Joe Biden is crushing it.

Cameron wrote:Another Biden simp, great. Just what we need.

Turtleneck wrote:Cam is not a MAGA man. He’s our resident cranky progressive.

Cameron wrote:

PennSpartan wrote:
Thanks for clearing that up. I notice that progressives are almost always cranky.  Not enough meat in their diets?

Why is it that establishment Dem types turn into Republicans when talking about anyone to the left of them on any issue?

TrapperGus wrote:

PennSpartan wrote:Hi folks, my first post here.  I’m a migrant from the “other” board, where the Border Patrol…oops, I mean mods banned me last spring after over 20 years of posting.  Actually it was just one mod who was the problem.  I won’t say his name, but it sounds like Rook.  But enough of that.  I was one of the first on that other board to endorse Joe Biden, and took a lot of heat for it.  Well, I have to say in hindsight I was 100% right!  The guy is great.  He’s erasing Donald Trump day by day, and the only problems he’s had are with the progressive policies that Bernie and Warren were pushing.  I told the guys in Wells that stuff will never fly, and that is being proven true with the the difficulty in getting the Build Back Better bill passed.  It’s so enjoyable having an adult in the White House again.  We’re still in the first quarter of this Presidential term, and I look forward to more improvement.  If we can get passed Covid, the sky is the limit. Of course, the Trumpers will do anything to keep it going.  Including dying!  Anyway, I look forward to some political discussion with you guys.  And TrapperGus, I missed you dude!

First let me say welcome aboard Penn, I expect your avatar of Duffy on the mag cover shortly, after you have figured that out.

Next, I am in a discussion with the board admin to get back my original Trapper Gus (with a space) from 2014 when I joined this board, without much hope I may add.

btw - Biden has proved to be more liberal than you said which gives me hope that the sane people are winning.

Finally, other than RQA, who has moved to this board and is providing his typically insightful posts, the action here is much slower that Wells, and somewhat less nasty.   You more than likely will find more of you and less of me on this board.

Thank you for the call out ...

Trapper Gus wrote:

PennSpartan wrote:
Thanks for the kind words, Trap.  Nice looking cat on your avatar, I’m a cat person myself.  I’ll try to dig up that pic of Duffy soon.

I always believed Biden was a politician who would compromise to get things done.  One of his best qualities, actually.  We need to get progressives on board with that strategy.  

I don’t plan on spending hours here like I did on Wells.  That was getting unhealthy.  But this seems like a breath of fresh air compared to that suffocating environment, especially with that mod I mentioned.  Good to chat with you again though Trapper.

You are welcome and I'm happy you are here.

IMO you are mistaking political posturing for hard positions.  The progressives are being clear on the policies they want, and they are using the power they have to get what they can get, which is the basic definition of politics.  

There were posters on Wells, on all sides, who were out of control and all over the map on what they supported, which made conversations there pretty much impossible.  The board management waited years too long to try to bring it under control, so it probably was a lost cause.  Although I am aware than most disagree with me, I credit Rook with trying, but he was clearly, in hindsight, modding Wells to show that it couldn't be done to convince management to shut it down.  His desire to shut Wells down was well known.

These boards run nowhere near the speed of Wells, in terms of people posting on them.  The Swill Bin will go for hours and sometimes days without new posts, so our sanity should not be tested ...

As you may or may not notice, I am now using Trapper Gus, not TrapperGus as I was yesterday.  I mention this since it shows that even with myself the Administration on this board is very stright forward about its board management.  (If you are really bored there is a charter posted on the "sports" page, oh, and the search function works, so just type "charter" and it will take you to it.  It will explain the rules and board management)

peace

P.S. - You can say "booger" if you want to. (aka no filters)

Trapper Gus wrote:

PennSpartan wrote:
Political posturing is one thing, refusing to vote for a bill your own party is championing is an entirely different animal.  That is going to come back to bite AOC and her squad in the next election.

Yes, I realize Rook was out to destroy Wells.  He should have just admitted it in the beginning.  Handing out life sentences for traffic violations on that board was ridiculous.  He actually stated once he bans all new posters.  Great business model.  LOL

Glad to see you got your old handle back.

IMO what is going to hurt the Democratic Party in 2022 is not passing the Voters Rights Act.  Because this was not passed the Republicans are doubling down on the Rat Fuck strategy that they used for the redistricting in 2010/12. It is this redistricting which will create most of the pickups in the House for the Republican Party.  I'm really grateful that Michigan voters took the power to redistrict away from the Republican Party and put in in the hands of an independent commission.  We have a chance, in a state which is split just about 50/50 but has had overwhelming Republican legislatures for the last 20 years, to have a State Government which is more representative of the vote of the population.  It probably will not change the numbers sent to the US House, though if the Republicans were still setting the districts they would have likely had an 8/5 or 9/4 split to their side, so that is good, too.

The other time that will hurt is if they don't pass the BBB, though I expect they will.  The less committed voters will stay home if they don't see the Democrtaics passing what they were running on.  They may stay home anyway, of course, as they are not aware, still, of the importance of midterms.

edit - fwiw the Voting Rights Act isn't passing because of "moderate" Democratic Senators refusing to carve out an exception to the filibuster to pass it, the progressives are all in on it.  The republicans are not going to vote for something that limits their power, so compromise is not possible.

