On Medicare Improvement

In today's thrilling episode of "Why Won't The Democrats Do Anything?", we see the ever-earnest Chuck Schumer having to go begging hat in hand to get the dastardly Joe Manchin to consider not being such an asshole all the fucking time.

Axios:

Dems try again on drug prices

Democrats are trying again to enact government price negotiations for prescription drugs, with a revised plan that would be wrapped into a broader reconciliation bill.

State of play:

• Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on Wednesday released updated drug pricing language for review by the chamber’s rules referee, with a goal of passing it through the partisan reconciliation process, which wouldn't need any Republican votes.Schumer has been engaged in talks with Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) on a package that would let Medicare negotiate directly with drugmakers over the price of prescription drugs
• While there's no agreement on other components in the package, Schumer has told Senate Democrats that if a deal can be reached, a bill could reach the Senate floor before August recess, per a source familiar.

The big picture:

The specifics of the new plan "appear ever so slightly more favorable to industry," said Raymond James analyst Chris Meekins.

Details:

• According to a summary of drug pricing provisions obtained by Axios, negotiations would begin next year. The new negotiated prices would take effect in 2026.The deal would overhaul Medicare's Part D drug benefit starting in 2025 and cap annual premium growth at 6% through 2029.
• Drug companies would have to rebate back the difference if they raise Medicare Part D prices higher than inflation, starting in October.

The revised draft would require Medicare to use its new negotiating power for as many drugs as possible — a change from earlier drafts, which gave the department some flexibility to back off. Price negotiations for biological drugs, however, could be delayed up to two years if a functionally equivalent biosimilar is likely to hit the market before the negotiated price takes effect.

The latest language doesn't specifically address price negotiations for insulin.

What they're saying:

"This reform would help make sure when companies profit they do it because they are innovating and serving their customers, not hiring the best lawyers and lobbyists," said Frederick Isasi, executive director of Families USA.

The other side:

• Drugmakers decried the plan as misguided.
• "The prescription drug bill released today went from bad to worse for patients," said Debra DeShong of PhRMA, the big Washington drug lobby. "Democrats weakened protections for patient costs included in previous versions, while doubling down on sweeping government price-setting policies that will threaten patient access and future innovations."
• "As we've previously warned, 'negotiation' is simply a euphemism for a government takeover of a sector that, on its own, has been historically successful in saving millions of lives," said Michelle McMurry-Heath, CEO of the Biotechnology Innovation Organization.

The intrigue:

Democrats are eager to show voters they've acted to lower drug prices before the November midterms, and progressive groups are prodding them to use all the legislative and administrative tools they can to do so.But taking on pharma could exhaust a lot of political capital, and opponents say the substance of the proposal could have a chilling effect on innovation.

What we're watching:

Manchin's involvement doesn't ensure a smooth ride for the rest of the reconciliation package, and the parliamentarian could still decide some of the drug pricing provisions don't comply with Senate rules.

Real Tired Of This Shit

Scientific American, Eric W. Fleegler, Lois K. Lee :

Pediatric Gun Deaths Are a Massive Problem in the U.S.

Thoughts and prayers do not stop bullets. We must do better for our children

School shootings feel random in their location yet predictable in their occurrence. Killers target elementary, high school and college students in urban, suburban and rural communities. The children killed are Hispanic, white, Black, Asian, Native American, gay, straight, transgender and cisgender.

This year school shootings have occurred more than weekly on average with 27 in 2022 (so far). Many go virtually unmentioned on the national stage, however, until the “unthinkable” happens, and 19 nine- to 11-year-old children and two teachers die unspeakable deaths at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. Yet these killings aren’t unthinkable. We’ve been here before—at Columbine, Sandy Hook, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida and too many other schools.

We are researchers and pediatric emergency medicine physicians who study firearm injuries. After many hard, politically fraught years of investigating this subject, we believe that it is our collective responsibility to address, head on, the interlinked issues of gun availability, gun safety, gun regulations and gun violence prevention research—and, dare we say it, the politicization of guns taking priority over public health. With thousands of children killed each year in the U.S. by firearms, we must, as a country, ultimately reckon with the essential question of what is most important: Is it the narrow focus on individuals’ rights or the broader vision of societal responsibility?

Are pediatric gun deaths really a problem in the U.S.? Our work and others’ show the answer is unequivocally yes. Guns kill more U.S. children and adolescents between one and 19 years old than any other means. Guns kill more children than motor vehicle collisions, cancer, infections or any other disease. And this is a uniquely American problem. Though horrifying and sensational, school deaths represent only a small fraction of firearm deaths. Most firearm injuries and deaths happen in homes or neighborhoods. In 2020 10,197 children and young adults age zero to 24 year old died by guns, a 55 percent increase over the decade prior.

Gun deaths are also a health disparity issue. Over the past decade, Black teenage boys died by guns at rates about five times higher than those of white teenage boys, though their names rarely register in the national consciousness.

There are at least 400 million guns in the U.S. We don’t really know how many because most states don’t track gun sales or require gun registration, thanks to successful lobbying by the gun industry and progun politicians. Last year 18.9 million guns were sold in the U.S. And between the beginning of 2019 and middle of 2021, an estimated 7.5 million people became first-time gun owners. This includes 5.4 million people who previously lived in homes without guns. Twenty years ago a majority of gun owners used guns for hunting and sports. Today 88 percent of them state they own their guns for self-protection. Most of those owners say having a gun at home makes them feel safer, and about 40 percent keep one loaded and “easily accessible” at all times. In 2021 four in 10 children, representing approximately 30 million kids, had at least one gun in the home. Even in homes with children, 73 percent of these guns were stored unlocked and/or loaded, putting those children at risk of injury and death. If you keep a gun in your home, storing it unloaded and keeping the gun and ammunition locked away separately can decrease the risk.

