I'll admit I have found those frequent posts a little annoying but this post changes everything. Here is another quote from the Intercept article:

"Manchin last week urged Democrats to take a “strategic pause” in consideration of the party’s $3.5 trillion reconciliation package, the centerpiece of the Biden agenda. A key component of the bill would lower drug prices by allowing Medicare to negotiate directly with pharmaceutical companies. That market power would save the government and patients billions over the next decade, but perhaps even more importantly, it would give the government greater insight into how pharmaceutical executives set prices. The change could reveal the type of collusion that keeps those rates high, exposing companies to risk of regulation or prosecution."

So what is the solution here? A Democrat who USUALLY votes with his caucus is better than the insane Republican who would take his place. I still hold to that fundamental truth.

But this kind of corruption is unacceptable. Here's the big problem, though: He is Senator until 2025. No way to change that.

Progressives can take two kinds of action:

1) Keep electing progressives to Congress. Get rid of all these blue dogs and get candidates who can speak to the underlying root causes of urban AND rural poverty.

2) Mobilize BIG time for the midterms and support ANY democratic candidate, even if they don't meet the litmus test for Senate seats, because the court appointment situation is DIRE. That means that if a progressive Dem doesn't win a Senate primary, vote for whoever does, dammit, because these right wing Taliban judges are going to bury us.

Democrats need a solid majority in the Senate to make Joe irrelevant.