@livingfree A hearty welcome to you out there in Missoula. Thank you for your ray of light to all of us. I am so with you in holding on to the light. Thank you again and please stick around here!
@livingfree, thanks for sharing your beautifully thoughtful and light-filled post. I felt such peace when I read it. I'm happy you have joined our community, and encourage you to share your thoughts whenever the need arises. Welcome!
We'll see what happens in 2024. Either there will be more blue here, or I might be moving. I'll know what to do when it gets here.
@livingfree - welcome to the forum, and if you DO decide to leave Montana, I highly recommend Michigan. Maddocks aside, the massive R gerrymander of the state legislature is ending thanks to a Constitutional Amendment, and we tend to go blue in national elections. :-)
@livingfree Welcome! I loved reading your beautiful words. I hope you post again. xoxo
@livingfree welcome to the forum. You will find peace and friendship here. Welcome ?
Welcome to the forum. What a beautiful post! Thank you for joining us and for sharing you light with us all.
Sorry everyone. I really shouldn't post when I am in an angry mood like I was yesterday.
I still feel that our biggest problem is the divisiveness and fearmongering from the Republican media machine, and that Democrats haven't stepped up their game to effectively counter the constant bad press (even if it is a small minority with big mouths repeating themselves incessantly).
Last night, two days after the election and when I thought all the political ads were over, I was watching television and this clearly Republican advertisement came on the television talking about how Biden and Pelosi are sending the IRS to come take away "your" hard earned money and to contact our congresswoman to oppose Biden's budget plan. The voice over was superimposed with video of surveillance cameras tracking people with red squares.
What I don't see so much is Democrats posting advertisements about how the Biden's tax plan will help America and how it will help families, or how the increased taxes will only affect those who make over $400,000 a year and not the poorer people the above ad was aimed surely meant to scare.
They are also apparently too delicate and sickly to wear a thin piece of cloth over their mouth to protect themselves and others from this virus. Snowflakes, indeed!
@lovendures thank you. I feel the warmth of new friends, here in this space, that feels like we've known each other a very long time.
@livingfree Welcome to the forum! I loved your post about politics in Missoula and feel very encouraged by your election. You’re going to be a light in this forum and I look forward to hearing more from you.
@livingfree You came to us carrying light, and you helped us feel stronger. It takes strength to bring light, so thank you for that.
I am sad, but I feel like Build Back Better (the reconciliation package) is dead. We interchangeably call both the bipartisan infrastructure bill as well as the reconciliation bill the infrastructure bill, and I think with passage of the bipartisan bill last night through the house, we can safely say Baba's prediction from before is correct.
I'm not going on any sort of intuition here, other than I woke up, saw the news, and my first thought was BBB was dead. Schumer is not strong enough to get this passed, and the one piece of leverage we had was the bipartisan bill.
Will gladly eat this post if I'm wrong. Anyone else see anything? I was kind of hoping for expansion of CTC myself. Our household budget in 2022 is much different with it than without it (We're still fine and very lucky)
This is not a failure, this is a major major win. This isn't intuition but just seeing the way things are flowing. President Biden said to the Progressives "trust me" and they are and he will show that trust by getting the second one voted for as well.
I really believe that.
This was a procedural hurdle that needed to happen.
Part one of the BBB is now law, part two moved to the next step on its path in both chambers, and the Voting Rights ACt also moved through a hurdle when the Alaska Senator came out for it (meaning with her support there is the threat of filibuster).
Added to the vaccine work by Biden, us getting out of Afghanistan, and also the Recovery Act this has been a good not even year yet period for Biden.
Oh, and let us not forget how many Judges that the Senate has confirmed. Its more than Trump did in a similar period. This isn't being mentioned but it will transform the judiciary.
Lots of good things are happening.
Just have hope!
@herukane I can 100% agree it’s not a failure - I just don’t have a great feeling the social piece which is equally desperately needed stands a chance right now. That’s where I’m licking my wounds today.
EDIT: I know it’s not dead yet - and maybe won’t be. It’s been a rough morning over here for other reasons. ?. I will stop bringing us down now!
@dannyboy Even if the rest of BBB is dead, it's not necessarily dead forever. Biden's accomplishments this year are considerable, including the vaccine roll out (now including kids), the stimulus earlier this year, and now infrastructure. Job creation last month was through the roof, and unemployment is much lower. Dems are terrible at selling their successes, but I think what's happened this year is pretty amazing. Biden and Pelosi and co. were right to push through what was possible. Barring anything really bad happening to the economy, 2022 looks to be pretty good, and the infrastructure deal passing will only make it better.
I've read predictions about how the dems will hold congress in 2022 and it flies in the face of conventional wisdom and normal elections cycles. However, if things are spectacular next year then that would could mean the dems can break the midterm curse and expand their numbers. If that happens, then it explains the predictions on this site, and means greater things can be accomplished, including BBB (if it fails this time around), or even more BBB if something does pass this year.
Sometimes wins are ugly, but they are wins nonetheless, and will help persuade the electorate to keep the keys in the hands of the people who are making things better for them. That'll cheer us all up!
Okay here's a tweet I found that 100% put me back in perspective:
"In 10 months Democrats have cut child poverty in half, added 5.3 million jobs, managed the most ambitious vaccine rollout in U.S. History, and passed a 1.2 trillion investment in water, roads, bridges and broadband.
in 4 years TFG gave $2 to the rich and tweeted a lot."
I've also read several things today that give me more hope on the reconciliation bill. Sinema is on board, and the other holdouts are waiting for the CBO analysis and have said they'll come on board if the budget projections match. Not over yet.
Sorry for being Debbie Downer today.