And we’re deep into the anger phase of the winger grief over the ACA SCOTUS decision. This will probably be the longest and most obnoxious of the stages, as it’s basically been going on since Two Thousand Effing Seven.
Do not get out of the boat. Do not touch the glass. Understand that you’re passing the Australopithecus exhibit, and the residents are flinging things at you. Suffice to say, they now believe Obama’s Thugocrats forced Roberts to change his vote at the last minute by threatening his loved ones, because that’s the only possible explanation, like a twisted Pelican Brief (only with Wario Scalia instead of Julia Roberts).
(Thanks, Elvisgrace!)
The darkness here has things in it. Things that fling other things. Best not to dwell here too long. You are likely to be eaten by a grue. (Or get hit by a blue shell.)
gbear
I blame Obama.
rlrr
threatening his loved ones
Don’t be silly, Obama used his magic Kenyan mind control rays.
Scott S.
These guys are going to be hilarious for a while. Then they’ll blow up a building.
On the bright side, once they’ve got another Oklahoma City under their belt, they’ll panic and disappear into the woodwork again for a while…
General Stuck
I for one, hopes the anger phase lasts at least until Nov 6.
Yawn, tempest in a crock pot.
c u n d gulag
So much insanity – so little bandwidth.
rlrr
If successful, Obama gets to nominate the new Chief Justice…
NonyNony
Jeebus. People really will believe anything.
In fact everyone should understand that Roberts is actually a cyborg manufactured by the Omni Consumer Products company. Obama used some of his Kenyan mind control powers/Communist brainwashing techniques/Chicago thug politics to force the CEO of OCP to hand over the control codes.
Think about it. It’s the only answer that makes sense.
Linda Featheringill
Some [a lot?] of these folks apparently didn’t even consider the possibility ahead of time that the court ruling might not go their way. They had not prepared any psychological safe spots to serve as refuge.
We, the pinko-commies of Balloon Juice, started mourning last Monday because there was a good chance that we would lose.
And I’m still rather surprised that the ACA survived.
rlrr
@NonyNony:
It must be true, I read it on the internet.
Waldo
They can’t wrap their heads around this outcome without having them explode. That there’s a win-win, folks.
waynski
No. It’s true. I personally got the ruling out of him by giving him the comfy chair:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnS49c9KZw8
NonyNony
@rlrr:
Now be careful – you can’t believe everything you read on the Internet.
For example some folks on the Internet believe that John Roberts is Reptoid disguised as a human being, and that this explains his vote on health care (since the Reptoids want to weaken the human race via vaccinations to better drain our precious bodily fluids). This is a transparently silly idea that can be dismissed out of hand since John Roberts was born in 1955.
shortstop
Heh.
I don’t think Roberts can have been threatened, though, because I have it on good authority from someone I went to high school with that he’s a secret communist. Apparently the CU decision was just cover for this supergigantico betrayal. Fiendishly clever!
hueyplong
I’m totally embarrassed by how satisfying I found that Jean Schmidt premature celebration video. It’s also difficult to get enough of that GOP Congressman from Georgia who was on the verge of tears for all his commentary.
I know we’re supposed to be focusing on the people helped by this, but the haters are just such a-holes that it’s simply impossible to say “no thanks” to the Schadenfreudelicious special listed on today’s menu.
Amir Khalid
Obama is to blame for everything. Didn’t you get the email?
Sly
But John Roberts was supposed to be an impartial umpire who called everything for conservatives!
General Stuck
Mr. Krugman nails the real winners of keeping the ACA, and his overall description of the state of play concerning health care in this country.
waynski
@Linda Featheringill: I think you’re right. I had mentally prepared myself for a loss, so I wasn’t going to freak about it. But I was watching on the TV a good 1/2 hour to forty minutes after the ruling and there were still wingers standing around with their anti-healthcare signs – holding them up for the cameras! I don’t think they knew or could accept that they just got their asses handed to them by one of their own.
Michael Bersin
Representative Todd Akin, the republican right wingnut who is in a three way primary in Missouri to challenge Senator Claire McCaskill issued a couple of winning statements. The one from his House of Representatives web site is priceless.
Rep. Todd Akin (r): mixing those wedge issue metaphors
“…I applaud the innumerable citizens who have stood for freedom, common sense and the right to life in opposition to this dangerous piece of socialist engineering…”
“…Today’s ruling does not end the need for continued opposition to this offensive overreach into the most private aspect of Americans’ lives…”
Because, of course, the reproductive decisions of any American is definitely public business.
Seriously, we lose to these people?
Nemesis
Next up, FEMA reeducation camps.
I visit a shithole called godfatherpolitics.com occasionally. The buzz over there a few week back was the enormous FEMA purchase of millions of rounds of (gasp) bullets. Which explained the plan to use said bullets on an unsuspecting population who will be forced into reeducation camps, once they have been separated from their 2nd Ammendment rights. Im not making this up. They are fevered and willingly believe anything negative about the POTUS.
