Well Done, Senator Booker!

 

Senator Cory Booker (D., NJ) has surpassed Strom Thurmond's record, holding the Senate floor for an astonishing 25 hours! (Get yourself a well-deserved rest!) As he closed his speech, during which he spoke to the Trump agenda and the ways that it will hurt working families, he invoked the memory of John Lewis:

"This is a moral moment. It’s not left or right; it’s right or wrong. Let's get in good trouble," Booker said as he concluded his remarks and was met by a standing ovation from Senate colleagues. "I yield the floor."

Democratic lawmakers have been facing pressure from their constituents to respond more forcefully to the Trump administration’s sweeping policy changes, including massive cuts to the federal workforce, ramped-up deportations and sweeping tariffs.

Booker's remarks clearly resonated with many who watched them. A live feed of the speech on the senator's TikTok account had more than 220 million likes by early Tuesday night, before he exceeded 24 hours on the floor, and users were posting fan edits.

This was a demonstration about what our Democratic representation in congress can do even if they do not have the majority in either chamber--they can hold the floor adn speak to the values and concerns of the people they represent. 

That's what we want them to do--represent US. 

This Man is Certifiable

 

Trump: "To be honest with you, Canada only works as a state. We don't need anything they have. As a state it would be one of the great states. This would be the most incredible country visually. If you look at a map, they drew an artificial line right through it." pic.twitter.com/oxzF3jzLOC

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 13, 2025

With respect to our neighbors to the north, my god. I am just so embarrassed and sorry about this delusional halfwit. I knew he was a halfwit, but he managed to keep the worst of it under his MAGA hat for the benefit of his true-believers. I hope they understand how extremely messed up this crap is now, though.

And if they don't, well, I guess I am sorry for them, too. Because that is just one hell of a low and dangerous level of stupid. 

Today. Trump made comments that NATO needs to help with the US acquiring Greenland, which is not going to happen and is profoundly ignorant, as well as having congratulated himself for filling Lake Tulare with reservoir water intended for future irrigation and fire-fighting. He describes this as "invading LA" which is not even remotely a description of how any of this profoundly stupid and useless event occurred. 

Comments by Trump and his cabinet suggest that his intentions with respects to Canada and Greenland are real, and also folks are charged with drafting a Panama Canal strategy. 

Nostalgia and Nepotism

 

During the Super Bowl, RFK Jr's Super PAC aired an ad that put his face over that of his uncle. Just as they disapprove of RFK Jr's candidacy, several of his family members came out to note the ghoulishness and appropriation of the ad. As for the man himself, he's very sorry to for his family being hurt by the ad, and had nothing to do with it at all, at all, but here is is: his pinned Tweet. (Or it was as of the time of this blogging.) 

There are some genuinely silly things contained in all this: the 1960s, which this ad is a callback to, is 60 years ago. I don't personally have any nostalgia for it and that goes for a lot of younger voters. He doesn't seem to stand for the values of his honored and passed near-relations and is derided by his currently-living near-relations, so if he's running on nostalgia or nepotism, it seems like he had two strikes against him. 

But somehow the millionaires and billionaires who fund this campaign believe that this is the way to frame their old and strange boy. Where the youthful brothers' Kennedy gave us hope and a new frontier, in the 1960s, this addled Boomer is going to unite the country--with people like Mike Flynn and Steve Bannon.

Yeah. I'll pass.

Senator Ossoff Threads a Fine Needle

 

Sen. Ossoff addresses the U.S. Senate on the humanitarian crisis in Gaza: pic.twitter.com/fzApPP7xwV

— Ossoff's Office (@SenOssoff) November 17, 2023

What the Senator from Georgia has done here is so important--given both sides their due, but to advocate for those who are most grieviously injured and imperiled in the current situation, to plead for the humanity of those who are oppressed but suffering the wrath intended for the oppressor. He is a young man speaking a lot of wisdom. We could do with more like him in the Senate.

I like Talenti Gelato, I guess?

As U.S. Rep. Dean Phillips launches a Democratic primary challenge against President Biden, Black political experts warn it will be a distraction they fear could hand Donald Trump the White House for another four years.

Read More 👇🏿https://t.co/lpMaGgHz3v

— theGrio.com (@theGrio) October 30, 2023

The first thing I ever heard about Dean Phillips at all was that he was challenging our current president right here, right now, when foreign policy (Biden's wheelhouse) is crucial and the argument this dude is bringing is: Biden is old and I'm chronologically younger. 

