11/6-7 News Roundup and Open Thread
Congress approves $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill, sending measure to Biden for enactment
House lawmakers late Friday adopted a roughly $1.2 trillion measure to improve the country’s roads, bridges, pipes, ports and Internet connections, overcoming their own internecine divides to secure a long-sought burst in federal investment and deliver President Biden a major legislative win.
The bipartisan 228-to-206 vote marked the final milestone for the first of two pieces in the president’s sprawling economic agenda. The outcome sends to Biden’s desk an initiative that promises to deliver its benefits to all 50 states, a manifestation of his 2020 campaign pledge to rejuvenate the economy in the aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic and “build back better.”
The path to passage proved littered with political conflict, pushing to the limits a fractious party with still-widening ideological fissures. Democrats initially hoped to approve the infrastructure bill on Friday along with a separate, roughly $2 trillion proposal to overhaul the nation’s health care, education, immigration, climate and tax laws. Doing so would have advanced two spending initiatives that have been stalled on Capitol Hill for months.
Originally, I reported the Squad was split on the vote. It turns out they all voted no.
Fly high, birdies! This serves as a weekend thread.
Fire away….
More about the bill…
Almost identical to the proposal from August. Needle never moved in a serious fashion.
Is the End of the Unreformable Democratic Party?
so sad for bernie and any true progressives. corpoate pols and their followers are braying over the “weak” dems bodies. it’s really hard to keep working towards what?
View a little American political history. When Barry Goldwater got creamed by LBJ back in 1964, the RWingnut business oligarchs went ballistic. So did their rich pals. So, they started organizing and plotting how to crush the progressive left. Tricky Prick Nixon got elected in 1968. The FRighties were already getting cozy with the Religious Right and other organized racist groups. The Powell Memo spelled out their plans in 1971. It was no big secret. Watergate was a speed bump in their road to grabbing back power, but they stayed patient and diligent. Then came the election of Ronald Fascist Raygun in 1980. That was a major turning point, and illustrated that this backwards, greedball cabal knew precisely what it was doing. Fast forward to now. These cretins have been very successful. Yeah, plenty of money backing them, but also patience and buying up as much media as they could. This country is very ignorant politically, and that is part of the FRightie yahoo formula for success. However, they can’t stop climate chaos. Mother Nature could care less about some cretin’s bank account.
Voting down Pentagon funding, perhaps? Obstruct like Republicans? Seems there are some possibilities that could illuminate a few realities.
Ted Rall
Democratic Moderates Aren’t the Answer to Right-Wing Republicanism. They Are the Cause.
Alright, when is the so-called “Independent” media going to quit calling these creeps, “moderates”? They’re not. They are craporate RWingers, and quite a few of them are “ex” GOPukers. JFCOAC!!!
Hubby turned to news, think it was yesterday, just in time to hear Manchin say, “this is a center-right country!”, gag.
If so, it’s a least partly to Dems like Manchin!
Found it:
Manchin says U.S. is a ‘center-right’ country, but is he correct?
Hate to link MSNBC, but there it is.
No, it’s not but these cretins control most of the media (megaphones), so what do you expect?
Don’t Eliminate the SALT Cap by Senator Bernie Sanders
Did Bernie’s team see my blunt comment the other day? In any event, this explains his proposal with Mr. Pharma, and now I have a better understanding. Thank you, Bernie! I don’t think this will happen, but it’s good to know what you had in mind.
i add your name to my list over and over I am tens of thousands of people away from the limit, so the only thing I can think of for when they drop people as soon as I add them is that I don’t have the app and they want people to get the app. I think i saw your pharmacy one.
Bernie has such a good heart—he’s dine soo much and I’m glad he’s still out there with the striking workers and doing things like that. But I’m not sure that he’s lost his more comfortable status as a muckraker without power.
I was hoping that he would figure that this might be his swan song and go all out and not try to be Biden’s friend in the end which is what I think happened. It just makes me it’s so sad.
afaic we really are a or however you spell. we got to see them making our laws in this bill and yet the MSM, nary a peep.
a corporatocracy is what was left out
I guess the Mafia boys who have Menendez in their back pocket are fine with a $400G cap. What a corrupt joke the Senate is.
Silicon Valley Rep. Ro Khanna’s campaign to pay $16K to FEC
I know someone from his district who filed with the FEC one of those complaints. He said it took 4 years, but at last, the hand slap arrived Thur.
