Manifest Drollery
manifestdrollery.bsky.social
Manifest Drollery
@manifestdrollery.bsky.social
Would’ve, could’ve, should’ve…but focusing on right now
Reposted by Manifest Drollery
WATCH: “Every Republican voted to keep a payola provision to send millions to individual senators bank accounts. IT’S CORRUPTION.”

The @MarshaBlackburn @SenatorHagerty payday WILL be in the funding bill. Truly obscene & shameless even for them.
November 12, 2025 at 1:34 PM
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Why is this just coming to light now instead of … I don’t know, last week?
November 12, 2025 at 1:57 PM
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"I, nearly 90, will have to help them pay their premiums from my Social Security benefits.”

“I am distraught. I feel betrayed by the Democratic Party.”

We asked readers to weigh in on Senate Democrats’ deal—and almost nobody is happy.
Distraught, betrayed, and mad as hell: Your takes on the shutdown
We asked readers to weigh in on Senate Democrats' deal—and almost nobody is happy.
www.motherjones.com
November 12, 2025 at 2:03 PM
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This is quite a large industry, surprising if this gets approved in the House. Also, folks in rural areas often turn to these products for sleep and pain management bec going to the doctor is either too expensive or too far away.
November 12, 2025 at 1:30 PM
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if you want good federal government you need good federal government workers, and if you want good federal government workers you need to compete for them in the labor market.

apparently this is controversial now and i don't think it should be.
November 11, 2025 at 7:37 PM
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It's not just the govn't shutdown & SNAP delays. The GOP is cutting food benefits, education programs, farm subsidies, FAA services, wind & solar production, etc - while food, travel, healthcare, energy, & tariff costs increase.

Dems caving now addresses NONE of this!
November 10, 2025 at 3:41 PM
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It’s insane to treat the filibuster as the most sacrosanct.

Article 1 power of the purse, oversight, and war? Nah.

Emoluments clauses? Bribery prohibition? Meh.

Criminal law? 14A? Doesn’t count.

But maybe the Senate changes a rule it has multiple times before? Gasp! Not that. Anything but that.
November 11, 2025 at 1:09 PM
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A tech billionaire mocked Pope Leo XIV’s call for ethical AI.

The post was deleted — but not before exposing Silicon Valley’s deeper discomfort: a pope they can’t buy or bully.

It also revealed something older: the Valley’s original sin — the desire to be God.
Tech Billionaire Mocks Pope Leo’s AI Warning — and Reveals Silicon Valley’s Original Sin
A billionaire tech guru openly mocked Leo's call for moral AI — and quickly backtracked after backlash. It’s a telling collision of Silicon Valley hubris with a pope they cannot buy, bully, or ignore.
www.thelettersfromleo.com
November 10, 2025 at 11:56 PM
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I swear to god if they fix Bivens but only for members of Congres...
Fascinating. So Congress knows how to write a bill allowing people to sue federal officers?! www.nytimes.com/2025/11/10/u...
Spending Bill Would Pave Way for Senators to Sue Over Phone Searches
www.nytimes.com
November 11, 2025 at 1:07 AM
“Ludicrously bad policy” sums up the realpolitik of our current elected leaders, no?
Hemp regulation is a genuine issue but overnight obliteration is ludicrously bad policy. Whole lot of hemp and hemp-associated businesses will go under, this criminalizes basically every delta-8/9 product with enough in it to have a psychoactive effect.

(Those 24 Senators voted the right way.)
The shutdown deal includes a ban on hemp products that none of its negotiators debated in public.

Disappointing that only 24 senators voted against killing an amendment to strike that ban.

www.senate.gov/legislative/...
November 11, 2025 at 2:53 AM
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Here, Senator King summed it up perfectly… it wasn’t working.

He wasn’t referring to us… it wasn’t working for his donors… the airline companies, the defense contractors, etc…

That’s who he’s talking about.

