Direct checks.
Enhanced unemployment insurance.
Assistance for state and local governments.
Funding for testing and the vaccine.
Aid to schools and small businesses.
All of these are in the American Rescue Plan.
We will pass the bold COVID response Americans need.
— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) March 5, 2021
STIMULUS Update: Morning has arrived in Washington and Senate is still at it with votes on the bill. Vote-a-rama began 20 hours ago https://t.co/wKPrtw8nzN via @bpolitics
— Erik Wasson (@elwasson) March 6, 2021
Jagoffs continue to dick around, episode [infinity]:
The Senate voting process on President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion stimulus package continues after the first amendment to the bill set a record for the longest vote in Senate history, dragging on for nearly 12 hours as Democrats tried to keep their caucus united.
The Senate is working its way through a raft of Republican amendments with no end in sight. Senators have already rejected Republican attempts to cut state and local funding, redirect Amtrak funding, end funding for minority farmers and stop grants for non-profit entities. The amendment process began after 11 a.m. on Friday.
The chamber voted to include the deal Democrats reached within their own ranks to extend until Sept. 6 the $300 weekly federal supplement for jobless benefits.
Majority Leader Chuck Schumer pledged the Senate will “power through” the arduous final process of getting Biden’s first signature piece of legislation passed. The House will need to vote on the Senate’s version, with Democratic leaders pledging final passage by March 14, when current supplemental jobless benefits expire…
The House-passed bill would have provided $400 in federal weekly benefits above state benefits through August. Manchin, Delaware’s Tom Carper and other moderates objected to that. Carper led a Biden-backed effort to keep the current level of $300 per week but extend it through Oct. 4. That is when Manchin again forced a change, holding up Senate action for nearly 12 hours, until he effected a cutoff of benefits on Sept. 6.
The moves came even as seven Democrats and Independent Angus King of Maine stunned the Senate by voting against allowing a doubling of the minimum wage to be added to the bill.
Action in Congress eventually tends to spark an equal and opposite reaction. House progressives will have to decide whether to accept the changes made by moderate Democrats and pass the bill or block it, setting up more negotiations.
Ohio Democrat Sherrod Brown suggested they do the former.
“This bill is so extraordinary what we’re able to do, and if some things change at the margins they change at the margin,” he said.
Democrats want to help you. Repubs want to kill you…
.@PressSec on lessons learned from the '09 Obama economic stimulus plan: "Any of my colleagues at the time would say that we didn't do enough to explain to the American people what the benefits were of the rescue plan."
— Joey Garrison (@joeygarrison) March 5, 2021
debbie
I don’t support smaller, but I like that benefits will be available for a longer time. This ain’t ending any time soon.
p.a.
More Democrats.
THEN better Democrats.
ETA: SMH. How many of these moderate “keep the patient alive but don’t help him thrive” Dems are coming up in ’22, because I will cut them slack; reelection exigencies. But if they aren’t on a ballot until later, 😡
OzarkHillbilly
Blech.
Derelict
Manchin back home, explaining hiss vote to his constituents:
“As a West Virginian, I know that we are a poor but proud people. And as your representative in the United States Senate, I am proud to say that I worked very hard–very, very hard indeed–to keep all of you poor so that you could continue to be proud!”
Jay
Second.
Jay
@Jay:
crap,……. 5th again.
Quinerly
Vaccine update!
JoJo and I took the new to us van out for a roadtrip yesterday. First extended drive in it and first time I have driven over 15 miles since getting back from 4 Corners area mid March, 2020. Took a chance on scoring some left over vax in a rural community Nat Guard mass vax event, near the Iowa border. 4 hrs away. (see controversy about our MO Gov directing vax to rural Trump country areas and left over, wasted vax and a shortage in the metropolitan areas). Left prepared to wait all day, in a field, in the middle of nowhere hoping for a shot out of a vial of opened J&J at the end (my tier essentially is healthy general population under 65… At this rate I’m thinking June when that tier opens up).
Got there… JoJo had a lot to say to the National Guard (and I’m glad the ones he was directing his stream of consciousness to didn’t speak Spanish. 😈)
Talked to the head health department chick… Explained my situation and that I wasn’t trying to jump ahead of the current tier, prepared to wait all day for a leftover that would otherwise be thrown out. She said they had been allocated by the state 2000 doses of J&J. 120 people had signed up for it (a few more had originally signed up but canceled because it was J&J)
Eventually got my shot! Was assured there would be very little waste and all the leftover unprepped J&J could be diverted somewhere else.
So feeling a little cocky and relieved, we drove about 45 mins west to a beautiful state park on a lake. Copped a squat at a “Canine Cabin” for the night. And might stay another night. The J&J hit me about 3 hrs after taking it. A wave of extreme tiredness and dizziness. Then over. Feel great this AM. So relieved. Pulled over after getting it and just sobbed. Big emotional release. Hope everyone is doing well with their shots and/or are on the road to getting them when eligible or by this left overs means.
p.a.
@Derelict: Pride tastes delicious simmered in a tomato broth. Mixed with molasses makes a nice temporary seal for leaky roofs.🥳
Jay
@OzarkHillbilly:
good morning,…….
Geminid
Ohio Senator Sherrod is very pragmatic progressive. In 2018, Brown won reelection in red Ohio by over 300,000 votes. The result tends to prove that a majority of voters will back this approach. The result also shows that Democrats can win Rob Portman’s seat next year.
Will they? That will take hard work, and a primary that is competitive but not destructive
John S.
Manchin is a preening jackass. Sinema is a clueless mean girl.
But they’re both still infinitely better than every fucking Republican.
Jay
@Quinerly: yay!!!!!!!
Baud
@John S.:
There will always be someone who is the worst member of our caucus.
mrmoshpotato
OT – FIGHT! A thread.
Lapassionara
@Quinerly: way to go, Quinerly. So happy for you.
OzarkHillbilly
@Jay: What’s good about it?
Quinerly
@Lapassionara: thanks! Did you go thru extraordinary means to get yours?
mali muso
@Quinerly: That’s wonderful news! The J&J vaccine is rolling out here as well and should be a real game changer. Now sit down and treat yourself to something special. :)
Baud
Manchin is still better than Lieberman, which is something given that CT is a blue state and WV is a red state.
Joe Falco
@Baud: We just happen to have two so far who are competing for that title on the Senate side. Could’ve been more, but for now, it seems to be only two at the moment.
Baud
@Quinerly: 👍
MagdaInBlack
@Quinerly: Congratulations on a successful road trip. And TY for ” copped a squat.” Made me laugh 😋
Ken
@mrmoshpotato: If only Jack Vance had lived to see this. He made a career from writing about societies with unusual, seemingly-fantastic practices.
Jay
@OzarkHillbilly:
right side of the dirt, small victories.
Geminid
@John S.: There would not be a bill for these two reprobates to mess with, had they not hung together with their 50 member caucus to make Chuck Schumer Majority Leader, with the power to bring legislation to the Senate floor.
NotMax
Puzzling.
Running on a regular basis here as a local cut-in ad on MSNBC is this spot. Who they’re trying to reach and how it is intended to be effective in influencing folks’ choice of banking totally escapes me. Strongly suspect there’s a jumbo platter of funny brownies in the board room.
Mousebumples
Random Senate horse trading theory – Biden and his team persuaded a few Senators (eg both the ones from Delaware, for example) to join Manchin in voting against $15 minimum wage, to give him some cover. Ideally, in exchange for something more. (eg changes to the filibuster, to reinstate the talking filibuster?)
