@Verizon I am using and paying for the top plan with your call filter app. Why can I no longer truly be rid of a scam call no matter what I do? No matter what, these illegal robocalls get access to my voicemail. This is vastly inferior to how it used to work just last year!
@noom I cannot believe what you have done to the app. I am sad, but I am going to delete it now and replace it with another one. It is no longer intuitive and you are pushing GLP drugs on me!
Earlier today, a reporter standing outside the Senate chamber told me that, after four months of secrecy, The Firm™️ plans to release the text of the $106 billion supplemental aid / border-security package—possibly as soon as tomorrow.
Wasting no time, she then asked, “if you get the bill by tomorrow, will you be ready to vote on it by Tuesday?”
The words “hell no” escaped my mouth before I could stop them. Those are strong words where I come from. (Sorry, Mom).
The reporter immediately understood that my frustration was not directed at her.
Rather, it was directed at the Law Firm of Schumer & McConnell (“The Firm™️”), which is perpetually trying to normalize a corrupt approach to legislating—in which The Firm™️
(1) spends months drafting legislation in complete secrecy,
(2) aggressively markets that legislation based not on its details and practical implications (good and bad), but only on its broadest, least-controversial objectives,
(3) lets members see bill text for the first time only a few days (sometimes a few hours) before an arbitrary deadline imposed by The Firm™️ itself, always with a contrived sense of urgency, and then
(4) forces a vote on the legislation on or before that deadline, denying senators any real opportunity to read, digest, and debate the measure on its merits, much less introduce, consider, and vote on amendments to fix any perceived problems with the bill or otherwise improve it.
Whenever The Firm™️ engages in this practice, it largely excludes nearly every senator from the constitutionally prescribed process in which all senators are supposed to participate.
By so doing, The Firm™️ effectively disenfranchises hundreds of millions of Americans—at least for purposes relevant to the legislation at hand—and that’s tragic.
It’s also unAmerican, uncivil, uncollegial, and really uncool.
So why does The Firm™️ do it?
Every time The Firm™️ utilizes this approach and the bill passes—and it nearly always does—The Firm™️ becomes more powerful.
The high success rate is largely attributable to the fact that The Firm™️ has become very adept at (a) enlisting the help of the (freakishly cooperative) news media, (b) exerting peer pressure in a way that makes what you experienced in middle school look mild by comparison, and (c) rewarding those who consistently vote with The Firm™️ with various privileges that The Firm™️ is uniquely capable of offering (committee assignments, help with campaign fundraising, and a whole host of other widely coveted things that The Firm™️ is free to distribute in any manner it pleases).
It’s through this process that The Firm™️ passes most major spending legislation.
It’s through this process that The Firm™️ likely intends to pass the still-secret, $106 billion supplemental aid / border-security package, which The Firm™️ has spent four months negotiating, with the luxury of obsessing over every sentence, word, period, and comma.
I still don’t know exactly what’s in this bill, although I have serious concerns with it based on the few details The Firm™️ has been willing to share.
But under no circumstances should this bill — which would fund military operations in three distant parts of the world and make massive, permanent changes to immigration law — be passed next week.
Nor should it be passed until we have had adequate time to read the bill, discuss it with constituents, debate it, offer amendments, and vote on those amendments.
There’s no universe in which those things will happen by next week.
Depending on how long it is and the complexity of its provisions, the minimum period of time we should devote to this bill after it’s released should be measured in weeks or months, not days or hours.
Please share this if you agree.
The way I see it, with regards to the “Tesla Mission”, the truth hurts and Tesla price cuts are helping Tesla pick up marginal ‘early EV adopter’ buyers at lower price points but suffocating EV competitors. Fine by me as long term investors but hurts the “Tesla Mission”(accelerate advent of sustainable transport). The truth hurts and causes many $TSLA bulls to flip out when they consider this unfortunate predicament.
I’m not happy to see Ford pause their EV plans, or GM to switch EV lines back to ICEs, and if you believe in the Tesla Mission you shouldn’t be happy about it either.
ALTERNATIVELY,
if Tesla had lead on a massive EV public education campaign a year ago, the entire tide of EV demand would be accelerated and a)Tesla would be selling more cars at higher prices b)EV competitors would have enough crumbs to continue surviving and ramping up their EV plans further as we’d be further along faster on overall EV adoption
NOTE: We already know even very bad public advertising on EVs works to increase demand…Tesla mgmt themselves showed us the orders suddenly increase when EV competitors did their very dumb EV TV ads in that infamous Super Bowl a couple years back
@elonmusk
@maristdebate@maristadmit_atl@MaristSchool I highly recommend @maristdebate team for anyone who isn’t sure about their key high school extracurricular! Jeff and his team of coaches changed my daughter’s life and turned her into a nationally ranked debater and a college applicant with amazing credentials!
@elonmusk Too true, @elonmusk! As will be any populace’s shocking return to the historical “state of nature” due to lack of electricity, food and/or water. Keep up your clear eyed fight for gov’t policies where REALITY has a seat at the table, please!
@AKTravel_USA Just returned from a 9-day A&K trip to Egypt, including 4-day Nile cruise. Outstanding job! Cannot say enough about our guide Nabil Ashour - so knowledgeable and good with our kids 11-20. Want to return for more!