Thursday Open Thread

21
  by: Colorado Pols December 16, 2021 at 6:55 AM MST

“Prefer a loss to a dishonest gain; the one brings pain at the moment, the other for all time.”

–Chilon

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21 Community Comments, Facebook Comments

  1. Peromyscus says:
    December 16, 2021 at 7:16 AM MST

    Hick and Bennet will support changes to the filibuster (with Bennet championing its complete elimination).  But Sinema remains the fly in the ointment.  Sen. Hickenlooper says 'time to change the filibuster' to protect voting rights – Colorado Newsline

    Sadly, BBB is now tabled until next year.  For Christ's sake.  Or Manchin's.  Or Musk's.  

    • itlduso says:
      December 16, 2021 at 8:22 AM MST

      Kudos to Hick for (finally) agreeing to carve out filibuster rules to pass voting rights legislation. 

      Now, our attention needs to focus on "glad they're not your US Senators" Manchin and Sinema.  Don't be mistaken:  Our democracy is hanging by a thread, or literally destroyed, if this legislation is not passed.  It's incumbent on Joe Biden to be tough on these two like he's never been before.  Go nuclear on their asses.  There is no negotiation on this like there is on the BBB bill, or any other legislation.  This is not a game.  This is not a drill.  This is the moment of truth for the Biden presidency.

  2. ParkHill says:
    December 16, 2021 at 7:16 AM MST

    One picture is worth a thousand words:

    Michael Olesen: The difference in death rates from COVID between Republicans and Democrats is becoming even more striking.

     

  3. davebarnes says:
    December 16, 2021 at 8:27 AM MST

    Today is Boston Tea Party Day

    • itlduso says:
      December 16, 2021 at 8:55 AM MST

      If voting rights legislation is not passed and the 2022 and/or the 2024 elections are stolen by GOP fascists who nullify legally cast votes (never mind their voter suppression and gerrymander efforts), then we are truly being taxed without representation.  Perhaps a taxpayer revolt will need to happen.

  5. ParkHill says:
    December 16, 2021 at 9:00 AM MST

    WOTD from David Kurtz at TPM: Was BBB Doomed As Soon As BIF Passed?

    Let's attach the BBB to the next disaster aid bill to West Virginia.

    …the whole issue of the BBB was best understood as a kind of culture war. The problem that the Manchin caucus really has with the BBB is that it represents a Democratic Party in which the moderate / conservative / Manchin caucus is not firmly in the driver seat all the time, for all things.

    It represented a statement that while the more progressive wing of the party has to accommodate the Manchinites, the reverse is also true. As with the broader culture, where the nation’s heretofore permanent ruling class has been told to share power with everyone else and doesn’t like it at all, so with the Democratic Party’s heretofore permanent ruling class. 

    This is why it was so important to the Manchinites that they force the progressives to back down on their threat to vote down the BIF. They want to go back to the “good old days” in which moderate and conservative Democrats forced their will on the progressives, and the progressives had no recourse to do likewise.

    The corollary to this is that, once the BIF had passed, the BBB was doomed. The second half of, “I’m going to make you honor your part of the deal even though you have no guarantees that I’ll honor my part of it,” is, “I’m reneging on my part of the deal and there’s not a damn thing you can do about it.” 

    (Sorry to quote pretty much the whole thing).

    • JohnInDenver says:
      December 16, 2021 at 10:49 AM MST

      My crystal ball shows Schumer, Pelosi, Biden and Democratic leadership generally having a much more difficult time convincing a fair number of the Congressional Progressive Caucus on future political strategies.

  6. kwtree says:
    December 16, 2021 at 9:47 AM MST

    Here's a reminder that it pays to contact customer service. Dio: this is a TMI alert. You don't want to know.

    I'm on a budget billing program with Xcel energy, getting all my electricity through Windsource, paying the same amount every month, using about the same kwh. Suddenly, I get a $160 extra "wash-up" charge on there. Apparently, Xcel now puts this on every 6 months "in case" the customer goes over their normal usage.

    I freaked, because I don't want to pay this amount, and contacted Xcel customer service, which is not really that easy. Their online help menus are tailored to the company's needs, not the customer's. I talked with someone who spoke decent English and was able to get the "just in case wash-up charge" taken off. So whew! in my case.

    In my opinion, this should be illegal. The company should not be able to randomly assign this extra charge for their convenience in case the customer uses more power. I also did not sign any agreement for this charge. But I worry about all the elderly folks, non-readers, non-English speakers, or people who don't have the persistence to track down customer service to talk with a real person and get this bogus charge reversed.

    This smacks of the kind of nasty underhanded dealings Black Hills Energy or Tri-State used to do, and which they justifiably got nailed for.

    So: moral is stand up for your rights, and contact the PUC to complain about this crap.

  7. MichaelBowman says:
    December 16, 2021 at 11:11 AM MST

    Did I miss the War on Christmas this year? 

  8. MichaelBowman says:
    December 16, 2021 at 11:31 AM MST

    #ForeverGrifters 

    Maybe the retired soft porn actress can share her legal immigration papers with us and how she made the case for an Einstein Visa? (given she and the orange turd spent years calling for Obama’s birth certificate?) 

    Melania Trump Is Releasing an NFT That Will Cost 1 SOL Each

    The former first lady’s first NFT, called Melania’s Vision, will include watercolor art that “embodies Mrs. Trump’s cobalt blue eyes, providing the collector with an amulet to inspire,” according to an emailed statement. It will be available from Dec. 16 to Dec. 31 for one SOL, a cryptocurrency that runs on the Solana blockchain, currently priced at $187.

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