23 thoughts on “It’s Infrastructure Week-end!”

  1. RollCall:

    Senate moves to debate on infrastructure as bill takes shape

    Debate could stretch through the weekend, senators say

     

    Drama over a leaked document briefly upended a procedural vote on the still unfinished Senate infrastructure package Friday, but the air was cleared and the vote succeeded, kicking off what is likely to be a contentious debate that could stretch through the weekend.

    The Senate voted 66-28 to proceed to the legislative vehicle for the bipartisan package that includes $944 billion in new and baseline spending over five years for infrastructure including highways, transit, rail, broadband and resilience. While a vote earlier this week to invoke cloture drew 17 Republicans to join Democrats in the 50-50 Senate, Friday’s vote, which required a simple majority, still drew 16 Republicans. 

    […]

    Multiple senators said they expect to work through the weekend.

    ’90 percent’ ready

    Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, one of the negotiators, said the text was “about 90 percent” of the way complete midday Friday, meaning senators were uncertain if they’d actually be able to vote on amendments this weekend. “Unless there’s a bill text, it’s kind of hard to amend anything,” said Cornyn, “So I think it’s just going to be a kind of ugly grind.”

    [continues]

    or will lucy mcC snatch the ball away again? as usual.

  2. Bill recaps the top issues of the week, including the renewal of mask mandates, and unveils a new addition to his wardrobe.

  3. Rep. Stacey Plaskett (D-VI) and Joshua Green join Bill to discuss right-wing attacks on U.S. Olympic gymnast Simone Biles after her withdrawal from competition.

  4. Do Republicans help the American people, including their constituents, or do they block it because it might make POTUS Joe even more popular…and make Orange Adolf even angrier?

  5. BiD, those 10+ GOPers who are cooperating on the bill don’t mind at all angering the coup-coup former guy.  they’re probably relishing the thought of it.

  6. Loved Rep Plaskett

    Not often likely to hear a politician declare “They can kiss my working black woman ass.”  Throwing in Alexander Hamilton for effect on need for right to vote pretty much garnered her

    R E S P E C T

     

  7. Senate work on infrastructure plan slides into Saturday (msn.com)

    WASHINGTON (AP) — Senators are returning to the Capitol for a rare Saturday session as they try to make further progress on a roughly $1 trillion infrastructure plan.
    A bipartisan group of senators helped it clear one more hurdle Friday and braced to see if support can hold during the next few days of debate and efforts to amend it.
    Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said the chamber should be able to process the legislation quickly given the bipartisan support. But as Friday evening came around, the full text of what promises to be a massive bill was not finished by the time lawmakers adjourned.
    “We may need the weekend, we may vote on several amendments, but with the cooperation of our Republican colleagues I believe we can finish the bipartisan infrastructure bill in a matter of days,” Schumer said.
    But Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, predicted, “It’s going to be a grind.”
    […]
    On the other side of the Capitol, a bipartisan group of senators and representative gathered to voice their support for the narrower, bipartisan infrastructure effort and to encourage House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to allow a quick vote on it after it passes the Senate. However, Pelosi has stated there won’t be an infrastructure bill vote unless the Senate also passes the more ambitious package, too.
    “I’m not asking Speaker Pelosi today to support the bill. I’m asking for something a lot more basic than that. I’m asking to give us a vote,” said Rep. Dusty Johnson, R-S.D. “Let us vote.”
    Rep. Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J., also appealed for a stand-alone vote on the bipartisan plan because “that’s what the country wants.”

  8. love this judge

    wapo:

