Blah, blah, blah

I had a nice day in Ann Arbor today. Beautiful weather too. The day included lunch with my friend and debate partner – the emphasis on friend today. Then I wen to the University of Michigan Museum of Art. Through all the decades I’ve lived in Southeast Michigan this is my first time to that museum. What drew me was the exhibit Oh, Honey, a Queer Reading of UMMA’s Collection. It will be there until February 20. A few months ago I saw a gay themed exhibit at the Flint Institute of Arts. The art was interesting but was annoying in how small it was, how few pieces of art. This one was ... smaller. So why are LGBTQ themed art exhibits so small? Also of interest was a room of Western art in which the racist past of several works was explored. For example, one painting is of the son of a wealthy English family. Yeah, rich people commission paintings of themselves and offspring. It is a way of declaring who they are. Towards the end of the description it explains his grandfather (or maybe father) got his wealth through the African slave trade. I got through the museum in about 75 minutes, though I didn’t read every explanatory sign. And I just glanced at the Asian pottery. Young Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg spoke at the Youth4Climate summit in Milan, Italy. It was a time for the youth to discuss the climate situation before the adults meet at the World Climate Summit and COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland in November. Business Insider quoted just a bit of Thunberg’s speech. The words from national leaders “sound great but so far have not led to action.” Then:

Build back better. Blah, blah, blah. Green economy. Blah blah blah. Net zero by 2050. Blah, blah, blah.

Amy Westervelt, an investigative journalist, tweeted a thread:

Periodic reminder that the window of opportunity for moderate solutions on climate was slammed shut in favor of oil company profits for 30 years and now all of the options are extreme. The only choice we have left is choosing radical change and thereby getting to shape it somewhat or waiting to see what extreme changes Mother Nature has in store. I meet people all the time who think we have more say than that, and that a comfortable path still exists. That not rocking the boat is still an option. Generally these folks are the ones who still value compromise and civility over survival. Truly sorry, but time to wake up. The other day someone asked me what the climate movement was going to do to appeal to moderates and I had to point out that actually all anyone did for decades was try to appeal to moderates and win over climate deniers and *gestures everywhere* perhaps time for a new thought?

Eric Holthaus, a Rebel Nerd of Meteorology, responded:

There is no separating justice from radical, transformative change in all aspects of society. They are the same. We are in a climate emergency even if everyone doesn't know it yet. Knowing this is what made Greta sail in a boat across the Atlantic. Knowing this is what's making millions of Gen Z young adults unable to imagine their own futures and unwilling to have kids. Knowing this (and apparently not caring) is why Biden is still OK'ing new oil drilling. You can't un-know something this profound. It will shape every part of your life, or it will slowly eat away at the back of your brain while you pretend everything is OK. That's life in 2021. Everything is not OK. We have to change the whole system. It's all connected.

From today’s news it sounds like Congress managed to pass a spending bill to keep the government functioning for perhaps another ten weeks. There’s still the debt ceiling to raise by mid October and Republicans are saying they will contribute no votes, even though they contributed about $8 trillion to the national debt while the nasty guy occupied the White House. Then there are those physical and human infrastructure bills to pass, the bills that have been in the news for several months. Kerry Eleveld of Daily Kos reported that a big holdup on the $3.5 trillion human infrastructure bill is Sen. Kyrsten Sinema. She refuses to support the existing bill but is also not negotiating. In negotiations one give a counter offer or at least explain what she doesn’t like in the package. And she refuses to say. It seems she wants the House to vote on the $1 trillion physical infrastructure bill already passed by the Senate. But progressives rightly fear that once that bill is approved support for the bigger bill will collapse. I’ve heard over the last few days a reminder they money from that $3.5 trillion bill is to be spent over ten years. That’s $350 billion a year. And that’s smaller than the annual defense budget. Nicholas Wu, who covers Congress for Politico, tweeted a photo of a couple of signs displayed by fans at a (Washington DC?) baseball game. The signs say:

Dems don’t f--- this up. Our lives are not a game. Pass 3.5T.

