For better…
The Biden administration, fulfilling an earlier pledge, says the U.S. will take in 125,000 refugees and their families next year. Former President Donald Trump had capped the number at 15,000, a historic low. https://t.co/wgcx3ws5yj
— The Associated Press (@AP) September 21, 2021
The Biden administration announced Monday morning an interagency plan to deal with the effects of frequent extreme heat waves caused by global warming. https://t.co/fl1mnNS4xn
— Yahoo News (@YahooNews) September 20, 2021
Tens of thousands of LGBT veterans forced from the military for their sexual orientation and given other-than-honorable discharges will be able to receive full Veterans Affairs benefits under a new move from the Biden admin set to be announced Monday.https://t.co/w7KKJxYku6
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) September 19, 2021
Or worse.
(Answer: Because the GOP, under ‘Leader’ McConnell, has gone full Death Cult — and their media enablers refuse to call them on it.)
I applaud this plan from @SpeakerPelosi and @SenSchumer to keep the government open, provide disaster relief, and avoid catastrophic default.
This is a bipartisan responsibility, just as it was under my predecessor. Blocking it would be inexcusable. https://t.co/qDBwMs6DBx
— President Biden (@POTUS) September 20, 2021
U.S. Treasury's Yellen: Debt default would 'permanently' weaken America https://t.co/fuBrErgzYz pic.twitter.com/NNIizNIxaJ
— Reuters (@Reuters) September 20, 2021
“On debt limit, the Republicans are doing a dine and dash of historic proportions,” Chuck Schumer says.
He says McConnell “always comes up with some sophistry as to why it's different” now, argues it’s similar to 2017 when Dems helped a GOP-led gov’t extend debt limit.
— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) September 20, 2021
Democrats say they'll push ahead with a vote to fund the government and suspend the debt limit. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell is refusing to provide GOP votes as the political stalemate heads toward a possible government shutdown. https://t.co/z37yFHtilD
— The Associated Press (@AP) September 21, 2021
Good (exasperating!) explainer:
Once again, Democrats must be the grown-ups and keep Republicans from causing a global catastrophe, @crampell writes https://t.co/F5ygWS04Q8
— Washington Post Opinions (@PostOpinions) September 20, 2021
(Nick Anderson via GoComics.com)
debbie
Dine and dash is what the 1% and wannabe 1% have always been about. ?
Baud
The heat initiative is a big deal. The Republicans will kill it if they come back into power.
Nicole
I’m not tired of Democrats always having to be the grownups, but I am very tired of Republicans NEVER being them.
Baud
I’m going to start calling Woodord and Costa “Bob and Bob.”
NotMax
re: one of the items mentioned above, a sponsorship of strange bedfellows.
raven
10th Anniversary of REM hanging it up!
Baud
@raven:
And I feel fine.
NotMax
No reason other than it’s an interesting slice of history, remembering the Tappan brothers.
germy
@raven:
They did a nice version of “Draggin’ The Line”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ov4R1eg2xF0
John S.
Instead of going after Lucy for being an asshole, the media wants to know why Charlie Brown is flat on his back again.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@NotMax: That’s a good sign that gay rights seem to be firmly established in the culture. No backsies.
Of course, I used to think that about abortion and birth control rights.
NotMax
@Dorothy A. Winsor
I probably missed any report at the time; how went the pop-up sale?
Dorothy A. Winsor
Here’s something to get your blood pressure going this morning.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@NotMax: I thought it went well. In two hours, I sold six books, mostly copies of the latest one. Only 300 or so people live here, and many of them had bought from me before. So I was pleased.
rikyrah
Good Morning Everyone ???
rikyrah
The problem isn’t that the Democrats need to be grown-ups.
That is who we are
The problem is the MSM pretending that the other side is.anything other than a bunch of sociopaths.
rikyrah
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Glad that you had a good event
rikyrah
It’s the 21st night of September ??
https://youtu.be/Gs069dndIYk
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
Baud
@rikyrah:
Exactly.
rikyrah
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Da phuq ??
Baud
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Decent Tennesseans know where they stand in their state.
Betty Cracker
The grown-up vs. tantrum-throwing, mess-making toddler analogy hints at the situation but doesn’t accurately describe it. It’s more like a grown-up with three limbs numbed by malicious Novocaine injections fighting a dozen Damien-toddler clones from The Omen (plus their Rottweilers!) for control of a plane that’s in an alarming nosedive while a full complement of passengers complain about having to wear masks and the lack of speedy beverage service.
Baud
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Abortion had been unsettled since Reagan. Abortion rights would have been gone in the early 1990s if Dems and decent Republicans hadn’t borked Bork.
NotMax
@rikyrah
We really need a collectiive noun.
A rancor of sociopaths?
Baud
I don’t think we do ourselves any favors by portraying being grownups as a bad thing or a weak thing.
