Can the government claim it as a public resource? Maybe a non-profit funded by transparent foundations? Can it somehow be made open source? Maybe make it a cooperatively owned business? A worker owned coop? A worker owned non-profit coop? A Union worker owned non-profit coop?

Just thinking ahead...

The more i think about it the worse it feels. Several Manchins in the caucus would wreak havoc on any policy agenda. If we don't get things done the backlash in '24 might lose us the Presidency. If Republicans have the one seat advantage and can't get their shit together, or if they try and pass things (involving SS and Medicare) that causes division among their caucus... all to the better outcome for '24. Thoughts here?

Here's Josh at TPM thinking these thoughts too?:

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/yes-she-might-still-be-speaker-in-january

"Let me add one sort of odd note here. There’s actually a pretty good argument that it’s in Democrats’ political interests not to get the majority here.

I’ve said repeatedly that the coming debt ceiling fight is the whole thing. It’s everything. It is. But there are also liabilities to holding a narrow majority. When you control everything in Washington or appear to, every problem is on you. Every election at least defaults to a referendum on how you did rather than a choice between two options. As we’ve just seen, it doesn’t always end up that way. But that’s the default. You also build up a certain thermostatic, partisan pressure for a shift in power. If Democrats hold both houses of Congress, you go into 2024 with Republicans shut out of power in Washington for four years. And as we’ve discussed, 2024 is the big deal. That’s when everything will be on the line. Not just the Congress but the White House too."

https://newrepublic.com/article/168271/midterms-2022-polls-ad-buys-democrats


Take a deep breath folks... and keep working at getting Democrats elected!

snippet:

"Remember That Polling May Be Broken in Ways That We Will Only Understand After the Election

Political mavens have grown increasingly sophisticated about how they consume polls. Over the past decade, we have witnessed the rise of survey averages such as the ones at RealClear Politics and intricate polling models such as the one pioneered by Nate Silver at FiveThirtyEight.

Polling averages and models remain a better snapshot than any one individual survey. But this could be a year when all these corrective efforts collapse under the weight of flaws in the underlying polling itself. As Jenn Ridder, who was swing-state director for Joe Biden’s 2020 campaign, said in an interview, “The data isn’t telling us enough anymore. It’s too scattered and too confusing.”

Your vote REALLY MATTERS! Especially in local elections. We had a contested election for town clerk. 3 candidates. The vote count was 98-97-95. A really tight race! My wife and I brought our candidate over the line! Go Democracy!

...if you can get past the paywall that is


https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/02/07/goldberg-rogan-ben-and-jerrys-commentators-who-dont-know-what-theyre-talking-about/

except me, my supervisor and 1 dishwasher. That's 8 people out, our whole night crew and half our day people. One person tested positive on Tuesday and another on Wednesday. They will all be getting sick hours from the covid relief fund. Here's the kicker though... the reason me, my supervisor and that one dishwasher (from Tibet btw) are still working? We are the only 3 who were vaxxed and boosted (and asymptomatic). I have burned down my sick hours (even some vacation hours) because of lack of daycare or being super cautious about household members having any symptoms. I feel like I'm being punished for being responsible. I have an unvaccinated toddler at home... and speaking of which he is demanding my attention. Not sure where i'm going with this... except that i've been disgruntled about this all day and needed to vent. Also i have a slight tickle in my throat and damned if that isn't slightly worrying.

I'd like to know how much the will of the people will be subverted by this conservative SC! I would think close to 70% of this country favors Abortion rights... maybe more. Other than the vote for President, why don't we ever have referenda? Is there a "state's rights" law against it or something?

poached from a dKos thread:

"Embarrassment, guilt, and shame, assume normal emotional responses and normal moral frameworks.

Trump’s inner circle is a narcissist/sociopath symbiosis: a powerful narcissist (Trump) surrounded by sociopaths (Miller, Manafort, Stone, etc.). They feed off each others pathologies.

McMoscow isn’t a narcissist or sociopath as far as I can observe, he’s just “merely” the pinnacle and paradigm of corruption.

Sociopaths and corrupt actors have this in common:

They have no morals.

The GOP has become the locus and epicenter of moral nihilism in America, and the “normalization” of moral nihilism.

This is actually deeply troubling to a lot of people on the Republican side of the fence, but they “go along to get along,” just as the proverbial “good Germans” did in the early Nazi era, until it was too late to get out.

If we start making serious noise about moral values, we could reach a lot of those voters and further energize a lot of our own voters."

Full thread here:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2021/5/12/2030181/-Lincoln-Project-Springs-Trap?utm_campaign=trending#comment_80924877


I would argue that we need to "make serious noise" about the current ABROGATION of moral values... or DISDAIN of them even. We've already been making noise about their hypocritical morals.

https://civileats.com/2020/08/19/perennial-vegetables-are-a-solution-in-the-fight-against-hunger-and-climate-change/

Perennial agriculture—including agroforestry, silvopasture, and the development of perennial row crops such as Kernza—has come to prominence in recent years as an important part of the fights against soil erosion and climate change. Not only do perennial plants develop longer, more stabilizing roots than annual crops, but they’ve also been shown to be key to sequestering carbon in the soil.

Now, a new study in the journal PLoS ONE is pointing to vegetables like the ones in Auerbach’s garden as another important addition to the list. The perennial vegetables most people are familiar with are artichokes or asparagus, but the study expands that list, providing a detailed nutritional analysis of 613 species and a full accounting of their potential to pull carbon from the atmosphere.

“Greater adoption of a wider array of perennial vegetables could help to address some of the central, interlocking issues of the 21st century: climate change, biodiversity, and nutrition,” wrote lead study author Eric Toensmeier, a lecturer at Yale University, a senior fellow at Project Drawdown, and author of the Carbon Farming Solution, in the report’s introduction.

Real interesting stuff. I've been pecking away at a Permie garden for a few years... but this stuff is finally getting some scientific recognition. Admittedly, some plants have been a taste or yield fail, but some have been delightful!