(Jim Morin via GoComics.com)
There’s an old saying, “It takes skill and hard work to build a barn, but any jackass can knock one down.” And a gang of jackasses, even quicker. Per Jon Chait, at NYMag:
Obama: It’s Not My Fault Republicans Are Crazy
President Obama’s economic speech today is putatively a broad-stroke overview of his economic vision — investing in physical infrastructure and early childhood education, restraining runaway inflation in the cost of health care and college, and marginally shifting the burden of government away from the middle class and toward the rich. In reality, it is a call for a responsible opposition.Thematically, it is hard to build a speech around the opposition when you’re president, because people expect the president to lead and set the agenda. But the extraordinary tactics of the House Republicans have created an unusual and counterintuitive situation wherein the president’s agenda is mostly irrelevant. Conservatives simply refuse to negotiate with Obama in conventional terms. Their strategy is to threaten a series of crises — government shutdown, defaulting on the debt — in order to force the president to offer unilateral concessions…
Obama mounted an ideological defense of his vision of government. But mainly he dared Republicans to stop acting like madmen. The most important line in his speech is a kind of subordinate clause:
And as long as Congress doesn’t manufacture another crisis — as long as we don’t shut down the government just as the economy is getting traction, or risk a U.S. default over paying bills we’ve already racked up — we can probably muddle along without taking bold action.
That’s wrapped in a plea to not muddle along and to take bold action instead, but it’s also a tactic recognition that simply not manufacturing a crisis is an ambitious goal for the House Republicans….
NotMax
Methinks he means tacit recognition.
hildebrand
I truly don’t understand the motive of the mainstream press in not decrying Republican obstructionism. There is no upside to what the Republicans are doing – none. Yet the media seems to think that Obama is asking for something radical to take place (or are simply bored with Obama asking for the congress to actually do their jobs – yep, that’s you Mr. Milbank). I really don’t get it. The press used to think that some work needed to get done – it gave them something to do.
Hill Dweller
What, if anything, will it take for the Beltway to acknowledge the Republicans’ nihilism?
piratedan
I’m sure that this latest repeal of the ACA and additional restrictions for abortion in regards to funding the school lunch programs will be just what this country needs. What do you really expect… while the President gave this speech…. here’s what was on elsewhere:
Fox News: Attempts to link the NSA and Benghazi stories
CNN: Royal Baby naming coverage
MSNBC: Anthony Weiner scandal
John Q Public has no fucking idea on what the President is proposing because our 4th estate is willfully neglecting it so they can set other narratives. Good News doesn’t sell unless there’s a disaster at hand.
schrodinger's cat
But will the denizens of the media fail parade call a spade a spade.
piratedan
@Hill Dweller: when they start charging the press for access to their public announcements and personal selves.
schrodinger's cat
@Hill Dweller: They will only do that if their jobs are on the line.
dollared
It’s a concession speech. He is willing to talk, he is willing to muddle through. But he is not willing to do what it takes to beat the Republicans, because the only way to do it is to create a massive default crisis that splits mainstream business Republicans from the Galtian/Tea Party wing.
Schlemizel
I asked in the previous thread but will move the question here – Anybody heard from Southern Beale? I’m wondering how her hand is doing today & if she needed a trip to the ER.
PeakVT
Toles did a similar cartoon.
burnspbesq
If this were the U.K. or any of the other countries nominally ruled by Big Lizzie, Prime Minister Obama could ask her to dissolve Parliament and have a snap election. Chances are that the electorate, faced with the prospect of Prime Minister Boehner, Foreign Minister Graham, and Chancellor Ryan, would recoil in horror and the Republicans would lose big.
Sigh.
schrodinger's cat
@burnspbesq: But if this were a parliamentary democracy, Beohner would be the Prime Minister in the first place, since he is the leader of the majority party in the Lower House.
burnspbesq
@dollared:
Bullshit. You’re seeing what you want to see, because it fits your defeatist, Chicken Little narrative.
I’m tired of your shit. Either fight for what you believe, or get the fuck out of the way.
raven
@Schlemizel: She posted about it on her blog late this morning. I just left her a note.
Baud
@dollared:
We have to destroy the nation in order to save it.
Keith G
Its true enough, but a call to action it is not. Maybe his strategy of avoiding direct confrontation and avoiding vigorous debate will protect those in need. It seems sort of hopeful but certainly not audacious. Hopefully, the GOP will come around.
SteveinSC
Fucking political terrorists. “Rule or ruin” is their motto.
JPL
@Schlemizel: I haven’t read all the posts but earlier today she mentioned that she was going to the dr. Hopefully, she will post soon.
Chris
@hildebrand:
They identify with Republicans – not all of them, but certainly the ones at the top. Those are their people. Washington is, as many people have said many times, wired for Republicans, and if there’s one thing the Villagers pride themselves on being or otherwise aspire to be, it’s members of the Royal Court of Washington.
hildebrand
@dollared: Jesus Christ – you and your lot are as bad as the Republicans. I mean it – you all have the same goddamn advice – ‘time to burn the village to save it’. Do you want to cause untold harm? Do you really groove on watching other people suffer for your desire for ‘real action’? You are about as helpful as the freak libertarians suggesting we turn Detroit into a paradise of no regulations, no laws, and no government intervention – as that will surely spur massive growth and create a pure market utopia.
schrodinger's cat
@SteveinSC: Their rule is ruinous as well, have you forgotten the 8 years under Bush.
hildebrand
@Chris: I get that, but it seems to me that Washington isn’t wired for the kind of Republicans that are calling the shots these days. The Republicans from any number of years ago still wanted to govern – and the press was happy to help them govern in the way that chose. This new group of nihilists doesn’t seem to want anything other than collapse (or the world of the Handmaid’s Tale), why would the press support that?
