Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

It’s a good piece. click on over. but then come back!!

Consistently wrong since 2002

The choice is between normal and crazy.

The lights are all blinking red.

There is no right way to do the wrong thing.

In my day, never was longer.

Israel is using food as a weapon of war. Unforgivable.

How any woman could possibly vote for this smug smarmy piece of misogynistic crap is beyond understanding.

“woke” is the new caravan.

The willow is too close to the house.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

T R E 4 5 O N

Nothing worth doing is easy.

I did not have this on my fuck 2024 bingo card.

When you’re a Republican, they let you do it.

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

“I was told there would be no fact checking.”

People are complicated. Love is not.

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

This isn’t Democrats spending madly. This is government catching up.

The arc of the moral universe doesn’t bend itself. it’s up to us.

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

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

You are here: Home / Economics / C.R.E.A.M. / Tuesday Morning Open Thread: Nobody Could Have Predicted

Tuesday Morning Open Thread: Nobody Could Have Predicted

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More immediately important:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin spoke late Monday as they tried to broker a debt ceiling and budget deal with just days left before Congress plans to leave for the rest of the summer.

The talks took on new urgency after Pelosi shot down a White House fallback plan that would have Congress raise the debt ceiling — potentially for just a short period of time — by late next week if they failed to reach a budget agreement.

Pelosi, the California Democrat, said the idea of raising the debt ceiling on its own and not in conjunction with a budget agreement was not “acceptable to our caucus” and therefore did not stand a chance of passage in the House of Representatives…

Pelosi has also said she is hopeful that she can reach a deal with the White House, but on Monday she made clear that the White House would not dictate the fallback plan if the talks falter. Pelosi wants the White House to agree to a specific budget deal that would dictate spending levels for the next two years.

Asked what would happen if the White House and Congress did not reach a budget and debt ceiling deal by the end of next week, Pelosi said late Monday “I’m not going into the theoretical. I’m into the actual.”…

Lawmakers must craft a new budget deal by the end of September, because that’s when funding for many agencies is set to expire. If lawmakers don’t fund the agencies after Sept. 30, there will be another government shutdown. Mnuchin said on Monday that the White House does not want to see another shutdown, but he said they didn’t have enough time to wait until late September to deal with the debt ceiling and budget talks, as the debt ceiling deadline could be much sooner…

Reader Interactions

122Comments

  4. 4.

    OzarkHillbilly

    In the wake of Barry’s passing, 95+ temps are coming to stay for a bit. Blech.

  9. 9.

    OzarkHillbilly

    I decided to give each of the fearsome foursome a little love yesterday and succeeded with all except AOC. Don’t know why the actblue page started acting up there, it was fine for the other 3. I’ll try again later.

  10. 10.

    ola azul

    Surface temp 65 degrees in environs from Cape Cross to Sitka. Jellyfish like never seen. Rivers in our marine climate is running trickle-dry. Beginning to suspect maybe this climate change dealio ain’t just a Chinese hoax.

  12. 12.

    Baud

    @ola azul:

    Maybe Alaskans will think about replacing their two GOP senators with Dems before the state turns into a rainforest.

  16. 16.

    ola azul

    @Baud:

    Yes, please, but: If only. We’re stuck with Gov. Mike Dunleavy, a plodding clod so thick, even dingleberries are unwilling to suffer the comparison.

    Atimes I despair for our brethren.

  18. 18.

    ola azul

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Reminds me of the voter “requirements” down south in times of yore (same shit, different day, course, just tactics more sophisticated nowadays).

    Pollworker asked a black prospective voter if he could cipher out a scrap of foreign, and he sez, “Yeah, I know just exactly what that means.” His astonished gatekeepers asks, “Well, what it is?”

    So he sez: “It’s simple. It sez black folks can’t vote.”

  20. 20.

    Ken

    I hope in the talks with Mnuchin, Pelosi finds a chance to slip in the line “My offer is: Nothing.”

  21. 21.