AliceBlue
These people wrap themselves in a cocoon of their own reality. When actual reality comes crashing through (like yesterday), it isn’t a pretty sight. But is sure is a heckuva lot of fun!
danielx
@NonyNony:
Hey, it could be true. I have it on best authority that Lawrence Welk was really Martin Bormann with plastic surgery, taking revenge on the U.S. for winning WW2 by subjecting us to hideous “champagne music”. Makes you wonder what other awful conspiracies and disguises are out there, don’t it now?
jimmiraybob
So, John Roberts and Anthony Kennedy are at the bar one night in the lead up to their ACA ruling. While nursing their third bourbons, Roberts turns to Kennedy and says, “Hey, I’ve got an idea. Ya wanna fuck with some people?”
joes527
You see, I didn’t know that Obama threatened to have Chelsea killed during the 2008 primary. Thanks to the internet I am already stupider than when I woke up this morning.
rlrr
@Michael Bersin:
I have the misfortune of being represented in Congress by Todd Akin. If he’s not the stupidest representative in Congress, he’s got to be close.
RossInDetroit
@Nemesis:
Nearly half a billion hollow point rounds, if reports are to be believed. It does give one pause. Unless you’re already on the edge, then it gives you Freedom Nightmares(tm).
shortstop
@hueyplong: Link! Link so we can all enjoy!
geg6
@Linda Featheringill:
Sad and hilarious, but completely true. And I admit that I was at the front of the funeral parade. LOL!
Raven
@waynski: Well, if you want to see how it WAS a loss scarecrow will tell you over at the pond.
Villago Delenda Est
Seriously, it’s so fucking obvious that this is about pure hate based on two things: the political party the current President is a member of, and the color of his skin.
That’s pretty much it. The substance of ACA has nothing at all to do with this.
lamh35
11 Things You Get Right Now That Obamacare Survived
shortstop
@Villago Delenda Est: I always say that they hate us more than they love themselves. That’s fucked up, man.
rlrr
@Villago Delenda Est:
Exactly. If a Republican President had implemented the exact same plan, the same people attacking the plan now would be praising it as a brilliant market based solution.
NonyNony
@RossInDetroit:
Yeah – I need to see a link to a credible site discussing this purchase. ’cause the links I’m finding on the Google are to sites that the Lone Gunmen would describe as “sketchy at best”.
The only reason I see for FEMA to buy a half a billion hollow point rounds is if someone high up at FEMA has a friend in the gun industry and he was feeling like giving his friend a present.
RossInDetroit
Reposting for relevance. Former MI GOP spokesman and current douchebag calls for an armed uprising, then walks it back. Profiles in wingnut courage.
http://www.addictinginfo.org/2012/06/28/obamacare_uprisin/
hueyplong
I’m an idiot when it comes to doing links, so no promises that this will work, but someone with a hand held camera catches Jean Schmidt on her cellphone getting the word from a friend watching FoxNews or CNN that Obamacare has been declared unconstitutional.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2XsiiGqgjjs
eric
Let’s try and keep the mood as depressed and suicidal as it has been over the last week. this upbeat shit is really throwing me off kilter.
Cacti
I like to think that Scalia acting like such a raging shit head in the AZ immigration case was what pushed Roberts over the edge.
p.a.
i’m so used to losing (2008 the exception proving the rule) I can’t just focus on the enjoyment of winning. I’m so used to the other side (not the Bachmann-type nutjobs but the real powers) playing ‘the long game’ that I just can’t shake concerns over Commerce Clause issues etc. It’s a personal failing, I know: been down so long looks like up to me.
shortstop
@hueyplong: That was beyond delicious. Thank you!
PurpleGirl
@waynski: All Hail the Monty Python… soft cushions and the comfy chair
RossInDetroit
@NonyNony:
I agree. The stuff has a shelf life and they can’t be using more than a small fraction of that in a year. Maybe it was a blanket PO for future purchases or a bid condition for a hypothetical maximum purchase.
Of course if someone’s tinfoil hat slips for a minute it means the government has stockpiled enough ammo to enslave all of us so they go with that explanation.
28 Percent
Huh. It’s nice to see that they get a modest like on for Hilary these days. That, I would not have expected.
amk
@Amir Khalid: Talk about hot air, blowing smoke etc. etc.
Raven
After three years of these fuckers bitching about “uncertainty” and how it hurts “business” they are going to add tremendous uncertainty by pledging to repeal the ACA?
Michael Bersin
@rlrr:
Yep, I win that lottery. Vicky Hartzler in the 4th Congressional District, the Michele Bachmann of Missouri, only meaner and dumber.