Nerdlinger
Still waiting for that one example of a country with a booming economy that wasn’t financed by some sort of debt. Sorry, Republicans, but hoarding isn’t a moral philosophy.
Schlemizel
@raven:
Thanks, I had checked earlier but didn’t see anything, I was too early I guess.
Yatsuno
@dollared: How many business Republucans are left that really have control of the party at this point? The nihilists are driving the crazy car and they are not releasing this control for anything. They smelled power and thanks to the House they have it. They will destroy this country before they give THAT ONE any sort of break. A holding pattern will be a fortunate result here.
Bill Arnold
@dollared:
Shock And Awe tactics are not the only tactics available, nor are they necessarily the most effective. You’re suggesting that saving the Republican party is a goal of BObama? I don’t see that, at all.
Litlebritdifrnt
Can any of you tech gurus tell me why I am suddenly getting ads on my twitter page on my home computer yet they do not show up on my computer at work? It is very annoying and it also disables the automatic update telling me when I have new tweets AND it stops the tweets loading at the bottom of the page. Grrrrrrrrr. (I am running a full Norton scan right now to see if I can get rid of the problem)
schrodinger's cat
@Litlebritdifrnt: Norton is buggy, are you running Windows 7? If so it comes with a built in Windows Security Essentials.
Zifnab25
@dollared:
What does Obama win if he beats the Republicans? Let’s say he gets us into another knock-down, drag-out debt fight. Let’s say he gets the business-friendly wing of the GOP to finally throw down with the xenophobic ultra-nationalists. What then?
Will John Boehner take the rump of his Congress and sit down with Nancy Pelosi to hammer out a bill to reform the regressive elements of the US tax code? Will Steve King and the liberal dems join hands to rein in the NSA or cut military spending? Will Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio line up behind immigration reform that doesn’t put the official seal of approval on the 2nd class citizenship of immigrants?
I doubt it.
Obama doesn’t win any legislative fights by splitting the GOP. He just gets two smaller and less organized factions that hate him. He also creates a whole mess of Democrats that hate him. If Obama’s goal is to make sure everyone in the US hates him, then the serious threat of a debt default is the way to go. If he wants actual legislative reforms to make their way through House and Senate, he’s going to keep playing Babysitter-and-Chief.
liberal
OT—need to drive up to the Boston area on Monday to start a new job. (Driving from DC area.) Was looking at tire inflation this afternoon, and noticed the sidewall of the front right tire was damaged—a piece of rubber about the size of a quarter was gone/loose.
The cords were showing, but all the stuff inside the rubber looked undamaged.
I’d just take it to a tire shop, but apart from the short notice, the spouse insisted on going through with a family vacation that has us getting back Sunday evening. One of our neighbor friends volunteered to perhaps do something with it, so my wife left them the key, but apart from whether anything is available, it seems like a big imposition.
Any advice?
Zifnab25
@Yatsuno:
Mitt Romney was the Presidential nominee in 2012. Not all that much has changed since then. They aren’t calling all the shots like they were in 2002, but I’d hardly say business Republicans lack control. They just lack the kind of brainless subservient loyalty they’re used to among junior and rural Republican colleagues.
NotMax
@Litlebritdifrnt
Norton?
Per Mr. Spock: Stones knives and bearskins.
Good product like a decade ago but frankly, a steaming pile of crapola today, primarily useful for sucking out your money while bloating up your computer.
danimal
I’m slowly, reluctantly, coming to the conclusion that the only way out of this mess is through it. Call the bluff, even if it really means default or a government shutdown. The crazy strain in the GOP will not go away until it is forcefully repudiated, and the hope from so many of us is that the press will do the repudiation. They won’t, whether it is for ideological or business reasons. The press is simply not capable of shaming this group of GOP grifters. Only the smoldering wreckage of our economy will enrage enough business-minded, Republican-leaning voters to turn away from the nihilists.
And if I’m right about this, the sooner we go through the process, the better. I believe the financial markets will temporarily crater if we default, but will likely recover fairly quickly because they can see the default is more political gamesmanship than an inability to pay the bills. The ship can be righted, but only after the GOP runs it aground. Damn bastards.
gbear
I watched the speech this afternoon. He didn’t really say anything he hasn’t said before, but it IS stuff that needs to be said over and over and over again in every city he can get to outside of the beltway, since no one will give him the time of day there (although they will clutch at their watches instinctively when he’s around). What I’ve read about the speech from the MSM emphasized the ‘nothing new’ aspect of it.
That said, I thought it was a great speech, and I hope he keeps giving it everywhere he can. The crowd was pretty revved up. Sounds like he’s ready to just come out and say “I have had it with these motherfucking snakes in this motherfucking congress!
