With Friends Like These…

[Chew Toy McCoy]

Activists launch CrowdPAC to fund potential Sinema primary challenger

Organizers say Sinema must vote to end the filibuster and back Biden or we will “replace her with someone who will.”

www.salon.com

 

[Herdfan]

Activists launch CrowdPAC to fund potential Sinema primary challenger

Organizers say Sinema must vote to end the filibuster and back Biden or we will “replace her with someone who will.”

www.salon.com

They probably need to worry more about helping Mark Kelly get reelected in 2022 vs worrying about Sinema in 2024.

 

[Chew Toy McCoy]

They probably need to worry more about helping Mark Kelly get reelected in 2022 vs worrying about Sinema in 2024.

I agree in that in 2024 we're probably going to be looking at a completely different country, and regardless of political leanings, it's probably not going to be a pretty sight to behold for most Americans.

 

[SuperMatt]

They probably need to worry more about helping Mark Kelly get reelected in 2022 vs worrying about Sinema in 2024.

Kelly isn’t a lock to win, but he is favored. As for this PAC, they aren’t really concerned with the next election in the short term. They want to let Sinema know if she doesn’t start helping the party, then she will be serving her last term representing them.

 

[Herdfan]

Kelly isn’t a lock to win, but he is favored. As for this PAC, they aren’t really concerned with the next election in the short term. They want to let Sinema know if she doesn’t start helping the party, then she will be serving her last term representing them.

But Arizona has a semi-open primary which means that even if Republicans can't cross over to vote for her, independents can. They may want to help keep her vs a super progressive candidate. I know I will probably vote for her as we plan on being in AZ by then. And will be registering as an Independent.

 

[SuperMatt]

But Arizona has a semi-open primary which means that even if Republicans can't cross over to vote for her, independents can. They may want to help keep her vs a super progressive candidate. I know I will probably vote for her as we plan on being in AZ by then. And will be registering as an Independent.

She isn’t polling well among Democrats, but is doing pretty well among independents and Republicans. The problem is, Republicans like her ok, but they are not going to pick her over a Republican in the election. History shows most of them will vote for whoever the GOP candidate is.

Her approval rating with Democrats is below 50%, with just 47% of voters in her own party happy with the job she’s doing. And while she’s still up 47-38% with Democrats, her counterpart Mark Kelly has a whopping 87-6% approval rating with Democratic voters.

Arizona ballot audit shows signs of backfiring on GOP

Independent voters oppose the controversial recounting of ballots by a wide margin.

www.politico.com

 

[Chew Toy McCoy]

But Arizona has a semi-open primary which means that even if Republicans can't cross over to vote for her, independents can. They may want to help keep her vs a super progressive candidate. I know I will probably vote for her as we plan on being in AZ by then. And will be registering as an Independent.

I could also see sane people on the right vote for her over a Trump ball licker.

You seem open to learning about alternative views, but almost complimenting your views I highly recommend the book Listen, Liberal: Or, What Ever Happened to the Party of the People? It’s written by a lefty and covers the long history of Democrats passing the Republican agenda while Democrat voters sleep right through it, passing legislation a Republican could never get away with - Bush couldn’t pass NAFTA but Clinton did, “super predator” 3 strikes legislation, deregulation of the telecom industry, Obama expanded our ME wars to 7, etc. You might walk away from it feeling less fearful of Democrat politicians when you look at their actual track record and not just hypothetical fear-mongering from right-wing media.

In different times Manchin and Sinema would have flown completely under the radar with this behavior that would be par for the course.

 

[JayMysteri0]

I think this is a reality as far as Sinema goes, since everything she's done of late seems to revolve around getting paid.

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1443222887238885384/

As far as Manchin goes, he's still reminding everyone what he's really about. Things have to revolve around him and what he wants, not what the majority wants.

Manchin offers alternative plans to Democrats' 'fiscal insanity'

The moderate Democrat laid out how he wants to work on President Joe Biden’s family plan, starting with tax reform.

www.politico.com

Joe Manchin released a statement on Wednesday afternoon panning his colleagues’ spending plans as “fiscal insanity.” Then he started to lay out how he wants to work on President Joe Biden’s family plan.

