And this is why we need Manchin!!

For the last year-plus I have heard angry progressives bad mouthing the Democratic Party and especially Joe Manchin and Krysten Sinema because they refuse to go nuclear and put an end to the filibuster so that the Progressive-wing of the party can instantly get everything they have ever wanted. 

I have been pushing back on that, trying to explain that this does not work that way. The explanation goes something like this. Manchin and Sinema can be frustrating at times, but you need Senators like this who can win seats in red states. 

Manchin and Sinema, while frustrating at times, have helped confirm every judge put forth by the Biden administration, and that would not have happened if the Democrats did not hold those Senate seats in deep red states. These Senators have also helped Biden and the Democrats pass the infrastructure bill, the recovery act, the gun-reform legislation and so on. 

But it is on days like today that we need Senators Manchin and Sinema the most. 

Mitch McConnell was threating, like he tends to do, to pull Republican support for the $53 billion microprocessor manufacturing bill if the Democrats passed this new reconciliation package so Manchin pulled his support for the Democratic deal. Again, progressives flipped out, but after the Republicans voted on the Microprocessor (Semiconductor) Manufacturing bill, Manchin said he had reached a deal with Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer. A brilliant maneuver if I do say so myself.

The new reconciliation bill, which they are calling the Inflation Reduction Act, includes the following, and pay attention progressives: 

1. An investment of $369 billion dollars in renewable energy and climate change initiatives.

2. It will allow Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices, which should help reduce the overall cost of the Medicare program, while at the same time reducing what seniors will pay out of pocket for their prescriptions. 

3. It will extend subsidies under the Affordable Care Act, which will continue to make premiums under the ACA more affordable to more families, myself included. 

4. Increasing the minimum corporate tax to 15%, which will help raise revenue for the government and reduce the deficit, while keeping taxpayers who make $400,000 or less from seeing any Federal tax hikes. 

5. Reduce carbon emission by 40 % by 2030.

This is why you need people like Manchin and Sinema, and the best part of it was the Manchin used some of McConnell's hardball tactics against him. 

By the way, Republicans were so mad that they got duped by the Democrats, that they took it out on U.S. veterans. The PACT Act, which had been passed in the Senate earlier with 84 votes for, had to return to the Senate for the final vote and Republicans voted it down, leaving our veterans without the health care they need to survive. 

Progressives in the Democratic Party need to understand that you want to build a large tent, which includes Democrats who can be elected in places like West Virginia, Georgia, Arizona and soon places like Texas, Oklahoma, Mississippi, Alabama and so on and those Democrats are not going to be hardline progressives but having them in the Senate and House will help you achieve your goals.

If you truly want to move every hardline piece of legislation you want, you need to get more Democrats elected nationwide, not criticize the ones you already have helping you out 90 percent of time. 

If progressives don't want to leave everything up to Manchin and Sinema again and again, then they need to go out and vote and get more Democrats elected to the House and Senate. 

VOTE!

Bannon found GUILTY

Former Donald Trump advisor Steve Bannon was found guilty today of contempt of Congress, after refusing to provide documents and to appear for a deposition in front of the January 6th Committee.

Bannon could serve up to two years after being convicted of both misdemeanors. Bannon, who is known as a right-wing extremist who seeks to deconstruct the "deep state," tried to save his own skin before the trial began this week by offering to testify before the committee but only in a live setting. 

The committee was not going to allow this deeply unhinged man to turn the January 6th Committee hearings into a Trump circus.      

Remember, Bannon has already been convicted of ripping off Trump supporters. Bannon and others were convicted of soliciting donations under false pretenses. They said the funds would be used to help build Trump's wall on the southern border, but the money was not being used for those ends, but instead being embezzled by Bannon and the other swamp monsters. 

Trump pardoned Bannon on his way out the door for this crime in early 2021.

Bannon was also part of the attempted coup that happened on January 6th, 2021. Beyond his statement on his podcast on Jan. 5, 2021, that all hell was going to break lose the next day, he also appeared to be aware of Trump's plan to say the election was stolen if he lost. (Listen to the audio below).  

