Biden / Harris Focused Discussion

[Benggaul]

Pot, Kettle

Guess you haven't been paying to the constant criticism Dems have gotten from other Dems here. Unsurprising.

[Draco-Onis]

And House Republicans should reject any attempts to pass both bills simultaneously, so good on them for it. No, seriously, they suck ass so much of the time that it's important to make distinctions when it's proper. And it's so easy for them to sit pretty here, since the other side is writing their own plans and blaming everyone but themselves when their coalition can't muster the votes to pass it through.

They don't support the one McConnell does that's why Pelosi needs every democratic vote what part of that is hard for you to understand? This is the bill republicans voted for in the Senate yet Kevin McCarthy is not supporting it in the house. I don't know how much more I can dumb it down for you, house republicans are supposed to do their jobs.

If it's Pelosi's fault then why aren't house republicans saying they would vote yes but Pelosi is stopping them, they flat out said no even before the bill got to the house. I refuse to believe you are this dumb I spelled it out for you but you refuse to discuss the obvious lazy Qanon filled elephant in the house doing nothing.

Hint: If this is all shit the country loves, and it's only the representatives that vote against their interests, then here's an easy way to get their votes recorded

Hint that's not how our system works and that's a criticism on the system not a specific party bigger hint republicans take credit for things they vote against. I already tried to discuss with you but you can't seem to comprehend anything above DEM BAD REPUBLICAN GUD.

[Levelfive]

Same as before. The Democrats knew they could pass it without a single House Republican vote, so didn't invite House Republicans in to discuss compromises. Turns out, Pelosi oversold her coalition strength and had to go back to the drawing board.

But Republicans only exist to clean up Democrat messes, apparently.

She's right to doubt it, considering how much her party is considering it linked to the massive spending bill. But she isn't bringing it to the floor for an actual vote, so don't go around saying that's Republicans fault. They never had to put their money where their mouth was (Hint: If this is all shit the country loves, and it's only the representatives that vote against their interests, then here's an easy way to get their votes recorded)

McConnell negotiated in good faith, and progressives yanked the carpet from beneath Senate Republicans by going back for a monster bill after compromising down on the infrastructure bill. In case you forgot, Biden celebrated the bipartisan deal before reneging and declaring that he wanted both bills to pass simultaneously. So your problem here is the timeline.

The first part, LOL, and the second part "McConnell negotiated in good faith" LOLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL. The rest is either deliberate revisionism (you know, lying) or plain ignorance / lack of curiosity as to the facts:

"Here’s one of those things that drive me to distraction but I at least enjoy flagging to everyone’s attention when it’s so egregious. Mitch McConnell is now claiming Republicans have somehow been hoodwinked, double-crossed, done dirty by Democrats springing ‘linkage’ on them: Basically, that the White House and the Democratic caucus will support the bipartisan mini-infrastructure bill as long as they can put the rest of their plan in a reconciliation bill.

Then I noticed an AP reporter, apparently new to the White House beat, flagged a new AP story with this: “This is the catch for the WH on the infrastructure deal right now: Senators who were part of the bipartisan group were never told of such an explicit linking of the two packages, the two people familiar with the discussions said.”

The article itself, by Lisa Mascaro, manages to be even more credulous.

'Livid and “blindsided” over President Joe Biden’s refusal to sign a bipartisan infrastructure deal without passage of his broader priorities, Republican senators Friday were frantically considering options as the future of the sweeping compromise appeared in doubt.'

The pressing question here is why the Associated Press has insisted on keeping its reporters locked in sensory deprivation chambers for all of June. Linkage, as discussed above, has been an explicit condition for Democrats for a couple weeks and stated constantly and publicly. What’s more, linkage has nothing to do with Republicans. Lindsey Graham squealed, “no deal by extortion.” But Democrats aren’t asking for any Republican votes. So how is Lindsey being extorted? Linkage is all about Democrats participation in a reconciliation package. So who’s being extorted?

Indeed, as DC reporter Edward-Isaac Dovere reminded everyone, none other than Mitch McConnell, Roy Blunt, Portman, Cassidy and probably every other Republican has been explicitly discussing their assumption that this is a linked two track process for weeks. On June 15th, McConnell said, “we are anticipating at some point getting a reconciliation bill. I guess what we will find out soon is whether there’s an additional bipartisan effort to address the subject that a lot of us would like to address.”