Unlike cars and virtually every product sold in the U.S., there are no regulatory safety requirements for guns. That bears repeating: guns are exempt from safety standards set by the federal Consumer Product Safety Act. Between 2015 and 2021, there were 2,446 unintentional child shootings, resulting in 923 deaths and 1,603 injuries. Thus, while pill bottle makers, hair dryer producers and motor vehicle companies constantly work to improve their products’ safety, the U.S. government has decreed gun manufactures do not need to consider whether a two-year-old should be able to pull the trigger on a gun or whether a teenager should be able to fire a gun they don’t own.

Beyond these lack of safety requirements, in 2006 Congress passed the “Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act,” which shields firearm manufactures against liability for any injuries or deaths from guns. Thus, gunmakers have minimal incentive to improve gun safety technology, despite the development of safer gun technology over the last decade in the form of personalized “smart” guns, which use fingerprint technology (like your cell phone, radio-frequency identification (RFID), or other methods) to allow only the authorized user to fire the gun. This simple fix would prevent curious children, suicidal individuals, and unauthorized people from finding a gun and shooting the weapon. It would save countless lives each year.

We know that states with stronger firearm laws are associated with lower firearm deaths. We also know no one law or strategy will address the problem of U.S. gun violence. We need a multipronged strategy, and we need it to encompass all states.

One approach would treat owning guns like owning cars: meaningful age limits for purchase and possession and licensing, registration and insurance requirements. Some states, including New York, Connecticut and California, do have meaningful age limits and licensing and registration requirements. Other states, including Florida, Georgia, Tennessee and Rhode Island, specifically prohibit gun registries. Nearly two thirds of Americans, including 53 percent of Republicans, support moderate or strong regulation of gun ownership. And after every school shooting, federal firearm legislation, such as universal background checks or raising the legal age to buy a long-gun from 18 to 21, is proposed once again. It is the most practical start to decreasing firearm deaths, yet the most quickly dismissed. So we are left with “thoughts and prayers.”

We also need laws to minimize access to firearms among individuals at risk of harming themselves or others (such as people who have been charged with domestic violence or who have homicidal ideation). These needed measures include universal background checks (supported by 81 percent of Americans) and extreme risk protection order (“red flag”) laws that allow a judge to prohibit at-risk individuals’ purchase or possession of a firearm for a time limited period. Nineteen states plus Washington, D.C., have red flag laws. These laws are frequently passed by bipartisan consensus in Republican-led states. Yet people slip through the cracks, so we need to both increase awareness of the laws in the states that have them and to have more states pass them.

As pediatric emergency physicians, we specifically concern ourselves with children accessing their parents’ guns. Strong child access prevention laws, currently in 34 states and Washington, D.C., hold adult gun owners liable if a child can or does access a firearm. However, we and others have concerns about criminalizing grieving families and non-discriminatory applications of these laws. Another approach would be to incentivize gun owners to store their firearms more safely.

And then there is funding. Because of a dearth of federal research funding, there are substantial gaps in knowledge about the victims and perpetrators of gun violence, as well as effective interventions. There was no Congressional federal funding for firearm research at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention after Congress passed the Dickey Amendment in 1996—and no such funding for the National Institutes of Health after the amendment was extended to that agency in late 2011—until 2019, when $25 million was appropriated. This is a drop in the bucket, compared with the number of people affected by gun violence. In contrast, the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute has a budget of $3.8 billion to support research related to conditions such as heart disease and cancer.

But while we consider these approaches, we must remember these names. They are sons and daughters, children whose parents had hopes and dreams for them, youth with goals and aspirations for themselves:

Nevaeh Bravo

Jacklyn “Jackie” Cazares

Makenna Lee Elrod

Jose Flores, Jr.

Eliana “Ellie” Garcia

Irma Garcia

Uziyah Garcia

Amerie Jo Garza

Xavier Lopez

Jayce Luevanos

Tess Marie Mata

Maranda Mathis

Eva Mireles

Alithia Ramirez

Annabell Guadalupe Rodriguez

Maite Yuleana Rodriguez

Alexandria “Lexi” Aniyah Rubio

Layla Salazar

Jailah Nicole Silguero

Eliahana Cruz Torres

Rojelio Torres

And never again should we have to list the names of innocent children shot and killed in their elementary school. Yet history, and a contemptuous lack of action from our elected officials, predicts we will. We must demand more, especially when there are actions we can take. We must do better for our children, our youth and our society. We must.

Eric Swalwell

"Who are you here for?"

For a long time now, Republicans have been pushing the manichean concept of dichotomy. ie: it's always and only one way, or it's always and only the other way - there can be no nuance - there's no spectrum.

If you're not going to do anything to stop gun violence - in fact, if you're going to actively pursue policies that have the effect of enabling it, and thereby encouraging it - then you are no longer siding with the kids. You're siding with the people who murder those kids.

So there ya go, GOP - you've wanted this Either/Or shit, and now you've stepped in it your own bad selves.

Of course, there's also a branch of their disinformation organization that's always pimping the contradiction of idea of Both Sides Do It, and Why-Bother-They're-All-The-Same.

And that's a lie, which fits perfectly, because - Daddy State:

THE BASICS:

The Daddy State lies as a means of demonstrating their power.

The lies have practically nothing to do with the subject of the lies.

Lying about everything is a way to condition us - to make us accept their premise that they can do anything they want.

THE GOAL IS

TO DICTATE REALITY TO US

Today's Tweet

I counted 6.