My Democratic bona fides are impeccable and I'm even younger than Dean Phillips. I don't look like someone ordered David Duchovny from Wish. I also too, have had jobs that don't have a thing to do with electoral politics--except I have twenty-five years of civil service. I sort of qualify too for running for president? (Hell naw! Let's don't be ridiculous about what it takes! You have to get set apart and be at least a little famous and capable of 1) raising money and 2) getting elected )

I like some of what Dean Phillips has done--he's not a bad guy, I just don't know what he thinks he's doing now since it isn't necessary, and I don't think there's a really great call for it. I know what Steve Schmidt thinks he's doing--making bank.  He likes the sound of his own voice once he gets jumped-up enough, and here's his thing:

He thinks Biden ish but younger takes away the argument that Biden is old. Whev. I think the fun thing to fuck around with is Trump is old and out of his fucking mind. Doesn't know where he is and is legally fucked round the bend anyways. We don't need a better man to beat Trump--we just need every outlet to get more scrupulous about who Trump really is. 

So, I don't care for this Dean Phillips thing. But I do have an out-sized craving for gelato. 

That opinion isn't really a money-maker. But I would rather eat gelato and stand with Biden than try some other guy just because we got all wobbly about the age thing. And I say that with the likelihood of earning nothing from it at all. 

Dianne Feinstein Has Left the Senate

There is something jarring in considering that Sen. Feinstein was voting right until the end, giving her last vote really hours before her passing. It could speak to her drive and dedication to public life. It could also speak to the misperception of older politicians of their indispensability and their mortality alike. 

There's something of a "praising with faint damn" tack I want to tread softly with: she represented a more conservative Democratic Party than I prefer even while being a pioneering female senator. She still had her incredible moments, working on gun control, working to repeal DOMA, the release of the Senate report on torture, recently the reauthorization of VAWA.  It's easy for activists to criticize her moderation and willingness to reach out across the aisle--her job as a senator wasn't to be uncompromising but to find areas of areas of compromise for a purpose.

I don't know if there was any inkling of infirmity when she ran in 2018. I do know that the decline of her health in her final years and the speculation that she wasn't fully competent marred her final term. It gives one a terrible sense of pause: her eyes were those of a person whose body had been through the wars. Couldn't she have spent those final years at ease?

Could she have? Or did a sense of purpose make that seem impossible? And having forged on despite being condescended to in the Senate itself by such august personages (in their own minds) as Larry Craig and Ted Cruz, who tells her when to quit?  

That might just be a grain of thought elder statepersons will need to hold their own counsel about--to know not when to be told, but to realize when their age is telling on themselves.  But as for Senator Feinstein, she served until the very end. 

Menendez Needs to Resign

 

Now, I rarely slam the hell out of Democrats, but here's one hell of an exception: Sen. Bob Menendez of NJ is busted and he needs to resign. To repeat: he is busted, used up, out of credit, persona non grata and a whole pile of bullshit. This man took the little bit of rope he got from a hung jury in his last federal case and made a noose for himself. No sympathy, no nothing. 

The man had close to a half million in cash in his home, some of it sewn into his clothes, and $100K in gold bars.  To me, that spells "BUSTED". What does that tell me? His money isn't in the bank collecting interest because if he took it to the bank, he'd get unwanted interest. And it's also a "to the mattresses" situation. It's around in the eventuality of his needing a reason to not stick around. 

I hear what Majority Leader Schumer is saying when he talks up Menendez' service and his day in court: with respect to his service, he's getting a grace period to figure out what he wants to do before the hammer comes down, so he can go out like it's his own choice. That's respectful, I get it. But if the man doesn't know it's not a "forever" pass, he's a whole idiot. Because the NJ Governor is ready to replace this fool, and he has a rich mine of good people to choose from.  And the Senate doesn't need him so much they will let him fuck around forever:

And that's what his statement is. He really wants to go with: It's because I'm a Latino, huh? 

How about that answer is what makes him seem extra guilty? 

On Name Recognition and RFK Jr.

 

Hey, just want to add for the benefit of the RFK Jr. Curious that he's always talking in front of crowds that include antivax neo-Nazis now. He doesn't care that his crowd includes neo-Nazis. He's doing lil-bitty labor schtick but he hasn't the least fucking clue. https://t.co/wRe311tlEb

— Vixen Strangely (@VixenStrangely) May 23, 2023

A certain nepobaby running (at the behest of Steve Bannon and Mike Flynn, because why not?) in the 2024 Democratic primary has insinuated the CIA might kill him.  Me? I think who you hang with matters.  And if you're an anti-vaxx dipshit who hangs with white supremacists, yeah, I have a huge problem with you. But I doubt that the CIA would need to bother, because this man is a danger to himself and others, but not in the way that gets you un-alived by spooks. 

