Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

We are aware of all internet traditions.

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

Let there be snark.

Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

A last alliance of elves and men. also pet photos.

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

Infrastructure week. at last.

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

Usually wrong but never in doubt

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?

Good lord, these people are nuts.

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

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Stand Tall, Don’t You Fall

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Praise Jesus, Bieber, and Allah, John Boehner will retain his speakership by pushing out the turd more-or-less described by Benen yesterday instead of bringing any Senate bill to the floor, because that might be a compromise.

Reader Interactions

146Comments

  2. 2.

    Belafon

    I believe this is how the crusades sounded as well. I can’t wait for the House to use a bunch of children to carry their next bill to the Senate.

  4. 4.

    dmsilev

    @Belafon: And once the RedState brigade etc. starts embarking on their “RINO hunt”, the cry is going to be “Primary them all! God will know his own”.

  6. 6.

    BGinCHI

    Amazing Racists sung to the tune of Amazing Grace.

    That’s what Ari Shapiro was reporting after he looked up “metaphor” in his Stenographer Dicktionary.

  7. 7.

    Botsplainer

    Fuck me running. “Amazing Grace” like some heehaw camp meeting of apocalypticals?

    It’s a shame THAT imagery wasn’t broadcast.

  11. 11.

    nemesis

    Amazing Grace, hunh? Good to see our elected officials are confident in their belief that sky gawd is on their side. I mean, how could gawd be on the side of Dems, with their handouts to the poor and such?

  12. 12.

    Cacti

    Issa says House Rs opened their meeting by singing “Amazing Grace” this morning.

    Peak wingnut is coming into view.

  14. 14.

    Ash Can

    I’m seeing rumors popping up that the House is going to pass said turd and then leave town till next week. If they do that, we’re fucked. And by “we,” I mean everyone. Including them.

  15. 15.

    jnfr

    I think they’re going to blow it up if they can. It’s what they really, really want to do, and Boehner is backing them.

  18. 18.

    sparrow

    @Botsplainer: Yeah, I threw up a little upon hearing that. Nothing makes me feel like an alien on this planet more than self-righteous dickwads pretending to have religious feeling. Ugh.

  22. 22.

    MattF

    We’ve evidently run out of metaphors for what’s happening. It’s time for the aliens to show up and take over. Please?

  24. 24.

    Citizen_X

    Isn’t that kind of a death song? So this is them screaming Allahu Akbar before they push the button, right?

  27. 27.

    Belafon

    @Steve: Can you imaging how many Jewish slurs we would hear out of the House if Cantor used his authority to file a clean CR?

  28. 28.

    John O

    Is Boehner going to cry in the upcoming presser? Or just do another imitation of a child who didn’t get his Snickers at the grocery store?

    He’ll be +3 by lunchtime.

  29. 29.

    Higgs Boson's Mate (Crystal Set)

    According to the Guardian, the emerging deal would fund the government through January 15 and extend the debt limit through February 7.

    The brilliant strategists of the Teapartian Party are locking in a mechanism to ensure that voters won’t have a chance to forget the current debacle before the midterms.

  30. 30.

    The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik

    @Cacti:

    Unfortunately, this kind of debacle continues to prove that Peak Wingnut is an illusion. The closer you approach it, the further away it becomes. The fact that we’re at this kind of brink and we’re still seeing these assholes define compromise and negotiation as “GIVE US EVERYTHING WE WANT AND TAKE NOTHING BACK” just makes it clearer.

  31. 31.

    ...now I try to be amused

    It’s fun to sing “Amazing Grace” to the tune of the “Gilligan’s Island” theme.

  32. 32.

    dmsilev

    House ransom note released:

    The House GOP proposal would modify the emerging Senate agreement to prohibit special treatment for House Members, Senators, the president, the Vice President and members of the president’s Cabinet under the president’s health care law,

    The House GOP plan eliminates the special ObamaCare protections for labor unions in the emerging Senate agreement and replaces it with a two-year delay of ObamaCare’s “pacemaker tax” (medical device tax), which places a new tax on essential medical devices such as children’s hearing aids and senior citizens’ pacemakers, and income verification for those receiving taxpayer subsidies through ObamaCare,

    ike the emerging Senate agreement, the House plan would extend the debt ceiling to February 7. But the House plan would bar the Treasury Department from using accounting gimmicks known as “extraordinary measures,”

    I see ‘pacemaker tax’ is today’s new talking point. “Children’s ice cream hearing aids, Mandrake!”