    JGabriel

    Catherine Rampell:

    Pelosi says the House of Representatives would not raise the debt ceiling unless it is part of a broader budget deal

    Good. Remember this:

    … Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) offered a chilling assessment of the crisis he helped create. “What we did learn is this – it’s a hostage that’s worth ransoming,” he said.

    Payback is Nancy Pelosi, Mitch.

  23. 23.

    satby

    Good morning all! @rikyrah: ?

    Getting some much needed rain from the remnants of Barry, but it’s light and not the soaking we needed. I’m hoping for more thunderstorms later because my front lawn had gone completely dormant and hand watering all the newer shrubs was such a pain. That same 90°+ that @OzarkHillbilly is getting will be arriving tomorrow and lasting the rest of the week. BLECH!

  26. 26.

    Baud

    @JGabriel:

    It’s not the same though. The GOP held the government hostage to try to push through awful policies that could not pass on their own. Nancy responsibly seems to want good government in the form of an actual budget. I haven’t heard of her making special demands.

    It’s important because the GOP will try to portray what she is doing with what they did.

  28. 28.

    JGabriel

    @Ken:

    I hope in the talks with Mnuchin, Pelosi finds a chance to slip in the line “My offer is: Nothing.”

    I hope she finds a chance to slip in something like: “We learned the lesson Mitch McConnell taught us in 2011: the debt-limit is a hostage worth taking.”

  29. 29.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @NotMax: Good thing I don’t speak Mandarin, I’d probably call somebody’s mother a mountain of a horse on a rope.

  31. 31.

    JGabriel

    @Baud: I

    t’s not the same though. The GOP held the government hostage to try to push through awful policies that could not pass on their own. Nancy responsibly seems to want good government in the form of an actual budget.

    I’m saying: she should do the same thing to them. Since we’re democrats, it obviously can never be exactly the same, since we won’t push through the same policies. But we should play the same kind of hardball Republicans have been playing for the past quarter century.

    The GOP spent the last 25 years opposing Democrats with scirched earth tactics. I say it’s time for them to learn how to deal with the earth they scorched. If it causes the economy to crash during Donald Trump’s reign of terror, so much the better.

  32. 32.

    Baud

    @JGabriel:

    Not possible. The media isn’t in our corner and our voters aren’t as dedicated as theirs are. It’s nice to dream about, but it’s not realistic.

  33. 33.

    plato

    Obama granted Danielle Metz clemency in 2016. Out of prison, she made the dean's list.

    This week, Obama wrote her: "I am so proud of you, and am confident that your example will have a positive impact for others who are looking for a second chance."

    https://t.co/ylh0mevTwO— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) July 13, 2019

    From the classy O to the ohfuck – how far have we have fallen down in double quick time.

  34. 34.

    plato

    Rep. Omar to @maddow: "He's called on us to go back and fight corruption and fight these countries that have … inept leaders. Well, we are living in one. He is that president. He is corrupt. He is the worst president we've had. He is inept. And we're going to call him out."— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) July 16, 2019

  35. 35.

    Gin & Tonic

    Riffing off AL’s sub-hed “nobody could have predicted” – nobody could have predicted Rudy Giuliani falsely accusing someone of wrongdoing. A while back, Rudy accused Ukrainian MP Serhiy Leshchenko of interfering in the 2016 US elections – Leshchenko is the guy known for releasing the “black ledger” that showed Manafort being paid ~$12 mil in cash by the part of the former President Yanukovych. Ukraine’s top appeals court has ruled that he did no such thing.

  36. 36.

    Kay

    Jennifer Bendery
    ‏Verified account
    @jbendery
    8h8 hours ago
    More
    Ilhan Omar has been a U.S. citizen longer than Melania Trump

  37. 37.

    gene108

    Really pathetic Republicans are forcing us to brinkmanship to agree to PASS A FUCKING BUDGET!

    Congress has one damn job, at a minimum, and that is to appropriate money to keep government running.

