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US Politics: A Tale of two Joes.


A Horse Named Stranger

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46 minutes ago, Corvinus85 said:

Gotta love when the philosophical argument trumps what's practically necessary. This shit isn't ever going to go away with people like this in charge.

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Article is paywalled, so no links, but supposedly the RNC is flat out not going to participate in presidential debates run by the 'Commission on Presidential Debates.' Are their ideas so weak they cannot tolerate even mild criticism? 

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1 minute ago, ThinkerX said:

but supposedly the RNC is flat out not going to participate in presidential debates run by the 'Commission on Presidential Debates.' Are their ideas so weak they cannot tolerate even mild criticism? 

More precisely, the RNC is going to require their nominee NOT to participate in CPD debates:

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The Republican National Committee (RNC) alerted the Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) on Thursday that it plans to require GOP presidential nominees not to attend debates run by the commission going forward. 

"The RNC will initiate the process of amending the Rules of the Republican Party at our upcoming Winter Meeting to prohibit future Republican nominees from participating in CPD-sponsored debates," wrote Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel in the letter, which was obtained by The Hill. 

McDaniel said GOP voters "have lost trust" in the commission and noted that the RNC has proposed a number of reforms to the debate process.

 

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1 hour ago, DMC said:

More precisely, the RNC is going to require their nominee NOT to participate in CPD debates:

 

Some pundit or another...cannot remember who...on Twitter was suggesting that this is another strong suggestion Trump is actually going to run.  They're simply covering for him now, to avoid actual debates...

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OTOH, these so-called debates are a frackin' useless joke, so let's do something else, because this thing, has been done and done and done valueless.  Not, of course, that is Their thinking on this -- if it or anything else They do or want to do when it comes to elections and voting can be called thinking.  If anything, more like 'plotting.'  Nefarious plotting.

 

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1 hour ago, Zorral said:

OTOH, these so-called debates are a frackin' useless joke, so let's do something else, because this thing, has been done and done and done valueless.  Not, of course, that is Their thinking on this -- if it or anything else They do or want to do when it comes to elections and voting can be called thinking.  If anything, more like 'plotting.'  Nefarious plotting.

 

Yeah honestly wouldn't mind never watching another Presidential debate ever again.  At least if they get rid of this it will limit super-spreader events during any future pandemics where one candidate is shedding massive viral loads around the other unvaccinated geriatric candidate.  

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Just watched Craig Melvin interview Kamala Harris.  She was horrible on the covid stuff but it's not like she had any real options to defend their position.  She got better as the interview went on, with the voting rights and 2024 ticket questions.  

Would be cool to see all our elected officials face non-softball questions like this. 

Have to [say] the one thing that has surprised me from the Biden administration is just how shitty they've been on the pandemic. That was the pretty much the only thing I expected them to actually do a decent job on.  

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We’ll soon see how seriously my company takes the CMS mandate.

Considering when we first heard about it the company had a meeting in which they told the unvaccinated to “google how to fill out the exemption forms”, I’d say not very. 
 

I’ll let ya’ll know if any of the unvaccinated actually get fired over the next 4-6 weeks. 

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5 minutes ago, Larry of the Lake said:

Would be cool to see all our elected officials face non-softball questions like this. 

Fat chance of that, especially on the right.

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Have to [say] the one thing that has surprised me from the Biden administration is just how shitty they've been on the pandemic. That was the pretty much the only thing I expected them to actually do a decent job on.  

On the one hand I do think Biden could have done a lot more without Congress, but on the other there's only so much anyone could do when a third of the adult population refuses to do jack shit to end the pandemic, assuming they think it's even real.

 

In other news, Manchinema have come out and said voting rights reform is dead. With friends like these....

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5 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

Fat chance of that, especially on the right.

On the one hand I do think Biden could have done a lot more without Congress, but on the other there's only so much anyone could do when a third of the adult population refuses to do jack shit to end the pandemic, assuming they think it's even real.

 

In other news, Manchinema have come out and said voting rights reform is dead. With friends like these....

That's not an excuse to not have anticipated a winter wave, as far as masks, testing, recommended quarantine times, etc.  Could have encouraged schools to go remote until say Jan 15 to slow spread after Xmas break.  

The actual response seems to vacillate between gaslighting and ostriching.  

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12 minutes ago, Larry of the Lake said:

That's not an excuse to not have anticipated a winter wave, as far as masks, testing, recommended quarantine times, etc.  Could have encouraged schools to go remote until say Jan 15 to slow spread after Xmas break.  

The actual response seems to vacillate between gaslighting and ostriching.  

It's not an excuse, it's just reality. Talking about free masks and testing has the same pitfall as the free and easy to get vaccine, it's voluntary. I do absolutely agree though that the changed quarantine recommendations are a joke, just like it was idiotic to give people a sense that we were through this way too prematurely. As for schools, I don't think their encouragement would have done much. Parents want their kids in school even if it's general not smart.

Their response overall reflects what probably a majority of Americans feel at this point, which is they're done with mitigating their lives over the virus. 