Marco Rubio was asked about keeping kids from being shot to pieces in school, and the fucker shrugged 6 different times.

19 dead kids, 2 dead teachers - and that asshole shrugged.

Asked Rubio why not ban AR-15s, and he said: "The truth of the matter is these people are going to commit these horrifying crimes, whether they have to use another weapon to do it, they're going to figure out a way to do it." Also contends more background checks won't fix problem pic.twitter.com/crfprWZSyQ

— Manu Raju (@mkraju) May 25, 2022

Did I forget to mention Mr Rubio is near the top of the list of NRA donees?

NRA Blood Money

1. Mitt Romney: $13,648,000
2. Richard Burr: $6,987,000
3. Roy Blunt: $4,556,000
4. Thom Tillis: $4,421,000
5. Marco Rubio: $3,303,000
6. Joni Ernst: $3,125,000
7. Josh Hawley: $1,392,000
8. Mitch McConnell: $1,267,000
9. Ted Cruz: $176,000

Continuing Sadness - Again

Brian Tyler Cohen

And NBA coach Steve Kerr:

"...Republicans...are making a conscious decision to defend the status quo..."

Sen Chris Murphy

About 250 Republicans (mostly) in the US Congress are accomplices to murder.

Every time some asshole with a gun and a chip on his shoulder kills innocent people at school, or out grocery shopping, or in church - in church for fuck's sake.

Every time that happens and the GOP not only does nothing about it, but obstructs any and all efforts even to talk about doing something about it, the GOP is aiding and abetting the murderers - of Americans - our kids and their friends, our parents and grandparents, our neighbors and colleagues and strangers we have no reason to believe are anything but good decent folks who've done nothing to deserve dying in fear and pain - all because Republicans (IMO) need us to be fearful so they can go on pretending to be our protectors.

And how ironically fucked up is that? Our "protectors" are making sure we're under constant threat, so they can keep us all suspicious of one another, thereby prevent us from getting together to make common cause against them.

You are nine kinds of fucked up, America.

Today's Oy

A tweet from Congress Critter Madison Cawthorn:

At first blush, it's the easy shot to call him an idiot and blow it off.

But he's not an idiot. At least, he's not the kind of idiot who doesn't know that legislation doesn't just fall out of the sky all neatly wrapped for him to peruse.

He's already had opportunity to know what's in the thing. It's been rattling around in various forms, in various committees for a while now, so he's not in the dark on this shit. He's got staffers who wrangle that kinda thing for him and they know what's in it even if he insists on staying willfully ignorant of it.

So what's the deal?

Here's the deal: Cawthorn knows his constituents are waiting to be the fools who get fooled into believing everyone but them is the fool. And a lot of those fools are at least partly aware that they've been fooled and are still going along with it because they need to be "on the inside" as they and their buddy Mr Cawthorn make fools of all those fools.

Confused? Me too - and that, ladies and germs - that's pretty much the whole fuckin' point.

If I can get you addled and frustrated enough, you'll eventually throw up your hands and leave me to my devices to "solve the problem" for you.

Of course the "solution" will be flashy, and probably expensive, but largely with no real substance or efficacy. It's just a win for our side - which, to Cawthorn and the Plutocrats, means little more than putting your dollars in their pockets.

That's how we do things here

Jan6 Stuff

Coupla things just got a little clearer for me:

1. The apparent involvement of several Poodles at DumFux News, and the heat they may be about to feel, could remove a lot of the wonder as to why Chris Wallace suddenly bolted.
2. Devin Nunes has also made an abrupt career change - saying he'll leave Congress before the end of this year, in order to take the top job at Trump's new "media company". I'm thinking that's because Nunes is about to be implicated (again - this time officially, and this time without cover), and his only shot is to try to propagandize his way out of this mess.

18 U.S. Code § 1505 - Obstruction of proceedings before departments, agencies, and committees

Whoever, with intent to avoid, evade, prevent, or obstruct compliance, in whole or in part, with any civil investigative demand duly and properly made under the Antitrust Civil Process Act, willfully withholds, misrepresents, removes from any place, conceals, covers up, destroys, mutilates, alters, or by other means falsifies any documentary material, answers to written interrogatories, or oral testimony, which is the subject of such demand; or attempts to do so or solicits another to do so; or

Whoever corruptly, or by threats or force, or by any threatening letter or communication influences, obstructs, or impedes or endeavors to influence, obstruct, or impede the due and proper administration of the law under which any pending proceeding is being had before any department or agency of the United States, or the due and proper exercise of the power of inquiry under which any inquiry or investigation is being had by either House, or any committee of either House or any joint committee of the Congress—

Shall be fined under this title, imprisoned not more than 5 years or, if the offense involves international or domestic terrorism (as defined in section 2331), imprisoned not more than 8 years, or both.

Ed Note: You don't really think Herschel Walker or David Perdue are in any way a match for Raphael Warnock, do ya?

Build Back Better

Democrats passed the BBB in the House very early this morning by a vote of 220-213.

Every Republican voted against it, and it now goes to the Senate, where every Republican will vote against it, even though many of them in both chambers make campaign promises that sound very similar to what Biden and the Dems are trying to deliver for us.

Reuters:

The Democratic-controlled U.S. House of Representatives on Friday passed President Joe Biden's $1.75 trillion social policy and climate package, sending it back to the Senate where it is likely to be modified further.