Culture of Truth
In all honesty, I was totally prepared to spin a ‘loss’ as a political ‘win.’ But this is a win. Honest!
waynski
@rlrr: Marsha Blackburn (R. Tenn) — If you’re guy is dumber than that one, you might want to start mixing cement for the backyard bunker.
amk
@Amir Khalid:
Broccoli Bitch.
rlrr
@waynski:
The day after the 9/11 attacks, Akin said the attacks demonstrate the need for missile defense.
shortstop
@waynski: Mike Pence and Joe Walsh are also worthy contenders.
28 Percent
@rlrr: I live in “Cantor Country”. I feel your pain.
hueyplong
shortstop, we suspected that wingers experiencing sexual release would present untidy visuals, but the proof is really in the pudding, ain’t it?
It’s a crime we don’t have the visual for her reaction to the news, moments later, that Stalingrad had fallen.
amk
So cole’s vista moment lives on. No more html tags, bitches.
Culture of Truth
.
I just saw Van Hollen on tv saying the GOP is now the party of freeloaders. Not the language a liberal wants to hear, perhaps, but a punch to the gut.
runt
That would seem to be the most likely explanation. Also too, has anyone checked the kerning of that ruling?
Villago Delenda Est
@RossInDetroit:
Or, the entire thing is fabricated out of whole cloth.
Don’t dismiss that. These people, after all, are at war with reality, at war with facts. Just making shit up to feed the paranoia is well within their wheelhouse.
RSA
@NonyNony:
Those people are idiots. Occam’s Razor clearly indicates that Obama was threatening Roberts’s children.
General Stuck
Delicate flowers are delicate
Those tears are sweet, bitches!
gbear
@hueyplong: Your’s is the second mention I’ve read about hilarious Jean Schmidt videos. Do you have a link?
blackfrancis
Do not get out of the boat?
How else am I to do the backstroke in the river of wingnut tears?
Mattminus
The blogging in all caps certainly helps his credibility.
bemused
@Nemesis:
From what I remember, those stories about Americans going to be rounded up and thrown into FEMA/government internment camps have been circulating around the internet for years, during the 8 years of George Bush presidency or even earlier. I guess that was Obama’s evil plot even before he was president.
Villago Delenda Est
@rlrr:
You know, I’m tempted to say “Oh, come on now, he can’t be that fucking stupid.”
But these people have demonstrated precisely this level of idiocy.
I’m glad I can’t relate to your rep situation. Mine is Peter DeFazio!
David Fud
@hueyplong: link for Georgia congresscritter?
Culture of Truth
I thought it would be overturned, but I was never a downer. I was trying to walk people off the ledge on Wednesday!
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@shortstop: As you requested:
Mean Jean spikes the ball
In contrast, from Weigel’s piece about who was tehre for the announcement;
Weigel annoys me beyond belief, but that’s a gem worth repeating.
Rafer Janders
@amk:
Pray for public servants like firefighters who are leaching off our hard-earned tax dollars and bankrupting us with their gold-plated pensions? I think not….
Cacti
Now that the mandate is fully upheld as constitutional, with the Bush-appointed Chief Justice as the deciding vote…
Willard M. Romney has no rational basis left for opposing the healthcare plan that he first midwifed into existence.
He is fully running against himself now.
Love it.
Jim C
@shortstop:
I have heard that John Roberts likes to pass the time by playing a little solitaire.
NonyNony
@RossInDetroit:
But FEMA doesn’t have a military/police/enforcement arm. They work with state police and National Guard units. They’re a planning/logistics/preparation bureaucracy not a branch of law enforcement.
I could see the FBI or ATF wanting to purchase bullets like that but FEMA? It does not make sense that FEMA would be buying hollow point bullets – they’re not supposed to be responding to, say, a terrorist assault, they’re supposed to be orchestrating First Responders to the fallout from a terrorist assault.
The idea of “FEMA camps” at least makes a kind of sense – FEMA does plan for housing for people after the fallout of a natural disaster, and they have a responsibility for planning transportation logistics for disaster relief. So the leap from that to sticking people on trains and stuffing them into a FEMA-built concentration camp is plausible (if still a leap of conspiracy theory logic). But FEMA having their own private army to do this? Completely nonsensical.
When the FEMA conspiracy theories started floating around on Usenet under Clinton back in the 90s it was always the ATF that was going to be Clinton’s personal army and FEMA was just building the prison camps. Somehow that has morphed into FEMA being a rogue agency or something that has its own private army. It’s really weird and I wish I could figure out where it came from.
Except that of course the US military has enough weaponry stockpiled to enslave us all a million times over if they chose to and got past the checks and balances that keep a nutjob from getting control and doing that. And that’s before we get into groups like the FBI and the ATF who probably have more than enough on their own as well.
waynski
@Raven: Thanks, Raven. However, methinks I’ll pass.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@shortstop: And let’s not forget Louie Gohmert, for Pete’s sake.
waynski
@rlrr:
FTFY
JGabriel, Statist Minded Ideologue of the Left
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Not an economist, but this looks like honest-to-god good news on the Euro for once.
