There’s enough good stuff in this article that I may just use parts of it across multiple posts in the next few days.
On Trump’s Escalating Madness, Epstein, Compromise And The Unsustainable Path He Has Chosen
It often feels like Betty Cracker speaks for me, putting into words what I am thinking about current events but haven’t really been able to sort through completely. (Thanks, Betty!)
Today, it’s Simon Rosenberg. I probably spent two hours this morning cruising through substacks, etc and there wasn’t a thing I thought I could bear to write about.
Today’s post is a more of a collection of notes rather than a coherent essay as we all try to asses where we are now after Trump’s terrible August of spiraling madness and physical decline.
I think Trump’s disappearance last week was a significant event, and suggests that he is having significant physical and/or cognitive challenges. As we’ve discussed Trump had not taken a vacation all summer – an odd thing for such an old man in such a demanding job – which I’ve felt was a sign of disquiet and worry in his mind, a desperate need to reverse his declining poll numbers and growing sense that his government is failing, to somehow make Epstein and his horrible past disappear, of the shock of two buddies, Elon and Putin, turning on him. Rather than being a slow month to rest and reset ( as JD Vance viewed it), Trump manically attacked August – the wild, impulsive and destructive tariffs; the red carpet for Putin; the occupation of DC; the firing of the heads of the BLS and DIA and a Fed governor; Kennedy’s medieval assault on our public health; the escalating campaign to steal Congressional seats and make our elections bend the knee to him; the venal harassment of Kilmar Abrego Garcia; a new effort to illegally and unconstitutionally wrest control of federal spending away from Congress; the dark middle of the night loading of young children to traffic them to Guatemala, Uganda or god knows where else…..
Then he just disappeared without any explanation of where he had gone. No “vacation” – which would have been deserved and welcome – no a few days golfing. Just gone. Off camera for a week. After his manic and reckless August it was a bit of a shocker, and does suggest that his health problems – evident to the eye, unable to be AI-ed away – are far more serious than they admit. Then there was this bit of palace infrequent – Vance saying he was fired up and ready to go if anything happened to Trump….
I did rather like the Esquire headline: Trump’s not dead, but it sounds like Vance wouldn’t mind if he were.
Yes, it’s horrifying to see it all laid out like that, but it’s reminding me of a conversation I had with someone while I was still at the University. It started out with “I feel stressed but I don’t really know why” and then mentioned this one thing, and another thing, and another thing, and before I knew it, I had laid out 5 or 7 things that were going on, I hadn’t put it all together until I started rambling, and then I felt much better somehow because of course a person would be really stressed with all that going on!
Anyway, reading this from Simon Rosenberg helped in the same way. Forget about it, Jake. It’s crazy town.
Every single day.
Update at 10:40 am. Another article from Simon Rosenberg:
Professor Bigfoot
One cannot make rational sense of fundamentally irrational behavior.
WaterGirl
@Professor Bigfoot:
Can’t disagree with that. But it is possible to think about things and frame them in such a way that it’s helpful to live in that world.
Scout211
Good morning.
I try to stay out of substacks so I’m happy to let you comb through them to find a gem or two to share, WaterGirl. Thanks!
I like the headlines and articles that keep the “Trump is sick” story going. Any and every news story, opinion piece or social media post that keeps it going is a good thing and is slowly damaging Trump’s (fake) image as all powerful.
MattF
One hypothesis I saw on Reddit’s r/dc sub about that ‘vacation’ was a COVID quarantine of 4-6 days. Just another guess, since no one actually knows.
NotMax
Everyone remember “stable genius?”
//
Chief Oshkosh
As awful as Kennedy was at the hearing, at least there seems to be very little both-siderism going on with the usual suspects. Maybe it’s because 81% of those polled favor mandatory vaccinations in public schools, but even GMA (my personal touchstone for really shitty happy chat bullshit “news” reporting) made it clear that an enormous number of doctors, nurses, and public health professionals are pissed and that Kennedy is a wackjob who needs to be removed. They even stuck the knife into DeSantis, his personal wackjob chief of public health, and the entire state of Florida (including walking the viewer through the concept that a state that depends on children-filled tourist families spending billions of dollars with them has effectively hung up a sign saying “we will cripple or kill your child with a preventable disease!).