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14 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

It's not an excuse, it's just reality. Talking about free masks and testing has the same pitfall as the free and easy to get vaccine, it's voluntary. I do absolutely agree though that the changed quarantine recommendations are a joke, just like it was idiotic to give people a sense that we were through this way too prematurely. As for schools, I don't think their encouragement would have done much. Parents want their kids in school even if it's general not smart.

Their response overall reflects what probably a majority of Americans feel at this point, which is they're done with mitigating their lives over the virus. 

They could still have made it significantly easier and cheaper for the 2/3rds who were taking it seriously. 

We STILL haven't authorized the rapid tests used in Europe or Asia that cost like a buck. We still haven't upped the supply of good masks. It was absolutely a failure even without omicron. 

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8 minutes ago, Kalibuster said:

They could still have made it significantly easier and cheaper for the 2/3rds who were taking it seriously. 

We STILL haven't authorized the rapid tests used in Europe or Asia that cost like a buck. We still haven't upped the supply of good masks. It was absolutely a failure even without omicron. 

Yes, they could have, I don't think anyone is saying otherwise. The question is how great of an impact that would have had if so many wouldn't care? I'm not convinced that it would have made a significant difference. And two years of the majority watching the minority say fuck the rules is only going to lead to them giving up trying as well. General American attitudes are not geared towards a long term collective sacrifice needed to truly beat this. That seems clear now.

And I guess in a bit of good news, Biden is ordering another 500m tests and talking about making masks free, for what it's worth. 

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9 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

Yes, they could have, I don't think anyone is saying otherwise. The question is how great of an impact that would have had if so many wouldn't care? I'm not convinced that it would have made a significant difference. And two years of the majority watching the minority say fuck the rules is only going to lead to them giving up trying as well. General American attitudes are not geared towards a long term collective sacrifice needed to truly beat this. That seems clear now.

And I guess in a bit of good news, Biden is ordering another 500m tests and talking about making masks free, for what it's worth. 

[Re: bolded] That's amazingly encouraging.  We'll have them for the next wave or variant or whatever.  

The unvaccinated have a lot of culpability here.  But Biden and the CDC are placing all the blame there instead of trying anything to either change minds or change behavior.  They could have down vaccine mandates for air travel.  Sure would probably get challenged in court.  Would be cool to actually see them try instead of respond weeks or months too late on every single thing.  

If they were less concerned with favorable ratings Biden would probably be polling higher. 

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39 minutes ago, Larry of the Lake said:

The unvaccinated have a lot of culpability here.  But Biden and the CDC are placing all the blame there instead of trying anything to either change minds or change behavior.  They could have down vaccine mandates for air travel.  Sure would probably get challenged in court.  Would be cool to actually see them try instead of respond weeks or months too late on every single thing.  

I think they've tried to change minds and behavior and it has failed. Their methods were flawed, but I don't view that as doing nothing. And while I agree they should have fought for vaccine mandates for air travel, it's clear now that would have failed too. 

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If they were less concerned with favorable ratings Biden would probably be polling higher. 

No, because if they weren't concerned with favorable ratings they would have taken the measures necessary to really dent the virus, and that in turn would have caused their ratings to collapse. So instead they opted for weak half measures which have failed and it did jack shit to help his polling anyways.

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Biden to nominate Sarah Bloom Raskin as vice chair for supervision at Fed; Lisa Cook and Philip Jefferson as governors:

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President Joe Biden will nominate Sarah Bloom Raskin to be the Federal Reserve’s next vice chair for supervision, arguably the nation’s most powerful banking regulator, according to people familiar with the matter.

Biden will also nominate Lisa Cook and Philip Jefferson to serve as Federal Reserve governors, according to the people, who asked not to be named in order to speak freely.

Each nominee will in the coming weeks face questioning from the Senate Banking Committee, the congressional body in charge of vetting presidential appointments to the central bank. Should the Senate confirm their nominations, Cook would be the first Black woman to serve on the Fed’s board while Jefferson would be the fourth Black man to do so.

While I wasn't thrilled with renominating Powell, very happy with these nominees along with Brainard as vice chair.  If all are confirmed that's putting quite the stamp - and leftward shift - on the Fed. 

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Sinema speech turbocharges primary challenge buzz
The effort to draft Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego went into overdrive after the Arizona senator closed the door on weakening the filibuster.

https://www.politico.com/news/2022/01/14/sinema-speech-primary-challenge-527110

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Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) had hardly finished throwing cold water on President Joe Biden’s voting rights push on Thursday when Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) headed to the House floor to deliver a speech of his own.

“Today the House showed where it stands. We won’t shrink from protecting our democracy and the voting rights of all Americans. It’s past time for the U.S. Senate and Sen. Sinema to do the same,” Gallego said during his speech, after the House passed a voting bill and Sinema said she would not support changing Senate rules to pass it in the chamber.


It’s no coincidence Gallego called out his state’s senior senator by name. The midterm elections are still 10 months away, but some Arizona Democrats are already living in 2024, when Sinema is up for reelection. Gallego has been floated as a potential Sinema primary challenger, especially as she enrages progressives with her reluctance to change Senate rules or eliminate the filibuster.

 

 

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