What the Democrats Must Do

Yes, what, exactly, the Democrats must do, at long last, to break the logjam that is the Republican Party in Congress currently. Then, once that's ended, we must pass the For the People Act so we end gerrymandering, get the dark money out of our elections and put ethics back in government. We must.

The For the People Act!

Know this, Americans. HR1 in the House of Representatives and S1, in our US Senate, are both the For the People Act. Here's what it is and what it means.

We have GOT to stop having or letting political parties gerrymander voting districts across our states and across the nation so results go their way instead of for us, the peole. We need to get the big, "dark money" out of our government and elections that's coming from who knows where. We need to get ethics back into our Federal Government. These bills go a long, long way to doing just that. Please phone your Senators and tell them to please support these very important bills. Thank you in advance.

Responsible Tax Policy --- What We Should Do

7 necessary ways to tax the rich.

1. Repeal the Trump tax cuts. 2. Raise the tax rate on those at the top. 3. A wealth tax on the super-wealthy. 4. A transactions tax on stocks. 5. End the “stepped-up cost basis” loophole. 6. Close loopholes for the rich. 7. Audit the rich. --Robert Reich @RBReich Logical. Sensible. Responsible. Fair.

Question of the Day -- Self-Serving, Greedy Congress Edition

Members of Congress should not be allowed to buy and sell stocks. How is this even a thing? --Citizens for Ethics @CREWcrew

We know why it's a thing, of course, because they benefit from it. The question is, why is it still a thing? This is nuts. We should have put an end to this long ago, long before now. The $174,000 per year salary and all-inclusive, fully paid for health care all their benefits should be enough. It should be more than enough. We must demand an end to even the possibility of this self-serving greed and insider trading.

It's Great to be Wealthy

Let's get this straight. Let's make this clear.

Keeping also in mind Congress just voted down a $15 per hour minimum wage, too. Second Gilded Age anyone? Everyone? Thanks, Republicans! Y'all are terrific. For the already-wealthy. And corporations.

From the Frightening to the Hopeful Today

Heather Cox Richardson's latest summary. I think these daily updates of hers have become nearly required reading she does that great a job of summarizing where we are and what's happening of late, showing where we stand and where we might be going.

January 31, 2021

Heather Cox Richardson      Feb 1

The most prominent story these days is that the Republican Party is sliding toward a full-on embrace of authoritarianism. Former president Trump’s exit and ban from his favorite social media outlets has left a vacuum that younger politicians imitating Trump’s style are eager to fill by rallying people to the former president’s standard. 

Notably, Representatives Matt Gaetz (R-FL) and Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) have tried to step into the former president’s media space by behaving outrageously and becoming his acolytes. Gaetz last week traveled to Wyoming to attack Representative Liz Cheney (R-WY), the third most powerful Republican in the House, for her vote in support of Trump’s impeachment. Not to be outdone, yesterday Greene tweeted that she had spoken to Trump and has his support, although neither her camp nor his would comment on her statement.

Republican state parties have also thrown in their lot with the former president. In Arizona, the state party voted to censure former Senator Jeff Flake, the late Senator John McCain’s wife Cindy, and Governor Doug Ducey for criticizing the former president. In South Carolina, the state party formally censured Representative Tom Rice for voting to impeach Trump, and Republican lawmakers are starting to consider stripping Cheney of her party position, a development that led former President George W. Bush to indicate his support for her this weekend. She has already drawn a primary challenger.

Across the country, Republican-dominated legislatures are trying to suppress the voting that led to the high voter turnout that fueled Democratic victories in 2020. According to the Brennan Center, which tracks voting rights, 28 states have put forward more than 100 bills to limit voting. Arizona, Georgia, and Pennsylvania, whose voters chose Biden this year after going for Trump in 2016, all have introduced plans to lower voting rates. So have other states like Texas, which have voted Republican in recent years but show signs of turning blue.

