Made a beeline to unreinforced windows

Laura Clawson of Daily Kos reviewed the success of the various recent programs in reducing poverty and hunger. Then she discussed the Republican response.

But Republicans say no. “The best way out of poverty and to raise the standard of living is not endless government checks but our job opportunities and growing paychecks,” Rep. Kevin Brady of Texas, the top Republican on the Ways and Means Committee, told Politico. “That provides unlimited opportunity for families, especially those trying to climb the economic ladder.” First off, go directly to hell with talk about “growing paychecks” when you oppose increasing the minimum wage. Second, the “best” way to get out of poverty might well be the sudden appearance of a well-paying job with benefits. But we should be a lot more worried about the actual way out of poverty. The way that happened for 3 million kids in August. The way food security rose and dropped during the pandemic in response to the outflows of relief. ... Republicans say they don’t like poverty. But given ways to dramatically reduce it—an expanded child tax credit, more generous unemployment aid, higher Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits, subsidized child care—they say no. Given another set of ways to dramatically reduce it—an increased minimum wage, universal health care—they also say no.

White House Principal Deputy Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre tweeted a graph showing the federal debt increase for both Biden and the nasty guy. The comparison is unfair because it is comparing four years to eight months. Even so, showing how much debt has been increased in the previous four years makes the Republican talking point about Democrats must raise the debt ceiling on their own that much more absurd. According to the national debt clock (which has these constantly flickering values and lots of other cool numbers) shows the debt standing at $28.8 trillion. That means 27% – more than a quarter – of that debt came from the previous administration. And a great deal of that came from the 2017 tax scam. Walter Einenkel of Kos reported last week:

On Wednesday, the National School Boards Association (NSBA) sent a letter to President Joe Biden calling on his administration to protect schools and education leaders from the increasingly unhinged threats from the right. Saying that American public schools are “under an immediate threat,” the NSBA called on the Biden administration to look at these partisan attacks on school boards as having devolved into a space where legally they “could be the equivalent to a form of domestic terrorism and hate crimes.” The NSBA, an organization representing “90,000 elected school board officials around the U.S.”, points to the past few weeks of right-wing activism attacking local school boards making decisions on COVID-19 public safety precautions, such as mask requirements in school. These meetings have gotten progressively more tense and violent in their tenor, with the threats of violence literally being chanted at school board members in some cases. And while the right would like people to believe that these are grassroots, populist movements coming out of concerned parents’ rights groups, the reality is much more Machiavellian: More and more of these school board protests seem to be lead or attended by conservative celebrities and far-right militia groups like the Proud Boys, none of whom have children in the counties they are protesting.

Aldous Pennyfarthing of Kos discussed a report from the Washington Post that there is more to the loud and sometimes violent school board meetings where people complain about children wearing masks to class. Wrote WaPo:

But the heartfelt appeal is not the product of a grass roots groundswell. Rather, it is a template drafted and circulated this week within a conservative network built on the scaffolding of the Koch fortune and the largesse of other GOP megadonors. That makes the document, which was obtained by The Washington Post, the latest salvo in an inflamed debate over mask requirements in schools, which have become the epicenter of partisan battles over everything from gender identity to critical race theory. The political melee engulfing educators has complicated efforts to reopen schools safely during a new wave of the virus brought on by the highly transmissible delta variant.

Pennyfarthing reminds us the Koch network was also behind the Tea Party movements of a dozen years ago. Carbon Brief tweeted a few stats and a video about who is most responsible for climate change. The chart works with a CO2 budget – the amount of CO2 (and likely other greenhouse gasses) that can be emitted through history without hitting disastrous consequences. The video starts in 1850 showing the cumulative amount emitted by each country. The US is way out ahead with the next closest countries at about 1/3 our level. In 2007 China overtakes Russia for the second spot and this year China is pumping out a bit more than half of what the US is. Greta Thunberg added:

We’ve already emitted 89% of the CO2 budget that gives us a 66% chance of staying below 1,5°C. That’s why historic emissions not only count - they nearly make up the entire climate crisis. And yet they’re still being almost completely ignored by media and people in power.

At the rate we’re pumping out CO2 how soon will we use up that last 11%? Now compare that to how quickly we’re doing something to prevent that last 11% from being emitted. Back when the $3.5t Build Back Better plan was created a lot of climate protection stuff and a whole lot more was put into it. I’ve written a few times that moderate Democrats, led by Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, have been balking at the huge price tag, though mostly being quiet about what they don’t want in the bill. David Roberts, who writes the newsletter Volts about clean energy and politics, tweeted:

Just flagging for y'all that climate policy is under attack in the negotiations over the reconciliation bill, there are very few lawmakers defending it, and it's in danger of falling out all together. If you care, call [your members of Congress].

I took a few minutes to send this:

I hear that in the attempt to make the Build Back Better bill a bit smaller the climate policies are being targeted for removal. I strongly object to that. Protecting the climate is critical right now, as recent recent weather related disasters have shown. If climate protection doesn't happen in this bill I fear it will never happen. Please do all you can to keep the clean energy performance program, the civilian climate corps, and all of the other critical climate protection programs as part of the bill. And please reject donations from Big Oil and other corporations lobbying to pull these programs out of the bill.

to my senators, representative, Speaker of the House, Majority leader Chuck Schumer, and the White House. All have online contact pages. Feel free to use my text or copy and modify. Laura Clawson of Kos reported that in a 2017-2019 renovation most of the ground floor windows at the Capitol were reinforced. If a bomb went off outside the building people inside would not be hit by flying glass. A few windows were not reinforced because they were considered low risk or their part of the building wouldn’t support the heavier frame. Clawson then quoted from an article published at the LA Times:

Video shows some of the first rioters to break through the police line running past 15 reinforced windows, making a beeline for a recessed area on the Senate side of the building, where two unreinforced windows and two doors with unreinforced glass were all that stood between them and hallways leading to lawmakers inside who had not begun to evacuate. The four unreinforced windows and doors that were the first points of entry on Jan. 6 are all in a recessed alcove, shielded by exterior walls on three sides. They were not the first windows, nor the easiest to reach for rioters storming up the Capitol steps. Attackers ran more than 100 feet across a courtyard to reach the covered outdoor entryway, where two unreinforced windows and one of the doors are.

Clawson asked: Was the mob lucky? Had someone carefully studied Capitol defenses in advance? Did they have inside information? And who provided it? David Neiwert of Kos wrote about the Facebook whistleblower and the allegations that the people at the top of the company knew their products were harmful to people, democracy, and national security and decided profits were more important. It’s an ongoing story and I’ll let you read more on your own. Mark Zuckerberg and his colleagues are definitely saying their money, their billions, are more important than the lives of others. That’s a supremacist view – I’m better than you. It may even extend to the point where Zuckerberg and colleagues want that harm to come to us lesser mortals, and may even desire the end of democracy. They are sure acting like that is true. I’m sure they will be able to keep making lots of cash under a dictator, as they already do in several other countries. Bill in Portland, Maine, in his Cheers and Jeers column for Kos has this snarky take on the oil spill in Huntington Beach, California and the company that owns the ruptured pipe:

For its part, the profits-first executives at—Surprise!—Texas-based Amplify Energy say they're fully prepared to deal with the oil spill. They've dispatched a team of experienced professionals to look thoughtful in white lab coats and hard hats as they stroke their chins and make check marks on a clipboard while underpaid lackeys sop up a fraction of the mess with off-brand paper towels. And this just in: a media consultant skilled in the art of giving the thumbs-up sign to reporters will be airdropped in around noon.