Robert J Sakimano wrote:

PennSpartan wrote:Hi folks, my first post here.  I’m a migrant from the “other” board, where the Border Patrol…oops, I mean mods banned me last spring after over 20 years of posting.  Actually it was just one mod who was the problem.  I won’t say his name, but it sounds like Rook.  But enough of that.  I was one of the first on that other board to endorse Joe Biden, and took a lot of heat for it.  Well, I have to say in hindsight I was 100% right!  The guy is great.  He’s erasing Donald Trump day by day, and the only problems he’s had are with the progressive policies that Bernie and Warren were pushing.  I told the guys in Wells that stuff will never fly, and that is being proven true with the the difficulty in getting the Build Back Better bill passed.  It’s so enjoyable having an adult in the White House again.  We’re still in the first quarter of this Presidential term, and I look forward to more improvement.  If we can get passed Covid, the sky is the limit. Of course, the Trumpers will do anything to keep it going.  Including dying!  Anyway, I look forward to some political discussion with you guys.  And TrapperGus, I missed you dude!

what up, G?

Joe Biden is a great American and we're lucky to have him in the White House.

also, I'm old, white and square.. and I have no idea what a "simp" is.. but I'm glad you're here, simp or not.

Cameron wrote:

PennSpartan wrote:
Political posturing is one thing, refusing to vote for a bill your own party is championing is an entirely different animal.  That is going to come back to bite AOC and her squad in the next election.

Yes, I realize Rook was out to destroy Wells.  He should have just admitted it in the beginning.  Handing out life sentences for traffic violations on that board was ridiculous.  He actually stated once he bans all new posters.  Great business model.  LOL

Glad to see you got your old handle back.

Manchin and Sinema are doing exactly that, but they're not doing it to try and pass legislation that is popular and good, they're doing it because they are corrupt.

Also worth noting that the progressives seem to be fighting harder for what would be Joe Biden's signature piece of legislation than Biden himself is.

Trapper Gus wrote:

PennSpartan wrote:
I’m not a fan of Manchin or Sinema either.  But as they say, you have to play with the cards you’re dealt.  Much of the stuff in BBB was not part of Biden’s agenda.  Free college for example was never in his platform.  But he did compromise during the campaign and pledge to give it a try.  Some Republicans in the House voted for infrastructure because of compromise.  Progressives need to learn from that lesson.

I disagree with the idea that the Progressives do not compromise.  As stated before, they are holding their positions for as long as possible to get the best deal they can.  Yes AOC, who is in a very safe seat, cast a no vote for the BBB & Infrastructure Bill as a protest, however the other 90 members of the Progressive caucus voted for them, which is why they passed.

As the campaign went on from the primaries to the general Joe added other positions to his platform.  The key point in that sentence is that these items in the BBB were in the platform he ran on in the general, so they are his positions

What the progressives and Joe wanted was 600 billion dollars a year for 10 years, where they are now is 175 - 200 billion dollars a year for 10 years, or less.  That is 400 billion dollars a year of compromising.

.

Robert J Sakimano wrote:

PennSpartan wrote:
Thanks for the kind words.  I remember you from your days at Wells.  We’ll have some good debates here I’m sure.

no offense, but probably not.. at least not with me.  

(I'm just here to goof off, have fun and annoy fragile folks who take message boardin' seriously).  

things I take seriously:

music
drinking
napping
running
cycling

if you wanna talk about those things, I'm totally down, dude.

Trapper Gus wrote:

PennSpartan wrote:
Here are the six House Democrats who broke from their party to vote against the bill:
Rep. Jamaal Bowman of New York
Rep. Cori Bush of Missouri
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York
Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota
Rep. Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts
Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan
That’s six too many, Trapper. Recently AOC said if the BBB bill isn’t passed to her satisfaction, progressives might not vote for any more of Biden’s legislation.  Dems have a wafer thin majority right now.  They need to get everyone on board these bills. That includes Manchin and Sinema and the Squad.  Do the infighting behind closed doors.  But in public try to look like a family.

To me this is a specious argument, because, if their votes had been needed for passage they would have voted differently.  In this case you are talking about the Infrastructure Bill which was bipartisan.  Since there are only 2 votes the Democratics can give up and still pass a Bill it is clear that Republicans voted for this.  We all know that these six voted against to put pressure on the two conservative Senators, and Joe, to stick to their word.

All six voted for the BBB, even though it is 400 billion per year less than what they want.

Cameron wrote:The only good strategy for garnering the votes of Manchin and Sinema is to buy them.

Cameron wrote:Except Manchin and Sinema don't want goodies for their constituents, they want actual cash.

Cameron wrote:Except Manchin and Sinema don't want goodies for their constituents, they want actual cash.

AvgMSUJoe wrote:

Cameron wrote:Except Manchin and Sinema don't want goodies for their constituents, they want actual cash.

I don't understand exactly what they want... Almost seems like they are plants... both of their goal post keep moving. As if their job is to make sure nothing happens (low taxes to the rich, no help to those who need it, spawning more distrust of the govt and another cycle of dumb poors voting R).

We know ALL republicans (especially now a days) are trash... We always knew a handful of Dems where on the take too.

Just sad the agenda that actually attempts to help the american people can be trashed so easily.

Cameron wrote:

PennSpartan wrote:
You can hate them all you want, but the alternative to those two in their states is a Republican. And Republican control. And then literally nothing on the Progressive wish list would be accomplished. That may happen in another year anyway, so be thankful for what you’re getting now.

"Be glad we only suck this much, the other guys suck more" is not a winning message for the Democrats. I don't know how many times they have to get their shit pushed in at the ballot box to learn that lesson.

Call me crazy, but I think the people of Arizona and West Virginia want someone who can deliver tangible improvements to their way of life, which is exactly what BBB would do, watered down though it is.

The way I see it, Manchin just wants to keep his coal bucks rolling in, and Sinema seems to be setting herself up for a cushy lobbying gig with big pharma once she's out of office. Short of actual, literal bribes, I'm not convinced there are any carrots that could entice them to do the right thing.