This kind of thing spread across the Twitters during the hours when it looked certain, instead of just likely, that the GOP was going to put a rapist on the Supreme Court: Had Democrats stolen a supreme court seat, Republicans would have shut down he country. Had Democrats elected a traitor, and then tried to kill the investigation of his crime of aiding our enemy, Republicans would have shut down the country. We give speeches. — John Aravosis 🇺🇸 (@aravosis) September 28, 2018 And, I’m sorry, but no, they would not have shut down the country. They would have shut … Continue reading We’ve been showing up. Every damn day.
It has been a difficult week. I was so exhausted from writing about the Kavanaugh mess that I briefly considered pulling the plug on this week’s extravaganza. I decided it was best to muddle through and provide a modicum of comic relief to my readers. That choice was made easier by the Flake Gambit, which at the very least kicks the can down the road a week. Besides, I like beer and cannot recall if I’ve ever been black-out drunk. Have you? Holy crap, I sound like Judge Bro.
This week’s theme song is credited to Lennon-McCartney but is Pure-D Macca. Got To Get You Into My Life first appeared on my favorite Beatles album, Revolver. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
We have two versions for your listening pleasure: the Beatles and the equally fabulous cover by Earth Wind & Fire.
Now that we’ve had some Macca therapy, let’s meet on the other side of the jump.
You say languid, I say liquid. Whatever you call it, Della Street is one relaxed cat in this picture. Note her pesky kid brother in the background: Continue reading Friday Catblogging: Liquid Cat
Christine Brasley Ford (hereinafter CBF) is a superb witness. She’s smart, emotional, wise, and absolutely credible. As a scientist, she is able to explain the science behind her own PTSD. As the husband of a med school professor, I am not surprised: they need to know how to present and explain things in terms that people can understand. Btw, I hate to fly but will do so if need be so I get what CBF said on that subject. As to the GOP’s gambit to have Rachel Mitchell do the questioning, it’s a flop. The choppy format makes it impossible … Continue reading The Kavanaugh Mess: Act One Instant Analysis
I’m actually quoting Kavanaugh — yeah, it IS the fucking Twilight Zone — but it’s been that ever since Mr. Self-Described Very Large Brain descended an escalator and vaulted to the top of the GOP race for presidential nominee (Large Brain? Doubtful. Small Mind? Definitely). It’s been a Twilight Zone ever since the mainstream press spent the better part of two years ignoring his epic, wholesale corruption, the way too cozy relationship with Russian goons, the money laundering, the skinflint stiffing of contractors, the general sleaziness because, you know, her emails, Benghazi, Clinton Rules, etc., and especially, both sides. It’s … Continue reading “Total Twilight Zone”
Well, yesterday was a clusterfuck of stunning proportions on the internets, the journalistic equivalent of two bears rolling down a hill, dead drunk, pawing at each other completely oblivious to the picnickers and punters they scattered in their furry, drooly, snarly wake: This is such disgraceful bullshit. @gabrielsherman should be ashamed of himself and should stop doing stenography for Steve Bannon. Rosenstein offered his resignation to Kelly. We wrote “verbally resigned.” Justice Dept isn’t denying he offered his resignation. https://t.co/RHsNKuS0bH — Jonathan Swan (@jonathanvswan) September 24, 2018 And it was sort of like watching the process unfold in a newsroom … Continue reading Journalism Needs to Stop Showing Us Its Sausage
In between obsessing about Rod Rosenstein’s unfiring and the Kavanaugh mess, I’ve continued to monitor the fight for the House of Representatives. I love campaign ads; at least the first time I see them. The ad of the year ran in Arizona. It features the siblings of wingnut dentist/Congresscritter Paul Gosar. They are NOT supporting their brother’s re-election bid: Ouch. Dr/Congressman/MAGA Maggot Gosar was not amused. My siblings who chose to film ads against me are all liberal Democrats who hate President Trump. These disgruntled Hillary suppporters are related by blood to me but like leftists everywhere, they put political ideology before … Continue reading War Of The Gosars: “Stalin Would Be Proud”
I originally planned to write a non-Kavanaugh Mess post this morning. I was naive. I should have known that all hell was going to break loose when I took a break from political news yesterday. As you have surely heard by now, the New Yorker’s Jane Mayer and Ronan Farrow have published another credible account of sexual misconduct by Brett Kavanaugh. This time it was while he was student at Yale and the accuser is a former classmate, Deborah Ramirez. In her student days, she was apparently a prim and proper type who preppie louts like Kavanaugh enjoyed taunting. Her … Continue reading Another Fine Kavanaugh Mess Redux
Republican lawmakers have made it clear they have no intention of repealing Obamacare in the current Congress.