Here is what the latest version contains, according to the White House:

FAMILY BENEFITS

• Free preschool for all 3- and 4-year-olds
• Support for childcare costs: Families that earn less than $300,000 a year would pay no more than 7% of their income on childcare
• Tax credits worth up to $300 a child per month
• Bolsters coverage of home-care costs for the elderly and disabled through the Medicaid health program
• Expands free school meals and provides $65 a month in grocery money during summer months for 29 million low-income children who are eligible for free lunches at school

CLIMATE

• Rebates and credits to cut the cost of rooftop solar systems by 30% and American-made, union-made electric vehicles by $12,500
• Incentives to encourage U.S. manufacturing of clean energy technology and shift other industries to reduce carbon emissions
• Creates a 300,000-strong Civilian Climate Corps to work on environmental and climate projects
• Creates a Clean Energy and Sustainability Accelerator to invest in climate-related projects, with at least 40% serving disadvantaged communities
• New spending on coastal restoration, forest management and soil conservation

HEALTHCARE

• Enables the Medicare health plan for seniors to negotiate lower prices for prescription drugs that have been on the market for at least nine years
• Penalizes drug companies that increase prices faster than inflation
• Caps out-of-pocket prescription drug prices at $2,000 a year and lowers insulin prices to $35 a month
• Expands Medicare to cover hearing aids
• Reduces Affordable Care Act premiums by an average of $600 per person a year
• Expands Medicaid coverage to low-income people in the 12 states that have opted not to expand the program on their own

HOUSING

• Expands affordable housing, public housing and rental assistance programs
• Broadens down-payment assistance to bolster home ownership
• Expands lead-paint removal efforts
• Supports community-led redevelopment in low-income neighborhoods
• Encourages local governments to ease zoning restrictions that limit housing density

EDUCATION

• Increases Pell Grants for college costs
• More aid for historically Black colleges and other minority-serving schools
• Boosts the Labor Department's job-training programs by 50%

IMMIGRATION

• $100 billion in "immigration reform," which is additional funding beyond the $1.75 trillion
• Efforts to reduce backlogs, expand legal services and improve border processing and asylum programs

OTHER PROGRAMS

• Expands a tax credit for low-income workers to cover those who do not have children
• More money for rural projects
• Supports community violence intervention

TAXES

• 15% minimum tax on corporate profits for companies with more than $1 billion in profits
• 1% surcharge on stock buybacks
• 15% minimum tax on foreign profits of U.S. corporations
• 5% surtax on personal income above $10 million
• additional 3% surtax on income above $25 million
• close loophole to prevent wealthy from avoiding 3.8% Medicare tax
• bolster the Internal Revenue Service to improve customer service and focus enforcement on wealthy tax evaders
• expands a deduction for state and local taxes that primarily benefits upper-income households in high-tax states.

Paul Gosar Censured

So, I guess voting for Biden's infrastructure bill is ample reason for GOP Leadership to shit on their caucus members, but putting up a thinly veiled death threat against a colleague is just good clean fun(?)

After the censure vote, Gosar retweeted the offending video, and Kevin McCarthy threatened the Democrats with reprisals if Republicans regain the majority and he becomes speaker.

Pretty fuckin' sick of this "living in interesting times" bullshit.

AP:

The House voted Wednesday to censure Republican Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona for posting an animated video that depicted him killing Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez with a sword, an extraordinary rebuke that highlighted the political strains testing Washington and the country.

Calling the video a clear threat to a lawmaker’s life, Democrats argued Gosar’s conduct would not be tolerated in any other workplace — and shouldn’t be in Congress.

The vote to censure Gosar and also remove him from his House committee assignments was approved by a vote of 223-207, almost entirely along party lines, with Reps. Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois the only Republicans voting in favor.

Gosar had deleted the tweet days ago amid the criticism, but he retweeted the video late Wednesday shortly after the vote.

He showed no emotion as he stood in the well of the House after the vote, flanked by roughly a dozen Republicans as Speaker Nancy Pelosi read the censure resolution and announced his penalty. He shook hands, hugged and patted other members of the GOP conference on the back before leaving the chamber.

Republican Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy called the censure an “abuse of power” by Democrats to distract from national problems. He said of the censure, a “new standard will continue to be applied in the future,” a signal of potential ramifications for Democratic members should Republicans retake a majority.

But Democrats said there was nothing political about it.

“These actions demand a response. We cannot have members joking about murdering each other,” said Pelosi. “This is both an endangerment of our elected officials and an insult to the institution.”

Ocasio-Cortez herself said in an impassioned speech, ”When we incite violence with depictions against our colleagues, that trickles down to violence in this country. And that is where we must draw the line.”

Unrepentant during tense floor debate, Gosar rejected what he called the “mischaracterization” that the cartoon was “dangerous or threatening. It was not.”

“I do not espouse violence toward anyone. I never have. It was not my purpose to make anyone upset,” Gosar said.

He compared himself to Alexander Hamilton, the nation’s first Treasury secretary, celebrated in recent years in a Broadway musical, whose censure vote in Congress was defeated: “If I must join Alexander Hamilton, the first person attempted to be censured by this House, so be it, it is done.”

The decision to censure Gosar, one of the strongest punishments the House can dole out, was just the fourth in nearly 40 years — and just the latest example of the raw tensions that have roiled Congress since the 2020 election and the violent Capitol insurrection that followed.

Democrats spoke not only of the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection, but also the violent attacks that have escalated on both parties, including the 2017 shooting of Republican lawmakers practicing for a congressional baseball game and the 2011 shooting of former Arizona Rep. Gabby Giffords as she met with constituents at an event outside a Tucson grocery store.

Republicans largely dismissed Gosar’s video as nothing more than a cartoon, a routine form of political expression and hardly the most important issue facing Congress.

Yet threats against lawmakers are higher than ever, the chief of the U.S. Capitol Police told the Associated Press in an interview earlier this year.