Can’t prove anything, and i have no inside knowledge. But looking at the unexpected No votes…. I see some red state Democrats (Tester) and a bunch of New England senators…
OzarkHillbilly
@Jay: One side of the dirt is full of trials, tribulations, and suffering. The other side is peace and quiet. Kinda depends on how one looks at it.
MagdaInBlack
@NotMax: Definitely brownies. Lots of them.
randy khan
I’m hoping someone is keeping track of the Republican amendments so we can get a tally of the stupidest ones when this is all over.
MattF
@Quinerly: I’m scheduled for a J&J shot next Friday. NYT has some good info on them; bottom line is the number of severe covid cases 28 days after the shot: ZERO.
MomSense
So just like in 2009, the real negotiations are with the Dem Senators from conservative states. At least this time the Democratic controlled Senate supports the use of the reconciliation process. Otherwise, Biden would have to try and work with 10 Republican assholes and we would be looking at the best option being Collins’ POS bill.
Jay
@OzarkHillbilly:
one side of the dirt is existing,
the other side is just living in other peoples memories.
cintibud
Get my second shot today! I am a little unsettled in hearing that where I am getting the shot is “the largest mass vaccination event in the region!” 5000 people, which is very good, will be vaccinated. Just hope it’s not a cluster.
BTW – the news is reporting that there are still appointments available for tomorrow (Sunday) if you are able to get to Cincinnati. Must be eligible but otherwise know of no restrictions. It’s at the Duke energy center downtown Cincy
JMG
@Mousebumples: Not just to give Manchin cover, although that’s part of it. It’s to be in position to share credit for whenever the minimum wage hike Manchin will vote for passes. Don’t want it to be known as the Joe Manchin minimum wage hike.
p.a.
From twitter, info unsourced:
Net worth of the 8 Democrats who just voted down $15 minimum wage:
Chris Coons: $10.13 million
Angus King: $9.49 million
Joe Manchin: $7.62 million
Tom Carper: $5.73 million
Jeanne Shaheen: $3.82 million
Jon Tester: $3.67 million
Maggie Hassan: $3.47 million
Krysten Sinema: N/A
frosty
@Quinerly: Woohoo!! I just booked vaccine appointments next week at Walmart in Hattiesburg, Mississippi! They’re supposed to have a residency requirement but I didn’t get kicked out for having a PA address. We’ll see!
I figure I can play the ancestry card – my grandma was born there, my g-grandma donated land for their town’s first school, and we’re descended from one of the first settlers.
I’ll keep my ACLU card in my wallet though.
raven
@Quinerly: I wrote earlier that my 63 yr old bride was on a waitlist at the health department (where she worked for 25+ years) and they texted her last night that she could get it this morning because they had leftover appointments.
raven
@frosty: They couldn’t spell ACLU anyway!
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Jay: Not even!
@Quinerly: I’m so happy for you! Isn’t it a relief? Between that the former guy being former, it’s like you can finally breathe again.
MomSense
@Mousebumples:
King has always been shit on employment, wages, and banking/student loans. He voted against paycheck fairness FFS. I also had a conversation with him when he, Manchin and a few others increased the interest payments in student loan debt because “we couldn’t keep kicking the can down the road” at which point I told him that I and my kids would have preferred he did exactly that. He looked pretty shocked that I said that and probably wondered why I had been invited to a fancy fundraiser if I worried about such plebeian things as monthly student loan payments.
Baud
@Mousebumples:
The DE votes were weird. I like your theory. Hopefully whatever goodwill there is will become clear to us later.
Cheryl Rofer
@Quinerly: I’m having a complex and long-lasting emotional reaction to being vaccinated.
I think we don’t truly understand how traumatized we all are.
MomSense
@Cheryl Rofer:
I’m just hoping the Republican led states don’t fuck it up for all of us by creating a ton of new variants with their anti-mask experiment.
Baud
@mrmoshpotato:
First rule of Whale Moan Room. You do not moan about Whale Moan Room.
MomSense
@Quinerly:
💕💕
zhena gogolia
@Jay:
@OzarkHillbilly:
To quote Woody Allen if I’m still allowed to do that, “Jeez! And you wonder why you don’t get invited to more parties!”
O. Felix Culpa
Ms. O just got an appointment for her first shot! Notification came via text message and email. The system seems to work. I’m too *young* and healthy to be on the priority list, but it’s exciting to see the numbers of vaccinated and about-to-be vaccinated growing.
JMG
I understand that many people do not like shots and are basically afraid of any doctor’s visit. I have the latter to some extent myself. But I keep reading all these stories about vaccine hesitancy, and heard Gov. Baker talking about it on TV when the overwhelming public sentiment here is “we want to get vaccinated and we can’t yet.” There’s a disconnect here. How can you worry about people who won’t get the shots while you’re still unable to get shots to all the folks who want them?
Jay
@Cheryl Rofer:
srrry,
yurp,
won’t be getting the vaccine for months, still gotta deal with hundreds of people every day.
weird thing, Putting a mask on for work, no big deal.
Putting a mask on to go shopping. Veclempt.
I know my store, my peeps. Other places, not so much.
OzarkHillbilly
@Jay: Yeah, and today my existence will be underneath my sons truck helping him replace the rear end a mechanic screwed up after his shop decided they had “spent enough money trying to fix” what they had screwed up.
rikyrah
Good Morning Everyone 😊😊😊
O. Felix Culpa
@rikyrah: Good morning!
rikyrah
@O. Felix Culpa:
Yesss 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾
Mousebumples
@JMG: fair point. And i think i heard that Manchin wants to index the minimum wage to inflation or something? In the long run, that may end up being better. (eg so we’re not stuck at $15 for another decade)
@MomSense: &
@Baud: yeah, some of those votes made sense but some were very surprising. Biden is good at the Senate negotiations, so we’ll see if that’s what happened. 🤞
Geminid
@MomSense: It is a good that you let King know your opinion. The Senate really is a club, with an innate sense of class priviledge. And where I live the Democratic party leaders sometimes seem to be club of the upper-middle class, not in touch with the lives of average people.
WereBear
@Ken: If he were working today it would be a festival :)
Love his stuff.
Baud
@rikyrah: Good morning.
rikyrah
@Quinerly:
YEAH 😊
MomSense
@OzarkHillbilly:
You’re a good dad. Today I’m driving up to see my oldest kid for a Covid safe walk outside and visit to a deli for yummy sammiches.
OzarkHillbilly
@zhena gogolia: I think the reason I no longer get invited to parties has more to do with the fact that I don’t go to parties than anything else.
germy
Joe Manchin Claims West Virginians Too Deficient In Character, Grit To Deserve $15 Minimum Wage
(Onion headline)
SiubhanDuinne
@NotMax:
Saw your brilliant “Matter Patter” parody hours after you posted it the other night, but thought it was just inspired. Thank you!
Here’s Martyn Green doing the entire first verse on one breath.
https://youtu.be/VzT09-xnS_U
Skepticat
I only hope that the Democrats will hammer this home very loudly and broadly. Liberals tend to be poor at getting a message across even when it’s a superior message.
MomSense
@Geminid:
I think part of it is that organizations like churches and political parties that rely on volunteer support have fewer active volunteers, especially in leadership, who are not financially well off. It costs money to hire babysitters to attend meetings and manage leadership responsibilities. In rural states it requires reliable transportation and gas money. Leadership in volunteer organizations is increasingly affluent and affluent retirees in good health.
raven
@OzarkHillbilly: Did you get a pick and pull somewhere?
MomSense
@Mousebumples:
I doubt it. The city of Portland Maine had referenda questions on the November ballot calling for 15 minimum wage and hazard pay for essential workers during Covid. They passed overwhelmingly. Then all the businesses started calling the mayor and city councilors to complain. They met right away and postponed both. This is a very liberal town, but business interests still rule.
