Search Results for: Voting

Odds and Ends Rattling Around of Late

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A Lot of Us are Snowed in Now – It’s a Good Time for Some Assorted Observations

Supreme Court on Vaccination Mandates

 The current Supreme Court looks increasingly less supreme with every ruling. I keep thinking it cannot get worse, but they continue to raise the ante. At least they kept the health care workers mandate in place (barely – by 1 vote).

Gutting the large employer mandate on the basis that OSHA is the wrong agency for such a mandate enforcement is ridiculous. This is what happens when you have a court anchored in rigid ideology rather than real life.

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Sometimes the Big Important Things Show Up in Small Ways

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Two Events in Congress Answer the Question- How Bad Could It Get?

A Congressman from Arizona Shows There is No Bottom

A few days ago Rep Paul Gosar ran a little video on Twitter, depicting a cartoon in which he murdered another member of Congress, someone who has already had frequent death threats. This at a time of high levels of political violence here and around the world. Here it ranges from assaults on the Capitol to menacing crowds outside a school board member’s home.

Gosar thought his cartoon was funny. No harm or threat or insult intended.

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It’s 11 PM – Do You Know Where Your Representative Is?

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A Few Notes About Passage of the Infrastructure Bill

A Long Night – Following Long Months

The title for this posting is a bit of a chuckle that will ring a bell to readers of a certain age. Years ago, that line was often played on TV as a public service message, asking parents if they knew where their children were at that moment.  Since sometimes it feels as though our congressional representatives are childlike, the phrase came to mind.

But last week, they finally did a good thing and pulled off what sometimes felt like an impossible task. 

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Go Big or Go Home

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Many Key Decisions are Coming due NOW at the Same Time.
The Results Will Shape America Beyond Our Imagination

 

What a Calendar We Have Over the Next Few Weeks

We all know of periods in history wherein big decisions came due, and consequences followed. But I personally cannot remember a time when so many were coming up in so short a time. This is not the complete list, but the big items at least. They come in three categories:

Legally and Legislatively Mandated for the Next Few Weeks

  • Funding Government Operations
  • Extending the National Debt Ceiling
  • The Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill
  • The Advanced Infrastructure Bill

Immeasurably important to the Kind of Country We Would Be

  • Voting Access and Rights Legislation
  • National Police Reform (likely already dead,

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Good News and Bad News – There is a Mix is Out There

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Sometimes the Headlines Miss the Full Story

As The Saying Goes…

We have good news, and we have bad news. There has been much of late to lament, for sure. But there has been no small amount of good news as well. The latter often gets a pass in the headlines. I thought it might be helpful to call out some of the high notes and low points in current events.

The National Guard as Guns for Hire

This week’s, maybe this century’s, award for the single worst idea anyone at any level of government has ever thought of – ever.

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About That Bipartisan Goal – Forget it

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The Republicans Have Made Their Stance Clear – And the Clock is Ticking

 

How Important is Bipartisanship?

Well, that is an interesting question – depends on who you ask. Generically, most people would, in a neutral setting, say it counts and they would like to see it as a part of governance. Makes sense in a complex society, doesn’t it? But we are not in a neutral environment and have not been for some time.

Joe Biden certainly thinks it is important. It is in his DNA. Decades of experience tell him big things can be done in a solid manner when bipartisan legislation is passed.

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About This Guy Joe Biden: Two Things You Might Have Missed

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A Comparison Often Missed and a Look at Redefining Bipartisanship

Something of a Honeymoon 

All things considered, President Biden is enjoying something of a honeymoon. Not from Congressional Republicans, of course. Moscow Mitch has already started his song of not supporting anything from the Administration. In some ways, that worked for him last time around. It’s not clear it will work so well this time.

Public support for Biden’s initiatives is stunningly high, pretty much across the board. He has majority support, even among Independents and Republican voters on pretty much everything so far.

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Should Washington DC be a State?

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Wait Until You See the Reasons Some Think Not

 

A Short History of the DC Conundrum

There are lots of factors and nuances around the creation of the District of Columbia, but if I may be allowed the short version, the founders thought it important that the national capital be independent of any state, and so created DC.  There was some concern about the risk of an errant governor (Geez, seen any of those lately?) holding the capital hostage in some way.

The founders were, all in all,

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A Little Alphabet Soup

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Two M’s + one N Spell Some Interesting Conclusions

Today We Wander a Bit

Three unconnected thoughts seemed to fill my head over the last few days and so I thought I might share them with you. Let’s talk about Two M’s (Mechanics and Morality) and a single N (Nunes). Here we go.

 M for Mechanics

 Like much of America, I have been interested in the discussion about Senate mechanics, especially but not exclusively the filibuster. It seems pretty clear that throughout our history,

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One Big Victory Accomplished. The Next One is Even More Important

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The Covid Relief Bill is a Great Accomplishment. Voter Protection is at Least as Important

Well Done, on Several Counts

 The COVID relief legislation was a master class in legislation and political management. Many of us were concerned that Biden, so desirous of bipartisan results, would delay and weaken the package dramatically. Worse, there was fear that he would have nothing to show for that gift. We have been to this dance before.

We need not have worried. He never gave up on bipartisanship, but he did not become a hostage to it. When it was obvious that Republican so-called leaders had no interest in supporting anything and had no substantive inputs to offer,

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