  33. 33.

    Paul in KY

    Amazing Graft, how sweet to give one the shaft, it saved the best for meeee. I once was tossed, but now I’m the boss. Was blind and I still beeee.

  35. 35.

    Zifnab25

    @Cacti: It won’t truly be here until a Congressman covers his wife in gasoline and lights her on fire on the steps of the capital as part of a protest march, then demands Obama be arrested for murder.

  36. 36.

    DaveinMaine

    @dmsilev:

    “But the House plan would bar the Treasury Department from using accounting gimmicks known as “extraordinary measures,”

    And that is where this plan will fail in the Senate. That’s asking the Treasury Dept to do its job with both hands tied behind its back. Always trust the Tea Party Assholes to find a way to fuck something up.

  37. 37.

    Higgs Boson's Mate (Crystal Set)

    And then there’s this:

    Issa also reports the House GOP bill would include a provision that prevents the Treasury from taking extraordinary measures to stay ahead of default after government hits the debt ceiling, which in this case technically happened in May. Treasury secretary Jack Lew has been holding it together with duct tape ever since. He has warned that the extraordinary measures will run out on 17 October, at which point the Treasury will be running on $30bn in reserve cash, which with big interest and entitlements payouts on the near horizon is close to zilch.

    If holding a gun to our heads doesn’t work then just put on a suicide vest.

  41. 41.

    Cermet

    So the house thugs pass a dead bill and send it to the senate as cover; so fucking what? Of course they ‘d have to do that first. Doesn’t mean the senate will pass it nore force it for debate. However, time is fast running out and bonehead may want cover to claim he tried to send a bill but the M-Fer’s in the senate killed it soooo he had to put the senate bill to a vote and amazing, demorats voted for it! Its the senate’s fault; the man makes charlie brown look like a winner or is it just bonehead is simply a born whinner … .

  42. 42.

    liberal

    @BGinCHI:
    Saw that about Shapiro. Coming on the heels of listening to gibbering idiots on NPR outlining the extent to which this is also Obama’s fault (“he doesn’t reach across the aisle,” “he hasn’t visited SC since 2008!”), I’ll repeat what I typed yesterday: anyone who gives money to NPR has a hole in their head.

  43. 43.

    Bruce K

    They don’t need “Amazing Grace”. They need some sort of “come-to-Jesus” moment or something, or some way of driving home to Boehner and the lunatics that there are quite a few ways this game ends, a very few of which include Boehner’s possible survival as Speaker of the House, and none of which will get the Suicide Caucus what they wanted when they took the country down this road.

  44. 44.

    The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik

    @Higgs Boson’s Mate (Crystal Set):

    It’s like destroying the fire extinguisher and claiming the only way to extinguish a fire is to pour gas on it. Sure, it burns itself out eventually but only after everything else around it is ashes.

  45. 45.

    pseudonymous in nc

    Pacemaker tax? Well, that would be a problem if pacemaker-makers weren’t making money hand over fist.

    Medtronic reported a profit of $953 million, or 93 cents a share, up from $864 million, or 83 cents a share, a year earlier. Excluding acquisition- and restructuring-related charges and other items, adjusted earnings were up at 88 cents from 85 cents. Revenue increased 1.9% to $4.08 billion and was up 3% excluding currency fluctuations…

    Operating margin rose to 28.2% from 27.1%.

  46. 46.

    muricafukyea

    Why is there even any talk of any deal at all? From what I am reading Dems made some concessions which is simply a cave. One side either decides open gov’t or not. No concessions.

    Why are Dems doing this same bullshit that guarantees the Rethugs will just continue to yank this same chain ever 3-6months to get more and more conessions?

  49. 49.

    Chyron HR

    House Rs opened their meeting by singing “Amazing Grace”

    This is a metaphor, right?

    If not, where’s the Pledge of Allegiance and the Star-Spangled Banner? WHY DO THEY HATE AMERICA?

  50. 50.

    sparrow

    @liberal: I frequently curse when listening to NPR. They get my blood boiling more than CNN, which I know is a house of bobbleheads for the money.

  51. 51.

    celticdragonchick

    So this is it. We are going off the cliff.

    I told my spouse that we are watching the end of our form of government a few days ago. I hoped that I was wrong.

