Pretty clear Boehner planned all along to keep gov shut right up to debt ceiling deadline: http://t.co/sNoUf8XBKu He has a lot to answer for
— billmon (@billmon1) October 19, 2013
The entire fight was rigged from the start. Boehner just didn't feel like he could take a dive until the final round: pic.twitter.com/uWHOUv222x
— billmon (@billmon1) October 19, 2013
@sfbikelawyer Pretty expensive fucking theater tickets — even by Broadway atandards.
— billmon (@billmon1) October 19, 2013
Next time, maybe @SpeakerBoehner can just get a group rate on psychotherapy for his caucus through Obamacare, & save rest of us a lot of $.
— billmon (@billmon1) October 19, 2013
.
Politico and the GOP terrorists agree: It’s not about governance, it’s about drama therapy for a handful of spoilt, undereducated “representatives”!
Redshirt
Hey, think tanks are jobs too.
Origuy
Speaking of drama, check out Tbogg’s Twitter feed. He’s gotten some RWNJs all riled up.
Spaghetti Lee
Oh hello there, Friday Night News Dump, how are you?
Ash Can
From the first few lines of the article:
And from the end of the article:
I wonder if anyone besides us will notice what an enormous black eye this article gives John Boehner. It really makes him look like an abject failure. Granted, he is an abject failure, but this article doesn’t even try to make excuses for him. It just tapes a big “kick me” sign to his back.
The Sailor
Sometimes I just want to scream at people for their rampant stupidity, and that’s just the smart republicans.
Can I have the Dunning-Kruger effect if you know about it?
The mantra “christ, what an asshole!” is blowing thru my mind like jasmine.
(h/t Seals & Croft)
xenos
@Origuy: Jim Treacher is now reduced to calling Tbogg’s wife an ugly dog. I am really pissed off that Michelle Obama did not back up her motorcade and finish off the job.
Punchy
@Ash Can: I think we should take a page from Red State and all send Boehner bags of salted dicks. And maybe some shit vodka to wash it all down.
KG
@Ash Can: it’s a brutal account of Boehner’s failure of leadership. Pretty much everyone but him did something that could end the shutdown
Ash Can
@Punchy: He’s already furnished himself with a year’s supply of salted dicks and shit vodka. We don’t have to lift a finger.
Villago Delenda Est
@xenos:
Really. A valid criticism of the FLOTUS.
Also, the little girl who beat up on Kkkarl Rove during the ’64 campaign, and didn’t finish the job and save us all a metric buttload of trouble.
Arclite
Fucking, fucking rancid asshole granny douchenozzles. What a bunch of fucks. DIAF.
Ash Can
@KG: It doesn’t even try to make him look as though he wanted the shutdown or perceived it as useful or positive in any way. It just portrays him as being led around by the nose by the absolute worst elements in his caucus. It doesn’t even attempt to work the sympathetic angle of him having no choice or he’d be primaried from the right or voted out of his speakership. It just makes him look like a nebbish.
Is our newsies learnin’?
chopper
if boehner persists for more than two weeks, see an economist.
NotMax
If ever there were tweets which by right ought to be signed by Capt. Obvious, those are they.
scav
From discussing Twice-baked potatoes to Half-baked vegetables in a single click.
eemom
Both Sides Now
sheeyit, someone had to do it, sooner or later.
Fair Economist
The strategy of “outing” Boehner for personally causing the shutdown is interesting though. Presumably he did it to convince the Tea Party folks he’d fight for them so he can still whip them to support his plans. Outing him is going to undercut that, and increases the chance of further confrontations over the budget (or other matters).
And the White House is getting info from Boehner’s former chief of staff? Sounds like the wheels may really being coming off the Republican caucus’ bus and the administration is confident they can cause a crash and get rid of them as an effective opponent.
? Martin
I’m still somewhat surprised that Cruz doesn’t know Senate procedure any better than us here in the weeds. Guy obviously knows how to study – that’s half of debate. And procedure is kinda stupid and hella frustrating, but not all that arcane.
fuckwit
It’s true that we are largely still ruled by sociopaths. Boehner, the Teabaggers, the Koch’s, corporations that aren’t even human, Wall Street MOTU’s, the 1%, just… evil fucks.
