The Thread of Democrats

[L'Emmerdeur]

John Oliver on Senator Sinema:

Sinema left D.C. to go home where she went to a high-end resort and spa and raised money from mega-donors. When it was time for her to answer real questions from voters, however, Sinema fled from Arizona State University students into the bathroom so she wouldn't have to talk to them about her opposition to the bill.

Oliver noted that some of Sinema's supporters have tried to pass off her eccentricities as an asset.

"She doesn't think in a linear process, like, 'OK, will this impact my reelection?' She just beats her own drum," [a Sinema] supporter told the New York Times this weekend. "When she leaves in the middle of something and says, 'I got stuff to do,' it's because she has plans. Sometimes she's just more interested in training for an Ironman. More power to her, man."

Oliver wasn't buying it. In fact, no one does, according to recent poll numbers of Arizona voters.

"Except, here's the thing, no! Not more power to her, man!" he said. "Because that is one of her own supporters telling us she's impossible to understand, doesn't think in a linear process and wanders off in the middle of a conversation. And that's how I would describe any cat. Those qualities in a civilian might make you a fun eccentric but when you're a senator it just makes you bad at your fucking job!"

[source]

[Tero]

I hesitate to list her as a Democrat

A video posted to Twitter on Sunday by social justice group Living United for Change in Arizona (LUCHA) shows youth organizers confronting Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ), even following her into a bathroom at one point.

Looking to talk to the Democratic representative about her opposition to the Build Back Better agenda, President Biden’s ambitious economic recovery plan widely supported by Democrats, several activists can be seen in the video waiting outside what LUCHA said was Sinema’s classroom on Arizona State University’s campus.

When Sinema emerges, they ask to speak to her. “Actually, I am heading out,” she replies, and walks into a bathroom stall.

Over the sounds of toilets flushing, an activist identified as Blanca spoke to Sinema from the entrance to the bathroom.

“We need to hold you accountable to what you told us, what you promised us that you were going to pass when we knocked on doors for you,” Blanca says in the footage. “It’s not right.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/senator-k ... es&via=rss

[L'Emmerdeur]

Yes, she's doing the noble thing and making sure that the two US Senate seats for Georgia that were stolen by the Democrats in the 2020 election do not completely cripple the Republican Party's essential roadblock on rampant socialism. 'More power to her, man.'

[L'Emmerdeur]

I'll believe it when I see it. The milquetoast Democrats have rarely been willing to actually use the power they have in an effective way.

'US Marshals May Be Called to Round Up Former Trump Aides Who Disobey Jan. 6 Subpoenas: House Investigator'

A member of the U.S. House select committee explained how Donald Trump’s allies might be rounded up and arrested if they continued to defy congressional subpoenas in the Jan. 6 investigation.

Rep. Stephanie Murphy (D-FL) appeared on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” where she called for fines or jail time for former Trump advisers who flout orders for their testimony and documents related to the insurrection, and she revealed what questions the committee had for former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and others served with the subpoenas.

“I want to know how much planning was involved, who was involved in the planning, who funded it, how they — what their intent was when they came into that day, and then what they knew as that day unfolded and the safety and security of people like the vice president and members of Congress were at risk, [and] what they did, either to respond or not respond on that occasion,” Murphy said.

If those individuals don’t show up for their scheduled testimony, Murphy said they could be taken into custody by the U.S. Marshals Service.

“We have engaged with a wide variety of law enforcement offices, including the U.S. Marshals, in order to issue the subpoenas,” Murphy said. “We will use everything, as you said, with all due respect, we will use all of the agencies and all of the tools at our disposal to issue the subpoenas and enforce them.”

[JimC]

China must be rubbing its hands in glee at the sight of their main geopolitical rival torn by internal warfare...

[Tero]

Elsewhere

No, the Democrats usually are too lead-footed to beat single-issue moral panics like CRT.

The GOP usually know what they are doing, politically.

On the Virginia race.