Then there’s this tweet from three days ago …

Garrett Haake
@GarrettHaake
"On infrastructure, Schumer says he expects the parallel tracks to continue into July, when he hopes to see votes on a bipartisan hard infrastructure bill AND a Dem-only reconciliation bill containing other priorities."
2:23 PM · Jun 22, 2021·Twitter for iPhone

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog...y#more-1379073

In other words, it was ALWAYS a two track deal, openly, publicly. Biden didn't "renege" on anything, despite all the crocodile tears to the contrary. And as noted above, Republicans have no part of reconciliation anyway so what are they whining about? They're whining about the same thing Sinema's whining about--not being able to jam up Democrats the way they'd hoped, by passing infrastructure and then banking on conservative Democrats blowing up reconciliation, which contains most of Biden's agenda (and they would have gotten away with it, too, if it weren't for those meddling Squads). "How dare you prevent me from screwing you!"

Too bad House Republicans didn't whip votes for the minibill, though--that would have put Pelosi and "the Squad" in a really tough spot.

[Daelak]

Complaining? I’m revealing what that means for other people obsessed about Manchin and Sinema. They actually aren’t a problem for clear thinkers on what a 50-50 Senate means. I don’t mind if both fail due to political ineptitude and a disunited caucus in the House. Republicans are under no obligation to rescue a bill that’s being used as leverage to pass another bill through reconciliation.

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If we’re the United States of dense metros and the coasts, then it isn’t half the country. If we’re the United States, then my apologies, but not enough states are behind this project. Half the country as half the states that make up this country.

You say “disfunction and impasse,” but it sounds a lot like “when I don’t get what I want because voters reject it, that’s a problem of the system and not my message.”

Then the ludicrous comparison to human rights speaks to your inability to stay on subject. Why care about the needs of small states to not be bypassed and forgotten in the national legislature, when that means urban progressives can’t force the rest of the country to conform to their moral dictums? File this under why passionate progressives are really arguing for a national divorce where cities like LA can be one-stop shops for the needs of many states.

States are a fiction. A relic of the 18th and 19th century. The real, quantifiable, and logical approach to achieving maximum enfranchisement and civic engagement is through the house of representatives. Specifically through the method that the US Census Bureau uses to analyze our population via Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs). They base it off population density, and every 10 years, at all levels of government, determine a host of disbursements, policies, grants, and studies based upon these calculations.

Abolish the senate, have a unicameral legislature through the house, whose districts are based upon a confluence of the MSAs as well as the constitutionally-mandated lower bound of one representative per 30,000 people. No more magnified, oversized representations of fictitious boundary lines in the country, but real, quantifiable metrics to determine the dynamic sizing of a HoR district in the US.

Your ideology hides behind the appearance of popular appeal and hero worship of the status quo at the expense of liberty and rights of other people.

[Milchshake]

TIL A friend got a mailer confirming that Kamala is secret socialist!



I was going to take a break from politics this year. But now my project is making "Karen" Lambert lose. The GOP are just irredeemable nazis at every level.

Majority of King County Council denounces Kathy Lambert campaign mailer as racist

[Edge-]

Isn't it funny how these kinds of mailers and memes always happen to "coincidentally" feature minorities/people of color/women as the evil folks?

[Endus]

TIL A friend got a mailer confirming that Kamala is secret socialist!



I was going to take a break from politics this year. But now my project is making "Karen" Lambert lose. The GOP are just irredeemable nazis at every level.

Majority of King County Council denounces Kathy Lambert campaign mailer as racist

Just gonna vaguely gesture towards my signature.

Any time a Republican brings up "socialism", you can safely assume that they're talking out their asses and don't have anything worth saying.

[Hollycakes]

What's the kicker for me is it looks like my 7 year old cousin made it.
Like it's really similar to the dumb shit he shows me.
Notice how no good artists are right wing ever lol
Not even a simple graphic design job.
Everyone's like: make what?
Nope.
Whoever designed that in PS needs an eye exam.
It hurts to look at and not for the obvious reasons.

[Kaleredar]

TIL A friend got a mailer confirming that Kamala is secret socialist!



I was going to take a break from politics this year. But now my project is making "Karen" Lambert lose. The GOP are just irredeemable nazis at every level.