JML
It’s kind of crazy just how consistently well the “every accusation is a confession” line fits with this gang of scumbags. I mean, they keep pushing that Biden was demented and that his team covered up his health problems. Literally every attack they make is representative of something awful going on with their own team.
DC Media: “But covering Biden was booorrrrring! This might get me a book deal if I keep everything quiet for 3 more years!”
There’s a desperate need to houseclean every single appointee of this administration…but they should also dump damn near every member of the DC media that’s been there since before 2020. Start over you lazy, incompetent, complicit, greedy, corrupt Vichy fucks.
AM in NC
@JML: Until there is a pay structure that pays journalists to report accurately and not do the bidding of rightwing, billionaire paymasters, we are fucked. If I were a member of the oligarchy, I’d use all of my money to create social and IRL media to combat the rightwing lie machine.
We are badly losing the information war.
The Audacity of Krope
And that’s before you even get into his health…
JD Vance must feel like he pulled a winning lotto ticket. And is ready to be about as reckless as any random person who doesn’t understand how impactful any winning lotto ticket can be, least of all this one.
Sally
I’m not a brilliant political strategist but I think once repubs refused to swear in the roided up coke head, Dems should have walked out of the so called hearing. When asked to explain, answer what’s the use of questioning a witness who is telling you he is lying to you. You only refuse to be sworn in if you’re intending to lie your socks off.
frosty
Great post title! That’s all of us these days.
mappy!
@WaterGirl: Pay attention to the ever-so- subtle vibe shifts, and the trend lines. And keep in mind that as more people are involved, everything takes longer than you think it’s gonna take (think of how committees work…)
The Audacity of Krope
Their Republican colleagues need these particular lies and just so happen to run the Senate, alas.
@WaterGirl: Say, WaterGirl, care to facilitate a nym change please?
eclare
@Chief Oshkosh:
Exactly. Disney, Universal, Sea World are going to pay a heavy price for the end of vaccine mandates.
WaterGirl
@The Audacity of Krope:
Sure! If you post a comment with the new nym right now, I will approve it and you’ll be all set.
iKropoclast
Thank you.
Geminid
@Sally: I thought the Democratic Senators really roughed RFK Jr. up yesterday, so I’m glad they stuck around.
Lapassionara
Those of us who are old enough to remember the days before there was a polio vaccine are stunned at the complete dismantling of public health that MAGA appears to support. I’m all for people eating healthy foods, but the idea that individuals working alone can result in better health for all members of society is complete lunacy.
NotMax
@mappy!
“Outside of traffic, there is nothing that has held this country back as much as committees.”
– Will Rogers
.
Captain C
@JML:
I still don’t understand why witholding a scoop from your employer so you can publish it in your book 3 years later isn’t not only a firing offense, but doesn’t get the reporter blacklisted from the industry.
Scout211
@Chief Oshkosh: Yes, the Republicans see that the vast majority of their voters believe in vaccinations and “Kennedy Chaos” poses a big problem for them.
Trump’s reaction to Kennedy’s performance was truly idiotic. But I repeat myself.
But some Republicans are not so positive. Senator Dr. Barasso is “deeply concerned.”
I wonder if he has perfected a furrowed brow.
Sally
@Geminid: Fair enough. I just thought they validated a process that was a farce.
Geminid
I see an interesting contrast in focus between Simon Rosenberg’s post and Josh Marshall’s of yesterday. Rosenberg highlighted what Trump has been and is doing, while Marshall got Dems riled up about something Schumer and Jeffries might do a few weeks from now.
iKropoclast
Do you imagine media industry standards to be based around informing the public or making money. Those folk aren’t doing it wrong, they’re innovators in their field.
iKropoclast
I’m not old enough to remember a world before the polio vaccine, but I am old enough to remember when providing healthy options in school lunches and requiring restaurants just to tell you what’s in their food at all were horrific attacks on our rights as free ‘Murcans.