Ro Khanna is some sort of political shape-shifter. He’s better than Stephanie Murphy but that is a very low bar.
thanks mucho benny! ❤️🌊🐚🐋🐻🐻❄️🌟🌈🐌🐞🎉🎹🐸🦉😎🦋🙏🌧💴💜🌝🌙🌻🍄🐳
+27 🙂
China Has World’s Largest Navy With 355 Ships and Counting, Says Pentagon
Once again the MIC is lobbying for more $$$$$$$. Looking at the data out thier US has 11 aircraft carriers to China’s 2, and 95 destroyers to their 35 – and the Chinese numbers include thier coast guard vessels. The MIC didnt list those for some reason :). Once the GQP reads this they’ll be going OMG!!!! were falling behing China on war ships so we just cant afford anything for health care, education, immigration, climate etc..
We only need about a few good ones.
I might add that the US just sold 650 mil in missles to Saudi Arabia
Whoopie, doopie.
The usual load of RW political crap.
Here’s a good thread from Virginian progressive Tom Pereillo with the optimistic take about BIF and BBB. We will see soon if is warranted. The BBB needs to pass basically where it is now for it to come true. He does explain the motivations of the players.
I think it comes down to what motivates Manchin. Some have speculated that he’s such an asshole that he didn’t want to be seen bowing to progressives (especially younger progressive women) so now he will be more amenable. There are downsides to him for blowing this up (and for the House suicide squad). Also for Biden and Dem leadership. The party would be split and the 2022 midterms will be a disaster.
I don’t think Manchin nor Simena care about the blood bath to come next year.
They’ll just switch parties and feel right at home
I think Manchinema are much happier with the power they have as Dems as the deciding vote. As part of a Republican majority, they lose it all. Plus Republicans are Uber nuts. Remember these two voted twice to convict dear leader Trump so they would not be welcomed with open arms. They have value to Republicans much more as crappy sabotage Dems.
I think Simena is toast. If the Dems get crushed in the mid terms as expected Manchin will go back to being a minority nobody and the R’s will still welcome him as he would add to thier numbers and all is forgiven once you praise cult-45. Graham fipped floped on Cult -45 so much he just had to kiss cult-45 ass to get back in his good graces. This was Manchins one shot to have any “power” and used it to be a complete asshole.
We will all know soon, but in any case even if both the BIF and BBB had passed on Friday, the BBB still would have to go to the Senate for approval so Manchinema would have had an equal chance to blow it up no matter.
The only difference here is that the House corpDems now have a chance also. They promised they wouldn’t and we shall see.
Bernie himself has said let both go to the Senate and let the chips fall where they may.
I got a bad feeling about the BBB now, really going to get waterd down now if not outright killed. Centrists will gladly go into the mids on touting infrdstructure.
T and R x 2, Ms. Benny!! 🙂 Color me cynically skeptical about both bills. They’ve been watered down to the point that they need a figurative triple dose of B-12. 🙁 Notice the sneaky cowardly Friday night vote? I already know how I’m voting next fall.
Definitely a possibility but there were lots of moderates who did want BBB passed even in its original form. They realize they are in big trouble in 2022 without a robust BBB. Just BIF isn’t going to cut it and they know it.
I hope you’re right, jcb. I sure wouldn’t bet on it.
At least they said they did for a while
LA Sheriffs Deputies Use Minor Infractions to Search Bicyclists; Latinos Often the Most Stopped
What you need to know about gerrymandering in Wisconsin – and why it will take massive political pressure to change a corrupt system
David D. Haynes, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
And I thought Wisconsin Republicans were the experts on gerrymandering.
Democrats in Illinois just created a state congressional map that looks like a Jackson Pollock fever dream.In fact, it’s a nightmare for Republicans in that state and ought to be a lesson for voters everywhere.
What just happened in Illinois?
Illinois Democrats pushed through new congressional maps last week that would eliminate two Republican-held districts. Even though Illinois will lose a seat because its population declined, the state will likely have a congressional delegation of 14 Democrats and three Republicans — up from the current 13-5 margin.
The new maps got an “F” from the Princeton Gerrymandering Project, a nonpartisan group, which called them “very uncompetitive.”
One of the victims was Adam Kinzinger, one of only 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach former President Donald Trump. The new maps would have put Kinzinger in the same district as U.S. Rep. Darin LaHood, who supported the former president. Kinzinger announced his retirement on Friday, the day after the Illinois legislature advanced the maps.
What did Republicans do 10 years ago in Wisconsin?