Dorothy A. Winsor
I just saw mention of a book called Fifteen Dogs that BJers might like. Caution: I haven’t read it. Here’s the quick summary I just read.
Baud
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
I don’t think Juicers would like a book in which dogs are abused like that.
NotMax
@Dorothy A. Winsor
“The ambrosia here sucks.”
“Yeah, and such small servings!”
Enhanced Voting Techniques
What she said. And it’s not the MSM, it’s their own base that refuses to hold the GOP to account when it fails to govern.
Soprano2
So, is the play here that Republicans are trying to force Democrats to burn their reconciliation bill for this year on the debt ceiling limit? I wish Democrats would pass a law eliminating this stupid kabuki dance; it used to be that when a bill authorized spending, it was automatic under the law and didn’t have to be “re-authorized” again and again by raising the artificial debt ceiling. I wonder if they’ll try to get a filibuster carve out for this, under the theory that it’s fiscally irresponsible to default on the debt or shut down the government.
Nicole
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Not saying Tennessee isn’t being terrible in their Covid handling in general, but monoclonal antibody treatment isn’t generally recommended for vaccinated people anyway (other than those who are already immunocompromised, or are very elderly), so I’m curious what the actual text of the recommendation says (the article was behind a paywall). It’s great clickbait, but it might actually be TN just following the established guidelines.
https://www.webmd.com/vaccines/covid-19-vaccine/news/20210826/monoclonal-antibodies-vs-vaccines-vs-covid-19
Soprano2
They want Biden to fail, they don’t care about the damage it does to people.
Baud
@Nicole:
Thank you. I didn’t know that.
MomSense
@Baud:
How about Bob and Bobber.
Baud
@Soprano2:
My hope is that this leads to filibuster reform. We’ll see.
Baud
@MomSense:
Heh.
Jeffro
@raven: that’s funny, I was listening to them on the way in to work today! A mix of stuff from ‘Monster’ forward. Very trippy!
debbie
@Baud:
No, but it sometimes is tiresome.
Kropacetic
Disappointed too many times by promises they’d be raptured into heaven, the pseudo-Christian Cult of Republicanism took matters into their own hands…
Jeffro
@Betty Cracker: half of the passengers are complaining about the masks and beverage service…the other half are unbuckling their seat belts and are about to clobber the Damien clones
(or so I hope, circa November 2022 & November 2024)
Skepticat
THIS.
Kropacetic
@Skepticat: But the teeVee told me that Republicans were the big adult businessmen and Democrats were whiny students, pointy headed academics who never saw the world outside a book, and assorted panhandlers.
rikyrah
Christian Vanderbrouk (@UrbanAchievr) tweeted at 4:17 PM on Mon, Sep 20, 2021:
This is the six-point plan advanced by Trump lawyer John Eastman for VP Pence to overturn the election on January 6th.
https://t.co/IkgmEuCW8b https://t.co/CXWTVY1LL7
(https://twitter.com/UrbanAchievr/status/1440062663967461387?s=03)
frosty
@Soprano2: They want Biden (Obama, Clinton, Carter) to fail, they don’t care about the damage it does to people.
FTFY
Woodrow/asim
You’re right. They are less vocal than with Obama, yet the goal remains the same.
And COVID underlines they’re willing them harm anyone who’s not one of “their people,” to get to that goal.
WereBear
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Male ALWAYS is more important than female in patriarchal minds. Somehow.
It’s why the Right Wing pushed conversion therapy (salvage!) and shrugged off women dying for lack of proper care (we’ll just breed more).
OzarkHillbilly
I’m quite happy he is so forthright in his desire that I spend my money elsewhere.
Eunicecycle
@frosty: and of course the media do the “both sides” thing. And refuse to point out which side is really gumming up the works. But Democrats are definitely in disarray!
bluefoot
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. I do not understand people who would rather get an antibody cocktail than a vaccine. I understand that all their anti-vax arguments are purely performative, but none of their “reasons” stand up when you compare the Regeneron cocktail vs vaccination.
It’s so maddening. And a waste of money, and takes away supplies of the antibody for people who may truly need it.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Soprano2: They also had a two year period of government when they controlled all three branches, failed to get shit done and want to go right back to that. They just want failure, there is nothing else beyond that, and as Popehat was pointed out the MSM treats them with kid gloves like that Ted Kopple train ride nonsense.
Betty Cracker
@Woodrow/asim: Are Republicans less vocal about their distain for Biden than they were with Obama? I’m not sure that’s the case. It looks to me like Republicans have weaponized COVID to harm people indiscriminately in hopes of inflicting political damage. There’s plenty of reason to suppose it’s mostly “their people” sucking ventilators and dying since they are the ones who eschew basic precautions and live in the states with the highest infection rates, though people who are careful get harmed/killed too.
hueyplong
@OzarkHillbilly: So his argument seems to be something like, “I’ve worked hard to earn the right to be the highest and best asshole I can be. Your immunocompromised child is insignificant compared to me own stongly held fee fees.”