But then today I was randomly websurfing about chalcolithic peoples, vendettas in Corsica, feuds in Celtic societies, and the War of the Roses, and I realized….
We’ve ALWAYS been ruled by sociopaths.
The most violent, unethical sociopaths always end up with the most power. It’s an endemic feature of civilization, possibly of human nature in general. There’s nothing really surprising about this, and ABSOLUTELY nothing new about it.
The horrible wealth inequality we see today is only new and outrageous in the sense it’s backsliding since where things were in the 1950s here. But in human history, it’s not new at all, it’s still better than the kind of income inequality of, say, the ancient Egyptian empire.
What’s new, is taking the baby steps we have taken towards mitigating that, to improving it, in the last few years, the last 50 years, the last 100 years, the last 200 years, etc. We have lost ground over the past 30 years for sure. But we can correct it; it’s all new in historical terms. It’s all a very long story arc.
And it’s going to be a long struggle still. Like, hundreds, probably thousands of years, maybe millions of years if we don’t melt the icecaps completely and kill ourselves off in a generation or two.
James E. Powell
@scav:
From discussing Twice-baked potatoes to Half-baked vegetables in a single click.
Sweet – Nice job.
? Martin
@fuckwit:
Sure. They’re the only ones really driven to seek power. Too much work for the rest of us.
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
I’ve had this annoying ear thing going on for months now that feels like I constantly have water in my ear. The ENT looked into my sinuses with his camera dealio and said it was a clogged Eustachian tube. Since I’ve had some neck pain on that same side, I went to see my friend’s chiropractor, who did some adjustments, made me do some exercises, and said I need to use the neti pot (which I HATE) every night this week and follow it with a salt water gargle.
I realize that the above sounds like, “My witch doctor told me to kill two chickens and call him in the morning” to some people. But it makes some sense that clearing up the issue with my neck will help my sinuses on that same side.
I still hate the freakin’ neti pot, though.
patrick II
My wife watches CNN so, sometimes, so do I. But I swear, if after the next Republican loss of some kind if I have to watch John fucking King pull out his big magic video map of the U.S.A. with all of the red colored districts and and do his sthick and proclaim the country is really right of center red, I will throw something at the TV. Someone should explain to him that a square mile of potato fields in Idaho does not contain the same number of voters as a square mile of downtown Manhattan no matter how big it looks on his magic map.
Bill E Pilgrim
Huh. This seemed pretty clear to me weeks ago, that Boehner was absolutely obligated to go right the last possible moment. Last week when people were freaking that they hadn’t agreed to anything, I wrote somewhere of course they haven’t, they’ve got days still. Not that I was absolutely certain that they would cave, rather than actually drag us into apocalyptic default, but it seemed certain that if they did it would be as late as possible to try to deflect Wingnut screaming about how they gave in too soon.
I guess I’m surprised that anyone could imagine that this was anything but theater, but then I’m surprised by a lot of things.
Suffern ACE
I really do think its time to have a conversation about the speaker’s drinking problem. He wasn’t overrun; he’s put himself in a situation where he isn’t sober enough to find his way through the day. He doesn’t sound like he’s functioning.
Debbie(aussie)
Huuby’s mid-life crisis, purchased hours ago! http://www.yamaha-motor.com.au/products/motorcycle/road/cruiser/14-v-star-xvs650a-classic
I am getting a tablet or netbook/laptop, any recommendations
max
Uh, yeeeaahhhhh. That’s what he did in 2011. If you’re going to take hostages, you’re going to have a big ask, which either you’re going to get (in which case you ask for even more) or you don’t, so you get very insistent. The way to have leverage is to credibly threaten to use it. In this instance, that means sticking it out to deadline… and then going over. (As happened in 2011.)
@Ash Can: I wonder if anyone besides us will notice what an enormous black eye this article gives John Boehner. It really makes him look like an abject failure. Granted, he is an abject failure, but this article doesn’t even try to make excuses for him. It just tapes a big “kick me” sign to his back.
If Obama had made real concessions, they’d be praising Boehner for his genius.