    Damn.

  52. 52.

    Cermet

    @Zifnab25: Sorry, but the thug would have to burn his first born male child to be inline with the old testament … . Of course, except for that one Israeli general (and, of course, it was a daughter- she had her throat cut in god’s name) an angel is supposed to prevent it. If those thugs had real faith, they’d carry out the plan for all their first born in the thug house.

  54. 54.

    The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik

    @sparrow:

    Just the kind of Stockholm’s Syndrome necessary to keep up that ‘both sides same thing’ bullshit is….guh.

  55. 55.

    celticdragonchick

    @muricafukyea:

    They didn’t give anything at all to the rethugs in the House…and the rethugs know it. That is why they are shitting on the Senate deal.

  56. 56.

    catclub

    @Chyron HR: “If not, where’s the Pledge of Allegiance and the Star-Spangled Banner? WHY DO THEY HATE AMERICA? ”

    They can’t remember all the words to those.

  57. 57.

    The Very Reverend Crimson Fire of Compassion

    @…now I try to be amused: Everything Emily Dickenson ever wrote can be sung to the tune of “Yellow Rose of Texas”. That realization damn near ruined her poetry for me. You’re welcome.

  58. 58.

    Alex S.

    No matter how this ends… impeachment is next on the list. Apparently, each wingnut generation needs to do both shutdown and impeachment.

  62. 62.

    Nina

    A grazing mace how sweet the sound that wrecks a foe like thee.
    Made flat the head that once was round done in by my mace and me.

  63. 63.

    aimai

    @Steve: Its very high pressure when christianists start to hold these prayer circles. I’ve joined in a few myself and been assured that the holy spirit flowed through me, too. I look upon it as a nice chance to hold hands and sing. Like taking communion is just a snack.

  64. 64.

    Eric U.

    @liberal: the NPR toad yelling at Carney for saying that the republicans want a ransom for doing their job is a step too far. I really have been disturbed that the media has joined with the 27%’ers in this game. For some reason the local NPR station still asks me for money and it’s always some stuffed-shirt academic that calls me. I’ve never had one that understood what I was talking about when i mention I don’t give money to republican propaganda outfits. I guess they just listen to the classical shows, which is another pet peeve of mine. They stole the student radio station years ago, and the replacement was a long time coming and has never really recovered.

  65. 65.

    maya

    Shouldn’t Nancy & Co have replied with a chorus of Kumbaya? And then the repos could do a The Hill Comes Alive With The Sound of Music re-reply. And then………

  66. 66.

    Higgs Boson's Mate (Crystal Set)

    @slippy:

    They are going to get horse-fucked in 2014. With a telephone pole.

    From your lips to FSM’s ears.

  67. 67.

    Redshirt

    I don’t see how Boehner lets us default. From his own perspective only, what’s more important: To crash the world economy (affecting your own bottom line, as well as the bottom line of your rich friends and benefactors), or waive the Hastert Rule and get this matter resolved in hours, saving the world economy. Sure, you may lose your speakership roll, but there’s a good chance you won’t, either.

    Seems like the benefits are all one side of that choice; thus, the choice to default seems like pure madness. Surely, Orange B is not insane?

  68. 68.

    schrodinger's cat

    To all the negative Nancies, the Civil War wasn’t the end of the US and a debt default won’t be either.

    ETA: Its going to be awful and the Republican Congressional Leadership is nihilistic and disgusting, but throwing up one’s hands in the air and cowering achieves nothing and that is exactly the reaction that the crazy caucus wants.

  69. 69.

    Higgs Boson's Mate (Crystal Set)

    @Redshirt:

    Seems like the benefits are all one side of that choice; thus, the choice to default seems like pure madness. Surely, Orange B is not insane?

    He is in thrall to those who are insane. Same difference.

  70. 70.

    Joey Maloney

    @John O: He’ll be +3 by lunchtime.

    Are you kidding? He’s still +3 when he rolls out of bed in the morning.

    We’re done. They’ve fucking killed us.

  71. 71.

    The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik

    @Redshirt:

    Trusting in the reason of a Republican is like expecting a newborn puppy to not shit the floor: you’ll be disappointed every time.

    The problem with these jackasses isn’t Party over Country. It’s the fact that they believe that the Party = The Country, and if they win, the country is by definition saved.

  72. 72.

    pseudonymous in nc

    @celticdragonchick:

    So this is it. We are going off the cliff.

