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President Biden's Infrastructure Plans

Shadowy Man said:
Trausti said:
That Arizona chic senator is crucial to passage of the Biden/Bat-Shit-Crazy agenda. And this is how they treat her.
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Constituents of hers who actually knocked on doors to get their neighbors to vote for her are disappointed that she doesn't appear to be acting on her campaign promises. They want to talk to her, but since she doesn't hold town halls to talk to her constituents or even publicly state what her issues are with the bill or where she stands on it (and "in front of the elevator" doesn't count as a valid response), so they feel the only way is to track her down and tell her in person. Avoiding her constituents by running to the bathroom is not a good look. At least Manchin spoke to his constituents from the deck of his pleasure yacht.
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Firstly, the one harassing is an illegal migrant. She cannot be Blondie’s constituent. Secondly, declaring that it is now okay to harass politicians in restrooms is a horrid precedent to set. And thirdly, as a center-right ‘merican who wants Biden’s lefty agenda to fail, I’m laughing and eating popcorn.
 
Looks like liberal and conservative Democrats are working toward a middle ground on passing the Human Infrastructure Bill. LDs are dropping the price tag. Manchin said, let’s talk about what’s in it. Kyrstin couldn’t comment. She had a nail appointment.
 
I'll lose my mind if Manchin supports it but Sinema doesn't. Also, why didn't this talking happen a couple months ago?!
 
Americans Give President Biden Lowest Marks Across The Board, Quinnipiac University National Poll Finds; Majority Say The Biden Administration Is Not Competent

raw
 
Niall Stanage on Twitter: "Progressives, incl. @AOC, have argued for a while that the focus on the top-line number for the bill distracts from the much more important question of what it would actually do.

Here's @BernieSanders on Manchin's objections. (link)" / Twitter
Senator Manchin talks about not wanting to see our country become *an entitlement society.' Well, I'm not exactly sure what that means.

Does that mean that we end the S300 direct payments for working class parents which have cut childhood poverty in half in America? Is protecting working families and cutting childhood poverty an *entitlement*?

Does Senator Manchin think we should once again have ne of the highest levels of childhood poverty of any major country on earth?

At a time when millions of seniors have teeth in their mouths which are rotting, when they can't afford hearing aids to communicate with their grandkids, when they can't afford a pair of glasses to read a newspaper, does Senator Manchin believe that seniors are not entitled to digest their food and that they are not entitled to hear and see properly? Is ir that really too much to ask in the richest country on earth?

Does Senator Manchin not believe that seniors and people with disabilities are entitled to stay in their homes, in rather than be forced into expensive and understaffed nursing homes? If that's what he believes than let him tell us that.

Does Senator Manchin not believe that we have to end Lo the absurdity of paying, by far, the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs - sometimes ten times more for a particular drug than any other country?

Does Senator Manchin believe that we should be the only major country on earth not to guarantee paid family and medical leave? And that working mothers should not be able to stay at home with a sick kid? Are workers not entitled to that?

Does Senator Manchin believe that working class parents in Vermont and Co West Virginia should have to pay 25 or 30 percent of their incomes on childcare so that they can go to work and make sure that their kids are decently taken care of?

Are the children of this country not entitled to high quality childcare and pre-K education?

Does Senator Manchin not believe that working families in this country are entitled to affordable housing and that we should not have some 600,000 people in America including many veterans who are homeless?

Does Senator Manchin not believe that at a time when we have a major labor shortage because our young people lack the skills they need that they are not entitled to at least two years of free community college?

And, perhaps, most importantly, does Senator Manchin not believe what the scientists are telling us that we face an existential threat regarding climate chanse that it is absolutelv imnerative that we move boldly carbon emissions?
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Kyrsten Sinema followed into bathroom by activists over reconciliation bill - The Washington Post

Sen. Kyrsten Sinema claps back after chased into bathroom by pro-Biden agenda protesters - ABC News

LUCHA Arizona on Twitter: "🔴BREAKING: Blanca, an AZ immigrant youth confronts @SenatorSinema inside her classroom, where she teaches @ ASU. "in 2010 both my grandparents got deported bc of SB1070...my grandfather passed away 2 wks ago & I wasn't able to go to Mexico bc there is no pathway to citizenship." (vid link)" / Twitter

Kyrsten Sinema on Twitter: "Statement Following Events at ASU on Sunday (pix link)" / Twitter
Yesterday, several individuals disrupted my class at Arizona State University. After deceptively entering a locked, secure building, these individuals filmed and publicly posted videos of my students without their permission -- including footage taken of both my students and I using a restroom.

