm reasonably certain everyone on this thread who commented on West Virginia knows American history well enough to not need that explainer?

You can always count how many comment. You can't know how many lurk. Never hurts to be clear, imo.

xp I saw recently that there’s now debate among the Q crowd of whether March 4th might be a deep state trap to lure in Patriots.

just like the successful 1/6/21 deep state trap

This long profile of Senate Majority Leader Manchin from a West Virginia paper will piss you off, but it's worth reading. He's got some good ideas (immigration, infrastructure, rural internet, guns) and some very bad ones (thinking Republicans can be reasoned with).

Manchin said he remains a core believer in the minority representation the Senate body was designed for. He said he’ll protect the legacy of Byrd, the historian who fought to preserve Senate rules and forced the body to work together. Manchin now occupies Byrd’s seat.

lol die in a fire.

James Loewen, in Lies Across America, about misleading monuments and historical markers has pointed out the the Appalachian South was largely pro-union.

After the war, the South’s successful rewriting of history meant that there are now a lot of Confederate monuments and battle flag-waving in areas that actually voted against secession and sent more soldiers to the Union Army than Confederate.

On Wikipedia, I see someone has very subtly, but pointedly, has put the vote tally for secession in the Wiki page for every county in Eastern Tennessee to drive home the point (anti-secession usually winning).

Manchin can occupy a lake of sewage

If he doesn’t stand up for the anti-democratic white supremacist institutions of America, who will?

Or, as the US Senate loves to think of itself, it's the Greatest Antidemocratic White Supremacist Deliberative Body in the World!

news that: yeas, report reveals that KSM ordered the hit on Khashoggi duhhh and no not much will be done to him because our relationship w SA too big 3 fail

remember back in October 2018, when this was bad

it still is

Re: WV and the Appalachian south, a lot of the history of abolitionism in those area has been obscured by pro-Dixie racists. There's some excellent history that's been written about it, some of which is included in this fine book co-written by a friend of mine: https://www.akpress.org/dixie-be-damned.html

It also covers a number of historical events pre- and post-Civil War that give a more rounded (and heartening) picture of the south as a place of deep resistance to white supremacist AND oligarchic hegemony.

Still supportive of filibuster/reconciliation rules, though. Biden and Harris "both respect the history of the Senate." On overriding the parliamentarian's decision: "That's not an action we intend to take."

— Jack Fitzpatrick ☘️ (@jackfitzdc) March 1, 2021

More Senate respecters have logged on

xpost yeah Southern Appalachia has a whole history of political action and activism that is among the many things written out of most people's awareness of the region. A lot of it has to do with labor action, obviously, but there's also a strong environmental and social justice lineage. (And of course, there are and have been a lot more people of color than get included in the mainstream narrative.)

This podcast is produced here in Knoxville, it just got a shout-out in the NYT. Worth a listen! (I know both of the women who produce it, they're awesome.)

https://www.blackinappalachia.org/podcast

Xp

I'm Phil Spector
I'm an elector
I'm a Senate respecter
I play my music in the sun

just ftr this is what AOC actually said about kids in cages:

This is not okay, never has been okay, never will be okay - no matter the administration or party. https://t.co/AEV7s7QQnB

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) February 23, 2021

Of course that's what she actually said about kids in cages. We all knew this and this is why table's nonsense is indistinguishable from right-wing talking points. If you don't like that characterization of your words, don't make it an easy one to make.

Where should they go? What is your policy recommendation and how would you enact it? Can you ensure their safety and well-being as part of your plan? Let’s have some damned substance here.

They should go to relatives in the US, whether those relatives are undocumented or not. They should all be given citizenship. If relatives are not able to be found here, then attempt contact with families in home country to see what the family there wishes. If that can't happen, then allow for adoption by families and communities, and KEEP TRACK OF THE KIDS so that families might be able to locate them in the future. If all else fails, put them all up in any number of vacant luxury hotels, condos, apartment buildings, or office parks. Plop down some yurts on the front lawn of the White House. Move some into the Biden residence in Delaware.

And to be clear, the bone I am picking here is not "why aren't you extending Biden the benefit of the doubt", it's "why are you turning on one of the few people in a position of power who has more consistently done the right thing in her career than not in a manner that makes you sound like Tucker Carlson"

Sorry, saying stuff on Twitter doesn't mean shit to me.

tables--why are they so hard to impress?