    I think so. In an overnight thread, someone mentioned that Little Russert was talking to House GOPers who clearly had no grasp of the economic consequences, and Little Russert admitted that he’d taken just one economics class.

    They want to go over the cliff to feel what it’s like on the way down. They really do. They want to feel empowered by it.

    That’s a DSM-V worthy personality disorder.

  73. 73.

    muricafukyea

    @celticdragonchick: That is not what I’m reading. Dems made some concessions. In other words they are negotiating with terrorists. Even if they are just symbolic concessions the Dems were going to do anyways. They are still negotiating with terrorists. Something they and Obama said they would not do. I’m not happy about that. I want 0 concessions. Zero negotiations. If that means debt default then so be it. The tricky part about playing chicken is knowing when to flinch and the Retugs are counting on Dems to do what they always do which is flinch first.

  74. 74.

    Higgs Boson's Mate (Crystal Set)

    BREAKING: White House: Latest House GOP proposal “a partisan attempt to appease” tea party.

    Fasten your seatbelts, it’s going to be a bumpy night.

  75. 75.

    NonyNony

    @Higgs Boson’s Mate (Crystal Set):

    The brilliant strategists of the Teapartian Party are locking in a mechanism to ensure that voters won’t have a chance to forget the current debacle before the midterms primaries.

    Yeah, not midterms. Primaries. The Tea Party caucus are going to make the Republican primaries a referendum on Teapartyism. If they’d wanted the general election to be a referendum on Teapartyism they would have made the deadline June. But this is a move to force purity on the Republican Party.

    Goddamn the Republican elites are bog stupid. I saw this coming from a mile away in 2010. How could you not see that their next move was to push the old guard out to solidify the control of the new guard of Bircher elites? It’s the freaking obvious move. (All of the House caucus stupidity makes a lot more sense when you view it as a war between the Tea Party conservatives and the rest of the Republican Party. They will either force the other Republicans to toe the Tea party line or force them out of the party. Even if they end up losing the House, in their eyes it would be worth it to solidify their control over the party).

  78. 78.

    Redshirt

    @The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik: Focusing soley on Boehner’s self-interest, he surely knows that even if he goes along with every Wingnut demand, and maintains leadership of the House, he’s still trying to manage a herd of crazy people, to minimal effect. The Speaker position is no longer the power it once was, because of the Wingnuts. Surely, he’d like to go back to the old ways of wheeling and dealing and influence brokered over earmarks. He could do that if he helps crush the Teabaggers. I bet the Dems could even be convinced to vote for his continued leadership IF he passes clean bills with their help.

  79. 79.

    Libby's person

    I just called my Representative’s office to ask if he thought that there was a chance of this idiocy being resolved or if the US was actually going to default; in other words, how screwed he thinks we are. (Butterfield, my representative, is one of the good guys and I called him last week to express support for his position, and urging him not to give in to GOP hostage taking. I’ve also called my senators’ offices.) The staffer couldn’t give me an answer, which in itself is not a good sign. I told him that I was very afraid of the consequences of default, but that giving into the Republicans would also be devastating in the long term. I asked him what people like me could do, and requested that they post suggestions on their website. (It would be nice to have something positive to do to distract me from the very uncivil thoughts I’m starting to have about certain Republicans!)

  80. 80.

    gnomedad

    Issa says House Rs opened their meeting by singing “Amazing Grace” this morning. Are unified behind their new plan.

    Well, if they can use the country as a human shield, why not use God, too?

  81. 81.

    Sloegin

    There’s plenty of reasons why the backers of this mess might want a default.

    We’ve been running on a faulty assumption.

  84. 84.

    NonyNony

    @Redshirt:

    I bet the Dems could even be convinced to vote for his continued leadership IF he passes clean bills with their help.

    That would be the end of Boehner’s political career. It would be political suicide – he’d lose to any nutjob that primaries him next year and he knows it.

    Plus he wouldn’t stay as Speaker because I guarantee that he would not find enough Republicans to support him even if every Democrat agreed to vote for him. Which they wouldn’t because herding Democrats is like herding cats, but still – he’d need 17 other Republicans to jump ship.

  85. 85.

    The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik

    @Redshirt:

    This still presumes that Boehner isn’t a Party > Country type. The Tea Party may be crazy, but Democrats are still Teh Evilz.

