When the Senate returns to business on September 14, voting rights are going to be on the table. In the midst of the efforts of Republican-dominated states to suppress voting, Joe Manchin (D-WV), who stood alone in his party against the sweeping For the People Act, has continued to lead a group of senators trying to craft a voting rights bill that will gain the support of at least ten Republicans so it can pass without changing the rules of the filibuster.
There once was a woman who cut an inch or two off the ends of a ham every time she baked a ham. Her young daughter was curious about this and about wasting those bits of ham. Eventually, the young girl asked her mother why she cut off the ends of the ham before putting the ham in the oven. The mother looked surprised at the question and said that that's the way she learned to bake ham from her mother. So the next time she saw her grandmother the young girl asked why she cut the ends off the ham before baking. Slowly, the grandmother began to smile. She said, "Oh, yes. I always did that. You see, we lived in a small house and had a very small stove. I had to do that, otherwise the ham wouldn't fit in the oven."
The filibuster reminds me of that family's "tradition" of cutting off the ends of the ham -- it is a tradition that has long out lived any purpose it may have had in the past. Today it only serves to continue to enable the tyranny of the minority over the majority. It long past time for Senators Manchin and Sinema to wake wake up to the realities of politics today and help end the filibuster
I'd rather just modify the rules for the filibuster and start passing ALL the legislation we need to get passed without having to pretend Manchin is an ally. I don't trust him and we don't have forever.
Late Friday, we received an email detailing our history outline for next week to celebrate “Freedom Week”. Each day the social studies teachers are to study something that is an original document of our founding fathers as they intended it. I ran into one teacher that said they’ve completely gutted the social studies and it’a dummied down to nothing. Books were carted off, textbooks sent into storage, canceled subscription to Scholastic News for Kids. Nothing current events. A newsletter type publication from the state is all the extra content they’ve been given to supplement with. It was sprung on us so suddenly that principals had an emergency meeting about next week. And to help make it “fun” we have things like crazy hair day and silly sock day type activities all week. Our school board has been flipped by I guess the best way to describe it is originalists. I’m left speechless. Wow! Texas needs adult supervision immediately! Those teachers that said they didn’t like to get involved with politics are starting to ask what can we do? Hello! Vote! If we still can that is!
I agree with most of what HCR writes, but regarding the country becoming a one party nation I must disagree. I've always felt that Republican controlled state legislatures were taking an enormous risk in passing voter suppression laws--that risk being it would ignite a tidal wave of Democratic voter turnout. A pissed off voter will do anything to vote. Keep in mind, Republican voters would also be restricted, although the harm would mostly be on the Democratic side.
The best way to level the voting playing field, of course, is to abolish the Electoral College. We no longer live in an age in which it takes a month to travel across the country. We are one nation, under God, right? If Republicans instead of Democrats most always won the popular vote it would have been dead and buried long ago. And the best way to cleanse our legislative democracy is to banish the filibuster. It's basically a tool for cheaters.
J. P. Morgan: “The first thing is character…before money or anything else. Money can not buy it….A man I do not trust could not get money from me for all the bonds in Christendom.”
When I created international bond ratings at Moody’s Investors Service and later was responsible for rating the credit of corporate and sovereign bonds and commercial paper worldwide, I adhered to Morgan’s character maxim.
Trump’s character is despicable. In his 1987 ghostwritten ART OF THE DEAL, Trump boasted of his scummy business practices. This business ‘tycoon’ was responsible for six major bankruptcies in which he screwed his bankers and investors, while salvaging massive personal tax credits from the wreckage. He spoke proudly of how he stiffed contractors and suppliers from whom he had requested services. If you had a handshake deal with Trump, you would be advised to count your fingers.
The Trump Organization is a Mafioso family business. The Don demanded total loyalty from his Mafioso mobsters, which he never reciprocated. When Michael Cohen, Trump’s major hit man, called Trump a “conman” and a “cheat,” The Don called Cohen a “rat.”