The former president would like to solidify power over the party, but he has his own problems right now. The top five lawyers in his team defending him against the article of impeachment in his Senate trial all quit this weekend. Trump apparently wanted them to argue that the attack on the Capitol was justified because Democrats stole the election from him. Recognizing that this is pure fantasy—courts have already thrown this argument out more than 60 times—which could put them in legal jeopardy, the lawyers instead wanted to argue that it is unconstitutional to try a former president on charges of impeachment.

Tonight, Trump’s office announced that David Schoen and Bruce L. Castor, Jr., will lead his defense. Schoen represented Trump advisor Roger Stone when he challenged his convictions; Castor was the district attorney who promised actor Bill Cosby he would not be prosecuted for indecent assault. The impeachment trial is scheduled to start on February 9.

There are signs that some Republicans have finally had enough of their party’s march toward authoritarianism, especially as pro-Trump Republicans grab headlines for their outrageous behavior, including shutting down a mass vaccination effort at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles for about an hour yesterday.

Representative Adam Kinzinger (R-IL), a 2010 Tea Partier but now one of the ten Republicans in the House to vote in favor of impeachment, told Anthony Fisher of Business Insider that “My dad’s cousins sent me a petition — a certified letter — saying they disowned me because I’m in ‘the devil’s army’ now….”

Kinzinger announced today that he has started a political action committee (PAC) to finance a challenge to Trump’s takeover of the Republican Party. Calling Trump’s loyalists in the Republican caucus “political terrorists,” Kinzinger said in the video launching the PAC, “Republicans must say enough is enough. It’s time to unplug the outrage machine, reject the politics of personality, and cast aside the conspiracy theories and the rage.”

It also appears to be sinking in to Republicans that momentum is on the side of the Democrats. Biden’s executive actions have generally been popular, and his support for workers threatens to shift a key constituency from the Republicans to the Democrats.

Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus proposal offers to give to ordinary Americans, hurting badly from the coronavirus recession, the kind of government attention that has lately gone to wealthier Americans. Among other things, it calls for $1400 stimulus payments, extends unemployment benefits, provides funds for state and local governments, and establishes a higher minimum wage. While Biden has said repeatedly that he would like Republican support for this measure, the Democrats have enough votes to pass a version of it without Republican support.

This would put Republicans in the position of voting against a measure that promises to be popular, and at least ten Republican senators would prefer not to do that. Today, they offered their own $600 billion counterproposal, and asked for a meeting with President Biden to discuss it.

In their letter to the president, they hinted that they think the nation has devoted enough money to the economic crisis already, noting that there is still money unspent from the previous coronavirus packages. But they did not state that reasoning explicitly, perhaps recognizing that this argument will not be popular from people who voted for Trump’s 2017 tax cut, which disproportionately benefited the wealthy, when one in seven adults say their households don’t have enough food to eat.

“We want to work in good faith with you and your administration to meet the health, economic and societal challenges of the covid crisis,” the senators wrote. After years in which Republican senators refused to discuss bills with the Democrats, this is a change indeed.

But perhaps not enough of one. In the Washington Post, James Downie noted that a proposal that is less than a third of Biden’s package is not a compromise. It also cuts stimulus checks down to $1000, cuts supplemental unemployment insurance, gives no local or state aid, and kills the minimum wage increase.

When asked why Democrats should compromise rather than go ahead without them, as Republicans repeatedly did when they held the majority, Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA) and Senator Rob Portman (R-OH) told “Fox News Sunday” and CNN’s “State of the Union,” respectively, that Biden should honor his call for unity and that refusing to do so would kill future hopes for bipartisanship.

In an article in The Guardian today, former U.S. Secretary of Labor Robert Reich dismissed Republican concerns about the national debt, noting that if they were worried about it, they could just tax the very wealthy. “The total wealth of America’s 660 billionaires has grown by… $1.1 [trillion] since the start of the pandemic, a 40% increase,” he noted. Those billionaires could fund almost all of Biden’s proposal and still be as rich as they were before the pandemic hit.

Reich suggested that “[t]he real reason Republicans want to block Biden is they fear his plans will work.” A successful government response to coronavirus, the economic crisis, inequality, the climate crisis, and poverty would devastate modern-day Republicans’ insistence that the solution to every problem is tax cuts and private enterprise. If Biden’s plans succeed, Reich wrote, Americans’ faith in government, and in our democracy, will be restored.