In Arizona, we love the First Amendment. We know it is vital to our democracy that constituents can freely petition, protest, or criticize my policy positions and decisions. The activist group that engaged in yesterday's behavior is one that both my team and I have met with several times since | was elected to the Senate, and will continue engaging with Arizonans with diverse viewpoints to help inform my work for Arizona.

Yesterday's behavior was not legitimate protest. It is unacceptable for activist organizations to instruct their members to jeopardize themselves by engaging in unlawful activities such as gaining entry to closed university buildings, disrupting learning environments, and filming students in a restroom.

In the 19 years I have been teaching at ASU, I have been committed to creating a safe and intellectually challenging environment for my students. Yesterday, that environment was breached. My students were unfairly and unlawfully victimized. This is wholly inappropriate.

It is the duty of elected leaders to avoid fostering an environment in which honestly-held policy disagreements serve as the basis for vitriol raising the temperature in political rhetoric and creating a permission structure for unacceptable behavior.
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DACA leaders confronted Kyrsten Sinema on flight, at ASU to ask for her support. They got silence.

Activist Karina Ruiz:
“I’m being vulnerable right now to you. My dad passed away last year, and he didn’t get to reunite with my family. I don’t want to disturb you, but at the same time, I want to see if I can get a commitment from you, Senator,” Ruiz said.

Sinema sat silently, staring down.

“This is my life and the life of millions,” Ruiz continued. “I’d just like to hear from you. Can we get a commitment from you to get a pathway to citizenship for millions like me?”

Sinema continued to sit silently, staring down.

“All right, Senator, you don’t want to respond. Thank you for your time,” Ruiz said, and walked away.
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Karina Ruiz on Twitter: "You can do more than be sorry for my loss, you can deliver us citizenship. I don't recognize you @SenatorSinema you organized marches against SB1070, and now that we need you remain silent & ignored me, unacceptable. (vid link)" / Twitter
 
Sinema confrontations escalate as she is accosted on plane and at DC airport
noting
jordan on Twitter: "A DACA recipient named Karina tried to ask Kyrsten Sinema if she'd support a pathway to citizenship for immigrants and Sinema refused to answer.

If Karina was a corporation and held a giant fundraiser for Sinema, maybe she'd get an answer. (vid link)" / Twitter
and
People’s Watch on Twitter: "Just trying to get an explanation from @SenatorSinema on what she’d cut from #BuildBackBetter, but it’s almost like she has no idea 🤷*♀️ #HoldTheLine https://t.co/dPIcSK4mo2" / Twitter

Sen. Kyrsten Sinema Confronted by Protesters at Airport
noting
Kyle Stewart on Twitter: "Sen. Kyrsten Sinema just arrived at DCA, where a small number of protestors were waiting. They asked her what she would cut from the larger human infrastructure package. Sinema did not answer. (vid link)" / Twitter
 
I'm terribly conflicted by these activists chasing Sen. KS and confronting her. I'm not happy with their doing that, even though KS has been far from forthcoming about what she wants about the $3.5T bill. That makes me respect Sen. JM for being much more talkative.

Kyrsten Sinema doesn't need to be saved by Republicans | Salon.com
Ignore Republicans wringing their hands about the alleged incivility of the left

I have often observed that shamelessness is the American right-wing's superpower and that is never better illustrated than when they call for the smelling salts over Democratic "incivility." We are once again undergoing such a phony hissy fit in the case of Arizona Senator Kyrsten Sinema, a Democrat, who was accosted by protesters who followed her into a public restroom, in one instance, and asked her questions on an airplane flight in another.

