I know some people can’t take my advice and just do their laundry or something while John Boehner slowly dies, but you really would be better off. This ain’t pretty.
About The Author
BooMan
Martin Longman a contributing editor at the Washington Monthly. He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.
In the words of the great Senator John Blutarsky, “My advice to you is to start drinking heavily.”
not sure that advice has done Boehner any good…
Shutdown the government to screw over their staff and lessen their pay. It is all from a lie pushed by Politico, Hannity and Conservative Media based on a poison pill created by “kill granny” Grassley.
And it does this: “CBO has found the Vitter Amendment would increase cost of health exchange subsidies by $530 million over 10 years”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/erik-wemple/wp/2013/10/02/from-politico-to-hannity-the-trajector
y-of-congresss-obamacare-exemption-myth/
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal-a/2013_09/the_obamacare_exemption_canard047081.php
Sounds about right from these aholes.
yeah, whatever. That will never become law.
Only because they can’t get anything at all through their caucus and their leadership will not open it up to let Democrats get a clean debt ceiling and CR passed.
There are in a loony frenzy apparently, with some members of Congress tweeting that the will jam a bill on the Senate and leave town. (My recommendation if they do that is to not go back to their districts.)
The president would just call them back.
There’s an interesting twist if the House Republicans flee for the hills. If Obama uses his constitutional power to convene Congress in extraordinary circumstances, and the Republicans resist, all Obama has to do is get 20 House Republicans into Congress and suddenly there’s a House with a quorum and an overwhelming Democratic majority. Things could turn very sour for the Republicans in a big hurry.
Shhhh. Don’t alert them.
You’re probably right but for some reason I’m just not convinced Boehner, Republicans or the Tea Party are competent or sane enough to pass any bill. It’s like a trainwreck. Can’t keep my eyes off of it.
Boehner is going to let the tea baggers pass their poison pill bill and leave town. What are the odds he quits and goes home too?
they can’t even agree on a bill to pass. Now I’m reading they may just leave town – with no bill.
I guess they’re lucky the CDC is down right now because these people are like a virus.
CDC is in Atlanta. That should be convenient for a bunch of them.
Actually many elements of the CDC fall under the United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, a uniformed branch of the government. They are still in operation. (An acquaintance of mine , a doctor, works at the CDC with the rank of a naval Captain.)
Yes, he can perform weddings, but only in his lab. (Joke)
Nice touch that Politico is breaking news that they’ll put Bill up, pass it, then Rep will split town. Each story seems to bring on louder rumblings from Global powers.
Meanwhile hunting season here. Hunters crabby cause restrooms aren’t being cleaned at Trailheads to Fed’l lands. I have over 15 hunters in orange jumpsuits sitting on the ridge 2 sides around my house. Gunfire going off constantly.
Hahahaha, Boehner/GOP proposal unconstitutional Of course!
At this point, I’m convinced that this is, indeed, all Kabuki, but that the House Republicans are such terrible Kabuki players that the country is liable to trip over one of the dudes in black pajamas and break its damn neck.
It’s not Kabuki. They want to default. The tea baggers think they will go home and be greeted with flowers and candy….now where did I hear that…..
They will. I keep hearing from their constituents hoping they will hold on and kill the mandate. This is from guys who have employer based healthcare so WTF? They don’t want their kids being forced to buy insurance? These guys look like they don’t have any kids over 26 so they aren’t affected so why are they frothing?
They’ve been told that Obama wants to raise their premiums and destroy their Medicare so lazy/undeserving blah people can be given free health care.
They’re stupid and/or fearful enough to believe that. Thus the froth.
This article by Bruce Bartlett – For Many Hard-Liners, Debt Default Is the Goal – presents a scary prospect:
http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/10/14/for-many-hard-liners-debt-default-is-the-goal/?_r=0
It would be easier to relax if I shared your conviction that Boehner is going to do the right thing once all other alternatives are exhausted, and before his obstinance has caused frightful irreparable damage. Even so you’re probably right; it’s not like me or anyone worrying about it is going to change anything.
I’m surprised how patient Senate Republicans are being with him, given how absurdly hopeless what he’s trying to do appears, and seeing as he previously was willing to leave it all up to the Senate, until conservatives in the House worried they’d be pressured to accept the Senate deal. Perhaps Senate Democrats ought to start demanding more, if Senate Republicans are really going to insist on dragging things past the Thursday deadline purely to give the Speaker of the House the opportunity to save face.
Alright, it’s time to do laundry. . .
Yeah, I have zero confidence that Boehner does the right thing or even the moderately insane thing. I think we default, I think it takes about 48 hours to round up the chickens and we pass something on Saturday.