Even though he's a fountain of Russian propaganda about US officials doing bioweapons. He thinks psychiatric drugs are the reason for mass shootings. 

He was certainly named for his father, but other than my belief his mother was an honest woman, I'd be hard-pressed to see either his father's intelligence oR compassion anywhere in this privileged puffed-up twit. I guess what I'm trying to say is--

He's not offbeat or contrarian or beating his own drum or whatever. He's an idiot. He's an idiot with name recognition because he got named for his dad. It really isn't deeper than that. And that he might get any penetration based on the name recognition from his ancestral betters, gone these many decades, is a thing shocking to contemplate.

And yet, can we doubt that if a certain former president were not part of a successful reality show for several years, he might not have done so well electorally?

(Read my Twitter thread. It has links.)

And We All Got a Little Dumber That Day

 

Greene: Can you tell me how much money went to CRT?
Dodaro: CRT?
Greene: It’s a racist curriculum used to teach children that somehow their white skin not equal to black skin and other things pic.twitter.com/ssFZE7Gxlz

— Acyn (@Acyn) February 1, 2023

This hearing was supposed to be something to do with the waste of Trump-era Covid-19 spending, so I don't know how we got here, but I think it has to do with MTG being an astonishingly stupid bubblehuman who does not have any information outside of culture war propaganda. And for a person who received a PPP loan and got forgiveness, she seems stupid as hell about how funds were wasted since it literally looks like she has first-hand experience. But no, Marge, the large sum of money you think went to CRT didn't and why do you think that, and why do you think that's even what CRT is? 

Critical Race Theory is a college-level legal conversation about how laws can be made to disadvantage populations based on their legal definition. Race is a social construct that can be codified into law--that is to say, people can write words to define the way certain people get to be oppressed. It can be based on immigration status, it can be based on assumed ethnicity, it can be based on religious affiliation--basically people can be told who they are by law, and they don't have a say about their identification. Being "one of the good ones" doesn't even legally save you. 

Hakeem Jefferies A-Z Speech To the 118th Congress

He let them know: we will try to work with you where we can, but we know very well we are not the same. They can go ahead and boo--you know what's true.

A Legend Takes a Seat on the Back Bench

 

I would not choose to characterize the power that former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi still retains from whatever seat she chooses. Her gifts for building a consensus and fathoming the vote counts on both sides of the aisle are phenomenal and her toughness and dedication are exemplary. And now, she also understands when to step back, having seen that the times will call for a new energy.

I have admired her honesty and clarity of heart and how these have both lead to her extraordinary tenure in House leadership. She opposed the Iraq War and privatization of Social Security. It was she that told Trump that all roads with him led to Putin. She stared him down over his stupid government shut-down for his dumb wall-money and supported two impeachments. 

I admire her for this pure episode of imminently understandable contempt:

because Trump gave an utterly contemptible speech in the last year of his contemptible presidency. 

She retains the perfect venue from which to watch her successor in the role of Speaker try to manage his slim lead from his already compromised position of having let the crazies run him, instead of the other way about. 

Her leadership in fraught times has been inspiring and consequential. A very hard act to follow. 

I Do Not Understand the Point of This

 

"A group of 30 House liberals is urging President Biden to dramatically shift his strategy on the Ukraine war and pursue direct negotiations with Russia, the first time prominent members of his own party have pushed him to change his approach to Ukraine."https://t.co/jswa9SZgXf

— Alex Thompson (@AlexThomp) October 24, 2022

More or less in line with my feelings previously expressed, I just don't see where direct negotiations with Russia right now have any value when they aren't exactly radiating goodwill and honest dealings, and when Ukraine is the party that is currently facing an existential threat. Is it to signify to those on the left that hold the view that peace is always an option (bugger the facts on the ground) that these 30 folks are definitely going to point out that war is bad and talking is better?

But Biden's State Department is in touch with Russia. And I think a ceasefire might actually do more to help Russia get their shit together than help Ukraine (especially given that it's only likely to be honored on one side--and guess which?). And it looks like a "Democrats in disarray" moment in the regular political narrative. 

