Today the Senate approved a short-term extension of government funding to prevent a shutdown. The deal funds the government until December 16 and also provides about $12 billion in aid to Ukraine as it fights off Russia’s invasion. The House is expected to pass the measure tomorrow.
Great read, as always. So enjoy your wrapping our nation’s history into today’s news.
And what sad news it is. My son stated recently he’s watching the decline of a once great nation. The Republicans are following the instructions of a man who had multiple bankruptcies.
"If today’s Republicans retake power in the fall elections..." and here once again is Heather sounding the alarm. The Republicans threaten default, which "would cost up to 6 million jobs, create an unemployment rate of nearly 9%, and wipe out $15 trillion in household wealth." I do not understand how corporate donors would find this in their best interest, but I don't want to find out. Talk about kitchen table issues, we who are not among the top 2% may lose our kitchen tables around which to discuss devastating unemployment and loss of household wealth.
We have a scant 5 weeks to ratchet up our efforts to register Democratic voters and Get Out The Vote for Democrats up and down the ballot: House, Senate, Governors, Secretaries of State, statehouses, judges--we need them all! But we need to work smart, curtail emotional giving, and direct our resources to maximum effect on winnable races. Not too blue shoo-in, not too red hopeless, but toss-up or leaning Dem.
The States Project does that research to effectively support candidates where it makes a difference in swing states. What are your resources and recommendations?
Further reason why these traitors cannot ever be allowed anywhere near power again. Were it not for the addled airhead Sinema, the Senate could carve out a vote to kill the debt ceiling from the filibuster and finish it off in December, leaving the traitors with nothing. I think even Manchin could see the necessity of so doing.
Thank you for another informative, insightful letter. As a government employee I get so tired of being a political football. I go to work and do a good job every damn day, and our reward is to get shut down and lose a paycheck until the politicians get done pissing on each other’s trees. Yes, we typically get back pay once we’re up and running again, but there are plenty of employees - not just in the government - who live paycheck to paycheck. I have savings to get me through, but not everyone does. They totally ignore the human aspect of the the chaos they create. Although I know, they simply don’t care if it means they get their way. The pain is the point.
Never underestimate the hypocrisy, sadism, and cynicism of the Right. It has been ever thus. On another note: The despicable Missouri AG and would-be senator, Eric Sch[m]itt, has sued the D of Ed to block the student loan debt relief program. Why? Because he--and 5 other Rethuglican A'sG--claims that this will mean that the state "loses income" from taxes people supposedly will not be paying on the student loan relief. However--and this is a perfect example of the malignity of the m***h*rf**kers who want to turn everyone into pawns in their Autocracy Olympics--the same Rethuglicans whining about the relief of middle and working-class people who have been paying thousands of dollars MORE than their original loans in interest just passed (with the blessing of Sch[m]itt) a bill that LOWERS the income tax on the HIGHEST EARNERS in MO but does absolutely nothing to help anyone else. So if you're a millionaire in Missouri--congrats. You don't have to pay the measly 5% on the top end of your income (which is of course a graduated tax so you pay only on the amount of annual income above the next highest income level). But the person making $50,000 a year and barely scraping by in Missouri? The legislature tells you to eff off.
This is why these f**kers have to go. I want this whole disgusting patriarchal system to burn to the ground right now. Happy Friday y'all.
Christoffer Hobson is citing Berthold Brecht in today's writing, The Old New:
"I stood on a hill and I saw the Old approaching, but it came as the New.
It hobbled up on new crutches which no one had ever seen before and stank of new smells of decay which no one had ever smelt before.
The stone that rolled past was the newest invention and the screams of the gorillas drumming on their chests set up to be the newest musical composition.
Everywhere you could see open graves standing empty as the New advanced on the capital.
Round about stood such as inspired terror, shouting: Here comes the New, it’s all new, salute the new, be new like us! And those who heard, heard nothing but their shouts, but those who saw, saw such as were not shouting.
