According to WaPo, Trump’s big ugly bill narrowly passed in the House a little while ago and is now headed to the Senate. Here’s the summary from the linked article:
Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill, as the measure is formally known, extends trillions of dollars in tax cuts from his first term along with new campaign promises — including no taxes on tips and overtime wages — and hundreds of billions of dollars in new spending.
But the legislation, carries a hefty price tag. The latest projection from Congressional Budget Office, lawmakers’ nonpartisan bookkeeper, showed it will add $2.4 trillion over 10 years to the national debt, which already exceeds $36 trillion.
To offset the cost, the measure would slash spending on social safety net programs by more than $1 trillion over 10 years. Even then, the mammoth legislation could also force nearly $500 billion in cuts to Medicare over the next decade to keep the national deficit within legal limits, unless Congress later adjusts the limits. The legislation could strip Medicaid coverage from 8.7 million people and lead to 7.6 million more uninsured people over 10 years, CBO projected.
To sum up, billionaires like Trump, Musk, Zuckerberg, Bezos, etc., get to keep NOT paying their fair share of taxes, and ordinary citizens who depend on Medicare, Medicaid and other programs get screwed. Same as it ever was when Repubs hold power, only worse because Trump makes everything worse.
The retiree ceremonial head of state took a brief break from golf and crypto grifting yesterday to lean on House Repubs to get the bill passed. But elected Repubs interpreted Trump’s incoherent and uniformed comments on the bill in ways that confirm their priors.
In the meeting, the president scolded blue-state Republicans seeking a higher cap on state and local tax deductions (SALT), and he chided GOP hard-liners not to “f— around with Medicaid” benefits. A consensus, lawmakers said, appeared in the offing.
But lawmakers raced to put their own spin on Trump’s words. To some, the president’s comments about SALT meant refusing to raise the tax deduction, and to others, he meant accepting moderates’ demands.
To one group, his remarks about Medicaid meant searching for only egregious abuses, while another handful thought it meant finding “waste” within the program’s DNA.
A similar dynamic will probably take hold in the Senate, where a modified version of a bill that screws working people in favor of billionaires will almost certainly pass. At the policy level, right-wing “populism” is indistinguishable from the plutocratic agenda, as it was in Trump’s first term.
When millions lose healthcare, when rural hospitals close and nursing homes nationwide are shuttered, when seniors can’t access the benefits they’ve paid into for decades, etc., Trump will either ignore the situation or claim ignorance. Pretending not to know what’s happening under their own watch is a hallmark of the Trump cabinet, and it comes from the top.
I’ll contact my shitty Republican senators today to register my objections, but it feels entirely pointless. Because it is. The only thing we can do is ride this nightmare out and try to shift the balance of power through the next elections. Depressing!
***
I played hooky yesterday to attend the Tampa Bay Rays baseball game. They beat the Houston Astros 8 to 4, so the curse is lifted! (The curse was that the Rays lost every game my sister and I attended.)
Last year’s hurricanes shredded the dome at Tropicana Field in St. Pete, so this year, the team is playing at the New York Yankee’s spring training facility in Tampa, a much smaller and open air venue.
Lord, it was HOT! I’m not used to watching baseball outdoors since the Rays have played in a dome since their inception. I applied sunblock copiously and wore a hat, but I still got fried. Our plastic stadium chairs were so hot we had to pour water on them to avoid scorching our butts.
We entertained ourselves during lulls in the baseball action by watching unwary fans arrive late, sit down in their blazing hot seats and then leap up fanning their flaming hot tushes. We agreed that for the rest of the season, we’ll consider attending night games only.
Open thread!
On The Road – frosty – Chasing Birds
Baud
This right here is the truth that can’t be told.
Baud
No Dems voted for this, just like I think no Dems voted for the tax cuts during Trump I. (Not even Manchin).
But people will still pretend the two sides are the same and they will be taken seriously.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
Ooooh, thanks for the ball park report.
And probably unlike major league, outdoor parks, there’s probably no shady seats anywhere and if so, those are probably snatched up quickly, for obvious reasons.
Yeah, baking in the sun at a game tests one’s love of the game. We saw one game in Angels Stadium a little over a week ago, sat in the sun. Good news is the sun screen worked!
Jackie
I sure hope those who voted for these shitheads suffer at least as much as we who didn’t are going to.
Betty Cracker
@Baud: I think Dems have lost three reps this year? If we hadn’t, maybe we could have stopped this bill, but maybe not. The GOP hold-outs would have come under all kinds of pressure to vote yes. Maybe people who were absent would have been brought in. I don’t know. Such a narrow gap. Wow.
espierce
Watched that game on tv yesterday and thought the Astros looked particularly miserable in the 91°/75% humidity. Just read that it was their second non-sell out game this year so I expect there’s some appreciation for the air conditioned Trop. My son and I normally take in a game to celebrate our June/July birthdays but I think we’ll hold off until they get the roof back on in the ‘Burg.
Also too, fuck trump and his big beautiful bill!
New Deal democrat
Let’s be clear. The massive cuts in food and medical care for the poor and working class will only *partially* offset the massive giveaway to the wealthy. Basically this bill turns on the federal printing press to deliver massive amounts of paper currency to the plutocrats, leaving no room for fiscal expansion whenever the next economic downturn or crisis hits.
In reaction, this morning investors demanded the highest interest payments in almost 20 years – 5.13% – in order to buy a U.S. 30 year Treasury bond.
This is End of Empire stuff. The biggest mafia bust-out in all of recorded history.
Gloria DryGarden
My snap benefits already don’t last through the month. A 30% cut is a big deal. And Medicare, didn’t we all pay into it from withholding, all those years? I depended on Medicaid for years, once Obama care set that up; many friends still do.