Europeans Agree to Use Bailout Fund to Aid Banks:
If I’m not mistaken, that means they’re sort of “federalizing” the ECB to work directly with troubled banks rather than putting the debt burden for bailing out banks on the member states — which is what has been driving the vicious circle of high interest rates and demands for austerity.
Anyway, it’s a story to keep an eye on today.
.
p.a.
@Cacti: not just the meltown, but the questioning lately has me wondering if there are not some dementia issues cropping up. I realize he’s an arrogant partisan hack, but the arrogance once included a belief in his own intellectual superiority and his willingness to display it whenever possible. Now he talks like he’s auditioning for an Oklahoma talk radio gig.
hueyplong
I don’t have a link for the GA congresscritter, but it’s Phil Gingrey, and he’s very nearly sobbing. Can’t remember the network on which I saw it, but if you’re feeling ungracious, it’s kind of fun.
waynski
@PurpleGirl: Thanks!
shortstop
@hueyplong: ‘Tis the only sad part of this story! I’d have loved to see her face when the error was corrected. I assume that correction was what was causing the cheering across the street.
kd bart
Obama is Marcellus Wallace.
TheOtherWA
from here. What a treasure trove of wingnutty temper tantrums.
NonyNony
@RSA:
Bah. You are missing the fact that all evidence points to John Roberts being a cyborg and cyborgs don’t have actual emotions so you can’t threaten them by threatening their “loved ones”. Once you understand that fact it is clear that Occam’s Razor actually indicates that Obama has hacked Roberts’s cyborg brain and is now a puppet at the end of Obama’s strings.
If you want evidence that John Roberts is a cyborg, it’s right there in his Wikipedia bio. Don’t be blind, man! Anyone can see it if you just read the bio!
28 Percent
@Amir Khalid: I followed the links all the way to the Malkin cesspool, where I learned that the real story isn’t what the government is doing, it’s that people are offering space in their homes on Craigslist to evacuees and that Taco Bell donated 1000 burritos to feed the firemen.
It’s good to know that the firemen themselves, and the people who see to their food and shelter around the clock every day finally are getting the complete lack of acknowledgement they deserve.
David in NY (Language Nazi for a Day)
@hueyplong:
No it isn’t damn it. “The proof of the pudding is in the eating.” That’s the cliche people are after, and they have no idea what they’re saying.
Steeplejack
@gbear:
Hueyplong has the link here.
Cacti
@hueyplong:
The last time he felt sadness like that, Lyndon Johnson was signing the Civil Rights Act.
Villago Delenda Est
FEMA has this tendency to be a functioning agency under Democratic Presidents, and a place of incompetent patronage under GOP Presidents.
The fact that it’s a functioning agency scares the poo out of the wingnuts. Why, it might demonstrate that government can help people, you know. Which FEMA does when it goes into some disaster zone, particularly in red or purple states.
amk
@Rafer Janders: wilful bigoted wingnutz.
Culture of Truth
Hollande faced down Merkel on austerity — and won. At the same time, Italy defeated Germany Euro 2012.
Winning begats winning. Dems are rolling. The Scotus win makes mockery of the contempt vote. Hammer time. Let’s roll.
Patricia Kayden
Why should I care about what the Righties are saying now? They are nothing but liars.
Except, I must admit that it’s a whole lotta fun to point and laugh at their ridiculousness. Keep whining, Righties. Right up to election day.
gocart mozart
I predict the block quote will bne fucked up.
That was the first comment at the link.
“call me crazy” that goes without saying dude.
catclub
@Cacti: Probably not the case.
They voted in like April, exchange briefs, and have probably come to final decision a few weeks ago. They have to write final decisions.
OT: The market is up a lot, and recovered yesterday from an early selloff. _THEY_ say it is due to Euro optimism.
_WE_ know it is because Obamacare roolz dudes!
JGabriel, Statist Minded Ideologue of the Left
__
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I haven’t seen wingnutz this angry since the day we elected the first black president.
Villago Delenda Est
@gocart mozart:
Of course, the basis of this stupidity is that an invisible sky buddy exists in the first place.
shortstop
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): How could I have forgotten Louie!? Is he more stupid or more crazy? Is it an even balance?
@hueyplong: Thanks! Is this it?
28 Percent
@TheOtherWA: That last one just floors me. Thanks to this ruling, Congress can add a tax to import products! The founders must be spinning in their marble tombs! Ograbme!
I wonder how they feel about the deduction for dependent children – that’s a tax level that is set, and then people are exempted from it on the basis of the number of children they have. That’s a tax on childlessness. It’s massive social engineering of the most private decision a person can make. Tyranny!
shortstop
@Villago Delenda Est: Oh, the Peter DeFazio who voted to hold Holder in contempt yesterday?
Judas Escargot, Acerbic Prophet of the Mighty Potato God
Still processing this, and watching.