As all of Washington hangs on his every word, Manchin said he did want to clinch a reconciliation bill even as some progressives fear he’s trying to kill the whole thing. But rather than approach the effort as the multi-trillion-dollar social spending and climate change bill envisioned by his colleagues, Manchin said Democrats needed to start with gutting the 2017 Trump tax cuts and go from there.

Let's be realistic here, IF dems did the delaying efforts of meeting whatever requirement he wants, ...there will be another... and another... and another. As long as it keeps Manchin the focus.

If you have your doubts, I take you back to January of this year...

Sen. Joe Manchin calls for up to $4 trillion in infrastructure spending as Democrats are poised to control Congress

The West Virginia Democrat also indicated he could still support $2,000 stimulus checks as part of a broader relief package.

www.businessinsider.com

• Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin said lawmakers should support trillions in infrastructure spending on the eve of Biden's inauguration.
• "The most important thing? Do infrastructure," Manchin told Inside West Virginia Politics, a news program.
• Biden has introduced a $2 trillion plan to renew the nation's infrastructure and said recently he would unveil a detailed proposal next month.

Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia called for up to $4 trillion in infrastructure spending over the weekend as Democrats are on the verge of controlling Congress for at least the next two years.

"The most important thing? Do infrastructure. Spend $2, $3, $4 trillion over a 10-year period on infrastructure," he told Inside West Virginia Politics, a news program. "A lot of people have lost their jobs and those jobs aren't coming back. They need a place to work."

Manchin will likely wield large influence in a Senate which will be evenly divided between 50 Democrats and 50 Republicans. Vice President-elect Kamala Harris will cast the tie-breaking vote, giving Democrats narrow control over the chamber.

Was Manchin even MORE fiscally insane during the inauguration period when it made him look good?

 

[SuperMatt]

I think this is a reality as far as Sinema goes, since everything she's done of late seems to revolve around getting paid.

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1443222887238885384/

As far as Manchin goes, he's still reminding everyone what he's really about. Things have to revolve around him and what he wants, not what the majority wants.




Let's be realistic here, IF dems did the delaying efforts of meeting whatever requirement he wants, ...there will be another... and another... and another. As long as it keeps Manchin the focus.

If you have your doubts, I take you back to January of this year...





Was Manchin even MORE fiscally insane during the inauguration period when it made him look good?

Manchin is a jerk. He is yelling at reporters now, and trying to bully them… showing his true colors, it seems.

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1443303879815438339/

Threatening a reporter = not a good look.

Sinema and Manchin must not want any allies. Literally ANY Democrat right now could do exactly what they are doing since the majority is so thin, but they have chosen to put country ahead of self.

 

[Chew Toy McCoy]

When Trump came into office the Republican party collectively went “Wait, we can blatantly lie now? Like nowhere near reality? Kick ass!”

Now we have 2 assholes in the Democrat party telling the country “And we can now be blatantly corrupt a, care only about ourself, and attack anybody who is mad about it.”

The Democrats have a very short timeframe to pass their agenda. If they don’t it will be a disaster showing the country Democrats either don’t really care about them or are too weak to do anything for the people. And they don’t have a demigod roaming the country telling people they are awesome. People are tired of speed bumps being put in office. For the “but what can they possibly do at this point?” people, watch when the Republicans retake control and steamroll their agenda through. Take note of what they don’t give a shit about as they do it. Of course, by then it will be too late but you can at least have those “Oh!” reflection moments.

 

[JayMysteri0]

Let's be realistic here, IF dems did the delaying efforts of meeting whatever requirement he wants, ...there will be another... and another... and another. As long as it keeps Manchin the focus.

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1443370635107999750/

Why now?

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1443569932264935428/

Give the man enough time, he'll find more ways to make this all less palatable to anyone but himself & lobbyists.

 

[SuperMatt]

F you Manchin:

Manchin says he’ll support a $1.5 trillion social safety net bill, $2 trillion less than Biden’s sweeping plan. (Published 2021)

www.nytimes.com

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1443622277405413378/

Congrats, you’re the big story in the news again today. It’s all about Manchin. What an egotistical jerk.

 

[Chew Toy McCoy]

F you Manchin:

Manchin says he’ll support a $1.5 trillion social safety net bill, $2 trillion less than Biden’s sweeping plan. (Published 2021)

www.nytimes.com

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1443622277405413378/

Congrats, you’re the big story in the news again today. It’s all about Manchin. What an egotistical jerk.