He never asked us if it was working *for us*. He didn’t care.

bsky.app/profile/atru...
Sen. Angus King on why Democrats caved: "It wasn't working."
November 10, 2025 at 5:26 PM
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They already had this, when they passed axing ACA credits. There's no ambiguity that Republicans did that and you can attack them for it. The marginal advantage of having another vote for messaging purposes is, at best, extremely thin, and even negative if it lets some Rs cast a meaningless yes vote
Kaine on why he thinks just getting a vote on healthcare is a win: "We're the minority party, but everybody will get to see who is standing for them when it comes to lowering their healthcare costs"
November 10, 2025 at 5:28 PM
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Impact on ATC morale aside, not beating the sense that what mattered to DC was having their flights delayed not food stamps or other Americans left in real need
Trump to air traffic controllers: "For those that did nothing but complain, and took time off, even though everyone knew they would be paid, IN FULL, shortly into the future, I am NOT HAPPY WITH YOU. You didn’t step up to help the U.S.A. against the FAKE DEMOCRAT ATTACK"
November 10, 2025 at 3:52 PM
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How much lead do you have to ingest to think you can sell voters on your victory of creating new convoluted HSAs to replace (and, likely, be less than) what used to be a couple button clicks on the ACA marketplace website? Nobody asked for this and nobody will like it.
www.wsj.com/politics/pol...
November 9, 2025 at 9:24 PM
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The coordinated nature of this—none are facing voters in 2026—means that either Schumer approved it or failed in his job as Senate Majority Leader to stop it.

Dems voting "no" get zero credit until they demand a change in leadership. Schumer out as Leader, Durbin out as Whip.
so currently defectors are:

Kaine (2030)
Shaheen (Retiring)
Hasan (2028)
Fetterman (2028)
Durbin (Retiring)
CCM (2028)
Rosen (2030)
King (2030)
November 10, 2025 at 2:43 AM
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One of the talking points I keep seeing from Democrats is that part of the deal is that it will "ensure federal workers receive back pay" but that's the existing law!

That's not something you've won in negotiations. That's just the letter of the law. You don't get to claim that as a win.
November 10, 2025 at 1:16 AM
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Absolute knife in the back to all federal workers who suffered the last two months to protect health care for people… all for nothing
November 10, 2025 at 1:57 AM
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Anyway a great way to radicalize people is for them to realize that you just abandoned their chance at being able to access and afford health care because you didn’t like waiting in line at the airport.
November 10, 2025 at 1:17 AM
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Still upset about no power of the purse language. You truly do hate to see it. The Trump admin undertook the most expansive set of illegal budgetary actions of any president in history, and broadcast as loudly as possible they’d keep doing it, and nothing. Budgetary lawlessness.
November 10, 2025 at 2:00 AM
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The average SNAP benefit per month is $177 a person.

The average ACA benefit per month is up to $550 a person.

People want us to hold the line for a reason. This is not a matter of appealing to a base. It’s about people’s lives.

And working people want leaders whose word means something to them.
November 10, 2025 at 1:49 AM
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My family has been without half our income for 40 days. It has been.. very hard.

We are willing to feel that pain so people can have health care next year, or to undo these illegal recissions.

We are not willing to have been put through this for NOTHING.
November 10, 2025 at 1:36 AM
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Shutting down the government is a big deal. People have been hurt in big ways as a result of the decision. To have that suffering be for nothing—to re-open the government without actually having protected people’s health insurance and economic well-being—is unconscionable.
November 9, 2025 at 11:14 PM
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Democrats have to stop bailing out Republicans from facing the consequences of their own policies. And yeah, that means they have to stop sparing voters from experiencing what GOP government truly means.

Every time Dems step in, it only emboldens the GOP & they make it even worse the next time.
So Democrats get:

1. A CR that will prevent the GOP from facing the wrath of Americans for a shutdown over the holidays

2. A coupon for one (1) meaningless ACA vote that will fail

3. An end to the illegal RIF/SNAP moves that are already before the courts

Those all seem like wins for the GOP.
November 10, 2025 at 12:28 AM
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We polled Indivisible members over the weekend on whether Dems should take a deal or keep fighting for the ACA subsidies. Results: 98.67% said keep fighting.

Dems who vote to surrender now are fracturing their own party in a way that will reverberate loudly in the primaries.
So Democrats get:

1. A CR that will prevent the GOP from facing the wrath of Americans for a shutdown over the holidays

2. A coupon for one (1) meaningless ACA vote that will fail

3. An end to the illegal RIF/SNAP moves that are already before the courts

Those all seem like wins for the GOP.
November 10, 2025 at 12:40 AM
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Even the senators who are retiring and think they won't have to face the wrath of furious Democratic voters should know that their last name is about to become so toxic that not even a goddamn nonprofit is going to want you on the board.
I think Senate folders are significantly underestimating how fucking angry Democratic voters are at them
November 10, 2025 at 12:46 AM