Today’s two big domestic stories are developments that will help to determine the future of our democracy: President Biden’s insistence on a major new coronavirus relief bill and Trump’s role in the January 6 insurrection. President Biden has proposed a $1.9 trillion economic relief bill, called American Rescue Plan, to get the country over the economic downturn caused by the pandemic. This is a bold move that rests on the idea that the government must help to manage the economy. Republicans abandoned this idea in the 1980s and even today continue to insist that tax cuts and private enterprise are the keys to a secure economy.
The GOP definition of unity and bipartisanship is, "Do it our way". I kept hearing news people last night talking about 'finding middle ground', 'meeting in the middle', as if this were some weird kind of geometry problem. Take a 24" line and find the mid-point and that is the answer. No nuance, no context, just equal measure for each side. That's not bipartisanship, that's not fairness. That's math.
Regarding the other elephant in the room - the impeachment trial, a friend tipped me to an Australian documentary on the insurrection that was far more complete than I've seen on US TV. "The Downfall of Donald Trump" https://iview.abc.net.au/show/four-corners/series/2021
If the Senate does not convict Trump, we might just as well turn the country over to the Proud Boys and their ilk, because we won't have a country any longer. The fact that the GOP is still pretending that what happened January 6th was an aberration is ludicrous. When I hear people say, "That's not who we are.", I want to scream, "That is PRECISELY who we are" That's why HCRs history lessons are so incredibly valuable. Most of us only had a very skim of history in high school, long forgotten. We don't have true leaders of integrity anymore, or very few, at any rate. We've been like the frog in boiling water for over 50 years, not really seeing how much danger we are collectively in.
And yes, I am speaking as someone who has benefited from my white privilege all my life, often, I'm ashamed to say unaware of just how much it has buoyed me. I know things have been so much worse for my brothers and sisters of color.
I really feel we are at an inflection point as a country - we must deal with the inequality, racial and every other kind. We must quit believing the Trumpian POV that life is a zero sum game, and realize that, "Everybody does better when everybody does better".
I think that's what this community here is doing. and I am thankful for each and every one of you.
Is it just me, or how is $3,200 over the course of nearly a year do much? (Providing that perhaps $1400 is added to the $1200+$600 already paid to single people.). For some that might be a single month's mortgage, utilities, food, gas, essentials. It boggles me how wealthy politicians haggle back and forth so much on such a piddly amount for us that they don't even need themselves. People are so far behind on payments for everything, that I just don't understand how things go up from there. As Robert Reich points out taxing the mega rich will add billions to the economy and they will still be mega rich. I made donations to organizations with my checks to help those out of work. And put some in savings. I have been an essential food service worker at a school district helping prepare and give out over 500,000 free meals in 10 months. I am beat and exhausted. Let the schools safely open. I have faith in Joe Biden. Let's get this leadership team room to lead.
I've lost al patience with the Press pressing Jen Psaki and other Biden folks to accept their narrow focus of "unity" only meaning to appease Republicans and moderate Democrats.
Unity means to bring "the whole" together and Biden more than once made the distinction he meant the whole country. Every President promises to work with the other side but that hasn't happened in decades.
When you hear the call for unity and see that 74% of all Americans are in favor of a big relief package and 400 Governors and Mayors from both parties are begging for life saving aid, you can see how Biden can fulfill his promise for unity.
Republicans tied to Trump are a lost cause, cut them loose and save the ship from sinking. They don't want unity, they want to retain power but 81 million Americans wanted something else.
Republicans are still calling the American Relief Plan "stimulus". It's not an economic stimulus plan but it certainly will help the economy. But let's call it what it is, "disaster relief" which is what it would be if instead of COVID, every city in America was hit by a tornado, flood or some other natural disaster.
Morning, all!! Morning, Dr. R!! I asked my bovine friends who live on the property behind me what "We need to quit counting the egg-sucking legs on the cows" means. No word as yet in response to the query. There were, however, several scattered moos that could be heard among the herd...
The NYT 77 day article was fantastic. It lays out the foundation for the impeachment trial. Citizens need to read that article to have a greater understanding of the history and participants in the great sedition.
Emperor Trump had no clothes. He lost the election but would not admit it and bragged about winning. Sycophants kept up the ridiculous story even after the crowds smashed in the seat of government. There is too much shame involved in admitting they lied, and lied and lied. And too many injured, dead or locked in jail. For what?
Susan Collins is concerned. The tax cut she supported with Trump should have concerned her. We know who benefited from the tax cut. The 1% . Biden is focused on rescuing the country from this pandemic and the effects it has on the most vulnerable. This is where concern needs to lie.
I think my prediction that a year from now we won't have Drumpfsterfire to worry about other than providing him meals and a mop to clean his cell with is going to be true.
