‘I don’t think the president is looking for the guidance of members of Congress who stood by while… the leader of their party fomented an insurrection’ — Jen Psaki on GOP criticism of Gen. Milley pic.twitter.com/wEygiX2OmL
— NowThis (@nowthisnews) September 15, 2021
Is Our Media Learning? (Of course not, it’s against their code.)
Seeing a lot of posts about "how the system was not build to contain an insane President" which let Republicans off the hook way too easily. trump was impeached twice!!! The GOP voted against removal! It's on them!
— veto players stan account (@Convolutedname) September 15, 2021
Democrats prepare for next phase of budget fight as House readies package and Biden meets with Senate skeptics https://t.co/IfxG7Cxj8G
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) September 15, 2021
We have to elect more Democrats, so the same handful of show ponies lose their chance to stunt for their media enablers:
With the sound of one final gavel, House Democrats on Wednesday completed the mammoth task of translating President Biden’s economic vision into a $3.5 trillion tax-and-spending proposal — marking a major milestone in a fight that’s still far from finished.
Assembling the House package proved to be an enormous undertaking, as Democrats raced over the past week to produce roughly 2,600 pages of legislative text spanning the party’s vast policy ambitions. The measure seeks to shepherd major changes to federal health care, education, immigration, climate and tax laws, introducing a sprawling set of federal programs that Democratic leaders have described as historic in their size and scope.
But the fruits of lawmakers’ labors quickly seemed overshadowed by political reality. A proposal that would try to lower the cost of prescription drugs for millions of seniors appeared in fresh jeopardy, after a small group of Democrats dealt it an early blow in the House. The fuller $3.5 trillion plan, meanwhile, faced even more significant hurdles in the Senate — prompting Biden to embark on a renewed effort Wednesday to try to reassure wavering members of his own party…
For now, at least, House Democrats have secured the general policy objectives Biden outlined in the two blueprints he unveiled earlier this year. The president and his congressional allies have framed their $3.5 trillion agenda through the prism of history, likening it to the Great Society and New Deal investments from generations past.
The Build Back Better Act aims to expand Medicare, offering seniors access to hearing, dental and vision benefits. It also would extend a flurry of tax credits and other programs that make insurance more accessible and affordable, including for low-income Americans who seek coverage under Medicaid…
Democrats further set in motion a plan for roughly $750 billion to improve education and child care, including a new program that guarantees prekindergarten for all children ages 3 and 4. They authorized 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave for most working Americans, remedying a patchwork that leaves many without benefits today. And they crafted what lawmakers have described as the most significant set of legislative reforms ever to combat climate change, including a flurry of programs that reward clean energy, penalize polluters and help Americans finance more environmentally friendly homes and vehicles.
Much of the work is financed through a series of tax increases targeting wealthy Americans, profitable corporations and investors. The tax hikes stop short of what Biden initially had recommended, including by omitting new taxes targeting inheritances passed between family members. But they generally accomplish Democrats’ aims to unwind the tax cuts enacted under President Donald Trump four years earlier — all while raising about $2.9 trillion in revenue to cover the cost of the bill. Democrats contend the entire measure is financed in full since it fosters economic gains that essentially pay for themselves…
The still-widening schisms ultimately did not seem to faze Pelosi, who sent a second letter to House Democrats on Wednesday in the hours before lawmakers concluded their work.
“The vision and knowledge of President Biden and Congressional Democrats,” she began, “has enabled us to be on schedule in delivering the Build Back Better agenda.”
Baud
I was never into Jesse James, so this LGM post about what a bastard he was was interesting.
Baud
Patrick Maloney was on MJ this morning talking about the bill. I thought he was good.
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone ???
NotMax
Mission
impossibleuntenable.Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
rikyrah
I agree with the above tweet about the GOP. The Founding Father’s completely saw Dolt45 coming. What they never anticipated was a political party that would abandon their oath to the Constitution.
Immanentize
It might be pointed out that the House is delivering its side of a budget bill on time — before October 1. When was the last time that happened?
mardam
So, the tax on passing stocks to your family after your death is gone. Why?
So, the ability for Medicare/Medicaid to bargain for lower prescription drug costs is in trouble. Why?
What are the possible reasons for Democrats to oppose these? I wonder what it could be.
Baud
@Immanentize:
Last time the Dems held the House I think.
Steeplejack (phone)
@rikyrah:
Good morning! ?
debbie
@rikyrah:
They tossed principles out the window and went for raw, brutal power. Not a good look, you clowns.
Ken
@Baud: Jesse James was kind of a tourist attraction in Missouri when I grew up. They had (maybe still have) figures of him in Meramec Caverns; the wax museum near Sullivan is still there. Ozark might know more.
As I recall, they didn’t have much about his crimes, and he was treated almost as a folk hero. I doubt it’s gotten more accurate.
