Middle East infrastructure is more important than American infrastructure, says Republicans.
Nothing will be accomplished—to the point that there may well be a government shutdown for the holidays.
That’s sure to make the GOP even less popular than it is now (~snicker)
A must-read!!
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The GOP is running out of things to fuck up.
That may be the only thing that saves us.
Well… if this scheme to stack the judiciary gets folded into the tax bill, as is currently proposed…
[quote]Never mind that Republicans saw no urgency in filling judicial vacancies while Obama was president. Never mind that they ignored pleas from conservative Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. to fill positions in courts facing “judicial emergencies.” Now, conservatives want a 30 to 50 percent increase in the number of federal judgeships. And they have a clear idea of who should fill this massive number of new posts: “President Trump and the Republican Senate will need to fill all of these new judgeships in 2018, before the next session of Congress.”
Almost overnight, the judicial branch would come to consist of almost equal parts judges picked by nine presidents combined — Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush 41, Clinton, Bush 43 and Obama — and judges picked by one: Donald J. Trump. The effect on our civil rights and liberties would be astounding. And a continuation of the pattern of Trump’s nominees to date — more white and more male than any president’s in nearly 30 years — would roll back decades of progress in judicial diversity.[/quote]
We?
I thought you were seceding. How quickly they forget Jade Helm 15.
Tillerson is in charge of destroying the State Department, seems to be going well for him.
Congress has approved more than $50 billion in aid in response to a series of devastating hurricanes. The most recent request by the White House is the largest yet at $44 billion, but it’s not nearly enough to satisfy the powerful Texas delegation, which is pressing behind the scenes for more.
“Completely inadequate,” said Rep. John Culberson, R-Texas. “We must do far
TRANSLATION: Give us the money because the needs of Texas eradicate our usual calls to do nothing because we can’t afford it and Americans don’t want to pay more for taxes.
That will in turn increase the debt and we can use that as justification for major cuts in social safety net programs including Medicare, Medicaid, Food Stamps, housing assistance, energy assistance and Social Security.
For the GOP, life just doesn’t get any better than this conflating of greed, power and a desire to screw the poor and middle class by any means possible.
Texas Republicans should have their 2013 Hurricane Sandy “no” votes flung in their faces for a few more months. “I’m sorry, we can’t just throw money at your problems without paying for it somewhere else”, right?
Seeing tens of billions added to the Pentagon every budget year is crushing our ability to compete with the world’s biggest economies since we insist on shoveling our nation’s budget into this bottomless sinkhole. I wish people understood what we are giving up as a country to operate in this ruinous yet flag-waving fashion.
I don’t know if the country can stand much more “winning.” It would appear Steve Bannon’s quest to completely destroy our republic is nearly complete. I do not think, however, that there is enough unanimity on the GOP side to completely mess us up. The Tea Party will fight with the pro-business side to probably shut the government down. Well-played, Mr. Trump. Heaven help us all.
Given the model of past congressional legislation in the Trump presidency, a small group of Republicans will hash out the details behind closed doors and tell their compatriots to vote for the resulting proposals on trust, with no time to discuss them. Democrats will vote no, Republicans will vote yes, and the outcome will hang on the handful of thinking Republicans who actually study the proposals and consider the effects on their constituencies…So there won’t be much debate. The Republicans have only to negotiate in a small committee and then pressure that handful of Republican outliers with a public shaming over how disloyal and liberal they are. The track record of this model of hasty partisan change has been poor, though, and I hope it remains poor. Very few people are governing this nation now with much of Congress hardly more than headcount, red or blue.
Reading the article and the comments with their links I can only think one thing…
We are sooooo fucked…
Someone please talk me off the ledge…
Thanks in advance…
Since they refuse to send California any money for fire relief, and Puerto Rico, who can’t vote, they are making their continued attack on places that don’t vote for Republicans pretty hard to miss or claim some other reason makes aid for these places impossible, but Texas needs more.
Well one of those Texas Repugs has decided to retire - mine, Jeb Hensarling. Another of those Repugs just got his dick picks spread all over creation.
I wish I could, I’m just hangin on by my fingernails… Seriously.
There was a time when my family teased me for being a “my glass isn’t half full, it’s close to overflowing”, optimist. At 60 I wake up every day feeling like my life’s work as an activist for women and LGBT rights is being ground into the dirt, the environment is being destroyed, the courts are being packed and we are all fucked. I am having a very hard time trying to continue be a positive influence in my community, when I am highly tempted to just start swimming without a wetsuit and go out far enough my body doesn’t wash back to shore for some poor soul to have to find.
The work you are engaged in never ends. It is forever work and it’s never easy either. But if it’s getting to you, take a break. You obviously have dedicated yourself to other people which is so wonderful. So you have to give yourself some room once in awhile. You can’t carry the world’s problems all by yourself and nobody expects you to either.
Now, if this country has demonstrated anything since Trump took over, it’s how much the majority of us do not share his view of this country and how well it’s institutions are still holding up under incredible onslaught. There is always hope because this country was founded on it. The constitution is based on it, hope and a belief that real good exists.
And it does. It’s all over this board, for example. 
FWIW The only manmade object to ever leave our solar system, Voyage 1, contains an actual golden record of music. One of the songs is Johnny B. Goode, sung by Chuck Berry. https://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/golden-record/whats-on-the-record/music/
You never know where your work might end up. Hang in there friend.
What is really bugging me the most is the judgeships they are marching through. Left spots vacant so Roberts was begging, wouldn’t even give Gorsuch a hearing, now they are ramming through lifetime appointments of people the ABA says are unqualified to be judges, and have thrown out the blue slip consideration they used to such great effect. What the hell do we do about that? If he goes down are his appointments overturned? Illegal? I don’t think so, and most of our civil rights victories have come through the Judicial branch.
I need a break, but I am too afraid of the devastation that is happening to take one.
At least I have my second graders to teach to swim for the next two weeks. Disabled and don’t walk well, but I can still swim, so I volunteer to attempt to drown proof all our 2nd graders here on the coast in our Northern California county. The kids give me some energy, hope, and uplift. I am thankful for them. I doubt I’d still be doing any of this work if they didn’t cheer me up enough to keep putting one foot in front of the other, to attempt to leave them a better world than the one this old lesbian grew up in.
I understand what you’re saying and I hate it that it’s happening myself.
But I can’t do anything about it so my approach is that it is a fact and I hope for the best - that the 3d branch evens itself out and it happens. W completely remade the DOJ but so far I haven’t noticed a whole sweeping wind of change in the courts.
Conservatives spent the Warren years just as convinced as you are that the world was ending via the federal courts.
There’s nothing like being around kids and younger people. They always bring me hope too. As well as a long range viewpoint.