America’s credit rating goes in the toilet and it costs a lot more to issue bonds, driving up the debt for years.
Yay!
They are intentionally sabotaging the nation’s borrowing capacity to harm the future prospects of the federal gub’mint. This is their “revolution”.
At this exact moment, I am in fact doing laundry. Just put a double load to dry.
I’ll be doing my laundry in about an hour, but until then, I just can’t stop.
best news I’ve heard in the last 15 minutes.
A little perspective:
The difference is that one “needed” the ratings agencies on inscrutable shit like CDOs.
No investor needs a ratings agency to know that the treasury securities of a sovereign nation are in trouble if its (permanently paralyzed) national legislature refuses (even for a short time) continuing borrowing authority. And of course there are many financial contracts which require that a security be rated “AAA” in order to continue to be held, as you know.
The question is what the global financial world and players will now do in the face of this systemic and unreformable dysfunction and why they haven’t already begun to take steps to reduce the financial world’s total reliance on US treasuries.
If they do nothing they are as dysfunctional and paralyzed as the US gub’mint….
@robertcostaNRO 7m
Staffer who’s familiar w/ internal GOP whip count: “They know that it is f***d.”
I agree with others here that Boehner will most likely invoke the “Hastert Rule” and let the country slide into default, while blaming Obama and Reid for not wanting to “compromise.” The guy is a cipher who will put preserving his “Speakership” above dramatically damaging the US and world economies, and harming countless people worldwide.
I hope it doesn’t happen, but the only silver lining I see is that when economic chaos results, and millions of Americans are harmed, there will be no doubt who is really at fault. That I think, will signal the real “death throes,” which is to say of the GOP. The amazing thing about the Teahadists is that they are just crazy enough to do it. They’re political suicide bombers with dynamite strapped to their chests, just dying to let the time fuse run.
Are you reading what’s going on this afternoon? Given that the policy polarity of the GOP guarantees that they’ll get zero votes from the Dem caucus, you can’t invoke the Hastert Rule when you don’t have ANY plan which can get 218 Republican votes. The Orange Man’s leadership has crapped out. Again. So much for jamming the Senate and Barack.
Pointing and laughing would be appropriate now. Saves our sanity.
@samsteinhp 22s
oh god RT @robertcostaNRO: Confirmed: tonight’s vote is dead
@robertcostaNRO
“The votes aren’t there,” says a leadership aide. “We’ve been unable to get people around this strategy.” http://natl.re/19MY576
100 times worse than herding cats. I was a little worried they might pass something with the minor add ons that, on principle, Dems cannot accept. That would have caused a real dust up in the Senate. Now it looks like Senate R’s are returning to the negotiated deal – minus the two Obamacare provisions. Boehner will have to pass it with Dems. Gonna be some heavy drinking in the R caucus tonight.
Naw, they’ll be gearin’ up for another rousing GOP rendition of Amazin’ Grace, followed by Michele Bachmann speaking in tongues and thrashing on the floor with the “Holy Spirit”, with the patriotic revolutionary festivities concluding with Gomer Gohmert soloing in How Great Thou Art…always a show stopper!
The heavy drinking will be in Boner’s cloakroom, per usual. Bottom’s up, John, have yerself another double! On second thought, make it a triple!
So even as world markets shudder and prepare to tank, senate Repubs put their last minute fix on hold as some “aid” to the hapless Drunken Boner and his House Boneheads. As Repubs to the core, it’s always party over country.
It’s now becoming crystal clear that the Repub party has been gorging itself on delusional shit that credit default is a positive advantage to the nation; it isn’t to be feared, it’s a sign of health! Markets love health! It’s a return to sanity to have your treasury emptied of cash and your debt securities tanking and being panic sold across world markets! It’s True Patriotism, correctly understood! Yeah, that’s the ticket!
In short, Repubs believe financial lunacy that even Charlemagne would see as bullshit.
It looks like we will be finding out if financial default is indeed healthy or (instead) a calamity for a nation.
Ignorance is Strength.
Even Charlemagne?
Dude was pretty clever. How about John of England or maybe Guy of Lusignan?
They think it will kill fiat money and bring back their beloved Gold Standard. Honestly! It sounds like I’m making this up but I’m not.
WHY CONGRESSIONAL STAFFERS HATE THE VITTER AMENDMENT
POSTED BY RYAN LIZZA
they’ve lost Jennifer fuckin’ Rubin!!!
More from Rubin…BWHAHAHA
@JRubinBlogger
More GOPers realize Heritage Action and Cruz are threat to survival of GOP #silverlining
whoa, sorry for the strong language. Cut and pasted and forgot to take it out.