WaterGirl
@Sally: I think I would have taken 10 seconds of my (I assume) 5 minutes to say – why are you not agreeing to provide testimony under oath? Will the testimony you provide here today be truthful, or not? It appears not, since you have not been sworn in.
And then move on to my questions.
WaterGirl
@Geminid: True enough!
I assume Josh is trying to influence Schumer and Jeffries by calling it out now.
Captain C
@iKropoclast: I would think that if I was running a newspaper and my reporters withheld profitable stories for their own benefit, I would get quite pissed.
iKropoclast
@Captain C: Question,do the publishers of these elite media stars’ books have financial ties with the networks/newspapers that employ them? If so, I’m sure something mutually beneficial can be arranged.
Besides, all of that is secondary to their main goal of keeping Americans as deep in the dark as possible.
Booger
Reading John Barry’s 2004 book “The Great influenza.”
It’s about (spoiler alert) the Great Influenza. Really disturbing to see the parallels with our current circumstances, not even talking about COVID response…just about the idiots being put into positions of power, under a President mad with power and not giving a damn about the citizens of the country.
mappy!
@NotMax: And yet committees gave us Social Security, Medicare, ACA… It’s a double-edged sword for sure…
Kristine
I still smdh that people who rear children and drive cars* voted for this.
*or operate heavy machinery, fly aircraft, perform neurosurgery, insert fave skill that requires some degree of intelligence here
Geminid
@WaterGirl: I think Schumer and Jeffries take their counsel from their caucus members, as they should. I also think Josh Marshall knows what his audience wants and plays to that.
Leto
@Chief Oshkosh: not just cripple your child, but kill your parents/grandparents who chose to retire there. Idk, maybe that means there will be more housing available at those mega retirement complexes. Just morally reprehensible behavior but that’s conservatives for ya.
tobie
@Chief Oshkosh: I’m heading off to Florida to see my elderly mother today and I have to say that if I were an older person I would be wary of living in a state where every trip to the supermarket, a restaurant, a church, a movie theater and a nursing facility could expose me to pathogens that universal vaccination previously eliminated. RFK Jr and Republicans really don’t get the meaning of “public” health.
OOPS! Leto at #34 said it better!
stinger
@Captain C: “I still don’t understand why witholding a scoop from your employer so you can publish it in your book 3 years later isn’t not only a firing offense, but doesn’t get the reporter blacklisted from the industry.”
Same here.
iKropoclast
A fair number of people have convinced themselves that our government, as an instrument of human will, is not subject to the limitations the physical world outs on us. If you want a thing bad enough, you can have it so long as the will exists among our leaders to make it so.
I’ve been coming to think of Republicans like the Covenant from Halo. They have gained access to technology they don’t understand and are using it to enforce religious doctrine among their own and spread that doctrine by violence. Their efforts in this regard, by the way, have come to threaten all known life on more than one occasion
Except the Republicans are worse than the Covenant. The technology Republicans are appropriating emerged from their own societies and are within their power to understand the nature and risks of. They choose not to understand, especially any aspects of risk that threaten their prospects to act as petty kings in little American fiefdoms.
Mike in Pasadena
Uh oh. Jobs report for August was 22,000. I guess trumpty dumpy is going to have to fire another BLS head.
iKropoclast
@Mike in Pasadena: Trump can fire anyone he wants. Those numbers are meant to reflect what is happening in society. Trump can’t hide people’s lives experiences from themselves.
rikyrah
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick
@ReichlinMelnick
This story is WILD. Trump sent Seal Team 6 into North Korea to plant a listening device. The operation went sideways within minutes, when a fishing boat was unexpectedly at the landing site. Seal Team 6 killed everyone on board, sunk the bodies, and fled. Congress was never told.
x.com/ReichlinMelnick/status/1963944912119906657
iKropoclast
@rikyrah: If I’m hearing this first from rikyrah and it turns out to be true how is this not a huge story? Presidencies have been torn asunder on military failures far less clownish than this.
eclare
@iKropoclast:
My US rep, TN 9th, has post polio syndrome. He missed the vaccine by a few years. His walking has become more stilted, more tentative, and he now uses a cane.
frosty
@iKropoclast: DEMOCRATIC Presidencies have been torn asunder on military failures far less clownish than this.