Bannon explained that Trump would just declare that the election was stolen regardless of the outcome, like he actually did in the early morning hours on the day after the election. Bannon also called Trump a "King" in the audio and that he will never have to win another election. He was clearly aware of the coup attempt ahead of time.

As you can see, this was all premeditated. Bannon is a co-conspirator like those involved in the plot to take down our government in April 1865. Those co-conspirators, who tried to assassinate the heads of our government in 1865, were all tried, and those found guilty of treason against the United States paid the highest price for their crimes.

The next step is for the justice department to round up this collection of fascist co-conspirators who are in favor of violating our Constitution and installing an authoritarian against the will of the people. These people, including Bannon, must also be put on trial for treason.

If there are no consequences, we only encourage the next wave of domestic terrorists and coup plotters to try again. 

Here is how women are going to die, thanks SCOTUS

One in four pregnancies in this country end in a miscarriage. That's a stat for all the theocratic fascists out there, including the Supreme Court, who are trying to force women, young girls, rape victims, and victims of incest to become forced incubators. One in four pregnancies end in miscarriage. 

When a miscarriage occurs, OGBYN doctors, remove the dead fetus using the same procedures used during abortions to keep the mother safe. It is unsafe for a woman to carry around a dead fetus inside her. She could become infected and die. The infection can also cause damage to her reproductive organs that will prevent her from having children in the future. But the Republican-Fascist party does not care about that. So much for prolife huh?  

Here is the problem. In states where these ill-fated abortion bans have occurred, doctors are afraid to provide a legit procedure to save a mother and give her the opportunity to reproduce again if she chooses because they are afraid of being prosecuted in some states and sued in others, so they are not providing the appropriate medical procedures.   

The women in the above story had to carry her dead fetus inside of her for more than two weeks. What kind of physical and emotional toll does that take on someone who wanted to have the baby? I'll let the women answer that because I can't speak on that, and neither can the old men that make up most of the Republican-Fascist Party in Congress and on the Supreme Court for the most part.

There is only one answer. VOTE OUT every Republican-Fascist in government who wants to turn your wives, daughters, granddaughters, nieces and victims of sexual assault into government-forced incubators against their will.

GOP Revokes the right of Americans to travel

The American Fascist Party, formerly the GOP, is now actively blocking legislation that prevent women from traveling from the hellish red states (the Fascist ones) they live in to prevent them from getting an abortion. 

What happened to "Freedom"?

I had to listen to ignorant so-called prolife Republicans cry about mask mandates and vaccines, which could have saved half a million lives (prolife?) in the United States, but I guess freedom isn't important in this case. 

In these Fascist states where women have been reduced to forced incubators, women will die during childbirth, despite being told by their doctors that another pregnancy will put their lives in danger. I guess these mother's lives are not important. What's prolife about that?    

Then there is the case of the 10-year-old girl in Ohio who was raped and impregnated. For context, that would make her probably a fifth grader. Let that sink in for a minute. Fascist after Fascist in this country, including the ones in Congress, called that story a lie, but then police arrested the rapist, so that turned out to be another theocratic Fascist lie.

This girl traveled to Indiana to get an abortion because she no longer fell within the six-week window that Ohio allows for getting an abortion. The 10-year-old missed the cut by 3 days and was forced to travel out of state to get this abortion. But Republicans were not happy calling her story a lie, but they are now going after the doctors who arranged to save this 10-year-old's life. 

Republicans in the Senate are basically leaving the door open to allow Fascist state legislatures to imposing no travelling laws for abortion. If these Republican Fascists didn't plan on doing any work in the United States Senate, then why did they decide to run for office? It clearly was not to pass any legislation that helps people, it was just for the power, fame and riches associated with holding that formerly prestigious post.  