Rubin must be really, really old considering that for the past hundred years, when Republicans are in control recessions/depressions come our way. Until Reagan, it was Democrats that led us into wars.
Yeah .. I don’t know what stuff Rubin is drinking. The GOP hasn’t been fiscally responsible since Ike. And if Rubin was around during Ike’s presidency, she was in diapers.
Pardon me, but there were three recessions when Ike was in the WH.
Two under Truman — the first understandable, but the second resulted from an acceleration of national debt repayment.
All right, the laundry’s done and put away. So what’s been happening while I wasn’t paying attention?
AAAAIIIIEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sounds as if I made the better choice to go see four movies this week. Any one of which, including the perfectly dreadful “Elysium,” is probably less of a waste of time than watching the DC follies.
So why was it dreadful?
Where to begin? Earth is dead 150 years from now. Yet is teeming with people. The rich have evacuated to a human made Shangri Lai type satellite orbiting earth where they don’t die. (The people and plants don’t seem to need oxygen either since the place isn’t enclosed. Nor are they cold.) Drones with super duper weapons keep the people (who for some reason haven’t died off from lack of food and water) in line. Two protagonists that have been outfitted with heavy duty metal exo-skeletans engage in a fist fight because their super duper weapons weren’t enough. (That’s a particular pet peeve of mine wrt to sci-fi/super hero action movie movies. Lots of shoot-em-up stuff then a fistfight.)
Not as bad as “John Carter,” but that’s a really low bar.
“We Are The Millers” and “The Family” aren’t good but have some entertainment value. “The Butler” has a wonderful performance by Forest Whitaker (and Cuba Gooding Jr. is good). What a shame the storytelling, dialogue, and so many of the supporting actors were weak.
I’ve got a thing for cleverly executed crude humor, and Emma Roberts. Thus “We’re The Millers” kept my interest.
Better than I expected. However, comedies should have several LOL moments and can’t recall if this one had even one.
Since I basically think what you described is the future (absent the fighting parts) that doesn’t so bad to me. Now it might be exaggerated because it’s movie and that fist fighting trope might annoy you but for me I can Rule of Cool it away if it’s worth it.
If the megastructure is large enough and since it will need to made up dense material, it will generate it’s own gravity ala Halo or Ringworld (which will keep the atmosphere in place) or do it in some sort of enclosure by rotation like Babylon 5 or Gundam.
Space itself doesn’t really make you cold. There little medium to radiate heat so it takes forever which is why stealth space ships in space would be very hard. If the structure itself is a giant heat sink, that might reasonably explain temperature control. I’d imagine that with both solar rays and any kind of power source would generate significant heat.
Also while I’ve never seen John Carter a lot of nerds I talk to have said that once you get past all the hype John Carter is actually MUCH better than initial impressions.
Sorry you didn’t enjoy it, from what I know of the film without having watched it I would have preferred more exploration of the social aspects.
HEY! I just read a 25 page article on art history (well it had a few pictures too).
Nudes?
If I remember right, the last time the GOtPers pulled their Manchurian Macarena hissy fit over losing the election, threatening default …..
Bohner set up a bill called “plan B” and promptly pulled it due to lack of GOtPer conference support right before caving and allowing the senate bill onto the floor.
Much of the made for media end of the world drama, then as in now, interestingly, is the same.
Two thoughts,
1. Bohner seems to be playing the same gambit, setting up a supposed bill for the teatards,
then pulling it for lack of support, at the very last minute,
leaving only what ever the US senate comes up with as a compromise,
as the only game in town to fend off the calamity of default the teatards want.
In default they hope partly to force President Obama’s hand
hoping they can find their impeachment pony
in that steaming pile horse hockey
they keep trying to serve up to the rest of us.
2. The ACA is just starting to be implemented and slowly dawning on the average citizen it is not the demon’s spawn the hard right has lied for years claiming it is ….
In the end it is becoming the next SS/Medicare program the majority of citizens will depend on for part or all of their health care.
The business community and wall street can see the writing on the wall, so they go from obstruction to finding ways to game the new system for as much money as they can grift off it.
Hence they want to stop enabling the paste eaters who want to burn down the county to stop the ACA and destroy President Obama’s historical legacy of getting a new health care right for american Citizens which puts him on league with FDR and LBJ.
The kabuki theatre of the media is entertaining but watching this reminds me that rerun season is just that and Bohner has signalled he will cave but only at the very last second possible.
What if Boehner resigns just before the default? And any Las Vegas Odds of this happening?
My money is riding on the Trillion Dollar coin.
Good catch by Gotta Laff @ PC on how Progressives have already compromised