Tonight, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki announced that Biden has spoken with Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) and has invited her and the other nine signers of the letter to the White House (we later learned they will meet tomorrow).

But Psaki’s statement did not give ground. It reiterated the need for fast action, and noted that “$1400 relief checks, a substantial investment in fighting COVID and schools, aid to small businesses and hurting families, and funds to keep first responders on the job (and more) – is badly needed. As leading economists have said, the danger now is not in doing too much: it is in doing too little. Americans of both parties are looking to their leaders to meet the moment.”

Where We Stand Today

 Friday, November 6.  Where we stand now.

Joe Biden is leading in votes in Georgia now.

Biden Takes The Lead In Georgia

Also leading in Pennsylvania, thank goodness.

Joe Biden takes the lead in Pennsylvania

Finally, at least just this moment, Joe also leads in the Nevada vote count.

Nevada vote: Biden still leads Trump 

And not just leading in Nevada but this.

Biden doubles lead in Nevada

So all three of those are hopeful, very hopeful just now. Great news.

And then I thought control of the Senate was already an ugly, foregone conclusion but that's not so.

If Biden wins: Georgia runoffs decide control of Senate

Meanwhile, the Orange Man's meltdowns continue.

Talk grows of Trump firings at Pentagon, CIA

God forbid this should even be attempted.

Like it or not, a Trump self-pardon may be coming soon

Insane. Yet more insanity from this President as we've seen and witnessed and even lived, these last 4 years.

And here's where the Trumpster stands.

Trump is in a state of rage and denial

Meanwhile, of course, the pandemic rages on.

U.S. Hits Highest Single-Day Number of COVID-19 Cases for Any Country

This broke yesterday.

US hits all-time high for COVID-19 cases

We hit that high two days ago, then did it again yesterday.

US again breaks daily coronavirus record with 118K new cases

Insane.  And no one is driving the bus, so to speak. No surprise, but there's even LESS leadership from this President and White House because he's trying to deny our votes and election. He's too otherwise pre-occupied.

Battle lines form over coronavirus fight in lame duck

To quote Bob Dylan, "It's alright, Ma, I'm only dyin'..."

Any leadership from Republicans in Congress, you might ask?

Senate Republicans sit quietly as Trump challenges vote counts

Yeah, no. Why would they start now, after these last 4 years? This President has attacked our CDC, the US Postal Service, the medical community, scientists---all during the worst, most deadly, killing pandemic in the last more than 100 years but do you think the Republican leaders in Congress would give us any leadership? Work on PPE for our medical community? More testing? Heck, financial assistance for Americans so badly hurt by this pandemic?

Fuggedaboudit.

This President is now attacking our election, our own election, our votes, our election system. In real  essence, America, no overstatement, he's attacking us.

And his political party associates are at least remaining quiet, if not out and out supporting this crazed orange man in the White House.

So good news, bad news today.

So hoping at least one of these states, Pennsylvania, Nevada or Georgia announce for Joe today. Of course.

Then we have to watch the orange man. And hope he doesn't have a Constitutional crisis meltdwon.

Help us out here, Republicans.

As Joe Biden is smart to repeat, we are all, in fact, Americans. We're not your enemies out here.

Link---Wouldn't this be nice? But then, at 74 years of age, why would he start now?

Philly Mayor: 'The President Needs To Put His Big Boy Pants On'

Congress, Those Unemployment Payments and the Rent Moratorium

If Congress doesn't get help out across the nation and then only sends $200 in unemployment payments instead of the $600 they were sending but then also doesn't keep the moratorium on evictions during this pandemic?

There could be so many ramifications.

--Putting people, whole families, too, out on the streets.
--Putting people squarely in either poverty or deeper poverty.
--People not able to maybe go, then, to work, because they are on the streets
--Children maybe not able to go to school
--Consequential food insecurity.

All kinds of things, more, much more than I've even poster here, above.

Insane.

This could get really ugly, folks. 

Really ugly.

Think as bad as or worse than the Great Depression.

