138
4816
You don’t know how right you are. The parenthetical was an edit for clarification!
Alstein
4818
MAnchin threatening to turn traitor. I suspect this is Manchin playing for leverage, as he gains nothing from being a turncoat.
RichVR
4820
Except for the rumors I release.
Joe Manchin is an asshole, but he’s not entirely wrong here. Compromise and pass a $1.75T - $2.0T bill with all the infrastructure stuff and the groundwork for the rest. Then pass the existing bi-partisan bill. Now you have to big pieces of legislation in the “win” column, and can campaign in 2022 and 2024 to build a larger Democratic presence in the Senate and House to keep winning with additional legislation.
Manchin is never going to support the vast majority of the social and climate change initiatives baked into the $3.5T bill, so jettison them now to get legislation passed, then campaign on them heavily while driving home the fact that the GOP, Manchin and Sinema have all shown themselves to be opposed to addressing climate change, help for seniors and families (childcare), expansion of Medicare benefits and a whole host of other things most Americans would very much like to have. Stop being afraid to paint the bad guys, especially the ones in your own party, as the bad guys! Tear a page out of the GOP playbook and start running ads that portray Republicans as obstructionists who don’t want Americans to succeed. Lean heavily into January 6th and use every opportunity to reinforce the idea that Republicans are 100% cool with the insurrection and are actively trying to circumvent rule of law and the Constitution. Really pour it on in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania where the GOP is defending two Senate seats in states won by Biden in 2020. Flip them, and Manchin and Sinema become a non-factor.
Voters respond to the idea that they are under threat from someone/something. The GOP has shown this is an effective strategy time and time again. The Democrats need to let their base know that the GOP is the threat, that Manchin and Sinema are the threat, and that the time is now (2022) to oppose that threat and neutralize it by not just keeping the House and Senate, but by making Manchin and Sinema yesterday’s news.
And so climate change continues to be the perfect boiling frog issue that is kicked down the road a little longer but we’re totally gonna deal with it in the next election cycle.
It’s already killing people, it’s gonna kill a lot more, but it’s always going to be “just how things are” because of the fact that its pace is slower than the non-rational parts of the human brain (i.e. most important parts) can react to.
We’re probably losing Congress in 2022. Meaningful climate action will then occur in 2025 at the very earliest. (Assuming elections aren’t being straight up stolen by then.)
ShivaX
4823
That alternative is to lose on it now, end American democracy and then… never do anything about climate change anyway.
Well that’s a fucking Kobayashi Maru scenario if there ever was one.
I just find it interesting (I mean to say head-through-wall infuriating) that the issue of keeping Earth habitable is always the one that ends up getting kicked down the road. There always seems to be something more urgent, and I suspect there always will.
I share the frustration, but in fact there are zillion things you can do to impact climate change,that don’t involve replacing coal power plants, with Nat Gas or renewables. Bill’s Gates book, How to avoid a Climate disaster is chock full of them.
31% of CO2 emissions are caused by building things, primarily concrete. Funding for greening concrete, better recycling of plastics,
19% from agricultural. There are 1/2 dozen promising things that I call “Beano for cows”, to reduce the methane from their burps and farts". Smarter application of fertilizer so less if it is used, meaning less CO2 in atmosphere and less in in our rivers.
That’s a significant reduction in CO2 in two sectors that are responsible for 1/2 of the CO emissions. The agricultural subsidies will be good for WV, and the better building material really doesn’t threaten much existing. We could simply subsidize the production and use of green materials, and pay contractors to use green materials. That’s easily a trillion or two dollars over the next ten years.
My understanding has been that without real teeth on the level of a carbon tax, we’re not gonna get where we need to be in time. Happy to be proven wrong, of course.
Yup, the world is probably fucked on this score. I’m glad I never had kids, because they and any grandkids would end up living in one serious hellscape the way things are shaping up for the second half of the century (I gather what we’ve done already “bakes in”–if you’ll pardon the expression–continued climate change for about the next thirty years).
I got one. Can’t wait till she reaches ‘Greta’ age. Some interesting conversations ahead I suppose.
Alstein
4829
Part of me just holds out hope we’ll find a way to keep some parts of the world alive. That said, this was one of the things that changed me, this and COVID. I decided back in 2020 that I just couldn’t accept living my life in any way other than what I want is worth it, so decided to try and be who I want to be, and live how I want to be,and just deal with the fallout (within reason of course, I’m not going to turn into a giant Karen)
Your daily Arminder that those who vote for Republicans represent a direct threat to your and your children’s lives due to their effects on beyond critical issues like climate change. They are an existential threat.
A carbon tax is a way of raising money. Climate change,like infrastructure is one of those things that should be considered an investment and given that nobody is bothering to try and balance the budget, I’m ok with sticking it on the credit card, along with wars, tax cuts, upper middle class subsidies etc.
You can certainly subsidize geen things, without a carbon tax. See, for example, solar and wind energy in the US.
Sure we could, if we didn’t have one national party (with a structural advantage in our system of government) that thinks the size of government as a proportion of GDP has to stay at or below some arbitrary threshold, and that the rich can never be rich enough, but screw everyone else.
And Joe Manchin, apparently.
(Except someone more to the left* wouldn’t get elected in WV anyway, so it would be just another GOP Senate seat…)
*Stipulating my perpetual rage that keeping Earth habitable is considered a ‘left’ issue
ShivaX
4834
Ultimately this is the most frustrating part, but when one party was bought by corporate interests before I was born and it then defends corporate interests I feel like Michael looking in the fridge at the end of the day.
The right is starting to come around on climate change, but they’re about 30 years late to the party so we’re probably all fucked.
I’m just saying that rather than wringing our hands that Joe Manchin won’t support one particular (albeit important) climate change fix, find things that help the climate that he will support.
vyshka
4836
He apparently is threatening to leave the Party if he doesn’t get his way.