Whatever. He’s a weak Speaker, leading an overaggressive, undisciplined nuthouse of a caucus, and he’s also a conniving sack of shit. Newt Gingrich without any of Newt’s good qualities (like occasional concern for other human beings, or sincerity of convictions or rare intelligent idea). Boehner just wants to run the syndicate and collect the checks for his patrons.
@Mnemosyne (iPhone): I’ve had this annoying ear thing going on for months now that feels like I constantly have water in my ear.
Tell me about it. I got it from a cold in December. Never went away. Really sucks, although much better now. (No neck pain, just the sounds of the sea in my ear stepping on things I’m trying to hear.)
max
[‘Blah.’]
Bill E Pilgrim
@Debbie(aussie):
In both cases, include padded protection.
Bill E Pilgrim
Example of why anytime in my life I’ve read even an excerpt from Politico all I can think is “Who the hell wrote this??”
Unless the one being threatened gives the extortionists anything they want immediately, he’s equally to blame for the extortion. It’s just common sense.
CanadaGoose
@Suffern ACE:
Wilbur Mills comes to mind. And inevitably, Fanne Fox.
Spaghetti Lee
@Bill E Pilgrim:
but it seemed certain that if they did it would be as late as possible to try to deflect Wingnut screaming about how they gave in too soon.
Of course, the wingnuts are screaming anyway. Most people would tell them all to go pound sand after that, but most people aren’t as craven and cowardly as John Boehner.
Yatsuno
@Debbie(aussie): Make it match the price of the bike. Seems fair n’est-ce pas?
Jeff Spender
I reas how the 56,000 people in Oregon who got insured were added on medicare. What bothered me was the comments.
I feel like we live in a land of sociopaths.
Jeff Spender
I read how the 56,000 people in Oregon who got insured were added on medicare. What bothered me was the comments.
I feel like we live in a land of sociopaths.
piratedan
what strikes me is how incredibly cynical this all is…..
kick 800K of federal workers off the job…. check
scare the shit out of the oldsters and the disabled as to whether that next check will actually get in the mail…. check
keep stating that it’s the other guy… when you control the agenda…. check
lying to your own caucus…. check
ruining the trust of the nation politically and financially around the world… check
screwing over the economy to ensure an even wobblier recovery…. check
the guy can’t even be truthful with his own crazies, never gave his own backers any cause to trust him as he played out the string, apparently has no moral or ethical compass outside his own needs. No principles, just political calculation for the sake of party imagery of the highest order encapsulating style and optics over substance.
just incredible how this “game” is being played and I have to begrudgingly admire how he played the MSM for suckers to allow himself all of this cover.
Just shows how little the average American matters to elected Republican officials…and there are STILL people who will follow these guys off the cliffs without ever looking down and around at what they have wrought.
Mary G
@Debbie(aussie): I LOVE my Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 tablet – 10.1 inches, great picture, tons of free apps from Google Play.
fka AWS
Oh, fuck, Boehner and all the GOP are just idiots. Why Politiho is reporting this in news in beyond me.
Ruckus
@Jeff Spender:
Go with that feeling.
You won’t be wrong at least 27% of the time.
Soonergrunt
This is the best thing I’ve seen all day.
http://youtu.be/b0YC3RpvE3M
piratedan
@Soonergrunt: that is pretty awesome…
Villago Delenda Est
@piratedan:
Oh, the dipshits of the MSM just ate the whole thing up. All that fucking drama to glue the audiences to the edge of their seats. I’m sure their galtian overlord masters are pleased with the profits reaped from higher ratings for this ridiculous kabuki.
mdblanche
@Bill E Pilgrim: It must have been written by a misprogrammed Santa-bot.
“Let’s see who’s been naughty…and who’s been naughty. Mobsters beating up a shopkeeper for protection money! Very naughty. Shopkeepers not paying their protection money – exactly as naughty!”
piratedan
@Villago Delenda Est: well it’s becoming more apparent to me that while there is an element of stupidity at play in the R rank and file, that the leadership is comprised of some cynical cunning bastards that are quite aware on how the game is played. Doesn’t mean that they always win, but they play those losing hands for all that they’re worth in hopes of someone else at the table misplaying their own hand. Thankfully, it appears that there is a team that’s equal or at least has played enough with the duplicitous bastards to recognize their tells and understand that they have a stronger hand.