Kay
Mustang Bobby
I’m exactly one year away from 70, meaning I’ll collect full Social Security, assuming I am still around.
Fun fact: Mickey Rourke and I are exactly the same age.
Jeffro
This bit about Paul Ryan reading up on how to deal with someone with narcissistic personality disorder after trumpov won in 2016 should make for a fun day.
Well, fun for me, anyway! The former guy’s not going to like it. =)
Soooooo many enablers, willing to risk our entire country for tax cuts and judges…
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Baud:
This is worth watching:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Assassination_of_Jesse_James_by_the_Coward_Robert_Ford
NotMax
Media note.
Nearly through (three still to go, so cannot yet speak to how it wraps up) the 20 hour-long episodes of the first season free with Prime during September Danish series* The Killing (Forbrydelsen).
Definitely engaging, with the proviso that some impatient American audiences might not cotton to having the tension doled out with an eyedropper as opposed to ladled from a tureen.
Hint: due to the nature and design of the recap opening each episode there is no option to skip past it; fast forwarding ahead to around the 4 minute mark will get to the new stuff.
*There was a U.S. adaptation of the original which I’ve never seen, so no comparisons.
OzarkHillbilly
It’s still there but I haven’t seen it open in years (a decade? More?) Stanton, as a tourist trap has fallen on hard times. Meramec Caverns (Jesse James’ Hideout!) is still in operation but everything else is dead.
Well, the gas station is still open.
Dorothy A. Winsor
If I were Jen Psaki, I’d be leaping over that podium and beating reporters with their own microphones.
Baud
It’s interesting how many times that excerpt mentions that it’s a $3.5 trillion bill.
OzarkHillbilly
@Mustang Bobby: WoooHooo!
Baud
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Will you be my press secretary?
NorthLeft12
I really hate to disagree with WH Press Spokesperson Psaki, but those Republicans were mostly not silent, but were justifying, rationalizing, and encouraging the actions of the insurrectionists.
But yeah, President Biden should completely ignore those traitors.
Kay
@mardam:
The inheritance tax doesn’t matter much – they can get the money elsewhere- but this hurts the whole Party:
It’s the most popular proposal in the bill. Biden can take it up publicly and make a stink- maybe he will. He’s been much, much more aggressive and stubborn than I anticipated. In a good way :)
Steeplejack (phone)
@Kay:
Last night Rachel Maddow did at least one segment (I didn’t see the whole show) on actual women affected by the Texas abortion ban. She had harsh words for the judge who agreed to hear the DOJ’s emergency motion to stay it—on October 1.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Baud: With pleasure!
Baud
@Kay: I believe the committee vote just failed on that yesterday. I don’t expect that’ll be the last word.
Chief Oshkosh
After the hearings yesterday, I think it is legitimate to ask if we shouldn’t defund the FBI. Wray’s squish response alone should be reason for firing him. I thought it was outrageous. Those women don’t want your emo blatherings, Wray, they want a fucking PLAN of ACTION for how you’re going to fix this. The ineffective investigation is reason enough to fire every single “agent” involved in what amounts to coverup of a child sex ring. Finally, as Senator Whitehouse points out, the next item for review should be a full-on, public review of the non-investigation of Justice Beery McFuckNuts’ USSC nomination
Geminid
Virginia Governor candidates Terry McAuliffe and Glenn Youngkin will have the first of two debates tonight, waay down in Grundy, Virginia at the Appalachian School of Law.
Meanwhile, the McAuliffe campaign is sending out mailers with a picture of a smiling Youngkin imposed on an official anouncement from trump: “Glenn Youngkin has My Complete and Total Endorsement.”
Kay
@Steeplejack (phone):
Thanks so much. It upsets me. I can’t get past the unfairness of it, who has been heard and who has not been heard, why it was an “emergency” to allow the law to go in but not an emergency to block it until the other side gets a hearing. I’m pleased with the DOJ though- I feel well represented, for once. I feel, at least, like I have a lawyer. They don’t have that many tools but I want them to use all of them. I won’t blame them for losing but I will blame them for not trying.
Steeplejack (phone)
@Jeffro:
Bit late for that, I would have thought, considering where Ryan worked.
Betty
@NotMax: So let all the international critics of the evacuation chip in to help them out.
Kay
@Baud:
I think naming them helps, especially because at least one of them, the NY House member, ran on negotiating drug prices in Medicare and Medicaid.
Baud
@Kay: Agree. I suspect they’re working on some compromise. The question is how good it’ll be.
Baud
@Kay:
Under any GOP president, the DOJ would have taken Texas’s side.
Betty
@Baud: Yes, especially since it has been publicized that one of the opposers, Kathleen Rice, ran on lowering the cost of drugs. May require a re-think.
NotMax
@Mustang Bobby
Happy (vroom vroom) birthday!
Baud
@Mustang Bobby: Happy birthday!