Trump, an over-the-top carnival barker, boisterously inflated the Trump brand. Like July 4th fireworks, he produced a massive flash and a glitter shower that fluttered impotently to the ground. Trouble brewed before he lost the 2020 presidential election. [Yes, Virginia, Trump lost.] It got far worse after his White House semi-residency. The Manhattan District Attorney empaneled a grand jury that pursued possible criminal and civil Trump Organization peccadilloes. Other jurisdictions were digging through Trump garbage. The IRS, where Trump had been fighting a lien of $100+ million for a decade, circled like a vulture.
Trump was in a pack of trouble. His future and even his freedom, depended on the take-a-bullet-for-the-boss loyalty of his Mafiosos. Rumors spread that one or more in his inner sanction was contemplating singing like a canary to avoid the cage.
A restless Trump launched another spectacular scam. Playing a Machiavellian game of will-he-or-won’t-he-run-for president in 2024 [HE WON’T], The Don launched staccato funding appeals to his cult. There was nothing subtle in his demands. The money must go directly into his pocket. The Don has so far collected tributes of over $200 million.
The beat goes on. One shouldn’t be distracted by sleight of hand and unabashed lying. Trump’s legacy will be the damage he has done to his gullible associates, his foot soldiers, and to our country.
So the future of democracy comes down to Joe Manchin. He will be the difference between Republican one-party despotism and what we fought for in the Revolutionary War and Civil War. The Democrat who voted for Trump-supported bills 50.4% of the time. The Democrat who voted for Gorsuch and Kavanaugh. The Democrat who voted for most of Trump's cabinet nominees.
Forgive me if I pour another glass of wine and contemplate whether I will sleep.
Tyehimba Jess on "We Real Cool" by Gwendolyn Brooks
"We Real Cool" is the poem so many of us know from grade school: the Seven (that sacred number of the seeker, the thinker, the mysterious) at the Golden Shovel (the shovel be golden but be ready to dig your grave). Them lounging streetcornerwise in our consciousness under some flickered neon of mannish-boy dream. A Chicago/Detroit/Harlem/St. Louis/L.A./Gary/... corner. Someplace where the rhyme is always as good as the reason, anyplace where the cost of gin is precious enough to thin but solemn enough to pour on the sidewalk for the departed, anyplace where the schools are overcrowded and underfunded and black and brown enough to not really miss the Seven, who were underperforming on the standardized tests and had been diagnosed as ADD or BDD status anyway. Anyplace where sin gets hymned out—straitlaced into storefront chapels on Sunday mornings—but sewn back into Saturday night doo-wopped breakbeats, finger-snapped shuffles of promise.
We know the Seven. Know them like our neighbor's boy gone bloodied to bullets. Like our cousins nodded off into prison terms or hyped into the ground. Like our brothers gone homeless. Like our fathers gone missing. Like ourselves when we look in the blurry mid-morning mirror. One for every day of the week, one for each of our deadly sins. One waiting around the bend of each American corner. We stand in the June of our lives and try to sing it all the way through each season, always ending each line on the word that brings us together as much as it pivots us into new revelations: We. We. We. We. We. We. We.
Joe Manchin, senator from WVA, a coal state, has taken large campaign donations from the Koch’s of KS/OK/TX PAC, u know the oil & gas refining states… so I don’t hold my breath for him to come through for anything other than more coal, more oil, more gas, and more Climate Change, more destructive weather, and more human displacement and continued climate tragedies.
[This would make for a good Now & Then discussion]
Opinion: Robert E. Lee was a stone-cold loser
Opinion by Dana Milbank
<snip>
Robert E. Lee was a stone-cold loser.
No general in U.S. history was defeated as unequivocally and as totally as Lee. For all his supposed strategic skill, his army was entirely destroyed. One-quarter of those who served under him were killed, and an additional half were wounded or captured. He was a traitor to the United States who killed more U.S. soldiers than any other enemy in the nation’s history, for the supremely evil cause of slavery. To boot, he was a cruel enslaver and a promoter of white supremacy until his death.
It is ridiculous that, in the year 2021, these simple truths are in dispute. But here we are.