Nerdlinger
@hildebrand: They’ll never let the apocalypse happen; they’ll just make sure we’ll always be on the brink of one. It keeps the population frightened, and placates their masters at the same time. It’s the same old story.
Litlebritdifrnt
@schrodinger’s cat:
I have windows 7 but just looked and could not find Windows Security Essentials.
lojasmo
@liberal:
That’s not a big imposition. Let it happen.
Villago Delenda Est
Well, we’re boned.
Villago Delenda Est
@piratedan:
“It’s George, by George!”
End of story. We can now move on to newer, fresher tragedies, like some missing mid-twenties blond white woman, or perhaps a series of shark attacks.
daverave
@Hill Dweller:
Do you honestly believe that JQPublic could define nihilism, even with a dictionary in hand?
Nerdlinger
@Villago Delenda Est: Aw, I really hoped they would’ve gone with Joffrey.
NotMax
@Litlebritdifrnt
Microsoft Security Essentials.
May not be included with every version of Win7 (can’t recall), but downloadable (and free!) here.
schrodinger's cat
@Litlebritdifrnt: Go to the Control Panel> Click on System and Security, then click on Action Center.
I hope this helps.
Chris
@hildebrand:
Because they’re the same people. The “old,” establishment Republicans who “wanted to govern” are going along with the teabagger “nihilists” who “only want collapse” if only to follow the wave and not get primaried, when they’re not the ones feeding it with astroturf in the first place. And since the media, by and large, trusts the establishment Republicans who created the teabagger monster, they go along with it too.
And after all these years I think they mostly believe their own “both sides do it [but Democrats are worse]” bullshit. If you asked them “why do you support Republicans when today’s Republicans only want collapse,” they’d tell you some version of “that’s a pretty alarmist view, nobody wants collapse, they’re just honest American patriots who happen to disagree with you, at the very least, their views deserve consideration, and sure, some of their measures may seem drastic, but those are drastic times, someone has to do something about this runaway spending and the Social Security crisis,” etc etc etc. Some of them would be bullshitting just to get a paycheck and simply don’t give a damn about the bigger picture, but I’m fairly certain that a whole bunch would earnestly believe it. Living in a self-reinforcing ideological bubble will do that.
JPL
This is such a sweet story about the elder Bush. link
When you page down and see all the security detail he has, what are the odds that if it were the current President, twenty-seven percent would complain about the number of shaved heads…
also, too.. where is the diversity… really females can’t protect the former president… pshaw…
dollared
@Yatsuno: That’s why Obama has to split them out. Ford, GM, US Bank, McDonalds, every business that is dependent on a healthy US middle class, they don’t want the Tea Party in control of their country, and they sure as shit don’t need lowered standards of living nationwide. Even Wal-Mart is figuring out that it doesn’t work. And the Tea Party alone does not control Congress. It can’t rule without the McCains and the Snowes and the business-oriented House equivalents.
Given the tactics of the Teapublicans, Obama has to use the next debt default to re-inforce the image of the Repubicans as irresponsible and dangerous. He has to let them shoot the hostage.
He needs a crisis, and with the voting restrictions and gerrymandering, in 2014 he needs a 56-58% national majority rejecting the Republican platform. He had 53% in 2012 and it didn’t come close. He won’t get to 58% muddling through, making compromises and talking the good talk. In fact, muddling through is the best chance for a Republican Senate in 2014 and a Republican president in 2016.
@burnspbesq: And yeah, that’s what fighting looks like. Managing from crisis to crisis while Burnsie’s real estate clients get even richer does not fight for what I believe in. You should see what the Midwest looks like right now. 70-100 million people in the US have had the worst 10 years since 1929. That has to stop faster than Obama can correct it, at his current course and speed.
Baud
@JPL:
I’m obviously grading on a curve here, but Bush I is far and away the most respectable GOP president since Ike.
NotMax
@Litlebritdifrnt
MSE runs in the background (always on), but is far, far less intrusive and computer-slowing than Norton.
Other must-haves:
For occasional scans (these do not run in the background):
Malwarebytes (free version)
SUPER AntiSpy (free version)
Make sure to keep them updated before scanning.
For clearing out all sorts of clutter and detritus that Windows and other programs leave hanging about on a machine which take up needless space and can slow things down (I run it at least daily – takes practically no time at all):
CCleaner (free version)
danimal
@Baud: Ford was pretty respectable. Otherwise, slim pickens…
JPL
@Baud: That’s definitely true but Nixon looks good compared to any Republican in the House of Representatives
BillinGlendaleCA
@Litlebritdifrnt: Depending in the complexity of your work network, they may have a gateway server that blocks the ads. Alternatively, they may just have a hosts file that redirects the web addresses of the “usual suspects” to the bit bucket. The hosts file would be in c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc and has a format 127.0.0.1 ‘web address’ for each site to be blocked.
hildebrand
@Chris: I suppose the fact that most of our Beltway press are doing very well for themselves financially serves to inoculate them from any dire consequences to the Republicans knavery. They can’t feel the problem (like the economic crash), they won’t be effected by the neanderthalish social restrictions (they live in Democratically controlled states), thus they don’t ‘see’ that there is a problem.