More curious as to what nasty tactics Boehner & co. are now going to take between now and the election. Ironically, the House has been so busy with this Holder BS that it’ll take them at least a few days to get out in front of this. But you know they’ll spend the weekend forming a narrative. Probably a false one.
One weird datapoint: My wife works in pharmacy. I sometimes ask her what she’s hearing from co-workers and from the “normal” people who are their customers. (This is in the deep high burbs, white, well-off to wealthy, but still low-information voters). I often get good intel on what memes are floating around in those circles.
Yesterday? Nothing. Apparently nobody was talking about yesterday’s SCOTUS decision, or about ACA at all.
In a pharmacy.
Not sure what that means, just yet.
gocart mozart
I am now “undefined”?
TheOtherWA
@gocart mozart: Yeah, that one scared me. The level of paranoia in this country is ridiculous.
japa21
@Rafer Janders: Interesting enough, since most of the Forest Service fighefighters only work 6 months, they do not qualify for health insurance nor do they have any pensions. Of course, with Obamacare, they will be able to afford health insurance in the future.
So pray for them, but don’t provide them with anything seems to be the message. Prayer should suffice.
Judas Escargot, Acerbic Prophet of the Mighty Potato God
Ugh, comment in moderation.
Probably because I mentioned a certain type of building where they sell meds.
rea
“You are likely to be eaten by a grue,” gives me an excuse to link to this
MikeBoyScout
OMG!
Did you hear that this very morning a Death Panel! has sent Sarah Mama Grizzly Palin and Michelle Bachmann to a FEMA Death Camp?
Odie Hugh Manatee
Speaking of crazy motherfuckers, I got a copy of a book by Art “house foundations should be made out of nuclear waste!” Robinson, a S. Oregon man who has somehow escaped being institutionalized or given a rabies shot. He’s running against DeFazio again and I guess his book is supposed to make me want to vote for him. What’s hilarious is that the book has comments on the back of it that are from prominent crazy people who back this crazy mofo. That is, all except the last quote on the back:
Maybe Art thinks that is praise of him that is suitable to pimp his book? I haven’t opened the shrink wrap on the book and am planning to write “REFUSED – RETURN TO INSANE SENDER” on it.
I also got a blank petition from some front organization called “Common Sense for Oregon”, whose name immediately clued me in that this group has nothing to do with any sense at all. Sure enough, it’s a petition they want me to fill out and send in so they can get a measure on the ballot that will outlaw “The Death Tax” and allow unlimited intra-family transfers of wealth, tax free. I’m filling out the petition later today but it won’t contain anything that they are going to be able to use to attain their goals.
I’m doing this with every fucking piece of crazy wingnut shit that gets sent to our home. I used to throw it out but now it’s time to shove it right back in their faces with a few words of discouragement tossed in for seasoning.
Fuck them all.
Culture of Truth
Clearly a question to be raised at the next confirmation hearing.
Mister Harvest
Am I the only one who was bugged by the plot to the Pelican Brief? Two Supreme Court judges are offed in rapid succession, and somehow it is only one brave law clerk who think, “Huh. Maybe that might have something to do with the docket?”
Redshift
I was looking through my insurance documents online a couple of weeks ago, because we got new insurance at work in May and I had to figure out how something was covered, and I was very pleasantly surprised to find it shot through with addenda (in red, no les) that said, amending provisions like lifetime caps, “this provision does not apply to policies issued after September 2011 because of the Affordable Care Act.” I mean, I knew it was part of the law, but I didn’t expect my insurance company to be highlighting it. It made me smile, and yesterday, it made me smile all over again.
Cacti
@Culture of Truth:
Unless, of course, they were still in utero, because abortion is murder.
hueyplong
shortstop, that’s a nice taste of Gingrey’s comments, but there was more. The clip you link isn’t even the part where I thought he was closest to tears.
He so very clearly wasn’t ready for the final score.
SatanicPanic
Heh heh, still loving the wingnut outrage. Oh the trolling at Yahoo is awesome today.
kindness
The ACA being upheld was just a ploy. The other shoe is going to drop and then we’ll see the SCOTUS finds it legal to put millions of so$hulist hippies in FEMA camps guarded by ‘God Fearing Patriots’ armed with 1/2 billion hollow point bullets…for our own ‘protection’.
Did I miss any meme’s I could have slipped in?
catclub
@Culture of Truth: “I was trying to walk people off the ledge on Wednesday!”
LOL. Pun intended?!
Or did you mean _talk_ people back in from the ledge.
Amir Khalid
In light of the PPACA ruling, the vote finding Eric Holder in contempt of the House has become a damp squib for the Republican party. But it’s still there, and it must have some practical consequences. Could someone explain what those are? For instance, could John Böhner send someone to toss the AG in the House hoosegow until Holder coughs up whatever it is Issa wants?
waynski
@Mattminus: Maybe we should tell the wingnuts that if you really, really want to shout on the Intertubz, you should write in superscript. Heh.
burnspbesq
In case a reminder is needed that this year’s election is still important despite what happened across the street from the Capitol yesterday, here’s yesterday’s evil action by House Republicans: gutting the EPA’s FY 13 budget.
http://thehill.com/blogs/on-the-money/appropriations/235349-appropriators-send-bill-slashing-epa-to-floor?wpisrc=nl_wonk
At least now, when Republican policies poison your children, you’ll be able to afford their medical care. Greeeeeeeat.
catclub
@hueyplong: Does it look exactly like someone whose highschool football team has lost its chance to go to the state championship?