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The right-wing is staging this fit because they are currying Sinema's favor in the hopes that she will destroy the Democratic agenda. But this is a common tactic — hypocritical faux outrage about left-wing misbehavior is one of their oldest tricks.
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noting
GOP's endless hissy fit won't change the truth — or history's verdict on Donald Trump | Salon.com
noting
The Art of the Hissy Fit - Alternet.org

As Salon's Zachary Petrizzo reported, former Trump adviser turned podcaster Steve Bannon railed about the fact that the protesters were "illegal aliens" (always a good bet to get the right-wing base riled up.) Breitbart News claimed that the protesters "stalked and harassed" Sinema and Red State wondered if a crime had been committed. A Fox News anchor declared that Sinema was "assaulted" on the airplane and wondered why the FAA didn't intervene. And in one of the more embarrassing examples of right-wing self-righteousness, the National Review's Charles Cooke wrote this:
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Kyrsten Sinema: Activists’ Confronting Senator in Bathroom Is Not Normal | National Review
If, instead of a left-winger berating a moderate Democrat in the loo, a right-winger had berated a moderate Republican, it would have been the biggest news of the year. Within minutes, the incident would have had a name — the "Arizona Attack," perhaps. Within a day, it would have been deemed to be representative of everything that was wrong with the American Right — and with the United States itself. Within a week, we would have been drowning in breathless TV segments, tendentious op-eds, and mawkish lectures about the sanctity of democracy in the United States.
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Trumpers stand up for Kyrsten Sinema, suggest bathroom protesters should be "deported" | Salon.com - "Steve Bannon and Stephen Miller play-act chivalry in Sinema's defense — but can't avoid gratuitous racism"
 
"I don't know how to break it to him but you don't have to imagine it. It's happened. A lot."

Mitt Romney heckled by Trump supporters at Salt Lake City airport and on flight to D.C. - The Washington Post
“Traitor! Traitor! Traitor!” they chanted for 20 seconds.

“Resign, Mitt!” another shouted.
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Trump supporters confront and scream at Sen. Lindsey Graham - CNNPolitics
Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, a close ally of President Donald Trump who was critical of the President this week, was confronted and screamed at by Trump supporters at Reagan National Airport, according to videos posted on social media Friday.

"You traitor," a woman screams at the senator in one video, as he walks through one of the terminals at the Washington, DC, area airport. "Lindsey Graham,​ you are a traitor to the country."
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Anthony Gonzalez, House Republican who voted to impeach Trump, will not seek reelection in Ohio | News | denvergazette.com
That led to threats. Gonzalez, who has two young children, got messages from people online who threatened to come to his house, prompting the congressman to have a security consultant assess his home's security. He recalled two police officers meeting him at the Cleveland airport to escort him after his impeachment vote.

...
"That's one of those moments where you say, ‘Is this really what I want for my family when they travel, to have my wife and kids escorted through the airport?'" Gonzalez said.
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American Times Film on Twitter: "Video of the mob chanting “hang Mike Pence.” (vid link)" / Twitter
 
Hecklers impact public opinion on health reform datelined 2009 Aug 13
After two weeks of health care demonstrations and daily town hall disruptions in the news, Democrats seem to be losing ground on the reform debate.

A new USA Today poll finds 34% of Americans are now more sympathetic to the protesters' views, while 21% are less sympathetic. It's bad news for the White House.

They blame the bad numbers on misconceptions and misinformation. One misconception riling up crowds are the so-called "death panels" that some claim are part of reform.
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I find it disturbing, those incidents of following KS around. Even though they were mild by the standards of what happened to Mitt Romney and Lindsey Graham and those town halls.

I also note that KS has not had a town-hall event in years, for at least her Senate years. She also does not do interviews or appear on political TV shows.


But aside from that, she continues to be a fashion plate. When some people tried to ask her about something in a Senate office building, she wore a white shirt and a ruffled pink skirt. When some people confronted her in that ASU bathroom, she was wearing an ankle-length sleeveless pink dress wtih black and white rectangles on it. On the plane, she was wearing a black-and-white patterned dress with a neckline low enough to show some cleavage.

