I will freely admit that what bothers and concerns me is: "there is no healing without accountability" and it sticks in my craw how many are seemingly getting away with screwing the American people over and causing what feels like irreparable harm, indeed participated in the very treason that manifested in an insurrection at our Capitol and to this day are still in office BLOCKING as much of those investigations as possible. I fear they are going to get away with it!!!!
@journeywithme2 I'll present to you a different kind of accountability than the one you were talking about - which I still believe will come (eventually)
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/05/us/politics/donald-trump-republican-convention-speech.html
This article does a great job detailing how "The former guy" is losing - his staff, his megaphone, his supporters - everything.
and this Twitter thread centered around Mike Lindell (ugh) which shows just how few people are still buying into the big lie and those who spread it.
https://twitter.com/ztpetrizzo/status/1403721252687208452?s=21
Considering the numbers people like Lindell were pulling at the height of things, this abysmal showing is only the start.
These were the first two things I saw today when I opened my laptop and began to catch up with news. The third thing I saw today was the post of yours I quoted above.
I totally get it - we want to see more - we want those scales of justice to be swift. But the damage is already piling up for the old gang. Have heart!
Now if we could just get rid of that @#$! filibuster!
While getting rid of the filibuster might solve the current problems, but it could also have a very detrimental effect for future legislative work should the opposing party come back into power.
Manchin and Sinema are the actual problems right now, and they don't seem like they're going to budge in their positions. Manchin has suggested that he might be amenable to modifying the filibuster and forcing the chamber to go back to actual speeches rather than simply the threat of them, as well as creating carve-outs that would prevent the filibuster from being used for certain types of legislation, such as HB/SB1, the election reform law. However, I am not terribly sanguine about the possibility of that happening. There is also the possibility that Manchin re-aligns himself as as an "I" instead of a "D", which would complicate matters still further. He represents a very red state, so he is essentially a DINO. Re-flagging as an Independent would give him more leeway to side with the R's, which is what a lot of people in WV want to happen anyway.
On the other hand, I still feel strongly that what I posted in the Astrology thread is still on course, and all of this is "sound and fury, signifying nothing". I'll link what I said here:
@dannyboy Sadly I am surrounded by those who are STILL touting it....selling/wearing the shirts and having their ignorant rallies... Deep RED state here , where Marjorie Taylor Greene reigns Queen. It's like a daily rubbing of salt in a wound...that is healing but very,very slowly.
If only we had a government that represented what MOST of us want. Not just the 21% of white Americans and 1% of "elite" who back him for the money opportunities it gives them.
i still pray for strength for those who desire a country that houses,feeds,shelters and has healthcare for everyone. That ALL pay their fair share of taxes, That ALL can get a good education (or trade if that is what they want) that ALL have access to healthcare that doesn't impoverish them for one visit, that ALL have safe homes, clean water to drink and a world that we don't destroy with our ignorance so that the marvelous creatures we share this planet with may also live.
Am I wanting too much? I do not think so.
I live in south central Florida. Home to cattle ranches, orange groves and sod farms. The big thing around here now are yard signs that say “Don’t blame me, I voted for Trump”. They give me PTSD.
The very structure of the Senate, which gives equal representation to every state (not a bad thing) automatically empowers minority voices. For that reason, I also say get rid of the filibuster. Party politics as we know it is going down the drain anyways, so I think worrying about what a hypothetical empowered GOP might do without the controlling mechanism of the filibuster is a moot point.
For now, I'm not convinced that Manchin and Sinema are problems. With a 50-50 Senate, we don't have the luxury of holding them up to purity tests. Think of it this way: would you rather Manchin switch parties and let Mitch McConnell return to his position as majority leader? Excommunicating Sinema and Manchin seems like a vanity exercise in cutting off our nose to spite our face. Not to mentioned it would mirror the current totalitarianism of the GOP ("You must worship Dear Leader!").
Excommunicating Sinema and Manchin seems like a vanity exercise in cutting off our nose to spite our face.
I completely agree, and I apologize if my post implied otherwise. If we could count on their votes to be for the people rather than the anti-democracy forces, then yes, the filibuster needs to go. However, since we can not count on their votes with or without it, whether it survives is immaterial.
I was sitting here quietly reading this morning, and I was suddenly told (out of the blue, as such things often happen! ? ) that what we and the rest of the world are experiencing is akin to a Herxheimer reaction in medicine. If you're not familiar with it, here's the wikipedia entry on it:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jarisch%E2%80%93Herxheimer_reaction
Essentially, it's what happens when a person who has a serious systemic infection starts taking antibiotics. As millions of units of the bacterial infection die off all at once, they release their toxins into the body faster than the body can clear them out, and the symptoms of the disease seem to get worse instead of better for a little while. What it means is that the "treatment" is working.
More and more of the previously hidden stuff is being exposed and removed, but there's so much of it that it seems to be getting worse instead of better. It isn't. We are still in the beginning stages of our "treatment", and it must continue in order to completely remove all of the garbage.
The most important thing to remember is that while things will seem to get worse for a little while, the "infection" is dying, and it knows it. We will survive this, and we will heal. Have faith, but more importantly, cultivate patience. It won't happen overnight, but it will happen. We only need to stay the course.
@coyote I wasn't aware of that...I must have missed her post about it. I will take what I heard this morning as confirmation, then. Thank you. :-)
I think all of the anger at Manchin and Sinema is misguided. Let's look at the situation from another perspective.
Why are Republicans saying "no" in the first place?
Yes, we know the real reason. McConnell had such great success against Obama and made his career about making the Senate basically a welfare state to the super-rich Senators that work there (what else would you call an organization that gives you all the perks and yet still allows you to be paid your regular salary even after you shut down the government at least three times in the last decade.) But Republicans are taking a risk by continuing to say no to popular bills such as infrastructure and Covid-19 relief.
Instead of putting pressure on our wayward Democrats (I don't agree with their actions, but I respect them), we should be launching a media campaign against the Republicans who continue to say "no." Show commercials of cracking roads and falling bridges. Show what Biden's plan would do. Show big white men go from siting at a kitchen table and looking despairingly at bills, then show these same big white men at construction sites and smiling as they leave work and rush home to their families. Then show various Republicans continue to say "no" to the plan.
People were less worried about how much the Covid-19 relief bill was when they knew they would not get a check. So if we can target these voters in red states and make them think that their way to a better life is being blocked by Republicans, we may be able to swing a few our way.
In other words, we as the coalition against Trump and his followers must be united no matter what. Once Trump is gone for good, then we can work out our differences. But if Republicans manage to win in 2022 or 2024, then it is over for the rest of us. Women will be stripped of their rights and become non-official "handmaids," at the mercy of a system where a few men in power reign supreme. Minorities and others will lose the rights they have fought and bled for over the last few decades.
Now is the time to focus on getting Republicans out by focusing on them and their faults. They have gotten away with things for far too long, and it is about time that we remind people about it. But instead of focusing on Trump, we need regular voters to start looking at Republicans as though they are the actual problem (which, in a sense, they are). By continuing to vote for Republicans, you are being denied the ability to provide for your family because you can't get a job because Republicans won't vote for it. If that message doesn't work, what will?