Republicans in the nation’s top lawmaking body have never really wanted to get rid of Obamacare. They would prefer to present the program, which David Horowitz correctly describes as “the greatest assault on individual freedom and individual choice in our lifetimes,” as a villain and whip up sentiment against it and run against it every election. They view Obamacare as good for the business of politics. They may chip away at it from time to time or tinker with it at the margins, but make no mistake: these creatures of Washington want to keep it in place. This is the Republicans’ dirty secret.
Republicans have been promising to rip Obamacare out root and branch ever since it was enacted. They ramped up their rhetoric after the allegedly conservative-dominated Supreme Court declared the blatantly unconstitutional Obamacare law constitutional in the incoherent NFIB v. Sebelius ruling of 2012. Americans responded to this government takeover of a huge chunk of the economy by electing GOP-controlled congresses in 2010, 2012, 2014, and 2016, and by electing Donald Trump as president.
Unintimidated by the Left and sneering hack journalists, Trump began the push to bury the misnamed Affordable Care Act and as a result the individual mandate will die at the end of this year. But the bulk of the statute and related rules such as the economically suicidal pre-existing medical conditions mandate remain in place, complete with federal insurance-purchasing subsidies for people who don’t need the help, as well as the sclerotic administrative apparatus, and the odious rule that prevents health insurers from competing across state lines.
The top vote-counters in both chambers say repeal is a no-go for the rest of the year. This ought to worry conservatives because there is a good chance that when the new 116th Congress convenes Jan. 3, 2019, one or both of its chambers will be in the hands of the government healthcare-loving Democrats.
So it’s now or quite possibly never.
“I’m not going to be asking for another vote on that this year,” Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn of Texas reportedly said last week when asked about Obamacare repeal. His counterpart in the House, Steve Scalise of Louisiana, offered excuses for his party’s inaction. “We need to win this election and then get more seats next year.”
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The Republicans never wanted to repeal Obamacare, and now they confirm it.
Repeal it? How about lifetime elected-service name for anyone who for it? Confiscation of their worldly goods? Expungement of their names from the lexicon?
5 posted on 9/16/2018, 6:08:23 PM by Still Thinking (Freedom is NOT a loophole!)
To: TBP
So I guess the GOP needs to be repealed and replaced.
The comments on this piece and on the author’s Twitter have predictably been a total trash fire, and I don’t suggest reading them or the piece if these kinds of things make you crazy, but as someone deeply interested in man-made things we describe as inevitable, this section stuck out at me: Still, despite the Task Force’s explicit recommendation of “intensive, multicomponent behavioral counseling” for higher-weight patients, the vast majority of insurance companies and state health care programs define this term to mean just a session or two—exactly the superficial approach that years of research says won’t work. “Health plans … Continue reading Health and Public Policy
If you’re looking for a way to help those affected by Hurricane Florence and the attendant flooding/water damage issues, Donors Choose is on it: The fine folks at @DonorsChoose have a special fund set up for teachers whose classrooms were impacted in NC and beyond. As a former high school teacher and a former NC elementary school volunteer, I’m a big fan of this idea. https://t.co/cuqp3wk5QS — Sara Benincasa (@SaraJBenincasa) September 19, 2018 You’ll recall we used that site to help classrooms targeted by the NRA’s goons and those with underfunded journalism programs. Let’s see if we can do it … Continue reading Not Everything Sucks: Help the Teachers Edition
It still feels like summer in New Orleans. I’ve been so focused on the Kavanaugh mess that I’ve been a local news slacker with one exception: last Monday, our local utility company, Entergy, blamed a cat for a major power outage. Della Street and Paul Drake are in the clear: I’m their alibi. This is proof positive that my town is weirder than your town. Neener, neener, neener.