The prophet Nostradumbass
“The Bay Area’s News Station”, neutrally reporting on the BART strike. Don’t bother with the comments, as usual.
Yatsuno
@The prophet Nostradumbass: Fuck em. Let BART fire them all then figure out why the train system is running in complete chaos. I can’t legally strike at my job but we have other ways of bringing pressure to bear.
? Martin
@The prophet Nostradumbass: Um. This is pretty near the bluest, most worker friendly state in the nation, and they think the legislature is going to make it illegal to strike?
piratedan
@Yatsuno: from what I’ve read, the hold up isn’t pay, it’s the working conditions/i.e. the equipment isn’t being maintained…. public safety matters if you’re responsible for it but don’t have the manpower or the authority to get repairs done when needed.
? Martin
@Jeff Spender:
Well, no. But only sociopaths post comments on newspaper sites.
? Martin
@piratedan: They have agreement on pay. 12% over 4 years, but workers take over 9.5% of health insurance. So, less than 1% per year.
The issue is that ridership is up 40% but staffing has dropped by almost 10% since 2008. Not enough workers to maintain, true. But also workers having to staff locations late at night alone, etc. Part of BARTs excuses for not hiring is that workman comp claims are up 40%, which sort of proves the point.
raven
I love these long gaps in the morning!
NotMax
@raven
G’day.
raven
@NotMax: What up!!! Get a chance to watch any of the movie reviews?
eta The review of The Titanic is something. The studio decided to have survivors come to the premier, they didn’t have a grasp of PTSD and it was the second Titanic disaster!
NotMax
@raven
Yeah, poked around a mite.
Dunno if you saw the reference yesterday to the first woman to take office in the U.S. Senate.
From Georgia and, shall we say, a real piece of work.
Jamey
@? Martin:
Assuming healthcare = pay. Which would suck.
Jamey
@fka AWS: Because otherwise, they wouldn’t have had a vehicle for the following:
Which, I’m sure the Politicos have been DYING to use for weeks.
Anya
Sadly, the voters will still vote for these lunatics and their drunk, cowardly “leader.”
Mike E
@NotMax: Mullato Blackberries. Prescient.
Mike E
@mdblanche: Don’t forget ‘framing crippled orphans’ also. Too.
Raven
@NotMax: jesus
Southern Beale
Yesterday was Good News Friday, if anyone wants some positive news.
TR
The TBogg Twitter spat is hysterical. I thought Jim Treacher’s insults seemed like they came from a high school douchebro — gay jokes, old jokes, your wife’s a dog jokes — and then I looked him up on Wikipedia, which lists his greatest accomplishment as being a graduate of Crawfordville Indiana Senior High School. SENIOR high, y’all. Step aside for the big man on campus!
Actually, it looks like he’s bragging about being the originator of the “Obama Eats Dogs” meme, which is quite an accomplishment too. Such a prodigy.
This is the genius that’s writing humor for Tucker Carlson these days. Stop looking for the bottom of the barrel. We found it.
Raven
@Southern Beale: the Dawgs is in Nashville for a morning kickoff!
JPL
@TR: When I used google, a picture pops up of Jim with this description underneath.. Jim Treacher is the nom de plume of Sean Medlock, an American political pundit and satirist
The average high school senior is funnier.
TR
The best part of the Tbogg thing is when Hinderaker joined in with “ah, TBogg, I seem to remember his little blog, whatever became of him?” and someone responded, “ah, Assrocket, I seem to remember his statement that Dubya was a misunderstood genius, whatever became of him?”
JPL
@NotMax: That was fascinating and thanks for the link. Females deserved all the protections of the U.S. Constitution but lynching is okay. My mind can’t even grasp that type of hatred.
aimai
@? Martin: I’ve known some incredibly smart debate people–like INCREDIBLY–but they will usually say that Debate and its training has nothing to do with it. They thought Debate was a facile, shallow, very constrained form of reasoning which didn’t really train you to research and think-it just was tricksy and showy. Thats the impression I have of Cruz. I don’t doubt he’s intelligent but he’s made stupid with agression and he’s clearly intellectually and morally lazy. He only knows what he thinks he needs to know to get over in a given situation. Not a long range planner. Leaves a lot up to god. Should have realized Harry Reid has a different god and a different rule book.
agrippa
@fuckwit:
got it in one
WereBear
@aimai: Not only that, intelligence comes in many facets… it’s a persistent delusion that smartness in one area equals smartness in another.
