This Should Keep Warmongers In Business.

I recently wrote about the US House attempt to end the free hand the president has to start war but repealing the AUMF,,,,for those that failed to read my post…..

AUMF–The Long Good-bye

As predicted the Senate has rejected the idea of ending the free hand for the president….

On March 29, the Senate voted to repeal two Authorizations for the Use of Military Force, (AUMF’s), one passed in 1991 and another in 2002. The repeal now goes to the House. But those Authorizations are irrelevant to the present; they apply only to the Iraq war. But a third AUMF, passed in 2001, was left untouched. And that AUMF is the only one that has a bearing on the present moment, because it provides legal cover for the many US military operations, open and secret, around the world.

The AUMF of 2001, the one untouched by the Senate, is an entirely different matter. Its content and use are explained in a nutshell here:

“The authorization granted the President the authority to use all “necessary and appropriate force” against those whom he determined “planned, authorized, committed or aided” the September 11 attacks, or who harbored said persons or groups…. Since 2001, U.S. Presidents have interpreted their authority under the AUMF to extend beyond al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan to apply to numerous other groups as well as other geographic locales. ….Today, the full list of actors the US military is fighting or believes itself authorized to fight under the 2001 AUMF is classified and therefore a secret unknown to the American public.

“The AUMF has also been cited by a wide variety of US officials as justification for continuing US military actions all over the world. (Emphasis, jw)…. According to a report by the Congressional Research Service, published May 11, 2016, at that time the 2001 AUMF had been cited 37 times in connection with actions in 14 countries and on the high seas. The report stated that ‘Of the 37 occurrences, 18 were made during the Bush Administration, and 19 have been made during the Obama Administration.’ The countries that were mentioned in the report included Afghanistan, Cuba (Guantanamo Bay), Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Georgia, Iraq, Kenya, Libya, the Philippines, Somalia, Syria and Yemen.”

Every year the War Department keeps getting more and more and our country gets less and less.

So all you cheerleaders for some sort of war have nothing to fear….we will continue to do what we do best….go to war.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Lobbyist Money Well Spent

Recently the House had a brilliant idea….that is to find more oversight over the funds that is spent on continuing the war in Ukraine.

An idea that met with my approval (so that meant it would go nowhere) and now it looks like the buckets of cash from lobbyists has return a dividend.

The Senate on Tuesday night voted down an amendment to create a special inspector general to oversee the over $113 billion that the US has authorized to spend on the war in Ukraine.

The amendment, which was introduced by Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO), failed in a vote of 26-68, with 24 Republicans and only two Democrats voting in favor of more oversight for the billions in weapons that are being shipped to Ukraine.

Hawley tried to add the amendment to a bill to repeal the 1991 and 2002 Iraq Authorizations for the Use of Military Force (AUMFs). The legislation to repeal the AUMFs is expected to be voted on sometime this week.

Hawley’s idea was to create a position for Ukraine similar to the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), which John Sopko has filled since 2012.

Sopko found tens of billions of dollars in waste in US aid to Afghanistan and issued scathing reports criticizing US policy in the country. Last month, Sopko said he fears the US will repeat the same mistakes in Ukraine.

“You’re bound to get corrupt elements of not only the Ukrainian or the host government, but also of US government contractors or other third party contractors to try to steal the money. There’s just so much money going in, and it’s hard to keep track of,” Sopko told reporters.

Ahead of Tuesday’s vote, Hawley wrote in an op-ed published by Fox News: “Billions upon billions of American dollars are pouring into a war-torn country without any serious oversight.”

Hawley has been critical of US policy in Ukraine because he thinks the US should be focusing on building up in the Asia Pacific to face China instead. In December, he sent a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken urging the Biden administration to prioritize arming Taiwan over Ukraine.

(antiwar.com)

No one in the industry wants oversight.

Why should the American people know where their tax dollars are going and how it is spent?

Just another in a long list of oversight proposals that die an agonizing death.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Let’s Go To The Sinema

The elections are over and the GOP takes the House by a slim margin and the Senate is in the hands of the Dems….and now that slim margin is even slimmer….for Arizona junior Senator, Krysten Sinema has decided to leave the Dem Party…..

