2024 Dems, GOP Crazed, Debt Ceiling, Social InSecurity, Mass Shootings

Caution: This may be disturbing to watch.
Video shows intruder breaking into Pelosi home.


Call to 911 came after intruder surprised Paul Pelosi asleep in his bedroom.


Will this provoke apologies about instant conspiracy theories?
My guess is no.

  • Nan’s Notebook has a preference for the Democratic Presidential nomination in 2024: some candidate not suggested by the media.
     
    Key description:
    In my opinion, what I think we really need is a comparatively unknown DEMOCRAT to emerge from the shadows, step into the limelight, and thoroughly rattle the establishment.
     
  • Republicans are using the debt ceiling to demand cuts that are mathematically impossible without slashes to Social Security and Medicare.
     
    Acceding to their demands is out of the question. So is ruining the economy by putting a stop payment on what we owe.
     
    There are a few paths that might be followed. Which non-compromise alternative should the administration pursue?
     
    Ted McLaughlin at jobsanger has a suggestion: Pursue all of them.
     
  • No indication that this is inspired by Republican attacks on Social Security, but M. Bouffant at Web of Evil has a warning about messing with old people.
     
  • If you have been following the horrific story of the mass shooting in Monterrey Park (and who hasn’t?) you may be surprised about the conspiracy to keep you from knowing it happened. News Corpse has been following Donald Trump Jr, who is on it. Don Jr has discovered a liberal plot among news networks to keep you from knowing the shooting occurred.
     
    Key Tweet from Donald Trump Jr:

  • There was a time anti-abortion folk would not say this out loud. tengrain at Mock Paper Scissors has the quote as Representative Jim Banks proposes federal legislation prohibiting any pregnant woman from leaving any state where abortions are outlawed.
     
    Those of us having a passing familiarity with pre-Civil War history might think of it as a sort of Fugitive Woman Law.
     
  • driftglass has a thought on the dangers of the unusual relationship between Kevin McCarthy and Margorie Taylor Greene.
     
  • Iron Knee at Political Irony discovers the best Santos burn ever.
     
  • Ant Farmer’s Almanac has an idea how Republicans will handle their George Santos problem.
     
  • Max’s Dad provides an ascerbic, but accurate, summary of textbook history according to DeSantis.
     
  • My question: Is it hypocrisy if you abide by, and use, a rule you want changed? (Um ‑‑ No, it’s fine)
     
    Libertarian Michael A. LaFerrara defends the Senate filibuster and accuses Democrats of hypocrisy for opposing it.
     
    For the record, the filibuster has been with us for a very long time. Vice President Aaron Burr pushed the Senate to eliminate a rule that eliminated the filibuster. That was in 1805. The Senate voted to allow filibusters beginning the next year.
     
    Problem:
    There suddenly was no way to stop the endless talking. Things eventually got so out of hand, the Senate adopted a new rule. If two thirds of Senators wanted a filibuster to end, then – doggone it – it had to end!!
     
    New Problem:
    It was very hard to get 2⁄3 of the Senators (64 in those days) to end all the talking and get to voting. That was especially true of what passed for civil rights in those days: making lynching illegal. So Black people who offended White people by trying things like voting could be tortured and killed.
     
    Finally, in 1975, the number went down to 3⁄5. So, instead of 66 (by then) votes, the number of votes required to get to a vote went to 60 votes.
     
    So remember these dates for the next few lines:
     
    1805: Aaron Burr proposes allowing filibusters to never end.
    1806: The Senate votes to allow filibusters to never end.
    1917: The Senate votes to allow filibusters to end with a 2⁄3 vote (64).
    1975: The Senate votes to allow filibusters to end with a 3⁄5 vote (60).
     
    Now we are ready for the one misreading of history: (hypocrisy?)
    It’s also blatantly hypocritical. The party in control of the Senate wants to eliminate the filibuster? That’s nothing new. When the Democrats are in the minority, they love the filibuster.
     
    And another:
    In fact, although it may seem like the 60-vote filibuster has been with us forever, it’s actually only been around since 1917.
    (When? How many?) Okay, we can forget all those dates now.

Continue reading “2024 Dems, GOP Crazed, Debt Ceiling, Social InSecurity, Mass Shootings”

Martin Luther King Day, Racism, Voter Fraud, Documents, Dragging Santos

  • Dave Dubya joins in Martin Luther King Day this week with a look at conservatives who adopt Dr. King as their own while attacking immigrants and refugees. Dave examines the content of conservative character.
     
  • North Carolina pastor John Pavlovitz acknowledges the love White Americans have for Martin Luther King’s most famous speech, but wonders if we still resist the less comfortable parts of the same message.
     
  • The basic premise of libertarianism, one increasingly embraced by contemporary conservatives, is that government action is evil and any issue requiring government action has to be fraudulent.
     
    Thus climate change must be fraudulent,
    or
    Climate change caused by humans must be fraudulent
    or
    Climate change caused by humans that government can do anything about must be fraudulent.
     
    And so it must be with any issue the solution to which involves government.
     
    Including racism.
     
    To his credit, libertarian Michael A. LaFerrara honors the memory of Martin Luther King, and rejects the conservative inpulse to deny racism.
     
    He only rejects the idea that we should do anything about it.
     
    Key mixed judgment:
    Thus is the paradox of Martin Luther King.
     
  • Rand Paul remembers the legacy of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Vixen Strangely at Strangely Blogged remembers that Rand Paul blocked a bill to outlaw lynching until an election year when he suddenly changed his mind.
     
