If you were watching The Last Word tonight you saw this, but it's good enough to watch twice.
The West Wing opening theme, with an update for the Biden admin.
Welcome to democracy.town. I’m Maria, one of the moderators here. Administrator @TonyStark, our other moderators @NatashaRomanoff, @SteveRogers, and our many other friends met as part of the Resistance four years ago. Now we can focus on other liberal/progressive priorities and restoring our democracy, hence our name change. Our primary purpose is to share information on elections, encourage voter participation, and discuss politics but we also like to enjoy ourselves. Please check out “about this server” in the lower left corner of this page to learn more.
If you need help here, tag a mod or send a DM.
We are based in the USA and focused mostly on domestic politics. We welcome friends from other places (and I personally like talking about international politics).
Finally, we're in a pandemic. #StayHome if you can and #WearAMask.
@Jen She's probably the best Republican, or Romney. Being the best Republican is not hard. All you have to do is be more than "concerned" which is all that Susan Collins can manage.
Lisa Murkowski: She's definitely not the worst Republican, but she had no problem with #TheFormerGuy? Where were these Republicans the last 4, 5 years?
Lisa Murkowski: Key GOP senator critical of Tanden's past tweets in latest setback for Biden's pick for budget director -
https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/24/politics/lisa-murkowski-neera-tanden-vote/index.html
@Dagny @TonyStark Some Republican gets an idea how to thwart the will of the voters, the rest of them want it too.
@TonyStark Here's one from Arizona:
From CNN: AZ lawmakers weigh bills that would allow legislature to decide presidential electors, implement stricter mail-in voting rules -
It's everywhere Democrats won. #ProtectTheVote
@YinzPittsburghers If some PA Republicans complained about my politics, I'd wear that as a badge of honor.
@TonyStark
Done. It's 1000 different kinds of ridiculous that these confirmations aren't done.
@TonyStark
"Scott Sloofman, a spokesman for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), said Democratic senators have voted against female appointments and appointments of color made by Republican presidents. He noted that 41 Democrats voted against former housing secretary Ben Carson, who is Black, and six Democrats voted against former transportation secretary Elaine Chao, who is Asian American."
This is a total BS. Carson was totally unqualified with no experience in housing and Chao is the wife of McConnell and her family is involved in transport. These are both legitimate reasons for opposing. Race or ethnicity played no part.
And they got confirmed anyway and served the whole time, except Chao, who took a last-minute cowardly exit.
Listen to Tony and call your Senators.
@TonyStark GOP and Libertarians keep telling me racism is over. They lied, I think.
How to know when your party is in trouble: when they put out a statement that they are not the party of white supremacists.
In the DC media market, a right wing group is running ads that are anti-Vanita Gupta, Biden’s pick to be associate attorney general, complete with scary music and phony accusations ala the infamous Republican Willie Horton ad.
Call your Senators today, generally your Republican Senators, and tell them to confirm these completely qualified Biden nominees. The GOP is still trying to sabotage our government from functioning by delaying these confirmations for no reason. Just say that. 202-224-3121 ☎️📱
Many of Biden’s nominees of color run into turbulence in the Senate:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/many-of-bidens-nominees-of-color-run-into-turbulence-in-the-senate/2021/02/24/1af0832c-76b4-11eb-948d-19472e683521_story.html
Costco is increasing its minimum wage to $16/hour. That puts them above Target and Amazon, and *well* above Walmart.
One reason the vast majority of Costco's employees make more than their minimum wage is that they stick around and get promotions and/or raises. I've had a Costco membership for quite a few years now, and I've seen many of the same people working there year after year, even the cashiers. That says a lot to me. #FightFor15
https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/25/business/costco-minimum-wage-workers/index.html
This is good work for a short time period by the new administration, but there should be consequences for the last administration that did absolutely nothing to track the whereabouts of children and parents who they separated. It's heinous.
The parents of 506 separated migrant children still haven't been found, however. Lawyers say the parents of 322 of them were likely to have been deported.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/immigration/lawyers-have-found-parents-105-separated-migrant-children-past-month-n1258791
@MariaHill
We have some local races this year and I will be voting once again by mail. 📬
I guess if Republicans wanted to listen to a big, orange buffoon and not wear a mask or vote the same way he's done, that's on them.
Texas leadership is passing on winterizing their systems just after it's been proven once again that they need to.
But that's the Texas GOP. Just look at all the regulatory changes and effort they put in after the West Fertilizer Co explosion killed 15 and injured 160+. I'll save you the research: there wasn't any.
Texas Is Awash in Natural Gas. It Didn’t Help in the Storm; State, industry officials show little appetite to harden natural-gas systems after a winter freeze left millions without power and heat-
https://www.wsj.com/articles/texas-is-awash-in-natural-gas-it-didnt-help-in-the-storm-11614184163?redirect=amp#click=https://t.co/OpeLW2Jr56
@TonyStark We need to act while we have the majority or we may not have a fair election again.
The Congress needs to review and renew the Voting Rights Act and also pass HR1/S1, bills created by Democrats to protect and expand the vote.
Progressive media could do more to publicize the specific contents of these bills and how they would combat specific types of voter suppression. And the progressive media needs to keep up the great work exposing the anti-democracy bills the Republicans in the states are trying to get through the state legislatures.
On every level, Republicans must be exposed as the allies of insurrection, trying to reverse the victory of the Biden-Harris coalition, and attempting to accomplish with voter suppression laws what the Former Guy and his insurrectionists could not get done on January 6. #ElectDemocrats #ProtectTheVote
U.S. Supreme Court set to weigh Republican-backed voting restrictions-
https://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSKBN2AO18L
This #SongOfTheDay isn't at all political, but it speaks to things I see lurking under the surface.
I know the toxicity of division is disheartening. I know that living through a pandemic and taking care of the people we care about is hard.
I know we all wish that the unity President Biden spoke of could become a reality. I suspect we all know it won't very soon.
But we can unify. We can have heart. We can work for the better America and world we know is possible. And I also know that we are not alone.
Foo Fighters - Stranger Things Have Happened-
https://youtu.be/CEIeb85DkCs
It takes so long but we can't stop trying. #BreonnaTaylor #BlackLivesMatter
Kentucky Senate GOP leader files no-knock warrant bill -
https://abcn.ws/3smkLaN
The Pennsylvania Republican state committee needs to be censured.
PA GOP expected to consider censure of Sen. Pat Toomey over vote to convict Trump:
https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/24/politics/pennsylvania-gop-censure-toomey/index.html
This is a very, very important article to read to understand from a medical perspective, the one that counts by the way, what to expect moving forward.
NYTimes: No ‘Covid Zero,’ but Normalcy
https://nyti.ms/3bDgmJR
@SteveRogers
So refreshing to have a President that actually works for the country.
Moderator at democracy.town & @TonyStark's XO. Always working for Fury, wherever he is. Proud and pragmatic progressive, active in local politics as well as here.
I rarely boost toots copied from 🐦 . Others are welcome to use it if they choose. I also rarely boost toots that are copies of headlines. We prefer commentary at D-town, but RT toots and headline toots are permitted on this instance.
I boost cats on #Caturday and everyday.