Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

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

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

Come on, media. you have one job. start doing it.

This year has been the longest three days of putin’s life.

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

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

If you are still in the GOP, you are an extremist.

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

Despite his magical powers, I don’t think Trump is thinking this through, to be honest.

We are aware of all internet traditions.

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

You cannot shame the shameless.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

In my day, never was longer.

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

Republican obstruction dressed up as bipartisanship. Again.

Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

The willow is too close to the house.

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

You are here: Home / Politics / Proud to Be A Democrat / Not a Shadow

Not a Shadow

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Sharon Van Etten has a song where she’s describing someone as a shadow:

You ain’t nothing, you never won.

You ain’t nothing, you never done nothing, no.

Whatever the political consequences of today’s vote in the Judiciary Committee, and no matter how much fucking noise the Republicans make, don’t forget that Democrats were elected to do something and they did it. You don’t get points for being a shadow.

Reader Interactions

62Comments

  3. 3.

    Eljai

    I’ll send a thank you to my congressman today.

    I try to stay positive, and focus on getting more Democrats elected. But geez the press coverage has been dismal. Between NPR and cable and certain newspaper political reporters, they spend way too much time trying to game what’s going to happen, and repeating false Republican narratives instead of discussing Trump’s rampant and obvious corruption which brought us to this point.

  5. 5.

    Azelie

    I’ve been reflecting on the way that Republicans who we know know better are going along with this. I’m pretty convinced that if a Democratic president were engage in a pattern of corruption and abuse of office (in the unlikely situation where the Democrats would elect someone like that in the first place), there would be enough Democrats who would vote to impeach and remove. They would do their jobs. I don’t think it’s partisan blinders leading me to believe this. That the Republicans can look at what Trump has done and defend it shows that all their talk of patriotism and morality is hollow.

  7. 7.

    Kraux Pas

    I think I’m gonna call my Congressman’s office today to seek his opinion on this whole impeachment matter. Just in case

  8. 8.

    Kelly

    My Rep Kurt Schrader, an annoying Blue Dog, Problem Solver with a continuous deficit tally at the top of his website came out in favor of impeachment a couple days ago. He usually comes around to vote the right way after all his posturing.

  10. 10.

    Yutsano

    @Kelly: I get the terrible milquetoast Dan Newhouse. He will go with whatever party leadership says regardless of what his constituents feel.

  11. 11.

    Cacti

    For those casting the votes, this will be one of those rare moments where history will truly remember on which side you stood.

    Choose wisely.  This could be your legacy.

  12. 12.

    PJ

    @Cacti: Republicans don’t care about the future, or what the future citizens of the smoldering ash heap they are creating will think, they only care about what it takes to stay in power now.

  13. 13.

    MattF

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: My takeaway is that someone out there is short of cash. But who, why, what, where, etc., are plausible questions. The whole thing is opaque, and everyone involved wants to keep it that way.

  16. 16.

    PJ

    @Cacti: I think the squishy Dems are also only thinking about re-election, despite the fact that a vote against impeachment will guarantee they are not re-elected.

  17. 17.

    catclub

    the trade ‘deal’ :Standard Trump – fuck something up to make a crisis. Promise to fix it.

    Get almost back to where you were before Trump fucked it up. Trump claims victory.

    NKorea, Trade, Border enforcement/Dreamers.

    In short: Trump folded without getting any tangible concessions from China merely to avoid new tariffs, and potentially a market crash. Meanwhile, there are virtually no details what China has agreed to do, and despite the USTR’s insistence to the contrary, there appears to be no actual enforcement mechanism to make sure China does not renege on the agreement.

  18. 18.

    catclub

    @MattF: It is very strange. But apparently the FED is pouring in (or promising to pour in – which is better) a massive amount of money to avoid something bad happening.

    zerohedge is all over it as QE4

  19. 19.

    oldster

    Agree with OP.  This is Dems doing what we sent them to do, and showing some spine.

    Do I agree with every aspect of their strategy? No. If I were Nancy, I would be launching ten different investigations into ten different areas of corruption.

    But despite that disagreement, I am glad that they are moving ahead with these charges.

  20. 20.

    Immanentize

    @Cacti:

    For those casting the votes, this will be one of those rare moments where history will truly remember on which side you stood.

    like the vote on the Iraqi AUMF.  That one had consequences (for Dems).

  22. 22.

    Warblewarble

    “But one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive, and the other would accept war rather than let it perish,and the war came” Nothing has changed,it goes on,this is what be faced head on with no wavering, “Mine eyes have seen the glory”

  23. 23.

    Immanentize

    @Kraux Pas: Not this one.  This is the ongoing trade war with China, part eleventy.  Trump has promised another 160 billion in tariffs starting this weekend. They keep saying there is a partial deal coming; but I think most people agree the “partial deal” is just going to be Trump withdrawing his threat with some vague language about China trying to do something better in the sometime future.

  25. 25.

    catclub

    @MattF: Kevin Drum wrote this:  A more likely explanation is that the repo market is working fine—for most people, anyway. But there are a few borrowers who are in such parlous shape that no one wants to loan them money for even 12 hours, and it’s these borrowers that the Fed is propping up in hopes that they’ll get their act together

     

    I am not sure if he realizes this is very similar to the 2008 crisis – lack of faith in your counterparty.  Also, remember, the first quakes of the 2008-2009 crisis were in August, 2007. So it could take a while to become clear.

  26. 26.

    Kraux Pas

    @Immanentize: Oh, sorry, I hadn’t seen much on China trade lately but I know a lot has been going on with an update to NAFTA, including some concessions to labor and the Dems that are going to get it passed in the House.

     

    I was just confused.