I would like to make them switch salaries with me for just a year – that would snap them to attention on many of these issues. Tell them that they will have the privilege of earning a lecturer’s salary (at a public university) for the year – they will think they would be fine – until they get the first paycheck, and then let us see what they say about the Republican obstructionism and its impact on the middle-class.
Baud
@danimal:
I always forget about Ford.
@JPL:
I suppose. Hard to say what Nixon would have been like if you transplanted him to this day and age.
JPL
@danimal: whoops.. I actually voted for him. In LA at the time, you had to swear to be out of state for early voting. (absentee voting) I was 9 months pregnant and didn’t realize that and went in early to vote.
I swore that I would be out of the state. My son was born on the seventh so I could have voted…. Is there a statute of limitations on voting fraud?
piratedan
@Baud: sorry, if Ford had allowed Nixon to get his just desserts we wouldn’t be having all of this fucking butthurt now with half of the R’s thinking that Nixon was brought down by “politics”. That’s where a lot of the roots of this bullshit emanate from.
NotMax
@Baud
His jumping with both feet onto the anti-commie bandwagon to smear Helen Gahagan Douglas to win office pretty much answers that, IMHO.
Villago Delenda Est
Please. Bill Clinton was the best Republican President since Ike. Far and away the best.
JPL
@piratedan: Not that I’m going to defend Ford, but I’m not sure you are correct. Reagan ran as a blue democrat and changed the tax code. He also introduced EMTALA which allowed hospitals to write off indigent patients at a ridiculous cost. His actions sounded touching but health care cost rose dramatically.
Scott S.
A pretty hefty percentage of the press is nihilist, too. Everyone at Fox, half at CNN, the Villagers in general. They want entertainment, and they expect that watching the world turn into Thunderdome will be tons of fun to watch.
Baud
@piratedan:
I’ve heard that often, but I’m not so sure. I may be influenced by recent events, but I think the roots of where we are now arise from Nixon’s Southern Strategy, as mastered by Reagan.
aimai
@danimal: He did call their bluff and they backed down. We really don’t need to force them to crash the economy–they won’t do that at this point–they will just slow mo destroy it as with the sequester. And the sequester shows that they can and will find a way to get out from under the harm that their actual policies do. They don’t care if 70,000 North Carolinans–their own constituents–go without UI. They don’t care if there are no public schools or 75,000 unwanted pregnancies in texas. And they have demonstrated that the voters dont’ care either.
Villago Delenda Est
@Baud:
The “Southern Strategy” has a lot to do with the electoral mess we’ve got, but the fact that Nixon got away with felonies because Gerald Ford preempted any further investigation or indictment of him served to mute the serious criminal damage that Nixon did. Everything that the Rethugs accuse Obama of doing, Nixon actually did.
Thlayli
@Nerdlinger:
OK, what is this “Joffrey” thing? I must’ve seen 12 people comment “they should name him ‘Joffrey'”. Clearly there’s a reference I’m missing.
Baud
@Thlayli:
It’s a Game of Thrones thing.
piratedan
I’m pretty sure that guys like Cheney, Ailes and Rumsfeld got their village cards under the Nixon administration and have been involved in front and behind the scenes of every R administration since
Dennis G.
I find that support for Republicans and their agenda is a very accurate IQ test. If somebody supports them, I find that you are very, very safe in assuming that that person is an idiot, a twit, a moron, a dense fool, etc. Sad, but true.
And this explains why FOX and Republicans focus on the plus 65 demographic–folks suffering from various forms of dementia are their target market.
To be a conservative is to be a 300 pound white male who feels entitled to move about the mall on his gub’n’ment paid scooter in a muumuu all the while thinking he/she is a “patriot” dressed as redskin dumping tea in a harbor.
The stupidity of these fucksticks just burns…
Chris
@hildebrand:
This, combined with
@Scott S.:
this.
All the laws and policies that Washington passes and that ripple out to change the lives of all the regular people for better or for worse… aren’t real to the Villagers. So they treat it all like one big game.
Litlebritdifrnt
@BillinGlendaleCA: @NotMax: @schrodinger’s cat:
Thanks for all the help guys. I will try a bit of everything and see if it helps.
Chris
@Baud:
Ike is the only Republican president since the 1930s that I’d actually rate “respectable” in any meaningful way.
Even counting him, though… I can’t think of a single election since 1932 in which I wouldn’t pick the Democratic candidate over the Republican one.
David Koch
@liberal:
Get a new spouse
/hennyyoungman
dollared
@Dennis G.: I have to disagree about the IQ test. I know a lot of smart people that are top tier MBAs, lawyers and engineers. The MBAs and lawyers know the Tea Party is full of idiots, but they are happy to free ride – the MBAs because it gives them power and money, and the lawyers because it gives the power, money and the immense satisfaction of seeing their most outrageous attempts to undermine our Constitution actually become the law of the land. Many of the engineers are less sophisticated but they love the black-and-white of Libertarianism. Finally, my hometown in Wisconsin is a Walker stronghold. The right wingers there are well educated and nice people, but they literally have never actually had a 5 minute conversation with a black or latino person.
The common denominator for me is not IQ, but the broken empathy meter and the desire to blame the victims and keep all their toys to themselves.