It would be nice to see more concrete action from AOC - and far more importantly, Bernie - on the matter, rather than disapproving tweets (which are getting ever more tedious). Block every Biden nominee until we know what the plan is, Bernie.

So, as is often the case, I will acknowledge that yes, AOC does care about the kids in cages. You got me there, DJP.

That said, posting stuff on Twitter and other social media doesn't mean much if the kids aren't out of the cages.

At a certain point, I've become exhausted by what feels like the 'mainstream left' essentially running a good optics campaign and then coming up with no results, and always with excuses...some valid, and some quite laughable.

Also, since Rob is right, I'm going to once again silence myself here for a bit.

If all else fails, put them all up in any number of vacant luxury hotels, condos, apartment buildings, or office parks.

I disagree with "if all else fails."

If you can roll out vaccines at the rate the US is doing then taking care of those kids shouldn’t be too much of a difficulty. I’m usually an increments/compromise/slow process advocate but I fail to see how it applies to actual children in prisons.

I'm pretty sure I read that the process actually is to match up unaccompanied minors with relatives but the relatives have to be vetted. How they are "vetted", I don't know, and that's probably part of the problem. I think it (currently) doesn't matter if the relatives are citizens or not.

Warning, from bourgeois pigs at CNN:

Typically, after being taken into Border Patrol custody, unaccompanied children have to be turned over within 72 hours to the Department of Health and Human Services, which is tasked with the care of migrant children.
HHS was until recently running their shelters at partial capacity to maintain Covid-19 distancing protocols, which had limited its ability to accept children within those first three days. This has forced children to wait in jail-like conditions at Border Patrol adult facilities for longer than the three-day legal limit. ...

It will take time to reunite them with a family member or release them to another appropriate sponsor. But that can take months. By the summer of 2020, the children remaining in custody had been in HHS care for nearly a year on average. The average length of stay for a child in HHS custody is currently 34 days, an administration official said.
HHS has released 131,800 children to US-based sponsors between October 2017 through January 2021. Of those, 43% were discharged to a parent or other legal guardian, 47% were sponsored by another immediate relative, and 10% were released to a distant relative or an unrelated sponsor.

Not defending it, just wanted to find an explanation of current procedure.

The Pentagon could stave off calls from Democrats to slash defense spending by developing innovative climate technology, House Armed Services Chairman Adam Smith said. https://t.co/imowAMFPJV

— Bloomberg Government (@BGOV) March 29, 2021

All bombs will be recyclable.

https://www.congress.gov/member/alexandria-ocasio-cortez/O000172?q=%7B%22sponsorship%22%3A%22sponsored%22%7D

It looks like she had several amendments on immigration vetoed in the 116th Congress and a bill against denying federal aid to people based on immigration status that was introduced. Most of the legislation she directly sponsored in the 117th Congress has been around housing and COVID relief. She is a cosponsor on this bill from Jayapal Pramila:

https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/2222?s=5&r=3

This bill from Ayanna Pressley, which she cosponsored, may also apply; the text isn't available yet:

https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/1706/text?r=20&s=5

She is also a cosponsor on this bill from Judy Chu, which also doesn't have available text yet but certainly seems pertinent based on the title:

https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/1333?s=5&r=37

She is a cosponsor of this bill from Grace Meng:

https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/1308/text?r=39&s=5

There are more, but the broader point is that she is putting forward and cosigning legislation focused on these issues. I stopped scrolling so I didn't find a specific bill closing the detention centers. I am sure one exists and that she is cosponsoring it. In terms of what her job is, she is doing what she is supposed to do. In terms of activities outside of her job, she is agitating against senators and executives who are not moving to help the people in these detention centers and is reflecting and amplifying the voices of her constituents on the matter. It would be viscerally exciting to see her pulling down walls and leading people out of the detention centers but she isn't doing that.

Green up that peace dividend, Pentagon!

yeah, they are going to unveil terrifying geoengineering technology, like sulfurous clouds and things

the war on clouds must be fought and won

This thread is a toxic cloud.

