Stop negotiating with terrorists

One aspect of spring in Michigan is how long will it be between when the furnace is turned off and the air conditioner is turned on. There have been times I’ve used the furnace one day and the AC the next. I was still using the furnace into May, then we had a couple weeks of warm weather – sometimes 85F warm. I managed to not need the AC during this time (and I’m aware others with different circumstances did turn on the AC). So I was thinking there were a good two weeks when I didn’t need either. Then the temp got down to 45F last night and stayed there all day. So the furnace is on. I don’t think we’ll get above 75F for a few days, so there still could be a couple days or more between furnace and AC. I’ve had my current car for 15 years – I bought it before I started this blog. I’m above 193,000 miles and I plan to get a new car once I’m past 200,000. In February 2020, back when I was driving a thousand miles a month I figured I would be getting a new car around November of that year. Then I stopped driving a thousand miles a month. In the last year I realized my next car should be electric. I was going to check out possible models at the Detroit auto show, but that was canceled in 2020 and 2021. I’m now aiming to see what’s available (or will be soon) at an outdoor auto event in September. My electric company has been sending me occasional emails about electric cars. One provided a link to what is available. What I’m looking for – a reasonably priced sedan – isn’t being made yet. On another website somewhere I saw the tax credit for electric cars lasts only through 2021. So this is good news: Mark Sumner of Daily Kos reported that the Clean Energy for America Act, has passed the Senate Finance Committee on a party line vote. The current tax advantages for fossil fuels were tacked on to other bills over the years. They don’t form any coherent policy other than favoring the oil and coal companies. So this bill would scrap all those advantages and create advantages for renewables. And the bill would extend and increase the tax credits for electric cars. Along with the electric car, perhaps I should also consider solar panels for the roof and an electric furnace. Alas, I didn’t think of the possibility or urgency of an electric furnace when I got the current one just 18 months ago. The Senate held a procedural vote on the commission to investigate the Capitol Attack. To continue on it needed ten GOP votes. Amazingly, it got six, so failed. I said that’s amazing because Moscow Mitch is so opposed to it I figured there would be only two GOP votes at the most. Greg Sargent tweeted:

Rs can't be shamed into caring about what history will say, and the idea that they're "cowards" implies they have principles they'd prefer to follow but are not solely because they fear the consequences of that. THEY OPPOSE THE COMMISSION BECAUSE THEY ARE IMPLICATED IN THE CRIME.

Garrett Graff tweeted:

Between the Senate GOP’s blockage of the 1/6 Commission—requested by the Capitol Police—and the Texas GOP’s embrace of a no-restrictions open-carry gun bill, opposed broadly by law enforcement, it’s clear that the “Blue Lives Matter” and “Back the Blue” crowd actually … don’t.

Sarah Kendzior commented on an old quote of herself that the Mueller probe from a few years ago would simply run out the clock.

This is the same strategy they're using for 1/6: run out the clock, target low-level operators instead of criminal elites, sell Americans savior syndrome fairy tales while refusing to investigate serious attack. Only it's not just GOP doing it; it's GOP and complicit Dems. All of this is a test of power and impunity. It's not just a matter of the GOP having to pledge allegiance to the Big Lie or face ostracization, but of Dems blocking meaningful investigation and witnesses and generally capitulating to the Big Liars and their donor network.

And in a second thread:

A failed coup is a dress rehearsal. A political party that stages a coup and blocks investigation ultimately wants that coup to succeed. A political party that did not stage a coup but does not assertively, quickly investigate and prosecute it *also* wants that coup to succeed. No officials who value democracy or the survival of this country would approach an attack on the Capitol with anything but the utmost urgency — unless their long-term goals match that of those who back the attempted coup. So they, too, are running out the clock.

Jed Shugerman of Fordham Law School tweeted:

I’d much rather have a special counsel/independent prosecutor investigating the Jan 6 insurrection than a “bipartisan” commission, which would be partisan, dysfunctional & ineffectual anyway. The Senate GOP blocking a commission makes a stronger case for a special counsel.

Sugarman also quoted Rick Wilson:

As someone noted, "If a coup attempt goes unpunished, it's a training exercise."

In response to the news of the vote Garry Kasparov tweeted:

The sooner people admit that the GOP is an anti-democracy party that exists only for power, the sooner necessary actions can be taken. Dragging out that admission has already lost valuable time. The Republicans aren’t the ones denying reality. They admit they cannot win elections fairly. They admit the Jan 6 insurrection reflects their members and their base. They are acting accordingly to seize and hold power. Denying that is the delusion. A disbelieving opposition is the autocrats’ greatest ally in the early stages. Biden and the Democrats risk refusing to acknowledge reality until they no longer have the power do do much about it.

Steve Simberman tweeted a reinforcement of that idea:

Dems, stop negotiating with terrorists. This was terror that struck at the very heart of our democracy. These thugs committed murder to overturn a national election. Focus on putting their leaders in prison and preventing this horror from ever happening again.

Sen. Chris Murphy tweeted:

A Democrat wins a major race, for Governor or Senate, in 2022, in a state controlled by “if a Democrat wins it must be fraud” Republicans, and the state certifies that the Republican won, because, you know, fraud. We all understand there’s a good chance this happens, right?

Model Daughters replied:

This is why Trump *was* worth impeaching in early 2019. This is how he was not "practically self impeaching" This is how he *was* above the law the whole time. This is why we allow witnesses at impeachment trials. This is why we don't keep 137 seditionists in Congress. This is why we *do* use inherent contempt to compel testimony and evidence in Congress. This is why the purse strings should have been leveraged instead of funding a fascist regime. This is why we don't pull punches for fascist "friends". This is why we use the language - "coup", "fascism", "eugenics" ... This is why we don't lie and say "America is back" to a people steeping in MSM pushed RW propaganda. This is why we leverage the media to counter those abusing its reach. This is why we place our highest honor in serving the Constitution and the people over protecting our colleagues. This is why truth matters and has from the start.

Walter Shaub tweeted:

You get that not enough is being done to protect democracy, right? The relative calm you see? That's the eye of the hurricane.

Leah McElrath tweeted about one of the Democrat leaders who didn’t show up for this vote:

I’m sick and tired of feeling like we’re fighting harder for democracy’s survival than leaders we elected. People to whom we give the power of elected office must be held accountable, ESPECIALLY when they are in our own party. It’s OUR responsibility to hold them accountable.

Max Burns referred to Democrat activists as he tweeted:

I don't know a diplomatic way to say that Democrats are really publicly blowing their chance at leading in Washington. ... At this point I share their fear that the sense of urgency has drained from the Senate, and that is creating a similar loss of momentum in the House. You get that lack of urgency from the White House, too, in the ways Biden has chosen *not* to elevate key issues. ... Democrats shouldn't expect any of those activists or voters to give them a second chance in 2022 if we fail to deliver. And why should they? Biden and Democrats made hard, explicit promises to people in desperate need of help. Abandon them at your own peril.