Who said these people think politics is just a game?
Cacti
@Mister Harvest:
I’ve often thought that much of Grisham’s work is a bit Scooby Doo-ish. Hell, The Client was even about a “meddling kid”.
NonyNony
@Amir Khalid:
I heard they actually moved it to Thursday to make it a one-two punch against Obama because they were so sure that the Court would rule against the PPACA.
I’m honestly a bit surprised that Boehner didn’t put the vote off for a week once the ruling came down. I guess it would have made the fact that it was election-year shennanigans designed to make Obama look bad a bit too obvious.
Judas Escargot, Acerbic Prophet of the Mighty Potato God
Reposting because I want to get this in before the thread goes stale:
Still processing this, and watching.
More curious as to what nasty tactics Boehner & co. are now going to take between now and the election. Ironically, the House has been so busy with this Holder BS that it’ll take them at least a few days to get out in front of this. But you know they’ll spend the weekend forming a narrative. Probably a false one.
One weird datapoint: My wife works in Farmacy. I sometimes ask her what she’s hearing from co-workers and from the “normal” people who are their customers. (This is in the deep high burbs, white, well-off to wealthy, but still low-information voters). I often get good intel on what memes are floating around in those circles.
Yesterday? Nothing. Apparently nobody was talking about yesterday’s SCOTUS decision, or about ACA at all.
In a Farmacy.
Not sure what that means, just yet.
catclub
@Amir Khalid: Actually, that should give Holder a lot more time to do his job. He will not have to testify before congress till the contempt citation is lifted. Would you?
burnspbesq
@Amir Khalid:
Theoretically yes, the Sargeant-at-Arms of the House of Representatives could strap on a Glock and go try to arrest the guy that has the FBI and ATF on his org chart. I wouldn’t bet much on his chances of succeeding, would you?
JGabriel, Statist Minded Ideologue of the Left
@kindness:
Mark S.
@Mister Harvest:
My reaction was “She takes a wild guess with no proof. If the bad guys didn’t start killing everybody within a fifteen mile radius of her, nothing would have ever come of it.”
Frankensteinbeck
Context, guys. It’s always about context. You have to look at ALL the reported facts. You have to look at the dissent written as if it were the majority ruling. You have to look at Obama’s history. You have to remember that when this law was passed, it was deliberately framed as a tax for constitutional reasons. Once you look at all that, the truth becomes clear.
The health care bill WAS struck down as unconstitutional, but Obama went to Mars to use the time travel equipment there to go back in time lure Roberts’ children into the custody of his FEMA agents so Roberts (a good Christian) could be given the ultimate threat: They’d be kidnapped as babies and raised as homosexual Shia secular communists.
It’s all there right in front of your eyes, people.
Southern Beale
OMG. For this theory of theirs to work they have to revive all sorts of other craptacular theories, like how Obama “threatened Chelsea.”
Yes please keep this up. Make your side look even more crazy, rabid, racist, and unhinged, Republicans. It’s sure to be a winner in November.
Frankensteinbeck
@Amir Khalid:
No consequences whatsoever. Seriously. It’s an utterly token gesture.
General Stuck
@burnspbesq:
I think the House republicans are beside themselves, and even more so from yesterdays bitter defeat for them. Nothing will surprise me what they try and pull off. They seem to be out to arrest the first black DOJ, after the first black president asserting executive privilege should have stopped a contempt vote from even taking place. And 17 democrats from red states, voted with them. That is fairly insane in a tribe gone mad, and at least comparable to a caning incident. The House of Reps in America, is now likely the most dangerous institution in the world. With the ability to nuke us all economically.
Cacti
I’m for the President metaphorically flipping Congress the bird and pardoning Holder.
Then maybe he can literally flip them the bird.
shortstop
@Judas Escargot, Acerbic Prophet of the Mighty Potato God: I always test out my farmacists when they ask, “Do you have any questions?” I usually say something like, “Yes. This preeskripshun is costing me $265.00. When can we get single payer in this country?”
They used to maintain studiously neutral expressions when I did this. Now they mostly smile and say, “Amen” or “I’m with you.” Of course, I live in an urban neighborhood full of DFHs.
shortstop
@Amir Khalid: The sergeant-at-arms is a notoriously pacifistic guy.
p.a.