    This is how badly Republicans have broken government that the Speaker of the House had to negotiate to pass an annual budget and appropriations, because otherwise it would just be ignored.

  38. 38.

    debbie

    “Trump” and “11-dimensional chess” in the same sentence? I can’t stop laughing!

  39. 39.

    NotMax

    @Gin & Tonic

    And it was reported last week that Giuliani met with an unidentified Ukrainian purporting to have “dirt on Biden” while in Albania to address MEK.

  40. 40.

    debbie

    @satby:

    Same here. The 10-day forecast shows humidity will be down to 50% next week. If I can only hang on ’til then…

  43. 43.

    ola azul

    Hadda dear friend die suddenlny here recent. Was about 20 boat hours outta Sitka (to the north) and was playing with a new nav. software that crowd-sources a buncha peep’s bottom-marking data (upshot: can rockpile with [relative] confidence). Gotta text inna place never expected to, apparently a weird pocket of recep in an otherwise vast sea of non-receptivity. Text informs me my dear friend has tipped over at 49, fatal heart attack. Gotta 7-year-old son who she loved infinitely, husband now a widower. A shit
    show, iow.

    So onna big aluminum bird bound for Mich. tomorry.

    No one gets out alive, granted, but sometimes life is gimlet-eyed cruel. And transparently unfair.

    Dick motherfucking Cheney is gonna die fat, happy, rich and unconquerably stupid, quite confident that alla his evil is correct and justified. And then there’s my friend, who just wanted to give and receive love.

  44. 44.

    plato

    South Korea has introduced tough new workplace anti-bullying laws with penalties that include jail for employers in some cases.

    It marks the first time the country has required employers take action against harassment.

    Workers will be able to report behaviour such as gossiping or being forced to attend company functions.

    Harassment in the workplace is widespread in South Korea with about 70% of employees reportedly affected.

    Under the laws, employers are prohibited from taking any measures – including dismissal – against a victim or employee who has reported workplace bullying.

    They face up to three years in prison or a fine of up to 30 million won ($25,470; £20,355).

    Victims will also be able to apply for compensation if they develop health problems after being harassed at work.

  45. 45.

    Kay

    The liberty-lovers are at it again:

    A federal judge in Brooklyn turned labor’s famous Scabby The Rat loose from a trap—really a ban—the Trump-named National Labor Relations Board majority set.
    Instead, U.S. District Court Judge Nicholas Garaufis said on July 1 that the Constitution’s First Amendment right of free speech protects the rat—and a big cockroach, too.
    The case got started when Laborers Local 79 picketed a ShopRite at a Staten Island strip mall for union-busting there and brought two big rats, each known throughout the movement as a symbol of someone who crosses picket lines or otherwise scabs, to the scene. The slightly smaller cockroach, symbolism similar, came along.
    NLRB’s Brooklyn regional office, following—even if only by inference—guidance from the Trump-named NLRB majority, sued to ban the rat, setting the trap. A check of board records showed this wasn’t the first time the Trump majority on the agency tried to ban the rat. It lost at least once.
    Trapping the rat, Garaufis said, violates union workers’ free speech rights.
    “As a threshold matter, the court notes Local 79’s peaceful use of stationary, inflatable rats and a cockroach to publicize a labor protest is protected by the First Amendment,” Garaufis wrote.
    Appealing his ruling “would raise serious constitutional concerns” the judge warned.

  46. 46.

    Kay

    @plato:

    We finally heard from the no-show job Trump Administration press secretary- she issued a strong statement supporting racism.
    These people. Bottom of the barrel.

  49. 49.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @plato: Danielle Metz’s story:

    NEW ORLEANS – The sun glowed gold, and a second line parade was tuning its horns just a few streets away. But Danielle Metz had missed half her life already, and she couldn’t spare the afternoon, even one as unseasonably warm as this mid-February Sunday.

