While not a powderkeg, there are embers of something. Orban is being aided and abetted by Putin and since the EU don't have the balls to take him on, Biden's support is timely.

They're in solid blue districts/states, where they have little to fear either way.

So who will HR1/VRA help and potentially keep their seats ?

Kirsten Sinema in AZ, Conor Lamb in PA and JOE MANCHIN in WV, amongst others in Red and Purple States where Republicans are still in control. If the new Republican voter suppression laws succeed, their seats are in imminent danger.

This media narrative that the Democratic Party is hanging on Joe and Kirsten, when they are the very people who will benefit from HR1/VRA !!! It would be professional suicide for either of them not to agree with getting this through the Senate.

Infrastructure Bill.

I say this for a number of reasons :

1 Red States are trying to pass widespread voter suppression laws.

2 If HR1/VRA/S1 is left to next January, I fear (with potential court challenges), there may not be time to properly protect the Nov 2022 Elections, and there is NOTHING more important than that, now that the Rescue Bill is going through.

3 With a 1.9TN Covid package, there is every likelihood that the US Economy will be roaring back by the end of the year, to be the bolstered by an Infrastructure Package in Jan 2022.

4 Once the Voting Rights Bill is passed, I would still introduce the Infrastructure Bill, and now with earmarks back, make it excruciating for any Republican to vote it down. If they don't support it, they will be ads made in heaven.

5 by passing HR1/VRA/S1, and the elections are protected with voter suppression tricks outlawed, Republicans will need a distraction of something like Infrastructure money. To me, this is the proper sequence.

6. I believe Joe Biden when he said he wanted to bring bipartisanship back to Washington, and I believe that's why he decided on Covid Rescue followed by Infrastructure, but it surely must be clear to him now that McConnell has no intention of cooperating on anything.

So which do you want to see next ?

Another Project Fear becomes Project Reality

An American health corporation has been handed a contract to take over the running of GP surgeries that provide services for over 375,000 patients in the London area. This issue was raised by local media and the shadow health secretary in the House Of Commons, however the Health Secretary Matt Hancock ignored the issue.

Fascinating and chilling interview. Jack Campbell of The Royal Dublin Fusiliers, 16th Irish Division on The Late Late Show by Gay Byrne (who was Ireland's Johnny Carson)



also

An Irish Soldier recalls World War One, 1965

Johnny Burke from Ballinislow, Co. Galway talks about his experiences during the First World War,
including a heavy defeat to the Turks in the Mesopotamian campaign. During a break in the fighting to bury the dead Johnny recalls meeting with Turkish soldiers.

Johnny fought first in France after the retreat at Mons. From France Johnny went to Mesopotamia where the British army suffered a heavy defeat. Johnny praises the Turks for allowing time for the dead to be buried. During the amnesty for the dead to be buried Johnny met some of those he had been fighting. His memory of the Turkish soldiers is of the poor condition they were in.

Johnny Burke also recalls marching through the desert to Baghdad and to Falluja.

Democrats want to pass in a 50-50 Senate. It's a clarifying show, some good some not so much, but all of it a battle

ps HR1 will require 60 votes.

Listen to Norm Ornstein & Al (Again!) on TuneIn http://tun.in/tk4PNe

Or YouTube

From his wiki bio, worked for Bush 2001-2005 and opposed regulation of greenhouse gases.

So he'd be no loss.

From Wikipedia

Attempts to overturn results of 2020 presidential election
Main article: Attempts to overturn the 2020 United States presidential election
Unsatisfied that the Justice Deptartment disagreed with his charges of voter fraud in the 2020 election, in January 2021 President Trump floated a plan to replace the acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen with Clark. Trump expected Clark would then reverse the decisions of previous Attorneys General, open an investigation, and pressure Georgia election officials to void Biden's win in that state.

Rosen and his predecessor William Barr had previously resisted pressure from Trump to interfere. Clark allegedly told Rosen and other top Justice Department officials that the Department should announce it was investigating serious election fraud issues; Rosen and his deputy Richard Donoghue rejected the suggestion, as the Department had previously determined and announced that there was no significant fraud.[13] Both men were unaware that Clark had met with Trump, until Clark later told Rosen that Trump intended to appoint him to replace Rosen. The Department’s remaining senior leaders including Rosen, Donoghue, and head of the OLC Steven Engel agreed they would all resign if Rosen was removed. After Rosen and Clark presented their arguments to Trump in a White House meeting, the president backed away from the plan.[4][14]

Clark denied that he had plotted to replace Rosen or to recommend any action based on inaccurate material he read on the internet. He added that he could not discuss any conversations he had with Trump or with Justice Department lawyers because of legal privilege. He noted that in December he had been the lead signatory on the Justice Department’s letter opposing a claim that Vice President Mike Pence had the power to reject electoral votes for Biden when Congress met to certify the result.