What is it with the news cycle in the Trump era? Every Friday it blows up after I tuck this post in bed and kiss it good night. I have a few quick thoughts on today’s two big stories. First, the Rod Rosenstein story is a set-up, the Failing New York Times got played by Trumpers. Second, Chuck Grassley’s ultimatum to Christine Blasey Ford is egregious extortionate excrement.
What do these fuckers have in store next? A 21st Century Reichstag fire? This is the face of American fascism.
It’s time to tune out the jackboots and return to our regularly scheduled programming.
This week’s theme song was written by Stevie Nicks, Lindsey Buckingham, Christine McVie, Mick Fleetwood, and John McVie for an album that you may have heard of: Rumours. The Chain is the only tune on that record credited to all five members of Fleetwood Mac Mach 9. We have two versions for your listening pleasure: the original studio track and a recent live version featuring new members, Neil Finn and Mike Campbell.
I’m not sure if jumping to the break constitutes breaking the chain but we’re going to do it anyway. Now that I think of it, it’s closer to yanking your chain. What’s a little chain yanking among friends?
Senate Republicans aren’t the only ones willing to do anything to secure a right-wing majority on the Supreme Court. Enter Ed Whelan who is a major player in the DC conservative legal establishment as well as a friend and associate … Continue reading The Kavanaugh Mess: Reckless Disregard
Remember when Senate Republicans were in disarray on the Kavanaugh nomination? That was so Monday. They’ve moved on to the lie, deny, and misdirect phase of the nomination process. Last night Lawrence O’Donnell scorched Chuck Grassley and Orrin Hatch for … Continue reading Another Fine Kavanaugh Mess: The Big Bluff
He’s your captain. And…just another reminder that DJT’s cloddish, boorish, ignorant and embarrassing reactions to a significant natural disaster are a feature, not a bug. What anyone with a modest amount of, I don’t know, intelligence, maturity, empathy, whatever, finds appalling, MAGAs find appealing. The chronic, pathological lying, the gaslighting…the nomination of a total creep like Brett Kavanaugh (who’s clearly a liar and a scumbag, whether you think he’s also guilty of sexual assault or not)…it’s all baked in the (sheet) cake. The midterm is a chance to reject the sort of cartoonish lunacy that considers an empty calorie summit … Continue reading Trump Ship
Hurricane Florence has me thinking of North Carolina. When I heard a reference to Cape Fear on teevee, I knew what to select for this feature. John D. MacDonald was among the best hard-boiled crime fiction writers of his era. … Continue reading Pulp Fiction Thursday: Cape Fear
I originally planned to write at length about the Kavanaugh mess but it’s still as fluid as hell. I’m not into trying to nail Jello to the wall, so let’s see what our idiot president* has been up to. (For … Continue reading Your President* Speaks: The Boy In The Bubble
I’m on record as not being a heavy metal fan. BUT I’m a sucker for “longtime band member quits and writes a book” stories. A Guardian article about former Judas Priest co-lead guitarist KK Downing’s memoirs led me to select … Continue reading Album Cover Art Wednesday: Screaming For Vengeance
People are still making music, now: After a big laugh, the audience, musicians and performers all paraded across the street to the backyard of 7337. There, a jazz band shared the stage with a team of young women called Sydney Chatman and The Fly Girls, the youngest of whom wore an astronaut helmet and space suit. At the end of each set, they addressed the audience about Black women from different perspectives: as cosmic and universal (hence the space suit), as creative forces, as pillars of the community, and as warriors. The Fly Girls spoke about women living and past, … Continue reading Not Everything Sucks: Jazz Edition