FTFY!
WaterGirl
@rikyrah: For those who don’t want to click on what was Twitter, this happened in 2019.
in his first term.
eclare
@WaterGirl:
Wow.
Baud
@frosty:
Right. All the drone people no longer care.
Baud
@WaterGirl:
At least they told us about the killing of the Venezuelans, assuming it wasn’t AI.
iKropoclast
Hey, I still care. Then again, I wasn’t prone to ascribe sole responsibility for our violent excesses abroad on, say, Obama or Biden. So I’m not sure I’m who you mean.
Professor Bigfoot
@WaterGirl: Indeed— “just because it don’t make no damn sense don’t mean we ain’t gotta figure out how to live with it.”
Chief Oshkosh
@eclare: I guess I’m slow this morning. Of course GMA reported as they did; ABC’s parent company is Disney. Duh.
Can others chime in here? How are the other usual suspects reporting on the Kennedy hearing?
eclare
Pretty photo today!
Chief Oshkosh
@WaterGirl: Yes, possibly. But to address Geminid’s point: Schumer has actually already totally fucked up on in the most recent scenario that is akin to this one. Past performance is the best indicator of future performance…unless a change is made.
I don’t see Schumer ever changing. Hell, as far as I know, he seems to think he did a bang-up job last time around. After all, he’s still the “leader”, right?
Scout211
AP is going with the facts:
Also AP
NBC
zhena gogolia
@Geminid: Right.
Sure Lurkalot
@Scout211:
They still can’t or won’t say “lies”.
A LOOK AT THE LIES TOLD BY RFK JR DURING SENATE HEARING
Fewer words too.
eclare
@Sure Lurkalot:
This drives me nuts too. There is no way the former head of the CDC told brainworms that she was untrustworthy, it was a lie. Senator Warren’s expression said it all.
iKropoclast
@eclare: Context matters. I fully believe she couldn’t be trusted to support Kennedy’s ideological crusade and I believe this may have been expressed in some way.
What I don’t believe is Kennedy’s framing.
iKropoclast
Woopsy duplicate.
Captain C
@Baud: They haven’t cared in public since 2017.
Librettist
@Scout211:
rfk the lesser is a trumpian bauble that provides legitimacy. “I’ve got my own Kennedy…”
Yes, politically he needs to launch him into the sun, but the narcissist ego will never be able to let go.
Librettist
@iKropoclast:
Because Trump can do any stupid shit he wants. Otherwise Lady Boss and girl cooties.
dww4
@Baud: is there any further reporting on this? Was it fake as the Venezuelans claim?
Geminid
@Chief Oshkosh: Schumer did not fuck up when he let the funding bill bill go to the floor last March. That government shutdown was a trap thatTrump, Wiles, Thune and Johnson were hoping Schumer and the Democrats would walk into.
iKropoclast
@dww4: Fake or not, it’s fucked up. I remember being appalled years ago that Duterte claimed the same liberties with respect to drug smugglers and mildly appreciating Trump not bringing things quite so far.
Chief Oshkosh
@Scout211: Thanks!
dww4
@Sure Lurkalot: That headline is a lot more succinct and less waffly than the NBC one.
Baud
@dww4: I have not heard any new news.
Suzanne
@iKropoclast:
The ketchup-is-a-vegetable thing goes back a long time, at this point.
Remember when they mocked Obama for eating arugula? Is basic-ass nutrition now a commie plot?!
Baud
Reddit
JML
23 confirmed measles cases in WI. Secretary Brainworm and the Orange Idiot’s administration are spreading disease and are getting kids killed. It’s unbelievable. Functionally eradicating diseases like polio, measles, and smallpox was one of the triumphs of the post WWII society. and now watch them all come roaring back because of these morons.
Feckless
just Dance Vance is Peter Thiel’s fuck puppet.