Geminid
@Betty: Qatar may well help the Afghan diplomats out. They’re not shy about spending their money. Qatar is a major source of funding for Palestinians in Gaza. They do this in coordination with Israel, and they serve as interlocutors between Israel and Hamas when the situation there heats up. Qatar tries to punch above it’s weight in diplomacy, and it seems they do.
Anyway
@NotMax:
Nearly through (three still to go, so cannot yet speak to how it wraps up) the 20 hour-long episodes of the first season free with Prime during September Danish series* The Killing (Forbrydelsen)
I was one of those that got sucked into watching 3 seasons of the US adaptation on AMC – that was just before this newfangled streaming so I waited for a new episode every week. That was the MOST frustrating series ever and was such a letdown at the end that though tempted I’m afraid of dipping my toe into the Danish series…
Steeplejack (phone)
@Chief Oshkosh:
“Justice Beery McFuckNuts.” Okay, good one. I LOL’d.
p.a.
@Jeffro: I’ve said before, I’d love to see any of tRump’s psych profiles by our own or foreign intelligence services leaked. tRump’s & the cult’s reactions would be hilarious.
Starfish
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
This is why we would be fired on Day 1. ?
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Starfish: Yes, but we’d have had one good day
Ken
@Dorothy A. Winsor: And you might be re-hired as the person who stands off to one side and behind the press secretary, glaring at the reporters.
narya
@p.a.: Actually, Lincoln’s Bible has been doing a series on the connections among mobsters, spies, code cracking, money laundering, etc., and one of the eps has an interview with an ex-KGB-turned-US-citizen, and they talked about exactly this. The guy said that they would have looked for someone who had an overinflated ego, wasn’t very intelligent, etc.–a perfect description. And then they talked about TFG’s actions after his first trip to there. Highly recommend.
Kay
Texas is a good example for the country on how it will look when Republicans ban abortion in all the states they control.
The women affected won’t be heard from at all and the opposition will have to beg and plead to even get a hearing on the merits- completely consistent with the authoritarian nature of the “pro life” movement- they are the only people who may speak.
The Moar You Know
@rikyrah: one of them did. I was reading Jefferson’s autobiography recently; he complains bitterly that the process for getting rid of judges, legislators and executives that aren’t up to snuff – impeachment – is absolutely useless as written, as “no one will be able to get 2/3 of the legislature to agree on anything”. History’s proven him right about that.
NotMax
@Ken
One the second day in office
The press corps got to see
Two lectern leapers
And a putdown by Ms Jan Psaki
.
Kay
The media response to the Texas ban is instructive too, for a post-Roe world.
They’re not covering it at all other than interviewing the same set of fancy lawyers. We’ve heard more from Justice Barrett in the last two weeks than we have heard from any of the women in Texas who are actually impacted by Barrett’s order. The people affected can’t get a hearing and they have no forum in media either. They’re silent.
NotMax
@NotMax
Typo. One = On
Soprano2
@Kay: There always seems to be a small group of Democrats who resist letting Medicare bargain on prescription drug prices. My understanding is that they get a lot of money from pharma companies. I agree with you, it would be insane to gut this since it will be wildly popular with almost everyone. Drug prices are insane for a lot of regular meds – don’t get me started about insulin. Hubby had to switch from those newfangled injector pens to vials and needles because the injector pens are so fucking expensive! It’s insane that a medication that’s been around for over 100 years costs so much just because they change the formulation just a little bit, or come up with a new kind of injector.
Baud
@Kay:
There are women involved?
schrodingers_cat
Washington Post Opinions is following the Garbage Times mantra, all news is bad news for the Democrats
Jeffro
@p.a.: I think there have been news reports, magazine pieces, etc that edged around this kind of thing (even during the campaign)…our side already knew it, and their side didn’t care.
It strikes me as one of those things (among so many) where we could really use better follow-up by our snooze media: ask the Paul Ryans and Kevin McCarthys of the world how they could have possibly enabled this corrupt and dangerous moron just to get tax cuts and judges. Let them stammer around on camera for all to see. Let that be the face of the modern GQP: willing to take any risk with our country in order to secure more tax cuts for the rich and more RWNJ judges.
Baud
@schrodingers_cat: Not only is all news bad, but the media insists on communicating that bad news in the most condescending ways.
hueyplong
@Geminid: It’s inconceivable to me that humans voluntarily go to Grundy.
Soprano2
They believe we are all children and they are the parents who know what’s best, which is why they think people who are adversely affected by their abortion bans shouldn’t be allowed to speak. They think about it like you would a small child complaining about their parents making them eat their vegetables – you wouldn’t listen to that child’s complaints, why should you listen to these people who they think obviously don’t know that what’s best for them is to always carry a pregnancy to term no matter what because they care so much about “life” (until it’s actually a person, then you can fend for yourself you welfare moocher!).
topclimber
@Kay: WP article suggests Rice & Co. want to limit group of drugs subject to direct negotiation with Medicare to the most expensive tier. They may nibble around the edges, but in the end they will cave.