Cruz does strike me as an intelligent person who has had many of his mental “gear teeth” sanded off. That right wing view of things, especially when covered with the gooey gravy of fundamentalism, simply blocks the smooth functioning of logic and reasoning. So many things Cannot Be Thought Of that their though processes get tangled and contradictory, and they use up all their mental energy denying that…
Which is why the outright grifters, like Gingrich, do better than true believers like Bachmann, who is thisclose to a breakdown.
Ken
@Fair Economist: Presumably he did it to convince the Tea Party folks he’d fight for them so he can still whip them to support his plans.
Boehner has plans? News to me.
Mike E
@aimai: Not to foist an overly facile sports analogy here but that thinking shows up where “experts” can’t imagine a Rip Hamilton-led UConn beating Duke, or the perfect Patriots losing a Super Bowl.
Matt McIrvin
@fuckwit: The political problem right now is, that observation leads immediately to people saying, “If the people in power are all sociopaths, obviously we need to get government out of our lives.” And the politicians saying they’ll get government out of our lives are the biggest sociopaths. It’s a positive feedback loop.
Josie
@aimai: I would guess that Cruz will not have an easy ride during the rest of his time in the senate. He has made enemies of both Reid and McConnell, both of whom are cunning survivors of many political wars. He may have finally overstepped his bounds in a very big way.
agrippa
@aimai:
You are right about debate; and, you are right about Cruz.
We shall if he has a flat learning curve.
Mike E
You all will appreciate this: I am wearing a tie and playing my security role at the local conference center, where we are hosting a tenther gathering… Yep, can’t wait to ‘let slip’ my ACA enrollment plan!
JPL
@Mike E: Maybe I need more coffee, but I can’t figure out what a tenther gathering is.
JPL
@JPL: I just googled it. If the states are suppose to have that much power, why did so many choose to let the federal government, set up ACA.
WereBear
@Matt McIrvin: I short-circuit that with some people by pointing out politics are an essential part of civilization, and in over 12,000 years, we haven’t come up with anything better than what we got right now.
And it used to be worse!
In fact, “controlling sociopaths” is one of the reasons we have evolved the civilization we are in right now.
Matt McIrvin
@WereBear: The “drown the government” folks also tend to have a blind spot toward any variety of power other than governmental power; or else they regard that kind of power as appropriate, and their personal birthright which the government is taking away from them.
Bobby Thomson
@xenos:
Both blind and stupid, I see.
MomSense
I’m watching c-span and the callers are saying the dumbest things. Really the level of stupid is stunning. How the hell can we be a great power if so many people are this ignorant?
aimai
The most interesting thing to me about that Politico article is how thin it really is. They didn’t get any interesting direct quotes–for example they don’t actually know what Kelly Ayotte said to Cruz which so abashed him that he retreated, they have the less interesting and completely out of context wail by Boozeman (who may have talked to them) about how he got in Cruz’s face and said lamely “I will not be bullied.”
They have no idea what Obama said at any of these meetings, confining themselves to paraphrases and single sentence quotes they have already published weeks ago. The Dems seem to have kept pretty closed mouths through all of this, including the Politico interviews. Meanwhile they significantly downplay the White House’s role in all this and specifically Obamas while overplaying the (to them) important role of who got to make what posturing move first (“Cantor got to be in the Wall STreet Journal!” This is very important real estate.”). They don’t seem to remember what they and everyone else already reported which is that Susan Collin’s “Deal” was shot down by Obama himself as well, probably, of other women in the Senate. They don’t notice the sexism of the negotiating strategies of the Republicans and they accept that Schumer met with Alexander because they “had a history” rather than assuming that Schumer was told to meet with whoever because there were going to be no negotiations, period.