And Thiel has the tapes to prove it.
Baud
/r/union
feebog
Putting a cherry on the top of a truly shitty month for Trump, the Employment report came out today from BLS. Really abysmal numbers that will drive down his approval rating even further.
Suzanne
One thing that eats me up about the current state of discourse around wanting to improve manufacturing, as well as a housing shortage….. there is a ton of potential in prefabricated housing. We already do a lot of prefabrication in commercial construction, It is entirely feasible, using current technology, to produce high-quality housing in a factory. The barriers are economic and we would have to update regulations to shift from an on-site inspection process to certification from testing agencies like UL, and that would only happen at scale. The tradeoff would be that everything would be much more standardized and boxy.
Anonymous At Work
@Sally: Unless you regain power, RFKJR is still in place, and you require him to authenticate or renounce the transcript of the prior hearing. Under oath.
Anonymous At Work
No coverage over the “Project Veritas” honeypot about the Epstein files? Fuel for fire that any redactions are names of pedophiles and politically-determined.
thedailybeast.com/doj-posts-embarrassing-apology-over-official-caught-in-honeypot-trap/
Soprano2
@Geminid: They really did, they got heated and passionate. I love to see it!!
Soprano2
@WaterGirl: That’s what I think too, he’s raising the alarm to get pressure put on them so this “trial balloon” is knocked down. I have no idea what they’re thinking, helping the Republicans hide the effects of the Shitty Bill until after the midterms!!
Geminid
@iKropoclast: That strike occurred against a backdrop of an unusual build-up of U.S. Navy forces in the Caribean. Marines too; there is a Marine Expeditonary Force conducting practice landings on a Puerto Rico beach 500 miles north of Venezuela. That’s a day away by ship.
I learn about this stuff from Clash Report. They’re based in Ankara but they follow these matters more closely than do a lot U.S. news sites.
Marco Rubio is also boosting the anti-Maduro rhetoric and the U.S. has increased its bounties on the Venezuelan strongman and his lieutenants. Maduro’s is up to $50 million now.
I think the idea is to scare Maduro and his people out, but this administration is reckless enough to mount an invasion.
Baud
@Geminid:
I’m just happy Trump isn’t a woman who would start a war to prove how tough she is.
p.a.
Polls bad? Kick a pipsqueak, wave the flag!
Bruce K in ATH-GR
@Anonymous At Work: O’Keefe’s outfit targeting the Trumpists? I don’t know whether the likelier explanation is Death-of-Stalin infighting or a headline from Bizarro World.
Melancholy Jaques
@Chief Oshkosh:
As with several issues, that may be true, but they don’t vote that way.
Chief Oshkosh
@Geminid: First he said he’d fight it, generated some buzz, then he didn’t, leaving his House colleagues high and dry.
tinyurl.com/rezeear
ETA usable URL
ETA2: Certainly he can now argue that he’s avoiding that mistake by advertising his and the caucus’ intentions.
Betty
@Geminid: Scare them out? Out of what? Out of office? I’m not sure what you mean.
Fair Economist
@WaterGirl: But what the heck does Marshall think the Dem congresspeople should do? Shut down the government for the next 18 months? That’s not going to win elections.
The Democrats have to have a plausible demand for passing a CR. It’s bad politics if they just refuse, period. You could argue that extending Obamacare subsidies is not the right demand (and I’d think rule of law issues would be better myself) but the overall strategy is simply the only one possible – demand some substantial concession as the price.
rikyrah
Spencer Hakimian (@SpencerHakimian) posted at 9:24 AM on Fri, Sep 05, 2025:
He single handedly collapsed a thriving economy with deranged tariffs and now he’s going to have all his cult boys running around and blaming it on Jerome Powell.
