Vaccines, Infrastructure, and Kids In Cages: US Politics April 2021

Maybe the special envoy to Yemen needs a special envoy to Yemen.

A propos of nothing, one of our crackpot neighbors told me today he's very invested in the recount ("recount") in Arizona, which I had to google to even find out existed. He thinks it's going to be "verrry interesting" to see what the repercussions of said recount will be.

I suppose you can keep this kind of thing up forever. "When the papers from the Trump administration are declassified in 2032, it's going to be verrrrrrry interesting ..."

Yellen says "private capital will need to fill most of that gap" to tackle the "existential threat" of climate change

So far, the Biden admin has not put a price on the govt's commitment

In a speech, Yellen indicates heavy reliance on private capital

— Saleha Mohsin (@SalehaMohsin) April 21, 2021

Who better to fix what’s broken than the people who broke it to start with?

"Arizona Recount" reminds me of the semi-mythical Durham Report that they pinned their hopes on for so long, and went absolutely nowhere

Arizona Recount was Dennis Hastert's favorite wrestling hold iirc.

The law enforcement arm of the U.S. Postal Service has been quietly running a program that tracks and collects Americans’ social media posts, including those about planned protests, according to a document obtained by Yahoo News.

The details of the surveillance effort, known as iCOP, or Internet Covert Operations Program, have not previously been made public. The work involves having analysts trawl through social media sites to look for what the document describes as “inflammatory” postings and then sharing that information across government agencies.

known as iCOP

this is good

https://mattstoller.substack.com/p/ftc-nominee-lina-khan-fires-a-warning

I cop therefore I ab

this is good

yah

The law enforcement arm of the U.S. Postal Service

Is this standard?! I don't recall ever seeing the UK postie cops but maybe I wasn't looking.

I have only heard of the us postal police because they arrested Steve bannon

Same, and I am a US-er whose granddad was a postman. I feel like their existence is fairly underreported.

Biden Will Commit the U.S. to Halving Greenhouse Gas Emissions by 2030

good luck -- we're all counting on you

https://static.wixstatic.com/media/5897e0_eecf853424534d7d9ede37569746044a~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_1192,h_770,al_c,q_90/Businesswomen%20Walking%20in%20Hallway.jpg

the House just voted to make DC a state.

is there much of a chance that will pass the senate?

someone trying his damndest to win gold at the asshole olympics (assholympics?)

Senate approves bill on anti-Asian hate crimes, 94-1. GOP MO Sen Josh Hawley was the lone nay.

— Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) April 22, 2021

xp only if the Dems kill the filibuster. no idea how likely that is, haven't been following that.

Not likely any time soon, given recent public statements by Manchin and Sinema. I don't think DC statehood is the thing that would make them change their minds.

Scoop: In a private call, unions told the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee not to expect them to back lawmakers in upcoming races unless they get behind the PRO Act, the major labor reform bill.

"No money, no support of PRO."

w/ @eleanor_mueller https://t.co/z7atg1tMhk

— Holly Otterbein (@hollyotterbein) April 22, 2021

I've heard arguments that votes on statehood aren't subject to the filibuster, don't know how true that is.

I guess that argument may be tested now.

can see manchin in particular not voting for statehood for the private reason that it would diminish his power, while saying something public about bipartisanship.

filibuster gotta go man

I'm not holding my breath on that one.

Manchin = Filibuster Poindexter

feelin' not not not

feel like bricks would have to be thrown in important districts, shit burned, and cars flipped for the filibuster to go, but shrug.

A return to an actual filibuster would be an improvement on the current situation wouldn't it.
But that is probably a false positive. Like only being forced to hit yourself in the face half as much.
Like what's with these people especially Sinema.

Manchin feinted toward the talking filibuster and then backed away immediately, safe to assume it's dead. Their deal is that the progressive elements of Biden's campaign promises don't suit their donors' desires and their egos are stroked by playing god. (They're also convenient fallguys for things centrist Democrats don't really support or care about but have to pretend to care about to not get yelled at.)

Sinema and Romney are collaborating on an $11 minimum wage bill, which will be a fun test for House progressives. Jayapal has already pointed to it and expressed her objection but I would assume they'll cave in the end.

the whole thing’s fucking stupid. biden and the democrats have a mandate. in other countries when you control a majority in parliament and control the executive, you get to pass your agenda as long as you can whip your members. it’s embarrassing that the simple process of passing laws is so broken. it’s even got a stupid word to describe it that sounds like it comes from a mark twain novel.

Take the "win" on $11 and then start pushing for $20.

"live in poverty for another twenty years until climate crises displace you from your home and you're forced to travel the roads, eating scraps dumped from the walled communities of the very rich, who gawk and laugh at you from behind the sights of their private security force's rifles."