Baud
@Mousebumples:
I agree that indexing would be a game changer. But you have to start with a good baseline.
Baud
@MomSense:
TBH, if it’s a genuine postponement, it may not be the worst thing given what Covid has done to small businesses. But I don’t know the details. Even in the House bill, the $15 wage would have been phased in.
Geminid
@MomSense: I sometimes think of the Democratic Charlottesville City Council member who told my friends that it was great to hear about someone who works at the hospital moving into the Fifeville neighborhood, across the tracks from the hospital (Debbie is a nurse). My friends were taken aback. They knew that plenty of their African American neighbors had worked at the hospital for years. But these were nurse’s aids, orderlies and janitors, not the doctors and nurses who lived in the councilwoman’s nice north Charlottesville neighborhood.
OzarkHillbilly
@raven: Bought it from St. James Auto and Truck Parts. They’ve got a good operation where they break vehicles down of their most used parts and then warehouse them. I’ve bought a number of parts there over the years, everything from transmissions to body parts. This rear end has 140K on it. My son got it for $600.
MomSense
@Baud:
Gradual raise by 2024
JMG
One thing to remember about Congress is that to a certain extent all members function as owners of a small business, with the vast majority of the work done by mostly young, all poorly paid staffers while the member spends his or her time mostly begging rich people for money and scheming to get his/her mug on TV back home. Many of them, not necessarily sorted by ideology either, are abusive bosses in a small workplace where employees have no recourse at all. This situation is bad for proposals like minimum wage increases, because members, even the good bosses, naturally absorb elements of the small business owner (our nation’s most reactionary demographic) mentality.
zhena gogolia
@Geminid:
I’ve just started reading a book by Amber Ruffin and her sister, You’ll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey, and I think every white person in the country should read it. It conveys the experience of an average middle-class Black person in the “heartland,” it’s hilarious, and it’s totally eye-opening. I can’t read any of these ponderous “white fragility” books, but this one is incredibly good. (Caveat: I’ve only read the first 30 pages or so.)
https://www.amazon.com/Youll-Never-Believe-Happened-Lacey-ebook/dp/B08F5167XZ
raven
@OzarkHillbilly: Good deal, I had mine rebuilt about 8 years ago and they did a great job. The only problem was I had this weird reverse shift pattern on my saginaw and they fixed it without asking me! What the truck?
Suzanne
@Cheryl Rofer:
Absolutely right.
I’ve gotten the first shot, and I definitely feel the lifting of a weight. But until the Spawns can be vaccinated, I don’t think I’ll be able to be okay.
Kropacetic
They’ll likely improve it from its current baseline. To what? Who can be sure? But the indexing is huge and the baseline will remain adjustable.
Cameron
@Cheryl Rofer: My GF had a similar reaction after her first shot. Difference was night and day. Hope I get the same sensation. I think you’re right, though; it’s going to be a long time getting over this.
Spinoza Is My Co-pilot
@Jay: You and OzarkHillbilly are both right, of course.
Wife and I both got our second Pfizer shots last week, so yay. AZ doing a good job with vaccinating, have the age cohort for sign-up down to 55, family members and friends who are teachers are all vaccinated, signing up on-line is easy to do, the logistics of getting the shot at the sites set up are well-organized and run.
Kyrsten Sinema, though… After volunteering and donating to her 3 House runs and then her ’18 Senate campaign, I’m done defending her. Called her office, sent her a snail mail letter (polite but firm with both), don’t think either will make the slightest difference on her filibuster stance (that’s the important thing, the $15 min wage was never getting through on this Covid relief bill — though of course it was ridiculously unnecessary and just plain mean for her to do that bizarre and theatrical thumbs down).
raven
@OzarkHillbilly: In the summer of 78 I ran and “Adventure Playground” where we gave kids tools and materials and let them do whatever they wanted . I didn’t give input unless they asked and I spent weeks talking the rearend out of this Fairlane. You can see one of the forts they built in the background.
germy
That’s excellent news. And I’m glad Biden gave his support to all unions, as well.
Michael Cain
@Joe Falco:
Wait until the Senate takes up HR1. I think people are going to be seriously disappointed by the number of Democrats who oppose forcing their states to make large changes to the voting system.
Jinchi
@p.a.:
I won’t. They are going out of their way to oppose massively popular policies. The $15 minimum wage is out because Manchin and Sinema demanded it be taken out. The reduction in unemployment benefits is out because Manchin demanded it be removed. No Republicans came on board in exchange so it doesn’t even get the bipartisanship stamp of approval.
They will not gain a single vote in for this next election. Sinema might well have gained herself a primary challenge after her obnoxious dance on the floor.These would not be issues at all if these moderate Dems hadn’t made them issues in the first place.
There is no political calculus where this was a good idea for themselves or the party as a whole.
germy
@Spinoza Is My Co-pilot:
But she brought cake!
What a journey. She started as a Green, writing letters to the editor complaining about the evils of capitalism. Then in ’14 supporting an increase to the minimum wage as a Democrat. And now… this.
Kropacetic
How many amendments are the Republicans offering? Ooh! Let’s see if we can find one that actually helps most Americans. I call it the needle in the haystack game.
Edmund Dantes
@Joe Falco: shaheen was part of this with Manchin. She was quoted in original articles. But she’s kept her mouth shut since. Let him take all the heat.
Subcommandante Yakbreath
@Ken: QFT.
Although I get the impression that in his later years his politics skewed right.
OzarkHillbilly
@raven: And an $80 rebate if he brings in his old one. He’s trying to decide if he should mine it for parts or not. I think not. To start with, he can’t say for sure exactly what got fucked up, just knows that it has a really bad vibration. I suspect it’s the pinion gear, but…
MagdaInBlack
@raven: I love everything about that 😊
Ken
So how many times did you accidentally downshift from third into reverse before you learned the new pattern?
(I think Donald Westlake used that as a metaphor for life’s hard blows; something like “driving down the road at 60 mph when you accidentally downshift into reverse and catapult your engine block through your hood”.)
Ohio Mom
cintibud:
Thanks for this info about mass vaccines in downtown Cincinnati. We don’t have a TV anymore so I miss a lot of the local news.
Ohio Family has all its shots in process but there are a handful of people in my circles who I suspect might not know where to start, and I’ve texted them about this fabulous opportunity.
I keep thinking back to when my mother hauled toddlers me and my brother to wait on a long line that snaked around the Bronx Board of Health building for our first polio vaccine-laced sugar cubes. I am appreciating that she must have felt the way we do now about our Covid jabs.
Kropacetic
It’s also worth noting that two Democrats will be the face of the shitheadedness because the Republicans are being shitheads as a bloc, while our two Ds are showboating for
the love of theminor positive mentions by Fox anchors or something.Geminid
@zhena gogolia: My friends are white, but have ties in Charlottesville’s Black community. They adopted and raised two African American kids (one a niece by blood), and in her free bicycle repair practice Debbie has befriended many neighborhood kids who are now young adults. They are familiar with the hostile climate Charlottesville’s black community still faces, and the relative indifference of the city’s new white residents to that community. They are also lesbians, which I think gives them an outsider’s point of view on matters of racism as well as patriarchy.
Gvg
@MomSense: My mother is such a volunteer, however when COVID hit her church tried out zoom meetings for volunteer committee meetings and some of the elderly members expressed delight. Quote “we no longer have to get in the car and drive to a meeting”. My dad the antisocial overheard, and went and bought zoom stock.
zoom type products may over time allow more volunteering from a wider selection of people. After corona it will be more of a mix of in person and zoom but people who were comfortable in the ways they knew, had to try different things and some of them really liked certain things.
raven
@OzarkHillbilly: I looked at all the vids for rebuilding tranny’s and differentials and it’s way to complex for me. Take the 80 and run.