Pathetic. t.co/2SPmbeFAJm
(https://x.com/SpencerHakimian/status/1963971390148899061?t=_9DkCLYQvBeT_sjHfs9mTg&s=03)
rikyrah
Axios (@axios) posted at 4:20 PM on Thu, Sep 04, 2025:
The Justice Department’s acting deputy chief was caught on a hidden camera saying that the government will “redact every Republican” from an Epstein client list and “leave all the liberal, Democratic people.” t.co/kkRbzyHmql
(https://x.com/axios/status/1963713816081883534?t=0aJaU3oipKS-pks0Qn825w&s=03)
Chief Oshkosh
@Fair Economist: I think the point is that it’s not the Dem caucus shutting down anything. They don’t have that power; they don’t have the numbers. The Republicans can pass anything they want without Democratic votes. If the Majority can’t do that, it’s not the Minority’s fault. It sounds like I must have that wrong?
Chief Oshkosh
@Fair Economist: I think the point is that it’s not the Dem caucus shutting down anything. They don’t have that power; they don’t have the numbers. The Republicans can pass anything they want without Democratic votes. If the Majority can’t do that, it’s not the Minority’s fault. It sounds like I must have that wrong?
rikyrah
Brennan Center (@BrennanCenter) posted at 11:03 AM on Fri, Sep 05, 2025:
The federal government’s bid to gather voter records from across the country is yet another attempt to undermine U.S. elections. t.co/Sp5xjJ1S3I
(https://x.com/BrennanCenter/status/1963996340272181363?t=PktIS65gcG-8DYARBRZHKQ&s=03)
Fair Economist
@Suzanne:
Well, *that’s* more of a regulatory barrier. There have been a number of attempts lately, and they’ve all flopped. Recently saw a YouTube pointing out a manufacturer of tiny houses ended up with a construction cost higher than on-site.
I think simple manufactured homes will also be swimming upstream against HGTV and the “homes are an investment and a castle” cult.
gvg
@Captain C: Because the employers wanted the info held back/supressed. And I don’t think very many really got a good book deal because they were all holding back the same info, plus revealing it 3 years later makes it dated and boring. Essentially it was censorship without quite being recognized. they are still hirable because the obliarchs now know who they can depend on to keep quiet and thats what they want. We however are also capable of keeping score.
PatD
@Geminid: I think Josh makes it perfectly clear in his post on the subject. Schumer’s gambit with the CR proved to be an utter failure and any budget deal that secures only a temp extension of ACA subsidies would help Republicans and be a disaster. The midterms could hinge on how the next few weeks go and so this is a hugely important story.
rikyrah
Heather Long (@byHeatherLong) posted at 7:43 AM on Fri, Sep 05, 2025:
The labor market is going from frozen to cracking.
Look at how many industries have LOST jobs in the past 3 months.
Mining -13,000
Construction -10,000
Manufacturing -31,000
Information -15,000
Business/Professional -51,000
Federal gov’t -34,000
Finance 0 job gains
The US job market is almost entirely dependent on healthcare. That’s not healthy for the economy.
t.co/BsUYoCTMX3
(x.com/byHeatherLong/status/1963946092413821272?t=eozVkJWCEouw84VO-B21kQ&s=03)
iKropoclast
Meanwhile, they’re busy jackhammering away at the foundations of that, too.
PatD
@Geminid: Ah, yes. Savvy Schumer saved Democrats from walking into a trap. You ignore that Jeffries managed to get his entire caucus behind opposing the CR. And then Trump, Musk, et al, continued on with their efforts to hollow out the government.
Soprano2
@Baud: It was “strange funny” how they quit caring about drone strikes when Obama wasn’t president anymore. Almost as if the drone strikes weren’t the thing they were actually mad about.
Geminid
@Betty: I think the idea is to scare Maduro and company into fleeing to Cuba where they can enjoy the fortunes they’ve embezzled over the years.
artem1s
Let’s try to remember that while Jeffries and the Dems in Congress are working to keep what’s left of the government functioning this fall. They can’t ‘Win The Fall and Send a Clear Message’ if Moses Johnson and Trump get their way and the GOP Congress abdicates what’s left of the separation of powers over to the Dictator for (what’s left of his) Life. Gonna be kind of hard to contact anyone about firing RFK if all the staffers are out of jobs and/or there is a permanent recess called and all the agency workers have to go on furlough when there is a full government shut down. Also,too no more pesky judges to keep Orangemandius from declaring Martial Law in every Blue state and city in the union. Those kids will be right back on that plane and shipped off to some shithole country in a heartbeat. They won’t even have to bother doing it in the middle of the night this time.
