The Targets around here are quite a distance away. I've always been able to get pretty fast appointments, except for the first one, when the vaccines were in relatively short supply and you had to sit in an online line waiting and then finding out they ran out. I finally found one at a Sam's Club about 45 minutes away.
The best that can happen is Menendez resigns or retires ASAP for whatever the handiest excuse is, and allow Gov. Murphy to appoint an interim placeholder/presumptive heir and be done with it. The worst that can happen is he refuses to leave and becomes an embarrassment to himself and the Party. He can always become a lobbyist for Big Pharma...not that anyone would notice the difference.
That said, as a life-long NJ resident, I've always found him a problematic figure: OOH, he's been consistently good on civil liberties and the environment; OTOH, he's an unreconstructed Cold War defense hawk.
The "Freidumm Zirkus" is to the US Republic what the Nazi Party was to the Wiemar Republic. Unless one is historically illiterate, it's all anyone really needs to know.
Have to say I still don't get the thing where the minority party (Democrats) are morally prohibited from voting to bring the bill to the floor FOR DEBATE. Where amendments can be offered and various rhetorical points made. Why not? It's just another step in the process, the bullshit border/abortion/whatnot stuff is never going to survive, not this term anyway. Any tiny little step away from Immoveable Object politics seems like a good thought to me.
For all their considerable (and mostly self-inflicted) faults, House Dems have no obligation, ethical or political, to advance the GOP bill. Doing so merely means every Dem amendment gets voted down, while every GOP amendment gets passed. Sending a GOP bill to the Senate merely gives RW Dems (Manchin), the 'independent party of one (Sinema) and vulnerable Dems (Tester) the opportunity to collude with McConnell to marginally water down the House bill, while larding it up with a few (anti-progressive) amendments that RW House Dems (Gottheimer, Cuellar, et al; aka the Problem Creator Caucus) can vote for (over the objections of the Freidumm Zirkus freaks), resulting in a big win for the GOP.
In the long run, it is better for both the DP and the country to let the Freidumm Zirkus rule the roost and force a shutdown for as long as it takes for the loonies to have some common sense knocked into their pea-brains (unlikely), or swing/DP-leaning district Republicans vote for whatever House Dems propose. And while we wait, Biden can issue Executive Orders under the 1950 Defense Production Act, the 1976 National Emergencies Act, and even the Patriot Act (declaring the shutdown is an act of terrorism). And when the USSC rules against such actions, Biden just tells the Court to go fuck itself.
In sum, one does not negotiate with hostage takers, at least in good faith. Once the DP gives into demands that not only are anathema to what Democrats hold as core principles, but in doing so undermines the DP's legitimacy (at least to those who vote with the DP), the Republic is lost. The Friedumm Zirkus is neither an immovable object nor an irresistible force; all it requires is a little bit of courage. Anything less than this is just delaying the inevitable at best, or hastening it at worst. Which brings US to the point of asking, "if not us, then who; if not now, when?"
In a nutshell, advancing to the floor is one step closer to a passable bipartisan solution, which we need for the good of the country, see the OP.
But my more general point is that the reflexive nature of this is ... very ugly. Agreeing to debate something isn't the same as either approving or opposing it, it's rather better. It's not as if the floor time is being consumed with anything useful at the moment. lBring the donkeys out and let them bray in public. If that really does advance their cause when all done, then God help us anyway.
Restored regular order? wtf is that boy smoking? I want to know so I can avoid it. It's only been 2-3 months since there were pictures of a guy's actual, in living color, penis being used as evidence for ????? which definitely equaled Something. They swear.
Maybe if Republicans stop having temper tantrums and damaging the government, people will stop blaming them for having temper tantrums that damage the government. Just a thought.
I can't in my wildest imaginings picture a member of the House Democratic conference telling Speaker Nancy Pelosi that she had to come into "full compliance" or else. Of course, Nancy was savvy enough not to need fifteen votes to become Speaker and didn't have to sell her soul to do it either. They hate her cause they ain't her.
Good luck, Kev. You bought this ticket, so enjoy the ride.
points to the freedom caucus, the howler monkeys and the magats and drawls in adam savage: "well there's your basic problem"
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Well, shit, Marty!
“Why after I murder people does everyone blame the stacks of dead bodies on me?!?”
The Targets around here are quite a distance away. I've always been able to get pretty fast appointments, except for the first one, when the vaccines were in relatively short supply and you had to sit in an online line waiting and then finding out they ran out. I finally found one at a Sam's Club about 45 minutes away.
“Name one time that we’ve shut the government down and we haven’t got the blame.”
LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL
As I posted elsewhere,
"I never do nuthin' wrong, but I always get the blame!"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jivmeJoB-w
That's my shitty Rep. and he's not wrong here...
See? They don’t even hear what they’re saying, yet this’ll be a talking point you eventually hear regurgitated by your Faux-addicted brother-in-law.
And now, intransigent House (R)s will just dick around waiting to see what happens to Menendez and our (D) “majority” in the Senate.
