The rejection of bipartisanship

I had written that Pelosi had named eight House members to the committee to investigate the Capitol attack. The committee was formed after the Senate blocked a bill to have an evenly bipartisan committee. The version that passed the House included Pelosi having veto power over the five people Republicans can name. Hunter of Daily Kos reported Kevin McCarthy finally did so and included Rep. Jim Banks and Rep. Jim Jordan. Pelosi rejected Banks and Jordan, though permitted the other three. Hunter explained Banks was rejected because he had declared is purpose in serving on the committee was to expand the scope to include Black Lives Matter protests, allowing a both sides did it narrative. Jordan was rejected because he has already disrupted the nasty guy impeachment investigations. He’s a guy ready to deflect and attack any connection between the attackers and the nasty guy. McCarthy responded by removing all five of his choices. That leaves the committee with one Republican, Liz Cheney, appointed by Pelosi. Cheney got the seat for her refusal to be a part of the Big Lie. In a post from last week Mark Sumner of Kos discussed a book about the nasty guy White House that was about to be released. Sumner didn’t buy the book and doesn’t name it. He worked from an article in the Washington Post. The book, according to the article and Sumner, describes the senior military officers, led by Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley, in the days before the Capitol attack. They were so concerned that the nasty guy would use them in a coup they developed a plan to resign, one by one, rather than accept an order to be a part of the coup. The officers so concerned they discussed this with other generals and members of Congress. Yes, this is scary. In the comments Sumner added: If the top military leaders resigned decision making would have gone to their second in command. And most of that level and below had recently been replaced by nasty guy loyalists. Resignation would have played into the nasty guy’s plans. I’m glad the top guys didn’t have to resign. Sumner then gets into an important question. When did the book’s authors know this important detail? If it was that disturbing why are we hearing about it just now? In another post (which I don’t have a link for or remember who wrote it) the author gave a warning. Do not buy and do not read these nasty guy revelation books. The flood of them is just beginning. If they contain important details news outlets will discuss them. So the only things you will miss is people trying to buff their reputations. An example in one book is the Princess reminding everyone that she was the only one who could keep Daddy from going off the deep end. Without her controlling him the whole thing would have been much worse. That reminds me of a friend who was a teacher. After hearing a student’s excuse, she would say, “Oh! I like fairytales. Do you also know the one about the three bears?” Another reason for avoiding these books is something Sumner mentioned. Why is the author telling us now – when they are being paid by the book sold? Why didn’t they tell the world about it at the time when the knowledge might have done some good? Chuck Schumer had the Senate hold a test vote on the bipartisan infrastructure plan (no actual bill yet). All Republicans voted against it. Joan McCarter of Kos wrote about the lead up to the vote. She quoted a tweet from Brian Schtaz, who summed it up well:

It is hard to credibly claim you are for bipartisanship if you filibuster bipartisanship.

Chitown Kev, in his pundit roundup for Kos, quoted Nicole Hemmer of CNN discussing both Pelosi’s rejection of Banks and Jordan and bipartisanship.

Pelosi was right to reject Jordan and Banks, who, as blood was still drying on the floor of the Capitol, voted to give the insurrectionists what so many of them wanted. At a deeper level, Pelosi's actions here also constitute a crucial development: the rejection of bipartisanship as a positive force in US politics. The select committee will still be bipartisan -- GOP Rep. Liz Cheney, who voted to impeach Trump for fomenting the insurrection, will still serve on it -- but the notion that Democratic leaders must work with Republican leaders in order to have political legitimacy is well and truly dead. As it should be. The fetish for bipartisanship has dominated Washington for at least 80 years. In that time, bipartisanship acquired a rosy glow: to label a policy bipartisan was to deem it both representative and virtuous, the byproduct of opposing sides compromising their way to the best possible solution. But on its own, bipartisanship has never been a virtue. It has been, at best, virtue-signaling -- a legislative both-sidesism that has infected US politics for far too long.

Kev also quoted Sara Reardon of Nature, who explained why the delta variant of COVID is worse.