Days after Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock won the runoff election in Georgia, the 51-49 majority the party was expecting in Congress is looking shakier. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema tells CNN that she is leaving the Democratic Party and registering as an independent. The Arizona senator declined to say whether she would formally caucus with Democrats like the other two independent senators, Maine’s Sen. Angus King and Vermont’s Sen. Bernie Sanders. “I’m going to still come to work and hopefully serve on the same committees I’ve been serving on and continue to work well with my colleagues at both political parties,” she says. Nothing will change about her “values and behavior,” she says.

“I’ve never fit neatly into any party box. I’ve never really tried. I don’t want to,” Sinema says. “Removing myself from the partisan structure—not only is it true to who I am and how I operate, I also think it’ll provide a place of belonging for many folks across the state and the country, who also are tired of the partisanship.” In 2018, Sinema became the first woman—and the first Democrat in more than 20 years—to be elected to the Senate from Arizona. Like Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin, Sinema was already known as a centrist, opposed to moves like weakening the filibuster. Politico reports the switch means Manchin, “a pivotal swing vote in the 50-50 chamber” will keep “some but not all of his outsized influence in the Democratic caucus.”

Sinema says she informed Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of her decision Thursday and she doesn’t “anticipate that anything will change about the Senate structure.” In an Arizona Republic op-ed, she writes that she has worked “proudly with senators in both parties who have similarly rejected political extremes and forged consensus, helping drain some of the poison from today’s politics.” “Like a lot of Arizonans, I have never fit perfectly in either national party,” she writes. The 46-year-old wouldn’t tell CNN whether she is going to seek reelection in 2024, but she said she’s not planning to run for president.

What a lame excuse….almost as lame as “I want to spend more time with my family”….come on let’s be real….she is worried about re-election mostly…..

The search for answers and future fallout from Sen. Kyrsten Sinema’s decision to leave the Democratic Party has turned up plenty of possibilities. Democratic leaders in Washington refrained from bashing her decision, hoping to keep her voting with them. Democrats in Arizona, who invested in her 2018 campaign and helped put her in the Senate, see the decision as strategic, calculated to avoid a difficult primary battle in two years that she might well lose—and not so much about the systemic problems with the two-party system that she cited Friday. The reporting and analyses cover:

The Senate: Sinema sounds like she expects to stay on the committees Democratic leaders assigned her to, and caucus with the party—which affects the chamber’s organization—but she won’t quite say so. It’s not clear which side of the aisle her desk will sit on, per the Washington Post. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer called her an effective senator and said her change won’t much affect “the new Democratic majority Senate.” Sinema rarely went to Democratic caucus meetings anyway, per the New York Times.

The timing: She told Democrats of her decision two days after Georgia reelected Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock, cushioning the blow to Senate Democrats. She won’t get much Democratic support in 2024 anyway, Aaron Blake writes in a Post analysis, but the same decision would have fallen differently if Warnock had lost. “Imagine her trying to appeal to any of the Democrats who elected her in 2018 after having handed the Senate majority to the GOP,” Blake says. A Democratic House member from Arizona said his wife predicted the switch hours after Warnock won, per Politico. “I bet you she goes independent,” Mona Grijalva said. “In terms of her leverage in the Senate, the universe shifted with that victory,” said Rep. Raul Grijalva.

The ideology: Sinema has shown flexibility here. Progressive activists in Arizona are especially irked by the shifts in a politician they supported and now see her as a major opponent, per the Los Angeles Times. Sinema began in politics in the Green Party and as antiwar activist, a “Prada socialist” called too extreme by her state’s Democratic Party, per the AP. Sinema then went independent, then Democratic. She said Friday her values won’t change. She said that she wouldn’t become “distracted by political drama,” Elvia Diaz points out in a USA Today column, but created it with such attention-grabbers as giving a demonstrative thumbs-down to a minimum wage measure on the Senate floor and posting pictures on social media of a ring with the message “f–k off.”

The next race: Sinema had been headed toward a 2024 primary against Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego, whose campaign sent a fundraising text after her announcement saying he’s “thinking of running,” per Axios. A poll in September showed Sinema with a favorable rating of 37% among Democrats back home; 57% had an unfavorable opinion of her, per the Post. The earliest polls show strength for Gallego. Had Arizona Republicans Kari Lake or Blake Masters won their statewide elections last month, Gallego might have challenged one of them next time, per Bloomberg. But with those paths closed, Sinema’s seat is a prime target; progressives already were thinking of challenging her from the left. Sinema’s unpopularity with Democrats means she would need Republicans and independents to back her next time, Diaz writes, but counting on Arizona’s GOP, especially, to support Sinema seems a tough bet. She made this move because it’s her best shot, Diaz says.