If they cut ours, they need to cut their lovely health insurance that Congress gets. And cut what ever expense account allowances they have for eating out. And every one of them needs to try limiting their food budget to what snap gives them. These people have no idea.
There’s more to say, but I’m tired. Someone else will say it somewhere. I suppose I need to call my senators.
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
Yeah, they knew what they could afford to lose.
Gloria DryGarden
@Jackie: they can have their suffering before they take their special plane rides…
RevRick
@Baud: Yes! There is a vast chasm between the two parties. The most conservative Democrat in the House (Jared Golden) is a flaming socialist compared to the most liberal Republican (Unicorn). The two parties are most decidedly not alike.
Betty Cracker
@espierce: Do you know what the beef with Altuve is all about? Every time he came up to bat, he was booed mercilessly! Is it the cheating scandal from a few years back, or did something new happen that I don’t know about?
Baud
@RevRick:
Yeah, but that poison has been a respectable part of liberal discourse for my lifetime and shows no signs of abating.
Lyrebird
@Baud:
Thanks for showing Dems In Array… keeping up the pressure!
Agreed, and THANKS for the bleacher report! Ouch
PS: I am still mad at what Amanda Marcotte wrote, need to get over it.
NeenerNeener
Reich said there’s a provision in the Big, Ugly Bill that makes St. Upid king:
“No court of the United States may use appropriated funds to enforce a contempt citation for failure to comply with an injunction or temporary restraining order if no security was given when the injunction or order was issued….”
No federal court can enforce a contempt citation. It remains to be seen if the Senate strips that out…or not.
Baud
@NeenerNeener:
The Senate GOP just over ruled their parliamentarian to pass a law repealing some California air pollution law. The filibuster is dying.
They Call Me Noni
It is a loooong time until 2028.
Read an interesting article last night. Don’t recall which news site as I was all over the place trying to catch up as we lost our internet during a storm early Monday morning which took out our router and the cable outside. Anyways, the article was making a pretty convincing argument that the voters Dems should be more focused on is young women as opposed to young men. Young women lean much more progressive and a higher percentage of them do not vote. Young men, as has been discussed to death, lean much more to the right and are not very persuadable. The young ladies care more about the environment, child care, education, etc. My experience with the grandsons wives and female friends is that this is definitely true. Perhaps more messaging should be tailored/directed to the ladies. Give them a reason to vote.
pattonbt
Just cleaning up Biden’s mess you know (dutifully transcribed by the NYT without comment or follow up).
espierce
@Betty Cracker:
It’s the cheating scandal and he’s universally loathed by Rays fans…makes me lol every time I hear it because it was years ago!
Gloria DryGarden
@NeenerNeener: that was the “more to say” thing.
I am appalled.
heather cox Richardson discusses the bill, and the history of getting the safety nets put in, in last nights letter. it’s worth a read; I can’t link it.
rikyrah
Good Morning Everyone 😊 😊 😊
rikyrah
Just a bill full of EVIL 😡😡😡
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
Elizabelle
That was an insanely close margin. And maybe the markets will make their concerns even clearer. Wonder how much the Senate might alter it.
Except for the top tier wealthy, we will all suffer. This bill would be DOA in a Democratic administration.
rikyrah
@Baud:
Yeah .
The entire
Both sides are the same BULLSHYT 😡
Baud
@rikyrah:
I didn’t realize it when I was younger, but now it’s clear. It’s affirmatively pro-fascist.
Betty Cracker
@They Call Me Noni: That dovetails with the findings of the Catalist report. I posted an excerpt of TPM’s analysis of it in a thread yesterday. Here it is again:
The report also found that Dems gained ground with the most engaged voters but lost their footing with newer voters. That’s a reversal of a previous long-term trend.
The bottom line seems to be that young men and low-info voters are more susceptible to what I think of as “YouTube bullshit,” which is of course across other platforms too. Conspiracy theories, the ignorant ramblings of “influencers,” etc.
Baud
@They Call Me Noni:
@Betty Cracker:
The debate always end up being whether we should try to recapture the people were losing or double down on decent people.
I don’t know the answer.
JML
I find the “there’s no difference between the parties” schtick maddening, but people will beat that horse long after it’s in the grave. It’s a comforting belief that allows people to not have to take responsibility for anything that happens in the public sector, so no wonder they clutch it like their pearls. Besides, the media loves a “a pox on both their houses!” story where they can pretend they’re smarter than both political parties and make everything about them too, so we’re still having this garbage enforced upon us, even though anyone with a third of a brain can see it’s insane.
RevRick
@New Deal democrat: This bill not only robs from the poor to gives to the rich, but also robs from the future to give to today’s fortunate few.
Rural America is going to learn the hard way what all these policies will do to them.
Medicaid and Medicare cuts? The closures of rural hospitals and reduced access to health care services. The nation’s health care system will be hard put to make up the loss of $130 billion annually in revenue and will undoubtedly lead to all kinds of corner cutting.
The slashing of SNAP benefits? Good luck selling your farm produce. The economics of agriculture are shaky even in the best of times. And even a small loss of demand can cause a huge loss in the price they get for the food they produce. We saw the reverse of this when Enron slashed electricity to California by about 4%, causing a huge spike in prices.
On top of that, the Trump crackdown on immigration will lead to shortages in labor, especially in meat packing, which will mean less beef, pork and chicken reaching the market.
the pollyanna from hell
A hundred fifty years ago the practice of internal medicine was an evil influence, a net detriment to patients. They didn’t give up. If evangelism is now an evil influence, I hope this crisis of moral quagmire encourages them to make some corrections.
Scout211
Can I just say that I am really sick and tired of so much (all?) reporting on legislation as if it’s only a win/lose race for the politicians in Washington?