Majority of King County Council denounces Kathy Lambert campaign mailer as racist

This was pretty much the exact kind of mailer that was sent out in Florida to provoke people leading up to the 2020 election, just with Biden in place of Perry.

[Paranoid Android]

AT&T executives played a key role in the birth of far-right conspiracy channel One America News, according to court documents reviewed by CNN. https://t.co/MuAskXb8yN

https://twitter.com/CNN/status/14459...UGzzBPMJA&s=19

The court documents were first reported by Reuters on Wednesday in an in-depth story detailing how AT&T, which is also the parent company of CNN, "helped build" the channel.

The Reuters story said that, in addition to playing a pivotal role in its founding, AT&T remains a crucial revenue stream for the network today. The outlet cited sworn testimony in 2020 from an OAN accountant who said 90% of the channel's revenue is from AT&T-owned platforms.

Well, just as any shit corporation,AT&T saw money in hated and fear.

Since then, AT&T has been a crucial source of funds flowing into OAN, providing tens of millions of dollars in revenue, court records show. Ninety percent of OAN’s revenue came from a contract with AT&T-owned television platforms, including satellite broadcaster DirecTV, according to 2020 sworn testimony by an OAN accountant.

https://www.reuters.com/investigates...neamerica-att/

[Kaleredar]

But Republicans only exist to clean up Democrat messes, apparently.

That's pretty rich, considering the democrats are having to try and fight tooth and nail to clean up the republicans messing up, and continuing to mess up, the COVID response.

And unlike whatever nonsensical quibble you have about democrats messing up... COVID has killed 600,000, going on 700,000 people.

[Very Tired]

Quick questions about the getting rid of filibuster because I'm seeing it discussed as a way to raise the debt ceiling, and I don't want to start my own thread.

Can Democrats even get rid of the filibuster without Republican support? I'd imagine they would be filibustering the filibuster repeal. If democrats can't I'm not sure why it's even being talk about other than wishful thinking.

Assuming they can get rid of the filibuster, people are saying it'll screw them over in the long run if Republicans take over again. But couldn't the democrats just put the filibuster back into place before midterms?

[Masark]

Can Democrats even get rid of the filibuster without Republican support? I'd imagine they would be filibustering the filibuster repeal.

Assuming they can get rid of the filibuster, people are saying it'll screw them over in the long run if Republicans take over again. But couldn't the democrats just put the filibuster back into place before midterms?

No. The filibuster is an artifact of the Senate rules (Rule XXII, specifically), which are established by a simple majority vote and are not themselves subject to filibustering.

And yes, they could change the rules back to allowing filibusters, but then the Republicans could undo that change with their own simple majority vote.

[PhaelixWW]

No. The filibuster is an artifact of the Senate rules (Rule XXII, specifically), which are established by a simple majority vote and are not themselves subject to filibustering.

And yes, they could change the rules back to allowing filibusters, but then the Republicans could undo that change with their own simple majority vote.

Getting rid of a rule like this is done via a procedural move referred to as "the nuclear option".

[Levelfive]

Quick questions about the getting rid of filibuster because I'm seeing it discussed as a way to raise the debt ceiling, and I don't want to start my own thread.

Can Democrats even get rid of the filibuster without Republican support? I'd imagine they would be filibustering the filibuster repeal. If democrats can't I'm not sure why it's even being talk about other than wishful thinking.

Assuming they can get rid of the filibuster, people are saying it'll screw them over in the long run if Republicans take over again. But couldn't the democrats just put the filibuster back into place before midterms?

It's a rules change--whoever has the majority makes the rules. McConnell could have gotten rid of it any time he had the majority, including the last session (instead he just lifted it occasionally at his convenience), so it's worth looking at why he doesn't want to, and in fact reportedly--take that as you will--appears to have caved on the debt ceiling on fears Manchinema might have accepted a carve out. I have my doubts about all of that, but w/e. No filibuster is good for Democrats because Democrats actually have a policy agenda and want to pass stuff, most of which is broadly popular; no filibuster is bad for Republicans because they don't have a policy agenda besides transferring the nation's wealth to the already rich, they don't like being on the hook for legislating, and repealing stuff that's popular isn't all that popular. McConnell subcontracts "legislating" to the courts he stuffed to the gills with incompetent partisans through The Federalist Society pipeline, and that seems to be going pretty well for him. Badly for most of the rest of us, but then that's the point of not being on the hook for it (and making it hard to undo).