Well OK then. Guess we can’t ask for more than clarity on his position, which we now have.
Matt McIrvin
@Betty Cracker: I think the personal rhetoric about Biden is less intense, because he’s a white guy. It’s more trying to depict Biden as a Bizarro projection of Trump (mentally deteriorating, a sex pervert).
Starfish
@Woodrow/asim:
COVID underlines their willingness to harm even their own people for power.
WereBear
@Matt McIrvin:
Since I don’t pay much attention to them I hadn’t realized that. But it’s ALWAYS projection, isn’t it?
Just Chuck
@Baud: Or just “The Bobs” for short.
Amir Khalid
@rikyrah:
I see a lot of delusion and wishful thinking in that six-point plan. No wonder Eastman was mocked for proposing it.
MoCaAce
They are more than willing to harm, even kill, their own people too… as sociopaths are want to do
ETA. Starfish got there first.
Aaron Rodgers Mustache
@Dorothy A. Winsor: so the gqp is rationing care?
sounds like a death panel.
rikyrah
@Nicole:
I’m not. I’m tired of the MSM pretending that they’re anything resembling an actual party interested in governing.
prostratedragon
RIP Sarah Dash, singer extraordinaire with the group Labelle.
There does not seem to exist any good footage of their best live shows, unfortunately, but here’s a grainy video from a tour of which I saw a differently staged performance. Ms. Dash is the first singer. The nightbird I believe is Janis Joplin.
rikyrah
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
Only thing they did was pass phucking tax cuts and try to take away people’s healthcare.
hueyplongex
Wouldn’t mind seeing Paul and Cruz explaining to a grand jury the extent to which they were contacted and agreed to do their parts in the furtherance of the six-step coup plan.
This sure puts the OMG DON’T INVESTIGATE stance in perspective.
Wow, Sen Manchin, I see no reason to suspect that there would be any problem routinely getting to a bipartisan 67 with these guys on matters of import to the nation during a pandemic.
Jeffro
@Amir Khalid: all it would have taken would have been for Pence to follow through on that first step – not accepting the electors for the 7 states in question – and we would have been off to the races. Either those states’ electoral votes wouldn’t have been counted, or the election would have been thrown to the House, RWNJ noise machine screeching and working the refs all the while.
Despite Biden beating trumpov by over 7 million votes.
We have got to get going on this, Dems. No more workarounds, the EC has got to go.
Matt McIrvin
@WereBear: The “no u” aspect is really transparent.
Omnes Omnibus
He had no power to do that. His role was ministerial.
Best of luck with that Constitutional Amendment.
Sure Lurkalot
@Nicole: my friend’s nephew got monoclonal antibody treatment for his breakthrough case.
Ruckus
@Nicole:
Difficult to be an adult while consistently acting like a toddler having tantrums.
Zelma
@Nicole:
I don’t know about the antibodies not being recommended for breakthrough cases. I have two friends who had such cases and they got the antibody treatment here. It helped them a lot.
Another Scott
@Jeffro: I don’t think that’s right, and getting rid of the EC anytime soon isn’t going to happen (unfortunately).
Pence’s role was purely ceremonial. If it were this easy to overturn an election, surely it would have been done before. Why hasn’t it?
Jane C. Timm at NBCNews (from January 5):
The 6-part plan was bizarroworld thinking – as one would expect from John Eastman…
Cheers,
Scott.
Just Chuck
@Woodrow/asim:
Willing to harm others, inexplicably out to kill their own.
cain
@rikyrah:
Also all these journalists are handsomely paid so they are not at all affected by whatever so everything is looked at from a ‘oh so quaint’ point of view.
What do they care if we defaulted on our debt ceiling.
Kay
I have done it myself, but I’ve come to think portraying them as childish or clownish is a mistake. It’s about raw power and they’re fairly effective at getting it and more radical in pursuit of it every day.
Clownish or childish just isn’t accurate and it doesn’t inform the public adequately as to the anti-democratic nature of the Trumpian/conservative “movement”. I don’t think you have to have your hair on fire or scream and yell to accurately describe a threat. It’s just a choice of depicting it accurately or minimizing it. One or the other might be useful or politically palatable but only one is true. I think we should go with the one that is true, that it’s time for that.