As the massive statue of Lee and his horse finally came down this week from its pedestal in Richmond, former president Donald Trump, the unquestioned leader of the Republican Party, penned an impassioned defense of the Confederate commander. It was ugly in its embrace of the themes that have powered white supremacists for generations. It was also fake history.
What appalls me almost more than the actions of the Republiqan party as they enact such horrible voter restriction laws is the eagerness with which it is lapped up by those professing and demonstrating their fundamental belief in the big lie. I am stunned at the number of people that I thought that were well educated, decently informed, and basically good people that have bought into this hook, line, sinker, pole, reel, and boat.
"I believe that partisan voting legislation will destroy the already weakening binds of our democracy, and for that reason, I will vote against the For the People Act." - Joe Manchin
A quick read of Manchin's June 6th opinion piece in the Charleston Gazette Mail shows just how unprincipled he is - he's willing to allow states to enact destructive, hyper-partisan voting legislation that weakens the "binds of democracy" - using the laughable excuse that he's serving the people of West Virginia. He's doing no such thing but pandering to his corporate donors. 88.47% of Joe Manchin's campaign contributions during 2017-2022 time frame come from out of state donors.
Senator Manchin represents fewer people than a small segment of LA or NYC. His influence is WAY out of proportion. In other words, the senate is an anachronism and should be dissolved. But of course it won’t, so next best idea to address how it kills every single attempt at helpful governing is dump the filibuster—another relic from Jim Crow. Come on Dems, do something bold enough to meet the moment!
Like Iago in Shakespeare's Othello, I can picture Manchin proudly revealing: "I am not what I am." But what he thinks he is -- a manipulator, par excellence -- causes his own downfall. May Manchin face the same fate in the not too distant future, with Sinema coming a close second!
There once was a woman who cut an inch or two off the ends of a ham every time she baked a ham. Her young daughter was curious about this and about wasting those bits of ham. Eventually, the young girl asked her mother why she cut off the ends of the ham before putting the ham in the oven. The mother looked surprised at the question and said that that's the way she learned to bake ham from her mother. So the next time she saw her grandmother the young girl asked why she cut the ends off the ham before baking. Slowly, the grandmother began to smile. She said, "Oh, yes. I always did that. You see, we lived in a small house and had a very small stove. I had to do that, otherwise the ham wouldn't fit in the oven."
The filibuster reminds me of that family's "tradition" of cutting off the ends of the ham -- it is a tradition that has long out lived any purpose it may have had in the past. Today it only serves to continue to enable the tyranny of the minority over the majority. It long past time for Senators Manchin and Sinema to wake wake up to the realities of politics today and help end the filibuster
I'd rather just modify the rules for the filibuster and start passing ALL the legislation we need to get passed without having to pretend Manchin is an ally. I don't trust him and we don't have forever.
But I guess that's just me...
Late Friday, we received an email detailing our history outline for next week to celebrate “Freedom Week”. Each day the social studies teachers are to study something that is an original document of our founding fathers as they intended it. I ran into one teacher that said they’ve completely gutted the social studies and it’a dummied down to nothing. Books were carted off, textbooks sent into storage, canceled subscription to Scholastic News for Kids. Nothing current events. A newsletter type publication from the state is all the extra content they’ve been given to supplement with. It was sprung on us so suddenly that principals had an emergency meeting about next week. And to help make it “fun” we have things like crazy hair day and silly sock day type activities all week. Our school board has been flipped by I guess the best way to describe it is originalists. I’m left speechless. Wow! Texas needs adult supervision immediately! Those teachers that said they didn’t like to get involved with politics are starting to ask what can we do? Hello! Vote! If we still can that is!
I agree with most of what HCR writes, but regarding the country becoming a one party nation I must disagree. I've always felt that Republican controlled state legislatures were taking an enormous risk in passing voter suppression laws--that risk being it would ignite a tidal wave of Democratic voter turnout. A pissed off voter will do anything to vote. Keep in mind, Republican voters would also be restricted, although the harm would mostly be on the Democratic side.