OzarkHillbilly
@raven: Kids and tools, that’s a dangerous combination.
raven
@Ken: Never, I put the floor shifter in it in 86 and drove it all this years without incident. It was actually cool as shit because first was straight up left, second back right and third up right. You could really slam 1st to 2nd pulling instead of pushing.
catclub
I have read Dante’s Divine Comedy. And one thing it does is go over the seven deadly sins. The first one is pride. All others stem from that. I think the medievals were right in this regard.
OzarkHillbilly
@raven: Yeah, I had to replace an axle once and the discs could come in handy but everything in the differential is “fuhgedaboudit” territory.
raven
@OzarkHillbilly: That was the conventional thinking but the theory, and it held true for us, was that kids are a lot smarter than we think. The worst thing that happened all summer was this girl pointed a spray can of paint at her face instead of at the object!
Immanentize
When you see a supposed ally fail:
raven
@OzarkHillbilly: That’s the conventional wisdom but we had few problems.
The first planned playground of this type, the Emdrup Junk Playground, opened in Emdrup, Denmark, in 1943. In 1948, an adventure playground opened in Camberwell, England. The term “junk playground” is a calque from the Danish term skrammellegeplads. Early examples of adventure playgrounds in the UK were known as “junk playgrounds”, “waste material playgrounds”, or “bomb-site adventure playgrounds”.[4][5] The term “adventure playground” was first adopted in the United Kingdom to describe waste material playgrounds “in an effort to make the ‘junk’ playground concept more palatable to local authorities”.[6]
The architect Simon Nicholson numbered among the advantages of the adventure playground, “the relationship between experiment and play, community involvement, the catalytic value of play leaders, and indeed the whole concept of a free society in miniature.'”[7] Essential in this for Nicholson was the concept of ‘loose parts’: “In any environment, both the degree of inventiveness and creativity, and the possibility of discovery, are directly proportional to the number and kind of variables in it.”[8][9] In a playground context loose parts would include:[10]
catclub
@Ken:
We have a 5 speed and a six speed. On the 5 speed reverse is where
6th is on the six. These are 2005 and 2009 cars. I have heard there is now an interlock which blocks the 5th to reverse shift at high speed.
But I have not tested to see if it is there.
Immanentize
@raven: Isn’t the switched gear shift pattern due to the placement of the tranny gears? Like yours was originally flipped?
raven
Fucking bullshit moderation
Omnes Omnibus
@Ken:
That’s what a reverse lockout is for.
Immanentize
@Ken: The only thing flying out of the car if you could do that would be you through the windshield.
Ksmiami
@MomSense: I’m in Texas- I think that cake is already baked because freedumb
raven
@Immanentize: No, it was the clearance of the shifter arm. The floor on a column shifter has a small hump and a floor shifter is much higher allowing for the arms to clear. Most of it had to do with my ineptitude, I made it work but it wasn’t the way it should have been. I think the truck repair dudes just knew how to do it better than I did. I recently put new bushings on it and it clears fine.
Kropacetic
@Ksmiami: Texas has taken the first step to cancelling the vaccines.
catclub
Unlike the salt of the earth GOP, which is so deeply in touch with the working class that they know sending money from the government would spoil it.
raven
@Omnes Omnibus: Not on the three speed saginaw in my truck, there ain’t one.
Ksmiami
@Gvg: zoom really needs to get into the virtual meeting space. That’s the next evolution
Immanentize
@OzarkHillbilly: I always wanted to start a “Victorian Science” summer school for tweens. Everyone would wear leather aprons and big goggly safety glasses and we would do all the chemical experiments Gilbert’s allowed in the early sixties.
There would be really smelly things and explosions. Complete steam punk experience in science!!
But, obviously, no sane company would insure that plan.
catclub
with that safety equipment, give every kid an oxy-acetylene torch.
What could go wrong?
Immanentize
@Ksmiami:
I am writing angry/concerned texts to my son, the Immp, in Houston. Luckily he is not a dope, he wants to live, and his school is keeping all safety protocols in place on threat of expulsion.
Geminid
@catclub: Oh, the Republican party is far worse. But do I think there is an upper middle class ethos within Democratic party elites that sometimes does not serve the party well.
raven
@Immanentize: When wee tried to put an Adventure Playground in the underprivileged part of town we were told “we have enough junk up here”!
WaterGirl
@raven: I released the first one and deleted the duplicate.
Immanentize
@raven: That’s cool. I gotta say, I kinda miss the three on a tree in my old dodge truck.
Or the torqueflite push button transmission in the ’63 Dart I had in Texas
Quinerly
@frosty: I took my new van! Love it! It’s going to be perfect for JoJo and me. I also thought it best to take it because it has no bumper stickers on it. My Escape has a big “Not a Republican” sticker and “Liberals Treat Dogs Like People, Conservatives Treat People Like Dogs” sticker. I know, I know… I’m known for being subtle. Good luck to you. I assume you are getting the one shot J&J?
Baud
@Geminid:
I agree, but it’s also a racial problem. Working class white people are more likely to be Republican, so to the extent the Dems draw white leaders, they are more likely to come from middle or upper classes and be college educated.
Immanentize
@Ksmiami: At my Uni we have two cool versions of on line meeting tools. One is a 360 camera so the whole conference table can be seen remotely and the other one is a little studio where one or two sit and the software creates a 3d conference “room” with all the remote users.
Nobody ever used them.
raven
@Immanentize: It’s just so hard to find those damn bushings for the linkage. Of course I love my Hurst with the Our Lady of Guadalupe gearshift knob!
Suzanne
@Spinoza Is My Co-pilot: I think I mentioned to you that one of my friends back in AZ is one of the people in charge of setting up the vaccination sites with the Maricopa County HD. She is so awesome and just an absolute rock star.
Sinema is as disappointing as I promised she would be.
Quinerly
@raven: great news! Just seeing this. Back from a little hike with JoJo. Thousand Hills SP is quite lovely.
Quinerly
@Dorothy A. Winsor: 💚
Immanentize
@raven: Everytime you bring up that shifter, I get envy. I know just where to get one in San Antonio if I ever get back there….
ETA This place has Loteria card shifters too. I thought El Borracho might not be a good idea….
germy
@Immanentize:
Sinema usually outspends any challengers to her office. I suspect her big donors oppose any increase to the minimum wage. And that’s that.
M31
@Immanentize: oh yeah, I remember reading some late 19th-C books on ‘fun things to do and build with your kids’ and it was just amazing.
A lot of benzine-soaked rags, as I recall.
MattF
@catclub: The most interesting of the deadly sins is the one usually called ‘sloth’, but is actually the one you commit when all the others become boring. The high-toned word for it is ‘acedia’, for which the best translation is ‘insufficient enthusiasm’.
MomSense
@catclub:
That’s such an unhelpful reply. It’s akin to the Republicans who say America is perfect because it’s America. None of us, not a one here approve or see any redeeming qualities in the Republican Party. We do care about the Democratic party and want to improve it. I think that’s healthy.
Ken
Oh, I’m sure, but to quote the punchline to a joke, “It’s a better story the way he tells it.”
Immanentize
@Suzanne: I hate when you keep your promises.
Quinerly
@Cheryl Rofer: I won’t go into my mind stuff here. Maybe will pm you or we can talk. Really hope to hang out more with you on this trip. Railyard District rental… Oct and Nov!!! Marcy Street late lunches!!!! Hugs.
Quinerly
@O. Felix Culpa: 💜💛♥️💙💚
raven
@Immanentize: I bought several in Tucson and they were $5 each. Now if you can find em they are $50
Immanentize
@M31: The kids would love it and they would learn so much! Those that survived past puberty.