Ksmiami
@cain: that would sink the economy and all their investments. The dollar would go to near zero and the banks would fail… believe me, every American, despite the moronic, craven GOP leadership, has a stake in the full faith and credit of the American financial system
Ksmiami
@Omnes Omnibus: your problem is you keep thinking we have to work within the failing paradigm we have versus a complete reconstruction. If things get as bad as I think they will, there will be a call for massive reforms…
Omnes Omnibus
@Ksmiami: Well, there are still a few steps between the current intransigence of Manchin and Sinema and the complete collapse of the US. So, yes, I am looking for solutions that don’t involve societal collapse and revolution. Sue me.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@NotMax:
I count on some asshole combo of Rand Paul, Ted Cruz and Tom Cotton to throw a tantrum and tie it up.
Sean
Do the Democrats have any method to raise the debt ceiling outside of reconciliation? They’d have to amend the budget resolution for that (getting it thru committee) then have 2 15 hr + vote a ramas just to set up that vote, and that’s if we get thru the parliamentarian (or overrule them).
If the GOP refuses to vote for the govt funding bill now proposed (they will refuse) then that is out. If they won’t vote for cloture on a stand alone debt ceiling bill (they won’t) then dems are holding the bag. If we’re days or hours away from default at that point, reconciliation isn’t really a great fall back. Can the senate carve out a filibuster exception for the debt ceiling? Is that a 50+1 vote on that specific rule change?
Additionally it means basically sacrificing the reconciliation bill because we aren’t going to get all that negotiating done in time to prevent default AND get in every detail of a bill Manchin and Synema are already saying they won’t support. I honestly think that barring the GOP allowing a clean debt ceiling hike by voting for cloture but not the actual increase (seems unlikely) we may actually be looking at a default this time, unless we torch the reconciliation bill in time, jump all the hurdles to amend the budget resolution and force that vote with none of the 3.5T in priorities anyone was hoping for. – Whis is what the GOP wants and would be just an absolutely horrible result.
Raoul Paste
That climate change cartoon is spot on
I’m going to print it out and send it to Joe Manchin.
Another Scott
@Sean: More options. RollCall:
There’s always the $1T platinum coin, also too. ;-)
The US won’t default. Reconciliation will get done. How we get there is still a bit up in the air, and we probably won’t know until September 32nd.
Cheers,
Scott.
Platonicspoof
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
I wasn’t willing nor able to access the Kelman article either, but from one of his Twitter comments I found a DHHS document describing the implementation of monoclonal antibodies (mAbs). It’s 69 pdf pages, so I wasn’t able to see any discussion of vaccinated vs. unvaccinated, but on page three (large chart) it says if you’re in the ICU, it’s too late to use mAbs.
Hopefully the vaccinated (nor unvaccinated, for whatever reason) don’t end up there.
Kelly
@OzarkHillbilly: Tis long been thus. A. Lincoln’s Cooper Union speech (slightly updated).
Philbert
@Just Chuck: Poor people get less medical care and are generally in poorer health anyway, and are less likely to be able to distance etc. They figure that Covid will thin the ranks of Those People more than their own. Kushner said something of the sort re cities and blue states. Bio warfare.
Ksmiami
@Philbert: meh they despise their own voters- remember who really is on social security etc
Sean
@Another Scott:
I feel a great deal less optimistic. That article hardly presents the “borrow anyway” alternative as a 100% viable one. The markets would still tank even if that’s the direction Biden took, just because of the uncertainty and legal ramifications.
And I don’t think the 1T coin is anything but a cartoonish pie in the sky idea for resolution of the problem. No one is indicating they’re taking it seriously. I guess it could buy time until reconciliation could pass, but I really can’t imagine them going this route. Maybe “borrow anyway” and grimace our way thru reconciliation, but that would come at probably the worst political cost on top of everything else because, let’s face it, Democrats will get blamed and the GOP will Benghazi Biden’s actions to death.
I honestly don’t know what is going to happen, but whatever it is, I’m feeling less and less certain it is going to be a good outcome. I wish they’d just planned to do it via reconciliation, raised it with little drama (drowned out by all the good infrastructure news), and everyone would have forgotten in 2 weeks.
Instead, we get non stop reconciliation/debt ceiling “the democrats have no plan” stories for a month and a questionable outcome.
JaneE
Yellen said that a debt default would leave America weaker. That is what the GOP has been working for for decades. They do not want a strong United States of America. They want a divided, ineffective and vulnerable United States of America, not one that can stand up for democracy and human rights around the globe.
cain
@Ksmiami:
You and I know that – but do these people know that? I feel like they still look at everything from some disconnected point of view because they are independently rich.
After all if there is indeed a collapse the news media will make moola reporting on it. It’ll be just like war reporting. Of course, nobody will be able to afford newspapers or even cable.
Ksmiami
@cain: No- they’d be the first ones squealing and all of the GOP major donors will yank them by their leashes.
Gravenstone
Hard to square that view with their constant demand that we take assorted small countries and “throw them against the wall” militarily in order to swing our biggus dickus all over the fucking place.
J R in WV
@Just Chuck:
Shouldn’t that be The BOOBS, though?!!