Great November Election Projections Out Today

Yes sir and ma'am, terrific, really excellent Fall election projections breaking today on the interwebs. Several.

I'll start here with a prediction on that Trump/Biden election.

The Hill's Campaign Report: Trump's job approval erodes among groups that powered his 2016 victory

Then, another, different source for a poll saying much the same, yes!

Gallup: Trump's job approval rating erodes 

among key groups

I especially love this one because it's yet one more Republican predicting a Trumpian loss this November.

Judd Gregg: The coming Biden coup

And then there's this fantastic prediction for Republicans in the Senate, too.

Senate outlook slides for GOP

Finally today, there is this. Senator Lindsey Graham finally, finally went against this President. Stunning.

Graham, facing tough reelection, breaks with Trump

Check that out:

Sen. Lindsey Graham has publicly opposed President Donald Trump five times in the past few weeks — including a new rebuke Monday — an unusual torrent of dissent from one of the president’s top allies in Washington just months before the South Carolina Republican faces a tough reelection challenge.

Let's not forget what Senator Graham said about this President in 2015.

Lindsey Graham: Trump Is Going To Kill The Party

For that matter, let's never forget what he said during Trump's candidacy.

12 Times Lindsey Graham Rebuked 

Donald Trump's Candidacy

So Senator Graham finally sees Trump tanking in the polls so he goes after him?  I hope that's what's happening here.  Even better, wouldn't it be great if, from now to Nov 3, he does, at long last, break with Trump, permanently, as this says but both, BOTH of them, Trump and Senator Graham, still go down to losses that day, too? Heck, for that matter, let's throw in Moscow Mitch McConnell, too.

November is looking better and better but I assume nothing, we must assume nothing but hope and work for everything in this, these elections. We must VOTE and we must VOTE BLUE!!

#BlueWave

#BlueWave2020

One last bit of good, breaking news today.

Democrats ask Supreme Court to hear emoluments case against Trump

Very Hopeful Electoral News

 Check out these recent polls:

New Poll Has Sara Gideon Up, 51-42, Over Susan Collins

Senator Graham Only Ahead by 4 Points in Polling

Amy McGrath takes the lead over Mitch McConnell in Kentucky

Imagine if Senators Collins and Graham and McConnell all go down this Fall and Trump is thrown out of the White House--as looks very likely--and we also keep the House and take the Senate.

Holy Mary, Mother of Goodness, folks!

VOTE!!

And VOTE BLUE!!

And if you can, help others vote!

BLUE WAVE!!

The Very Important Speech Yesterday Every Voting American Should Hear

Senator Jeff Flake gave a now very famous and even important speech yesterday in and to the Senate and nation. Here is just a bit of it.



It is time for our complicity and our accommodation of the unacceptable to end. In this century, a new phrase has entered the language to describe the accommodation of a new and undesirable order, that phrase being the new normal.

But we must never adjust to the present coarseness of our national dialogue with the tone set up at the top. We must never regard as normal the regular and casual undermining of our democratic norms and ideals. We must never meekly accept the daily sundering of our country. The personal attacks, the threats against principles, freedoms and institution, the flagrant disregard for truth and decency.

The reckless provocations, most often for the pettiest and most personal reasons, reasons having nothing whatsoever to do with the fortunes of the people that we have been elected to serve. None of these appalling features of our current politics should ever be regarded as normal. We must never allow ourselves to lapse into thinking that that is just the way things are now.

If we simply become inured to this condition, thinking that it is just politics as usual, then heaven help us. Without fear of the consequences and without consideration of the rules of what is politically safe or palatable, we must stop pretending that the degradation of our politics and the conduct of some in our executive branch are normal. They are not normal. Reckless, outrageous and undignified behavior has become excused and countenanced as telling it like it is when it is actually just reckless, outrageous and undignified.

And when such behavior emanates from the top of our government, it is something else. It is dangerous to a democracy. Such behavior does not project strength because our strength comes from our values. It instead projects a corruption of the spirit and weakness. It is often said that children are watching. Well, they are. And what are we going to do about that? When the next generation asks us, ‘Why didn’t you do something? Why didn’t you speak up?’ What are we going to say?