Quinerly
@rikyrah: 💜
Immanentize
@MattF: Covid lockdown has inspired my acedia.
Ken
I have the same reaction to the gearboxes in washing machines. Watching the agitator in action, I kind of grasp how it happens, but I could never have come up with that in a million years.
Then there’s the serger mechanism, which I remain convinced is alien technology…
Suzanne
@Jinchi: Sinema had a primary challenge last time from the amazing Deedra Abboud. She has had primary challenges from better candidates in most of her races.
She keeps winning, guys. She is popular there. She did not win elections when she was liberal. Everyone has to climb out of the mental framework that her stunts cost her, because they do not. Arizona might have two Dem senators, but it is not a blue state by any means.
SiubhanDuinne
@raven:
I just wanted to see that again.
raven
@Ken: I was able to do the controls when the were mechanical, no more. The last stackable I bought I used my Lowes Vets discount to buy an extended warranty no matter what they say!
Immanentize
@raven: Driving with Our Lady is a valuable life saving (or maybe soul saving) add on. Worth the protection at twice the price ($10)!
I wonder if you can claim an auto insurance deduct?
Ken
@MattF: Sloth the sin isn’t so much lazing around; it’s lazing around when you know there are ways you could be making the world better
It’s also in its own group, in the classification of sins as disordered love. Pride, envy, and wrath are love reversed; avarice, gluttony, and lust are love misdirected; sloth is insufficient love.
raven
@SiubhanDuinne: Oh, it did go up twice!
germy
@Suzanne:
And Sinema refused to debate Abboud. At least that’s what I’ve read. (I didn’t follow the race closely at the time.)
She also outspends her opponents. Which means her large donors are people with deep pockets, but short arms when it comes to paying a living wage.
Suzanne
@germy: Please entertain the notion that she is actually fairly representative of the voters of her state. The senators there not even five short years ago were John McCain and Jeff Flake. And Jon Kyl not long before that.
Kyrsten Sinema sucks in a very representative way.
M31
@Immanentize: hahaha like you get an insurance deduction for anti-lock brakes, a good driving record, and a Our Lady gearshift
raven
@Immanentize: Raven and Lil Bit’s graves have them all. Buddha, prayer flags, St Christoper, St Francis and Our lady!
Omnes Omnibus
@Ken: Meh.
germy
@Suzanne:
I have no evidence to the contrary.
raven
@M31: I have an all steel dashboard and a steering column that will come right through your chest in a head on. Oh the other hand it is built like a fucking tank. When we had a hailstorm it ruined the Dodge Van and the Lexus but did nothing to the truck!
Suzanne
@germy: Yep. Sinema sucks and Abboud hauled her ass to every local Dem meeting, shaking hands, talking about her views, making a robust social media presence, and doing good public service.
I met Abboud multiple times and she is an incredible person. But incredible people do not win there.
I predict that AZ having two Dem senators won’t last long.
PST
@Geminid:
He’s one of the very best, although the last couple of years have convinced me that contrary to what I used to believe, the Democrats have dozens of really high quality senators and representatives. He’s certainly right about not worrying too much about small changes at the margin. The bill has so much that is essential, and it could never have come about except for the Georgia miracle. This is no time to let the perfect be the enemy of the good. I will never forget that we lost the chance of close-to-universal healthcare under Clinton by squabbling and losing momentum, and how much we lost in terms of an optimal bill under Obama by dicking around while Ted Kennedy’s health deteriorated. We could be one heart attack away from losing a senate majority. They should ram through the best bill Manchin and Sinema will accept and be quick about it.
germy
@Suzanne:
Maybe we can elect enough Democrats elsewhere to make Sinema’s votes less important. This is my hope, anyway.
Kayla Rudbek
My parents had their first shots yesterday, and I scheduled my surgical and genetic consults for Tuesday. They tried to schedule the MRI for Monday but insurance wouldn’t authorize it that quickly; however they had an appointment on Sunday the 14th.
germy
Omnes Omnibus
@PST:
And then everyone involved should go out and talk about all the benefits it provides and how it is the greatest thing since sliced fucking bread. Take the win and claim the win.
Suzanne
@germy: That needs to be the goal. She needs to be seen as useful only for keeping Mitch McConnell as Minority Leader because there’s a D next to her name, but never actually voting the right way on anything important. I also think she should be given shitty committee assignments and in most ways marginalized so she gets less attention for her douchebaggery.
Immanentize
@Suzanne: You seem overly pessimistic after Biden’s win last year?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
nobody knows what WV Joe is doing, not even Republicans, and I suspect himself included
Baud
@Omnes Omnibus:
Agreed. It’s what we failed to do during Obama’s first two years.
Immanentize
@raven: The Avengers for transportation into the next.
Geminid
@Suzanne: Until Sinema’s and then Kelly’s wins, Arizona had not elected a Democratic Senator since 1988 (DeConcini?). Now it seems to be a purple state. I’m hoping Arizona is like Virginia was 10 years ago, purple on the way to blue. A large minority population and a prospering economy are two things Arizona and Virginia have in common.
Dorothy A. Winsor
This. Do it. Accomplish stuff and then trumpet it to the country. We need a future
OzarkHillbilly
@raven: I know adults who’ve done that, but I’m not gonna mention any names.
That’s because I wasn’t there.
Omnes Omnibus
@Baud: If someone points out a deficiency, the response should be “We can fix that,” and then point out a couple of great things in the new law that a person who pointed out the particular deficiency would find appealing.
WereBear
@JMG:
This is a very insightful comment I find most useful, thanks.
SFAW
@OzarkHillbilly:
For you:
Your granddaughter
Being able to type “Blech” and still know what it means
Having a Dem Congress
Being able to help your son
For us:
You
Josie
@Immanentize:
There are many in my circle of acquaintances, including conservatives, who are not planning to give up their safety measures. Unlike our dear leader, we are not all either stupid as rocks or eager to win favor with the Republican base.
Suzanne
@Immanentize: I wouldn’t at “overly pessimistic”. I would say “deeply suspicious”. As someone who started voting for Kyrsten Sinema back in 2003 for local races and has been incredibly disappointed in her for years, I was honestly pretty surprised in 2018 to see Democrats get excited about her, to the point of commenting favorably about her style and clothes. She is a careerist and essentially a social climber. I know we were excited to win Flake’s seat back (yes, the last Dem senator from AZ was DeConcini), but she is a snake and we should always be handling her with tongs.
I will also note that I spent much time and effort canvassing for David Schapira, who is a local politician who primaried her in 2012 when the new CD-9 was drawn. Schapira has served on the Tempe City Council and is a much better Dem. He has never gotten the same kind of traction that Sinema got, and it is deeply disappointing. Sinema was also really, really into the constituent services part of the job while she was in the House.
PST
@Cheryl Rofer:
I feel it all around me as the vaccination numbers start approaching a critical mass: cautious euphoria tempered by fear of letting expectations get too high. I couldn’t believe it when my wife said this morning, “Let’s have a dinner party.” Small, just five or six vaccinated people, but how nice to sit around a table with other humans, laughing, eating, drinking.
Kattails
@OzarkHillbilly: seen on a bumper sticker in Brattleboro VT yesterday: “how is my driving?
How does an engine even work?
How can a loving God cause such agony?”
My Senators voted against the minimum wage hike, I will call their offices for an explanation.
debbie
Asked and answered.