The best way to level the voting playing field, of course, is to abolish the Electoral College. We no longer live in an age in which it takes a month to travel across the country. We are one nation, under God, right? If Republicans instead of Democrats most always won the popular vote it would have been dead and buried long ago. And the best way to cleanse our legislative democracy is to banish the filibuster. It's basically a tool for cheaters.
TRUMP’S LEGACY WILL BE A TRAGEDY OF THE GULLIBLE
J. P. Morgan: “The first thing is character…before money or anything else. Money can not buy it….A man I do not trust could not get money from me for all the bonds in Christendom.”
When I created international bond ratings at Moody’s Investors Service and later was responsible for rating the credit of corporate and sovereign bonds and commercial paper worldwide, I adhered to Morgan’s character maxim.
Trump’s character is despicable. In his 1987 ghostwritten ART OF THE DEAL, Trump boasted of his scummy business practices. This business ‘tycoon’ was responsible for six major bankruptcies in which he screwed his bankers and investors, while salvaging massive personal tax credits from the wreckage. He spoke proudly of how he stiffed contractors and suppliers from whom he had requested services. If you had a handshake deal with Trump, you would be advised to count your fingers.
The Trump Organization is a Mafioso family business. The Don demanded total loyalty from his Mafioso mobsters, which he never reciprocated. When Michael Cohen, Trump’s major hit man, called Trump a “conman” and a “cheat,” The Don called Cohen a “rat.”
Trump, an over-the-top carnival barker, boisterously inflated the Trump brand. Like July 4th fireworks, he produced a massive flash and a glitter shower that fluttered impotently to the ground. Trouble brewed before he lost the 2020 presidential election. [Yes, Virginia, Trump lost.] It got far worse after his White House semi-residency. The Manhattan District Attorney empaneled a grand jury that pursued possible criminal and civil Trump Organization peccadilloes. Other jurisdictions were digging through Trump garbage. The IRS, where Trump had been fighting a lien of $100+ million for a decade, circled like a vulture.
Trump was in a pack of trouble. His future and even his freedom, depended on the take-a-bullet-for-the-boss loyalty of his Mafiosos. Rumors spread that one or more in his inner sanction was contemplating singing like a canary to avoid the cage.
A restless Trump launched another spectacular scam. Playing a Machiavellian game of will-he-or-won’t-he-run-for president in 2024 [HE WON’T], The Don launched staccato funding appeals to his cult. There was nothing subtle in his demands. The money must go directly into his pocket. The Don has so far collected tributes of over $200 million.
The beat goes on. One shouldn’t be distracted by sleight of hand and unabashed lying. Trump’s legacy will be the damage he has done to his gullible associates, his foot soldiers, and to our country.
So the future of democracy comes down to Joe Manchin. He will be the difference between Republican one-party despotism and what we fought for in the Revolutionary War and Civil War. The Democrat who voted for Trump-supported bills 50.4% of the time. The Democrat who voted for Gorsuch and Kavanaugh. The Democrat who voted for most of Trump's cabinet nominees.
Forgive me if I pour another glass of wine and contemplate whether I will sleep.
We Real Cool
Gwendolyn Brooks - 1917-2000
THE POOL PLAYERS.
SEVEN AT THE GOLDEN SHOVEL.
We real cool. We
Left school. We
Lurk late. We
Strike straight. We
Sing sin. We
Thin gin. We
Jazz June. We
Die soon.
Tyehimba Jess on "We Real Cool" by Gwendolyn Brooks
"We Real Cool" is the poem so many of us know from grade school: the Seven (that sacred number of the seeker, the thinker, the mysterious) at the Golden Shovel (the shovel be golden but be ready to dig your grave). Them lounging streetcornerwise in our consciousness under some flickered neon of mannish-boy dream. A Chicago/Detroit/Harlem/St. Louis/L.A./Gary/... corner. Someplace where the rhyme is always as good as the reason, anyplace where the cost of gin is precious enough to thin but solemn enough to pour on the sidewalk for the departed, anyplace where the schools are overcrowded and underfunded and black and brown enough to not really miss the Seven, who were underperforming on the standardized tests and had been diagnosed as ADD or BDD status anyway. Anyplace where sin gets hymned out—straitlaced into storefront chapels on Sunday mornings—but sewn back into Saturday night doo-wopped breakbeats, finger-snapped shuffles of promise.