Well, it looks like Neo-Con Bob's going to be a dick about this himself, vowing to keep his seat to the bitter end. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/live/2023/sep/22/government-shutdown-spending-bill-republicans-mccarthy-biden-trump-live-updates
The best that can happen is Menendez resigns or retires ASAP for whatever the handiest excuse is, and allow Gov. Murphy to appoint an interim placeholder/presumptive heir and be done with it. The worst that can happen is he refuses to leave and becomes an embarrassment to himself and the Party. He can always become a lobbyist for Big Pharma...not that anyone would notice the difference.
That said, as a life-long NJ resident, I've always found him a problematic figure: OOH, he's been consistently good on civil liberties and the environment; OTOH, he's an unreconstructed Cold War defense hawk.
The "Freidumm Zirkus" is to the US Republic what the Nazi Party was to the Wiemar Republic. Unless one is historically illiterate, it's all anyone really needs to know.
Just lock 'em in until they do their jobs. No four-day weekends until you work this out, assholes.
Have to say I still don't get the thing where the minority party (Democrats) are morally prohibited from voting to bring the bill to the floor FOR DEBATE. Where amendments can be offered and various rhetorical points made. Why not? It's just another step in the process, the bullshit border/abortion/whatnot stuff is never going to survive, not this term anyway. Any tiny little step away from Immoveable Object politics seems like a good thought to me.
But I am not a politician so fuck me.
Naw...we need to let them FAFO
For all their considerable (and mostly self-inflicted) faults, House Dems have no obligation, ethical or political, to advance the GOP bill. Doing so merely means every Dem amendment gets voted down, while every GOP amendment gets passed. Sending a GOP bill to the Senate merely gives RW Dems (Manchin), the 'independent party of one (Sinema) and vulnerable Dems (Tester) the opportunity to collude with McConnell to marginally water down the House bill, while larding it up with a few (anti-progressive) amendments that RW House Dems (Gottheimer, Cuellar, et al; aka the Problem Creator Caucus) can vote for (over the objections of the Freidumm Zirkus freaks), resulting in a big win for the GOP.
In the long run, it is better for both the DP and the country to let the Freidumm Zirkus rule the roost and force a shutdown for as long as it takes for the loonies to have some common sense knocked into their pea-brains (unlikely), or swing/DP-leaning district Republicans vote for whatever House Dems propose. And while we wait, Biden can issue Executive Orders under the 1950 Defense Production Act, the 1976 National Emergencies Act, and even the Patriot Act (declaring the shutdown is an act of terrorism). And when the USSC rules against such actions, Biden just tells the Court to go fuck itself.
In sum, one does not negotiate with hostage takers, at least in good faith. Once the DP gives into demands that not only are anathema to what Democrats hold as core principles, but in doing so undermines the DP's legitimacy (at least to those who vote with the DP), the Republic is lost. The Friedumm Zirkus is neither an immovable object nor an irresistible force; all it requires is a little bit of courage. Anything less than this is just delaying the inevitable at best, or hastening it at worst. Which brings US to the point of asking, "if not us, then who; if not now, when?"
In a nutshell, advancing to the floor is one step closer to a passable bipartisan solution, which we need for the good of the country, see the OP.
But my more general point is that the reflexive nature of this is ... very ugly. Agreeing to debate something isn't the same as either approving or opposing it, it's rather better. It's not as if the floor time is being consumed with anything useful at the moment. lBring the donkeys out and let them bray in public. If that really does advance their cause when all done, then God help us anyway.
One who voted against Qevin's Rules Vote was Marjorie Traitor Greene. Wasn't she Qevin's biggest ally just a few short months ago? I believe she was.
LESSON: Never turn your back on Marjorie Traitor Greene because that's where she's most likely to stab you.
Excellent tpyo!
Jimmy McNulty wasn't always at at fault for things. There were occasionally times he was innocent of blame.
McNulty's Riding the Boat!
Yeah but then he'd screw that up, too.
aww, poor babby golden, lol
Restored regular order? wtf is that boy smoking? I want to know so I can avoid it. It's only been 2-3 months since there were pictures of a guy's actual, in living color, penis being used as evidence for ????? which definitely equaled Something. They swear.
Maybe if Republicans stop having temper tantrums and damaging the government, people will stop blaming them for having temper tantrums that damage the government. Just a thought.
I believe "intense fellowship behind the curtain" is a new-age term for circle jerk.
Matt Gaetz will have you know that he routinely finishes first, third and seventh in circle jerks.
With McCarthy as the pivot man?
Sure, but Pelosi wasn't stuck with a bunch of whiny anarchists who just want to blow everything up.
Only when she visited the white house.
I can't in my wildest imaginings picture a member of the House Democratic conference telling Speaker Nancy Pelosi that she had to come into "full compliance" or else. Of course, Nancy was savvy enough not to need fifteen votes to become Speaker and didn't have to sell her soul to do it either. They hate her cause they ain't her.
Good luck, Kev. You bought this ticket, so enjoy the ride.
If I may paraphrase a quote from HBO's unappreciated 1990 western, El Diablo:
He wanted to be Speaker real bad. So now he's Speaker. Real bad.
She would have laughed, then unhinged her jaw and swallowed them whole.