Keith G
@dollared: Now there you go humanizing the enemy.
JPL
@dollared: Several years ago, a friend that listened to right wing radio and watched Fox mentioned that she didn’t believe in political correctness. I asked her how she felt about common decency.. That is when we lost our way. The current President preached volunteerism and the right had a field day painting it as communisn We lost our compassion as a society.
mclaren
This illustrates just how badly Obama misunderstands the times he’s living in. With runaway global warming, Peak Oil looming, massive global population growth, resource depletion, overfishing, and the ongoing collapse of capitalism under the onslaught of robotics/data-mining/algorithms, we can’t just “muddle along without taking bold action.”
Chris Hedges is right. America is a tinderbox. And when it goes up in flames because of [pick one: global warming sends food prices skyrocketing, unemployment keeps rising while offshoring/automation keeps increasing, income inequality keeps skyrocketing, our broken medical-industrial complex still hasn’t fixed the problem of runaway costs, our police-prison complex threatens the budgets of America state in America with exploding prison costs, America’s out-of-control security apparat turns the country into an unlivable Panopticon nightmare, our endless unwinnable foreign wars and uncontrolled military spending finally bankrupt us], Obama’s timid temporizing will be seen as the shortsighted vacillation it really is.
JPL
@mclaren: hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahhaha
Please write to Boehner and let him know your true feelings.
Baud
@Chris:
I feel the same way, although I have to admit that’s with the benefit of hindsight.
raven
@JPL: He’s got him pied too!
mclaren
@Scott S.:
“Some people just want to watch the world burn.” Unfortunately all too many of them have press credentials with major newspapers/TV news networks.
tybee
@liberal:
get the tires dealt with prior to vacation.
Comrade Mary
I have a bowl of water out in my front garden. Those little fuckers better respect it and use it and leave my tomatoes alone. Don’t make me write you a nasty note, squirrels.
David Koch
Mel Brooks night on TCM!
Mike in NC
The GOP isn’t known as ‘The Wrecking Crew’ for nothing.
Yatsuno
@Comrade Mary: You can borrow my mom’s border collie. She loves her some squirrels! Can’t even say the word around her.
quannlace
Chipmunks made off with all my cherry tomatoes last year. They’re fast little bastards. My dog never had a clue.
karen
And it’s better just to let our economy and the world economy as a result of it go up in flames? Obama is the adult. He’s dealing with 3 year olds with a bomb. What do you think would happen if he let it go kaboom? The GOP would be untouched. But Obama? Impeachment would be the least of it and while I think it’s very generous of you to volunteer Obama’s life and the life of the country, I understand why he wants to avoid that.
ranchandsyrup
Who wants a job?
Ann Arbor: looking for a help desk specialist and multiple accountants.
Orange County: Looking for 2 paralegals, a research analyst and a production analyst
Tampa FL: Looking for a Field Service Tech.
my nym at gmail if interested.
PeakVT
Here’s the vote on the Amash amendment: 205 to 217 against. Both parties split.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@Keith G: Chait pulled this out, and mentioned that it was surrounded by a plea to take bold action.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@Yatsuno: So, that’s where Pixar got the idea.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@mclaren: That’s because so many people are like Peter on Family Guy, and would be excited watching themselves on TV as their house burnt down around them.
Violet
@liberal: Get a new tire. If that tire blows out and you’re at any speed over 30 mph, you could kill yourself and others if you lose control of the car. Get it seen by someone and be prepared to replace it.
dollared
@karen: What is kaboom? Debt default? Talk about a fake crisis.
When the stock market drops 2000 points, will the pressure be on Obama or the Republicans?
Budget shutdown? All Obama has to do is put a rational budget in front of the Republicans and sit back and let the press hammer them, just like 1998(or1996?).
Nobody’s going to burn the village to save it. This is all about calling a bluff. And since the first victim will be Wall Street, the Republicans will cave right after the first call from Jamie Dimon.
dollared
@Keith G: I still get mad at them. People are very, very selfish and short-sighted. And tens of millions of people are suffering needlessly. And our great country is being hollowed out. There is no excuse for supporting the TP.
PeakVT
@dollared: All Obama has to do is put a rational budget in front of the Republicans and sit back and let the press hammer them,
Bad as our media was back then, it’s much worse today. It won’t say jack about the Repukes.
Wendy
If you were DougJ, you would have titled your post “The Vandals Took the Handles.”
James E. Powell
@aimai:
And they have demonstrated that the voters don’t care either.
That’s really where the problem lies. The great mass of American voters can be convinced of almost anything, no matter how implausible. Although it is fairly clear where certain problems come from (e.g., lack of regulation leads to exploding oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico, exploding fertilizer plants in Texas, and the like), the great mass of American voter believe (and nearly every Democrat repeats and reinforces) the standard Republican claims: government bad, taxes must be cut, debt/deficit the biggest problem, anyone can find a good job if they really want/deserve one, etc.
The voters are supposed to be the counterweight to wealth. That’s the point of a democratic republic.
Brian R.
@piratedan:
I’m not sure when you tuned in, but I flipped back and forth between the speech on CNN and MSNBC. Both seemed to cover it in full.
Fox News, of course, did not. “Fair and blow it out your asshole.”