I would pay premium to see the Professional Perjurer testify in his own behalf. The last time he did that in a civil suit against Tim O'Brien, he was caught lying in court 19 times.
encouraging... and the success in getting the entire covid relief bill (american rescue plan) passed ‘as is’ could set a strong tone in determining the success of biden’s presidency. and besides that, america desperately needs it to happen. the GOP are testing biden early on. please stay strong joe!
Seems like the tax cuts should have held stipulations much the way the PPP loans did. Maybe they did and I didn't hear of it.
I mean, the PPP loans came during a time of great need for many businesses and came with a specific set of rules on how to spend it. The tax cuts, as someone here said, was a gift to the already wealthy. They should have been required to redirect the saved money into local spending instead of spending on themselves.
I understand the idea of the tax cuts to stimulate the economy but without oversight or rules, it was redirected back into the businesses and in no way helped the economy.
As far as relief packages, no visible mention has been made to specifically help the restaurant industry. At the beginning of the pandemic, my wife and I owned a successful restaurant for over 36 years. We were asked to close by the governor of our state, as many restaurants and bars were asked to across the country. We understood clearly why we had to shut down and we did it for the greater good. We were proud to help.
Being the first asked to sacrifice, restaurants were not moved to the front of the line in terms of aid specific to them.
We are doing okay, but many restaurants in our community and across the country are closed permanently with more being announced every day.
Like FDR's New Deal, what's urgently need is a massive infusion of federal cash into the economy. Not even $1.9 tril is really enough, but it will help. It must be carefully administered to bring maximum benefits to those truly in need, unlike relief bills directed by the Trumpsky admin.
The intervention of Gov Jim Justice is welcome and hopefully signals a halting return to reality for segments of his Deplorable GOP. Still, I call BS on his faux-folksy gibberish, this from the richest guy in WV worth $2 billion. Pay your fair share, guv!
As for Trumpsky, here's the deal. Lock him up !!!!!!
Republican leaders don't want an impeachment trial because January 6 was an attempted coup, and a trial in the Senate will expose that fact in undeniable clarity.
Ongoing investigations into 1/6 make trump's involvement and intention obvious. He and a widening net of Republicans intended to take down the government. Period. I remain dazed and dumbfounded by this. And I want those who were involve to be in jail. Period. That was an insurrection. Had it been orchestrated by foreigners, we'd be at war. It wasn't. We did it to ourselves and the participants remain just as guilty. Period. Jail.
The GOP definition of unity and bipartisanship is, "Do it our way". I kept hearing news people last night talking about 'finding middle ground', 'meeting in the middle', as if this were some weird kind of geometry problem. Take a 24" line and find the mid-point and that is the answer. No nuance, no context, just equal measure for each side. That's not bipartisanship, that's not fairness. That's math.
Regarding the other elephant in the room - the impeachment trial, a friend tipped me to an Australian documentary on the insurrection that was far more complete than I've seen on US TV. "The Downfall of Donald Trump" https://iview.abc.net.au/show/four-corners/series/2021
If the Senate does not convict Trump, we might just as well turn the country over to the Proud Boys and their ilk, because we won't have a country any longer. The fact that the GOP is still pretending that what happened January 6th was an aberration is ludicrous. When I hear people say, "That's not who we are.", I want to scream, "That is PRECISELY who we are" That's why HCRs history lessons are so incredibly valuable. Most of us only had a very skim of history in high school, long forgotten. We don't have true leaders of integrity anymore, or very few, at any rate. We've been like the frog in boiling water for over 50 years, not really seeing how much danger we are collectively in.
And yes, I am speaking as someone who has benefited from my white privilege all my life, often, I'm ashamed to say unaware of just how much it has buoyed me. I know things have been so much worse for my brothers and sisters of color.
I really feel we are at an inflection point as a country - we must deal with the inequality, racial and every other kind. We must quit believing the Trumpian POV that life is a zero sum game, and realize that, "Everybody does better when everybody does better".
I think that's what this community here is doing. and I am thankful for each and every one of you.
Is it just me, or how is $3,200 over the course of nearly a year do much? (Providing that perhaps $1400 is added to the $1200+$600 already paid to single people.). For some that might be a single month's mortgage, utilities, food, gas, essentials. It boggles me how wealthy politicians haggle back and forth so much on such a piddly amount for us that they don't even need themselves. People are so far behind on payments for everything, that I just don't understand how things go up from there. As Robert Reich points out taxing the mega rich will add billions to the economy and they will still be mega rich. I made donations to organizations with my checks to help those out of work. And put some in savings. I have been an essential food service worker at a school district helping prepare and give out over 500,000 free meals in 10 months. I am beat and exhausted. Let the schools safely open. I have faith in Joe Biden. Let's get this leadership team room to lead.