Everyone is missing the most important issue: what did ACORN threaten Roberts with to cause this decision??!! Oh the humanity…
shortstop
@p.a.: Duh. Two New Black Panthers with baseball bats.
quannlace
“Tax! It’s a tax! Obama lied to us, it’s a huge tax increase on the middle class!! Tax ! Tax! Tax! Just keep saying ‘tax,’ everybody! Also, Freedom!”
Redshift
@TheOtherWA: A Republican friend posted a link on Facebook to an essay of slippery-slope arguments about what the government could do now that they can (for the first time ever) require you to do something or pay a tax if you don’t! I didn’t click through, but one of the ones visible in the preview was “the government could require you to join a church or pay a $5000 tax!”
I almost pointed out how that was still a violation of the separation of church and state, but I have a rule against getting into arguments with idiots. But that was the one I was most tempted by (because my friend is not a complete idiot, and the author clearly is.)
Horrendo Slapp (formerly Jimperson Zibb, Duncan Dönitz, Otto Graf von Pfmidtnöchtler-Pízsmőgy, Mumphrey, et al.)
I don’t think that word “astute” means what that guy thinks it means. I think the word he was groping for was “obtuse”.
JGabriel, Statist Minded Ideologue of the Left
@Amir Khalid:
It gets passed on to the DC US Attorney for investigation and possible prosecution, at the the US Attorney’s discretion. Since the USA is a Democrat, and Holder is his boss, the ultimate upshot is nil.
.
NonyNony
@burnspbesq:
I don’t imagine that Holder would have his agents point guns at the Sargent-at-Arms of the House even if Boehner did do something that monumentally stupid. Boehner is an idiot, Holder is not.
aimai
@shortstop:
Oh yes, I’ve had that conversation with my farm-assist as well. They’ve got nothing invested in the insurance company racket they know that they will always be needed to dispense stuff no matter who gets paid, or how they get paid, and they hate seeing sobbing customers dealing with the crazy co-pays and formulary shit.
aimai
JGabriel, Statist Minded Ideologue of the Left
@p.a.:
ACORN threatened to reveal their records from when Roberts was a pimp seeking their assistance. Occam’s Razor insists this is the only explanation!
.
The Bobs
“Understand that you’re passing the Australopithecus exhibit, and the residents are flinging things at you.”
Saying stuff like just make you the same as the people you are trying to insult.
They are not sub-human, they are human.
NonyNony
@JGabriel, Statist Minded Ideologue of the Left:
Any possibility at all that the US Attorney could use it as a rationale for opening up a corruption probe on Darrel Issa?
’cause it’s Darrel Issa. I have to think that even a very mild corruption probe would probably be enough to find a couple of dozen things to bring him up on charges for. It’s just that in DC people play by rules that don’t let them do things like that because that would be “partisan politics”.
Culture of Truth
It’s a bit thin, but with Julia Roberts and Denzel, who cares?
Culture of Truth
OMG …. Julia Roberts / John Roberts….
we’re thru the looking glass here people
Downpuppy
Does everybody else know what “Cray time” is or are you just pretending cause you don’t want to look stoopid?
Culture of Truth
Obama / Denzel = black…. Biden has a tatoo of a pelican on his left bicep….
NonyNony
@aimai:
My farm-assist has told me flat out that dealing with insurance companies rejecting prescriptions is the wort part of her job and if she had her way it’d be single payer with an open list of things that are covered and not covered so that doctors have no reason not to know what is going to be covered and they can be the ones dealing with preparing their patients for the shock.
shortstop
@Downpuppy: You had to out us.
Rafer Janders
@28 Percent:
In an emergency, though, isn’t it far more efficient and, well, American to depend on the random scattershot kindness of strangers and of Taco Bell for shelter and food that it is for big government to set up a dependable and pre-arranged logistics chain?
Rick Taylor
Almost as entertaining as the liberal “We’re all doomed!” phase leading up to the decision.
Rafer Janders
@28 Percent:
In an emergency, though, isn’t it far more efficient and, well, American to depend on the random scattershot kindness of strangers and of Taco Bell for shelter and food that it is for big government to set up a dependable and pre-arranged logistics chain?
Roger Moore
@amk:
As somebody who lives in wildfire country, I have zero sympathy for somebody who lives in a neighborhood like Malkin’s whose home is threatened by wildfire. We keep pushing development further and further into wildfire territory, and many of the people living there can’t even bother to take minimal precautions to reduce fire risk on their property. And Malking deserves a double fuck you because she’s the kind of person who would criticize others for taking a big risk and expecting the rest of us to bail her out if it were somebody else doing it.
scav
@Rafer Janders: If the mighty LORD wanted that fire put out, it would not be burning. Submit to the LORD. Ever fire is Sacred!
Villago Delenda Est
@shortstop:
Um, I did not see his name on the list of 21 Dems who voted in favor of that.
It’s hard to imagine he’d vote for it, frankly.
Southern Beale
BTW I love the guy over at Zandar’s link who said “Call me crazy but I would let people kill my children over something this important” … Because of God and shit.