    She climbed the stairs to the shotgun house her mom had bought in uptown New Orleans more than half a century ago. Metz slipped through the screen door, then shut it tight enough to keep out the sun. Inside, she dug through a box next to her bed and pulled out the clothbound journal that a woman had given her in 1996, when they were both incarcerated in the Federal Correctional Institute in Dublin, California. Metz hadn’t kept much from the 23 years she spent in prison, but the journal had been too special to leave behind. She opened it and read the dedication as a reminder of what she hoped to accomplish now that she was out.

    “To Danielle – There’s so many things we can’t get in here, but knowledge and education can’t be kept out by walls.”

    A long read but worth the trip.

  50. 50.

    Kay

    The Trump Administration are probably shocked the women fought back. They usually pick on people who don’t or can’t fight back and get the kind of media attention they get.
    When they attacked the federal judge for being Latino they knew he couldn’t say a word in his own defense and obviously the migrant children can’t launch a counteroffensive.

  57. 57.

    plato

    @rikyrah: Fuck wapo. The traitorous thug was white ‘folks’ mess and let them clean it up.

    Also. Too.

    And if you did not have his back during birtherism, Tan Suit Gate, Beer Gate, Merrick Garland, ACA, etc., go sit down somewhere.— Midwin Charles (@MidwinCharles) July 16, 2019

  60. 60.

    Baud

    @plato:

    Yeah, what’s Obama supposed to tell people anyway?

    “Don’t be Nazis.”

    “Thanks, Obama! I forgot about that.”

  62. 62.

    Kay

    Well, my son and his dog and cat made it to Denmark, the animals had their health checked and were cleared to be released and they’re moved in. His wife was here Saturday- she has to close on their apartment sale so doesn’t leave until that’s finished. I bought their car and they forgot the EZ pass. I’ll try to close the account today, if IL ezpass will let me.

    He’s already sick of not speaking/reading Danish and is determined to learn. He’s quick. I think he’ll pick it up fast because he’s so uncomfortable not being able to read anything.

  65. 65.

    Immanentize

    @ola azul: I’m sorry to hear about your friend, but I’m glad you were in the pocket to receive the sorry news. Now you can give the husband and son a little love in person.

  66. 66.

    Kay

    @plato:

    The NYTimes Trump Team says the Trump hires are tired of being asked about their racism. Weary. Why can’t they just run the President’s re-elect 24/7 without these pesky demands?

    I’m tired of their incessant nasty lying and flagrant law-breaking, so we’re even. Well, not really “even”. They don’t pay me and I pay them.

  69. 69.

    Quinerly

    @rikyrah: saw this yesterday. I loved her when she was with Hillary. Love her even more now. Plus, she looked stunning yesterday.

  71. 71.

    Steve in the ATL

    @Kay:

    He’s already sick of not speaking/reading Danish

    If I had a Danish Krone for every time I’ve said that….

  72. 72.

    Baud

    Today show just now: Trump trying to divide moderate and liberal Dems but Dems are united.

  73. 73.

    Chyron HR

    @Baud:

    It’s kind of funny how The Squad and the rest of Bernie’s Revolution use “liberal” as an epithet, and everyone else keeps using it as a synonym for “leftist”.

  76. 76.

    Betty Cracker

    Weird how so many Twitter Dems who complain nonstop about the disloyalty of “the squad” for allegedly calling out fellow Dems instead of Republicans spend so many pixels trashing…the squad. Mote, beam, etc.

  78. 78.

    Quinerly

    Democratic Rep. Al Green announced Monday at a Texas press conference that he’s going to introduce articles of impeachment this month because of Trump’s bigotry.

    “This is not about the Mueller report,” he said. “This is not about obstruction. We can impeach this president for his bigotry in policy that is harming our society.””This is about the president’s statement that they should go back … that statement in and of itself is a racist, bigoted statement,” he added.

  81. 81.

    a thousand flouncing lurkers was fidelio

    @ola azul: That’s bad, but it would be much worse to make it home and then get the news too late to go to the funeral and be a good support to her family and other friends.

  82. 82.