[Tero]

The daughter of Sen. Joe Manchin (who just killed the paid family and medical leave proposal) was head of a pharma company and got rich raising the price of EpiPens 500%. This pharma company was also by coincidence Sen. Manchin's biggest contributor.

the daughter
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heather_Bresch

[Tero]

Some colorful candidates did get elected
https://www.kios.org/post/elections-aro ... last-night

[Tero]

Back to "strong on crime" vs Democrat stuff for the poor:
CNN
While the party feuds over its vast social spending agenda, Republicans are highlighting issues that preoccupy voters more immediately, like a sluggish economy, high gas prices, expensive groceries, crime rates and concerns about the rights of parents to influence what is taught in schools. Those concerns in many cases have been exacerbated by a prolonged pandemic, which President Joe Biden declared all but over in July but that spiked over the summer in a new blow to an exhausted nation's morale.
https://www.cnn.com/2021/11/03/politics ... index.html

[L'Emmerdeur]

The Democratic Party has attained what had previously been a mythical achievement, a significant national investment in infrastructure. Meanwhile, it seems likely to me that the progressives (and the families of the US) will get screwed when it comes to what was supposed to be the other half of the so-called 'Biden agenda.' The progressives had held out for months, keeping the two bills tied together to ensure that the social welfare bill (paid family leave, childcare, etc.) would get passed along with the infrastructure bill, but caved in the end. I think that Manchin, Sinema, and the 'moderate' Democrats in the House of Representatives will renege, standing up for the Real American™ value of more money for the wealthy and fuck the proles. I would like to be proved wrong.

'Democrats Hand Joe Biden His Long-Awaited Infrastructure Win'

After a torturous series of never-ending Infrastructure Weeks, President Joe Biden and congressional Democrats took the largest step yet toward ending the political Groundhog Day.

On Friday night, House Democrats passed a $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill, 228-206, with 215 Democrats and 13 Republicans voting for the bill, and six Democrats and 200 Republicans voting no.

Since the legislation has already passed the Senate, the so-called Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act now heads to Biden’s desk for his signature, allowing the president to claim a major win as his approval ratings sag.

That victory only arrived after Biden and Democratic leaders strong-armed progressive lawmakers enough to get them to relent on what had previously been the party’s official position: that the infrastructure bill travel alongside a $1.75 trillion social spending bill titled the Build Back Better Act.

[Scot Dutchy]

More Chumocracy.

[Brian Peacock]

Dumbocracy!

[Scot Dutchy]

Amounts to the same.

[L'Emmerdeur]

Newsom's publicity stunt won't endear him to the gun fetishists, but then they despised him already, so apparently they don't factor into his political equation. If the US Supreme Court is going to permit state nullification of federal laws and authority, as they've done with the Texas anti-abortion law, then it's not a terrible idea to test whether they've also decided to be selective of which federal law they choose to allow to be thwarted.. The court has an obvious out, in that the right to privacy is not explicitly mentioned in the US Constitution while the right to bear arms is.

'Texas abortion law author reacts to California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s pledge to do the same thing with guns: "Good luck"'

California Gov. Gavin Newsom is going after gun manufacturers and he’s using Texas’ playbook to do it.

On Saturday, Newsom, a Democrat and occasional critic of Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, said he was working on a bill with the California Legislature and attorney general to allow private citizens to sue those who manufacture, distribute, or sell assault weapons or ghost gun kits.

His motivation? The U.S. Supreme Court’s Friday ruling on Texas’ restrictive abortion law.

Texas’ new abortion law, which effectively blocks the procedure after about six weeks, relies on private citizens rather than state officials to enforce it by suing other individuals and abortion providers. The law’s unique enforcement mechanism has come under intense scrutiny, raising concerns that it could be replicated to diminish other constitutional rights including gun ownership, religious freedom, same-sex marriage and freedom of speech.

The Supreme Court on Friday did not block Texas’ law, but ruled that [some, rather feeble] legal challenges to the law could continue to move forward.

State Sen. Bryan Hughes, R-Mineola, who wrote the law, was dismissive of Newsom’s effort to restrict gun rights by using Hughes’ law as a roadmap. He said he didn’t think his enforcement mechanism would be “effective against firmly established constitutional rights.”

[Joe]

I remember reading Perfectly Legal when it came out. It was a very good book.