  • The Propaganda Professor takes a look at the controversy surrounding the history of slavery in America. Experts are praising The 1619 Project, but conservatives seem to think it is too negative. Makes me wonder what positive aspects of slavery they want stressed.
     
  • Scotties Playtime reports on why Florida Universities are renaming their courses.
     
    Scottie quotes:


    along with details.

  • Most folks in the small city of Defiance, Ohio are enthusiastic about a prospective monument to a founding father. In The Life and Times of Bruce Gerencser, Bruce reminds the city that Anthony Wayne was a slave holder who dedicated much of his public life to “the uncommon slaughter of Native Americans” to get their land.
     
  • Wisconsin conservative James Wigderson is disillusioned with fellow conservatives who seem disinterested in converting voters with the quality of their policies. Instead, many are focused on voter suppression. In particular he wonders about one member of the Wisconsin Election Commission who actually boasts about keeping black voters from voting.
     
    Key quote about Commissioner Bob Spindell:
    If Spindell had been in charge of elections during Jim Crow, he would’ve bragged about literacy tests and poll taxes suppressing the Black vote.
     
    Key quote FROM Bob Spindell:
    …we can be especially proud of the City of Milwaukee (80.2% Dem Vote) casting 37,000 less votes than cast in the 2018 election with the major reduction happening in the overwhelming Black and Hispanic areas…
     
  • Republicans act to keep mail-in ballots from being counted with unfounded, untrue stories of voter fraud. Our favorite Earth-Bound Misfit points out one singularly unfortunate effect of proposed restrictions. Turns out Republicans are okay with denying the votes of military service people.

Continue reading “Martin Luther King Day, Racism, Voter Fraud, Documents, Dragging Santos”

Kevin Can’t Wait, Fist Restraint, Ethics, Santos, Gas Lighting Stoves, Brazil

Continue reading “Kevin Can’t Wait, Fist Restraint, Ethics, Santos, Gas Lighting Stoves, Brazil”

Happy Fan, Belling into 2023, Be Real, Ukraine, Trump Smear, Speaker Mess

From the winning 2020 campaign trail:
One adorably flustered fan! How can anyone not smile?

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Holidays, Busing Immigrants, Cruel Christmas Cheer, Melting Trump

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Merry Holidays, Pelosi, DeSantis Jawed, Never Forget Hanukkah 1942, Jan 6

Shamelessly stolen from HackWhackers.
Watch what happens on the evening news when the sports guy is drafted into reporting the weather:
 

Continue reading “Merry Holidays, Pelosi, DeSantis Jawed, Never Forget Hanukkah 1942, Jan 6”

Ukraine, Trump Card, Donald Melt, Rudy Dump, Brittney, Saturn Moon

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Election Returns, Sinema Drama, DeSantis Scolded, Marriage Protected

  • YellowDog Granny begins a list of people she will invite to kiss her nether regions and, a while later, shares her fond, visionary, hopes for a future election.
     
  • Green Eagle suggests that, despite his flaws, Herschel Walker did not deserve what happened to him.
     
  • My long-time conservative friend Darrel Michaels is despondent to below ground level at election results this year.
     
    He can be forgiven, I think, for his near incoherent rage against the victors:
    leftist hate-America-first,
    senile and corrupt,
    flying monkeys,
    socialist/leftist candidates,
    dangerous ideas,
    demonstrably proven to fail,
    profligate spending,
    extra/un-constitutional,
    despise America,
    leftist propaganda    ,
    and on and on.
     
    I am reminded of the late Illinois Everett Dirksen who, while entertaining a crowd of constituents pulled out of his pocket an extravagantly scathing attack and began reading it aloud. Partway through, he stopped, looked up wide eyed at his audience and, in a shocked voice, said:
     
    Why, they’re talking about ME!
     
    Key passage from my distraught friend:
    There are ways to make sure elections always tilt to blue rather than red if the outcome is in doubt. Just ask Kari Lake in Arizona.
     
    Ah! So that’s how we overcame.
     
  • In Hackwhackers, Senator Kyrsten Sinema has left the Democratic Party (or, in Republican SnideTalk, “Democrat Party”). If your first reaction is that this will pretty much screw up Senate committee composition, Hackwhackers says not to worry (too much). The Senator says she will still caucus with Democrats.
     
    Key Passage linked to Steve Benen:
    In other words, as of 24 hours ago, Democrats looked forward to having what was effectively a 51-seat majority in the chamber. As of this morning, that remains largely unchanged.
     
  • Disaffected and it Feels So Good speculates on why Kyrsten Sinema has left the Democratic Party, and suggests it may have been a shrewd move.
     
  • CalicoJack in The Psy of Life finds a study contrasting democracies that have successfully quelled violence with those who have not. Jack examines the conditions that accompany violence and identifies those actively working to creating those conditions.
     
  • driftglass suggests that it is way too late for the Republican party to reform its way out of decline.
     
  • Frances Langum walks us through the Republican plan to use the debt ceiling to threaten the economy. We will destroy the economy unless we are allowed to cut Medicare and Social Security.
     
  • tengrain at Mock Paper Scissors explains the success of a program that lifted 19 million American children from the grip of poverty, how Republican opposition caused it to lapse, how those children are once more in desperate straits, and how Republicans are blocking a revival.
     
    Key passage:
    …the GOP would arm wrestle each other to see who gets to kick-away Tiny Tim’s crutch…

Continue reading “Election Returns, Sinema Drama, DeSantis Scolded, Marriage Protected”

Hear Ye, Führer’s Highway, Railroads, My Dinner with Fuentes, Brain Musk

Continue reading “Hear Ye, Führer’s Highway, Railroads, My Dinner with Fuentes, Brain Musk”