Pointing to things like the disruption the war is causing to food shipments to the global south is acting like the responsibility for that is not Russia. They are disrupting that. Stopping them, fighting them, is an attempt to get that control out of their murderous hands. They already have expressed their intentions in that regard. What they are doing now is their version of what will be. Talking them down with humanitarian ideals is dumb when they do not share them. 

So, when I see this:

“We are under no illusions regarding the difficulties involved in engaging Russia given its outrageous and illegal invasion of Ukraine,” the Democrats’ letter states. “If there is a way to end the war while preserving a free and independent Ukraine, it is America’s responsibility to pursue every diplomatic avenue to support such a solution that is acceptable to the people of Ukraine.”

The letter was signed by some of the best-known and most outspoken liberal Democrats in Congress, including Reps. Jamie Raskin (Md.), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.), Cori Bush (Mo.), Ro Khanna (Calif.) and Ilhan Omar (Minn.).

I'm cringing.  What is it for? What does it do? Is it a political statement for anyone at all? Is it a diplomatic statement for anyone at all? Whose bright idea, and what is the wattage on their bulb? Because do not say you are under no illusions and then post a delusionary hope. Do not call out the leadership of your party over some shit that is not happening. America's responsibility is the support of democracy--and not peace. That limpness isn't awake (I won't talk about "wokeness") and aware of the threat of totalitarian power, and if you give that quarter anywhere, you are not looking at the global right-ward trends* that made Brexit, Trump and Meloni happen, and could give us Le Pen in France, etc. 

This is not a public comment forum. This is international policy. This is almost as dumb as the 47 jackasses who signed an open letter to Iran over the JCPOA. I cannot believe Democrats are stupid enough to follow that example at this time and I see them trying to cover up their dirt right now. 

Good heavens, what were they thinking in the first place? It served no purpose at all but to make us wonder what the fuck they are doing and I am saddened to see people I thought highly of in that number. 

UPDATE: I realize this part is ignoring the slaughter of Ukrainians for political reasons elsewhere and is insensitive as fuck. Also--you don't fight authoritarians or fascism everywhere by allowing it anywhere. And you do have to fight it everywhere. And that means you call it what it is whether in local elections (the easy setting) or wherever in the world (war--the harder option), and you don't talk peace before you understand whether peace is even possible. 

It is a BFD Kind of Day

 

I can’t quite put my finger on it, but I just love this clip. pic.twitter.com/n1QSIHx8Ig

— PoliticsGirl (@IAmPoliticsGirl) August 16, 2022

President Biden handed Senator Manchin that pen like he was awarding him "MVP" for this whole deal coming into focus, and as we all have heard in our workspaces--"Teamwork makes the Dream work." I'm just happy this thing passed so I can't be mad about anything Democrats did--not when Republicans exist, and stripped out provisions like the $35 a month cap on insulin. We have seen who they are and what they want--and it isn't good things for their constituents, apparently. 

In the meanwhile, the Biden Administration made hearing aids more available and affordable and cancelled the debt of people who took now-defunct ITT Tech courses. He wants to do good things that make a meaningful, positive effect on how Americans live. That is what I think a president should do and be. 

Our having Joe Biden as president is a BFD. He cares about people. I trust him. I did not trust the former guy. He never earned that trust and never did anything I thought was for us. I think his supporters are very confused about what he stood for. Trump tried to kill the ACA. Biden wants the ACA to work, and for prescription drugs to be more affordable. 

They are not the same. 

Once again, from my heart, I am telling you, there is no good reason to vote for Republicans ever, but definitely not this cycle. Joe Biden has a congress right now that lets him deliver good things. Republicans will never do good things, only retaliatory and culture war bullshit. Give him more Democrats, and better things will happen. I goddamn guarantee. 

Once Again, Not One Republican

 

Given the opportunity to participate in delivering an economic package that invests in preserving our climate, keeping health care costs affordable, ameliorating inflation and reducing the deficit, the House Republicans chose to say "Thanks, but no thanks." 

Here's what that means: they would have been in favor of higher insurance premiums. They would have been in favor of higher drug costs, especially for seniors. I've already explained what Senate Republicans shamefully did regarding failure to assist millions of Americans reliant on insulin to live.  The GOP preferred to lie about this bill over supporting a reduction in the deficit--that means they just aren't fiscally responsible. They don't care that this bill curbs inflation--they would rather we had runaway inflation, if it only meant they had a better electoral position. 

That's an astonishing disgrace, isn't it?  Depending upon what party is in power, you can't hardly rely on Republicans to ever do the right thing, they will just do the politically convenient thing. Take a look at  their old president, who they still support in rigid lockstep, as if unable to entertain what anyone with critical intelligence and a functioning ability to connect the dots would have realized--he's just not any good. 