I remember that right after Roe v. Wade was overturned, these Fascists claimed that it was no big deal. That anyone who was looking to seek an abortion could go to another state to get one, but now the true motivation of these fascists is being exposed. 

They have never lied about their intentions from the beginning. It was to overturn Roe v. Wade and then end abortion nationally, turning every girl and woman in America into forced birthing vessels, whether they are 10 years old or 60, whether they've been a victim of rape or incest, or whether their lives are at stake or not. 

There is ONLY one way to right this wrong. It is by voting all the fascists out of government. If this is an issue you truly care about, then you need to be a one-issue voter, like Republican Fascists have been for the better part of four decades. Only one party in this country is defending reproductive rights and its Democrats. 

You know what you have to do. Deliver a filibuster-proof majority to the Senate and a majority in the House in order to stop the fascists from taking any more rights away. First it was abortion, now it is travel. What's next?

 

Common sense wins on guns

Jim Jefferies provides the logical gun arguments once and for all. This is a comedy show and there is some foul language. That is my parental advisory warning. But if you are for 18-year-olds carrying weapons of war then you should be fine with some dirty words. This is broken into two parts. 

Jefferies made my point! Be sure to share with your so-called religious friends who claims to be prolife but want lots of weapons in society to make it easier to kill people! 

I TOLD YOU SO AGAIN

A number of Republican Senators who allowed the child tax credit, which was part of the American Recovery Act passed by Democrats, to lapse have all of the sudden decided that the child tax credit is a good idea.

The moderate GOP senators have deduced that they can't ignore the women that they have turned into forced incubators without pretending to care, so they proposed the same child tax credit that they allowed to lapse in December of 2021. 

Most people read a headline like this and assume Republicans are following through on helping families. LIE! Look at the proposal closely. The Republicans would give money to families but not to the lowest income families, AND here is the super important part they would eliminate all sorts of tax deductions that people currently receive at when they file their taxes, which would actually make the child credit null and void in some cases and be devastating to other folks with and without children in other cases.

Here are the two most important deductions that the Republican plan would eliminate. The person filing as Head of House, meaning families would lose this roughly $4,000 deduction, and while they might get $3,600 from the child tax credit. They would actually take a net loss for the year.

It gets much worse, they want to eliminate the state and local tax deduction, which means families that own a home, would now have to pay their water bill and local property tax, but then it would not count against their income at the end of the year. For most families, that would add about $5,200 to their tax bill when they file their income taxes. 

This is a completely INSANE plan! I hate to say I told you so, but I told you so. They are pro birth not pro-life. This is another prime example of how they stack the deck against families after the women is forced to have the child. 

Don't be asking us for childcare assistance, money to feed your kids, for rental assistance, or health insurance for these new babies. You have given birth we are done here. 

If you are looking for all the details associated with this new proposal being led by Mitt Romney and Richard Burr, read the article linked below. It provides a blow-by-disaster-blow of how this new proposal would actually derail millions of hard-working, home-owning families. 

Details of GOP's disaster child tax credit expansion      

P.S. Remember that Richard Burr was one of the senators for magically selling off his stocks just before the Covid pandemic started. He had inside information that he learned from his committee meetings.

They are who they are. They show us all the time. Don't make excuses for them. There is no excuse!

All amendments count, not just the second one.

Transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg was invited to be on FOX News this morning to discuss the infrastructure projects associated with Joe Biden's Infrastructure bill that was passed in 2021 on a bi-partisan basis, but when the FOX News host tried to move the conversation to people who are protesting peacefully against Supreme Court justices, Buttigieg took control of the interview and made it clear that all the Amendments of the Constitution are important, not just the second one. 

You are welcome to view the entire interview, but if you are looking to skip to the first amendment issue it can be found seven minutes into the interview. I recommend listening to the entire interview, as Buttigieg discusses how the infrastructure bill rollout is proceeding.   

Buttigieg could not be more accurate in his assessment that the American public has the right to protest PEACEFULLY public officials when they do something in their role as a public figure that upsets the public (the majority or minority of the public). 

