And now for my almost inconceivable 100,000th post [View all]

[BumRushDaShow]

(by the time many of you read this, I will probably have blown past it )

It was just under 3 years ago when I did an unheard of OP in the Lounge for my 50,000th post as I'm a hard core LBNer, and not so much a Lounge Lizard, and know the below content probably won't pass muster in the Lounge at this point, so...

I thought about what to say for this milestone and decided to look at where we were on November 20, 2019 when I did that previous OP and compare to where we are now.

That 2019 post happened during a week of hearings about the strong-arming of Ukraine and a "quid pro quo" that would ultimately lead to what would be the first impeachment of the previous President, and after that, all hell broke loose. And literally I saw that the world would soon be "turned upside down" with what has transpired over the subsequent 33 months.

We were thrown into a pandemic resulting in over 1 million American deaths, an angst-filled high-stakes 2020 election that had drowned our nation in lies and lawsuits (both circumstances that continue non-stop today), leading to a new series of unprecedented events including a near-refusal to have a peaceful transition of power, and a very real insurrection with the storming of the U.S. Capitol (where the fallout is still going on), and then a first-of-its-kind 2nd impeachment as a result of that.

Add to this a civil rights uprising the likes of which hadn't been seen since the '60s, surpassing that era in terms of depth and breadth of support, which ultimately triggered the removal of some of the most vile symbols of supremacy embodied in state flags and in century-old monuments to traitors. And then dealing with the global economic impact and turmoil of Russia actually engaging in a full-scale war in Ukraine, along with the pièce de résistance of the over-turning of Roe vs Wade, and one can see how far underwater we had been plumbed.

(and yes I need to put this here for reference as I had also just seen the musical 2 months prior to that last milestone post) -

Yet out of the ashes wrought by the previous administration, our current President rose to the challenge, and with the dogged help of Democrats in Congress and an electorate that literally "crawled over glass" to get more of us elected, we managed to see ground-breaking legislation passed. From pandemic relief to deal with the fallout of the worst bout of infectious disease spread in a century, to major infrastructure investment funding to deal with the crumbling roads and bridges, including ironically, the one that collapsed in Pittsburgh mere hours before President Biden's scheduled remarks there touting that infrastructure bill.

And for the first time in nearly 30 years, some common sense gun control provisions that closed loopholes that that have plagued us for decades, were enacted despite the solid wall of resistance when Americans begged for someone to do something about the proliferation of mass shootings happening daily. We also saw passage of legislation recognizing and compensating vets exposed to toxic burn pits during years of service in wars we were engaged in for 20 years, that were finally ended, and that eventually gave us the opportunity to remove the successor to the man who triggered the wars. And we took steps to bring back some of the tech industry that we off-shored years ago, the result of which had left us bereft of the microchips that run in almost everything we use in our lives for work, home life, health, transport, and entertainment, once the pandemic killed the supply chains.

Now add to this a recently-signed comprehensive bill to not only implement prescription drug price negotiations for Medicare recipients, but one that directs that the United States take on the dire issue of climate change head on, while requiring that large corporations pay SOMETHING, at least akin to their fair share, to fund these efforts that will benefit all of us including them in the future... and all one can do is sit back in awe.

That was exhausting just laying all of that out (and I know I forgot some things like recovering the jobs lost during the early months of the pandemic and its subsequent recession, and getting back to the pre-pandemic figures).

But that was a BFD.

So the beat goes on...

I will leave you with this my Democratic friends and colleagues on DU - we have come through much and despite that, have accomplished much. We have to thank DU's stalwart owners and site-runners EarlG and Elad, who have allowed us to share our time here to keep abreast of what is going on in the world and who (along with Skinner during part of this time), have made my nearly 14 years here, an endeavor well worth experiencing. I have had the opportunity to pay it forward by doing my "breaking news" OPs, some of the "live threads" for the impeachment and J6 hearings, and serving on MIRT to keep the incoming spammers and riff raff at bay. And I know the guys are working furiously to bring us the next generation of DU and we look forward to that day.

But we still have more to do, so don't forget to GOTV when the time comes, and never forget that "history has its eyes on you".