Mr. President, I rise today to say: enough. We must dedicate ourselves to making sure that the anomalous never becomes the normal. With respect and humility, I must say that we have fooled ourselves for long enough that a pivot to governing is right around the corner, a return to civility and stability right behind it....

...We were not made great as a country by indulging in or even exalting our worst impulses, turning against ourselves, glorifying in the things that divide us, and calling fake things true and true things fake. And we did not become the beacon of freedom in the darkest corners of the world by flouting our institutions and failing to understand just how hard-won and vulnerable they are.

Links:

Full Transcript: Jeff Flake's Speech on the Senate Floor

Trump's morning tweets draw widespread condemnation

One Helluva News Day

Incredible News Day and So, Headlines Today

Comey says he was fired because of Russia investigation

James Comey Accuses Trump of 'Lies' in Bombshell Congressional Testimony

James Comey testifies in historic hearing, accuses Trump administration of defaming him

Note this one from Fox:

Comey testimony: Ex-FBI boss says Trump team lied

Comey: White House Lied 'Plain and Simple' About Firing - NBC News

Comey says Trump fired him to undermine FBI Russia investigation

Comey: White House "lies"

Comey says he was fired because of Russia investigation

One thing he said is what occurred to me at the time, weeks ago, when Trump first threatened he had tapes.

'Lordy, I Hope There Are Tapes': Highlights Of James Comey's Testimony

And here’s what they’re saying “across the pond”:

Comey: Trump White House 'lied' about the FBI - BBC News

Keep in mind, this is what he said in public, in the testimony. There is a strong chance he’s said even more behind the closed doors of his further testimony to the Senate.

Oddly, however, given all the above article and headlines, The Trumpster remains defiant and confident.

Trump feels "vindicated" by James Comey's testimony, lawyer says

This, his public response, sounds as though it might well be a public, pre-thought press release from his attorneys.

We shall see what we shall see, of course.

Meanwhile, there is this, too, breaking today:

Trump's approval rating has fallen to a record low

And I wouldn’t want to be Daniel Richman today.

Who Is Daniel Richman, the Columbia Professor Who Leaked Comey’s Trump Memo?

The Republicans must be so happy.

And proud.

And if that isn’t enough news for one news day, this happened, too.

North Korea launches another salvo of missiles

Finally, it was on this day, coincidentally, June 8, 1949 that George Orwell’s “1984” was published.

Just saying.

So think good thoughts, y’all, and hope and wish for good things for everyone.


Link: Big Brother is watching you as '1984' is published

Republicans, Ignoring Our Infrastructure

Dave Helling, at our own Kansas City Star, penned a terrific, maybe even important article in the paper yesterday about our government representatives and their seemingly complete ignoring of our infrastructure.

While Washington fiddles, Kansas City’s infrastructure crumbles

A little from the article:

This spring, Kansas City voters agreed to raise their taxes to pay for bridge and street improvements over the next 20 years.

Now those same voters are contemplating a $1 billion proposal to build a new airport terminal. Jackson County may soon consider a $300 million jail project. The Buck O’Neil Bridge may need a $150 million upgrade. Multibillion-dollar water and sewer repairs are underway.

It’s a familiar tale: Crumbling infrastructure, ignored for far too long, must be repaired or replaced at enormous cost.

Kansas City isn’t the only city facing these problems, of course. It’s almost a cliche: Harbors, the electric grid, highways, rail transit and water systems across the nation are falling apart more rapidly than ever.

In March, the American Society of Civil Engineers claimed the U.S. must spend $4.6 trillion by 2025 to make needed repairs to dams, highways, airports and other public facilities.

How did we get in this mess? The answer seems obvious: Repairs that should have been finished years ago were delayed or dismissed, the victim of anti-government, anti-tax fervor.

To govern is to choose, and some projects necessarily had to wait. Not everything can be built at once.

But costs never go down. Each year of delay means more expensive streets and sewers and jails and airports, as Kansas Citians know all too well.

