Watching the RFK Jr. hearing, I couldn’t decide if he should be put in a straitjacket, doused with holy water, or just hit with a hammer.
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Speaking of health care, and Florida now apparently dropping all vaccination requirements for schoolkids, Mrs 512 just made this jaw dropping observation:
Imagine how screwed up things have to get in order for a Florida family to contemplate moving to Alabama for the sake of their kids’ school environment.
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“Humane Restraint” straitjacket from (I am not making this up) handcuffwarehouse.com: $224
Holy water: Free, if you can find one of the old-timey churches that have a dispensing urn by the main entrance
Pittsburgh 2 lb hardwood engineer’s hammer from Harbor Freight: $8.99
Good news. I think we can find enough budget for all three.
Pro tip: It’ll be easier to get the jacket on him after applying the hammer.
I speak merely in jest. Isn’t that what they always say?
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Best thing the Dems could do is brow beat some GOPers into understanding trump is starting a war with Venezuela and that therefore trump needs to be removed via 25th Amendment or impeachment before he uses a nuke.
He ordered the blowing up of a boat killing 11. Then he has given military pilots permission to shoot down Venezuelan planes for no apparent reason. Both are acts of war.
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Amen to that.
I contact my Dem rep not to chastise but to prod: somehow they have to up their game. It’s tough because, as this 2023 thread from Dave Roberts (image below) reminded me, the Democratic brand has been pretty thoroughly trashed but there is actually no plausible alternative to the TrumPublican fascist onslaught that comes out looking even remotely nonviolent.
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- There is no chance for a “deal” in the sense of a compromise that takes both parties’ interests seriously, because the presidential incumbent is incapable of making that kind of deal, as Josh Marshall keeps pointing out.
- I don’t think the presidential incumbent (or the men running the puppet) want to shut the government down at all. They want to control the government, including where it does and doesn’t spend money. That is central to their agenda, not just a passing fancy.
- I think that when a Senator like Warren talks the way she does, we can take that as a serious set of thoughts (though of course, they are also talking points to set up responses to the inevitable shutdown that’s coming). So if Warren and other savvy Democrats sign on for a very short CR – a week, maybe 2 – then I will not object. But anything longer is failure.
- Let’s not forget, also, that the presidential incumbent, once there is a filibuster of any budget bill, will loudly demand that Republicans pull the ripcord and invoke the Nuclear Option and end the filibuster. And with today’s cowed, spineless, or fellow-traveler Republicans, they may do it. After all, the inherent gerrymander of the current Senate and the practical gerrymander of the House gives them bright prospects of unlimited legislative reach if they do (though of course, they will also become even more pawns of the Christian Nationalist fringe and the rent-seeking corporate interests behind the presidential incumbent, too).
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Rfk needs more than 2lbs of persuasion.
Id start with a spike hammer, maul, and then move to a heavy old wooden sledge.
Once thats over with… sure, you can finish the rest with a 2lb engineers hammer.
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Do any Republicans have relatives on active duty, ie “skin in the game”?
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Isn’t there some Biblical verse about cleaning your own house before casting aspersions? First we find 3 of Trump’s cabinet members have multiple primary mortgages, now this:
Mark and Julie Pulte, the father and stepmother of Bill Pulte, President Donald Trump’s appointee as director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, since 2020 have claimed so-called “homestead exemptions” for residences in wealthy neighborhoods in both Michigan and Florida, according to the records. The exemption is meant to give a discount to homeowners on taxes for properties they use as their primary residence. (Reuters)
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There HAS. TO. BE consequence for the Rethug power grab. Shut the Government down. Make it clear that it is the only recourse available to the PEOPLE, not just the Democratic Party who are acting on our behalf.
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So my thing is, obviously, people want Democrats to fight. To fight they have to articulate, publicly, what they are doing. Because otherwise how will anyone know they fought? And that brings me to the problem with this “Extend the tax subsidies” battlecry. It’s all gamesmanship and no game. It’s once again trying to hoodwink their own supporters, head faking a fight and then aiming for the thing they think they can get. And they also don’t tell anyone what they are doing. They don’t take us into any confidence. They just ask us to read tea leaves. heck, as anemic as I think “Extend the subsidies!” is a as a response to fascism, I might by it, if they said directly “we can’t get anything more, so we are going to fight for this, but then you, the American people, will have to save us from fascism later.” At least that’s straightforward. Enough of this bank shot savvy, already.
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They tell me it’s more about the reps than the weight.
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Clawing back anything the fascists have cancelled is good, but this seems like far too little. They should be making larger demands, demands that TMF can’t accept. Put the SOB in a vise.
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They sound like an abused wife when the cops ask if she wants to press charges. We all know how that shit ends.
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They should be threatening prosecution for everyone and anyone who aided and abetted this bullshit. They should be creating a project 2025 of our own, including Medicare for all and ending predatory student loans, the whole fucking socialist agenda, then tell the fucking Republicans to go fucking pound sand if they don’t like it.
Imagine if Democrats actually fucking did what the lying scumbag fascists promised to get elected?
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Touche. Well played, sir.
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I think he hit the nail right on the head!
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Well, just as last time, I still have the concern that a shutdown will shut down the judiciary branch, when the courts have been an important part of the defense – something the administration would clearly want. But the landscape’s also changed, in that now they seem to be openly claiming they can, though “pocket rescission,” just not disburse any appropriated funds they personally don’t feel like disbursing, because nunyabidnez why.
So on the one hand, I still remember the earlier estimate that the functioning of the courts would grind to a halt about 2-3 weeks after a shutdown began, and OTOH it seems like, today, if they can get away with it, the admin would just block funding for any aspects of the court system that are giving them a hard time. Or, the administration prefers its boutique rescissions over a full shutdown, which would also disable a lot of their machinations. I’m stumped.
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The filibuster is already dead. It’s only used to stop laws Republicans object to, while Democrats keep their filibuster gunpowder dry for…keeping the filibuster.
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The “ask” is permanent subsidies. No more temporary extensions. Take that piece off the board.
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