Ol' Hobbs's Thursday Thoughts!
Bipartisan Infrastructure deal pending
President Joe Biden is inching closer to having a version of his signature infrastructure proposal passed in the U.S. Senate.
While far less than the $2.3 trillion that Biden sought, the $1 trillion plan, if passed, would repair aging roads, highways, and bridges, while modernizing public transit, including Amtrak.
Said Biden, "This deal signals to the world that our democracy can function, deliver and do big things. As we did with the transcontinental railroad and the interstate highway, we will once again transform America and propel us into the future.”
In a hint of irony that is purely political, former President Donald Trump, who proposed infrastructure improvements throughout his term in office, promised yesterday to help run candidates against any Republican senator who votes to pass any Biden infrastructure deal.
What has made the legislation more palatable to some Republican senators is that the deal, if approved, would pay for improvements by repurposing already approved funds as opposed to raising taxes. Still, there's miles to go before the deal is done but to be clear, the pathway ahead is far more visible than it was even a month ago when Democrats were staring at going it alone through the reconciliation process that wouldn't need any Republican support.
Stay tuned…
Progressive Democrats blast the lack of diversity in the Infrastructure Negotiations
Progressive U.S. Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Corri Bush (D-Mo.) called out President Biden, Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Arizona) and moderates for the lack of racial diversity among the negotiators for the Infratructure Deal—and the seeming capitulation on issues such as child care and climate control that progressives have championed.
Rep. AOC Tweeted the following:
Rep. Bush issued her own Tweet
While the administration could push back that former Rep. Cedric Richmond (D- La), a Biden administration senior adviser, as well as VP Kamala Harris are behind the scenes lending their voices and experience to these issues, AOC and Bush still raise salient points that even in 2021, that for all of the "I don't see color" sunshine pumping that some optimists purvey on race, that there remains a glaring lack of minority voices in the public eye on issues that impact their communities as well.
Biden blasted by Blow
In a stinging rebuke of President Biden's failure to combat Republican voter suppression efforts, Charles Blow, my Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity Brother and columnist for the NY Times, writes: “it is still important to recognize that Biden has consciously chosen not to use the full force of the bully pulpit to explicitly and repeatedly call for the protection of voting rights — and therefore our democracy — by any and all means necessary, including the elimination of the filibuster. Biden said that it wasn’t and that he wanted to see voting rights legislation passed, but then said: ‘What I don’t want to do is get wrapped up, right now, in the argument of whether or not this is all about the filibuster or — look, the American public, you can’t stop them from voting. You tried last time. More people voted last time than at any time in American history, in the middle of the worst pandemic in American history. More people did.’ This is patently false. You absolutely can stop people from voting. We have seen this over and over again throughout American history. And, these laws won’t harm all Americans. They’ll harm minorities in America. They are aimed at liberal cities where the populations are often heavily Black and Latino.”
Lest we forget, and lest the Biden administration forget that the same Black and Brown coalition that propelled him to office in 2020 could be in jeopardy in red states due to Republican suppression efforts—if he doesn't task his Justice Department to act swiftly and decisively.
More on Simone Biles
Olympics gymnastics legend Simone Biles provided greater context to her withdrawal from competition by describing the "Twisties," a feeling that gymnasts experience mid-air when they feel spatially disoriented during their vaults and jumps. A number of experienced gymnasts rallied to her defense, saying that non-gymnasts have no idea how frightening this sensation, similar to vertigo, can be even for the most experienced gymnasts.
Having experienced vertigo a few years ago when my blood sugar level drastically dropped while shopping in Publix and caused me to collapse into a shelf of Campbell's soup, I immediately understood the feeling and the fright that Biles must have felt. I also can understand the fear because despite all of the football, baseball, and basketball that I played in elementary and middle school, I remember being nervous during PE when we had to try to walk across the balance beam and swing on the elevated ladder—even with mats below 😆. What made it even more difficult for all of the fellas in our class was that one of our best friends and fellow ball players, Brian Holiday, also was a gifted gymnast who used to SHOW OUT during the gymnastics segment—while making the rest of us look like the lame amateurs that we were at that sport.
Thus, my final Hobbservation on the topic, which is that compassion and empathy cost nothing and when in doubt, defer to the wisdom of those who know that Biles, the greatest gymnast of all time, was right to place her mental and physical health ahead of the entertainment of the viewing public.
Larry Nassar court proceedings
You may recall that in 2017, former U.S. Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar pleaded guilty to molesting gymnasts under his medical care and possessing child pornography. Sadly, among his over 200 child victims was Simone Biles, and while Nassar will serve a life sentence in tbe Federal Bureau of Prisons, ironically, this week the Justice Department has filed a motion in Federal Court to deduct funds from his prison account, one in which he has paid out over $10,000 for himself—and only $300 for his former victims.
Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) penned a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland arguing that the status quo on Nassar “gives the appearance that the Department of Justice places greater importance on Nassar’s comfort than on collecting the debt he owes his victims.”
Indeed; here's hoping that the Court sends a message to Nassar that prison alone is not enough to assuage the damage that he inflicted upon Biles and hundreds of other girls under medical care.
Covid Update
Kudos to the Broward County (Florida) School Board for defying Florida Gov. Ron Desantis by ordering that students and staff shall wear masks this coming school year! Due to separation of powers, I have long wondered what Desantis could actually do legally against a sovereign political entity that decides what's best for its citizens?
Separately, a CNN poll released this morning shows that 93 percent of white Democrats have been vaccinated while only 53 percent of white Republicans have been vaccinated. Methinks that Republican governors like Desantis would be far better off encouraging their hard-headed and hard-hearted constituents to take the shot than to trade verbal shots with local leaders who are taking the pandemic seriously.
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