The censure of Gosar was born out of Democratic frustration. Over the past week, as outrage over the video grew, House GOP leaders declined to publicly rebuke Gosar, who has a lengthy history of incendiary remarks. Instead, they largely ignored his actions and urged their members to vote against the resolution censuring him.

Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida said, “I would just suggest we have better things to do on the floor of the House of Representatives than be the hall monitors for Twitter.”

The resolution will remove Gosar from two committees: Natural Resources and the Oversight and Reform panel, on which Ocasio-Cortez also serves, limiting his ability to shape legislation and deliver for constituents. It states that depictions of violence can foment actual violence and jeopardize the safety of elected officials, citing the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol as an example.

Gosar is the 24th House member to be censured. Though it carries no practical effect, except to provide a historic footnote that marks a lawmaker’s career, it is the strongest punishment the House can issue short of expulsion, which requires a two-thirds vote.

Democratic Rep. Charles Rangel, the former chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, was the last to receive the rebuke in 2010 for financial misconduct.

It would also be second time this year the House has initiated the removal of a GOP lawmaker from an assigned committee, the first being Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia.

Gosar, a six-term congressman, posted the video over a week ago with a note saying, “Any anime fans out there?” The roughly 90-second video was an altered version of a Japanese anime clip, interspersed with shots of Border Patrol officers and migrants at the southern U.S. border.

During one roughly 10-second section, animated characters whose faces had been replaced with Gosar, Greene and Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., were shown fighting other animated characters. Gosar’s character is seen striking another one made to look like Ocasio-Cortez in the neck with a sword. The video also shows him attacking President Joe Biden.

Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., whose receipt of repeated death threats has required her to spend thousands on security, said Gosar has not apologized to her. She singled out McCarthy for not condemning Gosar.

“What is so hard about saying this is wrong?” Ocasio-Cortez said. “This is not about me. This is not about Representative Gosar. But this is about what we are willing to accept.”

This is not the first brush with controversy for Gosar, who was first elected in 2010’s tea party wave. He has been repeatedly criticized by his own siblings, six of whom appeared in campaign ads supporting his Democratic opponent in 2018.

Earlier this year Gosar looked to form an America First Caucus with other hardline Republican House members that aimed to promote “Anglo-Saxon political traditions” while warning that mass immigration was putting the “unique identity” of the U.S. at risk. He’s made appearances at fringe right-wing events, including a gathering in Florida last February hosted by Nick Fuentes, an internet personality who has promoted white supremacist beliefs.

He has also portrayed a woman shot by Capitol police during the attack on the Capitol as a martyr, claiming she was “executed.” And he falsely suggested that a 2017 white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, was instigated by “the left” and backed by billionaire George Soros, a major funder of liberal causes who has become the focus of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories.

Today's Press Poodle Award

It's like they just can't help themselves. When it starts to look like the reality of the situation is that yes, the shit going on in USAmerica Inc is in fact mostly because of the dog-ass GOP, the Press Poodles have to fuck with us - they feel the need to push some bullshit on us that "balances" it out again. 

I hate these fuckin' people sometimes.

WaPo: (pay wall)

Senate GOP prepares to block bill to fund government, stave off default

The expected opposition would deal a death blow to the measure, which had passed the House, and adds to pressure on Democrats to devise their own path ahead of a series of fiscal deadlines starting this week.

Senate Republicans on Monday prepared to block a bill that would fund the government, provide billions of dollars in hurricane relief and stave off a default in U.S. debts, part of the party’s renewed campaign to undermine President Biden’s broader economic agenda.

The GOP’s expected opposition is sure to deal a death blow to the measure, which had passed the House last week, and threatens to add to the pressure on Democrats to devise their own path forward ahead of a series of urgent fiscal deadlines. A failure to address the issues could cause severe financial calamity, the White House has warned, potentially plunging the United States into another recession.

Ahead of the planned Monday vote, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) staked his party’s position — that Republicans are not willing to vote for any measure that raises or suspends the debt ceiling, even if they have no intentions of shutting down the government in the process. GOP lawmakers feel that raising the borrowing limit, which allows the country to pay its bills, would enable Biden and his Democratic allies to pursue trillions in additional spending and other policy changes they do not support.

“If they want to tax, borrow, and spend historic sums of money without our input, they’ll have to raise the debt limit without our help. This is the reality. I’ve been saying this very clearly since July,” McConnell said last week.

Democrats have sharply rebuked that reasoning: They have pointed to the fact that the country’s debts predate the current debate, arguing that some of its bills, including a roughly $900 billion coronavirus stimulus package adopted in December, had been racked up on a bipartisan basis. Democrats also have stressed they had worked with Republicans under President Donald Trump to raise the debt ceiling even when he pursued policies they did not support, including the construction of a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border.

But Democrats’ arguments have failed to sway Republicans, resulting in a widely predicted outcome that now forces Democrats to recalibrate their strategy on a tight timeline. They have until Thursday at midnight to craft a plan to fund the government, or else key federal operations will suspend or scale back many operations Friday morning. And they must act before mid-October to raise the debt ceiling, or they could risk a financial calamity that could destabilize global markets.

It is not clear how the Biden administration might respond in the event Congress failed to act in time to raise or suspend the debt ceiling, which would be an unprecedented event. Officials in the past have studied whether they could prioritize certain debt payments while delaying obligations, but some at the Treasury Department previously have described such a process as largely unworkable, since many investors could still consider the U.S. government to be in default if it started missing any scheduled payments.

The high stakes prompted Federal Reserve Governor Lael Brainard on Monday to stress that Congress has no alternative but to take action before the looming deadline.