  86. 86.

    Woodrowfan

    my wife is a govie and was called in last week. She got her pay stub for this pay period: $170. Yeah, that’ll pay the mortgage on November 1.

  90. 90.

    Woodrowfan

    @NonyNony: I hear Herr Cruz has a new pamphlet coming out, RINOs: an Infantile Disorder. In it he declares the Tea Party is the vanguard of a new revolution.

  92. 92.

    Comrade Mary

    (Oh, and nice way to blame Canada, dude. Cruz is your crackpot now.)

    This might be more appropriate.

    She’s come undun
    She wanted truth but all she got was lies
    Came the time to realize
    And it was too late

    She’s come undun
    She didn’t know what she was headed for
    And when I found what she was headed for
    Mama, it was too late

  96. 96.

    rikyrah

    The Morning Plum: Dems think they’re killing debt limit GOP extortion for good

    By Greg Sargent
    October 15 at 9:12 am

    The broad outlines of a deal to end the crisis are now emerging from the Senate: It would lift the debt limit until February 7th, reopen the government through January 15th, and trigger budget talks to replace the sequester. There’s some last minute haggling over minor Obamacare concessions. House Republicans will seek changes to the deal, and it’s unclear whether they’ll even allow a vote on it.

    The question about the deal is this: Given that the next debt limit deadline looms just after the date on which government funding runs out, doesn’t this just mean we’ll find ourselves in roughly the same situation in a few months, with Republicans demanding concessions in exchange for averting default and economic chaos?

    Senate Democratic aides tell me they think the possibility that conservatives will insist on another round of debt limit brinksmanship is very real. But they think they’re on the verge of rendering any such threat an entirely empty one. The idea: Decoupling the debt limit from the budget talks, and placing the debt limit deadline further out, will effectively isolate the debt limit debate and make another default extortion crisis even harder politically. By refusing any meaningful concessions in exchange for a debt limit hike this time — and earlier this year – Dems will have finally killed the “Boehner Rule” (which demands spending cuts in exchange for any hike) and driven home that GOP debt ceiling extortion will never be rewarded again.

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2013/10/15/the-morning-plum-dems-think-theyre-killing-debt-limit-gop-extortion-for-good/

  99. 99.

    Shakezula

    See, they sang Amazing Grace, therefore Baby Jeezlebub must approve of their plan! Also, only Satan would dare to block it.

    These people think they’re in a fucking movie.

  101. 101.

    Seanly

    So, when the economy totally crashes, does that mean I can stop paying my bills?

    I just assume that we’re totally f’ked at this point.

  103. 103.

    Mike E

    @raven: Will he rip his shirt off at an impasse moment, or does he walk in bare-chested? I say he grinds doughnuts on the White House lawn in his Trans Am right as the meeting is called to order.

  104. 104.

    PeakVT

    @muricafukyea: Obviously I’m not the one having to make the hard decisions, but I think that Obama and the Dems should only make concessions if the Republicans agree to either repeal the debt limit or set it so high it doesn’t need to be touched for decades. Anything else would set a horrific precedent.

  105. 105.

    LanceThruster

    Issa says House Rs opened their meeting by singing “Amazing Grace” this morning. Are unified behind their new plan.

    “Well, isn’t that SPE-CIAL?!”

  106. 106.

    Elizabelle

    @Higgs Boson’s Mate (Crystal Set):

    The brilliant strategists of the Teapartian Party are locking in a mechanism to ensure that voters won’t have a chance to forget the current debacle before the midterms.

    Yup.

    I don’t see the Tea Party and GOP shaping up much between now and the midterms, either.

  107. 107.

    raven

    @Shakezula: I remember seeing Nina Simone in about 1972 and she said “Now we can finally have our song back”!

    eta That was after she made all the white folks move to the back of the hall!

  108. 108.

    jibeaux

    @dmsilev: Personally, I wouldn’t want to be the guy who promised the Tea Party a powerball jackpot on Obamacare and delivered a delay on the pacemaker tax, but I guess you gotta start the spin early.

  110. 110.

    Anoniminous

    @Higgs Boson’s Mate (Crystal Set):

    Politically this is the best thing that could happen. Poll: Basically Everyone Now Angry at GOP Over Shutdown”>

    The longer this goes on the better the chances the GOP is decimated in November 2014.