All the analysis comes down to two items…..money and power.

Sinema saw how much power Manchin wheeled in the last 2 years….she wants that power!

Plus she was also the center of media attention last Congress and she wants that to continue.

Plus she can sit on the fence and see which way the special interest money winds will blow.

The proud servant of the people is more about a self- serving agenda…..typical politician.

Remember When Comic Books Were Dangerous?

No?

Well time for the Old Professor to drop some history.

These days comic books are a great source of entertainment and collecting them has become mainstream.

But it was not always so acceptable to read or collect these treasures.

Like today when some blame society’s ills on video games and music so it was that comics were accused as the source of juvenile delinquency in the 1950s.

Comic books are successful almost from their inception in the early 1930s, but also subject to attack by critics for the low quality of the art and writing, and for the emphasis on violent stories and images. These attacks come from adult critics, not the millions of monthly comics readers — mainly children and teenagers who love the vivid illustrations and exciting stories in the books.

After World War II, readership dwindles for popular superhero titles, such as Superman, Wonder Woman, and The Spirit, and many comics turn to gory, true-life stories, or tales of horror and the supernatural. E.C. Comics’ Vault of Horror, Crypt of Terror, and Haunt of Fear cram their pages with severed heads, drug use, and graphic violence. Some of the most popular of these extreme stories come from the pen of comic artist Jack Cole.

Throughout the decade, attacks against the violent comics mount. Citizens’ groups and religious organizations pressure publishers and news dealers to drop the most offensive lines. Newspaper editorial pages and national magazines debate the influence of comics on the young.

In 1954 the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency holds hearings on whether comic books inspire juvenile delinquency. A lead witness, psychologist Dr. Frederick Wertham, testifies that comics “create a mental readiness for temptation” and create “an atmosphere of deceit and cruelty” for children. He even attacks Superman for “arousing fantasies of sadistic joy in seeing others punished while you yourself remain immune.”

E.C. Comics publisher William Gaines speaks in the comics defense, emphasizing his stories’ endings, in which the criminals always pay for their crimes. “Good taste” is his only criterion. Senator Estes Kefauver asks if an E.C. Comics’ cover displaying a woman’s severed head and a bloody axe is Gaines’ idea of good taste. Backed into a corner, Gaines boldly answers ‘yes.’ The exchange makes the front page of the next day’s New York Times.

The committee’s subsequent report declares no proven connection between comics and delinquency. Nevertheless, the Senate calls for self-regulation by the comics industry to keep violent titles out of young hands. Seeking to diffuse the negative publicity, the comic book publishers create The Comics Magazine Association of America. The new trade group publishes a strict code of guidelines to control what content the comics will permit. The guidelines focus exclusively on crime and horror comics. Within a short time, the genre is no longer commercially viable.

The imposition of the Comic Book Code bankrupts many of the horror and crime publishers, and many of the artists and writers leave the business for good. The most notable failure is E.C. Comics,

I always wonder why the dialog in the early comics was so horribly bad….like it was written by a 4 year old on Zanax……now you know.

Class Dismissed!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Pharma Strikes Again

The attempts to try and control the runaway prices for drugs was thwarted by the Senate and Pharma and their suitcases of bribes have struck again.

Senate Republicans knocked a $35 monthly limit on insulin costs for diabetics out of the Democratic economic bill on Sunday. “The reality is the cost of insulin is not just out of control, it is devastating people,” Democratic Sen. Patty Murray said on the floor before the vote, per the Washington Post. Because of a parliamentarian ruling, the measure covering insured patients needed more than the usual simple majority to pass, the Hill reports. The tally was 57-43, with all no votes coming from Republicans. The parliamentarian’s ruling did not affect the similar limit for Medicare patients, which remains in the bill and could have an effect on insulin prices generally.

The House has passed a bill capping the monthly cost of insulin at $35 for insured patients, part of an election-year push by Democrats for price curbs on prescription drugs at a time of rising inflation, per the AP. Experts say the legislation, which passed 232-193 Thursday, would provide significant relief for privately insured patients with skimpier plans and for Medicare enrollees facing rising out-of-pocket costs for their insulin. Some could save hundreds of dollars annually, and all insured patients would get the benefit of predictable monthly costs for insulin. The bill would not help the uninsured. Ten Republicans joined all Democrats in voting for the legislation, notes the New York Times.

