JaneAusten

I think it depends on where political capital decides to be used. Politics is all about give and take. So what will Biden offer Manchin and Sinema to dump the filibuster because that's what needs to happen. following COVID there are 2 bills that need to pass. The NEW VRA is essential but min wage should come first, but he's set on infrastructure. I believe infrastructure is going to use reconciliation. So what is the downside to putting the min wage up to 60 votes and it getting defeated. Then they dump the filibuster and pass it. It's popular with the public and you get some clowns like Rubio on record against it who claims the GOP is now the party of the "working class". I don't believe the min wage increase is a progressive policy. It's been passed in red states as well as blue states(Arkansas, Florida and Missouri come to mind for red states). Of course if the DNC were smart they'd coordinate getting a referendum on every state ballot in 2022 where it has not been raised. This is a good chart showing where it stands nationwide and how the diff states address it. Arizona where Sinema is from already has a larger min wage than most states and it's tied to the inflation index. Twenty states raised their minimum wages on New Year’s Day: Federal action is still needed | Economic Policy Institute (epi.org)

I don't think his seat is up until 2024 but yeah people have short memories.

He announced he had stage 4 lung cancer last year. His death is not really a surprise. I'm surprised he lasted as long as he did.

Thanks. Did you hydrate and take the calcium and zinc the week before on?

I'm curious which vaccine you all had. I have heard of more severe side effects from the 2nd Moderna vaccine than the Pfizer vaccine. One of my friends who is a teacher got her second Moderna vaccine on Friday - they had surplus so her husband had also been vaccinated. They were both sick on Saturday. He worse than her. Chills, fever, he had nausea. Another friend who works for the NYC Dept of Public Health told me they have given their staff an extra sick day for the year. They are giving their staff and residents they are vaccinating the Moderna vaccine and several of her colleagues were sick the day after. On the flip side my moms retirement community just finished vaccinating their staff(2nd vaccine) about 2 weeks ago with the Pfizer vaccine and minimal side effects. My mom just got the 1st Pfizer vaccine on Tues and I got it on Thurs. The only effects we had for the first was a sore shoulder. I had a mild headache but that could have been from anything. I have heard the same about hydration and taking calcium and zinc before hand to minimize effects after the second dose.

I think it's a matter of going on record with votes that might not be popular in their states. Sure the current COVID bill is popular but Sinema voting for or against the John Lewis voting rights bill? That would likely cost her either way. Although both are 4 years away from their elections and people have short memories. Donors is another issue, particularly for Manchin who gets tons of money from the Oil and Gas industry. It just shows SSDD. These people don't want to take risks and actually govern. They are cowards. But who knows. I think their continual supporting of a process and promoting it as Sinema just did that was a Jim Crow creation is despicable. She should be f'in ashamed of herself especially after what just happened with the GOP yesterday. At some point Biden is going to have to step in here. But I wish the grassroots would start working more actively against that bad decision and pointing out how they are enablers of Jim Crow policies. It's honest. They don't like it tough.

Burr and Toomey are not running again.

I want those in the senate who have the power to make the lives of Sinema and Manchin difficult. The only way anything changes is if the filibuster is dumped. Sinema won't get re-elected without a lot of people who want it to happen n Arizona continue to support her and I still believe Manchin would agree to it provided Biden and the senate makes it worthwhile. He's not running to the GOP. If he was he would have done that when he ran for re-election and when Trump was president. Voters don't care about the filibuster they want legislation to pass.

Democrats cave. Imagine how you feel if you are that GOP congresswomen. Unless they got some concessions like Manchin and Sinema willing to get rid of the filibuster, this is BS. BS. They learned nothing from the Mueller report.

Who is in charge of assigning a special prosecutor. I assume it's the AG - do we think Garland will do that. Seems pretty necessary.

It would not shock me if Lady G wrote that for them. Disgusting.

It did. I can't stand Tim Alberta but I thought this story in particular was decent and showed exactly who Nikki Haley is.