    Economically, it’s another story. If the shutdown continues and we go into default there’s no telling what the final result will be. It’s a question of which modifying adjective to place in front of “disaster.”

  112. 112.

    max

    @aimai: No one is cowering. We are just standing, mouths agape, since we apparently can not affect the outcome one way or another.

    Yours truly, late Friday night:

    That isn’t what’s going on. Boehner is trying to get as close to Obama as possible to make it appear on the TV that he’s negotiating. In particular, he’s trying to keep the debt ceiling threat alive, both for this time and next time. So he wants Obama to give up something tiny in return for extending the debt ceiling for six weeks.

    When that busts out, and with time running out on the clock he’s going to try and pull something next week and deliver an ultimatum.

    They’re still gambling that Obama will crack. They want prizes that will validate their stupidity.

    max
    [‘We have a few turns of the screw left to go.’]

    No prizes for being shocked – your should’ve expected this move, because that kinda thing is exactly what they keep doing, over and over. (Definately no prizes for folks panicking, because this is exactly the Tea Bagger freaks are trying to do.) They’re trying to win, and THIS move is Pickett’s charge.

    Treasury may well have enough cash in hand to hold the usual auction on Thursday, so the deadline may be pushed back to the 24th.

    max
    [‘Expect to go over the deadline, whenever it is. Expect to survive. Fight to win.’]

  113. 113.

    liberal

    @Eric U.:

    I really have been disturbed that the media has joined with the 27%’ers in this game.

    Well, they haven’t completely joined. Here and there you can see cracks in the he/said she said idiocy. But by and large, this stuff has shown the media to be entirely useless. Not that we didn’t already know that.

  114. 114.

    drkrick

    @Citizen_X: Amazing Grace is really not a death song. It was written by a guy who was a slave trader (a ship captain, so hands on for some of the worst kinds of outrages) thanking his God for converting him to a life where, among other things, he became a committed campaigner against slavery. It was about changing to do good things in this life as well as looking forward to pie in the sky in the sweet bye and bye. There are lots of other ways that the singalong sounds creepy (and ironic!) of course.

  115. 115.

    liberal

    @muricafukyea:
    I agree, except that there’s an easy way to avoid giving into terrorist, American-hating, racist scum, and at the same time avoid default: mint the damn platinum coin. 100% legal and constitutional.

  116. 116.

    celticdragonchick

    @SatanicPanic:

    This is the apotheosis of what Spanish political scientist Linz     posited as the inherent contradiction in presidential systems that eventually became self destructive. Yes, I think we may be seeing the end of functioning government (see what happened to Poland in the 18th century when Senate rules got out of hand)

    In a merciful twist of fate, Juan Linz did not quite live to see his prophecy of the demise of American democracy borne out. Linz, the Spanish political scientist who died last week, argued that the presidential system, with its separate elections for legislature and chief executive, was inherently unstable. In a famous 1990 essay, Linz observed, “All such systems are based on dual democratic legitimacy: No democratic principle exists to resolve disputes between the executive and the legislature about which of the two actually represents the will of the people.” Presidential systems veered ultimately toward collapse everywhere they were tried, as legislators and executives vied for supremacy. There was only one notable exception: the United States of America.

    Linz attributed our puzzling, anomalous stability to “the uniquely diffuse character of American political parties.” The Republicans had loads of moderates, and conservative whites in the South still clung to the Democratic Party. At the time he wrote that, the two parties were already sorting themselves into more ideologically pure versions, leaving us where we stand today: with one racially and economically polyglot party of center-left technocracy and one ethnically homogenous reactionary party. The latter is currently attempting to impose its program by threat upon the former. The events in Washington have given us a peek into the Linzian nightmare.

  117. 117.

    Comrade Dread

    RT @jwpetersNYT Issa says House Rs opened their meeting by singing “Amazing Grace” this morning. Are unified behind their new plan.

    Well, Jesus was all about inflicting needless human suffering and hardship in the name of keeping sick people from getting treatment.

    No wait… He was pretty much the exact opposite of that.

    I never thought I’d say this, but I miss the greedy old bastards that used to run the GOP. They were at least predictable and understood that you can only inflict so much misery upon the masses before they decide to line you up against a wall.

    These lunatics think they’re doing the Lord’s work which means they’ll never stop.

  118. 118.

    Botsplainer

    @maya:

    Shouldn’t Nancy & Co have replied with a chorus of Kumbaya?