The Affordable Insulin Now Act will serve as a political vehicle to rally Democrats and force Republicans who oppose it into uncomfortable votes ahead of the midterms. For the legislation to pass Congress, 10 Republican senators would have to vote in favor to overcome a filibuster. Democrats acknowledge they don’t have an answer for how that’s going to happen, but the political sniping has begun: “If 10 Republicans stand between the American people being able to get access to affordable insulin, that’s a good question for 10 Republicans to answer,” said Rep. Dan Kildee, D-Mich., a cosponsor of the House bill. “Republicans get diabetes, too. Republicans die from diabetes.

Public opinion polls have consistently shown support across party lines for congressional action to limit drug costs. But Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., complained the legislation is only “a small piece of a larger package around government price controls for prescription drugs.” Critics say the bill would raise premiums and fails to target pharmaceutical middlemen seen as contributing to high list prices for insulin. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said Democrats could have a deal on prescription drugs if they drop their bid to authorize Medicare to negotiate prices. “Do Democrats really want to help seniors, or would they rather have the campaign issue?” Grassley said.

Screwing diabetes sufferers is paramount for the GOP.

Then Pharma goes into full blown fearmongering…..

Groups like this mysterious American Prosperity Alliance (which just launched their website in late June), Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) and National Association of Manufacturers have been going all in, dropping millions of dollars on deceptive ads aimed at getting people to oppose drug price negotiation. Meanwhile, Republicans are trying to frame it as “socialist price controls!,” for reasons of “follow the money.”

“I don’t think socializing prices that is putting the government in charge of this is the way to continue the kind of healthy effective pharmaceutical industry that has saved the lives of millions of Americans,” Mitch McConnell said earlier this month.

Although at this point I think that one is probably a hard sell. Polls have shown for years that huge majorities of the country want the government to do far more about the price of pharmaceutical drugs than just letting Medicare negotiate prices.

Too many people have to buy overpriced insulin, Epipens, and too many people remember the time Medicare paid “$172 million between 2006 and 2011, about twice as much as the consumer would have paid at the retail level” for penis pumps for this to be an easy thing to pull off. Many of them have even heard that the government could have saved $3.6 billion by buying Medicare pharmaceuticals from an online pharmacy. Additionally, with inflation being what it is, it’s not gonna be all that easy to get people riled up about “socialist price controls.” When the other option is “getting completely screwed and paying out the nose” for things, “socialist price controls” just don’t sound that menacing.

Of course, allowing Medicare to negotiate prices is not “socialist price controls” anyway, anymore than private insurance companies negotiating prices is “socialist price controls.” In fact, for all intents and purposes, health insurance is a form of collective bargaining. The insurance companies say “We have this many customers, you can sell your drug to our group but only if you charge this much.” That’s why people in countries that have socialized health care pay less for their drugs. Because their whole country is one giant insurance group, which gives them leverage. This is what Medicare should be, but it’s not, because pharmaceutical companies prefer a system where they get to tell the US government how much it is going to pay for drugs and the US government has to pay that amount, regardless of how ridiculous it is.

https://www.wonkette.com/pharma-groups-hope-to-scare-americans-into-letting-them-screw-us-forever

Time for the public to stop bitching and start paying attention…..because eventually your very existence will be at issue.

Turn The Page!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Does Manchin Play Ball?

For a couple of years Manchin has been a thorn in the Dems butt…..he works for big coal and seldom will vote for anything that will hurt his masters pocketbook……

But times change (interesting thought but not change at all)……Manchin is playing ball with Dems on a bill……an expansive bill that covers drug prices, tax loopholes, etc…..

Sen. Joe Manchin reached agreement with Senate Democratic leaders to support President Biden’s domestic spending plan, legislation addressing health care costs, climate change, and other priorities. The deal reverses Manchin’s position of two weeks ago, when he said he couldn’t commit to the bill before economic data is released next month, the New York Times reports. His statement Wednesday didn’t specify which provisions he backs and which he doesn’t, but it indicated general support for the climate and energy programs, as well as some tax proposals. Until now, Manchin has been the holdup on Democrats getting the president’s economic package through Congress.