They have done more to support Trump than they have done to support this country, in roughly the way Trump has done more to protect his tax returns than he has ever done for presidential records. 

They are a benighted and useless party, an infected appendix of the body politic. They need to be voted out before they become septic.  All the more reason for anyone who cares about the future to vote Democratic. 

They Want to Kill The Rabbit

 

I really don't understand the big deal about kids at drag shows, because I grew up on Warner Brothers cartoons, and you could not keep Bugs Bunny out of a dress. S/he was serving drag fierceness even though Elmer and their lil friends had a gun trained on hir. S/he was fighting for hir life up on that stage. In the olden days, before me and RuPaul were even babies, drag was king. All of Shakespeare started as drag. Panto was drag. And it was for the kids. Soldiers did drag. Drag was for macho men. And women.

Monty Python's pepper pots are drag. Benny Hill did drag. People who hate drag are the people drag was made for--to show them how they don't need to be. Drag is beauty and travesty. It is about telling on people. It is about showing up and showing out. It is entertainment. It is good-hearted people. The Drag Court raises so much for charity because beautiful people need to do beautiful things for others. 

Drag is realness because the world doesn't know what to do with nonconformists, but nonconformists understand how to do the world. 

So little Napoleon Blownapart Ron DeSantis is beside himself to know if he wants to investigate parents who take their kids to drag shows. Age-appropriate drag shows, because while drag queens might be gay, they are not stupid. Ron DesAntics has no "might" about him. He is just hopping on a weird bandwagon. What is the worst thing that happens to a kid at a drag show among so many people? As opposed to churches? Or anywhere else? 

So when people talk about making it a crime to expose kids to drag anywhere, it sounds to me like they want to impose compulsory heteronormativity. I mean, what is sexualizing about someone being fully-dressed? Unless they mean just not being fully dressed as the gender someone thinks you are supposed to be? So maybe today that just means no men in dresses or skirts. But tomorrow that means women shouldn't be in pants. 

I mean--pants. Girl pants. Yoga pants. Leggings. Jeans. Trousers. Pants suits. Maybe ladies shouldn't be doing man drag. And also doing work that interferes with the baby-making. I guess I am not in the baby making rota necessarily anymore, but I tell you what--I will be wearing the pants in this dystopia, thank you very much. And I will fight anyone trying to kill the rabbit--like these Patriot Front MF's trying to fuck up a Pride event.  The fash is always anti-gay and anti-trans, and so long as GOP stays fash friendly (yes, they are) you aren't confusing me for someone who will tolerate their bullshit. 

The GOP better purge their homophobe and transphobe shit before I'm willing to fuck with them. And they won't. So I will never. And I would rather most modern day elected Dems get that too. 

The Exception that Proves the Rule, or Something

 

So, I think the takeaway from the 49-51 vote that failed to codify Roe has to be taken with a grain of salt--did you expect something else? It's a failure, but in the classic silver-linings sense, it's just demonstrative of one way to not succeed. What we have is only one out of 50 Democratic senators voting against your right to bodily autonomy, and every single one of the Republicans voting against it.

Manchin is an exception. The rule is: absolutely don't rely on a situation when only Joe Manchin doing the right thing stands between you and success. The only answer I get solving for that is--more not-Manchin Democrats in office. 

This also means: don't vote for a Republican unless you actually want a country where one's body is policed (Fugitive Uterus Act, anyone?) for unsanctioned reproductive activity (or inactivity, as the case may be). If people will just take very seriously the implications of this vote, it signals something bad for the GOP--a chalk outline, perhaps. 

Fighting Back With the Truth

 

Senator Lana Theis accused me by name of grooming and sexualizing children in an attempt to marginalize me for standing up against her marginalizing the LGBTQ community...in a fundraising email, for herself.

Hate wins when people like me stand by and let it happen. I won't. pic.twitter.com/jL5GU42bTv

— Mallory McMorrow (@MalloryMcMorrow) April 19, 2022

MI State Senator Mallory McMorrow's speech went viral because she went for the heart of the "groomer" smear against LGBT folks and their allies: the people making these smears are bad, lying people who are using this harmful bandwagon to hurt people. Very much like the speech of MO state Rep. Ian Mackey, the effectiveness is in using truth to point out that these people aren't just spreading bad information, it's that they know very well what they are doing and should think about the consequences. Republican hate-mongers have been using religious piety as a fig leaf for their ambition and sadism. Calling it what it is is the only way to properly confront it, not timidly, but righteously.