Lightfoot has been disappointing. It's hard to see how Chicago has improved much since Rahm was mayor. She ran as a reform candidate and I will give her some latitude due to COVID but from day 1 she hasn't negotiated in good faith in my opinion with CTU. Now her opponent was the candidate endorsed by the union so there was already some tension there and one could think the union is playing harder because of that who knows. But she ran on reform and also an elected school board and yet here we are. Chicago has proposed no police reforms(although Illinois has). But there is a push right now to get rid of the head of the FOP in Chicago. That tape of that black female social worker that was released several weeks ago where the cops busted into her home, she kept telling them they were in the wrong house, they didn't listen and left her standing nude for 30 minutes before someone put a blanket over her. And still searched. The city attorneys fought against her lawyers for over a year for that tape and it was finally the push by one of the local news outlets with a dynamo investigative reporter(he's done other great work) that pressured the judge to finally order the release. Then it was shown. She was interviewed on GMA and Robin Roberts told her the story sounded almost the same as Breonna Taylor. Lightfoot at first claimed she didn't know about this then admitted she did after the press discovered she was aware of the case. Now I won't blame Lightfoot for the incident. This happened under Rahm's watch, but she's certainly not convincing many she's a reformer. She was on the police accountability board which has proved over the years to be worthless.

They are still doing it. I see Joe Scarborough was on a tirade for a week about means testing the $1400. Sounds like that went nowhere. Now he's been on a rampage beating up teachers unions and apparently using Chicago as an example. These people have no awareness. In Chicago the polling of families show that only 31% of parents support sending their kids back with the remaining majority only will if it is proven to them the schools are safe for their kids AND the staff. Most of the students and families are of color. That 31% are white.

After watching the current GOP and the fact the are still boldly behind a guy who tried to destroy American democracy - much of the party that could care less about democracy - this is the nonsense we get from Sinema. She's worse than Manchin. She lives in a swing state. He lives in a ruby red state. The most influential Democrat you never hear from - POLITICO

thank goodness

Yeah the tax credits were in the plan but there were no details - so these are the details I assume. As far as the checks for once I agree with Bernie Sanders. If you start dropping people then the Trumpers have a case to say "See we got more money from Trump than Biden". I hope this is all talk to placate and they stick with the original plan as flawed as it is.

Christopher Plumber is one of those actors I think we all believe would be around forever. A very underrated exceptional actor. His Oscar winning performance in Beginners I tend to think is a bit forgotten but in it's own way was groundbreaking. I think my favorite role was his performance as Mike Wallace in The Insider. He captured Wallace perfectly - an arrogant SOB and cocky know-it-all and unbearably self righteous at times, but an incredible reporter. He was never the same after this storyIMO and lost some credibility. (1) The Insider - Mike Wallace berates CBS Corporate - YouTube

I get that. Kinzinger has been a rep for a while from Il and generally a decent guy. Obviously he's raising money off of this. I can't justify it by saying if he left they'd boot him off of committee assignments. That's what happened to Amash when he left the party. It would actually be the principled thing to do and maybe he still will after he raises enough money lol.

Fear mongering The Squad is the only way they can raise money. The only GOPer I have any remote respect for is Kinzinger. He's a lot like Justin Amash who policy-wise I disagree with on everything but at least stands by some level of principle. Doesn't make them perfect by any means. She's just another opportunist void of ideas and courage. And she won't vote to ban Greene from any committees just watch. Just like she didn't vote for impeachment based on "process". As far as I am concerned that was when you knew she was just another phony.

I knew as soon as Jim Justice came out yesterday with that statement on COVID relief that this was all theatre for Manchin. Actually knew it before because again Harris's schedule already had her making the media rounds in WV and AZ early last week.

Listen I am no fan of Joe Manchin but why is the press falling for this garbage. Both Manchin and Sinema knew darn well that Harris was going on local press and media outlets to talk about the relief package in WV and AZ. This was announced early last week Harris was doing this. This is all politics so Manchin and Sinema can say they tried to work towards a bipartisan solution. At least the GOP caucus has finally introduced something rather than just whine. At this point their 600 billion dollar package is laughable. I think this was all planned because the party knows that the pushback by Manchin and Sinema will play better with certain part of their(Manchin and Sinema's) own voting base.

He's already being sued by Dominion for 1.5 billion. It's great to see the lawsuits pile up.

EJ did not join the show until 2006.

@khan thought you'd be interested or you might already know. 2 million dollars out the window in Oklahoma. And we all know Trump was getting some sort of kickback Oklahoma trying to return its $2m stockpile of hydroxychloroquine (readfrontier.org)