Yatsuno
@Belafon (formerly anonevent): Hehehe. Jill is quite a bit younger than Up though. I think she absorbed it watching it with my mom as a wee puppeh.
mclaren
@dollared:
Yes, Karen never tells us exactly what “kaboom”means. If she means defaulting on our debt, Obama’s not in control of that — the House of representatives is. Obama has made every rational sensible response that could possibly be made to the House republicans, and it’s accomplished nothing. So the notion that Obama can somehow “let” everything “go kaboom” doesn’t make any sense. The House republicans are reactionary lunatics. As John Cole pointed out, you can’t negotiate with these people. It’s like the tire rims and anthrax deal. Acting as though you can negotiate with people like that just enables their lunacy.
Here’s what impresses and amuses me: all the obots have no problem at all with Obama ordering the IRS to ignore a law passed by congress. Obama, as everyone knows, instructed the IRS not to enforce part of the ACA for a year. The obots take that in stride. No problem, they say. All part of being flexible in the face of circumstances, they say. Governing is bending the letter of the law to accomodate changing realities, they say.
And that’s fine. I agree with that.
So here’s the question:
Why can’t Obama do exactly the same thing with the sequester, with shutting down Gitmo, with appointing people to key government positions and judgeships?
This isn’t violating the law, it’s just being flexible in how you interpret it. So congress refuses to appropriate money to shut down Gitmo and transfer the prisoners. Fine. So Obama reduces funds for drone strikes for a month and transfer that money into shutting down Gitmo. The Repubs scream, but so what? They’ve been screaming for long, about such bullshit (Obama is a Kenyan/Moslem/Socialist/Communist/Fascist/whatever-the-fuck) that no one pays any attention to Republican screaming about Obama anymore.
Obama could very easily do recess appointments for all his cabinet positions. He has simply chosen not to.
Obama could find a way around congressional approval of appointments to key government posts. He could set up a secondary department not under congress’ direct control but part of the executive branch and appoint people to that secondary department, then change the organizational chart so the secondary department actually runs the congressionally-created bureau. When challenged in court, he simply says it’s all part of the executive branch’s discretion.
And so on.
As for Obama getting impeached, girl, please. The Republicans have been threatening to impeach Obama for so long, at this time it’s the boy who cried wolf. That’s nonsense. Get real.
The important point here is that Obama has shown he is perfectly capable of ordering parts of the government to ignore the law (IRS in the ACA thing, drone strikes on U.S. citizens prohibited by the fifth and sixth amendments, and so on) whenever it involves something he really cares about.
Yet Obama refuses to do with with shutting the NSA wiretapping, ending the assassination of U.S. citizens, ending our unwinnable foreign wars, closing Gitmo, jailing Wall Street financial crime lords, etc. The logical conclusion? Obama doesn’t really care about any of those things.
If he did, he could fix every one of those problems with a workaround just as easily as he fixed the problem with the ACA implementation by just ordering the IRS not to enforce one of the ACA provisions for a year.
ranchandsyrup
@Wendy: Heh was thinking same thing.
I’d go with
It’s too hot to handle, you got blue sandals
Who shot ya? Ooh got you new spots to vandal?
Violet
Any fans of Flowers in the Attic out there? You know, the book from 1979? They’re making a movie, starring Ellen Burstyn and Heather Graham. Those books are creepy!
mclaren
@James E. Powell:
The facts on the ground systematically contradict this claim.
Look at the polling data. Polls conclusively show that most Americans don’t regard debt/deficit as a serious problem. Polls conclusively show that most Americans approve of government services. Polls conclusively show that that most Americans consider the economy our most pressing priority right now, not reducing taxes.
Polls conclusively show that jobs are the biggest worry on most Americans’ minds.
In fact, that’s why Republicans are using these extreme tactics — because they know that the majority of the voters don’t support their positions.
This makes it doubly baffling that Obama doesn’t take the offensive and find clever workarounds for most or all of the Republicans’ obstruction tactics. After all, polls show the voters overwhelmingly support Obama’s policies.
See USA Today: “On Issues, Public is More Aligned With Obama than GOP,” 2013.
Also see: “CBS Poll: Most Americans Don’t Care That Much About the Deficit,” 2010.
There are dozens of these poll results and they all show the same thing — contrary to your claims, Americans hugely support Democratic positions on policy, not the GOP positions. What you’re saying is simply not factually correct.
Ted & Hellen
Christ.
Who writes this dude’s speeches? Caspar Milquetoast?
Forum Transmitted Disease
It’s a concession speech. He is willing to talk, he is willing to muddle through. But he is not willing to do what it takes to beat the Republicans, because the only way to do it is to create a massive default crisis that splits mainstream business Republicans from the Galtian/Tea Party wing.
@dollared: hate to say it, but I agree totally. He keeps using the word “Congress”. Congress is not the problem. Republicans are the problem. And he will not say that. At this point he has nothing to lose. I don’t get it.
Ted & Hellen
@Forum Transmitted Disease:
I do.
These are his buds in the political/corporate/government elite, and he’s playing his part just as they are theirs. He’s a fraud.
