Tinfoil tent

Kerry Eleveld of Kos reported that Marjorie Taylor Greene said she is delighted she was freed committee work in the House. However, that means the GOP has a big “tinfoil tent.” We sometimes describe parties that are inclusive as having a big tent. The GOP tent is big enough to include extreme conspiracy theorists. Eleveld added:

But as Republicans transform into a tinfoil tent community, Democrats are experiencing an equal and opposite reaction of sorts—an unrestrained clarity of vision and purpose. After all, why bother listening to a party so toxic it just rallied around someone calling for executions of your own members? Not only did House Democrats move without equivocation to strip Greene of her power, House impeachment managers put Donald Trump on the spot by inviting him to testify under oath for his impeachment trial.

House member Andy Kim from New Jersey took pictures of things around the Capitol after the attack. A broken window is a symbol of threat. A tribute to Officer Sicknick, who died in the attack, is a symbol of loss. Razor wire around the building is a symbol of uncertainty. A tunnel under the Capitol now has hundreds of signs of thanks to the Capitol Police, a symbol of gratitude. Text messages from colleagues are a symbol of community. An image of Kim cleaning the Rotunda prompted hundreds of people to send cards to him, a symbol of hope. Meteor Blades, in his night owl column for Kos, quoted Kenny Stancil of Common Dreams, who wrote about the GOP introducing over 100 bills in two dozen states to restrict access to voting. In come cases the bill empowers the state legislature to overturn election results. That makes it all the more important and urgent for Democrats in Congress to pass federal voting reforms, even if that means abolishing the filibuster. In a night owl column from last Tuesday Blades quoted Eric Cortallessa of The Washington Monthly explains a bit more what is in the federal bill. Greg Dworkin, in his pundit roundup for Kos included a tweet from Jon Favreau that listed the components of Biden’s coronavirus relief package. The package includes funding for vaccine distribution, $1400 relief checks, small business support, funding for state and local governments, moratoriums on evictions, unemployment benefits, funding to reopen schools, a $15 minimum wage, and a few other things. All of the items in the package get over 50% strong or moderate support and most get support above 70%. Dworkin also included a tweet from David Rothkopf:

Reminder: GOP desperately seeks to associate itself with a president who in addition to his many crimes and abuses has been a catastrophic political failure--has never won the popular vote, lost the House, lost the Senate, not re-elected, impeached twice, never polled above 50%. The hope of the party, its shining star, is a serial felon, sex-abuser, corrupt, racist, traitor who achieved very little in office, was a global laughingstock...who grievously and repeatedly damaged the GOP. Having driven their Titanic of a party into an iceberg, GOP leaders are now huddled in a lifeboat discussing how to do it again, how create an entire fleet of unseaworthy vessels and pilot them into an ocean full of icebergs.

News programs keep reminding me that the Super Bowl is on this evening. I’ll ignore it (and its commercials) like I do every year. However, this tweet from Anil Dash about the big event is worthwhile as contemplates the scale of the pandemic.

If they scrolled the names of the Americans who died in this pandemic the same way U2 did for victims of 9/11 during the Super Bowl in 2002, they would have to stop the game & run names on the screen for twelve and a half hours.

Chad Loder replied:

By the end of February, one American will have died from COVID for every minute of the pandemic.

A couple tweets from Bree Newsome… She quoted Joe Sanberg:

If the minimum wage had kept pace with the growth rate of productivity since 1960, it would be $23. Instead, it’s $7.25. That's $15.75 per hour that's disappeared from the pockets of low income workers the past 60 years...

Newsome responded:

That $15.75/hr difference is what has funded the increase in billionaires. Does everyone understand this now? Ppl do not become billionaires in a bubble. It’s at the direct expense of low wage workers.

Democrats have started the process to pass the coronavirus relief bill without any GOP support and they’re accused of “going it alone.” Newsome tweeted:

Democrats in the Senate represent ~40M more people than Republicans. What does it mean to say Democrats are “going it alone” if they pass a bill without GOP votes?