“Giving Trump a win” or “giving Johnson a win” is an extremely disgusting way to describe a budget that will hurt so many citizens. One winner and many millions of losers, but they don’t count? Only the pols in Washington count?
Disgusting and immoral. But I repeat myself.
Betty Cracker
@Baud: Doubling down on decent people brings to mind the Adlai Stevenson quip about needing a majority. I don’t know what to do either.
evodevo
“Our plastic stadium chairs were so hot we had to pour water on them to avoid scorching our butts.” I take an outdoor furniture thin seat cushion to such events – my bony hip joints can’t take those seats for more than an hour or so.
Matt McIrvin
@Betty Cracker: It’s likely that any Republican majority would have passed the bill–with these party-line votes, generally the party allows as many reps in marginal districts to vote against it as will not kill the bill.
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
My only plan is to sit back and say “I didn’t do it” when people complain about Republicans.
If people want to choose the serf lifestyle, I can’t stop them.
Professor Bigfoot
@RevRick: Anyone who considers the obviously white supremacist GOP to be “the same” as the Black and Jewish and female led Democrats… is also a white supremacist.
Matt McIrvin
@Baud: When I was a kid, though, there was far more overlap between the parties in Congress. There were liberal Republicans who would often vote with Democrats, and conservative Democrats who would vote more often than not with Republicans.
This wasn’t necessarily a good thing. Largely it was because the Democrats still had a residual Dixiecrat faction. As Dixiecrat politicians went over to the Republicans, party distinctions became sharper.
Matt McIrvin
@the pollyanna from hell: “I still see some areas where we’re not quite evil enough–we can fix that, though!”
Baud
@Matt McIrvin:
Yeah, things have changed over the last 50 years. But the lie lives on because it helps preserve and entrench the status quo with respect to the socioeconomic hierarchy.
azlib
And my Republican rep, Davis Schweikert did not vote. He is a big deficit hawk and if he really had principals about the deficit would have voted “no” which would have defeated the resolution. He is in a very swing district and need to be defeated in 2026.
They Call Me Noni
@Baud: And that is the conundrum. Given the direction the policies of this administration are going you’d think that well before November 2028 most people of voting age would be adversely affected enough to get them to vote for the betterment of all. Hopes are that they learn what “woke” actually means.
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: Whiteness before rightness..That’s why Amy Walter can write Obama coalition is the Trump coalition, something that is not proven by data at all and still be taken seriously
Timill
@Gloria DryGarden:
HCR Substack link
Matt McIrvin
@JML: There are different versions of the “pox on both their houses” shtick, depending on where you are on the spectrum.
With lefties, it’s a self-congratulatory performance of how extreme you are. “I’m so far left, the Democrats and the Republicans look the same to me!”
With centrists, it’s “ooh, both sides became so extreme! Can’t we just get the smart people in a room and have them hash things out?”
With Libertarians, it’s a nice way to pretend you’re not actually a Republican.
Republican usage of it is related to that: it’s the fallback when somebody objects to outrageous corruption or incompetence by Republicans. “They’re all corrupt! Why would you trust government to do anything? That’s why I vote for the small-government, anti-politician party.”
Professor Bigfoot
@Betty Cracker: That’s exactly what immediately came to mind for me, too.
Also, too, put me in with those who don’t know WTF to do about this.
Elizabelle
@schrodingers_cat: That was probably the most insane sentence I have seen. In an insane week. Which they all are now.
They Call Me Noni
@Betty Cracker: Thank you for reposting for my attention. I’ve not been through all older threads on BJ yet. All very good information.
Baud
@schrodingers_cat:
Yeah, white people and men are salivating at finally defeating the promise that Obama’s election offered. Biden’s win was a speed bump in their plans, but they overcame it.
Betty Cracker
@Professor Bigfoot: True in many if not most cases, but I think it’s difficult for people who pay at least some attention to politics to fathom the vast ignorance of millions of our fellow citizens who pay no attention at all. Unfortunately, these ignorant fuckers vote, and their votes decide elections.
Another Scott
@Betty Cracker: Fritschner said that the deaths in the House caucus didn’t change the outcome. The GQP voting against or present would have been persuaded somehow. I think he’s right.
It sucks to be in the minority. That’s yet another reason why it’s important to win every election possible.
Thanks.
Best wishes,
Scott.
Matt McIrvin
@Elizabelle: Like I said at the time, it was the old “confusion between X and the change in X” trick, also common in stupid discussions of economics.
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
Even if this bill survived the Senate intact, some of the harm is delayed until 2029. So a lot of people simply won’t believe us if we tell them what the Republicans did. Some will.
Geminid
@Matt McIrvin: There was a corresponding shift in New England, from Republican to Democrat, as the South went red.
In this century the Republican-to-Democrat shift has played out in suburban seats nationwide. Examples from 2018: Jennifer McClellan beat Barbara Comstock in VA10, and Sharice Davids beat Kevin Yoder in KS03. Most of the other 40 seats Dems flipped that year were suburban-based. We’veheld most of them since.
Meanwhile, most of the rural Blue Dogs got wiped out. That Caucus numbered 52 going into the 2010 midterms. I think they’re down to 9 now; an endangered species.
JMG
The bond market, and by extension the stock market, will be voting on this bill every day the Senate considers it. That vote has the possibility of changing a few Senatorial minds.
Scout211
So this type of takeover of the school curriculum in red states won’t help getting the facts to young voters.
Conspiracy theories taught as high school civics? Here I thought that voters learning political “facts” from their sister’s brother-in-law’s cousin on Facebook or some social media influencer’s flashy TikTok was going to be hard to counteract. But state required education curriculum? Yikes.