So the Old strode in disguised as the New, but it brought the New with it in its triumphal procession and presented it as the Old.
The New went fettered and in rags; they revealed its splendid limbs.
And the procession moved through the night, but what they thought was the light of dawn was the light of fires in the sky. And the cry: ‘Here comes the New, it’s new, salute the New, be new like us!’ would have been easier to hear if all had not been drowned in a thunder of guns."
'Brecht’s words generate an eery, uneven recognition, capturing something in the air. Here I want to linger on the powerful duality at the heart of the poem: the old new and the new old. He points to the danger of old ways of thought and action being misapprehended as new; but also, new forces and realities not being recognised, too quickly dismissed as old. (Christoffer Hobson)'
Thank you for paying attention to this debt ceiling stuff Heather. I’ve lost my ability to concentrate on this annual fiasco. Seems to take me back to the third grade playground watching some kids play a game I’m no longer interested in playing.
It’ll be hard to rebuild Florida if the federal government is in default. Wonder if desantis is thinking about that. But also, what is the endgame here? What happens the day after they force us into default?
There seems to be a constant strain in US history of visiting onto others the tyranny that drove migrant forebears to come to America.
Victims' hatreds and resentments passed down from generation to generation long after the original oppression and/or poverty had been transformed into wealth and liberty.
A heritage of evil.
Is it not more than time for Americans to wake up and cast off ancestral shackles -- a convicts' mentality -- unworthy of a free people?
We have an election between now and Dec. 16th. Ever the optimist, despite ample historical evidence to the contrary, if the Democrats hold or increase their majorities, would lame-duck Republicans still vote to default? Since rational thought is out of vogue in MAGA-World, probably yes they would, claiming a rigged election.
"We lost; proof the election was rigged."
I really am cautiously but realistically hopeful the Democrats will buck history this mid-term election. I think the SCOTUS Dobbs v Jackson Women's Health decision is what will do the trick. I hope the Dems are ready for the inevitable MAGA challenge to the results.
Message from Joe Biden to Ron DeSantis; "We're from the government and we're here to help."
The MAGAs seem to have the collective memory of an average fruit fly. The reason Macconnell "blinked" at allowing a government default is partly because he saw the damage it would do to the country, but mostly because he saw the damage it would do to Republican political support. The beating they took by allowing a government shut down in 2019 would pail by comparison.
I must also say I am not impressed by political pundits. 2016: total miss. 2018: kinda got it right, but not because of 'cross-over' votes, really it was the Democrat's mobilization of 'left-leaning seldom voters' that did the trick. 2020: they predicted a squeaker - it was not. They have their ear to the ground, but seem to be listening to the old (see Olaf Ribbing's post), rather than to what's actually happening in front of them. One respected pundit stated what we are seeing is the Republican party making the shift from a business party to a working-class party. It is not. It is a party making the shift from a loyal-opposition/ruling party to becoming the machinery of dictatorship.
For all their talent and earnest desire to tell the story, most media outlets seems to be covering all this as just another horse race, rather than a race over a cliff. Our thinking has become too comfortable, too grooved, to be really useful in this time of inflection/opportunity/crisis. The MAGAs, God bless them, can be either a vehicle to wake the rest of us up, or bury us. The (uncomfortable) choice is ours.
The Civil War is alive and healthy. I thank my lucky stars I’m sober. I thank my lucky stars my good buddy Dave turned me on to Heather Cox Richardson, etc.
Superb.. The country needs Professor Richardson to help the Democrats counter the powerful and mightily effective Republican disinformation machine. If we don’t shed light on the sickening propaganda the Republicans so effectively employ, this democracy will soon perish.
The R’s...always casting a heavy wrench! Just when you think the Dems are ahead, the opponents find a treasure trove somewhere. I am getting nauseous being on this see-saw.
Great read, as always. So enjoy your wrapping our nation’s history into today’s news.