    A federal judge in D.C. erupted in anger at a Jan. 6 riot defendant and his lawyer Friday afternoon for refusing to cooperate with court officials on covid-19 safety requirements.
    “You may not believe in this virus even though 600,000 people have died,” said U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton. “I’m not going to be a part of spreading this virus because of what you don’t believe.”
    But he did not immediately incarcerate Daniel Goodwyn, a San Francisco webpage designer accused of taking part in the assault on the Capitol. The judge said he would give Goodwyn one more chance to comply, even as the defendant insisted he would not.
    The judge also warned Goodwyn’s lawyer, John Hull, that he could be held in contempt for repeatedly interrupting the proceedings and for calling a pretrial services officer “prissy” and “arrogant” in an email.
    […]
    Goodwyn — charged with felony obstruction of an official proceeding and related misdemeanors — was first arrested in January at his parent’s home in Corinth, Tex. During the arrest, according to prosecutors, FBI agents learned that someone in the home was believed to have covid-19, the disease caused by the virus, but Goodwyn refused to take a coronavirus test or wear a mask. When they put one on him, he chewed it and tried to spit it out; they went through five masks before getting him into quarantine at a nearby jail, prosecutors said.
    Goodwyn was released in February but has since violated the conditions of his release multiple times, prosecutors said, including by refusing to wear a mask and failing to show up to meetings or report his location. ….
    Hull said in court that Goodwyn had been diagnosed by a counselor as on the autism spectrum, which made it hard for him to wear a face covering and to handle rules he finds arbitrary. Some autistic people can’t tolerate face masks because of sensitivity to touch and texture. When asked why he wouldn’t wear a mask, Goodwyn said only that “it stresses me out,” then indicated that he does not believe in asymptomatic covid transmission or in the ability of masks to block that transmission. There is robust scientific evidence of both.
    “I believe I would not cause someone to die by not wearing a mask,” he concluded.
    That response made Walton explode again, asking Goodwyn, “When did you go to medical school?”
    […]
    Walton said he would review Goodwyn’s medical records and handle as much of his case remotely as possible. But when he did meet with pretrial services officers or come into court, the judge said, he would have to wear a mask.
    “If you can’t do that I’m going to have no alternative [but] to lock you up and keep you locked up until this case is resolved,” he warned. “They don’t have to put their lives at risk, they don’t have to, and they will not.”
    Goodwyn replied, “I understand; I’m not going to do that, sir.” He added that Texas law does not require masks indoors and suggested that the pretrial services officers instead stay six feet away from him.
    “I don’t care what the law in Texas is,” Walton shot back. “You don’t make the rules. You will be arrested.”
    [continues]

  10. sturge, is that any relation to “the Whatnot” described here by amazon

    The Whatnot is the acclaimed international bestseller and sequel to Stefan Bachmann’s riveting debut novel, The Peculiar, which Publishers Weekly called “an absolute treat for readers of any age,” and which the Los Angeles Times compared to “Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment, Charles Dickens’s A Tale of Two Cities, and more recent classics, such as J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events.”

  12. Gore Vidal wrote some great series on Ancient Rome and Washington DC

    Comparing the two could make you very nervous right now.

    I have to check out the Whatnot.  It looks interesting. 

     

  14. Stephan Bachmann is interesting.  In addition to writing the series that has The Whatnot as its second book, he wrote all the music for the audio version

     

  15. Live From Golgotha was both funny and squirm-inducing.

    Is anyone actually watching the Olympics? Two minutes of men’s volleyball last Saturday, one guy on a trampoline today. That’s it. I love swimming and diving events, but I just haven’t watched this time. It just seems like such a bad idea right now. How much will Delta spread when everyone goes home?

    As Sturg mentioned last night, Sturgis is on the horizon, too.

    There’s the next variant on that horizon, as well. I just chuckle at the name Lambda, because it makes me think of “Revenge of The Nerds.” Maybe Lambda will make the anti-science folks believers. Maybe it really will be the nerds’ revenge.

  16. Sturg…  Gore Vidal’s “Julian” is one of my all-time favorite books.  I have a really beat up paperback which I bought for a quarter at a local church fair.  I cherish it nonetheless.
     
     

  17. They’ll have to start giving the variants old-lady names when they run out of Greek letters

    “Mildred variant worries researchers, threatens new restrictions”

  18. U.S. Senate in rare Saturday session on $1 trln infrastructure bill (msn.com)

    “Once the bipartisan group completes the legislative text, I will offer it as a substitute amendment,” top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer said on Saturday.
    “The Senate is going to move forward on both tracks of infrastructure before the beginning of the August recess. The longer it takes to finish, the longer we’ll be here. But we’re going to get the job done.”
    After passing the $1 trillion bill, Schumer aims to push forward on a sweeping $3.5 trillion package that focuses on climate change and home care for the elderly and children. That faces staunch Republican opposition and some dissent among moderate Democrats.

  20. The run up to infrastructure weekend was the longest 2 weeks of my life. 

    Well, timing being everything I hit Birmingham just in time to experience the 3 hottest days of this summer here so far – heat index of 105 – 106.

  21. Can’t get the cans, they cry.  Too bad I say.  I had to quit buying the output of several small breweries when they switched from glass to metal.  The beer became metallic and nasty tasting.  Bottle the stuff.  Do it old way of selling in six packs and cases in cardboard containers and you returned the bottles. And, the cardboard cases. The bottles were washed and used again, and again, and again.

  22. The original modern music festival, Lollapalooza, is happening, now, in Chicago.   So, we’ll find out the consequences of that kind if gathering in about 2 weeks

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