Finally, Something to Celebrate

We wallow in so much sorrow. So let's feel joy whenever we can. This week, Senator Joe Manchin, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the coal and gas industry, pulled a 180 again and endorsed President Biden's linchpin $369 billion climate and tax reform bill. Yes, Manchin had to be paid off with gas pipelines and other fossil fuel subsidies -- and there's still a chance that Senator Sinema will not overcome her narcissism and corporate servitude and blow up the deal -- but it looks like the sweeping Biden bill will pass the Senate as early as next week.

If it does, the U.S. will rejoin the fight to save the planet. And Biden and his party just might survive the midterm crucible.

I've given old Joe a hard time lately -- and I still think he should deftly step aside after the midterms for a younger, more aggressive 2024 Democratic presidential candidate. But I applaud his likely legislative victory -- and all the hard negotiating accomplished by Democratic centrists in the Senate like Chuck Schumer, John Hickenlooper and Chris Coons. The Capitol Hill breakthrough might not simply salvage Biden's presidency -- it might help save the world.

Here's how Biden put it yesterday at the White House -- and yes, this is the slow, tortured way that human progress is generally made:

"The work of the government can be slow and frustrating and sometimes even infuriating. Then the hard work of hours and days and months from people who refuse to give up pays off. History is made. Lives are changed."

Amen.

Senators Manchin (left) and Schumer