Soprano2
@Baud: To me the debate always seems to be that we should try to capture the kind of people who voted for us 50 years ago (blue collar white men) because they are the “real, true” voters and everyone else is “extra”. I remain convinced that this is one of the big things with the press – they believe the white male vote is the “real, true American” vote, so they think whoever that particular group supports is the most legitimate. It explains a lot of their attitude toward FFOTUS. The people who they still believe are the smartest, most important voters support FFOTUS, so they think he must be a serious person even in the face of all the evidence to the contrary. It frustrates me every time I hear a discussion about this without addressing racism or misogyny at all.
They Call Me Noni
@Betty Cracker: They’re like cicadas on a four year cycle. They stay obliviously underground and you don’t hear a peep out of them until time to vote.
Baud
@JMG:
Yeah, ironically, Wall Street is our biggest ally now.
Professor Bigfoot
@Betty Cracker: True enough. That’s one reason I’m alway harping on how white people don’t think about how “whiteness” affects their sub- and unconscious choices and beliefs.
Those ignorant folk are driven almost entirely by “vibes,” and those vibes are going to carry an unconscious bias— white men are supposed to be on top, and the leadership of anyone else is always questionable.
Baud
@Matt McIrvin:
Our problem is that our social media can stand up to the latter two groups, but not the first group.
Baud
@Soprano2:
The only way to stop them is to defeat them and prove ourselves. But we don’t have the numbers to do that.
tobie
Oh, what a world of pain! Thanks, Betty Cracker, for reporting on this dreadful development.
Sorry to harp on this but every small business owner in the home trades I know will be happy with this bill because they never paid tax on anything but a small fraction of their income. They deducted personal expenses as business expenses and didn’t report income under $10K. They are Trump’s base. “Joe, the Plumber” and “Tito, the Builder” became monikers for a reason.
LAC
@Baud: That should make those medicaid/Medicare cuts and all the fun things in that ugly ass bill easier to swallow for them , amirite?
Professor Bigfoot
@They Call Me Noni: That’s what I think of the Jill Steins and the Greens and the “Pro-Palestinian” protesters— 4 year cicadas that pop up to point out how terrible and foolish and feckless the Democrats are.
azlib
@NeenerNeener:
Should be striped out by the Senate reconciliation rules.
Soprano2
@evodevo: I have stadium cushions we use when we go to Springfield Cardinal games, because my husband has a hard time with the hard seats.
Baud
@azlib:
The Senate can overrule the parliamentarian.
Soprano2
@They Call Me Noni: From what I’ve read they put off the worst of the cuts until 2029 just so people won’t suffer until after the next presidential election.
Professor Bigfoot
@azlib: I would love to believe that, but the GOP are running the NSDAP playbook as a party and I can easily see them leaving this in.
”Conservatives will overthrow the Constitution they claim to revere because it permitted a Black man to become President ‘over them.’”
Melancholy Jaques
@Baud:
Only Republicans can do that.
Soprano2
@Professor Bigfoot: Just like the idea that the white man is obviously always qualified for the job, while everyone else’s qualifications are suspect.
UncleEbeneezer
Two young Israeli embassy workers were murdered in DC last night. They were a couple and he was planning on proposing to her next week :(.
This is why bullshit like “Globalize the Intifada” and “from the river to the sea” etc., should never have been tolerated or defended by anyone who claims to be progressive. If the progressive, social-justice claim that “words = violence” is true, then the Free Palestine/Gaza movement has the same blood on its’ hands as MAGA, Incel, TERF propaganda that incites violence against Black People, Immigrants, Women and Transgender People.
Baud
@Melancholy Jaques:
My hope is that, if we get another chance, the next Dem Senate will finally ditch the filibuster. That has been our biggest obstacle for the last several decades.
Matt McIrvin
@Scout211: This is why I’m skeptical of people blaming current baleful political trends on the decline in civics education–I suspect that civics education always sucked and was more political indoctrination than anything else. Someone here mentioned Florida mandating a “Communism vs. Americanism” course.
Elizabelle
@Baud: We don’t have the numbers because we live in a world of lies, and way too many voters are too juvenile for their responsibility.
Feels like we have passed a tipping point, but maybe Trump will destroy himself. Sad that it may take a cataclysm to wake enough voters up.
Belafon
There’s a share to Twitter button at the top. Could we get a share to BlueSky button in addition/instead of?
Baud
@Elizabelle:
People believe what they want to believe.
The lies are there to meet the demand.
Melancholy Jaques
@Soprano2:
The largest demographic in voting is white women, but I agree with you that “only white males count” is what the press promotes.
The only time the other demographics get attention is if the press wants a story that says that demographic is abandoning Democrats.
Belafon
@UncleEbeneezer: I read about the guy. He is, and I kid you not, a member of a Marxist-Leninist party.
Quiltingfool
I was over at LGM, reading comments, and one comment caught my attention. This person said that his co-workers had bragged on Trump constantly, but now they are radio silent.
I got to thinking, why are these Trump voters/supporters so quiet? Where’s the bragging? We know they aren’t hearing bad stuff from the msm they prefer.
I think they are hearing things from people they know and trust. People they know who work in healthcare or construction or education, these folks are telling them that things aren’t going so well and will likely get worse.
I don’t see much visible (bumper stickers, flags, etc.) Trump support in my very red area, but I don’t know if Trumpers around here have gone quiet.
Anyone here from red areas, what is your observation about this?
Ohio Mom
@Baud: Warren Davidson represents a district just north of me.
He just introduced a bill to study Trump Derangement Syndrome, with required annual reports to Congress.
From today’s Cincinnati paper (from the USA Today network), his statement: “TDS has divided families, the country, and led to nationwide violence — including two assignation attempts on President Trump. The TDS Research Act would require the NIH to study this toxic state of mind, so we can understand the root cause and identify solutions.”