Suzanne
@Geminid: Having lived in AZ for 32 years (in Maricopa, Pima, and Pinal counties), I am also hoping it gets bluer. But there’s some important differences between it and VA. One is a deeply seeded gun culture… stats say that 1/3 of Arizonans have a gun in their cars. Another is education levels. AZ only has three state universities and very few private institutions, and so they have a much lower percentage of adults with degrees than other places. Another is religiosity: the Phoenix East Valley is the second-largest LDS community in the world. Unlike other large cities, PHX doesn’t have a large iconic employer. Much of the area’s wealth is based on growth, so it is incentivized to keep sprawling, which is unsustainable. And taxes and therefore services, like public schools, are very low. Roughly 60% of the entire state is in the PHX metro. Some parts of PHX are super-blue, but others are the inverse. Both are growing.
debbie
@germy:
That is appalling.
Immanentize
@Suzanne: Is her senate offices still into constituent services? That does make a huge difference. You know which senator has had by far the best street level consituent services in MA? That richy rich Ted Kennedy.
Suzanne
@Immanentize: Oh yes. She is incredibly transactional.
SFAW
@Immanentize:
That’s because Teddy never forgot his roots.
I don’t recall if Teddy was that way before Chappaquiddick, but I would speculate (based on zero evidence, of course) that, once he realized he was never going to be President, constituent services increased in importance for him. Or, maybe he was always that way, and I never noticed?
OzarkHillbilly
Wow. It really sucks to be you.
Benw
@Suzanne: thanks for the good local info on Sinema. As much as I get cranked with her and Manchin, they are democratic enough to run D in red states and doing so got us to 50 in the Senate which is the reason we get anything at all.
SFAW
@OzarkHillbilly:
Maybe. but not for that reason, nor anything indirectly related to it. [Yes, I understand what you’re implying.]
How IS your granddaughter, by the way?
WereBear
@zhena gogolia: Thanks! Done. Looking forward to it :)
frosty
@Quinerly: Great news on the van, I’m glad it’s working out.
No idea what vaccine we’re getting. I figured just get one and worry about the second after that. Hey, if it’s good enough for the UK…
Maybe Walmart will schedule us somewhere else and override some other residency requirement? Or maybe it won’t fly at all? Can’t hurt to try.
BellyCat
@raven: Your Adventure Playground, *without adult input unless asked*, is an amazing idea! Out of curiosity, ages of the kids? (Father of 5 year old thinking ahead—and hoping for permission to steal this great idea!)
Immanentize
@SFAW: Ted was always great at pot hole services. John Kerry’s office was the worst! Utterly useless. Market has always been very good too (he was my Rep. before he became my Senator).
I think the Kennedys understood that voters are who gets you to the place you want to go. From the old machine politics days. John Fitzgerald (the grandfather on Mom’s side) had as his election motto:
“The PEOPLE not the Bosses should rule.”
I have always loved that one.
Kathleen
@cintibud: I had my first shot last week. I’m guessing it’s too soon for my second but thanks for the tip! Are you going to Cintas?
Kathleen
@p.a.: Just because they voted against the amendment doesn’t mean they don’t support the increase. They probably want a separate bill so that focus can be on passing current relief package. I think that is wise.
SFAW
@Immanentize:
Thanks. I’ve only lived here since the ’70s, so I should know. But I guess I always took Teddy for granted.
The (perhaps apocryphal) Teddy anecdote was about him asking an elderly woman why she hadn’t voted for him, and she responded “Because you never asked for my vote.” He never repeated that mistake. [Yes, I realize he may not have been the source, and also that it may be a story used by many, many pols.]
Geminid
@Suzanne: The gun culture is not as strong here in Virginia, but my county was one of many rural counties whose supervors declared it to be a a “Second Amendment Sanctury” last January. This was part of a wave of gun rights fervor caused by the prospect of gun safety laws to be passed by the newly Democratic General Assemby. The legislature did pass six popular gun safety measures (but punted an assault weapons ban to the state crime commision for further study). When these laws went into effect last July, there was very little protest.
I have friends who own firearms who are reliable Democratic voters. I think they would have no problem with firearms regulation on a par with that in California.
raven
@Immanentize: I remember walking up to Kerry after a Vet Days event at the Wall. I said, “hi, I was here with you at the VVAW demonstration”. He ran away like a Chattanooga Hound Dog!
Kathleen
@Cheryl Rofer: I agree, Cheryl. And the trauma is not all Covid related. I still haven’t processed how close we were to having the election results overturned. I’m too afraid to grok that.
OzarkHillbilly
@SFAW: Which one? Better to just run down the list:
Eldest is typical 12 y/o, surviving distance learning but not exactly thriving. Enjoying her various pursuits and starting to push back at parental restraints.
#2 is beautiful and happy, even with me.
#3 is coming along just fine, due to arrive in one month.
#4… Well the big news is she’s a she, due on 9/9.
So that will be 4 baby girls for Pawpaw to dote on and spoil. Karmic justice for him as he was always complaining about not having a daughter.
Mike J
Anybody know the current amendment count? Record vote a rama is 44.
hotshoe
@zhena gogolia:
I checked our local library’s Overdrive connection, and Overdrive has the ebook copy.
Sample chapter looks great. Thanks for the rec!
Kathleen
@germy: As usual, the Onion is right on target s/////
Freemark
@Jinchi:
Absolutely. If there were actual logical reasons for Sinema and Manchin acting the way they are I could maybe give them a pass. But Manchin especially is doing it for ego stroking and, if anything, it will cost him votes in WV while also damaging Dem prospects nationwide. It’s Republican style ‘logic’.
SFAW
@OzarkHillbilly:
I guess I’m thinking of #2; she’s under one year old, right? I don’t think I had heard about Numbers 3 and 4, so congratulations!
Brachiator
just getting up this morning, so this may already have been mentioned (lotta comments to go through). Was there a similar blizzard of amendments when the Orange Beast had Congress work on the first Covid stimulus bill?
I seem to mostly recall McConnell insisting that the Democrats needed to get on board and get relief to the American people.
But as always the Grand Old Party of Lying Hypocrites has no shame when it comes to their bullshit.
OzarkHillbilly
@SFAW: She’ll be 2 in Sept, right after her new sister arrives. I’ve been talking about #3 a bit, if I have mentioned #4 it was the barest of comments as we were still awaiting prenatal genetic testing.
karen marie
@John S.: Barely.
OzarkHillbilly
@Brachiator: TBH I don’t recall MM saying much beyond “talk to Mnuchin” while DEMs were hot to get it done. Not that that means much. I pay very little attention to what comes out of MM’s mouth.
zhena gogolia
@hotshoe:
I was ridiculed here for reading People, but that’s where I found out about it!
Jinchi
I doubt she’s popular because she opposes the $15 minimum wage. The point is, her actions lose her support among Dems, and won’t buy her support among Republicans. She may still win, but it’s a pointless own-goal.
Brachiator
@Derelict:
Ha! Yeah, that’s pretty much it.
rikyrah
@Cheryl Rofer:
I am beginning to grapple with it. But, I completely agree with you.
Suzanne
@Jinchi:
I beg to differ. There are a fair amount of Republicans in AZ who like her and vote for her…. and it’s partly because of crap like this. She has a durable brand of being shitty on this stuff and some people love it, and they vote for her.
Kathleen
What Sinema actually voted against (WaPo):
PST
@Ohio Mom:
My wife is only three years younger than me, but she has no memory of ever having a polio shot, only sugar cubes, while I have no memory of sugar cubes, only shots. Fortunately, for whatever reason, those polio shots didn’t hurt nearly as much as penicillin, which always made my brother and me cry.
Suzanne
@Benw: Yes, which is why I kept voting for her when I lived there, even though she sucks.
I just wish people could understand that what we hate about her is what other people (many of her voters) love about her. She gets a fair amount of GOP voters who are not especially culture-war-y but just want low taxes and low gas prices.