    Kay

    @Steve in the ATL:

    He’s not good with people. It makes me sad to think he might have to approach one and… ask for help. Well, “ask”. Mutely plead with sad eyes and hand gestures. His wife better get over there pronto. She’s normal.
    I’ll miss them and I also am not ashamed to say I will miss having a place to stay in Chicago.

  83. 83.

    Kristine

    @satby: I get a lake break today and tomorrow–lo/mid 80s instead of the 90s that Chi will get. Then the roof caves, or blows off, for three days. Fever supposed to break on Sunday.

    And yes, we could use some rain in far NE IL too.

  84. 84.

    Kay

    @Betty Cracker:

    Hate to say it but it really is “both sides”. For every Lefty complaint there’s a Centrist bomb lobbed. I’m convinced all of the various Dem factions can get along if they would just be…completely different, better people :)

  87. 87.

    rikyrah

    @Kay:

    I’ll miss them and I also am not ashamed to say I will miss having a place to stay in Chicago.

    But, now, you have a place to stay in Europe :)

    I still think this means that you’ll get grandchildren, sooner than later.

  88. 88.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    @Kay: When I was teaching business report writing, the students tended to list problem “solutions” basically saying everyone needed to behave better. I used to tell them that was a pious wish, not an actual solution because everyone never behaves better. You needed procedures, regulations, and accountability.

  89. 89.

    Brachiator

    @Baud:

    Weird = Normal. People addicted to enforcing the rules always forget to follow them

    GOP proverb: rules, like taxes, are for little people.

  90. 90.

    Baud

    @Kay:

    Hate to say it but it really is “both sides”. For every Lefty complaint there’s a Centrist bomb lobbed

    I don’t like it, but the fact is it was asymmetric in 2016, and it cost us. I think the current situation is the backlash.

  91. 91.

    Kay

    I was glad the squad mentioned the Trump Administration corruption. I know some people here think corruption isn’t a productive line of attack, politically, but I’m convinced it is and I think some Democrats are too- they’re incorporating it into their campaigns. Trump has a certain cunning – he really does accuse other others of what he himself sees as a vulnerability and I think one can read his attacks and see what he feels vulnerable on, and he brought up corruption yesterday.

    They are corrupt. The people he hires have to resign – high turnover- because they’re really low quality and they have either problematic pasts or current ethical issues. That should be used.

  92. 92.

    Another Scott

    @Kay: Twitter:

    Amanda Marcotte Verified account @AmandaMarcotte

    While everyone agrees that Jason’s serial killing is disruptive, the teens are doing the public peace no favors by both screaming loudly and then ruining the floorboards by bleeding to death on them. Both sides could do better.

    4:37 AM – 16 Jul 2019

    Werd.

    (via LOLGOP)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  93. 93.

    rikyrah

    Trump administration reopens dangerous ‘longline’ fishing off California

    Source: raw story
    July 16, 2019

    The Pacific leatherback sea turtle, at up to 2,200 pounds the largest turtle on earth, could disappear from our oceans, yet Trump regulators have OK’d a type of fishing that could wipe out the massive animals.

    Pacific leatherback sea turtles are one of eight turtle species the Fisheries Service has identified as most at risk of extinction. The number of West Pacific leatherback sea turtles declined about 6% a year from the 1980s through 2011.

    An estimated 562 nesting female adults survive now. In 2040, that number is projected to drop to 260 adult females in 2040, so few that leatherbacks likely could not make a comeback.

    Despite this, in April the National Marine Fisheries Service issued a two-year permit to allow two boats to fish for swordfish 50 to 200 miles off the coast of California and Oregon using fishing lines with hundreds of baited hooks. The lines, up to 62 miles long, also catch turtles, seals and birds. David Haworth, captain of the Pacific Horizon, and John Gibbs, captain of Southern Horizon, are named in the permit.

    “Sea turtles could go extinct if deadly longline fisheries are expanded,” said Todd Steiner, executive director of Turtle Island Restoration Network……………………………………..

