They broke the Democratic agenda into two parts, one that corporations liked better, and one that the citizens liked better, with the promise that both parts had to pass, together.

Then, because corporations have to always win and never lose, and citizens have to always lose and never win, we pared the citizen's bill down to almost nothing.

And now, we will pass the corporations' bill nearly unchanged, plus the husk of the citizens' bill.

Just making sure that I'm perceiving this correctly, and that corporate America wins again and disciplines us citizens to expect nothing from government.

Joe Biden's infrastructure plans seemed so simple. Why not, it seemed to say, spend some of our tax dollars making our country and our lives better, instead of just flushing them away by giving them to people who are already rich or corporations that deal death?

But . . . the corporations who have bought the government obviously did not like that. They can't have the American people less desperate, less stressed, less over-worked. Americans must not, under any circumstances, learn that their tax dollars can be used to make their lives better. It's just not done. Not in America.

And so, we've had two avatars of this corporate mind set kill/main/wound/slow-walk the whole thing. But it's obvious to me that the rest of the corporate world is A-OK with this result, or else the other Democrats would actually object in real and strenuous ways to what was happening.

So . . . because corporations can't let Americans benefit from their government, they are ok with a small group of Democrats (and all Republicans) killing this effort. They are ok with Biden's agenda and approval rating going down the toilet. They are ok with Republicans possibly gaining back control of the house, the senate, the Whitehouse, probably to destroy democracy in this country.

My question is - Biden and the people around him are mostly creatures of Washington. They know, or should know, what is possible in the current state of corporate capture of the government. So, why did they let this embarrassment happen? Who didn't get the memo? Was it Joe Biden himself who miscalculated and thought that our corporate masters would let Americans actually get some benefit, some crumbs, from our amazing productivity and wealth? And why didn't he know better?

It's weird - it's like Zappa's quote about pulling back the curtain to reveal the brick wall behind it, except the surprised people seem to be the Biden administration. I would have thought they were cynical enough for this job, but maybe I was wrong?

In any case, we can breathe a sigh of relief that we won't have to have eye, or dental, or hearing care when we get older. Wouldn't want to cut into any corporate profits, after all, and we the citizens need to be taught that with every lesson.

Biden or his surrogates should be LOUDLY badmouthing them up and down America - they are keeping us Americans from actually getting something back for our tax dollars. They are harming us. They are anti-American. They are corporate stooges. By the end of it, they should be so lucky as to be ALLOWED to vote for the bill given the public shellacking they would be taking . . .

in my dreams. In a functioning democracy.

As is obvious, we built exactly nothing there, especially in the decade since our actual purpose for invading, "to get Bin Laden", was completed. Biden had the courage to end this money-sucking fraud, that would have had the same outcome (or possibly worse) no matter when it ended.

Afghanistan is ungovernable, and we are now the 4th or 5th occupying force to find that out, and this was predictable. All I hear about is crying on the BBC and on the news about this "disaster" but this was a con being run on our tax coffers by the military industrial complex, it was always a disaster, and it is better to have it finally ended.

I wish Trump, Obama, or Bush would have had the guts to end it years earlier.

I can't overemphasize how fucking angry I am at that asshole for putting the lives of everyone I know and love in danger. He has constantly made every move to increase the number of sick, sickened, dead, and dying. Talking against masks. Encouraging states to "open up". Discouraging shut downs, social distancing, etc. All for his almighty stock market line. And the fucking ignorance of it all is that if he had actually lifted one finger to stop this thing - or instill in his followers' rock-like heads that fighting this virus was the patriotic and right thing to do - that the economy would actually recover much quicker and in a genuine fashion (without the billions that have been artificially pumped into it) without having a PLAGUE covering the land.

And now, each of us has at least one asshole in our circles who won't wear masks, doesn't "believe" in the virus, won't stay away from elderly relatives, and generally is a ticking time bomb designed to kill as many of us as possible.

I don't _want_ to be swept into a hospital bed, sedated, and intubated. I don't want that for myself, my family, my friends, any American. Yet, my president does everything using the power of his position to put as many of us as possible in that position, through that hell.

FUCK that asshole.

This really is some of the dumbest TV content I've ever seen. The coup attempt is ONGOING and happening right before our eyes, and K. B. is MOCKING people who are worried that Trump is vicious and power-hungry enough to attempt it.

Also, she seems to think that fascist leaders can't be dumb. Heard of a guy called Mussolini?

Vaush really lets her have it, and rightly so. She should be shamed for this.

(posted mainly because I wanted to use that title, lol)

https://news.yahoo.com/putin-pours-cold-water-trumps-112917287.html?soc_src=hl-viewer&soc_trk=fb

Putin pours cold water on Trump's Hunter Biden hopes

If President Trump were looking for a little last-minute boost from Russian President Vladimir Putin, Putin had nothing for him on Sunday. In televised remarks on state TV, Putin "took the time to knock down what he made clear he regarded as false allegations from Trump about the Bidens," Democratic nominee Joe Biden and his son Hunter, Reuters reports. Putin said Trump's story about Hunter Biden getting money from the widow of a former Moscow mayor was news to him, even though Trump tried to tie Putin to the alleged payment.

In Ukraine, Putin said, Hunter Biden "had or maybe still has a business, I don't know. It doesn't concern us. It concerns the Americans and the Ukrainians." And regarding the money Hunter Biden made working for a Ukrainian company, he added, "I don't see anything criminal about this, at least we don't know anything about this (being criminal)."

https://twitter.com/BriannaChesser/status/1252884652118798336

The kinds of businesses they are opening up - gyms, bowling alleys, and personal care places - are places where personal contact is all but assured. And those people won't be able to collect unemployment. And they won't be able to vote Democratic if they are dead.

Getting down to just two main candidates is a great opportunity for us, as a party, to really examine the remaining candidates with greater detail than has been possible prior to this. With just two candidates, we can really ask ourselves some important questions, and evaluate them carefully:

Who stands a better chance to beat Donald Trump?

We can examine which of the two candidates:

Appears to be sharper, more with it
Speaks with more clarity
Can better call out Trump's fake economic populism
Can better call out Trump's nepotism
Is less likely to try to "work with" the GOP, the way Obama tried to
Is more likely to appeal to undecided, independent, and disaffected voters

Who has backed economic policies that help more Americans?

We can examine which of the two candidates:

Is more likely to fight hard against economic injustice
Is more likely to fight to curtail the fraud in the financial system
Is more likely to fight for healthcare solutions that will be more affordable for most people


etc. etc. It is a great opportunity for all of us.