Soprano2
@Kay: Can you imagine how they’d be covering a law like this about guns in California? They’d fall all over themselves to interview frightened gun owners in diners about the horrible law the Democrats passed. Because this affects only women, though, they’d rather interview the attorneys and leave the actual victims out of it.
Geminid
@hueyplong: Grundoons would disagree.
Soprano2
@schrodingers_cat: Can you imagine the hot takes about the lessons for Democrats if the recall had succeeded? They’d be all over the press scolding us. Evidently the press sees no lessons for Republicans in this situation, though.
NotMax
@Jeffro
“You can’t make an omelet without breaking nuts.”
//
Olivia
In the previous administration, the press secretary insisting that the President has “complete confidence” in Milley would be followed with the announcement a day or two later that the General has decided to resign to spend more time with his family.
Steeplejack (phone)
Just heard from my brother that he has lost his sense of smell! Yesterday he said that he had “turned the corner,” but apparently there are a few more twists on the road to recovery.
Ghost of Joe Liebling*s Dog
@Baud:
Looking forward to NPR’s ongoing contest for their on-air talent : Let’s Hear You Say THuh-RRREEEE point FIIIIIVE Tuh-RRRRRRILLLLLLLONNNNNNN Dollars
Bastards.
Jeffro
@Olivia: you’re forgetting the dozen insane tweets, and dozens of GQP officials pretending they never saw the tweets.
gvg
@rikyrah: If not, they should have. After all they were rebels from England. Aaron Burr happened. They did not have universal support during the revolution.
There is only so much that any design can do if not enough citizens care. This is why lying propaganda is so dangerous.
Steeplejack (phone)
@schrodingers_cat:
“[Author James] Hohmann covered local news for the Post in the aughts and returned in 2015 after six years at Politico.” ‘Nuff said.
OzarkHillbilly
@Steeplejack (phone): It seems a lot of people think they’ve turned a corner as the virus wanes and waxes.
Steeplejack (phone)
@Baud:
? but ?.
schrodingers_cat
@Steeplejack (phone): Can we cancel all these politihos who worked for the Politico?
schrodingers_cat
@Soprano2: At this point my only conclusion is that they are Republicans themselves and hence consider Rs above reproach no matter what they do.
Chief Oshkosh
@The Moar You Know: I did not know Jefferson wrote an autobiography. If ‘biography’ was meant, which one are you reading?
Steeplejack (phone)
@schrodingers_cat:
It’s a hack factory, at this point.
Geminid
@schrodingers_cat: Elite journalists are also very comfortable and complacent. They don’t face the problems that Democrats are trying to fix.
Chief Oshkosh
@Baud: Exactly.
@Kay: Thank you for continuing to pound this point.
The Moar You Know
@Chief Oshkosh: Meant autobiography. “The Memoir of Thomas Jefferson” – by Thomas Jefferson.
Baud
@Steeplejack (phone):
IIRC, that can last for weeks, even after the infection is gone.
sab
@Soprano2: Republicans can’t seem to learn, so why bother giving them lessons.
schrodingers_cat
For those who have lost their pets how do you cope with that loss? I still miss my late great boss tabby. Its been three months already. I had that purrmonster for over 18 years.
Steeplejack (phone)
@Baud:
Yeah. I don’t want to see him end up with long COVID.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Baud: Jesse James was the stable genius who got his gang shot to hell raiding a Minnesota town full of German-American gun nuts. They great mystery to me was why it took so long for one Jesse’s friend to do the right thing and put a bullet in the back of Jesse’s head.
WereBear
@Mustang Bobby:
I KNOW you look better :)
Chief Oshkosh
@The Moar You Know: Thanks much – didn’t know it existed.
Chief Oshkosh
@schrodingers_cat: Time.
catothedog
None of the House Democrats who voted against their colleagues’ prescription drug pricing bill, Reps. Scott Peters (D-CA), Kurt Schrader (D-OR), Kathleen Rice (D-NY) and Stephanie Murphy (D- FL), are in danger of losing their seats in the upcoming 2022 election, HuffPost notes.
Link
And this is the actual problem in the Democratic Party, not AOC vs Underwood, that was hashed to death here yesterday.
Primary these bums, and elect more leftists from blue districts.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: I never heard that. I love a good history nugget, also an occasional reminder of what we think of as teh “Wild West” happened in upper Midwest
@Baud: Not to be That Guy, but The Brady Bunch cleared this up in 1973 (watching this for the first time in more than forty years, I think how odd it is that they made this the subject of A Very Special Episode). Bobby’s dream sequence is “prove your age” protected
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@catothedog: you had me up to “leftists”
Geminid
@catothedog: Not “none.” Stephanie Murphy will face a tough reelection contest in her Florida district
Peters, Schrader, and Rice will surely face primaries. Their districts’ Democratic voters may well renominate them despite this vote.
schrodingers_cat
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: They tried to primary Richard Neal (neighboring district) with a sleazebucket who was dating his students and failed.