And what sad news it is. My son stated recently he’s watching the decline of a once great nation. The Republicans are following the instructions of a man who had multiple bankruptcies.
"If today’s Republicans retake power in the fall elections..." and here once again is Heather sounding the alarm. The Republicans threaten default, which "would cost up to 6 million jobs, create an unemployment rate of nearly 9%, and wipe out $15 trillion in household wealth." I do not understand how corporate donors would find this in their best interest, but I don't want to find out. Talk about kitchen table issues, we who are not among the top 2% may lose our kitchen tables around which to discuss devastating unemployment and loss of household wealth.
We have a scant 5 weeks to ratchet up our efforts to register Democratic voters and Get Out The Vote for Democrats up and down the ballot: House, Senate, Governors, Secretaries of State, statehouses, judges--we need them all! But we need to work smart, curtail emotional giving, and direct our resources to maximum effect on winnable races. Not too blue shoo-in, not too red hopeless, but toss-up or leaning Dem.
The States Project does that research to effectively support candidates where it makes a difference in swing states. What are your resources and recommendations?
https://statesproject.org/get-involved/give-smart/
https://www.grapevine.org/giving-circle/1XQhnyD/Tending-to-Democracy
Further reason why these traitors cannot ever be allowed anywhere near power again. Were it not for the addled airhead Sinema, the Senate could carve out a vote to kill the debt ceiling from the filibuster and finish it off in December, leaving the traitors with nothing. I think even Manchin could see the necessity of so doing.
Thank you for another informative, insightful letter. As a government employee I get so tired of being a political football. I go to work and do a good job every damn day, and our reward is to get shut down and lose a paycheck until the politicians get done pissing on each other’s trees. Yes, we typically get back pay once we’re up and running again, but there are plenty of employees - not just in the government - who live paycheck to paycheck. I have savings to get me through, but not everyone does. They totally ignore the human aspect of the the chaos they create. Although I know, they simply don’t care if it means they get their way. The pain is the point.
Never underestimate the hypocrisy, sadism, and cynicism of the Right. It has been ever thus. On another note: The despicable Missouri AG and would-be senator, Eric Sch[m]itt, has sued the D of Ed to block the student loan debt relief program. Why? Because he--and 5 other Rethuglican A'sG--claims that this will mean that the state "loses income" from taxes people supposedly will not be paying on the student loan relief. However--and this is a perfect example of the malignity of the m***h*rf**kers who want to turn everyone into pawns in their Autocracy Olympics--the same Rethuglicans whining about the relief of middle and working-class people who have been paying thousands of dollars MORE than their original loans in interest just passed (with the blessing of Sch[m]itt) a bill that LOWERS the income tax on the HIGHEST EARNERS in MO but does absolutely nothing to help anyone else. So if you're a millionaire in Missouri--congrats. You don't have to pay the measly 5% on the top end of your income (which is of course a graduated tax so you pay only on the amount of annual income above the next highest income level). But the person making $50,000 a year and barely scraping by in Missouri? The legislature tells you to eff off.
This is why these f**kers have to go. I want this whole disgusting patriarchal system to burn to the ground right now. Happy Friday y'all.
Christoffer Hobson is citing Berthold Brecht in today's writing, The Old New:
"I stood on a hill and I saw the Old approaching, but it came as the New.
It hobbled up on new crutches which no one had ever seen before and stank of new smells of decay which no one had ever smelt before.
The stone that rolled past was the newest invention and the screams of the gorillas drumming on their chests set up to be the newest musical composition.
Everywhere you could see open graves standing empty as the New advanced on the capital.
Round about stood such as inspired terror, shouting: Here comes the New, it’s all new, salute the new, be new like us! And those who heard, heard nothing but their shouts, but those who saw, saw such as were not shouting.
So the Old strode in disguised as the New, but it brought the New with it in its triumphal procession and presented it as the Old.
The New went fettered and in rags; they revealed its splendid limbs.