Americans protest public figures all the time in this country, why should Supreme Court justices be any different, especially justices who perjured themselves, after being nominated by an authoritarian, to get themselves appointed to the court, and then overturned 50 years of settled precedent.

Make no mistake, people should not be violent in any way because the constitution allows for people to protest peacefully, but once they become violent and violate the law, they are now criminals like the domestic terrorists who stormed the Capitol looking to kill the Vice President and the Speaker of the House, among others.

These are the interviews that FOX News viewers need to hear on a regular basis, but in most cases, the opposing viewpoint is not welcomed on FOX News, and when it is, they are talked over and shouted down. Good for Buttigieg, not only for accepting the interview, but for not allowing the FOX host to interrupt him or silence him, even though he tried multiple times.

Let this be a lesson to the more progressive members of the Democratic caucus, who refuse to even go on FOX News. More than half the country watches this, for lack of a better word, "news" channel, and if all they hear is the constant BS provided by the extreme right, then that will eventually become their viewpoint as well. Thus, it's imperative that more Democrats do these interviews if nothing else to put an end to the one-sided propaganda that permeates this so-called "news" network.

They are all insane, and man can they lie.

Here is a brief video from Republican House of Representatives member Debbie Lesko (8th District-Arizona) about how outraged she is that almost meaningless gun legislation was passed last week that will do very little to curb the massive amounts of gun violence in this country.

Forget for a minute that this loon, I believe accidently, said she would she her own grandchildren to protect them in a speech on the floor of the House. But more importantly she corrected her statement to make it clear that she is not a homicidal maniac, but instead is a gargantuan liar. 

Let's watch the video, and below I will blow up each and every one of her lies.

It took her only 14 seconds to tell us that Grandmothers shoot people to defend their grandchildren. While it is true that most Grandmothers would do almost anything to protect their grandchildren, I can't remember any of the grandmothers I have ever known or met, packing AR-15's. BUT I DIGRESS. 

1. She blatantly lies that Democrats took away her rights, and other law-abiding citizens rights to defend themselves and the people that they love. I must have missed something. Which weapons did the recent legislation ban? None. LIAR! 

2. She then meanders on about a Democrat bill that violates due process. LYING LESKO. In her example, someone would accuse you of being crazy, kind like I am doing now with rep. Lesko, and this claim would be made to a judge. And she said, if you do not know about the hearing, then your due process is being violated. LIE. If there is a hearing, then by definition you're being afforded a due-process hearing. If you are too stupid to know when the hearing is, that's no ones fault but yours.

3. Instead of working with Republicans to get bi-partisan legislation, Democrats do not talk to us. LIE. This recent legislation had to be bipartisan, which is why it sucked by the way, because it needed at least 10 Republicans to vote for it in the Senate.

4. (1:33) The most outlandish lies of all. When Republicans were in the majority, we actually passed legislation that helped prevent mass shootings. REALLY? TWO MONUMENTAL LIES. 4a. What laws did you pass? NONE. 4b. What mass shootings did you prevent? NONE. And I have news for you LYING LESKO. Even this bill that Democrats went along with will do little to prevent mass shootings because the 2 biggest problems were not addressed. (Standardized federal background checks for every gun sale and the banning of war weapons from being civilian owned)!

5. (1:43) "We worked with Democrats." When and on what? LIAR. 

In conclusion, Lesko spoke for two minutes and told 6 lies in two minutes. She learned from the master. Lie as much as possible and tell the lie enough so the low-information voter begins to believe it as fact. 

I have no idea what the 8th district of Arizona is like, but if this half-wit can end up in Congress as its representative for about 700,000 soles, it might not be a destination location for the sane.

The only way to break this fever is by continuing to hand these theocratic fascists who want to arm teachers, repeated defeats at the ballot box for years to come. It is the only way. VOTE BLUE in 2022.  

I TOLD YOU SO!