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That's pretty rich, considering the democrats are having to try and fight tooth and nail to clean up the republicans messing up, and continuing to mess up, the COVID response.

And unlike whatever nonsensical quibble you have about democrats messing up... COVID has killed 600,000, going on 700,000 people.

And you know he can't be talking about the economy under Democrats vs Republicans.

[Smitzelplix]

Oh yeah, but when something close to half the country doesn’t agree with the assessment, don’t expect to ram through the legislation you want. There’s only so much cajoling that works after you call moderate Dems corporate sellouts and Republicans fascists, racists, and sexists.

Don’t whine about lack of compromise, that’s ludicrous with the current stances. Just try to win outright majorities next election cycle, and primary congressmen/senators that you think can be replaced with more ideologically aligned representatives. And it might be Sinema, AZ sometimes swings that way, but it definitely isn’t Manchin. West Virginia isn’t where you pick up a vote for a 3.5 tril bill.

Republicans are really not that close to being half the country, Democrats are.

49% identify as Democrat

40% identify as Republican

11% identify as Independent

Gallup poll shows largest increase in Democratic Party affiliation in a decade

Also with a large part of the Republicans still not taking Covid seriously and dying at greater numbers than Democrats because of it I imagine that 40% has dropped some since this article was made.

[TexasRules]

Republicans are really not that close to being half the country, Democrats are.

49% identify as Democrat

40% identify as Republican

11% identify as Independent

Gallup poll shows largest increase in Democratic Party affiliation in a decade

Also with a large part of the Republicans still not taking Covid seriously and dying at greater numbers than Democrats because of it I imagine that 40% has dropped some since this article was made.

If you like polls, here's a new one for you:
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/...ll/6024631001/

President Joe Biden's approval rating hits new low in latest Quinnipiac poll

As his agenda flounders on Capitol Hill, President Joe Biden’s popularity among everyday Americans is taking a beating.

Biden’s approval rating has dropped to 38%, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday. That’s down from 42% three weeks ago and from a high of 50% in mid-February.

“Battered on trust, doubted on leadership, and challenged on overall competency, President Biden is being hammered on all sides as his approval rating continues its downward slide to a number not seen since the tough scrutiny of the Trump administration,” Quinnipiac University polling analyst Tim Malloy said in a prepared statement.

Respondents panned his handling of the Afghanistan withdrawal, with only 28% saying the withdrawal was the right move. He had negative approval for his handling of the military, taxes, foreign policy, immigration and the Mexican border, according to the poll.

Biden also hit low points in the latest poll on two key questions: his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and the economy. About half of those polled said they disapprove of the way he has handled the coronavirus, and 55% disapprove of his handling of the economy.

[PhaelixWW]

If you like polls, here's a new one for you:
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/...ll/6024631001/

President Joe Biden's approval rating hits new low in latest Quinnipiac poll

Wow. Cherry-pick much? Maybe try a polling aggregator, instead: RCP has him at 44.3% and 538 has him at 44.4%.

Also, he's still doing better than TFG.




This is where you say "I'm not a Trump supporter!" and then someone else inevitably links the proof that you supported Trump. Just trying to save us a few steps in this dance.

[Edge-]

My favorite part about the Afghanistan topic is that, yet again, it was one of the ticking time bombs left by a Republican president that exploded under a Democratic president who didn't have full control over what their predecessor did. It's almost like clockwork that this happens, Republican presidents leave ticking time bombs due to bad policy and choices, Democrats deal with the fallout and get wrongfully blamed for it.

[PhaelixWW]

My favorite part about the Afghanistan topic is that, yet again, it was one of the ticking time bombs left by a Republican president that exploded under a Democratic president who didn't have full control over what their predecessor did. It's almost like clockwork that this happens, Republican presidents leave ticking time bombs due to bad policy and choices, Democrats deal with the fallout and get wrongfully blamed for it.

I mean, if you look at the reasons for the lower approval, they're almost all things that will continue to get better from here on out. As time goes on, people will be more glad that we're out of Afghanistan and not want to go back. Also, COVID will decline and the economy will recover.

And more than likely, Biden's approval will go up.