Ruckus
@p.a.:
Also remember that each of them has a salary of $174,000 a year.
And none of them live in a state where $174,000 is nothing. Manchin should be able to live rather comfortably on that in WV. I could live comfortably on that in CA.
trollhattan
@Suzanne:
Sort of related, now that the Texas utility folks “in charge” have decided it’s too durn complicated to figure out how to cancel $16 billion in overcharges related to their big freeze, will economic anxiety–actual in some cases–cause Texans to throw their Republicans out of office?
I crack myself up.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Reports from the Senate floor:
she says the last vote is a bipartisan amendment propose by Warner and Rubio..
ETA:
who’s Marco’s donor here?
Brachiator
@Kathleen:
Someone needs to explain what arcane Senate procedure makes this important.
Is a separate bill going to shine brighter in the sun?
SFAW
@OzarkHillbilly:
I assumed this meant she is in utero, which is why I assumed you had been talking about #2, but maybe I’m mistaken? Or maybe #2 is the one I’ve been thinking of, because she had visited you a couple of months ago?
Geminid
@Suzanne: Arizona has a large number of independents. In coverage leading up to Mark Kelly’s election, one promising sign was that Arizona independents were breaking towards him. But in 2024, Sinema will need to win a primary limited to registered Democrats (and knows it). That will be a hard fought, high profile battle.
M31
how’s about a bipartisan amendment to kick Ted Cruz in the balls
PST
@Omnes Omnibus:
Damn straight. And cold-cock any whiners you run into. I’ll cut them some slack for a few more days, but after it passes let’s keep up the drumbeat: all Democrats want to save you, all Republicans want to kill you.
Jinchi
@Suzanne:
Let me rephrase then. I think her actions are stupid and damage both her own chances and the chance that Democrats keep their majority.
But on the off chance that she’s right and Dem’s can only win in Arizona by trolling libs like me, then I’m happy to keep calling her an obnoxious ass to help with her re-election campaign.
Geminid
@Geminid: Some western states seem to have a lot of independents. I think in Colorado independents well exceed voters registered to either party. Virginia has no party registration, but a recent Wason Center poll showed self-described Independents at 34%, Democrats at 38%, and Republicans down to 25%. The independents and Democrats were up 3 and 4 points respectively from two years ago, and those lousy Republicans were down 6, deservedly.
Ruckus
@JMG:
The people who are hesitant need time to get used to the concept. They have to talk themselves into it, or be talked into it, reassured that it’s OK. I could be a case in point, I’ve been hospitalized after vaccinations. But I have also been vaccinated without negative reactions. For me it’s a crap shoot. Enough of one that I had to wait 30 minutes after the first shot. But I’ve seen more than enough people get vaccinated with any of the 3 without more reactions like I ended up with. And I see that it’s likely that if I got Covid it’s quite possible it wouldn’t go well, comorbidities and all that. Not everyone is going to be able to make assessments like that, they are going to have to be convinced. Especially as we are seeing people get Covid and not suffer massively. I know people who’ve had it.
Omnes Omnibus
@Ruckus: I remember when Sean Duffy complained that he couldn’t make it on his Congressional salary. He had nine kids. He sent them to the Catholic schools in Wausau, WI, (fwiw the Wausau public schools are objectively better than the Catholic ones). He lived in a big McMansion in a development a few blocks from my parents’ house. I don’t feel particularly sorry for him.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I have a cousin with whom I would probably not be friends if we didn’t share a gene pool and family history. She and her husband are FoxNews watching, McMansion-dwelling, bitch-about-taxes Republican yuppies (do we still call them yuppies?). But they at least take their religion seriously, spend a week on home-building projects every year, and spend one day a month doing “prison ministry”. I don’t know exactly what that is, but I think that book they all like to talk about doesn’t encourage mocking the children of the incarcerated and engaging in collective punishment
cain
I think that is his clever way to fool the rubes – eg it will increase with him having to fight against it or any other future senator from WV. So I think that is a good thing – he’s sneaky.
Brachiator
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Senators are getting *testy*. Cassidy argued for withholding checks from incarcerated individuals,
This is horse shit. A court case determined that incarcerated people should get checks. The legislation is simply being consistent.
divF
@raven: There is a great example of one of these in our town. Back when I was taking care of small children, this was a regular stop on weekends. They have paint, brushes, and smocks that even the smallest children (like my 2 year old niece) could get into. Plus hammers, nails, and wood for the more coordinated ones. Many of the volunteers are teens who had come to the park in their earlier years.
ETA: Plus a zip line!
Doc Sardonic
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Lockheed
Geminid
@Geminid: One gun safety measure passed in last year’s Virginia General Assembly session made it a crime to have unsecured firearms in a house with children. This won’t solve the terrible problem of kids shooting their siblings and friends (and sometimes their parents), but it’s a start.
Geminid
@Brachiator: Most of these “Votarama” amendments are for show, just to make the opposition take votes on speciously framed questions.
taumaturgo
Over 14 years ago, a question was asked in the Senate, and still no answer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SicFn8rqPPE Skip to 4:40 minutes
cintibud
@Kathleen: I’m going to Duke, I couldn’t make the days that were available for Cintas
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Geminid: Yup. “Now in that Blue State Bail Out Bill, I tried to stop the Democrat Party from sending YOUR TAX DOLLARS to criminals and illegals…”
raven
@divF: Great, I would expect it there! One of my best friends live on Prince right on Oakland Line.
Brachiator
@Geminid:
Yes. It is all a political game. And the Democrats are batting down the nonsense amendments.
They just need to note that the Republicans are hurting Americans who need help, and move on.
Jinchi
@cain:
People have been talking about indexing the minimum wage to inflation for decades, now. It hasn’t been for the same reason it wasn’t raised at all in the last 12 years. Republicans think the minimum wage should be $0. (Lindsay Graham supposedly offered this idea up recently, but don’t hold your breath waiting for Lindsay to vote for it himself.)
In any case, that would’ve been an easy “compromise” Manchin and the rest could have put forward. But they didn’t. And if they do on the next bill it will fail for not having 60 votes to get past the filibuster.
rikyrah
@germy:
4 Blacks and a Jew?
Well, ok then.
Kathleen
@Brachiator: Sorry. I”m not tracking.
Ruckus
@germy:
Not having enough democrats has given the marginal ones power they otherwise wouldn’t have. And both of the 2 in question seem to get their local power not through mass support but through powerful (monetary) support.
Jinchi
U.S. Senate PASSES COVID-19 Relief Bill, 50-49
Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) missed the vote.
Kent
There was an article about that in our local paper. Most of those funds actually goes towards supporting the families, spouses, and children on the outside. It’s not like they are using the $$ to buy cigarettes inside the slammer.
PsiFighter37
@Jinchi: Good. I am sure whatever passed in the end was a product of Schumer communicating with Pelosi and ensuring there were the votes on her side to get this through as well.
Unfortunately, I am sure the GOP will use this as an excuse to filibuster everything else possible in the interim. But Democrats had better be on the same page – all of them – ahead of the next reconciliation package this fall, which should cover not only this budget, but relevant earmarks, wholesale infrastructure and energy reform, and whatever else we can get in that passes parliamentarian muster.
Ken
“Senator Cruz was unable to vote due to the ‘kick Cruz in the balls’ amendment which had earlier passed 99-1, and been enthusiastically adopted by all Senators.”
Kent
So some GOP-er missed the vote or abstained and they didn’t need to call in VP Harris?
Kent
Most everything the Senate does is for show. The votarama is to extract maximum pain from the party trying to push the legislation and make geriatric oldsters like Feinstein stay up all night. They know the bill is going to pass. It’s about making it as personally and politically painful as possible for those trying to pass it.
