US Politics May 2021: Joe Manchin's Choose-Your-Adventure Book

Biden, said, “I’m prepared to compromise.”

He's working from an old script, but I'm fine if the amounts to be spent change somewhat at the margins, so long as those "margins" do not include the spending designed to strengthen minority communities and fight climate change. The exact dollar amount isn't the core issue, but it's directly coupled to how strongly the policies will be implemented.

seems like a compromise bill with broad republican support plus everything else pushed through reconciliation would be the way to deal with this

this has been coming for a week or two apparently

Joe Manchin just proposed a really aggressive voting rights bill that goes well beyond the bill that Democratic leaders are pushing.https://t.co/uES8dbXdsm

— Ian Millhiser (@imillhiser) May 13, 2021

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/13/us/politics/mcmaster-fbi-trump-project-veritas.html

Be cool if the CIA heart attack gun got turned on Erik Prince.

huh that's surprising from manchin

It’s a big who cares if he’s expecting (lol) 10 GOP votes for cloture.

Yeah it seems like an obvious feint?

really don't get what his angle is here

To even analyze this as strategy breaks my brain, but he wouldn't float this proposal if he wasn't "signaling" movement of some kind, I guess.

he wants bold voting laws but we absolutely must preserve the sanctity of the filibuster? ok....

Fun detail from the AZ dog & pony show audit:

According to documents released under court order, however, Cyber Ninjas prepared for sinister antifa agents to disrupt their efforts.

For instance, they worried that a nearby chemical storage area could be sabotaged by leftists as part of an orchestrated attempt to breach the counting area.

This hasn't happened.

yet

Manchin probably thinks if he proposes a *really* strong voting rights bill that, darn toot it, he *really* means, well, the Rs will just *have* to come around and compromise on a weaker voting rights bill, without him having to nuke his precious filibuster. Manchin would be wrong.

I'm positive he knows that will not happen.

I see it more as a "look guys I want good things too stop yelling at me I'm a real Democrat" and when it goes nowhere oopsy daisy.

I don't know why but I have this nagging feeling that Joe Manchin...might not be very smart.

xp

this is the most plausible explanation so far

What an absolute maniac https://t.co/ADCquJ1Lo9 pic.twitter.com/JLJoyH0pJV

— Maggie Serota (@maggieserota) May 13, 2021

didn't she do this to David Hogg?

yes

She’ll probably be elected for another 20 terms, too

And of course she followed it up with the, "see? she's afraid to debate me" bullshit.

The more you resemble a brain stem rattling in a metal bucket, the more successful you will be in today’s GOP

Good morning!

great news

Who is surprised? Per CNN:

All 219 House Democrats have reported being vaccinated.

Of the 212 House Republicans, only 95 -- of 44.8% -- have said they are vaccinated. https://t.co/VtpXhF3N91

— Jennifer Bendery (@jbendery) May 14, 2021

Ron Johnson:

"I thought I was doing everyone a favor," Johnson told CNN in a phone call in March. "I don't think any of this is settled science, but the reason I am not vaccinated yet is I have had Covid and even when I had it, I had a mild case. ... Now I am being attacked as being anti-science. It boggles my mind."

Doing everyone a favor...by getting COVID? idgi

"mind"

every time I see MTG speak I can only think of On Cinema Tim, it's like she's doing an impression of him

Doing everyone a favor...by getting COVID? idgi

Doing everyone a favor by not taking a vaccine because he presumes he has antibodies that are protecting him, which: https://www.health.harvard.edu/diseases-and-conditions/if-youve-been-exposed-to-the-coronavirus

Natural immunity to COVID-19 is the protection that results from having been sick. But we don't know how long natural immunity lasts, or how strong it is. So can we count on natural immunity to protect us from reinfection? If so, for how long? Unfortunately, we don't know the answer to either of those questions.

There have been some confirmed cases of reinfection with COVID-19. In other words, a person got sick with COVID-19, recovered, and then became infected again. This is rare, but it can happen.

The CDC states that people who have gotten sick with COVID-19 may still benefit from getting vaccinated. For now, people are eligible to get the COVID-19 vaccine whether or not they were previously infected. Vaccination criteria may change in the future as scientists learn more about natural immunity after COVID illness.

It's also worth noting that someone who has been re-infected — even someone with no symptoms — has the potential to spread the virus to others. That means that everyone, even those who have recovered from coronavirus infection, and those who have been vaccinated, should continue to follow CDC guidance on mask wearing and other prevention measures.

IOW, yes you are an anti-science idiot, Ron Johnson

go play in Grassley's Dairy Queen sex dungeon

pft giving dairy queen sex dungeons a band name

i think it's time for covid to do everyone a favor and get ron johnson

pft giving dairy queen sex dungeons a band name

I feel like "Dairy Queen Sex Dungeon" is more of an album title

dairy queen is the band name, sex dungeons is the ep

I still don't get why it does everyone a favor, though.

Very normal person.

New: A since-deleted video from 2019 shows MTG harassing @AOC's office through a locked door. Calling her "crazy eyes" and telling her through the office's mailbox slot to "get rid of your diaper" while telling the office to open the door and come out. https://t.co/QgcJucs4o8 pic.twitter.com/ccTufF90Z9

— andrew kaczynski (@KFILE) May 14, 2021

imagine the sex dungeon possibilities

must I

I still don't get why it does everyone a favor, though.

the "logic" is that someone else who doesn't have antibodies will get the vaccine sooner, even though logistics don't really work like that

it's not like vaccines are in short supply in the US right now. He's not doing anyone a favor by allowing others to 'get it first' if that's what he means.

i'm starting to think this Ron Johnson guy doesn't know what he's talking about

and if he's so blatantly wrong on this, that could raise questions about his beliefs about many other things....but best not to think about that

Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) said Friday that he and an aide to Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) got into a confrontation over the use of face masks on the House floor.

The incident is the latest involving allegedly disruptive behavior by Greene and her staff.

“I had a mask on as I stepped off the Floor,” Swalwell said in a tweet. “An aide with @mtgreenee yelled at me to take my mask off. No one should be bullied for wearing a mask. So I told the bully what I thought of his order. Predictably, he went speechless. I regret I wasn’t more explicit.”

Greene’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

According to Scott Wong, a reporter for the Hill, the aide involved was Greene spokesman Nick Dyer. Wong reported Dyer as saying, “Biden says you can take off your mask.”

Swalwell “confronted Dyer” and “got in his face,” Wong said in a tweet. He added that, according to Dyer, Swalwell said, “You don’t tell me what to [expletive] do!” The Washington Post could not independently verify the exchange.

Under new guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, vaccinated Americans can now mostly ditch their masks indoors — but lawmakers must still wear them on the House floor.

Asked by CNN whether the House’s mask mandate would be relaxed, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday said: “No. Are they all vaccinated?”

i'm beginning to understand how julius caesar ended up getting stabbed by 40 senators. it starts with words, and then the annoying people get aides that even more annoying, and then eventually it escalates to fistfighting, and then shortly after that the stabbing starts

I would fund a Karl Malone speaking tour.

i think that tour would end in me getting my ass kicked halfway at a a microbrew open mic night

but tbh i've always wanted to go down fighting

Caesar is only the most famous stabbed Roman politician, those guys were constantly stabbing each other!

I would advocate for more of this in modern politics but all that would happen is Greene, Gosar, and Boebert would all stab Manchin repeatedly in the neck while he burbled “but my bill is bipartisan”

maybe senators from both parties could stab manchin

although the stabbers are really the representatives in the house. senators are more like mafia bosses. house reps are the ones with the knives