Manchin had cited inflation as the main reason he was holding up the plan. Saying “Build Back Better is dead,” Manchin recast the legislation as the Inflation Reduction Act, contrasting it with last year’s spending plan. This bill will “cut the inflation taxes Americans are paying, lower the cost of health insurance and prescription drugs, and ensure our country invests in the energy security and climate change solutions we need to remain a global superpower,” he said. Manchin also agreed to measures to reduce health care costs, including allowing Medicare to negotiate the price of certain prescription drugs for seniors. Corporations and the very wealthiest would see tax loopholes closed, per the Hill.

Some Democrats feared the unpleasant intraparty fighting on the legislation, which has been going on for months, would damage their chances in the November midterm elections, per the Washington Post. Now that the West Virginia Democrat and Majority Leader Chuck Schumer have settled, Democrats could get the bill moving as early as next week. Biden added his endorsement of the agreement on the $670 billion package in a statement Wednesday. “This is the action the American people have been waiting for,” the president said.

Will Manchin stay true to his word?

Then there is the other Dem that is a thorn in the ass, Sinema……

Will she play ball or will she continue to be a stumbling block for progress?

Joe Manchin stunned DC Wednesday by announcing that he had reversed himself and would back Democrats’ sweeping spending plan after all. The surprise deal the West Virginia senator struck with Sen. Chuck Schumer has provided Democrats with their “best news” in weeks, notes Politico, because it means the party should be able to push through President Biden’s agenda on climate change and health care. “Should” is the operative word there, however. Because as Axios points out, it’s still unclear whether Arizona Sen. Krysten Sinema—who with Manchin has bucked her party on tax issues previously—will go along. Democrats cannot afford even one defection because all Republicans oppose the plan.

We do not have a comment, as she will need to review the text,” a Sinema spokesperson says. On Thursday, Manchin confirmed to CNN that she was not part of the deal he struck with Schumer. “I have not spoken to her about this. … I would hope that she would be receptive,” he said, per a tweet from CNN’s Manu Raju. The Wall Street Journal reports that Sinema did not attend a party caucus meeting on Thursday led by Schumer. One potential sticking point: Manchin agreed to close a tax loophole known as “carried interest,” which concerns how investments are taxed, but Sinema has long opposed such a move, per Hot Air. In general, she has resisted any moves that would result in higher taxes.

Assuming Democrats can get Sinema on board and pass the legislation, it would represent a “massive victory” for them, per Axios. At the New York Times, David Leonhardt writes that the resulting climate legislation in particular would “probably have more lasting importance than anything else President Biden signs in his first two years in office.” The Republican view on all this? The deal’s 15% corporate minimum tax and increased spending are “reckless” in the current economic climate, says Sen. John Barrasso, per Reuters. And Sen. Joni Ernst called for more production of domestic oil and natural gas as a way to lower gasoline prices, rather than adding new tax incentives for electric vehicles, as Biden’s climate plan does.

I have no confidence in the word of these two political stooges….they front for business and will only do what they are told.

How is your faith?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Here’s The Gun Deal

The US Senate has reached a bi-partisan (hate that term) deal on guns….(my opinion is it sucks)……

Tuesday, a bipartisan group of senators released legislative text for a narrow set of gun safety measures, marking the most significant step towards toughening federal gun laws in nearly three decades.

If passed, the bill would require enhanced background checks for buyers under age 21 and provide some $15 billion in new federal funding for mental health programs and school security upgrades. But the bipartisan compromise falls well short of the broader gun-control measures that President Joe Biden and other Democrats have called for in the wake of recent mass shootings, including an assault weapons ban and restrictions on high-capacity ammunition magazines.

With 10 Republican Senators already announcing support for the original framework—enough to break a filibuster—the legislation is expected to pass the Senate by the end of the week and then head for a vote on the House floor before the July 4 recess. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat from California, signaled last week that the Democratic-controlled House would enact whatever bill the Senate might pass.

“This is a breakthrough,” Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut, the lead Democratic negotiator, said Tuesday. “This bill is going to save lives.”

https://time.com/6189655/gun-safety-bill-whats-in-it/

A bold prediction that this will save lies…..I do not see where the optimism is….338 million guns floating around…..

This bill is far too weak to accomplish the bold prediction by Murphy…..