Fox anchor: AOC says we shouldn't use the term invasion to describe migrants, "WHO IS USING THOSE WORDS?"

Previously on Fox:
Host: We're seeing an all out invasion on our southern border

Guest: We are seeing an invasion

Host: We got a massive invasion

Guest: It is an invasion pic.twitter.com/It4nNuAMen

— Lis Power (@LisPower1) March 31, 2021

wonder if they will implement their incredibly popular policies...

Buried in the new Morning Consult/Politico poll is an eye-popping statistic: Voters by a 2-to-1 margin prefer a $3 trillion infrastructure bill that includes tax hikes on $400K+ and corporations over one that excludes those tax hikes.

— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) March 31, 2021

Meantime, oops.

More alleged deets on fed probe: Doc obtained by @dcexaminer states that Gaetz is “under investigation by the FBI for various public corruption and public integrity issues” and alleges that the FBI is aware of photos depicting Gaetz in a “sexual orgy with underage prostitutes.”

— Daniel Chaitin (@danielchaitin7) March 31, 2021

"sexual orgy" is way too funny a phrase to use in this context

I can’t believe this tweet is still up https://t.co/rOb8jQLIau

— Lisa Snowden (@LisaMcCray) March 31, 2021

Somehow this is all getting even STUPIDER

BREAKING: Documents suggest that Rep. Matt Gaetz’s father was told his son’s legal problems could go away if he gave $25 million to help secure the release of Iranian hostage Bob Levinson https://t.co/59oUJJWMbc

— The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) March 31, 2021

Among the many questions that now remain unanswered is why the family’s lawyer was then involved in discussions of a possible rescue plan as recently as this month hunt3r or anyone in the us of a read all this. Just let him swing, you fucks.” part of me just wants to see if the html signalling works.

It didn’t. my advice? the same.

Who could have foreseen any of this from someone who looks and carries himself like someone playing the devil on a tv show

Good description of him in today’s tabs: the villainous real-estate developer in a live action Minecraft movie

He could attach the next 7% to a different spending priority, there’s a certain amount of logic to that

― Canon in Deez (silby), Wednesday, March 31, 2021 5:48 PM (yesterday)

keep 'em coming

Some context on how Biden plans to fund his infrastructure package. pic.twitter.com/0U5zuXEhaI

— Justin Wolfers (@JustinWolfers) March 31, 2021

nb: "Lemme add an important qualifier: This graph shows statutory tax rates, while for corporate taxes, the proliferation of loopholes means that it's often more important to focus on effective rates, which are often a lot lower (and have fallen more over time)."

The move to claw back offshore corporate income seems like a big deal. Dunno if it’s worth more than going back to where we were 4 years ago but it’s not nothing.

I'm highly sceptical of anything coming of it, obv, but yes big if true.

yeah it's a big deal simply because it's something where there used to be nothing, but it's not nearly enough, like rumors of a potential goal in a football match where the other side has 200 points and gains five every quarter.

cool thanks

I've never seen the point in "believing" in politicians, for their momentary convictions must align with mine; but this desiccated piece of shit called Joe Biden seems to have seized a liberal moment with less temerity than I expected exactly a year ago.

Sure, I keep my expectations low because I didn't think Joe Biden would do it. I'm a Warren/Sanders guy, and I suspect they would've handled these legislative battles less effectively.

This is where my expectations were before the election, so he’s exceeded those!

It's been just seven months since Biden's advisor Ted Kaufman told the WSJ that the "pantry" would be "bare" in 2021 and Biden would "have limited funds to do what we’re going to do.”https://t.co/jCpengF7Ux https://t.co/D181grr7Bv

— Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) March 31, 2021

Yeah, same, I did not expect a flipped Senate. Thk u ATL.

The cartoonishly scandalous perception of Gaetz is so commonplace that sometimes it’s visible, literally, in the halls of Congress. A Hill source sent The Daily Beast a photo of a trash bin outside Gaetz's office as lawmakers cleared out their offices at the end of a recent session. At the top of the heap was an empty Costco-size box of “Bareskin” Trojan condoms.

Now lock thread

an empty Costco-size box of “Bareskin” Trojan condoms: us politics april etc

who uses condoms to masturbate

Vaccines, Infrastructure, and Kids In Cages: US Politics April 2021