The funny thing about tipping points is that until you reach one, nothing seems to happen, but when you do reach one, everything seems to happen all at once. A whole lot of everything has happened in the first fifty days since the Biden/Harris Inauguration—not quite all at once, but close enough for the history books. EOs, firings, appointments, pulling out of Trumpish court cases at SCOTUS, basic humanity, dogs and cats, rejoining the world...
Why, just yesterday, on President Joe’s day 50,
- The House passed the Senate version of the American Rescue Plan unchanged, and sent it to the President, who will sign it today or tomorrow.
- Merrick Garland was confirmed as AG, and is on a whole raft of cases today.
- Marcia Fudge is HUD Sec, ditto.
- Micheal Regan is EPA Director, ditto ditto.
- We ordered another 100 million covid shots, this time from J&J, raising the prospect that by the end of May we may have a surplus that we can donate to other countries. See #COVAX below.
Yesterday morning it seemed that we would only get to cloture on Regan, but no, he sailed all the way through and is now on the job as head of the world’s biggest burning garbage dump.
But you ain’t seen nothin’ yet.
Coming up,
The Filibuster Reform That Ate the Senate
!! Live on C-SPAN2 !!
Film at 9!
Rachel Maddow having Too Much FunTM
Manchin is now talking seriously about bringing the pain to the Rs. Not just the talking filibuster that he floated last week, but an inverted filibuster, where instead of us trying to get to 60 votes, they have to keep 41 members on the floor of the Senate at all times to keep a filibuster going.
I haven’t heard anything from Sinema yet, but we will.
Will Kyrsten Sinema Change Her Mind?
The Arizona Democrat’s stand in favor of the filibuster has made her the most enigmatic member of the Senate.
The Atlantic
Enigmatic. That’s a nice word. I guess that that there is East Coast for
Bless her heart.
So anyway, after that we can get down to way, way more everything at once.
- HR1 on ethics in government and voting
- HR4, the John Lewis Voting Rights Act
- Health care for all, or as good as
- Real immigration reform
- The minimum wage
- Other labor rights
- Gun safety
- Actual infrastructure, including electric vehicles, public transport from the most blighted neighborhoods to where the jobs and education and shopping are, stuff that doesn’t fall down or go bust right when you need it...
- Every other campaign issue we have been discussing where there is a majority in favor among the population, regardless of the posturings of DC Republicans.
And after the voting reforms take hold, we get to tip a bunch more states.
LBJ famously predicted that the backlash to the 1964 Civil Rights Act would give the US to the Republicans for fifty years, and he was largely right—Nixon, Ford, Reagan, Bush, Bush, Trump, although we also got in a few good licks here and there.
But now, time’s up.
Another way to put today’s theme is
Everything is impossible until it happens.
Nelson Mandela
Fifty years is a common term for an idea in US and other politics.
Good News Thursday: The Fifty-Year Rule in Politics
Similarly,
First they ignore you,
Then they laugh at you,
Then they fight you,
Then you win.
Gandhi
And then they pretend that it was their idea all along.
Me
I mean that literally. There are Rs who voted against the Rescue package who are now bragging about provisions that will help their states.
But enough of their stunts. As I said yesterday, it is enough for our purposes here today to note that
They’re at it again.
Well, it turns out that there is one thing particularly worth taking notice of.
And the other cases against Trump and Trumpistas proliferate and interpenetrate.
#COVAX
Global Warming
Reuters
Science
You’re looking at the real deal images I used to make my pinpoint landing. This is how I quickly got my bearings and picked the safest target in the last three minutes before touchdown. How it works: http://go.nasa.gov/3rBUbul
Hear the first audio recording of a laser zap on a rock target on Mars. The target, Maaz (“Mars” in Navajo), was about 10 feet (3.1 m) away. The @NASAPersevere rover will use a laser beam to help identify minerals on Mars: https://soundcloud.com/nasa/persevera
Science, Animals
Hawai'i is one step closer to banning sunscreens containing two chemicals that are toxic to humans, coral reefs and marine species.We're petitioning for a national ban on coral-killing chemicals in sunscreens.
Weirdness
Now that Merrick Garland received 70 votes in the Senate, I think he should show up at the Supreme Court next argument, sit in Neil Gorsuch's chair, and dare someone to physically remove him. (I'm only kinda joking)
A total of 41 Republicans just voted AGAINST Marjorie Taylor Greene’s motion to adjourn — a number that has doubled since last week, as patience in the GOP wears thin with her floor gambits.
MTG has taken to making a motion to adjourn every morning in the House, requiring a roll-call vote each time. Because she has nothing better to do than waste time since losing her committee assignments, right?
It took just 50 days before Trump became convinced he has been utterly forgotten.
Good.
Barbados to Remove Queen As head of state
Is this more fallout from the Meghan debacle in the palace?