And the procession moved through the night, but what they thought was the light of dawn was the light of fires in the sky. And the cry: ‘Here comes the New, it’s new, salute the New, be new like us!’ would have been easier to hear if all had not been drowned in a thunder of guns."
'Brecht’s words generate an eery, uneven recognition, capturing something in the air. Here I want to linger on the powerful duality at the heart of the poem: the old new and the new old. He points to the danger of old ways of thought and action being misapprehended as new; but also, new forces and realities not being recognised, too quickly dismissed as old. (Christoffer Hobson)'
Thank you for paying attention to this debt ceiling stuff Heather. I’ve lost my ability to concentrate on this annual fiasco. Seems to take me back to the third grade playground watching some kids play a game I’m no longer interested in playing.
It’ll be hard to rebuild Florida if the federal government is in default. Wonder if desantis is thinking about that. But also, what is the endgame here? What happens the day after they force us into default?
Conscience and the common weal is meaningless to malignant narcissists.
PAUL KRUGMAN
Wonking Out: Biden Should Ignore the Debt Limit and Mint a $1 Trillion Coin
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/01/opinion/biden-coin-democrat-republican-debt-limit.html
There seems to be a constant strain in US history of visiting onto others the tyranny that drove migrant forebears to come to America.
Victims' hatreds and resentments passed down from generation to generation long after the original oppression and/or poverty had been transformed into wealth and liberty.
A heritage of evil.
Is it not more than time for Americans to wake up and cast off ancestral shackles -- a convicts' mentality -- unworthy of a free people?
We have an election between now and Dec. 16th. Ever the optimist, despite ample historical evidence to the contrary, if the Democrats hold or increase their majorities, would lame-duck Republicans still vote to default? Since rational thought is out of vogue in MAGA-World, probably yes they would, claiming a rigged election.
"We lost; proof the election was rigged."
I really am cautiously but realistically hopeful the Democrats will buck history this mid-term election. I think the SCOTUS Dobbs v Jackson Women's Health decision is what will do the trick. I hope the Dems are ready for the inevitable MAGA challenge to the results.
Message from Joe Biden to Ron DeSantis; "We're from the government and we're here to help."
The MAGAs seem to have the collective memory of an average fruit fly. The reason Macconnell "blinked" at allowing a government default is partly because he saw the damage it would do to the country, but mostly because he saw the damage it would do to Republican political support. The beating they took by allowing a government shut down in 2019 would pail by comparison.
I must also say I am not impressed by political pundits. 2016: total miss. 2018: kinda got it right, but not because of 'cross-over' votes, really it was the Democrat's mobilization of 'left-leaning seldom voters' that did the trick. 2020: they predicted a squeaker - it was not. They have their ear to the ground, but seem to be listening to the old (see Olaf Ribbing's post), rather than to what's actually happening in front of them. One respected pundit stated what we are seeing is the Republican party making the shift from a business party to a working-class party. It is not. It is a party making the shift from a loyal-opposition/ruling party to becoming the machinery of dictatorship.
For all their talent and earnest desire to tell the story, most media outlets seems to be covering all this as just another horse race, rather than a race over a cliff. Our thinking has become too comfortable, too grooved, to be really useful in this time of inflection/opportunity/crisis. The MAGAs, God bless them, can be either a vehicle to wake the rest of us up, or bury us. The (uncomfortable) choice is ours.
The Civil War is alive and healthy. I thank my lucky stars I’m sober. I thank my lucky stars my good buddy Dave turned me on to Heather Cox Richardson, etc.
Superb.. The country needs Professor Richardson to help the Democrats counter the powerful and mightily effective Republican disinformation machine. If we don’t shed light on the sickening propaganda the Republicans so effectively employ, this democracy will soon perish.
The R’s...always casting a heavy wrench! Just when you think the Dems are ahead, the opponents find a treasure trove somewhere. I am getting nauseous being on this see-saw.