Did he actually use the word entitlement without referring to himself?

 

[Chew Toy McCoy]

89% of polled voters said they probably wouldn’t vote for again if she doesn’t change her tune. She’s also currently meeting with lobbyists and donors.

 

[JayMysteri0]

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1443732470294360068/

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1443736405734215691/

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1443743038258524163/

The imagery here, pretty much sums it all up. The majority of WV who would benefit want Biden's plan, Manchin feels otherwise because...

Nice yacht.

We're now finding out that Manchin pulled out a $1.5 B price tag, although originally wanting $4 B, and not explaining what he does want would somehow fit in only $1.5B.

 

[JayMysteri0]

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1443584442094604294/

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1443773405988331522/

Amen.

 

[JayMysteri0]

...And a recap

 

[Chew Toy McCoy]

Somebody like AOC who isn’t beholden to corporations needs to go through each point of the bill they are against and point to how each is linked to their corruption. Enough with the vague suspicions. This needs to be called out directly and in detail. She’d probably even get applauded by some on the right (behind closed doors) for doing this.

At this point I fail to see how we’d be worse off if they were replaced by Republicans. There’s no difference between the illusion of control and not having it.

 

[SuperMatt]

I believe I’m seeing a cycle repeat itself. When the Republicans are in power, the fossil fuel interests and big corporations are happy because they own the GOP. When the Democrats get into power, the wealthy go into attack mode. They target a couple key Democrats, who work with the billionaire class to block any meaningful climate regulations or tax reforms or benefits for anybody making under a million bucks a year. Nothing gets done, so voters get mad and don’t show up for Democrats. Republicans get back into power and keep funneling the nation’s wealth into the pockets of the fat cats.

With the population of America becoming more concentrated in a few large states, I wonder if a Senate majority for the Democrats will go away forever. You can have about 25% of Americans be Republicans and still control the entire senate because we have so many states with very few people in them.

If we really want to move forward as a society, everything needs to be on the table. Short-term, make make DC and Puerto Rico states. Long-term, combine big empty states into fewer States, or break up states like Texas and California into multiple states. Thinking even bigger? Get rid of the Senate entirely. It’s basically the “House of Lords” - American style.

 

[lizkat]

I just resent so much the fact that these two DINOs control the entire party. Everything Democrats do has to run by their filter. Every bit of legislation has to pass the "does it make Sinema and Manchin happy?" test. Fuck Sinema and Manchin.

Anyway, rant over.

Hah, yeah, no.... rant just beginning. Fuck the media too.

In fact the Columbia Journalism Review has rounded up some commentary on the exasperating combo of Dems' usual inability to characterize their programming properly, plus the inexcusable failure of professional journalism to provide at least context if not enlightenment.

How old, bad choices weakened coverage of a crucial week in Congress

<p>This week, Congressional wrangling once again rose to the top of the news cycle. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi intended to hold a vote Monday on a bipartisan infrastructure package (known in DC parlance as the “BIF,” leading to excruciating headlines like “Damned BIF you do, damned BIF you...

www.cjr.org

As coverage of the wrangling has proceeded, media critics have made familiar complaints about it, decrying its excessive focus on procedural jargon (reconciliation!), personality clashes (the Dems are in disarray!), and price tag (three-and-a-half trillion dollars!), and insufficient focus on policy.

“The kind of media coverage we’ve been getting doesn’t really explore whether the kinds of things that are in this bill are meritorious or not,” Catherine Rampell, a columnist at the Washington Post, told CNN’s Brian Stelter over the weekend. “Instead, it’s the number.”

Yeah. the number, the number, the number.... and adjustments to the number the number the number, a couple trillion here, a trillion there.... almost sounds like real money to someone making $17k a year schlepping other people's groceries and takeout.

As well as saying nothing about the content of the second bill, the three-and-a-half-trillion headline, Rampell noted, says nothing about how it will be paid for, and is thus misleading; on Twitter, Steven W. Thrasher, a journalism professor at Northwestern University, noted that the number also says nothing about the timeframe for the spending, calling it a “catastrophic failure of US journalism and politics” that “something like Biden’s 10-year, $3.5 trillion infrastructure bill is not called a $350 billion annual bill… but the Pentagon’s budget, which will exceed $7.5 trillion over a decade, is called a $750 billion annual bill.”