Ted & Hellen
@Hill Dweller:
Well, it would help if obama called them nihilists and treated them as such, rather than “my good friends on the other side of the aisle shit…”
THAT they can hang a story on. Why should the press do what Obama won’t?
Jay in Oregon
@Dennis G.:
I prefer the kinds of cosplayers you see at sci-fi & comic conventions, because they have more of a grasp on reality than Tea Party whackadoodles. They know they’re not Loki/Princess Bubblegum/gender-swapped Captain America.
Not that there’s anything wrong with any of those.
Ted & Hellen
@Yatsuno:
Isn’t having Obama in the WH awesome?!
So good for the country.
A Humble Lurker
@Ted & Hellen:
Yes, Obama, write those conservative adds for them!!
AxelFoley
@burnspbesq:
Pwn’d.
AxelFoley
@hildebrand:
Pwn’d, part 2.
mclaren
@Ted & Hellen:
Shorter Obama: “If you don’t beat me, I’ll roll over and lick your hand.”
Forum Transmitted Disease
I’ve turned in my Obot card, BTW, if you all couldn’t tell. Its been a pretty weird mental process to go through. Yes, he was better than the alternatives, by far. But that’s no longer enough.
mclaren
@burnspbesq:
The sadistic bullying shit-for-brains tax evasion lawyer once again blames the victim.
Let’s try burnspbesq’s response out on some other situations to see how well it works:
8-YEAR-OLD-GIRL: “My stepdaddy just raped me!
BURNSPBESQ: “Bullshit. You’re seeing what you want to see, because it fits your defeatist, Chicken Little narrative.I’m tired of your shit. Either fight for what you believe, or get the fuck out of the way.”
JEW IN THE WARSAW GHETTO: “The Nazis are murdering us!”
BURNSPBESQ: “Bullshit. You’re seeing what you want to see, because it fits your defeatist, Chicken Little narrative.I’m tired of your shit. Either fight for what you believe, or get the fuck out of the way.”
BLACK MAN IN THE DEEP SOUTH, CIRCA 1930: “The sheriff and his deputies just lynched my son for nothing!”
BURNSPBESQ: “Bullshit. You’re seeing what you want to see, because it fits your defeatist, Chicken Little narrative.I’m tired of your shit. Either fight for what you believe, or get the fuck out of the way.”
As a nation of sadistic bully-worshiping cowards, Americans always love to blame the victim. Burnspbesq represents the worst of the breed.
Steeplejack
@Violet:
Already did it.
Patrick
@dollared:
He did do what it takes. We have health care reform. Clinton tried and he failed. Carter didn’t even try.
Patrick
@Ted & Hellen:
Amen to that. After the Dow amazingly lost value during the 8 years of Bush, it has now gained over 28% during the 4 and 1/2 years of Obama. Another all-time high yesterday. And we are adding jobs, rather than losing jobs.
Health-care reform is coming, the idiotic war in Iraq is pretty much over etc etc.
Can you imagine if McCain (“we should stay in Iraq for 100 years”) had won?
Roger Moore
@Patrick:
Yes, but the Republicans are still crazy and I still don’t have a pony, so Obama is clearly History’s Greatest Monster.
Grumpy Code Monkey
@dollared:
Such an action would a) only validate the nihilism, and b) ensure Democratic losses for a generation.
We do not need to destroy the country in order to save it; hell, we don’t even really need to save it so much as make sure these bastards don’t get this kind of power ever again.
I’ll say it again – every African-American, Latino, Asian-American, Arab-American, along with any anglos/crackers/whiteys who intend to vote Democrat, should get a CCL in those states that have one (such as TX). They should also work the phrases “second-amendment solutions” and “standing my ground” into their casual conversations (you don’t have to believe it, you just have to make the noise). Not only will it ensure that they have a valid form of ID when it comes time to vote, it may give some folks pause to realize those people are licensed to carry. Make the gun nuts own their concept of paradise.
Ted & Hellen
@Forum Transmitted Disease:
Why do you hate America and care only about your selfish, self-centered, purity progressive sparkly pony and unicorn farm?
Ted & Hellen
@Patrick:
lol
Massachusetts, where I am privileged to reside, has health care reform.
The rest of America? Please.
Redshirt
@Forum Transmitted Disease: Heighten the contradictions, man!
Patrick
@Ted & Hellen:
The rest of America will see it in 4-5 months…As you know, ACA is based on Massachusetts.
Grumpy Code Monkey
@Grumpy Code Monkey: Sorry, edit window closed. Realized I needed to add something to the following:
It would also open the door to an outright fascist takeover; the GOP has been laying the groundwork for it over the last 30 years.
Emma
I am so disappointed I was off the interwebs today. The nihilist left and the nihilist right have finally joined their circle and I missed it.
Nehemiah Scudder here we come.
Redshirt
@Emma: Nihilism for all!
Emma
@Redshirt: Hallelujah brother!
Jeremy
@Forum Transmitted Disease: Well what more do you want him to do ? I really don’t understand the morons in this country whether they are on the left, right, or center. You expect the president to do all of these things when he is not a dictator, and the radical tea party republicans dominate the house.
The American people and the purity left more specifically have to be held responsible for voting for the GOP in 2010 or sitting it out in protest.
If FDR, and LBJ were alive today they wouldn’t be able to accomplish hardly anything in this environment.