  28. 28.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    Like English Labor; they stood for nothing on the issue of the day and rightly got punished by the voters.

  34. 34.

    Martin

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: Probably not. This is a bit different. The fed basically loans money to a handful of banks and relies on them to loan it out further in the food chain.

    But the banks and hedge funds and other large financial players are sinking their money into Treasuries rather than other forms  of investment, which ties the money up and makes it unavailable for lending. They seem to be signaling that the markets are about to go to shit, and so they’re going to lock up their money tight.

    Fed will need to return to quantitative easing. Impeachment, Brexit, trade wars – this shit is great if you’re willing to short the market, but it terrifies everyone else.

    2008 was a bit different. It shared the same lack of lending but it was because banks couldn’t sell their assets because nobody else had any money to buy them. The Feds bailed out GM because literally nobody else had the cash to do it. There was no graceful bankruptcy option. Tying money up in treasuries is less problematic because unlike a mortgage whose value can degrade (and did, rapidly in 2008) treasuries are expected to hold their value. We’re selling fucking buckets of them given our exploding deficit.

    The thing to worry about it the federal governments inattentiveness to this stuff, same as the Bush admins.

  36. 36.

    Death Panel Truck

    @Yutsano: I live in Pasco, and the only halfway positive thing I can say about Newhouse is that he’s not quite as bad as Hastings.

    He’ll do what he’s told.

  38. 38.

    catclub

    @Martin: It shared the same lack of lending but it was because banks couldn’t sell their assets because nobody else had any money to buy them.

    My understanding was more  like: Bank A no longer wants to loan to Bank B when Bank B uses CDObligations as collateral, because BankA uses them that way, and knows how doubtful those CDO’s are as collateral.

    Then everybody treats everybody the same way out of suspicion.

  40. 40.

    H.E.Wolf

    @Jackie: @Yutsano: I feel you. I live in Kennewick.

     

    As a database volunteer, I can report that the Tri-Cities (along with other cities in central WA) have been a hotbed of Democratic volunteers for the past 2 years. They may just be keeping real quiet about it. :-)

    If you decide to volunteer in your locale, I think you’ll have lots of company – and it could make a tangible difference in local campaigns, which is where the long game is played.

    Just in case, here’s the website:

    The “Volunteer” page offers a choice of doorbelling or phonebanking. If you prefer office work, the “Contact Us” page is probably a better option.

    And of course I’m going to add my regular signal boost for – a fun way to get out the Democratic vote in other parts of the country, and make a positive difference in that fashion.

  41. 41.

    Yutsano

    @Jackie: @Death Panel Truck: Unfortunately there’s probably no eliminating him because he appeals to the farmers out in the hinterlands and I swear every Hanford worker is a Republican. Even if we could somehow turn on our own Latinx vote around here it still probably wouldn’t help.

  42. 42.

    Baud

    @germy: The House elections 9 months after that showed that Democrats matter.

    In 11 months, we’ll show them again just how much Democrats matter.

  43. 43.

    germy

    @Baud:

    In 11 months, we’ll show them again just how much Democrats matter.

    I can’t wait.  I literally can’t wait to vote.

  44. 44.

    germy

    there’s a quote from Antonio Gramsci that’s been lodged in my head since 2016 that goes “the old world is dying, the new world is struggling to be born; now is the time of monsters”.

    — reticulating splines (@davidrobots) December 12, 2019

  46. 46.

    Jay

    @catclub:

    yup, but, they also didn’t have cash or other liquid assets because they had sunk everything into bad debt and bundled debt “investments” .

    it’s not mortgages now, it’s car loans, student loans and payday lending that has been “securitized” and oversold.

     

    Debt mining lower down on the food chain after killing the previous host.

  51. 51.

    catclub

    @Jay: It’s not mortgages now, it’s car loans, student loans and payday lending that has been “securitized” and oversold.

     

    Those are still MUCH smaller than home mortgages were in 2007-8.  There is also securitzed commercial and business loans that are suspect.

    On the third hand, interest rates – and hence interest payment burdens – are much smaller as a fraction of total income.

  54. 54.

    MattF

    @debbie: The fact that their own recklessness is a systemic risk that can’t be hedged seems to escape attention. And there’s also the risk of using ‘AI’ computer programs that no one really understands. ‘Is the system stable?’. Well, um, y’know… possibly.

  55. 55.

    catclub

    @debbie: That come go God moment was when they could no longer pass on the trash they were creating.  As soon as someone comes along who will buy a No Job No Income mortgage again, I expect they will be there to create it and sell it off.

     

    I think NINJA was No Income, No Job, Adjustable

  57. 57.

    catclub

    @JPL: trump got a lot of free press, and hopefully that won’t happen again.

     

    I think it is pretty clear that Trump can make the press jump up and cover him whenever he wants them to.  I might  expect a little less free press this coming year. Maybe only $1.8B worth rather than $2B worth. Maybe.

  60. 60.

    Jay

    @catclub:

    some studies show that he got $5 billion in “like contributions” from the Media in the 2016 Campaign.

    in the 2020 Campaign I am pretty sure it will surpass $15 billion.

    While media studies show that 90% of the coverage is “negative”, they don’t parse that for the effect on Trump voters and instead view it from a fact based bias. They also don’t account for how much of the “negative” Trump coverage also negs on the Democratic Party, ( bothsiderism) or qualify the negativity as milktoast.

  62. 62.

    J R in WV

     

    Well. I was a strong supporter, WE were strong supporters of Kamala Harris, and now I guess we are strong supporters of Senator Professor Elizabeth Warren. I dunno who our second choice is now. Not Bernie, nor Tulsi the Russian stooges… Nor Pete, the old style liberal republican. Booker, Castro, who else?

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