They get that the Dems had a strategy and used every angle to destroy the Republicans, but they don’t get it, either, and report everything naivly. But the most interesting thing of all is the way they undercut Obama’s role. He’s barely in that discussion and Reid is given all the power.
bemused
After subscribing to Siriusxm in home & car since 2001, we cancelled our subscription today after a huge channel changeover. We primarily listened to talk radio channels and all our favorites are gone.
Now to decide best option to listen to our favorites on radio with ipod touch or something else in the car. Cursory searching turned up Bluetooth, app for ICloud etc but we need to get feedback from people who know what the best options are now.
Schlemizel
Two things
Leave it to Politiho to dragging Lewinski into the story
I do not remember the negotiations from last December, What did Biden do that pissed off Reid?
MikeJ
@aimai:
Particularly interesting because the Republican strategy was to make everything be about Obama. They really believe that everybody has a deep seated burning hatred for the Kenyan usurper. The Republicans never talked about Reid, everything was Obama’s fault according to them.
CaseyL
@Soonergrunt: Thanks for a fun Saturday morning waker-upper. We need more Klingon song and dance numbers.
gene108
From the Politico link.
Any guesses what’s in Schumer’s “hideaway”.
I’m thinking updated styling of a 70’s influenced bachelor pad, designed to seduce the ladies. A little love nest in the Capitol.
Amir Khalid
@TR:
I was under the impression that the originator of the “Obama eats dogs” meme was Barack Obama himself — he wrote about it in Dreams From My Father.
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
@Ash Can: NPR Morning Edition they did a piece on Boehner yesterday morning that seemed like they were trying to start rehabilitating him after this debacle. Both sides do it is still operational in the national press corpse.
Soonergrunt
@Schlemizel: From Reid’s perspective. Biden undercut him and gave away the store.
geg6
@agrippa:
I was just going to say the same thing. I did debate in high school for a couple of years and then quit in disgust. For exactly that reason: debate is not about making smart arguments or even good arguments. Some really stupid motherfuckers were “good” debaters. What they actually were were bullies. Verbal bullies. I had no desire to feed their egos, so I quit. I had been looking for intellectual stimulation and all I got was verbal football with guys (and it was 90% guys) who the real football players stuffed in lockers.
JPL
@gene108: Maybe it’s in the parking garage. That was Newt’s favorite spot.
gelfling545
@Mary G: I have a friend in his 50’s who has absolutely never touched a computer. He is considering, with his next phone contract, getting a tablet & his company is offering the Samsung free. Do you feel it would be easy enough for a computer-phobic beginner to use?
Amir Khalid
@gelfling545:
I’m kind of wondering what your friend does at his company, if he’s never had to use a computer at work. But anyway, have you tried inviting him to test-drive a tablet, just to dip his toe in the personal-tech waters? Then he can slowly get a feel for what he wants to do with his own tablet.
rikyrah
Because Nancy Smash is interested and focused on good governance. When you come from that viewpoint, the illogic of Orange Julius just doesn’t make sense.
gelfling545
@Amir Khalid: Self employed sub-contractor in ornamental & restoration plastering – one man operation.
We’ll have to convince him to try out a few before choosing. He’s only going this way because 1. tablet is free with contract renewal & 2. he can’t get his favorite totally not smart phone anymore.
rikyrah
can’t stand Politico, but I think this bit of reporting was on point.
They never thought:
1. The President was serious (they still don’t understand that POTUS joined team NFTG at 11: 05 EST on 11/6/2012)
2. That the Democrats would stick together (finally getting what they didn’t during the 2010 elections – Dems OWN Obamacare, so what good would it to run away from it)
Them whining to Joe Biden to ‘ get involved’, and Ride-or-Die Joe responding, ‘ naw Sons, not my negotiation’.
gelfling545
@geg6: I did debate in high school. It was a girl’s school so was probably a bit more civilized, considering the times the times & the nuns. The class was called Rhetoric & Debate, however, which to my mind was more about public speaking. Research was a small component in that class, though a big deal in the school in general.
LAC
@Bill E Pilgrim: Just keep Charles Pierce’s description in mind: “Tiger Beat on the Potomac”
TR
@Amir Khalid:
Exactly. This guy is fapping himself furiously because he could read.