Friday, January 19, 2018

Hey Dems, these times and this GOP are not normal- LET IT SHUT DOWN

As Congress hurtles toward a bailout, I'm reminded of an article written in GQ by Drew Magary (yes, the guy of "Why Your Team Sucks" fame in Deadspin) a couple of weeks ago. This was around the time when Michael Wolff's "Fire and Fury" was coming out, and Magary noted that Wolff was the rare journalist who understood that the way things are done in a decenct society have been thrown out the window in the lawless, fact-free TrumpWorld.
Everyone around Donald Trump is too polite to Donald Trump. Democrats, foreign dignitaries, underlings… all of them. And the White House press is perhaps the worst offender. From the media pool playing along with Sarah Sanders during press conferences—conferences where Sanders openly lies and pisses on democracy—to access merchants like Maggie Haberman doling out Trump gossip like so many bread crumbs, too many reporters have been far too deferential to an administration that is brazenly racist, dysfunctional, and corrupt. And for what purpose? It’s clear to me that Haberman and the like aren’t saving up their chits for just the EXACT right time to bring this Administration down. No, the only end goal of their access is continued access, to preserve it indefinitely so that the copy spigot never gets shut off. They are abiding by traditional wink-wink understandings that have long existed between the government and the press covering it.

But Wolff didn’t do that. He did not engage in some endless bullshit access tango. No, Wolff actually USED his access, and extended zero courtesy to Trump on the process, and it’s going to pay off for him not just from a book sales standpoint, but from a real journalistic impact. I am utterly sick to death of hearing anonymous reports about people inside the White House “concerned” about the madman currently in charge of everything. These people don’t deserve the courtesy of discretion. They don’t deserve to dictate the terms of coverage to people. They deserve to be torched.

Trump ascended into power in part because he relied on other people being too nice. It’s fun to rampage through the china shop when the china shop owner is standing over there being like, “SIR, that is not how we do things here!” If Trump refuses to abide by the standard (and now useless) “norms” of the presidency—shit, if he doesn't even KNOW them—why should ANYONE in the press adhere to needless norms of their own? They shouldn’t, and it appears that Michael Wolff was one of the few people to instinctively grasp that, and I hope more White House insiders follow his lead. Sometimes you need a rat to catch a rat.
And that exact same bad-faith mentality is what is permeating the Republicans in Congress right now. Look at the garbage they are trying to spin tonight.



WRONG! WAY WRONG!

1. No Dem should budge an inch on getting CHIP reauthorized AND also having DACA taken care of. It is disgusting for the GOP to play off of two sets of young people living in and contributing to America, especially when there doesn't need to be a choice made between the two. The only proper Dem response to that either/or GOP mentality should be "What the hell is wrong with you?"

Which is basically what Grothman opponent Dan Kohl said tonight.



2. From most reports, CHIP and DACA could be passed overwhelmingly tonight as a standalone, combined bill. So why isn't that happening? And more importantly, WHY WASN'T THIS DONE BEFORE CHIP EXPIRED 4 1/2 MONTHS AGO?

To ask the question is to answer it. To Paul Ryan, Mitch McConnell and most other Republicans, someone's health care and human dignity are bargaining chips to (ab)use power with. There is no sense of doing these things out of common decency and compassion.



3. The Continuing Resolution that passed the House only funds departments for 1 month. So the same BS brinksmanship would happen in February, and maybe again after that?

Do you understand what a mess that causes for our military, when they don't know how much money and resources they will have for the next 8 months? If you don't, let's let this Pentagon official explain it.



So I don't want to hear Paul Ryan or any other GOP trying to sell BS about how this bill "funds our troops." You don't give a damn about a functioning military or the troops, or else you'd have already had military appropriations and health care taken care of months ago.

A 1-month CR is Mickey Mouse BS, and should be voted down on "non-serious" criteria alone. And apparently Lindsey Graham and other Republicans are among those that recognize this as absurd and won't vote for the bill as it stands.

So now I'm reading that far too many Dem Senators are trying to compromise with these power-drunk Republicans, and they might allow something to slip by the Senate just so there isn't a shutdown, because "a shutdown will be bad." This is where I want to go back to Drew Magary's statement.
...These people don’t deserve the courtesy of discretion. They don’t deserve to dictate the terms of coverage to people. They deserve to be torched.
SO TORCH THEM, Dems!

No DACA, No CHIP, NO full-year extension? NO FUCKING DEAL. And if it shuts, it shuts. But I am done with Dems being the nice guy who does the right thing by keeping things moving along. It's not rewarded by the electorate, especially when status quo feels like a slow bleed for most people.

Standing up for young people and standing up for competence and a fully-funded military is how this country gets better, and it's also one way Dems can win big in November. So stop giving into the hostage takers, and reject this garbage 1-month CR that solves not problems.

And if the GOP won't put up a bill that would pass with bipartisan support, and the government shuts down, pop the stock market bubble and have needed services go into chaos, LET IT HAPPEN.



EDIT- Looks like the shutdown is going to be on. And if Dems message like this, they will get what they want (although the guy's name is BoB Casey)



Exactly, Paul Ryan caved to those wack jobs by having no DACA and no long-term agreement on this bill. And I am sick and tired of those gerrymandered racist dimwits from BubbleWorld having any influence over the other 80% of us.
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