They are fucking unbelievable.
geg6
@Amir Khalid:
Nope, because are no practical consequences. And that is because the Democratic US Attorney who will receive all the information from this “investigation” has a boss named Eric Holder.
geg6
@Judas Escargot, Acerbic Prophet of the Mighty Potato God:
Hell, I was at the local VFW last evening and not a word was said about it.
It’s all over, even the shouting.
Soonergrunt
@Judas Escargot, Acerbic Prophet of the Mighty Potato God: cleared.
mattH
@rea: Saw that last night, so damn funny. Like another said, I want a shirt that says “FLY FREEDOM JUSTICE LIBERTY”.
Judas Escargot, Acerbic Prophet of the Mighty Potato God
@aimai:
You two have good farm-assists then. Another gentle reminder that my experience isn’t everyone’s.
Because of the wife’s job, I’ve met a lot of Farmacists over the years. Now that it takes six years of expensive schooling to get into the field, they make $150K fresh out of school, and don’t seem to give much of a shit about anybody else. I’ve yet to meet one that didn’t crack some stupid idiot-level joke about ‘Obamacare’.
I’m wondering if the lack of talk yesterday was an implicit acceptance, or maybe the result of fatigue. These aren’t pro-ACA types, but on the flip side they are also not the type of wingnut lunatic who’ll make comments about armed insurrection because of… health care?
mattH
Oops, that’s “FLY CAPITALISM JUSTICE LIBERTY”. >.<
Soonergrunt
@Amir Khalid: I’m not a lawyer, and I could be wrong, but my understanding is as follows:
If AG Holder sets foot on the Capitol grounds, then the Sergeant At Arms of the House of Representatives could arrest him and escort him to the single jail cell under the Capitol that’s been there since the dawn of time.
Otherwise, their authority to arrest ends at the Capitol grounds, and they must ask the US Attorney to either send US Marshals to arrest AG Holder–unlikely since the USA is a political appointee who works for Holder, or ask a local judge to make a judicial finding of contempt of court in order to send the US Marshals after AG Holder. Since the courts are loathe to insert themselves into political games between the legislative and executive branches, this is highly unlikely.
Rafer Janders
I went to the TPM link about Malkin’s criticism of the federal government’s fire-fighting efforts, and the cognitive dissonance is just amazing:
Um, isn’t the federal government being slow to spend money supposed to be a good thing to these people?
Again, government getting leaner, tightening its belt, doing more with less in a time of scarcity: not a good thing, according to Malkin?
Well, then that manufacturing company shouldn’t have been so dependent on Uncle Sam, now should it? Let it go out into the private market and try to survive there, and if it can’t, it deserves to fail. Or have the rules suddenly changed?
Amir Khalid
Thanks to everyone for the explanations. Which, if I understand them correctly, are unanimous on one point: the House Republicans’ mouth just wrote a check their body can’t cash.
JCT
@Nemesis: This claptrap has been all over the shooting websites for awhile now. Mixed in with the endless “stock up on ammo because Obummer will outlaw it if he is re-elected” nonsense .
Every once in awhile someone with two synapses firing in synchrony will show up and tell these imbeciles that the ammo and gun manufacturers are playing them for fools again to drive up prices… but they are hopelessly stupid.
Soonergrunt
@Amir Khalid: “the House Republicans’ mouth just wrote a check their body can’t cash.”
It’s yet another empty gesture that won’t accomplish a single thing, but plays well with the mentally challenged that make up the conservative base.
shortstop
@Villago Delenda Est:
Well, he did.
Villago Delenda Est
@Villago Delenda Est:
Cripes. He did vote “aye”.
I’m calling his office about this.
Villago Delenda Est
@shortstop:
Now that I think about it (and I did place the call, and I’m supposed to be getting a response from him) he probably did it for some relatively “free padding” on his NRA vote record, as the NRA indicated that the vote on contempt would be included in their index of how “anti-gun” you are, and DeFazio has long been a 2nd Amendment fan. Part of this is pure politics…he’s got to appeal to the chunderheads in the rural parts of his district, which includes the utter shithole that is Josphine County, home of Art Robinson, wingtard crazy extraordinaire.
Still, I made my displeasure known. DeFazio is a member of the progressive caucus, and therefore, as far as Allan West is concerned, a Bolshevik.
Darkrose
@General Stuck: The butthurt is strong in these ones.
Darkrose
@p.a.:
I’ve probably said this before, but he reminds me of my mother when she reached the point where we had to admit that she had a serious problem. She’d accuse people–including my sister–of trying to kill her, lose her wallet and then insist that someone stole it. Scalia’s recent incoherent rants really make me think he’s in the early-mid stages of some form of dementia.
Jamie
A typo, I know, but this was too funny:
It has everything: the incoherence, the all caps, the breathless slippery slope argument, the typo, the us-v-them. Lizardoid black helicopters duly granted, but this is impossible to parody.