Now announced bill is far away from a signed law but I thought this would give everyone some insight into this nut of a Rep.
Melancholy Jaques
@Betty Cracker:
So much analysis & deep thought devoted to the second election where the determining factor is quite clearly that a lot of people don’t think a woman should be president.
Baud
@Belafon:
The guy with the car bomb in California had some anti-people philosophy. The polar opposite of natalists.
We’re probably going to see more extremism on both ends. But only one will be state sponsored.
Dorothy A. Winsor
Shame on those who voted for this bill. Shame.
Baud
AOC
Elizabelle
@Quiltingfool: Verrrrry interesting.
Professor Bigfoot
@Soprano2: Precisely.
The autonomic responses, if you will, wired into the American psyche by that can be overruled with knowledge and thoughtfulness and mindfulness; but we are talking about people for whom those are alien concepts.
Belafon
@Melancholy Jaques:
White women also promote this.
Elizabelle
Look out! It’s a very skinny polar bear in today’s respite photo. And it’s coming for you!
Lovely creature.
Betty Cracker
@UncleEbeneezer: It’s a terrible thing, and not only is it a human tragedy for the young couple and their families, the incident will be used by the worst fucking people on both sides of the ongoing geopolitical tragedy to further their evil agendas.
Elizabelle
@Baud: I know. Starting to think we are sunk.
Professor Bigfoot
@Matt McIrvin: Granted, I was in grade school back in the Dark Ages long before the Turn of the Century… my civics education was much more about the construction of the Constitution, how the Senate and the House operated, that whole “separate and co-equal branches” bit that conservatives have now eviscerated.
Nothing, really, about parties or policies.
sentient ai from the future
@UncleEbeneezer: why are you taking “three senior law enforcement officials” at their anonymous word?
I’m so old I remember anonymous rumors being spread about the OKC bombing, that were also complete bullshit.
I grieve for the murdered and their families, and we have a duty to the lost not to race to confirm our priors based on rumor. please.
Professor Bigfoot
@Belafon: Second this request.
Baud
@Elizabelle:
I have no idea. I used to fight to win, but now I fight to fight. The actual outcome is out of my hands.
Belafon
@Baud: On littlegreenfootballs, the expectation is that this will be used by Trump to further crack down on any protest groups the administration doesn’t like. This guy’s party affiliation just added to my view that this guy is so far out there that if he had a telescope he still couldn’t see what is actually happening here in the US and that he won’t be freeing Gazans.
Quiltingfool
@Scout211: Former teacher here. If Oklahoma is adding to the curriculum, well, good luck with that. Teachers don’t have enough time to teach stuff already in the curriculum, let alone extras. I know they won’t be cutting anything.
Also, some teachers are very sneaky. We can do piss-poor lesson plans to show we are complying, but the kids don’t learn anything.
I’ve seen this type of dog and pony show countless times. It may be in the curriculum, but that doesn’t mean it will be taught in an effective way.
Baud
@Belafon:
Could be. We’ve been expecting suppression of dissent for a while now. It’s not like they need that much of an excuse.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Matt McIrvin:
Not neccessarily. As i was butting heads yesterday on this subject, the entire indoctrination aspect of this, ie., RWNJs getting onto school boards, didn’t start in earnest until the 80s…which is also when the GOP War on Public Education began in earnest. And a resulting decline in civics education (or changing it per your opinion of it).
Prior to that, sure, it provided a basic grounding in US history and government. I went to a gazillion schools growing up, have a BA and MA in both history and geography and looking back, particularly in grade school, what we were taught wasn’t bad. And in HS, it wasn’t slanted per se, just blahly taught.
Anyway
Surprised that there wasn’t more pushback from healthcare providers and insurers. They make money off Medicaid/Medicare and their systems are dependent on that.
Ds will be portrayed as fearmongers if the effects aren’t immediate …
Jackie
@Elizabelle:
Thanks for the sweet respite moment :-)
Paul in KY
@Baud: Some of them even protest TFG at times…
Baud
@Paul in KY:
And get arrested for it.
Emily B.
If the provision about not taxing tips remained in the House bill, then both the Senate and House have passed bills to exempt tip income from taxation. What incentives will that create?
Restaurant owners have even less of an incentive to pay their servers a decent hourly wage. There will be an even bigger divide between restaurant employees who have tip income and those, like the kitchen staff, who are paid hourly.
Some customers will tip less, knowing that the employee won’t have to pay taxes on it.
And I can’t help thinking that many business owners will find some interesting new loopholes for evading taxes. Claiming that more of their own income is from tips, for example.
Lyrebird
@Scout211: horror… isn’t that the state where they got the TikTok terrorist person to head up their education department?
Fkkkkk
They Call Me Noni
@Soprano2: And all those low information voters will ignore it just as they did P2025. Bonkers and infuriating.
Betty Cracker
@Quiltingfool: That tracks with what I’m seeing. The loudmouth cultists aren’t going to change, ever, not even when they’re robbed of earned benefits to pay for Musk’s fourth yacht. But anyone who thought Trump would bring prices down is being disabused of that notion. It won’t turn them into liberals, but at least they’ll STFU. Small victories!
Professor Bigfoot
@Baud: But that’s supposed to be part of it— after all, MLKjr himself wrote his “Letters from a Birmingham Jail.”
The point is to BE arrested, to offer yourself up to the authorities in the cause of righteousness.
So I’ll give THOSE protesters props.
But not the ones who only protest Democrats, and for damn sure not the ones who like to tell Black people we need to sacrifice our own grandchildren for the sake of Palestine. Fuck them.
the pollyanna from hell
@Quiltingfool:
Yard signs remain in Chattooga, but diminished.
