{"id":42611,"date":"2021-01-26T11:13:27","date_gmt":"2021-01-26T19:13:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=42611"},"modified":"2021-01-26T12:19:54","modified_gmt":"2021-01-26T20:19:54","slug":"open-thread-1-26-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2021\/01\/26\/open-thread-1-26-2021\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Thread – 1\/26\/2021"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s another tired-painful day here in the CatBox.\u00a0 I lost most of my map time yesterday.\u00a0 My toilet was so badly plugged that Maintenance could not fix it with a regular 10′ snake.\u00a0 They had to take the toilet out into the hallway and bring a 30′ electric snake from the downtown office.\u00a0 They were just finishing up when WWWendy arrived.\u00a0 Tuesday is flush your Republicans Day.\u00a0 Mine were so vile that they tried to barricade the way down.\u00a0 I should be in the saddle tomorrow.<\/span><\/p>\n

Jig Zone Puzzle<\/strong>:<\/span><\/p>\n

Today’s took me 4:26 (average 7:00).\u00a0 To do it, click here<\/a>.\u00a0 How did you do?<\/span><\/p>\n

Cartoon<\/strong>:<\/span><\/p>\n

\"0126Cartoon\"<\/span><\/p>\n

Short Takes<\/strong>:<\/span><\/p>\n

From Daily Kos<\/a>: <\/span>As Barack Obama’s inauguration kicked off on Jan. 20, 2009, LGBTQ Americans across the country watched with mixed emotions while evangelical pastor Rick Warren delivered the invocation. Though the vast majority of them had voted for Obama, Warren had urged members of his California-based megachurch to vote in favor of a ballot measure stripping marriage rights from same-sex couples; indeed, Proposition 8 narrowly passed on the same night Obama was elevated to the highest office in the land. Election Night had been a double-edged sword for gay and transgender individuals, and Warren’s presence made the inauguration bittersweet as well.<\/p>\n

But Obama’s pick of Warren symbolized what ultimately emerged as a stumbling block to his ability to accomplish many of the priorities liberals had voted for in 2008 and which were also broadly popular\u2014action on immigration, climate change, and, at least initially, queer rights. Obama was an incrementalist at heart, and he was still approaching Republicans as rational players in America’s democratic experiment. Including an anti-gay evangelical pastor in his inauguration was one of several olive branches Obama extended to conservatives in the early days of his administration in what would prove to be a fruitless effort to win their cooperation. A dozen years later, however, Obama’s former No. 2\u2014a man who was viewed in the 2020 Democratic primary as far less progressive than Obama was seen in the 2008 contest\u2014is quickly advancing a far more unapologetically progressive agenda from Day One of his administration.<\/p>\n

In fact, President Joe Biden has quickly dispensed of many of the old Obama-era battles that flummoxed liberals and eventually drew them to the streets<\/a> to protest the administration’s inaction. Biden has already sent Congress a bold immigration bill<\/a> that unequivocally includes a pathway to citizenship, expanded green card access, and fortifies the DACA program<\/a> for Dreamers established by Obama in 2012. Biden also immediately yanked<\/a> the Keystone XL pipeline permit\u2014an action Obama didn’t take until 2015<\/a>, after years of pushing by climate activists. And building on the many hard-fought Obama-era wins on LGBTQ equality, Biden quickly signed an order<\/a> pushing the most aggressive interpretation of Title VII protections for transgender and gay Americans in employment, housing, and education.<\/p>\n

Sure, these are old battles. And to some extent, Biden has benefited from a natural evolution of the issues over a decade. That is particularly true on policies concerning the LGBTQ movement, which emerged from Obama’s presidency lightyears ahead of where it began. But it is also a measure of how far the progressive movement has come over the past decade that we aren’t immediately having to go to battle with a Democratic administration that seems less intent on advancing liberal causes than using them as bargaining chips on the way to accomplishing other goals. So far, that vestige of 90s-era Clintonian politics seems to have finally been laid to rest in the Biden White House.<\/p>\n

The departure is clearly throwing some Washington journalists for a loop after decades of watching Democrats kowtow to Republicans.<\/p>\n

I really expected Biden to fall into the same trap Obama did, and have repeatedly discussed how we need to hold his feet to the fire. So far, I’ve been wrong and happy to be so.\u00a0 RESIST the Republican Reich<\/strong>!!<\/span><\/p>\n

From NY Times<\/a>: <\/span>Senator Mitch McConnell on Monday dropped his demand that the new Democratic Senate majority promise to preserve the filibuster \u2014 which Republicans could use to obstruct President Biden\u2019s agenda \u2014 ending an impasse that had prevented Democrats from assuming full power even after their election wins.<\/p>\n

In his negotiations with Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the new majority leader, Mr. McConnell, Republican of Kentucky, had refused to agree to a plan for organizing the chamber without a pledge from Democrats to protect the filibuster, a condition that Mr. Schumer had rejected.<\/p>\n

But late Monday, as the stalemate persisted, Mr. McConnell found a way out by pointing to statements by two centrist Democrats, Senators Joe Manchin III of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, that said they opposed getting rid of the procedural tool \u2014 a position they had held for months \u2014 as enough of a guarantee to move forward without a formal promise from Mr. Schumer.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith these assurances, I look forward to moving ahead with a power-sharing agreement modeled on that precedent,\u201d Mr. McConnell said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Democrats had been anticipating a capitulation by Mr. McConnell and said they believed he had overreached in the negotiation.<\/p>\n

LOL! He chickened-out! This is wonderful! See the Cartoon above.\u00a0 RESIST the Republican Reich<\/strong>!!<\/span><\/p>\n

From YouTube<\/a> (MSNBC Channel<\/a>): <\/span>Schumer Considering Expanding Judiciary To Balance Courts Packed By McConnell<\/p>\n