We know the Seven. Know them like our neighbor's boy gone bloodied to bullets. Like our cousins nodded off into prison terms or hyped into the ground. Like our brothers gone homeless. Like our fathers gone missing. Like ourselves when we look in the blurry mid-morning mirror. One for every day of the week, one for each of our deadly sins. One waiting around the bend of each American corner. We stand in the June of our lives and try to sing it all the way through each season, always ending each line on the word that brings us together as much as it pivots us into new revelations: We. We. We. We. We. We. We.
Joe Manchin, senator from WVA, a coal state, has taken large campaign donations from the Koch’s of KS/OK/TX PAC, u know the oil & gas refining states… so I don’t hold my breath for him to come through for anything other than more coal, more oil, more gas, and more Climate Change, more destructive weather, and more human displacement and continued climate tragedies.
I suspect Manchin is helping the GOP run out the clock on voter rights.
[This would make for a good Now & Then discussion]
Opinion: Robert E. Lee was a stone-cold loser
Opinion by Dana Milbank
<snip>
Robert E. Lee was a stone-cold loser.
No general in U.S. history was defeated as unequivocally and as totally as Lee. For all his supposed strategic skill, his army was entirely destroyed. One-quarter of those who served under him were killed, and an additional half were wounded or captured. He was a traitor to the United States who killed more U.S. soldiers than any other enemy in the nation’s history, for the supremely evil cause of slavery. To boot, he was a cruel enslaver and a promoter of white supremacy until his death.
It is ridiculous that, in the year 2021, these simple truths are in dispute. But here we are.
As the massive statue of Lee and his horse finally came down this week from its pedestal in Richmond, former president Donald Trump, the unquestioned leader of the Republican Party, penned an impassioned defense of the Confederate commander. It was ugly in its embrace of the themes that have powered white supremacists for generations. It was also fake history.
</snip>
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/09/10/robert-e-lee-statue-richmond-trump-history/
How tragic that there are members of Congress who need an incentive to vote for a Voting Rights bill. We value making a deal more than doing right.
What appalls me almost more than the actions of the Republiqan party as they enact such horrible voter restriction laws is the eagerness with which it is lapped up by those professing and demonstrating their fundamental belief in the big lie. I am stunned at the number of people that I thought that were well educated, decently informed, and basically good people that have bought into this hook, line, sinker, pole, reel, and boat.
"I believe that partisan voting legislation will destroy the already weakening binds of our democracy, and for that reason, I will vote against the For the People Act." - Joe Manchin
A quick read of Manchin's June 6th opinion piece in the Charleston Gazette Mail shows just how unprincipled he is - he's willing to allow states to enact destructive, hyper-partisan voting legislation that weakens the "binds of democracy" - using the laughable excuse that he's serving the people of West Virginia. He's doing no such thing but pandering to his corporate donors. 88.47% of Joe Manchin's campaign contributions during 2017-2022 time frame come from out of state donors.
https://www.wvgazettemail.com/opinion/op_ed_commentaries/joe-manchin-why-im-voting-against-the-for-the-people-act/article_c7eb2551-a500-5f77-aa37-2e42d0af870f.html
https://www.opensecrets.org/members-of-congress/joe-manchin/geography?cid=N00032838&cycle=2022&type=I
Senator Manchin represents fewer people than a small segment of LA or NYC. His influence is WAY out of proportion. In other words, the senate is an anachronism and should be dissolved. But of course it won’t, so next best idea to address how it kills every single attempt at helpful governing is dump the filibuster—another relic from Jim Crow. Come on Dems, do something bold enough to meet the moment!
It's difficult not to despair of our country surviving.
Like Iago in Shakespeare's Othello, I can picture Manchin proudly revealing: "I am not what I am." But what he thinks he is -- a manipulator, par excellence -- causes his own downfall. May Manchin face the same fate in the not too distant future, with Sinema coming a close second!