US Politics June 2021 - "Where we're going, we don't NEED bipartisanship"

I’m left wondering if the The Adults just don’t believe that the GOP will do these things? or just not care?

Or are they secretly rooting for it bc hey, why govern (hard!) when you can point to the crazies on the other side and pluck the chickens

Joke’ll be on them when Qcongress executes them all at Gitmo.

― Van Halen dot Senate dot flashlight (Boring, Maryland), Sunday, June 6, 2021 5:44 PM (two days ago) bookmarkflaglink

i'm kind of blown away by by how opaque this seems to be for so many people. this is a crucial role democrats play for the interests of power, and it's a great situation for them to be in. they have excellent scapegoats and the roles are locked in. they're only going to be rewarded for it when republicans take office. i mean it will look like they lost but materially they won't have lost anything. the people executed will be poor, maybe tilted more toward one definition of "degenerate" over another.

its true and its good to harp on the Dems for this but ultimately America was just built to be taken over by a hostile minority party against the "big tent" moderates. give Manchin all the shit you want, dude certainly deserves it, but he comes from a heavily conservative state, one which any other Democrat would never win, the problem isn't necessarily him it's that this country gives all the power to those who represent the least amount of people and the GOP has gamed the system so that everything but judges & tax cuts would require 60 votes

xp

i'm honestly stunned that newsmax turned him down

My hope is that means there are enough rumblings about the validity of his investigation that he's even untouchable for them...

maybe we can manchin coked up and confident and then sell him on this crazy idea: he becomes the key person to help abolish the filibuster, he gets all the infrastructure shit he wants for WV, and in 4 years he gets to retire from the senate at age 76 to enjoy his immense wealth, and, uh, his family i guess

xxxpost It also reflects that the vast majority of Americans I suspect are, through dint of disposition or indoctrination, literally conservative, even the ones who are not Conservative. It's tied into the country's endemic contrarianism.

xp

i didn't even look up manchin to make sure that he's fabulously wealthy. he just is. i know he is. they all are, except for like 3

I have to remind myself Manchin voted to impeach Trump (twice!) and voted against confirming Barrett.

maybe we can get Manchin eaten by a shark and the resultant flesh used to make a new Manchin that we can program

people turn that noses up at uploading themselves into VR and flying like a bird for the rest of their conscious existence, but 1) it's not here, and 2) birds get to shit on everything

It also reflects that the vast majority of Americans I suspect are, through dint of disposition or indoctrination, literally conservative fucking idiots... It's tied into the country's endemic contrarianism.

The claim that no one but Manchin could win in WV is somewhat specious. It’s been less of a one party state than a lot of the country and even in the depths of Jim Crow liberal populists managed to win seats in the south.

Centrists like Clinton and Biden eat shit - Manchin’s schtick is more “populist” than “centrist,” which is the eternal argument for trying to run progressive populists in red states instead of troops and former CIA wet team guys who get slaughtered.

While I won't dispute that our country is overpopulated by idiots, I do think that gives cover to how awful a lot of these people are. The most strident and vocal conservatives I've encountered in my life are rarely stupid, just incredibly selfish. They don't give one shit about anyone else and want to empower any one who ensures them that they can keep every penny they have and that those pennies will never get shared with the less deserving.

But every time that’s an option they circle the wagon for the most conservative candidate they can find because they can avoid governing.

I do think that gives cover to how awful a lot of these people are. The most strident and vocal conservatives I've encountered in my life are rarely stupid, just incredibly selfish.

I consider emotional intelligence here, too. Anyone who can't see beyond themselves in such a way is a fucking idiot.

The temerity of some of these people to call themselves Christians is the most laughable part of the whole thing.

the really laughable part is that their vote counts just as much as yours or mine (more, probably)

Yeah, the veil of Christianity is disgusting and abhorrent on multiple levels, but I guess I just don't feel like hand-waving them off as stupid people who don't know any better is helpful at all. These aren't stupid people, they know exactly how to organize and who to pressure to make sure they get "their" politicians in power.

it's true, their organization skill is off the charts! particularly the weekly meetings. they are always meeting up and talking!

I just mean evangelicals in general are very good at making sure they get their candidates in the right place at the right time, but whatever.

billionaires, cops, and evangelicals must be the three most organized/ effective political groups in the U.S.

prob doesn’t hurt that a Venn diagram of their primary material objectives overlap big time

jvc, I guess that I just don't think we're talking about the same people.

Apropos of nothing in particular: I had one chance to interact with Joe Manchin in a private, off-the-record setting with a bunch of other reporters, back when he was governor of WV. (2010ish?) My very strong impression, which I remember to this day, is that he's a moron.

— David Roberts (@drvolts) June 7, 2021

moron labe

the vast majority of Americans I suspect are, through dint of disposition or indoctrination, literally conservative, even the ones who are not Conservative

The indoctrination is absolutely key. The official story always fails in its job of adequately explaining what people see, feel and experience, but until it fails catastrophically most people muddle along with it as the default, because replacing it requires too much thought and effort.

Even when ordinary unthinking people end up rejecting the rosy official story because it totally failed them, its replacement is often whatever opportunistic set of ready-made explanations first falls in their path. This is why we get stuff like QAnon.

An observation I had from working in government is that most people ARE conservative in their default settings in the sense that they like stability and they don't like change. Even if the status quo isn't great and they bitch about it, it is also known and comfortable. My experience was that it didn't matter if people were nominally liberal or conservative in, say, their presidential voting patterns — most of them were likely to be instantly suspicious of anything new or unfamiliar, whether that was parking meters where there didn't use to be (the horror!), food trucks, bike lanes, whatever.