Kay
@topclimber:
But why? How can they justify to Americans that Americans pay more for prescription drugs than anyone else in the world? It’s a ludicrous position, which is why they don’t run on it.
Steeplejack
@schrodingers_cat:
I still miss the housecat after 17 months. Something will remind me of her, and I get a twinge.
I miss all the cats I’ve had through my life. Eventually the feeling of loss subsides, but it doesn’t go away completely. But they live on in memory. You’ve got your memories of the boss tabby and the good life you shared with him.
OzarkHillbilly
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: The Long Riders
It’s a James/Younger hagiography so total historical bullshit, but as a movie it’s entertaining.
Omnes Omnibus
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I will grant you Minnesota, but Kansas and Missouri are not upper Midwest.
Gin & Tonic
City of Indianapolis honors native son Major Taylor. Taylor, a professional bicycle racer at the turn of the 19th-20th Centuries, may have been the most famous athlete in the world at the time.
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
@schrodingers_cat: Hang in there and keep loving and remembering. 3 months is not very long when you’ve lost someone who was in your life for so long. Can’t rush it.
Steeplejack
@Mustang Bobby:
Happy birthday! ????
Kay
@topclimber:
It’s anti competitive. They won’t even allow negotiation on the price. It’s state action to protect a higher price. They can’t even justify it as in line with their market beliefs. It’s essentially a tax they’re collecting and then delivering to drug companies.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Omnes Omnibus: point taken, I forgot to put in a “much of” and was thinking, as I often do, of Albert Swearingen.
Kelly
Kurt Schrader will quietly cave after the usual BS. He was primaried last year and won easily. We’re probably stuck with him for a while.
OzarkHillbilly
@schrodingers_cat: The loss of the Woofmeister left such a gaping hole in our lives, my wife and I both began scanning the internet for another Lab w/o saying anything.
Billie is not Woof, there is no replacing him, but she is a lover girl and has gone a long ways to filling the hole.
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
@Geminid: I sincerely doubt that Schrader will have a serious primary challenger. Oregon is going through redistricting, which will add a sixth congressional district. DeFazio’s current district is increasingly “swingy”, and Oregon’s liberals are concentrated in a few dense pockets of the State.
In Oregon, we need to win the newly created district and keep our D incumbents in office in 2022. Any focus elsewhere is strategic malpractice which we cannot afford.
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
@Kelly: He’s a grandstander who doesn’t pose too much actual challenge to getting policy through. Miles better than a Republican. Let’s make sure to elect a better D to the new sixth district.
catothedog
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Well, then even more rightist than these guys, then?
If you are from a safe seat, and you can’t vote for the party’s agenda, then maybe you should be replaced.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@catothedog: Well, I don’t know what you meant by “leftist”, but if you mean a Justice Democrat, I imagine the only person happier than Rice with a challenge like that would be the of the FL Republican Party. Looking at Rice’s district, I could see a Normie Democrat challenging her on exactly this issue, using her own past support of lowering drug prices as the hook of campaign
Omnes Omnibus
@catothedog: The question is, of course, for whom is the seat safe. Not all safe D seats would elect a leftist. I’ve no objection to primaries, but people should not assume that deep blue = leftist friendly.
topclimber
@schrodingers_cat: I have only known the canine version of pet mourning.The twinges of such loss now are vastly outweighed by warm and funny memories.
Now that our living accommodations are not dog-friendly, we have a wonderful Siberian blue (mostly), aged 6.
Either he or I are likely to be in mourning for the other a decade or so from now. That’s why I take to heart the lesson he demonstrates every day, as did his canine predecessors : Sleep in the moment.
topclimber
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I do believe Rice is from Long Island, NY.
What with GPS on our phones, maybe your map reading skills are off? Because that sure wasn’t her district you were looking at.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Kathleen Rice on prescription drugs, during her campaign, and as an incumbent and in committee
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@topclimber: I was referring to Stephanie Murphy’s seat
sherparick
@mardam: Because the Democrats majority in the House is very narrow & few “moderate,” “centrist” Democrats like Kathleen Rice etc. receive huge “donations” from Big Pharma and wealthy donors who so they said those provisions had to go or they would not vote for the package. Solution 1) primary those individuals if they are in safe Democratic seats & more liberal Dem can win & 2) elect more Dems overall so a few bad tools can’t leverage their vote for their donors’s interests.
topclimber
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Of course. Admitting the mistake is what proves you are not a Republican.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@topclimber:The conversation was about more than one seat
If you don’t understand a comment, sometimes it helps to look at what it’s responding to. It’s a herculean effort, you have to click on a link, and it can take many seconds, but it could help you not be confused and make feeble attempts at a “dunk”
schrodingers_cat
It is illustrative to see what happened when the DSA people won the state Democratic party slate in Nevada.
