I have to confess that I’m currently more interested in my son’s activities than the kabuki theater that passes for negotiations on Capitol Hill. He graduates from elementary school tomorrow and his little league baseball team in the semifinals. If they win tonight, he’ll be looking for a championship trophy. Under the circumstances, it would be hard for anything in DC to compete for my attention, but that’s especially true because everything in Washington appears to be on autopilot and going pretty much exactly as I predicted it would.
We’re still in the stage where Biden and the most endangered Democratic senators are pretending that the Republicans might agree to do anything on any subject for any reason, when that’s clearly not the case. Biden actually gave up on negotiating an infrastructure bill with the Senate Republicans last night, but there will still be more gestures in that direction nonetheless.
Part of the point here is to create a lot of drama and get everyone upset. So, in that sense, things are working to plan I guess, but it’s just a prophylactic exercise so that the Democrats can argue that they gave the GOP every last opportunity to be reasonable before they decided to go it alone.
At the center of it all is Joe Manchin, the conservative Democratic senator from West Virginia. I suppose there’s a bit genuine drama surrounding him, as no one seems to know if he’s ever going to come around and give the Democrats permission to act. He keeps behaving like he thinks he can bring enough Republicans along to get some kind of infrastructure bill and some action on voting rights, but he must be the only sentient American who believes that’s true, and that’s assuming he isn’t just play-acting.
I don’t think he’s going to sit by and let McConnell stop all of Biden’s initiatives in their tracks, but I suppose he could do that. If so, it’s still boring as all hell to watch and wait.
I just want the real show to begin. I don’t like feeling like a sports announcer in a staged event. I’m much rather watch some Little League baseball.
I’ve just signed up for this website, because I respect Martin Longman. But I’m extremely annoyed by all the junk that clogs up the page and makes things hard to read. I want to disappear the black banner at top that serves no purpose. I want to disappear the pop-up box in the lower right corner that wants me to move on to the next article when I’m trying to read the article right in front of me. I’m now a paying customer and the actual content is squeezed into a corner of the screen. Childish nonsense.
Bob Andersoj
Welcome, proband. There are, in my experience, some “buggy” parts to Progress Pond, but Martin’s pretty good about responding to and addressing them if you let him know.
Hi Bob, I have to go see my son graduate from 5th grade right now, but I’ll come back to this later today. It sounds like you’re not signed in, but it’s possible that it’s some glitch, since we’re transitioning to a new server and the reason is we’re running out of memory. Thank you for signing up and I’ll do my best to fix any problems you’re having.
I’ve been paying for this site for two years and I still can’t get in.
Quick question, Bob. Are you using a phone or tablet or a regular browser? If a browser, which one?
Some of the ads should disappear if you’re signed in and a bronze user. And the same for the pop-up box. But if something is not working right, I need to be able to tell the programmer what you’re using to visit the site.
My hope is this — if Manchin is going to come around, he apparently feels that he needs some serious cover before he can. This kabuki (again, I hope) is that cover.
If I am wrong, and Manchin feels more strongly about the filibuster than he does about democracy, well, then this country is done. Stick a fork in her.
If we cannot get meaningful voting right protections enacted, we will not have a democracy. Republicans know what they need to do to retain power, and they will do it.
Welcome to the United States of Americastan.
Wishing your son good luck with his ball game tonight. Hard to believe he’ll be in high school this fall. Where has the time gone? I’m not commenting on Biden’s or Manchin’s negotiations. I’ve seen this movie too many times in recent past Dem administrations. I was born during Truman’s administration and this movie certainly wasn’t playing then.
Thanks. They lost but they’re not eliminated yet. And he’ll be in middle school, not high school. Thank god.