The Republicans are so high on their own supply of bullshit that it looks like they are going to have difficulty agreeing to fund the government or pay our debts. This time, they’re planning to hold ObamaCare hostage. A substantial number of Republican officeholders feel like they have one chance to kill the health care reforms before they fully kick in, and they are willing to cause absolute mayhem in the economy to try to get their way.
Have I mentioned that this party has gone insane and is completely irresponsible?
Have I mentioned that this party has gone insane and is completely irresponsible?
Plenty of times!! The problem is our corrupt, and purposefully clueless, TradMed.
I agree. The media’s a huge problem. Complaining about Republicans refusing the fund the government is like complaining about mice refusing to build mousetraps. Republicans are acting quite logically and responsibly given their insanity. Of course they’re sabotaging the government: the government is their enemy. Be nice if the media acknowledged that that’s who they are.
“Passing and enforcing a law that causes people not to vote should be a crime with a punishment just a strong as the punishment for fraud.”
I suggest a “Stand Your Ground” law that deals with voter suppression.
Even more fascinating is reading the naked racism of the comments at that link. I thought finance.yahoo comments were wildly right-wing, but those bozos make them look like rational liberals! These people have access to the ballot box and firearms? They should be locked in a rubber room.
Risk: Republicans refuse to fund government or pay debts.
Implications: Suspension of civilian and military payrolls, suspension of Medicare payments, suspension of transfer of aid to states. Shutting down all federal facilities. Abandonment of military troops in place. Closure of all federal offices. Shutdown of NSA computers. Turning off all lights. Turning off all natural gas and water supplies.
So it looks like massive preparation of local mutual support tactics to deal with some of the consequences should this actually take place.
While I think there is a growing contingent on the right (say fatboys with guns and doctrinaire neo-liberals) who would be fine simply murdering federal government and letting corporate powers feast on it’s rotting flesh, it’s easy to imagine that party “leaders” are just using this smack talk to set up an even more wonderful corporate bonanza in the final product, with just the right amount of extra punishment for the poor and middle class to show them who really deserves America’s wealth, and it’s not them.
That only happens if Democrats “seek the middle ground”.
When haven’t they since 2008? Or before even.
Every bit as fanatical and dedicated as the usual liberal or feminist activist.
Think of Carrie Nation’s hatchet.
Carrie Nation? That’s sweet.
Yep, far be it for some women who have been regularly beaten by alcoholic husbands to respond by tearing apart a bar.
Just doesn’t communicate the right politics.
Unfortunately, the prohibition strategy didn’t work so well.
So we’re back to the Violence against Women Act as a law.
Yeah. And is Carrie Nation really a liberal/feminist icon? I don’t know much about her, but that’s news to me. I do know that, y’know, as joe says below, she wasn’t a member of the Congressional leadership. Hell, she wasn’t permitted to vote. Still, she’s pretty much the exact equivalent of Republican officeholders other’n that.
How about Susan B. Anthony? I mean, she wasn’t an elected official either, but still, she was wild-eyed ranting loon of a fanatic. Arrested, tried, and convicted of a crime in pursuit of her political goals, too. Hm, I wonder what the difference with the Republican leadership is …
Except we’re not talking about some kook handing out leaflets on a street corner.
We’re talking about the people in the Congressional leadership of one of the two major parties in a two party system.
It’s just like Carrie Nation…if Carrie Nation had repeatedly won office, and been elected by her peers to a leadership position in the House in which more than a hundred of her colleagues were also smashing kegs with hatchets.
Yep, that’s what the modern Republican Party, and the modern conservative movement, is like.
You’re right. John Boehner would never ever be like Carrie Nation. Would not find John Boehner smashing a bar, but the reverse.
Have I mentioned that this party has gone insane and is completely irresponsible?
Hmmmm…once or twice, maybe.
Why govern, obstruction is so much easier.
Seems to me that the republican strategy is to try to keep the economy in the doldrums by continually screwing around with government funding of everything. Credit rating slashed! Markets crash! Oh noes! Low information voters, abetted by the media, will hold the party in power accountable, not the real culprits.
Crashing the economy, in tandem with their southern strategy redux, is probably their only way back to power (aside, of course, from becoming, you know, not crazy).
I’d like to see some realistic discussions about what we can do. I am just more and more amazed that there are projections that the GOP could take the Senate. Why in the world is anyone but the upper 1% and Fox News viewers voting for Republicans.
We can contact the media when they avoid dealing with this. We can contact our congresspeople. Most powerful is to talk to people individually, register Dems, make sure they have IDs and GOTV. We need ways to get the ordinary citizens to realize what is going on. They are tuning this out because they don’t like controversy and violence so they pay little attention to it, don’t know how government works and the media isn’t covering it accurately.
OFA will be powerful for the President’s agenda and 2014 and the people that join are so positive.
I would love to see all this frustration by Dems channeled into actual real solutions instead of some emotional display.
I think most ppl want something positive to work for. We have some promising senate candidates, here’s one who just declared that I’m pleased about [about whom I am pleased]
http://www.ajc.com/weblogs/political-insider/2013/jul/22/michelle-nunn-declares-herself-us-senate-ca
ndidate/
For starters, the Senate is the ultimate GOP gerrymander, and it’s baked into the Constitution — compare California’s two Democrats (and nearly 40 million population) to Wyoming’s two Republicans (and half a million).
Then there’s the more fortuitous aspect — which seats are in which class.
And finally there is the difference in composition historically between who goes to the polls in presidential-year elections, and in off-year elections.
It’s something of a perfect storm. So a GOP takeover isn’t that unlikely.
If there’s a shutdown, Republicans can forget about retaking the Senate in 2014. The leaders know this. So it’s not happening.
What’s driving so many so strongly is the knowledge that once health care reform kicks in and people see that it works (and not just for “those collerd folks,” it will change our nation and our culture forever. It’s the end of the Republican ideal of everyone for himself/herself. From that point forward, health care will be considered a right of citizenship.
I rec’d a call from an org I had never heard of, asking me to listen to a message and then respond. The message was a diatribe against the ACA-all the usual b.s. about taxes, exorbitant costs, etc. Then I was asked to press 1 if I supported the effort to take advantage of this big chance to dismantle Obamacare. There was no number to press if you disagreed. I just hung up. I suppose they could say that all responses rec’d were in support because there was no option to “not support.”
If it was a diatribe, it was a push poll to stir folks up, not a serious poll. Your answer didn’t matter anyway.
Yeah, that explains it. Thanks.
Not so interested in the stupid today, I’m enjoying the Return of the Titan live webcam
http://www.usbg.gov/return-titan
and don’t ruin my day by telling me the Boner faction wants to defund the titan webcam
Wow — thanks for the heads up. Amazing!