In 2011, Wisconsin Republicans ensured that even in a Democratic wave election, they’d have a very good chance of holding both houses of the Legislature.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Craig Gilbert and Daphne Chen recently examined the impact of those maps.
They wrote:
Before the gerrymander, about 55 or 56 of the 99 Assembly seats were more Republican in their partisan composition than the state as a whole. In other words, in a 50-50 statewide election, you’d expect Republican voters to outnumber Democratic voters in 55 or 56 Assembly districts.
After the gerrymander, about 62 or 63 were more Republican than the state as a whole. That raised the GOP’s baked-in advantage from about 13 seats (56 to 43) to about 25 (62 to 37). And in fact, the GOP has averaged a 62-seat majority since the 2011 redistricting.
What’s likely to happen this year?
Republicans still control both houses of the Legislature, but Gov. Tony Evers, a Democrat, will likely veto the highly partisan maps the Republicans recently passed. Either the state or federal courts are expected to step in to settle the issue. Republicans believe they’ll get a better shake from the state Supreme Court, which leans conservative. Democrats would rather see the federal courts settle the matter.
Don’t Wisconsin Democrats generally support the idea of ‘fair maps’?
Many say they do.
A largely Democratic push to pressure the Legislature has had some success. About three-quarters of Wisconsin counties have endorsed the idea of “fair maps.”
And a lawsuit arguing that Wisconsin’s 2011 maps were so unfair to Democratic voters that they were unconstitutional reached the U.S. Supreme Court. The high court punted, ruling in 2018 “that partisan gerrymandering claims present political questions beyond the reach of the federal courts.”
When Democrats last held complete control of the state Capitol late in the administration of former Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle, they didn’t advance legislation to create an independent form of redistricting.
I’m guessing Democratic leaders didn’t see the Republican wave coming, the one that inundated them in 2010, led by the Tea Party nationally and Scott Walker in Wisconsin.
They may have been gambling they could retain control of both houses of the Legislature and the governor’s office — and do to the Republicans what the Republicans ended up doing to them.
What exactly is gerrymandering?
Every 10 years, legislative and congressional district boundaries must be redrawn to account for changes in population to ensure the constitutional mandate of one person, one vote.
Gerrymandering is when politicians deliberately draw legislative boundaries to give their party an advantage — packing the opposing party into a handful of districts or cracking districts and distributing opposing voters across a large number of districts to dilute their votes.
It’s a very old political trick, dating to the earliest days of the republic. Those who oppose reform often point to that fact. You’ll never wring politics out of an inherently political process, they say. And, they argue, it’s better to let elected representatives do the work rather than people who have no direct accountability to voters at the ballot box.
But when the work of politicians runs counter to democracy, a more democratic system is needed.
Why should we care?
In a concurring opinion in Gill v. Whitford, the Wisconsin case that reached the high court, Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan put it this way:
Gerrymandering produces “indifference to swing voters and their views; extreme political positioning designed to placate the party’s base and fend off primary challenges; the devaluing of negotiation and compromise; and the impossibility of reaching pragmatic, bipartisan solutions to the nation’s problems.”
How to make redistricting more fair
Since maps were last redrawn, voters in six states — Colorado, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Utah and Virginia — have passed reforms.
But the Iowa system remains the model worth emulating.
In Iowa, the moment of truth came in 1980 when a Republican-controlled state government pushed through redistricting reform. Since then, the work has been done by an arm of the state legislature. The process is fast, cheap and results in more competitive elections — and sometimes the defeat of incumbents.
This year, the Iowa legislature has already approved new maps for congressional and state legislative districts, which would pit 58 lawmakers against at least one other legislator, according to the Des Moines Register. That includes 20 of Iowa’s 50 incumbent senators.
Here’s how the process works in Iowa:
Iowa’s Legislative Services Agency draws the maps, which have to be as equal in population as possible, respect political boundaries by trying not to divide cities and counties, be contiguous and be reasonably compact. It is a blind process that cannot favor political parties or incumbents or be used to enhance or dilute the voting strength of minority groups.
The legislature must consider the plan promptly and can only vote up or down. If lawmakers reject the initial plan (which they did this year), they have to explain why based on the criteria for drawing districts.
The agency then submits a second plan, which the legislature also considers on an up-or-down vote. If the second plan is rejected, the agency draws up a third plan based on legislative feedback and submits it to the General Assembly.
