Keep Your Eye On the Ball: A Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal Is Not The Main Event | Talking Points Memo

A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things.

Good morning! I’ll be helming the Morning Memo for the next couple of weeks while Cristina Cabrera is out. Send me the things.


This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://talkingpointsmemo.com/?p=1381526

I think we all knew/know that any bipartisan infrastructure bill is unlikely. As soon as the deal was announced, GOPs started taking heat from the MAGAts. The budget reconciliation bill is the BFD.

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Note to Dems- bipartisanship has been an ugly word for the Right for a long time. While you can expect Republicans to negotiate to get what they want, do not expect them to vote for it. Try this-negotiate with them, but have a back-up bill that includes only what Dems want, so when the negotiated bill gets announced, and McConnell signals Republicans won’t vote for it, throw the Dem-only plan on the table. Yes, Manchin will scream “what about bipartisanship”, but so fucking what.

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OT

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I get all the concern over the unvaccinated spreading and strengthening the COVID variants rearing their ugly heads. And there is the issue of children still not eligible to get the vaccine beneath a certain age. But in the grand scheme of things isn’t it in the long term interest of the nation for these people that cling to their anti-vaxx idiocy to die off? What is wrong with wingnuts in Texas, Florida, Arkansas, Missouri and elsewhere expiring in mass numbers?

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On the other hand, the Netherlands has had a 500% increase of cases. They lifted restrictions a few weeks ago. Soon after they had a massive rock concert. A week later they had over 2000 cases from that event alone.

Now imagine this, the Dutch are a smart and prudent people. Now imagine America where too many are not. It’s a disaster waiting to happen.

I want our border with you kept closed.

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Problem is most of them will get sick and clog up emergency rooms and eventually recover, though many will develop long covid and put further strains on the medical system. Because of FOX News and Facebook’s BS, all of us will pay for it.

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Rob Portman can go eat shit and die.

Oh, and whatever happened to his gay son? You know, the kid he used for political points and sympathy when necessary in the same way that Sarah Palin used her kid with Down Syndrome.

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“What is wrong with wingnuts in Texas, Florida, Arkansas, Missouri and elsewhere expiring in mass numbers?”

Um, gimme about 20 minutes to think about it and I’ll get back to you. LOL!

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Get ready for a week of sturm and drang over the the centrist pursuit of a bipartisan infrastructure deal in the Senate.
… … …
Ummm … I need some help here. I think that’s German? Now I am reasonably proficient in English, French and Spanish but not German.
Thanks

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I think we all knew/know that any bipartisan infrastructure bill is unlikely

Not sure (one must stay positive) but IMO the strength of this two track legislation is they are coupled. The ten Republicans are committed to their bipartisan brick and mortar deal as is Manchin, everyone’s gatekeeper (which by itself is really fucking bizarre). They get what they want, we get what the American people need. It will be a huge legislative victory for Democrats, as BFD as one can imagine. Make it happen and the Democratic party should rule Washington for the next two decades. “Think of the children” someone once said.

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Here’s the opera chorus of the GQP after the “bipartisan” deal falls apart:

“The Democrat Party doesn’t believe in bipartisanship!!!”

Yeah, well, we Democrats also don’t believe in the Easter Bunny, Santa Claus, leprechauns, chemtrails, trickle-down economics, and vaccines causing autism.

So what’s your fucking point, assholes?

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When is Trudeau going to say Canada is going to build a wall and the US will pay for it?

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What is wrong with wingnuts in Texas, Florida, Arkansas, Missouri and elsewhere expiring in mass numbers?

ETTD.

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As you mentioned over 1000 of the new cases in Holland are traceable back to a “covid-free” concert, where all attendees were to produce a QR code showing they were fully vaccinated in order to get in — but a lot of (mostly younger) people shared their codes so a sizable percentage of unvaccinated folks got in. People cheating the system are always a threat and there’s no recourse or punishment when they do.

Opening up too early is dumb. Even the Swedes admit their “personal responsibility“ strategy early on was a mistake. Here in Germany, we don’t have the confrontational anti-vaxxers like in the Statesbut still have enough anti-vaxxers (including our next-door neighbors) to keep us more vulnerable than we should be. And the easing of things a few weeks back has resulted in our infection rates doubling within weeks and hospitals filling up again. Merkel is insisting there will be no more lockdowns, but I can well imagine things will tighten up again, especially toward fall.

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He should say that just for shits and giggles. Biden would find it hilarious and it would drive Trump into nuclear 'rhoid rage.

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I’ve been seeing this on the Twitter machine:

Trump, who had been more or less a proponent and even cheerleader for the vaccines (since he wanted credit for them), is now edging over to justifying vaccine hesitancy and even resistance, so as to stay in sync with his supporters, which will reinforce their vaccine resistance. pic.twitter.com/h8WATO0mIQ

— Bill Kristol (@BillKristol) July 18, 2021

The real question is why it took him so long to come out with this directly.

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And it will be a beautiful wall.

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Trumps message - People are not getting the Trump vaccine because they don’t trust Biden and believe the election was rigged.

So does this mean it’s an attempt at mass suicide?
The words don’t even have to make sense - Trump good, Biden bad. That’s it.

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We live in horrible times in which your question can simply be a question among many. That is not a criticism. There is a now a premise for that to be discussed without looking at each other as ghouls. The Republicans seem to have the idea that letting the virus run its course unimpeded is some sort of advantage for them. Dan Patrick tried to wrap a sense of stoic honor and sacrifice behind it, basically telling people of age to let it happen for the benefit of everyone else. But the logic for them has no true sense of the public good. Just profit and owning the libs. Now we have solutions to avoid or lessen the disease’s impact, but fools do not take or promote it for … reasons. It may come down to letting self-imposed attrition take its course at this point.

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