Jinchi
I’m pretty sure that was the plan in any case.
$1.9 trillion isn’t too shabby for first 100 day win on Biden’s part.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
and yes, I could and should heal myself.
@Kent: Sullivan had some kind of family emergency back in Alaska.
gwangung
@Kent: This goes for Dems when they’re in the minority, so I’m not going to worry too much about that.
I’m now concerned about getting voting rights and infrastructure done.
Jinchi
@Kent: Sullivan missed it. But I’m guessing Republicans prefer not to give Kamala too many election-worthy photo ops. I doubt she’d be upset having a campaign headed with a photo of her gaveling in the victory and a caption “Kamala’s vote sends $1.9 trillion to the American people”
PsiFighter37
@Kent: Dan Sullivan from Alaska flew back home for his father-in-law’s funeral.
Ruckus
@Omnes Omnibus:
From the sound of it, nether do I. Since 1992 the house and senate have made over $129,000/yr. Now I don’t have 9 kids, because I know what causes them, but I’d love to make that kind of money, let alone the $174,000 they make a year now. I believe there is something truly wrong with those who think they are underpaid/can’t live on that, at $174,000/year.
PsiFighter37
@gwangung: I think voting rights won’t happen. It’s not germane under the budgetary rules, I would guess. My hope is that Schumer and Pelosi figure out how they can allocate funds for voting that can pass under the next reconciliation bill this fall.
As for infrastructure, I am sure it will get done. Democrats will have earmarks in it, and I am sure there will be enough dough to get some things built in West Virginia that can have Joe Manchin’s name on it. Infrastructure is also far more popular politically, and it is something that the everyday person can imagine more easily as well. Now that Democrats have shown they can stick together and muscle through things, there is some small chance that you get some cracks in the GOP opposition when sweet earmark funding or fixing roads, broadband, etc. for their district comes down the pipe next time.
Jinchi
I’m guessing this is a big reason Manchin acts the way he does.
I would’ve thought Biden would be the big winner, but what’evs.
Kent
I think only way that voting rights happens is if Senate Dems can find some way to carve out a filibuster exception for voting rights while leaving the larger filibuster in place. Basically a new Byrd rule but for civil rights not budgets.
This is actually the pattern they have followed over the past decade. Carving out exceptions rather than tanking it entirely. First they did it for cabinet appointments. Then lower court judges, then SCOTUS appointments, then for repeal of regulations under the regulatory review act. And of course reconciliation.
The Senate Dems could easily come up with a new Schumer rule or some such where they allow for 50 votes to end debate on civil rights legislation but keep it for things like infrastructure spending and whatnot. In other words, civil rights are non negotiable, but bridges and airports are. They could also cite the long history of racists using the filibuster to block civil rights legislation as the reason to make that change.
It would give cover to the Manchin and Sinema types while still letting critical civil rights legislation pass. Stuff like criminal justice reform would probably fall under civil rights as well. And then we’d have the Senate parliamentarian ruling on whether a bill is sufficiently related to civil rights or not.
I think that is a more likely path than complete abandonment of the filibuster in this Senate.
Brachiator
@zhena gogolia:
Amber is so sweet. Thanks for the reminder that I need to order this book.
I did not know that she grew up in Nebraska.
I enjoy watching clips of her late night show on YouTube.
Here is a fun, short interview with Amber and her sister on Seth Meyer’s show.
Another Scott
@Mousebumples: The 2019 House bill to raise the minimum wage to $15 (getting there ~ 6 years after enactment) included inflation adjustments thereafter (rates determined by the Secretary).
If Manchin said that he wanted inflation adjustments, it’s misdirection or some weird other things were going on.
The politics for bashing the Teabaggers might be better in having it as a stand-alone bill, but I don’t think it will happen. It will probably get rolled into some must-pass bill (as often happened in the past). It would have been satisfying to Go Moses on the Parliamentarian and ram it through, but one must pick their battles. Even FDR had to do that at times.
“Bird in the hand…”
Get it done. Let Joey M and Krysten preen. Just get it done.
Democrats aren’t going to get credit for it (they never do), just get it done.
Cheers,
Scott.
Kayla Rudbek
@Immanentize: oh yes I would have loved this as a kid! I would still love it!
Coding/programming is just so boring and frustrating for me. Give me something that’s tangible and hands on and that doesn’t depend on whether you put the periods in the right place or not or the vagaries of Microsoft.
And as for insurance, maybe find a company that insures chemical companies or chemistry departments. Whoever insures Thomas Klapötke and his labs is more than used to explosives, after all…
Another Scott
@Suzanne: Thanks for your insights on her.
It sucks, but as long as she votes for the Democratic leadership that’s a win. NOTHING good happens when the GOP has the leadership.
Cheers,
Scott.
J R in WV
@Geminid:
I also have many friends who are progressive liberals working for positive change who own and shoot a wide variety of guns for both target sport and to hunt. One of my best friends has gifted me with several keepsake weapons his father worked on. B’s dad was a veteran who became a machinist and mechanic after coming home from the war.
The pistols B gave me are target .22 pistols his dad tightened up as far as accuracy goes, and I relish and enjoy the easy balance and natural sight picture his dad created.
When we get together we look up ranges in the area, visit them until we find one where we feel welcome (no giant Trump signs, for example) and shoot target practice together and chat. Former Marines usually run a tight shop around their range, NO BS Allowed! and that’s exactly how it needs to be. We’ve left ranges that didn’t feel long before the ammunition was gone.
Locally, many Old Tyme music folks are a cross between the image of Mountain Men and hippies — a surprising number of back to the land hippies have learned to shoot, wild turkey is really good, and out here you can often pop one from behind the barn at the right time of day.
But none of these friends are 2ND Amendment nuts, none of them fear the Black Helicopters, around here they are mostly related to keeping a $500 million machine running with a high speed parts run, or Health Net moving a victim to one of the local Trauma Units. They aren’t going to vote for someone based upon a 2ND Amendment vote, but who failed to provide a necessary vote for Unemployment or T-Plague relief.
I have pulled something in my back, inside my right shoulder-blade, and now need to ask Wife to rub liniment on it and then lay on a heating pad for a while. I need later to haul DF Kibble, stored in the shop in 30+ lb bags. Fun of country life.
It’s very pretty here, sunny, around 45, little wood frogs splishing in the tiny pond. Daffydills are up near 6 inches, but no buds yet.
Happy Saturday, everyone!!! Thanks for playing here in the B-J corral.
ETA: B has moved from East North Carolina to Montana as his wife’s career has blossomed. B, like me, is an older guy, was USAF radar tech for 6 years, then a software geek until he retired a few years ago. Great guy, taught me how to study seriously in my third swing at college.
karen marie
@Skepticat: Why would they start now? It’s only been obvious for 50 years but elected Dems have yet to try to capitalize on it.
tamiasmin
@Baud: There could be a tie.
Another Scott
@Suzanne: ICYMI, …
I would like to think that he’s right – that there are always non-monstrous ways to argue against a bad vote. But given politics of the last 5-6+ years, I’m not so sure. Maybe playing the nut is worth more.
Still, Democrats interested in primarying her should keep that clip handy for their ads.
Cheers,
Scott.
Procopius
@Geminid:
I don’t know any rich people (i.e., anyone with a net worth north of $100,000), but from anecdotes I have read they all seem to believe they are not rich. I wonder if it’s the same with people whose net worth is over $1,000,000,000. They all seem to complain about how they don’t get no respect, it’s so hard to make ends meet on $800,000 a year, they pay sooooooo much in tax, …