Suzanne
@Fair Economist: Yeah, I have some friends who have gone to work for housing construction startups, and none of them have gone well. Prefabrication is generally higher quality than site-built anything, but it only works out to be less expensive at large scale/quantity. And that’s the rub: it’s hard to develop a large enough quantity to make the math work out.
On a few of my projects, they have prefabricated entire rooms, and then they pick them up with a crane, drive them to the job site, and lift them into the structure. But it only pencils out if there’s approximately 100 or more of the exact same room. We’ve also done entire interior walls, overhead utilities, and exterior panels. But repeatability is the key. People would have to be OK with neighborhoods full of the same three-to-five houses, and not just in their town, but across the country.
chemiclord
@Captain C:
“Game of Shadows” was the canary in the coal mine there. That they were lauded for their reporting rather than villified for sitting on that information for years really told journalists, “Hey, we can do that too!”
Matt McIrvin
@Soprano2: Because the drone program was just starting up under George W. Bush, it was the one aspect of the War on Terror where you could cleanly paint Obama as worse than Bush.
That made it rhetorically useful if you were trying to accomplish something very specific. And once Trump got in, and ramped it up even more, it no longer filled that rhetorical function.
Geminid
@Chief Oshkosh: The link you posted does not work. But I followed this matter and the drama surrounding it closely so I’m not sure I would learn anything new from it.
House Democrats were not “left high and dry.” They got to eat their cake and have it too; they voted against the Continuing Resolution while Schumer and eight Senate Democrats took the heat for averting the shutdown.
I’ve heard plenty of complaints since then, but I’m not sure House Democrats complained. If they did it wasn’t very loud or for very long. Yet some people will not stop complaining loudly on their behalf.
And why should Chuck Schumer lay out his negotiating strategy in order to placate the amateur strategists, backseat drivers and Monday morning quarterbacks who infest the Democratic information sphere? Especially when these people cannot be placated.
Schumer doesn’t work for them; he works for the other 46 Senators in the Democratic caucus. And that caucus has some pretty smart people in it, Tammy Baldwin and Ben Ray Lujan for example. I’d take of their advice before Josh Marshall’s or that of whomever you linked to.
Uncle Cosmo
@iKropoclast: Change your Jackalhandle often as you want in a desperate attempt to hide your failings and haul your credibility off life support, but those of us who’ve been around the bloc enough times will always mark you down as Krope The Dope and treat you accordingly.
Soprano2
@eclare: I’m sure he drew that conclusion when she wouldn’t do what he wanted her to do.
Soprano2
@Anonymous At Work: I don’t trust them, period. It may very well be true, but the source poisons it.
Soprano2
@Fair Economist: He thinks they should demand that the Obamacare subsidies be restored, period. The leak indicates that they would agree to restoring them until after the midterms. Why would we help Republicans get elected like that?
Betty
@Geminid: I don’t see that as likely. I live in a country(? )with a government that depends on Venezuela and China to stay in office. Rumor is this is a trans-shipment point for drugs. I am sure the US knows that. It’s hard to imagine what would cause our leaders to voluntarily give up power. We are quite sure they also have their stashes secured elsewhere. I could be wrong, but I have a different perspective.
Geminid
@Uncle Cosmo: I will put you down as “Undecided” on the nym change!
But hey, how’s this year’s Ravens football team looking?
Geminid
@Betty: If things go badly for him, Maduro could end up serving a life term in a federal Supermax prison. Or he could be blown to pieces. That’s a negative incentive to get out.
But Maduro says he’ll stay and fight. His forces are well-armed for asymetrical warfare and Venezuela is a big place, so they could probably fight for the rest of this decade and beyond
Geminid
@Betty: So Venezuela is ~350,00 square miles in area. That’s five times the size of Florida.