  94. 94.

    rikyrah

    Trump abortion restrictions effective immediately

    Source: AP

    WASHINGTON — Taxpayer-funded family planning clinics must stop referring women for abortions immediately, the Trump administration said Monday, declaring it will begin enforcing a new regulation hailed by religious conservatives and denounced by medical organizations and women’s rights groups.

    The head of a national umbrella group representing the clinics said the administration is following “an ideological agenda” that could disrupt basic health care for many low-income women.

    Ahead of a planned conference Tuesday with the clinics, the Health and Human Services Department formally notified them that it will begin enforcing the ban on abortion referrals, along with a requirement that clinics maintain separate finances from facilities that provide abortions. Another requirement that both kinds of facilities cannot be under the same roof would take effect next year.

    The rule is widely seen as a blow against Planned Parenthood, which provides taxpayer-funded family planning and basic health care to low-income women, as well as abortions that must be paid for separately. The organization is a mainstay of the federally funded family planning program and it has threatened to quit over the issue.

  95. 95.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    That’s interesting. And I agree to a certain extent. I think they hurt Obama and then Clinton and I do believe they helped elect Trump, either directly by voting for ridiculous grifter Stein or thru their dishonest campaign to accuse her of everything under the sun. Maybe equilibrium is called for. Maybe that’s the best result. An uneasy truce.

    We’re having a mini version of this battle here. The Democrats on the board of election agreed to back a local Lefty referendum (on the ballot countywide) because they don’t want to alienate Left/labor. When it came time to vote last week one of the centrist D’s broke ranks and voted with the R’s which stalls it. Okay, I know him and he’s a moron so my guess is it isn’t a substantive disagreement, he’s just pissed because they’re more powerful than they were. But now all the D’s are mad at him, so it backfired.

  96. 96.

    rikyrah

    @Kay:

    I was glad the squad mentioned the Trump Administration corruption. I know some people here think corruption isn’t a productive line of attack, politically, but I’m convinced it is

    You know I agree with you, and I am hoping that Kamala the Prosecutor, makes it a bigger part of her campaign persona

  97. 97.

    Betty Cracker

    @Kay: The advantage of the corruption angle is so blindingly obvious — could there be a more target rich environment? The Trump admin has higher turnover than a McDonald’s, and so many were ousted because of corruption of one type or another.

    @Baud: I get the backlash angle, but centrists’ best revenge would be dashing Bernie’s presidential dreams, and that project is proceeding apace (with my wholehearted approval). Expanding it to reflexively oppose people who weren’t complicit in Trump’s election is counterproductive, IMO.

  98. 98.

    rikyrah

    When I say that she had time today….to bring receipts ?????

    Lynn V (@lynnv378) Tweeted:
    Trump knew people would fall for his tweet distraction. He knew the puppets at CNN & MSNBC would cover it like the Earth is on fire. He knew people would blame someone like Nancy Pelosi. He used race, that’s always been his distraction tool, to change the subject & it worked.

    Lynn V (@lynnv378) Tweeted:
    But yes, White Folk, go off about how Nancy Pelosi calling out four Freshman Congresswoman somehow magically flipped the switch in Trump and made him turn racist. Go off on how she’s to blame for his tweets. Y’all sound dumb as hell. https://twitter.com/lynnv378/status/1150744314332504064?s=17

    Lynn V (@lynnv378) Tweeted:
    How Dumb.

    Since in office Trump attacked:
    Maxine Waters
    Cory Booker
    Fredericka Wilson
    LeBron James
    Steph Curry
    Jemele Hill
    April Ryan
    Jim Acosta
    Colin Kaepernick
    Kenneth Frazier
    “Shithole Countries”
    Puerto Ricans after Maria
    TPS Recipients
    More

    YES HE WOULD HAVE STILL DONE IT. h

  99. 99.

    Baud

    @Betty Cracker:

    That would make sense. But it’s not like the left focuses its attacks on the Liebermans and the Bayhs of the party either. All we in the middle can do is watch with horror.

    @Kay:

    That asshole. I’m glad everyone is United against him.