While Democratic lawmakers lauded the gun control package unveiled in the U.S. Senate after weeks of negotiations late Tuesday and national advocacy groups called the bill a “step in the right direction,” educators, parents, and local civil rights organizations in Arizona rebuked their senators for standing in the way of farther-reaching reforms.

In a 64-34 vote, the Senate agreed to take up the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act hours after the group of 10 Democrats and 10 Republicans released the 80-page bill, with senators hoping to pass the legislation by this weekend.

The bill includes a number of provisions aimed at making it more difficult for people deemed to be a threat to themselves or others to buy firearms, but gun control advocates across the country have expressed outrage in recent weeks as the lead Senate negotiators tempered expectations about the inclusion of broadly popular reforms including universal background checks and a reinstatement of a ban on assault weapons.

In Arizona, organizers directed some of their ire at Democratic Sens. Kyrsten Sinema and Mark Kelly, who represent the state and who have stood in the way of ending the legislative filibuster—a step they say would allow the Senate to pass bolder gun control measures.

“The filibuster is killing us,” wrote groups, including Arizona Educators United and the Arizona Justice Alliance as well as teachers and parents from across the state. “A handful of Democratic senators, including Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, are joining the Republican Party in allowing the endless slaughter of our schoolchildren.”

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2022/06/22/far-too-weak-senate-gun-control-bill-slammed-crumbs

All I have to say is …”Nice Try….close but NO cigar”!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Your Voting Rights

These duties of a citizen is under constant strain from the GOP….with restrictive voting programs…..now Biden is stepping forward…..with what could be a life changing situation as far as our voting life goes….

Pounding his fist for emphasis, President Biden challenged senators on Tuesday to “stand against voter suppression,” urging them to change Senate rules in order to pass voting rights legislation that Republicans are blocking from debate and votes. Biden told a crowd in Atlanta that he’d been having quiet conversations with senators for months over the two bills—a lack of progress that has brought his criticism from activists in his own party, the AP reports. “I’m tired of being quiet!” he shouted. “I will not yield. I will not flinch.” Biden on Tuesday also paid tribute to civil rights battles past—visiting Atlanta’s historic Ebenezer Baptist Church, where the late Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. once held forth from the pulpit. He stood quietly as Martin Luther King III placed a wreath outside at the crypt of King and his wife, Coretta Scott King.

With Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer setting next Monday’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a deadline to either pass voting legislation or consider revising the rules around the chamber’s filibuster blocking device, Biden is expected to evoke the memories of the Capitol riot in more forcefully aligning himself with the voting rights effort. Biden told his audience Tuesday: “The next few days, when these bills come to a vote, will mark a turning point in this nation. Will we choose democracy over autocracy, light over shadow, justice over injustice? I know where I stand.”

Biden promised: “I will defend your right to vote and our democracy against all enemies foreign, yes and domestic! And so the question is where will the institution of the United States Senate stand?”Georgia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, known for her untiring voting rights work, was not at the event. Aides said Abrams had a conflict but didn’t explain further, though she tweeted support for the president.

Current rules require 60 votes to advance most legislation—a threshold that Senate Democrats can’t meet alone because they only have a 50-50 majority with Vice President Kamala Harris to break ties. Republicans unanimously oppose the voting rights measures. Not all Democrats are on board with changing the filibuster rules. West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin threw cold water on the idea Tuesday, saying he believes any changes should be made with substantial Republican buy-in. And even if Democrats clear the obstacles to passage of the voting rights laws, it could be too late to counter widespread voting restrictions passed in 19 states following former Donald Trump’s 2020 loss and false claims that the election was stolen through voter fraud.

Promises….promises….great thoughts and words….but what is needed is action not idle promises.

I am not holding my breath….are you?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Protect Manhood

Feminism had brought out the envy from some males. Even to the point of a Male Liberation movement….still working on that one…..I mean males have been the controlling general of society for so long and they are now running scared.

Even a US Senator has jumped on this stupidity…one Josh Hawley…..

Joshie boy wants to step the stage for his presidential run in 2024…..and he is thumping his frail chest on manhood……

Conservative Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri opened a fresh battle in the culture wars with a defense of masculinity, arguing that the left is turning young men into wimpy creatures addicted to porn and video games. That, in turn, triggered a backlash against the 41-year-old. Coverage:

The speech: Hawley addressed the National Conservatism Conference over the weekend and addressed the “future of the American man.” You can read it in full via the Federalist. He complained that liberals “want to define traditional masculinity as toxic. They want to define the traditional masculine virtues—things like courage and independence and assertiveness—as a danger to society.”