As usual and ever, Mr. Helling is so right. Republicans in Congress, specifically, have been making sure all through the Obama years that little or no money was spent on infrastructure for fear that--gasp--the economy might improve under someone other than a Republican in the White House. Other than hating government spending of all kinds, they're no excuse to not spend on our infrastructure now.

CBS News and their "60 Minutes" program did a terrific segment on it. It was 3 years ago, in 2014.

Falling apart: 

America's neglected infrastructure

What Mr. Helling didn't go into in the article, no doubt due to space limitations, was that it's also Republicans in our own Missouri statehouse in Jefferson City that are keeping us from repairing, improving and modernizing our infrastructure, specifically our highways and bridges.

And sure, very Republican, Right Wing, "tow the line" Senator Roy Blunt has given infrastructure spending some verbal support now and then but to date, nothing from him or Congress or his political party. The following is from 2015.

Senator Blunt Gives Lip Service to Our Infrastructure and the Work It Needs

The fact is, there is no finer or better example of needing infrastructure work and spending than right here in Missouri. Take this, for starters. It's from 2015.

MoDOT: 600 Missouri bridges 

are in poor to serious condition

In the meantime, MoDoT hasn't been able to do much but "catch up" work, the barest of upkeep on our bridges because of Republicans lack of work in Jefferson City on this issue.

Then there is our statewide Interstate 70. It, too, is a perfect example but for both the state and nation.

Our I-70, running as it does all across the state, from the Illinois border on the East to the Kansas border on the West and right through Columbia, is old, outdated, neglected and literally dangerous.

Missouri home to 4 of nation's 

deadliest highways

It's so big a story and subject, it's even gone international

Chinese billionaire Jack Ma says 

the US wasted trillions on warfare instead of 

investing in infrastructure

Besides the fact that they are, we are, neglecting our infrastructure, making travel more dangerous and even difficult, to put off the repairs only costs us more, later, when we finally do fix the roads and bridges and highways and sewer systems, etc.

Then there's the fact that improved infrastructure helps business, helps commerce. It makes that business easier to conduct because we're more productive, we can travel easier and with less cost. It also naturally helps leisure travel, driving up business.

Then there's the fact that this kind of infrastructure spending reverberates through the economy, through the nation, creating jobs as well as generating new and more business.

Invest in Infrastructure to Boost Jobs 

and the Economy

There have been studies on it, too, of course, on infrastructure spending.

Every $1 Of Infrastructure Spending 

Boosts The Economy By $2

For our safety, for jobs, for growing business, for a growing economy, all, at the very least, there is every reason in the world to boost infrastructure spending both in Washington, at the Federal level, as well as in Jefferson City, on the state level.

Now I'm just hoping our local PBS station, KCPT, gets a bunch of middle-aged and older, Right Wing white men together on one of their weekly news programs to discuss it.

Links:

No urgency on I-70 from anywhere

Inaction from Jeff City

A desperate note to our representatives 

in Washington and Jefferson City

Senator Blunt Said WHAT???

The Insanity of Not Funding Our Highways and Infrastructure

No expansion projects for the next five years, says MoDOT

Pressure Building for the Nation's Infrastructure--

and Maybe for the People

America's rotting empire: Billionaires galore 

and a crumbling infrastructure

Austerity and why we need a jobs bill from Congress

Austerity Won't Work if the Roof Is Leaking

What Will It Take to Get Congress to Give Us an Infrastructure Bill?

MoDOT: 600 Missouri bridges are in poor to serious condition

I-70 Westbound Lane Closed After Crews Find Crack In Bridge Beam

Missouri Roads Face Funding Crisis

Congress Chooses Austerity Over Job Creation and Economic Growth

It's the Austerity, Stupid: How We Were Sold an Economy-Killing Lie

Why we need a jobs/infrastructure bill from this Congress

What Republicans In Congress Just Did To You, America

Yes sir, those "small government", caring Republicans, from last week, in the Senate, to yesterday, in the House, just sold all of us down the river, ladies and gentlemen. If you aren't aware of it all, you should be.

House Republicans just voted to let your internet provider sell your browsing history without your permission

Republicans Just Voted to Let Internet Service Providers Sell 

Your Browsing History

A bit from one of the articles.