  100. 100.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    @rikyrah: Yeah, I don’t know who the reporter was who asked AOC if they hadn’t provoked the president by the things they said, but his question infuriated me. It was victim blaming. It was saying “she asked for it.”

  102. 102.

    Wapiti

    @Kay: I agree. People understand fairness, at a deep, deep level. Corruption is unfair. (It’s also inefficient, but our monkey brains don’t respond to that the same way we do to unfair.)

  103. 103.

    schrodingers_cat

    @rikyrah: He fucking started his campaign by calling Mexicans rapists and before that launched himself in R politics by his birther campaign which was during President Obama’s first term. So it has taken 10 years for our media to state the fucking obvious.
    So either they are slow or racist or both.

  104. 104.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @rikyrah: I don’t normally think of Karen Tumlty as stupid, but calling on Obama to fix trump voters’ racism is just… It’s like the Magical Negro theory of screenwriting metastasized and brought to politics. A copy of The Legend of Bagger Vance burned to ashes, and those ashes mixed with the preserved blood of David Broder on the roof David Brooks’ Cleveland Park townhouse under a full moon while the Sunday Morning Green Room Chorus sings Don’t Stop Thinkin’ About Tomorrow

    If any former presidents owe it to the country to talk about the current state of the Republican Party, maybe, just maybe, it should be, and I know this is crazy, a Republican ex-president? one who let it be known that he didn’t vote for trump? (when he thought that wouldn’t hurt the chances of the next generation of The Dynasty with the Bubbas and Ten-Toothed Rubes).

  111. 111.

    Betty Cracker

    @Baud: It would probably be helpful to define “left” and “centrist” more precisely, but maybe that’s not possible. I consider myself a left-leaning Democrat from a policy perspective but have been lumped in with “the establishment” by “burn-it-all-down” types because I think it’s essential to work through the party to get shit accomplished in American politics.

    IMO, the four congresswomen are also working through the system, which is how it’s supposed to work! So I don’t get all the hate. I understand why people are suspicious of folks like Cenk Uygur, etc., who have a long, well-established history of trashing the Democratic Party and focusing on Democrats as the enemy to the exclusion of calling out Republicans.

    The Squad are elected Democrats, and while they’ve made some comments that I believe were distinctly unhelpful, they’ve inspired a lot of younger voters (a GOOD and much needed thing!), grilled Republicans effectively in hearings, sponsored/worked on badly needed legislation, etc.

    Despite this, some fellow Democrats, while piously lecturing the four congresswomen not to speak ill of Democratic leadership, trash the Squad as if they were the enemy, which in my view is as dumb and counterproductive as a common Cenk. I’m sick of it. Rant ovah! ;-)

  112. 112.

    Barbara

    @OzarkHillbilly: Noted without comment from the article at the link you posted:

    Just a few months after a judge sentenced her, President Bill Clinton signed the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, written by then-Sen. Joe Biden, which banned incarcerated people from using Pell Grants to pay for college. Prisons across the country discontinued their education programs, and within a year, the number of incarcerated people enrolled in classes declined by 44%. By 1998, fewer than 4% of incarcerated people were taking post-secondary courses.

  113. 113.

    Betty Cracker

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Agreed — it was an absurd column for the reasons you outlined, plus the fact that the people who most need to hear the message Tumulty wants PBO to deliver, including Trump, wouldn’t hear it because of the racism clogging their ears. On the other hand, it might make an impression (at least with the fucking media, which is half the battle) if Presidents Bush, Carter and Obama issued a joint statement condemning Trump’s racist-ass racism and the multiple atrocities that directly stem from it. While you’re correct to note that only Bush really bears any responsibility here since it’s his party that careened off the rails after decades of moving in this direction, all of the former presidents have a stake in maintaining the fiction that this is a fundamentally decent country that is committed to living up to its lofty ideals.