Big line: “Can we be surprised that after years of being told they are the problem, that their manhood is the problem, more and more men are withdrawing into the enclave of idleness and pornography and video games?” asked Hawley, who’s expected to vie for the GOP presidential nomination in 2024. (The Trump supporter famously raised a supportive fist to protesters in DC on Jan. 6.)

Counterpoint: At the Independent, Noah Berlatsky disagrees with Hawley’s take on masculinity, but he also sees a lot of hypocrisy in the criticism. Calling Hawley a wimp plays into the very stereotypes that these critics typically rail against. “Whether Hawley is a bad masculine manly man by his own standards is irrelevant,” he writes. “What is relevant is that those standards themselves are malignant and dangerous. Don’t let Hawley trick you into using them.”

Another wedge issue….just once I would like to hear a policy coming from the lying lips of a GOP candidate.

And the GOP malignancy continues to grow in the party of ignorance and lies.

Watch This Blog!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Congress Does What It Does Best–Nothing

As this year’s session draws to a close…The Congress does what it always does….waits until it is a certainty that nothing or little gets done.

Like the whole ‘Building America Back’ scam……

Biden’s ambitious economic plan for the nation was just what all politicians do….promise and fail to deliver….but most are not disappointed because they have fail safe that will protect their Centrist BS…..Biden’s fail safe has been Manchin and Sinema in the Senate……

As Biden’s modest economic plan crumbles, brought asunder from within by members of his own party, the fate of the Democrats in the midterm elections seems as firmly sealed as that of poor Fortunato in Poe’s “A Cask of Amontillado.” Yet, I can’t help thinking this collapse was inevitable and was secretly, if not desired at least planned for by Biden. Losing Democratic control of the Congress would leave him in Clinton’s position after the rout of 94–both as the last defense against the Republican Visigoths and able to freely wheel-and-deal unfettered by the demands of his party’s progressive wing. Bill was adept at triangulation politics. But then he was a much nimbler politician than Biden, able to screw over his electoral base and still seduce them into voting for him again two years later.

Joe Manchin: “I’ve never been a liberal in any way, shape, or form, so if progressives want a bigger reconciliation bill elect more liberals…I cannot accept our economy, or basically our society, moving towards an entitlement mentality.”

Of course, Manchin’s never hesitated to demand entitlements for banks and corporations…

Biden always knew he had three failsafes against having to fulfill any of the big ticket promises he made during the campaign: the Senate parliamentarian, Sinema and Manchin. He didn’t even need Mitch.

(Jeffrey St. Clair)

I say do nothing because the infratstructure plan is widely popular with the people of this country….

Despite Republican opposition in Congress, majorities of Americans favor every key aspect of President Biden’s infrastructure plan, according to a new Yahoo News/YouGov poll.

The survey of 1,649 U.S. adults, which was conducted from April 6 to April 8, found that most (51 percent) say they would support “another big legislative package to invest in America’s infrastructure and combat climate change”; far fewer (30 percent) say they would oppose it.

Both Democrats (80 percent to 8 percent) and independents (48 percent to 36 percent) favor such a package. Republicans are opposed, 58 percent to 22 percent.

(yahoo news)

And yet nothing from the Congress….but what’s new?

Real Progressives have seldom thought the Congress was on their side….the nation is stuck in 1950 and Dems are NO help in moving this country forward…..cash has made the Congress a do-nothing institution which is crippling the country and its people.

And yet the voter turns a blind eye to the BS making them as worthless as tits on a flashlight.

We could change all this stagnation….but sadly we will not.

Turn The Page~!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

In Saner Thought

"It is the duty of every man, as far as his ability extends, to detect and expose delusion and error"..Thomas Paine

Tag: US Senate

This Should Keep Warmongers In Business.

Lobbyist Money Well Spent

Let’s Go To The Sinema

Remember When Comic Books Were Dangerous?

Pharma Strikes Again

Does Manchin Play Ball?

Here’s The Gun Deal

Your Voting Rights

Protect Manhood

Congress Does What It Does Best–Nothing