Tuesday Stuff

(And since it's Election Day, here is more info on supporting Bucks County, PA Democrats - polls are still open for another hour or so.)

I thought this was yet another good take from Beau of the Fifth Column, this time on President Manchin and his latest ridiculous games over the Build Back Better bill of course...



Update: Sorry (well, actually I’m not), but I have to say this. I’m seeing all of these videos popping up about how progressives gave up in response to Manchin’s antics. You can include David Doel in that bunch, who I basically respect. And you can also include Kyle Kulinski, Matt Taibbi and David Sirota, who I used to respect, but no longer do.

Yeah, it’s time for the “circular firing squad purity test” stage of things I see, which means that – God help us – we may actually be at the point where something is passed at long last! But I won’t take that on faith until something of substance is actually accomplished.

Here’s the reality: the one percent figured out how to game our system of representative democracy long ago (on the federal level certainly, as well as too damn many states and municipalities). And they did it mainly by conning gullible voters to cast ballots against their interests by appealing to all level of prejudices (and I wish I could absolve organized religion in this, including Roman Catholicism, but I cannot). In Washington, they’ve completely locked up the Republican Party and enough of the Democrats to effectively block ANYTHING they don’t like.

And no, the “progressive caucus” isn’t going to arrive like the cavalry in some “B” western at the last minute and save the day. They don’t have the damn numbers (at least not yet)! But of course, that won’t stop the people I just mentioned from trashing the “D” party and helping to drive down potential base turnout next year, as well as 2024.

Movement conservatism has played out in this country in utterly wretched, ruinous fashion for at least 40 years, mainly because we were conned by The Sainted Ronnie R, a whole gaggle of political operatives and media acolytes on the right, and a somnambulant establishment press that thought everything was just fine as long as we preserved “balance.” And it’d going to take a hell of a lot more than a couple of election cycles to free ourselves from this damn mess! And we won’t get anything close to the type of legislation we need and deserve until we do.

...and Chris Hayes speaks with former D.C. Homeland Security official Donell Harvin about the recent report in the WaPo that provides a bunch of new details on the treasonous 1/6 insurrection...



...and apparently, one of those new details is that Huckleberry Graham was yelling at the Capitol police, “We give you guns for a reason – use them!,” acting like the little bitch he truly is...basically saying it’s OK for the MAGA crowd to get shot (umm, OK - ?? - with John and Francesca)...



...and Ana and Cenk tell us that a Southwest pilot said “Let’s go Brandon” over the intercom during a flight (nice), which of course is wingnut code for “F Biden”...



...and this Now This clip tells us that climate.org Extinction Rebellion recently held a Halloween-themed protest in Paris, ahead of the UN’s COP26 climate summit this week; demonstrators dressed in makeup and costumes and staged a “die-in” to bring attention to the climate crisis (and hey, I'm absolutely fine with performance art like this for an important cause, and I can't think of a bigger issue than this one)...



...and RIP drummer Ron Tutt, who appeared in this tune as well as many others of note (and actually, “Streetlife Serenade” that included this number did end up “put in the back in the discount rack,” though I think it deserved a much better fate...and RIP to this Phiily guy too).