John Ralston reports
Bluegirlfromwyo
@schrodingers_cat: One day at a time. Our furbaby Buddy died in April after 11 years with us, and we still miss him too. It’s gotten easier but I still think about him almost every day. Be easy on yourself, it’s only been three months.
gvg
@Kay:
I wonder if they can find any women willing to be interviewed? If they give enough info, people can ID them and sue them. The actual law makes it hard to find anyone who goes on the record, at least until after being sued. Does this law even limit how many times they can be sued? Not to mention death threats.
I do think the media is ignoring them, just as you say, but I also think this law is supposed to push women into hiding.
topclimber
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Your honesty is wonderful. Your sense of humor not so much. But that’s why some people love you.
Geminid
@Formerly disgruntled in Oregon: It’s hard to get Democrats in a purple district or a purple state to get behind primary challenges to their Democratic incumbents. Schrader may be responsible to constituent pressure on this matter, though, even if he does not especially fear a primary.
Omnes Omnibus
@Geminid: There is a reason that “more” is listed first in “more and better” as the goal for Democrats.
Geminid
@Omnes Omnibus: I am all for “more.” My 5th VA District Congressman, whose name I will not type out so close to lunch, is standing in the way of “more.” He’s also as bad as any of the other assholes in the Republican Caucus
But he won by only 5 points last year, and 5th District Democrats will try very hard next year to make him a one-termer.
Omnes Omnibus
@Geminid: If we didn’t have the asshole Dems in office, we would be in the minority. Being in the majority and figuring out how to placate them is better than having Speaker McCarthy.
ETA: I now see that your Congressthing is a GOPer. So getting an asshole Dem would be a step forward.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Why… I think I have a stalker!
taumaturgo
In one word: Corruption. Institutionalized corruption, but corruption nonetheless.
Steeplejack
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
WTF?! Hard to get “I was referring to Stephanie Murphy’s seat” out of that.
And fuck off. You were responding to topclimber, and nowhere in that exchange, or anywhere in the entire thread, did you mention Stephanie Murphy. So take the L, dude, and lose the snotty attitude.
Kelly
@Geminid: I’ll make my usual “You need to get with the team” call. I know he pays attention to me because he dropped the deficit clock from his website after I explained to an intern the deficit is a fake issue the Republicans use to undermine worthy social programs.
RandomMonster
As has often been said, you’re no Bobby Brady.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Steeplejack: I’ll offer you the same advice: click up
also, I know you see yourself as the official BJ Hall Monitor, but until I see your Letter of Appointment signed by Cole, I’ll ignore your commands
Miss Bianca
@catothedog: These bums definitely should be primaried. My problem with Justice Democrat types is that so far they seem more eager to primary primarily minority reps in more marginal districts than centrists in blue districts. But perhaps that’s already changing.
Betty Cracker
Since Stephanie Murphy’s seat came up, however obliquely, I will add my opinion, which is that she’s usually a good fit for that district, and my sense is it’s not a super-safe seat. (I’m not in her district, but I know it a little.) I don’t think Dems in the 7th who want better representation could drop in someone like State Rep Eskamani (much further to the left) and be super-confident they could hold the seat. Maybe, but it would be a risk, and I say that as someone who would replace every single conservadem with a Squad/K Porter clone if I could. TBH, I don’t know what the best course of action is to address this bullshit of Murphy’s, but I hope everyone in her district is flooding her office with calls about the pharma thing because it’s unacceptable.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Betty Cracker: not to drag you into this, but pretty directly:
It is true, I did not carefully edit my comment in anticipation of deliberate misreadings by people who don’t like me from the last picture. Sometimes I get confused and think this is just the comments section on a blog and it’s okay to be informal
Gravenstone
@Ghost of Joe Liebling*s Dog: You know that’s on average only $1050/person a year for the next 10 years, right? Maybe that framing will help counter the penny pincher’s disingenuous histrionics. Well, I can dream it would, anyway.
Geminid
@Omnes Omnibus: Cameron Webb ran a strong race last year. I think he got as many votes as any one would. He’s a young, smart M.D., served as a White House Fellow under President Obama, and has contributed to President Biden’s Covid Task Force while still working at U.Va. Medical Center. I think the nomination for a rerun is Webb’s if he wants it. He may be waiting for the new redistricting commission to draw the new 5th.
Webb’s probably a moderate, but that’s fine with me. I really like Spanberger over near Richmond and Luria down in Tidewater, and they are moderates in tune with the Democrats in their districts. If someone asked a typical Democrat in the 7th, “Will you help me primary Abigail Spanberger? She’s a Blue Dog!” they’d probably be told to go fly a kite, or worse.