“Congress knows what it needs to do. It needs to step up,” Brainard said at the annual meeting of the National Association for Business Economics. She added that the “American people have had enough drama” over the past year.

The standoff only serves to highlight the intensifying acrimony on Capitol Hill, where Democrats on Monday are also set to forge ahead on their plans to adopt as much as $4 trillion in new spending initiatives backed by Biden. That includes a plan to improve the nation’s infrastructure, which Republicans support, and another that raises taxes to fund new health-care, education and climate initiatives, which the GOP opposes. Those measures also hang in the balance, as the House had hoped to begin debating them — and potentially hold votes — as soon as this week.

Republicans say they are still willing to support a funding stopgap, so long as it is entirely divorced from the debt ceiling. Absent an agreement, Washington would grind to a halt, disrupting federal agencies that are responding to the coronavirus while leaving thousands of federal employees out of work and without a paycheck.

“There would be a lot of Republican votes for that,” Sen. Patrick J. Toomey (R-Pa.) predicted Sunday during an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

Democrats have also pledged to prevent a government shutdown, raising the odds that lawmakers can still stave off a worst-case scenario by the end of week — so long as the two parties cooperate. Their eventual measure is also expected to include billions of dollars to respond to two recent, deadly hurricanes that devastated the Gulf Coast and Eastern Seaboard, as well as money to help resettle Afghan refugees.

But the fight over the debt ceiling is another matter entirely.

Even as they readied a vote against the suspension Monday, Republicans maintained they do not want the U.S. government to default. Instead, they have said Democrats should shoulder the burden on their own given their proposed increases in federal spending, including a roughly $3.5 trillion tax-and-spending package they hope to move through the House as soon as this week.

Democrats plan to advance that measure through a legislative maneuver known as reconciliation. The move allows them to sidestep Republican opposition, particularly once it reaches the Senate, where the party has only 51 votes — and otherwise would need 60 to proceed. But GOP lawmakers have seized on the process, demanding that Democrats also use it to increase the debt ceiling.

The move is easier said than done: It could be time consuming, and it could expose Democrats to a series of uncomfortable political votes. And it is guaranteed to force the party to choose a specific number by which to raise the country’s borrowing limit, rather than merely suspending it, perhaps turning the entire process into fodder for GOP attacks entering the 2022 congressional midterms.

The entire endeavor has frustrated Democrats, recalling for some the brinkmanship over the debt ceiling from a decade ago that hammered U.S. markets and spooked investors globally, as the country for the first time risked the potential for default. The standoff ended only after Democrats agreed to across-the-board budget cuts and caps that they say decimated the ability of federal agencies to provide much-needed health and education programs.

“It is bad for the economy. It is bad during this time we are struggling with a pandemic,” Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) said during an interview on CNN over the weekend, noting that Republicans added more than $7 trillion to the deficit under Trump. “These are the kinds of things that should be pro forma.”

And the kicker:

If this isn't more of the usual cynical bullshit, it seems like Wall Street would be freaking out just a tiny bit.

So the real question is:

Why the fuck do we have to be forced to live on the knife's edge all the fuckin' time?

Today's GIF

Adam Kinzinger (R-IL16) to ABC on the Jan6 Select Committee: "I would expect to see a significant number of subpoenas for a lot of people."

Dear Mr Minority Leader,

Heads up, motherfucker.

Wrangling

I'll start with the conclusion and work my way back:

Qevin McQarthy is bad at his job.

NBC News:

Liz Cheney's role on Jan. 6 committee grows after GOP pulls participation

Democrats working with the Wyoming representative have high praise for her work as the committee’s lone Republican.

In May, Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., was stripped of her role as the third-ranking Republican in the House by fellow party members who said they had tired of her frequent and vocal opposition to former President Donald Trump’s false claims of massive election fraud, as well as her vote to impeach him for inciting the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Just two months later, Cheney’s stature is rising again, this time as the lone Republican on the House select committee charged with investigating that Jan. 6 attack. While her participation has triggered more attacks from Trump and others within her own party, she’s drawing strong reviews from Democrats who praise her work ethic and contributions to the committee thus far.

After Cheney was appointed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to the committee, her role was always meant to send a message of bipartisanship. But when House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., pulled his own Republican appointees this week, Cheney’s role as the sole GOP member has only grown, Democratic aides and lawmakers told NBC News.

She may not be alone for long — Pelosi said Sunday she will try to add another Trump critic, Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., to the panel in an effort to bulk up Republican participation — but her role will still be distinct.

“She will definitely have an elevated role and an amplified voice,” Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., a member of the select committee, said in an interview.

He said Cheney speaks for millions of Americans, including Republicans, who are looking for answers to many lingering questions about Jan. 6. “She comes in with a lot of credibility and legitimacy,” he said.

Cheney remains a steadfast opponent of House Democrats on most fronts as well as a vocal and frequent critic of President Joe Biden’s policy agenda, including major issues of taxes, immigration, abortion, national security and government spending.

But she has joined the Democrats on the Jan. 6 committee seamlessly, those members say, gaining trust that is rarely found across the political aisle, especially after the attack on the Capitol. She attends Zoom and in-person preparation meetings and has displayed an impressive level of commitment, knowledge and a “ferocious” work ethic.

“If you close your eyes, in our meetings, our Zooms, you wouldn't be able to distinguish which voice she was,” committee member Rep. Pete Aguilar, D-Calif., said. “That's the truth. We're all talking about next steps and process and what we want to get out of this, and she's been a committed partner in that.”

The members have also been in regular contact through a group text established by the panel’s chairman, Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss. One Democratic member called her “brilliant.”