Chris
@Emma:
Say what you want about the tenets of National Socialism, Dude…
Yatsuno
@Emma: Does it come with cookies? The flyer said there would be punch and cookies.
kindness
So I linked over and read the Chiat article in NY Mag. I am surprised by the comments over there. Somehow I had thought the people who would post on a NY Mag blog would be slightly more cosmopolitan. There was nuance but there was powerful stupid too. Too much of it. Guess you could say that about most blogs on some level.
Emma
@Yatsuno: Home made chocolate chip and arsenic!
Redshirt
@kindness: The true home of the Wingnut is in the discussion boards of every online newspaper and magazine in the english speaking world. Like a virus, they thrive, and take over everything they infect.
Yatsuno
@Emma: My favourite!
kindness
@Redshirt: I think there’s a listserve out there where they post links by title & subject along with talking points to mention when participants are ruining the thread. I really do.
Ramalama
@liberal: I agree with the others saying to get that tire replaced, tout de suite. You really, really, really don’t want to mess around with anything unsafe on a highway. It will cost you so much more in time and treasure if you chance it and blow it en route. I’ve made plenty of boneheaded moves by doing stupid things regarding my car and my long-ass weekly commutes (Boston to Montreal). I don’t make that commute much anymore, and now, in the safe confines of not being constantly in my car, I realize how many close calls I had just because I was a dumb ass.
Ramalama
@liberal: Also? I will hook you up with the world’s best mechanic (he’s in Cambridge) if you see to your tire situation in DC. Who am I to hold such a threat over your head? I am girl on a road.
johnny aquitard
@mclaren: Christ you sound just like a rightwing ammo hoarding survival prepper end of times gunnut.
johnny aquitard
@Ted & Hellen: That’s Obama’s speech? Shit. First time I agree with Douche & Canoe. Yes that’s milksop. It’s flaccid. It’s not direct nor honest.
The real reason shit may hit the fan is because of economic treason by Republicans. It’s way past time to stop mince words. It’s time to kick them in the nuts with the truth.
If one reads Truman’s speeches when he was dealing with a do-nothing obstructionist Republican congress one will discover he told the country the Republicans have been sitting with their thumbs up their asses hoping America fails so they can benfit, and as a result Republicans are the reason Ordinary Americans can’t have nice things.
They squealed like buttfucked piggies, but as Truman noted he gave them hell simply by telling it like it was.
Ted & Hellen
@johnny aquitard:
Bingo maximus.
A Humble Lurker
@johnny aquitard:
You’re really going to want to see the whole thing and not trust the local…ah…’color’. Just in case.
dollared
@AxelFoley: @Grumpy Code Monkey: So generations of Colombian-style open political violence is better than a default on some imaginary paper obligations that would have a much more effective political result in shorter timeframe? Got it.
dollared
@liberal: Discount Tire, 20 minutes, $150. It’s that easy. Call ahead to make sure they got the right tire.
karen
@dollared:
I had said that the GOP were the three year olds with a bomb. Kaboom is the bomb they’re throwing, whether it’s defaulting on the debt ceiling or anything like that.
karen
@Patrick:
Ted & Helen are being sarcastic.
Grumpy Code Monkey
@dollared: A default, a real default like you’re talking about, would be the event that leads to the generations of Colombian-style political violence. And people absolutely would not blame the Republicans for it, because it will have happened on a Democrat’s watch.
I’ve long since realized that the majority of Americans (right and left) are pig-ignorant about the workings of their own government, and believe the President has far more power than he really does. A default would be blamed on Obama and Obama alone, even if he was the one person working to prevent it.
We have to flip the House along with a fair number of state legislatures, and that only happens by finding and funding good Democratic candidates and working like hell to get people to vote for them.
James E. Powell
@mclaren:
What you’re saying is simply not factually correct.
You’re talking polls, opinions, feelings. I’m talking about voters, elections, power.
Let’s see, Republicans in complete control in the house, fanatical right-wingers in control of the house Republicans.
Republicans in good shape to take the senate in 2014. Right-wingers control the supreme court.
Republicans in control of statehouses all over the country, very busy rolling back the 20th century.
You say that Americans care about jobs? Well I’m not sure what you mean by “care about” but I know it doesn’t mean calling or writing their elected officials demanding that something be done. I know it doesn’t mean holding their elected officials accountable.
What you’re saying is wishful thinking, dreaming.
daveNYC
@James E. Powell: Remember the poll that found that voters simply didn’t believe that the Republican’s proposed policies were real? It’s like that.
The voters want the economy fixed, health care, and whatnot. The Republicans are offering to burn the economy and cut medicare/cade. So what does the voting population do? Assume the Republican policies aren’t real because that’d just be crazy.
It’s not just that people don’t believe the Republicans are crazy, it’s that they don’t want to believe the Republicans are crazy.
And you can’t call a bluff if the other person’t isn’t bluffing.
Paul in KY
@liberal: Probably should bet a new tire.
Paul in KY
@johnny aquitard: Agree that President needs to channel a bit of Truman (and FDR) when laying the blame right where it ought to be laid.
using frank,(and hopefully deriding to Republicans) terms.
liberal
Thanks for all the advice, folks.