Soon every mistake you’ve ever made online will not only be available to your internet service provider (ISP) — it will be available to any corporation or foreign government who wants to see those mistakes.

Thanks to last week’s US Senate decision (update March 28: and today’s House decision), ISPs can sell your entire web browsing history to literally anyone without your permission. The only rules that prevented this are all being repealed, and won’t be reinstated any time soon (it would take an act of congress).

You might be wondering: who benefits from repealing these rules? Other than those four monopoly ISPs that control America’s “last mile” of internet cables and cell towers?

No one. No one else benefits in any way. Our privacy (and our nation’s security) have been diminished so a few mega-corporations can make a little extra cash.

In other words, these politicians — who have received millions of dollars in campaign contributions from the ISPs for decades — have sold us out.

Mind you, Republicans did this. Republican Senators, last week, and the members of the House of Representatives this week, yesterday. "Small government" Republicans.

More from the article:

...every single senator who voted in favor of overturning these privacy rules was a Republican. Every single Democrat and Independent senator voted against this CRA resolution. The final vote was 50–48, with two Republicans voting against the resolution, and another two choosing not to vote.

So just please, no one try to tell me there's no difference in the political parties.

Please.

And what does this mean to all of us? To you and me? This:

According to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, there are at least five creepy things the FCC regulations would have made illegal. But thanks to the Senate, ISPs can now continue doing these things as much as they want, and it will probably be years before we can do anything to stop them.

• Sell your browsing history to basically any corporation or government that wants to buy it
• Hijack your searches and share them with third parties
• Monitor all your traffic by injecting their own malware-filled ads into the websites you visit
• Stuff undetectable, un-deletable tracking cookies into all of your non-encrypted traffic
• Pre-install software on phones that will monitor all traffic — even HTTPS traffic — before it gets encrypted. AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile have already done this with some Android phones.

What to do? Go here. Do these things.

How to encrypt your entire life in less than an hour

Protect yourself against the big ISPs.

Then, come election time, vote. And vote against Republicans. It's our only protection.

You Nearly Won't Believe What House Republicans Did Yesterday

Seriously, this is what they just did yesterday, my fellow Americans. They're voted to make it okay for clinically diagnosed mentally unstable people to have their own weapons because, you know, 2nd Amendment rights.

House Republicans Just Voted To Allow Severely Mentally Ill People To Buy Guns

This speaks for itself.

And So It Begins

The 115th Congressional session, this very Republican Party, Right Wing, ultra-Conservative Congress has begun...   And with a vengeance.  See for yourself. Here was their first move, famously, infamously, just before the session began.

With No Warning, House Republicans Vote to Gut Independent Ethics Office

Fortunately, the American people rose up, thanks to social media, raised hell and this was squashed. The cowards wisely backed off.

That's not to say they're done, however. Far from it. This is what they started two days ago, God help us.

Senate Republicans Pass Resolution That Begins ObamacareRepeal Process

And now, this. A pièce de résistance, really.

Republicans prepare legislation to 

defund United Nations

It's lead by that political and governmental rocket scientist Rep. Louie Gohmert, no surprise.

Our political world is coming apart with these chuckleheads. This is terrific. Just when nationalism is spreading around the world, nation by nation, these idiots want to tear down the one place we try to all get together, as a world, and solve international problems. 

Fantastic.

These banana-brains just want to get and stay more and more parochial, more and more, "me, first!" and "Leave us alone!"

Honestly, it really does seem like we're going to Hell in a nearly non-proverbial handbasket.

And The Donald isn't even inaugurated yet.

God help us. God save us from ourselves.

Link:  Republicans call Obamacare a 'failure.' 

These 7 charts show they couldn't be more wrong

After deriding it for weeks, Trump now claims to be a ‘big fan’ of the intelligence community

Trump's EPA pick sided with polluters – who gave millions

 to his political agenda

Trump's EPA pick rejects climate science, fights for fossil fuels

Paul Ryan: GOP will defund Planned Parenthood

House GOP rules change will make it easier to sell off federal land 

Senate Republicans introduce bill to slash security at US embassies