“In the meetings that we've had thus far, she is very determined to get to the truth, and operates in a very no-nonsense fashion,” Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said of Cheney.

She has joined the group for two meetings in Pelosi’s office and spoken with her on the phone at least once, when Pelosi offered her a position on the committee. Cheney accepted the position but told Pelosi she couldn’t go to the news conference announcing the picks because she had to take her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney, to the doctor, a source familiar with the conversation said.

Before Jan. 6, it would have been unimaginable to think that the most powerful Democrat in Congress, known for her political prowess and progressive résumé, would tap a deeply conservative, politically astute and Teflon-tough Republican politician who also happens to be the daughter of a vice president that Democrats bitterly battled for decades.

But the interests of the two women have merged with their public insistence that vital questions about the attack on their place of work must still be answered.

That connection was strengthened this week when Cheney came to Pelosi’s defense after the speaker refused to accept two of McCarthy’s committee selections — Reps. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, and Jim Banks, R-Ind. — with Cheney insisting the investigation “must go forward” and declaring she is “absolutely dedicated and committed to making sure that this investigation holds those accountable who did this and ensures that it never happens again.”

“She resonated with Speaker Pelosi this week because both of them are, you know, women in a male-dominated profession who are not going to be pushed around,” Raskin said.

Pelosi’s rejection of the two Republicans is what led to McCarthy pulling all of his appointees, forgoing GOP representation, except for Cheney.

Pelosi even toasted Cheney. In one meeting with the committee members, Pelosi raised a glass of water, saying, “Let us salute Liz Cheney for her courage.”

Raskin, a constitutional lawyer and professor, and Cheney have vastly different perspectives about constitutional law and issues of war and the role of government. But they, too, have found common ground.

Raskin said that during a recent phone conversation between the two, Cheney asked him a question about First Amendment law on behalf of her son who is entering law school. Raskin, who lost his son, who was also in law school, to suicide this past winter, said he’s going to work on the answer this weekend and that the discussion touched him.

“I'm somebody who completely mixes my political life and commitments with my family life,” Raskin said. “Our kids have always been part of what we're doing, and I think that, you know, her kids are also very much on her mind and in her heart during this time.”

Her district went for Trump by almost 44 points, while Raskin’s district went for Biden by more than 40.

Cheney has already put her stamp on the committee. She has requested that a Republican adviser be hired and has requested former Virginia Rep. Denver Riggleman, a source familiar with the committee’s discussions said. Riggleman was defeated in a primary during the 2020 election cycle and has since gathered extensive research on extremism.

“I think she brings a very important perspective, and I think she brings a conservative stature and pedigree that will be valued,” Schiff said of Cheney.

Because the committee is still in the beginning stages, its members have not yet divvied up roles or assignments. But members point to her background in national security as an asset in helping understand domestic terrorism and extremism.

Unsurprisingly, Republican members have distanced themselves from her as an outlier in the GOP.

“I think she’s put herself on a little bit of an island,” Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, said of Cheney.

But living in House Republican exile seems to be her only punishment for the time being. McCarthy had earlier warned his members that anyone taking a select committee post from Pelosi could be putting their other committee assignments at risk. So far he has not acted on that threat.

Asked how Republicans should interact with Cheney, McCarthy said, “The way we interact with any Democrat in the process.”

Cheney’s participation is unlikely to win her further support among Republican voters. Trump has made his desire to see her defeated in a GOP primary clear, and at least a half-dozen Republicans in Wyoming have stated their intention to run. But she’s raised more than $3 million for her re-election bid since Jan. 6 and members of the committee say she seems undeterred.

“Liz Cheney feels the urgency of this task in her bones,” Raskin said. “She was there on Jan. 6, and she has not suppressed her memories of profound danger.”

So first, McQarthy goes after Cheney by helping the wingnuts vote her out of their conference leadership, which puts her in the position of being the only House Republican with any credibility to talk about honor, and standing for the constitution and the rule of law.
Oops 1

Then he whips his conference to vote against passing the resolution for a joint bicameral committee, which hands all the power to Pelosi.
Oops 2

Then he poison pills his guys for the House Select Committee that Pelosi is putting together - pretending he was just trying to send his best members - which, for now, leaves Cheney the only Republican in the room during the hearings, which promise to be fiery and damning (especially for anybody who chose not to be represented).
Oops 3.

And now Cheney is the only Republican with any real visibility who's talking about the actual policy choices and goals that the GOP has always held to. McQarthy put her up there, and that's basically him showing himself the door.
Oops 4 - and out.

Our Mr Brooks

Mo Brooks fleeing the interview

Because conservatives are a buncha whiny-butt pussies.

A Faint Glimmer

Joe Manchin has been under a lot of pressure to stop acting like he's the only guy with ideas - the only one who knows what we should do - the one guy who's ass everybody has to kiss if the Dems want to get anything done.

He dresses it up in pretty camouflage, saying he's all about tradition and noble ideas, but that starts to sound too much like some hick from the hollers flappin' his jaw about the confederate flag.

So anyway, it seems there may be some movement.

In a "democracy", how is it that one guy gets to make the decisions on whether or not we should do the stuff that a majority of us (60% to 80+%) voted to get done? 

Rise Up

It's good to see the Dems up on their hind legs for a fucking change.

It passed the house, and then Mike Lee (R-UT) went on DumFux News:

Never forget how deeply "conservatives" hate our traditions of democracy and self-government. For over 50 years their project has been to tear it all down and replace it with a monied plutocracy.

Democrats are called to serve.

Republicans feel entitled to rule.

It's Not The Irony, Stupid

It's something we don't get to know about - or maybe it really is just as plain as the warts on Joe Manchin's dick.

