DL Open Thread Monday October 15th 2021
Do you think that the current era of Coonsian bipartisan cooperation and happiness will survive the Colorado River drying up for good? I don’t.
WE OUTNUMBER THEM
BY CHERYL ROFERAccording to KFF, 72% of the adult population is vaccinated. Sixteen percent say “definitely not,” and that number has been decreasing since mandates have been put in place. Children 5-12 are now being vaccinated in large numbers.
How many school boards are being menaced by anti-vaxxers? The articles never tell us, just as earlier articles never told us what part of the population sat in diners all day, proclaiming the glories of Donald Trump.
There’s no doubt that anti-vaxxers are a danger in some places. But I’ve also seen a Twitter thread about a school board in Idaho that cited fire limits as a reason for keeping people out of the building and had police backing them up. How many school boards are fighting back effectively?
The anti-vaxxers are part of a small anti-government movement that includes “militias,” sovereign citizens, and other kooks. Because they are willing to be loud and violent, and because the media get off on covering them, they look stronger than they are.
Public opinion is strongly in favor of the legislation Congress has passed and is considering; again, the nay-sayers are in the minority. Two of Biden’s significant recovery bills have passed. Unfortunately, the nay-sayers have inordinate power in Congress.
We outnumber them. We have to use that wherever we can to crush them.
UD Alum Lydia Cole joins Rob in the bunker to talk about the latest protests against sexual assault at the university, her personal story, and what demands need to be made to make sure that sexual assault is taken seriously on campus.
Show Notes:
Is This How Democracy Dies In Pennsylvania?
Voters across the Keystone State decided who will run their polling places in the next two elections, but you could forgive them if they didn’t realize it. Buried near the bottom of their ballots on November 2 were a pair of posts: judge of elections and inspector of elections, bureaucratic titles that most people have never heard of. In many counties, the contests didn’t even make the first page of local races, falling far beneath those for supreme-court justice, county executive, and the school board—even tax collector and constable merited higher placement.
Grassroots Republican supporters of Trump’s efforts to overturn his 2020 defeat targeted these posts throughout the state, and many of them won their race last week. “There hasn’t been a sophisticated, concerted effort to sabotage elections like the one we’re facing now,” Scott Seeborg, the Pennsylvania state director for the nonpartisan group All Voting Is Local, told me.
Just got back from Kyle Evans Gay’s constituent coffee at Lucky’s Coffee Shop. Don’t think I’ve ever seen a larger turnout for one of these events. Probably about 30 or so.
3 of the first 4 questions were about, wait for it, Critical Race Theory. Setting aside the fact that none of these three bozos could even BEGIN to define Critical Race Theory, what they really mean is that schools shouldn’t teach about slavery, shouldn’t teach about Reconstruction, shouldn’t teach about racial discrimination, shouldn’t teach about Bull Connor and his firehoses, shouldn’t teach about the civil rights movement, and shouldn’t teach about the Black experience in America. In other words, American history shouldn’t be taught in American history classes. Ignorance both befits, and benefits, willful yahooism.
Other than that, it was a productive meeting, and a lot of info was shared, and a lot of contact info was exchanged. Not sure what the ideal location would be, as the event was probably too large for Lucky’s, and the people too spread out, to optimize what was being shared.
Gotta say, I’m glad that she’s my Senator.
BREAKING: Beto Running For TX Governor!:
https://www.cnn.com/2021/11/15/politics/beto-orourke-governor-texas-2022/index.html
Politico downplays this in 3-2-1…
BREAKING: Patrick Leahy To Retire At End Of Term:
https://www.politico.com/news/2021/11/15/leahy-most-senior-senator-will-retire-522356
US Rep. Peter Welch is expected to run for the seat. Should be an easy D hold.
Not a fan of another person over 70 running for Senate. Vermont has lots of folks under 50 who could run, like their LG or Atty General, among others.
You’re right. He’s 74. Just looked it up.
Same age as, wait for it, Tom Carper.