Just Admit You Didn't Want To

 

Sen. Joe Manchin III on Sunday said that he could not vote to proceed on Democrats’ roughly $2 trillion spending package, dealing a potentially fatal political blow to the final piece of President Biden’s economic agenda. https://t.co/6MFbuz3w7L

— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) December 19, 2021

"I can't do it." Huh. "I tried everything humanly possible." Hah. "I can't get there...this is a no."

Sure. I didn't see any gag on Sen. Manchin's mouth or leg irons on his legs preventing him. I'm not aware of any spell he was under that might have turned him into a toad if he voted for the bill. The thing he couldn't do was look his good lobbyist friends and his good fundraising friends in the eye and say, "I'm just going to do something that benefits my constituents." 

It would have been entirely humanly possible. He didn't want to do it. Now, there is some part of me that would love if three Christmas ghosts got on his case about this to change his mind in a Dickensian heart-warmer, but I don't think I see it. But if he didn't want to, and wasn't ever going to want to, he could have said so then, and he could admit it now. 

UPDATE:  How is he supposed to eeexxxxxpppllliaaainn it to West Virginia?

But sure, Joe Manchin is just representing his constituents. Got it. pic.twitter.com/xteA0uLjy0

— Brian Tyler Cohen (@briantylercohen) December 19, 2021

Um. I don't know. Tell them they are right and it is good? He's been ridiculous this whole time.

UPDATE:  Wow. The message from the White House comes about as close to calling a member of the Presiden'ts own party a damn liar as they professionally could. 

Using Words We All Understand

 

.@DanaBashCNN: Are Democrats too woke, Senator?

Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA): "There is not a school in Virginia that teaches critical race theory, but Governor-elect Youngkin stirred up the cultural pot there." pic.twitter.com/b2iOCybxIp

— The Recount (@therecount) November 7, 2021

So, I could have blogged about how CNN let themselves be fooled by the nice, blonde suburban housewives in Virginia who most definitely aren't GOP operatives/astroturf-adjacent, but that's something I'll prrroooooobbaabbblllyy get to later? Because The New York Times also falls for this sort of thing, and it it happens so often anymore it really can't be accidental, right?  

But I'd rather just focus on the word "woke" because she used it like it only meant one thing and everyone knew what it was, and it definitely does not and everyone doesn't. So we argue about "wokeness" instead of whether anti-racism and accurate history is valuable, getting bogged down in a term that wholly adopts a right-wing frame that there is something "wrong" with what "wokeness" is, since the term is used so generally to mean "liberal things conservatives don't trust", it might as well boil down to "vibes". 

She knows what she meant by the word--short-hand for, shouldn't Democrats do more stuff to appeal to swing vote Carville thinks is out there? And well. Maybe that's how she could have asked it. 

Speaking of A Hostile Work Environment....

 

Activists with Sunrise Movement confronted Joe Manchin this morning outside of his yacht on his way to the Capitol, in protest of his opposition to the Build Back Better social spending bill.

They followed him to his car, and then surrounded his car too. Some images: pic.twitter.com/IvDuEyXu0H

— Jennifer Bendery (@jbendery) November 4, 2021

Just recently, Sen. Manchin referred to his relationship with his colleagues on the Hill as a "hostile work environment" due to all of the partisanship. I seem to recall back in January there was a situation where the work environment was really hostile, and extremely partisan, and well, Manchin's reaction to that was "Why can't we all just get along?" or similar. 

So while I think he's completely wrong, I guess I'd give him points for consistency? As in "consistently wrong about what to do about all this". He's been complaining about how he really wants to see his party come down and do more negotiating (they have come down--they have negotiated!) and wants to see the impact of legislation on the debt and inflation and all this.... 

But when I see him and Sen. Sinema huddled with Mitch McConnell, the partisan motherfucker who denied President Obama a SCOTUS appointment and for a whole year and started ramming through Trump's pick in weeks, well....I think back to times when things were so much more bipartisan. (If there were such times, they were not ever in my lifetime, and I was born in Nixon's first term.) 

Anyway, I have been at times critical of the tactics of the Sunrise Movement because I think they might not be especially persuasive in their tactics and I sometimes question who and how they confront--because generally Democrats are trying to do something about the environment, but it's the GOP that really obstructs meaningful structural change. And as you can see in the above confrontation.... 

Joe Manchin has a really, really nice car.