Researchers report that virus was first detectable in people with the Delta variant four days after exposure, compared with an average of six days among people with the original strain, suggesting that Delta replicates much faster. Individuals infected with Delta also had viral loads up to 1,260 times higher than those in people infected with the original strain. The combination of a high number of viruses and a short incubation period makes sense as an explanation for Delta’s heightened transmissibility, says epidemiologist Benjamin Cowling at the University of Hong Kong. The sheer amount of virus in the respiratory tract means that superspreading events are likely to infect even more people, and that people might begin spreading the virus earlier after they become infected.

Lauren Floyd of Kos shared:

An Alabama doctor gave the kind of account of her job during the COVID-19 pandemic that nearly brought me to tears in one paragraph. “I’m admitting young healthy people to the hospital with very serious COVID infections,” Dr. Brytney Cobia wrote in a gut-wrenching Facebook post on Sunday. “One of the last things they do before they’re intubated is beg me for the vaccine. I hold their hand and tell them that I’m sorry, but it’s too late. ”A few days later when I call time of death, I hug their family members and I tell them the best way to honor their loved one is to go get vaccinated and encourage everyone they know to do the same,” Cobia added. “They cry. And they tell me they didn't know. They thought it was a hoax. They thought it was political. They thought because they had a certain blood type or a certain skin color they wouldn't get as sick. They thought it was 'just the flu'. But they were wrong. And they wish they could go back. But they can't. So they thank me and they go get the vaccine. And I go back to my office, write their death note, and say a small prayer that this loss will save more lives.”

That story prompted Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama to change his tune and now support getting vaccinated. Laura Clawson of Kos discussed the Out of Reach report put out by the National Low Income Housing Coalition. The report defines housing affordability as a full time worker paying no more than 30% of income towards an apartment charging fair market rent. There are over 3,000 counties in the US and a minimum wage worker can afford a one-bedroom apartment in only 218 counties. There are no counties where a minimum wage worker can afford a two-bedroom apartment. Clawson included a map that turned the equation around. What would the minimum wage in a state need to be to be able to afford a two-bedroom apartment? West Virginia has the lowest need – a wage of $14.83 an hour. But the minimum wage in the state is $8.75. West Virginia is the only state where the affordability wage is under $15 an hour. There are 15 states where the minimum wage to afford a two-bedroom place would need to be $23 an hour or higher. California is at the top where a worker would need $39.03 an hour to afford a two-bedroom place. In another pundit roundup Kev quoted Paul Krugman of the New York Times and the changing view of government spending.

First, Covid-19, and the extraordinary policy measures America took to limit economic hardship during the economy’s induced coma, had a lasting impact on economic ideology. Large-scale disaster relief was obviously necessary; even Republicans voted for it. But the positive role played by the government during the pandemic helped legitimize an active role for government in general. Second, the legend of Reaganomics has become unsustainable. It used to be common for conservatives to assert that Reagan’s tax cuts and deregulation ushered in an era of unprecedented economic success; in fact, I still hear that sometimes. But these days the response to such claims is, “Do you even FRED, bro?” That is, have you even looked at the numbers available in places like the wonderfully usable Federal Reserve Economic Data site? Overall economic growth has been slower since 1980 than it was in the decades before; thanks to rising inequality, growth for the typical family has been much slower. Real wages for most workers have stagnated.

Christopher Ingraham tweeted a map showing by region what percent of people by party (Dem, Independent, GOP) want to secede from the US. In the South – Texas to Virginia – 66% of Republicans say the South should secede. 50% of Independents agree, as do 20% of Democrats. In the Pacific region – California to Washington – 47% of Democrats have said they want to secede. Ingraham said the data came from Bright Line Watch. He cautions the statements about secession may be only partisan signalling. Elie Mystal replied:

Back to this are we? For people saying "Bye Rednecks" remember, now as before, the problem isn't that white people want to leave, it's that they want to set up a white ethnostate OVER THE OBJECTION of the Black people who ALSO live there. In any event, it should really be the *blue* states that secede, then write a new constitution (this time at convention that represents all of the people) that takes out the concessions made to the slave states. That would be the boss move.

Marissa Higgens of Kos reported that the Louisiana legislature passed a bill banning openly trans athletes from participating in school sports. Democratic Gov. John Edward Bel vetoed it. The legislature tried a veto override. It failed in the House by two votes. A reason why Bel vetoed the bill was to prevent major events from pulling out of or not considering his state. Democratic Sen. Karen Carter-Peterson echoed Bel in saying, “You either want business to come to Louisiana or you want to discriminate.”