    I’m thinking more along the lines of “The Battle Hymn of the Republic”.

  119. 119.

    drkrick

    @schrodinger’s cat:

    o all the negative Nancies, the Civil War wasn’t the end of the US and a debt default won’t be either.

    One of the reasons we survived the Civil War was that the Confederates abandoned the Congress for several years, allowing the loyal remainder to pass a lot of useful things that the Confederates would have blocked forever (for a couple of examples, neither the transcontinental railroad or land grant colleges).

    It doesn’t sound like their ideological successors are going to do that this time, so fixing the mess is going to be somewhere between a lot harder and impossible.

  120. 120.

    Comrade Dread

    Economically, it’s another story. If the shutdown continues and we go into default there’s no telling what the final result will be. It’s a question of which modifying adjective to place in front of “disaster.”

    Well, I’m really hoping Obama goes on live television the day of the default and calmly says that he’s going to authorize the Treasury department to keep borrowing anyway. I imagine the markets will still react poorly as this will lead to a political shitstorm, but it’s probably the best option for keeping us out of another recession.

  121. 121.

    MCA1

    @drkrick: Unless there’s actually either a landslide election against them in ’14 or a true fissure in the Republican Party, that’s right. But if either of those things happen, we could have some undivided government for a year before Democrats running for re-election in ’16 turn the whole thing into a giant lame duck. I’ve been thinking a bit recently about how Democrats would respond to the gift of a GOP implosion returning them to control of all three non-judicial arms of the federal government. How best to balance: getting some much needed shit done, moving the Overton Windows permanently back toward a legitimate center, and not overdoing it to the point where Republicans can use the voting populace’s incredibly short memories to sweep back in on overreach and “shoving it down our throats” whining?

  122. 122.

    celticdragonchick

    @MCA1:

    How best to balance: getting some much needed shit done,

    With senate filibuster rules still in effect, nothing would get done unless it was under reconciliation.

  123. 123.

    Anoniminous

    @Comrade Dread:

    The global economic consequences of $500 trillion in interest rate derivatives and $60 trillion in currency derivatives (h/t to schrodinger’s cat) going south are simply too dreadful. We’d be looking at bankruptcy of the FIRE sector as a start and a cascade failure across all economic sectors following shortly thereafter.

    Given most trading is computer driven a collapse would happen in minutes.

    Obama would have to do something to prevent it. The most likely, IMO, would be invoking the 14th Amendment. He’s a Constitutional Lawyer, after all. The least likely is going the $1 trillion coin route. Again, IMO.

    The House will vote to impeach. The Senate won’t convict. And the GOP will be destroyed in the 2014 election – I devoutly hope.

  126. 126.

    inkadu

    @celticdragonchick: Is it really fair to lay this at the feet of the Presidential system and not the split congress? House Republicans have been ping-ponging with the Senate for weeks. This is bollixed before it gets to the executive.

  127. 127.

    virginia

    @Comrade Dread: Right on and far out, man, and let’s hope so . Totally hope he does just that.

    On the plus side MSNBC is playing Crowded House on way to commercials.

    Many of you are old friends here on this site. I check in and get to enjoy it and vent during national crisis. My question — Where IS John Cole in this and what does he really think and advise?

    Not being snarky. Just don’t know. His comments section is great .. His blogging staff is great. Is he ill and unable to weigh in? All I see are occasional comments about pets, football, and food.

    Am I missing something?

  128. 128.

    The Pale Scot

    After Bones I ended up watching Sleepy Hollow, it seemed sorta interesting so I went online to watch the first episode and get the back story.

    Appalling, utterly appalling. It seems George Washington and I’m sure the rest of FFs were hip deep in the book of Revelations fighting the horseman of the apocalypse. Connecting these Deists and men of the Enlightenment to the babbling of people who spent their days navel gazing repeatedly reading one book over and over like students at a Afghan Madrasa (really, Miller and Darby needed real jobs) is libel.

  129. 129.

    StringOnAStick

    @virginia: John is working on some personal stuff at many levels, and has checked in occasionally to say exactly that, and tell us that he’ll be back when he can. No worries.

  131. 131.

    The Pale Scot

    @liberal:

    anyone who gives money to NPR has a hole in their head.

    Except for WBGO (Newark NJ Jazz Station) & WMNF (Tampa Hippy Radio)

    Edit: I just realized they’re not NPR

  132. 132.