Betty Cracker
@Belafon: & @Professor Bigfoot: Good idea. TBH, I never even saw that button array until y’all pointed it out. I’ll pass that request along to TPTB.
Paul in KY
@schrodingers_cat: That person has to be smoking bath salts (and not the good kind) to come up with a comment like that.
Soprano2
@Emily B.: Servers will have an incentive to not be paid that much of an hourly wage, since most of their income is already tips. Don’t forget, though, that in most states tips will still be taxable, and they can still avoid taxes by just not reporting their tips. People paying with credit cards has made that a lot more complicated, when all tips were cash servers could make their reported income be whatever they wanted it to be. I hadn’t thought about what some owners could do, though, that’s an interesting thought. I know some owners “rob” tips from their servers, I would never do that! They work hard for that money and put up with a lot of crap, they deserve to keep what they’ve earned. I’m concerned that people in many professions will suddenly try to categorize the money they make as “tips”.
Elizabelle
A small business jet (Cessna 550, seats 6 to 8) crashed about 3:45 am in a San Diego neighborhood, setting numerous houses and cars ablaze. Jet fuel all over the place.
Am I wrong to wish that Zuckerberg or Musk or one of the other plutocrats was aboard? Alas, the aircraft was probably too modest.
My condolences to those involved.
Paul in KY
@Scout211: My cousin, a MAGA-voting racist, was a long haul trucker for several years and visited all 48 CONUS states and declared that Oklahoma was by far the shittiest state with the shittiest people he ever visited.
Belafon
@Betty Cracker: I just noticed them this morning.
schrodingers_cat
@Paul in KY: Giggle Sister is a very respected pundit on the Snooze Hour among other things and is supposed to be a polling expert.
schrodingers_cat
@Paul in KY: I had a friend who was post doc in Oklahoma, couldn’t wait to get out of there, and is now back in New England.
Elizabelle
I feel like we are seeing the Nazis’ Enabling Act passing in its first stages this morning.
And we know history.
Melancholy Jaques
@Quiltingfool:
Future former teacher here, working as a substitute in my last year.
I graduated high school in 1973, so I was in US history 71-72. We ended the year with World War II and its aftermath. This week I covered a US history class. They are ending the year with World War II and its aftermath.
Paul in KY
@Baud: I would just like them to go back to the old-timey filibuster, where you had to physically stand there and emote/waste time, etc.
Jackie
@Emily B.:
My understanding is tips won’t be taxed at the FEDERAL level, but still taxable at state and local levels?
So, still taxed?
Belafon
@Paul in KY: What do you get when the mascot of the largest state university is about people who not only took land from Native Americans, but cheated and hid to make sure they got what they wanted before the “race” to claim it even started? Yes, the part of Far and Away where the people hid before the government sanctioned race to grab land started and then popped their heads up was real. Hence the name Sooners.
Paul in KY
@Baud: Biden’s jackbooted thugs would have arrested them too dontchaknow…
Lyrebird
Sometimes it was a good thing, though – around those times Republicans still included Lowell Weicker in their ranks, and I wish we had more people like him now in the Senate! Link goes to a page about his work as the “Father of the ADA”
Lyrebird
I had a brief burst of hope that this was a protest* bill, but… no.
*Like the state legislator who introduced a bill requiring uncomfortable procedures before any prescription for erectile dysfunction or something like that.
Wow.
JML
@Emily B.: honestly, I feel like exempting tips from being taxable income is just more incentive for owners to steal tips from their workers. But I have bad feelings to so many restaurant & bar owners post-COVID with all the “we’re only open 4 nights a week because people don’t want to work!” and other nonsense that kept showing up in my county.
Betty Cracker
@Paul in KY: A real filibuster would certainly be preferable to the anti-majoritarian bullshit theater currently in use, but I’d be fine with just getting rid of it altogether. One of the arguments against doing that is that it would expose people to whipsaw changes in policy as party power changes hands.
I think that’s exactly what we need. Maybe we could also use some reforms that prevent lawmakers from back-loading changes like the draconian cuts Repubs are currently trying to make so they won’t be felt until 2029. There may be some legit reasons to phase some policies in, but as currently used, it’s mostly chicanery.
Paul in KY
@schrodingers_cat: Good idea!
Captain C
@Baud:
A number of them want those of us who didn’t choose the serf lifestyle to save them from their own bad choices, and at our expense and detriment.
Paul in KY
@Belafon: Good point. I would theoretically take a job there somewhere, but boy o boy, they would have to wildly overpay me.
And I mean wildly.
Paul in KY
@Betty Cracker: Either what I said or get rid of it. The current way is absolute BS, IMO.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Matt McIrvin:
Oh, that would be this rebrand of Third Way crapola:
https://welcomepac.org/welcomefest2025
If you look at the event last year, lotsa GOPer Never-Trumpers in the speaker lineup. Yeah, I’m listening to them about how Dems should be.
Captain C
@schrodingers_cat: Whatever she’s on she either needs to stop taking it or triple the dose. Maybe spend the next six or so years doing nothing but meditating over the errors of her both-sides bullshit too, and probably most of the rest of her life choices as well.
Ohio Mom
@Melancholy Jaques: History keeps increasing and schools are still trying to cram it all into one year of lessons.
Observing Ohio Son’s high school curriculum ten years ago, I decided that the requirement of four years of math was a way to avoid splitting history into two years, rather than speeding through everything in one.
If a student is planning to go into a field of study that will require that extra year of advanced math, make that fourth year of math an elective.
Lots of people’s only exposure to history is in high school, and it would be better for us a nation if we had more voters with a deeper appreciation of how we got to the present moment.
Suzanne
@RevRick:
This right here is why I may grumble, but ultimately get on the bus with enthusiasm.