  114. 114.

    rikyrah

    @Barbara:

    Just a few months after a judge sentenced her, President Bill Clinton signed the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, written by then-Sen. Joe Biden, which banned incarcerated people from using Pell Grants to pay for college. Prisons across the country discontinued their education programs, and within a year, the number of incarcerated people enrolled in classes declined by 44%. By 1998, fewer than 4% of incarcerated people were taking post-secondary courses.

    THIS is something that, if you want to hit Biden on Criminal Justice reform – it’s valid. And, challenge him on what he’s going to do NOW. And, does he see the harm in what he did.

  115. 115.

    low-tech cyclist

    The House should pass a bill abolishing the debt ceiling altogether, and say to Trump and Mitch, “take it or leave it.”

    Mitch would have to choose between passing the House bill or hitting the debt ceiling.

    And Mitch would never again be able to use the debt ceiling against a Dem President.

  116. 116.

    glory b

    @Betty Cracker: Honestly, I think they are looking past the squad to AOC’s CoS, who is threatening a number of CBC members with primaries.

    Here’s the way I see it, a lot of twitter Dems (and most of them seem to be Af Am), an Indian guy from a wealthy family, who wont be affected if they lose, is disrupting things, to no good end. Some twitter folks have pointed out that the targeted Dems vote progressive 90 +% of the time, his (Chakrabati’s) issue is not the votes but the donations they receive.

    Also, the problem is that most Af Ams are not for tearing down the capitalist system, they just want a fair playing field.

  117. 117.

    J R in WV

    @germy:

    Who could have predicted the ICE agent who escorted Pence around on his visit would become…. a star?

    Whatever was in that twit is solid gone now… share a clue as to what you saw, please?

  118. 118.

    J R in WV

    @Quinerly:

    From Stars and Stripes…

    Stars and Stripes is so not a left wing publication… yet ICE and the Border Patrol appears to have lost S & S completely. I suspect Trump’s vote totals will be astonishingly low next year, perhaps limited to the actual fascist white power voters.

    As I say often, I am now old, and optimism is required to believe I will get up tomorrow morning.

    I refuse to believe that a majority of the voting public is nazis.

  119. 119.

    Betty Cracker

    @glory b: From what I’ve read about AOC’s CoS, which is admittedly limited, he sounds like a jackass drama llama. That said, AFAIK, the CBC members who’ve been threatened with primaries are drawing POC opponents, and honestly, in some cases it sounds like the competitors might be better members of congress. That’s certainly true in the eyes of lefties who want a more aggressively regulated form of capitalism. You may not agree with them, but do you think it’s fundamentally wrong to challenge CBC members, even if the primary opponent is also a POC? I don’t, but I’m interested in what you think.

  120. 120.

    J R in WV

    @rikyrah:

    Since in office Trump attacked:
    Maxine Waters
    Cory Booker
    Fredericka Wilson
    LeBron James
    Steph Curry
    Jemele Hill
    April Ryan
    Jim Acosta
    Colin Kaepernick
    Kenneth Frazier
    “Shithole Countries”
    Puerto Ricans after Maria
    TPS Recipients
    More

    Can’t believe she left out President and Ms Obama and the two wonderful offspring, whom Trump has slandered repeatedly, as if he were running against Obama, as he continues to pound Hillary Clinton, whom he will not face in the 2020 election. Otherwise a great statement.

    I continue to believe the white power racism PLUS the rampant corruption PLUS Jeffey Epstein child rapist will start to add up against Trump. What an ass!!

    Asylum seekers are NOT illegals, also, too, by the way.

  121. 121.

    J R in WV

    @rikyrah:

    … the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, written by then-Sen. Joe Biden, which banned incarcerated people from using Pell Grants to pay for college….

    And in what universe is it a good thing to prevent ambitious convicts who want to improve their educational level while in the slam? Who thinks that is a good idea? Joe Biden, that’s who!! Not acceptable, Uncle Joe!!! There’s a vicious combination of racism and hatred of people who did something wrong at work there, and it’s hard to believe Biden still can’t see that. Won’t see that, will not cast his precious eyes on that.

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