It gave me an appreciation for the built-in advantages that conservatism has as a worldview. Change is harder, persuading people to try new things (like, universal health insurance) is hard, and while progressives will be in general more open to change, that is a matter of degree.

instantly suspicious of anything new or unfamiliar, whether that was parking meters where there didn't use to be (the horror!)

OH FUCK OFF! pic.twitter.com/1iM3oibI9X

— Laurence Fox ✌🏼🇬🇧✌🏼 (@LozzaFox) June 7, 2021

^ those traffic lights have been there for five years, and Fox received 1.9% of the vote for Mayor four weeks ago

putting the lol in lol fox

infinite infrastructure week ends its latest go-nowhere negotiation, just in time to start its next go-nowhere negotiation

Weeks-long discussions between the White House and GOP negotiators led by Sen. Capito are officially done as talks shift toward a bipartisan Senate grouphttps://t.co/X7FsmhWetb

— CNN Breaking News (@cnnbrk) June 8, 2021

🎉

Voting machines in Texas are going to default to straight ticket GOP unless you solve three riddles.

AOC on fire on Chris Hayes' show, hinting at the stories emerging in the last couple days about the Koch brothers' contributions to Joe Manchin's coffers.

Yeah, that'll really show him.

Joe’s press release is just going to say “duh.”

Maybe he’ll extend that to “what are you gonna do about it?”

In case you missed it -

The Senate tonight approved a bill w/ overwhelming bipartisan support that included $10 billion in lunar lander contracts likely to go to Jeff Bezos' company Blue Origin@TonyRomm https://t.co/mHqyYf7KEa

— Jeff Stein (@JStein_WaPo) June 9, 2021

At least we've got our priorities straight. The ironic thing is that it's never been cheaper or easier to fake the moon landing. Be funny if the real landing gets increasingly dismissed as fake, and Amazon's fake landing gets embraced as real. That seems to be the direction we're heading in.

You just know that Bezos and Musk have at least humored the idea of mounting a giant laser on the moon and making it their own Death Star, just because it would be "cool" and/or allow them to blow up the earth.

unrelated to recent events, but I'm teaching a pension class this week to students in Panama and it has unintentionally turned into a discussion on how terrible the US is economically, especially to its elderly. this wasn't even me sharing it either, this was them talking about "wow that sounds terrible".

i have no disagreed with them at any point

Yeah, my parents just got unbelievably fucked

we have been dealing with my mother in law's situation for ages now, and it's so frustrating. yes, her (deceased) husband had a business that failed (largely due to bad partners); yes, they were immigrants who didn't really understand everything financial; yes, in theory they should have 'saved'; but, they didn't, he died, and she was left with nothing. She nannied for a few years (the family kept her on way past the point where she was useful which was nice of them) until the pandemic hit; shes been ok for the past year due to the extra unemployment, but that ends in SEptember. She has spinal compression fractures and frankly can't work and is in her 70s. Her social security, which is from her husband's income, is like $1000/mo. Her rent is twice that, let alone food costs. You'd think it would be easy to get her into some kind of affordable housing, but it is impossible in california. No other benefits are coming her way. It's a massive financial drag on us (because her other two kids are pieces of shit who are not contributing a dime).

Keeping most of the populace in a state of numbed wage slavery is the whole purpose of this supposed "democracy," or so it seems.

quite honestly it's a bit ridiculous that we put so much onus on individuals to be financially 'responsible' as it's not the easiest skill to learn, and it involves forecasting things that nobody can possibly forecast in the United States due to how much shit is shouldered 100% by the individual.

Not everybody is skilled at mathematics, and of course we as a nation are poorly educated. and we tell the average individual they should have 6-9 months of monthly expenses socked away, which requires them to actually know to the penny their monthly expenses (not just the recurring, but the projected monthly expenses), and actually earn enough to fuckin' DO that. until a few years ago, I made more than enough to do that, but due to my own folks struggles and me having to help, I break even now quite often rather than add some to the savings - fortunately I was at about 6 months of savings already).

but it's like, who can forecast an unexpected $10,000 hospital bill, a totaled car that necessitates a new monthly payment you weren't expecting, a period on short term/long-term disability which results in reduced income, a cancer diagnosis that makes you have to stop working entirely and rely on disability, etc. like nobody can possibly build that into their calculations and yet all of these things will make even the most fiscally responsible person of moderate income sink like a stone.

I think this is one reason why my view towards my folks has changed since I moved in with them - it was a bitter point in my family that my parents were irresponsible and have been 'borrowing' from my brother and I for 20 years, but I've softened on this point since I've seen up close that while that was true to an extent, it was a bit unfair to put it all on them. the Great Recession fucked them just like anybody else. if they had a house that they could sell, my dad would have a part-time nurse right now, probably.

Meanwhile ... someone tell Insane Clown Posse we figured out how magnets work.

https://fox8.com/news/coronavirus/cleveland-doctor-tells-ohio-lawmakers-covid-19-vaccine-can-leave-people-magnetized-interfaced-with-5g-towers/

“I’m sure you’ve seen the pictures all over the internet of people who have had these shots and now they’re magnetized. They can put a key on their forehead. It sticks. They can put spoons and forks all over them and they can stick."

Uh no, actually I haven't, but I'm sure there are youtube videos, if only I were willing to just "do my own research."

Neanderthal OTM.

Were people this fucking stupid back in the day or was I just not paying attention?

Pres. Biden & Senate Dems should take a step back and ask themselves if playing patty-cake w GOP Senators is really worth the dismantling of people’s voting rights, setting the planet on fire, allowing massive corporations and the wealthy to not pay their fair share of taxes, etc

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) June 9, 2021