Captain C
@Baud: Some people apparently will happily blame the Democrats for eating their face while the leopard is busy eating their face. Like you, I’m not sure what to do about this.
SFAW
I have a similar curse: Mets fan since 1962, but every game (save one) I’ve attended over that last 40 years has resulted in a Mets loss. Even in years when they were kicking ass, they’d still lose to mediocre teams when I was in attendance. And I may have passed that curse on to my daughter (also a Mets fan).
Not that this is a realistic concern, but: were I given tickets to the seventh game of a Mets/Whoever World Series, I would have to think about whether I should go — that’s how bad the curse is for me.
Suzanne
@Betty Cracker:
Yeah yeah. And…. hopefully they’ll be too depressed to vote in any future elections.
Elizabelle
@Ohio Mom: I wonder if they don’t do two years of history because there would be too much screeching about what and how post-1945 history is taught. Saint Reagan and all.
I agree. A second year of (actual) history is way more important than math. And include critical thinking and examples of how to spot fallacies in the curriculum.
Belafon
@Ohio Mom: In my ideal version of America, there would be two more years of school. The last two of which would be an associates degree, fully funded by taxpayers, with students given the ability live in dorms on those campuses. Those two years would be when students take the classes for their majors, such as advanced math, freeing up the first 13 years to get back to concentrating on the core parts of learning, such as how the US government works and more history.
But that could lead students to learning about the horrors of slavery.
RevRick
@SFAW: Choo-Choo Coleman and Marvelous Marv Throneberry. You must love abuse as much as I do as a lifelong fan of the team that has lost the most World Series.
Suzanne
@Belafon: In my ideal America, public universities would be free to attend at any level.
WaterGirl
@Belafon: Good suggestions!
I checked, and BlueSky is not an option in the plugin that gives us those.
Will have to see if there’s a more current plugin that would give us those options. But that will require a different scale of time than what just adding BlueSky with the current plugin would have taken.
RevRick
@Professor Bigfoot: I was thinking in terms of economics here in reference to the Big Beautiful Abomination, but you’re absolutely right about the divide along race, gender and religion (or no religion). The GOP is the default party for white men and women who have internalized white male supremacy. White men have to choose to be Democrats.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Ohio Mom:
I’m guessing such a path is very district dependent.
Going back to the latter half of the 70s, we had required math in 9th and 10th grades, after that it was all elective. And that seemed to be the norm. Classes for students so inclined were there so it’s not as if somebody was “missing out” on being able to take a full load of math/science at the HS level.
In fact, our only required class thru all 4 years of HS was English.
Part of this over emphasis on math, etc., is the same over emphasis on STEM as the be-all and end-all of post-HS education.
oldgold
For Madison’s saucer, as with most of his contraption, to work well requires, much more than we were taught in civics, good faith actors. A type of solon that is currently in damn short supply.
Why we did not just adopt a parliamentary system, rather than Madison’s contrivance, is rooted, in my opinion, in our original sin.
Belafon
@Suzanne: As would all training. I’m not expecting everyone to run out and get a bachelors degree, but I also think that people choosing to do plumbing, garbage collecting, road building, or cosmetology still need the extra time in school.
Miss Bianca
@Quiltingfool: yes, I find it interesting that the Black Lives Matter march in my little ruby-red county drew out the haters and mouth-breathers by the dozens to “counterprotest”, but they have been no-shows at this year’s protests.
Funny, that.
Belafon
@WaterGirl: Cool. I know Charles over at littlegreenfootballs added it to his site, but then again, he gets great joy in writing all of that stuff himself. (It can be funny watching an ex-Jazz musician get all giddy over Javascript, but I understand it from a programmer’s point of view.)
JML
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: one of my former candidates has fallen for the Third Way style nonsense, and decided to become the political director for a group trying to form a “new political party” where the magical sensible people in “the middle” all come together and make the smartest bestest decisions on the 7 things they think everyone can agree on and pretend all the icky stuff that people argue about is limited to small amounts of fringe groups.
Unsurprisingly, he’s a suburban white dude whose wife makes real good money.
Eolirin
One of the core problems we have is that young men without a college education or who haven’t gotten into one of the trades, have zero prospects across all areas of their lives, and there’s a large social media ecosystem dedicated to telling them that they’re being cheated out of those prospects by women and minorities.
Self improvement is work and no one is supporting or encouraging them to do it.
And so of course they’re going to break hard right. And right now the numbers are in a place where that’s enough to tip the scales.
Ohio Mom
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: The required curriculum is set at the state level, school districts are a form of local government and as such, they function within requirements set by the state. Ohio requires four years of math, and yes, that’s a reflection on STEM mania.
Electives on the other hand, are up to the school district. Districts with bigger budgets can offer a wider variety, districts with smaller budgets, sucks to be you.
eclare
@Jackie:
Awww….how cute!
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Belafon:
Exactly. The explosion in enrollment in schools like these:
https://statetechmo.edu/programs/
Should also be an option in your vision for post-HS education. It’s not all about a 4-year degree and focusing just on that is just another way Dems show how they’re increasingly breaking from otherwise reachable groups. Lord knows the moronic costs of 4-year degrees that started under Reagan (saw it from birth as it were) are another example of the price we’re paying for an adherence to trickle-down bullshit at all levels of society, but it’s not the only aspect of education funding we should address.
Suzanne
@Belafon: Agree. My ideal would also include free, public trade schools, too. I think investing in people is the most essential thing we can do. Also gives young people something to do.
Betty Cracker
@SFAW: Whoa, that’s a real curse! Ours was trivial in comparison!