WaPo:

Opinion: What terrible things did Neera Tanden tweet? The truth.

Can you believe that Neera Tanden called Hillary Clinton the “anti-Christ” and the “real enemy”?

Oh, wait. It was Ryan Zinke who said those things. Fifty-one Republican senators (and several Democrats, including Joe Manchin III of West Virginia) confirmed him as secretary of the interior in 2017.

And how about the times Tanden allegedly called the NAACP a “pinko organization” that “hates white people” and used racial epithets?

My bad. That was Jeff Sessions. Again, 51 Republican senators (and one Democrat, Manchin) voted to confirm him as attorney general in 2017.

Surely Tanden went beyond the pale when she “liked” a tweet calling then-Secretary of State John F. Kerry a “traitor” and “Vietnam’s worst export,” and when she suggested Clinton supporters leave the country.

Except Mike Pompeo was the one who did those things. He won confirmation as secretary of state in 2018 with the votes of 50 Republicans and six Democrats, including Manchin.

But, really, the most appalling thing Tanden said was that Muslims have a “deficient theology” and they “stand condemned.”

Whoops. That wasn’t Tanden but Russell Vought. Just last year, 51 Republicans voted to confirm him as director of the Office of Management and Budget — the same position Tanden is up for now.

Now, all 50 Senate Republicans, assisted by Manchin, are on the cusp of sinking Tanden’s nomination because they object to her harsh tweets. Many have noted the hypocrisy, particularly when compared with the treatment of Richard Grenell, an online troll who won confirmation as ambassador to Germany with 50 Republican votes — and Manchin, natch — despite routinely disparaging women’s appearances.

But this isn’t just about double standards. What really must sting about Tanden’s tweets is not that they were mean, but that, for the most part, they were true.

In June 2019, she lashed out at then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell for blocking bipartisan attempts to protect U.S. elections from foreign attack. “Can people on here please focus their ire on McConnell and the GOP senators who are Up This Cycle who enable him?” she asked in one deleted tweet.

Such pressure eventually forced McConnell to allow for more funds for election security.

Another deleted tweet charged: “Apparently a lot of people think #MoscowMitch is a threat.”

A lot of people did. I wrote that his determination to thwart bipartisan election protections made him a “Russian asset.”

After then-President Donald Trump called former aide Omarosa Manigault Newman a “crazed, lying lowlife” and a “dog,” Tanden’s now-deleted tweet said: “Trump just called a black woman a dog and about 80% of the GOP don’t think he’s racist. The whole party needs to be defeated in November.”

Couldn’t have said it better myself.

After Trump endorsed Senate candidate Roy Moore in Alabama and the Republican National Committee poured money into supporting Moore, accused by several women of sexually assaulting them as teenagers, Tanden’s now-deleted tweet responded: “The Republican party is gleefully supporting an alleged child molester. And everyone who gives money to the RNC is doing the same.”

Tough but fair.

She made a tactical mistake calling Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) “the worst” for taking Brett M. Kavanaugh’s word over his sexual-assault accuser’s, calling the theatrically dour Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) a “fraud” and saying Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Cancún) is as heartless as a “vampire.” (But if the shoe fits . . .)

Tanden, unlike most of the Trump nominees, apologized for her tone and promised that her words as a public official would be different. She explained that “the last several years have been very polarizing.”

I feel the same way. I wince at some of the caustic and ad hominem things I wrote during the Trump era. Trump made almost all of us angrier.

Trump abandoned norms of democracy and decency and stoked racial hatred and violence. But equally infuriating was that elected Republican officials did almost nothing to stop him. In the end, 147 Republicans voted to overturn the election results, even after the bloody insurrection in the Capitol, and 43 Senate Republicans just voted to acquit Trump.

We all want healing. We all want unity. But it won’t happen as long as the Party of Trump assigns Democrats sole responsibility for civility, while using President Biden’s admirable talk of unity as a cudgel. Collins moralized about Tanden representing “the kind of animosity that President Biden has pledged to transcend.” In other words, apology not accepted.

And it’s not just Tanden. Senate Republicans this week teed off on Biden’s interior secretary nominee, Deb Haaland, another woman of color, over her 2020 tweet saying that “Republicans don’t believe in science.” Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), who has cast doubt on the human role in climate change, called the tweet “concerning.”

No, senator. What’s “concerning” is that, after four years of excusing lies, racism, vulgarity, lawbreaking and self-dealing by the Trump administration, your idea of healing is to defeat Biden nominees for speaking the truth.

Today's Beau

Justin King - Beau Of The Fifth Column

The filibuster rule has to be changed. It's outdated. It works against the will of the people, and has become a destructive device in the hands of an unscrupulous dishonorable slug like Mitch McConnell.

It should be restored to its original intent - to be used as a delaying tactic in order to give senators a little extra time to make deals and whip votes and push for public support. It was not supposed to be a tool for establishing and maintaining minority rule.

It can't be allowed to go on being a way for a minority faction to kill legislation favored by a majority in both houses and among the general population.

Two relatively simple changes:

1) Reduce the cloture requirement to 55 votes.

2) Re-establish it as a delay - not a permanent hold 

If I choose to filibuster, I can do that, but an immediate vote is called, and my filibuster is sustained only if there aren't 55 votes to end the debate (cloture).

But even if I sustain my filibuster, there's a limit to the delay. I can't just use it to kill a bill outright. The measure comes up for a vote automatically at the end of a set period of time. 

eg: 10 days - 2 weeks - pick something that's workable, and with as few loopholes as possible, and at least more or less asshole-proof.

They have to work out what happens in Lame Duck sessions and the transition from one session to the next, but the rules have to be clearer and more enforceable.