Meanwhile, a new (double mutant) variant has been found in India, and they are continuing to allow over fifty flights a day to potentially import this, just as with the Kent and Brazilian and South African variants that now make up effectively 100% of new infections.

― bobo honkin' slobo babe (sic), Saturday, April 17, 2021 5:14 AM (fifteen hours ago)

oh never mind, it's here now so there's no point in trying to restrict or mitigate it, that's only been an effective strategy in every country that's tried it and has been back to normal life for ten months

lol remember when there was a new variant in India and then it turned out to be double mutant and that was six days ago and people were already dying so fast that two out of six chimneys melted at one crematorium, and the US kept flights coming from India?

good times. let's now all think about the new triple mutant variant, detected as India passes a million new cases in four days. (That's 7% of all their reported* cases to date, in the last four days.)

India is already facing a huge spurt in Covid-19 cases and many health experts point out the presence of double mutant as the reason. The news of the triple mutant is only going to add to the existing problems.

The triple mutation means a combination of three different Covid-19 strains to form a new variant and states like West Bengal, Maharashtra, and Delhi are believed to have cases driven by this mutant, reported NDTV News.

Madhukar Pai, professor of epidemiology at McGill University, told NDTV that: “This is a more transmissible variant. It is making lots of people sick very quickly. We have to keep tweaking vaccines. For that we need to understand the disease. But we need sequencing on war footing.”

* Their numbers have not been necessarily trustworthy to date. But they're admitting to 2,000 deaths a day now.

Paul Tambyah, a professor of medicine at the National University of Singapore, said that the good news, however, is that there is currently no concrete evidence that the new triple mutation is more deadly or transmissible.

"Singapore researchers have done some work trying to link the mutations with clinical outcomes and transmissibility and have found no link between more severity or more transmissibility with newer mutants compared with the original lineages of SARS-CoV2," Tambyah said.

Other scientists studying COVID have detected quadruple and quintuple mutants in samples as well, he said, without it necessarily affecting how well vaccines work.

"There is good data suggesting that the immune system, not just antibodies, can respond to multiple different mutants," Tambyah said.

quadruple and quintuple mutants

https://www.theonion.com/fuck-everything-were-doing-five-blades-1819584036

so it’s more transmissible and there’s also no evidence that it’s more transmissible. got it

Plan accordingly.

One year ago today. Memories.

"The disinfectant, where it knocks it out in a minute, and is there a way we can do something like that by injection inside, or almost a cleaning. It gets in the lungs" -- Trump seems to suggests that injecting disinfectant inside people could be a treatment for the coronavirus pic.twitter.com/amis9Rphsm

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 23, 2020

can we not

Hard cosign

That was ONLY a year ago?

the whole thing’s fucking stupid. biden and the democrats have a mandate. in other countries when you control a majority in parliament and control the executive, you get to pass your agenda as long as you can whip your members. it’s embarrassing that the simple process of passing laws is so broken. it’s even got a stupid word to describe it that sounds like it comes from a mark twain novel.

the real issue is that the GOP has such a built-in edge that even when the Dems get 54-56% of the vote their "mandate" results in a 50/50 Senate split which has to include people like Sinema & Manchin because an actual liberal could never win there. not only does this kill any real progressive legislation it also motivates the GOP to be as shitty and self-serving as possible because their built in advantage makes it so they don't have to campaign on anything that's actually popular. if you ask me this admin's priority should be things like DC Statehood, abolishing the EC, and stopping the insane redistricting and gerrymandering that lets people like Dan Crenshaw easily win seats, but there are like 7 simultaneous crises going on that are a bit more urgent

imo it's better to have Dan Crenshaw in Congress than out in the world attacking windshields

IMO it's better to have Dan Crenshaw out on a fishing boat off the coast of Alaska for weeks at a time than around a lot of other people, particularly people making laws

IMO it's better to have Dan Crenshaw as chum for sharks.

GOP Sen. Ron Johnson said in a radio interview he is "getting highly suspicious" of the "big push to make sure everyone is vaccinated," arguing for "limited" distribution. https://t.co/7Ni6XruDvi

— Andrew Solender (@AndrewSolender) April 22, 2021

Can’t believe Tommy Tuberville isn’t the stupidest Senator.

tight race

somehow on this issue Ronnie wins:

I got my second dose of the vaccine yesterday. I encourage every Alabamian to get vaccinated as soon as you are eligible.

Together, we can bring an end to this pandemic, but we must all do our part. Remember to wash your hands & stay home if you are feeling sick!

— Senator Tommy Tuberville (@SenTuberville) January 29, 2021

Is it overly optimistic for me to think Johnson's a goner next time around? (Elections, I mean. Not COVID.)

I see from this that it's unclear if he's going to run: https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2021/04/will-ron-johnson-run-again-2022/618642/