Matt McIrvin
@JML: I find this kind of attitude is very common among the affluent tech people who did not drink the libertarian Kool-Aid. The ones who have generally liberal cultural attitudes, are fiscally comfortable, get their worldview from “All Things Considered”. They think they represent the Great American Center and don’t really think of themselves as a smallish moneyed elite.
Soprano2
I just got a wasp out of my office. It’s now perched on the outside part of the window in my door. I hope it flies away soon!
Matt McIrvin
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: After Trump won in 2016 I was in a conversation with a bunch of these people who argued that we needed a Center Party. I tried to make the case that the Democrats as they currently existed WERE the Center Party and they looked at me like I’d grown three heads. No, the Hillary Clinton Democrats were insanely far left! This was at the same time that I was hearing Bernie-woulda-won types complaining that she was a Republican in disguise, so I was feeling some ideological whiplash.
Suzanne
@Matt McIrvin: I find that a lot of the people who think of themselves as centrists would prefer more lefty positions, but they don’t like lefties and so thus define themselves differently.
But the centrist Dems mostly win, far more than the lefties, and I wish the centrist side would be a bit more magnanimous in victory. Like it or not (and I suspect for most jackals, the answer is not), we need to keep everyone on the Dem train. I have no use for Bernie Sanders, but I’m also not going to shit-talk his supporters.
tam1MI
@UncleEbeneezer: I once remarked to a friend that the arc of what was happening with the Gaza movement was like a time-compressed repeat of what happened with the SDS back in the day. I only wish I was as good at picking lottery numbers as I was in predicting where that movement was going. Right on schedule, they have reached the “mindless acts of violence and terrorism” stage of the proceedings.
Geminid
@Suzanne: Everyone is entitled to their own political taxonomy, but– I think “Centrist” is used too much instead of “Moderate.” There are few elected Democrats who I would call Centrists, whereas I consider the ~100 Democratic House members in the New Democrat caucus to be Moderates.
I know political journalists tend to use “Centrists” to describe the Moderates but there is an implicit message there, that Democrats are polarized into “Centrist” and “Progressive wings. This exaggerates their differences. In many practical ways the distinction between the New Democrat and Progressive Caucuses is more a matter of branding than policy positions.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@JML:
Heh heh, yup.
It’s not confined to suburban white dudes. I constantly rail on the “pale blue”, entitled white colonizer/gentrifiers who’ve moved to cities like Denver over the last decade who probably grew up with your suburban white dude acquaintance.
They are exactly like him. Racially tone deaf, still very white-centric in their world view and fall into the Ezra Broder Klein/MattY/Smith/MGP/New Dem/New Liberalism category. Toss in a dose of Never Trumpers that get glowingly referenced in here on occasion and here we are.
And what Matt said at #158.
Omnes Omnibus
@Geminid: There is also a difference in tactics that gets blown up as though it is a difference in goals.
Suzanne
@Geminid: Agree. Our descriptor words are not very good. They describe style more than politics, in all truth. And I think that’s one of the things Dems really are struggling with right now, style is probably more activating to people right now than anything.
tam1MI
The shooter left a manifesto. People aren’t taking the police officers at their word, they are taking him at his.
Omnes Omnibus
@Suzanne: This is probably true. It really bothers me because the style that seen to move people these days really grates on me.
Professor Bigfoot
@Matt McIrvin: They certainly don’t think of themselves as “white.”
“Why, we’re just reasonable people! All this identity politics nonsense needs to end! “
When you never consider the role of whiteness in your sub and unconscious beliefs and decisions.
Geminid
@Suzanne: These things go through cycles. “Liberal” went out of style and “Progressive” began to be used instead. Now people are using “Liberal” again because the “Progressive” label picked up some baggage.
But in the larger scheme of things, I consider the Democratic Party to be progressive and the Republican Party to be reactionary.
Suzanne
@Omnes Omnibus:
There’s a lot of things about political life that are terrible right now. This is but one.
I am trying to remind myself, as a thing that I lose sight of too often, that electoral politics is at its core a popularity contest. I don’t like this, but it’s true. We live in this weird era of fandoms and parasocial relationships and influence and performance. That reality selects for certain types of people.
Suzanne
@Geminid: Agree. But I do wish we had some better terminology. We’ve had a lot of circular discussions here over the years, because there’s no consensus on what words mean.
Omnes Omnibus
@Suzanne: I am an elitist.
Geminid
@sentient ai from the future: It’s not just law enforcement officials. There is video of the guy yelling “Free, free Palestine” as he’s led away by police. Also, multiple eyewitness accounts to that effect.
But, I would be careful about using this tragedy to further a particular narrative. Mr. Gonzales is just one hothead member of a fringe political group named the “Party for Socialism and Revolution.” I say this even though personally, I think the Gaza protesters have been poor allies for the Palestinian people.
Suzanne
@Omnes Omnibus: I know. You’re slumming when you come here.
Omnes Omnibus
@Suzanne: I like to think that my presence raises the tone here. You’re welcome.
Ben Cisco
@Quiltingfool: There wasn’t a lot of visible Dampnut merch in my area; only two flags and they have both disappeared. Every now and then I see a bumper sticker but WAY less than before.
sab
Well, we know this senate won’t stop them.
All we have is 2026.
sab
@Omnes Omnibus: I agree.
sab
@Geminid: Send yourself to prison for life without even communicating a coherent message.
Also too Sirhan Sirhan also wasted his life and did irreparable harm to his people.
This guy wasn’t their people. Just a misguided supporter.
sab
@Omnes Omnibus: Oh it does. You reek of sophistication, (and also legal knowledge.)
Kayla Rudbek
@They Call Me Noni: #sometimes I like Heinlein’s idea about limiting voting to women (although I wouldn’t go as far as saying that only mothers could vote)
Jay
@Geminid:
The Party for Socialism and Revolution say he hasn’t been a member since 2017,