I don’t know what it is about my home state that makes it a breeding ground for such exotic creatures as Greene, Clyde, Collins, Richards, Broun and Hice (and perhaps, if he’s really serious about going to Congress, Timothy Barr). Only Alabama with Roy Moore and Mo Brooks can rival it for the volume of sheer political nonsense. But unlike Alabama, Georgia is a real battleground state, and eventually the lurid behavior of its Republicans may do as much as demography to turn it blue.
Not so unexpected. I had an evangelical boss 20 years ago who was upset that his daughters were learning yoga in public school. “It’s an eastern religion,” he said.
If you recall, the genesis of this drama began over the summer, when a handful of centrist House Democrats decided to blow up the legislative strategy their party had in place for weeks by refusing to support a budget unless the House passed an infrastructure bill first. That gang, led by Josh Gottheimer, ultimately settled for a promise by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to bring up the infrastructure bill by September 27.
However, the hollowness of that victory became evident to the centrists this weekend, when House Progressives threatened to oppose the bipartisan bill when it comes for a vote. The Gottheimer Gang had simply assumed that bringing the bill to a vote, with Pelosi’s promise to try really, really hard to pass it even though its passage was not in her interest, would ensure passage. It doesn’t. They have simply set up a scenario where the bipartisan infrastructure bill fails, and the Democratic Party looks incompetent.
That’s where the new threat comes in. Via Playbook, Sinema and the renegade House Democrats now warn that, if the infrastructure bill does not pass next week, they will oppose any budget reconciliation bill, presumably forever:
The fewer people who know polio survivors, the more of this we will get. I cannot fathom how a person who loves (even just knows) a disabled survivor could ever be OK with this. The lack of empathy is staggering (even after fucking decades of it).
My elderly neighbor had it as a kid, lives by himself up a flight of stairs on the second floor, walks very slowly, and is still a few months off from being able to be seen for a checkup, because of covid.
We’ve been looking out for him, but often the only indication that he’s alive is that his deliveries disappear and the people below can hear him moving around.
My great uncle had it, in the 1910s. He traveled alone (at like 8 or 9 years old), from Central America to St. Louis Missouri, by steam boat, for treatment. He lived, but never walked again. He had knee pads, and made short crutches to help him get from his bedroom to his workshop, where he made toys and useful things out of junk. An adult couldn’t stand up in there because it was like 4 feet tall, but I was a small child and we would hang out, when I wasn’t following my grandfather around asking for him to pick me fruit off the trees.
Tío lived into his 90s, because he had family to care for him to the very end.
My ex-boyfriend/musical partner had polio and thyroid problems as a child. He’s gonna be 73 next February and has received treatment of post-polio syndrome.