The third map is subject to regular amendments, just like any other bill, so in theory, lawmakers could draw their own maps at that point. This year, Democrats worried that Republicans, who control state government, would take over the process and impose their will through a partisan gerrymander when they drew the third map.
It didn’t happen. In fact, since Iowa adopted redistricting reform 40 years ago, there has never been a third vote.
Why did Iowa Republicans agree to give up such a handy political tool?
The state was led at the time by Gov. Robert Ray, a moderate Republican governor with a reputation for bipartisanship. There also was resentment that the courts had stepped in to require a new set of maps a few years earlier, which resulted in a mess in the opinion of many in the majority, according to a 2013 white paper co-authored by longtime Iowa political observer Don Racheter.
And there were backbenchers in the GOP who were as concerned as some Democrats about losing their seats to gerrymandering, Racheter wrote. Finally, there was a general feeling that it was simply the “right thing to do.”
In an era of extreme political polarization, it’s unlikely the Republican majority in Wisconsin will take up redistricting reform unless compelled to do so by either the courts or intense public pressure.
It will take action by the Legislature to change the process; we don’t have the ability in Wisconsin to change law through a direct referendum.
Aren’t there bills to change how Wisconsin conducts redistricting?
Yes, and they are based on how Iowa’s process works — Senate Bill 389 and Assembly Bill 395. But these and similar bills introduced in years past have never gotten so much as a public hearing.
How would a change like that help our politics?
When a district is so gerrymandered that the outcome in a general election is a foregone conclusion, the real fight (if there is one) will be in the primary election. Primary elections tend to attract the most committed, most partisan voters — so candidates tend to play to those voters, pulling them further to the political extremes. Changing the way we draw districts to create more competitive districts, where candidates would have to appeal to all voters, would help fix that.
Does reform have support in Wisconsin?
Yes. The last time the Marquette University Law School Poll asked about redistricting reform in January 2019, it found that 72% of voters preferred redistricting be done by a nonpartisan commission. The poll found that majorities in each partisan group favored that approach, including 63% of Republicans.
But redistricting reform is only one cure for polarization
We’re divided like I’ve never seen in our country — and in our state.
We’ve self-sorted ourselves into like-minded enclaves, both physically (more Democrats in cities, more Republicans in suburbs and rural areas) and in how we get our news and information (Fox News and Breitbart vs. Slate and MSNBC).
We no longer always have a common set of facts — we don’t often talk to people with whom we disagree politically. Our political language is coarse and full of disdain, a problem that has migrated even to school board races.
During a speech at the LaFollette School of Public Affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison last week, David Brooks, the New York Times columnist, said he’s come to believe the core problem is an “epidemic of blindness” in our society.
“Blacks feeling that their daily experience is not understood by whites. Rural people not feeling seen by coastal elites. Depressed young people not feeling seen by anyone. …
“At the core of our political problems and our political divisions and our policy disagreements is a human problem of dehumanization,” Brooks said.
Here is why Wi is doomed for the forseeable future
It will take action by the Legislature to change the process; we don’t have the ability in Wisconsin to change law through a direct referendum.
Aren’t there bills to change how Wisconsin conducts redistricting?
Yes, and they are based on how Iowa’s process works — Senate Bill 389 and Assembly Bill 395. But these and similar bills introduced in years past have never gotten so much as a public hearing.
here’s hoping wi🙏
One can dream at this point
Come on down to FL and look at our joke (and it’s a bad one) of a gerrymandered map. First thing that has to happen here is: get RID of CLOSED primaries. Until that happens, the 2 jokes called “political parties” won’t change anything. You’ll continue to have indicted crooks like Sick Rott blatantly buying elections.
https://twitter.com/Tectomancer/status/1457067730025295876?s=20
Who is obeying without question?
probably progessives who voted yes to the BIF. What I thought Bernie was talking about, but maybe not, but what I have been talking about is making the right wingers vote on both at the same time. Let them show their true colors. Instead, progressives acquiesced to Pelosi
i guess it’s a bit dramatic. they did question.
Adams sucks
Said one of many in the kingdom the Corporate Media ignores.
He’ll be one term. God only knows what will replace him.
good article. people with gardens and who know how to sew, bake, cook, handy people—they will do better than those that rely on shipping. globalization coming home to roost.
The real lesson of the election results? Democrats must go big and bold
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/nov/05/the-real-lesson-of-the-election-results-democrats-must-go-big-and-bold#comment-152926331
https://twitter.com/PharmaCheats/status/1457080156733022210?s=20