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GNR for Wednesday, May 31 2023 [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2023-05-31

This is my favorite time of year. Winter is a distant memory, the spring shoots are now rapidly growing plants, the bug population hasn’t exploded yet, and traffic is nonexistent since the student have left town. By August I will have gotten bored with the quiet and tired of months of hot weather but now everything is coming up irises.

Wonder why DK looks different today? This dropped while I was working on this last night.

The Pleasure of Electing Good People

A beautiful diary by Crashing Vor: Why You Do It: 'Cause Sometimes It Works

But sometimes, sometimes… you put your dough and your voice and your cred behind a candidate and, miracle one, they win and miracle two, they turn out to be exactly the honest, dedicated public servant you’d hoped. Sometimes it actually works.

I have had this experience myself several times. In Joe Manchin’s WV “Democrat” does not not always translate to “person I am happy to support”. However I am friends with all of our local Democratic legislators and have been proud to have been a part of getting them elected.

I am also happy to promote Louie’s YouTube channel:

The Ongoing Energy Transition Away From Fossil Fuels

The Unexpected Problem With EVs: They 'Tire' Quickly

EVs burn through tires 30% faster than combustible engine cars thanks to hefty weights and speedy acceleration, according to Bridgestone, which this week unveiled a new tire developed specifically for electric vehicles.

This is one of the few negatives of EVs. If Bridgestone can make a few bucks by dealing with it more power to them.

Manchin’s attempt to force through the Mountain Valley Pipeline may not get included in the debt limit bill. The pipeline will run through WV and Virginia. Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia is completely opposed. It is deeply unpopular in WV. Maybe this has something to do with that. McConnell has said he will vote for the debt limit bill so the Democrats don’t need Manchin’s vote.

Democrats in Array

I have seen numerous stories speculating whether progressive Democrats will vote for the debt limit bill. What all of those stories have in common is they don’t include quotes from any progressive Democrat saying they will vote against it. Some have said they have concerns about specific items (as do most of us) but will wait and see.

The mainstream press has been desperately trying to find Democrats who think Biden is too old to run again. Again, crickets. (Disclosure- in 2020 I thought we should go with someone who wasn’t another old white guy. Now that he is president and doing a great job I support him totally.) Other presidents age dramatically in office. Biden seems to be getting younger. He actually likes the pressure. Marianne Williamson and the anti-vax Kennedy troll aren’t going to even be speed bumps in the primaries.

The biggest divide on the left has always been between those who believe is too slow incremental change and those who think revolutionary change is too disruptive. Biden is delivering revolutionary change and making it seem normal.

Biden accuser defects to Russia, claiming her life is threatened.

Tara Reade, the former intern that accused then-candidate Joe Biden of sexual assault, has defected to Russia. The allegations immediately raised eyebrows about Russian involvement in the story. Russian media reported Reade was accompanied by Marina Butina, a convicted Russian Spy who served time in an American prison assisting her in getting her citizenship.

The contrast with our main political opponents is dramatic. The Republicans are going through a stretch that will be worse than the McCarthy/Humphrey/Wallace Democratic disaster in 1968. They won’t need Abbie Hoffman and Gerry Rubin to stir things up at their convention next year.

The Russian military has been exposed as a Potemkin shell and is burning to the ground. The warlords are busy trying pin the blame on each other and wondering when the godfather is going to die. I am sure there are governors in some of the remote republics wondering why they are sending all that money to Moscow when they could be dictator of an independent country and keep it for themselves. It worked out pretty well for the rulers of the Central Asian ‘stans after the collapse of the Soviet Union…

The House Rules Committee (barely) passed the debt limit bill late last night. All of the Democrats voted against it- there is clearly some strategy beyond my pay grade going on. The full House will vote today. Jeffries says the Democrats will vote for it as long as 150 Republicans do also.

Justice Matters

(h/t to Glenn Kirschner)

Enrique Tarrio, the former chairman of the Proud Boys, was convicted on May 4 of seditious conspiracy for his role in organizing the January 6 coup attempt. This is an important milestone because he wasn’t in Washington during the attack on the Capitol (he had just been released on bail due to his involvement in an earlier riot in December and was banned from entering DC). His sentencing is coming up soon. It will set the bar for sentences for the many other behind the scenes traitors who also were involved in planning and promoting the coup while keeping away from the action.These cases will be much more difficult than the ones against the idiots who took selfies of themselves assaulting police officers and trespassing in the Capitol. But if prosecutors know they can get decade-long sentences those cases become more attractive to pursue.

IANAL and have no personal experience with the criminal justice system. I learned recently that defendants are normally required to be present during the entire trial (this is not true in civil trials). The defense can ask to waive that right but the prosecution can object and the judge does not have to grant it. There are at least two Republican candidates I can think of who will be spending a significant amount of time in court next year instead of on the campaign trail.

Final Thoughts

Yesterday’s GNR was taken down by the administration. It would be a good idea for us to all look at the DK Rules of the Road again. Dehumanizing language has been becoming more common on the site. It is prohibited.

Republicans aren’t vermin.

Russian soldiers aren’t orcs.

Some members of both groups are very bad people who have done and will continue to do very bad things. We can say that without denying their humanity.

I am a biologist who has worked on trying to destroy organisms that most people would find disgusting. Mosquitoes, sheep blowflies, and pathogens are things I wanted to eradicate because they are dangerous, not because they are evil. Evil requires humans.

We shall overcome because the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice.

-Martin Luther King

Sometimes we need to look up at that arc, breath deep, and realize that this too shall pass.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/5/31/2172230/-GNR-for-Wednesday-May-31-2023

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