    Comrade Dread

    @virginia: Deep in an abandoned bomb shelter, with unkempt facial hair, wearing a stained wife beater, as he composes his manifesto on an old typewriter with a defective K key.

    He stops periodically to answer Steve’s never ending questions. They are mostly about fish and the lack of fish in the shelter and wouldn’t it be nice if the Two Legs gets more fish.

    Consequently, fish are of high importance within his manifesto.

    “Ball!” Rosie will chime in. “Don’t forget about ball! Ball is fun!”

    He curses. Then adds a line about how the scent of a new tennis ball is 500% more addictive than crack cocaine and is part of a conspiracy that involves hipsters, the Illuminati, and Canada.

    “F***ing Canada,” he mutters as he passes out.

  133. 133.

    chopper

    @Chyron HR:

    amazing grace is what you sing when you’ve given up and put it all in hashem’s hands. as the guillotine blade starts to drop.

  135. 135.

    muricafukyea

    @liberal: That has always been some nonsense argument cooked up on nutjob sites like the orange satan dkos.

    I think Bernake answered that question a few times saying it was not possible and gave a bunch of reasons.

  139. 139.

    virginia

    @Comrade Dread: Im old and tired and feeling hugely angry and depressed … I sometimes can’t tell snark from response and I guess I’d like to be clear since we’ve been on furlough, my husband is abroad, and I’m trying to get my son through his freshman year.

    Is this meant to snark on John Cole or to make me feel foolish for asking or what? Can’t figure it out from your piece or from the replies.

    It seems to be thought funny and brilliant but I’m a 60s gal and am kinda confused by virtue of my own bullshit and old age and lack of you know with it factor just now.

    Does anyone want to march of Washington or not?

  140. 140.

    virginia

    We used to get super high and listed to The Moody Blues and Cream and we kinda full of shit too except that stuff moved … To our detriment.

    I can’t tell now what passes for action and snark … And being able to talk on line seems to have blunted the urge to move on the streets.

    So I’m reading Comrade Dead and trying to figure out if I was dumb to ask. Can’t figure it out cause I’m not new young hip and don’t know if I was an ass to ask and that for some of us might be a problem.

    It’s just really super fucking depressing. So SOS. I’m 58 years old. Maybe we should identify ourselves.

  141. 141.

    virginia

    I miss very much the stupid innocence and clarity of the movement in my youth. It moved things a little bit. Actually a lot bit but who knows or knew? I feel like shit. How about you and what to do we do beyond Balloon Juice? Nice site for people to meet but John seems lost after death of his beloved pet. I’m cook with that except that I could do without the football crap. Don’t care but it’s not my site. Fuck .. .will grass ever be available at 711. Just wanna get super super stoned

  142. 142.

    virginia

    And I should day too that I’m Brazilian on my mother’s side and born in 1955. I grew up in part in Rio under the dictatorship. I get confused and frustrated as a result of the sarcastic factor. It’s easy to think this can’t happen to the USA … It totally can and I think maybe already has this week. I seem unable to shut up but what I’m saying is this Comrade Dead. If folks know what happened to Cole best to say it straight up. And if Comrade Dead and friends think it’s brilliant and I don’t doubt it is come up with a plan. That’s all. I’m out. I’m make an ass of myself here and will find another place to be foolish.

    Fucking hell. That being said, Comrade Dead or not, I’d still like to know where Mr. Cole is and perhaps the other main bloggers can tell me before I totally depart the scene. Fuck me fuck you fuck them and, again, cause I do kinda like myself a little, fuck me a second time.

  143. 143.

    Comrade Dread

    @virginia: It was a joke about our reclusive host, not you or your question. I’ve wondered where John went lately myself and Bomb Shelter Cole was what I had settled on. I figure he’d come out in a few years with his manifesto that would lead us all into a new religion, one with fish and chasing tennis balls and our new cat overlords.

  144. 144.

    Steeplejack

    @virginia:

    Cole appears to be going through one of his periods of blog fatigue, so he is posting less frequently. And, to judge from his few political posts lately, I think he is disgusted by and stupified by what is going on. And so, what with the blog fatigue, not motivated to write. Just my opinion, of course.

    ETA: And he does still post about every other day or so, so he is not completely absent. Occasionally even about politics. But it’s true that he hasn’t issued one of his patented long-form rants in a while.

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