I've lost al patience with the Press pressing Jen Psaki and other Biden folks to accept their narrow focus of "unity" only meaning to appease Republicans and moderate Democrats.
Unity means to bring "the whole" together and Biden more than once made the distinction he meant the whole country. Every President promises to work with the other side but that hasn't happened in decades.
When you hear the call for unity and see that 74% of all Americans are in favor of a big relief package and 400 Governors and Mayors from both parties are begging for life saving aid, you can see how Biden can fulfill his promise for unity.
Republicans tied to Trump are a lost cause, cut them loose and save the ship from sinking. They don't want unity, they want to retain power but 81 million Americans wanted something else.
Have a good day, off to shovel snow.
Republicans are still calling the American Relief Plan "stimulus". It's not an economic stimulus plan but it certainly will help the economy. But let's call it what it is, "disaster relief" which is what it would be if instead of COVID, every city in America was hit by a tornado, flood or some other natural disaster.
Morning, all!! Morning, Dr. R!! I asked my bovine friends who live on the property behind me what "We need to quit counting the egg-sucking legs on the cows" means. No word as yet in response to the query. There were, however, several scattered moos that could be heard among the herd...
The NYT 77 day article was fantastic. It lays out the foundation for the impeachment trial. Citizens need to read that article to have a greater understanding of the history and participants in the great sedition.
Emperor Trump had no clothes. He lost the election but would not admit it and bragged about winning. Sycophants kept up the ridiculous story even after the crowds smashed in the seat of government. There is too much shame involved in admitting they lied, and lied and lied. And too many injured, dead or locked in jail. For what?
Susan Collins is concerned. The tax cut she supported with Trump should have concerned her. We know who benefited from the tax cut. The 1% . Biden is focused on rescuing the country from this pandemic and the effects it has on the most vulnerable. This is where concern needs to lie.
“Go Big!”
The Democratic leadership is taking the right course – the only course – the begin the healing.
A Senate vote to convict the former president would be the appropriate second dose.
I think my prediction that a year from now we won't have Drumpfsterfire to worry about other than providing him meals and a mop to clean his cell with is going to be true.
I would pay premium to see the Professional Perjurer testify in his own behalf. The last time he did that in a civil suit against Tim O'Brien, he was caught lying in court 19 times.
encouraging... and the success in getting the entire covid relief bill (american rescue plan) passed ‘as is’ could set a strong tone in determining the success of biden’s presidency. and besides that, america desperately needs it to happen. the GOP are testing biden early on. please stay strong joe!
Seems like the tax cuts should have held stipulations much the way the PPP loans did. Maybe they did and I didn't hear of it.
I mean, the PPP loans came during a time of great need for many businesses and came with a specific set of rules on how to spend it. The tax cuts, as someone here said, was a gift to the already wealthy. They should have been required to redirect the saved money into local spending instead of spending on themselves.
I understand the idea of the tax cuts to stimulate the economy but without oversight or rules, it was redirected back into the businesses and in no way helped the economy.
As far as relief packages, no visible mention has been made to specifically help the restaurant industry. At the beginning of the pandemic, my wife and I owned a successful restaurant for over 36 years. We were asked to close by the governor of our state, as many restaurants and bars were asked to across the country. We understood clearly why we had to shut down and we did it for the greater good. We were proud to help.
Being the first asked to sacrifice, restaurants were not moved to the front of the line in terms of aid specific to them.
We are doing okay, but many restaurants in our community and across the country are closed permanently with more being announced every day.
"Susan Collins expressed optimism that the two sides could continue to work together."
Yeah well, the rumor is she also expressed "concern." We know how helpful that is. Bah.
Like FDR's New Deal, what's urgently need is a massive infusion of federal cash into the economy. Not even $1.9 tril is really enough, but it will help. It must be carefully administered to bring maximum benefits to those truly in need, unlike relief bills directed by the Trumpsky admin.
The intervention of Gov Jim Justice is welcome and hopefully signals a halting return to reality for segments of his Deplorable GOP. Still, I call BS on his faux-folksy gibberish, this from the richest guy in WV worth $2 billion. Pay your fair share, guv!
As for Trumpsky, here's the deal. Lock him up !!!!!!
Republican leaders don't want an impeachment trial because January 6 was an attempted coup, and a trial in the Senate will expose that fact in undeniable clarity.
Ongoing investigations into 1/6 make trump's involvement and intention obvious. He and a widening net of Republicans intended to take down the government. Period. I remain dazed and dumbfounded by this. And I want those who were involve to be in jail. Period. That was an insurrection. Had it been orchestrated by foreigners, we'd be at war. It wasn't. We did it to ourselves and the participants remain just as guilty. Period. Jail.
Don't know how you keep this up but I'm sure glad you do! Thank you Dr Richardson 💜