Cheryl from Maryland
@AM in NC: Non-profit newspapers are the best. Which is why I support The Guardian, The Baltimore Banner, and, soon, I hope, Pro Publica.
Uncle Cosmo
Hard to say since the league reduced the preseason to 3 games. A team like Poe’s Crows has its 1st string and most of the 2nd already penciled in and are understandably reluctant (since the loss of top RB J K Dobbins in preseason some years back) to put them on the field until the games count. As one of my best friends (B’more pigskin fan since he went to Colts games with his dad) put it, this is their first real action since last winter, and no one knows…
The RB room looks solid with speedster Keaton Mitchell returning to form to complement Derrick Henry. The backup QBs both look solid enough to win games if doGforbid Lamar should go down (8^O). The new PK and KR look very good. The backup D (who’ll be starting in 2027) is rushing to the ball and clamping down.
All the auspices are auspicious. But who knows what’s gonna happen once the whistle blows Sunday night? In pro football as in war, no plan survives contact with the opponent, and we can only hope the players and coaches can roll with the punches and bring home the Ws.
GO CROWS!!
(we now return you to your regularly-shedjeweled pogrom ;^D)
tam1MI
👍
tam1MI
👍
WereBear
@Professor Bigfoot: But we can find the Freud in their defenses.
Every single one.
Geminid
@Uncle Cosmo: Thanks. In the spirit of Chesapeake Bay regional solidarity, I root for the Ravens when they aren’t playing the Commanders. That means I can cheer on Baltimore this year right up until the Super Bowl.
WereBear
@Chief Oshkosh:
Red state eagerness to curry favor with the tRump has caused them to look like ghost towns this past holiday weekend, even though many states have not started school yet.
DisneyWorld was offering deals. The wait for the most popular rides was ten minutes.
Anonymous At Work
@Soprano2: You don’t trust them but the 27% of Republican voters that are the crazification voters do trust James O’Keefe to be honest, open, and transparent (“
Raymond ShawJames O’Keefe is the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being I’ve ever known in my life”) and their anger at “No Master Epstein List of Blackmailed Pedophile with Attached Documentation” might have them not vote.NotMax
@Uncle Cosmo
Put in mind of the Netflix series Club de Cuervos.
:)
...now I try to be amused
@Booger:
Not to be confused with the social media
influenzasinfluencers of today.Paul in KY
@Captain C: I think these people operate under a contract and if that isn’t in the contract (withholding scoops), then they can do it.
Paul in KY
@Anonymous At Work: The fact that O’Keefe apparently did that to a GQPer is a sign that TACO is in trouble and the jackals are circling and beginning to slaver.
Paul in KY
@Suzanne: IMO, no house or room is improved by being driven down the highway.
Paul in KY
@Uncle Cosmo: I hope Lamar does great, but Go Bills!
Also ‘Rot in Hell, Art Modell!’
WereBear
@rikyrah: Wow.
Not a wow of surprise, mind you. Just an estimate of how hot the water is getting.
NotMax
Suzanne
Obligatory.
;)
Matt McIrvin
@WereBear: International tourism is way down, I think– that’s important for Disney.
WereBear
@Matt McIrvin: It’s important to every state who has conferences. Or sports. SO many, all interlocked.
Uncle Cosmo
@Geminid: Same here mostly but a bit geographically conflicted – surviving nephew and bride doing veterinary stuff in Filthy, niece & kids in NoVA with hubby huge sports fan. DC fans suffered enough under Danny “Redskin Peanut” Snyder for several lifetimes, and as John Madden said about da Crows in the Ray/Reed/Siuggs/Flacco/Rice era, “they don’t have all the pieces, but the ones they have are pretty darn good.” Philthy loses points for the butt-shove & gains them back for an in-stadium court and lockup to jail fuctup phanatics in real time.
I dunno, guess we’ll just hafta play the games…
Kayla Rudbek
@Suzanne: Sears used to make kits to build your own house that you could order through the catalog (around 1900 or so) and people now love them and try to restore them. And those designs would be all public domain if anyone wanted to make them at scale…