In another of Greg Dworkin’s pundit roundup for Kos with several good quotes, I’ll start with a quote from the first commenter, who goes by Learn and referred to the other Senate obstructor, Sen. Joe Manchin.

Basically Manchin is representing his personal interest in having power… if he agrees to anything, he loses it.

Dworkin quoted tweets from Asawin Suebsaeng:

anti- COVID vaccine rhetoric is killing GOP voters. But for Trump, other prominent Republicans, and Fox and other conservative media, it's a cash cow. So… good for them, I guess! "One Fox News insider…described the anti-COVID-mandate segments and vaccine-resistant commentary as 'great for ratings.’ Another…said the numbers clearly demonstrated…[this issue gets] 'our viewers more excited or engaged than’” virtually every other kind of segment these days.

Then a quoted tweet from Michael Knigge:

After a German election in which the lead switched among *3* parties & that ended w/ a narrow, upset victory for party widely deemed unlikely to win at the outset, no top candidate has questioned the legitimacy of the democratic process. Sounds trivial, but isn’t.

Then a quotes about the media. One from Mark Jacob who tweeted a thread:

I used to edit Page 1 stories for the Chicago Tribune, including many from Washington. In this thread, I explain why the media (including me) have been unintentionally complicit in the rise of fascism that threatens our democracy. Mainstream media have long tried to treat Republicans and Democrats equally. Some, like me, thought that was the way to be fair. In fact, it was the way to be lazy and not have to sort out the facts. Just quote a Democrat and quote a Republican and you’re done. When I edited political stories, I went so far as to count the quotes from Republicans and Democrats, thinking an equal number would make us fairer. I didn’t think I was helping either party. I thought I was helping the readers. I was wrong. ... The Republicans have overwhelmed the media with corruption. They’ve created scandal fatigue, prompting journalists to do something I call ethics norming. That’s when something that would have been a huge scandal in the recent past is considered normal now. The Republicans have pulled off quite a trick. If news is defined as something unusual happening, GOP corruption is not news because the party is so widely corrupt. Some media have turned off their outrage impulse and decided that corruption is normal.

And tweets from Greg Sargent:

Dems hoped to "shame" McConnell on the debt limit. Instead they're sputtering with limp outrage while Mitch gets "savvy" points from the media. Time to nix the debt limit in reconciliation. Force Republicans to be the ones howling with ineffectual outrage. I want to clarify something. Whatever the particular approach, what's important is the overall posture: One that sees the limitations of shaming Rs and recognizes that their bad faith gets rewarded by bothsides media coverage. Numerous procedural possibilities flow from this.

Dan Diamond tweeted an image and video of a particular protest. Peter Staley, Gregg Gonsalves, and James Krellenstein, veterans of HIV/AIDS protests, put a huge pile of fake skeletons in front of the house of Ron Klain, White House Chief of Staff. The pile looks to be twice the height of a man. They say the skeletons symbolize the deaths of people in other countries waiting for COVID vaccines while the Biden administration focuses on third doses for Americans. Commenters debated whether it is appropriate to protest at a government official’s house. In a tweet posted before the funding bill passed and a government shutdown still possible, Dan Price wrote:

Before the pandemic, there was 1 person worth $100 billion. Now there are 10. Before the pandemic, those 10 people were worth $650 billion. Now they are worth $1.4 trillion. And the Senate is ready to shut down the government and deny vital services to avoid taxing them at all.

Also before that bill passed, Ronald Brownstein responded to a New York Times tweet saying Republicans have warned they will block spending and debt ceiling bills in the Senate. Brownstein wrote:

Just to be clear, Senate Democrats & Biden are directly providing Republicans the hammer with which to batter the national & world economy through a debt default-by upholding the filibuster rule that allows McConnell to make this threat. It's the Dems' choice to empower the GOP.

Eleveld reported the dropping approval rating for the Supreme Court – 57% of Americans say the court has gotten “too partisan.” After quoting a few more numbers Eleveld added that such a number means it is time for serious discussions of court reforms.