Gin & Tonic
@Betty Cracker: And since the Rice seat came up, I’m not sure how leftward that one can go, either. It’s been a D seat since 1997, but it’s basically Nassau County, which has a lot of Trump voters. Yes, it went O, O, HRC, Biden, and Rice got 57% in 2020, but it’s not Ayanna Presley’s district.
Another Scott
@Immanentize: It’s confusing, but the Reconciliation bill isn’t the FY22 budget. The House did its work on the budget weeks ago – the Senate hasn’t passed anything budget-wise yet. There will probably be a short CR to get past 9/30, then the final modifications will be made into an Omnibus, and the House and Senate will pass whatever they finally can agree on.
Messy, but that’s the way it goes.
Cheers,
Scott.
Booger
@Steeplejack (phone): Hmm. That’s interesting…my brother doesn’t smell good either.
SFAW
@schrodingers_cat:
It’s not easy. We lost our orange tabby early last year, and I sometimes catch myself expecting to see him “guarding” the driveway when I get home from work. As someone said, time is the only thing.
Kayla Rudbek
@Gin & Tonic: the first Black pro athlete! And I really liked that Justin Williams was there.
Another Scott
@Kay:
Why? Repost from last night – STATNews:
They’ll work something out. They need the money, and it’s good politics and everyone knows it. Of course it won’t be as much as it should be, and it won’t be as much as Dean Baker at CEPR argues, but it will be important progress.
Cheers,
Scott.
Geminid
@Betty Cracker: Won’t Republicans in Tallahassee try to knock Murphy out through redistricting? I would. The Murphys are a bigger threat to Republican dominance that the Deutchs are.
Geminid
@Miss Bianca: Well, the JDs will be taking another shot at Henry Cuellar down in his Laredo, Texas-based district. That will be a real fight. I don’t know how seriously Cuellar took Jessica Cisneros’ challenge last time round, but he’ll be ready this time.
There is somewhat of a Cuellar family political machine there. Cuellar’s brother is sheriff of Laredo County, and his sister also holds political office.
Ohio Mom
@Mustang Bobby: Happy Birthday!
taumaturgo
Biden’s so-called economic vision is being blurred by the corrupt corporate Democrats.
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/paulmcleod/democrats-tax-plan-rich-neal-reconciliation
The blueprint released Monday by House Ways and Means chair Richard Neal would make the tax code more progressive, but it leaves in place preferential treatment for those earning millions of dollars of investment income and allows them to continue passing much of that wealth down to their children untaxed. It would not fundamentally remake a system that allows the richest people in history to pay little to no income tax.
“They’re perpetuating the idea that wealthy investors like me are going to pay for lower tax rates than people who work for a living. That means people who are already richer are going to get richer and richer,” said Morris Pearl, formerly a managing director at investment giant BlackRock and now chair of Patriotic Millionaires, a group that advocates for progressive tax reforms.
Biden’s approval rating is currently nosediving, and a win by the conservative democrat’s caucus to trim, defer, delay the social components of the bill could spell disaster in the 2022 midterms.
Soprano2
@schrodingers_cat: What a shitshow that is in Nevada. The idea that the purportedly official state Democratic Party can’t even get the name of their senator right shows that they are definitely not ready for prime time. It’s yet another illustration of why Bernie being our nominee last year would have been a disaster, and probably would have led to another disastrous term for TFG.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Geminid
@Soprano2: Fortunately, party organizations in this country have limited control over candidates and office holders. That’s a thing I like about our system, and a thing I don’t like about Great Britain’s.
Cameron
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Sounds like this tweet is from September 15, 2020.
taumaturgo
@Another Scott: What I see is a magnificent effort by the corporate democrats taking care of their true bosses, the donors. Please look up the data that shows the last time -besides meaningless legislation to name streets and post office buildings – that an essential piece of legislation was passed over the objections of the corporate world. A $2.6 billion over ten-year investment by the big pharma cartel says what they want is what is getting done. Everything else is pretense.
Kay
@Another Scott:
Baloney. They spend more on advertising and marketing than they do on R and D and what they spent on stock buybacks absolutely dwarfs their R and D investment.
They can stop advertising prescription drugs. That’s twice their R and D budget right there.
If Peters wants to go work on behalf of this industry he is free to go do so. He shouldn’t be promoting their dishonest claims while in Congress.
Medicaid and Medicare are HUGE payors. It is absolutely ridiculous that they can’t negotiate prices. They are stuffing these public programs full of wasteful corporate welfare and bankrupting them. Medicaid and Medicare are taking a huge hit with covid. Let them negotiate a better deal. They will need it to stay solvent.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@taumaturgo: I congratulate you on being too rich to have received any stimulus in the last year, and insulated enough from medical bills to know anything, anything at all, about Medicaid.
Mom and Dad really set you up.
I’m guessing they had to.