GOP extremist Senator Marco Rubio has proposed a bill that seems like a good idea that Democrats have been proposing for a while, paid family leave. However, once you move past the title, it all falls apart. 

Rubio, one of Donald Trump's true sycophants, says we are going to support this new prolife mandate by the Supreme Court by giving these new struggling families paid family leave. LIE. The bill would provide paid family leave, but this family must forego part of their social security money to do so. 

I HATE TO SAY I TOLD YOU SO, BUT I TOLD YOU SO.

This is not the first time Rubio has floated this idea. In 2018, he laid out the same plan which would provide the leave money now but at a cost to the same family at retirement. It's ok. They are hoping you will be dead before you can claim any social security benefits. That is, after all, why they keep increasing the age to earn full social security payments.  

These theocratic extremists are not going to spend a single tax dollar to help the women they just turned into incubators or their husbands but will instead draw on these poor family's future pensions to pay for the kids that they are forcing them to have now regardless of that family's economic viability.

What next? Are Republicans going to offer you some food stamps, but they will have to tax that family at a higher rate? Hey Little Marco, if they could afford to be taxed more or forego their social security, they would not need food stamps from you. 

I've been screaming this since this new iteration of the theocratic fascist Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade a week and a half ago, and I will say it again now. They do not care about the wellbeing of these children. They just want to force women to comply by giving birth, but you will never see them spend a nickel on any social programs. 

But how do you know this for sure, you may ask? Because they have fought Democrats on all these bills for the last 50+ years. It was the Republican Party that allowed the extended child tax credit to expire just last year. All that did was help bring CHILDREN, the one's already living, out of poverty and keep them from going hungry. Not one single Republican voted to extend that child tax credit. NOT ONE.

And let's not forget that we are the only industrialized country in the world that does not provide health care for all its citizens, including CHILDREN, and we are one of only a handful of industrialized nations that does not provide paid-family leave. We know that Rpublicans are full of crap, but yet people continue to vote for the two-faced extremist liars who would rather ensure a murder can get a gun at the drop of a hat than make sure that all kids have free school lunches, health care or food stamps. 

They always have been, and continue to be, a disgrace to the nation and it is time to vote the liars out of office. This could be our last chance, since this might be the last free election held in United States history - and guess who we have to thank for that? You guessed it! 

Happy 4th of July to the United States of gun ownership

At least another six people were killed, and 24 people were seriously injured in a shooting during a 4th of July parade in an Illinois suburb today. 

NO PLACE IS SAFE!

We will now add parades to the list of places Americans can't go without the threat of being murdered by crazed gunmen, who because of United States gun laws, are armed to the teeth with the deadliest weapons available to civilians.  

The list continues to grow. You now need to avoid schools (elementary, middle, high schools and even colleges), malls, shopping centers (grocery stores and retailers), movie theatres, workplaces, bars, night clubs, churches, synagogues and mosques, concerts, among others. 

As was explained in an earlier post, this will continue to happen as long as one party (Republicans) continue to grovel at the feet of the NRA (National Rifle Association) and its lunatic base. 

The gun reform bill that was passed last month had one or two decent provisions in it, but never stood a chance of substantially limiting gun violence in this country as long as assault-style weapons (automatic and semi-automatic long guns) are not banned, and as long as standardized, nation-wide background checks are not adopted for the sale of all weapons. 

As long as these two issues are not address, crazed gunmen and criminals will have no problem getting their hands on guns in certain states (red states) where the gun laws are lax, and then taking those guns anywhere they want. 

The proof is in the numbers. Gun violence is highest in red states. The top 15 states with the highest per capita gun deaths are states controlled by Republicans. The states with the lowest gun deaths per capita are New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Hawaii! Enough said.

If you are sick and tired of taking your life into your hands every time you leave the house, and tired of Congressional Republicans putting band aids on a severed limb, then you have only one choice and that's to elect more democrats nationally, but more importantly, at every level of government (state and local).

VOTE BLUE in 2022. The life you save might be your own.      

Per Capita gun-related death rates