The only people she seems to care about is big-money lobbyists, and she may want money from them to feed her clothing habit. But then again, she may rent a lot of her clothes, as AOC and Ana Kasparian do.
 
lpetrich said:
Hecklers impact public opinion on health reform datelined 2009 Aug 13
After two weeks of health care demonstrations and daily town hall disruptions in the news, Democrats seem to be losing ground on the reform debate.

A new USA Today poll finds 34% of Americans are now more sympathetic to the protesters' views, while 21% are less sympathetic. It's bad news for the White House.

They blame the bad numbers on misconceptions and misinformation. One misconception riling up crowds are the so-called "death panels" that some claim are part of reform.
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I find it disturbing, those incidents of following KS around. Even though they were mild by the standards of what happened to Mitt Romney and Lindsey Graham and those town halls.

I also note that KS has not had a town-hall event in years, for at least her Senate years. She also does not do interviews or appear on political TV shows.


But aside from that, she continues to be a fashion plate. When some people tried to ask her about something in a Senate office building, she wore a white shirt and a ruffled pink skirt. When some people confronted her in that ASU bathroom, she was wearing an ankle-length sleeveless pink dress wtih black and white rectangles on it. On the plane, she was wearing a black-and-white patterned dress with a neckline low enough to show some cleavage.

The only people she seems to care about is big-money lobbyists, and she may want money from them to feed her clothing habit. But then again, she may rent a lot of her clothes, as AOC and Ana Kasparian do.
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Your long running obsession with what women in politics wear is quite bizarre. I can remember as a kid hearing women lament that they wouldn't be taken seriously in high level government positions because people (presumably men) would be sexist by focusing on their hair style, makeup, clothes, skin exposure, etc. I brushed that off as being a little silly, but now I'm not so sure. What I didn't expect then was that such focus would come from the side of the political spectrum that touts itself as being against sexism.
 
Comparing 46 with 45 (who is determined to overturn the will of the American voters and thus kill democracy) is pretty easy for me. How insane is it for a former President to be crusading on a patently fraudulent claim that his defeat was engineered by the opposition? How respectable is a political party that goes along with this attack on the country, and does not dare to speak truth to lies?
 
lpetrich said:
Hecklers impact public opinion on health reform datelined 2009 Aug 13
After two weeks of health care demonstrations and daily town hall disruptions in the news, Democrats seem to be losing ground on the reform debate.

A new USA Today poll finds 34% of Americans are now more sympathetic to the protesters' views, while 21% are less sympathetic. It's bad news for the White House.

They blame the bad numbers on misconceptions and misinformation. One misconception riling up crowds are the so-called "death panels" that some claim are part of reform.
Click to expand...

I find it disturbing, those incidents of following KS around. Even though they were mild by the standards of what happened to Mitt Romney and Lindsey Graham and those town halls.

I also note that KS has not had a town-hall event in years, for at least her Senate years. She also does not do interviews or appear on political TV shows.


But aside from that, she continues to be a fashion plate. When some people tried to ask her about something in a Senate office building, she wore a white shirt and a ruffled pink skirt. When some people confronted her in that ASU bathroom, she was wearing an ankle-length sleeveless pink dress wtih black and white rectangles on it. On the plane, she was wearing a black-and-white patterned dress with a neckline low enough to show some cleavage.

The only people she seems to care about is big-money lobbyists, and she may want money from them to feed her clothing habit. But then again, she may rent a lot of her clothes, as AOC and Ana Kasparian do.
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I give KS a very wide understanding here. She's in a difficult spot. She represents an area that is to the right of the party that she is in. Furthermore, she (and Joe) are taking the blame for the difficulty in passing democratic policies. But the real problem for the dems is the razer thin margins that we have to deal with. If democrats want to pass democratic legislation that the right hates, then bust your ass and increase the democratic majority congress and the senate. The real problem here is that our tent isn't big enough. And to try to exclude people at the edge of the tent, is crazy!
 
Harry Bosch said:
I give KS a very wide understanding here. She's in a difficult spot.
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She could engender more sympathy for herself if she did things like hold town halls so as to be responsive and transparent to her constituents and didn’t do things like give flip answers to reporters like “I’m in front of the elevator”.

She’s not doing herself any favors with her behavior.
 
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