Kay
@Another Scott:
It’s more than “good politics”. If liberals want public programs they can’t allow crooks to stuff them full of unearned corporate subsidies. Medicaid and Medicare have to be solvent. It actually has to work. We can’t afford this much corruption. We’re paying a 20% “corruption tax” directly to these companies. Public programs can’t suck or you’re not going to keep them.
taumaturgo
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Oh, is you again. I see that you still having difficulties extracting your head out of your rear. Try harder.
Ruckus
Conservatives have been the same since the constitution was written, except being quite so open, obnoxious, loud, and obvious. They don’t want an actual democracy and never have because it interferes with their ability to be richer by hating and screwing other “lessor” people. Up until mass communications happened, the concept that this was their only actual governmental concept was just the way things were and as most everyone’s world was not quite so accessible to the eye, it was harder to see. Since the end of WWII that started to change. Look at the lengths Lincoln had to go to to get done what he did and it likely was why it cost him his life. Modern communications changed individuals power and awareness (among many other things). The fact that we can be openly and easily discussing this on our computers and phones from places around the world almost instantaneously is so far different from what the world was like less than 100 yrs ago. Or even far less than 100 yrs ago. Look and read history in the context of only money and who has it and controls it. For conservatives it is money that buys them everything, and having a bit or a lot of bits more than others is pure power. We think it’s racism for racism’s sake and for sure that’s a result but that’s a construct of why in the first place. The basis is wealth and wealth as an indicator of power and station. Many animals do this by pure power, lions would be an example, whoever in the group is strongest, meanest and shows that the most is in charge, until taken down. Humans do this with wealth. Yes we use guns as well, but far more often with wealth. Who has the biggest house, or the biggest number of expensive houses, the most expensive car, the personal jets and biggest boats. Money is about power and status, once one gets past survival.
Kay
The coverage of the Texas abortion ban is just incredible. We have heard far more from and about far Right elite lawyers than we have heard from ANYONE who is affected by this law.
The fancy lawyer club on the Right overturned Roe without a hearing AND the only people who are considered are the members of the fancy lawyer club on the Right.
Apparently Justices Barrett and Kavanaugh and the Scalia clerk who drafted the law are the only people who matter in this country. Like some archaic, royal guild who must be coddled and protected. Just disgustingly ass kissing.
Kay
@Another Scott:
These same people told us every low wage employer in the country would go bankrupt if wages went above 9 dollars an hour. They’re all paying at least 15 here now. Are they out of business? How many times does the business lobby get to lie before no one believes them anymore? They’re liars. They threaten catastrophe every time anyone even slightly threatens their obscene executive pay packages.
taumaturgo
@Kay: In essence, the plutocrats with their wealth that allows them to buy influence and set the rules by which the political game is played, have hijacked our democracy and converted it into an oligarchy. With the helping hand of the MSM, also owned and control by plutocrats, almost never mentioned how the corrosive political corruption works for the few, and not the many.
Ruckus
@Soprano2:
It’s not insane, it’s greed. They came up with the injector so that they could charge more, under the concept of the “convenience” factor.
I’m not saying it’s not insane, I’m saying they came up with it because they don’t give a damn about actually having the disease, or the convenience, they care only about how much money they can make, and a lot more is always better.
RedDirtGirl
@taumaturgo: In my family we call that a recto-cranial inversion.
taumaturgo
@RedDirtGirl: Love it. In some people, it seems to be a feature, not a bug.
J R in WV
@schrodingers_cat:
It’s really hard. We have 3 dogs and two cats right now, and the cats are getting up in years, & have thyroid issues. One is doing well on special y/d thyroid diet, other smaller kitty not so good.
And our wonderful Vets are doing take-out carry-in service for the duration of the TrumpianPlague… So I can’t stand there with the vet to talk about the kitty…
I strongly recommend rescuing another kitty ASAP… there is no replacing a beloved critter, but you can distract from the pain of the old loss with the new love. Just my $0.02 worth.
Best wishes, it is so hard, keep us posted, please! Talking about kitty helps also too. Take care
WaterGirl
@schrodingers_cat: DSA?
schrodingers_cat
@WaterGirl: Democratic Socialists of America
Geminid
@WaterGirl: Probably, Democratic Socialists of America. The organization had a resurgence after the 2016 Sanders campaign, and was instrumental in Representative Ocasio-Cortez’s primary win over Joe Crowley in June, 2018.
The DSA has a chapter in the small Virginia city near me. They do outreach by inspecting tail lights, etc. to help people avoid otherwise unwarranted traffic stops.
The DSA aligns with Justice Democrats. They will be on their toes in Laredo, Texas next year, aiding Jessica Cisneros’ primary challenge to Henry Cuellar. Cisneros campaign workers will have to keep their vehicles in tip top shape. Representative Cuellar’s brother is Laredo County Sheriff.